Yo ho! Avast me hearties! Another on-time update!

Thanks to firstmates GeekChic12ff and lynzylee for ensuring smooth sailing, especially while the captain is drowning in her grog.

idek why pirates. donut ask.

PS: Thank you to the lovely ladies (OICU SarahSmile26) pimping this story in ADF. Thankee doodle, sweet cheeks xoxo

Sleep was a fathomless black hole that I fell into as soon as my head hit the pillow. I fell deeply, and the dreams I had were disturbing and scary: hands grabbing at me, tongues licking at my skin where blood trickled from fresh wounds. Violent red irises looking at me, a lethal glint in their glare.

The dreams were strange, and between the delirium, I could hear snippets of voices and conversation that seemed outside of the dream.

We should just take her now.

This is fucking serious.

Her life may be in danger. Just like her father's was.

The last statement melted into a dream about my father. He was in his cop uniform, just like in the picture Aunt Tilly had given me. I was a child again, wearing a new dress and skipping along beside him. His large rough hand held mine.

Only it was cold.

Suddenly, he looked up, and there was a sense of urgency on his face when he looked back down at me. He picked me up and carried me for a short while, and I cuddled into his neck, knowing my dad would keep me safe. He was my hero after all.

The dream was so real.

My eyes opened abruptly, and I realized I was sitting up but not in my bed. I could hear the dull roar of an engine, and I knew I was in my GT, but in the backseat rather than the front. In front of my face was snowy white skin. I was pressed intimately against someone, their arms wrapped around me. I tried to move, but the arms stiffened around me.

I tilted my head back and looked into Edward's dark, dead eyes. I waited for an instinct to recoil back and move away from him, but it never came. A growing part of me didn't want to look away. He was a mystery that needed solving, a missing puzzle piece I wanted to run my fingers over.

His eyes looked into mine, and we held each other there for that moment I existed in his arms, on his lap. Just him, just me, and the hungry roar of the engine between us. I wasn't even sure if my heart was beating.

"Bells, are you awake?"

I tensed at the sound of Jake's voice. I looked away from Edward's eyes and tried to move away from him. His arms tightened again, and I looked back up at him, a flippant remark ready. It died in my throat as his eyes looked down at my lips. My tongue ran over them nervously. There was a further second of hesitation before he reluctantly let me loose. I moved to the seat next to him and realized I was tangled in a blanket, which usually rested on the back of my couch. I was still in my pajamas. My eyes met Jake's in the rear-view mirror; he was watching me intently.

I looked out the window, the flashing blur of pine trees and other forest fauna racing by.

"Where are we? What time is it?"

"It's about two in the afternoon, and we're about an hour away from Forks." Jake's voice was subdued as he spoke.

"Forks?! I have clients. I have people who were depending on me."

Becks turned from her place in the passenger seat to look at me.

"You called in sick."

"I WHAT?!"

Jake snickered. "You were so ill, you didn't sound like yourself."

"This isn't fucking funny! Turn this car the fuck around!"

"Are you kidding me? I never get to drive the GT."

"Jake, if we have a friendship you wish to keep, you will turn this car around and take me back to Seattle. Now."

Edward answered this time. "We cannot go back."

I ignored him and waited for Jake to answer. His eyes glanced at mine in the mirror and then back at the road.

"He's right. We can't go back."

"When did you guys become besties?"

"When we realized that we had a common enemy and a common goal."

"And that is?"

"To keep you safe and alive, Bells."

"Don't be so fucking melodramatic."

Becks turned around in the seat again. "Bells, your Aunt Tilly will make this so much clearer for you. You should have known by now."

"Why am I the only one in this car with a normal point of view?"

Jake answered me. "You're being a bitch, Bella."

If looks could kill, Jake would probably have crashed the car. I wrapped myself up in the blanket and refused to look at any of them. Sulking in the corner of the backseat, I returned to looking out the window. It was raining, and it looked like a last freak winter storm was gripping the weather as icy sleet spattered the windows angrily.

As hard as I tried, I couldn't stop thinking about the quiet presence on the other side of the backseat.

~FS~

The GT bounced over the uneven driveway, which had always seemed like it was made to deter visitors. Aunt Tilly's cabin was hidden in the woods, and the only way to reach it was a long, winding driveway. Every now and again she would hire someone to clear the overgrowth from the driveway and tend the yard outside. The cabin itself had been added to and refurbished a few times since Aunt Tilly had lived in it. She liked to joke that it used to be a one room shack, and she now lived in a mansion.

As the cabin came into view, the rockers which sat on the porch reminded me of sitting outside, a calm hand on my shoulder as the dregs of my withdrawal symptoms disappeared. I clenched my teeth, remembering the way it felt, as if my blood was running the wrong way in my veins, an itchy, horrible feeling that made me tense at the thought of it.

The large front door opened, and Aunt Tilly stood on the porch. Her silver hair was tied back, her face somehow still youthful, despite her age. She could have passed for my older sister rather than my father's aunt.

Jake braked and cut the engine. He got out of the car and pulled the seat forward to let Edward out. Becks did the same for me, and I left the blanket behind me as I stepped out into the misty morning air. Aunt Tilly studied us all, her eyes pausing on Edward and then shifting to my face. She nodded briefly, as if assuring herself that I was fine. Then her eyes fell back on Edward.

"Edward."

And his velvety voice answered back. "Mathilde."

An awkward silence followed until Aunt Tilly looked at us all as a group again.

"Well, y'all better come inside."

Thank you for reading.