Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s never easy to watch a friend go through a depressive episode, and for Jacob Black, it’s no different. He’s not blind, and although he might not have learned the terminology until recently, he’s known Bella was in a downward spiral for a while now. It’s nice to have her as a friend, but not when she’s just using their friendship to hurt herself.

At least, that’s how it was in the beginning. Now though, now it feels like it might just be real.

Which is why this whole thing sucks even more.

Jacob hasn’t seen Bella in over two weeks now. The wolves of the Quileute tribe kept him away from the world during his…transition. It wasn’t pleasant, and he spent many nights unable to sleep while writhing in pain as his bones resettled, and he’s not quite sure it was worth it.

He discovered the secret his tribe had been keeping, the truth behind the stories the elders tell, but at what cost?

He runs his hand through his newly shortened hair in an attempt to steal his nerves. It’s strange, not having it fall around his shoulders or have to be pulled back, but not bad.

His fist connects loudly with the front door of the white single-family home. Loudly to him, at least. He steps back to stand awkwardly on the porch.

At least he knows it’s not a mistake when Bella opens the door and wraps him in a hug. How could it be when she’d seen him through the glass panel?

The arms around him loosen and Bella leans back to look at his face. “Jake. You’re here! Holy shit, we’ve been so worried!”

Now, he notices Charlie, brow furrowed in concern, leaning against the doorframe. “Language, Bella. But she’s right, kid. Where have you been? And what in tarnation did you do to your hair?”

Jacob can’t help it. He laughs. Of all the things that have gone wrong in the past few months, what concerns Charlie the most is his hair? Gods, if only that were the most of his problems.

Eventually the Swans get Jacob inside the house. He’s in the living room, sitting on the floral overstuffed couch. Bella’s on his left, hands holding a glass of water—his is on the coffee table—and Charlie is across from him in the armchair by the fireplace.

He’d talked to Sam about this before he left, how much he could and could not tell. They’d agreed that Bella would be allowed to know, as she already knows too much, but Charlie had been another matter. Bella never told him about the vampires, but he probably figured out that something was wrong with them before they’d left.

In the end they’d decided that Billy should be the one to tell him.

“I’m sorry I disappeared on you there, Hell’s Bells. It’s been a…strange few weeks.” He runs his fingers through his hair again. Man, he’s never going to get used to this.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Yeah, I owe you guys an explanation.”

Charlie says nothing through his vague retelling of events, and Bella as well is silent, but both of them listen and that’s all he can ask for.

He tells them about there being issues with the Tribe, but he describes it more as a coming-of-age ceremony than what it really was. It’s the best cover story any of the Pack could come up with to explain away the tattoo, the disappearance, and the haircut.

When he’s done Bella asks a question: “Why now? And why didn’t they tell you about this before?”

Jacob ducks his head in mock embarrassment. This would work so much better if he still had his long hair. “It’s a bit…personal.”

At that Charlie begins to smile, and it gets even wider when Jacob returns it.

The awkwardness can’t last forever, and once Charlie cracks a truly awful joke that has Bella groaning and Jacob snickering things seem to settle into normal.

As Jacob makes his way out the door, having secured plans to meet up with Bella on Sunday tomorrow, he tells Charlie “My dad told me to tell you he wants to go on a fishing trip soon.”

“Sure thing, kid. Have him give me a call.”

He has a smile on his face the whole way back to the reservation.

Chapter Text

The next day they decide to go on a hike. They pick one of the trails that starts in the forest and dumps them on the beach in La Push and pack enough food to have a small picnic.

The conversation starts out easily enough as Bella fills him in on what she was doing while he was busy. There’s a notable difference in the way she moves, the way she talks, even in comparison to just a few months ago. She’s gained back a little of the weight she lost in the fall, and she’s able to move without stumbling as much. There’s more intention to the way her feet meet the forest floor now, and her voice, although not as loud as it once was, is stronger now.

It’s after a lapse of silence that Jacob decides to explain. They’re stopped in a clearing, the birds just returning from their flight down south chirping in the early spring air.

“Bella, I wasn’t completely honest with you yesterday.”

“Yeah, I figured. You didn’t disappear because of ‘issues with the tribe’ did you?”

“No, that part was true. You might want to sit down, this could take a while to explain.”

“Alright.” Bella finds a seat on the forest floor and Jacob starts talking.

“Do you remember when I first told you about the Cullens? About them being the Cold Ones?” Bella nods and he continues. “Do you remember the part about the Tribe being the descendants of—“

“Oh fuck, you guys are werewolves aren’t you?”

“What.”

“That whole thing. All of that story was true. Edward is a vampire and you’re a werewolf. What the fuck is my life.”

“That was a rhetorical question so I’m not going to answer it. And technically we’re called shifters.”

“What?”

“We’re shifters. We aren’t controlled by the moon, we still have complete control over ourselves, and we don’t turn into…those things.” Jacob shudders. Paul had shown him a picture of them once and it was not a pretty sight.

“So what do you ‘shift’ into?” Bella uses finger quotes and Jacob feels the strange urge to laugh. This is not going how he thought it would. For one, he’s not having to explain much, and for two, his friend seems way too calm about all this.

“A big wolf.”

She laughs and that sends him over the edge. However, his laughter soon turns from jovial to hysterical and he finds himself kneeling on the grass.

“Hey, hey, it’s going to be alright. You’re fine, everything’s fine.”

It takes a while for the shaking to subside. Bella helps him to his feet again and apparently takes his mumbled “thank you” as enough and steps back.

“Turn around for a second.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I don’t want to rip my clothes and we’re close but not that close.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to, Jake,” but she’s already turning around and he feels like he owes her this bit of truth.

He strips as quickly as he can, still not quite used to doing this in the vicinity of other people, takes a deep breath, and shifts.

The thing that bothers Jacob most about shifting is the way it shifts his senses. The older pack members say it fades with time, but he still finds the sudden change from normal human life to the overwhelming stimulation of wolf senses jarring.

So Bella turns around when she hears a sneeze. Jacob makes a solid attempt to memorize the look on her face when she finds herself nearly nose to nose with a large russet wolf who Can’t. Stop. Sneezing.

Jacob sends a thank you skywards that he’s the only one shifted right now.

“Holy. Fuck,” Bella steps back and for a moment he’s worried she’s going to run.

“Jake. You look. Incredibly fluffy.”

Jacob lets out a barking laugh, his tail gently swaying back and forth.

They spend nearly half an hour in the clearing before Jacob notices something is wrong. There’s an odd smell in the air, one he can’t quite place. Something in his brain must, however, because the fur along his shoulder blades begins to rise and a deep growl starts in his chest.

When a vampire steps out of the woods he’s not surprised. He finds himself between the man and Bella before he can really think about it. At the same time, he reaches for the little string at the back of his mind and tugs. Soon enough he can hear grumbling from the other members of the pack, but he forces himself to ignore it in favor of paying attention to the scene unfolding in front of him.

“Laurent?” Ahh, so Bella knows this bloodsucker. “What are you doing here? I thought you were in Alaska.”

“I was, but things seem so much more interesting here. The pet has a pet! How cute."

Bella’s eyes narrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

The man waves his hand in the air, his gaze—red, blood red—never leaving Jacob’s friend.

“Never you mind. I went to visit the Cullens, but their house is empty. Have they moved on?”

“No,” She's lying. Why is she lying? “They’re just on vacation for a bit. They should be coming back any day now if you’d like to stick around and meet up with them.”

Laurent begins to move to the left, starting to circle Bella, and Jacob matches his movements. “Oh, no. That’s very polite of you to offer. I’m just here doing a favor. You remember Victoria, don’t you?”

“I thought part of the agreement was that you’d leave them behind.”

Laurent smiles. There’s an odd red tinge to his teeth that Jacob doesn’t like. The growl in his chest gets louder. “Well, you know how hard it can be to break old habits.”

He takes a step forward and Jacob snaps his teeth. Come on guys, hurry the fuck up. There’s another vampire here.

Another voice sounds in Jacob’s head. Holy fuck, running faster. It’s Embry. Good.

“I’m afraid she’s quite put out with you,” He must have missed something, “In her eyes, it’s only fair that she kills you.”

Bella is seething now. “What a load of horseshit.”

“Excuse me?” Laurent looks taken aback. It’s kind of funny.

“Who the fuck does she think she is? ‘You killed her mate,’ bullshit. Self-defense holds up in court, fucker, he attacked me.”

Here.

The bloodsucker’s head whips around the clearing just in time for Sam to crash directly into him.

It’s chaos from there. Jacob pushes Bella into a run and they sprint out of the clearing, the sounds of a fight chasing them. He has the presence of mind to grab his clothes, but that’s about it.

They make it a good bit away before Bella trips on a root. Jacob shifts and together they hobble quickly back to Bella’s truck.

That was decidedly not how Jacob meant to introduce Bella to the concept of Shifters.

Chapter Text

The drive back to Bella’s house is…educational, to say the least.

“Soooo,” Jacob starts once they’ve caught their breath, “want to tell me what’s up with that Laurence guy?”

“Laurent, yeah. Do you remember when I broke my foot just before last summer?” Jacob nods and she continues. “Well, the guy who did that, James, was part of a coven. It was just him, his girlfriend, Victoria, and Laurent.”

“Hmm. Why does he want to kill you though?”

“Edward,” she takes a breath, keeping her eyes on the road in front of them. Even after all these months, it’s still not easy for her to talk about him, “killed James last spring, and now Victoria is pissed, apparently. Laurent actually agreed to go vegetarian at the end of everything and moved in with one of the Cullens’ friends, but you saw his eyes. I guess he couldn’t do it.”

Jacob remembers the Cullens’ eyes. The golden shade that all of them share makes more sense now that he knows everything. If Laurent fell off the bandwagon, that’s probably why his eyes were red.

He says as much aloud and Bella confirms. “Yeah, they also get really dark when they need more blood. It’s kinda weird actually. They look a bit like cats with huge dilated pupils.”

Bella says it with a straight face, but once Jacob starts laughing, she starts laughing. Thankfully they’ve pulled into the Swans’ driveway by now because once they start the teens don’t stop. Soon the laughter turns hysterical as the events of the day hit both of them and then the truck falls quiet.

Jacob’s head is tilted back, looking at the stained fabric ceiling of the car, when his stomach growls loudly.

“Oh. I guess we never did get to have lunch,” Bella remarks. It’s well past two in the afternoon by now, and in all the commotion they’d left the backpack full of food in the clearing.

Then Jacob remembers something else. “Shit, your ankle!”

When the two teenagers get inside the house Bella sits down at the kitchen table and Jacob starts rummaging through the cabinets. He finds some pasta and a can of sauce and, once Bella directs him to it, a pot to cook it all in. Meanwhile, Bella finds an ice pack for her ankle.

They talk through their late lunch about anything other than the supernatural. Instead, they talk about movies. Bella went out with Jessica and Angela to the theater while Jacob was away and she tells him about the comedy-drama mash-up they saw about the fashion industry.

“There’s also a new Fast and the Furious movie coming out soon. I wouldn’t mind seeing that with you. If you want to, of course.”

Jacob brightens. “Absolutely! That sounds awesome!” Then his face changes.

“You’re dad is home. I should probably go.”

“What? Why?”

“My dad told him about the whole werewolf thing. He might still be reeling. I’ll call you though!”

He’s grabbing his things and moving towards the door when Bella stops him. “Wait. This isn’t going to be like last time, right? You’re not going to disappear on me?”

“Promise, no disappearing.”

She lets him go just in time for him to leave the house before Charlie sees him.

When Jacob gets back to the reservation the pack is waiting for him.

“Hey,” Jacob calls, swinging his leg over the side of the bike, “everyone make it out alright?”

Paul nods and the small spec of worry that had been in the back of his mind dissipates. He didn’t doubt the other shifters, but there’s always a chance things end poorly.

“We got the bastard,” Sam says, “He won’t be bothering us anymore.”

“I don’t think he was the only one.”

Sam’s brows lower. “What?” Jared asks.

“The leech told Bella he was here on a favor to someone else, a vamp called Victoria. She said they used to be in one of the little vampire gangs together.”

Jared speaks first. “Well fuck. How many are there?”

“If you killed that bloodsucker in the clearing, just her. The Cullens killed the other guy.”

“They killed one of their own?” Paul asks, confusion on his face.

“Yeah. Apparently, he was killing people in their area and tried to kill Bella in the end. That was last year though, not sure why they’re back now.”

“Hmm,” Sam hums. “Let’s take this inside.”

The shifters, of course, decide to wait. Jacob trusts their judgments and knows that they’re making decisions with everyone in mind. But he also hates waiting.

He paces around the house for nearly twenty minutes before his dad yells at him to stop. So instead he finds himself on the couch next to Billy, staring intently at an unsolved puzzle on the coffee table.

“How’d it go?” A piece clicks into place. “With Charlie.”

Billy sighs, putting a piece into place around the border. “It’ll take some time.”

“Did you tell him about the Cullens?” Click.

“No. That’s not my story to tell.” Click, click.

“Doesn’t he deserve to know?” Click.

“Maybe. But they can be the ones to tell him.” Click “They’re not here right now, and they might not be coming back. What good would it do to worry him about the past?”

Click. “None, I guess.”

The silence—-interspersed with the sounds of the small cardboard pieces hitting against the smooth surface of the table—-stretches on. It’s nice, peaceful even, even if there’s a little voice in the back of Jacob’s head that’s telling him “everything is about to go wrong.”

Before the phone rings, the Swan house is quiet. Charlie came home, murmured something quietly, and decided that it was a good time for a nap. Bella stays in the kitchen, resolving herself to check in on her dad later and, in the meantime, get some homework done.

When the ringing starts Bella doesn’t think much of it. She picks up the landline, assuming it to be a neighbor or a friend. Instead, it’s a voice she hasn’t heard in over four months.

“Hello,” she says, holding the phone with her shoulder and continuing to work through her math homework.

“Bella! Thank goodness! I’ve been so worried!”

Alice’s voice hits the brown-haired girl like a pickup truck. The pencil clatters to the table. She can only sit there in silence as Alice speaks rapidly into the other end.

“I saw Laurent come back. I saw him decide to go and try to kill you, but I couldn’t see what happened. I thought you’d died, Bella. God, it was awful. I’m so glad you’re okay, Esme and I have…” She keeps going, but Bella can’t hear her any longer. What could she possibly say? Bella’s been sending her emails the whole time she’s been gone. Granted, not as much anymore, but enough that surely she’s read at least one.

But she never replied. Never said anything back, not once. Not when Bella was at her worse, not when she wrote about the emptiness that became her life those first three months, and not when she wrote about wishing she didn’t have to live with her pain. But now? Now that it’s a “real possibility,” now she has something to say.

Bella doesn’t say anything when she hangs up the phone. The click that signals the end of the call jolts her out of her daze slightly.

She’s got things to do. Like…homework. And study for that English test on Wednesday. Things.

Better things to do than bring back the dead.

Chapter Text

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday pass in a blur for Jacob. He goes to school, hangs out with Embry and Quil, patrols the forest with the pack, and eats dinner with his dad.

On Thursday Embry has news.

Jacob’s relationship with Embry is still tentative. They’d been best friends when they were younger, Embry, Quil, and Jacob. But when Embry joined the pack he cut both of them off. Jacob understands, keeping secrets from your friends is hard, but getting dropped after years of friendship hurt.

Embry stepped up when Jacob first phased. He helped the younger wolf get through the first week—probably the most difficult week, for the body at least. Once Jacob realized why Embry had dropped Quil and him, Jacob worked on convincing him that they could stay friends with Quil. It’s been a bit strained, what with them not being able to tell him where they’re going every day after school, but they’re doing their best to stay in touch.

So when Embry motions for Jacob to follow him, he makes a quick excuse that amounts to “History! Gotta go!” to Quil and follows Embry down an unused hallway.

Embry double-checks that there’s no one in hearing range, then says “There’s another one.”

Jacob stares at his friend blankly. “Another one what?”

“Another leech. I caught the scent this morning. Sam is checking it out, but it smelled fresh.”

“Oh fuck.” Embry nods in agreement. Both boys stand there in silence. Another vampire so soon after the Cullens left cannot be good.

The ringing of the bell snaps them out of it and they run to history together with grim expressions.

Jacob’s day flies past in a blur and when Bella gets out of school that afternoon he is waiting for her. He’s standing by her truck, leafing through a medium-sized paperback book, but he looks up when students start coming into the parking lot.

“Heya, Loca,” Jacob says, tucking the book into the front pocket of his sleeveless hoodie. “How’s your ankle doing?”

She starts digging through her backpack for her keys before she responds. “It’s mostly fine now, feels much better than before. What were you reading?” She finds them and unlocks the truck.

“Ahh,” Jacob reaches back into his pocket as he goes around to the passenger side. He knows he should be more sheepish about things like this, but if it’s for a good reason he can’t really bring himself to be that embarrassed over it. Plus, bloodsuckers. “It’s a notebook from the Cullen’s house. Carlisle’s maybe? I don’t know, I don’t remember all their names.”

Bella stares at him from behind the wheel. “...You broke into the Cullen’s house?”

“Is it really breaking in if the door’s unlocked?” Jacob shrugs. “They’re not even there right now, plus that Laurence guy said he went there before.” She still doesn’t look convinced. “Look, I know it probably wasn’t the right thing to do, but it's not like we can ask them about witchy leech powers.”

She starts the engine. “...Actually, we might.”

Jacob directs Bella to Emily’s house while she tells him about the call she got three days ago.

“Make a left up here. So she just ghosted you? That’s rough.”

“I don’t know if it was entirely up to her. Edward did point out that his family was starting to look too young. I mean, Emmet, Jasper, and Rosalie are supposed to be in college right now.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean she can’t send you an email back. That’s absolute bullshit.”

Bella is quiet for a moment. This whole situation sucks. She was getting better, starting to have a bit of self-confidence again, and then the leech just had to call and undo everything.

If nothing else, that makes her a shitty friend.

The red pickup pulls into Emily’s driveway before Jacob can say this out loud. Bella hops out of the truck and walks up to Jared, who’s leaning in the doorway.

“Hey, Vampire Girl. Head on in, Emily’s in the kitchen. I’ve got to talk to Jake real quick.”

She goes inside, looking a bit confused, while Jacob stays outside to talk to the other shifter.

“Did you find anything?”

“Yeah. Papa Leech kept a diary. It’s got bits and pieces of a lot of stuff in it. I’m going to be honest, things don’t look great.”

Jared runs his hand through his hair, cropped short like Jacob’s. Maybe that’s where he’s picked up the nervous habit from.

“Well fuck.”

“Yeah. Let’s get inside and show everyone else.”

They walk in through the glass sliding door together and find everyone gathered at the table in the middle of the room. Paul, gesturing wildly with a muffin in one hand, is speaking the loudest.

“Where the hell have you been this whole time?”

