Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns her characters of her twilight series, I'm just playing with them.

Chapter 11: LIES, LIES, AND MORE LIES

Edward Cullen

"We can't leave her here," I said, carefully sliding my arms beneath her body and picking her up onto my lap. I held her close to my body, curling my shoulders to protect her from the rain. She looked like a porcelain doll, only with blue lips, a butchered eye, and mud splattered across her face.

"Here," Charlie came closer with his arms held out, "give her to me."

I stood up with her body crushed into mine, still keeping her head next to my heart. "I got her," I told him, but when he tried to take her away from me, I turned my back to him and watched him over my shoulder. "I said I got her." I don't know why I was being hostile—it was her scent, I told myself, that made me act mad.

Charlie grabbed the collar of my leather jacket and pulled it tightly into his fist, yanking me with Bella towards his face. All three of us looked like we were in a huddle, trying to figure out which play was next. Apparently, Charlie thought he was the quarter-back. "Give her to me." His voice wasn't a growl, nor was it a hiss, but it had a threatening human tone that angry people—or parents—had when they were worried. He slid his arms under mine, and even though it didn't feel right, I released the limp body from my grasp. My arms fell to my sides, without a purpose anymore. I don't know why, but I couldn't stop staring at her face, upside down over Charlie's arm, her lips slightly parted. She looked like she was fast asleep, not knocked out. At least she was safe.

"What about the bike?" I asked, even though it was the least of my worries. I felt uncomfortable watching Charlie walk away with the girl in his arms, not nearly taking as much care in holding her as I did. He held her away from his body, her legs flailing with every step that he took, her head hanging over his arm, her hair sprawled everywhere. The rain hit her face on an angle, putting what looked like tears on her face, traveling backwards until they disappeared into her hair.

"Just take it back to the house," Charlie growled, not even looking over his shoulder. He was in vampire mode, extremely defensive and protective all the sudden. I knew where he was coming from because I felt it too, only I had no right like he did. She wasn't my kid. "I'll do something with it later." He left me alone, standing in the rain to stare after him.

I picked up the bike that had gotten the girl into all this mess, and then walked it over to her helmet, picking it up without even looking at it. I turned the key, barely starting the bike, hopped on, and then drove it to Charlie's, realizing that this piece of junk bike was all the girl had.

It didn't have to be that way though.

I propped the bike against the garage door and slipped into the house while the door was still open. Charlie was carrying her upstairs, and I intended to follow. I barely had my hand on the railing before Charlie spun with a warning glare to back off, but in the process, Bella's head hit the wall.

When her eyes flew open, scary wide—like a scared child during a storm—I predicted what was going to happen next. Only Charlie didn't. He was oblivious to the wild animal he had just woken up. "Cullen get the h—" he tried to threaten, but the creature in his arms had been taken off guard by her situation, and settled for doing back flips to get out of it, quite literally. Like an acrobat, she twirled out of his arms, and by the time Charlie realized it, he had only enough arm length to grab her wrist. The rest of her body flew over him and landed on the stairs with a hard thump, while her arm stay twisted above her head. She let him know her pain.

"Jesus fuck!" Her voice rang through the house, and I imagine it carried to the yard, where neighbours would be wondering what had just been killed in the Swan household. It clearly got to Charlie, who released her just as quickly as he grabbed her. Her body dragged down the rest of the stairs, her voice rattling with every step she hit, until I stepped up and stopped her with my hands on her knees.

"Are you alright?" I asked as soon as she stopped, taking her wrist lightly in the palm of my hand while I watched her eyes focus into my own. She didn't know what was going on.

-x-

Bella Crossbones

When I opened my eyes, the world was upside down, and that's why I flipped out. Before I knew it, I was falling, and hardwood floor smacked into my back and ass, almost topping the pain of my shoulder being twisted out of its socket. I swore like an animal and saw red until the boy from the other night—Edward—was leaning over me, his eyes blaring into mine.

He asked me something, but I only saw his lips moving before I was retreating again, and bumping into another set of legs. I rammed my shoulder into the wall, a picture falling behind me, glass shattering. My shoulder popped back into place during the process. My heart was on fire.

"Everyone needs to calm down." The voice was behind me belonged to the cop that had been trained in wild situations like this. I didn't feel like calming down though. It wasn't possible.

