Being There
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to Stephanie Meyer.
A/N-thank you so much for the awesome reviews once again. I appreciate your feed back so much. Nikki :)
Part Four
Dinner was an enjoyable affair. Billy and Charlie got a lot of amusement by teasing Jacob about his huge appetite. He tucked into his roast dinner eagerly and was finished long before the others. Bella filled his plate up again with the leftovers and he managed to polish off hers as well when she only ate half of her portion. Embry had been right, he had mused to himself, his hunger had increased exponentially since he phased and now he always felt half empty.
After dinner the two men retreated to the living room with some beer and made themselves comfortable in front of the flat screen. They hunted down a sports show and watched it in contentment; chatting idly. Bella and Jacob sat at the kitchen table after they had cleared away the dishes and Bella pulled out her homework which the principal had given her as punishment for her suspension.
Jacob sat down beside her and eyed the huge text books she was arranging on the table. "You've only been back a day, Bells. Have they piled all this on you already?"
Bella sighed irritably. "I've been suspended for a couple of days and I was given extra work to do as punishment." She stated bluntly.
"What? Why?" Jacob asked, completely stunned.
"Do you remember me mentioning a girl in my year called Lauren?"
Jacob nodded. "Yeah."
"Well we had a bit of an altercation at lunch and I accidentally on purpose gave her a black eye." She said in a rush.
A grin crossed Jacob's lips as he stared at her in wonder. "You gave her a black eye. Wow Bells what did she do for you to lose it like that?"
Bella's face darkened. "She mentioned something about Ed..." she flinched as she stumbled over his name. "She was just out of order that's all."
Jacob felt his good mood vanish at the mention of the leech who had cruelly abandoned Bella in the middle of the forest. After he had found out from Sam exactly what the Cullen's were it had been hard for him to understand exactly why Bella had allowed herself to be involved with them. She knew perfectly well what they were but had still gone ahead and dated Edward Cullen. He watched her as she picked up her pen and began to write furiously on her notepad. Jacob could see how upset she was.
"Bells, stop. This can all wait," he said gently, reaching out and catching hold of her hand.
Bella stopped writing and gazed at him sadly. "There's so much to do. I have to get started."
"Not right now. Let's go for a walk," Jacob wouldn't take no for an answer. He pulled her out of her seat and she reluctantly followed him out of the house after they told their dad's where they were going.
They walked hand in hand along the side walk; not going in any particular direction. It was a quiet night, the sky overcast. There were few people about so they had the area pretty much to themselves. Jacob occasionally glanced down at Bella, she seemed deep in thought and he wondered how to broach the subject of Edward. He felt that she really needed to let some things out now that he knew what the Cullen's truly were. She must feel burdened keeping it all to herself.
As they approached the diner Jacob stopped Bella, he took both of her hands in his own and made her look up at him. "Bells, I haven't really said anything to you about Cullen. Now that I know what he and his family are I think we should talk about it." He massaged the skin of her hands with his warm fingers and accidentally brushed along the scar that looked like a bite mark across her wrist. The chill seeping from that small area burned his fingers and he stared at her in horror as it finally occurred to him what the scar signified.
"He bit you?" A sudden rush of anger made his body shake and Bella immediately pulled him away from the diner and over to the other side of the road, near the forest's edge.
"Jake, please. It wasn't Ed...he didn't bite me. I was attacked by another." Bella confessed hastily.
Jacob forced himself to calm down, he caught hold of Bella's wrist again and stared at it. "Who did this? I will hunt them down and fucking kill them." He seethed.
Bella took her arm away, a tear rolling down her cheek. She had never heard Jacob swear like that before. "I was bitten by a nomad vampire called James. Remember when I had that accident and broke my leg?"
He nodded slowly, his anger seeping away as he realised how upset she was. "Go on," he said more gently.
She wiped at her cheek and sighed. "There were three of them, just nomad travellers. We encountered them when the Cullen's took me along to watch them play baseball."
"Baseball?" Jacob felt stupefied.
"Yes, they liked to play occasionally. Anyway they took us by surprise and it didn't go well. They saw that I was human and it sparked off a hunt by the one called James. It was something he enjoyed doing, chasing down his prey. He tracked me down in my mom's home town and lured me into a trap by telling me he had my mom held hostage. I went there and he attacked me, he broke my leg and bit me. Edward and the others arrived at this point and Carlisle made Edward suck the venom out of my bloodstream. Luckily he was successful." Her voice caught in her throat as she finished her hurried explanation. She had been managing to block out the memory of that fateful night quite successfully for a while, but Jacob's questions had brought it all back.
"Oh honey," Jacob wrapped Bella tight in his arms and she began to sob against his chest in earnest. It was the first time she had ever really confronted what had happened to her. Edward and the others refused to speak about it afterwards, preferring to mollycoddle her instead.
"Don't hate me Jake, please," Bella sobbed.
"Hush Bells. None of what happened to you was your fault. It is all the doing of that leech and his family. He should never have allowed you to be in that situation." Jacob tried to keep his tone even, there was a lot more he would like to have said about the leech, but Bella was too fragile to hear that.
Bella buried herself closer to him and continued to cry. Jacob said no more and just held her until she wore herself out and then they headed back to the house.
XXXXXX
Bella lay on her back in her bed. She was having difficulty sleeping. She had so much on her mind. Her talk with Jacob had brought everything to do with Edward and the Cullen's to the forefront of her mind again. It had been hard dealing with everything alone. She had no one to confide in or tell the truth to and she attributed this as one of the reasons she had completely shut down after Edward abandoned her. Maybe if she had someone else who had known about the Cullen's she wouldn't have reacted so badly to their loss.
