Well, I didn't quite meet my goal of updating again in less than a month, did I? Thankfully, it seems like the site's issues are on their way to getting resolved – still no stats, but as far as I can tell email notifications are working again – so I'm feeling more optimistic now, which helped me get my inspiration back. Here's hoping I'll be back to my usual writing pace soon.

They spent the next few hours discussing the best way to break the news of Bella's biological sister's existence to Charlie and speculating on how he might react – with some intermittent distractions when Bella tried to start a new makeout session – before Edward finally convinced her to get some sleep. She didn't think she would be able to, as keyed up as she was, but she must have managed it somehow, because the next thing she knew it was light outside, Edward was gone, and she could hear Charlie puttering around downstairs.

This evidence of her adoptive father's presence reminded her of her decision to introduce him to Bo soon, and the prospect of having to follow through on that almost made her want to hide under the covers until Edward came back, but she sternly told herself that wasn't an option. You don't need Edward to hold your hand. You can do this.

Taking a deep breath, she resolutely pushed the covers back and planted her feet on the floor, exulting in the sensation of standing evenly on both feet and feeling solid ground under the one that had been encased in plaster for so long. She flexed the toes of her formerly fettered foot, digging them into the area rug that stuck out from under her bed on all sides, then headed to her closet to change into clean clothes. Pulling on a pair of skinny jeans for the first time in over a month sent another thrill surging through her, though her mood took an instant nosedive in the next minute when she realized that, now that she was dressed, there was no excuse for procrastinating any longer.

Come on, you can do this. Bo and Charlie are both part of my family, so they have to meet sooner or later. I'm sure they'll get along great…even though she's a succubus and he's, well, Charlie. I'll just have to tell her to ditch the leather, which shouldn't be a big deal. She must have some normal clothes somewhere in all those bags and suitcases…right? Bella paused halfway down the stairs, reflecting on the fact that she had yet to see Bo wear anything that did not seem likely to give Charlie a heart attack. Maybe I'll ask Esme to lend her something.

Satisfied that she now had an actionable plan, she continued downstairs, where she found Charlie in the kitchen, his back facing her as he rummaged in the fridge. She waited a moment for him to acknowledge her, but when that didn't happen – possibly because her arrival wasn't heralded by the usual noises of her tripping over furniture and her own feet – she got his attention by clearing her throat loudly.

"Oh, hey, Bella, I didn't hear you-" He broke off as he turned around and saw that, for the second time in as many days, her appearance had undergone a sudden, noticeable change. "Where's your cast?"

"I got it off," she said brightly. "I told you it wouldn't be much longer, didn't I?"

"You did, but still, overnight… That was fast. I guess Carlisle's new treatment really is working wonders, huh?"

It sounded like a simple observation or rhetorical question, but Bella saw it for what it truly was: a thinly veiled plea for reassurance that there was some kind of rational explanation for what was happening to his daughter, because obviously broken bones did not ordinarily fail to heal properly for weeks, then abruptly reverse course and mend themselves in a single night. Unfortunately, there was no way she could explain away her accelerated healing using real-world science, because there simply was no explanation for something so far outside the normal parameters of human biology that didn't involve the supernatural. Time for evasive action.

"It is," she agreed. "Carlisle's a genius…although I can't give him all the credit for this."

"What do you mean?"

"Well…after the big revelation that I was adopted…" She stopped there, bracing herself for Charlie's reaction. Sure enough, he flinched at the reminder of that painful time before wordlessly gesturing for her to continue. "I wanted to know where I came from," she went on quietly, now fidgeting with the hem of her shirt and not quite meeting his gaze even though she felt it boring into her, "and since you and Mom couldn't tell me anything, I…didn't say no when the Cullens offered to help me look into it. It's just that they've lived in a few other places before moving to Forks, so Carlisle has contacts in the medical community who could access records other people can't, you know…" Actually, she doubted whether the information Jasper had dug up that had led them to Bo had come from any doctor's files, but that was beside the point.

"And?" Charlie pressed, tension now radiating from every line in his body. "Did they find anything?"

