Musical Cue Contest Entry
Title: What Goes Around, Comes Around
Song: I Loved Her First by Heartland *video link on profile*
Penname: Kagome Hanyou
Word Count: 2,591
Characters: Bella, Edward
Rating: PG-13/T
Beta-reader: achangeofheart
Disclaimer: Twilight is not mine; this amazing creation belongs to Stephanie Meyer.
Summary: His once little girl is now grown with a family of her own. How does Charlie cope with the idea that he's no longer Bella's number one. Charlie's PoV
*Possible tissue warning*
I took another long swig of beer as I sat on the living room couch, my eyes lazily moving over the photos on the mantle. Details of my life during what I thought was a happy marriage and after the divorce at what I was missing sitting innocently for all to see sitting on the mantle. I had several photos of my life with Renée and Isabella then they slowly turned to a few a year of just my daughter.
I first looked at the baby picture that contained Renée, our newborn daughter and I at the hospital. She was so tiny and perfect when the doctors placed her in my arms; I was terrified I'd break her. I had gazed down at the tiny sleeping baby in my arms and I felt my heart grow to three times its normal size, I guess it needed the room for all the love I knew I had for this little baby in that first instant I looked at her. She sighed softly in her sleep then slowly squirmed her way awake and looked up at me with eyes the color that matched my own, then she smiled. I didn't even know a newborn could smile, but my Bella did. When she first smiled at me, I knew instantly that I would walk through fire for this child.
Unfortunately, Renée never give me the chance.
To say I was dumbfounded when I learned that Renée was leaving, that she hated this place and this life, was an understatement. I thought we were happy, but apparently, Renée was a better actress than I gave her credit for. She left me, taking our daughter with her. I had been too stunned to do much of anything other than question why to myself as I stared dumbly after them as she practically ran out of my life with my whole world cradled in her arms.
There were a few more photos of the three of us together, smiling, and laughing, loving each other, then came them leaving followed by the divorce. There was a long pause in the frequency of photos until a new picture of a slightly older Bella during her first steps arrived in my mailbox. My heart ached at all the crucial moments of her life I was missing. The pictures had become few and far between, one or two a year maybe three if I was lucky – Renée being absent minded didn't help in the least. I would travel down every summer for my two-week vacation to California or Phoenix to see both of the loves of my life, doing whatever Bella wanted to do. Bella would join me here in Forks for Christmas and it would just be the two of us as I tried to cram six months worth of love into two weeks without overwhelming my blossoming daughter and becoming an overbearing father.
Then at seventeen years old, Bella had decided to come home and live with me in Forks. I was beyond excited and overjoyed. My friend, Billy Black constantly complained about my level of excitement during the three weeks before she arrived, attempting to distract me with fishing – that failed immensely. Now my baby girl had returned home and my life was feeling complete again.
Problem was I didn't really know how to act around her. If she had been here for the last fifteen years I wouldn't have had this problem, I wouldn't be nervous around my own daughter, I would know what to say and do. I soon learned that she was more like me than her mother. She liked things quiet, she liked being alone. She didn't like the party or shopping scenes – bet that drove Renée nuts. She wasn't a typical teenage girl, which was just another of her redeeming qualities.
Then she started school. In all honesty, I was glad I knew each boy in town and knew what their quirks were and who the troublemakers were. That was an advantage to being the chief of police in a small town of three thousand. I knew how to threaten each one if they messed with my daughter in any way. I had just got my daughter back into my life, and I wasn't about to let her go off with any boy.
When she had told me she wasn't interested in any of the boys in town, I heaved a sigh of relief. My Bella was a great cook. She was smart, very beautiful in an understated way and overly opinionated. However, she wasn't interested, so she was still my little girl. That is, until one boy caught her attention…Edward Cullen. My imagination immediately flew to the pistol hanging in its holster by the door.
