Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

AN: And here we are...the last of the worst. Things will start moving after this. We'll see a little more sunshine, and then a little more. Granted, there will still be tough moments, but none like the 7 chapters you guys just pushed through. Again, I adore you all and thank you so much for coming on this journey with me!

Suggested Listening: "Empty" by Ray LaMontagne

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Bella stood in the doorway of Maddie's room. She blinked once - twice - trying to confirm what she was seeing as truth. To make sure her mind wasn't playing tricks on her.

She blinked one more time for good measure, also trying to ignore that visceral panic crawling its way up her chest and winding around her throat.

Unable to, because it started several moments before when Bella awoke from a nap and walked mechanically down the hallway to wake her daughter up from hers.

When she found Maddie's bed empty.

Bella stood completely still - frozen, even though her mind was pulling her in a hundred different directions. Even though her heart suddenly was pounding in her chest, pushing adrenaline through her veins with every single beat.

Reminding her she couldn't just stand there.

Telling her she needed to move.

"Maddie?" With an anxious cry, Bella managed to free her leaden feet from where they rested, turning her body and walking down the narrow hallway. Checking the bathroom. "Maddie!" Pushing back into her bedroom, she checked the closet. Under the bed. Behind the door.

No Maddie.

Bella stumbled down the hallway, the pitch of her voice rising - the panic in it increasing - as she called out again.

"Madeline Call, this isn't funny! Mommy doesn't want to play hide and seek right now, honey, so please come out!"

Bella turned the house upside down, brushing anxious, hot tears from her cheeks when her search came up with nothing. When she realized her daughter was, in fact, nowhere inside its four walls. Bella frantically wondered where she could have gone, if it would have been possible for her to somehow reach the door handle. To turn it. To wander off somewhere without Bella realizing it.

"God…" The word was a half-sob, half-groan. That feeling was back - that persistent, cloying one that resided just beneath the residual ache in her insides. The one that screamed at her, telling her she was screwing this up. Being there, being a good parent - it didn't matter. All the shoes seemed to fit.

Collapsing into a chair at the kitchen table, fingers fumbled with her cell phone. Dialing Jacob and Anna first, Bella chewed on a fingernail as it rang. Once, twice, three times - her heart dropping in her chest when the fifth ring came and went and no one picked up the phone.

She tried Emily next, her fingers shaking so bad she almost couldn't press the buttons, her breaths coming in short, muted gasps as it started to ring.

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief when Emily picked up after the third ring.

"Emily? It's Bella. I...I can't find Maddie."

There was a moment of silence on Emily's end of the phone, like the question was the dumbest thing the other woman had heard all day.

"What do you mean you can't find Maddie?"

"Emily! I can't find her! She's not here. I've looked all over this house and I can't find her anywhere!" Fingers curling impossibly tighter around the phone, Bella could feel the panic overtaking her better sense. Her voice wavered, rising in pitch as she pressed on. "I don't...I don't know where she is…"

"Bella, honey, calm down. Did you call Quil?"

Mouth agape, Bella was stunned, the question making no sense and somehow sweeping the words from Bella's lips.

"Why would I call Quil?"

Emily paused.

"Because he mentioned to me he was dropping by your place later to take Maddie to get ice cream. Did he not tell you?"

Bella still didn't speak a word. It would have been impossible to get another one out because she was too busy trying to swallow back the ball of fire in her throat - the anger she could feel forming in her gut.

"Bella, I'm sure she's fine. Why don't you just give Quil a call…"

But Bella missed the rest of what the other woman had to say, already on her feet. An inexplicably steady finger hung up on Emily before she pushed the phone into her back jeans pocket. Before purposeful feet carried her from the kitchen to the back door, grabbing her rain jacket and her keys without so much as a pause.

Bella didn't cry as she drove the winding road from La Push into Forks. She didn't feel anything as she pressed the accelerator to the floor, carelessly navigating the curves - nothing, with the exception of a pounding pulse in her ears. Except for the red around the edges of her vision and the urgency to get to where she was going.

She didn't speak, but she said a little prayer for Quil as she fought to drive the speed limit down Forks' main road.

Because as angry as she was in that moment, she was pretty sure she was going to hurt him.

Bella turned into the diner parking lot, the car tires throwing gravel as she ripped into a parking spot. Slamming the car into park, Bella didn't bother to pull the keys from the ignition, scrambling out of the vehicle with a purpose that scared the shit out of her.

