Hey people! I'm back, with a new chapter. And I'm apologizing in advance, this chapter is a bit shorter than the others! But not a lot shorter, just a little bit. I just couldn't strech it out further :) No, I'm kidding. It's fine, though I'm even confusing myself with the hours and what not in this one, if you have a problem just let me know and I'll explain it to you. I'll see you at the bottom, as always! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Dreaming as always of Edward and Bella, everything's awesome and seemingly well...a, it suddenly changes, from the forest flies a kite, I cry as it says that I've never owned Twilight.
JPOV
I was in the forest, running. It seems to be the only thing I do nowadays. I was patrolling with Sam and Quil, but we weren't exactly talking. We were all pretty tired, we never seemed to get enough sleep. And besides, I was busy thinking about Bella.
It had been - I don't know how long - since I saw her. Ever since her little... almost-suicide I felt like I had to stay near her, to protect her. But that was impossible right now. Until Victoria was out of the picture, we couldn't slow down. And still, even if I was by her side I wouldn't be able to protect her from herself. But she had promised not to do something like that again. I was really trying to trust her, but I couldn't be absolutely sure anymore.
I had been planning on visiting her at the hospital, but it didn't happen. Bella had been discharged later that afternoon and gone home. I couldn't understand how her doctors thought, you can't just discharge someone who has tried to commit suicide after one day. She could easily do it again, the doctors didn't know what she could do if she's alone. It scared me, and I wished that I could go see her soon.
But that wouldn't be possible for a while. After I had run for approximately 8 hours, I had been on my way home to sleep. God knows we didn't sleep enough, but we had to push ourselves to the limit. Otherwise there wouldn't be an end to all of this.
When I got home I threw myself in the sofa, and as soon as I closed my eyes the phone rang. So typical. I had gotten up from the couch, cursing it's existence as I did so, and picked it up.
"What?"I asked, sounding more angry than I meant to. I completely backtracked as I heard who had called.
"Jeez, Jake, who shoved a fork up your-" I cut her of.
"Bella!" I exclaimed. "How are you feeling?" I smiled a huge smile. I was so happy to hear her voice.
"Fine now, my throat doesn't hurt anymore." I could hear her smile through the phone.
"That's good... So, what's up?" I asked.
"Yeah... well, I kinda wanted to tell you something, but I don't want you to get mad, okay?" Oh, nothing good had ever followed after those words. I braced myself.
"What, Bella?" I asked, a bit impatient. She hesitated.
"It's just that..." she said slowly and then blurted out the rest, making it hard to hear. At least for a normal person, "My therapy group is going to travel together to, like, get to know each other as a team or something, and I want to go with them. I met a... friend there, and I think it'll be fun. It's okay with you, right?" That was a lot of information to take in at once.
"How long will you be gone?"
"It's just for two days and then we'll be back."
"Do you have, like, people there? To take care of you?" I very nearly said "sane people", but that would definitely offend her.
"Yeah, a couple of doctors will come with us, and relatives to the... patients can volunteer to come."
"Where are you going then?"
"Apparently you don't know until your at the airport. Somewhere in Europe, though, I just found out."
"Europe?!" I shouted, unable to stop myself, "That's a whole other continent!"
"Yeah, Jake. I'm aware of that." she said teasingly.
"But... It's so far away!" My heart sank. I had just gotten her back, and now she was leaving me again. She seemed to guess my thoughts.
"Don't worry Jake, It's only for two days. I'll be back. Promise." Yeah, it wasn't exactly like she was the most trustworthy person out there. But this was Bella. If I didn't trust her, who would I trust?
"I... I don't know Bella, it's-"
"Listen Jake," her voice changed to sound determined, "I think I need this trip. I have to be able to have a life, and since I'm pretty much going to need therapy for the rest of my life, I might as well get to know the people I'm gonna be hanging with." She sounded tired when she said it. I had to admit, it did make some sense when she put it like that. I sighed.
"Sure sure, if you think it'll help. I'll be here waiting for you when you're back though, okay?"
"I was counting on that, Jake," Once again, you could hear her smile on the other end, "I'll miss you," she said, sounding sad.
"Yeah," I said, trying to cover up my sudden sadness, "I'll miss you too." There was a moment of silence before Bella started to speak again, the sadness in her voice momentarily gone.
