Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

by Horizon77

Bella was supposed to have died five years ago, but now Charlie isn't so sure. With the help of some trusted allies, Charlie delves into his memories to search for clues that could change everything…and bring Bella back to him. Canon through Eclipse. Sequel to the one-shot Look After You.

9. Ghosts With Just Voices

Disclaimer: Any recognizable Twilight characters and ideas are property of Stephenie Meyer. I am not profiting from the distribution of this story. No copyright infringement is intended.

Author's Notes: Well, a flu bug and some work drama kept me from posting this as quickly as I wanted to, but here it is! I'd say I was sorry for the cliffhanger, but…

As always, thank you to all my readers, whether you've been with me since the beginning or have just recently stumbled across my work. HUGE BEAR HUGS to all of you who have taken the time to review. I love hearing from all of you. Your reviews have been so insightful; I seriously have the best readers!

From Chapter 7: I Am Not There - Just as I was hanging up my jacket, my cell phone buzzed, again. Blocked call. Goddamn it. I was so done. These fools had called me seven more times before I'd left the crime scene. I was stressed out enough from everything going on the last few weeks, and now these assholes were about to take the brunt of it.

I pressed the answer button and yelled, "Listen, I have had it up to fucking here with the-"

"Charlie! Finally! Thank God!"

Alice.

Chapter Eight – Ghosts With Just Voices

Present Day

Charlie POV

"Alice?" I managed to ask around the lump that had suddenly formed in my throat.

"Oh my God, Charlie. You really have no idea how glad I am that you finally answered the phone."

"Alice?" I asked, again.

"Yes, it's me. Been awhile, hasn't it?"

Been awhile? No shit. Never once when I was ignoring all those blocked calls did the thought ever cross my mind that it could be Alice Cullen on the other end of the line. Why would it? The letter I send to their PO Box had only gotten me a photo from Bella's wedding in return. Well, the photo and a cryptic message to go along with it. I figured that was going to the extent of any communication between the Cullens and me. I sure as hell wasn't prepared for a full on conversation with one of them.

Oh, God. I need a Vitamin R to make it through this call in one piece.

"Charlie!" Alice called out, interrupting my thoughts.

"Yeah?" I asked.

She sighed loudly on the other end. "Is everything okay? You didn't come to the phone, before."

"I…I thought you were a junk call," I replied.

"Definitely not a junk call, Charlie."

"But not a social one, either, I'm guessing?"

A pause. "No, I'm afraid not," Alice replied.

She sounded absolutely exhausted. I had to wonder what the last few years had done to her. That voice of hers was still as sweet sounding as ever, but there was something in it that was different than I was used to. Maybe all the sadness or stress had finally caught up to her. Whatever it was, time had really taken its toll on the energetic teenage girl I'd come to know years ago.

Regardless of how she sounded, she was really there on the phone. I couldn't believe that I had a direct line of communication with the Cullens tossed right into my lap. After everything I'd been through in the last few weeks with her family, here she was.

Everything I'd been through.

Oh, God.

Alice was on the phone with me. Right now. I could ask her the questions that I had been tossing around in my head for weeks. I could ask her anything.

What are you?

Did Bella fake her death?

Is she there with you?

Am I crazy for believing in bear-sized wolves?

What are you?

I tried a few times to form my lips around the questions I needed to ask, but wasn't really getting anywhere. Turns out it's kinda awkward to ask a twenty-one-year-old girl if she's some kind of not-quite-human with golden eyes and a scary scent to dogs. Oh, and by the way, do the rez kids control a pack of humongous wolves?

Mercifully, Alice cut me some slack and broke the silence. "Can I ask how you've been, Charlie?"

"Jesus, Alice. Really?"

What was I even supposed to say to that?

"Yeah, I know," was all she said.

"No, I don't think you do."

In every conversation we'd had between the memorial and the very last phone call, whenever I said something about her not understanding what I was going through, Alice would remind me that they had loved her, too. I guess it had kinda helped knowing that I wasn't alone in how absolutely brokenhearted I was feeling.

This time was different, though. Alice didn't feed me any lines like she used to, but she also didn't say anything else, either. I decided to start off small and just answer her initial question. "Well, how I am is the same as I've been. What's there to have changed that? Work is 'bout the same. Nothing I can't handle. You? The family?"

