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Jacob felt like the Nexus was just another version of the island but it had one difference that made it a hell of a lot less bothersome - he could go home whenever he wanted. There was always a door back to La Push and back to the beaches and forests that he remembered and while he didn't usually run into anyone else he knew, it was enough. It would always be enough to be able to have the tang of salt and pine in his nostrils and to be a wolf again instead of just a human.

It was more than enough.

So he was content to stay in the hotel, for the most part, but occasionally he got the itch to go back through the thick wooden door that led to First Beach and today was one of those days. The shift from human to wolf was effortless at this point, as was the run from the door along the beach with the seaspray nipping at his paws. The rest of his pack wasn't here but that was all right. Jacob had never been bothered by his own company and, truth be told, he and the pack weren't always on the greatest of terms. He was always closest to Leah and Seth anyway so not seeing the others (even if it hurt to miss Quil and Embry) wasn't such a bad thing.

He watched the sun go down over the water and howled up at the full, full moon before heading deep into the forest to hunt. It was kind of barbaric (and he suspected it made Belle feel a little weird, though she never said anything) but it was just something he had to do to feel like himself again.

It was good to be back.

[OOC: Jacob left the door open so feel free to see him as a wolf or as a human in his home canon.]

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Belle had fallen in love with a Beast, some time ago. It was years and years back, now, before Jacob. Still, it meant that watching Jacob spend his time as a wolf isn't nearly as strange as she might have thought prior to the Castle. She's waiting with a robe and a bag lunch, leaning up against the door fondly, shaking it in the air as if trying to get him to smell it.

"Hungry?" she offers.

Jacob usually had the good manners to shift back before drawing back up close to Belle since wolves weren't...exactly her favorite. Today, however, he was just too excited to shift and turned back up full on wolf before thinking better of it.

He shifted back and shuddered a little. "Ugh, it still feels weird. But yeah, totally starved."

The feelings are there, at the back of her neck, prickling and making her wary. She's been training herself slowly to think of him more like the Beast and not the wolves in the forest and it's been working. Slowly, but surely, it's been working. She grins and holds out the sandwich and the pants in one go.

"Is it something you ought to be doing more?" she asks with concern. "Maybe we could try it more often, to make sure it's not so awkward."

"The more you do it, the less weird it feels," Jacob agreed. He slid into his pants in one smooth move and took a bite of the sandwich before responding.

"I don't mind having company when I'm wolfing out, you know. Just in case you were thinking I wanted to be alone?"

"I just want to make sure we're doing whatever we have to, to make you feel right," Belle insists, because it's not about her feeling left out or worried -- it's more that she wants to make sure Jacob is doing what's necessary. "And this looks like it's necessary," she says firmly, having made up her mind.

"So here's what we'll do. Twice a week, we'll go out and you can wolf out, so you can feel right."

"Have I ever told you that I love you?" Jacob liked to think that he said that often and enough for Belle's satisfaction but he guessed there was no harm in pointing it out yet again.

"Because that sounds pretty much perfect for what I need."

"I love you, too," Belle promises fondly. "We said for better or worse, didn't we? I don't even think this qualifies as worse, just different," she says when she thinks about it for another second. "Maybe we can even do it back in France," she suggests. "We have a lot of woods to roam around in, quite peacefully."

And if any of the villagers protest, then Belle will have something to say about it.

"I liked France the one time we went," Jacob agreed. The woods there had felt old and different in a way his woods back in La Push hadn't. It wasn't home, of course, but it was still familiar in the way all forests were familiar to him.

"Anything beats Alaska. I know that from experience."

"We can split our time between the two," she suggests. "Or, really, I suppose we can go anywhere we like. If we find a brand new place, one that the both of us like, we can go there," she says. "Maybe that's the Nexus for us," she says, sliding her palms over Jacob's shirt as she settles it on his torso. "Maybe it's somewhere else, where we can visit my father and your friends when we want."

"Anywhere with you is going to be just fine with me," Jacob said. Maybe it was a little misguided and overly-romantic but it held true. He'd been with Belle long enough (five years? Five years) that he felt like he could say that without fear of judgment.

Belle grins as she reaches out to take hold of his hand with both of hers, swaying in on uneven feet to press a kiss to his lips slowly, settling back on her heels once she's done. "How about we go and find you something to eat?" she suggests. "You must be starving," she adds, a bit worried about that.

"I'm always starving after shifting. I could hunt, I guess, but I bet what you have in mind is going to taste a lot better."

