Author's Note: So, I screwed up. In the last chapter I dressed Edward up in a pair of scrubs, but when I went on to a UCLA Medical Center website, I learned that doctor's there are only allowed to wear scrubs during surgery and never outside the hospital. Oops. For consistency, he's still wearing them in this one, but I'll try to keep it in mind from now on.

Stephenie Meyer: Of course you came up with all the characters, I'm the uncreative one who can't even think of something clever for this disclaimer line.

Bella:
News from Home

Sound came back to me first. There was only darkness, but there were voices.

"Look, cocksucker, I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but if you tell me to relax one more time because 'she always passes out,' I will take you outside and beat your ass!" Emmett.

That made me want to laugh, but I couldn't. Touch came next. I was laying suspended in air, swaying slightly, but no one was carrying me. Someone's warm, clammy fingers were pressed under the jawline on my neck.

"Calm down, Em! She'll come around." Jasper.

I felt my head being lifted and when the fingers hit a sore spot, I wanted to wince, but I still couldn't move. It was like I was stuck in a dream, a weird dream. C'mon, Bella, wake up!

"And how the fuck are you so calm right now, Jazz? That's our girl lying there!"

"What do you guys like share her? Like some sort of polygamy thing?" I heard a soft noise near me, almost like a growl mixed with a groan. But I couldn't dwell on that now, because that last voice, the one that sounded amused, had reminded me of someone. Who is that? Think, Bella.

"I fucking swear, asshole, you do not want to test me right now!"

Then I remembered.... "Seth?" My eyes popped open, but instead of seeing Seth's dark brown eyes, I was staring into the palest green eyes I had ever seen. "Pretty," I breathed, softly, and the owner of the eyes smiled before he reset his face to indifference so quickly I didn't even have time to blush.

Emmett fell to his knees by my head and our heads were the same height. I must have been on his hammock in the storage room. I felt his hands brush the sides of my face, effectively tearing my gaze away from the doctor in scrubs who had been hot and cold with me since the minute he had sat in his booth and unknowingly insulted my book. "Fuck, Bella! You scared the shit out of me! I tried to catch you but you were already—"

"Don't worry about it, Em." I reached to squeeze one of his hands in reassurance. I really was fine, I just stopped breathing. Like an idiot. "Would you do me a favor and go handle the dining room right now?"

"I'll go," Jasper volunteered. I guess that was for the best, Emmett was in no state to deal with people, especially considering he probably didn't believe I was 100%, yet.

"Thanks, Jasper."

"Nothing to it, doll face." He made his way out of the room but gripped the door frame before turning back. "You sure you're okay?"

I gave him a small smile. "Yeah."

He took a few steps back into the room and Emmett moved from his spot at my side to let Jasper kiss me on the forehead and whisper, "Good." Then, nodding to Emmett, who crowded next to me again, this time on his feet, he left the room. I turned away from Em's now eye-level crotch and met the doctor's cool eyes, again. His stare was attentive and its intensity was starting to make me uneasy. I squirmed, involuntarily. He thought that I was trying to sit up and gently cupped my shoulders. The heat from his hands soaked through my flannel shirt.

"Don't move. We should probably get you to the hospital to see if you have a concussion. You have a fairly large lump on the back of your head."

I tried to shake my head but it just ended up sliding around on my hair, which was trapped between my skull and the hammock's crocheted hemp. The jerky movement caused my entire body to swing. Closer to his eyes, farther from his eyes, until he wrapped his fingers in the weave to stop the momentum. I must have looked ridiculous, so I tried my best to sound assertive as I stressed, "No. No hospitals."

The doctor shook his head and narrowed his eyes in frustration. "Carlisle, do you have your penlight?" I looked to the right side of the room, behind the doctor, for the first time. Carlisle must have been the name of the beautiful blond that I wanted to set up with Esme. He handed the still unnamed doctor a slim, black cylinder and I wondered if they were both doctors. Behind Carlisle, deeper in the room, was Seth. He winked at me when he caught my eye and I smiled back before the light shining in my eye caused me to wince. "Just follow the light, Bella."

So I did. Side to side, up and down. Other eye. Side to side, up and down. Easy. "Can I get up now?"

He didn't answer, he just put a warm hand under my back and helped me to sit up cross-legged, while Emmett pushed a few of his pillows behind my back to keep me upright. "Are you dizzy? Nauseas?" I shook my head. "Do you have a headache?"

