Was I That Gullible

Why? All She Wants To Know Is Why!

A/N: you'll have noticed Bella never calls him by his name, only him or he, sometimes asshole! This is intentional until he speaks to her she will not utter his name, xx Alexis

The room Charlotte wrote was filled with a low rumbling growl, from deep within his chest.

"Is he growling at me, Peter?" Charlie demanded,

"Yes Sir I believe he is!" came the choked reply,

"Son that might frighten your enemies, it might even work on the ladies. But I'm something you've never met before, I'm the father of the girl you're disrespecting and it does diddly squat for me!" Charlie said in his best Chief of Police voice,

Both the other two men in the room felt uncomfortable under his glare, Charlotte could actually hear them shifting in their chairs uneasily. Then Charlie demands to know what the hell's been going on?

"I know it must have been a shock to you son, finding out Alice played you for a fool! But that was two and a half years ago, what the fuck have you been doing since then? It took you six months to stop feeling sorry for yourself and then what? Your brain took a leave of absence!" Charlie's voice had become so low and so intense, even Charlotte shivered one floor below.

"You go to see my daughter and made her feel like something most people scrape off the bottom of their shoe! What exactly did you think you'd find? She'd been fighting for her life for a year by that time, you knew all that, Peter told you!" Charlie drew in a breath before continuing,

" So what the fuck made you act like a total dick? When you saw her, her body scarred from numerous attacks, What did you do? I'll tell you what you did, you projected Horror, abject disgust and Anger meant I hope for yourself, on to her! Did you rush to her side and beg her to let you help her, fight for her, love her! No Major Dickhead, you ran! Leaving her to assume you were horrified, disgusted and angry with her!" Charlie spat!

His voice was so cold, that both the seasoned fighters in that room knew if Charlie had been a vampire the 'Major' would have been a pile of ash at his feet. Charlie was flooding him with contempt and righteous indignation due to the disrespect shown his daughter. As Bella read this she couldn't help but be thrown back into the memory of that day.

Memory

"He's coming!" Peter said out of the blue,

Just over two and a half years have passed since I'd run from Forks. I didn't understand why Peter didn't just tell him the facts, back then. But he insists he had to find out for himself, no matter how long it took. That's fine for him to say but I'm human and don't have the leisure of eternity, okay half human! A bit vampire! Whatever the fuck I am!

"Remind me, what kind of friend doesn't believe you when you try to tell them the truth?" I asked,

"The hard-headed, stubborn, son of a bitch, kind!" Peter replied sourly,

I knew Peter had been dropping some subtle and not so subtle hints to him, way back then, but he either didn't want to know or didn't care. So he left it alone and concentrated on teaching me how to stay alive and in one piece in the meantime, well nearly in one piece.

So that's what I was doing when he arrived. Stripped down to tank top and shorts, sweat lashing off me and gasping for breath, having just barely managed to fend off Peter's attack. That fucker never pulled his punches, always reminding me neither would my enemies, nodding down to my leg. I had just called timeout and Charlotte brought me out some freshly made lemonade, she was really enjoying playing at being a domestic goddess.