A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed! I tried to respond to everyone, and you all have given me some great ideas to try to work in with what I've already planned.

Thank you, as always, to the amazing JDSK for being my beta. You rock!

Okay, this chapter is very short, but it is all Jacob! Please read and review.

Disclaimer: Meyer created Twilight. I created Maura and dropped her in on the Quileutes.

Chapter 4 - Layover

Jacob stood, dripping wet from the shower, in the tiny bathroom of his cousin Eli's trailer. He rubbed steam from the mirror and leaned down to see into it properly. "Hi, handsome," he laughed at himself and began to lather his face up for a badly needed shave. His eyes had circles under them from lack of sleep. It had, indeed, taken him a few weeks to travel from the remote Canadian mountains to the outskirts of Kamloops, B.C. The weather had taken an early arctic turn, with blustering winds handicapping his progress. He'd had to make do with short naps, spaced unevenly throughout the day, in order to make up for lost time. Last night had been his first good night's sleep in possibly two years. And it had been in a too small, lumpy, foldout bed in the living room of Eli's trailer.

"Hey!" Eli pounded on the door, shouting. "If you take all the hot water I'm going to kill you. I have to get ready, too."

"Relax. It's going to be a while. I'm in serious need of a makeover." Jacob replied.

Eli laughed. "No arguments there, but if we're going to hit the bars tonight, I want to look good for all the ladies, too." Eli took bachelorhood to an art form. At 30, he had never been in anything longer than one year. On principle, he made damn sure that nothing interfered with his status, like an unplanned child or a girl who didn't know up front that he was never going to marry. Ever.

Jacob thought back to the first time he stayed with Eli. It had been about six months after he left home. He had tired of his wolf phase, which he had kept up the entire time. At the time, he'd been closer to home then and had communicated with Leah. She had the idea that he use Eli's place when he wasn't phased, and Billy had called up his nephew to work it out.

Jacob got a job as a part-time mechanic in Kamloops and had tried, really hard, to put her out of his mind. After all, she was out of his life. Forever. He had to get on with his own, especially knowing that hers, as he had known it, was probably over by now.

So, they bar hopped a lot, and Eli had convinced him to just get "it" over with. According to him, the best cure for heartache was sex. Jacob had resisted at first. Some stranger wasn't going to make it better. It would only make it worse, because he had wanted so badly for it to be her. His first time, and hers. Eli had pointed out endlessly that she had never told him anything other than that she was in love with someone else. He had gambled by playing the best friend, and he had lost. Move on.

Finally, one drunken night at a bar, a tall, beautiful blonde caught his eye and managed to keep his attention for more than fifteen minutes. She was hot, and older, though she assumed they were the same age. She flirted with him all night, whispering suggestive comments in his ear and letting her hands roam over his body. When he found himself in her car at the end of the night, he finally decided "what the fuck," went back to her apartment and gotten himself laid. It was pretty amazing and he managed not to let on that he was a virgin. But it was drunken sex. He had woken up the next day and thrown up in her bathroom. She laughed and took care of him before driving him home. Then, he had blown it by trying to be her boyfriend. "You are sexy, Jacob, and I definitely want to do this again. But I don't want a boyfriend right now." His pride had been wounded, and he would have thought there was something wrong with him if every other single girl in town wasn't throwing themselves his way every five minutes.

Eli teased him relentlessly. "You just need to move here permanently, Cuz. The women love you. And between the two of us, we could have one helluva time with the locals and tourists in this town." But sex with the blonde and being hit on by other women were not improving Jacob's mood any.

So, Eli tried again. "Okay. You are seriously cutting in on my action. I'm a handsome guy, but the women around here are going crazy over you. I don't get it. You're good looking and all. We are related, so of course you're good looking." He snapped his fingers then. "I got it. It's the freakishly tall, strong, silent, brooding thing you've got going on. Good angle. I should try it."

Jacob laughed at the memory, and shook his head. No, man-whoring in Kamloops had not been the cure for him. He wasn't done being heartbroken yet, and he'd needed some space. Two months after moving in with Eli, he had taken off again. He called his dad first. Then Leah. He even asked her to come with him, but she refused, saying he needed to work through the first part on his own. That had been more than a year and a half ago. And now he was back. Heading home after spending a few days at Eli's to make the transition easier. Something was telling him it was time. Not before another night on the town, however. Maybe this time he would actually have some fun.

A/N: Again, please review! Thanks!