Innocence Lost; Chapter Eight
Mega Edition
No one needs to know how it feels.
No one needs to understand.
Because they can't have a hold on us.
It's not just any kind of love;
I know when something is too sacred to touch.
I'm Here, Aly & AJ, Insomniatic
.EDWARD.
I helped Bella sit down in the car, but she pushed my hands away when they went around her waist. I recoiled, thinking that she didn't want me to touch her, "I need to do this myself, Edward. Thank you, but I need to do this myself."
I let her get in by herself, I walked at a human pace over to the drivers side before criticizing her courage and stubbornness. With Bella, there was a fine line between the two.
"Bella, I shouldn't even been letting you out the house. Your wounds are still fresh. I wish you would let me help you," I heard her teeth clench together, she took a deep breath. She was trying to hold back something, "What Bella?" I asked trying not to be agitated.
She sighed, "Would you really kill him?"
I knew exactly who she was talking about. Did she want me to? I would in a heartbeat; if it meant my Bella would be happy again. Even if my family deserted me afterwards, even if I had to hide for the rest of eternity with Bella. If killing Mike meant she would be happy again I would take any repercussion for it. I looked at her with as much intensity as I could in the car, "No," I lied, "I know how you would react to that. I'll just let the law deal with him."
She slouched against her seat, cringing, "Edward! Can you stop bringing that up! I don't want to press charges against him, it's just going to draw the whole thing out. I just want to put it behind me."
"Bella, this isn't something you just forget about like burnt spaghetti. It's real and it happened."
She made an adorable aggravated sound, "I've told you before I'm good at forgetting traumatic events."
And she had been true to her word, everything that had happened in our past together she had put behind her, wrapped herself up in me and pushed it all to the back of her head. I was amazed, I was the causer of it all and all I had to do was look into her eyes and she could forget all her worries.
Of course, that wouldn't work this time.
"Oh my God," Bella cried out in horror.
I shifted towards her, had she hurt herself, "Love, what is it?"
"You're driving the normal speed limit," she pointed at the speedometer, I stared momentarily at the glowing blue veins in her wrist. I pulled her hand to my mouth, kissing the palm, breathing in the scent radiating off of her pulse point. I could stay here forever.
"I figured you would want time to figure out what you were going to say to Charlie. He's going to be pissed at first; it's almost six in the morning. I'll be there for you the entire time, no matter what Charlie says," I reached into the back seat where Alice had thrown a sweatshirt for Bella, "There should be a hair tie in there for you."
When we parked in front of her house Bella pulled the sweat shirt over her head and took the hair band out of the pocket, "Be careful, there's stitches somewhere up there."
Daughter to father, daughter to father!
I am broken, but I am hoping.
Daughter to father, daughter to father!
I am crying, a part of me's dying.
And these are, these are,
The confessions of a broken heart!
Confessions of a Broken Heart, Lindsay Lohan
.BELLA.
I turned to Edward after I pulled my hair on top of my head, he smiled and pulled small strands of hair out of it, "I like it when your hair is down," he said, I wasn't sure if he meant to.
"It looks better when it's combed out," I said, I couldn't look him in the eye. I knew that if I did I would see everything I would have to do within five minutes.
"You could never look bad, Bella," he said, skimming my jaw, his cool touch making each bruise stand out and feel better. He kissed each bruise, each scratch.
"What am I supposed to tell him?"
"What do you want me to say?" he cupped my facing, brushing his thumbs against my cheek.
"Lie to me, you're awfully good at it," I closed my eyes and leaned into his hand, he jerked me back up, forcing me to look into his eyes.
"I told you I'm sorry about that, Bella. It was a rash and ill though out decision on my part and I'm going to do everything in my power to make up for leaving you," he said quickly and intensely.
"I'm sorry," I shook my head as a light went on in my house, "This really isn't the time to be talking about this. I shouldn't have brought it up."
Within a second Edward was opening my door and helping me out, "Tell Charlie the truth, Bella. He's going to find out anyway. Mike is going to be held for another twelve hours."
I shuddered at the thought of what telling Charlie meant, Charlie would want me to take this to trial as well. Not only because it was "the right thing to do" but because it would reflect on his image if I didn't. Maybe I could go through with it. If I didn't Edward might take it into his hands and kill Mike; forcing us to leave Forks. And Charlie would be viewed as an inadequate police officer because he wasn't taking a criminal to trial.
Could I really do any of this?
I'm gonna watch you shine.
Gonna watch you grow.
Gonna paint a sign
So you'll always know
As long as one and one is two
There could never be a father
Who loved his daughter more than I love you.
Daughter and Father, Paul Simon
.CHARLIE.
My alarm clock went off at six, another day in Forks. I went over to Bella's door to make sure she's up. I hadn't heard her come in the night before and I wanted to be sure she wouldn't oversleep. I knew how much that bothered her, even on Saturdays.
I knocked again when there was no answer. I opened the door slowly. Her bed was still made and her desk was empty, "Damn it."
Thoughts ran through my mind. I knew that she had gone to that party near Billy's last night but perhaps she had gone over to that boyfriend's house of hers last night. I walked over to her bed and saw that her boyfriend's car was out there.
