Notes: Um. I'm sorry this took six months to write. I know you're all probably asking, how hard is it to write 2500 measly words? But real life intervened, I guess. Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews. I hope you enjoy this chapter, and hopefully there will be more soon.

-&-

For once, the sun was shining over Washington. The sunlight that filtered through my bedroom curtains was a rare but welcome occurrence.

Unfortunately, it displayed the wet stain on my bed sheets pretty damn well.

"Fuck," I muttered under my breath, staring at the mess in dismay. I pulled down the shades over my windows and closed the curtains, but I could still see the offending stain as clear as anything. I balled my sheets up into a wad, throwing them roughly into the hamper. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

You know, it's one thing to have sex dreams. Everyone has them, once in a while, even to the mind-blowing caliber that I'm used to. But I highly doubt any one else has them every night, about a guy they're supposed to hate, and I really doubt they cream their sheets every single time, either.

Was I supposed to take this as some sort of sign, or something? Because seriously, I got the message loud and clear.

I threw a couple of shirts in the hamper, on top of my sheets, so it would look less odd to Dad, if he saw anything. Not that he would really say anything, but I'd rather avoid him realizing just how often I have to wash my stupid sheets.

I grabbed the hamper in one hand and opened the door with the other, but it collided with something in the hallway with a loud bang. "Fuck!" I shouted, probably not for the last time, and flicked the switch on for the hallway light.

"Sorry," Dad said apologetically. "This stupid chair always gets in the way. I was just bringing my things to the laundry room. Do you want me to bring yours?" he asked, noticing my hamper.

"No, no, it's all right," I said hastily. "Here, I'll take yours down with mine. Go…make breakfast, or something."

I carefully tiptoed around the wheelchair and barreled the rest of the way down the hallway, dumping the contents of the hamper in the washing machine. Potential crisis averted, at least for now.

Of course, crises practically follow me around, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. I can't avoid them all the time, can I?

-&-

Quil came over soon after I finished breakfast. He noted my lack of bedclothes and raised his eyebrows at me. "Didn't you just wash your sheets like, two days ago?"

"Yes. And? Maybe I'm a closet clean-freak," I said defensively.

He laughed and laughed. "Yeah, you're in the closet for a lot of things, aren't you?"

I groaned and plopped on my mattress, hiding my face in my heads. "Shut up, shut up," I said miserably. "That's not my fault. It's not my fault I have a…dream problem."

"Oh." Quil looked thoughtful for a moment. "Is that what it is, why you're washing your sheets so often?"

"No shit," I replied, embarrassed beyond belief.

"Why don't you just…nip it in the bud before you go to bed?"

My eyebrows knit together. "What?"

"You know." Quil made an up-and-down motion with his half-closed fist and waggled his eyebrows.

"Quil!" I shoved him off the mattress with my foot and he laughed hysterically as he thudded to the floor. "Dude, isn't the point not to get anything on my sheets?"

"Do it in the bathroom or something!"

He was still laughing. I kicked him in the head for good measure, but he didn't really stop.

Over his laughter I heard the sound of an engine in the driveway. I peeked out between the curtains and saw Charlie's familiar police cruiser.

"It's Charlie," I said to Quil as I sat back down. "Hmm. I wonder what he's doing here."

"Wait, who's that?" Quil asked, opening the window and peeking out the screen. "Since when was Charlie a girl?"

"The fuck, man, that's his daughter," I said after I shoved him out of the way. "Come on, let's go see."

"She's pretty hot," Quil said thoughtfully as we bounded through the hallway and out the front door. Billy had already wheeled himself out and was waiting on the edge of the smooth blacktop.

"You haven't got a snowball's chance in hell," I muttered to him under my breath, and he elbowed me hard in the ribs. I stepped back on his toes and he yelped, but we quieted down when Billy cleared his throat.

"Hey Charlie," I said, and to the girl standing next to him, I said, "Bella, right? We used to make mud pies when we were little."

"I remember," she said wryly.

"This is Quil," I said, introducing my friend at the last minute. She smiled at him and fell back behind her father, who began negotiating with mine for the red pickup that had been gathering dust in our garage.

"What do you think, Jake?" Dad asked me. "Do you think you could fix her up anytime soon?"

"That thing? Sure," I said with confidence. "I just need to fix the engine, and maybe get rid of a few dents in the body of the car. It might take a few hours, though," I pointed out.

"That's fine," Charlie said gruffly. "Whatever you can do."

"I really appreciate it, but you don't have to go to all this hard work for me," Bella said quietly. "As long as you make sure it runs for a couple of months..."

"I'll tell you what," I said, watching as Charlie wheeled Dad over to a few feet to have a separate conversation. "Why don't you help fix the pickup today? That way you won't feel so bad."

Bella snorted and a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "I don't think that's such a good idea," she said drily. "Tools and the uncoordinated don't exactly get along."

"You could just hang out with Quil and I, then?" I asked, looking over at Quil for confirmation, but he shook his head briefly.

"Embry and I were going to go swimming, since it's so nice for once," said Quil. "I should probably be going now. I only came over to…"

To see how I was after the debacle of the night before. It was a nice gesture, but I was fine, really. I could handle extremely humiliating situations just as well as anyone else really. I shot him a quick smile, to reassure him or something, but it didn't look like he bought it.

"All right," I said, trying to change the course of the conversation as quickly as possible. "Well, you can just hang with me while I fix the car?" I turned back to Bella, a hopeful expression on my face. She bit her lip as she looked over my shoulder to Charlie, but she looked back to me and nodded. I guess I was preferable company to Charlie, even though she barely knew or remembered me.

