Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Author's Note: ~You were all so wonderful about my being late last week, I thought I would post this a day early just like the chapter that was supposed to post on Tuesday was up on Monday! Let me hear from you! I want to know if you're enjoying the journey, especially before I start getting the hate mail due to all the angst!~

Chapter 56 Sightseeing

"Fine. Let's go play with the little pixie terrorist," Bella sighed.

BPOV

Edward had the bathroom tidied up in seconds and we were dressed and heading downstairs to join the rest of the family in the living room.

"Ready, dear?" Esme asked Edward, exchanging knowing glances with me as small grins appeared on our faces.

"Almost, we just have to make one quick call and check a couple of numbers in the market, Mom. It opens in five minutes. Give Bella and me ten minutes, okay? In fact, why don't most of you go on to Dry Falls and Bella and I will join you there, she may not be able to go all the way down the trail anyway," he said, knowing that Alice and Jasper would wait and ride with us. I knew that he wanted Alice's input on the stock market as well as Jasper's since we dealing in the hundreds of millions at this point.

Charlie, Sue, Carlisle and Esme got into Esme's car that she had conveniently brought down with her early this morning. Emmett and Rosalie were on their bikes, so that worked out just fine.

"All right, we're off! Race you to Dry Falls, Rose," Emmett taunted as he grabbed his Hard Rock jacket and headed out the door.

"Hey! There'll be none of that going on, Emmett," Charlie fussed. "Police officer here, remember?," he said gruffly, pointing to himself.

"Sorry Chief," he said sheepishly as he opened the door for Rose. We'll meet you at Dry Falls."

"See you soon," Rose called to me. Turning to Emmett, her tone turned harsh. "I can't believe you asked me to race you in front of Bella's Dad," she said, smacking Emmett on the shoulder on the way out the door.

"You saw that, right?" Emmett said to the Chief. "That's assault! How about fussing at her?" he asked, pointing in the direction Rose had taken out the door.

"Emmett, please. Go on, get out of here before the rest of the women assault you," Charlie laughed as he prodded Emmett out the door.

Alice laughed at her brother's antics and then turned her attention to Edward. "So, are you ready to call Phil? He's about to have a heart attack over the gain last night but he is waiting for you to call and tell him that it's time to sell. Honestly, I have never seen anyone so thrilled or so intent on not pissing you off, Edward," Alice scoffed.

We all went into the office and turned on both computers, Alice quickly logging onto the family account while I logged onto Edward and my account. Edward called Phil, who answered on the first ring, as though he were sitting with the phone in hand . . . waiting.

I was taken back by the numbers in front of me, though I thought I had become accustomed to the Cullen excesses. The primary stock in question had run almost a thousand percent increase over the last three days. A thousand percent. That meant that the two million dollars that Edward had invested with Phil was now twenty million. Twenty million dollars. It was hard for me to even conceive of that amount of money and I knew that the family account had invested ten times that amount . . . making it a hundred million dollars, Oh My God!

Alice looked over at me, "Calm down Bella! Close your mouth, it's not very flattering to sit there with it hanging open like that." Her smile gave her away, she understood the shock I was going through and she was gently laughing at me for it.

"Phil, yes. Sell. Yes, Bella is selling ours we speak. No, just sell it at market, it'll be fine. You put half into it, right? Okay, well, a hundred thousand isn't bad for a start. No, nothing extraordinary till next week. Leave them. Yes, I'm leaving the other two invested till the end of next week, they should at least double by then. No. True. Well, doubling is nothing to sneeze at, this one going in for a thousand percent is unusual, even for me. You're welcome, Phil. Tell Renee we miss her too. Everything here is fine, Bella and the baby are doing well. We'll call. Yes, I promise. Tell Renee to call Bella when she stops screaming and wants to talk, we're headed out the door to do some sight seeing with Charlie. Okay. Bye."

"Excited much?" Jasper laughed, "I could feel his excitement even over the phone!"

