This chapter took me longer than I thought it would to write. I struggled with how much backstory to add in and how much to keep out so it can be revealed later. Uni has also been kicking my butt, so chapters might be slow to come out in the future.

I hope you like meeting our Bella!

BPOV

One month earlier

"Sign here, here and here," Jess pointed out as she flipped through the contract. She offered me her pen and slid the stack of paper towards me across the counter.

I took a deep breath before I turned to the first page marked with a yellow tag. My brother patted me on the back, letting me know he was there to support me. Signing the last page provided an odd sense of grief, relief and finality. It had taken nearly six months to sell the house, which Jess had been reminding me for weeks was normal for small towns like Forks.

"Congratulations!" Jess clapped as I passed the contract back across the counter-top. "You must be very excited. I know I always get excited when a house sells." Her big smile added to her bubbly enthusiasm.

Emmett coughed lightly besides me, obviously trying to signal to Jess to tone it down. I couldn't find the same joy in this situation that she could, and no amount of money was going to make me happy about it either. I was trying not to let my annoyance at her show. She'd always been a little clueless when it came to other people's feelings. It was understandable in highschool, most teenagers are self-absorbed and clueless, but as an adult it was just irritating.

"I would have preferred to still have a fiance, but I guess the money does help," I said with only a small amount of snide sarcasm.

The smile fell from Jess's face quickly. "Oh god, I'm so sorry. Of course this must be so hard. It's nearly a year, right?"

"Yeah," was all I could say. Coming back to Forks always seemed to result in someone reminding me how long it's been since the worst time in my life. It's one of the reasons why I'd moved up out to Seattle and stayed with Emmett and Rose. In a small town everyone knew your business, but you can be anonymous in a big city.

"Do you think we could take a few minutes to ourselves, Jess," my brother asked. Emmett had been watching me carefully, a habit he had had since we were kids that he'd picked back up since I'd been staying with them.

"Sure! I'll wait just outside," Jess jumped up, leaving us standing alone in the kitchen.

It felt wrong to be here when the house was empty, and it felt even more wrong to sell a house that technically wasn't mine to begin with.

Jake had bought this house knowing that we would live here, even before we reconnected. He always said we would get married and live happily ever after. From the age of fourteen he would tell me we would get married one day. It had taken me a good while longer to think that too.

Jacob Black was the son of my dad's best friend, Billy, and he and his family had lived on the LaPush reservation for generations. We had been forced to play with each other whenever our dads went fishing, hung out to watch a game or eat. Jake's older twin sisters were the same age as Emmett, so they prefered to follow him around instead of play with me, which left Jake and I to fend for ourselves. He was always happy to find something to do with me, whether it was making mud pies and playing 'bakery' or searching through tide pools down at First Beach.

As we got older we found each other's company soothing. Jake was like a warm ray of sun and I would be happy to sit out in their garage and read while he tinkered on some project. He was definitely quieter than hanging out in the Blacks small house with Dad and Billy yelling at the TV.

He was one of my best friends, so when his feelings changed it had been hard to keep rejecting him. There was a thirteen month age gap between us and while that hadn't mattered as friends, it was a huge difference for teenagers in a romantic relationship. Luckily we went to different schools, so it wasn't a constant issue.

When I graduated highschool, he had told me that one day I would come back and see him differently, and that he would be waiting for that day. He was right.

I had moved to Seattle to go to the University of Washington, where I studied to be a English teacher. I didn't go home too often, and when I did it was mostly for holidays, so I didn't get to see much of Jacob.

Emmett offered me the spare room in his apartment over the summer so I could find a job in the city. I started dating Jasper in sophomore year, and while our romantic relationship didn't last long, our friendship remained and we moved off campus to share an apartment where we lived throughout the rest of college. When I graduated I got a job at a city school pretty quickly, which meant I wasn't one of the many people who had to move back in with their parents after college.

It wasn't until Dad had been in an accident, and needed someone at home to care for him, that I returned to Forks. He had been shot twice in the leg while answering a call about a disturbance at a local camping ground when a man living out of a van threatened a couple staying in an R.V. It wasn't too serious, thankfully, but he needed someone at home to take care of him and make sure he ate more than just ordered pizza and food from the Diner. Emmett and Rose couldn't both leave their jobs, and when Forks High offered me a place taking over for a teacher on maternity leave, it seemed like a perfect solution for me to go.