“Paul,” Sam warns. “Come on man.”

“What, she’s like, everything we need?”

“Not everything,” Jacob says from the doorway, holding up the notebook.

Embry’s head pokes out from behind the kitchen island where he was helping Emily cook. “You found something?”

“Yeah. A journal of sorts. It’s…long.” Journaling should be for people with finite amounts of time, this thing is so damn long.

Bella narrows her gaze and moves past the wolves at the table to get to Jacob. “Let me see that.” She flips through it for a minute or two before nodding to herself. “These are Carlisle’s notes on vampires. It’s…it’s not all in English though.”

“We can translate later,” Sam tries to get the conversation back to the matters at hand, “right now we need Bella to answer some questions. There’s another vampire in the area, and we don’t know who it is. You knew the first one we came across, maybe you’ll know her.”

“Her?” Bella looks as if she knows who Sam is talking about but doesn’t want to hear it.

“Yes, she’s about 5 and a half feet tall and has very bright red hair.”

Bella takes in a sharp breath and sets her jaw. “Victoria.”

Chapter Text

When Bella leaves Emily’s house it's with Carlisle’s journal, a pensive expression, and Jacob in the passenger seat again. Once Bella had explained the situation to the pack they came up with a plan. They’d have someone watching the Swan house at all times and, if possible, with Bella too. Jacob was a bit worried about his friend feeling like her privacy is being invaded—because it kind of is—but she was actually really chill. I guess having your boyfriend break into your room and watch you sleep every night makes having some of your friend’s friends watch your house from a distance seem chill.

Weird.

It takes Jacob until he’s jumping out of the truck at Bella’s house to remember Charlie.

The chief of police is standing cross-armed on the porch giving the young shifter a very disapproving look. Internally Jacob winces.

“Hey Charlie,” he waves.

“Jacob,” Bella’s father nods, “why don’t you come inside.”

Bella throws Jacob a sympathetic look over the bed of the truck, then heads inside the house. The shifter, warily, follows suit.

Jacob, unsurprisingly, finds himself back on the couch in nearly the same position he was in five days ago. Except this time, things are a bit more serious.

“Billy wants me to believe that you turn into a giant wolf and run around the woods. Harry says the same thing.” Well damn, that’s one way of putting it.

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Care to discuss?”

“Uhhhh…” Jacob’s mind freezes. It’s a rhetorical question, but he still has to give an answer, “No?”

Charlie leans back in his chair. “Wrong answer.” Fuck.

That evening Jacob Black finds out why Bella Swan’s father is the chief of police: his impeccable interrogation skills. Seriously, fathers that also have a background in law enforcement? Jacob would rather take the rabid vampire lurking around Forks, thank you very much.

Charlie pulls information out of the shifter that he didn’t even know he’d absorbed. In the end, Charlie learned everything. Everything everything. About the Cullens, about the shifters, and even—in incredibly vague wording and a lot of tiptoeing around the subject—about Victoria and Bella’s 18th birthday party. In the end, he agrees to let the pack keep watch over the house,

The next two weeks pass in a blur. Everyone is constantly exhausted. Bella spends her time trying to translate Carlisle's notes—she became one of the local librarian’s favorites very quickly from being in there getting new strange books nearly every other day—and nearly all of Jacob’s time is spent by her side. The rest of the pack is on shifts, every six hours or so depending on who can come, but between Sam’s responsibilities and finals coming up for all the schools in the area, it’s a tight schedule.

Still, nothing happens for another 14 days.

Two weeks after the protection detail starts, Jared gets bored. Jacob, Embry, and Jared are watching the Swan house while Bella sits at the kitchen table inside—spending her Thursday afternoon translating the last bits of the journal—when Jared mentions cliff diving. They’ve all gone before, but Jacob hasn’t been since he first shifted and Embry has been too busy trying to keep his grades up.

The instant Jared mentions it they all want to go. But…they can’t leave Bella.

Let’s just take her with us, Jared’s voice says in Jacob’s mind.

Now, Embry, as the most sensible of the group, briefly has the thought that this might be a bad idea. However, the bar for sensibility is very low in this situation and they’ve been sitting in one general area for so long they’re all starting to go a bit stir-crazy. All this to say that this thought is out the door faster than my cat when the dogs are around.

Sure, Embry shrugs, I’ll go get her.

They all shift back and Embry heads into the house. When he comes back it’s with Bella and a bunch of towels and they’re met with whoops of excitement.

Jared drives them the twenty minutes to La Push and the car is almost vibrating with excitement. None of the teenagers have had a break since Laurent showed up and they’re all pumped to blow off some steam.

“Loca, you’re going to love this!” Jacob says. “It’s every adrenaline pumping thing you’ve done times ten. It’s great!”

Bella grins at her friend. She’d seen some of the pack do it back in January when Jacob had helped her fix up the bikes she got from her neighbors and it has been a nag in the back of her mind ever since. Sure, it looks scary, but how dangerous can it really be?

“You can start on some of the lower ledges if you want,” Embry offers from behind the wheel, “we’ll show you how to be safe about it.”

They get to the beach and all tumble out of the car, racing for the cliffs, throwing off clothes as they go, faster than Embry can get the keys out of the ignition.

The first dive Jacob takes into the Pacific is amazing. The cold hardly bothers him thanks to his elevated body temperature and all he feels is the rush. It goes straight to his head and immediately he wants to go again.

They start Bella at about fifteen feet from the water, but soon enough she’s jumping from the top with everyone else. Jacob cheers when she walks to the highest edge about an hour after they’ve started and she gets a round of applause when she hits the water.

Then they all start calling out scores. Jared gets the lowest, partially because it’s funny and partially because his belly-flops are pitiful, and Bella is next lowest—she gets a pass though, because she’s a noobie. Surprising nobody, Embry gets tens across the board—with a salty nine-point-five from Jared—for his backflips. He may be the quiet one, but damn is he flexible.

When Bella’s adrenaline wears off and she starts shivering they decide to pack it in.

Jacob doesn’t see what happens so much as he hears it. Jared and Embry are already halfway to the car, fighting over who gets to drive back, when a whoosh passes by him, followed by a splash! Then the smell of leech hits him.

Victoria.

He whips around but it’s too late, Bella’s already in the water. “Fuck!”

He dives back in after her, not checking to see if the waves are covering the rocks and not really caring either.

She’s gasping when he hauls her out. Embry and Jared are there, standing on the narrow beach, grabbing her arms and pulling her back onto land and relative safety.

Jacob turns around to search the water but all he sees is a distant speck of red. When he tries to get a closer look, it’s gone.

Paul and Sam are waiting at the Swan house with Charlie when they get back. Embry quietly fills them in when Bella goes up to her room to change.

Jacob leaves them in the living room and heads upstairs. He knocks softly on the door before gently pushing it open.

“How are you holding up? You didn’t say anything in the car.”

Bella, who is sitting on her bed in one of her father’s sweatshirts and a pair of stretchy pants, takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I’m…I’ll be fine.”

Not good. “Yeah, one day probably.” The comforter dips when Jacob’s weight rests on the bed. “But what about right now?”

She just shakes her head, and something in him cracks a little bit. She was getting better, and now everything’s messed up again. Fucking bloodsuckers.

“Want a hug?” Wordlessly she nods.

It only takes about three minutes before Bella pulls out of the embrace, but those three minutes seem to do the trick. Her gaze has hardened and even though her eyes are slightly red she looks determined.

“Let’s get this bitch.”

Jacob follows her downstairs and nearly runs into her when she stops short on the last step. Charlie is standing by the phone, talking into the receiver in a hushed voice, but Jacob hears him as clearly as if the older man was standing directly next to him.

“Yes, we’re all alright. Bella is…she’s alright,” a pause, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. When you left…”

Chief Swan looks up and catches sight of his daughter. Silently, he holds out the phone to her. She takes it.

“Yes Alice, I’m fine.”

“Thank god!” Jacob can hear the other end of the conversation better now. “I couldn’t See anything after you went into the water. It was just like Laurent, everything went fuzzy and—”

“Jake pulled me out.”

The other end goes quiet. Then, there’s a soft oh shit.

“Bella I’m going to have to call you back, someone just made a horrible decision.”

The like clicks off and Bella puts the phone back in the cradle. When she turns around to face the room the steely look is still there, and not just there. It’s even stronger than before.

There’s a pause, and Jacob imagines that if he could peer inside his friend’s head right now he’d see her shoving that conversation into a box and nailing the lid shut.

She gestures to the table.“Sit down, I’m going to tell you all what’s in that journal.”

Chapter Text

The journal has…a lot. Most of the boring stuff—like Papa Vamp’s notes on places and food—Bella skips over.

The rest of the information is about bloodsuckers. From Bella’s notes on the journal, there’s a lot more there than any of them really knew. The big thing is how to defeat them.

Decapitation and dismemberment, followed by the separation of the parts so that they can’t rejoin is the tried and true method, but Carlisle has some other notes based on his time with the Volturi, mainly the use of weapons made from leech parts or their enemies.

Jared pauses her there. “So wait, let me get this straight. These bloodsuckers are making knives out of each other ?!”

“Yeah.” Bella looks back at her notes. “According to Carlisle, vampire skin can only be broken either by another vampire or by one of you guys. Well, he says werewolves, but that might just be because he doesn’t know about the pack until later towards the end.”

And then they get to gifts. Bella has told the pack about the three Cullens—Edward, Alice, and Jasper—but none of them knew the full story.

“Carlisle mentions talking to this guy named Eleazar while he was in Italy and that guy is the one who tells him about the power thing. He said that when people become vampires everything gets enhanced, but for some people there’s something weird starting out and so it gets magnified when they get turned.”

“So,” Charlie asks, “if someone wasn’t normal to begin with, that could be a sign of future vampire magic powers?”

“Maybe? I know Alice had visions before she became a vampire but I don’t know about the other two. I mean, the book says this whole thing is super rare, but I’m not sure I believe that. I mean, three people with powers in one coven when it’s so super incredibly rare? Hell no.”

They all keep talking deep into the night. Eventually, they decide that Jacob and Embry will stay the night and Sam will drive everyone else home. Charlie gets the shifters set up in the den and heads to bed.

Jacob is nearly asleep on the floral patterned couch when Embry speaks. “What do you think is going to happen next?” He sounds lost. He sounds the way Jacob feels.

“I don’t know man. Take down Victoria? Finish sophomore year?”

“Yeah.”

They lay there in silence, but neither sleeps for a long time.

“Are you sure it’ll be alright with your dad if you skip school, son?” Charlie’s brow is furrowed

The shifter swallows the cereal and puts the spoon back in the bowl. “Yeah. He understands. Besides, it’s a ‘family emergency’.” He grins at Bella and she smiles back.

Embry took off earlier that morning, citing a science test—the one class he and Jacob don’t share—but Jacob decided to stay behind with Bella. She’s still shaken up from yesterday, they all are, and right now is not the time for her to be alone.

The day moves on pretty normally. They spend the morning making cookies and watching the latest episodes of CSI. It helps both of them to have some distractions.

The afternoon has just begun when the doorbell rings.

“Who is it?” Bella calls from the den.

“Bella, it’s Alice!” Comes the muffled answer, “It’s important!”

Jacob looks at Bella, frozen as she is staring at the TV. He pats her hand and stands. “I got it, Hell’s-Bells,” he says, walking towards the front door with a smile.

It drops off his face the minute he pulls back the wood to reveal the vampire on the porch.

“What do you want?” His tone is harsher than he intended, but he can’t bring himself to feel bad about it.

Alice looks like she's on the verge of tears. “I need to speak with Bella. Please, it’s important.”

“You mentioned that. Doesn’t change the fact that she doesn’t want to see you.”

Alice takes an unnecessary breath. “It’s about Edward.”

“Even less of a reason for me to let you in.” Jacob feels his eyes harden. Then, he feels a presence behind him. It’s Bella.

“What about Edward?” The relief that flashes across Alice’s face is brief, but not brief enough to not be noticeable.

“He’s about to make a mistake and I can’t stop him.”

The silence is palpable to the point where the shifter starts shifting nervously after a moment. Finally, Bella breaks it.

“Come in.”

“Explain.” Bella’s voice is strong and offers no room for escape and Jacob is proud to see how far she’s come. It’s not easy to look someone who you once considered a friend in the eye, much less sit and listen to them tell you about how they need your help to save your asshole ex-boyfriend. And yet, that’s exactly what Bella is doing.

“Rose called him. It was so stupid, I should have seen it coming, but I didn’t. I had that vision yesterday, Rose was with me when it happened, and she called Edward before I called you.” Rose, Rose, Rose, who the fuck is Rose? Oh! The blonde one with the buff boyfriend. Yes, Jacob remembers.

He leans back into the wall. “How is this Bella’s problem? Just call him back.”

“I tried. I’m pretty sure he smashed his phone. What I do know is that…he checked his email for the first time since he left Forks.” Alice glances away from the hole she’s been trying to bore in the coffee table to Bella’s slightly shocked expression, then right back to the wooden surface. “He thinks you’re dead.”

Bella crosses her arms. “Serves him right. What he only cares now that he can’t have me beg for him to take me back?”

It’s Alice’s turn to look shocked. “No! No, of course not! He loves you, Bella.” Jacob takes a sip of his drink. This is more interesting than any tennis match he’s ever seen.

“He sure has a funny way of showing it. He left me for dead in the middle of a forest, Alice. Sam Uley had to carry me home. Want to talk about me dying? The only times I’ve come close lately have been because of him!” Oh shit. She hasn’t talked about this before. “James, the woods, Laurent, Victoria, all of it never would have happened if I’d never met him!”

“I told him it was a bad idea,” Alice mutters to herself.

“Yeah, dumping me in the middle of the woods, telling me he never loved me and I wasn’t worth his time? Yes, it was.”

“No! Lying to you. None of us wanted to leave, Bella. You have to believe that!”

“That doesn’t change the fact that you left!”

“He’s going to kill himself!”

Bella visibly stops in her tracks. “What?”

“He’s going to Italy, to the Voultori. He’s going to get them to kill him.”

Well, that's…okay then. Bella’s face hardens once more, the determination from last night returning in full force. “Fine. Let’s go.”

Jacob makes the call to Charlie while Bella runs upstairs to throw things in a suitcase. He’s not happy about it, but there’s not much he can do; Bella has made up her mind and her father knows that.

He does have one question for the shifter. “You’ll go with her, right?”

“I’d like to see them stop me.”

Billy manages to find his son’s nearly expired passport packed away in a box and they’re on a plane the next morning.

“This place reeks worse than bloodsucker,” Jacob whispers to Bella in the TSA line. Alice mutters ahead of them which sounds distinctly similar to “Oh like you smell any better.” He, maturely, decides to ignore her.

“We should be through here soon,” Bella responds, “we’re in the fancy rich people line.”

Alice overhears Bella’s comment and says “It’s just TSA Precheck,” which makes the two behind her start giggling.

“That's exactly what a fancy rich person would say!”

Things are oddly calm until they get about halfway through the flight. Bella decided to sleep for the first half of it, but Jacob just can’t seem to get any rest. So, for two hours he’s alone with his thoughts. On a plane. Now is probably a good time to mention that Jacob hates flying. He hasn’t been on a plane many times in his life, but the times he has have never been pleasant, and with his newfound senses it’s even worse. The acrid smell of too many bodies in one small space for too long mixed with the constant roaring of the engines is nearly too much.

There are so many things that can go wrong. Outside of the plane crashing and all of them dying, there are a million ways that this whole plan could blow up in their faces. They could fail and be too late—not the worst thing in the world if Jacob’s being honest—the creepy leech council could kill them all, Edward could have joined the wack ass vulture guys and could be waiting to kidnap them all, they could capture Jacob and—

“Hey. How are you feeling?” Bella. That’s right, Bella’s here. He’s here for Bella, and she needs him to keep a level head.

“Me? I’m great. You’re the one I’m worried about, Loca.”

He grins at her. She must see through it though, because her brows pull together. “Are you? You look…frazzled.”

Well, his dad always says honesty is the best policy. “Not gonna lie, I’m a bit freaked out.”

“Thank fuck I’m not the only one.”

“You too?”

“Oh yeah, big time. These guys are like for real evil dudes.”

“Good, I was worried we were going up against fake evil dudes.” That makes Bella smile, and her smile makes him smile and feel a little bit more okay about this weird ass life they’re living.

“If we’re lucky,” Alice says, turning around in her seat in front of them, “we won’t be going up against them at all.”

“Psh. When has luck ever been on our side? I turn into a giant dog for shits and giggles and Bella here dates people who drink blood.” He gets whacked in the shoulder for that but it’s worth it.

They land in Italy at around 10 am—the same time they left. Jacob is lucky that he managed to get some sleep in the second half of the flight, or else running through the streets of Volterra at noon would be near impossible, never mind the festival crowds.

“Where did you See him again?” Jacob calls to Alice, who’s pushing through the streets next to him.

“Up here! Look for a big clock tower!”

“I see it!” Bella calls from behind them. “Straight ahead!”

BONG goes the tower, just as they skid into the town square. They scan the crowds, looking for a hint of sparkle in the high noon sun.

“There!” Bella points. She and Alice take off just as Jacob catches sight of him.

Edward is standing just outside of a shadowy alleyway, the front portion of his body in the sun like he’d just moved to get out of the shade. His eyes are closed, and his hair is wild. That’s funny, Jacob’s never really noticed his hair before. It’s a strange color, almost bronze. It would normally complement his eyes, but today they’re too dark for that. That’s…unfortunate.

The shifter watches Bella and Alice slam into Edward in slow motion. Jacob tries to step forward, but he stumbles, almost as if…as if gravity itself has shifted.

Chapter Text

Fuck.

Fuck. Shit. Damn. Fuck.

Now is not the time!

Jacob shakes himself off and regains his footing. He looks back at the alleyway. It’s not as bad this time around, and he tries his damndest to ignore Edward and focus on the scene as a whole.

Alice and Bella have crowded him back into the shade. Bella—although Jacob can only see the back of her—is pissed. Alice is paying more attention to the people around them than what’s happening in front of her, probably trying to gauge if anyone saw her brother step into the sun.

And then there’s Edward. He’s shirtless, his pale skin making him look more like a statue than a man and making him stand out against the dark wall behind him.

Wait, behind him. There’s something behind him.

Jacob is moving before he even realizes it. He elbows his way between Bella and the shadowy figures and feels himself begin to snarl.

There are two of them, one dark-haired and taller than the other, and both with eerily red eyes.

There’s a cold hand on his shoulder and Edward moves past him, but only just. The spot where he touched tingles as his hand leaves Jacob’s shoulder. He tries not to think about it.

“The plan has changed, gentlemen. I no longer need your assistance.”

The taller of the two sneers. “Aro wants to speak with you again.” Aro. That's the kooky guy in charge of these chuckleheads, right?

