Do I Stay or Do I Go?
A is for Argument
The door to the Black house slammed open, the force of it filled with a fury that had Billy Black nearly wet himself in his wheelchair in his surprise. His head snapped around to stare at the tall figure that dominated his doorway. He knew who it was, recognized her, even though the sunlight streaming from around her in the doorway covered her face in shadows. A shiver ran down his spine involuntarily, his human self recognizing that a full blown predator that hovered at the door, ready to pounce and strike the first prey that set it off.
She lifted her nose, her nostrils flaring as she scented the air. She obviously didn't find what she was looking for, because she growled out, "WHERE IS HE?" Her eyes were ablaze with fire, the tension that filled her frame vibrating with an effort to remain in control.
He briefly considered lying, sending her on a wild goose chase that would try to alleviate whatever anger she possessed at the moment. It crossed his mind for all of two seconds until he realized she'd have his balls for breakfast if he dared do such a thing, no matter his handicap. If it was one thing she didn't possess, it was a pity for those that most considered weaker than others. He admired and hated her for that.
Billy lifted a finger, embarrassed to realize it was shaking slightly as he pointed towards the window. "Garage," he managed to whisper, almost half afraid she would let out a screech and claw him for even daring to speak. His finger was aimed directly at the stand alone, rundown shed that his son Jacob used as his own personal auto shop.
She didn't say a word as she turned and left, the screen door slamming as loud as the front door had bounced off the walls upon her entry. Billy's breath blew out in relief in her absence, his shoulders slumping from the sudden tension, like someone finally releasing a rubber band stretched too tight. Guilt plagued him momentarily at having given up his son so easily, but his self preservation instincts knew that Jacob could handle himself where Leah Clearwater was concerned.
Still, it wasn't very nice setting a rabid wolverine onto a wolf's whereabouts.
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Jacob Black leaned over the engine of the 1990 Ford F-150 4x4 extended cab truck he was tinkering with. The truck was as old as he was with chipped and faded red and white paint. The engine had a great deal of miles on it, but the motor, tranny and clutch didn't need any work done to it. He had sold his rebuilt VW Rabbit, using the small less-than-impressive fortune he got for his old car to buy his current vehicle.
He loved his little red Rabbit; Jacob missed it terribly. It had been a good little car, but that was the problem. It was a little car. His 6'7" frame could not fit comfortably in the interior without taking out a front seat just to accommodate his long legs. He had to give it up, albeit a bit reluctantly, thanks to his body which could only be comfortable in cars with big, extended cabs.
He had gotten a good price for the 4x4, with some cash left over to do some major improvements to the brake lines and tires which had not been replaced by the previous owner. The chassis was still in great condition and other than normal nicks and fading in the paint and some rust on the back rear panels, the truck was in good condition for the price he got it at.
He was currently in his garage on this not-so-sunny day in La Push. It was rarely sunny in his town. He had already changed the oil, replaced the transmission fluids, and jacked the truck up on two wheels to fix the brake lines and to replace the tires on the back. He was inspecting the wiring on the engine at the moment, making sure all the lines were clean and connected properly. His radio was on filling his ears with the latest Nickelback song and he was singing along with it as he used his grease rag to remove an excess buildup off the ignition wires.
He was entirely unprepared for the sound of something heavy and metal as it struck the upraised hood of his new truck. Jerking backwards away from the hood, Jacob caught a glimpse of his attacker momentarily before he barely had time to duck below the front grill. A Phillips screwdriver flew past him, lodging its sharp four tiered point into the corkboard tool mount on the wall behind him. A socket wrench made a dull whack into the wall before clattering down to the floor near his workboot clad feet.
"What the hell Leah?" Jacob peered cautiously around the hood this time, his dark brown eyes seeking out any further flying objects aimed at his head. She wasn't in the entryway of the garage anymore, nor did she appear to be around the workbench arming her self with his tools as weapons.
He should have paid better attention to where she went. The she-wolf came darting around the other side of his truck, using her stealth and speed to barrel into him full force. Jacob felt himself get shoved backwards under the strength of her attack, her fists pummling him, but he quickly rebounded. He pushed her back, his own strength greater than hers and requiring less effort to fend her off.
She was growling in her human form, her wolf not far from the surface. Jacob could feel her skin quivering beneath his fingertips where he had her arms pinned, not daring to let her go so she could attack him again. Not that it stopped her much - barely anything usually could. Leah was like a full blown hurricane when she was in attack mode. Even now she was struggling to get free, her right leg sweeping out to try and take him down from behind his knees. Jacob swore under his breath and gripped her tighter, drawing her closer in so she had no room to move.
Leah struggled in his grip for several moments before sagging in his hands. It was a ploy to get him to release her, his wolf sensed submission, but Jacob knew better. "I'm not letting go until you explain yourself," he growled out, his own wolf answering the challenge she was putting forth.
"You son of a bitch!" Leah's wrists twisted in his grip and she got in one good jab to his chest from where their hands were pinned between their bodies. "When were you going to tell us Jacob? When! Huh?"
