A/N: Hello my lovely readers! Just a little update on posting expectations. I only have two more chapters (after this one) to go until we are caught up to what I have posted on AO3 and I am still working on revisions to the next several chapters that I have to post there, so I'm going to slow down my posting here to one chapter per day. Once I have us all caught up here, I will have to slow down a little more, but my goal is 2-3 chapters per week (faster if I can), but I promise at least one chapter per week moving forward (except over the holiday week... that may interfere a little). I actually have 70 chapters written (and I don't have the ending fleshed out quite yet), so there is a lot more story to go, but they are all mostly just rough drafts. Some chapters will not take as much effort to revise, so they will go up faster.

Anyway, I have really appreciated those of you who have left reviews. I love reading them and would love to hear from more of you to know what you think.

Happy reading :)

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CHAPTER 31

*****JACOB POV*****

IT WAS EARLY when I awoke the next morning and I smiled to myself as I remembered that the red headed leech was no more. It had been so fulfilling to be the one to deliver the fatal blow. I had been fighting for so long now to keep Bella safe from her and it had been such a part of our lives that I wasn't sure what it was going to look like going forward. What will our new normal become?

Bella had turned toward me during the night, and I looked down at her peaceful face as she slept beside me. The only real threat to her now was Edward Cullen. While annoying, he didn't seem to pose an actual danger to Bella's life, just a potential risk to our lives together. Of course, I wasn't willing to totally dismiss him as a threat. As much as I wanted to believe Carlisle, I wasn't completely sure… and there was that whole manipulation thing. I was also still uncertain how she would react if she were to see him while fully conscious, even if he didn't attempt the manipulation again. What if she decided to go back to him? It seemed unlikely, and I hated the uncertainty and doubt that I had about this, but try as I might, I just couldn't totally shake it.

I rubbed my hand over my face, trying to clear all those thoughts as I realized that this was not a topic that I should spend a lot of time considering. The 'what-ifs' weren't going to bring me anything but doubt and pain… and may in fact drive me to insanity. I sighed, turned onto my back, and put my hands behind my head, trying to come up with something else to think about.

Bella moved closer to me, slinging her brace-clad arm across me and I caught it just before it smacked me in the face. I breathed a sigh then chuckled quietly as she started mumbling in her sleep. I brought my arm around under her head and gently placed her arm on my chest. With a dreamy sigh she murmured my name amidst more incoherent mumbling, and it made me wonder what she was dreaming about. At least I knew it wasn't that nightmare again. She had told me yesterday that she finally remembered the nightmare that had been haunting her for over two weeks. Hopefully now that the red head was gone the nightmare would be to.

I started to try to come up with some ideas of what we could do for the day. The whole pack had the day off. We wouldn't need such regular patrols since the red head was dead. Bella and I could also go more places and do more things with no vampire hunting her… like go on actual dates. Sometime soon I'd love to take Bella out to dinner somewhere and maybe catch a movie. That made me smile… would have to make sure it was a better movie than the last one we went to! Maybe Embry and Angela could go with us, or Sam and Emily. I was ready to start doing normal couple things together and try to make our lives simpler… I wondered if that would even be possible. I'd like to think it could.

We couldn't go crazy today though, Bella really needed to rest. I may just have to be content with what has been our normal since her injuries and hang out here. With everyone off for the day that could actually get pretty entertaining.

Bella slept in late, and we ended up spending a quiet day together with Sam and Emily. We mostly just hung out in the living room, played some card games, and Bella took a nap leaning against me on the couch.

The two of us along with Embry headed back to Bella's house around three o'clock. Angela was coming over and Bella wanted to have dinner with Charlie, however he called while the girls were working on homework to say that he had to work late. We ordered pizza for dinner and moved into the living room to watch a movie.

"So, who chose The Empire Strikes Back for the movie?" Embry asked. "Not that I'm complaining, just seems like an odd choice for you guys."

"Well, while I was recovering at Emily's, Jake and I were taking turns picking movies to watch and it's Jake's turn. Last time we watched the first one, so naturally we will have to watch them all."

At her slightly pandering tone, I exclaimed, "Hey, you said you liked A New Hope."

"I did," she held up her hands defensively, "but it's not exactly something that I'm dying to watch more of." At my wounded look she patted my cheek and added, "I'm sorry, but it's not like you were raving about Pride and Prejudice. I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the story, but I won't have any desire to rewatch them like you do."

