Summary: Bella and Charlie have a much needed chat about that boy that Bella loves. This takes place one night, approximately two weeks after Bella's return from Italy. Charlie finally realizes some things about Bella and her love for Edward.
I don't own the characters discussed in this work of fiction.
"Bella, I don't understand what you see in that boy!" Charlie exclaimed to me one night after promptly kicking Edward out of the house.
I was still on my God-forsaken house arrest, though it could have been worse. Charlie could have found out that Edward snuck in and out of my room, through the window, every night, after Charlie went to sleep. He would have actually had heart problems to worry about, then. Thankfully, he didn't know about that.
I jerked my head up from the essay I was trying to complete. It was horrid; I didn't see the point in Edward even trying to find me a good school that I could go to. He knew that in my honest opinion, college was option number two. He didn't seem to care, though.
"What?" I asked, adjusting myself. I pushed the hair out of my pale face. I knew what my father had said. He said the same thing to me every night after he kicked Edward out. It was starting to wear on my nerves. The sad part about that fact was that I had only really been home from Italy – I had only been grounded – for about two weeks.
My nerves had a lot of patience in them.
"I. Don't. See. What. You. See. In. That. Boy," Charlie said, his words coming out short and angered.
"What do you mean?" I asked dumbly.
I wasn't trying to down play my intelligence. To me, even though Edward had left me for quite some time, and even though the time in which he was absent was the most painful, heartbreaking experience in my whole life, Edward was the one I loved. I would never love another as much as I loved Edward. He was my knight in shining armor; Edward could slay anything that ever posed a threat to me. He was the one that I loved more than life.
If only Charlie could see that.
"He left you, Bella!" Charlie shouted. This was the most animated I had seen him in a long time. I don't think he had even been this animated when he yelled at me for Italy. His upper lipped twitched a bit as he thought of what else to say to me.
"But he apologized for the misunderstanding," I headed, trying to stop the impending fight before it occurred.
"Bella, don't be so dense! You deserve better than him! He's no good for you," Charlie threatened. "He doesn't love you, Bells. That's not what love is. What Jacob Black has for you is love!"
I shook my head, my eyes sad and nearly brimming with tears. "Jacob Black doesn't hold a candle to Edward Cullen," I whispered. "Jacob can never be more than a friend, Dad."
"Bella, I want what is best for you!"
"Edward is what's best for me," I said defiantly, stubbornly.
"How can you say that, Bella? Don't you remember what he put you through?" Charlie asked me, astonished. His voice had considerably lowered. He wasn't yelling any more. Instead, his voice was coming out in a gentle, well meaning tone. He truly did care about me. He was just doing what was best for me.
Growing up, Charlie wasn't always there. That wasn't his fault. And, it had been my choice to end the month long excursions in Forks to just two mere weeks a year with me in California. It hadn't been Charlie's fault that he didn't know me as well as some fathers knew their daughters. Yet, at the same time, Charlie knew me better than some fathers knew their daughters. He knew that I had tried so, so hard to be "normal" for him after Edward left. And he cared about me enough to try to help me as much as he could.
I wasn't resentful that Charlie felt this way about Edward. In a sense, Edward deserved it. My father did have to endure me screaming bloody murder for many, many months while I lie in the dark, after all. At the same time, however, I felt as if Edward deserved a second chance from Charlie. They used to be able to tolerate one another; now it was like Charlie was more than happy to see the saddened look on Edward's face when it came time for Edward to be kicked out.
"Dad," I tried gently. If he wasn't going to listen to my words, I was going to have to use the weapon I didn't want to: his love. "Do you love me even though I ran away after Harry's funeral – no number or no call home to tell you that I was okay?"
"Yes," Charlie hedged slightly. I could tell that he was unsure of where this was going, and that gave me a slight upper hand in the argument.
"Why?"
It was such a simple question. I knew that Charlie wasn't one for emotional chats or for even showing his love for me, but I also knew that he would never like it if I questioned his love for any reason. Deep down, Charlie was as fluffy as a teddy bear.
"Because, Bella, I'm your father. I love you no matter what you do. Now, what does this have to do with that boy?"
"It's called unconditional love, right, dad?"
Charlie nodded a quick, even bob. His eyes stared at me, full of wonder and confusion and love. He raised his arm, as if in a motion to reach out and touch my shoulder gently, but it quickly fell to his side, where he flexed his hand into a fist before releasing it again.
"Dad, that's how I feel about Edward. I love him, unconditionally. He'll never hurt me again, dad. I promise you that. You just have to realize that as much as I love him, he loves me. I know that you don't see it that way – it's quite understandable, dad, given everything. But please, Dad, please... give him another chance."
"Bella, I don't know if I can. I mean, gee, Bella, you didn't have to see yourself struggle all those months..." His voice trailed off, and I knew, deep down, that I had "won" this "fight".
"Dad, everything will turn out perfectly in the end. Just trust me. I love you, please trust me."
He nodded, and I noticed his eyes were now sparkling. I had never been one for showing much emotion, either. I wondered if he could understand that I needed Edward and that my feelings had never changed for him.
"I love you, too, Bella..." He murmured softly, shuffling his feet a bit. He then turned and left the room before I could say anything else.
I stared at his retreating back, and continued to stare in that direction until I heard the lull of the baseball game on the TV. A half-hearted smile crossed my face as I turned back to answering the colleges application.