I took the opportunity to stare into his face while he asked me questions. "Not really, it just feels sore in the back."

He nodded in understanding. "Do you know what today is?" It's only polite to maintain eye contact, right? He sure is pretty.

"Thursday the 2nd."

"Do you remember what happened before you collapsed?"

I nodded but didn't elaborate and he stared at me, expectantly. Shit. "Well...Emmett came in here to tell me that someone had come in looking for me." Before he could ask me for more specifics and I had to explain that the thought of seeing my ex had caused my brain to shut down in pure panic, I looked up at Seth, who was still standing on the outskirts. "Hey, Seth."

He smiled his familiar smile and it made my heart hurt. "Hey, Bells." Then he smugly looked over at Emmett.

"She seems fine, Carlisle," the doctor said, still looking at me. He let out a sigh and didn't shift the direction of his body as he handed the flashlight over his shoulder to the blond man.

"She does," he agreed, before turning to speak to me, directly. "Just make sure you get to the hospital if you start to feel nauseas, have vision problems, trouble concentrating, lack of motor coordination..."

The guys laughed at that and I blushed. "She's clumsy," Seth explained to Carlisle and the doctor while smiling down at me. The doctor, who had been kneeling beside me the whole time, finally stood and offered me his hand. But Emmett, a step ahead of him, was already dipping the hammock towards himself and helping me onto my feet.

As soon as I was upright, I crossed the room to Seth, who promptly picked me up and crushed me to him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and, crossing my ankles, tucked my feet behind me, just like I always used to do when one of the guys picked me up to hug me. Jake used to hate it because he said it looked romantic. He got over it when I had pointed out that he was the only guy I ever wrapped my legs around. "I missed you, Seth."

"I missed you, too, Honeybells." I giggled at the old nickname. "Sorry I freaked you out." I just nodded into his neck. He finally set me down again and we beamed at each other.

"We should..." Carlisle pointed to the door. I had forgotten everyone was still there. Emmett was still regarding Seth warily. The doctor looked pissed. Ah, another mood swing.

"Oh, of course." I grabbed Seth's hand and led the way out to the dining room.

He tugged on one of my jean's belt loops as we walked through the kitchen. "Embry's?"

I smiled up at him, surprised. "How'd you know?"

He shrugged. "You always had to cuff his the most."

I pushed the kitchen doors open and was glad to see that no new parties had come in while I had been making a scene in the back. There were still two groups on the left side of the room but the table of girls had left. I tried not to look at the customers, knowing that I had completely embarrassed myself in front of them. "Thank you for everything," I told the doctor.

"It was nothing," he said curtly over his shoulder as he went to pick up his bag from the booth they had been sitting in.

"I never got a chance to finish paying our tab," Carlisle said, looking towards the cash register at the end of the counter.

"Please. It's on me. I insist. In fact..." I grabbed two pieces of paper of the ordering pad and wrote:

Esme, Rose, Kate, & Garrett—

This is one of the two men who was nice enough to help me when I passed out in the kitchen. Give them whatever they'd like, on the house.

—Bella

I handed one to Carlisle who read it quickly and thanked me. "Thank you for not billing my insurance." He chuckled. "You should come by for breakfast, next time." And meet Esme, I added in my head. The other doctor was standing next to Carlisle by then and I handed him his note. "Or lunch. The day cooks are much better than I am." He nodded and stuffed the note into his bag without looking at it before turning to Carlisle and asking him if he was ready to go. After a few quick goodbyes, they were walking out of the diner.

I turned all my attention to Seth, who had been leaning up against the counter watching me the whole time. "What do you say we try those introductions again?" He grinned.

Without having to look, I knew Jasper and Emmett were behind me. "Seth Clearwater..." I spun around. "...Jasper Whitlock and Emmett McCarty. Jasper and Emmett, this is Seth, my friend from back home." After some manly, death-grip handshakes, Emmett went off to the jukebox and Jasper sat down again in front of his work. "You're sticking around for a bit, right, Jasper?"

"Sure thing, doll face. I'm fairly well-rested from this afternoon," he added with a wink.

I smirked and turned on my heel so that Seth wouldn't see the blush on my face. "C'mon, Seth." He followed me into the kitchen and sat down on one of the stools around the large island. "So, what am I making for you?"

"Fish fry."

