I Face My Monsters

Chapter 31: Never Admit Defeat

Three Months went by.

Carlisle was a wreck. His family had to force him to hunt, for his own sake. He would disappear into his office for days on end, clutching that coat that had first brought him her scent. He became a magnet for anything that bore any trace of her on it. He would sometimes sit in K.I.T.T.'s passenger seat, and other times he would re-trace the walks that they took together every afternoon. 

One day, a tan Ford Bronco pulled up into the Cullen driveway and two strangers got out. One was a tall grey-haired man with blue eyes. He wore a long brown coat and a cowboy hat with jeans and boots. The other was an American Indian... and he smelled like a werewolf. They approached Carlisle where he sat on the front porch. 

"You Doctor Carlisle Cullen?" Asked the man in the hat. "I am." Carlisle responded in a monotone. "Walt Longmire, Sheriff in Absaroka County, Wyoming. I'm here looking for someone we both know." There was a long silence; Carlisle's face was contorted with pain. "Vale told me about you. She thought the world of you, Sheriff." he turned to the Indian. "You must be Mr. Henry Standing Bear." "I am." said Henry, his eyes fixed steady on the vampire. He knows what I am. How could he not?  Carlisle realized. Vale hadn't told Henry that she was dating anyone, much less that she was dating a Vampire... Henry remembered her asking about the stories of the white runners and the dog soldiers. This must have been why.

But Carlisle looked so defeated and forlorn that Henry was actually quite shocked. Carlisle must have truly loved her and had a connection with her if he, a vampire,  was looking this bad. Is it just possible...

Walt was grilling Carlisle for answers as to Vale's disappearance. He was technically outside his jurisdiction, but he had gotten special permission to go to Forks and conduct an informal investigation. Carlisle answered all his questions in the same monotone voice, a rather absent look in his eyes. Judging by the fact that Walt was slowly growing more and more frustrated, nothing he said wasn't anything he had already found out. "What took you so long to get here?" Carlisle asked him. "I started surveying the first place that I could think that Vale had been taken to. She wasn't there."

Carlisle waited for him to tell him exactly where that particular place was, but he said no more. "I wish I could help you, sheriff. I miss her terribly." Walt hung his head, nodding. The two men turned to go. "She wanted you to walk her down the isle on our wedding." Carlisle said suddenly. "She told me everything. She said she saw you as the first voice of reason that she had heard in years." Carlisle wasn't looking at Walt.

He was looking at Henry.

"Your level-headedness was what helped to heal her after everything." Carlisle continued. "I would have been honored to have you there." he gave the Indian werewolf a meaningful look. Henry's brown eyes softened. "So you were engaged?" confirmed Walt. "We hadn't formally announced it, but yes." Carlisle replied.

Henry stepped forward and shook Carlisle firmly by the hand. "I would have been honored to have been there." "She will come back." Carlisle said, resolutely. "Wherever she is, she will come back to me."

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Vale was laughing her ass off.

Nick had dragged her all the way back to Wyoming, to a small cabin in the middle of freaking nowhere. He had openly threatened her with the tortures of Chance and his cronies, but when Vale first set eyes on the poorly-kept cabin that was a terrible excuse of a man-cave/hideout for a wanted man, Vale was laughing in his face.

"Chance has no idea that I'm here!" She laughed, "He won't take you back!" 

"Shut up!" Nick growled, pouting at her.

"You're a wanted criminal. You're practically government property and Chance ain't having none of THAT on his property." She chuckled to herself again. 

"I don't need Chance anymore." Nick seethed, towering over her. "I'm gonna do whatever I want to, and to whomever I want to..."

He shoved her to the floor, grabbing a fist-full of her hair and practically throwing her in a corner of the room. 

Her dark eyes flashed with rage. 

Clearly nobody had told him that it was a bad idea to corner a tigress...

Vale wasn't the little girl that Nick thought he knew anymore. She wasn't a child, she was a woman. A woman loved by a good man... well, vampire, but what was the difference? She had built up strength that she didn't have before, physically, mentally, emotionally. Nick couldn't hurt her more than she let him. 

She recalled the day she had spoken to the students at Forks high school. 

"You are never a victim until you have admitted defeat."

Her eyes hardened on the man holding her captive. 

She would not let him win.

Someone would come for her. Carlisle would tear him to pieces if he ever got a hold of him. 

She smirked, showing her canines. 

"Fight me."