AN~Just give me one chapter. If you don't that, give me two. ;P

They'll win you, I promise.

1

There wasn't a message on my answering machine, and they weren't answering their phone.

Again.

I wasn't interested in playing the "Where the hell is my daughter?" game anymore. Especially because this time it included my granddaughter who did not need to be a victim of her mother's irresponsibility.

Their house was only a five minute drive from ours—mine. It would take some more time before I stopped thinking of the house as belonging to more than one person again. It had taken a long time after Renee left with Bella to adjust to the oppressive silence of the empty rooms when I came home at night. I spent a lot of time away from home until my brain finally accepted the new gap as reality. Then it was newly awkward when Bella moved back at first—having the smells and sounds of another person around after so long felt intrusive. I was glad she was back, I just didn't know how to be for a while. And now I was alone again.

Sort of. There was Sue. I hadn't asked her to move in with me and she hadn't asked me to move in with her. I wasn't certain why. I liked spending time with her. We shared interests, but the tumult of Bella's life since she'd moved back to Forks had drained me more than I think I realized until she disappeared a month ago. I wasn't resentful but whenever I saw new pieces of grey in my hair now I'd be reminded of how hard things had been and I thought that was why I'd been keeping Sue at a distance.

The house looked empty when I pulled up. It was late afternoon and dark enough in the trees that some lights should have been on if anyone was there. It was dark, though—all of the wall-sized windows making up most of the front of the house were black, and an abandoned feeling pervaded. I got out anyway, feeling more like a cop investigating than a father searching as I glanced around the side of the house and down the driveway for signs of recent car tracks in the still winter-muddied gravel.

I was almost to the porch when I saw movement inside. It was frighteningly quick—a swoosh of black and red past the front windows. The door opened a moment later and the strangest person I had ever seen in Forks appeared. It wasn't an assessment without weight as there had been an inexplicable wave of weird outsiders coming into town over the past few years. But this guy won the prize without contest and I'm guessing would have in nearly any other place he was as well. He slipped around the door onto the porch, in a movement as quick and fluid as what I'd seen in the gloom behind the windows, and I stepped back involuntarily from his sudden proximity.

He was extremely pale, like all of the Cullens were, and like Bella was when she'd finally returned from her honeymoon. He was actually paler than any of them, though. This extreme pallor was enhanced by his hair which was black and long so his face was surrounded by its darkness making it a stark white oval floating eerily above his body.

But it was his clothing which really rounded off his complete oddness and sent it well into the bizarre. He was wearing an outfit that looked vaguely like something high-ranking military personnel during the Civil War would have worn. Only an overly dramatic, theatrical version. Over this he was wearing a cloak that was so long it actually pooled on the ground a little around him where he stood. It was lined with red and had a hood surrounded by black fur—a detail well out of place with the relatively mild temperatures of the past week. The whole thing was so wacky I luckily couldn't even react to it and probably luckily didn't betray how startled I was by his sudden appearance as well as his overall strangeness.

His eyes were as black as his hair and he was staring at me with his head tilted a little looking intrigued but also sort of tense like someone who is afraid of heights but wants to look off the edge of a tall building anyway just to see how far down it is.

"Um, hey there. I'm looking for my daughter Bella."

He made a small sound I couldn't interpret and then said, "Oh yes. Charlie Swan. Of course."

His voice was sort of dreamy and quiet—not at all as forceful as I would have expected from someone dressed like he was. His obvious knowledge of me and swift recognition of my name caused a rush of disorientation I hadn't experienced since my early days on the police force when I was anxious about everything I did while in uniform—terrified of looking like I didn't belong there.

"Yeah, that's me. So, you know the Cullens then . . . ?"

I was actually thinking he might be squatting there while they were out of town. He did sort of give off the appearance of a lunatic and not just because of his screwy outfit.

"I do. I have been friends with Carlisle for . . . many years."

"Great. So, any idea where they are?"

He didn't answer. He was cupping his hands together in various quick, nervous arrangements and glancing around at the trees behind me.

"Guessing they aren't here?" I coaxed since he didn't seem like he was listening or intending to respond if he was.

"No. They are not." His eyes came back to me and he swallowed.

"Okay, so, are you staying here while they're gone . . .?"

"Oh. Yes. I'm—what is it you say?—house standing?"

"House sitting?" I said, covering a laugh I was sure would have sounded mean if I'd let it out.

"Yes, that's it."

"Okay. So, everyone is gone?"

"As far as I know."

"As far as you know? Well, is there anyone else here?"

"No."

