AN: thanks for the reviews and thanks to Georgia Dawgette for being an amazing co-author and beta, for her patience and for her frienship.

AN2: I'm writing a new Bella/Jacob, the title is Away from the sun but it'll be under the nickname ast-lucy because it's a collaboration with astridt244 so if you haven't yet, just add that nickname to your the author's alert!

26.

Jared's POV

After dinner, Jared had bid Bella and Charlie goodbye and went home. He reached for the phone, and called his parents.

"Mahan's residence. This is Mary." A sweet voice said.

"Mum? Hi." Jared replied getting a tad nervous to talk with his mother. He loved her very much, but she was a strong woman and they didn't always get along well, that was one of the reasons why he moved out very young. The other reason was that when he became a wolf he couldn't tell her anything, so he had to lie because he was out at all hours and his mother thought he was on drugs and who knew what else he was up to.

"Jared! What a surprise! What did you do this time?" his mother asked in a brisk tone.

He started to get angry. "Why do you always assume I did something wrong? Can't I just call to find out how you, dad and Selina are?"

"Jared, we both know that you see Selina more than me and your father. So spit it out." His mother accused.

"Okay, let's start over... this conversation is not going how it should be." He took a deep breath. "Mum, I proposed to my girlfriend and she is going to be moving in with me soon. I was wondering if we could come over for dinner, so that I can introduce Bella to you."

"Bella? Bella? And what happened with sweet Kim? What have you done? Did you get this girl pregnant? How could you?" shouted his mother.

"You know what? Fuck off mom! I thought to share my happiness with my family, but obviously you never give anyone a chance, do you? Forget about it! I'll talk to dad and Selina by myself." then he angrily put down the phone.

Jared felt tears in his eyes but he refused to shed even one more for his mother. He didn't even remember the last time he had talked to her, she should have been his rock when Kim disappeared and instead he couldn't tell her anything and probably she wouldn't have understood anyway. He mourned every day the lack of communication with her.

The phone rang a minute later, he sighed already knowing who it was. "Jared! Don't you dare put down the phone on me ever again! Now, I want to know what has happened over the past few months in your life and you better start speaking son..." raged his mother.

"I already told you! I proposed, she said yes and I wanted my family to meet her." Jared growled.

"Don't use that tone with me! How long have you been dating? One week?" His mother spat.

"Two weeks or a year… does it really make a difference? And before you ask, I'm sure that I'm in this for life. I love her and I don't care what your opinion is. I just thought that you wanted to meet her, but it doesn't matter." Jared said defeated.

"Tomorrow night, at eight. And be on time!" his mother said and hung up on him.

...

Jared reached Bella's house the next day at around 10 in the morning. He knocked and she opened the door a few minutes later, as soon as she saw him, she threw herself into his arms and he kissed her soundly. "God, I missed you Bella!"

She laughed, and she hugged him tighter. "I'm sure I missed you more, so what's up with that face? You look worried."

Jared grimaced. "We've been invited to dinner at my parent's house tonight... and I've never told you much about... my family." How was he going to explain his difficult relationship with his mother? Bella and her mum seemed to love each other so much, and Charlie, though gruff and silent, always broadcasted his love for her in the way he always smiled at her, and the way his eyes shined when she was with him.

"Well, we didn't talk about a lot of things... is there a problem? Is it about Kim?" she asked apprehensively.

"Not really about Kim... me and my mom... don't get along very well. To make a long story short, she got pregnant with me and my dad didn't marry her, but her best friend Jason offered. She didn't love him that way, but she accepted and they had a daughter Selina, my half sister. I get along with my adoptive father, and I love my sister dearly, but my mum kind of never got over her 'lost love' and sometimes she makes it difficult for all of us to love her." Jared said it all before losing his courage.

"Oh Jared, I'm sorry! I'm sure she loves you very much... sometimes it's hard to get over heartbreak... I almost lost my mind when Edward left... so I can understand a bit of where she's coming from with that attitude. Do they know about… you know… your other half?" Bella asked timidly.

Jared laughed. "Other half? Hmmm... no, and they can't. That was even more difficult to face alone, my mom thinks that I'm always up to no good with my gang, and the tattoos didn't help either... so on top of that, she liked Kim probably because she could boss her around... and she is a bit… hmmm... racist too... so you being white... won't help to win her over... I'm sorry Bella, I've brought a lot of trouble in your life!" he finished, scared that after all this Bella would eventually think he wasn't worth it.

