Treasured Heart

Chapter 3

A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing the last chapter! I love hearing from you all. I'm off to Vegas tomorrow, so you're getting this chapter a little bit early. There's some action (sadly, not of the lemon variety) in this chapter.

As always, a huge thanks to Heather for helping a girl who hates commas and over uses the word 'that.'

P.S. I just realized that I hadn't posted this story on here yet.

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"I've got something!" Dad shouted over the communication unit several days later, and I swam as fast as I could to where he was.

Dad was gently brushing sand away from what looked like something round, and he gently picked one of the items up.

"No way!" I exclaimed as Dad gave me a thumbs up.

"Lead shots," Dad said, and I grinned. We were definitely on the right track it seemed, so we all spread out to look around some more.

I was brushing sand away from just about every spot I searched to see if I could find anything else, but I kept coming up empty, that is, until my hands gently ran over something that felt like metal.

Brushing the sand away, I grinned like a loon when I saw a metal, most likely brass, needle staring up at me. I took my camera out and snapped some pictures before telling my dad that I'd found something as well.

Before the day was over, we brought up one needle, six lead shots, and a handful of iron nails. According to Dad, they all looked to be from the 18th century, further proving we were in the right place.

Needless to say, we were all on a high except for Caius. He didn't seem all that excited or surprised that we'd found some artifacts, and that made me suspicious. I mean, if you were searching for a shipwreck that had haunted your dreams and you had spent years looking for it, wouldn't you be more excited that you were possibly on the right track?

"This is pretty exciting, huh?" I said to Mr. Caius, and he barely looked at me.

"Sure, kid. I'm thrilled," he muttered dryly.

"I can tell. I thought you wanted to find the Sirène?"

"I do."

I rolled my eyes and left him to study the map he was staring at before making my way over to my dad to see how he was doing along with cleaning up the items we'd found.

"How goes it, Dad?" I asked him after seeing a slight frown on his face as he looked over one of the lead shots in his hand.

"Hmm? Oh, it goes, Bells," he said, but his voice was off, and he looked puzzled as he studied the artifact before writing something down in the notebook that he kept.

I decided to leave him to it, telling him goodnight and stopping by the galley to grab a snack to eat in my room before bed.

I was exhausted, and after consuming some peanut butter crackers, I crashed, only to be woken up by shouts of panic a little while later.

Stumbling out of my bed, I raced up the stairs in my pajamas and bare feet to find everyone gathered around someone on the deck. It took a moment for my mind to realize it was my dad lying on his back while Carlisle performed CPR.

"What's going on!?" I cried out, panicked, and Edward grabbed me as I rushed toward my dad.

"C'mon, Charlie!" I heard Carlisle roar as he continued to press down on my dad's chest while Esme took over mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.