“None of your rules were broken, there is no need to return,” Edward argues. Bold of him, really, considering that he was the only one trying to break them but whatever.

The smaller blonde vampire smiles so vapidly that it makes Jacob want to punch his teeth in. “Perhaps we should take this conversation to a more…appropriate venue.”

Alice makes a noise like she wants to say something but she cuts it short when a third figure appears.

“Enough.” The speaker is small and looks very young. Her face is rounded and her hair is incredibly light. She looks like those old paintings Jacob has seen of what people thought angels looked like, which is incredibly creepy considering that she’s making the four vampires present freeze.

Edward stiffly inclines his head in her direction. “Jane.”

“Follow me” she says, her expression unchanging.

“Just do what she says,” Alice whispers to Jacob and Bella. Jane throws a jacket at Edward, who dons it, and turns back down the alleyway. There’s a shove from Bella behind him and Jacob takes the hint.

They follow Jane to the end of the alley, only to hit a brick wall. Instead of stopping or turning, she just walks straight into an opening in the ground. It’s the sewer. If Jacob thought the airport smelled bad…

The sewer ends with an elevator, which takes them up to a fancy looking lobby. There’s a woman behind the desk—human, oddly—who greets them warmly in what Jacob assumes is Italian. It strikes him as strange, that this woman is so at ease in the presence of people that could kill her in an instant, but before he can think on it further Jane leads the group further into the building.

They come to a stop in a large circular white marble room. There are vampires already waiting there for them, seated in elaborate chairs on a platform across from the door, and their escorts step away, falling into place to make a ring around the room. They’re boxed in at this point, and if they want to get out now it’s either going to cost them a lot of blood, or going to take some very persuasive talking skills.

At first the shifter thinks they’re going for the former. The creepiest vampire—a small man with long black hair who, based on the descriptions in the journal, Jacob assumes to be Aro—steps off the platform and walks towards them. Edward moves forward again .

There’s a tug at Jacob’s core when Edward steps away. A brief image passes through his mind of the vampire dead on the floor and Aro standing over his body, and before he can consider why, it starts another growl low in his throat. It takes him a moment to realize that a fight is not about to break out and instead they’re…shaking hands? What?

“What a happy turn of events!” Aro smiles. It makes Jacob feel uneasy. “Bella looks to be alive and well. And has even brought friends, how delightful!” The blonde man seated to his left appears as if he disagrees but makes no comment.

The strangeness continues when, instead of letting go, the dark haired vampire keeps ahold of Edward’s hand and leans forward. “And what strange friends she has! Alice of course, I know. Lovely to see you again, dear. But you,” he turns to Jacob and immediately the wolf wishes he’d look anywhere else, “You are quite peculiar. A werewolf. I wonder…” he trails off, seemingly lost in thought.

How the fuck does he know all that?

As if she can sense his confusion, Alice leans forward and says to him “Aro can read minds by touch.” Instantly Jacob remembers the notes on him from the journal, Carlisle’s early fascination with the older vampire and, later, the doctor’s near fear of him.

“The werewolf is not immune to your powers,” Aro is speaking again, this time to Edward instead of himself, “unlike Bella here. How intriguing indeed.” He lets go of Edward’s hand and, as cliche as it is, Jacob feels himself let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He grits his teeth just as soon as he realizes what he’s done.

For a second it seems like they’re in the clear. And then Aro motions Jane forward. Behind him, Jacob feels Alice tense, and in front of him he can visibly see the muscles in Edward’s shoulders clench. He racks his brain for anything he knows about her, but there’s nothing. She’s too young to have been with the Volturi while Carlisle was here and Alice’s whispered warnings were not very informative.

“No!” Edward shouts, “Aro, no! She’s done nothing!”

Aro ignores him, and motions to Jane, who has moved forward from her position by the wall. It’s when she turns to Bella that all tension in the room snaps.

Jacob feels himself shift before he can fully recognize what’s happening. He flings himself in front of Bella, who looks incredibly confused and quite angry about it, and lands on the marble floor with a resounding crack! At the same time, both Cullens in the room jump to get in front of Bella as well, but neither of them make it in time.

It’s Jacob that gets hit with a wave of pain. He feels himself go down hard, but it does nothing. His body feels as if it’s on fire, but the fire is inside his veins, pumping through his body. He hears screaming, but he can’t pinpoint where exactly it’s coming from.

Then, as soon as it all started, it stops, and the Quilleute teen finds himself limp and lungs heaving on the floor. The yelling is more distinctive now, and Jacob recognizes it for the argument that it is. Before he can decipher it though, Bella is there.

“Are you alright, Jake? Is everything alright?” He manages a weak nod. All of his muscles feel like they’ve been sitting in a freezer for months and are just now being brought out to thaw, but the movement seems to be enough, because Bella stands and turns around to face the room.

“Enough!” Oh she’s pissed now. All noise in the room stops. “Will you shut the hell up for one second? Does he look like a fucking werewolf to you.” She says this to the blonde man in particular, and he scowls once more. “He’s a shape-shifter.”

Jacob loses track of things for a bit. Things seem to settle down slightly, but only just. Edward let’s Aro read his mind again to prove that Bella wasn’t lying and Jane tries her weird ass squinty pain thing on Bella. Nothing happens, which is weird, but everyone kind of just shrugs it off for the time being.

It’s when the other two members of the vampire evil society leader triad start talking crypticly about Bella that the shifter tunes back in.

“She knows too much already, she’s a liability,”

“No, she’s not.” Oh there’s Alice. Jacob was loosely wondering where she went. “She’s an honorary member of the Quilleute tribe.” What? Since when? “One of the members of Jacob’s pack has imprinted on her.”

Whaaaaa…?

The room goes quiet again. Jacob’s mind is still reeling from the pain and the yelling, but he manages to get his thoughts in order to the point where he begins to understand Alice’s plan.

The minute Jacob understands, the confusion on Edward’s face melts away. Embry—quiet, considerate Embry—imprinted on Bella the first time he saw her on the reservation after his first shift. Since then they’ve been great friends, and each has helped the other tremendously. Of course Bella is a member of the pack! She’s protected by their rules and she would never expose the supernatural world.

It’s all a lie, of course, but Jacob tries his best to make the story iron clad in his mind so that Edward can show it to Aro. He does, and after a moment Aro nods and he drops Edward’s hand. “Fascinating! I will have to learn more about this ‘imprinting.’ Go, return to your friend, Bella dear. I’m so glad this could all be resolved without any unfortunate loss of Gifts.” There’s that creepy ass smile again.

Blondie looks horror-struck. “You’re just letting them leave?!”

“Oh Ciaus, the girl's disappearance would not be worth the hatred of these shape shifters in America. And surely you see her potential! Untouchable by even Jane here,” Wait when did that happen?

“Let us be done with this. We have important matters to attend to,” a brown haired vampire sitting on the third throne says. Jacob hadn’t noticed him before. In stark contrast to Aro, he looks absolutely bored out of his mind.

Aro motions to one of the guards behind them and he pushes the large stone doors they’d come in through open effortlessly. Alice and Edward, the only two of their group strong enough to lift him, help Jacob to his feet and they hurry out the door.

Someone must have put two and two together and found some clothes to replace Jacob’s now shredded ones. He shifts back and dresses in an alcove, trying not to inhale too deeply. The clothes smell strange, worn and human beneath the smell of detergent, and, distantly, like fear.

He finds out why soon after. Of course he remembers Carlisle’s comments from the journal, he remembers all of the Italian vampires' red eyes, and he remembers the strange shape of the marble floor. However, it doesn’t click until he catches sight of the tour group.

There’s around 20 of them, mostly older folks, some speaking languages that Jacob can’t identify and others he recognizes. They’re led by a beautiful woman in a red dress. She’s speaking english, telling the group about the building and politely reminding them to stay together so no one gets lost. They get to the same double gates that Jacob, Alice, Bella and Edward had just been pushed out of not twenty minutes ago.

Just before the last of the tourists trickle through one meets Jacob’s eye. She’s older than most, and says something to him that he doesn’t understand. Then she smiles. It’s a sad smile, but her wrinkled face looks beautiful all the same. Then she turns, following the sound of the guide’s voice, and walks through the big double doors, which close behind her.

And then the screaming starts.

Chapter Text

In the end there’s nothing he can do. Jacob and Bella both lunge for the door, but Edward and Alice hold them back. They’re rushed out of the building—the whole country even—before either of the mortals can fully register what they just witnessed.

The plane ride home is worse than the one there. Jacob falls into a dreamless sleep almost immediately, but he wakes up three hours later to Bella telling him that Edward and Alice were having a weird whispered conversation about him in the seats in front of them.

“Something about you guys having a bond or something? I don’t know, I couldn’t really hear very well.”

Jacob mentally curses Edward out. It makes him feel a bit better, knowing that he can probably hear the particularly unpleasant words the shifter mentally throws in his direction. “Yeah, about that. How much of that info dump at Emily’s do you remember?”

Bella looks mildy confused at the change in topic and honestly Jacob is right there with her. “Pretty much all of it.”

“Good, then we’re on about the same page. I’ll have to talk to Sam about it but I think I…” He trails off, suddenly embarrassed about the whole thing. Who even believes in the whole soulmates thing anymore?

“You what?”

“Well, it’s…personal.”

Bella rolls her eyes. “Jake, come on. You’re acting like you’ve just gotten your first period and need to ask for a pad.”

He ducks his head and runs his hand through the back of his hair as he feels his face heating up. “It’s…I imprinted on your shitty ex.”

“…you what?” For a second Jacob thinks she’s going to be mad. That would make sense, that’s some kind of girl code rule right? Don’t sleep with your best friend’s ex? Not that Jacob wants to sleep with him! More like, he feels…less inclined to punch him in the face? Yeah, that’s about right.

When Jacob looks up though, Bella’s not mad at all. Instead, she’s got her thinking face on. There’s a best of silence, and then she says “Well that sucks,” in the most monotone voice he has ever heard from her.

He starts laughing. Quietly at first, and then more and more, until he’s doubled over in his seat, gasping for breath. Bella is laughing too, while trying to slap a hand over his mouth. “Shut up, you’re going to get us kicked off the plane!”

Jacob doesn’t really get any downtime for a while after they get off the plane. The drive from Seattle back to Forks is—awkward, to say the least. The Cullens drop Jacob and Bella off back at the Swan house, where Charlie and Billy meet them outside.

They’ve got a lot of ground to cover. The teens explain the events of the weekend as best as they can but between the flight and the time changes it doesn’t take long before they’re both passed out on the couch.

That night he and Billy drive home together.

“So, I didn’t want to bring it up at the Swan’s house, but uhh—I imprinted.”

His father looks at him with shock at first, and then pure joy takes over his face. “That’s wonderful! Who is she?”

“He—” Jacob swallows and keeps his focus on the road. “It’s Edward Cullen.”

Immediately Billy Black’s face shifts. “Well that’s…unexpected.” The car is silent a beat too long. He’d expected more anger, more disbelief. He wants his dad to be outraged, because if Billy is angry then Jacob can be too.

Finally, his father speaks again. “Let’s talk to Old Quil. He knows more about this than I do. Don’t worry,” he places a hand on his son’s arm, “this will all work out. There has to be a reason you two are meant to be together.”

Jacob’s grip on the steering wheel grows tighter. In any other situation, he would love his father for his accepting nature, but right now it is just making him feel unmoored.

As if sensing Jacob’s tumultuous thoughts, his dad starts prattling. “Oh! Your sister called while you were away. She’s doing really well in college, said that she might even graduate early and…”

The rest of the ride through the dark Washington woods is filled with his father’s rambling, and, not for the first time in his life, Jacob is grateful for it. As they weave through the trees he catches up with his sister through his dad and gives his wandering mind a break.

When Jacob wakes up the next morning, he’s shaking harder than a leaf. His dream comes back to him in bits and pieces, each one worse than the last.

He’s in the room, the one with the depression in the floor, again, but this time he’s alone. He tries the doors, but they’re locked, the carvings in them seeming to shift and grin at him, not letting him through. When he turns around he’s not the only one in the room still. On the raised platform across from the door there are three golden thrones, and a figure in each. On the left is Jane, hands in her lap and an eerie smile on her face, and on the right is Bella, arms crossed and looking pissed. In the middle is Edward, face blank and looking just as creepy as ususal.

There’s a beat of silence. Then Bella stands, marching down the platform until she’s right in front of him, her rage becoming more apparent with each step. She’s face to face with him now, shouting words that Jacob can’t understand. She turns to Edward and Jane.

He’s on the floor, in the middle of the sunken area. There’s a light above him, like he’s in an operating room, and it’s so bright. Too bright. Jacob turns his head to look away and comes face to face with Edward. But Edward isn’t looking at the shifter, he’s too focused on his hands. His hands which are…oh fuck. Jacob’s chest is pried open, and he watches as Edward lifts out his heart. Only then does the vamp look at him, just to make direct eye contact as his teeth, those sharp perfect teeth, sink into the muscle of his still-beating heart.

The ground beneath him is lumpy, and he shifts to get a more comfortable position. His hand brushes something wet, and when he looks, he feels sick. It’s an arm. He scrambles away, and in doing so begins to slip off what he now knows is a mountain of bodies. He’s slipping and falling and—and someone catches him. They’re back on top of the pile now, and he recognizes her as the old sad woman from before. She looks the same, except now she doesn’t look sad, she looks calm. She reaches up and presses her frail hand against Jacob’s cheek.

She only says one word. “Run.”

The shifter wraps his arms around his knees, buries his head in his chest, and waits for the sun to rise.

Old Quil—actually named Quil Altera III— is Jacob’s friend Quil’s grandfather and lives just down the road from the Black home, so it takes Jacob less than five minutes to get to the house after school. Quil’s mom told Quil that she wanted to go shopping with him, so Jacob and Old Quil can talk without worrying about anything being overheard.

The Altera house is far from unfamiliar to Jacob, most of his afternoons before he shifted were spent here or at Embry’s house. He lets himself in, leaves his shoes by the door, and heads into the living room where the old man is waiting for him, reading a book.

Old Quil is, for a lack of a better description, old. His skin sags off his face and his hair is snow white. His voice is brittle and ragged, tired from being used for so long. What aren’t old are his eyes. They’re dark and hard, not in an unkind way.

“Hello, Jacob.” The old man marks the page in his book and sets it on the small table next to the arm of his chair.

Jacob smiles and takes a seat on the chair opposite Old Quil’s. “Hey old man. How have you been?”

“As well as I can be. It’s you whose health we need to talk about.”

Jacob nods. “Yeah. Things are…weird.”

“Your father told me you imprinted. Do you know what that really means?” Old Quil asks, folding his hands together.

“Not really? I mean, I know Sam imprinted on Emily and Jared and Kim are together, but other than that…”

“I see.” The old man hums, and then grabs his cane and makes to stand. He crosses the room to a cabinet, pulls down a leather bound book, and brings it back over to the chairs.

Upon closer inspection, Jacob can see that it’s a photo album. Old Quil flips through the yellowed pages until he gets to a large black and white photo of a group of people down on La Push. He points to a young man with his arm slung around a teenage boy. They’re smiling, laughing in the sun.

“That's my grandfather, Quil Altera I, and his imprintee, Alo.” When Jacob looks at the old man in shock he just laughs. “He was a mentor to the boy. No romance of any kind. He filled the role Alo needed him to, that is all.”

It takes Jacob a moment to catch up, but Old Quil is patient and smiles while he waits.

“So, they’re not romantic by default?”

“No, not at all. From what my grandfather told me, it’s mainly based on what the other person needs or how they feel, if there is a preexisting relationship.”

“Like Jared and Kim! Kim liked him before he first shifted, so that influenced things?”

The old man nods. “Yes, most likely that is the case. It is also based a bit on fate. I am aware that most of you younger folk don’t necessarily believe in what us old people tell you—” Jacob chuckles at this, “but, the original stories said that imprinting is a gift from the spirits, to guide you and others. The relationship that you are supposed to have with your imprint is predetermined. For some, it evolves faster than others, as is most often the case, but I remember stories of relationships that moved just like regular ones do.”

They talk for over an hour, and at the end of it all, Old Quil tells Jacob one last thing. “Go to the vampire house.”

Jacob stops midway through pulling on his shoes. “What?”

“Go to where the Cullens live. Your imprint deserves to know what you do. He is as equally involved with this as you are.”

Jacob goes. He shifts to run there—as gas isn’t cheap—and as he gets closer he starts picking up odd scents. Sam and Bella have been here recently?

Yeah. Bella went over to give back Papa Leech’s diary earlier today, comes Jared’s voice in his head. Pretty sure Sam went with her.

Because of Victoria? Honestly in all the excitement of Italy Jacob had nearly forgotten about her.

Yeah yeah, rub it in that you got to leave the states. But no, I don’t think it was just because of Victoria. There was something else. Can’t remember though. And then he’s gone. Well, that wasn’t cryptic at all.

Speaking of crypts, when Jacob returns his attention to his surroundings, he’s directly in front of the Cullen’s big glass tomb of a house. It’s beautiful, with light streaming in through the large glass panels and through the building, and the soft noises from inside give the house more life than it’s had in the past few months—even if it’s just an illusion.

He’s shifted back, in clothes, and on the front steps all together too quickly for his liking. He barely gets the chance to knock before the wooden door beneath his knuckles is swinging back to reveal a shorter, beautiful, blond woman. She looks him up and down with the same amount of distaste that Jacob imagines a fashion designer would show to a plaid checkered waistcoat—with the matching suit of course.

She looks back up at him and Jacob gulps. “Do you have to come inside? The whole place already smells like dog, we don’t need another one.”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have to be. It’s kinda like really important.”

The blonde woman makes him stand there for a moment longer before letting out a put-upon sigh and stepping out of the doorway.

In the kitchen he finds Dr. Cullen and his wife. Immediately Mrs. Cullen—Esme, right?—turns to him and begins to…apologize? What?

“I’m sorry about Rosalie,” she starts kindly, referring to the blonde by the door, “she has the most sensitive nose of all of us.”

It’s now that Jacob realizes two very important things. When he walked into the house—hell, even back in Volterra—the smell of vampire has not once repulsed him. Secondly, he’s referring to them as vampires. Not leeches, not bloodsuckers, vampires.

Odd.

“What are you doing here?” The voice make’s Jacob’s metaphorical hackles rise and he whips around to find Edward standing on the stairs. The late afternoon sun coming in from the glass walls bounces off his diamond skin, sending small rays of light around the room like a very fancy disco ball.

Edward snorts. “Disco ball. I’ve never gotten that one before.”

“Get out of my head,” the shifter growls.

Edward throws up his hands but keeps coming down the stairs. “It’s not intentional. You’re very…loud.”

Jacob crosses his arms as Edward crosses the kitchen to stand across the stone island from him. “You’re here for a reason, what is it?”

