I do what I can and I do what I do, and none of those things were writing Twilight.

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Chapter 4: A Father's Love

Charlie's POV

She was coming back today.

My daughter, my only child, was coming to live with me again after she left when she was thirteen.

I was caught up at the police station wrapping up a case in Seattle: A rapist with a fetish of eighteen year old girls. It seems he tracked them down stalking them until he found out when exactly their birthday was and counted down until then to rape then the day before. With the evidence we got, the rape times ranged in between thirty minutes to two hours before midnight. The sick bastard would then kill them by slitting their throats ear to ear. One lucky one that got away before he could kill them gave a good description of the man since he didn't wear a mask.

That was a mistake on his part. He was too cocky in his escapes he thought the victims would be dead before they could tell the police. He raped a total of twenty women before one finally got away. That woman, a Bree Tanner, was strong enough to get away, but not without some injuries.

Her eighteenth birthday was coming up and she didn't think much of the rapist on the loose. She was walking home from her job when he came up to her and grabbed her. It was now known that he had two accomplishes. She heard their voices as she was being bound and gagged. One of them was a woman and the other a man, but she never saw their faces just the rapist's.

Bree was very cooperative with the police. In most cases rape victims get emotional or want to distance themselves from their attack. It takes time for them to understand what happened and they may go into a sense of denial. Bree was wary at first, but she gave us enough information from her statement and from the rape kit to trace it back to a man called James Masterson.

We were building a case and Bree agreed to testify against him. We traced to where he worked and found out he now had an occupation at a car garage on the outskirts of Seattle. Some of the police in Seattle wanted us to help them out in capturing him. James tried to run, but we had all exits locked.

Once we had him in custody and Bree identified him in a line up, we took in him for interrogation. A Seattle deputy and I questioned him and in a time span of twenty minutes, he confessed. At first, he carried himself like he was above the law that we had nothing to touch him. We showed him the evidence, he didn't flinch. We accused him of the crime, he held a mask of indifference, but once the detective said life without parole, he broke. He even confessed who his accomplishes were.

He made a mistake again though. We never made a deal with him. I could still see him scream at the both us swearing that he would get us back.

I was finishing some paperwork on the case and I groaned as I looked at the time. I didn't have any time to pick Bella up from the airport and I needed to finish this today. Taking out my phone, I called Seth from the rez and waited a few minutes until he picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Seth, could you pick up Bella from the airport. I'm caught up at work and I don't want her waiting there until midnight."

"You mean you don't want mom to go all mama bear on you."

"That too, so can you?"

"Sure, are you going to be able to make it to the party?" I pondered on it and looked at the stacks of papers in front of me. I sighed at the prolonged time I had to take before I had to see my daughter.

"I don't think so, Seth. Tell Sue I'll make it up to her later."

"A little too much info don't you think, Charlie?" I blushed at his statement and grumbled at the youth these days.

"Don't sass me, boy."

I heard a laugh before the line went dead.

I looked at the picture of Bella sitting on my desk from when she was twelve and sat back and stared at it for a good while. It had been too long since I had a good month spend with her. She came to visit during school holidays, but she had other people she needed to see and spend time with. It wasn't that I didn't like sharing her. It was just that we never got to spend a lot of time together. I knew something was wrong the time she was living with me. It took her a while to get back into the bright smile when she came home from school. I talked with the principal to see if there was any sign of her not understanding a subject or getting bullied. There was nothing he could tell me on her subjects. She was on top of everything and handling deadlines well according to her teachers.

He didn't speak much of her getting bullied, but I noticed he never met my eyes when the subject was brought up. Rookie mistake. I tried to get something out of Bella, but she didn't have anything to say either. She became distance whenever school was brought up and refused to go to school functions. The final straw for me was when I saw the bruises on her arms and legs one day. I got her checked out to the hospital and demanded she tell me who the hell was doing this to her. I couldn't get anything once again, so I asked Sue if she could help.

