First off, thank you for giving this story a shot. I'm not expecting it to be too terribly long and I've already got it all mapped out. I will try my very best to keep chapters flowing.
Another thing, A lot of stuff is different in this story than the twilight universe beyond the fact that it's a Jake and Bella story. one, Bella doesn't know the Cullen's are vampires. Two, Jake phases months before this. Three, Bella did not experience her tragic depression. There are many more, but these are the most important ones.
Enjoy!
A Different Dawn
Chapter One
Bella Swan's life had been one of the completely mundane. She didn't do sports, she hated shopping, and she wasn't one to completely engross herself in romantic relationships.
She had been in one relationship. She was with Edward Cullen for a while. She wouldn't say she loved him, she didn't know him well enough for that, but she liked him. He was gentleman and a bit witty, but he was very closed off, guarded. He wouldn't let her in. She would question him about his family, his interests, and any friends he had and he would be amazingly vague. He only wanted to talk about her, like he was trying to see inside of her head.
He would give her weird looks that her friend Mike had made jokes about, saying he looked at her like she was something to eat. She always laughed this off.
She didn't lust after Edward. He was so pale, even whiter than her, and he was so scrawny. She did love his tousled bronze hair, how it looked like he just rolled out of bed, and his eyes were very unique, a golden brown, more gold than brown. Sometimes they were black though and she'd ask if he was okay and he would shrug it off.
He had invited her to have a little romantic evening with him on her eighteenth birthday, but she turned him down. She was sick of going on dates with him where he wouldn't eat anything, wouldn't open up to her, and she sure as hell would be lucky to get a chaste kiss from him. When she would push for more, he would push her away. She thought at first that maybe he had some skeletons in his closet that made him so distant and want to abstain from most physical contact. It was sad to think of, but this was her only conclusion.
Enough was enough. She broke it off with him and he was stone-faced about it. He only wished her the best in future relationships, but she wasn't sure if he was being sincere. She hoped he was, though. He had brought them to that place after all.
She was sad at their relationship ending, but she didn't let it hold her down. She didn't have much time to dwell anyways.
Him and his family left two days later with no notice, clearing out their house on the outskirts of town under the cover of the woods.
She could still remember what she was doing when that happened only because it was such a frightful experience. She had gone for a walk in the woods and got off the trail to look at wildlife babes. She got so turned around that she couldn't find the trail. She began to panic when she didn't recognize any of the woods around her and twisted her ankle on a tree root. She never considered herself graceful, but she didn't consider herself to be a klutz either.
She tried to walk on her foot but it was useless. She was stuck under that tree for hours upon hours. She became so sleep deprived, hoping to catch a glimpse of some human hiking nearby. She was starved, having not eaten since the morning she went hiking. She was dehydrated and she was in a lot of pain in her ankle. Soon, all of this took its toll on her and she laid down in the soaked grass, gazing at the cloudy sky as rain drizzled on her.
She began to sing to herself a sweet little chorus from when she was a small child and her mother would try to sing her to sleep.
More hours passed and the cloudy sky turned dark and stars started to show themselves. Everything after that was hazy. She was awake, but also very loopy, very physically ill.
All she could remember was someone calling her name, but she had lost to strength to answer, and then the next thing she knew was she was at home, sleeping on the couch.
Charlie had demanded answers for her disappearing into the woods like that. After eating and drinking plenty, she told him her tale of what happened in those woods. Her tale didn't sound believable, but he could see she wasn't lying. She had no poker face and he would know immediately if she was hiding something.
He was used to her being open with him. She never had anything to hide. If he asked her a question, she answered honestly unless she thought it would hurt his feelings, like when he bought a pair of Mariners shoes and asked her what she thought. Though she wanted to say they were a ridiculous waste of money and were burning holes in her retina, she told him they showed team spirit. It wasn't quite a lie, but she still held her tongue to a degree.
