I was too sick for Motorcycle lessons the next morning. My head was pounding and I threw up again, though my fever was starting to fade. By around lunch I was feeling well enough to drive, so I called Jack and asked if he felt up to having Watcher lessons. He told me that he felt well enough, reminding me that all he really had to do was walk the few feet to his father's study, so I got up and pulled on a soft pair of old jeans and a long sleeved shirt before going out to my truck and leaving for Jack's house. He'd given me no indication as to how I'd be received, but remembering his words from the night before warmed me and gave me a feeling of confidence.
When I arrived Jamie was sitting on the front porch. I walked over and sat next to him.
"Did he tell you," I asked casually.
"He told all of us. You fell in love, gained a family, got played, lost a family, got smart, and gained the world. If it weren't for the whole vampire thing, you'd be a walking chick flick."
I laughed, Jamie was the height of insanity.
"So no one is mad at me," I asked, already somewhat relieved.
"Mad? No. I'm inclined to wonder at your sanity and judgment, but where love is concerned the best of us go a little nuts. Besides he also mentioned that you were a bit messed up when they left, and if anyone can understand loss in any form, it's me. Don't worry about the Watchers either, the most common watch power is foresight or a sort of elevated intuition, so they're big on 'fate' and things being 'meant to happen'. The most you'll get is a scary sounding warning about remembering your purpose. I wouldn't even have intercepted you, but I didn't want my parents to send you running again."
He said it all rather lightly with a slight smile on his face and he was so companionable that he made me think of Emmet and Jasper. I felt a flash of longing for them, but smiled at the fact that the thought that I'd gotten some parts of them back in Jamie.
"So, I guess I should get inside, are you coming?"
"No," he said pulling out a copy of the Unseen Book, " I've got some studying to do. If I'm going to help out in your training, I'll need to finish mine. Speaking of the book with the paradoxical name, next time you have the chance, look at the back cover of yours. "
I realized that I'd left my copy at home and resolved to check it out after lessons.
The study was quiet as I approached it. The door was slightly ajar and when I reached it I could see Jack sitting on the small couch with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders and his parents murmuring quietly, his mother sitting on the desk and his father in the chair. Jack was the first of them to notice me, waving me over to sit down next to him.
"You're here," he said with a smile, "I was starting to wonder if Jamie was going to keep you forever."
"Not forever," I responded as his mother walked over and put a blanket over my shoulders as well. She handed me a cup of tea before addressing me apologetically.
"I'm sorry that we frightened you before, I'm told that our delivery needs work."
"Think nothing of it, all's well that ends well right?"
"Right, which brings us to our next point…"
Joshua Stevens picked up where she left of and I wondered if the way they spoke was just the standard for Watcher to Watcher communication or it was natural for them.
"We have spoken with our associates and while your association with the Cullen clan was unusual, it was neither unexpected nor unseen. A few watchers with foresight had seen glimpses of your association with them, and because it has the potential to be helpful someday all we can really do is thank you for your honesty and tell you this.
If you ever encounter your friends the Cullens again, you are to tell them only as much as you and the others of us deem appropriate. You are, as of today, in training to become a Watcher of the North American West. Your loyalty to the other Watchers, and to their Matches, and to the world we strive to protect is imperative. You have made a choice to stand with us, and beside our son. You are always free to un-make that choice, but know that to stand against us without first informing us of your decision to leave, that is, to lie to or betray us will be punished swiftly and without mercy. We are everywhere and there is very little that we fail to see."
His voice, which had started out warm and amiable, froze quickly as he demanded my loyalty. I felt Jack tense next to me.
"Don't threaten her," he said as though he were warning them, "you've already said that she's done nothing wrong, and I won't have you talking to her with anything less than respect."
"And after this moment I will strive to be as respectful as I've raised you to be, Nimble, but she must understand," his father replied, his tone becoming friendly again.
"I do, and fully, now I believe that I came here for a lesson," I broke in sharply.
Ms. Stevens tried to defuse the tension.
