An odd streak of winter sun lit the usually misty roads in Forks, sending the teenagers at Forks high school outside to enjoy the chilly lunchtime light for the second day in a row, while the Cullen's, thanks to Alice's foresight, sought shelter indoors.

Esme had found herself particularly lonely without the familiar faces lighting up her classrooms as the Cullen's enjoyed some conveniently timed "winter camping with their father". Although this was the story that circled through the morning emails as she took attendance, there was a constant stream of text messages to her phone to say otherwise, yet she kept those to herself.

And even though they were only a short drive away, Esme found herself suddenly tied up with work and other engagements again, making the divide feel even more pronounced. She never thought she'd be grateful for the endless grey skies that seemed to cover Forks, but when it sent the people she loved most into hiding, she really couldn't say she cared for the sun all that much.

At least she had Jacob and his friends to take her mind off it, she thought as she drove the slick streets to the reservation later that day. They were always good company and had been working very hard as of late.

It seemed, to Esme, as though a fire had been lit under Jacob lately. Something had turned him from the struggling boy she'd met at the beginning of the year, to a young man who actually chased success.

If there was any greater feeling as a teacher, surely this was close.

Esme pulled down the long, twisting lane to the Black's residence and stopped next to the weathered garage. As soon as she cut the engine, Jacob opened the front door and waved. She could see Quil and Embry roughhousing behind him, though Jacob took up much of the doorway himself. In ways, they reminded her very much of Emmett. There was an ease in the brotherly relationship they shared, and a warm extension of that relationship to the people they brought into their inner circle. She counted herself lucky to belong to it.

"Hey, Esme!" Jacob called. "Dad's out, but he'll be back in a bit. He said to call him if we're being terrors. Though Rachel's still home, so it's not like we can run wild."

"After all this time, I think I can manage," Esme said, kicking the slush off her boots as she slipped by Jacob. He was in one of his favoured muscle shirts again. "Aren't you cold?"

"Nah. I think dad has the heat cranked. You know . . . old people get cold quicker than us young ones." He shot her a playful look.

"Watch it, young man."

"Yeah, Jake, don't offend the one person who might mean the difference between you graduating with us and not."

Jacob launched himself at Embry in a full body tackle and they both crashed into the couch, sending it rocketing against the wall. Months ago, Esme might have been startled. Now though, between the boys here and the Cullen boys, she'd become more accustomed to young men trying to pummel each other into dust.

"When you're finished, would you kindly relocate to the kitchen?"

"Sure thing," Jacob said, pulling Embry along in a headlock. "We're finished."

Embry tapped his elbow twice and Jacob released him, plopping down at the kitchen table. Esme took her usual seat and unpacked some writing aids for the boys.

"So, the dance got cleared out pretty quickly," Jacob said, eyeing her intently.

"Yes, it did. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"

"No way," Jacob promised. "Scout's honour."

"Don't trust him," Quil said. "He was never a boy scout."

"Wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Jacob asked, flexing his muscles.

"Not at the table," Esme said.

"Sure sure. So, no suspects?" Jacob continued. He eyed her like she was hiding these very intriguing secrets.

"If I knew, I probably wouldn't tell you, especially since you weren't really there, were you?"

Jacob tapped his nose. "I see what you're laying down."

Esme smirked at him.

"Bet it was those Cullen's. They cleared off pretty quickly," Quil muttered.

"Don't let Esme here you say that," Jacob sang. "She's dating the Doc."

"Oh, that's right!" Embry almost shouted, amused at Quil's obvious discomfort. "You're out of the study group now, bud!"

Quil ruffled the hair on the back of his head. "I didn't mean anything by it, Esme. Really, I didn't. Everyone knows the Doc, even here on the reservation."

"It's okay, Quil. No harm done." Esme gave him a warm smile, hoping to coax him back into the conversation. He was shrinking further and further into his seat as Embry and Jacob teased him.

"Guess you go for that, huh?" Jacob said, turning his grinning face on her.

"What?"

"Tall, blonde, and handsome."

Esme shook her head as he wiggled his eyebrows at her. "My love life is not an approved discussion topic for these tutoring sessions."

"From what I recall, we never exactly outlined what would be discussed during these tutoring sessions. Plus we've talked about our love lives enough—"

"Or lack thereof," she said.

