A/N: I'm going to be honest. Over the last year I have been going back and forth about updating this fic. I knew this was going to be a very important chapter, and that it would set up the rest of the story. I guess you would say this is the beginning of the end? And the pressure of this chapter's importance made me scared to write it. Instead of updating this fic, I've been writing for my other stories, always letting this one sit as a blank word document named GINY 21. I'm glad to say I was hit with a snowball of inspiration after hearing Stephenie Meyer would be releasing Midnight Sun. THE Midnight Sun we've been waiting for for 12 years. I thought if Steph could do that, I could update my damn fic. I started writing this 5/9 and have finished it today 5/12. I hope it lives up to all of your expectations.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

Note: Unbeta'd so all mistakes are my own.

Jacob

I drive, feeling the warmth of her neck on my thigh, and reach down to stroke her hair back from her face. Bella looks up at me, and smiles, love shining from her eyes.

How the look in them steals my breath away, reminds me why I keep going, why I continue on when all life has ever done is push me down to my knees, and demand I surrender.

"Stay down, we're almost there." She heeds my warning, tightening her grip on my leg.

The main road begins to thin, and soon I begin to pull into the parking lot of Forks only supermarket. The same one that irrevocably changed both of our lives forever. I shiver, the sight of the uneven gravel sending a wave of nostalgia so great, I have to hold onto the steering wheel to keep steady.

The journey to this moment has been a long one, one filled with every possible emotion someone can ever hope to experience. Fear, pain, longing…obsession. Uncertainty, grief, determination…love.

The amount of love I've felt for this woman who lays across my lap is indescribable, greater than anything I've felt in my entire life, and because of that I refuse to let her go, to lose her. I'm a wolf whose smelt blood, hers, and I will chase the scent until it kills me.

"Jake," she whispers, checking to see if the coast is clear. I nod, putting the car into park, and shutting the engine off.

We got lucky finding this car, now I can only hope we're lucky enough to make our way back to it. But I know, just as some part of her must know, there's only so much time we can keep running.

One day, a day I hope never comes, we might be separated once again.

Thoughts of the past two months I spent without her run through my mind, my longing a vivid misery that still burns like fire through my lungs, reminding me of the fate I fight against. I can't lose her. Not without losing myself entirely.

I survey our surroundings as I keep my hand on the back of her head, stilling her actions when she makes a sudden move to sit up. I watch as people come and go, unloading shopping carts and driving off, the minutes passing in complete silence.

Bella knows better than to make a sound when I'm this focused, hyper sensitive to every sight and sound. It's the animal in me, the one that searches the forest for any threat that might linger in the shadows, hiding, waiting for the right moment to strike. Only this time, I am the hunter and they are the unfortunate prey.

As the crowd begins to thin, with only one or two people lingering by their cars, I begin to explain my plan to Bella.

"The next person who brings out a full cart, that's who we're going after."

"What do you mean go after?" I don't miss the note of fear in her voice, nor the way her eyes search my face, taking note of the lines of my features to gauge my intent.

I don't hesitate. "We're going to follow them."

"How do you know they won't try anything?"

"I don't, but I hope for their sake, they're smarter than that." I don't say anything more, and she doesn't ask any other questions. Instead, she lays her head back down, and I stroke her face absently, eyes scanning and rescanning every person in the lot.

Bella's hand tightens on my knee, her grip signaling her anxiety, and I sigh before whispering, "I'll try not to hurt them, but if they struggle, I have no choice. You, and Sarah are who I have to worry about. Nobody else."

"I know." But her white knuckles straining around my knee betray her. I have to remind myself how much of a good girl she is, how she didn't grow up with Billy for a father, and Paul as a best friend. How naive she still is, despite being surrounded by the likes of Charlie Swan, Edward Cullen and me. That she's still so young, innocent despite the corruption she's experienced at my hands.

Bella is selfless, but she needs to know now her safety is everything. Without it, we're fighting a useless fight. I need her, her light and I refuse to even imagine a moment the world is bathed in darkness without it.