His apprehension affected Bella as well, making her answering nod more a sharp jerk of her head and tightening her throat so that her next words came out in a tiny whisper. "I have an older sister."

"A sister? Well, that's… That's something." Charlie's relief was almost palpable; clearly, he'd been afraid she had found her biological parents, but somehow a sister didn't seem as threatening. After all, Bella had no adoptive siblings, so there was no one in her life this 'real' relative might replace.

Relaxing in tandem with him, Bella quickly finished her cover story. "It turns out she has the same, uh, condition that was stopping me from healing, and she told Carlisle how to treat it."

"So you've already met her? Is she here in Forks?"

"Yes." Seeing a flash of hurt cross Charlie's face at the admission that she had made contact with her sister without breathing a word of it to him, Bella hastily added, "I want you to meet her; I was hoping we could have her over for dinner? Maybe tonight?"

"Tonight?" This suggestion elicited a nervous gulp from Charlie – outside of his regular group of friends, he didn't entertain guests often, and the thought of his house being invaded by a strange woman who happened to be his daughter's sister was particularly nerve-wracking – but he decided he had to say yes. While he wished Bella had consulted him before getting in touch with a total stranger, at least she was trying to make up for her oversight now, and he didn't want to rebuff her efforts when they had only recently mended their relationship. Just as importantly, he also figured that he needed to get to know this person who was likely to be a significant influence in Bella's life from now on.

"Sure, that'll work," he said, trying hard to keep the gruffness in his tone to a minimum. "Invite her over. Edward's welcome to come too if he wants."

"I'll ask, but he might already have plans." He might be willing to spend the evening either inventing excuses not to eat or forcing himself to choke down food for her sake, but she thought it best to give him an out in case he didn't want to.

"All right." Realizing that he didn't exactly sound enthusiastic about the whole thing, Charlie attempted to inject a more upbeat note into his voice. "Meeting your sister – that'll be…something."

###

Bo's reaction, when Bella informed her of their plans for the evening, was similarly lackluster. "You want me to come to your house," she asked with the same barely concealed panic Charlie had exhibited earlier, "and meet your dad? Tonight?"

"Yes. I should've told him about you sooner, but I had to make sure you weren't the kind of fae that would want to eat him first. Now that I know it's safe, there's no excuse for putting it off anymore. Please, Bo – there's enough that I can never tell him without putting him in danger, so I want to share as much of my life with him as I can."

As she gazed into her sister's pleading eyes, Bo felt a wrenching sensation in her chest at the reminder of how her supernatural nature had destroyed her own relationship with her human parents, albeit for different reasons. While she didn't know if there was any chance of a happier ending for Bella and Charlie, she resolved then and there to do whatever she could to keep her sister from losing the only father she'd ever known. "Okay, I'll come over…but, uh, you should know that I don't exactly give great parent."

"No kidding," Kenzi snorted from where she lounged on one of the Cullens' expensive leather sofas with her feet dangling off the armrest. "First your chi suckage guaranteed that none of your hookups would ever progress to the 'meet the parents' stage, then you lucked out with neither Dyson nor Lauren having any relatives that we know of, and now she wants to introduce you to her cop dad who, from what she's told us so far, is only slightly less aggressively normal than Vernon Dursley? I would so love to be a fly on that wall."

"Why don't you come with, then?" Bo suggested, causing Kenzi to sit up so fast she made her own head spin.

"Huh? Moi? Have dinner with Forks' police chief? Uh, Bobo, you do remember that with the exception of a certain wolfman and siren duo we know and love, me and law enforcement aren't exactly what you'd call copacetic, don't you?"

"There's no reason for Charlie Swan to look into your criminal record as long as you don't do anything here in Forks," Bo replied logically, "so don't steal from him and you should be fine. Bella, you don't have any tempting valuables lying around your house, do you?"

When Bella affirmed that she did not (while privately thinking of one or two items she might need to move to a less conspicuous location, just in case), Bo went on, "Besides, this is a family deal, and as far as I'm concerned that includes you, plus it would really help to have my best friend there so I won't be so nervous. Please, Kenzi?"