She threw herself into many things. She worked her job like she did before and went to school regularly, but now, she started doing other things like volunteering at the homeless shelter on Saturday mornings and tutoring others at her school. She didn't have many people she would classify as friends, mostly just Angela Weber and her boyfriend, Ben Cheney. Ben was a football player, but stuck more to Angela's crowd.
They were quite a strange mix; two jocks, two nerds, a runway wannabe, a photography geek, and Miss. Forks High. While Ben was a football player, Mike was the star basketball athlete of the school. Angela wanted a career in photography. Eric was in every intellectual club the small town school had to offer. Tyler didn't fit into any category other than he was a real slacker. Lauren was too busy looking in her mirror to take time to even try to show if she had any brains under all those blonde strands and layers of makeup. Jessica was a different story, though. She was the girl so many girls wanted to be like and a lot of guys wanted to date. She was a natural beauty, sweet, funny, and very smart. She didn't have to try hard to be a straight A student. It just came naturally. She was on the Student Council and was a member of the cheer squad, but not quite the captain.
It was no shock that she caught Mike's eye and they had been together for well over a year.
Bella was envious of Jessica, but not for the attention or her boyfriend. She envied that everything came so easy to Jessica. She never had to try to fit in, unlike Bella.
She liked to call what she suffered from as both mild social awkwardness and anxiety for overwhelming social situations.
Until she got over those issues, she would be content with herself and enjoy her life as it was, normal and average.
"You so did not!" Jessica screeched out as Tyler laughed.
"I did." Ben laughed at this as his arm went around Angela's shoulder.
"And what did your dad think of you toilet papering his house?" Bella snickered at this banter as she poked at her salad.
It was lunch time on their first day back from winter break and Tyler was weaving his tale of how he toilet papered his dad's house when he was staying with his mom. He wouldn't say it, but he was pissed that his dad walked out on his mom.
"Dumbass has no idea it was me." Bella normally wouldn't condone behavior like this, but the way Tyler had described it was funny.
"He still have a rod iron pole up his ass?" She asked teasingly and he chortled happily.
"As always!" Everyone laughed except for Ben who rolled his eyes.
"Go ahead. Keep dogging on your dad." Tyler scowled at him.
"Oh, yeah? Like your dad is so perfect. Tell us what your dad has done lately." Ben looked nervous as he cleared his throat.
"Actually, speaking of my dad, my mom is making him get rid of his bikes." Bella was surprised to hear this. Ben was also going on about how in love his dad was with his antique bikes.
"What, why?" Mike asked, astonished.
"She thinks they represent a mid-life crisis and wants them gone. He's not sure what to do with them. He can't just sell them. They don't run and there aren't many mechanics around that he could scrap them to. Do you guys have any idea what to do? Mom is turning the house into a battlefield over those hunks of junk." Everyone went silent for a minute and Bella thought about this.
Technically, she did know a mechanic by the name of Jacob Black. She hadn't seen him since her birthday when he brought her a surprise birthday gift to her school, an authentic Native American dreamcatcher. She thought it was so sweet of him, even though they had barely even talked.
She liked Jacob. He was sweet and funny and they got to talk a bit when they first met, at First Beach.
"I know someone who might want them." She spoke up and all eyes went to her, shock flashing across every last one.
"Really? I didn't think you hung out with bikers?" Jessica asked, not meaning to sound offensive.
"Oh, no, not like that. I have a family friend who is a mechanic. Well, he doesn't really practice. He does jobs for locals who can't afford to go to a shop. He is second generation. His dad was a mechanic before his health got too bad." She gave out a short description of the young mechanic from the reservation.
"You think this mechanic would want them?" She shrugged a bit.
"I'm not sure. I know Jacob likes to rebuild cars. I don't know how much experience he has with bikes, but his dad only gets social security so I'm sure he'd be willing to take them if only to fix them to sell for some cash." She shrugged a bit, not even completely sure if he would want them.
