Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the characters, sadly.

Baby You Can Stop Running

Chapter Two

BPOV

The house, at least from the outside, hadn't changed since I had left, not that I found that surprising. Even when I went to live with Renee, after the divorce, before she married Phil, each summer that I would come to visit Charlie and Emmet, who had chosen to stay with Charlie in Forks, the house never changed. Even after she remarried, Charlie kept the pictures of their wedding hanging on the walls, a constant reminder of the life that he lost, the love that he lost. So it really shouldn't have surprised me when I saw the red truck, my old, rusted red truck, parked in the driveway. Emmet must have seen the look on my face, the surprise. In my mind I figured he would have sold it, made money off his misfortune, a sign that he disowned the daughter who he thought never appreciated him.

"Just in case you ever did decide to come home." Emmet said, his eyes looking at the truck and then at me. "I told him it wasn't likely but he wouldn't hear anything of it."

I hung my head in shame. Leaving was truly the only option that I had, the only way to leave the town and avoid the rumors, avoid the stares and the shame that would follow me for my life if anyone had found out. In a small town, secrets don't ever stay a secret, everyone is too involved in each other's lives to keep things under a blanket for too long. Emmet was the only one I trusted with my secret, my secrets, and I was thankful that I had him but I hated myself for putting him in the middle of my father and I. He didn't seem to mind but I did, I always felt guilty making him bear a burden that he really never should have had, especially alone. It wasn't fair to him.

"He must think I hate him." I said softly, opening the door of his Jeep and stepping out. I ran my hand along the red truck, noting that there were more rust spots on it then I had remembered, likely a result of the constant wet weather. Even now, the month of October barely starting, the air was wet. Washington weather is unlike any other that I had ever experienced, the rain was rarely the rain that many other states experience, here it was like a mist, a mist that never seemed to go away, that would wrap you in a cold, wet blanket, sticking to your hair, your face, your clothes until you were soaked to the core. The truck probably barely ever had a chance to dry out, maybe a few random days in which the sun would happen to peek through the dark clouds, but other than that, rust seemed inevitable, especially on a car as old as mine. Still, I forgot how much I loved it, how much a part of me it was.

"He doesn't hate you Bells. He's just…" His voice dropped off, and I knew that he wanted to search for the right word, not wanting to harm my sensitive, delicate feelings. Hmph, sensitive, delicate? No, that boat had long set sail. "He just doesn't understand why."

"Come on Em. We both know that he thinks I'm just like Re… Mom." I corrected myself. Though I had once called my parents by the names that were customary for children to call their parents, mom and dad, when I moved I decided to put that part of my life behind me as well. Being back in Forks I knew I would have to make sure that I didn't slip up, I wasn't sure exactly how Charlie would react to me calling him by his real name and not dad, though I guessed it ranged on the line of hurt. "Getting up and leaving because he thought I wasn't happy here." Emmet's lack of response was all the answer I needed to know that I was right.

"The keys are still in the house if you want to drive it." He changed the subject, pulling my suitcase from the back of the car and setting it down on the driveway. "The car could probably use a good drive, I think it's been a while since anyone has taken it out."

"That's because you don't like that it doesn't go fast enough." I teased and watched as he smiled and shrugged. I probably should have been more honest, when I said that I didn't want Emmet to pick me up, it was mainly because his driving terrified me. Never one to live on the edge, the speed that Emmet liked to drive at, let's just say I equated it to someone trying to break the sound barrier. He always was the thrill seeker that I never seemed to be. Then again, he wasn't an uncoordinated disaster like I was. I probably would have spent more time making reckless decisions if I wasn't so concerned that I would kill myself.

"If you want to rest for a bit before we go to the hospital that's okay. I called into work today and told them that I needed a personal day." He commented, pulling the on the handle of my luggage as he walked to the house, stopping briefly to look over his shoulder at me, a small smile on his lips. "Besides dad's usually out of it until noon or so, and knowing you, you probably were too anxious to sleep after I woke you up."

"I just wish you had called sooner."

"I wasn't sure that you would have come home." His key hit the lock and he opened it in one swift move.

