Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or New Moon or any characters of Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter 11 (Bella's POV)

I came home to find Jake and his car out front. He was either here to tell me sorry, or that Charlie was staying longer. Or both.

"Hey," Edward grabbed my hand. "Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to stay?"

I gave him my best smile, though still weak. "I'll be fine."

I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. At the last second, Edward turned to have his lips meet mine. We finally stopped when we heard a horn. We looked up to see a glaring Jake.

"Call me, as soon as you can." Edward said, making me turn my attention back to him. "I want to know if your okay or not."

"I'll be fine, Edward." I told him once again. "But thank you for caring."

I got out and as soon as I was by Jake, Edward took off. Jake relaxed and took me in a bear hug as soon as Edward was out of sight.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I didn't mean to snap at you last night. I just wanted to know what was wrong, why you were crying." Jake mumbled into my hair. "I just wanted to have our friendship back. I miss you."

I pulled back and saw that Jake was bruised from his fight with Sam. I touched his face, where the faded purple was. It was almost gone! "Sam won, in case you're wondering."

"Jake…"

"Bells, I'm sorry. I just-I just. I don't know." He through up his hands and pounded on his car. "I don't know what to do. I want to go back to yester years and still be happy."

"Jake?" I was confused. "What's the matter? Why aren't you happy?"

He chuckled and looked sadly at me. "It's nothing, Bells." He put his face, still leaning on the car, in his hands. "Nothing and everything."

I put my hand on his shoulder, "Jake…?"

He instantly tensed and said, "Bella, Charlie's inside. I brought him home after Billy heard what happened." He turned to me. "He's sorry, Bella. Both of them are." He laughed, but it wasn't his regular laugh, it was forced. "All three of us are sorry."

"Please, tell me what's wrong!" I grabbed his arms, seeing I can't reach his shoulders except when he's leaning over. He pulled away from my grasp.

"Bells, he wants to talk to you. Charlie, I mean. He wants to say sorry for what he's done."

I turned my face and looked to the stables, "No. He's not. He said enough to me last night. The truth comes out when your drunk." I turned back to him, and left towards the fields, away from the house.

"Bella!" Jake called pleadingly. "Please."

"Jake. Go home. It's not your fight. It's not your problem. It's mine. Now, just GO!!!" I heard the gravel crunching under his feet, but not away from me, but instead, towards me.

"Bells, Charlie wasn't drinking."

"Yes, he was. I saw the beer bottle in his—" Jake shushed me with his hand.

"No, it was root beer. IBC. Charlie won't drink, Billy's asked him because he keeps forgetting." He laughed. He saw my conflicting expressions. And tugged me the way I was heading before he stopped me. To our favorite place when we were kids. The barn.

We used to stay in the attic all the time, just playing and talking. Once we got up, I grabbed the blanket I always kept up there and spread it out. We lay by each other, not talking or anything, just thinking. I wondered how my life became so incredible twisted. The only good thing I had right now was Edward. And he wasn't going to be here anymore, this was his last week. The last thing I thought about before drifting off was why was Jake unhappy? He was supposed to be having fun, chasing girls, working on his car. What made him so depressed?

I awoke to Jake snoring softly. He must've fallen asleep too. I heard a ringing noise and quickly got my phone out of my pocket, before Jake woke up.

"Hello?" I whispered.

"Bella?" Edward asked, quite loudly. "Where are you?"

"What? Why? What time is it?" I asked, looking at my phone. I had only been asleep for ten minutes!!!!

"BELLA!!?? What happened?" Edward was panicking. Hmmm. That wasn't hard to figure out. "Did he hurt you? To make you unconscious? Are you alright? That's it, I'm coming. I'll be there in a few minutes."

I had no time to talk as he hung up. Great. This wasn't going to be good. I shook Jake and told him Edward was coming and I was going to go meet him outside. Jake's eyes grew black and he laid his head back down, breathing heavily, not saying anything.

I heard Edward's car already. He must have been waiting on the road, out of sight. That little bugger. I climbed down the ladder and ran outside to see Charlie on the deck and Edward getting out of his car, heading towards him.

"EDWARD!!!" I screamed. I ran right into him and tackled him to the ground. He looked absolutely murderous. I probably didn't look too great, or smell too great either.

"Bella, are you alright?" Edward immediately checked my face and then the rest of my head for any bruise for when I was supposedly knocked out.

"I'm fine. I just fell asleep up in the loft." I said, taking his hands in mine. "Jake and I had to talk."

When I spoke of Jake, his hands fell from mine. But when he saw Charlie on the deck, watching us-mostly me, he wrapped a protective arm around me and tucked me into his side.

"I'm not going to hurt my daughter." Charlie's calm voice called out to us.

Edward spoke the words for me, "You already did."

I looked at the ground while they talked. I heard an intake of breathe and the stairs creak as Charlie went down them. "Bella, I'm sorry. I-I don't know what I was thinking. I know that you may hate me, but I hope you can forgive me." He was just feet away, but I refused to look up, to see in his eyes the same look I saw last night. "Bells, please. Come in the house."

