Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight series, Stephenie Meyer does
Bella's P.O.V.
I spent the next few weeks just hanging out at Jake's house. The hard part was telling Charlie about my divorce with Edward. It was painful, since Charlie still thought that I'd been sick with some horrible rare disease. When I told him, he went completely ballistic on me.
"What did that boy do to you? What did he do?" he'd practically screamed at me, his face turning a thousand different shades of red, blue and purple.
Jacob had explained thoroughly to Charlie that Edward had done nothing to me, although he seemed very reluctant to say so. He explained that after I'd recovered from my illness, we'd discovered that we weren't meant to be together and that we got into a heated argument that resulted in an agreement of divorce. Jacob explained that the Cullens decided they weren't returning to Forks and that they were moving to another state. He told Charlie that they had their house up for sale, and that was true. The town didn't know about our break up, thank God.
Charlie was extremely angry. He spent about an hour chastising me about how he knew that Edward was bad for me, and that he'd told me to not forgive him after the first time he left me. It was painful. With every mention of Edward, it was like the hole that had formed in my chest when he first left me opened up a little more. I missed him so much, and I hoped that he would return, regretful. I knew that he was doing it to protect me, but I couldn't help but feel angry and frustrated at him for leaving me again, after he'd promised me he wouldn't.
And it was that promise that fueled me to keep my faith in him, to keep believing that he'd return to me after all those weeks that were passing.
Edward's P.O.V.
Every day that passed made me miss her more and more. It was painful. If I didn't watch myself, I knew that I'd end up the same way as before, crumpled and unable to do anything. I needed to stay strong for our son, and thanks to him, I was able to pull through all my tragic pain and guilt.
It was now three weeks since I'd left her, since I'd done the hardest thing ever. Eli was now one month old. He was born on August 29th, and it was already October first. Eli was growing rapidly. He looked like a healthy 8-month-old. I could read his mind and see that he understood everything incredibly well. He never failed to surprise me.
But the most surprising moment was when we learned of his gift a few weeks ago.
We'd all been in the living room, and I had been feeding Eli a bottle of milk. We were trying not to feed him too much blood, but it was what he preferred. Eli had looked up at me with curious green eyes and then he'd reached up and placed his little chubby hand on my cheek. I'd been startled to have a vision of Bella. The vision was right after I'd taken Eli out of her. Carlisle was sowing her up and she looked peacefully asleep. I'd flinched, causing Eli's hand to fall from my face. The vision had ended abruptly. The others had stared at me strangely. That was when I realized that it was Eli's gift; he could show us his thoughts by touching us, the exact opposite of me. I could read other people's minds. Eli had shown the others as well. It was his way of asking where his mother was. It was painful, every time that he showed the only memory of Bella to me in the weeks to come.
Bella was all that he could think of.
Bella was all that I could think of.
Jacob's P.O.V.
Bella was going to attend college as soon as she was ready. She said she'd probably start off with online classes and go from there. Meanwhile, she came over to my house and we hung out like old times. I was back to being her best friend, her shoulder to lean on.
Was that good?
We sometimes went out to town. I took her to Seattle a few days ago, and we had a blast. I could really see her getting healthier. There was now color in her cheeks, she was finally gaining weight and didn't look as skinny as before. She was almost back to her normal self. She even laughed sometimes. She was slowly recuperating. I had once accidentally seen her scarred stomach when she'd stretched and her shirt had moved up. We'd both cringed. It was a pink line that started from her belly button and ended god-knows-where. She never mentioned it, but I knew she was very self-conscious about it.
Today I decided to take her to Port Angeles. She agreed to go, since it was a Saturday and she didn't really have anything to do. I went to pick her up from Charlie's in the Rabbit around 10 am. She looked beautiful as she ran through the drizzle toward the rabbit. She wore a big winter jacket, but I liked it. Her hair was really getting long. It was down to her hips now, but it suited her. It was wavy, and it made me want to run my fingers through it—
I made myself stop there.
Bella got in and gave me the huge grin I loved so much. I grinned back.
"Step on it, my friend," she teased. I did.
Things were really different with the packs now that the Cullens were gone and there were no leeches in Forks. My pack that still consisted of Seth, Leah, and me was really inconsistent now. We were definitely changing individually. Now that we didn't have the vamps to trigger our changes, we weren't really changing. It was way easier to resist it. As more time passed, that side of us began to fade more and more. I could finally let my hair grow out the way it used to be. It had been to my chin before. Now it was nearly to my shoulders. I think Bella liked it better that way.
"So what are we doing today?" she asked me, her chocolate brown eyes gleaming a light caramel in the pale light of the clouds.
"Well how about we go out, see a cool movie and then enjoy a nice dinner?" I asked. I don't know if she could hear the nervous edge in my voice. This was the closest to a date with her as I was able to get.
Bella grinned, to my relief. "That sounds great, Jake. We should have brought the other guys with us, too,"
My heart sank. Okay, so she was obviously not viewing this as a romantic thing.
Awesome.
Bella's P.O.V.
I turned on the radio of the Rabbit and put it to a nice alt rock station. A song of Muse was currently playing, and I leaned back in my seat, closing my eyes. This was nice. It was cool of Jake to take me out, even though it was obvious that I was weighing him down. He should be out with his friends; he should be going out with a girl. Embarrassingly so, the thought of him dating another girl made me a little uncomfortable. I shook my head at my own stupidity.
