Lost and Found

Disclaimer; all characters and copyright belong to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N-thank you for the reviews!

Part Twenty Six-Conversations

Bella decided to cook one of the meals Sarah had taught her for Charlie and Sam that evening. They had returned from their impromptu trip away in a sombre mood. Even Jacob, who had gone with them, seemed down. As soon as he saw her he hugged the life out of Bella and looked at her with eyes filled with shame as if he had let her down in some way. She just didn't understand it. She tried to get Jacob to smile but her efforts were in vain, whatever was upsetting him didn't seem to get better no matter what she did. It was with reluctance that she returned home with her father and Sam. She hated leaving Jacob behind when he seemed so upset. He had given her an extra long hug before standing next to Sarah on the front porch as they waved goodbye. Bella was already missing Jacob's warmth and she sat huddled in the back seat of the cruiser as she waved sadly at her best friend until Charlie turned the corner on the dirt track and she could no longer see him.

"Can I help?" Sam asked Bella as she worked silently in the kitchen. Charlie was in the front room on the phone to one of his colleagues at the station. Bella had overheard him mention Jasper Hale's name and she wondered what was going on. She glanced at Sam as he waited expectantly for her answer. Normally she would have avoided spending any more time with him then she had to, but she decided that if she wanted to help Leah out then she needed to get to know him better so she could push him and the other girl together.

"Thank you. That would be good." Bella finally replied as she passed him a knife and pushed some vegetables toward him. "Could you cut those up for me?"

"Consider it done." A pleased smile crossed Sam's face at the fact she was allowing him to help. He had been steeling himself for yet another rejection. "What are you making?" He tried to keep the conversation going so that maybe she would open up more.

"Vegetable lasagne." Bella replied without looking at him directly. She concentrated instead on getting the other ingredients together. "Sarah taught me a quicker way to make it."

"That's good." Sam chopped up the vegetables easily and passed her each one when it was done. "You get on well with Sarah, don't you?"

Bella shrugged. "She's cool."

"Yeah, she is." Sam glanced at Bella. Her brow was furrowed as if she was thinking about something hurtful. He wondered if it was about her mother, Renee. Bella still hadn't opened up to anyone about how she was feeling about the circumstances surrounding Renee. The authorities were still trying to track her down; she had absconded from the apartment she had been living in with her deadbeat boyfriend and Bella. Charlie had tried gently coaxing his daughter to open up about things but she just clammed up. Sam wondered if she ever talked to Jacob about it. If she had Jacob managed to keep the knowledge locked tight in his head somewhere. But Sam didn't think the younger boy knew much more than they all did, he was certain that Jacob would have let something slip by now through the shared mind link.

"Why don't you see your mom?" Bella asked suddenly, breaking Sam out of his thoughts. The knife slid in his hand at her surprising question and he accidentally cut his finger. Bella's hands flew to her mouth and her face turned white as she saw the blood begin to ooze from his finger.

"Don't stress, it's just a small cut." Sam assured her quickly. He hurriedly put his finger under the tap. It wouldn't take long before the skin closed over anyway. His quick healing ability would see to that. But he needed to hide that fact from Bella. "Can you get me a band aid?" He asked her.

"Yes." Bella gulped a few times as she backed away. She hated the sight of blood and the smell. To her it smelt metallic and made her feel sick inside. She hurriedly yanked open the first aid kit and passed the band aid to Sam, who promptly wrapped it around his finger to seal the wound.

"See, all good now."

"Good." Bella still felt sick. She went back to the kitchen counter to tend to the lasagne, hoping it would distract her mind from the blood.

"You okay?" Sam asked as he peered into her face. She didn't look well at all.

"I'm fine." Bella muttered. She felt mortified that Sam had seen her react so violently over a small cut. He was still looking at her in concern. Bella didn't like being scrutinised so intensely so she repeated her question from earlier about his mother. "Why don't you ever see her?"

Sam tore his eyes away from her and leaned with his back to the kitchen counter. He didn't know how to answer her question; his relationship with Allison was fractious. When he did pluck up the courage to check in with her they often ended up arguing. "Things are difficult between us right now, that's all."

"In other words you don't want to tell me." Bella grabbed the last of the chopped vegetables and added them to the lasagne. "You're right it is none of my business."

"I didn't mean that." Sam could see that he had inadvertently upset her. He cursed in his head. They had just begun to make tentative progress too. "It's just hard to explain." He said helplessly.

"That's fine." Bella glanced at him again with a thoughtful expression. "Do you know Leah Clearwater?" The abrupt change of subject made Sam's head reel. He looked at her in confusion. "She goes to the same school, she's Harr…"

"Yes. I know who she is." Sam interrupted her. "Who doesn't? She's the queen bee around here." He continued sarcastically.

"She's very popular and very pretty." Bella added as she eyed Sam speculatively. She was trying to assess how he felt about Leah without giving too much away.

