Charlie Swan's POV

"Coffee." The boy had work ethic. I could give him that much…. And really, I couldn't complain. He brought me coffee which was pretty much all I asked of him outside the job.

When he was younger, everyone had thought that he would become a doctor like his father, following in Carlisle Cullen's footsteps. He had the grades and a knack for the medical field… but something always weighed him down.

Of course we all knew what – or rather who – that something was. It was Bella. He had never stopped searching for her… and really, I couldn't blame him. In fact, I welcomed someone else who had never given up the search for her.

Thankfully, he also respected my need for coffee.

"Mom wanted me to confirm that you'll be over for dinner tonight still?" He asked and I nodded, not that I particularly wanted to be around people, but if not for the Cullen's, I would have isolated myself years ago…

"Yeah… Can I bring…"

"Chief Swan?" Anita, our receptionist interrupted our morning bubble of small talk. Neither of us had been eager to step out of the station… both of us well aware of what day it was. Both of us working to try and take our minds off of it. "We've got a situation that you need to get to downtown… Cullen… you need to attend as well." She informed us and I nodded gruffly. Small towns meant small problems most of the time and I sighed as I tried to find my patience to deal with whatever dispute was happening.

"Fight? Break and enter?" I asked as I grabbed my keys and made my way out of my small office, Edward following behind me.

"Owen Finlay called on behalf of Esme Cullen, it's a situation with a small child, but she wouldn't say anything else except that you two need to get down there." She handed me a slip of paper with the address and Edward and I both got in our respective vehicles, moving towards the scene quickly. It would only take us a minute or two, but something in my gut told me to hurry.

As I pulled up to the scene the first thing that I noticed was the small crowd of people that had formed around what I recognised as Esme Cullen. Glancing around I looked first for any sign of imminent danger and then I hopped out of the car and began to approach her, seeing her sitting on the ground beside a young child. Looking closer I nearly stopped in my tracks, Edward bumping into me, surprised by my sudden stop.

I heard his sharp intake of breath as he saw the same thing that I did.

"How old are you Nessie?" As we started to move closer again, neither of us saying a word, I listened as Esme tried to coax the girl to answer basic questions. When the girl answered that she was nine I just about fell over. There was no way that she was that old, she was far too small. And yet… somehow… she looked just like my girl had on the day she disappeared when she was ten.

"Esme," I tried to be gentle, but my voice was naturally rough and as I spoke I watched as the girl shrank back from Esme, her hand pulling out of hers and wrapping around herself tightly.

Stopping in my tracks I crouched down to eye level, staying back from the two of them while I tried to sort out exactly what had happened. So far Edward was silent behind me, I knew that he was in as much shock as I was.

"Nessie, it's alright Sweetie. Remember, we talked about the helpers?" Esme coaxed the girl and I watched as she relaxed just a little bit, reaching back out for Esme's hand.

"Nessie, these are the policemen. This is Charlie and this is Edward." She spoke softly, pointing out each of us as the girl stared wide-eyed. "They want to help you find your Momma and keep her safe." Esme was trying to give us information without scaring the girl and gradually the pieces started to come together. Was Esme implying what I thought she was?

"Can you tell us a little bit more about your Momma?" Esme asked and the girl closed her eyes, nodding her head up and down.

"Mr. James left the door open." She whispered so quietly that I had to lean in to hear her correctly. "He never leaves the door open. But Momma always said if he did that I had to run away and find the helpers." She spoke a little louder and I felt my heart rate quicken. I was beginning to panic, that familiar feeling from that awful day twelve years prior. This was it. I knew it. This was the day we had waited for… searched for.

"He was hurting Momma like he always does… so I ran. I ran to get help. Can you help her now?" The girl was starting to cry and I watched as Esme slowly moved closer to the girl, pulling her into a gentle embrace.

"Can you tell us where you came from? Where your Momma and Mr. James are?" Esme probed gently and the girl shook her head. "I can show you. I kept opening my eyes even though it was too bright and I didn't go too far." She looked up at Esme, suddenly terrified further.

"What if he hurts you too?" She whispered and Esme pulled her back to her side.

"That's what Charlie and Edward are here for. They are going to call some of their friends to help us too, so that Mr. James can't hurt anybody ever again." Esme explained and finally the girl pulled away, pushing herself up off of the ground and swaying just slightly as she turned, gripping Esme's hand and pulling her down the road.

As Edward and I followed Esme, I gestured for a few from the crowd to follow us, calling Anita at the station and having her call in Troy and Mark as well. It was their day off, but for something like this, I knew I would need all of the help I could get. Especially if it really was my Bella we were about to go looking for.

The girl moved surprisingly quickly for someone her size, tripping every so often in her bare feet, but mostly okay as she led us several blocks down the road and towards the edge of our small town. When she turned down a dead end road, I knew exactly where she was headed and I felt my heart in my throat. Suddenly all of the talk about 'Mr. James' made sense, and I knew exactly where we were going. So did both Esme and Edward.

"Did Mr. James keep you inside the house?" Esme asked as we approached the end of the street and the house loomed in front of us, dilapidated and run down.

James Foster was not the kind of man that we had welcomed into Forks initially and I had had more run-ins with him than I was comfortable with. But it was all minor stuff – mostly drugs, and I had been in his house numerous times.

"No, the back." Nessie whispered again and I tried to understand what she was saying.

"Where in the back?" Esme asked carefully, stopping back from the house and crouching back down to the girl's level.

"There." She pointed to the shed in the back corner. I had been in the shed as well too, nothing spectacular about it. But she seemed sure, and so I gestured to Edward who followed me across the yard and towards the shed at the far back corner. There were large trees in front of it and it was barely visible from the edge of the property. As we got closer though, I could see the door wide open and I felt my jaw drop as Troy and Mark caught up to us.

While I was unusually frozen, Edward reacted.

I couldn't have stopped him if I hadn't been caught in the shock. When we peered through the door of the shed I was shocked to see the shelving pushed to the side and a small door slightly ajar, revealing a staircase in the back, built out of concrete and leading into a room down below.

As Edward bolted I was forced into action, following him in and trying to clear the area, all the while trying to catch up to him and his erratic entry into the unknown, protocol be damned.

By the time we entered the room behind Edward, he had her in his arms. I could hear his sobbing and see the figure on the floor beside them, knocked out cold.

"Bella?" My voice squeaked out. I didn't need to ask. It was her. She recognised me and I knew in an instant that it was my baby girl.