Bella Swan's love for music started to come back naturally over the months in the sun and in a new environment. When she bought her used car, she took a leap of faith and turned on the radio. She was grateful to hear the babble of the hosts of the station from the speakers but when the music started to play. She took each verse, each line, each lyric, each melody, each symphony, each rhythm slowly pushing the limits of her comfort zone until she was able to more than just tolerate music. She pushed herself until she could dance like a weirdo in the confines in her bedroom until she went to her first college party of her freshman year. Those tears that streamed down her face partially from the help of booze and maybe her first try of herbs in a bong, she went to college for the full experience. She wouldn't be Bella Swan if she didn't return home like she's been drinking and smoking for years, this was reckless but this was reckless that was common, and popularly disregarded because of movies and exaggerated stories.
She enjoyed that party, she enjoyed the way she felt, the beginning of security she hadn't felt before within herself when she just followed the stages in a healthy manner. When she looked back sometimes, she outwardly cringed at her teenage self for her insecurities but at the end of the day when she would think about it again, she was glad she didn't allow herself to fall apart completely and end up worse than she turned out to be so far.
She fell in love with reading again and she started reading more than her withered copy of Romeo and Juliet, that relevance of that story to life was gone. It was gone the day Edward left and truly, she couldn't see why she had indulged into that singular mindset for so long, it still humiliated her silently to have fallen that blindly for something she knew was wrong and ultimately scared her when she thought harder on her emotions. She obeyed him because of her silent survival instincts, he warned her that he could be the bad guy, and maybe in a sense he was. When he left the first time maybe that discipline he wanted to learn maybe it had been for him to stay away from her, she had wished that he hadn't returned from that trip with the Denali coven. All of those signs and she still decided to pursue answers, pursue him, maybe it was truly dumb teenage antics, maybe it had been love at the time.
But whatever it had been, she couldn't feel that love anymore, she didn't know if Alice would see and they returned to help if she would ever feel that love for him. The love she had for him now was different, she cared but she preferred to care at a distance.
She broadened her reading selection, she even started to paint again. It was an activity she hadn't considered since she was young, she had always been mature and she grew out of a lot of childish things before her time. But she started again when she started reading, she would paint what she saw outside, different parts of her room she found meaning in years worth of accumulated clutter, different descriptive sceneries of her many novels. Her healing progressed graciously when she picked up those new habits over the summer vacation, and when it came to me for college she had managed to score half a scholarship to the University. She decorated her dorm room with her artwork over the summer, and surprisingly her hand for paintings was beautiful, and she adjusted well to the beginning of her college life.
Bella whipped the tears falling from her eyes as she sat at a red light, she rested her elbow on the door and held her forehead as she listened to the patter of the rain clinking against the alloyed metal of her sedan. She wanted more than anything to be able to go back to Jacksonville to her mother, she wanted more than anything that this move was under better circumstances. She turned up the dial of the radio and wiped her face again clean of tears and shifted in her seat to put the car in gear with the change of the traffic light. She waited for the two cars in front of her to make their turns in separate directions before continuing forward towards the station. She didn't fret over what to tell her father, she knew more than anything telling him the truth would be a risk to her and to himself, she just had to tell Charlie what the cops told her.
And then reassured him she was okay and then she would drop the bomb about wanting to see Billy and Jacob.
…
"How are you feeling honey?" Charlie asked the second he saw his daughter walk through the doors from the stormy climate into the calm, dry atmosphere of the small station and led her over to her sectioned area.
"Honestly," Bella fidgeted with her fingers gazing at them and swiftly averting her gaze to his messy desk top, she inhaled through her nose for the billionth time that early afternoon and confessed. "I wish I was here on better circumstances."
"Why did you just up and leave? I was going to come down to make sure everything was okay. I know you said you were scared but you're in college, honey."
"I know. It's just… just what they said happened to them. I couldn't bear to think of what could possibly happen if I stayed and they came back. I mean, I've seen things like this happen all the time on the news in Phoenix, in Seattle over this past summer. I didn't think after that, I just left."
Charlie scrutinized her, Bella wasn't aware that she was still shaking from her internal knowledge that Charlie decided to end his interrogating. She was shaken, she was hurt, she was scared, she just learned her mother and Phil wound up dead after being missing for five days. He sighed and put his hands on his hips.
"Okay." He sighed again when he read her eyes when she made eye contact with him again, "Okay. It's okay. I wish you were here under better circumstances as well, honey. Don't worry. We'll get through this all right, I promise." Charlie says in a quiet tone, Bella dropped her gaze but nodded in confirmation. "All right, head on home. Get some sleep okay, I'll bring home diner food."
Bella inhaled softly through her nose and leaned back in the chair, "I…" she averted her gaze and found her strength in the mess on the desktop and back to her father. "I want to go visit Billy and Jake… I don't think I will be able to stay in the house long."
