Tw: Suicidal thoughts/attempted suicide. Please read with caution.

Chapter 7: Fear

Edward's POV:

I never thought in a million years that I would find my mate. I thought not having a mate was my punishment for all of my sins. It only made sense to me, that fate had teased me when I first touched Beau. The euphoria I felt was amazing, and then it was ripped away.

Now? Looking down at my Beau as he slept in Carlisle's office made me second guess myself. Carlisle believed my Beau had a gift, even while human. Just like Alice. He believed Beau was a shield of some sort. And my family was convinced that Beau entering our lives was a sign of me being forgiven. I wasn't to sure.

We had turned Carlisle's office into a temporary hospital room. The couch was dragged into the office from the living room. Luckily, Carlisle was already prepared and had many machines stored in a room up stairs.

Beau was hooked up to a heart monitor and an IV. His arms were wrapped up and his wrist stitched. He's hand and fingers had also been reset and put into a cast.

Charlie was pacing back and forth just behind me. I was sitting on the floor, resting my side against the couch. My hand laid gently over the bandages above the cast on Beau's left hand.

He didn't deserve this. I really messed up. Closing my eyes, I set my forehead against his shoulder.

I can hear Charlie stop and sigh before placing a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"This wasn't the first time he's tried to-." He pauses and tries to to find a way to word it. His thoughts hitting me hard, my head snapping up.

"He's tried to commit suicide before." I growl, standing up and facing my mates father. "Why!?"

My demand is met with thoughts and images of Beau. A much younger Beau. Times he had come home from school while Charlie had been visiting in Arizona. Beau was covered in bruises.

His little mate had been bullied and ridiculed for being gay.

My hands grip my hair and I collapse, Carlisle at my side in an instant. I rock as I cradle my head as I'm dragged into a memory of Charlie's.

Beau fiddled with the end of his hoodie, head bowed and he curled in on himself.

Charlie sighed and gently lifted his sons face, causing them both to wince. The entire left side of Beau's face was red and swelling. It was going to be a nasty bruise.

He watched his son carefully, noticing how he seemed to be favoring his left side.

"Take off your shirt."

Beau panicked. Shaking his head rapidly and hugging himself tighter.

"Beau. Please just... Just do as I say."

His son hesitates before slowly unzipping his hoodie and shrugging out of it. He is left in a white and blue tank too that is riddled in dirt and dried blood from his nearly broken nose.

His arms are riddled with obvious defensive wounds. Charlie closes his eyes for a moment, trying to calm himself down.

"Who did this? Why am I just now finding out? What would have happened if I didn't walk into this hotel room when I did?" He begged, reaching for his son slowly, and gently grabbing onto his shoulder.

Beau let out a sob and hurled his tiny, injured body into his dads much larger form.

"The-they said I was unnatural. A f-freak." His son sobbed. "It's always been like this. We move, I start a new school and everyone knows! Have you ever been shoved face first into a toilet!?" He's hysterical. He pulls back, face red and he sobs out, never letting his dad cut in.

"The-they hit, and slap, and kick, and burn! BURN, dad. Mom has tried to go to the police, but they say it's just a little bullying and that no laws were broken!" Beau slowly pulled back, pulling his tank up to expose his left hip. The bruise covering his ribs is the first thing he sees, quickly followed by the word faggot carved into his sons hip.

"I was held down while they heated a knife until it was red and did this." Edward wasn't able to pick up any names. Beau only spoke of the assailants as 'they'.

Beau drops his shirt and curls in on himself again. "Apparently, one of their dads is a judge and can pay very good money for charges to be waved... I just wanted it to stop." He whimpers.

Charlie grips his son a little tighter and shakes him a little to get his attention. "I walked in to see my guns barrel down your throat!"

Edward is slammed into another memory at that exclamation, throwing the vampire from a hotel room to Charlie's living room.

The man was sitting there, staring at some paperwork involving Beau on his computer screen. Pictures of Beau in a hospital. Pictures of a severely beaten Beau. There were also strangulation marks on his neck, obviously made from a rope.

A voice drift through and Edward notices Charlie is on the phone.

"This is the fourth time Charlie." It was a women. She sounded so tired. First with your gun, then the pills stepping out in front of a car, and now hanging himself. Doctors say he was beaten badly before he tried to-." She cuts herself off and sighs sadly. "Beau wasn't sexually assaulted, thank god for that. Detectives say that it's finally enough to get those kids sent away for a long time. Apparently, some finger prints were found on Beau's body."

Charlie sighs and closes his eyes,sitting back against the couch. "Good. I'm leaving in a few hours. I'll be there as fast as I can."

"Charlie. Beau and I have been thinking about it, but I think it's time he went to live with you. He's been wanting to for years now, but... But I've been so selfish. He's my baby boy. Right now, he needs you more than he needs me."

"Rene, are you certain? You know I'll always want him. He's has always been welcome." Charlie frowns. Beau never told him he wanted to live with him in Forks.

Abruptly, Edward is slammed into another memory.

This time it was recent. He saw flashes of Esme, Jasper, Emmett and himself. He watched as over the last week, Charlie saw the signs of his sons declining health. He was rapidly loosing weight, wasn't eating, barely drinking, and it froze at a moment when Beau was sitting on his bedroom floor staring into space. His eyes were empty and dull.

I came out of it with a gasp. It must have been a few hours later, for the sun was just starting to rise. I sat up slowly and was met with most of my family.

I turn to Esme as she spoke. "Carlisle is with Charlie and Beau. Charlie explained that this was the fifth time Beau has tried to take his life." A hand grips mine. Its only then I notice I'm on the floor and I'm not alone.

I met my sisters eyes and she seemed to have read my thoughts, which was my thing, not hers.

"Alice was pulled in with you. What ever happened, what ever you saw-" Jasper was cut off as Alice finished.

"I saw. Oh god, Edward, I saw and heard everything! We never should have ignored and abandoned him like that! Poor Beau." Alice cried, burying her face into Jasperss shoulder.

"D-dad?"

Everyone froze. The voice was so small, so delicate sounding. I shot up and out of the room, heading for Carlisle's office.

My Beau was awake.