"I'm good. We're all good. A lot of us miss Forks."

And that was all she said. "What, no stories about your brothers' latest antics?"

"Not this time, Charlie," Alice said with a weird tone to her voice.

Not a social call. Right.

"Sooooo…" I said, feeling about as awkward as I'm sure I sounded. "You sounded like you were in a hurry to tell me something earlier. What happened? Cat got your tongue, now?"

Good God. 'Cat got your tongue?' Could you possibly be any weirder about this?

But the fact of the matter was that this whole conversation was making my skin crawl. It just felt so wrong. Talking to Alice had been a small ray of sunshine in my otherwise shitty life that first year after Bella's accident. Our conversations had always been easy, but everything was different, now. I could feel the weight of the secrets between us like they were zapping the air right out of my little house. There was no way I was going to be able to just pretend like nothing was wrong and play it cool.

Not that I was ever particularly cool around that girl.

Thankfully Alice ignored my incredibly embarrassing question and said, "You're right. I definitely called for a specific reason. Charlie, I need you to promise me something."

Promise her something? Yeah, sure. I'd get right on that. Maybe if she promised to answer one of my questions in return. Maybe starting with what she was. Or where Bella was. Or both.

It could have definitely been my chance to strike a deal with Alice, but in the moment, I just managed to say, "Uh, well, yeah. Okay."

Smooth, Charles. Real smooth.

If Alice heard the lameness of my reply, she was nice enough to not call attention to it. "You have to promise me that you aren't going to go upstairs, boot up that ancient piece of machinery you call a computer, and go digging around the Internet about the Quileute legends."

"Wait, you called me a thousand times from a blocked number to ask me not to do some research online?" I asked, more than confused why that was urgent enough to break the Cullen Family Code of Radio Silence with me.

"Yes. Please, it's important," Alice replied.

Just as I was about to ask what was so bad about reading some damn stories, it dawned on me that there was no way on God's green Earth that Alice should have known about my plans to do research. Earlier today at the crime scene, I had barely even started to consider looking into some of the legends Billy had told me when the first call came in. So how in the hell did Alice Cullen, living in God Knows Where, USA, know what I was going to do when I got home?

"Now, alright, Alice. You wanna tell me what's really going on here?"

"Please, you need to understand…The Quileute legends have been kept secret within the tribe for a reason. They are incredibly dangerous, or rather the information in the legends is dangerous to have."

"Yeah, well, they'd say the same exact thing about you and your family – that you're all dangerous. From what I see, it's just more of the drama between them and you. God knows I've heard enough of that to last a lifetime," I said.

Alice didn't have a response to that. Of course, she didn't. No one in this whole tangled web of lies ever answered my questions or had anything to say when I hit a little too close to home. I was just so done being lied to by omission.

I gripped the phone tightly in my frustration and heard it creak under the pressure. This was so not how I pictured a conversation going if I ever got a hold of one of the Cullens, again. I had so many questions I needed to ask, but Alice wouldn't even give me a straight answer to the easiest one. If I couldn't figure out a way to make her spill her guts on this one, how would I ever get her to answer the harder questions?

As I took a swig of Rainier to steady myself, I decided to try a different approach – through the backdoor.

"Did you get my letter I sent to the PO Box? That was you who sent that address to me, right?" I asked.

Let's see what she did with that.

"Yes, I did see it. Well, in a manner of speaking," Alice said. "And yes, I was the one who sent you the address to the box. I guess I just needed you to have a way to get in touch with the family if you ever needed anything. I did get some…pushback on that one, but most of us thought it was important for you to have, too."

"Pushback?"

"I didn't exactly confer with the family before sending it, and I ruffled some feathers. Not the first time, and it certainly won't be the last. No worries, Charlie."

"But it wasn't you that sent the photograph to me?" I guessed.

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. I was just about to continue talking to fill the silence that was getting more and more awkward by the minute when she said, "It…It wasn't. Someone intercepted the letter before they showed it to me. They're the one that responded to you."

"So if it wasn't you?"

"It was someone who meant well, but didn't think their actions through before writing back to you. That photo – you having it…Well, it caused a disagreement of sorts."

I bet it did, Alice.

