The tires of my old truck squealed against the wet pavement of the hospital parking lot as I slammed on my breaks. I threw it in park and flew out of the cab and through the doors that lead to the emergency room. If I had been in a better state of mind I would have been proud of myself for not tripping over my own feet as I ran inside.

The nurse at the desk looked up as I bolted through the door. She knew who I was and why I was here. She picked up the phone on her desk and held a finger up gesturing for me to wait as she dialed.

"Dr. Gerandy, Isabella Swan has just arrived."

She paused for a moment before saying "Yes, sir" and hung up the phone.

"Isabella, come with me please, sweetheart."

She led me through the big double doors that I knew would take us back to the patient rooms. She stopped outside of a small waiting room and gestured for me to enter.

"Dr. Gerandy will be right down. Just sit tight for a minute. Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee?"

I shook my head, confused as to why I was brought here instead of directly to Charlie. The only explanation I would allow myself to think was that he was in surgery or had been taken down for testing or something. I refused to think there was another possibility.

Dr. Gerandy entered the room a few short minutes later. He looked exhausted and when he looked at me I saw something in his eyes that caused my heart to stop before beginning to beat rapidly against my ribcage; almost as though it was trying to break free.

He took a seat beside me on the small sofa and let out a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry Isabella, but I have some bad news."

The tears started to well up in my eyes so quickly I didn't even realize they were there until they started falling. I almost stopped him since I had a pretty good idea what he was going to say, but I couldn't speak. It was like my brain needed to confirm what my heart already knew.

"As you already know, your father was in an accident. His cruiser was spotted by a trucker down near Bogachiel State Park, crashed into a tree. We're not exactly sure what happened since the officers that responded to the call didn't find any evidence of another car, so we can only surmise that he may have swerved to keep from hitting an animal and lost control of the car."

I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding. While this was bad it didn't necessarily mean he was… God I couldn't even think the word.

"So, can I see him?" I asked.

I couldn't help but notice the intense sadness in the good doctor's eyes as he took another deep breath.

"Honey, there's more. He had a wound from where he must have hit his head on the steering wheel. The blood must have attracted some of the animals in the forest…"

I held my hand up not needing him to finish. I didn't need nor want any of the details.

"So what is it that you're saying?" Stupid question I know, but my mind just didn't want to accept the implications of his words.

"I'm so sorry Bella. There was nothing we could do. He's gone, honey."

I just looked at him. I heard the words but my mind refused to let them sink in. This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. Not Charlie. Not after everything I've lost. No, I refused to believe that God would take away the only person I had left.

"I wanna see for myself."

The words came out before I had the chance to even realize I was speaking. I spoke them so quietly I wasn't sure that he heard me.

"Bella, I don't think that's such a good idea. We had one of the officers officially identify the body, so there's really no need…"

"I want to see for myself," I stated again, only this time I spoke loud enough and with enough force behind my words to let him know that there was no room for argument.

"Okay, honey. But I need to warn you, the wounds on his neck will be visible and they are not pleasant."

I simply nodded. I really didn't care. I just needed to see.

I stood outside the closed door of Charlie's hospital room trying to work up the courage to open it. After a few minutes and a silent pep talk, I reached for the handle and opened the door.

I half expected him to be completely covered in his own blood. It was obvious that they had cleaned him up. But still, the sight before me caused my knees to go weak and I gripped the handle of the door for dear life to hold myself up. I could see from the doorway just how bad his neck wounds were and it made my stomach turn. If his neck was that bad I couldn't even begin to imagine what was under the sheet.

Without taking my eyes off of the man in front of me I spoke to Dr. Gerandy, feeling him still standing behind me.

"Could I have a few minutes alone with him? So I can say good-bye?"

"Yes, sweetie, of course."

I stepped further into the room and closed the door behind me before making my way over to the bed. I sat down in the hard plastic chair beside him and gently took his hand in my own. I began rubbing small circles over his cold skin as I took in the sight of my dead father.

