Chapter 7: Charlie Knows
I carried the last eight bags of groceries into the kitchen and set them down on the countertop. Edward had the bags he carried in already unpacked and put away, and we made quick work of putting away the groceries from the ones I had just set down. Our refrigerator was ridiculously full for two people who didn't eat, especially considering that we would be effectively be moving out of this house later tonight. We had been home from our anniversary trip for almost a week, and our days had been busy with finalizing our travel plans and making arrangements for our move.
I talked to Dad on the phone yesterday, and he had insisted that he and Sue come over today to help us finish packing. We couldn't tell him that having to move at human speed would slow us down considerably, so we completed most of the work during the night, and were looking forward to some time with them and some other family and friends this evening.
Nessie, Jake, Dad, Sue, and Seth would be coming over this afternoon, and we had invited the rest of the wolves to join us for supper this evening. I suppose it had turned into sort of a going-away party we were throwing for ourselves. It wouldn't meet Alice's standards, with the lack of decorations, but she wasn't here. Lots of food and some friendly conversation were all that were needed for a successful party with this group.
I looked at the clock. A few minutes past noon. We had a couple hours to work on food prep before our family members would start arriving. Edward and I worked together to whip up some salads, casseroles, and desserts to go with the steak we were planning for this evening. The wolves had enormous appetites so we were quite literally preparing enough food to feed a small army. We worked silently, for the most part, since we were both holding our breath in order to avoid inhaling the stench of the human food we were preparing. It was hard to believe I once enjoyed eating this stuff.
We had helped Nessie and Jake finish packing yesterday, and the moving company had already come and picked up their things. They had packed separately just the personal items they would need to spend tonight at our house and tomorrow night in Chicago.
Edward and I would be leaving tonight after visiting with our guests, and we would be driving my Ferrari to Chicago. Mapquest estimated a 34 hour 18 minute travel time for the 2235 miles from La Push to Chicago, but at the speed we would be driving it should take no more than fourteen to fifteen hours, even taking city traffic and possible road construction into consideration.
I hadn't been too excited when I first received the red Ferrari for my birthday ten years ago, but I had quickly fallen in love with the speed and I had developed a sentimental attachment to it because of it being Edward's first gift to me in my "new life". He had suggested that we could fly for this trip instead of driving, and get new cars after arriving in New Hampshire, but I wanted to keep my car. I didn't care if it was ten years old.
Edward, however, was intent on replacing his Volvo. We had only kept it this long because both of us had a sentimental attachment to it as well. We had so many memories of time spent together in that car early in our relationship, during my human years. It was with that car that he had rescued me from certain death in Port Angeles. We were in that car together when he first acknowledged to me that he was a vampire and I told him that it didn't matter. It was with that car that he picked me up for school in the mornings, and that car was where we sat and talked for hours as we got to know one another better.
However, Edward was extremely excited about the idea of getting a newer, faster car for use at Dartmouth, where a flashy car would not stand out nearly as much as it would in Forks or La Push. Even a twelve year old Volvo stood out as one of the nicer vehicles in this town. I hated the idea of selling the Volvo, as did he, but it didn't make sense to take it with us across the country to college. So we had come up with a compromise - we would give it to Charlie.
Charlie would be retiring from the police force soon and wouldn't have the cruiser anymore, so he would be needing his own car. We still hadn't told him yet so we would need to convince him this afternoon to accept it as a hand-me-down gift. It seemed like the perfect solution - Dad gets a car he needs, Edward gets his new dream car, and we can visit our beloved Volvo whenever we come back to Forks to see Charlie.
Jake and Nessie would be driving the Aston Martin to Chicago tomorrow. Unlike us, they both needed their sleep at night, so they would be doing most of their driving during the daytime, which would work out well to allow Edward and me to have some time alone in his old Chicago home before the "kids" arrived.
