Chapter 2
As soon as I get home, I grab a Mike's Hard Lemonade. This day has been stressful… amazing… OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! It's so incredible that the Cullens are back in my life. I mean…well, I hope they are… Will Edward stay this time or will he insist on leaving? If he leaves, how will I handle it this time? If he stays will he allow me into his life/ existence or will he ask me to stay away? How will he deal with me having been married? ARGH! I need to relax both my mind and my body… I'll take a nice hot shower. As I step under the hot water, I remember that Jake calls daily… Oh, I think I'll keep quiet about the Cullens… Oh God! I hope Jake calls first… Too late to worry about it now… My strawberry scented shampoo feels wonderful lathering in my hair. The hot water rinses the suds away… rinses my worries away. My body-wash smells of freesia. I take some into my hands and slather it on my shoulders and neck. I make sure to get some on every part of my body…

Unconsciously, I begin to touch myself. I remember Jake and I in the shower… back when we had just gotten together… I can almost feel his hands rubbing my body-wash in and all around my skin… The shower was just a warm-up… He would pick me up and wrap my legs around his waist. He would carry me to the bed and enter my body while setting me down. In my mind I can picture him hovering over me. Our mouths would meet as his member slid smoothly in and out and I would get so close to my peak… but most of the time he would rush past mine and reach his climax first… So my fingers had to do the job… After a while my fantasy Jake blew the real thing out of the water… and now my climax rushes through my heated body.

I still love Jacob…but when he imprinted on a friend of his sister's I was happy for him. I stand at the doors to my closet…there it is… the top Alice told me to wear… it's one of those tops with a neckline wide enough that it can fall off of one shoulder. I pull my skinny jeans out of the dresser and begin to look for my lacey navy-blue bra and panty set. Now that I'm all dressed, I finish my Mike's and wait for the calls to come in… Will it be Edward or Jake who calls first…?

I flip through channels on the TV for a few minutes before the first call comes in… "Hello?"

Its Edward… "Hi Bella, I'm leaving for your house now. Be there in a few…Ok?"

I close my eyes as my answer of, "Yeah, see you soon," flows through my lips.

The phone rings again just a minute later… "Hello?"

Jake answers this time. "Hey, Bells. How was the first day of the semester? Why do you sound frazzled already? Something happen?"

I roll my eyes and answer, "Jacob Black, what could possibly have happened on the first day? Were-wolves or vampires in the class? Come-on Jake!" The doorbell rings. Great! Just what I need! "Jake, that's the pizza I ordered. I gotta go. I'll talk to you tomorrow night… Ok?"

"No, Bella, it's not ok! Did you just joke about wolves and vamps being in your class? Are you sure you're alright? Bells?" I hear him say.

"Just gimme a sec, Jake! The pizza is here." I open the door and cover the receiver's mouthpiece. "Hi, if you promise to be completely silent you can come in; otherwise I'll meet you in the car in 5. Got it?" He nods. I try not to sound irritated at my ex husband, "Jake, I really want to eat my pizza hot so I'll give you 3 more minutes of my time, then I'm hanging up. Got it?"

"Sure, sure." He uses a typical Jacob line. "Bells, you know after everything we went through these past 9 years, you can tell me anything… right? Are you hearing his voice again? Or seeing things this time…?"

My inevitable blush of embarrassment appears because I know the Edward can hear this whole conversation. Now I'll have questions to answer also. "No Jacob… Nothing like that. I'm over that… Thank God. I just started the new semester and some of the students were a surprise. That's all, now I need to eat, so, I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bella… You'd tell me if they showed up… wouldn't you?" I hear a note of hesitation in Jake's voice and feel Edward's eyes on me. How do I answer this truthfully? I whirl around to face Edward. I shake my head at him while saying the opposite to Jacob. "Don't be stupid Jake… Of course you would be the first to know if they showed up. Now I gotta go."

"Ok, Bella. Enjoy your pizza." He sounds upset at having to hang up.

I try to cheer him up before he goes and does something dumb. "Hey, Jake? Thanks for caring… and tell Valerie and the guys I say 'hi'."

I hear new life in his answer, "Ok, Love ya, Bells…"

I hang up and sigh. "But not enough…" I shake myself out of the mood I've shifted into. "I'm ready when you are Edward."

He nods and we get into the Volvo. "So… Jacob… as in Jacob Black… the kid from the rez?"

I nod with my eyes closed. "Yeah, Charlie's friend Billy's son…he, uhmmm… helped put the pieces back together when… I fell apart that October. We got real close. Even with my studies as a distraction, I had a few breakdowns… When… certain things happened I regressed to needing a rock… and Jake wasn't used to the emotional stuff, but he handled it as well as he could. I hope you guys have a stock of tissues. I have a feeling I'll need them."

We pull up to a three story home on the edge of a forest. It's good to know that some things will never change. He opens the door and helps me out. His topaz eyes focus on my face. "Bella, may I hold you for a moment? I've been dying to and you look like you need a hug…" My lip trembles as I nod. His arms feel so good and so soothing when wrapped around me.

