A/N - I guess I should thank my sister-in-law for introducing me to the Twilight series. I know I'm late to the fandom, but Twilight wasn't even on my radar years ago when it first came out...I had other priorities...:) As much as I loved the Bella/Edward dynamic, I found that Jacob seemed to get the short-end of the stick. I also wasn't a fan of him imprinting on Renesmee. This story takes place after the events of Eclipse. You can completely forget about Renesmee cause she isn't going to exist in this Twilight world. Bella and Edward have gotten married and Bella has been turned into a vampire as was her plan long before she was married. You will see the Cullen's quite often in this story as they are important to the flow, but this will be Jacob-focused. This is not your usual imprint-happily-ever-after story. There will be twists and turns along the way...because let's face it - not all relationships are blue skies and rainbows.

But...please review!

The wipers flew back and forth over the windshield of the small hatchback. The torrential rain had been falling for at least twenty minutes obscuring the already difficult, winding La Push Road. It was sometime in the night and it made her trek through the unfamiliar Washington back roads even more difficult. Jo quickly looked down at the paper map that had been conveniently folded to the area she was currently in, yet in the darkness she could barely make it out. She picked it up and placed it on the steering wheel as she kept darting her eyes from the road to the map. She cursed the fact that she didn't have a GPS like most people did, but there wasn't enough time to worry about that at the time. Jo was happy enough to at least have been able to get an area map from the gas station in Forks before she left the town for La Push.

It was perfect. Going to La Push was never on her radar when she silently began to consider getting out of Michigan. If she told anyone that the idea came to her in a dream, they'd think she'd be nuts. But truth be told, her father had told her all about La Push as the place he was born and grew up when she was younger. She had forgotten all about it until a few nights ago. Being that it was in the middle of no where and on the otherside of the country, it was the perfect place to hide out before starting over. With her Quilleute features, there was no doubt that she'd fit in without drawing any attention to herself.

Sighing, she tossed the map over her shoulder into the pile of her clothing and belongings in the backseat. She knew she must be close. After all, La Push Road couldn't go on forever. She'd hit the ocean eventually.

Jo smiled to herself. She had never seen the Pacific Ocean. Hell, she had never seen any ocean. Having lived in Michigan her entire life, the only body of water remotely large that she had ever seen was Lake Huron. As much as she had been told that seeing the ocean wouldn't be any different than looking at the lake, she was still excited. It made her impromptu trip across the country to hopefully find family whom she had never met a little more interesting. It also was a relief to be able to leave her old life of living hell back in Michigan. Jo would never to go back to that.

A sudden black shape on the road caused her to gasp and instinctively swerve the car left and then right, in an attempt to regain control on the slick asphalt. Except it never did. The tires squealed and managed to catch a small rut along the curb before it spun the vehicle until it rolled over on the roof and came to an abrupt stop in the muddy ditch. The glass windows blew out on impact as the sound of metal scratching along pavement echoed with her own screams until it was once again silent.

Jo opened her eyes and coughed. The airbags had gone off and were in the process of deflating. She went to push against it with her hands and oddly enough she found that they were raised above her head on their own volition.

She was upside down. Glass littered the ceiling, or what now would be considered the floor. Her hair hung above her as she twisted to look around. She could hear the rain falling outside of the car and water and thick mud was seeping through the broken windows. The smell of gasoline filled the car and the slight smell of smoke coming from the engine. Jo winced as she turned her head and touched her forehead to find that it was wet.

Blood.

Damn it.

As much as she hated the sight of blood, she was at least glad that it was dark and she couldn't see it on her fingers.

As though it finally registered to her what had happened and what was going on, she quickly pulled at her seat belt in a panic only to find that it was stuck. As she wiggled in her seat, pain began to radiate from her leg. Carefully, she reached towards it and gasped when she found a sharp object protruding from the side of her thigh.

Jo felt herself get even more light headed and became sick to her stomach.

"Hey!"

She paused upon hearing a voice coming from outside.

"I'm coming down to help!"

Jo coughed once as she tried to respond but quickly tried again as she pounded her hands against the bent door beside her.

