A/N: Hey all. Thanks for reading and reviewing. I appreciate it so much. Aside from my music, you guys are my inspiration. Enjoy the next chapter. It's a slow build to the next chapter - which is a bit more exciting...and maybe a little shocking. Please excuse any mistakes. Much love xxx

Disclaimer: Twilight is the sole property of Stephanie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

My musical inspiration:

The Parlotones - I'm only human

Hinder - without you

Zedd and Alessia Cara - Stay

Chapter 4: Piece by piece

PPOV

"We didn't have sex, you know." Bella said as Paul drove Bella back to the Black's house.

Paul chuckled. "I know."

"But you said-"

"I was just kidding, Bella." Paul tried to rectify his statement from earlier. He was pretty sure Jake wouldn't want Bella to know about the accuracy of their lupine senses. Besides, it would obviously embarrass Bella to know that he could smell her response to Jacob. He wondered what happened just before he'd walked in?

"We just kissed. I promise." She defended.

"Hey." Paul said and lifted his hands from the steering wheel in an attempt to absolve himself and placate Bella. "I didn't say anything. What the two of you do in your spare time is none of my business."

Bella nodded and turned to look out the window.

Paul couldn't help himself though, adding just one more comment. "Must have been one hell of a kiss."

Bella turned and slapped his arm playfully. "Stop teasing me!"

Paul chuckled at her embarrassment as Bella's cheeks stained dark red.

"Look, Bella. Jake is my best friend and he's been through a lot." Paul gave her a weak smile. "He is a really good guy. I know it doesn't seem that way. But just be patient with him."

"We agreed to be friends. He basically said that the kiss was a mistake and that he didn't want to mess with my heart." Bella explained.

Paul had expected as much from Jacob, though he was surprised that his friend had actually kissed Bella in the first place. Maybe he was making progress?

"Then be his friend, Bella. Maybe that's all he needs right now. Friendship and patience."

"Yeah. I'll try." Bella nodded. "It's not going to be easy, though."

"It will be worth it in the end. I promise." Paul vowed. He knew that someday soon, Jake was going to accept the imprint. Or at least he hoped to god Jake would.

BPOV

Paul and Leah came over on Sunday to help Bella and Jacob prepare the classroom for Monday. Harry had given Bella the go ahead this morning, saying that he would sort out all of the nitty gritty details during the week and that he didn't want the pups to fall behind any more than they already have.

"So. What do you need for class?" Leah asked as she pushed the cart through the store, while Bella hopped along on her crutches beside Leah.

"Note books, pens and pencils, erasers, rulers, chalk and a black board duster."

"Okay. We'll find all of that in the stationery isle." Bella followed behind Leah. She obviously knew her way around the store. "We should really hang out more. You must be starved for female conversation. "

Bella chuckled as she grabbed two packs of blue pens for the pups and one pack of red pens for herself. "You have no idea. There are always guys around at the Black's house. And Sarah is the only woman around. And even when I moved back into my parents old house, I didn't know anybody. I lost contact with all of my school friends over the years. I only came to visit my parents every now and then for a weekend or so. And it never really left me with much time to meet up with my old friends. "

"Why didn't you come visit your parents more?" Leah asked curiously.

"I don't know. I think I was scared of getting sucked back into this small town again." Bella sighed. "It's ironic isn't it. Because here I am anyway."

"So why did you move back? You could've sold their house if you wanted to and stayed in Seattle. Not that I'm saying we don't want you here."

"That's just it. I couldn't find it in me to sell the house. It's the only tangible reminder I have of them. And I guess I came back to Forks to be closer to them somehow." Bella resumed her shopping, selecting the rest of the necessary items.

"I can't imagine what it must feel like to lose both parents at the same time. " Leah shook her head and followed Bella to the checkout stand.

"It's like having your whole world pulled out from under you. At first I was so shocked that it didn't quite sink in. But it hit me really hard when I walked back into their house. It was so quite, but all of their stuff was still there, in the exact place it had been when I moved out. And then I realized that it was all real; They weren't coming back. I'm alone now. There is no close family nearby."

