Everything shifted. Suddenly it wasn't the solid floor beneath his feet keeping him grounded. Everything was her.

So this is imprinting, Jacob thought.

And for a second, nothing else had ever mattered.

It was as if everything he had ever known had clicked out of alignment, leaving a perfect clarity in the wake of destruction. Everything else was torn down and rebuilt. This was the moment of pure blinding light that he'd been waiting for his entire life.

He stared at Renesmee. Jacob could see Bella in every aspect of her, in her eyes, in the smile resting lightly on her lips, in the sound of her voice. Everything that he had loved about Bella was standing in front of him.

Jacob could feel it all falling away. Everything that had held him to the world, to this life, all the ties that he'd had, they were gone. New strings wrapped themselves around him, linking him to her.

Barely a second had passed. Behind Jacob, Edward made a small noise of distress.

No.

Jacob realised, too late to change anything, that Edward could hear exactly what he was feeling.

No. Wrong.

Jacob could feel something else. A single chain, holding him back from whatever was happening. Thick and unbreakable, he knew that it held him to Edward. He clung to it, unwilling to give it up to the utter decimation of everything he knew.

He loved...

He hardly realized that his eyes had opened until Reneesme move slightly before them. In was a minute movement, barely enough to warrant the name, but suddenly he no longer saw Bella etched across her features. Suddenly it was Edward. A different dimension allowed Jacob to see what he had been blinded to. Suddenly he saw everything. Realized what was happening.

Somehow he managed to turn around, tearing his eyes from Reneesme. Edward was looking at him with undisguised horror. Jacob felt his own panic rise.

Disregarding his nature, knowing that the problems they had thought they were facing no longer mattered, Jacob somehow made it out of the door and into the woods.

(...)

The tree trunk shattered against his fist, leaving his mind no less cluttered and not helping to clear up the situation at all. Still, Jacob didn't question its efficiency when he turned to the next tree trunk.

What had he ever done to deserve this? Any of it. He'd never even lived, he didn't think he could owe life anything. But it kept throwing him lemons, and he had no sugar left to take the sting out.

Three more trees went the same way before Edward found him.

Neither man spoke. It seemed too difficult to know what to say. Cruel fate had well and truly given it her best. Whatever way you looked at it, they'd been screwed.

Jacob was furious, but he didn't know at who. At himself? It seemed to be the only option. He was cursed.

Jacob watched Edward standing completely still in the spot he'd materialized. His stone statue, hairline cracks laid open for the world to wear away. Edward had been punished enough, he didn't need this pain.

"Edward, I'm sorry."

"You can't be sorry, Jacob. You can't control it."

"But-"

"It wasn't Bella. I was wrong. It was Renesmee. She was the reason you were drawn to Bella. She was the reason you were drawn to me. It was always her." Edward's voice was barely more than a whisper. Jacob didn't know what to say in response.

He flinched as the tree next to Edward exploded. The man had struck it so fast that Jacob hasn't seen him move.

It was the only outward sign of what Edward was feeling, the shards of bark and leaves lying indistinguishable from the leaf litter below their feet.

"I won't ask you. You don't have to worry about that."

"Ask me what?"

"To break it. The imprint. I won't ask. I don't want you to."

Jacob stood in the damp of the forest, feeling the cool air soak into his shirt. Shock was probably soaking in to, but it was harder to feel.

Breaking the imprint. The thought hadn't occurred to him. Now it wouldn't leave him alone.

He watched Edward cast his broken hopes and fading memories away into the shadows of an empty house.

He couldn't leave Edward. He wouldn't just give up on the man he loved. He could change all of this. Fix it.

His heart ached at the prospect of a choice. A decision.

He had a choice.

Jacob walked swiftly towards Edward, giving him barely enough time to react as he invaded his personal space.

"I want to." He reassured the unmoving figure.

He leaned forward and rested his forehead against Edward's.

"I want to."

(...)

In a way, tragedy had been averted.

Jacob had imprinted on Renesmee.

It had torn his entire world apart, but it had knitted the wolf pack and the Cullen's together in a sacred bond. Sam had no grounds to fight with the vampires. He couldn't threaten them anymore.

He also wouldn't leave.

