A/N I know you guys are extremely pissed because I haven't updated in so long, but what with school starting and a shitload of personal issues, I just haven't had time to update XD But I'm back so hopefully my updating won't be so infrequent. So please forgive me *puppy dog eyes* Thanks for all the alerts and favorites and reviews, I enjoy every single one!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, SM does!

Previously

Bella rolled her eyes. "Not everything that happens on the rez remains a secret, as I'm sure you know. Eventually every single bad decision or tragedy that has occurred on Quileute land since I left will come to light. And I cannot wait for that to happen."

She suddenly stiffened and as if in a trance, pulled out a drawing pencil along with her sketchbook, opening it and turning to a blank page. She began to furiously draw and her eyes looked strangely unfocused.

Kim and the rest of the pack looked at her in concern. "Bella? Bella! What's happening?"

Before they knew it, the Cullens were at the table, surrounding Bella and causing the wolves to growl at them in warning.

Jasper glared at them. "I'm trying to help her." He knelt down and tried to turn Bella's head from the page. "Darlin', look at me now. What are you seeing?"

Bella's eyes returned to normal and she lifted up the sketch for them to see. "He's coming."

Chapter Six: Help is a Dish Best Served Hot

Bella had never been more scared in her entire life. She thought that the Cullens had run him off years ago. She knew he said that he'd come back for her, but after so long, she had hoped he had forgotten or found someone else to torture.

Bella felt something shaking at her table. It took her a while to realize that it was her. She heard voices around her, but they seemed muted. All that kept flashing in her mind, was the feel of his hand on her cheek, saying that he'd 'come back for her.' She guessed that time had arrived.

She was only able to snap out of it when she began to feel increasingly angry. The voices rushed back, low growls and snarls becoming evident.

Bella immediately glared at Jasper, who merely shrugged. "You weren't snapping out of it, darlin'."

She made eye contact with her family. "We need to leave."

Jacob jumped up. "Now wait a fucking minute! What is going on?"

Jasper gave him a hard stare. "It's none of your concern, mutt."

Paul rose up as well. "No, I'm with Jacob on this. Bella just tuned the fuck out and started drawing shit. We want answers!"

Bella raised an eyebrow at Jacob and then Paul. "Who are you to make demands? Was there anything in the treaty that specifically stated that you are privy to everything the Platts do?"

Embry spoke up. "You promised that you would be at Sam's after school."

She laughed cheerlessly. "So I did." As she saw the confused glances of her family, she explained. "Kim, apparently, needs help with math."

Edward shook his head. "She's lying, she's a wiz at math."

Bella sighed. "I know she's lying, but I suppose this is their way of saying that I've been summoned by the council and they had to figure out some way of getting me there."

The pack looked sheepish, while Kim was clearly apologetic, sorry that she had to trick Bella to make her come to La Push.

Rosalie and Jasper immediately voiced their protests. Rosalie was the first to speak. "Bella, you can't go to La Push where you're unprotected, we'd never know what happened to you."

Jasper was more aggressive. "There is no fucking way in hell that you are going there alone."

Bella rolled her eyes. "You know very well that I can protect myself, you taught me how. I'll be fine. Besides, it wouldn't do to upset the council, the treaty is shaky enough as it is."

Jasper took a deep breath, clearly conflicted. "All right. But you are to keep your phone with you at all times and your shield down. And you're taking Rosie's car."

Bella grimaced but acquiesced with his demands grudgingly. Not a moment too soon, either, as the bell rang.

Since Bella did not have anymore classes with her family, she shot each of them a look. "Don't do anything about it until I'm home. We need to talk about this together."

They all nodded, but didn't seem too convinced.

Satisfied, Bella picked up her books and bag, loping off to gym.

(~=~=~=~=~=~)

Bella sighed as she turned off the ignition of the car. She sat parked in front of her cousin's house. She never thought that she would ever step foot at this house again, after the pain both her and her mother had gone through because of family. She felt that she just had to take a few moments to herself, to take it all in before she went inside.