"I know it sounds cliche, but you have us. The pack. We're your family now." Leah said in earnest.

"Thanks Lee. That means a lot to me." Bella sniffled and blinked away her tears. She was not going to cry.

JPOV

Paul was holding up the black board while Jacob made sure that the board was level. The bubble of the level bobbed to the middle. "Perfect." Jake nodded and marked the corners where he wanted to drill holes.

"So what's going on between you and Bella?" Paul asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Jake tried to play dumb.

"Oh come on Jake. Give me a little more credit. Something obviously went down between the two of you last night."

"We kissed. That's all. It might have gone way further if the leeches didn't make an appearance last night. Which was a good thing, because kissing her was a huge mistake, anyway. And having sex would have been disastrous. "

"Why?" Paul frowned. What was with all his questions?

"Jesus, Paul. I've told you already. I don't want to be in a relationship. Women are trouble. Every last one of them. They're all the same. "

"I call bullshit man. She's your imprint. And look at what she's already doing for the pack, even though she doesn't realize she's very much a part of it. Just imagine how good she'd be for you."

"No. I'm not going to accept the imprint. I don't have the energy or the time for more heartache. That's all it's going to be." He said emphatically, shaking his head furiously.

"It's not going to be like that, Jake. It would be as easy as breathing with her. You imprinted on her for a reason. Your spirit wolf knows what you need. And the whole pack can sense that you're struggling. It's making them anxious. "

"Can we please just drop this? I'm refuse to be guilted into this."

"Fine." Paul conceded with a huff. Paul had this annoying way of making him rethink things - over-analyse. And then feel guilty about his actions in the end.

"We're back." The girls announced as they walked in.

"This looks great." Bella smiled in awe as she inspected their handiwork.

"Think you'll be able to work with this?" Jake asked her.

"It's perfect. Thank you, Jake." She leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

His heart stuttered and blushed (fucking blushed!?) at Bella's unexpected gratitude. Oh god. Keeping things platonic was going to be way harder than he thought. He had to kick things up a notch.

BPOV

Bella kicked off Collin and Brady's first lesson with a pop quiz on math, so she could get a sense of where they were at, compared to the syllabus. It was a shock to find out how far behind they really were on calculus. They seemed okay with geometry and algebra, but she'd need to put in a lot of work with calculus.

"I'm never going to get the hang of this." Brady complained when she gave them feedback on the quiz.

"Yeah. Neither am I." Colin agreed. "It's no use. We might as well drop out now. Spare ourselves the embarrassment of failing."

"Don't be too hard on yourselves. That's why I'm here. To help you guys understand all of this. But I think we need to start with the basics. Learn all the rules of calculus. If you understand that, it will help you a lot already."

The boys nodded, seeming relieved. And it made her happy to know that she was able to help.

The rest of the their time together was spent in a similar fashion. Finding out how they were faring with the rest of their subjects. They were fantastic with Spanish. And okay with English. Their grammar and spelling needed a little work.

They were up to standard with Biology and they had the basics down with Accounting. But like she'd expected, Science was also a nightmare. Tonight when she was done with all of her classes, she was going to sit and work out a strategy to get the boys up to par with Math and Science. She could spend a little more time on those two subjects. She was going to teach math and science four times a week and the rest of the subjects only three times a week - until they were doing better.

She was glad that the four younger boys also took the same classes, which consisted of Math, Science, Economics, Geography, English and Spanish. It would have been a little more difficult had they each taken different subjects. They were rather up to date with all of their subjects, since they'd only phased a short while ago. What a relief. It would be easier to teach them.

BPOV

On Monday night just past eleven, Bella fell into bed, dog tired. She pulled the covers over her body and fluffed her pillows. She'd worked full steam on the objectives she had in mind for the boys for the rest of the week. She was going to push them as much as she could, without putting too much pressure on them. But they really had a lot to catch up on - Especially Brady and Collin. At least the boys were eager to learn - to improve. She saw how hard they worked and judging by the improvement she was seeing already, she'd bet everything she had that they put in a lot of effort at home as well.

