Fathers

Charlie

Part Fifteen

By Simon

So I finally hear is that Bella is back. Finally. She disappears for three days and now she’s back with no rhyme or reason as to where she went or why, but I know sure as hell that it involves Cullen somehow.

I had no idea that the family was back in Forks until I see Jack at the diner. He comes up to me looking like it was Christmas and his birthday all rolled into one and tells me that Dr. Cullen is back and so he can call off the search he’d been having no luck with to find a new head of surgery at the hospital.

Next I get home to find Billy and Jacob in the driveway looking like someone stomped on their puppy and they tell me the same news but with a slightly different reaction.

The Cullen’s are back.

Well, fine and whoop-dee-doo. Sure it’s good that Carlisle is here because he’s a hell of a doctor but other than that, why should I care? And then the light bulb goes off. Of course. If the Cullen’s are back then Edward is probably back and God will be back in his heaven and all will be well as far as Bella’s concerned. And I knew—I just knew that she was with him and her disappearance had something to do with him. ‘Turns out I was right, too.

Yeah, great.

So I take a ride over to the hospital and find Carlisle sitting in his office as if nothing more happened than he took a short leave of absence. He shook my hand, talked about how nice it was to be back and he’d be sure Bella stopped over to the house to see me later that day or the next.

Excuse me?

Why sure, the kids got married, she hadn’t told me? He seemed vaguely surprised that I didn’t know about this little wrinkle. Sort of. He looked to me like he knew damn well he was the first to let me know, despite the line he was feeding me.

It seems they—Bella, Edward and his sister Alice— were in Italy (Italy???) and stopped into the local magistrate before they caught their flight home. In fact Edward had surprised his parents as well but the kids seemed happy and that was what counted, right?

“Why were they in Italy?”

“Edward went to visit some old friends and it seems that Bella flew over to join him. I was as surprised as you are, Charlie.”

He looked like he even meant it. “And you’re all right with this wedding thing? Don’t they both seem a little young for this, especially this eloping stuff?” That got him. He pressed his lips together and nodded then said something about how he thought it would have been a better idea if they’d waited a few years.

Yeah, no kidding. “So are you planning to do anything about it?”

He looked a little surprised when I asked that but finally just said, “I trust Edward and this is what he wants. Bella is what he wants; besides, she seems as set on him as he is on her. They’ve made their decision.”

Instead of telling Carlisle exactly what I thought about that I stopped over at the station to do some checking and found what I needed. Then I drove over to that big house the Cullen’s all live in out in the woods and found the happy couple sitting on the front steps as if they were expecting me with Carlisle’s big Mercedes sitting in the driveway. I guess he ended his shift early.

Bella looked like she knows this conversation isn’t going to be all orange blossoms and good wishes and Edward looked like he’d just as soon avoid the whole thing of dealing with me. Hell’s belles, I’m just her father, right?

Fat chance.

“So I hear you two got married. That right?” The held out their hands to show me the rings. No surprise there. How long were you in Italy, Bells?”

“Just a couple of days, why?”

“Civil wedding, right?” They both nodded, glancing at one another with satisfied smiles. I swear I could have killed them both right then and there. “I called the Italian Consulate in San Francisco this morning and part of the requirements of getting married over there if you’re not a citizen is that you have to be in the country for a minimum of four days and have your full birth certificate with you. You do either of those things?”

“Chief Swan…”

“This is between me and my daughter; you stay out of it.” I gave Edward a hard look that shut him right up then turned to Bella. “I want to have a talk with you and I’d like to do it in private.” She turned to Edward who gave her a nod, an okay, a go-ahead. The gall of the kid infuriated me, but I kept it to myself. With some pretty obvious reluctance, Bella got up and followed me over to the squad car.

“Dad, you can’t do anything; Edward and I are married and you can’t…”
“I already have. Whatever you two did in Italy—and we’re gonna have another talk about your leaving the damn country without bothering to mention it to me and you can bank on that—but what you two did wasn’t legal. The head of their local consulate has faxed Rome about it.”

“You’re kidding! How could you…” She sputtered for a minute or two then petered out to filthy looks thrown my way.

The silence got loud and long until I couldn’t take it. I tried for reason. “…Bells, c’mon. You know this isn’t the way to do things. You really want to marry this guy, you don’t go sneaking off like you’ve got something to hide.” Her only answer was an angry silence so I pulled out the big guns. This was beyond an adolescent tantrum; this affected too many other people to let it ride. “Your mother is upset; real upset I think it would be a good idea to call her about this mess.”

