I ended up going home that night, knowing I needed to get up and go to school the next day. Even though mine and Leah's earlier rendezvous with the great outdoors had wiped me out, I still couldn't fall asleep without the aid of my trusty Nyquil. Unfortunately, though Nyquil may bring sleep, it doesn't keep the nightmares away. I had several, and in each one, Jake was ripped away from me and replaced with a 'new' Jacob, short haired and shirtless, just Sam and the rest of the guys look, but he didn't know who I was anymore. I woke up several times screaming his name, and fell back asleep crying. The pain in my chest felt like someone was ripping me apart. It didn't help that the wolves outside were unusually active too. I heard them howling all night, and I know it was all in my head, but I swear they sounded as sad and lost as I felt.

Between getting no sleep, and the emotional seesaw I had been riding, I was a zombie all day. Which actually made my absence the day before that much more believable.

"Bella, seriously, are you ok?" I hated to not be honest with Angela, but I didn't really know how to explain it all.

Well, Jake nearly died Saturday night, and then this crazy cult from the rez came and dragged him off into the woods, I haven't heard anything since then, and I may or may not see him again.

That's how people get sent to the looney bin.

"I don't know, maybe it's the flu or something. Don't get too close." She looked at me like she didn't believe me, but let it go. She knew if it was bad enough to not tell her about, then no amount of guilting was going to get it out of me. My behavior in bio shocked me even more.

"Hello Isabella."

"Hey Edward."

I still didn't look at him, but when I realized I didn't even have the energy to be rude, I knew it was bad.

"What happened? You look like…"

"Death warmed over? Thanks, I feel it too. I don't know, maybe it's the flu."

"You don't smell sick."

And there's my warning flag.

"Excuse me?" I turned to look at him, mustering what energy I could to give him the craziest look. He looked shocked for a minute, but then explained.

"I just mean, usually people have a...smell. You know, like bad breath, odd body odor, some kind of difference in chemicals in their pheromones. It's a natural reaction animals have when they're sick, it's to either deter predators, or attract them, depending on the species."

I had no idea if that was accurate, but it sounded right, and I really didn't care.

"And you can smell that, the chemical difference in pheromones."

"Yes, and I bet if you paid enough attention, you would be able to smell it too."

I shook my head. What a weirdo.

Class started and once again I was alone with my thoughts. School hadn't been the distraction I had expected. All I could think of was, what was he doing now? Was he still in pain or was Billy right, and he was fine? Had he went through whatever change it was that the rest of them had? Was Leah right about him being able to stand up to them? Why hadn't he tried to contact me? After what felt like was just ten minutes, the bell rang. I put my unused notebook back in my bag.

"Isabella."

I turned and looked at him. Again, he looked taken by surprise.

"We really do need to work on our project, even if it's just one day."

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, we do. How about we meet at the library after school.'

"Why don't we just go over to my house?"

"No, we can do it here. I'll be in there after school." And I hurried out without giving him a chance to argue.

Somehow I had made it to seventh period. Angela and I sat down without a word, and she slipped me a note.

'I know you're not sick, but something really bad has happened, and the only thing I know of that can upset you this bad is Jake. I hope this isn't a result of what we talked about the other night, I was really only trying to help. I don't know what happened this weekend, but despite what may have been said, or not said, he loves you Bells, maybe more than even me or you could imagine. I have never seen anyone look at anyone else the way he looks at you.' Damn Angela and her insight. My chest burned and throbbed in pain, and I was frustrated with the unlimited source of tears I seem to be producing lately. 'And no matter what you say, I know you love him just as much. You look at him the same way he looks at you. Your worlds revolve around each other, and I don't know how you two have gone so long without each other.'

"Mrs Swan, do you need to be excused?" Mr Stark asked politely. I nodded furiously with tears pouring down my face, and grabbed my stuff and ran out to the parking lot. I couldn't do it, I couldn't make it through one more class. It was just too hard. I sat in my car and cried harder than I had cried since my father's funeral. I barely heard the tapping on the passenger window. I unlocked the door and Angela sat down silently.

"Bella, I am so sorry…" I saw a tear run down her face.

