Chapter 55
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.
Paul got dressed and made his way downstairs. He set up the coffee pot and rattled around in the fridge. He heard Charlie coming but pretended to be surprised when he saw him as he emerged from behind the fridge door.
"Good morning, sir."
Charlie mumbled something unintelligible, then finally got out a surly, "Paul."
Paul decided honesty was the best policy. "I came over last night and stayed with Bella. She was still pretty upset."
"Yeah. Saw your truck."
"She's in the shower now."
"I heard it turn on. I am impressed you got her in there; I couldn't."
"She needed a shower."
"At least she is washing her hair now."
"Thank God. It smelt." Paul wrinkled his nose.
Charlie gave him an odd look. "I thought you were away."
"I was. I came back." Charlie didn't need to know just how far away he had been.
"Right."
Paul made them both mugs of coffee. "I'll cook in a minute. Can we talk, first?"
"Sure," Charlie agreed. He gave him a look. "If you can get her to eat, I will be really impressed."
"She'll eat. But what I wanted to say was that I want Bella to come stay with me for a while." He didn't ask permission because Bella was an adult. He also wasn't one for small talk and preamble. He'd just say what he needed to say.
"Uh-huh. A while?"
"Maybe longer."
"Right. Why?"
"I don't think she should be alone. She's not looking after herself properly or eating right. She's lost weight already."
"She's picked at her food for a week now. Since, …you know."
Paul nodded. "And she has no extra weight to lose."
"No. Been thin lately."
That was probably a tiny dig at Paul. He'd suffer that. "Worse since this guy showed up in Leah's life."
Charlie nodded.
"I'll look after her," Paul said. "I know you have shifts to do and responsibilities."
"She can look after herself."
Paul shook his head. "Not this month, she can't. She hadn't even had a shower for how long?" A tiny dig back at Charlie.
Charlie sighed out a breath. "Yeah. Okay. She'll be close to you at work?"
"I'm doing a construction job with Sam on the rez. Won't be more than fifteen minutes away." Two if he ran wolf style. Assuming he got his job back.
"I can't take the time off," Charlie commented.
"No. I just took some time off, but I'll be nearby." If she screamed, he'd hear her.
Charlie sipped his coffee and studied Paul over the top of the mug. "So why are you doing this?"
Paul took a deep breath. He couldn't fall at the first hurdle and Charlie had every right to ask. "I think I messed it up. And I have to help fix it."
"Leah dumped her, not you."
He thought about what Bella had been trying to say. "I left. I kind of dumped them first. Maybe if I hadn't backed off, none of this would have happened."
"The three of you weren't that happy from where I was standing."
"No, that was why I left… but still…" He gave Charlie a piercing look. He suspected that Charlie knew of the wolf pack, but didn't want to blow the secret if he didn't know.
Charlie was evidently very good at reading faces. "I know about the wolf pack. You're one aren't you? And Leah?"
Paul nodded carefully.
"I worked it out ages ago. Billy can lie to me, but Sue can't; not very well. So Leah throwing Bella out has something to do with that?"
Paul felt a twinge at telling him. "It's hard for me to talk about this."
"Secrets."
"Yeah. You know Sam Uley? He and Emily are mates. It's a special wolf thing. What's happened with Leah is like that. Kind of a love at first sight, wolf style."
"Bella doesn't count as a mate?"
"No. And that magic trumps other relationships."
"Ah," said Charlie as if he just worked something out. "Like Sam did to Leah in the first place."
"Yeah."
"Never did understand why Harry wasn't angrier with him, you know?"
"He was on the Council before Sue."
Charlie's eyes narrowed. "Emily's face? It wasn't a bear."
"No."
"Never thought it was." He raised an eyebrow.
Paul squirmed. "Emily rejected him. She told him that if he dumped Leah, he was as bad as his father."
"Ouch."
"In more ways than one. She nearly died." He had an awful thought. And Sam might have died with her, if she had. Fuck! He and Bella had better be totally sure of themselves. They didn't want to kill Leah, just break the imprint.
"You're that dangerous?"
"And that big."
"Well, I'll be… you're the gigantic wolves that Bells said she saw."
Paul nodded.
"Lot of things making sense now. Right. So Leah and Bella were happy, but then this … magic happened."
"Imprint. It's called an imprint."
"You have a plan?"
"Not much of a one." Paul suddenly thought that Charlie dated Sue, he might talk to her. "What about talking to Sue?"
Charlie's mouth twisted. "She's conflicted."
"Tribal Council."
"Yep. She wants to be happy for Leah, but she feels guilty over Bella."
"So she's avoiding you?"
"You got it." Another sip of his coffee. "So any plans you tell me, I promise to keep close to my chest."
"The plan is to make Leah jealous, I suppose."
"See you and Bella together?"
"Yeah."
"Is that dangerous?"
"I don't believe Leah would hurt Bella."
"Right. I'm sure that's what Emily thought, too."
"Yeah. But she'll be safe with me."
"That's why she has to live with you?"
"Yeah."
"That the only reason?"
He stared Charlie straight in the eyes. "No." Paul knew what he was asking. 'Do you care for my daughter?'
"Gotcha." Charlie nodded. "So, she is going to fight for Leah?"
"With my help, maybe."
Charlie nodded slowly. "Okay. That'd be good. She's not one for fighting. She stays very constant to something, often not in a proactive way. But you're a fighter, Paul. Always have been."
"Even when I shouldn't have been."
"Sometimes." Another sip. "I was sorry to hear about your mother, I never said anything before."
"That's okay. Not many people did."
