A/N: I know, this was going to be posted on Wednesday and I'm EARLY. It was also going to span more than twenty years, not just a couple…but… Sometimes, a situation requires exploration and I thank SagaDevotee for setting me straight.

This story is now 21 or possibly 22 chapters long. It is still outlined until the final scene…but it is kind of hard to cover the 1960's - 1980's in about five thousand words…

My thanks to the following websites for their information:

ht tp: / /www. ramblingsandthoughts. com/ Quileute_Wolf_Pack_Genealogy. pdf

and

ht tp: / /www. twilightlexicon. com/ ? page_ id=9

Thanks, too, to WolvesCanEatMe and missrebecca_12 on twitter for chiming in to answer a couple of questions for me! :)

Chapter Ten: Conflicts

[+]1962[+]

"Stop it right there, bloodsucker!" Levi called under the darkness of the new moon. Instinctively, he shoved Bella behind him as they stood in challenge in front of the strange vampire who was crossing too close to the border of the Rez.

"Are you from Volterra?" Bella demanded, her voice hard and sharp as a stone knife.

The two of them had been going to ride his motorcycle into Port Angeles to see the movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird – with Bella's favorite actor, Gregory Peck – when they had scented the strange, black-eyed vampire.

"Where? Nevah hoid of it," the stranger said. He sniffed the air and swaggered closer. "So, doll," he said to Bella and ignoring Levi entirely – proving his foolishness, as far as the Quileute was concerned – "Whatcha doin' out here all by yerself? And who's this stinky fellah? Doesn't smell like food. And ya've got yerself some strange peepers, eh?"

Bella stepped out from around Levi as if she would defend him. "He is not a man like other men," she said. "And I don't follow your diet, Nomad."

"Then you shouldn't mind if I hunt here!" With a laugh, the nomad took off, leaping over Bella and Levi.

Bella took off after the red-eyed bloodsucker and Levi spent a whole second frozen in terror for her before his instincts grabbed his body and phased him right out of his movie-theater clothes. He howled and launched himself in pursuit.

The nomad had caught the hours-old trail of some hikers and was following it. Levi knew these paths and the scents that had traveled them. The hikers were friends of Josh's from back when they were in high school! Fury and the bone-deep need to protect the people gave further speed to his limbs as he pounded the forest floor in speeds unknown to humans. Bella's scent kept him centered; the nomad's had him seeing red.

"Hey!" Bella's guttural protest hit Levi as might a punch to his ribs. It was followed by a series of sounds that Levi had a vague memory regarding: the sound of boulders falling upon each other in an avalanche. It was a sound the Cullen males had made, almost thirty years ago. "You will not!" his wife – for so he thought of her and always would – shouted. The reverberations of her growl reached him and he snarled more loudly.

The nomad had one hand tangled in Bella's hair – she had it down and was dressed for a night on the town – so that he could twist her around. No! Bella! Leave her alone, bastard! Levi thought, but of course he couldn't really yell the words. He had to present his demands more plainly but he could not put his beloved in danger.

The nomad laughed. "Well isn't this the funniest thing, toots? Ya got a bodyguard, do ya? Never smelled somethin' like that – wait." His thirsty eyes widened before he laughed. "This is the fella that was with ya, eh? Crazy!"

The laughter was all that was needed for the dynamics of the situation to shift. Levi tore a furrow in the earth as he sped to the nomad's back and nipped at his head. Bella took advantage of the split-second of time when the nomad's fingers weren't gripping her hair to spin and move away. Relief and the need to release his vengeance were freed as Levi jumped on the nomad and, using teeth and the powerful muscles of his jaw and neck, ripped the intruder's head off his shoulders.

Levi didn't phase back to his human skin until Bella had run back to the cabin and returned with a change of clothes and a new Zippo lighter. When the nomad had been set on fire – with his head going into the flames last because Levi was feeling vindictive – Levi relaxed enough to phase and take his Bella into his arms.

"Are you all right?" He buried his nose in her hair, snorting he caught a whiff of the other vampire's lingering scent. With his own skin and breath, he sought to cover over those smells.

