His words froze me in shock, momentarily, before the emotions started tumbling within me

His words froze me in shock, momentarily, before the emotions started tumbling within me. I felt like a snow globe that a little kid had got hold off and was shaking as hard as they could.

Deeper within me another bubble rose. This one was different. It moved as slow as syrup, swelling as it ascended. Part of me recognised it. Fear. That small piece of me sighed in acceptance. Pushing it down would do no good.

Jakes grip on my fingers tightened just as the bubble swamped me.

As most teenage girls do, I had imagined myself in simular situations before. But I had always been level-headed enough to realise that if such an unlikely occasion did arise, I would be scared out of my whits.

I had always applied logic to these situations. The fear that swamped me now left no space for logic, no room to think. I had been frightened before, but never this badly.

I don't know how long I sat there, all but suffocating in the black, before Jacobs worried voice broke through.

"Nessie girl? Nessie? It doesn't change anything. We can just continue on the same…"

It didn't snap me out of it, but at least it stopped me from sinking any further.

Hanging there in the dark, the fear changed. Instead of falling through endless dark, a hundred different aspects of it hammered at me.

A lot of it was illogical; visions of Jake forcing me, or blaming me for having led him on, telling me that I had to.

But Jake didn't lie to me, I knew this. If he wouldn't, or couldn't tell me about something, he told me to just leave it be. He wouldn't have said that it didn't matter if it had.

But as power leaked from these nightmares, others reared to take their places.

These were of me telling Jake no, or yes, and discovering later that it had been the wrong answer. That was my greatest fear: to rush and make the wrong discission, to loose Jake completely.

NO sooner had I concluded this than Jacob broke through to me again.

"Nessie, I'm going to fetch Edward. I don't know what else to do. We'll be back soon, promise."

It felt like he'd slapped me. He was leaving. No! My mind panicked. No, no, no!

It wasn't until I was in his arms, and he was prying my frozen fingers from his face that I realised that my mental linguistics had become vocal.

"It's all right," his fingers combed my hair back from my face. "I won't speak about this again, nothing is going to change."

I glanced up at his worried eyes. Five small bruises rode his cheek where my fingers had dug in. I shivered and ducked my face against his chest. It took a lot to bruise Jacob.

"That's not it," I mumbled. "Just don't leave me, ever"

"I'm not going anywhere." He promised, but I could hear the confusion on his voice.

"I'm scared Jake," I whispered. "I'm scared of saying the wrong thing."

My voice got even quieter. "Please don't rush me in this."

His arms tightened around me as he leaned down to whisper in my ear.

"I'm not going to rush you Nessie, we have all the time in the world. That doesn't mean I'm not going to try."