Long time no update, I know.

Here´s chapter 20.

Enjoy :)

Delivering Bad News

Jacob Black

An hour had passed.

Seth was still on his knees on the floor sobbing. Nessie was still trying to comfort him.

Bella was also in a state shifting between rage and chock. Her father was gone and we had no idea how to save him under these circumstances. Since Seth had phased back to his human form the second he heard Leah die and he had only seen us at the Cullen house nobody else knew yet. The two packs had no idea, Sue had no idea.

Oh My God. Sue didn´t know her daughter had been brutally murdered and her fiancé was kidnapped by vicious vampires. How were we supposed to tell her all of this?

I knew that Seth was in no condition to tell anybody anything so I guessed that me being the alpha and all, I had to do it. I had absolutely no idea what to say or how to do it. I let out a breath I didn´t know I had been keeping and sighed.

Edward looked me in the eyes and nodded. He must have heard my decision and the insecurities.

"Jasper and I will go with you, Jake," Edward said.

A little moral support couldn´t hurt now could it? And Jasper could maybe calm Sue down a little bit so that she could deal with it all. But then again, who deals with the loss of the only daughter and a fiancé all at once? Poor woman.

"Thank you," I whispered.

"G-ggggo wh-where?" Seth stuttered between sobs.

"It´s nothing you have to worry about right now, Seth," Nessie said, "I´m sure Jake will handle whatever it is along with dad and uncle Jasper."

She was right, I would handle this. I would at least try. But he had the right to know. He needed to know. Now was not the time to treat him like a little kid. He wasn´t a little kid anymore.

"I have to go see your mother, Seth," I explained. "She needs to be told what happened before she returns to Charlie´s house and finds it," I glanced at Bella nervously, "empty."

Bella was holding up quite bravely. She was a very strong woman, but she had gone through more than you could expect anyone to cope with during the last couple of days. Her dad was all she had left of her human family since Renee couldn´t find out what really had happened. Bella had always known her dad couldn´t stay alive forever, but this was hardly the way she thought she would lose him.

"I´ll go too," Seth said in a small voice. He had stopped the flow of tears and was only dry sobbing at the moment. He wasn´t fit to go anywhere.

"Don´t worry about it Seth," I said. "I´ll handle it. You just take whatever time you need to…"

Seth cut me off before I could continue, "I have to go. My mom will need me after this. Don´t make me stay away, Jake. Please."

I wasn´t trying to keep him away from his mother. I was only trying to spare him the heartache. Seth was such a bubbly boy, always happy and cheerful. His smile could light up an entire room and now his world had shattered. I couldn´t bear to watch him break down any more. I would do anything for this kid.

"I´m not forbidding you anything, Seth, I just don´t think that is a good idea Seth," I tried to reason with him. Obviously I couldn´t forbid him to see his own mother, I just didn´t think that he would help much.

"Please Jake," he sobbed, "I´m all she has now."

I couldn´t do anything but nod. He was right of course. Who was I anyway to say what he could and couldn´t do. I wasn´t able to protect him or Leah earlier so what would be different now?

"Let´s go then," Bella said.

Both Edward and Jasper looked at her questioningly.

"Of course I´m going too," she said, "It´s my dad you know. And Leah would have been my step sister in a matter of weeks. Sue´s family now. And there´s no point in discussing it."

"Of course love," Edward said.

Right, the group was growing by the second. We had to go now or else we would probably all go and that would be a bit too much.

"Come on then," I said.

Seth, Bella, Edward, Jasper and Nessie all got to their feet and were headed for the door. I locked eyes with Nessie and shot her a questioning glare.

"Moral support for you," she mouthed.

I smiled. The love of my life, the only woman for me ever, was the only kind of support I needed. I was very thankful for her love and her caring nature at this point.

We drove quickly and quietly to La Push and came to a stop in front of my house. Sue was in there with my dad totally oblivious. I was going to need the help from my dad to manage this. Sue could not be left unguarded until this whole mess was over. That also meant that she was to stay at the rez.

I took a couple of deep breaths and felt a wave of calm flod over me. Thank heavens for Jasper.

I opened my door and walked to the house followed by the others.

"Give me a minute to explain and then come in," I said trying to sound confident.

They all nodded except for Seth.

"Please Seth; this is going to be very overwhelming for your mom. I think it will ease the stress a bit if it´s not so crowded at first," I pleaded.

He thought about it for a minute and finally nodded.

I took a deep breath again, opened the door and took a step inside.

"Hey Jake," Sue said. "It´s good to have you back."

She was smiling and beaming. Pre wedding glows came off of her in thick waves. She was so happy, how could anybody do this to her? How could anybody break this good and kind woman's heart? I was about to.