"Phil will do well, Edward. Even with no more help, he will invest cautiously, but wisely. Nothing wrong with pulling out and not waiting till the last minute," Alice laughed at her unintended pun.

"Anything else you want to do with the account today, sweetheart?" I asked Edward.

"No, baby. Let's go find your Dad and show Sue a good time today. I think she she's coming around to at least sympathizing with us, if not liking us," he told me as I shut down the computer, stood and put my arms around him, going on tip toes to kiss his jaw before he bent his head and kissed me softly.

"You guys are killing me! Unless you want to see me have my wife in front of you, you need to tone it down a little! No way can I take this all day and not screw something," Jasper said in an almost pleading tone.

"Baby, you can have me whenever you want," Alice soothed him, putting her arms around him and giving his behind a squeeze.

"That's not helping darlin', unless you would like to stay here and catch up to them later." Jasper offered.

"Love to, but I'm not leaving Bella with less than two, preferable three of us with her at all times. Victoria keeps changing her plans and she is getting anxious, soon to make a move," Alice said defiantly. Edward visibly stiffened in my arms. I knew that he must be seeing what she had seen with Victoria, and his resonating growl confirmed my thoughts.

Everyone had been on edge since yesterday morning's failed attempt to end Victoria. It seems that she had taken to the trees alone, Riley waiting for her in the car on the side of the road, not bothering to even park the car. The wind had shifted as she approached her treetop perch and she had smelled the Cullens. They chased her, but starting off from beneath her on the cliff and her already being in the treetops gave her the advantage. Advantage or not, they had thought they would catch her, until a group of hikers came over the ridge into sight and they had to resume moving at human speed, letting her escape undetected through the trees.

"Come on," I said demandingly. "There is no way I'm letting a crazy red headed bitch spoil my day."

Alice's lip curled into a smile as her head tilted toward me questioningly, Jasper's face wearing a Cheshire cat grin as well. Edward just looked astounded, his jaw dropping open.

"What? I cuss sometimes, don't look so shocked! Let's go before I have to go to the bathroom or get hungry again," I said as I grabbed a jacket and headed out the door.

~oooOooo~

Charlie POV

Huh. Wonder if Renee ever felt that way? I was never a bully as a kid, or even a teenager. I had to be decisive, my voice commanded some amount of attention I knew, but I always tried to be soft spoken. Speak softly and carry a big stick, that was the motto I tried to model my police career by. I asked nicely, they complied. Simple.

I didn't like it that my own daughter was intimidated by me though. I certainly never tried to frighten or intimidate her. How did that even happen? I never yelled, never struck her in any way, never grabbed her or handled her roughly - ever. Even when she was little and deserved a spanking, I might have swatted at her, but she never even got spanked by me, not really. Why was I so hurt that she had told Renee first about the damned college. Maybe she just found out and Renee was around, I had no idea when that husband of hers had told her about it. That is if he ever took his lips off of her long enough to talk to her about anything.

I adjusted the water and stepped into the shower, grabbing one of the damned designer soaps that were in a basket on the shelf.

I just wanted my little girl back. She was only nineteen for God's sake. This should be her first year away at college, making new friends, learning how to deal with the world without me around her everyday. Huh . . . being away from me. Guess she wouldn't have lived at home full time this year almost no matter what, unless she hadn't chosen to go to college . . . unless she had just gotten a job and lived at home. I wouldn't have wanted that for her either, just getting a meaningless job to earn money then maybe getting an apartment on her own.

I ducked under the water and let it flow over me, washing the shampoo out of my hair, well, soap rather. Did any man actually use shampoo? I shut the water off and leaned against the shower wall for a moment, resting my arm on the shower controls.

No, I would have been parted from her regardless this year. She would have at least been home holidays and I would have been with her if she had gone away to college. I thought about that for a minute, grabbing the towel and starting to dry myself. They had invited me to her birthday, which I would have missed if she had been away at Dartmouth and they had flown home with me and spent a week at the house. They really hadn't gone out much, choosing to just stay at the house and hang around doing whatever I was doing. Huh. Though they had spent Thanksgiving in Florida with Renee, I had a feeling they would be switching off each year on that one and they had insisted that I come out here to their house for the Christmas Holidays . . . even New Years.

