Diamond Legacies: Part 6

Part 6 

Micah

I was grateful when the next day turned out to be a busy one at the hospital. I had surgeries back to back for hours. My last surgery would be a six hour one with Carlisle. It meant I wouldn’t have to go over the last conversation I had with Ivana in my head over and over again trying to read into Ivana’s rejection. I knew it wasn’t actual rejection, she was scared, I could see it. She wasn’t ready to admit it yet and I was an idiot for trying to push her into it. Part of me thought I should have just left it and stayed quiet until she was ready to tell me she was in love with me, but the other part screamed at me to tell her I was sure we were soul mates. I had been seeing flickers for a few days, every time I saw the shine on my hand or the brush of my leg I thought it was Ivana’s soul. It wasn’t until I saw it without her around that I realised I was seeing my own and it was exactly like Ivana’s. This whole time we had been denying ourselves something that was blatantly obvious since childhood.

Barely a few hours into the surgery and I knew this was a complicated one. The nine-month-old baby on the table had crashed twice already. Carlisle insisted we carry on and I just had this gut feeling that this baby was going to die.

I wasn’t wrong.

I left the operating room with a heavy head and a heavy heart. That tiny human no longer had a beating heart beat. She was gone. Just like that. Not even Carlisle could save her.

I knew Ivana was here before I even saw her. We were on the paediatric wing. I had a view of the intensive care beds from the OR door. Ivana was with one of her patients. A 6-year-old little girl called Nova with an aggressive cancer. She was killing her cancer with her ability, a little bit every day and no one had any idea. Doctors thought it was the drugs she was on, but it was only me, my father and Ivana that knew that little girl would have died weeks ago if it wasn’t for Ivana. Ivana had a soft spot for the children, and for the elderly too. She had saved hundreds of lives with her ability. Killing what ever cancer or problem they had within them and no one knew anything about it. We had to keep it quiet and on the down low, not all her patients could survive but occasionally Carlisle would give the green light to Ivana, he kept track of her patients so it didn’t look strange. Always the ones that were diagnosed but still dying, never the rare cases we didn’t know what it was. If she magically cured some unknown illness then we’d have a publicity problem on our hands.

But every now and then, I see Ivana healing someone, someone that not even her father or sister could heal and I feel immensely proud of her.

I watched her giggle with the child over something, her hand on her lower abdomen the whole time. After a while Ivana leant forward to kiss the child’s head and she left the room. She stopped in her tracks when she saw me. The second her eyes connected with mine, I knew she knew I wasn’t right. That something was wrong.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, I looked at her briefly before I looked away again to the child smiling in her room. I looked at the little girl, who a week ago wouldn’t even wake up she was on so many pain meds, smiling and happy and it broke me that Ivana hadn’t been in the operating room with me. Could she have saved the baby?

“Nine-month-old. She didn’t make it,” I explained. She took my hand and pulled me into the nearest on-call room. She turned and with a wave of her hand locked the door. Normally I'd have chastised or teased her but I just didn’t have the will power. I didn’t even know what to say to her anymore.

“Are you okay?” she asked me. I just moved to one of the beds and sat, my eyes on the floor the whole time. That tiny baby’s heart still echoing in my ears.

“When it’s me and Carlisle. When I have him there I feel invincible. Like we can do anything, we don’t tire we don’t faulter, we can do everything text book perfect. We’ve saved lives where they would otherwise be impossible. We can do the unbelievable.”

“And you failed,” she whispered kneeling in front of me so she could see my face. I slowly lifted my head to look at her. Her face was full of sympathy.

“Nine months old.” I echoed and couldn’t even begin to portray the pain I was feeling. I had never lost one that small before. “Nine months old and she just died. There was just nothing more we could do. Her heart just stopped and couldn’t take any more,” I explained. She instantly moved forward to hug my waist from the floor. Everything between us from the other morning just evaporated. I sighed and wrapped my arms around her. I relaxed, letting my face fall into her shoulder to breath in her familiar scent to calm my thoughts.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. It wasn’t just for the death of my patient. It was for the other morning too, the last words we said to each other.