I had been home all of three weeks before Jake asked me out again, and this time I didn't want to say no. He had changed over the years I'd been gone. Jake had always been tall, even towering over Emmett by the time he was sixteen. He had started a mechanic shop with a few of his friends from the Rez, and that had helped him fill out in very satisfying ways. The russet skin made his muscles look like chewy caramels, and I found myself wanting to bite them. His hair, which he had always worn long, had been cut short so that it didn't get in the way while he was working on cars. He had gone from being a cute kid to being a smoking hot man.

It hadn't taken too long for us to go from first date to living in each other's pockets. Most of the people I was close with in Forks had moved away, so we spent almost all our time outside of work together. Once Dad had recovered and was able to look after himself again, I ended up moving into this house with Jake. An unplanned pregnancy might have also had something to do with the speed in which our relationship moved.

When I found out I was pregnant after only four months of dating, Jake had been ecstatic. He had always known we would end up together, so a baby was proof that he was right afterall. Once Dad was recovered, I moved my stuff into Jake's house and we started putting our future together. He let me decorate the house however I wanted, and thought it hilarious whenever I brought home a new throw pillow or kitchen gadget. Dad said I was nesting, but I wasn't the only one. When we found out we were going to have a boy Jake splurged on a cute, but ridiculous baby motorbike outfit, as well as countless toy cars, trucks and bikes.

He had known all along that this would be our future. I just wish he'd been able to see everything that would happen. He had always said we would survive anything. We were strong, and happy and in love. You hear stories about how losing a child can destroy people's relationships, but I'd honestly thought Jacob and I were stronger than that.

Even with everything that had happened since, losing my son had been the worst thing that would ever happen to me. It had happened so suddenly I couldn't wrap my head around it for a long time. The doctors told me I'd had what's called a spontaneous abortion. Deep down I knew it had been something wrong with my body, not his. He had been perfectly healthy for seven and a half months, but all of a sudden my body turned on him. It had felt like he was being torn from inside me for no reason at all.

I had blamed myself and his loss caused me to fall into a deep depression. I could barely move for weeks, then walked around in a fog for months. Rationally you know that these things do happen, and they're usually no ones fault, but all I could feel was failure. I felt like a failure as a woman. I had failed my son. I had failed Jacob. My depression, or more accurately my self-blame, caused a massive hit to our relationship. Jake was grieving as well, but wanted us to grieve together and couldn't understand why I wouldn't let him in. He didn't see what happened as my fault, and the more he protested my belief the more I pushed him away.

I was finally making progress after I started attending a grief counselling group. Their motto was "A burden shared is a burden halved". Sharing my burden with strangers, opening up to them, allowed me to deconstruct those barriers I had built between Jacob and I. We were able to talk, really talk again. We made small steps towards closure, and I could see a future where we were whole and happy once more. That all disappeared when my life was turned upside down for a second time.

I shook off my painful thoughts as I did a small lap around the kitchen, opening cupboards to check if anything had been forgotten. I moved through the living room and I stopped at the hall, contemplating going down to check the bedrooms but I couldn't do it. I didn't think I could see my son's nursery empty of any trace of him. Not that he ever got to use it. Instead I turned back to my brother and gave him a weak smile.

"You ready?" he asked, and when I nodded he walked towards the front door and held it open for me.

Jess was waiting by her car scrolling through her phone, looking up as we came towards her.

"All done?" The smile was back on her face as she fell back into her professional persona.

"As I'll ever be," I said as I stopped before her. Emmett continued over to his truck and jumped in.

"I'm glad I could help you with this, Bella," Jess said as she pulled me in for a quick hug. "I've definitely enjoyed having a local listing. Sometimes I have to drive all over the county to show places. I love working from home cause I get to spend more time with the kids, but sometimes I wish the main office wasn't all the way in Port Angeles."

