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Chapter 4

I looked at my father and quietly replied, "Yes."

Charlie blanched and stared at me. I realized that he really didn't want to believe his deduction. But what sane person would? Who believed in vampires? And even if they did, who wanted to believe that their daughter was one?

Nessie was still sitting in his lap and she watched his face intently. Seth, who was still kneeling before him, laid a big, comforting hand on his knee. When Charlie didn't say anything for a long time, Sue rubbed his shoulder and quietly implored, "Charlie…"

He blinked as if waking from a trance, and then glared at Edward. "Get out of my house," his voice was so low and the most dangerous I've ever heard it. "Get away from my daughter and…"

"Dad, Edward isn't going anywhere without me."

He turned toward me and his expression turned to one of pain. "Bella, why? How?"

"I'm sorry, Dad."

Edward, realizing that I was too close to losing control over my emotions, took me into his arms and held me as a tearless sob erupted from my throat. He murmured too quietly for the humans in the room to hear, "Shhhh…Let me handle this. I love you."

Then he turned to Charlie and said, "I never meant for this to happen to her, Charlie. I never meant to fall in love with her, but I did. And it shocked me that, despite knowing what I really was, she felt the same way about me. I spent decades alone. I didn't want to be alone anymore. But I didn't want to hurt her either. I put her in danger every single time I was around her. I tried to leave, but…well, you know how that effected Bella…it effected me the same way. But if she could be happy and safe, I was willing to live all of eternity miserably without her.

"But Fate brought us back together, and I knew I could never live without her. I hadn't wanted to turn her into what I am. I would have been willing to live my life with her, watching her age and when her life was over, I'd soon follow her. One way or another. But she was afraid that I wouldn't feel the same as she aged. And there were—forces outside of our control and that we couldn't escape which demanded that she be made a vampire if she was to be with me. We planned for it to happen after we got to New Hampshire. But then she got pregnant, and, as you already know, Nessie isn't like a normal child."

Charlie looked down at his granddaughter who was still sitting on his lap, still watching him. She touched his cheek and I wanted to stop her, but it was too late. At the look of pain and horror that mixed on Charlie's face, I knew what she was showing him. Then she said, "I didn't want to hurt Momma. I love her. I'm sorry, Grandpa." Then she leaned in and pressed her tiny body against his chest, wrapped her arms around him tightly, and Charlie responded in kind.

"I had no choice, Charlie. I couldn't let her die. Not when I could save her." Edward's voice sounded as anguished as Charlie looked. "I love her too much to let her go. I've spent too many lonely decades waiting for her."

"Just how old are you?" Charlie's question was breathless as he held Renesmee tightly.

"Physically, I'm seventeen." He paused and then looked down at me as he said barely above a whisper, "But I was born in 1901."

Stunned silence.

"How…how did…you…emm…become a…what you are?" Charlie stammered, hardly able to get the words out.

"I was dying of the Spanish Influenza in 1918. My parents both succumbed to it, and I would have surely been next. Carlisle decided to…"

"Wait…Carlisle?"

"Yes, Carlisle was working at the hospital where my parents and I were brought to. He changed me after my mother begged him to save me. It was her dying wish." Edward shrugged, and I knew it was because this was a time of his life that he didn't want to remember.

Charlie nodded as he digested that bit of information, then he turned to Sue and asked, "You knew about him. How did you know?"

She smiled weakly and responded, "Seventy years ago, the Cullens moved into the area. Not long after, three of our young men began changing into wolves. It was in response to the vampires in the area. Vampires have been our enemy since the beginning. And there were tensions when the Cullens began hunting in our areas. But before all out war erupted, Dr. Cullen and Ephraim Black struck a treaty. The Cullens wouldn't enter our lands, and we wouldn't reveal them for what they were as long as they didn't harm any humans."

Again silence, as Charlie looked back to us with a look of utter horror on his face. It was as if he just remembered an important factor about us. Finally, Edward answered Charlie's unspoken question, "We don't drink human blood, Charlie. In fact, Carlisle has never drunk it, though he's tasted it when he changed me, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett. Rosalie has never tasted it. We hunt animals. It's a challenge, but it is worth it."

