Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. I haven't even seen BDP1; I am patiently waiting for it to come on DVD because I couldn't find anyone to go to the movies with me. I like to enjoy the movie going experience with someone else in case the movie is boring and I need someone to liven things up. Dang me for moving almost an hour away from my sister and niece!
AN: I was reading through this story a week ago and noticed that somehow chapter nine was duplicated as chapter twelve. WTH? I'll keep a better eye on my stories from now on and if anyone finds out that this has happened again please do not hesitate to let me know.
Bella noticed the car parked across the street from the house as soon as she turned onto her street. The black Audi was a welcome surprise after dealing with Mike, Eric and Tyler all day. Eric and Tyler had come in claiming to want to help clean the store room but they did more damage than anything and Bella had had to clean up after them. She was an hour late getting home than she should have been.
The passenger door of the Audi opened as soon as she pulled into the driveway. Alice was at her door jumping up and down in excitement as she opened the door.
"Hi!" Alice said excitedly.
"Hey!" Bella said with the same enthusiasm.
"I have missed you so much!" Alice gushed, pulling Bella in for a tight hug.
"I've missed you too." Bella said laughing breathlessly.
"I have been dying to see you since I talked to you."
"Does anyone know that you're here?"
"We talked with Sam." Jasper assured from a few feet away.
Bella turned her attention to him, giving him a warm smile. He nodded warmly with a small smile. She wrapped an arm around Alice's waist and pulled her inside. She looked over her shoulder to give Jasper a questioning look when he didn't follow them.
"Come on Jasper." Alice said encouragingly.
"There is someone coming. I'll stay out here to make sure it is safe."
"What do you think it is?" Bella asked.
"I'm not sure." he said with worry.
He turned towards the road making Bella and Alice turned to look as well. Jacob's car was coming up the street and Bella prayed that he wouldn't cause a scene. He pulled up in front of the Audi and calmly walked through the yard, never taking his eyes off of Bella. So far, so good. She thought to herself.
"Who is this?" Alice asked looking from Jacob to Bella.
"This is my boyfriend Jacob. Jacob, this is Jasper and Alice Hale." she said, trying to gauge his reaction.
Alice walked back down the stairs to stand in front of Jacob before sizing him up. His eyes caught Bella's as the tension she was hoping wouldn't set in finally set in.
"It is so nice to meet you. Bella has told me so much about you."
"You too." Jacob said curtly.
Bella gave him a pleading look as she walked back down the stairs to him. She put a hand on Alice's arm to get her attention. Alice looked at her with questioning eyes. Bella shook her head giving her an apologetic look and Alice stepped away. Jasper led her into the house before casting a glance over his shoulder at Jacob. Jacob attention was immediately focused on him as he shut the door.
"What did he just do to me?" he asked accusingly.
"He calmed you down." she said soothingly.
"I have every right to be mad. Why didn't you tell me that they were coming?" he asked giving her a dark look.
"Don't put this on me. I didn't know that they were coming."
"Do you swear?"
"I have never lied to you and I am offended that you would accuse me of lying." she seethed.
"Bella? Your dad will be home in less than fifteen minutes." Jasper said from the door.
"You have to go." Bella said giving Jacob a pointed look.
"Why?" he asked giving her a hard look.
"Because you need to calm down and I don't want my dad to know what's going on."
"Are they leaving?"
"No. They are free to stay as long as they want. They aren't causing trouble."
"No, they just showed up unannounced." he said rolling his eyes.
"I miss them and I want to spend time with them. You are going to have to accept that they are in my life." she said with a sigh.
"Bella, ten minutes." Alice said from the porch.
"Please, leave." she pleaded.
"I'm going to be close by. I'm coming back as soon as they leave." he said pulling her to him.
She sighed into his chest as he held her tightly. He held her until he heard Charlie's cruiser coming down the road. He was pulling away from the house when Charlie got out of his car.
"Is he leaving because I'm here?"
"No." she said reassuringly.
"Whose car is that?" he asked gesturing to the Audi.
"It's a surprise. Come inside." she said pulling him into the house.
Alice engulfed Charlie in a hug as soon as he had his holster off. His eyes widened in surprise as he held her tightly.
"Well, well, well, Alice Cullen. This is a surprise." he said smiling down at Alice.
"It's Hale now." she said as she held up her left hand to show him her engagement and wedding rings.
"Congratulations, Sweet Heart. Whoever he is, he's a lucky guy." he said endearingly.
"He's in the living room. I'd like you to meet him."
"Sure. Just let me call a friend of mine. I need to cancel our plans for tonight."
"No, don't do that. We should have called first." Alice said in concern.
"I'll let Harry know that I'll be a little late then."
Alice pulled Charlie into the living room to where Jasper was standing by the mantle. Charlie held out his hand and Alice put a hand on his arm shaking her head no.
"He's a little shy Charlie. It's going to take a little time for him to warm up to you." Alice said giving him a sympathetic smile.
"That's alright. I understand." Charlie said with a nod in understanding.
"Charlie this is Jasper. Jazzy, this is Charlie. He's pretty great as far as dad's go." Alice said winking playfully.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Chief Swan." Jasper said, nodding in acknowledgment.
"Please, call me Charlie."
"Dad, don't you need to call Harry?" Bella asked from the foyer.
"Excuse me." Charlie said with a smile and a wave.
Once Charlie was upstairs Bella sat on the couch in between Alice and Jasper. Alice took hold of her hand before placing their hands in her lap.
"I understand that we've missed out on a lot since we've left." Alice prodded.
"Just a little." Bella said with a light laugh.
"So that was Jacob in the yard?" Jasper asked breaking his silence on the subject.
