5. This Bond Between Us

Bella POV

The rain hammered as I walked to the Black's front door. I pounded on it fiercely; making sure those inside could hear me.

The door finally opened and in my way was Billy. He had always been so friendly but now the man looking at me seemed like a completely different person.

"I need to see him," I said to Billy, standing my ground.

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Bella," he replied.

"I don't care what he has, I can take it."

"Not this," said Billy.

I looked at my friend's father. He wasn't going to back down and neiter was I.

"I'm sorry but I'm done waiting."

I made my way past Billy as he called after me and opened the door to Jacob's room. I got there just as Jacob left through his window. I looked behind me where Billy was watching with guarded eyes. Rather than waste my time going back the way I came, I made my way to the open window, placing my hand over my belly to keep the life inside me safe from what now seemed like a tempting feat.

"Jacob," I said calling after him. "Jacob would you wait?"

Jacob paused as he neared the edge of the woods. He stood, his bare back toward me, refusing to turn. For a guy who supposedly had been sick it seemed like he had taken on a sudden growth spurt instead and not just in height but in muscle mass too. Had I not known it was Jacob I was chasing I would have thought it was someone else.

"Go home Bella," he said sharply.

"What the hell is going on," I asked wanting to hear the answer from him. "You stayed with me for weeks during the stuff I went through and now you just bail, why?"

"You know exactly why," he said, his voice raw with hate.

"Is this because of what you are: The werewolf thing?" I could see Jacob's back muscle's tense. Knowing I had hit a nerve I pressed on even more. "I remember the stories you told. If it is, I don't care."

"Yeah I bet you don't. I mean you loved the Cullen's so much right, it's sick!"

I tensed at the name. "What do they have to do with anything?" I said trying to sound naïve. I needed to hear it from him.

"Everything!" Jacob said now in shouting mode.

His body began to shake. His voice wasn't the only thing that frightened me. In the woods I could hear the same rustling that I'd heard the night Sam found me. He was out there somewhere. He had to be. The last time I'd seen him he was just as muscular as Jake was now.

Jacob's head lifted and I could tell he was thinking the same thing.

"Will you at least look at me so we can talk about this," I asked.

"I don't want you to see me this way," Jacob said now sounding defeated.

"Like what, like Sam? Everyone thinks I don't remember that night because of what…happened to me but I remember it clearly. He's one of you too isn't he, and that other kid, Jared?"

Whatever tense feelings Jacob seemed to have were washed away. His shoulders sagged and his head lowered.

"We don't give you enough credit," Jacob said taking a deep breath, "but that shouldn't change anything. If you knew what we've been through, what Sam's been through- you're not safe around me."

"Was I any safer around… them?" I asked too afraid to even use the name.

"You make a good point I guess."

"Then let me decide. I want you in my life Jacob. I can't imagine my life without you in it. They left me. Don't you leave me. Please."

This seemed to soften him.

"Then I won't."

I smiled a little, "Think you can turn around when you say that?"

Jacob took another deep breath, his shaking nearly gone.

As he stood there staring at me his body in full view his back muscles clearly defined what I had pictured. His arms and forceps bulged. His pectoral muscles were defined and an eight pack worth of abdominal muscles were the front and center.

As he continued to look at me I suddenly felt exposed in the rain storm and the jacket I was wearing no longer felt like enough to cover me. Still I wrapped my arms around myself, the way I had when I thought of him only not as tight.

"You're pregnant," he said. Not in a rage of distain like I was expecting.

"How do you know that?" I asked wanting more of just the obvious of me protecting my pouch that he could clearly see through the skin tightness that my jacket had formed.

Jacob had said I was pregnant. Said not asked and when he said the word gone was any of the malice from moments ago but instead a new found sense of wonder. All of the hostility wiped away in an instant. What had happened to him I thought. Just moments ago he had hated me, had hated them and wanted nothing more than for me to go away. Now though it seemed that was the last thing he wanted.

"Jacob," I said, "What just happened?"

He suddenly tensed up. "I'll explain later. Bella, I'm gonna turn around. You're gonna walk slowly behind me."

"Jake what is it?"

"Someone who's not too happy right now," he replied, "I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."

Jacob POV

I could hear the old man arguing on the phone again to Charlie. It was the second time today and somewhere around the tenth this week.

Give it a rest. I had been on patrol every night this week and when I hadn't been, Sam and Embry were giving me the Idiot's Guide to Being a Wolf, anything to make sure I did not turn out like hot-headed Paul.

With twenty minutes of sleep new sounds were brought to my attention. I could hear the tense sound in Billy's voice and hear that Bella wasn't backing down. Of course she had come. I hadn't seen her in a week and I couldn't now but she was coming.