I laughed at the speed of his answer. "Sorry, forgot to go fishing this morning. How does breakfast sound?"

"Mmm. Bella's Special Breakfast! Did you put it on the menu?"

"Are you kidding? The only person I know other than one of you boys who can finish it is Emmett."

The summer before my senior year of high school, my father got it in his head that after a decade of disuse, he was going to clean out the garage. I have my suspicions, though, that he only decided this when he saw the untapped potential of my new boyfriend and his two best friends. So, one cloudy but dry Saturday, we threw away rain-warped box after rain-warped box of crap. Some stuff had been my grandmother's and Charlie couldn't part with, so it got repackaged in a clean storage box that would undoubtedly become rain-warped within a season. Hidden in the back, though, the boys had sniffed out Charlie's old weight set from when he had just joined the force. Ten minutes later, the guys had accepted it as payment and loaded it onto the back of my truck so it could be delivered to Jake's garage.

Working out on the bench became somewhat of an obsession between the three guys, especially for Quil, and Jake routinely had to kick him out so that we could retain our make-out spot. By the end of the summer, when Jake, Quil, and Embry had become noticeably muscular, word of the weight bench had spread and every male adolescent in La Push wanted to work out on it. Over the next few months, Jake's garage became a local teenage hang-out. Guys went to work out or help Jake with the vehicles he always seemed to have in there or just to hang out. Girls came because their boyfriends did or because there was bound to be a good-looking guy with his shirt off.

After a while, all of the less dedicated guys stopped showing up and there got to be a small group of "regulars": Jake and I, Quil, Embry, Sam and Leah, Jared and Kim, Paul and Rachel, and Seth. Rachel, Jake's sister, was the oldest of all of us and she was robbing the cradle by dating Paul. She wasn't around much that first year because she was finishing up her degree at UDub. She was two years older than Sam and Leah, though Leah was in a grade below Sam. He had been taking the year off to work so that they could go off to school together. Leah, Jared, Kim, and I were seniors; Jake, Quil, Embry, and Paul were juniors; and Seth, Leah's brother and the baby of the group, was a freshman.

Even though they each used the machine throughout the week, Sunday mornings became the time that they all worked out together. After a while, I took on the responsibility of feeding the guys and their girlfriends Sunday brunch. Thus, Bella's Special Breakfast was created: four eggs, three pancakes, four sausage links, four bacon strips, hash browns, and toast. As we grew up and moved away for school, beer replaced soda in the cooler, but our Sunday morning tradition lived on.

"So...," Seth said with a lop-sided grin as I poured his pancakes, "Forks, Knives, & Spoons?"

I smiled, sheepishly. "Shut up, Seth. I like my little inside joke." I didn't tell him that I also got a twisted pleasure out of saying "Welcome to Forks" when people came in.

"And do they know?" He cocked his head towards the kitchen door. I assumed he was referring to Emmett and Jasper.

"They don't know anything," hoping he understood that I was referring to everything in my past, "and I'd like to keep it that way." He bit his lip and raised his eyebrows, but slowly nodded.

I poured him some orange juice as I waited for the sausage to finish. "How are your mom and Charlie?"

He rolled his eyes. "Pssh, don't ask me. That's what telephones are for, Bells." He was right. It had been months since I'd talked to my dad.

"How's...everyone?" I asked, carefully, as I piled everything onto three plates and put them in front of Seth along with butter, syrup, jam, and ketchup.

"Mmm. Thanks, Bells." He poured syrup on his pancakes, took a bite, and started talking through his food. "Everyone's good. Sam and Leah have a two year-old girl named Natalie and Leah's pregnant with a boy that they're going to name Harry."

"Harry. They're naming him after your dad?" I smiled, despite feeling kicked in the gut that I didn't even know they had had a daughter.

"Yup. Mom cried when they told her. Kim's pregnant, too, but this is their first." He shoveled hash browns into his mouth.

"Are they married?" I would be shocked if she and Jared hadn't gotten married after all this time, especially if they were expecting a baby.

"Uh huh. They've been married for about a year?" He asked himself, thinking back. Probably remembering the wedding. I'm sure my invitation got lost in the mail.

"And Paul and Rachel?" I was trying to change the subject. "Still fucking and fighting?" The term was entirely too accurate. When they weren't groping each other publicly, which had gotten Paul's ass kicked by Jacob on more than one occasion, they were fighting about everything. They once "broke-up" after arguing about the best way to get ketchup out of a bottle. They "got back together" on the beach later that night.

