AN: Hey everybody! I just wanted to say thanks to all the people who added this story onto their subscriptions and favorites!! Thanks so much!!

And I have a special thanks for ObSeSsEdWiThTwIlGhT228, Sour Then Sweet, and also moonlesslife for reviewing the story and giving encouraging words that make me smile. Thanks so much. :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Nope not at all. But I do own this plot.

Previously:

"Bye Bella. One-thirty." He said and then hung up right before a very wet and angry Charlie came through the door.

"Um, hey dad." I got a grunt as a response while he took of his squeaky boots and wet clothes. "Everything… okay?" I was almost too afraid to even ask. When Charlie is in one of his moods, he takes it out on everyone. And I mean everyone. Even if it has nothing to do with you.

"Somewhat. But I want to talk to you and Emmett at the same time about it. I want to make sure you two understand what happened at the station today and that there's no way you would do something that foolish. Just thinking about it makes me…" He trailed off and the look in his eyes made me take a step back. "I'm going to watch the game. I don't want to take this out on you two. Hopefully, by the time dinner's ready I will be able to talk about it without… getting too… angry," he said. Then he walked over and got himself a beer before making his way back into the family room.

I just went back to fixing dinner and went upstairs to change into a baggy T-shirt and some sweatpants. Tentatively, I knocked on Emmett's door. There was no way I was going to burst through the room now, knowing (unfortunately) how close my brother and Rose were. I didn't want to walk in on my own brother the way I walked in on Tyler and Lauren last night.

"Come in, Bells," Emmet's voice boomed. I opened the door and noticed three things. One, they were sitting way too far apart. Emmett was on one side of the couch while Rose was on the other. Two, Rose's hair was very messy. I don't think I've ever seen a hair out of place on her head but now it looked horrible. And three, Emmett's shirt was inside out. I turned tomato red at the thought of what I had just interrupted.

"Bells, is there a reason you came in here?" He looked agitated that they had to stop whatever they were doing but I could see the smile on his face saying he was just joking.

"Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up on dad. He's in one of his 'moods', so it may not be the best idea for Rose to eat over tonight." I said, careful not to stare at their awkward appearances too long.

"Oh thanks Bella. Um, did he say anything about what happened to make him that way?" Emmett asked.

"Nope. He just said that he wanted to talk to both of us at the same time to get the message about something that happened at the station today. Then he went to calm down with a Bud Light and the flat screen." I explained.

"Huh, I wonder what happened?" Rose asked. She looked curious and embarrassed at the same time. Ha, next time they should make sure I'm gone before they get too comfortable.

"Who knows? Sometimes it's just something he sees at the station that he wants to make sure will never happen to us." I said.

"Yeah well I bet being the Chief of Police in Forks, a town that's supposed to be quiet but has crazy wild teenagers running around, is pretty stressful when you have two teenagers of your own." Rosalie said, examining her nails.

"Okay, I'm going to head downstairs now to finish up the pasta, I'll call you when it's ready," I said as I made my way to the door. When I looked down I had to cover up a laugh with a cough.

"Oh Rosalie?" I called as I was just about to leave.

"Yes Bella?" She looked up from the homework that they were supposed to be doing this whole time.

"Your bra is on hanging off of Emmett's bed, I just thought I'd let you know." And with that I shut the door leaving behind a very embarrassed and shocked Rosalie and a very amused Emmett.

I faintly heard a "That's my sister," followed by a loud smack, which could only be made Rose's hand making contact with the back of Emmett's head, while I walked to the stairs. I just laughed and went back to the kitchen to finish dinner. (AN: I was going to end it there, but I decided to be nice. Plus, that would be way too short. )

"Dinner's ready!" I called about twenty minutes later. Rose had gone home and now Emmett and Dad were both sitting on the couch watching sports. I could tell the TV really was calming Charlie down, so maybe he would be able to get through what he wanted to say without getting too mad.

