"Do you think he'll go away?" Bella asked, not wanting to drag her body from the bed for any reason, let alone to confront her father over something she couldn't even begin to explain.
"I don't know babe, he's your dad. But he's been banging away down there for a good thirty minutes now, so what do you think?" Paul knew his rights, knew that the girl laying next to him was legally an adult in the eyes of the law. It was only the eyes of a father that he had to deal with in this moment, but that didn't make him feel any more at ease to have the Chief of Police banging on his door in the middle of the night.
"You think he's here for me?" She asked, unsure whether the thought really did bring the relief it should to know that he wasn't about to bust down the door and wave around warrants.
"Well, I know he's alone down there and it seems too coinci-fucking-dental that the day Jake finally goes home that your daddy dearest shows up on my doorstep. So yeah, I think he's here for you, for now at least." Paul concluded, wishing for just a moment that his life could go back to how it had been, to the time when he didn't have to worry about who was gonna show up in the middle of the night and disturb his peace.
"Whatever I say to him, just go with it okay?" Bella pleaded as she struggled to get out of bed, searching the floor for something to wear.
"Here, put this on." Paul offered as he threw his oversized shirt in her direction, earning him a reproachful stare in response.
"I was trying to find anything that might make it look like I hadn't just spent the night in your bed, not concrete proof of it." She muttered as she jumped slightly, the banging resuming at the front door and echoing ominously throughout the house.
Finding nothing else at hand, she threw the shirt over her head with a hopeless sigh, pulling on her panties as Paul watched on, not trying to hide the fact that he wanted her in his clothes, that he wanted her father to see that she was his now, a declaration she'd made of her own choosing.
"Get dressed." Bella hissed desperately as she caught his eyes roaming all over her body, no hint of urgency in his demeanor as he stood proud in his natural state, moonbeams casting a beautiful blue glow over his dark skin.
Silently Paul shrugged on a pair of jeans and then made his way to the blackened corridor, ignoring Bella's protests that he could at least throw on a shirt as she followed him at something caught between a quick walk and a slow jog.
"Are you ready for this?" Paul asked as he drew to a stop directly in front of the front door, the shadow of an irate man pacing just beyond a thin plate of mottled glass bringing the reality of the situation home. However Bella didn't speak, she simply nodded her head once as she reached out for his hand, intertwining her fingers with his as she reminded herself that it was just her father behind the door, just her father and not another monster from the woods.
But the door swung open before she could fully convince herself of that fact and as she stood there staring at the man who she could barely recognize as the strong father figure she'd left behind, she felt herself grasp onto her wolf like her life depending on it.
The movement didn't bypass her father's astute eyes, neither did the fact that his daughter was half dressed in the middle of the night, in the house of a man he was all but convinced was guilty of at the very least aiding and abetting a murder. The anger that had been building in his system since finding Jacob Black sitting at home on his father's couch as though nothing had happened quickly melted away.
It started out with her name caught in his throat, and then without warning he felt like he was drowning in relief, the reality of his daughter's safety and welfare too much to process from the hope he'd clung to since his house had blown away, the memories of his life twisting with embers in the breeze.
"Bells." He finally whispered out, angrily wiping away the tears that obstructed his vision with the back of his hand.
She came to him then, her fragile arms wrapping around his neck like she had as a little girl, the comfort she found in her father's embrace like none other in the world.
"I thought you were gone…I thought…" Bella could feel a knot of guilt rise in her throat as she listened to Charlie bare his soul on her shoulder, reminding her of how much hurt she'd caused with her actions.
"I'm here Dad, I promise, nothing is going to happen to me." Bella couldn't remember the last time Charlie had touched her with any kind of affection, and without knowing it she pulled him a little closer, feeling the rough feel of his unshaven face brush over her temple. Their reunion was cut short with a loud and pushy cough from behind them, and when Bella felt Charlie's body stiffen around her, she mentally cursed Paul for his lousy timing, that and what was no doubt some testosterone driven urge to be the one she was holding with such affection.
Charlie looked over his daughter's shoulder to the large Quileute standing like a statue in the doorway, and though he was barely holding on to his emotions as it was, he knew that if he spoke now he would only end up pushing his daughter further into the arms of the brute and not back out of them as he desperately desired.
Bella felt her heart skip as Charlie pulled away, leaving her standing cold in the star lit sky as he pushed his way into Paul's home. She noticed Paul's fists flex and she knew within herself that he was holding himself back for her, that he was allowing this to play out when it went against his every instinct to do so, especially in the sanctuary of his own personal space.
A simple tug on her hand told Bella that she had to move, that she couldn't just stand in the doorway all night and pretend that this wasn't happening. After everything that had happened she'd run out of time to think of some plausible reason for her disappearance, especially one that didn't involve things that went bump in the night.
