Guard Dog, a twilight fanfic

Disclaimer: While the attempt has been made to be medically accurate, some artistic license has been taken, and statements made by Carlisle and other medical personnel are not to be regarded as authoritative.

Do not post without permission. Do not copy/print without including the above disclaimer in its entirety.

A/N: The date of this story is correct for my alternate history, as described in my profile. Barbie

June 2008

Nessie three A/E nine, claiming nine, third grade

Jacob

Nessie came home all excited that day, talking about a trip to Disney World one of her classmates had taken over spring break. "Can we go to Disney World, Daddy? Can we, please?"

Edward shared a look with Bells. "Nessie…" he said slowly, "Disney World is in Florida. Even if Alice could find us a block of cloudy days, I don't think it would be much fun in the rain. I'm sorry."

Nessie didn't argue; she understood the importance of non-exposure. But her face was so disappointed I almost couldn't bear it. I held out my arms, and she ran to me and buried her face in my chest.

Of course, there was a simple solution to this, if I could make the leech see it. Hey, Edward, I'll take her.

I expected him to shake his head in refusal, but he glanced at Bells, sharing the idea with her. I held Nessie a little tighter; poor kid. Her thoughts must be even more disappointed than her face if Edward was even considering letting me take her.

"Come on, Ness; let's take the bike out for a spin." I'd give Bells and Edward a chance to discuss it privately — not that they couldn't do that in front of a hundred people if they wanted.

Nessie gave me a small smile as I helped her put her helmet on. Bells and Edward insisted that she wear it when I took her on the motorcycle, even though as a half vampire nothing could really hurt her…and I wouldn't let it, anyway.

I pulled a few fancy stunts on the bike, and by the time we got back Nessie was squealing with laughter, her arms locked tight around my waist.

Edward stood waiting for us, and reached to lift Nessie off the bike and push up the visor on her helmet. * "Nessie," he said slowly, not looking at me, "how would you like to go to Disney World with Jacob?"

Nessie let out a piercing squeal and threw her arms around his neck. "Oh, Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!"

oOo

"I don't really like the idea of you two sharing a hotel room," Edward said quietly. School had let out a week ago; Nessie and I were leaving the next day. Edward had called me up to Carlisle's office to go over some final instructions.

I shrugged. Yeah, well, she's a little young to have her own.

"I know. Just promise me you won't share a bed."

I grimaced. "That's disgusting, leech; she's just a kid." What did he think I was, some kind of pedophile?

Edward winced. "Sorry," he muttered. "I know you don't think of her like that. But even so…"

Yeah, yeah, I know, I thought impatiently. Apology accepted.

He nodded once and handed me a credit card. "I know you'll probably want to buy her stuff with your money, and that's fine. But in case you need it, there's no practical limit on this card."

Thanks. I shoved it into my pocket with a touch of distaste; I hated taking their money for anything.

He had already given me a driver's license, forged with my age advanced four years to twenty-five; said it was just in case I had to rent a car. Figures a vamp would remember the higher age limit for that.

Edward leaned back in his chair. "You can keep her up late if you want, but at your own risk; last time she was up much past her bedtime she turned into a little monster. You do have my permission to spank her if she won't listen to you."

Sure, thanks. As if I could ever touch Nessie.

A shadow crossed his face at the thought; this wasn't just about me being alone with her. You wish you were taking her, don't you?

He was silent for a moment. "Yes. I'm her father…I should share this with her. But Florida's too sunny…"

Maybe I would use that credit card. It wasn't that he thought I couldn't provide for her, I realized; it was that he wanted to give her the world.

"You watch out for my little girl, Jacob Ephraim Black." His eyes bored into me with their intensity.

I will, I promised. With a sudden understanding, I thought Edward and I might be friends if he could just get over my being a werewolf.

Right. Like that was about to happen.

oOo

Edward and Bells drove Nessie and me to the airport the next day. Edward parked in front of the terminal and carried Nessie on his shoulders as far as the security check. He set her down in a secluded corner where he and Bells could say goodbye with some privacy.

Bells pulled out a small notebook with Disney princesses on the front and a pink pen tucked in the spiral binding. "If you get enough character signatures, Mama Esme will make you a special quilt," she promised.

Nessie beamed, pulling out the pen and trying it on one of the pages. "Thank you, Momma!"