She smiled wryly as she saw one of the curtains in the house twitch. It seemed that someone was impatient. Bella took a deep breath, steeling herself for what was to come, until she felt her phone vibrate.

It will be fine. Now put your big girl panties on and show 'em that you don't mess with the Whitlocks!

Bella smirked, Peter always knew what to say and at times like these, it made her miss him even more. She vowed that she would be seeing him soon as she got out of the car, shutting the door none too gently as she walked up the pathway, knocking on the old cabin door sardonically.

The door opened seconds later, as if someone had been standing at the door, waiting for her to come.

A woman answered it, smiling warmly at her. She was quite beautiful, despite the three scratches that ran down her face. "Hello, I'm Emily. Please come inside."

She reminded Bella strangely of Esme, causing her to immediately be on the defensive. Bella couldn't withhold herself from commenting. "Sam was never known for his self-control, was he?" She seemed to ignore the growls coming from around the room.

Emily's face fell but her confusion was still evident. "What do you mean? Aside from Seth, Sam is the most controlled out of all of the pack."

Bella laughed. "Really? Your face says otherwise."

Bella took this time to look around the room, ignoring the glares of the other wolves and finding that not only was the entire pack here, but so were the Elders. She silently observed that Billy was now in a wheelchair and looked at Old Quil with saddened eyes. She shook her head and smirked. "If I knew that you were throwing a party, I would have brought friends."

Old Quil narrowed his eyes. "Seeing as how you have taken to living with bloodsuckers, I'm not sure I want to be in the company of your friends."

Anger flashed in Bella's eyes and she shrugged, walking airily over to the seat she supposed they'd saved for her, crossing her legs and drumming her fingers on the table.

Billy cleared his throat. "Now we will begin the meeting. As we all know, we are here to question Isabella Cullen on her whereabouts since her absence and any events that pertain to her leaving."

Old Quil nodded. "I, for one, wonder where her mother is. Since we have discovered that the Platts' coven leader is mated to her father."

The pack began to talk amongst themselves, as they had forgotten all about that in the excitement of finding that Bella had returned.

Bella stared pointedly ahead, clearly refusing to look any of them in the eye or answer any questions.

Billy sighed. "Isabella, where is your mother?"

Bella stiffened and raised an eyebrow. "It seems that you are all under the impression that I will answer any of your questions, after what you did to me and my family."

Old Quil was almost trembling with rage. "You insolent girl! What happened to you and your family was entirely the fault of your mother! She went against her tribe to marry your father and it appears to have been all for nothing since he shacked up with the next female he met! Now I repeat, where is your mother now?"

Bella jumped up, eyes shining with tears in her anger. "My father loved my mother with all his heart and don't you ever insult my family again!"

Old Quil sneered at her and continued on. "I wouldn't be surprised if they'd killed her. I hear leeches don't exactly like to share their mates."

Bella was practically shaking with her fury, almost as bad as the pack did before they phased. Jacob growled warningly, sensing the pain this was causing his imprint.

Bella couldn't contain her retort. "You bastard! My mother may be dead but it wasn't due to the Platts or my father! Maybe you should take another look at yourselves to answer that question."

The pack was clearly shocked at this and a confused Billy spoke up. "What do you mean, Isabella? Your mother has not been seen by any of us since the night you left."

Bella glared at him, her eyes pained. "If you would have kept better control of your pack back then, then perhaps it wouldn't have happened."

There was an uproar at this, it was one thing to be disrespectful to a Pack member, but not the former Alpha and Chief of the Tribe.

Leah, having always seen Billy as a second father, jumped up. "You bitch! How dare you say that! Billy was one of the best Alphas this tribe ever had."

Bella snorted. "Sit down, you ignorant child and let the adults speak. Forgive me if I don't trust the judgment of a girl who's main concern back then was tormenting the lives of young children."

