Note: The banner that Nikitajuice created for this is linked on my bio page. Please do not take it without Nikita's permission.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the recognizable characters...like Jacob Black...wish I did own him though, he'd get a happy ending with me. ;-)
Jacob Black dozed in the swing on the wrap-around porch of the house he had built so many years ago for his wife and the family they had both wanted. Although he could hear laughter coming from the yard in back of the house as well as from within it, he continued to drift off into a light sleep while the rays from a rare sunshine-filled day in La Push drifted over the well-worn wooden planks of the porch.
Bees droned as they flitted from flower to flower in the nearby garden that his wife had planted long ago upon moving into the house, while birds chirped happily in the nearby trees that provided ample shade to both the house and the surrounding forest. The sounds of life continued to echo from both the forest and the area surrounding Jacob's home, providing a soothing lullaby as a backdrop to his emerging dream.
It was a reflection of sorts, his dream. Like a collage of moving photographs, it made him remember various times in his life that had become significant to him. Some of them were small things that would have been insignificant to others, but not to him.
Others were of things that had been the catalyst for many things to come afterwards.
One such thing was the kiss he had once shared with Bella Swan on a mountaintop, back when he had still been just a boy and she had been just the girl he had loved. The girl whom he had been on the verge of losing to a leech, the enemy of his race.
That kiss had been everything to him because for once, she had reciprocated with everything she had. He had felt it all in that kiss. Her love for him, her fear of the fight to come…the one where he had ended up getting injured in. Then when he had begun to see the images of a future with her, he had felt her yearning to have that future with him.
He had no idea how that had happened. How she had been able to see his hopes and dreams, but she had. She had told him so when she had come to his bedside as he lay healing from his injuries. His dream remembered the kiss, remembered her coming to him afterwards to tell him that she had seen his visions, but mostly he remembered her telling him that she had made her final choice.
A choice that once made, she had never regretted.
His dream moved from that scene to the day he had gotten married. Dressed in nothing but a pair of white cotton pants and a button-down short-sleeved white shirt, he waited for his bride, barefoot near a simple arch decorated with the local flowers of La Push. She came to him dressed in white too. Her skirt was an ankle-length flowing cotton number, paired with a gypsy-style off-the-shoulder shirt that exposed a hint of her midriff. She wore her hair loose with many tiny daisies interspersed in the wavy locks while carrying a bouquet of larger white and yellow daisies.
Her smile drew him in as it reached her eyes, shining bright and full of the love she had for him, for all the world to see. He knew his smile matched hers as they came together to say their vows in front of only a handful of family and friends on Second Beach. The wedding had been quaint and perfect.
Simple. Just like they were.
Again the dream switched scenes, from the wedding to the night they had conceived their first child. It was their first night in the house he had built for her, finished a year to the day of their wedding. Before that, they had lived in the small red house that Jacob had been born and raised in, sharing space with his father, Billy. But the moment the house was done, they had moved in and proceeded to christen every room inside of it.
He remembered the way they had started in the living room, sitting on the couch, staring at the new flames in the fireplace. Feeling the way her fingers ran through his hair and the way she whispered 'I love you' in his ear before kissing his neck. He had kissed her lips then, enjoying the soft sighs that emitted from her when he deepened the kiss or touched her in the ways she loved.
Eventually they had moved closer to the fireplace, shedding their clothes at a seductive, slow pace as if learning each others bodies all over again. He had made love to her in front of the fireplace first, before they took a break to scrounge up a light dinner in the kitchen where they ended up eating their dessert of mixed fruit and chocolate syrup off of each other which ended up with a sensual, hot coupling on top of the island in the middle of the kitchen.
Then they had moved to the shower in their bedroom where they had taken turns lathering up each others bodies, rinsing beneath the hot spray before he took her hard and fast against the shower wall. By that time, both of them had been exhausted, legs trembling so hard they had almost had to crawl to their bed. Somehow they made it though, tumbling beneath the covers together where they took a long nap only to wake up to start in on each other all over again.
Two weeks later, she had been waiting for him to get home from work. Launching herself out of the front door into his arms while giggling in happiness. When he'd asked what was up, she had beamed at him, announcing with glee that she was pregnant.
He remembered things about the months of her pregnancy. The way she always seemed to glow, even when she was feeling nauseous. Everyone had remarked on her glow, long before she had even begun to show her pregnancy. There had been a few times when she was so sick she couldn't even get out of bed, days when he wanted so badly to stay by her side but she insisted he go to work while she had someone there to help look after her.
