"It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in."
Viva la Vida, Coldplay
"What have you done?" There was a outraged screech inside the house, and a loud slap. Edward Cullen winced—it was another one of his daughter's off days. PMS, according to Bella, and he found that rather funny. Either way, she was taking it out on Jacob, who would probably come running over here for protection. What was funnier, he knew exactly what Jacob had done wrong, and he would never let him forget it.
"But you—you—you told me to take out the garbage!"
"Incidentally, Jacob, in that same garbage bag, there were very important papers."
"But you told me to clean up the table and throw everything out!"
"Good Lord, what must I do? I'm not your mother!"
"No, you're not. So why are you yelling at me as though you are?"
"Because you're an idiot!"
Edward chuckled. Leave it to Nessie to put things simply. He heard a grunt from Jacob, who was thinking as indignantly as a man in his situation was allowed to do. Bella looked up from beside him, where she was putting food in a basket to bring to Charlie, even though he technically didn't need it anymore, since Sue had come along.
"Think she'll kick him out again?"
"She'll get over it. I know what he accidentally threw away—just a few pictures of old designs she keeps for memories."
"Ah." Edward helped her arrange the food as appealingly as possible. Nessie had grabbed Jacob's head and was relating a few angry thoughts to him full force. He felt his son-in-law and brother cringing, then there was a final slam of the door, and the sound of Jacob's feet crunching on the grass in front of their house (which had conveniently been built a short distance from the cottage). Jacob made his way over to theirs, not even bothering to conceal his thoughts.
"I can't believe that woman!" he said furiously, banging in and slamming the door shut behind him. "I follow her instructions, she wants to kill me. I don't, and she still wants to kill me. I mean, come on!"
"She's just having a rough time, that's all." Bella said soothingly, giving Jacob the basket of food. "Vampires don't PMS, but if they did, I bet it'd be just as bad."
"Yeah, sure, make her excuses…" her friend muttered. "You want me to be little red riding hood and take these over to grandpa and grandma?"
Bella beamed at him. "Thanks, Jake."
He strode moodily out the door, and Edward couldn't help it: he laughed outright.
I heard that. Jacob thought irritably.
"I know." The vampire grinned and put his arm around his wife's waist. "She's not really that angry. She just needed to yell at someone."
"Poor Jake…" Bella shook her head in amazement. "He really does love her if he puts up with that."
"Did you ever doubt that, Bella?" Edward said softly.
"No, not really."
X
Meanwhile, Jacob walked. He didn't feel like phasing—it was nice to phase, and his killer mood would only ruin the experience.
He couldn't believe her. Take the garbage out, Jake, for God's sake. Shit! What did you just do? Jacob! Those were my favorite designs! How could you? I thought you cared what I did! I thought it meant something to you!
He shook his head incredulously. She never ceased to amaze him—mostly in the best ways possible, but occasionally like this.
He looked up—it was cloudy, but who was he to complain? He was a werewolf.
Shape-shifter.
Wait, when had her voice become a part of his mind?
Since I was born…
Anyways, it was getting cloudy. If he was going to get back dry, he should probably speed up.
X
"Seven hours?"
"He hasn't come back, Mom, and… what if he got struck by lightning or something? What if something ran him over, or a hiker saw him phase? Or—" Renesmee hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. Her mother patted her back comfortingly and her father paced.
"Don't be ridiculous, Nessie, he's a werewolf—"
"Shape-shifter—"
"Either way he shouldn't get caught in a storm."
"So what, he left?"
"No, of course not." Edward waved his hand and dismissed the thought immediately. "He's madly in love with you, Ness." In the Cullen mansion, the entire family sat assembled in the living room, Nessie crammed in between her mother and Aunt Rose, both women with their arms about her, and Alice leaning against her knees with her hand on her foot.
"You don't think—" Bella began.
"No," Alice said immediately, "I can't see them. I'm sure."
"Shh… it's alright, Nessie. The mutt'll come back." Rosalie stroked her niece's bronze hair soothingly and hugged her closer.
"I was terrible…" Renesmee's brown eyes were wide with tears, and her usually fine, pale-skinned nose was red and blotchy from crying. She was in her pajamas, the classic button blouse and loose pants. Her hair was loosely braided, and her fingers fidgeted nervously, tearing at something none of them could see.
