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The Poet and the Pendulum	By : TwilightScribe Category: Twilight Series > Slash Views: 4206 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
Parts: Part VII [ under the same pale moon ]
Rating: pg13
Pairing: Jasper/Jacob
Words: 5518 words
Dedication: This part is dedicated to the memory of Jasmine You, may he rest in peace.
Disclaimer: The Twilight series and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, who I am definitely not. This means that I don't own anything but the strange circumstances that I slap her characters into. I'll put them back once I'm done with them, promise.

. under the same pale moon .

The weather sucked, plain and simple. I'd been given permission to phase, and I was currently sitting outside the tent which housed Bella and Edward, and I could hear her shivering inside of it. The others were dead silent in my head, which didn't surprise me too much. While it wasn't possible to block me entirely, if all of them focused on it enough, then my thoughts wouldn't come through unless I thought about something with a lot of force. It worked well for all of us.

I whined softly after Edward asked Bella if there was anything he could do. Both of us were at a loss as to what to do, because if we couldn't do anything, then she'd probably freeze to death soon.

“G-g-go home!” Bella tried to yell at me, but it came out as more of a strangled shrieky noise which hurt my ears, and I whined again.

'Are her lips blue yet?'

“Yes.”

“A-a-are you-”

“Jacob can't communicate too efficiently in this form,” Edward explained. “He was just asking about whether or not your lips were blue.”

Another uncomfortable silence fell, there were a lot of those. Bella continued shivering, and I could hear her teeth chattering from where I was. If something wasn't done soon, then Bella was going to die from hypothermia which would basically mean that Victoria would have won.

Edward had caught onto my thoughts, because he snapped at me, “What do you want me to do?! Why don't you go do something useful like bring a space heater or something?!”

'Oh yeah, I can totally go find a space heater at a time like this...' I would've rolled my eyes, but resisted. And then I got an idea. I didn't like it too much, and I knew that Edward would hate it just on principal of what it would entail. He was possessive of Bella, just like how all vampires were of their 'mates', but if he wanted Bella to make it through this, then he'd have to do it.

“No.”

'Do I sound like I'm going to enjoy this? Come on, I'd rather be at home right now...' I grumbled, giving him a few little images of what I'd much rather be doing at that moment, laughing when I heard him tense and mutter out a string of swears. Bella, though, was left in the dark as to what we were 'talking' about.

Finally, Edward let out a heavy sigh that sounded more like a hiss, and muttered, “... fine.”

I had to wonder if this strong jealousy was inherent in all male vampires because I'd noticed a bit of a similar streak in Jasper, though he controlled it a lot better then Edward did. Though, I think that Jasper was a little more assured about his place in my life then Edward was of his place in Bella's. I think that might have had something to do with the fact that both of us knew that she was in love with me but not aware of it. Right then, though, I didn't care at all if she realized it or not. Maybe it would be easier to have a clean break if she never figured it out.

“W-w-w-w-w...?”

Phasing back from my wolf form, I quickly pulled on a pair of sweats that Edward had chucked out of the tent's door at me, then I slipped inside. Bella's eyes were on me, but her teeth were chattering together too severely for her to get anything out to demand an explanation. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair, dislodging the snow and icy crystals which had formed there.

The inside of the tent wasn't that much warmer then outside, but just minus the wind. Edward was sitting as far from Bella as the confines of the canvas tent would allow, and Bella was curled up in something resembling the fetal position in her sleeping bag on the other side of the tent from Edward. From where her head was poking out of the opening, her face was white and her lips had turned a shade of blue that couldn't be healthy.

Well, I wanted to get this over with, because it was going to be awkward and uncomfortable, and I probably wouldn't be getting the greatest night of sleep. But then I thought about Bella, and how I'd feel if she were to die and it was in my power to save her, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I picked the alternative.

“Just get this over with,” Edward hissed, his arms tightening around his knees. I sighed.

“Move over Bella.” I reached for the zipper of the sleeping bag as she tried to protest, but since her voice had pretty much failed her at that point. With some difficulty I managed to stuff myself into the sleeping bag alongside her, and I became acutely aware of how close she was to being a human ice cube.

When her icy fingers pressed against my chest, I jumped, and that was followed quickly by her toes after she'd managed to toe off her boots. If it wasn't for how my body was naturally extremely hot, then I'd have probably been in the situation that she was, and we'd both have been screwed.

