A/N: Back to Charlie's POV. Several friends wanted to see Charlie meeting Renesmee and seeing the new Bella for the first time, so I wrote this one. Thanks for reading.
Charlie's POV
I'd only been to the Cullens' twice. Once for the graduation party and once for the wedding. And both times, I'd only found the driveway because it had been decorated for the events. Even Bella hadn't been totally sure where it was.
I did know that I was getting close. I slowed the cruiser and searched the trees for the opening, but even looking for it, I almost passed it.
I growled a little as I backed the cruiser up enough to make the turn. As wealthy as the Cullens were, they should have been able to clear their driveway once in a while.
But maybe, I thought as the foliage pressed in around the car, they liked it this way.
After what Jacob Black had told me less than an hour before, after what he'd shown me, I didn't have trouble believing that.
I cringed away from the memory of him… changing… exploding… into something huge and monstrous, then fading back into himself. Acting casual. Like he hadn't done anything strange. Then telling me about Bella. How she had been sick, but now she's better, but different. More like Esme than Renee…. Not like him, though, thank God. But different enough for her to hide from me. For her to lie to me.
She'd known about him, he'd said. She'd known about all of it. Every part of his world and whatever world the Cullens lived in. She'd known it all from the moment she'd met Edward. And she'd chosen to marry him, to be a part of whatever this all was. She'd chosen to let them change her into whatever they were.
That did not make me feel any better.
But he'd told me about the child. Nessie. The orphan Edward and Bella were adopting. I was going to be a… a grandpa. My daughter was going to be a mother. Just married, and already a parent. So young.
I wanted to see the little girl. I wanted to see my little girl. So I'd told Jacob as much. I'd demanded. I didn't want to know the details of any of the weirdness. I wanted it all to fit, to be normal. But even if it wasn't… I wanted to see her. To see them.
Jake had seemed pleased with my reaction. He asked me to allow him time to prepare them for my arrival. That had seemed a bit… ominous. But I'd agreed. After he had run off into the trees, I'd given him ten minutes.
And now I was winding my way down the Cullens' drive, trying to convince myself that I was driving so slowly because of the mud and the tight tunnel of undergrowth that boxed me in, and not because I was fighting to ward off an anxiety attack as I drew closer to seeing what had happened to Bella.
The foliage broke open so abruptly it was startling. I slowed the cruiser even more to stare at the big white house. It was pretty, but… wrong, somehow.
When I reached the end of the drive, I put the car in park but let it idle. I stared blindly at the house. It was little more than a bright blur in my vision. I didn't want to go in. I didn't want to get out of the car.
But I had to see Bella.
Firmly, I cut the engine and jerked the keys from the ignition. I swung the door open and stepped out, closed the door behind me. Then hesitated again.
Bella.
I tucked the keys in my pocket and took the three steps across the grass, the eight steps up the porch, and the four across the porch to the door. There, I stood absolutely still, remembering.
The last time I'd stood on this porch, I'd held Renee's hand as we watched Bella leave. She'd looked back at us to call "I love you" before she'd driven away in Edward's car. She'd been glowing. Happy. Beautiful. That was how I remembered her. How I wanted to remember her.
I was terrified to knock. To see what she'd needed to hide from me.
I drew in a deep breath to steady myself. Then another.
Bella was in there. My daughter. My girl. My baby.
I knocked.
Carlisle opened the door. He looked welcoming, but embarrassed. He should. He'd been lying to me. About my girl. He was lucky I didn't have my gun.
"Hello, Charlie," he said, holding the door open for me to enter.
I stepped in, my body and voice stiff. "Carlisle. Where's Bella?"
"Right here, Dad."
The voice was like bells. Music. The pattern of it was familiar, but the lilt was foreign. It didn't fit with the words. I turned toward the speaker, my face blank as I tried to connect my name to the person who spoke it.
When I saw her, the entire world fell out from under my feet. I felt completely hollowed out in an instant. She wasn't Bella. But somehow… she was. My stomach twisted painfully. My Bella was gone. I wanted to run. To give in to the fear that had chased me the entire way here. I didn't want to see her. I didn't want to see what they had done to her. What they had convinced her to allow them to do.