"What happened to your face?" Charlie asked as she moved to stand awkwardly in the doorway, watching her father pace around the room, stopping occasionally to take a closer look at something that took his interest. The deep pool of emotion she'd found in his eyes only moments ago was gone and with the clipped tone he was using, the tight rigidity of his spine, she knew that she wasn't just dealing with her father, she was also facing the inquisition of a man who had spent his years weeding through the lies of criminals.
"I got punched in the face." She replied, knowing she had no story lined up to tell, so the truth would have to suffice in its place.
"Was it him?" He asked succinctly, his eyes landing squarely on Paul with nothing friendly in his gaze.
Bella felt a tremor hurtle up her arm and for a moment she looked to the ground, wondering why the earth was shaking. Then realization dawned and she was slammed back into the truth of what her life now was. Turning to Paul, she noticed the muscles twitching under his jaw, the whole of his body held so tight that he looked ready to pounce.
She didn't care that it gave more credibility to her father's theory when she turned her back to him, her fingers dancing over Paul's jaw until he turned his eyes down to her. There was nothing soft in the look he gave her and though she knew he would say no, she had to say the words, to offer him the chance to walk away before he did something that could never be taken back. "Maybe you should go in the other room, give Charlie and me some time on our own to figure this out?"
Paul's eyes darted over her shoulder taking in the threat standing in his own living room, but there was no choice to be made and though he could have held himself back, he pulled her into his body, not caring that her father's eyes had narrowed with every inch he closed between himself and his daughter.
Pulling back from his embrace, Bella felt like she could hear her father's disapproval screaming out from behind her, breaking through the usual peace she felt in Paul's arms.
"Paul didn't do this to me, someone else did, someone who can't hurt me anymore." Bella sighed, suddenly feeling a wave of pure unadulterated exhaustion sweep through her to have to find pieces of truth to share.
Paul obviously felt it too and under a watchful stare he pushed her down into a nearby chair before moving back to stand over her shoulder like a sentinel.
"What does that mean, Bells, 'someone who can't hurt you'? I thought I'd lost you, I thought the worst things you could ever imagine. Is it too much to ask for a real answer?" Charlie implored her with his eyes and she felt her walls crumbling around her. Would it be too much to ask? Looking to Paul she found her answer in the drawn line of his lips, the firm refusal in his eyes.
Seeing his daughter close down so clearly with so little influence from the Quileute she was clinging to was enough to send Charlie's blood pressure skyrocketing. He'd interviewed too many women in his time who covered up blood and bruises with lies, and he was damned if his own flesh and blood was going to become one of them.
"So do you want to cut through this bullshit then and tell me where you've been, Bella? Where you were when you lied and sent me a letter telling me you were going to stay with your Mom? Or maybe where you were when some punk kid blew up my house? And since you don't seem too surprised by the fact that we no longer have a home, how about you tell me why you never called me to let me know that you were ok; that you weren't inside the house when it burnt to the ground? Or, I don't know, how about you tell me who the hell hurt you and why you feel so sure that they can't hurt you anymore? And how about we round this out and you tell me exactly what else they did to you, because I wasn't born yesterday, I can see by the way you're hobbling around that there's more to it." Charlie's words were so evenly paced, filled with such a cold control that Bella literally shivered, unable to meet his disapproving eyes when she feared he would find a route directly into her soul.
"I've been here, on the rez. I just couldn't cope being locked up all the time and I needed to breathe. I didn't mean to stay away, but I couldn't go back, I couldn't leave. When I found out about the house, when I thought about how much I'd hurt you by leaving in the first place, it just got harder and harder to face what I'd left behind." Bella's words were a mumbled confession filled with holes she hoped her father wouldn't scratch at, but she was underestimating her father's heart.
"So that's how you want to play this? You want to protect him when he kept you hidden from me? Do you think I'm dumb enough to think you aren't covering for him? Do you know what he's done, Bells? What he and his friends did to that poor girl…" Bella's eyes snapped up to see Charlie looking pointedly at Paul, combative eyes betraying the sadness in his voice and sending swirling waves of wildly aggressive energy across the small expanse of the room.
"Do you have any proof that Paul was involved in any of that?" Bella asked, breaking the tension by saying something no one in the room had expected.
Her father stumbled, his mouth opening and closing once and then twice before he wrapped his arms around his chest, not seeing how defensive the position appeared.
"Do you?" Bella pushed, feeling the loyalties she'd harbored for the man in front of her twist violently in her gut as she watched him take note of her allegiances and see them bound to another.
"Bells, you know you don't have to do this, right?" He asked, ignoring the way Paul's hand had come down to grip Bella's shoulder, the warmth of his touch providing her with the comfort she so desperately needed.
