Bella's POV

I frowned, trying to decide which was better. The two cans of corn looked exactly the same to me. So why was the one on the right 10 cents cheaper?

"Oh, you look ready to pop."

I looked up at the knowing voice. A woman in her 30's with graying hair smiled at me. She had a screaming toddler in her basket.

"May I?" she asked, reaching over and putting her hand on my belly without waiting for my consent. Something inside me snapped. I was done being touched and pitied and treated like something incredibly fragile.

"I'd rather you didn't," I glared at her. "I don't even know you."

She looked a little surprised. "Well, most pregnant women are happy to share…."

"I'm not most pregnant women," I cut her off. "I'd prefer to know the people putting their hands all over me."

"Well," she huffed, turning around and marching off, her kid's screaming not doing anything to help my headache. I scowled at her retreating back and turned back to the corn. I grabbed the cheaper can and threw it into my basket angrily and headed up to the check out.

The clerk saw my face and didn't attempt to make conversation with me, just rang me up quickly.

I fumed the entire way home. It seemed like the bigger I got, the shorter my temper was. I couldn't control it, either. Simple things made me snap and that infuriated the fuck out of me. Jake and Billy and Charlie were always on eggshells around me and that pissed me off even more. I wanted to go back to normal, to be who I was before I couldn't control myself. I kept finding myself wishing I'd never left Phoenix and the anonymity I'd enjoyed there. No one to stare at me as the unwed pregnant almost 20 year old daughter of the chief in Forks or as the white girl Jake knocked up at the res. No one to palm my belly like I was a basketball being passed from teammate to teammate. I felt like a fucking basketball was shoved under my skin. Luckily, the baby had run out of space and any movements these days were slow and sluggish.

Before too long I was pulling into the driveway. I sat in my seat for a few minutes looking up at the house. I must have been sitting there a long time because Jake finally appeared on the doorstep, looking at me with concern. This only made me angrier. I got out of the truck, slamming the door with more force than necessary.

"Hey Bells," he said, sounding anxious. "You ok?"

"No I'm not ok. I'm 8 months pregnant and it's hot as hell out here."

He looked up at the rain clouds. In reality it was probably only in the mid-70's but I was hot all the time now. I couldn't believe I'd actually been eager for this stage. I waddled around the side and grabbed a couple of bags out of the passenger side of the car and turned for the house.

"I'll take those," he said quickly, reaching for the bags.

"What, you think I can't do it?" I demanded.

"No, not at all, I just thought I'd help." He tried to pull the bags from me but I wouldn't let go.

"Let me do it," I growled, jerking back. He didn't let go and the bags tore, spilling all the groceries on the ground. Luckily, the eggs were still in the truck, but the apples rolled around in the mud and the canned foods disappeared under the truck.

I let out a loud noise of disgust and glared up at him. "See what you did? I told you I could fucking do it and you wouldn't fucking let it go."

"What the hell is your problem?" he demanded, finally snapping. "I'm just trying to help you out with the fucking groceries."

"What's my problem? I'm pregnant you ass! I HATE being pregnant!" I stomped into the house, past Billy and into the room Jacob and I shared, slamming the door behind me angrily.

I paced back and forth trying to calm down. I finally sat down on the edge of the bed and stared out the window at the rain that had finally started to fall. I felt like crying but I wasn't sure why. I refused to look at the pile of baby stuff in the corner. I didn't even care when or if Jake put the crib together. Billy had pulled out the cradle that his kids had all used and everyone we knew had donated baby clothes. It seemed like everyone was excited about this baby but me.

"Shit," I muttered, putting my head in my hands and finally giving in to the tears.

"Bells?" Jake sounded nervous.

Great, he's scared of me, I thought. I sighed and looked up, tired. "Yeah."

He was standing in the doorway looking in at me anxiously. "Can I come in or are you going to throw something?"

I rolled my eyes and waved him in. He carefully sat down beside me on the bed. "What happened at the grocery store?"

"It's not just the grocery store, Jake," I said softly. "I don't like being pregnant. I'm so huge and I'm hot and my clothes don't fit and it's so damn uncomfortable and…" I stopped feeling more tears coming to the surface. Damn hormones.

He smoothed my hair and kissed my head. "I think you're beautiful even puffy and fat and in too tight clothes."

"As surprising as it may sound, that does NOT make me feel better," I grumbled.

He sighed. "What do you need from me, then? Cause I'm obviously not getting it."

I wiped my eyes with the hem of my t-shirt. It didn't fit over my belly anymore anyway. "I need to know you still….shit. It's stupid."

"No, it's not. I still what?"

"Well, you don't so why even bother mentioning it."

"Dammit, Bella just spit it out."

"Fine," I exploded, exasperated. "It's pretty damn obvious you don't want me anymore, and that you don't really find me attractive anymore. I'm too damn fat for anything anyway. I can't hardly go to the bonfires because I get stuck when I sit down" the memory of falling over the log and not being able to get back up flashed through my mind and my face burned "you don't ever look at me anymore and you don't call me pretty girl…it's like I'm just a fucking incubator and that's what I feel like."

