Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.
Chapter One
Sheriff Isabella Swan quits pacing back and forth in her bedroom and thumbs the volume of the police scanner next to the bed. The raucous chatter between cars and dispatchers down in Forks can sometimes drown out the noise in her head. The whisky sometimes helps too, and the little red pills. She tips a couple onto her nightstand and sets the alarm for eight o'clock in the morning.
She pulls the navy uniform shirt over her head and throws it on the chair, along with her side-stripped pants. She glances in the tall boudoir mirror in the corner of the room, and scrutinises her appearance. Auburn hair, strong features, and a firm womanly figure that most would die for, as her mother used to say. Then her gaze falls, and she catches sight of the scar weaving its way up her stomach. She scowls at it for a moment, before turning away from the mirror in disgust.
A bottle of bourbon sits on the bedside table where a jug of water ought to be. She considers the soft brown liquid, thinking of how it would feel on her tongue. She reaches out for it, and pours a couple of fingers into an empty glass. She picks up two of the red pills, and knocks them back along with the shot. Her throat burns pleasantly, and its not long before the bedroom seems to be slipping sideways, gravity defying nature. She falls back on the bed, knowing that sleep is fast approaching.
She tries to follow the events surrounding a missing persons report. The responding officers are questioning a distraught woman, and somewhere around them describing the missing persons clothing, Bella drifts into unconsciousness.
They're making their way home, Bella and her father, after a two day long hunting trip. The road descending out of Hood River is a series of half wide lanes through steep woods. The slope of the mountain is so steep here that the tops of the trees on the downhill side is at the same height as the roots of the trees on the uphill side. It is a beautiful place, especially with the morning sun cutting through the mist. Bella is driving with a phone pressed against her ear, her father smiling at her from the passenger seat.
"Hey mom, its us. Listen, fire up the grill 'cause we literally drained the river," Bella says, veering the red truck into the left hand lane, passing a slow-moving SUV.
"You're kidding. So I can actually put the take-out menu away this time?" Her mother laughs.
"Yes, be gone with the junk food!"
Laughing, her father takes the phone from Bella and presses it against his ear. "Hey, honey. We're having fish for a week."
Bella smiles as a Lincoln Navigator Pick-up zooms past them in the right hand lane, and then swerves back into the left lane in front of them.
"If the traffic isn't bad we should be home in a couple of hours. Okay, love you too."
Her father flips the phone shut, and tosses it to Bella. They exchange easy smiles, before turning to face the road. The Navigator Pick-up suddenly swerves back into the right lane, revealing a stalled mini-van directly in front of them.
"Bella!"
"Dad!"
Bella springs awake, her alarm clock ringing beside her. She lays there for a moment, replaying the previous night in her head. The bottle of bourbon is still open on her nightstand. It still has a couple of fingers at the bottom. She hates waking up this way, but she is starting to become desensitised to the feeling.
She levers herself out of bed, sucks down some painkillers, and stalks to the shower. She spends twenty-minutes just standing there, watching her feet turn pink, wondering when the drinking had gotten so out of control. She dresses in her rumpled uniform, the time spent in the shower now causing her to be late.
She grabs an oatmeal bar from the kitchen cupboard, and drops the bottle of bourbon from the bedside table into the trashcan on the way out, just to prove to herself that she still can. As she jumps into the cab of the Sheriff's Departments Ford Explorer, another alarm bell goes off in her head.
Today is her father's birthday.
Bella parks behind the Sheriffs Station, a wood panelled building entirely out of keeping with the local architecture. She jumps out of the driver's seat and heads for the back door of the station, twisting her mid-length hair up under her cap.
Deputy Newton is in the back room at the communications desk, ten minutes into the start of his shift. He goes to stand as she comes in, but Bella waves him back into his chair.
"Anything on that missing persons report from last night?"
"It was Mrs. Yorkie. Eric left yesterday evening and she hasn't seen him since."
"We have anyone out looking?"
"Doyle."
