Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight and all recognizable characters and situations contained therein. All original content contained in this story is property of the author. Story is rated M and may contain graphic language, violent content, mild to moderate drug use, descriptions of domestic violence, and sexual situations.

**Early the Next Morning 7am, Paul POV**

Dad checks us out of the motel while I wait in the rental car, a pair of oversized airport sunglasses on my face, hiding some of the bruises as much as protecting me from the glare of the sun overhead.

The door opens, and he slides into the drivers' seat and pulls back out onto the road to the airport. We ride in silence for a short time, I should probably tell him that I'm going to be having house guests for the next week or so.

Clearing my throat, I say, "So uh, you know that phone call I got last night?"

His eyes slide over to me, and then back to the road, "Yeah?"

Sitting up straighter and turning towards him in my seat, I reply, "Well… it was a girl. More specifically, it was… Cullen's… girl."

It's a good thing we're on an empty strip of highway with no one in front of, or behind, us as my dad's head snaps up his eyes wide as they fix on my face. He looks absolutely shocked, as he stares at me for a full minute before I snap at him, "Dad! Road!"

He looks forward again, and incredulously responds, "I'm sorry, I could have sworn that you just told me that the girl who called you last night was Emmett Cullen's fiancé. Please tell me that you're joking!"

Exasperated, I reply, "I did tell you that, and no, I'm not joking. Look, just listen. Bella and I have been talking off and on since shortly after the first fight. I was worried about her, afraid that Cullen was going to hurt her. And he did."

Now he looks concerned, "What happened?"

Clenching my hands together, I start talking, "I met her just after the press conference for the first fight. I was attracted to her, I won't deny it, but I did know better. I denied my attraction, even to myself, but I didn't like the way Cullen seemed to need to possess her. I took it as insecurity on his part and left it at that. She seemed happy when I saw her that day."

Dad nods, and I keep going, "After the fight, the next evening in fact, J, Sam, and I ran into her and Cullen at the club down in Port Ang."

He interrupts, "What? Cullen ain't 21, and that girl of his is even younger than him!"

I nod, "I know, but Cullen is loaded, he probably bought his way in. Anyways, when I saw her she looked spooked, bad. I arranged it so that I bumped into her on her way out of the restroom, we talked, she's quiet, and kind of shy. Cullen of course came over and made a scene, almost knocked her the fuck over because he's a careless douche and she was wearing some ridiculous shoes. The guys and I left soon after that, because we didn't want trouble or bad press. Sam gave her my card, told her if she needed anything to just call."

Dad looks surprised at that, I shrug, and continue, "Anyway, after I finally whooped Ateara's ass that first time I went over to Sam's place. He wasn't home, I found Leah talking with Bella's father. Her dad and Chief Swan have apparently been friends for a long time. The man looked worried, but he left shortly after I got there, so I didn't get a chance to ask him about his daughter."

My dad continues to drive as I dig a bottle of water out of my backpack and take a drink before continuing, "So Leah and I talk, I ask her about Bella, she tells me Chief Swan is really worried about her and how he wants Leah to call her and try to convince her to come home. Leah gave me her number. I called her, she told me not to call again, and then some of Cullen's family I guess walked in and she made it sound like she was talking to her dad and hung up on me."

He grunts in acknowledgement, as I take another gulp of water, screwing the cap back on as I go on with the story, "I didn't hear from her again, not until she called me the night before the rematch, pleading with me to call the fight off. I told her it was too late to back out, the fines I'd get, all that stuff. She said she thought he was on something. I told her that we had done blood tests, that there was no way. Someone walked in on her talking to me, threatened to tell Cullen she was cheating."

Dad raises an eyebrow, as he struggles not to ask, knowing what's on his mind though, I tell him, "They jumped to the conclusion, I've never been with Bella, hell the only time I've had a private conversation with her was on the beach at La Push, and we didn't do anything, only talked. We got off the phone quickly after that though."

Dad nods, and I continue, "So skip ahead: the fight is over, you know what happened, I texted her yesterday morning before I got out of the hospital, to let her know I was okay. She told me she was leaving him, going back to her dads. I told her to call me if she needed anything. I didn't hear back from her, and I just assumed that everything was fine."

