Welcome to chapter 10. It's been a long wait, I know. And I apologize. This year has not been the kindest, but I survived and I'm here. And I'm writing. It feels good. The next chapter is in the works, as well. I hope you enjoy.

As always, a very huge thank you to my super cool beta, InspiredByLemons. Much love to you for sticking with me.

Last time, Edward was visiting his family and decided it would be good to tell everyone about Bella, which wasn't the best idea considering Carlisle was ready to get Edward to a doctor. Edward convinced Carlisle to come to his apartment and see for himself. While at the apartment Edward told Carlisle the full story about what really happened to Bella. After their conversation, Bella came home and she had a nice reunion with Carlisle, and Edward was able to tell them both about what he learned about the vampires that have continued to seek out Edward and still could. Deciding to not worry the family just yet, they decided to not let them in on the information and just go back to the house to re-introduce Bella with everyone else.

EPOV

"We're on our way home," Dad says into his cell phone while I drive his Mercedes down the 101. He wasn't in much shape for operating a vehicle after the shocking events of the day and the four beers he pounded at my place.

"I don't want to give any details over the phone," he says, answering a question. "But...we're bringing company. Don't let the kids leave the house, and don't contact anyone. Edward wasn't lying." He takes a moment to listen to Mom's response. "Yes, but we'll be there soon. Just try to keep everyone...calm. I love you, too."

As Dad hangs up his phone I spot Bella in the rearview mirror smirking from the back seat. Since the rear windows have a darker tint we thought she would be better hidden there when we drive through Forks.

"What's that look for?" I ask her.

"Emmett," she answers. "Esme must have been using speaker phone, because he let out that high pitched "what?!" that he uses when he's surprised. It's just been a while since I've heard that."

"You could hear that?" Dad asks.

"I can hear the radio of the car behind us. The driver is listening to "Cat Scratch Fever", and he seems to be suffering from some kind of arrhythmia. I can hear Edward's teeth repeatedly coming together because he's doing that thing where he bites the inside of his lips. And I can hear your body digesting your lunch."

"Is that all?" Dad asks, using a cheeky tone to hide is actual astonishment. "And what does it sound like I had for lunch?"

"The entrails of your enemies," Bella says wistfully while looking out the window.

Dad turns his face toward her with an enquiring raised eyebrow.

"What?" Bella asks innocently. "That's not what you had?"

Dad shakes his head and turns back toward the front of the vehicle with a chuckle.

"Speaking of lunch, how was your trip to Seattle?" I ask without trying to sound awkward. I don't want Bella to feel like she needs to be ashamed, or that she needs to hide any part of her from me—human or not. She needs to know that I don't judge her actions and behaviors.

"I gave away your sunglasses. I'm sorry," she says quickly with guilt coloring her tone.

"Why?" I ask curiously.

"There was a blind homeless man on the sidewalk with some cups set out in front of him. Every so often he would ask for money, but people looked at him with disgust. He didn't have eyes, and people wouldn't go near him. So I gave him your sunglasses and a little money," she explains.

"That was nice of you," my dad compliments.

"No, it was civil of me. People couldn't even be commonly civil toward the man. Nice would be getting him a hotel and some food, but I don't have that kind of money."

"You did something that was within your means to do. Don't feel badly thinking that it's not enough," Dad says.

"Hm," Bella replies.

"How did...the rest of the trip go?" I ask, not able to keep the awkwardness out of my tone.

"You really want to know about that?" she asks with her eyebrows raised.

"Yes," I answer, while Dad begins to stare out his window.

"Well," Bella begins. "You ruined it for me."

"What? How?" I ask.

"With all your talk about being picky and only feeding from wrong doers. Just like your dad said: doing something within my means to help. But does being selective of who I kill really help the world? Who am I to say that the person I choose won't reform themselves later? I don't know the future.

"Then I thought of my own situation. I was a good person, and a vampire's decision ruined everything I had, and ruined everything for you. I don't want to be the cause of that kind of pain for someone else who doesn't deserve it. I don't want to be like the ignorant piece of shit that took my life.

"But it's not as easy as it sounds. We react to stimuli; we don't contemplate how we'll respond to it. And I'm still 'young', so I'm not as controlled as most others."

"So, what happened?" I ask when she doesn't continue.

"I tried to do as you requested. It didn't go well."

"And?" I enquire.

Bella sighs before answering. "I killed a nineteen year old kid for being a bully."

I look over to my dad to see how he's taking Bella's words. He's still looking out his window with an uncomfortable expression. I can only assume that this is a conversation he doesn't want to be privy to. But I'd rather he were. I want him to know everything from now on; no more secrets.

