The Day the Music Died

-Don McLean "American Pie"

She was trying to keep up but her legs were so much shorter than the others' legs. She kept tripping and falling, trying to keep pace, but each time she fell behind the others would step on her as if she was nothing more than a stepping-stone. Finally, the wolves got so far ahead that she was unable to catch up and Bella collapsed on the ground exhausted.

It was there, lying in the mud of the forest floor that the man found her battered body. He was tall and thin, those were the only defining things about him, the only things that stayed the same. His hair color, skin tone, even his eyes and facial features were constantly changing. Bella felt that were this not a dream it would be hard to gaze upon the man.

He knelt next to her on the ground and softly stroked the feathers on her back. "Little swan," he murmured, "did no one tell you not to run with wolves when you are not a wolf yourself?"

Bella shook her head and tried to speak. Tried to tell him that the wolves needed her that she protected them, but no words would come.

It didn't matter that she could not vocalize her thoughts the man seemed to understand her all the same. His laugh shook Bella's small frame. "Little bird," he said, "if you want to protect the wolves then you shouldn't be running with them. Instead you should be soaring above them and warning them of the dangers that lie ahead of them."

Of course, she thought, how foolish she had been to run when she had wings. She shook her wings out and gave them an experimental flap. She could do this she could fly. She flapped her wings harder, but nothing happened. Frustrated she fully freed herself from the man's grasp and took a running start, madly flapping her wings the entire time. Yet flight continued to elude her.

The man laughed once more and picked her up. This time as he stroked the feathers on her back she felt the cuts and bruises she had gained from the wolves disappear and saw the dirt and mud that once clung to her fall to the ground.

"I could teach you how to fly little bird. I just can't do it alone. I could teach you how to fly little bird, and so much more, but you will have to leave the wolves behind."

He was much more overjoyed than she was that today was their three month anniversary. He had gone all out. Dressed in his nicest, cleanest shirt, he had taken her to dinner at the only restaurant in town. At the very least, she felt his was a nice change of pace from eating sandwiches in his garage.

Jake lowered his menu and gave her one of his silly happy grins. "This is great, isn't it Bells? Just you and me."

She gave him a small smile back. "Yeah Jake, this is great."

He smiled again, then, went back to looking at his menu. Bella glanced down at her menu too, but the words were meaningless as she escaped into the turmoil in her head. She did not love Jake. Not the way he wanted her to. He had healed her. Fixed the hole left in her heart by her last boyfriend who had cruelly left her alone on the forest floor filled with thoughts of being unwanted. Jake had her heart covered in patches made from his goofy grins and sunny personality.

She owed it to him to try to love him. She could do that. Do this. Pretend to love him the way he deserved, the way he wanted. There were worse things than loving your best friend and with any luck, she would learn to think of him as more than a friend with time.

Bella was so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't notice when the waitress got to the table. When Bella finally glanced up the first thing she saw was the waitress eyeing Jake up like a prime choice of meat and Bella planned to say something about keeping her eyes to herself. Then she looked at Jake. His face was one of pure awe, as though he had never seen anything as amazing and beautiful as that waitress.

Although mere seconds ago, she'd thought how much she did not love Jake, Bella could feel her heart breaking. All those little patches Jake had used to heal her simply disintegrated. Walking away from the table, out of the restaurant, and into the driver's side of her beat up old truck she was ashamed of the tears that flowed freely down her face.

Come on Bella, she thought as she stared out the windshield at the offensive restaurant. Why must I be so selfish? This should be a wonderful time for Jake. He's found his soul mate. I should be happy for him; it isn't as though I really loved him anyway.

With the tears, not stopping Bella decided that the best thing for everyone would be for her to put the restaurant as far behind her as possible. She didn't need Jake to see her crying. Putting the truck into drive Bella pulled out of the parking lot with no particular destination in mind. Her thoughts so disconnected from her actions that she was surprised when she found herself parked out front of a small house in La Push.

The house reminded her of her truck with its weathered paint and a look that said it could survive anything because it had already been through so much. Bella groaned when she saw the front door of the house open and a man start to walk up to her truck. Of course, he knew she was there. With the noise her truck made all of La Push, not to mention Washington, probably knew she was there.

The man knocked on her window so she rolled it down. He had long dark brown hair and an unshaven face. The sheer of amount of hair he had combined with his bulky frame gave Bella the impression of a bear.

He smiled at her, an open friendly grin with lots of teeth, before saying, "My son says that you're here to hurt him and that we should pretend we're not home." He glanced back at the house then looked Bella up and down. "You're such a tiny thing and my son is so large that I would certainly be interested in seeing you try to harm him." He laughed a little. "Not that I don't love my son, but you would be like a fly to him."

Bella doesn't know this man and she certainly doesn't know his son, but she felt like this was where she should be. Here the pain from Jake's imprinting was nothing more than a dull ache that she could easily ignore.

Still smiling the man says, "You should come inside. I won't bite."

Bella opened up the truck door and hoped out. What was the worst that could happen in La Push? He walked slightly ahead of her up to the porch and then opened the front door for her. Comfortable was the first thing she thought when she walked into the living room and saw the giant worn couch with a big screen TV almost too big for the room situated in front of it.