I sighed looking down at the floor.

"What´s wrong Jake?" my dad asked. Figures he would be the one to notice something was wrong.

"You better sit down," I almost whispered it out. I couldn´t look Sue in the eyes so I just starred at my dad. I tried to signal to him that this was bad, this was really bad, it looked like he understood because he took Sue´s hand and lead her to the couch. Sue sat down and my dad didn´t let go of her hand.

"I have something to tell you and it´s very hard to have to do so," I started. I was shaking all over, not from anger - I wasn´t near phasing, but I was shaking all over because I didn´t know what to do. I had no idea how to tell her this and I was almost breaking down in front of her.

"Go on son," my dad said. "Whatever you have to say just say it."

Again I took a deep breath in and sighed while letting it out.

"When Seth came here to tell you that we were back, Leah ran to Charlie´s house to let him know that we were all safe. When Leah arrived at the house she saw a couple of unknown figures in front of the door. She slowed down because she didn´t want to disturb Charlie and his visitors but then she caught the scents of vampires," I explained. My eyes were at the floor the whole time. I couldn´t bear to look at them. To let both my dad and Sue know that I have let them down in the worst possible way. I couldn´t take it.

They gasped at the word vampires. I took a few deep breaths again and continued. "She then saw the hooded figures smelling like vampires were indeed the ones in front of Charlie´s door. She ran as fast as she could and jumped in front of them. Before she could do anything else they reacted."

I had to look up now because I couldn´t even hear Sue and my dad breathing. They both looked at me with horror in their eyes. I couldn´t continue, I just couldn´t.

"I… I´m so so-sorry," I cracked sobbing and fell to the floor on my knees. I lost the battle against the tears, they just kept on coming. The blame was mine and I couldn´t handle it. I felt so ashamed. I had been sitting in my own little world full of bliss while a member of my pack had been killed. A member of my pack who trusted me with her life. I couldn´t have failed in a worse way.

I heard the door open and the others came in. Seth immediately ran to hold his mother who was still in shock. Of course she still didn´t know what had happened. Jasper sent waves of calm all through the room.

"What do you mean they reacted?" my dad asked. "What happened?"

"Leah tried to save Charlie from the vampires at his doorstep so she jumped in between them," Edward continued the story.

"What do you mean she tried?" Sue asked in a whisper. "Where is she?"

"She didn´t make it mom," Seth cried. His eyes were full of tears and his voice was cracking. "They killed her before she had the time to do anything."

"NOOOO!" Sue screamed. She started screaming and crying. The pain she was experiencing was unbearable. And this was only half of it.

Jasper could hardly stand to be in the room with all this pain and sorrow going on but he kept going and was sending waves of calm throughout the room over and over again. We were all hurting, but Jasper was hurting the most. He could feel his own pain and then he could also feel all of our hurt. That must have been unbearable.

Bella took a step forward letting go of Edward´s hand. She stopped for a minute and then slowly moved to sit in front of Sue.

"Sue," she said in a low voice. "The vampires took Charlie with them. They haven't hurt him yet, but they plan to. They just don´t know yet if they are going to kill him or turn him."

Sue looked at Bella with panic in her eyes.

"No," she whispered.

"We will do everything we can to bring him back safely. We will stop at nothing to save my dad. Do you hear me Sue? We will get him back," Bella said in a hard voice. She looked determined.

"We have to," Bella whispered almost too low for Sue and Billy to hear.

My dad looked at Edward and Edward nodded. My dad had obviously asked a question in his mind.

"The vampires that came to Charlie´s house came from the Volturi. They had found out that Charlie knows of our secret and the punishment for that is death," Edward explained.

"The Volturi?" my dad asked.

"The Volturi is our kind´s leaders. They uphold the law and punish those who does not condone to the rules. We actually only have one rule, and that is secrecy," Edward answered.

My dad nodded. He didn´t need further explanation to know that we were in deep shit. His best friend was in deep shit. He held on to Sue´s hand trying to comfort her and patted Seth on the back with his free hand.

Bella hugged Sue and Seth and came back to Edward´s arms. They now needed family time, healing time so we would leave them alone.

"Keep her safe dad," I said. "You have to keep her here. It´s not safe for her out of the rez."

My dad nodded but said nothing. I turned for the door.

Before we walked out of the door Sue called my name.

"Jake, this wasn´t your fault. You are not to blame for this. Please don´t blame yourself," she sobbed.

Tears started streaming down my face again and I ran over to hug both her and Seth before I would leave them alone.

We went back to the Cullen house, again driving in silence all the way. Now we had to start planning. We had to save Charlie and we had to keep our families safe. Nothing else mattered now.

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