"All things pass…Perhaps the passage of time is a kind of healing, or a kind of salvation granted equally to all people."
-Mizuki Nomura

Chapter 4—The Passing of Time

Compared to the next couple of weeks, my run-in with the wolf named Jared was the most exciting part of my trip thus far. I did end up meeting with the rest of the wolf pack as well as the elders of the Quileute tribe. The rules were simple, just as Jared said. I couldn't come or hunt on Quileute lands. The barrier line stood thus: the river to the north, cracks in the cliffs to the east, and the apple grove to the west.

I promised that the rules the Cullens agreed to would be the same ones that I would follow. I would stick to the mountains for my hunting, which was fine with me—deer, elk and mountain lions were my favorite anyway. I spent the majority of time with Bella or at the library in Forks. Bella, I noticed, was becoming an adrenaline junky. The day after my meet-up with the Quileutes, Bella went to the movies with a friend from school—Jessica, Jennifer, or some name that started with a 'j'—out of protest, so her dad didn't send her to Florida.

I don't know what happened during their movie, but when Bella came home, she immediately went online to find—of all things—a place that sold motorcycles. She then proceeded to tell me all about a friend of hers down on the reservation that was a car guru—if you needed to know something about fixing up cars, he was your guy. She planned to get him to fix up the motorcycles and then give her lessons on how to ride it. I just looked at her like she was crazy and then proceeded to go hunt and contemplate what was going on in her head.

Since I couldn't go down the reservation myself, I spent the next following Saturdays relaxing in the forest or at the library. I tried not to worry too much—Bella did always tell me what she and Jacob worked on. Granted, it was never anything too technical; Bella was smart, but cars and how they worked was something that was way off her radar. Despite all this, I dreaded the day that the two finished the bikes and were able to ride them.

I wasn't the only one who felt the same way. The Saturday before the bikes were finished, Bella came home and said that Jacob wished he had drug out the rebuild a little longer. She then confessed to me that Jacob had been harboring a little crush on her. I did the only thing I could think of doing-I warned to be wise in her judgment with the kid. I didn't want something to happen and have one or both of their hearts broken.

Unfortunately, they both ended up with broken hearts anyway. Within the next month, Jacob shot up to 6'7", grew muscles that no sixteen-year-old should have and had his temperature shoot up. Once again, I never actually saw this transformation, but Bella was starting to become concerned—especially after Jacob said that Sam Uley, the alpha of the pack (not that Jacob knew that), was watching him with the same intensity that he watched Jacob's friend Embry Call.

I wished that was the end of the story. However, I've never been one to have my wishes granted or luck on my side. Jacob soon joined the wolf pack, and I had to become formally introduced to him. He, unsurprisingly, was not very thrilled to find that a new vampire was living in such close proximity to Bella, Charlie, and the people of Forks. However, given that Jacob gave up his right to be alpha, he had no say in what I could or could not do as long as I obeyed the restrictions in the treaty.

Given Bella's nosey nature, it was no surprise that she began to investigate why Jacob was suddenly avoiding her. It took her about a month, but by mid-April, she had found out the truth of the La Push wolf pack. She also found out that I knew all about it; needless to say, she was not very thrilled about that one. That was our most extensive conversation to date, and it mostly consisted of me explaining (over and over again) that there was a certain honor code and code of ethics when it came to being a supernatural creature. They trusted me to uphold the treaty, and I trusted them to not out me.

With Bella now in the know of the goings on of La Push, she began to spend more time with the wolves. I knew, with a sense of dread, that everything was going to be coming to a head eventually. By the end of April, Bella was obsessed with her adrenaline rushes. She began to find new and more dangerous ways to get them too. On top of that, we had a rogue vampire that was going around—come to find out, she was hunting Bella.

I'm known to be pretty cool and collected (on occasion), but I damn near lost my voice with the scolding I gave Bella for not giving me all the details. She caved and gave me the Cliff Notes version of what happened in Phoenix and why this red-head was after her. I then met with the wolf pack and—after a lot of debate and convincing—decided to help join in the hunt to catch her.

Which brings me back to Bella's adrenaline rushes: the dummy decides to go "cliff diving recreationally" while we're on the hunt for this vampire and nearly gets herself killed. Then, come to find out that one of the Cullen's came back to check on her...but that's where the story truly starts.

AN: Sorry that this isn't a more exciting chapter. This story could've started at the end of New Moon but, while writing out the plans, I realized that it should begin at the beginning of New Moon and then I could write a chapter (like this) that skips over the few months that Bella spent with Jacob.