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Pearl spent the next 3 hours at the police station in Forks. A lot of paperwork needed to be filed regarding the missing persons case, Sue's report of kidnapping and Pearl's own claim of wanting to get legally emancipated.

By the time all of the legal paperwork was sorted out, the subject of where Pearl would reside until a court date could be determined, came up.

Given Chief Swan's involvement with the case, he couldn't be the one to house her, and in the eyes of the law, Pearl couldn't reside with a family who had housed a run away without reporting it.

So the hybrid was not allowed to return home to the Cullens, despite her wishes to.

And given that Pearl had filed a case of child negligence and emotional abuse against Sue Clearwater, she was not permitted to return to her biological mother either.

With very limited options, it was eventually decided by the chief, that Pearl would live with Billy Black for the time being.

Harry Clearwater's will, stated that if anything were to happen to him and his wife, his children were to be looked after by Billy Black.

Since this arrangement meant that Pearl could at least stay nearby to her coven and imprint, she begrudgingly agreed to the arrangement. Meaning that she would move in with Billy and Jacob for the foreseeable future.

When Charlie dropped Pearl off at his friends house, Billy had already made Jacob set up one of his sisters old rooms so that Pearl could stay in there.

As soon as Billy had heard about the situation from the chief, he had immediately agreed to house Pearl until everything was sorted out.

He was rather relieved to see her after almost a year of Pearl being 'missing'.

And despite her circumstances, Billy was very welcoming to the hybrid.

Jacob however, had a slightly different reaction to the news. He certainly didn't want to admit to his father that Pearl could be quite scary at times, but he would be lying if he said that Pearl moving in with him and his dad didn't make him nervous.

"Jacob, why don't the two of you go and catch up, whilst I give Leah a call? I think it's best that she is alerted to what is going on." Billy suggested calmly, as he wheeled himself into his bedroom and ignored the pleading look on Jacob's face as he left.

Jacob nervously turned to Pearl, who was still standing in the doorway looking down at her feet. Hesitating a little, he eventually broke the silence, "I'll show you your room." He said, then he turned on his heels and hurried down the hallway to Racheal's old room.

Pearl slowly followed him down the hallway without saying a word.

"Umm, since Paul imprinted on Racheal and all, she decided to move in with him.

So her room is actually fairly empty. I did set up a bed for you, since I'm not sure how often you actually sleep.

But dad said that you could end up being here for a few weeks, so I figured that it would be a good idea to have one set up.

" Jacob explained cautiously, as he showed Pearl Racheal's old room.

Nodding wordlessly, Pearl entered the mostly bare room and sat down on the floor with her back to the wall. Setting down her back pack next to her, she hugged her knees to her chest.

Jacob spent a few minutes debating if he should stay or not. Eventually, he decided that he should, so he entered the room as well and sat down on the bed nearby.

The two remained silent for a while. All they could hear was Billy talking on the phone to Leah, and letting her know of the situation.

Jacob did end up breaking the silence, although it took him a while to gather up the courage to do so. "Are you okay?" He quietly asked.

Pearl lifted her head from her knees and turned to him in disbelief, then scowled at him.

"Okay! I guess that was a pretty stupid question." Jacob quickly rushed out a response after receiving the scowl.

Pearl muttered lowly in agreement, her face downcast. "Yep."

After a moment, Jacob continued talking. "Look. I'm not close to the Cullens, nor do I particularly understand your bond with them. So I won't comment on that, but I do understand the imprint bond. So, I know you feel pretty shitty right now cause you're not with Bree."

When Pearl gazed at the shifter, she saw the sincerity in his eyes and heard the empathy in his voice, so she answered him quietly. "I asked her out yesterday." She revealed.

"You did?!" Jacob shouted loudly in surprise. Trying to recover himself quickly, he asked voice filled with anticipation, "What did she say?"

Pearl smiled lightly at his reaction, and replied. Her voice filled with gratitude and happiness, "She said yes."

Jacob smiled widely at her, genuinely happy for the hybrid. "That's awesome." He announced.

Pearl nodded, still with a light smile on her face, but it soon faded when she remembered why she was here right now.

Seeing the change in her demeanour, Jacob attempted to lift her spirits. "Hey. At least when this is all over, you and Bree can go on that long awaited date. Right?"

The hybrid sat in silence for a while. Eventually she mumbled in a sad tone, "Will it ever really be over though?" Her eyes filled with tears as she spoke.

Jacob was taken aback by the display of emotions, and was unsure of how to respond. They weren't close, in fact, he could hardly call himself her friend. So he wasn't exactly sure what he should do.

Going with his gut, he got off of the bed and moved to the floor, sitting next to the emotional hybrid.

