AN: So, this is a pretty short chapter... A HUGE shout out to My Vader for giving this a quick once over before I posted...

Please note, this is NOT edited... Vader DID find one glaring error that I'd made and I fixed it, but other than that, I am SURE it is just FULL of typos, misspellings and grammar errors because of my goofs. Oh well. At least it's a chapter.

I have been working on this story... am actually writing chapter 19 (but took a break to post this here). I have chapter 15 posted over at my "home" site... my favorite fic site - betterintexasfiction dot ning dot com. I will of course continue to update here, but I always, always post there first.

Standard disclaimers apply - I make no money from this and do not own the characters... only the mind that put em in this situation.

Chapter 14

Alice POV

The feel of his hand in my own was more blissful than I had seen it would be. Visions could never fully encapsulate every aspect of every possible future. I knew it would be good… but the actual sensations…

We went just until we crossed the marked scent border when my Charlie pulled me to a stop. Both of our bodies were almost vibrating with need, but I knew our interlude would be a short one.

Remember, Bella is new. She is scared. This is her daddy. You WANTED their relationship to grow, Alice. Don't piss her off… don't piss her off… don't piss her off….

Fuck. This shit is going to be hard.

Hard. Mmmm. Sooo hard.

Fuck me.

Charlie had closed small remaining gap between our frames and his delicious hardness was pressed into my stomach. His lips crashed into mine with a dominance that set my insides into a somehow delicious inferno that rivaled the heat of the change. I had never felt this level of desire in my entire undead life… which, when one considers that my previous lover was indeed an empath, a very master of emotions…

Charlie's experienced fingers entwined themselves into the hair at the base of my skull and he pulled just hard enough to make me relish the pleasurable pain.

Fuck Bella. I need this. Charlie needs this.

Shit… remember Alice… Don't piss her off.

My emotions were completely conflicted. On one hand, I had waited too long and needed my mate. On the other hand, I had waited for a reason. It was far more painful to pull away from him than I anticipated. We were both nearly lost to our most primal of emotions… only my knowledge of the fact that Bella would soon be here was the keeping me from tearing away these small, fragile, thin barriers between all of our skin…

"Charlie," I began, only to be interrupted by his gush of words.

"Shit! I am so sorry! I should have asked, I just…" Always a gentleman.

"Charlie, please, never again apologize for kissing me like that. I certainly don't mind. But Bella…"

"Bell…" was all he was able to utter before we heard the whisper of a vampire running towards us.

"Fuck. Right. Shit." Charlie uttered as he stroked his upper lip.

I took another moment to thank myself for removing the vile facial hair.

He is so much sexier this way.

I gently pulled his hands from his face and kissed his strong fingers before holding his hand in my own and moving to stand in front of him. I knew he wouldn't want to show off his impressive excitement to his daughter. Neither of them would appreciate that kind of awkward situation.

"Soon," I whispered; whether the promise was to Charlie or myself, I wasn't sure. His responding growl roughly caressed my ears and made me feel giddy with anticipation.

At that moment, Bella burst through the trees and halted near us. She looked at her father with eyes alight with fear and betrayal.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go. We're off to a pretty shitty start.

Charlie began to fidget behind me, his excitement, nerves and guilt obviously warring within him. Before either he or Bella could speak and say something that I knew they would ultimately regret, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I knew that Bella wouldn't be too happy with me acting familiar with her at this point, so I decided that proper introductions were probably in order.

"Charlie," I began as I looked over my shoulder and into his slowly lightening eyes, "would you please introduce us?"

Bella POV

You have got to be fucking kidding me right now!

I could not believe my ears as I listened to Char, who had seemed pretty cool up until this particular point, as she told my dad to run off into the forest with the fucking little pixie bitch that looked young enough my own goddamned kid sister.

I could certainly understand. Lord help me, I wish I couldn't. However the fucking double standard was just not fair! How does my fucking cockblocker of a dad just leave with the first available piece of ass that he sees? He has cockblocked me repeatedly. Sure, I ripped off his arm, so his major cockblocking attempts weren't likely to happen again really soon, but still!

Dad's face damn near split with his fucking giddy ass grin and he and the little sprite bitch sprinted off into the forest. It took only a moment for my intense anger at Dad's departure to change and for my fear to sink in.

Shit.

