Chapter 1

No Means "No"

I could hear him coming a mile away. Not only were Jacob's thoughts loud, but they were obnoxious. I'd never really much cared for him, but he's been good to our Renesme; I couldn't ask for a better protector for her. I relished in the thought that Bella was oblivious to the surprise visit her childhood friend was paying us. I thought it was good for her not to be able to know, so that she would be surprised when he showed up. I also thought it was good that she had no idea why he was gracing us with his presence this morning. I did, and I wasn't happy about it, either.

There was a loud knock on the door. Bella stopped what she was doing and answered it. "I wonder who that could be this early in the morning." She opened the door, and, sure enough, standing there in all his tall glory, was Jacob. Bella's jaw dropped, stunned, and she screamed, "Jacob! What a pleasant surprise! Edward didn't tell me you were coming. Please, come in!" He walked into the house and, because he was so tall, he had to duck when he walked through the door. "Renesme isn't home right now. Can I get you something? Something to drink, eat maybe?" she said with a slight smile. Jacob was always hungry; being a wolf did that to him.

"No, thank you. I'm fine, Bella. Um, I actually came to talk to Edward. Could you leave us alone for bit?" Bella looked confused, but smiled politely and left the house.

When he knew she was at a safe distance so she couldn't hear us, he sat down on the couch, facing me. Before he could even open his mouth to say anything, I interjected. "No. Out of the question. Absolutely not."

"Why?" he asked.

"Why? Because she's only ten years old, Jacob! How many ten year olds do you know that are married?"

"Well, none I guess, but… what does that matter? She doesn't look like she's ten, so no one will know. Plus…I love her. Doesn't that count for anything?"

I just glowered at him from over the tops of my eyes. "Jacob, I've grown to like to you. And I know you love Renesme, and I know she loves you; I know that you're meant to be together." I paused and took a deep breath. "But, whether she looks her age or not, she's still only ten years old. And my answer is still no. End of discussion." I got up from my seat and walked over to the front window and stared out at nothing. I knew what he thought of me. He was angry and upset. But I thought He's young; he'll get over it. I didn't have to turn around and look to know that he had walked out the door.

Chapter 2

Why Can't He Understand?

I was pissed at Edward, to say the least. When he said no, I changed into my wolf form and ran through the forest as fast as I could to find Renesme. Running was always good for me; it helped to clear my head. I'd found her right where I'd left her. She looked so beautiful in the morning sun. Her skin didn't sparkle like the others; I'd kept forgetting that she was part human, as well. But she had that pale complexion that Bella had had while she was still human. And it looked stunning on her.

"So, what did he say?" she asked as soon as I'd turned back and put some clothes on.

I turned around to face her. I didn't even have to answer, because she could tell by the look on my face what he'd said. She looked down at her hands, disappointed. "Maybe I should talk to him. Maybe he'll listen to me."

She was trying to find a way around this, and I loved her for that. "No, Renesme, don't. He'll say no to you, too. And because you're his daughter, when you ask him, not only will he say no, he'll throw you over his shoulder, take you to your room, duct tape you to a chair, put bars and reinforced steel over your windows, lock your door from the inside, and keep you there. Then he'd kill me; or worse, he'll try to find a way to keep me from seeing you." That made her smile; I loved making her smile. When she was happy, I was happy. And right now, neither of us was happy.

I sighed and got down on my knees in front of her. I took her hands in mine and lifted her chin to look at me. "There's only one way to do this." I smiled at her and said with a grin, "We're gonna have to elope."

We ran south to Las Vegas, but decided not to do it there, because that's what they'd be expecting. So we ran to the nearest airport and flew to Paris. "Just think," she said with a grin, "by this time, tomorrow we'll be Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Black."

I smiled at that and hoped that Edward wouldn't kill me too fast when he heard the news.

Chapter 3

I Oughta Kill That Boy!

Bella and I decided to take much needed vacation to be alone, for a change. Don't get me wrong, I love Carlisle and Esme; I just wish our family wouldn't come over so much. We'd left the day Jacob had asked to marry Renesme, and now we were sitting outside in the sun on Isle Esme, without having to worry about anyone seeing us.

We were only gone for about three days, when I sensed something was different. Bella saw the look of confusion on my face and asked what the matter was. I told her, "I have this feeling that something is wrong. I think we should go home." She said ok, and we left immediately.

When we arrived back home, the cottage was dark and Renesme wasn't there. I opened the door and walked inside. I saw a note on the kitchen table; it was from Renesme.

Dear Mom and Dad,

By the time you read this, I will already be gone with Jacob. We asked for your permission to get married, and you refused. So now, we've taken matters into our own hands. We ran away and we're not telling you where we are. We want to be together, and if you can't understand that, then I'm sorry. I still love you both very, very much. But until you can realize that Jacob and I are meant to be together, and that we'll find a way to be together, we won't be in Forks. I'm sorry it had to be this way.

