Disclaimer for whole story: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the authors. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended. This is just a tribute.

This is a two chapter companion to 'Nessie and Jake, Phases' written from Jake's perspective. It corresponds to chapters 24 and 25 ('graduation' and 'the party').


Chapter 1.

Jake – graduation

We'd been waiting in Charlie's living room for nearly an hour, and Charlie and Nessie still weren't back. Sue was looking pretty ticked off; Charlie was going to have some homecoming!

"I don't know why Charlie didn't just call us earlier, it would have been easy for one of you to fetch Nessie," she complained. "She might have made the graduation in time."

Always the diplomat, Seth answered her. "He was just doing his job. You know what it's like; he would have just switched into being a cop, without thinking about it."

"He still could have called," snapped Sue. "It didn't sound as if it was serious! That poor girl, she must be so disappointed."

She stood up and went into the kitchen. I glanced at Seth, he sighed and I turned my eyes to the window. Sue was right; Nessie would be really disappointed. The whole graduation thing had become strangely important to her. I thought about her voice on the phone; she had sounded too calm, like she didn't want me to know that she was upset.

A year ago she would have told me straight away that she was unhappy. This was just another depressing piece of evidence that she no longer wanted to come to me for help. Maybe she was right. What could I have done about it anyway? That didn't mean that I wouldn't have tried to make her feel better.

Now I was the one sighing. How had this barrier come between us? Once upon a time I would not have believed it possible, but now it was an accepted part of my life. Nessie was on the other side of an invisible divide.

I was distracted from my thoughts by the sound of Charlie's police cruiser pulling up outside the house. Sue was first into the hall; she probably wanted to pounce on Charlie. Seth and I got up to see what was going on. I heard Charlie clumping into the house, followed by the sound of Nessie's light footsteps. Then Sue gave a loud gasp.

"Nessie, what happened?" She didn't sound angry, just shocked.

Feeling anxious, I hurried after Seth into the hall, and instantly understood the reason for Sue's exclamation.

Nessie was standing in the doorway, wearing a tattered dress which was covered in dirt and blood. I could smell burning gasoline and there were smut marks on her face and clothes. Her dark eyes blazed defiantly as soon as she saw us. Before we'd had time to speak, she swept past us, towards the stairs.

"I'm fine," she said coldly. "We just helped another driver, that's all. I'm going to get cleaned up."

We all stood speechless, as she marched up the stairs and into the bathroom. The door was slammed with a loud bang. Seth raised his eyebrows in surprise and Sue turned to Charlie; her irritation had been replaced by astonishment.

"Charlie, what on earth happened?"

Everyone turned to him with curiosity and he immediately looked uncomfortable at being put on the spot.

"We saw a woman hit a tree, she was trying to avoid a deer. And then we had to wait with her, until the ambulance came." This explanation was pretty lame; Sue wasn't buying it.

"So, why does Nessie look such a mess?"

"Um… well, the driver was bleeding…" Charlie avoided making eye contact and looked guilty.

Now I could see why Bella was such a terrible liar, she'd got it from Charlie! Sue's eyes narrowed and she shot him a penetrating look. She must have known that there was a good reason why Charlie was reluctant to reveal whole story, because after a moment, she let it him off the hook.

"It looks like you need to get cleaned up too," she said, throwing him one final glare, before heading back to the kitchen.

Charlie sighed with relief and turned apologetically to Seth and me.

"Sorry about this afternoon, guys. We really couldn't get away." He then glanced up the stairs. "I think that Nessie is pretty upset about it."

"Do you think she'll be ok for the party?" asked Seth, in a concerned voice.

I stopped listening to them, as my thoughts turned to the girl upstairs. It was obvious that when we'd spoken, she'd only told me a fraction of what had really happened. It looked like she'd been in a disaster. No wonder I'd thought that she was more unhappy than she'd let on.

I wanted to speak to Nessie myself, but then I remembered the closed expression on her face as she'd passed me. She didn't want comfort from me; she didn't want anything from me anymore. I shook my head; I had to stop thinking like this, I was driving myself crazy. I turned my attention back to Seth and Charlie.

"I'll try talking to her," Charlie was saying.

"Good," agreed Seth. "I don't want her to decide not to come tonight, you know she might."

