Another chapter for you all! I have to tell you that I loved writing the scene in the forest. Bianca's gone through so much, and changed in so many ways. It was like the old Bianca was showing and she was her old self, before werewolves and vampires.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing from the Twilight Saga.

I woke up to the sound of voices floating up the stairs. Charlie's was loud and welcoming, surprising me. The other voice was husky, and very familiar.

Jacob.

I hadn't seen him in three days. I hadn't heard anything from the Cullens in three days. It was killing me, having to act like I didn't know anything. School work was awful. I was grounded from Embry completely, with no contact, because Charlie thought that he was the main reason for my leaving. It had gotten so bad that Embry sneaked over the night before last to see me during one of his patrols. I had seen him for twenty minutes before he had to leave again.

I missed the wolves. I missed the Cullens. I missed Nessie. I missed Embry. I missed Bella. I missed everyone and everything.

As I sat up, I heard the sound of the door closing. I jumped up and rushed across the hall to Bella's old room. I looked through her window to see Jacob, leading Charlie across the lawn and into the woods. Charlie looked really confused, and Jacob was talking a lot.

I wasn't sure what Jacob was doing, but something gave me a bad feeling.

I hurried back across the hall to my room. I quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a clean shirt. I hurried downstairs, slipped my feet into my boots, and rushed outside, heading into the woods after them.

I followed the trail, knowing that Jacob wouldn't stray from it. I was hurrying, afraid that he was going to do something extremely stupid.

"If she's back, I'm going to see her," said Charlie's voice. "Right now."

"Hold on a sec, Charlie," said Jacob's voice. "I've got to show you something."

There were a few moments of silence as I kept hurrying forward. Then -

"Jacob, what are you doing? Why are you -?"

I turned around the corner to see Jacob and Charlie. The path had widened into a bit of a clearing. They stood, facing each other. From my position, I was on Jacob's right side, and Charlie's left, but was still several yards away. Neither payed me any attention.

"Don't worry, Charlie, it'll make sense in a minute," said Jacob. He was smiling slightly, enjoying Charlie's freaked out face.

He leaned down and pulled his shorts off. And then it clicked in my head.

He was phasing.

I didn't understand why he was phasing in front of Charlie. And it didn't even bother me that Jacob was naked, though I made sure to avoid looking at anything.

All I knew was that Charlie was going to have a heart attack when he saw Jacob phase. Jacob couldn't tell Charlie his secret! He'd find out about Embry and then Bella and -

"Jacob Black!" I shrieked, running toward him. "Don't you dare!"

Jacob and Charlie both turned to look at me.

"Bianca?" asked Charlie.

"I'm sorry, B. I've got to," said Jacob. I was almost there. If I got too close he wouldn't phase, he'd be too afraid to hurt me -

Jacob phased.

"NO!" I jumped in front of Charlie, hands up, trying to stop Jacob.

It still amazed me when one of the wolves phased. It was as if they just suddenly exploded. Like a wolf was trapped inside of them and when they phased, he escaped and took over.

The large, russet wolf landed on all four paws. His eyes stared down at me, silently asking me to forgive him.

"You idiot!" I shrieked. "Phase back so I can kill you!"

Jacob barked a laughed and made a face, obviously making fun of me. Then, his eyes moved to Charlie and his face dropped. He suddenly became very serious, staring with round eyes.

I turned around to see Charlie, clutching a tree for support. His face was pale and his breathing was labored, as if he were in shock. He was looking at Jacob with wide eyes, shaking his head.

I felt a shimmer in the air as Jacob phased back again. He moved fast, pulling his shorts on before Charlie could say anything.

"Charlie," said Jacob, standing next to me, completely dressed. "You don't live in the world you thought you lived in. The good news is, nothing has changed - except that now you know. Life'll go on the same it always has. You can go right back to pretending that you don't believe any of this."

Charlie was breathing deeply. His heart rate was obviously slowing. He took another deep breath and then turned to glare at me.

"You knew about this? You knew that Jacob was a - uh -?"

"Werewolf," Jacob said. "And you can't blame her. She can't tell anyone."

"But how do you know, Bianca?" asked Charlie. He raised his eyebrows, as if he already knew the answer, he was just waiting for me to confirm it.

"Embry's a werewolf," I murmured softly.

It was silent for a beat. Then -

"You can't see him anymore."

