A/N:

Obligatory sister scene here. This takes place after Jacob went to the movies with Bella and Mike. It's kind of a bare bones and very condensed version of what happened because obviously, Olivia wasn't there and she wasn't a part of it. It's hinted at that Jacob and Bella have rebuilt the bikes and are riding them together often now. Also, more Olivia and Paul cuteness. If you're wondering if this is heading towards Jacob becoming a pack member, why yes. Yes it is.

┇04┇

"What do you mean you're going with Jacob? Ooh, is this a date, Bells?" Olivia gave a soft laugh and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at her sister. "Because if it is, I'm so happy right now!"

"What I said. I'm going to the movies with Jacob and Mike and some of the others later. I thought I'd ask if you'd like to come too because it's that new horror movie that we're going to see." Bella explained as she flopped down onto her younger sister's bed.

Olivia twisted a strand of hair around her index finger and swung her legs a little as she thought it over. She could go with her sister, that much was true. But she also knew that if she did go with her sister, she'd have to spend the entire night feeling like a tag-along and that was the actual last thing she wanted to do.

"Maybe next time?" Olivia finally answered, giving her sister an apologetic smile. Bella raised a brow and stared at her younger sister for a few seconds quietly. "You're turning down a horror movie.. With Jacob."

"Mhm. Jacob doesn't want to see me, alright? We both know he's got a soft spot for you. It's really cute, actually."

Bella scoffed at the statement and shook her head. "No he doesn't. He likes you, you're just too quiet around him. Or that's what he said whenever I asked him why you two weren't closer. C'mon.. It'll be fun. Please?" Bella begged.

Olivia shook her head no firmly. "As far as what he said, he was just lying to save face. You're the one he likes. And maybe a few years ago it would have bothered me. Now it doesn't. And if he's interested and the creep is gone for good… I mean, what's the harm in one teeny date?"

Bella mulled it over as she muttered the quiet retort that Edward wasn't a creep. Olivia made a point to ignore the remark and looked up from her magazine as she smiled at Bella. "Go! I'm telling you, you're the one who needs this. I'll be fine. I'm just gonna hunker down here with my own horror movies and a bag of chocolate Halloween candy."

"Okay, alright. You're sure you don't want to go? Or that you don't want me to stay?" Bella asked as she eyed her sister. If she didn't know Olivia so well she'd almost swear Olivia was rushing her out the door because she had plans of her own.

But she'd tell her upfront if that were the case.

Bella dismissed the little feeling she was getting that Olivia already had other plans and laughed softly, which caught Olivia's attention. "What's up?"

"You're kind of acting like you're up to something." Bella stated.

Olivia laughed for a second or two and shook her head. "Not at all. I'm just looking forward to a night in, alone with my horror movies."

"Uh-huh.. Wanna maybe try that again?" Bella asked with a soft laugh.

"No, actually I don't. Because I'm being honest." Olivia insisted, shrugging when Bella gazed at her for a few long seconds as if she didn't fully believe her.

"Let her believe what she wants", Olivia thought to herself, "if I did have plans I wouldn't be hiding them from anyone. That's her thing lately, it's never been mine."

Aside from the likelihood that Paul Lahote would call later on, she had absolutely nothing planned for her Friday night. Just horror movies and candy.

The storm that had been brewing outside all afternoon picked up in intensity and the lights flickered. Bella held her sister's gaze. "You're sure you don't wanna come with? You don't like bad weather. Or being home alone."

"I'm positive. I kind of had time at Mom's to get used to being alone, remember?" Olivia pointed out, smiling at her sister and giving her a gentle nudge. "Go! I mean it, okay? Go before it gets worse out there."

Bella lingered in the doorway of her bedroom and Olivia shut the door and laughed to herself as she flopped across the bed again. The lights stopped flickering for a few seconds and Olivia took a deep breath or two.

"It's just a stupid storm. It's out there and I'll be in here." she muttered mostly to herself as she slipped off her bed and wandered over to her dresser, gathering her favorite pajamas and some clean underwear. Since there wasn't anyone else around, she'd probably start the evening off with a long and hot soak.

She heard Bella talking to Jacob downstairs and when she heard the door shut and lock, she stepped into the bathroom and stripped down, bending to turn on the faucet. Her cell phone started to ring and she grabbed for it as she dropped a bath bomb into the hot water, letting the bath bomb melt and fizz and turning the bathwater a deep blood red with dark swirls.