I nodded, it was getting pretty dark. The dinner with Carlisle and Esme took longer than planned, not that I'm complaining. It was quite entertaining. I hugged Edward and stepped away from him. I could see conflict in his face, wondering if he should leave me or not. I stood up on my tippee toes and kissed him. "Again, Edward. I'll be just fine. Especially when you come and save me."

He wrapped his arms around me tightly. "That I will do. I promise you that, I will always be there to save you."

"I love you."

"I love you, too, Bella." We shared a quick kiss before he left, but not before giving Charlie a glare.

I turned towards my father. "Bells, I can't tell you how sorry I am about what happened."

"Charlie, I'm tired. Let's just go to bed." I walked past him, but his voice stopped me.

"Umm, Jake is going to be staying with us. He'll be helping out tomorrow while his sisters are in town." I saw Jake walking up to the house.

"Okay…" This was going to be interesting tomorrow.

I was right too. The next day, Edward and Jake kept sending each other death glares all morning as we worked cattle. I would've just had them do it, but I didn't want to leave them alone.

"Guys? Are you going to do it? Or am I going to have to?!" I was tired, worn out, and wanting to go for a dip in the pond. But with them both here, there was no way that was going to happen.

"I will." They both said at the same time. I got out of the truck and went to the back. "Fine. Settle your differences. Do whatever. As long as you get the job done. I'm going to go work on the tractor."

I probably didn't make any sense to them, but I really needed to get a few things done. At least while I had the help. Though I couldn't call 'em that, more like nuisances. It was amusing, but also irritating at the same time.

I walked up to the barn and put the tractor in the shop. I could have Jake do this, he's really good with machinery, but I didn't want him too. I quickly got underneath the tractor and cleaned off the dirt and oil. The lifter wasn't working on the back of it, so I had to figure out which parts were for it. I finally found them and found that they were unattached somehow.

While I was in the shop, I decided to get Dad's truck in here and make sure it stays in here. I didn't need to worry about him leaving in one of his fits.

I pulled the battery cables off and disconnected the starter. I wouldn't let him have any keys. The keys to the shop, in case he wanted his truck out. The keys to his truck, to go someplace. My keys to my truck. And, just to be safe….the tractor keys. If he wanted to go somewhere really bad, I bet he would use the tractor to get there.

After I was done, I looked outside to see Jake and Edward coming up from the fields. I closed the shop doors and locked it, making sure I had all the keys.

"Hey," I felt Edward's arms come around my waist. "You ready?"

"For what?" I asked, turning around.

"Lunch." He gave a smile.

I growled, not really wanting to go in. I haven't talked to Charlie since last night. And Jake, he was teamed up with Charlie.

"Like I said." He spoke while taking me into his arms, tighter this time. "I will always protect you."

I smiled at that. How could I have found such a perfect man? "How about we go for a swim instead?"

He gave me a weird look. "Bella, you shouldn't avoid him. I bet he'll do anything you ask. Come on, I'll be by your side the whole time." We went to the house, Jake already inside, helping Charlie.

"Sorry we're late!" I said sarcastically. Edward elbowed me. I glared at him, he just gave me a warning glare in return. So I pushed him. HA! Don't mess with me! I am your boss after all.

After Edward righted himself, he reached for me, but I was out of his arm length. I had my back to him, trying to escape, whatever he was doing---AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU EDWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT'S FREEZING COLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I lifted the bottom back of my shirt, hoping the ice cubes would come out. I would have to change, he dumped a whole glass of water and ice on me-the water making it even colder. I whimpered as the last ice cube fell. I looked around to see only Jake and Charlie. "Where is he??"

"Right here!!" Edward came around the corner, holding a t-shirt. A dry t-shirt.

I pounced on him. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!!!!!! HOW DARE YOU PUT ICE AND WATER DOWN MY SHIRT!!!!!!"

He laughed and lifted me off him, as if I didn't weigh a pound. "You started it."

I crossed my arms and glared. He offered the shirt up, giving me puppy eyes, and putting his bottom lip out. He dazzled me for a second, but then I snapped out of it. "NO!!!"

I pushed past him and walked down the hallway to my room. I heard laughter coming from the kitchen, but ignored it. I slammed the door shut and quickly changed. Into my riding clothes. I opened the window and hopped out on the porch. I went around, staying out of sight of the three men, or boys. I ran to the stables, probably being seen-there was no way around that. Unless they simply didn't look. I was almost done, when I saw Edward coming out of the house. I hurried and adjusted the straps. I opened the stall door, mounted Abigail, and took off, across the field, past Edward and down the lane. I kept going, even after I reached the stopping point where our driveway ended. I just kept riding, thoughts flying by me, not able to keep a steady mind, just thinking about the speed. It wasn't much compared to a car or motorcycle, but it was fine with me.

I stopped when I reached the outskirts of town. That was when I realized, Abigail was probably pretty worn out. I dismounted and petted her. We were still on our gravel road, but Abby was jumpy at the traffic going by. She was used to the quiet life.

It wasn't until they were up beside me, when I noticed the car.