The bell above the door announced Bella's arrival and, for a single moment, she realized this was the first time she'd been in her former place of employment since…

And she could tell - how some of the servers were suddenly frozen in their tasks, wide, sympathetic eyes watching her warily.

But Bella wasn't paying attention to that. She wasn't concerned with their condolences or their sad looks or the questions she was sure they would try to ask.

She didn't care about that.

The only thing she cared about was sitting in a corner booth, facing her. Sticking her tiny hand completely into a chocolate milkshake before removing it and placing the hand in question in her mouth.

The only thing she cared about was what she was going to do to the man who had his back turned to her.

Gritting her teeth, Bella remembered why she was there, uncharacteristic fluid movements allowing her to navigate effortlessly between the tables. Approaching the corner booth, she thought of all the restrained things she was going to say in front of her daughter, and all the not-so-nice things she planned to say once her little girl was out of earshot.

Bella was about two booths away when Maddie pulled her hand from her mouth.

When that same mouth erupted into the most blinding grin Bella had seen in months. When it was followed by peals of laughter, a brilliant sound filling the corner of the stodgy diner.

It was enough to stop Bella in her tracks.

It was enough to make her pause, her heart - for a single moment - ceasing to beat altogether, the useless organ not wanting her to miss a single second of what was happening.

She didn't.

The sound was beautiful, and for a split second, it made Bella's heart ache with something else. With longing, with pride…

With happiness, because it had been entirely too long since she heard her daughter laugh.

But even as Bella tried to let the sound of it permeate the thick anger - to cut through the agitation still lingering in her veins - it didn't negate the reason it came to be. How it happened. How the person responsible for her in that moment had forgotten to tell her…

It was enough...to bring all the anger back.

To make Bella move again.

Maddie saw her mother first, dancing, ebony eyes peering up at her. Bella could see the little girl had milkshake everywhere - in her pigtails, all over her face, down the front of her shirt.

"Hi, Mommy…"

Bella took a deep, calming breath, offering her daughter a tiny smile - lingering for a moment as her feet came to a rest in front of the booth. As she turned her gaze to the right.

Finding Quil...even though her eyes automatically dropped to the whipped cream he'd piled on the tip of his nose. And the cherry he'd placed on top of that. When it became clear what her daughter had been laughing at.

Bella ground her teeth together, the ferocity she felt in that moment doing little to make the sight amusing for her.

However, Quil looked less than fazed she was there, even though she was sure she was glaring daggers through his head. With a grin, he reached up, plucking the cherry from its resting place before depositing in his mouth.

"Hey, Bella," he greeted cordially between chews.

"You have whipped cream on your nose, Quil…"

Quil shrugged, flashing a wide grin at Maddie before he reached for his napkin, removing the white, sugary concoction from his face in one swift movement. "I was just trying to show Miss Maddie here what she looks like with ice cream all over her face, but I think she likes the look better on me."

Bella bit the inside of her cheek, trying to temper the anger inside her - how Quil's lackadaisical attitude was only making it worse.

Her voice was low and non-negotiable when she finally spoke.

"Quil, can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

It wasn't until then that the smile on Quil's mouth drooped. That all joking disappeared from his eyes as she stared up at her.

"But...can we leave Maddie…?"

"Cora can watch her for a few minutes," Bella interjected, her eyes flicking toward the waitress behind the counter.

A few moments passed before Quil swallowed, before Bella noticed the defeated glaze creep over his eyes.

"Okay."

Once Cora made her way over to the booth, Bella could feel Quil's large frame following her outside. The door jingled closed behind them but Bella kept walking, leading Quil around the side of the diner. Finally stopping, she simply stared at her feet - feeling it all come to a head. Feeling it all wanting to come out when she heard Quil shuffle between her and building.

"Bella, listen…"

He never got to finish his sentence.

Without thinking, Bella spun around.

"You son of a bitch," she spat out from between clenched teeth, reaching out and pushing Quil against the building with every ounce of strength she held inside her petite body. A part of her was surprised how easily he let her. How his blank stare pulled away for a single moment before finding hers again.

"I don't know what kind of world you live in, Quil, but in my world, you can't just take someone's child!" Bella seethed, wildly shaking her head in frustration. "What gives you the right...who told you…" She attempted to get the words out, trying to see Quil through burning, liquid eyes. "What makes you think you can just come into my house and take my daughter without so much as a fucking word to me?"

Quil's lips parted, like he was going to respond, but Bella didn't give him the chance, the anger boiling through her veins making it close to impossible.