Luckily, though, we weren't, and it didn't take too long until Bella's skin was back to its warm temperature, but I still couldn't leave because that would wake her up, and it would also just mean that I'd have to come back and do it again later. In this weather, there was no way that Bella would ever be able to keep her body at the right temperature, and she'd just freeze back up again if I left. But I was tired, so I wasn't going to complain too much. A free night's sleep somewhere warm, but I missed Jasper's rock-hard body and the natural chill that came with it. I missed him greatly.

As I drifted closer to sleep, my thoughts started to wander too, and my concentration on what went through my mind through straight out the window. The only thing that I was really consciously aware of, was that I wanted Jasper there with me.

“If your thoughts are going to be that loud, Jacob, then I'll knock you out.” Edward's harsh whisper broke me out of my state of half-consciousness. “And I'm quite sure that Jasper would appreciate it if I were to do so, so feel free to keep your mind occupied with those fantasies of yours.”

That would be exactly what Jasper would want, just minus the injury that Edward would probably have to give me in order to carry out that threat.

“There are ways that I can knock you out without hurting you too badly,” Edward replied. “Though, I would have to be careful since you're still rather fragile compared to us.”

I growled at him, “You know that I'd fight back, I might not win, but I'd fight.”

It was then heavily implied, by my using my thoughts, that then he'd have to use more force then was necessary and I'd wind up getting hurt. There was no way that Edward would hurt me, because that would in turn hurt Jasper, and the last thing that he'd do was hurt any member of his family.

“Well, can you at least try to keep control of them? Because it's not too pleasant for me knowing those sorts of things about your relationship with him, and I'm very sure that some of those things are meant to just be between the two of you.”

“Uh huh... but you can tune it out, for the most part.”

“As long as you don't shout it out, it's a little hard to ignore then,” Edward replied evenly.

“Hmph, I'll do my best then.”

I'd been so tired after the long days and nights of staying up too late and trying to keep myself busy, not to mention the emotional roller coaster I'd been on since I'd imprinted took its toll and I finally accepted the black oblivion of unconscious. I was tired, and I wanted a few dreams that would help take my mind off of the horrible situation that I was in at that moment.

Sleep was a really good idea.

.:-o-:. .:-o-:. .:-o-:.

I was woken up rather abruptly the next morning when Edward pulled open the sleeping bag and sent me tumbling to the freezing cold ground of the tent. Even for me, that was a shock, and I immediately was on my feet, nearly taking the tent down with me when I shot up. Unfortunately, I'd nearly thwacked Bella across the face, but she'd put that right in my way by trying to scramble to her feet at the same moment that I'd jumped up.

Sometimes it really seemed like she was an idiot.

Of course, nearly thwacking Bella across the face wasn't a good thing to do when her very protective vampire boyfriend was in the vicinity, so I wasn't too surprised when I was thrown across the remaining area of the tent and narrowly missed ripping a gaping hole through the canvas. Normally that would've been enough to send me over the edge, but I still wasn't really all that awake, so I settled for just giving Edward a really dark glare.

But apparently Bella thought that it would turn out worse then it probably would've, because she'd immediately tried to put herself between me and Edward like a human barrier. Which probably wouldn't have done much if we had decided to go at it, because either of us could've easily tucked her behind us before any violent action could occur. And I knew that I would make a lovely hole through the tent, possibly break a few bones, and start bleeding like mad if I did decide to attack him for accidentally hitting his girlfriend.

That wasn't a good idea, even if I wasn't involved with his adopted brother.

“Asshole,” I muttered instead. I hadn't exactly had a great night's sleep the night before, because I'd been kept from getting any really restful sleep by this nagging feeling that kept telling me that something was going to go wrong. Really, really wrong.

“Very mature, Jacob,” Edward replied evenly, gently pulling Bella out of her position of human shield as he did so. When she stubbornly refused to move, he went about reassuring her, “Nothing will happen Bella, I promise that I won't hurt Jacob.”

“But I – you – huh?” Bella looked between the two of us, confused, and then crossed her arms and huffed out, “You two are acting weird, but if you're not going to fight, then I'll deal with it.”

There was a small glint, and I realized with a bit of a jolt that there was a ring on the third finger of her left hand that had definitely not been there the last time I'd seen her. Edward seemed to have noticed where my eyes were directed, but before he could say anything, Bella demonstrated that she wasn't completely blind to what was going on.

Her eyes widened for a moment when she followed my gaze, and realized that I was staring at her engagement ring that she hadn't had before. Then she looked quickly at Edward and then at me with a really worried and panicky look on her face.

“Oh shit.”

A dead, sort of awkward silence followed that.