"By the way, what the heck happened to my door? It's not even on its hinges anymore!" Her voice had a hard yet slightly amused edge to it.
Crap. I had forgotten about that. "I did that," I started apologetically, "when you where... asleep. I'm sorry, I meant to replace it but I guess it slipped my mind. But I can get you a new one while you're away, if you want."
"Yeah, that would be great," she said, sounding gratefully, "key's under the-"
"Under the eave, I know," I filled her in. "You should really hide your key somewhere safer. I mean, anyone could just go in there-" She interrupted me this time.
"You know, Jake, I like to have the key there, and it's gonna stay there, okay?"
I just murmured something unintelligible and we both fell silent. After a few seconds, Bella spoke.
"Well, I have an early flight to catch. It leaves at seven so I'll be up before dawn. Can't say I'm looking forward to it. But I'll sleep on the plane, it'll be fine. But I have to go and pack now, or else I wont have any time for sleep at all. I'll call you as soon as I land to fill you in on where we are."
"Okay, sounds good. Talk to you later, then."
"Yeah. Bye, Jake."
"Bye." We hung up.
I sighed as I put the phone back in its holder and went back and lay down in the sofa. She was going to leave again, and there was nothing I could do about it.
I couldn't scream at her, that would probably just make her sad and leave anyway.
I can't beg because that would make her unhappy, so the only thing I could do without hurting her in any way was to agree with her decision. Which I really didn't.
She didn't even know where she was going, how stupid is that? Who comes up with things like that. It doesn't make any sense what so ever.
But I knew that it wasn't really that that bothered me. I just wanted her to be here, with me.
So, since then I had figured that the best way to make the days pass was to get busy. This would be a good opportunity for me to patrol, if I knew she was safe I could concentrate more on Victoria. Yeah, I decided, this would work out. This would be a good opportunity. And with that thought I had drifted of to sleep.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
After sleeping some 6 hours I had gotten up for more guard duty. And that's what I had been doing up until now. First I had been running with Paul and Jared and after a few hours they had been replaced by Quil and Sam. It didn't really matter to me, I was way to occupied with my own thoughts to worry about someone else's.
I had been trying to figure out when she was leaving with help from the sun. I was trying to assess where the sun would be on the sky when it was 7. I had gotten a fair idea, and then spent the rest of the morning dreading when the sun would actually reach the right spot in the sky, and once it had, I felt like I never should have let her go.
It's was weird, once I knew for certain that it was to late to stop her from getting on the plane, I felt oddly relieved, yet sickeningly worried.
It was like the responsibility I had with her lifted a little bit. Right now, there was nothing I could do for her and I could instead concentrate completely on finding Victoria. Yet, without her here I felt like something was missing. And just because I couldn't protect her anymore it just increased my worry.
You'd think that both of the indescribable emotions would cancel each other out, but they both held their ground, causing a constant battle to take place in my head. It was really confusing.
But I tried hard not to dwell on that. When she got back, I would do everything I could to make her happy, to make her see that she has things to live for right her, under her nose.
I sighed as I continued on my steady jog, checking how the others were doing. They were also quiet, in response to my brooding or not, I wasn't sure. I was about to make an effort to be social and ask the others for any news, when Sam's head suddenly snapped up. Both Quil and I felt the scent through Sam's mind, and my face scrunched up in response.
I knew that smell. It was sweet, sickeningly so, and I could even feel the burn in my nose through Sam's mind. Ugh. Leeches.
I had been momentarily dazed by the the awful stench, and was brutally snapped out of it by Sam. Both he and Quil had already started to run as fast as they could.
Jacob! Hurry up, we will need you!
I immediately started to run towards where Sam was headed, it wouldn't take long until I caught up with them. The trees were just a blur as I pushed my legs to run faster.
Who is it? I asked, it wasn't a scent we recognized. In a strange way it made me both disappointed and a bit worried. The new scent meant that it wasn't Victoria, which in a way would be safe since we knew what to expect from her. Another vampire wasn't as... easy. We couldn't know it's intentions. Maybe it was meant as a distraction. As soon as I thought it Sam spoke again.
Quil, you have to stay, alert the others. We can't leave the area unguarded. I saw Quil skid to a stop and turn around. Before he started to run back to La Push again he let out a loud howl. Maybe not very inconspicuous, but it would do the job. The others would hear.