"Oh Angela, no! No, I swear, you had nothing to do with this. Actually I ended up telling him Saturday night and everything was great. Something else happened though." I ended up telling her something similar to the truth. Just that there had been something regarding his tribe that had forced us apart, that it was extremely sudden and I wasn't told anything about what it involved. (And for all I knew, that was the truth.) I explained the same thing had happened to Leah and Sam, and ended up permanently tearing them apart, and I was terrified that was going to happen with Jake.

"Oh Bella, he's going to be ok. And maybe Leah is right, maybe whatever is going on, he'll be stronger than that."

"Angela, please don't tell anyone about this. I only told you because, well, it's you. But don't even tell Ben right now. I don't know what it is, and I don't want a bunch of rumors and untruths flying around."

"Don't worry, I swear I won't tell him, or anyone else. But please come to me if you need to talk, or if you find out anything else."

We sat in my car for the rest of the period.

"I guess I better go meet Cullen, go ahead and get it over with."

"You want me to come with you?"

"Nah, he won't try anything in the library."

"Text me later?"

"Yeah. Go finish up on your english essay."

"Psh, girl please. That thing is done."

"Great, do mine then."

"You wish, then maybe you would have a chance at a good grade." We laughed lightly at ourselves as we climbed out of the car. She went off to look for Ben, and I headed to the library.

"Hey Mrs Cope." I tried to fake some cheer in her direction.

"Hi honey, listen, I'm glad you're here, I have got to go pick up Elizabeth from the sitter and get her to the doctor, she's running a fever. Do you care to close up shop for me here?"

"No problem." said as she walked out. I went to one of the back tables to hide out until Cullen showed up. I didn't realize I had fell asleep until he woke me up.

"Hello Isabella." I opened my eyes and he was a few inches from my face. I gasped and jumped back and he chuckled.

"Damn it Cullen, are you trying to master your creep skills or something?" He laughed again, only it wasn't a real laugh, more like a polite chuckle. Very annoying. I went ahead and pulled out my phone and flipped to the pictures.

"Ok, so this is what my visual looks like, I figured we need to have some kind of uniformity to our visuals as much as possible." He glanced at the pictures.

"Ok." And he looked back at me.

"Ok…..so what do I need to change to make mine look more like yours."

"Nothing." He said smugly.

"Nothing." I restated.

"Nope." He had a ghost of a smirk on his face.

"Ok, so what do we need to discuss then about the project?" I was quickly losing my patience.

"I think we'll be ok. I have to be honest, I really just wanted to spend some alone time with you outside of class, although this really isn't what I had in mind, but I'll take what I can get at this point."

"Are you kidding me?" I was fuming. "I knew this would be a complete waste of my time." I said as I slammed my stuff back into my bag.

"Isabella, I'd much rather get to know you than talk about some silly biology project." I slammed my fist on the table.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" I huffed and grabbed my stuff and marched out to the desk to shutdown the computers. Screw him. I can't believe I tried to be decent towards him. I don't even care if our projects match. In fact, I have half a mind to change my whole project to plant cell structure. Ugh, he was making me crazy. I finished up and was walking out the door when he caught my wrist with his cold hand, and I gasped and jerked away from him.

"Don't you touch me Edward Cullen! Once this project is over, I'll make sure I never have to speak to you again. I want nothing to do with you, so from now on stay the hell away from me!"

I spun on my heel to get out of there, but before I had a chance he had grabbed me by my arms and had me slammed up against the wall hard, his face inches from mine, expressing a look that absolutely terrified me.

"Now you listen to me, little girl. I have put up with your attitude long enough." His grip tightened and pain shot down both my arms. I shook with fear and tears escaped through my clenched eyes, not wanting to look at him. "I have waited for you far too long to play your little games." He shook me as he screamed. "LOOK AT ME!" But I couldn't, I was so scared at what I would see when my eyes opened.

"EDWARD!" I heard a female yell from across the lobby.

"Not now Rosie." He seethed. I could feel his breath on my face, and a small sob escaped me.

"Yes. Now." I heard a gruff voice right beside me, and felt Edward release my arms as I fell to the ground. I looked up and a guy had Edward by the neck. Another cold hand wrapped around my wrist, much more gentle than Edward had been, and pulled me away from the scene.