Edward seemed to realize that this was something that had to be talked about between me and his new fiancée because he quickly excused himself from the tent.

“Bella, Seth's just arriving, I'll go out and talk to him. There are a few last minute preparations that I want to make before the fight. The two of you will be fine, I hope? I won't be too far.” Then he disappeared out of the door of the tent after pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

The silence returned with a vengeance.

“Um... well I...” Bella stuttered out. “... I'm sorry Jake.”

I was really confused at that, “Why are you apologizing?”

The dam seemed to break when I asked that, because Bella was trying to hide her face behind her hands, and I was just completely lost. She wasn't making any sense, because she kept blubbering out words and phrases that made absolutely no sense to me at all. Then it sort of clicked.

Oh. Right. Supposed to be in love with Bella and fighting the leech for her. Oops. I hadn't really thought about that since Jasper had brought it up the day before. I wanted to slam my head into the ground repeatedly for not remembering that key little detail.

“I'm engaged, Jake,” she snapped finally. She'd gotten back enough control of herself that she could make complete sentences now. “It's pretty much final, and I didn't give you much of a chance, did I? I'm sorry about that. I don't want to see you hurt because of something I've done.”

And I've done a lot that I know has hurt you. The truth of that unspoken sentence lingered in the silence between us, and I had to figure out what to say to her that would get us out of this ugly situation.

“You love him, I know that,” I started. “I'm not an idiot, Bells, I can see that you really love him; more then me. I can't deny that.”

“Huh?” Brown eyes looked up at me in confusion.

“You're the idiot,” I replied, a little harsher then I normally would have. “And besides, I'm not as angry about this as you think I'm gonna be. Isn't there that old saying? Things change. Well, things have changed, haven't they?”

This wasn't exactly how I'd planned to tell Bella that I'd imprinted, but it was an explanation and it would let her off the hook of being confused and worried about me. I wasn't going to tell her everything, though, but I knew that if she pressed me I'd probably just tell her anyway since she'd know that I was lying. Didn't help that I was shitty at avoiding answering questions if I didn't want too either.

“What...?”

“I've already told you about some of the wolf shit, remember? Like with what happened with Sam, things have changed for me. I guess you could say that the world's changed were it's rotating for me.”

A spark of recollection was in her eyes, and I knew that she'd figured it out. Bella's voice was still a little shaky when she spoke next, “You... imprinted?”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“Around when we had that first meeting with the Cullens,” I replied a little evasively.

She nodded her head again in thought, “Is that why you ran off? Because you didn't want to face me about this? You know that I'd have been happy for you, Jake. I really do want you to be happy.”

“It's not that exactly,” I replied. “But that's part of it. I was sorta worried about how you'd take it.”

“Why? Is it someone that I wouldn't approve of?” she asked.

“I don't know if you'd approve of this or not. It was really unexpected.”

This made her smile, and she nodded, “Don't tell me unless I guess right, okay?”

“Uh, okay.” She wanted to guess who I'd imprinted on? I hadn't expected this, but then again, Bella was just plain strange; I never had any idea of what she'd say or do next. But the good news for me was that she was taking the news of my imprinting a lot better then I'd thought she would. Whether or not my luck on that would hold was another matter completely.

“Well, you were at my school before the meeting, was it someone there?” she frowned. “Please tell me you didn't imprint on Jessica, or Lauren. Angela... well I guess that's okay. Am I close?”

I shook my head, “Nope, not even close.”

Her brow burrowed, and then there seemed to be another click in her brain, and she said, “You didn't phase with the rest of them... was that because of your imprinting?”

“Uh, yeah it's got to do with that.”

“So is it someone that they don't approve of?”

“Well... more like they weren't expecting it is more like it.”

“Huh?”

Great, now I had to explain this as best I could without letting her know too much, “We didn't think it was possible for, you know, us to imprint on anyone who wasn't, well, the opposite gender.”

“You mean... you imprinted on a guy?!” Bella nearly shrieked. I very nearly rolled my eyes at that, but I resisted and instead threw my hands up in a placating gesture. She was staring at me with her eyes nearly bugging out of their sockets, and her mouth open in a large 'o'.

“... yeah.” My cheeks felt like they were on fire, and I was refusing to meet Bella's eyes because of how embarrassed I was. This wasn't a situation that we'd ever touched on, mostly because I hadn't had any idea of who'd I'd imprint on, and my sexuality wasn't exactly set because of it. But I'd been sure that I was straight before this whole imprinting debacle, so having my sexuality set now was sort of... weird. Then again, since I wouldn't ever consider anyone besides Jasper, that didn't make me 'homosexual', it was just Jasper.

