Chapter Nine—For Daddy's Little Girl

Charlie POV

I was livid, beyond anything I might have felt before I stepped into the Cullens' house that night. The past year had been a whirlwind of experiences, barely giving me a moment to breathe and take it all in. One of the worst things a father can hear from his seventeen year old daughter is "Daddy, I'm pregnant." My world came crashing down around me that day—not only was my little girl pregnant, but the young man I had trusted with her the most was claiming to be the father.

However, even with as angry as I was at him for deceiving me and my wife, and his own parents as well, a part of me admired him, though I'd be damned if I would have admitted it. Most teenage boys would have run for the hills after something like that, especially when it was the daughter of the Chief of Police that he'd gotten pregnant. Yet, he sat there beside her, holding her hand and facing the consequences right along with her.

It was so difficult to watch Bella suddenly need and rely on someone else so much; I thought I had more time. I had only just been starting to dread her graduating from high school and sending my baby off to college. I had no idea how I was going to handle letting her go in that way; letting her go sooner for any other reason had never crossed my mind. I was lost and didn't know what to do. I couldn't force them to get married; she was only seventeen, for heaven's sake. I would never put my daughter through an abortion, even if I didn't feel she was ready to be a mother, or him a father.

Yet, the boy impressed me even more throughout Bella's entire pregnancy, being there for every need and want of hers, while still balancing school in a whole other city and maintaining his exceptional GPA. He and my daughter functioned very well as a team, with her working around his school schedule so he could be present for everything, and his eagerness to be there, without a single complaint. And as a father myself, I couldn't miss the elation in the young man's features when they informed us that Bella was having a little girl, or how in love he was with that baby even before she was born. Since then, he had become everything I could have even hoped for with my daughter and granddaughter.

Extremely attentive to Bella, a doting and devoted father to Carlie—he became a man.

So when they came to us days before and told us that Edward was, in fact, not Carlie's biological father, I felt deceived all over again. I couldn't understand why my daughter, and Edward as well, would lie about such a thing. I was so angry, I had to leave the room while Renee continued to talk to them.

Standing in the kitchen, I could hear Bella's tears in her voice as she repeatedly apologized for lying, and the sincerity in Edward's as he did the same. They wouldn't say who the father actually was, which made me even more angry, even with the explanation that they wanted to be able to tell him first. I wanted to know who he was and why he wasn't told in the beginning, before dragging an innocent boy in to sort out the situation he left behind, but I couldn't look at either of them that night.

I loved my daughter and my granddaughter, and if I had been thinking with a clearer mind at that moment, I would have seen Edward's gesture for what it actually was. A friend helping another friend through a very difficult period in her life, and being everything she and her little girl needed.

I was just too damn angry at the time.

However, the moment I received that phone call at the station from Renee, telling me that she could hear what sounded like Edward yelling from inside the Cullen home, my anger dissipated to fear. I knew my granddaughter was safe with my wife, but Bella was in that house and yelling was extremely uncharacteristic of the Edward I knew. He was one of the most soft spoken, polite and respectable young men I'd ever met, whom I'd never seen raise his voice even an octave to anyone in the more than ten years we'd known him. I immediately jumped into my cruiser and drove like a bat out of hell back home, and ran straight to the Cullens' door.

The sight that met me was the last thing I had expected. Rather than the enraged young man I was sure I'd find with the description Renee had given me, I found one broken and sobbing, cradled in Bella's arms. What the hell was going on?

Then, once Bella explained to me what had happened and I watched Edward curl into her with a soft, agonized groan, my anger returned—though not at them. Yet again, I was seeing Edward with father's eyes; what it would feel like for another man to have a legitimate claim on the daughter I loved more than life itself. Renee had told me—although I'd pretended not to be listening in my own mulish way—that Edward wanted full paternal rights to Carlie. His name was on the birth certificate and she'd been given the Cullen surname, he was with her every waking moment he could manage, but he wanted to take on everything. To be her only father.

The kid was terrified of losing his daughter.

