Disclaimer: Not mine, just borrowing these characters from their respective creators to satiate a nagging plot bunny idea.

Pairing: Buffy Summers / Jacob Black

Summary: Their paths crossed while he was trying to run away from his heart ache...

Author's Note: This story – and everything else in this 'series' – is based after Eclipse but pre-Breaking Dawn. This fic was actually posted on another site and as you can tell, it's a crossover fanfiction. As for Buffy the Vampire Slayer's timeline, obviously this was post-Season 7 and disregard season 8 comics.

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Help Me Heal
by PhoenixRae

JACOB BLACK RAN AS FAR AND as fast as his four strong canine legs could take him. He had been running ever since he took off from La Push, Washington. He was thankful for Sam for telling Quil and Embry to back off and let him be. Their pack leader was right: he needed to deal with this on his own, and if by running away would help him, then so be it.

He had been running across the country for days now. In his haste to get away from home he forgot to take with him any change of clothing. The ones he wore before he changed into his wolf form was all he had and all that was left of his clothing were torn pieces that left a small trail in his wake as he made a mad dash away from the place he grew up in. He had to detour at some residential areas and swiped some clothing off the clotheslines, mentally apologizing to the folks whose clothes he took, for his change of clothes when he turned back to his human form.

Jacob decided to wander around in his human form for a change. He needed to find sustenance and in as much as he was capable of finding it in his wolf form, he could just as easily walk in on a restaurant standing on two feet instead of four without causing people to run and hide. Or worse, some of them might think him a stray dog and start petting him and giving him food that doesn't appeal to his pallet.

After he found a change of clothes and put some food in his stomach, Jacob took a quick inventory of where he had taken himself to. He knew Washington was a long ways away already and he probably ended up in Central or Eastern US.

After a few days of trying to figure out where he was – he was quite disoriented and with his current state of mind, paying attention to where he ended up at was the last thing on his mind – Jacob found himself surrounded by a group of deranged faced bloodsuckers, very different from the Cullens whom he and his pack just helped defeat a coven of vampires who raged war against the 'vegetarian' vampire family all because of Bella.

Bella... Jacob let out a long, disgruntled sigh as a thought of the funny and stubborn young woman who would now be turned to a vampire after her marriage to...

Jacob let out an expletive that his father and everyone else would box his ears and wash his mouth with soap with if ever they heard him utter those words. He might only be seventeen, by anyone who'd look at him wouldn't think so, especially after his transformation. He bulked up quite a bit and looked mature for his age.

"Are you lost, boy?" taunted one of the vampires.

"No," was Jacob's calm reply. He kept a close eye on the vampires surrounding him. There were five of them. They were slowly circling him. Jasper taught him enough to know how to rip a vamp's neck off and keep himself alive. It was one of the few things he was thankful for the Cullens for.

A sandy blonde haired guy sniffed the air, then curled its nose in disgust. "You're carrying some nasty stench, dude!" He nearly gagged as he got a lungful of his wolf scent.

Jacob hid his smirk. So these vamps were probably new; they couldn't distinguish that his particular 'nasty stench' was because of who he was and what he could turn in to.

The vampires started to close in on him. Jacob clenched his fist, willing himself to transform on short notice and rip each vampire's necks off. Of course he'd have to find himself another change of clothes since he'd be ripping these 'borrowed' ones once he transforms, but oh well, he'd worry about that later; right now his sole purpose was to remain alive long enough to teach these cocky vampires a lesson – and to work-out some of his pent-up anger that he kept bottled up inside. Coupled with his growing pain and anger, he knew killing these newbies would be nothing but just a quick walk in the park.

"Hey!" called out a feminine voice to the group of vamps. "Why pick on someone who is outnumbered? Care to even the fight?"

All five vampires, as well as Jacob, craned their necks to the direction of the owner of the voice.