I stepped out of the shower and tucked the towel around my waist, reaching for the shaving cream and turning on the hot water to fill the basin. I stared at my face as I continued to consider my daughter.

She needed to grow up and learn to take care of herself. Every kid had to go through it. Edward let her do that, that's for sure . . . not that he had a choice. I chuckled to myself. Bells pretty much did as she pleased and he seemed happy to go along with it, as long as he thought it was safe for her. He was big on her safety that Edward. She absolutely owned him unless he thought that what she wanted might get her hurt, then he was hard as nails.

I lathered up and shook the razor in the water before stroking it down my face.

He was apparently teaching her how to invest in the stock market. I guessed that there were few people that could actually teach that from experience. He had apparently made millions. I laughed to myself, billions they would have corrected me. Well, Bella would, Edward would never have even told me about the money if I hadn't twisted his arm. He hadn't really ever told me to this day . . . but others had. That Alice, she had said that the cost of that R8 he bought Bella wouldn't have even been noticed out of his checking account. Huh. That damned car cost more than my house and I had just managed to finish paying it off after twenty years of payments! Well, God bless. If he was that much of a whiz kid and he handled all of Carlisle's money, surely he could teach Bella to do it. She would never want for anything money could buy, that was a fact.

I rinsed my face and let the water out of the sink, rinsing my razor and returning it to my bag as I grabbed my toothbrush.

I chuckled out loud. Bought her Dad the boat of his dreams as a Christmas present. Ha! God I loved that girl. Might know she would be sure and take care of her old man. Hell, she had been the one taking care of me ever since she moved in a couple of years ago. Put an end to my going to the diner, she did. Wouldn't have it. I had to admit, she was a much better cook than the girls at the diner and even with her living with me and me feeding two of us instead of one, the grocery bill had not gone over what I normally paid just for me to eat.

I finished rinsing the toothbrush and grabbed the deodorant, cocking my head to one side.

What the hell? I must be imagining things. I would have sworn that I heard a howl like the ones coming from the woods in La Push and Forks when we were have trouble with those wolves. Huh.

Well, I thought as I walked to the closet. Hope they don't have the same kind of trouble here. I looked at the clothes hung there, deciding that while I wanted to be casual, I also wanted to look sharp for Sue's first day here. I chose a pair of khakis and slipped on the underwear, then the pants, sitting on the bed without zipping up to put on my socks.

I had to face it. I had just been fighting tooth and nail to keep her a little girl and she just . . . wasn't. Her Mom had always said she was born thirty five and that was pretty well on target. I had done all I could to keep her away from him, and it hadn't worked. She loved him . . . really loved him. Anyone could see that in one glance unless they were wearing blinders like I had been. He seemed even more in love with her, if that was even possible. Little shit stood right up to me when it was her feelings involved. He let me say what I wanted about him, say whatever to him, but the minute I upset her . . . it was on. He was right there in my face daring me to continue. It wasn't that I liked to be confronted, I just liked it that he would do whatever it took to keep her from being hurt . . . again. After all, he was the one that had hurt her more that anything on the planet ever had. She seemed to have totally forgiven him for it, like she understood that he was tying to protect her, but I suspected he would spend the rest of his days trying to make it up to her.

There was a knock on the door and I heard Sue call my name. "Come in Sue," I called quietly to her. She opened the door and closed it behind herself, coming to sit beside me on the foot of the bed. I put my arm around her and kissed her for a long minute, her hand running through my still damp hair.

"Ummm. I haven't really had a chance to give you a proper hello," I told her, "I missed you this last week. Did you have a good Christmas with the kids?" I ran my hand up and down her back as I held her other hand in my lap.

"I had a great Christmas, Charlie. You?"

