Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight
Author's note: This is set during New moon. Instead of cliff-diving, they go on a boat ride- one they will remember for a long time...
"Jake, I'm not sure about this!" I called over the loud sound of the engine. Jacob just winked at me.
"Come on, Bella! You said you wanted to do something fun, and It was awesome of Emily to lend us her yacht!"
I had to admit, it was nice of Emily to lend us the boat. I had no Idea she even had a boat until Jacob phoned up, saying that we were doing something else instead of cliff-diving. He told me to bring swimmers, sunglasses and sun-cream, an didn't tell me anything else. I met him on the dock, and he showed me a giant yacht with a massive cabin named Wilderness, and after explaining to me that it was Emily's (and she named it after the pack of wolves), we went on board and Jacob steered it out to the open ocean.
"Don't you have to join the pack in hunting V...Victoria?" I shuddered at the name.
Jacob shook his head. "Embry took over my position. Isn't this better than doing cliff-diving?"
"Yeah." I lied, but I would really have preferred to cliff-dive. Boating was fun, but there was no... adrenaline. And adrenaline was the only way to hear his voice. Still, I had to admit that it was beautiful to see the dark water flare past. The mossy green cliffs shrunk from view until they were invisible, and we were floating in the open ocean. It was only then that Jacob stopped the engine and flexed his russet arms.
"It turned out to be a lovely day, didn't it, Bells?"
"Mm." I muttered, looking up. It was a lovely day, the sun reflecting on the ocean. The ocean glittered, and I tightened my arms across my chest as I remembered the sun sparkling off something, or someone else. Thankfully, Jake didn't see me cross my arms; instead he was busy looking across the ocean. Suddenly, he plummeted off the side of the boat with a loud splash. I leapt up, heart pounding.
"JAKE!" I screamed, sprinting towards the side of the side of the boat and gazing down. I couldn't see anything in the swirling water- and then suddenly, Jacob's dark head resurfaced, and he whooped loudly. "Come on in, Bella! he yelled, waving a russet hand. I faltered- it looked kinda creepy, but then again, it would be quite a rush, and I might possibly hear his voice...
"OK, Jake!" I called over the side of the boat. "I'll get into my swimmers."
Below deck, I sat in the lovely furnished cabin I suspected was where Emily slept when on board of her yacht. Yanking the deep blue costume I owned out of the bag, I felt awkward changing in the boat cabin, but soon I was lathering sun cream over the expanse of my body that wasn't covered by the fitted material. As I slid out of my thongs, I sighed. I'd never been into swimming, and I would much rather be cliff diving, so that I could hear the voice I'd been longing to hear... his voice. I sat down on the bed, placing my head in my hands. Now we were out here, I had no other choice other than to have fun. We could always go cliff-diving Tomorrow, or the next day... I yanked myself up. Jake was waiting for me, and why should I spoil a beautiful day? I walked out to the deck, feeling almost... happy.
Happier than I had felt in a long time.
Jacob was still treading water, and I perched on the edge of the boat about to dive, when Jacob looked past me and froze, eyes widening. My muscles locked into place.
"Jacob..." I choked, as he pointed at me, a look of terror in his eyes. "What's going on?"
"Behind you..."
My own eyes widened, images of Victoria running through my head... Forgetting that I was standing on the edge of a wet boat- and one that was shifting slightly with each wave - I spun around.
There was nothing there...
Suddenly, my feet gave way, and with a loud shriek, I toppled backwards into the salty water, hitting it with a loud splash and floating about two feet under the water. A russett hand grabbed me and I was tugged upwards, breaking the surface, coughing and spitting out water. Jake was laughing furiously, wet head thrown back. Angrily, I splashed him.
"Jacob Black!" I yelled, smoothing back my wet hair and glaring at him as I bobbed about in the water. "How dare you... Tricking me..."
"Aw, C'mon, Bells!" Jacob laughed. "You gotta admit, it was pretty funny."
"No, it was NOT." I grumbled. "I'm getting out." I reached up for the steel ladder to pull myself back up on deck when a torrent of cold water hit me, knocking me back down. Once again, Jacob was laughing.
