Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

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Playing With Fire
Chapter Five: Shock

I practically burst down the door to the house, ready to get out of the rain and out of the sopping wet clothes that were clinging to my body. This was the second time in a day I had been in drenched clothes, and I was surprised that I wasn't sick already.

I sneezed.

Way to jinx yourself, Bella. I chided myself, looking for Charlie. There he was, in the living room, watching some television. Most likely a game, due to the frantic look in his eyes. His team must be losing, but at the sound of my sneeze, he looked over to me, his face crinkling with a smile.

"Welcome back, Bells." He appraised my attire, "Forget an umbrella?"

"Oh, you have no idea." I told him as I walked into the kitchen. I felt the heat at my back, so I supposed Paul was following me.

"Paul?" Charlie's voice was incredulous, as if that was the last person he'd expect to see in our house.

"Hey, Chief Swan." Paul said, his voice strangely polite. Well, I guess he had to have a civil side somewhere. It was probably the reason he hadn't been killed by angry villagers yet.

"Just Charlie. You know that." Charlie smiled at him.

Wow. I thought to myself, walking into the kitchen. Paul stayed in the living room, chatting with Charlie about Lord knows what. Their easy familiarity was unsettling, but I guess it was better than me bringing home a guy that my father was totally unacquainted with. I shuddered at the thought of what would've happened if he hadn't have known Paul.

I decided to go all out tonight and make beef stroganoff. It was Charlie's favorite dish, and one that I didn't make as often as the others because it took up so much time. From the lack of pizza boxes around him, I figured he hadn't eaten yet, so that made me glad. I hoped Paul would like this as well, and that part scared me just a bit - me wanting Paul to like my cooking?

I found it amazing how much feelings can change in the span of a few hours.

Sighing, I got out the necessary ingredients and started on the food. Maybe this would be a needed stress-reliever. Cooking sometimes provided me a release, and I smiled as I started to boil the water and thaw the ground beef. I had everything in one pot - noodles, beef, sauce - which took about an hour, before I was interrupted

"Bells?" My father's voice came from the doorway and I looked at him, granting him a smile that only slightly felt out of place on my features. I felt lighter than I had all day, and I hoped it showed. I didn't feel like discussing the reason for my elevated mood, because in all truthfulness, it had to do with that damned werewolf that was now sitting in my living room. And I felt too prideful to give credit to him of all people for pulling me out of my funk.

"Hey, Dad." I said, turning back to my cooking.

I didn't realize the tone of his voice was leading up to something serious until he just came out with the bomb.

"Paul told me what happened."

I tensed, my knuckles becoming white as they clenched the spoon I was stirring the food with, "What?"

Had he really the nerve to tell my father that I was a mess after Jacob told me he was in love with Leah now? Did he really mention how broken I was when he found me, crumpled on the side of the road, punching the tire of my truck and sobbing?

How dare he!

"But you seem to be holding up well."

Ignoring his comment, I demanded, "What did he say?"

"Just that Jacob was dating Leah now. And he was trying to help you." Charlie said, and I didn't doubt him. I knew Paul couldn't tell him the whole situation, because that was against the rules. "His intentions seem good, Bella, so please don't be too - "

Before he could say anything else, I stomped into the living room, not caring that my stroganoff was probably burning right at this moment. "Paul!"

"Hey, Martha Stewart, what's wrong?" He asked, quirking a brow. I ignored his playful tone and stood right in front of him, hands on my hips, no doubt looking like a woman possessed. The heat in the room had dried my clothes for the most part, but my hair was still damp and sticking out in odd directions. I hadn't even bothered to go change, which was probably a dumb decision on my part, but I was so wrapped up in cooking that I didn't bother.

"You. Told. Charlie." I barked, making every word a sentence.

"Yeah, so?" Paul drawled, as if it were no big deal.

"Did it ever occur to you that I didn't want him to know, you stupid wolf?" I snarled, trying to make my voice as intimidating as possible.

Apparently, it was very hard to intimidate a werewolf.

