Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

A Fresh Start

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 13:

BPOV

What a week. I got married, met my father, went on a crazy
honeymoon that still has me walking a little shaky, got propositioned by French swingers, almost got arrested by Homeland Security for trying to get my groove on in an airplane bathroom and just had mind blowing sex in the back of a limo while heading home. I was ready to take a long bath, get back in my bed and relax. Wake up in the morning and make breakfast, catch up on the orders that have come in over the past week and ogle my husband while he hammers and saws and does all the other technical things he looks so hot doing.

The limo pulled in front of our house and Hunter ran out to greet us. Steph was on the front porch with a woman I didn’t recognize. She was pretty. Blonde hair, blue eyes, looked to be late thirties, early forties but obviously kept herself in… oh shit. She was running towards me.

I damn near got tackled by the now hysterically crying blond woman who must be…

“Bella!”

“I’m guessing you are Renee huh? Mom?”

“Oh my God baby! I thought you were dead.” She wouldn’t let me go.

I suppose if I thought my kid had been dead for the past year I
wouldn’t either, so I let her squeeze me. I even squeezed her back a little. But it was weird.

She finally pulled back but wouldn’t let me go.

“Bella you remember me right? I know seeing me, must bring back
something!”

Okay. She wasn’t going to take this well. Charlie told me she was
emotional.

“I’m sorry…”

Damn it. Now she was crying louder.

She finally calmed down.

“It’s okay baby. Charlie explained everything. I’m so glad you are
alive. I have been dead inside this past year, thinking you were
gone.”

I looked at Bo who had stepped back and was watching us.

“Uhm… Mom? It’s okay. You can calm down now. Why don’t we
come inside? We just got back from our…”

“I know! Your honeymoon! After thinking you were dead for a year
Charlie fucking Swan refused to tell me where you went. I have been here the past few days waiting for you. Your sister in law was kind enough to put up with me.”

Renee looked at Bo.

“You must be my new son in law.”

“Yes ma’am. Bo Walker.” Bo stuck out his hand and Renee took it
and then wrapped him in a hug. I think he was a little surprised.

“You saved my daughter’s life. Of course you then promptly married my 18 year old daughter but that isn’t what’s important. You saved her life.”

Guess Renee isn’t a big fan of marriage.

“Come inside Ren… Mom.”

I grabbed her hand and brought her inside. The house was… a
mess. Guess she isn’t any better at being tidy than Stephanie is.

“Why don’t you have a seat?”

“Okay Bella. Just… stay where I can see you.”

“Uh, Mom? I don’t really go by that name. It’s kinda confusing. I go
by Mary.”

“Your name is Bella. I gave you that name and that’s what I am going to call you!” She was close to freaking out. I needed to handle this carefully.

“This is my damn house and you will call me Mary!”

Oops. That wasn’t careful. It’s been a long week.

“Of course… Mary. I’m sorry.”

“No I am. I have had a long week and this is all so strange and I
shouldn’t have snapped like that. It was wrong of me. I’m sorry.”

“No. It’s okay. I know it isn’t your fault. It’s that damn ex husband of mine’s fault.”

“It isn’t Charlie’s fault. I’m the one who ran off.”

“To get away from Edward Cullen. I knew in Phoenix when you were so badly hurt that he was bad news. He wouldn’t let us alone with you. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t the one who threw you down those stairs. Him and his father just happened to go looking for you and then find you after you fell down stairs. What a load of bullshit. I told Charlie and all he would say was Dr. Cullen is a good man, Dr. Cullen wouldn’t let that happen, blah, blah blah, Dr. Fucking Cullen. Charlie should have protected you from that boy.”

“Wait. Hold up. What happened in Phoenix?” I looked at Bo. He
caught that too. Charlie never mentioned Phoenix.

“Charlie didn’t tell you?”

“No. We really didn’t have much of a chance to talk. I was about to
get married when he found me and then we left the next day.”
“Oh. Well, what do you know about why you ran off?” She asked,
looking confused.

“Just that Edward left me and then came back wanting me to run off with him. When I refused he threatened you and Charlie and I left to protect you.”

“Who the hell told you that?” Renee looked upset again.

“Uh, Charlie?”

