Jacob

Ness and I were having an amazing evening. We'd genuinely enjoyed hanging out, walking around the reservation. She had told me about some of her previous lives, male and female hosts, describing the general outline of how her lives had gone, how many children she had raised, and the jobs she'd had. We did some work on my car - she had some basic mechanic training, and I talked about my pack. She reminisced about the similarities between her tribe and mine, and I reveled in the simple sound of her voice through Bella's mouth. It was particularly strange sometimes, but I could hear the difference. I swore I could. I also knew whenever she shifted out into the spirit form, because suddenly my focus would become an empty point in space. My instinct was to shift into my wolf form, so that I could watch her. In Bella I could touch her though. That was confusing. My best friend, empty, being filled by my soul mate.

We had dinner with my dad, who seemed to have no issue with the whole Ness-Bella thing. He didn't slip up once, in all our interactions. The previous night we'd been up pretty late, so we wanted to turn in early. Dad stayed watching TV, probably trying to give us some privacy, in our small house, but it didn't really matter.

Ness, unlike myself, didn't really need to sleep unless she was in Bella's body. With Bella out, 'exploring' as she said, Ness did need to recharge. I laid down, on my small cramped bed, and thought about Bella. She had left to give us time and space, that I knew. I hated it, and loved it at the same time. Ness snuggled down on top of me, very innocently at first. Problem is, I run hot. It wasn't long before we were both shirtless, Ness still in her bra, purely for temperature regulation purposes. She was slipping her hand around some dangerous places, and it was extremely tempting, but we both yawned and laughed, and relaxed instead.

I wasn't long asleep before Ness shocked me out of my bliss with a sharp convulsion. My first thought was that I'd rolled on her, or elbowed her, or something.

"Did I hurt you?" I looked over what I could see from her, and something was different. It wasn't Ness, it was Bella. Within a millisecond she shrieked, clawed, and tried to kick her way out of the bedsheets we were tangled up in. We both tumbled out of my small bed, and I saw the back of her head smoke the corner of the dresser on the way down. In that instant, my entire room erupted in a chest tightening, searing hot wave of fire, and the ceiling came crashing down on top of us.

Something hit us so hard I heard Bella's bones crack. A beam in the roof, I would suspect. It had fallen straight down, in a hot, fiery rage and pummeled her into the floor. Ignoring the pain of being freshly burned, I grabbed it, pushing as hard as I could to get her free. Everything in my sight was on fire - and I heard my dad cry out. I burst through the window, Bella's limp body in my arms. I could feel the scratching and searing of the glass, and the burns. Ness appeared beside me instantly.

"Drop her! Get Billy!" she yelled at me. I obeyed instantly, dropping Bella on the grass, just outside the house, and dove back in.

I had always been ashamed of how small my house was - particularly in comparison to the Cullen household. But right now, it had never felt larger. I couldn't get through the house easily, everything was burning and crumbling. Everything hurt to touch, to move, to burst through. Even breathing was burning my lungs. It was a terrific blaze, and completely terrifying. I found him after what seemed like hours, but was undoubtedly only seconds. He was fine, mostly protected - ironically enough by his curse of a wheelchair. In the blast he'd been knocked sideways, and the only piece of ceiling to come down on him was caught by the stupid wheel, and created a tiny protective triangle. I lifted him up, and out, fast as I could, and blasted through the nearest window I could. I put my dad down gently on the grass, well away from the house. I frantically checked him over, seeing that aside from a small bump on his head, he looked okay. I looked around for help, then realised that Bella - no, Ness - was crawling desperately away from the blaze, towards me.

"Call Carlisle." she managed to say, blood spewing from her mouth, before collapsing in a heap. I crawled frantically over to her, seeing spots in my eyes. Ness was still in there, but I couldn't see her chest moving, I pressed my fingers to her neck, stuck my head on her chest. She wasn't breathing, and I couldn't hear her heart.

"Bella? Bella?!" She was totally limp. No pulse. No breath. I couldn't feel anything, except the rooting pull of Renesmee nearby, but that meant nothing about whether her body was okay. I pulled her up, checking her over. There was so much blood, pouring out of her mouth, and I could see bruising under her skin, dark purple splotches, seeping around her ribs, and disfigured chest. She was dead. Totally dead. I patted my pockets, tears of pain and fear streaming down my face. My phone was there, and although cracked, it was alive. I dialed Carlisle instantly.

