Chapter 25 - I'll be home for Christmas
Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.
Thanks to BanSidhe [ruadh sidhe] and Feebes86 for betaing and pre-reading.
"We can talk now," Charlie interrupted.
Bella nearly jumped out of her skin. Josh grinned. "You knew he was there," she accused.
"You said you'd be around before and then you took off to Seattle."
"I know, Dad."
Charlie made a huff noise. "Let me put it another way… we ARE talking. Right now, young lady."
"Okay, Dad." She knew Josh was watching her and Charlie couldn't see his face.
Josh made a 'now don't be rude to your father face' at her, but said, "I'll catch up with you later. Lunch at the Clearwaters, remember?"
She nodded and squeezed his hand for a reply.
He nodded at Charlie but they didn't shake hands; Charlie's hands were shoved deep in his pockets and his whole body looked tense.
Bella did not like the look of that. "Where do you want to talk?"
"With all of them with super hearing there is virtually nowhere to talk privately."
"Why don't we just walk down to First Beach?"
They walked there in silence and sat on the picnic tables opposite the tourist shop. Charlie stood again, abruptly, as if he couldn't stand to be still.
"I cannot believe how many times in that little talk, you nearly died. I never liked Edward," he said.
She was silent. They were not related but she could see how those two things were linked in her father's mind.
"I always felt as if I was losing you… before the wedding. As if you weren't growing up and getting married, but as if you were going to be… just… gone."
"You were right."
"You wanted to die?"
"I loved him."
"A VAMPIRE? An honest to God, bloodsucking dead thing?"
"Yes." Her voice was tiny. "I thought they were strong and beautiful."
"Sue told me about vampires, but I didn't quite put it together what the Cullens were and I should have - they were so different. I remember telling Deputy Mark that Dr Cullen was the best doctor we ever had because he didn't seem to sleep." He let out an ugly laugh.
Charlie shook his head and turned his back, staring out to sea. "I promised myself I wouldn't shout at you."
She saw him take a deep breath.
"How old is Josh?"
"I asked. He's forty five."
"Forty five," he repeated.
Bella was well aware that her father was forty seven; it was 2011 and he was born in 1964.
"And I suppose because you two are tied together by this weirdo wolf thingy-"
"Imprinting?"
"-that there's nothing I can do about it."
"Would you have tried to break Josh and me up?"
"What, like Edward? You didn't listen to much of my advice on that front."
"You liked Jake. I got that message loud and clear." She sighed. "I liked Jake, too. Loved him, even."
Charlie changed tack. "Josh was trouble when he was younger." He kept walking back and forth, looking out to sea and not looking at her as they talked.
"I know. He told me."
"Did he?"
"He probably didn't tell me everything. It was the first day we were… together. Did you know of him? When you were a new cop?"
"Yeah. He was quite the rez delinquent when he was a teen. Had a talent for getting himself into trouble."
"He said he looked up to Billy and the others; that they were his friends."
"They tried to straighten him out… but-" He shrugged.
Bella wanted to change the subject. "At least give me some credit for not marrying Edward."
He humphed. "And then you just ran." He shook his head again.
"I know. I've just explained why I couldn't tell you about it."
"Josh was right about that. That I couldn't help you after the canceled wedding." He might have heard her say she was a horrible child, too. "I am sorry about that but I had to keep the secret. It seems pointless and silly now that it is all such a mess, but it was all I could think to do to protect you… and Mom and all my friends."
"I don't like this supernatural stuff. Makes me just want to shoot something. Vampires and werewolves," he muttered.
"I'm not sure you can shoot vampires, Dad."
He ignored that. "So Josh is it for you, huh? The wolf mate? It's just all so sudden."
"It is. But you are an imprint, too."
"I know and I still think it's weird. Lucky I already loved Sue." He turned around to look at her. "But there's no guarantee of that, is there?"
"No. Look at what just happened with Brady and Lucas." She paused. "Or Sam and Emily. They love each other now, but it started off badly."
"Seth told me. She almost died. And everyone covered it up to protect their heritage. Told me she had been attacked by a bear. Bear, my ass."
"How could they have told you the truth? Would you have believed them? Shape shifters and wolves?"
"What if she had died?" he argued. "Would they have continued to lie to her family?" His eyes narrowed. "How would you have died?" He used finger apostrophes.
She bit her lip. "I don't know. But newborn vampires can't be near humans for the first six months; they have no self control, so I probably would have had to go away somewhere isolated."
"So … some accident on the honeymoon?"
She shrugged. She didn't even know where the honeymoon was going to be. Edward and his habit of making decisions for her, again.
"They'd done it before… the Cullens?"
"I guess so for the others. It must get harder with more modern technology. It was easier to disappear in the old days. But now, with photo ID's?"
He didn't say anything to that. Just stared at her. "Your mother would have flipped out. Lord knows, she's bad enough now. And I know that in all this fuss, you haven't thought to ring her."
"I have but I have no idea what to say to her."
"You were always such a sensible little thing. Balancing her check books when you were eleven. It's like you've done things backwards."