Love you always and forever,

Renesme

I was so upset, I was shaking. I crumpled the letter in my hand, and slammed it back down on the table so hard, that it shattered. I'd forgotten that I hadn't told Bella. She just stood there like a statue. If she were capable of crying, she would've had tears in her eyes. She looked at me like she was going to kill me and asked me, with acid dripping in her voice, "Why didn't you tell me, Edward? Why didn't you tell me that was the reason Jacob came here the other day? All thanks to you, we may never see our little girl ever again! We have to find them, Edward! We need to find them and bring them back home."

I didn't know what to say. For the first time in my life, I was terrified of Bella. I put my hands on her shoulders, looked into her eyes and reassured her. "Bella, calm down. Don't worry. We'll find them, bring them back home, and everything will be okay."

I took her in my arms and hugged her tightly. She nestled her head into my chest and said, "I hope so."

Chapter 4

I Am So Lost

I was so gung-ho about finding Jacob and Renesme, that I didn't stop to think of where they might possibly be. I had no idea where to even start looking. I couldn't ask Alice, because she can't see the future when it involves the wolves, and I couldn't hear them because they were too far away. I was utterly, completely, and hopelessly lost.

Suddenly I remembered: Seth! I could find Seth and ask him to sniff them out for me. He'll be able to tell me where they are! I'd tracked him down and asked him to meet me in the forest. When he got there, the minute he'd transformed, he ran up to me and gave me a big hug. "Edward! Long time, no see! It's great to see you again, man! Now, how can I help you?"

I had to go about this carefully; I didn't want the whole pack to know that Jacob and Renesme had run off together. I hadn't told him why I'd wanted to meet him out here. I invited him to sit down and began our conversation. "Seth, I have a favor to ask of you. Now, I don't want this to spread around the whole pack; I want your word that this will only stay between you and me. Got it?" He looked confused but nodded in agreement and said, "Yah."

I proceeded to tell him the whole fiasco that happened between Jacob and me and that they had eloped. "Seth, we need to find them and bring them back home. I need you to sniff them out and tell me where they are. Can you do this for me?"

He looked like he was deep in thought. Bella knew he was thinking and knew that I could hear, and she asked him, "Could you please think out loud so I can hear, too, please?"

Seth sighed and said, "Ok, here's the problem. On the one hand, I would love nothing more than to help you guys find them; I consider you guys two of my best friends. But on the other hand, Jacob is my pack brother, and I don't want to betray him. You guys know how imprinting works! When it's meant to be, love will find a way. So I've decided that, I'll sniff them out for you, but I won't tell you where they are, just which direction they've headed, understand?"

This was actually more than I had expected. Bella looked disappointed but understood why. She knew that we were asking a lot of Seth, and she was grateful that he was doing this much. I smiled and shook his hand, then gave him a hug. "Thank you, Seth. Thank you so much."

He transformed back into his wolf shape and immediately he was hot on some trail. We came to the edge of the forest and he stopped. He ran into the trees and transformed back to a human and told us, "This is as far as I'll lead you. They're headed in that direction. The rest is up to you. Good luck!"

I nodded my head in thanks and he turned back to a wolf and headed for home. I sighed and took Bella's hand and said, "Well, the hunt is on."

Chapter 5

The Hunt is On

I was still completely lost. Although Seth had pointed out the direction they had headed, they could be anywhere. Bella and I sat down and deduced where they might possibly go.

"Well," she said, "if I was a young couple, and I wanted to get married, and was going to get married whether my parents liked it or not, the first place I'd probably go would be Las Vegas."

Of course! I thought. Las Vegas! Sin City, the marriage capital of the world. "Oh, dear God," I said. "I hope they didn't go to one of those crazy little chapels where the preacher is dressed up like Elvis." Bella just laughed; at least she was laughing. I knew she was worried. She didn't like to show it, but I could tell. "Don't worry," I said as I gave her shoulder a light squeeze, "we'll find them. Everything will be okay."

Bella and I headed for the airport. When we got there, the first place we went to was the ticket counter. The lady behind the counter saw me and was just staring at me. Her thoughts were something to the effect of how I looked naked and how good I'd be in bed. They just made me laugh. Bella gave me a knowing look and didn't say a word. We approached the ticket counter and I leaned forward, just to flirt a little bit so we could get our information. "Hi, my name is Jackie. How may I help you today?" she asked with a smile.

"Hi, Jackie," I said as I leaned into the counter. "I have a question for you." I took out a picture of Jacob and Renesme and showed it to her. "Have you seen these two recently?"

