Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me through all this angst! I know it has been difficult. I, along with a lot of you, have wanted to smack Bella. She just couldn't seem to get out of her own way for awhile. Well, things are looking up for once. Thanks again for all of your thoughtful reviews. I appreciate it.

I know I usually post on Saturdays, but this was ready so I thought why not. Hope you like it.

AN: I do not own Twilight.

Chapter 7

Meeting My Father

"We cannot destroy kindred: our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break." ~Marquise de Sévigné

BPOV

I felt heavy all over, and sore. My hands were on fire and my head hurt something fierce. I was lying down and it was…comfortable. Not like a bed, but not like the hard ground either. I swallowed and it felt like cotton balls going down my throat.

What the hell had happened to me? Where was I?

All I could remember was the desperate feeling of wanting my mother. I wanted her to hold me and tell me everything was going to be okay?

Was everything okay? Was I dead?

Slowly I began to move and I heard paper crinkling underneath me. Clearly, I wasn't dead. Upon opening my eyes I saw a drop ceiling with recessed lighting that was turned down low. Looking from side to side I could see I was in some type of examining room, maybe a hospital. I tried to sit up to get a better look around but the pain in my head immediately made me dizzy and nauseous.

"Hey, take it easy now. Just relax." My eyes darted to where the voice came from. I thought I had been alone and I panicked as I saw the hulking form of a man sitting in a chair in the far corner of the room. The combination of the dim room and my vision being a little blurry made it difficult to make out his face. He stood up and took a couple of steps towards me.

"I…I…please…don't..." I inched my way close to the far edge of the table. Tears filled my eyes as flashbacks of James moving towards me just like this man was doing ran through my head. The man stopped immediately.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

I know that voice.

I had only heard it a couple of times, but I recognized it. The familiarity of it acted like a trigger and all of a sudden I remembered everything: the diner, the last piece of apple pie, Edward Cullen, almost getting hit by the Hummer…Charlie Swan. He was the one standing a few feet from me and as I tried to clear the cobwebs from my vision, my eyes confirmed it. He didn't try to come any closer but cleared his throat in preparation to speak.

"I'm the police chief here in Forks. My name is Char…"

"I know who you are." I said quietly without taking my eyes off him. We just stared at each other for a few minutes before blew out a big breath that he didn't even seem to realize he was holding.

"That's good because I think I know who you are too." He swallowed down the emotion beginning to spill out of him. "After all these years…I need to know if you're…" He struggled to get out his thoughts as he looked at me with wide eyes. A ghost, someone he thought he'd never see again, stood before him. It was clear that this was painful for him and I wanted to ease that pain for him.

"I'm…I'm your daughter, Chief Swan. I'm Isabella." As the words left my mouth he took another deep breath and the tears that had been threatening to come out filled his eyes.

"But how….why…does your mother know you're here?" The mention of my mother opened the floodgates of tears and information that I couldn't hold back anymore. The words started falling out of my mouth

"Mom is dead. She and Da…I mean Phil were in a car accident last week. The funeral was two days ago." A myriad of emotions crossed his face. Confusion, shock, anger, pain…they were all there. He was about to say something, probably that he was sorry, but I just couldn't hear that right now. Not if I was to get through the rest of what I had to say. So I cut him off before he had the chance. "All my life she never said a word about you. I didn't know anything about you and just assumed you weren't alive or just a dead beat dad. And then after the funeral I found your letters, the ones you wrote when I was little, and I couldn't believe you were real and wanted me. I don't have anyone anymore and I don't have anywhere to go. You're the only person I have left. I need to know if what you said in those letters is still true. If it's not, I promise I'll leave and I won't bother you again. I just had to take the chance…" I was a sobbing mess by the time I finished my rambling rant.

He stepped forward so that he was closer to me and as much as I wanted to flinch, I resisted. He wasn't going to hurt me. I knew that. He brought his hand up to my head and ran his hand down my hair very lightly, trying to see for himself that I was indeed real. "Shhhhh. Don't cry, Bells." I was taken back a little by the name he used to refer to me, but it must not have shown through the tears that were still streaking down my face. I wanted to ask him about that name, what it meant, but there was a soft knock on the door before I could. Charlie immediately took a step back as an older, yet devastatingly attractive man entered the room. His looks normally would have sent me into a tailspin but the golden blond hair wasn't even close to the right shade and his brilliant blue eyes held nothing but compassion. He looked nothing like James and I felt somewhat at ease with him.

The man I assumed was a doctor looked at me before glancing at Charlie. My emotional state and his close proximity clearly didn't faze the doctor. I had a feeling he and Charlie had a conversation and he knew exactly who I was. As he walked towards me he grabbed the box of tissues on the counter and offered it to me as if my crying was the most natural thing in the world. I felt myself tense up as he got closer. It was irrational but I couldn't help it.

Relax. He is not going to hurt you.

"Charlie." He nodded and gave him a knowing look before turning his attention to me. I forced myself to relax a little. "Miss Dwyer, I'm Dr. Carlisle Cullen. How are you feeling?" He said as he shined a light into my eyes and starting checking me over.