Every once in a while, Jacob liked to really embrace the wolf and eat raw while still shifted but today wasn't one of those days. He would much rather go back to the hotel and steal something to take back to the room in makeshift room service.

"Lead the way?"

Belle's pleased to think of a little bit of a date night between the two of them, even if it's hardly the conventional thing at all. She leans up on her toes to kiss his cheek, taking his hand a little tighter in hers as they walk. "Is there anything else we might have been ignoring?" she asks. "We can make up for it, now."

"Well, it's probably close to our anniversary, more or less," Jacob said, somewhat sheepish about not remembering a precise date. "Not our wedding anniversary but, like, when we first started dating and everything. So maybe we can do something special for that? I'll even dress up and go dancing if that's what you want."

Belle reaches all the way back as far as she can, trying to remember those first days together. She clasps his hands tightly and holds in close to him. "That feels like another lifetime," she admits, given how much has changed. "Do you remember when we first met? I was half crying over roses behind the Homestead."

"You were," Jacob said softly. "And I just wanted to fix it. That's always been the kind of guy I am, to want to fix it when pretty girls are crying." It seems forever ago now. Jacob hadn't even been an adult then, still just a teenager, and while he's still young he felt like his whole purpose in life had changed.

Belle laughs fondly as she leans up for another kiss. "Pretty girl, am I?" It's a tease and she knows that Jacob thinks more of her, but she still can't help but find it adorable that he'd thought her pretty, right from the start, rather than odd or weird or mad, like so many of the villagers had. "I kind of miss those inventions and little things we used to put together, like that windchime," she remembers. "It all sort of fell away and now that we're here, I've spent so much time exploring other worlds that I haven't had time for it."

"I bet we could find some time to do it now," Jacob said. "I'm sure we could convert a room in the hotel into a workshop, or something. I miss getting to do that with you."

He grinned wide. "And we could always start working on motorcycles like I did back home before I met you. Nothing worked on the island but I bet I could make them work here."

"I bet we could find a whole highway," she says, thinking of the wide open expanses and all the worlds they've yet to explore just because there's so very many of them. "Sometimes, I think about what we were missing out on and it's so amazing how we went so long without it," she confesses. "I'd like that, though. Both."

"Maybe we could find a suite off our room?" she suggests. "Which, I've been meaning to decorate anyhow."

"Yeah, I mean, I don't have a room since I stay with you so why not a workshop?" Jacob thought that was a pretty sweet idea, all told, and would love to have a project he could share with a Belle again.

"We could each have our own space in there?"

Belle stops as they walk, because Jacob's managed to come up against something she's been meaning to talk to him about without even realizing that. "I think a workshop would be nice," she agrees. "There's something I've been thinking about, though. I don't know if you've ever considered it, but maybe, possibly, we could find ourselves a house somewhere? In one of these worlds?"

"I always wanted to build one in mine," Jacob admitted softly. It was something he'd wanted ever since he was little, to have a house in the middle of the forest, and with the door between La Push and the Nexus open pretty much all the time, he thought it was a real possibility.

"In the redwood forest?"

"I think it would be nice to have a place that's ours," Belle confesses, because she'd always thought that would be what she one day aspired to. "Something that you and I can call our own, no matter where it is, though I do like the idea of living in a forest."

"It would be quiet and you wouldn't have to worry about other animals. They don't tend to like how I smell," Jacob explained. "And I can keep them gone in case we want horses or something. It won't be a problem. It'll be nice and safe and secluded. Just for us."

And, you know, a family eventually.

She doesn't mind other animals, but she also likes the notion of a quiet forest only meant for the two of them. "I'd love great sprawling windows to let the light in," she admits, smiling fondly as she thinks of what this house might look like. "In the woods, but it doesn't matter which woods."

"Oh, yeah, plenty of windows. I think I can build a house like that, if you want to draw up some schematics for me." Jacob had always been good at working with his hands and building things according to a plan but he wasn't so good at drawing up those plans himself.

"I'd like that," she says, sounding almost surprised by how much she likes the idea of building her own house. She supposes, in her mind, she'd always imagined Papa and her cottage as her future home and then, the castle had been home. The Homestead had served dutifully for so long, but now they really could make their own way.

Her mind is already racing. "I'll need books," she begins to list eagerly, "and pictures and samples! Oh, Jacob," she exhales with giddy excitement, kissing his cheek. "It's going to be perfect."

"You're the planner," Jacob said, happy to let her take over the reins for that part of it even if he was going to be doing most of the building. "Draw up what you want and I'll see if we can get the supplies. We'll build it in the woods here on the reservation and it'll be nice and out of the way. Lots of seclusion. Lots of room for us and, you know. Any other stuff we might want to add on someday."