"Are you seriously playing the BFF card right now? Curse you, succubus," Kenzi grumbled, before sighing dramatically. "Fine! But if I get arrested, you better bail me out."

"Deal." Bo then looked anxiously at Bella, suddenly realizing that she had just invited another person to her sister's house, which was generally considered rude when the person issuing the original invitation didn't ask if the invitee wanted to bring a plus one – and, since Bella presumably intended to cook for them herself, bringing someone with an appetite as big as Kenzi's would make more work for her. "You don't mind if I bring her, do you? It's just that we usually do everything together, so it'd feel weird not to have her there."

"Sure, that'll be fine. I'm sure Charlie will meet Kenzi at some point anyway, so we might as well introduce them now. I have to ask, though…do either of you have any outfits that are a little more…you know…dad-appropriate? Less…that?" She gestured illustratively at Bo's current attire, which once again consisted of a lot of cleavage-baring leather.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Bo asked indignantly, before looking down at herself. "Okay, I see your point."

"Hard not to," Kenzi hooted. "The first thing you see when you glance down… They do kinda jump out at you."

"You'll need to dress down too," Bella told her firmly. "I don't know how Charlie would react to you walking into our kitchen in that corset, but I'd rather not find out. Don't you two have any normal clothes?"

Bo and Kenzi traded speculative looks; then Bo said, "Define 'normal'."

Bella sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I was afraid of that."

Right on cue, Alice bounded into the room. "Did I hear that someone's in need of fashion assistance?"

"Yes, please. In fact, I think Kenzi could use your expert touch on everything – hair, makeup, the works," Bella said with a smirk at the thought of someone else being the victim of Alice's Guinea Pig Barbie treatment for a change.

"Great!" Alice chirped. "Don't worry, I'll have her presentable in no time."

She grabbed Kenzi's arm and eagerly steered her toward the stairs, though the human girl still managed to shoot a glare over her shoulder at Bella and hiss, "I hate you, you evil, evil woman," before she was dragged away.

After they left, Bo said, "You know, Bella, I should probably warn you…Kenzi eats a lot. Like, twice the amount you'd think a girl her size could eat, all without gaining an ounce."

"It's true," chimed in Edward, speaking up for the first time after spending the last ten minutes watching the girls like they were an amusing sitcom. "I don't know if you noticed when we met her and Bo in the diner, but she ate every bit of the food you ordered."

Bella's face fell as she recalled how her nerves and hunger had caused her to go more than a little overboard on her order…and Kenzi had eaten all of it? Without getting sick afterward? "In that case, I'd better run to the store, buy everything they've got, then get my butt back home and start cooking. Edward, will you come with me? Stocking up for this dinner party might take two shopping carts."

###

The rest of her day passed in a frenzy of preparation, but judging by Charlie's reaction when he came home and caught a whiff of the delicious aromas wafting out of the kitchen, it was worth it. "Wow, it smells great in here, Bells. You're really pulling out all the stops tonight, huh?"

"Yes, now go upstairs and change," she directed in a borderline frantic tone as she breezed past with a steaming pot of asparagus. "Try to look like less of a cop. They should be here any minute!"

"Okay, okay." Charlie beat a hasty retreat up the stairs, thinking to himself that Bella was making too much of a fuss over what was supposed to be a small family get-together. At least he was getting a tasty meal out of it.

The doorbell rang mere minutes later, and upon answering it, Bella was relieved to see Bo wearing a reasonably modest floral print dress that she had previously seen on Esme (though it appeared one of the Cullens had made some alterations in the chest area to make it fit Bo) and accompanied by a girl with soft blonde curls, who on closer inspection turned out to be Kenzi in a wig.

"Well?" the latter asked in a decidedly grumpy tone. "Did we dress down enough for you?"

Still blinking at her in surprise, Bella said, "Yeah, I almost didn't recognize you. You didn't have to change your hair, you know; putting on non-goth clothes and toning down your makeup would've been enough."

"Who says I did it for you?"

"Kenzi just likes to wear wigs sometimes," Bo clarified. "She's got at least half a dozen."

