It's been a slow building story so far; I didn't want to rush Bella straight into something she wasn't ready for. But from here on out, things are getting exciting. Let me know if I'm picking the pace up too quickly? Too much, too fast at this point would ruin the atmosphere I've been trying to build up.

Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I own twitchy fingers that enjoy writing for no profit.

Chapter 19: Dates and Death

The staff at the clinic woke me every hour and re-checked my vitals, with me getting crankier and crankier every time. I'm not sure when he arrived, but the first time they shook me awake, Charlie was sitting next to my bed.

"Dad?" I was feeling very groggy, and most of me wanted to just go straight back to sleep, but a small part of me knew I needed to reassure him that I was ok. I looked at him around the nurse who was taking my blood pressure. "Guess I need to work on actually steering the bike next time, huh?" I joked feebly.

"Next time?" Charlie asked with a mixture of amusement and anger on his face. "I'm tempted to tell you that the bike can just rust away where it fell, and you're already talking about next time?" I was fighting against my eyes closing once again.

"Too tired to fight right now." I told him. "Later." I drifted back off

"Sure, kid. Later it is." I heard him reply as sleep pulled me under once more. Th next time I was woken Jake had replaced Charlie by my bed, and he was glaring daggers at someone by the door. I painfully turned my head to see who was there, and was unsurprised to find it was Sam, leaning casually against the wall and completely ignoring the daggers Jake was sending his way with his eyes. I turned my head slowly back, wincing as the nurse shone her little flashlight into each eye in turn.

"Jake." I called, dragging his attention away from Sam. "Is my bike ok?" He rolled his eyes.

"I don't know, Bells, I was kinda more concerned about you and the dent you made in your head than the bike." Sam snorted from his place by the door, and Jake continued. "You should've seen yourself. Your eyes were all wonky and you were talking complete shit." He grinned a little. "If that's how you are when you're concussed, I shudder to think what you might be like drunk." I opened my mouth to protest, but the nurse interrupted me.

"She needs her rest, boys. Best to let her sleep now. We're going to have to keep waking her every hour as it is." Sam pushed himself off the wall and walked over to my bed.

"I'm glad to see you're doing a little better. You get some rest and I'll come see you tomorrow, if that's ok?" I nodded at him sleepily and he left, leaving Jake to say his own goodbye.

"Looks like you'll be out of here by the afternoon if you get the all clear from the doc in the morning." He told me. "Charlie's gonna stay with you tonight - he's switched shifts with one of his deputies and is planning on working tomorrow instead - so I guess I'll head home now. I'm taking your truck, and I'll bring it back tomorrow afternoon, to pick you up and bring you home, ok?" I was already falling back asleep, and mumbled a barely audible

"Ok" back. I was just aware of him leaving the room, and Charlie coming back in before I was gone again. At each awakening during the night, Charlie was right there, in the uncomfortable looking plastic chair by my bed. One time, he was sleeping, his head resting against my feet, but every other time, he was watching over me, anxiously looking to the nurse to confirm that I was ok for another hour.

It was an incredibly long and frustrating night. Every single hour, on the hour, I was woken by a nurse, asked stupid questions about the date, my name, and where I was - questions which I was positive that even a person who'd had no head injury at all would struggle to answer sensibly after being deprived of sleep so efficiently - was poked and prodded, and had a light shone in my eyes, and then, just when I'd settled back down to sleep, the whole process would repeat again. By the time the doctor came around at nine the next morning, I was a cranky, frustrated, bewildered mess. Poor Charlie wasn't much better, and, as he had to go into the station to work that afternoon, I had urged him to go home and get a few hours sleep before he had to start his shift. The doctor had declared me out of any danger of slipping into a coma in my sleep, and confirmed that I could be discharged that afternoon, so, once Charlie had headed off to get some sleep, I lay back down to do the same, finally, blissfully undisturbed.

