Any of you ever read Because of the Telepath by me? Well, if you have, then 1: YOU ARE SO BEYOND AMAZING, THERE IS NO WORD TO DESCRIBE HOW AWESOME YOU ARE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE and 2: then you'll know how badly I freak when I have to free write something. I like having things down on paper. However, all I have for the next couple of chapters are vague outlines, because of all the flashbacks and detail that had to go into them.

(Update: after three horrible days, I ripped/chewed/tore/scratched the god-awful fake nails off. I have hands that are much too…artist-y, I guess you could say, to wear those things. They're not me at all. So yeah. Typing is a lot easier.)

Now, let us nervously begin.

Jacob's POV

I stiffened when I realized someone had interrupted our dancing.

"Can I cut in?"

I turned, and didn't even have to think about it as my body shifted Mercy so that she was a little behind me, tucked safely into the crook of my arm. Standing next to us was an old man, but he was standing straight and tall, only a couple of inches shorter than me, he had grayish black hair and a beard. He wore a naval uniform.

I smiled at him. Oh, this was gonna be good. "Sure," I nodded, and he gave a twitch of his lips that I took for a smile and I heard Mercedes gasp as she was whisked away.

I snickered to myself. The old guy wasn't any kind of threat to me; this would be hilarious.

My mind flashed back for a moment the last time I had danced with a girl, and how different it had been dancing with Mercy.

This excerpt is pretty much straight out of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. I own nothing from the following italics, it's just my idea of what was going on in Jacob's POV at that time.

"Sam's out there. And some of the others. Just in case, you know."

"In case of what?"

"In case I can't keep it together, something like that. In case I decide to trash the party." Images of me stomping around like Godzilla and throwing things, smashing them, phasing in front of all these people and ripping Edward Cullen's throat out made me smile a bit. The thought was appealing. "But I'm not here to ruin your wedding, Bella. I'm here to…" I trailed off. I was here to see her looking exactly as I saw her every day. As a perfect creature, so stunning, so beautiful. I was here to see her human one last time. I was here to memorize her, take one last hit like some kind of junkie before my supply ran out…

"To make it perfect."

"That's a tall order." Oh, sure. I was what made this all perfect. That leech waiting for her at the end of the aisle was what made this day perfect for her, not me.

"Good thing you're so tall." I groaned. She had always been awful at making jokes.

End excerpt.

Mercedes isn't awful at making jokes.

The thought came unbidden. It just sprang into my head, totally interrupting my train of thought.

That was the imprint for ya. Mercy was always there in my thoughts, in the back of my head. Instead of measuring distances in miles I measured it in how far away I was from her.

And yet another excerpt:

You really WANT to imprint, or be imprinted on, or whichever? I demanded. What's wrong with going out and falling in love like a normal person, Leah? Imprinting is just another way to get your choices taken away from you.

End this excerpt.

The conversation Leah and I had had on that day that seemed so long ago came floating back.

My entire body seemed to jerk as I leaned against the wall to watch Mercy and the random dude begin to dance.

My ears strained to pick up their every word as I pondered this; his name was Mr. Miller, he was Gertrude's husband, and wanted to thank Mercy for coming here and making her night.

I found it odd, now, how fuzzy everything from that time was. It had happened just a month or so ago. Just a few weeks ago I had been dead set against imprinting. All I wanted was a natural life with a natural Bella.

I smiled a bit, watching Mercedes as she Mr. Miller lead her effortlessly into a swinging dance, twisting her every which way before spinning her out so quickly I was scared she would fall for a moment before smoothly grabbing Gertrude off her chair and beginning to dance with her.

Gertrude blushed and giggled like a school girl. She seemed used to her and her husband's difference in height.

I reached out and grabbed Mercy, pulling her tightly to me. Thinking about the past, however recent, had shaken me. I hadn't gone into great detail about those couple of days before Bella gave birth. Just told Mercy how Leah and I had bonded and whatnot.

Like I said, it had been fuzzy. Anything that wasn't Mercedes Pruett related was shoved to the back of my mind. And those days had been the furthest from Mercy as I could get. I had been denying even wanting her around.

Another tremor rocked through me at that revelation. How could I ever have not wanted her?

Mercy was smiling up at me, about to say something, before she saw the state I was in. "Jake? Jacob, what's wrong?"

"I need to tell you something," I said urgently. I felt like a Catholic or something that had to confess the biggest sin of their life to the preacher so they could repent.

