All characters from The Vampire Diaries belong to L.J. Smith as well as all characters from Twilight belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing except my version of events.

A/N: Finally a shorter chapter.

Chapter 10 Super Swan

I woke up bright and early on Monday, beating my alarm.

I'd spent the day with Jacob yesterday reconnecting and getting back on track, he'd spent the night again but left a note this morning telling me he had to go to school. I got up getting ready for school myself, going downstairs to make myself some breakfast since I had plenty of time before Angie picked me up for school. I was reaching into the fridge to get some eggs when I felt eyes on me. It was the strangest feeling. I was starting to freak out when it suddenly clicked, remembering that Sam had said I would be on wolf watch 24/7. Relaxing my body, I figured I might as well invite whoever was out there for breakfast, I had plenty of time anyways.

I walked to the front door, opening it and shouting "Whoever is out there can come in, you can join me for breakfast if you want!"

Not even a minute had passed when I saw the silhouette of a man through the trees coming towards me, as he got closer I realized it was Sam.

"Good morning Bella, you know this isn't necessary right?" He said as he got closer, confidently walking in bare feet and a bare chest.

"I know, but I wouldn't mind some company. Besides, it's creepy having someone out there watching me. You guys are going beyond what you need to in order to keep me safe and therefore are all more than welcome to join me in the house when you're on patrol. Well unless you guys want to stay in wolf form then that's fine too. Can you pass on the word for me?" He nodded in response and I motioned for him to come in, making my way to the kitchen again. "Sit wherever you like."

"Thanks Bella, I'm sure the guys will take you up on that. They've heard from Jacob and Embry that you're an excellent cook and can't wait to get a taste of it. To be honest even if you weren't a good cook they'd still come to eat your food if you offered. They all really like you." He said with a smile.

I was already done frying up the bacon and working on the eggs while putting bread to toast but I quickly turned around at the last part.

"I mean I already know Quil, and Jacob obviously... but Jared, Paul and you too?" I looked at him completely dumbfounded. I saw them for a few hours the day I found out and for like an hour the following day but no one spoke other than Sam and Emily. They haven't even had the chance to check out my outstanding personality.

Chuckling, Sam got up and went to the fridge. I'm assuming to get something to drink, he really took the 'You're welcome to my home' a lot more seriously than I thought... not that I minded.

"Yes and I don't really know, there's just something about you that we all find very comforting. When we're in wolf form, we can hear each other's thoughts and communicate with each other as well. So far I've gotten all positive thoughts concerning you, they all trust you and have a strong desire to protect you, even Paul. He's cold, prickly, and doesn't like anyone… but you, he finds incredibly interesting. He's mostly unsure of you because of your history with vampires, out of everyone he'll be the toughest nut to crack... though I have a feeling it won't be too hard." He said as he smiled in a secretive manner, like he knew something I didn't. "Emily isn't a wolf but she loves you so much already, she claims you have a beautiful soul. She's a bit more spiritual than the rest of us… and I trust her judgement. When you meet Kim I'm sure she'll like you as well, she's Jared's… girlfriend."

I placed all the food on the table and waited for him to sit down to start. I've heard about Emily's feelings toward me from Jacob but this was the first time I had heard anyone mention a Kim. I wondered why Jared was allowed to have a girlfriend in the know about the pack... but I decided not to pry on something that was clearly not my business. Though the way he hesitated when he called her his girlfriend had me curious.

He placed a glass of orange juice in front of me and smiled. "Orange juice, ok?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure." That was thoughtful, I thought to myself.

"Oh, make sure to serve yourself first before serving the rest of the gang next time, I'm more considerate living with Emily and all but the others won't be the same. If you don't separate your food, you won't eat." He chuckled.

I laughed, "Duly noted." I served myself a bit of eggs, two slices of bacon and a slice of toast leaving the rest to Sam.

"Is that enough food or do I need to make more?"

"It's more than enough but you don't have to keep up with our appetites. We'll bankrupt Charlie if you feed us this much all the time." He said, as he slid the rest of the plates towards himself, digging in.

"Don't worry, I don't mind." I said lightly.

