Chapter 36
Now, we wait.

I cried myself to sleep eventually. I had sick dreams of an animal attacking poor, sweet, innocent, Rosaline.

"Renesmee." I heard a voice call.

I sat up and wiped my tears away quickly.

"Renesmee, it's me Alice, can I come in?"

"Ye-Yeah." I choked out.

She slowly opened the door and gave me a gentle smile.
She proceeded to come sit on the floor next to me.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

I shook my head and put my head between my knees again. She put her hand on my back and made circles, attempting to comfort me.

"It's my entire fault." I whispered.

"No, don't you dare think like that. None of this is your fault." She demanded.

She pulled me so that I was leaning against her shoulder.

"Shhh." She cooed.

"Come on, let's get out of here." She suggested.

"No, I want to stay." I said, shaking my head.

"Renesmee, this isn't healthy, you can't stay in here with her."

"I'm not leaving her, not again."

I began to cry again, Alice took me in her arms and rocked me back and forth.

"It's okay to let her go now, Renesmee." She cooed.

I looked up at her with tear filled eyes. I slowly nodded my head and got up with Alice. She put her arm around me and supported my weight.
We left the office, I turned back to look one more time. Then, we left the room and went into the living room.
Everyone sat around, waiting for me to say something. I went over to my mother.

"Mom." I whispered.

"What is it, sweetheart?"

"Can I…can I go see Jacob for a little while?"

She looked over at my father and he slowly nodded. I walked away slowly, back over to Alice.

"Alice, can i…borrow your car?" I whispered.

She handed me the keys and I walked out of the room.
I got into the garage and hurried into the car. I sped out of the driveway as fast as the car would go.
I wound through the road, not paying attention to speed. I kept trying to go faster; I wanted to be at Jacob's as soon as possible. I was still mad at him, but I wanted to be in his arms.
I finally got to La Push and parked the car. Jacob was skipping rocks across the lake; each one having 30 to 40 skips. When he heard the car stop, he turned around, grinning from ear to ear. He ran up to the car and opened my door.

"Oh Renesmee! I'm so sorry, please allow me to tell you my side of the story—wait…" his expression changed when he saw mine.

"What's wrong?" he asked quietly.

I put my head down and fell into his arms. I began to sob into his shoulder.

"She—she's—d—dead." I cried.

"Who?"

"R—r—osaline"

I felt his body go weak, but he held onto me anyway. He picked me up into his arms and opened the passenger door. He gently put me in the seat and got into the driver's side. He started up the car and began toward his house.
When we got there, he opened my door and picked me up. He carried me to his house. He went inside and set me down on the couch, then sat next to me.

"Okay, now tell me what happened." He said quietly.

I took a deep breath, trying to compose myself.

"Carlisle found her body up north. We don't know exactly how she died, but there's a gash on the side of her face. I assume she bled to death."

He held me in his arms and rocked me back and forth.

"I can't talk about her, what did you want to talk about?" I asked.

He sat back with a blank expression.

"Well, now don't get mad at me. Antoine is lying."

I took a deep breath.

"How do I know he's lying though?"

"Because, we went to go looking for him today, and he's nowhere in the area. We caught his scent a few miles east, it kept breaking up though."

I nodded.

"How do I know that you didn't go to his house?"

He turned me to face him completely and held my face in his hands.

"Renesmee, I swear on my life, that I was nowhere near him. I know you love him and I could never do that to hurt you."

I looked into his eyes, and I knew that Antoine was the one lying. I don't know how I could have been so ignorant to who he really is. I nodded and confirmed my trust in him.

"I have to apologize to you." I whispered.

"For what?"

"Last night."

"Why?"

"I was in the wrong. I shouldn't have sprung that on you after the evening we spent together. I'm sorry, will you forgive me?"

He looked at me puzzled.

"Of course."

He took me into his arms again and then kissed me.
I ran my fingers through his hair. The kiss lasted for a few moments and then he pulled away.
He looked into my eyes with such love. I hugged him close.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out.

"Hello, Alice? I'm going to put you on speaker okay? I'm with Jake." I pressed the speaker button and set the phone on the table.

"Okay Alice, we're listening." I said.

"Okay, hello, Jacob."

"Hey, Alice."

"Okay, so I told you that the Volturi was coming in two days."

"Yeah, so?"

"That was two days ago."

I went through my life in the past few days, so much had happened. Then I realized that this would be the second day.

"Are they coming?"

"I don't know, my vision has gone sketchy. I can't fully tell if they are coming today, but you should come home so we can all prepare. You too, Jacob. Oh! And try to get the pack to come with as well." She hung up.

I looked at Jacob. It was almost as if he could read my mind. He stood up and went over to the phone. I heard him dialing someone.

"Hello? Emily, it's Jacob. Can I talk to Sam?"

There was a slight voice that came on the other end.

"Yes, it's time."

I heard some more talking.

"Yeah, get the pack together; meet me at the Cullen's."

Jacob hung up the phone and walked back into the room.

"I'm going to go meet the guys, you get back to the Cullen's." he instructed. I nodded and left the house.

I got into the car and drove away.
I sped as fast as I could. I looked out my window; there was Jacob and his pack. They were running through the woods as fast as me.

When we got to the Cullen's, I drove into the garage and parked the car.