"And so a lesson you shall have. It seems as though you're both very much informed about vampires so I will kindly ask that we move to Jack's room for a practical lesson. I will also ask that you read up on shape shifters before the next lesson next Saturday."
There was a round of nods and we relocated without much fuss, though Jack did ask why. His mother supplied the answer.
"We'd like to set a precedent for you doing things like meditating in a safe and comfortable space. This room and Izzy's truck are good ones. We'd also very much like for you to have your own spaces. As a rule, you should treat it as an intimate act, not unlike kissing. Unlike kissing however, among watchers meditating in someone else's space is frowned upon. Family members can be present while you do, particularly in training scenarios."
We sat on the sofa in his room and his parents sat on his bed. They told us to meditate, so we did and then they asked us to reach as one for thread that connected us. That was confusing. When we meditated we were one and the string tying us disappeared. They told us that if we found the string we'd probably find the power that we could use at its strongest when together. After that, they left the room and encouraged us to sit and relax in our meditative state.
We did for a while, eventually turning to face each other. I played with his hands, learning them by touch, by heart, and he did the same with mine. My heart race the whole time and I blushed a lot, but he just smiled softly. When it was time for me to go, he lifted the hand he'd been tracing to his lips as he stared into my eyes and it was so intimate an act that I wondered how people kissed in public or in doorsteps, how they could imagine leaving themselves so bare before the world.
"Don't go, lady fair," he said, with a voice full and heavy.
"Milord, you know that I cannot stay. We can meet and study tomorrow, shape shifters, right," I asked, it came out as more of a plea than I'd meant for it too.
"Right, here around noon? You could have lunch with us before Jamie goes back to school."
"As my lord wishes and as my heart commands," I replied softly before slipping out, thinking of how nice the afternoon had been. Jamie was still reading on the front porch when I walked out the door.
"How was it?"
"Not an unmitigated disaster, though your father revealed some serious jerk potential," I said pausing by the door to the driver's side of my truck.
"Don't forget to check your book when you get home and here," he pulled something, a letter in an old envelope, from his pocket, " this is yours read it after you check your book."
We said brief goodbyes then I drove home. When I got there I ran upstairs and looked at the inside back cover of my copy of the Unseen Book. There was a name written on it and nearly cried when I realized how important it was. The name was "Alexandra Abdima". Jamie had given the book that had belonged to his match. The letter he'd handed me was from her. I read it slowly over the course of the evening, doing other things and getting back to it. Mary Stevens had suggested that she write the letter to Jack's match, because she'd known using her match power, heightened intuition, that I would get her book. She hadn't known how I would get it, just that I would.
The letter talked about what it was like being "matched into" a family of Watchers, as I had been, and about how much she loved Jamie and the other Stevens family members, even how much she loved me, though we'd never met. She saw me as being her sister, like a baby who hadn't been born yet, she looked forward to having me around. She acknowledged the possibility that we might never meet, that she or Jamie might be lost as they carried out their duties, and left me the password to her online journal, so that she could support me as I trained, even if something happened to her.
I mourned her loss in a private sort of way, until sleep took me and I found myself falling, careening through the air towards an ocean that looked ready to swallow me whole. A flash of red on the water drew my eye, but at the same moment I was stunned by water too cold to be real and the dream shifted. The woman with the rosary and the dream that she inhabited flashed before my eyes and I tried once more to look for details that might be of service. Then I noticed the walls inside of the room as the door opened. They were dotted by dozens of tiny rainbows.
The next day I woke up feeling fine, and I called Jacob with the intention of seeing if he'd gotten better as well. Billy answered saying that he hadn't and that I shouldn't come over because I might get sick again. I sent along my best wishes for his renewed health and then I called Angela and we gabbed until I had to leave to get to lunch with Jack and his family.
Lunch and everything else that day went fine. I passed Jamie a copy that I'd made of the note from Alex, after lunch, and he read it quickly before pulling me into his arms and thanking me with a hug.
"It's very nice of you to do, Sis, like something Alex would have done," he said warmly.
"You can see the journal if you'd like to. Just ask."
"I don't think that I will. Sisters should share secrets, don't you think?"