Riiight… if only he knew. Even if Charlie couldn't afford it I definitely could, thanks to my late grandmother who left me an inheritance. Nobody knew about it though, I didn't like to divulge that kind of information to anyone.

We didn't talk much after that since wolves were deeply focused on their food when eating. Were they starving all the time?

There was a honk outside and I realized Angie was here already. "My friend's here. Sorry I'm cutting this short but I have to get to school. You can let yourself out whenever you're ready."

"Ok, I'm almost done. I'll catch up to you on the way. Oh and someone will switch out with me later on."

That stopped me, "I don't think you need to watch me at school too. I mean, I'll be surrounded by a bunch of people. Vampires can't expose themselves in front of humans so I should be safe."

He frowned at me, "No, when I said 24/7 I meant 24/7. Danger is everywhere Bella and we can't be too safe. Don't worry about it and go to school or you'll be late." He finished sternly, leaving no room to argue. So I decided not to try, I didn't have the time anyways. I simply nodded grabbing my backpack and leaving the house.

The beginning of school for the week, ugh, I was so over it already and school barely started a few weeks ago. My school day went by and nothing too interesting happened, the most exciting thing was when Angela came running to me during lunch waiting for me to get out of class to announce that Ben had asked her out. I was happy for her, she had had a crush on him and she didn't know whether he liked her back. So of course, Jessica and I went on a little investigation last week. We were caught by Tyler, who surprised us by volunteering his services. We didn't even have to ask, he was a funny guy. Apparently, he ended up talking to Ben over the weekend and convinced him to ask her out. I was still annoyed that we had already had a couple of classes together today and he never mentioned a thing. As we walked to the cafeteria I gave him a look, which he responded with a wink placing his index finger over his mouth making me stay quiet. Later he admitted he wanted to surprise me too, though he also didn't know if Ben would actually go through with it or not and he didn't want to give me false hope. He wanted to cheer me up, knowing I've had a rough past couple of weeks, it warmed my heart. Though, I think he was still trying to make it up to me for almost killing me with his van.

Angie became even happier when I told her I'd solved my problems with Jacob, I gave an explanation similar to the one I gave Charlie and she was even more understanding than he was. She encouraged me to see where things went and to not put pressure on our relationship. I had to agree, our lives were complicated enough as it is and I couldn't add emotional problems in there too, not that she knew exactly how complicated it truly was.

Once school was over, Angie dropped me off at home. I had expected to have one of the guys knock on my door but when they didn't I figured whoever it was didn't feel very social today. Unless Sam had read them wrong and they really didn't like me.

I did my homework quickly and decided to take a nap.

I was suddenly woken up by a loud knock. It almost gave me a heart attack as I felt my heart trying to break out of my chest. This better be a fucking emergency or something… which it probably wasn't. If it were Victoria, I doubt she'd knock.

I made my way downstairs and opened the door, aaaand there was no one there. What the fuck! I better not be getting pranked by my stupid neighbors, kids are such dicks these days. I jumped when I heard another pounding of the door, only this time I realized it was on the back door of my home. What the hell!

I sluggishly made my way to the rear of the house, I had been scared twice but I was still trying to wake up and I was disoriented. Opening the back door I found myself staring at none other than Paul.

Hmm… this should be interesting.

"Took you long enough to open the door." He huffed.

"Oh sorry, I didn't know the King of the Asshole Wolves was coming over. My apologies." I retorted, seriously? I was cranky from my interrupted nap and now I was annoyed too.

"Whatever." He said as he moved me away from the door and walked in like he owned the place. "You know while everyone else is out here being productive, you're just taking a nap."

Was this guy annoying all the damn time? "My bad, I forgot it was my turn to devise a plan for world peace."

He lightly 'hmm'd' and laid down on the sofa, closing his eyes. "Smart ass. Either way, I figured since you get to take a nice comfortable nap on your bed, I might as well do the same on your couch. Beats doing it on the cold hard floor of the forest."

