Dawn, bleak and drab as usual, met Bella Swan awake. She had not slept much if at all the night before. Jumping out of that tree sent adrenaline coursing through her most of the night, only to abruptly depart this morning when she tried to sit up without a strain. Her lower back had the articulation of rusty gears, and her legs felt like jell-o.

"Ugh."

"Good morning." Edward's monotonous voice greeted as he materialized out from the corner of her room, drawing toward her with motionless ease. She jolted upright, forgetting her ailments and reached out toward him. He went into her arms and she began to frantically push away his clothing from his rigid frame, eyes wide and racing across his forearms and chest for injury.

Perplexed, "What? How could you be okay?"

Edward handed her back her arms and fixed himself.

"I saw you bleeding last night, I had your blood all over me."

Edward gave her a gentle smile and nodded to the raw patches of flesh on her own arms. She gaped at them as if they had magically appeared.

"You had your own blood on you. I told you to stay put."

She settled back into her pillows slowly, trying to recall the night before. Everything had happened in fast forward. She didn't even remember coming home and getting into bed. She did remember standing just a hair's distance from the blurring tempest raging between Jacob and his pack and Edward and his coven, her heart beating like a drum inside her chest, and finding the courage to speak—rather—to scream for them to stop. Her voice was still hoarse.

She cleared her throat, then remembering Yuri, wild with passion, telling her to run and then—and then—everything. One moment superimposed onto another.

Damn. Yuri was a vampire. She rubbed her neck thoughtlessly. Her eyes popped open in realization before shooting Edward an accusing look.

"You knew!"

Edward nodded slowly, ferrying his eyes away from hers. "I did."

"Why didn't you tell me? You lied to me! You told me she was only human."

Edward tried to find a stipulation in his then response. "Not exactly…I kept getting the sensation that she was, even though I couldn't read her mind…but then I caught wind of her. She stunk."

Bella's face morphed through a series of expressions. "Werewolf?" She rasped. Edward could tell she didn't understand it any more than any of them had last night.

"Don't try to make sense of it. Werewolf to us, vampire to them, human to you. Which is why I had such difficulties getting into her mind. It was like three existences all thinking at once. It was unintelligible, I couldn't even catch a word."

His explanation had derailed Bella from her disappointment in him, for the moment trying to fix this situational Rubix cube. When she gave up, her eyes became icicles again.

"If you had told me then you wouldn't have had to be brawling with Jacob last night. I hated that." She shuddered at the thought. "Did you really have to fight them?"

"I did."

"You didn't. Yuri was the one who came after me, not Jacob or anyone else in his pack."

Edward sighed. "I did." He insisted. "Things got complicated after Emmett struck first. But if he hadn't, I might have."

"Why?"

"To protect you. It wasn't about Jacob until we realize he was trying to protect Yuri."

At that, Bella shot up again. "What? Did he know?"

Edward nodded.

Bella felt the room orbit. Maybe it was just her head. Jacob tried to protect Yuri from Edward after she had tried to kill her? What sense did that make if just barely an hour before he had risked everything to come to the Cullen's door to warn her?

"You lie." She whispered, eyes fighting tears. "Jacob would have told me."

Edward seemed taken aback. He could hardly believe she was sticking up for him after he had risked starting world war three for her. After Carlisle and Jasper and Emmett had involved themselves to protect her. After Jacob had suddenly turned cold and discarded her when Yuri sauntered into town. He felt his shoulders drop and subsequently, his weight amplify over the little velvet box that was being crushed between he and the bed.

"Your words cut me…" He admitted.

Bella was immediately remorseful. The way he had said it felt as if he had dumped a truckload of emotion into the statement. She probably came across ungrateful, thoughtless, Bella. So Bella.

"I'm sorry," she sulked, wrapping her arms around his neck. He encircled her in his arms and rubbed her back comfortingly. He would have rather been the one being comforted, but remorse hung to every syllable of her apology. Still, her defensiveness toward Jacob made it painfully clear that her ties to him were stronger than he would have liked. The velvet box under his weight made him wonder if his devotion may be one- sided.

