Disclaimer: I do not own twilight or any of its characters.

Chapter 10:

Gathering the Pieces

The drive over did not help Charlie's nerves or his anger. It took him all of his will power to piece himself together, but when he drove up to the monkey bars and saw Jacob's sullen face perched on top, fury raged inside him again.

"What the hell Jacob!? You can't just call me, tell me not to ask any questions, then demand I meet you at some obscure park." And as Charlie spoke he looked around at the rundown playground. It's rusty swings that squeaked and creaked as it blew back and forth in the wind; and the colorfully graffitied teeter totter, which was now just a plank of rotting wood hanging off of the wrong side of the rusted metal pole. From the looks of things, none of what Jacob was about to say looked good.

Charlie reached Jacob's position and stood angrily for a response, "I'm sorry about all the dramatics Charlie, but I need your help." Jacob put his head in his hands, he couldn't believe the mess he was in.

"What's up Jacob? What's going on?" Charlie said a little less angry. He saw Jacob's pain.

Jacob told Charlie everything about Sam and Seth, he even spilled everything about Leah, and how he worried for her. As Charlie listened his police instincts kicked in and he thought he knew exactly what to do, "Ok all we need to do is have you come to the police station, you can fill out a report," Jacob started shaking his head, but Charlie continued on, "Jacob, I can arrest him, he'll go away and all of the problems…"

"You can't arrest him Charlie, you know that. The reservation and all who live on it are not subject to the same rules and laws that the rest of the states are; for you to get anywhere near him to arrest him, you would have to get the FBI or the DEA involved." Jacob had been thinking about his friendship with Charlie and the perks of knowing a cop when you happen to find yourself in the kind of trouble he himself was in, but as he rationalized the thought of Charlie riding in with all of his police buddies in toe, he knew that federal law mandated a separation between the reservation and the state it resided in.

Charlie paced in circles racking his brain for some other way to help, but when he drew a blank he threw his hands up and said, "So now what Jake? You tell me all this so what, I can know why you ended up in a ditch somewhere? What am I supposed to do?"

"I have a plan that would make it so I didn't land in a ditch somewhere, but I can't do it alone," Jacob said meeting Charlie's eye line.

"What do you need me to do?"

"I need you pick someone up for me and take them to your house for a while, I can straighten things out with Sam, I just need to know that if he blows up everyone is safe." Jacob said as he dropped down from the monkey bars and landed with a thump in front of Charlie.

"Okay, I'll get your dad and take him to my place while I wait for you to call," Charlie started for the car, but felt Jacob's hand on his shoulder stopping him.

Jacob had to smile at the police chief's skills of reason, and on any other day he would be spot on, but today was just one of those types of days that reason made no sense. "Actually, I got my dad…"

Jacob called Seth and told Seth to pick him up; Charlie had offered, but Jacob felt uncomfortable riding around in a police car in Sam's neighborhood. When Seth arrived, Jacob all but jumped into the car; he was feeling very paranoid sitting in one place so long. He felt like at any moment someone was going to come out from the bushes and plug him.

Seth had woken up this morning to shouting, crying and a monster headache. After he threw up some and woke himself up some more, he went to go see what all the commotion was. His adrenaline shot up when he saw his sister on the floor crying and Quil hovered over her screaming about something.

"He kept screaming 'WHO WAS HE? WHO WAS HE?' Over and over again." Seth explained to Jacob as they drove, "I told him not to yell at her, and put myself in front of her, you know, but I was hung over. He knocked me down and started wailing on me and asking me who it was that was there last night, but I couldn't remember a goddamn thing."

Jacob looked over at Seth's mangled face, "He do that to you?" Seth nodded, "Goddamn it Quil."

"Something is going on Jacob, I mean if Sam was so worried about some guy being over his house, why would he send Quil who he knows is loose cannon. Something more is going on here, Sam is spooked or something." Seth looked worried.

"Did he hit her," Jacob asked, and Seth nodded again.

Seth noticed the look on Jacob's face, it was concerned, but there was something else there that Seth couldn't put his finger on, "So what are we doing Jake, why are you involved?"