I lay my head against his solid form. "You're right I really did need this…this is ok, and holding my hand is ok too…but anything further… I need to hear explanations and you need to know certain things before we can even try to go there, ok? "

I feel his hand stroking my hair as he answers. "I understand, Bella… I do…Let's go in… They're waiting."

The door opens before Edward can reach for the knob. "Everyone! Look who's here! It's Bella!" Alice announces.

I'm suddenly scooped off my feet. "Bella!" Emmett has me in a big bear hug. I hear him whisper. "I hear you need some lovin'!"

I laugh. I can always count on Emmett for a bit of humor with a bit of truth. "Yeah, Em, I do need that. Thanks." I turn and see the whole family except Rose (who just waves in my direction) is lining up to greet me. Jasper's calm floods my senses. I close my eyes savoring it. Esme's arms hold me tightly. Carlisle is next. Alice gets in there too. Jazz's silent support is enough for me. "Thanks, Jazz, just do me a favor and don't mess around with my emotions in class, ok?" He grins evilly. Uh oh. I gave him an idea. Great.

Esme's shocked voice brings me back from my thoughts. "Oh, Bella! It's so great to see you! How did you find us?" She leads me to the dining-room. The table is set for all of them plus one. In the blink of an eye, I'm sitting and served and the rest of the settings are gone. I've missed this.

I smirk at my second mother as I pick up a forkful of chicken, "I'm surprised that Alice and Jasper haven't told you… I'm their teacher for Creative Writing 101." I giggle. "You could've knocked me over with a feather when I looked at the roster. I'm sure I stared at it for hours thinking 'it can't be… there's gotta be lots of Cullens… lots of Hales… in the world'. I didn't think I was lucky enough for it to be the ones I wanted in my world… Anyway! I have got to catch you up on the stuff that's happened to me! I know at least one of you doesn't care, but there are certain things a person only wants to relive once..." Esme sits next to me on my left; Edward on my right. The others just gathered around. Rosalie picks up a magazine and starts flipping through the pages.

"For the first month, all I did was lay around crying and moping… but then I decided that I wanted out of high school ASAP…too many memories. So I threw myself into my studies and graduated with high honors; salutatorian of the class ahead of ours. I have my Masters Degree in teaching and I was personally asked by the dean of Dartmouth to come teach here… In the years between high school graduation and college graduation, I went to Washington University. Jacob Black, Charlie's friend's son, from LaPush, joined me there and we dated. He was there for me during the first two years after…the vampiric 'mass exodus' of Forks. About three months after you left, we found out that another of the old legends of the tribe is true. I should probably not be telling you this, but Jake and some of the guys on the rez are werewolves…Laurent came to town and they had to stop him from attacking me." I look around. Edward's face was fearsome. Alice looked thoughtful. The others just stared at me with openly shocked expressions. "I was two years ahead of him in school, but we made the relationship work. So much so, that we got married."

"You MARRIED A WEREWOLF!!!" Edward growled.

I look him straight in the eye. "Yes, and I would've married a vampire, but the one I wanted left." I see him flinch. "Anyway, I taught for a year at Forks Elementary…Jake and I had a good married life until we tried to have kids…" I see Rosalie look up. "I didn't want them for myself but Renee, Charlie and Billy were starting to wonder about grandkids. I could see in his eyes that Jake wanted them too. I wasn't worried about losing my figure or anything frivolous like that. I just didn't know if I was ready for the responsibility of another life." My voice starts to shake. "I got pregnant pretty quickly… but…" A box of tissues appears in front of me. "Thanks… Victoria showed up when I was about two months along. She kidnapped me one day after a visit with Charlie. She beat me up pretty badly and by the time Jake and the pack found us and killed her… I was nearly comatose." Tears are running freely down my face, now. Edward has me on his lap and the others look murderous. I could tell that Esme and Rosalie knew what was coming next. "I lost the baby… and was told that it would be a miracle if I ever got pregnant again…" I buried my face in Edward's chest, sobbing. Jasper is able to calm me a little, so I continue. "To make matters worse, a week after that, Jake's sister came for a visit and she brought a friend from college…Valerie…Jake was one of the few in his pack that had yet to imprint. Imprinting is how the wolves find their perfect mate or true love…" More tears fall. "He took one look at her and I saw it happen. Right in front of me, he dropped to his knees with a shocked look on his face. I was surprised, to say the least, but I wasn't angry. After a wonderful 3 years of marriage, I just couldn't find it in my heart to be mad that he found the love of his life. I simply took my wedding ring off and went looking for Tyler's dad. He's a lawyer. It took a year, during which I reverted to my crying, moping self…I even had the abandonment nightmares that I had for that first month after you all left… but the divorce went through amicably. Jake still looks out for me and I still care about him, but his love for me is now a brotherly love. Instead of being the supportive, loving husband he became the brother I never had. That's when I got the call from the dean: 'Would you like to teach a creative writing course at an Ivy League school far away from all the memories of lives you didn't get to live?' He didn't use that wording, of course, but that's what my heart heard. I said yes instantly, and it has been a whole semester since then." I took a deep breath. "If nobody minds I need a human moment… Alice, could you show me to the bathroom please?"

To my surprise, Rosalie got up and in a kind voice said, "I'll show you."