CHAPTER 27

*****BELLA POV*****

"I need to give you a nickname." I set my book down and turned to face Jake who I'd been leaning against on the couch.

He laid his auto magazine aside and gave me a curious look. "What?"

"A nickname." I slung both legs across his lap, so I was sitting sideways, my feet resting against the arm of the couch on the other side of his legs. "You're always calling me 'honey' or 'baby,' so I need to come up with a nickname for you."

"Pfft. You're a goof. You do realize those aren't really nicknames. They're more, ummm what's the word…" He twirled his finger in the air, trying to remember, then he snapped and pointed at me. "Terms of endearment. That's what those are."

I let out a little huff. "Either way, I want to give you a nickname. You can give me one too, if those aren't 'real' nicknames."

He just shook his head at me, trying to hide his smile. "Okay fine, did you have something in mind?"

"No, that's the problem. Let me think. Hmmm…" I tapped my finger on my chin. "What about Squishy? You know, from Finding Nemo, when Dory finds that baby jelly fish? 'I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine. And he shall be my Squishy.'" We had watched a lot of movies over the past week and a half, since we'd been at Emily's.

Jake shook his head. "You're gonna have to do better than that."

"How about Snuggles?"

Jake's eyes narrowed at me. "Are you even being serious about this?"

I did want to think of a nickname for him, but nothing seemed right, so I quickly fired off a bunch of other equally ridiculous ideas. "Cupcake? Pookie? Cookie? Dumpling? Tater Tot? Boo Bear?"

"Bells!" Jake exclaimed in attempted outrage, but he couldn't stop from chuckling. "What the hell?!"

"Oh! I know!" A mischievous grin crossed my face. "What about 'Marshmallow'?" I actually kinda liked that one since it had meaning, but I knew he wouldn't go for it. Of course, he couldn't stop me from using if I really wanted to.

"Absolutely not!" Jake laughed loudly, though he was still trying to be serious. "That's the worst of all of them. Those in no way describe me."

"Yeah, but they'd be good because they're far from the truth."

He raised an eyebrow, and a smirk lifted the corner of his mouth. "Two can play at this game, ya know."

Uh-oh.

"What about Bambi? The fawn version though… you know, when he's all legs and tripping over himself and slipping on the ice."

"Ha. Ha. You know, that's kinda mean."

"It's better than Crash. Or Smash. Or Tumble."

I gave him a look of hurt disbelief, barely containing the grin that was just under the surface. Those actually were kinda fitting for me.

"Okay then," he continued, "let's see… Squirt? Munchkin? Itty Bitty? Hangry? Duckling? Panda? Tree? Cheeseball?"

I snorted a laugh. "Tree? Where in the world did that come from? You're the tree!"

"If I'm your Tree, then you could be my Squirrel."

I shook my head, unable to hold my laughter in any longer. "Oh no, we are not doing that!" What had I started? This had gone downhill really fast and become absolutely absurd.

He shrugged. "I don't know… I kinda like it."

"Maybe we should table this discussion for another time. Give us a chance to think about it."

He shrugged again. "Whatever you want… you're the one that brought it up. You just don't like that I came up with better nicknames than you."

I scooted into Jake's lap and gave him a good long kiss, trying to bring a definitive end to the conversation. Plus, ya know… kissing him was always good. When I pulled away, I slipped back onto the couch and quickly spun around to my original position with my back resting against his side and my legs stretched out along the couch, returning my attention to my book. Jake just chuckled again as he picked his magazine back up. I hadn't meant for that discussion to get so crazy, but I very much doubted that would be the end of it.

It was Thursday morning, exactly two weeks and one day since Victoria had attacked me. Much of our time was spent like this… just hanging out and enjoying time together. We had also started spending a few hours in Jake's garage most days so he could still get some work done. He'd acquired an old cozy recliner from Sam's mom to put in there for me to relax in while he worked. We didn't want him to miss out on too much since he wanted to make a business out of it, if this craziness in our lives would ever settle down.

On Sunday, Charlie had spent the afternoon at Emily's with us, going through Jake's family albums and telling us more stories about Jake's mom and about my summer visits. He and Billy had continued to come over for dinner nearly every night, and the pack was there frequently for food or to just chill—sometimes all together and sometimes sporadically as they were coming and going between patrol shifts and time off. Angela also came almost every day after school, either working on schoolwork with me or spending time with Embry. They were together as much as they were able, and it seemed like their relationship was quickly progressing to something more than friendship. He'd even gone over for dinner with her family, and she'd met his mom.

