A/N: Hey Guys,

You should know I don't often do author's notes, so this will be one of few. You should know, however, that in this story Twilight and New Moon have taken place, but nothing beyond that. There is also no Victoria chasing Bella.

Also, to anyone reading 'Canvas of the Sky', I absolutely love that fic and couldn't stop myself from writing it but my next few chapters got wiped before I could post them and now I'm too bummed to re-write them. Don't worry though... I will get it up even if it kills me.

Thanks, I hope you keep reading.

Disclaimer: I do not claim ownership to any Twilight characters or settings.

They say when you die, your life flashes before your eyes. In all seriousness, I think that this experience makes it seem entirely plausible. Have you ever had one of those moments where everything happens so quickly and intensely that your mind feels so blank you are almost numbed? Well, I think I managed to top that kind of experience. Try having something happen so quickly and so intensely that all the events leading up to that moment flash before your eyes. Not your whole life – no, not at all - just those seemingly insignificant events that led to this throbbing pain in my arse. I remember it going something like this...

"Bloody hell, Katie!"

I jumped at the sudden burst of a raging voice behind me, turning to find my extremely red faced brother fuming at me. "Uh, yeah?" I squeaked, realising none too soon that my voice was pitifully small.

"Your bag," he said through gritted teeth. Seeing my confused face, he slowly raised a finger and pointed jaggedly down to his feet. My eyes followed his directions before widening in surprise. "My toe," he finished, his voice cracking strangely.

I quickly lifted the bag I had apparently dropped on his foot. "Sorry, Jack," I said, trying and failing not to laugh. I could practically feel him rolling his eyes behind me as I continued down the path after my mother.

Today was kind of a family reunion. See, every once and awhile (awhile being a key word) my mom liked to get her family together to catch up. We weren't exactly close with that side of the family, though apparently it was a tradition to have a reunion once a year back when Grandma and Grandpa were still around. I, however, never knew them since they passed away a year before I was born, and without Grandma and Grandpa around, reunions became a lot less frequent. Though regardless of the fact that no reunion had occurred in the past four years, my mother still somehow managed to remember that it was my Uncle Charlie's turn to host the get together, meaning one horrible thing – I had to go to Forks.

Now, I had no problem with Forks. In fact, I loved small towns and rain, which is more than frequent in Forks, was always something I adored. No, the problem was that I had to take my urbanite boyfriend to 'meet the family'. Don't get me wrong, I loved my boyfriend, but I had to admit it irked me when my mother 'suggested' I bring him when he was in the room, making it impossible to refuse. This was bad for two reasons. First of all, it meant my relationship took the next step by my mother's consent; not my own. Secondly, I had never met anyone more urbanised than David.

David and I had been dating for over two years. However, even after all that time and the fact that at eighteen I am a legal adult, my big brother still insists on my breaking it off purely because he thinks he looks like 'a pansy boy with a six-pack drawn on with mommy's make-up'. I let comments like those slide seeing as I considered Jack's opinion useless more often than not. I had to admit though, Jack himself was quite tough. As a broad and pretty big guy, he is someone you would think twice about crossing, though not huge per say. In high school he spent most of his time smack talking the football players, being an avid rugby union player himself, calling them all 'momma's boys'. Although, much to my amusement, said big brother was currently grumbling behind me as I made my way to the front door of the relatively secluded house where my mother had just knocked. I reached the landing just in time to see the door swing open to reveal the politely smiling form of my cousin, Bella Swan.

"Bella!" My mother exclaimed, wasting no time in sweeping Bella up into a tight hug.

"Hi, Aunt Carol," came Bella's voice, muffled in my mother's arms.

Dad chuckled beside his overbearing wife, extracting Bella from her Aunt's arms before pulling her into a simpler hug of his own. Bella was my age, one reason we got along so well as kids. We also had similar personalities in a lot of ways and our parents were fascinated with how alike we looked when we were younger. We both had dark brown hair, very similar though Bella's had a slight tinge of red to it that mine (having gotten my mother's hair) lacked. We were always about the same height, though Bella often beat me by a centimetre or two, and we both had very pale skin. Outside these features though, we held little others in common, particularly her deep brown eyes (which really made up her whole appearance) compared to my smoky green. My brother was lucky enough to get my father's blond locks and my mother's grey eyes, neither of us being lucky enough to inherit our father's sparkling blue orbs. Mom and Dad moved further into the house where their greetings could be heard quite clearly.

