*All original twilight characters, storylines, etc all belong to Stephenie Meyer, I just enjoy playing with all of the characters, creating my own ideas and point-of-views.

* This story is rated M as there will be mature themes discussed although I am unsure at this point how detailed they will be, the original is extremely detailed although I may tone it down and change it to a T rating as I update this in the future.

We spent the remainder of the drive in much the same way, although Carlisle tried to keep our emotions in check as much as possible as we could see the intensely charged atmosphere in addition to his own worry for Alice was beginning to take it's toll on Jasper.

"Charlie? It's Carlisle Cullen, we just wanted to ask if you were available to meet with us, we've just crossed the town line and were hoping to speak with you right away." My husband called and spoke to Charlie as we raced through town, going directly to the Chief's house.

"Yeah, I'm at home still, come on over." He sounded as though he hadn't slept since our last call to him and I wondered how he was holding up, surely if he had assumed Bella was with us, he had also assumed that we hadn't hurt her. Now... now we didn't know, Charlie didn't know.

When we pulled into the familiar driveway, the first thing that I was surprised to see was Bella's old Chevy truck sitting exactly where she had always parked it, right next to Charlie's cruiser. Seeing it sitting there like that had instantly crushed my hopes that she had simply run away.

"Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen." Charlie greeted us warily and looked anxiously over our shoulders as we approached the door where he had obviously been waiting.

"Where is he? Where's your boy, Edward?" he asked gruffly and I took in a deep un-needed breath.

"Edward's not with us right now, he's actually in South America." I tried to force a smile but couldn't quite manage to make it feel real.

"Well I guess you can come in and sit down then. I think I need some answers from you all." he sounded defeated as the entire family followed him into the small living room, pulling in chairs from the kitchen to sit on.

The silence was awkward and uncomfortable as we each sat down, I turned to Jasper who was practically carrying Alice as he sat down on the small sofa and pulled her onto his lap. Next I looked around the room and my eyes focused on the mantle where picture after picture of Bella sat.

"Alright. I've done some research since you all left town and since you seem to suddenly be interested in my daughter again I need some answers. I think I deserve that much at least. You can start with the truth about who and what you really are."

My attention turned back to Charlie as he spoke up and demanded answers. We had all discussed this as a possibility on the way back to Forks and were prepared to give him whatever answers he needed if it meant that we would be able to figure out what had happened to Bella.

"We're not exactly human Charlie." Carlisle began simply and the air became thick and uncomfortable, none of us was comfortable with sharing the truth of what we were but in this case we all had agreed that it might be a necessity.

"Vampires?" he croaked out in response and we were all equally stunned at how easily he had put the pieces together and seemed to be accepting of it.

"Yes Charlie," I answered carefully trying to gage his reaction as he looked back and forth between each of us, taking us in as though for the first time.

"Bella's not with you?" he confirmed and I slowly shook my head.

"Charlie, I promise that we'll answer all of your questions, but first I need you to tell me if anyone else knows what you do about us?" Carlisle spoke up and Charlie shook his head, replying with a simple 'no'.

"Are you sure?" Carlisle wanted to confirm before continuing.

"No... when we couldn't find her... once we had assumed she was with you... I put everything together on my own... I haven't said anything to anyone. Are you dangerous?" He replied and then blurted his question out, his eyes the only part of him showing any fear at what we had admitted to him.

"We're vampires Charlie, and yes we can be dangerous. We survive on blood, however our family has made the decision to live only off of the blood of animals, something that isn't necessarily easy but it is the only way that we all wish to survive, we don't wish to hurt humans." I began to tell him and I could see the questions written all over his face.

"You've... been around... a while?" Charlie swallowed and I nodded my head.

"Yes, we're immortal Charlie, we never age, never change." I again explained and he seemed to take the information well, only growing slightly more pale as I spoke.

"Bella figured out our secret just after she arrived here in Forks, she knew and she accepted us. And we considered her a part of our family from the very first time that Edward brought her to the house." I wanted to reassure him that we did care for Bella.

"Something else that you should know about our kind Charlie is that when we finally fall in love... it's for life. We don't change and we don't separate." I paused to make sure that he was still following me and saw realization dawn on his face.

"We're all mated couples here Charlie. Carlisle and myself, Alice and Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie. Edward was always the odd one out, he'd been alone for so long that we worried he may never find his mate... until he met Bella. Unfortunately finding Bella posed a problem for us as our kind typically only mates with others of our kind and Bella was a human. The other problem was how much danger seems to naturally find Bella, we didn't want to be a danger to her."

"Her birthday?" Charlie seemed to be getting impatient and I saw Jasper tense up out of the corner of my eye, her birthday was still a sensitive issue with him.

"Bella cut herself and it caused a bit of trouble, although she was never in any danger, bleeding in front of seven vampires isn't something that I would exactly recommend. It was that night that Edward asked us all to leave town for Bella's safety. He loves her more than you can imagine Charlie and he thought that our world was too dangerous for her, he only wanted to protect her." I sat quietly giving him a minute to process everything that I'd just said.

"If Edward loved her as much as you say, is it possible that she's with him somewhere?" I was surprised at how well Charlie was taking everything.