"Great, just great. I told you about the boat they gave me, didn't I?" I checked with her, moving her hair to behind her ear so that I could kiss her neck.

"You did," she answered as I pressed her back onto the bed, kissing her lips.

There was no more talking for awhile. Our arms were around each other and my chest covered hers as we continued to kiss, her hands in my hair as I held her. It wasn't often I had her in my bedroom with no shirt on. I have no idea how long we continued, but things were heating up. Really heating up when her hand realized that I had neglected to zip or button my trousers. I'm not sure how I felt about what was happening . . . except that it felt good. Really good. I was just moving to place my body a little more on top of hers when she stiffened - a scream resounding through the house had startled her.

"Charlie!," she shrieked excitedly, "Oh my God, that's Bella! She needs you!"

I rolled off of her and laid flat of my back on the bed, my hands on my stomach and sighed, holding one of her hands as she sat stiffly beside me looking expectantly to me to jump up and go to my daughter's rescue.

"It's okay, Sue. She doesn't need me, I promise you," I told her as I stroked her knuckles with my thumb and placed my other arm around her to rub her back and try to sooth her.

"Charlie!" the look on her face was one of almost absolute terror. I had no idea why she would be so scared . . . she was almost trembling! "She's screaming Edward . . . he's hurting her!"

"Sue," I said as we heard the same scream again, only muffled somewhat. She tensed and almost sprung off the bed, ready to go and save my daughter as though she thought someone was eating her.

"He's not hurting her, Sue," I told her, realization dawning in her eyes and her mouth dropping open. "Apparently he takes really good care of her several times a day, if the screams are any indication." Sue sat there, her mouth open and her eyes wide, staring at me without moving. I wasn't even sure she was breathing.

"Honey, it's hard to get used to, believe me I know," I said trying to sooth her, "The first time I heard them I had my hand on the doorknob to their room - the night of her birthday party I think it was. I was about to open the door and rush in when I heard her ask him if they could do that again."

Sue released the breath she had been holding, her eyes still wide and staring at me. "Did they make that much noise at your house, Charlie? Um, when they were visiting and you let them both stay in her room?" she asked timidly.

"No. They made no noise at my house, Sue. But this is their house and we are guests. I imagine they try to keep it down, but sometimes they just aren't successful," I told her as I half smiled.

"But she's pregnant, Charlie," Sue looked horrified. How could I explain to her that it was alright without sounding like I condoned their behavior? Condoned their behavior? Huh. They were young and in love, newly married and pregnant. I remembered how Renee and I went at it like rabbits for the first two years, especially when she was pregnant. I guess I would be more worried if they weren't all over each other, it just didn't sit well because she was my daughter. I wanted my daughter to be happy and Renee had insisted that she needed me in that way when she had been pregnant with Bella. Everyday. Sometimes more than once a day. Well, like mother like daughter I guess. I remember hoping the neighbors didn't think I was killing her. I laughed out loud in spite of myself, causing Sue to wonder if I had lost my mind, I'm sure.

"Sue, they are young and in love. She seems to be like her Mom in that she wants sex all the time now that she is pregnant . . . and if what I hear most days is what it sounds like it is, Edward is good at giving her what she wants."

"But Bella, she was . . . she had never . . . ," Sue stammered.

"Bella had never had sex till they married, that's true. Neither had he, Sue. But they seemed to have learned fast," I said with a smirk. "Now," I said sitting up and putting my arms around her, kissing her neck, "Where were we? Maybe I'm the one that doesn't remember . . ."

We kissed for a few minutes longer, but Sue's mind was elsewhere. It seemed hard for her to understand young love where Bella and Edward were concerned. It was odd, because she was the one that was always calling me a prude when something like this would come up. Huh.

"I better go get ready to go before I am the holdup," she finally said, kissing me one last time and rolling me onto my back so that she could stand. "You better finish dressing," she said, eying the obvious problem there would be in trying to zip my pants.

I dressed and headed downstairs where everyone was gathered in the living room. Carlisle and I struck up a conversation about where we would be fishing the next day, since we would have everyone with us. We debated the choices while we waited for Sue and the kids to come downstairs.

