Our plane is scheduled to leave at 10:00 this morning. We need to leave La Push around 5:00 at the latest to make it on time. And yet here I am, wide awake at 2:00 and I show no signs of falling asleep. At first, I thought it was because I was happy to lie with Bella in my arms, figuring that I would eventually fall asleep.

Nope.

I heaved a great sigh before shuffling Bella around to slide out of bed without waking her. It would be nearly impossible to wake her from a sleep. She sleeps like the dead.

Kissing her forehead, I sneaked out of the house, put on some shoes, and made my way down the street.

I hadn't taken a late-night walk in some time, since it's not my favorite thing to do in the big city, but it was nice. The air was clean and fresh with snow, the wind breeze was brisk, and the stars were peeking through. Nostalgia began to creep into my bones, settling there. Though I had not been happy living here right before the change, there were happy times. My mother making up all of them. "Crazy woman." I mumble, letting a smile slip onto my face.

I continued to walk down the street, and eventually found my way to the old worn pathway I had hiked many times. It looked the same, just like everything else in this town, and I was left with some comfort from that fact. I walked slowly, simply enjoying the presence of familiar nature. If the whole "wolf problem" hadn't happened, I would probably have stayed. I'm glad, though. Where would I be without the kids.

My ear twitched, recognizing the sound of something nearby.

"Who is it?" I asked.

The sounds of leaves shuffling, and snow crunching got closer, before I was face to face with none other than Jacob Black, who was looking at me with narrowed eyes.

"If you weren't leaving soon, I'd have half a mind to kick you out of town." he said, his arms crossed.

I simply raised an eyebrow at him.

"And it's because of that attitude right there." he said, his tone sharp and his posture tense.

"I don't have an attitude. This is just me." I said, pausing and thinking carefully about my next choice of words. Fuck it. I thought I'm leaving tomorrow. "I feel like this is less about my so called 'attitude' and more about your relationship, or what was once a relationship, with Bella."

"Don't bring her into this." he said, taking a step forward.

"Are you trying to intimidate me, Jacob?" His eyes narrowed and he took another step forward before he was nearly chest to chest with me.

"I don't know what your problem is, Jared," he spit my name "but I'm warning you-"

"About what? What are you warning me about? And more importantly, what are you going to do if I don't heed your warning? Beat me up? You can try."

"I'll make your life a living hell." he said.

"If I do what? And how exactly will you do that? I live in Chicago. I have no tie to you or the pack at all. My only tie here is my mother. Are you going to hurt her?" I challenged, knowing he would never dare even say such a thing about one of the respected elders of the town. "

"You think you've won here-"

"Won what, exactly?" I ask.

"Bella-" he started again.

"First things first, Bella is not some trophy to be won, second, this isn't a competition, third, Jacob Black, she has chosen to be with me. Not here. Not with you."

"She didn't choose to be with you, you imprinted. She had no choice!"

"No, that's wrong. I had no choice. She has all the choice in the world. Even if you hadn't imprinted, she still would have left."

"You don't know that. She wouldn't have. You don't know her like I do!"

"You're right. The Bella you know doesn't exist anymore. The Bella I know is much different than the Bella you married when you were eighteen. The Bella you knew, Bella Swan, is a girl who grew and changed into a woman who devoted her life to this town, to you, and to this pack, only to have that all ripped away in an instant when you imprinted-"

"I couldn't help it!" Jacob interrupted.

"I know that you couldn't. And Bella knows that, too, but that doesn't change the fact that as soon as she left, the people who were her family - the pack, all of her potential job prospects here- they all disappeared. She called, she texted- she tried to reach out to her friends and to those that were her family, but no one responded. Just because you imprinted and divorced from Bella, that doesn't erase the history you have-"

"I know it doesn't, but I don't love her the same way anymore."

"Jacob, I know! I know you don't, but she considered you her best friend, and you disappeared off the face of the earth. You think I don't know what it feels like, to have your world turned upside down? Jacob, my first love, my wife, she's dead. And I still love her. But the love I hold for Bella is different. That doesn't mean that Kim wasn't my first everything, that doesn't mean that everything I had with Kim is erased. It's just different. You didn't have to cut contact with Bella to make your new relationship work. This pack, man, this pack fucks with people. It makes you think that the only important thing in life is the pack, and as soon as you're not part of that, you mean jackshit to them! You think I don't remember when I left, and they tried to kick my mom of the council? All because her son moved away and didn't want to turn into a giant wolf. The same happened to Bella. As soon as her ties to this place were broken, and as soon as the pack didn't have to care about her, they didn't. So, don't talk to me about how you tried to stay in Bella's life, because you didn't, and neither did anyone else."

Jacob tried to protest yet again, but I walked away before he could.

When I realized he wasn't following me, I let out a relieved breath; I finally felt right again. Everything that had been bothering me, things that I didn't even know where an issue, finally felt laid to rest. I sneaked back into the house, curled around Bella, and fell right asleep.

…...

"But Bella! I heard Liam whine, "We're going to miss our plane! And dad is the one who told us that we can't miss the plane!"

"Liam, keep your voice down." She said softly in response, "We'll wake him up just right before we have to leave. All of our bags are already packed."

I rolled over and groaned, "I'm awake, Bella."

"Good morning, Dad!" Lia said, poking her head in the room, followed by Liam and Ellie.

"Good morning." I said, sending them a smile.

"Good morning, Jared." My mother said, joining the party being held outside my bedroom door. "You must get up. I've made you breakfast, and you have to leave in an hour."

"Mom, why did you get up so early?" I said, "it's four in the morning."

"Well, to send you off with a nice big breakfast of course."

I smiled at my family. "Okay, welp lets eat then." I said, stretching before climbing out of bed.

"Good morning." Bella said, kissing my cheek and setting a coffee in front of me. "I made you a coffee."

"I love you." I said, kissing her back.

"I love you too." She patted my cheek, before sitting down to her own breakfast.

"Thanks for the spread, ma." I said, admiring the elegant breakfast. "you didn't have to wake up so early."

"Well I wanted too and I'm going back to bed as soon as you leave, so don't feel to special." She winked at me.

"Thanks, grandma!" Lia said, sitting across from me. We all said a quick thank you to mom and dug in.

…..

Leaving my mothers was bittersweet. We were all excited to go home, but leaving mom was hard.

"Do you think grandma will ever move in with us again, dad?" Liam asked as we loaded out luggage into a cart.

"I doubt it, bud. But I'm working on getting her to move to the city. Maybe she can live next to us."

"I would love that!" lia said.

"have you been trying to get her to move?" Bella asked.

"Yes, for several years, but she said it never felt right to leave. But this trip, she let off a little smirk and said 'maybe.' So we might have won."

"That would be nice." She said, grabbing my hand. "ready to go home?"

"Yes." I said, smiling down at her."

"Me too, daddy!" Ellie said, grabbing my leg.

"I miss my friends." Liam said, "but I think I miss grandma more."

"That's usually how it goes, I think." Bella said, putting an arm around his shoulder. "We'll see her soon enough."

"Yeah! Now, let's go!' Lia said, ushering us along by pushing at our backs.

I smiled at Bella, who smiled brightly back at me. All the negativity of La Push falling off of my shoulders with nothing but that look in her eyes; all thoughts of Jacob and wolves, of uncontrollable destinies, diminishing to nothing but a warm swell in my chest. All of these things have led to where I am now, and who we are now. I can't be more grateful for our circumstances, the ones that led to where we are now.

"I love you." I said.

"I love you too. But they're starting boarding in 15 minutes and we still haven't gone through security, so let's go." She said, kissing my cheek and pulling me to the security gate.