The helpless, frenetic, justified, irrational anger urging her to keep going.

"Why?" The word tumbled from Bella's lips, pushing Quil again as he bit hard on his lower lip. As he tried to harness every ounce of patience inside him. "Why would you do it, Quil? Tell me why you'd do something like that when you know…"

"Because I promised him, Bella!"

Bella's words cut off in her throat, her mouth hanging open when Quil finally took a step forward. When his booming, heated response caused her to almost take a step back. Those dull, defeated eyes Quil had moments earlier suddenly wild and pleading, bearing down on her.

Ignoring the curious stares of a group of people walking out of the diner and to their car, Bella could feel that anger washing away, replaced once again with the pointed, paralyzing ache she was used to.

"Wh...what did you say?" she stammered, the words barely audible as she regarded Quil with wide eyes.

Pursing his lips, Quil took a deep breath, softening his expression. "Because you wouldn't let me...and I promised him," he repeated softly.

Bella's eyes flickered down. Squeezing them shut, she tried to ignore how Quil's words - such small, innocent words - somehow managed to wrap around her heart. How, in a single breath, each one seemed to soothe it and make the ache worse.

Still, she shook her head, gathering every ounce of strength she had to look up. That small, nagging part of her still not wanting any help, no matter where it came from.

"No...it doesn't matter, Quil. You still don't get to come in and take her and not tell me. Not after everything…" Bella stopped, lips still parted as she squeezed her eyes shut, still unable to say it.

She didn't open them until she felt felt Quil step closer to her.

"I know, and I'm sorry. I just...didn't want to wake you," he murmured, lifting a sincere brow. "I left you a note..."

Bella shook her head again in disbelief. "No...you didn't."

"I did," Quil insisted, running an anxious hand through his disheveled hair. "I left it hanging on the refrigerator."

Blinking in shock, Bella tried to remember, her mind retracing her steps as she looked for Maddie. How, in her panic and haste, she hadn't even thought to look for a note…

"Bella, I just wanted to…"

"Quil!" Bella interrupted forcefully, tipping her head toward the sky and ignoring how one frustrated tear leaked from the corner of her eye.

She was so tired...so tired of fucking crying. Of fighting...all of it.

Still, she looked back to him, ignoring the painful grimace pulling at his features. "Maddie doesn't...we don't need you to come in...to be there."

Frowning, Quil's brows pulled down between his eyes. "Did you see her in there, Bella? I mean, did you consider not being mad at me for one second when you actually looked at her?"

Bella didn't say a word, because she had considered it.

In that moment, she could remember exactly how it made her feel when she heard her daughter's laugh.

Quil took another step forward, stealing the breath from Bella's lungs when he took her by the shoulders, a desperate darkness in his eyes. A plea for her to understand.

"I'm not...trying to force you to do something you don't wanna do, Bella," he whispered, shaking her slightly, causing Bella's arms to fall listlessly to her sides. "But I had to do something. That little girl doesn't fucking smile anymore. Neither do you, and...you need to let me help you. Because I want to...and because we're your family, too, and I promised him I would fucking be there."

Bella released a ragged breath, suddenly realizing she had been holding it. She held his eyes even though her body went slack beneath his hands, a part of her heartbroken all over again as she imagined Embry speaking those words. As she heard his voice in her head, making Quil promise.

But in that moment, what hurt worse was knowing Quil was right. How he'd echoed Bella's own thoughts from earlier.

How she couldn't remember.

How her energetic, bright, happy little girl hadn't smiled in entirely too long.

How Bella was still so lost, so tired, and so on the cusp of giving up completely, it had taken her entirely too long to see it.

"Just let me be around, Bella. That's all I'm asking."

Quil's voice was distant. Pained. His request a part of his own grief, so tangible in his words that even Bella could feel it.

"Please…"

Bella didn't respond.

Instead, she conceded.

Instead, she gave into the exhaustion she could feel weighing down every single part of her body.

Taking a step forward, Bella closed her eyes, inexplicably leaning into Quil. Both hands reaching out, clinging to his shirt as she pressed her forehead roughly against his chest.

As she silently gave him his answer.

As another part of her relaxed when he released a deep sigh, wrapping his arms around her in a warm, comforting embrace.

As Bella remembered what it felt like to let someone help. To want them to, even if it was in the smallest way possible. As she took that first step.

The smallest movement she could manage in that moment.

AN: :)

Thoughts?