NOTE: I had been working on this story before, but stopped writing/posting. I deleted, and am starting over.

So I've been having some plot bunnies running through my head, and decided to give this a go. Hopefully it won't be a disappointment. Let me know what you think, it'd be appreciated.

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I never did leave for Forks.

My mother had driven me to the Airport, windows rolled down to let in the beautiful seventy-five degree weather. I had my parka packed in my carry on bag, I had made up my mind set to suffer in silence. I even had a wad of cash that I'd saved up to buy a car so that I wouldn't be forced to be driven around the small town in a police cruiser.

Phil, my mothers new husband, had taken my luggage out of the back of the S.U.V. and we walked in silence to check my luggage. It was while we were waiting in line that my mother, again, turned to me with sad and pleading eyes.

"Bella," it crushed my heart to see the pain my leaving was causing her, "you don't have to do this."

That was what had crushed through my resolve. I had always known that I didn't have to leave, that I wasn't being pressured to move to Forks to spent time with Charlie, my dad. I knew that it was a choice I had made in self-sacrifice thinking it would be the best thing for my mothers new marriage.

I knew that like me, Charlie was a loner. He would be fine without me underfoot, he would remember to pay the bills, he would remember to thaw food for dinner, he would remember all the tasks that kept life running smoothly. My mom though… she didn't remember these things without my help, she was erratic and hair-brained, and at times very much like a child. I remember going away for the weekend to spend the night with a friend and she had let her cell phone die, saying she didn't remember where the charger went.

Yes, Charlie would certainly be fine. My mother needed my help, she needed my love and my presence. So rather than checking my luggage in we received a refund for my ticket and turned back onto the road towards Phoenix, the place that would be my home for one more week before moving to Jacksonville, Florida.

On the drive home I had called Charlie.

"Hey Bells, about to get on the plane?" His voice was happy, excited even.

"Actually, about that Cha-dad, I decided to move to Jacksonville instead. You know how mom is, I just can't stand to leave her on her own. Besides, now you don't have to share the bathroom with a teenage girl."

I waited a moment while it sunk in, hoping I hadn't inadvertently hurt Charlie. He was my dad, I did love him, I just thought that since he'd been living alone for the last sixteen years that this wouldn't matter as much. Besides, Charlie was married to his job as Police Chief Swan.

"Oh, well that's fine Bella. Rene needs you, she certainly needs someone to ensure edible food reaches the table. Enjoy Jacksonville, kiddo, and maybe I'll see you for spring break?"

That was a record length speech for Charlie, he wasn't really a man of words. "Yeah, dad. I'll visit you on spring break, while every other kid is flying to Florida I'll fly on out to Forks. Okay?"

"You got it, Bells. I love you."

"I love you too, dad."

I guess if I couldn't have lived in Phoenix any longer, Jacksonville was the next best place. The temperature varied from mildly warm to scorching during the summers, and winters were a, at their coldest, thirty-degrees. The sun was a near-constant companion, with the exception of Florida afternoon Thunderstorms.

It was shocking, I managed to fit in at the High School. I had AP Chemistry, Biology, Trigonometry, Italian, AP Literature and… Gym. There was just no getting around Gym, as much as I despised the class. I wasn't a very coordinated individual; so when you tell me to run around, use my hand and try to interact with an object at the same time, someone usually gets hurt. But my friends thought my lack of grace was an endearing quality, and I certainly wasn't going to tell them otherwise.

My senior year had been a blast. I'd gone out on a few dates - dating just wasn't my thing, thanks to Rene and Charlie. They had me pretty well set against marriage, and love for that matter, until I was thirty. I managed to graduate with honors, score high on my SAT's, not kill anyone in Gym, and get accepted into multiple colleges. I was going to the University of Washington though; they had provided me with a full scholarship. My major was literature and journalism, with a minor in Politics - my klutzy nature wasn't likely to ruin that career.

At the present moment, life was great.

I was standing between Charlie and my mother, dressed in blue graduates robes, smiling at Phil who was taking pictures of us. I was now an adult, graduated from high school and looking forward to my summer break before college began.

Rene kissed my cheek before she walked over to Phil and grabbed the camera before taking another picture of Charlie and I.

"So Dad, are you looking forward to the wedding?" Charlie had done quite well without me around, it was only a week after I'd decided not to move to Forks that he'd met a rather charming woman. They were getting married in three weeks.