"I thought he should." Paul said, yawning and totally ignoring my insult, "I mean, if you suddenly lapsed back to how you were before Jacob helped you, without Charlie knowing why, wouldn't you think that would worry him?"

"I wasn't." I insisted.

I had vowed to myself earlier that day to not be a burden to anyone. To not go through that zombie phase again. It was taxing on everyone the first time, and not to mention that things were almost normal again - or as normal as they could be without Edward, I winced as the pain seared through me as I thought of him - and I…maybe, just a bit, I wanted to be as normal as possible.

"Mm, hm." Paul said, leaning back, stretching his limbs so far that his feet hovered above the coffee table.

"Don't you think he'd be more worried now that you told him?" I sighed, exasperated. All this anger was tiring, but it was still slowly simmering beneath my skin.

"I think he'd be more worried if he didn't know what was wrong and you went all zombie Bella on him again."

Damn him, he had a point.

But why did he have to be so infuriating?

"See? For a stupid wolf, I got some brains." He tapped his head with a single, slender finger.

I suddenly felt bad for insulting him, which I shouldn't have. I had every right to be mad, but…I didn't feel good for calling him a stupid wolf. Instead of apologizing, of course, I said, "Sounds hollow to me."

Paul gave me a toothy grin. It had more of an edge to it than Jacob's usually sunny smile, but it wasn't like the hard, awful smile that reminded me of Sam. This smile was different, unique. Rough and wild, just like him.

I liked looking at his smile more than I wanted to admit.

"Er, Bella?" My dad's voice came from the kitchen, "Bella!"

"What, Dad?"

"Your…er…food is…uh…"

"Shit!" I cursed under my breath, low enough for Charlie not to hear. Paul laughed, obviously having heard me.

I raced into the kitchen, only to see the smoking pot of what used to be beef stroganoff. I looked at it, half of it was burned to the bottom of the pot, while the other half looked completely inedible.

"Oh no…" I groaned. I had been so intent on screaming at Paul that I had forgotten about the food on the stove. And now it was utterly, completely ruined. I slapped myself on the forehead, not minding the resounding sting that accompanied the action.

"I'm sorry, Bella…I didn't know…" Charlie trailed off, and I believed him. Like I had told Paul before, Charlie couldn't cook his way out of a paper bag.

"It's fine…" I felt my cheeks heat up, remembering the other thing I had told Paul before we had gotten inside.

"You'll be stunned speechless."

Right. Now it looked like he'd be stunned speechless by my stupidity at leaving my food unattended.

I groaned and moved to throw the ruined food outside, where some bird or animal could enjoy it. Paul watched my movements carefully, with a lazy smile on his features, and I snapped at him, "Don't say a word."

"You're saying it all, sweetheart." He replied with a playful venom.

I wanted to hit him.

Strange how I could be so grateful for Paul one minute and then feel so resentful of him the next. I swear that man was making me bipolar or something. It was very odd at the constant change of emotions, like a roller coaster, swinging me about, taking me to the peak of happiness and then bringing me down into the valley of anger and dismay.

At least you're feeling something. A voice nudged in the back of my mind.

I had to agree.

It was dark outside, and chilly. I could feel the cold of the lingering winter. All of the heavy rain that had poured down today didn't help with the temperature. But at least it stopped, that was the last thing I needed, the rain whipping around me like it had all day, pretty much.

Once I was toward the edge of the woods, far away from the house, I turned the pot over and dumped out the contents. It took me longer than I had to, for I had to scrape and scrape to get the remnants of the stroganoff off of the bottom of the pot. As soon as I had gotten done with that, I looked up and into the forest that surrounded my house.

I got a chill, and I was pretty sure it wasn't from the cold. I gazed into the forest and wondered why I felt so…vulnerable. It was almost like someone was watching me, waiting for my reaction. I didn't know why I felt that way - it was something I found myself unable to explain…

A white-hot hand grasped my wrist.

"Bloodsucker." The snarl was in my ear, protective and defensive all at once.

I turned to see who it was that held my wrist, though I knew who it would be as soon as I heard the voice. "What…Paul?"

"She's gone." He said, but his grip didn't lessen.