She was starting to open up a little. I needed to step it up a notch.

"I actually got the photo not long before the station called me in on an emergency call. One of our officers has been missing for a couple days, and some of my boys found his car parked in your driveway, of all places. Well, not your current driveway. The, uh, the old one. The one here."

To her credit, Alice almost didn't skip a beat. "What are you talking about? Was the officer around?"

Play your cards close to your chest, Charlie boy. Don't let this one run away from you.

"We haven't seen any sign of him, as of yet. Forensics doubts he was driving at the time. We lifted a bunch of prints from all over the cruiser, though."

"When was this? I just don't understand why I didn't…" Alice paused for a moment and started again in a different direction. "Was there any damage to the property?"

"Some of the forest, if you'd believe. We think some large animals were involved. Don't usually come so close to the residencies, but I suppose since you've all been gone for a while, they were feeling particularly brave."

"Maybe," Alice agreed, but it sure as hell didn't sound like she believed me for a second.

"The huge paw prints we found at the scene reminded me of the stories Billy used to tell. You know, back when Billy was still feeling like himself, I would have given up my Rainier seven days a week and twice on Sundays just to get him to stop telling and retelling all that damn folklore. God, if I had to hear the one about the lady ogre that trapped kids in her basket to take home and eat, I would have probably tried permanently sewing my ears shut."

I stopped for a minute to reflect as Alice made a noise that I guess was like laughter, but sounded a little too sad to be real. "Ah, but you know what they say. You don't know what you've got till it's gone. Guess I got to thinking that I should try to look some of them up. Pretend it was Billy telling them, again."

"Pretend? Billy can't tell you them, himself? What happened?"

My throat clenched up a bit. I'd been dealing with the fallout from Billy's letter for what seemed like forever. Guess it was easy to forget that he hadn't been gone that long. "A lot has changed here, Alice. A lot. But that's not important, right now. I want to hear more about this not-so-social call you're making. You know, you never did get around to telling me how you knew about me looking into the legends."

Another sigh. "Charlie, it doesn't matter how I know."

"Of course it matters. It makes no sense that you would know what I was thinking about doing."

"It doesn't have to. I mean it. It really doesn't matter."

"The hell it doesn't!" I yelled, even though a tiny part of me cringed like it always did when my temper got the best of me and got me to swearing in front of Alice.

"I know you're frustrated," she began.

Understatement of the century. I hated how calm she could sound on the other end. "You're goddamned right I'm frustrated. Why won't you just answer me?"

Alice sounded like she tried to say a couple different responses before she settled on, "You're going to have to trust me on this."

Well, hell, that did it.

"Trust you? Trust you?" I asked, hearing my voice getting louder with each word.

"Charlie-"

"TRUST YOU?"

My face felt like it was on fire, and my heart was thundering harder than it had during my failed attempt to take up jogging a couple years ago. "How can you possibly ask me to trust you? If you had any idea what's been going on around here, lately-"

"We have an idea, Charlie," Alice interrupted. "I…We…"

It was strange and kinda nice to have Alice be the one to get tongue-tied, for a change. This conversation was making her nervous. Good. I could work with that.

Alice seemed to have collected herself when she continued, "As frustrating as it is for you on your end, please know that it's just as frustrating for us on ours, as well. I so wish that I could explain more to you, but I just can't. It's for your own safety, Charlie. Everything has always been about your safety."

Everything.

What exactly was everything?

"Alice, please. I've been dealt so many of these half-truths from Sam and Jacob and all of them, lately. I really don't know how much more I can take – from you or anybody."

"What half-truths? What are you talking about?"

Finally. Something she didn't already seem to know.

Well, if she wasn't going to show me hers, I definitely wasn't showing her mine.

"It's nothing," I said, trying to sound as offhanded as I could. Acting wasn't exactly my strong suit, and I guess it showed again, today.

"You know, you're not very good at lying, Charlie. She got that from you."

Bringing Bella into this was probably a bad move on her part. She'd even used the "she" language that I had used for years in order to make it from day to day. I decided that this was my chance. It was the opening I was waiting for to sound the least crazy I could.

I opened my mouth to ask the question that I had been dying to ask since I first heard her voice on the other end of the phone, but Alice beat me to it. "Oh God, Charlie, no. Please don't. Don't ask me that."