Charlie turned his horror filled gaze to me. I didn't need Edward's gift to know his question. I took a deep breath and answered it. "I haven't, nor will I, ever hurt anybody, Dad. If I get through this first year as a vampire, I think it won't be a problem."

He stared at me for a long moment and then Nessie touched his face again. He met her eyes and after a moment I asked, "What did she show you?" From the expression on his face, I could only imagine.

He looked back at me and swallowed hard, before answering. "She showed me how she…hunts with…one of the—the wolves." He glanced at Seth and asked, "Is it you?"

Seth, who had stood up and sat in the recliner0 to the left of his mother, shook his head. "No. That's Jake. He takes her hunting." He chuckled softly as he added, "They like to share."

"Share?"

Leah snorted. "She drinks the animal's blood and Jake finishes off the meat."

Charlie shuddered. "But she eats regular food, too. She at a hot-dog tonight."

"With a lot of coaxing, we try to get her to eat as much food as possible," Edward said, smiling. "We want her to learn to like human foods. It will be easier for her to fit in."

Charlie nodded again and then he asked, "Why is she growing up so fast? Is it because she's…a vampire, too?"

"Actually, she's only half vampire, Dad. Though, she will stop aging when she matures to adulthood, she'll always have a lot of her human characteristics, too."

"And when will that be?" Sue asked as she looked at her soon-to-be granddaughter. "She's always changing. It's actually scary. It reminds me of when Seth and the other boys in La Push started growing at astonishing rates."

Edward answered, "According to the others like her, she'll be full grown by age seven."

"There're others?" Sue stared at Edward.

But Seth was the one who answered, "Ummm…Alice found someone else like her…to help everyone to figure out why she was growing up so fast. There's a guy who has three sisters, I think, in South America." He shrugged and then looked over at us with a small grin on his face. Edward flashed him a small, brief smile. I had to admit that that explained things well without getting into the whole Volturi thing.

After that Charlie seemed to relax. He asked questions about the rest of the Cullens. Edward answered honestly about how Carlisle saved Esme, then Rosalie, and how she saved Emmett, but was afraid to try to turn him herself. He then explained, when Charlie asked, about Alice and Jasper joining the family in the 1950's. Finally, Charlie said how he always thought it strange that Carlisle and Esme would have "adopted" all these teenagers. They were so young themselves, after all.

I laughed softly and answered that one. "Actually, that could be true for Esme, especially since Jasper was born in the mid-eighteen hundreds. But as for Carlisle, he's much older than you think, Dad."

"Just how old is Dr. Fang," Leah asked from her place by the door. She had been quiet until now and I actually forget that she was there. "I often wondered about him."

Edward took a deep breath and looked at her. "He was born in the 1640's."

"What?" Charlie seemed to have been okay when we were discussing ages that would have amounted to a hundred plus years, but obviously he had no idea just what immortally meant. "That's impossible. That would make him…"

"Almost 370 years old. He was twenty-three when he was changed." Edward then told Charlie the story that he told me about Carlisle that day when I first came home with him.

At the end, Charlie actually laughed.

"Dad? Are you okay?" I asked, concerned.

Between chuckles, he said, "Yeah. I'm a little overwhelmed. But I'm okay." He looked down at Nessie, who was falling to sleep, despite her best efforts to stay awake and listen to the stories. He gave her a squeeze, and then said after looking up at Edward and me, "I'm glad that you told me. I began to think about it after I visited you after Nessie was born. You just looked so different. So much like the rest of them. And there was Nessie. How could she be possible?" He shook his head and then went on, "Then I began to really think about Edward. I realized that I had never seen him eat, or drink. He'd be here hours and never even want a drink. It was the little things that I began to remember. Then Billy began to telling me about some of the old stories when he mentioned to me about Jake's little show and tell. He never mentioned the Cullens, but older stories about how they had defeated vampires in the past. I couldn't figure out why he was telling me all this, but I eventually put it together. And then prayed that I was just being nuts. How could this be possible? Vampires don't exist. But then neither do werewolves."

He laughed again and finally added, "Next, I find out fairies and leprechauns are real."

We all laughed, even Leah. And in the end I hugged my dad and Sue and again felt like everything would be okay.

Well, that was until I looked at Leah.

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