“I know,” I responded and she stood up, I moved to look up at her, my hands still touching her at the back of her legs. I could hear her heart slamming in her chest as she stared down at me. She leant forward and she was millimetres away from kissing me. I reached out to stop her. Just for a moment. I had to get the words out. I needed to explain everything to her. To talk to her before we made this physical.

“I’m in love with you,” I whispered and her heart beat fluttered at the words. She opened her mouth to speak but I carried on. “I am. I have for a very long time but you and I both know there’s a reason that we’ve put this off. And it’s been a good one. You were right the other day. There’s more important things going on right now. If you're doing this because I'm sad, then don't. If you need to wait, I’ll wait. I’ll wait forever for you Ivana Balev because I don’t know what my life would be like if you weren’t in it,” I said swallowing the emotion threatening to take over me. My voice broke at the words because I couldn’t keep the emotion out completely. It was the most real thing I'd ever said to her. I was debating whether to tell her about the soul mate thing but then I realised. It doesn’t matter. I still loved her long before I knew we were soul mates and I would love her long after that too. I didn’t want her to think I was only saying all this because I finally knew the truth. It wasn’t important anymore. We were meant to be together and we would be. That’s what was important. I watched her as her beautiful eyes danced over my face. She didn’t know how to reply. I watched as her eyes fell on my lips. Her hand flew to mine and withdrew it from her collar bone so it no longer stopped her from coming any closer. She closed the gap instantly and her lips met mine. I sat motionless for a moment until my hand fell in defeat and I began kissing her back. Fire erupted in my stomach and there was nothing in the world that would have stopped me in that very moment. She was gasping for air before I thought it was even possible and she moved to wrap herself around me. I moved her, still kissing her jaw and lips as she caught her breath onto the bed beside us.

I paused my kissing just to look at her below me. Her eyes opened to stare at me.

“You weren’t supposed to do that,” I said although the grin escaped my lips before I even finished the sentence. She smiled back holding back a laugh.

“I know what you were trying to say but I realised I was wrong. I know you’re scared. I am too. You were right, before now we put this off for one reason only. You think you’re going to meet my soul mate and I’m going to leave you but Micah Cullen you couldn’t be any more wrong. I will never leave you, not for one day because even if there is miraculously someone out there that matches my soul better than you do that man or woman will never be anything more to me than my friend or sibling because I don’t need anything more. I don’t need anyone more when I have you,” she announced and suddenly I was kissing her again without any control.

“I love you,” I whispered over and over as I kissed her a thousand times over her lips and jaw.

There was a sudden bang on the door interrupting our perfect moment.

“I thought it was against rules to lock on-call rooms,” I heard someone say from the outside. I shot up off the bed and Ivana giggled as she straightened out her clothes. I did the same and grabbed her hand to head for the door. When it opened, there stood Harvey and a nurse intern.

“I should have known,” he said, and I felt the urge to reach for him. Ivana knew me too well though, her hand reached out to rest on my chest. A small warning but also a reason.

“Have a nice day Dr Leon,” I said politely and tugged Ivana’s hand in the direction away from them, Ivana almost stumbled, a small laugh escaping her lips. I couldn’t help but smile as I pulled her into my side. She wrapped her arm around my back and steadied herself still laughing. She looked back at her ex as I led her around the corner and out of eyesight. We paused to laugh together, I had her almost pinned against a wall, our bodies flush and my face a few inches from her own a wide grin and mischievousness in our eyes. She was beautiful when she laughed, more than usual. I never wanted to kiss her as bad as I did in that moment, from the look of her eyes I guess she thought the same thing. I groaned in frustration that we were in a very public place.

“Let’s go home,” I said pulling away from her.

“You’re still on call for the next four hours,” she reminded me.

“Good job I can run fast when I want to then isn’t it?” I winked as we headed to the front of the hospital.

The second we were through our front door her lips were back on mine. The kissing was feverish and needy. By the time we were in her room there were no clothes left between us. Before I knew it, I was inside her and she consumed my every thought.

Luckily my pager never went off in those four hours because I wasn’t quite sure I’d have the will power to move if it did.

