A/N: OK, So it's uh, it's been almost a month huh? Wow. RL has been absolutely crazy. Four school age children with all of their end of the year activities and shenanigans, I haven't had a whole lot of time for myself. I apologize for the delay, and hope you find it worth the wait.
As always, SM owns all things Twilight.

Prey For Protection

Chapter Seven:

Charlie

There was no denying it; trust me, I wanted to deny it, with every ounce of my being. It wasn't that the wolf's eyes resembled Sam's they were Sam's. No goddamn doubt about it.

Now, I've always considered myself an open-minded guy; but I am also a sensible, rational guy. So, when I found myself in a situation where the most obvious, most logical explanation, was that Sam Uley had just… just morphed into a giant fucking dog… …Well, let's just say, it'll mess with your damn head.

Believe it or not, I wasn't afraid when I saw the creature; or at least I wasn't afraid of the creature. I was afraid that I'd lost my goddamn mind. Insanity, hallucinations, a form of psychosis, the most fucked up nightmare I've ever had in my life, these all made more sense to me than the idea that what I was staring at was real. He nudged my hand with his big furry head, as if he wanted me to pet him or something. Granted, feeling the fur on my hand kinda solidified the reality of the situation.

The wolf, err… Sam stared into my eyes for another minute, before turning around and picking up a pair of boxers in his snout, and stalking off into the darkness. He reappeared about a minute later, furless and walking upright; he silently set about pulling his clothes back on. Once he was dressed, he joined Billy and I near the now fully extinguished fire.

We stood there, talking, for almost another hour before Jake and Bella finally returned. I heard her laughter before I saw them; and the sound was music to my ears. She sounded happier than I could remember having heard her in a long time. When they stepped into view, the three of us stopped talking. Billy told me he'd stop by the station, next week, so we could go over some of their plans and arrangements.

Jacob's arm was casually slung around her shoulders, and they were both beaming. I like Jake, even if he is a dog; but right then, I felt an almost overpowering urge to let him know how bad things would be for him, if he hurt my little girl.

"C'mon kiddo," I called to her, "you ready to head back? It's gettin' late and yer old man's gotta work in the mornin'."

She smiled and nodded; and I gripped the handles of Billy's chair and started pushing him back toward his house, where we'd left the car. Jake and Bella walked a little ways ahead of us and we could occasionally hear their laughter drift back to us.

"So, you still plannin' on giving it to her tonight?" Billy asked quietly.

"Wha-? Oh," I chuckled, "would you believe I completely forgot about it?"

He laughed. "Well my friend, on a night like tonight, I suppose it would be understandable."

By the time we arrived back at Billy's, Bella had already gone inside and retrieved her bag, and she and Jake were leaning against the cruiser waiting for us. Jake looked our way with a cocked brow, and I saw Billy give him a slight nod. Jake said something to Bells and took off at a jog into the house. He came back out and slipped me a set of keys.

"She's all set," he whispered; before casually strolling back over to stand by Bella.

"Hey Bells," I called and gestured for her to join me. We walked a few feet until we were standing next to the old Chevy pick up truck that I'd recently bought from Billy. We stopped walking and she turned to look up at me expectantly.

I held my hand out, fingers curled around the keys, and waited for her to put hers out palm up. When she did I dropped the keys in her hand and smiled. She looked confused, staring down at the keys and then looking back up at me. I reached back and patted the door of the Chevy, and her face lit up.

"For Me?" she asked in disbelief.

I just nodded and she let out a squeal.

"Oh my god! Are you kidding?" She laughed and threw her arms around my neck. "Oh dad this is… this is awesome! This is perfect! I love it!" She opened the door and climbed up into the cab of the truck to examine the interior. I couldn't help but notice Jake clamoring into the passenger seat, telling her about all the work he'd down on the truck.

"Meet you at the house?" I asked her, tapping on the front quarter panel.

"Yeah, I'll be right behind you. God dad, thank you. Thank you so much!" She had tears shining in her eyes, happy tears.

It made my heart soar to be able to give that to her. She's known more than her fair share of tears, and nowhere near enough of them have been happy. I smiled and nodded before bidding Billy goodnight and heading to the cruiser. I watched in my rearview mirror as Jake climbed out of the truck and waved goodbye to Bells. I pulled out and the truck roared to life; no sneakin' off with that engine, I thought with a chuckle, as she pulled out behind me.

