Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to the 'Twilight' series. I am only writing this for fun.

I had strange dreams on Thursday night and kept waking up. I really missed Edward. At three in the morning, I sent him a text message asking if he was home and if he was ok.

'I'm fine. Shouldn't you be asleep? Are you alright?' he texted back instantly, I wondered if he had been sat holding his phone, but I expect it was just the vampire speed thing.

'Can't sleep. Miss you.'

'I miss you too, my beautiful Bella. Lie down and close your eyes. Think of sunlight in our meadow and you'll drift away into peaceful sleep. Sweet dreams, sweetest Bella.'

I took his advice and did settle back into sleep for a while. But at five I was awake again. There didn't seem any point in going back to sleep, so I crept downstairs and phoned Edward instead.

"Good morning, Bella," he said, "isn't it too early for you to be awake? Are you feeling alright?"

"I didn't sleep well, I missed you."

He sighed, "I missed you too."

"I can't wait until tomorrow to see you," I said, petulantly.

"You can see me tonight," he offered.

"Don't be silly, I'm going out with Jake and you can't come. Please don't start arguing with me again."

"Alright. I won't argue. What do you want me to say?"

"Say that you'll come to school today."

"I can't. It's going to be sunny."

"Come tonight, hold me while I sleep."

I heard him mutter something under his breath, then he spoke to me again "I can't, please don't ask me again."

"Why not?"

"If you ask me again, I'll have to do what you want. Then I'll get in trouble and my family will pull me out of school."

I thought about that, "we could run away together," I said.

"Really? Would you like that?" he sounded excited, then there was more muttering, "that might draw attention to us, love," he said with a sigh. "Once we've graduated, we can run away, if you still want to."

"Alright, tell me where you want to take me."

He chuckled softly, "you sound tired, pretty Bella. Lie down and I'll tell you all the places that I'm going to take you." I lay on the couch, snuggling the phone against my ear and listened to his soothing voice. "First we'll go to Paris. I want to see you in Paris by moonlight. You are always beautiful, but I'd like to see your beauty in different lights and different settings. I'll take you to the top of the Eiffel tower and look at you in front of Paris. I'd like to see you outshining Paris. If you'll let me, I'll buy you beautiful scarves to wear, in pure silk. You'll like the way they feel wrapped around your delicate neck. Then I'll take you to Rome. I want to show you the Colloseum I'll walk you around and tell you all about the interesting bits of history and you'll listen to me until you get bored and then you'll tell me to shut up, like you did last time I heard you sleep. You even sound beautiful when you're telling me to shut up. I don't know if you'll ever be able to tell me off properly, because I'm always so happy just to hear your voice. We'll throw coins in the Trevi fountain and vow to return one day. I will take you to the Spanish steps in the evening and we'll listen to music until you fall asleep. I'll take you to the Alps so that you can ski. It's like running: you go so fast sometimes it feels as though you're flying. I will keep you safe, whatever happens. If you fall I will catch you; if you try to hit something, I will move it out of your way. You can try any dangerous sports that you want and I will keep you safe. I'll take you to Germany and we'll run together through the Black Forest. We'll go to Greece and I'll swim between the islands with you on my back. Ah, my pretty Bella," he said, lowering his voice as I felt myself drifting away, not only hearing his words, but seeing us doing these things, "I will take you everywhere, I will show you the whole world, but I will never look at anything but you." That's the last thing that I heard. I hadn't thought that I was tired at all, but whilst Edward whispered to me I fell gently asleep.

When I woke up it was seven and my phone was still clutched in my hand.

"Good morning, again, beautiful Bella," was the first thing that I heard.

"You stayed on the line," I said, "I fell asleep. Why didn't you hang up on me?"

"I would never do that," Edward said, "that would be rude. Besides, I like listening to you sleep. It's the next best thing to watching you sleep. You should probably get dressed and have breakfast now."

"This phone call has been so long. How come I didn't run out of credit?"