After a while she tore her thoughts away from Edward and his family and instead Bella's mind drifted to Jacob. He had been a huge support to her when she had opened up to him about James. Considering the path his own life had taken he had been remarkably mature at handling the fact that she had been bitten by a vampire. He had been nothing but supportive and Bella knew that she was lucky to have him.
She pondered at the way her life had changed in the last few days. Once again she had been drawn back into the path of the supernatural. She had thought that part of her life was over, but now with Jacob's transformation she had been pulled back in. It was different with Jacob though; he was still very much as he always was. She didn't have to be careful around him, unlike Edward. She recalled the many times that Edward had to draw back from her for her own safety. Her blood had called to him and she began to finally realise just what a huge risk she had been taking hanging around him day after day. Her naivety appalled her. He had told her himself he was dangerous but she had shoved his warnings to the back of her mind. Her life had never been in danger until she had met him.
"It was a good thing that you left, Edward. I think that is perhaps one of the most selfless things you ever did. Thank you for leaving," Bella said the words aloud; finally admitting to herself that her life was a better place now that Edward wasn't in it.
With this revelation in mind Bella eventually found sleep.
XXXXXX
Jacob spent the night on another patrol. This time he had been paired up with Paul and he wasn't happy about it at all. Having to hear Lahote's thoughts in his head was getting on his last nerve. He was once again picturing his latest hook up in graphic detail and Jacob had enough. He already had to endure Paul's taunting about Bella and the two of them had already come to blows twice.
"I'm outta here," Jacob began to lope away from Paul.
"You can't just run off, Black. We still have twenty minutes until the end of the shift," Paul sneered.
"I'm sure you can cope," Jacob continued on his way back toward La Push.
"Sam will punish you for bailing," Paul kept pace with him, continuing to push his buttons.
"Don't care. Just stop following me Lahote and fuck off," Jacob increased his pace but Paul stuck right by his side.
"You really think you're better than the rest of us don't you?"
"Don't be an ass..."
"Just because you're the chief's son it doesn't make you something special," Paul was determined to get another rise out of Jacob.
Jacob growled deep in his chest. He was having a hard time not turning around and attacking Paul again, but he knew that was what Paul wanted. He seemed to enjoy riling people up and getting under their skin. So Jacob continued to ignore him and kept heading back toward home. The lack of response infuriated Paul and he was determined to push Jacob's buttons. There was one sure fire way of doing that.
"You know that leech lover you hang around with isn't such a bad looker. I don't usually go for the pale, skinny type but sometimes it's good to try something different..."
That did it, before he finished the sentence, Jacob attacked him and Paul was thrown off balance as Jacob used all his strength to bowl him over. They began to scrap with each other, inflicting superficial wounds which quickly healed as soon as they appeared. The fight only broke up when Sam arrived to take over the shift and he issued an Alpha command for them to stop. Jacob left quickly informing Sam that he was never going to patrol with Lahote again.
XXXXXX
Jacob didn't head straight home, instead he found himself in Forks. He was still riled up about Paul's comments and he wandered aimlessly trying to calm himself down. The thought of Lahote or anyone making a move on his Bells angered him beyond reason. This was a unusual feeling for Jacob, he was usually able to control his emotions but this tendency toward anger seemed to be a side effect of becoming a spirit wolf.
He ended up near her house. He stared up at her bedroom window from the confines of the forest, his keen eyesight clearly seeing that her bedroom window was half open. He phased back into his human form and pulled on the shorts attached to his leg. Making no sound he emerged from the tree cover and crept over toward the house, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign that he had been spotted. It took him mere seconds to reach the tree which grew outside Bella's bedroom window.
Jacob stared up at her window and bit his lip, wondering what the hell he was thinking coming over in the middle of the night. He should just head home but he really needed to just see her. She always made him feel so much better. He considered throwing a stone at her window to attract her attention but decided against it. He would probably end up smashing the glass and causing all sorts of trouble. The best way was just to climb up and try and attract her attention that way.
He gracefully leapt up the tree and skilfully ascended from branch to branch until he was level with Bella's window. He peered in and saw that she was asleep. Her long hair was spread around her like a fan; one arm was flung over her eyes and her legs tangled in the duvet. She looked so cute lying there. Jacob wondered whether to just leave, but he was here now.
"Bella," he hissed as loudly as he dared. He reached out and tapped on the window pane.
He saw her shift around restlessly in her bed. He knocked on the window again and called her name a second time. This time she stirred. Her head shot up and she stared wildly around the room.
"Bells," he called again. She turned her head in his direction and stared at him in shock. "Can I come in?"
Bella slipped from her bed and headed to the window, she opened it further so he could enter more easily. He breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't been heard by Charlie. He was risking a lot by coming here like this.
"Why are you here, Jake? What's wrong?" Bella tried to stifle a yawn.
"Had a bad night that's all. Just needed you Bella," Jacob admitted in a low voice.
She saw how dejected he seemed. Without thinking Bella took his hand and led him toward her bed, pushing on him gently until he sat down. She yawned again, making him do the same as tiredness crept up on him. Bella crawled on the bed and lay down with her back to him. He looked at her uncertain what to do.
"Just lay down,Jake. It's late and I'm tired. I can see you are too. We'll talk later." She mumbled, her eyes already closing.
Jacob didn't protest. He quickly lay down on his back next to her, their bodies touching slightly. Bella shifted back until she was spooned into his side. "Night, Jake."
Jacob couldn't stop the grin forming on his lips as he closed his own eyes. "Night Bells." He whispered before drifting off to sleep.
A/N-Thanks for reading!