I continued to have the same nightmare almost every night, but I still couldn't remember details, just the horrible sad feelings of loss it left me with. My pain seemed to be improving every day, though, and moving around was getting easier when I was apart from Jake. I still needed the pain medicine, of course, but we'd started to test the pain relief it gave me by sitting apart from each other for longer periods of time. The medicine was working for more and more of the time we were separated, and my external bruises also seemed to be fading faster than we thought they would, though they still looked horrible.

.

THAT AFTERNOON, SITTING on the examination table in Carlisle's office again, he was studying the x-ray he had taken of my arm, a confused look on his face. He came back over to take another look at the bruising on my back and side.

"This is incredible, Bella. I'm having trouble believing what I'm seeing. You still have a ways to go, but everything seems to be healing at a more rapid pace than I would have expected. I'm beginning to wonder if whatever magic you have, Jacob, that's keeping Bella's pain away is also accelerating her healing. These bruises should still be a lot darker than they are, and I thought you'd be in that cast another week or so, but you're ready for it to come off today and move into a brace, which you can remove to bathe. I also think you would be fine to return to school next week, if you feel up for it."

"Wow, really?! That's good news," I said, smiling at Jake, though I had some mixed feelings about it. He smiled back, but I could tell that he did too.

"You'll still need to take it easy," Carlisle continued, "you can't drive yet, and you shouldn't carry more than one or two schoolbooks at a time, so you'll need to make some arrangements for that, but with how well you're doing I see no reason you shouldn't be able to make it through the school day. You should start going on a few short walks every day to build up your stamina and tolerance for the additional movement. No work yet though… and no gym class or hiking over rough terrain. And I don't want you doing a lot of cooking or cleaning yet. Just focus on school and continuing to get plenty of rest for now."

"No gym class sounds fantastic to me… I wouldn't mind if that could be a permanent situation," I laughed.

Carlisle removed the cast and cleaned up my arm. Having the cast off felt weird and my skin looked kinda gross, but I knew all too well that it was normal and would look better in a couple of days. The brace was so much more comfortable than the cast. He gave me some exercises to do to get the strength back in that arm and also gave me a letter about my limitations to give to the school for when I decided to return.

Jake and I were silent as we headed to my truck and set off back to La Push. I finally broke the silence when we were close to the end of the Cullen's long driveway.

"I won't go back to school until your need to be with me has gone away. Just because I'm feeling and doing better doesn't mean you should be uncomfortable like that."

"Thanks honey. I would insist you go anyway, but with that pull to you, I know I couldn't handle being away from you for an entire day. If the doc thinks you're ready though, maybe it means that pull will go away soon. I don't want to be away from you, but you need to get back to school and I need to be able to get back to the pack. We should just test it out every day and see what happens."

Jake tensed suddenly and started looking out the windows, his eyes darting in all directions.

"What's wrong Jake."

"We're being watched. It's most likely Cullen."

"Edward?" I asked, shocked.

"Yeah. It seems he's been keeping watch a lot near the treaty boundary, probably watching for you. So far, no one has scented him crossing the line. I wish he'd just leave… it's really starting to get on all of our nerves."

I sighed and shook my head.

"What?" Jake asked.

"I'll tell you when we get home… errr I mean to Emily's." We both laughed at my slip, and I laid my head on Jake's chest. It really did feel like a second home now. "I'm going to miss being with you all the time."

"I know, me too." He put his arm around me and rubbed my upper arm. "I'm happy that you're doing so much better though. And it has to feel great to have that cast off! Hopefully you won't swing your arm so hard with it off." He rubbed his jaw and shoulder where just this morning I had whacked him with my cast in my sleep, though his bruises were all healed now. I gave him a sheepish grin, still feeling bad, even if I didn't have any control over it.

He just gave me a big grin and continued. "What do you think about what Doc said? About maybe whatever is in me that's taking your pain away is also making you heal faster?"

"That's a crazy thought, but why not?" I shrugged. "I mean we have no real idea about why you take away my pain, or can hear my thoughts, so who knows what else it's doing."

When we got back to Emily's Jake shut off my truck then turned to me. "So, what is it you wanted to say back there? I assumed you didn't want Cullen to hear."

"Yeah, I didn't want him to know I was thinking about this. But I was thinking that maybe I should just talk to him."

