Chapter 3

Rated M

Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope you enjoy it. Been having some brain blockage, but I think I broke through it a bit.

In the morning, I woke to the reality of a long-time dream. I opened my eyes and let them trace over Bella's face. Even in her sleep, she was still less than peaceful-a slight grimace remained on her lips. I wondered what was bringing her down. Carefully, I scooted off the bed and went into my dad's room to help him get up.

"Hey, Dad," I greeted him as I walked into his bedroom. I grabbed the clothes he had already laid out the night before and brought them over to the bed.

"Jake, how are you? How's Bella?"

"She's still sleeping."

"Don't let Charlie know she slept with you all night. I'll never hear the end it," he smiled as he grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head.

I could feel a blush heat my cheeks but I didn't say anything. If I denied that anything happened, he would still think something did. It was kind of a lose/lose situation.

"I know you guys didn't have sex, Jake. You're a better man than that," he reassured me.

"Do you need anything else?" I asked him, trying to get away from this conversation as fast as possible.

"Yes, I need you to promise me that if it ever gets like that, you'll be smart about it," he said, putting the last nail in the coffin.

"Dad! Oh my gosh. I promise. Can I please go now?"

He chuckled and nodded his head.

What is going on around here? I wondered. First Paul, then Quil and now my dad. They were all under the assumption that Bella and I were something more, but what had changed to make them think that all of the sudden?

In the kitchen, I glanced around debating about breakfast. Should I cook something nice for Bella or go casual and make a bowl of cereal? Ugh. My stomach growled with hunger pains, so I decided I was having a bowl of cereal and giving Bella a choice when she woke up. I reached for the box of Cap'n Crunch on top of the fridge and poured some in my bowl with milk. I was starting my second bowl, when Bella finally crept out of my room.

She smiled at me when she saw me, but looked down right after. Interesting, I thought. Is she feeling bad about last night's kiss now? Damn. It was nice and I was looking forward to more. Maybe she wasn't ready for more or maybe she didn't like it at all? I hated being uncertain. It wasn't me at all.

"Good morning," she said, breaking me out of my inner monologue.

"Morning," I answered around my cereal. I finished chewing to offer to cook her breakfast, but she was already pouring herself a bowl of cereal.

"I can make you something if you want."

"Cereal's fine. I don't mind."

She sat opposite me and began eating her cereal. She kept scooping milk soaked scoops to the top and then stirring it around. I sat, with my spoon in the air, dripping onto the table staring at her strange eating ritual. Finally, she glanced up at me watching her.

"What?" she asked.

"Find anything interesting in there?" I joked.

"Well, they do say Cap'n Crunch is in a box right?" she joked back. We both laughed. It broke the nervous tension in the room. I went back to filling my bottomless stomach.

"So, I was thinking about calling Alice when I head home this morning. To see if she can meet me at my house," she said softly, looking back down at her bowl.

"Okay."

"Okay?" she asked, looking up.

"I told you I wouldn't stop you. I'm not your keeper, Bells. I'm your friend."

"Well, how would you feel about going with me?"

I stopped chewing for a minute and stared at her. Me, werewolf, with a vampire in her house? Probably not a great idea, especially since things got heated last night. I choked a little but swallowed the bite down.

"I'm not so sure about being in a house with a vampire, Bells. You know me and I don't know if I can do that."

She sighed. "What if we sat on the back porch instead? Do you think if there was space so it wasn't too confining?" Her eyes pleaded silently with me. I didn't understand why she wanted to meet with the vamp anyway. They'd all but abandoned her in the woods and now she shows up suddenly. It was weird.

"I'll try. That's all I can promise. I can stay in the woods if things don't work out. Why do you want me to go? Are you worried about her hurting you or something?

"No! Of course not. But," she paused, turning her face down, hiding it behind her hair. I waited with bated breath for her to finish the sentence. When she didn't move or give any indication she was going to finish her sentence, I prodded her.

"But, what?"

A whoosh of air blew out of her mouth. She ran her hands through her sleep tangled hair.

"I feel safer with you near me," she admitted, not raising her head still. I waited the longest few minutes of silence in my life.

"Oh," I responded dumbly. Well, cool! I got up slowly from my chair and made my way around the table. Bella sat with her elbows on the edge of the table her fingers grasping her hair as she kept her face down. I squatted down beside her, trying to look up under her hair to her face. I was too tall, and her hair was too long.

"Bells, I'll go. Okay? I'll go," I whispered beside her. I sucked in a deep breath and decided it was time to invoke a little confidence for once. I placed my palm on her knee, gently squeezing. One small, cool hand reached down and I held my breath as she placed her hand on top of mine, thinking she would push me away.

"Thanks, Jake," she squeezed back once. "I'm going to try harder to be a teenager. Okay? For you, I'm going to try." I melted at her words. But I didn't want her to do it for me.

"No, honey. I want you to do it for you. We can try it together. We've both had a lot of responsibility for people our age," I pulled the chair next to her out and sat in it. She finally sat up and looked at me, but her hand remained on top of mine. I took a risk and slid it up her thigh, just a little bit, nothing too crazy. "We don't have to map out our whole lives yet. Let's take it one day at a time? How's that sound?"