"Don't ask what?"

"Charlie, please don't do this."

"Please don't do what? What do you think I was going to ask? How the hell do you keep doing that?" I demanded.

"Charlie-"

"No," I interrupted. I knew that tone, and I wasn't taking no for an answer. "You tell me to trust you, and so do they. You tell me you're trying to keep me safe, and so do they."

"The Quileutes?"

"Of course them!" I yelled in to the phone. "You're just like them. Everybody is telling me what the hell I should and shouldn't do, but no one will just man up and tell me why."

I got no response on the other end of the line, so I continued, "Alice, I'm a rational guy. If I have to butt out of something to keep people safe, I normally will. But where Bella is concerned? No. I won't do it. Not without something. Not without someone explaining to me why the hell Billy Black would tell me that Bella didn't die in those woods."

All I heard was a gasp and then complete silence for what seemed like forever before Alice finally whispered, "I'm sorry. He said what?"

"It's like I said."

"I…I can't…"

After another minute to regroup, Alice asked, "What would make him say a thing like that?"

"You tell me, Alice."

"Well, I know you, and you couldn't have possibly have left it at that. What did else did he tell you?"

There was an edge to her voice that I hadn't heard before, but I liked it. I had surprised her. Nothing ever surprised Alice. That girl seemed to have an almost psychic ability to just know everything about everyone at all times, so tonight was proving to be really interesting. I could surprise her, and that meant that maybe she'd be just off kilter enough to slip up. Well, at least it was worth a shot, anyways.

"Charlie? You still there? What else did Billy say to you?"

"Nothing. He didn't say anything else."

"Well, but…" Alice paused and tried again. "You honestly expect me to believe you dropped it?"

"Had no choice. He got sick a while back. Passed not too long ago. Billy is dead."

Silence.

Score one for ol' Chief Swan.

"Oh my God," Alice said quietly. It sounded more like she was talking to herself and trying to process than anything else.

"Charlie, I don't know what to say" she said when she'd recovered. "I'm so sorry for your loss. The whole family will be. I know the two of you were very close."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well. It wasn't sudden. Like I said, he'd been sick and everything for a couple years. Still…I don't know, Alice. I'm not sure how I feel about any of it. Especially after what he did."

"I'm guessing Billy never told you in person, then? How could he have? You wouldn't have let him alone if he said something like that to you."

Smart girl. Always thought so.

"You're damn right he didn't tell me in person. I would have had some choice words for him, if he had. If Billy knew Bella was out there somewhere, why the hell would he keep that to himself? What kind of shitty friend does that? Doesn't even matter if it's true or not; either way it's a crappy thing to say."

I waited for Alice to dispute the fact that Bella was still alive. She didn't. All she said was, "I'm so sorry, Charlie."

And the thing was she did sound incredibly sad, and I actually believed it. The sixty-four thousand dollar question was if she was sorry about Bella's passing, or sorry because she was also in the shitty friend category.

"So, if Billy didn't tell you in person?"

"He waited until after, well you know, to send his daughter over to do his dirty work. Rachel showed up on my doorstep and handed me a letter that he wrote years ago. It just had the one sentence on it. Nothing more. No explanation. No nothing."

"Billy just sent you a letter like that? How could he have been that…"

Thankfully for her, Alice didn't finish her sentence. Billy might have been a misguided old fool for putting his loyalty to his spooky legends above telling his best friend that his daughter didn't die some bloody death in a forest, but he was the only one actually telling me the truth in this whole mess. Well, at least in the end he did. I may have still been pissed off at him, but I didn't need to deal with more of the crap between he and the Cullens, right now.

Alice must have felt the same way, because thankfully, she dropped whatever she'd been trying to say before. "You said he wrote the letter years ago? When?"

"September 8, 2006."

I didn't need to say what the significance of that date was. Alice's quiet curse on the other end told me she knew exactly what that day was.

This was it. Finally. I had her. I could just feel it. Alice was off balance, and I knew it wasn't something she was used to feeling. As much as I still loved that girl, I needed answers more than her comfort.

