I want to thank all you amazing reviewers...you are, well, amazing. And OperationDuctTape is an awesome beta. Thanks!

Hopefully this chapter didn't take THAT long...eh. Anyway, enjoy! And review? Please?

--Interlude--

Mrs. Newton's POV

Kids these days. Always running from one boy to another, one girl to another. That Swan girl is worse than the rest. Edward Cullen is, well, let's be frank. Gorgeous. Who in their right mind would choose that Quileute boy? There must be other factors. Obviously, there are. The Jacob boy is pretty hot too, to use Mike's choice of words, but nothing compares to that.

I told Ms. Weber about how Bella was in between the...fight, you could call it, of Edward and Jacob. I swear there is something wrong with the Quileute boy. He was literally growling! He must have been on something. Something big. And Edward looked positively stunning, as always. Who knows?

But he came back. I still find that something to wonder over. And the stupid girl is wondering whether to take him back? I can't say I blame him for leaving, after all, Bella was probably just not giving him what he...wanted. But she was so devastated after his escape, I wonder how can she question? What does this boy mean to her?

Ms. Weber was not amazed. I'm always frustrated at her lack of enthusiasm. I mean, come on. Groundbreaking news, here! Edward came back! And let me tell you, that scene in the supermarket was intense. But then they went outside, where I couldn't follow them. I was so frustrated. But even that gave me enough info to make a night of telling. Mrs. Mallory was so mad she wasn't there, ha. That I was the one to see it, witness it, tell it to our friends and along the gossip tree.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

Jacob's POV

I slept in the forest, alone with my thoughts. No one invaded my personal hell.

"Jacob! What are you doing? Billy's worried sick." Ugh. Leah. Okay, I guess that makes it no one invaded my personal hell before now. Leah grinned in her mind.

"Billy's worried?" He should be used to my always running away to one place or another.

"Well, he's not. Deal with it." She sniffed the ground. "Ew. Filthy bloodsucker." I felt in her mind that she thought it was my fault. You don't have to love that leech-lover, she thought.

But I do. I don't have a choice. And if I did, I wouldn't stop.

"How noble. Anyway, stop with this sickening mind crap and go talk to her."

"What? Why?"

Why would Leah, of all people, want me to talk to her?

"Because one, I can't stand your mind crap about her, and two, she asked for you. Billy told Sam to tell you and of course the dirty work falls to me." This was followed by thoughts of how she wished another female would join the pack.

"Go, you idiot!" Okay, okay. Keep your...fur on. I phased, got dressed. I started towards home, and then realized that if Bella wanted to see me I didn't want to wait. Billy could hold on a few more minutes. Leah'll tell him I'm okay. As if something could've happened to me.

--

"Bells?" I said tentatively. Her door was open and I frowned. At least a locked door could protect her from the less-than mystical dangers out there. "Why is your door open?"

"I was waiting for you," she said simply.

"But there are--" She cut off my protest with a faint shh. Came up to me, on her tiptoes, kissed me. I wrapped my arms around her, leaned down--instinct. Then I pulled away.

"Bella, you can't do this, I mean, I don't want your leech to find another reason to hate me and rip me limb from limb, as if he could do that--"

"Why would he hate you for kissing me?" Her eyes were wide.

I stared at her.

"And he's not my leech." Her eyes hardened.

"He's not? Well, I think he sure thinks he is." I turned away.

"Jake...what..."

"What do you want?" She looked shocked from my harsh words. But I thought it would be easier if she didn't have to deal with my pain too.

"Jake..."

"Leah said you wanted to talk to me."

"Leah?" She asked.

"When you tell one of us, you basically tell us all."

"Right." She looked confused for a second. Looked up at me. "Jake...I just...oh God." Against all my common sense I hugged her, breathing in the sweet scent of her hair, strawberries and...Bella-ness. She leaned into me and sighed.

"I can't do this, Jake."

"Do what?" I froze.

"Tell..." She couldn't tell me? Is that it? "You don't need to. I get the message. I took one last look at her, met her big deep chocolate eyes, and walked away.

"Jake! What are you doing?"

"Leaving. You don't need to tell me," I said quietly.

