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

Author's note: Well, we're almost caught up with the parent story! Hope you enjoy this chapter!

Thanks to all that continue to read and comment, it means more than you know that someone cares about the story and from some of your messages, you really do seem to care! I love it!

~oooOooo~

Chapter 123 Complacent

So, who's up for a hunting trip?" Emmett asked again,

"The short cut through the mountains is just up ahead."

~oooOooo~

EPOV

I had all but forgotten how much fun my siblings were on a hunting trip. Not that it was within a vampire's ability to ever forget anything, but I suppose I just hadn't thought about it. Jasper's stoic, dry sense of humor offset Emmett's boisterous playful attitude completely, and add a few curt responses from Alice . . . well, it was hard to keep from laughing. With all that had happened in the last year, I had not let my guard down long enough to really enjoy my family. We had shared some fun times out west as Bella and I drove her car home, but it was so close to my having just gotten Bella back and what with her accident and recovery and all . . . not to mention her dad and she and I coming to terms with the fears each of us had about the other leaving them . . . well . . .

It had just been a long time since I just played on a hunt with my family.

We decimated an entire herd right off the bat, the type of sheep that have those double curved horns on their head and insist on staying on the very steepest slopes of the mountains. Emmett was hysterical. We approached the sheep from four directions and somehow just as Emmett was grabbing for a yew, a large male ram charged at his backside, my brother only just avoiding a swift hit to his rear by jumping up slightly and allowing the sheep to pass sort of between his legs as he nabbed him, swiftly breaking his neck and scowling at the first bite of matted wool in his mouth. Alice was laughing so hard she actually dropped her meal on the ground in front of her till she could compose herself.

"I am so telling Rosie about that one, Emmett. That ram nearly knocked you across that crevice and we would probably have found you in the valley below buried under an avalanche," she laughed, barely able to get the words out.

"Ha! Well, I would at least have taken this guy with me," he boasted, his prey drained as he stood to look for another sheep.

"Brother," Jasper said as he turned to come and sit by me while Emmett continued to feed, "I haven't felt you this totally lighthearted . . . well . . . come to think of it . . . ever."

He looked at me as though my emotion was unexpected and his thoughts were for Bella and concern for her carrying not one, but two more half vampire children . . . and giving birth to them with all the danger that entailed.

"I know, Jasper . . . I know. There are many things I should be worried about . . . where Bella is concerned and the pregnancy I mean, and I guess I should be worried about the Volturi, but brother . . . I just can't right now. I have just never been this happy," I told him, cocking my head to one side to try and hide some of the stupid grin that I knew covered my face. "I was just thinking of how much I will enjoy having Bella along on our hunting trips, once I change her, that is."

My siblings stopped cold. Alice and Emmett turned to stare at me, their conversation stopping abruptly as Jasper stared in wide eyed wonder. His thoughts gave away the reason for the stare before his words were out of his mouth.

"Edward . . . you just spoke about changing Bella into a vampire without the least hesitation . . . In fact, you seemed to feel happy about it," Jasper said softly, stark surprise and wonder on his face.

I looked at their faces, each of my siblings looked stunned in their own way, even Alice. I gazed at them for what seemed like a very long time, composing exactly what I wanted to say.

"Yes," I explained, uttering each word quietly and distinctly, "I want Bella to join us. I want her to be what I am, to live with me without worrying about growing older and our finally losing each other to age or mishap. I want her with me . . . and she wants me just the same."

They didn't move. Still as statues, as only vampires can be for the longest space of time . . .

"Come on, you all had to see this coming, especially you, Alice," I chided, rising from the ledge where I sat beside Jasper and brushing the snow from my jeans.

"I have always seen Bella as one of us, brother, I have just never seen you so accepting of it," Alice spoke slowly.

"Comfortable with the thought of it . . . completely," Jasper added.

"Hell yea! About damned time," Emmett bellowed, "I'm tired of you denying me my little sister. She rocks, Edward. She even makes your uptight ass fun!"

I smiled at the thought. She did though, she did make me . . . along with everything else around her, fun. She took everything about me in stride, seeming to expect even some of my odder reactions . . . my less human ones. She seemed almost unshakable when it came to me. She knew me, vampire and all, far better than I knew myself. Bella anticipated reactions in me that even my family didn't see coming, family that had been with me for over 50 years and were vampires as well. She accepted me and all my instincts, reactions and quirks, far better than I accepted myself.

"Dudes, all this lovey dovey stuff is great and all, but I'm still thirsty and we do have to catch up with the train sometime, you know," Emmett insisted, rubbing his hands together excitedly as though he couldn't wait to get his hands on more dinner.

