SM owns Twilight. We just want to live in her world a bit longer.

A/N Thanks so much for the reviews. Glad that people are enjoying it. Early update. I didn't want to make you wait until the weekend after that cliffhanger.

Chapter 9

"RROOOAAARRR!"

Bella watched in horror as both the officer and Seth fell to the ground. There was no time to appreciate the fact that Jake was finally here, in front of her. She was frozen on the spot.

She didn't even notice as Jake phased back to human and put his pants on. He knelt next to Seth on the ground. "Bella!" he shouted at her, "Bella!"

The smell of blood was filling the air. She looked at Jake's hands; they were covered in blood. Jake was gripping Seth's thigh, and there was blood everywhere. The deep red liquid was pooling on the ground around them.

"Bella, we need to stop the bleeding," he said urgently. "Shit! I think it has hit an artery or something."

He looked up at her in desperation, but she was still not responding.

"BELLA!" he screamed at her.

His urgent tone finally to seemed to snap her out of it as she unfroze. She went to step towards them when she realized that her hands were still bound behind her back. "M-my hands," she stuttered.

"Come here," Jake said quickly.

She took the two steps that separated them, trying not to stumble and turned her back to him. Bella felt his wet hands grab onto the handcuffs, and with a sharp tug, they were separated.

"We need something to tie around his leg." Jake went immediately back to holding onto Seth's leg, trying to put pressure on the wound. "Have you got anything in the car that could help?"

"I…I'll look," she said as she walked quickly back to the car.

They needed a belt, but she didn't have one. Of course, Seth had no need for one either. She spotted their two backpacks. She emptied Seth's bag onto the passenger seat and took it back to Jake.

He looked up at her with a confused expression. "Can you get the strap off the bag? Then, we can use it to tie around his leg."

He considered it for a few moments, "I need you to replace my hands while I pull the strap off the bag. Can you do that?"

Bella tried to take a deep breath to steady her nerves, but the smell of the blood instantly made her nauseous. She needed to pull herself together. She needed to do this for Seth. It was her fault that he was in this situation. She nodded.

She knelt down, next to Seth, opposite Jake. "You need to apply pressure here. On the count of three, we swap." He looked up at her face to confirm. She nodded again. "One, two, three."

A small gush of blood escaped before Bella managed to get a tight grip on his leg. She swallowed back the bile in her throat and held her breath as she looked away from what she was doing.

Jake grabbed the backpack, tugged on the strap, and it quickly came apart. He brought the belt back to Seth, immediately pushed it under his leg, and tightened it around his upper thigh. Bella could feel the blood pressure reduce under her hands.

"That should hold it until his healing kicks in," Jacob stated as Bella slowly released her hands from Seth.

Jacob and Bella looked at each other, for a heartbeat, across the bloody scene. The sound of sirens interrupted them. They both turned to look up the road but couldn't see anything coming yet.

"We need to get out of here, now," Jacob said as he started picking Seth up.

Bella quickly ran back to the car. She grabbed her backpack and shoved Seth's clothes in before turning to follow Jacob. As she turned, she saw the massive pool of Seth's blood on the ground, as well as the police officer lying on the ground.

Jake was waiting for her at the side of the road. She quickly ran towards him, throwing the bag's straps over her shoulder, as he turned and headed into the forest.

When she caught up with him, she asked nervously, "is Seth going to be alright?"

"He has lost a lot of blood, but the bullet went straight through. I can feel the exit wound on the back, and I can hear his heart is beating strong. He'll be good in a couple of hours. Hopefully, he wakes up soon."

"Thank God!" Bella was so relieved to hear this. She felt a great weight lift off her shoulders. "W-what happened to the officer?" she asked.

"I think he fainted," Jake said with a shrug. "He was still alive and breathing when we left."

At least they didn't have to add murdering a police officer to their list of offenses.

Bella was struggling to keep up with Jake's pace. Even carrying Seth, he was much faster than her. As a result, she tripped over multiple times in the first few minutes. She could feel the sting of a few new scratches on her palms and her knees.

The adrenaline was slowly leaving her body, and in its wake, it left her feeling very shaky and ill. She was starting to struggle to catch her breath. "Wait…" she called out to Jake as she bent over and rested her hands on her knees.

"Come on, Bella, we need to get further away. We are still too close to the road."

She looked up into his eyes, seeming to gather the strength she needed to continue moving.

They moved through the forest at a quick pace.

She watched him as he walked silently in front of her. As usual he was only wearing a part of cut-off pants, slung low on hips. His lean, muscular body was so graceful as he stepped over branches and rocks on the ground. He looked almost predatory like in his movements.

He had changed since she'd last seen him. He seemed even taller than before, and his hair was longer, long enough to tuck behind his ears.

She had only been half right before. He was not just sort of beautiful. He really was beautiful. It made her heart beat faster. Hopefully, if he heard it, he would think it was just the walking that made it speed up.

She had imagined seeing Jake for the first time multiple times over the past few days, and each time she had immediately hugged him. The lack of physical contact, now, was causing her body to physically ache. She missed his touch badly, and being this close but unable to touch him was excruciating.

After almost an hour of trekking through the forest, in unbearable silence, Bella could hear the sound of rushing water ahead.

