A/N: Here's a really long chapter for you all to enjoy.

Jake and Nessie's relationship is definitely going to change, for better or worse, after this chapter. It's been a lot of fun writing how it all goes down =)

Thanks for reading… please review!

Enjoy!

~Crit.

Chapter 13: Imprint

Renesmee awoke with a pounding headache and a dry, horrible taste in her mouth. Light was streaming through her window, so she gather she must have slept for much longer than usual. Sure enough, the clock on her cell phone, when she thought to look at it, read 12:28pm in bold digital numerals. Had she slept through anything important, she wondered, was it a day that she had a morning class? No… her brain registered the day: Saturday, thank god. She moaned and rolled over, burying her face in her pillow. Why did anybody drink wine, ever?

Slowly, she began to recall exactly what had happened the previous evening. Or at least a slightly fuzzy version of the night's events. Rideau had shown up with a stack of books in one hand and a paper sac full of wine in the other, proposing that their study session might be a little more enjoyable if they did it over some civilized drinks. Not being much of a drinker, Renesmee had sipped gently at first, but soon she'd felt herself warming up to the smooth, red drink. It was nothing at all like blood, except perhaps in colour, but it was rich and bold and tasty, and didn't disgust her with any awful textures. And Rideau had been right; studying was more fun with a friend and some drinks.

She hadn't even realized she was getting tipsy until Jacob showed up, at which point she felt suddenly very self-conscious. He hadn't really seemed impressed with her, either, almost storming off after slamming back a glass of wine himself. She'd been so distraught at the idea that he was about to go off all disappointed in her behavior that she'd practically begged him to stay, even though she knew for a fact he wouldn't want to hang around with her and Rideau. But she'd needed to prove to him that she wasn't drunk and sloppy… she wanted him to be there, and to feel as good as she did, and to have fun with her friends.

In the end, it had gone okay… at least, she thought so. She couldn't really remember Rideau leaving but assumed that he was okay. What she did remember was going up to bed, and Jacob following her, and…

She sat straight up in bed, instantly regretting it when her head spun with a dangerous ferocity. Jacob had been there when she fell asleep. He'd had to put her to bed. She couldn't remember the specifics of their conversation, but she remembered the rushes of emotion she'd felt when she looked up into his warm eyes, and she remembered thinking she should shut up and then continuing to say things to him anyway. What had she said? Exactly how much had she told him?

Jacob was downstairs on the sofa when she finally emerged, flipping through the automotive pages of the Times. He looked up as she descended the stairs and gave her a wicked grin.

"ABOUT TIME!" He shouted as loudly as he could, the huge space and vaulted ceilings of the loft working with him to make his voice echo and resonate with a vengeance. Renesmee flinched as her head pounded in response.

"Ow," she muttered, flopping down on the other end of the sofa.

"HOW DID YOU SLEEP?" Jacob said, his voice still booming like a stadium announcer. She glared at him.

"Like the dead. And cut that out."

"CUT WHAT OUT?" He shouted with a look of mock-innocence. Renesmee just shook her head.

"That is so not cute, Jake." He laughed at her then, softly, and folded his section of newspaper, setting it on the table.

"Sorry," he said at a reduced volume, "But that's what you get for partying too hard."

"I wasn't partying," she said lamely, "I was studying."

He chuckled again. "Yeah, I'm sure it was real productive."

"Actually, it was… before you got there. We got a good portion of my topic sorted out, and I've got a pretty good list of ideas now. Reed was really on a roll… I feel like such a dope for getting tipsy and wrecking our stride." She frowned slightly. "Um, Jake… did I say or do anything really humiliating last night?"

Jacob's face was completely blank for a moment, and then he took on an almost embarrassed expression. "I was sure you'd just blank it out," he said seriously, "but now that you ask… yeah."

Renesmee felt like her face was on fire. "What… uh, what did I do?" She really couldn't remember, and from the look on Jacob's face, it must have been pretty bad.

