The day had passed quite quickly after Jane's little exhibition. I was still racking my brains over her sudden personality change when I pulled up in front of the house. I let the engine idle for a while, still wondering, before sighing and cutting it abruptly. I probably wouldn't be able to figure her out anyway. She was plain weird.

To my surprise I noted Charlie's cruiser was sitting on the driveway looking completely at home. I scowled at it. It looked more serene than I was at the moment. Though I couldn't really complain, what with having made up with Edward and all. Still, I hadn't counted on Charlie being home. I had wanted to have a nice long talkathon with Edward over the phone regarding Jane's bizarre state of mind.

I opened the unlocked door, sighing slightly. I had told him time and again that he needed to lock the door. He might be Chief Swan, but in his own home with his gun and belt put up, he was just another potbellied, baseball-loving dad sitting at home watching TV. If a robber came in...I shuddered.

I clomped into the house, hanging up my damp jacket. The TV blared distantly and Charlie poked his head out. "Hey there, kiddo."

I managed a tiny smile. "Hi, Dad. What're you doing home from work so early?" I added weakly.

Charlie shrugged sheepishly. "Well...things were going kinda slow at the station, and Mark suddenly returned three days early from his vacation so I thought I'd come home and see my daughter for a change." He grinned suddenly and reached over to ruffle my hair. "You know, Bells, I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."

"Exaggeration," I protested. "You saw me this morning."

"I meant a good talk, father to daughter. Apart from dinner."

He had me there. Charlie smiled triumphantly. "Fine, okay, Dad. But what exactly were you planning on? If you tell me baseball..." I groaned.

Charlie pursed his lips, as if he was actually considering it. Ugh. Baseball? Not me. "Well, actually...I was going to go over to Billy's. Jacob came down with some virus of some sort. I wanted to see how he was doing."

Virus? Oh...that explained why he had been skipping so much school. I frowned. "And does this have anything to do with the new sixteen-inch plasma flat screen Billy just bought?" I teased. The new TV had been all Charlie could talk about the past couple weeks.

Charlie bit his lip sheepishly and looked at me hopefully. I groaned and surrendered.

.xXx.

"Wow, your truck is slow," Charlie commented. I glared at him. Oh, so the man who drives a police cruiser around was knocking my truck? He had some nerve. "What? I'm just saying."

I huffed slightly and parked the truck. Charlie hopped out before I cut the engine. I got out after him and hurried to the door, where he had already imposed his omnipresent bulk. Billy opened the door brightly before Charlie knocked.

"Nice to see you, Bella," Billy greeted me. "Jacob's in bed. He's still recuperating. I think he's kinda weak. The virus took a lot out of him."

"What virus was it?" I asked, easing my way past Charlie's parked body on the front step and entering the house. Billy snickered a little at that.

"Not really sure, actually. The doctor down here isn't really competent, and we didn't want to bother your Dr Cullen up there. He must be quite busy. It's probably nothing more than the flu." Billy winked at me and practically dragged Charlie to their living room, where he proudly showed off the sparkling new TV set with a rather grandiose air. I rolled my eyes.

"Nice, eh? You should see the details that show up on this baby. Jake was watching Fast and Furious 2 last night, and boy, the action was beyond awesome-"

"Jacob's up?" I interrupted. Billy looked a little surprised by my curtness. Evidently he had no clue of what was going on.

"Yeah, actually. A little grumpy, but he's fine as long as you leave his food alone. He insisted on getting some exercise. For some reason he thinks he's aging." Billy laughed loudly, reminding me of Emmett's guffaws. "I told him never to say that around a greying old man."

"You're not greying," I protested. "And you're not old either."

Charlie sniffed in mock sadness. "If he's old, I'm ancient," he whined. I giggled. Charlie was a different story altogether. I believe he's almost fifty.

"Can't I even get some sleep?"

Jacob's whiny voice echoed through the house, and everyone froze. I looked at Charlie and Billy and fought an urge to laugh. Charlie had frozen in the middle of punching Billy's shoulder. Both were looking in the direction of the staircase. Finally Billy managed to call out, "It's almost six, son."

