AN: Wow, the responses to the first chapter were great. Wonderful to see so many readers following over from "Wolf and His Girl". I hope you enjoy this update. I had planned on having this out around Christmas, but I ended up changing most of what went into this chapter; sorry for the delay.

I did make a few small changes to the Sam/Emily part of the first chapter. You might want to check them out, as they may impact future elements of the story.

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Narrator POV

Being a small-town cop made Charlie neither unobservant nor unintelligent. He had known there were strange things about the Cullens, right from the start. It wasn't natural for anyone to be that good-looking, let alone a whole family. And people as rich as they were—that huge house, all those cars—just didn't move to a speck-on-the-map town like Forks. And doctors as skilled as Carlisle Cullen had been didn't end up in tiny hospitals like the one in Forks, working for a mere pittance of what he could earn at in a big-city facility, yet somehow they'd been that fortunate.

Charlie had cared enough for this town to want the best for its residents, to welcome the Cullens and defend them against those who would have ostracized them more than they'd done themselves. He'd even fought with, and been estranged from, one of his dearest friends, Billy Black. He'd never understood Billy's unreasonable and unrelenting hostility for Dr. Cullen—a hatred that had extended to a refusal to use the hospital in Forks and instead make his not-yet-legal son Jake drive him to Port Angeles and back for his dialysis treatments; Billy had even convinced most of his tribe to avoid the hospital as well.

And that whole business of Dr. Cullen and his wife adopting five teenagers? Granted, they'd been extremely well-behaved teenagers—too much so really, other than those times of being caught speeding, which had been yet another oddity. But really, what parents bought monster off-road jeeps and flashy convertibles for their teens?

Charlie Swan scrubbed his face with his hands and wondered when his life had started to spin so out of control. He just couldn't figure it out. And sitting here in the Forks hospital, watching his only daughter fight for her life, wasn't helping. How could this happen? He groaned.

"She'll be alright, Charlie," Sue, his friend Harry's wife told him from her seat nearby. "Bella's strong."

Once, and not too long ago at that, Charlie would have agreed with her. Now…? Now Bella was broken, sick, perhaps even...no, he couldn't even think the word, and there was nothing he could do about it. Had there been a decision he could have made differently, something he could have done that he hadn't, that might have changed all this? But as hard as he wracked his brain, he couldn't think of anything.

He was realistic enough to know that he was probably paying for not being more involved in Bella's life while she was growing up, for not putting up more of a fight when Renee left and took Bella with her. He knew his ex-wife had given Bella a lot of freedom and independence, and he hadn't wanted to stifle her, hadn't wanted to give his daughter a reason to regret her decision to move here to finish high school. If he'd been a true father to Bella, maybe he could have kept her from getting sucked in so deeply with that Edwin. Bella hadn't had a boyfriend before—at least not that he recalled ever hearing about, so perhaps her absorption with the Cullen boy had been understandable. But that whole business had been something else odd: how all of those kids had ignored their peers here…until Bella arrived. Within just a few weeks she'd started dating Edwin, doing things exclusively with his family—even things she wouldn't have ordinarily done: play sports, go shopping, run away to Phoenix…

Bella's injuries in Phoenix had never made sense, either. Klutzy she might be, but falling down a flight or two of stairs? Hotels had elevators, didn't they? Tumbling through a window? Didn't businesses invest in shatter-resistant glass? And to have all that happen, yet for a few bumps, a broken leg, and that strange cut on her wrist to be her only injuries? A cut that almost looked like a bite, with teeth marks? Even if her arm had been flailing around during her fall, there was no way at all that she could have bit into her own wrist.

Wisps of old stories from his childhood flitted through Charlie's mind, fireside tales told during the days when he and Billy, Harry and Quil IV had all grown up together. Flitted into his mind and out again, unimportant right now: his daughter was lying in a hospital bed, fighting for her life. Even more than the hospital business, Charlie suspected that Billy might even have tried to interfere in Bella's relationship with that youngest Cullen boy. Somehow, though, he didn't blame his old friend for that one; rather, Charlie only wished he'd succeeded, or that he himself had done the same. Maybe if he had…

After Sam Uley and his friends had miraculously found Bella in the forest—yet another oddity—Charlie had done just what Sam had suggested, gotten Bella dried off and warmed up, and looked at by Dr. Gerandy. There were a few developing bruises from falls she'd taken, but otherwise no explanation for Bella's unresponsiveness. The only words she'd spoken had been, "He's gone." She'd been put to bed with the expectation that she would be better in the morning and could tell them what had happened. Charlie knew Bella hadn't slept that night—because neither had he. She'd been exactly the same the next day, and the one after that. Catatonia was a murmured possibility from Dr. Gerandy. Then, it had gotten worse. The exposure, her wet clothes, and her reaction had all combined into a cold that had quickly spiraled into a cough, fever, and chills. When Bella had started having trouble breathing, Charlie had rushed her to the hospital, to be told she'd developed pneumonia. Now she was hooked up to all sorts of wires and tubes, getting oxygen, medication, and fluids. Worst of all, Bella was still oblivious to the world around her, even when the doctors said she ought to be improving.