That Emmett. What a character! How dumb was it to challenge someone to a race in front of the Chief of police? On motorcycles no less! The boy had a good heart, but sometimes I wondered if he had a lick of sense.

Carlisle and Esme headed up towards town with Sue, Emmett and Rose following on those damned bikes. Bells would be along in a minute, but she really didn't need to be walking on trails in her condition anyway. I laughed to myself, the girl couldn't navigate a flat surface without tripping most of the time and she sure didn't need to be falling down as pregnant as she was.

It only took a half hour or so and we had passed through the town of Highlands, crossed Mirror Lake and come to the National Park sign telling us that the parking for Dry Falls was on the left. The forest looked a lot like back home in Forks, the canopy was high and the tree trunks had moss and likens covering them. We could hear the roar of the falls and the path down was a switchback cut into the rock, damp and slippery. I sure hoped Bells didn't try this, knowing how she was. I took Sue's hand just as Carlisle was holding onto Esme's and we headed down, following that fool Emmett and Rose that took off running and acting like they were teenagers or something. Well, I guess they weren't much older than teens themselves, come to think of it.

"It's gorgeous down here, Esme," Sue exclaimed, turning her head from side to side so that she could take it all in. The path had led us behind the waterfall and we stood looking out through the curtain of cascading water.

"Bella always says it feels like a fairytale here," Esme offered. "She and Edward came here often once her injuries healed and before she was so . . . round," she laughed.

"I can see why she would think it was a story in a book. It's so beautiful and almost dreamlike here. It feels like a mythical creature should walk up and say hello at any moment," Sue added, an odd look appearing on her face like she had said something she shouldn't have.

Alice appeared into the veil behind the water, letting us know that Edward had convinced Bella to remain at the top and look at the water from there. Jasper had chosen to remain with them, not walking down the damp path to the falls with Alice. We paused for a few minutes longer, then headed back up the switchback. I hadn't noticed on the way down, but the path had lots and lots of stair steps in it and I was struggling not to huff and puff by the time I got back up to the top. Sue must have found me out because she was giggling at me under her breath. That Carlisle and Esme both, they weren't winded in the least. Huh.

"You okay, Dad? You look a little winded." Bella said when I got back up to the top where she stood at the overlook.

"Fine, fine Bells. That path behind the falls is really somethin'. It sure is pretty up here, green and full of growth like back home," I told her. Guess I'd better start walking or jogging or something. Wouldn't want to be chasing a suspect and have them outrun me, make me look like the old man on the force!

"Well, technically, Dad, this is a temperate rain forest, so it's bound to get a lot of rain and dampness to provide for all the growth. Kind of cloudy most of the time, too, just like Forks," Bells told me.

We got back in the cars, Emmett and Rose got on their bikes and we went a little ways further away from the town of Highlands till we came to a sign for Cliffside Park. We paid the fee, or rather the first car paid for all of us, and we parked by a small lake. Apparently it was the town swimming hole, though they said it was spring fed and freezing cold all year long. Good thing it was winter, that Emmett would have challenged everyone to swim out to the dock they had built out near the middle of the lake. There was a path that led around the lake and we all decided to take the mile and a half walk, it was such a pretty day. Sue and I stayed up with Carlisle and Esme. Bella and Edward kept lagging behind, I would have suspected that they were busy making out in the woods, but Alice and Jasper as well as Emmett and Rose were back there with them most of the time. Oh well, could be just that the young people wanted to be away from the parents. It wouldn't be the first time.

We sat on the swings and watched the view for a bit, waiting on everyone to finish the walk before heading into town to do a little shopping.

Bella had some interesting shops to show Sue, including a little one that only sold Christmas items and tree ornaments. Really pretty ornaments. I bought Sue one that she kept looking at, told her it was part of her Christmas present so she'd hush about me spending money on her. Women. You spend money on them they hate it, you don't they hate you. I really had been out of the game for a very long time.