He was silent. "What do you mean I don't look at you? And how the hell do you know what I'm thinking? You can't read my mind."

I sighed and pulled away from him. "You don't look at me the way you used to, Jake, like you were a…well, a wolf, and I was a juicy steak." He chuckled. "You don't ever try anything with me anymore," my cheeks burned "and you stopped peaking in on me in the shower. What else am I supposed to conclude?"

He lay back across the bed, his hands over his face. He was shaking and I tensed, thinking he was angry. Then I heard him snort and realized he was laughing. Fucker was LAUGHING. This made me angry again. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. He kept laughing so I looked around. I found a package of diapers and I launched them at him, hitting him in the stomach. "It's not funny, asshole."

He let out an "oof" and sat up looking at me with a grin. "God you're dense. Would you calm the fuck down and let me explain?" He ducked as a package of wet wipes flew at his head. I scowled but took a seat on the box that was the crib.

"All right, first off, I have NEVER stopped wanting you, and I don't expect that to stop soon. I just was trying to give you some space. You were so sensitive about everything at the beginning; I figured you didn't want me." I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth to say something but he held up a finger. "I'm not done. You have to wait your turn." I narrowed my eyes but complied.

"I don't look at you the same because you're NOT the same. You're different. You're not a skinny little girl anymore, Bella, you're a woman." I wasn't sure quite how to take this. It wasn't offensive, but I didn't feel complimented either. "I don't peak in at you in the shower because I know you're self conscious and I don't want to make it worse. If I thought you wouldn't castrate me, I'd shower with you."

I felt myself relax some. He'd been distant for me, not because of me. "Did you ever think to just ask me if you could join me or if I was interested in you or anything?"

"Fuck no. You've been so pissy the last few months I didn't want to risk physical damage to myself."

I felt more tears pricking the back of my eyes. I wiped at them angrily.

"Truth be told, I'm scared shitless about this. I haven't put the crib together because I'm afraid I'll do it wrong and the bed will collapse the first time we put the baby in. I'm afraid I'll drop him on his head or accidentally drown him in a bath or something."

"I'm afraid it'll hate me," I confessed softly.

"HE," Jake hated me calling the baby it, but I didn't really want to assign a gender "will love you, almost as much as I do."

I rolled my eyes but didn't say anything. Jake sighed and crossed the room and pulled me into a hug. "Shit, Bella, we're statistics. We're both scared but we'll get through it."

I leaned into him, breathing in his scent. The baby moved inside me, sluggish due to the lack of space. I felt a light tap, as though it was trying to get my attention. I pulled back from Jake and looked down at it. I felt something pressing against my stomach. I grimaced and pressed my hand against it. It pressed back, then disappeared. A moment later, it either kicked or punched me where my hand was hard enough that Jake saw it. He chuckled.

"See? He's telling you he loves you," he said softly, putting his hand over mine. "Everything's going to work out somehow."

The baby stopped moving and went back to being still in his tight quarters. I felt a tug at my heart and I put my other hand on the other side of my belly. I still wasn't ready, I still didn't like being pregnant, but suddenly the prospect of meeting this little tiny person didn't seem so bad.

Jake's POV

I could not wait for the baby to be born, not just because I was eager to meet the little guy, but because then hopefully Bella's mood would improve. She was so bitchy lately no one really wanted to be around her much. The guys had stopped coming around so much and even Charlie's weekend visits were pretty short.

She was huge. I sometimes wondered if there was in fact more than one in there. The doctor had assured us the baby was fine and alone, but I was skeptical. It probably didn't help that I was 18 inches taller than Bella. The doctor just pointed out that my genes were probably creating a larger baby, which only irritated Bella.

Dad, Charlie and I were constantly on eggshells around her, extremely careful of what we said and did. I was afraid they were going to jump ship one of these days and leave me alone with her. Since she wasn't in school anymore, she was home all day long with Dad and I could tell it was driving him a little crazy.

I rubbed her feet while we sat on the couch, watching some random game show. Tonight Bella was in a surprisingly good mood. She'd made a big pasta salad for dinner with tuna and peas and corn and some other shit in it that tasted crazy good. It was a cold salad, too, so she didn't complain too much about being on her feet in the heat.

She shifted and grimaced. "I'm sweaty," she complained. "I'm going to go take a shower." She swung her feet off my lap and pushed herself up off the couch.

As she walked away, I frowned at her back. "Shit, Bells, you wet yourself."

She twisted trying to see her back. "No I didn't," she said indignantly. "I haven't had to pee for like an hour."

"Then why are you so wet?"

She frowned and then grimaced. "Shit I thought it was indigestion."

"What was indigestion?"

She sighed. "I'm in labor. I just really hoped it was false labor or indigestion. That," she gestured to her backside "is the result of my water breaking."