Edward had his new car already ordered and it would be delivered to our home in Hanover the day after we move in. He told me what kind of car it was, but it was something I had never heard of before and I didn't pay much attention to the detailed description. He had been practically drooling over the pictures and specs of this car, and as he rambled on about the specs, my mind was more on how cute he looked when he was excited about a new toy. For a few minutes he really seemed like a seventeen year old boy.
I let my mind continue to wander while I chopped, diced, and stirred, mentally planning for all the things we still needed to do before leaving tonight, thinking about the upcoming trip, speculating on what we might find in Elizabeth's closet, and wondering what my classes at Dartmouth would be like. Soon we had the food prep nearly finished and it was almost time for Charlie and Sue to arrive.
We went into the family room and set out several empty cardboard moving boxes and set the room up to look like we had been busy packing all day.
"Charlie and Sue are almost here," Edward informed me. "Seth is right behind them."
"I'm going to miss Seth," I told him.
I was expecting him to agree, but he gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look instead.
"Is something wrong?" I demanded. I had not seen anything close to this look since the day Alice had the vision about the Volturi coming to destroy us all. This didn't seem quite that bad, but it was still going to be bad. I could tell.
"Charlie knows." Edward was looking at me intently.
"What?" A chill went down my spine.
"He knows. All I can sense from him is that he is confused and worried and wanting to ask us something, but Sue was remembering their visit with Billy yesterday. Apparently Billy was mumbling about werewolves and vampires when they visited him in the hospital. He must have been pretty heavily medicated."
"What are we going to do?" I couldn't believe Charlie was going to figure it out now, was going to ask us for details now, after ten years of careful "need to know".
"I guess we'll answer his questions." Edward seemed too calm. "I thought he was still wanting to keep all of this on a 'need to know' basis but his mind is very inquisitive tonight."
"I remember how I felt when Jacob first told me what you were. I was in denial right up until you admitted to me that I was right. Hearing the truth and having it confirmed are two very different things. Maybe we could still convince him that Billy was just talking nonsense. I don't want to give the Volturi any additional reason to come after us, and I definitely don't want them after Charlie!" I was getting pretty worked up "Why are you so calm?"
Edward's response surprised me. "I don't really think it would place him in any more danger with the Volturi. He is married to a Quileute woman, after all, and she's a member of their tribal council at that. Aro didn't mind the Quileutes knowing our secret, and he already knows that Charlie has remained in your life after your change. If the Volturi decide to come after us again they will likely manufacture their own pretense for punishing us regardless of what we actually have or have not done."
Maybe he was right. Having a word for what we are wouldn't really give Charlie much more knowledge than he already has, and as the spouse of a council member it would be expected that he would be privy to the secrets held by the tribe,
Edward continued, "I think it would be difficult to deny the truth to Charlie at this point - he has seen a great deal more over the last ten years than what you saw in those few seconds when I was rescuing you from Tyler's van. Also, your dad has never wanted us to lie to him, he just wanted to be spared the details. I believe he made that abundantly clear. You remember how angry he got when we tried to tell him Renesmee was my niece. The main reason we've kept the truth from him is because he hasn't wanted to hear it. He hasn't wanted any details and we were concerned about how he might react if he knew. But if he's changed his mind and he wants to know - I don't really see any harm in it."
"I guess you're right," I admitted. I was starting to calm down just a bit. "I just hope he doesn't have a heart attack like Harry did when Seth and Leah phased in front of him. This 'need to know' thing has been working so well." I heard Charlie's cruiser pull into our driveway but the car doors did not immediately open.
"I don't think he'll be in any danger of a heart attack. He has seen so much already, and he already knows there is something supernatural going on. He's had ten years to get used to this. I don't think the details will send him over the edge. We can talk to Sue first and see if she thinks he can handle it. I'm not sure what she may have already told him."
"That's a good idea. What's she thinking right now?"
He grimaced. "They're kissing. I'm not staying in her head for that."
