No Phasing Zones

Nessie's POV

I pull Jacob along behind me, with us heading toward the main house. When I reach the back door and pull it open I pick up on a conversation between Rosalie and Alice.

"Rosalie, there's no way you're going to be able to convince Emmet that he should bet on the team he's decided will lose."

"I bet I can." Rosalie's voice sounds extremely devious.

"Wait… let me check…" Alice falls silent for a few moments. Then she laughs, "Looks like you're right Rose. You can sway his opinion."

"Told you." Rosalie turns when she hears Jake and I approach. "Hey, Nessie want to go shopping tomorrow? Alice said it was going to be raining all day in Seattle, so we can go there and hit all the shopping malls. Maybe we can even get your mom to go." Rosalie looks at Alice, who closes her eyes and returns from her 'future hunting' with a triumphant smile.

"I can get Bella to come!" Alice's voice is full of delight, and excitement, because my mother rarely goes shopping with the rest of us girls.

"Sure, I'll go with you guys." I decide, though Alice probably already saw my choice.

"I'm inviting Esme too. It's a girls day!"

"Sweet. Alright, Alice have you seen my mother? I need to tell her something."

"I think she left. You could talk to your dad." Alice turns to Rosalie. "Isn't Edward out with the guys?"

My eyes go wide at the thought of telling my father that Jacob and I are headed out to go to a waterfall. I shake my head no, an expression of horror on my face. Rosalie smiles but doesn't comment.

"You know what Nessie, why don't you have me pass on the message." This is futile, really, because my dad can hear their thoughts.

"Sure. Just uh… tell my parents Jake and I took my car for a drive. We're going to Marymere Falls. We'll be back before dinner." I smile, looking at Jacob pointedly, because he's the only one that would actually eat dinner in the Cullen house. Even Jake's pack members tend to head home for dinner each night.

"Sure, have fun." Rosalie smiles and Alice tosses me my keys.

"See you at 6:02pm." I giggle at Alice's silliness, and Jake chuckles.

For the first time since entering the main house he speaks. "Whatever Pixie. Now I might just make it a point to get here later."

"Ok…" She looks into the future for a moment, her eyes glazing over, and then she snaps back into the present. "I will see you at 6:18pm."

"Get a life," is Jacob's playful retort.

I smack his arm anyway, reprimanding him silently, but I cancel my warning by grabbing his hand and lacing our fingers together, heading out the back door-simply because I do not relish the thought of walking essentially under a spotlight in front of my father with Jacob right behind me.

I'm still trying to avoid his reaction, because I know my mother's influence will not be as effective when Jacob and I are in his sight.

My truck is perfect for me, in every way. Not only is the truck luxurious, and very elegant, but also it's great for the more rugged forest trails that I tend to take on, for fun. The truck drives like a dream and it jumps curbs like they're nothing (not that I'd ever do that, of course).

I jump into the drivers seat and start the truck with Jake climbing into the passenger side. As the truck rumbles quietly to life I see Jake shaking his head with a smile on his face. In the end I found out my dad isn't the only one who disapproved of my vehicle selection.

"What?" I say, backing out of our driveway.

"Nessie, your parents are probably two of the richest people in the world. You could have any car you wanted and you chose this beast." He gestures at the massive size of the truck.

"I will have you know that this truck cost almost $75,000. Hate to break it to you but that's a lot of money. And besides," I look at him, exaggerating the significance of my comment. "I like beasts. You of all people should be grateful for that. You're half wolf!"

He chuckles and mutters, "Point taken. But seriously? All the cars in the world, and you chose a Cadillac. It's so, American."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Isn't it? Maybe I should get you a bumper sticker that says 'Real Americans Buy American'."

I know he's joking, but I can't help but respond, "I wouldn't mind, really, but make sure it doesn't clash with the colors." Which makes me smile because the whole truck is black.

"So I have to find an all black bumper sticker? Heck, I might as well not even bother."

"I suppose you shouldn't," I give him an easy smirk.

"There goes my birthday present idea." We both laugh as I drive down the highway.

"Might want to slow down Ness, you're going like 90 mph."

"Yeah, yeah. What am I five? Besides you drive faster than this."

"Point taken." He says, for the second time during our car ride.

"You already said that."

"Point taken."

"Stop that."

"mmmm MMMMM mmmm" He makes a noise that sounds a lot like 'point taken' without moving his lips.

"Jaaaaa-coooob!" I whine.

"Neeeeeee-sssssssssiiiiiiiieeeeee," I smile at his imitation of my whine.

"That was a very bad imitation of me."

"I know." I smile at his admission. "It'd be hard for me to sound like an eighteen year old female."

"I'm only seven-technically speaking."

"I know. But you know what I meant."

"I do."

Just then Jacob's phone rings loudly, and he lifts it up to check the caller ID.

"It's your dad." He says, his voice confused and intrigued, but not scared. I'm terrified, but I guess if my dad were going to stop us he would have done so before we left the house.

Jacob looks at the phone a second longer then he answers the call quickly.

"Hello? Edward?" His voice is confused, but dad's response comes rapidly, and thanks to my half vampire senses I can hear his side of the conversation as well.

"Jacob, have Renesmee turn the car around. Now." My dad's voice is tense, frightened, and angry. I have a sinking suspicion that this call has nothing to do with the new relationship between Jacob and I.

Jake must agree with me, because as I turn the car around his question isn't why. It's, "Edward, what's wrong?"

"Alice had a vision. She saw the Volturi coming back to Washington. But this time there's more. I can't explain all of this over the phone. It's too complicated."

"Well, un-complicate it." Jacob's voice is deadly and he's shaking. I know he's fighting to stay in his human form. Every instinct in his body is telling him that he needs to protect me, his imprint, and his wolf form is used for protecting.