"Please, Dr. Cullen, you can call me Bella." He smiled and I think his face actually sparkled.

"As long as you call me Carlisle. Okay?" I nodded in response. "Great, now that we got that settled, how about you tell me how you are feeling, Bella." Another breathtaking smile.

"My head hurts a lot, but other than that I feel fine." Overall I really did feel okay physically. I would have felt a lot worse if I was hit by the Hummer so I guess I had no complaints.

"That's to be expected considering you were out for over an hour. I've bandaged up your hands, but other than that you don't seem to have any other injuries. You should be fine, but I do think you shouldn't be alone tonight." I started shaking my head.

"I'll be okay. I'm staying at the motel…" I was interrupted before I could finish.

"She's going to come home with me. I'll look after her." We both just stared at Charlie as my jaw dropped and Carlisle's faced morphed into a smile. "That is…um…if you want to." Suddenly Charlie was all nervous, which made me nervous as well.

"Oh, well, I don't want to be an inconvenience." I said quietly looking at the floor. Carlisle must have felt the awkwardness of this little family moment and attempted to excuse himself.

"I'm just going to give you two a moment. Take your time and come out when you're ready." Carlisle slipped out of the room without another word. I looked up to see that Charlie was staring right at me.

"Inconvenience? Not a chance, Bells. I know I don't know the whole story as to why you are standing here in front of me and I am eventually going to want to hear it. But right now, it doesn't really matter. Please, stay at the house and we'll figure all this out…together." He looked at me with sincerity and for the first time in since I left Florida I actually felt like things might turn out okay.

"Okay, that sounds good. Thank you." He nodded as I slowly got down off the examining table and took a minute to steady myself. Charlie reached out to help me with my balance before opening the door and holding it for me so I could leave the room.

I stepped out into a waiting room that clearly didn't belong to a hospital. Carlisle was looking over a chart near the receptionist's desk and looked up when the door opened. Charlie went over to shake his hand.

"I'm assuming we're all good." He looked at me with a questioning glance.

"Yes, thank you, Carlisle. I'm going to be staying at Charlie's for…" I didn't finish that thought because I truly didn't know. Was Charlie's invitation for the night, a few days, weeks, I wasn't sure. Fortunately for me, Charlie was.

"For as long as she likes." He tentatively smiled at me before turning his attention towards Carlisle. "Thanks again, Doc."

"Anytime. I'm just glad I'll be able to report that Bella is alive and well. Esme has been so worried. She has texted and called about fifteen times." He chuckled and it sounded so…attractive. Which reminded me…

"Um, Carlisle, is Edward here? I would like to thank him for helping me out." The good doctor actually smirked at my question and I suddenly felt that he knew more than he was letting on.

"No, he had a shift at the hospital. He didn't want to leave until he saw for himself that you were okay, but they don't like it when their residents don't show up on time. I'd be happy to relay the message when I see him if you want."

"That would be great, thank you." I don't know why, but I was a little disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to talk to him in person.

Because you like him.

Wait, no I don't. Sure he was super attractive and he had been nice to me, but like him? No way. I fell for good looks once and look where it got me. The self-preservation instinct screamed at me that I needed to be cautious and not let just anyone close to me. Besides, I was not ready for anything like that and wouldn't be for a long time. Charlie cleared his throat and brought me back to the moment.

"I'll drive you over to the motel to get your things. We'll come back in the morning for your car. I don't think you should be driving just yet." I nodded. I was pretty sure I was fine, but the way Charlie was trying to take care of me tugged at my heart a bit. It was just another indication that he really glad that I was here.

"Okay. Thanks again, Carlisle."

"It was nice to meet you, Bella. I hope next time it's under more pleasant circumstances."

We walked out of Carlisle's office and I could see that it was located right next the diner just as Edward had said it was.

Talk about convenient.

We walked past my rental car and Charlie opened the passenger side door of the cruiser. I was thankful that there was no one in the parking lot at the moment. I didn't want to have to socialize and talk about me or my situation, especially since I had yet to give Charlie the full version. The drive to the motel was short and when we got there, Charlie gave me some time to get my stuff together. He made himself busy by heading toward the office to talk to Billy. Apparently they were good friends.

I gathered my things; careful to put all the items I had that said 'Bella Swan' on them all together. Luckily, I had only been carrying my 'Isabella Dwyer' license on me. It would have looked suspicious if I had two different forms of identification with two different names in my wallet, so I left the one that had 'Swan' on it behind. I wasn't sure what I was going to do about all that, but I would have to figure it out soon. I did know that the longer I went around as Isabella Dwyer, the more dangerous it would be for me.

Would it look weird to everyone if I went ahead and legally changed my name to Swan even though I had only been here for a couple of days?

Probably, but that's most likely what I was going to end up doing. That is if I could even do it legally and still be safe. Anyway you spin it, I was going to have to lie to Charlie and everyone else for that matter. I wasn't ready to tell anyone about my husband, especially the Chief of Police.

