A/N: Kudos to Rachel and to GlitzyLitzy for the ideas of boiling water and curling irons. Sadly, Charlie still didn't believe you.

EPOV

As soon as I was out of Charlie's hearing range, I jerked the car to stop in the first empty spot I could find. Checking to make sure no one was watching, I ducked into the woods and headed back toward Bella's house, cursing my stupidity as I ran. Charlie usually seemed so uninvolved in Bella's life- it truly hadn't occurred to me that he would question the burn on Bella's face, what with her penchant for clumsiness. If I had known that an alibi was needed, I could have helped Bella develop a more realistic one. Charlie had known right away that the burn couldn't have been from a splash of boiling water; the appearance was all wrong. As I ran, I kept replaying Charlie's suspicion in my brain over and over: He did this to her. He did this to her. He did this to her. I replayed it over a hundred times, and I still couldn't believe it. How could he possibly think that I could hurt Bella? She was my life! The very thought of harming her was blasphemous. It was true that Charlie hadn't been pleased with me ever since the episode in Phoenix, but I had never noticed any suspicious tone to his thoughts before this. Why did he have to jump to the conclusion that I had hurt her? The worst part was that he was right, of course. If I were a normal human boyfriend, Bella wouldn't be risking her health by lying next to me in the sun.

I strained desperately to hear Charlie's thoughts as I ran, but they were spotty. It was always difficult to get a handle on Charlie's mind, and even harder now that he was upset. I slowed as I approached their house, and found I was able to catch the conversation through Charlie's thoughts, though they themselves were still sketchy. Bella was speaking right now.

"-while ago. My hair dried pretty quickly in the sun, too." What was she talking about?

"Could you take off your sweater, please?"

"Uh… I'm still a little chilly, actually."

I was confused. What did her sweater have to do with anything? My heart sunk as I realized what was about to happen. I had to do something! Should I storm in there? What would I say that wouldn't make it worse? I ground my teeth, cursing my monstrous vampire skin.

First Charlie saw the bruise, which had blossomed over the past few hours. But then he kept looking, and he saw the handprint.

Charlie's thoughts were loud and clear now. As he held up his hand, measuring it against the shape of the burn, horrible images flew through his mind. Me grabbing Bella by the arm, wrenching her closer. No, the thumb was in the wrong place, he decided. Pushing her- no, not that either. This time I was hitting her, and she was holding her arm up to ward off the blows. That had to be it, he thought. God knows I've seen it enough times before. More images now, hundreds of women he had encountered with various bruises and other injuries; I recognized some of them from Forks. Several of them had hand-shaped red marks on their arms. The handprint on Bella's arm was pink at this stage of injury; there was no way for Charlie to know it was actually a burn.

I sank slowly to the ground. The image of me hitting Bella refused to leave my brain, and I couldn't see or hear anything else. I growled out loud and forced the image away so I could hear what was going on.

Charlie was holding Bella out in front of him, and she was shaking her head, her face dripping with tears. Charlie kept thinking over and over: I love you, Bella. I love you. I'm going to save you. He finally spoke aloud. "Bella, look, I know it's hard to… to talk about these things. I've been a cop for a long time, so I'm used to playing the bad guy in these… these situations. I'll call him and tell him he can't see you anymore. Maybe we could-"

"NO!" Bella shouted, at the same time I mouthed the word as well. "Charlie, you can't! He's… he would never hurt me, you have to believe me! He's everything to me!" She was crying again now, and I ached to reach out to dry her tears. In a few short months, Bella Swan had become everything to me, too.

Charlie was clenching his teeth, his min racing. He was thinking about how devoted I had been at the hospital in Phoenix, how I just stared at Bella as she slept. He rubbed her hair and said, "I know you've been through a lot together, but…" Suddenly, his thoughts were a confusion of jumbled images. Bella running out of the house, telling Charlie how she wanted to leave Forks, to leave me, Bella in the hospital bed, Bella in a stairwell… He stared down at her too-thin left leg, and his thoughts fused into a tangled sphere, all colored red. And then, clear as crystal, Bella standing at the top of the stairwell, arguing with me, my fist connecting with her face, sending her backwards, tumbling down the stairs, slamming into a window.

I shot to my feet. He couldn't think that I could possibly have done that!

But he did. A cold resolve settled in his mind, and when I saw his intention to go to the police station, I pulled out my cell phone to call Carlisle. I had turned it off earlier in the meadow, when Bella fell asleep. To my dismay, I saw a slew of missed text messages from Alice, and before I could read any of them, the phone vibrated in my hand. I warily opened the new text.

Police coming here in fifteen minutes- looking for you- COME HOME NOW.

