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Chapter One

Jacob convinced me that for me to be truly happy, I had to leave Forks after I graduated. He promised he would join me in a year, but until then, I had to return every major break and any weekend I could spare. I went to school in Seattle, only a few hours drive away. So, I spent almost every weekend back in Forks with him and Charlie. That made Charlie deliriously happy.

Renee on the other hand, couldn't understand what had gotten into me. Phil had been signed and they were moved into Jackson, FL, but when she offered to let me move back, I turned her down. I had settled, quite quickly into my way of life, and learned to enjoy the rain, as long as Jacob could protect me from the balk of if with his towering form now.

Both Jacob and I had graduated from high school, he, true to his word had joined me in Seattle for college for part of a year, but Billy's health took a slight turn for the worse, so he had to return to La Push afterwards, and I followed him back, living with Charlie while I finished up, taking online classes, after my second year of school, Jacob asked me to marry him. I agreed.

Charlie was on cloud nine for me, as his best friend's son married his daughter, who he would get to see all the time now. Renee had conceded that it was all right with her, I was old enough to make the right decisions for myself. She was happy for me, and was happy with my choice, she had liked Billy Black while she had lived in Forks and his son was better.

I smile at my memories from the last five years. I was twenty-two, married for the last two years, and I was practically bursting from the happiness of it, every day. I spent most of my time in La Push with my husband, but I also spent a lot of time in Forks itself. I had opened my own cafe near the center of Forks, it had taken a bit of convincing to lend me the loan, but Jessica's mother finally agreed, and as Bank manager, she was authorized. Though it put me in debt, and I made virtually nothing for the last year, it was not too far from the hospital if I ever accidentally stabbed myself with the knife and close to Charlie. But my clumsiness had slowly been wearing off, like my father's had before I was born. But the fear that he was going to do something stupid stayed with him, just like I was sure it was going to be in me.

I was also within walking distance to the precinct, so Charlie could come and get a bite to eat for Lunch and for dinner, he'd come down to La Push and eat with Billy, Jacob and I. Billy was better again and Jacob started taking classes at the reservation. His degree might not do him much good in the real world, but it satisfied the needs on their grounds.

I sighed as I looked out the window, content. The day's work was almost done, and the high school girl I had hired on was cleaning up most of the cafe for me. My eyes caught an unfamiliar cut of blond hair and pale skin. My hand that had been drying a plate, starting to shake as my father came out to greet the man.

I set down the plate before I broke it and went to the entrance to see if I could hear more. I had to know. He was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen before, he wasn't much older than I was, his skin was smooth and pale, and his body was dressed in clothes only rich city dwellers wore, but carried it off effortlessly.

I clenched the door-frame as I watched him and my father turn towards me with a smile. I conjured up a returning smile, somehow. It hadn't been this hard to force my positive emotions in such a long time. I don't know what was wrong with me. They started to head over when a boy anywhere from the age of fifteen to twenty got out of the shiny silver Volvo, in the driver's seat. Scratch that, he had to at least be seventeen. His tawny eyes locked onto mine and I had to hold back a gasp at the suddenly intense look in his eyes. His hands clenched and he glared at me as if I had done something terribly wrong. Then with considerable effort and strain he got back into the car and drove away.

I looked up to the approaching duo who had stopped and watched the strange behavior as well. "I'm sorry, I don't know what has gotten into him. He's usually a lot more polite."

The model of a man was saying, and I could no longer say he was the most gorgeous man I had ever seen, though the other was more of a boy, but my mind couldn't comprehend that fact for a moment, just that the blond man had the exact shade of molten golden eyes as the boy had.

"That's all right, seeing Bella has some side-effects." Charlie joked. "I know I had to restrain a handful of boys her age from coming inside when she first moved here."

I rolled my eyes at that, he was over exaggerating again, he and Jake both had that terrible habit when it came to my past and boys. "This is my daughter Isabella." Charlie came in and kissed the top of my head. He was getting better, this was the most either of us seemed to accept of contact between each other and I let him.