"Kay Bellsy," Emmett called as he and Charlie shut off the TV and made their way to the table. They sat down and Emmett immediately began stuffing his face. I just laughed at my crazy brother.

"Wow, everything looks amazing," Charlie said, smiling at me. I smiled back, glad he seemed to be getting his anger under control.

" Mhmmmm… meverysing tasteths 'mazing, too, Bellsa," Emmett said with his mouth stuffed with food. (AN: "Mhmmmm… everything tastes amazing, too, Bella")

Charlie and I burst out laughing at him, and soon he joined too. I think he just loved to laugh, even though he had absolutely no idea about what we were laughing about. After we settled down we settled in a calm conversation and Charlie's mood seemed to be a thing of the past. That was until a weird look crossed his face and he cleared his throat, interrupting Emmett's story about how the guy at Victoria Secret's was "totally checking him out".

"As you both know," Charlie said, "I wasn't in the best mood today." He looked at us for our approval so we just nodded our heads in response. He continued, satisfied. "Well last night Tyler Crowely, Michael Newton, Jessica Stanley, and Lauren Mallory were brought into the station." I stiffened and from the corner of my eye I saw Emmett stiffened too. I could tell we were both worried as to if they had said anything about the party and how we were there.

I could see Charlie was waiting for one of us to ask the obvious question, so I took the bait and said, "Really?!" as if it were the most shocking thing in the world.

Emmett seemed to snap out of it and, deciding to play along, said, "What did they do that landed them in the big-house?" Hey, if Charlie didn't know anything, there was so reason to tip him off about how guilty we were.

"Well apparently Tyler's parents wanted to go out for the night and they told Tyler they were going to stay at a hotel. Once they made it to the hotel though, they realized they just wanted to go home. But-get this- Tyler has decided that while his parents are home he's going to invite a few buddies over. Then they invited a few more people, and those few people invited a few more people, and the next thing he knew, there were over a hundred kids at his house. They brought beer and drugs, kids were being inappropriate with each other, and the Crowleys' whole house was practically being destroyed." Wow, I had seen the kids drinking, being inappropriate with each other, and trashing the stuff, but I hadn't seen the drugs. Huh, maybe that's why he's so angry, kids were getting high? Well maybe, but there had to be more than that. So I pried a little.

"So… what happened next? Did the Crowelys come home? Did someone get hurt?" I asked, even though I knew exactly what had happened thanks to Rose and Emmett. This seemed to be all the encouragement dad needed, and he told us pretty much the same story that I had heard this morning. I really started listening when the part that Emmett had left off at came.

"So Mike had told his parents that he was going to be going over the Cheney's house to study with their son. Once he told Robert and Claire (AN: I'm going to pretend that those are Tyler's parents' names since Charlie would keep saying 'Tyler's parents'. Okay continue:) that, they realized he was slurring his words and they all were a bit wobbly. So they called up my deputy, Paul, to come down and take them to the station. Turns out they had all had alcohol and that Newton boy even had some marijuana." He paused to shake his head. This was all fine and dandy, but what did that have to do with us? And why was Charlie so upset about it?

"Dad, where are you going with this?" Emmett asked, voicing my questions out loud.

"You'll get it soon enough. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, now I remember. So I come into the station this morning and hear this whole story. Everyone except Mike was let out after a few hours, but because I was Chief of Police, it was my call what to do with him seeing as he had an illegal drug. I talked to him for a while and he said it was a one time thing, that some kids at the party had talked him into doing it. He said he hated the way it made him feel and he would never do it again, and I believed him," He paused again, his eyes filled with something foreign. Remorse? Guilt? Pity? I couldn't decipher it.

"Anyway, I believed him. I thought I could tell when a person was lying to me so I foolishly decided to let him go with a warning. After that things quieted down and me and the boys played some poker. We got a call around mid-day that said some boys were up at the park and they were causing some sort of scene. So we head down there and it's a bunch of teenage boys being loud and causing trouble. When we get them back to the station we had to run all sorts of tests, you know like alcohol tests, drug tests, you get the deal. Anyways it turns out the were all smoking marijuana. They said that they got it from Mike Newton and he had had too much so he had passed out. They left him in his car at the park."

