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A/N: Song used is City and Colour's Off By Heart

Chapter Seven: Take It Back

The stars are aligned, but they don't align for us
Excuse me for I am the ocean, and I will starve for you
Will you know how to stay brave?
Such fragile moments we share
You are my everything
Even with nothing to say

His jaw slackened and he blinked at me twice before his shoulders slumped. Cocking his head to one side condescendingly, he puffed out a frustrated breath, icy blue eyes narrowing as he shrugged.

"Are you kidding me right now, Bella?" he said with an edge to his voice I'd never heard from Mike before. I opened my mouth to speak, but instead just gaped at him. Why was he here, on my porch, kissing me?

My stomach clenched as nausea coursed over me, and my knees buckled, forcing me to grab on to Mike's arm for balance.

"Bella... are you alright?" he said, confusion and concern lacing his tone. I shut my eyes, willing the feeling of sickness to subside and nodding.

"Yeah, I'm just... I'm sorry, Mike. I'm not feeling well. I should go inside," I muttered, feeling like the words were being spoken by somebody else. A brief flash of disappointment coloured his features momentarily before he smiled sympathetically.

"Okay... yeah. Sure," he stammered, taking a step back. "Can I call you tomorrow?"

I nodded again. "Yeah, I'm sorry... I think I need to lie down." I was feeling overheated and wrong, and seriously considered asking him to help me through the door. That would be a bad idea. I still had no inkling what was happening, but something told me I still didn't need to give him any more encouragement than he evidently had. Something told me this feeling wasn't just because I'd let him kiss me. My head pounded like something was clawing at me, needing to be acknowledged. I fumbled for the handle, feeling the second wave of sickness swiftly approaching. As Mike leaned in for a second kiss, I turned the handle and stumbled backwards, into the dark house and out of his reach. My hand shot up to my mouth and I genuinely prayed that I wouldn't throw up on his shoes.

"Talk to you tomorrow, then," he called as I slammed the door right in his persistent face.

I leaned back against the wood, my breaths coming quick and panicked as the room spun around me. I had to lie down or I was going to be sick.

Too late.

I dry-heaved deeply, propelling my feet forward in search of the stairs, which I stumbled up, clutching the wall for support. Just get to the bathroom.

I barely had a chance to switch on the light before I fell to my knees in front of the toilet, violently emptying the contents of my stomach until there was nothing but bile left.

Pressing my forehead into the cool tiles, I laid there for an indeterminate amount of time, waiting for the sickness to leave me fully, and wondering if my legs would even support the walk down the hall to my room. I summoned the strength to crawl out the door, blindly searching the direction of my bedroom and the comfort of bed. Somehow I made it, and tucked my knees into my chest, fully clothed, as a cold sweat broke out over my pounding brow. The room continued to jerk and spin, and when I shut my eyes again, the first of the images came.

The new memories flooded in like fragments, snapshots that only went into perspective with concentration. Jake and I kissing in my kitchen. Holding his hand firmly as his eyes searched mine, barely believing what was happening between us. Jake's hand floated away and in its place was Mike's, from a few hours ago. It was rested across a table-top in a small restaurant, one I'd never been to before.

"I'm really glad you finally agreed to go out with me," he smiled. My answer was non-committal.

The pieces came in reverse order, then. A shift at Newton's earlier in the week.

"What are you doing this Saturday, Mike?"

I'd asked him out? My head throbbed even harder as the memories found home in my brain. It had never felt like this before, and I guessed the sheer amount of new information was causing my nausea. What the hell had I done?

It went back further, to weeks spent alone, or hanging out with Angela and Ben, sometimes Jess. Charlie was there, always in the background, but the warmth I felt at seeing his face, knowing he was alive gave me the comfort I needed. I'd done the right thing – I'd saved him, and no matter what went wrong, I could live with that.

Mike was always around, giving me longing looks and hopeful glances.

"Don't you think it was time you were over that guy?"

"It's not really any of your business, Mike,"I'd snapped.

Interspersed, I saw more familiar faces swimming through my mind's eye. Seth Clearwater, standing on my back porch in cut-offs and worrying his bottom lip. The chocolate wolf of Quil Ateara, sitting silently among the trees. A bored-looking Jared Cameron. A stoic Leah Clearwater. Sympathetic Embry Call.

"Look, she's getting too close.. all it would take from one of us is a split-second distraction and she could be inside your house."

"Thought you said you were fast. You all told me vampires were no match for the 'mighty Quileute Wolf Pack'," I sneered. Embry scratched the back of his head awkwardly. His eyes darting away from me, back into the forest.

"There's always a risk – she's evaded us this long, hasn't she? Look if you'll just come to La Push-"

"No."

He sighed frustratedly, giving me this look that told me he was over this whole thing, but he wasn't letting me do this.

"Why are you even here? Did he send you as his little messenger puppy? Tie a note around your tail and told you to follow the scent of strawberries?"

He winced then, and I wasn't sure if it was my words or the way I'd said them that caused it.

"Any more, tell him if he wants to speak to me, he knows how to use a phone. He's pretty good at slamming it down when I call."

"He wasn't the only one," he muttered, and I tried not to be hurt. Jake was his best friend, of course he'd side with him.