"Well, you… you were pretty gone, and you…" he paused and eyed her carefully, "You sure you wanna hear this?" She nodded, even though she was anything but, and Jacob sighed. "You decided it would be a good idea to take off your clothes and dance on the coffee table to Britney Spears. I tried to convince you that it was a bad idea, but—" at this point, Renesmee stopped him with a good, hard smack on the arm.

"Jacob, that's not funny!" She cried, feeling simultaneously relieved and pissed off. Jacob collapsed into loud guffaws.

"Well I'm having loads of fun!" He said through his laughter. Renesmee just stared at him with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed until he settled down and said, "No, Nessie, you didn't do anything even remotely weird or embarrassing. In fact, you make a perfectly charming drunk."

"Oh, ha ha," she said, although she definitely felt much better at hearing him say that. "So are you planning on picking on me all day, or are you finished?"

Jacob shrugged. "I think I'm about out of tricks. Coffee for your poor head?" Renesmee responded with a grateful moan, and he headed for the kitchen, coming back a moment later with two steaming mugs. "I put sugar in yours. Trust me… you'll want it." He handed her the coffee. "No cow juice, though."

"Thanks." Renesmee took a sip of coffee and closed her eyes. "That is so delicious I can't even stand it." Jacob chuckled.

"Addict." The phone rang, a little too loudly for Renesmee's liking. "I'll get that," Jacob said graciously, reaching for the handset. "Hello? Oh, hey Edward."

Renesmee sat up straight. Her father. She could not deal with him right now. "No, no, no," she mouthed silently at Jacob, waving her hands back and forth to reinforce her point. Jacob raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, Nessie's not here… the library. Yeah, she's working really hard. No, she's not… I think she just likes it." He gave her a thumbs up, and Renesmee slumped back against the sofa cushions. She listened carefully; with her advanced hearing, she could easily make out her father's end of the conversation.

"Do you have a few minutes to talk, Jacob?" Edward asked in a somewhat troubled tone. Renesmee furrowed her brow. Why did he sound like that?

"Yeah, sure," Jacob replied. Then he looked quickly between Renesmee and the stairs. "Give me a minute…" He shot Renesmee a quick smile before bounding up the stairs. She frowned after him. That was strange… why didn't Jacob want her to hear his conversation with her father?

Renesmee toyed with the idea of picking up the extension for half a minute, before realized that not only would that be an extreme invasion of privacy, but they would both certainly hear her coming onto the line. Still, she couldn't quell her curiosity, and decided to take a walk upstairs to her room. Could she help it if she ended up loitering outside Jacob's door?

His voice was muffled but still audible, and Renesmee noted with some dismay that it was practically dripping with sarcasm, and a good measure of hostility. "Not that I don't appreciate the check-up call, Ed, but I don't think you really have to worry anymore." A pause, during which Renesmee assumed her father was responding. "Well, it isn't like that, Edward. And I'm thinking now it probably never will be." Another pause. "I just know, alright." And then, at the same volume but much, much more intense, "Because she's in love."

Renesmee felt the room spin around her. She was going to be sick. Jacob and her father couldn't possibly be talking about anyone other than her, and given that she could barely remember their drunken conversation in her bedroom the night before, she was pretty sure she knew what Jacob was telling him. She couldn't believe it. She'd told Jacob everything, in her altered state. And now he was pretending she hadn't said anything at all, hoping she wouldn't remember making the confession. Probably hoping it would just disappear. Why else would he have told her she didn't say or do anything embarrassing? And now here he was, telling her father, of all people. Renesmee had never felt so dejected and betrayed in all her life.

"She told me," Jacob was saying, and he sounded almost as terrible as she felt. "Last night. No, it's not. No." Another pause. "Would you just hold on a minute? Christ, if I can deal with this like a sane person, so can you." Another, much longer pause. "No, Edward. I am most definitely not okay."