Dad sighs, and says, "But it wasn't, was it?"

I shake my head, "No. It wasn't. She called me last night, practically in tears, after some initial problems, she finally told me what happened. He caught her texting me that morning, he beat her, Dad. One of his sparring partners who was dating his sister found him standing over her, he thought she was dead at first. He saved her life Dad. She's on her way back up north now. When I spoke to her last night they were in Portland Oregon. I invited her and Jasper, the guy who saved her, to stay with me for a week or so, just until the worst of her bruises fade, she doesn't want her dad to see her with them at their worst."

Dad nods, "Is that the only reason?"

I glance at him, "What do you mean?"

He shrugs lightly, "Pauly, I love you, you're my pride and joy, but I have never known you to be close to a female that you weren't trying to get with. So I'll ask you again, are you having her come to the house because you really truly want to do her a favor or because you want to get with her?"

Chuckling darkly, I reply, "Dad, did you see her at the weigh in? She looked like death warmed over before Cullen did a number on her face. Look I know I've never had a bunch of female friends, and I know that your assessment is pretty much dead on, but she's different. I truly want to help her, not just help myself to her, honestly at this point banging her is the last thing on my mind. Well, there is one more reason I invited them to stay."

Dad gives me a sideways glance, "Yeah? What's that?"

Scowling, I reply, "Jasper, the guy who saved Bella, he says he has proof that Cullen is, and has been, using PED's since after the first fight. Somehow, that son of a bitch got past a sanctioned fucking blood test, and I want to know how he did that!"

Dad's eyebrows are almost up by his hairline, as he shakes his head incredulously, "Yeah, I think I'd like to know that myself."

As I've talked we've made the trip back to SeaTac international airport, Dad pulls back into the car rental lot. I grab my backpack, and my water bottle, checking my pockets quickly to make sure I have my phone before we make our way to the airport.

We make our way to the counter, check our bags, and get our boarding passes, the attendant looks from the name on my boarding pass, to my face with shock, "Dude! You're Paul Dixon!"

I nod, grinning as best I can with my swollen face, "All my life, man."

He laughs, "Dude, that loss was rough! I saw your first fight with that Cullen guy, he had to be on something to come back with that much more muscle! You should appeal!"

I nod again, "I intend to, trust me. Give it a week or so and you'll see a lot coming out about him."

He looks awestruck, as I extend my hand, but he shakes it off quickly and grasps my hand, as I say "Thank you for the support."

The guy smiles, "You're welcome, have a safe trip home, Sir."

Dad and I nod, say thank you again, and make our way through security, I choose the lane for the full body scanner, and Dad looks at me funny. I shrug, as I put my backpack on the conveyer to go through the x-ray tunnel, "What? It's faster, and the lines are always way shorter. Go through the metal detector if you want but you know they pat you down there anyway. I would rather no one touched me."

Dad nods, "Good point."

I pass through the scanner, get the green light, and pick my backpack up off the counter. We make our way to our gate area and find a place to sit down. Dad asks, "So, have you heard from them?"

I shake my head, "No, not since last night."

Dad looks at me pointedly, "Call her."

Realizing he's staring at my hand, I look down and realize that I've been flipping my phone in my hand probably since before we even went through security. I look up, slightly embarrassed, and he laughs, "It's okay to have feelings Pauly. Do what you gotta do."

I sigh, replying, "I know it's okay to have feelings, Dad, it's just…"

He laughs, "It's just that you never have before, no girl's ever been special to you, and maybe this girl is, and maybe she isn't… You've said yourself that you don't really know her, you've talked to her a few times, you feel drawn to her. Maybe that's just your hero complex kicking in, we all know you like saving things Pauly, look at the tribe."

I nod, and he heads over to sit down about 30 feet away, close enough that we don't lose track of each other, but far enough away that I can talk to Bella without him hearing every single word.

Going into my contacts, I find her number, and press send, waiting while it rings once, twice, three times, and she picks up, sounding groggy and still very muffled from what I imagine is the swelling as she says, "H, hello?"

Smiling through the pain, I say, "Good mornin, gorgeous!"

She tries to chuckle, it sounds more like snuffling, but there's an edge to her voice as she mumbles out, "Please, more like good morning train-wreck! Unless you were talking about you, in which case; Good morning to you too, Gorgeous!"

