**** Disclaimer: I do NOT own the recognizable events, characters, or places in this story. Characters and events, as well as the Twiverse, belong to Stephanie Meyer. Forks, Port Angeles, and other real places belong to themselves, their own entities. ****
The ride to the reservation had, thus far, been rather tense and quiet between the two Swan family members. Bella didn't want to bring up anything that could easily set off the still shaken Charlie. And Charlie wasn't entirely sure he really wanted to know the truth.
Finally, however, Charlie broke the silence.
"So. The Cullens aren't human, are they?" Charlie went full cop mode and decided to go right for the heart of the problem, and his suspicions. Whether or not he liked the answer didn't matter, a cop needed the truth. A father wanted this to be a dream. The cop didn't care.
"You just watched Paul Lahote burst into a wolf the size of a horse and the first question you have is about the Cullens." Bella replied with only a bit of sass. "But, to be honest, no. The Cullens are not human."
"What are they?" Charlie didn't care for pussyfooting at this point. He wanted the truth. All of it.
"I will tell you what I am allowed to tell, dad. Is that okay?" Bella looked out her window for a moment while Charlie grunted an agreement. "The Cullens are vampires, and before you have a heart attack they are 'vegetarian' vampires. Oxymoron yes, but it is also true. The Cullens feed on animals, not humans- it is what gives them their honey colored eyes instead of bright red like a human drinker would."
"When did you learn they were… more than human?" Charlie was hesitant again, not really wanting to know.
"When Tyler almost hit me with his van. Edward had been on the other side of the parking lot, and he saved me from being crushed." Bella replied gently, quietly, in hopes that Charlie would quit with the rather pointed questions at this point.
"So the whole time, your whole relationship you knew he wasn't human?" Charlie's tone was becoming tighter than Bella could have ever believed possible. "Isabella Marie Swan! Do you have any idea the danger you put yourself in?"
"Yes. I do." Bella kept her response clipped, she knew Charlie was actually getting a little angry. His face had been purple hued since the revelation of Paul being an animal, but the straining tone of his voice was all to telling to Bella.
Charlie was, for once, actually furious.
"Why?" Charlie's clipped question was a rough one to answer. Bella wasn't sure how a single word could create such uncertainty and anxiety but it could. Oh, it could.
"Because they were dazzling. They became like family, all of the Cullens. Jasper is still the same old Jasper, and he still feels like family. Emmett still holds a place in my heart, so does his… um… wife, Rosalie. She may not have always been the nicest to me- but I think I know why…" Bella began talking of the Cullens with redeeming features first, hoping to sway Charlie into a little bit of her view. "They were always so careful around me, always so in control. Edward was a little too controlling but… but I thought he loved me, and I loved him."
Charlie made a noise between a cough and a cynical laugh so Bella actually looked at her father for a moment. She regarded him before speaking again.
"I did love him. Perhaps it was foolish, young love- like what you and mom had… but I let it swallow me- something I will not be doing again." Bella took a breath and continued. "Carlisle is a doctor so he has always been in complete control around me or even other residents of Forks, so there's that. Esme was kind, gentle, and so… so mothering. She gave me, in a way, what I lacked with Renee. You're a great dad, but you're still my dad… I think I wanted a mother figure- and she was it."
"Sounds like they were good to you- even with what they are." Charlie replied gruffly with a halfhearted shrug. They had reached the Reservation and Bella began to lead him to Sam Uley's house.
Charlie found himself lost in deeper thought than he had been in for months. The idea of the legends of the Quileute's being true, stories he had heard now for years, was hard enough to wrap his brain around. But added on to that thought was also the idea, proven in front of him, that the Cullens weren't human, and not only that- they were vampires.
Literally the stuff of nightmares, human killers, monsters.
Yet, for all his instincts told him that's what they should be he just couldn't agree with that thought.
Alice was a little over the top and obviously knew something she wasn't willing to acknowledge- but that didn't instantly mean she was a bad… person? Edward had been too controlling, too watchful, too quiet. Too perfect. Charlie had never really liked Edward even before he dated Bella.