Edward crouched down to be eye-level with Nessie, putting one hand on her shoulder. "Renesmée," he said quietly, "I expect you to be good and…listen to what Jacob tells you." I knew the words cost him; he hated telling his daughter to obey me.

Nessie nodded solemnly. "I will, Daddy," she promised. She shared a last hug with her parents, and then grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the security check. "Come on, Jacob!"

I laughed. "Don't be impatient, Ness; it's not gonna leave without us."

We made it through security, and then Nessie insisted on waiting at our gate despite the hour we still had before boarding. "Guard our stuff, Nessie," I told her. "I'm gonna grab a hamburger from that stand over there."

Leaving her alone for two minutes didn't bother me; she was half vampire. Worst that could happen was she'd wander off and I'd have to track her scent. 'Sides, I was plenty tall enough to see her from the line in front of the little hamburger place.

Finally our boarding call came, and Nessie danced excitedly at my side as the lady checked our boarding passes.

"Can I have the window seat, Jake?"

"Sure, Ness." Edward had booked us first class, and thinking of the cramped seats in economy, I hadn't argued. Even first class didn't really give me enough legroom…one of the disadvantages of being a werewolf.

Nessie might have chattered the whole flight, but I saw the sour looks a couple of the businessmen were giving us and warned her to be quiet. She grinned and climbed into my lap, pressing a hand to my face…she really preferred this method of communication, anyway.

After we picked up our suitcases at the airport, a shuttle took us to the hotel.

"Look, Jake!" Nessie squealed as we walked toward the building. "Look at the little frogs!"

I grinned. "See if you can catch one."

She rolled her eyes at me — this was the girl who had been hunting her own meals since she started walking. "Human speed," I clarified.

She squatted down, staring at her prey in concentration, cupped hands ready.

She moved faster than human speed, but I didn't call her on it as she stood grinning at me in triumphant delight. ** "Look, Jake! I got one!" She cupped it in one hand and touched it gently with her finger, studying it intently.

"Gonna let it go, Ness?" I asked finally.

She sighed and squatted down, releasing the frog in the grass beside the sidewalk. "Goodbye, froggie."

"Looks like you can catch another just about any time you want," I commented as we continued into the hotel. "'Course, it's an awfully expensive trip just to catch frogs; I could have found some for you a lot closer to home."

She stuck out her tongue at me, and I laughed before heading to the counter to check in.

oOo

I was sitting on the bed eating a bag of chips and watching the basketball game while Nessie got ready for bed in the bathroom. She came out in her short-sleeved nightgown and climbed into my lap, grabbing the remote and switching off the game.

"Hey!" I protested. "I was watching that, Ness!"

She merely grinned impishly at me and started flipping through the channels.

I wondered uneasily what Edward would think about us even sitting on a bed together. But I knew for sure he wouldn't want me giving his daughter a sex talk; better to let her stay than try to explain why she couldn't. It was no different from sitting together on a sofa, anyway. Not that Edward liked us doing that, but he tolerated it.

Nessie stopped on an old movie channel, where the announcer was just about to start a science fiction movie. I frowned. "This might be a little too scary for you, Ness."

She scowled. "I'm half vampire and you're a werewolf; I'm used to scary!"

"If the movie was about vampires and werewolves, I wouldn't be concerned," I muttered. Still, black and white…how bad could it be? I should just be glad she hadn't picked something rated R; bad dreams wouldn't kill her, and they wouldn't get me killed, either.

They made some pretty decent movies in the 1950s; it wasn't half bad, even without any modern special effects. I felt Nessie shrink back against me during the intense scenes, but I knew better than to suggest watching something different. 'Sides, wouldn't turning it off at the scary part just make things worse? She needed to see how everything worked out in the end.

When the movie ended, I flipped the TV off. "Bedtime, Ness."

She smiled up at me. "I wasn't scared," she boasted.

I chuckled. "Right, Ness. Give me that hand…"

She squealed and jumped to the middle of the other bed. "It was a good movie," she insisted.

"Sure, sure. Now settle down and get in bed."

She scrambled under the covers, and I hesitated. Kissing her good night hardly seemed appropriate, even to me, but that was what she was used to from her parents… I settled for brushing my hand over her cheek. "'Night, Ness."

"Good night, Jake."

I turned out the light, then went into the bathroom to get ready for bed myself. When I returned, I stretched diagonally across the bed and was asleep in minutes.

oOo

I woke to the sound of Nessie whimpering in fear, and was out of bed before my eyes were even open. I barely stopped myself from phasing; this was no external danger — it was only what I had been anticipating. Kneeling beside her bed, I reached to shake her shoulder. "Ness? Wake up, Nessie!"