Everything inside me just… hurt to see her.
I stared. "Is that you, Bella?"
"Yep," she replied in that haunting new voice. She smiled a little, ruefully. "Hi, Dad."
I had to remember to breathe. I pulled in air like it would alter my vision. But it didn't, and the person sitting on the couch didn't change.
She did resemble Esme now. Her skin was smooth and whiter than before. Her hair seemed darker against the paleness of her face. Her features were perfect. Everything about her seemed perfect. Even sitting, she had some sort of aura around her, a sort of physical presence she had never possessed. She seemed… graceful, sitting there. Elegant, somehow. Almost unnaturally poised and blindingly beautiful. And somehow, there was something under that. Something to do with how lithe she was. How almost… animal-like.
Speaking of.
"Hey, Charlie," Jake piped up from the floor across the room. "How're things?"
I glowered over at him. His grin reminded me of his expression from before, and I shuddered and turned my attention quickly back to Bella. I tried to comprehend as I walked toward her. Then I noticed Edward sitting beside her and I shot him a dark glare. Rage rolled in my belly. He was responsible for all of this. He was luckier than Carlisle that I'd left my gun at home.
I made myself turn to Bella again. "Bella?"
When she answered, it seemed like she was trying to make her voice sound right. "It's really me."
Her effort didn't work. My jaw locked as I watched her mouth form the words that didn't make sense. She noticed and rushed to apologize. To try to make it better like she always did. "I'm sorry, Dad."
Her apology didn't work, either. I looked into her eyes and noticed for the first time that they had changed, too. They weren't the right shade of brown. They were darker, muddier. They were the only thing about her that was less attractive than before. And they made me feel more uncomfortable than anything else about her.
I forced myself to hold her gaze. "Are you okay?"
"Really and truly great," she promised. "Healthy as a horse."
"Jake told me this was… necessary," I said slowly. "That you were dying." I didn't believe that. At all. She looked too strong to have been that ill recently. And I didn't believe that she had needed to change to survive. That sounded like a load of crap to explain away what they had done to her.
Bella drew in a deliberate breath. Edward's arm tightened around her shoulders as though he was soothing her. For breathing? And as some emotion flamed in Bella's strange new eyes, even Jacob looked surprisingly sympathetic. "Jacob was telling the truth," she assured me.
I felt a flare of anger. "That makes one of you."
Bella's face filled with remorse. Before she could comment, there was a movement in her arms, and she looked down so quickly she seemed to blur. I followed her gaze much more slowly. For the first time, I realized that she was holding something.
She was holding a child.
I blinked in surprise. "Oh. This is her." I couldn't get a clear look because the girl hid her face in Bella's long hair, but I could see that her own hair was bronze ringlets. "The orphan Jacob said you're adopting."
"My niece."
I glared at Edward again when he spoke up, his voice sliding casually into the conversation. Musical in a way I'd rather not consider at the moment. "I thought you'd lost your family," I accused.
Edward didn't react to my tone. He answered calmly, "I lost my parents. My older brother was adopted, like me. I never saw him after that. But the courts located me when he and his wife died in a car accident, leaving their only child without any other family."
When he silenced, the girl peeked through Bella's hair at me. She seemed to sniff the air as she looked out, then she ducked away again. The part of her face I'd seen was angelic. "She's… she's, well, she's a beauty," I admitted.
Edward agreed. "Yes."
I was relieved with this normal topic, and very interested in the girl I couldn't see. "Kind of a big responsibility, though," I commented. "You two are just getting started."
"What else could we do?" Edward touched the child's cheek lightly with his fingertips. "Would you have refused her?"
"Hmph. Well." I doubted I could, so I shook my head. "Jake says you call her Nessie?"
"No, we don't." Bella's voice was sharp, piercing. The sudden aggression in it chilled me. "Her name is Renesmee."
I faltered a second, trying not to look as scared as I felt. "How do you feel about this?" I asked. "Maybe Carlisle and Esme could—"
"She's mine," Bella bit off. "I want her."
