A/N: Okay, this one was a fun one to write, hope you guys like it! Getting along further on the rewrite so hopefully I'll have the whole thing done sooner than I thought!

Disclaimer: The worlds of Supernatural and Twilight belong to their respective owners. I claim nothing but the adapted plot lines!

Chapter 3: Nice Ride

July 24, 2007

The night passed by much too quickly and I found myself waking up early out of habit. At least that hasn't changed.

I changed into my sweats and put on my beat-up running shoes and snuck out of the house. This was something Sam and I did regularly, we would leave Dean asleep in the motel room and we would run around the parking lot two or three times. It ended up being a competition to see who could make it back to the room and I would always finish first.

The neighborhood that Charlie lived in was easy to get lost in but that meant that I could find different paths back to the house, some through the woods. If I was being completely honest, this wasn't just a casual run around the block. I had decided last night that I would do a quick sweep and get a feel for the neighborhood. If I had learned anything it was that monsters loved nothing more than to hide in the most unlikely places.

My sweep came up negative, but I decided to keep an eye on the Smith's two blocks down, their yard was too perfect….

"Enjoy your run." Charlie muttered as I walked into the kitchen.

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. "Yeah, it really cleared my head." Then I remembered I was supposed to be mad at him. I sat down at the table and sipped my water quietly.

"Bella I'm sorry –" he started to say.

"Don't worry about it Charlie." I pushed in my chair and went to throw my water bottle in the recycling. "I'm over it."

"Sure you are." He frowned and examined me. "So what are you gonna do today?"

"I don't know, I guess I'll just go out and explore a bit. See what all has changed and what hasn't." I really hadn't decided what I wanted to do. It would be nice to find a case that I could work. That would be great, but I didn't know if I could get away with walking everywhere, and in a small town like this stealing a car without someone finding out is next to impossible.

Charlie huffed and slid his chair away from the table. "You'll need a car to do that." It was like he could read my mind….

"I know…." I frowned. "I don't have enough money to buy one." I muttered to myself. "And you wouldn't approve of me stealing one…."

"I heard that…." He grumbled.

"Sorry." I smiled sheepishly.

"Well, if that's your terms then I guess I'll have to let you borrow mine."

"The cruiser? Wouldn't that be considered using government property for personal gain?"

"No, not the company car, come on…." He led me out back to the garage that had barely been used. I didn't even know there was anything useful out there. He took a key out of his pocket and struggled to pull the door up. "The hinges are rusted…"

"Here, let me help." I walked over to the opposite side of the door and helped him push it up. Inside the small garage was an even smaller car, pretty basic, a tan sedan with plain tan interior. That was about all I could tell you about it. Dean was the car guy in my family, he would have died to sit in that car but it was fine for me. "This is yours?"

"Yeah, I bought it when Renee and I first got married." He smiled. "Just a little something to drive around town, we didn't buy it new, it was about six years old when we got it. But it's barely been used since I have the cruiser now."

"It's great Charlie." I walked over to the driver's side and the door was unlocked. "I guess you don't have to worry about anyone stealing it." I smiled.

"Well it's an older car and I kinda am the sheriff around here." He smiled. "The key is in the ignition. I do have one condition tough…."

I smirked and then slammed the door. "You want me to get a license right?"

"I can't have you breaking the law when I'm the law around here. It sets a bad precedent for the rest of them."

"I know." I rolled my eyes. "I'll go take it if it makes you feel better." I walked out of the garage and offered him my hand. "Shake on it?" He laughed and took my hand and shook it roughly. "Don't pull my arm out of its socket. That's my shooting hand…" I smiled to take the sting out of my complaint.

"Sure, sure." He rolled his eyes and shut the garage door again, with my help. Then he started walking towards the cruiser. "Are you coming?"

"Why?" I followed him curiously. "Where are we going?"

"Down to the station, that's where the DMV office is." He opened the passenger door for me and I climbed in.

I waited till he got in the driver's side before I asked, "Is Forks so small that they couldn't have two separate buildings for that?"

"It's not because were small, it's more efficient that way." He grumbled as he put the car in gear and drove away from the house.

On the way to the station I noticed a few things had changed, the buildings were showing a little more wear, but the schools were still made up of small buildings grouped closer together with a chain-link fence guarding the perimeter. It took some time to get adjusted to the lay out of the city but I had a feeling that after a few days driving around I would know the city like the back of my hand. When we got to the station everyone greeted Charlie and asked who I was. Basically it was the same conversation held multiple times with multiple people. This is how it went down.

Random person: Hey Charlie! (Insert short anecdote here)

Charlie: I've been good (Insert name here).

Random person: Who is this? (They look at me with curiosity ranging from kinky new girlfriend who's looking for a sugar daddy to some homeless person who followed him in the building)

Charlie: This is my daughter Bella. She's come to stay with me for a while.

Me: Hello (Insert name here) It's nice to meet you to.

And that was about it.

But in all honesty, I met some really nice people here. There was Sherry who ran the front desk at the office, Officer Rickman who was Charlie's deputy, and Officer Sanchez who was Rickman's partner.

When Charlie showed me his office I was taken aback. When I was a kid I had only come into this room once or twice in the 13 years I lived with Charlie, I would always stay up front with the secretary. Now I knew why….

"This place is a mess Charlie!" I tried to contain myself. Papers were scattered everywhere, there was some unidentifiable odor coming from somewhere in the room, and it was so dark in here that I wondered how he got any work got done.

"I know I need to do some work to the office, I've gotten a bit lax." He smiled sheepishly as he made his way to his desk.

"A bit…." I stared at the stacks of papers and picked up the top page. "This is dated from 2000…."

"And I need someone to do some filing…." He grumbled as he flipped his computer on.

