I arrived at the cottage one morning, only to find Esme arriving there at the same time as well. 'Ah Jacob', she said, 'I thought I might find you here.', 'hello Esme,' I said 'did you need me for anything?' 'Well, Charlie's coming over for dinner tomorrow and we thought we might have a barbeque. I thought you and your pack might want to join us. I had Alice check and it will be warm, dry but not sunny tomorrow. Since we're eating outside I thought the smell might bother you a bit less.' 'That's very nice of you Esme, thank you. I will definitely be there and I'll ask my pack. I assume you've heard that Embry and Quill have joined as well?' Her heart-shaped face lit up in delight and she nodded. I was once again befuddled by how motherly Esme was. Although she was a bloodsucker, even for me with my extremely sensitive sense of smell, she seemed almost human. I had developed a respect for the whole Cullen family, and then especially Carlisle and Edward, but Bella and Esme were different. Bella, because she was still my best friend, although of course the whole bloodsucker thing complicated the situation a little, and Esme, though I'd probably not admit it if someone asked me directly, because you just couldn't not love her. I opened the door for her and we went in together. In the cottage, I heard Edward playing the piano upstairs and Bella was reading Wuthering Heights on the couch, again. My god, that girl reads that book like every day, you'd think she'd almost turned into the main character, what's she called, Katy or Cathy or something, by now. Renesmee was sitting on the floor; playing with that vintage dollhouse Alice had gotten her two weeks earlier. When Esme and I entered, she jumped up, hugged her grandmother and then jumped into my arms. 'Hi Jake' she smiled with the most beautiful smile ever. I hugged her tight and she asked 'can we go hunting? Or do you have to run patrol again?' Her smile faltered a little, she now looked like the most beautiful, spoiled child there had ever existed. 'Mom said she's not going hunting again today since we already went two days ago but she said I could ask if you wanted to go?' She bats her eyelashes and gave me her sweetest, most innocent smile again. I grinned, 'Alright Ness, let's go hunting then!' I could never refuse her anything, and the naughty little pixie knew it. Nessie kissed Bella on the cheek, called 'bye dad!' to the other room and hugged Esme again before running outside at inhuman speed. 'Thanks Jake' Bella said, 'You know you don't have to give her absolutely everything she wants?' She winked at me 'try to have her eat anything herbivorous, she's getting much too spoilt with everyone always giving her her carnivores.' 'Sure, sure' I said absentmindedly. I grinned at Bella, waved Esme goodbye and ran out the front door.

I phased and saw Renesmee waiting for me by the edge of the clearing. When I got to her she climbed on my back and I sped off. In my head I saw Leah and Quil running patrol. It was good that Leah was back, I preferred leaving things in her hands when I was with Ness. Renesmee was jittering in my ear about how much she enjoyed the hunt and I was admiring her perfect voice. I stopped running when she showed me smelling a bobcat. She climbed off by back and ran towards the scent. I followed, creeping as softly as possible over the forest floor, not to scare it. The moment she turned the corner and jumped on the cat, tearing it open and drinking from its neck, my heart always stops a little. I really hate her attacking animals herself. Though I know she can't be hurt, it goes against my instincts. Letting my little girl fight something twice her size. When she's done she licks her lips. Her clothes are covered in blood and her pale chin is dripping. She looks like something from a horror movie but also like the most beautiful child model ever. When she smiles I feel warm inside.

The next night we were all invited to the Cullens for the barbeque. Quil wasn't coming because Claire was staying at Emily and Sam's, which meant that Quil couldn't be kept away from their house, much to Emily's annoyance sometimes. But Embry and Seth agreed to go and, to general astonishment, so did Leah. Sue and Charlie were also going to be there and all the vampires of course. I arrived around six o'clock, inside Rosalie and Esme were making huge platters of bread and salad, and when I walked outside, Carlisle was standing at the barbeque with Embry, who looked a little uncomfortable but seemed to enjoy teaching Carlisle how to barbeque. Charlie and Sue were playing with Renesmee and Leah was watching them from a distance. Bella and Edward were sitting at the table with Emmett. I sat down next to them. I listened to Edward and Emmett talking about baseball for a while when Emmett said: 'You know, we should play again soon, it's been much too long. And I do wonder how Bella will do now that she doesn't trip every three steps anymore.' 'You guys play baseball?' I asked Emmett. 'Yeah' he answered 'when there's a thunderstorm. Why? Do you want to join next time?' Before thinking about the answer, the thunderstorm bit confused me. 'Because of the sound.' Edward said, responding to my mental question. 'You know, Jacob, playing with the packs might actually be fun. What do you think Em?' Emmett shrugged and said: 'fine by me. If they are also strong enough in their human forms, we're not going to play baseball with a pack of wolves.' Bella smiled, 'We should ask Alice when there's a thunderstorm coming up.' 'Next Tuesday.' We heard Alice's high voice next to us. She'd obviously heard our conversation from inside the house. 'I can see us going to the clearing when the thunder hits but I can't see us playing. Probably because the Mutts are also playing', while she said this she nudged me playfully. 'Dinner everyone!' Carlisle called.

Later that night we were all sitting round the Barbeque, talking and laughing, all the food had disappeared in no time. Because my pack ate so much, it was easy for the Bloodsuckers to hide for Charlie that they weren't eating. Ness was sitting on my lap, dozing off. The evening had been surprisingly cool. Esme and Blondie have taken up cooking since Ness' birth. They've even had contests to see who cooks something she'll actually eat. Tonight, they made some excellent grub. Embry and Carlisle barbequing, Seth came by later and after dinner he started playing ball with Ness and Leah. Charlie was obviously a little uncomfortable around the Cullen's –I mean, who isn't? - But with Sue there he seemed all right. 'All right.' Charlie said 'We should be getting going Sue. It's getting late.' 'You're right' Bella said 'We should probably be taking Renesmee to bed soon. It's way past bedtime.' Everyone started getting up. I stood up, carrying the now sleeping Renesmee. Bella kissed Charlie and said, turning to me 'You probably want to take her to bed don't you?' I nodded. 'Please?' I grinned. 'Sure sure' Bella mumbled, smiling. Charlie and Sue left, taking Seth and Embry with them. They were going to Sue's on the Rez so they could ride with them. 'Leah-' I said 'yes I know!' she said, interrupting me 'you're just gonna take the kid to bed. I'll start running and when you get in I can go to bed' I closed my still open mouth again. 'All right, you seem to have everything under control.'

I carried Ness to the cottage. Bella and Edward weren't home yet. Probably helping to tidy up. When we got in I took her shoes off and put her in bed. She looked beautiful with her mouth slightly open. When I let her go she groaned a little and grabbed my finger with her little hand. God she's so beautiful. She's so perfect. I put her hand on my face to see her dreams. She was dreaming about playing football with Leah and Seth tonight. My face flickered into her dreams a lot too, always associated with happy feelings.

I sat like this for a while, just looking at her dreams, until Edward and Bella came home.