We sit in tense silence until I spot a man a few feet from us, his cart full of bags on top of bags of groceries. He's missing a blazer, but his dress pants and shoes, and long sleeve button down tell me he's well off; I know he's the one. Bella must sense it too, since I start the engine without a word and pull out after him.

I know not to trail too closely, letting a car or two go in front of us, never letting his out of my sight. We drive for fifteen minutes before he notices something is wrong. He looks at me from his windshield mirror, before looking away and back again, trying to catch my eyes. Trying to figure out if he's paranoid, or right to worry. I pull down my cap before he can see the truth of who I am beneath the brim, and drive past his car when he makes a move to park in one of the secluded driveways off the highway.

He stops and sighs before shaking his head, and exiting the side of his car. I mark the number of the driveway in my head, already making a move to round the block and catch him off guard.

"I'm going to let him get settled, and then we'll go inside," my voice is a low murmur, intent on the hunt.

"How are we going to get in?"

"I'm going to pick the lock. He won't even know what's happening until it's too late."

I can feel Bella's apprehension without even looking down. She remembers what happened the last time I stopped in the road to confront a stranger. She knows what can happen if things don't go our way. I don't reassure her. I don't want to make a promise I can't keep.

On top of everything else I am, I can't be a liar too.

I park on the street opposite the man's house, and wait, straining my ears for any sounds he's going to come back outside only to hear none.

"Let's go." I knead the soreness out of Bella's neck from having spent the last hour leaning on my lap, and grab her hand as we both leave the car.

Bella huddles into me, and I pull her closer as we cross the street, looking this way and that for any sign someone may have spotted us, and suspects we're up to no good. I can only hope our baseball caps, and baggy clothes can shield our identities long enough that we can get away unscathed.

I pick the lock before Bella has time to turn around, her eyes trained behind us, her teeth worrying her bottom lip in anticipation.

"Come, baby." Grasping her hand in mine, I slowly push open the door, mindful if I open it too fast it might creak. When it doesn't, we slip inside, my hand coming up to push the door back flush with the frame. We both hold our breath as we walk down the hallway, hearing the faint sounds of a television in the next room on the right.

Pulling Bella behind me, I lean against the wall before peering through the doorway. The man sits with his back to us, nursing a cup of coffee, with a book in his lap none the wiser that he isn't alone.

Reaching into my pants pocket, I pull out the syringe I hid for this precise moment, pushing the cap off the needle with my thumb. I strike before the man or Bella can even register what I'm doing.

Plunging the needle into his neck, I hold him down when he begins to struggle, his hands clawing at my wrist. Slowly as the sedative recedes from inside the syringe, his grip weakens until it falls apart completely.

"Jake?" I hear Bella gasp from behind me, shock and fear written all over the features of her face.

"It's okay, I didn't hurt him. He's only sleeping." I pull the needle from his neck, and cap it, making sure to put it back inside my pocket. In case he calls this break-in into the police, I don't want to leave any evidence of our presence behind. "Come on, let's get everything we need and go home."

Bella

I try to hide my shock and fear from Jacob, but fail miserably. He takes me into his arms, and kisses my forehead before reassuring me that the man is fine. "He'll wake soon. The dose I gave him won't last long."

But it's not the sight of the man slumped in his chair that makes me shiver, it's the memory of all the times I was put under too, that dark fathomless place where time came and went, and I was none the wiser. Those endless missing pieces. Faceless dreams that I wake from disoriented, and confused only to find him staring back at me. The feel of something penetrating through my skin, rough and insistent, waiting for me to still and take it.

I shake my head to dispel the images that don't stop filtering through my mind, no matter how hard I've tried to keep them buried.

"Bella? Come." I follow him into the kitchen, and take up his lead when he grabs a reusable tote from under the sink and starts scouring the fridge and cabinets.

I try my hardest not to let the guilt about the man gnaw at me, but I can't help it. As I take a jug of milk from the fridge, I ask him timidly, "Are you sure he'll be okay?"

