Charlie Swan
Charlie as a child, as a teen as an adult. Charlie as a son, a husband, a father.
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It was a game between himself and his father. His dad would set the stage, asking him what he wanted, asking him so what is it you want to do, champ? Never what he wanted to play, always what he wanted to do. Charlie answered as always, I wanna play cops and robbers, pop! I wanna be a cop, dad! He always knew he wanted to be a police officer, always knew he wanted to chase bad guys and bring justice and peace just like he did when he fired his plastic gun and shined his silver badge as a young boy. It was a game he tried with his Bella, and she'd taken to it right away. He remembered the first time he gave her a plastic gun, in fact it was the one his father gave to him as a child, and he remembered Bella running around the house, shooting at imaginary monsters and criminals.
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They were barely 20 years old when they got married. They barely knew themselves let alone each other. How was he to know she was flighty and wasn't the type to settle easily? She didn't know it herself. Then she took Bella and left. Just let me go, Charlie.It was the worst he'd ever felt, until Bella in turn left him, saying the exact words, with the exact tone. He didn't know how to react back then and he didn't know how to react when his little girl spat those words in his face. He stared numbly at the door she had just stormed out of and collapsed to his knees, gazing at the floor. He had no idea how long he stayed there; all he knew was that when his daughter came back, broken and battered, he didn't think he'd ever been happier. She apologized over and over again, going out of her way to make him feel better, and he instantly forgot about the pain of the last few days. The very second she came back was the second he forgave her. Renée would often tease him as being too forgiving and at that point he really didn't mind. Even if he gave Edward a hard time when he returned to Forks, he really couldn't hold a grudge, especially not after seeing how happy his daughter was after those months she had spent alone, wallowing in her depression.
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He knew Bella was like him in so many ways, and knew that when a Swan made a commitment it stuck. Maybe that's why he still loved Renée. Definitely not as much as he did ten years ago, but still his heart would ache a bit when he saw a stray picture left out by Bella after she showed it to Edward or Alice. It was a small echo of the pain he felt 17 years ago, but it was still there whenever he thought of the love he lost, of his daughter and his wife leaving him and shattering his world. This was why Charlie wanted Bella to build a life outside of Edward. He knew Edward loved her; it was hard to ignore how genuine his feelings were for each other. But they were so young, and he had already left her once, and he knew exactly the kind of heartbreak his Isabella was feeling during those few months of hell. He himself had spent years rebuilding his life after Renée left, and the opportunities he had to get remarried were lost. By age 25, most girls in Forks where either married or had moved out of State. No to mention the fact that he already had his friends, a constant who helped him through the good and the bad, and he didn't have the energy to start his life over again, a third time, in another town or city.
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And maybe that's why he had such an easy time accepting the fact that his little girl was getting married. He knew it wasn't a passing fancy, knew it the second she evaded how serious she was about Edward when they first started dating. She was her father's daughter, and he knew that if she was going to agree they get married then it wasn't because she planned on getting out of the relationship anytime soon. She fought against change when Edward left just like he did when Renée left, and he knew she would fight tooth and nail to protect her relationship. It scared him, like it would any parent, that his little girl, his Isabella, was getting married. He felt a sense of loss, giving her up to Edward, knowing in his heart that she would be happy. He had never seen Bella in so much bliss, even though she was disappointed at how things between her and Jacob had turned out. It wasn't enough to quench the love shining in here eyes, reflecting Edward's identical expression of devotion.
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And with that, he held her arm with pride as he walked his little girl down the aisle, a tear in his eye as he sensed and breathed his daughter's happiness, a beaming smile to match that of his little girl's on his face.