"Jacob!" I screeched. "STOP it! What if I fell down and... drowned? That water is so deep, and I'm not very good at treading water, and knowing my luck I probably will drown and..."
Jacob rolled his eyes as he calmly treaded water, then sighed. "Come on, Bella, you won't drown. I'm watching, and you're good at treading water..."
"No I'm not!" I protested, clinging on even more tighly to the steel ladder. Jacob snorted.
"Fine." In a swift motion, Jacob peeled me off the ladder and into his arms, legs churning the water to stay afloat.
"What are you doing?" I demanded, narrowing my eyes.
Jacob laughed. "Keeping you afloat. You said you were worried- well, I'll keep you safe."
"Mm." I said stupidly. My mind started to stray to the cliffs- I imagined myself jumping off, hearing his voice...
"Hey, Bella, look at that!" Jacob's husky voice dragged me out of my thoughts, and I blinked. Jake's russett arm, dripping water, was pointing towards something that was glinting slightly in the water. I peered at it, then smiled. A small school of fish was swimming towards us, silvery tails flickering in the water. Their scales shimmered as they darted around and twirled. Gently, I extended my finger in the water. A tiny little fish broke off from the school, obviously curious (if fish had emotions) to see what I was. A tiny little mouth nibbled the end of my finger, and I giggled. Of course, that caused Jacob to laugh, and his hearty chuckle caused vibrations to pulse through the water. The tiny fish darted away, and I couldn't suppress my small smile.
"Hey, Bells, do you want lunch?" Jacob asked suddenly. I shrugged, then looked up.
"Why? Are you hungry?"
"Well... Yeah." Jacob gave me a lopsided grin.
I snorted. "You're always hungry. Come on, time to feed the dog."
Jacob helped me back up onto the boat, then leapt up in one bound, causing the boat to jerk about. He shook his hair, water splattering me.
"Ew!" I rolled my eyes. "You're not a real dog, Jake! Come on, where's the food?" My eyes searched the sunny deck for the eski, grabbing it and lugging it out. Jacob leapt forward, ripping the lid off the eski and yanking bags of food out. I shook my head in disbelief- how could he eat so much? I stared at Jacob as he ripped a bag of Doritos open in a loud pop, mind wandering back to the cliffs, back to Edward...
Oddly enough, I didn't feel that strange yearning I'd been feeling earlier. In fact, I was almost glad that I wasn't cliff diving... Why? Why was I feeling like this?
"Dorito?" Jacob offered me the bag. I smiled and took a handful of the orange triangles from the bag, putting one in my mouth and chewing slowly while Jacob downed about three giant handfuls. In about a minute, he was onto a bag of cheetos, whilst I had only finished a handful of chips. I reached into the eski and helped myself to a chocolate bar before Jacob ate the entire eski. As I pulled it out, I noticed something.
"Jacob- isn't there any normal food in here?"
Jacob stopped tipping cheeto crumbs into his mouth and turned towards me. "Yeah, there's plain chips and stuff, if you don't like flavoured chips..."
I rolled my eyes. "I mean any proper food? Everything in here is just snacks."
"Uh, there's some stuff at the bottom... I think..." Jacob fished out another bag of chips. I reached in and dug through the array of coloured packets, sodas, candy bars and donut packages until I found something else...
"Bread?" I pulled a squished loaf of white bread up, staring at it blankly.
"Told you I brought some normal stuff." Jacob said through a mouthful of chocolate.
I slapped my face into my palm. "That's it? That's all you brought- snacks and a loaf of bread?"
Jacob shook his head, bounding over and pulling the bread out of my hands. He opened the packet, pulled out a slice and picked up his bag of chips, shaking a few into the bread before folding it up like a sandwich and handing it to me.
I stared at it in disgust. "I'm supposed to eat this? Chips in bread?"
Jacob nodded, fixing himself one. "They're awesome. Yeah, they sound disgusting, but..." he bit into one while I cringed, feeling sick. He held up a thumb to me, swallowing.
"Yum!"
"Yeah, but you love food! You'd eat anything!" I protested.