Kenzi nodded in agreement, adding, "I thought blonde would go better with this getup," while running a hand over the very demure cream silk blouse and navy blue slacks she'd borrowed from Alice.

"Well, you look nice," Bella offered, drawing a dubious look from the faux blonde, as if she wasn't quite sure whether to appreciate the compliment or take it as a dig at her usual appearance. "Different, obviously, but nice."

Deciding it might be a good idea to change the subject, Bo moved deeper into the house, her eyes roaming everywhere as she took in her surroundings. "So this is your place, huh? I like it. It's…homey." And it was, even though the relatively plain décor made it obvious that it had been the home of a single man for several years.

"Thanks. It's nothing like the Cullens' house…"

"Hey, you should see where Kenzi and I were living in Toronto; this place is a palace compared to that. At least your walls are fully intact."

Before Bella could figure out how to respond to that rather concerning statement, Charlie came downstairs, having traded his police uniform for jeans and a flannel shirt. Upon seeing the two women in the living room with Bella, he froze in the doorway, he and Bo eyeing each other warily while Kenzi hung back, content to stay in the background as an observer for the moment.

Feeling responsible for breaking the tension that had suddenly taken hold of the room, Bella awkwardly made introductions. "Bo, this is my dad, Charlie Swan. Dad, this is my sister, Bo Dennis, and her friend Kenzi." Her face heated up as she realized she didn't know Kenzi's last name; she expected Charlie to scold her for inviting someone into their home without first learning such a basic piece of information about them, but his attention remained on Bo as he slowly entered the room.

"So you're Bella's sister?" He examined her face closely, searching for some resemblance, and found it in the color of her eyes and the delicate bone structure beneath her porcelain skin, which was also like Bella's. Fighting back a twinge of unease at seeing such familiar features in a face that was strange to him, which only served to remind him (as if he needed reminding) that Bella wasn't really his, that her origins were a mystery to him, he held out his hand. "It's nice to meet you, Bo."

Finally letting out the breath she'd sucked in when she first saw him standing there, Bo took his hand and shook it. "I'm glad to meet you too. Oh!" She abruptly withdrew her hand in order to reach into the tote bag hanging from her shoulder, from which she pulled out a four-pack of Charlie's favorite beer. "This is for you; I thought we should bring a bottle of wine, but Edward said you'd like this better."

"Did he?" Charlie accepted the offering with an appreciative grin, muttering, "I'm liking that boy better all the time. And thanks, Bo; that's really thoughtful of you. Let me go put this in the fridge."

As he went off to the kitchen, Bo whirled around to stare accusingly at her sister. "Bella! Why didn't you warn me that your dad was totally hot? I walked in here expecting, you know, a dad, and instead I get blindsided by Officer Sexy!"

Bella gaped at her, unable to believe what she was hearing. "Wh-what?! Are you talking about Charlie?"

"Our Bobo here kind of has a thing for hot cops," Kenzi explained while waggling her eyebrows suggestively, "although I wouldn't mind either if he wanted to handcuff me. I think it's the mustache…"

"Stop, stop! I can't hear this!" Bella wailed, clamping both hands over her ears. "This is my dad you're talking about!"

Ignoring her pleas, Kenzi went on, "Although Bo also digs blond doctors, so maybe Carlisle should watch his back too…"

"No way!" Bo said heatedly. "Carlisle may have that Greek god vibe, but he's also happily married, and I'm no homewrecker. I don't do married couples unless both of them agree on it…although, considering how it turned out last time with that Fury and her husband, maybe I should just swear off getting in the middle of other people's marriages altogether. Charlie's single, though, isn't he?"

"Yes, he is. He's also my dad, which puts him off-limits to you," Bella said sternly, before turning her glare on Kenzi as well. "And you."

Luckily, the goth in disguise merely shrugged off the warning without taking offense. "Ah well, can't blame a girl for trying. Sorry, Bobo, no sexy police chief for you."

Charlie came back into the room at that point, and they all sat down to get better acquainted while they waited for the food to finish cooking, with Bo and Kenzi side by side on the couch while Charlie and Bella situated themselves in a couple of armchairs.