She moans and my stomach drops as I ask, "are you okay? Do you have any of that Tylenol 3 left?"

There's a tiny little tremble in her voice that makes me want to rip Emmett Cullen into tiny eviscerated shreds, as she answers, "Yeah, it's on my night stand, I'm so stupid, I shoulda grabbed it right after I picked up the phone, I'm sorry!"

I make little tsk-ing noises at her, ignoring the pain in my swollen mouth, and going into my carry on and grabbing a bottle of aspirin, "Don't be silly Bell, stop hatin on my favorite girl. You're fine, grab your pill, I'm about to get some myself."

I pop the cap off the aspirin, and choke down 4 of them dry, as she makes an affirmative noise, before whispering, "Okay, yeah. Jasper's startin to stir, let me go in the bathroom, I don't want to wake him before he's ready to get up."

The casual acknowledgment of the fact that she's sharing a room with this man takes me aback for a second, and I feel a stab of jealousy. It's stupid, and I know it's stupid, they only had a limited amount of money, Bella didn't have a dime, Jasper probably only had what was in his own bank account and if he had been dating the Cullen daughter chances are he had been spending money on a Cullen level, and if that was the case, he probably didn't have much left in the bank. So it only stood to reason that since they were making the drive on such little notice that they were playing it super cheap.

Biting back the urge to ask if they had two beds in the room, I ask, "When do you think you'll get back on the road?"

I hear a door shut, and assume she has made her way to the bathroom, the slight echo of her voice confirming it, as she answers, "Check out is at ten, it's about eight now? I guess we'll be on the road by like 9:30 at the latest. We did the research last night and from here to La Push is just over a 5 hour drive, providing we don't hit traffic or any other unforeseen problems, so we'll be there around 2:30, 3:00 in the afternoon, that's alright, right?"

Nodding, even though I know she can't see me, I answer, "That should be fine, we should be back at the house by like 12:30 the absolute latest, if there's any sort of problem, I'll text you, and if there's any problem on your end you text me okay?"

She makes an agreeing noise, and I continue, "Look, Bell, feel free to say no, but I was wondering…Do you think you could send me a picture of your face? I just, I don't want to scare you when I see you, and I think if it's bad, and it's probably bad, I mean I know how my face looks, so I know how hard he can hit, I just, I think maybe it would be best if I saw it in a picture first."

She takes a deep breath, and her voice cracks a little, as she answers, "Y, yeah, I can do that. I'm not even sure what it looks like today, I didn't turn the light on when I came in here. Hold on a second…"

I tell her I will, and her side of the line goes quiet, the whir of the automatic fan that accompanies the lights in most cheap motel bathrooms the only sound I hear other than a faint gasp.

**Bella POV**

I flip the switch, the light blinds me for a second, the rushing sound of the fan filling my ears, my eyes adjust as I blink away the glare, and I look into the mirror letting out a gasp of shock and dismay.

The whole left side of my face is swollen, and ugly purple black in color, I feel the tears leaking out of my eyes, as I shut them against the ghastly sight. I hear Paul's voice coming faintly from my phone, "Bella? Bella, are you okay?"

I take a shuddering breath, trying to pull myself together so that I can talk to Paul without being a broken down mess, I take a few breaths and feel calm enough to pick the phone back up, "I'm okay, sorry. It's, it's really bad, I'm warning you."

His voice is gentle, and calm, as he says, "It'll heal, Girl. It'll be okay. Send me the picture."

I tell him to hold a second, and go into the camera feature, turning the flash off and taking a picture of my reflection in the mirror with the phone. I look at it with a grimace, but it came out clear and I insert it into a text, and hit send.

I get back on the line, "Paul? I sent it."

He replies, "Okay, I'll see you later today. I'm gonna get up off here to look at it. Be safe Bell."

I tell him I will, and we hang up, I take the bottle of Tylenol 3 and shake out two pills, downing it with some water from the sink before going back out into the room. Jasper winces when he sees me, "That looks painful, you took your medicine?"

I nod with a grimace, and he smiles at me kindly, "It'll heal. You'll heal. You'll be okay."

