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Jacob mostly kept to a set schedule on the island. Wake up, teach his class if school was in session, work on anything at the Homestead that needed repairing and head home to spend time with Belle. It was a bit predictable and occasionally broken up by going to see Bella and the baby or Coraline but it was his life and he loved it.

The island, of course, occasionally decided to throw a wrench in those plans and if his way home became a swamp or there was a freak blizzard, Jacob tried to take it in stride and just keep moving on. It wasn't anything new after three years and some change, right? Except today. He'd pulled open the door to his and Belle's little house expecting to see his wife working on some new invention...and got greeted with a complete decor change.

So the new carpet was nice. So was the air conditioning, which wasn't available in abundance on the island (being inside a room without feeling hot and sticky and without the air so thick that he could breathe without drowning was a novelty) but he couldn't figure out how it got here. Was this some trick? Some temporary decorating change that was going away whenever the island's wacky magic decided to swing back to (relatively) normal? Jacob didn't know. Smarter people than him had been stumped by the island and he had never professed to be into researching or anything that involved reading or sitting still for very long.

But the biggest change about this place was the little undercurrent of power he felt. There was a little ripple, a little spark in the air and it just felt different than he'd felt in the three years since he'd shown up on the island and resigned himself to not being able to shift anymore. Maybe he'd learned to live without that part of himself but he'd never really accepted it and he sure as hell had never rejected it. Could it be? Was the wolf still under there after all and he was finally in a place where he could access it?

He turned the corner away from the front desk and let loose on his control, feeling his body shift and change into the wolf he hadn't been since showing up on the sandy beaches of Tabula Rasa all those years ago.

Finally.

[[See Jacob either before or after he shifts into a wolf - don't worry, he's not going to bite.]]

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Jacob shook his head. Apparently this Bella wasn't his Bella from the island and it was going to take some explaining.

"No, I left Forks right before you went to Italy and got detoured on a deserted island for three years. It's...hard to explain but there was a version of you there that hadn't gotten vamped yet."

It didn't take long for her enhanced mind to draw the comparisons. "There's a guy here from a place like that. Tall guy with fangs. Not a vampire, but not human either. He knew who I was, said he knew me when I was on this island with him and a bunch of other people. Or, like you said, a version of me." She smiled. "You must've known the same one, because he knew me as a human, too."

She shook her head and laughed again. "Helpful, around here, being good with weird, huh?"

"Well, yeah, but you were always the queen of the unfazed," Jacob deadpanned. It was still strange for him to see her now as a vampire when the last thing he ever wanted was this but he guessed it was just one more thing to get used to.

"So, is your other half here? Weird to see you not connected at the hip."

Bella tried to control the sadness, but it didn't work very well. Perfected face and lack of blushing aside, she was still crap at hiding her emotions, especially around Jacob.

"No, he's not here. Leah is, or was. We talked once, but I haven't seen her since. Given how much she hates me, I'm not surprised she'd go out of her way to completely avoid me. There is a guy that looks like him, though. He's a vampire, too, but a different kind so don't go all wolfy on him, okay? He's a nice guy and doesn't kill humans."

"What's with all the vampires having the same face? Okay, so, not-Edward is a vegetarian too, then?"

That had to be awkward, considering it was easier to hunt in groups than it was alone when animals were involved. Jacob couldn't imagine Bella letting someone starve if she could help it.

Bella twisted up her face, then shook her head. "No, he isn't. Adrian drinks from humans, but from where he comes from, only the bad, scary vampires kill the humans they drink from. Apparently, it gives the humans a kind of high when they drink from them."

She smiled again, trying to distract him. "According to him, I meet all the criteria of the bad, scary vampires of his world."

"I knew you were secretly evil," Jacob teased.

"At least now you're coming to terms with it. That's the first step in the program, you know. Admitting it."

Bella punched him in the arm lightly - at least she hoped it was lightly - and shook her head. "Yeah, yeah. That's me. The ultimate vampire bad guy ready to take over the world, one deer at a time."

"I'm sure PETA is going to try to launch a war against you," Jacob agreed.

"So uh, what do you do here to pass the time? There's a lot more than the island, sure, but it's still not exactly like living in the real world, is it?"

"This place is all about the freaky doors," Bella answered, "so I go to the ones I know are safe for me or hang around with the friends I've made here. There is one that's kind of interesting," she added, "it's home, but not really. It's home, the forest around Forks and La Push, but there are no people there at all. It's like a ghost town. Weird, but it's nice to be able to run and hunt in a place that's familiar."

"That's crazy," Jacob agreed, trying to imagine how he would feel to go to an empty La Push. "It's like nobody's there? Are all the houses still there or is it just empty land? Maybe it's La Push in the past or something."

It wouldn't be the first time something so weird happened to Jacob, that was for sure.

"Absolutely no one there. Not a single human except the ones that have come through from here," Bella replied, then smirked a little. "Believe me, I'd know. And before you ask, yes, I make sure there are no humans in there or even close before I go hunting. Not sure if it's past or anything, but it looks pretty modern. Mike's family's sporting goods store is there, and the Foodway, all of it. Any time you want to come check it out, let me know. We can go running." She laughed and poked his stomach. "See if you can keep up with me."

"I could beat you," Jacob said cockily. He didn't know if he could beat a vampire in a flat out run but he had to stand a better chance than a regular human, right?

This new and improved Bella was going to take some getting used to.

"That, Jacob Black, sounds like a challenge to me," Bella grinned and held out her hand. "I accept."