"Good evening Isabella."

"Bella." I corrected automatically, my eyes still wide with amazement. "Please, do come in, I didn't catch your name."

"Carlisle." The model told me and didn't hold out his hand to shake mine, obviously fearing my reaction to something.

I shook my head to clear it. "That was your son?" I asked in disbelief as I compared their ages.

"My adopted son." Carlisle agreed. "I adopted four others as well, with my wife Esme." I brought the two of them to a table that had been recently cleaned and I could hear the slight distress at the hour my help made in the back of her throat.

"Go ahead Lucy, I'll clean up myself." I dismissed her and she cheerfully clocked out and disappeared through the back. "What, if I can ask, are you doing here?"

"My wife tires of the big city, and we saw the opening here for a doctor, and I just transferred in. The entire family will be moving here soon." He smiled up at me and I caught a flash of sharp teeth near the back of his mouth. I repressed the shudder.

Stupid Jake and his stories. I whined at myself, he had been filling my head with stories about the cold ones for the last five years, stories brought down from his ancestors. He didn't believe a word of it. There was no need to fear the gorgeous man in front of me. The smile dropped off a little and I felt bad for my negative reaction. "That's nice, how long do you think you'll be staying?" I ask instead.

"A few years for sure, maybe longer." Carlisle answered. "We moved in just outside of town."

"How old are your children?" I asked, really wanting to ask how old are you? And that son.

"I'm Twenty-eight." Carlisle answered. "Rosalie and Emmet are nineteen, Jasper, Alice and Edward are eighteen, Edward just turned a couple of days ago."

My ears picked up at that. Just turned, eighteen. I nodded. "And you say you are a doctor?" I ask instead.

"Yes. I know I look rather young to be one, but I graduated high school early and then I graduated college even earlier."

"He's come with an impressive background Bells, we're very lucky to have him here." Charlie returns to the conversation. He had been eating one of my left over sandwiches and I realized how rude I was being.

"Would you like anything? I have left overs that will just be sent home with Charlie and my husband if it doesn't get eaten here, it's on the house."

"No thank you dear, I just ate. You seem awfully young to have a husband." Carlisle tilted his sun-kissed blond head.

"My husband is even younger." I teased. "We didn't marry until hewas done with school."

"Ah, then I must have misjudged your age. I thought you were twenty."

"Flatterer." I grin, my equilibrium returning to me now that my nerves had settled again. "I'm twenty-two."

"Twenty-two?" Carlisle looked closely at my face. "I would never have pegged that on you."

"And I would never have pegged you to be a doctor." I blushed at the compliment and so I returned my own observation to him.

"Touche." He agreed and turned to Charlie with a laugh. "You sure know how to raise them."

"Bella's great. You should come down to La Push with us this evening and bring your son, I'm sure you'll enjoy it."

"I would, but I really should start getting to work on the house, and I should attend to Edward, maybe the move is hard on him." Carlisle stood up and smiled at Charlie and me.

"Some other time then, you should bring the entire family, I'm sure it wouldn't be too much for Bella. She creates the most wonderful dishes for Jacob."

"Not like he notices." I saw with a smile. "Jake's just been scarfing down my meals recently, never seeming to have enough."

"He's a growing boy." Charlie chuckled.

"Isn't that the truth." I laugh, remembering how last night when he joined me in bed, his feet hung over the edge more than they normally did.

"You'll have to meet him sometime Dr. Cullen." Charlie was insistent on this point and I tilted my head in wonder but Charlie only smiled at me, he'd explain later, I was sure.

Carlisle Cullen smiled in return and his smile was kind and reassuring, and he turned that smile towards me. "I would like to see the both of you again." He agreed.

"I'm sure you'll have Bella as your patient soon enough." Charlie laughed and only I understood his joke, Carlisle looked worriedly at me and I smiled in response, it really was nothing major.

Carlisle nodded and stood up. "Well then, take care of yourself Bella, I don't want to have to cure you of any dangerous diseases."

