38. Best friends share… everything.
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.
Charlie walked in the door, shrugged out of his jacket, hung it up and stepped towards the kitchen. "Damn, that smells good," he said.
"Just in time," Bella replied as she pulled Charlie's dinner from the oven. He leaned against the door jamb and watched, as she served vegetables onto two plates.
"Go wash your hands," she instructed.
When he got back, she was just putting his plate down at his place setting, and she turned around to get her own meal. He pulled out his chair and sat. She stopped a pace from the table with a jerk so violent that some of her peas rolled off her plate and fell to the floor. Charlie watched them fall. He looked back up with a smile on his face to make his usual joke about peeing on the floor, when he caught sight of her face.
He leapt to his feet and guided her that last step to the table. He tried to pull the plate out of her hand but she was clutching it so hard, he was frightened it would break between them both. He eventually managed it and dumped it on the table.
Her face was white; her lips an odd purple, blue colour.
He thought for a second that she was having a heart attack. But eighteen year old girls don't have heart attacks, he told himself.
"Bella?" he asked in a worried tone. He tried to push her down to sit on the chair but she wouldn't bend in the right direction. She put her hands down flat on the table and her elbows locked. Then she flung her head back and took a deep, gasping breath. It sounded so harsh; as she sucked the air into her lungs. It was as if she had been kicked in the gut.
"Embry…" she groaned.
"E-Embry?" he repeated. "He's one of … your boys… isn't he?" He had a vague recollection that was one name.
She looked suddenly wild. "Embry…" she repeated. The whites of her eyes showed. She dashed across the kitchen and started scrabbling around in her backpack. She had tossed it on the kitchen counter the way she usually did. With shaking hands she pulled out her mobile phone. She pressed some buttons; waving her other hand in her agitation and jerking it around. She finally put her fingers to her mouth the way she used to when she bit her nails. Clearly there was no response. She grabbed her keys and her bag and Charlie grabbed her arm.
"Just what is going on?" he demanded. He had to hold her harder than he thought he would have needed, just to get her attention.
She looked half crazy. Charlie remembered arresting a homeless woman once who looked remarkably like Bella did now. She had flapped and wailed and gone on about being a witch and a time traveller. She had crazy eyes.
"He's in trouble… have to go," Bella explained.
"What? How do you know?"
"I don't have time for this!" she screeched at him.
She frightened Charlie so much, that he took a step back and let go of her arm.
"Go where?" he asked as he followed her towards the door.
"The rez."
Then he realised she couldn't drive like this. And he didn't trust her to be alone in this crazed state. Charlie knew he couldn't stop her unless he handcuffed her. He grabbed his jacket from the hook near the door. "We'll take the patrol car. I'm driving," he announced it with enough authority that she paused in her headlong rush for the door.
"Good," she said. "Faster."
Her agitation was getting to Charlie. She was making him nervous too. She tried dialling another number in the car, but got no response there as well.
"Who are you calling?" he asked carefully.
"Quil… no answer." She jerked and jumped in her seat. "Faster… must go faster."
She barely said another word for a good ten minutes. He kept glancing at her. She either couldn't or wouldn't relax.
"Can you calm down?" he asked.
"Need to see him… something wrong… really wrong."
"It's going to take another ten minutes," he reminded her. "Maybe more than a quarter of an hour…" The trip usually took him thirty five minutes or so.
"Dad, please…"
She starts to tear at her hair. Charlie was really frightened by that. It was almost easier to deal with her when she was monosyllabic. "You're not going to start screaming again, are you?" he asked. She didn't roll her eyes or make a smart comment and that worried him too.
"He needs me; I know he needs me. They both do," she wailed.
He found his foot pressing more heavily on the accelerator. He even thought about putting the lights and the siren on.
Charlie was sure he had never driven to La Push this fast before. Bella's anxiety was contagious. He can't work out how she knew there was something wrong, but he implicitly believed her. She jiggled and jumped in her seat and sat on her hands. She pushed at the dash as if to help the car go faster.
She directed him to a standard wooden clad house near the forest. She didn't seem to be entirely sure of where she was going. He nearly took a turn but she stopped him and made him go right. As the head lights played across the front of the building, Charlie saw three figures on the road outside the house. They pulled up and Bella had the car door open before he had even completely stopped. She ran across to the small group. The slimmest guy grabbed her before she got there.
Charlie followed her and watched as she comforted the sobbing boy. She was right. He felt an odd chill. Tribal business. He just knew it. He did not understand how she knew he was in trouble, but clearly he was.
Sam Uley nodded at him. "Chief," he said in greeting.