"You overdosed last night Seth, that's why you can't remember anything. Leah called me when you had locked yourself in the bathroom and weren't responding." Seth looked confused, "It was me last night Seth."

"It was you?" Seth asked even more confused, and Jake nodded, "So what? I mean all we have to do is tell Sam the real reason you were over, and let it wash away."

"Yeah I thought about that, but Sam is too crazy right now, he won't see reason."

"So what do we do?" Seth asked, Jacob couldn't help but notice that he was including himself in that comment.

"Go to my dad's house."

Charlie pulled up to the house he was told to visit and knocked on the door. He heard some rustling around and when the door swung open he saw what he came for. Leah had tried her best to cover up the bruises, she caked her face with makeup, but all that accomplished was pulling more attention to it. Charlie pretended not to notice when he introduced himself.

"Miss, my name is Chief Swan, I'm gonna have to ask you to come with me." Charlie thought being official about the whole thing would make her more incline to come peacefully.

Unfortunately he was wrong, "Excuse me? Why do you need me to come with you? I haven't done anything wrong, and if I'm not mistaken your police badge does not work on this side of town."

She stood there looking very confident, with her arms crossed. Charlie was done with the ruse, "Look miss, Jacob sent me here to collect you, and from the looks of your face, you might want to go sooner rather than later."

"Jake sent you?" She asked puzzled.

"Yes, he said for me to pick you up and take you somewhere safe while he works some things out."

She gathered her stuff and got into the car without another word. Charlie felt uncomfortable though out the car ride, what was he supposed to say in this situation; he couldn't comfort her, not only did he not know what Jacob was planning on doing, but he didn't even know this girl. He turned the corner, entering his street and the silence was broken in the car, "TURN AROUND!" Leah screamed at him.

"What do you mean," Charlie threw down his foot on the brake pedal and looked over at her.

"Who are you?" She said angrily, "What did he tell you to do?"

Completely confused Charlie answered the question, "He just told me to pick you up and take you to my house, and he said he had a plan or something."

Her eyes grew wild and scared, she threw open the door to the police cruiser jumped out and started running. Not knowing exactly what he should do here, the cop mentality kicked in and he also jumped out of the car and started chasing her. As soon as she noticed she wasn't running alone she started screaming, "I never did anything! Sam…He has it in his head… I never did anything!" Before she could finish Charlie had caught up to her and grabbed her by the arm, she fell to the ground and started sobbing, "Please don't kill me… please, I never did anything. I know I shouldn't have called him, and I did feel something last night, but I never did anything. Please…"

Charlie began to understand, "Leah, please….stand up," She obeyed. "Now, I think I know what you're thinking here… and you're wrong." He put a comforting hand on her face, "I am not going to hurt you." She looked up at him and now she was confused. He walked her back to the car and ushered her into the passenger's seat, when he himself got into the car, he couldn't help but ask, "Why did you think that?"

"The car," She said and pointed to Charlie's driveway, he hadn't noticed before, but there was a black Sudan sitting in his driveway.

He knew this car, but why did was it making her so nervous? He pulled into his driveway and ushered Leah inside where he found what he was expecting, "Edward," He said and went to shake his hand, "It's been awhile, how is everything? Where's Bella?" Charlie said looking around the room for his daughter. This was completely unexpected, but after what he had heard from Jacob earlier talking to Bella seemed imperative.

Edward was not so pleased, "She's gone, Charlie."

Charlie's heart sunk, "She's gone? Where's she gone to?"

"This guy took her…there was some confusion over at the house, some people came in, and they took her." Edward sat down on the couch and put his head in his hands.

Leah inched slowly over to Charlie, "We shouldn't be here," She said scared.

"Not now Leah, are you hungry? There's some fish in the fridge."

"No Chief, you don't understand. That guy, he works for Sam."

Once again I have to apologize for not updating in such a long time. I think I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, though. Please please leave some feedback, it helps me find motivation and lets me know there are people who are actually reading this lol. Good or bad, it doesn't matter; in fact if you have any criticisms or critiques, please let me know. It will only make my writing better. Thanks for reading and I promise to get the next chapter out a little sooner.