A/N: I am incredibly sorry for everyone who has been waiting for an update. Life happens, and lately, writer's block has been my best friend. Thank you for sticking through this story as my writing and ideas have evolved. I can't wait to get to the point where I can clean this up! You are all appreciated. I hope COVID has not been devastating to you, and that you are coping well with all of these life changes.

None of these characters belong to me, but this plot lives rent free in my brain.

Love,
DD

Playlist:

- 15 Step – Radiohead

- Fake Plastic Trees – Radiohead

- Madness – Muse

Chapter 60:

As the door opened, my lungs automatically inhaled deeply to catalogue the hangar. The smell that hung thickly in the air was sweet and spackled with a familiar sourness. My mind reeled, confused. I couldn't help the growl that bubbled in my throat, pushing past my lips.

Edward's arm barred me from moving any further, but I didn't need to use my eyes to know who was here. I would recognize that smell until the end of days.

Across the far expanse of the dome, laying on a rigg with his head and shoulders under a Jeep, was Jacob. He jumped to his feet when the door slammed shut behind us, eyes wide, the scent of fear leaking into the air.

The mixture swirled potently in the cavernous space, the last place I ever thought I would smell it.

His eyes went wide with terror and his hands fumbled with an oilcloth. So many of my afternoons had been spent seeing him like this, nervous, unsure, anxious, with blackened hands and smudged skin, pulling and twisting a cutting of an old sweatshirt.

That was then. When the world spun on a different axis, before love and marriage and divorce added a tangled blanket of normalcy over three very abnormal individuals. Back when crushes made my heart fall into the pit of my stomach, back when the world was contained by the four corrugated aluminum walls of a makeshift garage, and pizza and AM radio, back when I didn't know my lab partner wanted to drain my body dry and make love to me senselessly. Back when I didn't know my best friend was carving out a life for us out of a fear of being alone.

I opened my mind to Edward, running through suspicion after suspicion, after suspicion. Why was he here? The C.O. obviously had something to do with this. Why is he so skinny? What the fuck was happening? Are you okay? Question after question after ran through my mind, stacking on top of each other. He squeezed my hand and nodded.

Simultaneously pulling at the threads of my and Jacob's mind, I grew desperate for information. Seconds that felt like an eternity passed between them, Edward prying open Jacob's consciousness like an oyster, only taking what was offered.

"I should go," he said, hurriedly moving towards the door. "Listen, guys, I shouldn't have been here in the first place and if she finds out you saw me—"

"The C.O.?" I interrupted.

"Yes, now, I really have to—"

"No. Not before you explain how the fuck you got here."

"Edward, can't you just tell her?"

He looked between the both of us, sighing. "Jacob you know she's going to want to know more."

Jacob took piece of small white plastic and tossed it onto the ground between us. "Just…find me later. If you want…I can't be here."

With that he bolted through the door, leaving me absolutely dumbfounded.

"Before you lose your mind," Edward spoke, pulling me into him, "are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be? The more important question is are you okay?"

"I still want to kill him, but…this is a much better penance than I could ever have come up with."

Edward explained what he saw in Jacob's mind. After learning about what he put me through, Ellie refused to associate with him. Though he tried his best to apologise, tried his best to make his imprint see him as a different man, a changed man, she refused.

And his world ended.

The pain she would be in, the hollowness she would feel, the sensation of never being whole again without being with him, was mirrored in Jacob's longing for her. What he felt, she felt. But she was able to move on with her life, to care for her son. To step away from the culture of forcibly falling in love with someone, even if you did not like them. I appreciated the enormous amount of strength it took on her part to stay away, and even went so far as to feel angry that out of everyone in the world, Jacob Black was the person that would make Otis's family complete.

Without Ellie, the C.O. took this as an opportunity to strike. Jacob was weak and hadn't been able to shapeshift since the day she said no. Slowly, his strength dwindled, muscles whittling down to what he had been before. Still, what a world of difference it would be if the biggest vampire army in the world harnessed the power of wolves, or better yet, learned enough to become immune to them. After learning about them from Edward, it wasn't long after my and Jacob's last encounter that she scooped him up and brought him to Italy, uncontested.

To be honest, if I wasn't able to see his face, I'd be finding it difficult to convince myself that the person before me really was Jacob. He was thinner than I had ever seen him, a frail figment of my human past.

Worse still, the C.O. had numbed the part of himself that felt that particular brand of sadness, in exchange for his body in research. He had chosen to feel his guilt, remorse, regret, in all its psychologically draining glory.

However, he was next to useless to her in his present state. Unable to shift, and his DNA proving to be irritatingly normal, his ability to repair cars granted him board and lodging and a very interesting choice of antidepressant.

When she offered him freedom, he declined.

I stared at the door, shocked at myself for feeling gleefully vindicated that he was suffering. However, the more I thought about it, the more prominent the pang of guilt for Ellie and Otis lodged itself in my brain.

Back at the party, Edward didn't feel that it was safe enough to expose the C.O.'s secrets to the others. Alice on the other hand, knew the moment we laid eyes on him.

"After all this time," he said to me leaning down to kiss my shoulder, "we still can't have a moment's peace. There's always something."

I stood with my back against the tall cocktail table, sipping champagne, not really caring for the taste. I focused on it with all my might. One half of my brain and body was electrified, wanting to jump Edward right here and right now. The other half, the more rational brain, was grounded, trying to formulate plans to break my estranged werewolf ex-husband out of the clutches of the vampiric underworld. A substantial part of me screamed that he deserved to rot here, but the consequences of upsetting the already precarious peace between vampires versus wolves were dire.

"After we figure this out, I would love to spend a month away from civilization. Just you, me, no internet or cell service."

"That sounds like heaven."

Neither of us trusted any of what was happening right now. Did they know we found out? Were the people aimlessly wandering about really patrons, or were they agents in disguise, listening for dissident. What else was this organization capable of? Where was all this research funding coming from?

My eyes followed the C.O. as she flitted from group to group, laughing, schmoozing, shaking hands, knowing that within her grasp was foot in the door towards eradicating the only natural enemy of vampires. Eventually, she made her way here, to the Cullen Clan.

I honestly half expected one of us to crack and spill the beans, to ask what exactly it was that they did here? but that expectation was soon broken.

"I'm sure you're all dying for a tour," she said as soon as she released Carlisle from a handshake. "Come with me. I want to show you what we've built."