Renesmee felt like her legs might give out. Jacob was clearly not excited at the revelation that she was in love with him. He sounded, in fact, like he'd just gotten the worst possible news. Was she that disgusting? She hadn't been exactly certain that Jacob would reciprocate her feelings, but she'd never anticipated his revulsion at the idea. Was it because she was part vampire? Did her messed-up breeding make him feel that way? Or was it just her?

Jacob was still talking. Renesmee tried to push back the wave of pain that was washing over her so that she could hear what else he had to say. After all, if she was going to know how he felt, she might as well hear everything right from the start. There was no sense in delaying her misery. "Look, I don't know how it happened. She's been spending a lot of time with this guy… I don't know, just some guy she has class with. She thinks he's just great." The last part was said with a huge amount of sarcasm. Renesmee was now officially confused… they could only be talking about Rideau, but why? This had nothing to do with him. "I already told you, I don't know how it happened. The guy's clearly hung up on her… You think I didn't try? She fought me tooth and nail. Clearly he's important enough to her that my opinion of him doesn't matter. She's been acting all weird, trying to impress him I guess. And then last night, he was over here, and after he left she basically told me how she felt. She wanted to know if I'd still be her friend if something happened between them." Jacob paused again, and then said, "Of course I said yes. What else could I possibly say? Imprint or not, I'm always going to be her friend… no stupid human is going to change that."

Renesmee supposed she should be accustomed by now to her traitorous mind trying to trick her in to an uncomfortable misunderstanding. It was just like the dream, when she'd felt so sure she'd lost Jacob for good, only to realized that she'd had him all along. Jacob wasn't upset because he thought she was in love with him… he was upset because he thought she was in love with somebody else. And if he felt that strongly about the possibility of her falling for someone, maybe that meant…

This time, her legs actually did give way, and she sat down shakily in the hallway outside of her best friend's door. Did Jacob have feelings for her? Maybe that was why he'd sounded like Edward was interrogating him earlier in the conversation… her father knew the way he felt, and didn't approve. Renesmee was so utterly confused and bewildered that she couldn't enjoy the feeling of pure elation that was creeping up on her, although it was certainly a noticeable and welcome change from her earlier feeling of dread. Why would Jacob tell her father, of all people? He had to know how Edward would react to something like that.

The answer came almost as quickly as the question: Jacob hadn't told Edward… he hadn't needed to. Her father must have heard something in Jacob's thoughts, and it must have been before they left. How long had this been going on? And how come neither Jacob nor her father had said anything? Renesmee felt a surge of annoyance at that; all her life she'd had to guard herself from her father's ability, there had never been a moment's peace except when she was with Jacob, away from everyone else, and neither her father or her aunt were able to spy on them. It was bad enough that Edward could always hear her, but when she thought about him invading Jacob's privacy, particularly with regards to this situation, it made her want to spit. Other girls were allowed to fall in love with their best friends, and have those same friends love them back, without having to deal with their fathers' reactions until much further along the line. How come she got stuck with the mind-reader? And poor Jacob… how hard it must have been for him, trying not to let Edward in on what he was thinking and feeling. Renesmee had a sudden, territorial urge to burst into the room, take the phone and tell her father to butt out.

"Yeah, okay," Jacob said. He hadn't spoken for a while, and Renesmee had almost forgotten, in her extreme shock, that she was spying on a private conversation. Startled, she shook her head and picked herself up as quietly as she possibly could. Jacob gave a short bark of laughter and said, "Yeah, well… not half as sorry as I am. Okay… talk to you later. Bye." Renesmee's eyes widened and she darted quickly towards her own bedroom. She wanted to wait for Jacob to come back out into the hall and run straight into his arms and tell him that it was okay, that she didn't love Rideau, that it was him she was in love with. But she didn't want him to know how she'd abused his trust by spying on his conversation with her father, and besides, she figured it was best if she came up with a plan of action first. Slower was probably better, in this case.