He was right, of course, he did get the short end of the stick. I stomped down my annoyance and let it go, he was protecting me after all. "I told Sam to let you guys know you could come in if you wanted. Not my fault you didn't do it from the start." I shrugged as I quickly dismissed him, feeling more annoyed with the conversation and made my way back to my room. I lay back down in bed attempting to fall asleep again but it was no use, I still had a few hours until I had to work on dinner. I had free time and I knew what I should be doing but I was too scared to do it, i.e. working on my power.

There were many reasons to be afraid but the most prominent one became my fear of failure. What if I had no power and it was a one-time thing, or what if I did have a power but I would never learn how to use it. I couldn't depend on it appearing whenever it felt like it, that wouldn't help me in the least, but I had to try no matter what.

So I forced myself to get up and quietly make my way out the back door where Paul had entered. Said idiot was sleeping soundly on my couch, snoring like a bear… that's probably why I couldn't fall back to sleep. I had grabbed a blanket from the closet upstairs and laid it down on the grass in the backyard. I was thankful I lived at the edge of the forest now, if I really did have a power no one would be able to see me. I sat cross legged in the middle, trying to relax my body and clear my thoughts. I don't know what I was trying to do but I figured if I did have a power, I would somehow feel it within me… right?

I don't know how long I sat there but I was getting annoyed that nothing was happening. Did I really expect something to happen though?

I mean yeah, or else I wouldn't have come out here… Ok, there I went answering myself again. A clear sign of insanity, I'm sure.

"What are you doing?"

I jumped at the voice, that asshole scared the shit out of me again.

"Is this an 'Arizona' thing?" the voice continued.

Fucking Paul, "Can you stop scaring me already? Or are you trying to scare me into a heart attack so you can get rid of me quicker?" I glared up at him.

The right side of his lip twitched in slight amusement. "I plead the fifth." He said, removing his hands from his shorts pockets and folding them across his chest.

I rolled my eyes but I didn't miss admiring his chest. He had a really nice body, he was slimmer than Jacob but incredibly hot in his own way.

"So what are you doing?" He asked again.

Letting out a breath I debated whether to go with the truth or spew something about doing yoga and centering my inner chi. I'm sure he'd love that. Finally I decided to go with the truth, he was going to watch me again and he'd find out what I was really trying to do eventually.

"I'm trying to focus on my power" I said, using air quotes around the word Power. "I'm not convinced I have a power but I meant what I said to Sam. If I do have one, I want to be able to use it to defend myself... Who knows, if I can use it on myself then maybe I can use it to protect you guys too." I finished, shrugging my shoulders.

When he first looked down at me after scaring me half to death he looked curious but also cautious at the same time. Like I'd jump up and attack him. Thinking about it now, the first time we met he transformed into a wolf and almost killed me and I'd flipped the tables on him and almost killed him. I guess he had more than enough reasons to be cautious. But after I finished speaking he looked at me differently, it was barely noticeable but I still saw it.

"So how's that going?" He questioned.

I puffed out a breath in annoyance. "Not good, nothing's happened so far." I admitted.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Eh, don't be so hard on yourself. It's not like you'd know where to start."

He wasn't wrong and I thought the same thing but I still felt like I should have accomplished something by now… to at least be able to feel it somehow. I remained silent, I didn't really know what to say. I was also slightly confused that he was even bothering to talk to me. He had been incredibly rude since the first second I met him and now here he was trying to console me. Weird…

"Need any help?" he was still looking down at me in the same stance as before but at least his face wasn't as cautious anymore.

His question threw me for a loop though. "Why are you trying to help me?" I asked, frowning.

He shrugged his shoulders, "I'm here to watch you and there's nothing else to do so…" he said uninterestedly.

Asshole if I wasn't already frustrated with myself I would have come up with a clever retort to that. Instead I begrudgingly I agreed to his help, that's how desperate I was.

He plopped down next to me on the blanket, leaning back on his hands and leaving his legs outstretched in front of him. Dude looked huge even on the ground, his legs went past the end of the blanket.

"So what have you tried so far?" He questioned.