"Yes, Renesmee, you were." Bella said firmly, "But he'll come back. I'm sure he just stayed at Charlie's. You know how bad reception is during storms."
Nessie sniffed and hid in her Aunt's shoulder.
"We'll give him another hour," Carlisle told the general crew. "If he doesn't come back then, we'll go look."
X
Another hour came and went, and by that time, Nessie was dressed and ready to look for her husband if it killed her.
They went into the forest first, splitting up into pairs. Emmet went with her, Rosalie having chosen to stay at home with Esmee to wait to see if he'd come back. Her uncle held her hand comfortingly, as he had long ago when they'd used to cross the streets of Forks together.
"We'll find him, kid." He told her comfortingly. "And we'll kill him when we do." He muttered as an after-thought.
And then she heard singing. Actually, it was a soft, off-tune humming that came from nowhere, to her—but Emmet could hear it well enough to track. He pulled her onto his back and they raced towards the sound.
And sure enough, there was Jacob, in wolf-form and sitting out in the rain, humming to himself, a stupid smile on his face and his eyes closed.
"Jacob!" she screeched. She ran and tackled him, and the wolf licked her face playfully. Emmet watched as his niece sat with her husband for a few minutes and hugged him gutless.
"Um… Nessie?"
"Yes, Uncle Emmet?" she sighed contently, eyes also closed, the huge wolf's head happily in her arms.
"We should get back."
Her eyes snapped open, still serene, but considerably less so. "You're right. Come one, Jake." She tugged his ear, and the wolf stood, a head or so taller than her. He lifted her onto his back and they sped off back home with Emmet, who sent out a thought to Edward, who somehow alerted the rest of them. By the time the rest of they were back, the rest of the search party was waiting at home. Jacob phased back, and the three of them marched in silently.
Bella greeted her daughter and brother-in-law with a hug at the door. Jacob, however, got a resounding slap. If Nessie hadn't been so terrified at that moment that he would somehow vanish again, she would have slapped him herself. As it was, she had her arms firmly about his torso, and vice versa.
"You will never disappear like that again." She told him firmly, "understand me, Jacob Black? If you do, I will shoot you. And I don't care if that doesn't work—it's bound to hurt."
Jacob nodded meekly and squeezed Nessie tighter to him. "I'm sorry. I was kind of mad, as you know, and then on my way back from Charlie's it started raining, and I kind of fell asleep…"
"I've heard." Bella muttered dryly. "Well? What are you waiting for? Go home." She waved them both off and retreated to Edward's embrace. "Go do whatever you do after you've fought."
Jacob grinned. "Won't go into descriptions, Bells."
"Get out, Jacob." Edward growled, and the reunited couple trouped back to their home in the rain, silent, still latched to each other. Nessie sat at the front steps of the house, and Jacob, looking at her oddly, mimicked.
"I'm sorry, Nessie, really, for—"
"No, Jake, I'm sorry too." She said finally. It was the first she'd spoken since they'd found him again. "I was evil."
He sighed, "Well, since we're on the topic, yes you were. But that was stupid of me."
"Absolutely."
"But it was so nice. And when you came and hugged me, it was perfect."
She smiled. He noticed what a mess she was—red shirt soaked through with the rain, jeans torn. She hadn't bothered to comb her hair before she left, and it had gotten wet too, but she didn't look as if she really cared. "Jacob, if you do that again—Mother won't be the one shooting you."
"You wouldn't do that." He said carelessly, gathering her up easily and putting her on his lap.
"Wouldn't I?"
"You love me too much!" he grinned innocently—well, as innocently as someone like Jacob could grin—and hugged her.
She snorted. "Fine. Maybe I wouldn't. But if Mom doesn't either, Aunt Rose will. And don't count on her loving you too much."
Jacob shuddered a little. "No, definitely not."
They were silent, content to sit a while in each other's arms. Finally, Nessie murmured, "I don't want to go inside."
"Me neither." He whispered back.
Somehow, they moved to the grass. He turned back into a wolf, and they spent the night huddled carefully together in the rain.