The Dr. and his wife had always been amiable whenever he'd run into them- which had always been rare. One of the few times he had to have contact with the Cullens it had been about a weeklong absence from school for the kids- something about camping if Charlie could recall.
The big guy was scary naturally so the old cop had kept a distance, and the blond one he'd always been with had never seemed much of a treat to be around. Always looked so angry, but she did manage to temper down the ferocity of her partner. Though not by a lot in all reality.
Jasper, though… that kid was something different. He held himself differently than the rest of his 'family,' he stood apart from them in a way that Charlie couldn't pin down. It was familiar- whatever it was. But Charlie just couldn't pin it.
Bella waited while Charlie thought, not wanting to interrupt the processes going on in her father's brain. She wasn't entirely sure what he was thinking, and though she really wanted to know she wasn't going to go asking about it. She had enough on her mind as it was.
She was married. At 18, not even out of high school, to a man she didn't even know existed until September of last year and hadn't even really spoken to… She was married. To Paul.
The idea should be scaring her out of her wits, but it wasn't. She was annoyed, that was for sure, but she wasn't terrified. The thought was as comforting as it is annoying, infuriating. She hadn't even given a choice in this! She had been unconscious and unable to say yes or no, unable to get to know the man who is now her husband according to Tribal law.
The dark part of her mind then reminded Bella that she wasn't part of the Tribe. That her marriage wasn't an actual marriage- that only Tribal law recognized it. She was still, in all reality, a free woman. Tied to no man.
But did she really want that? Bella wasn't so sure.
Was Bella really against the idea of marriage or the idea of not being given a choice about it? Paul was, to her knowledge, a completely cocky asshole. But… he was also obviously caring, and could be gentle when he wanted to be.
There were thousands of possibilities behind his dark eyes, and there was something in Bella that instinctually wanted to know all of them. She feared him a little, yes… but Bella didn't truly believe that he would ever hurt her. He was fierce, angry, and a completely dominating force… but he wasn't unkind, he wasn't rough or cruel… But what was Paul, really?
Bella wasn't sure. And that was the only thing that scared her.
Arriving at Sam's didn't take much time once they had actually arrived on the reservation, Bella giving directions the whole way. Charlie had been silent since Bella had given her explanations of the Cullens. He was still reeling through all of the information his daughter had given, as well as trying to fill in the missing pieces from what he had seen back in his own yard.
Paul, Jake, Jared, and most likely all of the boys who hang around Sam Uley were not human. The Cullens were obviously not on the friendliest of terms with whatever the boys were, and from the rather… explosive… reaction Paul had to Alice's touch it was painfully obvious the two beings were never going to get along well.
If at all.
But what did that spell out for Bella, who was still caught in the middle?
As he parked Charlie had one final question for his daughter, one last thing he needed to know before he stepped out of his cruiser. The dad in him knew, just knew, he didn't want to know the answer. The cop, however, needed to.
"What is your role in all of this?" Charlie asked quietly, the car still running. "Where do you fit in with the Quileute boys and the Cullen vampires?"
"If I could tell you, dad, I would." Bella replied sadly, looking away from her father. "But some of, well, a lot of what you want to know… it… well, it's not my story to tell."
"Then whose is it?" Charlie inquired back quickly, though not angrily.
"It's ours, Charlie." A voice answered as Charlie's door opened to reveal a fully clothed Sam standing in the opening, Billy Black sitting closely behind. "And if you'd like we can talk inside, the wind is going to pick up soon."
Charlie, visibly shocked and shaken, only nodded to Sam. His eyes flit towards his old friend, a sad look on the older native's face as they gazed at each other. One scared for his child, the other guilt ridden for everything his lies had caused.
The door next to Bella opened and a warm, still half naked, body reached into the cruiser to unbuckle and pluck her out of the car. Charlie turned to argue with whoever it was taking Bella away but he stopped and closed his mouth upon seeing the look on the boy's face.
Paul looked very much like Charlie felt, as if he needed to know Bella was safe. As if his very life depended on the knowledge that Bella was far from harm, close, loved… protected.