"Hey, Paul. How's the weather over there?" Olivia asked as she smiled and held the phone against her ear.

Paul noticed an echo in the room and heard running water. "What are you doing?" he asked, pausing to roll his eyes at the flickering lights in the bedroom. "I wish it would storm already or go the entire fuck away, truth be told." he admitted after a few seconds. He repeated his question.

Olivia laughed softly as she sat on the edge of the tub and ran her fingers over the surface of the water as the tub filled up. "About to take a long and hot bath, actually. Since my sister's not here to hog all the damn hot water."

Paul's breath caught and he bit his lip. He had to work overboard not to picture her.

"Bathing in the blood of my enemies." Olivia muttered to herself in amusement as she tossed the discarded foil wrapper from her bathbomb into the garbage.

"Huh?" Paul laughed as he asked her to repeat herself and he smirked a little to himself as he mouthed something about "That's my girl." making Jared roll his eyes upon reading Pauls lips.

"That's the name of this bath bomb. I was reading the packaging. It's like.. Red and black? Smells like cherries and vanilla. I think." Olivia laughed for a few seconds before going quiet.

"Thats the name of a bath bomb?" Paul snickered and shook his head.

"Paul.. The water is blood red almost." Olivia smiled to herself and started to find herself getting distracted as she failed miserably at not attempting to picture what he was doing. She heard him swearing and she heard him say something to Jared with Jared yelping in pain.

"What are you doing, huh?" Olivia asked with a soft laugh.

"We're playing Call of Duty right now. Jared just left me open to get fucking sniped by some kid hiding on a rooftop."

"Jared, dude. You're supposed to watch his back!" Olivia spoke up a little so that Jared could hear her.

"What he's not telling you is this prick let me run right over a landmine earlier. Then I couldn't respawn in time." Jared answered. "In the middle of a tournament I happened to be winning.. So, yeah. Payback."

Olivia clucked her tongue at Paul as she sank down into the water and laughed quietly. She leaned her head back against the edge of the tub and asked Paul in a softer and playful tone, "Paul, what am I supposed to do with you, hm? I can't stand up for you when you let the man run over a landmine and explode."

Paul chuckled and paused the game to stand and stretch. The lights flickered again and Jared swore up a storm when the flickering didn't stop and the thunder and lightning roared and crackled outside, rattling one of the bedroom windows.

The loud thunderclap caught Olivia by surprise and she shrieked, barely managing not to drop her cell phone into the tub water with her. "Shit. It's just a storm, Olivia. Just a storm. No reason to KO your phone." she muttered to herself to attempt calming down.

"Everything okay?" Paul tensed just a little because he hadn't been prepared at all for the knee-jerk reaction he was having to her panic over the weather outside.

Olivia sighed and gave another of those soft little laughs, answering the question sheepishly, "Yeah. I'm just a big baby, that's all."

"No. Not the girl who is literally about to bathe in the blood of her enemies? Do you even have enemies? You're all quiet and stuff.." Paul realized he was rambling about the same time as Jared took a look at him and snickered quietly. Paul tossed a pillow at Jared and chuckled a little.

Olivia could feel the exact second the combination of that husky voice and that laugh took effect on her and she squirmed around in the water a little to get comfortable as she fanned herself. "Ha ha. Actually, I do have an enemy or two. Pretty sure Irene Stanley hates me for some unknown reason, she's always inventing new ways to tick me off or make my life a living hell."

"Ah. Like what?" Paul asked, clenching a fist as he did as Sam instructed and took a few deep breaths. Again, he hadn't quite gotten used to the frenzied rush of emotions he felt and when that combined with the world's shortest fuse, sometimes it was a catastrophe. Not so much lately as before because he'd really been trying to learn self-control because there just wasn't any way he was going to keep his distance from Olivia for long at all if he could help it, especially not given the fact that her sister liked to surround herself with vampires.

The very thing he was sworn to protect others from.

Olivia's brow raised at the question -and at the concern that edged it's way into his tone, and she fought that surge of hope she felt growing. Maybe Angel wasn't wrong.. Maybe Paul did like her as Angel claimed that he'd told her cousin's boyfriend Jared. Before she could allow the hope to fully grow, she was already trying to dampen it, reminding herself that they were just friends and it was highly unlikely Paul Lahote had any other type of feelings for her.