He took a huge bite of eggs, snorting as he nodded. "Yeah." That's nice. It's good to know some things haven't changed.

"What about the kids from Forks?"

"Well, Mike took over the store, you knew that, though, right?" I nodded. He had gone to community college for his AA, but took over as assistant store manager to work for his parents right after.

"Jessica partied too much at school and after five years and no degree, her parents made her come back home."

"Really?" That was pretty big gossip. Too bad for Jessica. She had been in some of my more advanced math classes in high school, so I knew she could have handled the work if she had tried.

"Yeah. She worked a lot of odd jobs for a while and then, a couple of years ago, her mom got her a job at the bank." Wow. Had everyone turned into their parents? I shouldn't judge. Maybe I had done the same thing, I had just turned into Renée.

"Ben works from home—"

"Yeah, I still keep in touch with Angela. He's a computer programmer, right? She says he has to go into Seattle and Northern California every once in a while, but for the most part he's home. I know that she didn't want to leave town when her brothers while still there. She's some sort of office manager."

"Yeah, she's the office manager at Alimony." And then his eyes got really big, like he realized he had just screwed up, and he began devouring what was left of his pancakes with vigor.

"What's Ali..." And then it hit me. "That's what he called his shop? Are you kidding me?"

He swallowed quickly. "Calm down, Bells, it's just—"

But he was cut off by Jasper coming through the swinging doors, walking a few feet into the room. "Everything all right in here?" He directed the question at Seth but it was more of a warning than anything else.

"Sorry, Jasper. I shouldn't have raised my voice. Everything's fine." My voice came out cracking and soft.

He didn't look convinced and he didn't move. "Just so you know, Belle, we just got two tables."

I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes and nodded to let him know I'd heard him. "Just do me a favor and don't let Em give me the order, okay?" I wasn't in the mood for diner speak right now.

Jasper walked over to me and put his hands on my waist, leaning down, he whispered, "Can I talk to you real quick?"

I took my hands out of my face and nodded up at him. "I'll be right back, Seth."

Taking my hand, Jasper led us into the office. There wasn't much in here, a filing cabinet stuffed with old supply invoices and tax forms, a desk with a computer on it so that my laptop wasn't bogged down with diner stuff, a computer chair behind the desk, and a loveseat across from it. We sat on the couch. "I'm really okay, Jasper. I'm just..." I struggled to find the right word. Sad? Lonely? Feeling abandoned? "Homesick, I guess." And then I leaned into the one-arm embrace he had me in and cried softly into the crook of his shoulder. When he tried to soothe me by running his fingers through my hair, my sobs became louder. "I c-can't go back...and every-everybody's moo-oved on...and...and I'm missing it!"

A few seconds later there was a knock on the other side of the door and a small, "Bells?"

Jasper stiffened and held me closer. I put a hand on his chest and shook my head as I pulled back to talk to him. "It's really not his fault." I wiped the tears from my face and said, "It's open, Seth."

He stuck his head in, looking guilty as hell. "I'm sorry, Bells, I wasn't thinking. It's just a stupid joke Leah made up and it kinda stuck."

Leah had made it up? That hurt. We were always the closest of the girlfriends. I was in her wedding for Christ's sake. I just wiped away the new tears and put on a smile. "It's okay, Seth. I get it." From the kitchen, I could hear Emmett calling out for us. I slapped my thighs before standing up. "Order's in." I ran my fingers through the still-sitting Jasper's hair with a smile, letting him know that I was okay, and gave Seth a hug as I passed him in the door frame. "C'mon, Seth. You can watch me work."

As I cooked, I asked him how his life was going, feeling extremely guilty that I hadn't started there. He told me about earning his degree in accounting from Washington State and I good-naturedly ripped on his school for calling UDub their biggest rival when UDub's biggest rival is Oregon. We talked about the distance between the campus and La Push and he told me about the general differences between the Olympic Peninsula and Eastern Washington. Then we swapped general college stories, getting drunk at parties, dealing with roommates, and pulling all-nighters.

"So, why'd you go into accounting?" The last time I had talked to him, he was still undeclared.

"I wanted a career that would let me provide a service when I moved back home. Everybody's got to do taxes, right? I bet half the businesses in La Push and Forks, and even Port Angeles and Sequim are paying too much just because they do their own and don't know the loopholes." I smiled as he spoke because he sounded just like Jake.

