Author's Note- I'm about to seem like a bad author, leaving you in suspense. I just realized that I didn't develop the Jake and Bella intro very well, so I'm going to fill out their story a little. Just read it! Fluff in the Team Jacob Variety, sorry Team Edward (I feel for you, I'm personally team Edward).

Avoiding the Unavoidable

Chapter 7

Different Beliefs in Eternal Life lead to Conflict

The pain seared through my body like it had nearly a decade before. This time the pain was in my throat, with a bite through my cheek and deep punctures in my shoulder. The bitch had ripped at my throat before sinking her teeth into my cheek, causing the poison to burn the inside of my mouth and down my throat. Through the pain I could barely hear their voices, they could have talked for seconds or years and I would never have known the difference. The threats were there, burning slowly under their calm voices.

"Well, let's see what your Jake thinks when he's dealing with a vampire bride." Jeremy taunts in my ear, in a voice that must have been a scream to travel over the burning. "Then again, maybe your old buddy Edward will steal you away into the night. It will be fun to play with a Vampire couple. Much more fun that the flea infested wolves."

"And this is my parting gift, you lovely girl, let it be a reminder or what is to come." Victoria coos to me, like a mother to a small child before pushing something through my abdomen. "Now you'll never be able to bear the children of the wolf, let's see how he likes this." She taunts laughing loudly as I scream out in pain. The beating I had received in Phoenix paled in comparison to this one. A few broken bones and one bite doesn't compare to holes in your body.

Opening my eyes I could see the curtains burning, the sparks moving onto the canopy bed- and I didn't know any more if it was the venom burning through my veins or the fire actually igniting my skin. The pain, so much pain, and getting so much worse from three bites.

"We must move faster." Alice moans softly, speeding her small frame through the forest faster than anyone had imagined the smallest of us could move. "She doesn't have time. Call your wives back, they are no longer safe away from you."

"Alice, what are you seeing?" Emmett erupts pushing Jasper away to stand beside our seer and gripping her arm in his iron grip.

"She has been bitten three times." Alice cries out softly enough that I can hear the confusion in the wolves' thoughts from not being able to hear the entire explanation. The anger, pain, and snap decisions of their leader sent three wolves running back to La Push- but my anger was too great to care which three, all I knew was that Jacob Black was right beside me, playing every memory of his life with Bella. He was torturing me, in the hopes to provoke me into a fight he felt obligated to pick- a fight to the death that he wanted with me after all of this was over. Starting by replaying the images of the emotionally injured Bella, the stunts that nearly cost her her life, and then their memories together.

"Bella?" He asks softly walking into the kitchen of the Swan house where Bella stands making waffles. "I have a question for you, you ready to hear this?"

"Sure, you goof ball." Bella replies barely looking up from work. "It better be quick though, because I have to leave for school in about twenty minutes."

"It won't take long, I promise." He fires back laughing. "I was thinking about that movie that I ruined a while back-"

"Jake, don't worry about it. I understand, you were sick. Or at least I can keep telling myself that you were sick, and that it had nothing to do with me being a bad not-date dater." She interrupts, removing the waffles before walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Well, I still wanted to know if you'd let me make it up to you?" He asks softly, stepping forward and closing the gap between them. "There is this really cool movie playing, and it's right near the Res, we can double with Jared and Kim, that is if you feel uncomfortable with just me-"

"Jake, don't be silly. You're my best friend, the only one who understands me is you, you're the only one that I can be completely honest with. You are the stitches and glue to my once broken heart. Kind of like that plate you had to glue last week after it jumped out of my hands." She admits smiling, as her cheeks heat up before she jumps onto her knees on the counter to reach the bowls Charlie had moved to the top shelf.

"I can help you with-" but she cuts him off, turning around and pressing her lips to his gently and just holding them there, waiting for him to react while the electricity of her touch courses through his body, but Charlie bursts into the room forcing them to pull apart.

"Don't let me stop you, Jake is better than that Cullen boy, this is the first one I approve of Bells." He says holding up his hand to block the sight, grabbing a plate and waffles with one hand before going into the living room and turning on the television and turning it up.

"I'm sorry Jake, I didn't-"

"Don't ever apologize for kissing me, apologize when you stop." He replies pressing his lips back against hers, causing the electricity to run through his body again, and the fire that had been burning for her engulfs his entire body as they battle for dominance, before Bella tips the wrong way into him and sends him crashing to the floor.

"You kids should be more careful! Take the day off and go to a movie or something! I'm sure they won't miss Bella that much for one day." Charlie calls from the next room before turning the turning the television up even louder on the pampers commercial.