"Well, when I was younger my mom went through this spiritual phase. She would take me to her yoga classes with her, saying she needed to help me with my stress and that I needed to learn how to relax. Incredibly ironic because she was the one causing me all the stress to begin with. Anyways, there's this pose called Sukhasana, which is basically the way I'm sitting now. You close your eyes, focusing on your breathing while trying to clear your mind. I was thinking maybe if I focused enough maybe I could feel it but I don't even know how long I've been out here and I've felt absolutely nothing." I threw myself back on the blanket closing my eyes, puffing out a long breath.

"Okkk…" he said, leaving the word hanging in the air. He stayed quiet for a while, so long that I thought he had already given up trying to help me until he broke the silence.

"So you tried to see if you could find it and feel it within you, but what if you tried to focus on picturing it instead." He said it so casually, but it intrigued me.

I sat up, thinking about what he said but how could I picture what I couldn't see? "I don't even know what it looks like, so how could I picture it in my head?"

"I can tell you" he suggested. "I know I was unconscious for most of it and barely got a glimpse of it as I was blasted away but I did see it through the eyes of the other guys."

Oh wow, he's right! One more point for the wolf pack, I was so thankful in that moment for the mind magic they could do in wolf form. "OK! That could work, let's try that!" I exclaimed, excited now.

He looked off into the distance in thought. "From what I could tell, it's almost like a sphere surrounding you. At first they didn't notice it but there was a light shimmering around you, kind of like you were in a giant soap bubble. The edges' shimmering in like a purple color or something, it was very light though… if we didn't have wolf vision I don't think they would've seen it."

Ok that gave me a better idea, I could picture a bubble, sounds simple enough. I was feeling more optimistic about this whole thing so I had to jab him a bit. "Sphere's don't have edges dummy."

He rolled his eyes, "Whatever, I'm not a geometry expert. You're the one that asked for my help." He threw back.

At that I had to laugh, "As if!" I exclaimed, shoving him on the shoulder. He didn't move a centimeter, hmm… Jacob must've been humoring me because he would still move back when I did that. Paul, on the other hand didn't bother to play along.

"You can't damage the merchandise, Do you have any idea what a commodity I am? The ladies practically fall at my feet." He said with pride.

This time I scoffed and rolled my eyes, "Well no one is going to fall at your feet in this house, so bring it down a notch… or 100 my darling Casanova."

"Yeah, yeah. Now can you focus already? You're wasting my time." He complained.

"Asshole." I muttered but I closed my eyes anyway and focused on picturing it.

I pictured a bubble first, trying to remember what one looks like by memory. Focusing on its smooth surface, the iridescence reflected off of its surface. Picturing that surface the color purple, I was having trouble trying to think of what kind of purple but I figured iridescent meant a bright-ish purple. That sounds about right… right? Once I pictured the bubble completely I tried to picture myself inside the bubble. At first it was hard, trying to picture myself in my mind. It's not like I see my entire body enough to be able to conjure up an image of myself easily but I tried my best. Once I had the picture of myself in the bubble I tried to reach my hand so I could feel it but I couldn't feel anything because my hands would just go through it. Huh, everyone acted like it was a physical barrier. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. So I went back to picturing myself in it again, picturing myself standing up and….then I heard a thump and an exclamation coming from my right. I opened my eyes and turned toward where the noise had come from. What I saw had me laughing.

Paul was lying flat on his face more than 20 feet from me, he got up onto his knees and grumbled, "I swear your bubble has something against me because I'm the only one getting hit by it."

"Well maybe you shouldn't be a giant asshole all the time." I quipped, "but who cares! It worked!" I screamed, jumping up and down in my spot. I was so excited and relieved this was real. I stopped when I realized Paul was staring at me. He had a weird expression on his face, like he was trying to figure me out like a puzzle.

It made me feel self-conscious. "What?!" I demanded.

"Can't you see it?"

"See what?" It would be nice if he were clearer.

He stood up slowly walking towards me with his hands outstretched in front of him, like Jacob had in the field. "Your bubble." he said, pointing at me.

