Chapter Three: Unlikely Encounters

Chapter Three: Unlikely Encounters

“Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind.”

-Robert Louis Stevenson

Alice nods again and ducks through the door. There are other nurses around this bright hospital room, but they're busy with whatever nurses do so I don't try to talk to them. Some other beds a situated close to mine, and I turn over to a man laying a few feet to the left of my cot. His sandy-blonde hair glimmers under the forceful white lights, and I wonder why they're so bright. Don't some people have to rest here? I find it impossible to close my eyes.

The man's back is twisted way from me, and most of his body is covered in sheets. His head and neck pokes through, and I see it's heavily muscled and a long tattoo runs up the contours of his neck. Black and meaningless designs that travel down from the tip of his ear to the base of his neck, where it disappears under the collar of his blue shirt.

"Um, hi." I mumble, and I wonder if he could even hear me. I'm proved wrong.

"...What?" The man turns his face slightly towards me, and I see a glint of piercing light-hazel eyes. He's average looking, with a slight menace to his features, like he would beat up some random guy for no reason except to watch him bleed into the dirt.

"Oh, nothing, I'm just uh, waiting for the doctor, and I was kind of looking for someone to talk to... keep me company..." I ramble, and the man slowly shifts over to his right side, so he's facing me. I notice that his left ankle is bound with heavy gauze and thick material. He flashes me a smile.

"Well sure, honey. I'll talk to you as long as you want." His eyes squint slightly and I shiver as his eyes move over me. I'm glad that half of my body is covered up in sheets. I pull them up higher.

"So, um, how did you break your ankle?"

"I'm a worker here, and I slipped." the man's answer is too dull for it too be real, and I can tell he's lying. Why would he? Not like it's important. Maybe he's just embarrassed about hurting himself on the job. He seems like the macho-type man that won't take no shit from anyone, even if it's a broken ankle.

"Oh really? What do you do?" I ask. I can't think of anything else to say and this man is making me really uncomfortable. He reminds me of Phil. I squirm under the covers, but the man doesn't seem to notice.

"I do construction and I slipped on a ladder working on a cable in the ceiling."

Construction, eh? I guess that suits him. He doesn't look like he would have the highest IQ. "Then why are you still here?" I put rather rudely, and I don't care. I want him to leave.

"I'm still waiting for a cast." He points at his ankle like I'm stupid and I fume.

Oh.

Of course he would need to wait for a cast. I glance at the clock and watch it tick for a few minutes and start to sweat under this man who's name I don't even know's gaze when his eyes never peel themselves off me. Why is he still staring? I haven't spoken after that ankle comment, he should just suck up and get over that I don't want to talk to him. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him open his mouth like he's about to say something when I hear the double doors squeak nosily as they open and click together as they close.

Finally, Carlisle is here. I bring my eyes up in the direction of the door, but I don't see Blondie walking towards my bed, I see a beautiful creature. His bronze hair is as wild as my reality, and it springs out in all directions. I wonder if it's as soft as it looks. Shimmering jade eyes pierce mine as I stare at him like I have an eighth grade crush. His full lips twist up into a hint of a smile as he ghosts over to me. I'm distracted by the broad width of his shoulders when I notice that he's wearing a long white doctor's coat. I selfishly wish he was my doctor instead of Blondie. I'd kill for him to be checking my IV everyday. I blush when his gaze doesn't leave mine, and I duck my head and stare down at my wrist with the IV, breaking the contact.

Why is he coming over here? I focus on his footsteps coming closer and closer when finally, they stop. I dare to lift my head to look at him at the foot of my bed but find that he's not there at all.

He's by Mr. Tattoo. I flush and gawk at him as he checks the computer set into the base of Mr. Tattoo's bed. He nods to himself and brings up a hand-held, and types in a few things while he asks Tattoo how he's feeling.

My mouth opens wide and my eyes pop as I recognize that voice. Velvet from the grave. He's Dr. Carlisle's nephew.

"James, do you think you need any more pain medication before I put your cast on?" Velvet Voice's lips move in a mesmerizing way, and I catch myself staring at them longingly. Mr. Tattoo, excuse me- James manfully shakes his head no.

"Nah, Doc. Just get this cast on already. I'm tired of waiting, dude. Seriously, how long does it take you guys? Although, I don't think I want to leave just yet." James wiggles his eyebrows at me, and I gasp and flush. I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep as Velvet places a questionable look upon me. I open my eyes the slightest bit so I can see, and I'm annoyed that I couldn't see him clearly anymore. But I do make out him skillfully wrapping Jame's ankle in dark blue material. It hardens almost immediately around Jame's limb. Once I know both of them have stopped looking at me I daringly open my eyes.

"You can leave now, Mr. Cotter. I'll give you a bottle of painkillers and take two of them every few hours for your ankle." Velvet says and hands him an all-too-familar see-through small orange bottle of seemingly harmless pills. I swallow dryly...painfully remembering...

"Whenever you shower or bathe please make sure that your cast never gets wet, alright? That's important. Or else I'd have to do it again." Edward sighs and I wonder if he hates his job, although why would anyone go through extra years in medical school if they didn't want to be a doctor? Unless he isn't certified.

"I thought our new versions of casts can get wet?" James asks and cocks his head to the side.

"Yes, Mr. Cotter, they can, but we're running low on some supplies and this kind is all they had in the back room." Velvet Voice runs a long fingered hand through his jungle of hair and sighs. He looks very tired. There are dark circles beginning to form under his lovely green irises and his broad jaw is firm.

"Ugh, fine Doc." James huffs and swings his dirty denim-clad legs over the cot, toward me, even though there was plenty more room on the other side of his cot. James grabs some crutches placed on the edge of his bed that I didn't notice before and situates his hands on the rests. He tests out the crutches before nodding and grumbling about how annoying this will be until it heals.

"I'll get the door for you, Mr. Cotter." Edward walks slowly toward the double doors and slides one open for James.

"Er, thanks or whatever, Doc." James huffs and Mr. Tattoo slices a dark look through me before he disappears down the hall. I sigh with relief and lean back onto my pillow, which is so much softer than the other in my box/bed.

"Please, call me Edward." Velvet says professionally down to James.

I watch Edward through a slit in my lids as he places his hand-held on a charger in a row of about twenty other chargers on a long counter on the back wall. He gracefully dances over to the edge of Jame's old bed and presses a few buttons on the touch pad of the computer screen, canceling out James Cotter's name and leaving a blank slate for the next patient.

Edward throws a glance over at me and I notice how closely he resembles Alice the Pixie. Alice has the same green eyes, although hers is a darker shade then Edward's, his being a piercing light green. I see some of Alice in his features too, but not much. Maybe they're related?

He is, after all, Carlisle's nephew. Unless I'm incorrect about the voice match. But I would never forget the voice that gave me hope in the grave, and it definitely belonged to this gorgeous man. Alice could be related to Carlisle, maybe? They all looked similar, and Blondie had called her Alice, and not 'nurse' or 'Mrs.Hale' or something like that...

Edward bestows me a crooked smile that knocks the breath out of me. I blush furiously and I can feel it boil all the way to my hairline. I turn my back to him, and stare at the end table settled by my bed. There are some anti-anxiety pill bottles resting on top, and I wonder if I can take any, or if they've already put medicine in my IV. I'm pondering this as I hear Edward's footsteps slowly tread out of the annoyingly noisy double-doors.