Before I could hug Bella as tightly as my little arms could dare, Jack bowled himself passed me, crushing Bella up in a hug which swept her off her feet – literally. "Cousin Klutz!" He thundered.

I laughed at his antics, though could not help but worry for poor, fragile Bella. "Stop, Jack, you're killing her," I chuckled.

Jack gave me a playful glare before setting a flustered Bella on her feet, steadying her with his hands on her shoulders. "Nice to see you too, Cousin Overkill," she said breathlessly. Jack boomed a laugh at the old nickname and patted her on the head before passing through the door.

Bella's eyes followed him for a moment before landing on me where her face split into a wide grin. I met her grin with one of my own before each of us went barrelling into each other for a tight hug. We stayed like that for a moment before a slight throat clearing sounded behind me and Bella looked up over my shoulder. "Um, can I help you?" Bella asked confusedly and I turned to see what had her so muddled.

"Oh, Bella I'm so sorry. This is David, my boyfriend," I introduced, stepping aside to allow them to meet.

I mad momentarily forgotten about David who had had to rifle through his bag to find his wallet so he could pay back my Dad for buying lunch. He looked casual in a surf brand t-shirt and meticulously frayed jeans supported with what I knew was a very expensive leather belt. His ash-blonde hair was perfectly moused and earthy brown eyes were hidden behind high priced sun glasses. Bella seemed somewhat surprised at the image, though I could understand considering I myself had never really pictured myself with someone who appeared so high maintenance before I had met David.

Truth be told, David was really quite high maintenance, though I overlooked the fact, considering him as an overall nice person regardless. My mother seemed to think the Sun revolved around him with his high priced looks and endless cash flow. My dad's opinion was difficult for me to read since whenever I broached the subject he became vague, his compliments always along the lines of "he's very quirky" and "he really shows that money isn't everything", though I never have been really sure as to whether the latter is an actual compliment. Jack made no effort to hide his dislike for David, having spent the whole trip to Forks sitting between us at every opportunity and boldly stating that it was to make sure his "little sister didn't get knocked up anytime soon". So it followed that Mom wasn't particularly happy with her son at that point in time.

"Pleasure," David said, sticking out his hand to shake.

Bella was taken aback at his brusqueness, though nevertheless shook his hand, wincing at what I was sure had to have been an iron clad grip. "Nice to meet you," she replied politely, looking at me curiously. "Sorry, Katie. Charlie didn't tell me you were bringing anyone..." she trailed off and I could sense a hidden question was hidden somewhere in her words.

I smiled tersely. "Yeah, well it was kind of a last second thing. Mom thought David should meet the family," I mumbled, quickly wanting to change the subject. "But what about you? We've got a lot of catching up to do this week," I said, moving past her into the house.

We all went inside, saying hello to the rest of the gang. I gave Mom's brother, Uncle Charlie, a warm embrace and her twin sister, Aunt Clara, and her husband, Uncle Jim, lots of hugs and kisses. Aunt Clara and Uncle Jim had two kids, identical twin boys at fifteen years of age who were trying their best to steal some food under their mother's watchful gaze and eyeing David critically. Frankly I adored the twins, Joel and Justin, and hungry as I was I couldn't help but help them in their ploy to swipe some chicken. Naturally we were caught and got a hearty lecture from Aunt Clara whilst Bella smirked at us amusedly across the room.

David seemed to get along well with all the females in the room, minus Bella who I often caught grimacing while in his presence. Admittedly this just left my mother, Aunt Clara and I truthfully enjoying his presence and I was rather curious and more than a little frustrated as to why all the males in the room were so bluntly distancing themselves from him, suspecting it was Jack's handiwork. Dinner went smoothly with the usual talk of 'old times' and what was new with everyone. Being eighteen I was getting tired of telling everyone my immediate life plans, having just finished high school: a gap year travelling and then college. It wasn't until dessert came that things started getting uncomfortable.

"So, David," came Uncle Jim's voice, suspiciously serious. "What are your after-school plans?"

Oblivious to Uncle Jim's scrutiny, David didn't even look up from his pudding which he was dissecting with a grimace. "I'll be taking the gap year with Kate, travelling Europe together, then I'm off to college too," he answered nonchalantly.

