AN: Thank you again for the reviews and the honor of being favorited! This has been a treat to write. I will try and update again tomorrow.

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It took me a moment to realize that Emily had tears in her eyes, and another one to realize that her words were not only about Jake. I reached my hand across and covered her hand with mine, and we both cried quietly for a moment together. "But Sam loves you, Emily. Sam loves you so much it hurts to watch the two of you together," I whispered.

"He loves her too," she said. "And I love her. It's still a mess. It's going to stay a mess for a lot longer, I think." She took a deep breath, shaking her head and doubtlessly wondering at the turn the conversation had taken. "It doesn't bother me until I can tell that he's…he's mixed up which one of us is which." She took another shaky breath and grinned a little bit. "He forgets what kind of flowers I like, things like that. It's so stupid to get upset about it, especially because I still feel so guilty anyway."

"I thought imprinting would take care of those kinds of things, details—"

Emily interrupted me with a loud laugh. The sad little smile was still on her face, but the tears were gone. "It can't change the man himself, his memory, his ideas. It just gives you what you've been looking for—a true partner, in my case. Adoration. But… Sam loves Leah, and she likes orchids." She drained her cup. "I'm a mums and carnations kind of girl—something I can put in the ground. Whenever I find an orchid in the trash I give it to Jake—" she stopped herself, but saw that I was nodding, and went on—"and he pots them at his dad's house." One more grin, before the conversation was closed. "And then I get about a hundred pounds worth of carnations and mums." We laughed again.

The silence that followed was heavy. Emily had to break it. "Why did you come back, Bella?" I sighed. "And," she continued, suddenly exasperated, "you should know that the boys have been spoiling for a fight for months. They were so bored they were talking about going on a 'working vacation.'" She put her fingers up in air quotes around the last words and rolled her eyes. "So don't worry about the vampire. Trust me, they're not." Then she looked at me expectantly. I felt slightly better, knowing the pack, at least, wasn't truly unhappy I had returned with vampire in tow. Honestly, I thought to myself, they probably would have been a lot less happy to see me without one.

"I came back because I wanted to be able to see my dad without feeling like my heart was trying to claw it's way out of my chest." I looked up to see Emily with the coffee pot clutched in mid-air.

She recovered herself and began to pour. "That's honest."

I laughed. "Well, it was everything—Forks, the pack, some of my friends from school." Angela was my only friend from school, and she knew I was here, but had left it up to me to call. I was glad she wasn't expectant or demanding, just kind. I could tell I'd need another kind friend. Assuming Emily and I were now friends. "I mean, I used to come here every summer when I was little, and then I lived here. I grew up here—I fell in love here." That last was quiet. "And got my heart broken. And lots of things." I felt like she understood. "This isn't a place I want to avoid. It's a place I'm ready to learn from, I think."

Emily smiled ruefully. "That's too bad. I thought you might be here for Jake." She twirled her cup. "That's a little naive, I guess. But we all…we all miss him."

"I thought he wouldn't—didn't--want to see me," I said. My heart was picking up speed again. The child version of Jacob's face that had visited me during the vampire attack flashed in front of me again. The blush that crept up my neck accompanied a confusing mix of doubt and hope.

"He doesn't see anyone, Bella." Emily's tone was once again matter of fact. "He has dinner with Billy on the occasions when he does come back, but he's changed." Her eyes locked on to mine. "He's a wolf, now Bella. A real one."

I wasn't sure what she meant. "All the guys are wolves, though, Emily. I can understand wanting to see more of him, but…I'm not sure I understand you?" And I could tell I didn't. I had finally hit on something Emily would rather leave to hints, and it must be bad if we were bonding over Sam's remarkably few flaws.

"He still phases, but he spends so much time as a wolf that even when he's human…he's just…not." Emily met my eyes. "I think you might be the only person he could be human for again, but it might kill you to find out." She shook her head ruefully. "And not that I'm encouraging you to do that, Bella. It won't make things better if you died trying, believe me." Her smile faded and a chill ran down her spine. "I guess it's not important, if that's not what you came back for."

"But it is. Partly." There were two mysteries I needed to solve. The first was Edward, although I had pretty much done that. Unfortunately, that time of my life had created so much wreckage I still needed to clean up…which lead me to mystery two: Jake. "But Emily—I don't want to do anything, anything, to hurt him. Ever again." I deliberately looked deeply in to her eyes. "I will not see him if I know it's not the best thing for him."

She nodded appreciatively, then her brow lowered in thought once again. "I'm not sure any of us knows what the best thing for him would be. Especially Jake himself." She shook her head slowly while I drained the last of my coffee. "He's really not the same person any more."

After another brief moment we moved on to a carefully detailed description of Victoria's attack that morning. Emily began to write down my words when I described the vampire's face as I crushed her against the building. Something occurred to me as I spoke. "Brick doesn't really seem strong enough to damage a vampire, does it?" I looked at her.

"You would know better than me," she shrugged. But then her eyebrows shot up. "I'm sorry, I forgot you weren't here—the pack injured her pretty badly the last time they caught up to her. One of them took a chunk out of her calf. Embry." She grinned and rolled her eyes. "Said it tasted like somebody made ice cream out of rocks." We laughed, and then her eyes became serious again. "She still got away, though. She's the only one that's come through that they've never caught."

We shivered.

Just then, the doorbell rang. I looked at Emily and she shrugged. "All the guys know I'm here. Maybe they need something." We got up together and walked to the front.

Alice Cullen stood just outside, wrinkling her nose in the pale sunlight.