Carlisle's Diary

A Day in the Life of the Cullen Patriarch

Dear Diary:                                                                        April 3, 2014

          Well that was interesting. You got to get inside the mind of a dog for a day. Now if Sparkles gets his chance to talk regarding his day, I think I can as well. I mean no one really knows what a day in the life of the Cullen patriarch is like right? You guys only get the bits and pieces of whichever drama is going on. Last entry the most dramatic thing other than another tremor, and Sparkles having a huge crush on Rogue was him peeing on Emmett's shoes. Served him right! Shouldn't have made fun of the puppy. Emmett is like a giant child sometimes. There isn't much we can do about that.

          But I digress. So a typical day starts with my leaving Esme early in the morning to head to the Hanover Medical Center or HMC where I worked. Today I got some very humbling news from our favorite Texas gal Charlotte. She's pregnant again and this time with a boy. She was waiting for me by my office when I came to work with a smile on her face.

"Good morning Dr. Cullen! How're ya today?"

"Good morning Charlotte. I'm doing well and yourself?" I said kindly as I unlocked my office and walked into it; she followed me inside.

"I'm doing quite well; I actually wanted to tell you something. You know how Ben and I are expecting and it being a boy?"

"Yes of course. Congratulations again my dear." I said with a smile.

"Thank you. Ben and I have decided on the perfect name for the baby." She said with twinkle in her eye.

"Oh really? What is it?"

"C.J." She said coyly.

"Well that's nice; what does it stand for?" She looked down, blushed, and said:

"Carlisle Junior. I hope that's alright."

          I was stunned. I literally was speechless. Vampires aren't known to be speechless often if at all. I had to do my mind whirling thing before I could speak. I've never thought anyone let alone a human would name a child after me.

"I'm sorry for the silence; I'm just a bit stunned. Are you sure?" I all but stammered out. Oh yeah, real professional there.

"Of course we're sure. You saved my life! It's the least I could do. And Ben liked the idea too as he's always admired your work ethic and just you overall. It's Southern because of the initials and yet unconventional enough that our child will always be able to tell the story how he got named after the amazing doctor that saved his mama's life." She said with the biggest smile I'd ever seen on her.

"Wow....Charlotte....I am absolutely honored. Thank you." I said my eyes probably the size of saucers.

"The honor is all ours. Well I better get back to my shift. Oh by the way, Betsy left a whole stack of files on your desk. She mentioned you would look at Dr. Korgs' patients as he's out on vacation; figured I'd remind you."

"Yes I recall that Pat is on vacation. I got him covered, thanks for the reminder though." I smiled and she waved and left the office.

          I got down to business, reviewing my own patients' charts first shaking my head at that little bombshell Charlotte dropped. She really was America's sweetheart or at the very least HMC's. After reviewing my own charts, I looked at the stack of Pat Korgs; it was going to be a long day. Took me another 15 minutes to review his 30; using vampire hyper-speed of course. Then I was off to see the patients. You recall Daisy, the young lady that had self-harmed due to her bullying sister and friends? Well she was discharged last week. Last I heard, her sister Mandy had gone to live with a grandmother in Atlin NH. So Daisy could focus on getting healthy and return to college. It was a win-win situation. I was happy for her. She had come into my office and brought me a real daisy which I now had pressed into a medical book as a bookmark.

          My shift lasted about 38 hours this time, mostly because I had the other doctor's patients to look at. Most were stable. We did have one code red but Charlotte, Betsy, Melanie, and I managed to get the patient stable. No one passed away that day which is a great day at any hospital. We had some mentally unstable folks but all ended up in the psych ward without incident. When I was ready to go home, I hugged Charlotte who by that time had told everyone within hearing distance about the new baby's name. Everyone came up and congratulated me. I thanked them, changed into my regular clothes and went home.

          The situation at home goes something like this; Alice and Jasper are on Isle Esme as that's where he took her for her birthday which happens to be on April Fool's Day. So those two aren't home yet. Kim and Michelle's wedding is next week but everything is ready. Rogue will be presiding over the ceremony as Kim is an atheist and doesn't want anything traditional. Maid of honor is Nessie and best man is Kim's brother Pierre. Turns out that Kim is originally from France but she came here when she was 10 years old in human years. Everyone was joking how Rogue had two licenses to conduct weddings; one here in NH and one in Alaska and now she just needed to get the other 48 states and she'd be golden.

          Speaking of Rogue, she and Esme were doing a lot of research about the tremors and she called her friend at the USGS to find out what's been happening. They said they aren't worried. The Pacific Ring of Fire has them more worried. For those who have been paying attention to the news, Japan, LA, and Chile all had pretty sizable tremors in the last few weeks. Plus Yellowstone National Park which just happens to be the biggest super volcano on earth also had an earthquake. I'm starting to sound like a natural disasters expert from listening to Esme go on and on about it. Everything she says, I soak up like a sponge. What no one knew is that NH has two extinct volcanos; one in the north and one in the south. I wonder whether these tremors we feel have anything to do with the extinct volcanoes but because they are so few and far in between no one can tell anything. Oh well as we like to say, we'll worry about it when there's something to worry about.

          When I got home, I needed to hunt so I went with Esme, Edward, Nessie, Bella, and Leah who tagged along for the adventure just to chat with Bella. Meanwhile, Nessie was arguing with Edward about going on a double date in town with Kim and Michelle before the wedding. Edward didn't think she was ready for that yet. I smiled as I attacked a coyote; aaahhh the joys of parenting. Something told me that Bella was going to make the final vote when she was done talking with Leah. And I also had a feeling that Bella would vote in Nessie's favor. Edward heard my thoughts process and growled a bit at me to which I just responded with a small smile.

          Sorry son but you know you are fighting a losing battle here. She'll be 16 this year and very soon will stop aging. Sooner or later you have to face the facts that she is growing up mentally and not necessarily let her go but just let her figure her own stuff out and make mistakes. You and I both know she'll end up with Jacob. Let her learn the proper way to love and to date. You know full well that despite Jacob's hormones, he always has and always will treat her like a gentleman. I thought directly at Edward who after listening carefully, nodded, and walked away from Nessie without so much as another word. Nessie looked at him then at me with a look of surprise then just shrugged her shoulders as she caught herself a nice plump deer. Jacob was on patrol with Seth and therefore wasn't with us.

          After we were done hunting, we ran back home. It was quiet in La Casa de Cullen today. The Watchers were doing their thing except for Keith who was waiting for Leah to return back from the hunt so they could go back to their own home. We had finally a reprieve in the frosty weather. The temperature was warm and there was even a little bit of sunlight for the sunset so we decided to all go outside into the back yard and just relax. I told the family about Charlotte's humbling gift to me. Everyone was in awe. That was something certainly not expected. We were going to have a baby shower for her in the next few weeks. The baby was due in July. C.J. Pretty wonderful isn't it?

          I just reread all of my writing here and I can't believe that I don't have that much of an interesting day to day life. The dog has more to say than I do! Wow now that says something. I guess unless there's drama all of our lives are pretty mundane save for Sparkles of course. But then again with a dog even a trip to the bathroom is an experience. Anyways, I'm going to go relax in the hammock with my wife as it's Twilight already. Next week, Kim and Michelle are getting married. You will get the whole scoop about everything that goes down I promise. If it's not my POV it'll be from Alice or someone who is wedding savvy!

Enjoy the rest of your week folks.

~Carlisle Cullen