Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns all rights to these characters. I don't make any money out of them.

WARNING: This story will contain some details of rape, of a kind, or its aftermath. Please don't read if that will be a problem for you. I will mark any problem chapters.

A/N: So, a little start. A slow one. Short and hopefully sweet. So far, it's very canon. Hope you enjoy!

Flotsam and Jetsam

The shingle slipped and crunched as they walked up First Beach. Jake negotiated the uncertain surface with far more grace than Bella could and she clung to his arm a little harder than she would have liked. She sighed, muttering,

'Everyone's a superhero.'

'That's me, baby,' Jake laughed, squeezing her closer to the welcome heat of his flank and ruffling her hair.

The recent storm had reorganised the shore, banking shingle and ripping away familiar landmarks. Their driftwood tree was still there, a sentinel in the misty distance, and they gravitated towards it. Bella struggled to make sense of the shape she was staring at, something pale lying half in, half out of the water. Jake was too busy playing to notice it, throwing one handed handstands against the bleached, weather-hardened trunk, shaking it with the force of his jumps, and laughing. She looked at him in mock disapproval, her childlike, elemental friend.

'Jake.'

He stopped and looked at her. 'What's that?'

He followed her pointing finger, sniffing the wind, and she could almost hear the clicking as his supervision zoomed in on whatever it was.

'Shit, Bells, that's a person!'

He was at the body before she'd slid from the trunk, and she waded through the shingle after him, falling to her knees on the other side of the body of a teenage girl, white-blue and still, lying face down on the beach just out of the water.

Bella reached around her neck and felt for a pulse, while Jake's huge hands pumped water from her lungs. He lowered his ear to her face, then tilted her head back and blew air into her lungs.

'Is she...?' Bella reached for the girl's cold hand and held it in both of hers.

'No, she's here.' He lifted her to a sitting position, leaning her back against him. 'She's breathing. I wonder what the story is?'

The girl was small and curvy, her skin was pale and her wet hair wound around her, clinging to her and reaching to the base of her spine. Jake and Bella looked at each other over her naked, unconscious body.

'Where did she come from?' Bella wondered. She reached for her cell phone, thumb hovering over the 9, when Jake stopped her.

'Hang on, Bella. I don't know if that's the right thing to do. She's a bit ... fishy.' He didn't elaborate, and his brow furrowed.

'Well, obviously something's weird, alright. But shouldn't we call the ambulance? Maybe Charlie...?'

Jake shook his head.

'No, that's not what I meant. She actually smells fishy. '

'She's obviously been in the water, and lying on the sand. It would make sense that...'

'No. Bella,' he interrupted. 'Listen. She doesn't smell human. She's like, I don't know. Different. And her heart's not beating very often. It's regular, but it's slow. Slower than yours, anyway.'

'If she's not human, what is she? And how did she get here? Did the storm wash her up?

As Bella looked down at her, the girl opened her eyes. Her pupils were dilated, but horseshoe shaped, until they shrank back to something rounder. She pushed away from Jake's arms and scrabbled backwards onto the beach, looking wildly between him and Bella. She looked down at herself, touching her arms, her hair, and then back at them. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. Her small pink tongue touched her lips briefly.

'It's ok, it's ok,' Jake spoke gently, his voice husky and low. 'She's scared,' Jake said. 'Her heart rate's speeding up. I wonder should we take her home?'

Bella frowned. 'Home to your house? Or to Carlisle?

The girl stood up and stretched, testing her limbs. She seemed utterly unaware of her nakedness. She frowned in concentration then deliberately turned a cartwheel in the soft sand, turning back to smile at them as they gaped at her.

'Ok, yeah. Let's take her to Carlisle,' Jake agreed, nodding slowly.