A New Cullen Sister

Chapter 5

Carlisle and Esme arrived the next morning at the hospital. Esme had opted to come in with Carlisle instead of remaining at home. She had plenty books to read in case, but her primary objective was to see Amelia, the quiet young girl who had made quite an impression with the Cullen matriarch. They detoured past her ward and ran into the nurse who helped them the previous evening.

"She left you a note on her door in case you come back. We weren't sure if you were going to return," said Samantha.

"I'm here for the conference, so we will both be around all week."

"Ok, well you can visit her in about an hour or so if you want. She is just busy having physiotherapy right now and then she eats breakfast and does her schoolwork and homework assignments once she feels a bit better. The physio makes her nauseous so she tries not to eat beforehand if she can help it. I'm sure she won't mind to do her schoolwork a little later if you want to see her soon."

"We'll leave her in peace so that she can study and visit her later. May I take a look at her patient file? We saw her yesterday after the conference and her case is certainly interesting."

"Certainly, Dr?" It was posed as a question.

"My apologies. I'm Carlisle Cullen, and this is my wife Esme."

"I'm Samantha Jenkins and I work the nightshift. Dr Anderson has already been for ward rounds and said that should any of the conference attendees want to see Amelia's file, they need to leave it by the nurse's station when they are done," she said, handing the file over.

"Thank you, Samantha," said Carlisle, smiling at her. Samantha nodded, bid them farewell and departed, popping into Amelia's room briefly to say goodbye before leaving the ward. Carlisle and Esme went through the file in record time, stopping when they found the contact details for her social worker. They were curious. They jotted down the number and replaced the file. They walked past Amelia's room as they left the ward. The door had been closed, and on it, a note had been stuck.

'Dear Anonymous Friends,

Thank you greatly for your generous gifts that I woke up to this morning. I do appreciate the kindness that went into them, and I am most grateful for them. They will be put to great use.

Love from Mia xx

Carlisle and Esme smiled at the letter, and Esme wrote underneath the words "You're welcome, sweetheart", with a heart next to it. They then departed and went to the conference.

---

Esme did not return after they went for lunch. She and Carlisle went to visit Amelia who was struggling with her schoolwork. The concept was not difficult to follow, but she was tiring out. As her lungs were not able to supply her body with enough oxygen, she tired quickly and slept when she could. They conversed briefly - Amelia had recognised them from the previous day's ward rounds - before falling asleep. Carlisle left for the afternoon session, and Esme decided that she would keep the sleeping teenager company. Her breathing was ragged and Esme's heart broke listening to the young girl struggle with something as simple as breathing.

'If only she were a vampire, then she would be able to breathe freely,' thought Esme as she read a book, 'Why don't we make her immortal? No, surely not. That is cruel. She's tired. But she has so much to live for, so much to still experience, yet her life is going to be cut short if she does not have a transplant. Although...'

Her thoughts were cut short when Amelia had a coughing fit which woke her up. She struggled to clear her lungs of the thick mucus so characteristic of Cystic Fibrosis. Esme helped by tapping her back and placed a bowl under her mouth when Amelia went green and started dry heaving. Eventually her lungs cleared, along with most of her lunch. She sat up straight and tried desperately to regain her breath. Esme sat rubbing her back in soothing circles until she could breathe a little easier and had stopped shaking so much. Amelia got off the bed and carried the bowl to the bathroom to clean it out, then disinfected it and rinsed out her mouth. Esme helped her get back into bed and passed her some water.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," she apologised profusely, eyes downcast.

"It's not a big deal. It happens. Hey," Esme replied, placing two fingers under Amelia's chin and lifting her chin up so that their eyes could meet, "don't worry about it. It's honestly not a problem. If it bothered me, I'd have left ages ago."

Amelia nodded, wiping her face. "I hate it so much."

"I take it you get sick a lot?"

"Unfortunately I do. The bad bouts of coughing make me throw up, which is why I eat breakfast after morning physio and delay afternoon physio until around 3pm so that it doesn't interfere with lunch or supper."

"That can't be pleasant."

"I've certainly had more pleasant things occur to me, yes." They both giggled. Esme proceeded to tell her about her family, her adopted children and her life in Forks. A spark of recognition shone in Amelia's eyes when Esme spoke of Forks, her mind putting two and two together. So this was the matriarch of the family that Bree had spoken of. She seemed nice. Amelia hoped that Esme had nothing to do with Bree's passing. She would not speak of it unless Esme broached it. But she knew what they were - vampires. Their eyes were golden brown, unlike Bree's. Her hands were cold like Bree's and her actions were a little too fast, although she was clearly trying to hide it. Her best friend had shown no aggression, no hint of wanting to hurt her so she assumed that vampires, or not all vampires at the very least, were not the feral creatures depicted in books and horror stories. She snapped out of her reverie when Esme asked her about herself.

"There really is not much to tell. I was born in Seattle. My parents died when I was three in an accident. They were hit by a drunk driver. I was in hospital with an infection at the time so I was not involved. I don't have many memories of them I'm afraid. I was in and out of foster care until I was ten. People don't want to take in a sick child so I never got adopted or anything. I can understand why though. People don't really want older kids either and when I wasn't in care, I was at the hospital. It seemed every time I went to hospital, I left the foster home at the time and went to a new one when I left hospital. When I was ten, I was placed in a group home. That is how I met my best friend, Bree Tanner. She was like a sister. She left one day and never came back. That will be two years ago this year. I miss her dreadfully. Since then, my health has not been the greatest and now I am here."

Esme hugged her, and Amelia automatically stiffened. It took a while for her to warm up to people, especially after some of the abusive homes that she had been to. She also did not enjoy sympathy directed towards her when she told someone her story. It was a fact of life. Get over it. She did. But with Esme, it just seemed different. She was nice, she appeared to genuinely care. Cautiously, she hugged her back.

"It was you and Dr Cullen, wasn't it? You were the ones who gave me all those nice things this morning."

"Yes, it was us. We saw your note on the door."

"Thank you very much. It is so kind of you."

"You're most welcome. Have you used anything yet?"

"I wanted to, but physio makes me sweaty and gross so I decided to wait until after my afternoon physio before I use the shampoo and stuff. I will put the pyjamas on too, I cannot wait, they are super soft and it will be a nice to get out of these hospital gowns for once. I hope I am not too tired after physio because I really want to wash my hair, it does need a wash so badly."

"Is it tiring?"

"What, washing my hair? Yeah. Cos it's hard to shower with my oxygen line and I can barely function for, like, five minutes without getting so out of breath and washing my hair just takes up so much energy. So I don't do a good job. Bathing is easier in general because I can lie in the tub as long as I am careful with my O2 line but it's harder to wash one's hair in the bath. It was easier when I only need oxygen at night. It's a bit harder now."

"But that will be better after the transplant, right?"

Amelia looked sad and turned her head away, but that did not stop Esme from seeing the single tear running down her face. Just then Carlisle walked in and effectively ended that conversation.