Disclaimer: This story is based off of the characters written by Stephanie Meyer in the Twilight Saga. I do not own any of these characters.

Jacob

I got back to the Cullen's place before dawn, Bella was on the front steps as I moved out of the trees. I caught a glance of the pile of rubble on the lawn and lifted an eyebrow.

"It was Edward's," she said with a shrug. I stared at her for a moment, but figured if she wanted to elaborate she would have. I walked over to her, and sat opposite of her on the stairs trying to keep a decent distance between us where it allowed.

"How was your night?" I asked.

"Filling," she answered, understanding what I was getting at.

I nodded, staring out onto the lawn. We were quiet for a long time.

"There's a few more things we need to talk about, and then I need to get back to the reservation." I paused, "Now that you're awake, I need to start feeling better and help Charlie with things. I'd be there now if he hadn't decided he wanted to go alone to Seattle to issue the missing posters."

Bella stiffened, "I know he wants to be thorough, but I wish he would let it go." Her voice was soft. I knew what she meant, Charlie was well aware that the disappearances had been linked to bears in the area. It was highly unlikely that Bella would have gone off on foot to another city.

We were quiet for another long minute, from the corner of my eye I watched her. Bella was statue-like. She sat there unmoving, not even her shoulders lifted to inhale. Without thinking my head turned to her automatically and I realized after a few moments I was staring at her in awe, I quickly turned my gaze back to the lawn. It wasn't as if I knew much about the nature of vampires. I hadn't been close to the Cullen's - who spend most of their time trying to pass as human - and I hadn't seen much of the vampire who'd bitten Bella. It was strange to see her new habits. And even more strange to see how different they were from the Bella I'd known.

I didn't like that I could no longer see what she was thinking in her face. When she was human, she was an open book. But now, the only way you could tell what she was thinking was if you knew the inner workings of her brain. Lucky me, I did.

"Don't worry Bells, he'll come to terms with it soon enough. He's in denial, and I know that's hard for you to deal with, but letting him go through what he needs to go through it the best option." I gave her a small smile, but the best she could muster was to press her lips in a tight line. I nodded, "So, maybe to get your mind off of it a little, we could talk about the treaty?"

She sighed, "What about it?"

"Well, with the Cullen's here we had lines that couldn't be crossed. We weren't supposed to be anywhere near their house, just like they weren't supposed to step foot on the reservation. And even though they still own the house, well, you're squatting in it." I smile twitched on the corner of Bella's lips then. "So I just want to know what your thoughts were about us being around."

"The entire pack could take over the house and it would make no difference to me, Jake. I'm more worried about what the pack would think about me on you territory, which I'm assuming is the real reason we're having this conversation." She still had a hint of a grin on her lips, it was nice to see another emotion, apart from dread, on her face.

"You caught me, even though I trust you, the pack and the council have their doubts. I think it would be best if you stayed off the reservation, at least for a while. Let them realize that you've stuck to the whole not-killing-people thing and build their trust a little." Bella nodded, but her eyes tightened while I was talking.

She was silent for a long time, and just before I opened my mouth to ask what was on her mind, she said, "Jacob, from the legends you told me, we're mortal enemies. And yeah, maybe you and I get along fine, but we have a history, we're friends. I really don't know that it will be the same with the others. I don't know that they could get past their natural deflection to me," she paused for a moment. "And honestly, I don't know how much I care to get along with all of them. Embry is nice enough, but I didn't like Sam even before I knew the whole truth, and I don't really have to say more than Paul's name for you to know that relationship is likely never going to grow."

A kindling of irritation ticked through my head, it must have shown on my face because she sighed again. Her lips pressed together and her brows furrowed. "I know that's not something you care to hear, and I don't mean to offend you. I'm grateful for everything you've done, and everything you plan to do. I just don't want to push everyone else into something they aren't comfortable with. I am what I am and your pack is your pack, so lets just focus on not stepping on each other's toes and help Charlie. That's all I care about."

I knew that she meant well, and I knew that in the long run she was right. Embry was the only one of the pack that was okay with everything we've done to help her. The other's weren't entirely against it - well Sam and Jared weren't anyway - but they weren't thrilled to be helping a vampire, even if that vampire was Bella Swan. They all had a hard time believing that it was still her, they all had their superstitions regarding what the transformation did to people when they turned in to vampires, my dad included. They were no longer people to many of them, but I had proof that she was, I could tell Bella was still Bella, and I wanted more than anything for all of them to see that too.

