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"Hello?"
"Izzy, are you alright?!?"
"Calm down Jack, I'm fine."
"I heard you."
"You did," I asked, stunned. I'd called to him in my greatest fear and with the faintest of hopes, and he'd heard me.
"Yes, that's what I said," he replied quickly, with an edge of impatience," I was laying around in my room reading and thinking about something I found in my research when I thought I heard something. I got into a meditative state, because of the whole expanding awareness bit, and I heard you. It was like you were screaming from far away, I couldn't hear words, I just recognized your voice and you sounded so scared…what's going on?"
My mind and heart both paused for a moment. What was I going to do? I couldn't tell him about Laurent and Victoria without explaining about the Cullens and breaking faith with them as a result. There was also the fact that telling him would put him, and possibly his family, in danger. Hell, my presence was now a target sign. No one that I knew was safe, if Victoria was after me.
"I saw the creature, the one that there have been rumors about. I was walking in the woods and it just ran up out of nowhere. It was massive, all those claws and teeth. I was just a few feet away from it… I thought that it was going to kill me, I just tried to stay still and quiet, but I was so scared and I had to do something so I reached for the connection and…you heard me."
"That's not all true, is it," he asked, as though he were asking the date or the time, "I can hear it in your voice."
"No, it's not, but it's all that can really say on the matter. The point is that my life was very much in danger and I called out to you. Jack, could you try calling to me? Not now, but later when I'm not expecting it. "
"I will. Izzy, would you mind it much if we made our breakfast tomorrow a little earlier? We'll have a lot to discuss. Be careful Bella."
"Not Izzy," I said, curious.
"Not when I actually intend to call you sweetheart."
His voice was thickened slightly by emotion but steady and confident. We'd been flirting for weeks, we'd danced together, and it had all been a part of the blurred but close friendship of ours. That sentence felt like it was a part of something entirely different. Then he hung up and I pulled into the driveway of my home and just sat there for a while.
Eventually I went inside, made a quick dinner for Charlie and continued on upstairs. I laid down on my bed and sent a mental curse in Edward's vague direction for leaving problems like this. I had no way of contacting the Cullens, who might have been able to protect me from Victoria. I could, I suppose have tried to find the coven in Denali, but Laurent might have returned there. I put it from my mind and was about to fall asleep when a sound drew me back to awareness; Jack. I couldn't hear his words but it was his voice. Where I had sounded afraid, he sounded soothing, and I fell asleep shortly after I ceased to hear it.
I brought tea, fresh bread, and fruit for breakfast that next morning. He was waiting with blanket in hand, an hour before we'd normally meet.
"Lady you shame the morning. Be less fair, or less lovely, or the sun may find itself outshone," he said lightly as mischief in his smile belied the purpose of our early meeting.
"Your mouth to God's ears. Be less flattering or you may find yourself hungry," I responded lightly. We were venturing into unknown territory that morning and starting on familiar ground was comforting. We spread out the blanket on the back of my truck. It was still a bit dark out, but the sky was lighting slowly. Eventually I started.
"I heard you," I murmured, " what did you say?"
"Goodnight, my sweetheart, my friend. May dreams bring you peace," he replied, his voice as quiet as mine had been," I repeated it a few times. So this goes both ways. What else has been happening since this connection appeared?"
"Before we start, you have to promise that you won't tell anyone about things related to this unless we both decide that we should. My secrets, and yours, are going to have to be ours to share and to hide as needed."
"I understand that. I promise."
He looked into my eyes as he spoke, and I realized how much I trusted him. When had I started to trust him this way?
"Alright. I think that I may be having prophetic dreams and I had one a while ago that might be a clue as to what we're dealing with or where to look. Other than that, I find myself being… I feel…."
I turned away from him, embarrassed, but he just touched my face, running soft fingers down the side facing away from him and whispered, " I need to see your eyes. Could you, good lady, do me the honor of allowing me?"
I turned and looked into his eyes, then he continued.
"You were going to say that you find yourself being defensive of me, more so than you think that you should, and that you feel drawn to me, but faltered because friends don't say things like that. I know that because it's true. I've been just sort of "knowing" things about people, or if they're telling the truth. It seems to revolve around eye contact. It's part of the reason that I'm winning in our guessing game. I've been feeling the same things. I hit my brother for an implication he made about you while we were talking."
