Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or the characters. The rights belong to Stephenie Meyer.


I woke up in silence, for once, and there was sunlight streaming through my window. I sat up, amazed to have had a pleasant night sleep for the first time in months. The alarm clock by my bed said it was 10.30; that means I'd slept for around 12 hours.

Charlie had left already; probably fishing again, so I got dressed and wandered around the house, trying to find something to do. I'd done all my homework, and I'd done all the housework too. I needed to occupy my mind some way; free time had to be avoided at all costs.

I decided to call Jacob. He should have been up by now, and hopefully he wouldn't be busy. Maybe I could even go round to La Push.

Billy answered. "Hello?"

"Hi Billy, it's Bella. Is Jake there?"

"Err... yeah. He's just woken up. Hang on a sec."

There was some rustling and a lot of mumbling and then Jacob answered the phone.

"Hello?" He sounded tired; I probably shouldn't have bothered him.

"Hi Jake! How long have you been sleeping? I didn't mean to wake you..."

"Hey Bells!" His voice picked up now he knew it was me on the other end of the phone "No, you didn't. I can't sleep all day, anyway. What's up?"

"Nothing really, I was just wondering if I could come round or something. There's nothing to do here."

"Oh. Well, I'm supposed to be meeting up with the others later on, but that's not really important... You can come now!"

"I don't want to ruin your plans with the others... Won't they get mad at me?"

"No, no, they understand..."

I knew what that meant. They knew about him imprinting. Oh well, I suppose there was no escaping the fact they'd find out. If it meant I was allowed to see Jacob more, I may as well use that.

"Oh okay. So you're sure they won't be mad if I come round?"

"I'm certain."

"Ok. I'll be there soon then."

"Ok. See you soon Bells."

----

I drove to Jacobs pretty fast. For some reason, I just couldn't wait to see him again.

When I pulled up outside his house, he was already in the doorway. He looked pretty surprised to see me there so soon.

"That was quick" He said as I climbed out of the truck "You in a rush?"

"Only to get here. I didn't want to waste any time..."

He nodded and took one of my hands in his.

"Well, what do you want to do then?"

"Oh, I dunno..." I hadn't really figured out anything to do once I actually got here. I'd just wanted to see Jake. I looked up at his face; he had huge shadows under his eyes. "Do you want to sleep? You look like you could do with some."

He shook his head and pulled a face. "No. I'm not having you come all the way here and then falling asleep as soon as you get here. I'm fine. You seem like you've slept well though."

I looked down "Yeah... I... didn't have such a bad sleep." I didn't want to get into the specifics.

"That's good..."

We walked in silence for a bit. I didn't know where we were headed, but I trusted Jacob did.

Jacob broke the silence. "So you're not having any second thoughts?"

"About what?"

"Yesterday. I mean, you haven't changed your mind?"

"What, about sticking by you, even though you change into a wolf sometimes? Nope, I'm pretty set on that decision." I grinned.

He smiled a little back, but he had something else on his mind. "What about the... other thing?"

"Jake, I made my decision. I'm not leaving you, no matter what. Don't worry!"

He looked into my eyes and his face broke into a huge smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

----

We strolled together along the beach. It was pretty warm, so I didn't need to curl into Jacob like I had before, but I still held his hand. I knew I probably shouldn't, just in case it gave him the wrong idea, but I felt a compulsion to. Maybe this was what the Imprinting was doing to me, or maybe it was just the relief from having him back, but I felt like I needed to touch some part of him, almost to make sure he was real. We didn't talk about much important stuff, just simple everyday things, but it was still really nice to talk to him properly again. It'd been so long since I'd had someone to properly talk to.

There was something familiar about this beach, but I couldn't remember where from. It felt like I'd been here a lifetime ago. It wasn't until Jacob reminded me that I placed it. It was the beach we had first met. We began talking about that day almost a year ago. I would never have imagined, back then, that things would end up this way. Jacob hadn't even believed in the Quileute legends back then!

