Disclaimer: I didn't write the 'Twilight' series, or 'Silence of the Lambs' (which is a great movie, and not a bad book. But is only recommended for over twenty-ones). I did write this little story, but just for fun.

Charlie noticed that Jasper had driven me home again, and, after we watched Mustang Sally pull away he queried my spending so much time with an older boy.

If he only knew how much older Jasper was, he would never imagine that I would even consider it. But, then he would know how much older Edward was, and that would bring up a whole new shed-load of problems.

"Dad," I said, "I'm not spending all that much time with Jasper. I was spending time with Edward, who is my boyfriend. It's just that Edward is without a car at the moment, so Jasper dropped me home."

Charlie sighed. He really wished that Edward wasn't my boyfriend.

I felt a bit sorry for him, "have you had dinner?" I asked, "I could whip a snack up for you, if you'd like?"

He grinned at me, "trying to change the subject, Bells? Maybe I should tell Jacob about his new competition."

"Huh," I snorted at him, "Jacob is a friend" I reminded my father, yet again, "Edward is my boyfriend. Jasper is Edward's brother. You should try and remember all those roles, because they're going to be occupying them for a while. Now, do you want me to make you mushrooms on toast or not?"

Charlie laughed at my anger. He still thought that Jacob was in with a shot. He seemed to think that I was just another school-girl with a boyfriend, not one of those favoured few who had been lucky enough to meet the love of her life at the age of seventeen. "I do, thanks Bells."

He sat down at the kitchen table and watched me while I cooked. He must have been feeling a bit guilty about my running around waiting on him, because he offered to take a look at my truck for me. I accepted his offer, though I didn't think that he'd be able to find anything. The intermittent problems with my truck were far too convenient for Edward for me to believe that they were mechanical. Still, it was nice of Charlie to offer and I didn't want to rebuff him, so I said yes. He ate his snack, and we agreed that he'd take a look at my truck in the morning. That sounded pretty perfect. I was planning on seeing Jake, so I was expecting the trouble to start again.

I was right. When I tried to start my truck in the morning, I had no luck. After I'd scolded Edward for stealing my gas, he had decided that he'd better not repeat the same trick. So, at least this time it didn't look as though I was an idiot who'd forgotten to get gas. I tried to start the engine and nothing happened. Charlie popped the hood and began merrily fiddling around.

What I know about trucks could easily be written on the back of a postage stamp, so I restricted my 'help' to fetching lemonade and thanking my Dad every ten minutes or so. He was more successful at making a mess of his shirt than he was at fixing the truck, so it was still in pieces on the drive, when Jacob showed up.

He pulled up his Rabbit and hopped over to Charlie's side enthusiastically. "What are you trying to do, Charlie?" he teased, "you're not the man to be under the hood of anyone's truck."

Charlie glared at him, after an hour or so of unsuccessful fiddling, he wasn't at all happy to have his mechanical skills slighted. "I thought you'd tuned the thing up before you gave it to me," he said angrily, "if you'd done a decent job, there wouldn't be a mysterious fault for me to fail to find."

Jacob chuckled; he was such an easy going guy. I had forgotten that recently. The Cullens seemed to transform Jacob completely. Rather than being offended or arguing, he put up his hands in relaxed surrender, "sorry, Charlie. Since it is my fault, d'you mind if I have a look?" he asked.

"Fine, there's a game on in a few minutes, anyway," Charlie said, "I'll just wash up and then I'll settle down and watch it. You two are welcome to join me, if you want."

"Nah, I came to hang out with Bells, and she'd be bored stiff," Jake said, with a wink at me. "I'll see what I can do with the truck. Now that you've softened it up for me." Charlie snorted at Jacob's last remark, but he seemed happy enough to go back into the house.

"Why did you let him take your truck apart, Bells?" Jake asked me, "there can't have been anything really wrong with it."

I had to tell him about Edward's earlier tampering, and my suspicions when the truck had failed to start this morning. I worried that Jacob would be furious with Edward, but he seemed to think that it was quite funny.

"He really wants to keep you away from me," Jake said triumphantly, "he must be jealous."

"He has no reason to be jealous" I groused.

