Work Text:
Charlie's POV
Bella had said she was going out to La Push after her afternoon shift at Newton's as usual, but I had expected her to be home by 8:00 or so. It wasn't like her to not call or at least text, if she was going to be late, so of course when she hadn't arrived home by 9:30 I was starting to worry.
I had lost more sleep and earned more grey hairs since she'd come back to live with me in Forks last year than the whole 17 years of her life prior to that, but I wouldn't change a thing. I loved having Bells live with me, especially now that she had found her way back to being the smiling beautiful girl I remembered from before that Cullen kid had brainwashed her into believing her world revolved around him; and, then ripped her heart out of her chest when he left. Dr Cullen had done great things for this town, but as far as I was concerned, seeing the back of that son of his when they left was the best thing for my daughter. Just thinking about it made my blood boil.
The phone rang, drawing me out of my hurtful memories. I thought it was likely Bella calling to say she wouldn't be home. I don't know why I worried; she knew her old man pretty well, and knew I couldn't rest until I'd heard from her. Hell, she worried about me just as much; it scared me sometimes how much like me she'd become.
"Hello?" I said lifting the receiver in the kitchen, thinking her cell phone must be dead, and she couldn't think of my mobile number. Normally she just texted to say she was staying out there.
"Charlie," the gruff voice on the other end of the line said casually. Had it been anyone else calling at this hour I probably would have gone into panic mode, but Billy was my oldest friend, and I could tell in that one word that there was nothing serious behind his calling so late.
"What's up, Billy? Everything okay out there?" It never hurt to ask; sometimes the kids on the Reservation could get a little rowdy.
"Oh yeah, everything's more or less fine," Billy said with a sigh. He couldn't fool me.
"What's going on?"
"It's been a rough day for a couple of the boys, is all. That's why I'm calling. Have you talked to Bella tonight, Charlie?" Billy's question put me into high alert mode.
"No, I haven't. Is she okay? What's happened?"
"She's fine. Calm down, you old worry wart!" Billy barked at me teasingly over the line.
"Tell me what's going on," I demanded. I knew on one level that if Billy said Bella was fine, then she was, but it didn't stop my heart from racing as panic set in.
"There was an altercation at Newton's this afternoon with a couple of college kids from Port Angeles. Apparently they'd spent the day at the beach drinking and happened to be cutting through the parking lot as Bella left work, and they started giving her a hard time."
"Who..." I started to butt in, but Billy ploughed right through, ignoring my interjection.
"They didn't touch her, Charl..."
"Good thing!" Anyone who laid a hand on my daughter would soon be looking down the end of my shotgun. I didn't care that I was supposed to be the law in this town; nobody messed with my kid, damn it!
"Charlie, would you shut up and listen? Jesus, you're worse than a teenage girl!" Billy snapped me out of the rage I'd been about to slip into. That kid of mine got herself into more trouble than was really fair for one parent to deal with. I don't remember Renée ever saying Bella was so clumsy back in Phoenix; Forks must have had a bad influence on her. "Bella's fine. Did you hear me when I said it that time, Charlie?" Billy's sarcastic tone scolded me.
"Yeah, I heard you," I sulked. "So what's the problem then?"
"Well, they didn't lay a hand on her because Tommy's boy stepped in." Billy said, his tone returning to normal. It took a lot more than that to ruffle Billy Black's feathers.
I pulled out a chair and sat at the table, leaning my forehead on my hand.
"Lahote's kid? What do you mean stepped in?"
"Yeah. He got knocked around pretty bad when he told those boys to lay off Bella," Billy explained.
"Shit, Billy, is he okay? Why didn't I get a call about this? You said it happened at Newton's?" I'd seen plenty of the Lahote boy down at the station over the years. That damn kid was headed down a bad path, but I hadn't seen him in a while; thought he'd cleaned up his act. "That kid sure knows how to find trouble."