I laughed and Charlie and I followed Carlisle to the door. "Welcome to Forks, Carlisle, and please extend that to your family for me as well, though I'm sure I'll be telling them that myself soon enough." I tell him, the truth rang clearly in my words, and it was true, it would interesting to have such a handsome man as a doctor, and a gorgeous son running around. I wondered then, what the rest of the family looked like, it must have been a fluke that his adopted son was so good looking.

"Thank you both for such a warm welcome." Carlisle walked down the street, pulling out a slim black cellphone. The silver Volvo appeared again, not even five minutes later. I watched the blond man as Charlie was helping me finish cleaning and closing up. I swore I saw sharp honey-colored eyes looking through the rear view mirror, straight at me.

I swallowed hard and those eyes narrowed, I turned to the door and locked up. Mike Newton was just closing his mom's shop, he was back for the winter. He was starting grad school in Spokane. I nod towards him as Charlie rested a hand on my shoulder and bid me until the evening and Mike made his way over.

"Is that the new doctor?" His eyes glanced over me, but over the years his interest had faded, although there was always a glimmer of lust. He had a steady girlfriend, one from his school and I thought they were getting serious. She was around a lot more often than she used to be.

"Yeah it is." I agreed. Mike had taken it hard when I started dating Jacob, but now the two got along fairly well, whenever Jacob popped up to surprise me in Forks. "How's Sheila doing?"

"She's good." Mike's eyes watched the silver car zoom out of town in an instant when Carlisle got in. "How does he seem?"

"Nice. He's got some adopted kids who will be coming up with his wife." Mike nodded and looked at me again. I smiled back, his mom had given me a job while I was saving up money to go to Seattle, and for that, I could never completely cut Mike out, always having to be at my most polite, no matter how much he annoyed me or Jake, and Mike was nice enough on his own. "Well, Jake will be wondering why I've gotten home so late."

Mike nodded and I got to my old red truck, Jake had teased me about not being able to get rid of the truck as it kept coming back to his family. However to appease him, I had found two free motorcycles my senior year of high school and had him work on them since. He had managed to get them running as a surprise after my first year at college. Charlie had taken a lot of work to convince to not arrest Jacob for helping me and not fearing for my life every five minutes. Although that was after an entire summer of going behind his back to La Push and learning to ride it on the slippery slopes there.

That's why, when I turned around and saw a shiny black one sitting next to my red truck, I wasn't surprised. When I didn't find Jacob right away, I started to worry. I looked around but could not find him. Arms wrapped around my waist and too warm lips, I tensed, his lips had never been that warm before. No one else though would be doing this. I leaned back and his entire chest was very warm as well, more than I remembered it being even just this morning. "Are you all right?" I asked as his warm hands, even larger, spanned my waist, one hand covered at least half of it. I never felt so delicate as I did then, my entire waist encased in my husband's strong hands.

"Yeah, I'm just feeling a bit warm." He kissed my cheek. "Are you ok?" He asked instead, his hands tightening for a fraction of a second.

I paused before I turned around in his arms and looked at him with a frown. "I'm fine why?"

"I just heard-" He cut himself off with a smile. "I'll tell you later. I thought something else was going on. I must have been mistaken."

"Is Sam all right?" I hadn't been expecting Jacob today as one of his tribe members had suddenly gone berserk this morning and disappeared and Jacob and the rest of the 'pack' as I liked to call them, was looking for him all day. Emily had been rushed to the Quileute hospital, but that had proved to be too much for them, so was transferred here, thankfully Dr. Cullen, renowned for his abilities was here as well. I had popped over earlier, but Dr. Cullen was no where to be found. Of course I had just met him, but Emily seemed to be doing better. Carlisle had managed to close up all of her scratches on her face and I doubted she'd have much of a scar, just some of the deeper ones would be a faint darkening in color.

"I don't know. He's gone." Jacob's voice sounded strained. Now more then ever I was angry with Billy for unloading chiefdom at Jacob's feet at this moment in time. Billy had replied, that he had almost been required to the moment Jacob married.

