A/N: Twilight is Meyer's. No copyright infringement intended.

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BPOV

The house was eerily quiet when I stepped inside. I was the first to make it home. I shot an instinctive glance toward the dining room as I shut the front door, half expecting to see Victoria sweep out toward me or hear Lauren spitting curses. When nothing happened, I drew in a long breath and pulled out my cell phone.

I probably didn't have much time.

The first person I thought of wasn't an option. His phone number was lost somewhere in the spawns' possession, and I needed a guarantee that someone would be around to let me in whatever house I chose. Although the idea of just showing up on Edward's front porch with a duffel bag and asking to stay the night was kind of appealing…

I shook my head. I wasn't even sure he would talk to me after the way I'd acted. And I needed a definite welcome for this.

My next thought was Jacob. His garage… My home. I felt extremely comfortable in La Push. But there was another place where I felt extremely comfortable, too, and that place already housed a bag of my toiletries.

I texted Alice.

Short and simple. Can I spend the night?

She responded before I even made it up the stairs. Get your butt over here.

I snickered and shook my head. She knew that there was a story, and she wanted to hear it yesterday. Which was fine with me, because I was in a hurry.

I darted into my room and threw open the closet. I grabbed my duffel bag from the closet floor and shot to my dresser. Quickly, I stuffed my flannel pajama pants and T-shirt into the bag, then followed them with a few pairs of jeans and couple of shirts. All my sketchbooks and pencils went on top of the clothes, along with a couple of my Austen novels and Kafka's Metamorphosis, for which I'd developed a particular fondness after Edward had selected it from my bookshelf.

When I'd zipped up the duffel, I spun in a fast circle to take in the whole room. There was nothing else that I couldn't bear to leave behind, so I slung the bag's strap over my shoulder and started for the door. Then I hesitated and glanced back. With a sudden thought, I crossed to the window and opened it a few inches, then I closed the curtains. I smirked to myself as I stepped out into the hallway and closed my locked bedroom door behind me.

The harpies would never climb a tree. So if Victoria wanted in my room, she'd have to explain a broken door to Charlie.

I raced through my mental checklist as I bounded down the stairs. Everything I needed in order to shower and clean up was at Alice's house. I knew that it was stocked because of the silk pajama preparation nightmare from a few nights ago. I was wearing my hoodie and boots, and my keys were in my backpack, which still was sitting at the bottom of the steps. I dropped my duffel beside my backpack when I reached the bottom step and started rooting through the pack for my keys.

My fingers closed around the key ring at the bottom of the bag. I gave it a tug, but it didn't budge. Frustrated, I pulled a little harder. It lifted free.

But it brought my notebook, and the metal ring around which it had been hooked, out of the backpack with it. The rings popped open under my tug. Papers flew everywhere.

Typical.

Swearing under my breath, I crawled around, gathering my scattered notes and assignments. I was just picking up the last few pages when the front door banged open against the wall. Before I even could look up, the door slammed closed and vicious red nails dug into my arm.

Victoria yanked me to my feet. The papers I'd collected slipped out of my hands and fluttered back down to cover the floor all around us. I looked up in surprise as she leaned in to snarl in my face, "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

I tried to pull my arm free, but she just tightened her grip. "Let go," I demanded.

"You're not leaving this house."

"Watch me." I gave my arm a rough jerk and broke free of her grasp. I quickly scooped up my bags and started around her. I was almost to the door when her fingers clamped over my upper arm again. She pulled backward as I kept moving forward. Somehow she twisted my arm behind my back and wrenched it upward. I dropped my bags and started to turn.

We both froze when the front door opened.

For a second, we stared blankly toward the open door. My shoulder burned, so I was the first to move. I took a small step to the side, trying to remove my arm from her hold. She suddenly let go with a little whimper.

"Charlie?" she whispered.

My father didn't move from the door. But even motionless, he was vibrating. I could feel his fury across the space between us. His eyes burned through his wife. And with one sentence, he changed everything.

"Get the hell out of my house."

A shiver ran down my spine at the inhuman growl that came out of my dad's mouth. Beside me, Victoria turned on her desperation. "But Charlie—"

Charlie took an abrupt step forward, his movements seeming to hold a barely restrained violence. "Get out," he snarled. "Now."