I put all of the fake documentation into the manila envelope I had been carrying it in and then put it in my backpack. I would have to make sure no one found it. I hadn't really unpacked anything else so repacking was easy. Once I was finished, I put it all in the cruiser and headed around to the front with the room key so I could check out.

I walked into the office and Charlie beamed at me. "So Billy, you've met my…daughter." It was like he was trying the word out for the first time. Phil had used that word a thousand times to describe me and I never gave it a second thought. It took on a whole different meaning hearing it from Charlie. He could have questioned the truth of what I said, told me it was too late, dismissed me for my mother's mistakes…but he didn't. He accepted me as if the last twenty plus years had never existed. He never stopped loving me. The truth of that was evident in his eyes. And now he was introducing me to his friends as his daughter. That was proof that he wanted me as a permanent person in his life. The thought made my heart swell.

"I sure have, although I had no idea who she was when she checked in." His expression changed all of a sudden to one of pure sympathy. "I feel for ya, being related to him and all. He's one miserable son of a…"

"Okay then, I think we should get going. You all set?" Charlie asking me before Billy embarrassed him any further. I smiled in amusement.

"Yeah, I'm ready. Thanks for everything, Billy." I said as I handed over the key to my room.

"No problem. Listen, if he gets too cranky for ya, come back and I'll hook you up." Charlie rolled his eyes and I chuckled.

"I'll keep that in mind."

A few twist and turns later Charlie pulled up to a decent sized house with a huge front porch. Immediately I could see myself reading a book on the porch swing that just begged to be sat in. "Is this…did I live here?" I hadn't meant to ask so abruptly but the thought that this was my childhood home where I lived with my mom and Charlie was overwhelming. There was nothing that struck me with recognition, but I was three when we left. I didn't expect to remember anything.

"Um, yeah, this was the house we bought when I married your mother." Sadness overtook his eyes for a split second before he motioned for me to head inside. I walked up the steps and opened the front door, which was unlocked.

"You know, you really should lock your door when you're not home." Half of me was teasing him in a playful manner. The other was scared to death of walking into a house that had been wide open for the entire world to enter if they so wished.

"You're probably right. I guess I never felt the need." Of course he didn't. He was the goddamn chief of police. No one in their right mind would think about violating his property.

James is not in his right mind and thinks I'm his property.

The door from now on would be locked at all times. I would be making sure of that.

Charlie gave me a tour of the house that lasted about all of five minutes. It was clean, but it was evident a man was responsible for keeping it up. It was generically decorated with a few feminine touches throughout that were extremely outdated. They were probably my mother's doing when she lived here. I was immediately sad. Sad that she wasn't here anymore and sad that Charlie had not moved on at all. It was clear he was still hanging on to what they had. He still had their wedding picture on the mantel for crying out loud.

He apologized for the state of my childhood room which was still decorated for a three year old. A crib sat in the corner of the room with Strawberry Shortcake bedding and a toy box sat underneath the window. I couldn't believe he had left it all these years exactly as it had been. Why hadn't he made the room into an office or something? Had he been waiting for me to come back? I didn't realize I was still staring at it until he started talking about the room not being suitable for an adult.

"Tomorrow we'll get you a real bed and a desk or something. You can do whatever you want to it. And I meant what I said. You can stay here as long as you like." He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand and stared at the room even though it was clear that he wasn't focusing on anything in particular. He was nervous.

"Thank you, Charlie, for everything. I'd like to stay…for awhile, if you don't mind. The room is perfect." I tried to smile but all I could manage was to anxiously nibble on my lower lip.

"I'm glad you're here."

"Me too." I suddenly felt that I owed Charlie some answers. He had been so receptive, so giving. He needed to know, but the thought of reliving everything was unbearable at the moment. "Listen, Charlie, I know you deserve the full story and I really, really want to give it to you. It's just I don't think I can right now. It's just too hard." The tears started to well up in my eyes.

"Shhh, don't cry, Bells. Whenever you're ready. I just can't believe you're really here."

"Why do you keep calling me that?" It was the third time I heard him refer to me with that name.

"What, Bells?" I nodded. "I called you that on the day you were born and it just stuck, I guess. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, I'll stop."

"No, no, I just wanted to know. I actually kind of like it." The smile that formed on his face made me feel like I had given him the world. I liked that he had a nickname for me. I liked that it was one that belonged to only us.

"Okay, Bells it is then. I thought we could order a pizza tonight and just relax. I figured you didn't want to go anywhere."

"That sound great, Charlie." And that's what we did. We at pizza, drank beer, and got caught up on our lives. I talked about growing up in Florida and he told me about being the police chief. The conversation never got too heavy, that was for another day. I slept on the couch that night. Charlie tried to get me to take his bed but I wasn't having it. He had already done so much. Even as he climbed up the stairs to bed he promised that the couch was only a one night thing. Feeling more relaxed and content than I had in a long time, I fell asleep quickly that night.

My father wanted me.

Well there you have it. I hope I did their reunion justice. Let me know what you think. Thanks!

~Isannah