"Sam, what is going on?" Charlie asked him. He could hear screeching and someone going nuts inside the house. It sounded like they were breaking things. He looked at the two boys with their arms wrapped around his daughter. She had calmed down the second she got here. Now she was comforting them. Mostly the taller boy; the more solid looking guy looked angry, not upset.
"Embry and Quil I presume?" he asked Sam.
Sam just nodded.
Embry was still crying and being held by Quil and Bella. He finally managed to speak in between gulping sobs. "She w-won't let me b-back in to get my s-stuff. My house… my school b-books… she k-keeps threatening to b-burn everything. She's smashed all the photos."
Sam looked thunderous. He and Charlie exchanged a look. Charlie was often amazed by the things he saw people do to each other. But child abuse made him feel nauseous and angry. So angry. This guy might be tall, but he was still a child. He was still in school and society was supposed to protect him.
"Why?" he asked.
Quil answered him. "Because he is dating a white girl and …me."
Charlie blinked. He hadn't actually thought about if the boys were 'together' in this relationship as well. "Right," he said diplomatically. He inhaled slowly.
"Some bitch at the bank told her, before Embry got around to it," Quil added.
Charlie knew exactly which bitch at the bank that would be; Mrs Stanley. He nodded slowly and stared at the house.
He reached over and thumped Embry on the shoulder. "Come on, son. Let's go get your stuff," Charlie stated. Damn, the kid was overheated.
"Can I?" Embry asked Sam.
Quil and Sam exchanged a look. Charlie didn't know about the wolves. If Embry phased he could kill his mother. Sam nodded.
Embry looked surprised. He wiped at his face with a hand. Bella looked at her father with something he hoped was pride on her face.
"Come on," Charlie repeated. "Before she breaks something else you need." He was implacable.
"I'll come too," Sam said. "Quil, go get some boxes or something to put his stuff in." He looked at Bella. "Stay here," he ordered.
Bella frowned at him and opened her mouth to argue.
"Yeah," echoed Charlie. "You stay here."
She shut her mouth, rolled her eyes, but did as she was told.
With Sam and Charlie on either side, Embry was brave enough to go back into the house to pack. Sam nudged Embry down the hallway and Charlie stopped in the living room and looked around. The place looked average; if a little more threadbare than some of the other houses he had been in before. There were bare patches on the walls where framed photos had obviously been removed. That explained the smashing noises, he assumed.
Tiffany Call came out of the kitchen towards him. She had a trash bag in her hand.
"Charlie Swan," she said. "You don't have any jurisdiction here. This isn't Forks!" She almost spat the words at him.
Charlie had forgotten he was still in full uniform. And he has already decided he didn't like this woman. "I don't need jurisdiction to help a kid pack his belongings."
Sam almost literally backed him up. "You gonna argue with me too?" he asked.
"This is none of your business either, Sam."
"You sure about that?" Sam asked her. "You want to check with Billy?"
Her eyes narrowed and she looked like she was going to argue with him.
"You should care about the tribe Sam," she argued. "He's with a hokwat and he's fucking a guy."
Charlie almost lost it. "That's my d-"
Sam put a massive hand over his chest and stopped him. Charlie took a deep breath.
Sam just looked at her. He shook his head slowly. "Nice of you to care about the tribe. As I recall, Tiffany. You are not even Quileute. You're Makah. The tribe took you in when you arrived here pregnant and thrown out of your own home. And clearly you learnt nothing from the experience."
"You should talk, Sam…" she hissed.
"Just shut up, Tiffany. You've thrown him out; you've disowned him. Let the kid pack. We're helping him get out of your hair; you should be pleased," Sam snapped.
"Well of course… you'd help him," she snarled.
"If Embry is my brother, I will be proud for him to be part of my family."
Quil had grabbed some boxes from somewhere. He helped Embry pack. He growled at Tiffany as he walked out of the house. "He won't ever be coming back here. Not if I have anything to do with it." Sam tried to bustle him out of the room, but he wouldn't go. Embry just ducked his head and ran; holding his box like a shield in front of him. Charlie stood there and stared at her.
"Where is he going to go?" Sam asked Quil.
"He can come with us," stated Charlie.
"You collect strays now?" Tiffany snarked. "He sneaks out at night you know… he's in a gang with them." She waved a hand at Sam and Quil. Charlie looked at them. It wasn't the first time he had heard about Sam's 'gang' but as far as he could tell, they did good things; even chased off a drug dealer on the rez, he had heard. In his opinion, the world needed more gangs like Sam's.
Charlie managed to look menacing without actually moving. "For the record, that hokwat your son is with would be MY daughter. If he has nowhere else to go, he is welcome in my home."
"Don't say I didn't warn you," she spat at him.