Carlisle pulled my attention away from the two of them with a hand on my shoulder and took me aside. "Charlie…"

"Carlisle, what the hell is going on here?" I asked in a rough but hushed voice.

Carlisle took a deep breath, glancing toward the living room and then back to me. "I know it's really not my place to say anything, but I am sincerely worried about my son right now. I know who Carlie's father is, from everything I heard tonight."

My eyes widened and I gazed at him expectantly. "And?"

"It's Jasper," he replied and my fists began to clench at my sides. "Jasper Whitlock."

Whitlock. Of all the names Carlisle could have uttered to me, I couldn't imagine one that could have possibly been worse. That boy had been trouble for years, and I could never for the life of me figure out how such a good kid like Edward could have associated with him in any way. More than that, though, I couldn't understand how my daughter had allowed herself to be one of those girls with someone like that.

However, this was an all-new low for him.

I glanced over to Bella one more time, holding that boy on the couch, and I felt my chest constrict. Not only for my daughter, but for Edward as well—my granddaughter's father. I couldn't even begin to imagine the pain he was in, and I couldn't stand by and watch it happen.

"He's down in Texas, right?" I murmured quietly to Carlisle and looked back at him to find him nodding.

"Yes. In Fort Worth," he replied just as quietly and stared back at me for a moment. "Are you sure about this?"

"I can't do nothing, Carlisle," I stated and we nodded again in silent agreement.

No one was going to hurt our children or grandchild that way.

Once back at the station, it didn't take me long to track him down and acquire the necessary information. After I'd put in for an immediate leave for a "family emergency", I was on my way to the airport to catch a red-eye to Texas. As soon as I'd checked into a motel not too far away from the college, I made my way to the address I had on the front of the folder I carried, knocking on Whitlock's door at seven in the morning.

When it swung open, a disheveled and shirtless Jasper appeared and his eyes widened at the sight of me. "Chief Swan? What are you doing here?"

"I think you and I both know the answer to that question, Whitlock," I replied sternly, my gaze running over him with a sneer. "Perhaps you would like to take a moment to get yourself decent and then you and I are going to sit down and have a little chat."

Jasper nodded nervously and stepped back to let me in, and hurried off to his bedroom. He returned a few minutes later, fully dressed. "Sir, with all due respect, if this is about my supposed kid, I know my rights."

"I'm sure you do," I said stiffly and crossed the room to sit on his ragged couch. "But tell me something. What's in it for you? That little girl has two parents who love her very much. Are you really prepared to disrupt that and take on being a father?"

"If that is my kid, which I'm sorry, but I still highly doubt, he has no right to call himself her father," Jasper growled menacingly, but when I fixed him with a hard glare, his demeanor shifted, as if he'd momentarily forgotten who he was talking to.

"Then where were you for all the doctor's appointments and sonograms? Why weren't you there with her, holding her hand when she gave birth to your daughter? Or for all the midnight feedings and diaper changes since she's been born?" I asked, folding my arm over my chest.

"Kinda difficult to be there for a child I didn't even know I had. She never told me it was my kid. She told everyone, including you, her father, that it was his baby. What reason did I have not to believe that? Everyone knew how close they were," Jasper answered defensively.

"Did you have sex with my daughter?" I inquired pointedly, even though just the thought that he had touched Bella in such a way, or that anyone had for that matter, turned my stomach. His eyes widened again and he swallowed hard, nodding nervously. "Then what reason did you have not to question it at all? You took it at face value, heard what you wanted to hear, and went on your merry way. If you had any interest in that little girl at all, you wouldn't have brushed it off and let another boy— whose name is Edward, by the way, not him— uproot his entire life and take on the responsibility that was yours to take. No matter what claim she made, which was equally as wrong, but she's atoned for that and come clean. You still need to."

"Well, if she is mine, then he doesn't need to do that anymore," Jasper replied, his eyes flickering as he obviously fought to hold my gaze.

