Thank you to all who gave this story a chance! I hope I don't disappoint! Thank you also to the lovely reviews I got yesterday, I hope you all enjoy the chapter.

Warning: Swearing, and mentions of suicide... And some growling.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story.

Chapter 2

The next morning, since I hadn't actually fallen asleep that night, I was up with the light of the new day. The sky was still streaked with gray, but the rain had finally stopped. For a while I lay there in the bed, with Claire clinging to me like a little monkey, wondering what time Charlie usually got up, and whether or not he drank any coffee. I doubted that he had the kind of tea that I liked to drink in the morning. I then started to make a mental grocery list in my mind, of all the things we would need to get.

Finally, when the clock on the cable box read six thirty, I untangled myself from the tiny limbs, and padded across the chilly floors into the tiny kitchen. The cabinets were still yellow, but there was a new refrigerator and dishwasher. Looking through some of the cabinets I was correct that I didn't find any tea, so I quickly set about making a pot of coffee.

While it was brewing I looked through the fridge for something to make for breakfast. Thankfully there was a carton of eggs and some orange juice. Although there were absolutely no vegetables or fruits in sight. Sighing I started to look for a pad of paper to start making an actual list on. After about half an hour, I heard Charlie's boots coming down the stairs.

As he walked into the kitchen, our eyes met briefly before quickly looking away.

Charlie cleared his throat as he made his way to the coffee maker and poured himself a cup.

"How'd you sleep last night?" he asked awkwardly, leaning against the opposite counter that I had been hunched over.

"Fine," I replied quickly, scribbling down a few more items on the list.

"Good, good… Well… How'd Claire sleep?" he asked again.

"Fine," I muttered, the grip on my pencil tightening.

From behind me I heard him set down his coffee mug on the plastic counter.

"Look, Bella. I know that this wasn't what you wanted to do. But I can only hope that-" Charlie started, but I whirled around and caught him in my stare.

"That what, Charlie? That we'd waltz in here and everything would be perfect? A nice little family set up for you again, huh? You think we can just forget what happened back in Phoenix? That we can just settle right in here, and be happy?" I growled.

"Now look here, I know you're still going through a lot, emotionally and mentally, but that's no excuse to-" I cut him off again, despite the fact his face was an ungodly shade of red, either out of anger or embarrassment, I didn't care.

"My fucking mother killed herself. Slit her wrists and her throat, right in the middle of her own bedroom. I think that's a perfect fucking excuse," I snarled at him, making a move to step forward. I wasn't sure if I had been about to hit him or yell some more, but the sound of a small sniff made me stop on a dime.

My eyes swung to the hallway where Claire was now standing in her pink striped leggings and white shirt, rubbing her eyes and yawning tiredly. As she blinked open those big, ocean blue eyes I stepped towards her and crouched down.

"Hey there, baby girl. How'd you sleep? You were so tired!" I said to her, trying to make the tense sound of my voice go away.

"Why were you and Charlie arguing?" Claire asked in her sleepy voice and I turned slightly to see that Charlie was looking at her too.

"We weren't arguing, Claire… We were just talking about what we're going to do today," I said, trying to steer her away from that conversation.

"It didn't sound like that," Claire said, her blue eyes looking me over in the curious way that all small children do. As if they could see straight through our lies.

"That's because I'm just a little bit tired, and I woke up a bit grumpy. I'm sorry you heard us. Did we wake you up?" I asked, pushing some blonde hair out of her face and standing up to my full height again.

She shook her head, making her curls bounce around her face. "No, the sun came in the window."

"Right… We'll be moved in upstairs hopefully tonight, and there are some curtains up there. How about that? Now… Are eggs okay for breakfast?" I asked, walking towards the fridge and pulling out the carton as well as the orange juice.

Claire nodded her head again and moved closer to my leg. I lifted my eyes to Charlie's which were still locked on Claire.

"Do you want some eggs?" I asked casually. His eyes met mine, and in that moment I think he understood that it wasn't just breakfast, but rather a peace offering.

"Sure," he managed to force the word out before taking another long drink of coffee.

"Why don't you have a breakfast table?" Claire asked suddenly, and Charlie looked down to see her staring at him.

"Uhm, what?" Charlie asked, as if he hadn't heard the question.

"We used to have two tables at home. One for breakfast, and one for lunch and dinner. But you don't have any tables," Claire said quietly. I kept my eyes trained on the eggs I was cracking into the pan.

Charlie was silent for a long moment before he cleared his throat, "Uh… Well I don't know… I guess I'll have to get one, won't I?" he asked. I didn't see if Claire responded or not, but by the time I was dishing out eggs, she had wandered back into the living room and she had turned on the television. Although, she was watching some kind of infomercial for a blender.