"Sounds good."

I leaned in, looking at her lips, remembering how soft and perfect they'd felt last night when she leaned in for that kiss. Her eyes widened in panic and I sat back, feeling that confidence waver.

"Sorry, morning breath. I haven't brushed my teeth yet," she held her fingers in front of her mouth, thinking she was blocking any smell coming my way. Guess I shouldn't tell her I could smell a lot of scents in the room and her breath wouldn't bother me for one quick kiss.

I stood from the chair and leaned down and kissed the top of her head instead, taking a quick sniff while I was there. Her natural scent under the smell of my cheap shampoo was something I would always love. She giggled, knowing what I'd just done.

"You smell good," I admitted honestly, as I washed my breakfast dishes. I grabbed a grapefruit out of the fridge and sliced it up for my dad. I'd always enjoyed cutting each little section and watching him dig each part out since I was little. I don't know why, it was one of those things. I carried the bowl of fruit and a cup of iced tea to his room.

"Breakfast is here. I'm going to go with Bella to her house. Alice Cullen wanted to see her and she wants me to go with her," I told him.

"Cullen? What are they doing back here?" he asked.

I filled him in on everything that had happened the night before, downplaying Bella's cliff dive. He was leery of the vampire being back and told me a few questions I should ask her. He reminded me of the key points of the treaty and that I should remain in control. He also reminded me of Sam and Emily, and that if I felt like I was going to shift, I had better run like hell away from Bella. I promised him I would be careful.

When I went back out in the kitchen, Bella had left the table, and her clean bowl was in the drainer with mine. I listened for her and could hear her fiddling around in the bathroom. I walked closer to the door.

"There's a new toothbrush under the sink if you want to open it," I told her. I could hear the cabinet open and her rip into the package. I went back to the laundry room and grabbed her clean clothes from the dryer and carried them back to the bathroom. I knocked lightly and told her I had her clothes. She opened the door, with the toothbrush stuck in her mouth. I smiled at her and held the clothes out.

I walked away, shaking thoughts of how cute she looked in my clothes, with her messy hair. I searched around for some semi-clean jeans and a t-shirt. If I was meeting with a bloodsucker, I wanted to be covered up. Hopefully I wouldn't burst out of them, I didn't have a lot of jeans.

Bella called Alice on our way back to her house. She let her know that I was coming and the plan was to sit on the back porch for everybody's comfort. Alice got a little snarky, saying she didn't need a babysitter, and that she was concerned about Bella's choice of company. Bella wavered, but when I put my hand on her leg, she spoke up for herself.

"I don't think you do need a babysitter. He's there for me. He's my friend and has been there for me for the last couple of months. You of all people should know that, right? Since you can see every choice I make. We'll be there soon," Bella said, hanging up the phone.

"I don't understand why she's so concerned about me being with you. She wasn't worried when I was with them."

I didn't want to keep downing the other 'person' that Bella claimed was her best friend for so long. So I took my dad's sage advice and didn't say anything since I had nothing nice to say.

We pulled up in front of Bella and Charlie's house and I shut off the engine. I inhaled deeply when we got out, but I could only smell the old scent from last night. Sam walked out of the tree line and met us in the front yard.

"What's going on, Jake?" he asked.

"Bella agreed to see Alice here. She asked me to come with her. But I told her I needed to stay outside, so we're doing it on the back porch," I informed him.

"I'll stay close by," he stated, then turned to speak to Bella. "You need to be careful. If Jake starts getting upset or shaking, you need to get away from him. You have to Bella. It'll hurt us all if he phases too close to you."

She nodded her head in agreement and he went back into the trees.

"I need to change into my own clothes," Bella said and we went into the house, and she went upstairs to her room. I paced the living room, giving myself a pep talk for the chat we were about to have.

Bella came down with her hair brushed out, wearing fresh jeans and a long sleeve shirt. She grabbed a different pair of shoes and sat down on the couch to put them on. It wasn't much longer that I could hear the car out front, so I told Bella that Alice had arrived. I went out the back door and stood against the railing, leaving myself ample space.

The little vampire flashed around the corner and smiled widely at Bella. "I missed you so much!" Alice said, as she reached out for a hug. Bella hugged her and stepped back.

"I've missed you too, Alice. How've you been? I have about a million and one questions to ask you," she told her.

"I've been good. I have a lot of questions for you too. For starters, how are you blocking my visions? I still can't see you, at all."

"I have no idea why you can't see me. But as you can see now, I'm fine," Bella told her, gesturing down her body. Bella stepped closer to me. I could hear her heart beat speed up just a bit and wondered why. I didn't move from my perch. "Where have you been? Where is everybody else? Are you here to stay? When did you get here? Why didn't you call me if you thought I was going to kill myself? Didn't you see how miserable I was for months? Why didn't you call me then?" Bella fired off one question after the other, not giving the little pixie a chance to answer any of them.

Well, that explained the racing heart beat…

"Bella, slow down for a second. Let me answer at least some of those things! We've been in Alaska with the Denalis, well most of us anyway. Rose and Emmett have done a little honeymooning of their own. Edward," Bella's heart beat stuttered when Alice dropped his name so heartlessly. Of course, we both heard it with our 'super hearing.' She continued on.