The old man was refuse entrance to the house on the basis of Alice's objections, but he was still sitting out in his car when Jacob and Edward returned.

The sound of the car door slamming set Jacob's teeth on edge. He didn't want to deal with this now. Sam was hurrying up behind him, and Jacob could almost smell the excited glint in his eye. Perfect.

"Jacob. Jacob!" Sam called out, halting Jacob's attempts to ignore him by reaching out to grab the back of his shirt. Jacob span around to face what had been his worst adversary only hours ago.

"What do you want Sam?"

"I heard the news. I felt it. I want to congratulate you."

"For what?" Jacob spat out, ashamed of Sam's enthusiastic happiness.

"On your imprint. Now you can put this...accident, behind you."

"What accident would that be?"

Sam faltered slightly at the threatening tone of Jacob's voice. He seemed to realize just how much Jacob towered over him, taking an uncertain step backwards.

"Come on Jake. Surely you can see now, how much of a fool you've been? This must have shown you how ridiculous your...relationship-with Edward was."

Jacob looked down at the old man. He suddenly seemed so small, so insignificant.

"I'm breaking it."

"What?" Sam demanded.

"The imprint. I'm going to break it."

Sam stared at him as if he'd gone completely bonkers. Jacob gave up and turned back to the house. He followed Edward inside, ignoring Sam's protests as the chief tailed him.

"It can't be done. Imprints can't be broken."

"They can if they're only partial imprints."

"Wha-There's no such thing."

"You really have no idea, do you?"

Jasper moved forward to apprehend Sam as he crossed the threshold, seemingly intent in upholding their lack of invitation. Sam waved him off.

"If this is wolf business, I think I have a right to be here."

Jasper looked at Edward questioningly. Whatever look Edward gave in return had his brother retracting his claws.

Jacob went back to his attempts to ignore the man, focussing on the expectedly full room in front of him. It wasn't just the vampires looking back at him. His pack had arrived and apparently been granted sanctuary within the house's walls.

They knew what had happened, and they knew about his decision. He turned first to the younger Sam, imploring him to do something about his relation. The boy nodded and took a step forward, pulling something from his jacket pocket. Jacob recognized the book that Harley had given the boys, ages ago. Good, he thought. It's about time the esteemed leader of their community had a history lesson.

Jacob turned next to Harley.

Can it be done? he asked wordlessly.

"I don't know Jake. This is not like anything I've read. With a human, it would be different."

"But can it be done."

Harley thought hard for a moment. Jacob felt his hopes riding on the boy's extraordinary mind.

"I think so."

"How?"

"A-are you sure it's a partial?"

Jacob closed his eyes, feeling the inescapable pull. It felt like a magnetic force, pulling him physically towards the other end of the room. Check.

"Yes."

"The legends all say a similar sort of thing. Imprinting is a wolf thing."

"So what do I do to stop it?"

"You have to stop the wolf. Ri...God Jacob, you've got to rip the wolf from your soul."

Jacob felt his head spin, nausea hitting him hard. If Harley was saying what he thought he was saying...

Jacob swallowed heavily, taking a deep breath to steady himself.

"How?"

"The old stories won't work for you Jacob. They're all about people who haven't been wolves for a long time. It's different with you. You've been shifting for so long, it's so ingrained in you-so much a part of who you are, that you can't just separate it."

"But you said it was possible."

"There's only one way I can think of to do it."

"Tell me."

"What you want to do is not only different because you're different. It's different because Edward isn't human anymore. I think that maybe a bite could tear the wolf from you."

Jacob stared at Harley, speechless. What he was saying was impossible.

"But Jacob, it would be extremely painful. You would have to wait out the agony, seeing if the bite would take, and there's a chance you'd be in pain for the rest of your existence. Fire and ice are incompatible. You'd have both running through your veins."

"What would happen to Reneesme if Jacob broke it?" A voice from the back of the room broke in. Rosalie stepped forward, addressing the space between Harley and Jacob. "Will she feel the same think Jacob does?"

"Please Rose, we're obviously not concerned about what Reneesme feels about all of this." The quiet voice emanated from the back of the room, near where Rosalie had moved from.

