A/N: Another short chapter, just getting into the flow of the story, hopefully will lengthen out soon.

Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight, blah blah blah.

After a short while she was roused once again from her book, this time by the shrill sound of the telephone. She took a few deep breaths and tried to steady her heartbeat before picking up the phone.

"Hello?" Bella said somewhat breathlessly.

"Hi Bella, It's Emily, look I just wanted to say thank you again for preventing my public hissy fit and wondered if I could persuade you to dinner tonight if you've not got any plans?" Emily paused for a response.

Bella hesitated a little "I'm not sure, I mean, Sam's not exactly going to be over the moon about it is he?" There hadn't been any out and out antagonism recently and Bella wasn't sure that rocking the boat was a good thing.

Emily's voice went quiet "Bella please? I feel like I might throttle him at any minute and then I feel like all I want to do is hug him. You're the only person who understands how annoying they can be, please Bella, don't let me kill my idiot boyfriend before he makes an honest woman out of me".

Bella had to laugh at her blackmailing pleading "Well, if it's to save his life how can I possibly refuse?" She could hear her giggling, "Good, I'll see you around six then" Emily confirmed. Bella glanced at the clock and realised it gave her a few more hours to find out what on earth Connie was going to do.

By five o'clock, Bella had forced herself to put the book down and was pacing around the kitchen fanning herself and drinking cold water. She was feeling very highly strung and although she was tempted to sit down and read some more she knew that she would be in no fit state to be appropriate company for dinner if she did so. So putting the little book carefully in her bag before locking the house she decided to head down to Emily's early and see if she could help out with dinner.

As she pulled up outside she could hear angry voices floating out of the windows. She slammed the truck door loudly, hoping that it would announce her arrival and effectively end any further disagreements between Emily and Sam. As she knocked on the door Emily swung it open quickly and pulled her into a hug "Oh thank God" Emily cried, "Now at least we might be able to balance out all this excess testosterone". Bella was very surprised to see Jake leaning against the far wall, and no sign of Sam at all. She looked back and forth between Jake and Emily, was Emily fighting with everyone today?

Jake threw up his hands in despair "Look, you won't listen to a sensible explanation, that's not my fault. You threw Sam out, that's not my fault. You knew he would send someone to guard you, also not my fault!"

Bella looked at Emily again in shock "You threw him out?" Emily was now the one to waving her arms "Not out out, just get out before I beat you with a rolling pin out". She gestured wildly at Jake "Please take him away from me, I don't want to talk to any of them". Emily turned to Jake with a frown "There's wood that needs chopping, can you at least be useful if you are going to be lurking around?" Jake spun on his heel and slammed out the back door, barely glancing at Bella.

Bella stared wide eyed at Emily before rushing over and wrapping her arms around her. "I feel like I'm going crazy, every word they say I can't work out whether to believe it or not. I just feel like I'm not in control of my life" Emily whimpered. Then she straightened up "Look, can you explain it to Jake, so that he can get Sam to understand, if anyone can make sense of this whole thing it's you".

Bella shrugged her shoulders "Wow, I guess, but to be honest aren't I normally the 'in-the-middle-of-the-drama-girl' rather than the sensible fix-it girl?" Emily nodded and then smiled "Please?" she returned to some furious chopping and Bella pushed through the door that Jake had slammed out of.

Outside, she could see Jake near a large wood pile. He was swinging a huge axe with ease, his muscles rippling at each strike. His face was set in a grimace. She approached cautiously and tried to catch his eye "Hey?" she said quietly. Jake nodded and swung the axe again. He seemed so much older again, the weight of the war with the newborns still resting on him. Bella tried to joke, "Feels like she's stealing my drama spotlight a little". Jake's eyes caught hers and she saw the warmth shift into them and a little crease formed at the corner of his mouth.

"I think that's why I got nominated for guard duty, all my experience with certain people's temper tantrums." Bella exhaled loudly "Excuse me?" and raised her eyebrows. Jake shrugged and smiled. They fell back into a more comfortable silence.

Bella sat down on a log and tried to work out what to say. She could see what Emily was trying to understand but couldn't work out how to phrase it best. As she pondered she watched Jake work. She let her eyes wash over him, watching as his body moved. Then suddenly something in the light of the setting sun caught her eye. She stood up and moved closer, causing Jake to pause in his swing for fear of knocking in to her.

Reaching out gently she traced her finger over his shoulder blade, running her fingertips over the slightly ridged bite marks. "I thought they'd fade", Jake's voice was almost a whisper, "but they don't do they". Bella shook her head silently. She assumed that when his body had healed itself, that it would have healed all of it. "I'm sorry" she breathed. She said the words a thousand times since that terrible day but she'd never meant it as much as she did right now.

Bella felt as if she was being torn right down the middle, once again her finger tips felt as if they were alight and the fire was burning its way right to the centre of her, the very core of her being. Her mind was screaming that she should step back, put distance between them, go back to the clearly defined boundary lines that she had set up when Edward came back to her from the Volturi, but her body was urging her to step forwards, the taste the heat, to allow him to ignite her as he done that cold and snowy morning. She wanted nothing more that to feel alive right now, to feel whole.

But she refused to give in to either desire, and remained motionless instead. Her fingers still resting on his shoulder blade, nothing more. "He loves her, you know" Jake said quietly. "He doesn't see anything else, just her".

Bella nodded "but the lies, how can he lie?" Jake's head dropped back, as if he was searching the sky for an answer and Bella felt the pull to stroke her fingers through his cropped hair. "They're not lies exactly. Just desperate attempts to be what she needs him to be." Bella allowed her finger to trace the scar again and heard a soft whimper escape from Jake's lips. It would be so easy, her traitorous body suggested, just give in, but her angry head reminded her of how wrong it would be.

"He wants to love her, every single part of her, to worship her, to adore her, to be perfect for her" Jake whispered. Bella shook her head "It doesn't get to be like that, a person can't be perfect all the time". She took a second to flex her wrist, and was reminded of the earlier less than perfect moment.

Jake continued "He knows, that's why he sent me, she needs to be angry with him, but she needs to be protected, kept safe even though she won't let him. He loves her that completely that he accepts his limitations, so the need he cannot fulfil, I will".

She took a deep breath and tried to fight down the heat bubbling inside her, stupid book, now she was hearing suggestive comments everywhere. She looked at Jake in confusion, he had specifically said before that he wanted her to give Edward up, there was no possible way they he had meant anything by that other than his allegiance to the pack and to the safety of the imprints. There was no possible way he was suggesting…

The back door swung open and Emily waved to them, her earlier anger forgotten, "Jake, Bella, dinners ready". Jake moved forwards, setting down the axe and walking towards the house. Bella's fingers felt like they were screaming out at the absence of his skin and a steady blush crept over her face. He paused after a few paces and turned back to her "Aren't you going to come Bella?"

She blinked rapidly, blushing again. Stupid stupid book, what was she thinking?