There were no scratches or marks on his face other than the small cut on his forehead that Dr. Gerandy had told me about. I moved the sheet down a little bit further to get a better look at his neck. My suspicions were confirmed as I looked closer. You would never notice unless you were looking for it, but the marks on the right side looked suspiciously like human teeth marks. The skin around the wound had been torn in places to cover this up, but I could still make out the edges of the original bite mark.

Charlie had been killed by a vampire.

I closed my eyes tightly as the tears began to fall. They ran out so rapidly that wiping them away would be futile as they would only be replaced by new ones in mere seconds.

This felt like a dream. A part of me, the part that was in serious denial, was telling me that this wasn't real. It was telling me that when I opened my eyes I would awake in my bed at home and that none of this really happened.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally pried my eyelids open, letting out a choked sob as I did so.

This wasn't a dream. I was not at home in bed as I had hoped to be. Instead I was right where I was when I closed my eyes. In the hospital room that had all of a sudden become entirely too small. It felt like the walls were rapidly closing in on me and I was having trouble catching my breath.

"I'm so sorry Bella. There was nothing we could do. He's gone, honey."

He's gone.

He's gone.

He's gone.

Those two words played again and again inside my head as the room got smaller and smaller. My chest heaved as I tried, without much success, to take in the air that my lungs were so desperately begging me for.

I tried my best to calm my breathing but it did no good.

The only person that could calm me was lying lifeless in the hospital bed next to me.

He's gone.

I crawled into the bed, wrapping my arms as tightly as I could around the already cold body of my father and sobbed into his chest. My sobs became uncontrollable as the reality of what was going on finally hit me.

His chest wasn't rising and falling with each inhale and exhale. He wasn't breathing.

I couldn't hear the beat of his heart with the ear that was pressed to his chest, or feel it on my cheek. His heart wasn't beating.

I couldn't feel the warmth of his skin as I held onto his body tighter than I ever had. He was cold.

He wouldn't open his eyes, no matter how much I begged him to. He was gone.

Just like everyone else I loved, he was taken away from me.

"I love you, Daddy." I whispered through my sobs. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The guilt consumed me. I knew that this was my fault. While I could never bring myself to regret my time with the Cullens, I couldn't help but think that if I had just left well enough alone when it came to him, if I would have taken his advice and stayed away, none of this would have happened.

I wouldn't have been out in that field with them that day when the attention of a coven of nomadic vampires was caught by a baseball game.

If it weren't for me, the Cullens would have never had to kill James in an attempt to protect someone they had considered family.

If I had just stayed in Phoenix there wouldn't be a psychotic vampire on the loose, hell bent on ending my life, and anyone else's that got in her way, to avenge the death of her mate.

It was my fault that Charlie got caught in the crossfire and I didn't know if I would ever be able to forgive myself for that.

I couldn't be sure that it was, in fact, Victoria that had murdered my dad. There was always the off chance that another vampire had been making his or her way through the area and Charlie had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was doubtful, but possible.

After what felt like hours, my sobs had quieted but I still held tightly to Charlie, scared to let go. I had to though. There were things I needed to do. I had phone calls to make and arrangements needed to be made.

I pulled myself up off the bed but I didn't move. I willed my feet to carry me out of that room but they wouldn't listen. It took another ten minutes and one more silent pep talk before my body finally did what I told it to.

I leaned down and pressed my lips lightly to Charlie's cold cheek and whispered my love for him once again before leaving the room.

I was on autopilot as I drove home from the hospital. After my mini breakdown in Charlie's room a numb feeling had washed over me. I was grateful for it. I didn't want to feel the pain that I knew lay just below the surface. It would come eventually. I had enough experience in this sort of thing to know that, but it would have to wait. There was too much to do.

I pulled into the driveway and killed the engine. I just sat there, not thinking, not feeling. Just sitting. I didn't want to go in there yet. In fact, I didn't want to go in there at all.

After a few minutes I decided that it was best to just go in and get it over with. I couldn't sit out here in the driveway forever; though the thought was much more pleasant than the alternative.

