Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
AN - So... I said I wasn't going to write anymore BellaEdward... I changed my mind. I don't have the rest of this written, so updates will be sporadic, but I've never left a story unfinished before, and I won't start now. While they may not be fast, they will come.
WARNINGS - Bad language, perhaps a bit of violence in later chapters, maybe a lemon or two. I'm not entirely sure how long this will be, or what's going to happen, but I know how it will end.
Meant To Be
"I can't do this anymore," he whispered, holding his head in his hands. "I'm not strong enough to stay away from her."
Below, he heard the excited squeal of his sister, before she announced, "We're moving back to Forks!"
The hustle and bustle of his family almost brought a smile to his face. Almost. He hadn't smiled since Bella's birthday party. That night had been the catalyst for the worst decision he'd ever made.
He only hoped that he wasn't too late. He prayed that she'd let him fix his error, that she'd believe him when he told her that he loved her more than anything, that she was the very reason for his existence.
"Edward… I can't see your reunion with her," Alice murmured, flitting into the room. "Whenever I try to search for Bella, I just get…"
She trailed off, showing him the blackness that thoughts of Bella's future brought her. His dead heart clenched painfully in his chest. She couldn't be… no, he wouldn't even allow himself the thought.
Bella was fine. He'd see her in just a few days, and see for himself.
"It's okay, Alice," he whispered. "There'll be an explanation for it, I'm sure."
She nodded, though she looked uncertain, and her thoughts matched her face. He ignored her, unwilling to even think that something could be wrong with his angel.
It was the fastest move they'd ever made. Three days after Edward made his decision, he was driving his Volvo through the familiar streets of Forks.
Parking up behind Jasper, Edward lingered for only moments before his family waved him off towards his love. He ran through the tree's, his legs carrying him faster than he'd ever moved before in his life. Within minutes, he was sitting in the tree outside her bedroom.
Only… she wasn't there.
He opened the window silently, sliding through it. Only a faint trace of her scent lingered, though confusingly enough, most of her things seemed to remain in the room. Frowning to himself, he climbed back through the window, hesitating for only a second before he knocked on the door.
He could hear Charlie in the sitting room, and while he knew he wasn't likely to receive the best reception, he hoped he'd get some answers.
The door opened, and Charlie stood before him. Edward couldn't stop the surprised gasp from escaping his lips. Bella's father was… different. He looked tired and unkempt, there was a beer bottle in his hand, and he was swaying slightly on the spot.
"You," he growled. "What the fuck are you doing here?"
Edward took an involuntary step back at the force of the hatred in Charlie's tone.
"I… Wanted to see Bella."
"You've got no right to come here, boy. No right to ask after my daughter after what you did to her! You destroyed her, by baby is gone and it's all your fucking fault!"
"No," Edward whispered. "No, Bella's not, she's not gone, she's not. She can't be dead."
"She may as well be," Charlie murmured, his eyes filling with tears.
Edward barely caught the words, caught up in his own terror as he was.
"Chief Swan… please. Please tell me where she is," he begged.
The fight seemed to leave Charlie as he leant against the door frame. "What are you doing here?"
"I knew the moment I ended things with Bella that I'd made a mistake, but I couldn't just take it back. Believe me or don't, Chief, but I thought I was doing the best thing for her. I can't… I love her. If she tells me to leave her alone then I will, I swear, but please… let me see her. I need to see her."
His impassioned plea seemed to click with Charlie, and he nodded once, stepping back to let Edward through the door.
"Go in the living room," he said gruffly, closing the door behind him. "Bella isn't here anymore, Edward. After… The day you left her, Bella was missing for hours. I don't know what you said to her in the woods, and quite frankly, it's probably better that way, but whatever it was… she gave up. She curled up in a ball on the forest floor and…"
He broke off with a choked sob.
"Sam Uley was the one to find her. He brought her home and Dr Gerandy checked her over. I thought, give her a few weeks and she'd get over it, first love and… well. I don't like you. I haven't liked you since Phoenix happened, and I've never hid that."
Edward nodded despite himself. He was trying to pick up more of the story from Charlie's thoughts, but they were even more muddled than usual and he couldn't get anything useful.
"My Bella though, she loved you more than anything I've ever seen in my entire life. It was like… you left and you took her with you. She was a shell. She didn't speak, didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't do anything. She sat in the chair in her bedroom, curled up like she was holding herself together, watching out the window."
Charlie shook his head.
"I didn't know what to do. Then… Billy showed up. You know the Quileutes of course. He told me everything. He told me about your family… he told me about the wolves… I didn't believe him. My baby wouldn't be so stupid to get involved with supernatural beings. But… he proved it. Sam was human, and then he was a giant wolf, and my baby was in love with a fucking vampire."
Edward was stunned. He couldn't believe that Billy Black had been so stupid as to run his mouth off to Charlie about not only the wolves, but the Cullen family. The breach of the treaty, the second in months if you counted Jacob telling Bella the legend, was a liability that would have to be addressed at some point.
"Why did he tell you?" Edward asked quietly.
"He told me because he believed you'd done something to her. Vampire Thrall he called it. Said he knew a ritual that he could perform on my Bella to rid her of it. At that point I was all out of idea's, so I agreed to it. I took her down to the reservation and he performed his ritual."
Charlie snorted.
