Disclaimer – I do not own Twilight, these are my own thoughts and opinions and plots.

A/N – After a ten-year break from FF, I thought I would come back and have a go at writing, ready all the incredible stories on here have inspired me to have the courage to write my own take.

Feedback is always welcome 😊

I squinted at the photograph that had been thrust into my hands. "What's the catch?"

I heard a huff beside me, "There is no catch." I turned my eyes away from the photograph to study one of my best friends. "Why does there always have to be a catch?"

"There's always a catch." I turned back, studying the picture. Alice Brandan always had an ulterior motive, god love her.

She shuffled around in her seat before clasping her hands on her lap in front of her. "There might be one."

I rolled my eyes, of course. "And what would that be?" the offending photo glaring up at me, albeit it was beautiful, in a dainty, run down kind of way. Something way out of my price range.

"See, the thing is…to be able to live on the premises, we would have to work there too."

I crinkled my nose, "That's not a catch, that's a clause."

Alice nodded, "Right, I also may have let the landlady know that it wouldn't be an issue."

I groaned, letting the offending photo fall into my lap, "Alice, why?" The relocation was an attempt to get our lives back on track, to get out of Forks, Washington. To live our own lives, something that was ours and not dictated to us by our over-bearing loving parents.

"Desperate times…" Alice sighed before pegging me with a hard stare. "Think about it Bella, this is our way out. We could never have afforded something like this with the little amount of money we've saved." She paused letting the words sink in, "Do you really want to be stuck here a year longer for us to be able to save more?"

Point taken.

"I guess we're moving then." I flinched as her squeal hit my ears hard.

"Amazing," she chirped, "Rose has already chosen her room by the way."

Of course, our blonde, brash, goddess had already chosen her room, as the eldest of our trio she seemed to automatically get first dibs. When your friends are more like your sisters it's easier to let shit like that slide though. "Shock."

"We move a week tomorrow."

"Perfect."

"Enjoy this Bella, it's not everyday you get a home and job at the same time."

I pulled myself up from my dad's old recliner. "Did I say I wasn't?" I clutched the armrest tightly. Moving out was always our plan since we left high school. We were young and full of life. Eighteen and planning our escape, the tickets had been purchased, hotels booked.

Then it wasn't.

So, I guess second time was the charm, right?

I remember the night my mom and dad sat me down on the sofa that Alice was currently occupying.

It's funny the details you remember when your life was getting blown apart, like the stain that was partially hidden by the comforter that draped over the arm of the sofa, I'd accidentally spilt some nail varnish that I'd stolen from my parents' room, I was four and curious.

Renee was furious, Charlie thought it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen in his life, that story was told throughout the years at family gatherings. Little Bells covered in makeup, one of my mother's shoes forgotten on the floor, the other hanging off my foot that looked so lost in it. My father snapped a photo and kept it in his wallet ever since.

My father was the centre of my universe, I adored him, he was my hero. Charlie was my only solace in this god forsaken town, he was my best friend. We talked about everything.

Until one day we didn't.

"Bella, we need to talk to you please." Renee appeared in the doorway of my room, eyes rimmed red.

I cussed under my breath, "Can it wait? I have to pack; we leave in the morning remember?"

"Your father is waiting for us in the living room." She looked at me expectantly, knowing I would never deny that man anything.

I sighed throwing down my shirt I was currently folding and followed her out the room.

I knew something was off as soon as my foot hit the last step, my mother was already sobbing in my dad's arm, my dad patting her hair, soothing her.

"What's up?" I lowered myself on to the sofa, tucking one leg under me, "I'm only going to be gone for a month guys, you know I'll call you every day." I laughed lightly. You'd think no one had ever sent their daughter off travelling before.

I waited for Renee to compose herself, the sun was out in force today I couldn't help but notice and hear the birds, they way they were singing to each other, the gently summer breeze playing amongst the leaves and gently causing the flowers in our front garden to dance softly.

"…Daddy…" Renee began, "Bella, Daddy- "she shook her head. My hands twitched, dying to get back upstairs and carry-on packing, at this rate I wasn't going to go to bed until late and we needed to be at the airport for six thirty am.

If I were late Rose would kill me, especially for leaving her to deal with Alice when she was this excited. She was five foot and a force to be reckoned with, the hyper little pixie. I smiled fondly, my girls were my other saving grace, I don't know what I would do without them, even Rose's sarcastic tough loving manner. The self-proclaimed protector of the pack.