"I'm fine," she assured him, squeezing him tightly. "Nothing lost, broken or damaged. My head hurt a bit, but I'm made out of pretty stern stuff, you know?"

"Still," he said, putting her a bit away from him, "I think we should practice fighting together. Since we're on patrol together, we should have a strategy."

He could see the flaring of stubborn independence in her eyes and braced himself for one of her – rare, but not unheard of – diatribes on how she was older than he was and had managed for decades just fine, thank you very much. Her lips thinned and her brow furrowed but she didn't whisk herself out of his arms and that was just fine with him.

"Okay. You're right. I need to learn how to fight with you."

Levi blinked in surprise. "Well then, why don't we work on that tonight and we can go to the movies tomorrow?"

Bella drew her lower lip briefly between her teeth and made a big show of eyeing him up and down. "Before or after we get you dressed again? Gotta tell you, sweetheart, I am really glad you don't have skin issues anymore."

He wrapped her up definitively in his arms once more. "Well aren't you kinda like my wife?"

"For all intents and purposes," she returned, using their usual phrase when they discussed the situation. "Two years."

"And they said it wouldn't last..."

He phased and ran back through the woods to their cabin while Bella took the motorcycle. In order to keep things quiet, she set the cycle in neutral and pushed it, running carefully. This kept their speed less than it otherwise was, but Levi didn't worry about it. If they were seen, well...

They'd been seen before.

. . .

"Nuh-uh! You're just, like, drunk, man. I can smell it from here. You got into your dad's liquor cabinet again."

White kids hiking. Boys who were too young to be drinking legally, Levi figured, but were sauced anyway. At least they weren't driving but had camped for the night.

"Am not. I saw 'em, I tell ya." The storyteller leaned in toward the campfire, his short blond hair a thatched mess over his head as he looked blearily in earnest at his two buddies. "They were runnin' together, jus' through the trees. She had long hair and had real white skin. Like a ghost! And she was followed by this huge wolf. I mean, it was a huge monster."

"You fream!" the most sober of the trio snapped, telling the blond kid that he was acting like a loser. "You're just makin' this up to practice for tellin' Kelly."

"I ain't a shuckster! I'm tellin' ya straight. See, she was running, and boy, she was stacked, y'know? I could see her silhouette and...wow. So she's running and the wolf is following her and I almost called out to her to be careful, because, you know, man! She slowed down, right? And the wolf came up beside her and she pet his fur! Right there! This wolf was as big as a horse!"

"The Indians have legends," the heretofore silent young man of the trio said, tossing a stick into the flames. "Maybe you saw one of 'em, Stu."

"You nerd!"

Levi chuffed in a curious combination of disbelieving amusement and concern before padding off to continue his patrol.

. . .

The rumors had started, but neither of them could figure out a way to make them stop without leaving the area – something neither wished to do. With as many vampires as they had seen in the past eighteen years, neither of them wished to leave the humans unprotected.

Still in his wolf form, he inhaled deeply as he reached the home he shared with his Bella. Ephraim? Here?

Since Theresa's death last year, and "Old" Quil's subsequent decline, Levi regarded surprise visits from his old friends with as much trepidation as pleasure. Ephraim's scent went inside, as did Bella's, and Levi barked softly outside the door.

"Just the Chief," Bella answered. "Come on in. The man is grinning from ear to ear so I'm guessing it's good news."

Since he'd lost his clothes when he'd phased earlier, Levi was oddly a little relieved when Bella popped out the door, a pair of trousers in her hand. "Here you go," she said with a broad grin.

He phased and let her get a smiling eyeful before he tugged the trousers up his legs and followed her inside.

"Eph!"

"Levi!"

They embraced briefly, pounding one another on the back. Levi heard his old friend "oof" a little and remembered to be much more gentle. "What's the word?"

"I'm a grandpa!" Ephraim blurted, his dark eyes all but disappearing as he grinned. "Tom and Irene had a son! His name's William, but we're calling him Billy."

Bella clapped her hands together once. It sounded like rocks slapping one another. "Congratulations! Is Annie enjoying being a grandmother?"