"Tell you?"

"You said you couldn't. I'm sparing you."

"What...oh no, Jake, he'll kill you, please don't go I'll tell him I will I don't care what he does oh God don't go!" She panicked, in that way of hers she has, wide eyes and flushed cheeks.

"He won't kill me. I'm not going anywhere near him. What would I do that for?" What was she talking about?

"What? Oh my God, Jake. She ran up to me, hugged me, tight, for her at least. I just stood there, wanting to spare both of us this. Why was she persisting?

"I'm not...I'm not telling you anything. I just need some emotional support."

I didn't dare hope to interpret what she was saying wrongly, rightly. "You mean..."

"Silly Jacob." She shook her head. "I don't know how he's going to react."

"You don't owe him anything," I said fiercely.

"I know...only...I do. My life, many times over."

"That's all? You're kidding. He probably doesn't even remember." Apparently I had said the wrong thing. She winced.

"Sorry." I said automatically.

"But what will he do?" She asked, meeting my eyes.

"I don't know. Do you want me to come...in case..." I didn't like to think of what I was envisioning.

"No," she said firmly. "No, he won't do anything...anything. He's not like that."

I raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes. "I better go. No use procrastinating." She made it sound like she was dreading it. I found some weird enjoyment in that fact.

"I'll wait here?" I thought of Billy. He can wait.

"No, go home. Billy called, he was worried."

"Okay...if you need me..."

"Yeah." I didn't even have to finish my sentence.

We walked out, she went towards her truck, I walked on towards the woods.

"You ran here? Do you want a ride?"

"Yeah. No, it's okay."

"Bye," she said, glancing fleetingly at me. I strode to her and kissed her, long, deep, and she kissed me, almost frantically. She tangled her fingers in my hair roughly, my heart beat wildly.

She broke away. "Bye." And got in her car and drove away.

My mind still full of her cool lips, I phased, and apparently Leah was still wolfy, because I heard a loud, "Bleck. Spare us, Jacob," in my mind and a flurry of "I'd rather you sing!"

I thought-sang a song I knew she hated while running towards home.

"Oh, my God. Jesus Christ."

"Spaghetti!"

She rolled her eyes in her head. "See you. This happiness is devastating," and phased, and I was alone.

I wasn't even fully able to feel my happiness at the stupid misunderstanding between me and Bella, and the outcome. I almost couldn't believe it, but then if I, even for one second, doubted that this was--what, real?--then I was sure I would make some mistake later on, something stupid like at Bella's house.

At home, I phased and dressed. As I walked in I heard a crash, and Billy muttered "Dammit!" Then yelled, "Jake!"

"Yeah?"

"Where were you?" He sounded mad. I decided to stick to the edited and abbreviated truth, something he would believe and not question.

"I was patrolling and then at Bella's," I said.

"All night?" He raised an eyebrow. His anger seemed to have disappeared at the word patrol. It was magic; he took my job far too seriously.

"Yep. There were some difficult ones."

"But you got them?"

"Uh..." I didn't want to say anything too definite, he and Sam talked, well, a lot, and I was never sure what could slip out.

"Kind of."

"Kind of?"

"Don't worry about it." That was not a good thing to say.

"Maybe I'll talk to Sam about it..." He pursed his lips.

"No! I mean, yeah. It's fine. Don't even mention it."

He looked skeptical but said nothing except, "You really worried me, Jake. Don't just run off like that. Literally." He grinned at his own joke.

"No, no. Of course not."

--

Bella's POV

I drove to the Cullen house carefully, as if a pothole would trip my monster of a truck and kill me. I thought he would be there, in the house with furniture covered with dusty white sheets. Even vampires couldn't fight time, only defy it.

It was shady in the lane leading to the house, overgrown and green. I peered ahead into the gloom, trying to make out the bright white house. I saw it after a minute, and it was almost glowing.

I parked, and sat in the car for a minute. I saw a flicker of something in the window, was it bronze, or was it just my imagination? I wondered if the other Cullens were here, but I didn't know if I wanted them to be or not. In a way it was easier for them not to be; after all, I'd said my goodbyes to them long ago. But it nagged at me how nice it would be to see them again, Alice and Emmett, Esme, who'd been like a mother to me, even Rosalie with her cold eyes and hate. Carlisle too, and Jasper, even though I didn't want him to feel...guilty at all, after what he did in that disastrous birthday party.