That thought brought back a memory from the day before. I don't know why, but it had bugged me a bit. It was when he was talking about why the werewolves came back in La Push; when he was talking about their enemies. The way he said the word Vampire was almost as if he knew; not only who they were, but what effect the thought of them had on me.

"Jacob!" I almost shouted, cutting into his description of one thing or another. He looked at me in alarm, trying to work out what was wrong.

"Bella, what happened?" His eyes were pleading, desperate to figure out what had upset me.

"You know... about the C-Cullens?" For some reason I had a struggle getting the word out. I felt the pain hit me when I said the name and wrapped my hands around my chest while I tried to pull myself together.

His confused eyes melted slightly into understanding. "Oh. Yeah, I guess I didn't explain that bit... I didn't know how you'd... feel." He eyed me cautiously. We had stopped walking, and I was standing still and staring at him, still trying to block out the pain from saying their name. "Well, when I changed for the first time, it was obvious the whole werewolf story wasn't just a myth. Then everyone explained to me that all of our legends are true. Even the one's about the... cold ones." I heard his reluctance to use the word. I was grateful he didn't say it. "And then Billy told me everything. He knows all the legends off by heart, of course. He always knew they were true."

"Oh." It made sense really. It would be logical that they all had realised through the truth of their legends; it was how I had found out, after all, and I hadn't needed to morph into a wolf to believe the tales in the first place.

We carried on walking down the beach again. After a few minutes we came up to the driftwood tree where Jacob had told me the stories first. It looked the same now as it had then, roots sticking up and totally bleached white by the sea. I sat on the trunk and Jacob sat beside me. This place was full of memories – so many things had changed since then; yet so many things were still the same. Like me and Jacob being here together. Maybe we were destined to be together; it certainly seemed like it, we kept getting thrown together. A lifetime with Jacob wouldn't be so bad; things were so easy around him. He seemed to know me so well that I never needed to worry about avoiding topics of conversation or anything that would remind me of Them around him; he did it for me. Plus, he lessened the pain from the hole in my chest. It wasn't totally healed, it still hurt, but it was bearable now. Jake kept me together, because now, we both needed each other.

We talked about more pointless things for goodness knows how long. Jake was halfway through a story about how Embry almost got into a fight with some people from a different school off the reservation when he stopped mid-sentence and turned his head to the side, as though he was listening to something. I was about to ask what was wrong, but before I'd even opened my mouth to speak, Jacob had jumped to his feet.

"I have to meet the others; they won't let me bow out. I'm sorry Bella, I was having fun!" he explained in a hurry, and I could tell he had to get to the others as soon as he could.

"That's fine Jake, I can't take up all your time! You have other things you have to do. I'll just drive myself home-" He cut me off.

"You'll what? Drive yourself home? I don't think so! You're coming too!"

"Huh? But I thought..." Didn't he have to go alone? I don't think they let random humans join in their pack meetings.

"I'm sorry, you'll probably be really bored, but hopefully it won't be for that long and then we can come back here!"

"But the others..."

"No Bella. The guys will be fine with it, they understand."

Oh yeah, the rest of them understood. I'd forgotten about that bit. "Oh. Ok. I guess we'd better set off now then. God knows how long it'll take us if I actually try to walk fast."

Jake laughed and shook his head. "Maybe it'd be easier if..."

He scooped me up into his arms and started running towards the forest. He ran fast, but he seemed to find it easy. He wasn't out of breath, and his grip didn't loosen as though he was tired. I didn't want to think of the last time I had been in similar circumstances – being carried through the forest at high speeds – so I concentrated on Jacob's woodsy scent. It was so comforting, and totally fitting in our current surroundings.

"Right. We're here." Jacob put me onto the ground, but kept a hand around my waist to make sure I stayed steady. "And don't worry Bells, I'm right here."

We walked through a small clump of trees into a clearing containing the four huge boys from yesterday, who, judging by the looks on their faces, knew nothing of Jacob's plan to bring me with him. Also, none of them looked particularly pleased with Jacob's decision to do so either.