Embry and Quil both howled with laughter. "Savage," Embry said through his tears. "Well played, Esme."

"Yeah," Quil said. "You can hang with us anytime."

"Alright, alright," Jacob said, elbowing his friends. "I accept defeat." He huffed and smiled with just the corner of his mouth. "But it's not because I'm not a catch."

"Of course not," Esme said. "Maybe these girls just aren't the right ones."

"Exactly," Jacob agreed, bolstered by her words.

Embry sighed. "I liked it better when we were chirping him."

There was a knock at the door and the easy banter faded for a moment as Jacob got up to answer it. He made a sound deep in his throat as he reached the living room window.

"Who is it?" Embry wondered.

"Agh," Jacob growled. "It's Paul." He opened the door a crack, blocking the visitor from sight. "What do you want?"

"Don't be obnoxious."

"Don't act like you're wanted here."

"Honestly, kid."

Jacob straightened in the doorway. "Do I look like a kid to you? What are you, like four years older than me? Get outta here."

"Is your sister home?"

"I don't know," he said, but rolled his eyes and let Paul in. He was taller than Jacob and more filled out, making the kid look unusually scrawny next to him.

The boys at the table averted their eyes, being particularly thorough on their read through of the short story they had been assigned as homework.

Esme raised a questioning brow as Jacob returned to the table, scowling.

"That's Paul Lahote," he whispered in response. "He's a real a-hole, but he has a thing for my sister, and apparently she likes his big stupid face, so I'm doing as dad said and being civil."

Embry snorted.

"Well," Esme mused, "at least you're taking the protective brother thing seriously. No one can fault you for that."

Jacob shrugged. "It's more than that." He glanced at Embry and Quil. "I mean, it was never a thing before. We barely ever spoke, then suddenly he goes from twig to this roid-head and starts hanging around all the time. He can get scary angry, too. It's just . . . weird."

"Weird?" Esme prompted. She'd had her fill of weird this year, so if Jacob needed to talk, perhaps she was more than suited for it.

"He hangs out with this guy named Sam. They have a kind of . . . I don't know."

"Jake—" Quil whispered, shaking his head. He gestured to the hallway.

Jacob looked around, noting the door to his sister's room was now open a crack.

Esme noted the shift in mood. Something about Paul made Jacob very nervous. "Jacob—"

"Let's just study, Esme. I've gotta ace this test, right?"

"Sure," she said. "Okay."


By the time they'd finished studying, the sky was dark grey, quickly becoming black, not with night, but with storm clouds.

Esme climbed into her car and pulled out her phone for the first time since arriving on the reservation, scrolling through her messages. There was an abnormal amount from Carlisle and she hit the call button, feeling anxious at the tone of his text messages.

"Hello," she said when he answered.

"Where are you?"

She frowned, starting her car. "The reservation. Why? What happened?"

"Nothing. I'm coming to get you."

She pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road, turning on her wipers as heavy raindrops started to fall. "Carlisle, I'm perfectly capable of driving—"

She gasped, dropping her phone as she slammed on the breaks.

There, standing in the middle of the road—shirtless and shaking—was Paul.

Blindly, she reached for her phone. Carlisle was frantically calling her name, his words muffled.

When she looked up again, Paul was no longer in the middle of the road, but beside her window and she jumped. Something about what Jacob said . . . about Paul getting "scary angry" registered with her as she looked into his eyes, somehow more animal than human. There was a wild rage there, waiting to burst. She'd seen that before. When Charles was angry, he'd have that same frenzied look.

He pressed his face close to the glass, and though it was muted, she could still hear him. "There's a leech hovering around our borders. He's here for you. I could smell him on you as soon as I entered the house. So do us all a favour and don't—"

"Get away from her!"

Jacob came out of nowhere, launching himself at Paul and the two of them tumbled out of sight. Instinct grabbed her, and Esme pushed open the door, concern for Jacob overcoming the terror she'd felt building. The boys rolled on the ground in front of the car, kicking up mud and water as rain fell from above. It was clear that Paul was stronger, but there was something tenacious about Jacob, and his long limbs refused to yield.

"Jake, stop!" Embry and Quil shouted as they raced out of the house to help him.