I looked at him, my eyes demanding an answer, but…but suddenly, all of his nonsensical words had slapped me in the face at full force, rendering me unable of making coherent thoughts.

"Bloodsucker." He had said, and it was full of hatred.

The only other vampire here, that would possibly be near Forks…

Red hair flashed through my mind, and eyes, equally as red, flared in my vision.

"Victoria." I whispered through trembling lips.

Had she been right here? Was that the strange sense of voyeurism I had felt while I emptied the pot of ruined food? Was she watching me, waiting for an opportunity? A shiver rippled down my spine.

Paul's hand clenched tighter around my wrist, so tight that I felt like he was going to cause my bones to crack in his strong grip.

"Let's go inside, Bella." His kind voice was a gentle caress in my ear, though he still sounded tense. I could feel the air around him shimmer and shift as he tried to ward off the transformation.

"Is…is she gone?" I voiced, feeling more fragile than ever.

"Yeah. For now." I saw his ears twitch slightly at some invisible sound, "Sam and Jared are chasing her now."

"How do you know?"

He pointed to his ears with a slight smile, "Wolf hearing."

"O-Of course."

I let Paul tug me back to the front door, feeling like I was on wobbling legs the entire time. My previous façade of bravery that I had been desperately trying to uphold in front of him was shattered at my feet, leaving me open and vulnerable.

"She knows where I live."

I heard Paul growl deeply after I said that, and I wondered why he cared.

He moved us along, and finally we arrived at the front door. He opened it and told me to try to compose myself enough so that Charlie wouldn't think there was anything wrong. I nodded, because that was what I wanted most of all - to protect my father. He didn't deserve to get dragged into the world of the supernatural, and I needed to try my best to give him the most protection I could, though that was hard in my current, weak, human state.

"Get lost, Bells?" Charlie said from the couch, giving me a wary smile.

"I guess you could say that." I said, my voice wavering, but I tried to keep the fright from it.

"I ordered pizza."

"That's good." I said, gulping, and looking at Paul, who was smiling forcibly.

"Everything alright?" Charlie was sometimes too perceptive for his own good.

"Bella just saw a snake outside." Paul laughed, clapping on my back. In that moment, he reminded me so much of Emmett that my chest constricted with crippling pain. If the werewolf's hand wasn't holding me up and to him, I would have crumpled. "Haha, so cute, ain't she?"

It was clearly a joke, a made up thing, fabricated and false to keep Charlie from knowing the truth, but I was sure my face was as far from cute as I could possibly get right now. I was shocked that he referred to me that way, though. If I hadn't been so scared for my life, I might have even been flattered.

"Yeah." Charlie said with a wistfulness that I almost smiled at. My hands were trembling. "She hated them when she was a little girl."

He didn't ask why a snake was out at night in the rain, but we didn't push it.

"S-Still do." I gave a rough laugh and felt Paul's hand slip from around my wrist. Somehow this simple gesture made me feel naked and exposed - unprotected. As if his stupid, grasping hand was enough to keep Victoria at bay.

The doorbell rang and I about jumped out of my skin.

"Don't worry, Bella. Snakes don't have arms. They can't ring doorbells." Charlie chided in a tone that was so out of place in my chaos clouded brain.

And, typically enough, it was the pizza delivery guy. Surprisingly, as small as Forks was, we had a pizza place with delivery service, and for that I was glad. It was going to take a lot to get me out of the house the next day.

We ate in silence, with the ball game on in the background. I idly looked at the score, and saw Charlie's irate expression - yeah, his team was definitely losing. I kept stealing glances at Paul, wondering what he was doing. He was obviously going easy on the pizza, though his face showed that he wanted nothing more than to eat the whole box and then possibly order at least five more.

But his eyes. His eyes were guarded. Though he was clearly enjoying the pizza, he was glancing around the place, keeping guard. This made me feel safer, but somehow I felt uneasy about him going up against Victoria alone. Not that she would come directly into the house - no, I think she wanted just me, and to get what she wanted, she wanted me alone. To make me suffer.