I laughed at the thought, found my feet beneath me, and tried to get past the beast at the top of the stairs. Charlie side stepped in front of me, placing his hand on my shoulder. I hissed. "You just dislocated that shoulder so you might want to rethink touching me—" I didn't have to finish before he dropped it. "How did I—"

"Where the hell were you tonight!" Charlie wasn't practicing his preaching. He wasn't calm—he was full blown yelling, and in the midst of things, he had grabbed the top of my arm again, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

I stuttered, trying to recount my steps and how I had even gotten back to his house, but images of flying bikes and spinning boys kept my head tangled. "Well I—"

Charlie cut me off. "Edward Cullen found you in one of the bike parks down the road passed out," he interjected. When I looked over my shoulder at the boy standing at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes just locked with mine, taking any possible words out of my mouth. He stared at me with nervous eyes, like a student without any solutions to the problems on a sheet of paper. Charlie shook my arm, forcing me to avert away from the bottom of the stairs and back to him. "Well? What were you doing—you weren't in school, no one's seen you all day—"

He was cut off by Edward momentarily. "Charlie that's enough—"

The cop wasn't one to be told what to do though. He cut right back in, still angry. "And where the hell on earth did you learn to drive that crotch rocket, let alone think you can drive it while you're living under the same roof as me?"

I stared into space, but when the motorcycle came back into the picture, so did the rest of my day. I remembered the boys in the woods, the fight being taken from me, and finally, the red eyes. I stared wide eyed into the space in front of Charlie, and let my back fall against the wall to take my weight. I shook my head, scared to admit anything.

"What were you doing there Bella." He wasn't even asking me. He was interrogating me, leaving a threat at the end of the sentence to push me to tell.

"Looking around." I focused on his face for a brief second, and then looked away again, nervous he could see the answers through my eyes.

He sighed and then cleared his throat, directing it to Edward. It got his attention. "We've got it covered from here," he told him rudely.

But I didn't object to it. I just watched him take a step back, and before he shut the door, he looked at me with raised eyebrows, like he was unimpressed or mocking something. I stared back at the wall when the door shut, where a picture of trees was placed carefully on the wall.

"Bella."

"What!"

"What happened tonight?" His voice scared me. It wasn't accusing me anymore. It was a listening voice, mixed with concern, understanding, and worry—unfamiliar territory I could never learn to walk under.

And then I saw the red eyes again in my mind, a sure sign I had gone mad. Maybe it was signs of my health declining—god, I hadn't even eaten in days, I hadn't slept in nights, and days were taking me into blankness. What did that mean? Something was desperately wrong with me, and knowing this, I didn't feel the urge to fix it. I had no reason to fix it.

But the worry was still there, and Charlie acknowledged it for me. "Are you okay Bella?"

I wasn't one who took hands when they were offered. If anything, offered help scared me more than anything because it insinuated that something was the matter in the first place. Instead of coming clean with the night's events, I admitted to stealing the bike, and only stealing the bike. "Fine—I stole the damn bike, crashed it, and that's all I know." My stomach tightened in defence, ready for the blow that Charlie could throw if he saw through my half-ass lie.

But he didn't. He spoke quickly and sternly. "Well, do something like that again, and I'll call child services and have them take care of you instead of giving you a second chance," he said, going back to his mad-at-me tone. I was grateful for his anger, but I was fearful of his threat. It actually worried me a little to have to leave a place that was so nice. I couldn't fuck it up, and in that moment, I decided to start over fresh.

I nodded, agreeing weakly but not defiantly, and moved passed him to get to my room down the hall. I thought I was in the clear when I touched my door handle, only to have him suddenly right behind me again, breathing down my neck. I jumped back when he said my name behind me. "What?" I said out of breath, the hairs on the back of my neck raising.

"You're not going anywhere for awhile," he told me.

"Okay." It was all I had left to say, and maybe a weekend indoors was good for me.

He locked his dark eyes with my own. "For real this time."

"Fine." I pretended I didn't care. Maybe I didn't care.

"Good," he said, moving away from me.

"Great," I said, smiling just to smile. When he walked away, I shut the door behind me. But even though I said it was great, my stomach began mixing my regret and insecurities into the emptiness of the pit of my stomach, and eventually, it was a huge knot that tore at my insides, preventing me from falling asleep when I fell back onto the mattress.