I had almost caught up with Sam when we both felt the other scent. There were two of them. That would even out the odds. We had run for about a minute but it felt like much longer. We were now closer to Olympia then to Forks, and I pushed my legs faster, getting slightly impatient. Sam was worried, thinking up different reasons to why they were here.
More voices suddenly filled our minds as the rest of the pack phased.
What the hell is going on? They all caught on to our seriousness and concentration, watching the forest whoosh past us in a blur. Sam and I both kept silent, leaving the explanation to Quil.
I had caught up with Sam and raced past him, just wanting to reach the bloodsuckers and do what we do best so that I could get back to Forks. Somehow, being near Forks made it feel like I was closer to Bella.
I shook those thoughts off, I couldn't afford to be distracted now. The scents were getting stronger, mixing together until I couldn't separate them, it was all just an icy sweetness. Sam wasn't far behind me, I could see myself through his eyes, and he followed me as the scent led us into a small clearing. We both dug our claws into the ground as we skidded to a stop. The sight before us was shocking.
In the clearing was not only the two leeches whose scents we had followed, but seven others. Seven way too familiar leeches. While I was busy taking in the scene, Sam was thorn between two things, planning and worrying. We could both still hear the rest of the pack shouting and speaking, but we ignored them.
Make them stay or come here? Sam asked himself, undecided, thinking of the pack. He thought of the odds. If we alone would fight, we wouldn't make it. If the others would come to help us, we probably wouldn't make it either. So, the question was, whether to sacrifice the whole pack or just me and Sam. Sam made up his mind and spoke with the authority of the Alpha.
Stay where you are, do not follow us. Please, he added with a soft edge.
All of this couldn't have taken more than a few seconds. I was surprised that the bloodsuckers hadn't launched for us yet. I growled at them and Sam did the same. They hadn't even turned to look at us. They just stood there, the Cullen's – I couldn't help but sneer the name - facing the two strangers.
I had expected an immediate attack, when it hadn't come I was unsure of what to do. One of the leeches raised his hand, palm facing us in a cautioning gesture, but didn't look away from the two unknown vampires as he spoke.
"Sam, Jacob, don't do anything yet," I was a bit shocked to how he knew our names, when I zeroed in on him and recognized him. Edward.
I was instantly furious, I no longer cared that we were two against nine vampires, all I wanted was to launch myself at him and rip him apart. Slowly. I wanted him to suffer like Bella had. I wanted him dead.
I watched him flinch at my thoughts and was instantly filled with a kind of sadistic happiness at his pain. I felt a growl building in my chest. But before I could do anything else I was distracted by one of the two other bloodsuckers.
He had turned to me, a smirk on his face. He was big and muscular and had olive toned skin. His hair was short and black and his eyes were burgundy. He seemed arrogant enough to turn his back on the Cullen's, like they posed no threat to him. If he wasn't scared of the Cullen's, then he sure would learn to fear the wolves.
A/N Yeah, I know what you're thinking. That was a really weird place to end the chapter. But you know what? It had to be done. Brace yourselves for an exciting EPOV chapter next time! Maybe I shouldn't get your hopes up. Instead of that, brace yourselves for an awful chapter next time! Moving on.
I had something important to tell you! Well, not really important, but more important than the usual stuff I write here. I shouldn't forget things. While I think about that:
I've gotten a Victoria-fur! No it's not a real fur, I would never do that, but you see, me and my friend are planning to do some kind of Twilight spoof, and the fur fitted in. And, I didn't spend any money on it. I stole it. No, I'm kidding! I traded it for an ugly skirt. It was in a kind of trade-store. Very recycle...y.
Oh yeah! Not sure if this was the thing that I forgot, but we'll find out sometime. We reached our goal to get 17 reviews! Woho! I get ridiculously happy. Now, not sure if I'm pushing my luck here (I probably am) but should we try to reach... 20 (20!!) reviews? That's so many reviews! Well, technically it's just three more to go but... it's 20. It's cool! Don't mock me.
Now I'll probably go to bed. It's 02:23 a.m. here, but I'm not tired. My neck hurts, though. Yeah. It's awesome. Hope you liked the chapter, and if you've read this whole long A/N, I admire you. Good work.
Love to you all, have a great life until I write again!
~Anna