"I'm here!"

Within seconds she saw a pair of worn and muddy running shoes appear in the bent and broken window beside her. The owner bent over and looked through the small space and met her eyes. His short cropped hair dripped water over his brow. Jo was too focused on the pain in her leg to even notice that the guy was wearing shorts and didn't even have a coat on in this weather, let alone how he came to find her on the side of a deserted road in the middle of the night. At the moment, she didn't care. She was relieved that she wasn't alone. After all, she didn't have her cell phone with her.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"The seatbelt is stuck," Jo exclaimed, as she pulled on it again. "I can't get out!"

"And you're bleeding too," the guy commented gesturing at her forehead. "Did you hit your head?"

"Maybe," she replied, not entirely sure. "I have either a piece of glass or metal sticking out of my leg. It hurts like hell and it's bleeding quite a bit."

The guy looked towards where her legs disappeared in the darkness of the car. A flash of a thought passed over his features before he quickly stood up and inhaled. Not only was the scent of gasoline very noticeable but he detected a hint of smoke coming from the engine.

"Shit," he muttered, realizing that the situation suddenly became more dire. He'd need help and fast.

Jo heard him swear.

"What? What's going on?"

The guy didn't answer but crouched back downs again to look at her. "I have to get you out of there."

"It's bad, isn't it?"

He didn't answer but nodded.

"I need to get help though. If you're bleeding, I'm going to need some help to get you out of there."

"What? No! Please, don't leave me here."

The guy shook his head. "I'm not going to leave you. I'm just going to quickly head up the road a bit to get a better cell reception. I promise that I'll keep the car in my sight. Just give me a few minutes and I'll be right back."

What other choice did she have.

Jo nodded before she reached her hand out through the small opening between the remnant of the car window and the muddy ground. The guy paused before he held her hand.

Jo realized that she must have been colder than she thought. The guy's hands were so warm.

"I'm Embry," he told her, with a smile.

"Jo," she replied quickly.

"I'll be right back, Jo," Embry told her. "I promise."

After giving her hand a light squeeze, he let go and quickly stood up. Embry climbed out of the ditch, his feet slipping slightly on the muddy sides and stood up on La Push road. The rain continued to fall as he looked in both directions, knowing that there was no traffic coming from either direction for at least a good few miles. Giving a quick glance to the overturned car on the side of the road, he darted into the forest. After quickly pulling off his clothes, he phased.

"Embry! You bastard!" came the first thoughts into his head from Paul. "Where the hell did you go? You just phased out without warning. You just can't do that man."

"You know the rules," Sam added, his voice full of authority in his head.

Paul had been assigned to run the perimeter of La Push land. Embry had taken the northern and eastern side towards Forks while Paul ran along the oceanfront and to the south. When Embry had suddenly disappeared from his thoughts for more than a few seconds, Paul had quickly raced to Sam's, as it was their procedure if any of them had phased out without letting the others know what was going on.

Instead of telling them, Embry showed them exactly where he was and what was going on.

Sam quickly gave out the orders. He turned and headed back to Emily's house to call 911. Paul stopped running and let out a howl, alerting the other pack members within La Push to head to Embry's position. Embry had phased into his wolf form for only a minute before he was standing on two legs once again and putting back on his clothing. It had been enough to get out his message and he knew that it would be enough for them to organize help.

As he ran back to the car, he could see that smoke was coming more and more from the overturned car. He jumped down from the side of the road right into the ditch this time, not bothering to stop until he was laying flat on the ground at Jo's eye level. The coolness of the thick mud seeped into his shirt, but that was the least of his problems. He smiled, eager to tell Jo that help was on the way when he noticed that her eyes had closed.

A sudden surge of panic raced through him as he reached his large arm through the crushed window. Embry carefully placed his fingers on her neck to feel for a pulse when Jo suddenly gasped and her eyes opened.

Embry let out a sigh of relief and smiled weakly. "Thank God. You are alive."

Jo nodded weakly and turned her head towards him, her eyes barely open. "I'm just tired."