I nod again, "I know. Thank you. If it wasn't for you I don't even know what would have happened, he probably would have killed me before he came out of his roid rage."

He bows slightly with a smile, "Glad to help."

**Paul POV**

The message comes through and my breath catches in my throat, I should open it…remembering that I'm in the airport though, maybe it's better if I open it later, I don't want to flip out and end up getting tased by airport security and being carried out on the evening news. I click the button and ignore the message…I'll deal with it when I get back to my own house.

**Short Time Skip still Paul POV**

The flight into Port Ang had been a short one, we landed without a problem, and that's when I realized that about 100 people had come out to greet us, Sam and Leah are standing with J, Kim, and my Grandma right in front. Others are holding signs saying, 'You're still our hero, Dire!', 'You'll get him next time!' just generally positive things, it feels really good to know that my people still have faith in me.

Dad and I exit the plane going down the steps and I immediately go over and hug my Grandmother, "Thanks for coming Gramma."

She hugs me tightly, before pulling back, "Oh, Pauly! Your beautiful face!"

I shrug, "I'll still be good lookin when it heals up Gramma, you'll see."

She laughs, "I know it. You're the spitting image of your grandfather, and he always healed up nice after a bout."

Dad comes up behind me, squeezing my shoulder as he passes by to hug his mother, "How you doin, Ma?"

Grandma answers him, but I don't hear what she says as Leah comes over to hug me, "Your face man!"

I laugh a little, the aspirin I took earlier had started to wear off about half an hour ago, and the ache is starting to come on strong, so my grin turns into something of a grimace, as I answer, "I know, I know, I look like shit, the aspirin I took earlier is wearing off, sorry."

She digs in her purse and comes up with a bottle of extra strength Tylenol, she puts it in my hand, and says, "It's okay, no need to apologize. I'm just surprised is all I guess. I dunno, for some reason I thought you'd be healed by now."

I laugh, "What? What do you think I have supernatural healing or something?"

She laughs, "I dunno, I guess on some level you've always seemed like a superhero or something, I never thought anything could stop you!"

Letting out a disgruntled snort, I answer, "Yeah, well just wait and see what comes out over the next couple of weeks."

The airport people come out and start trying to get people to disperse, one of them has a megaphone, and I go up to him, "Hey, I know you're trying to get people to move along, can I use your megaphone? I promise I can get them moving."

The frantic looking security guard shoves it at me, "dude, if you can get them to move I'll give you my first born!"

Laughing in return, I say, "That's not necessary", before raising the megaphone to my lips, "Attention Quileute friends and family! First I just want to say thank you for coming out to greet me! It really means more to me than any of you could understand that I still have the support of my people! That being said, the airport personnel would greatly appreciate it if we would make our exit! I'll be at the Rec Center tomorrow around 10! I hope to see you guys there! Have a safe trip home!"

People applaud, and the crowd starts to disperse, the guy I took the speaker from comes up, "Dude, thank you so much! We've been trying to move people along since before the plane even landed!"

Handing him back his megaphone I smile, "No problem. Have a great day."

Going back over I find Sam and Leah along with J and Kim standing with my Dad and Grandma, "So who's ready to go home?"

They look at me with sympathy, and I shrug it off, "I'm fine, really, I just want to get home and get settled, I have house guests coming."

Leah asks, "Oh yeah? Who's coming to visit you?"

I know I look uncomfortable, as I say, "Look, don't make a big deal out of it, but Bella is coming to stay with me for a week or so, a lot of stuff has gone down, why don't we all head back home and we can talk about it at the house."

The women look shocked, Sam and J just shake their heads like they had guessed all along I would do something stupid, my grandmother has a gleam in her eye that I know means she's got a lot to say, and my dad just shrugs as he says, "You heard the man, lets get on the road."

**About 2 and a half hours later Still PPOV**

It took a while longer to get home then it usually did, traffic from all the people from the Res who had come out to greet me. Finally though we had made it home and for the last 20 minutes I had filled in my family and friends about what was going on.

To say they were pissed was an understatement. The women were livid about Cullen laying his hands on a woman that he was supposed to love and protect.. The men were just as livid about that fact, and even more so about the cheating. All in all I knew that it wouldn't be the environment that Bella needed to deal with upon arriving.

