Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight - The story and its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

A/N I initially had no plans to write any more for this story, but the response I received to it, as well as the numerous people who have asked for more, have inspired me to write another chapter. With thanks going out to dazzled eyes22, who asked to see a similar conversation take place, this time, between Bella and Charlie. So here you go...

PART II

I was packing.

It had been three weeks since Victoria had been killed, and three weeks since I had told Charlie that I was marrying Edward.

He hadn't been happy.

Nor had he spoken more than four words to me since the announcement and the argument that had followed.

~Flashback~

It was two days after Victoria and the newborns had been taken care of and Edward was driving me home, after the two of us had spent the last few hours in our meadow, hiding from Alice and her clipboard. It hadn't taken long, only mere minutes after I had given in to her pleas, for the little Hitler – as Emmett had now dubbed her, to start immediately barking out orders. With Edward and I, more than happy to leave all the details and decisions in her very capable hands while we had a few peaceful hours to ourselves.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you?" Edward asked me.

It was the fourth time he had posed the question, since I had informed him of my decision to tell Charlie about our upcoming wedding alone.

"I'm sure." I repeated, my tone resolute. "Charlie isn't going to take the news well and I think having you there will only make the situation worse. Besides, I should be the one to tell him." I told him, trying to convince him that this was the best way.

Edward looked unconvinced and I knew that it was his Victorian upbringing that was disagreeing with the idea of me telling Charlie alone. He found it disrespectful. But he reluctantly gave in, nonetheless, dropping me off with a sweet kiss and a promise that he was only a phone call away if I needed him.

I took my time walking inside, the sight of Charlie's cruiser in the driveway making me nervous. I knew what had to be done and I was confident in my decision, but that didn't mean that telling my father, that his eighteen year old daughter was engaged, wasn't daunting.

"Dad, I'm home." I announced as I closed the door behind me.

"...you can't just do nothing, he's your son..." I heard Charlie's voice from the kitchen. He must be on the phone. "What do you mean he's fine and that he'll come home when he wants to – Billy he's sixteen." They were talking about Jacob I now realized and I instantly grimaced.

The graduation party had been six days ago and Jacob had been missing for four of them. Taking off in his wolf form, after finding away around Sam's alpha order. He had been, we were told, inconsolable the night I had declared our friendship over and with his emotions so out of control – particularly his anger. Sam was afraid of what that anger would lead him to do – who he may hurt, and so he gave down the order that Jacob was not to phase and leave La Push.

However the order wasn't specific enough and it only took Jacob two nights to find the loophole and window of opportunity that he needed. Sam calling the Cullens immediately the following morning, as soon as he had discovered that Jacob was gone.

They weren't sure at first, just how Jacob had managed to get around Sam's order and it wasn't until later on that night, when Edward and I were alone at the Cullens house that we found out how, when Edward had overheard his thoughts.

It was the order.

Sam's order for Jacob not to phase and leave La Push, something that in its limitations prevented his wolf self from leaving, but not his human self. Jacob waiting until Sam and the others had all left for training with the Cullens – after Alice's vision of Victoria's decision and the army that was coming, Carlisle had called Sam to appraise him of the situation. With Sam, knowing the danger that the threat posed, generously offering his and the rest of the packs help. The two sides agreeing to an alliance, with Jasper then providing the necessary training.

Each of the sessions took place in the early hours of the morning, giving Jacob the window of opportunity he needed to leave the Reservation.

I had been worried when Edward had first heard him outside the house, that Jacob was there to attack. But he didn't. Taking me by surprise when instead of attacking Edward, he gave me one last broken look, his eyes falling on the engagement ring that Edward had only just minutes before placed on my hand. Before turning away, phasing and taking off into the woods. The restriction of Jacob phasing, being lifted as soon as he was off the reservation.

My anger at knowing that Jacob had been watching Edward and I, witnessing Edward's proposal, fading. When the next day it was revealed, that we had been the last two people to see him.

"...you still should have told me sooner, Billy... Bella, what does Bella have to do with any of this..." That made me freeze.

I could only imagine what Billy was telling Charlie about my role in all this. The wolves, particularly Paul and Jared, I knew were angry enough at me and if they blamed me for Jacob leaving, it only made sense that Billy too, shared their viewpoint. For in all their eyes I was the apple that had poisoned their friend, their brother, all for my own selfish reasons.