Jacob never thought he was smart enough to be a doctor or a lawyer and give back to the town that way, but if he could open a shop and save a family some money because they didn't have to take their car to Dowling's and get ripped off, he figured it was a win-win situation. He got to work on cars like he loved and help someone out at the same time.

Seth kept on talking, "Plus, if I ever decide to move to Seattle or Tacoma or even Spokane, I'll be able to work there just as easily."

That, however, sounded nothing like Jake. Ephraim Black, Jacob's great-grandfather, had been the last chief of the small Quileute tribe. His grandson, Jacob's dad, Billy, is now one of the tribe elders. There are other elders, like Seth's mom, Sue, and Quil's grandfather, Old Quil, but they all generally defer to Billy as the man who should be chief. When Billy dies, Jake will take his place on the council, and he will become the unofficial leader.

It's not his responsibility to be a leader of his people that will stop Jake from ever leaving, though. It's the land itself. He loves wandering for hours in the woods, knowing that, if he gets lost, he can follow the scents and sounds of the ocean and find his way out. He jogs down the beaches every morning in the fog and tries to watch the sunset from their shores every night. When he was a kid, he carved his name on one of the beached tree trunks, knowing it would always be there, and he scratches it a little deeper every year on his birthday, just in case. A part of him wishes that he could still become chief, but only because he wants to be buried with all the others on top of James Island. Whoever loves Jake does so knowing that he will never love anything or anyone as much as he loves La Push.

Seth was yawning as I came back in the kitchen from delivering a couple of the typical hamburger and fries dinner meals out to Emmett. "Tired?"

He nodded while yawning, again. "I've been on the road all day. Started out from Portland around eight in the morning."

"You've been driving all day?"

He pulled out a set of keys from his front jean pocket and dangled them from his finger. I instantly recognized the Harley-Davidson key chain, having bought it for Jake in my first year of college. I was surprised it had survived the break up. "Riding, actually. Jake lent me his bike." His head shot up as he realized it was the first time he had said his name to me, and searched my face for a reaction. I admit, I flinched when I heard it, but I say it so many times a day in my own head that hearing it out loud isn't that upsetting. Of course, it's upsetting to realize that I think about him that much.

I just went on like nothing had happened. "Where are you staying?"

He grinned winningly at me. "Your couch."

I couldn't help but smile back. "How about my guest room?" I suggested, dryly.

"Even better, Bells."

I walked him out to the front and explained my schedule for the next few days while Jasper wrote down the directions to my place. I told him that I'd be working on the 4th of July because we always get a slew of customers in the evenings every holiday and I felt bad because I knew he'd be missing the huge blow-outs up in La Push. I asked him, as I walked him outside, why he chose to come down to LA now.

"I didn't really plan it or anything. I literally walked out after finishing my CPA test, borrowed the bike, and hit the road while I still could. I'm heading east after this, probably to Arizona to see the Grand Canyon...maybe Vegas." He wiggled his eyebrows at me. I laughed.

We said our goodbyes and I headed back in to my "date" with Emmett. Every Thursday, Emmett works overnight with me, from 11pm to 7am instead of his usual early-morning 2am to 10am shift. He's taken to calling them "dates" because he only works with me, unlike all the other days when he works a few hours with Esme. Em, the sweet man that he is, usually plans things for our time together. Sometimes he'll bring in a movie that we can watch together during the down times, sometimes it's a board game, and once he even brought pornographic Jell-O molds. He did it just to make me blush, of course, but black cherry Jell-O tastes great no matter what form it's in. A few hours later, when every appliance's handles and knobs had been decorated with a lanyard, Jasper called it a night. Thankfully, his Texas residency helped secure him graduate school housing on campus, so he never has to walk very far to get home. He told me once that he used to have a bike when he was in the Army, but he sold it before coming out to California.

When Esme came in early to relieve me, I took her up on her offer for once so that I could get back to my place in time to make Seth a good breakfast before he went sight-seeing. Though she was surprised, I left without explaining myself, knowing that Emmett would make sure the story was told, complete with exaggerations and a reenactment of my fainting spell, I'm sure.

Traffic was hellish going home and as I merged onto the bumper-to-bumper freeway, I sighed and leaned back against the headrest on my seat, only to be met by a dull throb in the exact location of the new bump adorning my skull. The pain brought the memories of the past 24 hours rushing back to me.

