A/N: At last, here is the hotly anticipated Jacob outtake. I am so excited to share it with you all, and can't wait to hear what you think. Everyone hates him right now. I totally demolished him in this story. Now, hopefully, you can understand where he's coming from. :)

Interlude: Jacob POV

"Am I speaking to Aaron Daniels?"

"You are."

"This is Jacob from Sunset Falls Collections." I rolled my eyes automatically as I recited the script. "Your payment is 120 days past due, Mr. Daniels. Now we can—"

"I know," he interrupted. "I meant to pay, I really did. But my wife passed away unexpectedly in a car accident…" A flash of my mom's accident struck me. Mr. Daniels made a muffled sound that sounded like a sob. "And with the funeral costs…" He didn't finish.

"Of course, Mr. Daniels. I'm sorry for your loss."

I shut my eyes and swallowed hard as Mr. Daniels sobbed on the other end of the line. My job was to demand payment by any means necessary. We often used garnishing their wages as a last resort. I didn't want that for Mr. Daniels, but I always did what I was told no matter the circumstances. I had a pretty big family to provide for, after all. I had to keep my emotions out of it. But it was so hard for me. I was a compassionate person, and I cared about other people. This man's situation struck a particular chord in me though. Mom was in a car accident when I was little, yes, but I was really young. I didn't remember a lot of what happened or what I felt about it anymore. But Dad died suddenly only a year or so ago. He never even got to know Billy. I never even got to say goodbye. I think my last word to him was probably something stupid like "Later!"

Sighing inwardly, I decided to do something that I would definitely get in trouble for. I had everything I needed at my disposal, and, damn it, I wanted to help this guy. I wasn't going to be the one to piss on this man when he's still drowning in grief. I knew what that felt like.

"Listen, Mr. Daniels. Here's what I can do for you. If you can make one month's payment today, I'll bring your account current with the credit bureau."

Mr. Daniels gasped. "You can do that?"

"Not normally, but you've experienced…special circumstances."

"Oh, thank you, Jacob!" I cringed. I hated when they said my name. "Thank you so much!"

I processed my payment before hanging up with to make sure it went through and gave him my best wishes. Flipping the switch to prevent any incoming calls, I worried that a supervisor may have listened in on that call. They did that sometimes without you knowing, and you could win rewards for doing well. Or get punished for doing poorly. I would be getting no rewards for this.

Mr. Daniels' misery had fed my own, and I typed my write-up of the call automatically as my mind wandered. If Edward and I had been more careful, I wouldn't even be here. I'd still be doing what I loved, working at the auto shop and raking in the cash. I mean, not totally. Edward's money was definitely also used, but we were way better off then than we are now. Now, Edward's money had dried up since it took a pretty long time for him to recover from having Billy. He just got more and more human each time and I would worry that he might not make it through another pregnancy. I should probably get the snip or something. I filed that thought away for another time.

My headset started beeping at I looked at my phone—it was the supervisor's line. Guess today was not going to be my lucky day. With resignation, I picked it up.

"Jacob," she said without even waiting for a greeting, "Come see me in my office immediately."

"Yes, Sonia."

It felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders as I made my way to her office, all eyes on me, of course. You only got called to Sonia's office for bad things. They knew I was in trouble.

Steeling myself, I knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Opening it, I found Sonia brusquely gesturing to the chair across from her desk, a deep frown accentuating the wrinkles on her leathery skin. Lady tanned too much back in the day. I sat down and frowned back at her.

"Mr. Black," she scolded, "would you mind telling me what you were thinking when you tampered with the Daniels account?"

"Tampered with" wasn't exactly what I would call it. "Didn't you listen to the call?" I did my best to keep the sarcasm at bay, but I'm pretty sure I failed judging from her narrowing eyes.

"Of course I did, that's why you're here."

"His wife died. He was a mess."

"Be that as it may, the bottom line is that this is a business. You don't get to be successful if you accept half-payments. These people are the ones who've defaulted. We're a business, trying to make a living."

Some fucked-up living. I kinda hoped she would fire me so I'd never have to come back here. I'm a fucking Alpha, bowing down to these idiots. There was nothing I could say to defend myself really. This company didn't care about the people they called incessantly, so why would they care about me? Most of my coworkers bragged when they got a crier on their line. I would never understand these people. Still, it didn't seem like there was a chance she wouldn't fire me, so I thought I'd better apologize.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't. And don't go telling people what you did. I don't want anyone getting any ideas. If it happens again, I will blame you, no matter who actually does the transfer. Now get out of here."

