Midday Clouds - The Charlie Swan Story

Chapter 23 (New Moon 12)

I was at my desk filing through the latest missing persons reports, trying and failing to find some commonality between the faces, names, last known locations, and ages of those who'd recently disappeared, when Steve rushed over to my desk.

"Chief," he said. "It's your daughter on line 2."

My blood turned to ice in my veins. The last time I'd gotten a call at work about Bella she'd been in a car crash and had to be rushed to the hospital. The last time I'd gotten a call from Bella she'd been in a different hospital after, allegedly, falling down some stairs. But I didn't have time to panic. I didn't have time to think up worst case scenarios.

"What's wrong, Bella?"

"Can't I call you at work without there being an emergency?" Her tone was calm, playful even. I breathed out a sigh of relief to know that she wasn't in any immediate danger.

"You never have before. Is there an emergency?" I asked, just to be sure.

"No, I just want directions to the Black's place—I'm not sure I can remember the way. I want to visit Jacob. I haven't seen him in months."

Not only was Bella alright, but she was actually hoping to go out, to see friends, to live a life that was more than just staring out her bedroom window like a zombie hoping for her highschool boyfriend to return. Maybe she was finally out of her funk.

"That's a great idea, Bells! Do you have a pen?"

—

Hanging up on Bella after giving her detailed instructions on the (maybe not the fastest, but safest) way to the Black's, I decided I'd hop on the phone with Billy just to make sure he and Jake would even be home.

"Hey Chief, how's the weather out there?" Billy asked after a few rings. It was a stupid inside joke we'd had for years—the joke being that it was always raining in Forks, just like it was always raining on the reserve.

"Oh you know, nothing but sunshine and rainbows out here," I said, looking out the rain-splattered window at the midday clouds that loomed over the town. "How's it on your end?"

"Can't complain. It's perfect beach weather over here. To what do I owe the call? You finally find that graffiti me and Jake painted on the back of the station, did you?"

"No, no, haven't discovered that yet, but thanks for the tip Bill. I'm actually calling because my Bells just called me asking how to get over to your neck of the woods. Seems like she wants to spend time with Jake. Figured I'd give you a heads up."

"Ahhh, I hear you loud and clear. I'll keep an eye on her, don't you worry Charlie. She's always safe on Quileute land," Billy said, his voice dropping the jokiness and taking on a more serious tone of pride.

"Well I know that better than anyone. It's appreciated. She's been in a bit of a fog lately... You know how I got back, well, back in our twenties? Seems she's got a case of it herself, after the Cullens left-"

"And good riddance to them," Billy said, cutting me off. "I hate to think of the stain that that boy must've left on Isabella."

"Now he wasn't all that bad. She's just heartbroken, is all. You know how teenagers can be."

"I do remember you following Sue around the rez like a lost little puppy for a few months back in the day," Billy said with a laugh. "It's a good thing it didn't work out between the two of you, or Harry would've had your neck."

I laughed along, remembering back to those highschool days. Sue and I had taken to each other in our teenage years, what with me spending so much time at the reservation with Billy and Harry, but we'd had just one sweet summer together before senior year when we decided it would be best to just be friends. Well, when Sue decided that, and I couldn't blame her; her parents weren't exactly enthusiastic about her hanging around the white boy from the town over. She and Harry started dating about a year later, and I couldn't be more happy for the both of them. I said as much in a groomsman's speech at their wedding, after all.

"Well I'm lucky it didn't have to come to that, hey? Plus we both found ourselves with beautiful children, so I'm still glad the cards fell how they did."

I couldn't help but notice the moment's silence, the hesitation, from the other end of the line. As great as Billy and Harry had been to be there for me, neither were all too good as finding the right words when it came to Renee. Hell, neither was I.

"Well Charlie, if Bella's coming out this way you'd better find some time to do so as well, or we'll start having a new favourite Swan around here."

"Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't blame you if that happened. But I'll let her have her space this time. Maybe I'll pop by for a visit sometime soon, though."

"Well jokes on you, because she already is my favourite!" Billy said with a laugh before abruptly hanging up the phone. I was glad to know that Bells was in such good hands.

—

I was surprised to notice the smell of fried chicken as I walked in through the front door. Bells had apparently beaten me home, and begun cooking up a dinner for the first time in what felt like months. It's not that I would ever expect my daughter to cook for me, but it had seemed something that she was keen on doing when she first arrived all those months ago, before the hospital visits, before the abrupt flight, before the boyfriend. I'd been more than content regressing back to my bachelor ways of pizza delivery and whatever Jen saw fit to cook for me at the diner, but it was nice to see that Bells was putting something together; it meant that she was still operating outside of her zombie-like state.

"Hey, Dad," she said. There was an honest-to-God smile on her face as she greeted me. I was floored.

"Hey honey. Did you have fun with Jacob?"

"Yeah, I did." Apparently so, with her being in such a chipper mood.

"Well that's good. What did you two do?"

"I hung out in his garage and watched him work. Did you know he's rebuilding a Volkswagen?"

"Yeah, I think Billy mentioned that," I said, tucking into the dinner she'd made. It was delicious.

I couldn't help but feel joy, and hope, and wonder at the fully-formed person sitting across the table from me. Here was Bells as I knew she could be; living a fulfilling life here in Forks with friends and hobbies and, dare I say it, a family, small though it may be. I felt a pang of remorse that Renee wasn't here, that she didn't get to see Bella appreciating the world that she had fled. But at least Bella was here and, if only for the moment, happy. 

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