"Your typical bullshit, basically. She's trying to push me into an actual fight, I'm almost willing to swear to it. What she needs to realize is that all I'm gonna do is ignore her or respond verbally. I'm.. I'm really not much of a fighter and I hate confrontations. I'll do literally anything I can to avoid them, even if it means damn near biting off my own tongue." Olivia admitted sheepishly as she lathered up her loofah and started to soap down.

"I'm kind of the opposite. I mean, lately I've been trying not to actually go looking for a fight but if I find myself in one, I ain't backing down." Paul mused after a second or two. He chuckled when he heard the water splashing and asked, "What was that?"

"I was splashing my bath water."

"Oh." Paul laughed and shook his head at her answer.

"Hey, can I call you back?" Olivia asked.

Paul smirked and answered, "If you want to, kitten."

"I'll call you back in a little bit." Olivia tried to ignore the way her stomach fluttered just a little too much whenever he called her kitten.

She found herself at least partially tempted to ask him why when she called him back, but she managed to talk herself right out of it, telling herself he probably called every girl that.

Maybe she could ask Angel if she knew whether he did or not. At this rate, Angel knew a little more about the guy than she did currently, due to Angel's cousin Kim dating his best friend Jared.

The front door banged shut just as she was getting out of the bath and toweling off. Olivia got dressed and walked over to the staircase, wandering down.

Bella was pulling off her shoes, soaked with rain.

"You're back. You're back early. Is everything okay? Nothing went wrong, right?" Olivia asked her questions in a rush as she looked at her big sister in concern.

Bella sighed.

"Mike got sick in the middle of the movie. Jacob left early about twenty minutes later because he said he wasn't feeling well either."

Olivia stepped away a little. "Keep back. If you come bearing germs, I don't want 'em. I love you, just.. Not really looking to catch whatever those two have going around. How was the grumpy jerk, anyway?" Olivia asked about Jacob. Mostly to be polite, mostly because she was curious.

He'd always had this huge crush on Bella. It was something that only seemed to have grown in spades since they were children. Olivia hoped that if she got Bella talking about Jacob. Thinking a little, really.. Maybe Bella would turn her attention on him instead of retreating back into her cocoon in Edward's absence.

"He was fine. A little disappointed you didn't want to come with us. Something about you being better at handling the gore than me. He claims I almost broke his hand during this one really, really gross part of the movie where.." Bella was about to give away part of the movie and given that Olivia wanted to see it at some point, she didn't want it spoiled so before Bella could finish, Olivia pressed a finger against her sister's lips. "Shhhh. Angel and me are thinking of going to see it when the opening week crowd dies so we can have the theater to ourselves."

"Oh, okay."

"Wait.. Back it up, ma'am.. Did you just say you and Jacob were holding hands though? Now this.. This I am most interested in hearing. C'mon. I'll go grab the phone and we'll make popcorn or something. Then you can tell me about holding Jacob's hand in a dark theater."

Bella snickered quietly and shook her head. "There's not really much to tell. I kind of just accidentally grabbed hold of it when that part came on. I may have ducked my head in his shoulder too.."

"Bella, oh my god."

"What? We're friends. That's it."

"Mhm. Sure it is." Olivia teased her older sister playfully.

"What about you, huh? I saw you texting some guy you have saved in your phone as Beach Hunk?" Bella turned the topic of conversation over to this mystery guy her sister seemed to talk to on the phone and text back and forth with as of late.

Olivia's face turned as red as strawberry jam and she stammered a second or two. "Fine, alright. His name is Paul. He actually lives on the reservation too, I think. I mean.. I'm not sure. We've only talked a few times. And it's like you keep saying with Jacob.. We're just friends too."

"Oh are you? So he calls all his friends kitten in texts, hm? Interesting."

"Hey! The hell were you reading my phone for anyway?"

Bella snickered and shrugged instead of answering.

"Who read my journal last week, though?"

"To be fair, you're the one who left it right out in plain sight. Wait.. that's your journal?" Olivia gaped at Bella. To be honest, upon reading the entries in the little brown leather book she'd actually thought her sister was taking up writing as a hobby, all this talk about shapeshifters and vampires and some of the old legends they'd heard now and then as kids. To learn that it wasn't a creative writing exercise really had Olivia concerned for her older sister's sanity.