"Damn it," I raced out the front door, "Bella, what the hell are you doing?"
After I thought that she had fully understood the rules of being grounded she was breaking them so blatantly and so extremely. Edward helped her out of the car and although I was used to her klutzy walk I noticed it was a little slower than normal.
What the hell had he done?
"Bella, you need to get inside right now. Edward please leave the premises, you are no longer allowed to see Bella outside of school."
"Mr. Swan, Bella and I would like to talk to you. Bella and I need to talk to you," her boyfriend said politely. I looked at both of them, Edward seemed to supporting most of her weight and Bella looked more tired than ever.
"No. Bella and I can talk inside, Edward you can leave. You can see Bella on Monday," unless I decided she would be home schooled from now on.
"Daddy, no. Edward needs to be here, for me," she never called me daddy, not even when she was little.
"Come in," I said against my better judgment. I led them into the kitchen room and we sat down at the table, "Bella, why is your faced bruised?" if Edward had laid one hand on her I would willingly give up my gun and police badge for just one shot at him.
"It's okay, Bella. You can tell him," Edward said. Beyond my hatred for him I was touched by his kindness towards my daughter.
"I went to that party at the beach last night," she started. Something had happened to her, she started to hyperventilate, tears were running down her face.
"Bella, what happened?" I said, trying not to be angry at her and trying not to go into interrogator mode.
"I decided to go for a walk because the party was so loud and someone followed me," no. No. That couldn't happen to my baby. I was the protector of this town and to have one of the people I was supposed to be after hurt my child, my daughter was disgusting and hypocritical.
"Who was it, Bella?" she shook her head. She was protecting her attacker, I turned towards Edward, surely he knew.
"Bella, you need to tell your father. He'll find out once he goes to work," Edward told her.
"The bastard is there?" I yelled, I got up from the seat and grabbed my jacket and gun ready to go down there and give the bastard what he deserved.
"Daddy, no. You can't do that," she cried out, "You'll lose your job. Don't hurt him," her voice was small and terrified. Like nothing had ever heard before, even during the nightmares of her childhood.
"Just tell me who did it, Bells," I walked over to the table and knelt down beside her. I felt guilty, this was a trick that was used to interview young children; get at their eye level and they will be less intimidated.
She fell into me and, shocked, I put my arms around her, "It was Mike. Mike Newton. He didn't mean to though, he didn't want to hurt me."
I held her to me, not wanting to her go, "Dad that hurts."
"What?"
"My back is scratched up. Carlisle already looked at it."
I turned to Edward again, "My father is at the hospital lab right now doing all the tests. She's been checked already been checked, she's fine. Just some scratches, bruises, she has ten stitches on her scalp. Nothing unexpected in a case like this."
"She couldn't of been checked without my permission, that's against the law."
"I'm eighteen, Dad. I'm an adult now."
And she was, "Okay," I kissed her forehead and stood up, "I'm going to go in. You'll have to come down later today and give us a report of exactly what happened. I'll call you. You should just rest for now."
I went out to my car and sat there, crying for Bells.
I drove to work when I realized I had never kicked Edward out of the house.
Here you go again
Doubting yourself
For no good reason
You're listening to someone else.
I'm Here, Aly & AJ, Insomniatic
.ALICE.
"Alice, will Bella ever realize that she isn't the one at fault?" Jasper asked me. We were both sitting on the bed, me in Jas's lap, Jas leaning against the headboard. He was reading another one of his books, while I thought more about the situation with Bella.
I knew that it bothered Jasper when I was so tangled up with something the emotions would vibrate off of me like a huge parade drum, but I simply couldn't help myself. If I hadn't been so selfish, I could have seen that vision. We could have taken the precautions.
"It's not your fault either, Alice! We can't control everything that goes on around us and until Edward realizes that no matter how hard he tries Bella will still get hurt things like this will keep happening. Bella will continue to fall down and scrape her knees, of course we all had hoped that it would only amount to scraped knees but the world doesn't always work out like that. It's unfair, but that's just how it is," Jasper said frantically.
"I know that. But, oh, I don't know, it's like⦠if I can place the blame then it can all be fixed. Bella can forgive the person and we can all get on with it," I turned around in his lap and leaned against his chest. He ran calming circles on my back a feeling of peace fell upon me.
"We can blame someone. We can blame Newton. But Bella needs to see that it's up to her for him to be punished."
I closed my eyes and I tried to focus on the place where my visions came from; the fuzzy feeling in the back of my head, "I don't see anything. I hate this."
"We all do, Alice."
AN: IMPORTANT:: Okay, why aren't Mike and Jake's POVs in here? Because, it's Monday night and I really want to put a chapter up tomorrow before things get busy and as I started typing up Mike's POV I realized I was taking short cuts.
Although I want to give you guys frequent chapters I don't want the quality of the chapter to go down because of it. Because the next part in the timeline of this story is interrogation you will see Mike's POV next.
So far, I'm not sure where Jake's POV falls into place. I know there is going to be a time lapse so maybe it will fall somewhere in there. Jake will come back into the plot no matter what though.
Thanks for reading the long AN!