"It's on a contract, I wouldn't want your phone calls to be interrupted." He was crazy.

"I'm sorry I didn't hang up," I said, "I don't want to waste your money."

"Silly Bella, it costs nothing at all, well next to nothing, and I've missed hearing you sleep. I liked it."

"I'll call you tonight, Edward, have a good day."

"You too, Bella. I love you."

I hung up the phone, wondering what had gotten into me. A two hour-long phone call, while I slept. It was a sinful waste of money. The Cullen attitude must be rubbing off on me. I had a long hot shower, wondering how I would get through an Edward-free day at school. At least there would be no Alice to criticise my outfit.

I had cereal for breakfast and my phone rang, just as I was picking up my bag to leave the house. Nice timing, I thought, then I saw the caller ID, Alice, of course.

"Why don't you put the blue top on instead?" she said.

"Alice, you're not actually going to see me today," I told her, "why do you care what I'm wearing?"

"The blue top looks nicer," she insisted, "and I can see you, right up until this evening. That's why I'm calling. Promise me that you will call Edward tonight. He's going to spend the entire evening pacing up and down in his room."

"I promise, Alice. I will call."

"Alright, Bella, have a good day and um . . . when you're playing volleyball, try to use your hands and not your face. Please stay safe, Bella."

"Fine. Goodbye, Alice. Have a good day."

She laughed and we hung up.

Honestly, I wish they wouldn't make such a big deal out of my clumsiness. It's not as though I'm not already embarrassed to be this klutz surrounded by graceful vampires. I was still muttering to myself as I drove off to school.

School was boring. I sort of saw what Alice meant about volleyball. Thanks to her warning, I did duck out of the way of a couple of balls just in time. I didn't really help my team out very much, but I escaped the game completely unscathed, and that's a sort of victory.

I gave Edward a quick call before Jake came over, just to reassure him that I was alright and I would speak to him later. I told him that I would call him at eleven, only to hear him panic about exactly what I was planning on doing after the movie. Of course Edward knew what time every movie finished and exactly how long it ought to take me to get home. I wanted to give myself a bit of lee-way, I didn't want him running over to see me because I was five minutes late in calling. Eventually we settled that I would phone him as soon as I got home, but he wasn't allowed to panic before 10.45pm. Really, he was a lot worse than Charlie!

Charlie just asked if I needed any money and told me to have a good time. Of course, part of that was because he adored Jake and was thrilled that I was going out with him and not Edward tonight. I couldn't really complain, though, because he was so thrilled that I was seeing Jake tonight, he hadn't made any complaint about my plan on being with Edward all day Saturday, he hadn't even checked that we were going to be chaperoned.

Jake arrived right on time, wearing a huge grin and driving his Rabbit. "Bells!" he called, scooping me up into a big wolf-hug, which is just like a bear-hug, only warmer. "I'm so glad that you agreed to come out with me. I've missed you."

"Wow, Jake, let me down. You saw me only a couple of days ago."

"I know, but I like seeing you, and I wasn't sure that I would see you again."

"What do you mean?"

Jake looked strangely at me, "I thought they might be a bit worried about you this weekend," he said, "and I wasn't sure that they were going to trust me to take care of you this evening."

"Why not?"

"No reason. I mean, I can keep you safe, you don't need to worry, and I've got Quil and Embry to hang around town just in case. I only thought that, since the red-head was meant to be back tomorrow they wouldn't want to take any chances today."

"What do you mean? Do you mean Victoria?" I could hear my heart in my ears and I could feel the blood draining from my face, "Victoria is going to be here tomorrow?"

Jake put his arm around me and pulled me into the car, "sit down, Bells," he said, "you've had a bit of a shock. I can't believe this. Didn't he tell you? Didn't any of them tell you? Alright, calm down, you need um . . . you need a drink, tea or something, then I'll explain everything. Come on, let's get you back inside."

"Charlie," I said, weakly shaking my head.