"Well, if he wants them, he can have them for free. As long as they are gone." Bella nodded with a small smile.
"I can pick them up after school and take them to him if you want." Ben was eager for this. He was so glad his house wouldn't be a war zone anymore.
Bella was surprised by the sight of the bikes and how they seemed to be rather difficult for a guy as bulky as Ben to lift into the bed of her truck.
His breath was ragged after he finished loading them and Angela ran to him worried.
"Babe, are you okay?" He nodded as he cracked his knuckles.
"Yeah, those thing are really heavy." Bella felt bad that she couldn't help her friend load them, but there wasn't much she could do. She wasn't a bodybuilder or an athlete. There was no way she could have lent him a hand even if she had wanted to.
"I hope Jacob will be able to get them out." Bella said aloud and her two friends nodded.
"Let us know how it goes, okay?" Angela asked and Bella nodded with a small smile.
"Of course. I'll call you later." They waved their goodbyes as Bella made her way to climb into her truck.
She made the short drive to the police station for one reason only.
She had absolutely no idea where the Black house was. Sure, she had visited there when she was a kid, but she had never been by herself and didn't remember how to get there.
A part of her felt bad. She had never tried to hang out with Jacob though he had expressed interest in the past. He made sure she knew the few times they saw each other that he wanted to be friends, but she never put forth the effort. It wasn't that she didn't want to, she really liked him, but a friendship with him didn't seem reasonable at the time.
If they spent time together, she would no doubt be the one going to see him and that would be a lot of money spent on gas. La Push was a good fifteen minute drive away which was about half a tank for one round trip.
As far as she knew, his car was still out of commission and he was trying to get it up and running. Until he did, it didn't seem like a plausible friendship. That didn't mean she couldn't pop by every once in a while to hang out for a day.
She swore this is what she would do. She figured he would love this idea.
She pulled up in front of the station and saw Charlie standing outside, chatting with another cop. Both of their eyes looked worried as they took in the two-wheel death machines in the bed of her truck.
She got out of her truck as the other police officer walked away and Charlie gave her a warning glare.
"Isabella Marie Swan, why are there two motorcycles in the back of your truck?" She put up her hands defensively. She knew how he felt about them. He saw motorcycles as an accident waiting to happen, especially for someone with as much bad luck as his daughter.
"I can explain. They aren't mine and they aren't for me. They don't even run, dad." She pushed out quickly to keep him from busting a vein in his forehead.
"Then why do you have them?"
"Ben's dad needs to get rid of them so I offered to see if Jacob would want to fix them up to sell. Ben had said something about one of them being worth a pretty penny." He looked surprised at her.
"You are taking them to Jake?" She nodded with a little flush.
"Except I can't remember where him and Billy live." She was embarrassed to admit this and Charlie found it comical.
"Bells, you haven't been to their house since you were five years old." She nodded in agreement.
"Which is why I came to you for directions." He looked over at the bikes irritatedly and groaned. He didn't like that she was going to give these bikes to a sixteen year old boy, but she was right about one thing. Selling them was a good idea and would bring much needed money into the Black household.
"I admit, I don't like this, but if Jake is just going to fix them to sell, I can't bellyache too much. Billy probably won't throw a fit about them either." She nodded, egging him on. "What are you going to do with them if Jake doesn't want them?" Charlie asked curiously and Bella looked back at the bikes.
"I'll probably take them to the dump. Ben's dad has tried selling them but no one wants them. I figured it would benefit both Ben and Jacob if he had the option to take them." Charlie saw her point and had no more protest.
"Alright, come in and I'll get it for you." Bella grinned big as Charlie escorted her into the station that was alive with horror. Anxiety filled the whole place. The tension was so thick it would shatter a knife that tried to cut it. Phones were ringing off the hook and there was yelling and shouting in corners.