She felt a slow grin begin to spread across her face as she stood behind the shelter of her closed door. She didn't want to get ahead of herself… if this whole mix-up taught her anything, it was that these sort of emotional connections could be easily misinterpreted. She tried to school herself to not buy into her assumption that Jacob was really in love with her, but it was impossible. Her mind was flying in a dozen directions all at once, and it was difficult to slow it down, seeing how she didn't really want to in the first place.

She heard Jacob's door open, and his footsteps on the stairs. "Sorry, Nessie," he called out, "Your dad just wanted to check up on you, and you know how thorough he can be… where'd you go?"

"Getting dressed!" She called hastily from behind her closed door, and then charged into her closet. She'd have to throw some clothes on quickly to back up her alibi. She hastily struggled into the first half-decent outfit within her reach and took a quick look in the mirror, stopping to pull back her hair into a low twist. She cursed under her breath at her reflection… she looked okay, considering the night she'd had, but not as good as she knew she could. It would have been better if she could knock him off his feet with how beautiful she was… but then again, this was Jacob. He'd seen her in all states of disarray before. And if he did, in fact, have feelings for her it obviously didn't matter to him that she sometimes looked a bit of a mess. She smoothed down her hair once more, threw on a coat of chapstick, and headed for the door.

She almost ran smack into Jacob when she stepped into the hall, pulling up short just in time to avoid an embarrassing face-to-chest collision. Jacob practically flew backwards to avoid touching her, and Renesmee felt herself blush. "Jeez, Jake," she muttered, "Lurk much?"

"Ha ha." He looked down at her; if he'd been as upset during his phone conversation as he'd sounded, he certainly didn't show it now. Renesmee wondered how often the cheerful, carefree Jacob she was used to was actually a mask, used to cover up some deeper, more complex emotion. "How's your head… any better for the coffee?"

"Yes, thank god," She said honestly, and it was true: her headache was almost completely gone. Probably another perk of her extra-strong vampire physiology. "I feel great now. Looks like you're going to have to find something else to amuse yourself with, seeing as torturing me over last night's error in judgment is no longer an option."

There!; a tiny flicker of something flitted across Jacob's face when she mentioned the previous night. Was it because of her supposed confession of love for Rideau? She didn't see how Jacob could possibly have thought she was interested in her new friend. All they ever did was study and go for coffee… yes, she liked him, but in a purely platonic way. But she supposed that she might feel the same if their roles were reversed. She'd just have to find some way to carefully point out her lack of interest in the other man. In any man besides Jacob himself.

"I was kind of thinking I might just spend the day watching some TV, maybe call the pack, just, you know… hang out in my room." Jacob was avoiding her eyes… another sign. "I'm sure you've got plans. You studying today?"

Renesmee saw an opportunity and seized it. "Well, Rideau mentioned yesterday that we might go to a different library today, find some more resources for my paper and some things that he needs… but I've been studying with him so much recently, I think maybe I need a break."

Jacob evidently couldn't hide his surprise at this, but he covered it well. "You need a break from studying? YOU?"

Renesmee rolled her eyes and swatted him on the arm, unable to resist letting her hand linger for a moment before pulling it away. "Scoff if you will, but I mean it. Besides, it's the weekend… I'm in class all week, and I'm barely home. I thought maybe we could do something together today… just the two of us." She gave him her most charming smile.

Jacob was clearly interested in making things difficult. "Won't Rideau be disappointed if you cancel on him?"

Renesmee just shrugged. "He'll survive. I'm sure he's got much better things to do, and besides, I want to hang out with you today." She walked past him and towards the stairs. "Unless you're really serious about watching TV all day."

She could tell by the surprised silence that she'd caught Jacob off guard. Good… that meant he hadn't been expecting her to be so dismissive about canceling her plans with Rideau. Which, in turn, meant that she was probably right in her interpretation of his conversation with her father: Jacob thought she was in love with her new friend, and it upset him because he had feelings for her.

