Girls

Bella was staring at me too. Her eyes were wide, lips slightly parted, and there was an expression of pure disbelief on her face. She knew. I just knew that she knew. She'd guessed, and maybe it was pretty obvious after all. Our eyes met for a few, long seconds, and as she looked down there was something else there too that I didn't quite catch. Next second, she silently stood up from her chair, and walked past my dad and into the house. No one seemed to think twice at this though, as they were all still busy staring at me, waiting. There was a loud thud as the door slid shut behind her.

I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't. Rachel. My sister. Paul. Brother in law. No. It had to be a rule against these things, some unspoken rule or something, anything, but at the same time I knew it wasn't as the result was staring me straight in the face.

"Jacob!"

I heard Rachel's voice as she snapped at me again, and I realized I was still the center of attention. My hands had started shaking again, Leah's hand still gripping my arm firmly. I needed to snap out of this right now.

"Uhm," I said vaguely, willing the shaking of my hands to stop. After a moment, it did. "Sorry," I managed to squeeze out, avoiding everyone's gaze. My eyes flashed to my dad, who was looking immensely relieved that I was coming to my senses. "I just - erm - gotta go..."

And then I made my legs move, forced myself to walk past Paul without breaking his jaw, passed my dad in the doorway who sent me a short, relieved nod, and entered the backdoor and into the kitchen where Bella had disappeared just moments before.

"What's his problem?" I heard Rachel say behind me, as I strode through the kitchen without a particular target. I could clearly picture the disturbed look on her face as she stared after me.

"Maybe Bella and Jacob had an arguement or something," I heard Charlie say thoughtfully, clearly feeling like it was his duty to calm Rachel down. "It probably hasn't anything to do with you at all. Kid's only overreacting. Maybe he's having a hard time."

There was a brief pause.

"Well, we'll just have to let them sort it out," dad said then, his voice strangely in control. I could tell he was working his hardest not to freak out himself. "It's probably nothing serious. They have managed to figure things out on their own before," he added, forcing himself to chuckle. "Now, anyone want some more beer? Charlie?"

I heard Charlie mumble something in acceptance and I let the door close behind me, muffling the sound of their voices.

This, right here, was just the thing I needed right now. More fuel to the fire I'd desperately tried to cease. And my sister! I was fuming, and my hands started shaking again. I raged through the kitchen and into the living room. There was no sign of Bella anywhere, so I continued into the hallway only to find the front door open. This stupid myth was supposed to be rare! And why her? Why Paul? Had it only been anyone else! Anyone!

I knew why Bella had walked away like she did. I knew what she was thinking. She was so frightened of imprinting, of us, of me. How it might suddenly alter everything between us, everything we'd so carefully built up. Now it was just turned upside down, inside out, leaving us clawing on the walls to keep from falling down. She was just as frightened as I was. And this time, it hit a little too close to home.

I strode out on the porch, past the door that was already open. My arms were trembling now, but this time I was simply too furious to bother with it. My head was a mess, my ears filled with an annoying, dull throbbing. I needed to talk to Bella, make her see that this had nothing to do with us at all. And then, when we'd sorted things out, I would break Paul's nose and jaw, and maybe an arm or two. Deep down I knew this wasn't his fault either, but right now I couldn't care less. Anyway, now was not the time to phase. I would have to calm down for Bella. She was more important.

I found her in the garage. She was sitting in the dirty, old couch that had always been perched in a corner next to some other junk. She was sitting on the very edge, her arms on her knees and face buried in her palms. I knew my furious footsteps across the rocks had already given me away, so she must know I was here even if she didn't look up. I rubbed my forehead, and with great effort I managed to gather my thoughts and stop the trembling of my hands. Cool it. Now.

I cleared my throat.

"Bells," I said, my voice shaky. "This isn't- This doesn't mean anything."

Her head shot up to look at me then. Her expression was closed up, and impossible to read.

"That's easy for you to say," she snapped.

I sighed, and rubbed my forehead again before I moved towards her. I willed my hands to keep calm, and not tremble. They obliged, resistant.

"No, it's not," I started, but was cut off when Bella heaved herself up from the moldy couch and started moving around in the garage with angry jerks of her feet.

