AN: Chapter's a bit shorter than usual, and more of a filler than normal as well. Hope you like it anyway.

Jared POV

I dropped my car off at home, and headed out. But my path led me not back to Bella's house, but over to Paul's. A tap on the window, and he opened it to slip outside. We headed away from the house, to the concealment of the woods.

"What happened today?" I asked.

"That b—Lauren," he spat, "basically accused Bella of cheating on you with Jake."

My body tensed, and my breath hissed through my teeth. "She what?"

"You heard me." He shook his head. "I know we don't think the same way girls do, but is she insane or something? I mean, how could she think something like that, just from a walk along the beach, after seeing the sex-show you and Bella put on?"

While I got, and agreed with, his thoughts, his mode of expressing them had me launching a lightning-quick slap to his head.

"Ow!" he exclaimed.

"Watch your language," I warned. "That's my girlfriend you're talking about here."

"Sorry."

"It's okay, I guess. Thanks for taking care of it for me," I told him.

"Don't mention it. Glad I could help. You gonna ask Bella about it? Betcha ten bucks she downplays it."

"No bet—I don't feel like giving you any money." I agreed with him: Bella would almost certainly insist that that had happened was no big deal. It was one of the lovable, exasperating things about her: that no matter what someone might say or do, she would never retaliate like most people would.

I headed off then to phase and run to Bella's. When I got there, Bella was lying on her bed, reading a book.

"Hey, gorgeous," I told her.

"Jared!" her face lit up to see me again, even though it hadn't been even an hour since I'd said goodbye to her.

We curled up on her bed, and I began to play idly with a curl of her hair.

"Bella, do you know what was up with that girl today on the beach?"

"Lauren?" she knew exactly what I meant.

"Yeah."

"I..."

"Bella, it's not like I'm going to go after her, or anything--unless she deserves it, of course. I just want to know why she hates you so much." And I meant every word. If that b-witch was a threat to Bella, then she would be dealt with. One way or another.

"I think Paul really nailed it: she's jealous, though I can't really figure out why," Bella began.

"Well, when did it start?" A good place to begin, in my opinion.

"Remember my first pack meeting, when I talked about being the 'shiny new toy'? Well, a lot of people were really focused on me. For some reason, that included a lot of the guys. They were being so stupid—ignoring girls who were interested in them, and just paying attention to me, even when I told them I wasn't interested. It was really annoying. I wasn't encouraging them; quite the opposite, in fact." I wasn't about to say so, but I could totally understand why they'd acted that way. Bella's appeal to others wasn't ostentatious, but incredibly compelling. And it was one of her charms that she was totally unconscious of how others saw her.

"Mike, Eric, and Tyler all asked me to prom last year—on the same day and back-to-back no less. I convinced Mike to ask Jessica instead, and Angela asked Eric. Jessica said that Lauren liked Tyler and I guess she blamed me for Tyler not asking her first. Of course, the idiot was only feeling guilty for almost killing me." My heart almost stopped to hear her say that last bit so casually.

"Tyler almost killed you?"

"Did Ben not mention the accident when you two talked last week?"

"That was him?" By some miracle, I somehow managed to keep the volume of my voice down. "He's the idiot who almost crushed you with his van?"

"He didn't mean to," Bella tried to excuse it, but I wasn't going to have it.

"It isn't as if he didn't know better, Bella. If the road conditions were bad, it was his responsibility as a driver to be more careful. He probably doesn't even realize how lucky he was that things happened the way they did, that someone was there to save you. He could have hit a family's minivan, or a crowd of students, or—" Bella cut me off, very effectively, with a kiss.

"He could have," she agreed, "but he didn't. So why worry about it now?" Why indeed?

"I can think of better things to do," I concurred, shifting for a better position to continue kissing her.

***

I left for home early the next morning.

Have a good time? Sam was amused.

I did, actually. I replied, doing my best to keep my mind blank. Then, I didn't have to, as I remembered what I did want to talk to him about.

Sam?

Yeah?

I think we need to do something about Embry's situation.

Why?

Did you see his face at the bonfire last night? Can't you feel what not knowing the truth is doing to him? This whole thing is like a huge elephant in the room that everyone's trying to pretend isn't even there.

This isn't your concern, he told me.

What affects one of us, affects us all. And one way or another, most of the pack is directly affected. I know I'm on the outside of this, Sam; I won't even pretend to truly understand how you and Jacob and Quil must be feeling about this. But how much longer can you, can all of us, live with this uncertainty? Wouldn't it be better to just find out, so it can be dealt with once and for all?

