Babies, Babies, Babies

Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N-thank you for the kind reviews, Nikki.

Part Six

Bella was surprised to see Edward sitting on the steps leading up to the front porch. As soon as she parked the truck he was at the door, pulling it open and holding out a hand to assist her. She took his hand and forced herself not to react to his cold touch. "I wasn't expecting you." She said as she led the way to the house. "How did you know when I was coming back?"

"Alice saw you. As soon as you left the dog's…." He sighed heavily as he saw Bella frown. "As soon as you left Black's company she was able to see you. You don't know how worried I have been, Bella."

"I sent you a text telling you I was staying over in La Push for the night." Bella fumbled with her keys as she tried to open the door. Edward took them from her and quickly inserted them in the lock and pushed the door open. Bella felt a rush of irritation course through her. She was perfectly able to open a damn door. She couldn't remember the amount of times she had told him not to do things like that, but every time he claimed he had forgotten.

"I was rather hoping for more than a text, Bella." Edward followed her into the house and helped her off with her jacket, hanging it up for her on the hook and smoothing it out to make sure there were no wrinkles left in the material. "I have hardly seen you the last few days."

"You know why." Bella headed to the kitchen to make herself a strong coffee, she felt like she needed the caffeine rush. Dealing with Edward when he was in one of these moods wasn't easy. She could see the hurt written all over his handsome face, his eyes were dark, almost coal black which meant he had not been hunting. She hoped he hadn't been staking out the treaty line, but she rather suspected he had. "You said you understood." Bella muttered as she switched on the kettle to make it boil.

Edward sighed heavily again and pinched the bridge of his nose to calm himself. Bella ignored him while she made some instant coffee and poured in the boiling water. She wasn't going to cave in and start apologising. He knew what she had been doing, she had made it clear that Jacob needed her right now; he had to learn when to take a step back. She knew this was hard for him, he worried about her safety constantly, but Jacob wasn't a danger, even though the Cullen's begged to differ. They would often bring up the subject of Emily's injuries in defence of their opinion. Bella stirred the coffee and then took a small sip. Edward had regained his composure and held out his arms as if to embrace her, but as he drew closer he recoiled and his eyes narrowed.

"The dog's scent is all over you." He said bitterly.

Bella closed her eyes and counted to ten in her head. She knew he was upset but his inability to give an inch was getting on her nerves. Did he have no empathy at all? "I better go shower then." She slammed her mug down on the counter and stormed out of the kitchen.

Jacob phased back and quickly yanked on his shorts. He could see some of his brothers lounging about outside Sam and Emily's small cabin. Embry was sitting on the steps and seemed to be deep in conversation with Quil. Seth and Leah were the first to greet him as he came into view. Jared and the others must be inside. Jacob had just finished a long patrol shift. A lot of the time the wolves would go solo now that the threat from the cold ones had receded. Jacob enjoyed running as a wolf alone. It meant he could think in peace without his brothers trying to fish information from him. His head had been filled with images of Bella all morning as he thought about their night together. He had eventually fallen asleep in the early hours and they had both woken at dawn wrapped in each other's arms. He didn't know how that had happened. It must have been unconscious on both their parts. The sleeping bags had been thrown to one side and Bella was instead curled up next to him, her head resting on his broad chest and one arm curled across his body. It had been one of the most amazing waking moments of his life, it was a memory he knew he would revisit a lot. It was disappointing that he had to leave to patrol and she had decided to head home to shower and get a change of clothes, but had promised to meet up with him later in the day.

Sam stepped outside and nodded at Jacob as he approached. "How was it?" He asked.

"All quiet." Jacob assured him.

"Emily has saved you some muffins." Sam pointed toward the house. "Leah, you and Seth can patrol together today. I want all the perimeters covered. Paul will take over in a few hours." He always made sure that Leah was never alone, and the way to do that was have Seth run with his sister. Leah would not allow any other wolf to patrol with her other than Seth as she knew that Sam always appointed someone to be with her as he wanted to make sure she was safe. As if she couldn't look after herself? It was guilt on his part plain and simple. She flashed him an irritated glance before running off toward the trees. Seth was hot on her heels.

"She can see right through you, you know." Jacob said as he passed Sam.

Sam just shrugged. "It's for the best."

"If you say so." Jacob headed inside. Embry and Quil followed after him. He knew they were probably just waiting to find out the latest about Bella, but he really didn't feel like sharing what had been happening between them. Admitting out loud that he had hope felt like jinxing things. He sat down at the kitchen table and grabbed the last muffin on the tray. Embry and Quil joined him. He saw the expectant looks on their faces and he shook his head.

"Aww…come on, dude." Quil sat back, a disappointed expression on his face. "Give us something."

