AN: hey guys, sorry for the long wait but Im in the middle of a move back to NY so things are a little hectic. I'll try to get back to my usual once a week schedule.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer inplied

Paul's POV

I was relaxing in my favorite spot on the beach, trying to let of the shittiness of my day when I heard someone ranting from further down the beach. From the sound of the voice it was a woman, and whoever she was man was she pissed. Somehow, that made me feel a little better. It was only noon and already someone else was having a worse day than I was.

"That stubborn, egotistical, sexist, son of a bitch," the voice complained. I smirked to myself in response; yup someone was definitely having a worse day. I could sense the person's approach, not to mention I could hear the continued mumbling about some asshole and turned to see just who it was that was encroaching on my solitude.

I was met with suspiciously shiny deep brown eyes that I recognized.

"Well that's perfect, I come to find a little peace and instead I get everyone's favorite asshole," Bella said sarcastically. I cocked up his eyebrow in response.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" I asked noticing her tense stance and the obviously tear tracks on her cheeks. Great; just what I wanted to do today, deal with a crying leech lover.

"Nothing that you would care about," She responded bitingly.

"Whatever," I replied before turning back to the water. I wasn't in the mood to deal with attitude and if she wanted to be a bitch for no reason then it wasn't my issue. After all I had come here to get some peace and I wasn't going to let her ruin the one place I could relax.

I could hear her struggle to climb up to my position on the rocks and smirked slightly, thank god for werewolf strength and speed. I glanced over just in time to see her start to slip, and my instincts took over. My hands shot out as I caught her wrists. Her eyes were shut tight as though she were bracing herself for impact, and I snorted in response. She opened her eyes slowly and realizing that I had caught her smiled up at me. I was stunned for a second, damn she has a nice smile I thought. Before I forcefully pushed that thought away. What the fuck was I doing thinking something like that about Bella Swan.

"You really are the clumsiest person ever, you know that?" I told her with my signature smirk.

"Yea I've heard that once or twice" she responded calmly as I helped to pull her up and I couldn't help but laugh. We both sat there in silence for a while and I was finally back to my completely relaxed state when I heard her start laughing. Her laugh reminded me of bells. Again I forced away any pleasant thoughts about her. What the fuck was wrong with my head today, I asked myself. She continued laughing and my curiosity got the better of me.

"What's so funny?" I asked my voice lacking its usual biting tone.

"Just realized that being around you might actually be good for my temper" she said. I snorted in response, finding that highly unlikely. Most people couldn't stand the sight of me and I was pretty sure there wasn't a single person around who genuinely enjoyed my presence. She merely cracked one eye open in response before smiling at me again and closing her eyes.

"Seriously I was furious when I first got here," She told me, "Now… well let's just say I'm feeling better."

To say that I was shocked was an understatement. But somehow it felt nice to think that I made her feel better. "What had you so pissed in the first place?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Your asshole of a brother," she responded. And I snorted once again, certainly wasn't expecting that. Jake practically worshiped the girl, and acted like a fucking whipped puppy whenever she was around. I couldn't imagine him actually being an asshole to her.

"Well are you going to explain that statement?" I asked interested. I had to know what the fuck he did to piss her off if I'm going to torture him with it later I told myself.

"Why do you care so much?" she responded.

"I don't" I told her honestly, "but if I know the story then I can torture lover boy with it later," I smirked.

She laughed lightly, "He would deserve it after this morning." I raised my eyebrow not expecting the response.

"I wish I could do that," she stated and I paused looking at her blankly waiting for her to explain. Seeing my clearly confused expression she elaborated, "Raise only one eyebrow like that."

"It's a gift." I told her smiling my most charming smile at her. Her heartbeat accelerated slightly and I could smell the slight change in her scent. My smile grew wider at the realization. I knew no one could resist my smile. We sat in silence for a while longer before I realized that she still hadn't explained what had her so angry. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened earlier?" I asked again.

