Disclaimer: It's nearly all Stephenie Meyer except for the concept itself which is Guy Andrews. What's left is mine. (If there is anything left.)

A/N: I know, I know. I've been so slack but I have good reasons, trust me. I've had exams these last two weeks and studying to do before them. Anyway, now I'm on school holidays so perfectly free to write the next chapter for you all. As usual sorry about the grammar, I'm too lazy to edit my work. Enjoy!

Return to Meyer

5. Conflict

It was the same.

Two months hadn't changed a thing. Not that I thought it would, it was only two months. When Edward and I turned up at the Newton's sporting store, Mike had been working his shift like usual, trying to put up with frustrating know-it-all customers. Still, I'll never forget the look on his face when he saw me come in, pure and utter happiness. Maybe a little too much happiness. No, I'm not even going to follow that train of thought.

To my surprise, Jessica had been hanging out with Mike at the store. I wasn't sure whether they were still going out or not at the present moment in time but decided that if the answer was no, it was probably not the best thing to ask. I made a mental note to ask Edward later, that is if he was still speaking to me after our conversation in the car. It was why I was standing in the store alone, while he waited for me in the car.

All I'd done was ask about the newspaper article I'd read back at Charlie's. No big deal. I'd just thought that perhaps there was more to his knowledge on the subject than he was letting on in front of our uniformed police chief friend. Well, my uniformed police chief friend. Charlie had never been that bigger fan of Edward. Anyway, as innocent as the topic had intended to be, it definitely hadn't ended up that way.

"Edward, are werewolves really the culprits behind these attacks? You and I both know that werewolves aren't one for attacking humans, let alone harmless bushwalkers." I reasoned, broaching the subject as Edward stopped at a red light. I noticed his knuckles clench and whiten on the steering wheel at my use of the 'w' word. I also could have sworn I felt the speed increased for a short moment.

"Aren't one for attacking humans? You're forgetting Emily, Ashley." He reminded me, his voice low and emotionless.

"Yes, but that was an accident. Sam didn't know what he was doing. You know…" I began to protest.

He cut me off immediately, a tinge of anger colouring his tone. "No, I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, werewolves are still a risk. You don't know their species like I do."

My jaw dropped. How could he think this way after what had happened in the books? He knew they were good people! God, did he always have to be this frustrating?

"They aren't doing this, Edward. And they're not a risk. Jacob took care of Bella, he protected her. He never lost control!" I felt my voice raising, anger building.

He snapped his head in my direction, his eyes narrowing. "Ashley, this isn't fiction. It's real life. What you've read in the past is of no importance to me. Here and now, I'm saying that they're dangerous. You mustn't forget that."

"I'm haven't forgotten what they can do, I'm just saying that they're self control isn't as weak as you think it is." I argued.

He growled in frustration, as though having a conversation with a naïve child. "You have no idea of the things that have happened in the past as a result of werewolves."

"What? And vampires are perfect little integrated members of society?" I almost couldn't believe my own ears. I was arguing for werewolves and opposing vampires to do it. My god, what has this world come to?

"I'm not saying that!" he snapped, his temper beginning to fully let loose. Realising this, he seemed to take a deep breath. "Let's not discuss this anymore,"

I folded my arms stubbornly, a prickling sensation building up in the corners of my eyes. Just like Bella, I tend to get teary when I get angry. It's worse when I'm trying to argue and my throat starts getting choked up. Not willing to simply sit like a sulky kid, I threw out the thing I could think of, without thinking about the effect it might have on him.

"So he could kill me at any moment, then what's the difference between you and him?" The words were mumbled but by the flinch Edward gave, I had no doubt in the world that he'd heard every word.

By the time we'd arrived at our destination, I had simmered down a little but being the stubborn person I am, I had kept up the silence. Then again, it wasn't like Edward had rapidly launched into conversation. He'd remained frozen, his eyes fixed on the road. After glancing at him enough times, I realised he wasn't even bothering to blink like a human being. By the stillness of his chest, clearly he wasn't breathing either. Great, just great.

I got out of the car, closing the door hard behind me unintentionally. Waiting for him to appear out of nowhere beside me, I looked around finding empty space. Leaning down and looking in through the open window, I spoke. "You're not coming in?"