Victoria looked at me. Her face was a strange mixture of distress and hatred. I stared her down. She finally turned back to my father. "Charlie, I can't—"

"Call me when you get settled in a hotel. I'll bring some of your things to you for tonight. You can come back tomorrow while Bella's in school to get the rest."

I glanced sharply at my father. He didn't look at me. But it was clear what he was doing. He was separating me from Victoria and the spawn. Completely. Starting now.

Victoria sputtered. "But Lauren," she wailed. "Her nose is broken. You can't throw us out—"

Charlie cut her off. "I called Dr. Snow," he informed her. "Her nose is not broken. Just a few shades of purple. And if you really care, you may want to go meet your girls. Dr. Snow is sitting with them until you get there." He picked up the purse she'd dropped at the door and tossed it to her. She caught it automatically and stared blankly at him as he stepped aside and held open the front door. "Call me," he reminded her. "And I'll stop by. We'll set up a time for you to pick up your things."

There was a heavy pause as Victoria stared at him. Then she slowly turned to me. I thought she was going to attack me. But she just looked stunned. Her eyes drifted back to Charlie. Without a word, clutching her purse to her chest, she moved past him and out the door.

When she was outside, Charlie shut the door firmly behind her. He faced the door for a long moment before he turned to look back at me. We gazed at each other in silence. Then, without speaking, Charlie strode past me and into the kitchen.

I hesitated. There was a lump in my throat as I listened to him move around in the next room. Finally I headed to the bottom of the stairs to pick up the papers that still were strewn across the floor. And to fight the tears that welled in my eyes.

A minute later, the sounds in the kitchen stopped. I picked up the last of my notes and stood to put them away in the backpack that I'd dropped near the door. And I nearly rammed into Charlie.

He held out a hand as though to steady me when I took a startled step back. "Sorry," he muttered, his voice rough. I glanced up at his face in surprise. He'd been battling tears, too. But a few of his seemed to have made their way down his cheeks.

He didn't meet my gaze. Instead, he reached down to take my papers from me. He tossed them down in a pile on the floor. Then he carefully, and very uncertainly, took my right hand in his and eased an ice-filled towel over my throbbing knuckles.

For a moment, we stood that way, my hand resting in his, his other hand resting lightly on top of the makeshift ice pack. Finally he took a small step back and watched me pull my hand in against my body to cradle it and the ice to my chest.

"I was here earlier to check on your hand," he admitted quietly. "Guess I have more reason now."

"Yeah," I murmured. "Guess so."

He shifted his weight and stared at the floor. After a pause, he looked up at me. "Want to sit down?"

"Okay." I started to follow him to the table, then hesitated. "Oh, wait… I just…" I pulled out my cell phone and sent Alice a rapid text: Charlie came home. Call you later. Then I turned off my phone and slid it into my backpack.

Charlie was waiting for me by the table when I turned back. I moved timidly to the seat opposite him, and we sat together. There was a long, awkward silence as he stared at the table between us and I fidgeted with my ice pack.

Finally he lifted his head to look at me. "Bella," he began uncertainly. "I don't…" He trailed off, then let out a lengthy breath. "I am so sorry."

"Dad—"

He cut me off. "I should have seen… But I didn't want to see it. And you never said anything, so I thought you were okay. I was wrong, and you'll never know how sorry I am."

I fiddled with the ice. He paused, watching me. With his eyes still on my hands, he went on quietly, "I knew you were unhappy. But I thought it was because things were okay between you and the girls, and things weren't okay between the girls and me. I thought you felt guilty for having things work out for you when they weren't working out for me. I had no idea how they were treating you."

"I tried to keep you from knowing," I told him.

"You have to talk to me, Bells," Charlie said with a sudden urgency. "You have to tell me when something's wrong."

I looked up at him. "I'm sorry, Dad."

"It's not your fault." He lowered his gaze to the table again. "I wasn't exactly honest about things being wrong with me, either." He hesitated, then he continued softly, almost ashamedly, "I wasn't going to divorce her for… several reasons. The first was that I thought things were good for you. I wasn't going to take that away from you. And because I…" He swallowed hard and clenched his jaw before forcing the words out. "I didn't want you to see me fail again. I didn't want to fail you again."

