A/N #1: As I've still not had my kitchen remodeled, it's safe to assume these aren't my characters nor am I getting paid to mess around with their lives. SMeyer gets that fun.

A/N #2: Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to review and let me know that you're enjoying the story, even to point out boo boos and major mistakes. I don't often have the time to respond to reviews, but I cherish each one. Thanks from the bottom of my little writer's heart.

A/N #3: This is probably second to last chapter – yep, we're heading to the finish line, folks. Thanks for hanging with me through the ride


BPOV

"No, you can't break him in two, Edward," I answered my husband as he paced the length of our room, hands clenching and unclenching.

"I thought it was agony listening to you cry yourself out over that dog, but I was wrong. This. This was beyond agony, beyond the tenth level of hell. He hurt my little girl and made her cry." His eyes went completely unfocused; his own words had ramped up his anger. "I'm going to kill him."

Thankfully, I knew the spring was coming before it did and managed to get to the window before him. "No, you're not."

"Isabella Marie Cullen. Get out of my way."

I couldn't help it, I laughed. "Ooo, the middle name. I must be in serious trouble now."

"You're not a newborn anymore, you can't stop me."

"Not by brute force, no. But I can tell you that you'll be sleeping in the tree house for a while if you don't knock this off and get yourself under control. Edward," I said, softening my voice. I reached up and placed my hand gently on his cheek, using touch to get under the haze of anger surrounding him. It didn't work; he was practically vibrating with his fury.

So I did the next best thing. I lifted my shield and went straight for his mind.

You said yourself that Ness told you she wasn't crying over anything Jake did.

His eyes flew to mine and I watched as my thoughts did what nothing else could...calm a vampire's raging anger. I didn't know if this would work on every vampire, but it worked on mine and that was all that mattered.

His teeth unclenched, his shoulders relaxed and his eyes focused again. He was still angry, but it wasn't the uncontrolled rage of a few moments ago. Jake could make it up to me later.

"Yeah, she did." Edward grumbled back at me, "but he was involved."

I raised my hands and placed both of them on Edward's face. "And you know that how?" I looked into his eyes, searching. "You heard something from her." It wasn't a question.

He sighed and rested his forehead against mine. "It was just a flash, like she was repositioning her control for a better grip, but it was enough. She was thinking about Jacob."

"Of course she was, you said she was upset with him."

"Not that way, Bella," he sighed and pulled back enough to look at me. There was only one thing that could put that particular, and pained expression on Edward's face.

"Ohhhh," I nodded, a smile slowly curving the corners of my mouth. I tried to stop the smile, especially when I saw Edward's answering scowl, but I didn't quite manage it. "I'm guessing she's no longer in need of a big brother or best friend?"

"No," Edward grudgingly agreed. We could both hear the unspoken "damnit." "But from the tone of her thoughts, she thinks it impossible."

I cocked my head to the side, confused. "Because of the imprint?"

"I don't know. Like I said, it was just a little flash into her mind. The words I heard clearly were Jake, and impossible."

I sighed. For the first time, I shared Edward's frustration for Alice teaching Ness to block her father so effectively. As the rest of us rarely bothered (even Ness hadn't bothered until recently), I wasn't used to guesswork when it came to my family.

"Well, regardless of what Ness is thinking, it's time, Edward."

He didn't need to ask what I meant. "I—"

I stopped him with a look. "If she's crying her eyes out over the impossibility of it all, her needs have changed, love. You know it and now it's time Jake does too."

"Most would call that meddling, Bella," Edward hedged. "They can…"

I stopped him with two fingers to his lips. "This isn't a normal situation and you know it. The denial he's lived with for the last six years is so much a part of him, he won't trust his own instincts without a push. Besides," I said, my smile quirked again, "he's not exactly smooth in the courtship arena, if you'll remember."

He was fighting it, but I could see the crooked smile lurking around the corners of his mouth. "You're referring to his near death experience when he kissed you?"

I giggled and flexed the fingers of my once broken hand. "If you'll remember, you said yourself once that she could do worse."

"I also said it went against the grain," he reminded me. But the hostility was gone, resignation taking its place in his stance and in his face. Step one complete...onto step two.

I slid my hands down his arms and took his hands, squeezing them. "So, how are we going to do this?"

"Do what?"

"Get the two of them together," I smirked, leading him towards the bed.

"Oh no. Not a chance, Bella. I am not playing matchmaker between my daughter and a werewolf."

"Shapeshifter," I corrected.

"Whichever. There's no way in hell."

I was already reaching for the hem of his sweater when the back of my legs hit the bed.