“So, who do we tell first?” I asked as she lay across my chest, our legs entwinned. There were no sheets left on the bed. Just us.

“I’m pretty sure everyone knows,” she chuckled. Her sisters had told everyone already?

“Your sisters?” I asked in clarification.

“No. I mean I’m pretty sure people have thought we were together for years. We sure as hell act like it.”

“Good point,” I mumbled. “I guess it’s none of their business what we do behind closed doors.”

“Exactly,” she said placing a kiss on my chest. The next day we barely moved from our house. Ivana slept between our various activities and I eagerly awaited her to wake up so we could start all over again.

It wasn’t just sex, we did our usual things too, watched a few movies, talked, read, laughed. I was grateful everything stayed the same. It was still just me and her. Still Micah and Ivana, only now we had something else to fill our time with, something that cemented the love we’d had for each other for years.

She was my best friend and the love of my life all rolled into one. How had we ever denied the physical side of this relationship? We had been each other’s entire lives for years now. I started to realise why my family found it so weird why we weren’t officially married yet when we’ve acted like it for years.

Would it be weird to ask her to marry me already?

I knew it was euphoria speaking so I pushed that thought out of my mind for a while whilst we just enjoyed our time together.

We both called in ‘sick’ at the hospital and I think my father knew something was going on but he didn’t ask.

Luckily our avoidance of the Volturi barely went noticed with everything that was going on there. Esther and my siblings still weren’t back and barely any messages had been passed on so it was just a waiting game there.

It was three days Ivana and I never left our house for. By day four our blood supply had dwindled to almost empty.

All Ivana had on was my shirt as she checked the fridge in our kitchen. I couldn’t help but watch her as she bent down to check. I had already told her we were nearly out but she refused to believe me until she saw it herself.

“Hey perv, we’re out of blood,” she grinned standing up to stare at me. She put her hand on her hip and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Let’s go hunting then,” I suggested, she skipped over to me to leave the kitchen but I stopped her blocking the door. “The door is there,” I nodded at the back door. She rolled her eyes.

“I need to get changed.” She demanded, I smiled down at her feisty expression.

“Do you?” I laughed and she shoved me backwards. Her hands on my bare chest. I let her move me because the look on her face was murderous.

“Yes. I do,” she glared playfully and ran for the stairs.

“Shirt!” I called and I watched as she stripped and threw it at me from the landing upstairs. I laughed as I pulled it over my head. I had my jeans on already so it was all I really needed.

She came down moments later in a cotton playsuit. I took her hand and we left the back door of our house to hunt for some fresh blood.

“We need to stock up next time we’re at the Volturi,” she mentioned as we both caught wind of a herd a few miles out of the city.

“Race ya?” she teased me.

“You do know I’m a full blooded Moon Pool Child, right? I could beat your ass blindfolded,” I teased back.

“Try me,” she said and suddenly the trees in front of her started to move so she had a straight path to the herd.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” I rolled my eyes.

“Try me,” she repeated, laughter coating her voice.

“Two second head start. Go,” I ordered her and she shot off in her straight line. I weaved in and out of the trees next to her and beat her by a fraction of a second. Only a fraction of a second to a vampire was a long time.

“Damn it!” she called and turned to face her racing track.

“Put them back,” I laughed at her over confidence.

“I could beat you when you were a kid,” she sighed as I watched the trees move back to their previous position with a wave of her hand.

“I grow stronger by the day,” I said and took her hand so we could get closer to the herd.

We hunted in silence so we didn’t scare away our meals and when we were both satisfied with enough blood we headed back.

We didn’t go back to bed, we did our own thing for a while. She had a case to look over and I ached to play my piano. When it came to the evening I slid into her bed so I could hold her whilst she fell asleep and decided ultimately to sleep myself that night too.

We had one more ‘sick day’ until we had to return to normal so we spent it how we normally would. The teasing and suggestive glances happened more often than usual but it was still just us. We were finding our new normal and I don’t think either of us could be any happier than we were during those few days.

Of course, I should have known it wouldn’t last. We had withdrawn ourselves from the world and were ignorant to everything going on around us.