I cursed aloud and took off at top speed, dialing Carlisle's number as I ran.

.

.

.

As I approached our house, I felt my whole body being torn in two with guilt. I needed to be home; it wouldn't do for the police to arrive and find me missing. But Bella was back there, alone at the house, needing me. I felt nauseous and the blood I had consumed yesterday threatened to spill back out of my mouth. I shook my head, swallowing it back down. This was no time to be weak.

I leapt over the porch stairs and crashed right into the door in my distraction, tearing the whole frame right out of the wall.

"Nice, Edward," muttered Emmett. It looked like the whole family was already assembled in the front room, and Alice was pouting.

"Didn't I tell you to open the door? And you!" She glared at me. "Did you not get the seventeen messages I left you earlier? When the psychic calls, you answer!" Her eyes were black, but Jasper was thinking about how she wasn't angry with me; she was afraid of what Charlie was going to do. Jasper's own mind was racing with strategies and safeguards. He wasn't thrilled with me, either.

"Everyone quiet," ordered Carlisle. "Edward, we haven't gotten any calls from Charlie or the station. What exactly was Charlie thinking about when he was picturing the station?"

I was breathing hard, although I didn't know why, so I stopped. "I honestly don't know. Charlie often thinks in pictures without words, and even then it's difficult to follow more than a few seconds at a time. Carlisle, I don't know what to do." Admitting my failure wasn't as painful as I had thought it would be; I just needed my father's help.

He stood up straighter and made his decision. "Jasper, I want you to run to Bella's house. If Charlie is back already, hit him with whatever emotions you think will help. Emmett and Rosalie, get started cleaning up the door. Esme, get our camping prop bag out of the attic, and a few suitcases. We need to look like we're still in the middle of unpacking." Everyone except Alice, Carlisle and I darted out of the room.

"Bella needs me," I protested.

Carlisle shook his head. "No, Edward. It's imperative that you're here when the police come". He was picturing us packing in a flurry and moving, and I winced. Then he turned to Alice. "They're definitely coming?"

Alice's eyes were glazed over. "Yes, a squad car will be here in three minutes, but… no, wait. They're not leaving with Edward. I see him signing a paper, and then they leave." Then she turned to me. "Why on earth was your phone off?" she demanded.

"We were in the meadow, and Bella fell asleep. I didn't want her to be disturbed." It sounded so stupid coming out of my mouth, but at the time it had seemed so important. Bella had looked so relaxed and comfortable without her cast, and I had wanted the day to be perfect.

"Well, it wouldn't have helped much anyway. I didn't see the burns until it was too late," she admitted. I just shook my head, and the three of us stood perfectly still while the others flew around the house.

I turned to my father. "Carlisle, how did this happen? My skin was hot, but it's not like the grass around me was bursting into flame. I even held her hand afterward, and there was no problem." I was truly dumbfounded. I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I had actually burned her.

"I'll admit, I've never heard of it happening before. But then, you and Bella are quite the unique situation. I suppose it must have been a combination of the time elapsed, and the reflective quality of our skin. Besides that, Bella probably had sheen of sweat from the heat already, and the moisture must have served to magnify any reflected light and heat."

Emmett was dragging the door out of the room. "Like frying an ant with a magnifying glass, bro," he said helpfully.

I scowled. "Thanks, Em."

"Don't mention it."

Alice was trying her hardest to keep a hold of Charlie's future, but she stopped for a moment automatically to check on Bella. She was sitting on her bed, crying hysterically. Because of me.

Alice's eyes popped open, and she held a hand up as I opened my mouth. "Before you freak out, just let me say that she'll stop crying in less than two minutes. I think she's just stressed out right now."

"I have to go to her," I ground out through my teeth, edging toward the door, but Carlisle held me back.

"You can go as soon as the police leave. Alice?"

"It'll only take a couple of minutes." We heard an engine approaching, and soon the squad car pulled up beside the porch.

"Dr. Carlisle Cullen?" one of the policemen asked as he stepped out of the car. So this is the famous Cullen place. I can't wait to tell Janey I actually saw it! I- Holy crow, what happened here? Charlie must be right about the kid – somebody sure has a temper around here. He had just seen the door, and I almost laughed out loud. Could this day get any worse? Everything I touched was going wrong!

Carlisle stepped forward, bits of drywall crunching under his feet. "That's me. Oh, don't worry about the door," he said cheerfully. "When you have three teenage boys under one roof, the wrestling gets out of hand sometimes. What can I help you gentlemen with?"

The other man pulled a paper out of his pocket. "We're here to serve a juvenile restraining order for a Mister…" He glanced down at the paper. "Edward Cullen."