Dangerously Beautiful • Carlisle Cullen

Chapter 17: Times are Changing

The hospital was alive, quite literally as it seemed to move and speak all on its own.

People scrambled to get out of the way as Carlisle ran, a limp Colette Swan in his arms, covered in blood, yet no injury could be seen from the outside.

Supporting her with one arm, he pulled a bed over to him with the other, placing her on it. "We have a code blue in here!" He yelled, his thoughts going a mile a minute. The first being his mate was dying and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it, the second, call Esme.

As the team of nurses came in, trying to assess and stabilize, Carlisle stepped out. Pulling out his phone, he found Esme's contact.

"Hello?" "Esmeralda, I need you to listen. I don't have much time. I need you to make a bed ready. Colette's time has come." Carlisle rushed out and Esme gasped on the other side of the phone. "Is there anything else?" Esme asked her brother and Carlisle sighed. "Pray."

Ending the phone call, the doctor was about to step back into the madness when he saw Bella rush down the halls. "Dr. Cullen! My aunt. Is she alright?" Bella asked him and Carlisle looked sadly at her. "I'm not sure, but what I do know is that you can't be in here. I need you to go into the waiting room. Be watching for your father." Carlisle told her. "Okay." She nodded, walking off towards the waiting room.

"Dr. Cullen! We could use you back in here." a nurse shouted, pulling Carlisle back into the room. "She is no longer bleeding from the mouth, but we are not sure where the blood came from." The nurse told the doctor. "Please go and question Miss Swan on what happened. That will give us the most information. For the time being I want an incubation tube placed and for her to be stabilized to go to Seattle." Carlisle told the nurses, grabbing the incubation tube. Using a flashlight, he looked and his eyes widened.

"I need suction!" He called out as he saw the dark red liquid rising from the back of her throat. "She's bleeding internally." Carlisle said aloud. "Could it be another ruptured tumor?" A nurse asked, knowing Cole's case. "Possibly." He told her. "I can't do anything here. Cancel the Seattle ambulance, get ahold of OR stat. She needs to be sent in immediately." Carlisle told the nurse as she phoned the OR. "Is Chief Swan here yet?" Carlisle asked another nurse that was besides him. "I think I saw him." "Please go out and tell him what is going on." Carlisle asked as he tried his best to keep her heart beating and breathing on her own.

A nurse rushed in with an OR surgeon. Carlisle looked up, a relieved look on his face. Making sure to keep an eye on Colette, Carlisle jogged along the side of her bed, telling the OR surgeon of what he thought they were dealing with. "I promise you that we will do everything we can for her, Carlisle." The surgeon said and Carlisle looked at him, his blood soaked hands and shirt seeming to not affect him in the slightest. "I can't lose her." Carlisle said in the most broken voice, his heart shattering at the thought of Cole not coming back out of the OR. The surgeon nodded, headed in and the operation began.

"Carlisle? Oh god." Charlie said as he saw the doctor covered in his sister's blood. "Please tell me that is not all hers." Charlie begged. "I'm sorry Charlie. I tried to do all I could. She's in surgery now and they are doing everything they can." Carlisle said but Charlie could see that the doctor seemed off. "Carlisle?" "I'm sorry." Carlisle told him, walking off. "What's going on?" Charlie asked his daughter. "They're together." Bella whispered. "What? What do you mean together?" Charlie asked. "I saw her kiss his cheek." Bella told her dad, a fresh set of tears in her eyes. Her aunt had found someone who treated her right, and would now be taken away from him.

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Carlisle had changed his clothes, showering quickly in the hospital's facilities. He had pulled his car around by the morgue exiting doors. Waiting beside the side exit door of the OR, he waited. Until the words he wished he never had to hear came from the OR surgeon's mouth.

"Time of death 4:19 pm" A pain shot through Carlisle's body, nearly knocking him to his knees, his mouth open silently gasping as it felt like a part of him had been stolen from him. He heard the Surgeon walk out of the door, talking to Charlie and Bella. Listening for any additional heartbeats, he rushed into the room.

Colette's blue eyes stared blindly at his form. Her eyes not her usual dull blue, but almost glassed over. Using his index and middle fingers, he closed her eyes, not able to bare the sight as he scrambled to find anytype of a heart beat. Just the faintest pitter patter is all he needed. Venom collected in his eyes as he couldn't find anything. Panicking he bit, one, two, three, four times. Carlisle heard a sob come from Bella, as he also heard Charlie's heart skip a beat, the surgeon scrambling to catch him before he hit the floor. In a last ditch effort, Carlisle went to bite directly over her heart, but he stopped.

The faintest of beats were detected by his delicate hearing. Breathing out, relief filled his body. Taking her body on the cart, he maneuvered it towards the morgue. Making sure no one was around he then loaded her body gently into the backseat of his car. Rushing back into the building, he clocked out from the receptacle right outside of the OR. If anyone would have questions about his sudden departure, well his girlfriend just died.

Getting back to the car, he noticed how still she was. No sounds, no movement, but he could hear her heart beat getting more and more erratic as it seemed to beat stronger. It made him nervous, but as long as he heard her heartbeat, he would be settled.

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On his drive home, Carlisle called his sister. "Carlisle?" "She died." Carlisle said, his voice thick with emotion. "What?" Esme asked, her heart breaking for her brother. "She died on the table. I was able to find a flutter of a heart beat and took it. Esme she died." Carlisle shouted into the phone, the grief he was feeling getting the best of him as he spoke to his sister. "Do you think it will hold?" Esme asked. "There is no way of knowing. It either does or it doesn't." Carlisle told her as he saw the driveway for the house in the distance. "I'm just about home, do you have everything ready?" Carlisle asked his sister and Esme hummed. "Yes." "Good. I'll see you soon." He told her, hanging up the phone as he pulled up to the house.

He parked, getting out, again gently getting her body from the car. Esme was there to hold the door open as he carried her lifeless body. "She's not making any noise." Esme mentioned. "It has to be from how close to death she was." Carlisle told her. "I thought you said she had only a futter?" Esme asked her brother, hearing the woman's erratic heart rate. "It's gotten stronger and more erratic the closer we got."

Laying her on the bed, Carlisle tried to make her as comfortable. Esme watched her brother with sad eyes as he frantically tried his best to make the transition easier for her. "She will be okay Carlisle." Esme came up behind her brother, putting a hand on his shoulder. Carlisle stopped what he was doing, looking at Colette's face. "We don't know that." "Do you trust you did everything you could?" Esme asked. "Of course. I wish I could have bitten her sooner, but there were too many people."Carlisle told his sister, turning to look at her. "Then she will be fine. You did everything you could."

A/N: I decided to make it a little more dramatic. Were you holding your breath? I kinda was and I wrote the thing. Lol. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Love you guys!