Wow. Has it really been 12 years? I truly am sorry for leaving this story for so long. I can't remember why exactly, but a little bit of writer's block turned into weeks, and then months, and then the urge to write these faded. Twilight faded. Life happened, good and bad. Then, about a month ago, I rewatched the Twilight movies for the first time in forever, and fell back in love with these characters all over again. I found myself back on here, desperate for some Bella and Carlisle, and ravenously devoured what I could find. I was deeply sad that so many of the wonderful stories, both ones I remembered, and ones that were new to me, were left unfinished. It made me determined to come back and finish this one. It took multiple attempts at entering old email and password combos, and I almost lost hope, but finally I managed to log back into this account! I have been inspired to write some new ones, too, but for now, let's start this new era with the long-awaited chapter of this particular Bellisle saga.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

BPOV

I could not relax one bit as we gathered in the Cullen's house, my dad sinking down onto a chair and refusing to look me in the eye. Jasper shot me a wave or two of calmness but it had no effect whatsoever. My senses were in overdrive, and for a moment I felt for Jasper, with his gift as an empath. Being in a room full of tense, stressed out humans and vampires was bad enough with these heightened senses, but with Jasper's ability, it must be a nightmare. I glanced at him, but he seemed oblivious, focused on something else entirely.

"Jasper is going to explain our history to your father," Carlisle whispered to me at a level only vampires could hear. "We felt it best, as he can pick up on your father's emotions and tailor the story accordingly, depending on what he is willing to take on board and accept."

I nodded, not really taking any of this in. My thoughts were whirling, scarcely able to believe that my dad was going to know about vampires and werewolves, let alone the implications that held. What if the Volturi found out?

I had no more time to dwell on this, however, because Jasper had settled himself into a central seat and was beginning to address my dad. I took a deep breath for the sake of it, and clutched Carlisle's hand tightly.

"Charlie," Jasper said softly. "Can we get you anything?"

My dad simply stared back at him, glowering, hands unsteady as he toyed with them. Alice stepped in anyway, hurrying over with a glass of strong whisky.

"You will, I imagine, have already concluded that my family and I are… different from others," Jasper began tentatively. "And given what just happened outside, I am now going to share with you the secret we usually keep from all humans."

Charlie's head whipped up at the word "humans". He knew, of course, by now that the Cullens were not natural. But having it all confirmed to him was possibly the worst thing he could ever wish to hear.

"What are you?" he hissed after a moment, teeth gritted. "What the hell was all that out there? What are you, and why the hell did my Bells get dragged into it all?"

"We're... vampires," Jasper replied, carefully picking up every thread of Charlie's energy and balancing it accordingly as he went.

Silence hung in the room, for what seemed like an eternity. Well, if you were human, anyway.

Charlie sat motionless, not giving away a single sign of reaction on his face. Eventually, he responded with a single, questioning statement.

"Vampires?"

Everyone looked at each other nervously. Jasper nodded. Charlie burst out laughing.

I sensed this wasn't good, and I was correct. In the next instant, his laughter had turned to mild hysteria, and he was on his feet, anger coursing his veins.

"Do you think I am some kind of idiot?" he snapped. "Vampires? I mean really? I am supposed to believe that you are vampires?"

"But… but you saw Jake…" I interjected. "Dad, you saw a man phase into a wolf, and you are going crazy over the idea of vampires?

"I saw a wolf, and I saw that Jake had disappeared. And I saw you talk to the wolf like it could understand you, and you referred to it as Jake. But for me to believe that there are vampires, and werewolves… that they are real… I can't do that Bella, I just can't."

He fixed me with a steely glare. "I don't know what elaborate set-up that was back there, or why the hell the Quileute agreed to get involved in it, but if you are simply going to insult me by weaving more fairytales…"

He rose as if to leave, casting a disgusted gaze around the room before heading for the door.

Emmett flashed across the room, reaching it before Charlie. He blinked. Rosalie appeared beside him, then disappeared, then reappeared the other side of the room, next to Alice. Charlie whirled, face turning paler and paler.

