Chapter 30
She's in a state of shock, she goes crazy

She's in a state of shock, she is confused

She's in a state of shock, so confused

She's in a state of shock, losing her mind

She's in a state of shock…
~State of Shock- Ted Nugent

Alice drove Bella's car down the empty street above the speed limit. The faster she drove, the more it felt like she could escape from the horrors of the night. "We're okay." Her words hung in the air like a hope, a want, a lie… Nothing felt okay. Everything felt topsy-turvy, and as far away from 'ok' as you could get. But Alice tried to remain calm for Bella. She tried to pretend that everything was 'ok' until they reached their destination. She needed to stay in her right mind as she was the only one who could drive them safely.

When they reached Charlie's home, Alice pulled into the driveway and felt a weight lifted from her shoulders. She left the keys in the ignition of the car, then exited and knocked on the door loudly. When it opened with Charlie waiting inside, she breathed an air of relief. "Thanks so much Mr. Swan for allowing us to stay here." Alice sent Charlie a ghost of a smile. "It's been a rough night." Alice looked back at Bella who was standing by her car with tears streaming down her face. "It's alright Bella. We will get through this. C'mon, let's get situated inside."

Charlie opened his door wider and motioned for them to enter. Alice entered without hesitation but Bella remained in the driveway by the car weeping. Charlie walked over to his daughter and wrapped his arms around her tightly. "Bells, I know this is hard for you, and I want you to know that we are going to do everything possible to find out what happened." He patted her back soothingly gently tugged her towards the house. "Let's get inside. It's cold out here."

Bella looked up at her father with tears streaming endlessly down her face. "Everything feels like it's falling apart." Her voice stuttered at the end and she wiped away some tears with her arms. "I feel so...so…" She covered her eyes with her hands and shook uncontrollably.

Before Charlie could intervene, Jacob closed the car door on the opposite side with Renesmee in his arms. "Charlie, do you mind taking our daughter and Midnight into the house? I want to talk with Bella for a moment."

"That's not a problem Jacob." Charlie replied gruffly as Jacob walked around to the other side and transferred Renesmee to Charlie. "She's getting big." Charlie muttered as he held his granddaughter who was fast asleep. "Follow me Midnight." The small dog wagged his tail happily and followed the off duty cop up his stairs and into his home.

Once they were alone, Jacob embraced his wife comfortingly. "Honey, we're ok. Please stop crying." He rocked her side to side and tried to quell the shaking of her body. "Tonight was hard, but we've been through worse."

"I don't know Jacob." Bella cried into his chest. "Today was too much. I can't believe Maggie and Liam died in the fire." She wiped her nose as snot began to leak profusely. "They may have been old, but they were making the most of their lives." She looked up into Jacob's dark eyes with such emotion that her lip began to quiver. "And I feel so bad for even thinking it, but I'm glad it wasn't you. I just keep thinking about it and I don't think I would have been able to handle it." She leaned into her husband and sighed heavily. "I love you so much."

Jacob released his wife and threaded their fingers together. "I also don't know what I would have done if I had lost you. We are so lucky to be alive." Jacob paused and looked up towards the sky. "Maggie and Liam are in a better place now. I'm sure they're also happy that we all made it out of there okay." Jacob returned his attention to his wife who was still weeping. "Today was really hard. But we got through the fire, and we will get through the aftermath." He kissed her forehead sweetly and motioned towards the house. "Let's head inside okay?"

"Alright." Bella took a few deep breaths to steady herself, then followed her husband inside of the house. "I still can't believe you went back for Caius."

"Me either." Jacob made a funny face. "He had the nerve to get dressed before we escaped through the window." Jacob closed and locked the door once they entered and shivered involuntarily from the memory. "At first I told him it was an emergency and that we had to get out of there immediately...But it turns out he sleeps in the nude and I saw more of him than I should have."

Bella felt a strange sound come from her mouth and the result caused her husband to smile.

"I'm so glad I can still make you laugh." He told her softly.

The pair entered the kitchen where Alice was drinking a cup of tea and Charlie was fixing some sandwiches. "-and then he had the nerve to call the landlord up, yell at him, and demand his rent back from this and last month. It was insane. Now he's staying up at some hotel for the night." Alice rolled her eyes and downed the rest of her tea. "Caius is a piece of work." She got up and poured herself another glass of tea. "The only good thing about this whole mess is that he won't be our neighbor anymore."

