Not With Her
Beta/advisor/proof reader: Maria Vilson
Chapter 11
So without further ado...The Secret! hehehe...enjoy, huggs
After lunch, Bella stayed in the kitchen to help Sue clean up as Charlie returned to the living room and switched on the television to watch whatever game was on. As he approached the living room the doorbell rang and Charlie switched his direction from the living room to the front door.
After opening the door he saw that Billy sat there with a scowl on his face. Charlie shook his head and stared back at the old man as Billy rolled into the foyer. Charlie shut the door and moved until he faced Billy once again.
"What do you want, Billy?" Charlie asked tiredly.
"We need to talk, Charlie," Billy said as he moved into the living room.
"No we don't, it's been decided that Bella will be safest here on the Reservation, the Elders think so and so do I," Charlie said.
"Have you forgotten why Bella is with you in the first place?" Billy asked softly not wanting anyone to hear what they were talking about.
"No, I haven't forgotten, but Bella is in danger at the moment and I think it's best for her to be here with her family, and furthermore I can' t believe that you don't care what can possibly happen to her, for Christ's sake, Billy!" Charlie whisper yelled. Billy shook his head.
"I care, Charlie, but when it comes to her getting in the way of what I've worked so hard for all these years…she needs to go!" Billy said.
"She's not going anywhere, Billy so you might as well get that through your thick head," Charlie said.
"I will not stand here and allow that to happen, Charlie. Get rid of her or I will!" Billy whisper yelled hatefully.
"Is that a threat?" Charlie asked shocked at Billy's words.
"No…it's a promise. Don't make me do something that I'll regret later, Charlie. I will carry through with this if you do not do what I say," Billy said quietly.
"Do you think I'm frightened of you old man," Charlie chuckled at the audacity of this man, the man in a wheelchair that sat in front of him. Of course Charlie thought Billy meant he'd get rid of Bella violently, but that's not what Billy had in mind.
"I wasn't referring to hurting you, Charlie," Billy said stone faced. Charlie turned to him and glared at him. Did he just threaten to harm Bella? Charlie thought taking Billy's words the wrong way.
Billy was indeed threatening Bella as well as Charlie, but not in the way Charlie was thinking, but Billy couldn't let Bella destroy all he had worked so hard for, that being making sure Jake was the best Chief and Alpha that ever lived.
Billy may not be able to see what would happen if Bella was told the secret, but he knew it would not end well for Jake or for him or for the tribe as far as that goes, so yes, if the banishment didn't work then he would see her dead before he let that happen.
Charlie saw red with his comment and walked over to his holster that hung on the hook next to the front door and carried his firearm back to the living room and pointed it at Billy.
"I will not stand here and listen to you threaten to kill my daughter, I will see you dead first," Charlie spat through gritted teeth. The gun didn't frighten Billy, as he spoke again.
"Your daughter, Charlie? I believe she's my daughter," Billy said at the same time Bella walked into the living room to tell Charlie she was going to her room to rest only to be stopped dead in her tracks as she witnessed what was happening in the living room.
"What?" Bella asked hearing what Charlie and Billy had just said not realizing Charlie held his gun pointing it at Billy as they had a heated argument. Charlie swung his head towards the door leading to the hall, seeing Bella standing there in complete shock.
He lowered his weapon somewhat as he took in his daughter's shocked and confused look. Everything seemed to happen fast after that. Billy took that time to grab the gun from Charlie's hand and pointed it at Bella, completely ready to kill his own daughter. Billy knew she heard what they had said and that left him with no choice other than to kill her.
Charlie turned back to Billy as he felt the gun leave his hand and saw Billy pointing it at Bella and dove for the gun, a shot rang out that deafened the room, as Bella let out a scream as both men hit the floor.
Sue came running in as she heard the shot and Bella's screams. She grabbed Bella and turned her away from the scene in front of her holding Bella against her chest as she tried to decipher what had just happened.
Finally Sue released Bella and ran across the room to see who was hurt. She rolled Charlie off of Billy still not able to see which of them was hurt due to all the blood. Billy lay unconscious as did Charlie.
"Bella, run and get me some towels…Hurry child!" Sue yelled. After it finally registered in Bella's mind that someone was hurt she ran and did what she was told. Once back in the room Bella knelt down next to Sue to see if her father, or the one she had known all her life as her father, was hurt.
