A/N: I did it! I actually did it! Two chapters in a day, heck yeah! I totally deserve a whole ass donut for this. So, do you guys feel treated yet? Do you? I'm going to try and get out one more update by tomorrow, but no guarantees, and then there's still going to be the Human Unknown update Sunday, so those who like that story watch out for it and make sure I don't forget. Because quite honestly, my memory is barely better than a goldfish's and I probably will. as always, please feed me reviews, I love them.

Chapter 20

"Kate! We can't kidnap Bella!" Tanya hissed, but was in for a surprise when Rosalie let out an annoyed huff-directed at Tanya.

"First the mutts say no, and now you reject the idea too?" Rosalie grumbled. "I am never one to agree with Kate, but as I had the idea first, I am more than comfortable saying that kidnapping that infuriating alpha is a perfectly viable option."

Thankfully, Irina put a hand over Kate's mouth before Kate could add her own commentary. It was almost as if Tanya could pretend it was just Rosalie and her there.

"Kidnapping the Alpha, regardless of reason, is most likely going to start a war between us and the shifters. We can't kidnap Bella," Tanya did her best to remind Rosalie, but it was clear the younger blonde wasn't satisfied.

"I don't believe so. While they may not condone it, I'm sure the wolves wouldn't come after us for kidnapping her as long as we explain why."

Tanya stared at Rosalie, stunned momentarily that she was even arguing for it to this degree. However, one look at Rosalie's face,, and Tanya could see the frustration and desperation in her eyes. She had to remind herself that while Rosalie didn't have to wait nearly as long as Tanya did for her mate to finally appear, she had to deal with not having her mate for much longer. All of those hours spent ranting to Tanya still didn't tell Tanya the whole story. She could only guess just how much Rosalie had struggled and suffered as she tried to come to terms with Bella being hers, especially with their clashing personalities. Then, when she finally decided to go all in, only to have her mate run and still push her away...it wasn't that hard to understand why Rosalie was so close to her limit.

"It can be an option. But let's try getting to our mate in other ways first; kidnapping her can be a last resort. How about that?" Tanya asked, willpower crumbling under Rosalie's clear desperation. Rosalie seemed a bit conflicted about having to wait even longer for what she saw as the only way to get Bella, but eventually nodded in agreement.

"Tanya, you can't be serious. You're actually considering kidnapping her?" Irina asked in bewilderment as Kate let out a whoop of excitement.

Tanya shrugged helplessly. It was partially because of Rosalie, yes, but also out of her own selfishness. If Bella kept running and Tanya and Rosalie found themselves running out of options, Tanya knew she would end up considering the idea of kidnapping Bella more and more until she ended up agreeing. They might be able to talk things out, or at least Bella wouldn't have to leave at the Elders' beck and call. At least saying she might consider it now wouldn't lead to Tanya being a hypocrite once her own desperation got to be too much.

"I can't wait! It's been so long since I kidnapped someone, and that wolf is so much fun to play with." Kate quickly hid behind Irina when Tanya and Rosalie turned to glare at her. Reminding them of what she had done, accidentally or not, to Bella's leg probably wasn't the smartest thing she had ever done.

Irina let out a sigh. "Well, we all know the wolves aren't going to come back anytime soon. Why don't we go back to the Cullen house and see what the others have to say? Or perhaps go back to the hospital and talk to Carlisle?"

"Carlisle," Rosalie said firmly before anyone could say otherwise. "Well, Tanya and I will go. Bella was at the Forks hospital and I want to know why."

Tanya gave Rosalie a fond look as she wrapped an arm around the other blonde, although her voice was dry. "You do know there's this thing...patient confidentiality? Carlisle is still a doctor and he has to follow the rules. He can't just tell you why Bella was there."

"Finally, the great coven leader regains some sanity," Irina said with clear relief. Sadly, that relief was short-lived as Tanya continued.

"As hard as it is to be in hospitals, I suggest we follow Bella's trail through the hospital and find out who she visited. You will be recognized as Carlisle's daughter, so it should be quite easy to get into the patient's wing. We can talk to Carlise after." Tanya gave Kate and Irina a quick apologetic look. "You two might want to go back. It would be best if you had no part of this."