"Oh, yeah, you're right. He won't be expecting us to go back in. Alright, Bells, I'll take you to my place."

"Don't you want to see a movie?"

Jacob laughed, "with you in this state? No, Bells, I think that we need to talk. It sounds like there's a lot of stuff you don't know about." We drove in silence for a bit, then Jake said, "um . . . did you ask them to keep secrets from you? I mean, would you rather not know what's going on?"

"Course not! I want to know. I'm sorry that I got a bit worked up earlier. But I'm feeling better now, and I'm ready to hear about it without getting upset again."

"Hmm. I think we'll wait for me to get you that cup of tea. You should have a hot sweet drink if I'm going to give you a shock. You can see a movie with me some other night."

We drove a bit further in silence. I wondered what it was that the Cullens hadn't told me. It was obviously about Victoria. Maybe Alice had a vision of her returning. It seemed odd that the Cullens hadn't told me that. There was no reason to keep that a secret. I was half-expecting Victoria to come back. There must be more to it. Perhaps I was going to die. Perhaps Alice saw a vision of me dying and they decided that it would be better if I didn't know. That would explain why Rosalie was being so nice to me.

Did I want to know that I was going to die? It's not an option that many people get. Most of us live in ignorance right up until the actual moment of death. If I had the choice, would I really want to know? It was a difficult question to answer, and I had better come up with an answer soon.

"Look, Jake," I said, "if you know when I'm going to die, I don't know if I want you to tell me."

Jake laughed. I was asking him not to warn me of my impending death and he actually laughed, "way to over dramatise a situation," he said, "I don't think that you're going to die. Wow. Try to calm down a bit, will you? We'll be home in a couple of minutes."

I closed my eyes and tried to calm down. I reminded myself that I was with Jacob and everything was fine. Edward was back and he still loved me. Alice was back and we were still best friends. Rosalie was back and she actually seemed to like me. Emmett was back and he was the same as ever. Jasper was back and we talked to each other now. Esme was back and she was like the perfect mother. Carlisle was back and he had said that I was part of the family now. All the Cullens were back and I was still friends with Jake. Everything was just about perfect.

Of course, Victoria was still out there, but nobody had tried to hunt her down. Perhaps she would leave us all alone. After all, she was heavily outnumbered and she must know it. She would certainly lose if it came to a fight. But, if that were the case, why hadn't they killed her yet? The wolves made short work of Laurent, why were they having so much trouble with Victoria? Maybe Laurent was just good luck. Maybe the wolves weren't really strong enough to fight vampires. I should stop them. I should tell them to run away if Victoria came back. Perhaps they would listen to me.

Victoria was coming back, Jake had told me that much at least. But, how did he know? Did the wolves have powers too? Was there a wolf who could see the future? It sounded crazy, but then so did everything else that had happened. I thought back to exactly what Jake had said 'didn't any of them tell you?' he'd said.

He'd been asking me if the Cullens had told me about Victoria. That meant that he knew they knew Victoria was coming back. How would he know that, unless . . . the wolves and the Cullens had been talking to each other? They'd had a meeting, I'd known about that. Were they friends now? Was there a sort of truce? I'd been so busy getting back with Edward, fighting with his family about mind reading and mind-abuse, I'd completely ignored the life-threatening situation that was developing all around me. Everyone I knew and loved was preparing to fight a weirdly un-killable vampire, and I'd barely even noticed.

Driving with Jacob was easier than driving with Edward. Jacob understood that speed limits were just that: limits. Edward seemed to think that they were challenges. I wondered why that was. I'd seen the super-fast healing of werewolves, so Jacob probably wasn't afraid of crashing. Perhaps he was just more inherently law-abiding. Perhaps it was because he was mortal, like me, and he'd been brought up by a human, like me, and he'd been taught to obey the law, like me. Edward didn't seem too worried about obeying the law. He was always speeding, he laughed about Alice stealing a car, he walked around with false ID without really thinking about it. In fact, Edward hadn't even obeyed the vampire laws. Perhaps the image that Charlie had of him wasn't all that far out.