Jacob was still working on his house. Guess he was eager to get out of his parents house again - and away from her, too. Despite the fact that they'd decided to just be friends, they've spent very little time together doing 'friendly' things. Dinners and movie nights with the rest of the pack didn't count. The haven't spent any time together - alone. Maybe it was better this way. Putting distance between them would make it easier on her when the time came for her to go back to her own house. She had an appointment for x-rays with Sarah next Tuesday to see how her leg was healing. It felt fine to her. No more pain. She was very certain that her leg was healing well.

JPOV

"How are they doing?" Jake asked when he dropped by to pay Bella and the boys a quick visit on Tuesday during his lunch break.

"Not bad. It's Collin and Brady that are proving to be more of a challenge." She sighed.

"How so?" He frowned, leaning against the table opposite Bella's desk. Bella looked beautiful today in her white sundress with her hair spilling over her shoulders.

"They are really behind on Math and Science. But we'll get there. They are bright and they put in a lot of effort. That alone makes a big difference already."

"Yeah. They are bright." He agreed. They've really been struggling to juggle patrolling, school, studying and sleep. And something had to give. School became first choice when they had to decide what to neglect. "They've just had it tough."

"I worked on objectives for them last night. And if they reach it week for week, they'll be well off by the end of the month already. I have no doubt that they will pass with flying colors if we just work really hard on it."

"I'm never gonna get the hang of this shit!" Argent said and pushed his notebook away in disgust.

"Language, Argent!" Bella scolded him.

"You're wasting your time with me." He said and got up from his chair, scraping it back noisily. He was obviously ready to leave. The others nodded in agreement.

"Don't be so hard on yourself. It's going to get better." Bella assured him.

Jake was ready to step in and put Argent in his place, but first he wanted to see how Bella would handle the situation. He'd wondered if maybe she was a little soft to take on these boys - flaring tempers and all.

"No. I'm done." He shook his head and turned to leave.

"Argent Walker. I said sit down!" Bella ordered in a authoritative voice.

It all happened in the blink of an eye - Argent sat down immediately, chin tucked - just like the other three boys. They were looking down as if it had been Jacob that had given them an Alpha order.

Mouth agape in shock and amazement, Jacob turned to look at Bella. "How the hell did you do that?"

Bella shook her head and shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't do anything. I just told him to sit down."

They boys hadn't moved yet. It was very strange. "Finish your the work Bella gave you." Jacob broke the order, watching them get back to their books without a word.

This was unheard of. Could it possibly have anything to do with Bella being the his imprint? The Alpha's imprint? But they haven't accepted the imprint. Or at least, he hasn't. Maybe his dad had some answers for him.

BPOV

Brady and Collin helped Bella lock up after class that night and drove her back to Billy and Sarah's house. They were already more positive after tonight's classes. Calculus had finally started making more sense to them and out of the ten problems she'd given them to work on, they'd both gotten five correct. Progress.

Jacob waited for them on the porch as the car pulled into the driveway, flicking his cigarette into the darkness and took two steps at a time down the stairs toward them. Bella had come to notice that Jacob smoked sometimes - when he was worried or stressed. She'd found Jake and Paul with a cigarette each one night when she needed Jake's help with something - it had been quite hilarious the way both of them had tried to hide it. Like they were teenagers sneaking a cigarette without their parents knowledge. It didn't bother her in the least. They were both grown men - they were free to make their own choices. And they certainly didn't need to hide it from her. She wasn't going to reprimand them.

He opened the car door and carefully pulled Bella out and into his arms. She sighed contently at the sensation of his warm body wrapping around her like a blanket. This was where she wanted to exist - in his arms forever. She dragged in a lungful of his scent. It always seemed to calm her.

"You look tired." He said as he carried her up the steps and into the house, placing her on the couch.

"I am. But I feel satisfied. The boys are already making tons of progress. Can you believe that they got half of their calculus questions right tonight, as apposed to Monday when I quizzed them and they got none right." She bragged to Jacob about Brady and Collin who looked very pleased with themselves.

"Well. With a teacher like you, I expected nothing less." Jake complimented her.