We had barely got back from our hunt when Ivana’s tablet buzzed with a dozen messages from the hospital.

“It's Nova,” she gasped. “Oh my god,” she said emotion flooding over her and she ran for the door. I didn’t even have time to check the messages as I followed her out. We reached the hospital and ran straight to the paediatric ward. Ivana stopped outside Nova’s room and steadied herself by reaching for the glass. Inside the child’s parents were sobbing uncontrollably. The monitors were turned off and the child was stationary.

“How?” I turned to Dr Jannery. Ivana’s boss.

“A clot. It came out of nowhere. She was doing so well. The clot formed fast, she died within an hour of being checked on.” She explained. I saw Ivana’s body shake at the words, she was desperately holding back her tears.

“Dr Balev, I know you were quite attached to this patient which is why I always say it’s a good idea to keep your distance, especially with children. I know it’s hard,” Dr Jannery said softly but there was also a teaching motive to her speech.

“I get it,” she snapped back. Ivana normally was very distant but her miracles always meant something more to her than every other patient she had. What the doctor didn’t understand was that this child wasn’t meant to die, she wasn’t going to die. She had one of the most aggressive cancers in the world but she was going to live. Ivana was saving her bit by bit so that it looked like she was getting better. This little girl was meant to be a miracle.

Ivana moved for the door.

“I don’t recommend that,” Dr Jannery called reaching for Ivana to stop her.

“Leave me alone!” Ivana turned back.

“Excuse me, Dr Balev.” Dr Jannery snapped back.

“Is everything okay here?” Carlisle said from behind us.

“Cheif Cullen, Dr Balev and Dr Cullen are overstepping their professional boundaries,” she started to argue but Ivana was already inside the room. She walked over to the child and the child’s parents looked up at her in grief.

“I’m so sorry,” she said, emotion clouding her voice as she spoke to Nova’s parents. The parents couldn’t even say words to her. Ivana fell to her knees next to the bed of the child and took her hand.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered to the child this time.

“Ivy,” I said reaching for her shoulders. I helped her to her feet and pulled her out of the room to leave the parents with their child.

“I should have saved her. If I had just done it straight away. If I didn’t wait. She would be alive.” She said frantically.

“I know,” I said softly, tucking her hair behind her ears. “I know but you know you can’t do that. If someone gets better too quickly that will draw attention. You do it this way for a reason.” I reasoned with her.

“But she was going to be fine,” she argued.

“And now she’s gone Ivy. There’s nothing we can do now,” I said. “It wasn’t in your control; a clot is a clot. If you weren’t here to catch it, it was always going to kill her,” I tried to explain.

“Annie,” she gasped in realisation.

“No,” I said and dragged her towards the exit to the hospital. She couldn’t bring Anelie into this.

“Micah!” She fought me but I managed to get her out of the building.

“Ivy you are not God!” I almost yelled at her. “You can’t decide who lives and who dies. There’s a reason Carlisle decides the patients you can save. You can’t just bring people back and heal anyone you want. There are repercussions, especially in the human world. You know this!” I said sternly.

“I am God. I can heal whatever I want, I can create whatever I want and I can do whatever I want!” She argued, but I knew this was grief talking. She was the one that put the system in place in the first place, she admitted she couldn’t see clearly when it came to her patients, she needed Carlisle to be the non-bias decider. She gave that right up to him to decide who she could save without risking exposure and who she couldn’t. She was just blinded by the fact she failed, and she was angry.

“Ivy!” I shouted back. “Ivy.” I said softer this time. “You can’t bring her back to life. You can’t. I know you loved that little girl. I know you did,” I said and she suddenly broke down. She collapsed into tears and I held her against me as she let it all out.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to her holding her against me. After a while she finally stopped.

“Let’s go home,” she whispered and we walked back, hand in hand, in silence. I kept looking over to her to make sure she wasn’t about to crack but her familiar poker face was back. Ivana was one of the strongest people I knew, and I knew she wouldn’t cry for that girl any more but it didn’t mean that the experience wouldn’t change her, right down to the essence of her soul.

End of Part 6