A/N: Sorry for the delay in getting this one posted. My fault entirely. I allowed real life to intrude on this lovely fantasy I'm sharing with all of you! Despite their own busy real lives, my betas MunkeeRajah and Evelyn did their usual wonderful, speedy work.

Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight.

Chapter 12 – Magic Dance

Jacob POV

When she was human and bent out of shape, Bella had always been cute as hell. She would get all hissy and puff up like a kitten who thought she could take on a Rottweiler. Honestly, when she was human and tried to rip me a new one, my biggest problem was trying to decide whether to laugh at her or kiss her on the nose.

Pissed-off vampire Bella, well, that was another story. Vampire Bella could kick my ass—man or wolf— six ways from Sunday, because she knew I wouldn't fight back. Not only could I not hit a girl, I could never hit a girl who was also my best friend and my girl's mother.

For two days, I'd been on Bella's bad side, and it didn't matter one bit that the whole situation wasn't my fault. Leah was the reason Bells was madder than a wet cat, but my beta was way too smart to come within a country mile of any Cullen right now. So my vampire BFF was taking out her frustrations on the only wolf dumb enough to be around when she was like this—namely, me.

The sunny day wasn't helping Bella's mood, either. Sunshine meant sparkly Bella, and sparkly Bella couldn't go to Forks Community Hospital to see Charlie. I got that she was worried about him, but seriously. His injuries were minor and it wasn't like he was alone at the hospital. Sue hadn't left his side since the attack.

Personally, I thought Bella ought to be glad for an excuse to get out of seeing Charlie today. It bought her a little more time to think about what she would tell him when he finally got home. Charlie was chomping at the bit for answers, but he knew he couldn't say anything anywhere there was a risk of being overheard. I was pretty sure once he started asking his questions, and hearing the answers, he was going to be every bit as mad at Bella as he was at me.

Bella and her dad weren't the only ones cheesed at me right now, either. When I'd visited Charlie in the hospital, Sue had treated me like I'd dropped a rabid raccoon in the middle of a preschool class. Sam was wetting himself that the Cullens were going to view Leah's mouthing off as a breach of the treaty. And the rest of the vamp contingent kept reminding me that the only reason they weren't pounding my ass for Leah breaking the treaty was because they expected me to give them little wolf-vampire-hybrid babies someday. But only after I'd married Renesemee in the eyes of God and man, of course.

About the only ones who weren't giving me a rash of shit were the two people who could usually be counted on to do just that: Blondie, amazingly enough, and Leah herself. When Rose heard what Leah had done, she just smirked, muttered "It's about damn time somebody yanked Charlie's head out of his ass," and marched off to entertain herself rebuilding the Vanquish engine for the bazillionth time.

Carlisle had said Charlie could go home tomorrow, so Edward, Bella and Sam decided we all needed to sit down together and get our stories straight. I'd asked Jasper and Carlisle to join us. Mostly because I wanted to talk about the new developments in the Joham situation, but also because I figured I could count on the two of them to help calm everyone down if things got out of hand.

Since Sam still refused to set foot in the Cullens' house, and the tribal elders had never agreed to relax the treaty enough to allow the vamps onto the rez, we were all back at the practice field, sitting around in the big tent Esme had provided for the comfort of my pack brothers.

Sam was being a real dick, and I was pretty sure Bella was seriously considering punching his lights out. He was standing just inside the tent door, arms crossed, wearing a "kiss my ass" expression that beat any I'd ever seen on Leah. Bella was sitting on the other side of the tent, at a picnic table with Edward, as far from Sam and me as she could get and still be inside. The vibe beneath the canvas was not good, but at least there were snacks, thanks to Esme.

"The cat is out of the bag for Jake, Seth and Leah," Sam said. His whole attitude screamed belligerence. "And what you decide to tell Charlie about vampires is up to you. But I don't think it's necessary for him to know about my pack."

"What difference does it make if he knows there are three wolves or thirteen or thirty?" I asked, trying very hard to keep my cool. The last thing we needed was for both Bella and me to lose it. "Charlie still feels grateful to you for finding Bella when she was lost in the woods. He'd never do anything to compromise you or your pack."

Sorry, man, I threw Edward's way, knowing Bella had dropped her shield on me for the sake of this conversation. And that bringing up the time Edward had left Bella would probably still sting him, even after all these years. Edward ignored my silent apology. Damn. He gave Leah a pass right there at the crash scene. Why's he still pissed at me?

