Chapter 8
After a long and uneventful two weeks had passed, Bella decided to take a trip to Port Angeles with her high school friend, Angela, unbeknownst to Jacob.
They took a seat outside at one of the small tables that littered the sidewalk in front of the café. They chatted about the wedding and Bella told Angela her fears, being sure not to reveal anything supernatural. The clouds were out, as usual, but the sun did make an unexpected appearance for a while, allowing the two of them to bask in the warmth that emanated from it. Bella was never able to go out in public with Edward on sunny days. Things were a lot different since she started seeing Jacob.
The two girls enjoyed their lunch, all the while, a hooded figure in all black hid in the shadows watching them interact.
After finishing lunch and walking around the streets downtown, it came to be three o'clock, and the two of them decided to head back to Forks, leaving the unknown hooded figure behind.
The rest of the day passed by with Bella curled up next to Jacob on his living room couch in La Push, watching a movie. Happily, Bella had not been feeling too guilty about breaking off the wedding. As each new day arrived and she spent more time with Jacob, Bella found herself more and more confident that she had made the right decision.
As the day turned into night and Bella found herself increasingly more tired, Jacob told her that he would be driving her home, refusing to listen to her protests. They sat in comfortable silence the whole way to Forks, but once they arrived at Bella's house, Jacob shut off the car and turned to look at Bella.
"Hey Bella…" Jacob said timidly.
"Yes, Jacob?" Bella murmured.
"Your dad called my house today, asking for you."
Suddenly, Bella wasn't tired anymore and she looked at Jacob with a bit of shame in her eyes. "And what…what did you tell him?"
"I told him you fell asleep and that I would take you home later." Jacob said, giving Bella a pointed look. "Bella where were you before you came over to my house? I thought you were at home with your dad before he called. I almost had a panic attack."
"I'm sorry, I've just been sick of having to be stuck at home or at the reservation. I went to Port Angeles to have lunch with Angela."
"Stuck? That's how you feel?" Jacob said, the hurt showing in his eyes. "The reservation is going to be your home one day, Bella, but only if you keep yourself safe. I can't keep you safe if I don't know where you are!"
"I'm fine!" Bella's voice rose in frustration.
"That's not the point!" Jacob growled. He took a deep breath to calm himself before saying, "I can't lose you, Bella. You know the Volturi are out there waiting to take you from me. Please, please don't do that again."
"I don't want you to control me! Edward always controlled me, and look how that turned out!" Bella huffed.
Jacob winced. "I'm not trying to control you. I just want to make sure you aren't taken from me and turned into one of them. I'm sorry if you don't like how I handle things."
Bella sighed. "I promise I wont do it again," she said, reaching for the door handle to get out of the car.
"Hey, no goodbye kiss?" Jacob said with a hint of humor in his voice.
"I'm angry with you." Bella said, looking back at Jacob, hardly being able to keep a straight face. She could never stay mad at Jacob for long, even when he was being a jerk.
"I see." Jacob said, trying to contain a smile.
Bella nodded and got out of the truck to walk up the path to her house. Before she could even take more than two steps, she was wrapped in Jacob's warm arms.
"I'm sorry, Bella. Sometimes I just get a little too protective of you. I know you can take care of yourself, but I'm your boyfriend, and I'm also your imprint. I think it's only fair that I freak out a little bit."
Bella rested her head on his chest, taking in his familiar musky scent. "I love you Jacob."
"I love you too." He said, affectionately laying his head on top of Bella's.
The clearing of a throat ruined the gentle moment. Both Jacob and Bella looked up to see Charlie standing in the doorway glaring at Jacob.
"Thanks for driving her home." Charlie said. "Now it's time for Bella to come inside."
Bella rolled her eyes and whispered to Jacob, "You aren't the only one that is overprotective."
Jacob smirked. "I'll see you tomorrow." He gave Bella a brief kiss, nodded once to Charlie and ran into the woods to phase.
"Unbelievable." Bella muttered irately as she walked past her dad into the house.
"Bella, wait a minute."
"What?" Bella stopped her climb up the stairs to turn around and frown at her dad.
"Are you okay, kiddo?" Charlie asked, not unkindly.
"Yeah, why?" Bella said, taken aback by the shift in her father's mood.
"I just haven't seen much of you lately. You always seem to be over at the Black's house…Can we talk?"
"Sure." Bella made her way back down the stairs and took a seat at the kitchen table, waiting for her dad to follow suit. He tensely took a seat across from her, making Bella immediately aware that the conversation would be an uncomfortable one. "What's up, dad?"
