ofthefamily | Carlisle-Esme, Seattle Medical Conference.

Esme is smiling, a quietly radiant indulgence, less checked than many things in her house have been the last few weeks. Carlisle getting to present is a worthy reason for it. He doesn't get to do it as often as he should given their circumstances.

"How will you ever manage to stand still?"

Carlisle is fidgeting already, uncommonly nervous and waiting in the wings of the amphitheater of the conference center. Someone Carlisle doesn't know is reading his falsified professional biography and Carlisle has no notes in his hands - his paper is memorized, and the presentation he threw together is in the hands of the projection assistant at the back of the room.

"I don't know. I can't still walk home I suppose."

"You could make it at a run," is gently teasing, when she leans up to kiss his cheek. "but I don't believe you'd do it."

At least not for anything less than their recentest emergencies. But she doesn't say that, because this rare unexpected joy doesn't need it.

"It is my distinct privlege to present Dr. Carlisle Cullen."

Applause filters out through the door and Carlisle gives his wife one last kiss before he turns.

"You'll stay for the talk?"

Esme could see the crowd through the slit of the curtain blocking the opening to the wing, and the man at the podium, and still she only had eyes for the man before her. Always and ever.

"There is no place I'd rather be." The kiss was brief and she gave him a small shove toward the stage. "They're waiting for you."

Carlisle walks out in a crisp dark blue suit, smiling politely at the presentation chairperson and clipping a laviliere microphone to his lapel.

"Thank you for your kind welcome. I am honoured to volunteer my limited knowledge on some research findings that have been achieved as of late that I hope with be of some interest to such an esteemed group of physicians..."

She stands at the side, watching him more than his presentation or any of the number of people watching him.

He's had to publish under false names and to watch children present for years, keeping himself long from spotlight or any entanglement that might involve governmental scrutiny even for general background checking. They have to keep their life the way they've constructed.

But she watches him, the way his hands move and he smiles, talking to the crowd, gathering their rapt attention, or making them nearly laugh. He deserves this.

It probably shouldn't feel as triumphant as it does. It's a preliminary status report on a years-long research study.

But it's a large conference, and well-attended by some of the most prominent doctors in the area.

Carlisle feels like he has colleagues for the thirty minutes of his presentation, and he walks off the stage again with a bright smile.

Esme is beaming by then, smile as wide as possible even when she's trying to keep it tamed. The applause is just dying off, and the steps of the presenter heading back up are going, as she says, "That looked like it went well."

"Oh, it was just preliminary, and presentation was out of order after slide eleven -- "

Esme laughed, cutting him off, "In other words, you loved it."

Laughing, "Yes, it was kind of fantastic." It's hard for Carlisle not to love an academic atmosphere, especially on a professional level.

Carlisle leads Esme back out to the foyer area of the conference center, not wanting to walk back into the amphitheater and interrupt with his entrance.

"Doctor Cullen -- " an older woman with a slim cane walks up to Esme and Carlisle with a polite smile. "I saw your presentation; it was wonderful. I look forward to hearing from your neck of the woods again quite soon, I should think."

Esme stayed at his side, a hand tucked in at Carlisle's elbow, quietly glad that he hadn't managed to talk himself out of this one.

"Oh, well," Carlisle fumbles for just a moment, "Thank you very much. I am happy to hear such a high compliment."

"You're too modest - it's very becoming," the woman laughs, digging around in her pocket for a business card. "Here's my card -- I would love an advance notice of your next round of results, Doctor."

The card reads Johns Hopkins University - Bayview Medical Center along the top in crisp blue lettering. Carlisle boggles for a second.

Esme does not, but then she's never conceived of her husband being less than brilliant when he put his mind to something.

She does though take his ogling pause, to say with amused affection, "You may have to give him a moment to remember how to breathe again."

All but literally. Even for the faking part of it.

"Your beautiful wife is ever so politely throwing you under the bus, Doctor Cullen," the Hopkins representative chuckles. "I like it."

Carlisle finally manages to recover at the joke at his expense. "I think with such flattery you can at least call me Carlisle."

"Sounds good - listen, I'll let you get back to the conference, but email me sometime, hmm?" And just like that, she clicks off and makes acquaintances with someone else.

"Wow."

"Congratulations, dear." She squeezed his arm lightly.

"This doesn't mean anything to congratulate me about, you know."

"You're right. Forgive me. Someone, for some place, where you read publish cases and theories from, liked your presentation and research, in spite of the faulty slide projector, and would like to be inclusive in your forward research, so much that simply holding their card makes you unable to remember to respond for a moment," Esme smiled teasingly at him.

"It's absolutely nothing to congratulate you about."

"Well." Feigning a huff.

"Johns Hopkins is a very well-respected medical facility."

Beaming.

Esme eyes were bright, "And their representative liked you."

She leaned up and kissed his cheek. "Would you like to go listen the others?"

"Maybe."

:D?

"You could wait...somewhere? I know it's not the most appealing of scenarios."

"This is why we came," Esme said, indulgent pleasure at watching his reaction to simply the idea of getting to take part in more and more of this.

"I can come and sit with you. There's always walking around if I decide I don't understand too great a deal of it."

"Great! There's a talk at two on pulmonary artery disease that sounded really interesting -- "

Carlisle is ferociously thumbing through his program in order to double-check the room that the talk will be held in; he walks off about ten feet in front of their position before he spins on his heel and realizes the room is actually down the opposite hallway.

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Спасибо за инфу