"Yes, Bella." I hear it in his tone to drop it. To stop worrying over a stranger when we have bigger things to think about. Bigger problems that we have yet to face. I try to remember what he once told me. I love you, Bella. Everything I do is because I love you. It's what helps me get through.

It's what has to get me through anything he may do next to get us out of trouble.

"I'm going to see if he has any blankets or pillows upstairs," Jacob says, and I nod, afraid that if I turn back to look at him he'll see my momentary lapse back into the past.

I remember his tears from the other night, the taste of them in my mouth. His dark eyes, sincere. The lines of his face broken, but fierce as he apologized for all the wrong he had done. We both know there's no changing what he once was, but with time, maybe he can change the parts of him that threaten our happiness.

I'm almost done transferring boxes of pasta, and oatmeal into the reusable bag when a low moan registers in my ears. I still, my hand tensing just in time to grasp the box I almost let go of in surprise. Another low whimper sounds, and I know it's not Jacob.

Instinctively I look up at the staircase to see if he's heard it, only to find it empty and silent. Without thinking, I follow the sound around the bend of the hallway, stopping just shy of the doorway of the living room.

My breath escapes me when I find it empty.

I don't have the time to scream when a hand covers my mouth, and I'm pulled up against a hard body. There's no struggling, no give in his grip and tears begin to form in my eyes before I hear the sound that brings me instant relief.

"Shh, baby. It's just me." Jacob gently takes his hand from my mouth, turning me around to face him.

"Jake, he's gone!"

He puts a finger to his lips before inclining his head toward a closest in the hall. The door is slightly ajar, as if someone forgot to close it in their haste to hide.

I should have known that Jacob would be one step ahead, that he would have heard the man with his sensitive hearing.

Before I can say anything else, he has the door open and is pulling the man out by the collar of his dress shirt.

"Please! Please I'll give you anything you want," the man begs, his eyes wide and unfocused. But it isn't how disoriented he appears, nor how worse for wear he is that stops me short. It's who he is.

"Mr. Banner?"

"B-Bella?"

Jacob stares at us for one moment before he slams Mr. Banner against the wall again, knocking his head onto one of the wooden planes. With his glasses askew, and sweat on his brow, he looks almost unrecognizable, but I would remember his eyes anywhere.

They linger on my swollen belly, visible despite my baggy clothes, before flickering up to catch my gaze.

"Don't look at her!" Jacob shouts suddenly, his hands suddenly wrapped around Banner's throat.

"Jake! Jake, please! He's harmless, he won't say anything. He was my Biology teacher. Please..." I beg, tugging on his forearm to loosen his grip.

A vein in his neck pulses, and I watch as his jaw tightens before he grits out,"How do you know he can be trusted?"

"Jake, please. Just trust me." I stroke my hand down his forearm, willing him to take his hands away with my soft touch, molten eyes pleading. "Please, baby."

He stares at me, conflict written in every line of his face. I know what I'm asking is hard for him, that surrendering control like this goes against everything in his nature, everything he's known and seen in his entire life. But if there's any hope for us at all, he'll do as I ask. His grip tightens further, and just when I think I've lost him forever it loosens all at once. He shoves off, ripping his baseball cap from his head to run his hand through his dark hair in frustration.

I rush to Mr. Banner's side where he kneels with his hands clutching at his throat, coughs escaping his body at a rapid rate.

"Are you okay?" I ask, though the question is useless. Anyone with eyes can see he's gasping for breath, skin a purple hue, the lines of Jacob's fingers already beginning to bloom on his skin. But despite all of this, he nods, reaching a hand to the wall to help himself stand.

"Bella, we have to go. Now." There's no give in Jacob's voice now, no room for discussion. He's made this decision on his own, and whether I like it or not, I know he's right.

"I'm sorry about this, Mr. Banner," I apologize, taking Jacob's outstretched hand before he gets impatient and yanks me the rest of the way.