He looked at me, his face straight and serious. "You'll want to speak with your friends. I wouldn't want to intrude on the conversation." Sure, you don't. You're just pissed off at me and are just as bloody stubborn as I am.

"Edward, don't be stupid." I replied.

He shook his head, unsmiling. "You go, I'll wait here." And almost as though he'd rolled the window up on me, he looked away and began flicking through CDs in his glove box. Feeling steamed up again, I rolled my eyes and headed on in.

After catching up with Mike and Jess about what I'd missed over the last few months, I couldn't help but get a certain feeling deep inside my chest. It was like something was missing. Or that something had been added where it didn't belong. I couldn't understand or place it but for some reason I knew I just had to get out of there. Finding myself returning to the silence of Edward's car, the discomfort grew. Pushing it from my mind, I waited until we reached Edward's again. He led me upstairs to his room where a new suitcase lay filled with sets of clothes in my size and style. Packed beneath the clothing were a couple of equally new novels. From a glance at the tag lines and snippets of the blurb I could see that Alice had done quite a bit of analysing of my room the time she'd been there. Vampire novels. What else?

Picking up the bag with ease, Edward glanced at me briefly, explaining the suitcase. "Alice believed that using the airport lost my luggage excuse twice in a row would be less than effective so she went shopping. Besides, with Bella's clothing absent from Charlie's house, you would be left with the choice of what you're wearing or your school uniform." Blunt facts. Still without emotion. I'd must have really hurt or angered him. As much as I wanted to apologize or say something to fix it, my lips felt glued together.

He dropped me quickly off at Charlie's, saying that he was needed elsewhere and that he was sorry he couldn't stay. Again the cool tone and blank eyes. With each word I could feel the feeling from earlier growing.

Charlie was happy to see me, eagerly showing me up to Bella's room and leaving me to unpack. I forced a smile, nodding and agreeing at the right moments.

"Oh, almost forgot. Billy and Jacob are having a few people over for dinner tonight. I was planning to go on down there but we can go together or stay here, your choice." He told me. "But just so you know, Jacob's looked a little bit down over the last few weeks. I think he'd be happy to see you."

Jacob? I'd get to see Jacob again? No way was I passing up that offer. Agreeing to be ready whenever he wanted to go, I spent the next couple of hours engaging myself in one of my new novels and pressing Edward from my thoughts. As long as he didn't leave me and run away to Italy, everything was alright in my books.

As I read, I couldn't help but notice how dramatic these sort of novels made the human-vampire relationship seem. They were right of course, it was complicated but in this world of vampires there was no pleasurably feeding just a little bit of your lover or passionate make out sessions made better by your partner being some sort of supernatural creature. Here it was more like, "No, we mustn't! For I will find myself too tempted by your blood and body to be so very close to you!"

Okay, yeah, I know. It's a bit over the top, but still true in some ways.

There were days I wanted to strangle Edward (not that it would do anything), some of which when I had been reading the books and then there were others. The days when I just wanted him to touch me and never stop touching me. Unfortunately, it wasn't that simple. Maybe I'd just have to start reading Mills and Boon novels to make up for it. Edward's face if he ever saw me reading one of those, now that would be funny.

No, no more thinking about Edward. I closed that mental box again before hopping in the shower and getting ready to drive down to La Push.

The ride down was pleasant enough, well, if you didn't stop to think about the flashing lights on the top of the police car. Charlie and I chatted about a number of different things, he started singing badly to a rather old tune on the radio and before I knew it we were parked a few meters away from Jacob's barn.

"Charlie, how's it going?" I heard a voice call from behind us. A man about Billy and Charlie's age had begun to approach us, a woman a little distance behind him. Both were smiling and seemed friendly enough.

"Hey Harry, Sue." Charlie returned the greeting. "Good, good." Ah, Harry and Sue Clearwater. Taking a good look at Harry, I couldn't help but feel a small pang beneath my chest. As happy as everyone seemed now, in a few months they would be standing around a coffin, mourning him and hating the heart attack that would take him from them. I avoided my eyes as both men shook hands.

"Harry, this is Ashley. She's a family friend from Australia, come to stay for a while." He explained briefly. Harry shot me a broad smile.

"Nice to meet you Ashley," He said, Sue had reached us and warmly leaned over, giving me a quick kiss on the cheek.

"You too," I returned the smile.