"Get out of here." The blonde said evenly. I nodded dumbly and ran. You didn't have to tell me twice. I didn't stop until I was in my car with the doors locked. I just sat staring out the windshield, trying to comprehend what just happened.

My first instinct was to call Jacob, but I doubted I could even get hold of him, and that thought cause the pain to burn through my chest once more. I ended up driving over to Angela's house. Ben was furious, and insisted I go to the cops about this. He even tried calling Jake himself after I told him I couldn't bring myself to do it, but it went straight to voicemail. They drove me down to the station, and I filed a report. They seemed very surprised since apparently the Cullen kids had never been in any trouble before, not even as much as a speeding ticket. But once they saw where the bruises were already forming on my arms, they were immediately convinced, and would send a unit out at once to question the boy. Unfortunately, outside of the couple that got me away from him, which Angela had concluded from my description earlier that they must have been Emmett Cullen and Rosalie Hale, there were no other witnesses, and all the police could do was try to scare Cullen away from me for now. Ben was not happy with that, and expressed as much on the way back to Angela's house. I ended up spending the night there after her parents insisted.

The next day, Angela and Ben stuck by me like glue. I was terrified of running into Cullen, knowing the cops had visited him the night before. As angry as he got just from a simple rejection, I didn't even want to think of how mad he would be about me going to the police. They both walked with me to bio, which may have been to make sure I actually went. I was shaking so much by the time I got there, and so nervous I thought I might vomit.

Maybe if I throw up all over him, he actually will leave me alone.

Fortunately it didn't seem like I would get the chance. Angela stood outside with me while Ben peeked his head in.

"He's not in there."

"Really?"

"Why would I lie?"

I rolled my eyes at him, and looked at my empty table, and felt myself release the breath I had been holding in.

"Keep your phone handy and text either of us if you need to." Angela said before hugging me. I walked in, and for the first time maybe all year, actually enjoyed bio.

Mr Hall stopped me after class.

"Mrs Swan, I hate to do this, but it seems like you won't have a partner to present your project with tomorrow." And my day got slightly brighter.

"Is he sick?" Please say he died, please say he died…

"Actually, he's been unenrolled. Something about going to live with relatives or something."

Good Enough!

I clenched my teeth to stop my smile.

"Anyway, I have no worries that you did at least your half of the project, so instead of presenting tomorrow, you can just turn in what you've got, and I'll grade you solely on your half." I went ahead and smiled at that.

"Thank you so much Mr Hall!" He smiled, but then caught himself and cleared his throat.

"Of course Mrs Swan, this is a one time exception."

I nodded, catching a small smirk from him, and headed out. I couldn't wait to tell Ben and Angela. My little world, even though still dark, felt much safer than before. But then I remembered why it was dark and what little bit of happiness I had gained from the missing psychopath, was wiped away at the thought of not having my Jacob. Of course, if he had been around to hear about yesterday, I have no doubt there would be one teenager dead, and another in jail. But he always managed to make me feel safer, always fixed everything. By the time I got to our history class, I had completely forgotten about the good news I was waiting to share with Angela. Like everything else in my life, Jacob completely eclipsed everything. Usually that was a good thing.

"So you think he'll show up tomorrow?" Angela asked.

"Huh? Oh, I hope so. I keep hoping he'll text me or something. Just to tell me he's alright."

"Excuse me?" She looked horrified at my answer.

"I called his dad, and he said he would have him call me, but I still haven't heard anything."

She looked at me like I had lost my mind, but then relaxed.

"Oh wait, are you talking about Jake?"

"Of course! What did you think?"

"Oh thank God! I was talking about Cullen, you idiot."

I blanched thinking back to our conversation and applying it to him.

"Oh, eww, oh wow. No, no no no. Sorry, woah, that was a huge misunderstanding." We laughed at our mistake.

"Ok, no, Cullen won't be back." She whipped her head and looked at me. "Mr Hall said he's been unenrolled, gone to live with family somewhere else or something."

"Seriously?"

"Yup! I guess Ben was right, that Emmett guy must have put the fear of God in him."