Jacob chuckled again, turning pieces of metal over in his hands and replacing them carefully in the truck's bonnet. "Did you tell him that we kissed?" Jacob called out, from under the bonnet.

I didn't answer and he laughed so hard that he hit his head. Served him right.

Jacob emerged with a big smile, rubbing the back of his head, "why not?"

"Does your head hurt?"

He nodded.

"Poetic justice," I told him, "you laughed at me and you got hit on the head."

Jacob laughed again, "next time, I'll be careful to laugh at you when I'm out of your truck's reach. You obviously inspire a great deal of protectiveness in non-living things. But, you didn't answer my question. Are you scared of him, Bells, is that why you didn't tell him? Because you don't need to be scared. I can protect you."

"I'm not scared of Edward Cullen," I said, well, I may have shouted, I was getting a bit exasperated, "for the last time, I am not scared of Edward Cullen. Why won't anyone believe me?"

Jake returned to fiddling with the truck. "Who else thinks that your scared of him?"

"Apart from you? Charlie, and Edward himself, I'm not sure that Jasper doesn't think something similar."

Jacob growled a bit, "perhaps we're all right," he said, "perhaps you're the one who doesn't see it. You certainly ought to be scared of him."

"That's what he says. But I'm not. I know that he loves me, and I trust him not to hurt me."

"He hurt you before" Jacob reminded me.

"That was different, he was trying to keep me safe."

Jacob snorted and slammed the bonnet shut angrily, "I don't buy that," he said, "and I don't think that you should either. I hate to see you being taken in by him like this." He strode around to the driver's compartment and opened the door. He leant in and turned the engine over. Then he grinned proudly at me, "good as, well I won't say 'new', but good as it was when you got it anyway."

"Thanks, Jake," I said, "not only for fixing the truck, but also for caring about me. I think that you're wrong about Edward, but it's nice that you care."

He tried to explain what Edward had done to the truck this time. To be perfectly honest, I didn't understand a word of it. Jake, however, was mildly impressed. Edward had made sure that the truck wouldn't start when I tried to start it but, apart from that, he hadn't hurt anything at all. I wouldn't have been able to 'jump' the car (even if Charlie and I had been capable of trying that in the first place, which I somewhat doubted), but I'm not sure how Edward had prevented that working. Jacob thought it was quite a neat trick, anyway, so it must have been. I don't think that Jake would have offered praise to Edward if he didn't deserve it.

Once the truck was working again, Jacob and I went back into the house for lunch. He stopped talking about cars now, having noticed my glazed expression.

"So, when are we going to finally get to see that movie?" he asked me, following me back into the house.

"I dunno," I said, "I mean, there's quite a lot going on at the moment," I looked to see if Jake was disappointed, but that isn't what I saw in his face. He looked furious. "What?" I asked, "I didn't say 'no' I only said that I didn't know, calm down, Jake."

He hushed me by holding up his hand, before I complained at this, Jake whispered, "is anyone you know upstairs in your room right now?"

I shook my head, what was he talking about? Had Edward snuck out? Had he maimed my truck and then hidden to watch the drama unfold?

"Wait here," Jake said, and he dashed upstairs.

I stood in the hall, like an idiot. What on earth was going on? Was Charlie upstairs? No, I could hear him moving around in the lounge. Who had Jake heard? Was Edward up there? If he was, then I probably shouldn't have let Jake go upstairs alone. I wondered if I was about to hear an almighty fight. Should I go upstairs after Jake?

Before I had absolutely decided to follow him up the stairs, Jake came back down. "I really hate to have to say this," he said, "but I need to talk to one of your . . . um . . . to Alice or one of her family."

"Why?"

He grimaced, "it's possibly nothing," he said, "but I think that I smelt a new vampire in your room."

Wordlessly, I held out my phone. I didn't trust myself to speak. I was pretty sure that, the instant I opened my mouth, I would start screaming and I wouldn't be able to stop.

Jake was holding the phone to his ear, "Alice?" I heard him say, "it's Jacob Black . . . She's fine. She's right here . . . Not right now. Listen, I've got something to ask you – sort of a favour . . . I smelt something in Bella's room – another vamp . . . I haven't tried to follow it yet; I'm not leaving Bells alone right now . . . I'm pretty sure . . . Well, it's not like I've spent a lot of time with you lot. I want you to come round and see if you recognised it . . ."