Jacob rolled his dark eyes. "Come on, Bella! Chips are awesome, bread is awesome..."
"Bread is awesome ?" I interjected.
Jacob ignored me "... So they're bound to be a good combo!"
"Uh huh." I said dryly, holding the sandwich up to my mouth (Though I honestly felt like I was going to throw up). I took a deep breath, and bit it gingerly.
My eyes reopened in shock, and I swallowed. Surprisingly, the sandwich actually tasted good.
"Told you." Jacob said smugly. I rolled my eyes, but continued to eat.
In the end, we demolished almost all of the food in the eski (Of course, Jacob ate most if it). I managed two chip sandwiches, a chocolate bar, a donut and a coke while Jacob polished off eight slices of bread's worth of sandwiches, several bags of chips, countless chocolate bars, and the rest of the donuts. I stared at him in horror- how did he eat so much? How was he not obese? I was feeling full from what I had eaten...
I shook my head. It was probably a guy thing, and probably worse because he was a wolf.
When Jacob had finished stuffing himself with enough food to feed an army, he shut the eski lid over the miniscule remains and rubbed his mouth.
"Right- you're not supposed to swim an hour after eating or something, so what did you want to do?"
I shrugged, flopping down. "I don't know... " My eyes travelled along the deck, noticing some familiar enough rods.
"We could go fisihing..." I suggested, smiling.
Jacob laughed. "Ok... Billy and Charlie would definitely approve."
"Mm." I agreed. "Yeah, they're probably fishing right now." I picked up a rod. "Er... what do I do?"
Jacob showed me, saying that Billy taught him, how to attach the bait (we hunted and found a bag of blubbery, fake fish that were used for bait), throw the line and reel in. Once my rod was poking in the water, I clipped it to the side of the boat and sprawled out on a bench, trying to dry my still-damp hair. The heat from Jacob's body meant that he was already dry, but the water stuck to me and stayed in my hair. If only I'd brought a hairdryer...
There was a tug from the fishing line, and I jerked up like a jack-in-a-box. Darting over, I reeled in the line; there was definately a heavy weight on the end. I reeled it in smugly, waiting to see what I had caught. Charlie would be ecstatic- maybe fishing ran in the family.
"I think I've caught something." I called over to Jacob, who instantly appeared next to me. I reeled in the heavy line, bursting with anticipation...
"What the...?" The hook dangled from the end, totally clean. The bait had been ripped off by the fish, which was obviously too smart.
Jacob roared with laughter, patting me on the back with enough force to knock me overbord and jeering "Nice one, Bells."
I rolled my eyes. "Stupid fish. Is there anymore bait?"
I substituted proper bait with a chunk of donut that had fallen onto the floor, thus making it inedible to us, and tried again. Before I'd even had time to sit back down in the sunshine, there was a sharp tug on the line. I leapt up, reeling twice as quickly in the hope of catching whatever fish was on the end before it could disappear... Once again, a totally clean, bait-less hook greeted me. I couldn't suppress the annoyed growl- stupid fish. Jacob laughed again, but I ignored him and hunted around in the eski for something else I could use. The only slightly decent thing in there was a small bit of bread crust, but it would have to do. I was determined to catch something, determined to show Jacob that I wasn't totally incompetent. I stuck the line in the water, hand on the reel, and waited.
A few seconds later, there was a tug. Before the first vibration had even finished, I was reeling the line in. My eyes widened, face reddening, as I saw the blank hook...
A loud scream of rage echoed around the empty sea, Jacob staring at me in horror.
"This wretched FISH!" I raved, stomping up and down childishly. "It keeps taking the bait, and then swimming away!"
Jacob sniggered. "It's just a fish, Bella."
"No, that's not the point..." A splash came from behind, and I trailed off, turning around.
I gasped at the incredible sight.
A massive sea turtle had slowly risen from the water, swimming close to the boat. I didn't think that they would swim as close, but its scaled flippers narrowly missed the side of the boat. I leaned down, trying not to fall in, and gently touched the top of its hard shell. The turtle seemed a bit wary as I ran my fingers along its shell, sinking further into the water. I stared at it in fascination, mouth open.