"What did he do?" I ask Bella.

"He pretended to give that homeless man money, but ended up stealing what was already in the cup. He took his Starbucks receipt and switched it for the cash, laughing with his friends as they walked by. The expression on the old man's face was heartbreaking when he felt what was then in the cup. That's why I gave him the sunglasses and money."

"What part of your instincts made you want to kill him, though?" I ask, knowing that if she seriously wanted to change her way of feeding she would have looked for someone else. Her explanation of how her instinct drives her hunting is the reason for my question.

Bella looks a little surprised, knowing that my question is referring to the fact that it wasn't only the boy's actions that got him killed today.

"He smelled good," is her simple reply. "Healthy," she adds a moment later.

"You can sense the state of an individual's health?" my father asks, intrigued.

"Yeah. And the healthiest people are the most appealing. They make us a bit stronger than those with health issues or really poor diets. It's not a coincidence that joggers go missing at times."

The only sound in the car is my father's sigh. He was expecting an interesting conversation about the different health issues that vampires can detect with their sense of smell. Instead, he got a reason for Bella, or any other vampire, to kill him. Something tells me that he's now decided to stick to indoor gyms for his exercise rather than jogging around Forks—not with a threat so close to us.

"How did you get the boy away from his friends?" I ask to break the silence that that has followed Bella's statement.

"How else does a young girl get a guy away from his friends?"

"I don't know. You're going to have to educate me on this," I say jokingly. I glance to my right and see my father's smirk.

"With promises." Bella winks as she plays along.

"Promises of what?" I ask innocently.

My question is met with a light smack to the back of my head.

"Promises of things you're never going to get if you keep this up," Bella replies.

"Edward," my father says. "In my experience, a threat like that is always to be taken seriously."

"Thanks, Dad. But I really don't want to know about your experiences."

"That's quite unfortunate, Son. I have some good stories to share. For instance, your mother—"

"Do not make me drive this car right into that lake," I interrupt and threaten while pointing at the large, glacial lake that hugs the twists and turns of the 101.

"Lake Crescent..." Bella mutters toward the window.

"Have you not seen the lake in a while?" Carlisle asks.

"Once, a long time ago, but it didn't register as noteworthy. Now, however..."

"You're remembering something?" my dad asks as he shifts in his seat to listen to Bella with fascination.

"Yes. I...I remember kayaking with friends," she says wistfully as the images come to her. I shift uncomfortably, wondering if she's going to recall a memory that I hoped she would regain, but pray that she doesn't say out loud to my father. "We also hiked there. To the falls."

"Anything else?" my dad asks.

I glimpse from the road to see Bella close her eyes and scrunch her face in concentration, like I've seen her do numerous times when she's trying to conjure her memories.

"The restaurant by the dock...we ate there one night. More than once; we went a few times."

"Who's we?" Dad asks, trying to prompt more memories from Bella.

"Edward. Edward took me," she says with her eyes still closed "We could see the sunset in the dip of the mountains right above the water. Oh my God, I can remember exactly what it looked like." Her voice is full of wonder as she's flooded with the beautiful images of one particular evening we were there. The other nights we went, in typical Pacific Northwest fashion, it rained.

"There's something else, but I can't—" She cuts herself off in frustration.

My father, being ever so helpful, says, "Close your eyes again," and Bella complies. "Look at the sunset once more. Where are you seeing it from?"

"Mmm...the dock. We're standing on the dock. No. We're sitting. There's a seat at the end."

"Okay. Now what's to the left of you?"

Bella's face turns to her left slightly while her eyes are still closed in concentration. "Water, because we're at the end of the dock. But also the shore line. There are a few small boats. There are chairs and benches scattered around. There are other people, as well."

"And now to the right of you?" my dad asks, causing Bella's head to turn again.

"More water and a line of kayaks on the shoreline."

"This might be harder, but what's behind you?"

Bella is silent for a few moments before she says, "The restaurant is behind us. The forest,as well. The parking lot is far to the left of the restaurant, though. There are small buildings before the restaurant...cabins! They're small cabins," she says excitedly and opens her eyes. "That's what I couldn't see before."

My father smiles, looking pleased with himself at finding an exercise to help Bella's memories. Carlisle is about to say something when Bella gasps and her eyes open wide.

"You rented one," she says to me as a memory hits her, and my father's eyes shoot to me, as well. "That's right! We went to dinner, walked the shoreline, sat on the dock at sunset, and then...that's when we...we had...a...nice night," she stutters as she remembers the first time we made love, and also realizes who she's about to embarrassingly blab the details to.