I hadn't heard a word that Alice had said so far, but there was a sudden growl, so loud that even I heard it. Jake winced and held the phone away from his ear. He listened to the yelling voices until they calmed down. Then he spoke again, still keeping the phone outstretched.

"Don't you dare bring him!" Jake snarled, "I'm not leaving her side, and I will kill him . . . Next time he sees her, he'd better be wearing a muzzle . . . It wasn't a 'dog joke'. I was thinking about 'Silence of the Lambs' . . . Alright, yes, he can come. Alright."

I was fairly certain that 'him' was Edward, but I wasn't sure who the second 'he' was. It didn't sound as though Jake was backing down on his earlier statement, more as though he had accepted a second proposition from Alice. I guess I would see who was coming soon enough.

Jake hung up the phone.

"Are you alright?" he asked me.

I tried to nod, but I couldn't seem to move my head. Who had been in my room? If it wasn't one of the Cullens . . . what did that mean?

Jake sighed. He put his arm around my shoulders and whispered in my ear, "I'm sorry, Bells, but Charlie will probably get suspicious if we just stand in the hall like this. We really ought to go into the kitchen and start lunch."

Gently, he steered me into the kitchen. He sat me down on a chair and got on with putting together a huge pile of chicken salad sandwiches. For a second I was impressed that he knew his way around a kitchen, then I remembered that he'd been taking care of Billy for years. Of course Jake knew his way around a kitchen.

"Hey, Charlie," he called out cheerfully, "Alice and her brother want to come round and join us for lunch. Is that cool with you?"

"Which brother?" Charlie replied.

Jake chuckled, "one of the older ones," he said, "I didn't think that the youngest one was allowed under your roof."

Charlie grunted, "alright then," he said, "that's fine. But, I thought that you and Bells wanted to spend a bit of time just hanging out together" Charlie wasn't keen on any Cullens getting between me and Jake.

"They won't stay long," Jake said, "they've got places to be. They'll just stop by, eat with us, and get on their way."

Charlie grunted his assent. I gave Jake a funny look. If the Cullens weren't going to stop for long, why did he tell Charlie at all? Didn't he know that they could easily sneak in and out of the house without Charlie seeing them?

I got my answer when Jasper and Alice arrived. They slipped into the kitchen, silently, making the same assumption as I had: that they were going to avoid Charlie's notice. But Jake confounded them by greeting them warmly and – very – loudly. "Alice!" he said, "Alice's brother." Jasper glared at him. I don't think that he appreciated being referred to as his wife's brother, but he might just have been confused at Jake's voluble greeting.

Charlie came in and greeted them both much more formally.

"I can't believe you walked all the way here," Jake said cheerfully, "no wonder you needed to stop and take a break. This is some fitness freak you're on."

"You walked from your place?" Charlie asked, staring at the two-inch heels on Alice's dainty feet.

"Yeah," Alice said, "I foolishly agreed to accompany Jasper on a 'stroll'. I didn't realise that he meant to drag me so far. I'm really regretting putting these shoes on now. Hey, can I borrow a pair of trainers for the walk back, Bella?"

"Of course," I said, grinning at the thought of Alice in a pair of my old trainers.

I set off to go upstairs and Alice followed me slowly. Just before we left the kitchen, she slipped and let Charlie catch her.

"My feet," she explained, after thanking him, "they really hurt. Since this is entirely your fault, Jasper, you can come and help me up the stairs."

Jasper rolled his eyes, "it's not entirely my fault," he countered, "I told you not to wear those shoes and I told you how far we were walking. It's not my fault that you have no concept of distance or direction."

Charlie chuckled and Alice stuck his tongue out at her 'brother'.

Jasper had obviously had enough of playing about, because he smiled warmly at Alice and gave her his arm. "Do you need me to carry you, darlin'?" he asked, I hoped that Charlie didn't catch the hopefulness in his voice.

Alice gave him a feeble shove and said, "don't tease." Then she leant on his arm as we all trooped up the stairs.

"What's Jacob playing at?" Alice asked me softly, once we were on the landing.

I shrugged.