Jack stood near me, confused, but I reached back and found his hand, pacifying him slightly. We all said our goodbyes for the moment before he got into his car and left. Then Jack and I went in to read the chapter on shape shifters.
The next few days were fairly normal, if Jacob avoiding my calls and actually telling me to "get lost" after the third pathetic excuse concerning why he couldn't hang out anymore failed. By Wednesday night I was more than a little frustrated. Jacob had told me to call him. He'd been hurt but he'd left me a line of communication and now I couldn't even use that to reach him.
As I sat on my bed after another failed phone call, I was so frustrated that I ranted to myself aloud.
"Damn idiot, gets a fever and realized that I'm not interested and suddenly can't be bothered to even pretend to make sense. He keeps saying that he wishes he could tell me or he wishes that things were different, and granted maybe I've been calling too much but if he would just let me know…"
Something in my rant reminded me of the dream I'd had all those weeks ago, and I knew.
I rushed to what I'd started referring to as "our" Unseen Book and the symptoms fit like Cinderella's slipper. The book confirmed that there was a group of shape shifters that had spurts of activity in the northwestern united states. Between the dream, the book, and the legends that Jacob had alluded to, it was obvious. I used the bond to tell Jack and he relayed the information to his parents. They asked him to call me and put me on speaker phone.
"Well done, Izzy," Ms. Stevens said," You've solved an unsaid riddle, and earned you and Jack your first field assignment. This weekend, it's been decided that the shape shifters at La Push need to be reminded about the existence of Watchers. They might be allies in a future battle and our imperative is to watch and to build trust. We'll meet with their elders on Saturday. The two of you will be accompanying us and if, Jamie can sneak away, he'll come as well. Izzy, can you convince your father to let you leave from here to go to self-defense and join him afterwards?"
"I can try ma'am," I replied promptly.
"Then come home with Jack, and we'll see about getting you two ready for your first official act as Watchers. For now, you've got some dreaming to do," she said slyly.
"Goodnight, Stevens-s," I replied smiling, though they couldn't see.
"You too, Swan," Jack's parents responded in sync. I hung up and went to sleep, dreaming once more of falling.
On Thursday afternoon I followed Jack to his house after school. They explained the history of the Quileute tribe, using terms like "cold ones" when talking about vampires to get us used to hearing it. We had a fascinating discussion about how creatures that evolved from or were once human had ways of "Matching" and the various differences between mates and Matches.
We were lectured about the history of the Watchers and warned about the dangers of picking fights, especially since Jack and I had powers more suited to "watching" than "acting" and had yet to find the power that would let us act as one. We were also warned that Jacob's personality might have changed a bit when his powers had come to fruition. We were taught to watch for short tempers.
Above all, it seemed, Watchers were diplomats. Like Americans in foreign politics, we were to try and toe the line between respecting the sovereignty of other groups and making sure that they didn't gain too much power or wipe themselves out.
By the time we finished up the lecture and discussion it was time for me to get to self-defense and then home to Charlie.
When I got home, I tried to call Jacob again, to tell him that I knew, but he hardly let me get a word in edgewise.
"Jacob-"
"Bella, I can't talk."
"But-"
"I wish things were different, but they aren't, so bye"
He hung up before I could try again.
That night I looked at Alexandra's online journal for the first time, printing out the entry that I read and putting it in a folder so that I could keep it even if the web page was taken down. I won't tell you about the content; sisters should have secrets, but I will say that by the time I finished reading it, I missed Alice more than I ever had before. I'd gained and lost another sister.
That night I was restless. I tossed and turned for a while before finally deciding that I was just a little too hot. I walked over and opened my bedroom window, pausing for a moment at the memory of Edward, before going to bed. That night I had dreams of a shadowy figure appearing at the window. The figure just stood there, in the tree outside of my window, and there wasn't enough light to identify it. when I woke the next morning I lay still for a moment and wondered how I ever felt safe in my room anymore, when people kept coming in through windows. I left it open. Whatever it was, it was coming whether I left the window open or shut. If I was going to have to deal with it, I'd be damned if it was going to break my window too.