She took the picture and examined it carefully. "Oh, yes," she said. "They were here just yesterday; I sold them their tickets."

"Could you possibly tell me where they were headed?"

"I'm sorry," she said, "but that's not information we can just give out."

"I see," I said as I looked down and thought of some excuse to get her to give me the information I needed. "Well, you see, here's the thing. These two are in big trouble; they're fugitives. We work for a detective agency and we really need to track them down." I could tell she was hanging on my every word. The way her eyes looked as she looked at me; they were all glazed over, like she wasn't really listening, like she was mesmerized by the sound of my voice, which was what I was trying to do, and it was working.

She didn't even ask for proper ID when she said, dazedly, "Oh, ok." She turned to her computer and began typing frantically. She looked up the record and when she found it, she said, "Yep, here it is. They bought two tickets yesterday for the 6:45 p.m. flight to Paris."

Bella and I exchanged confused, but excited looks. "Paris?" I said. "I definitely thought they'd go Vegas."

"Well, I guess they probably thought that that would be the first place we'd look so they decided to head a different direction to throw us off. It makes perfect sense to me."

I looked a Bella with awe and joy in my eyes and told the girl, "We'd like two tickets to Paris on the next flight out." She processed our order and handed us our tickets; our flight departed in half an hour.

When we got onto the plane and to our seats, I sat down next to Bella and squeezed her hand and said, "We're that much closer to finding them and bringing them home. It's all going to be ok." She squeezed my hand back and smiled at me. God, I loved to see her smile. I just wanted her to be happy. And right now, the only thing that would make her happy, would be finding our daughter.

Chapter 6

Ahh, Paris, The City of Love

When we touched down, we hit the streets of Paris with eagerness. We showed their picture to the locals and asked, in our best French, if they'd seen the two. All of them said, no, they hadn't seen them at all. It was hard to tell if they were just afraid of us and didn't want to say anything, or if they really and truly didn't know.

We continued walking a came upon a small shop whose sign read Le Boutique Jean Claude. We walked inside and showed the man behind the counter, whom I assumed was Jean Claude, and asked him if he'd seen them. He studied the picture for a few seconds and said, in rather good English, "Yes, I 'ave zeen zem. Zey were in here just yesterday. Zey bought a few zings but I 'ave not zeen zem zince. I overhead zem say zat zey were 'eading to Greece. I know it was rude of me to eavesdrop but it is hard not to when it is so quiet in here," he replied rather sheepishly.

We thanked the man and started on our way again. We headed back towards the airport and flew out to Greece. When we got there we asked the same of the locals there, and again, got the same responses. We saw a small fruit stand and stopped in front of it to rest. Bella took out the picture and looked at it sadly. "I hope we can find them. I'm not really angry anymore, just worried now."

"It's okay, we will find them. Even if it takes us our whole lives; but we will find them, Bella." I hugged her tightly and stroked her hair.

Suddenly, the man behind the stand spoke to us. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I couldn't help overhear that you are looking for a young man and lady," he said as he gestured at the picture. As I was hugging Bella, he was able to get a glimpse of it.

"Oh, yes," I replied. "We've been looking everywhere for them but, can't find them. Would you happen to have any information on them?" I asked with my hopes slightly high.

He smiled and said, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I do."

Bella and I looked at each other and I asked, "What do you know?"

He looked down and said, "Well, not much, but they were here yesterday. They bought some of my fruit just today. I don't know exactly where they were going, but they were heading in the direction of the hotel," he said as he pointed in the direction of which he was speaking.

We thanked the man warmly and ran towards the direction of the hotel. We went to the front desk and showed them their picture and asked if they had seen them. The clerk said, yes, she had and remembered who they were. She looked up the record and said that they had checked out just today. We caught a taxi and headed for the airport.

We went to the front desk and I tried to use my "powers of persuasion," but it didn't work too well, mainly because the clerk was a guy and had little or no interest in me or what I had to say. He wouldn't even give into Bella. Man, this guy took his job seriously! Needless to say, he couldn't, and wouldn't, give us the information we needed. So we bought two tickets back to Forks and headed for home.

The plane ride back was long and dark. Some hours later, we landed in Washington and headed back towards our little cottage in the woods. I knew Bella was disheartened and sad. I put my arm around her shoulders and we walked in silence.

I unlocked the door, turned the knob, and let Bella go in first. She turned to put her purse on the hook next to the door and I turned to close the door, and when we turned around, we stood there in total surprise to see Jacob and Renesme standing right in front of us.

A.N.: This is as far as I'm going with this story, so please do not ask me write anymore. I do not wish to delve deeper into the story, nor do I have any desire to write anymore on the lives of Jacob and Renesme in this book. I hope you all enjoyed it and hope you read my other stories that I will be posting here.