Ephraim sat on the hearth, drawing his knees up as if he were a teenager again. "Yeah. She's loving it. She's sewn a bunch of clothes. Tom is crowing, Irene is glowing..."

"And you've turned into a poet in your old age," Levi finished with a smile as he pulled a chair up. It scraped against the floor, the sound joined by another scraping as Bella pulled up a recently-painted blue chair. "Well, I'm happy for you all, Eph. How's everyone else?"

Levi tried to make the question casual, but it wasn't, not entirely. One of the things he had planned on doing in Port Angeles that evening had been to call his son. Lately, Josh had been giving him the serious silent treatment, going so far as to hang up the phone when he heard it was his father on the other end. So, any news would be welcome, in Levi's estimation.

Chief Black sighed mightily and rose to pace the limited floor of the cabin. From the hearth to the side of the bed and back, his strides were measured. "Have you...spoken to your son, lately?"

An icy dagger swept effortlessly through Levi's middle. "I've tried, Ephraim. But he won't talk to me." Bella reached for his hand, but he avoided her touch and thrust himself to his feet in agitation. He heard her quickly indrawn breath but – this one time – ignored it. He loved her but it was hard for him to take comfort from her when she was, in part, one of the reasons he had left his son. Two years ago, it had seemed reasonable; Josh was an adult, he had a girl he loved, a job, a house given to him since he, Levi, wouldn't be needing it anymore. Two years ago, it had seemed as if Joshua was not at all unhappy to gain his relative independence by having his father leave to go "search for the woman he'd left behind" years ago.

Flames sputtered as they encountered a damp strip of wood. Bella – who would always be a little leery around a blaze – started a bit in her chair. Two years ago, his first instinct would have been to go to her.

Just now, he hurt too much to bring comfort to anyone. "Is he," he paused, dreading the answer. "Is he all right?"

"Joshua? Oh, he's fine," Ephraim assured him with an extended hand. "He and Chrissy..." The Chief made a gesture with his hands and Levi snorted. Eph did likewise while Bella looked confused. "So, they're getting married."

Bella's voice was tentative when she whispered, "Is Chrissy pregnant, Ephraim?"

"She is, Bella."

Levi's mind was racing. Memories flooded his whole awareness. He didn't register Bella's approach, her face alight with subdued congratulations. He didn't see Ephraim catch her shoulder under his hand. He only saw Joshua...and Linda. Linda's strained face, pale underneath her darker skin tone. Joshua's wailing as if he sensed his mother was dying before he'd become acquainted with her from the outside. And then years of Josh... Laughing, crying, falling, running. When he had helped him learn to ride the bike Bella had bought for his birthday...when they'd skipped stones in the river...a baseball game...hikes in the woods... Josh's face when he had admitted, "I kissed Chrissy tonight, Dad."

And the laughter in his eyes as he had said, "Go on, Dad. I'll be okay. You said she'd be waiting for you? Really, have fun. I plan on it, anyway."

"Well," Levi managed after a few minutes, his voice hoarse. "I wish he'd talk to me."

"Levi –" Bella began, reaching out to him again.

But he had gone past feeling for anyone save himself, and though he acknowledged with a part of him that it was unfair, Levi let the change happen – he let the animal within him have full sway so that he exploded from the confines of his humanity, burst through the closed door and howled with heartache.

"Let him go," Ephraim advised as Levi shook himself. "He'll come back."

Levi didn't stay to hear what she said in response. He just had to run.

When he returned twenty hours later, Bella was waiting for him in front of the cabin, a new pair of pants draped over her shoulders. He knelt in front of her and she embraced his powerful neck. He rolled on the ground with her with her as he had at Cape Disappointment, so many years ago. I'm sorry for running off, he thought. Sorry if I worried you. I love you, my Bella. I do. I do.

What he did aloud was whine and rumble in his chest at her – a sound he knew she enjoyed. She buried her face in his fur and made the purring sound in her chest that she made when she was content. The jangling, painful feelings that tore about Levi's heart were temporarily soothed by this brief connection. Even if his trousers were really dirty afterward.