The dream felt like it began instantly. Like it had been pressing to jump forward all night, unable to actually flower in my brain due to my constant waking. Now I was soundly asleep, it roared into the forefront, shouting for my attention.

Taha Aki actually appeared relieved an impatient when the scene started. For the first time, he grabbed my upper arm and turned me towards what he wanted to see.

"Watch." It was his usual, stunningly witty turn of phrase, but more demanding, urgent even.

"Okay, okay, I'm watching" I grumbled, still, even now I was actually asleep, grumpy from my disturbed night. As I watched, Victoria attacked the village, just like she always did, only this time I was watching the beginning of the attack, as she raced into the village, speeding between the buildings so fast that I barely caught sight of her at all, sometimes only seeing her blaze of red hair flying behind her. No matter how fast she moved, amidst the screams and death, that fiery red would always catch my eye, like she was carrying a flaming torch everywhere she went. Nothing more happened in my dream this time. I didn't have to once again witness me/not me either stab myself in the heart or slash at my own chest. I didn't watch Taha Aki turn into a wolf and attack Victoria, it was just a constant loop of flashes of flame red hair flitting from place to place in the village, leaving a trail of death and destruction in her wake.

After what seemed like hours of the same horror, Taha Aki finally relented, letting go of my arm, and turning to me with a more gentle expression.

"Rest now." He told me as the background faded away into black nothingness, and I accepted the command gratefully, feeling the alertness I usually felt in those dreams fading along with the background. Withe the last of my awareness before I drifted into more mundane, restful sleep, a thought popped into my mind. "When exactly did I start thinking of Taha Aki as a separate entity, and not just another character my subconscious mind created to get the message across to my conscious mind?" It was too late to contemplate it; my mind slipped away, and real sleep flowed over me like an avalanche.

I was woken at about one by Sam coming in with my lunch.

"Hey there, Bella. How're you doing now?" He asked, setting the tray down on the little hospital table by my bed. "I just intercepted the nurse bringing this in for you."

"A little better, just tired." I sat up, blearily wiping the hair back from my face with an internal grimace "Awesome. I'm sure I look just great right now." As the smell of the food reached me, my stomach began making alarmingly loud noises, unsurprisingly, I guessed, bearing in mind I'd not eaten anything since breakfast the day before. As I blushed he chuckled.

"Well that answers my next question; I was going to ask if you were hungry." My blush grew deeper.

"Well I guess I could manage something." I tried for a casual tone and failed. He pushed the little table over my bed, and I tucked a pillow behind me to stop myself from falling backwards. I started tucking into my lunch, not even the fact that it was standard revolting hospital fare putting a dent in my appetite.

"So," he began, sitting on the end of my bed, "you were saying some... Interesting stuff yesterday. Can you remember any of it?" I paused in my chewing to cast my mind back, starting from when my bike skidded out from under me. The memories were hazy; something about the trees being on fire tickled in my brain, reminding me also of the dream scene I'd just had. Mentally shrugging off that thought, putting a pin in it for later. "What else did I say?" I wondered. "I remember something about Sam's face and his mouth being pretty. Oh shit. And his body being all muscly and his abs being used as a cheese grater. Please, please, PLEASE let me have not said anything about that." Even the thought of it had me blushing again. I looked up at him cautiously, and his smirk killed any tiny hope I might've had that my big fat, stupid mouth hadn't blabbed everything I had thought while concussed.

"Oh shit." I hung my head in defeat. "Can I plead temporary insanity? You can't hold what a girl says when her brain's all jellied against her, right?" He laughed out loud, throwing his head back, once again making me think "beautiful"

"I guess if you put it like that I'll have to cut you some slack this time." He said to my relief, "though that'll make three you owe me" he added, and I swallowed, wondering just when he was planning on collecting these I.O.U.s and what exactly I was going to have to do to pay him back. A few helpful suggestions in the form of snapshots from my steamy dream scene flashed through my head, and I sternly forced them back. "Not like he'd be interested" I reminded myself. I hoped he'd assume the extra blush that came to my face right then was just due to me remembering the things I'd said the previous day.