"You have to give me something here, Alice. Do you have any idea how it feels to be the guy that's left flapping out in the wind like an idiot? I started out thinking I've been that guy since this whole thing started, but in all reality, it's been a hell of a lot longer than that, hasn't it? I think I've always been the guy that didn't know, well, whatever it is that everyone else knows. I've been honest with you. It's gotta be tit for tat."

Oh, sweet Jesus. I just said the word "tit" to Alice Cullen.

Luckily, Alice saved me from the Earth opening up at my feet and swallowing me whole by saying, "Charlie, please try to understand where I'm coming from. Billy crossed a very serious line saying something like that. I just can't comprehend why he would do that to you."

I scoffed and said, "What, tell me the fucking truth?"

"No, Charlie. Not that," Alice said with the same tone to her voice I'd heard so many times when Bella would come up during our phone conversations. Her voice would get quieter. More gentle. Pity. "Put you in danger. We all love you very much – us, the Quileutes. Understand that if any of us have been less than truthful, it's because we need to keep you safe."

"But see, that's all anyone will say to me," I replied. I hated how these conversations always came back to this same bullshit. "Knowing is dangerous, Charlie. You're in danger, Charlie. We need to keep you safe, Charlie. Does no one believe me when I say that there isn't anything I couldn't handle if somehow the universe would undo what it took from me and just give me my daughter back? I'd do anything. Anything. Move any mountain. Cross any river. Deal with whatever crap my friends think is too dangerous for a chief of police. And Alice, you have to know that I'm not stopping until I figure out what really happened back then."

Alice sighed. "Yes, I'm starting to see that. And it's going to put you in-"

"-danger. I hear that just might be a possibility." I paused for a moment, and then resorted to begging. "Alice, please. Please. I need you to tell me what really happened, out there. For Bella. I know you loved her, too."

She didn't say anything for a long while, but I knew she was still on the other end because I could hear the wind rushing across her phone's mic. At least it told me I hadn't lost her.

Finally, Alice asked me, "Can you please promise me that you'll at least drop this until you hear back from me? Charlie, I know you don't think you can trust me. All I can say is that you absolutely must."

My gut reaction was to tell her exactly where she could go. Who was she to tell me what to do where Bella was concerned? But the things was that I had loved Alice like my own from the moment she started caring for Bella when she'd broken her leg in Phoenix. I wanted to trust her. Even when bone in my body was telling me something wasn't right here, my heart won over my common sense. Shit. "Alright. Alright, alright, alright. Fine. I'll table it, for now. But Alice, if I don't like what you come back at me with-"

"I can make that work, Charlie. And…about the other thing, I…I'll see what I can do. Okay?"

She'll see what she could do? Oh, God. Did that really mean…

Alice must have been able to sense my building excitement, because she cut me off before I could say anything. "Don't you dare even thank me, yet. I know what's waiting for me when I walk into the house, and I…I can't tell you for sure what's going to happen, next."

I'd take it. Damn right I'd take it.

"I should probably get into the house and, you know, deal with everything. But, Charlie? Can I ask you something, first?"

"Sure. Fire away, kid."

Alice seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking, "Who's stepped up as chief now that Billy is…Now that Billy is no longer able to be chief?"

"Why does even that matter?"

"Believe me, it makes all the difference in the world," Alice said.

Didn't make any sense to me, but I knew that Alice tended to have her reasons for everything. "Seems like Sam. From what I could tell, Billy and the rest of the Elders were grooming him for years since Jacob didn't seem at all interested."

I could just barely make out a sigh of relief on the other end before Alice said, "Oh, thank God."

And there it was. Something about Jake becoming chief spooked Alice, then. She must have realized has much as I did that he has never been convinced of rationale behind the tribe's secretive ways. If I'd had any doubts that Jacob was going to be my way into their little secret-keeping club, then that would have erased them completely.

Now, I just had to find the words that would make him finish what he'd started, today.

"Sorry to let you go, but I'm almost back at the house. Privacy is kinda hard when you have so many ears around, and I think it's best that no one overhear anything until I'm ready. Can we pick this up soon?"

"Uh, sure. How can I reach you?"

Alice sighed. "I've already gotten myself in enough trouble, Charlie. Let's not add giving out phone numbers to that list. I promise to reach out in a couple weeks. You know I don't ever break my word."

I didn't like it.

I really didn't like it.