"You rented a cabin at Lake Crescent?" my father asks in his intimidating 'dad voice'. My siblings and I tended to spend a lot of time with our significant others, and my parents had strict rules about unsupervised time among us. Incidents, like renting cabins, had to be handled like delicate covert operations.

"Yep," I say without taking my eyes off of the road.

"And when did you do this?" is Carlisle's follow up question.

"When I was supposed to be at Jasper's cousin's graduation party."

"Was this the same night that Emmett's brand new car broke down, and you all had to stay at said cousin's house? Then in the morning Rosalie came to your rescue and magically fixed the problem, and you were all home by lunch?"

"The very same."

"Uncanny. And I do believe that you must be eighteen and have a credit card to rent one of those cabins, as well. You were seventeen."

"Emmett was eighteen. And he had a new Visa burning a hole in his pocket."

"I see. And how many similar...graduation parties did you go to that I don't know about?" His tone is one that always made my heart race and made me fear lying like I would death. My body automatically reacts in a similar way now under the heat of his arched eyebrow.

"You know what? No, this is stupid. I'm twenty three years old. I'm not going to feel badly that my dad just found out that I was having sex in high school. There, I said it. It's out of the bag; we're all adults, and we can move on."

"Just found out?" he asks with amusement. "That's cute, Son."

"You knew?"

"Of course we knew," he says as if it were obvious. "Your mother did your laundry and put your clothes away. You weren't very careful with the things you had 'hidden' in your dresser. And, if there is one thing teenage boys are never smart enough to figure out, it's to change the damn sheets."

"Oh, my God," Bella mutters embarrassedly as she curls into a ball.

"You're going to hell, Dad. I'm sure there's a special spot picked out that's all ready to go, just for you." My father only laughs at my statement.

"Embarrassing your children is one of the biggest joys of parenting. Don't take that away from me in my old age."

"Old age?" I scoff. "You're as healthy as someone in their thirties. You can afford to tone down the embarrassment at any moment."

"I'm sorry. I'll stop now," he promises. But after a few moments of silence he says, "So, let's talk about the book that Bella was excited about when she returned to your apartment this afternoon."

"Seriously?" I ask, as Bella groans at the same time. His behavior is a bit more out of control than normal. But I know that it's only his way of trying to harmlessly use humor to balance the emotional events of the day, so I should cut him some slack.

"What? It was a very...creative book. To be honest, there is something that I always wondered. Were any of Bella's emergency room trips caused by the creative information in that book?"

I want to be angry, and I'm about to reprimand my father again, but I can't help the smile that crosses my face and the small laugh that escapes me. I guess with Bella's track record the likelihood of that scenario is pretty good.

"For your information, no," I answer.

Ignoring my answer and glancing in the passenger side mirror my father asks, "Edward, how fast are you going?"

I look in the rearview mirror just in time to see a police car behind me start flashing the lights atop the vehicle.

"Son of a bitch." My lead foot has been known to get me into trouble here and there.

Bella glances behind us. "Don't you dare pull over," she commands.

"What? I have to."

"We're close to town. Just wait until we get there. Put your hazards on for now," she says with her voice giving a small quiver of panic.

Realizing what could be causing her fear of this situation I look in the rear-view mirror again, now taking notice of the driver of the police car. Then I turn on my hazards just as Bella requested.

"What's wrong?" Carlisle asks as he also looks behind us, following his glance with a groan.

As we approach town Bella instructs, "Turn right there. That building will block his view long enough for me to get out before he makes the turn himself."

I do as instructed and Bella is out of the vehicle within the blink of an eye, before I even have the car stopped, leaving my dad stunned at her ability to move so quickly. "That's incredible," he says with awe.

The police car stops behind us and the officer uncharacteristically gets out of the vehicle right away instead of taking a few minutes to run the license plate.

My nerves are operating on overdrive as he walks up to my open window and places his hand on the top of the car, and I can feel myself start to sweat. I have a lot to hide from him—something that I'm not very good at doing tactfully.

"Chief Swan," I greet.

"Edward. Dr. Cullen," he says in reply and my dad returns the greeting. "Do you usually like to participate in car chases with the police?" he asks me.

"I read on the internet that you should drive to a safe place when being pulled over. You know, to prevent police brutality." In my peripheral vision I can see my dad shake his head in disapproval of my choice of words, although Charlie smirks at my response. He's amused.

"You always tried your best at avoiding...police brutality," Charlie responds carefully. He knew of the delicate state that I was usually in, so he always treaded lightly with me, not wanting to bring up things he assumed might bring on a bad reaction from me. Things like Bella.