"I love you, Levi Uley," Bella whispered when he had finally ceased his rolling around. She sat astride his ribs as he lay belly up on the pine needles. He met her golden gaze, seeing the deep feelings she bore reflected there. "I wish I could be what you need, right now. But believe me, I love you."

With a low growl, he rolled to his side. She tumbled off of him while he phased back into his own skin. "Bella..."

She took his hand and led him inside. For a while, he let himself forget.

[+]1963[+]

"The Beverly Hillbillies are a riot," Levi remarked as they arrived in Port Angeles to go to the movies.

Bella scoffed as they maneuvered through the Friday night traffic. "They're funny, okay, but Judy Garland is sublime. And really, sweetheart, I think you'll like I Could Go On Singing. It's about...her seeing her son again."

Levi tensed before keying off the ignition with deliberate slowness. "Bella, we've talked about this."

"You've got a grandson now, remember?"

He closed his eyes as she pressed herself against his back on the motorcycle. "I remember." The ache in his chest was pervasive and he rubbed at his breastbone with the heel of his hand. "Y'know what, Bella? I'll call him right now, from the phone at the theater." The resolve twisted his gut, but he nodded at it anyway.

She stood, smoothing her jeans and adjusting her cashmere sweater before sliding her hair out of its ponytail and finger-combing it into submission. "Do you want me to get our tickets or wait for you nearby?" She bit her lip a moment and stared up into his face.

Wistfulness washed over him; kissing her – allowing himself to forget his ever-present melancholy – would have been welcome. "Stay nearby?" he asked, an edge to his request.

She nodded. "I'll wait in the lobby. Got it."

They walked, hand-in-hand, to the theater. He bought tickets and they went inside. She emptied her change purse into her hand and he thanked her with smile and caress on her cool cheek. "I'll try not to be too long."

He hardly fit inside the tiny confines of the phone booth, and sent a rueful, amused expression to Bella, whose eyes were trained on him from across the carpeted lobby. Questions, soft laughter, and an indiscreet embrace or two were all Levi took the time to note before he dialed the number to his son's phone and waited for the operator to tell him how much it would cost to talk. The coins slid into the black metal phone with a cold, hard sound that was discouraging.

"Hello?"

Levi's throat went tight in trepidation. "Josh?"

A pause, heavy with the weight of too many hang-ups, followed before, "Yes. It's me."

Relief sent tears to Levi's eyes in the impersonal, cramped space where he was finally reconnecting with his son. He sought out Bella's golden gaze, knowing she was intensely interested. She smiled tentatively at him and he nodded before closing his wet eyes and focusing entirely on his son.

"Good, good. I, uh, wanted to see how you were, Josh."

"You'd know if you ever came to visit."

An axe blade through his heart would not have hurt like that. "I've told you –"

A baby cried in the background and that lanced through Levi as well. He felt riddled with wounds. "You said you loved me. You told me that. Now, I didn't mind you leavin' to go find whatever her name is –"

"Isabella. Her name's Isabella."

"Isabella what?"

Levi took a deep breath. "Isabella Uley."

Joshua could curse a blue streak through the telephone wire. Levi didn't even wince, but was relieved Bella didn't hear him. Though she'd lived over eighty years, they figured, she was a lady and shouldn't have to hear this stuff. Finally, Josh called out, clearly to his wife, "Sorry, Chrissy. I'll finish up and get right back." Then, Levi heard his son mutter under his breath before murmuring, "Fine. Okay, fine," in a voice so quiet that Levi knew he shouldn't hear it, exactly.

"Son?"

"Look, Dad. I know you left to find the second love of your life or whatever and that's fine, but I think you should meet your grandson, you know? Bring your wife. She's my stepmom now, and it's only right."

"Huh?"

"Well, what? Were you lying to me? Did you run off to do something else, dad? Join the Foreign Legion? Run off to Mexico? What the hell is it that's more important than your grandson?"

"What's his name?"

A snort sounded clearly through their connection. "I'll introduce you and tell you his name if you come meet him. Otherwise, don't bother calling me. Ever. Again. Understand?"

"I'll be there," Levi whispered, mind racing. "I guess there are a couple things I need to tell you." Eph was going to lose it, but Levi could not lose his son.

