Bronze on Black 2

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Bronze on Black 2

The next morning, like every other, Bella woke with Edward at her side. Her mood changed too quickly to know for sure, but Edward liked to think this was going to be a good day for her. She had the faintest of smiles and a gentle expression.

"Good morning, beautiful," Edward said.

"Good morning yourself," Bella said with a smile. "Is that pretty girl making breakfast today?"

"Alice will be up shortly. She's making pancakes and eggs for you."

"Sounds wonderful. You won't be having any with me?"

"No thanks."

"I'm sorry," Bella said, "You're always so kind and I seem to have forgotten your name again."

"My name is Edward," he said.

"Oh of course. How could I forget?" Edward was used to that. She would ask and he would tell, but she would never speak it aloud. Bella usually recognized him as a doctor or a distant relative.

Bella looked at him quizzically. "There's something different about you today. You look, well, not so sad."

"I'm happy to be with you. You look well."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Babysitting an old woman can be very entertaining, but it's something else. I bet it's that Quileute boy who visits sometimes. Are you two finally an item?"

Edward choked on air. "What makes you think that?"

Bella leaned closer. "I'm not opposed to that sort of thing so you don't have to be embarrassed. You know, I suspected something was going on between you two for a while. It's the way you look at each other."

"Is that so?" Edward managed to say. "Well, you're suspicions are wrong. I love you only." He knew it always ended badly when someone contradicted Bella's train of thought, but she didn't look angry. She raised her wrist, from which hung the bracelet with a heart and a wolf. Even with all of her memories distorted or lost, she still refused to take it off.

"This belonged to a girl I used to know. She taught me that it's possible to love more than one person in a lifetime. She wasn't so bad, was she?"

"Not at all." Edward said, watching the wolf charm swing against the chain. His heart hurt as if it meant to beat again. Bella was the most wonderful girl in the world.

She turned towards the window, dropping her wrist to the bed. "Enough, enough. Would you go see how my breakfast is coming along?"

Edward staggered a little when he stood, his legs weak with emotion.

Bella died quietly in her sleep only a few days later. Jacob put on his only suit, doing his best to straighten his tie in the mirror. For the first time since Jacob had become a werewolf, he used his rank as the leader of the pack to temporarily set aside the treaty. He invited the Cullen family onto Quileute land, to bury Bella where there was a view of the ocean.

Vampires and werewolves intermingled as words were said and the coffin was lowered into the ground. The sun had come out minutes before the burial and the werewolves marvelled as they saw the living legends of their enemies, glittering like spirits in the sunlight.

After the funeral, Edward and Jacob walked shoeless in the water's edge, their dress pants rolled up to the knees. Jacob's thoughts wandered, Edward softly voicing his agreement once in a while.

"We lost her a long time ago," Edward said. But it feels like yesterday that she was herself."

"Yeah," Jacob agreed. Despite the years Bella's mind had been gone, Jacob missed her terribly. He missed their motorcycle rides on the beach, and in later years, riding across the country with both Bella and Edward.

"I miss that too," Edward said, smiling.

Jacob remembered his favourite trip; sure that Edward was listening in to his memory lane. On this trip, only Bella had ridden a motorcycle. Jacob ran on four feet, Edward on two. Each time a car passed on the road, Edward and Jacob would dart into the forest. At night Bella would pull over and sleep beside him near the campfire, Edward running into the woods to hunt. Every morning when they woke, Edward was nuzzling up against them. There was a time they grew so comfortable near one another that Bella had jokingly accused them of Broke-backing. She seemed to like the idea the most of the three of them. Once Jacob had accepted his place, the three of them had become inseparable.

Before Jacob could stop it, a darker memory slipped back to him. When Bella was about thirty-three, she and Edward had fought and Bella fled to the Reservation. It was a point that they all realized the severity of Bella's affection for Jacob; that she truly was in love with them both. That night Jacob was presented with the greatest temptation of his life, a desperate and willing Bella. In the end he had resisted, agreeing only to let Bella sleep chastely beside him in bed. The morning after when Edward was within reach of his thoughts, the two men's relationship had stepped up a level.

"Sorry," Jacob apologized as he forced the thought from his mind. Jacob was surprised when cool fingers laced with his, squeezing tightly to him.

"That was the morning I fell for you," Edward said quietly.

Jacob swallowed. "So long ago?"

"Oh yeah," Edward said, "You came back with Bella and I suddenly realized why she loved you so much."

Even after the many times he had walked with Edward beneath the sun, it was still a dazzling sight to see him standing there in his glittering glory. His eyes glowed gold from a recent hunt, the purple circles beneath them absent for the mean time. The wind muddled his bronze hair and Jacob couldn't resist the urge to run his fingers through it. Jacob pulled his other hand free from Edward's grasp to place it on the vampire's face. Edward wrapped his arms around the werewolf's waist, standing on tiptoes to press his mouth to the other. The feel of cool, marble lips against his lit Jacob on fire, and he couldn't help pulling at the beautiful creature's hair as he worked their mouths against one another. Edward tasted sweeter than he smelled as Jacob slipped inside, honeysuckle and vanilla rushing over his tongue. Edward grew hasty with the gesture, his hands fumbling from Jacob's waist to wrap around his neck. Edward pulled him onto the sand, gracefully untying his tie at the speed of light. Before Jacob had time to look the tie was gone and the front of his shirt was unbuttoned.

Edward paused and frowned as he began to button it again. Jacob only had to wonder what was wrong.

"Rosalie is coming," Edward said resentfully.

They were both presentable and two feet away from one another when Rosalie appeared. It was time for the Cullens to leave. When Edward opened the door to his car, Jacob couldn't comprehend his expression.

Jacob woke the next morning with a putrid feeling in his stomach. There was a horrible absence in his chest, deeper than it had ever been. He rushed to his motorcycle, pulling out of the garage into the pouring rain. The downpour sprayed out beneath his wheels as he raced towards town.

TBC. Please review!