I pointed an accusatory finger at her. "That sappy movie was just frustrating. If that Mr. Darcy had just got his head out of his butt and admitted how he felt sooner, he could have saved them a lot of trouble."

A snicker came from Embry, and we turned to see him giving me a teasing grin and Angela was trying to hide her smile.

"What?!" I demanded.

"You didn't just watch that movie, you like watched it enough to analyze it."

I winged a throw pillow at Embry's head, who easily caught it and flung it right back at me. Thankfully I easily caught it as well… just before it was about to smack Bella in the face.

"You need to work on your aim, dude." I tucked the pillow beside me again to keep it from being ammo anymore.

Embry gave Bella a sheepish smile and apologized before immediately turning to Angela. "So, Ang, have you even seen the first Star Wars? A New Hope?"

"Yeah, my dad is a big Star Wars fan, and the boys love it too, so I've seen them all. I think I like them more than Bella, but definitely not as much as my dad. I don't mind rewatching them, though. If you're anything like me, Bella, you'll like the third one best, though my dad swears the second one is the best of all six movies."

Embry and I both adamantly agreed that Mr. Weber was correct, and we were discussing the reasons it was the best when the doorbell rang, signaling the arrival of the pizza. Angela and Embry got the pizzas and sodas all laid out on the coffee table with cups, plates, and napkins. We all settled on the couch to start the movie, the girls snug between me and Embry.

Near the beginning, there was a scene of Chewbacca working on one of the ships and Bella turned to look up at me. "Chewie kinda reminds me of you."

I raised a skeptical brow at her. "In what way?"

"Is it because of how much they sound alike?" Embry asked, imitating the way Chewbacca talks. Angela jabbed him in the ribs, and he just snickered again.

"Har, har," I said. "You can keep your comments to yourself, Chuckles."

"No, that's not it," she said with an exasperated look at Embry before turning back to me. "It's cause you're tall and shaggy," she ruffled my hair a little, "and he's like a mechanic, right?"

I chuckled. "Yeah, I never really thought about it before, but I guess he is like a mechanic. I guess that's an acceptable comparison. Now, watch the movie or you're gonna miss something."

She rolled her eyes, but her beautiful lips were turned up in a small smile. "Okay, okay, sorry."

Near the end of the movie Bella leaned over and whispered to me, "See, he even fixes stuff like you do." She was pointing to the screen which had just showed Chewie banging on some part of the engine when he couldn't get it to work.

I gaped at her in mock horror and clutched at my heart. "You wound me, Bella. That's truly the lowest of low blows to insult a man's abilities like that."

She tried to keep an innocent, serious look on her face, but quickly burst out giggling and buried her face against my chest.

Not surprisingly, Bella ended up liking this movie more than she had the first one, which pleased me immensely. When it was time to go, she and I sat on the front steps as Embry walked Angela to her car to say goodnight.

"You feeling good enough to go back to school tomorrow?" I asked her.

"Yeah, I think I got enough rest today to be okay with that tomorrow."

"I'll just take your truck home tonight then, if that's alright with you."

"Sure," she smiled up at me.

Too quiet for Bella to pick up on, I heard Embry's voice quietly say that he was ready to go, whenever I was. I ran my finger over her face and then gripped her chin as I kissed her lips softly. Skimming my thumb along her jaw I weaved my fingers into her hair. Sensing how she was responding to me, and when an almost inaudible whimper escaped her throat, I deepened the kiss and drew it out a little longer. We were both breathless when we finally pulled apart.

"I'll see you in the morning honey."

She nodded and I helped her to her feet and back up onto the porch before giving her one more brief kiss and then backed away from her, watching to make sure she was going to be okay. She always was, but it was the only crappy part of the pain relief I gave her. She recovered quickly, then Embry and I drove away with a final wave out the window.

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

WEDNESDAY MORNING DAWNED gray and dreary. I was feeling about as good as I had on Monday when Jake came to pick me up and I was hopeful that I could actually make it through the whole day without incident.

We still got lots of stares from everyone as Jake walked with me to my locker and first class. It didn't seem to faze Jake at all, but I hoped the novelty of his presence would wear off soon.