Bella's stomach rolled at seeing so much blood, she covered her mouth with her hand as Sue set to work on removing some of the blood as well as pushing some of the clothing out of her way starting with Charlie. It was then she saw the wound on Charlie's side close to his stomach, she checked for a heartbeat and in finding one as shallow as it was, Sue dug into her pocket for her cell phone and dialed for an ambulance.
After her conversation with the emergency operator she tossed her cell phone onto the recliner and grabbed another towel and laid it over Charlie's wound.
"Bella, I need you to hold this towel over this wound and put as much pressure on it as you can," Sue told her. Bella shook her head shock still evident on her face.
"I…I can't, Sue," Bella said nervously. Sue grabbed Bella's arm and shook her making sure Bella looked her in the eyes.
"Bella, if you don't do this your father is going to die!" Sue said plain and simple. Bella coughed out a sob as she did as Sue had asked not wanting her father to die, trying to hold her breath so as not to pass out from all the blood.
Sue went to Billy next and cleaned the blood from his chest, but noticed he wasn't hurt from at least from a gunshot wound, she did however notice a huge lump on the back of his head from hitting the floor with Charlie's weight on top of him.
Bella heard the sirens as they approached, which alerted most of the Reservation. It was seldom if ever they heard sirens anywhere on the Reservation. The ambulance arrived and with Sue's explanation of what she thought had happened the technicians took over the situation, which now involved the Tribal Police as well as the Forks Police Department considering it involved their Chief.
The pack also heard the commotion and arrived at the house with Seth and Leah in the lead as they rushed into the house afraid something had happened to their mother, but were shocked to see it was their stepfather and the Chief of the tribe Billy Black who were the victims.
Paul also ran into the house afraid that it might be Bella that was hurt. He looked around as he saw her sitting on the sofa with a towel in her hands trying to wipe the blood from her hands as she sobbed. He ran to her and pulled her into his arms. Bella knowing it was Paul from his scent wrapped her arms around his waist and continued sobbing as Paul tried to comfort her.
The paramedics worked on Charlie, taking his vitals and packing the wound, and soon had him in the ambulance and off to the hospital as the sirens blared. Billy had come out of his unconscious state as another paramedic tended to his head injury as Jake knelt down next to him making sure his father was okay. Billy would be taken to the Tribal Clinic to make sure he was okay.
As they worked on Billy he stared at Bella and Paul hatefully. He saw how Bella wound herself around Paul, and when one of the police officers asked if she could answer some questions for them Paul sat on the sofa and pulled her onto his lap as she answered them as much as she could.
It was then he realized that Paul must have told her about the imprint. He cursed thinking all this was for nothing. Damn Paul anyway, he thought. If he would have listened to him in the first place none of this would have happened…This was Paul's fault. Damn him, Billy thought as they carried him off to the tribal clinic for x-rays.
Billy knew it was over now, everyone would know his and Charlie's secret, and he'd probably wind up doing time in jail for his attempt on Bella's life, only to kill his best friend. Bella had seen what happened as well as heard him say she was his daughter.
Yes, it was over now, something he had fought so hard to make sure never happened will now happen. Jake will lose everything, because his damn dead wife had to have a daughter before Jake made it into this world.
He also knew that his son would probably hate him as well, but he had to keep Jake away from Bella for all those years. If not he would have had to tell him what she was to him, but now it didn't matter. He would finally learn the secret and would probably hate him for his deceit. And a woman for the first time in their history would take on the Chief roll, Billy thought.
As they journeyed to the tribal clinic, Billy thoughts drifted back to the day Jake and Bella were born.
Billy thought about all he had done to make sure Jake would be the best Chief of their tribe, even greater than his grandfather Ephraim Black or even Taha Aki, hoping Jake would take his place as one of the Great Spirits after his passing.
When Sarah first told him she was pregnant he was elated. He prayed to the spirits that he would have the son he always wanted. He happily told the other Elders that their new Chief would be born in nine months to take over his seat after he retired or passed on to the next world.
But one of the Elders joked about it, and asked what he would do if Sarah gave him a daughter? This was something he had never thought of before and it made him think.
The Elder said that if Billy didn't have a son, that there will be for the first time ever a woman to take his place. This rumbled shockingly through Billy's mind, a woman to take his place as Chief? No…all the Chiefs that came before him always had sons first, he thought as he tried to calm his mind of his thoughts of having a daughter first.