Renesmee's voice was small, and broke as she spoke for the first time. Jacob knew instantly that they'd been completely unfair. He'd tried not to consider what Renesmee would be feeling, tried to believe that he'd made the right choice. But something in that precious voice told him that he was hurting Reneesme with this decision.

"After all," Reneesme continued, still just as quietly and unsure. "It's not like she deserve to have a say."

With a saddening grace and repressed passion, Reneesme turned and walked out the door, disappearing much as Jacob had earlier.

Guilt consumed Jacob. He knew that he had to go after her, try to do what he could to fix this damned impossible problem. He couldn't just disregard her feelings.

He stopped Rose's attempt to follow her niece with a hand on her arm. She didn't like it, but she nodded and faded back into the group, frowning. Jacob stuck around just long enough to collect an answer to Rose's question from Harley, and then pursued Reneesme through the open door.

(...)

Unlike Jacob and Edward, Reneesme apparently didn't see the need to destroy nature in order to express her frustrations.

Jacob found her sitting on a fallen tree, hands lying in her lap. She didn't look distressed, merely lost in thought, but Jacob knew better than to sneak up on a distracted and emotionally compromised vampire hybrid.

He snapped a few twigs underfoot as he approached. Reneesme didn't look up.

Without a word, he seated himself next to her on the log. She still didn't look at him.

Without a word, Reneesme reached across and placed her hand lightly on Jacob's forearm.

A foreign memory filled Jacob's vision, and suddenly he was seeing himself, from some strange angle. He watched himself strain over a table, frantically moving around something out of sight.

The vision suddenly ended. Jacob distantly remembered Edward saying something about Reneesme having a 'unique' method of communication. Some understatement.

Jacob realized exactly when that memory had come from. While Jacob hadn't seen the baby that night, decades ago, it seemed that the baby had seen him. Jacob suddenly understood why Reneesme had shown him that moment.

"You've known since then?

"Yes."

"But how could you know for that long and never do anything? Say anything?"

"I don't know. It's just this urge, this need to wait or to do something. Sometimes it felt important, sometimes it didn't."

As much as he had imprinted on Renesmee, Renesmee had imprinted on him. She had known, her whole life, that one day she would find him again. She hadn't even known his name. It was one distant memory, one blurry vision.

This had all gone so wrong, whatever way Jacob looked at it.

"How could you feel this way and be okay with everything? How can you be okay with me doing this to you?"

Reneesme moved her hand from Jacob's arm and raised it to his face. She rested it lightly against his cheek.

Jacob was ready for it this time, but he didn't recognise the memory he was being shown.

He was watching Edward through a mostly closed doorway. The man was mostly still, only a shiver along the line of his shoulders separated him from the non-living constancy of the rest of the room. Then the memory was over. Jacob understood. That was Edward during the fifty years he'd spent away from Forks. The sadness of the scene resonated deeply with Jacob. It wasn't only Reneesme's feelings that he felt. It was Edward's to. It was etched so plainly into the blankness. Reneesme showed him how unhappy her father had been.

And that was truly hurting her. It was painful to feel, painful to watch what she had been forced to live through.

A second memory came to him. He recognised the entry of the Cullen household. Felt apprehension building as Reneesme passed through it. With a stunning clarity, her eyes alighted on her father. And saw that he was smiling. Amidst the confusion and relief, Jacob felt the intense happiness that came over the daughter when she witnessed the absence of her father's suffering.

Reneesme took back her hand, folding them back into her lap.

"Being away from you never hurt. It just felt weird sometimes. It hurt to watch him in so much pain. You change that. That's what I want for him."

Jacob looked down at his own hands. He'd only just met this girl. It was his fault that they were all in this mess, and there was no way he could fix everything. But she understood.

"I don't know what to do. How do I make this right for you?"

"I told you that being away from you felt strange."

"Yeah."

"There was like this feeling that I was missing something, like I'd forgotten. That feeling is gone now. I don't think it will come back if you break the imprint."

"I don't understand."

"I don't love you. Not yet. And if you break it, I don't think I ever will. Not like that."

"It's not going to hurt you. At all. Just me." One small comfort. She wouldn't have to be in any pain. It wouldn't affect her. In that way.

Reneesme nodded.

"I don't love you either you know. It's not like that."

Reneesme laughed. Jacob smiled.

"I know."

"I love him."

"He knows."