"I guess I deserve that comment." My eyes were taking in the room, everything was exactly the same, the furniture, the pictures. It amazed me that after all these years he hadn't bothered to replace anything. Though, that probably had something to do with the fact that he was rarely ever home. If we wasn't working he was out fishing, or visiting Billy Black in La Push. My voice got quiet as I looked at Emmet, unintentionally placing my small hand on his large arm, only briefly admiring the way it looked, how small and fragile it made me seem in comparison. "You don't believe that right?"

"I don't know Bells…" He sighed, stopping at the foot of the stairs to turn to look my way. "When you left things were just so…"

"Messy?" I whispered, looking down trying not to meet his gaze.

"I guess that's one way to put it. I guess I just wasn't sure where you stood and with Jacob…" His voice trailed as he watched my cheeks burn red though I wasn't sure why. My feelings for him were gone, long gone when I had learned what kind of a person he really was. "Well, I mean, coming back would certainly mean running into him again and that was something I never would want to put you through."

"Still… We're family. We should have stuck together. I shouldn't have abandoned you like I did. It wasn't fair." I could feel the tears forming in my eyes and as I tried to blink them back I realized that they were just too wet and before I knew it I could feel the warm, salty liquid on my cheek which I brushed away quickly with the back of my hand.

"You did what you had to do." He smiled a small, sad smile before making his way up the stairs, two steps at a time, pausing only once he reached the top to turn to look at me. "You look good kid. Like you finally have come to terms with everything."

"I wouldn't say that completely but it's better. It gets easier each day."

"You've always been a fighter Bells, a fiery ball of clumsiness." He teased, his hand on the door to my bedroom. That was the first change I noted, back before I had left, the door to my room was rarely closed, unless of course I was in it. It must have made things easier for him, not having the constant reminder of an empty room. I stood in the hall and watched as Emmet placed the suitcase in the room, almost too scared to walk into it, not necessarily because I was afraid that it had changed, no, I was pretty certain that everything as exactly the same, down to the dirty clothes that had been left in the basket, but more because it would make this all the more real. It would make my return real, and I was terrified that walking in would stir up the memories that I had spent three years trying to suppress.

I walked in and looked around the room. And just as I had assumed, everything was exactly the same: the wooden floor, the light blue walls, and the yellow lace curtains, each serving as a constant reminder of my childhood, my growth into adult hood, but most importantly, my past, the past that I was running from.

"I haven't slept in a bed that small in a long time." I tried to joke, walking closer but finding that I caught my foot on the rug, stumbling forward but luckily catching myself before I could find myself on the floor for the second time that day. Emmet laughed quietly at my fall prompting me to glare at him which only made him laugh harder. "Okay, out. I'm going to rest for a bit. It's obvious by my lack of dexterity, even more so than usual, that I'm too tired to go just yet. Wake me up in a few hours?"

"Sure thing." He smiled, his eyes still laughing as he closed the door, leaving me alone for the first time since arriving back home.

I ran my fingers on the old computer, the one that I use to use to communicate with Renee when I had only first moved to Forks, something that Renee had insisted on. I couldn't believe it was still here, and I partially wondered if it still worked, it was severely outdated, even Emmet had sprung for a new one for himself. My hand trailed to the pictures on the desk, a few of myself and Angela Weber, my best friend at Forks, even some with the whole group: Mike Newton, Lauren Mallory, Jessica Stanley, Tyler Crowley and Ben Cheney. They were memories and people that I had allowed myself to almost forget. Well not Angela, I sometimes kept in touch with her, we would send e-mails a few times a year, she would update me on how her relationship with Ben was, I even received an invitation to her wedding shower which it looked like I might be able to attend after all.

I moved from the desk to my bed, laying down on it, finding that my body still reacted pleasantly to the old mattress. I hated that things were changing, hated that I was back, hated that Charlie was so badly injured, hated that one town could stir my emotions the way that it did. I missed San Francisco, missed the comfort of the large city, the sounds of the street beneath my window, the distance from Forks. I closed my eyes hoping that I could somehow find sleep, even though my body didn't seem to want it, it was too nervous with the prospect of who I might run into, nervous about Charlie's fate, nervous about my own fate.

The next thing I knew, I felt something hit my face, pulling me from my dreamless sleep and as I opened my eyes Emmet was standing at the door, his mouth moving but I was still too groggy to hear anything that was coming out of his mouth.

"Do you hear me?" He yelled. Well yeah I heard that idiot. I thought before pulling myself up, propping my weight on the palms of my hands.