"I can't call her now… she will want to come here and see me. And if the worst happens, I don't want her to be here, too. Or Phil. Give me two months to deal with Mom."
Charlie gave her a very serious look. "I suppose … everyone seems pretty scared of these V guys. I will still be interested to hear what Dr Cullen has to say about them."
Silence.
"At least it explains why Billy was so weird about you dating Edward and so upset when the Cullens came back."
"Yes. And he couldn't tell you the truth, either. I am sorry that it affected your friendship."
"My best friend." He shook his head disbelievingly. "I am really starting to learn that this tribe keeps it secrets."
"Yep, it sure does."
"Are you going to have kids?" Charlie asked, seemingly at a tangent.
"With Josh? He had a dream about it, so I guess we will."
"His dreams seem to be coming true so I suppose that might be right. He's too old for kids."
"Your parents had you in their mid-forties," she shot back.
"Don't remind me and that's not an easy thing for a kid to deal with either."
"How do you mean?"
He sat down next to her. "I guess you don't know. I find it hard to talk about it."
"You are doing very well with the talking, so far."
"That's Sue's influence. She keeps telling me to use my words."
Bella smiled.
"After your mother and I separated. She took you away to live with her mother… and I couldn't go after you because both my parents were ill."
"I-I… didn't know that."
"No. As an only child, I had to nurse them and do my job. They were both dead within a year and by then Renee didn't want to try again."
"Thank you for telling me that. But at least, with Josh, he'll be a pretty sprightly parent as a wolf. Gosh… that's a point, Dad, with Sue becoming a wolf, they get … well, not younger, but they seem to get a longer lifespan and heal faster. Maybe Sue could have more kids. You two want to be careful." She gave him a wicked look.
Charlie looked utterly astonished. He gulped in a breath. "A-are you giving me the contraception talk?"
"I guess I am." She chuckled.
"The woman is a nurse," Charlie spluttered.
"Dad..." she chided. "Are you leaving her responsible for contraception?"
"Don't change the subject!"
"Fine. What can I say to you, Dad? You want the truth? When I was living with you, Edward climbed in my bedroom window and slept with me every night-"
"He WHAT?"
"Just to watch me sleep… nothing else. He was very old fashioned. I told you that, remember?"
Charlie shuddered. "Watch you sleep?" he repeated. He glared at her. "What else did he do?"
"Made decisions for me, chose my college, signed my college papers for me, disabled the truck so I couldn't visit Jake, got Alice to kidnap me and keep me at their house…" her voice trailed off.
"You only ever went out with him - you ignored your other friends. Do you know how many domestic violence indicators that was? Bells, I'm a cop. I deal with this stuff every damn day."
She held her hands up. "I know… I know… it seems creepy and weird to me now. But I was so young and so in love with him."
"I am just glad that you didn't marry him."
"I know."
He stared off at the sea again. "I used to wake up every morning and think of you… wonder where you were… were you okay?"
"When I was with him, I lied, I hid things from you, and I did pretty much whatever the Cullens wanted me to do. I didn't even explain what had happened in Italy to you or where I had been and all I said to you was that it was okay now and that Edward was back in my life with zero explanation. And you had just buried your best friend. I was a horrible, horrible child."
"I understand. I mean… I do now." He hugged her. "Just wait until you have your own kids…" He guffawed. "If they are even half the trouble their father was…"
"Sam's okay," she argued. "And Embry is lovely."
"Lovely?" Charlie snorted.
"He's a nice guy."
"Yeah… he is."
Bella could see Angela approaching. She jigged her head that way to warn her father.
"Am I interrupting?" she asked.
"No, Angela. You're okay. Bella and I are pretty much done," Charlie said.
"Bella… I just wanted to say that was the most extraordinary story and that you are the bravest person I know. I cannot believe what you have been through in the last few years and none of us knew or did anything to help you. I apologize for that."
"Oh… It's okay, Ang. I just did what I had to. Pity you can't write a book about it."
Angela looked as if she was thinking about it. "It would sell millions, too." She patted Bella's shoulder. "What I came to tell you was that I had a dream, too. I didn't tell you that in the bar, but that was why I started to track you down. I kept dreaming about you."
Charlie looked intrigued.
"And it led you to Jake," Bella said.
"And you." Angela shook her head slightly. "I can't explain it."
"Josh would say it was meant to happen."
She smiled. "Yes, he would and I think my father might agree with him. Divine intervention." She glanced at Charlie. "We are all honored to be chosen by our wolves, but I don't think it will be an easy fight or without cost."
"No," said Charlie. "Major bad guys coming."
Josh watched Bella leave with Charlie.
"Billy? Did you want to try phasing?"
"I don't know."
"Do you feel up to it?"
Billy didn't answer him.
"We can try it with just the two of us," Josh suggested.
Billy's glance fell on his wheelchair. His only form of transportation; his effective legs. Years he had spent in that chair. Well, not that particular chair. He had a tendency to wear wheelchairs out bumping along the badly sealed roads of the reservation.