Laurent's words from the meadow came back with startling clarity, "If only you knew what she had planned for you…"

I shivered, despite the toasty heat of the room.

The hour seemed to go by quickly. I was barely aware when Paul said it was getting late and that he had to get on home. Good thing Charlie didn't know we had arrived in the same vehicle, or he would've asked how he was getting home. It made me uneasy to think of Paul outside, hunting Victoria, along with any of the wolves. I hated it…

Paul said his goodbyes, gave me a look I would describe as meaningful, and left.

He just…left.

Charlie was turning off the television to the living room, looking exhausted. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was almost ten o'clock. Shaking my head, I groaned as I watched Charlie walk up the stairs to his bedroom. "I'm going to head to bed, Bella."

"Saw that…" I muttered, trying to inject some semblance of joking there, but it fell flat.

"You should too…you look sick." Charlie called down to me. "Sleep good."

The click of his door was the only noise I heard before I let the tears start streaming down my face. Crying. Again. This was just fucking wonderful. I wiped the stubborn tears from my cheeks and walked on shaky legs to my room. A sneeze interrupted me, causing me to stumble forward slightly, scraping my knee on one of the steps. I groaned at my own weakness and forced myself up the rest of the way. I almost ran to my door. Once I was in my room, I slammed it behind me, pressing my back against the wood, sliding down to the floor in a helpless mess.

I heard something move in my room. My heart stopped in my chest as I searched the area, but couldn't find anything, for the lights were off. Stupid. I chastised myself as I reached up to flip the light switch.

The room was lit up immediately, and there was Paul.

"Damn it, what are you doing in here?" I hissed at him, my heart thudding violently in my chest.

"I was checking to see if there were any bloodsuckers up here." Paul snapped back, his eyebrows narrowing at me, "You could at least be thankful I'm thinking about your safety."

I was too shook up to be touched by his words. "I thought you were the vampire."

"Never." Paul scoffed, shoving his hands in his pockets. His bare chest was wet with newly fallen rain, and I realized he had been outside as well.

It was quiet for a moment, the silence palpable.

"I'm going to be patrolling around your house tonight." Paul voiced, and I couldn't even hide my shock.

"You…you don't have to." I told him, stumbling over my words, "I don't want to be a burden."

The fact was, no matter how much I didn't want him to worry over me, I would feel better if anyone was watching out for me, even if it was Paul.

"Geez. I see what Jake's been talking about this whole time. Well, thinking, actually." Paul groaned, running a hand through his wet, matted hair, "You really are too self-sacrificing. Seriously, Bella, you look green, and I know that you would feel better if I stayed outside around your house."

"Well, then it's settled." Paul said, stubbornly crossing his arms over his muscled chest, "You'll have nothing to worry about."

Suddenly, it felt like I was looking at Paul completely different. I had seen so many sides of him throughout today, and it was starting to all blur together. Was it really just earlier today that I had sworn I hated him? And then there was a healthy amount of respect I'd developed for him after the thing at the diner, and now this chivalrous side? It was insane… My head started to whirl. But then again, it could just be the desire to kill Victoria. Yes, that was it. No personal tie to it at all. Just to get another "filthy leech" out of Forks.

But there was a protectiveness in Paul's eyes that made me hope - foolishly - something different.

I shook my head slightly, wanting to rid that thought from my mind more than anything.

So I said, in a small voice, through frozen lips, "Thank you."

"Well, that's a first." Paul scoffed, his voice light and easy, though the utter unease never left his face. He turned to the open window he came in, and said, "I'll be around."

Then, he leapt through the air, so elegant and graceful that he resembled a trapeze artist.

I was left alone - alone but not alone at the same time - with drying tears on my cheeks and the sensation of invisible, enclosing hands around my neck.

End Chapter Five.

There y'all have it! The fifth chapter. It totally went in a different direction than I was planning, but I rather liked how it turned out. I just took the idea and ran with it, and here we are. I'm trying to build trust in the relationship between Bella and Paul, so she doesn't see him as just an arrogant asshole. Lol.

Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter! I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions. I always love that. Haha. Thanks so much for reading this fic! I appreciate it more than you know!