"No wonder he was sharp with me."
"Don't worry about it," he said dismissively, "so the angel is a prophet, tell me what you saw that might be a clue."
I told him about the dream with the book covers, being sure to keep my eyes on his so that he'd catch any relevant detail that I left out.
"So, if your dreams are to be believed, all of this has something to do with the family business. It also means that Alexandra and, by extension, Jamie have something to do with this also."
His expression was pensive, and somewhat troubled. I wanted to let him contemplate, but some moments won't allow for that.
"What were they like together? Tell me about them."
"They were close. Alexandra had Jamie hooked from their first conversation. He spent a lot of time alone around the time when he met her, but she saw more of him than the rest of our family combined. After she met our parents, I saw even less of them both. When we did cross paths, when Jamie decided to catch up or wanted a guy to beat at a game, it was like visiting in another country. There was this odd sense that I was missing something. There were undercurrents of things beyond my experience. He was so happy with her… words can't describe it. When she died, he had to be put on suicide watch for a couple of months. Eventually he got better, started to cope and continued living."
He'd focused his eyes on some random point on the tree line at the edge of the parking lot as he spoke. The pain in his voice had me reaching out for his hand and he let me comfort him in that small way.
"You think that they were like us," I said, unsure if I was asking or telling.
"Maybe, I overheard a conversation the morning before your first visit. Both of my parents are involved not just my mother. I almost feel like we're being led to something. Jamie taught me to meditate and then asked me to tell him if I felt something weird. Mom, not realizing that, asked us to meditate together. Do you think that it's possible that-"
He was talking faster and faster by the moment, thinking aloud, I finished his sentence to remind him of my presence before he wandered too far into his thoughts.
"-that they've known all along and are waiting for us to figure it out? That seems to be the case, Jack."
"So the questions remain. What is going on and what are we going to do about it," he sighed, lying back onto the blanket. I lay back also, turning onto my side so that I could look at him as we spoke.
"It's your family, you would know best. Are we being led in any direction that we want to go in?"
"I can't believe that they'd choose to hurt us." He said firmly before his face lit and he continued. "What are you doing on Valentine's Day?"
"No current plans, why?"
"It's next week, my parents always make a big deal out of it. We could research on our own this week and ask them about it after dinner on St. Valentine's. Would you do me the honor?"
"Dinner and an interrogation? How lovely. I'll be happy to join you. It's a good plan. So, now we'd better eat or we'll have to go to class hungry."
We ate in silence before going on to a fairly uneventful day. After classes, we met at my truck and sat in the cab, exchanging information that we'd gotten from our week of individual research. There wasn't much, he'd found the same useless websites about soul mates and psychic connections. Over the next few days, our work developed a pattern I worked on the computer at Jack's house looking for odd news stories connected to his family while he searched old boxes from the attic for anything that might give us a clue as to what was going on. His parents were out at the reservation, exploring and researching, so we were free to search without having to worry.
To our mutual disappointment, all we found was an interesting and impressive history of happy marriages in his family, most on his mother's side. On Friday afternoon, his parents returned as I was leaving and his mother mentioned how nice it was going to be to have me at the Valentine's dinner and told me that they tended to run a little late, so that I could plan accordingly.
On Saturday, I had another successful lesson with Deputy Steve and that evening, to my utter joy and elation, Jacob called to tell me that he'd finished the bikes.
Sunday morning found me pushing my truck to its limits to get to La Push. Jacob was waiting on the front porch when I arrived. I ran up and hugged him as hard as I could.
"Jacob you did it! You rule," I shouted.
"Good morning to you too, Bella," he said grinning from ear to ear.
"Formalities are for patient people, Jacob. I want to ride."
"Ok, I know just the place. Let me get the bikes onto your truck, and we'll get going."