He didn't want to fail at holding a family together again – to fail me by not being able to give me a whole family with him. I met his gaze. "The marriage was the failure, Dad," I said firmly. "Victoria and her spawn were the failure. We didn't have to be."

Charlie's eyes darkened. His voice grew deep and determined. "And we won't be. You won't have to see Victoria again. You'll still see the girls at school, and I can't help that, but Victoria will have no part in your life."

I bit my lip. "I really missed you, Dad."

"I missed you, too, Bells."

We stared at one another across the table. After a long pause, I asked hesitantly, "Can you stay?"

He smiled softly. "Yeah. I can stay for a while."

I smiled back, then I glanced toward my duffel bag. I wavered for a second before deciding, "I want to show you something." I stood and crossed to the bag, pulled out my recovered sketchbook, and returned to the table. With him watching curiously, I flipped quickly through the book and directly to the page I wanted. Nervously, I turned the book to face him and held it out so he could see the image on the page. "This is Edward. Cullen."

Charlie's eyes shot to my face, then back to the drawing. For a second, he studied it – Edward's lopsided smile and bright eyes looking out at him. Then he asked lowly, his voice unreadable, "Carlisle's boy?"

"Yes." I paused and turned the book around, pulling it back toward me. My eyes locked on the page as my fingers lightly traced the lines of Edward's face. "I miss him."

Charlie looked up again, taking me in. He was silent for a beat, considering. "What happened?" he asked finally.

"I'm not sure yet," I admitted. "I told him to leave me alone, and he has, but… I think I was wrong." I sighed. "Jessica and Lauren found out I was dating him, and things just blew up. It's a mess."

"When did you see him?"

"We found time," I said quietly.

Charlie absorbed that. His eyes were intent on me when he demanded, "He was a gentleman, right?"

"Dad. Yes." I shot him a frustrated, but amused, look, then I focused on Edward's face again. "He was always a perfect gentleman."

Charlie was silent again. "You met him when Carlisle came to your school to work with the nurses?" he guessed.

"Yeah." I glanced at him, surprised by his awareness of anything that had been going on at my school.

He nodded. "I heard about the uproar the boy caused."

"Edward," I corrected. Charlie shot me a look, but he didn't comment. I could tell he had a million more questions, though, and he didn't seem too comfortable with the idea of asking them. I figured I wouldn't be any more comfortable answering them.

After a second, he muttered something about it being unlikely that a boy so popular with girls would be a gentleman, then he immediately contradicted himself, "But he is Carlisle's…. Good man, Carlisle." He pondered that for a moment. "So does this Edward," he began, shooting me a little smirk, "have anything to do with you being in my office the last two days?"

"Kind of." I chewed on my lower lip. "Mike Newton… He always hit on me. And after he heard some rumors about Edward and me… he made some comments and grabbed my ass. And I just exploded."

Charlie's face turned several nerve-wracking shades of red and purple. "He did what?" he roared.

"Dad, please." I reached across the table with my free hand and laid it on top of his fist. "Calm down. Like I told you, he got the point."

It took him a minute to settle. At last he gave my fingers a squeeze and nodded. "Right. I guess he did."

I had a feeling he'd be getting the point again. When my dad paid the Newtons a visit.

"And Lauren?" Charlie prodded.

"Besides everything else since she moved in?" I raised my brows. When his face grew shamed, I hurried on, "She stole my sketchbook. Spread my pictures around school and made it look like I was stalking Edward." I paused. "There is one picture. I did it as a gift for him. She could have any picture she wanted. Except that one. And when she just…" I took a deep breath. "She taunted me with it. And I lost it."

"Well, you won't have to—" He broke off when his cell phone rang. He gave me an apologetic look as he pulled it out to silence it. "That's Mark. He was supposed to call me when he found something." He got to his feet and started for the door, then he stopped and turned back. "I'm going back to the station for a few hours. I'll be home before you go to bed."

"To stay?"

His lips quirked upward. "Yeah. To stay."

I felt myself grinning. "Be careful."

He grinned back. "Always am." Then he stepped outside and closed the door behind him.

For a few minutes, I sat at the table, trying to comprehend everything that had just happened. After a while, I grabbed my cell phone out of my backpack and turned it back on. Not surprisingly, there were several missed texts from Alice. What's going on?… Call me…. Are you okay?… Is he still there?