She clung to him like Velcro, her tears wetting his neck silently. No, it wasn't one-sided. But it was too soon.

He pulled away first and kissed her softly. "Go to him. If you must." The next instant he was by her window, ashen skin blending with the grays of outside.

"I'll be near."

Then Bella was alone.

Yuri stood at the edge of the cliff-side, watching the waters crash abruptly into the rocks and retreat, swelling and charging again. A storm was brewing out in the sea. An ugly morning after an ugly night. Behind her, the heavy panting of a large beast and thudding paws neared her until they softened to feet over crunching rocks, and a feverish hand wrapped around her arm.

"Hello, Jacob Black," she greeted. His touch was gentle, though it should not have been.

"I've been looking for you." His voice was tired. "What are you doing here?"

She looked down at the waves again, smashing violently below. "Contemplating jumping."

"You won't die," he reminded.

"I died a long time ago." When she glanced over her shoulder at him, there was shame in her face. "Sorry about your friend, Bella."

Jacob dropped his hand when she turned to face him finally, human again, delicate, beautiful, ashamed.

He felt his tension lift from him and carry off in the wind. Looking at her was like sighing.

"I hate you. I wanted to kill you just as badly as them for trying to hurt her." He made his hands into angry claws, mimicking strangling.

Yuri's eyes widened a bit, but she said nothing. Jacob dropped his arms to his side. He met her eyes hopefully.

"But you couldn't help it, could you?"

Again, she did not respond.

Jacob had to force the next few words out of his mouth. "You could…try to learn from them…then maybe you could deal with what you are a little better."

She was shaking her head before he'd even finished his sentence. It would be best if she was as far away from Forks as possible. Despite everything, she had no desire to be a practiced vegetarian like the Cullens. She would willfully indulge when the want took her, despite how she felt about what she did.

"I'd quicker leave here to escape your disapproval."

Jacob perked a brow. "Oh? What about Edward?" The name slopped out of his mouth like sludge. "I thought you were in love with him?" Though he was mocking, he was bursting with jealously. Of the two women he coveted, both wanted that pale-faced Cullen boy, although Yuri's situation seemed to make a bit more sense than Bella's.

Yuri's face was sour. "I'm not about to further complicate things by encouraging a love triangle." She looked at Jacob. "Square," she corrected, deciding to include him.

"Besides," she continued. "My attraction to Edward is illogical. It just is."

There was no way she could compete with Bella. She had seen that last night in the way he moved in for her, the desperate tackle that launched her into the wood and very nearly crushed her like a paper cup. Edward could not love her, or anything else for that matter.

"I kind of want you to stay," Jacob admitted in a trance, eyes unblinking, mesmerized.

Yuri was flattered despite knowing what influenced his statement. "That's because you can't help it," she reminded, patting his cheek gently to force him to refocus. He took hold of her hand and held it there, savoring the interaction from her that she always shied away from. It was a miracle she did not wither her hand away from him.

"I know I'm drawn to you because you can't help it, or I can't, whatever. But I do know when I'm genuinely attracted to a persons' character. You can draw me in, but you can't keep me there. I chose to stay."

Yuri took her hand back, but it was difficult. She felt her throat closing. It was hard enough to swallow, let alone speak. "You can see me?" She marveled.

Jacob nodded. "Just you. Not the werewolf, not the vampire. Yuri."

In another life, where it was possible, Yuri would be crying. She could feel the build up of emotion swell in her, choking her, making her breathing erratic, but it would go no further than that. It had been eight years since she had been able to, and wanted to. For a few moments that seemed like an eternity, she did not speak. When she had composed herself enough, she met his eyes.

"Thank you, Jacob." She said in a sigh. "Bella is very fortunate to have you."

Jacob took a step toward her, reaching out a hand to brush away the tears that did not exist when a gentle gust of wind blew through his fingers, and Yuri would exist in Forks only as a memory hereafter.