Embry wasn't a doctor but he knew enough from listening to Sue Clearwater that falling asleep with a possible concussion was never a good thing.

"Hey! No sleeping! Help is on the way."

"I wasn't sleeping," Jo argued drowsily. "I was just closing my eyes for a few minutes."

"No eye closing either," Embry stated. "Talk to me. It'll make our waiting for help go by faster."

"What do you want to know?"

"How about, what you're doing in La Push for starters," Embry said. "We don't get too many visitors."

Not willing to devulge the truth to a complete stranger, she went with what was the most sensible.

"My father was Quilleute," she told him. "He was born out here."

Embry took a closer look at Jo in the darkness. As keen as his eyes were at seeing in the dark, he hadn't noticed that her features were Native American. Her complexion was just a shade lighter than his own but her eyes were clearly not dark brown, like all the Quielleute's he knew. As for her hair colour, he couldn't be certain. Her hair was a mix of water and mud that she could have been a dirty blond for all he knew.

"Seriously? What's his name?"

"His name was Michael Clearwater."

Embry brightened. "Clearwater? No way! I know some Clearwater's on the Rez. I bet that I know him."

Jo closed her eyes again and shook her head. "He left La Push when he was nineteen or twenty and never returned. He married my Mom out in Michigan who was as Irish as they come."

"Irish, huh? That explains your lack of pure Quilleute qualities," Embry teased with a smirk. "But don't worry, I still wouldn't leave you here on your own even if you didn't have a drop of Quilleute blood in you."

"And here I thought you'd abandon me due to having insufficient Quilleute genes," Jo said sarcastically before letting out a chuckle. She coughed painfully afterwards, which caused Embry's smile to fade.

Where the hell are they?

As that thought flitted through his mind, he smelled something.

"Hold on one second," he said to Jo, before pushing himself up to stand.

A sweet, sickly smell that could only belong to a vampire entered the area. A growl erupted in the back of his throat as he scanned the dark forest. He knew the smell of Jo's blood would attract any of them and the events from the newborn vampire army were still fresh in his memory. He didn't want to traumatized Jo more than she already was. She was already on the verge of going into shock and he didn't want to be the one to cause her to go over the edge. It wasn't until he heard the sound of a car engine and then the turn of headlights that he knew who he was actually smelling.

The Cullen's.

The car came to a stop and he saw the familiar head of Dr. Cullen overtop of the car as he climbed out of the driver's seat. He wasn't alone. From the passenger seat, the large vampire whom they only knew as Emmett, stepped out.

At that same moment, he smelled something more familiar blowing up from across the road. The pack. Except it was Dr. Cullen who approached him first as the pack was in the process of quickly phasing back and getting dressed.

"You're on our land, leach," Embry snapped.

"Sam called me," Dr. Cullen replied flatly, placing his bag on the muddy ground before making his way over towards the driver's side of the car. "He said that there was an accident. The ambulance from Forks is still ten minutes away and from what I can tell, the driver has lost a lot of blood and may not last that long."

Embry put his rough hand on Dr. Cullen's shoulder and stopped him from coming closer, still unable to trust the man despite their peaceful history. Emmett growled from where he stood as Embry glared at him.

"Embry!" Sam exclaimed, as he suddenly came from across the road with Paul at his side. Jared, Quil, Seth and Leah followed. When he approached the hostile shape shifter as he confronted Dr. Cullen, Sam continued. "Dr. Cullen can help us here. We've helped them in the past and they have agreed to assist us when we need it and right now, we need it."

Embry kept his eyes on Emmett.

"Why is the big leach here?"

"Emmett is merely here as a precaution," Carlisle told him, sincerely.

"And also due to the fact that I don't trust you mutts," Emmett added.

A round of growls erupted from the pack.

"Now that we have that out of the way, there is someone who needs my attention," Carlisle said hotly.

He was never one to raise his voice but he had grown impatient. He could hear the young woman's heart beating quickly and he realized that shock from lack of blood was starting to set in.