"We were over at Sam and Emily's with a few of the other guys helping look over plans for a new addition to the house. Everyone was perfectly fine with Emily and I being there and using our ideas for the addition but when it came to the actual building Emily and I were dismissed to the kitchen." Her voice had grown steadily louder and angrier as the conversation continued. I didn't understand why that would piss her off. I mean who wants to do manual labor.

"Emily argued about wanting to help for a minute before Sam all but demanded that she not step foot in the backyard till the construction was complete. You weren't there, so you haven't heard but Emily is pregnant so I guess I can see where Sam is coming from." My jaw dropped in surprise. So Emily was having a pup huh? No wonder Sam has been less of a dick lately.

"So Emily goes prancing off to the kitchen to make snacks for the guys like the good little woman and when I didn't follow her Jacob asked what I was doing. When I said I wanted to stay and help the ass burst out laughing telling me to just wait with Emily." I shook my head already guessing how the story would end. Man Jake really was an idiot, I thought. Most people would know that laughing in a girl's face when she's being serious is a bad idea.

"When I attempted to explain that I really wanted to help, he laughed in my face again before kissing my forehead and telling me to head inside. It was so patronizing I wanted to scream especially considering I had given them a bunch of ideas to make the project easier." I raised my eyebrow again surprised that she knew anything about construction. She noticed my expression and snorted in response.

"My mom is like a 5 year old." Bella said her voice taking on a strange tone "I love her, I really do," she insisted, "but let's just say she's not exactly mom of the year material. Anyway, she used to get all these crazy ideas about renovating our house, or building something and it always fell to me to figure out a safe way to make things happen, then she would get bored halfway through and I got stuck doing the rest of the work. Besides, it's not like I was begging them to hand me a power tool. I just wanted to help and Jake was treating me like I was a misbehaving child."

"Okay so long story short Jake is a patronizing ass, and you're sitting here whining over it. If you're so furious go do something about it instead of sitting here crying," I told her harshly.

She smiled, not a normal reaction to me being a dick. "I wasn't crying." I looked at her in disbelief having clearly seen the tears. "My tear ducts are hardwired to my anger. Whenever I get really pissed, my eyes immediately tear up, but it's not the same as really crying." She explained. "Oh and I'm not whining you asked a question, I'm explaining. If you didn't want to hear it then you shouldn't have asked. I was perfectly content sitting in silence, and trust me I did something about it, this is me letting off the excess steam."

We were silent for a few minutes when I decided I wanted to know the rest of the story.

"Okay so what else happened?" She smirked up at me, "The short version please." I asked impatiently.

"Not much, I just thought Jake was different. I hate, and I mean hate having someone make my choices for me, especially after what happened with the Cullens. I thought Jake was different and when I told him he was acting just like Edward used to, well he didn't take it well."

I nodded my head in understanding. I knew Jake was head over heels for this girl, so I could just imagine what being compared to her ex would do to him, never mind the fact that her ex was his mortal enemy.

"Do you know Jake won't even say the Cullen's name around me?" Bella asked and I shook my head, knowing she didn't really need a response. "It's like he thinks if I hear Edward's name I'll somehow fall apart again. Meanwhile he doesn't even know the reason I fell apart in the first place." Bella's voice had grown progressively angry as she ranted and I just sat in silence.

"They all act like if they mention the wrong thing I'm going to suddenly fall apart and it makes me want to scream." She said, her voice suddenly sad.

"Like you might be over it, if they were" I said softly looking towards the horizon. I could understand that. Better than most in fact. Bella was staring a hole through the side of my head but I refused to meet her gaze. I was already berating myself for saying that out loud, but there was something about what she said struck a little too close to home.

"Exactly," she said quietly and suddenly I could hear real pain in her voice. "They're all waiting for you to get over it and act normal again; but how the fuck do you act normal when no one treats you like your normal." I just nodded my head refusing to open mouth and risk sharing something else I wasn't ready to. I didn't share my feelings, hell half the time I didn't acknowledge I had feelings, and I wasn't about to start now. And yet there was something different about Bella. There was a quality that you heard in her voice and sometimes saw in her eyes and I recognized it. It was the look someone gets when they've suffered. When they had a harder life then you might expect, when they've lived through something they shouldn't have had too but they survived it nonetheless. Without really thinking about it, I reached over and put my arm around her shoulders silently letting her know that I understood. She tensed for a second at the contact before sliding closer and leaning into me. I didn't say anything reassuring or comforting but I'm pretty sure she was comforted anyway, and strangely that made me happy. It was silent for a long time after that.