"No?"

"No, Bella. They'll just have to muddle through on their own like the rest of us."

My fingers brushed against the flat of his stomach. "Even if it's what makes her happy?"

Edward groaned. "You don't play fair."

"I never said I did," I laughed. "So which is it? Help things along or," I paused, my clever fingers popping open the fastener to his khakis, "a long stay in the tree house."

"Empty threat," Edward muttered against my neck. "We don't have a tree house."

"I'll build one," I countered, unhooking his trousers and pushing them down his hips.

"Esme'd have to let you near a hammer first," he grinned as my sweater flew across the room. "After the fiasco with the floor in our house, that's not likely." My t-shirt followed the sweater.

"All right then," I gasped, his hands making it difficult to form words, much less thoughts. "I'd see to it that you'd not see me naked for a good long time." The quiver in my voice made my threat almost completely groundless.

"You'd never make it that long," he chuckled, lifting me into his arms and carrying me to the bed.

"You're not that irresistible," I grouched, knowing it for a lie. Based on the smirk, he did too.

"Shall I leave then?" He asked, his face the picture of innocence.

I had a moment to take in his now completely bare body before me. I sighed and rolled over, away from him.

"If you want," I whispered, the grin forming again on my face now that he couldn't see it. I counted to ten.

He was beside me when I reached two, covering me when I reached three, and his growl was reverberating against the skin of my neck before I reached five.

"I win," I laughed, my fingers skimming his back, the planes of his stomach.

"It's a draw," he chuckled back, then effectively ended all further conversation.


JPOV

I'd tried to have a normal day. I really had. I'd gotten up... No, that implied sleeping. I'd left the tangled mess of my sheets – made breakfast and then I'd come out to the garage to work on the car.

What did it matter if all of this had happened at four in the morning. At least I wasn't wallowing.

I was beating an old car to death, but I wasn't wallowing.

"Jacob?" Bella's voice spoke near my ear, her cold hand on my arm.

The hammer flew straight out of my hand and somehow ended up in Edward's when Bella spoke. I should have been pissed that they'd snuck up on me, but at the moment I couldn't care less. Probably why the sound, and smell, of their approach hadn't registered with me. I wondered idly if I'd've noticed a herd of elephants running across the Rez.

I snorted to myself. Some protector I was; the great Alpha so fucking flustered by the wreck of his own life a pair of vampires ran straight across the place to tap him on the shoulder.

I needed to get over this. To get past it. To stop thinking about it. Stop obsessing over how she tasted...

Bella and I both turned towards the door to the garage. Edward hadn't followed her into the garage, choosing instead to stay just outside of it. Avoiding the stench he'd told me once. But he wasn't leaning on the doorway anymore. He'd dropped to his knees and was nearly writhing.

"Oh, God!" His hands went up to clutch his own head.

"Edward!" Bella was at his side less than a second later.

He raised his tortured looking eyes to hers. "Shield, Bella. Please."

I'd been as confused as Bella until that moment, wondering what could possibly be hurting the leech, but his comment cleared it up. He must've seen just what I'd seen before he dropped – my memory of the cliff top. And Ness. Served him right, in my opinion. Go skipping through people's minds uninvited, you're going to see things you don't like.

I rolled my eyes at the melodrama, Bella just looked confused. "What?"

"Remember Jacob's vivid mental pictures? He's doing it again, and believe me, you don't want to see what's in there."

"Very funny, bloodsucker," I snorted. I did what I could to put the images from my mind, to bury them behind other thoughts, but it wasn't easy. I was too surprised, now that the shock was wearing off, that I wasn't crushed beneath Edward having the breath choked from my body.

"It's tempting," Edward muttered from his position on the floor. Years may have passed and new understandings sprung up between us, but I still hated when he did that.

Bella shook her head at Edward's cryptic comments and turned to me instead. "What is he talking about, Jacob? What's happened?" She turned to Edward. "What's tempting?"

"Ness and I talked last night," I said simply, hoping, stupidly of course, that they'd leave it at that. They didn't.

"We know. And we gather things didn't go, ah, smoothly," Bella said, ever the diplomat. "But what does that have to do with Edward acting like Jane stopped by for target practice?"

"Nothing," I said.

"You don't want to know," Edward said at the same time. "Believe me." But something about the vampire's face told me at least half of his actions were an act. He'd been able to hear me from at least three miles off at one point, and despite my non-wallowing, I'd been thinking of her constantly since the moment she'd left me the night before. No matter his writhing, it wasn't a complete shock.