"So, everyone is gone then," I repeated a little slowly. I felt like I was talking to a very confused child. He looked sort of confused. Disoriented.

"Yes. They're all gone." The way he said it made the skin on my arms and back tighten uncomfortably like when you're watching a character clumsily explore a murderer's house in a horror movie.

"Okay then. Well, I need to get a hold of Bella. Any idea how I can do that?"

"I'm very sorry, but I can't tell you how you might contact her . . ."

"Okay, well if you hear from her or from any of the Cullens, I'd like if you could have them call me or you could call me and let me know what they said about when they might be back."

I retrieved a business card from my pocket. It had the shield of the Forks Police Department embossed on it in blue and gold with my office numbers underneath. I almost told him to make sure to call the first number and not the one that said "fax" next to it because the more we talked the more I was becoming convinced that he might not be all there.

He took it from me and held it in front of him in both hands, staring at it intently like it was a photograph of a place he'd heard described but never been.

I turned to go back to my car and stopped at the bottom of the steps. I looked back and he was still standing in front of the doorway, holding the card gently between his fingertips, looking extremely lost.

Dammit. I wanted to just get away from him as quickly as possible but since it was actually my job to make sure things were secure in the town I knew I needed to get more information about his mental state before I left.

"Hey, um, are you okay, you seem a little . . ." I trailed off. What could I say next? Batshit crazy? About to have a nervous breakdown? Escaped from a psych ward?

"Oh. Well, I've had a sort of crisis recently. A . . . family thing. The Cullens were kind enough to offer me their house to recuperate. I suppose I've been a bit isolated since I arrived . . ."

"Huh. Okay then, well you have my card if there's any trouble . . ."

I trailed off again. I knew that Sue would immediately invite him dinner. The stray puppy visitor was always a welcome diversion in a place not big enough for anything interesting to happen. I was pretty sure I didn't want this guy in my house, he made me extremely uneasy but unfortunately hospitality overrode my discomfort.

"You know, if you'd like, since you're new here and you say you've been alone this whole time, you could come over for dinner sometime. My girlfriend, Sue, she always makes more food than we can eat so there's plenty extra."

"Dinner," he said like he didn't even understand the word.

"Yeah. Doesn't have to be tonight but maybe this weekend. We just got home from a fishing trip so we've got a lot of trout to go through while it's fresh."

"That sounds . . . nice. Thank you."

"Okay. Well, why don't we plan on Friday then unless that's not good for you."

Just get this over, then I could return to my boring life which was actually just right for me. I liked normal and expected.

"Friday is as good as any other day. I haven't been keeping much of a schedule since I arrived."

"Sure. Well, we're over on K street. 775. White house with the cruiser in the front, can't miss it."

"Okay. Thank you, Charlie."

I started to turn away again and for the first time he spoke without being prompted.

"I'm Aro, by the way."

"Aro. That's an . . . interesting name."

I looked over his outfit again and decided not to ask about it.

"I suppose."

"All right. Well, six o' clock is about when we eat usually."

He just nodded this time and then stood on the porch, very still, watching as I drove away. Hopefully he would weird out Sue as much as he did me and we could get away with a single dinner.

His face floated in the back of my mind for the remainder of that day. It was unusual. He didn't look feminine exactly but his features weren't particularly masculine either. He was kind of refined looking, not delicate, but like a statue, very deliberately symmetrical and smooth. I had no idea if he was good-looking or not. I imagined he would have just unsettled everyone he came into contact with. It was easier to objectively judge ugliness than it was beauty and I felt I would have known if he would be called unattractive. It might seem like an awkward thing to ask Sue and I wasn't certain why I was even wondering about it. Maybe because I honestly had never seen anyone like him before . . .

It was a Wednesday afternoon when I had gone to the Cullens' and he had been shoved aside by day-to-day concerns so it wasn't until Friday morning that I even thought to tell Sue about him. She was fine with it like I knew she would be and excited to have a guest.

I began feeling slightly anxious in the early afternoon and by four o' clock I was extremely and obviously nervous. I considered calling the Cullens' house and making up an excuse to cancel but since he hadn't answered the phone any of the other times I wasn't sure he would now.

I had no idea why the thought of him coming to my house was making me so agitated but I figured getting it over with was the best idea. Sue noticed my twitchy behavior and commented on it but I vaguely explained it away as work things. She kissed my cheek and told me to go sit down while she finished dinner.

