Disclaimer
Twilight and all affiliated characters are the property of Stephanie Meyer. I do not own any of the aforementioned characters except Beth and the plot of this story (that is, should it stray from the original Twilight). This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official storyline. I am not in any way, shape, or form benefiting financially from the publishing of this story on this site and am very grateful for Mrs. Meyer's creation. Besides, if I did own Twilight, I'd be in Greece in a designer bikini on a beach right now.
Chief should have known that he would be landing in hot water the minute he came home. If he'd known then maybe he might've just taken the longer route home or even stopped by Billy's under the guise of patrolling. But it couldn't be helped when his youngest nearly bowled him over at the front door, barely giving him any time to remove his jacket or water-logged boots in the entry-way.
"Why did you do that?"
Charlie nearly jumped a mile in the air, hair still dripping from the downpour outside. Droplets ran down to the floor, as he peeled the heavy and wet clothing off of his body before turning to his daughter, arms raised in a placating manner.
"Do what, Beth?"
The girl folded her arms across her chest and a glare formed in her eyes as she gazed at her father who'd seemingly forgotten what he'd done. All it took was that pointed look, before Charlie understood, just what she'd been referring to.
"God-" He cussed quietly, running a hand down his face out of sheer stress. Renee really should have listened to him this morning. But the woman was too stubborn and the forty-something year old still caved to her every demand, despite having been separated for over sixteen years.
"Listen, your mom called this morning because she felt like you needed to talk to someone. She's been concerned, Beth. You won't talk to me or your mother, you haven't spoken to Bella, as far as I know," he explained. "Can you blame her for being worried?"
The girl frowned, "You could have at least given me some warning beforehand instead of sending me to school today like some sort of lamb for slaughter, dad."
Charlie sighed heavily, leaning sideways onto the wall beside the coat rack. "You went through something traumatic, I understand." She rolled her eyes skywards at that. It was the same damn thing every minute. God, couldn't anyone see she was fine?
"It's not healthy for you to bottle everything up like this. I can see it clear as day. Your mother, even though she isn't here right now, could clearly tell that there was something wrong after you spoke on the phone." Charlie reached over, as though to bring her into a hug, "You don't have to be strong, right now."
So Beth finally exploded, "I'm not being strong, Dad!" She moved out of reach, "I'm alright! I'm not in shock over what happened, I'm not sad- I'm not anything!" She yelled.
"God! It's like half the time I talk nobody listens anymore! I'm okay! Jesus.." And without another word, Elizabeth turned and sprinted up the stairs, slamming her door shut at the top of the landing. She groaned loudly, carefully flopping onto her mattress face first- a mirror to her father who did just the same on the couch. And poor Bella could do nothing but listen from her room after being coldly dismissed by her twin when she'd gotten home, unwilling to get in between the argument that had developed.
Regret already began pooling in Beth's gut, at her treatment of both Bella and Charlie. Neither deserved such treatment, in all honesty, but she was sick and tired of people coddling her like she was a piece of glass or an egg shell to be carefully toed around. Nobody realized how much she wanted things to go back to normal. She wasn't an invalid, for god's sake! And quite frankly, the only person who'd not treated her like she was a baby had been Edward. And as much as she'd hate to admit it, Beth craved to spend more time with him in the past day than anyone else (solely for that reason alone, Beth allowed).
That night, Beth woke in the darkness of her room, panting and sweating, hand clenched over her still wrapped wound, throbbing in pain. She sat up slowly, and put her head in her hands, mind racing at the second awful dream she'd had in the past week. Every time she'd close her eyes, she'd see Bella, splayed out in a road, legs broken in the most grotesque way and brown eyes looking out into the world, unseeing; dead. It startled her worse yesterday after waking up trembling and she hadn't gone back to sleep. Looking over at her clock, the luminescent numbers beamed green in the dark, a one and an eighteen blinking back at her. Resigning herself to another sleepless night, Beth reached over to turn on her small lantern on her night stand, the soft orange light illuminating her room.
Then a soft, almost unheard knock sounded, and frightened, Beth looked over to her window automatically, heart rate picking up. But then her bedroom door opened a crack and Bella stuck her head in.
"Sorry," her twin apologized quietly, "I know you probably want to be alone right now, but I just wanted to come check on you,"
Beth's lips quirked into a small smile, appreciative of her sister's efforts to make sure that she was okay, "You want to come in?" She offered, pulling back the covers on the other side of the bed. Bella hesitated before nodding and stepping into the room further, climbing into bed as her twin pulled out a book from her drawer. Settling down, Elizabeth reached over from her seated position by the headboard to brush Bella's hair down and within minutes, Bella was asleep once more.
At school, it couldn't be said who'd first started it. Either Edward or Elizbeth, but somehow at odd times in the day, they'd found themselves around the other, whether staring at the other in passing or bumping into each other between classes. Not that Beth would know, but Edward could have been more than partially responsible for the latter occurring more than once that day. But at lunch, something changed. Beth went to the library and Edward ,again, followed.
It was filled with the usual silence, comfortable, but Edward could see that as plain as day that something was bothering Beth. And so, taking the chance to get to know her better, he began the inquisition.
"What type of music do you like?" His voice was quiet, honeyed, even when he whispered.
