Hi everyone. A lot of you are going to think that this chapter is too short. The next chapter which is Bella's point of view is currently being edited so it should be up soon. Let me know what you think!
CHARLIE
Bella was in surgery and I was caught in a whirlwind of things I didn't understand.
Everything around seemed like just noise- people rushing, people talking over each other. However, all I could think about was the sight of my daughter running for her life away from a monster and her bleeding on the ground.
After shooting the… whatever they call it… shifter, I rushed to Bella's side. At first I'd been relieved because she was winded but seemed unharmed. However, when my hand came away from her bloody and she couldn't feel the pain, my heart clenched in panic. I'd never seen someone die on the job, but one of the men on the force had once told me about his partner at another precinct who had been shot and killed. He said that he'd known that his partner was a goner when he hadn't felt the pain of the gunshot wound because of the blood loss. Bella had acted in just that way—unaware of how injured she was.
I was ashamed that I'd let Jacob strong arm me into taking Bella. I was her father and I should have been at her side. However, in my shock, I'd allowed him to rationalize me out of going with her to the hospital.
Now, here I sat in the midst of all this chaos unable to function.
I tried to snap myself out of my trance, knowing that I needed to help for the sake of my daughter. I focused on Sam who seemed to be the one most in control of the situation.
"Has the outsider said anything?" Sam asked.
"No, Embry and Quil are both with him, but the good cop-bad cop routine isn't working. He still refuses to say anything but his name which probably isn't real," Seth snarled in frustration.
This was something that I knew about. This was something that made sense. I forced the rest of my worries aside and pulled on the mantle of my profession.
"Where is he?" I asked, standing up.
"Charlie?" Billy responded in confusion, turning his wheelchair towards me.
"Take me to him. I'll get him to talk," I said.
"I'm not sure-" Sam began.
"This is what I do, Sam. Take me to him," I stated firmly.
"Charlie, he's a shifter. You don't know anything about our kind," he argued.
"I know that he is a criminal who won't talk and that is my area of expertise, not yours. I'm not asking, Sam. He hurt my daughter. Take me to him," I demanded.
Sam nodded and led me to his house where the man was being kept in the basement.
As I walked down the stairs, I saw that Sam had unconsciously set up the room like an interrogation room. Part of an interrogation is setting the stage by putting the suspect in a room in which he can't become comfortable. While Sam had given him clothes, he sat in the middle of the basement tied to a chair with no other furniture nearby.
He was young. Probably a little younger than Bella. He was also a Native American like the Quileute but I had never seen him around the area before. As I approached him, he did not look at me. He stared stoically at the wall, seemingly unfazed by Embry and Quil who paced the room, glaring at him.
I assessed the situation and took the first step, building a rapport with the suspect.
"Hello, sir. My name is Charlie Swan."
When he didn't respond, I turned towards Embry and Quil and said, "It's not necessary to keep him tied up. I just want to talk with him."
Embry looked shocked, but still got up and untied him.
"Quil, will you get this man a glass of water?"
Afte Quil returned with a glass, I motioned for the two of them to leave.
"I'd like to talk with him alone now. I'll call for you if I need anything. He won't do anything rash, will you?" I asked turning back to him.
The man smirked at my attempt to make him feel more at ease, but that was a common reaction.
The boys left reluctantly but not without a grumbled threat from Embry as he passed the seated man.
"Okay, let's start this again. My name is Charlie Swan. May I ask what your name is?"
The man looked into my eyes and responded with one word, "John."
"Where are you from John?"
"Florida," he responded. His face was impassive, but by watching his eyes, I could tell that his name was real, but he wasn't from Florida. The eyes always told the truth.
"Really? I would have thought that you were from around here. You look a lot like the Quileute," I responded.
"Are you saying that we all look alike to you?" he answered with a sneer.
"No, you just look like you belong around here," I said.
His emotional reaction to what I'd said was a good sign. He was not as stoic as he had appeared when I'd come downstairs.
"You also fit in around here because, presumably, you're a… … like Sam's pack," I started. "I'm sorry for my hesitation. Knowing about your… 'kind' is new to me," I explained.
Some times, showing some vulnerability helped make suspects feel like they had the upper hand, which made them easier to manipulate when you suddenly pull the rug out from under them.
"We're a bit of a shock, huh?" he said with a smirk, for one moment not seeming so defensive.
"Was it a shock for you? I don't really know a whole lot about how people become, what do the Quileute call you? Ah, shifters, that's the word," I continued.
I was starting to get a baseline for his emotions by how his face changed as I talked. However, I didn't anticipate his reaction to my statement.
"I turned when I was 16. A little present from the bloodsuckers that moved into my territory!" he snarled.
"What do you mean?" I asked, still not clear on the whole process, but I knew that my lack of knowledge in this case could probably work to my advantage.
"When there are vampires nearby, members of my tribe turn in order to balance the numbers. We live in an isolated community, so the elders thought that we would be safe in the mountains."
I sat for a moment in silence.
I still hadn't fully digested what Billy and Bella had told me about the supernatural world. I hadn't believed it at first. Two days ago I had known with absolute certainty that there were no such things as vampires or shifters. However, when Jacob changed in front of me, I couldn't deny it any longer. This caused me to become really angry. Bella was involved with a monster. The scar of a bite mark on her arm just proved the amount of danger that she was in by being with Edward. Therefore, when Bella approached me outside of Jake's I had been about to tell her that it all had to stop… And then we were attacked.
This young man had been thrust into the supernatural world as well, so I tried to put myself in his shoes.
"Wow, 16, that must have been rough. Had you known that it was a possibility?"
"No, the elders had never thought that it would be an issue because no one had changed in several generations. So, when the bloodsuckers arrived and we started to change it was a shock for everyone. Even my little sister changed…" he started, but then stopped.
His little sister's change obviously upset him as it would any older brother.
"I think that something like that happened here a short while ago," I said, continuing to try to draw him out.
"Yeah, but you seem to be treating the bloodsuckers like they're family. It doesn't make any sense. They're killers. They should all be destroyed. Oscar-" he started, but then abruptly stopped. He seemed disconcerted that he had given away so much.
"I remember Oscar. He visited here about three years ago. When did you meet him?" I asked innocently, pretending not to notice his change in demeanor.
However, I saw in his eyes that he had closed up again.
"My daughter is involved with what you call a 'bloodsucker.' I really don't understand it. How could she fall in love with a monster?" I said, allowing my conflicted feelings to show through.
He looked up at me at my words and I saw that he was engaged again .
"She must have some mental problems. If she only understood the destruction that they leave behind, she wouldn't be so quick to jump in bed with one. We all lost loved ones to them. Even on this reservation, people dont love the bloodsuckers. They've lost people as well."
I remembered Bella's final words to me before she was attacked.
"Dad, who do you think has the most reason to dislike the Cullens? You know that the Quileutes have for a long time disliked the Cullens. However, who, out of all of them, do you think has the most reason to hate them? Now that you know about the pack, how do you think it is possible that Oscar got on to the reservation without anyone noticing?"
Someone on the reservation had lost loved ones and they were in league with Oscar and his pack. Who had lost loved ones because of the Cullens? My mind started unconsciously compiling a list. Paul's family lost him after Rachel died, Billy lost his daughter, Jake lost his sister, the Clearwaters lost Harry. The list was endless. The whole reservation had reason to hate the Cullens. It was too much to think about at that moment.
I began to tread even more carefully, infusing my voice with as much sympathy as I could muster, as I began to get into the part of the interrogation that was the most important.
"The others have lost loved ones too? So many lives lost. Oscar has lost a loved one too., so you can all sympathize with each other."
"Oscar is different than the rest of us. Instead of wallowing in his grief, he's doing something with it. You all hate him, but he's fighting for the greater good. He might be able to find a cure. He's putting all of his time and money into his experiments."
"I remember him as being a highly intelligent man during his work at the hospital. The other doctors said that he had great promise," I lied. I knew very little of Oscar's time working at the hospital, but I knew that complimenting this man's hero would loosen him up even more. "It must have been hard for him to leave the hospital."
"It was, but he'd come into a lot of money. It was enough for him to build his own clinic, so he could focus all of his attention on the mission," he continued.
"Where's this clinic? I haven't heard of any new clinic nearby?" I asked, knowing that this would shut him up again, but I needed to use it as a bridge.
He looked me in the eye and slammed his mouth shut, jaw clenching.
"I'm only asking because my daughter's been seriously injured. She was the one you attacked," I said, matter-of-factly.
He looked guilt-stricken for a moment before looking away.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Oscar told me to get her, but she ran. I tried to grab her, but I bit her instead."
"Why did Oscar want her?"
He looked at me tight lipped again, but I knew that I had him this time.
"Come on, son. I need to know. Does he want to hurt my child?"
"No!" he gasped. "Oscar doesn't want to hurt humans. He wants to help humanity. He wanted your daughter as a bargaining tool to get that bloodsucker Edward. We already caught the doctor. We just need the patient. Paul told him that the girl was the key to getting Edward."
I tried not to show my shock. Paul. He was one of them. Also, he said that they'd caught the doctor. Did he mean Carlisle?
"Son, was any of your group responsible for killing the shop keeper Bob Quinlan?" I continued.
Again, he looked away.
"He was a human and he certainly was harmed. He's dead…" I said bluntly. "Look at me, son. Tell me that it wasn't one of your group that killed him and I'll believe you," I pushed, seeing that he was about to break.
"I… I… It... Things got out of control. It's Edward's fault. The only person Oscar wants is Edward. He's been getting more desperate day by day. He wouldn't have hurt those people if he wasn't so desperate."
People? What people?
"Are there other people hurt? Son, you need to tell me so that I can get them help. They could be dead or dying right now," I said, urgently.
He looked away again, not speaking.
I let the silence linger to the point of it being uncomfortable. Then, I spoke.
"I know you're not a bad kid. You've just gotten caught up in all of this. However, if you don't tell me who Oscar hurt, then you'll become responsible," I explained.
He finally looked at me with tears in his eyes.
"They're not seriously hurt, but… Oscar... bit them," he said.
"I don't understand what does that have to do with it," I said, confused.
"He's a werewolf, so whoever he's bitten will turn into one on the full moon," he replied.
Panic flooded me.
"Bella! You bit her! Is she going to turn?" I said, jumping up from my chair in front of him.
"Sir, no! No! I'm not a werewolf! I can't change anyone!"
I felt a momentary relief, but then I felt fear start to build up inside of me.
"Are you telling me that Oscar has bitten people in the area and that they're going to turn tomorrow night?"
"Yes…" he said, sadly.
"Who? You have to tell me who!" I said, grabbing his shoulder.
"I don't know, but I know that there are four of them."