"It was the liveliest I'd seen her since you left, but it wasn't in a good way. She screamed at Billy that she wasn't under some 'thrall', she loved you, and they could all fuck themselves if they thought they could ever make her forget you. It was… quite something. I hoped she'd turned a corner, but if anything, she got worse. It was like she was punishing herself for you leaving."
Edward's breath hitched.
"I tried everything I could think of, and when I failed, Renee tried to take her back to Arizona. Bella refused, she threatened to hurt herself if we made her leave. In the end, there was nothing to do but let her be."
Charlie stood up suddenly, striding out of the room. Edward heard the clinking of bottles as the fridge opened, and he returned moments later with a fresh bottle in his hand. Edward had a feeling that it was only the flow of alcohol that was keeping Charlie so verbose.
"She's not here now, because she was sectioned under the mental health. She's in a psychiatric hospital, and she shows no signs of life. They're feeding her on a drip, and she lies in her bed and she doesn't move. The only noise she makes is when she screams out at a nightmare. So, Edward, no, Bella isn't dead, but she may as fucking well be."
A few moments of silence passed, Edward holding his head in his hands. What the hell had he done? He'd thought he was doing the best thing for her, to keep her safe and alive and instead… he'd destroyed her. Why did he think he was the only one who would feel the separation? Carlisle had voiced the opinion that Bella was Edward's mate, that she would feel it as hard as a human could possibly feel a supernatural bond, but Edward had been certain.
Bella would be better off without him.
"I know it probably doesn't mean much, but… you know what I am, what my family are. On Bella's eighteenth birthday, there was an incident. Bella got a papercut, and my brother Jasper… he's an empath. He felt the bloodlust of everyone there and… he tried to attack Bella. Of course he didn't get to her, but Bella got hurt in the chaos. You remember she came home with an arm injury?"
When Charlie nodded, Edward continued.
"I thought… I wanted her to be safe. Bella… I don't know if this is something you need to know but for the sake of honesty, Bella wanted to be changed. She wanted to become like us, so she could stay with me forever. As much as I loved… love her, I didn't want this existence for her. It can be… I didn't want it for her. So I thought if I took myself and my family away from Forks, well, she'd be safe. We wouldn't be able to hurt her and she wouldn't be changed."
"You didn't believe she loved you as much as she said," Charlie murmured, his eyes surprisingly clear.
"I didn't," Edward agreed. "It's the biggest mistake I've ever made."
Charlie sighed. "I still don't like you, and honestly, if the choice was mine, I'd want Bella as far from you and your family as it's possible to get. She loves you. I think, if anyone can bring my daughter back, it's you. So I'll call the hospital in the morning and add you to her visitors list."
"Thank you."
"Promise me something?" Charlie said, as Edward stood up.
"Anything."
"If Bella wants to be changed… do it for her. Don't let her down again, Edward. You may not be human, but I swear on all that is holy, if you hurt my girl again, I will find a way to end you."
"I… If I hurt her again, I'll give you the means to end me," Edward replied. "And I promise. I'm not strong enough to be without her any longer. Whatever she asks of me, I'll give it her."
"Did you see her?" Alice asked as soon as Edward walked through the front door. The whole family were staring at him eagerly, waiting for news.
"She's… I…" Edward shook his head.
"Sweetheart, come and sit down," Esme said worriedly, guiding him to the freshly uncovered sofa's. As the others gathered around them, Edward tried to clear his mind enough to explain to them what happened.
"Charlie knows about us. What we are, I mean. And the wolves. Billy Black told him everything."
"Son, perhaps you should start from the beginning," Carlisle said quietly.
Edward nodded. "When we left, when I told Bella goodbye, she didn't want to let me leave. I… I told her I didn't love her. I told her she wasn't enough to hold my attention anymore. From what Charlie told me, it hurt her much more than I could have ever expected. I didn't… I don't… Bella isn't at home. She's at a psychiatric hospital in Port Angeles. I broke her, Carlisle."
The last sentence was a sob, as Edward fell back in his seat, his hands in his hair, pulling it enough to hurt.
"I broke her. The wolves, they tried to convince Charlie I had her under a thrall, that I'd been playing her. They did a ritual on her, but obviously it didn't work, because I would never have done that to her. Charlie, he hates me, and I deserve it. If she tells me to get lost, I'll deserve that too, but I need her. I need her so badly, and she's lying in a hospital bed, screaming from nightmares and being fed through a drip because she refuses to eat and it's all my fault," he cried.
Esme pulled him into a tight embrace, venom filling her own eyes as she rocked him slowly. Nobody seemed to know what to say, and Jasper was cringing into his seat beside Alice at the emotion in the room.
"Edward, you can fix this," Esme whispered. "Did Charlie tell you exactly where Bella is?"
"Yes. He's going to call them in the morning and add me to her list. He hates me, but he thinks I'm his last hope at getting his daughter back."
"Then you'll see her tomorrow. It may be a long road, but I have faith that you can bring back the bright beautiful young woman you fell in love with, both for yourself and for everyone else that loves her."
"Do you think she'll hate me?" he asked, hating how childlike he sounded but needing some form of reassurance.
"I don't know, Son. What I do know, is that Bella loves you as much as you love her. Believe and trust in that love, and in the end, it will come through. You're meant to be together, Edward. Bella loves you. Never lose sight of that."
