Green & Gold

Thursday March 18, 2004

Charlee slumped down on his sofa, the Hoosier basketball game blaring in the background, and his mind a million miles away.

Or 1,500 miles away anyway.

It’d been almost a week since Bella left, and two days since her single text sent from a blocked number:

I’m safe. Love you.

Charlie looked up morosely at the photos of his baby girl decorating the mantle.

Baby Bella cradled between Charlie and Renee the morning she’d been born.

Bella at 7, with gaps in her teeth and braids in her hair.

Bella at 12, a book in her hands and a look of surprise on her face, undoubtedly being randomly photographed by her mom.

Bella at 15, her last school photo at Phoenix, a white blouse blending in with her pale skin. Her eyes were still just as brown as they’d been since she was a year old, a solemn look of wisdom in them.

Charlie had thought her eyes were lightening with happiness recently in Forks, but he’d been fooling himself.

‘I don’t want to be stuck here like Mom!’

And, well, Charlie didn’t want to hold her back like he’d held back Renee. So he let her go.

Which hurt a thousand times more than it had when Renee yelled in his face and left in the dead of the night with his daughter. He hadn’t known it was possible to be hurt worse than he had that night, but he knew better now.

Charlie sighed deeply and pulled the old afghan his mother made off the back of the couch. No point in moving upstairs when there was nobody here to care where he slept at. Charlie watched as the Hoosiers were thoroughly beaten by Norte Dame, and let his eyes drift shut after the final buzzer went off.

He jerked awake at some point later, the living room blanketed with the darkness covering the windows, a scraping noise at the door. Charlie was on his feet, quickly moving to grab his gun from the holster by the door. He held it by his side and quickly threw the door open, preparing to give whatever would-be-robber the shock of their life.

“Freeze!”

“It’s me! Dad it’s me! Don’t shoot!”

It took Charlie a split second to recognize the cowering shape in front of his door.

“Bells?” Charlie breathed, hardly daring to believe he wasn’t still snoring away on the couch. “Bells!” Charlie threw his arms around his daughter and hugged her closely. Bella relaxed in his arms, her own solid and warm arms snaking around him.

“I’m so sorry, Dad,” she said, her voice muffled by the sweater she had her face buried in.

“Hush. You’re here now.”

Charlie didn’t need an apology. He didn’t really need an explanation. He needed her home, and he’d like to know she was staying home. But that’s all he ‘needed’.

Charlie pressed his face down in the top of Bella’s hair, searching for that scent that was so uniquely his baby girl from the instant she was born. Bella began to pull back before he could find it beneath the strawberry shampoo she used so he just gave her a crinkly-eyed smile and moved one arm to her shoulders. “You stayin’ then?”

“Can I?” Bella asked quietly. Her eyes were red-rimmed and Charlie thought maybe these last few days weren’t much more fun for her than they were him.

Charlie wrapped an arm around her shoulder and guided her inside. “Always, Bells. Always.”

***

Friday March 19, 2004

Charlie got a full account of Bella’s trip from her the next morning. He hadn’t wanted to push her in to telling him if she didn’t want to, but he was glad he had poked just a little.

“Let me get this straight: you left because you liked Edward too much and didn’t want to feel trapped here—” a sentiment that shot a dagger through his heart to even repeat “— so you drove off to Phoenix. Then Harry, our neighbor, Harry Potter, showed up at Renee’s on Wednesday morning and talked you into coming home?”

Bella nodded over her bowl of cereal.

“That’s what happened,” she said. “And I’m sorry, Dad, I’m really sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight. I love it here with you, honestly.”

Charlie waved her apologies off and hugged her fiercely before she left for school. He tried to replace the scene from the night she left with her open expression as she assured him that she loved it here with him and had no intentions on leaving anytime soon. If Bella would be happier in Phoenix, he would let her go. But he wouldn’t deny that it made him damn glad to hear that she loved it in Forks with him.

And, as he slowly drove down his road, his eyes peeled for that familiar red charger, he was damn glad that Harry had decided to ignore him when he said not to worry about finding Bella for him.

He had a feeling that Harry was going to try and talk to Bella when he saw him the day after she left. Charlie told him not to worry about it, but something in Harry’s eyes told him Harry wasn’t a guy who took orders very well. Harry’s face had been grave and his shoulders seemed to sag with his own self-appointed responsibility as he swore to Charlie on his porch that he would bring Bella home.