It took two hours before we got a clear name from her: The Cullens and their little posse. I was close to marching down to the school and telling the principal off for not telling me. He was supposed to protect the kids that went through this not the people that were causing it! Even then I couldn't blame it entirely on him. The Cullens gave a large amount of money to the school and have been for the last seventeen years. No matter how much you can say it's wrong or how much you can say it isn't true, money equaled power even in small towns like this. I didn't have to do much in the end. Sue took care of everything and made sure that Bella didn't have any contact with them in any way. Sue was shocked that Leah had taken part in it.

News spread fast naturally in small towns and the parents were outraged that their children were being accused of taking part of it and the "atrocity" of the situation. They wanted to hold a meeting with the principal and Bella present to see the evidence against their kids. I wasn't going to do that to Bella and put her through that. I declined the offer of a peaceful negotiation as the principal put it between Bella and the kids.

The bullying continued with the help of the others peers to help find Bella, but it decreased greatly. A few weeks later Bella was on her way to Phoenix to live with her mother. I shook the memory out of my head and checked the clock. I finished the paperwork a little while ago, so I had some time to spare. My cell phone rang and flashed Sue. I smiled slightly before answering.

"Hey, Sue."

"Hello, Mr. Swan." I smiled a little wider and ran a hand through my hair.

"How's the party?"

"That's actually why I called you." I furrowed my eyebrows. What could have possibly gone wrong?

"What is it?"

"They came, Charlie." My blood ran cold, before boiling in my skin. I could easily tell who they were. Who was the damn idiot that told them about it? There wasn't a soul who didn't know what happened between Bella and them! I took a deep breath before answering Sue.

"Are they still there?" Because I swear on my mother's grave, that I will come over there and personally escort them out. They shouldn't even have the privilege to breathe the same air as her.

"They just left, but Charlie you should have seen the way Bella handled it! She was so mature about it and didn't lash out or anything. God, you would've been so proud of her." I already was.

"Are you sure she's ok?"

"Yeah, Seth just took her to the house . . . are you going to be ok?" I sighed a little.

"Sure, I just don't want her to be reminded of it every time she thinks of Forks. I want her to think it's her home, not where she was tormented."

"Me neither, Charlie," she sighed, "So, what are we going to do about it?"

My eyes hardened as I thought of the people that drove my little girl out. She was just a kid for Christ's sake! She was nearly an adult now I'm not going to dismay that thought, but those types of scars run deep and I didn't want her to look around corners in case of running into them.

She didn't deserve it then and she doesn't deserve it now.

I made a snap decision and let my mind go on my own accord. I told Sue I would call her later and spoke out to my deputy that I would be back in a few making the excuse of going to the diner to pick up dinner and asked if he wanted anything. He shouted me what he wanted as I walked out the door.

It was close to midnight as I began to drive down the gravel road to the only houses this far out from Forks. I pulled up to the biggest house as I saw it was the only house with the lights still on.

I got out of my car and made my way to towards the house.

Esme's POV

I climbed into the passenger seat of the car and turned towards the house we were leaving. Alice had said Edward was going to get his coat and I couldn't help be a little worried. In that house were people that wouldn't give a care in the world if we disappeared from sight. I didn't blame them one bit.

Edward came out a few minutes later with a frustrated look on his face, but said nothing as he came into the car. I sighed and grabbed Carlisle's hand to give me strength. He turned to me and tried to give me a smile, but it came out as a grimace. Looking into my lap, I remembered the older more mature face of the girl we haven't seen in four years.

Isabella Swan was a kind girl if memory served right. I remembered the times Carlisle came home talking about the Swan girl getting into another accident or tripping while walking to his office. It unnerved us that she got all those injuries. When we would ask the children if they knew her, they would say the same thing, "Yeah, she's a little clumsy."

At that point, we chalked it up as being uncoordinated, but more and more Carlisle saw here come to the hospital for broken ankles or a dislocated shoulder and the more she came in the worst the situation got. Imagine our surprises when we got from the principal saying that our children were bullying Isabella Swan.

We were downright outraged at the accusation. If anything Isabella Swan was bullying OUR kids. Alice came home one day crying because Isabella stole something from her and no one would believe it. Even Edward and Alice's friends were complaining about how she was mean to them and make fun of everything and anything they did. Then we found out that the rest of their friends' parents got the same accusation on their kids too. We all came together and said we wanted to talk to the principal with Isabella present. Her father wouldn't allow it saying that Bella suffered through enough. The only good thing that came out of it were our kids and Isabella being separated.