“Your relationship with Edward Cullen was obsessive and unnatural. I knew it when I saw how affected you were by him. This is his fault too.”

“Tell me about it.” I encouraged her. I don’t know why but I had a
feeling she wouldn’t lie to me. I needed to know what happened.

What really happened? It was important.

“What would you like to hear?” she asked.

“Everything from the moment I left you to come to Forks.”

She sat back and wiped her eyes again.

“I never should have let you go to him.” She whispered.

“You called me a few weeks after you first arrived at Forks. You told me you had met a boy named Edward. I was excited for you
because you had never had a boyfriend before.”

Renee went on to tell me the history of my time in Forks as she knew it. But she wasn’t there. She was telling me the truth. But she didn’t know the whole story. What Charlie told me had many holes. Her story had many gaps. I think I lied to her then. Or kept things hidden at least.

“So she went to Phoenix, fell through a window, broke her leg, broke ribs, had glass cut an artery in her leg and got a strange bite on her wrist?” Bo asked. I was having a hard time believing it myself.

“Yes.” Renee answered.

“And instead of calling an ambulance, Dr. Cullen took her to the
hospital himself?”

“Yes.”

“So she had that scar before Edward Cullen left her?” Bo asked for
clarification. I caught Charlie’s lie as well. I suppose it was Jacob’s lie but they were all in on it. Hell even that quiet kid asked me if I would believe an animal bite. Like they were trying out lies.

“So he left. Then he came back?” I asked.

“I didn’t know he came back. Charlie never told me. But I saw you
after he left. You were damn near catatonic. I came down to get you to come home with me and you went crazy. You refused to leave. I left you there and Charlie said you got better. Then Alice Cullen supposedly arrived and you disappeared for three days and then Charlie said you were back. Then the next morning you were gone again. I thought you were dead.”

Shit. She started crying again. I felt so bad for her. I just couldn’t
reconcile the way I am with who I used to be. Had I changed that
much? I would go catatonic over a boy? If this bite mark happened
when I fell out of a window, why did they lie? Did Edward bite me
and then push me out a window? Wouldn’t Charlie have suspected
that? This made no sense. I looked at Bo and could tell he thought
the same thing.

“Look. Let’s quit talking about Edward Cullen. I’m sure Steph and
Hunter have been eating take out all week. Let me get some dinner ready and I…”

“No! You come and sit in the kitchen with me and I will cook. Please baby?”

“Oookay…” I guess she could cook. Maybe I learned from her.

Bo POV

“Bo, get the fire extinguisher from the shed! Now!”

I ran to the kitchen, doubting there was time for that. Yep. Stove top was flaming to high Heaven. Smoke detectors going off like crazy. I grabbed a big bag of flour and dumped it over the stove. It kind of got everywhere. Me, Mary, her Mom, Hunter. Course Steph stayed the hell away from the kitchen.

“I probably should have told you I’m not that good of a cook baby. I just wanted to do something…”

Mary hugged her. It was cute since they were both covered in flour.

“It’s okay Mom. We can order pizza.” Renee was crying again. At
least this time she was laughing as well.

“You have cooked for us since you were 8 years old. I just wanted to try and cook for you for once.”

“8?” Mary asked. I knew Charlie said she took care of her mother but damn.

“Yes. You taught yourself because you got tired of helping me put out fires and eating burnt or undercooked food. We both got sick one time from my cooking. After we recovered you started reading a cookbook and that was it. You cooked from that point on.

“I taught myself?”

“Yes.”

She taught herself how to cook at eight. She took care of her mother and was the responsible one in the house, according to Charlie. She left to go live in a place she hated so her mother could be happy. Then she damn near lost her mind over her first boyfriend? A guy she obviously hadn’t even had sex with?

Something was wrong here. There was more to this story. I think I
had best work hard this week to get my orders built and delivered.
Then we were taking another plane trip to Forks, Washington. If
someone told me Edward Cullen was dead, I would say let the past
stay buried. But this fucker was alive somewhere. He may not know where Mary is, but Charlie Swan found her. If he did, it was possible she wasn’t as hidden as we thought.