“Oh my.” Bella clapped a hand over her mouth, her cheeks turning pink as she continued to stare at me in total shock.

It took a few moments for Bella to recover enough to put her thoughts into words, “I can see... I mean, I guess that's really unexpected... you haven't, you know...” Her cheeks turned an even brighter pink then before.

“That's personal.” I'd taken enough shit over having had sex with Jasper, and I didn't want to have to tell my best friend that I'd beaten her to the punch in getting a vampire into bed with me. And she wasn't very comfortable with the notion of me being with another guy, but that sort of thing takes time to get used too.

“Oh, oh right. Of course.” She looked down at her hands, which she was nervously clasping and unclasping in her lap. “Well um... do I know this person?”

That question had an obvious answer, one that Bella probably already knew, but I answered it anyway, “Yeah, you do. But that's not gonna get you far cause in a town this small, you pretty much know everyone.”

She nodded, “Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just... this is just isn't something that I wouldn't have expected. I never thought that you were, you know...”

I shrugged that off, “Imprinting is sort of... weird that way. You can't actually know what your sexuality is until you imprint, and then, it's just like... they're it, and you'll never consider anyone else. It's not like your straight or gay, it's like... your sexuality is them.”

“Oh, okay. That's a... little easier to swallow.”

“You get used to it after a while. For me, it was really difficult to come to terms too, cause I didn't know whether or not they'd return my feelings in anyway, or if they'd just be disgusted with me. There was some other shit involved too, cause I was sort of... coming between him and someone else.”

“He was... with someone else when you imprinted on him?” Again with the shocked look, except this time it was disapproving and looking to be a little more then irritated. She wasn't too pleased with this development. “That's really wrong you know! It doesn't matter if imprinting means that the two of you are meant to be, he still had someone else!”

“Yeah, uh, I was really worried about that,” I rubbed the back of my head a little sheepishly and refused to meet her eyes. “But they'd, um, been together for a while and they both recognized that their relationship wasn't going anywhere... she did basically give us her blessing.”

After several long moments of silence, Bella nodded her head a little, “Okay. I can live with that, I guess. But you said that I know this person, and I really am curious to know who it is. Will you tell me? Please Jake?”

When I didn't answer, she ploughed on with reassurances, “I promise I won't be mad or anything, in fact, I'm really very happy for you. It all worked out in the end, didn't it? I get my own happy ending, and you get yours too. So who is it? If you won't tell me, then I'll go ask Edward.”

Great, now she'd backed me into a corner because I knew that Edward would avoid lying to Bella as much as he was able. Somehow, she just knew when he was lying (the guy's bullshitting skills suck most of the time) and would call him out on it, which would just make her angry and also make her probably suspect the worst. Of course, in this case, she'd probably start believing that I'd imprinted on someone in town who she wouldn't approve of; not like that mattered very much.

“If you promise me that you won't be mad at me,” I looked pointedly at her hand, “Just keep in mind the last time that you got mad enough at me to try and punch me.”

Bella nodded, with a resigned almost petrified look on her face that told me she was expecting the worst if I was asking her not to try and beat me up again. But last time I'd kind of deserved it for being very vocal about my bad-mouthing of her precious Edward; it was a lesson that I'd learned the hard way, especially when I'd told her that I knew that she'd be much healthier if she chose me instead.

Those thoughts brought back bittersweet feelings, and made me think of a future that could have been. In any sane universe, Bella and I would have been perfect for each other. We'd have settled down eventually and had a family, grow old, and die happy. That, though, wasn't going to happen, because the reality was that our day-to-day survival was in question.

“Alright, well, I imprinted on someone who I'm pretty sure that you know really well. I mean, you pretty much spend all your time with his family.”

I could practically see the light bulb go off in her head, “You... you imprinted on one of the Cullens?!” At the end, her voice went up into a near shriek that would've killed my ears in wolf form. In human form, it just made me wince a little.

“Can you not make those noises please? And yeah, I did. No one really expected it, which is why they wouldn't let me phase.” At least I had better bullshitting skills then Edward did. “I think the others were worried that this was contagious or something, but it was more like they just didn't want to know anything more about the subject other then I'd imprinted on one of the Cullens.”

With a deep frown, Bella mulled over this new information, “Rosalie would never give her 'blessing'; I know that she's deeply in love with Emmett and they're very showy with their love, so I know it wasn't him. And it's not Edward either. So who was it? Carlisle or Jasper?” She looked up at me when she finished with her question.