"If you don't know, I'm certainly not going to tell you," he murmured petulantly. Since when are you such a teenaged girl? I shot back.

Sam gave Edward a curious look. He wasn't used to the silent asides that everyone else had with Edward. After a moment, he turned his attention to Carlisle. He tended to do that—act like Carlisle was the last word—when he wasn't getting what he wanted from me, and it chapped my ass every time he did it.

"I'm afraid I can't budge on this, Dr. Cullen," Sam said. "Because of his relationship with Renesmee, Jacob's pack is permanently bonded to your family, but mine is not. When you leave Forks, we will all be safer if no outsiders know our secrets."

I cringed inwardly at the word "outsider," and glanced to Bella to see her reaction. Amazingly, Bella seemed to be considering Sam's words.

Maybe he sensed Bella was wavering, or he interpreted Carlisle's silence as agreement, because Sam moved in for the kill. "In exchange for you not telling Charlie about my pack, I can make you this promise: If the Volturi ever come looking for Charlie because of what he knows, we will hide him, and protect him to the last wolf."

Bella was nodding her agreement before Sam even finished. "Deal," she said. "If Charlie knowing about your pack will cause him trouble on the rez, and not knowing about them will make him a little bit safer, then I say this is one secret we should still keep from him."

I groaned. "Bells, c'mon. Haven't we had enough secrets to last us all a lifetime?"

She turned her angry glare on me. "Jake, you're the one who started this entire keeping-secrets-from-Charlie thing in the first place. I appreciate why you did it, and it worked okay for six years, but now everything has changed. We're going to be leaving Forks soon, and I don't want Charlie in any more danger because of what he knows."

I opened my mouth to protest further, but she cut me off, talking over me. "Jake, I'm done with this discussion. Once Charlie's home from the hospital tomorrow, Edward, Renesmee and I are going to talk to him. We would like you to be there, too. We'll play it by ear what we tell him about vampires, but we won't say anything about Sam's pack."

Another difference between human Bella and vampire Bella—decisiveness. The stubbornness, however, that was all human Bella. She'd carried it over from her human life, and if anything, she was even more pigheaded as a vampire than she'd been as a mortal.

As far as I could tell, there really wasn't any good reason for Charlie to not know about Sam's pack, but I knew there was no point in arguing with him further. Sam had his knickers in a twist over something and he'd tell me what that was when he was ready to, and not a minute before.

Jasper, who'd listened quietly while the Sam versus Bella drama played out, spoke up, reminding me we had other important things to talk about.

"Well if that matter is settled, I think we need to discuss the newborn's attack and this murder Charlie told Jacob about," he drawled.

"Agreed," I said, relieved to move on. I quickly recapped the developments of the past few days.

"Charlie said the reason he was on the rez was that there'd been a murder in Port Angeles," I said, moving to take a seat next to Bella on the wooden picnic bench. She shifted slightly to look at me while listening, but made no move to get up. Guess she was ready to let her grudge go, at least a little bit.

"The murder sounds like it could have been the work of a vampire. Charlie said there was a witness who saw a suspect leaving the scene."

"That's not possible," Jasper interrupted. "No vampire would leave a human witness alive, especially not if the killer was a newborn."

"Agreed," I said again. "It doesn't make sense, but Charlie says there was a witness and their description of the suspect sounded like Nahuel."

"Is there any chance that it actually could have been him?" Sam asked. "How much do you really know about him? Is it possible he slipped away and committed this crime?"

I ground my teeth, instantly pissed on behalf of my beta and her imprint, neither of whom was here to defend themselves. "No," I said, adamantly. "He hasn't had more than two minutes alone to himself since he got here, and the night of the murder, he was home with Seth, Sue and Leah. They can all vouch for him."

I hesitated for just a moment, considering whether I should say more. Hell with it. Put it out there.

"I trust Nahuel," I told Sam. "He's a decent guy."

Sam snorted and shook his head in disbelief. "A decent guy who roughed up Charlie and was on the verge of ripping out his throat when a wolf stopped him?" he challenged.

Before I could answer, Carlisle came to Nahuel's defense. "Given the recent trauma Nahuel has experienced, his response to the perceived threat of a gun was not unreasonable," Carlisle pointed out. "From Jacob's description of the incident, Nahuel didn't fight Leah when she halted his attack on Charlie. I don't believe Nahuel is really a threat to anyone, but even if he were, Leah, Jacob and Seth have demonstrated their ability to keep him controlled."

"I hope you're right, doc," Sam said. "Jacob and I both had to work hard to convince the elders to allow Nahuel to remain on the rez. I'd hate to see our trust misplaced."