Blinking, Beth looked up at him, "What?"
"What do you listen to?" He repeated patiently, his topaz eyes tracing her face.
"Oh," Beth muttered, closing the book in front of her as she turned to give Edward her attention. "A bit of everything, I guess."
And at his skeptical glance, she corrected herself, "Everything except country music." She made a noise of disgust in the back of her throat, "I don't like it at all."
Edward gave a quiet chuckle, "I think you came to the wrong state if you intended to get away from Country music."
Rolling her eyes playfully, she couldn't hide her smile of amusement, "yeah, yeah.."
"Favorite flower?"
"Would I sound stupid if I said cactus..?" And it did kind of sound stupid. But it was nonetheless true. The pretty pink and yellow flowers attached to those prickly fuckers were her favorite. They always had been.
"Favorite thing to do besides reading?"
"I dabble in a bit of crocheting every now and again."
"Crotchet?"
Beth threw him a look that said, 'so? What about it?'
"Nevermind," he commented with a smirk before continuing, "What do you look forward to the most?"
Beth took a moment to think, resting her chin in her hand on the table. "I really look forward to seeing the really beautiful sunrises every morning," It almost felt silly to say out loud.
But if Edward thought so, he didn't show it.
"What is one thing you regret doing?" Thinking hard, it was difficult to say that she regretted anything in this life. Most of her regrets had something to do with her life as Genevieve. But if she had to say anything, it would be one of the most impressionistic things that still left her sad even to this day. Just thinking about how she'd treated him just the previous night was enough to add on that. And suddenly, the brief lightness she felt from taking her mind off of that came back down tenfold.
Her shoulders hunched in,
"Leaving my dad alone."
Edward leaned closer, "Excuse me for saying this, but from my end it didn't seem like you had much of a say in the matter."
Pursing her lips, Beth opened her book once again, content to ignore what the penny haired boy said. He was right, of course, but that didn't mean that she'd let it go. She could have done something more, should've tried harder, put up more of a fight. But she hadn't. And by doing so, she'd given up getting to know her father's side of the family a whole sixteen years earlier.
Once they'd left the library after the bell rang, Mrs. Cope had seen them in the hallway and bustled over, looking rushed. Other students walked on by, throwing the couple a few curious looks as they made their way to class.
"Thank goodness I found you two," she commented, thumbing through some papers she held in her hands, before pulling out two sheets of forms. She spoke again, handing them over, in what was supposed to be a quiet voice, "There are two police officers in my office waiting to take you guys to the station. You're dad called and already confirmed that it was okay."
"Why? Is something wrong?"
Mrs. Cope shook her head, "He didn't say much dear, apart from asking you and Edward to both be excused from classes for the rest of the day."
"Mrs. Cope-?" Edward started, already protesting but the unnatural redhead shook her head,
"I already called your mother, Edward, and she said it was fine and that you could leave your keys at the office so that your older brother could drive your siblings home. She said she'd meet you at the station soon."
Clenching his jaw, Edward nodded curtly. Beth watched the exchange, eyebrow raised.
When they got to the station, Charlie greeted them at the front, the cruiser's car lights flashing but no siren was on.
"Dad? What's going on?" Beth asked, backpack slung over her shoulder as she got out of the car. Within seconds, Edward was at her side, nodding to a deputy who passed.
Charlie pointed inside, "Deputy from Port Angeles said he thinks he found our guy. Even had a real nasty cut from forehead to cheek, just like you said- but they still want to confirm,"
Beth's eyebrows cinched, having no interest in seeing that awful man. Her cheek throbbed just thinking about him and unconsciously her arms came up to cradle her middle. Edward watched her with a frown.
"If you don't want to, that's okay. Edward, didn't you say that you got a look at the guy too?"
The boy beside her nodded and once the chief motioned inside, the two walked up the stairs, pausing for Beth to make her way up, chin tucked.
He was dirtier than he had been before. The cut across his face looked disgusting, to say the least, with what looked like puss exiting an open area of the wound. Beth was surprised, however, she hadn't thought that she'd keyed him too deeply, but the evidence was there. She could only imagine what he smelled like. What looked like a nurse was in the room with him, patching him up and applying bandages. Beside her, Edward scoffed quietly and she looked up at him in question.
"That's him, alright," his eyes narrowed, dark yellow deepening to a brown- almost black.
Chief Swan nodded, Beth couldn't deny either, although his nose was crooked, that was him.
Her dad looked at her then, "Would you be okay with giving a statement?"
Frown deepening, Beth shot a look at Edward once more. He was looking at her instead of the man, eyes softer now. Clearing her throat, she looked away and into the room at the man who'd literally stabbed her just nights prior. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her head of remembering what had happened but there were only so many times that it worked. Part of her knew that it would help talking through it again. But- her mind couldn't shake the feeling of being so alone in that alley. Of his hands on her person.
She jumped as a cold hand settled on her lower back and followed the pale arm up to its owner, his bright eyes waiting.
Steeling herself, she turned to her dad, who'd seen the whole thing and nodded. His lips pursed in his effort to stay quiet, but he managed. Before she walked into the room with another deputy, Marshall, if she remembered correctly, she heard her dad invite Edward over for dinner one night as a way of saying thank you.