Hand-in-hand, Edward and I loped towards his house. I was still unused to his erratic breathing next to me, and the sweat between our palm from his exertion. He wasn't used to exercise being a strain, and I felt bad for him—it was only a ten-minute walk. His cheeks were slightly flushed and sweat glistened on his temple, just under his tangled, dirty hair. Out of the corner of my eye I saw an animal dart past me. I looked and saw only trees rustling from the breeze. Shrugging it off, I continued my trek with Edward. About seven minutes into the walk, he stopped. "How do you do this?" Edward asked exasperatedly between pants. I laughed, but couldn't help but feel bad for him. "Edward, you're just not used to it. You will be in time…" my statement trailed off, unsure. He looked up at me from beneath his lashes and I was surprised again by the striking green shade of his eyes. He leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees, his breathing much more even than before. I noticed when he bent at the waist, a slight pudge protruded from his jeans. I was flabbergasted.

Edward righted himself and reached again for my hand, which I gave him without hesitation. His stomach growled loudly and I laughed again. This human Edward was going to take a lot more getting used to than I originally thought. "Breakfast time for the human?" I asked him, mocking his question to me those years ago. He looked at me and smirked, "A bit late for breakfast, isn't it?" I rolled my eyes at his sarcasm, but smiled at his Chicago accent. He still had that age-old wisdom to his voice, but the accent just barely lingered in his R's and vowel sounds. Again, I saw the same animal from before in my peripherals, but this time I was subconsciously ready for him. I whipped my head around and saw the tail of a wolf; a big, reddish-brown monster wolf. I sighed and self-consciously let go of Edward's hand. He apparently didn't notice the creature.

"Anything wrong?" He asked me, the hurt plain in his eyes as he watched me cross my arms across my chest. I smiled at him, so much better at hiding my feelings than I was before because of Charlie and my friends at school. I could feel the fake-warmth filling my smile and sparkling my eyes. He smiled back, just as big. I gasped at his face; so young and boyish. His smile was not only crooked but naturally lop-sided. He also had a mole on his chin where it dented from the strain of his smile and one of his front teeth overlapped his incisor. This was the Edward from 1918…the Edward that should have died…the Edward that should never have existed in my time. I stopped, perplexed at my train of thought: an Edward that should not have existed. It was easy to leash these thoughts when he was a vampire. He had been a magical creature, a creature meant to live forever, but now as his oh-so-human face looked at me with oh-so-human concern and he held my face in his oh-so-humanly warm palm, I shivered from the realization that'd hit me. Edward was never meant to live this long, and again I made the connection that if Edward had died of the flu in 1918 like fate had intended, I could be in love with Jacob.

It struck me as odd that just when I would start to fall back in love with Edward, my thoughts came right back to Jacob. Oh, how sex could change things. I realized Edward was still staring intently at me, trying to get a reading of what I was feeling…I was comforted by the idea that he could no longer hear my heart beating or my breath hitching. He slowly began to droop in his own depression. "Edward, what's wrong?" He shrugged, "Seeing you upset makes me upset." He said. I was confused, s I asked, "Why?" He reminded me of what he told me years ago about Carlisle's theory of why the vampires had developed supernatural skills and how they directly correlated with skills from their human life. As a human, Edward had been particularly sensitive to the thoughts of those around him. I nodded along with his story, half here and half back home with Jacob, wrapped warmed and protected in his arms. I sighed contentedly thinking about it, and I saw Edward smiling too. "Feeling better?" he asked her. I nodded, lying of course, but if it wasn't out loud was it really a lie? I wasn't so sure. Hello by Evanescence suddenly got lodged in my head. I sang it under my breath, and before I knew it I had started to crescendo towards a normal singing voice. As we started walking again, Edward sang along with me and we finished the high note perfectly, laughing and I, marveling at the human-ness of his voice, the slight gruff, his occasional tone-deafness. It was wonderful, but I couldn't help thinking how very wrong it was.

I think I knew before we even got there that his house would be empty. I may not have wanted to admit it to myself, but approaching this house, I was sure, was going to bring up a well of sadness that I had not felt in a long time. My throat closed as I looked up at the dark, abandoned house. Kudzu covered the door frame and window panes, concealing half of the house in ghostly green plant life. "Where is your family?" I asked him, looking over at him. He frowned, his chin tilting down. "It was…difficult…for them to be near me…in this state." He answered, "They are still in Greenland." Greenland. Of course; long nights and overcast days. The second best place to go for a vampire, right behind Forks, Washington. Edward turned to face me, took my hands in his, and slowly leaned his face towards mine. His eyes open, searching mine; I panicked.—a kiss—from Edward? Wasn't I with Jacob? Hadn't I just promised him my heart, my body, everything? I kissed Edward a second ago but that was reunion…this was wrong, somehow. Right before our lips were about to touch, he fixed his gaze on something behind my head. I spun around and there, in all of his naked glory, was Jacob.

"Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?" Jacob chuckled. His eyes were—dark—to say the least. Cold. His deep, black eyes were evil instead of innocent. I'd never seen him this way, not even when he'd fought with vampires in the past. This was something totally different. I flinched away from him as he approached Edward. He took a deep inhalation through his nose and glared down at him menacingly. Edward seemed to shrink before him. "You're not much of a reeking bloodsucker anymore are you, Bloodsucker?" Jacob growled, "But I say you still stink." He placed his massive hand on Edward's chest and shoved him. Edward fumbled back about four feet and landed hard on his back. Horrified, I couldn't say a word as Jacob approached him again, placing his boot on Edward's throat. "One stomp and you could be dead," Jacob said to him, "But that'd kill Bella too. So you're safe…for now." He nudged Edward's throat enough to make him gasp, but he lifted his foot.

"Jacob!" I screamed as he walked away. He turned and looked at me. The ice in his eyes seemed to crack. The hardness was replaced by sadness and he reached his arm toward me, seemed to change his mind, and put it back to his side, clenching his hand into a fist. He shook slightly, and someone unused to the wolves may not have seen it, but I could see where the skin beneath his jaw and across his stomach shook slightly with the stress of not being allowed to take control. Our locked gazes seemed to pass a power between us. My chest yearned to press against his, I wanted to touch his hand, his face, anything. My fingers twitched like they would if I were moving to hold his hand. I saw his do the same, and we both grinned sheepishly. Without a conscious thought, I stepped towards him, and he seemed to move unwillingly too. We let out feet carry us where we each wanted to go the most and when we had merely an inch between our bodies, my eyes left his. I raked over his jaw, his neck, his chest and shoulders. I looked back into his eyes and they were no longer hard and black, they were the soft wool-grey I was more used to. They sparkled as he looked into my eyes and he seemed to be communicating with my soul, and my soul was communicating back. I could almost see a strong, silver cord between our hearts. A word lingered just on the tip of my tongue, yet I couldn't make sense of it. It was something that was never supposed to happen to me; never in this life; never in Edward's….

I heard a muffled cry from behind me. I hesitantly spun around and saw Edward looking over at us, a terribly pained expression on his face, I felt horrible, and I took a step back from Jacob, but at that same moment he'd taken a step forward, so we were still the same distance apart. I never took my eyes off of Edward as he tore his eyes away from me, picked himself up off the ground and walked into his house. My heart ached for his contentment, my guilt seeping through every inch of my skin.

I knew I wouldn't even give him a chance. My Edward drawer was gone.