Shitty shit shit.

I am still on Jasper's lap.

The other vampires should probably be making me nervous, but if they were, I was oblivious. Right now, I could only be grateful for the buffer that they provided.

With a speed and grace that I'd happily become acclimated to, I jumped from Jasper's lap. I was about to lose it in more ways than one.

"Hold the fuck on. What just happened here?" I queried with a tension laced voice.

Jasper looked briefly saddened by the loss of skin contact, as was I. However, space was needed if there was any chance of me keeping my head. As much as my body screamed at me to strip him naked and try my best to figure out just how to mount his impressive, um, thing (hey, I WAS on his lap, I could feel it), I was fucking scared and pissed.

"Well, Belladonna, I thought we already explained the whole 'mate' concept," Peter jokingly chided.

This motherfucker….

I had already figured it out, but I truly didn't want to believe it. Then Peter had to go and be a fucking dumbass in his way of saying shit as he was wont to do.

This was the first time that Dad had actually just left me since we'd awoken to this life. Additionally, he was so quick to leave me with Jasper. As much as that excited me, my inexperience left me terrified. Dad was supposed to protect me. And until Alice had arrived, he had been protecting me.

He fucking left me. He left with that little bitch.

Fuck a whole big bunch of this shit.

With petulance that would rival the brattiest of human toddlers, I let my newborn vampire rage take over gave into a fit unlike any I'd had since the age of three. Completely forgetting my strength, I stomped my foot on the wooden deck below my feet, instantly turning the strong redwood to dust and putting my entire left leg through the durable material.

Again, yay for the no fucking blushing faces.

While Jasper and Char at least tried to hide their amusement at my idiotic position, Chuckles, Basketball and Professor Sex just let their surprised guffaws of laughter fly. Of course, this only incited my anger more, because I knew what an utter dumbass I looked like and was further enraged.

Feeling fully pissed, humiliated and abandoned, I easily pulled my leg from the deck, where it was sunk to my knee. Without conscious decision on my part, I stuck my tongue out at the giggly fuckers, flipped them off and sprinted after Dad & the father-stealing-bitch's scent trails. I tried my best to ignore what I somehow knew to be the strong scents of arousal (puke) and ran towards the one man I knew I could trust and would keep me safe… even from my own urges.

Jasper's now easily recognizable growl reached my ears as I heard Charolette start to say something about adding decking to the list and heard fucking Ty going on again about "the show."

Fuck these assholes.

I'm out.

I just hoped that they were decent when I found them. I didn't need that image burned into my infallible vampire brain. The mere thought of the innumerable monstrosities that I could stumble upon with my dad and her gave me a moment of pause; a small part of me felt bad for denying my dad the time apart, but a larger, more dominant part was just a damned scared girl who needed her daddy.

With that, I growled and sped back up, pissed off that I felt so needy and confused. The time alone with my dad had been wonderful; for once, I was the child. Dad took care of me, he taught me, listened and laughed. He showed me what a great parent he'd missed out on being.

Maybe that whole limb removal thing had confused him…

Further enraged by my momentary logic, my arrival stopped my mind from further betraying me. I halted and cast my gaze at my dad, deciding to ignore the girl as long as possible. If I was lucky, maybe I could ignore her altogether and avoid being too bitchy… for the time being. He was all fidgety and awkward, leaving me no doubt where I got most of my social graces from. The smell of both of them permeated the air, nearly making me gag. It was during my momentary pause to catch my unneeded breath that the bitch decided to speak.

"Charlie, would you please introduce us?" she simpered as she looked over her shoulder at my dad with eyes full of all kinds of emotions I didn't even want to begin to think about.

Did she actually expect me to think they'd run out here to talk? Though I had wanted to just try and ignore her, I couldn't help the smirk that overtook my face and the words that tumbled out of my mouth.

"Yeah, well, I don't even know if Charlie stopped long enough to catch your name," I challenged. While part of me was sorry I'd said it as soon as the words registered, another part of me welcomed the potential fight. Anger, I could handle. Being scared and unsure, those emotions left me running for my daddy; and the man was obviously almost otherwise occupied.

The girl gasped, hurt washing over her delicate features. My dad's eyes shot to my face before he let loose a growl that was directed at me.

"Isabella Marie Swan!" he began, obviously getting ready to scold me.

