When Worlds Collide

I spent almost all of my free time at the Cullen’s. It was as if they had virtually adopted me.
I hid my phone beneath my desk at work while reading Alice’s text.

Esme wants to know what you want for dinner.

Tell her to surprise me, I have no clue.

“Jasmine, is Dr. Karim in her office?” I looked up as Chelsea made her way around the corner in front of my desk.

“She is, do you want me to get her?” I asked Dr. Bhatti’s secretary.

“In a minute. What are you going to do when the beast goes on vacation next week?” She whispered leaning on my desk nodding her head toward the doctor’s closed door.

“Fucking celebrate.” I whispered. My face breaking out into a huge smile as I thought of having a whole two weeks of work without my boss breathing down my back and yelling at my day in and day out.

“Girl I do not envy your job. Dr. Bhatti is an awesome boss. He just gave me my Christmas bonus!” Chelsea gushed.

“Way to rub it in you whore.” I deadpanned

Chelsea and I had become close friends over the course of my being hired. When possible she even would sneak over and help me with some of my workload when Dr. K wasn’t around.

“So how is your fine ass boyfriend.” She said eyeing the door to make sure we wouldn’t be caught socializing on the job.

“Fine.” I smirked. Chelsea had told me on numerous occasions that she had had a huge crush on my new boyfriend when they had been in high school together a few years previously.

“Man you are a lucky girl you know that? That boy never even looked at a girl till that stupid girl came to town…ugh anyways…I just wish I had a shot with him.” She said getting all dreamy eyed.

“I don’t know whether to laugh or slap you.”

My phone buzzed on my desk, “Oooh the boyfriend?”

“No you green bitch it’s his sister. What did you come over here for anyways?”

“Oh yeah! D. B needs the hags files for the bipolar chick.”

“Your people skills and empathy are astounding. I’ll bring them over in ten, you evil little human being.”

“Thank you!” She called out as she made her way back down the hall.

Chelsea truly surprised me sometimes. Why would she get into this field if she really didn’t care about these poor people?
My phone vibrating again caught my attention. Two new messages, the first was from Alice, the second from Edward.

Esme says she’s making you lasagna.

Sounds awesome. I responded quickly

How is work darling?

I’m avoiding talking to Dr. K.

Dr. Karim walked out of her office just then and I dropped my phone to the floor quickly.

“Oh Doctor Bhatti is needing the files for Mrs. Ramirez.” I said standing quickly.

“Oh my desk, I’ll be out for the rest of the day.” She said sharply walking past me without another word.

“Oookay.”

I walked into her office to grab the file off her desk. I stopped dead in my tracks. Her office was a mess. Should I be worried? I thought looking around the office. Paper was scattered everywhere.

A single file was on the desk, I slowly walked forward and grabbed it, checking the name on the file to check it was the file I needed. It was, I still wasn’t sure what to do as I looked at the mess surrounding me.

A single knock at the door broke my thoughts, “Oh Carlisle! You scared me!”

“Sorry sweetie, what in the world happened in here?” He said walking into the office.

“I have no idea. Dr. K just came storming out a few minutes ago saying she’d be out the rest of the day. I came in here to grab a file for Dr. B…and found this.” I said raising my arms up. “What should I do?” I asked looking around.

“I’ll take the file to Dr. Bhatti. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off.”

“Are you sure? I mean something seriously upset her and I don’t want to make it worse by not being here. The weird thing was is I didn’t hear any noise coming from in here to signal that anything was wrong.” I said rubbing the back of my neck suddenly feeling very uneasy and guilty. While I had been a few feet away talking shit about my boss something was seriously going wrong with her.

“Go to the house, I hear Esme is making you lasagna and don’t worry about this. I’ll take care of it.” He said putting his hands on my shoulders.

I nodded, “If you say so. I’ll, uh, see you in a bit.”

Later that night I sat on the couch in Edwards room staring out the window at the surrounding forest.

“Something is seriously wrong with Dr. K. I feel awful, I mean she was freaking out in there and I didn’t even hear anything!”

“Jazz you have no reason to feel bad. What could you have done?” He said soothingly putting his arms around my shoulders.

“I don’t know, but I could have done something! Something really weird is going on Edward. Carlisle and the other doctors at the hospital have said it themselves. This is a small town and we are getting a lot of mentally ill patients. Something is going on. I can feel it. I just don’t know what it is.”

Edward sighed, “You care a lot about people. It’s why you took this job, but times are stressful with the economy and such. During hard times it’s been proven that people lose touch with reality. It’s not so unusual, now that mental illness and seeking help isn’t so stigmatized as it has been in the past.”

“Hmmm if you say so.” I said leaning into his side.

“This is a good thing. People are getting help instead of their families locking them away in the basement like they used to. You just need to relax. You’re stressing yourself.” Edward said. He was so sure. I suppose I should take his word for it. He lived through times like that.

I snuggled my head into the crook of his neck and closed my eyes. He was right I was worrying for nothing. I just needed to relax. I had the next day off. I could sleep in and not worry about what was going on in the hospital and Dr. K. Before I knew it I slipped into a peaceful sleep curled up with Edward on his couch.