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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It had been a while since they'd seen Bella. The two weeks had passed and their trip had been extended due to Bella catching a virus from some food. But apart from not having seen his daughter for a prolonged amount of time, Charlie's life seemed to go on as normal. He continued his training with Tango, and his patrol shifts as well as managing everything down at the station. It kept him busy.
In fact, just the day before he and Tango had responded to a call about a disruption at the hospital about a violent patient. They didn't want to harm the patient so they hoped seeing Tango would knock some sense into him, as usually when offenders saw a dog ready to attack they surrendered before it was necessary. He did.
So Tango went back to attacking people in padding instead. She was very good at it.
Bella called every few days or so, giving vague updates on her condition which Charlie appreciated yet every time he asked to speak to a doctor she'd find an excuse to hang up. It was becoming increasingly infuriating, especially when all he wanted to do was take care of her.
Not hearing anything from Bella often led to him calling the Cullen residence, which little did he know, his daughter was. "Dr Cullen, hi."
"Charlie, we've been through this already, call me Carlisle." Of course they'd gone over it, but the Chief was a bit stuck in his ways.
"Right, uh, you know why I'm calling," he always called at the same time.
Carlisle cast a sad look at Edward who stood alone, staring out the window and into the forest with a melancholy face. Whilst Bella's health decreased as did his mood, a solution could be found for neither. As Edward would only improve once he knew his mate and wife would life but to everyone's knowledge that wouldn't happen and so, as Bella got bonier and weaker Edward could no longer stand to look at the damage he had caused.
"Charlie, we haven't heard anything, and you know we'll call you as soon as we do." Carlisle reassured, lying coming easy to him even if he didn't necessarily like it.
"Yeah, I figured you'd say that." A sigh passed through the phone. "Well, uh, talk to you soon Dr Cullen."
"Goodbye Charlie." The phone line went dead and the chief put the landline back in its holder and his head in his hands. Tango sat by his feet and whined, resting her head on his lap. Her human wasn't happy, not at all.
Trying to cheer him up, the dog trotted over to her bed and sniffed around for a few seconds before she found what she wanted. Charlie rubbed at his eyes when he felt something drop in his lap and his moustache lifted slightly when he saw the squeaky carrot. Tango tilted her head and one ear flopped over, reminding him so much of when she had been a puppy.
"C'mon then girl," he muttered rising to his feet. A good part about having a dog was that they kept you active, if you really cared for them you'd keep them exercised and stimulated enough to keep them happy. After all, you could have a dog and not care for them well at all but Charlie never wanted to be that limiting to his dog.
After a short time of messing around in the afternoon Charlie and Tango headed round to Billy's for a home cooked meal. The Quileute leader had offered many times before and was a much better cook than Charlie so the friends often watched the game of baseball whilst having dinner. Harry Clearwater used to join them, but now Sue came instead. Sometimes she brought Seth or Leah who enjoyed keeping Tango company.
The drive to the reservation was short like usual, a normal over cast day and if Bella hadn't been a constant worried thought in the back of his mind everything would've felt normal.
Billy had rolled himself out on the porch waiting for them, a gloomy Jacob stood behind him. Still not accepting the fact that Bella was probably a vampire now if she even lived through... that. It was lunacy and Sam had thought it would be a good idea to place him under house arrest. So far all he wanted to do was slam his own head through a wall.
Tango came running up to his dad straight away and put her front paws up on his lap so she could attempt to lick his face better. It almost brought a smile to the gloomy teenager. Charlie jogged to catch up with his dog and gestured for her to get down but Billy waved his hand whilst petting Tango, "I don't mind her Charlie, she's just showing who her favourite is."
The Swan man scoffed, "oh that's fighting talk right there."
Billy rammed his wheelchair into the unsuspecting shin of Charlie who in return hopped whilst trying to fake punch his face. Sue who had been approaching whilst this was all happening shook her head, "what have I told you two about fighting?" She reprimanded, you could tell she'd had children.
Both older men seemed a bit sheepish whilst Seth looked pleased he wasn't the one being told off. Whilst the three adults started talking Seth was practically glued to Jake's side, until his mom asked him to take Tango on a walk before supper.
Although he was bummed about leaving Jake for a bit he didn't mind walking Tango who basically walked herself and came back when he said her name. He loved that dog, especially when she'd find him something cool in the forest, like a pair of ripped shorts that Seth had no clue about. And when they returned Jake found himself enjoying dinner, it was almost like they were a small dysfunctional family where Tango ate anything that fell on the floor.