I had used him, I wasn't denying that. For when Edward was gone it had been Jacob that had made me feel almost human again. Almost whole. But I had also made it clear to Jacob that what he wanted from me, I could never give him and that it would be a waste of time for him to try. His stubborn and determined nature not listening to me however, as my actions – always running to his side when he asked for me, told him something different. Believing that I cared for him, the same way that he cared for me.

I should have stopped it. Long before Edward or Alice returned, I should have stopped it, when I saw how determined Jacob was to win me. But just as all the wolves saw me, I was selfish. I needed him. Too afraid to return to the broken state I was in before I had found Jacob's warmth. A warmth that after he turned, slowly but surely began to fade, being replaced by a wintry chill instead. So I wasn't innocent. Far from it, in fact and despite the wolves believing otherwise, I did feel guilty. Guilty that my decision to try and hang on to a friendship that was never really there to begin with, had caused someone so much pain that they saw no other option than to runaway.

Stripping away all ties to their family, their friends – their humanity, in the process. And making the choice that it would be easier to live alone, as a wolf, then deal with the pain that being human carried. A pain that I too, had once felt and once wished desperately that I could escape, much as Jacob had.

But I didn't. I couldn't. Knowing how much it would have hurt Charlie if I did and it was on that point that Alice was trying to ease my guilt, by convincing me that Jacob was selfish. Both then and now. All his actions, only seeking to serve his own desire and after trying his best and losing, as Alice told it – even after all the ways he had hurt and manipulated me, he was now forced to accept a reality that he never wanted to.

I wasn't his. I was Edward's.

And now that the game, as Jacob saw it, was over. He was now licking his wounds and playing the part of the poor victim who had, had his heart crushed – Alice's words not mine. Forgetting that it was a part, that he had no ownership to.

"...well regardless, he's under-age, he's now a runaway and just because you refuse to do anything about it, doesn't mean that I will." Charlie said forcefully before hanging up.

"Dad?" I asked tentatively as I stepped into the kitchen, seeing the frustrated look on his face. "Is everything okay?"

He looked up at me.

"No. That was Billy, Jacob's gone. He ran away four days ago and Billy's only just telling me now." He shook his head.

That explained the frustration. Charlie was upset that Billy hadn't told him sooner.

"Oh." I said quietly, not really knowing what to say.

"Bella..." His tone was careful now. "Billy said... well he mentioned that you were the last one to see Jacob before he took off, is that true?" He asked me, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Yes." I said, not being able to lie.

"And have you known that he's been missing all this time?" I nodded. "Dammit Bells, why the hell didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't think it was my place." I said, not having a better excuse.

In truth it had never really occurred to me to tell Charlie, as I knew that there was nothing he would be able to do to find him. Despite knowing that Charlie would immediately want to help.

"You didn't think it was your place to tell me that one of your friends is missing?" He asked me incredulously.

So Billy didn't tell Charlie about what I had said to Jacob... odd, I thought he would have.

"I assumed Billy would tell you." I told him. "How was I to know that he hadn't?"

He sighed. "You still should have told me, Bells."

"I'm sorry." He just nodded.

"Billy also said that you have an idea why he ran, is that true?"

Okay, so maybe Billy did mention something.

Taking a deep breath to steady myself before answering. "I told him that I didn't want to be friends any more."

I waited for his reaction.

"You what!" He all but shouted. "Why would you do that Bells? He's family and after everything that boy did for you, how could you treat him that way?" He asked, before his face turned hard. "Did Edward," He spat his name venomously. "put you up to it?"

Wait, what? I hadn't expected that.

"What? No! It was my decision." I said appalled, that he could think such a thing. "And as for the way I treated Jacob, what about the way he was treating me? Or you were for that matter." I threw back at him, my anger getting the best of me.

"What are you talking about, Bells?" He asked, looking genuinely confused. "Jacob was never anything but kind and a good friend to you."

I took note that he didn't mention anything about himself.

"What am I talking about?" I asked incredulously, exploding. "I'm talking about the way that both you and Jacob were constantly making me feel guilty and using that guilt to manipulate me into doing what you both wanted." I narrowed my eyes at him. "You knew that I didn't just dismiss Jacob when Edward and his family came back. You knew that he was the one who stopped being my friend by refusing to take my calls, barely – if at all, responding to my letters and yet still it was me who was made to feel like the bad guy. Not to mention, you all but high-fived Jake after he kissed me, despite being able to see how upset I was."