I could tell it was time to let this topic go. I wasn't going to convince Sam of anything, but I hoped he would get the opportunity to meet Nahuel soon. Considering Nahuel's opinion of how Sam had treated Leah, it would be a very interesting meeting.

"There's more," I continued, turning my attention back to Jasper. "The police in Forks received an anonymous tip that someone fitting the suspect's description was seen on the rez. That's why Charlie was there, and when he walked into Sue's house and saw Nahuel … well, he kind of over-reacted a bit, which is really not like Charlie at all."

Jasper paced slowly across the tent, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "So let's recap our questions," he said. "First, who committed this murder? Was it a vampire? If it was a vampire, how could there be a witness? Why did that witness give a description that fit Nahuel, and who tipped the cops that Nahuel was on the rez? Have I got it all?"

"No," Edward spoke up. "You're forgetting whether or not that murder ties into the Joham situation at all, and if so, how. Also, was the newborn that attacked Charlie sent by Joham? It seems logical to infer that it was, but what was the purpose behind attacking Charlie?"

Jasper considered for a moment. "We have to assume Nahuel's aunt would have told Joham about Renesmee's human grandfather," he said, thoughtfully. "If I were Joham, I'd try grabbing said human to flush out my quarry."

Bella drew an outraged breath beside me. I could feel her whole body shaking with fury. Edward slipped an arm around her, and she instantly calmed a bit.

Jasper continued. "It doesn't say much for Joham's skill as a tactician that he would send a newborn vampire to do such a delicate task. Still, Charlie's very lucky that Leah was able to intercept the newborn before it could do anything worse than bang up his patrol car." He gave Bella a pointed look.

She sighed. "Point taken." She turned to me. "I'm sorry I've been such a shrew to you for the past couple of days, Jake," she said. "I know none of this is really your fault. My only excuse is that I've been so worried about Charlie for so long, and everything is coming to a head right now."

I gave her a quick one-armed hug. "S'okay, Bells. We all just want what's best for Charlie right now, and to protect Ness from this whack job."

I turned back to Jasper. "Has Alice been able to see anything more?"

He shook his head. "She's trying, but there are just too many blank spots. The only thing she can tell at this point is that there are no blank spots in her vision for the next few weeks."

Three weeks of reprieve. I was certain things were going to turn really bad eventually, but I took some comfort in thinking that wouldn't happen any time soon.

SSW/SSW/SSW

I wasn't wrong, but then again, I wasn't completely right either. When Charlie got home from the hospital the next day, things did get worse, just not spectacularly worse, and not in the way I thought they would.

Lying in a hospital bed, banged up from his encounter with a newborn vampire, Charlie had apparently had time to distill his shock and disbelief into righteous anger. The only good thing was he seemed to be just as pissed at Edward as he was with me. I was in the dog house for starting the big, shitty snowball of deception rolling six years ago, and Edward was at fault for ever existing, let alone having the gall to insert himself into Bella's life.

And when the word "vampire" finally made it into the conversation, well, let's just say I was really grateful that Edward had a couple of medical degrees. I was pretty sure Charlie was going to have a heart attack. Or a stroke. Possibly both.

Once he started breathing again, the shouting really began. It took Ness to finally put everything in perspective for him.

"Grandpa, this is reality. It's been my reality all my life, and now it's yours too. If you love Mom and me, and want us to be part of your life, then you're going to have to accept this reality and learn to deal with it. Mom and Dad are vampires, I'm half-vampire, half human, Jake's a werewolf and we all love you very much."

That drained the purple out of Charlie's complexion and the anger out of his attitude. He just dropped into his chair, totally deflated, and reached for Sue's hand. It didn't take him that long to collect himself, and then he began grilling us on Nahuel, the murder and what else was going on in Forks that its chief of police didn't know about.

We told him as much as we could, begged him to stay out of it, and finally got him to agree to keep his eyes open, his mouth shut, and call us immediately if he saw anything out of the ordinary. And he gave us one more piece of the puzzle: the name of the "witness" who'd claimed to see the murder suspect.

It was "Anjali Johanson," a woman who claimed to be a tourist and who had disappeared from Port Angeles immediately after giving police her statement. How freaking suspicious was that?

"You know, Charlie's actually dealing pretty damn well," I told Ness after we left her grandfather's house. We were on our way to my dad's place so I could pick up some clean clothes. Since I'd been staying with the Cullens since Nahuel reappeared, I was running low on clean clothes. I loved Esme, but I couldn't let her do my laundry. Dirty clothes just end up smelling worse when you let a vampire wash them for you.

