Chapter Two

Jacob

I groaned inwardly as I walked into my kitchen, spotting Paul's thick fingerprints all over the crisps, energy bar wrappers on the floor. Seriously. I'd come in for a bite to eat and all I get is a couple of crappy chip crumbs, and half an energy bar (which it looked like Paul had started, and then chosen, for whatever reason, not to finish). Jesus Crist...I thought, picking up the rubbish and chucking it into the over-full, rotten-smelling bin.

I opened the fridge door and scavenged its contents for something to eat. Leftover chinese takaways, cold, chewed pizza and milk, that was about all the food in this entire household. Billy better be going to the store... I couldn't for the life of me remember where he'd gone out to. All I'd heard as he slammed the door was "I'm heading of to blah blahs, make sure you blah, blah...blah..."

So maybe he wasn't going out to the shop. Who cares. I could just go out to hunt. I wasn't that hungry. Jeez.

I walked into the living room, where Paul was living, or more accuratly potatoing in true Paul style - sweating like a pig and flipping channels with a bored, uninterested expression.

"Jake, bro!" He said as I walked in, throwing up his arms enthusiastically.

"Uh...sup..." I said blandly, choosing a bean bag that was as far away from Paul as was physically possible in the small space. Paul changed the channel to some sort of hospital drama where the lead actor and actress were having a "moment" performing surgery. TV actors always seemed fake to me, the emotions in their eyes nothing compared to what I felt, and what my pack felt, about our imprintees. I rolled my eyes at their cheesyness. Paul loved it though. I actually caught him crying once during his favourite soap opera.

Paul and I sat in silence, neither of us really watching anything, for several minutes, before Paul cleared his throat in an uncharactiristically nervous way. I ignored him and picked at a half-healed scab on my wrist, making the skin peal off. He repeated this three more times, once with a cough until my temper got the better of me and my eyes snapped to him.

"Jesus, Paul die quietly!" I ordered, kicking him with my bare foot. He neatly dodged the kick by moving and turned his face away from mine. I might have imagined it, but his ears seemed a little redder than normal.

"I wanted to...ask you something. Bro to bro. You know?" I ignored his unintentional rhyme, knowing Paul would never say something funny on purpose, and stared at him.

"Spit it out then!" I said angrily, heeling him in the shins. This time he allowed the hit to take place and I savored in a victory over him, no matter how small.

"Well...its just that...you know how Billy said he was going out tonight..." Ahhhh! So thats what he said! " I was thinking of inviting your sister around..."

"No. Hell. No. HELL NO!" I jumped up off my seat and was on my feet before he could move an inch. "Oh God no..." I said, pressing my fists to my temple. "No...no..." Horrible visions snuck up on me, flashbacks from Paul's own memories I'd shared while we were hunting. My sister...Paul...a big, long bed...my bed...

"Calm down." Paul said, his eyes widening. I never thought I'd live to see the say where Paul told me to calm down. I would have laughed if I wasn't so agitated.

"No. No. No!" The world was turning red. Spots of black inturupted my vision and I was shaking uncontrolably.

"Its just one night!" Paul begged, making me feel like a parent mentoring a whiny teenager.

"For Gods' sake Paul! No! What do you expect me to say? Yes? So you can go and sleep with my sister while I'm in the next room?"

Paul was silent for a second. "Well, actually I was hoping you'd give us the place to ourselves..."

"What do you think this place is? A hotel! A place with food you can eat and beds to sleep and have...you-know...on! Its Billy and my HOUSE! Our HOUSE Paul. Where we live! Which we PAY for! Which we help RUN!"

Paul jumped up off the couch, hitting the volume button by accident as he did so. Screamo rock music blared out of the TV's speakers.

"Your just jealous because you can't sleep with your own girlfriend and you won't let me sleep with mine!" He hissed viciously.

Oh, that was it. That was the line. And he crossed it. No way. He more than crossed it. He fricking jumped over it and did cartwheels, he went that far. "Thats it. Get out. Get the hell out of my house!"

