Beautiful Things Can Come From the Dark

“Fucking shit!” hissed Josephine, grasping the flimsy sheet that covered the hospital bed tightly in her hands in an attempt to focus her mind on something other than the pain coming from the large gash that was being stitched up.

Tears collected in the corner of her eyes, but she took in deep breaths because she wasn’t about to start bawling in the hospital room. If she’d sat through numerous sessions to get her sleeve done and not spilt a single tear then she could make it through the stitching.

Four more minutes of pain went by until Carlisle finished closing the wound. He quickly bandaged the wounded area while telling Josephine that she was going to have to be very careful and take it easy for a few days.

That of course, wasn’t going to happen.

Josephine, along with her two employees, depended on her to make the pastries that the town would consume in order to pay the bills and she wasn’t about to let them all down, she’d just have to smoke a little more than usual to numb the pain.

“How long is it going to be before this closes up?” inquired Josephine, tilting her head to the side to better look at Carlisle.

Carlisle took off his glove, his eyes lingering on the blood that drenched them. “In ten days I’ll take the stitches out and in fourteen you should be fully healed but please try not to be on your feet to much, it’d best if you lay down.”

“I think I’d lose whatever’s left of my mind if I were to lie in bed all day,” answered Josephine. “That reminds me, can I leave now?”

“Are you in that much of a hurry to be rid of me?” gasped Carlisle playfully in faux hurt.

“No,” blurted Josephine much louder than she had intended to, “I didn’t mean it like that. I just fucking hate hospitals, they remind me of death.”

“Hospitals remind me of miracles,” spoke Carlisle. “We can save peoples lives, when all hope seems lost,” he smiled warmly, “That fills me with an indescribable amount of joy.”

“You really are passionate about what you do.”

Josephine wondered if he truly meant his words or if he was simply regurgitating some standard response that all doctors gave, but the passion which his eyes held told her that he strongly believed in his words.

“I worked really hard to be able to practice medicine,” his words held a hidden meaning that made his laugh lightly. “Where were we? Oh yes, you leaving. Well as soon as the blood transfusion is over, you can leave, just don’t drive and lay on your belly when you sleep. I’ll prescribe some pain killers to soothe you and I’ll also have a nurse fetch a donut cushion.”

“What the fuck do I need that for?” blurted Josephine without thinking. Her cheeks flushed with color when she saw the surprised look on Carlisle’s face. “I mean, what do I need that for, sorry, I have an awful sailor’s mouth.”

“It’s fine, I hear those words all the time. I have five teenagers remember?” Carlisle set the clipboard with her information down at his side. “The cushion is so that you don’t feel as much discomfort when you’re sitting up, but I would still recommend just lying on your belly for awhile, it’ll be more comfortable.”

“Doctor Cullen, Mr. Noriega is asking if he can be given another dose of morphine,” chirped a nurse from the doorway.

Carlisle shot one last smile at Josephine. “Please, try to follow my instructions.”

“I’ll try, but I can’t guarantee that they’ll be followed exactly.”

Her eyes followed Carlisle as he exited the room, telling the nurse about how much morphine they were going to have to pump inside of Mr. Noriega to ease his pain.

Josephine couldn’t help but think about just how amazing a human being Carlisle was to have adopted five children with his wife, most people wouldn’t do that but if she ever had the chance to help someone out like that she wouldn’t think twice.

“Are you going to come in or stand there all day looking like an idiot?” teased Josephine when Charlie appeared in the doorway.

Relief rushed through Charlie. “I didn’t know if I should come in, I mean, I, well, you know, this is my fault. I should’ve been more careful. Who does that in kitchens anyway? People don’t, right? Those things only happen in movies.”

“Charles, you’re rambling again.”

“Sorry, I-I'm not good with worrying.” Charlie walked over to her, pulling up a chair. “Should I go get you some clothes from your house or are they going to let you out tonight?”

Josephine smiled deviously before exclaiming, “How dare you use this as an opportunity to raid my panty drawer.”

“W-w-what?” stuttered Charlie. “I, no, no, I was trying to be nice.”

“Just fucking with you,” giggled Josephine. “Freaking you out is almost too easy.”

“That’s because I'm an old man,” answered Charlie. “I don’t really understand your humor.”

“Thirty three hardly deserves to be called old, especially for men. Don’t you know that you guys are like wine?”

“Wine?” chuckled Charlie. “How the heck can you describe me as wine? That’s much to fancy.”

“What about Jack Daniels?” Josephine inquired.

“That’s more like me.”