I handed Charlie his plate of eggs and then went into the living room and gave Claire hers with a glass of orange juice. As we all sat down on the couch eating our eggs we watched an infomercial about the Magic Bullet.

I didn't dare to try and change the channel, and Charlie seemed to have the same idea. So we chewed slowly, and listened to the over exuberant man on screen tell us how we couldn't live without this product.

"I'm making a list of stuff for groceries. I was thinking about going later. Also I have to stop and get some stuff for Claire for school on Monday. She needs some new notebooks," I said casually.

"I'll leave some money for you. I have a night shift. Four to midnight," he responded with and I nodded. At least I wouldn't have to worry about making awkward conversation with him for a few hours. Considering it was Saturday and I'd have more than enough awkward conversation on Monday when I started classes as a student at Forks High School.

The rest of the morning progressed in a similar manner. Claire didn't start any more conversations, which was normal. It was surprising that she had even spoke at all this morning. And Charlie and I had come to some kind of don't ask, it'll only end badly, agreement.

Once I helped Claire into a bath and some new clothes, I settled her down with a television show and took my own shower.

Before getting into the warm water I stared at myself in the mirror. My cheekbones were sharp, and my skin looked pale, almost as if I was sick. There were dark shadows under my eyes from getting barely twelve hours of sleep in the past two weeks. The scars on my palms and knuckles were silvery white and stood out prominently, and the gash on my thigh was still a pink, puckered line with some scabs on it.

I had always been knobby. Sharp, awkward angles instead of flowing voluptuous curves. I was extremely far from being ample in any department. Small boobs, small ass. My mother used to call me a stick with pretty hair. Even the thought of those joking compliments sent a stab of pain through the hollow spot in my chest.

Sighing, I walked under the spray and washed up quickly. Once I got out and dried off I jumped into the pair of black leggings, and a black tanktop. I brushed out my hair and brushed my teeth, then jogged back downstairs. Claire and Charlie were both sitting on the couch watching television where I'd left them.

"You want to come shopping with my Claire, or stay here with Charlie?" I asked. Although it felt awkward saying it, technically Charlie was not Claire's father, and I didn't want her to feel as though she had to call him that.

She looked away from the TV for a brief second and pointed down to the ground a few times.

"Awesome," I muttered, "Do you mind staying with her for a bit?"

Charlie shook his head absently, obviously interested with the brightly colored cartoon on the TV. I rolled my eyes, "Do you at least have that cash? And some car keys? And directions to the store?"

"Oh right," Charlie dug through his pockets and pulled out his wallet, extracting some crisp twenty dollar bills and the keys to the cruiser. He quickly explained how to get to the grocery store on the other side of town, and said that the closest general store, unless I wanted to go to Port Angeles was on the reservation, "They don't really take to strangers on their land, but if anyone gives you trouble, just tell them that I sent you. No one should bother you."

"Right," I said, "Thanks."

Rummaging around in my duffle bag I pulled out my favorite red hoodie, and then slipped on my back boots. I kissed Claire on the top of the head, and she responded with pushing my shoulder out of the way so she could see her show.

"I'll be back in an hour," I said as I left the house.

Even though it was only September, the leaves had already begun to change, although they were much soggier here. Getting into the cruiser I saw it was an automatic. Happy enough, I backed out of the driveway and drove into town.

The grocery store was three times smaller than the smallest one in Phoenix and I wondered if they'd even have everything I wanted. But it turned out that they even had the kind of tea that I had been hoping to get. I got a few things for dinner to make for the next few nights until I could go shopping again.

As I unloaded everything onto the checkout, my thoughts were interrupted by a voice.

"Hey, do I know you?" asked the voice. I looked up and saw a girl, with very curly brown hair and curious eyes. She was chomping on a piece of pink bubblegum and the name on her nametag read Jessica.

"Uh… No, I don't think so. I'm new here," I responded, still unloading my things.

"Oh… Are you like the new girl? The chief's daughter?" she asked.

"Yeah… That's me…" I muttered again, rolling my eyes slightly, though she didn't seem to have seen.

"That's cool. What's your name? Are you going to be going to Forks High?" she asked.

"Yup… I'm Bella," I said, finally out of items to distract myself with.

"Well, I'm Jessica," she stated the obvious and I nearly snorted, "I'm a junior."

"So am I," I replied, quickly taking the things she had bagged and stuffing them back into my cart.

"That's great! We can totally sit with each other at lunch and stuff! I'll introduce you to all of my friends! We have such a great group, this is going to be so much fun," she nearly squealed in excitement, and I jumped at the noise. If she was going to keep that up, then I definitely would not be doing anything with her. Instead of saying that, I plastered a grimace onto my face that I hoped at least resembled a smile.