At five forty-five I was feeling so queasy I was beginning to think I might actually be getting sick and I should cancel but five minutes later there was a knock on the door and it was too late. Sue was at the door before I could get up and so I was standing awkwardly next to the dinner table when he stepped inside. He looked just as outlandish as I remembered but he wasn't wearing a freaky costume this time at least. He was dressed in all black again though which made his pale face and hands almost glow. He handed a bottle of wine to Sue.

"I didn't know if you were wine drinkers but the lady at the shop said this was very good. I'm not familiar with the wines in this region, I'm afraid."

"That's very nice, thank you," she said, smiling widely. She was either not as unnerved by him as I was or better at hiding it.

Then they both stood there silently until I realized it was my job to introduce them and I did so, I thought, without sounding as goofy as I felt.

"Well, we're almost ready. I was about to have Charlie set the table so you can help him if you want but please don't feel obligated. We're pretty casual."

"I'd be happy to help," he said immediately and uncomfortably for me. We filed into the kitchen and Sue placed a stack of plates into his hands. He'd already set them on the table when I turned around with the forks and knives. He held his hand out when I got to him and I offered the knives handle out. His fingertip grazed the side of my hand as he took them and I choked back a gasp. His skin was cold. Really cold. Like he'd been out in the snow for hours. I wondered if he'd walked here. It hadn't occurred to me that he might not have a car even though I'd seen no evidence of one at the house.

He was looking me over carefully. About like the way I'd looked at him on Wednesday but it was so scrutinizing it actually made me back up a step which caused me to catch my elbow on one of the chairs and sent the forks I was holding to the ground with a tinny, metallic clatter. I gathered them quickly and stood again.

He was smiling at me oddly and a sharp shiver fled from the base of my neck down the length of my spine. Okay. Yeah, this guy was never, ever coming to my house again. There was definitely something off about him. I hadn't really wanted anything to do with all of whatever Bella and the Cullens had been into before and I certainly wasn't interested now with this creepy stranger.

I was intensely relieved when Sue came in then with some of the food.

"Gotta go back for more forks," I said, holding up the ones I'd dropped. "Clumsy. Must have got it from Bella . . ."

"I doubt it's contagious," she said with amusement.

I gratefully left them next to the table and went back into the kitchen. I dropped the forks in the sink and then stood with my hands on the edge of the counter trying to figure out why breathing was suddenly so uncomfortable. I considered that I might be having a heart attack but my chest didn't hurt so I decided it wasn't that. I also considered slapping myself across the face but that felt a little dramatic so I just collected the clean silverware. Sue called for me to bring in the salad.

I set the bowl on the table on the side where no one was sitting and handed her a fork. I laid his on the table at the top of his plate. I didn't want to risk touching him again by handing it directly to him. His chilly skin freaked me out.

I was grateful that Sue was the chatty, hospitable type because it meant I didn't have to talk to him. But I learned nearly everything about him anyway short of the color of his underwear, which were probably black as well.

He was from Italy although he didn't sound particularly Italian to me. He was recently widowed. This part made Sue smile consolingly and pat his arm. He had two brothers and a sister who had died when she was young. I thought Sue might try to adopt him if the sob stories carried on any longer. I couldn't tell if he was lying but they weren't particularly unbelievable things so I tried to shake off the uncomfortable idea that he was hiding something big. He said he'd met Carlisle when Carlisle came to Italy during a medical study of some kind and I didn't know enough about Carlisle's life to know if it was true and I didn't really care anyway.

He picked at his meal, apologizing to Sue several times and saying he had some kind of condition that limited his food intake and he had to eat very small portions at a time but that the food was very good. He rattled off some incomprehensible disease name in Latin for the condition that I couldn't ever have remembered to verify even if I had understood him.

When we were almost finished eating I was starting to feel vaguely guilty that I was being so suspicious for basically no reason and I had relaxed a little bit. Enough to try being a part of the conversation if it hadn't turned to art which I knew nothing about and didn't particularly care to. Sue was describing the local handiwork of the Quileute and he seemed interested until she invited him to come to the reservation to see a small gallery there and he immediately grew visibly uncomfortable and backed away from his former interest as politely as he could saying that meeting a lot of new people made him nervous. Which didn't make sense since he had accepted an offer to my house without blinking, knowing there would be two strangers dining with him.

Sue opened the wine he brought but he didn't drink any saying that he was a recovering alcoholic with fifteen years sober. What kind of drunk brings booze as a gift? But given that he was a complete weirdo in every other respect I didn't dwell on it.

Sue got up to clear the dishes, leaving me alone with him again and I nearly jumped up to follow her but I knew I would be scolded for being rude if I did so I just sat there, exchanging awkward glances with him. Well, mine were awkward, he was smiling in a friendly way and I again felt guilty for my hasty negative assessment.