I frowned at this, having had my heart set on Africa rather than Europe and we didn't have to decide for another couple of weeks or so. "Actually," I persisted, "Europe is still undecided. We haven't completely decided where we're going yet."

David finally looked up at me with an irritating smirk. "I can guarantee we're going to Europe," he said in what I considered a patronising tone.

I pursed my lips at his attitude and opened my mouth to reply when my Aunt Clara came to the rescue with a cheery question about where David planned on going to college. I had zoned out during David's listing of every Ivy League school he could think of and missed the twin's conspiratorial glances which would have told me they were up to something. The rest of the reunion passed me by rather vaguely after that and I was glad when Aunt Clara and Uncle Jim announced they had to leave if they were going to make it to their friends place in Port Angelas before midnight. I was the first to say goodbye, eager as I was to get to bed and had no more pulled the twins into a hug and kissed my Aunt and Uncle on the cheek before I was racing upstairs to go to bed.

I had woken up the next morning on the floor of Bella's room to screaming. Looking to the bed on my right I saw Bella had already gotten up and it was eleven o'clock already. Frowning at the sound of another scream I decided it was pointless to continue trying to sleep.

I flopped off the mattress I was sleeping on and cursed at the fact that we were staying here for the entire week. Walking down the hallway I saw Jack standing by the bathroom door looking equally as confused as I felt.

"What's going on?" I groaned, figuring something had happened to someone in the bathroom.

"I dunno. We were watching the game downstairs and then we heard a bunch of screaming," he explained, looking totally bemused and running a hand through his already messy hair. "I offered to check it out and came up here. I thought it was you."

"Me? I was asleep. Who's in there then?" I asked.

"I have no fu-" Jack began before the door was thrown inwards and before us stood a dripping wet and extremely red faced and fuming David wrapped only in a towel.

It took three seconds of shocked silence before Jack fell on the ground, literally rolling with laugher. I stifled a grin myself, taking in a freshly showered David with badly dyed, bright purple hair. It seemed the twins disliked him more than I had previously thought.

"What," David growled, his voice low, "is this?" He pointed to his head emphatically.

Trying as hard as I was to control myself from allowing my laughter escape, I simply could not form words to reply.

"Purple!" Jack bellowed between guffaws of unrestrained laughter. "Little buggers- genius, pure genius- gotta love those twins- and purple!"

Trying as hard as I was not to let escape a giggle of my own, a snort burst through my lips which I quickly covered with a cough on seeing David's sharp look.

"I'm sure there must have been some kind of mistake," I said in a voice quivering with restraint, knowing I was grasping at straws but wanting to defend the twins even so.

"Mistake?" David yelled, his voice gaining a rather comical higher pitch in his anger which only served to make Jack laugh harder. "I'll have you know that they ruined extremely expensive highlights!"

Jack's laughing was deafening by this point and I began to feel slightly bad for David in his situation, regardless of how hilarious his over-reaction was. Pushing him back into the bathroom, I followed him inside, closing the door behind us though it only managed to slightly muffle Jack's noise. David was still fuming and I placed a hand on his arm which he merely shrugged off, not that I really expected it to comfort someone as bad-tempered as he.

"It was just a joke, David," I explained in a soothing voice. David just huffed. "They don't mean any harm and I'm sure you could get your hair fixed in about a second." He still didn't look calmed so I tried a different approach. "How about this," I began, a slow yet admittedly half-hearted smirk spreading over my lips. I trailed a fingertip slowly from his shoulder, down his bicep, across the crook of his elbow and down to his hand in what I hoped was a tantalizing manner, linking my fingers with his and using the grip to pull myself into his personal space. To my credit, he met my gaze with a devilish smirk of his own. "Tonight, Port Angelas, just you and me," I whispered, my breath on his ear.

He grinned widely, eyeing me suggestively and I had to hold back a sigh. He pulled me against his chest and leaned down for what I was sure would be an extremely sloppy kiss (they always were when he was - well - excited) when the sound of aggravated fists pounding on the door had us breaking apart. "Oi! What's going on in there?" Jack's voice yelled accusingly.

I opened the door calmly, amused to see David looking a little frightened when I was immediately jerked out of the bathroom by the arm by my now completely bemused big brother. Looking David up and down, he told him to put some clothes on and slammed the door in his face. Without another word, he dragged me down the stairs, my arm still in his grip.

