Disclaimer- The fabulous characters of my story, with the exclusion of a few, belong to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer and come from her Twilight series.

A/N- I love this chapter. I hope you will too.

"You've been awfully quiet these last few days," Edward said softly, taking Bella's hand and looking into her eyes.

"Just thinking, I guess."

"May I ask what about?"

She gave him a small smile. "Calli. And Jacob, I suppose. She is going through so much. It's killing her. It's killing Jake."

He sighed. "She is in a difficult situation. I'm not sure how I would have handled things was I her age, in her place, going through what she is. Carlisle thinks she is very strong though. He believes she will pull through this. And Jacob is determined to pull her through." He looked wary as he said that last part.

She squeezed his hand. "It's alright Edward. I want him to pull her through. I'm glad she has someone like Jake when she's going through this. He has a way of pulling people through hard times." She looked down.

Edward put his hand under her chin and lifted it so she was looking into his eyes again. "I will forever be grateful to him that he pulled you through your hard time," he said softly, smiling at her.

"What's going to happen, you know, the ascension thing…I guess that's not what I'm thinking about most right now."

"And what is that?"

Bella swallowed hard. "The way Calli is acting right now, the way she looks…it's familiar…too familiar."

Edward just raised an eyebrow, looking at her expectantly.

"She's acting the same way you did…right before you left."

"Calli! Calli!"

Calli finally looked over, pulled from her thoughts.

"I threw that ball right to you. What are you, blind?"

Katie stood there, hand on her hip, looking at Calli angrily. Calli just rolled her eyes.

As if she didn't have enough problems. Katie had been picking up on her bad mood and propelling it further. They bickered constantly during dance practice, with Katie starting stupid little arguments over nothing.

"You wanna try giving me an answer?" she persisted. "That's the third ball you've missed."

Calli stared away, ignoring her.

"Deaf too, I see."

"Shut up Katie," she finally muttered, glaring at her for just a moment before turning around and beginning to walk away.

She heard Katie following behind. "Look, you may think you're little miss hot shot, but no one tells me to shut up, got it?"

Calli kept walking, closing her eyes and breathing deeply. Every nerve in her body ached to punch her in the face.

"Katie, just…"

"No Jaqie. I'm not going to keep taking her shit just because she's mad that her boyfriend's lost interest," she said loudly.

Calli immediately heard all the girls on the court quiet down. She stopped short, turning slowly.

Katie was just a few yards away, looking at her smugly, that hand that Calli wanted so badly to break still sitting on her hip.

"Shut up Katie," Calli said in a low but fierce tone.

"What, it's not like everyone else doesn't see it too," she said laughingly. "It's pretty obvious that…"

"I said shut up!" Calli yelled, interrupting her, missing the last part of the sentence.

Katie stared at her for a moment, narrowing her eyes. "Like he was ever that interested anyway."

"Listen to me you stupid…" she began shouting.

"Hey, hey, hey!" The teacher yelled from a distance, beginning to make her way toward them. "What is going on over there?"

But Calli wasn't paying attention. She walked toward Katie, her fists balled at her sides.

Katie automatically took a defensive stance. "What? You think I'm afraid of you?"

"Katie, knock it off!" Jaqie yelled.

"Don't worry…I'll be happy to take over when he's finished with you," she sneered.

Every rational part of Calli's brain shut down at that point. She closed the gap between her and Katie and stood right in front of her, looking up into her face. She pulled her fist back.

Just then a loud crack of thunder sounded, and she looked up at the sky, her mind finally comprehending what she was doing. The unusually clear day had clouded over suddenly. She began lowering her hand back to her side.

But apparently Katie had seen it and decided to take action. Before Calli knew it, Katie lifted her hand and slapped her across the face.

Her head reeled to the side. The hit was not painful, only surprising. And it pushed Calli's anger over the edge. She turned her head back slowly to face Katie again.

Jacob stood on the court trying to concentrate on the game he was playing. He knew Calli wasn't far away; he could see her from there if he wanted to, but he avoided looking in that direction.

He knew what he would see; she would be preoccupied, lost in thought. Thoughts he wanted desperately to make go away but couldn't.

She had been a wreck the last few days. Nothing he did could pull her out of it. She wouldn't talk to him, not about anything of importance anyway. She avoided looking at him. He stayed with her constantly, only going home when he absolutely had to, or when Calli absolutely insisted on it.

He knew she was losing it. Whatever strength she had was diminishing quickly. He needed to do something. Being there for her wasn't enough. It wasn't anything at this point.