"He's not normally like that. He's a good person."
"Having us just show up couldn't have helped things." Alice observed.
"I told you that we should have called first."
"I'm starting to think that I should have agreed with you. I didn't see Jacob showing up."
"You didn't?" Bella asked in confusion.
"It's like he's a blind spot in my visions or something." Alice said exasperatedly.
"That's never happened before?"
"No." Jasper said in concern.
"He's back." Alice said.
"I'll go and talk to him." Jasper said standing from the couch.
"Be sure to reassure him that we mean no harm." Alice called before he walked out the door.
Bella looked out the front window to see Jacob and Sam in the front yard. Jasper was talking directly to Sam while Jacob looked like he was ready to strike at any second.
"Maybe I should go out there." Bella said.
"Don't. Jasper and Sam have things under control. Jacob didn't bring him here to start trouble."
"As long as you're sure." Bella said unsurely.
Alice pulled her from the window and up the stairs. Charlie was coming out of his room as the girls went into Bella's. He called that he was leaving and both girls replied back before Bella sat on the bed. Alice stood in the center of the room facing her with a worried expression.
"I can't see Jasper." she said in panic.
Her face was a mask of calm a few seconds later.
"He's fine, obviously." Bella said to her reaction.
"Back to Jacob, he's quite good looking." Alice said wiggling her eyebrows.
"Your husband can hear you." she said giving her a teasing smile.
"He knows nothing will happen." Alice said with an exaggerated eye roll.
"He's stubborn as a mule and yet he's chivalrous too."
"That is what I like to hear." Alice said sitting next to her.
"I can't imagine why we didn't see where things were headed before he changed. All the signs were there."
"You had recently had your heart broken and he probably felt that way, but didn't want to admit it."
"You think he did?" Bella asked hopefully.
"It's a possibility." she said shrugging her shoulders.
It felt good to have an outsider's opinion on the situation. She didn't feel comfortable talking to Emily about her feelings because her relationship with Sam was different than hers and Jacob's. Alice could understand because she had loved Jasper for so long, even before she had met him. If anyone believed in fate more than Bella it was Alice.
XXXX
Sam and Jacob sat on Sam's front porch while Emily made dinner. Jacob had done some thinking since the last time he saw Bella. He felt bound to the pack, but he also felt pulled towards the Cullen's too. Try as he might he couldn't hate them, he never had. He had a firsthand account of all the things that they had done for Bella and how much they thought of her as a part of their family. He couldn't hold them accountable for a few bad errors in judgement.
"What's going on?"
"Do you think that maybe our families made a mistake when they passed judgment on the Cullen's?"
"You've seen what happened to Bella." Sam said with a sigh.
"You would be the same way if Emily decided to leave you. Edward did what he thought was right. You should hear the stories that Bella has told me about them. If Jasper wanted to hurt me while we were at Bella's he could have. Maybe they aren't as bad as they seem."
"You want to try getting along with them?"
"It couldn't hurt." Jacob said with a shrug.
"I'll consider it."
"There's something else that I want to talk to you about."
"I had a feeling."
"I've been thinking about what you said about me becoming Alpha. I know that it is what my dad and the elders want, but what about what I want?"
"What do you want?"
"I want a life where I don't have to constantly worry about the people I love being in danger. I don't want there to be a risk that I could hurt Bella." he said sadly.
"We all want that." Sam said with a sigh.
"I'm going to make it happen. I think that you should stay Alpha."
"You're turning your back on the tribe?" Sam accused.
"I would never do that. Think of it as I'm stepping down."
"When do you plan to stop phasing?"
"As soon as I catch up with my body, I don't want to be twenty and have arthritis." he said with a laugh.
"You should definitely wait until you're twenty five."
"You know that I never wanted this life. Up until I phased for the first time I thought that it was all a myth."
"All of us did."
"Paul knew. He says his granddad used to talk about what it was like all the time and Jared 's dad was a part of the last pack, remember?"
"Because his first imprint died and his second imprint couldn't have children." Sam said as it dawned on him.
"Right." Jacob said in agreement.
"I guess there isn't anything that I can do to change your mind since you've already decided what you want to do. I just hope that the Alpha line doesn't stop for your family."
"I've talked to my dad about that. He says it shouldn't change. A Black has always been Alpha."
Sam nodded as he let silence fall between them. Jacob was glad that he had taken it well. He hoped that Bella would take it just as well.
XXXX
Bella sat at the kitchen table across from Jasper while Alice took a quick run through the woods to check on things before they left. He had been silent for the most part since he had come inside after talking to Jacob.
"Do you think that we will ever be friends?" she asked to break the silence.
"We aren't friends?" he asked sounding hurt.
"It's never felt that way to me." she said honestly as she shook her head.
"I know that I have never made things easy for you, no amount of apologizing will change that." he said solemnly.
"I appreciate everything that you have done for me and I don't blame you for what happened on my birthday."
"I would have killed you if Edward and Emmett hadn't stopped me."
"I know, it could have been a lot worse and I know that you didn't mean it." she said before tentively placing a hand on his arm.
He looked down at her hand before placing one of his on top of it. She linked hands with him before squeezing his gently. He looked at her from the corner of his eye, smiling sadly. She hoped that one day that he would believe that she didn't hate him. He wasn't a bad person, she knew that. She just wished that he saw himself the way that his family and she did.
Alice came inside to find them in that position and she stood in between them with an arm draped over each of their shoulders. She lay her head on his shoulder and he kissed her temple before speaking softly to her.
Bella watched them hoping that one day that she and Jacob could have the relationship that they had. They had been through so much and stayed together through it all and came out of their situation stronger because they were together.
