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Chapter 10-Jacob's POV

Looking at Bella, I realized how comfortable and happy she was laughing and joking with everyone. I was amazed at the difference between the Bella from nine months ago and the Bella now. Even the Bella now was different from the Bella from last week. She was more easygoing and not so stressed out. I supposed that hanging with a bunch of bloodsuckers would stress me out too.

After dinner, she helped Rachel with the dishes. I watched for her out of the corner of my eye while trying to look like I was paying attention to whatever it was that Billy and Charlie were watching. She and Rachel were getting along really well, I thought, as I heard Bella's laughter peal from the kitchen. The sound of it made me get mushy.

Love was turning me into a girl.

"Hey, Bells, we need to get a move on," Charlie said, standing up. "I have to be at the station early."

"Yeah, and I work the day shift at Newton's tomorrow," she said, looking apologetically at me. Shit. I had forgotten that she worked. I was going to have to be apart from her. I didn't like it. From the look on her face, she didn't much like the idea either.

"Let me go grab my fishing stuff. I'll meet you out at the cruiser," Charlie said, then turned to my Dad and sister to say good night. I walked Bella out to the car while Charlie went to the boat where he had left his stuff. I turned her to face me, brushing a strand of that brown hair out of her eyes and tucking it behind her ear.

"I'll miss you," she said, wrapping her arms around my middle.

"I know," I said, sounding cocky. She made a mad sound and poked my stomach. I leaned in to kiss her.

"Ahem," I heard behind us. Turning, I saw Charlie stepping up to the trunk.

"Call me once you're out of work tomorrow?"

"Of course," she replied, standing on her tiptoes to offer a final, chaste kiss on my lips. "I love you."

"Love you, Bells," I answered, opening the cruiser door for her.

"Good night, Jacob," Charlie said to me over the roof of the car.

"Night Charlie. Thanks for bringing her over." He nodded at me, got in the car, and started it up. I waved at Bella as they pulled out of the driveway.

"Man, it sucks to be you," Paul said behind me. I turned.

"Why?"

"Having to watch her leave. I get to stay with my girl." I figured he was thinking of their escapades, and I was thankful we were in our human forms so I wouldn't have to hear it.

"It will happen eventually. Charlie's just…protective."

"Right. And you've got a nasty case of blue balls." He was right. I did. But I flicked my middle finger up at him.

"Thanks for your concern over my nuts, Paul. You're a good friend." He laughed and headed back inside. I considered going inside but instead I sat on the rain-soaked front porch. The rain had stopped, and there was a small break in the clouds. I could see hundreds of stars. Gazing up, I thanked each one of those stars for Bella.

The next morning, I felt ninety-five percent better. Dr. Cullen came by in the morning and checked me over but he made me promise not to phase today. He said that I should be all healed by tomorrow and I could phase then. I was anxious to be back in my comfort zone, doing what needed to be done. The days were incredibly long and boring without being able to phase.

I lounged on the couch watching shitty daytime television, watching the clock slowly tick closer to five o'clock. At five fifteen, the phone rang. I dove for it. Billy, who had been sitting closest to the phone, raised his eyebrows but didn't say anything.

"Hello?" I answered.

"Hi, Jacob." My body relaxed as soon as I heard her speak my name.

"Bella. How was your day?"

"Long. How about yours?"

"About the same."

"So, I'm going to fix Charlie some dinner, and then I'll head up there. Have you eaten yet?"

"No," I replied. Well, I hadn't eaten in the past hour…

"I'll bring the leftovers for you and Billy. I should be there around six thirty." Another hour? Ugh. This was taking forever.

"No problem. I'll see you when you get here."

"Okay. I love you, Jacob."

"I love you too, Bells. Bye." I hung up the phone with a goofy grin on my face. Billy snorted. "Ugh. Don't say anything." He burst out laughing.

"Yep. You've got it bad, son." I stood up and headed for the bathroom so I could shower. It had been a couple of days, between the casts and not being able to stand without help. I turned the water on, stripped off my sweatpants, and stepped under the spray of water.