She sat up with a gasp, staring at me with wide eyes. "Jake?"

"I'm here, Ness; you're safe."

With a cry, she flung her arms around my neck. Images flashed through my mind as she cried against my shoulder…Nessie frozen in terror as the robot's laser beam sought her out…the sweep of the beam missing her by inches…the sure knowledge that next time it would find her.

I stroked her hair awkwardly. "Shh, Ness. It was just a dream, baby."

She choked back a sob. "It — was going to get me, Jake!"

"Nah. You think I'd let a robot touch you…even in a dream?"

She pulled back a little and eyed me doubtfully. "It would get you, too, Jake!"

"It can't be faster than a vampire, and I've taken them down, no problem." Okay, maybe it hadn't been that easy — and I wasn't too sure about my chances against a ten-foot robot with laser beam eyes. But hey, Ness didn't have to know that, did she? Wasn't as if the thing was real.

Nessie gave me a small smile, then buried her face in my shoulder again. "I want to sleep with you tonight."

Oh, great. Letting her watch that movie was bad enough; no matter how innocent it was, if Edward knew I'd been in bed with Nessie he'd kill me, no questions asked. But how could I refuse her when she was so scared? Think, Jake…compromise…

"Hang on a minute, Ness." I gently pried her arms loose from around my neck, then quickly pulled on a t-shirt. "All right, baby, come here." Lifting her out of bed, I carried her over to the chair and settled her against my chest. "Better?" I asked softly.

She nodded, laying her head on my arm.

Edward wasn't really going to be thrilled with this arrangement, either, but honestly, it wasn't as if the kid had never fallen asleep in my lap before.

"Jake?" Nessie murmured sleepily.

"Yeah, Ness?"

"Are you sure you could kill a robot?"

"Positive. Go to sleep, Nessie; nothing's going to hurt you."

"Promise?"

"I'm your guard dog, Ness; I promise."

A sleepy smile crossed her lips and she wriggled her hand into mine. "'Night, Jake."

"Good night, Nessie," I murmured.

It didn't take her long to fall asleep, but I sat a little longer, just to be sure.

After tucking her back into bed, I knelt beside her and pressed one of her hands to my face. The dream had come back…she was still watching in terror as the robot stepped menacingly closer. But there was something different about her thoughts this time, an expectant surety that the robot wasn't going to get her.

And then out of nowhere, the giant wolf that was me appeared — did I really look that huge to Nessie? — leaping on the robot and knocking it to the ground with a thunderous crash.

I ripped one of the metal arms off, then stood with my paws on the robot's shoulders, grinning at Nessie and shaking the arm as a dog would a bone.

She laughed and ran forward, climbing fearlessly over the robot's side to grab the fur on my neck and pull herself onto my back.

I ran with her toward the spaceship, and then suddenly I was human, walking by her side into the ship.

I forced myself to stop watching then; I had only meant to make sure her dreams wouldn't scare her again. She'd be fine as long as I was in the dream to protect her. Edward might not have said I couldn't watch Nessie's dreams, but I was pretty sure it would be on the long list of things that were just a little too intimate…whether I thought of them that way or not.

'Sides, she was sure to tell me all about it tomorrow. Being half vampire, she never forgot anything, not even dreams.

oOo

The next morning I ordered breakfast for two in the hotel restaurant. Nessie talked as I ate, twisting and untwisting her legs around the legs of the chair. "…And then you took me into the spaceship, and we went flying out in the stars!"

I grinned and didn't tell her how much of the dream I had seen; what she didn't know, she couldn't let slip to Edward. "Sounds like fun. Visit any planets?"

She wrinkled her nose. "No; it all got really silly after that. Are you almost done eating yet?"

"Be patient, Ness."

She sighed and leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. "The stars were all sparkly and pretty."

"I'm sure. All right; I'm done. Let's go see if Disney World can compete with riding a spaceship through the stars."

She hopped off the chair and grabbed my hand to pull me from the restaurant.

I had never really had an interest in Disney World; I didn't even like most Disney movies. But I loved Nessie's excited eagerness; watching her wonder made me look at things with new eyes.

She was a smart kid; she had to know it was all fake. But she acted like every nine-year-old who ever thought it was real. And, really, knowing the reality of vampires and werewolves, why wouldn't she believe in Tinkerbell and fairy godmothers?