Waiting for everyone to quiet down for a minute, I raise my hand, "Look, none of this is anything we can change or do anything about at this moment in time. I have a traumatized woman coming here and I really think that the only people who should be here when she gets here is me, my dad, and my grandmother. I think for her to have to deal with everyone all at once is just going to make her more scared and uncomfortable."

Leah nods, "Paul is right. A crowd would just upset her…"

She turns to Sam, "C'mon, lets go."

As my friends head out I realize that it's just about 1:30 in the afternoon, they should be here in about an hour. Grandma comes and sits down with me, "Are you alright?"

I shrug, "I'm okay. She sent me a picture of her face, I have to look at it before she gets here, I'm gonna go out back and do it. I don't want to scare you if I freak out."

She nods, "Okay. I'll be here when you're ready."

Nodding back at her, I say, "Thanks Grandma. I love you."

Grandma smiles, "Love you too hon."

Getting up I go out the back door and sit down on the deck chair. Sighing, I take my phone out of my pocket, and go into my messages and find the text that Bella sent before.

Taking a deep breath, I open the file and the picture loads up making me gasp in shock. The entire left side of her face is swollen, and black/purple in color, the right side of her face is largely untouched except for a black eye, but the left side is bad, it's very bad. How it was all cosmetic, how by the grace of God her brain didn't get completely scrambled I have no idea.

Emotion overcomes me, and I'm stunned by the fact that looking at the ruin of Bella's beautiful face it's not anger that's consuming me, but sadness. He was supposed to love her, he was supposed to take care of her… How could he allow himself to get to a point where he could physically beat the shit out of her?

From the minute I started dating my father had drilled a few things in my mind, if you don't want a relationship, be up front and don't waste a girls time, and don't ever touch a woman to bring her pain. Always know your intent, and always be aware of your own strength. What the hell did this guys dad teach him? Cullen has a baby sister too, how would he feel if someone did what he did to Bella to her?

That fucking bastard! The mad is coming in now, all I see is red, I want to punch something, but the lingering effects of the concussion have me seeing double and all I can do is shut my eyes and try to calm down. I take deep breaths holding for a couple seconds and slowly exhaling as the blood in my head pounds through my temples.

My phone rings, and I see it's Bella. Taking one last deep breath, I push the mad and sad to the corners of my mind, and answer the phone with a smile on my face, "Hey Girl! You getting close?"

Her voice is slightly high pitched, tinged with just a little bit of panic, as she says, "Yeah I think we're like 2 minutes away, listen, we may be wanted for assault, so I think I'm going to have to call my dad after all."

My eyes go wide, and my head throbs again, as I ask, "Wait…What! What happened Bella, are you…"

I start to ask if she's hurt more, but I realize that she said we. Her voice breaks a little as she answers, "We stopped at a rest stop... I went to the bathroom, Jasper went to get some food. When I came out of the bathroom a man stopped me…he, he called me by name. He told me that Emmett wanted me to come with him. I tried to walk away, he grabbed my arm and I hit him, well actually I pushed him, he fell over some guy in a wheel chair… Jasper saw us and me and him got the hell out of there!"

I interject, "I'm guessing he didn't take the hint?"

She continues, "No, he followed us back to the car. He said that he had orders, and if I would please make his job easy he wouldn't hurt me. I told him to get lost. He came at me, and Jasper hit him… a few times. He screamed at him, told the man to look at my face, that I wasn't going within 1000 yards of Emmett Cullen and that the man had better back off before he made what Emmett did to me look like kisses compared to what would happen to him. I don't know if he followed us, but he has Jaspers license plate number. He could report us easily. We…we're here Paul…"

It takes me a second to realize that she means here as in here, at my house… I answer, "Okay, I'm coming out, tell Jasper to pull into the driveway, I'll open the garage so he can park his car in there. See you in a minute"

I hit the disconnect, and immediately my palms start to sweat, I force myself to get up and heading inside I go through to the front of the house and out the front door. There's an unfamiliar car in the drive, it's an Acura, not too flashy, but flashy enough that the Cullen daughter wouldn't be embarrassed to be seen in it. I go to the pad and open the garage door, and wave them in quickly waiting for Jasper to cut the engine before I hit the button to close the door.