He briefly considers turning right back around and running as fast as he can away from this creepy ass house. Unfortunately, his better sense gets to him. “We need to talk.”

The vampire across from him nods, then sweeps his arms out wide. “We are alone.”

Since when? Jacob turns around, looking for the heads of the Cullen family, only to find that they’ve both disappeared.

“Fuck, alright then,” the shifter turns back to Edward, “I’m guessing you’re aware of the…situation.”

“The imprint, yes.”

Jacob gives a curt nod. “Old Quil told me I needed to come talk to you so…here I am.”

“Here you are.” Why does this bastard look so fucking smug?

“…this will probably be easier if you ask questions.”

“Alright. Why me?”

He lets out a singular sarcastic laugh. “Hell if I know, it clearly wasn’t up to me.” Edward gives him an unimpressed look, and Jacob realizes the more straightforward about this he is, the faster he can get out of here. “It depends on what you want to believe. Old Quil says it’s the decision of the spirits, that whoever you imprint on is the person you need most in your life.”

“And what do you say?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Edward nods and takes a moment before asking, “What do I have to do?”

“Nothing. If I’m being honest, this whole thing is really up to you. Whatever way you feel about our relationship is the way I will feel about it. At least, that’s what I’ve been told. If you think I’m the sexiest motherfucker you’ve ever seen, I’ll feel something similar. If you feel the sudden irresistible urge to take me under your wing like a mother hen, I’ll probably be fine with being a baby chicken.” Probably not, but that doesn’t seem to be where this whole thing is going anyways.

“What does that mean?”

“Dude, did you just miss my whole metaphor mojo?”

“No, I understood…that part. Your thoughts. You think that you can feel where this is going?”

Jacob can feel himself start to fidget. “Like I said, whatever you feel I’m like preprogrammed to reciprocate,” unfortunately, “and I’m not feeling particularly…in awe of your wisdom or intellect right now so I doubt you’re intended to be my mentor or whatever.”

“What are you feeling then?”

“Right now? Increasingly irritated and like I should GTFO.”

There’s a tug in the back of Jacob’s mind and he turns around. The glass walls allow him to see into the forest surrounding the house and in the underbrush he catches the sight of glowing golden eyes. Sam.

Behind him, Edward freezes. “Something’s happened—”

Jacob is out the door, tearing off his clothes, and racing into the woods before Edward can finish his sentence.

Chapter Text

Quil makes a strange shifter. For the rest of the pack, the first time they shifted was…anything but fun. It was terrifying and horrifying. But Quil is different. Emory and Jacob are the ones to explain everything to him once they’ve gotten him calmed down enough that they can explain everything. All three of them take the next three days off of school to help their friend get adjusted to the world he’s been thrown into. They spend most of it running through the woods, showing Quil how to tie his clothes to his back leg—easily the most time-consuming part of being a shifter—and how to shift mid-jump.

For a little bit, everything is easier. Jacob isn’t having to keep secrets from his friends or chase vampires through the woods. He settles into a routine. In the morning he gets up, ignores his dreams from the night before, goes on a run with Emory and Quil, they all go to school, and after school, he goes over to Bella’s house. Sometimes it’s to keep the pack members on watch company, sometimes it’s to hang out with his friend, or sometimes it’s to help Charlie with maintenance around the house.

For the first time in what feels like forever, everything is relatively calm.

And then Emory and Quil spend the night.

It has been a pretty long day. There was a fitness test in PE, and then Paul decided to try and pick a fight with everyone for no reason other than boredom, and then Quil’s mom decides that she wants all of the furniture in her house moved around. So, yes, a long day.

They end up at Jacob’s house on account of him owing Emory a soda. It’s only logical that, when they get tired of video games and decide to head to sleep, the other wolves spend the night.

This time, Jacob wakes up screaming.

Hands are on his shoulders, shaking him harshly, and he throws his arms out wide, hearing a smacking sound in the dark.

Hands are on his shoulders, shaking him harshly, and he lashes out in the dark without thinking. He feels the back of his hand connect with something, and then there’s a solid “Oof,” sounding from the blackness.

Quil is able to get Jacob to stay somewhat still enough for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light in the living room, and he begins to calm when he makes the groggy connection between the guy rubbing his jaw on the floor and Emory. Immediately, he’s standing, picking Emory off the floor and turning his friend’s face this way and that, checking for any real damage. Finding nothing but an already-healing bruise, he sighs and stands, making his way to the kitchen.

There is no way these fuckers aren’t going to make him talk about this.

Quil and Emory walk in just as Jacob is finishing filling up a glass with water. He doesn’t move away from the counter, just turns around and leans on it, crossing his arms over his chest.

There’s an awkward stretch of silence, each of them waiting for the other to speak. Unsurprisingly, it’s Quil who breaks it, gently asking “Want to talk about it?” like he’s talking to a spooked squirrel.

Jacob heaves a sigh and even though he knew this was coming it doesn’t make it any more pleasant. “Not really, but I don’t have much of a choice, do it?”

“I mean…” Emory starts, uncertainty, “we could wait till the morning?”

Jacob waves him off. “Nah, nah, let’s get this shit over with. I saw some messed up shit in Italy and I just can’t get it out of my head.” He takes a sip of his water, if only for an excuse to stop talking. Jacob knows that it’s better to do this now, that there’s no way his friends will think less of him for it, but that fails to uproot the underlying fear of not being strong enough.

Quil sits down backwards in one of the chairs around the dinner table. “Remind me of what happened in Italy again?”

While Emory fills Quil in on the basics, Jacob lets his thoughts wander. The dream was a bit different this time, instead of being alone in the beginning he was with that tour group, right next to the old woman. She’d grabbed his arm when Jane walked in, more afraid than he’d seen her in life, and there was nothing he could do when Edward slit her throat.

Quil’s voice pulls him out of the memory of his dream. “So what’s the part that’s got you spooked?”

“The part where I had the pleasure of watching a bunch of vamps tear into some tourists and couldn’t do anything about it.” Sip. “That part.”

Quil stares at him like he’s just kicked a puppy, befuddlement and horror filling his gaze. Jacob hides behind another pull of water.

“I can see how that would have you fucked up.” Emory is moving now, coming to stand in front of Jacob. He didn’t realize how cold he felt until now, with Emory radiating warmth in front of him.

Emory puts a hand on Jacob’s arm, nearly exactly where the dream version of the old lady had, and there’s nothing Jacob can do but sink into it.

Around the middle of May, they find the hiker.

His body is largely decomposed, but the weather has been uncommonly dry recently and so there are lots of things they can still make out. He’s missing most of his left arm and all of his right. His clothes, probably once appropriate for the warming spring weather, are torn and dirty, like he’d rolled around on the ground before dying. Then there’s his neck. His throat has been torn out completely, the wounds ragged and gruesome.

The most telling part, however, is the lack of blood.

Dr. Cullen shows up quickly. It’s him who thinks to call Charlie, the chief of police. That…why didn’t Jacob think of that earlier?

None of the Quileute boys feel particularly inclined to go to school but finals are in two weeks and Jacob needs to be there for science so they do. It’s excruciatingly slow, and the minute the bell rings all three of them are out of there faster than you can say “damn that’s fast.”

Paul fills them all in when they get to Emily’s house. Sam is having an argument with the elders—Old Quil, Billy, and Henry Clearwater—over how they should handle the hiker.

“Chief Swan says that the hiker’s body has been there for nearly two weeks, but that some of the guys in Seattle have had bodies like his turning up in the city. Lots of missing people too. It’s bloodsuckers for sure, but no one really knows what to do about it.” Paul shrugs at the end. It’s odd, how much Jacob can feel how far from normal his life has grown over the past few months that a shrug has taken on an entirely new meaning. Typically shrugs are for helpless situations where the outcome is low stakes and out of your control. But this? Similar, far too similar, in a way that fits into this new world all too seamlessly.

“Could it be the same leeches from before?” Emory asks. “The guys that were harassing Bella?”

Jacob shakes his head. “I don’t think so. The rest of Victoria’s group is dead, and this is too much for one person, even a vampire. It’s gotta be a bigger group.”

There is a collective “Oh Shit” moment. They’d taken down Laurent without too much trouble but that was the whole pack against one vampire. Who knows how a fight against a whole group of vampires would go down?

They’re going to have to go back to see the Cullens. Fuck.

Sam sends Paul, Quil, and Embry to Bella’s house, and when the members of the pack that were there get back to the reservation Jacob, Jared, and Sam go to the Cullen’s.

When they come out of the woods they are met with Alice’s grim face at the door. “Come in guys,” she holds the door open, ushering them inside the house. “Things aren’t looking good.”

In the living space—it’s not a room really, the Cullens have taken down most of the walls—the family are all sitting in comfortable-looking furniture circling the fireplace. Jacob isn’t sure why they even have one in the first place, but he guesses that’s just a thing rich people do.

“I’m assuming you’ve all come to the same conclusion we have?” It’s Carlisle who talks first. He’s sitting on the couch in front of the TV, facing them, with the same grim expression as his adopted daughter.

Sam steps forward. “If you mean that a group of vampires is killing and kidnapping people in Seattle, yes.”

“It’s worse than that,” the sandy blonde-haired guy—Jasper, maybe—sitting in the armchair directly across from the door says. “They’re newborns.”

Jacob thinks he might be hearing things for a second. “They’re…what?”

“Newborns. Recently turned vampires.”

“Why do I get the feeling that’s a very bad thing?” Sam sighs.

“Because it is,” Edward says. He’s in the armchair next to Jasper. His hair is messy, like he’s had his hands buried in it, and he’s leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees. For a moment, Jacob is idly reminded of the cover of a magazine he’d found hidden under his sister’s bed a few years ago.

He snaps his gaze away from the vampire quickly. Probably not a good idea to think about things like that in the presence of a mind reader. Or at all.

“Newborns are faster and stronger than most vampires because of the human blood still coursing through their veins,” Edward explains.

“Additionally,” Esme continues, “they have no control. They don’t understand the thirst for blood and, because they’re not accustomed to it, they have no defense against it.”

Even Jared’s typically jovial face is drawn. “Fuck.”

Bella throws open the door almost the minute that Jacob puts a foot on the driveway to her house. “Thank fuck! No one will tell me what’s going on!” At the edge of the tree line, the shifter can see the shapes of his friends’ wolf forms begin to shrink away.

He starts up the steps with a rueful grin. No doubt she’s been hassling the guys for information. In the kitchen, the shifter sits Bella down and starts answering her questions.

“All the killings in Seattle are from baby vampires.”

“Wait, baby vampires?”

“Yup.”

“In Seattle?”

“It’s a more populated hunting ground. They’re newbies so they can’t control their creepy vampire desires so…”

“They’re tearing the city apart,” Bella agrees. She looks off into the distance, thinking. There’s a beat of silence, and then she abruptly asks “What’s the story with this whole imprinting thing?”

“Subtle, Hells Bells, subtle.” She laughs but doesn’t let up. He sighs. Maybe it’ll be good to talk about it with someone who’s his own age and who actually knows the guy. “I don’t know.” A good way to start, Jacob. “I mean, Old Quil said it’s just an indicator that you will have some sort of relation with your imprint. Like, it could be a mentor-mentee relationship or you could be like siblings. But it…it doesn’t feel like that. It feels like—” He can’t finish the sentence.

“It feels like it’s meant to be romantic,” Bella finishes for him and he nods. He’s been intentionally not thinking of it since the awkward conclusion of his conversation with Edward nearly a month ago, but that’s the conclusion he’d come to. He’s not fucking happy about it, that’s for sure. “But…?”

“But I don’t want it to be. I don’t want to have to love this asshole. Bella, he abandoned you in the woods! How can that be the person I’m supposed to spend the rest of my life loving? On top of that, he’s a self-righteous prick whose head is so far up his own ass he’s basically a human circle. Vampire circle. Fuck!”

Her hand is on his shoulder, warm and soft,. He meets her gaze, and there’s an understanding there that he abruptly realizes he needs more than anything right now. He needs her.

“And that’s totally okay. Hell, do you think I understand half of the shit that’s going on right now? We’ll figure it out.”

“Together?”

“Together.”

Jacob ends up spending the night. When he wakes up, it’s to the sound of raindrops hitting Bella’s bedroom window. He gets up from the floor and stretches, feeling better than he has in ages. It’s Saturday morning, so he decides to let Bella sleep in and goes downstairs to start making breakfast for the Swans.

He’s already handed Charlie breakfast—who took off to go to the police department—and is nearly done with the bacon when there’s a knock at the door. “Just a minute!” he calls, scooping up the sizzling meat and putting it on a plate to cool. “Bacon’s ready!” he yells to Bella as he wipes his hands on a dishrag hanging on the oven handle, then moves towards the entrance.

He opens the door and his blood runs cold. Standing there, on the Swans’ front porch in a soaked henley, is Edward.

Chapter Text

He’s frozen in the doorway until he hears Bella’s voice. “Who is it?” she asks sleepily from the kitchen, probably more interested in the bacon than whoever’s at the door.

It does the trick though, as soon as his limbs unfreeze he leaps into action. His hand is on Edward’s chest, pushing him further back on the porch as he calls “Going to be a minute!” and slams the door behind them.

“What are you doing here?” His voice is colder than he means for it to be, but it gets the point across.

Edward doesn’t flinch. “I need to speak with you.”

“So your grand idea is to show up at the house of the girl you nearly got killed?!”

“I also need to speak with her.”

Jacob’s arms cross of their own accord. “Hard pass. We may be…” We may be what? “But Bella doesn’t need this right now. She’s got enough on her plate as it is.”

They’ve backed up into the rain now. It’s getting caught in Jacob’s slowly growing hair, making it stick to his forehead. “There will never be a good time for this.” The vampire looks frustrated, not with Jacob but with himself. Strange.

“Then don’t do it! She doesn’t need to be hurled into another spiral, and neither do I!”

“She deserves the truth, Jacob! And so do you!”

“Yeah, well—!” Edward’s words catch up to him. The truth? What truth?

He’s about to ask when the door behind him slams open, revealing an angry looking Bella.

Shit.

“Get inside. Now.” Oh she’s pissed.

The shifter picks at the fluffy white towel wrapped around his shoulders as his friend stands over him. “Jacob Ephraim Black,” ooh, full name. She’s serious. “don’t you ever try and make my decisions for me again, do you hear me?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Now would be a perfect time for a kicked puppy joke, Jacob thinks. Beside him on the floral couch, also wrapped in a towel, Edward snorts.

“And you.” She rounds on the vampire and Jacob swears that if he could, Edward would have paled. As it is, he can’t get much paler. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

Edward’s head hangs and it’s Jacob’s turn to stifle his laughter. “I know. For what it’s worth, I’ve come to apologize.”

“I figured, seeing as there is absolutely no other reason for you to be here.”

“Bella, the only reason I left was to protect you, to give you a chance at a normal life. I never wanted to hurt you.” Edward raises his head, his eyes pleading for her to understand.

Bella’s expression doesn’t change. “Fat lot of good that did.”

“Yes, I—I realize that. Now. What I did was…horrible. I left you alone and with no one to turn to so soon after throwing you into this realm of insanity.”

Jacob wishes he had some popcorn. “Don’t forget literally leaving her alone and stranded in the woods.”

Edward’s face turns towards him and the pained expression almost makes him feel guilty. Almost. “Yes. That as well. It was…far from my finest moment.”

The shifter snorts and mumbles “I’ll say,” under his breath, which garners him another look from Edward.

Bella angrily opens her mouth like she’s going to say something when three things happen at once.

The first is Edward’s cell phone starts to ring. It’s loud in the living room, which until then had only been filled with their three voices and the soft patter of rain against the house. He pulls it out of his pocket and flips it open, only to frown at the caller ID.

Edward is about to answer when there’s a sharp tug in the back of Jacob’s mind. He recognizes the sensation. Someone in the pack is trying to communicate with him, and urgently. It feels strange though, like it’s coming from someone who’s never done this before, and it hurts.

Jacob is halfway cradling his head when the front door flies open and a sopping wet Embry comes crashing into the house. He’s barely wearing any clothes, like he only had time to put on underwear after shifting back into human form. He barrels into the living room panting.

“It’s Leah and Seth,” Embry huffs, probably to Jacob, although he’s too busy with his pounding head to look up. “They’ve both just shifted.”

It takes nearly an hour to calm the Clearwaters down enough that Sam can explain what’s happening to them and Jacob can run back to the Swan house. By the time he gets there there is a new car parked in the grass next to his bike, Edward’s Camaro, and Bella’s truck.

Inside, Alice has taken Jacob’s spot on the couch next to Edward—who has his arm slung around her shoulders like he’s trying to comfort her—and Rosalie stands arms crossed in the corner, with Bella by the entrance to the living room. No one looks happy.

Rosalie is the first to notice his arrival. “Look who’s late to the party.”

“Watch it princess, I was here first. Unlike some people, I have more to do with my time than spend a millennia picking an outfit.” He realizes after he says this that they probably don’t know each other well enough to tease, but fuck it. Life moves fast when you’re constantly in crisis. “Is there a reason we’re staging an intervention in Bella’s living room or did you all just come for the ambiance?”

“Alice had a vision. It’s Victoria.”

All notion of joking around is out of Jacob’s mind in an instant. “What about her?”

“She’s…” Alice takes an unnecessary breath, “she’s behind the newborns.”

“Well shit.”

“My visions are unclear. I can’t quite get a handle on what her plans are, she keeps changing them, but we don’t really need to know the future to figure it out.”

Realization dawns on Jacob. “She’s going to wipe us out.”

Bella, who is now standing next to him, snorts derisively. “She’s going to try.”

It’s a good effort, if not successful, to lift the mood. And for a moment it does. Alice offers Bella a weak smile and Rosalie relaxes her stance slightly, but there’s only so much words can do in the face of impending doom.

They meet at the Cullens’ again. Sam, Jared, Paul, Emory, Quil, and Jacob in addition to Bella and Charlie all find themselves standing awkwardly around the open first floor of the glass house. Jacob desperately wants to start up a conversation, if only to fill the silence, but in the end he can’t work up the courage to before the vampires come into the room.

“Wonderful, you’re all here!” Carlisle says as he walks into the room, “We can get started.”

The first training session is more talk than anything else. Charlie goes into detail with Jasper and Carlisle what exactly the police reports from Seattle are saying and from there they start estimating exactly how many newborns they’re going to be pitted against. Then Jasper gives them this whole spiel about baby vamps and how dangerous they are. Honestly, Jacob spaces out for most of it until he can feel Edward staring at him.

Hope that fucker likes AC/DC because that’s what’s blasting in the shifter’s mind right now.

Quil leans over about twenty minutes in and whispers “When are we going to actually do anything?”

“I don’t know but if we keep whispering about it maybe it’ll happen faster.”

Quil starts snickering and if the absolutely-audible-to-vampires whispering didn’t draw attention, now all eyes are definitely on them.