Esme was frozen. This clearly wasn't just a bit of roughhousing between the boys. This was a fight born of some deep-rooted hatred and she knew that getting between them wasn't a good idea. She stepped back towards her car and grabbed her phone. The call to Carlisle had gone dead, but she scrolled through her contacts for Billy's number.

"Paul! That's enough."

Before she could dial, another shirtless boy stepped out of the woods. This boy—man—who she assumed was Sam by the way the others deferred to him, separated Paul and Jacob, took Paul by the shoulders, and pushed him towards the forest.

He turned before disappearing into the thick cover of trees. "Go home, Jacob."

"I'm not one of yours!" Jacob shouted back, spitting blood. "You can't tell me what to do."

"Go home!"

As the boys disappeared, Esme raced around the car, kneeling by a bruised and battered Jacob. "Oh, your face!"

"I'm fine," he said, rubbing his sleeve under his nose. "It's nothing. You should get back in your car. In case that a-hole comes back."

He scrambled to his feet, with all the ease and grace of someone who hadn't just been beaten, and held her door open for her and watched as she got in. "It's okay, Esme. Really. You should go now."

"Yeah, we'll take care of him," Embry said. "Don't worry."

Esme nodded, feeling a sick sensation deep in her gut. She watched the three boys disappear in her rearview mirror and that uneasy feeling settled in her stomach as she pulled onto the main road that led into town.

She pulled around a curve, taking it slower than usual as the rain grew heavier. Then she slammed on the breaks for the second time that night and swerved onto the edge of the road.

Carlisle stood there, slick with rain, though impossibly poised, like some sort of creature of the night. Her heart hammered as she watched him, a relieved sob travelling up her throat. It was then that the spell broke, for both of them. Carlisle's features melted as he approached her, becoming gentle and kind once more. But Esme's temper flared.

He pulled her door open and she glared at him.

"What are you doing?" she cried. "I could have hit you!"

"You can't hurt me."

She shuddered, her entire body registering the shock. "That's beside the point, Carlisle!"

"Are you okay?"

She rubbed her hands over her face. "Yes, I'm fine."

"What happened?"

"Nothing, but what are you doing here? I thought there was a treaty."

"I haven't crossed any borders."

"But you're hovering, it made them nervous." She didn't know what was going on, but somehow Paul had known exactly who and what Carlisle was.

"Who was nervous?"

She looked away, squeezing the wheel in frustration. There was something here that she was missing.

"Who, Esme? Tell me."

He spoke to her in a tone that she had never heard before. He didn't yell, but it was brisk and commanding. He wasn't asking her something, he was ordering it.

She glared back at him, jaw set tight. His fists were curled by his sides now and he looked more like a vampire than she had ever seen.

"I'll drive," he said, nodding ahead to where his car was parked under the cover of the trees.

"Carlisle, I can drive myself."

"Please get in the car, Esme. I'll send one of the kids out to pick yours up."

"There's no need for that. I'm perfectly capable—"

"Esme, please." He was shaking now and she knew he was struggling to contain whatever emotion it was that he was trying to clamp down, so even though she was frustrated with him, she got out of her car and marched across the road to his.

He beat her to the door and opened it for her.

When she sat down in the passenger seat and buckled her belt a violent shiver ripped through her and she realized just how cold she'd gotten. The rain was already soaking into her clothes. As Carlisle started the car and sped onto the road, he adjusted the heat and her fingers uncurled from her knees.

"Your teeth are chattering," he said.

"I'm fine," she insisted. They were both frustrated with each other, but the most annoying part was that she didn't actually know why. To be honest, she didn't even know what it really felt like to be frustrated with Carlisle, the only things she knew was that he was frantic about something and wasn't explaining what had happened or why he'd been waiting for her. "Where are we going?" she asked suddenly. "This isn't the way to my apartment."

"We're not going to your apartment."

"Carlisle—"

"I couldn't get a hold of you!" he burst. His face flickered through fear and panic and pain and anger in an instant. It was a dizzying sight. "Alice couldn't see you. That happens sometimes; you get fuzzy for some reason. But tonight you disappeared altogether. And then you wouldn't answer your phone. What was I supposed to think, Esme?"

"I'm sorry. My phone was in my purse. I must have left it on silent. But that doesn't mean you can act like this."

"Anything could have happened to you and I'd have no idea because you've gone to the one place I can't follow."