"What?"

"Dr. Cullen called and said that he wanted to talk to me. I need to go down there now, as it is apparently he's been waiting for me to show up all morning."

"What time is it?"

"You've been asleep for about an hour. Just take the truck and meet me there."

"Okay." I groaned, swinging my legs over the edge of the bed and shakily finding my footing. "I'll just clean up first, I'm sure they don't want plane germs circulating around a clean hospital." He nodded and disappeared, just as quickly as he had appeared, oh how I envied his nimbleness.

EPOV

There was a knock on the office door and I placed the papers that I had been holding back on the desk, calling for whomever it was to come in, hoping that it wasn't the chief coming to yell at me for still being there. As it was I was over my hours this week, one of the reasons that he had insisted that I take the weekend off. Like it was my fault that there was a shooting in Forks and more people than usual needed to be looked after? I'm not denying that I throw myself into my work, it's just easier that way, the loneliness isn't as palpable when I'm constantly moving and now that my best friend was in love with my younger sister, there was even less to look forward to.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here this morning." Emmet Swan's husky voice interrupted the train of thought that I found myself in, and I stood up, offering my hand in a handshake. I wasn't even sure why we still went through the formalities of the patient doctor relationship. Over the two weeks that Charlie Swan had been in the hospital I found myself in Emmet's company. He was easy to talk to and it seemed like he needed someone around, with his sister AWOL, he just seemed like he needed someone to talk to.

"Don't worry about it Emmet." I replied, sitting back down and motioning for Emmet to do the same in the oversized leather chair that permanently sat on the opposite side of my desk for conferences like this.

"What's wrong?"

I hated conversations like this. How do you tell someone that you aren't sure their father is going to pull through? Had he been only a few years younger I wouldn't have been so concerned but it had been two weeks and Charlie hadn't shown any signs of improvement. I found myself sighing slightly, not wanting to make eye contact with him. Emmet wasn't hard to read, I had pegged him pretty quickly and it was probably one of the reasons that I felt so comfortable about him. He, like his father was prone to machoism, a learned trait, at least, that's what I assumed. He was unusually quiet, although that changed once you got to know him, he loved his sister though they spoke infrequently, and he was desperately in love with his college girlfriend, Rosealie Hale who moved to Seattle but commuted to Los Angeles a few times every year for her job as a junior fashion editor for a magazine.

He must have grown concerned from my silence, my inability to tell him what I knew I had to as his father's physician. "Should I wait until Bells gets here?"

"Bells?" I questioned, forgetting the nickname that both he and Charlie used for the family member I had not met.

"Bella. Sorry… She didn't get much sleep last night so she was taking a nap and it was then that I got your message and left her to clean up…" He glanced at the clock on the wall before continuing. "She should be here soon though."

I shook my head. It was hard enough to tell him, the last thing I wanted was to tell someone I barely knew what was going on. Besides, he could probably break the news to her better than I could. "No… I just thought that you should be aware of what is happening…" I looked at him, noticing that his eyes seemed far away. "I'm just not sure if he is going to pull through and I want you to be prepared. I'm not giving up hope and I'm not going to stop treating your father, I just think you should know that it's been two weeks and there hasn't been any significant change in his vitals…"

He didn't respond, he just stood there, looking more intimidating than ever. "How am I suppose to tell Bells that?" I heard him whisper. I felt for him, truly. "I should go check on him." He responded, standing up and making his way out the door. "Thanks Edward."

I didn't have a chance to respond, he had left before I had the chance to look up. I would give him a little bit of time before I stopped by Charlie's room again, just to check on him and get a glimpse at the infamous Bella Swan who had gained the reputation of being the prodigal daughter, though I assumed that that wasn't true. There was more to the story that the town, that Charlie didn't know, and the only person who held those secrets were her brother and I was curious to know what they were, curious to know what had driven the girl to leave and not look back, at least, until she learned of her father's dire status.

A/N: So I'm really excited about this story which is why I updated so quickly, usually it takes me a lot longer but my mind is pulsing with ideas that I just have to get written out before I forget them! I wanted to thank my two reviewers who actaully made me want to post the new chapter, as well as those who have already added this to their alerts/favorites! You guys rock! Anyways, I hope the second chapter lived up the first and I hope to hear from people to let me know what they think! Thanks again!