"Call him back. I warned them last time that we can't keep doing this every time they have an argument. If he's still missing twenty-four hours after she made the report we will look into it," Bella instructs, she is sick to death of that woman and her wayward husband.
"Its really no hassle though. I mean if he isn't out looking then he'd just-"
"Be doing actual police work?" She finishes, a tilt to her head.
Deputy Newton doesn't warrant the overly blunt question with an answer, instead the young rookie stutters the command into the radio.
Newton is as fresh faced and clean booted as they come. He is eager to please and not shy enough to avoid sucking up to his superiors in hopes of a few brownie points. Bella both admires and despises the kid.
"Is there anything else I need to know?"
"Some kids have been letting off fireworks behind the record shop again."
"Okay, I'll check in on Jim later. We book anyone?"
"Just the one. Gus Waters. He was processed early this morning for public intoxication."
"Goddammit, Gus," Bella sighs.
Shaking her head, she makes her way over to the cells to look in on the old-timer. She can smell the alcohol yeast coming off of him in waves.
Gus Waters is a local menace. A veteran turned rogue after the war. The only reason the town tolerates him is because in some twisted way, he is the example everyone sets themselves against. If your life is in the gutter, just take a look at Gus and you will see that you haven't hit rock bottom just yet.
He is fast asleep on the narrow cot bolted to the wall. "Wake him up will you? I don't want him stinking up the place any longer than necessary."
Without waiting for Newton to think it over, Bella heads into the glass closet that serves as her office, drops the blinds, and does her best to rearrange her uniform so she looks a little less like Gus herself.
The backroom of the station contains everything police-related. An evidence locker filled with enough narcotics to sedate half the town. The communications desk with its radio, switchboard, and walkie-talkie charging station. There is also Bella's tiny glass-walled-office, a couple of desks, an interview room, and a pair of cells, complete with old-fashioned iron-barred doors.
She emerges from her office as tidied up as she is going to get. Newton is busying himself at the communications desk. She watches for a moment as he sifts through a pile of paperwork, before walking through to the front room of the station and into the waiting area. There are a couple of plastic chairs pushed against the walls, a rest room, official notices taped up on the wall, FBI Most Wanted lists, and government information posters.
Her head still feels foul even though she swallowed a couple of Advil tablets from the bottle in her desk drawer. She should probably eat something, or maybe get a coffee. Carver Café is right across the way, but the thought of fried food makes her nauseous. All she needs is a nice, quiet, easy going day, but the sight of a passerby waving a flag sends that notion flying out the window. She has somehow managed to forget that the well awaited Forks Spartans vs La Push Voyagers baseball game is happening today, and the rivalry between the teams always brings in a rowdy crowd of spectators.
She steps outside into the gathering warmth of Forks. The crisp sun stings her eyes, and her ears are set ringing by the booming bass of a car stereo passing by. She is going to need caffeine in her veins if she is going to survive today.
Bella exits Jim's Record Store with a scowl on her face. The owner, who is furious over the firework situation, has just given her a telling off. Apparently, the Forks Police Department isn't doing enough to deter corrupt youths from blatantly breaking the law. She can understand his frustration, but as she has told him on numerous occasions, until he updates his security system and installs CCTV there isn't much hope of them catching whoever is responsible.
Mood already soured, the sight of one of her Deputies on his phone in front of the Post Office makes her blood boil. He sees her a split second after she spots him, and quickly ends the call before she reaches him.
"Taking personal calls on duty, Cullen?" Bella asks, moving to stand beside him on the sidewalk with her arms crossed.
"Sorry, Ma'am. I missed Rosalie's midwife appointment this morning cause we had to split our shifts."
Bella's late arrival must have caused chaos at the station. The fact that things are running smoothly is due to the successful improvisation of her deputies, she should be a little more grateful.
"How is she?" she uncrosses her arms, mentally kicking herself for being tactless and taking her frustration out on him.
"Great," Cullen says with a huge grin on his face.