Charlie cleared his throat nervously. "So, umm, you've been spending a lot of time with Jake, lately."
"Yeah…?"
"It's just, uh, Jake's a good guy."
"I know that." Bella looked at her dad with an odd expression on her face. "What are you trying to say?"
"Well you're a young woman and you're smart. I just want to make sure that you and Jake are being smart…" Charlie's face turned red.
"Dad, are you trying to talk to me about sex?" Bella asked, horrified.
"I just, umm…"
"You really don't need to worry about it. It's not like that…"
"Oh…good." Charlie looked around the room agitatedly, trying not to look Bella in the eyes.
"Can I go now?" Bella wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. She knew that she and Jake would have a good laugh at it later, but at the moment, Bella was very uncomfortable with the whole situation.
"Sure," Charlie mumbled. "Goodnight."
Bella got up as quickly as she could, rushing to get away from the kitchen and her father. As she passed by the living room, a movement outside the window caught her attention. She walked closer to the window and saw a pair of eyes glowing in the moonlight. Bella screamed and her father rushed into the room with his gun in his hands.
"What is it?" He said, quickly scanning the room.
Bella pointed to the window. "I saw something! Someone is out there!"
Charlie made for the door but Bella grabbed the back of his shirt. "Dad, don't! We don't know who it is! It could be a vampire!"
"A what?!"
"Oops, did I forget to mention that there were vampires?"
"Yes, you did! Call Jacob!" Charlie said, turning off the light so he could see out of the window without a reflection, gun at the ready.
Bella dialed Jacob's number, hoping he had made it home already to be able to answer. Luckily, he answered his phone after two rings. "Jacob," Bella whispered.
"Bella? What's wrong? Why are you whispering?" Jacob said worriedly.
"There is someone outside. I saw eyes. I don't know who it is." Bella felt tears fall slowly down her cheeks. She knew that the vampires would be coming for her sooner or later, but she was hoping it would be later. Edward said he left to try and hold off the Volturi, but it seemed as if he failed. Bella wondered what actually happened to him if the Volturi were, indeed, outside of her house.
"Bella? Bella are you still there?" Jacob said, panicking. Bella had been lost in thought and didn't realize that Jacob had been trying to get her attention.
"What? Yes I'm still here."
"Good. I said to make sure everything is locked and stay away from the windows. I'm on my way." And with that, the call ended. Bella stared at the phone in her hand like it was some foreign object. Was that the last time she was going to get to talk to Jacob? Was the kiss they had before he left that night, their last? She had been mad at him for being so overprotective but that all seemed silly now.
"Bella? What did Jacob say?" Charlie asked, puling Bella out of her trancelike state.
"He said to stay away from the windows. He'll be here as soon as he can." Bella said quietly.
Charlie sighed and walked over to his daughter, giving her an awkward side hug. "It'll be alright, kiddo. Between me and Jake, we wont let anything happen to you."
"But I don't want anything to happen to you and Jake, either."
"Don't worry about us. We'll be fine. We're always fine," Charlie tried to reassure his daughter.
A couple of minutes later, Bella and Charlie heard the angry snarls of a pack of wolves running by the house. Bella immediately tensed and her and Charlie listened intently to what was going on outside. Bella peaked over her father's shoulder to look out the window. She saw a large black wolf, knowing immediately that it was Sam. Bella kept hoping to see Jacob to know that he was alright, but she didn't see anyone else, she only heard the fight.
"What's happening out there?" Charlie was also trying to see what was going on. "Sounds like Jacob has a lot more to deal with than just one vampire. I thought I saw a bear!"
Bella forgot that Charlie didn't know about the rest of the pack. He only knew what Jacob had told him, and as far as he was concerned, Jacob was the only wolf. "That wasn't a bear, dad…that was Sam…"
"What? Sam who? Sam Uley?" Charlie asked incredulously. "He's a wolf too?"
"There is a whole pack, dad…"
"A pack? A pack of wolves? What in the world! Why didn't Jake mention this?"
Bella looked away, not answering Charlie's question. A couple of extremely long minutes later, the fight seemed to have stopped and everything was eerily quiet.
A knock sounded at the front door and both Bella and Charlie jumped in surprise. Charlie slowly walked to the door, gun cocked and ready to shoot whomever decided to barge into the house.
"Do you think it's a vampire?" Charlie whispered.
"I doubt a vampire would knock, dad."
"Bella?" Jacob said through the closed door.