"If you say anything, I will know. I'll come here, and next time," he pauses, crouching down in front of where Mr. Banner still struggles to stand, my hand still in his and says, "I won't be so nice."

Jacob

I don't miss the frightened look on Bella's face, much less the scared shit one on Banners, but swallow back the anger and guilt that threaten to overshadow the importance of my threat.

I can't let anyone tip off Charlie or the police. The act of being caught is inevitable, but I'd rather not have to kill Bella's only family while she's six, going on seven months pregnant.

I've already taken everything from her. Anything more, and it would destroy her.

I would rather her be angry, or disgusted with me momentarily than risk the betrayed look in her eyes I know would come if I ever hurt anyone she once loved.

I tell her to wait in the kitchen while I transfer all the bags of food, and blankets into the car. She knows better than to go and speak to Banner, who I've since locked back into the closet, and so when I come back, I find her in the exact same position I left her in, hand on her belly, and seated at the round table that makes up the left hand side of the room. She stares down at her sneakers, only glancing up when my dark shadow obscures her vision.

Wordlessly, I extend my hand to her, and try to ignore the desperate feeling that overtakes me the longer it hovers in the air, untouched, and waiting for her to show me mercy.

"Honey?" There's no mistaking the catch in my breath, nor the way my bottom lip quivers at her silence and inaction. "Please…"

I'm saved when her hand slides into mine, the weight of it releasing a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

I pull her to me before she can even stand, and kiss her, putting all of my passion, frustration, fear, anger and love into it, bruising her with my lips, grasping roughly at her cheeks, eyes seeking hers for what I hope I haven't lost.

"I'm sorry," I pant, leaning my forehead against hers. "I'm sorry."

Her hands come up to hold my wrists, "I know."

I was a fool for thinking her judgment wouldn't affect me; when I do wrong by her, I do wrong by us.

"Come, let's go home."

And turning the lock on the closet door, we leave Banner and his house behind us.

We abandon the car halfway home, dumping it after having wiped all of our prints off each surface with the sleeves of our sweatshirts. I can see the trip, however short, has tired Bella significantly. Her strides are short, slow, and her hand doesn't leave her baby bump, no matter how many times I have to tell her it isn't going anywhere.

"I know. It's just an instinct. Like my hand belongs there."

"So does mine," and with that I lay my hand on top of hers before kissing her just beneath her pulse point. She sways into me, nestling her face into the crook of my neck, and it takes everything in me to pull away and gather up all the bags in my arms.

"Let me take one."

"Bella, you're lucky I haven't thrown you over my shoulder already. I'm fine."

"Fine, but let me put everything away when we get home."

"Nope."

"Jake-"

"Zip it, baby. You're not winning this round."

"You're lucky I love you," she says, trying to hide a grin.

"I love you more." This time, she can't fight the smile that comes over her lips.

The walk takes us longer than it did it the morning, but when the road begins to thin and a canopy of trees comes into view, I know we've made it. Bella senses it too, and sighs, relieved to finally get a chance to sit down.

"Don't worry, baby. When we get inside I'll draw you a nice warm bath." She perks up at the sound of that, and I swear she walks with a new intensity toward the cabin. I can't help but laugh when she looks back at me with exasperation when I trail a few feet behind her.

"Jake," she whines, and I swear I want to capture the look of her sweet face in this moment, and remember it forever.

"So impatient," I tease, lengthening my strides, and walking past her to the door of the cabin.

"Yes, and needy," she whispers into my ear, before taking the lobe into her hot, sweet mouth.

"Fuck, Bells." I rush to get the door open, and all the bags inside, my sudden erection painful against my leg.

"Tsk, not yet," she says when I gather her up in my arms, and rush to our makeshift cot. "My bath, remember?" I groan into her neck, desperate to lose myself in her warm, wet heat.

Growling, I turn to the bathtub in the right-hand corner of the one room cabin, and wait impatiently as it fills with warm water.

She saunters over, purposely stopping just in front of me, her bare pussy just inches from my mouth. I press an open mouthed kiss directly on her lips, my tongue seeking her sweet button, just before she hikes her legs up and over the edge of the tub.