When we got to my room, Alice and Jasper began talking to each other in voices that I couldn't hear. When Jasper jumped out of the window, Alice reminded me that she needed to borrow my trainers. She looked a bit like a martyr as she put them on, muttering that this was what happened when she wasn't allowed full control of my wardrobe. It had never before occurred to me that Alice might want me to have a better selection of clothes so that she could have the fun of borrowing them, and it did give me pause for thought. Alice was always interested in opportunities to be like a 'normal' teenager. She probably would have enjoyed swapping clothes with me. Maybe refusing gifts from the Cullens was a bit selfish on my part. I had no right to make their lives any more complicated or difficult than they already were.

Jasper climbed quickly back in the window and nodded once at Alice. She sighed and said, "Bella, I'm sorry, it wasn't a vampire that we know and there doesn't seem to be a clear trail. We'll have to get the rest of the family to come and help, but I don't know what's going on. We'd better walk downstairs and say 'goodbye' to Charlie."

That might have worked, if Jacob hadn't started talking about diets and how unhealthy it was not to eat. I think that he had been preparing Charlie while we were upstairs because Charlie seemed prepared for Alice and Jasper to refuse his lunch invitation, and he seemed determined to make them stay.

"Look at all this food," Charlie said, "there's no way that the three of us can eat it. You'll have to stay and help. It would be rude not to."

That was like a magic spell. None of the Cullens could stand to be thought of as rude, so Jasper and Alice obediently sat down and joined us for lunch. In a cafeteria full of people, they could easily get away with pretending to eat, but when there were only five people at the table, it would be obvious if two of them didn't consume anything. So Alice and Jasper had to eat.

I caught Jacob's eye once and had to look away, he obviously thought that making vampires sit down and eat with us was absolutely hilarious.

Jasper glowered at Jacob all the way through the meal, I would have to explain that to Charlie later. It was a slightly awkward meal. Jasper glowering, Jacob stifling his laughter, Alice still sulking about her trainers and everyone (with the exception of Charlie) desperate to get on with the more important business of tracking the rogue vampire. Nobody talked very much and everyone was thrilled when Charlie stood up and said "I'm going to have to leave you kids to clear up, I ought to check into work this afternoon."

As soon as the front door shut behind Charlie, I said "Jacob, that wasn't very funny."

He grinned, "why didn't you bring a car?" he asked Jasper.

"It's quicker to run, and we weren't planning on stopping to chat."

Jacob shrugged, "if you insist on hanging around with humans, you ought to sit down to a meal once in a while. Maybe I'll come hunting with you one of these days." He laughed at his own stupid remark. Probably trying to imagine himself hunting alongside a family of vampires.

"Who's on the tracking contingent and who's going to watch over Bella?" Jasper asked his wife.

"Bella's here," Jake said in a reproving voice, before Alice could answer. "She doesn't need any of your lot to guard her, because we already made plans to go to La Push today, didn't we, Bells?"

I nodded.

Jasper thought this over, "there's no denying that an entire pack of wolves ought to be enough to protect even Bella for a few hours. I'll meet you at the border and take her back, when she's ready."

"I can bring Bella home," Jake said.

Jasper looked at me, "I thought that you intended to come and visit with us this afternoon" he said hesitantly.

I nodded again.

"So, Alice and I will meet you at the border," he said.

Alice shook her head, "no," she told us, "I'll meet Bella, and I'll take Emmett with me, but you'll be busy, Jazz."

We all looked nervous, but Alice shook her head again, "not Victoria," she answered our questions before we asked them, "just family stuff."

Jake and I exchanged a puzzled look, when Jasper sighed heavily and said "if you say so, Alice."

"Do you really want us to help clear up?" Alice asked.

I giggled at her disgusted expression. I think that she wanted to get away from the scent of human food as soon as possible. "We'll be fine," I told her, grabbing Jake's hand.

"Hey," he said, "I made lunch. That means that you get to clear up, Bells. Um . . . I wanted to step outside anyway. I want to let the Pack know what's going on."

So, Alice and Jasper ran off home, Alice probably still moaning about my trainers. Jake slipped into the garden to phase, and I did the washing-up all by myself. Huh, the sooner Edward was allowed out the better. He liked to help me with chores. In fact, he had begged to be 'allowed' to wash-up.