Bella got her Serious Face on and continued darting her eyes between us. "Yes. I. Do."

I looked to see if her foot was tapping. It wasn't. That meant we weren't in immediate danger of her ripping us to shreds, but we were getting close. Then Edward gave in to her. Surprise, surprise.

"You really want the image of Jacob kissing our little girl against a tree trunk in your head? If so, kindly remove it from mine and it's yours."

Edward barely got the words out before Bella was twisting back towards me. "You did...what?"

I was reminded in a blinding flash of Bella's first day as a vampire, the day she'd learned I'd imprinted on Ness. Automatically, my hand went to my own throat.

"Smart move," Edward commented across the garage. "Course, you've got it a bit backwards, Jacob."

With my eyes still on Bella, making sure she wasn't about to separate my head from my shoulders, I addressed the vampire on the floor. "What d'you mean, backwards?"

"I mean you've been sitting there berating yourself since before we even arrived about your stupidity in kissing Ness and fucking everything up."

"Yeah...and? I'm still not seeing what I've got backwards."

"You didn't kiss Ness, Jacob," he paused and turned his head to look at Bella, "she kissed you."

Bella straightened then and her eyes shifted from mine to Edward's. "She did?"

"Yep. Almost attacked him with it," then he muttered something so low even my ears didn't quite catch it. But it sounded close to "like mother, like daughter."

"Isn't that interesting," Bella commented. She walked over to Edward and placed herself next to him until they stood, shoulder to shoulder, facing me.

I was stunned. I knew her reactions were faster now, but I'd never seen her go from pissed to purring so quickly. Something was up. I couldn't bring myself to care what, though. I just wanted them to go and leave me to my non-wallowing.

I 'd danced to Bella's and Edward's tune for too many years now, losing out every single time. Couldn't they, for once, just leave me to my gloom? "If you two don't need me for this conversation anymore, you mind running the stench out of here?"

Bella merely smiled at me then turned back to Edward. "He doesn't get it, does he?"

"No, he doesn't," Edward answered. "Which means we can just go back home, right? "

Bella poked him in the chest. "No, it doesn't. But I'm sure you can find some level of satisfaction by pointing out the obvious?"

"Doubtful, but I'll give it a shot."

I groaned and moved back over to the car, bending over the hood, banging loudly against the metal inside to make my point that I wasn't listening anymore. Not that either of them paid the slightest bit of attention. They never did.

Didn't matter. Edward started talking; I started pounding.

"Jacob, I realize you don't have a great deal of experience in the matter..."

Bang. Bang. Bang.

"...say it's a clear indication that someone's needs have..."

Bang. BANG. Bang.

"...changed if that someone initiates such personal contact."

There was a satisfying crack when my hammer hit the drive shaft. I looked up in the answering silence. "Are you two still here?"

"Maybe if I had this conversation with the wall, I'd make better progress," Edward said, more to Bella than me. I ignored him...and kept on hammering. I'd had about enough of the bloodsucker for one day. Lifetime. Whatever.

"You get the feeling we're not making any progress?"

"It's the thick head," Bella commented, and I looked at her from the corner of my eye to see her flexing her right hand, "nearly impossible to crack. Maybe if we just leave him to think it over? Some thoughts have to churn around in his head for a while before he clues in."

I had tuned them out so successfully that I only knew that they'd left when a breeze through the open doors of the garage brought with it nothing but the forest smell. No trace of that cloyingly sweet vampire stench. My shoulders relaxed and I straightened from my crouch over the car's engine compartment and looked behind me. They were gone.

I didn't want to think, but the thoughts were there just the same, each one poking at me like small needles under my skin. I couldn't stop thinking about Ness' kiss, her body against mine, the incredible softness of her lips...couldn't stop grinding my teeth over Edward's reiteration of letting Ness choose based on her needs.

Hadn't I promised that years ago?

Had I ever shirked that promise? Well, save a few hours ago, no, I hadn't.

I closed my eyes and rubbed a hand over my face. This was impossible.

I thought I heard a growl off in the distance, but I didn't care enough to investigate. I had to get out of here. Get out of this body. Bella'd once said she liked me better as a wolf, and sometimes I did, too. Why else would I have spent three months in this form, shunning all humanity?

I shucked my jeans and phased on the spot, loping into the nearby woods, concentrating on nothing more than the forest beneath my paws.


I didn't know how far I'd gone before Seth caught up with me. A hundred miles? Two? No less than that to be certain. I wasn't sure if I was even in the United States any longer. Not that customs minded much about a few wolves passing through. It's not like I was bringing anything with me.