"There's nothing to give." Jacob took a huge bite out of his muffin. He saw Embry and Quil exchange knowing looks. It was obvious they thought Bella had upset him again, but it wasn't like that, if anything it was Rebecca and her lazy husband who were getting on his last nerve. "I will tell you if there's something important but right now we're just enjoying each other's company again, okay?"

Embry held up his hands. "Okay." He gave in and grinned at his friend. "In what way are you enjoying her company?"

Jacob lobbed an empty cup at his friend's head as Quil burst into laughter.

Bella was glad when Edward finally left her alone so he could go hunting. He only left when she promised to spend the next day with him. He dropped the guilt trip and seemed reassured when she did her best to soothe his injured feelings. Charlie was still at work so she left him a message telling him to head to Billy's for dinner as she was going to cook for the Black family. She packed some essentials with her and headed for the Chevy. Bella had made a special cake that even Billy could eat. It was recipe she had been dying to try for ages and was appropriate for diabetics. She placed it on the bench seat and headed for La Push. Her mind was far away as she drove past the familiar terrain. Last night had been fun, despite her conversation with Rebecca. It had felt like old times with Jake when they camped out in the garage, but waking up in such a compromising position had been a little embarrassing. She couldn't figure out how it happened. Feeling Jacob's hand on her hip, dangerously near her butt had been mortifying, but then one of her hands had been dangerously close to an intimate area of his. Bella's face flushed at the thought. Thank god Edward could not read her mind.

When she reached the Black's house she parked up outside and slipped out of the cab, reaching for the cake as she did so. Jacob didn't come running out to greet her so she assumed he was still out patrolling. Bella cradled the cake in her arms and trudged over to the little redwood house. She didn't bother to knock when she saw the front door was ajar. "Hello?" Bella called out as she walked down the narrow hall toward the front room.

"Bella? Is that you?" Bella rushed into the main room when she heard Billy's voice, he sounded panicked. She found him cradling Marlon; little Jet was crouched by the side of his wheelchair sucking furiously on her thumb. Bella noticed that one of Marlon's bottles was rolling around on the floor as if it had been dropped. "Thank the spirits you're here. I was trying to give Marley his bottle when I accidentally dropped it. I can't reach down for it while I'm holding him and poor Jet doesn't understand that I needed her to pick it up for me." His face looked weary as he jiggled Marlon in his arms.

Bella immediately bent down and retrieved the bottle, but it was already cold. "Where are Rebecca and Solomon?" She asked.

Billy sighed. "Becca left this morning with her husband as she wanted to give him a short tour of La Push. They didn't want to take the little ones with them because she was concerned they would act up. I offered to babysit for a couple of hours….but…." His face paled under his tan skin as he glanced down at little Jet who was looking back at him anxiously. "But it's hard in this chair and Jet has so much energy, than Marley needed changing and feeding and…and…I just couldn't keep up." He confessed.

"Oh, Billy." Bella put a hand on his shoulder as she cursed selfish Rebecca in her head. It was late afternoon so that meant that they had been gone for hours, leaving poor Billy to fend for himself and the children. How selfish was she? There was no way that Billy could call Jake for help as he was out patrolling. "Give Marley to me and I'll warm up another bottle."

"Thank you." Billy said gratefully as he carefully passed the baby to Bella. Little Jet crawled into his lap now there was room and laid her head on his chest. Her thumb was still firmly in her mouth, but she looked less anxious now that she was closer to her grandfather.

Jacob came home to find Bella sitting on the old couch with Marlon asleep in her arms and Jet cuddled up to her side. She was telling the little girl a story about a little boy and his mud pies. He couldn't stop the grin from lighting up his face as she looked toward him and winked. She was talking about him. Jacob thought she looked so adorable with the children surrounding her. She really didn't know how beautiful she was. He glanced around for Billy but couldn't see his father anywhere, Rebecca and Solomon seemed to be absent too. His good mood vanished as he turned back toward Bella.

"Billy is in his room resting, these two tuckered him out and Becca and Solomon are somewhere…." She shrugged hopelessly.

"Please don't tell me they left my dad alone to babysit?" Jacob said quietly so as not to disturb the children.

"Yeah." Bella saw Jacob's eyes flash angrily. He was mad, very mad. She hadn't seen him look like that for a while. "Jake, easy." She warned him.

Jacob closed his eyes for a moment and inhaled sharply. He managed to calm himself down, he didn't want the children to see how riled up he was. He pulled himself together and smiled at Jet who was staring up at him curiously with her big, dark eyes. "Hey, Jet." He said softly.

Jet pulled her thumb out of her mouth and smiled at him. "Hey." She echoed him before she began to suck her thumb again.

"Clever girl." Bella praised the little girl as she stroked her silky, black hair. That was the first word she had heard Jet utter. She locked eyes with Jacob and they shared an intense look before they were interrupted by the sound of laughter and the front door slamming shut. It seemed the erstwhile parents had finally returned.

A/N-thanks for reading!