It's the first time in a long while that she feels this blooming hope in her chest. She's always happy, of course she is, because she loves Jacob and things are good, but this is something that looks substantially like great hope for the future. "I'd really like that," she says, hoping that he can hear the joy in her voice. "Our little place," she says, laughter bubbling up.

Bella hadn't really become obsessed with the big white house in the forest once she'd found it, but she'd probably spent too much time there since she'd stumbled into it on a hunting run a few months ago. There were memories there - distant, fuzzy ones of her other life. She remembered, for instance, that she'd been married in that life, that she'd had a child. Her father, the pack, her vampire family. It was still a distant memory, and one she was interested in the same way she'd once done research papers for school. Interesting to learn things, but with the feel that they'd all happened a long time ago to someone else.

When she left the house this time, though, she immediately knew she wasn't alone. She smiled when she caught the scent, heard the steady thrum of a beating heart, and ran at full speed towards the sound.

She caught up with Jacob just as he was finishing and she'd leapt up near the end of her run and landed on a branch just above him.

"Fancy meeting you here," she commented, swinging her dangling legs.

Jacob let out a friendly little snuffle in response. While he didn't like how Bella smelled when she was all vamped out, she was still Bella and therefore deserving of Best Friend Forever status - stink or no stink.

Hunting with Bella like this was a hell of a lot better than worrying about her when she was human, too, though Jacob wasn't exactly the type to mention that.

Grinning wide, Bella pointed at his muzzle and let her nose wrinkle. "You missed a spot, wolf-boy. I'd come down and wipe it for you, but I don't want to spoil your appetite with my too sweet vampire smell."

Jacob licked his muzzle as best he could before shifting back. His clothes were tucked behind a rock nearby and he slid into them; there was no point in being shy in front of Bella at this point anyway.

"What brings you out to the old stomping ground, Bells?"

Bella was used to not blushing now, but that didn't mean she didn't still look like she should be red in the face. "I went back to the house again. Just...to see if anything had changed. It hadn't. Still as empty as ever."

And she couldn't stop looking at the little girl. Her daughter.

"Oh, yeah. It's always empty," Jacob agreed. "It's weird, this version of...everything. It's like it's just a little bit off, you know? Still, it's kind of nice to see a piece of home every once in a while."

"Yeah," Bella responded softly. "I mean, I guess so. I'm still adjusting to everything I found out in that house, you know? Then I go into this weird broody thing where I just stare at the pictures and realize I've been standing there staring for almost a full day without moving. Now that, let me tell you, is really freaking weird."

"Never did that before," Jacob admitted. He didn't grudge Bella that, though, because an important part of her life was in that house.

"I guess it's part of being mortal still that I don't just...lose time like that. I still operate as if everything's going to disappear if I don't snap it up."

That had Bella smiling wide. "Maybe it's because I move so quickly when I'm not pretending to be human? I don't know. But I'm getting to the point that I don't like it much when it happens. It's just...I don't have any memories of those people, of that little girl, but I can't stop staring at the pictures. Like I'm trying to find the rest of the memories I lost, now I've got to find more of them."

Jacob knew who the people were in the pictures - and he knew they weren't actually people at all. That wasn't something he could really tell Bella, though, because it would be cruel.

"Well, maybe they'll come back to you. I could tell you things, I guess, but I think it's probably better if you just come to it naturally."

Bella thought about it but in the end, shook her head. "No. Something tells me that in this case, curiosity will spell all kinds of trouble for the vampire. If the memories come, or the people in them show up, I'll handle it then. The little girl sure likes you, though. There are dozens of pictures of you holding her."

That was something she really couldn't get past - that Jacob was not only a part of that life, but a close one.

"Yeah, we're tight," Jacob said. There was a little lump in his throat about that because while he understood the whole thing with him and Ness it wasn't him. Not this version of him, anyway, and he had taken a different path.

"I'm always going to be a part of your life, Bella. We're just taking a different path this time, you know?"

Bella nodded and smiled, taking a step towards him at human speed and careful to hug him without going all vampire-vise on him. "Thanks for that, Jake. I don't think I work right without you. Everything just feels...I dunno. It feels right when you're here."

"See? Without me, you're useless and pale," Jacob said smugly. "But it's okay. I don't mind being needed."

Truth be told, he needed her as much as she needed him, no matter what kind of brave face Jacob wanted to put on it.

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