"No, we stay in contact with Edward and he was in Alaska with us for several weeks before going off on his own. Like I said Charlie, mated pairs don't separate with our kind and it has been incredibly hard for Edward to be without her." I explained patiently, understanding why he might think that.

"I've looked everywhere for her... what makes you all think that you can find her when I couldn't?" he asked and I was again surprised at how easily he had accepted the truth.

"Because of our nature, our senses are enhanced when we are changed. We become physically stronger and faster, we can smell scents that may be months old, we can also hear things from further away. In addition to the physical differences that we possess we have additional resources and contacts at our disposal, Jasper has already been in contact with them and they are working with us as we speak. We were hoping that perhaps you would allow us to look inside Bella's room while we are here to see if we can spot any changes, anything that may indicate that anything happened here before she left." Carlisle told him and the Chief nodded his head.

"What's wrong with little Alice?" we had been expecting him to either allow or deny us access and his question again threw us off track.

"In addition to our heightened senses, a few of us also have additional... gifts. Alice's gift is that she can see the future based on current decisions. When we left Forks, Edward asked Alice not to look into Bella's future any longer and she didn't until just before I called you initially. But Alice couldn't find Bella's future any longer although she can sense that Bella is alive, just somehow blocked to Alice's vision. She's been locked in her mind looking for her ever since, we can't pull her back out of it. We've never seen Alice like this before." Carlisle explained and Charlie looked at Alice with sadness in his eyes.

"You can go ahead and look in her room." Charlie told us, putting his head back against his chair and closing his eyes.

When we opened the door to her room we could smell a slightly more concentrated version of her scent in comparison to the rest of the house, but it was definitely old. She hadn't been here in months. Walking further into the room I reflexively hissed as the next scent assaulted my nose.

"Damn. Is that the redhead... Victoria?" Emmett spoke first as Carlisle pulled me into his side.

"Who's Victoria?" Charlie whispered from the doorway and I was surprised to see that he had followed us up here.

"Um Charlie... do you remember last spring... Phoenix?" Rosalie asked him quietly and I watched as Charlie's eyes bulged out of his head at the implication. Emmett and Rosalie told him that they would explain what happened and led him out of the room and down to the kitchen.

"Do you think that she... took Bella?" I looked to Carlisle questioningly, venom again pooling in my eyes.

"I don't know but it's the only lead we have right now, the only explanation that I can think of that makes any sense at all. I'm sure that she blames Bella for James' death." he answered honestly and I shook my head, not wanting to believe it.

"What next? Where do we even begin to look for Victoria? Edward tracked her to South America... do you think she could have Bella down there somewhere, that he's that close to her?" I fired off my questions looking desperately for the answers I wanted to hear.

"We should speak to Laurent. I know that he's been happy with Irina but perhaps he still keeps in contact with Victoria, they were friends." I heard Jasper suggest from where he still sat with Alice, waiting for her to snap out of her trance.

Carlisle and I finished looking around Bella's room, looking for any sign of where she could have gone before we made our way back down to hear Charlie explain what he knew about the day that Edward left.

"I knew that something was wrong when Bella came home from her birthday at your place and the days that followed it. Both her and Edward were acting strange but I just figured it was normal teenage relationship problems... nothing she would want to share with me." he looked to me and I smiled to let him know I understood why he hadn't pried into it.

"The night she disappeared I had worked later than usual, there were some teenagers causing problems that I had had to deal with. It was around one in the morning by the time I finally got in and I found the note that Bella had left on the table by the door. I figured it was odd that she hadn't thrown it out when she got back from her walk with Edward so I went to check on her but she wasn't there. When I tried calling your number and it was no longer in service I set up a search party to look for her. We had most of the town and the reservation out in the woods searching but there was nothing, no sign of her whatsoever." I stood up and went to him, giving him a gentle hug when I saw the tears start to trickle down his cheek.

"I'm so sorry that we weren't here Charlie..." I whispered my apology, sitting back down.

"Billy Black... the people down at La Push... they all know what you are don't they?" It wasn't really a question but decided that Charlie deserved as many truthful answers as I could give him.

"Yes, they know." I replied and he nodded thoughtfully.

"They aren't like you but they're something... those boys got huge fat and I know Billy's been hiding something from me." he said and again I nodded at him.

"The wolves are back?" Emmett asked in a tone too low for Charlie to hear.

"It sounds like it." Carlisle replied and I turned back to Charlie.

"Unfortunately you'll have to ask Billy about that Charlie. To be honest I'd like to speak to him as well." Carlisle answered Charlie's question and I felt bad that we couldn't tell him everything, but that wasn't our secret to tell and we were bound by the treaty.

We sat in silence for a few more minutes until we heard the vibrating of Carlisle's cell phone, not recognizing the number he was about to send it to voice mail when the tiny voice spoke out.

"Answer it." Alice hadn't moved and didn't say anything else but I felt a wave of relief wash through me as Carlisle placed the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"It's me." Edward's voice came through the other end and I held my breath as Carlisle spoke to him.

"Edward, don't hang up before I can explain... we're in Forks."