"Makes me think maybe he would have been okay if we'd told him all this long ago," I reflected, parking the truck close to the wheelchair ramp that led to the front door. Since it was pouring like hell (of course), I was trying to keep our run to the door as short as possible. I popped the door handle, but Ness laid her tiny hand on my arm before I could get out.

"Jake, I know you're feeling guilty about all this, but don't," she said, firmly, pinning me with those big, brown eyes I loved. "This all started a long time ago, and you did what you had to do at the time to ensure we could all stay together. No one blames you. I'd do anything to be able to stay with you, too."

It was amazing how she always knew exactly what to say to make me feel better. I leaned over and gave her a quick kiss of thanks on the lips before jumping out of the truck and sprinting through the downpour. Even though I'd practically parked on the front porch, we were both soaked by the time I got the door open.

The house felt really tiny and sad without dad there. But his health had been failing for a while and Rachel and I had been after him to move in with her and Paul. He finally gave in earlier this year when he fell trying to get out of bed and into his wheelchair. He'd thought he would hate to give up his independence, but it turned out he loved spending time with Rachel's kids. Most of the time, I was alone in the house. We hadn't yet decided what we'd do with the place once I left Forks with the Cullens.

I shucked my wet, muddy shoes by the front door and headed for the bathroom at the back of the house. "Stay there, I'll bring you some towels," I called to Ness over my shoulder. I grabbed a couple of towels from the bath and returned to the living room.

"Do you want to borrow a dry shirt?" I asked, stepping into the room. I took one look at Renesmee and the blood drained from my head, pouring south to pool around my other head, the one that usually took control in moments like this.

Ness stood by my front door, stripped down to her bra and panties, both of which were totally soaked and see-through. The sight made me instantly horny. And mad as hell. She'd been doing her best lately to make sure I was very familiar with the mixture of those two feelings, and I didn't like it one bit.

"What are you doing?" I growled.

"Getting out of my wet clothes," she replied, her eyes wide with fake innocence. "Why? What does it look like I'm doing?" When I didn't immediately reply, she took a step in my direction. That snapped me out of my lust-induced stupor. I knew if she came any closer, I was going to be on her like a duck on a June bug.

"Stay right there," I ordered, tossing a towel to her. She easily snatched it out of the air. Instead of wrapping it around herself, she used the towel to begin briskly rubbing her damp hair. Her tits bounced with every stroke of the towel.

I groaned low in my chest. I knew I should look away. Throw our wet clothes in the dryer. Go pack a bag with some clean clothes. Go into the kitchen and make us a few sandwiches. I should do anything other than stand there and watch her move the towel from her hair down over her body.

Look away from my drop-dead gorgeous, mostly naked fiancée. Yeah, right. That's not gonna happen.

She was working on her legs now, bending gracefully at the waist and moving the towel in long strokes down her calves. My jeans felt like I'd strapped a straightjacket around my dick and my mouth was as dry as a wad of cotton. I licked my lips and, without really thinking about it, reached down to adjust myself.

It took a few seconds for me to hear her talking past the blood roaring in my ears.

"You know Jake, since we have some time alone here, there's something I wanted to discuss with you," Ness said. She'd finished drying off and draped the damp towel over the radiator near the front door. Drying off hadn't done a damn thing to make her underwear less revealing.

Talk? She wants to talk?

"What was that?" I asked, as she slowly approached me.

"Well, you know how when Nahuel first showed up we agreed that we might need to postpone the wedding until this situation was resolved?" She was standing right in front of me and I could swear the heat coming off her body was steaming the dampness right out of my clothes. Or maybe that was me, since she had me so incredibly hot right now.

I was fixated on the drop or two of water that was pooling in the dip of her collarbone, water she'd somehow managed to miss despite all that energetic rubbing. My brain wanted me to suggest I could take care of that for her—with my tongue. Fortunately, what came out of my mouth was:

"Uuuhhh … yeah?"

She placed both hands on my chest and stepped closer, pressing herself against me. I thought I could hear the moisture sizzling off our skin. When she leaned into me, smashing my erection between us, I expected my brain to liquefy and trickle out my ears.

"I don't want to wait to get married, Jake," she said, sliding her palms up my chest. When she reached my shoulders, she pulled herself up to press a kiss on the corner of my mouth. I shivered and my hands found their way to her waist without any direction from me.

