Chapter Two: Doogie Carlisle, M.D.

Jasper's a little out of control. He's new to the whole "not eating people" thing, and when Bella starts bleeding, it's no surprise that he goes feral and starts trying to do what vampires do. It's just their nature -- blood is yummy. When Bella's injuries become more serious and there's more blood, the situation becomes difficult for the rest of the Cullen family, though none go so far as to attack Bella; they're just forced to excuse themselves from the room. In Rosalie's case, she does so smugly, because she's still kind of a bitch.

One by one, they're all forced to leave. Edward tries to help for a while, but Bella knows how much he loves freesia, so he eventually relents. Alice helps out for even longer, but eventually has to give up rather than risk falling into the temptation of eating her new best friend.

Which leaves only Carlisle, doctor and leader of the Cullen clan. Carlisle isn't tempted in the slightest; while the rest of the family has succeeded in suppressing the urge to hunt people, Carlisle has seemingly eliminated it entirely -- as he says, he barely even notices the smell of blood anymore. His centuries of work in the medical field have helped; Bella speculates that if Carlisle were forced to stay away from hospital work for a few years, he might become more sensitive again, and Carlisle admits it might make things a little harder.

While giving Bella stitches, they talk some more about the choices Carlisle has made. He has a very simple philosophy on these sorts of things: he was dealt a hand, and he was able to decide how to play it. His strategy: don't eat people. It's working out nicely so far. Carlisle points out that he believes in God, in some form, and that trying to subvert his nature has to give him points in the big man's book.

This is all very nice characterization, by the way: Carlisle, as I mentioned earlier, is actually an interesting character. I'd probably read a spin-off book called "The Adventures of Carlisle and Alice," provided there was a promise that Edward would only be mentioned in passing and we could pretend Bella didn't exist.

Speaking of Bella, she has to get her two cents in, of course, since she clearly knows better than any god would:

...the only kind of heaven I could appreciate would have to include Edward.

Sigh. But in Edward's opinion, vampires have lost their souls, and probably don't have an afterlife at all...and if they do, they're not headed upstairs. Given this belief, it's no wonder that Edward won't let Bella lose her vampginity -- every good girl needs a soul.

Carlisle goes into a long story about how he decided to turn Edward, which is nice and all, but not worth getting into here. After that, Bella is all patched up, and Edward agrees to take her home.

Of course, on the way home, Edward and Bella have the same argument they always have. "I'm not safe for you! It's my fault! It's not your fault, it's my fault! You wouldn't be in danger if you were dating a normal human boy!" This one is a little harsher than most though, probably because Edward is a little upset about his brother almost eating his girlfriend. That's always a tough situation in any relationship.

Bella comes home, gets ready for bed, and meets Edward back in the bedroom where she gets to open the rest of her presents without the fear of death. Carlisle and Esme bought Edward and Bella two tickets to Jacksonville, so that Renee can spend some time getting to know Edward. How they plan to explain why he can never go outside or be in the sun, I don't know. For her final gift, Edward made Bella a CD of him playing the piano.

And with that, Bella's big day is over. She goes to sleep with Edward keeping her company again, as always. But his goodnight kiss bothers her, because it's too good - the kind he gives her when something is very wrong. Of course, Bella doesn't see why Edward should be so upset about Jasper almost killing her, but then, Bella doesn't get a lot of things. I get the feeling she's going to be very chagrined, very soon.