But it seemed he could think of nothing else. He had never heard of such a thing, it just couldn't happen. The thought of something like this stung harshly at Billy's mind. What was he going to do? He couldn't let this happen. Women weren't capable of running an entire tribe. After hearing this it blossomed often in his mind. He prayed to the Great Spirit every day that his Sarah would bare him a son.
After nine months of praying, his Sarah finally went into labor. The doctor was called and Sarah bore their child at home as all the women of the tribe did in those days. Sarah had a hard time with the delivery of their child, she lost a lot of blood and in the end she was lost to this world.
Billy was devastated with the loss of his wife. When Billy went in to see his dead wife he saw that she had delivered twins. The boy that he wanted lay crying as did a girl that lay next to him. Billy's mind began to work, devastated with this outcome, becoming frightened the more he thought about the possibility of the girl being born first. He looked up at the doctor and asked.
"Which came first?" he asked. The Doctor look at him confused with the seriousness in Billy's voice. He finally stuttered out telling his chief that the girl came first. Billy closed his eyes and swore.
The girl would be chosen to lead the tribe, it was written that the first born of the tribal Chief will lead their people and with her being older than the boy he had no choice in the matter. He didn't know what to do.
The first thing he did was order the older Doctor not to tell a living soul on pain of death. Of course the doctor agreed fearing for his life, and six months later the doctor died anyway from a heart attack, so Billy wouldn't have to worry about him telling anyone anymore.
Charlie and Renée were the only ones visiting the day Sarah gave birth. Charlie saw the condition of his best friend and told him if there was anything either he or his wife Renée could do to just ask.
That is when the idea popped into Billy's mind. He took Charlie off by himself and began to explain his dilemma. Charlie was shocked at first when Billy finally told him of his plan.
But the more Charlie thought about it the more he thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea. Billy wanted Charlie and Renée to take his new born daughter and raise her as their own. Renée was sadly barren and unable to give Charlie a child.
Billy had promised to never step in and tell him how to raise the child as long as the secret remained between the three of them. After Charlie talked to Renée, she was sad for the child at first as well, but elated in having her own child to raise, and after a lot of planning they left that day with their new daughter in their arms.
The day of Sarah's funeral, Charlie attended, but Renée stayed at home to care for her new child, who they decided to call Isabella Marie Swan. With Billy being Chief he could get into the records and change things around a bit. He put on it that the same Doctor who delivered Jacob also delivered Isabella while Renée was visiting down on the Reservation. Yes, it was a bit unusual, but no one thought anything about it at least on the Rez.
And in Forks no one really saw Renée there either. Charlie let it slip one day at work a while back that he thought his wife was pregnant, which she was at the time, but she miscarried soon after. Charlie never retracted his comment after it happened so it worked out just fine in the end.
The child was hardly ever seen in Forks, and even when she was Isabella was so small for her age no one ever really thought much of it, and as far as the Reservation she would have had the child around the same time Sarah had Jake, so there was no problems there either.
Although many people from the tribe knew Charlie, no one really gave Renée a second thought. She was a bit to flighty for their taste so they thought nothing of never seeing her with Charlie when he came down to the Reservation.
Charlie of course would bring Bella down to visit with Jake when she was no more than eighteen months old and after a couple of years, Renée left Charlie and she took Isabella with her.
Charlie really couldn't say too much about Renée taking Isabella with her without revealing that Isabella truly belonged to Billy and Sarah, so he had to let her go and take the daughter that he had learned to love as his own.
Billy was actually happy that Renée took Isabella with her. He figured it was one less thing he had to worry about and could spend his time raising Jake to be who he was meant to be.
Of course Isabella would visit Charlie every summer once she was old enough to fly by herself with an attendant keeping a close eye on her during the trip up to see her father, and once she became a teenager, she stopped coming all together.
Charlie told Billy that she called a lot, and told him how much he missed her. Billy never commented on the way Charlie loved his daughter, his main concern was Jake so to him Bella was Charlie's in every sense of the word.
And so that's how it stayed until the day she returned to live with Charlie to finish her schooling. Billy worried that she had come back to Forks to live, especially when Jake started to have feelings for her, that's when Billy began to really worry.