"Allow me to distract you from those disturbing thoughts." I grinned as I pulled him to me and initiated a long, slow kiss that left us both wanting more.
We were jolted back to reality by a knock at the door. We hadn't even noticed the sounds of the car doors opening or the footsteps approaching our front door. "I love it when you distract me like that," he breathed.
I reluctantly disentangled myself from Edward and opened the door to hug Charlie and then Sue. Seth was just pulling into the drive so I held the door open for him as Charlie and Sue had a seat in the family room. Seth sat down on the other side of Charlie, who had already found the remote and turned the TV to the sports channel. It didn't look like he was planning to launch into his questions immediately.
"Sue, would you mind giving us a hand in the kitchen for a bit?" I asked innocently. "We were just finishing up some preparations for our meal this evening. We invited both packs to come eat with us so we're preparing a lot more than normal."
Sue rose from her seat and accompanied us into the kitchen, looking relieved to have escaped the sports channel so quickly. She looked around at the spotless kitchen in confusion.
"We've actually already finished the food prep," I told her quietly, "but we wanted to talk to you about Charlie."
"I understand Billy mentioned vampires when you two visited him yesterday." Edward chimed in. "I believe Charlie's planning to ask us about it tonight. Do you think he can handle the truth? How much have you told him already?"
"Yes," Sue acknowledged, "Billy was a bit high on narcotics yesterday. He kept muttering something about vampires and werewolves - nothing specific, but those words were recognizable and he kept repeating what he was saying over and over. I mentioned to Dr. Snow that Billy had been watching some horror movies recently, but I don't think Charlie bought that explanation. He asked me after we got home if the Cullens were the vampires Billy was referring to. I told him that whatever your secret was, it was not mine to share, and that he should ask you himself if he really wanted to know about your involvement in the supernatural world. As to whether he can handle it - I think he can. He has adjusted to so much already - both of us have - and I'll be there to help him make sense of everything. I think he's going to drive himself crazy if he keeps trying to match up vampire folklore to what he knows about your family."
"I remember that feeling," I told her. "When Jacob told me the Cullens were vampires, I went home and researched vampires on the internet. There were several common traits that seemed accurate - the superhuman strength, speed, and beauty - but there were even more that didn't make sense at all, like being burned by the sun, sleeping in coffins, and all that."
"Do you think he'll come to the same conclusion you did?" Edward asked me.
"You mean that it doesn't matter?" I chuckled, remembering Edward's initial anger at my unexpected reaction, and then grew more serious. "I certainly hope so. I can't imagine him cutting himself off from us after all this time."
"He loves you, Bella," Sue stated adamantly. "Nothing will change that." She turned to Edward. "He has grown to care for you, too, Edward. I know you didn't get off to a good start with him, but he has come to think of you as a son. He sees how happy you have made Bella, and he has accepted you as part of the family. I don't think that will change either. And you know Nessie can do no wrong in his eyes. He would never do anything to endanger his relationship with her."
"Do you think he'll question us about it tonight?" I asked her. "I hate to drop this on him right before we move, but if we're going to do this I'd much rather do it in person and get it over with."
"I'm pretty sure he will," Edward sounded confident. "Even though I can't hear his exact thoughts, I can't recall ever sensing him being this inquisitive before. He's probably just trying to figure out how to ask us. I don't think he's even paying attention to the game right now."
"I think you're right," Sue agreed. "He's been struggling with this ever since we visited Billy yesterday and I think he's reached the point where he feels like he needs to know. It will be hard for him to know how to start that conversation, but I do think he will probably ask tonight. We should wait for him to bring it up though, just in case he changes his mind about how much he wants to know."
"Let's go back to the family room," Edward suggested, "and start packing up the books and DVDs. We can try to give him some openings to talk about it if he wants to."