He was a remarkably good boy, top grades, polite, never caused trouble, but there was something odd about that boy that rubbed me the wrong way – maybe it was just a father thing. The way he looked at her didn't sit right with me, he was always watching her, following her every movement with his eyes – I wanted to pull out my shotgun and end his looks at my little girl for good, but I knew Bella would reprimand me for that, big time. She looked at him the same way he looked at her; they were like magnets, constantly pulling together. I didn't want to admit it but deep down I knew…this boy was going to eventually take my little girl away from me.
I took another long drink from my beer and glanced at the picture of Bella and Edward at the prom. She never would've gone but Edward had convinced her to go and I'm glad he did – she looked beautiful, she was so much like her mother when we went to prom. The look they shared at each other in the photograph told novels about their feelings and a future they would both share together; they would literally kill and die for the one another. I just hoped her love would last longer than Renée's had for me. If Bella was a true Swan and took after me in the undying love department, her love would be eternal.
Regrettably, that theory was proven true shortly after her eighteenth birthday. The entire Cullen family moved away and Edward went with them, cutting all ties with Bella – which I couldn't understand why they couldn't have a long distance relationship. The loss had destroyed my daughter. Months later, even though she seemed to be living again, actually eating, talking and going out with friends, something inside her seemed dead. Her eyes were hollow, emotionless…lifeless. Edward did that to my little girl, he metaphorically killed her when he left.
When she suddenly disappeared after months of being a walking shell of the person I called my daughter, I was at a loss for words. Where would she have gone and why would she leave at a time like this? I learned from Jacob that she jumped off of a cliff, in the meantime my friend Harry has a heart attack and then Bella disappears, it had been a messed up day indeed. When she returned three days later, I was both furious and relieved. I was relieved that she was home unharmed and with a smile I hadn't seen in months but furious that she had left and furious as to who brought her home. Edward Cullen.
My daughter was now back, in mind and body. With the return of Edward, so too had been her soul and spirit returned to her. The connection between those two was deeper than anyone would have anticipated and it showed in the way the separation killed them then returned when they were together. Alice had informed me about how distraught and insane he was while away, it wasn't pretty. I had always hoped that she would find her true love, but I didn't want it to be so early in her life – fifty sounded like a good number to me.
Everything was right in the world again, my daughter was right again…unfortunately it took a boy to fix that but they obviously needed each other. My world came crashing down when they told me they were going to be married. Too soon, too soon…not good, it was too soon. I was nowhere near ready to give my only child away to anybody. Before the wedding ceremony, prior to when I was to walk Bella down the aisle, I snuck into Edward's room and told him to love, cherish and always be there for my daughter. Moreover, I told him to be careful of what he says and does because I had a full gun case and I wouldn't hesitate to use any of them if he hurt her again. Rather stiffly, he nodded in agreement, but he didn't say a word and I walked out of the room, to give away my daughter's hand in marriage, no matter how reluctant I was about it.
As I sat staring at the wedding pictures of my daughter and her husband, I knew in a heartbeat that she had made the right decision for herself, despite what we told her. She and Edward were perfect together. Anyone could see it in his and her eyes and their mannerisms as they said their vows, kissed, danced, took pictures…everything about them screamed of their level of devotion. I could tell they would be one of the few that made it…and knowing my daughter, she would fight to keep it.
Several months after their honeymoon, they returned to Forks. Bringing a stubborn virus with them that had infected Bella. They finally allowed me to see my girl. As they had said, the sickness changed her physically, but I didn't understand how that was possible, I was wrong. Somehow, she was more beautiful – her hair was darker, her skin paler, everything about her yelled 'runway model' now, and she seemed stronger than she was letting on. She was resting on the couch when I arrived but I could tell she wanted to rush over to me but something was holding her back. From my point of view, she seemed truly happy and at ease with everything around her and she didn't look the least bit ill.
They told me they had a surprise to show me – like Bella, I didn't like surprises.
