"So..." Bella finally said as we pulled into the driveway. She'd been lost in thought the entire ride home and had finally gotten to a point she wanted my input on. "Laurent is gone."

"Mmm." I stepped out of her truck, checking for Dad's cruiser even though he'd said he wouldn't be home. If he'd caught us, I knew by now that it wouldn't matter what I said to him; whatever lie he might believe from me, Isabella would mess up. "Victoria though."

Isabella let out a gulp and seemed unable to reply. For once she was more scared then I was, which was strange, actually. Had she not seen the wolves? Had Paul freaked her out somehow? I followed my sister into the house and down the hall to the kitchen, both of us heading straight for the back window. Night was falling and we could barely see into the backyard. Even so, our eyes focused on the forest we couldn't see.

"Do you think Jake's out there?" I muttered, more to myself.

Bella shuddered. "I hope not. What if he meets Victoria?" Her eyes widened when I gave her a puzzled glance. "If he finds her, if he gets hurt protecting me—"

"Protecting us." I put in, before becoming flustered at the idea she might catch on to my sudden burst of jealousy. "He's... he's out there for all of us." I corrected lamely. "And he's got Paul and the others."

Isabella made a face. "Paul's pretty angry at him."

"Oh." I turned back to the window, wondering yet again what was out there that I couldn't see. A thought of Paul glaring poutily back at me through the window broke through and a grin flickered across my face before I remembered my point. "Ok, well. Sam then. He and Jake took care of Laurent in a second. And Paul's just an ass. What does he care what we do?"

Bella turned away from the window, finally flipping on the kitchen light and obscuring any view I'd had of outside. She started rummaging through the fridge as she considered my question and pulled out some chicken and veggies. I settled down in my chair, crossing my legs awkwardly against the table as I stared her down.

"Humans aren't supposed to know. " Isabella said tightly, eyes flicking away from mine as I tried to peer over and see her expression. "I had to guess. Jacob had—"

"Jacob just told me." I argued. "That's why he was so far from home: he was here, spilling the beans." Bella shrugged. "I... hang on..." My eyes narrowed as I watched my sister concentrating just a little bit too hard on the chicken she was cooking. "Isabella, what did you—"

"It's Bella." She said. "And Sam and Paul were arguing about that, I think. But Sam seemed to think it wasn't as big a deal. " She frowned thoughtfully. "They didn't seem to want to tell me why, though. Something about Jacob not wanting it yet."

"Oh, great. More secrets. Because I love those so much." I scowled and began picking at the edge of the table, trying to find a splinter. "Don't I have enough to worry about? It's bad enough that you keep secrets. Now Jake keeps... " I trailed off, remembering an 'I'll tell you later'. But he hadn't told me and I didn't feel any better.

My sister looked over at me, wrapping her arms around her body in that weird, panicked way: like she would fall apart if she didn't. "Jake- Jacob wouldn't hurt you." She managed to get out. "He cares about you, Gen."

"I guess." I muttered, mulling it over. "You're not the best judge with boys though." I added; how many had she led on last year? And I'd bet she'd've sworn none of them liked her. "Did Jacob tell you—What's wrong?" I'd turned back to find her looking stricken, a moment away from falling to pieces. "Bella?"

"I'm fine." She lied.

"Bella."

"Can we talk about something else?"

I turned back to the table, scowling. Jacob and werewolves were pretty much all I could think of; that and all the things she might not be telling me. And Jake might not be telling me. With that on my mind, I refused to look at Isabella for the rest of the night, even when she slid a plate in front of me and I went to grab us both a bottle of water from the fridge. We ate in silence, not speaking until Isabella had gotten up to put her plate in the sink and I remembered one last weird event of the day.

"Um..." I started uncertainly. She paused on her way out the door, not looking back at me. She seemed to be hiding her face. I bit my lip, unsure how to explain. "I'll figure out a way to fix your door. Jake... I'll fix it."

Bella just nodded and walked out.

I went back to staring at my plate, fighting off a new uneasiness I couldn't quite place.

...

I slept horribly that night, not even able to fall asleep long enough to have a nightmare. The next morning I woke up late and desperate for some sort of energy boost so, before I was even truly conscious, I wandered downstairs to find some cereal. I was to regret this decision.

I turned away from the cupboard with a bowl of cereal, finally opening my eyes fully as I took my first bite and finding Bella looking awkward where she sat in my normal chair. I turned to the next chair and found a guest grinning at me as I blinked confusedly back through a curtain of tangled bedhead and slowly realized I was wearing only an extra large t-shirt declaring something about Bubba Gump Shrimp of all things.