Little by little, so as not to completely freak my poor dad out, the Cullens gave small displays of their abilities. Finally, I rose. If my heart could have broken it would have, looking at the expression on my dad's face.

I shot up into the air, moving around the room at lightning speed, bouncing off the walls and then perching on a high alcove, before making mincemeat out of a huge stone column that was on display, hoping as an afterthought that it wasn't some priceless antiquity.

I moved to the far side of the room, then shot across to stand directly in front of my dad. My red newborn eyes burned into his, pleadingly.

"I'm sorry, dad," I said softly as tears pricked his eyes. "But they are vampires. And now I am a vampire too. I was stabbed. I would have died. Carlisle chose to save me, to turn me. It was something that I had wanted, anyway, to become like them. This is my family, where I feel I belong…"

He winced at that, and I mentally slapped myself.

"Please, dad. Let Jasper tell you their story. They aren't evil, or killers, like people believe vampires to be. I mean... vampires are killers… but the Cullens aren't. They choose to feed only on the blood of animals. That includes me, too. Please… let Jasper tell you their story."

Slowly, excruciatingly, Charlie broke my gaze and looked around the room at each of the Cullens in turn. He looked back to me, and then looked me up and down, taking in my vampiric features as if in a dream. Finally, he walked, mute, back over to his chair, and sat down with a defeated sigh. He looked down and waved a weary hand at Jasper to continue.

I stood rooted to the spot for some time after, unable to move. A light had gone out in him. He did not want to hear this. But he had no choice, and he knew it.

Carlisle shot over to me, took me in his arms, and carried me back to where I had been sitting. He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

As Jasper began to explain the tale of vampires, the wolf pack, and the Cullen history, I barely heard a word.

I just wanted everything to be alright again.

xxx

It took Charlie a long time to react after Jasper had finished. He sat in silence, carefully regarding the southern vampire in front of him. No one else in the room was breathing, each waiting and wondering what his initial thoughts would be.

Eventually, after excruciatingly long moments, he shifted his gaze to look at me, and he let out a long breath.

"Bella," he said softly, no emotion in his tone. I was over to his side in a flash, hand hovering over his.

"I know it is a lot to take in, dad," I whispered. "And I'm sorry I couldn't ever tell you any of this. But you couldn't know. I wasn't supposed to know. The only knowledge humans are meant to have of vampires are when they are drawing their last breath, or being turned. But Edward..."

I trailed off.

"Edward has a lot to answer for," Charlie managed to bite out. I held back a laugh. Of all the things... he was still just as mad at Edward.

My dad sighed deeply, massaging his brow. "Alright. So you're all vampires, and the tribe are... well some of them are... werewolves. Pretty much everyone I know has been lying to me somewhere along the line. My daughter is now some sort of superhero immortal."

He paused, and looked at me again. Still no one breathed.

"Okay, I can just about take all of that in. I can... understand... why he turned you. Better... this... than... than dead. But you..."

His eyes shot up to scowl at Carlisle. "You, and Edward, and your late wife... I cannot fathom."

"Really dad? You're more hung up on love than supposed dangerous mythological beings?"

Carlisle rose and joined me by my father's side.

"Chief Swan," he said respectfully, swallowing thickly, "I do see that this, between Isabella and I, will seem impossible to understand for you. It has been... difficult... for even some of my own family to come to terms with. Even for Isabella and I, at the beginning, it was a shock. But please let me explain one last part of what we are, and I hope it might make things seem less..."

"Messed up?" Charlie finished for him.

"I was going for complicated, but yes," Carlisle replied, grasping my hand. "You see, when we become a vampire, we are, to all intents and purposes, frozen in time. It doesn't matter how long we live for, we will always be the maturity of the age we were turned."

"So, you will always be, mentally and emotionally speaking, 35?"

"Well, no. I only pretend to be that age so that our... unusual... family dynamic is a little more believable. I was actually turned at 23. But 35 just seemed a more realistic age to have fostered a number of teenage children, and to be an experienced doctor."

Charlie quirked an eyebrow at this new knowledge, and I had to bite back a laugh. I could almost see his brain working out the new, slightly less offensive age difference between us.