Moment of truth, I guessed. I let out a sigh, and muttered, “Jasper.”

The silence hung for a long time. But then Bella let out this weird little noise that was almost like a muffled scream, and I was wondering if I should have been glad that there were no objects within reach that could've caused me any lasting damage. Seriously, Bella looked like she might resort to killing me at that moment.

“But Alice and Jasper... they're...! How could they...?!” Apparently, she was lost for words.

“When I asked about it,” I began, “All Alice would tell me was that she was happy if Jasper was happy, and since I made him happy, then that was good enough reason for her to let him go.”

There was more awkward silence then, and I could feel that the time was ticking away, and if I didn't leave soon, I'd probably miss out on all the action that was going to go down in the clearing with the newborns. My stomach clenched at that, at thinking about Jasper facing them down without me there. But Bella wasn't quite through with me yet.

Once she'd recovered herself enough, Bella moved on a bit to a different topic, “Is that why you're here with us? Because Jasper didn't want you in the clearing?” She quickly clarified, “I've been around vampires a lot, Jake, I know how they think just a little. The last thing that Edward would want, is for me to be in danger, that's why we're up here. It's a bit of a stretch, but I'm pretty sure that Jasper would think along those same lines when it comes to you.”

“That's what he wanted,” I replied, drawing my knees a little closer to my chest. “He wanted me to stay here with the two of you to act as 'cell phone', but I talked him into letting me be there.”

She nodded her head, looking a little bit distracted. I continued, glad to finally have someone to talk to about this who wasn't being too harsh or critical of me because of it.

“It's like how you don't want to be separated from Edward; I felt horrible knowing that he'd be out there fighting and risking his life, while I sat around somewhere safe like a little kid. I'm not a kid anymore, and I'm not as helpless as you are, Bella. I can fight.”

“Was he hoping that I'd convince you otherwise?” she asked, not meeting my eyes. Trust Bella to be rather perceptive at times. She wasn't as unintelligent as looked.

“Yeah, he was.”

She gave a tiny, wistful smile, “Even I could've told him that wouldn't have worked; your more stubborn then a mule when you want to be.”

“I know.”

“Even though it's not the greatest resolution, and I'm going to find out more about this situation, I think that in the end we'll all be happy. Things have to have worked out this way for a reason, right?”

“Yeah.” I smiled at her, and stood up. “Anyway, I have to go now or else I'll miss all the action.”

Bella pulled her knees to her chest, looking a little pitiful, “Well... good luck, then. And please be careful, for Jasper's sake... and mine.”

“I'm always careful,” I replied with a little smirk. Bella snorted at that and I left her with a little mock salute before I disappeared into the forest, racing in the direction of the clearing.

It would've been easier to simply phase and run, I'd have gotten there a lot faster, but there was a lot that I had on my mind, and the last thing that I wanted was a bunch of nosy asses in my head. The running would clear my head, better my focus. I could easily follow the trail that I'd laid to get to the cliffs and it was like second-nature to me, allowing me to get more lost in my own thoughts.

My lack of attention to my surroundings is what caused the following catastrophe to happen, and I completely blame myself for it. It could've been very easily avoided.

I had just jumped over a fallen tree when something rock-hard practically clothes-lined me. The breath was completely knocked out of me, and I fell back onto the rough forest ground hard, which didn't help at all. I was lying there, gasping for breath, when I heard the most chilling sound that I'd probably ever hear.

“Victoria, why did I stop this pathetic human?” That voice was decidedly male, and very young too. I couldn't see whoever it was who was speaking, but I'd guess that whoever it was was probably around college-age. Then my oxygen deprived brain started putting pieces together about why my heart had suddenly started pounding wildly at the name he'd said.

Victoria.

That was the vampire who was after Bella! The one that the Cullens suspected might have started this entire newborn mess all as a decoy to get to her and destroy her once and for all. All for her mate who'd been killed over a year earlier.

What could she possibly have wanted with me?

“Oh Riley, my love, because this pathetic human is very important to that bitch who we came here to kill.” Victoria's voice wasn't like what I'd thought a vampiress' voice would be. It was light, breathy, and very girly with no traces of seduction or sex in it, like I'd expected. But her voice was enough to send chills through my spine, and make me try to roll over so that I'd be in a better position to phase.

She was having none of that. A vicious kick firmly slammed me back into the ground, winding me again right when I was just starting to be able to breathe properly again. I lay there, gasping for breath, as she came up with the cruel manner for me to die.

“Bite him.”
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The Poet and the Pendulum