Everyone looked up when we entered the sitting room and I took a quick glimpse around. Uncle Charlie was watching what I assumed was last night's baseball game, taped and currently muted. Mom and Dad sat squashed in the loveseat and on the floor sat Bella and someone I had never seen before. My eyes stopped there. Bella's companion was pale as a ghost, with tousled, rich bronze hair and golden eyes which made my breathing stutter, but most of all, he was completely, breathtakingly, gorgeous. I was snapped out of my goggling when Dad laughed, utterly oblivious to my goggling. "Still not dressed but able to squeal bloody murder for the world to hear?" he said, looking at my state of dress.

His voice snapped me out of my trance and I looked down at my clothes, blushing when I realised I had probably been staring and then noticed I had, in fact, yet to dress. I never wore pants to bed since they never stayed on the whole night and I was more comfortable when I didn't anyway, but I was saved some embarrassment when I noticed I had, thankfully, worn a long, baggy shirt last night rather than the usual tank top and it was even less revealing than most dresses. "Uh, yeah," I said, finding my voice and running a hand through my hair. My mind was acting a bit sluggish and it took me a moment to process his words. "Hey!" I bristled indignantly, my head snapping up. "That was not me, 'squealing'. It was David."

Dad looked surprised for a moment before snorting and looking back at the game, a satisfied glint in his eye. I narrowed my eyes at him and almost missed Mom's question. "Oh, my. Is the poor thing alright?"

Jack guffawed and opened his mouth but I elbowed him in the stomach. "He's fine. It seems the twins decided to mess with him and I'm guessing they managed to get some dye into one of his hair treatments."

Mom frowned disapprovingly and we all tuned out as she began to rant about misbehaviour. At some point during my absent minded nodding my stomach gave a large growl.

"Hungry?"

The voice was velvety and soft and I looked to see Bella's mystery companion looking at me with a cocked eyebrow. "Uh, yeah I guess," I answered honestly, wondering who this person was but more importantly how I could get myself something to eat anytime soon when my dear mother would not stop ranting.

Luckily, Uncle Charlie came to the rescue. "How about you kids head out and grab some lunch?" He suggested, giving me a meaningful look and I knew he was giving us and escape route.

"Sounds great," I piped up, nudging Jack who nodded furiously.

I dressed quickly, grabbing the first jeans and shirt my hands touched and proceeded to invite David to lunch. Not wanting to be seen even by strangers with his new hair he said no, deciding to get his hair fixed first and meet up with us afterwards. I had walked him downstairs to find Uncle Charlie and my Dad at the kitchen table where I could have sworn I saw them bump knuckles upon seeing David's new look. I gave David a quick kiss goodbye and watched him leave in one of the two cab's Forks had to offer. The rest of us, Jack, Bella, Edward and I, left soon after taking my parents car.

"So Bella," Jack said, stretching his spare arm around the back of my seat next to him, his other hand on the steering wheel. "How do you and Edward know each other?"

My interest piqued at his question and I turned my head to look at Bella sitting in the back seat with Edward and blushing furiously. "We go to school together," she mumbled.

"So are you guys going out, or what?" Jack asked, getting straight to the point.

I rolled my eyes at his bluntness and Edward chuckled. "Yes, we are," he answered simply, taking Bella's hand while she blushed even harder.

I grinned at Bella and gave her a wink to which she returned with a small smile. Jack gave a loud wolf whistle and spent the rest of the ride trying to make Bella blush as much as possible. We were all laughing by the time we pulled up at the small diner Charlie had recommended, not that there was much choice in Forks. We all got out of the car and I headed for the door with Jack only to noticed Bella saying goodbye to Edward.

"You're leaving?" I asked, surprised.

Edward smiled apologetically and Bella shuffled her feet in a manner I thought made her seem nervous. "I've already eaten and that's my ride," he explained, pointing to a shiny, red convertible I had not previously noticed which looked extremely out of place in the parking lot full of significantly less extravagant cars. As he pointed the horn honked and I guessed that to mean the driver was getting impatient. "I guess I better go before Rose leaves without me," he said and kissed Bella's cheek, lingering there for a moment before pulling away and turning to me and Jack. "It was wonderful meeting you. Maybe you could catch me up on the happenings in Seattle sometime?"

