AN: Thank you everyone! This is my first M story and am always a little unsure about my lemons, but your reviews always encourage me. Enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 47 – Charlie Awakens

The night the wolves told him no, the night he had decided to change his very existence, Charlie fell into the burning change and everyone waited to see what would happen when he awoke. Would he be the same as other vampires before him, or would he be like his daughter and exhibit a control no vampire had seen before? Time would tell, and right now that was all they had.

As Charlie fought the urge to scream, to kill himself and end the pain, the others retreated to their hilltop baseball field and began training. They could not wait for the former chief of police to wake up because as soon as he did, their enemy would be upon them; and then not only would they have to battle a small contingent of newborns, they would have two to control themselves. It would take time for him to finally awaken, and while his body changed preparing him for the next life, the others would work to prepare themselves to face an enemy, which included one of their own.

When they weren't training, Alice would sit next to Charlie's bed waiting for her mate to wake up. They had not talked before Carlisle bit him and began the change, something she regretted a little. She felt like she should have been completely honest with him, and yet, she had kept silent about that small fact, not out of fear, but because she did not want it to impact his decision at all. He had found out though, at least had been informed of what awaited him; and instead of coming to talk to her, he had decided to go through the change without waiting any longer. Carlisle obliged him, and she had seen it happening in her vision. She knew this was the way it would happen and didn't try to stop him or change his mind. This is the way it was meant to be. Charlie would wake up a vampire, he would be her mate, and he would help them fight James and Edward.

Normally life did not feel like time dragged by for her, but now it was different. She heard each second tick by, felt each minute come to an end, and still she waited. Battle training was a welcome distraction, however, that is all it was: a distraction. Alice felt the need to stay by his side, to watch him. His face would periodically grimace or contort in pain. He didn't scream, didn't cry out, and the only clue to his discomfort was his facial expressions. So different from her own change.

No one was ever born a vampire, they were made and created by transforming from a human species to a vampire through venom from a vampire's bite. There were stories how their race started ranging from a curse from God to a demon sent to live on earth. Carlisle had his own version, as some of the older vampires tended to do. In his version, the first vampires were once human and they had evolved and adapted, no longer needing food to sustain them, but blood. They had become superhuman and eventually virtually immortal. Alice guessed it didn't matter how vampires came to be or what started the race, but it was something she pondered as she watched over Charlie, taking turns periodically with Bella and Jasper. When the daughter wanted to spend time with her father, the seer left the room to give them some privacy, and since Jasper stood over her, there wasn't a chance she would be swayed by the few remaining drops of human blood remaining in the body.

For Bella, she had returned home after spending some quality time with Jasper hunting – and other things – only to find her father had already been bitten and the change begun. There was something different about his blood, less appealing. The venom had tarnished it, making it less than desirable for the newborn, which made it easier to stay with her father from time to time; and since Jasper never left her side, she knew she had nothing to worry.

The first night her father had been turned, she noticed Alice remained close to him, wanting to stay by his side and she couldn't understand why. Not until Jasper explained, and then it all made perfect sense. She had seen her father's eyes following the petite girl several times, but she never said anything or commented figuring her father was just trying to understand this new world he had been thrust into without his permission. He had been far more accepting of it all than she believed he would be, but then again, she hadn't been there when the news had first been broken. According to Alice, he thought about jumping out a window using a sheet rope and making a break for it. He may have seemed like he accepted everything when she first returned after her trip north, but it sounds as if it was a difficult road to achieve. Then again, maybe he thought this was all still a dream and agreed to be changed because he believed this was all some elaborate hoax or that it couldn't be done. If that was the case, he was more than a little wrong. Picturing his reaction always managed to make her smile and giggle a little bit, which when it happened the first night, Jasper asked, "What's goin' on darlin'?"

"Nothing," she managed to choke out as she tried to control her snickering. It didn't work and finally she answered, "I just keep picturing my dad trying to make a rope out of a sheet like in the movies and it failing miserably."

"Lucky us that didn't happen."

"I know, but I can see him doing something like that if he thought he needed to escape a mental asylum," she laughed and this time her mate joined her. That had been the first night, and now he had been going through the change for two days. When would he wake up? Jasper had told her there was no way to tell since it depended on how much venom was injected and how his body responded to it. It could be as little as two and as much as seven. She had shivered at that. She remembered the burn well and could not imagine it lasting a full week. Leaning over her father, she whispered, "You'll make it through this."

Charlie could hear it when someone talked to him, although the sounds were muffled and sounded distant due to the pain. Nothing in his life had prepared him for this. He had been shot before as a cop, had a fishing hook stuck in a finger a few times, and had gotten stabbed a time or two. All of that was a walk in Candy Land compared to this. Why had he done this again? Oh, Bella. If he remembered his daughter and could focus on images of her maybe it would help him, and if not, it was at least a small distraction from his current torture. He wanted to die, he wanted to scream out and beg someone to end his torment, but he kept silent and would not give in to the negative thoughts or temptation.

