Breaking Dawn Book 2, Chapter 17 Summary

How It All Goes Down

What Do I Look Like? The Wizard Of Oz? You Need A Brain? You Need A Heart? Go Ahead. Take Mine. Take Everything I Have

  • In the Cullen garage, Jacob's surprised to find that the keys are for the fancy Aston Martin Vanquish. This changes his plans of utterly destroying the car in his rage. So, instead, he drives out and then catches a glimpse of Leah. As Jacob races along the highway, he believes he sees his friend Quil running parallel to the road and then disappear again.
  • Jacob decides to follow Leah's advice and try to imprint to get away from Bella. He heads to Seattle in the faint hope of finding his soul mate there.
  • In Seattle, Jacob meets a cute girl named Lizzie. She seems genuinely concerned about him but, in talking to her, Jacob realizes there's no magic solution. He accepts his painful situation with Bella. Nevertheless, he dreads returning to the Cullens' place, until he realizes that Leah and Seth are there waiting for him.
  • Back at the house, Jacob learns that, after Leah saw him leave all upset, she gave Bella a piece of her mind about how badly Bella's been treating Jacob.
  • Edward asks Jacob to control Leah. He won't allow anyone to cause Bella any more pain than she's in already. Jacob reassures him that Leah already got her feelings off her chest, but that he'll make sure that Bella knows he has no hard feelings towards her.
  • Edward reveals to Jacob that he's been reading the child's thoughts and that it's not trying not to harm Bella. Due to the baby's accelerated growth, though, he wants to have it delivered as soon as Carlisle returns.
  • Lastly, Edward asks Jacob, as the rightful heir of Ephraim Black (the last chief of the Quileute, who signed the treaty with the Cullens) to approve of Bella's emergency vampirization in case she won't be able to survive the birth of the child as a human. He also wants to be sure that it won't result in the breaking of the treaty. Edward explains to Jacob that the Cullens never intended to break the treaty – but that, to ensure Bella's survival, they would.
  • Jacob visits Bella and she apologizes for hurting him. Looking at her, Jacob realizes that she's everything that he'd been looking for in his trip to Seattle.
  • He struggles with Edward's request: "Tomorrow, she'd be my enemy or she'd be my ally. And, apparently, that distinction was up to me" (17.177). Jacob decides to give Bella's change his blessing.
  • Bella gets on her feet and accidentally drops her cup of blood. She bends to catch it when a muffled rip is heard. She gasps, goes limp, and lets out a blood-curdling scream. Rosalie catches her.