"I wonder if the rest of the family went too?" Angela's eyes went to the back of the class to the empty chair where Jasper usually sat.

"Don't know, don't care, I'm more worried about other things…."

"I don't see what it would hurt to call again."

"Huh? Oh, Jake. Well, when I talked to Billy, all he would tell me was that he's 'fine'. I just, I need to actually talk to Jake."

"Then do it!" She perked up with an idea. "You're a concerned girlfriend, right? Not to mention, they're technically family to you already, why wouldn't you just pop in to check on him?"

The gummed up gears in my head slowly started moving and I caught on. She was right, I had no reason to not stop by, and actually, I probably should have went by yesterday. So that was it, as soon as I got out of school, I would just simply stop by his house.

7th and 8th period absolutely crawled, and I spent the entire time trying to analyze the possible conversations that might happen. By the time I finally got into my car, I was shaking from nervousness. I had planned on driving straight past my house and onto his, but I chickened out. I told myself that I knew I would be over there late, and I needed to make sure I had everything ready for tomorrow, all our end of term stuff was due since it was the last day before winter break, and it was just too much to deal with everything tonight. Once I got home though, I realized everything was done and ready, and I was left with several of hours, sitting around doing nothing, but hating myself for not having the balls to go face Jake. Instead, I sat in the living room staring at the Christmas tree that Jake, Billy, and Rachel had helped me put up the day after Thanksgiving. My chest ached when I remembered how happy we had all been. I had to get that back, there's no way I could go without that in my life. I thought about calling Rachel, maybe she could talk some sense into him. But really, I had no right to expect anyone to help me when I wouldn't even try to talk to him myself.

That night, the nightmares amazingly stayed away. Instead I had one of those dreams you never want to wake up from. I dreamed Jake was there, snuggled up behind be, running his hand through my hair, whispering 'I love you's' to me. The pain that had been searing my chest actually seemed to ease up a bit. In fact, it seemed so real that I was actually surprised when I woke up friday morning and he wasn't there, which ended up hurting even more. And as the day went on, the hurt started to give way to anger. I was angry that I allowed myself to get so wrapped up and dependant on him, angry that Sam and his 'loyal followers' had taken him away from me, angry that Jake would allow them to take him from me, angry that Billy wouldn't explain anything to me.

I didn't know what to do, the only person I could really talk to was Leah, and she had been so burned by the whole thing, she didn't have any answers for me, all she could do was be supportive.

I always talked to Jacob about everything. Always. So what would he say? If he wasn't directly involved, if this were someone else, what would he say?

"You've got two choices, and one of them is not laying around feeling sorry for yourself."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me Swan. Now listen, remember how scared he was when you talked about this awhile back? Obviously there is something shady going on here, and he didn't know about it, or want any part of it, so you really can't hold him to blame on this until you know exactly what's going on."

"But there isn't anything I can do!"

"Wrong. You can take yourself down to the rez and find out in person what's going on. Even if they won't tell you, he's gotta come home sometime, so you just wait at Billy's for him. Who knows if he'll come to see you on his own. The way Leah makes it sound, they're all brainwashed or something. If you go down there, you can find out sooner than later. What's the worst that can happen?"

"He can tell me to go to hell."

"Yeah, I seriously doubt that will happen. You will just be much closer to knowing the truth than you are now."

"You said I had two options."

"You can forget about him. Let him go. Move on with your life and find someone else." I clutched at my chest as pain ripped through it at the thought.

"Not an option. Ever."

"Then there you go. You need to go down there and handle it. Go get your man back."

"You're starting to sound a little gay."

"This is all you babe, I'm just in your head."

Imaginary or not, he was right. So I completely bypassed my house after school. I pushed all my nervousness away with my anger. I wasn't going to be brushed off, and I wasn't going to leave without an answer. This was Jacob. My Jacob. And damn it, I would fight for him until he didn't want me anymore. The pain flared, but I pushed it down with more anger.

I made it to the rez in record time, but didn't have to go as far as Jacob's house. I saw a group of shirtless guys walking down one of the side roads. I skidded to a stop and got out slamming my car door. They all froze when they saw me. I stalked toward them, ignoring the fact they towered over me like giants.