"I suppose. Why are you jealous or something?" Sam frowned. "You don't need to be. She's older than you. Don't worry you'll soon make friends. If she or her squad give you any trouble, just let me know."

"No she's very nice. I just wondered what you thought of her." Bella tried to sound nonchalant but failed badly.

"What does it matter what I think?" Sam questioned curiously. It was such an odd question to ask. Was Bella jealous? He tried to find meaning behind her bland expression and became frustrated that he couldn't read her.

"Hey, Sam, a word?" Charlie wandered into the kitchen effectively ending the conversation. Sam sighed in frustration as he followed the older man back into the front room. He was sure that he was making a breakthrough with Bella and wasn't happy at the interruption. He glanced behind him as he left to see whether Bella was annoyed too but she wasn't looking his way, she had gone back to preparing the dinner as if their conversation had never happened.

Much to her reluctance Charlie dropped Bella off at the Black's house the next morning. She'd had a two day break from going to the tribal school, but she couldn't avoid the place any longer. She just hoped that this time Jacob would be with her. As soon as Charlie pulled away down the dirt track Jacob came running out of the Taj with a big grin on his face. He seemed calmer than the day before. Whatever had been ailing him must have been fixed. Bella laughed as he swept her up in his arms and swung her around. She was glad that she had fixed her hair properly this time so that her long braid would not come undone.

"Now that's better." Bella said happily as she pulled on the straps of her heavy back pack and smiled up at him.

"What's better?" Jacob asked as he took her hand and led her toward the house.

"You're smiling again." Bella interlocked her fingers with his. All her previous nerves vanished as soon as he touched her.

"Sorry about yesterday." Jacob opened the front door and waited while Bella went inside first.

"Doesn't matter." Bella paused before she stepped foot inside the house and turned her head to look at him. "If you want to talk about it, whatever it was that was bothering you, I am a good listener."

"Thanks." Jacob squeezed her hand. She was so darn cute and he loved the fact that she was so worried about him. "But I'm cool now."

"Okay." Bella studied him for a moment before turning back to lead the way into the house.

Just like it had been when she had walked with Embry down the school halls when he led her to the office, everyone gave her and Jacob a wide berth as they strolled through the corridors. He was so tall and well-built for his age that even the older kids tended to avoid getting in his way. It didn't mean that they didn't attract curious stares once Jacob's back was turned. Bella felt the many curious eyes watching them covertly as they walked along hand in hand. Jacob was carrying Bella's back pack as well as his own. She had thought he was joking at first when he offered to take the heavy bag from her. He really was like her knight in shining armour. They passed a gaggle of girls and Bella noticed the admiring looks they threw Jacob as he passed. Jeez, they must be at least four years older than he was. Yes, he did look sixteen, but he wasn't. Bella frowned as she glanced over at them. The girls caught her staring and their expressions turned nasty. Great, she had made even more enemies.

Jacob led her over to a group of enormous boys who she vaguely recognised as the ones Embry had greeted on her first day. They were all as tall and had similar builds to Jacob. She hid behind him a little as he bumped fists with the enormous boys and grinned. She noticed Embry was among them and she gave him a tentative smile when he nodded at her.

"Bells, these are my friends." Jacob steered her out from behind him and began to introduce her to the group. "You know Em already. This moron is Quil." He pointed to the shortest in the group. Quil was thicker set then Jacob and his short hair was curly. He had a cheeky grin on his face as he punched Jacob on the shoulder.

"Ignore him, Bella. I'm no moron. I'm the brains of this outfit." Quil boasted.

"In his dreams." One of the other boys said as he looked Bella up and down. He was the same height as Jacob but his hair was cropped closer to his head and he had a wicked gleam in his eyes as he checked her out. "I'm Paul Lahote."

"Hello." Bella replied timidly.

Jacob glared at Paul irritably and shoved him to one side as he finished introducing the other boys to Bella. "This is Jared. He's the oldest one out of our group, apart from Sam of course."

"The oldest and the best." Jared reached out and took Bella's hand. He kissed the back of it which earned him another glare from Jacob.

"You are such an ass, Thail." Jacob knew that the older boy was trying to wind him up on purpose. Bella's face was flushed red with mortification. She knew the boys were just teasing but she couldn't stop her traitorous skin giving her away.

The bell went effectively ending the introductions. The boys began to file off down the corridor, sharing banter and shoving at each other playfully. Jacob and Bella trailed behind. "I know they can come across as idiots but they're cool really, Bells." Jacob assured her as he took her hand in his again and pulled her closer into his side.

"They're all so tall just like you and Sam." Bella said in wonder as she looked between Jacob and his friends. "I wonder why."

"We've just got good genes." Jacob winked at her playfully as he tickled her in the side, making her laugh. He loved the sound of it. She was so serious a lot of the time and it was rare that he got to hear such a happy sound. It was like music to his ears and he continued to tickle her all the way to their first class just so he could enjoy hearing her beautiful laugh for a little longer.

A/N-thanks for reading!