"There is a silver lining after all." Jacob spoke as he entered the kitchen and helped Charlie distribute the sandwiches to everyone. "We were going to have to move anyway, so I guess the deadline just got moved up."

"Which I'm still pissed about." Alice growled. "But now our stuff…" Alice looked down into the hot cup sitting in front of her. "All of our belongings and the memories attached..." She sniffled and her shoulders began to vibrate as she cried silently.

Bella sat her chair next to her friend and rested her head on the woman's shoulder. "Do you remember that time you bought the same pair of shoes twice?"

Alice paused in her sniffling and wiped her face awkwardly. "Which time?"

"Funny." Jacob muttered under his breath.

"Do you remember that time you bought that really cute purple dress for our teachers appreciation dinner?"

Alice paused then scoffed loudly. "And the secretary had the same dress?" Alice's fists clenched in remembrance. "It was embarrassing! People posted 'who wore it better?' in our stupid group me."

Bella chuckled lightly. "You won though. You can't be mad."

"I guess." Alice rolled her eyes but her tears dried up and her sniffling had ceased.

"Or how about the time you thought you you owned that limited edition-

"No!" Alice cried out as laughter overtook her. "Please don't remind me of that bag. I thought it was the only one in the state. I should have known it was a knock off." Alice shook her head as the memories flooded her brain. "As soon as we get paid, we're going shopping. We deserve it."

Jacob look watched the two women curiously while eating his sandwich. "Caius may have done us a favor." She said between bites. "The landlord did give all of us back our rent as well." Jacob took a huge bite of his sandwich and motioned vaguely outside. "After everything we've been through, maybe one nice day of normalcy is what we need." Jacob walked over to the table and sat down in beside his wife. "I agree with Alice. We should go shopping."

Charlie passed the women some simple sandwiches and watched them eat them quietly. "I have a buddy who rents out homes all over Washington. I'm going to give him a call later and see if I can get you all settled into a new place. But until then, you are more than welcome to crash here for as long as you need. You too Alice." Charlie patted the pixie haired girl on the shoulder and smiled down at her. "You included Alice."

"Thank you Mr. Swan." Alice devoured the sandwich as though he were going to take it back. "But don't worry about me. I luckily grabbed my phone before I climbed out of the window and I texted my sister. She's on her way over to pick me up right now. Plus," Alice looked down at her choice in pajamas. "I'll be happy to change into some real clothes. Normally I sleep in lingerie so I guess I should be grateful I fell asleep in my robe."

Charlie coughed awkwardly and looked away from the woman. "Uh, hm. Alright then." He looked over at Jacob and seemed to take in his form for the first time. "Do you always sleep in only your boxers?"

Jacob shrugged but a pink dusting colored his cheeks from embarrassment. "It gets hot sometimes…" he mumbled to himself.

Charlie turned away from the trio and made his way towards the living room. Before he exited he addressed them one last time. "Jake, Bells, you can sleep in my room tonight. I already set up your old room for Renesmee so she is asleep up there. I'm going to take the couch tonight."

"Thanks Charlie." Bella responded gratefully.

"Yep." Charlie left the group and soon they heard him snoring on the couch loudly.

Alice looked down at her phone and smiled. "My sister is here. I'll get going." She stood up then gave Bella a hug as she was walked to the door. "I will contact administration when I arrive at my sister's home and let them know that we won't be attending school today. I'm sure they will see the burning of our apartment on the news so our absence will be excused. I'm sure the kids will love having a sub." Alice rolled her eyes at the thought. "Tomorrow we are going shopping and we're going to put all of this behind us."

"Sounds good to me." Bella leaned into her husband as Alice left and glanced at the clock hanging in the hall. "It's almost 6am and I feel exhausted."

"Well it's been quite the eventful night. Let's get some rest. We have a lot to do later." Jacob offered his hand to his wife, and after she took it, the pair headed upstairs to Charlie's bedroom where they each claimed a spot on the bed and fell asleep within seconds of their heads hitting the pillow.

A/N: Thank SissyCabella for the update. Reminded me to get updating lol. If you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas and I hope it was wonderful! (Also sorry for any weird spacing in the paragraphs or whatnot. Got a new laptop as the old one died tragically BEFORE a final project. So that was fun. And I'm still getting used to this new one.)

Next update coming soon!