Bella's door opens first, and she pops out, smiling and wincing slightly, as she says, "Hi Paul."

She's battered, and bruised, and honestly way too skinny, but none of that changes the fact that she's the most beautiful sight I've seen all day, and the smile that breaks on my face is the first genuine smile that I've had on my face since before the fight. I grin at her, as I reply, "Hi Girl."

The drivers side opens, but I ignore it as I cross over to Bella's side, taking her gently in my arms and bringing her to my chest, hugging her to me as I whisper in her ear, "I'm so glad you're safe. I'm so sorry that he hurt you baby. I swear to you, he'll never come near you again."

She stiffens slightly when I call her baby, and I release her quickly, taking a step back, "Sorry, too much too soon."

She shakes her head awkwardly, "No, it's not that I didn't like it. I'm just jumpy, I'm sorry."

Jasper clears his throat, and I look over to him, taking in the measure of the man, he's about 5'10, maybe slightly under, and about 140 lbs of wiry muscle which would put him in as a Junior Welterweight contender. Not at all what I would have expected from a sparring partner to a heavyweight contender…

The shock must show on my face, and he says, "Now you see what I mean about the punching bag thing… trust me, I held my own against that guy. His father hired me on because he figured the big man would humiliate me every time, but when his dad wasn't breathing down our necks and we were able to actually have a fair fight, I beat him."

Bella nods, "It's true, I was there for that one. Jasper was able to avoid all of his punches, and every time he avoided he hit him 4 or 5 times. He's really fast, and apparently he hits pretty hard because Em only lasted about 3 rounds before he called it."

I nod, "That's impressive. My dad would definitely be interested in seeing you fight."

He nods, "Cool."

Getting to the point, I lead them into the house through the garage door, "There's a little apartment down here, my dad usually crashes in it while we're training, but since doctors orders have me out of commission for at least the next two weeks he's gonna be with my mom at their place. All I ask is that whoever stays down here keep it neat for him, whoever takes it, don't feel like you have to stay down here, you can come and go as you please, I only have two bedrooms on this side of the house, otherwise I wouldn't put one of you down here."

Jasper says to Bella, "I think I'll stay down here if you don't mind."

She nods, "That's fine with me."

I nod, "Sounds good. Just to let you know, my dad and my grandmother are here right now. Bella I understand if you're not up to meeting anyone right now, but I figure that the best thing to do right now would be to call your dad and have him come down, and lets take care of this."

Bella looks frightened, but she stands up straight, and nods, "You're right, that sounds like the best thing to do, and I would like to meet your dad and grandma, I can handle it. I'm gonna go grab my bag."

She darts back into the garage, Jasper clicks his alarm thing and I hear the door open, she comes back in with her purse, and pulls her phone out of it, I see the crack on it, and she shakes her head before going into it and dialing.

**Bella POV**

I hit the button and the phone rings once, twice, and my dad picks up, "Bella! Thank God! Where are you sweetheart? Are you alright? I just talked to Emmett and he's worried sick! What the hell are you thinkin' runnin' off with his sisters' fiancé!"

I gasp, and yell into the phone, "ARE YOU KIDDING ME! He told you that Jasper and I ran away together! Dad I need you to come down to La Push, the big house about 3 blocks from the beach. As soon as you can!"

I hang my phone up, staring at it like it all of a sudden came to life in my hands, the sheer nerve of Emmett! How dare he tell my dad something like that!

Large hands gently cup my shoulders, and I reach up and hold onto one lightly, "Thanks."

Turning I move away from Paul, who looks serious, "It'll be okay Bella. You understand why he called your dad right?"

I shake my head, "No, not really."

He smiles at me, "He wanted to see if you told him anything, he probably figures the more time that goes by without your dad hearing from you, the less chance that you'll say anything. He's scared, but he's cocky, he probably thought you'd beg to go back to him, he sent that guy after you probably thinking that you'd go along quiet as you please. Honestly there's very little chance that that guys going to report you, he'd be in way worse trouble than you. I mean, he basically tried to kidnap a Police Chief's daughter."

I nod, "You have a point, I guess we should get the introductions done before my dad comes busting in here."