I needed to know what happened, who it happened to and why it
happened. I had a wife to protect. She may have moved on with her life but that didn’t mean her old life wouldn’t come back to bite her in the ass. Or the wrist.

We sat around the rest of the night eating pizza while Renee told
Mary stories about her childhood. The more I heard the more
confused I became. No way Mary acted like that without there being more to the story. She may have lost her memories but who she was sounded the same. Right up until she went to Forks.

I wanted to go to bed but Renee followed Mary to our bedroom and laid down with her. She wrapped her in her arms and fell asleep. Mary looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders. She lost her daughter and found her again. I probably wouldn’t have let her go either. I lay on the edge of the bed and drifted off to sleep, trying to not think about what I had learned. Work this week. Answers next week.

The honeymoon was over. My eyes popped open at 5 AM like they
do every morning, no alarm needed.

I was still dressed in what I had on yesterday so I took a shower and got some clean jeans on. By the time I was at the shed, Mary was already there, with a cup of coffee in her hand. She gave me the cup, kissed me and sat at her desk, firing up her laptop. It was a little chilly out. She looked so cute in her mussed up hair and robe.

It was perfect. No mountain scenery needed.

I had gotten a lot of work done by noon. Mary had found we had 7
orders waiting for us. Luckily I had finished all the orders before. I
had gotten the build done on 4 of them. The other three would come tomorrow.

“Bo?”

“Yeah babe?”

“We just had an order come in for a custom bed. This looks…
complicated.”

I checked it out. It was definitely a complex piece. Almost as complex as our bed.

“Give a quote of $8000 and tell them it will be ready for pick up in 5 weeks.” If I did this it could be a profit of $6000. The wood and labor were not the expense. The customer was paying for what I could do with that wood.

“Okay. Let’s see if they bite.”

A few minutes later I heard Mary again.

“Holy shit.”

“What?”

“She emailed back and said she would pay $12,000 if we could have it done in four weeks.”

“Write her back and tell her it’s a deal.”

So that was some good news. I usually made a profit of anywhere
from $500 to $1000 for a piece, depending on the type of furniture.

This was over the top.

“Bo. We are going to need a bigger shed soon, and you are going to
need someone to sand the finished product.”

“Yeah I know. But I can knock out these 7 this week and get the bed done in a week and a half when we come back.”

“Where are we going?” she asked. I think she half wanted to and half didn’t want to go. But we needed to. We needed to find out what happened. I don’t know why but something told me it would be important. Sometimes I just know things. Just like I knew I couldn’t leave her when I met her. Call it instinct. My instinct was telling we needed answers.

“Forks, Washington, Darlin.”

She didn’t say anything. She nodded though. She knew it as well.
She may be afraid of what she found but we would face it together.
Whatever the truth was.

“You want to go dancing tonight? Get the gang together. Go out to
Roadies on the interstate?” I asked.

“Yeah. That would be fun. I haven’t worn my boots in a while.” She
smiled. I loved her in those boots.

Rose POV

This is so strange. We tracked Bella to outside of Tyler, Texas. We
had been watching from the trees for two days. We had been
watching her and her mother reminiscing. We had watched her
inside a barn with a man who was her husband. We had heard her
be called Mary. She kept asking her mother questions about her
childhood. From what we had gathered, Charlie Swan had found her a little over a week ago here. I also suspected Bella had no idea who she was. Who she had been. But she seemed really… happy.

“We can’t let anyone find out about this Emmett.”

“I want to talk to her.”

“She won’t remember you. Haven’t you figured that out yet? Her own mother didn’t bring back her memories. She asked her if they had ever gone to Disney Land for God’s sakes. Who forgets whether they had been to Disney Land?”

“So we could get to know her. She may not know us. It would be
perfect. We could be friends and she wouldn’t have a clue that we
were vampires.” “Right, because she didn’t figure it out once before, already.”

“You just don’t like her, Rose.”

“It’s not that Emmett. I just like her better the way she is now. Happy. Clueless about the supernatural. You have seen her and that man. She is in love. She is happy. Do you honestly think she would be happier with us in her lives? I know you love her. But if you really love her we need to let her go.”

“Look they are leaving. Let’s see where they go.” He responded,
completely ignoring what I just said.

“Fine. But we do not approach her.”