"What'd you think it was?"

"Uh.. Nevermind. Are you sure you're alright, Bella?" Olivia stared at her sister for a few seconds as she tried to process everything she'd read in the journal and the way her sister had been behaving since she moved to Forks in an attempt to kind of help their father out with Bella and her depressed state.

"What?" Bella eyed her younger sister.

Olivia bit her lip and shook her head as she mumbled, "Nothing. It's nothing." under her breath.

"No, you don't get to do that. What is it?" Bella asked the question more firmly.

"Okay, alright. Fine, but remember, you're the one who made me answer. There's uh.. You went on for about fifteen pages in it about vampires? And werewolves? And you kind of insinuated at one point that Edward was.. Bella, you realize that all of that stuff isn't real.. Right?" Olivia asked her sister, worried.

"Yeah. Okay, so maybe parts of the diary were a daydream and I just wanted to get it out, okay?" Bella tensed just a little as soon as she realized that Olivia now assumed she was losing her mind. The last thing she wanted was anyone to think she was losing her mind. It was all true, but just seeing her little sister so worried about her, Bella knew then that she probably wouldn't ever be able to tell her exactly what Edward was.

Besides, Bella thought to herself, she's already kind of skittish around him and doesn't like him that much. And it's supposed to be a secret. Maybe it's better if she thinks it's a daydream I wrote down or I'm losing my mind.

"Also, how exactly did you talk Jacob into going in half with you on two junked motorcycles, hm?" Olivia asked quietly as she smiled. "I want to see them!"

"You read that too, huh?" Bella laughed and relaxed a little. Just glad that the conversation was steered away from her tangent about discovering what Edward and his family were last year.

"Mhm."

"Next time Jake and I ride, you can come with me. Then you can see them." Bella offered. Olivia smiled and nodded. "I'd like that."

"Awesome. I'll talk to him about it."

The phone rang in Olivia's hand and the fact that Olivia immediately wandered into the kitchen and shut the door had Bella leaning against it, trying to listen to the conversation. Laughing quietly as soon as she realized that the reason for Olivia's strangeness where this 'beach hunk' was concerned were nothing major to worry about.

She just had a really big crush on him and as usual, she was probably trying to keep that buried as far down as she could.

Olivia hadn't ever been very good at risks or confrontations. And as a result, she probably thought that even hinting she liked this guy stood to be a risk she wasn't prepared to take. As soon as Olivia opened the door to the kitchen, Bella stepped in and asked with a calm smirk, "So.. when do I get to meet this guy, hm?"

"I..I.. I don't know? I mean, we're just friends, that'd be kind of weird, right?"

"You like him though. You like him a lot if that soft voice and all the giggling just now on the phone were anything to go by."

"Oh! No,no.. That was Angel. I was asking her something. I texted it, but she decided to call to answer. To tease me, kind of like you are right now. Just so both of you know, we're just friends."

"Mhm. Right."

Olivia stuck out her tongue at her sister and turned her attention back to melting butter to pour over her bowl of popcorn.

"Ya know.. Maybe sometimes taking a little risk or two is okay.. Right? Maybe it's not always a bad thing." Bella offered.

Olivia's brow raised and she shrugged. "I know that. It's just easier to do it when I'm more certain that the risk will be worth a reward of some kind."

"That makes sense, I guess."

"I can't believe you, my stick in the mud, overprotective and entirely too practical older sister are standing in our father's kitchen and telling me about taking risks. This is one hell of a role reversal, you realize this."

Bella laughed and shrugged as she grabbed a bowl and a bag of popcorn to put in the microwave.

"Are you at least considering the possibility of Jacob?" Olivia asked.

Bella sighed and shrugged. "Is it possible to love more than one person?"

Olivia mulled it over. "You act as if you have to have a solid answer right now. We're teenagers, Bells. In five or ten years, we'll be lucky if any of these people other than Dad are a part of our lives in any capacity. That's how life works. So yeah.. I guess it is."

Bella started to contradict Olivia and reveal that she knew what she wanted, but something told her to keep the thought to herself. Besides, she found herself thinking sadly, what I want isn't exactly an option any longer. And Jacob is here, now.