Snap Decision

Disclaimer; all characters and copyright belong to SM.

A/N-this is my Christmas story. Set at the end of New Moon AU.

Jacob was obsessively checking the flight schedules again. There was one due in just a few hours from now. Bella could be on it. She would be scared, of course she would be scared. She might be hurt-he tried not to think about that. She had to be alive. He knew she was alive. He would focus on that. If the bloodsucker was dead-god he longed for that-then she would be very upset, distraught in fact. It would break her even more than his leaving already had. But Jacob knew he could put her back together. He could fix her again. He had already done it once. He could do it again. It would just take time and a lot of patience. And he was an expert at being patient. Hadn't he waited months already?

"Jake, let it go." Sam did little to hide his impatience.

Jacob felt his fist clench as he glanced over his shoulder at his Alpha. Uley had done nothing but try and quash any attempt to go after Bella. His stance was that it was her decision to go off with the little psychic leech. She was no longer their concern.

"When she gets off that plane, she'll be looking for me. I need to be there." Jacob answered through gritted teeth.

Sam sighed heavily. He had been trying to get through Jacob's hard head for the last day and a half that Bella was never coming back from her suicide mission. If Edward Cullen wasn't already dead when she got to Italy, then she would soon be joining him. He felt Emily come up beside him and look sympathetically in Jacob's direction. She had warned him to be careful with the young shifter. It was his first heart break and they needed to be gentle. Sam took the opposite view, but he took her advice, assuming that women were naturals when it came to affairs of the heart.

"Look, Jake, you can't keep doing this to yourself." Sam gentled his tone. "I get how hard this is for you- "

"I'm going to the airport." Jacob cut in harshly.

"What? Why?" Sam exclaimed in disbelief.

"This flight comes in at nine. If I leave now, I'll just make it in time."

Sam stared at Jacob as if he was crazy. The kid had lost it. "You can't stake out the airport, Jake. You're being ridiculous."

"Like I care what you think." Jacob muttered sarcastically. He rose from the table, getting ready to leave on his foolhardy mission.

"Sam!" Emily whispered urgently. She nudged him with her elbow, looking at him meaningfully. "You can't let him go alone."

"He's not going at all. I'll order him to stay put if I have to." Sam whispered back irritably.

"No, you can't do that!" Emily replied, appalled. "He needs a friend right now, not an Alpha. He needs to do this, Sam. He won't rest easy until he's tried. Go with him."

"You can't be serious?" Sam questioned as he peered into Emily's liquid brown eyes.

"Deadly." Emily's serious expression dissolved into a wry smile. Her smile was crooked, the scars on the damaged part of her face twisting her mouth to one side. "You would do the same if it was me." She finished quietly.

Sam felt the familiar stranglehold of guilt tug at his heartstrings. There was no way he could resist her request and it wasn't just because she was his imprint. It was because what she said was true. He loved her to the moon and back and would travel just as far to get her back if he lost her. "Okay." He agreed, bending his head to kiss her scarred cheek tenderly. He let his lips linger for a while before stepping back and rearranging his features into his usual stern mask. "Jacob, wait, I'm coming with you."

"What?" Jacob spun around in the doorway of the little cabin in surprise. "Why would you do that?"

"Because you'll need back up if the vamps are with her." Sam responded abruptly. "In fact, we're all going."

Jacob struggled to respond as his wrung-out emotions flooded to the surface. "Thank you." He said roughly.

"Don't thank me yet." Sam thought as he ducked down and kissed Emily goodbye. He still believed that Bella Swan was already dead.

Bella was too wired to sleep. She was already on her fourth coke. She was desperate to keep awake. Edward her already voiced his disapproval several times, he knew her low tolerance for caffeine. They had only been reunited for a short time but he was already falling into old habits, thinking he knew what was best for her, but he didn't have a fucking clue. The short flight to Rome had gone so fast there had been no time to process anything.

"You need to sleep, Bella." Edward chided her again when she reached for her fifth can of Coke.

"I don't want to sleep." She reminded him rather sharply. "If I close my eyes now, I'll see things I don't want to see. I'll have nightmares."

Edward's eyes flashed with guilt. He didn't argue with her after that. Bella was dreading the next section of the long journey home. There would be a long uninterrupted block of time ahead of them. It would be a good opportunity to talk, to get the answers she needed-needed but no longer really wanted. She was already despairing of what she might hear, or the questions he might ask her. There was no way she could escape him on an airplane.

Bella kept chugging down the soda. It was late, the other passengers on the plane were turning off their lights and asking for pillows in muted voices. Edward held her in his arms, his fingers tracing her face again and again. The contrast of his cold touch compared to Jacob's was striking. She couldn't help but compare the two, though it was agonising thinking about her more than best friend right now.

The last time she had seen Jacob he had been begging her to stay. She had been forced to ignore his pleas, there was no way she could let Edward die. She would never have been able to live with herself if she hadn't at least made an attempt to save him from himself. Bella would have done the same for Jacob, but she could see by the tortured look on his face that he didn't believe that. All he knew was that she was abandoning him like Edward abandoned her. She just hoped he would forgive her once she explained. That is if he gave her the chance to explain. If he didn't then she would stake out his house until he listened.