"Do you not enjoy meeting new people either?" he asked after what seemed like an extremely long silence.

"I don't know. You don't meet a lot of new people here. With my job, I feel like I know everyone by sight at least."

"Of course. Well, thank you for inviting me. It's a little lonely here. My wife and I lived close to my brothers so there was always someone around, you know. Even when you didn't want them to be. Family."

"Sure. I mean, I don't have a lot of family. Just Bella and Renesmee. And Edward, I guess."

"Do you not like your son-in-law?"

"He's not very likeable," I said without thinking.

He laughed and it was very different than his smiles before which now seemed very forced in light of this new outburst which felt more spontaneous and natural. It was a strange laugh, quiet but sort of erratic. It made him more accessible immediately even though it sounded a bit crazed. I'd always trusted people more when they laughed genuinely. Some people only ever laughed politely and otherwise never seemed to catch onto actual humor. Their flatness was off-putting.

"Edward is . . . complicated," he offered politely. "He wasn't very happy before he met Bella. But he loves her very much. And your granddaughter who is very charming, by the way."

"Charming isn't a good enough word for what Renesmee is. There isn't a word for her." I hadn't seen her or Bella since Christmas and there was a painful ache in my chest whenever I thought about them.

"I've only met her once, but I think you are probably correct. She is an unusually pleasant child. I'm not generally fond of children but she didn't have anything sticky on her hands when I met her so that may have improved my impression."

"She's a really clean kid. Not like her mother. I'm pretty sure Bella was completely covered in peanut butter from the time she was three until she turned five."

"She grew into herself well it seems then. She's very unusual herself . . ." he said cautiously.

I was pretty sure he wasn't insulting her and he was right—Bella was unusual.

Sue came back and Aro thanked her again and said that he should go. Even though he had become less abnormal in the last few minutes I certainly wasn't about to beg him to stay.

I walked with him to the door. He turned around after stepping onto the porch and thanked me again. I could see that there wasn't a car in front of the house so he must have walked. I wished I hadn't gone to the door with him because now I was basically forced to insist he let me drive him back.

"Hey, uh, did you walk here?"

"I did. But it's quite all right. I enjoy walking and it isn't very far."

"Yeah, well, it's dark now and you're not exactly visible in what you're wearing so let me take you back."

"If you like."

My pleasure, you kooky bastard. Just don't kill me in the middle of the woods, all right?

He waited on the porch while I grabbed my keys and told Sue where I was going. She made a sympathetic face when I told her he'd walked here and it annoyed me intensely.

He was watching me really closely while we got in the car and then stared at my hands when I did my seat belt. He didn't do his until I had finished and started the car and then when he did it was with a really skeptical movement like he wasn't sure it was going to work. When the latch clicked he let go slowly with an amused expression on his face like he'd just seen a new magic trick.

"I've never been in a police vehicle," he remarked as I reversed onto the street. He reached out to poke at the lights on the silent scanner attached to the dashboard.

"No criminal record, huh?"

"I'm fond of rules. I worked in law enforcement of a sort in Italy."

"'Worked'? You don't do that anymore?" I had no idea why I was asking for details when I could have easily filled the time with meaningless "yeahs" and "that's nices".

"Well, this recent family thing sort of forced me into retirement. I couldn't really work anymore. I just . . . well, it felt pointless without them."

"Was this an on-the-job thing then?"

"Sort of, yes. My brothers worked with me."

"Oh. So, something happened to them, too?"

"They've been missing for a bit, not long, but I don't expect they'll be found at this point. We'd made some enemies doing our job."

"Right. Well, that happens. I had one guy who got a little obsessed with me a few years after Renee and I got married. He made a few threats. It was the only time I ever kept a gun accessible out of a safe while Bella lived with me and only because she was too little to reach it."

"Was he apprehended?"

"I don't know. He just stopped harassing us after a while."

"That's good enough, I suppose. Frightening, though, with your wife and daughter to be concerned about . . ."

"Well, even when there isn't a known crazy after you, you're always terrified when you have kids. From the day they're born, the world is suddenly a horrifying place full of dangers you'd never even thought about before."

"That's true."

"Did you say you had children?"

"I didn't say. We didn't have any natural children. We took in some foster children for a few years but they were teenagers and only stayed until they could live on their own. They were twins. Jane and Alec. We were told they were troubled when we got them, but I never had any problems with them. I thought they were sweet . . ."