I sighed, "I know you're right, I just want things to go back to how they were when we could sit in the garage and just hang out." I looked at her for a minute, her face was empty and she was statue-like again, completely immobile. "Are you comfortable?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm actually more comfortable staying still." There was a long pause, "So when do you think Charlie will be back from Seattle?"

"I'm not sure exactly when, but he left pretty early this morning. I need to go back and make some preparations. We're having a council meeting at my dad's before Charlie is back, and then sort of another meeting including Charlie once he's there." I watched for any expression change, but she continued to sit there, perfectly still.

"So you have to go then." It wasn't a question, and I couldn't tell if she was happy or upset that I would be going.

"Yeah, I should probably start heading back now." I could feel my eyebrows pull together, she just nodded again.

"Good luck," she said, her voice finally giving off a little sound of defeat. She was still feeling troubled, I knew she probably didn't want to be left alone, but we both knew I needed to go and take care of things.

"I can send Embry this way to keep you company," I offered.

She just shook her head, "No, no forcing people to spend time with me." She glared at me, "And I don't need to be babysat either."

When she was human, the face she was making would have made me laugh. But with the sharper lines of her face and the creepy red eyes, she actually looked intimidating. My lips pressed together and I nodded once.

"I'll come back when I have time, it will probably be a little more spread out now that I'll be so much more involved with Charlie."

Before I could turn to look at her she said, "Don't worry about me Jake. I'm a lot stronger than I used to be." And even without looking her in the eye, I could hear what she meant more than just the new body she lived in. I could also hear her confidence and knew that that was completely true.

I turned and walked backward a few paces, "I'll see ya later, Bells."

She smiled and lifted a hand to wave.

*

The council meeting was more of a briefing than a real meeting, mostly double checking that everyone was on the same page. I wouldn't be able to lead any search parties, but would be involved in planning and strategizing since I was still getting better. No one had much of a clue when Charlie would be in from Seattle, he had left in the early hours of the morning with the intention to be back quickly to continue searches.

Jared and Paul lead two parties north just past the lines of the reservation immediately following the meeting. We didn't want Charlie to be concerned with us wasting time waiting for him. I wondered how many more days of misdirection we were in for until he decided to call off the parties all together.

Harry and Old Quil sat at the opposite side for the dining table as me, my dad on my right side. I leaned back in my chair as my dad spoke.

"Well son, at least you don't have to fake looking exhausted." He told me. I gave him a half smile. He was right of course, I'd been up all night worrying about Bella. Hoping beyond all hope that she would have the control to keep the lifestyle the Cullen's had set up here. It was a dizzying relief to be able to relax knowing she'd done it. Even without knowing if she'd be able to maintain the lifestyle.

We continued to discuss my appearance and how it would be perceived by Charlie, when my ears picked up the tires of the cruiser.

I moved over to the couch while my dad wheeled himself to the front door.

Charlie's footsteps were slow, and when he reached the open door I noticed how he slouched in exhaustion. He passed as sick far more than I did. Charlie had dark circles under his eyes and his skin cast a pale blue undertone even with the warm light from inside. His face seemed to be the aftermath of a war between determination and fear. Neither won, there was only the shell of impeding defeat.

I wanted to open my mouth to say something to him, but I met his eyes and was all but rendered speechless.

I'd been 'asleep' the last few times Charlie had visited. My dad had told him that with being sick and hearing the news I was pretty much incapacitated. This was the first time he'd seen me up and about, and it seemed that Charlie wasn't sure what to make of it. His eyes were dead, zombie like, and when he recognized me they lit up just a fraction before zoning further into a daze.

The mans already slouched posture seemed to slump further, "Jake," his voice broke.

I pushed myself slowly off the couch and walked to him. We'd never shown any sort of affection before, though I knew he appreciated mine and Bella's friendship. But as I walked toward him, he took two steps to me seemingly unknowingly and swung his arms around to embrace me in a hug. He all but fell onto me, squeezing tight. His body shook with silent sobs and I held him up tears welling in my eyes.