He sighed. "It was just a kiss, Bells. I think all teenage boys, have at one time, kissed a girl when they shouldn't have, it was mistake. And not one that should have you cutting him out of your life for. I thought you were better than that."

There he goes again, guilting me. Just like he did before, when he had ended my grounding.

"I am better than that." I told him. "But I'm not going to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it. Someone who has repeatedly taken advantage of and manipulated me and someone who has never cared about what I want. Or ever listens to what I say." I realized as I was speaking, that I wasn't just talking about Jacob. "I love Edward. I will always love him and I told Jacob that all the time, but he never listened to me. And neither did you." I said, my voice dropping.

It hurt the most that my own father never listened to me and took Jacob's side, than anything that Jacob could ever do.

"I know you hate Edward for leaving. But I thought that you would at least trust me enough to know that if I forgave him, then you should be able to as well. But you didn't." He flinched slightly. "You didn't trust me or my decisions, instead you kept pushing me on Jacob, knowing full-well that he was doing enough of that on his own. And then when he took it too far, even after I explicitly told him no, you congratulated him." I said my face showing my disgust. "You could see how upset I was and yet still you stood there and congratulated him."

"Bells-" He tried.

"Don't." I stopped him. "I needed you on my side then and you chose him. You've always chosen him."

"Because he cares for you, Bella." He said, as if that excused everything. "And because I know that I can trust him to take care of you."

"What, like when he took me motorcycle riding, without a helmet." Charlie gritted his teeth. He still wasn't happy about that. "Was that taking care of me. Or when he offered to take me cliff jumping?" I threw out, knowing it was yet another subject that Charlie was still sore about. "How about that, was that Jake being responsible?" I spat the last word out sarcastically. "Oh and for the record, Jake didn't tell you about the motorcycle because it was the right thing to do." I quoted him. "He was being petty. And juvenile. And told you because he wanted you to ground me, to keep me from seeing Edward."

"If only that would have worked." Charlie grumbled under his breath.

My anger spiking at his words, and I gritted my teeth.

"I'm marrying him." I told him, making sure to grab his attention.

I didn't care that this wasn't how I originally wanted to tell him, he needed to understand. Needed to know that I would always be with Edward.

"You're what?" Charlie choked out.

"I'm marrying, Edward. He proposed and I said yes." I told him clearly, holding out my left hand. "The wedding's next month." I added, deciding to throw caution to the wind.

"Like hell it is." Charlie thundered, his face red. "You're not marrying him, Bella. I forbid it. You're too young and he'll only end up hurting you again."

"No he won't." I said confidently. "And I didn't tell you to ask for your permission, Charlie. I told you, hoping for your blessing. But I guess that, was just too much to ask for. And really I should have known better than to try." I turned away, heading for the stairs.

My car keys were in my room. Throwing a few changes of clothes into an overnight bag as well, before I grabbed my keys and headed back downstairs.

Charlie stopped me at the front door.

"I can't let you leave, Bells." He told me. "Not when I know you're making a mistake."

"And what mistake is that – getting married? Or getting married to Edward and not to Jacob?" He didn't answer. But he didn't need to as the answer was written all over his face. "That's what I thought." Was the last thing I said, before I threw open the door.

~End Flashback~

I had spent the next three days after that, at Edward's. Until he finally convinced me that I needed to make up, or at least try to make amends with Charlie. He knew that I would always regret it, if I didn't at least try. And I did. But my father was nothing if not stubborn and refused to back down from his claim that I was making a mistake. And after the third argument we had gotten into on the subject, I had stopped trying.

Focusing instead on my forever with Edward, rather than the fact that my father refused to be apart of, or accept, my wedding. Despite Renee, Esme and even Edward trying to talk him round. My mother not being able to believe, just how unreasonable her ex-husband was being. And startling me one afternoon when I had arrived home to find her and Charlie practically screaming at each other. She had flew into the Forks the day before, to try and talk some sense into him.

It hadn't worked.

Renee trying her best to convince Charlie that it wasn't really Edward he was angry at, but her. Bringing up when she had left him, taking me with her all those years ago and saying that the real reason behind Charlie's preference of Jacob to Edward, is not because Edward left. Or how hurt I was by his leaving. But because Charlie knew that Jacob would never leave the reservation. He would stay in La Push. Just like Charlie would like to keep me in Forks.