"Wait, I totally want to help! We can be spies, or ninjas, or-"

"Like hell I'm letting you 'help.' You're as subtle as a truck crashing into a building," Rosalie snapped, her glare at Kate becoming more intense. She still wanted to murder the woman for what she had done to Bella. Had Tanya not tightened her hold on Rosalie's waist, she probably would have tried to lunge at the warrior again.

"I can be subtle," Kate mumbled. She crossed her arms and pouted, turning her puppy dog eyes on Tanya in hopes of convincing Tanya to let her help. "Right Tanya? What if you need backup?"

"Maybe next time," was Tanya's only reply, which made Kate huff and Irina snort. "Besides, this involves our mate; it's best for Rosalie and I to be the only ones to go. Irina, do you mind babysitting Kate until we get back?"

"I don't need a-"

"I'll do my best."

"That's all I can ask for." Tanya left Rosalie's side to give each of her sisters a kiss to their forehead, before returning to Rosalie. The girl was deep in thought, but snapped out of it when Tanya took hold of Rosalie's hand. "Shall we go?"

Rosalie nodded, and together, they took off through the trees, back to the parking lot. She was quiet the entire time, thinking about what Tanya being Bella's mate meant in the long run. She didn't feel any jealousy toward the woman, but at the same time, she wondered if this would somehow hurt their relationship. Perhaps strengthen it? There were so many questions, but currently, Rosalie wanted to focus on Bella. Tanya and Rosalie could sit for hours and talk, while Rosalie needed to figure out how to pin Bella down for a while.

Tanya was quiet herself, but not because she was overwhelmed with questions like Rosalie. She simply recognized why Rosalie was being quiet and stayed silent herself to respect that. She had always been like that, especially with Rosalie, and the younger vampire couldn't be more grateful.

They entered the hospital so quietly, most of the humans around didn't notice them, and those that did were stunned silent by their beauty. Unfortunately, one of the ones who noticed and was able to talk to the two vampires was the receptionist. Despite her eyes widening and her words getting caught in her throat, the woman was able to stop them and speak coherently enough that they couldn't pretend they didn't understand her.

"I'm afraid visiting hours are over. You will have to come back tomorrow."

Rosalie's eyes narrowed, and she looked ready to tear the poor woman limb from limb. She knew she wasn't being rational, but all she could see was this woman standing between her and information about her mate.

Thankfully, the cowering receptionist didn't have to piss her pants even a single time before Tanya stepped in.

"We're not here for that. This is Rosalie Hale, Carlisle Cullen's daughter. She needs to drop something off for him that he had forgotten at home. I'm accompanying her as her cousin." Tanya gave a blindingly charming smile. "I hope you don't mind."

"Oh, of course, er...go ahead." The receptionist didn't even notice that both blondes were empty handed and didn't have them sign in. She simply motioned for them to go on through.

"See what a little bit of sweetness will get you, Rose?" Tanya asked teasingly once they were out of earshot. She threw an arm over Rosalie's shoulders when Rosalie huffed, pulling her closely. Rosalie leaned into her, accepting the affection but still grumpy.

"I see it gives humans brain damage."

"Excuse me?" Tanya actually had to hold back a laugh as Rosalie rolled her eyes.

"Your smile fried her brain. That woman is never going to be the same, and it's all your fault. It would have been better for her if we had done things my way." Rosalie sniffed just enough to inhale the scents around her. Usually the smell of blood and all of the humans surrounding her would do damage to her control, but all it did was make her throat burn a little more than usual. All of Rosalie was too focused on the faded scent of her mate to truly be distracted by anything else.

"What way is that, exactly? You looked ready to kill her, Rose."

"Your point?"

A soft laugh escaped Tanya as she took a sniff of her own. Even now, despite knowing Bella wasn't actually here, it felt like her dead heart might skip a beat every time she caught a hint of her mate's scent. No matter how stale it was, knowing it was her mate she smelled, that her mate had been here, made her want to purr.

It was interesting, how Bella's scent got fainter the further into the hospital they went, yet they could both smell a strong source of Bella's scent mixed with another further along. Rosalie seemed a little confused by it, but Tanya recognized who the source of the scent was and why they smelled the way they did.

