Chapter 21

After talking to Leah, I decided to go back to Jake's house. I was surprised to see him sitting on the front porch when I got there, half asleep.

"Jake," I said, walking up to sit next to him.

"Yeah? Oh hey," he said with a yawn. "I didn't know how long you would be, so I just thought I would sit here and wait for you. I was just about to go make sure you were still alive," he laughed.

"Yep. I'm just fine," I said with a smile.

"So you're ok now?"

"Yeah."

"It's the same thing that Leah went through?" he asked, sounding confused.

"Yep. Just a part of being a werewolf," I added.

"Oh." He sounded upset.

"What?"

"What does that mean, like for the future and all?" If he was asking what I think he was asking, I never really put much thought into the future that way.

"I don't know. Leah and I have a theory. We don't know how true it is, but it seems about right."

"And what's that?" he asked, sounding truly interested.

"Well, without getting too into it, we think that since we aren't aging or changing anymore, that our bodies don't go through it's normal changes. We think that once we stop phasing, it will all go back to normal. Make sense?"

"Yeah, it does actually." He smiled while wrapping an arm around me and I leaned into him. "Kids are still an option in the future, but just not right now. That sounds ok."

"Sounds ok to me too," I said and I wondered what he was thinking about the kids subject. I haven't really thought about it much. I never really picture myself as a mother. I enjoyed other people's kids, but my own? The thought was kind of scary.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked.

"Nothing really. "

"I don't believe you," he said with a laugh.

"Well, I was just thinking about the whole subject of kids and having one of my own. I never could picture myself as a mother, still can't really, but when I thought there might be a chance that I wouldn't have that option, yeah I was assuming the worst of course, I was sad thinking about it. I don't know, I'm just glad the option is still there, if and when the decision comes up."

"And I'm sure it will. I wouldn't mind it one day," he said, smiling at me as I looked up at him.

"You've thought about it before?"

"Well yeah. I mean, once or twice, when I thought about the future with you. Not so much just the having a kid part, but more of the process of getting one. " I took me a minute to get what he meant. I slapped his arm and he laughed. "Kidding! Kidding! But really, it will happen when the time comes and when everything is the way it's supposed to be. "

I thought back a little to the kiss that led to all of this and the image I had of what our future could be and smiled, hoping it was the future I would get.

The moment seemed to be perfect; just sitting on the porch in Jacob's arms, thinking about our future together in complete comfortable silence. It really couldn't get much better than that. A couple negative thoughts tried to creep up, but I pushed them back. Nothing was going to ruin that moment and nothing did.

By the time it was starting to get dark, I decided it was time to get home. I needed to get dinner ready and still have time to rest before I had to go out on patrol tonight. I was still actually looking forward to it. I was going to get my chance to see what Jake had done all the time, before all the new stuff happened.

Once I had gotten home, I went upstairs to change my clothes and clean up a bit. Charlie had gotten home by the time I was starting dinner. I could tell he had a good day at work, he looked happy.

"Hey Dad," I called as he walked in.

"Hey Bells."

"How was your day?"

"It was good. Not much to do, so we all just sat around playing cards and straightened stuff up. How about you?"

"Great," I said with a smile.

"Glad to hear. How's Jake?"

"He's good."

"What did you guys do all day?" he asked. Great, here he goes with the questions again.

"Well we all just sat around and hung out. I spent most of the day with Leah though, " I told him and it was the truth.

"Sounds nice," he said as he disappeared into the living room. Why did he never believe me when I was actually telling the truth?

As I was finishing dinner, the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bells, I just wanted to ask if you wanted me to patrol with you tonight? Quil volunteered to be the extra person with you and Jared tonight, but I thought I would ask. He wants patrol at nights so he can spend more time with Claire during the day." He laughed.

I thought about it for a moment and remembered him almost falling asleep earlier while he was waiting for me. "Actually, I'll be fine with them. You need to sleep. Next time you can, okay?"

"Are you sure? I don't mind."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Okay. I'll see you tomorrow then. I love you."

"I love you too."

"Who was that?" Charlie yelled as I was hanging up the phone.