“Anything to add, gentlemen?” Jasper asks.

“Yeah,” Jacob crosses his arms, “none of what you’re saying is going to sink in until we are doing something with it. You can talk all you want, but until I’m throwing people around the info is going in one ear and out the other.”

“He does have a point, Jasper.” Rosalie’s expression is only mildly pained when she says it so Jacob takes it as a win. “Maybe a demonstration is in order.”

Jacob is tall, okay. Like, tall tall. 6’7”, to be exact. And Emmett isn’t too far behind him, only about 2 inches shorter.

So when Rosalie throws Emmett clear across the small field they’re in, he gawks. Sure, he knows about the super strength, but this is on a whole different level.

He swallows and turns to Jasper, who is standing next to him. “And baby vamps are stronger than that?”

“Yes.” Oh fuck.

“Oh fuck.”

The day isn’t completely depressing though. Jasper walks them through some basic fight training and gives them all tips.

“They’re young,” he says at one point, “and they don’t really know their strength yet, nor how to properly fight. The more time we spend training, together and individually, the more of an advantage we have.”

It’s not perfect, but it does lift the mood a bit.

Just before they go, Jasper and Emmett pull the Swans aside. The conversation is quick, less than five minutes, but Jacob manages to catch snippets of what’s said.

“You’re going to need to be able to protect yourself too. Both of you,” Emmett is saying. Then Jasper starts.

“We have some weapons from Carlisle’s time in Europe, and I have an idea, but…”

“This isn’t exactly an ideal situation,” Charlie’s low rumbling voice finishes. Understatement of the year man, the literal cop on their side can do nothing against these guys.

At their second training session, Jacob learns he was wrong. There is a way to let Charlie fight. It’s just really weird.

“You want what now?!” Carlisle doesn’t flinch in the face of Jacob’s incredulity or Sam’s scowl.

“It’s the quickest way we could think of.”

“Dr. Cullen,” Sam’s voice is steady and firm, “you realize what you are asking of us, correct? You are asking us to willingly give you one of our only mechanisms of defense.”

“Yes, Sam. I know. I do apologize, I wish there was an alternative, but there isn’t.”

That's not good enough for Jacob. “What about you guys? We’re just supposed to give up our claws for the three weeks it’ll take them to grow back while your family puts in nothing?”

“There isn’t much we can give. Large parts of our body do not regrow, they reattach. We are working on a way to weaponize our venom, but we have yet to come up with a substantial way it would be useful in making bullets short of a thin outer coating.”

The argument goes on for another thirty minutes before Jacob finally relents. It’s Quil who convinces him, Quil and Seth. Apparently, neither of them have the hold ups over these things that Jacob does, probably because they’re the youngest.

Jasper walks them through how they plan on making the bullets. They will, for the most part, be nearly identical to a regular round, with one big distinction. Jasper plans on mixing the molten metal for the body with ground up shifter claws, and the heads of the bullets will be entirely made of it.

It’s a good idea, Jacob will give him that, but weird as fuck.

The other thing that happens in the second training session is that Bella gets a sword. It’s strange, the blade is porcelain in color and the handle is incredibly ornate. It almost looks decorative, until Alice uses it to chop off Jasper's forearm.

The blonde grimaces as he waits for the limb to reattach while the non-vampires in the clearing stand there in shock.

This is going to be…interesting.

Chapter Text

For the rest of May they meet twice a week after school and the weekends to train. It’s intense, each day is, almost impossibly, something new. If it’s not learning a new tactic to kill someone, it’s not that then it’s planning for every possible outcome, and if it’s learning to work together as a team.

It’s the end of spring on a warmer afternoon when Jacob walks into the house, sweaty and looking for water, and finds Carlisle on the couch playing a baseball game at three times the normal speed and watching it intently.

“Uhh, whatcha up to, Dr. Cullen?”

He doesn’t take his eyes off the screen to answer Jacob’s question. “My colleagues at work will want to talk about this game tomorrow, and I’d rather not be left out.”

“So you’re…speed running watching the game?”

Carlisle’s gaze doesn’t waver. “Yes.”

Emmett comes crashing through the doors Jacob left open. “Hey Jake, what's taking you—oh my god is that baseball?” Annnd he’s sitting next to his father figure on the couch, vision also focused incredibly intently on the screen.

Jacob just shakes his head and walks out with his glass. Every family has their thing, right?

Boy is that an understatement.

The shifter mentions the odd interaction to Bella and Seth later that afternoon.

“Yeah, I remember something like that from last year. They get really excited about baseball. It’s crazy, like, they have their own jerseys and everything.”

Seth has a look on his face that wouldn’t be strange on a child seeing a dinosaur for the first time in their life. “That’s hella cool! I’ve always wanted to play!”

Behind Jacob there’s a whoosh of air and the impact of a small body hitting him like a truck. He almost falls on his face, but Alice hauls him back to his feet before he can completely lose his balance.

When he turns to face her she looks shocked. “You’ve never played baseball?”

“No?” The 14-year-old looks incredibly confused. It’s kind of adorable.

“Holy shit we need to fix this right now!”

And that’s how they end up in a big open baseball field.

After they explain the game to Seth, they pick teams. Since they don’t have enough people for two whole teams, they’ll play with only two outfielders and not switch pitchers. Esme and Sam are picked to be the team captains and from there they chose people from the group, seemingly at random. Esme, Jasper, Paul, Quil, Rosalie, Emmett, and Leah end up on one team, putting Sam, Edward, Jared, Carlisle, Embry, Seth, and Jacob on the other. Alice volunteers to pitch first and Bella plays the ref.

It starts off normally enough, with Edward explaining what’s going on to Seth while they’re waiting to bat, but soon enough Alice throws a fastball that Embry hits so far out that Jacob thinks there’s no possible way that the other team can get to it in time. They’re cheering as he shifts and takes off, sprinting around the bases faster than Jacob’s ever seen him run.

He’s nearly home when Rosalie emerges from the woods holding the ball. Time slows as Embry crosses the last few feet and Jasper reaches for the ball midair. There’s a cloud of dust as Embry’s paws skid towards home and, when it settles, there’s a problem.

Both Embry’s paw and Jasper’s foot are on the plate.

“He’s safe!” Jared screams, only for Leah to yell back “Oh he’s so out!”

“Embry touched that plate waaay before Jasper got the ball,” Seth chimes in. Esme responds with “I think you’re mistaken dear.”

The field erupts in arguments, each one louder than the last. It’s…it’s amazing. This sense of familiarity and peace wells up in Jacob in a way he hasn’t felt so strongly since he first shifted. These people—although supernatural and stressed out over a probable invasion of their home—are standing around arguing about something as petty as baseball.

The shifter feels a smile begin to split his face. And that’s when Edward looks over. His jaw is open, like he’s about to ask Jacob to back him up on whatever he’s just said to Alice, but nothing comes out. After a beat, the vampire begins to smile too.

There’s another, stranger, feeling that settles in Jacob’s chest. He pushes it aside, trying to make a mental note to take a closer look later.

He walks across the field to where Edward and his sister are squaring off.

“Alice, is Edward lying to you about you having a shitty pitch?”

Edward’s smile goes fake-shocked. “What?! Why do you assume I’m the problem?”

Alice smugly says, “Because you usually are,” and holds a hand out for Jacob to high five, which he gleefully reciprocates.

“Hey!” Jacob just laughs and throws an arm around Alice’s shoulder.

“She’s just way cooler than you man, no hard feelings.”

“Damn right I am!

Jacob and Alice both break down laughing at the look on Edward’s face, and don’t stop for a long time.

All in all, it’s a good night.

Jacob is pissed. Sam is being an asshole about the pack, not listening to anything Jacob has to say, and enforcing the dynamics with a fucking vengance. It’s making everyone mad, but it all came to a head earlier today when Jacob suggested something and Sam shot back with “Well you had your chance to be in charge.”

So Jacob is pissed. And when he’s pissed he goes and finds his best friend. He went to the Swan’s house but Charlie directed him to the Cullen’s, and now he’s standing on their porch, angry and annoyed.

It’s Jasper who comes outside first. His brow is drawn and he has this vibe of “concerned southern man” coming off of him in waves.

“Jacob. Is everything alright? You feel…agitated.”

The shifter runs his hand through his hair. It’s getting longer now, hanging low enough that he can tuck it behind his ear. He’s been thinking of cutting it again, but it felt so wrong to have it cut short. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Just pack issues. Is Bella here?”

“She, Alice, and Emmett went shopping.”

“Ah.”

A beat. And then “Do you want to…talk?” Jasper looks slightly ill at the thought, and it kind of makes Jacob want to share.

“It’s not that big of an issue, really. Sam’s just being an asshole. He won’t listen to anything we suggest. I mean, I get that he’s stressed as shit, but still.”

The vampire nods. “Being a leader is difficult, but that does not excuse not working with the people you are supposed to be leading. Is there possibly another reason you’re upset about this?”

Jacob is silent for a while. He imagines that Jasper must be able to feel his internal debate, but that does little to stop it. On one hand, it’s a bit strange to share personal issues with someone whom you barely know—even if you meet them four times a week to train to kill baby vampires. But on the other hand, what does he have to lose?

“I’m supposedly a True Alpha, which means I’m predestined to lead the pack. Sam told me about it in the beginning and offered to step aside, but it was all too new for me. I don’t want to lead the pack, but I also can’t just keep blindly following Sam when he’s being such a bull headed moron.”

Again, Jasper just nods, but Jacob doesn’t mind. It feels good to say it all out loud, even if he doesn’t have a solution yet.

They stand there for a bit before the shifter hears footsteps and the door opening behind them.

“What are you fools doing out here?”

“Rose,” Jasper says, not even bothering to turn around fully, “how nice of you to join us.”

“What’s the drama?”

“Sam won’t listen to any of my bright ideas.” It’s probably smarter to make a joke out of it with her.

Rosalie snorts. “Jacob, a glow stick is brighter than you, and that’s being generous.”

“Ohh, good one. I’ll remember it for the next time I’m in a conversation with someone whose opinion actually matters.”

The vampire twirls her hair around her index finger, looking very much like she’d be the bully in a highschool drama. “You’re going to be waiting a long time to find someone who’s stupid enough to be able to hold a conversation with you.”

“You’re just jealous.”

“Of you? Never.”

“Well you should be. My hair is way better than yours.”

Jasper’s face, typically stone cold, is contorted in a way that makes it look like he’s trying very hard not to laugh, and it makes Jacob feel a little proud.

They go inside the house to wait for Bella and the others to return. Edward and Carlisle are out hunting, but Jacob finds Esme in the kitchen flipping through, of all things, a cookbook.

“Hey, Esme. I thought you guys didn’t eat regular food.”

She doesn’t look up from the book. She and Carlisle were really meant to be huh. “Hmm, no, we don’t.”

“…then why are you reading a cookbook?”

“Oh!” Now she looks up. “Well, you guys are around so often and Leah made a comment about you all eating Emily out of house and home and I just figured…”

That is not what Jacob was expecting. “That’s so nice of you! But you really don’t have to.”

“Yes, but I want to. It’s been forever since I’ve had someone to cook for aside from Bella. I miss it.”

“Well in that case, don’t let me stop you! Although, I’m not sure that’s the right book. It’s from Europe.”

“Oh,” Esme looks down at the book’s cover. “Is that a problem?”

“No! No, not at all. It’s just that their groceries are different from ours in the US. Uhh, hold on.” Jacob is pretty sure that he heard someone say something about a PC around here. “Do you guys have a computer?”

“Yes, why?”

“There are tons of recipes on the internet. I can show you, if you want?”

And that’s how Edward and Carlisle come home to Shepard’s Pie. Esme wouldn’t explain why that’s what she wanted to make, but she had Jacob print out three different recipes from various food blogs and they spend nearly four hours cooking. With tomorrow being Sunday, Esme says they’ll just give whatever doesn’t get eaten to the local food kitchen, which Jacob is more than fine with.

As soon as Edward walks into the house Jacob realizes why Esme wanted to make this.

He stops dead in the doorway when Jacob opens the oven to pull out the last dish and a wave of smell and hot air goes rushing through the room. Jacob turns around to find the vampire staring at him, jaw dropped. For a second Jacob thinks it might be his outfit. Yes, the almost-too-tight tee-shirt, baby blue ruffled apron, and matching oven mitts aren’t something he’d normally wear, but baking is baking and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.

The shifter is about to tell Edward as much when Esme moves away from the counter where she’d been packing the food into containers and embraces her son, standing on her toes to throw her arms around his neck. The taller vampire just closes his eyes and hugs her back.

Jacob tries his best to quietly slip away from what is obviously an emotional moment when Edward says “Wait.” It’s not loud, no louder than if the redhead were speaking to the person directly next to him—no doubt Jacob wouldn’t have heard it if he were a normal human—but it stops him all the same.

When Jacob turns around Edward’s golden gaze is fixed on his, and he swears that if he was human there would be tears in Edward’s eyes.

“Thank you.”

Chapter Text

That night Jacob wakes up sweating bullets. He can’t remember what he’d been dreaming of, but he can feel his whole body shaking from where it’s bolted upright in bed. It only takes one look out the window, at the woods lit by the nearly full moon, to come to a decision.

The air is cool and calming as it passes through his fur. He finds that his paws are moving of their own accord, seemingly knowing better than he does where he’s going, but Jacob doesn’t really care. He’s just running, running away from nightmares he can’t remember and leadership he doesn’t want he feels obligated to take. He runs,

and runs,

and runs,

and comes to a stop by the edge of a pond. He’s never been here before, but it strikes him that this would be a good Spot. Everyone has a Spot, a place they can go that is calming and peaceful when they can’t find the energy to be, and this pond, in the middle of the woods, on a moonlit night, would make a damn good one.

Which is why it makes sense that there’s someone already here.

Jacob’s paws pull him towards the figure sitting by the edge of the silver-looking water, and he finds himself laying down next to them. It’s nice, to share this with someone else. He can’t remember why he woke up scared, but here, in this glade, staring at silver water, and sitting beside another person, he feels safe.

He closes his eyes, listening to the water lapping gently at the bank of the little pond. There’s a breeze, dancing through the trees, and it brings with it the smell of nearly-summer air, of flowers blooming, and of nighttime animals coming out to move around the forest surrounding them.

It’s a pleasant way to fall asleep.

Jacob spends the next day, Sunday, with Emmett in the small field near the Cullen’s house. The dark-haired vampire is lazily throwing chopped firewood at a shifted Jacob, who is alternating between dodging, catching, and slashing at the wood.

After half an hour they’ve settled into a rhythm and Emmet starts talking. Nothing important, per se, mostly little anecdotes about his family. Over the course of the morning, Jacob learns many things, chiefly that Rosalie was a kindergarten teacher, that Jasper crashed a plane into a farmhouse, and that Esme ran an illegal armadillo smuggling ring because “they were just so cute!”

Around noon Alice and Bella show up in the red pickup. The latter swings out of the driver's side and moves to the bed of the truck, pulling out two long objects wrapped in padding. She hands one to Alice and the two make their way to where Emmett and Jacob are laying in the grass, having stopped for a short rest.

The Quillette’s panting head is resting on his paws, fuzzy and relaxed, as his side presses against Emmett’s frozen form. The chill feels good on his overheated skin, like the cool side of your favorite pillow.

“Are you guys pretending to be dead? Is that what all your training is for,” Bella calls to them, a smirk evident in her voice.

Emmett doesn’t move from where he’s sprawled out in the grass. Instead, he smiles at the sky and directs his words toward the human. “Don’t knock it till you try it, Bella!”

Jacob jerks his head off his paws when he hears Bella gleefully crash into the vampire beside him. Not a second later Alice is on his back, rolling him over. He yelps, more out of surprise than any actual pain, and that makes Alice laugh as they tumble down the slight hill.

The week passes strangely. Jacob spends his days with the Cullens and his pack, training in the clearing, running through the woods, or playing games, and his nights at Bella’s house or the silver pond. It’s happened enough times now that he’s pretty sure the lake isn’t a trick his mind is playing on him, and every time he’s been there the other person has to. He’s got a hunch as to who it is, but every time he's there it’s the middle of the night, and he’s not running on enough brain power to function properly.

And then there’s the topic of his imprint. It’s…odd. Jacob is having trouble identifying what exactly Edward feels about him. The emotions have gotten more positive in general, but are still generally pretty much in the range of annoyance to tolerance. A far cry from the initial spitting animosity, and he’ll get these flashes of really intense—fondness? Sure, fondness—sporadically, but they’re so brief and scattered he doesn’t give them much thought most of the time.

As for Jacob’s end, he's grudgingly starting to see what Bella saw in the vamp. A little. He’s objectively gorgeous, for one, and he can be…considerate. Whenever he’s not sparring with the wolves he’s usually inside helping Esme make food for the pack. He’d asked each of them for their favorite foods and Embry has taken to walking him through some of their more traditional recipes with lots of enthusiasm.

He’s also very stubborn, which—although irritating—Jacob finds himself respecting more and more lately. It comes out mostly when he’s around his siblings. The first argument the shifter witnessed between Edward and Rosalie was utterly baffling, and over tomatoes of all things. It started out with the historical view of them, but by the end of things, Edward was mispronouncing the word “tomato” so horribly that Rosalie had thrown her hands in the air and left the room. He’d winked at Jacob then, as if to say I know I’m wrong, I just didn’t want to lose.

It’s odd, it should be irritating—Jacob wants it to be—but for some reason, it isn’t. Not nearly as much as it should be.

All of this worries Jacob sometimes, when it’s nearing midnight and all he can do is lay in his bed and stare at the ceiling. He worries that this imprint is changing him, making him into someone he doesn’t want to be. He doesn’t feel much different, not really, but he’s spent so long hating the Cullens, hating Edward, that feeling in even a slightly more positive way towards them, is mildly terrifying. Hell, he can’t even call them leeches or bloodsuckers in his head anymore, it just feels gross.

He’s too lost in thought to notice Jasper sneaking up on him, and he goes down hard when the vampire tackles him. He rolls with it, instincts and basic muscle memory from two months of training helping him to maneuver himself on top of Jasper and get his teeth to the vampire's throat.

“Pay attention. Now isn’t the time for daydreaming,” Jasper scolds, which are bold words coming from a man laying flat on his ass with a giant wolf’s teeth to his throat.

The overconfidence is probably what allows Jasper to fling him off so easily. He lands in the small creek running alongside the clearing, water filling his nose and making him sneeze. Rosalie, Paul, and Leah—the rest of the people in the clearing—laugh at him as he shakes what he can out of his coat.

Yeah yeah, laugh it up, guys. He thinks at them. Jasper smiles at him, probably able to guess what kind of things he’s broadcasting to the pack based on his emotional vibes, and he nudges the vampire with his snout, moving back into a fighting pose.