"Trouble found him this time, Charlie. He took a pretty serious knock on the head - lost consciousness for a few minutes. Sue's checked him out and patched him up; she said he's got a pretty serious concussion too."
"What the hell Billy, why wasn't this called in?" I spluttered.
"C'mon Charlie, you know what those kids that spend the summer at the beach are like. They beat the shit out of him and then took off. Paul's not going to press charges; he's seen enough of your station to keep him for the rest of his life, and it's not like he can afford the hospital bills," Billy explained.
"Yeah, I suppose you're right. So what the Hell was the Lahote kid- What's his name? Paul? What was he doing there anyway? Where the hell was Jake?" I was angry now that my panic had subsided. Jacob usually met Bella at work when she was headed out to La Push after work. Those two had become inseparable over the last few months, and I knew that Billy was as sad as I was that they had decided against a relationship after only a couple of dates.
"Don't even get me started on the stupid shit that Jacob got up to today," Billy groused. It was pretty rare that he had a bad word to say about his own son, so I knew it must have been a bad day in the Black household. "Paul was just passing by. He said he didn't know it was Bella they were harassing, until he got closer to them."
"The kid's always up for a fight, isn't he?" I scoffed. I'd filled out too many reports on that family in my 19 years on the force.
"He's not a bad kid, Charlie," Billy admonished me. "He's had a rough life, you know that."
"Lots of people have rough lives; they don't all turn into delinquents," I said, closing my eyes and pinching the bridge of my nose. Billy Black had a soft heart that I worried was going to make him soft in the head one of these days.
"It's not really a delinquent act to help out a girl in trouble, is it, Charlie? Especially when the girl happens to be your daughter?" Billy snapped. He had a good point.
"So where's Bella now?" I asked trying to get back on the topic of my daughter's whereabouts.
"She's at the Lahote's place. Tommy's out of town for a while so Paul's got no one to stay with him," Billy said. Nothing in his tone acknowledged the fact he'd just told me my daughter was alone with a kid who not only had a reputation as a scrapper, but a reputation with the ladies as well. It wasn't a good reputation, and the ladies weren't all teenagers like him either.
"Jesus, are you kidding me?"
"Relax old man. The kid's in pretty rough shape," he said to pacify me, still not exactly acknowledging my concern for my daughter. "You know Bella; she felt guilty that Paul was hurt looking out for her, and refused to leave as soon as Sue said someone needed to stay. I wonder where she gets that stubborn side from. Couldn't be you, could it, you old mule?"
"Sue's not staying with him?" I asked. Sue Clearwater and I had grown close in the last few months; her whereabouts were nearly as interesting to me as Bella's were.
"No she had to go home to Seth. He's laid up in bed himself thanks to a certain bone-headed son of mine," Billy complained.
"What the hell did they get up to?"
"Jake and Seth took those damn bikes out this afternoon. Seth went flying over the handlebars into a ditch. Apparently I'm raising a moron!" I could practically see Billy shake his head at his own son's stupidity. "Anyway, Charlie, I just wanted to catch you up on what's been going on, and let you know that Bella is staying out here tonight. Jake will be by your place in the morning to pick up some clothes for her, and he'll check in on her. I told him that's the only two places he's allowed to go until Seth's back on his feet; he's grounded until then." The idea of Billy grounding Jacob was more than a little amusing. The kid had shot up like a weed over-night and towered over everyone. He was a giant, usually a gentle one, but he still respected his old man. Good thing, too.
"Alright, Billy. Tell Jake I'll see him here before I leave for work then," I said sighing and leaning back in my chair. "Thanks for calling, too. I'll talk to you soon."
"Yup. Goodnight, Charlie."
"'night"
That was probably one of the longest telephone conversations I'd ever had with Billy Black. We'd been friends since we were Jake's age, and neither of us was much for talking. I knew I could trust him to look out for Bella, but even that didn't stop me from worrying about her.
I'd have to make sure Jacob packed the charger for her cell phone when he came by in the morning so I could get in touch with her.
That kid of mine was like a magnet for trouble.