Friday morning found Jack and I having a healthy breakfast on the back of my truck and resuming our guessing game.
"You came to Forks because it would help one of your parents, most likely Renée."
"You peeked," I accused him indignantly. We were sitting with our legs hanging from the back of the truck, facing outward so that Jack's power couldn't give him an advantage.
"Do you question my honor," he asked, his voice so full of amusement that it made me wonder if it might explode into a whole new kind of sonic boom.
"No, just your methods. You're right. I exiled myself from the valley of the sun when my mother married my step-father, Phil. He travels and it hurt my mother not to be with him. I couldn't hold her back. As you've said, she showed me the beauty of this world, one pretty desert stone at a time. I owed her. I love her," I replied sincerely before continuing, " You've been missing it; the valley."
He sighed and turned to look at me.
"Only when you're not with me, fairest lady. Even as the sun mocks the moon here, hiding behind veils of clouds and withdrawing from sight like a shy young maiden, you hold the warmth that it denies me. You burn and thrive where even that most golden and glorious of matrons falters. Sure I miss blue skies and I daydream of you in a red sundress set against the cacti and distant mountains, but it's worth it."
"You've got to start saying fewer of the right things. One of these days a hug won't be sufficient repayment, and soon we'll be broke college students," I sighed in response, smiling a little.
" Starting freshmen year with such a lady as yourself on my arm will be an embarrassment of riches, but first we'd best get to class."
At lunch we sat with Ben and Angela , both felt as good as new and both were begging for notes from the classes that they'd missed. Once the notes were exchanged we hung out and ate. It was something of a relief to be able to feign normality, even then, on the eve of our first assignment. Part of me wondered if I would get more or fewer of these moments as I entered college, got a job, raised a family. The signs seemed to point to "fewer". The Volturi and my duties as a watcher would insure that.
There was another round of Watcher lectures after school, more review than anything but some new things, important theories by Sun Tzu. I was tired by the time I got home and finished making dinner for Charlie, so I ate quickly and went to bed for some much needed sleep before motorcycle lessons and Watcher assignments the next day.
A bit after midnight, I woke suddenly from a dream of falling. There was someone in my room. In the dark I could only see a male form. I thought quickly. It's not Charlie, forms wrong. Not Edward either, I wouldn't have woken up. Then I stumbled out of bed grabbing the first object I could find, the Unseen Book, and starting to swing it at the intruder's head while taking a deep breath to scream.
"Bella, it's me," the intruder said. I recognized his voice. It was Jacob.
"What the Hell, Jake. It's after midnight," I hissed. I was exhausted. Jacob was insane. " What are you doing here?"
"Bella, I have to tell you… I can't tell you."
"The get the hell out of my room, or find a way. You couldn't have told me whatever when I called the last ten times?"
I was being overly rude, but I was tired and he'd woke me up to try and stage some dramatic scene.
"No, Bella… remember when we met for the second time, at the beach with your friends?"
"Yes, you told me about the cold ones, the Cullens are gone. Get out of my room. You climbed in through the window? What is wrong with you, and for that matter what do you have against daylight?"
"I've been ordered not to say, but I have already you just have to remember. Remember Bella."
"Because really that helps so much. Look, I'll think about it, now get out of here before Charlie wakes up. Feel free to actually have a conversation with me next time I call you."
"Alright, just try to remember," he said. He was somewhat surprised by my reaction but he'd gotten what he came for and he left. Climbing down the tree and disappearing into the dark night as I rested my head on my pillow and thanked heaven for the fact that Charlie was a heavy sleeper. I faded back into a dream of falling.
That was chapter twenty five!!! Hey all, thank you all for reading, alerting, favoriting anything else worthy of thanks. You guys rule.
I will admit to being a bit slack on my editing in favor of posting this sooner, please forgive me and don't judge the overall grammatical correctness based on this chapter and if i repeated a joke or something...hope it was better the second time.
I don't have much to say about Da Future, just things are going to start moving and that the chapters should average around this length or longer, but will consequently take me longer to write so while I'll still try for two a week, I don't know how realistic that is.
See you in a bit,
Plant_Murderer