Billy seemed to regain his speech. "I have tolerated your disrespect because I admit that the tribe has wronged your family. But I will not tolerate you undermining my authority. I kept a very tight control on my pack. Actually, around that time, we had all decided to stop phasing and wait for the next generation of the pack to arise. We'd sensed no vampires in the area for months and wanted to age along with our spouses."

Bella decided to refrain from calling his bullshit, knowing that imprints didn't age as long as the wolves continued to phase, but she did decide to call him out on something else. "Really? So there was no objections from anyone in the pack, Billy?"

The pack had dumbfounded expressions as Billy appeared to get flustered and refused to look anyone in the eye.

She smiled, almost malevolently, as she took in his state. "Answer the question, Billy."

The pack all leaned forward, anticipating his answer. He cleared his throat. "There might have been one member who wasn't enthusiastic about it."

Bella's smile fell, but she was clearly determined to hear his answer. "And who was this person, Billy?"

Billy's eyes flashed in Sam's direction before he cleared his throat once more, mumbling something under his breath.

Bella motioned to her ear. "I couldn't quite catch that, can you speak up please?"

Billy looked at the pack apologetically. "Joshua Uley."

Sam bristled at the mention of his father's name. "What does he have to do with this?"

Bella chuckled mirthlessly, the pain clear in her voice. "He has everything to do with this."

Everyone seemed completely clueless as to what she was getting at. She decided to give them a hint. "Billy, tell me. When exactly did Joshua Uley take off?"

Billy thought about it for a moment. "Why, I believe he left…" His voice trailed off as the realization dawned on him. "The day you left."

Quil sighed. "That's all fine and dandy, but what has that got to do with anything?"

Bella turned to him with regret in her eyes, saddened that she would have to be the one to tell him the true fate of his father. She decided to speak directly to him, refusing to address Old Quil. "Quil, how exactly did your father die?"

The rest of the pack glared at her for bringing up something that still caused Quil pain. Quil's voice was hoarse with emotion as he answered her. "He died in a car crash. His neck was broken on impact."

Bella nodded silently, before addressing the rest of them. "Now, explain to me how a young werewolf, with remarkably good reflexes, could get himself killed in a car crash."

Silence reigned for several minutes before they all realized how right she was.

Old Quil narrowed his eyes, clearly not trusting her. "What are you trying to say?"

Bella steeled herself. "I'm saying that your son did not die in a car crash, rather by the hand of one of his brothers."

Everyone was stunned into silence, Billy the only one to speak up. "Are you insinuating that Joshua Uley brought about the death of Quil Jr.?"

Bella shook her head in the affirmative. "It's time you all should know what happened that night. I may despise all of you right now, but I'm definitely not mean enough to withhold vital information from the tribe."

Everyone remained silent as she began to tell them everything. How Joshua couldn't stand for his sister to move away from La Push, and how he had had a vampire kill Quil and stage it as an accident when Quil Jr. refused to help him in his plans. She told them about the deal he'd struck up with James and how her mother and unborn siblings had died. She stopped the story there, feeling as though they didn't need to hear the rest of the story.

Old Quil had undergone a transformation, his skin pale and grief clearly showing in his eyes. He walked over to her, leaning heavily on his cane, and placed a hand on her shoulder. His voice shook with emotion. "Thank you for revealing this to me. I'm sorry for your loss and I apologize for saying that your father had anything to do with it. Your mother was a wonderful woman, strange yes, but all together a wonderful woman. My son dated your mother, did you know?"

Bella smiled weakly and nodded, choosing not to bring up the fact that the reason why the relationship had ended was because Quil had imprinted.

Quil Jr., on the other hand, was clearly shaken up by the revelation. It was hard enough dealing with not having a father, but to discover that his father had been killed due to a deal struck between a vampire and a member of his own pack, was too much for him. Tremors rocked through his body, as he ran off, his form shimmering into a wolf before he even hit the trees.