Standing there, I couldn't help but wonder what it would be like with Bella standing in the shower with me where I could wash her body. Not a great way to get rid of the blue balls. I turned off the hot water, stood under the freezing spray, and told myself to behave.

Drying my body off, I put on a clean pair of cut-offs and headed back out to the living room. I was happy that I wasn't limping any more. It really sucked to be incapacitated. But by tomorrow, I'd be back to normal. Well, normal for a werewolf.

The phone rang again. My dad looked at me.

"Are you going to dive over me to answer that, or should I get it?"

"Shut up, Dad," I said. He laughed as I picked up the phone.

"Jake? It's Sam. Is Bella coming over tonight?"

"Yeah, she should be here any minute," I said, looking at the clock.

"Can you guys come over to Emily's when she gets there?"

"Sure. Is everything okay?"

"I think so. We'll see you when you get here." He hung up the phone, and I shook my head.

"Everything okay?" Dad asked.

"I guess," I said. Sitting down in the recliner, I watched a couple of minutes of Malcolm in the Middle with Dad.

I heard Bella's truck coming up the road and hopped out of the recliner. The noise from the engine was deafening until she turned the key. I jumped over the porch railing to get to her. I opened the door, pulled her out and into my arms. She melted around me and searched for my mouth, which I willingly gave to her. I had missed her while she was gone, and it was obvious that she missed me too.

"Hey honey," I said, breaking my mouth away from hers.

"Hi," she returned, breathless. I reached around her to grab the two plates she had wrapped in tinfoil, and then headed to the house. Handing my father one of the plates, I dug into the lasagna she had made.

"Sam called," I said.

"He did?" she asked, settling next to me at the table.

"Yeah. He and Emily want us to come over."

"Everything okay?"

"I think so. Let me just finish this, and we'll head over."

"All right."

"So, how was your day?" I asked, wanting to know everything she did while she was away from me. She went on to tell me about some of the sales she did, and how she was still having a hard time with the Newton kid hitting on her. I might have to go and knock some sense into him.

"You will not go knock sense into him," she admonished. I furrowed my brow. Had I said that out loud? She smiled.

"You looked like you were going to pulverize your milk glass. Chill, Jacob. You know you're the one I love." She squeezed my hand. I drained the last of my milk, then she took my dishes to the sink and washed them.

"Ready to head over?" I asked. She nodded and we decided to walk the mile to Emily's house. Once there, I knocked on the door and walked in.

"Hello, Jacob, Bella," Emily said, standing up to welcome us. Sam stood up as well and came over to clasp me on the shoulder and waved to Bella.

"Come on in, guys," Sam said. We followed them into the living room, where they sat on the couch and we sat on the loveseat.

"Is everything all right?" Bella asked once we were all seated.

"That's the question I have for you two. Jake, when I was over there yesterday, I got the feeling that something happened." I glanced at Bella. A smile came over her face.

"Yeah, something did happen. I became the fifth brother to imprint," I said proudly. Emily gasped.

"Really? Congratulations, you two!" Emily said, standing up to hug both of us. Sam remained seated.

"Bella? Did you tell Edward?" Her face became indignant.

"If you're asking if Edward and I are through, Sam, then the answer is yes."

"How did he take it?"

"Why?" I was also wondering why my brother cared how the leech took the break-up. It didn't really matter to me, as long as it was done and Bella wasn't hurting.

"I'm just wondering how this will affect the vampire and wolf truce that we have, and if I need to re-establish the treaty." Bella's eyes widened.

"Edward acted fine. Upset, obviously. And his family is fine towards me, and also towards Jacob. You saw that Carlisle still treated Jacob with respect. You were there," she said a little defensively.

"Please understand that I'm not trying to discourage you and Jacob. I'm happy for the both of you. I just need to put the safety of my people first."

"I don't think that you have to worry about the Cullen family," she said.

"Good. Thank you." She nodded.

"So…" Emily said, trying to lighten the mood. "You guys imprinted. That's so strange. You've known each other all this time, seen each other so many times after Jacob's first phasing, but it took until now. I wonder why that is?" She looked towards Sam, who looked interested.