Jake frowned at me.

"I'm afraid that he isn't going to go away until I do," I clarified.

"Do you want to talk to him?" Jake asked.

"No, not really… not anymore. Even less knowing that he's lurking like that. It's kinda creepy." Of course, looking back, a lot of things Edward did while we were together (and even before we were together) were kinda creepy.

"Okay then. I don't want you to feel forced into anything just because the dude won't go away. Especially something that none of us wants you to do in the first place!"

I nodded. "Okay, I won't worry about it then." I felt a little relieved, but I also had the feeling I might have to eventually deal with him, regardless of what we did.

When we got inside the house, Sam was there too, and we filled them in on everything. They were excited to see that my cast was off and to hear I was doing so well.

I took a pain pill so we could test the pull. About an hour later Sam and Jake left to try to go for a walk. After a couple of minutes, I was pretty antsy and looked at Emily and shook my head.

"Nope, it's not gone yet. I forgot that Carlisle and Jake figured out that it affected me too. This is really uncomfortable." I started pacing slowly, my back and side aching too.

"I can tell," Emily said. "I know I've never experienced that level of anxiety when Sam has been gone. Let's just go meet them. It's a nice day, we can all go for your first walk."

"That's a great idea," I said, my voice a little tense. Walking slowly down the road, the anxiousness decreased with every step, just like Jake had described to me. When we could see the guys in the distance as they were headed back, Jake picked up his pace and jogged the rest of the way to me, pulling me against him when he reached me, and we both sighed with relief. The walk was very short, as instructed by Carlisle, but it felt good to move under my own power for a little while.

That night at dinner Charlie was also excited to learn of my improvement and wanted to know when I'd be able to come home. I told him soon, but that Carlisle said I should wait a little longer before trying to take care of myself completely.

.

ON SATURDAY, IT FINALLY happened. Emily and I left, just the two of us, to go for one of my walks and the pull was gone. When we had been walking for several minutes and I didn't feel anything, I looked sadly at Emily.

"I don't know if I'm ready to be away from him," I said. "I knew it was coming, but it makes me a little sad."

"I know. My house is going to feel so empty with you both gone. But this is a good thing, Bella. You're getting better every day and that's nothing to be sad about. And it's not like you won't get to see each other still. You'll find plenty of time to spend together."

"I know, it just won't be the same. And he'll be back out there, putting himself in harm's way again." I sighed, knowing I should be happy that I was doing so much better, but just not able to get there quite yet. "It will just take some getting used to."

Emily put her arm around me as we turned around to walk back to her house.

"You'd better not become a stranger around here."

"Not a chance. I promise! This is definitely my second home now. I'll be here so much, you're gonna get tired of me."

"Not possible!"

Jake was sitting on the porch step when we got back and I climbed into his lap, both of us feeling the mixed emotions of what this meant. I was relieved to discover that, even though the pull was gone, he still took the pain away.

"I have so many emotions swirling around right now I don't even know what to feel first," I said with my head laying on his chest.

"I feel the same way. It's gonna be okay though. We'll just take it one day at a time like we have been."

"It would help if Victoria wasn't an issue anymore. I don't wanna have start worrying about you all the time again."

"The pack has been working on that. Hopefully very soon we can take care of her for good."

That night at dinner I told Charlie that I'd be coming home the next day and giving school a try on Monday. He was very excited at this news… both to hear that I was doing so well, and because he was missing me and ready to have me back home.

.

ON SUNDAY I PACKED up all of my things, leaving a few changes of clothes behind since I planned on being there a lot still, and Jake took me home that afternoon. Emily gave me two casseroles that she had made so I wouldn't have to worry about fixing dinner for at least a week. I looked at her as if to say it was too much, but I had learned to accept her help and just thanked her for them.

Jake had something special planned for us that evening, so I heated up a serving of one of the casseroles for Charlie's dinner and sat down with him while he ate, and I waited for Jake. My back and side were starting to ache more, and I realized it was time for another dose of pain reliever. I was going to have to start remembering to take those regularly.

"It's good to have you home Bells," Charlie said as he took a drink of water and scooped up another fork full of food.

I smiled at him lightly. "It does feel good to be home." And it was mostly true.

He could see that I was torn. "I know you're having some mixed feelings because you're going to miss spending so much time with your friends, but it means you're getting better, and that's what we really want."

"I know, you're totally right Dad. It'll just take a few days to adjust back to a normal routine."

