Disclaimer: Twilight. Sylvia Browne. The Rolling Stones. Led Zeppelin.

Author's Note: Unbeta-ed.

Ghost Stories

Bella follows Jacob everywhere he goes. She traces his steps to work, is there when he grocery shops, whispers about strangers as he makes his way down crowded streets. She is there when he wakes up, bending over him and blinking.

"Morning sleepy head," she coos, fingers stretching to caress his cheek. Jacob swats her away, watches her dissolve into nothing.

It's been five years, and the ghost of Bella Swan follows him like a shadow.

&

He works at a music store in Queens. Sometimes he wonders how he got so far from the green of La Push, traded in the trees and the sound of the ocean for plastic wrapped CDs and scratchy speakers.

Down the POP aisle a red head is shooting him shy smiles. He just scowl, turns back to the magazine in hand.

Sitting atop the counter, Bella snickers. "She's not Victoria."

&

Jacob wakes to the sound of an ambulance at a quarter to three in the morning.

Bella is standing at the window, turns to him with a sad smile, face pale in the moonlight. "Someone's dying."

Jacob groans, mutters "Go away" into his too large hands. When he glances up Bella is gone, and the night is quiet. He knows she'll be back though, she always comes back. He wonders what Sylvia Browne would say, is annoyed at the thought, and rolls onto his side to fall back into the dark of sleep.

&

Stephen looks up when Jacob enters, pops his gum, and says "Some chick was in here asking about you."

"Yeah?"

"Hm." Stephen answers, hitting a button on the stereo. The Rolling Stones plays, and he turns to Jacob with a smile. "Real pretty. Sad looking, but pretty."

&

Back in his apartment, Jacob glares at Bella, growls "Why won't you leave?"

"Because that's not what you want." She laughs, and he reaches out and shoves her. Her mouth is a perfect 'o' of surprise as she falls out the window. Part of Jacob dances in triumph, takes satisfaction is Bella's scream as she falls.

There's no sound of a crash, and Jake turns to find Bella stretched out across his bed. Her hands are crossed beneath her head, and she grins up at him. "You didn't think I'd go that easily, did you?"

&

He asks the redhead out to a movie, dinner, maybe more. Her name is Nikki, and she's funny.

Bella hates her. She pleads and cries for Jacob not to go, get's angry when he ignores her.

"You don't love her," Bella hisses, leaning back in her seat. Jacob doesn't spare her glance, reaches across the restaurant table and takes Nikki's hand in his. Bella glares.

&

"Hey, remember that girl who was looking for you?"

"What?" Jake asks, too distracted to pay attention. The woman he's ringing up is shifting impatiently, and the damn code on the coupon won't work.

"The girl, man, c'mon. Anyway, she stopped by again. I told her—" The cash register lets out a ping, the money drawer slipping open, and Jacob grins in triumph. "Oh yeah, the last number's supposed to be a seven, not a two."

&

"Small place," Nikki grins.

"Crappy pay," Jacob grins back, stepping forward. Nikki smiles shyly up at him.

Bella is stalking angrily about the apartment, hissing about how Led Zeppelin's "Thank You" is not mood music, and how it's her song anyway. Not Nikki's. She lets out a frustrated scream when Jacob bends his head forward, kisses Nikki.

&

Jacob sighs, Nikki curled into his side and Bella sitting cross-legged at the end of his bed. Her arms are crossed, and she won't look at him.

"How could you?" She whispers.

"Are you crying?" Jacob asks, and he hates how he feels guilty.

&

Bella stops talking to him. She sits around all day, crying into her hands and hiccupping well into the night.

Jacob begins spending as much time as he can away from the small confines of his apartment. Bella stops following him out.

He thinks it's ridiculous, running away from a ghost.

&

When he comes home one night, Bella is curled up asleep on the stairs leading up to his home. He makes to plow right through her, and is surprised when he collides into something warm and is sent tumbling into the hallway.

Jacob glances wide eyed at a now awake Bella. Her eyes are frightened, glassy with tears.

"Do you know how hard it was to find you?" She asks, voice tired.

&

They lie in bed for hours, fully clothed and staring.

With a trembling hand, Jacob reaches out and traces the curve of Bella's jaw. He almost cries at the feel of her skin, whispers an amazed "You're really here."

"So are you."