Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Human Strikes Back

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 03:

BPOV 2 years later

Coming back to Forks was something I never thought I would do. I missed my friends in La Push and kept up monthly phone calls to the pack. I normally called Sam and spoke to him or Emily. Sometimes I spoke to Leah when she was over at my dad’s. Dad and Sue had been going out since I left and it looked like they may get married soon.

I hadn’t spoken to Jake. Not for lack of trying, he just refused to speak to me. I guess giving me the silent treatment for the past 2 years is what he considered fighting for me. I wasn’t complaining though. I put him through enough pain and if not speaking to me was what he wanted I was going to give it to him.

Word from Sam was no vampire activity had been around in months. Nobody looking for me. I still spoke to Carlisle and Alice. Alice told me the Volturi were involved in a war with the Romanians as she envisioned and had forgotten about me. I didn’t share any personal information. I don’t know why Alice asked. It’s not like she couldn’t see. They knew about Galveston and my books but I didn’t give anymore details.

The past two years have been amazing. There is no other word for it. I never did go to college. I began writing as a form of self-therapy. I wrote a novel about vampire and werewolves at war with an average girl stuck in the middle. I sent it in on a lark to several publishing houses and to my surprise it got picked up for publishing. I got my first advanced and have written a second novel since then. Of course my vamps don’t sparkle and have fangs and my werewolves need the moon to change. Can’t give out all the trade secrets of my friends.

I have been living in Galveston, Texas for most of the past year. I met my boyfriend in San Diego as he was discharging from the Marines. He convinced me to move to Texas with him to his hometown “Island” of Galveston. To say I loved the island would be an understatement. A sandbar on the Gulf of Mexico, the Island has a rich past. I was reminded of Jasper on his way back from Galveston when he was turned. I loved walking along the seawall, watching the shrimp boats come in and go out. I love feeding the seagulls. I loved browsing on the strand and drinking wine from cups sold by street vendors. And I loved our house. Built in 1890, 4 blocks from the Seawall, the two story Victorian style house survived the great storm of 1900. It was remodeled several times. Jason began remodeling it when he would get leave from the Marine Corp. We worked on it together. It was amazing to be an equal partner in something.

Jason Connolly. How to describe our relationship? He is amazing. I think I imprinted on him. And yes he is completely human. Very human but almost seems superhuman at times. I still don’t know what he did in the Marines. I know he was the leader of a small special operations team and that was all he would say. He told me he didn’t want to bore me with the details. He is still associated with the military and disappears at strange times. During these times he is gone for anywhere from a couple days to two to three weeks. To be honest the mystery of it was sexy as hell. Two things I knew about Jason. He was deadly and fearless. Actually three things, the third being I was completely in love with him.

I first saw him in San Diego at a beach party celebrating his “discharge”. A friend of mine was dating one of his team. He walked up to me wearing only his swimsuit with a beer in his hand. He smiled and told me he had seen a million bleached blondes on this beach before but never a beautiful woman until he saw me. As far as pick-up lines go, that was a winner. I could tell he had a southern accent that reminded me of Jasper but was much deeper and noticeable. He asked me my name. I stumbled over my answer while trying not to look at his v shaped waste, 8 pack abs or muscular torso. I concentrated on his eyes and his small smile. And I was lost.

He told me to dress casual on our first date. He picked me up at 3 in the afternoon. I was thinking picnic on the beach. He took me to an airport and I was thinking a helicopter tour of the area. I then realized he had taken me in a classroom where I was being told the basics of a tandem jump. He wanted me to jump out of an airplane with him?

He looked at me and laughed when I realized what was going on.

“So what about it Bella? I figured we could get the trust issues out of the way and we could jump together.”

I was speechless. I remembered my promise to myself to live. I remembered how much I loved cliff diving at La Push.

“What the hell, let’s do it”, I told him. I found myself strapped onto the front of Jason standing at an open door of an airplane very high.

“How many times have you done this?”

“By myself? I have 126 jumps. With someone? This is a first.”

“That doesn’t give me confidence.”

“Too bad because we are about to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Confidence is a must. All you have to do is enjoy the ride and if I pass out for some reason like a brain aneurism, pull the cord and get me to the hospital. “

Lets do this.

And we did.

It was amazing! I have jumped with Jason 6 more times and just did my first solo jump last weekend. With Austin he encouraged me to do stupid things. We rode motorcycles on the weekend. We both had rebuilt project bikes from the 60s. We also had a 68 Mustang and a 69 Camaro. Like me, Jason had an appreciation for older things. I say we because that’s what we were. I taught him how to cook and he taught me to fight. I taught him to appreciate Victorian literature and he taught me how to shoot. We worked on the house together. I was hopelessly in love with him. The holes in my heart were completely filled. And the sex was amazing.

So if everything was going great, then why was I in Forks? It was Christmas and time to see Charlie. I hadn’t seen him since I left. I was a different person now and I wanted to show him I was okay. He was proud of my writing accomplishments and tried to read my books but the plots were too outlandish for someone of his age. Sue on the other hand loved them. Charlie had also been bugging me to meet the man I was living with. Too say he wasn’t happy about me living in Texas with a 28 year old marine (or whatever he was putting it mildly. He didn’t interfere to his credit. His opposition waned when he realized I wasn’t changing anything. Now he just wanted to meet Jason. Jason agreed it was time to see the famous Forks.

Jason knew about my experiences with Jake and Edward. He obviously didn’t know the supernatural aspects. I told him once early on that I had secrets that I could never tell because they weren’t mine to tell. He told me it was fine and he understood about keeping the secrets of others. As long as we were honest with each other about things between us we were both happy. Which led me today to be driving into Forks in our 68 Mustang so my father could meet my boyfriend. I was apprehensive. We only planned to stay two weeks. But in Forks a lot can go wrong in two weeks.