The drive home seemed to fly by. My mind was stuck on a continuous loop of the twilight zone-ish events of the evening. It was a lot to take in, vampires, and werewolves… Jesus Christ! I gave my head a fierce shake; I needed to sleep on it all. Everything always seemed more clear in the light of day, after a good night's sleep. I pulled into the driveway and a minute later, Bells pulled up to the curb in front of the house. We met on the front porch, and I unlocked the door while she stretched and stifled a yawn.

"Tired?" I asked with a soft smile. She looked so much like her mother; sometimes it damn near broke my heart to look at her.

She nodded through her yawn as we both entered the house. She hugged my neck again and adjusted her tote bag on her shoulder. Her voice was small and tired when she spoke.

"Thank you again, dad. I love the truck, it's absolutely perfect; and thanks for letting me go to La Push today. I had a lot of fun. Jake and the others are great. They uh they asked if I could come back out tomorrow. They want to show me the tide pools and Jake said something about a hot spring."

She looked up at me, eyes pleading, and I couldn't have told her no if I'd wanted to. "Sure, sure. Just make sure you take your phone, and try to keep it on ya, and send me a text to let me know when you're going, and when you'll be back.

She smiled again and pulled me down to press a soft kiss on my gruff cheek. "Good night dad," she whispered, and trudged up the stairs to her room.

A few minutes later I heard her head into the bathroom to shower. I sat down in the living room with a beer and caught up on the ball scores while Bells got cleaned up. I waited until I heard her shuffle back to her room before heading up the stairs to my own.

When I awoke the next morning I spent my entire morning routine rehashing the events of the previous night. By the time I tied up my boots and walked out the front door, I had wrapped my mind around it all as well as I could ever be expected to.

Bells sent me a text message around 10 o'clock letting me know that she was heading out to La Push. It was then that I felt the sudden rush of gratitude to Billy and his 'protectors.' I felt guilty as hell for leaving her on her own so much, granted I had one of the guys drive by the house every hour when she was there to make sure everything appeared to be ok; but that wasn't the same as me being there with her. However, Forks was a small town with a small budget and therefore a rather small number of officers on the force. This meant that I had to work a lot of hours. Fortunately Forks was also a safe, quiet town; otherwise it would be much worse.

Billy called me just before lunchtime and we talked about the patrols that the protectors were running and about how they were going to expand them to encompass the high school once it opened up for the new school year. I gave him Bella's cell phone number and he said he'd make sure that everybody had it as well as mine. We spoke a little longer and made tentative plans for an upcoming fishing trip before saying goodbye. The rest of the day passed by as uneventfully as any other day in Forks.

As I made my way to the cruiser to head home, my cell phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID and smiled as I flipped the phone open. "Hey baby girl, I'm just on my way home. You want me to grab a couple of pizzas on my way?"

"Hey dad!" Her voice was light and airy and full of laughter, I felt the smile on my face broaden. I could here the sounds of laughter and talking in the background and realized she probably wasn't calling from home. "I was actually…" She abruptly stopped and started giggling. "Hang on one sec dad," she squealed.

She must've moved the phone away from her face, but I could still hear her laughing and squealing in the background. "Jacob Black will you stop it! I'm trying to talk to my dad!"

She was panting when she returned to the phone a minute later. "Sorry about that dad, Jacob and Quil are being jerks," she laughed. "Anyway, Leah invited me to sleep over at her house tonight. We were going to head out to the hot spring early tomorrow morning. Would that be ok?"

She sounded so happy that I wouldn't dream of denying her. "Sure, sure," I answered with a chuckle.

She squealed in delight. "Thanks dad! I'll be home in plenty of time to fix dinner tomorrow. I promise!"

I couldn't help but laugh at the way she tried to take care of me. Even under the circumstances that had brought us together, with her being in mortal danger, she tried to be the caregiver. "I'll see ya tomorrow then Bells," I told her before hanging up with a deep sigh.

I stopped at the diner and had dinner before heading home. I felt a pang in my chest when I walked through the front door of the empty house. Bella hadn't been back with me long, but I had quickly become accustomed to her presence. It felt as though she had turned a light back on inside of me. I stepped to the mantle and stared at the photographs of Bella over the years, wondering how she'd grown up so fast and where the time had gone.

I grabbed a beer from the fridge, settled into my favorite chair and flipped on the television. I stared unseeing at the screen, thinking about Bella until I dozed off in the recliner, my beer untouched on the table beside me.

~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~**~

Bella

The last few days had been some of the best in a long time. Jacob, Leah and the others were awesome. They were interested in hearing about my life before Forks, but never pressed for anything I wasn't comfortable talking about. Having known each other all their lives they never ran out of stories to tell about each other.

