Disclaimer: If you don't know by now then you never will. Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I'm just having fun.
Adversity
Bella POV
There was no thought at all. Nothing went through my mind. It was nothing but pure instinct. I saw Jake shaking and the look in his eyes as he stared at Edward was complete hatred and anger. I didn't know if he was going to attack him or not but I couldn't take that chance. I wasn't sure what I could do but I knew Jake and if I could somehow calm him down or just talk to him that might be enough to stop him. But I knew that I couldn't let him hurt Edward.
I jumped without any idea what I might say and right before I reached Jacob he disappeared. I suddenly felt a boulder collide with my body and I went flying back against one of the trees that line the meadow. I had no clue what hit me but my body almost felt hurt. I looked down and saw a scratch across my stomach. What had happened? I thought I was now indestructible? That was when I heard the angry growls.
I looked up to see Jasper and Emmett holding Edward back from going after Jake who was also not where he had been. He was clear across on the other side of the meadow. How had he gotten there? He looked as if he might be sick any minute and my lost heart automatically went out to him.
"Bella are you okay?" He took a step towards me and Edward let out a growl that was ten times worst than any of the ones that I had heard when he was fighting with James.
"You don't get to ask that of her." Edward was shouting just to be heard over the snarls coming from the very large and very scary wolves that lined the other side of the meadow. "You don't get to ask her anything!"
"I didn't mean it." Jake's eyes were about to fill up with tears. "It was instinctual." He was talking to Edward but his eyes never left me or the scratch that was healing rather quickly.
"Like that makes a difference." Edward wouldn't stop struggling against his brothers. It was probably a good thing that Alice and Rosalie were standing in front of him to stop him from going after Jake. "You could have killed her."
"You already did that didn't you?" Jake raised his voice back to Edward still not taking his eyes off me. "Besides I could never hurt her."
"You just did!" I wasn't sure Emmett and Jasper were going to be able to hold him back much longer. I don't think I had ever seen Edward this angry before.
"Edward calm down." I looked at Jasper hoping that he could use his special powers to calm not only Edward but the whole situation. As I stood I felt Jaspers powers flow out around the whole meadow and the wolves looked like they might pass out. Even Jacob's eyes started to droop.
"Umm, Jazz you might have over done it a little." I smirked at him.
"Sorry" I felt the wave pull back some and everyone was just standing still staring at each other.
"I'm okay." I looked at Edward but I was speaking to everyone. There was no need for this to turn into a huge war although I had the distinct feeling that was where we were headed. I knew I should go straight to Edward but the look in Jacob's eyes pulled me toward him. Besides I had to do something to stop this from getting out of hand.
I started to walk toward him but stopped when I heard the snarls of the other wolves.
"Bella, no, what are you doing?" I could hear Edward behind me and looked back at Emmett and Jasper to make sure that they had him.
"It's okay." I spoke as calmly as I could for the first time grateful that my heart wasn't beating. If I had still been human I'm sure the sound of it would have been echoing around the meadow by now. "Jake won't hurt me." I looked right into Jacob's eyes seeing all I needed to know.
"Bella, I'm so sorry." I inched closer to him and he moved toward me.
"Hey, no harm done." I looked down to notice that my scratch was already healed. There was barely even a noticeable wound were the cuts to my shirt were.
"But I could have killed you."
"Not really."
"Yes really." Jacob's agonized voice ripped through me deeper than his claws even dared. "That's what I'm made for. Stupid tribal legends."
"Jake" I reached toward him and felt his head fall into my palm. "It's me. I know you couldn't hurt me. We're friends aren't we?" I purposely used the same words he had in my room not one month ago.
I could feel tears against my hand and I pulled him the rest of the way into my arms. We crashed together again but this time not in battle but in comfort. He had always been my friend and now wasn't any different.
"Yeah we're friends" His voice cracked. "We're always friends."
I looked back and saw that both Carlisle and Esme had managed to show up without my knowledge. I also noted the shocked faces on almost all the Cullens faces, Esme just looked like she wanted to cry right beside Jake. She was so caring.
"I hate to cut this short but we do still have a problem here." I was startled by the new voice and looked over to the wolves to realize that one of the others had morphed into a human man also. He looked familiar but I couldn't place him in my head. "You broke the treaty."
"Not intentionally" Alice spoke up looking him right in the eye. "And do you mind. There are ladies present." She motioned to his naked body and I felt a smile come across my face. Leave it to Alice to notice a lack of clothing.
"Sorry" The tall man grumbled and sprinted off into the woods.
"Where'd he go?" I asked Jake still holding him against me.