Shit! He greeted her questions with silence, cursing himself internally. He knew why Leah Clearwater was here now and she had every right to be angry with him. His hold on her wrists slackened for one second and she jerked them free only to smack him hard across the face before pedaling backwards away from him.
Jacob's cheek burned where she hit. She was probably the only woman in existence that wasn't the undead, who could physically hurt him. He lifted a hand to his jaw, wincing as he touched the area, his voice gruff as he commented, "Embry told you."
"What? You didn't think he would say something?" Leah's voice was loud as it bounced off the walls of the garage and around him. "He's just as upset as we are!"
Jacob grimaced. Just the night before he'd been hanging out with Embry, the two best friends tucking a few beers away. Actually more than a few as their metabolism burned off the drink pretty quick. He vaguely recalled feeling very mellow at one point and sharing with Embry his plans to leave La Push within the next week. With all the pressure from his father to take over as chief of the tribe amongst other things, Jacob wanted to get away. He had to get the truck fixed up first and then he was going to hit the open road, get away from La Push and all the responsbilities there. It may be temporary, but then again maybe permanently.
He tried to remember, had he revealed all that to Embry by accident?
"You can't leave your pack Jacob!" Leah's voice cut through his head, a wealth of fury laying in her words. "You can't abandon us like that!"
Jacob stalked forward, forcing Leah to retreat a bit as he went over to pick up the psuedo-weapons she had thrown at him. Bending over, he gripped the socket wrench in his hands and he straightened up. Looking directly into her eyes he reminded, "I made no promise to stay here Leah. You know that. We talked about this."
It had been a lifetime ago, or months anyways. It had been right around the time his one true love Bella Swan-Cullen had died in childbirth and then been reborn again into a vampire by her husband Edward. Jacob had died that night as well, knowing she'd never be the same clumsy, sweet, simple girl who had graced his garage those cold winter months the prior year. His fist curled around his socket wrench at the thought.
"Oh yeah? Well you promised never to send us back to Sam's pack either. What about that Jacob?" Leah crossed her arms in front of her and said, "What do you think is going to happen when you leave?"
"You don't have to be part of Sam's pack," he retorted, moving back to the workbench to put his socket wrench back. Getting the screwdriver out of the cork was harder. She had thrown it hard and it was wedged in tight. "Why don't you start your own pack Leah?"
"That's not how it works Jacob and you know it," Leah followed his movements with her eyes narrowed. "You're the Alpha. It's your pack. We're your responsiblity and you can't leave m-us!"
"Like hell I can't!" Jake turned to snarl at Leah, her frown deepening at his proclamation. "You think I want to stick around here and be Chief of the tribe? Do you think I'd know what I was doing? And would you want to be here to watch all the happy little imprints and wolves marry? Paul's already proposed to Rachel! Seth practically lives at the Cullens with Renesmee, Edward and Bella!"
"Oh good grief," Leah threw her hands up in the air in frustration, "Of course. You would bring her into it. That's what you're running from. It's always about Bella isn't it?"
"That's only part of it," he said to her harshly as he finally pried the screwdriver out of the wall. He reached out to shut the hood of his truck checking it for damage from that first object she had thrown. "And frankly I don't see where this is any of your business Leah."
"As your Beta, you're always my business," Leah smarted back, leaning back against the hood. "And as Beta I have to say, you suck, if you think you're going to leave us like this." Her lips pursed together in a firm line for a moment and then she said, "Bella aside, you do have a responsiblity to the tribe Jake." Her voice trailed off a moment and he realized that was the first time she'd ever used the shorter version of his name. "You may not want to be chief, but you were born to it."
"What do you know?" He stormed around the side of the truck, grabbing the tire iron off his bench and attacking the driver side back wheel. He began to remove each of the lugnuts separately. "You never had your future laid out for you in a nice little package detailing every little thing you're going to do for the rest of your life as Chief." He grunted between words as he worked the tire off.
"I know what it's like to have that future Jake," Leah's voice hovered as she stood behind him. "And I know what it's like to see that future disappear, to have no future." She stomped her foot and then said, "I'd rather have that neat little package."
"Then that's where we differ Leah," Jake set the tire aside and stood up. He was sweating a bit and so he lifted the hem of his dirty workshirt to mop it off his forehead. Lowering it back down, he spotted the oddest look on his Beta's face. "What?" he asked her.
Leah jerked, shaking her head. "What?" Her eyes darted swiftly from his face, downward and back up again looking confused.
"What?" Jake prompted, half amused by the bewildered look on her face. A hint of red was creeping up her cheeks, something that was incredibly rare to see on her face. "Are you blushing Leah?"
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"NO!" Leah retorted hotly even though she could feel the heat in her cheeks getting worse from a mixture of embarrassment and anger. She was embarrassed because she'd been caught staring when Jacob lifted his shirt. She was angry because he called her out on it so bluntly.
What the hell was the matter with her? She saw him all the time half naked. Not just him either, but all the boys on the reservation; there was no modesty when it came to phasing. She'd seen his six..no make that eight pack abs all the time before. Why then, did the simple act of him lifting his shirt to mop the sweat off his forehead, cause her to stare like a star-struck teenager?