"It was just Jake," I told him. "Dinner's ready."

Dinner was quiet like normal. I could tell there was something he wanted to say, but he never said anything. It wasn't until after I had finished the dishes and was heading upstairs he said something.

"Bella, is everything ok?" he asked.

"Yeah. Why?" I knew this is what he was thinking about all through dinner, but I couldn't understand why because at that time, everything was ok.

"Just asking," he said as he walked back over to the couch. I guess that was the end of that, but I could clearly see this was nowhere nears being over with. The discussion we had over at Jake's the other day was only dragging on, just as I feared.

I let it go and ran upstairs to lie down for a while. I was more tired than I had thought I was and was getting worried that I would fall asleep, so I dug around in the closet for my old alarm clock. I didn't use it anymore, because for some reason it was much quieter than my normal alarm and it rarely woke me up, but I figured that tonight it might work out fine. I hoped that it really would be quiet enough that Charlie wouldn't hear. Luckily he was usually in deep sleep by one in the morning.

It was about nine o'clock by the time I got settled into bed and decided that I had enough time to sleep a little. By the time I was starting to fall asleep, I realized that I forgot to tell Charlie I was going to bed, but it was too late, I was out.

Right as my eyes slid shut, a dream started. It was oddly bright out and I was standing in the middle of someone's yard, smiling. As I turned I could see about twenty people all gathered around having a good time, talking and laughing. I noticed the pack members first, along with the council members. As I kept looking around, I noticed Charlie sitting with Billy, but didn't pay much attention to them when I saw two kids running around, giggling and screaming. Jake was chasing them.

Emily called out to let everyone know the food was ready and I noticed one of the kids Jake was chasing was her and Sam's child, because he ran to her yelling "Mommy." Jake picked up the other adorable little boy and I had to blink a couple of times before I really noticed the resemblance. He looked exactly like Jake, except he had a little bit of a curl to his hair. He had to about two years old. Jake was tossing him into the air and tickling him, both laughing loudly as I stood there watching them with a proud smile. He must have been ours.

I walked over to them, Jake put his arm around me, the little boy reached out to me, and without a second thought I grabbed him, pulling him in for a hug. The three of us started walking towards what I recognized as Emily and Sam's house, but I stopped halfway went I caught a scent of something that made my nose burn. I turned quickly towards the scent as I set the little boy down, pointing towards Charlie and he ran to him. My dad didn't even take a second look before his expression changed and he took the little boy into the house.

Jake dropped his arm from around me and we were both now staring at a black shadow in the trees, which was now growling viciously at us. Before I could even comprehend what was going on, my body was shaking and I phased within seconds, running as fast as I could at the vampire. I leaped into the air and heard a strange faint buzzing noise surrounding me. My eyes shot open and I was back in my room.

I reached over, shut off my alarm, and couldn't believe it was already twelve thirty and I couldn't believe the dream I had just had. I laid in bed, still for a few moments to see if I could hear any movements coming from Charlie's room. Once it seemed quiet enough, I crawled out of bed and went to the bathroom to fix my hair, and decided to change into my sweat pants and tank top since it would be easier. I also decided that it would be easier to just not wear any shoes at all.

After I was ready to go, I thought about how exactly I was getting out of the house. I wasn't brave enough to try the window just yet, in fear that my clumsiness would come back at that moment and I'd break something. Even though I'm sure it would heal fast, haven't tried that out yet, I didn't want to go through the pain of it. In the end, the front door was my best chance, though a slim one. I was sure I wouldn't make it out unnoticed two nights in a row.

I tip-toed quietly down the stairs as I thought that if I was to get caught in the house, at least I looked like I was in my sleeping clothes. Actually, I was. Once I got to the door , I turned the lock with my eyes closed and it pulled it open, stepped outside, and pulled it closed quietly and smiled. I listened for a moment and still heard nothing. I quickly ran to the trees next to the house, checking the area before taking my clothes off to phase.

You made it, Quil said.

Yep.

We thought you were going to get busted this time, Jared added.

Yeah, me too. I laughed a little.