I was taking online courses, trying to be normal for Charlie's sake. I also knew that I deserved to be happy. It was easier than last time. I was more prepared for Edward's departing. I'd already experienced this one time, and I knew I could deal with it. I just didn't know if I would ever forget him. I was still completely in love with him, and with every passing day, I became a little more heartbroken. What made it easier was my family's support and Jake's. I hoped it would get better with time, but I seriously doubted it. The huge scar across my stomach only made it worse. Every time that I saw it, I instantly thought of them. I missed Alice, I missed Esme, Emmet, Carlisle, Rosalie… and him.
I was always wondering what he was doing, where he was living. Was he thinking of me, too?
Jake's eyes moved from the road and to my face. He gave me a funny look. "What?" I asked him, frowning. He'd broken me out of my reverie.
Jake chuckled and reached over to hold my hand, which was in my lap. I froze up instantly. "You are amazing, you know, Bells," Jacob said as he intertwined his fingers with mine. I couldn't really complain about him holding my hand. 2 years ago, when Jacob and I had been building the motorcycles, holding his hand had brought a sense of comfort to me, and it still did. I knew it meant something different to him, though. I didn't pull away from his hand, though.
I noticed that his skin felt cooler than usual. He'd told me that his wolf side was beginning to fade. So did that mean that Jake was going back to normal, the way he'd been before he became a werewolf? I really missed my friend, and I could start to see little changes in Jake. He looked skinnier, less bulky. He joked a lot more. He didn't pull away from me anymore. He was going back to my Jacob, the Jacob that wasn't bitter and rude.
"Thanks, but you're even more amazing," I mumbled, looking down. I was astonished to feel my cheeks warm up. I was blushing for the first time in what seemed like years.
Jake laughed, shook his head, and then squeezed my hand.
We arrived at Port Angeles less than two hours later. Jake pulled up to a local Cinema and we climbed out of the Rabbit. I shivered and pulled my jacket tighter around myself. As Jake and I walked toward the bright building, he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to his side. I felt strangely comfortable there and didn't pull away.
We decided to watch a comedy. I had been about to suggest an action movie that had a lot of bloody scenes teasingly, remembering how Jacob, Mike Newton and I had gone to see a similar movie 2 years ago, but Jake immediately stopped me there.
"No, Bella. We all know how that turned out last time," he chuckled.
We sobered, remembering that he'd gotten "sick" that night. That was the night that he'd officially began his transition from man to wolf. And that was also the night that he'd actually confessed his feelings toward me, sorta. I'd turned him down and felt horrible about it.
Jake bought our tickets, and I complained about him paying, but he didn't let me so much as pull a dollar out of my pocket. Then he bought a big popcorn bag for the two of us and two sodas. We headed into the room where our movie would be playing and found two seats unoccupied way in the back. The lights were out, and it was noisy in the cinema, since it was nearly full. Jake and I took our seats and then waited for the movie to begin. It started a few minutes later.
Throughout the movie, Jake and I pretty much laughed our asses off. We weren't the only ones, but we were probably the loudest, much to everyone's dismay. Midway through the movie, though, Jake took my hand in his and we quieted down instantly. I blushed when he did and this time did pull my hand away. He let me.
We were silent for the rest of the movie.
Edward's P.O.V.
Today was the first day that I took Eli out. I took him out to the town in his baby carriage, and he enjoyed himself quite a bit. I couldn't help but notice what a beautiful baby I had. As I looked down at his round baby face, I noticed that he did look like her. I knew that when he grew up, it would be more noticeable.
Alice, Japer, Rosalie, and the Denali sisters accompanied us while Carmen and Eleazar went hunting. Eli had certainly grown on them all. I could see the love my family gave him most of all. I knew that Eli cared a lot about them, too. But my son very much wanted to meet the woman that carried him for less than a month.
He was very stubborn and kept insisting through his little talent.
It hurt to know that I'd never be able to grant him his wish.
Jacob's P.O.V.
After the movie, I drove Bella to a nice Chinese restaurant, as promised. She seemed very content, and that pleased me. She ate well, too. I loved looking at her across the table secretly when she wasn't looking. It was friggin' awesome to know that now there was no Edward to interrupt us, although I knew that he was still in her mind a lot. But like I'd said before, I could be incredibly persistent. Now that I had her again, I wasn't letting her go. Nope, I was holding onto her with a death grip.
We headed back to Forks after dinner. As I dropped a very buoyant Bella off, I considered giving her a quick kiss on the cheek, but then thought better of it. It was too early and she wouldn't like it. So I just grinned at her, and then she out of the car and jogging toward her door through the rain. As I made sure she got there safe, I spotted a slight movement by the window of her house. Charlie could be a little over protective sometimes.
I went home with a big smile slapped onto my face.
*Okay, this chapter is pretty messy. I wrote it two weeks ago, (Been holding out on you guys, sorry!), and I was supposed to add some details, but I forgot what those details were, so... I don't know, it might be missing a few things. Thanks to all of those who are actually reading my story. I appreciate it. I might not be updating so, since I'm working on seven other stories and started a very recent one that got erased in my tablet. I'm going to have to write it all over again. Yay for me :(*