He would always be grateful to Sue Clearwater, Angela Webber, his sister Rachel and even Bella's mother, Renee for being there to help his wife when he couldn't be. They were even the ones who helped keep him from going over the edge when the doctor confined his wife to bed for the last difficult trimester. It had been one of the worst times of his life, seeing her look so tired, sick and wan from carrying his child.
Yet through it all, she had told him she wouldn't trade any of it for the world. What she was going through was only a natural part of being pregnant and she refused to hate any part of it. In the end, the birth itself had been relatively painless and the most amazing thing that had ever happened to both of them at the time.
He remembered holding his first born son, Jacob Ephraim Black Jr., in his arms for the first time as his wife beamed happily and sleepily from her bed. He had been unable to tear his eyes away from the little bundle of perfection that he had created with Bella, the love of his life. A myriad of emotions had passed through him as he gazed at the soft, pink skin and the light fuzz of dark hair on the baby's head.
Wonder. Delight. Awe. Joy. Pride. Love. Happiness. Devotion. Protectiveness.
It all tumbled through him until it welled up in his eyes, spilling over as tears which Bella wiped away even as her own face mirrored the wetness of his. He had looked into her eyes and knew that she was thinking of the same thing he was.
Their son was the first of two children they had seen in that vision on the mountaintop. Their vision was beginning to come true.
Then the dream seemed to speed through a series of quick peeks. Changing his son's diaper for the first time. Bringing both his wife and son home. Hearing his son's laugh, seeing the smile on his little face when he walked into the room. The first time he heard his son say 'daddy' to him. The day he saw his son take his first step.
And then it slowed down again, to show the thing that happened that changed both his and Bella's minds about the vision they had shared on the mountaintop. Four years after their son was born, his wife gave birth to twins.
A boy and a girl.
William Joseph Black and Lucy Renee Black were the perfect mix of their parents, unlike Junior who was the spitting image of Jacob. Both of the twins had the same dark hair as their father as well as his smile, but that's where their similarities ended. Will's skin mirrored the russet color of his father, while Lucy had her mother's pale skin. Will's eyes were his mother's while Lucy had her father's.
They had been born premature because Bella's body was too small to hold them both to term. Despite the scare of their premature birth, both of them ended up healthy in the end. Granted, those first weeks they remained in the hospital until the doctors deemed their lungs developed enough to function on their own had been the hardest two weeks for both Jacob and his wife.
Days of watching the twins breathing via an incubator, holding their breaths when it seemed as if the babies had stopped breathing had worn on their emotional state. Even when the twins had been released from the hospital, there were months of fear and panic that consumed the Black family.
He remembered how his wife hadn't been able to sleep well, waking up in the middle of the night, running to the nursery to hold one of the twins in her arms to calm the tears that wouldn't stop trickling down her cheeks. He had wrapped his arms around both of them, trying to soothe Bella while at the same time enjoying the feel of his family alive and well against him.
Eventually the fear went away as the twins grew older. They no longer got sick at the drop of a hat. They no longer looked frail or sickly the way they had as babies.
Once again his dream fast-forwarded through the twins first birthday, first words, first steps and other firsts that had caused such joy in his household until it slowed once more upon the scene from his vision.
The twins had been four and Junior had been eight when the entire family went to celebrate the twins birthday on Second Beach. With more privacy than First Beach, as well as easier access to the forest, the family had enjoyed a day of playing amongst the tide pools in between snacking from the basket Bella had packed.
Then, when Bella announced it was time to go back home, the twins wanted to play with their favorite wolf first which resulted in the vision Jacob had shared with his wife on the mountaintop. As he phased, the twins grasped each others hands then began to run towards the forest, disappearing among the trees as they laughed while their father chased them down.
Bella had remained behind with Junior, both of them laughing as they watched Jacob pounce on Will first before using his tail to gently swat Lucy into his embrace. The twins went down squealing with joy as they began to tumble with the wolf until Junior and Bella joined them. Soon all four humans were tumbling and crawling all over the massive, russet wolf as if he were nothing but a huge playful dog they romped with.
Jacob could still hear children's laughter as he awoke with a start to the feel of something landing on his lap. Opening his eyes with a light 'oomph', Jacob took in the huge grin his ten-year-old daughter, Sarah, wore.
She giggled as her twin brother, Charles, climbed onto the swing next to them.
"Daddy!" she continued to giggle, "Mommy sez it's time for you to come inside!"
Jacob gave an exaggerated sigh as he answered, "Is that so? Well what if I don't want to go inside? I'm already comfortable here."
Charles shook his head as he began to tug on his father's arm. "No, daddy! You gotta come inside! Hurry and come!"
