Thanks as ever to Nikki & Dani for their tolerance(!), pre-reading and encouragement and Angelz1114577 and Whitlocked from Project Team Beta for their help :o)

Would love to know what you all think so far, please add any comments in the reviews section, I read and try to reply to everyone, your words inspire me to keep going!

Chapter 7

Jacob's PoV

I lay with Nessie snuggled into my chest, my arms around her as I listened to the deep, regular breaths that told me that she had fallen asleep. I couldn't help smiling as I turned my head to plant a kiss on top of the now untidy curls on her head. It had been one hell of a day. I'd stood in that clearing, shaking with so much anger that I'd been too frightened to allow myself to phase, while I was so furious with Ness.

I'd wondered then if we would ever lie like this again. I was pretty convinced, lying here now, that had I stayed as angry as I was then the answer would have been no. Nessie was so set in her determination to befriend him - I was unable to even think his name without my lip curling in anger - I knew she would only push harder if I tried to stop her from doing it; she had inherited a good dose of stubbornness from each of her parents.

Thinking of Bella and Edward, reminded me of the very reason behind my over-reaction to the situation. I'd been here before and I'd lost. The pain of losing Bella to Edward had been immeasurable, and only eased when Nessie was born. I couldn't even bear to think what the pain of losing the very person I had been designed for would be like. I couldn't explain this to Nessie; her parents and I made a pact when she was very young that we wouldn't let her know the exact nature of the relationship between the three of us in the past, letting her believe that Bella and I had never been anything more than best friends.

Today had felt like a week. My emotions had taken a beating and it was heaven to be lying here, content for the time being, as I listened to the rhythm of Nessie's steady breathing. Eventually, my own slowed down until it matched hers and I drifted off into a deep sleep too.

****

I wasn't sure how long we'd been asleep when Nessie began murmuring to herself. It was loud enough to rouse me, but not clear enough for me to understand what she was saying, as usual. Ness did this a lot, and although it always disturbed me from my own dreams, I loved seeing her like this. I moved my hand so that it covered hers, which was still resting on my chest. Hesitantly, and a little guiltily, I raised it slowly to my cheek, held it there and closed my eyes again.

A couple of minutes passed and Nessie was still mumbling. Slowly images began to swim into view in my head. These were not my thoughts though, these were Ness's dreams.

I couldn't help smiling as her unconscious mind replayed the scenes before we fell asleep. In her dream, she had her head thrown back and her eyes closed, but the sounds and sensations were as clear as everything that had actually happened. I got to feel exactly what she'd felt and could now understand exactly what each of the sleep-murmured words were, and why. I found myself pressing her hand more firmly to my face as the sensations she was feeling grew – then in the dream she opened her eyes.

The face looking back at her was not mine, but his.

I jumped about a mile, pushing her hand away as though it had physically burned me. I scrambled out of the bed, my thoughts whirring around in my head, too fast to catch any of them completely. I backed up to the wall, cursing repeatedly as I tried to process what had just happened. I looked at the bed in the half-light that came though the gap in the door, where we'd been in too much of a hurry to turn off the hallway light, and I saw that Renesmee had woken up. She was half-sitting and looked across at me groggily, the comforter bunched up around her naked body.

"Jake? What's up?" I could see the confusion on her face as she squinted at me, standing naked across the room. I was unable to even focus on her, such was my agitation. I felt myself begin to shake and knew that the change was inevitable this time and I was no longer able, nor did I want to prevent it. I just needed to get out of here before it happened.

Still cursing, I bolted across the room to the door, flinging it open and racing down the hallway. I fumbled with the lock on the front door before flying through it and finally phasing as I leapt off the porch steps.

Nessie PoV

I sat there for a moment, my head still dull with sleep, wondering what had happened to make Jake bolt like that? The last time I'd seen him awake everything had been fine between us, a lot more than fine in fact. My memories of our lovemaking flashed through my mind and reminded me of the dream I'd just been having before I'd been woken by Jake leaping out of bed, a string of profanities escaping his lips as he did so. And then it dawned on me, I'd bet anything that Jacob had been watching my dreams again.

