My mom is less then happy with my fan fiction hobby, and sense this chapter 10 runs parallel with chapter 10 of the book, I present with the following:

The Twilight Saga: New Moon is the work of Stephenie Meyer and is published by Little, Brown and Company of the Hachette Book Group, New York, NY USA. Movie-related rights belong to Summit Entertainment. All characters and plot belonging to above mentioned author are used for entertainment purposes only and any copyright infringement is unintended. No profit is being made from this work.

----*----

When I came home, I realized something was wrong. It wasn't that they were worried about me; I had already known that. Charlie stared at me suspiciously as I walked in the door and winkled his nose. "Have you been smoking?"

I didn't try to deny it, as I walked past him. "Izzy home yet?" I headed for the stairs, without looking at him.

"She, Mike and Jacob all got sick." He stepped in front of me. "Hand them over." He held out his hand.

"I bummed it off a friend." I shrugged and pulled Mrs. Green's lighter out of my pocket. "You want this?" I waved it around.

He took it from me. "What happened to being responsible, Eliza-May?" He put it in his pocket. "Smoking isn't just bad for you; it's bad for this baby too."

"It's called an addiction, Charlie. I've honestly been trying to stop, but I'm also totally stressed out right now." I looked up the stairs. "Are they going to be okay?"

"Don't change the subject, young lady."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, no more nicotine." I put my hands up in surrender. "Can I call Jake now and make sure he's okay or am I grounded?" He nodded. "Thanks, Dad." I kissed his cheek and ran into the kitchen.

Billy answered. "Hello?" he asked, wearily.

"Hi, Mr. Black," I replied. "It's May, Bells' sister. Can Jake talk?"

"Oh, hey, May," he sounded distracted, "Sorry, he's sick."

"I felt fine in a few hours," I said, "It's probably just a twenty-four thing. Can you ask him to call me when he feels better?"

He was silent for a moment, "Yeah, sure." He hung up without a goodbye.

"Um—" I put the phone down. "Okay. Bye."

----*----

Jacob never called and both Bella and I grew worried. The next day, we went down to La Push but the small house was empty. Then we went to the hospital, the lady at the counter said, and "Sorry, they haven't been in."

"Are you sure?" Bella asked. "We're really worried about them."

She smiled falsely, "I'll call Chief Swan if they come in, dears."

----*----

Bella made Charlie call Harry Clearwater, but it took a while for the subject to turn to Jake. Harry had been in the hospital for some heart tests. Charlie's face turned as anxious as Bella's but the other man must have played it down as precautionary. Then Charlie said, "Oh, so you've heard then?"

We looked at our father, alarmed, but before I could ask, "Yeah, she's fine. Sort of." His eyes lingered on me for a moment. "No, it's not lethal, just confusing. I'm not sure now's the best time to explain."

Finally, the subject turned to Jacob. I try to hide the worried look on my face, but all Charlie could say was um and yeah. Bella began to drum her fingers on the table, nervously and I fond myself pressing a hand against my stomach, waiting or news. As Charlie hung up the phone, he took Bella's hand.

"Harry says there's been some trouble with the phone lines and that's why you haven't been able to get through, Bella. Billy took Jake to the doc down there and it looks he has mono. He's real tired and Billy said no visitors."

Bella voiced my concern. "What? No visitors?"

"Girls, don't be pests. Billy knows what's best for Jake right now. He'll out of bed in no time."

I played down my concern by shrugging and going up stairs. Charlie looked like was busy worrying about Harry anyway. He didn't need to know about my mixed-up emotions. I sat down on my bed, opening my Algebra 2 book and pulling out some paper. I had been ignoring my homework over the past few days, so I settled in for the long haul.

Bella came up shortly after I did, turned on the computer and opened the web browser. Talking wasn't needed, so we each minded our own business, until Bella said, "I'll give them a week."

"Talking to yourself?" I asked. "Or reading out loud?"

"I'm talking about Jake," she replied, not looking away from the screen. "There is no way he's still going to be sane after being in bed for a month."

----*----

Our sanity only lasted until Wednesday. "Now what?" I muttered as we sat in Bella's truck. "I'm not driving you to the hospital if you crash on your motorcycle."

"I have a map and a compass in the glove box. We could go hiking."

"I'm not sure if I should." I pulled myself into the truck. "I don't have boots and if I trip, well, it could be disastrous."

"We'll keep it slow," Bella assured me as we drove out of town. "I'm not graceful either, remember?"

I chuckled as we drove out the base of the trail, I pulled out her map. It had several hand-drawn trails on it. "None of these are on the trail. They don't go anywhere near it."

Bella laughed and her face was bright and happy. "You scared?" she taunted, playfully. "It's just a bear."

I smiled back, "Izzy, I'm the older sister. I have to act like it once and a while."

"What about our real ages, May?" Bella took the map from me and took the compass out of her pocket.

Either one of us really paid attention to where we were hiking as Bella explained the alternate aging system she and Jake had come up with. I gained a few years for having a baby, but then lost one because Titus was a royal pain.

"What's up with that bear thing?" I asked once we got around to it.

"A couple hikers came into Newton's," she replied, "I think they said it was a black bear." It wasn't fascinating, so I just kept walking. I stepped into a small stream. "West." She pointed that direction.

We quickly stepped into a small clearing. I thought I recognized the dark space, but Bella just looked disappointed. "What's wrong?" I asked, gently.

Bella wrapped her arms around her chest, as if she was falling apart. She took a deep breath and focused on something in front of us. "Laurent," she said in pleasant surprise.