Paul stuttered, turned, glanced one last time at me, and then stormed out of the house. The door slammed with a ringing sound, it seemed like it created enough force to shake the whole house. I was trembling from head to toe so hard that I couldn't tell which way was up. I tried to calm myself my taking deep breaths...deep...long...breaths...thinking about Renesmee, and nothing to do with Paul...nothing at all.

Brrrrriiiiiinnnngggggg!

I thought of her chocolate eyes, her smile, her smooth skin, her wavy hair, her -

Brrrrriiiiiinnnngggggg!

Jesus Crist, it was the frickin doorbell. Perfect. Paul had come back for something else, found some other way to annoy the crap out of me.

I walked to the door in two long strides and pulled it open, murder in my eyes.

It was Edward.

Can I just pause, and take the time to re-enforce how much I love life? And how much it loves me? We have a great relationship, me and life. We go way back. We just adore each other, always slotting in perfectly with each other, like missing peices of a puzzle. I love life! Such great joys! Such impecable timing! Oh, how I love your timing, life!

"Sorry if this is a bad time, Jacob."

I tried to calm my expression. "No, not at all!" My voice sounded unnaturally sweet.

"Good." Edward said briskly. "I need to talk to you about my daughter."

Oh dear Lord, this was not happening to me.

"May I come in?" Always perfectly polite. Such good manners. Ugh.

I stepped to the side to allow the vampire into my home. His nose shrivvled as he walked through the threshhold, but a second later his face was as still as marble.

"Uh...sit down if you want." I said, offering Edward a seat in the living room.

"Thank you." He said graciously, sitting on the couch Paul had just vacated. I chose the beanbag again.

"Can I offer you something?" I said, before remembering I had nothing to offer.

"Uh, no." Edward said, smiling with amusement. I forgot. The bloodsucker didn't drink tea.

"Right." I said, twisting my fingers together. I left the space open for him to start the conversation, to "talk to me" about his daughter.

Edward cleared his throat. "Renesmee, as you know, is about sixteen in human years." He inclined his head to me and I knodded. I knew that. I wasn't a complete idiot. "It has come to her mother and my attention that she has started to have...certain...urges towards you." I smirked, amused that Edward could make sexual tension seem like a disease. "Therefore, we have decided to...withdraw the urge."

It took me a second to grasp what Edward was saying. "You're taking her away from me?"

"Just momentarilly." Edward said, brushing his hair off his face.

"What?" I said. It would have been better if he plunged a knife into my chest.

"Renesmee is young!" He said feircly. "She will have time to love, to learn about love...just not now! We don't want her rushing into something at such a tender age."

"You're kidding!" I said, jumping up off my beanbag for the second time that day. "You don't want me to see her?"

"Just for a while, Jacob, while she grows up a little."

"No. No!" I said, my voice jumping a couple of octaves in denial.

"Jacob, please listen -"

"No! You listen. I'd never do anything like that to Renesmee. I'd give her everything she wants and more, but I'd never ever do that to her. She is young, yes. She is..."feeling the urge", yes. But that doesn't mean I'll do anything with her! I don't want to make any mistakes with her! She deserves more than that! I am not even thinking about...doing that with her yet! And taking her away isn't going to solve the problem. She'll be miserable and you know it. But keep her here! Please! I promise I won't try anything."

I hated to grovel and beg to this stupid bloodsucker, but he left me with no choice. He couldn't take away my Nessie.

Edward stopped and had one of his unnaturally still moments, where it seemed like he wasn't even breathing. Then his eyes met mine, hard and cold. "You sware? On your life?"

I sighed, knowing he could hear my thoughts anyway, resigned as they were. "Yes." I said, my voice breaking.

"Good." Edward said, standing up. He held out his rock hard hand for me to shake.

I hesitated before getting up. I didn't want to make a promise without conditions. "I sware on my life that I will not have sex with Renesmee...until we are married." I said with conviction.

Now it was Edward's turn to hesitate. His open hand closed into a fist, and his eyes darkened. Then he let out a whoosh of air and then his fingers curled outwards.

"I agree."

I stuck out my hand, russet and pale meeting each other in the centre, in agreement. Then we shook on it, sealing my fate.