It’s insane how quickly things shift from there. The five have just gotten back into a rhythm when Jacob notices Edward and Sam enter the clearing out of the corner of his eye. He’s not surprised, some of the pack and the Cullens were running through the woods together, both as a bonding exercise and as a form of patrol, and it makes perfect sense that Edward would be trying to get along with Sam. All of this information flicks through Jacob’s mind in an instant and is dismissed nearly as quickly as he focuses his attention back on Jasper.

The next thing he knows Paul is pinned to the ground under him, blood streaming from a shallow wound to his neck, and Jacob’s mouth tastes like copper. His ears are ringing, but he doesn’t need them to know that he’s snarling at the older shifter in a way he’s never done before. He’s snarling like an animal, like he’s a real wolf, like he’s angrier than he’s ever been.

Like he actually wants to kill Paul.

Jacob scrambles backward, panic filling his brain and pushing rational thoughts away. What the fuck just happened? What—

He can feel the whole clearing’s eyes on him, and his gaze jumps frantically from face to face. Their eyes are wide with dime-sized pupils and mouths hanging open. They’re shocked. More than that, they’re afraid, Jacob knows it for certain.

They’re afraid of him. His fucking pack Is afraid of him.

He runs.

Jacob skids to a halt at the edge of a lake. His paws are bloody, and his chest is heaving. He must have fallen into a ditch or bush at some point because he can feel the dirt and twigs matting his fur. He doesn’t know how long he’s been running for, but the sun is just beginning to dip behind the trees, a far cry from the high noon it had been at before. He curls up at the base of a pine tree whose long limbs and needle-like leaves create strange patterns in the red light of the fading sun, buries his head under his paws, and tries not to think.

Edward finds him not twenty minutes later, because of course he fucking does. He can’t have a single moment where this goddamned imprint isn’t the driving force in his life.

He stands a ways away, like a total creeper, and just watches. Almost out of defiance, Jacob doesn’t flinch at all, perfectly content to lay in the grass and wallow in his thoughts alone, thank you very much.

Over the course of ten minutes, Edward creeps closer, until he’s only four paces away. The shifter valiantly ignores him, instead turning what happened in the clearing with Paul over and over in his head. If he felt like lying to himself he would throw around ideas of just being high-strung from fighting Jasper, it was the quick movement of Paul’s wolf that caught the corner of his eye and he reacted on instinct. But lying to himself feels stupid and unhelpful.

Jacob knows that the reason he attacked Paul was because of Edward, and he’s pissed about it. He doesn’t know how he knows, he just does. Some part of him must have felt that Edward was in danger and interviened, getting himself between the vampire and Paul. This stupid fucking imprint is talking so much from him, it’s already taken his freedom to choose his relationships, it’s taken his ability to trust his thoughts, and now it’s taken his trust in his body. He wants to rake his claws down his face, he wants to throw himself into the lake, he wants to bury himself in the earth and never come out again.

He can’t bring himself to say that he wants to hurt Edward, because it isn’t true. Despite the way he’s acted and the things he’s said, Jacob knows that Edward isn’t to blame for this. All the vampire’s done is exist, nothing more nothing less, and Jacob can’t fault him for that.

A rustling to his right snaps him out of his thoughts, and he finally turns to look at Edward. He’s sat himself down not two feet from Jacob, his back against a tree, and his gaze is locked firmly on the mountains rising above the treeline on the opposite bank.

Jacob takes the opportunity to study Edward, giving up all pretense of ignoring him. He feels a bit silly doing so, acting like the man’s a bug under a microscope. He snorts at the mental image, and he watches as Edward’s lip quirks up slightly.

“We could have a normal conversation about this, you know.” The shifter watches Edward’s mouth move and thinks idly that there isn’t anything about this situation that’s normal.

“I don’t think so, maybe you’re just looking at things in the wrong light.” What in the world does that mean?

“You’re only thinking about this in the context of your life. Which, reasonably speaking, isn’t out of the ordinary, but you could stand to remove yourself.” Most of what Edward said went over Jacob’s head, but that certainly sounded like a fucking insult.

He can feel his upper lip curl into a small snarl, but it drops when Edward starts speaking again. “Stop that, I didn’t mean that as a slight against you, I only meant that this situation is not as dire as you seem to think it is. You’re still in control, and if you weren’t having the emotions you are, you wouldn’t be acting this way. You told me yourself that this imprint situation is based on feelings, so whatever actions you’re taking must be beneficial in some way. If not that, than at least indicative of what you’re feeling.” God damnit why does this man always talk like he’s writing a textbook?

That startles a laugh out of Edward, and a little warm feeling blooms in Jacob’s chest. It feels like pride, and Jake is reminded distantly of baseball games and petty insults.

Maybe there is something to what Edward is getting at, maybe this whole thing isn’t so shitty after all. His resentment towards the imprint thus far feels like a blinking indicator light that he really hasn’t changed, at least not in ways that feel like a curse.

As he watches the reflection of the starts appear in the pond in front of him, Jacob thinks that maybe things aren’t so bad after all.

Chapter Text

Jacob climbs through his bedroom window sometime early in the morning and is immediately greeted with his father’s drawn face. He yelps, tumbles through the window, lands sprawling on the floor, and scrambles for something to cover himself with. Overall, it’s incredibly inelegant and probably gives him some redemption points in Billy’s eyes.

“Dad!” Jacob has pulled the top sheet off his bed and is now currently manhandling it to wrap around his naked full-on-wolf-just-a-second-ago body–which is beet red at the moment.

Billy, unsurprisingly, does not look impressed. “Son,” he replies, his even tone giving away nothing.

Gulping, Jacob’s mouth starts running away from him. “I can explain! Well, actually, no I can’t but I also kind of can. I can tell you what happened! Most of it, not all of it, maybe some of it. It’s very strange and I don’t really understand what happened and—” Billy, mercifully, cuts his son off.

“Take a breath, Jacob. One thing at a time. Sam told me what happened while you were training with the Cullens.” Jacob grows, impossibly, redder, at the reminder that there were so many other people who saw what happened. “Bella has been calling non-stop, in addition to the rest of your pack, who said they couldn’t reach you through the bonds.” His father’s face is softening, the sternness melting away to show the underlying concern.

“Oh.”

“Yeah, ‘Oh.’ Want to tell me where my son has been for the past fourteen hours?”

Jacob sighs. The thing is he almost can’t everything after he took off and before he came-to at the pond is a hazy blur. He does his best to piece things together for his father—a task that is filled with lots of ‘uhh’s and ‘gimme a second’s, and it’s his alarm clock that ends Billy’s questions.

“Look, dad, it’s 3am, can I please just go to bed. I’m home, I’m safe, and I’m not going anywhere.”

Billy runs his hands through his hair and nods. “You know I’m just worried about you, right kid?”

“Yeah, dad,” Jacob flashes what he hopes is a reassuring smile at his father “I know. I’ll be careful.”

The older man sighs one last time and ruffles his kid’s hair on the way out of the room, closing the door quietly behind him.

Jacob calls Bella the next morning—before going to Emily’s house where the rest of the pack is waiting—to fill her in on what happened.

She picks up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Bella, it’s Jacob—“

“Holy shit! Jake, is everything alright? What happened?!”

Jacob’s hand rubs along the back of his neck and he mumbles sheepishly into the receiver. “Uhh, well, I kinda might be not absolutely hating your shitty ex.”

“…what?”

“Yeah. I—Paul went to attack him and I just—snapped. I don’t know. I’m sorry if I scared the shit out of you.”

“Nah, it’s all good. Paul’s an asshole anyways, he made Seth cry the other day. He deserved to have his fuzzy butt kicked.” That’s…not what Jacob was expecting. Wait, Paul made Seth cry?

“He made Seth cry?!”

On the other end, Bella snorts. “Yeah, he was being douchie about something or another. Leah ripped him a new one, but I think he still deserved you tackling him. Anyways, you, Edward, gay love. What?”

The fuck! “Woah woah woah, what?!”

The line crackles as Bella laughs into the other end of the phone. “You’re saying that now—”

“Ohh, screw you very much!”

“That’s cheating, Jacob, I’ll have to tell Edward that you’ve been unfaithful. Anyways, answer, please. What’s the relationship status?”

Jacob doesn’t reply immediately. He honestly doesn’t know where they stand after last night, only that it’s better than where they were.

“I’m not sure.” It’s the truth at least. Not a very satisfying answer, but an honest one. “I kinda need to…think about it.”

“Well, don’t hurt yourself. If you ever want to talk about it, you know where to find me.”

Thats…really sweet actually. Jacob might just take her up on it, and tells her as much. From there their phone call devolves into nonsense and plans to go bowling with some of Bella’s human friends from school.

The phone starts ringing again almost immediately after he puts it back on the wall.

“Hello?”

“Jacob, good. What are you doing right now?” It’s Sam, sounding a strange mix of worried, relieved, and agitated.

“Nothing.”

“Good, good. Can you meet us at the Cullen’s? We need to have a meeting.”

Jacob swallows, shame welling up a bit again. But this is important, they can’t fight or train if Jacob is flying off the handle all the time, right?

“Yeah. I can be there in half an hour?”

Jacob can picture the way Sam is probably nodding on the other end. “We’ll be there.”

Click

By the time Jacob changes into his clothes on the outskirts of the woods surrounding the Cullen’s house everyone looks to already be inside, with the exception of three of the Quillette wolves, Bella, Charlie, and Carlisle, the latter two who have actual real-world jobs. They’re all gathered in the big open living room, the morning summer sun streaming in through the large glass walls, making about half of the room’s occupants sparkle.

Rosalie rolls her eyes the minute he walks through the door. “Can you ever be on time, wolf boy?”

“Hey! I’m here exactly when I said I would be!”

Another eye roll. If she keeps this up they’re going to come flying out of her head. “Everyone knows that early is on time and on time is late, idiot.”

“Yeah, well—”

“Guys,” Sam says, rubbing his forehead with a long-suffering sigh, “can we please not?”

Rosalie and Jacob don’t break eye contact as Jacob takes a seat between Jasper and Quil on the couch to Sam’s left.

“Right then. Is everyone here generally up to date on the basics of the imprint?” Everyone nods at Sam’s question. “Good, I’ll cut to the chase. Like we’ve mentioned, these bonds are different for everyone, but for most there is a stage where those involved, or at least the shifter involved, become very…protective of the other person. I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a problem but with Alice’s visions getting stronger and with there only being really a month and a half left until the weather starts getting bad again, this,” he gestures between Edward and Jacob, as if the topic wasn’t obvious enough, “is obviously going to be a problem.”

Neither of the subjects in question say anything. They both know the truth in Sam’s words, so there’s really no use fighting back.

“Obviously,” Rosalie says, snapping Jacob’s attention towards her. “Now what are we supposed to do about it? Victoria is going to come after Edward no matter what, he’s the one who killed James. You can’t just stay home.”

Beside him, Jasper nods, “She’s got a point. Edward is a target. Maybe not as central as Bella, but a target nonetheless.”

“If you are somewhere else away from the fight,” Alice chimes in, “we’d have to divert our attention to wherever you are as well as the main fight. I still don’t have a nailed-down number on how many newborns there are, but it’s over three dozen.”

The conversation goes on like this for over half an hour. Eventually, they settle on a decision; Alice and Seth will accompany Bella, Edward, and Jacob into the mountains away from the main fight. Everyone disperses soon after they come to a conclusion. Always busy, always training, always on the go.

What it does mean is that, eventually, it’s just Edward and Jacob in the room.

Jacob stares resolutely at the wooden floorboard beneath his feet. They’re nice floorboards, stained a deep brown and polished to a shine. He doesn’t know his woods very well, but if he had to guess he’d say they’re maybe walnut. He remembers distantly when he’d had to go to the hardwood store with his dad years ago after their house had flooded during a particularly bad storm. The floors had ended up warped and wavy, and they made it difficult for Billy’s wheelchair to get around the house, always getting the wheels caught on an edge of a piece of wood. The lady who had shown them all their options had been very nice and let Jacob take as many of the little wooden samples as he’d liked. Little Jacob had been overjoyed, and he’d built a little house of them. He doesn’t know why he’s thinking of that now. Maybe because he’s actively not trying to think about the man sitting on the couch opposite him.

The shifter pulls his eyes away from the floor and resolutely looks at Edward. He hasn’t had time to decide how he feels about last night yet, but he knows one thing for sure.

“You’ve gotta start telling me shit.”

Edward looks, oddly surprised. “What?”

Jacob snorts. Funny that, he didn’t think he could surprise the man. “You’re the mind reader, not me. If we’re going to do this thing, you have to tell me things. Not right now, frankly I’m fucking exhausted, but in general.”

Edward nods, although he still looks mystified. Good, Jacob thinks, he’s glad someone else is lost for once.

The shifter stands, and makes his way to the training field, leaving Edward to think in the house, and feeling lighter than he has in ages.

Chapter Text

Jacob is in the garage when the house phone rings, working on his bike. It’s a Wednesday, three days since his little chat with Edward, and his head is still a jumble of tangled thoughts. He realized sometime this morning that in all that’s been happening in the past few months, he’s been neglecting his baby.

He’s wiping the excess grease off of his hands when his dad opens the door to the house, holding the phone, and says “It’s for you.”

Jacob takes it without question, putting the receiver to his ear. “Hello?”

“Hey Jake,” it’s Embry, “You need to see this.”

Someone’s been in the Swan’s house. Jacob can tell as soon as he sets foot through the doorway, the smell of an unfamiliar vampire drifting down from Bella’s room and it makes Jacob’s skin crawl in a way that has him scowling. Beside him, Bella doesn’t look much happier, and she’s close on his heels as he climbs the carpeted stairs to the second floor.

It doesn’t take him long to pinpoint the source, there’s shattered glass on the floor and a breeze creeping in through the window. From the trail of dirty footprints in the carpet it looks like this dickfuck broke into the room and made a bee-line for the dresser, which has its drawers torn open and ugh thats just gross. Why the hell is some random vamp digging through his best friend’s clothes? Well, Jacob knows why–he may have a low C in geometry at the moment, but he knows that two and two equal four–but still! Also, the fucker stole the tee-shirt that he’d given Bella last year for Christmas so thats double the reason for him to be pissed.

When Jacob says as much, Bella makes an indignant noise of agreement, lets out a low stream of curses, and calls her dad.

Charlie decides that a sleep-over is in order. It’s a no-brainer, really, Bella’s house isn’t safe and he is working the night shift tonight, so it makes sense that Bella ends up in Jacob’s living room, curled up under a blanket next to him, watching some shitty chick-flick, and occasionally throwing popcorn at the side of his head when he reaches over to steal some from her bowl.

They’re both still laughing when the credits begin to roll, mimicking the best lines in horrible renditions of the actors’ voices. Billy pops his head in after a few minutes to tell them to pipe down, and he rolls out again after receiving reluctant nods of acquiescence.

With a sigh, Bella throws one of the few remaining pieces of popcorn into her mouth. “Thanks for doing this,” she says, bumping her shoulder against Jacob’s.

“Course, Loca.” He slings his arm around her other side and gives her a brief half hug.

They sit there in a comfortable silence for a moment or two, and then Bella pulls away, sitting up straight and turning to face Jacob, “Alright, no more feely shit. Tell me what’s going on with you and Edward.”

Jacob rolls his head back with a groan. “Ugh, really? Do I have to?”

“Yes, yes you do.” She’s smiling now, a satisfied grin that makes the corners of Jacob’s mouth tick up in response.

“Fine, but there’s not much to say. It’s not like anything’s happened. We’ve been…talking more, I guess. Not like that, Bells, stop making that face. Just in a normal way. I talked to him the other day for like, a slightly extended period of time and I didn’t walk away angry.”

“So, there’s no secret meet ups in secluded areas in the middle of the night?” She wiggles her eyebrows as she says it, and when Jacob pushes her lightly on the shoulder she starts laughing quietly.

“Ew! You’re gross.” He pulls a face at her. “Ain’t no way I’m making out with that guy, that’s too many pointy teeth too close to my precious life blood.”

Through her laughter, Bella says “His teeth aren’t actually pointy you know.”

“You’d know, wouldn’t you!”

They’re both snickering now, mindful of Jacob’s dad sleeping in the other room.

Once the laughter has again passed, Jacob decides it’s his turn to ask an invasive question, and Bella acquiesces. “What’s the 411 on you and Alice, hmm? Don’t pretend like you haven’t been making moon eyes at her lately.”

Bella grabs a pillow and holds it over her head so Jacob can’t see her face. “That’s not fair! I answered you!”

“But that’s not nearly as embarrassing,” comes her muffled reply.

“BS, you’ve seen me do tons of embarrassing shit, your little crush on the hot goth chick isn’t that embarrassing.”

“Hey!”

“I’m just kidding, Loca, Alice is totally cool independent of any current fashion movements.”

“Well alright then. I don’t know man, she’s just…she’s like my best friend—aside from you, of course—but I just think I’d be kinda nice to kiss her, you know?”

“No, but please continue.”

“Ugh, boys. Fine fine. She’s just so nice, and she gets me without me having to explain anything, and she knows what to do, and she’s—”

“Alright, I think I get the picture. But what about her cowboy boyfriend?”

“She told me about it. They’ve never really been in a relationship, they’re just really good friends. They’ve had to pretend to be for a while, so that Alice doesn’t come under fire for liking girls and Jasper…I don’t know, I guess he’s just not interested in anyone.”

“I see, I see. So she’s single and ready to mingle, that’s what you’re getting at?”

Bella hits him for that one, which he kinda deserves, and they settle down for the night. He offers to take the couch, but Bella says that’s stupid, he’s basically a giant, and makes him sleep in his own bed.

As he’s laying in bed, he thinks idly back on the earlier part of their conversation. For some reason, one part of it is stuck in his mind, the part about the secret hook ups in the woods. Besides the fact that it would never be able to be kept a secret—not with Alice’s future telling and the pack’s hive mind—Jacob isn’t sure that he’s completely unopposed to the idea.

Not like that, he’s not going to jump on Edward or anything, but if the vampire initiated something, after a long conversation where they grew closer together as individuals, maybe he’d consider allowing it.

The following week is a blur. School starts back up again, they train, and Alice and Bella get closer. The sense of impending doom grows daily, but everyone does a pretty bang-up job of banding together and ignoring it.

It’s October by the time Alice gets a concrete look at what Victoria’s up to.

It’s a Saturday. They’re in another field near the Cullen’s house playing baseball again. The surrounding leaves are deep oranges and vibrant reds, and the air has a crisp clean chill to it. Alice is at third base, watching intently as Leah runs around the field. She’s just passed one of the other pack members at second base when Paul calls out to Alice, throwing the ball her way.

It’s just a split second, but it’s enough for Alice to miss the ball. Leah races past her and slides home, high-fiving Rosalie and giving a bright, panting smile to the rest of her team lined up behind the plate. Jacob is mid-whoop when he sees Edward tense in front of him.

