Warning: For those Twilight fans who can't bear to anything wrong about the Twilight series, then it would be a really good idea not to read this.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, thank goodness.
Delusional
"And then I saved everyone Charlie. They're all okay, apart from Irina, because my shield and the wolves scared Aro so much that he backed off." Bella explained to her father. "I know I shouldn't be telling you this, but you're my father so of course you won't tell anyone would you?" Charlie nodded, not saying anything about how she now called him by his first name, he had tried to correct her but it was fighting a losing battle.
"You should write a book about this Bella." He said, smiling weakly and Bella's eyes grew wide.
"I can't do that Charlie, everyone will know about vampires and something might happen to Edward or Nessie." She replied in a shocked tone.
"Nessie?" Charlie asked, having a feeling that he was going to regret asking it. Bella rolled her eyes before whispering,
"Don't tell Jake, but I think I actually like the nickname. I mean it's not like it can be shortened to Rene because that sounds too much like Mom's name." Again Charlie's heart clenched, not just at how Renée was mentioned and got the title of 'Mom' but also how Bella mentioned Jacob Black.
Bella had created another world where vampires and werewolves existed, where she was at the middle of it, everything she was not in reality. After Renée had died in a car crash with her new husband, Phil, Bella had withdrawn into herself. Charlie barely recognised the little girl who had loved playing with Jacob in the forest, now she seemed to detest Forks and everything in it, including him. At Forks High School, Bella's aloofness was mistaken for arrogance and she was left alone, except for Jessica, Mike and Angela who tried to help her come out of her shell.
The first time Charlie knew that something was wrong was when Bella had mentioned emailing Renée. He had checked her computer and there definitely was a email made out to Renée, sent to her email address as well as three old emails from Renée in Bella's inbox. Next he heard her talking about the Cullens who was nice people, they just kept to themselves a lot. The youngest boy, Edwin Cullen, had been worrying Carlisle with his apathetic approach to life and how he refused to talk to anyone but the other four Cullen children at school. However when Bella said that she was going on a date with Edwin, even though she kept calling him Edward, warning bells started to go. After talking to Carlisle who assured him that Edwin knew nothing about the date, those warning bells started to pound in Charlie's head.
He had tried to get Jacob to talk to Bella a bit more, especially after she almost went catatonic after the Cullens moved town, and it seemed to work until she started calling him a werewolf. After she had insinuated that Emily's scars from a bear attack were due to Sam attacking her, the residents of La Push started to avoid her and Charlie started to look for psychiatric hospitals where she could stay, which got even more urgent after she went cliff-diving.
Now that was in here though, her delusions started to get worse so she was literally imagining vampire wars and all the young men of La Push becoming werewolves. The first time she had been admitted, she had screamed at her doctor James Gage because she thought that he had returned from the dead to kill her. Charlie was wondering who else would show up in her delusions next.
"So what's Nessie like?" Charlie asked awkwardly, trying to keep the conversation going, even though Bella seemed content with the silence.
"Oh she's the perfect baby. She shows me pictures in my mind and she is growing up so quickly, literally several months in a week. She's beautiful and she doesn't cry at all and she's so smart."
"Doesn't sound like a baby to me." Charlie muttered, careful to not let Bella hear him. Last week she had attacked the psychiatrist Victoria for trying to hurt her and tried to put a shield up. She had to be restrained and sedated that time. "So what happened with the battle?" Bella laughed, a childlike laugh that seemed to show the regression of Bella's mind.
"Dad, there wasn't a battle. Alice came back and stopped it from happening. I should thank her next time I see her." Bella mused out loud as Charlie nodded along. Edwin's sister, Alice, had felt sorry for Bella and decided to see what she could do to help, along with her father. Bella was cheerful when she came to visit even though it unnerved Alice when she asked about her visions of the future. The doctors said this was a positive sign that she was still connecting real people to her delusions, even with the supernatural elements, this meant that she was still grounded in reality. How she responded to Charlie and her other visitors was also a good sign.