"To put on clothes." He pulled away from me and smiled a sad but understanding smile.
"He left his clothes in the woods?"
He laughed then and rolled his eyes. "Silly Bella. He had them tied around his leg."
"That doesn't make any sense." I shook my head.
"Our clothes don't just disappear and re-appear like our skin." He explained. "If we change while there on then they explode off of us."
"But a few minutes ago…" I let the statement run off as I looked down and saw a very naked Jake. "OH" Once again glad I wasn't human before I remembered that I could still blush and felt my cheeks turn a fiery red. Of all the things to not lose during the transformation.
"Yeah, sorry I only had the one pair." He smiled at my embarrassed expression right before a new pair of pants hit him across the chest. That was when I saw the other wolf man come back into the clearing. I didn't know if he had an extra pair of he had found someone else's but I was really grateful to him at that moment.
"Bella" Edward called to me raising his hand for me to come over to him. I wanted to but I felt that if I did it would only make matters worse. Right now Jake was fine with me but if I made it look like I was taking sides this could turn into something way more serious.
"I think I should stay here for right now." I had never seen that level of hurt in his eyes before and it made me want to rush over to his side even more. But I would have to explain later. Right now I needed to do whatever I could to keep everyone from ripping into each other.
"Can we get back to the problem at hand?" The other wolf guy said.
"What problem?" I asked knowing what he was about to say.
"The fact that they bit you." He looked me over with distaste. "They broke the treaty."
"But Sam, she is still warm and I can hear a heartbeat." Jacob told his wolf friend. Why did that name sound familiar too?
My eyes widen. I looked to the Cullens and saw that everyone but Edward mirrored my expression. How did I still have a heartbeat?
"Not to mention that her eyes are brown not red and she blushed earlier while you were gone." Jake had moved a little away from me.
"But you have to notice the smell Jake" Sam questioned him.
"Of course but maybe it just has to do with her hanging out with them." Jake was fighting for me and I could do nothing but smile up at him.
"Okay. Well how did she throw you across the field then?" His eyes narrowed toward me and I heard growls coming from Edward's direction.
Jake looked at me and the anguished expression came back across his face. I instinctually pulled him back into my arms and growled toward Sam.
"That was an accident." I snarled. How dare he hurt Jake like that? "And I don't appreciate you talking to him like that."
Not only did Sam snap his eyes at me but the rest of the wolves looked well not quite shocked seeing as they were animals but close to it. I chanced a look at the Cullens and they too looked shocked.
"Excuse me?" Sam voice betrayed his astonishment.
"Jake is not only a friend but he is like family to me and I will not let you say anything negative to him just for being my friend." I stared him right in the eye and narrowed my eyes. "And whatever happened between my boyfriend and I is really none of your business."
"If he bit you then it is my business." This Sam wouldn't let up.
"No, it's my business." Jake walked in front of me with a look of authority.
"I'm the oldest Jacob." Sam squared his shoulders.
"Yes, but I'm the Alpha." Jake looked him dead in the eyes.
"I thought you didn't want it."
"If it means saving my friend then I'll take the responsibility." Jake looked back at me.
"What about them?" Sam jerked his head toward the Cullens.
I could see the anger rising in Jacob's body and his hands began to shake. I put my hand on his shoulder and he calmed.
"I don't know yet." Jake looked right into Edward's eyes. I didn't know what he was thinking but Edward didn't look happy or angry about it, more along the lines of confused. "We need to discuss this further before we decide whether it is war or not. There will be no rash acts today."
I breathed in a deep breath and smiled. Jacob had come through for me. I couldn't express my relief. "Thank you" I mouthed for his ears only and saw a light smile on his face.
"For right now I would like to talk to Bella alone." Jake looked around. I saw Edward take a step toward me but Emmett hold him back.
"It's okay." I begged Edward with my eyes to understand. I needed to talk to Jake. I had to make sure Charlie was alright and that he wouldn't say anything. Plus I had to make him understand that this was my choice. I couldn't help but notice that Jake had said nothing would happen today but he had left it open for tomorrow or the future.
"Bella he's so young." Edward looked pained. "And he has already attacked you once."
"That was an accident bloodsucker." Jake focused back on Edward.
"Doesn't change the fact that it happened." Edward started struggling against Emmett again and Jasper had to calm him once more.
"Edward, it's okay." I smiled at him. "Equals remember?"
He closed his eyes and nodded his head. "But remember my part of that agreement too? I need both."