She put her head on his chest. "Jared, listen to me. I love you, I put you through a lot too and you were there right along with me... you faced the Volturi for me. You put up with me and Jake, and all my insecurities... but this is actually the most normal of all our problems. Lots of couples have to confront parental disapproval, it's normal in a relationship. So don't worry, you are stuck with me for life. We'll face your mom and if she doesn't like me now, she'll like me eventually... maybe when she sees that I'm here to stay and that I just want to make you happy..."

Jared sighed and kissed her forehead. "Okay then, we'll face everything together. Thanks Bella for being... you."

She laughed. "Now let's get to the kitchen, I need to prepare one of my cakes. I want to win your family's affection with my special sweet." She led him into the house and he smiled softly. Their relationship didn't start well, but it was definitely doing better now.

"Oh, I forgot something... Jacob called me and he is planning on leaving tomorrow. He told me to pass along the message, he would be happy to say goodbye to you." Jared said eyeing Bella carefully.

He knew how painful it was going to be for her to see Jacob leave. For as much as he knew that Bella belonged solely to him, a chunk of her heart would always be linked to Jacob.

Bella was mixing the ingredients with her back turned so he couldn't see her face when she said, "Okay... tomorrow morning I'll go over and say goodbye."

Her tone of voice was flat, without much emotion. Jared understood that she was hurting, but he knew that there wasn't anything he could do about it. He was still dealing with the loss of Kim, and the way he had to fight her in his flat. He shook his head, this wasn't the time to grieve; he would do that in private. Bella didn't deserve to be burdened with his pain in addition to hers. "If you want I can see if I can talk him out of leaving..." He finally told her, he would do anything to see Bella happy even put up with her close relationship with Jacob.

She turned to look at him with a ghost of a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "It's okay Jared, Jacob needs to be on his own for a while and sorts things out. He isn't that far away and we can always go to see him." Then she turned again and she added, "Does the pack... hate me?"

He was shocked, what was she talking about? "Bella? Why would they hate you?"

"Because..." he could see that she was shaking now, was she crying?" Because his leaving is my fault... we all know that..." She finally whispered.

He walked to her and enveloped her in his arms. "Bella, it isn't your fault. I imprinted on you and we couldn't do anything about it. When Jacob phased he had been warned about imprinting, and while he might think that he would have been stronger than the pull and be faithful to the love he felt for you... the truth is we will never know... maybe five years from now when you two were happy together, he would meet someone and bam... he would break your heart in a second... me, you or him can't really say it... he chose to love you and now he has to accept the consequences... besides as you said, you wouldn't have been with him anyway… you would have stuck to Edward and I know you were telling the truth... so his heart would have been broken either way."

She sighed, and snuggled in his arms. "You're right... forgive me for being..."

He kissed her forehead. "There is nothing to forgive. When Edward left it hurt you and now that Jacob is leaving you're just feeling that abandonment all over again... but this time it's different Bella, Jacob loves you and will continue to do so no matter where he is... and he'll keep in touch because he can't live without you and neither can you."

She turned in his arms and smiled weakly. "Thank you Jared, I feel very lucky to have you. I'm sorry that sometimes I lose it."

He smiled at her. "Don't worry; if you survive the meeting with my mom unscathed we'll call it even."

She laughed. "Sure sure." Then she turned to cook and Jared sat at the kitchen table watching his future wife cooking. He could get used to that, actually he would get used to that.

...

The time to go see his family arrived much too soon, and Jared started to feel tense. Nobody knew how bad his relationship with his mother really was; luckily he had phased right after Sam and he had learned easily to mask his thoughts. He knew his pack found him an enigma, but the truth was he didn't want to add misery to the already fucked up pack-mind. With Sam tortured by his imprint on Emily, Jacob's heartbreak over Bella, Leah's anger towards Sam, Paul's anger towards life itself he wondered how they all kept it together.

Bella's hand on his thigh brought him out of his reverie. "Jared? Are you okay? I can feel your tension."

He smiled at her. "It's okay, just thinking about my mom."

Bella bit her lip. "I can't imagine how hard it must have been to grow up in your family, but I want you to know that I'm here and that no matter what we'll get through it. I... I told Charlie that I was staying at your place tonight, so if after dinner we need to talk we'll have all the time in the world."