Carlisle's Diary

No Trespassing

Dear Diary: June 1, 2013

I have been in my home office for the past 9 hours just staring at the wall and trying to figure out how to write everything that has happened in the last 3 days. I haven't spoken to anyone in my family . . . even Esme. After everything that has happened, she said that if vampires could turn whiter than they already were, I was the color of snow. Ever since then I have all but locked myself in my home office and stared out the window. I can't believe . . . I can't put into words . . . I . . . will try to tell you all of it, but it'll take more than one entry for sure.

Last I wrote in here, Nessie broke her leg after falling off a motorcycle she thought she could ride. I tell you, teenagers! Plus we had that weird encounter in the ER between Charlotte and Ashley. Since then, Nessie has mastered the crutches and even hops around on one foot sometimes. Emmett teased her about how silly she looks hopping around. Her response? She smacked him upside the head with her crutch. That sent everyone—including Rosalie—into a fit of laughter. That has been the only bright moment in this whole mess. Well, that and the return of Alice, Jasper, Rogue, and Alexander. Now our family really is complete.

So the day after that, Ashley called out sick saying she had a cold, and Charlotte called out with food poisoning. All right that was fine. Then a huge flower arrangement arrived in my office; it didn't have a note. At first I thought someone had made a mistake and it was meant for someone else but when I asked the delivery guy about it, he said it was addressed to me. Hmmm, strange. I went about my rounds only to return to my office to find three more flower arrangements; none of them had cards. I decided that it was a bit weird, so I gave them to some of my patients, who were very happy to receive them.

Then Betsy came into my office with a puzzled expression. She said that 4 other nurses called out with food poisoning from other floors. Apparently, the source of this was traced to a bun cake in one of the break rooms. But no one knew who brought it. On top of that, my phone's voice mail line was blinking. When I listened to it, it was Bill Connolly. He told me that in the last 36 hours, throughout the entire hospital, there were 8 code reds, 3 of which didn't make it; 4 were saved in the nick of time by Ashley who was working the night shift along with another nurse. This was a very large number. And it seemed to be increasing. Bill was suspecting foul play, as was I. But who would want to harm the patients and why?

Betsy and I discussed it at length. Something weird was going on and we needed to get to the bottom of it. We couldn't get the authorities involved until we had cold hard facts that this wasn't just some really freaky coincidence but that someone was intentionally trying to harm or kill the patients. As we were discussing this my office phone rang. It was Charlotte.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Cullen. I hope I'm not interrupting you," Charlotte said. She sounded awful.

"No, not at all, Charlotte. How are you feeling?" I asked, concerned.

She sighed. "Actually, pretty darn rotten. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Do you need something? I can make a house call or do you want me to send an ambulance?" I was sitting there gripping the phone. Betsy sat looking at me with wide, worried eyes.

"I don't think that'll be necessary—I hope. I think I have it under control. I've been throwing up a lot . . . food poisoning sucks." She all but groaned.

"Charlotte, do you mind if I put you on speaker? Betsy is here with me."

"No not at all." She waited until I put her on speaker. "Howdy Betsy."