Even with the turmoil in his mind and heart Charlie felt for the kid. Paul, it seemed, was a level or two higher than he'd originally believed.
"Paul!" Bella squeaked at the touch, the achingly burn inducing touch, of Paul in front of her father. Charlie said nothing, however, which told Bella that her father either knew better than to stop the young man or was still thinking. "I can walk, you know."
"I know you can," Paul whispered into Bella's ear, his hot breath causing the girl in his arms to shiver in what he would call a delicious way. "But I'll bet both my kidneys that your father doesn't take this well."
"He will." Bella bit her lip slightly, only now worrying that Charlie wouldn't react in a pleasant way to the knowledge that not only had his daughter managed to involve herself with multiple kinds of supernatural beings… but that his own friends had lied, for years, to him.
It wouldn't really matter that Billy had been told to keep the secret for the safety of his people. Hell, Bella was relatively sure that the whole Council had once believed the legends to be just that; legends.
Charlie was a laid back man, but how much information could that withstand?
The group of people crammed around Sam's dining room table were all tense and rigid, waiting for something to break. Emily had swiftly served everyone some sobering drinks, not that the moment needed more sobering, and had taken a seat on her counters. Far away from the conversation.
Probably Sam's doing.
"Charlie." Billy began slowly after setting down his coffee. It was strong and dark, deep in flavor and rich in taste. Had Billy been someone to wax poetic he would have found the irony of drinking such coffee at the current moment. As it was, however, Billy didn't had time to think about irony and coffee flavoring. "I know what you saw, and I'm going to go on a limb and say that Bella filled you in on what she could… am I correct?"
"You are, Black." Charlie's voice gave nothing away about his feelings, though his usage of only Billy's surname felt sour in everyone's stomach. "She filled me in as far as she could go. Which gave me more than I ever needed, really. I mean, come on old friend… You couldn't have warned me?"
"I tried, Charlie." Billy sounded slightly pleading. "Don't you remember? All those times fishing, out on the lake and throwing back beer… Harry even said a few things."
"All innocent sounding to a father who wanted to see his daughter happy. And he… well he may not have been the best influence for her, given the run off to Phoenix, but he made her happy." Charlie's statement caused low growling from the wolves at the table, more so from Paul than anyone, but all kept their bodies still. It was obvious that Charlie still didn't know the whole truth about the Cullens and their involvement with Bella. "I'm missing something here, aren't I?"
"Dad, I… We stopped talking too soon in the car." Bella said from her position squarely in Paul's lap. The two were sitting next to Charlie, who was doing his best to ignore the younger man's possessive arm around his daughter's waist. Bella shuffled and held her wrist out, palm up, into the middle of the table. Paul immediately tensed and pulled his lips above his teeth in a nearly feral growl, everything in his body wanting to cover the mark he was looking at with his own flesh. Charlie's eyes followed the lines up his daughter's arm, the cuts from her attack in September, to the fairly obvious human bite mark on her inner wrist. "When I ran away, when the Cullens took me to Phoenix, it wasn't because I wanted away from here. I had to get away. There was a trio of nomads- vampires who don't stay put and feed on humans- passing through. And one of them… well, he," Bella heaved a heavy sigh and just said it. "He zeroed in on me and wanted me, alive if only to kill me in the end. So, to save you and everyone else I loved… I ran."
"You. Others." Charlie stammered a few discernable words before he went silent and obviously the wheels began to turn in his head. His eyes were sharp as he scanned the rest of Bella's visible skin. The only teeth marks were on her wrist, stark white against her already pale skin. Bella pulled into herself under the scrutiny of the entire table.
"James, the one who wanted me, followed us. He caught up with me and, due to my own stupidity, tortured and bit me. If he couldn't kill me… he was going to turn me." Bella took a shaky breath. "The Cullens found us, and saved me."
Charlie was fast turning a shade of purple that Billy didn't exactly like, so he metaphorically stepped in and began to talk- hoping to ease some of the tensions in the room.