I frowned. Would she really miss her own party? I couldn't imagine it; she'd gone to so much trouble, but the look on her face just now…

"Charlie, you have to get her there. She'll listen to you." I broke in.

Seth backed me up and Charlie agreed to get her to the hotel, even if he had to drag her to the car. The rest of us decided to clear out of the house, to make it easier for Charlie to corner Nessie.

Seth caught a ride with me to La Push. When he got into the car, he shook his head.

"Did Charlie seriously expect us to believe that waiting for an ambulance would make Nessie look like that?"

"Yeah, I know. That was the worst lie I've ever heard." I thought about her dishevelled appearance. "For crying out loud, she looked like she must have dragged the driver out of a burning wreck!"

Seth nodded and frowned. "And what about her hands?"

"What are you talking about?" I'd been watching her face, I hadn't noticed anything else.

"Her palms were blistered; I can't think what would do that, except fire maybe?"

She'd been burned! I felt myself growing cold. Seth could see that I was seriously stressed and tried to calm me down.

"Jake, chill out. They were already half healed, she was fine. I only mentioned it because it didn't fit with Charlie's story."

I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to relax. We'd know if she was badly hurt, Seth was right, she was ok, she was fine. I just kept repeating this to myself, until I cooled off. Seth threw me a sideways glance.

"Seriously man, you need to stop freaking out. You're going to lose it one of these days."

Tell me something I didn't know! I nodded. "Sure, sure. But, you know how things are."

"Yeah, I know," his expression became serious and he added cautiously. "Maybe, things will get better once she's gone."

"Sure." I answered without expression.

We lapsed into silence. All the time my thoughts were racing. Better when she was gone! Like the way you might feel better after being shot in the head, because things might be kind of peaceful! That was how I felt when I pictured her leaving.

The news about Dartmouth had come as a real blow. Seth had had the decency to tell me as soon as he found out, when no one else was around. I guess he was worried that I'd take it badly. He was right. Until then I'd been hoping for a miracle, but this was tangible proof that Nessie was happy to leave me, that she wanted to go.

I remembered her words when she said goodbye to me by the river, 'my family won't be here forever, we'll move on.' She probably thought she was doing me a favour. I knew that she cared about me as a friend, but no more than that.

During the weeks I'd stayed away from her, I had known how unhappy she was. I'd hated it, I'd worried about her constantly, but a tiny part of me thought that maybe it was evidence that she loved me. After the nightmare with the werewolf, I learned that I was kidding myself. She had missed me and invited me back into her life, but it turned out that my friendship was enough.

In the initial weeks after the chase, Nessie wasn't her old self. I remembered the first morning, when Seth had held her; she'd looked so devastated that it had been painful to watch. And then, in the days that followed, I could see the damage that the experience had done to her. She was withdrawn and edgy, and her confidence was all to pieces.

This wasn't hard to understand; I tried to give her space and waited for our old friendship to return. I was glad to see that she did gradually become happier; she started making plans and sounding more like the girl I knew.

But then it became apparent that she was rebuilding her life, without leaving a place for me in it. A hundred things she said exposed the fact that she didn't expect us to stay together.

So now I knew exactly how the end would come. She would move east and drift away from me. It couldn't be like it was before, when I had travelled with her. This time Nessie would go alone and stay away for months or possibly years; maybe she'd never come back.

And my life would carry on as a bleak mockery of what it could be. I'd have the pack, my family, my job and all the time be missing the one person who gave it any meaning.

Looking back on the kid who'd been infatuated with Bella, I envied him; believing his heart had been lost, he had escaped into the wilderness. I was facing the loss of my heart, my soul and all my hope. But I couldn't break out, I wasn't a kid anymore and people depended on me. When you grew up you couldn't just walk away, you had to carry on, no matter how pointless it seemed.

"At least Nessie will be safe with her family," was Seth's sudden comment. "I can't see anything getting to her when she's with them."

He was right, this was my only consolation; she'd be protected by a powerful coven. I nodded. "I hope so."

Seth still wanted to talk about this; he was determined to ignore the fact that I didn't.

"Do you really think that she's a target?"

"You know I do," I answered in a clipped tone, keeping my eyes on the road.

"Edward wasn't so sure, when the werewolf attacked."

"He said there was no evidence," I shook my head. "But he had Emmett there in less than twenty four hours. I know he'd have called Jasper too, if he'd been in the country."