The moment they made it to the right door and entered, her suspicions were confirmed by the man on the bed. The man almost seemed to jump out of his skin as she saw them, eyes widening in shock as Rosalie slipped into the room. "Vampire!" he shouted through a mouth full of food while looking right at Rosalie. Tanya entered the room after and shut the door behind her, and his eyes looked about ready to pop out of his head. "Other vampire!" He inhaled too much of the food in his mouth, and he started coughing.

Of course Rosalie didn't want someone Bella cared about to die, but she also had no idea what to do in this situation. It was clear that this man was a Quileute elder, and that meant he could flip out even more if she got closer. There was no way that Bella would be okay with Rosalie if the man broke something trying to get Rosalie away from him.

Tanya didn't have any such reservations and moved to help the man, but he quickly waved her away before she could try to even get close to him.

"I'm fine," the man gasped. He took his water and drank the rest to clear his throat. "Don't need one of you breaking my spine trying to help me anyway."

Rosalie felt a flare of annoyance, but didn't say anything. She already had a feeling this man could potentially be as agitating to her as her mate was. Tanya, on the other hand, had no idea what she was getting in to.

"I'll have you know I have exceptional control of my strength." Tanya couldn't help but frown at his words. She would never hurt someone she didn't want to, not anymore, and she would be especially careful with someone her mate cared about. As she spoke, she took a moment to examine the man before him. Save for the bronze skin and dark hair, he looked absolutely nothing like Bella. He had a weird mustache, his body was thin but barely muscular, just on the edge of being fit, and he was so short compared to Bella it was almost laughable. She knew that it was unfair comparing Bella to him as Bella was a shifter, but Bella just couldn't find a single feature that matched Rosalie's mate. Not the set or shape of his eyes, his rounder nose, his thin lips...it was as if the man wasn't related to Bella at all, not even by a drop. Had Tanya been wrong after all?

"Yeah, sure you do, blondie," the man grunted. Just like that, Tanya could see-and hear-the resemblance. The way he spoke, the way frowned and huffed as he looked at her like he was ready for a fight, made it clear as day that this man was Bella's father. Crossing his arms over his chest, he stared at the two women. "What are you two doing here, anyway? Hospital food is bad enough without you two showing up to ruin it. You here to threaten me? Complain about me being here? Tell me to drink more water? Or are you here to nurse me back to health while acting like I'm on death's doorstep like Carlisle?"

While the man glared at them, there was something much different in his glare compared to the Elders Rosalie had met when they first came back to Forks. There was no hatred or disgust, he just looked grumpy. It made Rosalie feel more confident that she wasn't going to end up fighting with him, as long as she was careful.

"You look and act like an Elder, yet you weren't there that day we came back to Forks," Rosalie said thoughtfully. "You're Bella's adoptive father, I presume?"

Ah, now things were making sense. No wonder he didn't look anything like Bella to Tanya.

"Yeah, I am. She's as much as my daughter whether we share blood or not, got me?" The man looked as if he half expected a fight to break out at his words, but relaxed slightly when they didn't say anything. "Name's Charlie. I wasn't there to welcome you back because Bella decided to redirect some waterways and I had to deal with it." Tanya and Rosalie arched their eyebrows at the news, but Charlie just shrugged like they shouldn't be surprised. "You've met her already. I'm sure you know how she is." He frowned again as he took in Tanya. "Not sure about you though, you aren't one of the Cullens."

"My name is Tatyana Denali, but you can call me Tanya. I'm a cousin of the Cullens," Tanya said formally. Since Rosalie kept her mouth shut and her gaze steady on the man, Tanya took over for her. "This is Rosalie Hale, although you may already know her. Whether you talked to her before or not, I'm sure you know who to look out for, and her face isn't one so easy to forget."

Rosalie rolled her eyes to hide how much Tanya had stroked her ego. "Enough with the flattery, Tanya. I don't want to stay here longer than necessary."

"What blondie number two said," Charlie added gruffly. "You can either get out, or tell me why you're here, then get out."

Rosalie felt her temper flare, but once again worked hard to clamp down on it. Charlie had been right; blood or not, Bella was certainly Charlie's daughter.

Tanya and Rosalie shared a look, neither sure of what to say. Perhaps they should have planned things better, but they hadn't thought out what to say much past finding the person Bella had been in the hospital for. Now that they were faced with an old human man version of Bella, they were stumped.