An idea hit me then, this would be the perfect way to look for new cases, and Charlie wouldn't notice a few pages missing here and there. "Why don't I file this stuff for you Charlie?"

Charlie scrutinized me and I tried to look as innocent as I possibly could to relieve myself of his suspicion. "That would be nice of ya kid. Thanks."

So after a quick trip downstairs and one temporary license in hand, I came back upstairs and got to work. Most of the paperwork was junk mail that Charlie never threw out, but there were a few interesting things to be found in there.

I made piles of paper in the floor: Junk mail to shred, invoices to be filled properly, important documents for him to go through at home, and interesting case files to be explored later. In the end, the junk pile won out as the largest stack.

"What's that pile?" He spotted the stack of case files that I was trying to hide.

"That? Oh it's just some more stuff for you to go through, I don't know how they ended up there…." I was going to have to be crafty to sneak them out of here.

There was a knock at Charlie's office door and a petite woman poked her head in and looked right at me. "Miss Swan? It's time for your road test." Her voice was high and squeaky like she'd sucked all the helium out of a balloon before she had come in here.

"Road test?" I bit my lip hesitantly.

"Did you think it was gonna be just a written test and they would let you leave here with your license?

"Yes, right this way please." The squeaky voiced woman piped up.

I let her drag me out of the office and out into the parking lot. Since I didn't bring my own car they provided me with one, it was an old Buick that looked like it would have come over on the Mayflower. It was crusty, rusty and had some unknown odor originating from the trunk.

"Are you sure this is a DMV car and not a murder scene?" I laughed lightly as we got in the car. Apparently miss squeaky voice didn't like my joke. She kept her eyes on the clipboard that she was scribbling on.

"Pull out of the parking lot safely please, and then we will begin."

Okay Bella, you can do this, Dean taught you how to drive, you can do this…. I touched the ancient radio dials and she glared at me over the clipboard. Well this wasn't gonna end well….

I made it out of the parking lot without any major difficulties and was on the road before no time. Thankfully it was light traffic out; I hated driving in short bursts and then sudden stops. My foot was itching to push this car as fast as it was able but I'm sure squeaky over there would have blown a gasket if I did. It was so hard following the rules of the road.

I had gone from being a cop's kid for 13 years to living by my own code and throwing the rulebook out the window as we spun tires down the highway. It took some time but I finally stopped nagging Dean about the speed limit and just let him do what he wanted. He was so stubborn….

"Stop!" Her shrill voice broke through my thoughts as I almost wrecked the car by missing a stoplight.

I stomped on the breaks throwing us both forwards as the car came to a screeching halt. "Sorry…." I looked over and smiled, her glasses were askew and her clipboard was now in the floor. "I'm really sorry…."

"It's okay…." She fixed her glasses and picked the clipboard up again.

After that I decided to pay more attention to the road and less to day dreaming. We made it back to the station in once piece and with a little help from Charlie I passed the test. Thankfully, she had the biggest crush on Charlie….

"So how does it feel to have a legally acquired license?" He asked on the way home that night.

"About the same as getting a fake one, but you're right, If I intend to live a normal life then I have to worry about things like this." I pointed to the temporary license that was stuffed down in its proper place in my scruffy wallet.

"That's good to hear." Charlie smiled as he pulled into the diner. "Sorry, I wanna treat you to dinner but I don't feel like cooking."

"It's okay." I returned his smile and we went inside.

So the next few days were spent with my newly acquired car and getting it ready to be road tested. Charlie came out and helped me when he could spare a moment but those were few and far between. This was a good thing and a bad thing, it was good because I didn't mind being alone but it gave me way too much time to think.

My mind drifted, as it usually did, to the boys. After the first few dozens of emails a day I would send to Sam he decided to check in with me on a regular basis. He kept reminding me that they were working and it was hard to stop long enough to catch a breath much less to read a novel's worth of emails. It was so hard, not having that physical contact with them. I was left feeling slightly hollow, like I had left a piece of myself in that Impala. My head was quiet; it was odd for me to have my head to myself after sharing it with Sam for so long. It was nice to have my private thoughts private again.

When the rare occasions arose that they would call me, or answer my own calls, Dean barely spoke to me anymore, or he wasn't there. Sam was getting worried about him, he would say things like 'Dean doesn't care that he's dying in a few months.' In a way I could understand him, it's frustrating when Dean goes out and does stupid things, knowing how long he's got. But I also understand why he's doing it. But if I had only a few months to live, I would want to do everything on my 'bucket list' as it were. So I guess 'I'm still of two minds' about it.

Then I would let my thoughts drift to Jo and Ellen. They had been good friends to me that night I first ran away from Bobby's house to join the boys on a hunt. Ellen seems like a good person to me, I hope she'll let Jo stretch her wings a bit. There is such a thing as too controlling. I wondered if Ellen ever let Jo go out on a hunt, or if she had gone out with her daughter. They would make a great team I think. I wonder if Mom and I would have made a great team. It was probably stupid to think about stuff like that. If Mom was alive, we may not have even turned out as hunters, there was just no way of knowing.

A lot of things probably wouldn't have happened if Mom was alive. I wouldn't be stuck here in exile and be away from my brothers, then again, we could have grown up normally and be separated at this point, living separate lives with separate families and maybe getting together once a month. The apple pie life, as Dean called it once.

Now my thoughts go back to Dean….

I looked over at the small wall clock and it said it was a quarter past 2 am. "Wow, time flies when you worry." I said to myself as I pushed myself out from under the car and headed back to the house for the night. I snuck in the kitchen door as quietly as possible and cursed every creaking board that sounded amplified in the darkness. Finally I reached my bedroom and grabbed my old pj's and crept to the bathroom to wash up.