Sue and I both nodded in agreement, and we all headed back into the family room. Charlie and Seth were still sitting on the sofa, staring silently at the commercial playing on TV. Seth looked up at me meaningfully. I knew with his sensitive hearing he had heard our entire conversation. I was glad my stepbrother was here - he was more comfortable with us than any of the other wolves, aside from Jacob, of course. Hopefully Seth's calm demeanor would serve to help temper Charlie's reaction, just as Jacob's presence had helped when Charlie first saw me after my transformation.
"Thanks for your help, Sue." I said as we re-entered the family room. "That went much faster with an extra pair of hands."
"No problem. What can we do next? Should we start packing in here?"
"Yes, that would be great," Edward answered. "We have the other rooms nearly finished. We're not taking any of this furniture with us but we still need to pack up all of these books and DVDs." He gestured toward the floor-to-ceiling shelving that was built in to the east wall of the room. They ran the length of the room, about eighteen feet, and they were nearly full. "Don't worry about the knickknacks - Bella can pack any she wants to take with us. I don't particularly care about any of them."
We weren't planning to sell this house - we were going to leave it furnished, and we would spend the night here whenever we returned to visit Charlie. So we didn't really need to pack everything, just the things we really wanted to take with us. We didn't actually need to take all these books and DVDs, but they would be the easiest thing for Charlie & Sue to 'help' us with.
Sue grabbed a box and got to work. "Charlie, were you planning to help?"
"Sure, sure." He sighed as he rose from the sofa, and began filling another box with books from the middle of the shelves.
Seth made himself useful assembling more moving boxes. The stack of flattened unassembled boxes was about three feet high and happened to be right next to where Seth was already sitting.
Edward and I started at the far corner of the room, pulling small stacks of DVDs off the shelves at human speed.
"Are you okay, Charlie?" Edward asked. "You seem like your mind is somewhere else. Is something bothering you?"
"No, I'm okay," Charlie said unconvincingly. "Just thinking about Billy. We went to see him in the hospital yesterday."
"How is he doing?" I asked. "When we talked to Jacob yesterday morning he said Billy had been in a lot of pain and they were planning to increase the dosage of his painkillers."
"He didn't seem to be in any pain when we were there. I think they might have increased the dosage a bit too much. He seemed to be talking out of his head. I'm not sure he even knew we were there."
"Oh, well I sure hope they get that straightened out. What all did he say?" I asked.
He hesitated. Did he really want to ask us about this? "Nothing that made any sense. Some gibberish about werewolves... and... vampires." He stared intently at his half-filled box of books and focused on rearranging the ones already in the box.
"What did he say about werewolves and vampires?" Edward asked carefully. I knew he was subtly letting Charlie know that we were okay with the word "vampires", and that we were okay with discussing the topic if Charlie wanted to continue..
"Nothing much." Charlie continued fiddling with the books in his box. "Just kept repeating those words over and over." He paused and no one said anything for a long five seconds or so, and then Charlie continued. "I guess I know why he would be talking about werewolves, but I was kind of wondering about the, um, vampires." He cringed a bit as he said the word, then paused again. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you, Bella?" He asked softly, looking up at me cautiously. I had never seen him look so vulnerable. Sue had walked up behind him and placed her hand reassuringly on his right shoulder.
I looked him in the eye. "You're sure you want to ask us about this, Dad? We'll tell you as much as you need to know, but I'm not sure how much that is."
"Yes, I think I need to know now. Maybe not all the details, but I need to know what Billy meant." He reached up and placed his left hand on top of Sue's, holding her hand in place against his shoulder. I was glad he had her for support.
"You're wondering if he was talking about us?" I asked gently.
I heard his heart rate speed up. He looked embarrassed but nodded. "I've known there was something odd going on for the last ten years - obviously - but I've never tried to figure out what it was. I really didn't want to know. I've just been so grateful to have you and Nessie in my life. Now I don't know much about vampires, but I've noticed you rarely eat, and you haven't aged a day in ten years. And you look different than you used to - more like the Cullens. Especially the eyes. But none of you have fangs and I know you don't spend your days sleeping in coffins..."