When we were getting close to my class Jake suddenly stopped. I looked up at him and then followed his gaze to see what he was looking at. On the wall was a glittery hand-made poster announcing prom.

"Have you thought about going?" he asked as we started walking again.

I groaned in distaste. "No, I had not thought about it. Angela wants me to go, but I can't dance Jake. I could seriously hurt myself… or someone else."

"I wouldn't let you. I'm no Fred Astaire, but I'm not a slouch on the dance floor either. And I definitely can keep you from hurting anyone, especially yourself."

I gave him a pleading look. "It's really not my thing, Jake."

"Come on Bells, it could be fun. Something normal to do! Besides, I'd love to be able to make some new memories to replace the ones from your prom last year. That was so uncomfortable and awkward."

I sighed as we stopped beside the door to my class. Jake was trying hard to find ways to make our lives more like they could be if we weren't all caught up in supernatural things. And it would be nice to make some memories like that with him. I looked at him doubtfully. "I don't know."

His eyes brightened seeing that I was considering it, and I lost nearly all my resolve at his hopeful expression.

"I'll think about it," I said, "but don't get your hopes up!"

Jake flashed his bright joyful smile and seeing the glimmer of excitement in his eyes I knew I was probably going to cave.

At lunch, Angela was absolutely thrilled that Jake wanted to go to the prom.

"….but I haven't agreed for sure yet." I was saying, trying to quell her excitement.

"You need to decide really soon! Prom is in less than two weeks, and we need to go dress shopping right away to make sure we can find something! Hopefully it's not too late for the guys to get their tuxes ordered."

"Has Embry said he'd be willing to go?"

"Oh yeah, he didn't even hesitate," she paused in consideration, "do you think it's because of the imprinting thing?" she asked, her excitement dimming slightly. We had decided to start sitting at a table by ourselves so we could talk more freely. Also, Angela wanted to make it easier for Ben to sit with his friends and not feel awkward with her there too.

I shrugged, "Maybe. But either way, he wants to do it, so it's not like he'll be upset because of why he wants to do it."

"True. Still, it makes me feel a little guilty."

"I totally understand… you know how I feel about imprinting. To be fair to yourself though, I think you're going to have to get over feeling guilty about it, or you're going to potentially feel that way the rest of your life! He just wants to make you happy, and whatever does that, makes him happy."

"You're probably right. It's just hard to get used to, I guess. He did say that he would like it better if Jake were there too, so he'd know someone." She smiled at me hopefully. "Oh, please say you'll go Bella!"

I didn't know why I was still fighting it, when deep down I already knew that I was going to cave after the look on Jake's face this morning. I sighed, "Okay, fine, I'll go. But I'll hold you and Jake responsible if anyone gets injured!"

Angela squealed quietly in delight, clasped her hands under her chin, and got a huge smile on her face. I couldn't help but smile back.

"When do you want to go shopping?" she asked. "I don't think we should wait until this weekend… especially for the tuxes. Would you be opposed to going tomorrow? Or tonight? Oh my gosh, I'm so excited!"

I was laughing as I listened to her excited babbling. It almost got me excited… almost. What was I doing? This was probably going to end badly.

"I'm game for whatever, I guess." I shrugged one shoulder. "Torture tonight or torture tomorrow, doesn't make a difference to me."

She gave me an exasperated look. "It's not that bad Bella. At least pretend you're having fun when we go."

I released a sigh. "I'll try. We already planned to do something together tonight, so maybe we could go shopping instead, since we already know the guys are free." One school night out wasn't going to do any harm. My teachers were all impressed with how much work I had kept up on while I was out, so they were being extremely lenient with allowing me to turn stuff in late.

Angela quickly agreed and spent the rest of lunch making plans for after school to try to get out of town as soon as possible. I made it through the rest of the day without incident and was excited when Jake was waiting for me outside of my last class. He gave me a kiss and took my books from me as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"How was your day Bells?"

"It was good. No one ran into me, so that's a plus." I paused then sighed. "So, my answer is a reluctant 'Yes'."

A confused look flitted across his face before realization dawned on him. "You mean for prom?" I nodded. "Wow, I thought that was going to take a lot more convincing."

"Well, I made the mistake of telling Angela, so she helped convince me, but honestly, I had pretty much decided after we talked this morning. Even if dancing isn't my thing, I want to make memories like this with you too. Plus, that smile you have on your face right now… it's kinda my kryptonite. I have trouble resisting you when you smile like that."