"It's Jake!" Bella pushed past her dad and opened the door without a second thought. Sam and Quil were at the door, holding Jake up between them. A quick look let Bella know that Jacob was hurt. "Oh my gosh! What happened?" She moved to the side and let Sam, Quil, and Jake pass. They laid him on the couch as Charlie and Bella followed them into the living room. Bella kneeled next to Jake and took his hand in hers. "Where are you hurt?"
"My leg. I think it's broken." Jacob said, pain laced in his voice.
Bella looked down at Jacob's exposed calves to see a huge gash with blood pooling. She held back a gag at the sight of the blood and put on a brave face, looking at Sam for help. "What do we do?"
"We have to get him back to the reservation so the doctor can set it before the bone heals itself improperly. If it heals too quickly then it will have to be broken again."
"Is it safe to go outside?" Bella inquired.
Quil nodded once and crossed his arms across his chest. "The rest of the pack is still out there patrolling. We're safe for the time being."
"Get him to the cruiser. I'll turn on the sirens and everything." Charlie said to Sam and Quil, who quickly complied with his request. They laid Jacob in the back of the cruiser and Bella took the passenger seat. Once everyone was secure, Charlie turned on the lights and sirens, racing to La Push as Sam and Quil followed behind in wolf form.
Charlie sped on the highways and they made it to La Push in half the time it normally took to get there from Forks. Before they knew it, Jacob was in an exam room with the Reservation doctor and Bella, Charlie, and Quil were in the waiting room. Sam had gone back to the pack once he saw that the others had made it to the small doctor's office safely.
The minutes passed by slowly as they waited for news on Jacob's injury. "So are you going to tell me what happened?" Bella asked, no longer being able to stand the silence.
Quil turned to her, studying her expression before starting. "Well, it was the Volturi, just as expected."
"The Voltuiri?" Charlie asked confusedly.
"Vampire royalty." Quil replied.
"Why would they be here?"
"It's a long story, dad. How many were there?" Bella asked, trying to steer the conversation away from the Volturi.
"Two of them. One of them was this really big guy. He was super strong; even stronger than your average vamp. We had the other one on the run when the strong one showed up out of nowhere and attacked. He was about to take out Seth but Jacob jumped in front and took the worst of it. I don't think the vamp was expecting all of us though. We took him out pretty quickly."
"Is Seth okay?" Bella asked. She had always liked Seth and didn't want anything to happen to him, let alone any of the other members of the pack.
"Yeah he's fine, just a few scratches. They're probably healed by now anyway." Quil said.
"You said there were two," Charlie said. "What about the other one that you were chasing?"
"He got away. He was quick." Quil said regretfully.
"Who was it?"
Quil shook his head. "Didn't see his face. Both of them were wearing long robes with hoods. I guess they didn't want their identities compromised.
Bella sighed. "I can't believe this is happening."
"Jake will be fine, Bella. It's just a broken leg." Quil placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"Not that. It's this whole thing. You guys are getting hurt because of me." Bella wrapped her arms around herself.
Quil shrugged. "We were made to fight vampires. Doesn't matter who they're after, we're going to kill them."
A minute later, the doctor walked out and told them that they could see Jacob. Jacob looked like he was in a lot less pain and Quil was easily able to get him back to the cruiser so Charlie could drive him home.
Once at the Black's house, Quil and Bella helped Jacob into bed while Billy followed behind trying to get answers. After he was assured that Jacob would be okay, he left them alone and went to thank his good friend Charlie for taking care of his son. Quil mumbled something about going back to patrolling with the pack, which just left Bella with Charlie and Billy in the living room.
"Is it alright if I stay here with Jacob tonight?" Bella asked Billy, trying to avoid looking at her father.
"I think it would be a good idea for you and Charlie to stay tonight. If there is still one of them out there, then you'll be much safer here with the pack to protect you." Billy said, mostly looking at Charlie as he said it. He knew his friend could be stubborn sometimes and wasn't sure if he would agree.
"Okay." Charlie said simply, surprising Bella and Billy.
Billy nodded in approval. "Charlie, why don't you take the couch and Bella can take Rachel's old room."
Twenty minutes later, it was two in the morning and everyone was settled. After Bella was sure that her dad was asleep, she quietly snuck out of her room and across the hall into Jacob's. The medicine the doctor had given him for the pain had made Jacob sleep and he didn't even budge when Bella walked in. She ever so gently laid down beside him on his small bed, careful not to jostle his hurt leg, and took his warm hand into hers. "I love you, Jacob." She whispered, pressing a light kiss to his cheek. She took comfort in his warmth and closeness and the fact that he was going to be alright before peacefully drifting off to sleep.
Thoughts? Comments? Let me know what you think of chapter 8!