"He'll be back." I promised, it was a little rotten of a thing that Sam did to Leah when he had seen Emily he completely forgot about her and now Emily was in the hospital because of him. I held no ill will towards Sam though, Jacob had explained to me that Sam couldn't help it, it had been love at first sight, like he had fallen for me.

"Have you met her doctor?" Jacob asked, pulling me closer.

"I have. He's nice enough, seems as if he really cares about his patients."

Jacob's lips pursed but he nodded. "I just saw her, he did a really good job."

"Jake..." I reach my hand up and smooth the tension away from his lips. He smiled at the action and I felt it against my fingers. This was one of the first times I'd ever seen him take something with less than dry amusement or happy humor.

He took my hand and kissed the fingers before wrapping that giant hand around the back of my head, all the while, I felt like if I hadn't trusted him as much as I did, he could easily crush it within his grasp. He closed our distance and I returned the kiss eagerly. Each finger on my nape could be felt individually.

He pulled away eventually and loaded his bike into the back of my truck. I watched his tan skin move over his arms, he was wearing only a t-shirt and cut off shorts. I frown at him. "Aren't you cold? Are you sure you are ok?" I was worried about Jake, he started wearing less and less clothing and the weather kept getting colder.

"Yeah, I'm fine, let's just get home." He dragged me up against him and after another kiss, pulled me into the truck, allowing me to drive back.

When we got to La Push, he was sweating and didn't look so great. Billy took one look at him and got out of the way as Jacob managed to stumble over the steps and into our bedroom. A normal girl would have thought it weird to be living with her father-in-law, but the man needed Jacob and if my father had been in the same situation, then we might have been living there as well. "Bells, please." Jacob says to me and I lean over him in concern.

"What is it?" I ask, desperate to try and help him. "We should have taken you to the hospital."

His hands were burning as he took my face into his hands. "Please Bella, don't argue with me."

"Why would I unless you give me a reason to?" I respond, pulling back and looking at him squarely in the face.

His smile returned to his face and I almost melted at the look. "Please Bella, just go to Charlie's and stay the night there, please?"

My lips pursed at the thought and I wanted to know why. Billy cleared his throat behind me and I turned my head to see him in his wheel chair. "It's probably better if you listen to him." He reassured, his eyes bright with intrigue.

I scowl at my father-in-law, he was finding pleasure in the pain and temperature changes my husband was going through. "No, I'm going to be right here for Jake, I'm going to help see him through."

Jacob shook his head fretfully. "Bells, just listen to me, all right? I'll tell you what's going on later." I highly doubted it, Jacob had never kept anything from me before, never, but even Embry and Quil were being kept in the dark of what happened to Sam, and all I knew from Emily was that the same thing was happening to Jake.

"Do you promise?" I looked him directly in the face and he sighed. I knew I'd won, there wasn't a promise he'd made that he dared break.

"I do. Take care of yourself though, Forks should be safe, but I still don't trust them." Jacob suddenly looked fearful for my safety, and I pressed a kiss to his forehead to calm him.

"I'll be fine, I'll go stay with Charlie, but remember your promise." I tried to pull away but he crushed me to him and gave me an intense kiss. I returned it, this would be the first night we'd spent apart since we got married. He had gone with me when I visited Renee and Renee had stayed with Charlie when she and Phil came up here. I pulled away and turned to Billy. "You sure he's ok? It's a fever or something right?"

"Yeah, something." Billy agreed and I narrowed my eyes at the vagueness. "He'll be fine, don't worry." Billy grunted in acknowledgement. I leaned down and hugged him, and he returned it full force.

"Don't worry Bella." Jacob said from the bed, trying to sit up.

"Sure, sure." I agreed, we both knew I'd worry anyways. "Get better. I'm only leaving because you both seem so sure that it's better this way." I saw them exchange a glance, and wondered it was for me that they were sending me away, I was about to argue that part, but Billy had managed to get me outside and he shut the door in my face. They couldn't keep me out of my house for long though, and I'd return tomorrow. I still had some clothes at my father's so I got in my truck just as it started to rain.