And damn if he did it.

Charlie spotted Harry’s car parked right in the middle of his driveway, as if the young man didn’t care at all to flaunt his truancy from school. Charlie pulled his cruiser in behind Harry’s car and felt a little pep in his step as he went up to the door. Enough pep that he smiled to himself when he pounded on the door with what Billy called his ‘cop knock’.

“Chief Swan?” Harry opened the door after a minute or so, clearly having been woken up by Charlie. His hair was a wreck, there were dark bags under his eyes, and his clothes were all rumpled.

Harry also smelled like liquor, but for once that wasn’t Charlie’s problem.

“Did you go to Phoenix Tuesday and bring Bella back?” Charlie demanded.

Harry rubbed at his eyes beneath his glasses and nodded. “I brought her home,” he said slowly.

“After I specifically told you not to worry about it?”

Harry ducked his head and scuffed one of his shoes in the hardwood floor beneath him when he responded much quieter, “Yes sir.”

Charlie Swan was not an overly emotional man. He didn’t do the squishy ‘feelings’ crap that a lot of people seemed to have no problems expressing. Charlie’s own father hugged him maybe five times his entire life and told him he loved him just as many times.

Which was all just to explain that Charlie hadn’t planned on yanking Harry in to a tight hug, startling the young man in the process, but...

“You brought her home,” Charlie said, “Thank you.”

Harry was stiff beneath Charlie’s arms, so Charlie quickly let him go and took a step back.

“Sorry about that, I just...” Charlie rubbed the back of his neck.

“It’s fine,” Harry said quickly. “I’m glad she’s back.”

Charlie beamed at him and offered Harry a much more professional handshake.

“If you need an excuse for your teachers, tell them Charlie Swan had you in lockup for the week for underage drinking, alright?”

Harry ruffled his own hair and chuckled before he accepted Charlie’s hand. “Yeah, alright.”

***

Saturday March 20, 2004

“Got any plans this week?” Charlie put a quick hand on his daughters head at breakfast, reassuring himself once more that she was still there.

“No Panama Beach for me, Dad,” Bella quipped. “I’ll probably just hang out around here with Edward, maybe go to Port Angeles with Alice.”

“What?” Charlie poured himself a cup of coffee, extra black, and fell heavily in one of the kitchen chairs. “You’re still- still hanging out with that Cullen boy?”

“We’re dating Dad.”

Charlie didn’t much care for that. He figured either that Edward was moving much too fast with his daughter (‘Did you have a fight? I thought you liked him?’ ‘I do like him, too much. That’s the problem!’) Or, and much more likely in his opinion, the two of them had some sort of serious argument on what he thought was one of their first dates and it drove Bella to fleeing to Phoenix. Either way, he didn’t care much for Edward Cullen.

“Dating is a strong word, Bells,” Charlie said carefully. God forbid she rush in to something and let some boy knock her up and end up having a shotgun wedding like he and her mom had when they were only a few years older than she was now. “Why not try going out with some other people, play the field a bit? See if there’s someone else you like better?”

“Did you just tell me to ‘play the field’?” Bella grinned cheerfully at Charlie’s words. “God, Dad, that’s terrible advice.”

It really was.

“I don’t mean like that,” Charlie sputtered. “I just mean there’s no need for labels on a new relationship, is there? Maybe try going on a few dates with someone else, get to know other people. Oh, I know,” Charlie pretended to have a sudden idea, “What about Harry? He’s a nice boy. And anyone who drove clear to Phoenix for you has to care about you, right?”

Charlie watched hopefully, but Bella’s childish snickers crushed that hope pretty quick.

“Dad,” Bella gave him a pitying look, belied only by her continued snickers. “Harry’s gay. He’s dating Jasper, Edward’s brother.”

Charlie tried to picture which one Jasper was. “The big one or the blonde one?”

“The blonde one.”

Charlie stroked his mustache thoughtfully. “Gay, huh?”

“Yes, Dad, I’m sorry.” This time it was Bella who patted his hand reassuringly, a teasing light in her eyes. “But if it helps, I guess that means there’s a possibility you could be his type.” Bella let out a genuine laugh, one that warmed Charlie’s heart, and she took off towards the staircase.