"You seem calmer," Jacob commented, "what are you thinking about?"

"Oh," I blushed a bit, getting caught thinking something so stupid, then I realised Jacob would probably get a kick out of it, "I was wondering why it is that Edward has to break the law all the time. I was wondering if it was a vampire-thing. You're a werewolf and you don't have to speed every time you get behind the wheel."

Jake laughed, just like I'd hoped he would. "I guess that Alice's little brother is just a bad boy," he said it in a teasing voice, as if he thought that Edward was trying too hard, "I'm already cool. I don't need to prove it," Jake gave me a big goofy grin.

It was great to hear Jacob laughing and joking about Edward. Even though he still called him 'Alice's little brother' that was good-natured teasing. It wasn't as cold and hard as the way that Edward called him a 'dog' or a 'mutt'. Jacob was right, he was cooler than Edward. But, then, Edward was born before 'cool' existed.

We pulled up at Jacob's house and I let myself out of the car. That was kind of nice too. I know that Edward liked to open doors for me and stuff, but sometimes that just reminded me of how different we were. Edward had some pretty old-fashioned ideas, which would be ok, except that he got them when they were contemporary. It was nice to be with a guy from this century, who realised that all my limbs were functional and I could easily get myself out of a car.

We walked to the door. Jake didn't need to drag me nor to pick me up and run with me, and I didn't trip once. I wondered if I sometimes tripped with Edward because he was expecting it. He loved to catch me when I fell, just like he loved to protect me, to carry things for me, to hover around me as if I couldn't take care of myself. I didn't worry so much about slowing Jacob down, he was a mortal being, just like me.

Inside Jacob's house, he rooted around for biscuits, while I made us both some tea. It's good to be so at home in someone's house that you know where they keep the tea. Making tea for me and Jake, I felt like I belonged here. I realised that I'd never even got myself a glass of water in the Cullens' kitchen.

We sat down at the kitchen table. Jacob had warmed a few pizzas in the microwave, and he put them down on the table in their cardboard boxes. He picked up one mini-pizza, folded it in half and tossed it into his mouth. I laughed at his disgusting table manners.

"Wot?" he said, spraying crumbs everywhere, "wot's funnee?"

"Nothing," I said, calmly taking a pizza for myself, "I was just thinking how nice it is not to be the only one eating."

He shrugged, "you don't ever watch them eat, then?"

"No, Edward thinks it's too dangerous for me."

"Course he does. Ok, well, are you ready for me to fill you in?" he paused and waited for me to nod. "Right, then, well Alice saw a vision of the red-head coming back this weekend and she told the Pack. Well, she only told me, but telling one of us is like telling all of us, the whole pack-mind thing, remember?"

I nodded again, and nibbled my pizza.

"We uh, rearranged a couple of boundary lines, I guess the detail won't mean anything to you. Basically, they wanted to hunt her themselves, and we wanted to hunt her ourselves. It's our job, you see, our entire purpose in being wolves is to destroy vamps. Um, no offence. We asked Alice if she'd seen a vision of her family destroying the red-head, and she hadn't. So, I figure that means that we're going to do it. She can't see what happens to us." While he was talking, Jake heated more pizzas and found a couple of packets of crisps too, he put them on the table.

Alice not being able to see Victoria dying, might mean that the wolves were going to kill her, but, it might just as easily mean that Victoria was going to kill them. She might get to one of the pack, or even more than one. My mind went blank for a second.

Then I felt Jacob holding me up, "drink your tea, Bells," he said, "you're panicking again."

I obeyed, and the tea did make me feel more alive. I stared at Jake, wondering if there was any way that I could persuade him to take care of himself.

"Please don't try to fight her," I whispered.

Jake groaned, "you're kidding me," he said, "you've made friends with this one too? I thought that might happen, since you always call her by her name. But, Bells, she wants to kill you, I mean, come on, when did you even see her last?"

