Aljan Moonfire Does Not Own Twilight...

(God I hate these things; do people really think I would be posting this here if I did! *grumble*grumble*)

(On another note, not much editing here either. I should be getting the next chapter out here soon though)

ONWARD March, people!

Chapter 6:

A Decision

When Bella and Sam emerged from the woods on the north side of the house he raised his voice enough that anyone inside would easily be able to hear him. "Hey! Charlie! Everybody! I found her!"

Hearing the sounds of quite a few feet racing to burst out of the brightly lit house Bella braced herself for the coming storm, her eyes widening as she took in the people that had been waiting for her. Charlie was there, of course, along with Billy Black and another older Native American man. Jake was there too, along with some other younger Quiliette tribesmen.

"You found her! Where did you find her! Is she hurt?" the jumble of questions that spilled out of Charlie's mouth were looked on with amusement by the other older men, while Jake looked just as worried.

He then turned to her and his voice began to rise as well. "Isabella Marie Swan! What the hell were you thinking going into the woods by yourself! You know your sense of direction is just as bad as my mine!"

"I'm sorry dad. I wasn't alone at first. Edward –"

He cut her off at that "That Edwin just left you alone out there? When I get my hands on him I'll –"

This time she cut Charlie off. "No Dad, Edward, left me right on the verge; I could even still see the house. But he broke up with me today, and I was trying to clear my head with a walk when I got lost… I'm sorry."

He now could see that she looked more than a little down and tired. 'My little girl just had her first break up.' He thought sadly. '…Wait…that means no more Edward!' She was immediately forgiven. "Just be careful next time Bells, and I think you owe a thank you to all of these men for coming out to help me look for you."

She turned to look at the Quiliettes and blushed brightly. "Thank you, all of you, for coming out here to find me." She turned to Sam and thanked him as well. "Thank you as well Sam. You don't know how relieved I was when you found me." She gave him a soft smile and was a bit surprised when he blushed a bit, just like when she first looked up to see him.

"Yeah, well," he looked away and then back at her. "Since your home safe and sound we had better get going."

The group trooped around the house to the driveway and Bella and Charlie said their goodbyes and waved them off. When they were safely out of sight they turned away and went inside.

.-.

After Bella and Charlie finished their dinner Charlie turned to her and asked if she was okay.

"Yeah. As you can see," she gestured to herself, "I'm not hurt at all."

"You know that's not what I meant, Bella."

Her silence was answer enough. He sighed and gave her a brief hug. "Go to bed, honey. You might feel better in the morning."

She nodded and went upstairs. As she entered her room and began to get ready to go to bed she noticed that quite a few things were missing.

The CD of the lullaby Edward written for her.

All the clothes she had bought with Alice.

Everything given to her at that fateful birthday party.

As she noticed all of this she raced to look for her precious photo album. It was gone too. His words suddenly echoed in her head.

"It will be as if I had never existed."

She broke.

.-.

As sat they sat out in the tree and watched her sob herself to sleep in her pillow, Jasper and Emmett glared at the ground beneath them. They were furious, both with themselves, for their inability to comfort her, and with Edward for doing this to her in the first place.

Once he was sure Bella was asleep Jasper spoke. "We need to get back and tell them about this. Edward is probably long gone by this point, and we will probably still have to leave, but I know that with this we can at least convince Carlisle to let us tell her goodbye. We might even be able to get her a way to contact us if she's ever in trouble." 'I need to find her that photo album of hers either way,' he thought. Emmett just nodded in agreement.

Then they were gone.

.-.

When they got back to the house everyone, except for Edward, was waiting for them.

"Where have you boys been? We should have left over an hour ago." Carlisle was the first to speak immediately after they got in the door. Then seeing their grim faces he was immediately worried. "What happened?"

"Well I suppose I should start at the beginning. I'm surprised Alice didn't already tell you that part of it though."

They all looked at said woman, and if she could've they knew she would have blushed. "I wanted to know everything that had happened first and I didn't know how long you would take. That's part of the reason I sent you anyway."

Jasper nodded in agreement and turned to the rest of the family, who he could tell were extremely curious. "Well earlier this afternoon I was a bit worried about how Bella would take everything. Alice had been trying to avoid having a vision of, well…what would happen, but when she tried to have one in order to reassure me, something went wrong and it cut off, right?" he turned to Alice for confirmation, pulling her into his side where they sat on a love seat.

She nodded her agreement. "I had just seen their conversation, but almost immediately after it just went black. It was quite unnerving actually."