We had ice cream at the place that Bella had gone on so over, while Alice, Jasper, Rose and Esme continued to browse through the stores. I swear that Alice spent enough money to keep a small country's economy going. Sue could spend in the stores mind you. I had noticed that . . . but no one that I had ever met held a candle to Alice. Jasper had made four trips to the car just to keep from toting all the bags around for her!

While we were having ice cream and looking at the huge trout in the water in the stream beside the store, Edward walked over to talk to me, kind of quiet like.

"Charlie, is anything wrong?" he had asked. I told him no, everything was fine which it was, but he kept after me. Smart boy. Guess I was more obvious than I thought.

"Edward, I wonder if you'd mind if I took Sue out to dinner tonight? I don't want to offend anyone, but I didn't see her at Christmas and . . ."

"Charlie. Great idea! You should have some alone time, kind of a little holiday for the two of you," he suggested. "There is a great Italian restaurant on Main Street just there to the left and what I hear is a good Chinese one in the shopping area above Sweet Treats. I'll just suggest that Bella and the rest of us drive back with Carlisle," he said as he handed me the keys to his car.

"Well, thank you, son," I said taking the keys from him and slipping them into my jacket pocket, "You sure I won't be making anybody mad or offended or any of that?"

"I'm positive no one will be upset. We just want you and Sue to enjoy yourselves and she knows you a lot better than she knows us. She's undoubtedly more comfortable with just you, Charlie. I think the Cullen family is a lot to take all at once," he laughed, "She would probably really enjoy a break from us and time with just you."

I asked Sue if she would like to go to dinner just us and she near jumped at the chance. Huh. Guess Edward was right, she was a little skittery around all of them.

We said our good nights at the ice cream parlor, Bella wanting to just sit and wait till Alice was finished and Sue wanting to explore the shops on the other end of the street before dinner. I couldn't be sure, but I thought my daughter winked at me as I turned to walk off with Sue on my arm. Huh. That was a new one.

Italian it was, after another hour or two of window shopping and some small purchases. We sat down at a booth and I hadn't laughed so much in forever as she told me how crazy her kids had gotten with water and nerf guns they had gotten for Christmas and some of the repairs that now had to be made to the walls in her house because of it. Good thing she has a sense of humor. Those kids seemed to barely bump things and have the plaster falling down. Either they were just really strong, or I needed to check on how well that house of hers was put together!

The waiter told us about a hike that was just up the street, a place called Sunset rock where people went to see the sunset over the mountains. The clouds had cleared out a little this afternoon with the sun showing through from time to time so Sue and I thought that it might be something to see. It wasn't even a half mile up a trail and it was worth every step. Beautiful sunset, romantic just like women liked. Sue let me kiss her a time or two before we headed back and I sensed that she was in the same mood I was. I guessed that us staying out all night, getting a hotel room would have been a little over the top, so I decided I would just see about kidnapping her into my room for awhile when we got back to the house.

As we entered the house, I would have sworn that I heard growling. Fierce growling, the kind that sent shivers up your spine and sent you reaching for the revolver that I now felt naked without. Huh. Sue didn't seem to think anything of it, at least she said she didn't think it was anything but she didn't fool me. I felt her tremble when she heard it. It seemed to stop now that we were headed upstairs, though I could have sworn for a minute it was louder in the house than it had been outside. We reached the head of the stairs and turned to head for the other end of the house and our rooms just as we heard my daughter scream Edward's name, just before we heard him calling out her name.

I looked at Sue, "See. I told you, you hear that several times a day around here. They probably thought they still had the house to themselves to be that loud."

"Charlie, that girl would be mortified if she knew you heard that," Sue told me worriedly.

We walked to the end of the hall and stood outside both our doors. "Goodnight, Charlie," Sue said as she grasped her hand into my hair and kissed me. I reached a hand over and opened the doorknob of my room, gesturing her to go inside and I closed the door, knowing that we were not nearly as loud as my daughter.