What Happens in Vegas
Hello, cartoonlove here, this is my first Twilight story, it's only a one-shot, and I know it will get lost among the many stories here, but I always wondered about Renee's and Charlie's relationship, we never got the chance to actually see them interact that much, so here's my take on it when Bella runs away with Edward and how they react.
"I just...I...I don't know how this could have happened. I warned her, we...we warned her about this, she's...she's throwing her life away." Renee held her head in her hands, already throbbing from a headache.
"She...I can't believe it. She's not one to lose her head, this is Bella we're talking about. I...I just don't know."
Charlie sat across the kitchen table silently, arms crosses, expression unreadable.
Renee was close to tears now. "How, how could she DO this!" and she pounded the table once with her fist. "Of all the years I've known her, she's ALWAYS kept a level head." Now tears streamed down the middle-aged woman's face.
"Calm down Renee." Charlie said without emotion.
Bringing her head up to look at him, she pounded the table once more. "Calm down? CALM DOWN? How do you expect me to calm down Charlie? Huh? How?? She's throwing her life away!"
Another pounding of the table, only this time it was Charlie.
"Damnit Renee! I'm shocked too, but if you had been here, seen what I had seen, you would have known something was going to happen."
"Oh easy for you to say, you got to see her before she left! YOU'VE had time to get over this!"
"Easy?!" he thundered. "You think it's easy for me?? You've seen her every day for the past 17 years, I get one full year, and she's gone again. You think it's easier for me because Bella was with me less? No! It's harder, I finally get the chance to get involved in Bella's life, only to have her leave just as quickly! How in God's name is that easier Renee? How?"
More tears streamed down Renee's face, "But", she said in a whisper, "she's throwing her life away..."
Charlie sat back down in the rickety chair across from her. Softly, almost inaudible, he asked, "Is that what you think you did with me?"
She raised her head once more to Charlie's. He was looking down at his folded hands, fiddling his thumbs, usually what he did when emotions came into play.
"W-what?"
"Is that what you think you did with me Renee? That you threw your life away?" he asked a little louder now.
Renee looked down at her folded hands resting in her lap, "You know that's not what I meant."
"But it's the same thing, the same goddamn thing."
"No it's not...it's...no...it's not."
Charlie shook his head, "Yes it is Renee, it is, she's the same age, same situation."
Laying her head in her hands for what it seemed like the fifteenth time that day, "I...Charlie..."
He took her hand from across the table and squeezed it. "Renee."
She raised her head, eyes closed, then slowly opened them to look into his.
He sighed, "You know I don't think I threw my life away those eighteen years ago in that Las Vegas church, in fact, I think it's the best decision I ever made." He paused and rubbed his temples with his opposite hand. "Renee, I still love you, and I don't think I'll ever stop. Believe me, I know how Bella is around this Edward boy. She's exactly how I was when I first met you, which I know, better than anyone, that this is it for her. We made it work Renee, there's no reason why they can't."
"But...we didn't work Charlie, it didn't."
Charlie gave her hand another squeeze and smiled. "I know. I haven't let myself forget it either, because if I did," at this he looked down at the table, "it would be like losing you all over again."
A tear escaped from Renee's eye. "I..."
"But it's different with them, I can see it, I didn't before but I do now. He asked my permission Renee, my permission. Did I ask your father for permission?"
At this, she chuckled, "Certainly not, he would have chased you out of the house with his shotgun."
"Exactly. He was the one who brought her to the hospital when she tumbled down all those stairs, he was the one who wanted to get married, not Bella, she thought it through. But even then, he risked being skinned within an inch of his life by standing right up in front of me and declaring that he wanted Bella, no one else, and my blessing. That's pretty remarkable for only seventeen Renee."
She nodded slowly, tears forming again and falling freely down her face. "I can't believe she's gone, I mean, I knew she'd be leaving for college, but not to become a WOMAN!" she launched into a full-on wailing at this point.
Charlie shoved the rickety wood chair back, sending it clattering to the floor, and had Renee enclosed in his arms in an instant. "Shh...it's going to be okay...shh..." he coaxed her as she sobbed openly on his broad shoulder.
He had dreamed of finally holding her in his arms again, but never because of this.
They stayed in that position for a long time,Charlie standing and smoothing over her hair with his rough hand, and Renee, as limp as a rag doll clutching his waist for all she was worth at this point.
After what seemed like hours, Renee's sobs subsided and she lifted her head to gaze into Charlie's chocolate-brown eyes, the eyes of the man she had left many years ago.
The man she'd been happy with, once.
And he gazed back at her for what seemed like a long time. Then, finally, he slowly sat her back down in the chair.
He rubbed the top of his head and turned around, gazing at the cabinets that she had painted eighteen years prior. "Renee."
"Yes?" still a bit dazed.
He turned around. "When you left me and married Phil, I was devastated. But then I realized that it was best, even though it wasn't what I wanted. I loved you enough to let you go. That's what you need to do here. You need to let her go, if you love her enough, you will. Believe me, you will."
She had been listening intently, just now getting the jist of this for the first time. "I think...you're right Charlie."
He smiled, and glanced at the clock. "It's uh...getting pretty late."
Renee nodded her head, "Yes, I should...probably get back to the hotel, Phil's probably there by now."
Charlie nodded slowly and they made their way to the front door.
She opened it, ready to get back to her Mazda. But then turned back to him.
"Thank you." was all she said. So much weight behind those two words.
Smiling once again, and kissing her on the cheek, "You're welcome." he said.
Charlie watched as she drove away, the headlights bright in the darkness, bascially the only light outside except the porch light.
He always remembered Renee as a pair of headlights, driving out of his life for perhaps the second time. He sighed again.
"You're welcome."
-Fin-