“Fine. And it’s isn’t a mess.”

Sure, fine, you believe that, Bells. “Now I think we should go inside and talk with Edward’s parents, see is we can work this out somehow.” She nodded, still defiant and crossed over to Edward as soon as we got back to the steps, making a show of holding his hand as we went inside.

Carlisle and Esme met us in the entranceway, smiling but clearly understanding that this wasn’t a completely good thing, not so far as I was concerned, anyway. We sat in the living room and Esme offered coffee and wine, but no one wanted anything. We just got right to it.

Esme started. That kind of surprised me; it’s not that I think that she’s any kind of shrinking violet or anything, but it’s pretty clear that Carlisle calls the shots. She goes on about how fond they’ve become of Bella and how they think of her as part of their family, how happy Edward has been since they hooked up and all that stuff. All very nice, I guess. She was trying to put a good spin on it but I’d had enough of it pretty fast.

“They’re both eighteen; you’re okay with that? I think it’s way too damn young.”

“Edward has always seemed older than that to me; he’s really much more mature than you’d think by his age.”

“Yeah, well he’s still a kid and it seems to me that if either of them were so mature they wouldn’t have run off like a couple of Romeo and Juliet wannabes.” Renee would have liked that, I’ll bet. “Where are they going to live and what are they going to live on, you want to tell me that?” Now I know damn well that the Cullen’s have money to burn, but I wanted to see what they’d say.

Carlisle fielded that one; “They’ll be at school for the next four years, Charlie. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for us to support them while they’re students. We’re prepared to fund Bella, as well, whatever she may need beyond her scholarship—she’s part of our family now, as are you, for that matter.”

Oh, swell. Time to pop this balloon. And fast. “Yeah, that’s generous of you but Bella is my daughter, not yours, and frankly this marriage isn’t legal and I suspect you know that as well as I do.” The look on Carlisle’s face told me I was right about that. “They didn’t bother to establish the residency in Italy they needed to and I don’t think they had all the paperwork, either. The Italian consulate in San Francisco is looking into it and it should be annulled any time.”

Edward looked a lot calmer than I expected and it just gave me another reason to dislike the kid. No ‘I’m sorry you were worried about Bella’, no ‘We should have talked to you about what we were doing’, no ‘We’ll wait a couple of years if you feel so strongly about this’. Nothing, he just sat there like this meeting was something to be endured and then forgotten.

“What sort of resolution would you like to see today, Charlie?” Carlisle was trying; I have to give him that.

“I want my daughter to come home with me and as soon as we hear from the Italians, which should be in a day or so, we’ll take it from there.”

Bella started to protest, back up by Edward but then Alice—I hadn’t even noticed her coming into the room and sitting at the end of the couch—quietly spoke up and cut through the noise. “This is the best for now, Edward, you know that it is; so do you, Bella. Remember, we talked about this on the flight home.”

That shut them both up and it seemed like the entire family of them, and I’m including Bella in that, just heard the final word. Carlisle nodded. “That seems reasonable. Bella, I suggest that you get your clothes and things and Edward will give you a ride back as soon as you’re ready.” He was looking at Edward while he said that and the boy seemed to accept it way too easily. “Chief Swan, if I may, let me walk you out so we can talk father to father. I promise that Bella will be home within an hour.”

I got to the car, opened the door but was still standing there when Carlisle asked me if I had any specific objections about Edward. The question seemed pretty straightforward so I gave him a straightforward answer.

“He hurt her, that’s why I don’t like him. He dumped her so cruelly that she was close to a breakdown, then he somehow reconnects with her, snaps his fingers and they’re married. I think he has a lot of secrets and it worries the hell out of me wondering what they are. I don’t think he’s good for my daughter.” Carlisle took this al calmly. “How doe you feel about this?”

“I agree with you that that aren’t a good match in the long run. I fear that Bella is looking at Edward as a first boyfriend and has no perspective what living with him—with us—would entail. I don’t know that they have enough in common to sustain a relationship and that worries me, Charlie. Esme agrees with me and you must understand that we’ve nothing against the girl; in some ways she’s been good for him, but…”

I nodded. “Good, we’re on the same page.” I got into the car. “We’ll see what we can do about this.”
 

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