Charlie Swan never saw himself not being lonely after Bella and Renee left, but his salvation came in the form of a Police K-9. Perhaps his sidekick would be the key to saving his daughter as well.
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After a very stressful phone call, Charlie was rushing all around his office. "Follow, Tango!"
She didn't need to be told twice as she immediately trotted at Charlie's side, he power walked out of the police station, briefly explaining to a deputy what had happened before being on his way. Charlie opened the door to the squad car, Tango immediately hopping in, Charlie sat down and they were off.
Good thing about being chief of police meant that in his state of panic for his daughter, he could turn on the siren and skip past a few cars. Of course, he would never normally do this but all he'd been told by the school was that Bella had been taken by ambulance to the hospital and she'd been in an accident involving a van.
Charlie was sure this type of stress wasn't good for him.
They arrived quickly at the hospital. Usually dogs weren't allowed inside but since technically Tango was a service dog and was easily identifiable she was allowed inside, Charlie just had to hold the leash a bit tighter keeping her close to him.
Tango did not like the smell of this place. It smelt strong of chemicals, some of which Tango was trained to locate. It was all very bright but smelt terrible, plus her human seemed very tense. Therefore making her tense.
Charlie gripped Tango's leash tighter as they walked to the emergency room. Immediately Tango was overwhelmed with smells, there were a few coughing people and the German Shepherd was very aware of the people stepping all around her.
"Bella," Charlie sighed in relief as he saw his daughter was looked fine, "You okay?" He pointed to the boy who sat on the bed next to his daughter, "You and I are gonna talk. You all right?"
Tango didn't listen to the human talk as she rested her head on Bella's knee, brown eyes peering up at the girl with worry. Sniffing her, Tango thought she smelt fine. A little anxious but Bella always smelt like that.
Charlie brought Tango back to his front where he told her to sit as Dr. Cullen came over to check Bella. Tango had only met the few times before, it was always weird for her. Because he smelt so nasty, like a dead corpse to her nose but then he was always very nice to Charlie so she held no grudges. Still, he gave her an uneasy feeling that put her on edge, Carlisle seemed to know this as he always preferred to keep his distance.
Carlisle was always amazed at how intelligent animals were. The dog clearly knew that he was higher up on the food chain hence why she was so cautious but because she was so loyal to Charlie and was trained so well, she never behaved badly or animalistic around him any way. In fact, Tango had never even growled at him.
Tango eyed Carlisle wearily from where she sat but unless either Charlie or Bella told her to do something, she wouldn't. The doctor didn't stick around for long as minutes later he was gone, only telling Bella to rest and drink lots of fluids.
"Could you take Tango? I need to go fill out the paperwork..." Charlie handed over the leash which Bella held very loosely as they walked out the ER, "You should probably call your mom."
Tango looked up as Bella and Charlie continued to talk. Now that she knew Bella was fine Tango didn't understand why they didn't just leave already. When Charlie walked away Tango went to follow but Bella pulled her back and she whined.
"C'mon, heel," Tango went and stood by Bella's side who looked very pleased that she got her to do a command other than 'Bed' and 'Sit'. Bella went to go round the corner but abruptly stopped when she saw Carlisle, Rosalie and Edward talking in whispers.
Bella stepped back and harshly yanked on Tango's lead, she didn't intend for it to hurt the dog but when Tango let out a chocked sound the three immediately stopped talking. "Sorry girl," Bella whispered to Tango who huffed but accepted the apology nonetheless.
Edward Cullen who Tango had met only once when he was with Carlisle, approached Bella glancing at the police dog by her side. Perhaps if he'd been human the dog would've intimidated him, after all she was a muscly German Shepherd wearing a police harness. He was sure those teeth could do some damage.
"What?" He asked the human girl who drove him absolutely insane just by her smell.
"How did you get over to me so fast?" Bella asked blinking quickly.
His golden eyes didn't break contact with her doe eyes, "I was standing right next to you, Bella."
"No. You were next to your car, across the lot." The girl insisted as Tango sat down, the dog had a feeling this conversation would take a while.
Edward scoffed a small smile playing on his lips, "No, I wasn't."
"Yes, you were."
"Bella, you're... You hit your head, I think you're confused." His best chance was convincing her she was confused.
Bella wasn't going to allow him to turn the incident on her, she wasn't the one who got across the parking lot in a flash, "I know what I saw."
Edward furrowed his eyebrows, "And what exactly was that?"
"You... You stopped the van. You pushed it away with your hand."
"Well, nobody's gonna believe you, so..." he trailed off.
Bella shook her head, eyes pleading, "I wasn't gonna tell anybody. I just need to know the truth."
"Can't you just thank me and get over it?"
"Thank you."
"You're not gonna let this go, are you?" Bella shook her head no and Edward fumed in his head, "Well, then I hope you enjoy disappointment." Edward pushed off the wall and walked away leaving Bella to stare after him.
Tango was thankful when Bella finally pulled her out of the hospital. Charlie was waiting for them leaning against his cruiser, the truck was still at school so Charlie would have to drive her tomorrow.
Bella walked to the car where she opened the back door to let Tango in. It was already the end of the day and Charlie didn't have a night shift luckily which meant he could just go home with Bella. Whilst Bella had been staying with them Tango had quickly learned that neither of them talked much.
Sure they talked to her all the time but to each other they were both very awkward.
The rest of the evening went normal. Bella filled up her food and water bowl whilst the chief of police took his dog outside to do her business. Charlie went to bed early so Tango stayed in Bella's room who was doing her homework.
Now that she thought about it, since her family had grown maybe she should swap between beds at night to make sure they were both safe.
Tango woke up to the sound of a window being opened. Her head lifted from Charlie's leg as she stared at the door, ears twitching she heard it again. Hopping of her human's bed she slowly stalked towards where the sound came from, Edward who had been in Bella's room heard the dog coming as well as Bella waking up and quickly disappeared out the window, not having enough time to shut it.
The dog came in the room to see Bella staring at the open window. Tango went and looked out the window but saw nothing, she smelt the weird corpse smell again though. Definitely suspicious. The German Shepherd jumped up on the end of Bella's bed and laid down staring at the window, not falling asleep for a moment which Edward who was listening to their heartbeats outside had to be impressed.
At least he knew that Bella would be protected against most things when he wasn't around.
