I complained. "It makes me crazy. Why can't you both just be civilized?"

"Is he ready to kill me?" Jacob asked with a grim smile, unconcerned by my anger.

"Not like you seem to be!" I realized I was yelling. "At least he can be a grown-up about this. He knows that hurting you would hurt me - and so he never would. You don't seem to care about that at all!"

"Yeah, right," Jacob muttered. "I'm sure he's quite the pacifist."

"He's not really handling this very well," Emmett said. "All he's doing is making her more upset."

"Like Carlisle said, he wears his heart on his sleeve," Edward smirked.

"Ugh!" I ripped my hand out of his and shoved his head away. Then I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around them.

I glared out toward the horizon, fuming.

Jacob was quiet for a few minutes. Finally, he got up off the ground and sat beside me, putting his arm around my shoulders. I shook it off.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "I'll try to behave myself."

I didn't answer.

"Do you still want to hear about Sam?" he offered.

I shrugged.

"Like I said, it's a long story. And very . . . strange. There're so many strange things about this new life. I haven't had time to tell you the half of it. And this thing with Sam - well, I don't know if I'll even be able to explain it right."

His words pricked my curiosity in spite of my irritation.

"It would anyone's," Carlisle murmured, looking excited about the new piece of information he was about to get.

"I'm listening," I said stiffly.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the side of his face pull up in a smile.

"Sam had it so much harder than the rest of us. Because he was the first, and he was alone, and he didn't have anyone to tell him what was happening. Sam's grandfather died before he was born, and his father has never been around. There was no one there to recognize the signs. The first time it happened - the first time he phased - he thought he'd gone insane. It took him two weeks to calm down enough to change back.

"Oh dear, the poor boy," Esme sighed. "Edward, are you sure that this has already happened?"

"Yes," Edward said. "I heard about the attack on Emily a little while ago."

Esme sighed again and Carlisle wrapped his arm around her, looking rather depressed himself, before he started reading again.

"This was before you came to Forks, so you wouldn't remember. Sam's mother and Leah Clearwater had the forest rangers searching for him, the police. People thought there had been an accident or something. . . ."

"Leah?" I asked, surprised. Leah was Harry's daughter. Hearing her name sent an automatic surge of pity through me. Harry Clearwater, Charlie's life-long friend, had died of a heart attack this past spring.

"Hm," Carlisle said, suddenly thoughtful.

"What is it?" Emmett asked.

"Well, I was wondering if we should warn Harry Clearwater about the heart attack," Carlisle said.

"Don't you mean, you were wondering how you're going to warn him?" Edward said smiling at his father.

"Yes," Carlisle returned the smiled. "It will be difficult to do that seeing as they don't trust us... and unfortunately the wolves don't even come to our hospital because I'm there... but I can't just stand by and let him die, knowing that it could be prevented."

"I'm sure we could think of something," Edward said. "It won't happen for more than a year from now..."

"Right," Carlisle said. "But it still would be best if we get this information to him as soon as possible," he continued to murmur for a second before he started reading again.

His voice changed, became heavier. "Yeah. Leah and Sam were high school sweethearts. They started dating when she was just a freshman. She was frantic when he disappeared."

"Oh, dear... the poor girl," Esme said, knowing how it would only end in heartbreak for her.

"But he and Emily -"

"I'll get to that - it's part of the story," he said. He inhaled slowly, and then exhaled in a gust.