Jacob was already there. Along with Sam, Embry, Quil, Leah, Paul, and Jared. I nodded to them as I got out of the car.

"Renesmee." Sam greeted.

"Sam."

I went into the house, they followed. Everyone stood in the living room, tense and ready to fight. Emmett was practicing his punches and bouncing back and forth.

"Okay, we're here. Now what?" I asked aloud.

"They will enter the meadow within hours. Why don't we all head there and prepare ourselves." Carlisle suggested. "Alice, why don't you stay back at Edward and Bella's house to keep Charlie safe?"

We all agreed and started for the door. Carlisle led the way out and we all followed him out.'

We all ran in our own speeds to the meadow. I looked over and saw Jacob.
His eyes focused the eyes of someone ready to kill. He ran with a purpose; that was for sure. He looked over at me with loving eyes. He made a face of what I could only assume was a smile and then returned his eyes to ahead of him.
My mother and father ran hand in hand. Everyone once and a while they would look at each other. They had that same intensity that I only assumed they had when they first began dating.
I focused straight ahead. I was only hoping that we would all make it out alive. Part of me knew that we would be outnumbered, but then I thought of that time sixteen years ago when we were up against this same battle.
We arrived at the meadow. We all stopped in two parallel lines; wolves one side, vampires another.

"Okay, let's discuss plans. Because this was sprung on such short notice, we have not had proper preparation time." Carlisle stated.

"Why don't we do what we did last time?" Quil suggested.

Sam, Carlisle, Esme, Edward, and Bella all shook their heads.

"No, we can't do that, which is exactly what they will be expecting." Sam argued.

"How?" Quil argued back.

"Because, it worked for us the last time, they think we would use our same strategies." Carlisle answered.

"Carlisle, do you have any suggestions?" Sam asked.

Carlisle looked at everyone and then thought to himself for a few moments.

"I suggested that we have you all wait in the woods, far enough back so that they won't pick up on your scent. When you see that they have moved into the meadow, you come closer to the point where you are behind them in the woods. If you see them to begin to attack, you surprise attack them."

"How will we know for sure that they are going to attack though?" Sam pondered.

Carlisle thought for a moment.

"When you have the slightest premonition, ask Edward with your thoughts, if he nods, then attack, if not, don't." he replied.

"Does everyone agree with this?" Sam asked.

Everyone nodded.

"When should we move back?" Sam asked Carlisle.

Carlisle took his phone from his pocket and dialed Alice.

"Hello, Alice?" he answered.

There was slight mumbling on the other end.

"How long?"

More words, much too quiet for me to make out.

"Okay, thank you. Call me if you see anything else." He hung up.

"They will be coming sometime tomorrow. So, therefore, if you all would like to go home for now, I understand. We can all call you when something happens."

"Why don't we take a vote?" Sam asked.

"Alright," Carlisle said. "All who wish to go home, say I."

We waited and looked around. No one said I.

"Okay, well, now we wait. You guys are welcome to come back to our place for some food if you wish; we need to hunt so we are strong." Carlisle suggested.

"We'll hunt with you." Sam replied.

We all bolted into the woods. I went one way with Jacob to find something large.
A scent caught my nose that overpowered me. I began to move in the direction and there it was. There was a large grizzly bear attempting to catch a fish. I pounced on it and proceeded to drain it. I decided that that had been enough for me and resumed back to the meadow. Jacob was soon behind me.
Everyone else returned quickly, now we had to wait.

Sam, Emmett, and Carlisle discussed options away from everyone else.
Rosalie, Bella, and Esme were talking about how to keep me safe.
Quil, Embry, Jared, and Paul were wrestling on another side of the meadow.
Jacob and sat farthest away from everyone. We decided to be in our own little world, just in case this was the last alone time we would get.

"This is just like déjà voo." Jacob said, laying back and propping himself up with his forearm.

"Tell me about it." I said, hugging my knees.

"You look scared." He commented, playing with a strand of my hair.

"I'm not."

"Liar." He argued with a smile.

I sighed.

"Maybe a little."

"Don't be."

"How can you tell me not to be scared? I do have some vicious vampires in the mood to kill me."

He sat up and took my face in his hands.

"Renesmee, if they want to hurt you, they'll have to go through me first."

I nodded and looked down at the grass.

"Come here." He whispered, taking me into his arms. He must know that this makes me feel safe.

I sat there and looked up at the sky. It was just about dusk, the sun would be setting soon.
He kissed the top of my hair.

"I can tell you're thinking about Rosaline." He whispered.

"That obvious, huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much. You want to talk about it?"

I looked up at his face, his eyes were genuinely concerned.

"I don't know."

"It's not your fault you know." He murmured.

"Oh, but I think it is." I argued.

"How so?"

"I should have taken her home with me that night. Instead I went home and to bed because I was so tired."

"I don't want you to think like that."

"Maybe I should offer myself up to the Volturi, after all, Rosaline would still be here if I had taken her home."

I heard the air leave his lungs; it was almost as if he'd been sucker punched in the gut.

"Don't even talk like that, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."

I leaned into him harder, putting all of my weight on his chest.

"I love you, Renesmee." He murmured in my ear.

"I love you too, Jacob." I murmured back. I looked back and kissed him on the lips gently.