"I'm not doing anything I wouldn't do for any one of my friends, Dad, but if you're going after Paul for something he didn't do, then you have to know I'm going to stand by him every step of the way. I know your heart's in the right place, but I think you've been led in the wrong direction. However, if you insist on pursuing this, and be clear that by 'this' I mean Paul, then I don't want you to be surprised when you find I'm working against you." Bella locked eyes with her fathers, begging him to see how difficult this was, how the thought of the two most important men in her life being at odds was literally tearing her apart.
When Paul wrapped Bella up in his arms and she fell easily into his embrace, Charlie took a sharp step backwards and Bella couldn't help but see that he felt like his own flesh and blood had just slapped him clean across the face.
"Please don't do this, Bella. I've rented a little place in town until I get things sorted and I really think you should come back home with me. I know right now it probably feels like you know everything about the world, but sometimes people aren't who you think they are, sometimes you need someone to show you what's going on behind the blinders. Just come with me?" Charlie's shoulders seemed to crumble as he spoke and though no one had offered him the comfort, he took a much-needed seat in one of Paul's chairs.
"I'm not you Charlie, and I'm not Mom either. I'm not here because I made a mistake and got stuck in something I couldn't control." But there were more lies in those words than in any she'd spoken all evening and Bella couldn't help but glance towards Paul, and find him moving to her side without a word spoken between them.
"Is that what you think happened? Is that why you're doing this? Because of something that happened between your Mom and me." Charlie's words were spoken with such shock that Bella was already shaking her head violently before he could finish with the unwarranted thoughts.
"No, it has nothing to do with you and Mom, maybe I'm not explaining it properly…" She was about to vehemently declare that she would never make the same foolish choices they'd made, but instead she turned to Paul and realized with a couple exotic twists here and there, she wasn't so different after all.
"I'm staying here Dad." Bella said firmly, deliberately using the term that so often curled on her tongue with a certain unfamiliarity. "I'll go back to school in Forks when I'm ready, but I'm moving to the rez. I know you probably think it's something you did, or something I'm doing to make you angry, or whatever else, but it has nothing to do with that. Paul's asked me to marry him and while I haven't said yes yet, I've decided to move in so I can see if we can really make this work." Bella held her breath as the last words left her mouth, and though she didn't want to look, she couldn't help but turn to Paul, hoping he wouldn't be reacting with complete and utter shock.
Yet he had been true to her request and she found nothing but a smirk on his lips, clearly enjoying the way her father's feathers had clearly been ruffled by her declaration.
"Bells, you aren't old enough to make that sort of decision. You just…" Charlie abruptly stopped and looked to his daughter, his head dropping to his hands as he rubbed his tired eyes. "I don't want to fight with you after I only just found you again. I just had to see you, I had to be sure that he wasn't hurting you." Charlie concluded, his voice small and lost in a man who normally commanded whole rooms with his prowess.
"I would never hurt her." Paul stated firmly, with more anger than was truly necessary, but he couldn't bring himself to hold in his temper, not when this was the second time his imprint's father had questioned his ability to care for what was his.
"Maybe I should just go?" Charlie stated in a half question, before rising to his feet and looking beyond the man by her side to see only his daughter. "Will you walk me to the door Bells?"
Somewhat reluctantly, Paul remained where he was as she stood, but it didn't stop him from hearing the hushed conversations from the doorway, the promises Bella made to see her father again if he called during more sociable hours. When she returned to his side, she was wearing a look of triumphant sorrow and he eagerly pulled her into his arms and led them back up to bed.
"So, married huh?" He asked jovially, not caring about the lie particularly, but wondering how exactly she planned to pull that off in a town which such rampant gossip.
"Yeah, it was the only way I figured he'd be happy to let me stay here. For now he thinks I'm considering it, but when he tries to convince me getting married so young isn't such a good idea, he'll feel like he has some control again; he'll feel like he's won a little bit when we only agree to living together." Bella wasn't particularly proud of her plan and as she stumbled back into bed, it was Paul who pulled her to his bare chest, who whispered enticingly in her ear. "And whoever said you get to live here huh?" He asked, silently reveling in the manipulative manner of her plan, the assumptions she'd made and the future that was taking shape in front of his eyes.
"You want me to leave?" Bella asked as she turned to face her wolf, the playful sparkle in his eyes letting her know his true stance in this game.
"No." He replied succinctly. "Never."
a/n: Thank you to my super beta Twiticulate, you rock hun!
A little note to all you readers; I'm truly sorry for the delay between updates recently, it's nothing more than a combination of bad timing, RL shit and coming to the end of the story (which I always find hard to write). So thank you for all your patience and hopefully it won't be such a long pause until the next chapter arrives. Until then...
xxx