Her voice wasn't as wild that time, but it was ferocious. It was little more than a snarl. I frowned. I didn't want her to see that she was scaring the hell out of me, so I demanded, "You gonna make me a grandpa so young?"
Edward interjected, "Carlisle is a grandfather, too."
I glanced at godlike Carlisle and couldn't help but snort out a laugh. "I guess that does sort of make me feel better." I lowered my gaze to the child again. "She sure is something to look at."
This time, when Renesmee peeked out at me, she shook free of Bella's hair and looked me in the face. Her eyes locked with mine. I heard myself gasp. Then I was fighting to breathe.
These were the eyes I'd been searching for in Bella's face.
I started counting frantically, mouthing the numbers as I tried to make it work. To make nine months fit into one. Because there was no doubt. None at all.
This was Bella's daughter.
I felt a hand pat my back. Jake's voice was in my ear. "Need to know, Charlie. It's okay. I promise."
I swallowed the lump in my throat. For a moment, I could only nod dumbly. My brain didn't want to work. Then my eyes landed on Edward, and fury burned clear. I stepped toward him. My fists clenched involuntarily, but gladly. "I don't want to know everything, but I'm done with the lies!"
He looked sympathetic but not at all ruffled. "I'm sorry, but you need to know the public story more than you need to know the truth," he told me. "If you're going to be part of this secret, the public story is the one that counts. It's to protect Bella and Renesmee as well as the rest of us. Can you go along with the lies for them?"
He said the only words I would've been able to hear. Protect Bella. Protect Renesmee. My fists opened. I huffed and turned to Bella again. "You might've given me some warning, kid."
"Would it really have made this any easier?" she countered.
I frowned and knelt in front of her. Renesmee smiled and reached out a hand. For some reason, Bella quickly pulled her arm back in. Renesmee pushed her other hand against Bella's neck. I ignored their movements. I was focused on the full set of teeth the infant had just bared at me. "Whoa. How old is she?"
Bella looked trapped. "Um…"
Edward stepped in again. "Three months. Rather, she's the size of a three-month-old, more or less. She's younger in some ways, more mature in others."
Renesmee seemed over her tiff with Bella. She was looking at me again. Suddenly she lifted her hand and waved, very deliberately. I felt myself blinking spastically, but I couldn't stop. An elbow nudged my ribs. "Told you she was special, didn't I?" Jake said proudly.
I cringed away from the contact. I still wasn't sure what he was, or if I wanted to be anywhere near him. He rolled his eyes at my reaction. "Oh, c'mon, Charlie. I'm the same person I've always been. Just pretend this afternoon didn't happen."
I pressed my lips together and nodded sharply. "Just what is your part in all this, Jake?" I asked. "How much does Billy know? Why are you here?"
Jacob looked at Bella's daughter. His face practically lit up. "Well, I could tell you all about it – Billy knows absolutely everything – but it involves a lot of stuff about werewo—"
"Ungh!" I cut him off and covered my ears. I refused to hear that word. "Never mind!"
The grin Jacob flashed me was the same impish smile he'd always worn. It would have been soothing to see it in any other context. "Everything's going to be great, Charlie," he promised. "Just try not to believe anything you see."
I muttered under my breath. A bellow from behind me made me jump, my heart flying up into my throat. "Woo!" Emmett yelled. "Go Gators!"
Jacob jumped at the outburst, too, but it seemed like everyone else in the room had frozen. I looked over my shoulder at Emmett to find the huge Cullen with his face inches from the television. "Florida winning?" I asked distractedly.
"Just scored the first touchdown." He looked over at Bella and said something about scoring, but I was busy trying to gather my thoughts. Football. Reality. Normal. I could sort things out while I watched the game. It would calm me down to watch.
I dragged in a lungful of air, pulling it in as deep as I could stand. Then I shoved to my feet and stepped carefully around Jacob. My legs barely carried me to the empty chair before I fell into it. "Well," I began, locking my unfocused gaze on the familiar colors and shapes on the screen. "I guess we should see if they can hold on to the lead."