Bewildered, she stuttered, "Okay, so tell-"

"Come on," I interrupted, grabbing her hand and dragging her out of the room.

"We'll be right back," she cried to Gertrude and the dancing old people as she stumbled after me.

The hallway was cool and deserted, and the loud music was muffled as we rounded a corner and stopped walking.

Mercy leaned against the wall. "Jacob, what's going on?"

"You know how when I was telling you about, like, Bella?" Epic fail, Jacob.

Mercy frowned. "Uh huh."

"Well, you know how I said Leah and I bonded? Like, had some pretty deep conversations?"

"Sure," she nodded, frowning some more. "Jacob, are you okay?"

"Not really," I admitted and began pacing back and forth.

"We started talking about imprinting, me and Leah. And she said she wanted to imprint, or be imprinted on. And I…. I didn't, Mercy. I told her no way in hell would I ever want that, want my free will and power of choice taken away. I told her I'd rather drown in the endless ocean of pain that was to be my future because of all the crap with Bella than to ever just randomly lock eyes with some chick and have it all go away. I just wanted… wanted to let you know that I wouldn't take it back, wouldn't give you up for anything." Well that didn't come out nearly as eloquent and Shakespearean as I had planned.

If this is what Romeo sounded like to Juliet, no wonder she killed herself.

Mercedes tilted her head, just staring at me.

I bounced on the balls of my feet, anxious beyond belief. The overwhelming need to touch her, to breathe her in, to devour her until my soul was the same temperature as my overheated blood consumed me.

Now that I had realized there had been a time I hadn't wanted her, every part of me ached, craved, needed to be with her in every and any way.

"Jake," she finally said with an exasperated little sigh, "you worry too much."

I hesitated, not entirely sure what that meant.

She gave me an amused little smile and shook her head. "You over analyze and you put your whole heart and soul into every little thing that you do. Every stray thought, every conversation, every movement made, you remember it and go over and over it until it's worn out and threadbare. Just calm down. It's okay, Jake. I understand why you didn't want me then. You wanted your time to grieve. You wanted to wallow a bit, and to completely break down, and you wanted to feel the pain you felt you needed to feel because that was what was due to the downfall of your and Bella's relationship. Or, in this case, lack of a relationship. And that's okay. I know what it's like to want to hurt. As long as everything is all good now, and you don't resent me for anything now, it doesn't matter Jake."

I practically threw myself at her, kissing her with wild abandon, my mind straying back to what she had done in the car before we came in and I shuddered. She met my wild kisses lick for lick and nip for nip, but where mine were crazy and desperate, hers were fiery and possessive and reassuring.

I thought back to what it had been like, my eyes meeting hers for the first time in the store. How every loyalty, every piece of love I'd ever had for anyone else, anything that tied to me to this earth had been snipped, and she had become the center of my universe.

To think I had scorned this kind of love, this kind of feeling, even for a moment, was unbearable.

Sam and Emily. Kim and Jared. Hell, even Quil and Claire. It felt like none of them had anything on us in that moment, not even all of them combined.

Our kisses became more gentle, more soothing, more comforting.

"I love you," she breathed in my ear.

"Why?" I don't know why I asked that. But it had been a question that had been nagging me for awhile.

I didn't want her to love me just because of the imprint.

Mercy looked confused. "What do you mean why?"

"What is it that you love?" I specified, tilting my head in the way she so often did as I stared down at her.

She raised her eyebrows. "Do you really want to be here for all of eternity? 'Cause that's how long we'll be here if I start listing stuff."

I bent down and nipped at her neck. "Mmm. Never mind. There are better places we could be. Better things to do."

Her eyes sparkled merrily when she looked back at me. "Then we better go thank Gertrude and get out of here."

So yeah. This was gonna be just a filler chapter, but I really wanted to dig deeper into Jacob's head. This is what came out of that little excursion. Not much, and not my best example of character dissection, but ya know. Beggars can't be choosers.

I promise, things will get better! There is an actual plot! There will be tons of vampire drama and the Volturi will cause problems and everything, but that's later. For now, I really just want to focus on Mercy and Jake's little world.

Thank you, by the way, for all the awesome reviews! We're almost to 200! And it's only the 35th chapter! (I say only because this will end up being a verrryyyyy lloooonnngggg story. No joke. But it'll be worth it…I hope). All we need is 8 more. Come on… eight measly little reviews? Please? It's not a requirement or anything, I don't pull stupid jerky author moves like that, but it would be nice…

I don't think this chapter was too shabby, personally, considering it was free written and it's one in the morning.