My break couldn't come fast enough. As soon as the clock turned, I switched off my headset and dug around for the beat up pack of cigarettes in my desk drawer. Not wanting to waste time waiting for the elevator, I took the stairs two at a time to get down to the ground floor. It was a beautiful, sunny day—hard to know in there seeing as I can't see the window over my cubicle wall.

Leaning against the brick wall of the building, I observed the Boston city street. There were bums across the way, scattered about, but only one was begging. He kept getting passed by. It was depressing, so I shut my eyes as I took a long drag. Big mistake, 'cause I just saw images of my dad's face on the backs of my eyelids. I never even got to say goodbye. He was just taken from me.

"Hey."

I jolted out of my thoughts and opened my eyes, nearly dropping the cigarette.

"Oh! Sorry to startle you!"

Marcy, the young blonde who worked a few cubes away from mine, stifled a laugh behind her hand. I guess she'd been working there for about three months now? I couldn't really remember. Sometimes we talked in the break room. Just small talk, nothing serious. She seemed nice.

"No, no, it's okay. I was just lost in thought."

"Not the safest thing to do in this part of Boston, having your eyes closed, daydreaming."

"I wasn't daydreaming."

Marcy shrugged and dug around in her purse until she found her cigarettes. She took a long drag as she lit it, taking the time to hold it in her lungs a little before blowing it out in a neat, continuous stream of smoke. She looked up at me with her wide, pretty blue eyes again and smiled.

"So. Rough day?"

"Yeah," I said, breaking eye contact.

"Well, spill it."

"Huh?"

"Something is wrong, and I want to know what."

This girl was bold. My skin bristled, but I was feeling too defeated to get too angry, so I told her about Mr. Daniels. I even went so far as to tell her I was feeling the same way at the moment about my dad, which was why I had wiped his account clean.

"Wow, that was so nice of you," Marcy said when I finished. "You could have gotten fired for that."

"Yeah, I guess." I shrugged. "Nice or stupid? I don't know."

She laughed. "Maybe both."

I couldn't help but smile with her. Glancing down at my phone, I saw it was time to go back inside. "Gotta go. Big Brother will know if I'm late, you know."

"Yup. Hey, do you use Facebook? I know you're on the office messenger, but if we used Facebook, we could complain about work together." She smiled conspiratorially.

Our office was cool about one thing. They didn't mind if we web surfed as long as the work was done and the calls were made. I often used Facebook to message Edward while I was working, when the stress of the day was getting to me and I needed to get things off my chest to feel better. But Edward was increasingly more distant; his bubble was often yellow…away. I knew he needed to care for the kids, but I needed him too. He always knew the right thing to say to make things better in the past. Not this time, though. There was no way he could understand what I was going through. He barely remembered his real parents, and Carlisle and Esme would never die. He barely had to worry about that. They would live long after he was dead. He could never truly know the pain of losing a parent who is dear to your life. It's not like I wished it on him, like he sometimes accused me of thinking. I wouldn't wish this emotional pain on anyone. I was jealous of him though.

Anyway, it seemed like he was ignoring me, because he was away from the computer a lot more than he used to be. Sure, I probably complained a lot, but he was the only person I had to talk to. Maybe Marcy could be that person, at least for the shitty work stuff. We exchanged last names and I went back to work, sending her a friend request when I got back to my desk.

Marcy became the one I started to lean on. Not only were we good work friends, but sometimes when Edward and I fought, I would tell her a little bit about it. She could always tell we'd been fighting anyway. I never told Edward about the incident with Sonia. I didn't want him to know how close I came to losing our only source of income. Then I would have to hear the Carlisle speech again. I am a man! Men provide for their families, they don't take handouts.

Maybe he wouldn't bring up Carlisle's money, but he would try to fix things some other way. It's what he always did. He could never just let me vent and get things off my chest; he always had to "find a solution to the problem."

And then whenever I would talk about my dad or my lost connection to the pack, he would just sit there and look at me, never saying anything much. I don't know if he didn't know what to say, or if I wouldn't want to hear what he had to say. Either way, I needed something from him, something he couldn't give me. He didn't know how to fix me. Even if he could still read my mind, it wouldn't help, because I didn't even know what I needed. It was a dead end.