"Only my dad would watch a pampers commercial so that he couldn't hear us." Bella whispers laughing against his ear, causing goosebumps to run down his spine, making his hair stand on end.

"It's just because of me, your dad loves me so much that he doesn't care what we do." He replies laughing before capturing her lips again.

Another memory of a small apartment, obviously a studio apartment of sorts- with a heavy smell of rodent- and Bella soundly asleep on the small full size bed, her hair a rats nest of tangles and curls the only thing peeking above the Christmas themed comforter. Her hair wasn't all brown, it had blond and red in the tangles, signs of recent chemicals, and the harsh smell evidence that it hadn't been long since it had been done.

Quietly walking through the living room toward the sleeping beauty, careful not to wake her, he grabs her hairbrush off of the counter and begins to run it through her hair- waking her slowly.

"Jake, Rachel thought you might like it." She yawns softly just waking up and taking over the hair brushing.

"Bella, it's beautiful." He whispers softly. "You can't do anything to your hair that I wouldn't love."

"That sounds like a challenge." She yawns loudly. "We thought the change would do me good after-" but he doesn't let her finish, cutting her off with his lips, in a gently kiss that she quickly turns rough by pinning him down onto the bed, and a trail of bite marks along his neck and upper chest.

"Bella," he whispers again, ending the passionate kiss, "I have a question for you. Will you marry me?" He asks meeting her eyes and watching them widen in surprise.

"Yes, Jake. Of course I will." She cheers enthusiastically wrapping her arms around his neck and continuing where they had left off. "That is one of the things I love about you, you know that I don't like making a big production out of anything."

Bella stands in front of a crowd in a small church, simply separated by a red carpet down the middle- flowers thrown haphazardly along the carpet from the small flower girls at the opposite end of. Her small form enclosed in a corset gown that held to her form all the way down to the floor, pearl beading accenting the perfectly positioned cleavage that was the biggest talk of the wedding. She walks down the aisle, toward her fiancée, the man that would be her husband in mere minutes. Her long brown locks lay merely curled, framing her face, and holding a small veil covering her face, a gentle tear making it's way down her face. A gentle 'I love you' forming on her lips, a statement that only the sight of his lineage would allow.

Time seemed to stop as she trips, being caught by none other than Sam who had placed himself strategically on the outside of a middle row- he must have known she would fall.

"Thanks, I owe you." She says softly smiling at him before returning her gaze to her soon-to-be husband. The man who stitched her heart back together, and the man who would work every day for the rest of his life to make sure it stayed together. As long as they both shall live, that is the phrase that he would say, but he would mean for eternity. Jacob Black believed in eternal life, he had to, especially after receiving the best gift anyone can ask for- the love of his life. The woman who would be the mother of his children, and the woman that he wanted to wake up to every morning, and go to sleep with every night until they no longer needed their earthly bed.

When she finally ends her walk down the aisle, he grabs her hands in his, and barely hears the words of the minister- Renee demanded that they marry in the "traditional American way", even though they had had a ceremony on the Res months ago, he remembers in agitation rolling his shoulders to relieve the itch from the unfamiliar material of the suit.

He watched Bella's lips move, only being able to think of them moving for other reasons, with other words. He didn't hear the minister telling him his lines, and was nudged by Quil, much to the amusement of Billy and Charlie who let out large whooping laughs from both sides of the audience, which of course led to the entire audience bursting into laughter like school children and heat flaring up to his cheeks.

Bella's hands fidgeting signal him to place his hands under hers, and bring him back into reality. If he didn't move his hands and allow the top of her hands access to the cooler air he could burn her dainty hands. The beautiful hands that were covered in silk gloves to help protect her from his body heat during the long ceremony and hand holding. The hands there are beautiful even when they are scrubbing remnants of food off of dirty dishes, or throwing things at him in a fit of rage.

He didn't hear the minister say that he could kiss her, but he felt Bella's lips on his, and the electric spark answered in turn, and it took all of his power to not pick her up and run into the dressing room, tradition be damned. "Jake," she whispers against his lips,"We have an entire lifetime to do that, today is for my parents, so behave."

Before he knew it, they were walking back down the aisle hand in hand, and she was whispering softly in his ear "Now we'll never need to waste that money on central heat, maybe just the air part." and winking slightly, the glitter eyeshadow catching in the sunlight like diamonds over her eyes, making her chocolate brown eyes darker by comparison- a Hollywood make-up artist couldn't have made her more beautiful. "Now let's just make sure I don't fall flat on my butt trying to dance, okay? I wore ballerina slippers and I've still managed to trip already."