"Great. So you're prepared to pick up tracks and head back to Washington, then? Get a job and start paying child support? Give up the partying and dates on the weekends to spend them with your daughter?" I said, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. "Or are you going to stop playing this game with them, and allow that little girl to be raised by a man who actually wants her? Who loves that baby and her mother. And who doesn't have the history some do with young girls."

Jasper stiffened again, clenching his fists and shaking his head. "That was well over a year ago, Chief Swan."

"And were you dating Bella behind my back at that time? How would she react if I told her I found you in the back seat of your car that night with fifteen year old Alice Brandon in your lap?" I replied in a fierce tone, my gaze boring down on him harshly. "I may have had my hands tied at the time because I only caught you kissing, and that child and her parents refused to press charges because nothing 'technically happened'. But this is my daughter, and we have proof in the form of a beautiful little girl to prove that something did happen between you, an adult, and her, a minor, at the time."

"You can't do that," Jasper whispered, his attempt at sounding confident failing miserably.

"Try me," I said with a tense jaw. "This is what it means to be a father. You'll do and risk anything to protect and defend your child. You want to prove you're a man? Stop thinking about yourself and consider for a moment what's in the best interest of that baby girl. And that is Edward. He loves her more than life itself. You can't say that. You don't even want to admit she's yours."

I stood, tossing the folder onto the small table in front of me that contained the forms he would need for the future steps I hoped he'd make, and I told him such.

"I hope you make the right decision, Whitlock."

Bella POV

"Dad, why? He should have come to that decision on his own," I said, pressing my palm to my forehead.

"He would have anyway, Bella. I've seen guys like him before. All he wanted to do was scare the both of you into backing down, and by threatening Edward that way, he knew it was a sure fire way to do that. Hell, he probably only did it because he was angry that Edward finally stood up to him. It had nothing to do with Carlie at all," he replied, his jaw set firmly. "I know you think I was an overzealous parent, and for that, I am sorry. But I won't apologize for protecting my family. And as far as I'm concerned, Edward is part of this family. It takes more than being a biological donor to be my granddaughter's father. And I will never be witness to the scene I was that night. Nor could I watch it go on any longer than necessary. Edward didn't deserve that, and Whitlock would have dragged it out as long as he could possibly get away with."

I stared at my father as if I were seeing him for the first time, after listening to his impassioned speech. I was in complete shock. "I thought you hated him now."

My dad shook his head and his eyes lowered to his coffee. "I was disappointed in you both. I never thought in my wildest dreams that either of you would lie to us about something like this. But seeing that boy in a state like that, I finally understood…mostly."

"You did?" I asked, folding my arms around myself as he nodded.

"He's loved that baby since long before she was born, and you, for even longer," my dad replied, lifting his eyes again to meet mine. "He did it with the best of intentions at heart, because you meant that much to him. And no man loses his mind like that over a child that is nothing more than an obligation for him. He is a good man with a good heart. How could I hate him or fault him for that? He's the best thing a father could ask for when it comes to his daughter and grandchild."

My lip was pinched so tight between my teeth to keep from crying, it was beginning to burn and tingle from the pressure. I didn't trust myself to speak for a moment, so I just closed the distance between us and lowered myself to sit in his lap, hugging him around the shoulders. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you, too, baby," he whispered against my hair and my arms tightened around him. "Now, go on. Get back to my grandbaby and that young man."

I nodded, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand before siting up and looking at him. "Thank you, Daddy."

"Yep," he replied and I couldn't help but smile as I watched the twitch of his eye and mustache at the hint of mushiness in my tone.

Some things never change, but then he wouldn't be the Charlie Swan I'd loved and respected all my life.

I returned home, still wiping my eyes as I walked into the living room, where Edward was pacing back and forth with Carlie. She was whimpering against his chest as he attempted to soothe her and then his eyes rose to meet my gaze.

"Everything okay?" Edward asked, his forehead creased in concern.

I smiled back at him, making my way to his side and embracing them both. Edward's arm wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me closer to his side and kissing my hair. And it seemed that as soon as Carlie had both of her parents calm and relaxed in her presence, she began to quiet, too. "Yeah. Everything is perfect."