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. Stephenie Meyer created it all.

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Chapter 23: Bella- Patricide

I was shaking as I heard Irina's voice over the phone.

It just killed me that the same things that haunted my dad since the day I ran away were the same things that would seal his fate. His broken cries for me on the news, and his sudden silence were the things that would kill him in the end, if not by the hand of the Volturi then by insanity. Edward said it himself that it was my fault. If I hadn't chosen this, Charlie would be safe. Maybe in not so many words but I was acutely aware of the blame and guilt on my shoulders.

Edward began straightening his clothes and putting himself back together. I could only stare at him, was he just going to hand him over?

"What are you doing?" I shrieked. "He could choose to stay with Tanya, you said they like each other, right?"

He had this pained expression on his face, one that I'd one seen a few times before. Something like the face he wore in the days leading up to the day he left me in the woods. The face of anticipated loss. This was bad, this was really bad.

"Bella," he said my name in a tone that felt so wrong, the tone of resignation, "we need to go see your father and see what his final decision is."

I knew right then that he knew, of course he knew, "What do you know?" I was beyond the ability to control the volume of my voice.

"I really think that you should talk to Charlie, let him explain."

He took my hand and began leading me back to where Tanya had pulled over on the side of the road. I protested a few more times along the way but Edward kept his pace. Tanya and Charlie were where we left them. Charlie sat with his back to the car bumper but Tanya sat curled up in his lap still crying. Charlie looked... stoic?

I went and sat beside him so that Tanya was facing me, I could tell that she wanted to growl at me. I reached out to her hoping to convey that I wouldn't take Charlie away. She took my hand as she recognized an ally.

"He wont stay," she whispered to me. She confirmed what I thought Edward was trying to tell me.

"Now, honey, that's not what I said." I cocked my head at him, there was no way he could have heard her. I vaguely wondered if he would have some kind of talent.

"Why wont you... Why can't you just stay with us? They're going to kill you right now, you know that right?"

"I know. Tanya here told me everything and I don't want to die, I know it's not my time, but Bells, this... life, it's not natural. It's not for me, I'm an old man," Tanya silently scoffed, "and I just can't see myself living forever, life's just too monotonous for that." It felt like he was even more accepting of death after the rough year he's had.

"No, Charlie, it wouldn't be, I promise! I would make it good, please stay! Please?" Disparity coated Tanya's voice.

"Dad, Irina's coming to look for you." Ignoring my father for a minute, I turned to Tanya, "Tanya, why don't you just bite him? He's not thinking clearly!"

"I haven't tasted human blood in centuries, I just don't trust myself." Honestly, I'd bite him myself if I knew I wouldn't lose control, but I was too young to take the chance. I looked to Edward but he shook his head at me, he had never changed a vampire either.

"Charlie would angry if you went against his wishes, you know that." Fundamentally, I did know that, but I couldn't find it in me to care whether or not he'd be mad at me or Tanya, he was being stupid!

In desperation, I was about to take my chances but I heard footsteps approaching. I found it hard to believe that it had been an hour since Irina's call but there she stood with Demetri in tow. As soon as Edward said that he was a tracker, I immediately remembered James and I never had a doubt that he could find us. I stood with the intent of standing between Charlie and Demetri. Charlie might be giving up but I wouldn't and Tanya wouldn't.

"Hand over the human, Tanya. He has been privy to knowledge that he is not authorized to know. Charlie do you deny knowing that the Cullens and Denalis are vampires?" Demetri was holding a miniature trial and had worded it in such a way that even if he didn't know, he now would and would be assigned death.

"No, I-" Demetri cut him off.

"No further questions are needed then to determine the outcome of these proceedings. Irina, take care of the human."

Everything was happening so quickly, one minute the Volturi wasn't even here and the next he was formally charged and sentenced. Irina stepped forward and Charlie made to stand but Tanya kept him by her side there on the ground. I don't know what I was expecting but it dawned on me as I watched Irina's eye darken that she planned to administer death by drinking him. I was on my feet quickly and crouched between them.

"You may think you will kill my father, but he is not food and you will not drink from him. You will not receive pleasure from his death."

"I already have," she sneered. "His pending death pleases me greatly. I get the sickest pleasure from knowing that you can never forget his death. You really think you can take my mate and Tanya's? You are insignificant and the Volturi will find a way to banish you from this life as well. Move aside, little girl, you are standing in the way of justice."