"Wow." I muttered. "So that's what was taking my bait."
(A.N.: This actually happened to someone in my family when we went boating once-They kept losing their bait to something, which turned out to be a massive turtle. It was really incredible seeing the turtle rise out... something I never though I'd see so close up. I didn't touch it, though, like Bella did.)
"What was that?" Jacob muttered from behind me. I started to pull myself up from my hanging-over-the-edge position.
"It was so cool, Jake, there was this massive turtle and it must have been the thing eating my bait... I touched it, it felt so smooth..." I babbled on as I started to haul myself up, Jacob busying himself by finishing the left over food, when suddenly a wave rocked the boat, causing my chest to slip and hit the side of the boat painfully. My hands scrabbled around the side of the boat, trying to find something to hold on to, but all I could feel was smooth, wet deck. My hands slipped, and another gentle wave hit the boat, causing my feet to lose balance as they hooked over the edge of the deck. I slipped on the wet deck, and screeched in panic as I tumbled over the side.
"Bella!" I heard Jacob yell, but by the time he got to me, it was too late.
With a hard splash, I hit the surface, mouth open as I screamed for help.
Salty water rushed up my nostrils and into my open mouth, while air rushed out of my body in large bubbles. I clamped my mouth shut, but my air was alreadry gone. My body sunk lower into the depths, the light getting further and further away. My arms and legs flailed helplessly, somehow unable to function properly and pull myself up. My head started to throb from lack of air, my chest in agony and my eyes stinging from the salty water. My long hair swirled viciously around my head, slicking over my eyes and nostrils so that I couldn't see, or even clear the water from my lungs. I started to feel dizzy and faint, my thrashing arms and legs slowing down, the water feeling so heavy all of a sudden. My eyes started to close, though my hair prevented them from seeing anything anyway, and although I fought with all my might to keep my arms and legs moving my muscles grew tired and started to shut down. My throat and chest were burning- I needed air, needed to breathe. But how could I, when I was so far from the surface, and the now icy water felt like it weighed a millon tonnes?
No! I had to do it! I shook my head, my hair flying away from my eyes, and struggled my way upwards in the black water when a heavy current knocked my body, forcing it further down. I tried to fight the current, but I had no air, no energy, no heat...
It was too late. The last thing I saw was a face in my head, the face of someone I loved more than anything- but it was not the face of Edward I saw as my body closed down, but the face of Jacob, my Jacob, the boy I realised now that I did love, as much as Edward- or maybe even more.
Goodbye, Jacob, I love you... Were my last thoughts as I passed out in the black depths.
Suddenly, my body was jerked awake by something warm pressing against me. I felt air- precious air! I forced my wet eyes open, forced my mouth to expel a torrent of icy water. My stinging eyes focused on one thing- Jacob's face, staring in horror at me.
"Oh my God, Bella!" He yelled. "I am so sorry! I mean, I didn't know you were falling until you hit the water, and I thought you'd resurface, but you didn't... I tried to get to you sooner, but a current hit me... I got to you eventually, though, but you'd already passed out... I'm so sorry, Bella, please..."
his horriffied words blurred together. I opened my mouth to answer, and another stream of water splashed out and hit the deck. I coughed, throat hoarse and burning, droplets of salty water spraying everywhere.
"I did CPR..." Jacob was still telling me "But I was so scared that you wouldn't make it and I'd have to take you back to the mainland and tell everyone..."
"Jake." I choked, voice weak. "Shut up."
He did, without argument.
"Is there any food left?" I asked, my throat feeling as if someone had stuck a cheese grater down it.
"Yeah, a little bit. Better get your energy back up..." Jacob pulled a box of cookies out and handed them to me. I bit one- it was soft and sweet, and took away the salty taste in my mouth a little. I ate it quickly, suddenly starving. Jacob watched me intently, face horriffied. I realised I was still on the wet floor, and struggled to haul myself up. In a flash, Jacob appeared by my side and pulled me onto the bench, still staring in horror. The irritation built up in me, until I suddenly found myself bursting.
"Holy crow, Jacob!" I vented. "I'm fine! Stop looking at me like that! I'm not dead."