I had slept with Jasper, again. I knew we really needed to stop doing that, but I also knew that we wouldn't. I wasn't sure why I was even comfortable having sex with a man who I wasn't in a relationship with. When I was with Jacob, it had taken us a while before we had made that leap. We lost our virginities during Spring Break of my senior year and I wondered sometimes if we wouldn't have waited if there hadn't been the impending doom of my graduation and a separation in the fall when I moved away to school hanging over our heads. Not that I was complaining. We loved each other. Plus, it was a damn fun summer. Still, I don't think I could have given myself to Jake if I hadn't trusted and loved him as completely as I had. Maybe, though, that was only because I was an inexperienced teenager. Though I may trust Jasper, I don't love him like I loved Jake. I wonder if being in a friends-with-benefits relationship makes me a slut. Or is this just what people resort to when their forevers are taken away?

Seeing Seth today only made the aching to see Jake worse. Though they look nothing alike, they have the same smile. Open, warm, caring. Quil and Embry will always be Jake's best friends, but the relationship between him and Seth is almost brotherly. Part of that, I'm sure, has to do with the fact that Seth lost his dad as a freshman in high school and Jake took it upon himself to make sure Seth was coping. Seth looks up to Jacob, so it didn't surprise me when he gave his "giving back" speech earlier. Seth was in a bad position after Jake and I originally split up. Jake might be the closest thing he has to an older brother, but I'm practically his step-sister. In fact, the last I heard, my dad and his mom were living together. He was always good about spending time with both of us, though, and when I told him that I never felt betrayed by his loyalty to Jake, he told me that Jake had told him the same thing. Jake and I really did try to keep the peace after our break-up. I think there was too much love between us to not share a smile when we ran into each other, even though it hurt, or to try and tear our friends apart when we had spent years as the glue holding them together. The love that remained was the reason I had once thought we'd end up together again someday.

Thoughts of Jake, La Push, and Forks kept bumping around in my head for the rest of the drive home and they didn't stop as I cooked breakfast and made small talk with Seth and got ready for bed. So, I was surprised that what flashed in my mind right before I fell asleep was a perfect likeness of a pair of pale green eyes and the realization that I still didn't know the name of the man behind them.

I didn't see much of Seth over the next few days, except when we passed each other in the mornings and when he came by the diner each night to visit. He spent the Fourth of July by himself at the beach near the diner and came by a few hours after dark for a late dinner. Although he had been a shy preteen, the confidence that he gained along with his muscles and the reputation he had gotten by hanging out with older kids had him beating the girls off when he was a teenager. I doubt that that had stopped when he went away to college. He and Quil were the two womanizers of the group, though their techniques and taste in women couldn't have been more different. Quil would set his eyes on the prettiest girl in the room and worked the whole night trying to impress her into his pants. Seth made friends with everyone, charming the whole room until he had a gaggle of girls vying for his attention. Jake and Seth's personalities were so similar that I knew it would have been just as easy for him to pick up girls if he were single. That thought used to make my ego swell when I was younger. I used to think, he could have anyone and he picked me. Now it just made me nauseas.

When Seth told me he'd be alone at the beach all day, I knew it wouldn't take long until he would be invited to every party up and down the surf, so I wasn't surprised when he came in for dinner with a girl on his arm who was wearing a barely-there dress over what I'm sure was a skimpy bikini. Her name was Kristy, "with a 'K'" Seth was eager to inform me with a wink, and even I had to admit that she couldn't have been the ditsiest girl at the beach. Then again, Seth had always been better than Quil at taking both a girl's body and brain into account before taking them home. I just wished that his home wasn't my guest room. They left after he proved his manliness to her by eating one of my special breakfasts, saying that he needed the carbs for all the drinking he was going to be doing at the party in the Valley they were heading off to. I had to laugh because I was sure he didn't even know where the Valley was. I kissed Seth on the cheek, made him promise not to drink and drive, confirmed our sight-seeing plans for the next day, and then they were off.

The next night I treated Seth to dinner at a sushi bar in Old Town Pasadena. He had told me he used to eat it all the time when he was off at school but hadn't since he had been at home, as getting any near La Push meant taking the ferry from Port Angeles into British Columbia. As we drank our Asahi beers, he asked about my life in LA. I told him about my house, the traffic, and how well the diner was doing. He offered to do my taxes next quarter.

