Midday Clouds - The Charlie Swan Story

Chapter 42 (Eclipse 1)

Two months can fly by like the blink of an eye. Two months since Harry passed. Two months since Bella snuck away to God knows where. Two months since she came back with Edward and the rest of the Cullens in tow.

Two months since the deaths stopped.

It didn't take too keen a detective to walk the razor thin line between correlation and causation, and the past two months of keeping a watchful eye on Edward Cullen sauntering around town did little to stifle those suspicions. Just how much Bella knew, I was unsure of, but what I did know was that Edward, and the Cullens, were a dangerous lot to throw in with, but that was exactly what my Bells had done.

—

"They're not like us, Charlie," Sue had said all those weeks ago, when we were both still in the depths of despair over losing Harry, when Bella had taken off, leaving nothing but a note written in someone else's hand behind.

"I know you and Billy have had it out over the past few years about the Cullens, and it has been... well, hard, to watch it happen without saying anything. For me and Billy both. But you gotta know, Charlie, it's not without reason. Billy isn't wary of the Cullens just because they're white, or rich, or weird – he's wary of them because they're dangerous."

I'd had my suspicions about Edward – the same worry I'd have about pretty much any entitled teenage boy who might not know how to take "no" for an answer – but the revelation that the danger would extend to his golden-eyed family was another matter entirely.

"What do you mean? What kind of dangerous? The whole family?"

It was hard to imagine little Alice, who I'd actually come to know and like, could be any more harmful than a butterfly.

"Yes, the whole family. I can't get into it right now, I've already said too much, but it's even bigger than just them. They're just the tip of the iceberg – one that thankfully, finally, has floated away from our territory."

No matter how I poked and prodded, I wouldn't get anything more out of Sue than that. Nor from Billy, the few times I raised the subject in the following months. Moods were obviously soured with the return of the entire Cullen clan, and Bella, a few days after that conversation.

But that chat with Sue did do one thing – it put me even more on edge about the Cullens, and Edward in particular, now that I knew they were all part of some sort of familial crime syndicate. It was exactly the kind of situation that I'd hoped to avoid when turning down the offers to transfer to work in a city – the Big Leagues, they'd called it – opting instead to take care of my own, my community, from the occasional bear or flood or storm. This particular kind of police work was well above my pay grade, my ability, yet it had to come to my jurisdiction, regardless. And had swallowed my baby girl whole.

Poor Bella. I had no clue just how much she knew about the Cullen's criminal affiliations, but if she was at all smarter than her old man (which she is, I'll admit) the signs were likely obvious; the luxury cars, the mansion, the better-than-thou aura. I had to kick myself for not having seen it sooner.

But still, Bells was adamant not to be apart from Edward now that he'd returned – to an unhealthy degree. It was like watching an addict relapse back into old habits, all the work that they'd done in recovery washed down the pipe. It had been particularly jarring that first night when Edward had arrived at the front lawn, carrying Bella in his arms just as Sam, and then I, had done just a few months prior. When she'd been lost and alone in the woods. After he'd abandoned her.

"Bella!" I yelled, running out into the night. She looked limp, unconscious, and I wondered what fresh hell this boy had put my daughter through.

"Charlie," I heard her mumble. So at least she was awake, if barely. Edward whispered something into her ear, and as I reached them I had to do everything in my power not to punch the bastard.

"I can't believe you have the nerve to show your face here," I yelled instead. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's just very tired, Charlie," Edward said quietly, seemingly avoiding my gaze. "Please let her rest."

"Don't tell me what to do!" I yelled back. Edward downplaying the fact that, for the third time now, my daughter was returning home injured at his doing, boiled my very blood. I went to take her from him. "Give her to me. Get your hands off her!"

"Cut it out, Dad," I finally heard Bella say. She was clinging onto Edward like a drowning kitten to a log. "Be mad at me."

"You bet I will be," I promised, but even then, I couldn't help but feel worry, and pity, and remorse for my poor daughter. I just needed to get her away from him. "Get inside."

She nodded, and Edward let her down. She took a few staggering steps towards the open doorway, but at the slightest tilt Edward had grabbed her again, faster than I was able to.

"Just let me get her upstairs," Edward said. "Then I'll leave."

I could tell that Bella would have an easier time getting into bed being carried by him than by me. Not that I was incapable of carrying my own daughter to bed, no matter how old she might be, but I could see in her eyes that she'd raise hell if I tried. So I gave Edward a begrudging nod and followed him into the house.

Once Bella had been safely put to bed, Edward followed me downstairs. Instead of walking into the living room, as I'm sure he expected, I walked him back outside – to hell with what the neighbours thought.

"You've got a lot of nerve bringing her back here in that state, Ed." I said. Usually I'd leave a guilty party some empty silence to fill with their transgressions, but I couldn't help myself.

"You know that's the third time she's been near-unconscious because of you? And four times now she's either come home bleeding or ended up in the hospital. With you there every single time."

"Char-" he tried to say, but I cut him off, I was so angry.

"She nearly went catatonic when you were gone, do you know that? For months it felt like she was spaced out, dead behind the eyes. Because of you. I thought about shipping her back to Arizona, but she wouldn't have it. And now just when she's starting to get better, just when she's starting to have a normal life, you show back up, and she gets hurt all over again. What the hell even happened to her? Where were you?"

I could see the guilt pool in those golden eyes, as he avoided my gaze and looked up at Bella's window. "I know, Charlie. I know I'm bad for Bella. I know it's dangerous for her. If I could have stayed away, I would have. But I can't. And neither, it seems, can she. So what I can promise you is this: I'll do everything in my power to keep Bella safe. As will the rest of my family."

So there it was. An admission, in my eyes, that the Cullens as a whole had some sort of power, a way to "keep Bella safe" from whatever bullshit they were embroiled in. I weighed my options. On one hand, I knew that trying to keep Bella away from Edward was a losing battle. On the other, there had been nothing but heartache, pain, and injury as a result of her being around them. I might just have to send her back to Arizona after all, as much as it pained me to admit it.

"Edward, if you know that it's... dangerous for her to be around you, don't you think what's best for her is to be away from you? It was tough at first, but she was getting better. We were doing better."

"I'm sorry, Charlie. I can't," he said with resignation. I could tell it was something that he himself had been grappling with, and come to this most unfortunate conclusion about. "I can't keep away from her."

"Like hell you can't." I finally shouted. "You're not to step another foot through this door again, you hear me? I don't know exactly what fresh hell you and your family are involved in, but I don't want Bella to be any part of it!"

And I slammed the door in his pathetic little face.