AN: I know, I know it's been forever. Hopefully you're all still with me lol, and hopefully you like this chapter.

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I could feel his panic and his fear, even if he was trying to pretend like he wasn't fazed. Suddenly there were two more voices in my head as Quil and Sam ran towards us.

Has he healed yet? Sam's voice sounded in my head.

No, he's still the same. Why is this happening?

I've heard about something like this before..

I turned away from Aidan, craning my neck, looking for Sam and Quil. All of a sudden Aidan's thoughts disappeared. I whipped my head back around, fearing the worst. What I saw calmed my fears, but not for long as I took in his state. Aidan had phased back into human form for the first time, his skin was practically translucent, and blood was flowing freely from the gashes in his neck.

We have to get him to the hospital, now.

"No! No hospitals." I said aloud once we had phased back. "How would we explain this?" The look on Quil's face told me that he hadn't even thought that far ahead. "No, I have to call Dr. Cullen. Bring Aidan back to my house, I'm gonna go run ahead and call Cullen."

I phased back and took off at full tilt towards my house. Minutes later I was throwing the door to my house open. My dad was sitting at the kitchen table cutting up some meat for dinner.

"Jake?" he questioned, thrown off by my abrupt arrival.

I didn't have time to answer him though, I would explain later. I breezed by him and down the hall to my room. I snatched my phone from my bed and quickly looked up Carlisle's number. He answered on the second ring.

"Hello?" He sounded surprised and a little anxious. I was probably the very last person he expected to be lighting up his caller ID.

"Carlisle? Uh, Dr. Cullen, I really need your help."

I knew he could tell from my tone that it was something serious. After I quickly and briefly brought him up to speed he promised to be over as soon as possible. I stripped my bed of the sheets and crossed the hall to get new ones as Dr. Cullen had instructed.

"Jake! What's going on?" My dad called out from down the hall, seeing my reappearance.

"Dad, I can't talk right now. Sorry," I threw over my shoulder as I stepped quickly back into my room.

I got the fresh sheets on my bed just in time as I heard my front door being thrown open. Seconds later Sam and Quil entered my room carrying Aidan between them, trying to keep him as rigid as possible. He looked even paler than he had just a few minutes ago if that was possible. Quil and Sam carefully laid him down on my bed and he drew in a shaky breath.

"Fuck!" Quil cursed, running his hand through his matted hair. "What is this? I mean what's happening? Jake?"

I glared at him, wordlessly telling him to shut up. The last thing Aidan needed was people freaking out.

"I don't know," I answered, keeping my voice and my outward appearance calm. Even if realistically I was just as freaked as Quil.

"Jake?" came Aidan's feeble voice from the bed.

I crouched down beside him. "Yeah? What do you need?"

His eyelids fluttered shut and he stayed silent. I shook him lightly and spoke to him trying to get him to stay awake. I may not know much about medicine, but I did know that it would not be good if he slipped into unconsciousness. It was time's like these - times when I just felt so overwhelmed - that I wondered if the pack would be better off under Sam's leadership again. I was a good leader, maybe even a natural leader, but I was technically still a kid, even if only for a couple more months.

Luckily it was at that moment that Carlisle swept gracefully into my room, my dad trailing behind him as fast as he could manage.

My dad took in Aidan's pallid complexion and his eyes widened in surprise and a brief flash of fear, but I couldn't be sure as it was gone in the next instant.

"What the -" My dad trailed off, not seeming to know what to say.

"He's not healing," Quil said, a little unnecessarily.

My dad was wide eyed and speechless, which, let me tell you, doesn't happen very often. Carlise knelt down next to Aidan and began checking his vitals and examining his wounds.

"He's lost a lot of blood and he may have broken a rib, but I can't be sure without an x-ray. I'm going to have to go in there and suture these cuts right away." Carlisle informed us as he began pulling instruments out of his bag.

"Do you need anything?"

"Just room, if you could all wait outside I will let you know as soon as I'm done."

We all shuffled out of my small room somberly. Quil followed reluctantly, looking a little uneasy to be leaving Aidan alone with a vampire.

I put my hand on his shoulder ushering him along. "He's a good doctor." I reminded Quil. He had been great with Seth when he had gotten injured in the fight with the Volturi. I knew we could trust him.

"What the hell is this?" I directed my question at Sam as I remembered him vaguely thinking that he had heard about something like this.

"I've heard legends about the healing gene that's activated when we phase skipping a generation. But I've never come across anyone who's even Known of someone with such a case. I always assumed it was just stories." He shook his head as if trying to dispel the idea that something like this could actually be true. "They have every other characteristic and gene that leads to their becoming a werewolf, but they somehow are missing this one key component."