Embry dropped his hand from Carlisle's shoulder. The moment he had let go, Carlisle walked around him and bent over before he knelt down in the mud to look inside the car. The overwhleming aroma of blood hit him like a wall, but after all his years of working in the medical field, it no longer called to him. But it never changed how he was naturally attuned to it.

"What's her name?!" Carlisle called over his shoulder towards Embry.

"Jo," Embry replied. "Jo Clearwater."

"Clearwater?"

They all heard Seth speak aloud and although no one voiced it, they all were thinking it. The pack glanced at each other, exchanging words within unspoken expressions. No one knew of a Jo Clearwater but hearing the name and associating her as possibly one of their own caused the pack to become more protective. And it clearly explained to Sam why Embry was so defensive of Dr. Cullen approaching the car when they arrived.

"Being upside down has prevented her from bleeding out," Dr. Cullen said over his shoulder. "But she needs to get out of the car if I'm going to have a chance of saving her life."

Sam nodded as Quil spoke up.

"We have a bigger problem."

He gestured to the underside of the car where a flame began to errupt within the smoke that had been pouring from the engine.

"We have to move fast," Sam exclaimed, as he moved beside Dr. Cullen to look inside the vehicle.

"Is she awake?"

"Barely," Carlisle replied, looking to Jo.

"We have to get her out now," Sam said. "The car is on fire and if it gets to a fuel source, it'll be completely engulfed within seconds."

He looked to Jo, who seemed to have caught a few of his words.

"Jo, it's going to be painful to move you but we have to do it now," Sam said.

Jo never replied but nodded.

Sam looked back at the pack and noted that they were already around the side of the car, prepared to push it up enough to get Jo out of it. Emmett stood beside where Carlisle was still kneeling in the mud.

"If you protect her head and upper torso from hitting the roof of the car, I'll try to stabilize her leg and minimize any movement," Carlisle told Sam.

It sounded like a good plan and he nodded.

Within the next minute, the pack with Emmett's help, held up the side of the car while Sam and Carlisle ripped the seatbelt from across Jo's chest. After a lot of twisting and moving slowly, they had managed to get Jo out of the car. She cried out painfully with the movement. Sam quickly picked Jo up and moved her across the road before laying her down on the leafy forest floor. Carlisle followed beside him.

"Emmett, get that blanket from the back of the car," Carlisle said as he put his fingers to Jo's neck to check her pulse.

As the large vampire quickly darted, Sam turned to the pack and ordered them to leave. Having so many people at the scene at that time of night would raise too many questions. After some hesitation on their part, they disappeared into the forest, yet both Carlisle and Sam knew that the wolves weren't too far away.

Jo startled upon feeling the coldness of Carlisle's finger touch her cool, clammy skim. Her eyes opened once again, although she was no where near being fully conscious.

"Jo?" Carlisle said, speaking loudly and directly to her as Emmett returned with the blanket. "Can you tell me how old you are?"

She swallowed and spoke, barely audibly. "Eighteen."

"Good," he said, happy to hear a cognitive response. His eyes travelled along her torso, looking for any visual signs of trauma. He pulled up her shirt sleeves, searching for injuries but only found bruising along her forearms. He had enough medical knowledge to know that they were not inflicted in the accident. He didn't voice this concern and continued his quick assessment before turning to the major issue - the large piece of glass protruding from the side of her left thigh.

"Sam, I need your belt," Carlisle told him.

Sam didn't even bother to ask why and quickly undid it before passing it to the doctor. He pulled it under her leg and looped the belt through the buckle before looking at Sam.

"This is going to hurt," he cautioned him. "Hold onto her arms for me."

Sam nodded, as he grabbed ahold of each of Jo's hands tightly within his own.

The moment that belt tightened around her leg, Jo let out a scream that echoed throughout the forest. Sam could feel his inner wolf whimper at hearing the painful sound.

"Jo, Jo," Carlisle said, as soothingly as he could. "It's all right. You're going to be all right."

The sudden sound of a whoosh caught their attention. Behind them, the small car was engulfed in flames. The light of the fire reflected off their faces before Carlisle turned back to Jo's leg now that it was wrapped in a tournequet.