Sam waved at Embry to go after him but Bella stopped them. "Leave him alone for a moment. This is a lot to deal with and he doesn't need pity shoved on him. Trust me, I would know."

Sam didn't exactly like being ordered around by his younger cousin, but as much as he hated to admit it, he supposed she was right.

Jacob, however, had been slowly going over the story in his mind, and it wasn't too hard to figure out that she had been leaving some things out. "You're not telling us the whole story are you? Did the Platts kill the leech?"

Bella shrugged. "It has nothing to do with the pack."

This was probably not the right thing to say to a temperamental wolf who had felt his imprint's pain throughout the story. He marched over and gently grabbed her arms, his black eyes staring down at her. "Tell us the rest. Now!"

Bella shivered, secretly liking his dominance, but shook it off as it definitely was not the time for that. She blushed slightly as she saw that the eyes of the rest of the pack were on her. "No. He ran away as soon as he heard them coming."

Embry's quiet voice interrupted her. "Not before saying he'd be back for you, right?"

Bella glared at him with fury.

Embry held his hands up. "Hey, Jake's not the only one who can put together the pieces."

Jacob began shaking. "The Platts didn't think to track him down?"

Bella narrowed her eyes, defending her family. "My dad was changing and they couldn't afford to let anyone from our family leave. Besides, he's a tracker, it takes a lot of skill to catch him. The only one who had the skill was Jasper, and he was needed to calm down Carlisle. Newborns are pretty emotional when they wake up."

Jake fought to control his tremors. "And now he's back for you."

The rest of the pack caught up to what was going on. The future Alpha's imprint was in danger and she had withheld this information from him. This would not end well.

Bella scoffed. "What's it to you? I assure you that my family will be able to handle it quite well, thank you."

Paul snorted. "They sure have been doing a good job of that so far."

Sam tried to alleviate the situation. "How about we arrange a meeting with the Platts to offer our assistance."

Bella sighed in annoyance, but grudgingly agreed. "When?"

Jacob almost growled his answer out. "Now."

Bella grimaced. "You're being ridiculous, he's hardly going to attack me anytime soon. He needs time to plan."

Jacob shook his head. "You might not want to be my imprint, and yes, I know you know, so don't pretend to be surprised, but it is my duty to protect you."

For the first time since Bella returned, she looked remorseful. "I-"

Jacob raised a hand tocut her off. "Let's just get to this meeting, I assume you'll want to alert your family."

Bella nodded and walked outside to have a conversation she was alreadydreading. She knew that the wolves could most likely still hear her, but she wanted some semblance of privacy. "Hey, Jazz…"

Bella led the way through the complicated twists and turns that led to the Platt mansion. She smiled to herself as she thought of what expression would be on Rose's face when she saw that there were wolves in her car.

It couldn't be helped. It was silly to make the wolves be uncomfortable in one car when she had room in her car. They would just have to run home.

Jacob was currently sitting in the seat next to her, stony in his silence. Her heart broke, not realizing that her behavior had been hurting him so much. She cursed Alice, and vowed to never listen to her again.

Seth and Embry were in the back seat. Everyone else was riding behind them in Sam's truck.

As they pulled into the driveway, Bella grimaced at the clearly unpleased expressions on her family's faces.

Jasper leveled her with an unconcealed scowl as he saw who was in the car with her.

Rose, on the other hand, was furious. Her silence made it clear that Bella would have to grovel on her knees for forgiveness.

Carlisle fixed his expression to something more neutral. "How can we help you?"

Car doors slammed as Sam and the rest of the pack marched over to them. Sam looked at him grimly. "I think a better question should be how we can help you."

A/N Yes, I ended it there, and yes I know that was evil. Next chapter will be the meeting and maybe a little surprise? All ya gotta do is REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW…please?