Of the Skull and the Seashore

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Oh no, a new fic! Only the first chapter and then it will be on the same schedule as my other fics.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

So... this one's going to be odd.

WELP, FRANCHISE EVERYONE KNOWS, FRANCHISE NO ONE CARES ABOUT: SPOILERS?

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"Is it true?" Charlie whispered. "Did they leave?"

Bella was curled up on the living room couch, a quilt draped over her legs and tightly hugging her upper arms. She was awake, could hear her father and the doctor talking a dozen feet away, but to her it was as if her mind was covered by a blanket of muffling cotton. Because Edward; her boyfriend, her love, her whole world really, was gone from her life now. Bella knew that he wouldn't ever come back, he loved her too much to put her in danger, but she didn't want to understand his actions right now. The gaping hole that had opened in her heart was stopping her from thinking, keeping her anguish inside her and with each passing second her depression was already growing. It was only after Charlie spoke, voice so far away but a beacon when he mentioned the Cullens that Bella didn't have to strain to hear, because she was focused on every word.

"Dr. Cullen asked us not to say anything." Dr. Gerandy answered. "The offer was very sudden; they had to choose immediately. Carlisle didn't want to make a big production out of leaving."

"A little warning might have been nice." Charlie grumbled.

Dr. Gerandy sounded uncomfortable when he replied. "Yes, well, in this situation, some warning might have been called for."

And then Bella didn't want to listen anymore; she had already heard all that she needed to. Edward and the rest of his family had moved away from Forks entirely, and now there was never going back to the way things had been just a few short weeks ago. She discretely reached out to feel around for the edge of her quilt, pulling it over her ear to try and block out the conversation. But then her father and the doctor began to speak louder, probably convinced that she was fast asleep, and for all that she tried to Bella was unable to ignore their voices.

"I don't like it." Charlie continued. "I don't like any of it. I've had my suspicions ever since she started dating that boy out of the blue, but this cinches it. Do you remember a few months ago when Bella went back to Phoenix? Few days after she leaves, I get a call from Carlisle telling me that Bella fell down a flight of stairs and through a window. At Edward's hotel in Phoenix."

"Do you think she's been abused?" Dr. Gerandy asked seriously. Inwardly, Bella wanted to jump up to say something, but she didn't; she was too shocked that the doctor would even think something like that. After all, Edward loved her and she loved him back, there was no way he would ever-

"It was her birthday three days ago, her eighteenth birthday. She was in the fetal position in those woods, Sam said. He said she was so out of it she could barely take his hand." Bella stayed silent, the strain in Charlie's voice unlike anything she had ever heard before. "I've seen it before, men who stay with their girlfriends until they're of age, have sex with them and then leave them in the dirt. What if that Cullen boy did that to my little girl?"

Bella's face screwed up as she tried to refrain from crying; was that really how Charlie saw Edward's relationship with her?

"...Do you want me to run a rape kit?" Dr. Gerandy asked, so quietly that Bella almost didn't catch what he said. Several long, silent minutes passed, and then a sob reached Bella's ears; her father was crying, and as the man dissolved into quiet hiccups Bella found that she had begun to cry as well. She removed the quilt from her body and surged off the couch so quickly that Dr. Gerandy jumped and Charlie barely had enough time to catch her before she flung her arms around his neck.

"E-Edward didn't d-do anything to me!" Bella said swiftly, clutching at the back of her father's shirt so tightly that her knuckles turned white. "We never ha-had sex, Edwa-Edward didn't want to! He-He just- He just said he couldn't b-be with me anymore! He just left!" Bella broke down into helpless tears and Charlie hurriedly cradled her head, wrapping his free arm around her waist to rub circles into her lower back.

"I l-love him but he d-d-doesn't-t want to be with me! I-I don't know what to do... I just f-feel so awful and I don't know what to do!"

"Shh... Bella, you'll be okay, shh..." Charlie soothed, ignoring the wet patch beginning to stain his shoulder. Dr. Gerandy sat back down in one of the armchairs and pulled out a handkerchief, and when Bella stopped crying a few minutes later Charlie used it to wipe her tears away.

"David, can you see the volunteers off? Tell them I'm incredibly grateful for their help." Charlie said this as he rocked Bella back and forth, and then in a softer voice he added, "I'll call you if we need anything else."

"Of course, Charlie." Bella heard the man exit the room, leaving her alone with her father, the murmurs from the next room over being all that distracted her from the crushing silence.

"I'm sorry I woke you up, honey."

Bella hiccupped and felt a lump form in her throat again, but she was already tired of crying. "Is that what it-it looks like, when I'm with Edward? Like I'm being abused?"

Charlie was quiet for a long time, and in that time Bella felt as if she was being tortured, both from the wait for her father's answer and from the ever present fact that Edward had left her. She wanted so badly to run away from it all, up to her room and under the covers and sleep until her pain was gone... but she also wanted to hear what her father had to say. Bella had never seen her father in such straits before, and that she was the cause of it made her feel like utter garbage.

"I never believed that you fell down a flight of stairs and through a window." Charlie stated, not missing his daughter's flinch. "When we formed the search party to find you, I tried calling the Cullen's; surely they would want to help. But to my surprise, they didn't answer, and soon enough I was told that they had left town altogether. I was worried sick, terrified that I would go to the station and be pulled away for a body ID..."

"Dad..." Bella's tears had resurfaced as she listened to Charlie bear his fears to her. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry I scared you..."

"You did nothing wrong." Charlie sounded so adamant that for a moment Bella believed him. "You are not at fault for anything he did."

"I just want everything to be okay again." Bella whispered, unable to get anything else past the tightening of her throat. I want everything to go back to the way it was before this.

"Then forget about Edward." Charlie said immediately, desperately, and though Bella's first reaction was to refuse –she would never forget the love of her life –the look on Charlie's face made her pause. "I haven't seen you happy since before you came to Forks. That's all I ever want for you Bella, I just want you to be happy again."

But I was happy with Edward. That sentence died before it reached her lips as Bella took in her father, pleading with her, shaken from the thought that she had died and that Edward had abused her, and all Bella could do in response was nod tearfully.

"I'll try. I promise, I'll try and forget about him." Bella said, and the sheer relief on Charlie's face made the festering despair in her chest a little easier to bear.

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