Paul reaches a hand out to me, hesitating slightly, I take it, and let him lead me up the stairs and into his kitchen. A man who looks too much like Paul to be anyone but his dad, and an elderly lady with brown skin and short white hair sit at the table. Paul's grandmother gasps as I walk into the room, and his dad abruptly gets up, with a curt, "Excuse me.", and goes down a short set of stairs and out the back door.

Paul guides me to a chair next to the woman, and I sit down, thankful that only the one side of my face is really that bad, and that it's not the side that is facing Paul's grandmother now, I say, "I'm sorry if I upset him, I didn't have any makeup… I would have tried to make myself look a little better."

The woman pats my hand very gently, "Don't you be sorry honey, he's not upset at you. He's just angry that someone would hurt a pretty little thing like you. If you don't mind my sayin so honey, you need to get some food in you."

She turns to Paul, "Pauly, grab my purse, I put a tin of cookies in it for you, but I think this little girl needs them more than you do right now. I'll bake you another batch tomorrow."

**Paul POV**

I grab the tin out of Grandma's purse, and play hurt, "But, my cookies…", I turn to Bella before continuing, "These cookies are the BEST cookies on the Res, Bella. You don't understand, they're better than any cookie you've ever had in your life. Every day that I train and watch my diet so that I can be in top shape to fight I DREAM about these cookies. Grandma is right though, you can have this batch, but only if you promise to eat all of them."

She smiles a little at me, "All of them but one, you should get at least one. I don't want to take them from you."

I push them towards her, "No. I insist."

She manages to smile without wincing in pain, as my dad comes back in, "I'm sorry. I had to calm down a little."

He turns to Bella, "I'm Paul Dixon Sr., Miss."

Bella manages a smile, "Please, call me Bella. I'm sorry about my appearance."

Dad barely represses a scowl, as he says, "You have nothing to be sorry for. That animal is the one who should be sorry, and trust me, we're going to make him sorry."

Cutting in, I say, "Yes, we will, but first, I want you guys to know Chief Swan is coming here, he should be here…"

I cut off, as I hear tires screech into my driveway, and a door slam. Bella puts her head in her hands, and then turns towards me, "Please, head him off, give him some sort of warning…"

I nod, and go to answer the door, thankful that you can't see into the kitchen from the front door. I open the door to a very upset Chief, "Paul. Where's my daughter? Did she bring that man here? I don't understand why she would have come here."

Standing aside, I gesture him inside, "Please, come in and sit down, she wants me to talk to you for a minute first."

He comes in and follows me into the living area. I gesture towards a couch, and he shakes his head at me, "No, thank you."

I sink into a chair, and try again, "Please. Sit. If only so that my head will stop throbbing at me."

He reluctantly sinks into a chair, "It's bad, isn't it…"

I nod, "Well it ain't good, so I guess that's bad… Look, after the fight, I texted Bella. To let her know I was okay. When she got back to me she told me she was planning on leaving Cullen and going back to Forks. To you."

Chief Swan's face pales slightly, "Okay, so how did she end up with Emmett's sisters' fiancé?"

I take a breath, "Cullen caught her texting me… I'm just gonna say it straight out, he beat the hell out of her. Jasper, the sisters' 'fiancé', he found Cullen standing over her, he saved her life, got her out of there. When I talked to her originally she didn't want you to see the bruises at their worst, and I don't blame her for wanting to spare you that. However, Cullen has sent a man after them, he approached Bella when she came out of a rest stop bathroom, told her that Cullen sent him for her and that she was to come with him. Bella said no, and the man tried to take her by force. Jasper stepped in, again, he hit the man when the man went for Bella again. They're worried that this man will follow them, or report them for assault. I told them that if the guy reported them for assault he'd be in just as much trouble as them, if not more, for attempting to kidnap a police chiefs' daughter. Even so I had them park their car in my garage."

Through all of this Chief has sat quietly, when he looks up at me, he has tears in his eyes, and his voice is heavy with emotion, "How could I let this happen? I knew there was something off with him when he was in my house the last time, and what did I do? I let him take her off to LA. She hasn't been eating, she looks terrible. I tried to tell her to come home..."

