Okay, here we go again. After an 18 month sabbatical, I am here with a new story. We'll see how it goes. I'm taking a break between original novels to let my psyche heal, and hopefully you'll all reap the benefits.

Summary: In canon through most of Eclipse, then I take over. Two weeks before her wedding, Bella is called home to Phoenix because her mother is in a horrible car accident. After several months of caring for Renee, Bella is heart broken when her mother dies. Grief-stricken, she flees Phoenix and moved to New York for college. Seven years later, she is called back to Forks to bury her father, after he and Billy Black are murdered by vampires.

Rating: NC17 to be safe, likely going to be R, but I rate up to be safe.

Disclaimer: I do not own, nor have rights to any of the products of Stephanie Meyer's imagination. However, I do like to take her characters out of their world and into mine and play with them from time to time. In my world, sitting in a tree outside my bedroom window would get a vampire shot, and Bella is a bit stronger and not so codependent.

*Warning*- Before you read this story, there is MAJOR character death in it. Not the pack, but pretty major characters, and the entire driving force is to get to the death of another. If you're so attached to every character in the book that you can't stand to see anyone die, you might want to turn back. If not, accompany me on an adventure. I guarantee you know as much about where it's going to take us as I do.

The cliff was just the way she'd left it. Bella Swan stood on the top of the cliff, looking down at the choppy waters of the Pacific Ocean far beneath her. A brisk breeze cut through her leather jacket and chilled her to the bone, reminding her that it was October in Washington, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

It had been seven years since she'd stepped foot in the whole of the state. She'd been running from her past, from her memories, from all the people that she'd known. She'd put as much distance between them as was possible without leaving the country, and she'd never looked back. The only reason she'd come back this time was to take care of burying her father.

Tears stung her eyes at the thought of her dad, who had been found a week earlier, dead in a pool of blood, his throat nearly ripped out. Billy Black, his eternal fishing buddy, had been ten feet away, his body an identical sight. The police had called it a bear attack, but Bella knew the truth. The unspeakable, horrific truth that would haunt her for the rest of her life.

She heard the roar of an engine on the highway, the spray of gravel that told her someone was parking, and the crunch of the small pebbles under someone's feet. Still, she didn't move, didn't turn, didn't breathe. She just started out at the sea, and remembered what it was like to fall into it, to feel that moment of complete freedom as she careened toward the water before she hit it, and it closed around her like a vise that would never loosen.

"I wouldn't recommend jumping this time of year. It's practically suicide."

The warm, melodic voice rolled over her, enveloping her in the past, in memories she had struggled to forget. She felt it flow over her back, down her spine, into the pit of her stomach where it caused her gut to knot in a flock of butterflies. Slowly, she lifted her shoulders in a shrug.

"Never stopped me before." She turned, her hair swirling around her face in the wind, arms folded across her chest. "Hello, Jake."

Jacob Black, a mountain of a man at six foot five, was shocked. It showed on his face, in the set of his jaw, dark with a two day stubble, and in his eyes, still the melted chocolate she remembered. He had filled out even more if it was possible in the eight years since she'd seen him, becoming a man instead of a boy. His hair was slightly too long, hanging around his face in waves that begged to have fingers run through them. His face was one that should have made an Angel jealous, with sharp cheekbones, full lips, slashing eyebrows and dark chocolate eyes.

His shoulders, while still wide, no longer looked awkward on his frame, especially when contained in a black button down. His hips were narrow, but strong, and his legs wide set, clad in dark blue jeans that hugged his hips and legs, leading down to worn in and scuffed boots.

"Bella?"

"In the flesh." She rubbed her palms on her thighs, the slightly rough denim keeping her grounded. She rolled a pebble underneath the toe of her boot, focusing on anything except the memories. "What are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that question." He took a step toward her, felt a pang of satisfaction when she backed up one. "You hadn't spoken to your father in the best part of a decade. Why the hell do you bother to show up now?"

The barb hit home, as he'd meant it to, and she blinked back tears. "That's not fair."

"What about it isn't fair? You left, you never came back, and the last time I talked to Charlie, the last five of his Christmas cards came back return to sender."

Jacob was hurting. Bella could see that in his face, in the raw grief that darkened his eyes to nearly black. His father had been murdered by the very creatures Bella had wanted to join. She couldn't blame him for being mad at her, for blaming her.

"Jake, there's a lot that went on, a lot that you don't know, and now is not the time to get into it. I was going to come see you this afternoon to discuss the funeral. What they would want. I think they'd want to do it together."

Shock registered in Jacob's eyes, followed by a flash of intense anger. "You're one of them, Bella. Coming on the reservation breaks the treaty. You'd start a war."

Realization dawned, and Bella couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of her chest. She bent, bracing her hands on her knees, laughing so hard she couldn't breathe, until tears poured down her face and her cheeks were red and flushed. Jacob stood and watched, his hands on his hips.

"What the hell do you think is so damn funny about this?"

"You think I'm a vampire!" she straightened, dashed the tears from her cheeks. "My God, you think I'm a vampire." She strode to him, reached down and grabbed his hand, pressing it to her chest. "I'm not a vampire. My heart is still beating."

Jacob felt her pulse beneath his fingertips, the warmth of her skin. "You disappeared. No one knew where you'd gone. We thought, we all thought they'd turned you, that you were one of them."

"I didn't disappear. My mom was hit by a drunk driver. I went to Phoenix to take care of her. She lived eight months after I left. When she died, I was broken. I ran. I ran from everything, from everyone. I stopped talking to my dad, to everyone."

