Title: The Problem with Privacy
Author: Sare Liz
Disclaimer: Does not belong to me.
Continuity: Outtake of The Day the Earth Stood Still (Daily Vampire Mating Ritual)

Beta: Colleen P, bless her. We love Charlie POV!
Author's Note: This one takes place a month or two in from the start of DESS.

I like to think that I give a young lady the privacy she needs, but about a month or two into Bella's living with me, she asked to go camping with her boyfriend's family. As shocking as that was for me, I went with it. I knew full well what people in love would do to impress the object of their affection. At any rate, I had some camping gear in good condition in the shed, so I pulled it out and brought it up to her room for her to look at. I didn't think much of going into her room at the time - she usually keeps her door shut, even when she's not in there, but that's okay, I figured. Never dawned on me - me, the police officer - that she might be hiding something other than the obvious girl stuff. I guess I expected bras and tampons scattered around.

That room smelled like pure sex.

I dropped the duffel bag full of gear like they were hot rocks, and left. I stood in the hallway, my mind blank.

I really liked Edward, was the thing. Now that respect was warring with a desire to shoot him right between the eyes.

I took a shaky breath in and tried to assess the situation from every angle. I tried not to let my emotions get the better of me. I was better than that.

She was seventeen years old. Her mom and I were having sex at seventeen. I was kind of upset about Bella doing that, but I was also aware of my own hypocrisy. It's just that I hoped for better for my girl. Not that I'd had much of a hand in raising her, really.

But how the hell had he gotten inside her bedroom?

He either walked through the house and entered through her doorway from the hall, or he climbed in through the window. Both were unlikely, and I didn't sleep that soundly that I'd miss someone walking through my house at night. Hell, when Bella got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, I heard it.

Come to think of it, now I was wondering if it was Bella getting up and peeing in the middle of the night.

I took a deep breath, figuring it might calm me down a bit, but it really just reminded me of the matter at hand. Okay, it had to be the door or the window. Door has a strike against it, because I think I would have heard, but maybe not. A smell this strong tells me that he was here last night, and more often than just last night. How long has this been going on? They've only known each other for a month...

Was it Edward? Probably. Bella doesn't seem like she'd be anything but monogamous. Also, I'm not sure she'd have time for anyone else. She spends every waking moment with Edward and his family. Apparently she spends some of her sleeping moments with him, too. Okay, back to entry...

The window. There is a tree more or less close to the back of the house, but is it close enough? I steeled myself and walked back into the room to inspect the window. I tried it, just to see. It opened easier than any other window in the house. I checked her other one just for comparison, but it was practically painted shut. I really should see about that - come summer, she might want to get some kind of cross breeze. A crowbar and maybe some WD-40 could do the trick on that one.

I walked back to the window in question. I examined it closely. It definitely had never been forced, and had obviously been greased recently. I looked around the sill and found some dirt in a very specific pattern. It was really more like mud, and there was only a tiny bit of it, but it wasn't the sort you'd find on a windowsill that hadn't been stepped on. Edward had come in through the window, after all.

I looked out at the tree. It was a solid six feet away, if not more. Was the boy a monkey? I opened the window farther and leaned out, ignoring the light rain that hadn't dislodged the bit of mud from the inner edge of the window yet. I looked for wear and tear on the tree in the branches nearest to the window, but found none. I closed the window and left her room, but buzzed outside right after I grabbed a jacket from the hook by the door. I was anxious to look closer at that tree, but I wanted to look at the entire area, really. I approached it as if I would a crime scene.

The grass was a bit on the long side, as it sometimes got, but long and wet it was an easier indicator to get a general sense of where people had walked. There had been an awful lot of walking, and point A was underneath my daughter's window. Point B seemed to be the back of the woods at the far end of the yard.

I slowly came closer and squatted down to look and think. It was impossible to get much beyond a general impression, and it was likely that the mud came from something else that he stepped in, because it surely didn't come from the base down here, between the window and the tree. It was a thoroughly grassy area. There were some indents in the lawn, though, more so than normal, and they made me wonder. I didn't have a solid bead on them, other than to think of stilts. Could he have been using stilts? A ladder?

A ladder - that wasn't a half bad idea. He could probably keep it in the woods back there a ways, and no one would notice. If he put some felt, or cloth around the top, I might not hear it as he leaned it against the side of the house. Pretty dangerous though, to do that in the dark, and the rain, and without someone holding it steady to boot.

I examined the side of the house beneath her window, but there were no marks or indentations or chipped paint on the side. I took a good look at the tree, too. The base and all the bark looked completely normal, nothing out of the ordinary.

I went back to look at the two indents again. I looked at them from several sides, and eventually crossed out ladder in my mind. A ladder didn't make these indents, though they were shoulder width apart. They weren't the only ones, but they were the most recent. Once I started looking around, however, there were all sorts of identical pairs of indents. The only difference was that they weren't always shoulder width apart, and they weren't always parallel to the house.

An insane thought flickered through my head, but I dismissed it just as quickly as it came up. If he'd jumped quickly, from the balls of his feet on slightly soft ground and with great force - force great enough to actually get his feet on a second story window - said feet might make just such a mark. But it was a ridiculous notion, as no one could make such a jump, so I didn't entertain it for long.

I half wanted to go with the ladder theory, even though I knew it was less likely than the idea of Edward jumping up to her window. I followed the slight track through the back yard and out into the trees behind the house. There was nothing. There were no ladders, no sign of someone waiting impatiently, no garbage, no dropped items, nothing. I stood in the forest with my arms crossed over my chest and thought for a while.

Bella, 17, was having sex with her boyfriend Edward, also 17, who was in the habit of sneaking into her room at night, by way of her window. Bella already had the sex talk with Renee. Edward seemed like a very responsible young man, and came from a good family with strong morals.

Six more months and Bella would be 18 years old. Another fifteen months and she would be finished with high school. In eighteen months, she might be out of my life once again, away at college. She'd be living in a dorm, or possibly an apartment with friends or strangers. She'd be doing whatever she decided she needed to do at that point.

What do I really want?

I want Bella to be safe. After that, I want Bella to be happy. I want to enjoy the time I have with Bella before she flies the coop.

On the irrational side, can't she just hold hands with the boy? Really, I want her never to leave home, not to have sex, and in fact, never grow up. I want my little girl. Granted, she's not a little girl anymore, and hasn't been for a few years, now. I mostly missed that part, anyway.

Kids grow up. It's every parent's conundrum, I guess. On the one hand you absolutely want them to grow up, and isn't that the point of you raising them right? On the other hand, you absolutely don't want them to grow up, because maybe they'll only call on Christmas and birthdays and that's crushing because they are the apple of your dang eye.

What are my options?

I could forbid her to see him, but that seems a bit extreme, considering what I really want.

I could sit down and attempt to have a conversation about safe sex with her, but her mother's already done that. No use in beating horses, living or dead.

I could pull Edward aside at some point and threaten violence if he hurts her, or gets her pregnant and leaves her high and dry. Really, though, the boy adores the ground she walks on, and his father would be first in line to remind Edward of his responsibilities, if Edward ever needed to be reminded. Dr. Cullen was a good man, and I can't see him allowing one of his children to abandon one of theirs, not after adopting four of his own, so young.

I could bide a while and keep my peace. Maybe figure out how in blue blazes the boy gets into her bedroom window. I could talk with him a bit more when they're over. He's pretty good for a conversation if I start one, though he never intrudes if I'm feeling quiet.

Those two are going to be together for awhile though. Maybe if they play their cards right, they'll end up married, and for longer than me and Renee. I just hope to God they don't elope to Vegas.

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