"Cool, girl fight," the guy next to him on the court said. Jacob turned to look at where the girls were.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he heard the girl's coach yell. "What is going on over there?"

Jacob saw Calli not far from Katie. She balled her fists up at her sides, then began walking toward Katie.

He began walking off the court.

"Knock it off Katie!" Jaqie yelled.

Jacob saw Calli reach her quickly. She looked up at Katie and pulled her fist back.

He started running full speed. He had almost closed the distance when he saw Katie lift her arm and slap Calli.

He growled loudly, not even thinking about it. He was almost right by them as he saw Calli turn her head slowly back in Katie's direction.

Before her fist could make contact with Katie's face Jacob grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"Let me go!" she screamed as she turned quickly, her face full of anger. She looked like she could kill Katie. A part of Jacob almost wanted to let her. Seeing someone hit her made him furious.

The teacher came to a stop right next to Katie. "Ms. Mallory, in my office, now!"

Katie merely glared at Calli.

Jacob felt Calli try to pull out of his grasp towards Katie and held her more tightly, pulling her closer to him.

"Now!"

Katie turned quickly and walked off toward the gym.

"Calli, tell me…"

But before she could finish Calli ripped her arm from Jacob's grasp and walked quickly in the opposite direction of the gym.

Jacob went to go after her.

"Let her go Jacob. She needs to cool down," the teacher said.

Jacob stopped, watching her walk away furiously. He debated for a minute before turning back around.

"What happened?" he demanded, looking at Jaqie.

"Katie just started arguing with her. She was mad cause Calli didn't catch the ball. She just kept egging her on. Then…" She paused.

"Then what?"

"She told Calli it wasn't her fault that her…boyfriend wasn't interested in her anymore. That everyone could see it. She said she was gonna…take over…for Calli." Jaqie looked uneasily at Jacob.

His fists balled at his sides as he listened to her. He could feel himself begin to shake and took a deep breath.

Jaqie stared at him warily.

"I should've just let her hit her," he muttered as he turned to run in the direction Calli had gone.

Calli walked quickly toward the trees. Her anger wasn't lessening at all. She didn't just want to punch Katie. She wanted to kill her. She was sure that if Jacob hadn't grabbed her she would have seriously hurt her.

She knew she wasn't being rational, and she didn't care. She wanted something, anything, to release her anger on. She figured Katie's face would be a good start.

When she got to the closest tree she pulled her fist back and punched it hard. She felt the bark under her hand crunch in. She also felt something in her hand crack and a sharp pain. She looked at it and saw the torn skin across the knuckles.

"Damnit!" she screamed.

She was more frustrated that the punch had affected her than anything. She knew none of the Cullen's would have been injured by that. But she knew that her body was not like theirs. While theirs was hard and strong, hers still was soft, vulnerable. She didn't think that was very fair.

She felt a hand on her shoulder that quickly spun her around. She looked up and stared into Jacob's angry face.

He immediately reached down to grab her hand and pulled it up to look at it.

She pulled her hand out of his and tried to turn away, but he wouldn't release her.

"Just let me go Jacob!"

"No," he said calmly, grasping her even more firmly.

She began struggling, but he only held on tighter. "I said let me go!"

"You can be as mad as you want. You can scream and yell. I'll let you hit me if it makes you feel better. But I'm not going to let you pull yourself away from me. You might as well quit now."

"Just leave me alone!"

"No. That is the one thing I'm not going to do. So go ahead, do whatever you have to do to get it out." He looked her directly in the eye, and she looked away, struggling to free herself.

She pulled harder and harder, but she couldn't get out of his grasp. She put her hands up to his chest and pushed as hard as she could.

But whatever strength she had was no match for his. He barely moved. She screamed in frustration, hitting his chest with her fists, until finally she just dropped her hands to her sides, giving up.

"Feel better?"

"What do you think?" she asked icily.

He just stood there for a few minutes, his hands still grasping her arms, until he finally wrapped his arms around her and pulled her body against his chest.

She stayed stiff at first, her hands remaining at her sides. But after a few minutes she wrapped her arms around him and let her body collapse against his.

He just held her, reaching up to stroke her hair. Finally he pulled back and looked down at her. But she looked down at the ground, dropping her arms back to her sides.

He reached his hand up to her chin and pushed it up until her eyes met his. They weren't angry anymore. They were full of pain, pain he knew he had to make go away. Seeing her like that was too much. He couldn't stand for her to be hurting like this.

