Moonlight in Forks

Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.

Confession Time

Charlie took two deep breaths as he looked at his daughter. "I'm sorry about that, kiddo." He apologized, still red in the face. "We weren't expecting you."

"Clearly." Bella said curtly.

Charlie glanced to the side at Renee. Unlike him, she remained completely at ease. "I guess we should talk." He said awkwardly.

Renee read the emotions as they scrolled across his face.

Shock. Embarrassment. Disbelief.

She bit down on her bottom lip to stop herself laughing. She found his reaction to the whole scenario quite amusing. He looked like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar-with his head bent, fingers nervously scratching the back of his neck. He was obviously waiting for the inevitable lecture from Bella.

"Let me deal with this, Charlie." Renee gently steered him back into the bedroom. He didn't protest, relieved that she was going to take charge of the situation.

Bella had remained silent throughout the short exchange between her parents. She didn't know what to think. She was still recovering from the shock of finding them in bed together. How long had their secret liaison's been going on? Was this the first time? Surely, she would have noticed something was up?

Renee might have been able to cover up her feelings. Charlie not so much. He was an open book when it came to Renee.

"Shall we?" Renee said, leading the way down the stairs.

"This ought to be good." Bella muttered under her breath as she followed in her mother's footsteps.

They ended up in the kitchen. Renee bustled about the room, boiling the kettle, and filling two mugs with instant coffee. Bella watched her mother with anxious eyes.

Upstairs she could hear Charlie moving about, the sound of running water indicated he was now in the shower. Good, the noise would the cover the sound of their conversation. Bella had a few things she wanted to say to Renee that she didn't want him to overhear.

Renee eased herself into one of the vacant chairs, pushing one of the mugs across the table to her daughter. "Be careful, baby, the coffee is still hot."

Bella took the mug and nursed it between her hands, breathing in the evaporating steam that was rising from the warm liquid. She darted an accusing glare at her mother, waiting for Renee to defend her actions.

"I think you're making too big a deal out of this, baby girl." Renee began calmly.

Bella pressed her lips together to stop the sharp retort she had planned from leaving her lips. This was just typical of Renee, making light out of something serious. She was always diving head first into situations without thinking of the consequences. This fling, or whatever it was she was having with her ex-husband, may not be a big deal in her world, but Bella knew that it was certainly a big deal in Charlie's. He would think that this renewed connection meant more than it was, that maybe there was hope of a reconciliation. There had never been another woman for him since Renee. He had never gotten over her.

"This thing you've got going on with Dad might be just a pleasant diversion for you, Mom." Bella finally found the will to speak without shouting. "But Dad will think differently. You can't play with his emotions like that. Its not fair. And what about Phil?"

Renee's eyes flashed with indignation from her daughter's assumption that she was just leading Charlie on. "My girl you have no right to say that to me." She snapped. "I would never do that to Charlie. I respect him too much to mess with his emotions like that."

Bella winced at the hurt in her mother's tone. She was so used to appeasing Renee that the instinct to apologize for upsetting her was overwhelming. To stop the flow of words, she raised the mug to her lips and sipped the now warm coffee.

While she stayed silent Renee remained defensive. "Listen to me, baby girl, what happened between your father and I was completely mutual. I admit it wasn't planned – "

"Oh, there's a surprise!" Bella cut in sarcastically.

A small V appeared between Renee's brows. "Will you stop interrupting and just listen to me for a minute and let me explain?"

Bella placed her mug carefully back down on the table and nodded. "Fine."

Renee steeled herself, trying to soften her tone. "Like I said, it just happened. This was the first time. Last night we spent the evening reconnecting, reminiscing about when we first met…our life together…you." She reached out a hand toward Bella, letting it hover near her daughter's face, but not quite touching.

"And then you just fell into bed together."

Renee snatched her hand back, sighing. "You're not going to make this easy."

"Should I?" Bella asked wearily. "Mom, you always do this, act impulsively becoming involved too quickly, without giving yourself time to think about it carefully. I mean isn't that what happened with Phil? You met him, suddenly it was insta-love and suddenly you're walking down the aisle?"

"Bella!" Renee protested, her eyes registering hurt.

Bella reigned in her guilt. She knew she was being harsh, but she had to stop making excuses for Renee like she had done so often in the past. Actions had consequences. This time it involved Charlie. As much as she loved her mother, Bella couldn't bear to witness her hurting him all over again.

"I love you, Mom. I really do. And I've loved having you here and spending time with you…"

"But?" Renee broke in.

"But…I can't let you do this to Charlie all over again. You're giving him hope. And we both know that at some point, you're just going to walk away from him again…aren't you?"

Tears formed in the corners of Renee's watery blue eyes. Pain colored her tone as she answered Bella, her voice so low it was barely audible. "You've always been the adult in our relationship. I know that. But, please, sweetie, give me some credit. Do you think when I left Charlie all those years ago that I didn't love him?"

They had always dodged around this aspect of Bella's early youth. She barely remembered the early days of their peripatetic life after Renee turned her back on Charlie and Forks. They had wandered from place to place for a while, until they had ended up living with Renee's mother, who still remained a difficult woman, but who doted on Bella. Renee enrolled in school and got her elementary education degree - spending time with Bella had made her realize that she was good with children and enjoyed them. Once she had her degree and a job, they moved to Riverside and Renee found a job in a kindergarten. Then when Bella was six old, Renee moved them to Phoenix, Arizona where they remained for five years, after Renée's mother passed away.

