Bella's POV

"Family meeting time," Edward said softly, nuzzling my neck with his nose.

We were on the new bed in his room and had been spending some quiet time, thinking of the upcoming talk with his family. We'd gotten back to the house earlier to find a note from Alice telling us to enjoy some time alone since everyone was out hunting—or other things—and they'd be back in a few hours. Edward and I had made love, slowly and gently, before curling up together and simply breathing one another in.

I nodded, kissed him once, and then got up and carefully pulled on my jeans and T-shirt. I was getting more and more used to my strength and how to temper it with everyday tasks like dressing, writing, and using the phone. Edward tugged on his own jeans and a sexy, dark green Henley and then held his hand out. Nervously, I entwined my fingers with his and walked down the stairs together to the living room, where the family was gathered.

The rest of the family was talking quietly as we walked in, giving us what little privacy they were able, and we settled onto the couch beside Esme. Carlisle then leaned forward from his seat on the chair beside the couch and looked at me, smiling gently.

"How are you, Bella?" His eyes were a warm butterscotch, his smile genuine.

I felt myself smiling in response. "I'm okay," I said honestly. "It was...harder being around Sue than I'd thought it might be, but I did okay. Lizzie was harder than I'd expected, but only because it was so hard emotionally—not the bloodlust."

Carlisle nodded, as though he'd suspected as much. "Alice said you had come to a decision?"

I looked over at her, wondering if she'd explained already what I'd decided.

"No details, Bella," she chirped, shaking her head at my unasked question. "Just that you had made your decision."

Nodding and giving her a small smile of thanks, I turned back to Carlisle. "I don't want to leave Lizzie. I think with help from all of you, we'll be okay. I don't know what the future holds, but I do know I can't just leave her."

There was a moment of silence as Carlisle looked to Edward, who nodded.

"Out loud, please," I grumbled, elbowing him gently.

"Sorry, love," he said sheepishly. "Carlisle was just wondering if I'd mentioned needing to move, and I told him I had."

I sighed. "Yes, I know the difference in my appearance would be too much for Forks, as would my being here but not coming into town ever. I'm assuming you guys have some ideas on where would be a good place to move?"

Alice bounced from her perch on Jasper's lap. "There's a town called Rhinelander, Wisconsin," she started excitedly. "From what I saw, it'll be perfect!"

For the next several minutes, she explained to everyone that it was just under a hundred and fifty miles northwest of Green Bay—that announcement was met with a tremendous shout of "Go Packers!" from Emmett, making the rest of us laugh and roll our eyes—and only a short run to not only Nicolet National Forest, but Ottawa National Forest in Canada, where there was plenty of wildlife for hunting. In addition, the percentage of days that were too sunny for us to be out in was less than twenty-five.

"Carlisle, there's a small hospital in Rhinelander, and we'll find a house close to the forest so you can commute into town for work," she told him. Looking to me, she continued, "It'll be a good place for Lizzie, too. Not too cold, not too far from Charlie, and not too remote—while still being remote enough for a newborn."

"It sounds perfect, Ali. Thank you," I told her, smiling.

Once everyone agreed, Carlisle cleared his throat. "What are your plans for Charlie?"

I shrugged, frowning. I wasn't sure what I'd be allowed to tell him. I knew I'd have to tell him something because I had to be able to explain my absence and my showing back up to take Lizzie.

"If you could do anything, sweetheart," Esme started softly, "what would you choose to do?"

Biting my lip, I thought for a minute. If I told my dad about this, it could bring him danger somewhere down the road, and I wanted to protect him from this world. Having knowledge of wolves and vampires would present new worries for him about Lizzie and myself, but it would also clear up some things he'd been suspicious about. However, I knew my dad; as a parent and a police chief, he'd want answers and justice—and at least I could give him one of those.

I met their eyes before finally answering, "I would tell him—" I took a deep breath in, finally blowing it off with a sigh "—everything."

I don't know what I'd been expecting in reaction—shock, fear, anger—but what I got were only looks of acceptance, sympathy, and support.

"Alice said that would be your choice," Carlisle said in explanation. "We discussed it earlier, and if that's what you would like to do, we'll support you. We know your father well enough to know he won't go public with the secret. Because of his relationships with Sue, Billy, and others in the pack, he'll also have their full protection. If you think he can handle the news of your change and the existence of vampires—"

"And wolves!" Emmett said, grinning. "I can't wait to see his reaction to those furry mutts."

Carlisle shook his head, chuckling, and continued, "—and wolves, then we'll do what we can to help you."

I looked nervously at Edward, unsure as to what I should do.

He smiled sympathetically. "If you want to do that, Bella, we will. I can't tell you if it's the right thing to do. Only you know your dad well enough to know what you think he'd want."

I loved that he trusted me to leave the decision in my hands, but I really wanted his opinion—something I valued very much. "I know," I said with a sigh, "and I appreciate your support more than I can say. But Edward...what do you think I should do? I know you'll support me in my choice, but in your opinion, what should I do?"

He closed his eyes and blew out a breath, finally opening them and leaning in to cup my head with his large palm. His fingers cradled the back of my neck, while his thumb brushed gently against my jaw. "I would tell him everything. If circumstances were different—if you weren't already a vampire, if you didn't have Lizzie—my answer would be different. There would be no need to draw him into a life which could be dangerous for him to have knowledge of. But because of those things, he's already in this life, whether he knows it or not. At least if he knows, we, along with the wolves, will be able to protect him better, and things with Lizzie will be a lot less...messy."