“No problem. Course if I accidentally bump into her…”

“Emmett.”

I said nothing else. We got into our rental and followed the two. They went to a place called Roadies. The type of place I would imagine you have to use toilet seat covers in the bathroom. If you were brave enough to go in there. We walked in behind them and sat at a table.

Bella and her husband sat at a table on the other end of the dance
hall. The music was loud. A live band was playing. Bella’s husband
was playing pool with a few other males. Bella was sitting with a
group of girls who were laughing. Over the music and across the hall it was difficult for even me to hear. I heard the words French
Swingers and airplane bathroom. Strange.

“I want to go play pool.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“I said no.” I said sharply. He is like a puppy sometimes I swear.

“We will look weird if we just sit here. We need to interact.”

“You want to go near Bella. Leave it alone. We agreed we wouldn’t
approach her.”

“You said nothing about her husband. Plus you agreed. I didn’t. You don’t get to make my decisions for me.”

Damn it.

“Emmett is there anything I can say to stop you?”

“Nope.”

“I bet there is something I could say that would stop you.”

Oh shit.

Peter fucking Whitlock.

“Hello Peter. Jasper and Alice around?” I smiled. Please let Jasper
and Alice be around.

“Nope.”

Peter and Charlotte took a seat across from us. Peter had a cowboy
hat pulled low on his head.

“So, how’s it going Petey?” Emmett asked. I shook my head. Emmett is a very strong man. But there are certain vampires you do not fuck with. The Volturi guard, Jasper and the one sitting across from us.

The guard were controlled and only took orders from the brothers.
Jasper was tamed somewhat by his love for Alice. Peter… Peter would kill you as soon as look at you. His crazy wife would
light the bonfire.

“Emmett, normally I would find humor in your pathetic attempts at levity. But right now I am not fucking amused. As a matter of fact I have spent the last thirty minutes on the roof debating on whether I should kill you two or not.”

“What seems to be the problem Peter?”

“The problem is I have worked hard to make sure that no Cullens
fuck with that little girl or her husband and yet here you two come
stumbling in. Did you tell anyone else you found her?”

“No.” I answered quickly.

“Does anyone else know you are here?”

Oh fuck.

“No. We left the Cullens.” Emmett answered, grinning. Damn it
Emmett. Your big fucking mouth is going to get us killed.

“That may be boy, but how can I be sure little Alice isn’t seeing you staring at my girl right now?”

“Alice hasn’t had any visions of Bella in a long time. We thought it
was because she was dead.” Now please back off.

“Maybe but who is to say she ain’t havin visions of you right now,
looking at her?”

“What do you care Peter?” Emmett asked. Always looking for a fight.

Normally I thought it was hot. But this is a fight we didn’t need.
Charlotte was staring at me. I had to stare back or it would show
weakness. But I really didn’t want to. Unlike my husband, my reason wasn’t ruled by my ego.

“It is very important to me Emmett that the little lady be kept out of the know about the supernatural world. It also important to me that the Volturi never find her.”

“We know Peter. The Volturi will kill her.” I told him hoping he
understood that we understood.

“No, they wouldn’t. They would turn her. She would be to powerful
not to. They can never find out she is alive. That means Aro can
never come in contact with the two of you. So now I have a dilemma. How do I guarantee that Aro never comes in contact with the two of you?”

Emmett growled and went to stand up. I grabbed his arm. Peter
laughed.

“You and I both know that you can’t take me Emmett so sit your ass down.”

“You think I won’t fight you Whitlock?” Emmett whispered.

“Of course you will. I just said you couldn’t take me. You don’t want to leave your beautiful woman here a widow, do you? Now sit down fucker, before you piss me off.” Peter wasn’t smiling anymore.

Emmett thankfully sat back down.

“Peter, I am not challenging you here. But why do you care? You
never knew her when we did. What difference does it make?” I
asked. This was strange.

Peter took a breath and then lit a cigarette.

He looked at me and offered one.

“Go ahead. It certainly won’t kill you. It helps you remember to breath and you fit in around this crowd.”

Not wanting to piss him off I took one. It tasted like shit and he hadn’t even lit it yet.