"How many is it now?" she startled rambling, not hearing a word of what I was trying to say. "50 percent? Half of the wolves, or something? Sorry if I just don't want to sit here and wait patiently for it to happen with you too."

She was upset and afraid, I knew that, but she was letting it out on me. My mood, which was already pretty tattered at the moment, got even worse.

"Look," I tried again, the building volcano inside me finally getting to me. This wasn't my fault, and she knew that too. There was no reason why she would act like this, it wasn't like it was me who had done anything wrong. "I don't like this any more than you do. But what do you want me to do about it?"

Bella flapped her hands out wide in a very Charlie-like movement, and glared at me. I noticed her eyes were red rimmed.

"There's nothing you can do!" she exclaimed. "That's the whole problem."

Her hair was falling into her face, and she was angry, and she was taking it out on me. I rubbed my forehead – my head had started to throb painfully again, as if I needed something to make this worse. My hands started shaking and I willed them to be still, but they wouldn't, and it only made me even more thunderous.

"This," I started, keeping my eyes closed and trying not to let the anger I had inside out on her too. "Has nothing to do with us."

Bella continued her angry pacing, unable to keep still.

"I wish you'd just imprinted right away and we'd be done with this already, instead of just waiting for it to happen," she muttered icily.

My eyes flared open, and I stared at her. She wasn't making sense, none of this was making sense.

"What, do you want me to imprint on you? That's not how it works, Bella."

She glared right back at me.

"Of course I don't want that. I don't want you to imprint on me at all. I just don't want you to do it on anyone else, either."

I sighed, closing my eyes again in exasperation. "Bella, this doesn't affect us. This is them. It's not us."

"Well, obviously it lays in the family."

"Bells-"

"Don't 'Bells' me right now!" she snapped. When I opened my eyes, she'd moved her hands to clutch her head between her hands. "I' know I'm being stupid and this isn't your fault, but this is seriously freaking me out. Sorry for being like this but I can't help it."

She looked at me, and she was blinking back tears as she spoke. They were angry ones, not sad, I knew that. She always started crying when she got angry.

I sighed again, and finally managed to gain control of my shaking hands.

"Look-" I said, wanting to give her something, just a word of comfort, anything, but didn't have any. I really had no idea what I could say to make this better. Instead I took a tentative step towards her. She didn't back away. With another two steps I closed the distance between us and wrapped my arms around her, and she rested her head on my chest in defeat. She didn't hug me back though, and I felt her shoulders slump. It was as if the air went out of her, like of the balloon after a party. Very quietly, I could hear her stifle a sob.

"Maybe we should just..." she whispered against my throat, defeated.

Something in me froze.

"Don't say that," I snapped at her, and pulled back to look at her. The anger flared in me again like a very hungry lion, and my forehead started throbbing. She was crying now, and her expression scared me more than anything I'd seen in months. She was looking up at me, eyes sad and tired. This, right here, was just the thing I had been waiting for. And not only me, Cullen too. This was what he had been hoping for, for her to just give up and make the easy way out. She was giving up. "Don't say things like that," I said, shaking her shoulders slightly.

She recoiled a little from my harsh tone. "I just don't know what to do, Jacob!" she exclaimed, taking a few steps back from me and looking very forlorn. She spread her arms wide again. "I'm lost here, okay?"

"Why are you freaking out so badly about this?" I snapped at her, irritated, and somewhere deep down a little scared. I realized I was gesticulating my hands up in angry movements. "It's not like it was I who imprinted. And she's not your sister either! This isn't my fault, why are you acting like this?" Just the thought that she might be thinking about giving up on us, made me so angry I didn't know what to do. Unfair, my head screamed. This isn't my fault!

"Because I love you, stupid," she yelled back furiously, tears threatening to spill and run down her cheek.

I was about to snap something back, but instead I turned speechless for a frozen moment as I realized what she'd just said. We stared at each other.

She'd never ever told me that before. Not this way. Not like that. I kind of knew, that she did deep down, but she had never admitted it herself. It was just one of those things that had been lurking between the lines, and I'd never wanted to push her on it, not for real. The anger in Bella's eyes slowly drained from her face as she realized what she'd just slipped, and as she looked up at me her expression was almost nervous. It was obvious she hadn't meant to say it. Maybe she didn't even know until she'd said it out had.