"Amen!" Brady agreed. "She's the best." He placed her crutches in the corner next to the front door and came to give her a kiss on the top of her head. It was so endearing. Jacob growled, not seeming too pleased at the pup's display of affection. Brady look unfazed by Jake's reaction.

"And she doesn't get angry at us when we don't understand something." Collin added, copying Brady's move - planting a kiss on her cheek. Bella blushed, but gave the boys a sunny smile.

"Thanks for dropping me off guys. And thanks so much for the hard work."

"Night Bella." Collin and Brady waved goodbye, turning to leave.

"Drive safe." She said as they headed out, Jake closing the door behind them.

"There's food ready for you in the kitchen. I cooked." He said, scratching the back of his head uncomfortably.

"Is it safe for human consumption?" Bella teased.

"I think so." Jake gave her a lopsided grin. "Though it's only mac and cheese."

"Sounds good. I'm starving."

JPOV

"Where are your parents?" Bella asked as she took a big bite of pasta.

"At Harry and Sue's."

"Oh right. I forgot about the weekly dinners." She said, swallowing down her food. It wasn't half bad. "So, how was your day?"

"Good, actually. I got a lot of work done on the big house near the high school in Forks. It's almost finished."

"I'd love to see some of your work. I'm curious to see if it's as good as the work you've done on your own place."

"I'll show it to you, sometime. It's quite different from what I've done with my place. Less rustic."

"I'd love that." She nodded, ferrying some more mac and cheese into her mouth.

"Do you want some coffee?" He asked, getting up from the table.

Bella nodded - her mouth still full.

Jake escaped into the kitchen. Even behaving like friends toward each other was becoming too much for him. He had this ever-present desire to just pull Bella into his arms and never let go. He was really trying his best to push the imprint down, but he wasn't having much success. He was starting to wonder if maybe Paul had been right - that it would be just as easy as breathing with her? He wondered what would happen if he just gave in and told Bella about the imprint? But a nagging voice in the back of his mind reminded him that she might not feel the same about him. And that he'd probably end up getting hurt again. It just wasn't worth the risk.

He sighed in frustration and flipped the kettle on. He pulled two mugs from the drying rack and ladled a big spoonful of coffee into each of them and added some sugar while he waited for the kettle to boil.

It felt strange being just the two of them in the house. He wondered what it would feel like living with Bella - asking her to move in and have her sleep next to him every night? And make love to her over and over again until neither of them could keep their eyes open. "Jesus Christ, Jacob." He chastised himself under his breath. "Get a fucking grip." Allowing her in was a recipe for disaster. Best let sleeping dogs lie. No pun intended.

The kettle switched off with a loud click. Jacob was glad to have something to distract him.

When he entered the living room, Bella was resting her head on her arms. Or was she sleeping? Jake moved in closer to her. Her lips were hanging open slightly and her eyes were shut. She breathed slowly and evenly - yup, she was definitely out for the count.

He put down the steaming mugs and picked Bella up into his arms. He supposed that the last two days had really worn her out. Slowly and very carefully he walked to Bella's room, trying not to jostle her awake. She looked so peaceful. How was it possible that this girl was messing so severely with his head. And his heart?

He pulled the covers away with one hand and gently lay her down on the bed. She sighed and smiled in her sleep. He wondered what she was dreaming about.

"Jake." She mumbled.

He froze, not expecting her to say his name. He knew she talked in her sleep. He'd heard her many nights when he lay in his bed, struggling to fall asleep. But never had she said his name. Until now.

He pulled the covers over her body and kissed her softly on her forehead. "Good night, Bella." He said, turning to leave.

"Stay with me just a couple minutes more." She mumbled softly - in almost a whisper.

Jake stood rooted to the spot - conflicted. Should he leave, or should he stay, like she asked? But she didn't really ask, did she? She was only dreaming.

"Stay." She spoke again.

Jake always thought of himself as a strong man. But how was it that this tiny girl could test his resolve so drastically. He sighed. He would give in - just for tonight. Tomorrow he'd continue with the struggle of keeping her at bay. Maybe he needed this - to help his control.