Edward suggested I start seeing a therapist last night. I was super bummed out yesterday about Edward getting to spend so much time with the kids. I was sad that I barely got to see them except for an hour before bedtime. By the end of the day, I'm so emotionally drained that I don't even have the energy to play with them anymore. I was drowning in misery when he suggested it. How insensitive could he be, really? Anthony's visit made me miss my other kids more, made me realize I needed to make the most of the time we had. Edward and I had sex the night Anthony left. It was awesome, and I had felt great for a few days until I started missing Anthony and thinking on my recent treatment of Sarah and Billy.

I blew up at him when he said it. I think he kind of expected it, but hoped I might do it anyway. Fuck. No. He knows I hate psychs. Edward went for a hunt afterward and ever since he got back, he'd been freezing me out for the last few days, but I was giving as good as I got.

Marcy: Hey. You seem especially miserable today. Wanna talk about it?

Jacob: not really

Marcy: It's more than just work this time, isn't it?

Geez, was she a mind reader? I thought I was free of mind readers forever.

Jacob: ?

Marcy: Come on, just tell me. Maybe I can help.

Jacob: I doubt it.

Marcy: Try me.

I sighed, slumping back in my chair. As usual, Edward's IM bubble was dark. He was definitely ignoring me if the laptop was closed. I had told him I didn't need him, and I didn't. I didn't need him to dismiss my feelings and think that he was the almighty fixer of all ills!

But, I did need to tell someone about it. My hurt and anger was festering inside me. Maybe if I confided in Marcy, I would be better able to put my hurt feelings aside and make amends with Edward. I proceeded to tell her about our most recent fight about the therapist. That segued into how I'd lost my friend and my dad, and that he was the only one left. But he didn't understand me.

Jacob: I just can't deal with him anymore. He doesn't understand me. Has no idea what I'm going through, and then tears me a new one when I'm sad.

Marcy: That's not cool, Jake. You shouldn't have to put up with that.

I shouldn't have to.

Marcy: Hun, let's go out on lunch break. Maybe I can help distract you from all of this.

My stomach growled loudly at the thought of food, and I saw that it was almost noon.

Jacob: Okay, babe. It's a date.

Lunch with Marcy was a real eye opener. After she asked a few more questions about my situation with Edward, she laid it on me.

"Jacob, you're not going to like this, but I think Edward is right." She placed her palms flat on the table and gave me a pointed look. "You should see someone with an outside perspective about this. Someone objective, not a friend."

"Are you fucking serious, Marcy?" I was both flabbergasted and angry that she thought I was crazy too.

"Dead serious. Look, the same thing happened to me when my mom got hit by a car."

My hand flew to my mouth. "That's horrible."

"Thanks, yeah. It was. I had to identify her body. Let's just say it wasn't in tip-top shape." She took a deep breath before going on. "Anyway, I internalized and obsessed over it. Grief consumed me and affected everything I did, including how I treated others. Or didn't treat them, as the case may be. I was powerless in the face of grief. How I treated those around me didn't even compute with me. My sadness was everything—there was no room for anyone or anything.

"My sister made me talk to someone. And it helped. Look at me now, caring about what happens to someone else. I wouldn't have been this way if I'd met you six months ago. I wouldn't have even noticed you."

That really hit home because I knew what she meant. I definitely hadn't been the one to notice her existence first. She fished a wallet out of her purse and opened it, taking out a card and handing it to me. It was just a regular old business card. It read:

Marcia S. Romero, PHD

Psychiatrist

"Are you serious? Marcy and Marcia?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I know."

I looked down at the card again, rubbing my thumb over the risen typeset of her name. "She really helped you, huh?"

"She really did."

"Thank you," I said, slipping the card into my back pocket.

As I walked home from the subway, part of me was excited to tell Edward that I was going to see a therapist like he'd asked me to. But another part was nervous—a nagging feeling—because what if I was too late? What if agreeing to see someone wouldn't be good enough anymore?

I approached the driveway and noticed the car was missing. That was odd because Edward hated driving in rush hour traffic, especially with both kids in the car. He avoided running errands alone with them like the plague. Whatever it was that made him go out must have been important. Maybe this was the reason he wasn't online at all today.