I slowly digested the news Sam had just relayed and for the first time in a long time I feared for one of my pack member's lives. Skipping a generation? What the fuck does that even mean? How could one of the most important components of being a werewolf just be skipped over? It seemed like such a gross injustice, and it left me wondering just how much else I didn't know.

"How is he supposed to fight without the healing gene?" Quil asked.

"He won't," I answered, instantly coming to a decision. "He'll phase when he has to, he'll run when he has to, because he will have to - the pent up aggression would eat him alive otherwise - but he won't fight."

"But ripping bloodsuckers apart is the only satisfaction we get from this curse!" Quil said loudly, seeming to take personal offense to my decision.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Did he think I didn't know what it would be like for Aidan? All the pain and none of the glory. I could certainly relate.

"Just what would you suggest I do, Quil? Have Dr. Cullen on hand at all times to tend to him?"

"There has to be some other way." Quil insisted. Since when did he become Aidan's advocate?

"Why do you care so much?" I asked, honestly interested. "You don't even like Aidan."

"I just know what it's like to be on the outside looking in." Quil answered, not elaborating any further.

Before I could respond Carlisle emerged from my room, an unreadable expression on his face.

"I stitched up his wounds and bandaged his rib, but he really should have it x-rayed. Until I know exactly what I'm dealing with I can't be certain on the course of treatment. For right now he should just rest."

Sam, Quil and I eyed each other uncomfortably. There really wasn't any way to explain away an injury such as this. Sure, Paul was an idiot, nobody was debating that, and he would definitely be punished for this. But he never meant to do the kid permanent damage. It's like when you're a little kid and you've just suffered some great injustice at the hands of your parents, so you tell them you hate them. You don't really mean it, but you say it anyways because you know at the end of the day they'll still love you.

Carlisle seeming to interpret our silence said, "Come see me at the hospital as soon as Aidan is able and we will take care of this privately."

I walked Carlisle out the door and shook his hand firmly, fighting the natural instinct to withdraw from his icy touch. "Thank you very much, Dr. Cullen. I can't tell you how much we appreciate this."

"Of course. After what you did for our family it is the least I could do."

I nodded, embarrassed by his gratitude. We both knew that I hadn't helped in the battle with the Volturi for the benefit of him or his family. Really he was just being polite, as Bella had tried to tell me many times that most of the Cullens were. It was just hard to think of the reason we were werewolfs in the first place as anything other than monsters.

"Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything, Jacob." Carlisle offered.

I told him I would and watched, transfixed as he vanished. Even though I'd seen vampires run a million times, it always amazed me how something that looked so human could be such an undeniable predator.

I walked back into my house and ran into Quil and Sam who appeared to be on their way out.

"I guess I'll be getting back to patrols now." said Quil.

"Yeah, and I'll take over for Aidan." Sam chipped in.

I nodded gratefully; glad I wouldn't have to worry about getting someone to cover for him.

I sat down at the kitchen table and called Paul filling him in briefly. He said he would take care of the call to Aidan's father, but that he couldn't be sure if he would even have the presence of mind to care. Much to Aidan's chagrin - he tried his damnedest to hide it from us - we all now knew that his single father was an alcoholic who was rarely around. And although he was surprisingly adept at controlling what he thought about, he let it slip that his dad probably wouldn't even notice he was gone for those 5 days.

I hung up with Paul and was about to go to my room to sleep for as long as humanly possible when I remembered that Aidan was currently taking up my bed. I groaned audibly, balking at the idea of sleeping on the much too short couch.

I dialed Bella's number and she picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" she answered, sounding preoccupied.

"Hey, can I come over?"

"Of course, I was hoping you'd be here when I got home. Is everything okay?"

"Not really," I admitted. "Can I tell you about it later?"

Bella opened the door; her face buried in one of her textbooks an intense look of concentration on her face. She traced her fingers along the words as she read them and a moment later snapped her book shut.

"Sorry, just wanted to get that chapter done, but now I'm all yours." She smiled as she pulled me in for a hug, and I closed my eyes breathing in her scent. "What do you want to do?"

"Actually, I was hoping we could go up to your room." I admitted sheepishly.

She eyed me suspiciously and I laughed at the misinterpretation.

"To sleep," I clarified. "This wasn't some sort of reverse booty call." I told her with a chuckle.

"Oh, sure," Was it my imagination or did she look disappointed by that fact that it was not indeed a booty call? Oh Bella.

"God, I'm so exhausted." I groaned as my stomach hit Bella's mattress.

Bella kneeled next to me on the bed, massaging my shoulders soothingly. "You need to cut yourself some slack, you're wearing yourself thin."

She kissed my shoulders as she rubbed in a wonderfully distracting way. I rolled over on my back to face her and her hands went to work on my shoulders from the different angle. I closed my eyes, content to let her relax me into a blissful slumber.

"I love you," I mumbled, almost incoherently as I succumbed to the fatigue threatening to overtake my body.