"I guess I could be convinced to come out of my cave," Jacob said, following behind her. She didn't look back at him, but she could tell from the sound of his voice that he was smiling. Maybe she'd succeeded in making her point. "What did you want to do?" They'd reached the kitchen, and Renesmee was pouring herself another coffee. She turned to him with a very serious expression.

"Don't laugh, okay?" she said as a disclaimer. Jacob shrugged, as if to say he couldn't make any promises. She sighed. "Well, it's been almost two months since we got here. I've been eating red meat for the whole time, and all the side dishes that go along with it, and… I think I might be ready for Pizza."

Jacob, naturally, cracked up. "Excellent," he said when he was done laughing at her. "It's about time. I know the perfect place. Don't worry, Nessie… I know you're nervous about this, but believe me when I say you're in capable hands."

She just rolled her eyes. "Don't make me regret this, Jacob. None of those weird little fish, okay?"

He just guffawed again and turned on his heel. "Give me a minute… I'm gonna grab my coat, and then we'll go." He bounded up the stairs with an energy that could only be ascribed to excitement, and Renesmee smiled fondly to herself.

She could do this.

oooOOOooo

They ended up at a pizzeria near the park. Jacob ordered a huge pie for both of them, with Pepperoni, bacon and onions; nothing too crazy where texture was concerned, for which Renesmee was grateful. It arrived, thin-crusted and well-browned, and she had to admit it smelled delicious.

"Focus on the taste," Jacob reminded her. "There's no way you can possibly object to it if you do."

She tried her level best to think away her discomfort regarding the slimy, oozing cheese, the crispy crust and the oddly slippery onions. It did taste incredible. The first piece almost got her gag reflex, but after forcing it down, Renesmee found she actually wanted to try another one. Jacob watched her like she was a scientific specimen, one upon which the future of the human race depended. His face was hopeful and apprehensive at the same time, and when she'd finished off her second slender slice of pie, he said, "So?"

Renesmee shrugged and gave him a small, sheepish smile. "Okay, so it's pretty good," she admitted. Jacob made a loud, triumphant noise, garnering some looks from nearby diners, and she laughed at him. "You're taking this as a personal victory, aren't you?"

He nodded vigorously. "All these years, you've been insulting the noble pizza pie. I think you owe somebody an apology." He looked at her pointedly.

"Okay. I'm sorry Jacob… You were right, pizza is delicious."

"Good. Now apologize to the pie."

She reached for another slice, and then grinned. "Sorry," she said facetiously before taking a giant, vicious bite. Jacob shook his head.

"Savage."

"Your point?" Renesmee chewed with renewed zeal. This was exactly what she wanted: the two of them laughing and joking and having a good time, just like normal. Except now, she had a pretty good idea that there was something more between them, something that neither of them was admitting to but hopefully would, and soon.

After lunch, they took a walk in the park. It was busy, being Saturday and relatively mild and sunny for late October. Someone had built a makeshift pumpkin patch, and kids were running around through the scattered hay, picking out the perfect orange gourd with their parents.

"Should we get a pumpkin for Hallowe'en?" Renesmee mused. Jacob shrugged.

"Why not? We're doing the mainstreaming thing… might as well go all the way." He grinned. "That means costumes, too."

Renesmee rolled her eyes. She'd always stayed home from school on Hallowe'en as a kid. "What, actually being part vampire isn't scary enough, now I've got to put on a cape and silly plastic teeth?"

"You have to admit, it's worth it for the irony alone."

She laughed and threaded her arm through Jacob's, noting his surprise at the contact. She'd been keeping her distance since she'd realized her feelings for her best friend, but now it seemed like she'd almost done herself a disservice in doing so. She vowed to renew their typical level of physical contact. Maybe Jacob would get the hint. "I love autumn," she said wistfully. "I don't think I could ever live in a place where the seasons don't change the way they do here. Can you imagine a fall without the trees changing colour?"

"No," Jacob admitted, "I really can't. And I don't think I could do without the forests. I think we're doomed to stay north of the equator for all time."