He pulled back the covers and climbed in next to Bella. He would leave early in the morning before she woke up so she'd never know of this.

Jacob closed his eyes and, for the first time in a long while, he slept like a baby.

SPOV

Sarah pulled her shoes from her tired feet as she walked down the passage to her room. Billy was just locking up and then he'd be joining her. She peeked her head into Bella's room to see if she was sleeping, only to find Jake sleeping next to her with his arm flung over her.

She smiled. The two of them looked so peaceful. The imprint was finally starting to wear Jacob down - just like everyone knew it would. Jacob deserved to be happy. And so did Bella. And Sarah couldn't think of two people who would compliment each other better, than the two of them. Her son had a good heart - he just hid it away from Bella because of his past experiences, but he and Bella were essentially the same. Caring and kind-hearted.

"What are you looking at?" Billy startled Sarah as he wrapped his arms around her middle and rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Take a look." She whispered, nodding toward the bed.

"Oh." Billy said and pulled away from Sarah. She peeked over her shoulder, finding her husband smiling at the sight before him. "Well this is progress."

"Sure is, honey." She nodded. "They both deserve this."

BPOV

Leah invited Bella to hang out with her and the rest of the girls on Sunday. She was glad to be making more friends. All the testosterone was driving her nuts.

And that's how she found herself sitting at Emily's kitchen table, smack bang in the middle of a conversation about the guys and imprinting. They'd told her all about what it involved.

"You guys are so lucky." Bella pouted. "I can't imagine what it must feel like to be in a relationship like that. It must be incredible to feel so secure about each other." Emily was married to Sam - they'd imprinted six years ago. Though Leah and Paul weren't married, they'd already imprinted on each other too. Just like Kim and Jared. And they seemed so happy. What she wouldn't give to be Jacob's imprint. Maybe that was why he pushed her away. He wasn't willing to fool around in case he imprinted on someone else. It made sense in a way - it would spare her the inevitable heartbreak.

"It is." Emily agreed. "There is nothing like it."

"And oh my god, Bella. The sex!" Kim swooned. "It's indescribable. Just imagine the best sex you've ever had and multiply it by ten. Especially the first time. When you accept the imprint."

"So when you have sex with your imprint, you accept it?" Bella wondered.

"No. Sex just seals the bond. Finalizes it, for lack of a better word." Kim explained.

"So what's going on between you and Jacob?" Leah asked curiously. "I've heard some things from Paul."

"Oh my god." Bella blushed. "He seriously told you?"

"Yup." Leah nodded.

"We're friends." Bella stated matter-of-factly. She wasn't quite sure who she was trying to convince more - herself or Leah.

"Friends don't kiss like that." Leah grinned.

"How do you know about the kiss?" Bella was sure she was beet red right now.

"Pack mind." Leah tapped her finger against her temple. "Saw it the other day when I was out patrolling with Jake."

"He was thinking about it?"

"Yes. He was." Leah nodded.

"Ugh. I don't know what to think anymore." Bella sighed and fiddled with her hands. "We decided to be friends. After he kissed me, he basically said that he didn't want to give me the wrong idea. Talk about mixed signals."

Leah, Emily and Kim gave each other a strange look.

"What?" Bella asked, confused now.

"So you like him?" Kim asked.

"Yeah. I do. But he doesn't feel the same way."

"I have an idea." Leah smirked, her eyes twinkling deviously. "A way to put you out of your misery and find out if Jake really likes you or not."

"I'm listening..." Bella motioned for Leah to continue.

"Let's go out one night. The four of us. With the guys." Leah suggested. "You find yourself a hottie and dance and flirt a little. Maybe even kiss him. And then see how Jake reacts."

"If he get's jealous, then you'll know he's into you." Kim added.

"Okay." Bella agreed. "At least then I can move on if he doesn't want me."

"I don't know you guys." Emily said and gave Leah an admonishing look. Bella didn't understand Emily's reluctance to go along with the idea.

"Oh come on, Em." Kim encouraged.

"Do it for Bella." Leah added.

Emily acquiesced with a sigh. "Fine."

A/N: Thanks for reading. xxx P.S. Reviews are very welcome...