Charlie's eyebrows shot up in surprise and then he masked with a gruff clearing of his throat and crossed his arms and assessed her, "Really?"
Bella scoffed and smiled at his reaction, "Yes. I may look tired but I'm willing to go with you on car chase right now."
Charlie sighed, and smirked, "I will disregard that since their hasn't been a car chase since like '72. But if you want to, I can't stop you. But dinner?"
Bella nodded once in approval, "I'll be home before 4."
Charlie wrote down directions to Billy's residence and handed the slip of paper to Bella before she made her departure. Her stomach growled when she passed Newtons store remembering the variety of healthy trail snacks, a full meal would have been more sufficient but was feeling slightly nostalgic and indulged in the thought of scoping out the shelves. She never cared before, she just did her job, Bella entered the store and found the food section. She picked up a pack of thick peanut butter oatmeal granola bars and paid for her item and left and resumed back on her destination. Bella ate a full bar of the pack of four that accounted for a full meal with her metabolism during the drive to La Push small town village and into the Reservation village. Bella would recall her memories with Jacob if she had to get Billy to believe that she knew what he meant, she needed him to at least know that she wished she had been smart enough to realize sooner. The family she used to love and herself had moved on but the ones involved in their past weren't moving on, and it was only a matter of time before Bella knew that eventually she would encounter at least one of them very soon.
She lost a parent and one she considered family were dead, she had one other person in her life who mattered most. She had to at least let him know that Charlie could also be a target when they realized she left Florida, a pawn in their game to get to her like James had done with a video tape her mother recorded. She just hoped overall Billy would understand, that he would believe her, it wouldn't be the first time she had to look over her shoulder and she was willing to accept if the wolves refused to show their true selves to her. She certainly wasn't someone that deserved to know since she fraternized with the enemy, or not literally, but she was mature enough to respect their privacy. She just hoped that they would be willing to listen to her story and come to a conclusion where she didn't have to worry about not having protection. She just… wanted to survive if she was right about this gnawing twist in her stomach since the disappearances.
The granola she purchased settled the nausea in her stomach but that gnawing feeling still lingered dully, her confused gaze shifted to the radio that started playing an ABBA song after a sudden automatic change in the dial. A corresponding thunderbolt struck leveled and clear ground a half a mile away and Bella's attention averted back to the road hearing the following pounding patter of hard rainfall of another surge in the thunderstorm. She settled back in her seat and decreased her speed as entered the small village of La Push, she changed the settings of the wipers and gave her full attention to the road.
Billy Black shared a one level three bedroom house with his almost 17 year old son Jacob Black who was more than just a normal teenage boy. Normal wasn't even to describe Jacob since he phased for the first time in January of 2006, two months after his sixteenth birthday and if Jacob to be as blunt as the hard set of his dark eyebrows, he truly fucking despised turning into massive furry wolf. He may have imagined having the hottest girlfriend in high school but he certainly didn't imagine being able to shift at will. Jacob was currently suffering through a boring high lecture of a numbing monotone voice in the subject of chemistry, Jacob had his head in his hands while Quil Ateara and Embry Call giggled quietly to themselves like little girls while they tossed tiny paper balls at their aggravated and sleepy friend. Billy wheeled towards the window to wait for Bella's appearance after Charlie's call about her arrival and filled him in, he also apologized for withholding the information to him for the last few hours, Charlie had truthfully been focused on getting information about Renee and Phil.
Charlie couldn't believe he got some of the records faxed to him, he had shook his head at the Jacksonville PD but dove into the paperwork. He picked the first description of a recently updated detail of Renee's autopsy. This struck him as odd since he reminded him of what he was currently dealing with with around his jurisdictions. I don't think Charlie is going to be home for diner food, that's just me but let's see what's going to happen, shall we?
Bella pulled into the muddy driveway of Billy's house. Billy finally relaxed after hearing the close thunder strikes and watching the rain come down and the previous car that drove about ten miles per hour through the rain. The weather displeased him, he would rather snow but he would rather a chilly, cloudy autumn day but today had to be one of the worst storms in the Olympic Peninsula. It seemed that the climate decided to encourage a delayed hurricane to bring to Bella as a welcome home present if it wanted to be rudely comical. Billy rushed himself over to the door and opened it for her, he left it open for her, he could care less about the rain changed angle at the invitation inside the house. Bella zipped her parka all the way after wrapping up her granola bars and left the confines of her car, she stuffed her keys into her pockets and managed to cross the muddy driveway with a few near falls into the mud.
Billy closed the door when Bella rushed past the threshold and then took a spill on the floor. Her short trip had ended up with her sneakers soaked along with the jeans mid thigh down to the cuffs and the rain went right through the wind breaker jacket. Billy didn't have to hold back his bubbling laughter when another thunder rumble filled the air outside and snapping me into action to assist the clumsy young woman the best he could to her feet.