"I'm there all the time. Nothing bad has ever happened."

"What was different about tonight?" he said, ignoring her.

"What?"

"You're right. You are there all the time. But what happened tonight that was different?"

"Nothing. I tutored the boys at Jacob's house. Paul—one of the Quileute boys—he came over to see Jacob's sister. He was angry though when I left. He called you a leech . . . do they know about what you are?"

Carlisle swallowed, taking a turn to quickly and his hand shot out to brace her as she grabbed for the door handle. "Their legends have becomes stories to the younger generations. Stories that were once a reality. Whether they suspect that we really are the creatures of old anymore . . . it's doubtful. There are some on the reservation that may remember, but Jacob Black and his friends are far too young."

"He said he could smell you on me, and that you were hanging around the border."

Carlisle's fingers tightened around the steering wheel and Esme could hear the plastic screech.

"He's transformed then."

"What?"

"Like his ancestors. He's a wolf."

Esme sat back in her seat, shocked. "A what?"

"You can't go there anymore." Carlisle pulled into his driveway and she could see the house through the trees.

She let out a strangled laugh of disbelief. "I don't think you get to tell me where I can go or not. That's not how this works."

"The reservation is dangerous. If Paul's transformed than most likely others have as well. And they're all young. Controlled by their emotions. By their anger and hatred and prejudice against us, and by proxy you."

"I don't . . . what are you talking about?"

"You once told me that Jacob told you about the ancient legends. The cold ones and—"

"The wolves," she finished lamely, flashes of memory filling her mind. It was like it all connected then—the legends, the stories, the nightmares of trees and vampires and the large creatures that hunted them.

"You cannot go there anymore," Carlisle insisted immediately. "Not ever again. It's too dangerous."

"You don't know that."

"I do. I made that treaty a long time ago with people who are long dead. I can't trust them to hold it to the same standards."

He pulled up in front of the garage. Esme could see a flicker in the mirror and saw Alice drive her own car up the driveway behind them. She pulled Esme's car up beside theirs and danced away inside.

"Carlisle, I'm going there to tutor children, not to get in the middle of your supernatural war."

"You can't. Not anymore."

Esme groaned and got out of the car. She marched over to her own car and yanked on the door. It was locked. She groaned again.

"Where are you going?" Carlisle asked, appearing beside her in a flash and laying his hand over hers on the door handle. The rain had soaked his hair and it fell against his forehead in tangled waves.

"Home. Where I wanted to go in the first place. You don't get to do this, Carlisle." For the first time since she had started seeing him, she felt the fragility of her humanity. He was stronger than her. Faster. And he was using it to manipulate her. These feelings she had right now, it was the same sort of thing she had with Charles, and it was making her angry. She didn't want these feelings, not now. The loss of control. She'd fought so hard to get it back, and not even Carlisle was going to take it from her again.

"I'd like my keys, Alice," she said, knowing the tiny girl would hear her from the house.

"Come inside," Carlisle said. "Out of the rain."

"I don't want to come inside."

"Esme, please—"

"Stop, okay."

"Look, Jacob Black is dangerous. I know you care about helping him, but I can't let you put yourself in danger, not where Alice can't see you."

"That's not your choice, Carlisle. And it's not Alice's. I'm sorry you don't like that answer, but it's the only one I have right now."

"That doesn't work for me."

"Yes, well, this doesn't exactly work for me." She yanked on her door again, angry now, and cold. "Alice!"

"Esme, stop, you'll hurt yourself."

She whirled around and he took a step back to avoid a collision that might hurt her. She looked at him, an aching tangle of sadness inside her, and spoke very slowly. "I'm fine, like I said in the car. And I can make my own decisions. I let a man make them for me once and I'm not about to do it again."

He looked as if she had slapped him; as if the weight of her words had knocked him speechless.

Alice slipped out into the rain between them and placed Esme's keys on the hood of her car.

"I'll—" Carlisle stuttered, staring at her with wide and confused eyes. "Let me drive you home at least."

She put her hands up, stopping him from reaching her. "No," she whispered. "I just. I need some space for a little bit."

She grabbed her keys from where Alice left them and finally climbed into the car. She was wet and hurt, but the roads were empty, for which she was glad because the tears in her eyes blurred her vision.


A/N: I'm sorry . . . *hides under table*