"Come on in, Billy and the kids are hanging out in the kitchen." Following them up the ramp to the door, we passed through the house until we'd joined the others in the kitchen. Billy was at the table watching the small TV screen across the room. An older girl was poised against a counter on the far right of the room and a younger boy was in the chair beside Billy. Seth and Leah Clearwater I assumed.

Poised over the sink, appearing to be doing a week's worth of built up dishes and wearing a new chopped haircut, was Jacob. The haircut startled me, not because it was new to my eyes but because I knew what it signified. I'd suspected as much when I'd heard Charlie's comment about Jake's unhappiness lately. He was already a werewolf. The only reason I could come up with for the speediness of the change compared to the time span in the book was that in the novel vampires had left Forks. In this version of events they were still currently residing here.

Billy looked away from the screen, "Look who it is, nice to see you can still fit us into your schedule Charlie."

Charlie shifted his weight from one foot to another as he set a six pack of beer down on the table. "I'm a busy guy." Charlie joked. "Hey Jake," he said loudly in Jacob's direction. Jake remained facing the wall but lifted a hand in the air as a sort of silent hello.

"Nice to see you again, Ashley." Billy said, turning his attention to me. I glanced at Jacob who had frozen while introductions to the other Clearwaters were made briskly. Feeling a little awkward, I moved my shoulders before realising that the bag I'd brought down with me was still in the car. Asking Charlie for the car keys, I skipped out and began walking back to the car. Unlocking the front and pulling out the loose satchel Alice had picked out, I swung the strap across my front and locked the door behind me. Suddenly, I stopped. The hairs began to stand up on the back of my neck and I could hear my heart starting to race as blood pumped around my body.

Spinning around, startled, I froze as soon as a familiar face came into view. I threw up a hand and wacked the person on the shoulder, relieving the momentarily built up tension.

"Ouch," Jacob complained with a laugh. "What was that for?"

I gave him a look before joining in laughing. "You scared the hell out of me. Didn't anyone ever tell you not to sneak up on people?"

"Sorry," he said, holding out his arms with a sly smile. "Do I still get a hug?" Raising an eyebrow, I launched myself onto him, my eyes widening at the heat he was giving out. God, no wonder he'd been referred to as a space heater. Whoa.

"Wow, I didn't think you'd be this warm!" I exclaimed once I'd been freed from his mess of long limbs.

Now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow. "You thought I'd be warm?" He questioned.

Oh dear. Grinning sheepishly, I started thinking up excuses. "Errr…you know how I on occasion tend to say stupid stuff like, oh, I dunno, I can stuff an entire slice of bread in my mouth at once?" He nodded, remembering our little competition. "This is just like that. It's like compulsive talking. Just ignore it, you'll get use to it." He smiled then stopped, his face appearing to do some sort of double take. His eyebrows furrowed and the corners of his mouth turned down for the briefest of seconds before it was gone. It was so quick, if I hadn't of been looking directly at him, I would have missed it. Identified, it could only be anger, pure and simple.

Then it hit me. If Jake was a werewolf, I could only guess what he'd smell off me. Vampire. Sweet to the extreme vampire.

Damn it.

Trying to cover up his realisation, Jacob started walking beside me. "So, what've you been up to today?" His voice was casual but I wasn't that stupid. I knew exactly what he wanted to know but then again, I didn't really have any reason to cover it up. Jacob would probably be perfectly aware of what Edward and his family were.

"Oh, just catching up with some friends." I began. He waited for more detail. I sighed, "I spent some time with Edward Cullen," I told him.

He nodded briefly. "That's right. I forgot you were involved with him," cool. There seemed to be a lot of that tone going around. An unusual twinge hit his voice on the word 'involved'.

"Yeah," I said briefly. Eager to move on to less argumentative things, I changed the subject. I wasn't in the mood to be fighting with both Jacob and Edward. One was bad enough.

"I like the hair cut. It suits you, shows off your face." I said, gesturing to his scalp.

He grinned, "Does it now? It doesn't make me look boy bandish?" He teased. I laughed, shaking my head.

"Nope, not an ex-boy band member in sight." I clarified. He stopped, leaning over me to gaze at my hair. Gosh he was tall. I mean, I'd known he was supposed to be tall but reading about it and seeing it in person were too very different things.