Then one day when I was getting dinner ready before Carlisle got home, he called the house. Isabella was in the hospital in the intensive unit and she was blamed Alice and her group of friends for it. I rushed over there right away to see the officer coming out of her room.

I confronted him and told him about all the horrible things Bella has done to my kids from mocking them to them coming home crying. He said he'd take what I said into consideration, but that wasn't enough for me. I made sure that the police knew my kids could have been at La Push. Alice, Rose, and Tanya were at ballet practice from eleven until six that day, Edward was in Seattle for his piano lessons, and Emmett and Jasper were at a birthday party in La Push, but that was far from where the scene happened.

We were worried that with Isabella's relative on the case, facts would have twisted up, but they didn't allow him to get into it. Nevertheless, they thought this would be charges for the kids and we were all appalled.

A few weeks later, the charges were dropped. We were happy, but suspicious as well. What could have made them drop all the charges? Alice came home saying she didn't see Bella at school and no one else did either. Later in the weeks, we found out from one of Alice's friends, Leah that she moved to Arizona. I was glad to say in the least. Now we could get back into our regular pattern of things and we wouldn't have her as a nuisance anymore.

I swallowed the lump in my throat at my naïve nature that I thought my kids could do no wrong, that they were perfect. One winter afternoon was the cold water in the face.

Alice, Rose, Leah, and Tanya were all in Alice's room where I went to give them hot chocolate. This was two weeks after the incident which they were talking about.

"God, I'm so glad we got No Man Swan outta here!" That was Alice's voice. I put the drinks on the floor and leaned in a little more to hear what they were saying. They were laughing at something Tanya said.

"I can't believe that we got away with it though! You would think I'd feel sorry for her, but if she just kept her damn mouth shut . . ." There were murmurs of agreements in the room.

"I mean honestly! Our parents would have never believed that their 'perfect children would every do such a thing.'"

"If we got away with messing with her, what makes her think we can't get away with this?"

"I can think of a couple." That's when I stepped in. The girls were frozen for a few minutes before Alice found her voice.

"Mom," she paused for a minute, "how long were you there?"

"Long enough to know what the fuck was going on," Alice winced and looked at the floor. Tanya recoiled like she had been smacked.

"Are you going to tell our parents?" By that time, I had to get out of the room and sent the girls home telling each mother in person what they did and made them tell what they did. I couldn't believe them. I couldn't believe what they did and once Carlisle came home, I was on the couch crying. For what my daughter did, for tricking me, or for that little girl who not once cried wolf, I didn't know, but Carlisle took more action, then I did.

He took away Alice's privileges, the shopping sprees, the random trips to Italy, everything. The most surprising thing was she didn't throw a tantrum. I'm guessing the point where Carlisle refused to look at except for a glance was real a wake-up call that she couldn't get out of this one. He also made her tell him who else was involved and she confessed that everyone except Edward was in on it. We also found out that they were bullying Isabella instead the other way around.

The ultimate breaking point was when we found out that Jasper was going to be sent to military school. Jasper came from a strict no nonsense family and we knew they wouldn't take this lightly. Alice screamed and screamed at Jasper's parents begging him to stay saying it was all her fault that he just followed. Their mind was made up.

He stayed there for two years before coming back a year ago. Alice and he weren't the only ones who suffered from this. Emmett was banned from trying out for sports in high school, but they decided to change it this year since he was getting closer to college, but he was allowed one sport, no before or after parties, and straight home after practice. Emmett didn't step a toe out of line since then.

Tanya's parents thought about leaving Forks and homeschooling her. She gave the same reaction as Alice did when Jasper was leaving. Rose had to deal with her mother's wrath and she can't face them being in the same room for a long period of time. I didn't exactly know what happened with Jacob and Leah, but they spend more and more time over our house more than anything else.

One question I never asked was why. Why did they specifically target Isabella? What terrible thing did she do besides tell her parents what they should know?