I'd heard the others as I ran, Brady and Embry running their patrol on the far side of the Rez, Seth running off on his own. I didn't recognize where he was, there was a fuzzy quality to his thoughts about the forest around him that made me think he might need glasses.

As they always did, my thoughts drifted as I ran. And, again as always, they drifted to Ness.

I wasn't sure if it was the bloodsucker's visit, but I found myself remembering that day, unarguably the worst 24 hour period of my life. The highest high, the lowest low. From Edward hearing Ness's thoughts and losing what little hope I had, the fight to save Bella, and her. Seeing her. Feeling my world reorient itself around the precious bundle in Blondie's arms.

Baring tragedy, I will live forever. And in that forever, I will never forget when Esme placed Ness in my arms for the first time, a few hours after her birth.

"You're out of your mind," Blondie shrieked at Esme, "if you think I'm going to willingly hand this baby over to a dog."

"Right, because the vampire who nearly drained her mother of what little blood she had left is so much safer."

"Shut it you—"

"Enough!" Esme interjected loudly. It was the closest I'd ever heard her come to yelling in all the time I'd spent here.

It must've been rarer than I thought, because even Blondie shut up. I watched, anticipation and fear in my stomach, as Blondie handed Renesmee to her grandmother. I only registered the glare the ice cold Barbie shot at me on the periphery. I was too hyper-focused on the hours-old baby, just as she was focused on me. Our eyes locked across the expanse on of the living room.

I watched as one tiny hand raised toward Esme's face.

I might be the youngest of the Black family, but I'd grown up on the rez. Friends, neighbors, their families were always expanding and for that reason, babies weren't any real mystery. I'd even minded a few of them now and then. Because of that, I knew the action was deliberate, not some random flail of new limbs. Something she shouldn't be able to do for at least a few months.

Esme's gasp pulled me from this train of thought and my eyes flew not to the vampire, but to the infant she held. Nothing appeared wrong, but I was transfixed again. So was she. Our eyes remained locked and it was everything I could do to stay where I was and not move closer.

All-consuming as the need to be closer to her was, my self-preservation was just as strong. Blondie was just looking for an excuse to rip parts of my body off. If I got any closer to Renesmee, she would take it.

Carlisle arrived then, alerted no doubt, by Esme's sound of alarm. Conversations ensued, from Blondie to Esme to Carlisle, even Emmett and Jasper joined in. Edward, I assumed, listened from upstairs, but we weren't his main focus. He was too busy burning right along with the still, silent, and transforming Bella.

I saw Renesmee's hand raise again, towards her grandfather this time, then I saw all six vampires turn to look at me.

"What?"

"Have you held a baby before, Jake?" Esme asked in that voice that never failed to make me feel about five years old.

"Yeah, lots of times. We're not exactly hatched full grown on the rez, you know."

"Ever think it might help your cause if you lost the sarcasm?" There was a pause while we all stared at the ceiling over our heads where Bella and Edward were. "It's all right, Rose. Carlisle's right about what she's doing. I can see it, too."

I didn't have a clue what the bloodsucker was rambling about, and I didn't care. Esme was a foot away with Renesmee in her arms. And Renesmee was reaching for me, her small, fragile arm extending just as mine did, unconsciously mimicking her action.

Then Esme bent low, handed the baby to me.

And my world was complete.

I never knew how long we sat there, Ness and I, our eyes searching one another's, reinforcing the initial bond I'd felt at first sight – a bond I now knew she shared. I didn't know whether Emily, or Kim, or Claire felt this as well, I'd never thought to ask. Why would I? I'd hated the whole idea of imprinting the second I realized I hadn't imprinted on Bella and therefore never would.

I didn't care if they had, though. I was Ness' just as she was mine. That endless night, it was all that mattered.

Around dawn, Ness' eyes finally left mine and went to the ceiling. Her small hand pressed once again to my cheek and I flinched at what she showed me. I saw the disturbing image of Bella just after Ness' birth, saw Edward covered in Bella's blood, his eyes crazed with grief.

I knew what she needed.

Blondie hissed when I stood from the sofa, but I merely shot her a glare. "I'm taking her to her parents."

I climbed the stairs towards the office where Bella was changing, unnaturally still save the rapid rise and fall of her chest. Thankfully, someone had cleaned the room and dressed Bella. Based on the outfit, it could only have been Shortie. I grinned when I saw the shoes. Bella was going to flip.