I huffed a laugh. "I don't pretend to be an expert on politics, but if you'd like an insider's view on it's best places to eat, you know where to find me," I smiled.

Edward laughed and waved a goodbye, getting in the car which swiftly took off.

"Da-amn," Jack mouthed. "I'm not one for mushy stuff, but that is one gorgeous ride."

Bella laughed, trailing along behind as I led the way inside. "Wait until you see Rose," she muttered.

"Is she hot?" Jack asked, sounding interested.

"She's taken," Bella supplied, laughing lightly as he shoved her playfully.

I led us to a table across the room from the door and looked around. It was quite cosy and I enjoyed the many windows which opened the place up in all directions. A waitress who seemed to know Bella quite well took our orders and left us to our conversation.

"So, I take it your enjoying your summer?" Bella asked, looking at me.

I nodded my head vigorously. "If I had to endure one more second of high school I would have gone wolf," I declared.

Jack snickered at my dramatics and Bella choked on her water. "Gone what?" she spluttered.

I looked at her curiously while Jack patted her on the back, amusement shining in his eyes. "Wolf," I said, frowning in confusion.

Bella seemed to regather herself and looked at me with what looked like attempted casualty. "Isn't the expression, 'gone ape'?" She asked, still wheezing a little bit.

I made a face. "Only if you really want to compare yourself with an ape," I reasoned.

Bella's odd panic seemed to clear, but before I could ask about it the woman who took our orders came with our food and I was too hungry to think about anything else. I scoffed down my burger and fries savagely and barely noticed Jack's comment about how my eating technique was proof I was like a wolf to which Bella stiffened and gave a weak smile. When I had finished, I sat back in my seat feeling satisfied only to notice the other two, including my troll of a brother, were only halfway through their own meals. I scoffed at them, teasing them about not being able to beat the smallest person at the table in an eating contest by a long-shot. From there battle began of mentioning incidents which would prove one of us better than the others in the talented skill of stuffing one's face. I eventually won by beating Jack's 'fourteen hotdogs in one minute story' with my own story of having eaten and completed an entire meal made by Grandma Wilson. Needless to say, Jack and Bella's stories did not stand a chance.

When the other two had finished eating I began getting antsy wondering why David had not yet arrived. To distract myself, I excused myself to the bathroom which was by the back exit, leaving my companions arguing heatedly over whether or not Shakespeare was gay. "The guy wrote poetry for a living!" Jack protested.

Bella rolled her eyes. "He was married, Jack!"

"What tells you it was necessarily to a woman?"

I closed the bathroom door with just enough time to hear Bella rebuff with, "History, that's what!" I chuckled as I made my way to a stall.

I couldn't have been in the bathroom for more than three minutes, but when I exited the door, the scene took me by surprise. No longer were Jack and Bella occupying themselves in a heated argument. In fact, Bella did not seem capable of words let alone a debate. She sat, rigidly still in her seat, staring across the room to the diner entrance.

I followed her gaze and my eyes widened and mouth dropped. At the door stood three men, all brown skinned with dark hair and eyes and each utterly enormous. Their heights ranged between 6'4 and 6'7 and every inch of their bodies seemed to be wrapped in thick chords of muscle. They were dressed ridiculously for the cold weather, each of them wearing denim cut-offs and t-shirts which seemed to have a hard time fitting their vast chests. As I examined them, I noticed the one standing in front seemed the biggest of the all and was - strikingly - completely gorgeous.

At this thought I snapped out of my trance, admonishing my mind for going there and picking up my jaw. I noticed though that the man was, in fact, staring straight back at Bella with the most confusing collection of emotions shining though his eyes. His friends looked apprehensive, one of them keeping a hand on his shoulder as if to hold him back and the other looking unsure of what to do. Looking back to Bella I saw she had not moved, sitting as rigidly as before with Jack by her side, his eyes flicking back and forth between Bella and the three strangers like a tennis match in play.

However, Jack being Jack, he could not hold back for long and eventually burst out, saying, "So Bella, is this another boyfriend I haven't been told about?"