"Yes, Charlie, we're vampires," Edward told him, and Charlie's heartbeat increased its pace even further. "Not the kind you see in movies - we don't have fangs, and we don't sleep in coffins. Actually we don't sleep at all. We don't eat food, and we don't age. We have supernatural strength and speed. Most of the other folklore is just myth. I'm sure you have a lot more questions but I'm not sure how much more you want to know."
"You don't eat? I know I've seen you eat a few times..."
"That was just for your benefit," I explained. "We didn't want to alarm you or have you think we had an eating disorder or anything, and we couldn't keep excusing ourselves from eating without giving you more information than you wanted at the time. We can swallow it, but we can't digest it. It, um, gets coughed back up later - sorry, that's disgusting. I'm sure you're wondering if we suck people's blood..."
"Actually, Bells, I'm not sure I want to hear about that part." He looked like he might be getting sick.
"I need to explain this - it's not as bad as it could be."
He waited silently, and didn't object a second time, so I continued. "Our family - all of the Cullens and Hales - are committed to abstaining from human blood. We hunt animals instead. I've never killed or hurt anyone. I'm still me, Dad. I'm still your little girl, just a lot more durable and a bit less clumsy. Nothing has changed in the last ten years - you just have a name now for what we are."
We waited silently for a couple minutes while Charlie processed the fact that we really are vampires. His heart rate slowly returned to a near-normal speed. I felt such relief - it didn't appear he was going to have a heart attack. Or throw up. Or run away screaming.
"You knew what you were getting into? This is what you wanted? To be a... a vampire?"
"Yes, Dad, I knew exactly what I was getting into. I've known what Edward was since a few days before I introduced him to you. He tried to talk me out becoming like him because he didn't want me to give up my humanity for him, but I knew I wanted to be with him forever, and I would have gotten old and eventually died while he remained a teenager. I am completely happy, Dad. Totally, blissfully happy. I'm much better at being a vampire than I was at being human. I always felt like I didn't fit in before, like my brain didn't work like everyone else's, but I've found my place now. My place is with Edward, wherever and however that may be."
"I know you're happy, Bella. I can see that. I guess that's really what matters most. This is just a lot to take in. How does that work, becoming a vampire? What did they do to you?"
"I don't think you want all the details there, Charlie." Edward jumped in. "But I'll give you the basics. As Jacob already told you, she would have died if I hadn't changed her. To be honest with you, I had already agreed to do it anyway because it was what she wanted, it probably would just have been a few months later. What changed our schedule was her pregnancy with Renesmee - that was completely unexpected. She insisted on carrying the baby to term even though she knew there was a significant chance that neither of them would survive. We weren't lying when we told you she was severely ill with an extremely rare condition. By the time Nessie was delivered, Bella's spine was broken and she wasn't breathing. Bella was given CPR and my venom was injected from a syringe directly into her heart. She woke up two days later as one of us, with her spine and all of her other injuries healed."
Charlie's face went pale when he mentioned my broken spine and the venom injection.
"It is what I wanted, Dad." I reassured him. "If I had it all to do over again, I would still make the same choices."
"What about you?" Charlie asked Edward. "Who changed you? Why did you decide to become..." He was having still trouble with the word "vampire."
"I didn't have a choice like Bella did, but I was also at the point of death. Carlisle wouldn't have done it otherwise." Edward went on to tell his story about the Spanish Influenza and how his mother had asked Carlisle from her deathbed to save him. He explained briefly the circumstances under which Carlisle had changed Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett, and added that Jasper and Alice had joined the family later on but went into less detail about their histories.
"Dad," I began. "Now that you know what we are, it is very important, for your safety and ours, that you not tell anyone. Not that anyone would be likely to believe you anyway, but there is one rule in our world, and that is that we not expose ourselves to humans. It's okay for the Quileutes to know, because of the whole wolf thing, but you can't say anything to anyone else."