I stifled the giggle that threatened to escape at one of Jess's signature lines. Angela, our best friend from high school, and I found the amount of ways Jess could bring up the fact that she worked from home but had an office space in Port Angeles into conversation very funny. She had married her high school sweetheart, Mike, not long after graduating. He had taken over managing his parents sporting goods store and Jess had become a real estate agent. They were both extremely happy, so this became one of the few things Jess truely complained about

"Thanks for everything, Jess." I gave her hand one last squeeze before walking over to Emmetts truck and hauling myself up into it.

Emmett was just hanging up his phone as I shut the door. "Rose got called in to cover someone who's sick tonight, so she and Jasper have already taken the U-haul back to our place," he told me.

"Okay," I nodded. "Do you want to head back too, or did you want to stay another night and head back tomorrow?"

We had all come down to pack up the last of my furniture that had been used to stage the house for inspections. I also had the last few boxes of stuff I had stored at Dad's house, so it made sense for us to rent a small U-haul and get everything at the same time as signing the sale contract. I was finally moving into my own apartment in the city after months of staying in my friends and brothers spare rooms.

Emmett hummed to himself in thought, his hands tapping a random rhythm on the steering wheel. He maneuvered along the familiar streets back to our childhood home with an ease I envied. My brother had always been a relaxed and happy guy. It was one of the many reasons I loved him so much. Whenever I needed cheering up, I knew Emmett could do it.

"I think it would be good to head back today, if you're up to it?" He asked, concern creasing his forehead.

Long car rides weren't something I found easy, especially once it started to get dark. I knew Emmett didn't like to be so far from Rosalie since they found out she was pregnant, so I appreciated him giving me the option. But he had already done so much for me, coming all the way out to Forks on his weekend, so I would do anything I could to make his life easier at this moment.

"I'll be fine," I said, though the look he shot me said he didn't truly believe me. "I promise," I tried to reassure him.

The tight grip on my heart eased slightly the further we got from Jakes house. It was hard coming back to Forks after the months I'd been away, but the house was somewhere I had avoided for nearly a year. As much as I missed my dad, I would be glad not to return for a while.

Emmett turned into the driveway of the house we grew up in, jumping out of the truck and bounding up to the front door. He was most likely heading for the kitchen, as he had an uncanny knack of eating anything and everything. I couldn't help but chuckle as I followed him, closing the front door behind me.

"Hey!" Emmett called out to our father as he passed by the lounge room. The sounds of the fridge opening and the contents rattling as he searched through it gave me flashbacks to coming home from school as teenagers.

My father looked up at me as I came into the lounge room and sat on the end of the sofa closest to the recliner that had always been his spot.

"How did it go?" He asked, his face showing both concern and curiosity. He wasn't usually a person who pried, but sometimes his nature as a cop took over and the need to investigate emerged.

"It was fine," was all I could manage. Like him, I wasn't much of a talker. Between dad and I, Emmett had always been the odd one out when it came to verboseness. "Jess said it would all be finalised once she'd processed the paperwork."

"Alright," he said, shifting his gaze back to the game he was watching.

Emmett flopped down on the other end of the sofa, inhaling a massive sandwich in a way that made me wonder if he was even chewing.

"We're going to head out soon," he said to Dad around another bite. "Hopefully we'll be home by dinner." Emmett shoved the last of the sandwich into his mouth and dusted crumbed off his hands. Dad and I both rolled our eyes at him, trying to keep our grins under control.

"Have you got everything now?" Dad asked, turning back to me.

"I'm pretty sure," I answered. "We got all the furniture left at the house, and the boxes that were in my room and the garage so you should be able to fit your boat back in there." Dad's boat had been down at Billy's house for the last couple months to make room for the stuff that Jess didn't need to style the house.

"Good good," Dad said. He once again turned back to the game, signalling the end of his questioning.

Around fifteen minutes later Emmett interrupted the quiet family moment with a clap. "You want to get everything you need together so we can hit the road, Bells?"

"Sure," I said as he jumped up and made his way upstairs to the bathroom we'd shared growing up. I went to the kitchen and refilled my metal water bottle that had been left by the sink earlier today. I gathered the last few things Dad's girlfriend, Sue, had left out for me to take and put them by my bag at the front door. She left a small box of kitchen stuff with a note on it to say I could help myself before she'd left for work this morning, and it had somehow not made it into the U-haul before Jasper and Rose left.