The shifter turns and when he catches sight of the look on Edward’s face he asks “What is it?”

“Alice,” he says, almost too softly for Jacob to hear, and then he’s gone. He’s at Alice’s side in a second, a hand rubbing soothing circles into her hunched form as she holds her temples.

Finally, Alice gasps and looks up.

“I know where they’ll be.”

Jacob spends the afternoon in Jasper’s makeshift workshop helping him and Charlie assemble the last of the bullets. They’ve been collecting bits of everyone’s claws for the past few months, and they’ve managed to get a good amount of rounds made, enough for at least a dozen magazines, but one can never be too careful.

They come in from the workshop around noon and find the vampires and Bella sitting around the Cullens’ living room, sitting around a map of the mountains

“So,” Jacob sits down next to Bella with a thump, “what’s the sitch?”

Carlisle speaks first. “We’re going to split up. If Victoria sticks to the decision she’s made, we will likely be able to intercept her here,” he taps a finger on a spot on the edge of the national park, where the Puget Sound connects them to Seattle. It’s about thirty miles from the reservation and Forks, further than Jacob would have originally thought.

“The mountains,” Esme continues, “will be a good place to wait. The snow will be thicker up there, which will make it harder for them to smell.”

Jacob nods, his hands clasped together and his elbows resting on his knees. “What about the Rez?”

“That keeps switching,” Alice says. “Victoria keeps changing her mind on whether to attack the pack or not. I can’t get a clear enough read on her to say for certain.”

And that’s the problem, isn’t it? Victoria has found the way around Alice’s power, simply don’t make a decision. And if Victoria hasn’t decided, then the Cullens lose their advantage and are just as blind as anyone else.

“Then we prepare for it all,” Charlie says. “The people on the Rez aren’t defenseless, you know. Sam, do you think you could talk to your tribe’s elders about getting a few people armed just in case?” The alpha nods, and the sheriff continues, “Good. I can go to the Rez and stay back with the younger pack members and some of the guys there. It’s not a perfect solution, but it’ll do.”

There are nods all around, and soon the afternoon turns into evening. As the moon shines down on the Cullen’s house, the occupants prepare to go to war.

Chapter Text

When the weatherman on Channel 5 predicts that there will be a cold front at the end of the week, things start to go to shit. Jacob can feel the rising tension in his packmates, thick as a hearty stew. They start picking more fights with each other, offhand comments turning into arguments turning into tackling and “Take it outside!” It’s not wholly unexpected, but that doesn’t put Jacob at ease any.

Friday, when word gets around that tomorrow there’ll be a storm, is the day that has Jacob pacing the floor in the Cullen’s loft. Bella is there, on the other side of the room, reading a book on the couch and Alice is next to her, doodling in a sketchbook. Jacob hears footsteps coming up the stairs, and when he turns it’s Edward standing in the doorway.

“You’re going to wear a hole into the carpet,” he observes. He looks unbothered by everything, his voice calm and even, and it pisses Jacob off. It makes him want to snarl and bare his teeth and snap at the vampire’s throat. He doesn’t, but the urge is there.

“I’m sure you’ll find a replacement,” Jacob says, resuming his pacing. He knows that he’s not actually angry at Edward, that it’s just the anxiety over what is going to happen soon, but he doesn’t really care enough to do anything about it.

Edward crosses his arms and leans on the doorframe, his expression unchanging. "Finding a replacement won't be that simple, Jacob. That carpet is nearly 100 years old."

Jacob shoots him a sharp look, the muscles in his jaw tensing. "How the fuck are you so calm right now?”

“Keeping a level head is what my family needs from me, and it’s what your pack needs from you, too. Sam can’t play role model on his own, you know.”

Jacob can feel the tension thrumming through his body. “Yeah, well, I didn't sign up for this."

Edward's gaze remains steady, as if he has all the time in the world. "None of us did. But you knew the risks when you joined the pack. When you choose to stick around. We all did."

"Knowing and experiencing are two different things," Jacob mutters, his pacing slowing down. He rakes a hand through his hair, the anger beginning to seep out of him and leaving only frustration in its wake. Frustration and fear, although he’s loathe to admit it. "And now we're stuck dealing with this mess."

Edward unfolds himself from the doorway, moving with a grace that should be unsettling. "We'll find a way through it, Jacob. We always do."

The shifter snorts, a bitter edge to the sound. "You act like it's just another problem to solve. This isn't some high school drama. Lives are at stake, and I'm tired of pretending it's all going to be okay."

Edward's eyes soften. "I know that, Jacob. But panicking won't help anyone. We have a plan, we know what comes next, all we can do now is wait."

"I'm not panicking," Jacob retorts, although the little voice in the back of his head says otherwise. "I just hate feeling so damn powerless."

The vampire places a hand on Jacob's shoulder tentatively. "You’re not powerless. None of us are powerless. We're going to face this together."

Strangely enough, that makes him feel a little better.

Saturday morning, as the sun is just beginning to shine on the frost coating the evergreen trees, they start heading up into the mountains.

Jacob, Alice, Bella, Edward, and Seth go first. They travel in two groups, Jacob and Bella take one route to their meeting spot while Edward, Seth, and Alice take another, longer one. The logic is that “The scent of wet dog will cover up everything else, especially if you’re not used to it.” Thank you, Rosalie.

They start at the same place at the bottom of the mountains, after leaving a false trail in the wrong direction. Alice is checking Bella over, double-checking that she has everything she needs. It’s cute, really, and it makes Jacob think that Bella is really fucking oblivious to not think that Alice likes her back. As soon as the thought pops into his head he tries to beat it down with a stick, lest Edward notices. As obvious as Bella’s emotions are, it still feels a bit like a betrayal to let Edward in on Bella’s not-so-secret secret.

Of course, this is exactly when they make eye contact. Edward furrows his brow and tilts his head in the same way that birds do and it makes Jacob want to laugh. Instead, he just gives the vampire an awkward nod, and turns away as quickly as he can, looking at Seth and asking “You ready to go?”

“Yup!” the younger wolf says, “Race ya there!”

Jacob feels his mouth twitch up into a half-feral grin. “Oh, you’re so on, Pipsqueak.”

Bella’s weight on Jacob’s back takes some time to get used to, but it begins to get easier once they’re traveling along the ridgeline instead of climbing up. Being up here feels nice, the cool icy wind winding its way through his dense fur. If he weren’t doing this to avoid getting his best friend killed by a group of bloodthirsty vampires, he would definitely be having a great time.

In the back of his mind, he feels Seth agree. Maybe we should do this sometime, for a reason other than escaping certain death, he throws Seth’s way, and he gets back the mental equivalent of a chuckle.

They continue on for quite a while, and Jacob tries to make their path as unobtrusive as possible, one that he would conceivably run for no other reason than to run. He takes off down the mountain at random intervals, loops back on himself a few times, and just generally does what he usually does when he goes on runs for the hell of it. Bella, perched on the space just below his shoulder blades, wrapped in his winter coat, holds on for dear life as Jacob weaves between the rocks and patches of grass covering the peaks.

When they get to the campsite, Seth is there alone, trying to project an air of casual nonchalance. The tent behind him, however, tells a different story.

Jacob—shifted back and in sweatpants now—smirks, surveying the scene in front of him. "Seth, buddy, whatcha doing?"

The younger wolf straightens up, puffing out his chest in an attempt to play it cool. "Oh, you know, enjoying the scenic view. It’s just so calm and peaceful."

Jacob raises an eyebrow. "Calm and peaceful, huh? Looks more like you wrestled with the tents and lost."

Seth attempts an innocent expression, but the corners of his lips betray a hint of a smile. "What can I say? These tents have a mind of their own."

"Mind of their own, or someone who has never set up a tent before?" Bella chuckles.

Seth's fake-offended look emerges, complete with an exaggerated gasp and a hand over his heart. "Me, a camping pro, not know how to set up a tent? I'm hurt, guys. Truly hurt."

Jacob feels the dam burst and can’t stop himself from laughing.

Seth grins, dropping the act and bringing up a hand to sheepishly rub at the back of his neck. "Alright, alright, you got me. Can someone please help me with this thing?"

Jacob smiles and moves over to the tent, where Bella is already halfway through untangling the mess Seth made. “Sure thing, bud.”

The storm rages harder than Jacob would like, the wind shaking the tent and howling through the trees around them. It’s nearly midnight and between the wind, the stress, and the cold, no one has gotten much sleep.

Jacob is curled up outside of the tent, shaggy fur keeping the icy cold from giving him frostbite. He thinks idly that it might be nice to be inside the tent right now, at least to have a barrier between him and the snowflakes that keep stinging his poor nose, but he and Seth had decided earlier that the younger shifter would be the one to keep Bella warm inside the tent, mainly on account of Seth’s wolf’s smaller size.

Jacob looks up when he hears the fluttering of the tent flap and is met with Edward’s Henley-clad form cutting through the snow pelting the campsite. He honestly looks a little ridiculous in the thin shirt and loose pants, and if anyone who didn’t know about his living death condition saw him they’d definitely think he was certifiably insane.

The picture makes Jacob snort, which draws Edward’s attention to the snow-covered lump that is the shifter.

Edward stares at Jacob, an unreadable expression on his face. Not that Jacob is typically able to read his expressions, that fucker has a constant and insufferable air of calm around him. That it occasionally makes Jacob feel relaxed is irrelevant.

While Jacob is lost trying to figure out what Edward is thinking, the vampire takes a seat next to him in the snow with a single graceful movement.

They sit in silence for a while, Jacob listening to the creaking of the trees as the wind lets up slightly. Then Edward speaks.

“Thank you,” he begins, “For being there for her. I don’t think I ever told you how glad I am you were there. I made a mistake, leaving like I did. I thought she would be fine, that she would move on. And while she has now I am forever in your debt for being there for her to help clean up the mess I made.” Edward’s gaze is fixed firmly on the ridgeline of the mountains across from them, barely visible in the dark even to them.

Jacob’s head feels like it’s full of radio static. There are thoughts there, distantly dancing at the edge of things, but none that solidify fully save for one. This conversation requires pants.

He stands, shakes out his fur, and moves around to the back of the tent to pull on the sweats tied to his back leg. They are. Fucking. Freezing.

Jacob yelps and from the other side of the tent, he hears a low chuckle. “Alright bastard, laugh it up,” he grumbles as he moves back to where he’d been keeping watch.

He sits down with a thump, much less gracefully than Edward had, and leans back against the nylon fabric of the tent. “These shits are frozen solid, dude. I don’t want to hear it.” That earns him another laugh from the vampire, this one brief and quiet.

Jacob takes a breath, letting the frigid mountain air fill his lungs, and lets it go in a puff of steam. He thinks, briefly, that he might understand how smoking can be addictive, become a necessity, as he watches the hot air travel upwards and dissipate. He can see, vaguely, how Bella became so attached to Edward. She was alone—in her mind at least—and he was a loner. She came from a broken family and his is so intertwined it sometimes feels as if they’re a hivemind or something. She felt like a nobody, and he was anything but.

It makes sense, a little, why it would hurt so much to lose that. To lose him.

“It was a mistake,” Jacob says. “It was fucked up and stupid. She didn’t deserve that, to be lied to and abandoned. But you’re trying to fix it, that’s the important part. I don’t deserve your thanks though.”

“Oh? Why is that?” Out of the corner of his eye, Jacob can see that Edward is looking at him now, and for some reason, Jacob doesn’t feel guilty about admitting the truth.

“Because I thought I was in love with her. I thought she was beautiful—still do—and that she was perfect. There was a part of me that believed that, if I could help her get over you, I would actually have a chance with her. In a way, I think getting to spend time with her is what broke the illusion for me. Don’t get me wrong, Bella Swan is amazing, but the pedestal I’d put her on was way beyond reality. Nobody is perfect, not me and not Bells, but I think that's kinda cooler, you know?”

When Jacob turns to look at the man beside him, he is caught off guard by the look on Edward’s face. His eyes are soft, his mouth is turned up in a quiet smile, and snowflakes are dancing in his hair. It’s open, sincere. “I think I do.”

Silence settles around them once more, and it’s comforting, knowing that the person next to him is finally on the same page as he is. There is one thing that’s still bothering him though.

“That day on Bella’s porch, when you came to apologize,” Jacob starts. “You said something. You said that I deserve the truth. What was that about?”

This time, Edward doesn’t look at him. His eyes are back on the distant ridgeline, refusing to budge. He looks conflicted, and there’s nothing for Jacob to do but wait out whatever internal battle Edward is fighting.

One side must win eventually, because Edward closes his eyes with a sigh after a moment, and leans his head back against the tent. “Jacob, the reality is that I’m…I’m falling in love with you.”

Wait, what.

“You—I—I would love for this thing between us to be destined for nothing more than friendship, but you were right. ‘That doesn’t seem to be where this whole thing is going.’ And at this point, I believe I would have a hard time accepting anything less.”

Jacob’s thoughts are reeling, a jumbled mess of too many things to decipher at once. He feels like he should have seen this coming, and in a way he did, but in the same way that you know a train could come but never expect it when you’re stuck on the tracks.

It takes him a long time to pick through everything, but Edward waits. Jacob doesn’t know how he feels about that either, because on one hand he feels like an idiot and is grateful that Edward isn’t making fun of him for it, but on the other, it’s a bit nerve-wracking to know that he’s got the ability to see what’s going on in the jumbled mess that is Jacob’s head.

It takes until the sky is beginning to turn a hazy shade of purple for Jacob to sort out what he wants to say. “I’ve been so angry about this imprint for too long, and I am really sorry about that. It wasn’t cool of me to leave you in the deep end with this and blame you for it too. That said, I think you’re right. At this point, I don’t think a solid friendship is going to cut it.” Jacob turns to look at Edward now, and he doesn’t try to shove down the thought that the lightening sky reflects beautifully in the vampire’s golden eyes. “I think I'm falling for you too.”

Chapter Text

When the sun rises it dyes the ridgeline a brilliant shade of red, spreading over the sky like blood in a still pond. Or red pasta sauce on a new shirt if you want to be less dramatic about things.

The fighting begins an hour after the yellow first touches the furthest peak, and in his mind’s eye, Jacob watches.

He sees the fight start, the stupid line the Cullen’s form (guys, that formal type of fighting died like a century ago), and the first of the newborns emerge from the treeline. He watches as one of the pack—he can’t tell who between all the thoughts clamoring for his attention–launches at the vampires, and everything descends into chaos. He’s dragged from one stream of consciousness to another, helplessly pulled into the fight until he’s drowning in the stimulus. Alice, who’d left the camp earlier that morning, flips over Paul’s back, a move he’d watched them practice a few times, and Quil gets tackled. Jacob feels the vampire's nails dig into Quil’s side as if they are digging into his own, and then he’s gone, thrown off by Emmet.

He doesn’t realize how lost he is in the thoughts of his packmates until Bella’s gloved hands are on his paw, which is lodged in between his teeth, pulling gently until the bloody pad is out of his mouth. She was the one who’d suggested he shift to his furrier form when she’d woken up and taken his jacket, but she seems to be regretting that suggestion now.

“Maybe you shift back, Jake.” There’s blood on her hands, from where she’s holding his paw, and even though it’s healing before his eyes, he doesn’t like the thought of Bella blaming herself for this. So, he stands and makes his way toward where Edward is sitting next to Seth, mumbling comforting things to the younger wolf. He nudges Edward and loudly thinks about all the reasons it’s better for him to stay as he is, along with the thought that Edward should tell these things to Bella.

Edward listens and then turns to Bella. “He’s being an idiot and doesn’t want his furry ass to be cold.” Edward’s deadpan is so in contrast with the curse that it startles a laugh out of Bella, and Jacob wacks him with his tail.

Seth’s loud wine breaks the mood, and it takes Jacob a moment to realize what’s happened. He sees, through Embry’s eyes, Leah, lying in the snow with Quil standing over her, growling and snapping at the ring of newborns around them.

Seth is up in an instant racing into the trees around them, off towards the fighting.

Jacob needs to go, he knows it. There’s no way he can let his pack fight off these newborns while he sits on his ass doing nothing in these mountains. Edward and Bella will be fine, Alice seemed sure that they would be, and between the fighting at the base of the ridge, the false trail they’d left, and the snow covering their scent, they’ll be alright.

All of these thoughts are rushing through Jacob’s head rapid-fire, and he finds himself looking to Edward, mentally pleading with him to understand. He’s not going to leave his imprint and best friend alone, not if they think they’ll need him, but the urge to help his pack is nearly overwhelming.

Edward’s gaze meets his and Jacob can see that the vampire understands. All it takes is a short nod, and Jacob is running through the woods faster than he ever has before, his paws pounding on the snow-spattered ground beneath the trees. Behind him, he can hear Bella’s confusion, her anger at Seth and Jacob throwing themselves into danger, but he keeps moving, his muscles straining to get there, get there now!

They will be okay. They have to be.

When Jacob gets to the clearing, it’s a shit show. There are newborn body parts everywhere, both attached and not, and immediately his senses are overwhelmed.

He spots his packmates pretty easily—there are few ways to miss wolves the size of small horses, but before he can try and pick out any of the Cullens there are sharp hands digging into his sides, tearing him down from the rock overlooking the clearing.

He falls into a small pit of newborns and that startles a yelp out of him that gets drowned out in all the noise. He’s snapping his teeth before he can think about it, all of the training he’d done rearing its head in the form of muscle memory, and it’s as simple as moving to kick out his back legs, knocking three of the newborns back.

Before he can see what happens to them there’s a burning sensation between his shoulder blades and he rolls, crushing the vampire underneath his bulk and then grabbing her neck between his teeth. He pulls and her screams are quickly cut off as he flings her head as far from him as he can.

There’s a kick at his side as he turns and he howls as he feels the muscles bruise, tackling the beanie-clad newborn claws-first, ripping into the flesh of their shoulder and tossing the arm he detaches into the air and the rest of the vampire in the other direction. When he looks up, Emmet is there, throwing a newborn that was running at Jacob into a tree on the far side of the clearing. Emmet nods at him, and then they’re side by side, surrounded by the never-ending flow.

Jacob doesn’t know he and Emmet manage not to down, but when he resurfaces from the blur of pale skin and the taste of ash, it’s to Alice’s voice, frantically calling his name over the slowly dying clamor.

“Jacob!” She yells, “Jacob, she found them!”

Oh shit.

Jacob tears through the trees for a second time this morning. The pine needles pull at his fur and his sides heave, stretching the newly healed skin from dozens of wounds littering his body. None of that matters though, it’s all second to the blood pumping in his ears and the need to move faster, faster, faster.

When he skids into the deconstructed campsite he sees Bella and Edward pinned to the sheer cliff at the base of the site, facing off against two vampires by the tree line. One he recognizes, Victoria’s flaming red hair is a dead giveaway, but the other isn’t someone he’s seen before. Not that it matters, not really.