Quickly I opened my window and made my way outside. I didn't get too far, just to the edge of the woods when I heard Bella call out for me. I wanted to leave. I could have out run her in an instant if I'd really wanted to but I owed her something at least even if it was something she didn't want to hear.

And so we talked, with my back facing her, and I made sure she heard the hostility in my voice. By the end of it Bella had me beat. She was right on so many points that it was hard to refute her despite the danger I possessed.

"They left me. Don't you leave me. Please."

My brothers were out there, watching, waiting. Our secret was out. There was no point in hiding it, least of all to her. My best friend who had been lying to everyone. My best friend who was in league with vampires, the sworn enemy of my tribe but they were gone now, I wasn't. I was still here.

My trembling under control, I replied, "Then I won't."

"Think you can turn around when you say that?" she asked.

I took a deep breath, the trembling having stopped completely. Since Bella had arrived I had not once seen her but as I saw the face of my best friend I had lost my focus.

Instead my focus shifted lower to the center of her stomach and there I could see clearly that her belly had taken on a rounded shape. I could see my life in that very spot. Everything that I was: my name, my birthright, down to the very genetics passed down to me by my late ancestor Taha Aki were centered to this very spot of life not yet born, her presence more powerful than anything I'd ever felt before.

I had heard the stories. I had felt this once before, we all had when Sam had imprinted on Emily but nothing could prepare me for this. I was no longer being held down by the earth but by this life instead and nothing could pull me away from it.

"You're pregnant," I said in wonder.

Whatever feelings I'd had toward the Cullen's were gone. It to have been Edward, his name coming off easily with no distain behind it. Bella had not been with anyone since then.

"How do you know that," Bella asked. "Jacob, what just happened?"

I could hear the rustling behind me. My brothers had heard me use the word pregnant and they knew there could only be one explanation.

I tensed. "I'll explain later. Bella, I'm gonna turn around. You're gonna walk slowly behind me."

"Jake, what is it," she asked.

"Someone who's not too happy right now. I won't let anything happen to you, I promise."

I turned around and with one arm behind me I began walking Bella and I back to the house.

"She's not a threat!" I called out.

"That is not for you to decide, Jacob," Sam said appearing from the woods in human form as we were half way between them and the house. He was flanked by Paul and Jared. Embry also stood in human form as a mediator most likely.

"At least let me get her inside. The last thing Bella needs is stress on the baby."

"It's not a baby," Sam barked. "We don't know what they've conceived," he said not caring that Bella could still hear every word of our conversation.

"What if it were reversed, what if it was Emily?"

I knew this would stop Sam for the moment and it did.

"Fine get her inside," he conceded. He turned to Embry, "Go with him."

I nodded my thanks to Sam. With Embry on my left flank I stood between him and Bella incase he tried to pull a fast one. He didn't.

Once inside my tension had decreased, my guard only slightly up since Embry was with us.

"What's going on Jake," Embry asked in a non-threatening way.

"Come outside and find out," I replied back.

I retreated for a second and then returned.

"We should get you warm," I said to Bella.

My father was in the living room with a fire all ready going. I often forgot easily at what he could accomplish despite his wheelchair.

"You should probably change out of those wet clothes," I said placing a pair of my un-fit sweatpants and heavy coat on the arm of the couch along with one of Rachel's old shirts, a pair of socks and a pair of Rachel's old hiking boots.

My eyes drifted toward the belly. How long would it be till I saw her- a month, nine? Did anyone even have the answers to a hybrid pregnancy?

There was silence.

Then just as easily it was broken.

"Son, did you-," Bill said not wanting to add the rest.

Of course he would know.

"Not on Bella," I admitted.

"Then on-," Billy said having a not so easy time trying to comprehend.

Three sets of eyes fell to Bella's bump, Bella's own eyes being one of the three. Billy followed our gazes.

"Oh," Billy said, his voice filled with wonder like mine had been. "I've never even heard of such a thing. No one has ever… not while in utero."

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Bella asked.

"I'll explain when I get back," I answered. "You and the baby will be safe."

I took a step forward to Bella as if the thought of leaving was too hard to bear. "May I," I asked raising my hand slightly.

"There's not much to feel. I haven't felt any movement yet," Bella replied.

"That's okay, I know she's in there."

Bella smiled at me. "What makes you think it's a girl?"

I smiled, it felt nice knowing something she didn't for a change.

"Trust me it's a girl."

Bella nodded her consent and I placed my hand on her belly. She was right, there was no movement but at least touching her from the outside gave me physical proof that she was safe on the inside and knowing she was safe mattered most.

"Jake, he's waiting," Embry said getting impatient.

"I'll be right back," I said to Bella but more to the baby within.