In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 25 -- Favor · 10:52am Jul 16th, 2018
Bella and Edward pork all night, and she’s still not satisfied. It takes Edward saying Nessie’s name to snap her out of it. They get changed; we get another mention of how the closet is filled with lotsa clothes and can’t ANYTHING come hard to this couple?! In the middle of changing, we get yet another reminder of how so frigging hot like whoa Edward is that somehow manages to double as a reminder that their sex is TOATELLY GRAET EWE GAIS:
It only took him seconds to find his own clothes — if I hadn’t seen him undressed, I would have sworn there was nothing more beautiful than Edward in his khakis and pale beige pullover — and then he took my hand.
I’m not into fashion — unless it’s for a special occasion, my shirt for the day is pretty much “first clean shirt I touch in my drawer” — but… “khakis and pale beige pullover”? That’s beautiful? That’s… so… harmlessly, blandly white-bread it’s ridiculous. Even [insert beautiful person of choice] couldn’t make that look good. Also, CM + 1
Bella and Edward head back to the Cullens’ and- How often have I written some variation on “head back to the Cullens’” in the past twenty-five blog posts? It’s like the book in microcosm. Back and forth and back and forth and mindless repetition to the point where you can tell time by it. “Hmm. Jacob’s leaving the Cullens’. Must be the end of an even-numbered chapter.” Anyway, Nessie’s up, she’s been demanding (yes, that exact word is used) to see Bella, and she’s been destroying silverware to stay entertained. How. Sweet. Jacob left a while ago, and no one knows where he is. They begin talking about moving cross-country to keep away from Charlie until Bella knows she can control herself.
Then Edward and Alice both freak out. Edward because of something Jacob did, Alice because all her visions for the day just vanished. Jacob returns in a few seconds, saying Charlie’s coming over. He’s pleased with himself; Charlie was the main reason for the move (he heard them talking about it that morning), so if he’s not a problem, they can stay in Forks. Edward, however, is pissed, because… Well. You might think it’s because Charlie could get hurt, but not by this book’s logic:
“That’s just a theory, mongrel,” he snarled. “You think we should test it out on Charlie? Did you consider the physical pain you’re putting Bella through, even if she can resist? Or the emotional pain if she doesn’t? I suppose what happens to Bella no longer concerns you!” He spit the last word.
Edward’s worry has nothing to do with Charlie. He could get hurt? Meh, so what? It’d hurt Bella, and that’s the problem. Who gives a fuck about Charlie? Certainly not the vampires who are supposedly good enough to refrain from eating humans. Nope. They wouldn’t give two figs if Charlie dies, but Bella…
Sigh.
But Jacob still wants to go through with it, citing Bella’s supernatural self-control. He didn’t tell Charlie anything about vampires. Instead, he simply took Charlie for a walk, turned into a wolf in front of him, turned back, and said that the world wasn’t how Charlie thought it was. Jacob said that Bella was sick, but she’s fine now, and she had to change in the process of getting better. After a minute of reeling, Charlie managed to process it all and decided that he didn’t need to know the specifics.
Jacob smiled. “You’ll like this. His main request is that he be told as little as possible about all of this. If it’s not absolutely essential for him to know something, then keep it to yourself. Need to know, only.”
Well. Isn’t that convenient.
Dammit, why did this scene have to happen after we left Jacob’s POV? It sounds interesting. It might’ve been a good character moment. It would’ve been a break from all of Jacob’s whining from when we were in his POV. And now, more than ever, I want to see Charlie’s view on this. Charlie should’ve been the main character.
Charlie wants to see Bella, so he’ll be around soon. Jacob told him about Nessie, but said she was adopted and “more special than all of us put together”. Alice quickly gets Bella some muddy-brown contacts Edward had prepared for just this situation, to hide the red of her eyes, the Cullens give her a crash course in pretending to be human: fake breathing, let your eyes wander, fidget, cross and uncross your legs, and so on. Charlie’s car arrives; Edward gives Bella a quick kiss to reassure her, and-
It wasn’t precisely a peck on the lips, and my wild vampiric reactions took me off guard yet again. Edward’s lips were like a shot of some addictive chemical straight into my nervous system. I was instantly craving more. It took all my concentration to remember the baby in my arms.
CM + 1
Charlie enters the room. He smells appetizing to Bella, but she forces her desires down and they don’t trouble her again. Convenient. He’s shocked to see Bella changed and not quite sparkly, but she reassures him that she’s still Bella. Even after the initial reaction, he’s still a little anxious.
“Jake told me this was necessary. That you were dying.” He said the words like he didn’t believe them one bit.
[…]
“Jacob was telling the truth.”
“That makes one of you,” Charlie growled.
I hoped Charlie could see past the changes in my new face to read the remorse there.
The remorse that doesn’t exist. You never thought of Charlie as anything more than a roadblock. You never even wanted to tell him anything. You never brought it up with Edward. You don’t care about your own father.
Charlie moves the conversation to Nessie. Edward claims she’s a long-lost relative the courts foisted on them, but the lie is shot when Charlie sees that Nessie’s eyes look exactly like Bella’s eyes. He quickly reminds them: need-to-know, and he doesn’t need to know this. He reluctantly accepts that there’s some things he’ll never know and distracts himself by going to watch football with Emmett. And the chapter just sort of ends there, mid-conversation.
Clinginess Meter: 50 x 5
Chapters Left: 14
Oh, Charlie. Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Maybe instead of rewriting the plot of Twilight, I should just write it from Charlie’s perspective. Everything would be so much more interesting.
Rewrite Twilight however you want, I want to read your version.
Charlie deserves better than this. Didn't you propose him and Leah teaming up to solve supernatural mysteries together? That sounds infinitely more enjoyable than this.
So Bella never stops being a huge Witch (with a capital 'B')? Poor Charlie. As fias I can tell, he's only ever done good things for her. I don't think I'd have had his patience.