"Fuck!" I slammed my fists down on top of the comforter and threw myself backward onto the pillows, an infuriated growl leaving my mouth. I lay there, my heart thumping in my chest. Just when things had looked like they were going to be ok, he had to go and do this.

The dream spying had been an issue with us before. He said that he loved to watch my dreams, and there were definite benefits to being woken up by him when he saw something he liked, but as often as not, he'd see things that he didn't like. Nothing as serious as what had happened just now, but things that made him unhappy. I couldn't bear seeing him unhappy. In the end, the only solution I could find was to beg him to stop watching and as far as I'd been aware, he had done so; obviously I was wrong.

I had no idea what to do now. If I knew Jake, he was running off the anger as though his life depended on it. There was no way in the world that, fast as I was, I'd ever be able to catch up to him, so chasing after him wasn't an option. I could go and see my parents, but I really wasn't sure that I wanted my Dad seeing inside my head at the moment, knowing exactly what had just happened. Talking to my Mom wasn't an option, she never seemed very impartial when it came to Jake for some reason.

I sighed deeply and sat up, pushing my now unruly curls away from my face with my hand. I stretched out on my front and wriggled across the bed to the far edge, reaching down with my arm when I got there to where my jeans were still in a twisted bundle on the floor. I pulled the bundle up with one hand, while I groped with the other to try and fish my cell phone from my pocket. I pushed myself up and clambered back into the bed, pulling the covers up over my bare skin. I found the number I wanted in my phone book and pressed the call button. It rang only once before a voice answered, the sound acting as a lance to the boil of emotion that had built up again inside of me.

"Rose? It's Nessie," I began. And then I lost it. These were the only words I was able to speak before the tears came, not with the racking sobs of the previous afternoon, but fast and hard enough that I was unable to speak. At the other end of the line, my Aunt was silent for a moment, before promising to leave right away before she hung up the phone.

Rose had never been Jacob's greatest fan. She was mine however, and I was relieved beyond words that she had promised to come. Unfortunately, she and Emmett were currently living several hours drive away, but knowing she was on her way at least, eased a lot of the worry for me. I allowed myself to languish in my misery for a full five minutes before I felt that I'd indulged my anguish enough. I could hardly be held accountable for my dreams, surely? It's not as though I had any sort of control over what my unconscious was producing. The more I thought about it though, the more concerned I became that my mind held the details to produce such images.

I wiped the residue of the tears from my face with the backs of my hands and climbed out of the bed, lifting my robe from the hook on the back of the door as I passed it, pulling it on. Making my way to the bathroom, I ran a deep bubble bath, cleaning my teeth while I waited for it to fill. I tied my hair up on top of my head, slipped off my robe and climbed in, laying back and sighing as the hot water surrounded me; the bubbles crackling as the water lapped gently before becoming still again. My mind wandered, full of questions about Jake; where he'd got to, when he'd be back, and what questions and accusations he'd have ready for me when he did finally show up. I wondered whether that would be before, or after Rose arrived.

****

I was awoken by the smell of food cooking some hours later. I couldn't imagine that I would ever really enjoy human food the way that Jake did, but since we'd been living together, it was just easier if we ate the same thing.

I'd soaked in the bath for nearly an hour after I'd phoned Rosalie, and by the end of it I felt relaxed enough to attempt sleeping again. I'd pulled on some clean pyjamas and climbed back into bed, deliberately lying on Jake's side, his smell on the pillow and sheets helping me drift back to sleep.

I tried to open my eyes to read the time on the clock that sat on Jake's nightstand, squinting in the dim light that came through the shade at the window. It was ten a.m. I must have been exhausted; it was unlike me to sleep in so late. I certainly didn't feel like I'd benefited from it at all, I was sure I could sleep for another twelve hours straight if only I didn't ache so much. I hadn't moved my position since I fell asleep and as I stretched every muscle and joint in my body seemed to complain. Ironically, the past few hours had been filled with dreams of Jake, and only Jake. I was eager to get up now and see if he was home. I'd lived with Jake long enough to know that it was most likely to be Rose who was cooking, preparing breakfast for me. I hoped that Jake would be back and joining me for the meal. I braced myself for what the day ahead held and pushed my aching body from the bed, padding from the room and toward the kitchen.