When they brought out the little girl that they had 'adopted', I knew instantly that she was my blood – her appearance was too similar. She looked so much like Bella when she was a baby, it wouldn't be coincidence. She had Edward's coloring but her curls were mine when I was younger and she shared my eyes, the same eyes Bella had before she got ill. There was no way this child couldn't belong to Bella and Edward.
Had I not noticed when Bella was still living here, but was she already pregnant? What other explanation could explain for the quick pregnancy? What about the fact that their daughter was months old already, was she born during the honeymoon? So many questions and I don't think I wanted the answers to them. Things just didn't seem to add up.
When I first held Renesmee, there was an instantaneous connection. This child was my granddaughter; I could feel it down in my bones. I didn't know the true details surrounding her conception and birth, and in that moment, I didn't care, because there was no denying that this child and I were related by blood. She smiled up at me and I remembered the first time Bella smiled at me in the hospital – I would walk through fire again.
The look on Bella's face showed that she was concerned more for the little girl than a new adopted mother would naturally be. Then she looked at me and she could tell that I knew that Renesmee was biologically her daughter. Bella stiffened slightly and looked around, almost in a panic, another 'why' I couldn't answer. I decided to play along with their story that they had adopted Renesmee – they had to have a good reason for the scheme and keeping me in the dark about my own granddaughter.
I finished my current beer and grabbed another from the coffee table. I opened the next can of Rainier and stared at the last picture sitting on the mantle. It was a picture of Edward cradling Renesmee in his arms while he got her ready for a bath, you could see Bella reflected in the mirror behind him holding the camera as she took the picture. You could tell that he didn't know a thing about anyone taking the photo and the look in his eyes as he gazed down at his daughter spoke volumes. I knew that look. Ever since Bella was born, I had looked at her the exact same way…she was his entire world. He had learned what a fathers love for his child is like, and like me, he'll walk through fire for her. Wonder if has a gun, he'll want one to scare away any boys that take an interest in her, although the gun threat didn't work on Edward – maybe that was a good thing.
There was one more photo but it wasn't on the mantle, I currently had it clutched in my hand. I took one last, long drink from the beer can, finishing it and then glanced down to the newest photo my daughter had just sent to me. I had received the photo, all framed and ready for hanging this morning in the mailbox. Bella and Edward were currently away at college – Dartmouth, who would have guessed. Edward took day classes and Bella took nights so they didn't have to put Renesmee in daycare.
It was a picture of the three of them at the park. Someone must have taken the photo for them since they were sitting on a bench, all smiles and beaming with love at each other. I could tell that it wasn't exactly a sunny day but that didn't dampen their spirits for the photo. Bella and Edward still looked at each other in the same loving manner they did at their wedding and for that, I was grateful. I looked at my granddaughter intensely. She should only be three right now but instead she looked to be around seven years old, odd. I may have to talk to Carlisle about her age progression.
So far, they had doubled their marital life together compared to Renée's and mine, which was a failure of a marriage at about a year old. Nearly three years later and still very much in love and from what Alice told me, they were still like newlyweds. Despite college life and parenthood, they still found plenty of time to show the other just how deeply they were loved…and I couldn't be happier for them.
I was pleased that my baby girl had found the type of love I had always known she deserved and at the same time, I was angry with the man for taking my little girl away, the happiness outweighed the anger though. I just hoped Edward remembered I loved Bella first and she would always be my little girl.
Now the only fear I had was that their love wouldn't continue until the end of time…something inside told me that was an unnecessary fear – that their love was eternal. I wished I'd been that lucky in love.
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry if anyone did cry. I cried the first time I heard the song, seeing the video for the first time with it didn't help. I immediately thought of writing a oneshot when I heard this but never got to it. When I learned of the Musical Cues contest, I jumped right on this song. I didn't place but I did get Charlie and my thoughts out there to share with everyone, that's whats important right.
Despite possible tissue usage, how was it? Please leave a review telling if you liked it, hated it, or was just ehh about it. Thank you.