Her mother had flown out from Florida as soon as Charlie had called her about Bella's condition. Charlie was grateful that his ex-wife had dropped everything to come be with their daughter. Renee was back with Bella now, giving Charlie a break.

Rubber squeaking made Charlie look up, expecting to see a nurse approaching. Instead…speak of the devil…it was Billy being pushed by Jacob.

"How is she?" Billy asked.

"The same," Charlie mumbled. "Medication should be working, but she won't wake up. It's like he took her with him when he left."

Billy reached out and gripped his friend's arm. "She'll get through this," he pronounced.

Charlie looked up and their eyes met. In both minds was the memory of the last time they'd been like this: back eight years earlier when Billy's wife had been hurt in a car accident; sadly, Sarah had succumbed to her injuries, leaving behind her husband, twin daughters, and young son.

"She'll be okay, Charlie," Billy said, again. "She's lost something, yes, but people can help with that—others have lost someone they cared about, too."

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Jacob POV

He slipped out of the waiting area and just started walking. He didn't have a destination in mind, and his feet carried him down a hallway. When he stopped, Jacob looked at the wall. On a strip of tape was written "Swan, I". He blinked, before realizing that this was Bella's room; the "I" had thrown him—Bella hated her given name. A quick glance both ways down the hall, and he slipped inside.

Jacob's heart clenched at the sight before him. Bella was lying motionless on the bed, the monitor beside her beeping steadily. That noise, and the slight movement of her chest up and down were the only signs that a living person was present. This wasn't Bella—it couldn't be. Bella was lively and clumsy. She was funny and beautiful…not this broken creature. He looked around the room, a little surprised to see that no one else was here.

"What happened to you, Bella?" he whispered. "What did he do to you?" That the Cullen was responsible for this was a certainty in Jacob's mind. She'd been fine when she left that note for her dad, and unconscious when Sam Uley and his goons had carried her out of the forest hours later. Jacob's fists clenched with the desire to land them in the perfect face of that Cullen jerk. He just knew Cullen was why Bella hadn't come back down to La Push after that one beach trip with her friends from school. And he definitely hadn't liked Jacob sort-of crashing the Forks prom a month back. Jake couldn't figure out why his dad had wanted him to deliver a message—much less that message—to Bella. She'd been nicer about it than Billy had probably deserved, and hadn't even blamed him for being the messenger. Cullen, though…he'd been pissed. Polite, but pissed; almost like he knew why Jake had been there and resented it. Had he been scared that Bella would take Billy's advice anyway, and decided to beat her to the punch? Could he really have been that much of a bastard?

"Hey, Bells," Jacob whispered. "You wanna wake up? Charlie's really worried about you. Everyone is, really. Me, too. C'mon, Bells. I miss you." Jacob had, if he were honest about it, had a crush on Bella for years, even though he'd seen her only rarely. He'd never said anything to anyone about it; his friends would just have teased him and Bella had been so pretty—and just that smidge older than him—that he'd been a little intimidated to even dare to say anything to her about it.

"Young man, what are you doing in here?"

Jacob spun around when the nurse startled him. "I'm her friend. I just needed to see her, tell her she needs to get better and wake up." He piled on the charm and she relaxed some.

"That's sweet of you, but only family can be here right now."

Jacob nodded glumly and started to head for the door. He jumped when another door opened right beside him. A chestnut-haired woman emerged, puffy eyes going wide when she saw him. He hadn't seen her since he was a toddler, but somehow he knew she had to be Bella's mom. He couldn't think of her name, though. "You're Bella's mom, right?"

She nodded. "Renee Dwyer."

That's right: Bella had moved up here after her mom had gotten married again. "I'm Jacob Black."

Her eyes widened again. "Jacob? My, you've grown up."

"Senior this year," he agreed.

"You can't be!"

"Rez school has different rules—I started a little earlier than I would have at a Hok'wat school."

"Did you come to see Bella? I'm sure she'll wake up soon." Clearly, Bella's mom was an optimist.

"Brought dad by to see Billy. I was just telling Bella I want my friend back."

Behind us, the rhythm of the monitor changed.

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AN: A little shorter than I like to post, but I think this chapter is about as good as I can make it. Totally wasn't what I originally expected for this one, but…I hope you enjoyed.

I'm playing with canon birthdates a little, and making Jacob (and possibly others as well) closer in age to Bella than SM did. Reasons why will become clear in future chapters.