I heard a growl and turned to see the man marching towards a now extremely white faced Bella, his friends following him nervously. The man slammed his hands on the table with enough force to jolt Bella but little enough not have the manager come running out. Luckily, most people had left and the only other people in the diner were an elderly couple who I suspected had rather bad hearing. "Jacob," Bella squeaked at the impact. Jack stood, concluding that this man meant trouble but Bella just pulled him back down whispering, "Don't."

'Jacob', as Bella had called him, sneered at her whispered command to Jack and I felt my heart constrict at how wrong that sneer looked on his beautiful features. One of his friends placed a hand on his shoulder again which he shook off just as his own hands, oddly enough, began to shake. Bella seemed to notice this too and reached out to grasp one of his large hands but he pulled them away before she could. "You've been ignoring me," he stated, his voice dangerously low and cold as ice. Bella opened her mouth to reply, her eyes pleading, but he continued before she could. "Ever since he came back. Ever since you came back," his voice began to rise. "Did you ever think of how running off like that would affect everyone else? Did you even consider Charlie? No! You run off to fight a battle that wasn't even yours and you come back with that leech without so much as a phone call! Did you even know I was Alpha now?" Bella's eyes widened and she looked desperate to interrupt but Jacob seemed to be on a roll and had yet to take a proper breath.

He slammed his hands down again and I made to interrupt, feeling determined to get this psychotic jerk away from my cousin, but after taking my first step forward Jacob's friends turned their heads to look at me curiously. One of them held up a hand as if to say, 'stay back, everything's in control', and I paused despite myself. They turned their attention back to Jacob as he continued on.

"And I bet I even know why! It's him isn't it? He left you for dead, Bells! And now, not only are you with him again, but your following his orders to stay away from me!" He took a deep, shuddering breath, opening his mouth to continue when his hands made contact with the table for a third time. This time, however, rather than slamming the table, he seemed to be using it to support himself as he swayed a little.

"Jake?" Bella asked, sounding far too concerned for someone who had just been yelling at her though I had to admit even I, who had never seen this man before in my life, felt genuinely concerned for him.

She needn't have worried about him falling though because his friends were steadying him in an instant, each looking excessively frightened considering their friend seemed only to be feeling a little faint. My ears strained to hear his words as he let out a gasped reply. "That scent," he breathed.

His friends frowned, the one who had placed a hand on his shoulder earlier asking, "Jake, man, what scent?" He sounded confused and worried.

Without answering, Jacob slowly turned on the spot, his eyes closed as he breathed in deeply with a look of concentration on his face. He stopped, facing in my direction and slowly, his eyelids flickered open. In an instant, his deep, chocolate eyes met gazes with my own of smoky green and locked. In that instant my heart sped up, feeling like someone was squeezing it while I watched his face melt into an expression I could not place, though I saw in it something almost vulnerable.

I was not sure how long we stood like that, staring, but after what felt like an age I heard Jacobs friend's sharp intakes of breath, one of them stretching out the word 'dude' under his breath while the other seemed to be dialling on a cell phone.

A small corner of my mind registered Bella's soft gasp of something I thought may be akin to comprehension before another voice broke me from my reverie. Endless depths of deepest brown still boring into my eyes, I did not register that the back door of the diner next to me had opened and in had stepped a considerably chirpier and once more blonde David.

"Kate," said David with a relieved sigh. My eyes snapped to him and for some reason I could not place, I felt an odd feeling of guilt towards him. "I thought I might have missed you and I wanted to discuss our date tonight." He let the door close behind him, smirking suggestively as he bent down to kiss me.

However, before his lips could touch mine, a guttural snarl ripped through the air and I watched, shocked, at the play of events before me. Jacob, shaking violently, lunged toward David though before he could reach him one of his friends tugged him back with abandon, dropping his cell phone in the process whilst the other barrelled himself between me and David. Everything seemed to go so fast and it seemed that in the moment I had lost my balance from being so violently separated from David and began falling to the ground, a thousand things happened. Jacob's shaking became uncontrolled and terrifying, David slammed into the door behind him and was flung forward as said door was flung open once more, Jacob lunged toward David a second time only to be restrained by both his friends who were fighting a losing battle in attempting to contain him and, finally, I hit the ground.

"Oomph," I gasped, landing ungracefully on my bum.

And that was how I remembered it; all the events leading to this moment where I had a gigantic pain in my arse and a head so befuddled and confused that I barely registered my surroundings.

A/N: Chapter Two's almost finished ;)