"Hey, Gen," Said Jacob, trying to look innocent and not at all like he was laughing at me.

I stared at him, trying to figure out how to telepathically will my hair into a normal shape. "Why." I demanded. The word came out garbled through a mouthful of cheerios.

Jacob burst out laughing.

When I'd finished glaring at him long enough to go back upstairs and get sort of presentable, my sister and I followed him out to the garage where the two of them had stashed one of the motorbikes we'd brought up to LaPush. He'd apparently finished fixing it up just before heading up and hadn't remembered that our dad wasn't supposed to know about them. When I'd finished looking them over he gave me a questioning look and I frowned doubtfully.

"What?" I looked down at the bike again, wiping a smudge with the sleeve of my sweatshirt. "My dad is going to freak out you know." I looked up to find him looking slightly crestfallen. "But very impressive." I added.

Jacob grinned proudly as he wheeled the bike back outside. "Bella told your dad she was bringing the truck up to get fixed. I could run the whole way next to you but..."

"Yeah, bike is better." I said, walking with him, the bike in between us and my sister trailing behind as though she weren't really there. "Anything else I need to know?" I added pointedly, looking almost straight up to see his face.

Jacob ran a hand through his short black hair, examining me as his giant hands fiddling with the handlebars he still gripped. I didn't like the way he looked at me now: was it being a werewolf that made him so sure of himself? Or... was it that he was sure of me? There was this feeling that he knew who he was, this certainty. And, sure, he was probably hiding some of the bad stuff he felt: we were not even a day into getting over my break-up attempt. But I was dealing with so many unknowns that when he looked at me like he could understand exactly what I felt... it wasn't fair.

I turned away from him, cutting off whatever blowoff answer he was going to give. "You ready to go?" I asked sharply, turning to my sister. Isabella was staring thoughtfully at the motorcycle. "Iz. Iz. Isabella." Her eyes finally met mine and I gave her a scowl. "Do you not want to go to LaPush? This was your idea."

Isabella looked away and Jake came to her rescue. "It was ours. We'll be less spread out now when Victoria tries to get at the two of you." He waved a hand at my sister, looking amused. "Bella doesn't like the idea of us chasing Victoria."

I opened my mouth to agree and realized I was about to reveal my growing bad mood. Instead, I shrugged and turned away from them, heading toward the truck. Bella followed me a moment later and we followed Jacob on his bike all the way to his place. I found myself scowling into the rearview mirror, refusing to look at where Jacob rode ahead of us on his bike. I'd had a brief thought to ride with him and quickly realized I wasn't ready to be that close to him for that long. I could picture him fighting for me, defending me against the werewolf but the crunch of him cracking Bella's door in half kept interrupting to remind me what might happen if I got too close.

As we drove I realized more and more what chaos my mind was in. Everything that had happened yesterday was becoming dulled in my head, just like the attack a year before. My mind knew that it was easier to pretend it had been a hallucination or a dream and this time I had no mark on my hand to tell me otherwise. I had no plan for what to do if they came again. I had to rely on Jacob and yet again I could only find one emotion I could comfortably feel and that was anger: how many times was I going to be dragged along, be left out of the big picture because of some stupid need for secrecy or who knew what. By the time we arrived and I saw Billy waving at us as we climbed out of the car and approached, as I remembered all the times I'd almost begged him to tell what he knew...

Suddenly I was in Jacob's arms, face pressed against his chest as the world swirled around me.

"Damn it." He muttered.

"I'm fine." I grumbled. I was getting a headache and felt like I was either about to cry or about to barf and I wanted to punch Billy. "Perfectly fine."

"Yeah, ok." He said, still hugging me to him but he stopped trying to get me to talk. "Bella, how are you holding up?"

"Fine." She said, her voice strained. Probably thinking of Edward again.

The Swan twins. What a pair.

"I..." Jacob started to say. A wolf howled and he instinctively turned toward the sound, pulling me with him so that I stumbled and had to catch myself against him. "I have to go."

I stepped back, unable to pull my face out of the frown. I'd wasted my time yesterday, I realized. I'd had so much time to ask for explanations but we'd watched a movie. I'd acted like we were normal, working up to a normal life and now we'd never have time to figure things out. "K."

"I'll see you later." Jacob promised urgently, reading the look on my face. "We can hang out tonight. Maybe I can teach you two to ride the bikes soon. Or cliff diving."

