*I in no way shape or form, own these characters, or any rights to the unbelievable fortune that Stephenie Meyer is surely raking in due to the invention of these characters.

*Thanks to all of the very kind reviews and critical, that I have received. I love them all, for the encouragement, as well as the teaching. I love you all!

*I have no beta, so please excuse grammatical errors. Reviews are most appreciated, educational and motivating. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

Tempting Fate

Bella lay in her bed, twisting and turning. Flailing her arms at memories, that charged at her mind without retreat. As her sweat soaked bed clothes stuck to her and twisted around her, so did a web spin in her mind, trapping her with the scenes playing out in her head. Waking up with a wrenching scream, breathing heavily, she tore at her sheets, untangling herself. The dream still felt real for a few moments. How could she be so stupid? Sitting up on the edge of her bed, she put her hands over her face and screamed again, this time, lucid. The hole that had taken so long to scab over, opened forth like a newly sprung oil well. How could she be such a fool. She couldn't handle it any longer. Jumping out of her bed with a single mindedness, she ran out of her room, tears streaking down her red, sweaty face and ran down the stairs. Grabbing her keys from the hook by the door, she swung the door open¸ choking on another sob and ran for her truck. Noticing that Charlie's cruiser was already gone, she pealed out and made for the only place that could take the pain away.

As she drove she thought about all of the mistakes that she had made in an infatuation with a narcissist, at the cost of her best friend. She had pushed away the very one that her soul was in love with, for a dream. A vampire, who's mood swings were dizzying and who's affection for her changed by the hour, it seemed. A vampire who finally left her in a forest to die, vanishing into the night forever. Memories flashed before her eyes as she pushed the truck harder. Jacob. The garage and the work that they had done on the bikes. The last night that she saw him, before he phased, that night at the movies with Mike Newton. She remembered his words. "I would never leave you, Bella. I would never hurt you." She had brushed them off, in her careless loyalty to a man who had left her as if she were a discarded banana peel in a garbage can, yet that didn't stop Jacob. Not even after she found out the truth about the pack, but now she had pushed him too far and he wouldn't return her phone calls. Not for months now. He wouldn't see her. She had ruined the friendship that she had realized too late, was much more than friendship. The pain was overwhelming and all that she knew was that she needed to be near him, even if she couldn't be with him. She would walk where he patrolled. She would smell the pines and the sea. She would go to La Push and at least be near him.

Pulling into the reservation, she felt pulled to a certain spot. She just wanted to see it, to remember. Pulling her truck over to the side of the road, she found the path and ran blindly through the forest, the memories pulling at her like a moth to a flame. Coming to the cliffs edge, she could see it on First Beach. The piece of driftwood, where they spent hours, talking, laughing and sharing.

He was there all along, yet she denied any feelings for him and insisted that she didn't feel the way that he did for her, and now he was gone. Looking below her, she saw the swirling, bubbling tide pushing against the cliffs. It was as easy as breathing, just to make the pain stop.

The last thing that she thought before she stepped off into the water was that she wanted to feel the rush that he had boasted about, sitting with her after he had phased. Feeling the rush that he spoke of so long ago, was as close as she could get to him, so she did it. Just a step and she was falling, totally devoid of fear. Crashing into the water, the cold causing her to want to suck in a breath, but she fought it. Swimming toward the surface, she barely had time to gulp the most minute amount air, before another wave pushed her further down, into the washing machine of swirling, pulsing waves. Somehow at that moment, she seemed to snap out of it. She could fight this. She would fight this. She wouldn't stop fighting for him until she stopped drawing breath. Kicking with all of her might, she managed one last breath, before she was pushed further and further down by the force of the pounding surf above her and the cold began to take effect. She could see black creeping in at the edge of her vision, but one thing, one pinpoint of color remained in her vision. Red. Was it a dream? As the red got bigger, she realized that it was not her imagination at all, but that it was hair, attached to a pale body. Slowly, her mind processed it, as if she were still in her bed, stuck in the dream. Victoria. She struggled to move backward with all of the strength that her numb limbs allowed and then all went black.