"Doc, I need you here. My house. Bella's dead. She was crushed in the fire. The whole house is gone. She's dead. She's not breathing, I can't hear her. I can't hear her heartbeat. She's gone. There's blood everywhere. My dad..." I looked over at him. I could see his chest moving. "Is okay - I think. Not dead."

"I need you to tell me what happened."

"Just get here!" I snapped back.

"I'm en route. I'm running now. Can you tell me what happened?"

"We were asleep. Bella popped back, freaked out, and hit her head. Then the whole thing went up in flames. The whole house is on fire. The ceiling fucking came down on us, on both of us."

"You were able to get yourself, Bella, and your father to safety?" Carlisle asked. Later, I'd look back on that and find it an astute observation.

"Yeah. Dad's fine. Just a bumped head, I think. He'll be pissed when he wakes up though."

"And you?"

"I... uh..." I looked down, for the first time. A lot of patches of my skin were pink, seared, freshly burned and already healing. I couldn't feel any breaks, or anyhting. All my woulds were superficial. "I'm okay. Pretty healed already, though my eyes are stinging. How are you going to explain getting here?"

"Esme will bring my car as quickly as she can. Is Bella still unresponsive?" I looked back at her. The answer got stuck in my throat. I blinked back the pain in my eyes and closed them for a moment. A chill ran up my back, and a cold hand touched my shoulder.

"Sit still for a moment." Carlisle's voice in person seemed as cool and collected as he had on the phone, but watching him I could see the worry and fear that drove him. He crouched quickly over Bella, feeling her battered body. He quickly abandoned her, folding her arms on top of her chest, and placing a kiss on her forehead, in favour of checking my dad over. "He should recover well. From what I can ascertain he will only have a mild concussion at best."

I was barely listening. I was watching Bella. I could have sworn I saw her eyelids flicker. But Carlisle would know. He would know best. I looked over to him.

"Her ribs have been crushed on the right side. I would guess by the bruising in the chest cavity that one pierced her heart." He said softly, his body turned towards me, but his eyes on Bella's limp form. "Without a heartbeat... Not even I can save her now."

I wasn't sure how long I sat limply on the ground. I felt the doc probe my skin, and even flinched as he pulled something from my eye - minute glass shards apparently - but I just sat, numbly looking at her. I'd lost Bella. Bella! My best friend. I could still sense Renesmee nearby, and wondered if she too was standing here, watching, mourning. I would have to shift into a wolf to see her. But somehow the effort right now... it was too much. I saw the firelight flickering across her skin. She wasn't burned at all - Ness's protective gift - but there was little she could have done about the fucking ceiling caving in.

It felt like a slow blur that moved too quickly. Some kind of sped up, slo-mo, music video that danced around me. EMS showed up. As did Carlisle's car, with Esme inside it. I had never before felt particularly attached, or protective, of a vampire before... but watching the motherly, composed, and warm figurine of Esme turn into a shrieking and mourning banshee, clutched desperately in her husband's arms as she sobbed... that shit changes a person.

Charlie was worse. As soon as he arrived, and was given the news, he fought his way to her body, folded Bella into his lap and just cried. Unlike Esme, he was alone now. I sat beside him, crouched into the best hug I could muster under the circumstances. He pulled her close, in one last defiant squeeze, and suddenly - after being unresponsive for nearly 30 fucking minutes... Bella convulsed in pain, taking a shuddering, spluttering, bloody breath.

"BELLA? Bella?" Charlie and I both cried, attracting the attention of Carlisle immediately. He began to disentangle himself from Esme, only for all three of us to have our brains blown by her arms flailing weakly in pain, and her eyes spin open. Carlisle gave up all thought of acting any kind of human - something I'd ding him for later if Bella made it out of this. He was at our side instantly, tearing Bella away from Charlie's crushingly desperate hug. He laid her on her side, probing through and around her ribs and chest again.

"I..." He breathed, looking at me with a gaze that said 'have never seen anything like this before', but finished with "Must have missed her pulse in the commotion. She's barely breathing. I need to operate now."