"Either spit it out, or I start screaming like a little bitch." Rosalie and Tanya both looked at Charlie in surprise at such a strange threat, but Charlie didn't waver. "You heard me, bloodsuckers. If I put some work into it, I'll sound like a terrified little girl and everything. Staff'll come running as fast as they can if they hear a little girl scream." The silence continued, only instead of looking at each other to figure out what they should do next, they just stared at Charlie. Charlie sure was making it harder to figure out what their next move should be when he was issuing such strange threats. "Don't think I won't! I've got a pair of lungs on me, whether they're currently fucked or not. People will hear me for miles. If you don't run out of here at vampire speed, then you'll forever be known as the bitches who made an injured old man scream like a little girl, and I'll even say the older one offered a lapdance and tried to take my chastity! Nothing can hurt your reputation more."

"You don't have any chastity," Tanya tried to soothe the man even as she tried to make him see sense.

"What have you been doing, stalking me? You don't know what goes on in the privacy of a man's home! As I said earlier, Bella isn't mine by blood. I didn't have to stick my nethers into any hole to have her."

"Ew. Don't make me gag," Rosalie spat while Tanya did her best not to make a face of her own.

"Then tell me why the fuck you're here already! You think I want to scream like a little girl?" Charlie looked at them as if they were the ones who were insane, and at this, Rosalie snapped.

"You are almost as-"

Tanya slapped a hand over Rosalie's mouth before she could say anything more. "It's about Bella. We're here because of Bella."

Charlie narrowed his eyes suspiciously, taking in everything with sharp human eyes. After his gaze moved from Rosalie's glare to Tanya's guarded yet hopeful look, he took a deep breath. "That's it, I'm screaming."

"What? No!" Tanya wanted to blur over to him and cover his mouth, but she was afraid of what releasing Rosalie would do. She wouldn't hurt him physically, but pissing off Bella's father further definitely wouldn't help any of them. "Why would you do that?"

"Of course it's because I'm her father! Any good father man enough would scream like a little girl to protect his daughter!"

Tanya almost groaned in frustration, but managed to hold herself together. Bella. You're doing this for Bella. For your mate. Don't let your mate's father drive you crazy. "You don't need to protect her from us. We aren't any threat to her, I promise. The last thing we want to do is hurt her or upset her in any way."

"Speak for yourself. I'm so kicking the pup's ass one of these days," Rosalie muttered petulantly, thankfully her voice was too soft and muffled for Charlie to hear.

"Oh yeah? What other reason would a bunch of vampires come to harass an old man other than to get information out of him about his kid? I don't care whose car horn she rigged to play the Cha Cha Slide, I'm not telling you anything!" Charlie puffed up with righteous fury, his eyes serious and protective. "You think you're the first ones who showed up to make me spill my girl's secrets or weaknesses? Cause you're not, and no one has ever managed to get me to tell them anything. So get the hell out of here, or you're going to hear a forty year old man scream like a little-"

"Oh, for the love of…" Rosalie shoved Tanya's hand away, storming up to Charlie with a glare. Tanya knew she couldn't stop her, so she just decided to stay out of it and let Rosalie say her piece. Rosalie's voice was more frustrated than anything, but many people would have withered under a look like that from a girl like Rosalie. Yet this man, this human male, didn't so much as blink as Rosalie all but snarled in his face. "Will you shut up about screaming like a little girl for one goddamn second? We're not here to screw your daughter over, and we're not here to try to get her in trouble or learn her weaknesses either." No matter how much Rosalie would love to know them. "We're here because Bella is our mate and we don't know what to do!"

Charlie gasped, eyes widening until they were almost cartoonishly large. He looked between a clearly desperate Rosalie and a grimacing Tanya. Then he looked between them again just to be sure. Finally, he focused on Tanya. "Is what Blondie Two saying true? You girls are mated to my daughter?"

Tanya met Charlie's eyes as she pulled Rosalie back a few feet in case Charlie went ballistic. They probably should have tried to check his medical chart before getting this far just to make sure the news didn't cause any damage.

"Yes, it's the truth. Bella is our mate, and Rosalie and I have already confirmed that we are Bella's imprints."

Charlie let out a sharp exhale of breath, completely blindsided by the news. Here he was, trying to protect and defend his daughter, and it turns out the two he was trying to protect her from were her imprints?

"Well shit in my sock and call me Carly. You two are fucked."