But if I wanted answers, this seemed like it was the way it was just going to have to be. "Ugh, fine. I guess that works."

"Thank you for understanding, Charlie. Now I really should be going. Take care."

"Alice!" I called out, hoping she'd hear me before hanging up.

She did. "Yes?"

"One last thing. Something weird has been going down at the rez. Jacob has been trying to convince Sam to let him contact you. Not sure what it's all about, but the boys…well, they didn't look so hot earlier today."

"I'll have Carlisle look into it."

"Thanks, Alice. Um, take care, okay?"

Alice actually giggled like her old self on the other end of the line. "Of course. You, too. Eat something healthy for dinner."

We said our goodbyes and hung up. I dropped my phone on the table next to me and my head into my hands.

And then there was nothing.

I literally didn't know what to do with the information I'd just gotten. My brain was on overload. If it started to liquefy and leak out my ears in a few minutes, I wouldn't even be surprised. Brain turned to mush seemed like a legitimate side effect of the conversation I'd just had.

Alice Cullen had called me. I'd had a real conversation with Alice Cullen. Years of complete silence on their end, and then all of a sudden, she was on the phone like nothing had changed. Even with all that planning and scheming for weeks, a part of me thought I'd never get a hold of any of them. But I had. My letter had actually gotten where it was going.

Well, sort of. I still wasn't clear on that whole thing.

Of course, the conversation hadn't exactly gone the way I had been thinking it would. Definitely didn't play it as cool as I would have hoped. All that interrogation training I'd had to sit through over the years went completely MIA the second I heard Alice's voice on the other end of the line, and I wound up riding my emotions like a tidal wave the whole damn time.

Then there was the Bella thing.

"And about the other thing, I…I'll see what I can do. Okay?"

All this time I'd been poking around about the accident, I had so wanted to believe that Bella was okay, but it had seemed so impossible. The more strange inconsistencies and memories that started to pile up, though, the further and further I was pulled out of the haze I'd been living in since I'd lost her. My lists were just enough to get me to second guess what I thought had happened, and I let myself dare to actually have hope.

Even so, I held myself back from completely believing it could be true. Conspiracy theories, faked deaths, and the what? The supernatural? It all seemed too out there to be true.

But today had changed everything. No one had even tried to deny that something was going on – not Alice, Sam, or Jacob. The whole lot of them just avoided the subject like the cowards they were whenever I asked them directly.

I knew I could still be completely wrong. I wasn't stupid enough to believe that there wasn't this huge chance the whole thing could turn out to be very, very bad for me. All normal, rational signs pointed to Bella having not made it out of that forest. Maybe my grief had finally gotten to my better judgment. Maybe the Cullens really did just have weird, mutated eyes, and the boys on the Rez just got their wicked cuts and bruises by wrestling around with each other way too hard.

All of it made much more logical sense than my daughter having faked her own death, but my gut was telling me I was right to have hope, no matter how twisted and unbelievable it sounded. What I needed now were the missing pieces that would complete the puzzle. That meant that a lot of people out there had a crap-load of explaining to do in their futures for keeping all this from me.

The worst part of everything was that it had worked. In the four and a half years since Bella's accident, I had never once doubted that it had really happened. How the hell did I drop the ball so badly? I was the chief of police, for God's sake, but it took Billy's letter to conk me on the head hard enough to wake me up. Otherwise, I had to wonder if I'd ever have noticed the crap going on all around me.

I could feel the anger that I'd been trying my best to keep at bay making my insides tighten up and struggling for control of the situation. That was the last thing I needed. Going in half-cocked like I did on the rez and when I was talking to Alice wasn't going to happen again. I couldn't afford to let my hot head steal my cool from me. If I was gonna get any information from anyone, I'd need to stay focused until I could find her.

Then, I'd be happy to let a shit storm rain down on everyone who lied to me. Starting maybe with Jacob, the kid who swore he loved my daughter, but turned around and lied like sack of crap to her old man over and over. That or Alice with her little…whatever game was going on during that phone call and knowing what I was going to say and do before I did it.

That remind me.

I grabbed my list I'd started what seemed like forever ago and wrote down, "Psychic?"

God, that was embarrassing to even write down, but was it any weirder than anything else I'd already written?