She hung in a fog of neither comfort nor discomfort for a moment. She just existed, then suddenly, light began to fill her eyes and her throat constricted and her chest heaved as water came spurting forth from her. Things were blurry. She could hear a voice from far off, but she was so cold. Her mind wouldn't put the words being spoken together at first. Finally, she heard them and wondered if she were dead. "Breathe! Can you hear me, Bella? Breathe!" It was Jacob's voice and there was a strange rhythmic pressure on her chest. She suddenly sat up and regurgitated an alarming amount of water and drew in a heaving breath.

"Oh, God. Bella. Oh, I thought, oh God! What the hell were you thinking?" Jacob looked pale for once in his life as he rubbed the hair on the back of his neck, his head bent, hiding the emotion that lay there. Suddenly Bella put her head in her hands and began crying out in great sobs. Jake was stunned for a moment, but he knew that he had to get her warm fast. He wrapped his arms around her and drew her in close to his body heat.

"Jacob. Jacob. I'm so, so, sorry." Bella sobbed.

"Come on Bells, let's get you home." Jacob was confused, by her words, but chalked it up to the cold. Wrapping her as tight to his one hundred and eight degree body as he could, he carried her up the steep path from the beach, to the forest and beyond to her truck. Bella couldn't stop sobbing.

Setting her in the passenger side, he quickly ran to the driver's side, relieved to see the keys in the ignition. Starting it, he turned the heat on high and found a down jacket behind the seat and wrapped it around her. Bella huddled into it and her sobs seemed to relax a bit as Jacob began the drive out of La Push to into Forks.

"Damnit, Bella. What were you thinking? You almost got yourself killed. What is the matter with you?"

Bella was lucid enough by now to feel her anger rise at his words. "You want to know what's wrong with me?"

"That's what I said." Bella winced at the sarcasm in Jake's words.

"You're what's wrong with me Jacob Black!" Jake gave her a sideways, annoyed glance, but kept quiet. "Well, you and me. Me mostly." Bella's ire began to cool with the chattering of her teeth. They were only minutes from her house.

"Would you mind explaining to me exactly what you're talking about, Bella?"

"It was you all along. You were right. Is that what you wanted me to say? If I would have said that earlier would you have returned my calls? It was you, Jacob." Jake shook his head in confusion as he wiped his hand down his face.

"What was me, Bella?"

"Don't you see it, Jake? I love you! I've loved you all along. I'm a stupid, stupid, girl, but you were right. By the time I figured it out, you, well, you quit answering my calls. I had hurt you so badly by then, that you wouldn't even see me when I came to your house. I love you, Jacob Black." Bella's voice was hoarse with the salt and the shouting. She seemed to deflate. As her words caught up to him, Jacob skidded to a stop in the road.

"You're cold, you don't know what you're saying."

"Don't ever go off and leave me like that ever again." Bella was visibly weak. Her eyelids were heavy with exhaustion and with near hypothermia.

"Woah, Bells, stay with me." Jacob pulled her over to him and she snuggled into his side. Jacob closed his eyes at the contact and the words that he had been longing to hear for two years.

"Mmm, your so warm Jacob." Jacob allowed himself to smile a bit as he shifted into first and kept heading toward Bella's house. If he didn't get her into dry clothes soon, she'd be hypothermic.

"It's a wolf thing." Jacob pushed the truck as fast as he could.

"No, it's a Jacob thing." Bella relaxed into his heat, half asleep. It's like you're my own personal sun." Jake's heart felt like it would explode. Rounding the corner Bella's house was in view. Squealing to a stop, he shut the engine off and rushed to her side of the car, opened the door and grabbed her up. Carrying her inside, she seemed far too relaxed and sleepy.

"Bells! Wake up!" He shook her a bit and her eyes flitted open. She smiled up at him. "Please don't leave, Jake."

"I won't leave, Bella, just get up those stairs and take those wet clothes on and get into a hot shower. We'll talk after you're dry. Carrying her up the stairs, he deposited her in front of the bathroom door and walked past her into the bathroom and started the shower on high, until steam began to fill the bathroom. "Off with those clothes and get into that shower. I'll leave a clean pair of warm clothes outside of the door."