"It looks like Charlie wants to catch up with your dad," she pointed out, "so that would make sense."

I grinned, motioning to my shed off in the distance. "Let's get started." God, anything to get my mind off of the night before.

-&-

"Oh God," Bella said with a laugh. "This is such a disaster. Take all the tools away from me. I need to go sit down now. Like I said, I am too uncoordinated for this kind of stuff."

"No worries," I said, grinning as she sat down gingerly in the chair a few feet away. "I'm almost done. I wouldn't have let you tinker with this thing if I knew I couldn't have fixed it anyway, don't worry."

Just a few minutes later I heard a crash from behind me. I turned around to see Bella standing sheepishly over the fallen chair. "It started raining on me," she said, indicating to the open window just behind where she had been sitting. "The wind blew it in on me and it just…surprised me."

I snorted at her as she righted the chair. "Well, you can sit in your nice comfy car now. It's all done. Speaking of windows, though – they're hard to crank in the car, so I just left them open for now. It shouldn't be too bad driving home."

"Awesome! Thank you," she said, smiling up at me. "I'll go tell Charlie. He'll probably try and quiz me on proper driving techniques, though, especially in this weather. Man, it was so nice a few hours ago, too." I tried not to take the sudden rainstorm as an omen, but it was kind of hard to ignore.

"That certainly does sound like Charlie," I replied as I cracked open the door to the shed. "Come on, drive this thing down to the driveway." I threw her the keys and climbed in the passenger side. Bella started the ignition and turned to grin at me as it growled to life.

She drove slowly and carefully the few feet to the driveway, probably because she noticed Charlie watching from inside the house. She parked as close as she could to the door, and we sprinted inside the house to avoid getting soaked.

"The car's all ready if you want to take a look at it," I announced once we were inside. As Charlie made a motion to stand, I glanced at the clock behind him on the wall. Half past seven.

"Fuck," I said under my breath. I walked past Charlie as he followed Bella back out to the driveway and said to Dad, "I really have to go, but I need to wait until they leave, I guess."

"Hmm," he said, wheeling over to the glass door, staring out at the cloudy sky. "Are you sure you have to go tonight? You did yesterday."

"I'm positive," I said, kicking my shoes and socks off before hastily pulling my shirt off, leaving only my shorts, which I would dispose of outside. "Fuck, are they leaving anytime soon?"

"It looks like they're going now," Dad said, peering out the door. "Yeah, they're waving from their respective cars." I peered out the glass as well and waved back to Bella.

When I turned to Dad, he noted the smile on my face and grinned at me. "You and Bella sure did get along well," he said, the hint of something I didn't want to hear in his voice.

"Dad, I get along well with everyone," I pointed out. "Look, I'll talk to you later. Bye!" I ran hastily out of the door as soon as the cars disappeared from sight down the road, and sprinted across the field into the trees, ripping off my shorts and transforming mid-stride.

Jacob, you're late, was the first thing I heard as I ran through the woods as a wolf.

I'm sorry, I lost track of time, I thought, and unwittingly images of Bella ran through my mind.

Leah's late too, otherwise she'd probably have something to say about that, Paul thought snidely.

Ugh, fuck off.

I reached my destination in record time, and changed back into my human form, tugging my shorts back on, before walking through the final stretch of trees.

He was already there, standing under a tree with his back to me, but I was positive he knew I was there. I slowed to a stop, a number of feet behind him, and leaned against a tree trunk. He didn't turn.

The only things that shattered the silence were the occasional gust of wind and the rain falling on our heads. Once or twice, a car drove by on the highway, and we watched it drive away from our hiding spot in the trees.

I exhaled sharply, crossing my arms over my chest. This wasn't weird. Not at all.

"Look," I started, and he turned, like a snake uncoiling after a long day in the cold. His movements were slow and punctuated, and once he was facing me he held himself as still as a statue.

Absolutely breathtaking.

"Look," I repeated, less sure of myself. "This doesn't have to be weird. We can't just stand here in silence. I mean…" I pushed the hair back from my face out of frustration; it was dripping wet but I hadn't seemed to notice. "I mean, if you try not to read my mind I'll try not to be an idiot, all right?"

The seconds ticked by and all I could hear was the soft staccato of the rain. I let out a breath, taking his silence as the only answer I would ever get, until I noticed an almost imperceptible smile on Edward's face.

"That might be hard," he finally said.

"What do you mean?" I asked, narrowing my eyes.

"You, trying not to be an idiot," he replied, letting a grin split across his face. "I wouldn't want you to strain yourself."

"Motherfucker!" I pushed my feet deep into the mud and kicked as hard as I could in his direction, laughing in triumph as it stained his clothes. All he did was smirk as if a bit of mud didn't bother him, but I saw his fingers itch at the cuffs of his sleeves, brushing the dirt away. Victory.

"So what did you do today?" he asked without missing a beat.

"Nothing much," I shouted over a sudden gust of wind. "I fixed up a car," I continued, and by some bizarre chance of fate the truck I had tuned up just a few hours earlier turned the corner on the highway, making itself known with a guttural roar of the engine.

The wind picked up again, whipping my hair haphazardly in the air, making it difficult to see. I flattened it back just in time to see Edward stiffen, and whip himself around to face the highway.

Not too far off in the distance, I could see Bella's hair flapping in the wind, escaping through the window that refused to shut. There was a final gust of wind, and then the car went out of view, the sound of the engine becoming fainter.

There was a single moment when Edward held himself taut, like a string; his spine impossibly straight and his head tilted back. He inhaled deeply, opening his mouth to drink in the air.

It was a good thing I reacted so quickly, because when he set himself to run after the truck, I slammed into him with all the force I had in my body.