Midday Clouds - The Charlie Swan Story

Chapter 3 (Twilight 3/11)

The first week of having Bella back home went both better and worse than expected. 

We had dinner just the same most nights, with her cooking, me insisting on cleaning, and a few surface level conversations about how school was going and all that. I managed to convince her to watch a movie with me one night, rather than retreating straight to her bedroom, but she seemed a little more preoccupied with her phone than anything. Well, that was to be expected; she wasn't a little girl anymore, and though we'd had some good times back when she was younger, I doubted she'd want to go fishing or camping or even hang out all that much with her old man now that she was 17.

She seemed to have made some friends, though, which was good. That Newton boy and Jessica Stanley -- though I can't say I'm too fond of her mother, the gossip that she is -- so it made sense that she didn't have too much free time to hang around. It didn't help that I had to work that weekend, what with Jim being sick with the flu, but it seems that Bells got along fine alone in the house, just as I had all these years. Maybe there was more of myself in her that I'd thought.

Monday brought an unwelcome surprise. Waking up bright and early at 6 am, I could see from the blinding white light through the window that it had snowed overnight. Now, usually I'd give myself about half an hour before hauling my creaking bones out of bed, but I knew that heavy rain the night before a snowfall made for icy roads out here in Forks.

I put the chains on my cruiser easy enough, though the second set I'd gotten from Billy seemed like they hadn't been used in a decade. It made sense; the tires on Bella's truck were deep cut, and would've been able to handle the snow-covered roads of La Push with ease; the icy streets of Forks were another matter, though, so I oiled the chains up as well as I could before wrestling them onto Bella's tires. She must've slept right through the struggle, because when I came back inside she wasn't downstairs yet. I figured she'd notice the new addition to her tires once she stepped outside, and headed off to work.

Even with the chains on her truck, I still worried about how Bells would handle the short drive between the house and the school. She'd lived in Phoenix for her entire driving life, so I doubted she had much (if any) experience in driving on snow and ice. Every slippery patch I drove over on my way to the station was just another reminder of the danger that awaited her.... But worrying just means you suffer twice, so I tried my best not to dwell on it.

It wasn't even an hour after sitting down at my desk that an 1140 (vehicular incident) was called in, and Janet, our 911 operator, looked across the room at me with a grave expression.

--

"What do you mean she was in a car accident!?"

I'd talked with Renee over the phone more this year than I ever had since the divorce was finalized, given that we had to get everything in order for Bella to move, but the last time I'd heard such emotion in her voice was way back when she was still here in Forks.

"Well, now, Renee, she's all right -- just a bit of a concussion, apparently."

"A concussion?!"

"Well, we don't know for sure yet; seems she fell and bumped her head or something." I had the sirens blasting as I drove through the usually quiet streets of Forks, escorting the ambulance that held my daughter. The initial 911 call wasn't much to go off of -- some kid had driven a van into Bella's truck in the school's parking lot, but she was already out of her car and the truck just missed her. She must've fallen while getting out of the way, though, and when I saw her in that parking lot, on that stretcher, I'd never felt a fear so bad in my life. Once I got closer to her she seemed more embarrassed than hurt, though, so we'd loaded her into the ambulance and took off for the hospital, which was really more of a small medical centre. I figured I should call Renee on the drive over.