Who knows, maybe they really did exist. All those stories had to come from somewhere, right?

oOo

On our last day in Florida, we took a bus to spend the day at Sea World. Nessie squealed with delight when Shamu splashed water over us, and was ready to dive in after her when a little girl's mother fell in the pool with the dolphins. But I held Nessie back with a hand on her shoulder, and the woman came up riding two dolphins with a foot on each; it had all been part of the show. Nessie waved wildly at her, beaming with excitement, and I laughed and swooped her to my shoulders.

Did you know, Jake? she demanded, a hand on my face.

"Nope. But the other trainers sure weren't concerned."

When the show ended, I took Nessie down to the petting area; she laughed at the feel of the dolphins' rubbery skin. "I want to ride a dolphin, Jake!"

I chuckled. "Better not, Ness. Isn't a wolf good enough for you?"

She wrinkled her nose at me and ran ahead of me to the gift shop. Honestly, it was a good thing I had such a good sense of smell; I would have lost track of her a thousand times over the past week if I hadn't been able to track her scent. Not that she could get lost, but still.

I found her by the stuffed animals, arms full of a toy Shamu.

I had used the credit card Edward gave me to buy her a Tinkerbell costume (a couple sizes too big; Alice could take a tuck in it now and maybe she'd get a few months out of it) and some other trinkets she wanted, telling her they were "from Daddy." But seeing the look in her eyes now, I pulled out my wallet and paid for the toy in cash. "This one's from me, Ness."

She grinned up at me and grabbed my hand to poke through the change I had been given. "Do you have another quarter?" she demanded.

"How do you ask, Ness?"

"Please?"

I dug the quarter out of my pocket and handed it to her, along with the rest of the change from my hand. I knew she had a jar of coins on her dresser at home; she liked collecting them for some reason and would pour them out and play with them, although she didn't seem to care about them as money.

But now she ran to the pressed penny machine and inserted three quarters and a penny in the slots, putting only the nickel and dime in her pocket.

"See? It's got a dolphin on it!" she showed me when the finished penny dropped into her hand.

"Nice. Can we go get something to eat now, Ness? I'm starved."

She pouted, dropping the pressed penny in her pocket with the other coins. "You're always starved."

I laughed and swung her to my shoulders. "Exactly. Let's go before I get hungry enough to eat a half-vampire." I play-growled and pretended to snap at her knee, and she squealed with laughter.

oOo

We started some of our packing that evening, not wanting to be too rushed in the morning.

Nessie sat crosslegged, staring sadly at the open suitcase. "I don't want to go home yet," she said soberly.

"Yeah, I know; me neither." I liked having Nessie to myself; liked being her sole protector. I liked not having to watch my thoughts for fear Edward would misconstrue something as too intimate. "But don't you miss your folks, Ness?"

She sighed, leaning her chin on the toy Shamu in her arms. # "I wish they could have come with us."

Yeah, right. Not me, that's for sure. "You'll just have to remember everything to show them."

She nodded and got up to get ready for bed.

Nessie insisted on carrying her Shamu on the plane the next day, which was just as well; we couldn't have fit it in the suitcase anyway.

When she spotted her parents at the airport, she carried it by one flipper as she ran to meet them.

Right. Way to make me feel abandoned, Ness. I trailed behind them carrying the suitcase.

To my surprise, Edward dropped back as Bells carried Nessie toward the car. "I'm the one who should be jealous, mutt; every other thought is 'Jake.'"

Yeah. The two of us could definitely be friends… if he could get over my being a werewolf.

The End

* Illustration for this scene can be found at femalechauvinist . deviantart . com [slash] art [slash] Biker-Baby-712843761

** Illustration for this scene can be found at femalechauvinist . deviantart . com [slash] art [slash] Frog-Catcher-712843865

# Illustration for this scene can be found at femalechauvinist . deviantart . com [slash] art [slash] Nessie-and-Shamu-712844034

A/N: I played it safe by not putting it in the story, but the movie I picture Nessie and Jacob watching is the original "The Day the Earth Stood Still"; I saw the second half of it when I was fourteen, and I had to be careful not to think about it as I was going to sleep! (The dolphin act at Sea World was also something they really did.) Barbie

I proofread all my stories at least once before posting, but if you see any mistakes I might have missed, please let me know!

Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. Thanks for your understanding! Barbie