𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐎 | Twilight

3.2

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Tango slept curled up next to Bella's side with little snores coming from her nose. The room reeked of stress, her young human had been tripping around the room shoving things into a strange box all afternoon. She had repeatedly talked about the weather of Florida and Charlie had come in a few times muttering about her mother. 

On their walk that day, Charlie had ranted about how clingy Edward was; of course none of which Tango could understand but she liked to be included. The chief of police also liked having someone to talk too. 

Bella was gone the next morning, so early on that a groggy Tango barely knew what was happening when Bella pressed a quick kiss to the top of her head in goodbye. Edward had also given the German shepherd an affectionate rub behind the ears, her being the only canine he could stand. 

It had taken some getting used to, but Tango had eventually gotten used to Edward always being in Bella's room at night. Sometimes when she would get too hot because of her thick fur, she would just go and lie down on the vampire to cool off. The first time it happened he was practically shell shocked and had no idea what to do when the big dog had huffed and crawled all over him like he was her own, personal jungle gym. 

Charlie clicked his tongue and immediately Tango sat down, head tilted as she focused on the bowl. Placing it down he waited a moment before waving his hand, immediately the dog scarfed down the wet food like she'd never been fed in her life. 

They left for work earlier than usual. It had been pretty hectic lately, with missing people and Charlie drowning in paperwork and keeping up the drills with Tango took extra effort. Apparently they were short in K-9 officers up in Seattle with all the people going missing, so all police stations in the state were told to be ready to serve in case the situation became more dire. Charlie had conflicted feelings about that whole situation, because of course as a good police officer he wanted to help people in anyway he could, if that meant Tango and him go to Seattle for a few weeks then so be it. But on the other hand, it would involve going to an increasingly more dangerous place leaving Bella alone at the house (he Wass not comfortable with that idea at all) and placing Tango and himself in direct danger. 

But there was no request for his presence (more so his dogs presence) so like all other problems, he tended to go with the approach of if-i-forget-about-it-it's-not-a-problem-anymore. 

"Chief," Officer Parrish nodded in greeting as Charlie walked through the door in full uniform. Tango with her harness and lead on, walked behind him dutifully. Whenever they walked through that door it was work time and Tango knew it, there was no squishy carrot here to play with so her mind and nose had to be focused. 

"Parrish," Charlie returned the awkward head nod, "Everything alright down at the new house?" 

Charlie Swan was a man of few words to people he didn't know and everybody in town knew it, so Officer Parrish who had just transferred from the sunny state of California appreciated his attempt at conversation. "Yeah great, this place is way calmer than my last town."

The Chief snorted, "We'll see about that." 

Charlie and Tango had taken the weekend shifts as extra this week because of Bella being gone, normally he tried to be at home incase she needed anything but his daughter always went out with her boyfriend. Simply put, Charlie Swan was not a fan of Edward Cullen, it infuriated him even more when his best friend suddenly loved sitting on his lap in the living room. 

The word 'traitor' had become a common word in their household. 

On Monday things were back to normal, Bella returned late the previous night. Tango had greeted her with lots of kisses, Bella acted like she hated the slobber but in her mind savoured every moment because even if Edward didn't agree, she would be a vampire. It was only a matter of how it happened, whether it was by the Cullens or the Volturi. 

Late at night Charlie had fallen asleep for a nap as he read over the missing persons report on Riley Biers. Tango slept peacefully at his feet, her nose twitching as a sweet smell entered her nose. Her head rose as she scanned the dark room, nothing was out of the ordinary yet the smell continued to bother her. 

Standing up and sniffing the floor, she followed the new smell all the way up to Bella's room where it reeked of it. Unknowingly she had passed Riley Biers who had jumped out the window the second he heard the tapping of her feet come towards him. 

Tango let out a growl at the open window and barked twice. When Riley poked his head in tauntingly with a self-satisfied smirk all hell broke loose. The German shepherd went into defence and continuously barked loudly. Only ten seconds later did Charlie burst into the room with his gun at his side, knowing his dog was trained to bark upon bad things. 

Only he didn't see anything bad. All he saw was an open window with blinds blowing lightly. "Quiet! Tango." The dog stopped barking but didn't understand why he did nothing but close the window. Glaring at the glass a small growl escaped her. So much for a calm evening, Charlie thought to himself. 

Seeing as his dog wasn't calming down, hackles still raised towards the window he knelt down and gave her a few good pets. Maybe she just saw a racoon or squirrel or something, is what he told himself. It seemed to work as after a minute she finally turned and gave him lots of kisses to make sure he was okay, because Tango would always protect her human. 

With one last kiss to the forehead Charlie raised back to his height, grabbing his gun which he had placed on Bella's night stand he exited the room. The weapon was swiftly placed back it his holster. Tango trotted at his heels, still determined to guard her human. 

He turned on the house lights as he walked by, fixing himself a quick sandwich and Tango some kibble they ate peacefully. It was late when he heard the door open, his daughter finally making an appearance.

Charlie walked round the corner, raising a brow at his daughter who had skipped dinner (and school but he didn't need to know that). "You know..." Bella turned startled, "Edward could at least respect meal times." The Chief of Police tapped his watch mockingly. 

Bella didn't look guilty at all, "I was just with Jake."

That wasn't the answer he was expecting. 

"Oh... Good." A knock on the door prevented anymore conversation. Bella looked pleadingly at her father for some space, he rolled his eyes. "I'll just give you two some privacy then." 

Tango sat in the doorway where Charlie had been and watched as Bella opened the door to greet Edward. He smelt worse than usual, or maybe it was that combined with the other smell which still hadn't left. 

"Do you understand how worried I've been?" Edward's eyes were pitch black with hunger as he scanned Bella making sure not a hair was out of place. 

Tango, once she knew it was someone familiar walked away not bothered to Charlie and rested her head on his lap whilst he sipped his beer, reading the paper. 

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Author's note - sorry this took so long! this story is NOT discontinued ! i'm just slow at updating but I'm gonna try and write more chapters before I go back to school. 

also I imagine when all the Cullens are at the house discussing the intruder going like this as a summary. 

"You can't protect me, watch my dad... ... and search for the intruder. And for Victoria. And keep yourselves fed."

"I'm not leaving you here defenseless."

Rosalie stood with her arms crossed, "As if the mutt she owns would let anything hurt her." 

"Well, I'm not gonna let you starve. And I wouldn't be unprotected, I have..."