Jacob continued to act like he really didn't want to go inside, hiding his smile as he let his youngest set of twins tug his arms while pleading with him to go into the house with them. As they reached the front door, Jacob lunged forward, catching them off-balance enough so that he could swing Charles over his back with one arm while wrapping his other arm around Sarah's waist.
Charles began laughing as he wrapped his arms around Jacob's shoulders, while his little legs tried to wrap around his father's torso. Carrying Charles by piggy-back and tucking Sarah under his arm like she was a sack of potatoes, Jacob used his free hand to open the door.
He walked into the living room with the twins clinging to him, both still laughing in glee. That was the sight they made as Bella, Junior, Will and Lucy all yelled "Happy Father's Day" to him.
He beamed at them all as Bella tsked at them. "Kids, I said to go wake up your dad and bring him in here, not to play piggy-back with him!"
Jacob didn't even let them down as he moved to Bella's side, leaning over to plant a big wet kiss on her cheek.
"Ewwww, daddy!" exclaimed Sarah as she squirmed beneath Jacob's arm.
Nineteen-year-old Junior chuckled as he removed his youngest brother from his father's back while Bella helped Sarah to her feet. "They're just kissing Sar, nothing wrong with that."
Sarah scrunched her face at her big brother, but it was Charles who answered. "Kissing gives you cooties!"
Looking like the mirror image of his father, Junior asked, "Who told you that?"
As one both Sarah and Charles pointed at Will who rolled his eyes as his fifteen-year-old twin sister, Lucy laughed at him.
"Traitors," Will mumbled under his breath before returning to his PSP game that he held in his hand.
Bella settled her hands on her hips as she spoke to her middle son. "Will, why in the world did you tell them something like that?"
"Because," answered Sarah, "Charles and I caught him making out with his girlfriend!"
"What?" snapped Bella as she turned narrowed eyes on her teenaged son who had stopped playing his game long enough to look thoroughly embarrassed.
"William Joseph Black, tell me you did not subject your impressionable younger brother and sister to something they shouldn't have been privy to!" came Bella's sharp voice.
Will glared at the twins who seemed oblivious to what was going on before he looked at his mom sheepishly. "We were just kissing that's all."
His sister came to his defense. "He's telling the truth mom. He and Maya were just sharing a harmless kiss when the twins started teasing him."
Bella turned her narrowed gaze on her daughter. "Don't think you can cover for him, Lucy. Not when your father and I have both caught you and Derek in compromising positions a few times."
Jacob scowled at Lucy, who had the grace to look down at the floor while Will tried to use his eyes to beg for help from his older brother. But Junior was too wise to say anything, especially when his mother got like that. Besides, he knew if he tried to defend his siblings, his father would jump in and remind him just why it was that he wasn't the best person for his younger siblings to look up to.
Jacob cleared his throat, deciding it was best to save this conversation when the youngest children weren't in the room. "Honey, I think we should have a talk with William later tonight."
His gaze locked with hers as they silently communicated their plan to deal with Will.
She nodded as she bent to pick up the cake from the coffee table. "Okay, come on, let's all go into the kitchen to eat the cake and ice cream before we give daddy his presents."
"Yay," exclaimed Sarah as she clapped her hands, then skipped towards the kitchen with her brother in tow.
Lucy took the cake from her mother, following the twins as Bella stood there folding her arms, still glaring at Will. Before he could open his mouth, Junior grabbed his arm, dragging him towards the kitchen.
"Come on bro, let's go help cut that cake while you are still breathing." He glanced back at his parents with a grin before disappearing around the corner with Will.
Jacob pulled his wife into his arms with a grin of his own until there was a soft knock at the door. Pulling back to look into Bella's eyes, he saw that she was just as curious as he was about who was at the door. However, as soon as he let go of her so she could answer the door, the visitor's scent hit him.
Fighting down the pang in his heart, he heard his wife greet the visitor. "Hi, Kayla, what are you doing here so early?"
Kayla sighed as the baby in her arms began to wail. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I had hoped Samuel would be okay for a few hours without his father, but I just can't get him to stop crying."
Jacob watched as Bella ushered in their new daughter-in-law and her three month old son just as Junior appeared in the living room. The moment the child was in Junior's arms, he stopped crying then began to make cooing noises as Junior gently rocked him.
Bella smiled at her son and daughter-in-law. "Why don't you three go into the kitchen. We're just about to serve some cake and ice cream."
Junior wrapped an arm around his wife, leading her out of the room as Bella moved to Jacob's side. He was still staring after his son with a sad frown on his face.
Bella's arms wrapped around his waist as she spoke softly. "Jake, don't do that."