I followed her line of sight to the dark form with dark eyes, dark hair and dark skin. I defensively stepped in front of Bella and crouched. After all, I had vampire venom in me already; Laurent couldn't do any more damage. "Laurent," my words came out as growl, "what are you doing here?"

Laurent had been the leader of the vampire coven that hunted Bella last year. He hadn't really hunted her, but he hadn't tried to stop James and Victoria either. I stood up, praying he didn't mean us any harm.

"Bella? Liza?" He seemed more astonished then Bella and moved in closer. "Heard from the Cullens lately? The house was empty."

"They've been around," Bella lied.

I looked at her, confused. Before I could make an inquiry, I heard: Play along. I nearly gasped, because I knew that voice. I also knew I shouldn't be hearing it. I shook my head in disbelief. Please, for Bella.

"He visited us last week," I continued for her. "But they couldn't stay in town." I focused on his eyes. There was barely any different between the iris and pupil. I suppressed a scream.

"Jasper was having problems controlling his thirst," she said, bravely. "It's safer that way."

"Aw, yes. I know what it's like to have problems staying on the bandwagon," he said seriously. "It has been a while since I've fed."

I swore internally, and heard the voice again. Stall him, it ordered. Warn Bella.

I spoke, "There's a giant bear around here somewhere. I'm sure the public won't mind if you kill it." I started to think about what the vampire was planning. "I've hear there is plenty of blood in them." My focus wasn't clear enough to push into his mind, so I had to stay in the dark.

He laughed, piercing the air with ice. "Victoria sent me here on a mission and it does not involve killing your bear. She sent me to find you and bring you to her. It would be less painful if I were to kill you."

"You don't want to do that," I assured him in a soft voice, "you wouldn't just be killing her or me or both of us." He looked confused, and after a pause, I whispered. "I'm having a baby. If you have even the smallest speck of humanity, you won't hurt us." Come on Bella, get out of here, I thought, looking at her.

His laughs grew louder. "You assume that I am like your Edward."

"Please," Bella's voice cracked, "just let us be."

He had been circling around us and began closing the space. "I'll make this quick, girls, I promise you. It's better then what Victoria had planned for you."

He doesn't know which one of you is Bella. Confuse him.

"Which one of us does she want?" I ventured. "Either one of us could be Bella. Victoria has no reason to hurt Liza. She was locked in a closet when James died. And both of us, we're just humans. We're not that important."

"What about your baby?" He looked at Bella. "Or is it yours?"

I had to hide the smirk forming on my lips. Don't get overconfident, Liza, the voice warned. I closed my eyes and tried to clear my head. The adrenaline in my system was trying to take over, and it was hard to stand my ground.

Something caught Laurent's attention. He turned his head and Bella sighed in relief, albeit prematurely.

A pack of giant wolves, five strong came into clearing, growling aggressively. In surprise, Bella and I both fell to the ground. I crawled out of the way of the last wolf to enter, a russet-colored one. It looked at Bella, dark eyes showing some strange form of intelligence. It took one step toward her.

"Stay away from my sister," I growled at it crawling closer, ignoring the others.

The wolf turned its head to me, its eyes showing first surprise and then something I had never seen. Gentle, warm and defensive. He moved toward me and I covered my face. Another wolf growled something that felt like an order and the russet one fell back into the pack.

I stumbled to my feet and took Bella's hand. "Let's get out of here."

Her eyes were wide in fear, but she got up. "What if they come after us?"

"I don't think they want to hurt us," I said gently, not taking my eyes off the russet wolf. "There's something about the red one that reminds me of something." Or someone.

----*----

"What did you two do today?" Charlie asked when we came home.

"Went for a walk," Bella said, trying to sound casual.

"What happened to going to Jessica's?"

"I wasn't in the mood for Calculus."

"I did my homework last night."

He looked at our faces for a moment and his voice gained an edge, "Tell me what happened."

"We saw the animals everyone one's be talking about." I said, "Five very large wolves. A black one, a grey one, a light brown, a chocolate one and one that was kind of red." Bella blinked at me, hiding the surprise. "What? I wasn't too scared. I was paying attention."

"Where were you?" he demanded, looking at Bella. "I told you not to go hiking."

Bella frowned at me, but told Charlie, "We were on the trail and we didn't go far. We're sorry we were out late."

"We got spooked," I shrugged. "Not hurt."

The anger melted off his face. "I'm glad you're okay. Should I report this?"

"What?" I replied, "The wolves or our stupidity?"

He picked up the kitchen phone. "The wolves."

We both nodded. "I don't want you two hiking again," he said firmly.

"Okay." Bella went up stairs.

I nodded rapidly, "Yeah, of course."

"I'm beginning to wonder if I should even let you out of the house, May," he sighed. "What if you had gotten killed?"

I kept my face straight, "One of us would have gotten out, I'm sure of it."

"There were five of them, May," he replied. "You can't run and Bella's not graceful."

"But, Dad," I replied, "I can run. I'm stronger than I've ever been."

He looked at me in gentle surprise, "When did you learn to run?"

"Around the time Bella fell," I said, not really lying. "I'm not sure why, but it's great."

Charlie hugged me, crying in pleasant surprise. "Eliza-May, you're amazing."

Bella came back down the stairs. "Jake's better. It wasn't mono."

"Great," Charlie said, "You going there or is he coming here?"

"He's been going out with his other friends instead," her face reflected a strange sadness, "They went to the movies today. I'm going to go to bed." She went back upstairs.

Charlie's smile faded, and he looked at me for an explanation. I shrugged. "Is it okay if I sleep on the sofa?"

"Go ahead."