In an armchair a little off to the side, she saw Paul who looked less than pleased to see her. "Leech lover," he sneered, "where's the lover boy alpha?"

The man she now knew to be Paul's father pointed her at the couch. "Sit down and make yourself at home and feel free to hit my son should the need arise. He probably deserves it."

Paul narrows his eyes at his dad before giving out a loud sigh of frustration. "Geeze dad, you could at least pretend you like me."

Bella sat down on the couch and thought to herself how odd the entire situation was. She was crying outside over Jake and now she was sitting on the most volatile shape shifter's couch.

"You know I like you son. I just think you need to be knocked around a little." Bella could tell that the two men were merely joking with one another and somehow listening to their banter was helping to keep her relaxed. Bella watched as Paul's dad threw a pillow at Paul, forcing him to move out of the armchair and over to the couch next to Bella.

When Paul looked at her and smiled, the sudden realization that with the exception of when she first got there this was probably the first time Paul wasn't being a complete jackass to her hit her. She briefly wondered if this was the real Paul and the Paul she saw when they were with the pack was simply a façade, but Bella quickly dismissed that idea as being ridiculous.

"Bella, it was nice to meet you," Paul's dad said, "but unfortunately I have work tomorrow and I'm not as young as I once was. Need my sleep these days." He moves to pat Paul on the shoulder and smiles once more. "I leave you in the capable hands of my son." He gives Paul a look that mystifies Bella, but must mean something to Paul before heading up the stairs.

They sit in silence for a few minutes before Bella felt the need to tell Paul everything that had happened that night. "Jake imprinted," she blurted out.

Paul didn't look surprised and the smile didn't fade from his face. "Bound to happen eventually." He shrugged his shoulders. "You knew what you were getting into when you started dating him. You had to know his imprinting was a possibility."

He was right, of course. She had known that Jake could imprint and leave her at any second she'd just never thought it would actually happen. Paul got up from the couch, turned on the TV, and placed a movie in the DVD player, then walked out of the room while the movie started up.

It slightly irritated Bella that Paul dismissed Jake's imprinting so easily. It irritated her even more to realize that his dismissal made sense. It was never a secret that her and Jake's relationship was fairly one sided and she had always been painfully aware of the risks that came with dating a shape shifter.

When Paul returned to the room, he had a blanket with him. "You looked cold," he explained as he wrapped the blanket around Bella and sat back down on the couch.

Bella wasn't certain what movie they were watching since she couldn't seem to focus on the movie for too long. Her thoughts kept straying to either Jake or Paul. Jake was destined to be the leader of the La Push shape shifters one day. It was foolish to think that he needed her, a girl he hadn't even imprinted on, a girl who loved him as a sister would a brother and not as the lover, he deserved.

Then there was Paul. Paul hated Bella she knew this to be truth. Paul's hatred of all things Bella was common knowledge. Yet here he sat next to her with barely a harsh comment from him since she had walked through the door, his calling her leech lover all but forgotten. He almost seemed happy she was there and in the back of her head, Bella realized that she was happy she was there too.

She knew she was upset about Jake. That the hole in her heart had opened back up into a gaping wound. She might not have loved Jake, but she did need him in her life and his imprinting would take him from her. Leave her alone once more. Yet Bella couldn't feel the pain of all that. Especially when halfway through the movie, Paul put his hand on her knee and all thoughts of Jake left her for the rest of the night. She might be broken once more, but in this place, it wasn't important.

When the movie ended, a comedy Bella now vaguely recalled from when she was younger, Paul got up from the couch to stand in front of her. She was briefly embarrassed to realize she missed his hand on her knee. Paul appraised her for a few minutes, and Bella got the impression that he was checking for wounds and she wanted to laugh. Her wounds weren't physical.

Bella was the one who broke the silence. "Thank you Paul." He continued to stare at her, the air filling with a slight tension that she felt the need to break. "Thank you for helping me forget." He nodded at her but did not move from his spot above her.

It was starting to make Bella uncomfortable so she stood up too. When she was standing in front of him, barely any space between them, Paul reached out his hand and touched Bella's face. She was so uncertain what was happening that had he not wrapped his other hand firmly around her upper arm she would have bolted. Bella could feel her heart beating so fast it might have been trying to escape and her arm tingled where Paul was touching it. He took a step closer, effectively eliminating what little space there had been, and Bella got the crazy idea in her head to kiss him.

Had Bella been in her right mind she probably would have wondered why she was kissing a man who, by all accounts, hated her, only hours after essentially getting dumped by the man who, despite her lack of strong feelings for him, made her whole, and why this all seemed to be all right by her. However, this moment filled with comfort and forgetting had caught her up too much for her to care.

The word rebound floated in Bella's thoughts for all of a second before Paul's kisses chased it away. He was strong and demanding but not forceful, and his very touch left Bella feeling amazing. All thoughts of anything not Paul and what he was now doing with his roaming hands fled Bella as he all but carried her up the stairs, down the hallway, and into his bedroom, where frantic kisses turned into something more.