"Can you really blame me? If I'm going to be stupid enough to date the police chief's daughter, I better damn well be smart enough to not piss him off," I say, hoping to set him at ease with me. And hopefully making him laugh will get me out of a ticket. It can't hurt to try.

"That's a good way to put it," he says with a low chuckle. "But you failed. You pissed me off on a daily basis. You couldn't help it, though. It wasn't your fault you existed." I saw the regret in his eyes as he said the words. I could tell that he was kicking himself for saying them because he knew that there was a time that I tried to rectify his problem with me.

"Is this how you feel about Jasper?" I ask my father.

"At one time I may have held similar views, yes," he answers.

"Have a daughter some day. You'll understand," Charlie suggests awkwardly. "Do you know why I pulled you over?" he asks, changing the subject and turning on his intimidating police-man persona.

"Because it's nearing the end of the month and you haven't met your quota?" I ask while internally screaming at myself. My nervousness is hindering all of the self control that should be applied to my mouth at the moment.

Charlie leans down so that he can look at Carlisle. "Do you want me to lock him up for the night for you? I'm sure you could use a break."

Carlisle laughs at the Chief's question. "No, that's quite all right. Surprisingly, we like him like this," my father replies, gaining a smirk from the Chief.

"Anyway, Edward, I pulled you over because I recognized your dad's car, and with the way you were handling it I thought it had been stolen."

"I did steal it. This is actually a kidnapping," I say with a smile, again wondering where the off-switch to my mouth is.

"Charlie," Dad interrupts. "I'll be sure to try and re-teach Edward 'appropriate versus inappropriate' public behavior when we get home. But while I have you here, did you get a chance to look over the report I had sent over the other day?"

Charlie glances between me and my father, no doubt curious if Carlisle has divulged anything about the Port Angeles murders to me.

"What report?" I ask to help alleviate Charlie's curiosity.

"Boring work thing," Carlisle answers, and Charlie is appeased.

"I did," the Chief answers. "Unfortunately, there isn't much new information between your report and the report of the last doctor who performed a similar examination. We're hoping that your next...appointment might turn up something useful."

"As am I," Carlisle responds with a practiced professional smile. "Also, Esme would like to have you over for dinner some time soon. A patient of mine gifted me with more venison than we know what to do with. We were thinking about having a get-together on an upcoming Sunday—dinner and a game."

"That sounds good. Let me know."

"Absolutely. I'll talk to you in a few days."

"Yep. Edward, watch your speed," Charlie says, and walks back to his car.

"So, where are you going to get a lot of venison when it's not even deer season yet?" I ask after the Chief makes it back to his vehicle.

"Never you mind. Just be worried about thanking me for getting you out of a ticket, and for getting him out of here quickly. Where do you think Bella went?"

"She's around here somewhere," I say as I pull the car away from the building we were parked next to and make a couple more turns until we're hidden from any bystanders.

It only takes a few moments before Bella is quickly sliding into the back seat.

"Are you okay?" I ask when I notice the ghostly expression on her face.

"Just drive," she says curtly.

My father is the one to break the silence a few minutes later when we're about to turn onto the drive that leads to my parents' secluded house.

"Bella, how are you doing? Really?"

"I'm trying to hold it together," she says with a distraught sigh. "I didn't expect to have to deal with him right now. The whole ride here all I could think of is how well your family will accept me and how I'll keep them safe. I haven't let myself even consider my father. And now I can't not consider it. I miss him so much, but I can't risk his life. All of you are already involved—I can't help that. But I can control what he knows. It just hurts so badly knowing that I can never know him again," Bella explains, her voice shaking.

"Don't lose hope," my dad says. "You said you can figure out a way to keep the Volturi from us, so you might figure out a way for Charlie as well. No one knows what the future holds. You might end up with everything you want. Nothing is set in stone. Well, except the date of death on your headstone. And look," he says gesturing to Bella. "Here you are."

"Only you could make someone feel better while also mentioning their grave..." Bella says with a small smirk, and Carlisle chuckles.

"Earlier he taught me how to open a beer bottle using just a ring," I say, joking at my father's expense, and making Bella laugh.

"Just when I thought you were made completely of class..." Bella says. My father only shrugs in response.

Soon after, the house appears in our view, and Bella leans forward to look out the windshield with a wistful smile on her face.

"I can't believe I'm here," she says quietly.

"Believe it, baby," I say, smiling at her as I park the car.

We all exit the vehicle, my father moving toward the porch. Bella grabs my hand as she stands in front of the three-story home, looking at everything in front of her.

After a few moments of her observation I ask, "Are you ready for this?"

"Yeah," she says without taking her eyes off of the property. "Yeah, I am." Ans she takes a step forward, leading me to the house.

Thanks for reading!