"Oaf," Alice fussed, slapping his shoulder with the back of her hand. "If Rosalie isn't here to keep you in line, don't think I won't," she glared, breaking into a laugh moments after the words left her mouth and she saw the startled look on his face.

I high fived her, Jasper shaking his head in disbelief that I would ever participate in high fiving anyone as we started off towards the valley.

~oooOooo~

Charlie POV

"Sam, how about a cup of coffee," I yelled from the door as I walked outside towards the rear of his truck. I carried my mug as well as his and handed the steaming brew over to him.

"Thanks, Chief Swan," he said ducking his head and accepting the cup with some reserve.

"Charlie. My name is Charlie, son. You already have one Chief in your tribe, just call me Charlie."

The boy just couldn't seem to bring himself to use my first name. I guess I should just settle for him calling me Chief, at least he had stopped always calling me Mr. Swan or Chief Swan. Charlie might be a stretch for him, but he needed to get out of his own head and do things the way others wanted them sometimes. Guess he was learning that though, what with showing up here to tend to my yard each week. I thought he would just show up in the summer, cut the grass, maybe weed eat and if I was lucky he would continue on into fall and help with getting up all the leaves that covered everything that time of year. He hadn't though. He had been here once a week, whether it was to shovel snow from my walkway and steps or to blow it off the roof or cut up some tree limb that had fallen. Hell, my yard looked better than the grounds around the station and we had a professional crew maintain that. I could only imagine the care he would give the yard in the spring when planting grass was possible and the bushes would start to grow again.

"So, how's Emily doing?" I asked, sitting on the tailgate and about burning my mouth on a sip from my mug.

"She seems well, Mr. Sw..., Charlie," He said, fumbling over the words. "I make her breakfast every morning and take it up to her but she seems to get sick anyway and only want just a little toast, if she can even keep that down."

"I remember those days, Sam. Seemed like if just a whiff of the wrong thing got to Renee's nose, everything in her stomach came up," I chuckled. "It passes," I told him, venturing to take another sip of my coffee. His face looked like there was a lot more that he was thinking, but Sam seemed a lot like me . . . kept his thoughts to himself. He nodded and fished out his blower from under the tarp in the truck.

"Thought I'd neaten up the sidewalks now that it's been dry a day or two," he explained, stopping to gulp down most of the coffee in his cup. I had no idea how he drank the stuff so fast, mine was still too hot and Sue had poured it before I had looked out the window and seen him pull up. Don't guess I was ever going to get used to all the things that didn't bother him, or my new son-in-law. Temperature just didn't seem to phase them, the weather or their food. It was freezing out, snow still on the ground, and Sam was wearing a tee shirt and cut off jeans. Huh. I was cold and I had on an undershirt and a flannel shirt with my jacket zipped up over them. I wasn't going to ask, though. I had learned over the last two months that it was better just to observe and let it go. Pieces were starting to fall into place that way, regardless . . . even though I really didn't want to know much more about any of it than I already did.

Bella was happier than I had ever seen her and Edward, well, he fussed over her and my grandson more than any man I had ever seen. He was still 17 to look at, though it was hard to think of someone as responsible and wealthy as he was as a boy . . . especially since he earned his own living and provided for my daughter the way he did. I shook my head to clear the thoughts of them, they were away in Europe and it had been too damned long since I had seen all three of them. The damned boat they had given me for Christmas, now sitting in front of me, covered in my driveway just made me miss them more.

Sam seemed to notice me staring into my coffee cup, "Everything alright . . . Charlie?"

I looked up at him and shook my head as if to throw off a thought, "Yea. Everything's fine. Just thinking about Emily and you about to become parents made me think of Masen. Guess I just really miss the little guy, that's all." I shrugged, venturing to take a sip of the now tolerably hot coffee. "Just think of all the things you get to discover, raising a baby. Nights without sleep, diapers. Ha! Guess I'm glad Bella and Edward are the ones in those shoes, not me. I just get to play with Masen and hand him back when he needs something."

Sam's face didn't change, but there was a hint of something in his eyes. I had to wonder if he was as accepting of the Cullen's - and my grandson - as he said he was, or if he was just giving the outward appearance. Jacob said he could tell the difference, I knew damned well that Edward could, but neither of them were here just now.

"I hear Jacob is flying in tomorrow, Sue was telling me she's picking him up at the airport in Seattle."

"Yea, he's due in to settle some tribal matters." Sam frowned, "and to check up on me, I'm sure."

"Well, as far as I can see, Sam, you're following the council orders to a tee. I have no complaints and I've had a look at the Cullen house as well. Nothing amiss there. Place looks great."

