CHAPTER THREE
STOP AND STARE

Word spread quickly about Bella Swan's disappearance.

Montana stood outside of the Swan household, huddled between Jacob, Embry and Quil. Since she hadn't gotten the chance to go home and change first, she was still dressed in her work attire, now with the addition of Jacob's hoodie. The boys had tried to radiate as much heat between them as possible, mostly for Montana's sake, but the longer the night went on, the further the temperature dropped.

Montana's parents had arrived shortly after she'd called to tell them what was happening, both of them incredibly worried for their close friend's daughter. Dakota had turned up a little while after them, profusely apologising for the amount of calls and messages she hadn't responded to, since her phone had been off all evening – turns out she hadn't been with Bella after all.

Charlie was falling apart the longer that time went on, and there wasn't much anybody could do to comfort him. Nothing had been heard from those who had gone into the woods to search for her, leaving morale to slowly dwindle. After the recent animal attacks in Forks, an understandable amount of worry about Bella had coaxed a lot of people out of their houses to help figure out what happened to her; the number had practically doubled since Montana had first arrived.

Dakota had looked like she was going to throw up the moment she arrived, her face completely drained of colour. She'd felt terrible for missing what had gone on, and had started to blame herself for not being there for Bella to talk when she needed her to. The two girls had grown closer since Bella had been back in Forks, and Dakota had always promised her she'd be someone to rely on whenever she needed. And tonight, she'd broken that promise.

Montana didn't have much room in her mind to allow curiosity to get the better of her when her cousin showed up with Diane's older sister Ivy, but between worrying about Bella she couldn't help but wonder how and when the two girls had met.

Diane's father, who worked in the force alongside Charlie, had arrived fairly swiftly despite being off duty, with Diane and her mother in tow.

The blonde had made a beeline for Montana the moment she spotted her, flinging her arms around her neck. "Has there been any news?"

Montana shook her head, a somber look etching across her face, sending Diane's hopeful expression fading. She'd been growing restless at the amount of time that had passed with no word on Bella whatsoever, and had felt herself slowly being driven insane by the fact that there was nothing she could do to help. She'd even suggested the idea to her parents about a group of them helping search the woods, but had been shut done by most of the Quileute adults who stated they didn't want anyone else getting lost or harmed.

"God, this is horrible," Diane commented, pulling her white cardigan tighter around her frame. She'd had the chance to change out of their mucky diner uniforms, and wash the grease and diner smell out of her hair. Montana tugged nervously on the sleeves of Jacob's grey hoodie, which practically reached her knees due to their height difference. "Have you four been here all night?" Diane asked, looking up to acknowledge the boys in her question.

Embry nodded in response, brown eyes falling on the significantly shorter blonde girl. He'd only met Diane once previously, but Montana always spoke highly of her co-worker. "Yeah. It's been hours."

"Do you know what time it is?" The softly spoke question came from Montana's left, and she turned to face Dakota, who looked more than worse for wear. Her tearful eyes were bleary, dark circles underneath them prominent since her makeup had seemed to smudge off throughout the night. Dark strands of hair tumbled from her messy ponytail, grazing against her skin in the light breeze.

"Almost midnight," Montana replied, checking her phone for about the hundredth time that night. She'd called and text Bella multiple times, though she knew it wouldn't exactly be much use, but it was the best help she could offer under the circumstances.

A heavy sigh passed Dakota's lips, her attention falling back on the tree line. Montana watched her cousin sadly, Dakota's unbearable worry for Bella practically transferring onto Montana merely by being in her presence.

Jacob sensed a quick decline in Montana's mood, and placed a hand on her shoulder. He said nothing, and Montana didn't need him to, she knew what he was trying to communicate, and she already was feeling the slightest amount more comforted by Jacob's touch.

"Hey," Ivy Sawyer's voice was tentative as she approached Dakota, one hand stuffed inside her coat pocket, the other holding a glance of water. "How you holding up?"

"The fuck?" Diane interrupted. "How long have you been here?" She questioned her sister almost accusingly. Embry and Quil stifled laughter at her bluntness. "I thought you were back late tonight?"

"I heard about what happened," Ivy responded vaguely, her eyes shifting past her sister to see the small audience, consisting of Montana and the boys, watching their exchange. Embry and Quil both nudged each other, grins quickly wiping off their faces after being caught out. Montana rolled her eyes at them, naturally moving closer to Jacob for warmth. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, all thoughts of Bella coming to a brief halt the moment he glanced down at her, smiling softly.

Montana watched Ivy turn towards Dakota, gently placing a hand on her forearm, the simple act seeming to relieve some of the tension in her cousin's body. Montana frowned momentarily at the exchange, looking to her left to read the exact same expression on Diane's face. Neither of the two girls commented on it, not finding it an appropriate time to start properly interrogating their family members.

"Charlie."

Montana's eyes snapped up at the mention of Chief Swan's name, locating Sam Uley emerging from the forest, carrying Bella in his arms. Charlie was in front of him faster than Montana could even blink, gently taking his daughter from Sam's arms. "Thank you, Sam. Thank God."

Dakota hurried towards them in an instant, Montana untangling herself from Jacob's arms and taking off after her, with Jacob following close behind. "Is she ok?" Dakota asked Charlie almost breathlessly, taking a small step back as he began to move up the porch steps.

"She'll be ok," Charlie reassured her gently. Montana came to a stop, reaching out for Dakota's hand as her cousin watched after Charlie and Bella with a heavy look in her eyes. Jacob's arm brushed against Montana's, though he was looking in an entirely different direction, his eyes locking with Sam Uley's.

"We should head home," Montana said, squeezing Dakota's hand. Her cousin finally turned away from the porch steps, nodding her head in reluctant agreement. There was nothing more they could do now, but at least they knew that Bella was safe. "Jake? You coming?"

Jacob had registered the sound of Montana's voice, though he didn't break his eye contact with Sam Uley until she placed a hand on his forearm. She circled round so that she was in front of him, her head eventually blocking his view of Sam. Montana turned to glance over her shoulder, her eyes hovering over Sam as her eyebrows pinched together in confusion, wondering why Jake seemed to be having such an intense stare off with him.  

She turned back to face Jacob, her eyes flickering up at him in concern. Jacob eventually lowered his gaze, attempting a smile to assure her that he was ok. "Yeah, lets go."

Montana didn't question him, though she did look over her shoulder again before following Dakota and Jacob back to the others. Sam met her stare from the distance, breaking eye contact almost instantly.

Billy had gone to check up on Charlie one final time, leaving Montana's parents deep in conversation with Sue and Harry Clearwater. Diane had been making light conversation with Embry and Quil, the three of them in clearly higher spirits since the relief of finding Bella.

Whilst Dakota spoke in hushed voices with Ivy, Montana and Jacob made their way back over to their friends, a small smile tugging at Montana's lips at the sight of the boys seeming to get on so easily with Diane.

The blonde's eyes found Montana's quickly once she arrived, her smile fading as a more serious expression overtook her features. "How's she doing?"

"Charlie said she should be ok," Montana replied assuringly. "It seems like she was in the woods all day."

"Yeah, Cullen must have left her there," Jacob said with a sneer.

"At least she's safe now," Diane reminded, sensing the clear distaste that was held for Edward Cullen. Diane didn't know him or his adopted siblings very well, since they mainly kept to themselves at school, and though they didn't have the greatest reputation, labelled freaks by most of the students at Forks High, Diane didn't like to judge people without knowing anything about them.

"Tana, we're being waved over," Dakota spoke up, catching the attention of her younger cousin, who soon spotted her father's hand waving in the air.

"I should go," Montana said, eyes naturally lingering a moment longer on Jacob. "See you tomorrow, guys."

A chorus of goodbyes sounded from the group as Montana made her way over to Dakota, who had finally left Ivy Sawyer's side. Montana had met Diane's older sister only once or twice, but still greeted her with a warm smile in passing.

Dakota's hands were shoved into her jacket pockets, her expression unreadable as they silently made their way towards their parents, who were stood amongst a group of people from the Rez – which unfortunately included Sam and his two disciples. Montana made a conscious effort to make her thoughts a little kinder towards them, since they were the people who found Bella after all.

"Hey kids," Tye Bradley greeted. "You two doing ok?"

Montana and Dakota both nodded, their minds occupied elsewhere. Jared, Paul and Sam fell quiet upon their presence, and Montana had a half mind to question Sam about why he was staring so intently at Jacob earlier on – though, the moment she locked eyes with his slightly unnerving gaze she thought better of it.

However, much to Montana's surprise, Dakota spoke up. "Thank you for finding her, Sam."

Montana blinked rapidly at her cousin, who held almost as large an amount of distaste for Sam Uley as she and the boys did. Dakota held a huge grudge over losing Jared, and was also the most stubborn person to exist, so Montana could be forgiven for staring at her as if she'd completely lost her mind.

She never bothered hiding her distaste for Sam, nor did she care about bad mouthing Jared and Paul and the little club they all seemed to have going on. Dakota also made her anger known over the way Sam had treated Leah Clearwater, when he broke up up with the girl out of the blue, despite years of dating.

Leah was only a year older, so they did a lot of growing up together. It absolutely broke both girl's hearts to see Leah hurting so much after how Sam treated her. Ever since then, there had always seemed to be a sadness in Leah's eyes, features that once held so much brightness for life, but had become so distant. Whenever she walked inside a room, a somber cloud always seemed to follow her, some of it fuelled by her own pain, a lot of it fuelled by other people's pity.

So, whilst Jared was labelled a dickhead, and Paul was mostly deemed harmless, despite his well-known hot-headedness and inability to not flirt with every girl on the planet, Sam was a completely different story. So, Montana did a double take when she heard the words "thank you" utter from her cousin's mouth. Jared shared an equally baffled look with Montana, his jaw practically falling open at the fact that Dakota; his, furious, painfully stubborn, could-hold-a-grudge-against-someone-for-the-rest-of-her-life, former best friend, had just thanked Sam Uley of all people.

Sam nodded his head in appreciation at her sentiment, whilst Montana and Jared's open mouthes slowly closed shut.

"So, do you have any idea what happened out there?" Nita Bradley asked, wrapping her coat around her body for warmth.

"Seems like Cullen broke up with her and left her out of the woods," Jared answered, his features hardening at the mention of Edward. Jared had never been a particularly angry person – he was probably actually the most positive person Montana had ever met – but lately he seemed to hold a lot of frustration inside him, and recently that had been directed towards the Cullen family, though Montana wasn't entirely sure what they'd actually done to warrant that.

"She must have got lost and passed out," Sam added on.

Jared read the expression on Montana's face, watching the way her nose had scrunched in distaste at the thought of Edward leaving Bella completely alone in the middle of the woods after shattering her heart. "Dick move, huh?"

"I mean, the least he could have done was walk her home," Montana mumbled.

A breathy laugh escaped Paul's lips. "You would think."

"We should get going," Tye said, fishing out a set of car keys from his trouser pocket. "You kids have school in the morning."

Montana nodded towards the group, muttering a few goodbyes before following after Dakota to the car. As they set off to leave, she turned her head to watch out of the window. Montana noticed that Sam was staring into the distance again, and followed his eyes, landing on her friends, who were still stood together by the house. This time, it wasn't Jake who was wrapped up in, what could only be described as a very intense, and borderline creepy, staring contest – this time, it was Embry.

A/N

Montana is right, the very least Edward could have done is walk Bella home.

Also, we living in some crazy times right now, so stay safe out there people!