Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, Stephanie Myers does, but the idea and telling of the tale below is a creature of my own making.

Big thanks to my Beta Barkleybear19 and Pre-reader Jasper's Woman. I wouldn't be able to do this without them.

Thanks to Gayle for always being my friend, supporting my writing, and always pushing me to do something I love.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

Chapter 2:

In life, there is only one man that a girl can count on to always be there for her no matter what. Her dad. He taught her how to ride her bike and a skateboard. He taught her how to drive and scared the boys away by cleaning his gun every time she had a date. So, what happens when there is a time when it seems like that man isn't going to be there for you anymore? How do you cope with the fear of losing the one man that loves you unconditionally?

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

For twelve days, Bella sat inside her father's hospital room praying that he would wake up. The accident could easily take her father away from her, but she needed him to survive. She'd always been close to her father. Her friend's always like to call her a daddy's girl. He was the one person from her family that she'd always been able to count on.

Her mother was a flake. She didn't want to be a mother; she wanted to be Bella's friend. Bella was always the adult in that relationship. As soon as Bella turned ten, her mother, Renee, decided to marry a younger man and now only calls Bella when it's convenient for her. In fact, when Bella called about her father's accident, Renee didn't answer and has not yet returned the call.

Bella knew that if she had been raised by her mother, she would have never gotten the explanations about the changes her body started going through. Right before Bella's thirteenth birthday, Sue had planned a girl's day for them. She had taken her for a nice lunch at a quaint Bistro in Port Angeles. Then after a bit of shopping, she had sat down with Bella and asked her if she had any questions about the changes her body was going through. They had spent an hour with Bella asking questions and Sue answering them. When Bella's first monthly happened, she was prepared, all thanks to her step-mother.

No, as far as Bella was concerned, Sue, who had been married to her father since she had been eleven, was her mother. She was the woman that had raised Bella. Sue was the one that was there for all the important events that happened as Bella became a woman. She even took Bella on her first trip to purchase monthly female products. There was no way Charlie could take Bella; they would both have died of embarrassment.

When Bella had her heart broken for the first time in ninth grade by Tyler Crowley, Sue had been the one to sit with her on the couch and let her cry it out. She'd been the one to bring in the ice cream and girly movies as a way to cheer up the fifteen year old girl. When Bella had told her mother about Tyler, she'd simply told Bella to buck up as there were other fish in the sea.

Looking up from her computer screen, her face landed on her true mother, the only mother that in Bella's mind counted when things mattered. Sue looked up and smiled at her, and Bella returned the smile before looking back down at her computer screen, praying for an ending to her article. She was trying to make good use of her time in the waiting room as they waited for Charlie to get back to his room after being taken for some tests.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

When a girl is growing up, her mother is the person she wants to become, but her father is her hero. He's the one that makes her feel safe, protected, and loved. He's the one that scares away all the wrong boys but makes the right one squirm. A good father makes sure there is always someone there to help his daughter when their mother walks away. But, what happens to the daughter when the father isn't there after the mother is gone? Who takes care of the daughter? It surely isn't the man who says he loves her but walks away. Why is the loss of the man you love almost as painful as the thought of losing a father? When fathers give their daughters away in marriage, does it make the husband the protector? What if it's not in marriage? What if the father turns the responsibility of protecting the daughter to the man he thought would be there for her forever? What happens when the daughter loses both the father and protection of the man that walked away? Who protects her now?

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

Bella had just finished writing the last words of an article for Vogue and was frowning at the paragraph that she had written hastily and now hated it, she saved the document and shut her laptop. As she was walking back to her father's room she found Esme waiting for her. This would be the first time since Charlie had been in the hospital that Esme was able to make it to visit them. She'd been swamped with a case at work while Rosalie and Alice had been doing double duty to make sure Bella was never alone.

"Hey, honey," Esme said, pulling Bella into a tight hug. "How is he?"

"The same." Bella sighed. "Still in a coma, but the doctor says that at least his body is healing this way."

"Oh, sweetie." Esme sat down next to Bella and held her hand. "Rose told me he was trapped between two cars after trying to do a routine traffic stop."

"Yeah, he pulled a kid over for driving erratically with another car. A drunk driver behind the wheel plowed into them, pinning my dad between the two cars. The doctor said he has massive internal injuries and a concussion," Bella said through the tears that had started to well up in her eyes.

"Bella." Esme gasped as she pulled her into a hug. "It's ok, sweetie. Charlie is a fighter. He's going to pull through this."

"I keep telling myself that." Bella wiped her eyes and looked at Esme. "Sue keeps telling me he's strong and that he's not ready to leave us. The doctor says that if they can get the swelling in his brain to go down then he has a great chance. They were able to repair most of the internal damage."

"What can I do?" Esme inquired. "What do you need?"

"Right now, just having you here is good," she told her friend honestly. "Alice and Rose have been here a few times, and they keep bringing me clothes from my apartment."

"What about food? Are you eating?"

"Yes, Sue brings me food constantly," Bella said, grateful for those in her life.

"Where is Sue?"

"Taking a walk," Bella answered. "She does this around this time every day. She says she needs to stretch her legs, but I think it's because she doesn't want me to see how scared she is that dad won't wake up."

"He's going to wake up, Bella," Esme said. "I refuse to believe that he's done here. He's not ready to leave you both. He loves you both too much to leave."