“Of course I could be,” Charlie yelled after her. “I’m not just a ladies man, Bells!”

***

Wednesday March 24, 2004

Charlie wanted to like Edward Cullen, he really did. It was just... Bella just looked so ‘in love’ when she was around him. And he couldn’t find a single flaw with the kid, it was pissing him off. Perfect grades, flawless record, impeccable manners. And he was constantly at Charlie’s house, always politely sitting at the kitchen table or couch, looking like some damn spokesmodel for shoddy furniture.

It was driving Charlie crazy.

Actually, it was driving him to spend his afternoons driving around town when he would sometimes post up at home. Charlie spent most of spring break cruising around town, keeping his police car in the public eye as a hopeful crime deterrent. It was a trick the old police chief shared with him, one that must work since Forks had one of the lowest crime rates in the state. It didn’t hurt that they only had a population of 3,500.

But Charlie liked driving around town. He waved at the older folks who knew him since he was a kid. He flashed his lights for the kids playing hopscotch on their sidewalks. And Charlie never turned down a chance to pull over and hear some of the gossip from the chattier citizens of Forks.

He mentioned the Cullen family here and there, hoping for any bit of information that would be definite proof that Edward wasn’t right for his daughter, but not a single person had a single bad thing to say about the damn boy. In fact, most of them didn’t even know Edward.

“Is Edward the one down at the park with the Potter boy?” Lonnie Richardson asked after Charlie casually mentioned Edward.

“Can’t be, Edward’s at my house,” Charlie grumbled. But if ‘the Potter boy’ was at the park, perhaps Charlie would swing by. He still needed to find a way to repay him for bringing Bella back home.

Charlie pulled in to Forks’ only playground a few minutes later, parking next to Harry’s charger. He got out and slowly scanned the small pavilion where teens liked to smoke and drink later at night. It wasn’t until a little giggle caught his attention that he found Harry over by the swing set. Charlie smiled at the sweet picture; Harry was pushing a little boy with black curls and a big gummy smile on the only infant swing set in the park. Harry was laughing and trying to snap as many photos as he could between pushes.

Charlie was so distracted by the uncharacteristic look of genuine joy on Harry’s face that he almost missed the tall blonde standing behind Harry and smiling just as hard at the picture.

Damn Cullen kids.

“Well, who’s this then?” Charlie walked up to them, grinning at the little one. “He’s gotta be a Potter with messy hair like that.”

“Chief Swan, this is Teddy Lupin, my godson,” Harry said, proud as any new papa. Harry gently pulled the swing to a stop, causing little Teddy to stick out his lower lip in a pout.

“Hey there, little guy.” Charlie wiggled his fingers in front of Teddy, and had a feeling of nostalgia as Teddy giggled and grabbed his finger. “I didn’t know you had a godson, Harry.”

“He used to live with his grandma, but we’ve got split custody now,” Harry said casually.

Charlie let the little one continue yanking on his finger as he appraised Harry at that surprising bit of information.

“You’re eighteen,” he said blankly. Eighteen was much too young to have any type of custody of a baby. Especially eighteen year olds who always seemed to be chasing the shadows in their eyes away with booze and fast cars.

Harry picked Teddy up from the swing drew himself up to his full height, looking just as much of a man as Charlie must have when he’d told his parents he knocked up Renee.

“Teddy is my godson, my responsibility,” Harry said firmly.

“Babies are a lot of work,” Charlie said, dumbfounded and impressed by the young man before him. “You’ve got school.”

“Teddy’s only here every other weekend and school holidays,” Harry said. “And...”

Harry glanced over his shoulder at the Cullen boyJasper standing behind him.

“And the Cullens have been helping me get used to having him around more.” He poked the baby in the belly, drawing a sweet little laugh from the kid that looked more like Harry’s own son than his godson. “Isn’t that right, Teddy?”

“Osie!” Teddy cried. “Osie!”

“Rosalie, my sister,” Jasper stepped forward, putting a hand on Harry’s back, and smiling down at the little one. “Teddy’s rather attached to her already.”

“Well...” Charlie certainly couldn’t complain about any help from Carlisle anyway, he seemed to be a good man, “Why don’t you bring little Teddy here over one night this week? I think I’ve got a box of Bella’s baby toys in the garage you can have.”