I felt the smile spread on my face all by itself, and without really being aware of it, I moved towards her until I was standing straight in front of her. Bella smiled back nervously, her hands getting fidgety.

"Really?" The question escaped my lips without my consent; I just couldn't help but ask. My voice was barely a whisper, and I was surprised she'd heard it at all. But Bella nodded, slowly, as if unable to find her voice. She bit her lip absentmindedly, and my heart soared.

"About time you realized that," I grinned down at her, and then I scooped her up and kissed her, and that was all we did for a very long time. Her feet was swinging a good few inches off the ground, and she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me back as I held her to me. I could feel her smile against my lips, and I smiled back, or grinned, more accurately, and she sighed deeply, calmly for the first time in a long time.

I don't know how long we stood like that. When we pulled back, it was still a light summers night, so it couldn't have been for days and days even though it just might as well have felt that way. Bella smiled up at me, her eyes still teary. I dried her cheeks with my thumb.

She loved me.

That knowledge could make me manage anything. My hands were still shaking, and my forehead still throbbing, but for a while that just didn't matter. It was the first time she'd ever told me those words, and I realized, surprised, that I hadn't even said it back. I knew that she knew, but still. Surely I had told her this before? A thousand times? I had only been thinking it every time I saw her for the past year or so.

"I love you," I told her quietly "There, I said it. Like, officially. But you already knew that."

She only smiled, and looked like she was about to cry again, but not out of anger of fear this time. I watched as she sighed and wiped her eyes again on her sleeve.

"Sorry I yelled at you," she mumbled. "I know it's not your fault. I just ... have some abandonment issues."

She said the last few words quietly, so quietly even I had difficulty hearing them. I smiled at the obviousness of her statement. Of course she had. Who could blame her.

"I know," I said, pulling her back to me. "Good thing I'm still here then."

Laughter ran through her body.

"You're so cheesy," she snorted through her tears.

"I know," I grinned, suddenly completely unable not to. "Good thing you like cheese."

In the back of my head, I was vaguely aware of someone silently approaching the garage from the house, but I didn't bother turning. As long as it wasn't Paul, it didn't matter. Had it been Paul, I was pretty sure my self control wasn't strong enough not to break his nose.

There was a knock on the garage wall behind us. I turned around, and wasn't surprised to see Leah. I knew it was her, and beside who else really? Why she was here was a puzzle though.

"Hi," she said tightly, her eyes flashing between the two of us as if unsure where to settle her gaze. She finally turned to look at Bella. "I just wondered if I could talk to you for a second?"

Like me, it took a moment before Bella realized Leah was talking to her. She looked back and forth between Leah and me, for a moment unsure.

"Me?" she clarified, astonished, while subtly trying to dry her face again with her sleeve without anyone noticing but failing brilliantly.

"Yeah," Leah said. She looked at me briefly, but didn't say anything else.

"Uhm. Sure," Bella agreed, puzzled. She sent me a confused smile and squeezed my hand before walking off towards Leah. They started walking out of the garage, when Leah turned to meet my curious stare.

"Charlie's looking for you," she said shortly, nodding her head back towards the house. The hint was clear; she wanted me to leave and not listen in on their conversation. This talk wasn't for my ears – she wanted to talk to Bella alone. I only nodded, and reluctantly walked out after them only to head back towards the house.

I couldn't help but turn a couple of times, watching a little worried as the two girls headed towards the forest in the opposite direction. I had no idea what Leah was up to, and if she told Bella something rude... I wasn't sure if Bella could handle that right now, not in the middle of all this. And Leah had been pretty rude towards Bells before... She'd meant it well, in her own way, but if she screwed this up now, I wasn't sure I'd forgive her. Now, in the middle of all this, just when we'd manage to look past all the heartache. I nearly turned back, regretting I'd ever agreed to it, but then saw Charlie waiting for me by the porch of the house. His arms were crossed, and he was waiting. His brows were drawn together and he was observing me. Great. Another investigation.

I reached him at last, my mind still on the two girls I'd left behind. Charlie only looked at me with a knowing expression, keeping his arms crossed. A few thunderingly silent moments passed.

"So," he finally said. "That was some show you put up there."

I didn't know what to say, so I just stuffed my hands in my pockets and stared at his feet.