I reach over and take his hand, still managing to keep my eyes on the road. "Jake, calm down. We'll be home in ten minutes." Our speed is quickly climbing past one hundred.

Jacob lets loose a growl that resonates through the car. Apparently ten minutes isn't quick enough.

My dad is trying to explain as quickly as he can.

"She see's them coming back, but then it all goes black. Not like they've decided not to come, but like they're vacillating between a decision that makes them visible to us, and one that would make Alice unable to see them."

Jacob is still shaking uncontrollably, and I am not letting him explode into a giant wolf in this car. Not that I care so much about the car, but because there's no point to it. The Volturi isn't here now. There's no danger he can protect me from.

I use my vampire speed to take the cell phone from him easily.

"Dad, if you don't want Jacob phasing in this car I need to hang up." One glance at Jake and I know I'm right. "Now."

"Go Renesmee, but hurry."

Why didn't I think of that? I think I'd rather drive really slowly so that Jacob will just jump out of the moving automobile! Unfortunately, now is not the time for my sarcasm.

I hang up the phone and try to calm Jacob down. "Jacob, listen, everything is going to work out just fine. We'll figure this out." He's still shaking violently, time for a new tactic. "Jacob! Look at me." He meets my eyes for a few seconds, and his body relaxes slightly. "Look. At. Me. We're fine, ok? This isn't an immediate threat. We have time to prepare. We can have another 'vampire convention' if that's what it takes. This isn't a big deal. Besides, all they have are false convictions."

Unfortunately, as I speak I open a whole new door of possibilities. One of the reasons the Volturi backed down the first time was because their 'case', so to speak, proves to be false, and they ran out of charges to implicate us with. They had an entire show of witnesses whom they had to keep in their good graces, but Aro doesn't make the same mistake twice. He's a quick learner. This time there will be no witnesses on their side.

The Volturi will be free to wipe us out, and invent a story after the fact, with no vampire-other than the guard-the wiser. Icy horror creeps into my veins, but I keep my face positive. Despite everything we'll get through this.

"Jacob Black. Look me in the eye," I wait until he complies before I speak to him further. "Repeat what I'm telling you. This is going to work itself out. You don't need to panic."

"I'm not repeating that." He chokes out.

"Jacob," I sigh. My mind is reeling, looking for some kind of a loophole, so that I can get Jake to stop thinking of phasing. "Jacob," I demand in a false angry tone. "Explain to me right now how phasing is going to help this situation." It's a challenge, because my tone purposefully makes it sound like I don't think he can do it.

"I can talk to Leah, or Seth and tell them what's going on. We can tighten up the patrol perimeter, and they can alert Quil and Embry." It's working, and I only need him human for another six minutes of the drive, because now my speedometer reads 110mph.

"So, you're going to phase and tell Leah and Seth what, exactly? That the Volturi is coming? That you don't know when exactly? You don't know who, or how many either, so what are you going to tell them Jacob? You don't know anything yet. It's pointless to pass along information that might be wrong. And on top of all that don't you think if we were in danger right this minute my family would running at full speed to meet us halfway? Obviously there's time to work this out. So chill."

"Renesmee-" He sounds like he's going to argue some more so I cut him off.

"I don't want to hear it Jacob! I am an eternal optimist. This is going to work out, and we'll be fine. I don't want you telling me anything different. No phasing right now either, there's no point."

"Yes there is. I need to-"

"Jacob. You have two jobs, am I right?" Four more minutes. He doesn't respond, but I know I'm right. "Come on, what are the two things you have to protect?"

"The tribe. And you."

"Now, this doesn't even concern the tribe. It didn't affect them the last time. This only affects me. If your job is to protect me you should be asking yourself about what I need most right now." He's shaking less and less. "What I need now is Jacob, my best friend who is always there for me-my human Jacob who can talk to me, not my wolf Jacob who can kill all the vampires. There are no vampires to kill!" I am half-yelling at him, but he's calming down more and more by the second, talk about reverse psychology.

He's controlled the tremors in his body so that now only his hands are shaking, and one of them is still clasped tightly in mine.

"Now, we're two minutes away from home, and Alice is going to explain what's going on. I need you to promise me something. I need you to promise me this."

"Anything. I'll promise you anything Renesmee." He's speaking so genuinely that I want to cry.

"No phasing in the living room." This actually makes him laugh. Granted, it's a tight, humorless laugh, but it's still a laugh.

We drive in a charged silence for the rest of the ride until I pull into the garage. Jacob turns to jump out of the car as soon as it's parked, but I don't release his hand. He pauses and moves to face me again.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Though that's a lie. "Just remember-you promised."

"I didn't say anything about the kitchen." He reminds me tersely before he jumps from the car.

"No phasing in the house period Jake! It's bad manners!" I know everyone in the house can hear, but I think it's funny, though it's a much-needed warning for Jacob.

I lock up my truck and lean against it for a few seconds, collecting my thoughts, before I follow Jacob inside.

Hey! So, now you all see why I needed that last chapter. I had to get them into a car! Well, not really... but I thought it'd be more fun. Anyways, what do you think? Nessie brought up a good point about the Volturi, right? And Jacob can't phase in the house :).

I swear this chapter kind of wrote itself, my fingers just... helped a little. I had fun with this, and I am most certainly not stopping there-cliffhanger! Sorry, but I will be back really soon. In fact I am going to work on the next chapter RIGHT NOW (not kidding). Wish me luck, and let me know about your thoughts on this chapter. How do you think I'm doing on the characters? I am trying to make sure they aren't OOC but it's not easy.

Feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

R&R