Josh noticed. "We can bring it with us."
They walked, slowly and carefully. Josh wheeled the chair.
"How do we tell the whole tribe what is happening?" Josh asked.
Billy snorted. "Have you forgotten just how small this community is?"
"Maybe I have. Too long in the city."
"Someone will phase in the open or talk about it to another person in Joy's store and before you know it, it will be all over the rez. It will be bad enough after that meeting. There were a few people there who snuck in the back who weren't wolf families. I think what we do need to do is close La Push down."
"I had forgotten about the tourists."
"Yep. No tourists. All we need is some damn fool with a phone camera and we'll become the next Bigfoot or yeti sighting."
"Can we do that? Shut it down?"
"This is our land. We have our own police force. We are autonomous. If the Tribal Council says it closes; it closes."
Josh sighed. "Other people would be cannon fodder-"
"Or food. And I won't have that on my conscience either. Not with this Volturi thing coming. We can make up any story we want - a historic ritual or something, but we need strangers to stay away. At least until this is over."
"Agreed and we can get newly phased wolves to patrol the borders and scare people away."
"Giant bears," Billy said. "That worked last time."
"Charlie, Chief of Police for Forks, might help with that."
"Maybe. He gets kind of small minded on matters of the law."
They had reached a clearing by then.
"Ready?"
They undressed and hung their clothes on the wheelchair.
"See?" Josh quipped. "I told you it'd be useful."
"You might be wheeling me home in it, when I fall on my ass," Billy joked. He flexed his arms and shoulders. "I saw the last pack, you know."
"Wow! Really?"
"I was a small child and my father took me to see them. To explain that this was our heritage. He had never phased, but I watched as my stooped old grandfather went into the forest. He seemed ancient to me, then. I have no clue how old he really was at the time. But I saw him change into a wolf. My father told me not to be afraid. And I wasn't, not even before he said it. I knew that wolf was my grandfather because he had the same gray hair around his muzzle that my grandfather had at his temples."
"The wonder of a child?"
"Maybe and I also recognized the change. Or something inside me did. He ran off with his friends. One was Quil Ateara and the other was Levi Uley, your grandfather."
"Of course. What an honor to see them."
"I would like to do that. I will admit to being disappointed that my generation did not have a pack, but I am sad that my friend Quil won't be here, but if I can run with a Uley, I will be content."
Josh clapped him on the shoulder. "I would be proud. Let that wolf out, Billy. I want to see him run."
"Like in your dreams?"
"You remember?"
Billy looked confused. "Was it a dream? Or was it a glimpse of the future?"
"I thought it was a dream at the time, but now I think it was both."
"Wolf Leah wasn't there… in my dream."
"No. I will admit, that took me by surprise. I was not prepared for that or for female wolves. I have no idea why not; it makes perfect sense."
"Just not ever done before. At least as far as the stories tell us."
"Stories written by men?" Josh asked.
"We honor our women. The third wife legend is still told. Bella heard that one when she attended a bonfire."
"Did she? I thought it was tribe only for the legends."
"We have always bent the rules for that girl. I believe that she remembered it when she cut her own arm with a rock to distract the vampire Victoria." Billy looked amused.
"Seth said that. The more I hear about that girl, the more I worry about her." Josh shook his head.
"So your dreams are not infallible?" Billy asked.
"Nobody is and I know you are delaying. Do you need a jump start?"
Billy chuckled. "If you wouldn't mind."
Josh nodded. He stamped his foot on the forest floor, clapped his hands and he started to sing. It was an old song about the wily old trickster, the Raven; a traditional song for Quileute children. Billy joined in and when they had finished that tale they sang of the great wolf spirit and his fight with the whale.
Billy copied Josh, stamping his feet and as he banged his feet on the earth of his tribe, the jarring movement traveled up through the newly healed muscles and nerves of his legs and it told his brain that those legs worked now. And they worked well.
Swaying and turning, the two men danced and sang.
Unbeknown to Billy, the older wolves, the ones who had phased recently, were drawn to the sound. With their new skills they could hear sound from six miles away.
Josh leapt up and twisted his body in the air. He landed on four paws.
Billy continued the song alone for another line before he tried the same movement. It was not as elegant, but the result was the same. The song cut off with a tearing noise and a massive russet colored wolf stood there.
It quivered. Its ears flicked back and forth nervously.
Billy?
This is… extraordinary. There is no way to describe it. The wave of sound and the scents! I can tell that someone is coming.
Open your mind to them, they are your pack.
It's my sister, Connie.
The wolf skittered sideways in its excitement.
Call them. They are yours. They will come.
Ha! Most of them are already here.
He lifted his enormous muzzle and gave a howl.
Wolves exploded out of the forest. Darting through the trees. And greeting their alpha in the way expected of lesser ranked pack members.
Josh watched the new pack pay obeisance and he could hear them all in his head, chattering excitedly.
Let's run! Billy suggested.
Show Jake and Rachel. I know where they are, Josh said.