I attempted a smile, only because it was Jacob. "Oh, yeah. Sure. Then we can sunbathe and drink ice cold lemonade on the beach. And then we can freeze to death."

Jacob laughed. "Well, you two can."

"Is that one of those werewolf things?" Isabella asked, loosening up as Jake and I got further apart. "The heat?"

"Yeah. We run a little warmer than the normal people. About one-oh-eight, one-oh-nine. I never get cold anymore." He glanced back at the woods again. "When I get back I can give you the full rundown on exactly how cool I am," He added, winking at me and I raised a skeptical eyebrow. "But I need to head off. You'll be ok?"

"Fine." I said once again, still lying.

Bella nodded in agreement. She was also lying.

Jacob laughed helplessly, "Well, I'll see you later." His eyes lingered on me just a second longer and then he was off, running faster than any human should have been able to.

Isabella and I walked toward the house rather slowly, both lost in thought. When we walked in, Bella stopped to talk to Billy about where Jake had run off, making it clear that he knew perfectly well what his son was and what vampires were as well. I claimed I needed the bathroom and slipped off. When I came back I joined my sister in watching the old tv, wishing I'd thought to bring something else to do. Mentally I started redecorating the Black's house before I moved on to wondering again how good Jacob would be at basketball now. By the time I'd started calculating how many of my friends I'd need to beat him and moved on to the pros and cons of different plays, Isabella had flipped through every channel and finally got up to grab her coat again.

"I'll be at the beach." She said abruptly. She glanced at me nervously but I just gave her a weird look and went back to staring aimlessly at the tv. A couple seconds after the door slammed shut it occurred to me that I should have gone with her but a frozen beach and the thought of vampires watching me from every shadow was not something I felt up to at the moment. Eventually I turned off the tv and wandered over to the kitchen where Billy sat reading the paper and eating his breakfast.

He looked up at me as I sat down at the table, eyebrows pulled together as he studied me just like his son had. "Gen."

"Billy." I replied. I couldn't resist. "You a werewolf too?"

Billy raised an eyebrow at me, looked down at his wheelchair, and then simply shook his head. "Any other questions?"

I opened my mouth to spill everything, and found I couldn't quite get it into words. I'd grown up looking up to Billy. He was my dad's best friend and I'd liked the idea, however untrue or true, that I was his favorite. To explain why I was upset, why I'd thought he would have told me... Why his 'betrayal' hurt just as much as Jake's or my sister's. But as I tried to find the words, I just felt stupider.

Though to be fair, I'd had barely any sleep the night before and I'd only found out werewolves existed less than 24 hours before.

I shook my head at Billy and covered my face with my hands, rubbing at my tired eyes. "I don't know... How long do you think Jake will be out there?"

"If the bloodsucker's around... no way to know." Billy took another spoonful of cereal as he thought. "But they'll get her. Sam knows what he's doing."

"Yeah..." I let my hands fall down, setting my elbows against the table so I could rest against it. "Yeah, they showed that yesterday, I guess."

Billy snorted. I looked up at him in surprised but he just shook his head.

The conversation moved onto when my dad would next be up and whether I was up for our yearly March Madness get-togethers. Eventually I started to feel antsy as well, mind unable to stop thinking of the pond behind the Blacks' house, Paul leaping out to save my sister, the weird looks Bella kept getting on her face, what else might be hiding in those woods. At some point I glanced out the window and saw clouds gathering, start sprinkling. For Washington, it was a pretty nice rain but...

"Where did Isabella say she was off to again?" I asked abruptly.

"She went out to the beach." Billy frowned, following my gaze to the window. "It should be fine. The boys won't let anything get that close." His eyes narrowed as the rain picked up.

I strode to the front windows and back again, irritated again. "I don't see her coming back. If she gets lost—last fall was a nightmare—" The thought of Isabella's night in the woods after Edward had dumped her clicked in my brain and I paused, picturing Sam, Sam's voice keeping the other boys away from me, Sam asking about my wrist. I wished I could remember more. I wished I'd been able to warn Jacob about all this before he got thrown into it as well. Or would he have walked into it willingly, like my sister? "I'm going to go get her."

"Rain poncho's in the front closet." Billy commented.

I was already outside, wrapping my hands in the sleeves of my sweatshirt to keep from getting too cold again, feet splashing mud onto my old jeans as I hurried toward the path to the beach. I was ready to chew out Isabella, ready to ask what the hell was going on in her head.

I didn't know I was already too late.