"And if he is a nice kid, I won't be complimenting you either," Charlie told her. "Doubt you had much to do with it."
Sam looked surprised. "There's nothing more we can do here," he stated. He pushed at Quil who eventually shifted with another pointed glare at Embry's mother.
Charlie brought up the rear.
Embry was sitting on the ground with a box near him. Bella was standing next to him and Embry was leaning against her legs. She stroked his head.
"What do you want to do, Em?" Quil asked.
"I d-don't know," he sobbed.
"You can stay with us. Mum won't mind," Quil offered.
"I can't choose. I don't know what to do," he almost wailed it; getting himself more upset. Quil looked angry again.
"Let me look after him, Quil," Bella offered. "You'll just get angry and punch something," Bella pleaded.
"A woman's touch?" muttered Sam. He leaned over and whispered something to Quil too quietly for anyone else to hear.
"Put the boxes in our car, Bella," Charlie instructed. She looked astonished but hurried to comply. She opened the trunk.
"Quil," Sam said. "Where'd you put the other box?" They fetched them and loaded them in the car. Two boxes did it for all Embry's worldly goods and belongings. Charlie noticed the kid didn't even have that many clothes.
Charlie looked at the shattered youth. "Is he your brother?" he asked Sam.
Sam shrugged. "She won't say. She won't even tell the poor kid who his father is. He makes himself sick with worry about it," Sam confessed. He knew. He saw inside Embry's head. But Charlie didn't know that. "He has to be Quileute." He stopped suddenly. Oops. Too much information.
"Why?" asked Charlie.
Trust Charlie Swan not to let something go. Sam scrabbled for something to tell Charlie that wasn't about the wolf pack. "Because she's here. She wouldn't be here for any other reason."
He nodded. "That makes sense. My money is on Joshua Uley," sighed Charlie. "No offense Sam, but that man…"
"You knew him," Sam realised. "Of course you did." He shrugged again. "In a way I hope it is him, at least he is not around and he left before Embry was born. If it was someone else that Embry has seen every day and didn't know about…" He glanced back at the house. "That would make her a special kind of nasty."
"And she already seems bad enough," Charlie noted.
"Embry is a really good kid," Sam said. "You won't regret sheltering him now."
Charlie gave him a look. "Somehow he is involved with Bells. With Quil too. And I suspect after her reaction tonight that the involvement is a little out of the ordinary. More of this tribal business?"
Sam didn't react.
"So," continued Charlie. "I may as well get to know him now." He glanced over at Quil, Bella and Embry. Embry was in the middle and the other two were hugging him. "Look at that," said Charlie. "I thought she was having a heart attack, you know." He sounded almost conversational.
Sam maintained his stoic face and waited.
"She demanded we drive out here and she couldn't phone anyone and no one had spoken to her. How did she know he needed her, Sam?"
Sam didn't answer him.
"She damn near … I can't think of the word… she went nuts, Sam. Raked at herself with her nails like a crazy person. I had to drive her out here. She just wouldn't calm down. Kept ranting about how Quil and Embry needed her."
He studied Sam when he didn't respond. "You been taking lessons from Billy Black in blank face, Sam?"
That made Sam smile. "Maybe," he admitted. "I won't lie to you Chief."
Charlie nodded. "Okay. I can respect that. Silence might be the better option then." He shook hands with Sam and then walked slowly over to the three who were saying their goodbyes.
"Can you let him off patrols Sam?" Bella asked forgetting that Charlie was still there.
Sam nodded. "Special circumstances. But you still have to get back for school, Embry. Can you do that?"
"How will he get back?" Charlie asked.
Everyone had forgotten he was there.
"The bikes," said Bella. She looked momentarily caught out. "Doesn't Jake have some motorbikes that he repaired? Embry could have the red one, I'm sure the owner wouldn't mind lending it to him." She couldn't explain that Embry could run back faster nor could she say that she was the owner of the red bike. But he needed some method of transportation. It was fifteen miles to La Push from Forks.
"I'll talk to Jake and work out how to deliver it to your place," Quil suggested.
"With a helmet," reminded Charlie. He hated scraping cyclists off the road. The roads around here were treacherous enough with the constant rain.
"Yes," agreed Quil.
"Okay," agreed Charlie. He looked at his daughter wrapped around the shattered kid. "You wanna ride in the back with him Bells?"
She nodded.
Quil kissed Embry and whispered something in his ear. He nodded and tried to stop crying.
Embry lay across Bella's lap and sobbed quietly for quite some time. Bella made crooning noises and stroked his head. Charlie and Bella kept making eye contact in the rear vision mirror. Charlie was still trying to work out how she knew he was in trouble. But he couldn't deny that she knew. And what the heck was he 'patrolling' for?