Emmett continued from there. "I was the only other person in the house then, and when Alice asked Jazz to go watch Bella in order to find out what happened and to protect her if she needed it; I refused to be left behind. If my little sister needed protection I was going to give it."

Jasper nodded and continued to give his version of the events that happened in the forest. When he got to the part where she sat down in the clearing Alice sat up straighter and interrupted.

"That was when my vision cut off. I don't know what happened after that, but…." She trailed off looking to Jasper to explain what he saw.

"Another human came. He was from the reservation, sent by Charlie, and he smelled really bad." Emmett interjected here, giving the short version.

Carlisle frowned in concern. "What exactly did he smell like?" he asked carefully.

Jasper thought for a moment and answered, "Like wet dog, or wolf." He frowned. "It was strange. I've never met a human who smelled anything like that before."

There was a moment of silence as they considered this. "Go on," Carlisle indicated he was to continue.

"Well, he introduced himself as Sam Uely and then guided her back to the house. We followed, and when he reached the house they were greeted by Charlie and some more Quiliettes."

From here Emmett interjected something "Now that I think on it I'm sure one or more of them smelled a lot like that Sam guy. Wet dog. Very unpleasant." He shuddered dramaticaly.

"Then Bella and Charlie waved the others off and they had dinner. When Bella went to get ready for bed though…" Jasper paused as if not sure what to say, but Emmett's next words said all they needed to hear.

"He took everything! Not just everything he ever gave her, but everything WE ever gave her and bought with her as well! He even took her photo album!" His tense grip broke the arm of the chair he was sitting in.

"When we discovered he did all that we realized some of the things he said to Bella were more than just things to make her want to break up with him as well."

At this Rosalie frowned a bit in confusion. "What kind of things could that love struck idiot have ever said to her that would really hurt her? We all know he dotes on her something terrible."

Jasper's mouth flattened into a grim line. "Things like 'You were just a distraction' or 'I don't want you' or, and this is what I meant, 'It will be like I never existed'." Gasps and growls filled the room. They all knew Bella well enough to know how she'd take that. That Edward, a person she'd loved beyond reason, would say something so hurtful, and then make all of them move away; that was just about unforgivable. "She ended up crying herself to sleep. If she knew that we'd abandon her without a second thought as well…" he hesitated here. "I really can't predict what she might do."

There was silence for awhile as they considered this. "Well, that creates two problems for us. One means it would be even more inadvisable for us to stay than it already is." As Carlisle said this everyone became confused.

Esme rested her hand on his arm. "What do you mean by that, dear?"

He sighed. "Remember what you told us? About the men who smelled like wet dogs?" He frowned a bit to himself and continued. "I have only scented people who smelled like that once before, when we first made the treaty with the Quiliette tribe. The chief of the tribe and a few others, they were werewolves. Not true werewolves like the ones on the continent, but they could shift their shape into that of a wolf at will. From what I know that's just what they call themselves."

"If the dormant gene that holds that power to change has been awakened by our mere presence here, it would be more than advisable for us to leave before it gets any worse." With that conclusion they shifted uneasily where they sat. They desperately wanted to stay, especially now that they knew what had really gone on between Edward and Bella.

Alice frowned in distress. "Do you think it could have been that wolf man who interfered with my vision? If so, as much as I don't want to, it gives us yet another reason to leave."

Esme sighed in agreement. "I agree, but if we do still have to leave, I say we wait until tomorrow and say goodbye."

Jasper then said firmly, "We should also tell her all the reasons why and give her a way to contact us if she's ever in trouble." They all made their reluctant agreements.

It was decided. They would leave tomorrow.

Another chapter for all of you and and a birthday party for me! I turn 17 today!...and I start colloge tomorrow. I don't know wether to be depressed or excited...well at least I get presents out of it all. On to the author's note, I guess. (Edit: This was orgininally posted at the begining of September by the way...)

First: No cliff notes this time...oh well...I really like writing them you know.

Second: I apologize for taking some time with this. Almost half of this chapter was a reacap of what happened in the last one, but it was nessesary for what I want to do next chapter; and it was getting a bit too long. I've been arguing with myslef for the past couple of days about wether or not to post as is...as you can see 'as is' won.

Third: I always hated the way the Cullens, all the Cullens, left Bella to fend for herself in New Moon. I always found the way they did things there to be very...wrong; especially after they let her have so much hope of a life with them. So next chapter I'll be fixing that.

Last: As always - REVEIWS! I really want some feedback here! Even if it's just to tell me to update soon or how much it sucked it would be more than nice.

- Aljan Moonfire -