(...)

Jacob returned to the house alone. Reneesme still needed time. Time to try to figure this out on her own.

Edward would go out there and find her. He had to. It was his daughter out in the woods. Jacob knew that nothing he said would deter Edward from walking out there, and disappearing.

So he didn't try as Edward stalked past him.

(...)

"Is this weird? This isn't normal."

"Dad, you're a vampire, I'm half human, and he's a werewolf. Define normal."

"I suppose you're right."

"It's not normal, but that's okay."

"I love him."

"He knows."

(...)

"I don't understand."

They were all seated in various positions about the room, in lounges, in chairs brought in from other rooms, and even on the floor. The room seemed smaller completely occupied than it ever had empty.

Edwards and Reneesme had not yet returned. The house was filled with the hesitation and indecision of their vacancy. Nothing could be done until they returned. The way Jacob saw it, nothing could be done after they returned anyway. What Harley had said made no sense. They would have to find some other way.

"We all know that vampire venom is lethal to werewolves. A bite would kill me, not turn me and suppress the wolf."

"You're right." Harley replied. He was sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room, an old book lying open in his lap, to which his eyes repeatedly strayed. "A bite would result in death for a werewolf."

"Then I don't know exactly what you're suggesting."

"For a werewolf, Jacob. The Quileutes are not werewolves."

"Of course." Alice exclaimed from the other side of the room. She stood, moving to join Jacob and Harley. "You wolves are not true werewolves."

Jacob looked at the both of them incredulously. Knowing that Harley's entire solution was based on the premise that the man who turned into a giant wolf sporadically was not a werewolf was not making him feel any better.

"If we're not wolves," Jacob asked, humouring the two excited individuals before him. "Then what are we?"

"Well, you are wolves. But not true werewolves. You're a shape shifter. You all turn into wolves because that was the shape chosen by your ancestors. It could just as easily be an eagle, or a bear. Not a wolf."

"That's convenient." Emmett muttered from where he stood, arms crossed, against the far wall. It seemed that the vampire was still trying to catch up with what Edward had told him, so Jacob ignored him.

"Does that mean that the venom would act differently?"

"Maybe. The venom reacts with something in a wolf's anatomy, something specific to werewolves. It is they who are our natural enemy. Not shape shifters. There is not much in our lore about shifters, but there is a chance that you will react differently."

"So there is a chance that it will be enough to break the bond, a chance that I will survive, and a chance that I will escape eternal agony."

"Yes."

"Okay then."

The inhabitants of the room shuffled uncomfortably. His words sounded too much like decision, and decision couldn't be made yet. It was too soon, too rash. Too little was understood and too little felt right.

Jacob couldn't wait. The morning had long since dissipated into pleasant memory, last night into darkness. He was losing Edward. Everything had changed without his knowledge and his chances to hold on to everything was slipping away with the ticking of the clock. They had reached the end, but he could not forgo the beginning.

"It has to be Edward."

"I don't know-"

"Actually, I think that Jacob is right." Harley spoke up, cutting off Alice's protests. "There is a chance that breaking the bond will cause some kind of…transference. It's breaking a powerful physical and mental bond between the two individuals. Even a half or partial imprint. If it's not Edward, I don't know what could happen."

Jacob nodded, and the room fell into silence.

There was nothing else to say. No more questions.

Jacob knew what he had to do, but was no more certain that it was the right choice, the right thing for everyone else.

(...)

Nothing stirred as Edward opened the door and let Reneesme inside. Edward already knew everything that had been said, every decision that had been made in his absence. It seemed so final. And yet he didn't know if he could do what was being asked of him.

This wasn't some killer in the darkened streets. This wasn't a tainted being with thoughts as black as mud. This was Jacob. Human blood still ran through his veins.

He wanted more time, nothing could be done without him anyway. But he found it hard to ask for what he needed. What reason could he possibly have to delay?

Whatever he would try to do to make things better would only make something worse.

Things were hanging in a complicated balance, kept stable only by the belief that they had no other choice. No one was happy, but nor were they miserable.

He walked directly up to Carlisle. If there was one thing that he could do, he would need Carlisle's advice.

Jacob was next to him almost as soon as he reached his father.

"Are there any painkillers strong enough to help if we do this?"