"So are you happy with your new life Bella?" Charlie asked and could not help but smile as Bella grinned widely at him.
"I am Dad, it's like my own perfect piece of forever." Bella said, sighing happily, staring off into space.
"As long as you're happy Bells, I'm happy." This Charlie, truly meant. The delusions might isolate Bella but she seemed happy even after what happened to Renée and if the doctors found a way to help her so she could be happy in reality as well, that would be even better.
"And could you call Edward and let him know that he can come pick me up? I miss him and Nessie and I don't like this place." Smiling and nodding, Charlie left his daughter at the end of another Saturday and again Bella's doctor came to talk to him.
"Mr Swan." The doctor greeted him neutrally, even though they had become very familiar to each other over the last year and a half.
"Dr. Cullen." Charlie said pleasantly. "Bella still thinks that you helped her fight off the Volturi."
"I am aware Mr Swan. She also thinks that I'm a vampire who is has lived for over four hundred years. What I wanted to talk to you about was Bella's insistence that Jacob in her delusion 'imprinted' onto her fictional daughter and that when Renesmee becomes fully mature in the seven years it takes for half-vampires especially, he will date and eventually marry her. Now I was worried about whether she has had any bad experiences with paedophilia or child grooming, because that was what she seemed to be implying when she told me about this." Charlie was shocked and at the same time very relieved that Jacob had stopped coming to see Bella. Her talking about how he has unlawful intentions with her fictional daughter would hurt Jacob deeply.
"Not that I know of, but she did live with Renée most of the year so it would be hard to tell."
"Mr Swan, did Bella ever withdraw from you at some point in her childhood? A time when she became distant or asked a lot of strange questions about secrets and things she would be too young to understand?" Dr Cullen asked gently and although Charlie wracked his brain, he could not think of anytime that happened to Bella. The only time she had acted distant was when she had come to Forks after Renée's death. There was that time where she had said that she was going back to Phoenix for a while before sneaking out when Charlie would not let her go alone, and then slicing herself up when she tripped through a window at the hotel.
"I can't think of anything. She was always a very cheerful child and she liked Jacob, even though he was younger than her."
"Do you think that Jacob could have done this?" Dr Cullen asked carefully and again Charlie shook his head.
"No, Jacob's a good, normal kid. He was really freaked out when Bella started to talk about how his friend Quil imprinted onto a toddler up at La Push, he insisted that Quil would never do something like that. I thought that Bella had stopped the idea but obviously it is still going." Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. It would help if he could talk to a lucid Bella, but the one in the room he had just left said that she only remembered bits and pieces of her past. Bits of him and Renée but mostly about Edwin.
"It's not the 'imprinting' that worries me, it is how she perceives these as normal, healthy relationships. She told me about Sam and Emily where Sam caused Emily's injuries as well as constantly comparing her relationship with Edward to the one in Romeo and Juliet, all these relationships appear destructive yet she views them as normal. I think it will have to be addressed in the next session with Victoria."
"But Bella didn't like her last time, how is she going to help her now?" Charlie asked, confused.
"I know but we're hoping that it will reconcile what is reality and what is delusion in Bella's mind. She is unable to tell the difference at the moment which is the most dangerous thing. When she realises what reality is, she will start to find her place in it. Have hope Mr Swan, Bella may still get better yet." Charlie nodded, smiling slightly at the man before he went to car, stopping to wave to Bella who was sat at the same window she always was when he left.
"I really wish you were here to help me with this Renée." Charlie said to himself. If she were here, Renée could have brought Bella out of it. This he believed whole-heartedly.
I was going to make it longer but then I didn't particularly want to read the books again but if anyone else wants to borrow this idea (with credit) then feel free! Just let me know.
Also I hate spelling Renesmee or however you spell it. It's incredibly annoying, I don't understand why Meyer couldn't give her an unusual name that is an actual name.
Hope you enjoyed it.