"I hope you're right. But I sometimes see this look in the doctor's eyes, like even he believes that my dad won't wake up." Bella softly whispered while looking at her unconscious father.

"Oh, don't mind me," a nurse said halting their conversation. "I just need to check his vitals."

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

Bella decided that now was as good a time as any to check her voicemails. She had been preoccupied with her dad and had yet to check them. She wasn't surprised to see that most of them were from Edward.

Edward: "Bella, I know that you are going through a lot right now, but I really need to talk to you. Please call me back."

Edward: "Edward again. I know you are mad at me, but I need to tell you something. It's important. Not more important than your dad, but it's important."

Edward: "Baby, I know I'm an ass, and I pray that your dad is ok, but I really need to talk to you as soon as possible. Please call me back."

Angela: "Bella, I heard about your father. You and your family are in my prayers."

Emmett: "Bella boo, Rosie told me about your dad. I'm thinking about you baby girl."

Carlisle: "Bella, Esme told me what happened. Please call me if you need anything."

Edward: "Bella, baby, please call me. I need to know that you are ok."

Edward: "Please, Bella. I need to talk to you. To hear your voice. Please call me."

Harry: "I heard about your father, Bella. You are in my thoughts, honey."

Edward: "Love, it's me again. I need to talk to you. I need to know how you are and if I can do anything."

Edward:"Bella, love, I have to go to London for a while for work. Please call me and tell me how your dad is and if you need anything. You can call me anytime. I will always answer your calls. I love you and miss you terribly, baby. I know you don't believe me, but I do love you. I will always love you."

Alice: "Bella, can you believe that ass left without coming to see you? I swear when Jasper told me I wanted to go the airport and kill him, but because I know you still love him I didn't. But I can fly to London and do it if you want me to. I'll check with you when I see you later. Love you."

Rose: "He's an ass Bella. Concentrate on your dad and forget him."

Edward: "I made it to London safely. I just needed you to know that. I love you, and I miss you already. I hope your father is better."

Edward: "It's been a week and a half since I last held you. A week and half since you walked out of my apartment telling me this time it was really over. Now, I'm on another continent, and all I can think about is that I should be there with you. I should be holding your hand while you sit with your father … and I'm not."

Edward: "Maybe, this time with me gone is what we really need. Maybe, this time apart will do us some good. I don't know. I just wish you'd call me, even if it's just to tell me to fuck off. God, I miss you."

Edward: "Ok, I get it. You don't want to hear from me. Alice made that perfectly clear when she called me. I won't bother you again, but just remember that I love you, Isabella Marie Swan, now and always."

Bella sat staring at her cell phone after checking her messages. She couldn't believe the number of messages that Edward had left her, and she really couldn't believe that he'd actually gone to London without so much as coming to say good bye. She laughed at the thought that he regretted that they were over and then got furious that he felt they needed this time apart. She didn't want to be apart from him. He was it for her, but obviously, she wasn't it for him.

Not wanting to deal with him, she took Rose's advice and decided to focus all her thoughts on her father. She was trying a new method of thinking positive thoughts in hopes they would help her father heal faster and wake up. Edward was gone, and it was time to do the "out of sight out of mind" approach to dealing with her feelings for him.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

Bella's phone alerted her to another voice message. This time it was from Renee. "Bella, I hope that Charlie is doing ok. He's strong Bella. He'll be fine. I think you should come and visit me. It's been a long time since I've seen you. Bring that hunky boyfriend of yours and come spend some time with me and Phil. We've got a great new house in Laguna Beach, and you really could use some time in the sun….living in Seattle won't get you tan, baby. Anyway, call me when you've decided you can fit me into your life."

Groaning, Bella decided to not deal with Renee. Renee obviously didn't care when she'd told her about Charlie. She also proved that she certainly didn't listen when Bella had told her that she'd ended things with Edward.

Bella's eyes wandered over to the bed her father lay in. She wondered what he was thinking about. If he was thinking about her and Sue, or if he was wondering what the score had been for the Mariners games he was missing. The nurses and doctors told them to talk to him so that he could hear them, but she wasn't so sure he could. Still skeptical, she watched as Sue sat leaned in towards her father, talking quietly into his ear. She wondered if like her, Sue was pleading with her father not to leave them, and Bella hoped it worked. She truly couldn't imagine living in a world where her father didn't exist. She used to feel that way about Edward, but over the past twelve days, she was slowly starting to realize that perhaps she could survive in a world where he wasn't hers.

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

Older people have often said that if you love someone let them go. If they stay away, then they were never yours to begin with. If they come back, then they are yours to keep. It's the best way for some to explain why some relationships either work out, or they break up and then get back together. Is it really true though? Do you get to keep someone just because they came back once, twice or maybe even three times? If someone moves half way across the world for work, leaves tons of messages saying they regret the way things were left, and then suddenly stops calling, does that mean that they were never yours to keep? Or, does it mean that you have to wait to find out if they come back in the end? When does it become okay to move on and find out for yourself if the one that left, was the one? When do you move on without the questions about what happens if or when the one that left comes back? If letting someone go is so easy, why does it hurt so bad?

~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~8~

A/N: Thank you for reading. It means the world to me.

So do we think Alice should go after Edward for Bella? Is he a coward for leaving without talking to Bella face to face?

Reviewers will get a teaser from the next update.