Jacob burst into Bella's hospital room. It was the day after Bella had sent the letter to the Cullens, and she was hoping that they were only staying away for appearances.

Jacob froze in shock when he saw sleeping Bella's form connected to all of the tubes. She looked so frail and weak.

"Hey, man, it's okay," Embry said, coming up behind him and putting a hand on his shoulder. Jacob unfroze and went to sit in a chair next to Bella.

Charlie and Renee had gone to get some food in the cafeteria, even though Charlie didn't want to leave Bella's side.

"But it's not," Jacob whispered. "It's not okay, Embry. My best friend is dying and I was busy ignoring her to keep her safe and because Sam ordered me to. She had dated a leech, I should've known that she'd be fine. I could've tried harder to fight Sam, I could've-"

"Look, you can't change the past. But at least you're here now," Embry tried to reassure him.

"Yeah," Jacob replied bitterly. "At least I'm here when she's on her deathbed." He took her hand. She woke with a start.

Somebody was holding her hand. She whipped her head from side to side, and her face fell when she realized the hand that held hers was too warm to be one of the Cullens.

"Hey, Bells," a deep voice said. "I didn't mean to wake you."

She did a double take when she saw him. Who was this man at her bedside? Then it hit her.

"Jacob?" she asked. He nodded. She grinned, like someone told her she had won the lottery. It was astonishing, considering the position she was in. The her face fell. "B-but I thought you changed your mind, that you wouldn't waste your time with me." Jacob cringed. Embry stood up.

"I'm going to give you guys some time to catch up..." he said. Bella's jaw dropped when she saw him. The changes in him were more pronounced than they were in Jacob. She shook herself out of her shock as he left the room.

"Bella, I didn't stop hanging out with you because you rejected me," Jacob said. "I don't know how to put this, but, Bella, I'm a— I'm a—" he paused and took a deep breath. "I'm a werewolf. I'm only allowed to tell you because you're, well, you're, you know." dying. Bella smiled.

"So every month you turn into a wolf at night? And I thought girls had it bad," she smirked. By now, nothing could surprise her.

"No, all that full moon and silver bullet crap isn't true," Jacob replied cheerfully. He was surprised that Bella had taken the news this well. "You girls still have it bad."

They each sat in companionable silence, both taking in the situation. Jacob was amazed that she'd just accepted that he was a werewolf. Bella was still trying to get over this new shock.

"Bella, how did this happen? Why didn't they catch it earlier?" he asked. Bella sighed. She'd honestly had enough of these kinds of questions.

"Jake, do we have to talk about that? We can't change the past," Bella said. Jake nodded and the each basked in each other's presence, both having missed each other dearly when Jacob cut his ties to her.

~O~

Edward gaped at his adopted sister.

The moment Alice had seen the vision of Bella writing the letter, she and Jasper were out the door, ignoring the questions from their family, saying that they would know soon enough. Through Jenks, Jasper had tracked Edward to Rio and now Alice was giving him the news. It had been three days since Bella had sent the letter

"So?" Alice prompted. When he didn't answer, she start growling. "If you don't come, I'm going to drag you there." Still, he didn't respond. "Edward, the girl you love is on her deathbed. Who are you to deny Bella her dying wish?" Alice hoped that maybe quoting Bella would get a response. Nothing.

Frustrated, she turned to Jasper. "Do you think that we could drag him to Forks?" she asked. Behind her, there was a rush of air. She glanced behind her before turning back to Jasper. "He'll meet us in Forks. And we have to call the others because Esme just read the letter."

A/N: Congrats to twilightfanjm for guessing the plot, although it won't happen quite the way you think...