While I had no qualms insulting her, I was just too strained to fight with my dad. I was again reaching a low point and I needed him.

"You promised," I said, my previous bravado having left my voice.

This seemed to give him pause. He looked at me skeptically before asking, "What, Bella? What did I promise?"

I really didn't want to discuss this in front of Alice. My face must have betrayed me, because I heard dad sigh and begin to speak only to be interrupted by her.

"I'll just give you two a few minutes. I'll be on the deck with everyone else," she said, her demeanor had changed to fit the somber tone of my emotions.

I gave her a few moments to get out of hearing range; taking the time to study the forest floor beneath my feet and to fidget my hands excessively. I dare not look up at Dad, instead I tried to think of the best way to say what I needed to without embarrassing the both of us. It was a seemingly futile effort. Before I knew it, Dad was ready to talk.

"So Bella, I promised?" he lead.

"Well, before we came back here. Remember, I was scared. You promised to keep me safe, right?" I plead.

His facial expression indicated that he had no idea where I was going with my line of thinking. Looked like I would have to continue on.

"And, I get that we're safe. I do. But, um, the, ack, um, excitement that you feel for Alice is something I can um, relate to." I stuttered. I quickly continued, "On a purely hypothetical level, because, um… I feel the same with Jasper, I think. It's weird, but I feel so safe and protected and um… excited with him. But that scares me, Dad. I know we have talked about damn near everything the past several weeks but relationships with one another, but see, the thing is, I would have nothing to add to the conversation. Nada. I have these feelings and they scare me. I want to do these things that are foreign to me. It scares me. I am petrified and of what I don't know and what I might do. I want to do things, but I don't know what things I want to do. Sure, I had 'the talk' with Renee years ago, but that information is foggy in my mind at best. I have these urges; but I am kind of afraid of them. These feelings are so damn intense…" I rushed.

"I just feel like you have kept me safe since this whole adventure in vampireland started and, well, to be honest, you've kept me safe from my own emotions more often than not. And now, I just don't know how to handle this newest set of emotions. I am afraid that I'll act on them when you're gone, but I am pretty damned sure that I won't when you're there. Jesus, this is awkward…" I further rambled, unable to stop once I had opened up.

Realization had dawned on Dad's face part way through my rant and he seemed to be relieved and embarrassed.

"Oh, Bella," he soothed, opening his arms to me.

I wasted no time running to him and burying my face in his shoulder. I was again a little girl being comforted by Dr. Dad. He was fixing shit and making my world right.

I sniffed, feeling self-conscious but relieved.

"Alright, Kiddo. I get it," he mumbled into my shoulder. "Can't say a part of me isn't relieved, and as much as I would enjoy being alone with Alice right now, I can see your point. Besides, if this 'mate' thing is the real deal, might as well make sure we both give it a solid foundation, right? Too many people jump into bed nowadays instead of getting to know each other. Maybe we could have some double dates or something?"

"Um…" the thought of double dates with my dad was certainly not what I had in mind.

His boisterous laughter shook my frame and made me pull back to look at his face, which would have been difficult to do without vampiric sight. He was so shaken with his laughter and his face was nearly split with his massive grin.

"Oh! You… ha!" he laughed.

I fully removed myself from the hug and stepped back several paces to continue studying the visage of my normally stoic dad laughing his ever-loving face off. As his laughter continued, I placed my hands on my hips and started to get pissed off all over again. Seeing my change, he sobered up.

"No. The thought was nice, but can you imagine us double dating?" he asked, his voice still harboring the chuckle he'd recently quieted.

I could not, in fact, imagine it. It was the reason for my initial pause.

"See!" he bellowed. "Can you imagine us slurping blood shakes at the diner with our mates? Strange shit," he mused.

I finally got it and couldn't help the smile that crossed my face. "It would be pretty odd," I agreed.

"Alright, Bells, how about this. You and I both take the time to get to know these two and see where it goes. Feels pretty permanent to me so far, but you're right, I did make a promise to you. I can't go and break it because circumstances change. We're in this together."

Together.

That sounded pretty good.

A/N: Thank you for sticking with me. I hope to update more frequently... and am writing quite a bit & trying to space out my updates. Figure this story will be thirty some odd chapters when I'm done... unless my characters keep being so damn chatty...