"I don't think anyone has followed us yet," Jake said, breaking the silence. "We should be right to rinse off by the stream."

Jacob found a flat spot on the ground and laid Seth down. He was still unconscious.

After inspecting Seth's leg, Jacob untied the belt. Much to Bella's relief, the wound on his leg was healing, and it had already stopped bleeding.

Jacob walked to the water and started washing his hands and arms, cleaning away the blood. Bella followed after him and did the same, scrubbing the dirt out of the wounds on her hands. She was watching him, out of the corner of her eye, now she could see his face. He had a hard edge to his face. Something about the way he held his jaw.

"What are you doing here, Bella?" Jake asked her, with a hint of annoyance in his voice. She felt her stomach drop at his tone.

"Looking for you."

"But, why?" he asked angrily.

"I… I missed you," she stuttered.

"You chose him, Bella, not me." Jake was clearly angry, but the heartbreak was evident in that simple statement.

"I know," she whispered, looking at the ground. "I…"

"Bella?" Seth croaked, interrupting their conversation.

Bella rushed over to Seth, putting her hand on his shoulder. He was trying to sit up.

"Don't get up yet," she insisted.

"What happened?"

"You were shot in the leg after you jumped in front of a gun. Seth! What were you thinking? You've lost a lot of blood."

"Jake?" Seth turned his head until he found him.

"Hey man," Jacob said as he clasped his hand with Seth's. "I agree with Bella. You didn't need to do that."

Seth just shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Glad to see you too." He looked between Jacob and Bella, frowning. He could feel the tension in the air.

"Are you okay, Bella? I can smell your blood." Seth said.

Bella was unsure how he could smell her small scratches over the huge amount of blood that was still covering Seth. "Yeah, I scrapped my hands and knees a few times in the forest."

Seth reached up, and he was studying a hole in the arm of her jacket. "Did you get hit?" he asked.

She looked down at the hole, unable to remember where it came from. Bella unzipped her jacket and removed her arm from the sleeve. Blood was seeping through her shirt and down her arm.

"I didn't even feel it," she muttered as she inspected her shoulder and found a small wound.

Jake reached over and grabbed her wrist lightly, lifting her shirt to inspect the wound. Bella instantly felt a spark of electricity shoot through her body, radiating from her wrist straight to her heart; it did a double beat. She tried not to blush, to no avail.

She pulled her arm back out of his grasp, "it's just a graze," she said, trying not to make a big thing of it. She put her jacket back on.

"Sorry, Bella," Seth apologized. "I was trying to knock the gun away from Jake. I didn't mean for you to get hurt."

"Really, it's nothing," she pleaded. "I'm the one that should be sorry. How are you feeling? You've lost way more blood than me."

Seth stretched out his leg, "sore, but not too bad, considering."

"I'm sorry, Seth," Bella said, shaking her head. "I can't believe he did that."

"Who?" Seth asked.

"Edward, I can't believe he called the cops on us."

Jacob scoffed, and Bella turned to look at him. "What?" she asked.

He rolled his eyes, "of course he did. I bet he is pissed off. You ran away from him, and now he can't control you." Jake said the last bit with mockery in his voice.

Bella narrowed her eyes as she looked at Jacob. "He's just upset. I humiliated him. I ran away on our wedding day."

Jake was now shaking his head in disbelief, "can't believe you are still defending him. Seth nearly died!"

"Hey!" Seth shouted quickly to stop things from escalating. "Cut it out, both of you. I thought this was supposed to be a happy reunion?"

Jacob and Bella looked into each other eyes. Bella felt her heartache as she saw the hurt there. He was masking the pain with anger. She had done that to him. She looked away quickly and tried to blink away the tears.

Seth sat up and tested out his leg as he attempted to get up. Jacob held him under his arm to help him up.

"Bella, have you got a spare pair of pants for me in that bag? I might try and wash off in the stream." Seth said. He was still covered in blood.

She put the bag on the ground and opened it up, pulling out a new pair of cut-offs for him. Seth walked down to the water and sat down in it, scrubbing his legs. Bella threw his pants on the ground near the edge of the water.

The air was thick with silence. Bella refused to look at Jake. Instead, she turned around, under the guise of giving Seth some privacy.

While Seth was washing off, they all heard the thumping sounds of helicopter blades. They looked up, but it didn't fly directly over them.

"We had better get moving. Seth, are you up to walking, or am I going to have to carry you again."

Bella turned around when she heard Seth walking closer. He was walking without a limp and looked a whole lot better now that he wasn't covered in blood.

"Nah, I think I'm good," he said.

"Where are we headed?" Bella asked.

"I thought this whole thing was your idea?" Jacob asked, cocking his eyebrow.

Bella felt her stomach drop and her heart clench. She looked away quickly.

"How about we just keep moving away for the cops? We can discuss a plan later," Seth suggested, always the mediator, trying to keep the peace.

"Sounds good," Bella said quietly.

Jacob took off, without another word, leading the way. Seth looked at Bella and indicated that she should walk in front of him. She smiled slightly at Seth, mouthing, "thank you" to him.

A/N okay, so I know wolves don't roar, but a loud growl, bark or howl is really hard to write into the story with a straight face. So please don't crucify me.

Also, don't hate on Jake. His perspective is up next, and the angst won't last too long, I promise.