"Bella," I warn her, only for her to laugh as she lowers herself into the hot steam, resting her neck along the porcelain. Her foot reaches to press suggestively against my lap, before pulling back and sinking beneath the water.

"Wash me." I don't miss the mischievousness glint in her eyes at the request. I quirk my brow.

Two can play this game.

Lathering a bar of soap in my hands, I reach for her feet, rubbing the underside of each sole until her toes are curling. A moan escapes her just as my mouth joins my fingers, sucking each one of her toes before kissing along the skin of her calves.

Her thighs are next, silk beneath my hands as I work them up and over every inch of her flesh.

"Jake," she pleads just as my fingers ghost over her pussy in the water.

"How bad do you want it?" My voice is low, a seductive whisper as I begin to stroke her slit with light, fleeting touches.

"Bad. Baby, please." Her eyes are clouded with pleasure, small mewls leaving her parted lips. She begins to tweak her sensitive nipples, taking her bottom lip between her teeth.

"Uh uh uh," I reprimand her, slapping her hands away from her beautiful, full breasts. "Did I say you could do that?"

"Please." She reaches up once more to rub against the bulge straining against my pants, urging me to abandon my cruel teasing, leaving me momentarily breathless and moments away from exploding.

"No, you started this, Bells. And I'm gonna finish it." And before she can beg, I latch onto one her of her nipples, sucking and swirling my tongue around the hard bud, simultaneously rubbing the nub between her lips.

Her hips thrust upwards on their own accord, seeking each ounce of pleasure she can get. "Yes! Jake!"

I pull my hand away from her at the last second, leaving her legs quivering beneath me. But before she can cry out in frustration, I have her up and out of the tub, and in my arms. I don't give a fuck about all the water that slides down her body, and to the floor in rivets, I have to have her. Now.

Before she can register what's happening, or adjust herself where I've placed her knees down onto the cot, her back to my front, my pants are down, and my cock is thrusting into the heaven inside her, seeking the peace only she can give me.

"Come," I reach down to play with her button, pressing the heel of my palm hard against her mound. "Come for me, baby. Let me feel it."

"Jake!" She cries desperately. "I love you. I love you so much."

"I love you," I groan, feeling her contract on my cock, her warm wet heat gripping me, her precious honey sliding down my thighs. "Again," I urge when she slumps forward, bracing herself on her forearms, her back arched and waiting for the next thrust.

"Come with me," she says, reaching back to brace her hand against my hard thigh. I tighten my grip around her hips, plunging forward until we're both breathless, our skin lined with sweat, our names on each others lips.

I go until she's begging me to stop, until my arms are numb with her weight and we've crashed over the edge more times than we can count.

Afterwards I hold her in my arms, my hand stroking her round belly, "Feel better?"

She replies with a smug grin, "Much."

I laugh, smiling the entire afternoon.

Bella

I wake to the sound of a smooth purr. I don't realize why the sound seems so familiar at first, only that I've heard it before. I blink, willing my eyes to see despite the darkness that envelops the cabin in the middle of the night, and reach out to touch Jacob's chest.

"Jake?" I whisper, only to be met with his soft snores. I settle back into his arms, shifting so my head fits perfectly between the crook of his neck and shoulder, the call of sleep clouding any rational thought I may have.

The next sound that wakes me is much louder, reverberating throughout the entire cabin. This time, Jacob wakes with an alertness in his body that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand, knowing this can only mean one thing.

He doesn't hear me when I say his name, or he's too focused to distinguish my voice among the collection of sounds that assault our ears, but whatever the case is, I know I need to warn him.

"It's him, I know it is."

The realization dawns on Jacob's face, but before he can say anything, the door caves in under the weight of Edward Cullen's silver Volvo.

A/N: So what do you guys think? I'm so curious to see what you have to say. Inspire me with some reviews! The next chapter will probably be the hardest, and most fun to write and I can't wait. But now, time for some anime ;)