They made arrangements to meet, with Levi only barely remembering to make it later rather than sooner because he was supposed to be "far away" in some nebulous place. He and Bella would have to work that out.

After replacing the receiver, he unfolded himself from the phone booth, seeking Bella. She moved at a fast human speed and reached first for his face, to cup his jaw in her cold hand. "Did he hurt you?" she whispered. He could smell the additional venom in her breath. She was more upset and angry that her face was displaying. Her fingers lightly brushed at the corner of his eye and he winced. "Yeah. Sweetheart, is there anything I can do?"

He caught her hand in his and pressed it briefly to his cheek before enveloping it in his own. "This is good. So, are we going to see the movie?"

"Sure you want to?"

He sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Right." They stood, people flowing around them, and the smell of Aqua Velva aftershave almost overpowering. Bella wrinkled her nose at the same time that he did and the two of them burst into laughter. "C'mon," he said, "forget the movie. Let's get out of here and take a walk."

He told her about what Josh had said, about the ultimatum issued, as they strolled casually in front of the closed shop fronts. "I need to go," he said. "But I can't bring you."

"Of course not." Her words were rapid. "We've worked so hard to keep him safe. And he's got a son, right? And with Chrissy as the mom, the bloodlines will be really strong. I can't go anywhere near them, but – but I wish I could go with you, you know. I want to."

"Hell, I didn't even think about it with Chrissy. Yeah." He pressed a kiss to the top of her head without breaking stride. Then, he slid a smile to her. "Any other sage words of wisdom? Seriously, now, because you're...older and wiser," he teased. Now that he had determined to go and Bella supported him, he felt better.

She snorted softly. "Yeah. Are you going to tell him about the wolves? He's twenty-one now, right?"

"I'm gonna have to, yeah."

"Then he'll know you live close by."

"Crap. Yeah." He clenched his free hand. "And he'll know you're close by and he'll want to meet you."

"And we can't let him. Want me to – to go away for a while?"

Pain and stark panic had him stumble under a streetlamp, right in front of the Five and Dime. "No! What the hell, Bella?"

"Okay, okay. I'll stay. But if I see him coming, I'm running."

He slid his palms up her arms, over the soft sweater to the cool silk of her skin. "All right."

"Go tonight? Since you know he's home and everything?"

He frowned and pulled both of them back to lean against the steel frame of the door to the dime store at his back. He didn't want to make a spectacle of them, so he just held her loosely against himself and scowled over the long row of shops opposite. The night was clouding up. "I could get there faster...you know..." he told the air above her head.

She chuckled. "I can be trusted with the bike, you know." With a light kiss he felt through his shirt, she said, "Go on. I'll see you back at the cabin later."

"What about the sublime Judy Garland?" he teased, moving them both away from the store and back to where he had parked the motorcycle. He tossed the keys up in an arc for Bella to catch.

"Not as interesting as Gregory Peck, of course." The keys rang a bit too loudly in her bare hand, but no one noticed.

They were in a well of lamplight, so he didn't crush her to himself as he wished. "I love you. Adore you. Wish you could come. I wish...sometimes..." That you were human. That we could be normal. That I could be human. That there were no vampires and no werewolves and we could just...be. And you would be a grandmother and play with the baby and...

She had been watching his face, seeing who knew what regrets stream behind his eyes. Her own eyes were filled with the tears her kind could not shed. "I wish, too."

After a quick kiss, he turned from her and headed for the nearest stretch of trees. Then he stripped down, rolled his clothes into as tidy a bundle as almost thirty years of practice had taught him, settled on the ground so that the clothes would remain attached to his leg, and phased.

Gonna go see my son. See my grandson. Wonder what he'll say? Will he need to see my phase to believe it? Will he think his old man's a loon?

Conflict and hope battled within his chest as he pounded through the forest on the fastest route to the Village.

It was too late when he remembered he should have called Ephraim first.

A/N: What will Josh say? Will the relationship be renewed or permanently severed? How will this affect the Bella/Levi dynamic…? Mark this story as an Alert or, as they said in the sixties, "Don't touch that dial!"