"You know, part of her issue was that she didn't fight for things, either. If she had fought for you? She might have got herself cleaned up; got off the drugs."
Paul snorted. "Or taken me down with her."
"No. I disagree. I remember when you guys came back here."
Paul trusted his instincts and he knew he needed something extra for Charlie. "I rang the cops on her," he confessed. 'I was about eight and I just wanted her to be like the other moms."
Charlie stared at him. "Seen it before."
He would have. Paul sighed.
"I talked to Niki recently. He told me that he had just realized that your mother let you go with him, because she thought you would have a better life alone with him."
Paul had never thought of it like that. He looked at him. He took a shaky sip of his own drink to cover his emotions.
"If Bells wants Leah, then she'll need to fight for her." Charlie stood and refilled his coffee. "I'm not much for fighting, either. I let her mother leave Forks and take her away from me, too. Your father did okay raising you. Being a single parent is hard." He chuckled. "Listen to me. I've only done it for two years. Took me almost seventeen years to get her back. And then I nearly lost her."
"I remember. We found her in the forest."
"Was that you? I was a mess. I can't remember."
"And Jared."
"That night." Charlie shook his head. "I've organized searches before, but when it is your own kid..."
"Sam brought her back."
"Makes sense now. The wolf senses. Never could work out how he found her so fast and carried her out. I almost dropped her between the edge of the yard and the house. And then she was just not 'here' for months. Screaming in her sleep." He shivered. "I'm not going through that again."
Paul wasn't sure what to say to that confession, so he went for something innocuous. "She's a good person, sir. She's very like you."
He noticed the 'sir'. "Call me Charlie. She's got my eyes," he said proudly. "Her mother's eyes are blue."
Paul nodded. He loved Bella's big brown eyes. "She may have lain in her bed and cried, but she handled this breakup better than the last one."
"That's true."
"She also has inherited your need to do things by the rules."
Charlie snorted. "You don't know her that well, then. She can break the rules when she wants to." He sipped his coffee, clearly thinking. "She has got to get herself out of this rut and get back into her life. She does that too much. Like when that Cullen boy left."
Charlie gave Paul his laser eyed interrogation glare. "So are you two going to be dating?"
Paul shrugged without answering.
"If you are taking her into your home, then you obviously have some idea," Charlie pressed.
"That should be just temporary."
"I'd like her to stay around here. But La Push is not too far away."
Paul got that hint. Break her heart, she leaves Forks and I'm blaming you. "It might be a bit different," Paul suggested carefully. "It might be her and Leah."
"And you?"
Paul nodded.
"That's a little more different than two girls together, but I reckon most people would cope better with the three of you together. Two girls, they think is weird. I don't, but they do. But if you are around, they won't ask. They will just assume." He gave Paul another look. "Or they will think that you are a lucky man."
"If it works and we get Leah back, I will be a lucky man." He didn't mean it the way Charlie had said it and he knew he'd understand that.
"Huh." A pause. "Bells is good for you, too, you know," Charlie added.
Paul blinked. Fuck! There was so much riding on this. If Leah didn't come back to them and he broke Bella's heart… "She keeps me human," he confessed.
Charlie was silent, as if he was thinking about it. "Like Sam and Emily. She grounds him."
Paul thought about how Emily was steering Sam now with this imprint objection thing. "Yeah she does. More of an anchor. He can go a distance but he'll always come back to her."
"And this new guy? Is he like that for Leah?"
"I don't think so, haven't met him yet, but I know that Bella was."
"Your human anchor," Charlie said.
Paul nodded.
"And she's lost her right now."
Paul glanced towards the stairs. Charlie saw his eyes move, but he kept talking, "So this new bloke has to go. What's his name?"
"Kirrin. Kirrin Down."
"How long has he been around?"
"I think it is less than a fortnight. He's been in the house for a week."
"Bella's been home for one week."
"What does Sue think of him?" Paul asked.
"That I don't know. She has gone tribal business on me. She has never done that before. Billy used to, but not Sue and not to me." He stood and grabbed the coffee pot. He refilled Paul's coffee. "She is on the Tribal Council but she is also Leah's mother, and I am Bella's father. That puts her in a hard place. What is right for Leah and what is right for the tribe."
"Why can't they be the same thing?" Paul asked.
"True. But I can't say what that is." He sighed. "Her council hat has got her so uptight that I haven't even seen her since Bella moved back."
"Choosing sides?" Paul's head tilted quickly. Listening.
"Yeah." Charlie resumed his seat with a questioning look at Paul.
He made a hand signal to indicate Bella was sitting on the stairs; listening, he assumed.
Charlie nodded to say he understood. He got a wicked gleam in his eye. "So, Paul. You've come here to rescue Bella, carry her off to live happily ever after, with you and maybe Leah as well? Have I got it right?"
They both heard the strangled squeak noise.
Paul glared at Charlie, who just laughed. "Sure, she can go with you. Whatever it is that she needs right now, I don't think her father is it." He stood, clapped Paul on the shoulder. "How about some breakfast?"
"Thanks, Charlie."
"I'll bet you can eat half a pig, like the others." He raised his voice, "Bells!"
"Right here, Dad." She snuck around the corner.
Paul jumped to his feet. "Coffee?"
She hugged him; burying her face in his chest. She nodded against him. He stroked the back of her head with one hand and hugged her tighter with the other. "It'll be okay," he whispered to her.
Charlie had been finding two pans in the cupboard. He stood now, and watched them together. He met Paul's eyes over Bella's head and they nodded at each other. Paul thought that whatever else happened, he had Charlie on his side.