As hard as it was to believe, James rarely entered my mind; and when he did, someone was always quick to offer up some sort of distraction. By my third visit to La Push, I felt like I'd known them all my life.

Leah asked me to sleep over and I was a little surprised when Charlie said yes. We painted our toenails obnoxious colors and chatted about school and boys. I thought the story of my only real boyfriend was screwed up, but I couldn't imagine dealing with what Leah had dealt with. I had left James back in Arizona, and in spite of Charlie's nerves, I didn't really expect to ever see him again.

Leah's only serious boyfriend had been Sam. Leah and Sam had even planned on getting married once she graduated high school; or at least, that was the plan until Sam met her cousin Emily. Her own cousin! Leah said that when Sam and Emily met it was love at first sight. I couldn't believe it, and I was instantly pissed off at Sam for being such a jerk. How could she hang out with him every day? Oh my god, how could she stand seeing the two of them together? I'd seen them the night of the bonfire and the way they looked at each other… You could practically feel the love flowing between the two of them. My heart broke for my new friend as I tried to imagine how much it must've hurt her to endure that.

When I asked her about it, she just smiled a sad smile and shrugged her shoulders saying, "You can't fight fate Bella. Besides, if Emily was meant to be Sam's happiness then Sam obviously wasn't meant to be mine was he?"

I guess I couldn't really argue with her logic, but I still couldn't imagine the pain she'd endured. After learning this I started noticing little things about Leah - she still loved him, in spite of everything. I developed a whole new respect for Leah then.

I spent most of my time in La Push, and when I wasn't there Leah or Jacob was at Charlie's.

Leah and I babysat Emily's niece, Claire, on a regular basis; we'd decided to save up for a trip into Seattle to go school shopping in August. Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was almost the Fourth of July.

We all decided to head to Tacoma for the annual Freedom Fair. Jake, Leah, Paul, Embry, Quil and myself loaded into my truck and Jacob's Rabbit as we set out for our weekend. Some friend of Billy Black's had a boat that we were allowed the use of for the weekend and we had a blast. We went to Marine Park and watched the air show; and later, when the guys took off to check out the car show, Leah and I made our way to the stage to listen to the live music.

We had dinner at The Lobster Shop and then went to claim a spot to watch the fireworks from. The fireworks show was amazing; they had it all synchronized to the music on one of the local radio stations. When it wrapped up around 10:30, we were all exhausted. I barely remembered getting back to the campground where we were spending the night.

I suppose I should've anticipated something happening, but I was so caught up my every day life… so caught up in just being…

It was a week after we'd returned from Tacoma, and Leah had spent the night with me. I woke up a little after 6, and snuck out of the bedroom to take a shower. We were supposed to pick Claire up at Emily's at 9, but there was no reason to disturb Leah so early. After my shower I returned to my room, quietly settled down at my desk and powered on my laptop. I hadn't checked my email in nearly two weeks and I expected both Renee and Tiffany were probably a little upset at me.

I opened up my email and found three messages from Renee, two from Tiff and two from an address I didn't recognize. I quickly read through and responded to the emails from Renee, and then did the same to the ones from Tiffany. When I opened the first remaining email, I nearly jumped out of my skin causing me to also fall out of my chair. It was from James.

Leah heard the commotion and immediately sprang out of bed. "Bells?!" she half shouted as she spotted me on the floor. "What the fuck happened?" she exclaimed as she hurried to help me to my feet.

I couldn't speak. There were no words to describe the feelings in my head and my chest as I felt my knees give out beneath me causing me to crumple back onto the floor in a heap of soundless tears and quivering flesh. Leah stared at me expectantly, trying to understand what had brought about my reaction. The only thing I could do was point a trembling finger toward the laptop.

Leah turned her attention to the laptop still sitting on my desk, and I heard her sharp intake of breath as she saw the email from James. "Have there been others?" She demanded, without turning to look at me.

"N-no," I stuttered, "th-that's the first, b-but there's an-nother one in m-my inbox I th-think."

She printed both messages before grabbing her cell phone, yelling something about meeting me at Emily's, and slamming out the front door.

I sat in my spot on the floor for several minutes before feeling steady enough to pull myself back onto my feet. I righted my desk chair and sat back down in it. I hadn't actually read the message from James, and a part of me was desperate to know what he'd had to say; the other part of me knew there was nothing he could say that I would really want to hear. The masochistic side of me won out and I reopened the first message. The background was red, just like the paper he used for all the old notes he'd sent and left for me. It appeared to be a poem.