Once Emmett was done I ran upstairs to use the facilities myself. It was over a three hour drive back to Seattle, and I doubt we would be stopping for anything more than gas along the way. Hugging Dad goodbye was always bittersweet. I wish that I felt more comfortable coming back for visits these days, but he understood that Forks now held a lot of hurtful memories and would never hold my lack of visiting against me.

"I'll see you around, kid," he said as he gave me a firm but quick hug, patting my back. "I'll try to make it out there around your birthday. Maybe all of us could go out to dinner to celebrate?" Even though he had never been overly demonstrative with his love, his actions always showed the depth of his caring.

"Sounds good," I said, giving him one last squeeze before climbing into Emmett's truck.

Dad gave Emmett an equally quick hug, but the pats he gave him on the back were more of that mucho sort of back slap guys always do.

"Drive safe, kids," he called as Emmett began reversing back onto the street. With two short beeps and few waves, we were back on our way back to the city and the new life I was building for myself.

Being in the car with my brother had always been easy. He was happy to cruise along, singing along to any song he knew on the radio. It always amazed me that he seemed to know all the words to any song that came on. He said it was because he spent so many hours in a patrol car, and it was the only way to stay sane.

Emmett had followed our fathers footsteps and become a police officer. Dad had tried to convince him to go back to Forks and join the local department with him, but after Emmett met Rose Dad knew that that probably wasn't in the cards. Rose is a midwife at the Harbourview Hospital in the city, and with Emmett now on the detective track Seattle was where they planned to settle.

Now that I was moving back to Seattle, I felt bad that we didn't see Dad more. It wasn't that he was lonely. He had Sue, and he'd been so much happier since they started dating a few years ago. He was definitely a lot happier since she moved in last year after I went back to the city. There were also Sue's two kids, Leah and Seth. Leah is the same age as Emmett and is now a marine, currently stationed in Georgia. Seth is a few years younger than me, and lives in his old family home on the Rez, working in the garage Jacob started with his friends.

We hadn't been on the road for fifteen minutes when I noticed we had just passed the turn off the Shuwah.. My heart rate picked up and I tried to keep my breathing even. The Olympic Highway was fairly straight, for the most part, but there were sections where there were some pretty blind turns obscured by trees. Add on the near constant rain and it was a recipe for some pretty horrible car crashes.

I could feel my body begin to tingle as we rounded a particular corner that had very low visibility. My ears began to ring, and I squeezed my eyes shut as tightly as I could. I kept telling myself that I just had to get through this stretch of road and I'd be fine.

"Breath, Bella," Emmett's voice cut through the ringing. "It's ok, just breath." The music had been turned down, which made me feel a lot better. Even though my brother was a great driver, I didn't want him to have any distractions right now.

It had nearly been a year and I still found it hard to come along this road. Hell, I still hadn't been able to drive a car! I hated that my family and friends had to drive me everywhere, but the thought of getting behind the wheel gave me an anxiety attack. It was one of the many reasons I had made the decision to come back to Seattle, as cities had a lot more public transport which gave me more freedoms.

I had been driving us back from one of the grief counselling sessions. It was a chance for everyone in the group to bring someone who shared in their grief and talk about their losses together. It wasn't the first session Jake had come with me to, but it was definitely the first time we left with a lightness we hadn't felt in a long time. Being June, the sun was only just starting to set at 7:30 as we made our way home, but being the Pacific Northwest it had also been raining. As we came around one of the bends, only twenty minutes from home, a truck that was taking the curve too quickly forced us off the road, catching the end of our car as it sped past onwards.

It all happened so fast it's hard to recall the actual order of events. Our tires slid across the rain slicked blacktop, careening in a wide arch first one way and then the other as I over corrected. Next, the car began to tip onto two wheels as it reached the dip at the edge of the road. The car rolled, until it came to a sudden and violent stop against the trees that lined the highway. I vaguely remember heavy breathing in an eerie silence, only accompanied by the ticking of the dead engine, before I slipped into welcome blackness.

*This chapter has been updated after doing more research on loosing a baby late term.*

All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer