A/N: Merry Monday, everyone!

"You see? This is why you don't date teenagers."

Charlie banged his head on the back of his friend's couch. "Twenty-three, Billy. She's twenty-three."

"It's the same difference. Twenty-three-year-olds are still at that stage where they think they know everything when they really know nothing." Billy scoffed and shook his head. "She's got some nerve saying those things to you. Highest paid law enforcement official in town, and you have no ambition? You've provided for yourself and your daughter since you were eighteen. Who the hell does she think she is?"

Charlie grunted, letting his friend's word assuage his wounded pride. He had accomplished a lot. "Alice has a good head on her shoulders, but I'm not going to say it wasn't irritating to listen to."

When it happened, he'd been caught off guard and was on the defense. As the fear she was leaving him outright faded, he'd gotten more and more pissed off. Here it was, two days after it had happened, and he'd related the whole story to Billy and Sue, getting angrier as he repeated the words.

He had every right to be proud of himself.

"What the hell does she know?" he muttered.

"Damn straight," Billy said.

They both downed the rest of their beers on it.

Sue, who hadn't said a word to that point, put chips on the coffee table in front of them and went to sit in the recliner. She didn't look happy, and that didn't bode well. "What is it, Sue?" he asked, resigned but also curious as to what she had to say about the situation. He respected Sue as much as Billy. More so, depending on the situation.

His friend didn't answer right away. She rolled her lips, obviously trying to find the right words. "Look, I want to say up front, I don't blame you for being angry. You have a right to be pissy about the whole situation. Those aren't easy things to hear, especially from a kid. She's my daughter's age, for crying out loud. If my daughter told me something like that, I'd have laughed in her face."

"But?" Billy prompted.

"But…you two are confusing hard work and responsibility with ambition."

Charlie looked down at his hands. He already knew Sue was right, but it didn't make her words easier to hear.

"What are you talking about?" Billy asked.

"Let me put it to you this way. Charlie, when Bella told you she was getting married, why weren't you happy for her?"

He chuffed but he answered. "Because I want more for her."

"More for her than what you had, you mean. You don't want her to get stuck." She didn't wait for him to answer. "Charlie, there's nothing wrong with surviving. You pay your bills. You provide for your family. There's honor in that."

"But not ambition," he said, his tone somewhat bitter.

"She's a smart girl." Sue smiled, the expression sad. "I got pregnant with Leah when I was sixteen. All of us were young parents, and we all know what it was to struggle just to keep our heads above water. There's no room there to want something more. When you're striving just to get the ground beneath your feet, it's almost impossible to think that far ahead.

"But I did. When I was sixteen and Harry was twenty, I talked all the time about how I wanted to get out of here. I wanted to move to California. I wanted a job in a tall office building and a corner office. Doing god knows what." She laughed. "I never got that far.

"I was almost twenty-one when Harry finally told me he had no intention of going anywhere. He was happy here. Little house. Little life." She took a deep breath. "And then I was pregnant with Seth, so I let go of my dreams and did what I had to to be happy here."

She looked at both of them. "I loved Harry. I loved my life with him, and I love my life with you, Billy. But I resented Harry for a long time. Sometimes, when I think of all the things I haven't done and I'll never do, I still resent him. But you were right about one thing, Billy. Age does give you wisdom, and now I know it's my fault that I don't have a goal to work to. I'm not dead. I'm not near death or retirement. I still have the time to do almost anything I want to do." She shrugged.

"So anyway, I don't know. Like I said. I think your Alice is a smart girl. She knows she can't stay here because she does have ambition. And I'll bet my right eye the reason she brought it up with you the way she did was because she can't imagine you'll be happy either way without ambition of your own. Either you let her go or you follow her and resent her for dragging you somewhere you don't want to be." She tilted her head, flashing them a smile. "The only thing the girl needs to learn is how to be gentle with you men's fragile egos."

Later, when Billy had gone a few doors down to tend to some business, Sue took Charlie's hands. "You and I both know it could have been you and me instead of me and Billy. Not that I regret it. I love Billy, but I wonder sometimes what could have been. You always wonder."

She squeezed his fingers. "But right now, I'm glad fate didn't swing our way. I never could have made you as happy as you've been with this young woman." She tilted her head, studying him. "You know, except for Bella coming to live with you a couple of years, your life hasn't changed since we were all stupid kids together." Leaning forward, she kissed his forehead in an affectionate gesture. "Change sucks, Charlie, but you've rolled with the punches all your life and come out on top. Don't hold back the one time you'd be doing it for no one but yourself and your own happiness."

~0~

Some days after that, he was on the phone with Renee-she wanted to talk about what they were giving Bella for the wedding he was still trying to forget was coming-when she asked how things with Alice were going.

Somehow, in that Renee way of hers, she coaxed the whole story out of him.

"Things are okay right now," he said, wondering for the thousandth time why he was talking to his ex-wife about this. "We have lunch. We have dinner. She stays over sometimes, just like before. We talk."

"Talking. Sure. That's what you kids are calling it these days," Renee said, teasing.

Charlie rolled his eyes, but he blushed too. "But it's just there, you know?"

Renee was quiet for so long, he called her name, wondering if they'd lost connection. "I'm here," she said. "There's something I want to tell you, and you know me. It's going to come out all wrong."

He cleared his throat, not sure he wanted to hear whatever came with that preface. "I'd like to think I speak Renee by this point."

"Well. Do you know why I left you?"

Maybe he was wrong about speaking her language. "I don't know if I want to talk about this right now." Not when he felt like there was an axe swinging over the rapidly fraying rope of the second relationship that had ever been important to him.

"Argh. See? I told you it was going to come out wrong. Just bear with me. This is important."

Renee took a deep breath and tried again. "Okay. So here's the thing. Do you remember who you were at seventeen?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"No. I'm serious. Okay, let me put it another way. Did you always want to be a policeman?"

"You know I didn't. It just made sense. We had a baby and she needed things."

"I know. Honey, I know that. But my point was, being chief of police wasn't your original end game, was it? It wasn't what you grew up wanting to be."

"No, it wasn't. But what does that matter? Most people don't end up doing what they wanted to do when they were kids."

"You're right," she said. "But I want you to be honest with me, and with yourself. I know what Alice told you stung because you've worked hard and you're proud of that. I'm proud of you too for what you've accomplished. But being honest, was becoming Chief of Police your goal?"

He paused, considering this. "No," he said after a long minute. In fact, he hadn't been actively trying to get any of the promotions he'd earned.

"You work hard at whatever is put in front of you. You did your duty as a police officer to the fullest extent. You were a dutiful son to your parents. You did what you thought was your duty for me and Bella. But do you see who's missing from the equation here?"

"You're saying I didn't do any of it for myself?"

"Exactly. So yes, you've risen to the top of your career path, but it wasn't because you're ambitious and, more importantly, it wasn't because it was something you wanted to do. You just did it. And that's why I had to leave."

Charlie raised his eyebrows. "Because I did my job?"

"Because after I got pregnant with Bella, you stopped talking about what you wanted to do and started talking about what you needed to do. You got it into your head that you were supposed to raise a family in that little house in that little town and you wouldn't stop to consider anything else. Honey, Alice had it right. You stopped. You just stopped. Here it is, eighteen years later, and you're still holding on to a life you never wanted. With both hands. And all your toes.

"Charlie, I wasn't the only one who wanted out of Forks. I know you don't mind Forks. I know you even like it there, but do you love it? Is it really true that you can't see yourself anywhere else? Because, honey, there are small towns, and then there are towns like Forks. A town like Forks doesn't fit with most dreams and certainly not the things we talked about doing when we were kids. That's the truth of it. That's what Alice is talking about now, right? Not that she hates Forks, but there just aren't any opportunities there."

"Maybe the only opportunity I wanted was to raise a family. Isn't that enough of a goal?"

"Of course it is, but it isn't the only thing you've ever wanted to do. It's okay to have more than one goal, Charlie. And you have to consider compromising. I wanted to raise a family with you. That was my goal too, but if that was all you wanted, you could have raised a family outside of Forks. And that was what I wanted. I don't really care about my job either. I like it. It pays the bills, but my ambition is all about trying new things. I want to have experiences. Lots of them. That's my goal, and I couldn't do it in Forks.

"I'm not blaming you, Charlie," she said before he could get a word in edgewise. "You and I, we both messed up. I didn't know how to handle it because I wanted so much for us to be the good couple. To raise our baby and support each other through our hopes and dreams. But then you lost yours, and I didn't know how to help you find them again.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry you didn't get to be a bigger part of Bella's life. But even if the only thing you ever wanted was to raise a family, that's still an ambition. That's still a goal. And you can still have that. Just bend a little. Get a job as a policeman in Seattle. You won't be Chief of Police, but you'll be earning a living doing something you know how to do, just like you are now, and you can have a family. You can have babies you'll see every day." Renee chuckled. "Hell. You might have your babies there with our grandbabies at this rate. Who knows where Bella and Edward will end up."

"Renee," he protested, closing his eyes. He groaned, trying to shake away the things he didn't want to think about-Bella was not going to make him a grandfather for at least a solid decade, please-while at the same time tentatively embracing the things that sounded...great.

Bella had been and always would be enough for him. He loved her. But he couldn't deny the idea of being a father again was appealing. Alice had planted that seed, and it had startled him. He had a grown daughter. He'd never thought he'd have another child.

It occurred to him then what Renee had been trying to say. Alice wasn't throwing a wrench into an amazing life. His life was fine. Uncomplicated but not amazing. She was offering him the chance at a life, at dreams he'd pushed away before he was out of his teens. Because now that Renee mentioned it, he recalled when he was seventeen, there were a lot of things he'd wanted to accomplish. Some of those things he could have done on his own.

Why hadn't he?

Had he really just been drifting through life all these years?

And was Alice really asking too much, asking him to give up this house where he lived alone and this town who respected him to his face and bashed the woman he loved behind his back? Was it asking too much to ask him to consider if there was something he really wanted to do with his life and to offer her love and support so he could do it?

"You know, Charlie, I've always been grateful you aren't a horrible ex. I've always been grateful that despite everything, despite the fact I left you alone and took your daughter away from you, you've never hated me and you've always been my friend. I want you to know, you being happy would make me very happy."

He chuckled because he knew she meant it. Renee always did like beautiful ideas.

A/N: Many thanks to jessypt and barburella.

So. Probably one more chapter. Then I'll probably do an epilogue because epilogues are fun!