"No worries, there, Bells. I would be committed if I talked about the things I've seen in the last ten years." He turned and looked at Sue and Seth. "You two have known about this all along?"
"I knew most of it," Sue admitted. "I knew they were vampires but I didn't know all of the history or some of the other details. I didn't like keeping it from you, but it wasn't my secret to share, and I didn't think you wanted to know."
"You're right, I didn't. I think I'm glad I know now though. At least I won't drive myself crazy thinking about what Billy said. You knew too, Seth?"
"Yeah, I know everything Jake knows. It's a wolf thing. We don't have any secrets amongst ourselves."
"So I've been the only one in the dark this whole time. Figures."
"Not exactly," I reminded him. "Remember, Renée doesn't know either. We gave her that story about us being top secret government agents."
Charlie laughed. "I'm not sure which story sounds crazier, that one or the real one!"
We all joined him in laughter. Only Renée...
"You're really okay with this, Charlie?" Edward asked. "Bella is right, she is the same person she was before you learned what we are, as am I. I hope this new information won't affect your relationship with our family."
"I'm okay. It's still sinking in though. But I definitely don't want to lose you guys. Bella will always be my baby girl. You're all right too, Edward. It's taken me a long time to admit it, but you've been good for Bella. Even if you've turned her into a... a vampire... it's apparently what she wanted and you've made her happy. And Nessie..." He looked confused. "Is she a vampire too?"
"She's half-human, half-vampire," I explained. "She sleeps at night, and she can digest regular food but prefers our diet. She matured quickly, as you know, but you may not be aware that she stopped aging a couple years ago."
"Can she and Jake have kids?"
Edward and I looked at one another. This was something we had wondered about as well.
Edward took a stab at answering. "We're not entirely sure. Carlisle and I have discussed it at length, and we both share the opinion is that the answer is 'no'. We've done extensive studies on their DNA, and it is remarkably similar, so from that perspective they seem compatible, but we suspect Renesmee's body is incapable of pregnancy. Since her birth, we have learned of four others like her in the world, one male and three females, none of whom have mates, but what we do know from those four is that once they reached maturity they stopped aging. So we speculate that her body would be unable to adapt to a pregnancy, the same as a female vampire who can't age or change. Then again, we were obviously wrong about Bella and me - we never dreamed it would be possible for me to father a child - so we're really not certain. As far as we know, marriage between a half-vampire and a werewolf is completely unprecedented. Nessie and Jake are a very unique couple."
We also knew Nessie and Jake have been taking precautions to avoid pregnancy, but Charlie didn't need that level of personal information. They weren't ready for kids yet at this point in their lives, and even if they were, the birth of a tri-racial part-human, part-vampire, part-wolf baby would definitely attract unwanted attention from the Volturi. And Charlie didn't need to know about them either.
"About you all not aging..."
"Yes?" I wondered where he was going with this, since I knew he was already aware we hadn't changed at all since high school.
"Well, does that mean you'll live longer? Since you won't get old?"
"Exactly." I smiled, knowing he would like this. "We can potentially live forever." I watched his eyes get larger. "That's our plan, anyway. The only way we can die is if we are killed by another vampire, or by a werewolf. And we've made friends with the werewolves, so we should be safe on that point."
"That's really something. I guess I don't really need to worry about your safety as much as I do." He paused briefly. "Well, we'd better get back to packing up these books if you kids are planning to leave tonight." Charlie resumed packing as if his distraction had been a good play by a sports team on TV, rather than a conversation about his daughter and her family being undead immortals and the reproductive ability of his half-vampire granddaughter and her werewolf husband.
He really seemed okay with this. Jacob had been right. Charlie was tougher than he looked. I smiled at Dad's use of the word "kids" in reference to Edward and me. He still didn't realize that Edward was old enough to be his great-grandfather.