It was so absurd that I laughed, "Jake," I said, "I'm not friends with Victoria. But, she could hurt you! I can't stand the thought of her hurting anyone in the pack, or even worse." I stopped myself and drank some more tea, before Jacob suggested it. He waited patiently for me to continue, eating a packet of crisps so fast, that he might as well have been inhaling it, "maybe, if you just ignore her she'll go away."

"Finish your tea," Jacob said, "then I'm going to show you something. You don't need to worry about me, Bells. I'm the big bad wolf now."

I did as he said, and he drank his own tea and ate a handful of biscuits. I finished my pizza, and ate two biscuits, whilst Jake ate half a packet of biscuits, another two slices of pizza and a second packet of crisps. I wondered how on earth Billy could afford to feed him. Then he stood up and I followed him outside. He took me down to the beach and then he said "wait here, Bells, I'll be back in just a second." He walked off into a small grove of trees. About thirty seconds later, he emerged in his wolf form.

As I watched, Jacob the wolf bounded up and down the beach, speeding up with each pass, until he was running so fast that he was just a blur to my human eyes.

"Alright," I called over to him, "I see that you're fast."

He stopped and looked at me and, in a very Jacob-fashion, he rolled his huge wolf eyes, making me laugh. He ran back to the trees and I thought that the demonstration must be over. Well, that was good, maybe he would be able to outrun Victoria.

But, all of a sudden, I heard a huge crash. One of the trees fell over. Something was over there, in the trees, something very big and very strong. Something huge and scary was there, and so was Jacob!

I screamed and Jacob the wolf came bounding back to my side. He was huge. More the size of a horse than a dog. I stared up at him. He didn't look injured at all, perhaps he'd managed to get out of the way of the mystery thing.

"What was that?" I asked, "what knocked over that tree?"

Jacob snickered at me, it sounded like he was laughing. He ran off, back to the wood. I stood up, wondering if he was going to bring the thing back here. Did he think that I wanted to see it? Would he bring Victoria to me?

I backed up behind a boulder, though I knew it would be no defence against a vampire. Quickly, Jacob came back, dragging the tree behind him. As I watched, he bit chunks out of the tree and tossed them around. Watching his display reminded me of the first time that Edward had taken me to our meadow. Edward had wanted to show me his strength and his speed and now Jacob wanted to do the same. What was it about these mythical creatures that made them so eager to show off? What was it about me, that made me stand here watching?

"You did that? You pulled over that huge tree?" I asked him. He nodded slowly. Strange how he managed to be sarcastic, even when he was a wolf.

"Well, alright, I'm impressed. But, vampire skin is really strong, it's more like stone than wood." He rolled his eyes at me again. They were the same colour as his eyes were normally, just an awful lot bigger. I could still see Jacob inside the giant wolf body.

He came up to me and nudged at my side with his head. He was very gentle, and didn't knock me over, he just pushed me to indicate that he wanted me to move. I stepped back and he pushed me again. After a few steps, he was satisfied. He returned to the boulder that I had hidden behind earlier, he looked back to check that I hadn't moved. Then, he bit a huge chunk out of the boulder and spat it out. Right in front of me.

"Wow!" I gasped. I would never have believed that Jacob could do that if I hadn't actually seen it with my own eyes.

I sat down on the ground. Jacob trotted up and lay down beside me, resting his head on his paws.

"That's pretty amazing," I said, "you would probably stand a chance against a vampire. But, I would still rather you didn't fight any."

Jacob sighed, his warm breath creating a breeze that blew leaves and sand all over the place. The he stood up, looked at me and looked back at the remaining trees, then looked at me again.

"I'll stay here and wait for you," I said. It wasn't hard to understand him, even like this. I could almost hear his voice in my head asking me not to run off or do anything stupid while he was gone.

He came running back, dressed and human again.

