Aileen's outfit ⬆️⬆️

Chapter Playlist: Come Back Home-Sofia Carson

Chapter One: Come Back Home

AN: Bold Is Aileen, Italics is the other line!

Aileen's POV:

"Lafayette!" I call to my mostly-black German shepherd. "Here, boy."
He jumps into the passenger seat of my Toyota Tacoma. I shut the door and grab my suitcase. A framed photograph falls out.
Leaning down, I grasp it. A tear slides down my face, when I see who's in it.
It's me, Laf, Moses, my son, and Will, my late boyfriend.

I gingerly touch the glass, suddenly, I'm down a rabbit hole of memories. My ringing phone, yanks me out of them.

Fumbling, I answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, little Lahote."

"Must I remind you, Samuel, I'm older than Paul by two minutes?"

"Haha, whatever. Anyway, what are you up to?"

"Just going for a drive with Laf. How about you?"

"I'm about to head over to Jake's. How are you holding up?"

"Uhm....I keep telling myself I'm fine, but I'm really not. I gotta go. Bye Sam."

"By-"

I hang up, which cuts him off. I dry my tears and hop into the truck.

I turn to Laf and pat his head. "Ready to go boy?"

He barks in response.

****Timeskip brought to you by me, because I wanted to****

I look to my right to see the "WELCOME TO FORKS! ENJOY YOUR STAY!" sign. I take four rights and a left and finally end up at Charlie's house.

As I pull into the driveway, my phone starts ringing. I grab it from my pocket, the screen reads "Cassie:Luke's Girl"

"Hello?"

"Aileen, Luke, he um..." She's cut off by my next question.

"He's not dead. Tell me he's not dead."

"He's not, he's really hurt. They're transporting him back home."

"Oh. Let me know when he's back home, I'll be there."

"O-okay."

I hung up and jumped out of the car.

I knocked on the brown front door.

"Open up! We have reason to believe you're harboring a criminal." I say loudly.

Charlie opens the door. "Ah, Aileen, you trickster. Welcome home."

"Thanks. Soooo I was thinking we could go pick up Bella from school."

"Oh, Bella has a truck now. But we can still go say hi." He adds the last bit after seeing my crestfallen face.

"Perfect!" I say and hop into his cruiser. He grabs Thunder and puts him next to Lafayette. "So, any boyfriends of hers I need to beat up?"

"She's been...fraternizing with a Cullen kid." He rolled his eyes.

"I'm sorry, who?" I furrow my brow.

"One of Doctor Cullen's foster kids." He takes a right as we pull into the school parking lot.

"Oh...interesting." I hop out and put on Laf's harness, its green and says "DO NOT APPROACH  MILITARY DOG AT WORK!"

We check into the office then walk to Bella's seventh period, AP English. Charlie knocks on the door.

"May I help yo- Chief Swan!" The middle aged woman's face flushed. "Whatever brings you here?"

"Hello, Glenda. We came to visit my daughter." He smiles.

"Come on in!" She ushered him in and shut the door in my face.

I knock loudly to see a student answer it. She's blonde and looks friendly enough.

"Thank you." I say and make my way into the classroom.

"-So that's how you handcuff bad guys, kids." Charlie finishes his 'speech'.

"I guess it's my turn. Hi kids, my name is Aileen. I'm from the Marine Corps. Any questions?" I ask as I place Laf next to Thunder.

The girl who opened the door raises her hand. "Mackenzie Forge. Where were you fighting at?"

"I was in Iraq, I had to leave because something happened."

A brunette raises his hand. "Edward Cullen," He mumbles. "Did you bring back any awards?"

"Yes, I received a Purple Heart and an honorable discharge."

"Jasper Hale, ma'am, how did you acquire a Purple Heart?" A honey blonde boy asked. When I looked into his eyes, it was as though nothing mattered but him and I.

Imprint

Vampire

The words burned behind my eyes.

"I, uhm, I was shot 6 times." I swallowed thickly.

"Rosalie Hale. Are you married?" A beautiful blonde girl asks, eyeing the ring on my left ring finger.

"I..no. I'm not." I blink twice.

The bell rings signaling the end of the day. As the students clamor out, I make eye contact with  Edward. My message is clear.

This isn't your land. Go back to where you came from.

I engulf Bella in a hug.

"I missed you, loca!"

"I missed you too, Aileen!" She awkwardly wraps her arms around me.

Ringggg! Ringggg!

"One second guys," I say to Charlie and Bella before walking out of the classroom. "Hello?"

"Aileen! Luke's back in Cali, he's really hurt." Cassie, my friend Luke's wife says from the other line.

"Don't worry, Cass, I'm on my way right now." I hang up and knock on the door, to which Charlie opens.

"I have to go. I promise to be back by next week." I hug him before grabbing Laf and dashing out to the parking lot.

Jasper and his family are standing outside of their cars, so I run over after remembering I rode with Charlie here.

"Hey! Can one of you give me a ride to the airport? I rode with the Chief here." I run over to the vampiric group.

"You can ride with us." A dark-haired boy responds.

"Thank you! I normally wouldn't do this, but my....brother is in a hospital in Cali," The dark-haired boy cuts me off.

"Don't worry about it, we'll get you there." He says. "Who's riding with me?"

"Alice, Hudson and Jasper." Edward replies.

"I'm not riding with that mutt." The boy I'm guessing is Hudson mutters under his breath.

"I will, Emmet." Rosalie rolls her eyes at Hudson.

"Let's go!" Emmet unlocks the car.

As I put my seatbelt on, I think about Luke, Will, and Moses.

Edward's POV:

Images of two men and a little boy flashed through my mind until Aileen went beyond my range.

Huh, I wonder who those people are.

Aileen's POV: (After the plane landed)

I jumped out of the taxi and ran into the hospital, "I need to see Lance Marrow!" I urged the receptionist.

"May I have your name?" The blonde woman asked.

"Lieutenant Aileen Gray-Lahote." I tapped my foot as I gave her my name.

"You're on the clearance list." She looked back up. "He's in room 246."

"Thanks." I sped to the elevator, when I finally got to the room, I burst through the door.

"Luke!" I exclaim.

"Aileen!" He weakly replies.

"What happened? Are you okay? Has Cass been to visit yet? Was anyone else hurt?" I throw a million questions at him.

"We didn't react quick enough is what happened. I can't feel my legs right now. Yes, she's talking to my dad. Uhm, Ali, Frankie...he didn't make it." He looks towards the celling.

"Luke, I'm so sorry." I hug him before turning towards the door. "Get some rest."

I walk out of the room to find Cassie holding Moses on her hip.

"Cass! Moses!" I hugged them both before taking Moses.

"Hi baby, mummy missed you." I coo at my six month old son.

"He's missed you too." Cassie looks at me with bloodshot eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Cass." I hug her. "I would love to stay longer, but I have to be back on the Rez by tomorrow."

I hug her one last time before walking back to the elevator with Laf and Moses.

I dial the one person I can count on for anything in the world as the elevator goes down, my younger twin brother Paul Lahote.

Mackenzie Forge belongs to SunsetMercer

The people Ali was thinking about:

Luke Marrow from Purple Hearts:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/cb/0e/57/cb0e57669e19bd07d760d88323567bdb.jpg

William (Her ex-boyfriend):

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/e5/19/fb/e519fbfc4d07ee4b6c3ffbcad3b9b49e.jpg

Moses (Her son)

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/11/ec/0b/11ec0b01ea972c131ddf6fbd362fe1bb.jpg

Links in comments!

Published: 3/16/25

Edited: 3/21/26