Worry spread from the pit of my stomach. Maybe one of the kids was hurt or sick. I rushed to the front door and unlocked it. Sure enough, the place was empty. Picking up my cell phone, I dialed Edward.

Ring...ring…

Duran Duran's Hungry like the Wolf began to play loudly. I followed the sound and saw Edward's phone on the table next to the laptop. Shit, he left his phone.

Holy fucking shit. He left his phone. What was going on? I was starting to panic, and even though I knew no one was here, I decided to check the other rooms. On my way to our bedroom, I stopped dead in my tracks. Oh shit, what if they'd been killed. Someone broke in and murdered them and stole the car. Fuck.

I hurried to the door and took a deep breath, steeling myself to open it and face whatever was on the other side. Relief flooded me when I saw nothing. Absolutely nothing. No Edward lying lifeless on the floor. It was an empty room, but the dresser drawer had been left partly open. I walked over to it and squatted down to peer in. A large chunk of Edward's clothes were gone. Opening the underwear drawer, I saw the same to be true. My skin bristled with my anger as I stood with a jolt and stormed into Sarah's room. Her favorite pillow was gone, along with a bunch of toys.

Edward left me. I was too late.

All of my anger died away, replaced by a pain in my heart I couldn't describe. There were no words I knew for it. It felt like a stake was being driven through my chest, piercing my heart. Just like old vampire movies, how ironic.

The kids. He took my kids too.

His kids. They would probably prefer to be with him, really. Especially after the way I'd been ignoring them. Bitter tears fell as I cried. The house felt so foreign to me, silent as it was. Hollow.

Where could he have gone? Immediately, my mind went to Carlisle's house in the Berkshires. That was definitely it. He holed up there. And I couldn't even go to him because he took the car. The forests were too spread out to run there as my wolf. I would have to phase back a lot, and clothes would become an issue quickly. Also, it was almost time for rent to be due, so I didn't have the slack to buy a bus ticket. But Edward knew all that. He left me with no option to follow him on purpose. He was done with me, but I wasn't going to accept that. I needed to at least apologize for behaving so appallingly and tell him I was wrong. I didn't have a shred of confidence that he would take me back, but I had to try.

I picked up the phone and dialed the Berkshire house. I paced a little as I waited for someone to answer, and it was picked up on the second ring.

"Hello?"

I couldn't contain the barrage of words that flew out of my mouth when he answered. "Edward! What the fuck? Why did you leave? You didn't even take your phone! How could you take the kids away from me!"

There was a pause and then he spoke, his voice firm and steady. "You're bad for them right now. Your moods are too erratic." He sounded so cold, so icy.

"Fuck, Edward, I'm a mess right now, don't you know that? How can you do this to me?"

"Who the fuck is Marcy, Jacob," he snapped. I'd never heard his voice like that before.

How did he know about Marcy? "What?"

"You heard me."

I opened the laptop and pressed a key to wake it up. Sure enough, Marcy's Facebook profile was pulled up and the chat session from this morning was open. The one where I called the lunch a date. Fuck!

"Shit, Edward. It's not what you think. I—"

Edward didn't let me explain. He just hung up on me. Holy shit, what was I going to do? He wasn't going to listen to me over the phone, no matter how many times I might try. After holding out for about twenty minutes, just pacing the length of the apartment, the urge to prove myself innocent to Edward compelled me to try calling again.

As predicted, the phone rang until the answering machine picked up. The Cullens were so weird about things. They didn't always update or replace appliances and electronics. If it worked, they still used it. They still held on to an 8-track player that was often put to use. But honestly, who still had a house phone, let alone an answering machine?

Knowing my message would be heard by anyone who might be standing nearby the device, I hoped that none of the others were there. They usually told us when they were in the state, so it was probably just Edward and the kids.

"You've reached the Cullens. Please leave a message."

When the machine beeped, I couldn't hold back my desperation for Edward to hear me out, and my voice was strained with the effort it took not to cry.

"Edward? Edward! I know you're there, please pick up! Edward, you have to let me explain! Please, please call me." A sob escaped before I could stop it. "Oh, Edward." Tears stung my eyes. "Fuck."

After ending the call, I just stared at the phone in my hand. I had to go to him. I had to think of some way.

A/N: So, what do you think? I await your comments with bated breath! Next week, we'll hear some advice from Alice and Esme.