I Face My Monsters

Chapter 21: Bella Lugosi

"Bella knows." was the first thing out of Edward's mouth when the children came home that afternoon. They were all pleased to find the older couple sitting on the sofa together in what appeared to be deep conversation. 

"You hurt her and I will make your existence a living hell." Vale said, eyeballing the boy. "Fair enough." Said Edward, raising his hands. His mother might not be a vampire yet, but he had full confidence that she could make him miserable if she wanted to. 

Looks like the Cullens were going to have to introduce Bella to the family now...

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Vale still had to go to work every day. A couple of weeks dragged on. Charlie was a wreck over the death of his friend. He had been much closer to Forge than Vale, so the blow was much harder for him than for her. 

It was at this point that Bella began to get on Vale's nerves.

At first, Bella seemed like a very sweet-natured girl with a curious, introverted personality. Getting to know her better revealed that she was also incredibly selfish, inconsiderate, naïve, and oblivious to the pain in other people.

A combination of traits that Vale had 0% patience for.

She saw the way that Bella was ignoring her father, completely consumed with curiosity about Edward and the Cullens. "Edward and the Cullens... sounds like a punk-rock band..." Vale chuckled to herself. Edward was listening to her thoughts, and started shaking with silent laughter. He was supposed to be listening to the teacher in front of him, but was distracted by his mother's thoughts as she passed by the classroom, having volunteered for security duty at the school for that day.

Vale did her best to subtly get across to Bella that she needed to take a chill pill and spend some time with her grieving father, but Bella was too stupid to take the hint. Vale was growling to herself and let out a huff of frustration. She passed Rosalie in the hallway. Rose could sense her Mother's frustration and distant thoughts. She aligned her steps with hers to walk in sync.

"You are angry." "No shit Sherlock." "I assume an injustice has been done? I have yet to see you upset about anything that falls outside that category." "A grave injustice." "Such as?" "Such as a self-absorbed brat who is to dazzled by Mr. Glitter-pants, that she can't see how lonely and hurting her father is." 

Rosalie frowned. "Who's the brat?" "Bella Lugosi." Vale answered cheekily. Rosalie snorted. "Mr. Glitter-pants and Bella Lugosi. That's perfect." She sniggered. "The thing is," Vale continued, "I would go and try to spend time with Charlie myself, but I have made a commitment to Carlisle, and it seems inappropriate for me to be doing that." The thought of Carlisle going berserk over her was something she wanted to avoid overthinking. 

"So, what are you going to do?" Rose asked. Vale halted her stride, turning to the girl. "I need someone to help me work on getting through to Bella. I think she would listen to Edward for the most part. As for Charlie..." she said, thinking for a moment, "I'd like Esme's advice. I think I can arrange for the two to meet." "Great idea. I'll let her know!" Smiled Rose. 

"You'd better get back to class. I'll see you tonight." "See you tonight Mother." Rosalie said, hugging her, then striding back to class.

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Vale always thought that vulgarity was no substitute for whit. 

However, in the current moment, with her back against the police cruiser and a bullet lodged in her shoulder, all she could think of was: "Shit, shit, shit...."

It was a bright day outside, so all the Cullens had to stay home, including Carlisle. Everything had been fine up until the moment the car radio blared at her that there was a holdup at a local shop.

She got there first. 

She also got shot first.

Whelp.

Vale held the gun with a tight grip. Blood was running fast down her uniform and onto the gravel beneath her. The smallest of black dots were beginning to cover her eyesight, but she held her position. The door of the vehicle was acting as her shield. 

"COME OUT OF THE BUILDING WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

Thank God the kid had sense enough to know when he was beat. Three officers ran over to him and cuffed him. 

"Goddammit, Vale, you could have been killed! You should have waited for backup!" Charlie said, running over to her. "No time, Chief... he was... gonna get away...." her voice was slow and slurred. "No. NO. Don't you DARE die on me. Cullen is going to kill me..." Charlie muttered, trying to stop the bleeding from her shoulder. She was unconscious to his attempts. "I NEED A MEDIC OVER HERE NOW!"