Billy knew what Jake felt wasn't that kind of love. Of course Jake didn't know it, but Billy knew it was because they were twins that he was so drawn to her.
Bella too felt drawn to Jake, but in her mind it was more of a friendly draw; one that Billy hoped would drift into Jake's way of thinking, but to his disappointment Jake never did.
So, Billy had to do something to fix this, but as he tried to think of a way to get her away from his son, Bella found another way on her own, which made Billy happier than even he thought possible, it was when she finally began to date the Leech.
Billy thought that this was the perfect end to a perfect means as he thought of the possibilities of what could happen. The Leech would either turn her into what they were, a vampire, or drain her…either way was good in Billy's eyes. To him she was a curse, one he wanted kept as far away from him and his tribe as possible.
But a year later when the Leech up and left her, his worries came back again, especially when it took Jake to help her come out of her comatose behavior. Billy held his breath during that time and was elated yet again when he saw that Paul had imprinted on her.
Billy did all he could to get them together, to Jake's disappointment. Billy felt after a while that it was not going to work with Paul fighting the imprint, but he was happy once again when Bella went off to college. Billy knew Jake still kept in constant contact with her which he hated, but at least she was away from the tribe and Forks.
He only hoped that she'd find someone else to take up her time and Jake would finally give up, but nooo that didn't happen did it. Instead that stupid bloodsucker started coming to her, and Billy was fine with that until Jake and Paul showed up and found out just what was happening, and it was then that Billy felt sorry he had even told Paul about what the Doctor Leech had told him. If he'd just left it alone maybe she'd be dead by now or turned or even taken away by the demon tick.
The Leech was controlling her with the venom he left in her wrist. Billy could have taken it out of her, but he knew if he had she'd still be intertwined with the pack; mostly Jake and could cause even more problems. So he refused to do it.
And with Old Quil's appearance it only made things worse. Billy couldn't figure out why he was getting involved. Yes, he knew Bella was his daughter. He had walked in on him as he was changing the birth records around, and when he told him why Old Quil understood, being that he thought of women the same way as he did.
Yes, most women would call it disrespectful and chauvinistic, but to him and Old Quil it wasn't. To them it was the truth, men just did things better than women, including the running of a tribe, and Old Quil promised not to say a word.
Old Quil didn't want a female running the tribe any more than he did. So he kept his and Charlie's secret; that is until Bella put herself in danger, and yes, he said put herself in danger, because it was her fault. If she wouldn't have got herself involved with the Cullens in the first place none of this would be happening, she'd be off at school and out of his hair.
Now Billy had to worry about Old Quil as well as Charlie spilling the beans so to speak. Charlie had wanted to tell her a long time ago, but Billy seemed to keep him at bay for the time being.
But with Bella being in danger it seemed that both of his comrades were turning on him. So when he decided to face Charlie with his demands and if he did not heed to his plan, Billy decided he would tell Charlie and Sue that they would be banned from the tribe under the falsity of Charlie and Sue working with the leeches to turn Bella into a vampire to make sure she was kept safe.
He knew it would work; he was the Chief of this tribe after all. He had it all worked out in his mind for when they faced the Council. So Charlie would have no choice other than to send her away.
But things didn't work out the way Billy had thought they would. It only took a moment, and an angry decision had him reaching for the gun Charlie had been pointing at him only moments before; had him thinking angrily again, that the girl must die.
Would he have killed her? He wasn't sure, but Billy wasn't thinking clearly at the time. Only when Charlie dove for the gun did he see things more clearly, but by then it was too late, the gun went off and he had shot his best friend.
"Dad what happened?" Jake asked bringing Billy out of his thoughts. Jake had come with him in the ambulance. He sat by his side as they traveled the short distance to the tribal clinic. Billy sighed, knowing all the secrets, the deceit he and Charlie had kept from his children was about to unfold. All was lost, he had been defeated, and he knew it was his entire fault.
There you go, now you know what Billy's big decision was, and why Charlie was afraid of Bella finding out, but in Charlie's defense he did want to tell Bella long ago, it was his bad decision to listen to Billy not to tell Bella. There's still much to tell, so stay with me if you will...How will Billy be punished for what he has done? We'll see very soon...thanks for reading everyone, and for all your support it is very much appreciated...Happy Easter...bigg huggs.