"So, Bella mentioned that you've lived in Forks all your life?" Bo began.

"Yeah, this is home; never saw a reason to go anywhere else," Charlie confirmed. "How about you? I hear you're from up north of the border?"

"Yes, and I… Well, I've moved around quite a bit…" Bo launched into a highly abridged version of her life story that excluded the numerous fatal sexual encounters, and had just gotten to her short stay in Calgary (again, not mentioning all the cowboys and cowgirls she'd picked up at the Calgary Stampede) when the doorbell rang.

"Hang on a minute." Charlie got up to answer the door, and soon returned with Billy and Jacob Black, who had come over to drop off some leftovers from what the men had cooked up on the grill for their poker game. Bella shook her head in despair at the sight of all that cholesterol-packed red meat, but Charlie gladly accepted it and invited the Blacks to stay for dinner.

"That'll be fine," Bella replied to his questioning look, after mentally calculating how to divide the food among six people rather than four. "Everything should be ready in about fifteen minutes. Jake, Mr. Black, this is my, uh, my sister Bo and her friend Kenzi."

Billy shook Bo's hand with an odd expression of solemn curiosity, while Jacob said quietly to Bella, "I heard about the whole adoption reveal from my dad; from what Charlie told him, it sounded like you were having a hard time with it. I thought about calling you, but I didn't know what to say, so I just…didn't. I'm sorry."

"That's okay. It's not exactly something you deal with every day unless you live in a soap opera. Anyway, I was pretty upset at first, but I'm okay now."

"That's good… Hey, are you wearing a new perfume?"

"No," Bella told him, her eyebrows rising slightly. "I'm not wearing any perfume at all, actually."

"Really?" Jacob sniffed the air again, which he had been doing much more subtly throughout their conversation. "New shampoo, then? Whatever it is, it smells great – or maybe it rubbed off from your sister?" he suggested as Bo moved closer to Bella and put her hands on the younger girl's shoulders; the tantalizing scent that seemed to be emanating from Bella was even more potent on her.

"Maybe," Bo answered for her. "I do wear perfume. So you're a friend of Bella's?"

"You could say that. We knew each other as kids when she used to visit Charlie here, then we reconnected when she moved in with him. We haven't really talked since you came out to the beach at La Push with the kids from your school, though."

"Sorry about that," Bella mumbled, averting her gaze as her cheeks took on a pink tinge. She hadn't intended to shun him, but truthfully, she'd gotten so wrapped up in her new romance with Edward that her friendship with Jacob (and most other people, to be honest) had fallen by the wayside. Then there was the fact that Jacob had been the one who revealed Edward's true nature to her, even if he just thought it was an old legend…

Hoping to shift attention away from her shortcomings as a friend, she asked, "Hey, are you still working on that car? After Charlie bought the Blacks' old truck for me, Jacob started working on restoring a…a Volkswagen, wasn't it, Jake?"

"A Rabbit," he elaborated with a nod.

"A VW Rabbit? Not a bad choice, if you're into foreign imports," Kenzi opined, her interest growing now that they were onto a subject about which she had some knowledge. "What year?"

"1986," Jacob answered, looking pleasantly surprised by her interest. "You wouldn't happen to know where I could get a master cylinder for it, would you? I already struck out with Bella." He expected Kenzi to laugh off the question like Bella had, but she seemed to give it serious consideration.

"That depends…" She glanced furtively at Charlie, making sure he was still engrossed in his conversation with Billy, before lowering her voice to ask, "Does it have to be acquired in a strictly legal manner?"

Jacob started to laugh, until he noticed that her expression wasn't the least bit humorous, and it dawned on him that maybe she wasn't just being witty. "…Wait, that was a joke, right?"

"…Totally. I do know some mostly legit people in the auto business, though."

Sensing that they were about to begin a discussion that might as well be in Latin for all that she would understand of it, Bella pulled Bo aside and said, "We still have a little time before dinner's ready; want to see my room?"