I walked out, quickly, suddenly bold and just wanting this over. I dreaded seeing him hurt, but I was glad that my mind was made up, never really anything different.

"Bella?" He waited at the steps, up ten or so. I walked up. His eyes were wide, hopeful. I lowered mine. I heard his breath going out, whoosh, fast.

"Yes. Bella, I..." Edward's voice was almost pleading.

"Edward. Just let me say what I came to say."

"Just come inside first." I hesitated to follow him. "Is everyone else here?" I asked.

He paused. "No. Just me." I breathed out. "Okay."

We walked inside, sat on the couch stiffly, like strangers. I felt a strange pounding in my heart.

"Edward. When you left me...well, you probably know."

"Jacob was kind enough to show me." He tapped his head, grimacing.

"So that's what he was doing," I thought aloud.

He nodded, stiffly, his eyes hooded. I ignored the pain I felt at his.

"I'll skip all that. Basically, you made the worst decision possible."

"I know," he said.

"Don't interrupt," I said. "That decision ruined my life for many, many months. I couldn't live, I couldn't function. Then I found Jake. He helped me, I was broken, riddled through with holes, and he didn't care. He helped me, and I'll be eternally grateful to him for that."

"And me as well," Edward said, with a pained look on his face. Being thankful to a werewolf obviously took some effort.

"I was waiting for you to come back. Then Alice did. Jake wanted me to run with him, he was shaking, almost phasing." Edward flinched, looked me over. "I didn't go with her. I didn't want you dead, but at that moment Jacob's happiness meant more to me than, well...I knew they'd get you out of it, whatever stupid mess you were in in Italy, Alice and Carlisle, Rosalie..."

"I made a life without you, Edward, and the point is you can't come back into it, if you want to or not."

He just stared at me, his cool topaz eyes melting.

"Why aren't you...screaming, crying, trying...!"

"I can't cry."

I stared at him in disbelief. "You just sit there! While I tell you how horrible you've been, why aren't you defending yourself?"

"I have nothing to defend myself from. I know I was horrible. I deserve this." My jaw dropped. "That doesn't mean that I don't love you, Bella. You can't imagine how much it hurts..." He stared at me with the first bit of emotion I've seen.

"Then try to win me back!"

"Stay with me, Bella. I love you. Stay with me, choose me."

I couldn't say anything resembling words.

He shook his head. "I won't make you choose, Bella." Contradicting what he had said seconds before.

"I already did."

--

Jacob's POV

The wait seemed eternal. The only thing I could do was pace and pace and pace...I thought I was going to go crazy.

"Why don't you just...go on patrol or something. Kill some vampires, Jake." Billy's irritated voice cut through whatever horrible scenario I imagined Bella in, down at the Cullen house I couldn't go to.

"I can't. None left." Bella being ripped apart, bitten--I cringed.

"Go to the beach!" Billy yelled.

I did.

Walking there, where so many memories ended up, wasn't the best thing either. Bella being drowned, crushed, rocked by waves--nightmare images flashed through my mind for minutes, hours, I don't know.

But then I felt cool hands on my arm, and I turned around and threw my arms around the person standing there. Unfortunately it wasn't Bella. Some tall girl with curly brown hair, from Forks, looking very scared indeed.

"Agh...sorry! Thought you were someone else," I muttered.

"It's okay..." Whoever it was ran past me to her friends, waiting around a campfire.

I paced, I sat, I ran. I almost screamed.

Then another cool hand touched my arm tentatively, and I turned around slowly before throwing my arms around the right person. She pressed her face to my chest, and I breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Oh, Bella, I'm so glad..." I stopped, she wrapped her arms around me, and she was shaking, shaking, not from the cold. My t-shirt was wet from her tears. I held her, I don't know how long. Quietly we stood there, predictable sun hiding behind predictable clouds, to the waves rushing up and stopping at the shore only to go back again, back to the endless ocean, then back, back, back.