Chapter 4

Jenna was right. Morning did come too soon. Jenna had collapsed in the spare room's bed the moment they arrived. Bella, ever the caretaker, had removed the beer bottles off the sleeping teenage boys in the living room grasps, before collapsing in the daybed of the same spare room as Jenna.

Morning was signaled by a silver SUV depositing a teenage girl with long straight hair at the front door. Morning saw the teenage hangover boys stumble out of the house before any parents could arrive.

Jenna was stronger in the morning. She kept her shoulders impossibly pulled back, her back impossibly straight, and her head held high. Her eyes were still red and a lot of makeup was needed to make her look even remotely alive. She kept twisting her moonstone pendant every time she couldn't wrap her fingers around her oversized mug of coffee.

Bella kept an eye on her friend, who was chugging coffee as if it was going out of fashion, and rolled her eyes when the hangover teenage boy made a lewd comment at her being Jenna's *special friend* who would be staying with them, along with Jenna, for a while.

"Cute, Jer. Not funny, but cute. I'm Elena."

The teenage girl shook hands with Bella who was going through the mostly empty kitchen cupboards.

"Nice to meet you Elena. Have you had breakfast yet? I was about to scavenge through the fridge and make... something."

Elena had eaten already but Jeremy hadn't and Jenna definitely needed some time and more coffee before she could break the news so Bella made hangover sandwiches for everyone while Jenna made another pot of coffee.

As the egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches were eaten, conversation flew from Jenna's job, to why she had kept Bella a secret and to school beginning next week. If the teens had any idea what was coming, neither let on, though neither asked about their parents either. To Bella's surprise neither teen was glued to their phone, though Jeremy did admit he hadn't seen his in the few hours the impromptu party was on. Instead Jeremy ate with gusto while Elena regaled her aunt with stories about her weekend away with her friends and how unfair her parents were for not letting her go away with her boyfriend Matt.

Bella hid her amused shake of the head by picking up the table to quickly washing the dishes and studiously avoiding Jenna's eyes who agreed with Elena. Jenna took a deep breath tuning Elena's teenage rant against her parents out and waited for the girl to stop to get take a breath and interrupted her.

"Guys, there's something I have to tell you. I'm not here just because I missed you and I'm on vacation."

She exchanged a look with Bella who was standing against the sink suddenly frozen.

"There was accident last night"

Elena's eyes widened as she got it.

"No, no!"

"But mom and dad were out last night."

Jeremy didn't get it. He got it after all three women in the room turned to stare at him.

"Oh...OH!"

Jenna jumped from her seat and knelt between the teens still seating in their chairs, and began explaining the events of the last 12 hours. Bella knowing what came next was personal, leashed the dog that was sleeping on a plush armchair in the living room, grabbed her purse and left the house just as the sobs became louder.

Leaning against the closed front door, she sighed and then looked look at the dog who didn't look particularly pleased to be awake.

"Come on Sleepy. Let's go for a walk."

- - - Memories and a Past and a Future - - -

Bella was walking slowly letting the small fawn and white dog run around and play and sniff the bushes, stretching his leash to its maximum length. She wasn't entirely sure where she was. She had begun walking randomly and at some point she either had slipped at the woods that surrounded the small town, or had found herself in a large park. Whichever was right she didn't really mind. The dog was excited, as nearly as excited as he had been at the beach the previous afternoon and kept sticking as much of his slim frame as he could, in holes in the various shrubbery, barking and scaring the wild life. He was definitely going to need a bath later.

Idly she wondered how long they'd stay here and how rude it'd be if she were to mention that the kitchen cupboards and fridge were empty and the house could use a good cleaning. Pretty rude probably. Then her thoughts turned to the accident. The sheriff had all but admitted in the end that it wasn't exactly an accident and that a vampire -though to be fair, Bella had uttered the word first- was to blame. Walking slowly, the brunette toyed with the idea of giving her father a call. Charles -Charlie, to his friends- Swan was a police chief in a tiny dot on the map, not much bigger or smaller, than Mystic Falls on the other end of the country. A small town that had its unfair share of supernatural beings and a number of vampire attacks had been masked until the local vampire family moved away. Now a clan of wolf shape shifters protected the area.

"Maybe dad could look at the file and give an opinion? If it wasn't natural, then someone should get punished but, do I tell that to Jenna? Is knowing good or will she and the kids be better off if they don't know Barkley?"

Bella asked the dog who gave her a 'are you talking to me?' look before going back to jumping in the air and trying to swipe at a colorful bird sitting on a tree branch. The bird regarded the dog as well probably thinking 'you are amusing little furball'.

"Just checking wouldn't hurt, would it? If the sheriff is wrong then I keep mum? But if there is a hungry, sparkly, more than possibly brooding, vampire in the area, then... Oh screw it!"

Convincing herself that knowing is better, she fumbled through the outside mini pockets of her white purse and Bella produced her cell phone. Biting her lip, and remembering her father did not understand the idea behind texts at all, she dialed his home number. It was Saturday, her father was an avid fisherman and his cell phone, stupidly, had no signal at the sea.

"Hey dad, were you sick when you recorded this message? You sound like Yogi the bear!... Anyway, I'm alive, mom's alive, even Phil is good, so do try to lower your heartbeat!... I don't want to lose you dad!... But I do need a favor. Jenna's sister and brother in law were in a car accident last night. They, erm, didn't make it... Listen dad, I may have glanced at the coroner's report when the local sheriff was telling Jenna and the photos had a bit of shadowing under the sheet and I may have tossed the words "using animal attack as cover for vampire attacks" prior to the car going off the road and the sheriff went as white and you did when you found my birth control pills... So, I was wondering... Is there anything you can find in the public files or whatevers and see if there is something on the loose?... Anyway, give me a call on my cell phone when you can and I'll tell you more. Love you."

Ending the call, Bella let her breath out. There. Now it wasn't up to her anymore. At least until Charlie called her back anyway. She used both hands to slip the phone back in her purse and froze realizing she no longer held Barkley's leash. Barkley himself was nowhere in sight though the baby blue leash handle was barely visible in a bush.

"Barkley!"

On hands and knees, Bella dislodged the leash and gave it a gentle tug. In response she heard a yelp and Sir Barks-a-lot earning his nickname.

"Hey hey Barky, where are you?"

Crawling on all fours she raised a couple low branches and slipped under. The grass on the other side was well maintained and flowery. The little loud doggie was standing on the chest of someone barking his little head off.

"Barkley!"

Bella exclaimed and stumbled to her feet to go to the dog as the leash wound up and give it a good yank dislodging man and dog. Barkley fell to his side, stood, gave a good shake and went right back in the guy's face, never stopping barking.

"I'm so sorry."

Bella said loudly, above the noise of the dog. The guy seemed to be around Elena's age and was staring at her like she was a ghost.