"So you're... forever 23," he said, making sure he was keeping up. Carlisle nodded. "And how long have you been... 23?"

"Over three centuries," my love told him, cautiously. Charlie exhaled, and gripped the chair a little tighter.

"And there I was yelling about 17 years," he muttered, and a slight rumble of laughter reverberated around the room. He frowned, and then gestured for Carlisle to continue.

"All vampires have what we call... La tua cantante. That is what drew Edward to Isabella initially. She was for Edward his singer – her blood sang to him. Singers are basically humans whose blood scent is more appealing than most to a vampire. It is extremely hard to resist it, and most do not. They kill the singer almost instantly, because the pull of the scent is so irresistible. But Edward, after some struggle, fought the desire to taste her blood. He became infatuated with her. She brought him happiness. Some of his behaviour was... questionable... as I said, we are frozen, so for all his years spent in this form, he will always be 17. But they were in love. She accepted us, so graciously. Wanted to be a part of our family. We believed her to also be his mate, as well as his singer."

"His what?" Charlie retorted. "Sounds more like something the dogs... wolves... would have."

"Actually they have something called imprinting," I interjected. "But I'm sure Billy or someone from the res can fill you in on all that better than we can."

Charlie raised an eyebrow, and then sighed. "Alright, so I take it Edward was not your... mate, then." He hissed out the word like it was a poison.

"No, he was not," Carlisle said, more forcefully than he probably intended. I smiled a little, always loving when he got that little bit more possessive.

"And Esme..." His voice broke a little, for she would always be a part of him, "She was not mine, either."

There was a sudden cracking sound, and everyone glanced around to see Rosalie crush whatever she had been holding to nothing but dust. Her eyes showed shock, and I felt for her, then. She hadn't been here when the matter of us being true soulmates had been discussed. She didn't know.

I looked back to Charlie and Carlisle, and decided to take over, giving Carlisle a moment to recover himself.

"When I woke up from the change, into a vampire... it was like I could see everything more clearly. Not in the physical sense – everything is heightened intensely when you become a vampire, dad, but this was different. I could see and feel connections more intensely, too. I was so confused – all my feelings for Edward dissipated. It was like my whole world had shifted and aligned elsewhere. They call it the pull – the pull between mates. It cannot be fought against. Once ignited, there is no going back. Vampires mate for life. If one of them is lost, then the other never truly recovers. They are eternally each others. There isn't a choice, dad. It's the deepest, most incredible love... when I first looked at Carlisle in this state, it was everything..."

"As if you have anything to compare it to, Bells," Charlie retorted. "Sounds like infatuation to me."

"I might not have much experience to compare it to," I bit back. "But Carlisle has been on this earth for over 360 years. And he would be the first to tell you the feeling is like no other."

"I don't expect you to understand it, Chief," Carlisle said softly, "But I hope it explains in some way, why Isabella and I have fallen in love in a time and manner that is so inexplicable to you."

The room fell back into silence. The tension heightened, and even Jasper didn't seem able to ease it.

"You're... mates?"

Rosalie's voice, softer and more unsure than I had ever heard her, broke the silence.

"Yes." Carlisle's voice was strong and sure, and his endless compassion shone through so beautifully in that moment as he looked at her, spoke to her, and conveyed from every pore that he forgave her for all she had said and done in her moment of fury when she left. Her lip quivered, and Emmett wrapped his arms around her, holding her steady with his immense love.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Charlie taking all of this in, his own eyes widening. You did not need Jasper's ability in this moment to feel the strength of feeling radiating from everyone right now. So many heightened emotions.

I looked back fully at my father, waiting for him to speak. He looked up at me, expression unreadable. Silently, I prayed.

Would he accept us?

To anyone reading who was here at the beginning, I am truly sorry for making you wait so long. I promise I won't leave it another 12 years! I am seeing this through to completion now. And for those new to my stories, welcome. I hope you enjoy Bella and Carlisle as much as I do. I have no clue how many Bellisle fans are still around on this site but... please review and let me know what you think :-)