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I stepped dead in my tracks. Surely I heard him wrong. "What did you say?" I asked him.

"Jacob imprinted on you, Bella," Sam repeated.

My brain refused to comprehend it. "That's impossible," I whispered. "I haven't even seen him since Sunday. Sam, you've got it wrong." I fidgeted. It couldn't be true. It couldn't.

"He finished his obligations with me yesterday afternoon, called home. Billy had given him a message that you urgently needed to speak with him, so he immediately left to go and see you. He was running to your place, saw you outside, and imprinted. It really freaked him out because you hadn't yet told him what you wanted. He was terrified. Imprinting is usually absolute, but it's not like Jake had never seen you before, Bella. He had, he already loved you, had told you how he felt about you, and you had rejected him, multiple times. He had no idea what he would have done at that point if you had said that you wanted to stay with Edward. He would have been utterly devastated. Exponentially more so than he would have been ordinarily."

"But-, But-," I stammered, but couldn't think of how to complete my thought. It wasn't making any sense.

"Jacob's only relief was that you hadn't seen him, so he didn't have to deal with any confrontations. He came back to me right after that, in a complete panic. He was scared to death. He didn't want to do anything to screw it up, and the feeling was so new to him, he was ultra-emotional. So he stayed in our spare room; told me to keep him in there and not let him do anything stupid. I wouldn't let him leave, or come out until this morning."

I thought back to…..God, had it really only been last night? I realized that I was exhausted- it had been a long day and a half. No wonder I wasn't able to wrap my brain around anything that was being said. But that tiny little piece of the puzzle seemed to click into place somewhere in the recesses of my mind. The phone call. Sam telling me that Jacob couldn't come to the phone just yet. THAT was why?! "But- Sam, why didn't you tell me?"

"Bella, I tried to! You hung up the phone before I could explain!"

"But…..you could have called me back. You could have let me know." I was still in denial.

"Bella, Jacob called you back this morning, as soon as he had slept on it, felt brave enough. Charlie answered the phone, and told him that you and Edward had left for 'Dartmouth'. I've never seen him so upset; he was crying by the time he got off the phone. He assumed that you had made your choice."

I looked downward, tears filling my eyes, again. The thought of Jacob being in that much pain simply broke my heart. "I had," I murmured, tears spilling over. "I had made my choice, Sam. I went to the Cullens' to be changed this morning. I thought that Jacob had moved on. I wanted to, too."

"What made you leave, Bella?"

"I found out that I was pregnant," I told him.

"How did you find out?" Sam inquired softly.

"Carlisle gave me a blood test."

Sam snorted. "It figures."

"Thank God for it, Sam. If I hadn't found out….then I would be….." I couldn't complete the sentence.

I took a few deep breaths, tried to recover. "Sam, I have a question, could Jacob have…." I still couldn't get past this, "-imprinted-" couldn't accept it, "because of what the blood test read? Because I am" this was hard to accept, too- "pregnant?"

Sam nodded in affirmative. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. When you told me just a few minutes ago, things sort of fit together. There aren't that many of us, you know, but some legends say that children can trigger the imprinting reflex. Of course it was subconscious, but if Friday was really the first time that he saw you since," he paused, searching for the right word, "well, the life that you guys made started growing, than it's quite possible that that was why he imprinted now, when he never had before."

Wow. I tried to take in the events of the last few hours. It was impossible- too much had changed. I went from being ready to scrap the rest of my human life, give it all up to become a vampire; to pregnant, carrying a brand new life of my own. And from being devastated, thinking that Jacob had moved on, forgotten all about me, to having been….imprinted on. The ultimate, uncontrollable action of devotion, security, and love. All for me, if I wanted it.

But what did I want? I still had options. There were still questions. I could still be with Edward, become a vampire, if I desired. I hadn't had very much time to bond with that new life growing inside me, if I was going to give it up, it would be easier to do it now than later. Edward had shown me the ultimate devotion as well, I thought, thinking back to his note. He still wanted me; I had no doubt, despite being pregnant with someone else's baby. How could anyone be more devoted than that?

Just then, Jacob appeared in the doorway. His gigantic stature forced him to duck underneath the doorframe to get outside. He slowly approached us. From the distance that he currently stood from me, he looked absolutely awful. He was a little paler than I remembered him, and for once, he looked thinner. His hair was ruffled; messy. His shirt torn; his jeans tattered.

As he got closer, however, I noticed a big distinction. His eyes. I remembered when I was at his place, and he had led me backwards through the house to his bedroom- I remember being almost scared by the look of intensity in his eyes. That look was nothing, nothing, compared to what I saw now. And they weren't just filled with lust, desire; they were filled with love, with certainty, with emotion, with everything that I could possibly want. At that moment, I had only one option. At that moment, all of my questions had been answered.

Without a word, Jacob swept his arms around me and picked me up, twirling me around in a couple of circles. "You came back," he whispered, amazed.

He held me so close, squeezed me so hard, that I felt like I had to say something. "Be careful, honey," I said, smiling, turning his term of endearment back around on him, "Don't crush us."

His eyes grew as wide as saucers as he released me slightly; let my feet touch the ground. "Us?" he whispered. "So what I thought I had heard just a minute ago is true? Bella, are you…." His voice cracked with emotion; he couldn't finish his sentence. All I could do was nod my head, my throat choking up a bit and my eyes getting glassy. In response, Jacob kissed me, exuding the same passion and intensity that drew me towards him in the first place.

After his lips released from mine, I had the courage, and the voice, to speak up. "You're still going to marry me, right?" I asked shyly.

He grinned. "Of course, honey," he replied. "I'm not going to screw this up. I'm so happy, I'm lucky to have the opportunity to have everything that I've ever wanted," he chuckled huskily; gently rubbed my belly, "and sooner than I could ever have hoped."

A/N: One chapter left! Will probably post tomorrow :)