"Maybe he was just being cautious. Can you really be sure?"

I had a sudden flashback, to the horrific moment when I saw the most precious thing in my life, running from the jaws of death. 'Jake… Jake! Help me..!'

I caught my breath and had to fight back the tremors that were already starting in my hands. My ears were still ringing with her cry, as I replied through clenched teeth.

"Call it my animal instinct, but I know in my bones that it wasn't a coincidence; it was sent for her. Come on, Seth. Werewolves are almost extinct, yet one just happens to end up chasing Nessie through the forest," I caught his eye and continued. "The Cullens have enemies. We have enemies. Who would be top of that list?"

"You still think the Volturi would try and take Nessie down? But, why her?"

"That last encounter humiliated them pretty badly. I don't think that anyone believed that that would be the end of it. We all know that they'd be unlikely to risk open war with the Cullens. The family have too many talents to make them easy victims for the Volturi! But for anyone who wanted to punish them, Nessie is the perfect target; she's the most physically vulnerable and the only one whose future Alice can't read.

"If the Volturi planned to make any moves against the others, Alice would know. But if they limit themselves to hurting Nessie, Alice is completely blind. Just think what it would do to the Cullens to lose her! Think what it would do to the pack… through me. In one fell swoop, they could have revenge on us all."

"Ok, but why use a werewolf?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe they thought it would be able to take on a pack member, or maybe it was a way to keep their hands clean. After all, they would never want to be officially responsible for Nessie's…" I couldn't quite say the word, so I took a deep breath and continued. "Don't forget, Alice wouldn't be able to see the werewolf's movements either. She could never link it to the Volturi."

Seth nodded slowly. "It wouldn't be an easy thing to set up, but I know what you mean. Do you think it was right not to say anything to Nessie?"

"I honestly don't know. Edward didn't want me scaring her, and a part of me thinks she doesn't need to live constantly looking over her shoulder; she's jumpy enough as it is. Anyway, I have no proof… just instinct."

"I guess that she has her family to look out for her. And us." He gave a tentative smile.

"Sure."

Though what use we could be, when she had moved right across the country, was a mystery to me. This was my secret fear – the one that kept me awake at nights – that Nessie would be a couple of thousand miles away from me, when those dark forces finally caught up with her. I had to trust that she didn't need me to keep her safe. She had her family.

Seth let this topic of conversation drop and I stayed silent the rest of the way home. As always, my mind was like a broken record, going over and over the same question. How was I going to live without her? And of course, I could find no answer.

Every night, before I went to sleep, I'd imagine taking her in my arms and telling her that she couldn't go, because she was mine. In the darkness, this almost seemed like a realistic idea. But every morning, I would open my eyes and realise what total insanity it would be.

Nessie had cut me out of her life, at the slightest hint that I felt more for her than just friendship. I wasn't going to take that risk again. I didn't want to lose the last of our time together.

The thing that really got me, was the way that I could go away and carefully explain to myself why Nessie didn't belong to me – I would get it all straight in my head – but as soon as I saw her again, the lesson would be completely forgotten. It was as if my heart just couldn't accept the truth, it was overpowered by the imprinting.

Seth had no idea how lucky he was to have avoided that curse.

At least when we got to the house, I had no time to dwell on these depressing thoughts. Somehow, with eating dinner, showering and dressing, several hours disappeared unnoticed.

I hadn't yet tried on the suit that Alice sent me; I didn't want to mess it up. It would be impossible to pretend that I'd ever been interested in clothes. But when I put on this suit, I could suddenly understand why other people were. It fitted like a glove and I had to admit, I felt pretty good!

I went into the living room where my dad and Seth were watching TV. Seth was dressed and ready before me; he glanced at over at me and grinned.

"Nice suit!"

We both knew that this was an understatement, I laughed and nodded. "Thanks."

My dad was eyeing me with a smile. "You'll be fighting off the ladies tonight, son."

I just winked. "As long as they don't muss the suit!"

He chuckled as I went into the kitchen. I guess Billy was hoping that one day I would get over Nessie. There was no point explaining how impossible that was; there were some things parents really didn't need to hear.

I heard a knock at the front door. It must be Marie; we'd all agreed to meet at my house. I heard Seth calling to her from the living room.

"It's open!"


Author's notes:

I will post the second half of this companion story very soon, have a good week, Mad :)