Midday Clouds - The Charlie Swan Story

Chapter 48 (Eclipse 7)

And so that's how the next few weeks went; Bella condemned to a life of school, work, and home, her boyfriend only allowed visiting hours on weeknights from 7 to 9:30. It was enough time for them to watch a movie together, or catch up on the few hours they'd spent apart between saying goodbye at school at 3pm and reuniting at 7. Not once in those weeks did Bella ever invite over her school friends, though Alice did accompany Edward on a few visits, and was over herself outside of his visiting hours on occasion – which I figured I would allow.

All in all, Bella's life settled into something resembling teenage normalcy. She worked at the local outdoor recreation store, was doing decent in her classes, and had even started applying for colleges. I obviously would have loved if she went to Peninsula College in Port Angeles, as it would mean that she could continue living here and commuting the hour in to the city, but I knew deep down that that was a pipe dream – Bells was from bigger and brighter places, and would likely find herself in Seattle, or Portland, or even back in Phoenix.

The time I had with her now, this last gasp of her pre-adulthood, was already somehow fading away. It pained me that in the year and change that she'd been in Forks, we hadn't once gone on a hike together, or done a trip into Port Angeles, or any of the other things we used to do when she would visit as a kid.

I'd chalked it up to her being too cool to hang out with her dad, the teenage girl that she was, but I'd come to realize, in the weeks she was on house arrest, that she didn't seem to want to do anything that wasn't either A) a responsibility, like school work or her job, or B) hang out with Edward in whatever free time she had. It was troubling to see her, finished up her schoolwork, the dishes, and lacking a shift at the outdoors store, trying to fill her time before Edward could arrive. She would often nap, as though to fast-forward her life until 7pm hit.

In those painful twilight hours between the end of school and the arrival of Ed, she'd be pacing around the house, staring out the window, or picking at her fingernails. I'd ask her if she wanted to come with me for a ride, or go for a bite to eat, but she always turned me down; it was like she was worried that some tragedy would befall us that would keep her from being back home at 7pm sharp.

"It's normal for kids her age to see a relationship as an all-consuming thing, Charlie," Dr. Thompson had told me during those weeks. It was at my biweekly session, and I was starting to think I might need to bump them up to weekly. "I'm not saying it's necessarily healthy, but it is most definitely normal."

"I just worry I'm enabling her, Rose," I said, speaking into my knees. As far as I'd come in therapy after all these years, I still found it hard to look someone in the eye at my most vulnerable. "By letting him come into the house, I mean. Maybe if I stopped that, she'd get lonely and invite some other friends over, instead? I don't know. I don't want her to move out, and she probably would if I did that."

"I can't tell you what Bella would or would not do, but given the conversation you told me about, we do have to consider it a possibility. I don't think that banning Edward from your home is the right move though, Charlie. It's hard for someone to have that which is most important to them suddenly and irrevocably taken away from them. I do wonder, though, if your worry about Bella and Edward's relationship – their intensity, their age, and the speed at which it has all happened – if it is perhaps opening some past wounds in regards to Renee?"

Dr. Rosemary Thompson really had a knack of doing that; just when things started feeling like a rant to a friend, she turned it back around and peeled off some emotional layers that I hadn't even known were there. I registered what she said for a moment, biting down the kneejerk reaction to dismiss it, as I'd once been prone to do.

"I... Well, I can't say I've necessarily had Renee on the mind about all this, other than the few conversations we've had due to Bella living here now. But no, I don't think it's 'reopening wounds' or however you put it. I think, if anything, what me and Renee went though is giving me a perspective on the matter that I sorely wish that Bella could have. Not that I'd wish what I went through on her, but I thought... well, I guess I just thought that Edward breaking up with her and leaving her in the woods back in September would have been Bell's 'coming to her senses' moment, or however you want to call it."

"It took you a while to come to terms with Renee leaving though, didn't it?"

"Well, it took Billy and- it took Billy and Harry coming and dragging me out of the house and over here to start coming to terms with anything, yeah," I said. The thought of Billy made me connect a few emotional strings. "Her and I both moped around for a while, though, before getting better. It was Billy and Harry being there for me and, eventually, talking to you that got me through the darkness, and I guess for Bells it was hanging around with Jake. She definitely was getting better. Hanging out with her other friends, and some other folks on the rez. She was starting to seem like a normal kid, you know? Like how she was in the first week she got here. But then the Cullens came back, and it feels like she's right back in the thick of it. I don't want to imagine what kind of hurt she'd go through if they broke up again, but I also don't want to imagine her life stuck in that relationship, either."

"Well, Charlie, all we can do is be there for the ones we love, whenever they're open to needing us. Just like how Billy and Harry were there for you all those years ago, I'm sure you'll continue to be there for Bella whenever she needs you. And, for the record, I'll be here for her, too, if she ever changes her mind about professional support," Rose said with a smile.

"That's much appreciated."

"It's important for all of us to have support structures in place. I know that it's not just Bella that has been bothering you, either, and I know we've discussed the passing of Harry Clearwater in previous sessions, but I was wondering if you would want to discuss your friendship with Sue at all?"

I could feel my face grow hot as blood rushed to my cheeks. Dr. Thompson, for all her professionalism, had an eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch – I knew the look of town curiosity when I saw it.

"You know, Rose, I don't think I do right now, if that's alright with you."

"Of course, Charlie, of course. All in due time."