And it wasn't that far out there, come to think of it. Tonight wasn't the first time Alice had ever come to me all freaked out over what I was doing. At the memorial, she flipped out and begged me to get out of the car. She was completely panicked until I decided to stay. It hadn't seemed like such a big deal at the time, but tonight was way beyond anything I had seen her do. Her being psychic was maybe the only way to really explain it.

My cell phone ringtone quickly pulled me out of my thoughts.

No way. Not already. We'd just gotten off the phone. She was calling back already? I didn't think I was ready for a Round 2, just yet.

I looked at the screen.

Jacob Black.

Oh, Lord, help me. Another phone call I wasn't completely sure I was ready to tackle.

"Jake, hi."

A loud sigh of relief came from the other end of the line, and I could barely make out Jacob's muffled voice talking to someone.

After a good half a minute had passed, I rolled my eyes. "Jake, son, did you have something you needed to tell me, or what?"

"Uh, sorry, Charlie. Everyone's been pretty worried about you since you left the rez. Just letting them all know that you're okay. You are okay, right?"

"Like I said, I was just called into work. Nothing that hasn't happened a hundred times before."

Jacob grunted quietly before saying, "Sure, sure. Just an average, everyday crime scene on the Cullen's property."

"Hey, hey. None of that, right now. Really not in the mood. But, Jake, does Sam know you're talking to me about this?"

"Yeah, uh well, actually, no. I mean, he does, now…Charlie, you're right. I should probably go," he said quickly.

I knew I couldn't let the boy get off the phone without telling him about the Alice thing, but I also knew that meant I'd have to tell him how I'd opened my big mouth about Billy's letter. Shit.

"Uh, before you go, Jake, I, uh…Well, I got a call from Alice Cullen, tonight."

"Wait, WHAT?" Jacob yelled. "What do you mean you got a call from one of them? Just like that? Out of the blue? What did she want? What did she say? Did you…I mean, it's been years. What did you guys talk about?"

"Gonna make my head spin with all those questions, son. Look, we didn't talk about much," I said, milking the wind up a little longer than was probably nice. "Just had a completely regular conversation for two folks catching up. You know…How have I been doing? Have I been eating healthy? Did you know that Billy told me Bella is still alive?"

On the other end, a bunch of yelling exploded from at least a few different voices on top of Jacob's. I couldn't quite make out what they were saying before he covered the mic with his hand, but most of the anger seemed to be directed at Jacob. I could only find it in myself to feel mildly bad about that.

Jacob finally moved his hand away from the mic as he said, "God dammit, alright! Everyone just chill the fuck out! Give me like a minute...Yes, God, I will!" To me, he said, "Please say you didn't actually tell Alice Cullen that my dad wrote that letter."

"Hell yeah, I did."

"Well…what did she say?"

I rolled my eyes. "What do you think she said when I told her that her best friend didn't actually die? She was more than a little shocked that Billy would have written a letter like that to me. Of course, it's funny. She didn't actually seem too surprised about the actual message, itself. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"Charlie," Jake warned.

"Yeah, yeah. I know. But you do all realize that if one of you, any of you, would just finally come out with it, you'd save me the trouble of having to go digging around in all the stuff you claim is so dangerous. That photo. The things I noticed. I'm close. I know it. I'm so close to figuring it out, anyway. Enough is enough. I don't even care what the truth is, anymore. I just need to fucking hear it. You do realize that you don't have to listen to what anyone says, right? Whatever you have to say, you can go ahead and say it. I can take it."

Jacob growled in his throat. "You don't know how badly I want to do that. If I could, I would. You never deserved what happened. It was all those bl-"

After choking on his words like I'd heard him do so many times in the last couple weeks, Jacob held the phone away from his mouth and went right back to yelling at whoever was with him.

"You alright over there?" I asked.

"Sure sure. I'm fine," Jacob said, sounding entirely not fine to these old ears. "Just another example of how none of us get a say in anything that affects all of us. I think everyone's getting a little sick of the gag order anytime we try to talk."

Someone responded to Jacob, but I couldn't make it out. He replied, "Yeah, well it's getting REALLY FUCKING OLD!"