"In the morning?"

Billy sighed. "You have a window in your room, open it, why don't you?"

Jacob grunted. I could hear him clump down the stairs, yawning hugely. "Who's there? I heard someone laughing."

"Come in and see, then," Billy called, sounding a tad irritated.

I was sorely tempted to duck behind the glossy TV. Of course, I didn't. I still had my pride to protect, as bruised and wounded it was. Though I did take a tiny half-step behind that was so miniscule nobody even noticed.

Jacob appeared, his face bleary with exhaustion. His eyes widened when he spotted Charlie standing in the hallway looking a bit awkward before sliding to rest on me. His face grew pinched. Was he that mad at me? Something squeezed in me in return.

Then his face relaxed, and it was as if the expression never existed. "Hi, Chief," he said, grinning suddenly. "Come to visit our new TV? I heard it's very interested in meeting you."

Charlie laughed, relaxing from his weird pose. "Hope you don't mind me living here, Jacob," he joked.

"Naw, it's cool." Jacob leaned around to wink at me with easy familiarity. "Hey there, Bells."

I could only stare at him in shock as Charlie and Billy moved over to the TV to gush over its amazing qualities. Way to go, Dad, leaving me stranded there with Jacob.

Jake cleared his throat nervously. "Um. Bella. I-I just wanted to say something."

I groaned and flung myself against the wall, throwing my hands up. "I knew it. I just knew it. You didn't want to see me, you just wanted to bash me up more than you already have. What is it now, Jacob? What kind of blasphemy do you want to accuse me of this time? Or did you want to...to slam me for doing some petty crime that is apparently so damn heinous to you?"

Jacob stared at me for about three seconds before breaking out in crazy laughter. Billy and Charlie popped out from around the corner, shrugged, and went back to gushing again.

Time stopped. Bird stopped chirping. Water in rivers stopped flowing. The earth stopped orbiting the sun. I saw red.

"WHAT?!" I shrieked. "After all that, you STILL have nerve to laugh in my face?! How dare you, Jacob Black? Damn you! Damn you to hell!"

With that, I turned to stomp out of the house and drive off, leaving Charlie behind stranded. He could walk back for all I care. Served him right for dragging me into this mess with Jacob Effing Black.

"Wait-wait, Bells. Give-me-a-moment," Jacob gasped, lunging at me and grabbing my wrist. I stopped and whirled to face him, arms folded across my chest and staring at him in stony silence. It took Jacob more than a minute to stop laughing. He slapped his hands over his mouth to try drown out the laughter. I tapped my foot impatiently.

"I was-was-I...I was..."

And then he gave up and started laughing again. I yelled out, frustrated. "What?!" I hollered.

"I was trying to apologize!" Jacob screamed, clutching his sides. And he had the nerve to keep laughing.

I froze, dumbstruck. Somewhere further down Charlie and Billy started howling with laughter. "W-what?"

I seem to be using that word a lot today.

"I was going to apologize to you in school-you know, flower petals all over your locker, your photo all over the school, Forgive Me Bella fliers distributed-but then I came down with this stupid virus and missed so much school. Thank God I practically begged Billy to invite Charlie and you over for dinner or I wouldn't have seen you for another week. I just didn't know you would come over today, of all times."

With that, he started laughing. Again. I huffed slightly.

"Pfft, Jacob, you could've just said so," I muttered.

"I tried, Bells. You just didn't want to listen," he pointed out. I grunted, refusing to acknowledge that he was right.

"Hmph," I grumbled, and stomped to Charlie, leaving Jacob behind laughing.

Did it suck? Did it rock? So sorry that it took so long for this chapter, but I had trouble finding inspiration. And by the way, does anybody want a one-shot on how Jacob's apology would've gone if he had gone to school? I have a weird urge to go dramatic and write a bizarre story on that, but if nobody wants it then I won't waste my time. And as always, review or Bella will catch Edward making out with Jane and run away screaming to find Jacob making out with Rosalie!