Hi there. I guess I forgot to do this for the prologue, but I don't own Twilight or any of its characters.

Chapter 1: Blast from the Past

It doesn't hurt me.
You wanna feel how it feels?
You wanna know, know that it doesn't hurt me?
You wanna hear about the deal I'm making?
You (be running up that hill)
You and me (be running up that hill)

And if I only could,
Make a deal with God,
And get him to swap our places,
Be running up that road,
Be running up that hill,
Be running up that building.
If I only could, oh...

You don't want to hurt me,
But see how deep the bullet lies.
Unaware that I'm tearing you asunder.
There is thunder in our hearts, baby.
So much hate for the ones we love?
Tell me, we both matter, don't we?

Running Up that Hill, Placebo

EMPOV

The fucking phone had been ringing non-stop for the past hour while I had been trying my hardest to ignore it and drown myself in whiskey. Of course, that wasn't really working; nothing I'd been trying to accomplish had been working lately. I need to get out of here and just go home, the heavy music and the desperation I saw in the eyes of the other patrons of the bar were doing nothing for my mood. Plus I really should see who was trying to call me.

The thing of it is, I don't have family; at least, none that would ever try to get into contact with me. I cut those ties years ago. As for friends, the closest thing to one I had right now was that asshole Jasper Whitlock and I don't think trading insults really counts as a meaningful relationship. There were only two people who would try to call me in the middle of the night: my coach, and we aren't exactly on the best of terms right now or my agent who is a fucking idiot. It probably is my agent calling to try and talk me into another sponsorship. I am so sick of posing shirtless for some fruity smelling cologne. Even worse is when I have to make out with some skanked up model while wearing tight ass jeans I wouldn't be caught dead in.

Moving quickly through the bar I waved goodbye to the teammates I had come with and burst out into the cool air of Chicago. I love Chicago. I've spent way too much time in small towns where everyone knows fucking everything about you.

As I walked down the street I flipped my phone open and scrolled through my calls. All of them came from a number I had never seen before. Clicking on my voicemail I steeled myself for messages from "relatives" begging for cash, or desperate fans claiming to be madly in love with me - "if you meet me I know you'll feel it too" was pretty much left on my voicemail daily.

"McCarthy? This is Jacob Black. I know you didn't want to hear from any of us ever again, and I understand that. But I'm the chief of police in Forks now and also the only one able to get a hold of you. Listen, call me back, I have some news about your parents." Click.

To say I was surprised to hear from Jacob Black would be the understatement of the century. We only spoke when absolutely necessary, per my request. I had left him and everything else in Forks behind nine years ago. Shoving my phone back into my pocket I picked up my pace, now desperate to get back to my apartment. Memories were flashing through my mind; winning the state championship with Jake, spending almost all of senior year at his house, packing all of my things into my twelve year old jeep, vowing to leave and never look back.

It's not that I didn't want to remain friends with Jake. It's that every time we talked my life before I left was brought up, and it became way too much to handle. I was trying to make a new start without having all of that fucking baggage. So I told him that I didn't want to hear from him unless it was actually necessary. And I haven't. I keep him up to date with my phone number and address through texts. It has been better this way.

I shook my head and tried my absolute hardest to get rid of the memories that were plaguing me, concentrating on the steps I was taking.

Reaching my building I greeted the night guard and headed up the three flights of stairs that would bring me to my apartments. I am not one for flashy things but I do like having room to sprawl out so I had purchased both units on the third floor when I moved in here. I kept one as my private domain, where only I ever went. The other was where I entertained company and did business shit. Unlocking my private apartment I flipped on the lights and headed straight for my office. I paused at the door of my bedroom and thought about pretending I had never received any calls from Jake. Whatever he wanted was going to dig up things I had no desire to think about and I'm not sure I was ready to deal with.

Running my fingers through my cropped hair I continued down the hall to my guest room; I didn't want to taint my bedroom with talk of my parents. Dialing the number Jake had left I plopped into a couch and waited.

"Emmett? I guess you got my message. I'm surprised you called back."

It was a voice I hadn't heard in years and one I hadn't realized I'd missed. Clearing my throat I said, "I wasn't sure I was going to. I wanted to pretend you never called but I owe you more then that. Listen Jake; I don't care what they do with the bodies. Give them to the state or something. Fuck, you can burn them or dump them in a river. Just get rid of them, if you need me to sign some authorization papers or some shit just send them to me."

There was a long pause and a deep inhalation of breath on the other line before Jake spoke. "Em, man, they died in some sort of car accident two days ago but that isn't why I'm calling. I knew you wouldn't care so I didn't bother calling when I heard about it. Did you know Renee and Charlie had been living in Arizona for the past few years?"

