Warning (Billy)

Billy knows his driving is going to hell, but it's not his legs that make him nearly skid off the road, it's that he's going way too fast. When the car slides on the wet pavement he flashes to Sarah's funeral; he sticks to the speed limit the rest of the way. Even though this is an emergency.

He'd been doing a crossword, pretending not to watch Jacob pretending not to listen to the twins as they reported on their latest diner visit. (Billy wasn't sure whether it was good for the girls to be teasing their brother with all this information on Bella - what clothes she was wearing, what book she was reading, what disagreement she'd solved that day - but he figured Jacob could always go to his room or the garage if he didn't want to hear it.) Then Rebecca casually announced, And that Cullen kid came to see her again. She says they're just friends, but you wouldn't know it from the way he looks at her.

Jacob had gone to his room at that point, and Billy was out the door and into the Stratus as quick as he could manage with his cane.

That Cullen kid came to see her again.

When Billy pulls onto Perry Street his skin crawls. His first impulse is to do a U-turn and get the hell out of there; his second is to find what feels so wrong and destroy it. If there are changes, he won't be one of them - he's much too old, and getting closer and closer to a cripple each day - but the instincts are there. He is the grandson of Ephraim Black.

Then the thing comes out of Charlie's front door.

Its yellow eyes meet Billy's as Billy pulls into the driveway, and a tight smile forms on that ghostly face. It nods curtly as it passes (there's the faintest whiff of something sweet and rotting). It gets into its shiny Volvo and leaves without a word.

The thing knows he knows.

Her response to the rap on the door is quick. "Did you forget-" Bella quits speaking as she looks up; Billy is a tall man.

"May I come in?" he asks.

She nods and steps out of the way. Before she can disappear up the stairs - like she always does on the rare occasions he comes over - Billy stops her with, "Hey, hang on a second."

"Dad's not home yet," Bella replies automatically. "He'll be ten or fifteen minutes." (That has been the sole basis of their communication for the last few years: short reports on Charlie's whereabouts.)

"That's okay. You're the one I want to talk to."

The girl's eyes widen, and for a moment she bites her lip so hard it turns white. "Oh. Um... sure." And she creeps silently into the living room.

He follows and settles into Charlie's recliner. Now that it comes to it, Billy doesn't really know where to begin. "How've you been, Bella?" he asks awkwardly, trying to buy time as he ponders the best way to say Please stop seeing that creature before he leaves you a shriveled husk.

"I'm okay. How are you, Mr. Black?" Her eyes briefly flick to the cane.

"Just fine, Bella, just fine." (The pains in his left leg are killing him and a week ago he realized there are small numb spots on his right foot. He knows he needs a complete diagnostic workup, to have all his insulin levels readjusted, and probably to start new medications. But the guy in Port Angeles is an idiot who only tells him to eat more salads - goddammit, he is eating salads - and Billy won't go to Forks Hospital as long as that monster is there.) "Rachel and Rebecca tell me you're working at the diner now."

"I'm busing tables. They've been really nice, stopping by." Bella is studying the rug like she hasn't seen it every day of her life. "They don't have to."

"They're happy to do it." That's an opening, of sorts. "They tell me one of the Cullens has been coming to see you. The one I just saw leaving, right?"

She looks up at that, obviously confused. "Edward? What about him?"

"Is he your... friend?"

She blushes deep red and Billy's stomach drops. But then she stammers, "No. Yes. A little. Not what people keep- I mean, we're friends, but... that's all. Oh, and lab partners. But that's all."

Thank God. "Right. Well... I need you to listen to me for a minute." Not for the first time, Billy wishes Charlie had married one of the girls from the reservation; if Bella were half-Quileute this wouldn't be an issue. (And with both the Blacks and the Clearwaters behind the match no one would have voiced an objection.) "I know that boy's family, and you have to be very, very careful. They aren't good people."

A little wrinkle appears between Bella's eyebrows. "I know he's kind of strange, but he's not so bad. His dad's really nice, and his brothers and sisters are-"

"You've seen the doctor?" Billy cuts her off, appalled.

"I needed a couple of vaccines on my birthday." She looks outright suspicious now. "Why are you asking?"

It's even worse than he thought. The thing had stuck a needle in her. Broken her skin. Smelled her blood. This is the girl that used to nap with his children and sucked her thumb while she did.

"They aren't good," he repeats. He knows he's being cryptic, but he's bound by duty and tradition to keep the secrets of his people. All he can do is pray she'll take him at his word. "The Cullens might seem nice, they might be nice to you, but believe me when I say they're not. Please, sweetie, don't trust them. It's important."

Bella pales when he calls her sweetie.

That is why he did it.