"There was something else you said though, that I'm curious about." He went on, leaning forward a little. I was filled with dread. "Oh shit. What else did I say? Did I proposition him or something? Tell him that he fucks me roughly from behind every night in my dreams? What?" I was scanning through what I might've said in panic.

"Y-yes? What was that then?" I asked, getting ready to fall into a terminal shame spiral.

"You talked about someone called Taha Aki. I was wondering where you'd heard the name?" Relief flooded my body. "Oh is that all? Jeeze. I'm glad I didn't try to guess out loud what I'd said, or I'd be busy sinking through the floor right about now!" I laughed a little shrilly in my relief and said

"Oh that? It just a name I think I probably read in a book. I had this dream where he was talking to me." I told him, avoiding the fact that it want just one dream, one time, but was every night, and and that I was beginning to get the feeling he wasn't just a product of my subconscious mind. He looked troubled. He seemed to mumble something like

"Well that's not possible" under his breath, but it was so quiet I couldn't be sure, so I let it go. He cleared his throat and looked out the window.

"I hear Jake's coming by to pick you up once he's out of school." He said. "Ae you going to stop and pick up your bike on the way home, or did you need me to go do it?"

"No that's fine, thanks." I said, picking up my fork again. "We'll do it in the way." It was a kind offer, but I didn't want to owe him anymore; he'd already done so much to help me.

"Ok then. There's just the issue of these favour you owe me then." He said with a little smirk. "I'd like to cash one of those in now, if I could." I grew a little concerned. I'd known the I.O.U.s would've come back to bite me in the ass, I just hadn't thought it'd happen so quick.

"Oookaaay" I said guardedly, dragging the word out a little. "So what exactly is it you want?"

"A date." He said without hesitation. I was confused. Thinking I'd mis-heard him, I double checked.

"A date?" I asked. "Like a dinner and movie, going out together, picking me up from my house kind of date?"

"No, a fruit from a palm tree." He rolled his eyes with a grin. "Of course a going out together kind of date. So what do you say? Wednesday night? I know it's a school night, but they're showing a few old classics at the movie theatre in Port Angeles Wednesday night. We won't be late, I promise." My confusion grew. "What the hell would he want to go on a date with me for?" I wondered. My mouth must've been hanging open in my shock, as he reached out and gently pushed it closed with a couple of fingers.

"I ... Um ... So ..." I was completely at a loss for words. His face grew worried.

"It's ok, Bella. If you're really not interested, that's fine. We'll just forget I said anything about it." He said in a rush, standing up and turning towards the door.

"NO!" I almost yelled at the look of shock on his face, I lowered my voice. "I mean no, it's fine. Wednesday's fine. If you'd like. Um ... What time?" He looked almost as relieved as I must've done when I discovered I hadn't propositioned him in my confused, concussed state.

"Four thirty sound ok?" He asked. "We can eat after the movie and I can have you back home by ten thirty or eleven at the latest."

"O-ok" I stammered. "Four thirty on Wednesday then." He grinned at me.

"Good." He turned for the door once again. "I'd better be going. I've got several jobs on at the moment, so I should get back to them or I'll never get paid." His hand was on the door knob, just beginning to turn it when he seemed to think of something. He quickly strode back over to me and bent down, his face coming level to mine. For a moment I thought he was just going to whisper something to me, but instead he placed a warm, gentle kiss on my cheek, lingering for just a few seconds before pulling back with a small smile.

"Til Wednesday. Bye Bella." He said in a low voice, and I couldn't do anything but nod dumbly back, my voice had taken a vacation without warning. He walked back to the door and this time left through it, leaving me sitting dumbfounded on the bed, one hand loosely holding the fork, which was dripping pasta sauce on the bed, while the other and had raised by itself to press against my cheek, where the feel of his kiss still lingered, a pleasant sort of tingling on the skin.