I made him allow me to put my own bike onto the truck, using a plank of wood as a ramp. Then I handed him the keys and he drove down an old trail. On the way, I saw some boys lined up by a rock on top of a hill in wetsuits, when one of them jumped I nearly panicked before I realized that they were cliff diving. I asked Jacob about it and he told me that it was a popular hobby, and that I might want to try it someday. I nearly told him that I'd like to, but then I remembered Jack, and Jamie's reaction to Alexandra's accident. If we were like them, then I couldn't afford risks like that.
"No thanks, Jacob, I like living. Are we almost there?"
"Better than almost, we're here. We have to walk the bikes a bit first though."
We took the bikes off of the truck and started walking.
"So Bella, how've you been? I really wish you'd come this way more often."
"I would but my friends in Forks keep me busy, and we're seniors, so we'll all be off in different directions next year. I know where you'll be."
"Good point, I guess you've got plans for where you're going?"
He sounded a little dejected, but he had to face the facts.
"Seattle, if I'm lucky. Is this the place?"
"Yeah, let's ride."
Riding with Jacob turned out to be far less complicated that talking with him. My bike was quite different from the deputy's but with Jacob's help I got a good feel for it. At some point I'd been paying more attention to a blond joke that Quill had told Jacob than where I was going and nearly hit a tree. I swerved and lost balance as I was stopping and the bike fell on top of me. Jacob rushed over and pulled it off, and I was fine. It would have been so much worse had I been ridiculous enough to try it without having read a manual or taking lessons first.
We packed up and left shortly after that, and on our way back to his house I told him that I planned to take the bike home with me.
"I don't mind you leaving it here," Jacob pointed out.
"I know but I do. I'll need it for my next lesson and once I get my license it will make more sense to have it at home."
"Will you still come ride with me sometimes?"
"Absolutely, Jake, you're my friend. Besides you could always come ride around Forks with me."
"I guess I could. I'd hate it if we couldn't spend time together anymore."
He was overestimating the value that I placed on my time with him, and managing to fail at flirting at the same time. I tried to subtly point out that I wasn't returning his interest.
"I know, it sucks when friends get separated."
"So, what are you doing on Valentine's day, it's on Tuesday, right?"
"I'm going to school, then going home and changing then having dinner with a friend."
"A friend?"
"Do I hear a parrot," I said with false and joking confusion.
"Sorry, just, call me. Ok?"
"I promise, I will."
He looked mildly unhappy but he smiled as we pulled up to his house. He leaned over and gave me a hug then got out of the truck. He got his bike of off my truck and waved goodbye as I drove away.
When I got home I told Charlie about my progress with the motorbikes. He was glad to hear that I was enjoying it, though he reminded me to be careful. I made dinner and went upstairs to study. Before bed, I made an emergency pack with a change of clothes, some money, and the plane ticket that the Cullen's had given me. Jack was sure that his family couldn't possibly mean us harm, but I wanted to be ready just in case. Besides with Victoria upset with me, a change of scene might be more necessary than I was ready to admit. I wrapped the pack in a small plastic tarp and made plans to strap it to the bed of my truck the next morning.
That night I dreamt of oceans. I stared out across wide expanses, and knew that I was seeing two different oceans and that there were two very different choices. Both felt urgent, and the waters were troubled and though I could feel the connection with Jack, I knew that he couldn't help me he in either case. I closed my eyes within the dream, knowing somehow that I had time to rest before making a decision in either case, and when I woke up the next morning I could still smell the salt and hear the crashing of distant waves.
YOU GUYS RULE!!!! I got too many reviews to both respond to them all individually and get this chapter out today, so thank you all, and your suggestions and concerns have been noted. For those who wanted more Jacob… I'll try, but it'll be a while. I tried to do better about the whole "talking heads" approach to conversation in this chapter and I'll keep working on it. I'll try to avoid taking dialogue directly from the book where I can from now on… thanks to everyone for reviewing and I may go back through and reply to them all soon.
Moving on: this chapter was about sort of reviewing the hints that have been dropped and setting up for the next chapter which I've actually been sort of anticipating from the start. Next chapter: Valentine's Day brings more than just candy hearts as Izzy joins Jack's family for dinner. Secrets, surprises and a choice that could forever alter the fates of those involved….hopefully to be posted by Sunday evening, or possibly Wednesday, depending on how long it ends up being.
see you next chapter:)