"Thanks Chief, uh, Charlie. I am trying," he lowered his gaze to the street and halfway mumbled, "for all the good it seems to be doing."

I stared at him.

"Emily?"

"Yea. It's like being in a deep freezer at my house and I have no idea if I'm going to be welcome there one day after the other. I wake up wondering if this is the day she'll send me away and tell me she's divorcing me," Sam said, fiddling with the gas in the blower.

There wasn't much I could say. I put my hand on his shoulder, told him to hang in there and grabbed his now empty coffee cup as I turned to go back into the house.

"Charlie," he called to me as I started up the first step on the porch. I turned around to see what he wanted but he was just standing at the tailgate of his truck, blower in hand.

"Thanks."

I nodded to him and turned to go into the house. Sue was just coming downstairs, she had gone up to dress and get ready for her day while I went out to talk to Sam. Weekends were usually days off for both of us, but she had agreed to pick Jacob up in Seattle and she had a tribal council meeting that would take most of the late afternoon. I'd be lucky to get her back by dinner time, then tomorrow they had a full council meeting. Might as well put in some hours down at the station. It wasn't like iIhad anything to do here, after all, what with Sam keeping the yard spotless and Sue after me about dropping clothes on the floor and keeping things picked up and washed up.

Sue had pretty much taken over the running of my house, ever since Valentine's Day that is, when I had asked her to marry me. I wanted to tell Bella about it but I had just wanted to tell her in person, not over the phone what with her thousands of miles away and me not seeing the expression on her face.

"Charlie," Sue called to me, having gotten to the bottom step and staring at me just standing there , still as could be.

"Charlie, you could fly over and tell her."

"What?" I jerked my head towards her in response. How did she do that? How was it that she always knew.

"Bella," she said, moving to stand in front of me and wrap her arms around my waist. "Just call Alice or Carlisle and find out where they are and go over there and tell her. It's eating away at you!"

"I can't go running off to other countries just because I want to see how she reacts when I tell her, Sue," I heard myself almost whine.

"Well, I happen to know that you have an open ended ticket to wherever you want to go and all you have to do is call that Jenks fellow and he'll make the arrangements,"

I looked at her, surprised.

"Very little gets past me Charlie Swan. Now, are you going to set something up or am I going to do it for you?"

"Sue . . ."

"Don't you Sue me. It's been weeks now and I'm tired of seeing you like this. Besides, I want to talk to her about plans for the wedding and I can hardly do that if you haven't even told her were getting married now can I?"

I couldn't win. I knew it and she knew it.

"Fine, fine. I'll call Edward and see where they are and where they're headed. Maybe they're thinking of coming home soon anyway," I feebly suggested as Sue all but laughed at me.

"Fine and good. Call Edward. Between the two of you, I'm sure you can work out something . . . you have so much in common how."

I must have given her a look like she was nuts or like I was an idiot because she felt the need to explain. Just as well. I had no idea what she meant. She supped my cheeks in her hands and kissed me, smiling though I knew she was trying to look stern and fuss at me.

"Bella. You would both do anything in the world for her. Together, I'm sure you can come up with something to surprise her," she said as she kissed me softly, grabbed her coat, and backed out the front door still smiling at me. I hoped it was smiling, though it sure looked like she was doing everything she could not to laugh.

~oooOooo~

Sue POV

What was I going to do with this man.

I had been thinking about it all the way to Seattle and it had been quite a long drive. Charles Swan was one of the nicest, most considerate men I knew. Of course I thought that, I was marrying him wasn't I! I shook my head at how stupid I was being. Yes, he was kind, considerate and loyal to a fault - but he was also a man . . . a man that was set in his ways, avoiding displays of emotion with almost a built in radar for them.

The last six months had seen some changes in him, some ability to adapt and adjust his way of thinking. Well, when he was forced. He had actually come almost full circle when it came to Edward Cullen. The hatred he had felt for the boy a year ago, watching his daughter fade further and further away from him had changed into acceptance. Hell, he actually liked him, and had admitted it a time or two when I could get him to confide his feelings.

I had admitted it as well. Though it was ingrained in my very being to hate vampires, consider them my mortal enemy . . . the Cullen's I liked. Really liked. I had never met a more gentle, considerate being than Edward Cullen, nor anyone who loved and protected his family so fiercely . . . though I suspected that the behavior was in part learned from his adoptive father, Carlisle. The boy even openly acknowledged Jacob as his best friend. I shook my head at that. A vampire and a werewolf best friends. Shape shifter, our tribe was full of shape shifters, not really werewolves after all. Jacob admitted the friendship with Edward as well, and quite openly. I think my opinion of Edward Cullen cemented itself when I had gone on a simple shopping trip to Walmart with him during my visit to Highlands just after Christmas. Though his quite pregnant wife had been kidnapped, his attention to detail was astounding, laying in supplies for Charlie, Sue and I as well as for Jacob and Sam so that we would have food and warmth during the blizzard that was headed towards the area. He had opened his wallet and emptied many thousands of dollars out of it and into the hands of a stranger - a woman with a little boy that was unable to provide the things money could buy for the child. He was quite selfless, in all respects.