"Daddy?" I asked, honestly, you'd think I was leaving for a year. I looked expectantly over to him, as much as I loved Renee, I was a daddy's girl through and through. I drank him in as he seemed to do the same, it was like looking in a mirror, dark brown hair, big brown eyes. He called me his brown eyed girl and sang it to me all the time too. His moustache a constant on his face since I could remember, the same dark colour it had always been, hiding his handsome features.

"Bells, baby…" Charlie sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. "I've not been well."

I nodded, "I know, you said it was the flu?" His cough had been present in our lives for over a month, he always got like this in the summer months, he was always mumbling about allergies. It never once stopped our fishing trips out on the lake, come rain or shine every Sunday we would be out on it. Renee used to tell him he'd spoil me with all this attention, his reply was to laugh, grab her waist, twirl her round the kitchen and kiss her, "Good, my baby girl needs to know what she deserves." Would always be his reply.

"Yea…" I hedged, "The doctor said it was allergies, though right?" I really needed to get back to packing.

"It's not allergies baby." Mom whimpered, wiping away a fresh set of tears. "It's not allergies." She repeated.

"Then what? The flu?" I hurried them along, so he had a cold. My dad was invincible, he was Charlie Swan.

"I'm sick Bells." I looked back and forth between them.

"Yea, I know, the flu." I stated.

"No, I'm sicker than that baby girl." He left my mother as he came over to me, settling on the coffee table in front of me.

I looked at him, watching him, I noticed the tight form of his mouth, the bags that were prominent on his face. "A virus?" I whispered softly, he had taken my hands in his, rubbing the pad of his thumb over the back of my hand, something he always did to soothe me, which was not as often the older I got. I was truly my dad through and through not only in looks, but mannerisms too. I did not lose my temper, I was calm and collected, quiet and reserved, happy to let others take the limelight, like him.

No one was talking, why? "Daddy?" I broke first, "What's going on?"

"We were going to wait to tell you until after you got back from your trip." Mom spoke up form behind him, I searched his face, his gaze unwavering with unresolved strength. "But the trip to the doctors today made it impossible."

"Why?"

"I have cancer baby."

"No."

"Bella."

"No." I pulled my hands from his grasp, "No." I pulled myself up, pacing, rubbing my hands together in front of me. "You can't have cancer."

"Bella, please, sit down." Renee asked gently, both approaching me like I was a caged animal. "Honey."

I couldn't bring myself to sit back down, I needed to move.

"It's fine sweetheart, she's fine where she is," my dad came to stand closer in front of me. "Bells, talk to us."

"You…you can't." I ran my hands through my hair, "You can't leave me." My lips trembled, no matter how much I tried to clamp down to stop them.

He did leave me, at 4:44am September 14th, 2011 Charlie Swan passed peacefully away at home, me and my mom either side, holding his hands, my mom whispering sweet nothings into his ear, stroking his face. I did what I did best, I observed, I watched the hospice nurse in the hallway, giving us our privacy to say good-bye, I watched my mother sob for him as he lay on the bed, I watched as my father squeezed my hand and his chest rose and fell with his last breath before never rising again. The call came quick, "Get here Bella, he's going." I hung up before my mother had chance to finish her sentence, I was at Rose's house…

"I have to go," I briefly looked over at my friends before flying out of the door and hopping into Big Red, the truck my dad had brought me for my sixteenth birthday, nothing too overstated for his Bells.

He knew me too well.

Before I know it, I burst through the front door, race up stairs ignoring everyone until I got to where I needed to be. "-Daddy." I panted, one hand planted on the door frame, the other still gripping the knob.

He opened his eyes briefly, then closed them again, I looked him over, his left-hand twitching, I didn't need to think twice as I ran over, sitting on the bed, gripping it tightly in my own.

My mother, stroked my hair in greeting, "It's time Bella." Her lips trembled as tears fell.

"It's too soon." I whispered, "You can't leave me Daddy." He had gotten thinner over the course of the treatment, his dark brown hair a memory as it fell out in tufts, before he'd had enough, "Shave my head Bells, lets be done with it." He handed me the clippers and that was that. We laughed, as he cracked jokes.

"I love you; I love you; I love you." My mom repeated fervently like she was reciting a prayer.

My heart broke for her, my strong, loving, outgoing mother. For as long as I remember she was the life and soul of everything, she attracted everyone to her naturally, I think that's what my father loved most about her. She balanced him out, pulled him out of his comfort zone.

The love they shared was indescribable.

"Remember to send me a sign." I whispered brokenly, "I love you Daddy, I always will." I felt his frail hand grip mine before there was no pressure at all.