Edward continued to kiss her hair, her forehead, her wrists. He never tried to kiss her on the lips. It was lucky for her that he didn't. She would have punched him and ended up breaking every bone in her hand. Her heart was racing. She had lived through a lot that should have finished her in the last few days, but instead of feeling strong, she felt horribly fragile, like one more thing could shatter her.

Thankfully Edward kept his mouth shut. Bella didn't think she could have done the same if he had spoken to her. She won the fight against her heavy lids. She was awake when they reached the airport in Atlanta, and she even watched the sun beginning to rise over Seattle's cloud cover before Edward cruelly sild the window shut and blocked her view of the one thing that reminded her of Jacob.

Neither Alice nor Edward showed any surprise at the reception that waited for them at Sea Tac airport, but it caught Bella off guard. Jasper was the first one she saw-he didn't seem to see her at all. His eyes were only for Alice. She went quickly to his side; they didn't embrace like an ordinary couple. They only stared into each other's faces like a pair of living statues. "Idiots." Bella thought testily. She was desperate to keep moving.

Carlisle and Esme waited in a quiet corner far from the metal detectors, in the shadow of a wide pillar. Esme tried to reach for Bella, but she sidestepped her, unwilling to share an affectionate hug with Edward's pretend mother. Esme had fucked off and abandoned her just like the rest of the damn family. Bella was in no mood to play happy families.

"Thank you, Bella." Esme said awkwardly, wearing a watery smile to hide her hurt.

Bella didn't give a shit. She stared at the beautiful woman with a neutral expression as she watched Esme throw her arms around Edward. "You will never put me through that again." She scolded him fiercely.

Edward grinned, repentant. "Sorry, mom."

Carlisle hugged Edward too, his expression grave. He turned to Bella and this time he did smile. "Thank you, Bella. We owe you."

"I want to go home." She muttered rudely, not bothering to register his thanks. The sleepless night was suddenly overpowering. Her head felt disconnected from her body. But her heart, her heart was in a little redwood house in La Push.

"She's dead on her feet." Esme said, stating the obvious. "Let's get her home." She scolded Edward.

Home sounded like heaven right now. It was all Bella wanted. She stumbled, half blind, through the airport, Edward dragging her on one side and Esme on the other. She didn't know if Alice and Jasper were behind them or not, and neither did she care.

Bella lost the fight to keep her eyes open. Her lids fluttered closed as she practically sleep walked, putting one foot in front of the other by pure instinct. Her mind drifted, floating through the stratosphere until it landed on the Black's doorstep in La Push. She pictured herself knocking on the front door, her rehearsed apology to Jacob ready to spill from her lips once he opened the door. Why was he taking so long to answer, dammit? Was he making her wait on purpose to punish her?

"Open up!" She yelled as she smashed her hand on the impenetrable wood. "I know you're in there, Jake. Let me in!"

"Bells!"

Ah, that was better! Bella smiled as his strong arms wrapped around her, lifting her up and hauling her over his shoulder. Huh? What? That was undignified. What was he playing at? There were raised voices. All the blood was rushing to Bella's head from her upside-down position. She tried to open her eyes but her eyelids seemed stuck together with tiredness.

"Fuck off bloodsucker." Jacob swore. "We're taking her home."

"Language, Jake." Bella mumbled. He really did have a potty mouth sometimes. If Charlie heard him, he would not be impressed. She didn't remember hearing him swear so much before he phased. Maybe it was a wolf thing.

"You can't just come here and kidnap her." Edward's voice was pent up with frustration.

"Isn't that what the little pixie did when she took Bella to Italy to save your chilly ass?" Jacob retorted angrily. His body was shaking and Bella felt every tremor from her uncomfortable position hanging over his shoulder.

"Easy, Jake." Sam's voice was steady and calm as always.

What the hell did Uley think he was doing butting in on her reunion with Jake! This wasn't fair. She wanted them all to leave. She opened her mouth to protest but her throat was so dry nothing came out but a faint squeak. There were more raised voices. Carlisle made his presence known. He began to speak to Sam in hushed tones. Bella heard Sam invoke something about the treaty which made Carlisle back off. Edward immediately began to protest until Carlisle quietened him with a harsh reminder that he had no rights after what he had put them all through.

Bella yawned widely. "Home, Jeeves. I mean Jake." She mumbled when she felt him swing around and stride off into the house… or airport… or wherever. She was with him and they were somewhere. But at least they were somewhere together again. That was all that mattered.

Jacob carried Bella out of the airport like a caveman with her dangled over his shoulder. The pack surrounded him like a bunch of muscle-bound bodyguards. Bella was happily humming to herself in her sleep when Jacob gently deposited her in the passenger seat of the Rabbit. She smiled, curling up as if she was in her own bed, her long eyelashes casting shadows on her pale cheeks. The gentle thrum of the engine sent her completely under as Jacob began the long drive home.

Outside the first snowflakes began to fall.

A/N-thanks for reading!