1. Home Again

Jacob Black smiled as he took in the three storied glass windowed wooden frame house. After leaving twenty-four years ago he hadn't expected to be excited about seeing it but now that he was back it was hard not to feel that sense of something special that belonged here.

After all, Jacob thought as he looked to his left at the love of his existence, it had been in this very house where she had made her way into this world.

"It's good to be home," said Renesmee who now technically should have been thirty-seven years old but due to her unique heritage having stopped growth seven years after her birth, looked the age of seventeen which suited Jacob just fine since he was still sixteen but had the look of a twenty-five year old.

"Let's go inside shall we," asked Carlisle.

Esme looked at him and was more than happy to.

Jacob took his fiancé's hand and began walking but stopped when he didn't hear the other footsteps behind him.

He turned and once again Edward and Bella seemed to be lost in their own little world.

"Hey you guys coming," Jacob asked.

Bella looked at Edward and then back at her daughter and best friend, "You guys go ahead. We want to check in at our old place."

"Aw mom, dad, do you have to," Ness asked knowing full well what her parents planned to do just by telling by their body language. "We just got here."

"It won't be too long," said Edward.

Jacob rolled his eyes. There really was no point in trying to talk them out of it. Rather than saying anything Jacob and Renesmee turned to the house and to each other.

"Blonde and Emmett were right to stay back in Boston," Jacob said knowing full well his friends could hear.

Renesmee smiled and joined in, "And Aunt Alice and Uncle Jasper were lucky to leave the country and visit cousin Nahuel."

Jacob laughed, "You'd think after they had you they would tone it down a notch."

"You're kidding right," Ness said as they walked inside.

Carlisle and Esme had all ready speedily uncovered the white sheets and got rid of all the dust that had gathered.

"You're talking about two people who conceived me on their honeymoon. I'm not quite sure they can tone it down."

Jacob laughed again, "You're probably right."

"Sorry about the lack of food in the house, Jacob," said Esme as she and Carlisle came up to the couple, "Well get it stocked as soon as we can."

"That's not necessary," said Jacob.

"If you and your brothers are going to be staying around," said Esme, "It certainly is."

Since the days of the Cullen territory becoming shared territory with Jacob's pack, the Cullen's had added an extension to the house that mimicked the exact design as the original Cullen house down to the three floors except with a wooden cabin like exterior and fewer windows. There were multiple bedrooms and space on every floor for both Jacob's pack and their respective families should they meet someone and have children of their own but when Jacob and a couple of his brothers had left with the Cullen's the remaining members of his pack had stopped using the house.

Ness could feel Jacob's muscles tense.

"Babe, you okay?"

"Fine," said Jacob.

Ness knew not to believe him. She reached up and touched his face and showed him all the moments when he had tried to keep his emotions to himself and failed because she had wanted to know him inside and out even if the thoughts were unpleasant for him.

Jacob smiled at her. Every day he was grateful that she was in his life.

"I thought you'd be happy to see your brothers," Ness said to him.

Jacob looked at their hands, still entwined, "Take a walk with me," he asked.

Walking through the woods in the opposite direction of the Cullen house and the cottage some five miles out Jacob finally stopped.

The area felt like home and in ways it was. This was still his territory and now that he'd returned he, like the Cullen's, once again had claim to it.

"I thought I would be happy to be back," said Jacob.

"But-," said Renesmee.

"I don't know I guess I'm just nervous about the whole thing," Jacob said taking a seat near a tree and leaning against it.

Renesmee sat next to him and took his hand. She knew better than to interrupt.

"The last time we were here," Jacob began, "Quil's Claire was nine years old and now she's thirty-three, placing my brothers between their late thirties and late forties."

Those were the best numbers Jacob could give. Though they had all tried their best to estimate in the end that's all they were, estimated numbers and not exact given the age when most of them were when they stopped phasing and their bodies continued to age at a normal human timeline and not everyone quit their wolves at the same time making the aging process more complicated than it should have been.

"I should be in my forties by now," said Jacob.

His words made Renesmee tense. "You're not regretting your life are you?" she asked. "You're not regretting being with me?"

Jacob looked at her and smiled. "Never," he admitted truthfully.

Renesmee relaxed, "Okay good. I've just never seen you this nervous before," then for less than a millisecond, she thought, "Well almost never."

Jacob laughed at the memory too but said nothing.

"I thought you would wolf out when I wanted you to ask my dad's permission to take me on a date."

"No definitely not fun. Your dad has always scared me."

Renesmee playfully shoved him, "Shut up he has not."

"Well, maybe not before you were born but after, sure, even when my thoughts were nothing but platonic. Although, you should have seen me during the time I asked your parent's permission to propose to you. That was a moment I certainly thought they would try to kill me."

"Like that time mom through you out of the house like an actual dog and tried to kill you."

Jacob laughed, "You were so happy that Seth got in the way."

"Of course I did," Renesmee said squeezing his arm, "You're my, Jacob, always have been."

Jacob smiled and then added, "Well it felt a lot worse than that."

"They probably didn't kill you because they understand how you feel about me. You would never hurt me and they know that. For what it's worth, Jacob, I think if you can handle my dad and even my uncle Emmett, you can most definitely handle your brothers. So what if they're older than you? They're older than Seth and Embry too. And our lives aren't exactly normal anyways. You're engaged to a half-human, half-vampire. I'm engaged to a half-wolf. And Seth is a half-wolf who is married to a vampire. I doubt the age difference between you and your brothers and even Leah are going to make much difference.'

Jacob reached down and moved some hair from Renesmee's face.

"How do you always see the good in the most twisted situations?"

"Must have inherited that trait from my mom, after all she wasn't afraid of dad or you when she should have been what with you two being monsters and all."

"I probably should have picked up on that," Jacob said with a smile. He then extended his hand as he stood, "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"To the rez."

Renesmee smiled at him, glad that she had talked Jacob through what he was going through.