Charlie knew for a fact he had a box of Bella’s baby toys, he had almost everything she ever owned. Though, from looking at Harry’s car, he didn’t need any help buying toys for Teddy. But if it brought him over for a good home cooked meal, then all the better.

“Alright then,” Harry shrugged. “Sounds good, thanks, Chief.”

***

Friday March 26, 2004

“Are you cooking?”

Charlie grunted at the stove, “Did it for years before you got here, Bella.”

“No you didn’t,” Bella reached over Charlie’s shoulder and turned down the burner that had the green beans on it. “You ate out and survived off cereal.”

Charlie wanted to be indignant, but she nailed it in one.

“Is that supposed to be spaghetti?” Bella sounded horrified, and when she pulled out the entire (ruined) clump of spaghetti noodles from the pan, Charlie could see why.

“Damn it,” he swore. “Can you fix it?”

“No,” Bella laughed and began shutting off the other burners. “Why are you cooking? You know I’ll make dinner.”

Charlie huffed and moved out of her way, turning his back to the stove and spotting Edward in the kitchen doorway, silently watching the two of them with a smile playing around his lips.

“Edward,” Charlie said curtly. “Don’t suppose you can make yourself useful and go pick up a few pizzas before Harry gets here, can you?”

“Of course, sir,” Edward agreed politely, just as Charlie knew he would. “I’ll be back soon.”

Edward left too quickly for Charlie to give him some cash.

The kid made it hard to dislike him, but Charlie Swan was a stubborn man.

“You invited Harry over for dinner?” Bella dumped the scorched smelling spaghetti sauce down the drain and grinned at her Dad. “Dad, c’mon, you can just adopt him if you want him as a son. But I think that’s the only way it’ll work.”

“I’m not trying to set the two of you up,” Charlie scowled.

He wasn’t tying to anymore anyway.

‘Gay’.

The first person Charlie wouldn’t mind taking his daughter out on dates and she had all the wrong parts for him.

“Harry lives by himself, and did you know he’s got partial custody of a baby now? That’s a big responsibility, Bells. We’re his neighbors, we should be acting neighborly.”

“Oh you met Teddy?” Bella smiled, apparently the little one had worked his way in her heart too. Cute thing like Teddy? He could probably win over anyone.

“Saw them down at the park,” Charlie said. “I got a few of your old things down for Harry to use, you don’t mind do you?”

“Do I mind if you give away my rattles and bottles? I think I’ll survive Dad.”

Charlie chuckled, Bella certainly didn’t get that dry wit from Renee. Bella undertook hiding the evidence of Charlie’s cooking fiasco while he went out to the garage to clean up the supplies he’d dug out of the dusty storage area in the back of the building.

“Bells, can you grab the door—” Charlie lightly kicked the back door, juggling a wooden high chair in one arm and two boxes of toys and clothes in the other.

“Oh.”

It was Edward who opened the door.

“I can take that for you,” Edward offered, extending an arm to the high chair.

“I’m plenty tough enough to carry it,” Charlie said, maybe a little harsher than the situation warranted.

Why did Edward always have to be so damn polite though? Couldn’t he just be a prick and Charlie could happily pester Bella in to not being so obviously ‘in love’.

“Of course.” Edward held the door open for him, his face perfectly passive as Charlie stormed past him, nearly dropping one of the boxes as he did so.

Charlie did give Edward a begrudging ‘thanks’ at the stack of pizza boxes on the kitchen table before he rearranged the chairs to fit the high chair between the others.

“Dad, I don’t think Teddy can eat pizza,” Bella laughed.

“I know that,” Charlie said. “But Harry’ll want to sit by him while we eat, won’t he?”

“Probably,” Bella conceded the point.

Charlie gave Edward a neutral look, “You staying for dinner?”

“I already ate with my family before I came over, but I’d love to join you, thank you,” Edward said.

Of course Edward wasn’t eating with them. Bella said his mom, Esme, was a health nut and made ‘vegetarian’ meals for her family. Which made Charlie desperately happy to never have been invited over for dinner, and a little worried that they’d rub off on Bella and ruin the normal meals she made for the two of them.

Charlie went ahead and scooted the chairs around so he could slide one more up at the table for Edward. And just in time too.