Jacob blinked, then shook his head. "Sorry, bells." he grinned at me, looking relieved. "It just really creeped me out."
I sighed. "Jake, we need to talk. You see... while I was drowning- Jake, don't shudder like that- I had an epiphany."
Jacob snorted. "You sound like you should be at a crystal ball inhaling opium."
I ignored this remark. "Jake, look... I was thinking, and I realised something."
"Yeah?" Jacob said quietly, leaning in. I sighed, blushing, and looked away.
"I realised that life is- life is short. It could end any day. And why should I spend my life pining over what I had, when I could die any second and never get over it. So... Jake, I've let go."
"Let go of the bloods- I mean, Cullens?"
"Yeah." My arms instinctively crossed over my chest at the sound of the name, but it no longer felt like pieces were falling apart. I dropped my arms blandly.
"And... Jake?" I looked up at him, stared deeply into his eyes with a question that was better left unsaid. He already knew what I was asking, silent or not.
"Bella?" he said, seemingly in shock and disbelief. For a moment, he was still, his eyes reading mine.
Then he moved.
He slid his hands under my wet hair, drawing me closer. I let him guide me up from the deck floor, closing my eyes. Everything seemed slow and silent, my heart pounding nervously in my chest, as his face slid towards mine in a way that seemed natural, much more natural than it had with Edward...
And then his mouth met mine, and fire erupted in my chest. This was unlike I had ever experienced- he wasn't careful, stiff and cold, and there wasn't a chance that he could break me with every movement. I could feel the warmth radiating beneath his skin as I wound my arms around his neck, feel the softness of his silky russet skin. His hands warmed my wet hair as he wound them through it, his mouth opening slightly. I wondered for a split second what Edward would think if he saw this...
Oh, who cares... I decided. He told me to move on. He doesn't love me any more, and I... I don't think I love him, either. It was true- it had been nice, but he was an otherworldly vampire. I didn't belong with him- Jacob, even if he was a werewolf, had more promise- we were both mainly humans, we were the same generation, there was a much smaller age gap, and it was possible to have children, if I ever wanted to- though the prospect sent my heart thudding even more than it already was.
Jacob pulled me even closer, and his lips parted, as did mine. He smelt lovely- not sweet, like a vampire, but woodsy- like fresh dew on grass, tree bark, water in a river, wildflowers... I couldn't compare it to anything.
I was unable to pull away. He was so warm, so soft, his mouth so tender against mine.
It seemed like a glorious eternity, yet it was over too soon.
Jacob pulled away, eyes wide and bright, mouth in a lopsided grin.
"Woah, Bells." he grinned. I couldn't help letting out a carefree laugh.
"That was pretty incredible." I admitted, smiling. And it was- I felt more myself than I had in a while.
"So, Bella..." Jacob tugged at his hair slightly. "Um... does this mean..." he looked down, almost embarrassed "Are we..."
"A couple?" my face flushed red. "It seems that way, doesn't it?"
"And, Bells, are you sure that this is, um, what you want? What if the leeches come back?" Obviously, Jake assumed that I wouldn't mind them being called leeches anymore. To be truthful, he assumed right.
"They probably won't- and if they do, and Edward still wants me..." I paused dramatically, while Jacob held his breath. "Then he'll have missed his chance."
I grinned at Jacob- it felt good, natural.
Smiling warmly, Jacob took my hand and squeezed it. I looked across the deck- the sun had lowered in the sky. It was starting to set, and a beautiful red-gold glimmer had fallen across the gentle waves. I stared at the view, feeling warm inside. Today would be a day I would always remember- the day when I discovered what I wanted, the day when I let go of the past and looked towards the future.
Today was the day when my life changed- for the better.
AN: Did you like it? This is my first ever Jacob/Bella fic. I'd always been into Edward/Bella but still liked the prospect of Jacob/Bella. When I started this fic, it was originally going to end entirely differently. But I liked it the way it was, so I decided to end it this way. I know that Jacob's supposed to smell like a wet dog to vampires, but in eclipse Bella says You both smell fine to me so I put in the bit where she said he smelled nice to her. Please review! :)