"We don't really understand why it is that we imprint. It could be to continue the species or it could just be to find the one who best understands us. The idea is that the first time you see your soul mate after you phase, you will be irrevocably drawn to them and they to you. However, I have a theory for the two of you. Bella has always been devoted to Edward. Bella, I know you aren't now," he said as Bella started to protest. "But my idea is that once she finally realized who he was and what was possible in a relationship with Jacob, her mind opened up and enabled her to become the right person for Jake."

"I don't care why it took so long or why it happened, all I care about is that it happened," I said, wrapping my arms around Bella. She smiled at me, but the smile seemed a little forced. Hmm.

"The pack needs to have the nightly meeting. Jacob, will you come?"

"I'm not allowed to phase yet."

"That's all right. We'll have everyone else phase back to their human forms so we can all talk."

"All right," I said, kissing Bella and then standing up to follow Sam. We walked to our common meeting place, and everyone walked out of the woods, pulling their clothes on. Everyone appeared to be glad to see me, save for Leah, who seemed embarrassed. Whatever. Sam called our meeting to order.

"First of all, I want to extend congratulations to Jacob, who became our fifth member to imprint."

"What?" the group exploded.

"When?"

"Guys, guys, calm down. Yeah, I imprinted two days ago. The night of the battle. It was amazing." I couldn't get the grin off my face.

"Who?" Leah asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Is Bella okay?" Seth asked.

"Well, I should hope that she's okay with it, seeing as it is her that I imprinted on," I said. I felt a bit smug, telling them, the ones who told me it'd never work between Bella and I.

"Wait, how'd that happen?" Embry asked. "You've seen Bella a shitload of times since you first phased."

"I have a theory that I have explained to Jacob, but we won't go into it now. We'll accept Bella into our family as our sister…"

"Whoa, I'm not loving anyone who is still loving on a bloodsucker, even if Jake was a complete ass and imprinted on her. Jake, don't you realize that she won't leave him?" I felt rage coursing through me and started shaking.

"She already has left him, Leah," I spat out.

"Right. So she says. But she'll go back. She always goes back."

"She won't!"

"Jacob, what do you have that would keep her? You are going to be spending the rest of your life here on the reservation. She's not like us. She won't be happy being here, not like Rachel, Kim, or…Emily," her voice shook a little when she spoke her cousin's name. My heart fell. What if she was right?

"Leah! Knock it off!" Seth said. I looked over at him, feeling relieved.

"Congrats, Jake," Quil offered. "It's a great feeling, isn't it?" I nodded at him, the stupid ass smile back on my face. However, I couldn't help but rethink Leah's words in my head, over and over. Sam and the rest of the pack were talking, but I couldn't focus on their words.

"…can start patrolling again tomorrow, right Jacob?" Sam said.

"What? Oh yeah. Doc Fang told me that after tonight I should be okay to phase back. He just wanted to make sure that everything was healed before I start turning."

"Good. Tomorrow night, Embry and Jake, you're covering the first shift, eleven to three. Quil, Jared, you're taking the three to seven." We all agreed, and then broke to head back to our homes. Sam and I walked back to Emily's place.

"Jacob," Sam said, interrupting my mind wanderings.

"Yeah?"

"Don't worry about Leah. She…she's just messed up. Over everything. Being a wolf, over me imprinting on Emily instead of her, of what happened that got you hurt. She just doesn't really understand how to react to everything. She doesn't mean anything by it."

"Sure, sure. I'm not worried about it," I lied. Sam looked skeptically at me. I wasn't a really good liar. We walked in silence up to the front door. I followed Sam inside and smiled when I saw Bella and Emily sitting at the table with two half-finished slices of chocolate cake. Emily stood up to cut both Sam and I large chunks of the cake, and we sat down with them. I kissed Bella's head as I walked by, and she smiled up at me.

"Miss me?" I asked, taking a big bite of the cake. She laughed.

"Desperately. I'll always miss you when you're gone," she promised.

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