He looked into her eyes intently for a moment before speaking. "You know what she said isn't true," he said firmly.

She tried to move her head back down toward the ground, her whole body stiffening against his.

"No!" he said fiercely, holding her face in place. She kept her eyes away from his for just a minute before turning them back. "You are my world. You're my life. If Katie's too stupid to see that, then that's her problem. I don't need her to see it anyway. I only need you to see it."

She just looked up at him, her expression full of pain.

"I know that this is hard. I know everything is hard right now. But if you think I'm going anywhere you're crazy. If you think you can just push me away and I'll go then you're wrong. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. Ever."

She looked up at him, that tortured look still in her eyes, for a long time before they finally softened and her body relaxed against his.

He put his hands on the sides of her face and leaned his face down so it was level with hers. "You know I love you. Don't ever let anyone make you think differently," he said fiercely before he pressed his lips softly to hers.

Jacob walked into the hospital and went to the front desk to have Carlisle paged. He came out and motioned for Jacob to follow him back into an office.

After Jacob walked in he closed the door and whirled around quickly. "Is Calli alone?" he demanded.

"Of course not. Alice came to her practice to watch."

Carlisle looked immediately relieved, then looked at Jacob carefully. "Is everything alright?"

"I think it's pretty obvious that everything is not alright. You've seen her the past few days. Something has to be done."

Carlisle sighed. "What can we do?"

"You tell me! Tell me something to do and I'll do it. This is just getting to be too damn much. She got into a fight today!"

"What?" Carlisle asked in a panicked voice. "Did she hurt someone? What happened?"

"She didn't start it. That stupid little b…brat Katie did. She was egging her on. I guess she was telling Calli how I wasn't interested anymore and she was going to step in. I wasn't there for most of it. I saw Calli go to hit her, but then she stopped. I think she realized she would probably do some serious damage. But Katie saw her, and she slapped Calli." He could feel his anger rise when he just mentioned her being hit.

"She actually hit her?" Carlisle asked incredulously.

"Yeah. I got there right as Calli went to hit her back. She didn't touch her. Trust me, this girl deserved it. I'm a little tempted to hit her myself."

"What happened after that?"

"Calli ran off. I went after her. She hit a tree…she messed up her hand a little. She fixed it though. But I'm telling you, she is falling apart. She can't keep going like this."

"I don't know that there's much more we can do. She's not sleeping, so she's not dreaming. We've told her she can stop opening her mind to him. I'm quite sure that Alice will see him coming now. Even if not, Edward will be able to recognize if he is close. I'm not sure if she's listened…she may still be opening up." Carlisle sighed. "She probably is."

"I think it's time for me…"

"No Jacob," Carlisle said firmly. "Do you think Calli will be any better if you go after him, if you are gone? If she knows that you are putting yourself in danger? That will only make things worse."

Jacob growled quietly in frustration. "What can I do? I'm there. I'm there all the time. It's not helping. I have to do something! I have to…make it go away!"

Carlisle looked thoughtful for a moment. "There's something…something she's not telling us. I know she told us that in her dream Samuel threatened us. But he threatened us that night in the clearing too. She already knew he was thinking that. I know that…what he did upset her a great deal also. But I have a feeling…there's something she's not telling us. Something happened, or something was said, in that dream, that she is keeping to herself."

"Ok," Jacob said slowly. "So how do I get her to tell me?"

Carlisle sighed. "I have no idea."

Calli looked aimlessly out the window as Alice drove home. They were silent the whole drive. Calli had nothing to say.

When they parked Calli jumped out of the car and began walking quickly toward the trees.

"Calli, where are you…" Alice began anxiously.

"Don't worry, I'm not running off," she called out and went to the edge of the lawn where she sat with her back against a tree, her legs out in front of her.

Alice just sighed and went to sit on the porch.

Calli looked away from the house. She had no desire to watch Alice babysit her.

She felt terrible. No surprise, she always felt terrible lately. She could barely look at Jacob. Every time she did Samuel's words echoed through her mind, and the pain was unbearable.

Because they were true. Because she knew, at some point, that to do the right thing, she had to let Jacob go.

But whenever she was around him, all she could think about was staying with him. All she could focus on was her tremendous need to be with him. And that made her feel even worse. She felt selfish. She should have been thinking about him, about his future.

But when she thought about her future without him she ached. There was no possible life she could imagine that he wasn't a part of. She didn't know how she would let him go.

She only knew she needed to.