"Sure, I'd love to." As Bo well remembered from her own days as a teenage girl, showing a new friend your room was an important step in the bonding process.

She followed Bella up the stairs and into what looked like a typical teen girl's room, with some artwork and a string of lights adorning the walls, a desk cluttered with books and various other items sharing a corner with a chest of drawers, and a full-length mirror next to the bed. "Nice."

"You like it? Really?"

"Yeah, it's great." Bo strolled through the room, inspecting the most eye-catching things and mentally comparing it to the way she had decorated her private space at seventeen in order to glean what insight she could into how her sister's tastes differed from hers and how they were similar, while Bella perched on the edge of her bed and watched her with hands folded in her lap, as if anxiously awaiting her final judgment.

"Edward called it my 'den of iniquity' last night," she remarked with a slightly nervous laugh, "when we came up here to…heal me."

Abandoning her self-guided tour of Bella's room, Bo sat down beside her and took hold of her clasped hands, wrapping them in her own. "I meant to ask how that went – I mean, obviously it went, since you're walking around plaster-free – but I figured you wouldn't want to talk about it in front of Kenzi, and then you ran off with Edward for your epic grocery shopping expedition. So, how was it?"

"Good." Bella ducked her head as she blushed, but couldn't suppress a slight grin despite her embarrassment. "We didn't exactly…go all the way…"

"That doesn't matter," Bo assured her. "What we feed on is the sexual energy, the pleasure, so as long as you and Edward enjoy what you're doing, you'll get what you need."

"What surprised me the most was how easy it was. I'd never even kissed anyone before Edward-" Her blush deepened at this confession "-and we hadn't gone very far, you know, physically, because he was always afraid of hurting me, so I thought I'd make a fool of myself, that I'd fumble around and wouldn't know what to do, but once we started to… It was like a switch flipped in my head and it all just came to me."

"Yeah, we succubi have pretty good instincts when it comes to sex," Bo agreed with a slightly mischievous smile. "It's what we have to do to survive, and I guess survival comes naturally to most species." Then her smile took on a melancholy tinge. "We have good instincts for how to do it and make it good, anyway, but when it comes to choosing who to do it with, we're flying blind just like everybody else. You're lucky to have found someone like Edward who won't die on you and loves you enough to put you first."

Her wistful tone prompted Bella to ask, "What about you? Don't you have a boyfriend back home? Or girlfriend?"

"Nope."

This blunt denial made Bella's jaw drop open, her eyes popping to their widest possible dimensions. "Are you kidding? You?! How are you of all people on this planet single? I mean…look at you!"

"Thanks, but like I said, my instincts for finding the right person are no better than anyone else's; in fact, sometimes I think mine might be worse. There were a couple of people I met in Toronto that I thought I had a real connection with, but…it didn't work out."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you want to talk about it, or should I butt out?" Bella asked hesitantly.

"Of course not," Bo replied as she gave the younger girl's hands a reassuring squeeze. "This is the kind of stuff sisters are supposed to share with each other, right?"

"I don't know," Bella said with a sheepish shrug. "I've never had one before, but I'm happy to listen to anything you feel comfortable telling me. What were their names?"

"Dyson and Lauren." As if saying their names out loud for the first time since she'd left Toronto was some kind of magical invocation, Bo found herself effortlessly spilling the whole story of how she had met her potential lovers, how they had both helped her through her early struggles to find her place in the strange new world of myths and legends come to life she had suddenly been thrust into, how Dyson had been the first person with whom she could let her guard down and give free rein to the part of herself she had feared and loathed for so long without worrying about slipping up and adding another name to her already-way-too-long body count while Lauren taught her to master it so that she could gain some control over her life for the first time in years…and at last, how they had both betrayed her trust in ways that had seriously damaged her fledgling relationships with them.

When she had finished, all Bella could say was, "Holy crow, that must've been awful. No wonder you didn't bring either of them with you when you left."

"I almost did," Bo admitted with a wry tilt of her head. "I talked to Lauren, and it looked like maybe we could work things out, so I offered to take her with me, get her away from the Ash so she could be free, but she decided to stay."