Jacob struggled to process that, to take in everything she was saying. He'd spent seven years trying to forget that Bella Swan had ever existed, because if she was a vampire, for him, she was dead. But instead of her being a vampire, she was human. And once he knew, it was amazing to him that he hadn't immediately known it when he'd looked at her.

She was older, obviously older. She'd filled out, grown another two inches, and put on probably close to twenty five pounds. Instead of being slim and boyish, she filled out her jeans in all the places a woman was supposed to, and had developed curves. Her face held a maturity that it hadn't before, and her eyes held pain, more pain that he'd ever seen in them before.

"Why didn't you turn?"

Bella shook her head. "This isn't the time for this conversation." She shivered against the wind, turned back to look back over the cliff. "I saw you guys jumping that day. Before I did it. It looked like fun, and it looked exhilarating. It was scary as hell, and I thought I was going to die, but those few seconds, when you're in the air, and you're flying? They're the most freeing seconds I've ever experienced."

Confused, Jacob walked to the edge to stand next to her. "What's going on, Bella?"

"I didn't come here to kill myself. I didn't come here to jump. I needed to work up the nerve to come up the La Push and find you."

"This is about more than the funeral. What is it?"

Tears choking her, she closed her eyes and took several breaths. "I didn't stop talking to my dad because I wanted to. I love my dad, I wanted to be here. But I was putting him in danger by being here."

"Danger from what?"

Bella looked at him out of the corner of her eyes. "He was killed by vampires, Jake. Do you think that's a coincidence?"

"Bella, the pack found the vampires that did it. We killed them. Dad and Charlie, they were in their fishing cabin. They were alone, and they were easy prey." He sighed. "I think you're right. They'd want to be buried together. Dad is going to have a traditional funeral. The Quileute way. A procession, and us in traditional dress, then the fire. If you want that for Charlie, we'll do it for him too. My Dad would want it. He was a part of the tribe."

Bella nodded. "I think he'd like that."

"I'll take care of it. It's tomorrow at dawn. It'll be a day long thing." He turned to leave, got halfway back to his motorcycle and stopped. "Bella?"

She turned, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

"I don't think I have to say it, but the Cullens are not welcome on the reservation. That extends to the funeral. It will not go well if they show up."

Bella nodded. "Don't worry. They won't be there."

With that, Bella turned back to stare into the water, and Jacob continued toward his bike. When she heard the roar of the engine dissipate as he got further away, only then did she allow herself to crumble to the ground, tears overtaking her, sobs wracking her frame and making it hard to breathe.

She didn't know how many hours it had been before she forced herself to climb to her feet and walk back to her car. What she saw when she got there had her heart threatening to burst free from her chest.

A note on her windshield, with a single red rose laying on it. Hands shaking, she reached out and plucked the sheet of paper from the glass, closing her eyes for a long moment before working up the nerve to unfold it.

Bella,

I told you not to come back here. I told you to stay away from the mutts. I warned you what would happen if you did. I gave you chance after chance, my love, to do the right thing. I told you that I would always find you. That I would always love you. That I would always bring you to me for forever.

You've made your decision. They'll all die. And you'll be mine. For eternity.

Always,

E.

"What the hell do you mean Bella is still human?" Sam Uley sat back in his chair, his infant son cradled in his arm, disbelief in his eyes. "She was turned years ago!"

"I saw her, Sam. She's human." Jacob picked up his cup of coffee, drank deeply. "She came back to deal with the funeral. She wants him to be with my Dad. I told her it was okay."

"It's what they would have wanted. I have no issue with that. Charlie was a good man, and he was good for the pack. Billy would want us to take care of him in our way. But Bella being here is going to bring nothing but drama."

"She's human. She's allowed on the reservation."

"I'm not saying she can't come. I'm wondering if it's smart for her to come. We've all thought she was dead all these years. Her being here, being human, it raises a lot of questions. Why is she human? Where are the Cullens?"

"I know. They're questions that need answers. But I don't think it's right to get into it before we put Dad and Charlie to rest." He sighed, pushed down the sadness that threatened to overwhelm him. "We have to tell everyone now that she's going to be there. We can't let it be a surprise when she walks in tomorrow morning."

"I agree. It's not right to spring it on the pack. I don't know how people will react. There're a lot of hard feelings, Jake. Time will have eased some of them, but they'll still be there. She hurt you badly. It took years before you were back to normal."

"I know. And I haven't forgiven her. I can't believe she wanted to be a vampire. She wanted to die." He shook his head in disgust. "I'm not a teenager anymore, Sam. I know who I am, and what I am, and I'm not going to get confused. She made her choices. And if she wants to talk about it, I'll talk about it, because I think I want to know what changed. But I'm not head over heels for her anymore. She left, I stayed."

Sam nodded thoughtfully. "I'm very curious as to why she's still alive. And where the Cullens are, if they're not with her. Once things settle down a little bit, we'll need to talk to her about it."

"I agree." Jacob stood, put his cup in the sink. "I'll take care of telling everyone. I'm the one they'll want to quiz anyway."

Sam was quiet as Jacob left, waited until Emily came downstairs and took a seat across from him. He smiled at his wife, sighed. "How much did you hear?"

"Enough. What do you think?"

"That he's trying to convince himself as much as me that things are as different as he claims." He lifted his son to his shoulder, patted the tiny back reassuringly. "Bella Swan is back in Forks. I would be willing to bet that the boy is as tied up on her as he was in high school within six weeks."

"She's not a bad girl. She was in love, and she was confused. If she's still human, she's obviously realized she was wrong."

"For all our sakes, Emily, I hope to God that you're right."