Carlisle-Esme, Pittsburgh.

[ofthefamily]

Vampires don't sleep.

They do, however, sometimes find it relaxing to sit in a chair with a gramophone record playing in the background -- instrumental; an orchestra. Beyond that, there's no label on the record to dictate where or when the performance was recorded.

Carlisle's eyes are closed, his feet are propped up on a chair.

Comments

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

Esme is bored.

A state she finds herself in frequently these days. She never realized how much sleeping broke up time.

She wanders past Carlisle's study and stops in the doorway, listening to the music.

[ofthefamily]

For once, Carlisle is distracted enough to not hear Esme's approach as relaxed as he is. His tie is slackened and his fingers drum to the music on the armrest.

It's quiet -- something he relishes more and more when Carlisle is working out of a hospital.

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

Seeing Carlisle relax is unusual enough that she doesn't want to disturb him. There's a little voice in the back of her mind that tells her to walk away, but she can't quite make herself do it.

As handsome as she usually finds him, he's doubly so in this unguarded state.

[ofthefamily]

The record needle skips mid-aria. Carlisle grimaces, standing up to clean the disc --

"Oh. Hello, Esme."

A flicker of How long has she been standing there? crosses his mind, but he doesn't voice it.

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"Hello," she says, feeling vaguely embarrassed at having been caught. "I didn't want to disturb you, but the music was lovely."

[ofthefamily]

"Do you think so?"

Carlisle looks down at the record he was about to replace. He'd been playing the same piece over and over for at least an hour.

"Do you want to pick the next one?"

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"Oh, no, I don't want to intrude," Esme says. "Besides, I don't really know anything about music."

[ofthefamily]

"There is nothing one must learn about music in order to appreciate it," Carlisle corrects, but he moves to the low stacks of records in the corner to pick something for her at random.

Scott Joplin wins out; ragtime.

Carlisle shrugs when he places the needle in the groove. "I like the range of it."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

Esme nods. "You sure you don't mind the company?"

[ofthefamily]

"One of these decades I will be able to tell you that I don't mind the company and you'll actually believe me."

Carlisle remains unruffled; he gestures to a chair. "Make yourself comfortable."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"Okay," Esme says, settling into the chair with a smile. "How was your shift at the hospital?"

She's not used to trying to make small talk.

[ofthefamily]

"Seemingly interminable." It doesn't sound as though it is a complaint, even as Carlisle utters it. "I know I'm helping, it just...feels a little like forestalling the inevitable.




"I don't mean that," he corrects himself. "It was just a long day."

From a man who hasn't slept in a couple of centuries, 'long day' may be an ironic phrase, but it is still appropriate at the moment.

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"How do you deal with being around all that blood?" Esme asks.

[ofthefamily]

Joplin is temporarily forgotten. Carlisle straightens in his chair again to look at Esme from one side.

"What they -- the patients -- need. It's more important than what I'm supposed to want from them."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

Esme nods. "Is it hard? I can't even imagine what that would be like."

[ofthefamily]

"It took me until I moved to the colonies -- ," Carlisle smiles, then; the term is something he doesn't have a chance to use much since he has adopted an American accent long ago, " -- to even risk it. To feel strong enough. I always have tried to help though. It was just never in a hospital setting as you see it now."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

Esme finds his strength incredibly admirable.

"Were you studying medicine before you... were turned?"

[ofthefamily]

"No. I was the son of an Anglican priest. I suppose I still am, if one desires to get technical. I would have most likely continued into the clergy myself at some point or other."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"I can't see you as a priest," Esme admits. "But I suppose that's where you learned the desire to help others."

[ofthefamily]

"Now I have to ask why you can't see me as a priest."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

Esme ducks her head. "Probably because all the priests I knew in Ohio were stodgy old men."

And stodgy and old are not words she would ever use to describe Carlisle, no matter how many years he had been on earth.

[ofthefamily]

Carlisle catches the inference.

"Good to know I am not stuck in my ways."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"I would imagine that with all the moving you do, it would be difficult to get stuck in your ways."

Though there are moments when she wonders what his life was like before Edward when he was alone.

[ofthefamily]

"You'd be surprised. One city can sort of...blend into another, if you don't pay attention too carefully."

[mamavamp.livejournal.com]

"How do you keep it all straight?" Esme asks.