He was trying to hold on to me.

And it was for that reason that I didn't immediately move out of the house, after the first few days of Charlie's silent treatment. I knew that his reasoning came from a place of love for me, and it was why I endured the painful silence's because I knew that in a few weeks it would be over. I would be starting my new life. Something that I wasn't going to let anyone make me regret choosing.

Not that Charlie hadn't tried. Repeatedly.

But with the wedding less than a week away, he had nothing else to do now except admit defeat.

"I see you're almost done." A voice from the hallway startled me, causing me to jump.

It was Charlie.

Standing in my doorway, with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Um, yeah." I said, after my heart had settled down. "This is the last of it." I gestured to the boxes I had spent the last few hours packing.

I wasn't taking everything. Only the important things – photos, mementos, tokens, etc. As well as the few pieces of clothing that I had bartered with Alice into keeping, most of which were items she had bought me. But I had also managed to keep a few of my favorites, pieces that if she hadn't relented on, I would have taken anyway. Like the three shirts I had stolen off Charlie, or the old jackets and frayed boots that had once belonged to Renee, that I couldn't find it in myself to part with.

Even with knowing that Alice would never let me wear them again, once I was vampire, as it didn't matter. It wasn't about wearing them again. It was about having, yet another piece of them with me.

"I just have to take them downstairs." I said, closing the lid on the last box.

"So you're still going through with it then." He said gruffly.

The "it" that he was talking about being the wedding.

I sighed. "Yes. I love Edward. I'm going to marry him and despite what you think, that isn't a mistake." I told him sharply, picking up the box I had just finished packing and making my way downstairs.

"I don't want to fight, Bells." Charlie said, his voice almost tired, as he followed me.

But fighting seemed the only thing we had been doing lately, when we weren't passing time in silence.

I dropped the box near the door.

"Neither do I. I'm tired of it." I said, as I turned back to him. "I'm also tired of hearing what a mistake I am making. Or how I'm making the wrong choice. Because I'm not. So unless you're hear to tell me, that you're sorry and that you would love to be apart of my wedding, don't bother."

I waited.

"Bells, I – I, just can't." He said quietly.

I could feel tears building in my eyes, but I fought them back.

"Then I guess we're done here." I said, my tone filled disappointment as I pushed passed him, making my way back upstairs.

I knew it was a long shot, but I was still hoping that Charlie would come around. That he would be there to walk me down the aisle.

But I guess was wrong.

"Bells, wait." He called out, stopping me mid-way up the stairs.

"What?" I asked him, still holding back tears.

"I'm sorry." He said, his face twisting with remorse. "I'm sorry, that I can't give you the blessing that you want. I'm sorry that I think you're making a mistake and I'm sorry that I'm trying to stop you from making it. But I love you." The tears I had been holding back, falling now.

Charlie was never one to show emotion, the times he does rare, so I wouldn't have been able to hold back the tears even if I wanted to.

"And I need you to know that you'll always be the thing I'm most proud of. My biggest accomplishment." The ends of his mouth twitched, as he stood with his hands in his pockets awkwardly. "And I'm sorry if I ever made you feel differently."

A sob broke through my throat, as I made my way down the stairs, throwing my arms around him.

"I love you, too, dad." I choked out, quietly, before pulling away. "And thank you."

"I mean it, Bells. You're the best thing I ever did and it's something I'll never regret." I hugged him again.

This time he was the one to pull away.

"Now," he cleared his throat, shrugging off all the heavy emotion. "I have to go into the station for a bit and then I was thinking of heading down to Billy's." He had been doing that a lot. Helping Billy out and giving him plenty of company. "Will you be all right with everything here?" He asked, referring to the many boxes I still had upstairs.

I nodded. "I'll be fine." I assured him, watching him leave before heading back upstairs to grab the next box.

It still hurt to know that my father wouldn't be the one to give me away at my wedding, but not as much as it had when I first woke up this morning. Or even a few hours ago. Because now I had something that I hadn't had, since first telling Charlie the news of Edward and I's engagement... Hope.

Hope that just maybe, Charlie will come around. That our final goodbye wouldn't just be another painful silence or a few curt words. And that Alice was right all along, when she said that everything would work itself out.

And really, who would ever bet against, Alice?