So... Lockdown happened, and I've discovered that there's still a shockingly low number of Carlisle/OC fanfics out there. Carys is a character from another place, but I think she'd do well with Carlisle - so here we are!

Of course, I own nothing but my own imagination and OCs.

Chapter 1 - The Flashforward

Carys re-read the note currently held tightly in her hand and worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she paced. She had been pacing backwards and forwards at the end of the long corridor which housed Carlis-Dr Cullen's office for the past two minutes, walking slowly from one end to another of the shorter corridor and then poking her head around to check whether the coast was clear, running to the other side of the hall before she was spotted and repeating the action.

She knew she had to go to see him in the next ten minutes or so, or she'd have left too long between the end of her workday and stopping by. After all, the note said "at your earliest convenience", and she now had much too much adrenaline coursing through her body to go home without seeing him up close, let alone going to sleep. So really, this was her earliest convenience.

And easiest... Although, is that a thing, or not? She asked herself, stopping in her tracks and crossing an arm around her waist, tapping her toe and frowning slightly as she tried to sound it out in her head. A second later she was pacing again, sighing as she dropped the hand which had been tapping the note to her lips subconsciously, and beginning to take long strides back the way she came.

You need to go. Just go and see him, and you can work out what to do next afterwards.

Some particularly calm part of her brain jumped in and issued her with a solution, and she could practically feel the rest of her mind glaring at it and telling it to stop being such a know-it-all. Still, as much as she'd like to listen to any other part of her brain than the one telling her to knock on his office door, she realised that she really should just do it before she lost her nerve. He could probably hear her out there anyway.

A couple of steps along the corridor, she span on her heel and headed back the way she came, before making a small shrill noise in the back of her throat and racing over to the office door, rapping on it before she could run again. Smoothing her skirt with both hands, she pressed her lips together and took a deep breath, steeling herself for the coming conversation. It was, after all, a one on one meeting from the sounds of things, which was more contact than she'd had with the man in months.

"You can do this." She whispered to herself, her eyes snapping open as her calm professional facade melted into place and she smiled slightly. If she could make it through this meeting without crying then she'd have done pretty well.

"Carys, please come in."

Was it really fair that he always sounded so calm?