By the time Jake arrived to pick me up I'd managed to collect my wits which had apparently dribbled out of my ears while Sam was visiting and I was dressed and ready to leave the moment he came in.

"Someone's eager to get out of here." He joked and I gave him a tight, weary smile.

"Yeah, well you'd be pretty eager to get out of somewhere that inflicted sleep deprivation torture on you too." I told him, pulling him along behind me towards the exit - or trying to, he was just far too big for me to actually manage to shift him. I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally hit open air; I'd been more than half afraid the doctor would suddenly change his mind and insist on keeping me in for another night. A walked over to my truck, and Jake handed me the keys, walking around to the passenger side. As we pulled away, him giving me directions to take us back to the loggers trail I asked him

"Did Charlie give you any grief about my accident?" He grimaced a little.

"He was starting to, but Sam interrupted him and told him exactly what had happened. Apparently he'd seen the whole thing. He made it clear it was neither of our faults, so I'm not in trouble, and I'm pretty sure Charlie will give in and let you ride your bike again, though I'm almost positive he'll make you wear a helmet from now on." He told me. "Actually, it's something I should've thought of yesterday."

"Ok. So neither of us is in trouble, and I can probably still ride my bike. So why the grimace?" I asked him.

"Why did it have to be Sam that fixed it all for us?" He asked bitterly. "I hate the thought that I owe that dick anything. And, while I'm thinking about it, why was he there anyway. He saw the whole thing, but what was he doing there so that he could see it? Stalk me much?" He said, scowling out the window as we drove along. "Whenever I see him, I catch him looking at me. It's weird. No. It's more than weird. It's fucking creepy. He looks at me like he's expecting me to do something any minute. I wish I knew what. I'd do it straight away just to get him to leave me the fuck alone." I didn't know quite how to respond to this little rant of his. I had a feeling that now wasn't the most opportune moment to mention the date I'd agreed to go on with Sam, so I kept it to myself. The whole date thing might go really badly and never be repeated. No need to get Jake all wound up over a possible nothing. I'd tell him after the date, if it looked like there might be a second one.

We turned up the loggers trail and I drove on past where I'd parked the day before, bumping along the track until we got to the turn I'd failed to make on my bike. There it lay in the mud, still where it had fallen, a trench dug into the ground, made by the handlebars as it had skidded along. And there, about five feet away was the large tree stump where I'd hit my head. I stopped the truck, climbing out and walking over to my bike. Jake followed, bending to haul it up out if the mud for me. He put it on it's stand.

"I'll just go pull the tarp back so we can load the bike onto the truck" he told me, squeezing my shoulder gently as he walked by me. I just nodded and stared into the forest, trying to itch the scratch that had just started in the back of my mind. Something was sitting right there in my mind, just begging to come forward, but here, in the freezing drizzle, standing in the middle of a muddy track by the forest wasn't the time to try and pry it out. I went to grab the bike by the handlebars, intending to push it over towards the truck, when something caught my eye. A piece of pink paper, damp from the usual rainy weather, was wedged, tightly folded, under the worn, cracked leather of the bike seat. I pried it out, curious. Opening it up, I caught my name written in neat but flowery writing at the top. It was a letter. For me.

"Dearest Bella," it read.

"You can hide in your dogs' kennel as much as you want, but it will only delay the inevitable. I've been patient, but now I'm going to have to press the issue. What you took from me can never be replaced, but then that's not why I'm here, is it?

A mate for a mate, that's how it goes. Yours killed mine, now I'm going to return the favour. You should know, I'm not at all fussy about who else gets taken out in the process. That father of yours seems like such a good man. It'd be a shame to deprive the town of such an upstanding member of their community, wouldn't it? A dutiful daughter would see to it that he was kept out of danger.

It's time to face facts, dearest Bella. You're a danger to everyone around you, because I'll keep coming, over and over until I get what I want. No guard dogs can hold me off forever.