"Dad," I protested "You can't -"

"I can and I will. I am the parent, and what I say goes," he said quickly, cutting off all discussion. I was momentarily stunned. "Now. What's really going on with the whole rare-disease thing? Was Bella really even sick? You said that she had come home."

"She was sick. And she was dying. The change was necessary," said Jacob. "But she's fine now. It's just that she kind of had to go through a bit of a change to get better."

"What kind of 'change?'"

"Well . . . she looks a lot more like Esme than she does Renee."

Charlie closed his eyes for a few moments, silently working through everything. Then, he sighed.

"Can she turn into an animal, too?" he asked quietly, as if dreading the answer.

Jacob chuckled. "She wishes she was that cool!"

I rolled my eyes and turned back to Charlie. "Dad, maybe you should hear more about werewolves. You'll understand more, and-"

"No," said Charlie, holding up a hand. "I'd rather not know the specifics. . . . But I do want to know something else. Did Bella know what she was doing when she married Edward?"

"Sure," said Jacob, "she's known all about this for years, ever since she first came to Forks."

I turned and glared at Jacob, silently telling him that the next time he was sleeping, I would slit his throat.

Charlie looked angry. "She knew? And she still married him?"

"Dad, she loves him," I said softly.

"Did you know, before you started dating Embry? Did you know about all this?" he asked me.

I could sense that Jacob felt slightly guilty. Good.

"Yes," I said softly, staring at the ground.

Charlie got angry. He ranted about how Bella and I never told him anything. He was our father, he was supposed to protect us from these things. Why did we have to keep it from him?

I stared at the ground, brushing away a few tears. I felt awful, felt extremely guilty for always lying to him, but we had done it to protect him.

When he finally calmed down, he seemed to feel a lot better. It was as if he had already accepted things in Forks were strange and this was just more proof. He sighed.

"Okay, I only want two things," he said. He held up one finger. "I want to see Bella, to make sure she's okay."

Jacob nodded. "That can work. But, you should let me go ahead of you to explain."

Charlie nodded. Then, he held up his other finger.

" And I want to be told as little as possible about this," he said. "If it's not essential for me to know, I don't want to hear it. Need to know, only."

I felt a smile spread across my face and turned to look at Jacob. He was smiling as well.

"That's perfect," said Jacob. "Well, I'll go tell them you're coming."

He wheeled around to head farther into the woods, but turned back to face us again.

"Wait, I forgot to tell you," he said. "Edward and Bella have inherited a new little mouth to feed."

Charlie's eyebrows lifted, but he was already too shocked for this to really affect him. "What do you mean?"

"She's an orphan that they're adopting," Jacob continued. "Her name is Nessie."

"So, wait, they're adopting a little girl? Like a daughter? Like I'm sort of a grandfather?" he said. There was a small smile on his face.

I smiled at how happy Charlie was.

"Yes," Jacob said. "She's more special than all of us put together. Trust me, you don't want to know about this. But if you can ignore all the strange parts, you're going to be amazed. She's the most wonderful person in the whole world."

I grinned at Jacob, who was almost glowing.

"If you can deal with that, they'll stick around for a while and you'll get a chance to get to know her. But if it's too much, they're going to leave."

When he said that, I finally realized why Jacob had revealed his secret to Charlie. They were going to leave, to pretend Bella was dead. Which meant he was going to lose Nessie. He did this so he wouldn't lose her.

"As long as no one forces too much information on me, I'll deal," said Charlie.

Jacob and I grinned again.

"Now can I see Bella?" he asked.

Jacob nodded. "I'll just go tell them."

He turned and rushed back into the woods.

When he was gone, Charlie turned on me.

"You're grounded for two more weeks," he said, walking past me.

I sighed and followed him down the path, back toward the house. "It wasn't just me. It was Bella, too."

"Well, I can't punish Bella anymore, can I? And you're not allowed to see Embry anymore. It's not safe"

"Dad," I argued "You can't keep Embry and I apart."

"Yes, I can."

"No," I said. "You can't. There's a werewolf bond between us that you can't break."

Charlie raised his hands to his ears. "Don't tell me anything."

"Dad, if you just listen -"

"No, Bianca," he said sternly. "I don't want to hear it."

We reached the edge of the woods and headed toward the house.

"Fine. But I'm coming with you to see Bella. I have just as much a right to see her as you do," I said stubbornly.

"That's fine," he said. We reached the door and he opened it for me, letting me go in first. "I'm going to take a shower and then we can leave."

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