I snapped out of my ponderings as we reached the house. The other cars behind us came, parked in our driveway, but didn't get out. I knew they were waiting for permission to come into the house. Seeing Bella must have brought back memories of bans and restrictions that were in still in place, but now they didn't hold as much of a threat.

The four families lived in a makeshift cul-de-sac where each house was close to one another. We were all college friends, and we wanted our kids to grow up together. Their parents looked out their windows wondering why the kids weren't coming into the houses.

I didn't meet anyone's eye. As bad as I felt, the others felt like they failed their kids and as a collective group we were miserable for the first three months after their confessions. Isabella coming back would definitely resurface those feelings.

"Mom, Dad," Alice hesitated, "can the others come in?" I looked over at Carlisle to see how he felt about it. He sighed dejectedly and nodded a yes. I winced at his soulless eyes. As every other parent, he felt as though he had a part in the scheme, but a larger part. He convinced the police officer that Bella's injuries were minor when they were worse then he played off.

Alice and Edward came out of the car and went over to the cars in the driveway as we got out the car and headed towards the house. The rest came in, but kept a wide stance from us.

"Stay in the living room and don't go upstairs." I said to them. They all nodded and filed into the family room. Carlisle was making a cup of tea in the kitchen and placed it front of me. I placed my head into my hands after thanking him and taking a sip. He sat in front of me as we tried to figure out how to handle the situation. We stayed silent until the door bell rang and looked at each other confusingly.

"Who could that be at this hour?" I said as I made my way to the door to answer. We were surprised to see the other parents of our kids' friends at our door front.

"Esme, what's wrong? Did something happen at the party?" Meredith, Rosalie and Jasper's mother, asked with concern. I glanced at Carlisle not answering the question and invited them into the house. We all gathered around the kitchen table with some of the parents checking in the living room to see if their child was ok. The Hales parents sat the at the kitchen island holding hands with questioning eyes. Mr. McCarthy leaned against the kitchen counter closest to the fridge with his wife sitting at the island with the Hales.

Mr. McCarthy eyed us suspiciously as Mrs. McCarthy shifted her eyes from him to us nervously. Mrs. Denali sat at the island next to me holding my hand staring at me intently. Mr. Denali was next to Mr. McCarthy, but he was looking at his wife with cautious. The McCarthy's were Emmett's parents, the Denali's were Tanya's, and the Hales were Jasper's and Rosalie's parents.

The last time we had a meeting like this because of the same person. I sighed drawing attention to myself with it. Why not just tell it like it's a bandage? The wound will be reopened anyways.

"Esme, what's wrong? What happened at the party?" How were they going to take it? I looked solemnly at the people in front of me.

"Isabella Swan is back in Forks. The party was to celebrate her return." I heard a dramatic gasp from Meredith, and kept from rolling my eyes to the woman. Rosalie didn't learn to be a drama queen from anywhere.

"Now? After all this time?" Christina, Emmett's mother, said exasperated. She wrung her hands at the thought of the child coming back. Her coming did resurface some old memories not one of them good. Eleazar, Tanya's father, opened and closed his mouth on how to handle this situation. We could just tell the kids to not do anything to make her feel uncomfortable and tell them the repercussions of doing so. We could get the school to keep an eye on them and tell us anything even if an accidental shove was interacted, but still there was the matter of getting a real feed from the school.

Mrs. Cope, a secretary at the middle school, confessed to helping the kids getting out of bullying Bella and the principal was terrified that we would stop donating all the money we do to the school if they said one thing bad about our kids. It kills me to say that at the time we probably would have. We had that cliché mentality that if we gave our kids everything they wanted, then they would be happy and return the favor by being good golden children. I snorted mentally. That changed quickly.

I couldn't help, but thank Isabella. Indirectly, she saved my kids. If we didn't know about the crap we let our kids get away with then they would get murdered on their own.

"Well what are we going to do about?" Thinking about it now I honestly didn't know, but before I could voice my opinion, the doorbell rang. I looked at the time on stove and huffed. Who on earth would come over at two in morning?

"I got it mom!" Alice said opening the door. I didn't hear her greeting or say anything which was odd considering Alice was never the type to keep quiet. I came from the kitchen to see who was at the door and my body froze in shock.

"Hello Ms. Cullen."