"Don't leave, Jake, please." Bella's pleading broke his heart.

"Bella, I won't leave. Just get warm. I'll wait downstairs until you're warm and dry. Then we'll talk."

Bella seemed to be satisfied with that as she nodded at him and shut the bathroom door. Heading into her room, he rifled through her drawers until he had found fleece pajama pants, a long sleeved T-Shirt and a sweater as well as dry underwear and socks. He left them folded by the bathroom door as he heard her moving in the spray. That was a good sign. She was moving, which meant that she was warming up.

Jacob headed downstairs and tried to sit, but the things that she had said, just wouldn't let him sit still. Maybe it was just the cold, but maybe she actually meant them. By this time, Jacob was scared to believe that they might be true. There was one question that needed answering before anything else. What the hell was she doing in that water and what led her to jump from the pack's diving spot? He paced until he heard the shower shut off. Averting his eyes, he heard the bathroom door open quickly and then close as she gathered up the dry clothes. Within minutes, she descended the stairs, hair wrapped in a towel and every article of clothing that he had left for her on, yet her lips still looked a bit purplish. "Come here Bells. Sit next to me and get warm." She walked straight toward him and sat down, easing into his side as he reached his arm out for her.

"I'm going to make a pot of coffee in a minute, to warm you up on the inside, but I need to know, Bella, why were you in that water?" Bella was silent for a moment.

"It was a stupid thing to do, Jake, but you broke me. I just needed to be where you've been, and that was the closest place to where I was that I know that you've been. Standing on that cliff, I wanted to feel what you felt when you jumped. I wanted to feel the rush. Anything to make the pain in my heart stop, but I didn't realize that there was such a push down there. I wasn't trying to off myself or anything that dramatic." Bella looked up into his face and he could see that she was telling the truth.

"Okay, then. Come on and let's make you a pot of coffee and you can explain the rest to me." A small spark of hope ignited in Jacob's soul as they walked into the kitchen. He fumbled through cabinets until he found the coffee. Filling the carafe with water, he filled the coffee maker full and put several generous scoops of coffee in, figuring that the caffeine would help stimulate her circulation. Bella was perched on the counter, worrying her lip. She was obviously nervous.

The coffee pot gurgled and steamed to life. Jake walked in front of Bella and stood with his arms crossed in front of himself. "Do you remember anything about what you said to me in the truck?"

"Yes, Jacob, I love you. I'm in love with you and I'd have told you, had you given me the time of day."

Jake's shoulders slumped forward and he braced his hands on the counter on each side of Bella. "And when did you decide this?" Jacob had been hurt deeper than he could have ever put into words by Bella's constant rejection.

"It wasn't a decision, Jake. It was a realization. After Edward left and we spent the time together in the garage, I knew that I had feelings for you, but I felt that I was betraying something to Edward. It wasn't until after you had phased and quit calling that I realized that I had quit thinking about Edward and began missing you to the point that it tortured me. It nearly drove me crazy when I couldn't get through to you." Bella had begun to cry again. "I began to think clearer and saw who Edward really was and what an angst ridden brat that I had been. He left me to die in that forest, Jake, but you were always there. You fixed the place inside of me that was so wounded by that first broken heart. I don't care if I never see him again, Jake. It's you that my heart calls out for. It's you who torments me in my dreams when I can see you so clearly, but I can't ever seem to get to you." Bella sobbed out the last sentence.

Jake could take no more. Tilting her chin up, he wiped her tears away from her face. "I have never stopped loving you, Bella, but it just hurt too bad to be so near to you when I couldn't touch you. Just like it is for you in your dreams, but now I'm right here and you're right here. Jacob stared at her mouth and then back at her eyes. She smiled at him and leaned in as he met her half way. Their lips had barely begin to touch when the phone on the wall rang, startling them apart. Sighing in frustration, Bella jumped off of the counter and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Bella, is that you?"

"Edward?"

"Oh, God, Bella, I thought that you were dead. Alice saw . . .

"Edward, don't ever call here again."

"But Bella, I realized when I thought that you were dead, that I couldn't be without you."

Taking in a deep breath, she spoke up for herself for the first time, to Edward Cullen.