His thoughts were guarded. Thank you for your insight, Jared. I'll consider what you've said, and discuss matters with the other elders to gain their thoughts.

I knew that the issue was closed, so I closed the rest of the distance to home.

***

Bella POV

Before my usual Wednesday dinner with Jared and his family, I made a point of swinging by Sam's house, knowing that most of the pack was likely to be there.

"Hey, Bella, Jared's not here," Paul told me as I walked in.

"I know, I'm actually here for you," I replied.

"Hold on here," Paul's panic was evident, and I had to grin.

"These are for you," I handed him a bag full of chocolate-chocolate chip cookies I'd made the night before.

His eyes lit up, and one hand darted into the bag and pulled out a handful of cookies, which instantly went into his mouth. "Mmmm," Paul mumbled. He swallowed. "I adore you!"

I had to laugh; this was certainly a change. "They're just cookies."

He shook his head. "Nope. These are the best cookies ever. Keep making them, and I'm your willing slave."

"I think the job's already taken. But there's a spot open for a friend, if you want it."

"Sounds good. And if that…girl…bothers you again, just let one of us know, okay?"

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that. I was hoping that Lauren would just go back to ignoring me for the remaining two months of our senior year.

I handed the rest of the bags to Emily. "There's a bag for everyone, to be fair. Gotta run."

***

Somehow everyone had gotten together to convince me, and Charlie, to host a Final Four party at our house on Saturday. I didn't pay too much attention, moving back and forth between the kitchen and the living room to refill bowls and cups. Between games, Jared nudged me into a comfortable seat. "You girls take it easy for a while. We'll handle some clean-up."

"We will?" Embry asked, quickly revising that into, "We will."

Emily sank down next to me. "How did you do it, Bella?" she asked me.

"Do what?" I was puzzled.

"Get him to do that?"

"He helps me out here when he's over," I replied. "It's nothing new."

Quil coughed, "Whipped," under his breath, although I think most of the people in the house heard him regardless. Sam propelled the rest of the group into the kitchen as well, and they got things put back into a semblance of order in plenty of time to be ready for the second half of the evening.

Jake turned to where Charlie and Billy were rehashing the last game. "Flat screen open on Monday, Charlie?" he asked.

"Championship game? Sure, come on over." I was a little surprised that Charlie was welcoming another pack invasion, but I guessed he was glad of the chance to get to know my new friends better.

Harry Clearwater joined us on Monday, along with his son, Seth.

"Good grief, Harry," Charlie exclaimed, "what in the world do you guys feed your kids? They're all growing by leaps and bounds."

I glanced over to see what he meant. Seth did appear to be in the middle of a growth spurt. His clothes had the look of being on the verge of being outgrown, and his movements were awkward and gangly, as if he wasn't quite sure how to move. Harry's face was carefully non-committal as he made some comment about growing boys, but I could tell that the pack had definitely taken notice. I seized the first convenient moment to pull Jared aside.

"Is it…?" I asked.

Jared grimaced. "Probably. He's got connections to the last pack, so it's not unexpected."

"How old is he?"

"Just turned fourteen."

I gave a soft gasp. So young! I didn't know him, but from what I'd seen today, Seth was good-tempered and nice. He didn't deserve this, especially at his age.

"We'll keep an eye on him Bella, So will his dad—he knows what to watch for. We'll help however we can."

"Okay," I agreed, though I probably wasn't convincing.

Back in the living room, the guys were noisily rooting for their chosen teams, and horsing around to an extent that I was starting to worry about the survival of the furniture. Jared mostly stayed out of it, apparently preferring to curl up next to me; which I wasn't about to complain over.

Our goodbye after the game was viewed with mild disapproval by Charlie, and raucous amusement by the pack.

"Shut up," Jared told Quil, catching him in a headlock, and applying a knuckle noogie to the top of his head, pulling him toward the cars at the same time.

Back inside, I finished cleaning up. My last move was to pick up the newspaper and take it to the recycle box on the back porch. An ad on the top open page caught my eye.

Muse in Concert. One day only! Saturday May 1. Key Arena, Seattle. A phone number was listed for ticket sales. I knew that the group was one of Jared's favorites, and I resolved to try and get my dad, and Jared's parents, to let me treat him to the concert as an early graduation present. It wouldn't be easy, but would be so worth it.

***

AN: There actually is a Muse concert there this weekend (I'm jealous), but I'm exercising creative license to reschedule it for plot purposes.