Then, very unsubtly, he mentioned with a wink how close Jasper and I seem to be. I sighed and took a long drag from my beer's neck, before setting it down on the bar and turning towards Seth. "If I'm honest with you, it stays between us." His eyes widened in anticipation and he nodded. I sighed. "Jasper and I are..." How could I say it in the least crude way possible?

"Fuck buddies." He supplied for me, casually, and my mouth fell open. "It's pretty obvious, Bells." Shit. If he knows, does everyone else in the diner know? "I mean, I've seen you be friends with guys for years and you act normal with Emmett, so I know there's nothing there. But you and Jasper just touch a little too much, even though it's obvious you're trying to hide it from everyone. You don't look at him the way you used to look at Jake, though, so I know it's not love." He shrugged and then murmured, "That's all Lizzie is."

I gasped in response to hearing her name, and my eyes widened when the implications of what he said caught up to me. "What did you say?"

He rolled his eyes, "Oh, c'mon, Bells. Did you really think he could move on that easily?" Yes, of course, I did. I had seen just how easily he had moved on. "He purposefully picked someone that he could "be with" and not have to actually be with. I mean, the girl lives in Seattle. They see each other once or twice a month, if that."

This was dangerous territory. I desperately wanted to know more, especially now that I knew it may not be so bad to hear it. "Seattle?"

He nodded, taking a drink from his own beer. "That's where they met, at the auto show he always goes to with Embry. She's actually pretty into cars." That was a stab to the heart. Jake had tried to take me to that car show every year and I had only ever went once, the first year I had gone away to school. Six hours of boredom and two blistered feet later, I had decided that it wasn't worth the cost of my ticket and had never gone again. For the next three years, I would only look forward to the annual car show because I knew that it was a weekend he'd be spending with me in my apartment. After we split, I regretted not going with him. It would have meant precious more hours with my love while I had him. I regretted a lot of little things like that in the beginning. Meeting Lizzie there only rubbed the cruel irony of the situation in my face even more.

"Her dad is some big shot at Paccar across the lake in Bellevue, so she grew up around engines. They make big rigs," he added in response to my confused face. Great. She's rich. Not that Jake isn't, I guess. "She works for them, too. I don't really know what she does there, though. Anyway, she's always working so she wants Jake to drive out to Seattle for her, but he never does. They don't see each other often and it doesn't seem like he minds very much."

I tried to keep my elation to a minimum, reminding myself that even if he didn't really want to be with her, he's already told me that he definitely doesn't want to be with me. "But they've been together for over a year, right? There has to be more to it than just that. Maybe you just don't know the whole story."

"Maybe," he shrugged. "But it's like you and Jasper, I can just tell. He doesn't love her. And if after a year he doesn't, I doubt that's going to change."

I couldn't help it. Emboldened by the idea that my ex's relationship was just as shitty as I had hoped it was and the beer I've been chugging, I asked the one question that I promised myself I wouldn't. "How is he, Seth?" And because the cat was out of the bag, I just kept going. I wanted to know. I wanted to know everything. "I just...I miss him so much it hurts and I just need to know that he's okay. That he's happy. I mean, he's got his shop, right? He's happy, right?"

Seth slowly shook his head and ran his fingers through his short, black hair as he laughed without humor. "Why do I have a feeling I'm in for the same conversation with him when I get home?" It seemed like a rhetorical question directed at himself, so I didn't answer. He finally leveled his gaze at me and searched my face as he asked, "Are you sure you want to do this, Bells?"

I nodded instantly, without hesitation. Once it was obvious he was going to open up, I started looking around for the waitress, because I was pretty sure that I was going to need another beer for what was coming next.

For the next hour and a half, I spewed question after question out at Seth and he answered them all. Afterwards, I knew all the small details of his life that I'd been missing. I knew the model of the new car he drives along with the old one he's rebuilding and I planned on Googling both the second I got home. I knew that his hair was short again, because that's how he had it when he met Lizzie and she doesn't want him growing it out. I know from experience that Jacob looks a hell of a lot hotter with long hair and I felt irrationally happy that she's missing out on the sexier version of him. I knew that he had gotten his ear pierced a few months after I moved, but took it out when all the guys razzed him for it. Hell, I even knew which street corner his garage sat on. I laughed when Seth told me that doing his books was a pain in the ass because Jake can't bring himself to collect half of the overdue payments he's owed. "You were right about the George Bailey thing, Bells," Seth said after that and I smiled the first smile I have ever had in response to someone talking about something in one of my books. I smiled because I know I was right about him being a modern-day George Bailey. I smiled because I know him so well...still.