His ferocity came out when it came to Bella, though. He had openly dared her father to so much as hurt her feelings in her own home . . . and I think the threat implied far more than just making him leave, though Charlie had no idea just how much danger he had been in at the time. No one made her unhappy if he had anything to say about it . . . and he did.

I was startled from my thoughts and into the realization that I was driving round the loop to pick up passengers at the airport and Jacob was frantically waving at me as though I hadn't seen him. I hadn't.

"You okay, Sue? This is the second time I've seen you drive around and I thought you were going to pass me up again," Jacob said, seeming concerned as he climbed into the car, tossing his bag into the back seat.

"Fine, Jake, I'm fine," I assured him as he leaned over to squeeze my shoulder.

"Preoccupied with the wedding plans then?" he asked, a twinkle in his eye.

"Jacob! How did you know, Charlie hasn't even told Bella!" I said, surprised.

"Well, that may be, but you apparently told your kids and they told Emily and Emily told me. Don't worry, I didn't let on to Bella," he all but snickered at me, "She didn't seem like she knew since she didn't bring it up to me, so I left it."

"You spoke with her?" I asked, once again amazed at the relationship the three of them maintained. Her father hadn't even called her but twice since drove back in January.

"Sure."

"Everything alright with Masen?" I asked, not able to voice what I had been wondering. Jacob knew and filled me in.

"They're all fine. Masen just started walking a few days ago and I have never heard any man more proud of a kid than Edward. He and Izzy were grabbing the phone back and forth away from each other to tell me about it," he laughed.

"Walking? Jacob, he's less than three months old!" I said, reeling at the thought. I had to make an effort to concentrate on my driving.

"And?"

He looked at me with a so did you not expect him to be different smirk on his face as though he was proud of the little boy as well. It surprised me that he was still referring to Bella as Izzy, I had thought that either she or Edward would have put a stop to that, but apparently Edward used the nickname for her as well.

"Anyway, Sue. Izzy was all excited because they have spent the last couple of weeks alone at a mountain house that Edward has up in the Italian edge of the Alps or some such shit. She is so excited about the house and the playroom that he had built for the baby, it was all she could talk about."

"Sounds amazing, doesn't it."

"I guess. Women always talk about the Alps like there is something romantic about snow covered mountains, I can't figure it. I would have thought she was excited about meeting Carlisle and Esme in London and riding on that damned train . . . what the hell do they call it?" he looked thoughtfully at the dash before shrugging his shoulders.

"Carlisle and Esme are going to Europe as well?" I asked, surprised. "I thought Carlisle couldn't get any more time off from the hospital."

"Seems they decided that he did such a great job during the storm, the board gave him two weeks off as a bonus. They drove into the airport with me early this morning, only their flight is still in the air. I doubt they got to London yet," he laughed.

I don't know why the extravagance of flying off to Europe still surprised me. Money was no object to any of them and didn't really seem to be considered in the scheme of things. If they wanted to do something, go somewhere, buy something . . . they simply did it without seeming to consider the monetary cost. I wondered what that would be like, absently shaking my head.

"What?" Jacob asked.

"I just wonder what it must be like, not having to worry about funding trips or paying the light bill. You and I have never lived like that, well, I guess you kind of do now, what with starting Black Swan Racing and all," I smiled.

"No fucking way I'm used to it yet. I wince every time I splurge and completely fill up the tank in my truck with gas," he said animatedly. "Hell, I plan trips two weeks in advance and travel at odd hours in coach to save money but the Cullen's . . . well, let's just say that when we got to the airport, Carlisle walked up to the counter and bought first class tickets to the next flight out, handing the girl his card and not even asking the cost. I went to get on my flight only to find out that he had upgraded it to first class as well," he laughed.

"I guess they just rub off on you after awhile. I've even gotten used to the sickeningly sweet smell they give off," he admitted, looking somewhat sheepish. "Bella and Edward's house smells like home to me."

What a long way we had all come in the last few months, I thought as we drove towards the reservation and the council meeting. The council, however, was far behind us in their acceptance of any changes, but we would just have to wait and see how convincing Jacob could be. He was, after all, Chief, and he had clearly grown to fit the title.

~oooOooo~