a/n: this might need a lil editing.

Jacob's not sure what to ask first as he stares across the island at Leah. His mind's completely gone blank, his focus gone as he once again glances down at the little plastic bag that holds an ultrasound and home pregnancy test. He opens his mouth before thinking better of it and snapping it shut. He's known Leah since they were kids. He'd been there when she realized that she was infertile. He'd seen first hand how that'd been devastating for her, tore her up inside, made her feel less than. So, the confused look on her face as she looked from him to the pregnancy test made sense on the surface, but he knew good and well that if she'd miraculously ended up pregnant, she wouldn't question it. She'd be too busy being excited about it. She wouldn't be sitting here having a staring contest with him. 

That and he'd think he'd have noticed if she were with someone. Right? He would've smelled them on her. He would've at least taken note in passing. He wouldn't be this oblivious. Would he? Surely, the father would be here...surely...

He looks at the ultrasound one more time before glancing back up at Leah. She's looking at him as if she's expecting something, like she's the one who's supposed to be waiting for answers. 

"Where'd you get this?" He finally sighs out. 

"Mike was going through the mail to make sure there wasn't anything harmful in the packages or envelopes and this was in this package," she says, clearly relieved that he was finally speaking as she places a yellow envelope onto the counter. 

It doesn't have an actual name on the return address, but it's for Edward. Edward, who's technically still living in a glass box on the fancy side of town somehow got a package delivered to Jacob's address. He knows he should just slip the everything back into the envelope and take it upstairs for the man to eventually open on his own, but the little bag has already gotten him intrigued to find out what else was inside. 

He pulls the envelope over and opens it further to see a stack of papers. There's a folded piece of notebook paper on top and he opens the piece of paper to see that it's a note that has no name attached to it.

The other pieces of paper are clearly from a doctor's office. The name of the patient has been redacted.

Jacob can feel himself getting worked up the more he looked. Maybe he was overreacting, maybe it wasn't as bad as he thinks it is from a quick glance. Maybe Edward could explain all of this. He gathers up the contents of the envelope and slides it all back inside before heading for the stairs, ignoring Leah's calls as she tries to reason with him.

When he opens the door, he's met with a cagey looking Edward. He's got a frown on his face before Jacob can even open his mouth, eyes running over the man as if he knew this was coming.

"What is this?" Jacob asks, mind not really taking the time to register the fact that they'd been snooping through the man's mail. 

Edward stares down at the envelope in confusion before slowly opening it up and pulling out the first thing he gets his hands on. He stares at the little plastic bag in confusion as he flips it over to get a better view of its contents. He eventually tosses that onto the bed in order to pull out the papers. 

One glance at the handwritten note and Jacob can feel the realization dawn on him. He reads it over and then rereads it before yanking at the stack of papers underneath it. Jacob's not sure when the mood in the room seesaws, but suddenly he's the one confused and Edward's the one who's seething. He flips through the papers, eyes moving faster than Jacob's seen him move since he'd got here. 

Once he's done, he pulls out his phone and makes a call. Jacob can hear Emmett making some kind of joke on the other end, but he immediately sobers up at Edward's tone.

"I need you to run a test for me." He says before picking up the pregnancy test. 

When he looks at it, Jacob can feel about four different emotions through the bond. He's clearly angry, but Jacob's not quite sure why. Maybe it's because the mystery woman hadn't told him. They hadn't been together long enough for it to be impossible that he'd gotten some woman pregnant. He felt conflicted and confused. Jacob's going to assume that he hadn't exactly prepared to be a dad, but he was doing a pretty good job with Bear. It would only make sense that he'd be excited for a kid of his own. Though, it'd been a solid four almost five months since Jacob had found himself following Edward around. Jacob doubts she would've known right away so she might be in her third trimester. That's a good amount of time that Edward hadn't known anything about any of this. 

Jacob watches as he glares at the stack of papers once again.

"And I need Jasper to make a couple of calls." Edward huffs.

He can hear Emmett asking some questions.

"A fertility clinic..." He answers with a sigh, hand rubbing over his forehead, "Forks Fertility Clinic...see if he can get any information on the embryos."

Emmett's asking more questions, his voice clearly hesitant, but his curiosity gets the better of him.

"Just do it, alright? I'll explain later." Then, he hangs up the phone. 

That leaves Jacob staring down at him in confusion as he tries to figure out what exactly is going on. 

"Remember when we talked about the Christmas party?" Edward begins, eyes on Bear who's trying to steal the blanket off of him. 

"Yeah..." Jacob answers, just happy that he's talking to him.

"Remember the ex-fiance I had? The one who had a miscarriage?" He continues, eyes watching Bear who's trying her best to yank at the blanket, part of it finding its way into her mouth. 

"Yes."

"We were having some issues getting pregnant so we went to a fertility clinic. Thought we'd start trying early so that once we were married, we would've gotten a jump start on what we wanted next. She got pregnant. Though, a week before we were supposed to get married, we lost the baby," Edward looks annoyed as he grabs a fistful of the contents of the envelope, crumbling some of the papers, "she's pregnant again." 

Jacob blinks a few times as the pieces start putting themselves together. She must've gone back to the same clinic and gotten another embryo implanted without telling him.

"How long?" Jacob mumbles, mind reeling as he tries to take it all in. 

"I don't know." Edward runs a hand over his face and Bear grabs a fistful of his hair in an attempt to console him. 

"Wait so if she didn't even bother to contact you when she got it done, why is she contacting you now?" Jacob mutters and watches Edward let out a long, suffering sigh.

"The baby's probably killing her." 

Emmett's trying not to be insufferable, but Edward wants to wring his neck. The man's narrating himself as he tests the DNA on the pregnancy test despite the fact that Edward can see him through the webcam. He contemplates hanging up the facetime call, but then he hears a gasp and Emmett's whipping around to glare at the undoubtedly annoyed looking Edward on his screen.

"Bella?" He huffs, holding up the swab in his hand. 

Edward rolls his eyes.

"This test was manufactured three months ago, Eddy. It was taken two months ago," he says in an accusatory tone, "and I'm assuming since you're getting it tested, you didn't ask her to be a surrogate."

Edward can feel a headache throbbing behind his eyes.

"Does Jacob know?" Judgement is practically dripping from each word as his brother crosses his arms and waits for an answer. 

Jacob sits up and slowly peeks over his shoulder before waving at Emmett. He takes the time to place a kiss onto the scar that's beginning to heal at the crook of Edward's neck and shoulder. He's trying to calm him down, but his attempts are futile. 

Why had she tried it again? He'd thought they'd learned from the first time. He couldn't get the image out of his head, all of that blood staining the wedding dress that she'd finally chosen. He could see it clear as day. That was the moment that he'd realized that he wasn't meant to have kids of his own. That's what happens when you're a monster.

He lets out a sigh as Bear attempts to gnaw at his thumb. 

"Oh, hey, Jake!" Emmett calls, clearly feeling much better about Edward's life choices despite not having a clue what was going on. 

He doesn't want to know where she is. He doesn't even want to know what her plan was. He just wants to know what she's doing about it now. Had she told anyone else? Did she have a plan for if she died but the baby survived? He looks over at the envelope and hopes that this isn't it. This isn't all she'd done to prepare. He doesn't even know how far along she is. He has no way of knowing whether or not he should be making calls right now because she's dead somewhere and the baby is just out there with no one. 

Jacob's rubbing at his sides and Bear's trying to shove her entire foot into her mouth.

Emmett moves out of the way momentarily so that Jasper can pop in.

"Hey, made a few calls to some friends and found out that she'd started going to the clinic six months ago. She listed her address as Charlie's place."

Edward lets out another sigh.

"She's twenty-two weeks along according to their records." 

She's got time left, but considering that she'd gone through all this trouble sans changing her handwriting, he assumes she doesn't want him finding her. He assumes that it's a lot like him showing up to Jacob's house, holding a car seat, asking for help. She has no clue what she's gotten herself into and Charlie may not be able to keep the baby alive. Simple formula from the grocery store isn't going to cut it. 

He should say something. Give them some kind of direction to go in, some indication of what he's thinking, but he's at a loss. 

He just shakes his head and ends the call.

The Chief calls. Jacob can tell by her tone, that she's at her wits end. 

"I need you back at work on Monday ready to catch this bastard," she hisses, flipping some papers before letting out a frustrated sigh, "a team of officers will make rounds in order to ensure their safety."

That's how Jacob finds himself standing in their usual conference room, staring up at his team, who are curiously staring back at him. 

"Did she say anything about what she's planning?" Stanley asks, clearly over their little staring game.

"No." 

He's saved from more scrutiny when Chief Dwyer saunters in, clutching files in her arms. 

"Find out where Lahote is staying so that he can be captured," is all she says before sauntering back towards the door. 

She's about to close it, when something seems to dawn on her and she peeks her head back into the room.

"And I need to speak to you before you leave today." She says towards Jacob before shutting the door behind her.

Jacob pretends not to feel the eyes on him as he pops open the file that holds the last couple months. Every time they've seen Lahote, he's been the predator and they've been the prey. They've never just stumbled across the man under normal circumstances. The first time they'd caught sight of him, he was lurking outside of their bedroom window. It was going to be harder than it seemed to find someone like that. 

Though, the first step was to find out where he went before he'd started killing. He'd previously resided in the house that he'd shared with Rachel. 

"Did you search Lahote's house?" Jacob asks, staring down at the address listed. 

They all look at one another before nervously smiling over at Jacob.

"About that..." Eric starts before clamping his lips together at the expression on Jacob's face.

"We didn't get the chance to search it ourselves since we were on protection detail." Stanley points out.

"Yeah, so another team was sent over to do it." Mike says, looking over at Weber to back him up.

"There's no telling how good of a job they did considering it wasn't technically a crime scene."  Weber points out.

"Okay, send a couple of civilian cars over to see if anyone is home," he mumbles, flipping through the rest of the file, "if not, get in and see if there is anything pertinent inside." 

He doesn't think he needs to verbalize the "be careful" as he watches Weber and Yorkie scramble out of the room.

Jacob knew that Paul spent every waking moment following behind Uley, but he hadn't realized how little the man had that was his own. There weren't a lot of other places he could be. He worked as a police officer before he got fired. He went to the diner to eat before he became a recluse. He spent all of his free time at Uley's before he murdered him. 

He had nowhere else to go except his house...and the forest.

Jacob's so caught up in thinking that he's completely forgotten that he's being watched. He peers up from the file in his hand to see Stanley openly staring and Newton pretending not to.

"So, I talked to Darlene this morning..."

Darlene bounces up to him with a smile as she slides a plate in front of him. The only thing that seems to dampen her spirits is the empty seat across from Jacob.

"Was he feeling sick?" She asks, refilling Jacob's cup.

It's a hell of a conclusion to jump to, but Edward had been sick when she'd seen him in the hospital so he's not too surprised.

"No, Chief just asked for me today." Jacob mumbles as he chews at a fry.

"Oh! Well, maybe I can get him some fries to go." She says, eyes lighting up and Jacob realizes that this is going to be just like the tea.

She thinks she's found something Edward actually likes.

"Fries?" 

"Yeah, maybe you can drop them off before you go back in?" she says hopefully, glancing towards the back where the cook is. 

She must get something from the look on his face because she feels the need to explain herself.

"It's not the best option for someone who's pregnant, but it's better than him not eating at all, Jake." she says matter-of-factly, before whipping around to head towards the kitchen, leaving him to stare after her.

Oh.

The Chief looks at him as if she'd rather be anywhere else with anyone else as she looks over Jacob cooped up in one of her office chairs. She lets out a sigh, further emphasizing her annoyance before she finally speaks.  

"We have a dilemma, Black." She says, looking down at a framed picture on her desk before glancing back up at Jacob.

We? A dilemma?

He blinks and waits for her to clarify.

"My daughter has gone through a lot over the past year. She thought her life was going in one direction and was wholly unprepared for anything else." The Chief lets out a sigh, grabs the picture and turns it so that Jacob can get a better view of it. 

"This is Bella," she says, pointing towards the picture of a woman, who's awkwardly smiling at the camera, "and she made the decision a couple of months ago that she wanted one last try."

The Chief's voice has turned less irritated and more somber as she talks about her daughter.

"She's in trouble and you may not care, but I know you know someone who at least cares about the baby she's carrying," she has this glint in her eye.

Calling him back in had nothing to do with finding and bringing in a serial killer. It was all about finding her daughter.

She knows more than she's telling. 

He doesn't say anything, staring down at the picture of the woman.

"Find her."