"No. We didn't exactly keep in contact." I was feeling a bit dizzy. I mean, I knew they were dead. That would be the only logical reason for Jake to call me. But why did it matter that they had lived in Arizona?

"Okay. Well. They had been and they came back to Forks less then a month ago. Caused a lot of gossip too, they were keeping to themselves, being unfriendly to their

neighbors. Charlie wasn't cutting the grass, and whenever either of them went out they wouldn't answer direct questions. You know how Forks is. If you don't socialize or pretend to socialize you're an outcast, of course, they were already subject for gossip. Renee was obviously using again, she looked like a fucking mess, skinny and bruised, straggly hair and all. Charlie got pulled over for a DUI about a week ago, punched one of my officers too. He was in jail for the night but Renee came and bailed him out. I'm not sure where she got the cash; they didn't seem to have jobs."

Jake would talk for hours if you let him; I'd forgotten that. "Jake. Can you get to the point?"

"Jesus, I am, you've always fucking interrupted me when I'm in the middle of trying to tell you something."

I could hear him gritting his teeth on the other line, "Sorry. I just don't get why any of this is relevant. I don't want to know what Charlie and Renee were up to. That's why I left. So I didn't have to deal with their shit."

"It is relevant. Why the fuck else would I be telling you? Let me finish before you start going off on me. So as I was saying, they were keeping to themselves. Charlie had obviously fallen back into the bottle and Renee was using meth. I got a call from Seattle early yesterday morning telling me they had been in a car accident and that I needed to search the place they had been staying for drugs or whatever. So I took Quil, you remember Quil right? He was a sophomore when we were seniors."

"Yes. I remember Quil." Rolling my eyes I sank deeper into the couch.

"Good. He didn't think you would now that you're pro and everything. I told him you wouldn't just forget him that you weren't like that. Anyway, I took Quil and we went to the place they had been renting out. At first we didn't find anything interesting, it was a fucking mess but pretty much what we had been expecting. There were a few grams of coke and a shitty little meth lab in the basement, which wasn't a surprise. But then we went down the hall to the bedrooms," I heard Jake inhale and when he started talking again his voice was shaking, "Emmett. There was a baby in their room. She was sitting in this playpen and she didn't make a fucking noise when we came in. Just sat there and looked at us."

My breath caught in my throat and I swore violently. Why the fuck would they have had a baby? They didn't like children. They'd made that abundantly clear to me throughout my childhood.

"God Emmett, she was a mess, filthy and undernourished with these huge brown eyes just staring at me. Who knows how long she had been in there alone. What if we hadn't searched the house until today? I can't believe they had a baby no one knew about. When I picked her up from that playpen she just latched onto me and wouldn't let go. She's tiny Emmett, way small for her age, but she has a death grip. While I was holding her Quil found her birth certificate in a pile of bills and eviction notices, her name is Isabella Marie Swan. She turned two about a month ago, which means Renee was something like 41 when she was born."

"I can't wrap my mind around this Jake. Why the fuck did they keep her? Or even have her in the first place? Renee is all about living for herself. There is no way I can imagine her intentionally having a fucking baby, or caring for a baby. Did she stay clean when she was pregnant? Fuck, Jake, where is she going to go? It's not like someone in Forks is going to take in Renee and Charlie Swans child, they'll assume she has something wrong with her."

Jake was silent for a few minutes, and then said, "Emmett. She's in our custody for the next two days, but after that she goes to her next of kin. And at this point in time the only person who's contacted us is Charlie's dad."

Motherfucker. My grandfather had tortured me when I was younger; locking me in closets for hours at a time, holding my face underwater when he gave me baths, things like that. Jesus.

"But Em, I've talked to the social worker assigned to the case. He said you'd be able to adopt her over your grandfather. It has to be adoption though. They want her placed in a stable environment and a temporary guardianship won't do it. You just need to get here within the next two days."

I can honestly say I never thought I would be in this situation. How the fuck was I supposed to just adopt a baby? Where would I put her when I was traveling for games? And then there was the whole, I've never taken care of or been around a baby thing. But I couldn't let her go to my grandfather. He was a sick piece of shit.

Running my hand through my cropped curls I clenched my jaw, blinked hard twice and said, " Jake. I'll be in Forks by noon tomorrow. What the fuck do I need to bring?"

A/N: Thanks so much for reading this. It's my first attempt at actually writing something other then papers for school. If anyone's interested in beta-ing let me know, I'm sure there are a ton of grammatical errors that I didn't catch. I think the next POV will be Rosalie, so be prepared for that.