"Bella is obviously alive and in one piece, Charlie." Billy got his old friend to look at him, the desperate edge in the white man's eyes showing to the native just what this was doing to him. "But the Cold Ones aren't the only thing we must talk about. You're not blind, old man, and I know that Paul Lahote managed to lose his control in your back yard."
"Loss of control isn't what I would call it." Charlie mumbled, barely cracking half a smile. "I'd use stronger words, friend."
"You would." Billy laughed, the younger generation in the room silent aside from breathing. Whatever was going on here was between the two older men in the room. "I know you saw, Charlie. And if I know you well enough, which I do, the pieces of stories and legends have been piecing themselves together in your brain now ever since. You're a good cop for many reasons, old friend, and this would be one of them. Paul gave you a puzzle, have you solved it?"
Charlie sighed and stretched his arms out before resting them on the table in front of him. He saw no one but Billy, just as Billy saw no one but Charlie. The tensions in the air began to wax and wane as the two spoke- only time would tell the outcome now.
"The legends we heard as children at those bonfires and parties are real. Your people truly can share their body with the spirit of the wolf." Charlie smiled at the shocked look on Billy's face. "You forget who I married, Black, Renee got very interested in your people and their culture and legends before she left. She wanted to immerse herself in all of the local culture, to connect herself to the land as she put it. I think she was trying to find a reason not to leave me."
"She would, she would." Billy laughed outright now, leaning back in his chair. "I remember her coming to me for stories and sitting wide eyed while she listened to them. I'll admit to thinking it was one of her artistic phases."
"She bought books, and then left them. I may not seem like it but I enjoy a good read now and then and… well, they were what I had for a long time. I read those cover to cover many times- had to admit it to myself finally that Renee had actually managed to buy some pretty interesting books." Charlie's eyes were lit up in a way that only Billy recognized, even Bella was shocked at their glow. Charlie had always seemed silent about his and Renee's marriage and relationship, but it was obvious now that he loved her just as much now as then. "In one of the books it spoke of the ability of your people to leave their bodies and enter the Spirit World. I don't remember the whole legend; it has been years since I picked the book up. But I do remember reading about the Great Wolf and the sharing of two spirits within the Tribe's warriors."
"Well you're… you're more up to speed than I thought you would be." Billy admit this while running his hands over his face with a laugh. He looked sharply at Charlie. "So, I think, the best course here is to ask what questions you have."
"Where does Bella fit in to all of this? And when did her role begin?" Charlie looked around the table, his eyes resting on all of the native men. He looked the longest at Sam and Paul- both of whom were showing a mixture of predatory, territorial, and protective body language concerning Bella. Although in Sam's case he seemed almost torn, his body leaned towards the beautiful, if scarred, woman in the kitchen but his attention was on the pale girl in his Pack Mate's arms.
"She is an imprint to the Pack." Billy's reply was to the point. Charlie whipped his head back to his friend so fast that his neck popped, Bella winced at the noise. "She is Pack, now. Connected by her very soul, her spirit, to the men sitting around this table."
"Imprint?" Charlie was obviously wracking his brain for information, this hadn't been in the legend books. "What is an imprint?"
"We believed, sir, that imprinting was a rare thing… and it could still be… But it is when a wolf senses the man's true mate- his second half, both his subordinate and equal in one. The wolf senses the soul that can match with its own and alerts the man." Sam flit his eyes back towards his own imprint as he spoke, his smile showing for just long enough that Charlie could see the universe in it. "Bella, however, is different. When we found her in the woods in September… she imprinted on all of us present; myself, Jared, and Paul."
"So she belongs with all of you?" Charlie's voice was low, dangerously so. Bella could tell that he had taken Sam's word at their worth and come to the wrong conclusion, but not knowing how to answer him for sure she couldn't do anything to stop this.
"Not in the way you think." Paul was the one to speak now, his arms tightening slightly around his mate, and wife. They needed Charlie to understand this so he could understand the rest. "Sam and Jared, just like Embry, Quil, and Jake… they feel like brothers, family but not lovers, to Bella. Their wolves feel connected in a way that they felt the need to imprint on her- but not for the same reason as a true imprint."
Before Paul could continue Charlie had turned fully to the young man sitting beside him, holding his daughter, and cut in. His voice was plain, unemotional, and very much the same 'cop' voice Bella had seen him use many times before. He was seeing where the cards lay on the table, judging his hand before he played any he might have been holding.
"You left yourself out of that, Lahote." Charlie looked the young man over with keen eyes. He showed no fear, not even a single twitching moment of a possible back down. "And from the very… close… way you're holding her, and the fact she's not running, I would wager my badge and gun that you are her… what did you call it, her true imprint?"
"I am, sir." Paul nodded once, his eyes never leaving the cop in front of him. They were talking more through their eyes than their words, something Bella didn't understand. The other men at the table, however, recognized this moment for what it was.
It was a test, a test from father to possible future lover- sizing up the man who had captured his daughter's attentions. Whether Paul stacked up would be up to him now, there was nothing that the other wolves, or even Billy, could do for him here.
"Do you actually have feelings for Bella? Or is it just the wolf you share your body with talking." Paul's jaw twitched, something Charlie jumped on. He didn't want to push the kid too far, but he did want to see the truth. "Does the man in you actually want to know my daughter or is she just a mate? To be blunt about that word, mate… is Bella just some bitch who will carry your pups?"
The room was deadly silent when Charlie asked his last question. Whatever was passing between young native to older cop was something between only them, even Sam felt the need to look away from such an intense and singularly intimate moment.
"The fact that you ask such questions about me, about my loyalty to your daughter, tell me that you love her. Very much, if I'm not completely stupid." Paul smirked a little, his trademark. "And to give you your answer, you'll have to bear with me- listen to the whole story, and then make your judgements when I am done."
Charlie nodded once, his eyes not leaving his daughter now. She had curled more into herself as Paul had spoken, and that movement had caught his attention. Bella wasn't uncomfortable, she didn't want away from the young man holding her, but it was obvious that something he had said or something he was about to say was painful to her.
Charlie closed his eyes and sighed, his attempts to reserve judgement being stretched to their limits. There was more to this story than the others had revealed yet, and it looked like this young man was willing to give him the answers he so desperately sought, so he kept his mouth shut and took a sip of coffee, waiting for Paul to continue talking.
"In September, after you called Billy, he contacted Sam- who put the whole Pack on alert to look for Bella. Your name holds weight here, Chief Swan, and all three of us were more than happy to help find your daughter- a repayment of sorts for everything you have done for our people." Paul's eyes glazed a little, something that Charlie noted for later. "We found her scent in the woods- in the form of blood. But hers wasn't the only scent we found in the same area- there were many trails, red herrings to confuse those who would attempt to track via smell, but the scent we found wasn't human. It was that of a Cold One. We all took different trails, I found her first. She was barely alive, having been cut apart and drained of a lot of blood."
Charlie blanched at this, a slight flinch stuttered its way around the table. The younger wolves; Embry, Jake, and Quil, had not been there the night Bella had been found. And even though the Pack had a singular and shared mind the other men had been careful as to what was shown. Embry had seen the most, but only by a little.
"We took her immediately here, to see Sue and Dr. Whitehawk. She needed blood, badly, and due to her type could only take the same type of blood already running through her veins. It's not the rarest on the planet but in a small community like this- with our secrets- there wasn't really anything we could do beyond find her a willing donor who we could trust." Paul's jaw clenched a little now, Charlie still marking the small changes down for later discussions. When Paul didn't begin talking again immediately, Sam stepped in.
"Paul happens to have the same blood type, however, and we decided to run the risk to Bella. He was more than willing to give his blood to his imprint, and we just had to pray to the spirits that his wolf bloodline wouldn't react badly to the venom within her body." Sam waited, Charlie turned with an obvious question in his eyes. "We knew she had venom in her body by her smell. It is something Cold Ones create to paralyze their victims, or turn the unlucky bastards who survive the attack. We think it's in their saliva, though the elders before us believed they were like snakes and actually injected it through their teeth. But with the venom in her blood we didn't know if Paul's blood would even help- Cold Ones and Wolves aren't exactly loving bedfellows."
"I was willing to try anyway, anything to save the dying girl in my arms." Paul continued on, his jaw still clenched. His grip on Bella, however, didn't tighten to an uncomfortable level- something Charlie noticed still.
Paul and Sam then began to take turns telling the story- Jared only jumped in when he had something more to add that he felt the cop would need to piece the whole thing together. Embry spoke once, about the smell in Bella's room- how heavy it was and the fact that both he and Jake could smell it- though he smelled it throughout the whole house. Charlie's eyes narrowed a little but he still said nothing.
The talk turned to the day she had come to deliver baked gifts, goods for the holidays however anyone decided to celebrate them. Paul admitted to his near stalking of Bella through the Reservation, admitted to his firing need to claim the girl he had spent so long fighting against due to Council and Alpha commanding. They spoke little of the Council, thus far, something Billy was happy about even though he knew Charlie would pick up on things quickly. The man wasn't a cop for nothing.
"I snuck up on her, scared her, and she spoke to me. It was something I cherished in that moment in the back of my mind. She hadn't spoken to Leah Clearwater, to Tiffany Call, to anyone… But she spoke to me. It was stuttering and full of a mixture of surprise and fear, but she still spoke." Paul sighed, knowing that this part of the conversation was the most likely to set off Charlie. "My wolf overtook the control of our shared body upon smelling Jake on her, I don't enjoy sharing what is mine in such a way- and back then Jake still held romantic feelings for Bella… I snapped. And there, on the porch, I marked her."
"Marking," Sam jumped in quickly, hoping to avoid a blow up. "Is when a wolf, as a man, bites his mate and leaves behind his own saliva beneath the surface of their skin. The magic involved is something we don't understand fully yet, but it binds the wolf and the mate for the rest of their lives- they become the only ones for the other in physical ways, Bella will not be able to have babies with anyone but Paul now, and the same for Paul to Bella."
Charlie's fists clenched and his color rose to purple for a moment before he reigned in the natural instinct to beat the man before him into a pulp. He had questions, for damn sure, but he wanted the whole story.
"In my fear after marking her I took her to my house, where the Council sent a representative to retrieve me and my Alpha, Sam. We chose to rebel instead of go quietly, Bella needed us. She was weakening, dying once again in our arms, and we would not allow that to happen when we could still do something about it. So we ran to the safety of the inherent magic of our people- somewhere we would be given time to plan our next move." Paul sighed, this part would be hard. They hadn't been given the okay to tell of the Keeper- and it wasn't likely Charlie would know of her from his books. She was a well-hidden legend within the tribe.
Sam took over then, skirting the Keeper completely as he spoke of their options after 'communing with the Spirits' and their ultimate decision to bite Bella once again, only this time to add in the blood of her Brothers, the Pack, to solidify her ties to the land and Tribe. She would be safe from the venom within her, the poison that had been slowly killing her, if she was tied to the Pack in such a way. Their strengths could remove the venom's hold from her, even if it couldn't remove the venom from her body.
"The only drawback to this plan was that if we went through with it, if Paul marked Bella once more with the blood of her Brothers… she would not only become one with the Pack, land, and Tribe but she would also be his, wholly and completely, until the end of their lives." Sam took a deep breath and plunged into it, knowing that this had come too far not to tell Charlie everything. "She would be his wife under Tribal law, even with her unconscious state. It was a law written for the wolves in the old times, back before people were more rational about women and their role in the lives of the men they loved. It was a way to ensure that if a wolf imprinted on an already married women he would be able to mark and claim her before both Spirits and the living- tying their souls together whether she agreed or not."
Charlie took the information in and began to calculate things, his color again rising to a deep purple along his neck. There was much these boys would have to answer to him, but he still did not want to talk yet- he could tell in his gut there was more. He wasn't sure anymore he wanted to hear it, but Charlie had to. He had to know.
"With everyone's consent, even Jacob's, we all gave of our blood willingly to Paul who would have to bite Bella and lick it into the wound he would recreate. Before he could, however, the Council arrived and attempted to stop him- but he would not stop. Bella was barely breathing, her heart beating just enough to keep her alive, and her body becoming cold. None of us were willing to lose her to the venom that was killing her and Paul used that anger to fuel his rebellion from the Council- he marked her with teeth and blood, binding her to Pack, land, and Tribe."
Charlie finally couldn't stop himself this time, there were too many questions- too much he needed to know to see the whole picture. His first, and probably the hardest, was aimed directly at Paul who he fixed with a hardened stare.
"You marked and married my daughter against her will and without any thought to her own consent because you lost control when she smelled like Jake too?" Charlie waited a millisecond before he continued on. "Or were there deeper reasons in your mind?"
"I marked your daughter originally because Council and Alpha had kept us apart, and it was killing both of us. She wasn't sleeping well, losing weight, and her speech had not yet returned unless she was with one of the wolves. I was feeling it as well but that didn't matter to me. My mate needed me, needed us, and this opportunity presented a way to keep her forever- damn the consequences later." Paul looked down with shame written throughout all of his features, Charlie softened for a moment. "I know that was a bad idea, now. And I know that I will pay for those actions, but I will not back down from my choices. I love your daughter, Charlie Swan." Paul turned Bella around in his arms and looked directly at Bella this time, her chocolate brown eyes meeting his own. "I love you, Bella Swan. And we need to talk; about all of this, about us, about the choices I took from you, about everything that has been hidden from you, about the lies and the pain…" Paul's shoulders shook in a rare moment of vulnerability as he let a few rebellious tears slip from his eyes. "I need you to know…"
Bella looked over her shoulder at her father, the slightest of nods came in between the two as Charlie understood that this was a place to which he could not follow his daughter- that she had to stand on her own feet now. He could do nothing more than support her through this, as this was now her ball game. Charlie turned to Billy as Bella lifted a hand to Paul's cheek, rubbing her thumb against a tear that tracked its way down his face.
"I know." Bella whispered as she moved to stand and took his hand. Charlie fought everything in him to stop her from taking him away, he didn't want his daughter out of his sight currently. But there was nothing for it, Charlie had to finish what he had started and Bella had to take her first steps alone. The breath that escaped him when Bella pulled Paul out the sliding door was shuddering and pain filled.
The cop turned to his old friend and fixed him with a calculated look.
"What has the Council done, Billy?" He asked point blank, his eyes scanning the face of his oldest friend. "How much damage has the Council caused?"
The answer was a hard one, and Billy drew in a deep and rough breath as he thought about his answer. Charlie, it seemed, was going to know everything before this all was over.
A/N: This chapter is currently my longest to date on this particular story. And to begin this A/N I want to thank all of my readers and reviewers for being patient with me and understanding. I am sorry that this particular chapter both took so long and ended up so wordy. I was going to cut it into two but that seemed silly, especially with what is coming. Yes I know this story has become a long one, much longer than I had originally anticipated with my plot planning. But there are just so many things I want to convey, plot points that need to be understood before I can get to the meat of my story- and I am sorry that you all have to sit through the fat to get to the choice bits of it.
As far as my longer hiatus- I do very much apologize. Working in healthcare has its drawbacks and one of them happens to include weeks on end of working 12-16 hour shifts without breaks, and with it being flu season I can tell you that though my overtime is amazing and my checks have been nice... my body and mind have been so sapped that I just haven't had the brain power to retype my handwritten chapters and to edit them. However, I managed to snag (read: had to take) a five day break from work, so I have had time to edit and rewrite.
The next Chapter is going to focus on two things respectively, and both of them are Cullen related. I will then follow that chapter with Bella and Paul's talk in the woods, and finish up this section with the meeting at midnight. I am sorry that I had to cut this so many times but I want to include the Cullens here instead of after the meeting, it fits better in my mind.
Thank you all so much, you mean the world to me!