The shouting back and forth started up again, and I lost any hope of following what they were saying when someone grabbed the phone away from Jacob and covered the mic. The yelling started getting harder and harder to even hear, and I knew that whoever had taken the phone was moving quickly away from the fight. Eventually, when I couldn't make out anything in the background at all, a new voice said, "Charlie?"

"Emily? That you? Everything okay, over there?"

"It will be," she replied. "You know how they are. This could go on for a while. Jacob knows all the ways to press Sam's buttons, and he's using every single one to his advantage as we speak. I didn't want to just hang up on you. Don't worry about them. They'll get over this. They always do."

"Well, thanks, I appreciate that," I said. "But I hate taking you away from Sam if they're upset. You probably should get back in there and cool your man down."

"No, no, that's okay. Sam actually doesn't feel comfortable with me around when he has disagreements with the guys, so I was heading out here, anyways."

"Well, I stand by my thanks."

Emily giggled just a bit, though I could tell it was strained. "Then, I'll accept it." She paused for a couple moments and then asked, "Hey, Charlie?"

"Mmm?"

"Okay, I realize that the guys may seem to have a weird way of showing it, but they're just worried about you. So much could go wrong getting involved in all this. Listening to their warnings is honestly in your best interest."

I rolled my eyes. "I appreciate your concern and theirs. I do. But I'm a grown man, and a police chief on top of that. I'm more than fine."

"You're not," Emily said, suddenly sounding more firm than I could ever remember her sounding, but also a little hushed. "Please listen to me. I am Makah. The rest of them in there may be bound by their orders and boundaries and ancient agreements, but I'm not. Not technically, anyway. What's out there is incredibly dangerous. If you won't believe me and you won't listen to them, then at least listen to the scars on my face. Hear what their stories are trying to tell you. It was no bear that clawed at me."

What? Of course it was a bear. What else would have been big enough to-

The paw prints. The wolves.

"Emily, are you saying-"

"I have go, Charlie. They're winding down in there, and Sam will come to check on me soon. Just please try to remember that continuing to walk the path you're on may well lead you to something far more dangerous or deadly than anything that ever happened to me. Tread carefully."

"Tread caref-…What is that even supposed to mean? And deadly? Are you trying to scare me off? Because you know I can't drop this."

Emily sighed. "I know you can't. It's not the decision I'd make for myself, but it's not my decision to make. I'm not trying to scare you off like the rest of them. I'm just being realistic. You have to prepare yourself for whatever is out there and never, ever let your guard down around anyone. I need to go now, Charlie. Take care."

"You, too."

We said our goodbyes, and then I was left staring at the phone for quite some time after we hung up. Every time I thought I was starting to have a handle on this mystery, some new curve ball was thrown at me.

If I was understanding what Emily told me correctly, did that mean one of the gigantic wolves had actually been the animal that scarred her? Why they wanted the accident covered it up was obvious, if that was the case. What was less obvious was why Sam had let her anywhere near such a huge and unpredictable animal in the first place, and why were any of them continued to even approach the animals after one of them attacked Emily?

Could it be possible that they had tried to leave them alone? Maybe the boys had tried to stay away, and so the wolves didn't have anyone to control them. Was that why they had gone rogue? If that were the case, then when hadn't they been a problem after that spring before Bella's wedding? Had they gone into hibernation for a few years?

Once again, all I had was a pile of more questions. Every time I found out another piece to the puzzle, it seemed to make the whole situation that much more complicated. One step forward and two steps back. Never hated that cliché more than right now.

My stomach growled to remind me that I hadn't eaten a damn thing since I left for the Rez, this morning. I hauled myself up from my armchair with more effort than I wanted it to take and headed into the kitchen for a bite to eat. Until I heard back from Alice, my hands were tied. Why I made that fool agreement, I'd never know. That girl always had found a way to twist me around and make me do whatever the hell she wanted. Apparently, that worked long distance, too. I was going to need to figure out a way to boost my resistance to her persuasion and fast because Alice would damn well be calling back soon if she wanted me to stay off the research on my own.

This time, I'd be ready for her call.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Hope those of you who have been eagerly waiting to hear what Alice to say are feeling contented, now! Please take a moment to leave a review and let me know what you thought. I do respond to every review, so don't forget to sign in, if you have an account. If you don't, know that I read your review and am very grateful you reached out!

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