I noticed that the door was cracked open slightly, but in my haste to get out of here and to Charlie earlier, I couldn't remember if I had closed it all the way.

Of course it would be just my luck that on a day like today someone would choose to break into the home of the chief of police.

I pushed the door open further and peered inside. It didn't seem like there was anything out of the ordinary from this vantage point, so I stepped inside.

I listened intently to see if I could hear voices or footsteps indicating that there was someone inside, but I heard nothing. It was completely silent in the house. Not that that meant there was no one here. They could have just heard my truck and were being quiet so that they didn't get caught.

Honestly I didn't care. If we actually had anything of value they were welcome to it. I had already been robbed of the most valuable thing that had ever occupied space in this house.

I slowly and quietly made my way upstairs. I felt that if I made too much noise I would be disturbing something, so I remained as silent as possible. I had every intention of going to shower. I wasn't sure why but I felt the need to scrub my skin until it bled.

Just as I was about to step inside the bathroom, Charlie's open bedroom door caught my attention.

Standing in the doorway, I just stared. His pajamas were still lying at the foot of his unmade bed. His closet door was open a crack from where he had taken his clean uniform out this morning. He never closed the closet door all the way. I cracked a small, sad smile as I remembered asking him about it once when I was little.

I had been terrified of monsters as a child. I believed that any place in the house where light was scarce was full of monsters. I had been about seven when Charlie helped me overcome that fear.

I was sitting on Dad's bed watching him put away his clean clothes. He hung up the last shirt but didn't close the door all the way.

"Daddy, you should close that. If not then the monsters will come out at night while you're sleeping and get you."

He chuckled and sat down on the bed beside me.

"Still scared of the closet monster, baby?" he asked, brushing the hair out of my eyes.

I nodded and looked back at the closet warily.

"And the under-the-bed-monsters. Don't forget them. They're even worse than the closet monsters 'cause they're sneakier. They can grab your feet when you get in or out of bed and pull you under."

He chuckled again and shook his head.

"Aren't you scared?" I asked.

He shook his head again.

"I have no reason be scared. There's nothing in there but clothes and shoes and boxes of old junk. There are no monsters in there."

"How do you know? They could just be hiding from you. Then tonight when you go to sleep they'll jump out and take you away from me."

The thought had brought tears to my eyes. I loved my Daddy and I didn't want anyone to take him away from me.

"Hey," he said as he used his fingertips to lift my chin so I would look at him. "You don't need to worry about that. I have something that keeps the monsters away."

He smiled and leaned over toward his bedside table. He opened the drawer and pulled out a spray can and handed it to me.

"This is for you," he said.

I looked at the can, studying the label. There was a picture of a big, green, scary-looking monster with red eyes and huge, pointy teeth. There was a red circle around the picture with a line that ran diagonal across the monster. I rotated the can in my hand and read the back. It said 'Monster Spray: To keep the scary closet and under-the-bed-monsters away'.

"Where did you get this?" I asked in awe. I shouldn't have been surprised he would find something like this. Daddy always kept me safe.

"I made it. I didn't want you to be scared anymore."

"How does it work?" I asked.

"You just spray it in the closet and under the bed, or anywhere else you think a monster might lurk."

I got up from the bed and went over to daddy's closet. I opened the door as wide as I could and sprayed every inch down with the monster spray. No way were the monsters gonna get him tonight.

I walked over to the bed and dropped to my knees. I pulled the bed skirt up and repeated the process.

"It smells pretty" I told him with a smile.

He returned my smile as I climbed back up onto the bed.

"That's what keeps the monsters away. They don't like the pretty smell. So tonight, when you go to bed, we'll take this and spray your room for monsters. Then neither of us will have to worry about monsters coming to steal us away from each other. Okay?"

I smiled again and hugged him.

"Okay, Daddy. Thank you for keeping me safe."

He pulled away and smiled, running the back of his fingers over my small cheek.

"Always, Bells. I'll always keep you safe."