"What's going on, dad?" She asked as they entered his office, every wall made of soundproof glass. More than likely, it was this way for private conversation.
"Some more dead hikers were found this morning." He admitted as he sat at his desk and she took a seat across from him.
"What? Where?" She asked, concerned.
"Out near Hollow's Pass." She knew of Hollow's Pass. It was in the woods at the edge of town heading towards Port Angeles. It was where a lot of the locals would go to camp.
"Will it be closed off now that it's getting so close to town?" He shook his head sadly.
"I have issued a warning of this wild animal issue, but not many want to hear about their safety. They think they can handle themselves. So did the Newton's." He whispered the last part, but she heard every last word.
"The Newton's? That's who was killed? Mike's parents?" Charlie sighed and nodded.
"I'm not supposed to say anything, but yes. We are keeping it quiet right now for his sake." She felt so terrible. A part of her felt like she should go to Mike, offer him some support, but her gut knew Jessica was probably doing the best that could be done.
"I'll keep my mouth shut about it. You have my word." He smirked proudly at her.
"I know you will." He took a deep breath and grabbed a pen and sticky note from his desk before going to jot down the Black address. "Here you go." He handed the sticky note over to her and she plastered it to the screen of her phone, shoving it in her pocket. "I might be working a double tonight with what happened so don't expect me home at any point. Just...be safe." She nodded and gave him a hug before she laugh. As she went to walk out of the station, she saw in an officer's office that Mike was sitting in front of the desk sobbing as Jessica held him.
Poor Mike.
Bella plugged the address into her GPS and followed the directions, at the beast's snail pace, to La Push.
She had forgotten how beautiful the beach was, how the trees bent with the wind, and how the air was so fresh the salt nearly burnt your nose.
She loved it. The place had a feeling of home radiating through the land. It was peaceful.
Bella followed the rubble street down to the dirt driveway leading to the red barn style home of the Black house. She noticed the beautiful purple flowers that lined the outside of the house and the yellow rose vines that ran up the trellis on the side of the house. The porch was covered in scuff marks and the windows were covered in dirt smears, but it was truly a beautiful home, one that had a 'mi casa es su casa' feel to it.
A sense of contentment and relaxation filled her as she pulled up to the garage that she could see the silhouette of a rather tall male inside. The interior was dark so there was very little she could see.
She slowly got out of the truck and stood there for a moment as the figure walked out of the garage, wiping his hands on a dirty rag.
Shock flew through her. This couldn't be Jacob Black. No, it was impossible. He looked too different, but yet he still looked the same.
Gone was the long, gorgeous strands he had sported since she came back to Forks. His hair was chopped off, maybe only an inch long. It was a little messy, going in every which way, but the style complemented his features. His face wasn't hidden anymore.
Thick eyebrows, long lashes, honey brown eyes, high cheekbones, defined jawline, and full, moist lips were all in full view.
He was no longer a boy. Jacob Black has gone from a lanky-ish kid to a man practically overnight.
He had thick, hard muscles that pool out of the sleeve of his shirt, covering his biceps and forearms and she could see the eight pack he had under his shirt and the hard pectorals.
She was never one to go all mushy minded over a guy, but damn, Jacob was not the boy she remembered anymore.
Her eyes met his and she felt the strangest thing ever. It was like a string had connected her gaze to his, holding them together. His eyes held hers, but she wasn't looking at him, she saw beyond those honey brown eyes of his.
She experienced flashes like a kaleidoscope of memories that had yet to pass. Memories of laughter, love, and enjoying life by his side.
No, she couldn't think of him like that. Jacob and herself weren't in a place for something like that, but still, those memories, they brought a shy smile to her face.
Subconsciously, she wanted those flashes to become true and to live them out.
Softly, she finally spoke.
"Hey, Jacob."
I really hope you like it so far. For the next update, Jake's reaction to Bella's arrival and the rest of her visit. Let me know what you thought of it.
Love you all,
Lina