He was gone, he was gone and what he unwillingly left behind was broken.

I stayed in Forks, much to my dad's disapproval, I never left to go travelling, I waved my best friends off at the airport, I never missed a hospital appointment when my dad had to go. I cared for him, for my mom. I was her strength.

I would have stayed at home if my mom hadn't been so insistent that she was fine, "Your father is with me every night." Was her excuse, "I feel him the most when I'm lying-in bed." That was another excuse for the days I would find her unmoved, staring at his pillow, stroking it softly. I'd lost Charlie but I slowly lost Renee too.

"Are you going to call Renee?" Alice asked softly, pulling me from my memories.

I shook my head.

"Ok, call me later?" Alice requested to which I found myself nodding.

I saw her out, when her car was a safe distance, I shut the door softly, leaning my forehead against the cool wood.

I remember telling the girls I wouldn't be accompanying them on our trip. They were nothing but supportive, I knew how to chose my friends. They came over, saw Charlie, hung out with us, Charlie always said they were his foster kids, always here, eating his food, stealing his beer when we thought he wasn't looking.

I became my father's carer when things got worse, the plan to go to college shut down, because there was no way I was leaving.

Two months after he died something snapped inside my mom. I would never forget the words she spat out, full of hatred, pure hate.

There was nothing left for me in Forks. Not physically anyway.

The week before the move flew by, just as I knew it would.

"Road trip bitches." Alice bounced around from the back seat smiling wildly between us, "Who wants to be DJ?"

"Is it too late to drug her?" Rose posed the question to me, looking expectantly and damn it if a little part of me didn't want to say no. I snorted, shaking my head. "This is going to be a long trip." She threw her head back into the seat, sighing deeply.

"DJ?" Alice pushed, already connecting her phone to my blue tooth. "No? Ok." She shrugged happily hitting play.

I didn't say any goodbyes when I left, I didn't have many friends anyway, I wasn't popular like Alice, wasn't revered like Rose. I was the wallflower of our trio and I was happy with that. Growing up I didn't envy the gossip that Alice had to deal with from her so-called friends, or the boy drama Rose had to put up with. Charlie had been chief of police for as long as I could remember, he used to let us play in his patrol car, sometimes he'd even let us come for a ride and put the flashing blue lights on, just to hear us squeal in delight. They loved him almost as much as I did.

"Are you ok?" Rose asked, two hours into our four-hour road trip. "Seriously?"

I shrugged, keeping my focus on the road, "I guess."

"What are you guessing? You either are or you aren't."

I winced, I loved how blunt Rosalie Hale was normally. "No…yes?" I asked, for what I don't know.

"Why are you asking me? I asked you."

"No, for obvious reasons. Yes, because I know that wherever I go doesn't matter."

She seemed satisfied that I wasn't about to have a nervous breakdown.

I have been known to internalise things in the past. It's how I dealt with things, it's worked so far for me, no reason to start talking about feelings and shit now.

I pull onto a dirt road, "Alice…" I roused her from her back seat nap, turning the music down, "I think we're here."

"Huh?" she sat up, her eyes partially closed, "Right, erm…" she cleared the sleep from her throat. "Follow the road, we're at the end."

"Where the fuck have you brought us?" Rose inquired, looking out the window at nothing but forest, her eyes widening with each tree we drove past.

"What." Alice crossed her arms defensively, "You saw the picture, you knew what it looked like."

"Yea Alice, angles and filters do wonders."

"Well…I think it's pretty."

"Pretty fucking creepy."

"Stop being such a pessimistic bitch."

"Sorry," Rose hit back sarcastically, "I didn't realise self-preservation was being pessimistic. I'll be sure to work on it."

"Ladies…" I broke it up, "Can you not? Fresh start remember?" being the voice of reason was a role I took to automatically, being a natural peacekeeper.

I pulled up at the end of the driveway in front of the photograph I had held in my hands only a week prior, all I can say is that it did not do the real thing justice.

The quaint three bed cottage sat there like something out of a fairy tale, a cross between the cottage from Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.

I loved it.

I closed my eyes and opened my ears, met with nothing but peace, I felt the tension ease from my shoulders, this was where I was meant to be. I looked at the dash, 4:44pm. I beamed, looking through the window shield at the sky, I love you.

I knew instantly this was a decision I was not going to regret.

A/N – And breathe…. this chapter will be slightly shorter than the rest. Just to get back into the swing of things etc.

Please let me know your thoughts, they are greatly appreciated.