For Izzy-

Yearning

Burning

Never learning,

All the while

Your stomach's churning -

Heeding

Needing

Heart is bleeding,

On your soul

The demon's feeding;

Trying

Sighing

Can't stop crying,

Just accept it

You are dying.

James

I felt a shudder run through me as I read over it again. Perhaps I'd been wrong about James. Perhaps he was crazy enough to come looking for me. I wiped away the tears and opened the second email message. Much like the first the background was red, the second message also contained a poem.

Izzy…

Watching

Waiting

Knowing you're mine

Patience

Vigilance

Biding my time

Loving

Needing

Counting your breaths

Forever

Eternal

Awaiting your death

James

Another message came in as I read over the first two. My fingers were trembling as I ran them across the touch-pad to open the newest message. Again, the background was dark red; and I felt the old familiar hopelessness envelop me as I read.

Izz,

I met a girl; her name was Jennifer. She reminded me so much of you. I had to have her. She had your brown eyes and your brown hair. She was just a little thing – like you. She wasn't near as sweet as you Izzy. I thought she might be, but even after draining her I didn't have that sweet taste on my lips that I got from just kissing you. I miss kissing you so much. – I can't wait until I get to do it again. Don't worry baby, I know you'll put up a fight. But we both know I like it like that don't we? I'm coming for you Isabella and when I find you I'm not EVER going to let you out of my sight again. You will be mine for eternity. We're going to have so much fun Izzy, don't you think?

4Ever, James

PS

Wherever you go

Whatever you do

You need to know

I will ALWAYS find you.

I read over the third message three times before my tears prevented me from reading it any more. Had he completely lost his mind? Had he really killed someone? I tried to convince myself that he was only trying to scare me, and while he was doing one hell of a job, I didn't quite believe that that was all he wanted. I held my head in my hands and cried until I couldn't cry any more.

Feeling completely numb, I shut the laptop down and shuffled into the bathroom to wash my tear-stained face. As I walked down the stairs, I heard the familiar sound of Jake's Rabbit pull into the driveway. Leah was with him, and they didn't bother knocking on the door. He met me in the middle of the living room, muttering something that sounded like "rip that bloodsucking bastard to shreds," and immediately wrapped his strong arms around me. I thought I'd cried it all out before leaving my room, but found myself bawling again in Jacob's incredibly warm embrace. He patted my hair and whispered soothing words of reassurance into my ear as I fell apart in his arms.

The only thing I seemed to be able to say was "Why?" which I repeated over and over again. I'd never done anything to James to cause him to treat me this way. In fact, I'd never done anything to anyone.

Leah had gone straight up the stairs and came back down with my tote bag and an overnight bag packed. "There's three now," she directed at Jake as she stepped into the living room. She put her warm hand on my shoulder and tried to gently separate us. "Come on Bells, I called Charlie and forwarded the emails to him at work. You're gonna spend the night with me tonight."

I sniffled and gave Jacob one last squeeze before withdrawing from his comforting arms. Leah wrapped her arm around my waist and led me to Jake's car. She sat in the back seat with me, stroking my hair and whispering reassurances the entire ride back to La Push.

Jake dropped Leah off at Emily's so she could pick Claire up and took me on to the Clearwater's. When Leah arrived Jake took Claire outside to play while Leah led me up to her room and helped me into her bed.

"Just lay down for a little while Bella. I called Charlie, he's gonna stop by when he gets off work. He's gonna call your mom and see if she's heard anything from or about James lately."

"Nooo," I half groaned, half whined. "Renee will freak out," I told her.

Leah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, maybe; but it won't hurt her to freak out a little bit. She needs to know what's goin' on too Bells."

I tried to argue but she cut me off. "I'm gonna fix you some tea, it'll help you sleep for a little while. You'll feel better after you wake up." With that she spun on her heel and left the room. She returned several minutes later with a steaming mug of tea. At her insistence, I drank it and lay back on her bed. Soon after, I felt my entire body growing heavier and heavier until I couldn't even force my eyelids open. With the sounds of Leah, Jacob and Claire drifting into the room from what sounded like a thousand miles away, I gave in to the pull of sleep.

A/N2: Gonna do something I've never done before. I've seen it work well for others so I figure why not? I have a chunk of CH 8 already written, a chunk that includes the debut of two members of our favorite coven of vampires. Wonder which two it'll be? Teasers for reviews! evil grin