Or at least, that's why I pretended I couldn't sleep.

-x-

Edward Cullen

Charlie saw me standing on the back deck, but he pretended he didn't. He just walked around his kitchen, throwing dishes in the sink, and when nothing else was left to toss around, he folded his fingers on the back the back of his neck, and then finally looked my way. He glared at me, of course, but I still signalled for him to come outside anyway. After a few more moments of relentless pacing, he finally did make it out the sliding doors and into the crisp atmosphere of the night.

"What the hell was that back there Charlie?" I asked with my arms wide out. "That was too far—you scared her off!" I accused him.

Charlie thought he had just as much grounds to yell though. "I did not!" he yelled back. "She's upstairs in her room and has accepted that she was in the wrong tonight."

I dropped my hands, dumbfounded at such a stupid claim. I shook my head in disbelief and anger at Charlie. He wasn't seeing the point—Bella wasn't in the wrong tonight! "What are you talking about! She can't help it—"

He interjected. "That's not true. She's still a teenager and they are still capable of stupid stuff. I don't remember you saying motorcycles and befriending wild boys was apart of the transformation process."

I decided to shock him with facts. "No it's not," I admitted. He chuckled, thinking he'd won. But I wasn't finished yet. "But the adrenaline that flows through her veins was the same as mine." Charlie walked over to the edge of the deck and gave me the floor, actually listening for once. His eyes gleamed red in the moonlight. "I didn't know what was going on, and I couldn't calm myself down. I just wanted to keep moving and get attention—I was in the county jail for weeks at a time, and the judge of the town had no idea what to do with me! And when I got out of trials, I hurt the people around me, hurt the people that weren't around me, and then ultimately hurt myself."

Charlie put his head down, knowing the end to my story without having to hear me say it. Thankfully, he cut in. "I get that Edward, I really do, but you didn't have guidance—"

"My parents couldn't have saved me, even if they had have lived." I knew that to be true. It wasn't in the cards for me to have any other life than this one—you couldn't run from your DNA, and Charlie was naïve to think this girl could. "Tonight was just a product of the madness that's headed her way Charlie, and for you to lock her up in her room and blame her is wrong."

"Oh yeah? Is that right?" he asked, mocking me. "Well since you are so familiar with the teachings of vampires," he hissed, "why don't you tell me what I should do? Should I just let her out and run wild like you? Should I give up on her and let her try out more foster homes? Should I let her kill—"

"Jesus Charlie! Just relax!" I yelled at him. He shook his head and headed towards the sliding doors. I cut him off, but he shoved me out of the way. I shoved him in the back, forcing him into the house on my grounds instead of his, which pissed him off and brought him back outside, two inches from my face. I threw my idea at him. "Let me watch over her."

I can admit, it wasn't entirely thought through, this idea of mine, but I knew it was worth a try. I could be with her day in and out, teaching her what was headed her way, and maybe, just maybe, then she could have a chance at survival—to stay human, if it were possible.

Charlie wasn't on the same page. In fact, we were so far between chapters that he decided to remind me he was way ahead of me. He grabbed me by the throat and shoved me up against the house, keeping me in place while he talked through clenched teeth. "Let me put this clearly for you so I don't want to have to say it again…I will never see you near her again."

I knew there was no way that would happen, especially since more events like tonight were sure to come around soon enough, and then we would be joining forces again. I wouldn't avoid her—I couldn't avoid her now. I had felt the weight of her in my arms, and now that I knew what I was missing, I couldn't stand to have limp, pointless arms that couldn't help the girl find her way. There was no way I would never talk to her again either—there was so much to say, too much in fact! I wanted to tell her all about my life, and I wanted to know all about hers. Never in my life had I ever wanted someone else so badly…

"I don't hear an answer Edward," Charlie said, squeezing my throat. I stared at him in the face, watching the workings of his mind that told me he couldn't be any more serious with his threat, and that he intended to shield her from me as much as possible.

I nodded in order for him to let me go, but when he went back into the house without a final word, I still had the idea that this wouldn't be the last time I saw his kid again. He couldn't keep me from her, and I was willing to bet, he couldn't keep her from me either.

-x-