"You know, the fact that none of the other guys would say anything to Jake pissed me off too." Bella said humor in her voice now. "I mean from the looks they were giving me it seemed like they might have actually agreed that I should be allowed to help but no one said anything."

"Makes sense," I said and Bella gave me a sharp look. "It was a fight between a guy and his girl, the other guys aren't going to put themselves in the middle of that shit, especially against a brother."

She sighed. "I guess that's true, but still a little backup would have been nice."

"The only one who would have backed you is probably me, and that would have just been to piss off Jake, so it doesn't really count." I told her with a smirk.

"Why is it you like pissing Jake off so much?" she asked me smiling.

"You mean besides the fact that I'm an asshole?" I responded laughing. She just shook her head and laughed as well.

Bella's POV

Paul and I sat on the rocks watching the water. We hadn't spoken again but the silence had been comfortable. I sighed heavily hating that I had to ruin the peace of the moment but knowing that I really needed to get home to feed Charlie.

"I had better get going," I said softly. "I still have to go grocery shopping for dinner tonight, if I don't my dad will order pizza again and there's only so much pizza a girl can take.

"Yea, I should head back too" He agreed, "Come on I'll walk you back to Emily's"

"Thanks," I told him as I started to climb down. It was more challenging then it looked, at least for us mere mortals and Paul got a good laugh watching me struggle. I stuck my tongue out at him in response.

"Put that away, unless you're prepared to use it." He said with a grin I was beginning to realize was his trademark. I felt the heat flood my face, which only made him laugh harder.

"Jerk," as I continued my climb down.

"Let me help you. God knows I'll never hear the end of it, if I let you kill yourself on a rock." I stuck my tongue out at him again. "Hey what did I say about that tongue."

I just laughed as we carefully made our way off the rocks. "You really don't have to walk me, you know. I'll be fine on my own."

Paul snorted and I rolled my eyes at him, an action that was becoming common place. "Yea right, with your luck you'll be abducted by aliens or something."

"Well gee thanks for your concern," I replied sarcastically. Paul just laughed shaking his head.

"Whatever princess," He replied with a grin I was too familiar with. I growled in frustration, and Paul immediately whipped his head around with a strange look on his face. "Don't do that." He said suddenly serious.

"Do what," I asked completely confused. Before he could respond, Jacob's angry voice rang out around us.

"Where the hell have you been?" Jacob asked his voice dark and angry.

"Well considering I was banished from the backyard." I said sarcastically, "I took a walk or is that too dangerous for me now too."

"Look Bella, I'm sorry I made you mad, but we are going to be doing serious construction out here and it's dangerous." Jake said and his voice was back to patronizing. God I hate that tone.

"I'm aware of that," I told him, "I have done construction before you know. I'm not completely helpless."

"I didn't say you were helpless, but it's still my job to protect you." Jacob insisted. Fuck if I wasn't sick of being protected.

"Did I ask for your protection?" I demanded, "I don't think I did, maybe you should remember that."

"Fine," Jake yelled, "Next time I'll be sure to stand back and let you knock yourself out."

"Good," I spat back, "I'd rather that then you telling me what to do." I turned and stormed back inside to grab my keys and bag and head home. My hands were shaking I was so angry and I knew it would be a while before I calmed down.

As I was walking back outside, I heard Jake and Paul arguing. I hurried back outside just in time to see both of them lunge at each other. They both phased in the air and the vicious sounds of growling and jaws snapping filled the air. I went to run out to try and stop them but was stopped before I got close.

I looked up and saw that it was Sam who stopped me. "Get her inside, while I go try to keep them from killing each other," he said to the rest of the pack before he took off towards the tree line.

I turned to the remainder of the pack, "Someone had better tell me what the fuck happened right now!" I demanded storming inside.