"Hmmm. Kryptonite noted," he said then laughed a deep throaty laugh that had me smiling wide.

"So, I know we'd already planned to hang out, but do you have any plans for later tonight?" I asked.

"Let me see, ummm, spend time with you, and… nope that's it. I've already done my patrol shift for the day, and I finished up work on the couple of cars I had waiting for me. Why? You planning for a late night? Got a rave you wanna go to?"

I laughed and shook my head at him. "No, goofball. It's just that we don't have a lot of time left before prom, so Angela and I were hoping to go dress shopping today. I guess 'hoping' isn't the right word to use for me, but I can't go to prom in my sweats, so it needs to be done.

"Anyway, we wanted to leave in like the next hour." I gave him a hopeful smile. "And you guys need to get your tuxes ordered. Are you up for that? And is Embry off later tonight also?"

"Geesh, when you make a decision you don't mess around. Uh, yes to both questions. I'll need to let my dad know. Where are we going to do this shopping?"

"Port Angeles today. If they don't have anything we like, we may have to try somewhere else this weekend. That's why we want to get started tonight."

We met up with Angela and made a game plan for getting out of town quickly. Jake took my truck to go talk to his dad and to get Embry, and Angela took me to the police station so I could let Charlie know. When I told him what I wanted to do, his jaw dropped open and he was stunned silent for a moment, then he turned to Angela and smiled.

"I'm impressed! How did you convince her so fast?"

"Well, it was a joint effort between me and Jake," she replied. "I actually thought it would take longer, but she apparently can't resist Jake's powers. Or maybe I had already worn her down enough."

My mouth gaped open as she talked and I looked back and forth between their smiling faces, realizing they'd colluded together to get me to say yes. "You were all three in on this!? That's so not fair!" I wanted to be mad, but even if they did gang up on me, Angela's and Jake's excitement was real, so I had trouble being mad about it. "You guys are going to pay!"

"Embry was in on it too. He's the one that convinced Jake that you guys should go… though I don't think it took a lot of convincing."

I rolled my eyes. "He'll pay too then."

"Well, here's my payment," Charlie said as he handed me his credit card.

I started to push his hand away. "No Dad, I can get my dress."

He just pushed back, pressing the card into my palm, and closing my fingers around it. "No way. I want to get this for you. You're the least needy teenager ever and I haven't had an opportunity to buy anything for you but food since you've been here. While I appreciate that, I insist that you let me do this for you."

"Fine," I said reluctantly as I pocketed the card then smiled softly. "Thanks Dad."

I kissed him on the cheek, and he cleared his throat as color bloomed there. "Oh, and Bella, I don't want you to go crazy, but I also don't want you to try to get the cheapest thing either. Get something you like that's reasonably priced." He pointed to Angela. "You can help make sure she doesn't shortchange herself." Angela gave him a little salute then he turned back to me again. "I also think you should get something new to wear for graduation, so if you see anything that will work for that, get it. Who knows if Angela here would be able to ever convince you to go shopping again."

I opened my mouth to argue with him about the graduation outfit, but he gave me a look that said he didn't want to hear it. Plus, I realized that I probably didn't have anything that would be good to wear for graduation either. And getting it taken care of all at once would be nice, so I shut my mouth and just thanked him again.

Next, we headed to my house so I could get my rarely used purse, my pain medicine, and some cash for dinner. Charlie could buy my clothes, but I could buy my own dinner. Then we headed to Angela's and that's where the guys were going to meet us.

Her parents were excited to hear that I had agreed to go. Apparently, everyone had been in on the plan to get me to say yes to prom. When the guys showed up, they came inside so Angela's parents could meet Jake and to visit for a bit. Around ten minutes later, as we were leaving, I heard Angela's dad comment quietly to her mom, "That one's even bigger than Embry! What are they feeding those boys down there!"

I had to press my lips together to keep my laugh in and when I looked at Angela, she was trying to hold it in as well. Once we were halfway across the yard, we all started laughing at her dad's comment as we piled into Angela's car.

The hour-long car ride snuggled up against Jake was just what I needed to help relax and ease my achy back. I still couldn't believe I'd been bamboozled into this, but I was extremely excited to get out of town for the evening.

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