"I most certainly am, Bells. You're going to love Debbie, I know you will. Well, you may not like her very much when she shows you the dress you're wearing for the wedding. Other than that though, you'll love her." He actually cringed around the word dress.

I forced a smile, not willing to dampen his good mood. Debbie was a fashion designer based out of Seattle, she had met my father while broken down on the side of the Highway in Forks. He was her knight in shining armor, and I couldn't be happier for my dad. I did however have fears about the dress. Debbie had made it her goal to dress me up from a distance, and I often received packages via FedEx and UPS with clothes that she had designed. Most of them - silk and pink - were hung up in my closet and never brought out. They didn't need to know that though.

Charlie and I were catching a plane up to Forks tonight, and for the next month I would be helping finalize wedding details, endure dress fittings, spend quality time with Charlie and Debbie, and job hunt. Charlie assured me I'd be able to find a job that would work with my school hours, and I knew that meant he'd pull a few strings and use his leverage around town.

"Bella?"

My mother's voice broke through my thoughts and I looked up with a smile. "Yeah, Mom?"

Rene and Phil were holding out a small package for me, Rene bouncing up and down excitedly like a small child who was having trouble not ruining the surprise. "It's your graduation gift from Phil and I."

I took the package and slipped my finger beneath the blue paper, carefully unwrapping the gift. And of course, what with my luck, I managed a paper cut on the reflective paper. I quickly applied pressure to the small cut to make sure it would not bleed, and once sure that it wouldn't I finished unwrapping the gift.

There, in my hands, was a roundtrip plane ticket to Italy. I had studied Italian in school and had fallen in love with the stories and culture. The flight out was from Washington in exactly one month, and return trip was back to Washington two weeks later.

"Wha- W-o-w. You both rock! Thanks so much, I love it." I pulled them both into a tight hug, grinning like an idiot. When I pulled back my mother had another gift in hand; a check for fifteen-hundred dollars.

"You can't go to Italy and not have ample spending money." She offered as an explanation to the second gift. I knew Phil had been doing well with his baseball career, the major leagues had been scouting him, but I never truly guessed how good he was doing.

I started to cry and quickly wiped away at the tears. "Thanks so much mom, and you too, Phil. Oh, I'm going to miss you both so much!" I pulled them both in to a hug against before pulling back. "Thanks, thanks." I couldn't think of any other words.

"We should get going Bells, don't want to miss our plane."

I looked up at Charlie as I wiped another tear away before nodding. My luggage was already in his rental car, and I was ready to go. I looked forward to spending the time with Charlie, and as such the woman who was going to make him happy. The woman who finally helped him move on from Rene. With one last hug from my mother and from Phil, Charlie and I left.

Our flight was a red-eye, so there wasn't much scenery to watch as we neared our destination. When we landed in Seattle it was raining, we boarded the small plane to Port Angeles, and were soon in a cab heading towards Charlie's place.

When the cab dropped us off I noticed an older make Chevy, the unbreakable type from the fifties, parked against the curb. "When did you get a new truck?" Surprise and confusion were clear in my voice.

Charlie reached up and rubbed the back of his neck as he glanced towards the truck, my suitcase in his other hand. "Well, Bells… I had bought it as a homecoming gift for you when I thought you were going to live here. I've kept it up and running though, and it's still yours. You'll need a ride to get around campus."

I looked from Charlie back to the truck in shock. He bought me a truck? In one day, I not only got a plane ticket to Italy for two weeks, but fifteen-hundred spending cash and a truck? It wasn't until I began to feel light headed that I remembered I needed to breath. That's all I needed to do; faint from the excitement.

"Dad, really? You didn't have to- I never thought- Thanks!" I ran around the truck and examined the interior, it was in great shape given the age. "This is perfect for me."

Charlie only laughed at my excitement, pleased that I liked the truck.

My room was exactly as I remembered it. The yellow lace curtains, the blue walls, the wood floor… nothing had changed since I had occupied the room in a crib. I took my time unpacking my suitcase, folding my clothes neatly into the wooden dresser and hanging the rest. I placed a few pictures of myself with Rene and Phil, as well as a few of my friends from school onto my night stand.

It was almost dawn when I finally decided to get some sleep. The jet lag was going to be hard to get over. I opened the old window in my room - which required a great deal of effort on my part - before finally flopping down into the bed. I was asleep before I'd even removed my shoes.