"Clean much Jake?"

Looking aroung I noticed that there were chunks of cement all over the place. The walkway into the house was demolished.

"I'm putting in a ramp for my Dad, the old one was disintegrating so I thought it was time to make a real ramp for him."

"Oh, that's nice of you."

Jake was always doing his best to take care of his father. We had that in common I guess. My Dad may not be in a wheelchair but he was pretty useless in the kitchen, and my mom was more of a child than I ever was. It made me feel good though, to have a purpose, people who depended on me.

Suddenly I noticed Jake still had his hands on my waist so I pulled away, not wanting to mention it. It was better if no one touched me, no one reminded me of affection, it made it easier to keep moving forward, and I knew how easily I could just slip right back into despair. I was determined though, to stay strong and fight off anything that could make me weak again.

I could see my uncomfort didn't go unnoticed by Jacob, but he mercifully didn't try to talk about it.

"So, do you need me to help you get in the house, or do you think you can navigate the minefield?"

"I think I can handle it..."

Thankfully I did make it in without tripping again. I could feel Jacob's eyes on my back and was relieved when I could shut the door on his watchful gaze.

"Hey Bella! Long time no see! How are you?"

Oh Billy, he will always have a soft spot in my heart. He was always like a second dad during my summer visits to Forks.

"I'm okay Billy, how about you? The house looks good."

Looking around I noticed that they had made some changes to it recently. This house had looked the same my entire life, but it had been hard for Billy to get around after the accident. I noted the ramps to replace the step up into the kitchen, along with a few other little details.

"Yea Jake's been fixing a few things, trying to make it easier on me for while he's gone."

"Where's Jake going?"

"Oh, it's just a tribal thing, the sons of elder's need to learn the tribe history, no big deal. He'll be gone all of April."

"Oh okay...doesn't he have school though?"

"The rez school knows about it, he's doing extra work there to be caught up. "

That's when I heard Jacob come back in the house. He seemed to have grown into a man during my hibernation. He practically filled up the door frame. It was strange to see him looking so adult like. He still had those dimples though, the same ones that made little old ladies fawn over him when we were kids. His hair was the same too, long and wavy and so much prettier than mine.

"Don't worry about me Bella, I'm smarter than all those kids at the rez school...more handsome too."

He winked at me and laughed.

"And so humble...you might want to lay off the steroids though, pretty soon you'll just be covered in acne and having roid rage." I warned.

"Ahh Bells, don't be jealous of my hot body"

I could see the twinkle in his eye that said he was happy I had noticed his growth spurt. It was pretty incredible how much he had grown, but I hadn't seen him in months. It wouldn't have been so dramatic if I hadn't lost all that time...all because of Edward. It still shocked me how much heartbreak had phyically hurt me. My chest was sore, and I would wake up with headaches in the morning. I didn't care about food or anything else for a good few months. I knew I needed to stop this train of thought or my night would be lost in pain and memories again. Charlie and Billy had found a game to watch and Jacob had gone to shower off all the grime and dust from demolition. I figured I would make myself busy in the kitchen. I doubted these boys had had a real meal in a long while.

The kitchen was pretty well stocked, and I lost myself in the methodical chopping, mincing and sauteing. I was making chicken parmesan. It was one I knew by heart and one of Charlie's favorites. I hadn't made it in forever, mostly because Italian food reminded me of the Cullens. They had made me Italian food the first time I met them. Shaking my head to rid myself of that mental picture I focused once more on watching the onions sweat. While the sauce was coming together Jake sauntered in and grabbed some beers from the fridge.

"Whoa there young man, you drink beer now?"

"Calm down killer, they're for Billy and Charlie, no idea how I ended up as beer bitch tonight but whatever."

It seemed that his mood had soured during his shower. It was foreign to me to see Jake in anything but a great mood, he was without fail a happy person, always cracking jokes and flashing those dimples. But he wasn't smiling and he didn't even have a comeback for me calling him young. It always got under his skin that he was younger than I was, but he let it go tonight. I didn't really know what to say in response so I just didn't say anything at all. Jake went to the living room and I finished up dinner.

"Dinner is ready whenever you are!" I shouted towards the living room.

It didn't take long for them to all come in and fill up their plates.

"This is great Bells, Jake isn't much in the kitchen you know, it's nice to have something that didn't come from a box." Billy gave Jake a lot of crap but I knew he felt bad that his son had to take care of him. I think he joked about it just to keep himself from feeling down. Jake just shrugged at the comment, eyes fixed on the game.

I ended up falling asleep in my chair, nothing like sports to help me pass out. Charlie woke me up to tell me it was time to go home, but I was already asleep again by the time I had fastened my seat belt.

I woke up around 4am, wide awake and raring to go. That's what happens when you fall asleep for the night at 7pm. I thought about emailing Renee, but my computer sounded like a dying go kart when I started it and I didn't want to wake Charlie. I tried to read but just couldn't lose myself in any of my books. I had read them all so many times already. Finally I gave up and went to go sit on the porch. It was the place where I got my best thinking done, never too quiet out there with the wind through the trees and the early morning birds singing to each other. Jacob was on my mind. He had made an appearance in my dreams last night. It really had unnerved me to see him down. I vowed to try and be a better friend to him. He had always had close friends on the rez but there seemed to be pressure on him to be better than the others, simply because he was the son of Billy Black. I knew that pressure all too well being the child of the Police Chief.

I was starting to get really cold out here, it was unseasonably warm for late February, but unseasonably warm in Forks is still basically freezing cold. Heading back inside to make some hot chocolate sounded like a great way to start the day.

After showering and finally emailing my mom I decided I should just call and see what Jacob was up to. Part of me wanted to know why he was upset last night, and the other part knew that sitting in the house alone while Charlie was at work was a dangerous place for my heartbroken self to be.

Billy answered on the 3rd ring.

"Hey it's Bella, is Jacob around?"

"Yea, he is, hold on one second."

"Hello?"

"Hey Jake, it's Bella."

"OH! Hey Bells!"

I could practically hear him smiling through the phone. Whatever was bothering him last night was obviously gone now.

"What are you up to today? Charlie's working but I had the day off so..."

"Well I was going to work on the walkway this morning but if you wanted to hang out this afternoon that's cool."

"Sure Jake, that sounds great, I'll come over around 2 if that's okay."

"Sure sure, see you at 2."