"Leaving wasn't an easy decision for me to make, Bella." Renee explained haltingly. This was the first time she had really addressed the reasons behind her resolution to leave Forks behind. "Even though I knew it was selfish, I begged your father to come with me. I was in such low spirits at the time. I wonder now whether I wasn't suffering with some kind of postpartum depression. When I think back, I had all the symptoms of it."

Bella was taken aback by this confession. It was something she had never taken into consideration herself. Renee had been a young mother, living in a small town, isolated from her former friends and peers. With Charlie working all hours as he climbed up the ranks in the police force, as well as being busy supporting his elderly parents, it had to have been a very lonely existence for Renee.

"I know its awful but I began to resent Charlie for all the long hours he put in at work. I hardly saw him. You and I were stuck in this house, day after day, with very little to do. With no place to go. It rained all the time. I missed the sun. I missed my friends. Just the thought of letting you grow up in this gloomy town became unbearable. Once I made the decision to go, I convinced myself I was doing it for your sake…but it was really to appease my own guilt for hurting Charlie and taking you away from him."

"Oh, Mom, why didn't you ever tell me this before?" Bella slid her hand across the table at the same time as her mother. The two women held fast to each other, a new understanding springing up between them.

"You see I didn't leave because I didn't love Charlie." Renee confessed. "I wanted him to come with me, even though deep down I knew it was impossible."

"And now?" Bella dared to ask.

Renee glanced toward the hallway where she knew Charlie was standing. He already knew all of this. They had talked long into the night about the past, and, also tentatively about the future.

Bella, still unaware of her father's presence, asked one last question. Perhaps the most important one of all. "Can you see yourself loving him again, Mom?"

Renee's eyes grew soft as she turned back to face her daughter. "Oh, baby girl, I don't need to start loving him again-I never stopped."

Out in the hallway, Charlie smiled.

While he was working, Jacob had come to a decision. He had thought long and hard about whether it was worthwhile sharing with his pack the conclusions that he and Bella had come to about the reason behind why so many of the pack had imprinted.

In the end, after weighing the pros and cons, wondering whether he was doing so to appease his own guilt and wanting others to share the burden, he decided that it was only fair that they be told.

What they decided to do with that information was entirely up to them. He expected blame, even censure. Whatever happened, he would deal with their reactions calmy and responsibly, readying to stand firm against their anger, but not prepared to enter into any petty fights or arguments over it.

First, he had to call them all together.

Shedding his clothes, Jacob tied them to the leather thong wound around his left leg, while simultaneously shifting with ease into his wolf form. After all this time it came so naturally to him now. He paused under some Douglas firs, which grew in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, some of them reaching up to 330 feet in height, their trunks exceeding 8-10m feet when mature. These particular firs weren't quite so tall, or quite so round, but they still soared high into the sky, blocking out the light, making it dim and difficult to see if you weren't blessed with supernaturally enhanced eyesight like he was.

Jacob sat back on his haunches, raising his long muzzle high in the air, he let out a piercing howl of command.

Seth was the first to phase in. "'Sup boss?" He asked.

"I've warned you about calling me that, Seth." Jacob was not in a good humor.

"Sorry." Seth mumbled.

Leah was next. "I was just getting some sleep." She complained. "This better be good."

"Hey, Jake." Embry's cheerful voice broke through Leah grumblings.

"I'm here." Quil, too, joined the fray.

"What's going on?" Collin and Brady asked together.

It only took a few minutes before all his brothers and one sister wolf were gathered around him under cover of the tall firs. Jacob didn't waste any time with preliminaries, instead he plunged straight into his explanation, using the mind link to show them the mental images of his and Bella's conversation from the day before.

Afterwards he was met with a resounding silence. Jacob stood firm, expecting to be faced with a ring of hostile eyes. To his surprise it was the exact opposite.

"Your theory makes sense." Quil was the first to speak. "But its not your fault, Jake." He added, sensing his Alpha's guilt. "Its just like Bella said-we can't go back. Only move forward."

Jacob felt relief swamp him at Quil's matter of fact approach. His reaction had been one of the ones he had been worried about the most. Embry, Seth and the two youngsters added their reassurances to Quil's. They hadn't been affected like Quil as they had never imprinted.

Lastly Jacob turned to face Leah. Even more so than Quil, she had suffered as a result of Sam's imprint with Emily.

The she-wolf had clamped down on her emotions in an effort not to broadcast her reaction to the others. She wanted privacy to think things through. She didn't want an audience while she was doing it.

"I need time." She said to Jacob, keeping her tone as neutral as possible.

"Take as much time as you need." Jacob's guilt was eased by the calmness of her reaction. Leah wasn't placing blame, she just wanted peace to work through her thoughts. "I must go and tell Sam."

"Wait, Jacob." Leah said, the urgency in her tone stopping him. "Let me do that."

"You?" Jacob was puzzled. "Why?"

"My reasons are my own." Some of Leah's brashness had returned. She stared him down, daring him to refuse. "You owe me this." She added after a moment's tense silence.

"Fine." Jacob conceded. "If that's what you want."

"It is."

"Lee Lee, are you sure?" Seth whined. "I don't want to see you hurt again."

"I love you, little brother." Leah butted him in the side gently with her head. "But stay out of it. I can look after myself."

With that last parting comment, Leah took off at a run, not looking back as she headed for home. Soon her thoughts faded out altogether as she phased back into her human form, blocking them all out completely.

A/N-thanks for reading!