A/N: I may or may not be in love with this chapter. I feel like we're finally getting to the romantic side of J/B, so yay! Anyway, once again THANK YOU SO MUCH to everyone who reviews! The positive feedback and encouragement makes me so happy! So please continue to let me know what you think!

Charlie was distraught. He didn't directly show it, of course, but Bella could tell. He

stayed up later then he normally did and watched the news or ESPN. He didn't eat very much, and Bella could already tell he was losing weight. And pictures of her mother, which had been scattered around the house before, were starting to disappear.

The worst part was he got up every morning at the same time, went to the station and did his job, came home and hung up his gun and jacket, watched television, ate his dinner (what little he ate anyway), stayed up late, then went to sleep. Almost the same routine he had before Bella had moved away.

But he was miserable. And the realization that she couldn't do anything for him killed Bella. A part of her wished she had gone to Rhode Island after all. Anything to escape having to watch her father crumble away. He was losing himself to his grief, and she wished there was something she could do that would steer him back towards his formal self.

Bella was sitting on her windowsill, enjoying the rare rays of sunlight that had broken through the thick clouds of Forks. In her hand was a battered copy of Peter Pan that she had found in Edward's personal library. He had told her that she could have it. It was a story she hadn't really appreciated until now, now that she wished she had never had to grow up. Had never had to deal with so much heartache.

But then you never would have met Edward, a small voice reminded her. She frowned. Edward hadn't called her in a couple of days. She wondered why this didn't bother her as much as it might have a few months ago.

But then you never would have met Jacob. He had called her a couple of hours ago out of the blue to see how she was doing. He had heard right through her, "Doing just fine," and was coming over after he was finished with pack business.

Bella bit her lip and pushed her book aside. Charlie was at the station and would be for the next couple of hours, so Bella took the opportunity to get some laundry done. She wasn't really sure when the last time Charlie had bothered to do any had been.

She wandered into her father's room and headed straight for his overflowing laundry hamper. She fell easily into the routine of sorting the clothes into different piles based on their color and tried to ignore the bottle of whiskey that was sitting atop of Charlie's bedside table.

Her father wasn't a drunk, and since she had come back home she hadn't actually seen him drunk. However, she smelt it on his breath more often then she would have liked and she saw him take a swig from Jack Daniels more then he ever had before. And she hadn't even been back for a week. She made a mental note to take the bottle back down to the kitchen and put it under the sink where the rest of the liquor was. Charlie could still ease his pain, but there was no reason why it should be sitting by his bed.

Bella bent over to grab up a bundle of Charlie's white t-shirts and socks when she spotted it. A cardboard box was sitting in the corner of his room with 'things be thrown away' written in sharpie on the side.

She walked over to the box and peered down inside. Bella dropped her armful of clothes. Inside the box sat the pictures of Renee that had been subtly vanishing over the past couple of days. She stumbled a couple of feet backwards until she felt the edge of Charlie's bed on the back of her legs. She sat down on the edge of the bed and stared at the box and its precious contents.

She heard the front door open and close. "Hey Bells!" She heard Jacob walking up the stairs and turn towards her bedroom. "Yeah, so I thought we could just head into La Push and hang out? I still have those—" He noticed she wasn't in her room. "Bella?" He peaked through the entryway to Charlie's room and his eyes widened with alarm. "Bells honey, what's wrong?"

It wasn't until Jacob rushed towards her, stooped down on his knees and began wiping away her tears that she realized that she had been crying. Bawling, actually. She tried to exhale slowly in order to calm herself down, but she let out a sob instead. The tears poured down her cheeks and Jacob continued to ask her what was wrong, a frantic edge to his voice now. He kept on wiping her tears away. Without a moment of indecision, Bella lurched herself forward into Jacob's arms.

Jacob gently lifted her off the bed so that they could both sit on the floor with her in his lap. He wrapped one arm around her waist and held her against him. He used his other hand to stroke her hair in soothing motions. Bella wrapped her arms around his neck and wept into the curve between his neck and his shoulder. They sat there like that for quite some time, and Jacob said nothing. He just let her cry.

"Bella," he whispered softly when she had started to quiet down. "Do you just want to stay here? Or do you want to leave? Tell me what you want to do Bella and we'll do it." Bella shook her head, which was still buried into his neck. "Look into that box Jake," she said, her voice muffled and hot against his skin.

There was no reason to look. Jacob had already noticed. "Come on honey, lets get you out of her," he said with such tenderness that Bella almost started crying again. He gently maneuvered Bella out of his arms and slowly stood up, his hands clasping her elbows in order to steady her. For a moment she just stood there and stared at the box in misery. "Jake," she said, her eyes beginning to water again. She wouldn't look away from the pictures of her mother.

Before she could say anything else or continue to gaze at the box Jacob grabbed her shoulders and steered her out of Charlie's room, down the stairs, out of her house, and into his Rabbit.

Five minutes later they were on the highway. "Where are we going?" Bella asked, her voice more even then it had been ten minutes ago. Jacob gave her a sad smile. "We're just going to drive around Bella." She nodded, not bothering to put in any enthusiasm. Jacob took one hand off the wheel and took one of Bella's hands in his own.

It wasn't until they had been driving along for over fifteen minutes without a word between them that Bella broke the silence. "Why would he want to throw away her pictures?"

"Because they remind him of what he's lost. Rebecca tore up a couple of pictures of my mom."

"But they're all he has left of her," Bella said, her voice breaking.

Jacob gave her had a reassuring squeeze. "That's not true Bella." He gave her a look that further drove home his point.

Bella couldn't stop the tears from spilling down her cheeks this time. "He sees her every time he looks at me. I'm causing him more pain." She sighed. "I'm starting to think that coming back here wasn't such a great idea."

Jacob pulled the Rabbit onto the side of the road. He let go of Bella's hand and used his to swipe away the tears off her cheek. "Bella, you know none of this is your fault, don't you? He's grieving Bella. You have to let him work it out."

"But Jake—"

"No, Bells. Everyone grieves differently. All you can do is help him get through it. At least with you here, he isn't alone." He pulled his hand back and rested it on top of his knee. Even though the space between them was small, Bella felt like Jacob's body was a thousand miles away. She wanted to close the distance. So she did. She scooted across the seat, wrapped her arms around Jacob's waist and pulled him to her. He wrapped his arms around her in return.

They sat there like that for a moment before Jacob said, "Let's go see a movie."

Bella titled her head up and looked at him. "Why?"

Jacob smiled down at her. "Why not?"

He kissed her forehead before letting go of her and starting up the Rabbit again. Bella turned her head and looked out the window as the car rolled back onto the highway. For the first time since she had stepped foot in Charlie's house a few days ago, Bella felt better.

Leave it to Jacob.