"Do what?" he answered without moving his eyes from the direction his eldest son had disappeared from.
"Don't look so disappointed in them. You know they couldn't help it."
He sighed as he closed his eyes against the pain that still lingered inside of him. It wasn't that he was disappointed that his son had gotten married right out of high school because his high school sweetheart had been a few months pregnant. No, what pained him were the reasons why those two had been thrown together in the first place.
After the Cullens had left, no other wolves had phased, making Jacob and his current pack think all was over. Still, Jacob hadn't stopped phasing until the second set of twins were born, being one of the last to do so. He had looked forward to living a peaceful, full life with Bella and their children which he had done over the next several years.
Then when Junior was a few months into his fifteenth year, a new coven entered the area, taking up residence in the old Cullen home, thus causing a new generation of wolves to phase. This time, Junior was the first to do so, causing panic within the house as Bella tried to shoo him outside while trying to protect the two sets of twins and call her husband home at the same time.
Jacob had arrived home to find a flustered Bella trying to calm both sets of twins down while they all huddled in a corner of the nearly destroyed living room. Bella managed to tell him what had happened, sending him out into the forest to look for his teenaged son while she remained behind to deal with the other children.
It had been almost five years since Jacob had phased, making him worried that he wouldn't be able to call forth his wolf again. Luckily he had been able to, thus finding his son through their mind links.
What he found had nearly floored him.
Junior was running through the forest exulting in the changes he was experiencing. Jacob could see in Junior's mind that he recalled all the stories his father had told him. He even remembered the times he had played with his father's russet wolf as a child. Junior had even imagined and dreamed what it would be like to be a wolf like his father had been. Now, he was finding that it was much more exciting than he had ever thought it would be.
Junior's outlook was far different than Jacob's had been when he had first phased. While Jacob had at first hated being a wolf with every fiber of his being, Junior was excited, amazed and ecstatic that he was now a wolf.
As soon as Junior realized that his father was in his mind, he rushed to his father's side, eager to learn all there was to know about being a wolf. Jacob did all he could to teach his son, glad that Junior was able to quickly get the hang of phasing from human to wolf and back again, just as easily as he once had all those years ago.
Once father and son returned to the house and the children were all asleep, Bella and Jacob had escaped out to the garage to deal with their own feelings of what had happened to their son. The feelings Jacob had managed to hide from Junior while they had been phased, all came out while he held his wife in his arms.
Both of them mourned the loss of their eldest son's innocence. They cried their pain out over the knowledge of what he would have to face in the coming months, years even. He would now have to grow up too fast. He wouldn't be able to be a regular teenager any more. He would miss his prom, he wouldn't be able to leave the reservation or do any of the other things normal kids his age would do.
They worried over how Junior would handle being a wolf, how he would deal with the others who were sure to phase too. Would he be able to deal with all the pain and death that would come when he had to fight the cold ones who were in the area.
It was hard for Jacob to deal with watching his son take over the duties of Alpha of the Quileute wolves even though Junior eased into it so naturally. Junior actually had to sit his own father down to tell him that he could handle being a wolf on his own. Jacob no longer had to phase to help his son. Junior did it all on his own, but if he had questions, he went to his father for answers.
Bella was key in helping Jacob deal with letting his eldest son go so that he could stand on his own. She was there to lend him a shoulder to cry on when it got to be too much to watch his son lead the new pack or when they got word that their son was out hunting vampires.
And she was there when they found out Junior had….imprinted.
By some miracle, Jacob had never imprinted and since he had stopped phasing, they had long believed that he never would. He had the woman he wanted, his Bells. There would never be anyone else.
Yet, Junior had imprinted nearly a year after he had phased. Sam Uley and his wife Emily had returned to the reservation after living on the Makah reservation for a few years. Junior met Kayla, Sam's second born, when she transferred over to the Quileute school. Like all imprints, the moment they met it happened, causing an uproar among not only the Black family, but also the Uley family since it triggered the phasing of Sam's first born, Josh.
It had been hell the next few years trying to keep an eye on Junior and Kayla who couldn't seem to keep their hands off of each other. Bella had even teased Jacob that the son was very much like the father in that respect. Both the Blacks and the Uleys wanted their children to at least graduate high school before they started a life together, citing that both sets of parents had graduated before they made a life with their significant others.
Granted, Junior and Kayla both had good heads on their shoulders which meant that they did want to graduate before starting a life together. However, while they did graduate, it was obvious that accidents still happened. That accident came in the form of news at the end of Junior's senior year in high school, right before his graduation ceremony.
Kayla, who was a junior at that time, was pregnant.