A petite blonde in white long-sleeved off-shoulder peasant blouse and jeans stood balanced on the round railing, her hands resting on her slender hips. She doesn't look the least bit terrifying if she thought she could send quivers up and down the vamps' spines, but from where Jacob stood he could tell that she wasn't bluffing either about joining forces with him to outnumber the vampires as futile as it may seem since there would only be two of them and five of the vampires still.

One of the vampires didn't buy her bluff and started laughing. "Don't feel left out, little girl. Just hang on tight where you stand and once we finished with this, you'll be next," he promised.

Buffy Summers narrowed her eyes on who she assumed was the leader of this vampire group. He looked nerdy enough to be thought a genius, but she highly doubt he got any functioning brain cells worth setting up an IQ challenge game against Willow and Andrew.

Jumping off the railing she was perched on and executing a perfect somersault move, Buffy calculated where she was landing and was happy to not miscalculate. She was ensconced in circle of the vamp beside the tall, burly dark skinned man who appeared to be taking facing up against vampires at a stride.

"Are you okay?" she asked the young man she came here to save.

"Yeah," he answered. "But are you okay?" he questioned.

Buffy cocked an eyebrow and looked up at the towering young man whose neck would soon be these vamps' dinner. She blinked twice at his sheer gorgeousness; dark hair, dark eyes and equally appealing dark skinned physique that screamed he was no stick figure blessed with uber height. He was exactly everything Buffy wasn't attracted to, and yet her heart started palpitating, her pulse started racing and her stomach butterflies were all aflutter at the mere sight of this handsome young stranger.

"What say you we kick some ass, huh?" she invited instead.

Jacob raised an eyebrow at the gutsy blonde. He just watched her somersault off the railing and landed beside him without breaking her neck. And she smelled so nice and sweet too. Up close Jacob could tell she was older than him, but exactly how old he doesn't know. And in spite of him mourning his loss and mending his broken heart, something about this feisty blonde was giving him something to think about.

Oh crap, not another older girl, Jake! he mentally scolded himself. First Bella, and now this stranger...just get it over and done with then be on your merry way again, he told himself.

"After you," Jacob made a show of letting her take the lead.

Buffy smirked at his attempt at being cute. Oh God, he better quit acting like this or else she'll find herself falling for him!

The vampires around them snorted. Some even dared to heckle them for flirting. As soon as he started and received the full burning brunt of the Slayer and the stranger's eyes, the vampire wished he had kept his smart-alecky mouth shut.

Buffy and Jacob dusted two vamps each. Jacob didn't have time to transform in front of the blonde, and he didn't have the heart to. She was a stranger and although she showed great potential as a warrior, still, his secret was not for everyone to find out. Bella found out about him, but she had to guess what he was.

When the blonde threw a wooden stake at him, at first he didn't know what to do. He was after tearing the vampires' necks with this bare hands or his pointy wolf teeth, but after he broke one vamp's neck and forgot to dismember it from the rest of him, he realized that he'd either tear the vamps' heads off - spleen and all - or drive a stake through their hearts.

When the last of the vampires was dusted (the blonde saved his ass after he was caught unaware by the vamp and jumped him from behind), Jacob looked at his surroundings then to the petite blonde woman who didn't seem the least bit fazed about what just happened.

"You do this thing for a living?" Jacob couldn't help himself from asking when the blonde merely dusted some vampire residue off her blouse.

Buffy met his gaze then and smiled. "It's not my day job, that's for sure," was her glib reply. "I'm Buffy Summers, by the way, and welcome to Cleveland." Buffy extended her hand to shake his.

Jacob didn't know what to make of her reply. So killing vamps at night was a job of hers as well? He was confused, but right now he felt a dizzying sensation as he continued to look at the perky blonde's smiling face.

"Jacob Black," he clasped her hand in his and gave it a tight shake. He was surprised when she didn't flinch at the strength of his grip. She returned the same gesture and he found himself flinching just a bit when she squeezed his hand tighter.

"Nice to meet you, Jacob Black."

"Likewise, Buffy Summers."