Charlie swallows and I realize this might be a hard story for him to recall. I put my right hand over his left one that's on the table and give it a gentle squeeze, telling him silently that it's okay. He gives me a small, sad smile and continues, "We called the hospital as soon as we got to his car, he was still passed out and they had locked the doors when the left. We brought him to Dr. Cullen, and right now he is in a coma. When the Newtons came, they told me it was all my fault that their baby was in there. That if I had kept him in custody he wouldn't have got his hands on the pot and he would be back at their house, being punished, but since I let him go I basically killed him myself. I was so angry, I mean, how could they even say something like that? My reasoning was that it was Mike's fault that he smoked too much and I wasn't the one that killed him. When I got home I was still furious." He turned to look at me and said, "I'm sorry if I worried you, honey, but I was so mad that I wasn't thinking straight. I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

I smiled softly and said, "It was no problem daddy." He smiled back tentatively.

"So as I sat on the couch, I realized that I wasn't mad at the Newtons, or even Mike himself for lying to me. I was angry at myself for not being able to tell when a seventeen year old boy was lying to my face. Because truly, I have to take some of the blame. If I had done my job of protecting the people of Forks, this wouldn't have happened." My heart broke as he said this. He couldn't possibly think he was the reason for this family's pain could he?

"Dad, you know that's not true," I pleaded with him. I was on the verge of tears when I said, "Mike was in charge of himself. He chose to go to that party. He chose to smoke pot there. He chose to lie about it. He chose to smoke it again."

"Yeah dad. Mike was an ass. He had practice in lying. There was nothing you could do about it, he wouldn't have listened to you no matter what you had told him," Emmett said, his big blue eyes glassy.

"Well whatever you two think, I know I am at least partly to blame." Both Emmett and I opened our mouths to contradict him but he held his hand up. "I've decided that next weekend I'm heading up to Seattle. I have a friend who is on the police force there and I'm going to spend a week with him and the other cops. Hopefully, if I'm exposed to a larger range of crime for a little while I'll be more suited to help the people of Forks."

"Dad, nobody expects you to be perfect one hundred percent of the time. Everybody makes mistakes. The Newtons were just upset and they took it out on you." I was crying by this point. My poor father, he took everything to heart and would agree with you even if it hurt him.

Emmett decided it was his turn to pipe up, "Yeah dad, I'd bet you right now they are probably very sorry for saying that to you and wish they could take it back." Charlie looked thoughtful for a minute, and then he let out a loud sigh.

"Alright, I'll agree with you for now. But I still want to go up to Seattle for a week so I can handle things easier around here. I've already talked to Carlisle and Esme and they said that it would be okay for you to stay with them for the week." Emmett looked down, I bet he was already planning on throwing a huge party at our house the second Charlie walked out the door. "As much as I trust you guys, right now I really don't trust my judgment so it would mean a lot to me if you stayed with them, at least for the weekend. Then I'll call you on Sunday and we'll see if you can stay in the house for the school week. Alright?"

We agreed, and the boys cleaned off the table and got to washing the dishes. I was very thankful that they enforced the "You Cook, We Clean" rule because my feet were terribly sore from walking around all day with Alice. Sometimes it's hard having a best friend that's obsessed with shopping like a complete maniac.

I started to get ready for bed and changed into the new pajama's that Alice had gotten me from the mall. She burned my comfy cotton shirts and pants last year, and now she forced me to wear only silky and lacy things to bed. They were comfortable, to an extent. I missed my cotton though.

Before going to bed I decided I would read some classic books tonight. I was reading Pride and Prejudice when all of a sudden I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. I put the book on my bedside table, switched off my light, and drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note: Well there we are! Hope you liked it! Review please!

xoxoxoxo

Laura Goode Cullen