"Even though it meant he still owned her? Seriously?" Bella couldn't comprehend what would cause someone to make such a choice; while she didn't consider herself a very brave or daring person by any means, she liked to think she would have the wherewithal to at least try to escape slavery if given the chance. Especially if it was someone like Bo – or someone she had romantic feelings for, meaning Edward – offering to rescue her.

"Yeah, I don't get it either, but it's her life. It would've been pretty hypocritical of me to be mad at her for not letting me make my own choices, even if she didn't understand or agree with them, then turn around and do the same thing to her, wouldn't it?"

Bella reluctantly conceded that this was true, though she was still baffled and disturbed by the whole thing – given her horror at the mere idea that she could have been designated as Edward's property before anyone realized she was fae too, and therefore unclaimable, the thought of someone willingly choosing that life was simply beyond her grasp – and decided to move on from it as quickly as possible. "So what about Dyson? Did you try to talk things out with him?"

"I saw him one last time before the big showdown with Aife, but, well, we didn't exactly have an extensive conversation." Bo grinned slyly as she recalled that last no-holds-barred feeding session where he'd told her to take whatever she needed from him to fuel herself for her upcoming battle – damn, that had been amazing – but then her face fell back into its previous pensive look. "After that, though, he totally ghosted me. I haven't seen him since." Except for that weird moment when she sensed his presence during her fight with Aife and briefly gained a burst of strength that had felt like it came from him, but she had no clue what to make of that.

"Well," Bella said while injecting all the encouragement she could muster into her voice, "wherever he went, I'm sure he had a good reason. From what you've told me, I can't imagine that he would give up on you just like that."

"It doesn't make sense to me either. Sure, Dyson and I had our rough patches, but he never just up and vanished on me. I always knew he'd be there when I needed him, whether we were together or not." Bo paused for a moment to beat back the half-formed fears that crowded in at the edges of her mind as she considered (in spite of her best efforts not to) the possibility that there might be something more sinister behind Dyson's abrupt disappearance than him just needing a break from her drama, then said softly, "I hope he's okay."

###

Hundreds of miles away, in his cell beneath the Light Fae's headquarters, Dyson paced restlessly. He wasn't sure how long he'd been there, since the underground holding area obviously lacked windows through which to watch the progression of the sun and moon and there were no clocks on the walls, but he was certain it had to have been several days – and still there was no word on when the remaining council members intended to interview him. Unfortunately, unlike in the human legal system, the fae had no limits on how long they could hold a person for questioning without officially arresting them, so he had no recourse for protesting his seemingly interminable confinement. All he could do was pace, which he'd been doing a lot lately, in both his human and wolf forms.

Suddenly he stopped, his sensitive ears perking up at the distant sound of approaching footsteps. It hadn't been too long since his last meal, so surely his jailers weren't going to feed him again so soon. Besides, he recognized the cadence of the strides as Serena's, and the head of security did not personally deliver food to detainees, nor had she spoken with him at all since their last conversation, when she had advised him to throw Bo under the bus for his own benefit.

After that, the prospect of seeing her again didn't exactly thrill him, unless she was finally going to let him out. He wasn't sure if he dared get his hopes up just yet, but no other reason sprang to mind for why she would come to see him now. Whatever her motives, at least her reappearance provided a welcome break in the monotony of his daily routine, so he moved to the front of his cell and waited impatiently until she came into view.

Serena marched into the holding area with a brisk attitude that told him she was there on official business, then proceeded to unlock his cell and open the barred door without a single word or glance in his direction. Only after she had completed these tasks did she turn to him and meet his eyes as she curtly informed him, "The council will see you now."

Just to be clear, I was picturing the Billy Burke film version of Charlie when I wrote the bit about Bo and Kenzi finding him attractive, not the somewhat schlubby description of him from the books. Then again, those were written from Bella's perspective, so maybe that's how she would see her dad even if he did look like Billy Burke.

Next chapter we'll pick up with Dyson's interview with the council, then get back to Bella's dinner party (for clarification, both events are happening concurrently). Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to those of you who celebrate it. What am I thankful for this year? You guys, of course!