Demetri came and grabbed her arm at the elbow, "That's enough, Laurent is not you mate and Edward is not Tanya's. This is obviously too personal for you to execute on your own. Stand down, you are sullying the name of the Volturi." His grip of her arm tightened when she hesitated but she eventually back down. It was easy to mistake his pride as a member of the Volturi Guard as compassion but I knew better.

"Now is the time to say your goodbyes while I deal with this behavior which is out of line." He spoke to the group but spat the last part at Irina who was now looking fearful.

I turned to Charlie and was ready to continue trying to talk him out of this but I heard Irina screaming from behind me.

"That is the punishment for your behavior. Next time it will be your head and only Aro will decide if it will be reattached. Put this back on," he tossed her arm that was torn from her elbow joint down back to her, "and don't say another word until we return to Volterra." Irina sat on the ground with her knees bent coaxing the elbow joint to knit back together as Demetri returned his focus to Charlie.

"I don't think she'll be a member of the guard for many years, this is not the first time she's had an outburst," Demetri said conversationally.

As Demetri approached I grew upset with myself that I let Irina's punishment distract me from my father. I was shaking, Demetri's movements looked fast even to me. Before I was fully aware, Charlie had closed his eyes and Demetri had reached his hand to the back of his neck.

"I'll be watching you from Heaven, Bella." As Charlie finished his last words, Demetri applied enough to pressure so that his neck snapped and his head now laid limp. His breathing halted and his heartbeat slowed to a dangerously low rhythm. I was completely numb by the single most horrific act I had ever witnessed but the activity around me didn't stop.

Edward roared to Demetri to leave at once and he complied, after all, he was done here. Edward clutched at his head and I wanted to protect him from the thoughts but I couldn't move, I was numb. If I could have moved I would have done what Tanya did. As soon as Demetri turned his back, Tanya pulled Charlie so that he was lying down and she began biting him. I could smell his blood but its scent did not bother me. This blood was not nourishment, it was a life fluid for Charlie. Tanya had bitten his neck, and his wrist but before she had a chance to move to his ankle, I heard his heart stop.

"NO! Please stay with me! I need you!" She screamed over and over. "You're the only person I've ever fallen in love with! How can you leave me? Please don't leave me. Please," she begged again and again. It was agonizing to hear.

She moved to his chest and began performing compressions, "Move," she commanded to her venom that sat stagnant in his veins, "It wont go, I can't make it go!" She kept her chest compressions steady but her hands shook. "It wont go!"

I still couldn't move, I could only sit there for that immeasurable amount of time while Tanya tried everything possible to make her venom course through his limp body, I had to look away from the blank expression in his eyes. She moved to bite him again but collapsed onto his chest. The venom would not take hold, Charlie would not live.

She just laid there clutching at him when all her efforts had been exhausted. After a while, Edward came and lifted her up off of him and put her in the car. She was too weak to put up too much of a fight. I took Tanya's place and curled up next to Charlie.

Edward crouched down next to me and he ran his fingers through my hair. I looked up at him for the first time since Demetri left, he looked visibly shaken.

"I'm going to take Tanya back to the house. You stay here, I'll come back." He kissed my forehead before he got up.

"Wait," I forced myself to get up, "take Charlie... back." It was hard to find my voice again, "I'll stay here with Tanya and take care of her." I was in no shape to be caring for another person, but I couldn't allow myself to worry about me right now, I couldn't fall apart.

"Please don't drive?" I nodded.

He picked up Charlie and gently cradled him in his arms and began his trip back to the house. I went to sit in the driver seat of the car next to Tanya. She was crying softly.

"Of all the times that you would tell me stories of when you grew up and stories with him in them, I never imagined that he would be so," a rough sob broke through her hardly composed features, "wonderful." Actually, most stories of my childhood I had to ask Laurent if I was right, he knew them better than I did now. She needed some sort of comfort and the console was in the way. I got out of the car and went around to the passenger side and pulled her out and pulled her into the backseat with me. We curled up together and grieved together. I wondered if I had said something aloud because she kept telling me that it wasn't my fault, that I did not kill him but I might never believe that.

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A/N: Kleenex, anyone? Lots of thanks to Chewie4370 for pre-reading this chapter. Challa, I really value your opinion!

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