I frown when there is a knock on my back door. I move to it looking out the side window seeing Bella.

"Hey?" I question as I open it. Looking at my watch, I see it's only five in the morning.

"Dad said you're taking him out for the day on Monday?" She stutters out quickly.

"I am?" I say, but it comes out more like a question, and she just looks at me.

"Sorry, it's early and yes, I am taking him out for some guy time." Bella bobs her head in understanding.

"Have you ever pushed a wheelchair?" I shake my head at her. Then snort not like this is going to be hard.

"Edward, it's not that easy, but I need to run though some stuff with you, and I will teach you, after you get home from work. So make sure you drop by." She walks away and I watch her go shaking my head.

Once I can see Bella has made it back home, I close my door, and carry on getting ready for my shift.

~HLAG~

My shift at the station seemed to have flown by. Like promised, I head right to Bella's. When I park I see Rose and Emmett seem to here too.

"Hey bro, Bella said she needed my help and Pumpkin wanted to play..." he says trailing off as if he is nervous.

"That's fine," I say just as Bella comes out of the house pushing a wheelchair, that Jenny's sitting in.

"Ready?" she asks and I bob my head and move to take it from her.

"Oh no," Bella says and I frown at her. "My father is six two and weights close to one sixty." I pull my eye brows together as that seems a little low. I am the same height and he looked to be my width, but I am closer to one ninety.

"He's lost some weight. It's the down side to being almost bed bound," Bella mutters as she clears her throat. "Pushing a small girl around is not going to cut it. Emmett!" she yells and points to the seat.

"Oh man, this going to be fun!" Emmett giggles like a girl.

"Enjoy," Bella says and I shake my head, as I start to push the chair. I find this is a lot harder than what I was expecting. After ten minutes I am beat and feel out of breath.

"Lesson one," Bella says taking over from me. "Stay close to the wheelchair, bend your knees, and don't grip the handles," Bella says and then moves off with Emmett easily. "To get him up the curb, move to his foot rest. Use the bar by the back wheels and put your foot on it to tilt it back, the wheels do the rest," she says getting Emmett up on to the pavement with little effort. "You want to try?" I bob my head and start again, but this time I am less cocky.

It takes just over an hour for Bella to run through everything with me. She even wrote everything down, including how to get in to elevators, shops, and then ran through how to get her dad in and out of his chair. The hardest will be the transfer from the car to the chair.

"I've made dinner," Sue says softly from inside the front door. As I look up at her, I frown seeing her standing there wearing a hood. It makes me remember the guy I saw Bella with on the roof of her house and again outside her back door. I close my eyes chuckling as I figure out it wasn't a guy, but Sue and the second guy in the chair must have been Charlie.

"You coming for dinner?" Bella asks as she looks at me. Turning to look at her, I see she looks different. It's as if this new information is making me see her for the first time. I find the words get stuck in my throat. I nod quickly at her as I clear the emotion out of my throat. "I am," I say softy, knowing I have some making up to do.

"Okay bro, we're going to head out," Emmett says as he and Rose head to his car.

I walk into the house seeing that Bella isn't here, but Jennifer is sitting at the table along with Sue.

"Where is Bella?" I ask as I sit down.

"She's eating with her dad," Jennifer answers and l look at her and my eyes flicker to Sue then back to Jennifer.

Jennifer just gives me a small smile. "Aunt Sue understands too."

I frown a little not understanding what she means by that. "Understands what?" I ask.

"What it is like to be told to be quiet, or only to speak when spoken to, but then again I was only ever barked at when it came to do things." I look at Sue still frowning because I can't seem to grasp what she's saying.

"My mom was very strict when it came to me. Renee was her golden-beautiful child. I was the one that wasn't pretty, that wasn't smart." She clears her throat. "She made me leave school, and when Renee was allowed to go off to college, I was made to stay here and look after her." Sue looks at Jennifer and then to me. "That's where Renee learned it from." She shakes her head in disgust. "Sometimes people like Jenny, Bella and I, we can see it in others like us. We can see the hurt and the wall that is up because we have been hurt by the people who are meant to protect us-them. But more so we see the understanding, there's no need to explain what you went through, they just know." As she's done talking, Sue looks down at her plate and Jennifer places her small hand over hers.