He sounded sadder talking about them than he had about his brothers or even his wife. I could feel empathy regarding that. It hurt when Renee left but taking Bella away was worse in some ways I didn't have words for. I got over Renee eventually but I never stopped missing Bella and it was awful when she stopped wanting to visit me here because I saw her less often.

"Do they keep in touch with you?"

"Not really. I mean, they are also missing . . ." he said, glancing at me like he was wondering if he'd said more than he should have.

"Oh. The same way as your brothers?"

"I think so."

"Was this some sort of mafia thing?" I asked, then regretted it because it sounded like an insulting cliche based only on him being Italian. Supposedly Italian, I had significant doubts about it.

"That's a good comparison but not exactly. A couple of powerful families who had been in disagreement for some time had a . . . falling out and it ended poorly for both sides."

"So, when you said 'recuperating' you meant you're here in hiding?"

"Although I am fairly certain there is no one looking for me, yes, it might not be safe to return home at this time."

"Okay. I'm just wondering if there's some international law enforcement issue I need to know about . . ."

"Oh, no. Nothing like that. I'm here as a private citizen under my own power."

"Okay. Well, here you go. You've got my number there if you need it for any neighborly reasons . . ."

I was hoping he would take that as a hint that I was not offering friendship and quickly exit the car after I stopped. He was just staring at me, though, in a very intense way like he had some kind of x-ray superpower and he was checking out the bone structure of my skull.

"Thank you for having me over, Charlie. I suppose I will have to return that invitation at some point."

"Oh, uh, well don't feel obligated or anything. Just trying to be welcoming."

"Yes, well, it was very nice."

His hand went to the door handle but he didn't pull it yet. He was still watching me in a way that made it feel like it would be awkward to look away. I decided I would have to find some way to ask Sue if he was attractive because I still had no idea. He was so "unique" it was unsettling. I remembered how Bella's skin had also been very cold after her return and had felt sort of stone-like when I hugged her and for a mad second I almost reached out to touch his face to see if it felt the same way. Alice was the only other Cullen I had ever gotten close enough to to feel if they were the same. She'd put her hand on my arm during the wedding and it was unexpectedly heavy and unyielding. I had known that the Cullens weren't related in any way but sitting there in the car with Aro, this person I had never heard them mention before, knowing that he was the same as them was the thing that really made it click into place that they were not humans. But they used to be, like Bella was. I stopped there. I didn't want to know what he was. If he was dangerous, it might mean I would have to do something about it and all I wanted to do was get away from him so I could shake off that weird squeezing sensation in my chest that I kept experiencing when he was near me. I had experienced fear of other men before while being a patrol officer, mostly while dealing with violent drunk people, but this didn't feel quite the same. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable and made me feel a little drowsy and stupid.

He smiled very slightly after a few moments and I felt immediately dizzy—near blacking out. I looked away, fear circling me now, wondering if these creatures, whatever they were, had weird powers of some kind. If Jake could turn into a wolf, I supposed anything was possible.

He got out without speaking again. I let him get to the porch so he had the glow from the headlights to guide him as it was fully dark by that point. If it was possible to take a long way home in Forks, I would have taken it and instead I just stayed in the car for a few minutes after pulling up in front of my house.

When we'd gotten in the car to go to the Cullens', I had been fairly certain I would like to avoid him forever from that point, but I felt confused on returning after dropping him off like I had tasted a strange new food I wasn't certain I liked and felt like I should try again because it was so exotically far from my experience that judging on a single encounter seemed foolish. But I couldn't see myself willingly engaging him in the future so I set it aside and went in the house to resume my normal life—the way it was before it was disrupted not just by him but the Cullens and whatever they all were. I had an increasingly sure feeling that I may never see any of them again and like when my parents had died, and when Renee had left, accepting the tragedy of it, the reality of it, held its own kind of grim peace.

END NOTES:

I love Aro here because he's sort of subdued and damaged. His world is just gone and he's not used to being alone. He's far more vulnerable than ever before and it makes me want to squeeze the guts out of him.

As usual, I love being self-referential and so making Charlie drop a bunch of Forks in reaction to Aro the way Bella does at the beginning of Sunlight gave me a nice "I'm-my-own-fangirl" moment.

I generally write from the POV of teens and twenty-something girls so writing a forty-something male was challenging but really enjoyable. Trying to keep the narrative plain and pragmatic but not dull was the hardest part about this but I also got to use "older people words" like "screwy" and "kooky" which was crazy fun.

Trivia! Charlie's address here is the one for the Swan House in Forks chosen by the Chamber of Commerce people after reading the books but before the movies were made. And that thing Charlie said about all the weirdos hanging around Forks is a joke about visiting Twihards. Hah!