"Fine by me," Renesmee replied, smiling. "It's not like either one of us feels the cold, anyway." The conversation had started to sound dangerously close to making plans for the future. Renesmee couldn't ignore the warm rush she felt at the idea of them living together down the line, not as roommates or as student and chaperone, but as lovers, co-parents, husband and wife. She tightened her arm around his ever-so-slightly. Her pocket started to issue a high, tinny tune, and she almost cursed out loud. "Hang on," she said, reluctantly pulling away from Jacob so that she could reach her phone in her jacket pocket. She looked at the caller ID on the screen: Rideau Linley. Crap. She mouthed a quick 'Sorry' to Jacob before hitting the accept button. "Hello?"

"Hi," Rideau's voice was chipper. "How's it going?"

"Good," she said, fretting over how she was going to weasel out of their plans. She'd meant to call, but she'd gotten so caught up with the whole Jacob situation that she'd forgotten. "You?"

"Great. We still on for the library?"

Renesmee made a regretful noise and said, "Actually, I meant to call you… as it turns out, I'm spending the day with Jacob. Is it okay if we hit the library some other time?"

There was a pause on Rideau's end of the line, and then he said, "Sure, no problem. Everything okay?"

"Yeah," Renesmee was a bit confused by his question, "Everything's fine. Listen, I've got to go. See you Monday?"

"Of course. Take care, okay?"

"Yeah, you too." She hit the end button and shoved her phone back into her pocket. She looked over at Jacob… he was trying unsuccessfully to hide a scowl.

"Was that Anthropology Boy?" he asked sarcastically, even thought Renesmee knew very well that he knew who she'd been talking to. She was anxious to convince Jacob that she wasn't romantically interested in Rideau, but she was still unwilling to let him bash her new friend, so she gave him a warning look.

"Be nice," she said, "I ditched him so we could hang out. Try to be a gracious victor." Jacob laughed shortly.

"Ha! Some victory!"

"Yeah, well, you could do worse," Renesmee pointed out.

On their way home from the park, they stopped by the video store and rented a few movies, deciding to stay in and relax for the night. They grilled a few steaks, put them on trays, and set up camp in front of the television in the living room, which was smaller than the one in Jacob's room but still large enough to be called massive. Renesmee made sure to sit on the same couch as Jacob. If television had taught her anything, it was that watching movies on the couch was the perfect setting for putting the moves on someone. Not that she'd ever expected to be putting those moves on her best friend, but she supposed stranger things had happened.

Half way through the movie, which was an action-thriller with lots of explosions and tense car-chases, Renesmee had managed to inch her way towards the middle of the couch, directly beside Jacob, and after leaning forward to replace the remote on the coffee table she repositioned herself so that she was leaning against him, fitting comfortably into his side. She felt Jacob's body go rigid as she snuggled up against him, and then he relaxed, placing his arm over her shoulders. Renesmee smiled to herself. They stayed that way until the movie finished, sitting stalk-still throughout the end credits until the DVD menu came back up. Renesmee became keenly aware that Jacob was breathing much more heavily than usual, and she could actually feel the gentle pulse of his heart beneath his chest, thrumming at a rather rapid pace. She turned her head to look up at him and realized with a shock that he was staring directly at her, and she wondered how long he'd been doing so. There was something strange and foreign in his eyes; she'd never seen that expression before, and she was both thrilled and terrified by the intensity of it. Their eyes locked, and their faces were very close together. Renesmee could almost anticipate the way it would feel when their lips inevitably met…

"Well," Jacob said, tearing his gaze away and gently lifting her body away from his so that he could squeeze himself past her and off of the couch, "I think I should probably head upstairs for a bit and call the pack. I promised Leah I'd give them a ring today, and if I don't do it soon they'll wonder what the hell happened to me." He swiped a hand through his hair nervously and grabbed their plates and empty drinking glasses from the coffee table, piling them into his arms and rushing off to the kitchen.

"Jacob…" Renesmee called after him, feeling bewildered and hurt.