“I’ll get it,” Charlie hurried to answer the soft knock on their front door. He ignored Bella and Edward’s quiet laughter behind him, and he especially ignored Bella’s joke about this being ‘Charlie’s first date’.

Harry was eighteen. Charlie was thirty-six. It wasn’t that Harry wasn’t a decent looking guy; responsible and a laugh when he wanted to be, but Charlie could hardly go mooning after high schoolers, could he? He was the damn Chief of Police.

Bella got her weird sense of humor from Renee probably.

“Harry! Teddy!” Charlie threw the door open merrily and tried very hard not to clench his jaw at the unexpected addition, “And Casper, right?”

Charlie knew the name of the uninvited tag-along, but it always threw perps off-kilter if he started an interrogation by pretending not to know their name. Not that it was an interrogation… yet. But Harry was a decent young man, Charlie could even easily admit that he was pretty fond of him, especially since he brought Bella back. It was this ‘Jasper’ that Charlie didn’t know a damn thing about.

Well. Not a damn thing besides the perfectly spotless report he ran on him at the station, same as his brother.

“Jasper,” the blonde offered a hand out to Charlie. “Jasper Hale.”

“Chief Swan,” Charlie stressed his title, giving Jasper the same firm handshake and subtle warning he’d given Edward. “C’mon in, fellas. I’ve got pizza in the kitchen.”

“Thanks, Chief,” Harry said. He pulled off the little yellow rain jacket off Teddy and hung it up. “Here you go…” Harry then handed Charlie the brown sack he had, “Figured it was the least I could get you for the baby supplies.”

Charlie peeked inside the bag and let out a loud laugh at the offering.

“You brought the Chief of Police a six pack? How’d you even get this?”

“Magic,” Harry said with a cheeky grin. “That’s the kind you like, right?”

That was why Harry was leagues more tolerable than Edward Cullen. Smartass just showed up and handed over a case of Charlie’s favorite beer with a smart retort and a grin. Harry wasn’t an overt troublemaker, but he didn’t try and pretend to be perfect either.

“Sure is,” Charlie told him. He shook his head with a show of attempted disapproval. “I better not find a fake ID next time I pull you over, Harry.”

“Pull me over?” Harry carried Teddy over towards the kitchen, nodding hello at Bella and Edward, and carefully eased his godson in the high chair. “Must have me confused with some other bloke, Chief. I’m a perfectly respectable driver.”

“You’re a terrible driver and a worse liar,” Bella laughed. She sat down across from Harry after pulling out a folding chair from the closet and adding it to a space next to her. “Dad tried to cook you dinner.”

“But pizzas are better anyway,” Charlie said hastily giving his daughter a look. “Why don’t you and Jasper grab a few slices and I’ll get some toys for Teddy?”

“We have applesauce for Teddy too,” Bella said. “I’ll grab him a bowl.”

Charlie grabbed the box marked ‘TOYS’ and dug through it for a minute until he had an armful of a few of the slightly faded rattles and a little drum set.

“Here you go Teddy.” Charlie put them on Teddy’s tray, ignoring Jasper who was feeding him small bites of applesauce Bella fetched.

“Thanks for this,” Harry said. “Teddy here’s a spoiled kid, none of his toys keep his attention for more than a few minutes.” Harry said it fondly and he combed his fingers through Teddy’s thick curls as he did so. Teddy smiled up at his godfather with a messy applesauce smile.

Charlie couldn’t help the wistful look he gave Bella. It seemed like just yesterday she sat in that exact high chair, covered in food, smiling up at him like he would be the only star in her sky forever. And then suddenly, suddenly she was smiling over at Edward Cullen; the brightest star in his nearly-grown daughters life.

“It’s no problem,” Charlie waved Harry’s thanks off. As if Harry hadn’t just driven to Phoenix last week and done Charlie a much bigger favor. “You said he lives with his grandma during the week? Where’s his parents?”

“Dead,” Harry said bluntly, his shoulders folding inward the slightest amount. “His dad, Remus, was friends with my dad in school and he made me godfather the day Teddy was born.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Charlie said. He gave the little green-eyed baby a sorrowful look. Poor thing didn’t even have all his teeth and he’d already lost his parents.

“He’s got you though,” Jasper told Harry quietly, keeping his eyes on Teddy as he offered him another bite of applesauce. “And you can tell him all about them when he’s older.”