"Well?" he said, "are you still scared for me? Or are you more scared for your vampires?"

I laughed, "I don't know," I said honestly. "I'm pretty terrified for all of you. You could all get yourselves killed."

Jake laughed again, "who do you think would win in a fight," he asked me, "me or Alice's little brother?"

"Jake," I protested, "you're not going to fight Edward. Promise me."

He shook his head, "I won't fight him unless I have to," he said, "but that's the best I can do. Tell me who you think would win?"

"No, I don't even want to think about it." I couldn't bear the thought of Jacob and Edward facing off. One of them would probably die. I couldn't imagine either of them stopping until that happened. They were both so stubborn and they both had that scary bit of them that was on the lookout for an opportunity to fight.

"Alright," Jake said, "how about a hypothetical case: between a werewolf who happens to be very cool and very fast and a vampire who can't tame his own hair."

"Jake!" I protested again, "I like Edward's hair. I don't want to think about you two fighting and I won't think about it. Whoever won, I would lose because I would lose someone I love."

He looked at me in surprise, had I really just said that I loved him? How could I help it? When I'd seen what Edward was, I'd fallen for him, was the same thing happening now that I saw the full extent of Jacob's strength? Did I just have a thing for powerful fairy tale creatures?

"I love you too," Jacob said, and, before I understood what was happening, he was there, right next to me. His arms were around my waist, pulling me against him and his lips, his hot lips, were pressed against mine in a demanding kiss.

I tried to pull back, pointlessly, I couldn't move against him. Edward always let me push him away when I wanted to, but Jacob wasn't used to it, he probably didn't even notice my desperate movements. I kept my mouth and my eyes tightly closed, I tried to move, I tried to wiggle out of his grasp. But Jake was so strong and he held me so easily. I couldn't do anything except wait until he was done. Finally he pulled back to look at me.

I glared at him, his arms were still around my waist, I pushed back against them, and he could see me struggling. He tipped his head to one side and watched me, "what are you trying to do?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to get away. Let me go!"

He shrugged and released his hold. I fell in a heap on the floor. Jacob looked down on me, curiously. "Better?" he asked.

I struggled to my feet, refusing to take his outstretched hand. I wanted to get up by myself, to prove that I didn't need his help.

"I think I'd better go," I said, "before you do something else that I'll regret."

"Do you mean before you do something else?" Jacob asked, "you kissed me back."

I growled at him, wishing that I could be a powerful creature too, "I did not" I said. It was pathetic. He could knock down trees and eat boulders, and all I could do was stamp my foot and say 'did not'. Why weren't any of my friends normal, weak humans like me?

"I think that I know what it feels like when a girl kisses me back," Jake teased, unsurprisingly not at all worried by my fury.

"Really? And how many girls have kissed you back?" I hoped that I could embarrass him.

Foolish idea, Jake laughed delightedly, "aw, did I make you jealous? Poor Bella. Don't worry, there's nobody else out there for me. You don't have any competition."

"Idiot." I turned around and stomped back towards my van.

"Are you really leaving?" Jake ran round to stand in front of me. He knew that I couldn't get past him. He could make me stand here all day if he wanted. He could kiss me again as many times as he pleased and there was nothing that I could do about it. Why did I have to be so weak and feeble?

On this side I had Jake, forcing himself on me, on the other side I had Edward, who pulled back whenever I tried to kiss him. It was as though I had no say at all in what happened to my body and who touched it. I had a vision of Jake and Edward tossing me between them, easily throwing me and catching me, and there I was, just flying through the air, completely powerless. I may as well be a rag doll for them to fight over.

I felt my eyes sting and then the tears creep their salty way down my cheeks. I was so angry, and all I could do was cry.

"Hey," Jake said, putting out one hand and just lightly touching my arm, "I didn't mean to make you cry, Bells. You can go home if you want."

It didn't help. I could only go home because he was letting me. The tears just kept coming.

"Do you want me to drive you?" he said.

I nodded dumbly.