Charlie sighed and dropped his arms. One hand landed on my shoulder. "Come Jacob," he said, his tone much milder. "Sit down."

He turned to sit down on the porch steps, obviously wanting me to follow. Hesitantly, I did. There was another pause while he thought about how to phrase himself; my guesses were conversations like this wasn't his strongest side. I wondered what he was making of all this.

"I think I have a fair idea what's going on here," he said. "It doesn't take a genius to understand what's happening."

Uh huh. I had great difficulty not to raise one eyebrow. Charlie only continued.

"I can get why you're upset," he said, nodding to himself. "And I know why you reacted like you did when Paul showed up. He's got his reputation against him, and Rachel is your sister after all. I know what conclusions you must have been making when he entered. Of course you are feeling protective of your sister."

Well, that was an understatement. Sort of. Charlie drew a deep breath and continued.

"But seriously Jacob, they are only friends. Paul is very polite, and he seems genuinely interested in your sister. So maybe you shouldn't listen to everything you hear. People always love gossip, it doesn't mean it's true. I mean, it doesn't seem likely that he is...ah... I mean, that they ..."

Eww. Kill-me-now-kill-me-now-kill-me-now.

"Anyway," Charlie coughed. "Even if Paul has got some reputation with the ladies, that doesn't mean people can't change. And think about it for a second; right now he is sitting inside talking to Billy, and he has spent the rest of the time getting to know your sisters family and friends. He is acting like any other good kid, so I think it's unfair of you to be this prejudiced against him," Charlie shrugged. "Kid seems nice to me."

He was looking at me now, clearly expecting an answer.

"Sure sure," I finally dragged, staring at the mud in front of the porch, feeling a bit like mud too. "Great."

Charlie chuckled. "You'll get used to it. Just think about what I told you before doing anything rash, okay? It's not like he's your new brother in law or anything."

And then he clapped my shoulder once before getting up and going back into the house. Super. Just peachy.

At least the council would be content one of the Black kids were engaged inside the boundaries of the rez .

Feeling an urge to move, I got myself back up on my feet and started pacing in front of the house. Remembering that Bella was still out in the forest alone with Leah (that actually sounded much more frightening when put like that) I was getting a little worried. I strained my ears to see if I could pick up any sort of yelling or crying, but all was quiet. The only sounds were from the people in the backyard on the other side of the house.

I'd just decided enough was enough and to go and check Leah hadn't actually abducted Bella, when I heard footsteps. One pair of smooth, quiet feet, and one pair of stumbling, loud ones. I looked up just when they both appeared around the corner of the garage, and they both walked towards me.

I watched, a little nervously, as the two girls approached me. To my great surprise, Bella was smiling broadly when she saw me. There was a new glint to her eyes that hadn't been there before, and she was beaming towards me like she'd just gotten great news. It completely took me off guard; I'd nearly expected her to run towards me screaming with tears in her eyes.

"What did you two talk about?" I asked when she finally reached me, curious and quite astonished. I quickly peeked over at Leah, but she didn't look at me at all. She seemed busy studying the nearest tree.

"That's none of your business," Bella said with a smile, leaning up on her toes to kiss me. Not just a peck on the lips either – it was the sort of kiss that made my brain shrink and blood boil (or run south, rather). Leah only rolled her eyes at my noisy heartbeats. When Bella pulled back she sent a smile at both me and Leah before going back inside.

I looked at Leah, feeling my eyebrows raise.

"What did you say to her?" I asked, astonished. With Bella gone, my blood was quickly retreating back up to my brain.

"Wish you knew, huh?" Leah smirked.

I only stared at her, feeling both grateful, baffled and pretty suspicious at the same time. There was something in her expression that made my stomach knot unkomfortably. Leah only spread her arms out and shrugged, a smug look upon her face.

"What can I say? You owe me."

And then she ruffled her hand through my hair just like Rach used to do, before following Bella inside leaving me alone on the porch.

Girls.

A.N: Enourmous and very grateful thankyous to kallmecrazy and JJ Twi1ight who took time of their busy lives to help me out with this one. Also very grateful thankyous to all of you who reviewed. It has been a busy few weeks, but the next chapters are now mostly done so it shouldn't be this long until next time.

As always, reviws are very much appreciated. S to the P to the O to the I to the L to the E to the R... ;)