“Last chance, Riley,” Edward says. He sounds odd like he’s speaking to a wild animal, and he’s creeping closer to the newborn with every moment that tics by.

The newborn—Riley, Jacob guesses—looks to Victoria. From where he is Jacob can’t see his expression, but it must mean something because Victoria responds, saying something or other about how Edward’s a liar and she only loves him.

When Riley turns back to Edward, Jacob doesn’t miss the new tension in his stance and the shifter decides that that’s probably his cue to launch himself into the campsite.

He crashes into Riley with as much force as he can, knocking the newborn to the ground. He doesn’t waste any time, immediately sinking his teeth into the pale flesh of the blond vamp beneath him and throwing chunks of whatever he can reach away.

A shrill voice—Victoria’s by process of elimination—shouts a strangled “No!” but Jacob ignores it.

Until she turns to Edward.

Jacob is off of Riley and between them in a flash, only to be knocked out of the way by Riley crashing into him.

He tries to roll when he lands, but the newborn manages to sink his teeth into Jacob’s hind foreleg, pulling a startled growl out of him. Jacob kicks him off and puts some distance between them until they end up circling each other.

Jacob spares a glance to his right, and catches sight of Victoria and Edward facing off, dancing around while Edward keeps himself between Victoria and Bella…who is holding a dismembered arm?

A quick glance at Riley confirms that the blonde vampire is missing a good chunk of the lower portion of his left arm, which makes Jacob smile. Jacob also catches that Riley is distracted watching Victoria, and no one has ever accused Jacob of passing up a good opportunity.

He dashes in and manages to take a chunk out of the newborn’s thigh before Riley’s swipe with his right hand can catch Jacob’s snout.

The shifter can hear Edward taunting her now, saying “You’ll never get another chance like this.” Frankly, Jacob’s not so sure how helpful that is, but maybe Edward has a plan.

Oh fuck, he does, Jacob thinks as Edward proceeds to tear Victoria to shreds, and in his mind’s eye, he can practically see what happens before it does.

Victoria lunges at Edward, snarling all the while, and Jacob can’t stop his feet from jerking in their direction.

It’s the opening Riley needs because his fist is suddenly connecting with Jacob’s side, sending him hurtling into the shallow snow a few yards away. It hurts like a bitch, but he gets back on his feet, shaking his head to clear it. He takes another quick look in Edward and Victoria’s direction only to find them exactly where they had been, copying each other's movements like some kind of fucked up funhouse mirror.

Riley is prowling towards Jacob again, and the shifter tries to back up and buy himself a moment while the muscles of his foreleg reconnect. He snaps at the newborn, and Riley flinches backward, which gives him enough room to move.

Jacob places himself in between Victoria and Bella, just behind Edward. Riley is standing next to the redhead now, bearing his teeth at the lot of them.

Jacob’s tail brushes against Edward’s back and Victoria’s gaze snaps to him. It’s freaky as all hell, her eyes nearly black with how dark red they are feel as if they bore into his soul.

“No, he won’t betray us,” Edward says, keeping his eyes locked on Victoria as he answers the unspoken question. She clenches her jaw and locks her line of sight back on Edward as he continues talking. “Look more closely,” he says, “Is he really so much like the monster James tracked in Siberia?”

Victoria’s eyes bulge and begin to shift wildly from Edward to Jacob to Bella, looping around again and again. “But that…no that’s impossible!” she mutters to herself.

“Nothing is impossible,” Edward says, stepping away from Jacob. Then, reading the shifter’s mind he adds “Except killing Bella, that is.”

Victoria moves first, but after that, it’s hard to say. Even with Jacob’s enhanced senses, he can’t pick out who’s who in the blur of movement that the two become. What he can see is Riley, standing stock still and staring at Edward and Victoria, trying to track the redhead’s movements.

He knows he’s made a mistake the minute he moves. He feels the motion pull at his not-yet-healed side, and something in the way he moves must draw Riley’s attention to it because before he knows what’s happening Jacob is slamming into the rock cliff. He hears the splintering of his right side before he feels it, but oh boy then he feels it.

His body hits the ground in front of Bella with a thud that echoes painfully through his aching body. He draws a sharp breath, but that only serves to irritate his throbbing ribs.

There’s little Jacob can do as he listens to the snapping and cracking coming from the Edward-Victoria-tornado, and watches as Riley stalks forward. Now with both of his hands unusable, he resorts to his teeth, which glisten in his open mouth.

Behind him, the shifter hears Bella take a breath, and then he watches as something small and shiny whistles through the air above him, embedding itself in Riley’s collarbone, followed shortly by Bella herself, wielding the newborn’s severed arm.

The commotion is enough to pull Victoria’s attention away from Edward for a split second, but apparently, that was all he needed. In a moment Edward has flung Victoria across the clearing, where she slams through a tree with a sickening snap, and is on Riley, tearing into the newborn with a wild fervor that Jacob has never seen from him.

On the edge of Jacob’s vision Victoria gets to her feet, stumbling as if she can’t quite catch her balance, and then launches herself at Bella.

Bella doesn’t miss a beat. She swings the rock-hard vampire arm in both her hands and it connects with the redhead with a crack like thunder.

Victoria falls, and before she can get back to her feet Riley’s cries interrupt her. “Victoria!” He calls, and the pain in his voice mixed with the expression of complete disregard that crosses the redhead’s face will probably haunt Jacob for a while.

Riley screams one last time before it’s abruptly cut off, and a moment later Edward has thrown his severed head at Victoria’s feet. He smiles, bearing all of his teeth, and tells her “You’re all alone now, aren’t you?”

She bolts, taking off for the trees, but Edward is ready for it and gets there before she does. There’s a moment where they’re frozen, his mouth against her neck, and if you didn’t have any context you might think they were lovers.

The image is broken, however, then Edward sinks his teeth in, and rips, flinging Victoria’s head off of her body and finally, finally ending the fight.

Chapter Text

Bella is the first to realize something is wrong. She lets go of the severed arm in her hand, not noticing where she's standing, and it lands on Jacob.

The fucking thing feels like a bowling ball, crashing into his ribcage with the force of an eighteen-wheeler even though it couldn't have fallen more than two feet. The pain that comes smashing down around him is enough that his wolf form finally gives out beneath him and Jacob finds himself lying naked in the snow. Each breath is more painful than the last, rattling his shattered ribs, but when he moves his arm to clutch at his chest a scream is pulled from him. His arm burns.

Things seem to be moving around him and Jacob can’t find it in him to focus, not when every thought is consumed by the fire licking up the right side of his body. He hears Edward’s voice, leaning over him, squeezing his hand, but he can’t make out the words above the ringing in his ears.

Then he’s being lifted up into the air, and although he can tell the hands on him are trying to be gentle, it still startles a pained grunt out of him. Just let me heal, he thinks, just let me fucking heal.

The hands holding him—which he figures out somewhere along the way are his packmates’—do eventually set him down, but not after what feels like an eternity of traipsing through the forest.

By the time he’s laid down, Jacob’s super cool macho werewolf healing has started mending his insides and he’s able to focus on his surroundings better.

Just in time to realize he’s on the table in the Cullen’s kitchen.

The mental picture startles a laugh out of the shifter, of himself bloody and laid out like a corpse on the vampires’ kitchen table. The laughter makes his sides creak and he can feel his tender bones protesting, but the pain doesn’t stop him. He laughs and laughs until there are tears in his eyes.

When he has to stop to catch his breath, he opens his eyes to see Quil leaning over him, bloody in his own right, but seemingly unharmed. He’s got this strange look on his face, like the dog in the movie just died, and Jacob can’t help but reach out to touch it.

“Hey bud,” he whispers, “you alright?”

That startles a short, barking laugh out of Quil. “I should be asking you that Jake.”

Before he can say anything back, Carlisle comes bustling into the room, holding things that Jacob can’t quite place. He puts the things down somewhere above Jacob’s head with a clatter, and then he’s leaning over him, just like Quil had.

Carlisle looks up at Quil. “How’s he been?”

“Not all there, but coming around. I think his insides have started putting themselves back together.”

Carlisle looks down at Jacob with a considering look. Then he says “You’re not going to like this, son.”

There’s a flash of movement, and then the pain is back, blinding him with its intensity. He screams, and suddenly there is another pair of hands on his left side, wrapped tight around his shoulder.

It’s not until the ringing in his ears subsides that he hears the people around him talking to him. He can’t quite pick out what they’re saying, and he decides to just let the sounds wash over him. There’s a poke into the meat of his shoulder, and from then on everything’s a little floaty. This is nice, he thinks, and lets his eyes drift shut.

When Jacob comes to, he’s on a lounge thing in a rectangle of a room. On his right is just…window. The entire wall, save for structural supports, is a window, and out it he can see the tops of the trees surrounding the house. On his left is a wall of what looks to be a shit ton of CDs. He can see some records and cassettes thrown up there between the CDs and the urge to rifle through the shelves is strong.

Jacob moves to stand and that’s when he remembers how he got to the Cullen’s in the first place. His joints feel like taffy, sticking together and making it hard to move and he looks down. His right arm is in a sling, held tightly to his chest, and there’s something weird wrapped around his leg. There are like five velcro straps stretching over his leg all the way from his upper thigh down to his ankle, holding his leg between two hard plastic walls, keeping it straight.

Well, at least someone had thought to put underwear on him.

The door makes a sound as it’s opened and there’s Edward, holding a glass of water. He looks disheveled, hair sticking out at odd angles and clothing covered in weird stains, but once he catches sight of Jacob’s open eyes he visibly relaxes, the tension bleeding out of the straight line of his shoulders.

“Hey, Jake,” Edward says, his voice soft as he moves to sit next to Jacob, “how are you feeling?”

“Like I just got sent through a wood chipper.” His voice feels like sandpaper, and with his free hand, he reaches out to snatch the cup of water from the vampire. Edward helps him sit up, careful of his ribs, and Jacob downs the water. It feels so good going down his throat, and he hears himself make a little humming noise.

When he looks up, Edward is staring out of the far window like his life depends on it.

Jacob cuts the guy some slack and looks at the wall of music. “Whose is all this?” he asks, although he’s got a suspicion he already knows.

He can sense Edward turn back to him, then follow his line of sight to the shelves. “Ah, this is mine. I have a bit of an affinity for music.”

“Oh yeah? Got a favorite?”

Edward looks almost insulted at the question, just as Jacob thought he would, and the shifter can feel a shit-eating grin stretch over his face. As Edward launches into a rant about music, Jacob lets his voice flow over him like waves. Time stretches in the rectangular room, and Jacob watches as changing light dances over the vampire’s marble features, catching in his golden eyes.

Wait a second, changing light? What time is it? Where is everyone? Are they okay? What happened?

Jacob scrambles to stand, to get up, to find everyone, but Edward is there, stopping him from going anywhere. “Jacob, calm down, everyone’s safe. The newborns didn’t get anyone, they’re all safe. It’s four in the afternoon, everyone’s fine.” His hands are running up and down Jacob’s upper arms, a motion that Jacob recognizes people use to calm startled horses or some shit.

“I need to see them. Where’s my dad? Where’s my pack? Where’s Bella?”

“They’re mostly all here. Carlisle set up a little clinic downstairs.”

And so they end up downstairs. Edward carries him down the steps, which Jacob is sure looks ridiculous given that he’s like a head taller than the other man, and into the living room.

Emry is the first to notice them, situated as he is on the couch opposite the stairs. His foot is propped up on a cushion, ice pack sitting on his ankle, but otherwise looks fine. He gives them a little wave, which draws the attention of the other people in the room. Leah is sitting at a coffee table, grumpily letting Carlisle stitch up a deep cut in her arm. Paul, Jared and Seth are on the floor playing a game of what looks to be three-way Crazy 8s. They both look fine for the most part, with just Paul having a bit of tape over his swollen nose. In the corner is Quil, talking with Emmett, and out the window past him are the rest of the pack, playing fetch of all things with the remaining younger Cullens.

Edward guides him into the kitchen where Jacob finds his dad, Charlie, Bella and Esme, all gathered around the stone slab he’d been laid out on just a few hours earlier. His dad is the closest, so that’s who he staggers over to.

“Hey, Dad,” he says, and Billy looks up at him.

His father turns in his chair and reaches out a hand, resting it on Jacob’s hip. “Hey son, how are you feeling?”

He goes to shrug and stops halfway through the motion. “Been better.”

On his other side, both Bella and Edward snort derisively. “That’s one way to put it,” Bella mumbles, and Jacob can hear the underlying worry in her voice.

“Don’t worry, Bells, you’re not rid of me yet.” He throws her a half smile, but instead of returning it she comes to stand beside him, putting a hand on his good shoulder.

She looks at him with a sincerity that would have been startling a year ago but now just feels like a twin to the weariness he can feel settling in his bones. “And I never want to be.”

The sky is on the edge of purple by the time that Jacob has gotten the full story of what happened and gone around to check on everyone.

From Charlie and his dad—with helpful contributions from the younger pack members—he learns what happened at the Reservation. Victoria had sent a small group of her newborns to the Rez, probably to try and wipe out anyone left behind. By that point they’d gathered everyone on the Rez into a few of the houses in the center and set up something of a blockade around them. Charlie had acted as their sniper, with his hunting rifle on the roof of one of the houses, and it was, as Collin and Brady put it, “so awesome man!” In the end they’d made it out of the fight with few injuries and a new story for the youngest pack members to brag about.

From Carlisle, Edward, Emmett, and Bella he figures out what happened after he got carried off by his pack. At first he’d thought that his pack had to leave early because of him, but Carlisle tells him that it was better that they’d left, and the Cullens were just about to tell them to go anyways. It turns out the Voultori showed up—“Late to the party, as usual”—in some kind of strong arm maneuver and had killed Bree, a little girl that Carlisle had been trying to protect, before scooting off back to their creepy evil castle.

“Those guys are like, the most cartoonish vampires possible, they know that right?” Jacob says to Emmett later.

“Oh yeah, definitely.” Emmett nods, very seriously. “I honestly think Aro is doing it on purpose at this point. He’s certainly fucked in the head enough.” Emmett pulls a face that makes Jacob laugh, which then makes him wince, which then makes Edward at his side tut over him and glare at his brother.

Edward continues to be the world's largest worry wart for the next two weeks, sticking to Jacob’s side like a damn limpet even after he no longer needs the brace or sling. Jacob would find it embarrassing if he didn’t secretly enjoy it so much, mostly because it gives them time to talk.

And they talk a lot. Jacob learns so much about Edward over the next two weeks that it’s almost overwhelming. Edward goes on no less than a dozen music rants, five fashion rants, and at least three separate rants on horses, of all things. Man’s got opinions, who knew?

Jacob also learns something else over the next two weeks; he was absolutely right about the kissing thing.

The first time it happens they’re sitting in Edward’s room. Jacob came over to get the splints off and have one last check in with Carlisle before the man would give him the go ahead to “continue with your teenage idiocy,” as the vampire put it. Edward had hauled him upstairs afterward, saying something about new CDs that Jacob “absolutely must listen to.”

He was right, of fucking course, and Jacob genuinely does like the upbeat ragtime music. Once the second CD’s done playing, Edward starts talking about his time working in an orchestra. He gets this look in his eyes when he tells stories like this, as if he’s reliving the moment instead of sharing it with someone else. And in the dappled light filtering in from the massive windows, Jacob can do nothing but watch as his hands flutter through the air, painting pictures out of nothing but dust motes.

It’s quick, just a soft press of lips to the man’s temple, but it’s enough to stop him in his tracks. Jacob watches as the wheels turn in his head and then, in an instant, he has a lap full of vampire.

“Did you mean that?” Edward questions, his body practically vibrating where he sits. “Because if you didn’t I need to hear you say it.”

Jacob snorts. “Yes, I meant it, it wasn’t a fucking accident or something. You just…looked nice.”

Edward stares at him for a moment, before moving back to where he was before, maybe a little closer this time. He picks up Jacob’s hand and presses his mouth to the shifter’s fingers. “Good,” he says, before launching back into his story.

He doesn’t let go of Jacob’s hand for a while after that.

It’s November when Jacob finds himself talking with, of all people, Rosalie. They’re refueling his Rabbit—how Alice got her in it he still has no idea—and halfway through the drive to Seattle by the time she says anything nice to him.

The car had previously contained five passengers; Alice, Bella, Emmett, Rosalie, and Jacob himself, but everyone else has stepped out into the station, leaving the two of them alone to pump the gas.

Rosalie breaks the easy silence, looking up from messing with her nails to stare at the side of Jacob’s head. He waits a moment and then chuckles when he gets a look at her face.

“Don’t think so hard over there, you might hurt yourself.”

She scoffs and turns her head away, but he can see the corners of her lips twitch into a smile. “You’re one to talk, Einstein. You could strain your brain thinking too hard about the answer to 2+2.”

Instead of clapping back, Jacob just laughs, and continues filling his Rabbit’s tank. There’s another stretch of comfortable silence, before Rosalie breaks it again.

“You’re good for him, you know? I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him smile as much as he does when he’s around you.” Her voice is quiet, low enough that just Jacob can hear, but her words are sincere.

“Aww, Rosie. Did it hurt to be that nice?”

She laughs and bumps his shoulder. “Alright, Dog Breath, see if I say anything nice about you again.”

Jacob smiles and pulls the nozzle out of the Rabbit’s gas tank, putting it back in the holster on the pump. “Seriously though, thanks. I worry sometimes that he would be better off with someone else. Someone who gets him better, you know?”

“Oh trust me, you get him fine enough. I doubt he’d trade you for anyone else. Even if you’re shit at fetch.”

He’s about to say something back when Alice and Bella appear, arm in arm and with a veritable mountain of snacks between them.

“007 here we come!” Alice whoops, handing Rose a…is that a Goo Goo Cluster?

“Wait, I thought only old people ate those!”

Rosalie just thumps him on the back and slides into the back seat. “Let’s get going before this hunk of junk collapses on us,” she says, and well, James Bond waits for no man.

The floral couch in the Swan’s living room is so familiar to Jacob at this point that plopping down on it next to Bella feels like second nature. He hands her a Coke from the fridge and she offers him her bag of chips.

They chat, mostly about the midterms they’d both taken over the last week and bemoaning the schoolwork their teachers had given them to do over the winter break, before lapsing into a companionable silence.

“Hey,” Jacob says, nudging Bella with his elbow, “I’m glad I’m stuck with you, you know that?”

“Pfft, you’d better be. You’re not going to find anyone cooler.”

“Hmm,” Jacob pretends to think “I’m not sure ‘cool’ is the word I’d use to describe you.”

Bella smirks, raising an eyebrow at him. "Oh, really? And what word would you use then?"

Jacob grins, "Unforgettable. You're definitely unforgettable, Loca."

"Well, I'll take that as a compliment. Who wants to be just 'cool' anyway?" Her smile keeps him warm all the way through his drive home.