"That would be cool, thanks. I gotta be going now, though… See yah," I said quickly, paying her and pushing my cart away.

"See you on Monday, Bella!" she called after me, and I cringed slightly. Dear God she was loud.

Walking back out to the car I shoved all of the bags into the back seat, hoping that nothing would slide around on the plastic seat and then got back into the car. The directions Charlie gave me to the reservation were simple enough, and I started to think about what he meant that they didn't like strangers on their land. Did they just not like white people on their land? Considering the entire history of America that wasn't too hard to believe.

Finally I made it onto the reservation and started peering around at the houses that were far apart from each other. They were not showy, rather simple, and surrounded by the forest. There was no reason to worry about neighbors apparently.

When my eyes locked onto the small sign that signaled the general store, I pulled into a space and hopped out, hoping to get this over with quickly.

Pulling down my hood as I walked into the shop, a small bell signaled my arrival. The place smelled like dry herbs, and a bit of must. Looking around I could see old photographs on the wooden walls and shelves of canned food. Across from me was a small little aisle of school supplies that seemed to have come straight out of the fifties.

Stepping forward I crouched down to search through them for a pink one for Claire's kindergarten notebook. The email had said that the teachers wrote every week in Claire's notebook to tell the parents what was going on in school. I just thought that it was a load of shit.

Finally settling on a red one, and wondering how I was going to placate Claire later with the color, I dug out the crumpled five dollar bill that was left, and made my way towards the front counter. Behind the counter there was a boy that looked native. He was dressed in a ratty pair of jean cutoff shorts, and a dirty blue tshirt stretched tight across his chest. However, his head was tipped forward, chin tucked against his chest and from the slight snoring sound that rumbled through him, he seemed to be sleeping.

Rolling my eyes, I huffed and looked around the counter. My eyes landed on a silver bell, that apparently had been installed for this purpose exactly. Holding my hand out over it, and keeping my eyes on the sleeping boy, I slammed my hand down on the bell and let it ring loudly.

The effect was immediately, and honestly it was as if I had shot the boy instead of just ringing a bell. His eyes shot open, and his neck cracked with how fast he seemed to move as he stood off of his stool, and looked around wildly for some kind of threat.

Holding the notebook to my chest, I debated if I should just run for it. Finally his eyes seemed to focus in on the fact that there was a girl standing in front of him. I raised my hand slowly towards him, in either a surrender or a wave, I wasn't sure.

"Can I help you?" he asked, his voice was rough and deep.

"Yeah, I wanted to buy this," I said, holding up the notebook in my other hand.

"That'll be 1.50," the boy said. I threw the crumpled up five onto the counter, which he snatched, and started taking out my change. Just then the front door of the store opened again and it brought in a slight breeze. The bell dinged and I looked over briefly, only to have my eyes glued onto the enormous man that had just walked in. He had to be almost seven feet tall, ducking slightly to avoid the door frame, and he was dressed in denim cutoffs, however he had no shirt on his incredibly defined chest. His raven black hair, hung down in silky strands to his elbows, and his skin was a gorgeous russet color.

I felt my cheeks heat up as I realized that I had just done a full eye-fucking of this total stranger. And in a place where they probably didn't even appreciate my company anyway! However, when I looked up I found that my apology had died on my lips completely. His eyes which were the darkest color brown, almost black stared back at me, and I felt about two inches tall in that moment. They were like twin black holes that were sucking me in effortlessly. As though my soul were being siphoned out of my being, and being transformed into something else entirely.

And then I heard a rumbling. For a moment I thought it was thunder, but I couldn't hear any rain outside. Then I realized that it was coming from behind me. Tearing my eyes away from the dark eyes of the enormous stranger, I saw that the boy behind the counter was now glaring at me, his teeth slightly bared.

I squeaked in fear, when he started to move around the counter. Grabbing the notebook off of the counter, I ignored the change that the boy now had a death grip on. I did not look away from the boy's eyes, which for some reason looked completely different than they had only a minute ago. They somehow looked more feral.

The growling didn't stop as I backed away from the cashier boy, and to my surprise, an echoing growl joined it from behind me.

This growl was deeper, and more menacing, but the strangest sensation settled over me, making me feel as though it wasn't directed at me.

I could see the cashier boy flinch at the sound, but he still kept stalking towards me slowly.

"Look, I don't want any trouble. I know you don't really like strangers around here but, uhm... I'm Charlie Swan's daughter. I just was going, now. Sorry," I managed to breath out through my fear, but the boy seemed to have not heard me.