"The glass is in quite deep," Carlisle told them gently touching around it yet not touching the glass itself. "She'll have to have surgery to have it removed."

"She'll live?" Sam asked.

Carlisle nodded. "But the sooner she gets the hospital the better. I'm not only concerned about her leg but also a possible concussion. We have to keep her awake until I can get her there."

In the distance, they could hear sirens and lights reflecting down the road. When Carlisle looked back at Jo, he saw that her eyes had closed.

"No," he gasped, reaching for her pulse, finding that it was racing.

"Jo, you can't sleep," Sam stated loudly as the ambulance came to a stop by the road. He shook her shoulders.

Emmett had raced towards the EMS and gestured to where they were as the fire in the car ragged on.

"Wake up!"

Jacob jolted awake and opened his eyes.

He blinked once, then twice, taking in his surroundings. He was almost certain that he had phased back to human before falling asleep, but aparantly he hadn't. It was still night. He looked up at the dark sky and saw the northern lights dancing across the horizon. Laying his head back down on the grassy patch near a small river, he closed his eyes once again. Jacob couldn't remember the last time he had slept so well. He had been running for days through the Northwest Territories until he found that he couldn't run any further. He had to rest. Jacob couldn't remember the last time he had phased back to human form. It could have been days for all he knew. As odd as it was to admit, he felt more comfortable being on four legs. His problems and issues in life didn't seem as big to him. It was also a nice relief to not have the pack in his head all the time. Their complaining about his odd infatuation with a certain young woman who clearly didn't want to be with him and instead wanted a vampire, aggrevated him to no end. Now, on his own he could wallow in his own self-pity.

Bella.

She was constantly in his thoughts. But oddly enough, the pain in his chest had dimished to a dull ache. It had been a good couple of months since he left home and he knew that he had missed the wedding. As much as he hoped he was wrong, he predicted that there was a very good chance that by now, she'd no longer be human. She would now be considered his natural enemy. It made him sick to his stomach. But he also realized that she had made her choice and there wasn't anything he could have done to change it. She had chosen 'him'.

The wind direction changed slightly and blew over the water of the river before coming ashore. It blew through his thick russet fur, and he inhaled when his keen nose caught the scent. It certainly wasn't the sickly scent of a vampire nor was it from any of his pack members. It wasn't like anything he had smelled before. It was refreshing and enticing; a mixture of cucumber and sweet melon. Jacob closed his eyes and took a deep breath as the wind blew over him once again.

'Jacob.'

His human eyes shot open upon hearing a voice speak his name in his dream. Yet, he was alone and he most certainly had phased to human, as he thought he had. It was simply a dream. As his mind thought back to the unusual dream he just had, he remembered that voice and that smell. He didn't recognize it at all.

Jacob ran his hand through his dark hair, finding that it had grown to a considerable length since he had left. It hung haphazardly over his eyes. Still, that voice remained in his head. He stood up and made his way towards the bank of the river to wash his face.

He wondered what the hell was going on. Perhaps he had been alone for too long and was starting to hear things. This was something that he'd most certainly have heard from one of his father's stories over the years. But he couldn't recall any such instances.

Thinking of Billy made him feel guilty for leaving the man high and dry without someone to look after him. For the first time since he had left, Jacob realized how selfish he had been to just take off like he had. Billy had always supported him and had been there for him when he had come home in a fevered state and was panicking when he didn't realize what was going on with him. His father was probably worried sick about him.

The wind blew once again and he inhaled. That scent still existed in his memory. It truly was just a dream, yet he wished to God that it wasn't. It was comforting and oddly enough he found that it aided in dimishing the pain in his chest. If the spirits were trying to comfort him and give him hope, it was working. Perhaps it was sign. A sign to him that Bella was all right and hadn't been turned into a vampire. And maybe, just maybe she hadn't gotten married.

Jacob stood up along the bank of the river and closed his eyes. The feeling within him was strange and he hadn't felt it before today. It was as though something within him had turned on; an internal compass. It was telling him where to go. It wasn't just a desire. It was a desperation and as much as it scared him, it thrilled him. He knew where he was being directed to go.

La Push