There was a knock at the door, and I got up to leave.

"I'm sure I don't need to say this, but I will anyway. Don't stay out too late. You don't want to be worn out on your first day back."

"I won't, I promise. See you later Dad."

Jake drove us in my truck back to La Push, going down a road near the coast that I was pretty sure I'd never been on and parked on the shoulder.

"Gonna have to walk from here," he said smiling.

He grabbed a backpack, blanket, and pillow out of the back of the truck. He handed me the blanket and pillow to carry then put the bag on his back and picked me up out of cab of the truck. After about ten minutes of hiking, we came to the edge of the trees and stepped out into a clearing on a cliff, smaller than the one where we had the bonfire. The sky was mostly clear to the west and the view overlooking the ocean was amazing, the sun slowly inching closer to the horizon.

"What are we doing out here?" I asked as he set me on my feet and took the blanket from me.

"Just spending one last evening together before our lives get crazy again." He laid out the blanket, placing rocks on the corners to keep it from blowing away.

The breeze coming off the water was chilly, and I was starting to shiver a little. He sat down on the blanket and patted the space next to him. I set the pillow down and sat on it, nestling close to him, immediately warmed and relieved of the ache again.

"Emily packed us a little dinner. I've been up here a few times when on patrols and it's an incredible spot to watch the sunset," he explained while pulling the food out of the pack. "So, I thought it would be a nice way to spend our last evening of peace that we might have for a while."

"Is it safe for us to be out here?" As far as I knew Victoria hadn't made an appearance since she attacked me, so she could show up at any time now.

"Yeah," he assured me, "I let the guys on patrol know where we were going to be, so they could keep an extra lookout over this way.

When we were done eating, Jake repositioned himself so I was sitting between his legs. He bent his leg and rested his arm on his knee, allowing me to lean back against it at an angle so we could still see each other while we talked and watched the sun sink lower in the sky.

It wasn't long before the bottom edge of the sun reached the water on the horizon, and the colors were breathtaking, reflecting off both the clouds and the water. We sat in silence, watching the sky darken and the colors change from bright white-yellows to deeper yellows then to oranges and reds with pinks, purples, and blues.

"So beautiful," I said in awe when there was just a sliver of the sun left peeking above the water.

"Yes, so very beautiful," Jake agreed quietly, but something about his tone made me look up at him. He was no longer watching the sunset, and I blushed as I realized he wasn't talking about the scenery.

The look on his face alone caused my insides to respond. Holding my gaze, he started tracing his finger across my forehead and down the side of my face, continuing down my neck. Placing his hot palm against my neck, his thumb running along my jaw, he slid his fingers into my hair.

I swallowed hard at the intensity in his dark eyes as he pulled my face closer to him. When our lips were nearly touching, he stopped, our breath mingling. Then, without kissing me, he softly touched his lips to mine and brushed them slowly to the side, across my check, gently turning my head with the hand in my hair and grazing his lips over my ear. I was shivering again, but it wasn't because of the cold this time. Breathless, and with every nerve ending ignited, I could barely contain all the feelings he was causing to flood through me.

"So beautiful," he whispered against my ear and placed a feather-light kiss behind my ear. I shuddered as my eyes rolled back and slid shut. Another feather-light kiss in front of my ear, caused me to exhale sharply and a breathy, almost silent whimper escaped. His lips continued along my jaw to my chin and finally he kissed my lips slow and soft.

As we kissed, I floated in a world of heat and pleasure, my mind wandering through thoughts of Jacob. How I loved him, beyond words; his fierce protection of me; the gentle way he loved me; respected me; his devotion; his commitment; his sacrifices…

Slowly becoming aware that his lips had left mine, I lazily blinked my eyes open, my lips still parted slightly, to find Jake staring at me in adoration.

"Beautiful doesn't begin to describe what you are to me Bella… and there is no sufficient way for me to express my love for you. But I will never stop trying."

I wasn't able to speak for a few moments, so I just gazed back at him and touched my fingers to his cheek.

Whispering, I finally responded. "I don't know what I ever did to deserve your love Jake but thank you for always giving it to me. I will love you forever, though it will never be enough."

After a few more moments gazing at each other he kissed my lips again, then my forehead, and then pulled me against his chest, laying his cheek on top of my head. It was mostly dark and we would have to start heading back soon, but neither of us were ready to leave quite yet, so we just held each other a little longer.