I've never really been one for melodrama, but on this occasion the turn of phrase is so deliciously apt, I can't resist.

'I'll get you, my pretty. And your little dogs too'

Victoria"

I was a statue. Every muscle locked in place, my brain wildly casting about, searching for what to do.

Nothing.

I had nothing.

My head felt empty, like a harsh wind had howled through, scouring all thought away with it.

The pink paper was crumpled in my fist. I was dimly aware of Jake wheeling my bike back to the truck, and still I stood there, frozen.

Some distant part of me noted his return, him grabbing my shoulder, calling me, yelling for my attention, and still I stood there, frozen.

I felt myself lifted up, carried to the truck, placed inside, but I couldn't kick start my brain to do more than absently note these facts.

Slowly, painfully slowly, a tiny part of awareness seeped back in to register Jake's panicked voice.

"Shit, fuck, what should I do? Bella please. What do I need to do? Should I take you back to the clinic?" Somehow my head managed to shake no.

"Should I take you home?" My head, once again acting on it's own nodded and, seemingly relieved at getting some response and some form of direction, Jake turned the truck around on the trail and tore out of there.

Without knowing how, still trapped in my frozen body and mind, I found myself being carried inside my house and placed on the couch. The door to the room holding my pit was rattling on it hinges, flying open, the pit was screaming my name, at he same time both terrifying and comforting to me. With the last of my awareness I noted Jake again yelling for my attention.

"Should I call Charlie? Bella? BELLA? What should I do? I'm gonna call Charlie."

Charlie.

Charlie.

I had to keep him safe. Letting my pit swallow me again would kill him in two ways. First emotionally, then physically, when Victoria came. Like a rope thrown for a drowning person, I grabbed hold of his name, and pulled myself away from the pit, out of the room, slamming the door shut behind me. I had promised. I had promised him I wouldn't do this again. I wouldn't, I couldn't let his last memories of me be poisoned by seeing me back in a zombie state. A the door slammed behind me, I forced my body to move. I reached out and grabbed Jake's wrist before he could pick up the phone.

"No, Jake. Don't call him." My voice sounded weird to me; calm and quiet, no sign of the total meltdown currently going on inside. "It was just the exhaustion from yesterday and last night catching up with me. All he'd do is worry, and there's no need for that when a little more sleep will fix it."

"I don't know, Bells. You sure?" He didn't sound convinced. "That was fucking scary. It was like before, you know, you were just ... gone."

I had to up my game, convince him. I forced a wan smile on my face, sent the necessary signals to make my frozen hand lift and drag through my hair, then rub across my face in a tired gesture.

"Yeah, I'm sure, Jake. It's nothing that sleep won't fix. Why bother him when all he'd be able to do is sit and watch me dream?" His face grew a little more relaxed.

"So do you need me to help you to your room?" He asked, and I shook my head.

"No. Thanks, Jake, but I'm gonna grab myself a shower, then head straight to bed. I'm sorry I freaked you out." He gave me a small smile.

"So you should be, Bells. Don't pull that shit on me again. I just about crapped my pants when I couldn't get a response out of you." He headed to the door. You mind if I ride your bike back to the Rez? It needs a quick going over anyway in the workshop, to make sure it's not damaged from your fall." I shook my head once again and he gave me a quick grin.

"Cool." He said "I'll give you a call tomorrow to see how you're doing. Think you'll go to school?" I shrugged. I was reaching the last of my reserves and I needed him out of there before I broke completely.

"Ok. Well I'll call you anyway, like I said. Get some sleep, Bella. You look dead on your feet." He left, closing the door quietly behind him. " I am dead. And there's nothing I, or anyone else can do about it." I thought. I sank to my knees, the crumpled pink paper I'd been holding in my fist falling to the floor. My eyes, staring at the screwed up ball, filled with tear, blurring everything into unrecognisable watery shapes. I was dead. My body just hadn't accepted the inevitable yet. She was coming, and I was dead.