Hesitantly, he put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side.

Surprisingly, she didn't pull away and allowed him to do it.

The two teenagers stayed in that position for quite a while.

Pearl slowly let her bottled up tears fall, whilst Jacob gave her a side hug and offered her his silent comfort.

It took some time, but Jacob eventually asked, "Can't you go and visit them? I know that you have to live with us until this is finished, but, surely you can still go and see them. Right?"

The hybrid shook her head sadly. "Charlie says that I have to stay away from them, and he told me not to contact any of them either. If Sue finds out that they were involved she could end up dragging them into it legally. And that kind of attention won't be good for them." She answered him quietly.

"You could do your ghost thing though? No one would know that you saw them then." He suggested.

Pearl sighed. "Charlie said that I would likely be put on the stand in court to testify against Sue. If they ask me about the Cullens, I don't want to have to lie about seeing them. I'll already have to lie if they ask about, or allude to them being vampires." She muttered.

Jacob nodded thoughtfully. "I get that." He replied after a minute.

"I can't even call them." Pearl revealed bitterly. "Charlie took my phone. He said they were gonna use it for evidence. I don't see the point of that, since Carlisle and Esme were the ones who got it for me. My old phone was destroyed when I crashed my bike."

"Wait, he took your phone?" Jacob asked in disbelief.

Pearl nodded whilst scowling at the floor.

"Tsk. Wait here." Jacob ordered, then he got up from the floor and left the room.

Leaving Pearl to stare after him in confusion.

Coming back a minute later, Jacob held his phone in his hand.

Sitting down next to the hybrid yet again, he handed his phone over to her.

"Not seeing them, I can sort of understand.

But not being allowed to contact them, is just bullshit.

You can use my phone to talk to them. If anyone asks, I'll deny that you ever had access to it.

I'll just say that I was to one who held an hour long conversation with a bunch of vampires. "

Pearl stared at Jacob, shock clear on her face. Gently taking his phone into her hands, she allowed a smile to slip back onto her face. Without thinking about it, she quickly wrapped her arms around Jacob, giving the teen a firm hug in thanks.

Taken by surprise at her actions, it took a moment for Jacob to reciprocate the hug. But when he did so, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle that was paired with a bright smile. "It's not that big of a deal." He said, brushing it off. "Your just borrowing my phone. That's hardly a big thing."

Pearl huffed and replied into his shoulder. "Well, it's a big deal to me. So thank you."

"Ehh, your welcome." Jacob responded as they both pulled away from each other. "I'm gonna head to my room. I take it you'll be able to find me if you need me?" He asked jokingly.

Pearl smirked at him. "Your too loud to remain hidden for long." She commented teasingly.

Jacob started chuckling, then made his way out of Pearl's temporary room. Before he exited, he said, "Now go call your family. I bet your imprint is desperate to talk to you."

"Shut up." Pearl muttered happily, already dialling Bree's number into Jacob's phone.

The shifter sent her a final smirk and left the room. Leaving the hybrid to converse with her imprint.

After an hour, Leah showed up to Billy's house to speak to Pearl, and drop off some old things she had gotten from Pearl's room in the Clearwater house.

Pearl felt a lot better after speaking with Bree and her family.

Although Pearl had called Bree's number specifically, they were all on the other line.

Alice had gotten a vision of Pearl calling, so they were all waiting and ready for her call from Jacob's phone.

When she heard Leah pull up to the house in her car, she had to say goodbye and end the phone call, but she promised to call again later when she was able to.

Leah, Jacob and Pearl talked about the situation for a while. It turned out that Sue had blindsided the female by filing that report. Leah had no idea that Sue was taking that kind of action. It pissed the she-wolf off, but she wasn't able to do anything about it. Not at the moment anyway.

Leah didn't stay at the Black residence for too long as she had to go and pick up Seth, from Collin's house. Collin was showing signs of shifting, but hadn't yet reached that point. So it was decided that Seth would spend some time with him to keep an eye on the younger boy.

When Leah left, Pearl went through the small bag of things that Leah had brought over from Sue's house.

She wasn't expecting to find much, but when she open the larger front zip of her back pack, she found something that she never thought she'd see again.

Realising that it could be useful, she told Jacob to take it to the Cullens, since she wasn't allowed to leave the reservation.

Given the hybrid's insistence, he agreed and delivered the item to Carlisle that night. Once the Cullens realised what it was, Carlisle quickly organised a lawyer to represent Pearl, in her quest for emancipation.

The item in question, was Pearl's old diary that she had started keeping before her dad had passed away. The diary was exactly the kind of evidence that Pearl needed, in order to prove Sue's neglect and emotional abuse of her, whilst she was in the woman's care.