"Edward has been traveling in the South and in South America. I'm the only one here. As soon as I had the vision, I came straight here. I guess I didn't call because I hadn't and I wasn't sure if that would make things worse. I haven't been seeing much of you. But I haven't been trying to either. When we left, Edward asked me to stop looking into your future."

Bella sucked in a harsh breath. I couldn't take it anymore. I walked up behind her and placed my hands on her shoulders, rubbing my hands side to side. Her breathing evened out and her heart rate calmed back down. I could smell the tears that were leaking out. I could imagine what she was thinking. Edward had left her behind and didn't want to know a thing about what happened to her. She had spent so much time grieving the loss of him and he was trying to forget her. Dickhead.

"Bella, I think you're misunderstanding. He wanted you to move on with your life, without interference from us. If I envisioned every trip or fall you had, it would make us all miserable, wanting to race back to you and save you from yourself. Even though I didn't try to have visions of you, it's not always something I can control. Lately, I had seen you happy, with this guy. Though, he wasn't as filled out and his hair was longer," she pointed to me.

"That was before the change," I said.

"Hmm," Alice said, I could see her considering that. "When was your change? How long ago?"

"About two months?" I estimated.

"Interesting. Maybe it's you that blocks her, but I'm not sure why. Why did I suddenly see her on that cliff?"

Without thinking I answered her, "She was alone."

Her eyes darted to Bella. "What? I knew it! You were trying to hurt yourself!"

"I was not!" Bella shouted. "I wanted to see Edward!"

I reeled back like she'd slapped me in the face. What?

"What do you mean?" Alice asked.

Bella crumpled in on herself and choked back a sob. She jumped up and rushed to me, trying to wrap her arms around my body.

"No! Don't touch me right now!" I was shaking violently. I leapt over the railing and dashed toward the woods. Bella started running after me, but both Sam and Alice yelled at her to stop.

"JAKE!" I heard her scream as my jeans hit the ground. My shirt didn't make it though. My body burst into wolf form and the black shreds fluttered behind me as I ran.

I howled in pain and I ran through the woods. I cursed myself for thinking things were changing. She had kissed me! I was a fool. A complete fool. My paws dug into the moist ground and I dodged and weaved through the forest. I snarled as I ran.

Sam phased in long enough to assure me he'd stay with Bella. I ignored him, I was too furious with her at the moment, but I was sure later I'd thank him.

I kept running in circles around La Push, running, running, running. The pounding of my paws, and the chuffing of my breath out my nose were the sounds I focused on. I don't know how long I ran for but I ran until I was too exhausted to take another step. I lay on the forest floor and fell asleep.

When I woke, it was night, but I had no idea what time it was. I stood, shaking out my fur and ran toward my home. I growled lightly when I saw her truck in the yard, but I was too worn out to fight. I found a pair of shorts hanging on the railing and pulled them on, before going in through the laundry room.

Neither Bella nor my dad were aware that I was home, and I felt like a little bit of a jerk for eavesdropping, but decided for tonight, I was okay with that.

"Billy, I feel awful. It came out so wrong. He's furious with me and he's going to think I don't really care about him."

"Don't worry, Bella. He knows how much you care about him." I scoffed. Whatever.

"I basically told him I wanted to kill myself, but that's not what I meant. I have been an idiot. I don't know how to fix this."

"Why don't you start with explaining it to him?"

"And say what? When I did stupid things, I could see visions of Edward? Ugh. It sounds so stupid even to me! Jake will never forgive me for saying that." Yep, you're right, Bells.

"But, Jake has helped me so much. I kissed him last night, did he tell you?" I could see her face turn bright red through the little window on the door, and she covered her face with her hands.

"You did? No, he didn't mention it." I don't kiss and tell, thank you very much.

"I felt like I was ready to move on finally. That jump was a farewell to Edward in a sense. I didn't realize it when I jumped, but after Jake pulled me out of the water, it was like my loose screws had been tightened. He is amazing, but you know that," she whispered.

That was my cue to make some noise and go in and fix things with her. I leaned over and opened the screen door and let it slam loudly.

"Jake's back, Bella. You should talk to him. Tell him everything, I think he'll surprise you." I heard Dad say he was going to head over to Old Quil's. His phone started making short beeps, so I knew he was texting someone for a ride.

"Dad, I'm home!" I called out trying to be casual. I looked straight at Bella and could tell by her puffy eyes and red nose that she had been crying.

"Hey, Jake! I'm heading to Old Quil's for poker. Charlie's on his way to get me. Don't wait up," he called out.

"Don't let him steal all your pennies again," I laughed, tightly.

He muttered something about the cheating old shit and went out onto the porch.

I walked to the cabinet for a glass and opened the fridge for the pitcher of water. Slowly, I drank it, delaying the conversation Bella and I needed to have. I knew she was regretful and she was here at my house waiting for me. So that was a good sign, I was sure.

But the words rang out in my head without my permission, over and over. I wanted to see Edward!