I hated that this was how things needed to be, I hated that he couldn't know Bella was alive. He wasn't deserving of the pain he was going through. Guilt struck me again and I kicked myself for not being able to figure out a better way to handle the last few days. If he wasn't able to have his daughter he should have been able to have the help of her best friend.

We stood like that for a minute until Charlie pulled back with a sniff. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and stumbled further into the house before sinking down onto the couch.

"I finally heard back from Renee." He said, his voice gruff.

I wiped my own tears catching my dad's eye. Renee hadn't been available at any point since Bella's disappearance. Charlie called her landline at least three times a day the last few days and had received nothing back.

"She was in the process of getting her line switched to the new house in Florida, I don't know why it took her so long but in the mean time she'd forgotten to check her messages." I didn't turn around. I knew Bella's mom was a little out there, but the way Bella always talked about her was like she was a free spirit. I didn't realize she was so self centered and irresponsible.

I was angry for Charlie that his other form of support had been missing for no other reason than that she had forgotten to check her messages. Or maybe that wasn't the part that I was upset with, maybe it was the fact that she was able to tell Charlie all of this around the news that her only daughter had disappeared. How had she had time to get this out, why hadn't she been panicking and worried and asking a million questions about what happened and what she could do to help?

"I guess she only got the one message of mine telling her I needed to talk to her about Bella. She stopped listening to messages and called me right then." I exhaled. Well that was something, at least she understood the urgency even if that urgency was too late.

I turned around, "So what did she say?" With the look on his face, I could tell the direction this was going.

"She said that she's coming to Forks this week, but she's concerned that we could be wasting time." His voice took on an angry but still tired tone, "She thinks that if we don't find Bella by the end of the week we could consider planning a memorial service."

I caught the stern look of Old Quil and took a deep breath, I walked over to the couch and sat next to Charlie. I pressed my lips together and tried to peel my gaze from my hands. After a moment my dad cleared his throat and Charlie and I both turned to look at him. I was relieved he was the one to speak up.

"Charlie, only you can decide what's best for you and your family, but as a long time friend I hate seeing you go through this. I'll support you however long you want to continue searching, but I strongly advise you start to think about closure. I will not tell you to stop, but I will tell you to think. Listen to what Renee says, and make this decision together." My fathers eyes shone with tears as he looked at his friend.

Charlie had lowered his eyes to his own hands and was slowly shaking his head. "I know you're right. Damn it, I know Renee's right-" His voice broke again, "I just don't want to believe that my little girl is gone." His head dropped into his hands and his body shook again.

The room filled with silent tears. Tears of pain, and some of guilt. None of us wanted to see Charlie go through this.

*

We sat in silence for a while longer before getting back to planning for searches. Though I was trying to push to help more now that I'd seen Charlie, my dad pushed back, warning that I needed to be careful since I wasn't completely 'healthy' yet.

I realized that was a good thing, as much as Charlie needed me, so did Bella. She may not being able to look the way Charlie did in her new stone body, but I could tell she was in just as much pain. It was clarifying seeing just how much of the suffer-in-silence type she was, and I could see that - if Charlie wasn't already coming apart at the seems - he'd be doing the same thing.

We prepared for the week to come, I drew out a map of the area with lines the way I had when Bella and I had been searching for the meadow she'd disappeared in. Embry and Sam helped me red line the paths we'd already searched and we planned how to finish all others on the map by the weeks end.

By the time Charlie left I could hardly keep my eyes open, Embry offered to check in on Bella and I shook him off and told him to run and do a few rounds instead. She said she didn't want a babysitter, but I had a feeling she was more interested in being alone in her feelings.

I want to apologize for taking so long to get this new chapter out. I try to update around once a week but this was an especially difficult chapter to write.

I made the decision to incorporate what Charlie looked like going through the loss of Bella because I felt that he deserved that recognition. What I didn't realize is how much writing about his grief would hit home for me, which is why this inclusion is a bit short.

I lost my mom nine years ago this month, and it's hard putting a perspective shift on that pain. I think what was even harder is trying to be an outsider to that loss and seeing what it does to people from a perspective that isn't personal. I spent a lot of time avoiding writing this chapter, but I'm glad to be through it and be able to get it posted.

Thank you for your patience and understanding, and I hope you're enjoying the story.