I loved him more in that moment than I ever had. Just knowing that he finally trusted me enough to let me do this without jumping in the middle spoke volumes. "You have both." I said as I turned toward Jacob and walked away from the crowd in the meadow.
We walked in silence, not once looking at each other, until we were a good distance away. I wasn't sure if Edward could still hear Jacob's thoughts but I hoped that he couldn't. This needed to be a private conversation and the last thing I wanted was to have to re-hash everything later tonight.
Jake sat on a boulder across from me just looking me up and down. Finally he took a deep breath and I could tell he was ready to speak.
"I gotta say Bells you look amazing but the smell."
"What are you talking about Jake?" I was so done with them talking about this ridiculous smell.
"You smell different." Jake continued. "You smell like one of them."
"And that is a bad thing?" I hadn't noticed that the Cullens smelled bad. If anything I thought they smelled wonderful.
"Yeah" He laughed. "It's like a sickenly sweet smell that stings my nose."
"Oh, sorry."
"I don't smell different to you?"
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes trying to focus on just his smell. "Maybe a little more woodsy. Like fir or pine but nothing that's bothersome."
"That's weird."
"Well, I do tend to have the cornered the market on weird." I smirked at him.
"That's true." He laughed again. "But I should smell awful to you."
I tried again. Closing my eyes and breathing deeper this time. "No just Jake."
He shook his head. "Bella what is going on? Are you one of them or not? Did that filthy bloodsucker bit you? And what are you doing here?"
"Easy Jake" I motioned to his hands that had begun to shake again and I saw him close his eyes and calm himself.
"Yes he bit me and I'm one of them but it was to save me."
"I don't understand." Jake dropped his head in his hands. "I knew you should have stayed here."
"I'm not sure that would have helped Jake." I moved to sit next to him on the boulder. "I was so far gone that it didn't take much to push me over the edge."
"What do you mean?" He looked up at me.
I wasn't sure how much I should tell him. I didn't think he would tell Charlie but I also knew that if he knew that Edward had left me again in Brazil of all places he might just authorize that war.
"When I was away things got really intense." That sounded good. "I went into some kind of coma, psychotic break from reality thing and couldn't move."
"What?"
"Yeah it was really awful." I hated thinking about the week that I had spent trapped in my head. "I couldn't talk or move or do anything. Jasper couldn't feel any of my emotions…"
"Wait" Jake interrupted me. "What do you mean they couldn't feel your emotions? One of them feels emotions?"
"Yeah Jasper does. He's the blonde younger one that was holding Edward back." I explained when I saw the confused look on his face. "You had to have noticed that one minute everyone was ready to kill each other and the next you felt calm. Almost lethargic."
"That's what that was." His eyes widened. "I thought I was just loosing it."
"No he has the power to not only feel emotions but manipulate them also."
"I don't like that." His eyes narrowed and his face turned back toward the meadow. "I don't like the idea that they have powers we didn't know about. Can they all do that? Do they have others that we don't know?"
I was torn between trust for my friend and loyalty to my family. I didn't think that Jake would use any of the information against them but I couldn't be sure.
"Do you want to know what happened to me or not?" I tried to change the subject back.
"Yeah but don't think I didn't notice you avoiding my questions" He looked back at me.
"Yeah, yeah." I used one of his classic lines. "Anyway, like I said I was stuck. I could hear everything around me and I could think and talk in my head but no one could see it or hear it or anything."
"That sucks"
"Yeah" I agreed. "Alice, the short one with the spiky hair, she was in a mental institution before she was changed and the only thing she remembers about her life is that everything was dark. No one really knows what treatments they did on her but they were trying to stop her from seeing the future. So Carlisle…."
"She can see the future?" Jake exclaimed and jumped up to stand in front of me.
"Dammit" I couldn't help my anger. I had been trying not to mention any of the other powers the Cullens had and had let that slip. "Sort of. She sees the paths that people are on based on the decisions they make."
"That sounds confusing." Jake sat back down.
"I guess it would be to us but she has lived with it for so long that it's second nature to her now." I shrugged. "Back to me" I wanted to get back to my story before he asked about any other powers. "Carlisle, the older blonde man, he hoped that if they changed me then I would be able to wake up. At first Edward was against it. He didn't want me to be like this." I motioned down to my body.
"He didn't want to turn you?" Jake's look of confusion was priceless.
"No" I smiled. "He sees himself as a monster and he didn't want that for me. He thought I could do better."
"Wow" he shook his head.
"What?"
"I never thought I would have anything in common with a leech is all."
I punched him in the arm. "Be nice." I said right as he said ow. "Sorry"
"It's okay. Your just a lot stronger than before." He was rubbing the spot that I had hit him.