I had eventually learned that dad's 'Monster Spray' was nothing but a can of air freshener. He had made the label himself and taped it to the can to cover the original one. He had become my hero that day. I was never scared of the closet monster or under-the-bed-monster again.

Tears were again streaming down my face as I stood at the foot of my dad's bed remembering.

I looked around the room some more just taking it all in. It smelled heavily of his cologne. A smell that I had always loved. He'd been wearing the same scent for as long as I could remember.

As I turned toward his dresser, I noticed the corner of a picture frame. The rest was covered by a t-shirt that he had thrown haphazardly.

I found it odd since there were no other picture frames anywhere in the room. In fact his walls were completely bare aside from a huge dream catcher that hung on the wall above his bed. It had been a gift from Billy. It was much like the one that Jake had given me for my birthday only on a much larger scale.

I pulled the t-shirt away and the photo staring back at me caused my breath to catch. It was a picture of him and me from prom.

Why did he still have this?

I figured that he had taken it just like all the pictures from my scrapbook and the gifts from that fateful birthday party.

I realized that he must not have realized that Charlie had it. But even still, why would Charlie keep it? If there was anyone that didn't want a reminder of him it was my dad.

I stood there for an immeasurable amount of time simply studying the perfect face of the man that I had been willing to give my very life for. It wasn't as hard to look upon him as I thought it might be, but then again it was just a picture. I would imagine that coming face to face with him in person would be a whole different experience.

It was hard to believe that it had only been five short months since they had left. Some days it seemed as though decades had passed and others it was as if it had been only yesterday that I stood on that path in the forest while he tore out my very soul with his words.

As I gazed at the picture I realized why Charlie must have kept it. I looked happy. I was smiling brightly, my ever present blush adorning my cheeks. He wasn't even looking at the camera. Instead his attention was focused on me. He had a small adoring smile on his face. The sight of it made the hole in my chest throb with such intensity it made my knees weak.

To the outside observer he looked like he was deeply in love with me. But I knew better.

I sighed deeply, taking one last look at the picture before replacing it on the dresser. I even went as far as to put the t-shirt back over it, just like I found it. I left the room closing the door behind me. I needed to get on the ball and start making the necessary phone calls to get things taken care of. If I stayed up here I'd never get any of that done.

I grabbed the phone off of the wall in the kitchen and headed toward the living room. I made a list in my head of the people that I needed to call.

Billy, funeral home… Who the hell else am I supposed to call?

I had no idea what the hell I was doing. I found myself wishing, not for the first time today, that Esme and Carlisle were here. I needed the comfort that only a mother could give and I knew that Carlisle would know what the hell I was supposed to be doing.

The longing that I felt for my vampire parents caused a war inside my head. On the one hand I wanted…no needed… them here to help me through this. Even if it was just long enough to take care of everything and get through the funeral. The fact remained though that even if I had any idea of how to get in touch with them I wasn't sure I would be able to make that phone call. The pain of their abandonment was still pretty fresh and I didn't know if I could handle speaking to, let alone see, any of them right now.

On the other hand, I was angry with them and didn't want them here. They were partially responsible for this after all. They left me alone and unprotected while Victoria was plotting my demise. I didn't know if they had any idea that she would come back for me but that was beside the point. If they hadn't left they would have easily been able to take care of her before any of this happened and I wouldn't be parentless right now.

I let out a puff of frustrated air. There was no sense in thinking about this right now. The fact was they weren't here. Regardless of how much I did or didn't want them to be.

I hit the talk button on the phone, the dial tone loud in the otherwise silent room.

Just as I went to press the buttons to call Billy, I felt it. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and a chill ran up my spine. Someone was watching me.

I saw a flash of movement from the corner of my eye before she spoke.

"Hello, Bella."

I looked up toward the voice. I should have been scared. In fact, I probably should have been pissing myself in fear, but I felt nothing. I just didn't care anymore. There was no more fight left in me.

My voice sounded dead even to my own ears as I greeted my unwanted guest.

"Hello Victoria."