I tried to focus my eyes on what was in front of me. I still couldn't see anything but then I tilted my head upwards and noticed a light glimmer of purple reflecting from the light of the setting sun. The purple was contrasting the dark orange and red from the sky. Huh, I speculated, trying to see more of it. Paul had reached me by then, his hands lying flat in front of me. I reached my hand towards him thinking my hands would touch the same wall he was but it didn't. Instead my hands went straight through it, catching me by surprised and making me stumbled forwards. At my movement, Paul stumbled back as well almost falling flat on his ass.

"Fuck! Stop doing that shit to me." He complained.

"I didn't mean to you buttface, did you not see me almost fall too?! More importantly, didn't you see my hands go through the wall your hands were on?" I gave him a look, getting him to refocus on what was really important.

"Yeah, that was freaky." Scratching his eyebrow he kept talking, "But on the bright side you got it to appear, so it wasn't just a one-time thing like you thought. You really do have a superpower Swan." He placed his index finger on his top lip, in thought. "We should come up with a cool superhero name."

I laughed at the stupidity. "Yeah? Like what?"

"Super Swan!" He exclaimed as I rolled my eyes at his unparalleled creativity. "I don't know, I'm too hungry to think straight anymore. It took you forever to make this happen." he huffed, waving his hand in my direction.

Asshole… but he was right. "Shit what time is it?"

"Seven-ish" He replied.

"Crap. Charlie will be home any second and I didn't cook anything." I turned to walk back to the house and Paul spoke up behind me.

"Uh, Bella? That thing is still out."

I laughed, "Oh right, how do I make it go away?"

"I don't know, what did you do the first time?"

What did I do the first time? ... Jacob was there to calm me down while I was freaking out but he wasn't here to help me now. Paul wouldn't do it, I barely knew him and he didn't look like the comforting type. So I tried to focus on my breathing again like I remembered with Jacob but it wasn't working. I was already relaxed. Ok, since breathing didn't help then maybe I can picture it again. I closed my eyes and pictured it again, but this time I imagined it popping just like a real bubble.

I hope this worked. Slowly I opened my eyes and squinted up to the sky, trying to see if I could still see it. "Is it gone?"

"I don't know…" he moved closer to me. "Let me check if it's gone." He was walking with one hand outstretched this time and when he reached close enough he poked me on the side of my head.

"What the hell!" I exclaimed as he simultaneously said "Guess it's gone."

I rolled my eyes, "No shit Sherlock." I said, as I rubbed the sore spot making my way back to the house and grabbing my phone. "It's too late to cook. Sorry. I'll order food instead, you like Chinese?"

"Don't worry about it, Jacob's switching out with me in a couple of hours. I can eat when I get home."

"No way" I protested. "I promised food and I'm going to deliver, literally." I said as I waved my phone in front of him. "Besides, you helped me out today. I was getting super frustrated when you found me outside. You got me to tap into my power so take this as thanks."

He acquiesced, not saying anything after that. After I ordered the food he had sat on the sofa, turning the T.V. on and watching a football game. Were all guys obsessed with sports? I don't see what's so great about it, the only one I'd found slightly entertaining was soccer and that's because they were so dramatic. The players barely got kicked in the leg and acted like their leg was falling off, drama queens!

My dad arrived shortly after and I introduced him to Paul. He was suspicious he was there but I told him I met him through Jacob and he needed some girl advice. Hearing that Paul scoffed but didn't get a chance to contradict me when there was a knock at the door, the food arrived and I tipped the driver

"You know I could have picked that up on my way home, right?" Charlie questioned.

"Yeah but I figured you'd be tired from work and I was too lazy to go get it myself so here we are! Now go sit down. Take the food and I'll get the plates."

And so we all sat down eating Chinese and watching the game. Meanwhile, I sat there eating my food wondering how Paul managed to chew and yell at the TV at the same time without spilling his food.

Needless to say, my dad and Paul got along swimmingly. Of course, men and sports equal instant friendship. Typical…

I was so tired from the day that I excused myself before the game was over and got ready for bed. I don't even think they noticed, completely engrossed with the game. I laid down and immediately fell asleep. Later in the night I barely acknowledged warm arms wrapping around me in my sleep. I think I mumbled something but I couldn't remember what, I did however remember a quiet voice whisper, "I love you sleeping beauty" before I fell back into a peaceful sleep.