"You told me that you didn't want me and left me in the forest with Victoria looking for me, just to die there. That isn't love, Edward and I don't love you. I don't need you and you don't need me. You'll have the rest of eternity to find who it is that you're looking for, but I've got everything that my heart desires standing in my kitchen right now." Jacob smiled brightly at this. Bella smiled back and grabbed his hand with her free hand.

"But Bella, I do love you."

"Edward Cullen, if you think that you love me, than you have no concept of what love is. You drug me through ups and downs and broke me. You broke me, Edward, but I healed. I don't want anything to do with you or your family anymore. Goodbye, Edward." And before he could respond, she hung the phone up on the receiver. Turning to Jake, she pulled him closer to her with her hand and took his other warm hand in hers.

"Do you think that even though, I'm guilty of almost everything that I've just accused Edward of, that you could find it in your heart to forgive me?"

"I'd forgive you a thousand more times, Bella." Jake pulled her close and kissed her for the first time. For a moment, it was a bit awkward, as it was really the first real kiss for both of them, but as their scents mingled and Jake's heat soaked into her, she melted into him, collapsing against him, slamming him into the counter. The kiss quickly burned through them. Jacob angled his head, desperately seeking entrance to her mouth and she quickly obliged. They explored the tastes of each other as her hand snaked up around his neck and threaded through the back of his shaggy, but silky hair.

"Ehem!" They jumped apart as if they had been poked by a cattle prod. Charlie stood in the doorway with raised eyebrows. He said nothing for a moment, but finally spoke. "Well, it seems that I've interrupted something." Jake squeezed Bella's hand to reassure her.

"I'm sorry Charlie. I meant no disrespect." Jake was flushed red to the tips of his ears.

"What do you mean disrespect, Jacob? Bella is eighteen. I just think that it's about damn time that you all finally got around to figuring this whole thing out. Bella, I love you, honey, but you can be so stubborn sometimes. Is that coffee I smell?" Charlie walked over and grabbed a mug and filled it with coffee, leaning on the counter just staring at them. Charlie was enjoying this moment.

"Well, Bells, I've got to get back to work, but we still have some talking to do. Can I pick you up around seven?"

Bella looked at Charlie for his opinion.

"I just told you that you're eighteen, kiddo. Go with him if you like."

"Okay, Jake. I'll be ready by seven and Jacob?" Jake raised an eyebrow.

"Thank you." Bella had tears standing in her eyes. He knew what she was thanking him for.

"Always, Bella. Now drink some hot coffee, I've got to go, but I'll see you at seven."

"Okay." Bella smiled a glowing smile at him and Jake returned it, before nodding at Charlie and jogging back to meet the pack.

Bella grabbed a mug and filled it with straight black coffee and began to sip on it.

"Well, did I miss something?" Charlie never was one to beat around the bush.

"Yeah Dad, you did, but I'm not sure that you'll ever hear about it. We don't have boy talk, Dad." Bella gave her dad a 'try me' look.

"Okay, okay. Better got and dry your hair before you catch cold."

Just then, Bella realized that her hair was still in a towel. "Oh, yeah."

She didn't wait for anymore "dad talk", but climbed the stairs to blow dry her hair. The hole in her heart was already bursting with new life. He had forgiven her and he would be there to pick her up at seven. Silently, she thanked God and smiled as she dried her hair.

Charlie still leaning on the counter, smiled to himself. Making his way over to the phone on his wall, he dialed Billy.

"Hello?"

"Billy, it's Charlie."

"Hey Charlie, what's up?"

"It looks like our two hard headed offspring finally figured out things for themselves."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"You wouldn't be saying that if you just walked in on the kiss that I did."

"Well, hell!" Billy smiled and whistled. "It's about time. Thank God for that, because I don't think that I could take another day of a pissed off seventeen year old in the same house with me."

"Well, I was thinking that this deserves a bit of a celebration. How about I bring over some beer and we have a toast?"

"I'll be here, just come on in. If I'm lucky you'll walk in on me kissing some hot chick"

"Hey, are you calling my daughter hot?"

"Just shut up and bring the beer, Charlie."ey