Carlisle thought for only a fraction of a second.

"Jacob's metabolism is too fast. He'll burn anything out of his system before it even has a fraction of an effect."

"Are you absolutely sure? Jacob could feel the effects of alcohol when given in a pure enough dose."

"Really?"

"Actually…" Jacob interjected.

Edward turned to Jacob, surprised. Jacob's memory of sobriety was news to him.

"You mean you weren't even a little tipsy when…?"

"No."

"Okay then. So there's nothing we can do."

(...)

"You don't need to do anything. I can do this, Edward. I know what I'm doing."

The cottage was quiet. No sound reached them from the larger house, the barricade of condensed wood saving them from whatever noise pollution was probably not occurring.

"No you don't." Edward hissed. "We don't know what will happen. Right now all we have is theories and legends, and some hitherto unravelled trivia about the wolves. We don't know anything for sure. Have you thought about this at all? Harley said that you have to rip the wolf from your soul. This is not a decision to be taken lightly."

"I'm not taking it lightly. I'm just trying to do the best I can."

"The best for who?"

Jacob cocked his head to the side, taken aback by the question. Edward continued.

"It's hardly the best for Nessa. It's certainly not the best for you. It was never meant to be me Jacob." Edward seemed to think for a minute. "I don't want to do it."

"What?"

"I won't do it."

"Edward." Jacob tried to understand what Edward was saying. A single sentence had been enough to turn everything around on him. A single movement and Jacob was left standing alone. What would he do if Edward refused to turn him? What did Edward think he would achieve by leaving things the way they were? Jacob was being opposed by his most important ally.

"Jacob, I've caused enough trouble in your life. Enough pain. You stopped shifting just so you could kill me. I've ruined your chances of having a real life once before. I won't do it again."

"Do you really think that I'm going to be able to have a real life, Edward? After everything that has happened, do you really think that I would be able to forget how I feel about you? I told you that this mattered to me. That it was real. That hasn't changed. If a normal life is the price I have to pay, I'm happy to pay it."

"Whatever life you live, Jacob, it was never meant to be with me."

Jacob stared at him, drowning in the uncertainty and heartbreak in the man's soft voice.

Jacob hadn't wanted to wait. There was no point in a delay and he insisted that no amount of time would be enough to crack his resolve.

But it had to be Edward, and Edward wanted to hesitate. He wanted hesitation.

He wanted Jacob to change his mind.

Jacob didn't truly know this. But he suspected it and that knowledge made him feel almost sick.

Edward was angry at everything. At the situation. At himself. And at Jacob. Jacob knew that the self-loathing and deep seated sense of worthlessness had jumped at the first chance to drag themselves back into Edward's life. His darkness had claws too.

Edward was angry at Jacob because he thought that Jacob was making the wrong choice.

But Jacob wasn't going to change his mind. Not at the prospect of immense pain. Not at the signs of fear he saw in Edward's eyes.

"Maybe you're right," Edward flinched at the determination in Jacob's voice, but the motion quickly fell still as the vampire accepted his admission. "Maybe it should never have been the two of us. Maybe I haven't made the right choice for me. But I wasn't just thinking about me. And you know that."

"I never asked you to make decisions for me. I don't deserve consideration in this. Jacob," Edward looked up imploringly, "I'm not worth it."

"Maybe you're not." Jacob struggled with the words. He had to make Edward understand. "Maybe you, alone, are not worth it. Maybe no one would be worth this. But we are. You… you helped me pull myself out of the darkness. Out of the anger and the chaos. You helped me make myself better. And I like who I am with you. And I love you. So maybe you're not worth it. Maybe nothing is. But I want to try. I don't want to give up just because you don't think you deserve a second chance."

Edward was silent. Jacob moved across the room to join him on the couch. He sat close enough to feel the cold skin of Edward's upper arm pressed against his own.

"The cold never bothered me much anyway."

Edward smiled, but the sadness didn't thaw from his eyes. Jacob didn't know how to make it any better.

There was no army to defeat, no battle to win. There was no quick and easy solution, no way to just slay the dragon and win the lover. It would have been so much easier with a simple action sequence, a couple of punches, maybe even a stray bullet wound. All excitement and violence.

Those wounds healed.