"Where is he?" I grounded out. Sam turned and motioned to Embry and Quil who went running off, and turned back around to face me.

"Bella, he's fine. You need to just go home." Sam said.

"You can go to hell Sam, I'm not going anywhere without some answers."

Paul grumbled out something unintelligible, but Sam held his hand out in front of Paul.

"Bella, if you can just wait a little longer-"

"NO! I have waited five days, and I'm not waiting anymore. You took him and I'm coming to get him back."

"You have no idea what you're going on about Swan!" Paul pushed past Sam and got in my face. "This is bigger than anything you could dream of, so get back in your little car, and go back to your perfect little world, and we'll-"

"Fuck you Paul! You can go to hell too!" I yelled, getting right up in his face like he did mine.

"Bella, you need to leave now." Sam said more forcefully. Jared was flanking his other side, and I knew they were trying to intimidate me to leave, and under any other circumstance it would have worked. But I was too far gone to care now.

"I said NO! I deserve an explanation!" But Paul wrapped an arm around my waist and lifted me like I was nothing, to carry me back to my car. I started screaming and kicking for him to let me go, and I swear I thought I heard him laugh, which just made me that much more mad. Suddenly from the woods behind Sam and Jared there was a terrifying roar. I had never heard anything like it. Both Paul and I froze, eyes toward the woods.

"Paul….put her down." Sam said in warning. Paul set me down on the ground, but didn't let me go.

"Bella, go get in your damn car, now!" Paul said behind clenched teeth. I squirmed to get free of him, but he was still trying to pull me back towards my car.

"GET YOUR FUCKING HANDS OFF OF HER!" I heard Jake roar as he came barreling out of the treeline. He looked similar to the 'new' Jake I had seen in my nightmares. His hair was cut short, and he was shirtless, just like the rest of them. But the thing I noticed the most, he was furious, I had never seen anything like it. He was almost animalistic in his fury, but it was all towards Paul. Jake stalked toward where we were standing and Paul pushed me behind him.

"Black, you gotta calm down." Paul said. "You don't want to do this here. You don't want to hurt Bella."

"No, but if you don't get your hands off of her, I'm gonna rip you apart, limb from limb."

"Jacob!" Sam barked from behind him. Jake spun on him.

"No Sam. I told you this morning, I can't do this. You can't keep me away from her anymore."

As soon as I heard those words, I felt like I could breathe again. I tried to push past Paul again to get to him, but he held me tight. He turned to face Paul again and growled so loud that even I stepped back.

"No way, Black. There's no way I'm letting you near her." Paul said pushing me back.

"Paul! Stop it!" Sam yelled. Jacob's jaw clenched and his anger was causing him to shake.

"Really Jake? You really want to do this here? Right in front of her?" Paul asked.

"Get. Away. From her." Jake said evenly, breathing deep to calm himself.

"Paul. Let the girl go." Sam said.

"Are you out of your damn mind? He isn't stable!" Paul yelled past Jake at Sam.

"Paul! Now!" Sam said firmly. Surprisingly Paul stepped away without another word, and in the next moment I was wrapped in strong arms and lifted up off the ground. I wrapped my arms around his neck and just buried my face in his neck, and I couldn't help crying from relief that I had him back with me.

I'm not sure how long he stood there with me, but by the time I lifted my head, everyone else had gone, and it was just us. He set me down and cradled my face in his hands.

"Baby, I am so, so sorry." I closed my eyes as I absorbed his words. I remembered all the hurt he had put me through, and my breath shuddered. I opened my eyes and saw his own filling with tears, and realized that maybe he had been hurting too. I forced the lump in my throat down.

"J-just please…..please don't ever do that-"

"No, never, never again. I swear." And he pulled me in for a long, overdue kiss. I knew I should probably be mad, I should probably be yelling at him, demanding an explanation, but I was just so absolutely relieved to have him back, I didn't even care right now. I had him, and that was enough.

"I love you so much baby." He whispered into my hair. I smiled as he held me against his chest.

"I love you too Jake." He leaned back, looking down at me, then got a sad look in his eyes.

"Why don't we take a walk."