I shook my head and called Jacob. He picked up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Jake."

"Hey, Bells. What's up?"

"I have something I want to show you."

"Oh, yeah?" I heard something metal clang near the phone, and he mumbled a curse. "Sorry. Dropped the wrench…. What is it? Can you bring it over?"

"Actually, no. I can't." I grinned widely. "I need you to come over here."

He hesitated. The only time he had come to my house since Victoria had moved in had been for breakfast or to drop me off, so this request was unprecedented. "Um… Okay. Sure," he said finally. "I have to get cleaned up a little, then I'll be over."

"Okay. And hey, Jake? Would you do me a favor?"

"Yeah. What is it?"

"Stop by Alice's and bring her with you?"

Another hesitation. "I… Okay. Yeah." I practically could see his confused expression.

I smiled. "Thanks, Jake."

I waited a few minutes after hanging up with him before I called Alice. I didn't want to give her too much notice before Jake's arrival so she didn't decide to jump in her car and drive over on her own. If she hadn't made that decision already.

When I did call, she picked up on the first ring. "What's going on?" she demanded.

I grinned and shook my head. "Charlie went back to work. But I want to show you something."

"So bring it with you when you come over."

I repeated to her what I'd said to Jake. "I can't. I need you to come over here."

And she echoed his confusion. But much more bluntly. "Why?"

"Because what I need to show you is here. You coming over or not?"

She hesitated. "Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes," she said after a pause.

"Alice?"

"What?"

"Jake should be pulling into your driveway in about five minutes."

There was another long pause. "Why is Jacob Black going to be pulling into my driveway?"

"Because he's picking you up. I want to show you both something, and I asked him to stop by and get you. He should be there pretty soon. Is Jasper with you?"

"No. I told him not to come over because I thought you were spending the night." Her suspicion level went up a few notches. "Why? Is he supposed to come with us?"

"Yeah, if he can. You and Jake can pick him up on your way."

Another long silence. She was putting her psychic skills to work. And she was going to guess any second now. So I said, "See you in a few minutes" and hung up on her.

I used my few minutes to climb the tree outside my window and clamber into my room. By the time I made it, I was sweaty and the heels of my hands were scraped from my nearly falling to my doom. Twice.

It was a good thing Edward wasn't clumsy.

I probably should have waited until Jasper or Jake could have climbed the tree and made it look easy, but when I finally stood in my room, breathing hard and bleeding, I felt a surge of triumph. Of exhilaration. And I took a moment to revel in the fact that I was standing behind a door that never had to be locked again.

Then, giddy and grinning like an idiot, I unlocked the door and bounded down the stairs to grab my duffel bag and my backpack. When I carried them back up to my room, I opened my sketchbook and studied the picture of 1920s Edward. "I wish you were on your way over, too," I told him. "Today turned out really well for me. I hope tomorrow does, too." I trailed my fingertips over his smiling face and closed the book before I headed back downstairs to wait for my friends.

They arrived about ten minutes later, all piled in Jake's Rabbit. I swung open the front door and watched them climb out. Alice was first. She didn't wait for the boys. She darted up to the porch and looked at me expectantly. I ignored her and her impatience until Jake and Jasper caught up. Then I smiled hugely.

"Welcome to Charlie's and my house."

It took them a moment to figure it out. Suddenly Alice started squealing and jumping up and down. She grabbed my hands as she jumped, and I tried not to wince under my grin. When she finally let go and started jabbering about "knowing" what my news was, Jake stepped cautiously around her and wrapped his arms around my waist. His hug lifted me off my feet.

"Congratulations, Bells," he murmured in my ear. "I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks, Jake," I whispered back.

He set me down and took a step back. Jasper moved up to hug me next. His embrace was much more serene. "Took long enough," he said as he let me go.

I smiled as he grinned down at me. "Tell me about it." I glanced at the three of them and moved aside to motion toward the door. "So… Want to come in?"

"Yes!" they exclaimed in unison.

Alice danced inside. Jasper and Jake trailed along behind her. I stood for a second on the porch, listening to them. Then, for the first time in almost a year, I went into my house to hang out with my friends.