B O O K O N E ;
Christina Swan was the older sister to the infamous Bella Swan. The twenty-one year old was the reason that the two sisters were moving to Forks; since the older sister believed that it would be best for everyone involved. Including...
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chapter thirteen balancing.
"Miss. Swan, glad you could make it in today," Dr. Gerandy, another one of the head doctors, exclaimed as the brunette walked into the break room.
"Yeah, my fever finally broke yesterday," Christina lied smoothly. "Today's the first day that I've felt okay enough to leave the house."
Dr. Gerandy nodded his head. "Must be something going around. Dr. Cullen has been out sick as well the past couple of days."
Christina's heart dropped at the mention of the blond doctor. "He has?"
The greying doctor nodded. "I've been covering his shifts." The brunette bit her lip in guilt as Dr. Gerandy moved towards the exit. "I'll write your list of patients and leave it at the desk with Nurse Burke."
Christina plopped herself down at the table in front of her before shoving her face into her hands. The guilt eating away at her thoughts.
The brunette didn't think that her absence in the doctor's life would make him not want to come to work. It hasn't been sunny outside, so there's no way he could use that as an excuse for not coming into work. Unless something happened at home within the family, but even still, Christina knew that Bella would have mentioned something to her.
"There's my girl!"
Christina glanced behind her to see Darien walking into the break room; slipping his scrubs over his head as he clocked in.
"Hey, Darien," the brunette greeted.
"Did you and the doctor have a good vacation together?" Darien winked before taking the chair across from her.
Christina's lip twitched in slight amusement at Darien's perverted ways before shaking her head. "I've been sick."
Darien pursed his lips. "Could this sickness have anything to do with Carlisle?"
Christina scoffed. "No--" She paused as she looked at her neighbor's narrowing eyes. "Okay, maybe."
"Alright, spill the beans."
Christina sighed. "I'm just worried." Darien stayed silent as he waited for the young mother to continue. "I'm worried because of Annie."
"You know he's a parent, too. Right?" The ebony doctor asked, leaning his head on his palm with his elbow bent on the table.
"Yes," she sighed. "I know. I just-- I'm scared to bring anyone around her that's not going to stay."
"Because of her father?" Darien asked. The nurse had managed to get Christina to spill the beans about Annabelle's absent father within the first week of knowing him. It wasn't that the young mother was keeping it a secret, she just found it hard to bring up harsh memories with Jonathan.
"Yeah."
"Carlisle isn't Annabelle's father, Chris," Darien muttered with sympathetic eyes. "If you're really that worried about it, I would talk to Carlisle about it. Let him tell you himself."
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The brunette glanced down at the address that she was able to get out of Marilyn at the end of her shift. The older nurse at the front just gave the young mother a smirk and a wink before getting the information for her; with a promise from Christina that she wouldn't tell a soul who she got the address from.
"Don't say I never gave you anything," Marilyn had said with a laugh. "And I expect an invite to the wedding."
The mother was nervous, that much was obvious. She had only gone to Carlisle's house once, and that was because she sprained her wrist, and Edward drove her there. Now, she was about to drive to his house and try to talk to him about how he was a vampire; because deep down, she knew that both Bella and Darien were right-- even if Darien didn't know the whole story about why he was right. Christina needed to talk to Carlisle and get more information from him before making any final decisions about leaving with Annie. She, at least, owed him an explanation.
Christina sighed for a final time before putting her car in reverse and following the directions she printed out before leaving work.
The directions were easy enough; and unfortunately for her nerves, Carlisle didn't live that far away from the hospital. She drove as slow as she could without people beeping their horns at her and making illegal passes-- but she still got to his driveway within ten minutes of driving.
The brunette took her bottom lip between her teeth before shutting her car off and walking to the front door. She couldn't help but think she was walking towards her death, as dramatic as that sounded.
Before she was able to knock on the front door, it opened; making her jump from the suddenness. She raised her green eyes to look at the mess that was Carlisle Cullen. She was shocked, to say the least. His normal gel-back hair was messy like he's been running his fingers through the blond locks over and over. He wasn't wearing his normal attire of clean slacks and sweater vests, instead, he rested in blue jeans and a sweatshirt resting on his shoulders. His eyes were pitch black, nothing like the golden hues that haunted Christina's dreams late at night; and he had dark purple bruises underneath them. He truly looked like his supernatural affinity.
"Christina," he muttered in greeting.
The brunette stayed silent as she took a cautious step forward. Carlisle stayed in his spot, so she took that as a good enough sign that she can get closer to him. She slowly raised her dainty hand to his face. His face was just as she remembered the rest of his body temperature being; cold to the touch, but not uncomfortable. It was like the first snowfall of the year-- the excitement overruled the feeling of being uncomfortable by the frigid air.
"Did I do this to you?" Christina mumbled as her thumb rubbed the dark bruises underneath his eyes. "You haven't fed--"
"It's not your fault." Carlisle shook his head. "You have every right to be scared."
The young mother shook her head. "Not at the price of your health." She traded her hold on his face for both of his hands before pulling him out of the doorway. "You need to feed." Carlisle opened his mouth to object but Christina immediately shook her head. "No buts'. I'll be here when you return."
Carlisle stared at the young mother for a long moment, taking in each of her calm features before nodding his head. "I'll be back as soon as I can." He leaned down and landed a kiss upon her forehead before speeding into the forest; leaving a breathless Christina behind.
➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶➴➵➶ I'm sorry this one is a little shorter, but the next one will have their whole talk and I'm so excited that my babies are back together. Or close to it (;
I'm really glad you guys are liking this story so far, it really makes my day seeing you guys comments and messages. So thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️