"I'm sorry," I stutter and Sue looks at me.

"That is the other thing we know so well." I just look at her waiting for her to speak more. "The pitty apology, our life is what it was. We're alive and have come out of it alive. You or anyone saying they are sorry makes us feel weak, and that's something we don't want to feel. Especially not by someone that didn't hurt us." I bob my head as I bite my lip to stop myself from saying I am sorry again.

Sue snorts and I look at her. "I think that's why we," she stops and waves her hand between herself and Jennifer. "Are more able to forgive others when they hurt us by their word, or behavior." I tilt my head at her and look to Jennifer who is nodding. "We have been hurt so badly by our parents, that their hurt comes nowhere close, and all we want to do is to live without that hurt and the best way to do that is to forgive and move on, and live."

When Sue's done speaking all I can do is nod as I think over what she just said.

~HLAG~

I drop Jennifer off at school before heading back to get Charlie for our day out. Sue was a doll and helped me get Charlie into my car.

"You can come if you'd like," I say softly. She looks around and then shakes her head before she walks quickly back inside her house. I frown as I walk around and get in to my car.

"Sue's mom was ill and she couldn't leave the house. As a result to that she kept Sue prisoner along with her." I let out a soft breath feeling sorry for Sue.

"I never knew the full extent of what Sue had gone through." Charlie carries on with a heavy sigh. "I met Martha, Renee and Sue's mom, and where I never liked the old bag, I never knew she was abusing Sue. Well, not till I moved in with her two years ago." I bob my head at him letting him know I was listening. "But she is getting better. When Bella and I first arrived, she wouldn't leave the house, and didn't speak to anyone. She now can sit in the back door way, and come out front and even talk to a few people. To some it may not be much, but it's a start."

"It is," I say smiling as I remember Jennifer's small victories.

I pull in to the parking lot looking for a handicap parking space, but they are all full. I spend the next five or so minutes looking for two car parking spaces finding one near the middle of the parking lot. I park so I'm in between both of them so I can use the extra space to get Charlie in his chair.

Charlie just looks at me as I stop and get out of the car. "What?" I ask him and he shakes his head at me.

I get the chair out first and then help Charlie from my car to the chair. Once he is in and I make my roof go up, I lock my car up as I start to push him.

We take our time going around the shops. Not only did Charlie pick out gifts for Bella, and Sue, but I was able to get some gifts for Jennifer.

"Wait," he says as we pass a music store. "Can we go in?" he asks and I chuckle as I direct his chair to the shop.

"I used to play in a band," he says as he looks around.

"What did you play?" I ask.

"I was the lead singer, and guitar player," he says as he touches a black guitar. "God do I miss It." He smiles and looks to me. "When Bella got older, I used to play for Bella and we would have sing a longs." I raise my eye brows and quickly clear my throat before a sarcastic snip about Bella singing can come out.

"She's really quite good," he carries on and I snort. "She is when she's not trying to annoy me, the little shit. When she's pissed she sings likes she's killing cats." I just look at him and he chuckles. "She's a woman not to be reckoned with." I sigh and nod in agreement.

"You should buy one," I say. Moving to the guitars that are made for people with one hand or mobility problems, I look to see if I can find him something.

"Nah son, I just like to look around. Where we have a little bit more money now that Renee has stopped taking it, there is still not that much, and Bella needs some new stuff. She still wears clothes that are four years old."

I swallow but bob my head and I push him out of the shop. "Where to next?" I ask, still thinking over what he said.

~HLG~

"Edward?" Charlie whispers as I clean up our table from lunch.

"Yeah," I say looking at him and frown seeing the red tinge to his face.

"I need to use the bathroom," he says not looking at me.