Ok, well Bella you can stay over in that area, you should be ok as long as you stay in covered areas. Just keep focused on what you're seeing and hearing, Jared told me.

Ok. Got it. I was still a little tired and I yawned as I walked farther away from my house, slowly starting to feel that excitement again. Quil laughed.

Man, Jake was mad that I volunteered to run tonight. He wanted to have the same shifts as you, so you guys could be together, but when you told him no he got all irritated and just went to bed.

It's not that I didn't want him too, it was just obvious he needed his sleep. For some reason he seems to not be sleeping much lately.

Yeah, he's pretty focused on those damn leeches that are coming. Trying to run all patrols while you two aren't together just in case. He always says he wants to find them first.

Trust me, none of you want to find them when you are alone. I said, trying not to imagine what could happen.

Yeah, he thinks he can handle anything. Jared added in.

Uh, you all do. Maybe one vampire at a time you can, but the Volturi… no way.

So what, do they all have these power like things they can use from far away? Jared asked.

Well… I thought for a moment, getting together the images to fit the names and their abilities. Jane can make you think you are in extremely horrible pain, when there is nothing wrong with you. When she stops, you are able to stand up like nothing ever happened. I showed them what happened when she used it on Edward when we were in Italy. They both groaned a little. Alec can shut off all your senses. While he's using his ability, you can't hear, see, smell, or feel anything. It's kind of like your whole body shuts down. I heard they use that when they occasionally take pity on whoever they are punishing, so they won't feel what's coming. Aro, well all he can do is hear and see every thought that has ever entered your head, but he has to be touching you while he does it. That's all I really know of. I thought of the tracker one, but he wasn't really worth mentioning.

So how do we stop them? Quil asked.

That's the problem. I don't think we can. We're hoping that they will listen to what's going on and change their mind. Carlisle thinks they will listen, but is afraid of their reactions afterwards. I just try not to think about it. They don't honor truces with werewolves, they don't trust them, I mean us, so I can already tell the outcome will not be good.

So we got to get to them before they have the time to decide what to do.

That's not possible Quil. I really don't know what there is to do except wait and hope for the best.

Alright, we'll stop talking about it. He said and he went back to focusing on his patrol.

Thanks. I sniffed at everything and watched carefully. It was all new to me; being out in the woods at night and actually being able to see things that I couldn't before and smell things I never really paid attention too. It was pretty cool.

The time seemed to go by faster than I had thought. I had no idea what time it was, but I could tell the sun had started to rise by the tint in the sky to the east. Quil had fallen asleep about an hour before and Jared was about to as he was thinking about Kim again. He thought about her a lot, I ignored most of it.

By morning I was starting to get bored. I had covered every area twice and I was now on my way back home. I hoped that my next patrol I could go somewhere different. Once I was finally close enough to my house to tell that Charlie was still asleep, I realized that that would be my next problem. He would be waking up soon and me sneaking in could be harder than sneaking out. While I was in the middle of the thought Sam phased in.

So, how did everything go last night? he asked.

Good. Well, nothing out of the ordinary anyway, I told him.

That's good. Well you can go ahead and go back now.

Ok. See you later.

Hey , wait a sec. He called right as I was about to change back. I was thinking and I've decided that maybe we need to switch the timing a little. Maybe you can start earlier at night so you don't have to worry about the timing when you go home. Also, after your day shift tomorrow, if you like that better maybe you can stick to that. It's up to you. Think about it and let me know.

Ok, I will. Earlier nights would be easier. I'm just hoping that I'm able to make it in now.

Well, just go in now and if not I'll think of something.

I laughed slightly. Alright. See you.

I changed back, got dressed fast and ran to my front door. It was still soundless inside and I was pretty sure he was still asleep. I opened the door quietly and walked inside. I stopped for a moment and it was still silent. I closed the door and went into the kitchen to get some water. I left my glass on the counter just in case I needed the excuse. I glanced at the clock and it was a quarter to six, perfect timing.

I made it to my room quietly and fell asleep before Charlie even woke up.

A/N: Sorry it took so long to post this. Unfortunately life gets distracting. Lol. Anyways, I hope you guys like this chapter. Don't forget to review. =)

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