"We may not have a choice, sweetheart." I was really trying to hold on to the last scraps of my sanity. "What if Joham picks our wedding day to show up in Forks? Do you really want to be left standing at the altar if I have to go off and fight?"

"I thought of that, and I have a solution," she said, raising one leg impossibly high and hitching it around my waist. When she used that leverage to start climbing my body, I instinctively slipped my hands under her rear to support her. Again, acting entirely independently of my direction, my hands began to massage her ass cheeks.

How is she not losing her mind right now? I sure as hell am.

"What's that?" I asked, lowering my head so I could reach her neck with my mouth. Now my lips and tongue were acting on their own too, licking and sucking down her long, graceful neck. Shit! Is any part of me still under my control?

"Let's elope."

In my wild pre-Renesmee youth—and granted, there wasn't much of it in terms of length of time—I'd once gotten totally trashed at a party Paul threw. My pack brothers had thought it would be funny as hell to dump my naked, drunk ass into the ice tub along with the bottles of cheap beer and wine cooler. That had been the most dick-shriveling moment of my life. Until now.

At Nessie's words, my erection deflated faster than a Macy's Thanksgiving Day float after an unfortunate encounter with a light pole. I pushed her legs from around my waist and peeled her arms off my neck. I set her firmly on the floor and stepped away from her. Too pissed to speak, I turned away and snagged a clean towel from the floor where I'd dropped it when I first walked in on Renesmee in her Victoria's Secrets.

Behind me, Ness blew out a frustrated sigh. "Fuck," she moped. "C'mon, Jake. Why the hell not?"

"You know why not," I growled, still refusing to look at her. I peeled off my wet T-shirt and jeans (two could play at this game) and, wearing nothing but my boxer briefs, collected Renesmee's wet clothes from the floor. I stalked into the kitchen, where our washer and dryer were hidden behind a partition at the far end of the room, and tossed the clothes into the dryer. I braced my hands on the machine and leaned forward, dragging in deep breaths to calm myself. I knew I'd just been played and it wasn't a good feeling at all.

Nessie's quiet tread signaled she'd come into the kitchen behind me. I didn't turn around, didn't acknowledge her until she slipped her arms around my waist from behind. Her soft, warm cheek pressed against my back, and I felt my anger ease slightly.

"I'm sorry to upset you," she said softly, brushing her lips against my skin. "I just feel like we're allowing everything else, including my father and Nahuel's problems, to make this decision for us."

I turned in her arms to face her and looped my arms behind her back. I didn't like arguing with her. Being at odds with Renesmee made me feel off-centered, adrift. "I wish I could make you understand why this is important," I sighed.

She gazed at me solemnly. "I'm listening. Please try to explain. I really want to understand."

I rested my forehead against hers and closed my eyes, searching for the words. "Most people get one short lifetime to either get things right or completely fuck things up," I said. "Sink or swim, it's over and done with in seventy or eighty years."

I lifted my head and gazed into her eyes, willing her to understand. "It's different for us. We have forever. On the one hand, it's an incredible gift to know you have eternity with the ones you love. On the other, it's a helluva responsibility knowing that if you disappoint the people who love you, they could stay hurt forever. Us getting married is really important to your whole family, not just to Edward, and I really think we need to keep that in mind."

She was quiet as she processed my words. One of the things I loved most about her was that she listened with an open mind the few times when we actually disagreed. I couldn't claim the same fairness. Finally, she sighed and nodded.

"Alright, I can't say I agree, but I think I understand your perspective," she said. "You do realize, though, that if Grandpa Charlie had ever intruded into Mom and Dad's sex life as much as my father has into ours, Mom would have told him where to go?"

I chuckled, relieved that she seemed willing to let the idea of eloping fade into the background. "Oh, yeah, I know." She giggled with me, then grew serious again.

"Can we agree to a compromise? I won't bring up the idea of eloping again if you agree to move forward with the original wedding date, come hell or high water."

I grinned. "I can agree to that. If Joham does decide to show up on our wedding day, I'll just make sure the asshat is ready to play flower girl before I pound him into oblivion."

She laughed again and pressed her nearly naked body against mine. That quick, my Macy's float was ready for the parade all over again.

"Now I'd like to propose another compromise," she said, breathily, reaching up to slip her fingers into my hair and pull my mouth toward hers.

"Yeah? What's that?"

"Well, since we're still waiting for you to make an honest woman of me, I propose we explore … alternative … ways of enjoying ourselves."

I grinned against her lips.

"Deal."