Edward hadn't had any smiles for me, but that didn't surprise me. I knew he wouldn't crack the mask on his face until he had undeniable proof that Bella would live...would survive...well, would exist beyond what she was going through now. Whatever you wanted to call it. Swear to God the man thrived on angst. Carlisle had changed how many vamps now? If he wasn't worried, I didn't see any reason to be.

I will never forget is the look on his face when he looked up and saw me holding Ness.

"I can't, Jacob," he said as he started to turn back towards Bella's still body.

Ness' hand had raised to my cheek again. I saw Edward's face, flashing in front of my eyes like an old movie stuck in the projector. Daddy! Daddy!

She hadn't spoken, of course, but Edward saw the pictures just as surely as I had.

"She needs you, Edward. She needs to be here."

It took a full minute, an eternity as far as vampire decisions went, but Edward's arms finally raised. He took his daughter into his embrace. We both watched, transfixed as her smile bloomed across her perfect features.

Edward pressed her hand against his cheek when it had raised again. Then they'd both turned towards Bella. "I don't know, baby girl. Your mommy's got to recover, then she'll wake up." He had paused, obviously another picture. "No, it hasn't been easy on her. But she never stopped believing in you, my precious girl. She'll fight her way back for you, too."

As I'd left the room, I'd heard Edward humming an unfamiliar song to Ness.

Hey, Jake.

I yelped when the voice broke through my woolgathering. Yelped and turned, teeth bared in a growl. It wasn't until I recognized the wolf behind me that my higher brain functions kicked in and overrode the instincts.

Christ, Seth. Warn me, next time, all right? I nearly took your head off.

Seth barked out his rough laugh. I've been trying that for the last ten minutes, man. You were a little caught up.

I shook my head and stamped my big paws on the ground. I was continuing to suck as the pack's Alpha – spending so much time in m own twisted, fucked up world—

We understand, Jake. We've all been there.

Yeah, when you first imprinted. This isn't exactly new for me, you know.

This part of it is.

I looked at Seth, my head cocked to the side. What d'you mean, this part of it is?

Seth laughed again. The fun part.

I growled at him. Seth, stop talking in riddles, will you? I've had about enough of that shit for one day. Unbidden, my thoughts went back to my garage, and Bella and Edward's visit.

Huh. What d'you know. I didn't think they'd be trying to help. Well, Bella, yeah. But never thought Edward would step in like that. Pretty funny the way he was all writhing on the floor though, huh? He's a riot.

Oh yeah. I never stop laughing when he's around. I butted Seth in the shoulder with my head. Now get on with it.

I'm kinda surprised I have to at all. You really don't know?

Know. What? My teeth were bared again.

Don't you remember Embry and Maia? She hated him on first sight, right?

I did remember. We all did. It wasn't the best time to be a phased member of the LaPush pack, especially when Embry was running patrols.

Exactly. So, then what happened?

What had happened? Embry had kept his distance, forced to because it was what she needed, but at the same time been unable to leave her alone, unprotected. The only bright spot in the whole mess was that Maia knew Kim, Jared's wife. It'd taken all of us to convince Embry to let Kim talk to Maia, to tell her what was going on before she called the cops on him. And so it went until one day, Maia came to LaPush to find Embry.

The rest was imprint history. Bada bing, bada boom. True love.

Damn, Jake, are you always this slow or do you just really hate seeing what's right in front of you and pissing and moaning about shit?

Don't sugar coat it, Seth, tell me how you really feel.

Seth gave me a push, reminding me of the one time the three of us were on patrol and Embry caught Maia's scent near the trail before Maia's feelings had changed.

Yeah, I thought at Seth, so he felt the same pull we all do.

The same pull you've felt towards Ness since the second you saw her, but don't anymore. The same pull Quil feels towards Claire. Protective, brotherly.

I stopped walking. I faced Seth. My heart was hammering in my chest as I fought against what he was trying to tell me.

It's true, Jake. Embry never had a sex thought about Maia until she wanted him that way. Protective, yes. Love, yes. Desire, no. Not until she felt it too. And Quil's never felt it. Hell, the poor guy doesn't even beat off because his mind doesn't—

I howled. Fuck. Too much information, Seth. Move on.

Seth just shot his lolling-tongue dog grin at me, not in the least abashed. You getting the point at least? Edward and Bella are right. Ness doesn't need you the way she always has. She needs you in a whole different way. If she didn't, you'd still be kissing her forehead and beating off—

Enough! It wasn't an Alpha command, but it did the job. Either that or Seth's howling laughter was so all-consuming he couldn't continue.

So? Seth managed when he got himself under control.

So what?

So I've just told you that your imprint needs you, Jake. What the fuck are you doing still standing here?

I was gone a second later.