We sat for several minutes, lost in our thoughts. I could see the support and acceptance—not to mention the unconditional love—in his beautiful butterscotch eyes, and in that moment, I made my decision.

"Then I guess that's settled," I told the family. "We tell Charlie everything."

~*~FC~*~

"I know you can't see anything with us there, Alice," Jake said apologetically, "but this is what Bella decided, and I'm going to respect that."

I sighed, wishing that there was a better way, but after talking with Edward and then Jake and Sue, this was what I'd decided.

"C'mere, darlin'," Jasper said, pulling his wife into his arms. "I know you just want to keep everyone safe, and the best way you know how to do that is by looking ahead, but you'll just have to trust them."

Alice stayed stiff for a moment before she finally nodded. "I know," she sighed. "I know, really. I just hate not being able to see!"

I smothered a laugh, imagining her stomping her foot with that declaration. "Thank you, Alice," I said sincerely, rather than showing my amusement. "I know you want to help. I think you're just going to have to suffer along with the rest of us non-future-seeing creatures."

"Hey," Seth piped up, grinning. "No worries, pixie. Charlie loves us, and he'll be so glad to see Bella, nothing else will matter."

Alice finally smiled, unable to be so sad around Seth, who she—as well as the rest of the family—had taken a real shine to. "Yeah, Seth, I know. I just worry."

A buzz from Jake's cell phone stopped all conversation. He pulled it from his pocket and flipped it open, taking a second to read before looking up. "Charlie's home and dinner's done. Sue said if we could come over now, that would be good."

"Ready, love?" Edward asked, slipping his hand into mine.

Everyone was watching me, waiting for my decision.

Taking a slow, deep breath, I let it out, nodding. "Let's do this."

It was a normal, overcast day in Forks, so the ten of us ran through the woods, moving across the road unobserved and into the trees behind Charlie's house. Jake and Seth shifted back, quickly pulling on their shorts and tees.

"You guys will be able to hear everything?" Jake asked once more, looking to me and then Carlisle.

Carlisle answered, "We'll be able to hear fine."

Jake nodded, looked to Seth, and the two of them slipped through the trees until they came out near the front of the house and moved out of our view.

I shifted in Edward's arms, clutching his shirt nervously. This was it... Everything now rested in Jacob's hands.

~*~*~FC~*~*~

Edward's POV

I held Bella close as the wolves knocked once on the front door and then entered without waiting for an invitation. When Charlie and Sue called out hellos, I watched through Seth's thoughts as he gave them both hugs.

God, Charlie looks like crap, he thought. Oh, sorry, Edward. Don't tell Bella that.

He was right, unfortunately. Charlie looked like he'd aged ten years since I'd left Forks two years before. This wasn't the first time I'd seen him since I'd returned to Forks—I'd seen him through the wolves' memories and then up close and personal through Carlisle and Esme's thoughts the day he'd come to find if I was in town and if Bella was there with me, but somehow, he seemed...worse, somehow. The new lines around his eyes and mouth, the gray pallor to his skin, hooded eyes filled with sadness and worry, and shoulders that seemed to have the weight of the world on them.

In short, he looked like a man grieving for his daughter.

Emmett was restless as we waited for the initial pleasantries to finish. "When are they going to get down to it?" he grumbled, kicking at one of the large trees behind us.

Just then, as if in answer to his complaint, Sue began to speak.

"Charlie, do you remember the stories Billy's told you? The Quileute legends?" she asked, her voice shaky.

I watched through Seth's eyes as Charlie popped the tab on a can of beer—Vitamin R, Bella had told me he called it once—nodding.

"Oh yeah, Billy loves to tell those stories when we go out fishing. There's one about a beaver and one about a Thunderbird, I think. Why?"

Seth kept looking back and forth between his mother and Charlie, his thoughts a blur of nerves and fear and excitement. When Sue spoke, he finally looked back at her and settled in to listen.

As I listened to Sue talk about the tribe being descended from wolves and their ability to shift shapes, I watched my family.

Bella's eyes were closed, her hands were clenched into fists, and her teeth were nervously chewing on her bottom lip. Carlisle and Esme were quiet, watching Bella with love and concern. Emmett was listening with rapt attention to the story inside—even though he'd heard the story many times before—while holding Rosalie, who was quiet inside and out.

Alice was sitting on the ground with her back against a tree, knees drawn up and head down. It was a pose I'd seen her in many times, when she was trying—and failing—to have a vision. From her thoughts, she knew it was pointless, but she wasn't going to stop trying.

Jasper was looking between his wife, Bella, and the house. When he caught my gaze, he frowned. I'm trying to keep everyone on an even keel, he thought to me. Alice is...frustrated, Bella and Sue are scared, and Charlie is curious. It's a lot to handle.

I nodded my silent thanks and turned back to the conversation in the house. Sue had just mentioned the tribe's story of the cold ones—explaining that was the term the tribe used for vampires—which had piqued Charlie's interest.

"So these...cold ones," Charlie said. "They're the enemies of your people?" He sounded skeptical, and the snatches of thoughts from him showed the same.

"Y-Yes," Sue replied hesitantly.

There was silence then. Charlie's thoughts were fuzzy, like I couldn't quite get tuned in to the station I wanted on the radio.

Where...going with this? Why...Seth and Jake...

Through Seth's thoughts, I saw Charlie focus in on him and Jacob.

When he finally spoke aloud, he sounded suspicious. "Boys, what's going on?"

No one said anything.

"Why are you telling me these stories now?" Charlie questioned.

"Oh, God," Bella cried softly, burying her face harder against my shoulder. "Just get it over with, please!"

I held her tight as Jacob spoke.

"Because they're true."