“Yeah.” Harry ran a weary hand under his glasses before he forced a grin on his face. “Chief, you would have liked his mum, she was a cop. A good one too, she went around kicking arse with pink hair.”

The others all laughed at that while Charlie tried to imagine hiring a new patrol sheriff with pink hair and just couldn’t do it. “London sounds like a weird place,” he said.

“Positively mad.” Harry tentatively reached for the open pizza box in the middle of the table, which Charlie quickly scooted closer to him. “How’s your basketball teams getting along?”

Charlie, Harry, and Bella made quick work of one of the pizzas; both Cullen boys apparently had dinner already with their parents. For a guy who didn’t know a damn thing about sports, Harry had a good memory for the different rules and scores Charlie chatted about.

“I thought they weren’t allowed to swap coaches mid-season?” Harry scowled, probably picking up Charlie’s own irritation with the Panthers.

“Exactly,” Charlie said.

At some point, the six of them moved to the living room, kicking on a game and carrying on an easy conversation. Harry didn’t talk much, but he was a good listener. And, Charlie could easily see, he was a damn good godfather to that little boy.

Harry sat on the floor with Teddy the whole time, Jasper sitting beside him, and kept him entertained constantly with the toys from the box Charlie brought down. He even took him up to the bathroom at regular intervals to change his diaper. Charlie didn’t remember a lot of what he was doing himself at eighteen, besides chasing Renee around and fishing with his buddies off the pier, but he knew he never would have been as good of a parent to a baby as Harry obviously was.

Harry’s attention never even wavered from the little one to Jasper, despite the many lovesick expressions Jasper gave him. When Harry did look at him though, pulling him in the conversation or acknowledging something he said, Charlie could see that Harry’s eyes were just as star filled when he looked at Jasper as Bella’s were when she looked at Edward.

Damn Cullens… Just going around and making all of Charlie’s favorite people fall in love with them.

By the time Teddy started yawning and Harry mentioned needing to get him home, Charlie had decided that he liked Jasper Hale almost as much as he liked Edward Cullen. Jasper was just as polite, quiet, and outwardly respectful as his brother. He was also so obviously infatuated with his British boyfriend that he was practically filling the room with his love.

Charlie got a chance to pull Jasper to the side when Harry loaded the sleepy baby in his carseat. Edward and Bella were carrying the toys and high chair out to Harry’s car, helping to get them loaded as well.

“How old are you, Jasper?” Charlie asked. He knew his background check said he would be nineteen in the summer, but Jasper didn’t look much like a nineteen year old. He held himself stiffly, his eyes vigilant and wary - quite a bit like Harry did to be honest. The difference was that Jasper flinched a lot less and all his movements looked entirely too graceful.

“Eighteen, sir,” Jasper said. “I’ll be nineteen this summer.”

Charlie adopted a casual pose and used his best ‘I’m not just a cop, I’m also your friend’ tone that he’d cajoled a handful of confessions with.

“Bit young to be playing house with Harry and his godson, aren’t you?”

Jasper mimicked Charlie’s casual pose, his eyes watching as Edward laughed quietly at something and pulled Harry over to talk by the driver’s door.

“Carlisle says I have an old soul,” Jasper said lightly. “I think Harry does too. So I’m perfectly content ‘playing house’ with him as long as he tolerates me.”

“You’re thinking long-term then?” Charlie asked, only barely refraining from bluntly asking Jasper what his intentions were.

Jasper smiled, a sparkling smile of happiness, “I’m thinking forever Chief Swan.”

***

Sunday March 28, 2004

“I’m telling you, Billy, you gotta lock Jake up. Before you know it he’s gonna be following someone around with puppy dog eyes and saying things like ‘forever’.” Charlie cast his line out again, not having much luck with the fish today.

“I don’t see the problem with that, when he’s old enough,” Billy said. “As long as it’s not one of the damn Cullens.”

Normally Charlie would argue with him, defend the Cullens as the good family that deep down he knew they were. Then Charlie pictured the lovesick faces of Bella and Harry and Jasper’s guileless look as he said ‘forever’.

Charlie clinked his bottle of beer from Harry with the bottle he gave to Billy.

“Damn Cullens,” Charlie agreed wholeheartedly.