…
"I know they're a bit big but I put your clothes in the wash for ya. I think it's best to wait this out." Billy remarks after taking a peek through the curtains.
"It's okay. And I was thinking the same. It got bad really quick." Bella reassures Billy, fixing the sleeves of the thick cotton hoodie, and a pair of pants of Rachel had packed up to participate in a charity event at the school the following morning.
"I believe you," Billy says with a shiver that made Bella smirk. Billy takes an assessing gaze towards Bella for a few seconds and spoke up again, "If you're hungry, help yourself. I went shopping yesterday and don't be afraid to pig out. I encourage it, you see this?" Billy jokes calmly about his stomach to ease Bella's nerves and the tension of their old conflict.
"I actually spoiled my dinner with this granola bar I picked up. It's peanut butter, do you want one?" Bella asks, taking the conversation lightly and genuinely interested in the small talk until they were both comfortable for the nitty gritty to be polite and change patterns. An unspoken promise to the other.
She heads over to the refrigerator to retrieve her granola bars that blushed within her parka, and the heated car that was the temperature of Egypt.
Billy was genuinely intrigued, "A peanut butter granola bar." Billy mused over it, "That sounds like an unpopular delight."
"Well, I'd say it is. I think it's the size that deterred me but I don't know. It intrigued me, they looked delicious." Bella holds out the unwrapped granola bars for Billy to investigate.
"These look home-made," Billy says, his eyebrows shot up impressed with the authentic style of oatmeal granola bars with peanut butter chucks and a glisten of a honey coating on the granola, he would know authentic baking anywhere. His Sarah had her own authentic baking style with several pastries and baked goods, he glanced back up at Bella after a light clearing of his throat.
"I believe Mr. Newton said they were from a small manufacturing company." Bella says trying to recall the fleeting conversation with Mr. Newton.
"These do look delicious. I'll try one." Billy picks up a bar and Bella wraps them back up and sets them back in the fridge and retrieves a paper towel. "Come sit. Relax." Billy says inviting Bella into the living room where she follows and sits down on the couch.
Billy munched on the granola bar he grew to love with every bite and saw the end of it. He watched random tv shows with Bella waiting out the storm and waiting for Jacob to return home from school. Bella soon fell asleep within the comfort of the small family home, filled with wholesome and bad memories, that she remembered when she young. This house brought her no discomfort and she didn't know what about these towns would bring her discomfort, that was the last thought she thought before she slipped into a restful nap. Billy kept his eye on the clock and the door or the entrance of the hallway for his son's arrival, he lowered the television when he saw Bella asleep against the armrest of the couch. He pulled a quilt over her and stuff a pillow under her arm, he rolled towards the kitchen to look down the hallway when the phone rang. Bella stirred but didn't wake up from her sleep since jet lag finally made an appearance.
Jacob came in through the back door and went straight to his room to change his wet clothes, Billy waited until the appropriate time to give his son a heads up on their visitor. Billy had planned to talk to Bella to get some information on why she decided to come here in the first place considering Bella and Billy's tense history about Edward and the Cullen's, but she fell asleep before he could start up another conversation. Billy also had to consider she suffered through the disappearances and learning the murders only hour prior, and jet lag seemed to produce snores from the young woman.
Billy looked up at his surprised son at the height of 6'7 after he got a good glance of Bella Swan sleeping on his couch with her mouth beginning to fall open and slowly tilt in her sleeping position.
"Is that?"
Billy nodded, "Bella Swan in the flesh."
"What is she doing here?"
Billy shrugged, "Charlie said she got on a plane after hearing some news and she didn't want to stay in the house. She wanted to see us."
"S-Sh-She's drooling." Jacob fumbled for a reasonable objection. He was bitter that this girl entertained a vampire and used him for information, but this girl left not too long after the leeches had departed.
Nothing about them related to his phasing. It was that aggravating redhead and her brunette mate teasing their limits for months. Always leaving but they always came back and sometimes they brought friends, the buddies would be distractions while the original duo would scope the territory before the wolves caught up to the little buddies and ripped them apart like worthless brittle marble.
"Jacob, her mother and her husband have been missing for five days, the news she got this morning is… heart wrenching."
Jacob listened patiently to his father's explanation from Charlie about everything Charlie could get out of Bella before he sent her their way. And Jacob's bitterness melted away, he glanced back over at the girl he used to make mud pies with and look for sea creatures on the beach when they were children. Charlie also mentioned as an off topic about the murder hoping Billy wouldn't relay the message like gossip but Billy had found it concerning as her currently thought about it. He relayed his worries to Jacob and Jacob understood what he was hinting at, one way to be sure was to talk to Bella but either way, Jacob had to relay this bit of information to Sam in the meantime since it looked like Bella would be asleep for a few hours.