Bella has never seen the man so happy, and she has known him since they were in diapers. He is not only her colleague, but her best friend. They have been through a lot together, seen and experienced so much with each other. He is the only constant in her troublesome life. The only person that she opened up to about her dad. They have spent many a night confiding in each other, her about the guilt that eats away at her every waking minute, and him about the struggles he and Rosalie were going through when they were trying to get pregnant.
"I saw her the other day. Motherhood suits her."
"It does, doesn't it."
Bella pats him on the shoulder, a genuine smile on her face.
"So, I'm going to be tied down from noon to about three with the baseball game. I want you to be the point man if anything happens while I'm over there. Newton will be at the radio, but if you need extra hands he can jump in."
"Newton is about as useful as a glass hammer."
Bella laughs lightly, before spotting a black Chevy Tahoe parked further down the street, its windows completely blacked out.
"How are you holding up anyway?" He asks, the serious undertone in his voice drawing her attention back to him.
"I'm okay."
"You say that every year," he says, looking at her with a mixture of worry and frustration "and its bullshit."
Bella sighs, her eyes dropping to the ground briefly. She quickly raises a hand, stopping whatever it is he is about to say.
"Just leave it, Emmett. If you need me I'll be at the game."
Bella glances up from the styrofoam cup in her hand, the black liquid inside has long since turned cold. She hasn't kept score of the game, but judging by the rowdiness of the Voyagers crowd, she doesn't need to look up at the scoreboard to see who is winning.
Her head gives a painful jerk when a roar erupts from the crowd. She needs to find someplace quieter. She pushes away from the chain-linked fence, and turns to face the stands. The crowd has picked up since she first arrived. There are locals dressed in their team's colours, kids on father's shoulders, men and women waving foam hands high above their heads.
Bella throws the cold cup of coffee into a trash can, and makes her way around to the other side of the baseball field. She hopes it will give her addled brain a little reprieve, but she knows better than to wish for that.
A Spartans player runs past her after leisurely circling the field. She watches as he hits the home base safely, and two things happen simultaneously. The scoreboard flashes the words: HOME RUN, and the home supporters erupt into high-pitched cheers.
Bella is weaving her way through the crowd when Alice Brandon calls her name. Over by the dugout there is a stationary ambulance, as there is every game, in case anyone requires medical assistance. It is seldom used for more than treating people who don't drink enough during the day, or those who indulge a little too much. Alice, being a local paramedic, is often called upon to officiate over the rowdy public during home games. Bella doesn't want to stop, but a huge part of her wants to get some buddy time in with Alice, the woman she has had a secret crush on since high school.
"You look tired," Alice observes as Bella sidles up to her.
Bella shrugs her aching shoulders, "I didn't sleep much last night."
"That's understandable," Alice says, her voice troubled. "You want to talk about it?" It being her father of course.
"Maybe later," Bella says, knowing full well that 'later' would never come.
"Okay. Well maybe we can grab a drink if you're up for it."
"Yeah. Sure."
Bella scuffs the ground with her boot, unsure of how to proceed. The woman in front of her often has a way of leaving Bella at a loss for words. She is reminded of the feelings she first felt for Alice every time she sets eyes on her. She remembers the nervous flutter in her stomach, the flush of her heated skin, the erratic beating of her heart.
All the things she feels right now.
She has never told Alice how she feels, it would be too much to have her heart broken by the woman. She would rather have her as a friend than not at all, which is a risk she runs every time she contemplates the idea.
The sound of Deputy Newton's voice coming from the radio on Bella's chest brings her back down to earth.
"I'll let you get back to work," Alice says, a small apologetic smile on her face.
"Okay. I'll call you later about that drink," Bella says, a feeling of forlorn passing through her as Alice turns away.
"10-39 Sheriff Swan," Newton repeats, the nervous edge to his voice not going unnoticed.
"This is Swan, go ahead."
"Sheriff we have a 10-54 in Tilicum Park. Paramedics are already on-route."
Possible Dead Body
Bella casts an uneasy glance around the stadium. Its very rare that they get calls of this nature, you are either alive or dead here, no possible about it.
"10-4, I'll head over there now."