"Hey, Jacob."

His response was hesitant, almost weary. "Hey."

"I'm sorry. Could I come see you?"

His reply was lively, as if he'd been waiting by the phone all day hoping to hear her ask. "Of course."

That was before Bella had driven all the way to La Push in her beat-up pick-up truck with her wipers doing more harm than good by spreading murky water around the windshield. It was a miracle she'd made it there alive. Now they sat with the distance of strangers between them on the old oak stump just in front of the barn, darting their eyes about the dew covered grass for a conversation starter. Bella was chewing her bottom lip to shreds and Jacob was only there in body. She had hoped she could count on his sweet wit and humor to jump start a conversation but it looked like she have to be the talkative one today.

"Jake, I'm really sorry I stood you up. If I had just gotten my crap together maybe none of this would have happened."

Jacob set his eyes on her. "What do you mean?"

Bella shrugged. "I don't appreciate you. I mean I do, I just don't behave like I do. If I had just met you at the theatre like I was supposed to then maybe you wouldn't have been hanging out with Yuri." She cringed trying to deliver the next sentence. "Then maybe you wouldn't have felt obligated to protect her…" Her voice trailed off near the end.

Jacob sat up straight, brows knitted, frowning. "Edward blabbed, huh?"

She nodded solemnly.

"I guess it makes me look really bad, huh?"

Bella shrugged again. "A little. I guess."

Both of them sighed together. "Are—were you jealous?" He asked hopefully, knocking his elbow into her, eyes alight. Bella struggled to stifle a smile.

Jacob became serious again. "It wasn't like that…I don't want to make you feel like I was sticking up for her instead of you, or that I was condoning what she did but…she isn't like that. What attacked you last night wasn't Yuri."

Bella shuddered and ran her hands up and down her arms in the cool breeze. Jacob didn't flinch.

"What was it then? It was like having the flesh representative of my worse nightmares breathing down my neck." Her hands were massaging her throat unconsciously for the umpteenth time that day.

"How come you don't feel that way about your vampires, then?"

Bella didn't pick up on the defensive edge to his question.

"They're not like that."

"Neither is she," he spat, turning away from her.

Now it was obvious. Bella leaned forward to look into his face, catching a glimpse of that defensive nature in his eyes. She scooted closer to him.

"Sorry, Jake. I didn't mean to come here to fight with you."

Jacob softened up considerably at her apology. "It's okay," he grumbled, sliding closer to her. They were now joined at the hips, arms straightened out behind them, crossing into one another casually to prop themselves.

"I miss you a lot, Bella. We used to be so much closer before—"

"Yah," she interrupted, not needing to hear him speak of Edward's return because it reminded her of his leaving. Those thoughts came together as a packaged deal. "I miss you too, Jake."

He nodded absently. Sucked in a deep breath, daring to ask her the next question. "Yuri said you were lucky to have me."

Incredulous, "She did?"

Jacob nodded again. "Do you feel that way?"

Yes. Yes, absolutely she did. Lucky, blessed, fortunate—whatever you wanted to call it, Bella was it. It was a shame it took Yuri's siren-like charm to lead Jacob astray for her to realize that. She had taken advantage of Jacob, ignored his feelings, and skipped the maintenance needed to keep their very peculiar friendship afloat.

She leaned her head toward him and allowed their heads to knock together playfully, although she did not pull away when he decided to keep his there, near hers. It was almost as if he needed the reassurance.

"Yes. I do." She snuggled in closer, feeling his muscular arm drape over her shoulders. They turned toward one another, noses grazing softly, lips but a pucker away, but neither of them made the attempt to join them. Everything Bella belonged to Edward Cullen, and while everything Jacob belonged to Bella, he could only offer her the friendship she wanted, feeling at long last at the very least appreciated, knowing that her flicker of jealously meant somehow, somewhere, a piece of Bella Swan belonged to Jacob Black.