"I see I'm not the only one with some hair changes, although I bet yours was done with a little bit more than a pair of kitchen scissors and a bathroom mirror." He said. "But I like it. If I hadn't seen you without the streaks, I would have thought it was natural."

I nodded, "I'll make sure to tell my hairdresser." The compliment brightened my outlook slightly. He'd been the first person to really give a positive definite opinion on my hair colouring. Usually people just said 'nice' or 'good'. Basically, the 'I really don't care but I don't want it to look like I didn't notice so I'll give you a one word adjective instead' response. It was at least better than Edward's non-answer.

He looked down at me, his eyes taking in my full appearance. "You look tired, Ash." Looking down, I shifted my weight uncomfortably. "School work, you know how it is. No big deal,"

"You been sleeping okay?" he asked.

I shrugged, "Fine." I lied. Keen to turn attention elsewhere, I threw his comments back at him. "You should talk." I reached out, tracing the dark circles under his eyes. "You look just about as exhausted as I do, maybe even more so."

He started walking again, his legs taking long strides almost double mine. "I'm fine," He brushed off the observation.

Feeling a sudden compulsion to speak freely, wanting him to know what I knew, I felt the urge to say something stupid. To somehow make him tell me his secret even though I knew he couldn't.

"Jake, is there…anything that you want to tell me?" I worded carefully.

He looked surprised. "Tell you? What do you mean?"

The light breeze blowed past my face, sending several stands of bleached hair swirling around my face. I brushed them away as I shrugged, "I don't know. Anything big that's happened to you while I've been gone? Any new friends or new….hobbies?" I tried again.

He picked up on the 'new friends' addition to the sentence. "Why do you ask?" I could sense the suspicion rising. Not wanting to agitate him, I dropped it.

"No reason, don't worry about it." I said quickly, picking up the pace. Jacob wasn't about to let the comment it go so easily. As I walked, the dirt pressed softly beneath my shoes. Clearly it had rained recently but then it was always raining here.

"Ashley, wait. Answer the question." I could hear the frustration building up. Being what he was, his temper was now on a shorter fuse than it had even been before. I didn't want to be the one to connect that fuse to the explosives. For one thing, I couldn't prove Edward right so soon after our debate.

"Let's just go inside, I think I can hear your dad calling us." At that I hurried past him and inside the house.

Over the next couple of hours, I refused to leave the group, trying to avoid giving Jacob another chance to bring the subject up again. I really should learn to shut my mouth.

Dinner was great, spaghetti and meatballs cooked to perfection. A little messy, I'll admit, but the company was just as good. It remembered why I'd always loved Seth as a character; he was ten times better in person.

Through the conversation, I sat, I laughed and I smiled. Yet, somehow, before I knew it the odd misplaced feeling from earlier that day at the sports shop had returned. The feeling like something was wrong. The odd emotion filled every limb in my body, forcing my eyes down towards the table top and an eerie numb outlook settling over everything around me.

Finally, Charlie stood from the table. "I think it's about time Ashley and I headed off," he said, pulling out his car keys.

Harry stood too. "Yeah, I'm with Charlie. Probably a good idea that we get going too. Thanks for dinner Billy," he said gratefully.

Billy shook his head, holding up a hand. "Nah, don't thank me. Thank Sue. She's the one who cooked everything."

"Well, thanks for letting her use your kitchen." He chuckled.

After several more goodbyes we began to make our way out of the house. On our leave, Jacob had come to hug me goodbye but noticing my resistance to touch his hot skin again, a weird look crossed his face.

Driving home from La Push, I ran through things in my head. It was clear to me that Jacob had started to pick up on what I may or may not know about his furry little secret. How things would turn out I had no clue. As far as I was concerned, the ball was in his court.

The only thing I could do was wait and see what he'd do with it.

A/N: So there you are, I'm back! Hope it was long enough for you. I've been sitting here for a quite a while writing it. I've gotten into the swing of things so the next chapter will probably be up soon. Think of it as my way of making up for going so long without posting. Remember to review and let me know your thoughts. : )

Next Time on Return to Meyer: With painful conversations starting up in all areas a number of ambiguous visions rushing through Alice's head and Ashley beginning to doubt herself while murderers are still running freely around Washington, webs are starting to get tangled. And Fast.

Next Time…