Junior had claimed they were careful, so did Kayla. No matter how safe they were, Jacob was still going to be a grandfather at the age of thirty-eight.
In the end, Junior graduated and married Kayla the moment she had turned 18. She had gotten through one semester of her senior year before the baby was born, then went back to get her diploma once both she and Samuel were settled into their new home with Junior.
Currently, Junior was working at Jacob's garage since he really was the spitting image of his father, even when it came to anything mechanical. His job, along with the support of both the Blacks and Uleys, helped the young newlyweds survive their life together.
Still, every time Jacob saw his daughter-in-law and his infant grandson, it served to remind him of the things his son had to deal with…things Jacob still felt were unfair at times. That was, until Bella wrapped her arms around him, letting him know that everything would be all right so long as she was by his side.
He gave her one last squeeze before tugging her to the kitchen. "Okay, come on, let's go see if they've left me any cake and ice cream."
Bella laughed as she let him lead her into the kitchen, her hand in his. "No worries. I made two cakes and there's five gallons of ice cream in the freezer in the garage if we need them."
He couldn't help but turn back to give her a wink, knowing his Bells was always prepared to feed an army. She had entirely too much experience with feeding the wolves she had lived among for all these years.
In the kitchen, Bella guided Jacob to the head of the table, the place of honor for their father's Day celebration. Both she and Lucy began to hand out cake and ice cream while everyone else chatted and mingled amongst themselves.
After the food was eaten, presents were handed to Jacob to open which he did with relish. The kid in him always came out when presents were involved, tearing the wrapping off the gifts, exclaiming over the contents and beaming with pride over all of them.
And then, Junior gave him a gift which Jacob would have never expected from him. True to being his father's doppelganger, he had hand-crafted a wooden picture frame with a relief of two wolves in the bottom right-hand corner. Jacob could clearly see that the wolves were modeled after both his larger russet wolf and his son's slightly leaner red wolf.
However, it wasn't the image of those two wolves that brought tears to his eyes, nor the fact that those wolves were even color-rubbed to match the real ones. No, it was the picture that was in the frame that had Jacob's throat closing as tight as his chest was. So painful that he wondered how he still breathed.
The picture was one he hadn't seen since the time Bella had first taken it about nineteen years ago. Yet, looking at it, he clearly remembered that time.
It was two months after he had brought his wife and son home from the hospital. Both he and Bella had managed to take turns caring for Junior, learning as they went since they were new parents. Despite it all, somehow they had managed. Still, it was an exhausting event for both of them and the picture clearly showed it.
That weekend, Bella had gone to a spa with her friends, needing a break from caring for their son. Jacob had gladly volunteered to stay with Junior the entire weekend, even when the boy had been coming down with a cold. That cold had made Junior grouchy and inconsolable, but Jacob had refused to give in or call his wife home.
Instead, he had sat up with his son for those two days, feeding him his medicines, changing his runny diapers and doing his best to keep the fever away from his son's small body.
Finally, after nearly two days of almost endless crying, Junior had settled down into an exhausted sleep on his father's warm chest. The sudden silence and peace that settled around Jacob prompted him to carry his sleeping son to the bedroom with him, so he could lie down and watch TV in bed. In no time at all, Jacob had fallen into his own exhausted sleep.
That was what Bella had come home to. It was an image she couldn't help capturing on film.
An image of a father with his hand lying protectively like a blanket over his infant son. A son who still had slightly feverish red cheeks and tiny hands that seemed to be trying to clutch his father's skin as if saying, "don't let me go." And there, written in black ink over the white sheets beneath Jacob's body and just above the relief of the two wolves were the words, "The Alphas, Jacob and Junior Black".
Needless to say, Jacob was out of his chair, hugging his son tightly after that, a hug which his son fully returned. Somehow Junior knew what had been going through his father's mind over the past few years since he had phased.
That was confirmed with the words he whispered in his father's ears as he hugged him back. "I know dad. I'm a father now too. I know what it's like to worry, but I love you for that. For being my dad."
And somehow, Junior's words had made it all better.
Jacob was now able to sit back and enjoy having his family there. Watching as Junior bounced his son on his knee while Lucy cooed at the him. Listening to Kayla and Bella trade baby stories. Smiling over Sarah trying to distract Will from his PSP game. Chuckling over Charles making a mess of the cake and ice cream he was still shoveling into his mouth.
Taking in all of that, a sense of peace and happiness settled over him.
And then, that night, his wife curled her body next to his and whispered into his ear, giving him one last gift of the day.
"Jake, I'm pregnant. Happy Father's Day."
THE END