The pain started out at a ten on the hospital scale and then escalated from there. Every time he thought he had reached the pinnacle, he found himself at a new precipice. Climbing higher and higher, there seemed to be no end in sight, and he could only think he had descended into one of the rings of hell and would burn for all eternity. And just when he thought he could bear no more and was about to cry out, his heart stopped and the pain receded in an instant. Charlie could remember the pain, and yet at the same time it felt like a distant memory.

Voices rang out everywhere. He heard everything, smelled everything. The smell of laundry, trees, grass, and something else. His eyes springing open, the first face he saw reminded him of a pixie. Something about her called to him, but sounds drew his eyes elsewhere. A stomping? Shuffling? Was someone running? It couldn't be. It was too fast.

"Dad?" Bella spoke gently remembering how she felt and acted when she woke up.

Scowling, Charlie tried to place the voice. It sounded a little different than he remembered, as if he could see each note associated with her words. "Bells?" Was that his voice? It didn't sound like the rough voice he remembered. His eyes searched and found his daughter standing in the doorway, with someone's arm wrapped tightly around her. Following the arm, he found a man with scars all over his body and Charlie was instantly on the defensive. Jumping off the table, he crouched down, low to the ground.

"Alice, not too close!" The scarred man warned.

"He won't do anything to me," the pixie argued.

"Damn it to hell, Alice! I don't care who the hell he is, Charlie's still a newborn!"

"I realize that Jasper considering he just woke up."

"If you realize that then…"

"ENOUGH!" Bella raised her voice. "The more you two bicker, the more agitated my dad is getting."

"He's agitated and freaked out by my scars darlin'," Jasper explained. "Not many vampires have this many bite marks and the majority of vampires will panic when they see 'em."

Charlie felt confused and unsure. That was definitely his daughter, but he had to think about who the other man was. Jasper? After a moment, it dawned on him that this was the man who had changed his daughter into a vampire and was the same one mated to her. Alice? The pixie one Jasper called Alice; and then it clicked together and everything seemed to make more sense. He had been changed for the sake of his daughter and because other vampires were on their way. Alice could see the future and was supposedly his mate. As a human, he was unsure of that part, but now, he understood. His eyes scanned the room. He could see everything. Every grain in the wood, ever miniscule bubble in the tempered glass, nothing escaped his notice.

"We need to take him so he can feed," Jasper proclaimed. He eyed Alice for a moment and said, "And you can't go alone with him. He's a newborn and you don't have the experience to control him should you come across a stray human."

Although she wouldn't have minded the time alone, Alice understood where Jasper was coming from and nodded. "So who is going to take him?"

"I'll take him. Peter and Charlotte are on patrol right now and I'd feel more comfortable if one of us three were there."

"What about Bella?"

"No more humans in the house, so I don't have to worry about her right now. Alice, I want you to come with us 'cause two males on a hunt alone may or may not be bad, and he's still unsure of me. The rest of y'all, I want to stay here."

"But JW," Bella tried to argue.

Holding up his hand, he shook his head, "I need to focus on your dad and I can't watch both of y'all. Stay here. You fed this morning. He needs to feed now. He's in pain."

All eyes turned to Charlie and saw his hand clutching his throat. The newborn wasn't sure why the burn was back, albeit not as severe as previously, but it still hurt and he needed to quench it. It felt like a severe case of strep throat times 10. He personally didn't care at that point how they fixed it, he just wanted it fixed; however, he was also still leery of Jasper.

Sighing Bella nodded and stretched to give her mate a small kiss, "Be careful out there." The small growl that came from her father during her actions bewildered and shocked her.

"He's just protective because he still recognizes you as his daughter. It'll be fine darlin'. Alice, let's go before something happens." As it was, Jasper believed they were pressing their luck; Charlie looked as if he was about to leap into the air and attack.

"Charlie, follow me," Alice leaped out of the open back door from the downstairs room Charlie had been kept, and breathed a sigh of relief that he followed without question. A third pounding of feet hitting the ground told her Jasper was right behind them, watching the newborn.

They now had one more on their side. Would it help or hinder their cause? Jasper couldn't be sure just yet.

Reservation…

"You know he is probably one of them by now. He is the enemy. Your friend is dead," Sam's tone was insistent when he spoke to the older man.

"You don't think I don't know that?" Billy bit back. He knew Charlie had made his decision and could even now be a cold one, and still it was hard for him to let go.

"Just so you know, it doesn't change anything. Paul has been given his orders."

Hanging his head, the leader said, "This is the way it's supposed to be." His heart felt heavy and broken.