Then without warning, the boy lunged towards me, and I scrunched my eyes closed, waiting for the boy to start attacking. However the only thing that happened was that I was shoved back a bit by a warm, firm hand, and an echoing growl reverberated around the room. I opened my eyes again just in time to see the enormous man shoving the slightly shorter cashier boy into a shelf full of canned food. His hand tight around his throat, and his dark eyes glinting menacingly.

Before anything else weird could happen, I leapt pulled open the door, ignoring the snarls and growling coming from the two native men in the general store and ran back to the car. Throwing the notebook onto the passenger side, I jammed the keys back into the ignition and peeled out of the parking lot back towards town.

Once I got back home, I unloaded the groceries silently. Charlie offered to help make some lunch, but I waved him off, needing some time on my own to process what had happened. Claire was being entertained by some old toys that Charlie had pulled down from the attic that had once been mine. He had even started cleaning out the old bedroom while I'd been gone.

As I finished the grilled cheese sandwiches and presented Claire with her notebook that had almost gotten me killed, as predicted she asked if she could go back and get a pink one.

"No!" I nearly shouted at the very thought of Claire going back into that shop owned by a crazy boy. Charlie eyed me curiously, and I looked down, "The red one will have to be okay, Claire. Maybe some other weekend we'll go into Port Angeles and look around, okay?"

She seemed placated with that, and began munching on her sandwich. However Charlie was not so easily fooled.

"Something happen down on the res, Bella?" he asked carefully as he fixed his own plate beside me.

"Nothing too interesting," I muttered, hoping that he would drop it. I should have known that I wouldn't get so lucky.

"You didn't run into anyone down there? Nobody said anything to you?" he asked. I could feel his eyes on me, but I truly wanted this conversation to be over.

"Not at all. the boy in the shop was super nice. I even met some girl from the high school at the grocery store. Someone named Jessica?" I said, steering conversation away. I didn't want to think about the way that cashier boy had looked at me. Like he was about to kill me.

"Probably the Stanley's girl… Her older sister graduated last year. Or maybe it was two years ago. Don't remember. Was she nice at least?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I guess so… Kind of loud. And she chewed with her mouth open," I muttered, biting into my grilled cheese. Charlie chuckled and began eating his own lunch. And that was the end of that.

xXx

By the time darkness fell, the room upstairs had been entirely cleaned out, thanks to Charlie and myself. I had forgotten how small the room actually was. The walls were still painted purple, much to Claire's delight, and Charlie had procured an extra twin bed from someone he worked with who no longer needed it. It was now set up so that my bed lay underneath the window that faced the back yard with the small side table in the middle, and Claire's bed pushed against the opposite wall. There was barely enough room at the end of my bed to put the writing desk, and the door hit the desk chair when you tried to close it, but at least it was a private space.

Claire was also happy that she got my old pink bedspread from when I had been little. I had unpacked all of our clothes into the closet and the small dresser that had been shoved inside of the closet. We barely took up all of the space inside of it with the clothes we'd packed, but that wasn't entirely a bad thing.

After a simple dinner of spaghetti, Charlie had left for his shift, leaving me to complete the bedtime routine with Claire at eight thirty. She was excited to sleep in her own bed, with her new sheets at dinner time, but when I had declared it was time to go to bed, she had broke down into a temper tantrum, screaming that she wanted mommy to get her ready for bed. It was when she had been screaming loud enough to cause suspicion in the neighborhood that I had finally broken the last thread of restraint I had and took her shoulders in my hands. Her angry, tearful blue eyes stared at mine as she wiggled and tried to free herself.

"Mommy is never coming back. Do you understand, Claire? Claire! She is dead, and you can't come back from being dead! You just can't! She's not on a trip, she's gone. So stop asking for her!" I nearly shouted, my own throat aching from trying not to break down in tears as well.

My words made Claire quiet down, as she stared at me wide eyed, while I slumped to the floor and rubbed my face in my hands.

This was not how it was supposed to be.

Finally after a very long time, Claire whispered.

"Can I sleep in your bed tonight?"

Taking a deep breath and brushing away the stray tear on my cheek, I looked up at her and nodded, "Yeah, baby, you can sleep with me."

And so, Claire climbed into the tiny twin bed, and I followed in after her. Letting her rest her tiny head on my shoulder and feeling her breath on my neck.

Outside I could hear it had started to rain again, and as I lay there listening to Claire's breath even out, I closed my own eyes and tried to remember what it was like to have a good night's sleep. As I lay there in bed, wishing I could fall asleep, I felt myself drifting off. And before I fell into complete oblivion, I could have sworn I heard a wolf howling in the forest beyond the house.

Phew! Bella's all over the place, and we introduce some boys from the res... Who do you think they were? Leave a comment if you'd like too, and thank you so much for reading!