I interrupt, "I did too. You did everything you could short of showing up in LA and removing her against her will. She had to choose to leave him Chief. If you had taken her away from him, she'd have gone back to him in a second…"

He nods, "I know. She's 18, and maybe I've sheltered her too much… Thank you for giving her a safe place to come to when she felt she couldn't come to me."

I nod in return, "You're welcome. She's in the kitchen with my Grandma."

**Bella POV**

I hear Paul tell my dad where I am, and I turn so that my good side faces the door. He comes in, and he exclaims at the site of the light bruising on the right side of my face, "Son of a bitch!"

I put a hand up, "Dad, please, just I need you to sit down before you see the other side."

He sinks heavily into a chair, and Paul's grandma takes my hand gently. Slowly, I turn my head, letting him take in the worst of the bruising. His hand twitches towards his belt, just a fraction of an inch, but I see it. Emmett is lucky that he's in Los Angeles…

In the next instant I realize just how lucky, as dad starts to rant, "That fucking bastard! He fucking called me! Acted like he was worried! Son of a BITCH! All the time he knew that he had done THIS!"

Paul puts a hand on Dad's shoulder, and it's only when I hear him say, "Chief, calm down, you're upsetting her.", that I realize I've been cringing in fear.

Dad looks at me and his breath releases in a whoosh, "Shit.", he comes over to me, and puts his arm gently around me, "I'm sorry baby girl. I'm so sorry."

Shaking it off, I lean into my dad, "It's okay. It's not your fault, Dad. He'll get what's coming to him."

Dad hugs me a little tighter, "You're damn right he will."

**Time skip, PPOV**

After Chief Swan was filled in, he had Embry Call's momma come down to help him take statements from Bella and Jasper. She's really his secretary in the Forks police station but she has a badge and a weapon so she still counts as police.

Embry's mom takes Bella into the upstairs guest room and takes pictures of her bruises while Jasper gives Chief Swan the pictures he took of her on their trip. Grandma left shortly after Ms Call got to the house, I told her I would check in with her tomorrow, and thanked her for putting Bella at ease.

Chief was on his cell phone with the Los Angeles Police, they assured him that as soon as they got his file they would pay a visit to the Cullen house. He made sure to tell them that Bella is his daughter, he wanted them to know that it wasn't just anyone who Cullen had tuned up, he didn't want them to be tempted to take a bribe to sweep it under the rug.

Jasper comes up to the main floor with a bag in his hand, Dad stops him, "Tomorrow, I need to get a representative from the NWRBA up here so that he knows we didn't tamper with anything."

Jasper nods and brings the bag back downstairs. Dad comes over to me, "I'm gonna come back over tomorrow afternoon, hopefully someone from the office in Seattle will be with me. I can't wait to see this stuff start to come out in the press."

I nod, "Okay, just call first, I want her to be prepared."

He nods back, "Will do, see you tomorrow. Love you, Son."

I give him a half hug, "Love you too, Dad."

He says goodbye to Bella and her dad, and heads out the door. Chief stands up, and comes over to me, "Look Paul I hate to put you out, but with all this stuff coming to light about Emmett I'm going to be in the office for probably the next day and a half straight, only home to change clothes. I'm nervous about Bella being alone. Cullen has our address, I wouldn't put it past him to send someone to the house."

Waving it off, I reply, "It's not a problem, Chief. Bella was planning to stay here for a week or so anyway. She's welcome here as long as she wants to be here."

He tilts his head, giving me a strange look, but doesn't say anything other than, "Thank you."

I nod, "No problem."

Going into the kitchen I grab Bella's purse and pull the bottle of Tylenol 3 out of it. I shake a couple into my hand and fill a glass with water and bring it into the living room, "Here, you could probably use this."

She tries to smile but it comes out as a grimace as she says, "Thank you. I really could. I'll be happy when the swelling starts to go down, I know the bruises will take time, once the swelling goes away though it won't be so painful."

I nod, "I know the feeling honey, trust me, it'll be a lot better tomorrow."

She takes the pills and drinks the water, before saying, "Tomorrow… Maybe I'll start to feel normal again."

I smile at her, "You will. Before you know it, this whole ugly mess will be a memory."

She smiles, "That'll be nice."