"Forgive me for not wanting to have my nose rubbed into the crap that is my life," I said, turning towards the door again. Embry stepped forward in a panic – he'd failed to convince me to leave with him and Jacob was wrong to think sending him would butter me up.

"But Bella-"

"No. Forget it. The only way I'll set foot in that place again is if Victoria drags my cold, lifeless corpse there herself."

Each pack member looked like they were being forced to be there, and something told me it was a sense of duty that had them even talking to me in the first place. A flash of red almost stopped my heart. She was still after me, and they were still my protectors, patrolling near me, saving my life all over again. It should have relieved me, but all I could muster was guilt. I thought I'd changed this, somehow.

I didn't see Jacob.

Further back again, Graduation came and went. Charlie was the only one sitting in the audience as my support – two empty chairs to his left seemed like the most glaring thing in the room. I refused to go for a celebratory meal afterwards, instead calling my mother and collapsing into my bed, holding back the tears and trying not to feel as lonely and pathetic as I was.

The last months of school blurred. For a moment, I thought it had gone back too far, to the dark period I'd spent as a zombie after Edward left me, but something was different about me this time – I was angry. Pure rage and resentment bubbled up through the blurred visions, and I felt a hatred I'd never experienced before. Charlie walked on eggshells, afraid to say the wrong thing or mention the wrong name and set me off.

"Bells, I'm not trying to pry," he hedged, wrongly gauging my lack of reaction as an invitation to continue. "But I noticed it's been a while since you saw Jake. Did something happen between you two?"

My reply had ensured it was the last time he ever asked me that question.

Bit by bit, another face floated into my concentration. Large, blue eyes filled with tears and shock stared into me as I physically vibrated with anger and hate.

"You don't even realise, do you? It's because you look just like me," I snapped, feeling the venom spouting from my tone but powerless to stop it. "It's the only reason he gave you a second glance, the only reason you're together right now. Get the fuck over yourself, sweetheart – if he hadn't loved me first, he'd never love you now."

"Bella!"

Jacob's voice cut into my tirade, and the thinly veiled anger should have scared me, but it didn't. I was glad – glad to have a reaction, any at all from him. I felt so insignificant and forgotten that I'd take anything I could get.

"I don't know why you're so angry, but don't you think it's time you stopped talking, before you do any more damage?" he warned, edging closer to her as he spoke. His arm draped around her waist protectively, tucking her petite frame snugly into his side. She fit there like the missing piece of the puzzle.

I laughed coldly. "I don't know why I'm so angry either, Jake. Everyone knows I was just settling."

His eyes darkened then, narrowing in hurt and offence. It was a long time before he spoke again, and I briefly considered taking the statement back until he interrupted. "Sure sure," he said. "At least now you're not stuck in something you never wanted," he said evenly. "Don't worry, Bells, I'm over it."

He nuzzled his nose into the crown of her head lovingly, bathing in her scent as the slight shaking in his muscles subsided. I realised then that I couldn't get to him. No matter what I said, she'd always bring him the comfort I never could.

The memory faded out again, being replaced by one from a month earlier, when Jacob and I had gone on our first official date. I had dressed comfortably, knowing there was no need for expensive outfits or excessive make-up. Jake had seen me at my very worst, and had brought me back to my best – all i'd had to do was let him, and I found myself slowly, but unmistakably falling deeply in love with him. His smile warmed my insides, and chased away the darkenss I'd been living in for so long, His arms held me together when I'd crumbled, and his words gave me hope, and made me feel that yes, I was worth battling for, and he'd do it to the very end if he had to. I had no doubt that if Jacob had to compete for my affections, he'd fight tooth and claw. It had led us to this, this night that I'd officially put Edward Cullen behind me and rebuild my world using Jacob's strength and the resilience I never knew I had.

I witnessed the very moment that world was torn apart from a distance, watching as my brand new boyfriend walked up to a strange girl with hair and a figure similar to my own.

She was standing outside the movie theatre, waiting on someone, and I smiled to myself when I realised his mistake. He strode confidently towards her from behind, placing his large hands over her eyes and whispering in her ear. When she turned around, I chuckled softly to no-one at the look of shock and embarrassment on his face.

I was going to give him such shit for this, I thought, getting out of the cab of my old, red truck and shutting the door quietly. I looked down the street as I crossed, pretty sure that my plan to sneak up on Jake would go awry if I got run over. I focused my attention back towards the non-couple, almost laughing at the hilarity of the idea what a werewolf would fall for a case of mistaken identity,

My steps toward them faltered then, when I noticed the look on his face wasn't fading. In fact, it wasn't a look of embarrassment at all, and they hadn't said a word in all the time it took to reach them. He stood stock-still, taking in her features as she breathed deeply, no doubt being stunned by the beauty before her. I backed away again, tears filling my eyes, hoping like hell it wasn't true, that the one fear I'd dismissed and told Leah wasn't an issue hadn't come back to haunt me.

I got in my truck and sat there, hoping against hope that I hadn't just watched Jacob, my Jake, imprint on a stranger.

A/N: Guys, this was pretty damn horrible to write. Jake and Bella are my Twilight OTP and having them die out like this was all wrong for me, but you know the pairing on this story, and you know why this had to happen. I just hope I make the Bella/Embry story worthy of doing this. I guess time will only tell.

Please, please let me know your thoughts.