And why, when she should have been repulsed by the sheen of persperation all over his body, did she find herself wanting to grab a towel off the bench and help him wipe it off? Something was clearly wrong with her. She was angry at him! He was leaving her!
Us! He's leaving us! She forced herself to remember Embry, Quil and Seth, her packmates. She'd run out the door after Embry had dropped the bomb on them. Quil and Embry had come over to play video games with Seth in one of those rare moments he could be torn away from his imprint Renesmee. She had been off hunting with her leech parents, so Seth came home, bringing dragging his friends with to raid the fridge and shoot the breeze.
And now here she was yelling at her Alpha because he was making a huge mistake. Gigantic. She had to put a stop to it. He belonged on the reservation, just like they all did.
"You're trying to make me forget I'm pissed at you for leaving Jake," she turned the conversation back to him. He moved around the other side of the truck to work on the other tire and she stalked after him. "It won't work. If I have to come here and disable your truck to stop you from leaving, I will."
As he worked at removing the other tire, Leah's dark eyes drifted appreciatively over the brawny muscles of his back. The thought crept into her mind that it was a shame he wasted all his devotion to the vampire-lover-turned-leech Bella. That girl had screwed him over and if it weren't for the fact Bella would be Seth's mother-in-law someday (not to mention their mother hanging out too much with Bella's father) then Leah would be sorely tempted to go tear Bella a new hole again for the way she treated Jacob. Unfortunately the undead girl was going to be family - one way or another - and Leah cringed at the greek tragedy of it all.
"What do you care?" Jacob grunted as he removed the other tire. He began disabling the brake discs and pads from the rotors. "You want out just as much as I do Leah." He paused to turn his head and look up at her from his kneeling position on the floor.
Yes, at one time she had wanted out. She wanted to be away from La Push, to leave her life behind and forget she had ever turned into a werewolf. She had resented everything the wolf represented: her lack of femininity, her inability to control her rage around her friends and the loss of her future was the worst of it all. Leah hated all of it, winding herself up into a ball of misery until it had exploded.
And then came the acceptance. She couldn't change being a werewolf and so she had decided to embrace it. Whatever the future might bring - death at a vampire's hand or dying after three generations of living like Taha Aki, Leah was going to roll with the punches. She lived in the moment, not daring to hope for a future anymore or think about imprinting as she once might have liked.
But now in this moment, she found herself unable to think of her future without her Alpha there. She was Beta. She was supposed to be by his side always, looking out for him. "I wanted out," she agreed, sliding down until she was balanced on the balls of her feet, elbows braced on her knees as she met his dark brown gaze. "But not anymore. Our future is here Jake. Yours and mine. We can't fight it. We never could."
She almost blushed again hearing her own words which sounded too intimate to describe their current relationship. They'd been childhood associated, packmates, enemies, frenemies, friends and now Alpha/Beta in the years they'd known each other. She cleared her throat, trying to rid herself of the sappiness she seemed to be inflicted with as she said, "Stay here Jake. Stay with us."
"And if I did?" Jacob asked in his deep baritone. "What should I do it for?" He turned to face her, setting the tire iron down between them. His eyes bore into hers, the air suddenly filled with an uneasy tension. Leah felt like her skin was charged with electricity from his nearness.
She didn't know how to answer his question. There was so much that begged him to stay in La Push - his father, the tribe, the pack, his sister, new wolves, outside threats - everything that should keep him here, but she could think of only one reason that got spoken out loud.
"Because I'm asking you to," she whispered right before giving in to the temptation she'd been ignoring the entire time. She leaned forward, hooking her hand around his neck and smashed her lips onto his. She felt his shock at her momentum and used it to her advantage pressing the kiss further until he opened up under her assault.
Their tongues danced together, heat plummeting through her core and begging Leah to give in to it. Somehow his hand ended up tangled into the short locks of her hair and when things would have gone further, Leah backed off, breaking away from his lips even as everything in her screamed at her to jump back in.
She had to be sure he knew what she was asking, even as he looked confused by what just happened. Leah reached up to untangle his fingers from her hair as she spoke. "I'm asking you to stay Jake. Here. With me."
As the confusion cleared up, a new expression came across his rugged features. From the look in his eyes, she could tell he was torn by his need to go and her request. Now that he knew what he could stay for, it was up to him to decide. Slowly she stood to her feet, dropping his hand back down to his knees. "Think about Jake. Let me know what you decide."
She turned, walking out of the garage before she made a further fool of herself by crying or something equally stupid. It was his choice now to stay or go. Or at least, that's what she'd let him think. Leah palmed the distributor cap of the truck into the pocket of her jeans.
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Kat's Note: So I decided to sharpen up my writing skills by accepting the fun challenge set forth by sentinel10 (Ses), Kei Kat Jones (Kat) and cucumber07. I think Captain Sprockette is also participating. Feel the Blackwater love ladies A-Z. Was anyone else as disappointed as I was when they cut the wolfpack/imprint scenes from Breaking Dawn pt 1 and forgot to include the deleted/extended scenes in the special features? Ah well, at least I get to see the wolf pack in my better dreams.