“Fine. If I decided to kill you tonight, you should at least know why
you are dying. You see her husband over there on the dance floor
holding her tight? I never met that kid before he came to my house wanting an ID for a girl who had amnesia and had no idea who she was. He found her on the side of the road with no idea where she was or who she was. He took her in, took care of her, loved her. That man would do anything in the world for her and she would do anything for him.

Now I said I had never met him and that was true. But I knew who he was. His name is Bo Walker. His given name is Robert Benjamin
Walker.”

“Okay.” I said, not sure where this was going.

“I have kept up with his family for years. Many, many years. When
his parents died two years ago, he received a one million dollar life
insurance settlement. His parents didn’t have a one million dollar life insurance policy. I set it up. I had a man posing as an agent call him and tell him about it. Him. Not his older sister who was a wreck and still is. It was set up for him to take care of it. I knew who he was. I never saw him until he walked into my house. When I saw him I knew. And I knew she was the one. That makes her very important to me. Her human life is of the upmost importance to me. When she knew your family she nearly died multiple times, including having the Volturi after her. Just because of her knowledge of vampires and your idiot brother.

The Volturi cannot find her. That means if I let you walk out of here I am taking a chance that Aro won’t decide to round up the whole Cullen clan and see if any of you are hiding something. Now you two got something to hide, don’t you?”

“We will stay away from them Peter. I will force them to kill us before he ever touches us. I don’t want her to know about vampires either. I don’t want her found. I promise.” Please believe me Peter. I would fight if it came down to it but I really didn’t want it to come down to that.

“Okay Rose. But you and your big teddy bear are not to contact her. Not to have any contact with her.”

“Why Peter? Why did you give that kid a million dollars?” Emmett
asked. I cringed but I was kind of curious too.

“I told you his name is Robert Benjamin Walker. Before I was
changed against my will by Jasper fucking Whitlock, my name was
Peter Walker. I had a brother Benjamin. I never had any kids thanks to Jasper. My brother did. Benjamin has been a family name passed down through the generations. Bo’s older sister’s kid is Hunter Benjamin. Bo is Robert Benjamin. You gettin the idea?”

“You’re protecting your brother’s blood line. From a distance.”

“Yep. Bo is to carry on the Walker name. Hunter is a good kid,
despite having a train wreck of a mother and violent no good dad
who I arranged to be very dead so Bo wouldn’t have to do it when
the guy got released from Prison. But that little lady? Your Bella
Swan? She was meant to carry on my brother’s blood line. She is
meant to have my great, great, great grandnephew’s children. It is
fate. I knew it when I saw them. She is a warrior. She is a survivor.
She walked into the Volturi to save your worthless brother. She hung out with big fucking werewolves. A girl like that you have to respect. Most importantly she makes him happy, so I keep her safe.”

Oh my God.

Peter has a family? Bella is going to have children? Of course she is. Any idiot can look at those two dancing and see they are completely in love. I am so happy for her. I meant it. I would die before I let her be found. I hated this life. She could have a real life though.

“I swear to you Peter. I will do everything I can to keep her hidden.”

“I believe you Rose. It’s the only reason you and teddy bear here are still standing. Plus I may need you one day.”

“Need us for what?” Emmett asked.

“In the event the Volturi ever discover she is alive and find her.”

“You want us to hide her?” I asked.

“No. Hiding would do no good against Demetri. No, if the Volturi ever find her they will try to take her and if that happens…”

“What?” I already knew the answer.

“If that happens I am going to gather my friends, maybe turn some
new ones and we are going to have a reenactment of the Southern
wars. Unlike some vampires I ain’t afraid of those Italian fucks and I will kill them if I have too. Now I will need fighters so…”

“We’re in.” Emmett said immediately.

Peter nodded his head and snuffed out his cigarette.

“Glad to hear it. Now ya’ll need to get out of town and disappear from the Cullens and the Volturi for a hundred years or so. Understand?”

I was about to agree when we all heard it. From the dance floor.

“Bo, that looks like Peter Whitlock’s wife. And I swear the blonde
next to him is the one who was staring at me in the airport. I bet
that’s Peter in that hat.”

We all looked and saw Bella and her husband staring right at us.

“Well darlin. Maybe we should go say hi.”