"Oh, so I have to be your knight in shining armor?" He asks teasingly, picking her up in his arms and twirling her around at the end of the red carpet aisle.

"Always Jacob Black, I wouldn't know what to do without you."

"Carlisle, someone needs to grab the blood you've stored in the house." Alice says and Esme runs off in the opposite direction, followed by a wolf for the mental connection. "Edward keep it together," she continues softly, only for me, "I know what he is showing you, it's only to hurt you. What you need to know is that Bella needed him. He did something we couldn't have done for her. Don't let him get to you."

"The wolves want you to tell them why they had to send some of their own away." Is the only response I was capable of, the memories having drained all of my emotions, while I was miserable all over the world Bella was happy. I could have made her happy, I could have held her hands while saying vows in front of her family and mine, it should have been me.

"She isn't doing well. Jake will have to shift back immediately when we get to her. She needs someone to keep her calm. Jasper and I will be on the first floor, helping Angela, she only has minor injuries- but she is traumatized and seeing wolves is not what she needs right now. You all need to keep a perimeter. They have run off already. She will be in lots of pain. She is currently turning. We have to stop it. Esme had to get the blood or Bella wouldn't have enough for us to save her. It's a shot in the dark, I don't know the outcome yet. Sam, you'll need to chase the scent, Jake will have to go with you once we stabilize her. The two you sent for your mates have met them by now, they have changed course, on their way back to La Push. It looks like your two guards were both in human form in their van- it seems like one was asleep or something, it's not very clear." She announces watching Sam nod his shaggy head.

"They want to know what we'll find once we get there." I hear Edward ask me as we race to save Bella, the best human friend I had ever had.

"I don't know. It looks like the house is burning right now. We need to make it look electrical for Angela's sake. I can see Bella, but she can't tell why she is in pain. I don't remember anything from when I was turned so I can't help by telling you if she's in the fire or not. I don't think she is. I can smell the smoke, but not burning flesh. We will be there soon, I can't tell anything from her point of view, and I can't see what I will see when I get there. Victoria and Jeremy are racing across the country, but I can't tell in which direction. All I can see is that they just started running, and they just plan to keep running. They aren't following anything specific."

"So Kate and I get to make an electrical fire? I like that idea." Tanya says smiling at her sister, but the vision changed as she said it, I could see Angela Webber panicking the second she saw me approach, looking the same as I had a decade before.

"No, two of you need to tend to Angela, no Cullen can, she knew us, and it will raise too many questions. The girl already thinks that we might be something other than human, but she'll forget if we don't appear before her. Jasper and I can make the fire. Here is her house coming up."

No words could describe the view of Bella in that room. I saw her, and the drapes catching on fire and my first thought was to run with my wife out of the building, but I couldn't because she would bleed out and I would lose her if I moved her. Running to her side was the only thing I could do, but I could do it well.

"Bella, can you hear me?" I ask in her ear, hoping that she could answer- that she could hear.

"Jake... the pain... it has to stop." She moans out meeting my eyes, her chocolate brown eyes spilling with rivers of salty tears that I could smell over the fire in the room that the large vampire was putting out, with the help of the mind reader, and the mother figure. "Rose has to... she needs to get this out." Bella continues moaning and shaking as she attempts to talk.

"Did I just hear her right?" The blond asks kneeling beside her and helping the father figure with the stitches in Bella's abdomen, where the enemy had shoved her claws through the child we had created. "She asked me to? I'm trying to stitch her up. Edward did this before-"

"No.... he can't touch me...." she moans out as her eyes begin to roll back and only the white shows.

"Hang the bags Alice." The doctor orders the little pixie who flits around the room before quickly inserting a needle into both arms of my wife. "Rose, just try. The venom needs to come out fast, or else we can't stop the change. There isn't much venom. If you hurry her blood will be clean."

"Do it Rose!" The mind reader screams from across the room. "If you let her die I will rip you to pieces myself."

"Don't let her die." I whisper staring at my wife's agony. The only thoughts running through my head were that if she couldn't live, I wouldn't. Sitting there and watching a bloodsucker drain her was not on my list of things that I could handle. The fight was raging in me now, and I had to get this blood sucking fiend taken care of. "If she dies I'll rip all of you apart." I threaten watching the blond's mouth attach to my Bella's shoulder, the only bite that still looked like a bite and not the feast of a hungry animal. Shifting forms and running down the stairs, the only thing I could think of was getting to my pack and hunting down this thing that had injured my wife. Let the Vampires handle saving her life with their medicine, I was going to make sure that this never happened again.