"Can I ask you something, Bells?" I was still riding my information high when I nodded and finished off the last of my fourth beer. "Do you know what was up with him towards the end of last summer?"

I decided to play stupid. "Why would I know?"

He raised his eyebrows at me and I knew he saw right through me. "He fell apart for a few weeks. He stayed home and wouldn't talk to anyone or go to work and then one day he called the guys up around midnight and made us drink with him. We went along with it only because it was the first time that he had talked to any of us and we were afraid he'd shut us out, again. Anyway, he got wasted that night and called Lizzie and broke up with her in front of all of us, but it was really obvious that she wasn't the reason he was drinking, especially because they'd only been dating for a few weeks. It was really weird because he was being so cold to her and it wasn't like him. He stayed home drinking for a week after that until we had to get Billy involved. I don't know what he said to him, but the next Monday he was at work, pretending like nothing had happened. Look, I know that the only thing that could fuck Jake up that much is you. No offense. So, what happened?"

I knew that he had been watching me as he spoke, reading my face for clues. I didn't care enough to try hide my emotions. Besides, I was too busy berating myself for the hell I had put Jacob through, that we had both put each other through. When I finally did look up, Seth was staring at me, obviously anxious for my answer. "I...uh...I sent him an advanced copy of the second book."

"Oh!" Things seemed to be clicking into place in his head. "That explains his reaction when it came out...or his lack of a reaction, really. But then why did he break down two weeks later?" That was not something I was willing to talk about. I gave an unconvincing shrug and he didn't push the issue.

Late in the morning the next day, I stood in my driveway as Seth bent down to wrap me up in a good-bye hug. It lasted much longer than normal and when he finally set me down, my face was wet. "I'll miss you, Seth."

"I know, Honeybells, but I promise we'll see each other soon." I scoffed, but he ignored it. "Thanks for letting me crash here."

I laughed once. "Like I had a choice." He smiled unabashedly. "Those sheets will be burning before you're back on the freeway, you know?"

"How do you know we didn't use your bed?" He winked and then dodged my arm, laughing at the revulsion in my face before gave me another hug. After one last kiss on my cheek, he slung his duffel bag across his back and hopped on the bike. He reached over and ran the back of his hand on my cheek, inadvertently wiping some tears away. "Want me to tell him anything?"

Yeah. Tell him I love him. Tell him I miss him. Tell him I want to come home and be with him forever. I shook my head. "What haven't I said, Seth?"

He shrugged a shoulder and nodded. "I guess you're right." He kicked the stand away and stood up as he straddled the bike. "You really need to call Charlie, though. It's important."

That surprised me. "Okay."

"I changed your oil for you, by the way. Boss's orders." I didn't know if he was talking about Charlie or Jake and I didn't ask. I'd rather assume it was Jacob, still trying to look out for me.

"Thanks, Seth. For everything."

"Don't mention it." He kicked the bike to life. "Take care of yourself, Bells."

"You, too. Be safe. Wear condoms," I added with a smirk.

He laughed and turned the bike around until it faced the street. "See ya later, Bells."

I smiled sadly at him. "Bye, Seth."

Back in the house, I put both of our sheets in the wash, just in case he hadn't been joking. I tidied up a bit, cleaned out my fridge, and vacuumed the floors before I finally bit the bullet, took a deep breath, and called my dad. We exchanged pleasantries and I asked after Sue before he brought Seth's visit up.

"That's actually why I'm calling, Seth said you had something important to tell me."

"Actually, there's something important I need to ask you."

"Shoot, Dad."

"How do you feel about coming home in a few months?"

Leah & Seth Fic Recommendations:

/s/4534277/1/East: Leah runs away to London after Sam's wedding. Funny.

/s/4513209/1/Well_This_Sucks_Life_According_to_Seth: Seth's journal, post-Breaking Dawn. Funny.

/s/4835861/1/The_War: Sequel to The Healer, a Renesmee/Jacob fic. Leah imprints on a werewolf prince in the beginning stages of an all-out metaphysical war. Angsty.