I frown at first and then it clicks in my head that he's going to need my help. "Oh, oh!" I gulp and chuckle a little. "Come on," I say pushing to the handicap toilets.

"How do we do this?" I ask. Feeling so unsure of what to do mainly because Bella never went through this with me.

"You need to help get my pants down and on to the toilet." I bob my head and get to it. As soon as he's sitting, I turn my back to him.

"I played in a band at school, I did the same as you," I say. "We should start a old man's band, we already have two good looking singers." I chuckle and I hear a faint chuckle from Charlie.

"I'm not that good any more." I turn to him and shake my head.

"You just need to get back in to the game," I say helping him get fixed up and back in his chair. As soon as he's done, I push him to the sink so we can wash his hands.

"How about when our girls are having girl time, I come over and we can strum some sounds?" Charlie smiles and then bobs his head.

"Maybe when I am more able, we could talk my head strong daughter into letting us go fishing."

I chuckle out a laugh. "Yes, that sounds like a plan!"

I drive Charlie home and am able to help him set up the tree before leaving to get Jennifer.

I arrive at the school and as soon as I step out of my car, I see Mrs. Cope walking toward me. "Cullen can I have a word?" she says softly.

I follow her in to the school. Just as we reach her office I see Jennifer who looks upset and a little angry.

"Jennifer?" I say as I approach her, but she doesn't look my way.

"If you'd like to come in," Mrs. Cope says and I frown, but follow her in to her office.

"We have to suspend Jennifer from school for three days," she says sounding stern.

"Why?" I ask.

"She punched another child," she says and I frown shaking my head.

I open and close my mouth. "What, why?" I ask.

"We're not sure of the reason. In honesty they don't really matter. We do not allow that behavior in our schools," she says and I bob my head walking to the door.

"Jennifer," I say with a nod and she walks out of the office with her head down.

The whole drive home I have no idea what to say to her, so I keep quiet.

"You're grounded," I say as we enter the house. "No playing outside, no computer..." Before I can say another word, she stomps.

"Hey," Rose says walking in and she looks to where Jennifer has gone.

"I'm sorry, I just grounded her. Just leave her be and I'll be back in an hour," I say walking back out of the house.

I arrive at Bella's school and the meeting goes quickly. Most were not wanting to implement Bella's idea, but as she has Anna, who's also on the board of education, they asked to try for one semester.

"What's wrong?" Bella asks as we reach my car.

"Jennifer hit some kid and now she can't go to school," I say and Bella frowns.

"What happened?" I shrug.

"Tell me you asked her, or did you just punish her?" Bella yells and I turn and look at her.

"Edward!" she yells and then groans. "You think any one at school even listened to her? Or the fact that she doesn't speak makes them not even try?" she hums at the end. "Jenny is a good kid. If she hit someone, then that person more than likely asked for it."

I look at her in shock at her words. "Just like the kid you had a fight with?" I smirk out.

"Yes, Alice asked Jacob to stop and that he was hurting her. When he kept gripping and pulling at her, trying to kiss her, you can bet I put him on his ass!" I stop my car and just look at her.

"He what?"

"Oh, didn't you hear that?" I shake my head. "If I hit you, would you defend yourself or just let me hurt you?"

I gulp and close my eyes. "Fuck."

"You said it, just talk to her. Tell her you screwed up and you're sorry."

"Will you come with me?" I ask feeling that I may need her.

"Yes." I bob my head and start to drive.

As soon as I reach my home, I let Rose know she can go to hers. Slowly I move up to Jenny's room and move to her bed.

"I'm sorry," I say rubbing my face.

"Why didn't you ask me what happened?!" Jennifer yells at me.

"I know I should have..." I start to say, but she cuts me off.

"Just the same as the day Alice stole, you never asked me." I tilt my head and look to Bella who looks anywhere but me.

"What?" I stutter out.

"You never asked me what happened. If you did, I would have told you it was my fault. I called Bella because Alice was acting weird and keep putting stuff in her bag, but you didn't," Jennifer sobs out and all I can do is look at her.