"I'll… I'll be back down in a bit, okay?" He walked back past her on his way to the stairs and looked at her for one lingering moment. There was a pleading look in his eyes. Renesmee nodded, swallowing hard around the lump in her throat, and then watched as he turned and rushed up the stairs, taking them three at a time.

She had no idea what to think. Everything had been going so well. The whole day had felt like one big date, and just now on the couch they'd been literally centimeters away from kissing. And then Jacob had just bolted, but with the strangest look in his eyes, like he wanted to devour her, or maybe something much more interesting. There was something going on here that she wasn't understanding, and Renesmee felt and angry, impotent frustration at the fact that Jacob and, possibly, her family were hiding things from her. Jacob's conversation with her father earlier had made that abundantly clear.

Unbidden, a phrase from that same conversation came floating to the forefront of her mind. Imprint or not, I'm always going to be her friend. Renesmee frowned to herself. She'd been so emotionally fraught at the time that she hadn't really registered those odd words, but now they came back with a vengeance and began to nag at her. "Imprint," she said under her breath, thinking it over. She was sure she'd heard the word used in conversation before, but she couldn't think when. Suddenly, it seemed almost imperative that she remember.

Renesmee sat up straight, putting her hands on her knees, and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. One of the techniques she'd tried to employ on her quest to keep her mind private from her father's gift was meditation. It hadn't worked, exactly, but it had enabled her to better organize her thoughts, accessing them in a much more detached and analytical fashion. She focused on relaxing her body and her brain, and then began repeating the word over and over in her mind: Imprint. Imprint. Imprint.

"You imprinted on my BABY?"

"What is this, 'Take Your Underage Imprintee to Work Day'?"

"You're putting your Goddamn IMPRINT before the best interests of this pack!"

Renesmee's eyes flew open. Her mother, a newborn vampire, flying at her as she sat within the huge, safe hammock of Jacob's arms… Emmett, teasing Quil and Jacob at the garage while she played on the floor with Claire… Leah, raging at Jacob just a few years ago, unaware that Renesmee was approaching the pack house and could hear every word of her tirade… she was the common thread in each of these scenes. More specifically, her in connection with Jacob. But what did it mean?

She wracked her brain for some sort of context. She knew that some animals imprinted on the first living being they saw after being born, becoming attached to that thing as if it were a parent. Was she supposed to have imprinted on Jacob, like some sort of baby bird? That didn't make any sense… she definitely didn't feel like her connection to Jacob was anything like that of a child to a parent, even when she'd been younger.

Renesmee sighed heavily. This was hopeless. She needed more information than what her own mind could provide. She drummed her fingers on her knees as she tried to think of some way to get it. As she caught sight of her cell phone sitting on the coffee table, and idea came to her, and she picked it up. When she looked at the screen, she noticed two missed calls… one from her father's cell phone, and one from the Main house at the compound. She checked the messages quickly.

"Renesmee, it's your father," Edward's voice said. "I would very much appreciate it if you would return my call. I left a message with Jacob earlier… I'm not sure whether he passed it on. Please call when you can." There was a click, and she erased the message. "Renesmee, it's your father," the second message began in exactly the same way. "Please call back. I'd like to speak with you." She deleted that one too. She couldn't deal with a conversation with her father right then and there… hastily, she keyed in a text message: Got your voicemails. Really busy, will call you tomorrow. Love you.

When the message had sent, she went back to her original task, skimming through her contacts, dialing and speaking quietly so that Jacob wouldn't overhear from inside his room.

"Hey, Reed… it's Ness. That library you wanted to go to today… is it open twenty-four hours? Great… feel like taking a walk?"

Then, she turned off her phone.

In the next chapter:

Renesmee was panicking. Her father would kill her if her knew she was talking to complete strangers about their world. Although technically, it was Jacob's world. So really, if anybody had a reason to kill her, it would be Jacob. She had to neutralize this nice old man, and she had to do it quickly.