Visitors began pouring into the cramped hospital room to check on Josephine and make sure that she was alright. The first to arrive were Sam and Emily, who had been informed of the incident via text message by Jacob.

Neither of them were sure what Charlie was doing in the hospital since he was no longer with Josephine but they figured that perhaps the detached chief had realized that his feelings were stronger for her than he’d let on.

“NO!” exclaimed a laughing Sam when Josephine had finished telling him the story.

Josephine hurled a pillow at his head. “Don’t, laugh fuck face!”

“Come on Joey! You know that if that happened to someone else you’d be howling with laughter,” argued Sam.

“Well, yeah,” admitted Josephine, “But that shit’s still not funny! My ass is all torn up.”

“Whose ass is torn up?” spoke Mike, a sly smirk on her face as she stood in front of Chris in the doorway, she already knew what had happened but she wanted Josephine to say that her ass was torn up aloud.

Josephine cursed inwardly, if anyone was going to make a joke it was Mika.

“My ass is,” mumbled Josephine, burying her face in the fabric, her raven locks shielding her face from view.

Mika’s heels hit the ground as she walked over to Josephine. “I'm honestly surprised right now.”

“Why?” inquired Chris.

“Because I always thought that you were going to be the one that ended up at the hospital for getting your ass torn up, but alas it is our beloved Josephine that has sustained an anal injury.” Mika worked hard to suppress her laughter. “You know what this makes Charlie?”

“What?” Josephine knew what was coming; it had to be a sodomy joke.

“A butt pirate,” responded Mika, her eyes twinkling with delight. “And a horrible butt pirate at that.”

Chris could tell that Mika was on a roll and wanting to get the ultimate giggling experience he asked, “Why’s he a horrible pirate?”

“Because he damaged the booty and a pirate damaging his precious booty is a crime.”

Charlie hadn’t a clue as to what they were talking about, he never really understood anything that Mika said because most of her comments were so outlandish that there was no way an ‘old timer’ like him could understand.

“What are you talking about?” he finally asked. “I'm not a pirate pillaging boo. . .”

“Charles,” hissed Josephine, “Just drop it.”

“But I want to know what she means, everyone’s laughing and I don’t get it.”

“Quit whining old man, I’ll tell you,” Mika cleared her throat. “What I meant is that you, Charlie Swan, the cop from the village people have defiled Josephine’s booty.”

“For the hundredth time, I am not the cop from the village people.”

Mika laughed. “Next thing you’re going to say is that you’re not a porn star from the 70’s that traveled to the present.”

“Why are you three always saying that?” asked Charlie, looking at Josephine.

Josephine took hold of his hand, “Because you look like someone that would’ve come out on Boogie Nights!”

“Especially since you have Markie mark junk,” added Mika.

Teasing Charlie was the activity that everyone engaged in for the next half hour, only stopping when Carlisle had entered the room to discharge Josephine.

“Take care of her Charlie,” spoke Carlisle, his golden eyes shining with concern.

“Will do,” he responded.

“Thanks for stitching me up, I’ll make sure to bring you that cake you like so much tomorrow,” chirped Josephine, dangling over Carlisle’s shoulder.

“I told you that you’re not supposed to be working for awhile,” laughed Carlisle.

Josephine shrugged her nose, “You say a lot of things. So tomorrow it is!”

----------------

Carlisle stood in silence, taking in deep breaths to ease his worry while he watched Charlie carry out a giggling Josephine that was exchanging vulgar jokes with the petite brunette and vintage thick rimmed glasses wearing young man.

He worried about her more than he did any other patient because she was more to him than just a patient. She was a fascinating creature that laughed at the most inappropriate times, swore more than any proper young woman ever should but somehow managed to be the most compassionate, caring individual that he had come across in his existence.

Of course no one knew that he thought so highly of her, everyone just thought that Carlisle was a lover of fine pastries and had to have his daily fix of her baked goodness, but the truth is that he gets her pastries because her scent lingers on them, that scent that reminds him of a time when he was still human.

The ringing of his cell phone took him out of his thoughts.

“Hello?” he spoke.

The sound of his mate’s voice came from the other line. “Carlisle, my love, are you going to work late tonight?”

“Yes,” he lied. “I have to run a few tests, but I’ll be home around one.”

“I’ll see you then,” Esme made a kissing noise, “I love you.”

“Love you to.”

Carlisle put his cell phone, cursing himself for having lied to his wife but he just had to make sure that Josephine would be alright, hopefully Alice was to busy staring into Jasper’s future to notice.