"I know. It takes some getting used to." I went back to the story. "So Alice told someone to decide to bit me so that she could see if my future changed. Jasper agreed and Edward snarled but Alice could see me waking up. Whatever was the problem she saw it being fixed in the change so Edward bit me and I woke up."
"Your right"
"What do you mean?"
"You do have the market cornered on weird."
"Says the werewolf boy." I jokingly leaned into his side.
"That's true." I leaned against me back. "I guess we're both pretty good at weird."
"So it would seem." I smiled at him.
"Why are you still here then?" He asked. "Why not just tell Charlie you died or something and take off so no one could find you."
"They thought about it but I knew that that would do to Charlie." I told him. "I originally thought that if I could convince him that I was still sick or had run off to figure things out then maybe I could see him when I had gained enough control but then I called."
"He told us about that." He added.
"Yeah, I didn't know what I was going to go with but it didn't matter because he already knew I wasn't in the hospital."
"I know he called my dad to apologize for his outburst at dinner and said that maybe my dad had been right since no one knew where you were." Jake informed me.
"Really?" I couldn't believe it. Charlie wasn't an emotional man but he could be stubborn. That was most likely where I had gotten it from.
"Yeah"
"That's was really good of him." I smiled. "But when I called he mentioned a black and red-haired man and woman that showed up asking for me. He mentioned how they were extremely pale and I knew that Laurent and Victoria had been at my house."
"That would be the two bloodsuckers that have been causing trouble." He was serious now.
"Must you use such horrible names Jake?"
"Sorry" he drowned out sarcastically. "The two individuals that have been hunting in the woods and eating the hikers. Is that better?"
"No need to be mean about it." I huffed. "But yes that would be them."
"Why would they go to your house?"
"Because last year Edward killed Victoria's mate and she is looking for revenge." I explained.
"So the black-haired one wasn't her mate? That explains why she didn't come after us for revenge after we got him." Jake was catching on.
"Right"
"Why did Edward kill him?"
"Cause he was trying to torture and kill me?"
"Wow Bella" Jake shook his head. "You really are a magnet for dangerous and weird."
"I know, I know."
"So now she is after you or Edward and where does Charlie fit into all of this?" Jake was back in leader mode.
"Well, we stuck around to protect Charlie and to try to find and destroy Laurent and Victoria."
"I see" Jake just sat there staring out at nothing. I wanted to know what he was thinking but I was afraid to ask. I didn't know if what I had told him would start a war or if he could forgive the treaty break so I just sat there beside him waiting.
"Well" he started after a few minutes had passed. "I don't know what to do." He laughed a humorless sigh. "One one hand they did break the treaty but they did it to save you and they stuck around to protect the city but the city wouldn't have needed protecting if they hadn't killed this chicks mate." He took a breath. "But if they hadn't killed her mate then you might have been dead and this is just so much."
"Think what I have been going through living it." I told him.
"Part of me says war and the other part, the part that doesn't want to fight with you, says its okay." He looked so sad. "I hate them for this but I wouldn't have wanted to visit you in a crazy ward either."
"Thanks Jake" I punched him in his arm again this time making sure to use less force.
"We have to think." He stood. "We have to think and talk to the elders and then decide."
"Jake" I couldn't let it be a war. I would lose everything. "Please"
"I'm sorry Bella" He backed away from me. "This is just too big for me to say on my own." He moved away from me and I could see him start to shake. "I'll let you know. One way or the other." He shrugged and ran off into the distance.
I just sat there staring after my friend. This could go so bad or it could work it's self out. I had no way of knowing. I had done all that I could and it still might not have been enough. I sighed and stood preparing to head back to the meadow but as I turned I saw him. Edward was moving toward me at a blur. I would have missed him if my eyes weren't a thousand times better than. Before I could get a word out I was wrapped in his arms.
"Thank God." He breathed. "Thank God." He just kept repeating it over and over again as he pulled me tighter and tighter.
I rested in his arms still worried that this was far from over. I could lose him again. I could lose everyone. I couldn't let that happen. I had to stop things from getting out of hand. As Jake had said, one way or the other.
AN: This had to be the hardest chapter I have done so far. First I couldn't decide on POV and then I had to re-write it like twice half way through because I didn't like the direction it was taking or leading the story.
I must say that I am happy about how it turned out and I can't wait to hear what everyone has to say. I will tell you this; if I didn't love double posting Thursdays as much as you this might not have gotten written. I was rushing the gun to get this done and just finished. So make me happy and review.