Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.
This is AU. Bella has not moved to Forks and she does not know Jacob, yet. I'm not going to share anything else yet. I'm going to ask that you read and let the story unfold.
"Daddy, will I get to see Grandpa Billy when we live in the new house?" a curious 5 year old asks his dad, as he runs heavy duty tape over another box full of his toys.
Jacob looks at his son. The little guy had stolen his heart the moment he was born. His wide dark brown eyes were so carefree and loving. His little smile melted him every time.
"Not as often, buddy. But we'll still get to see him," he reassured him. Jacob continued taping boxes so they could finish packing up their stuff. They only had 2 more days before they were moving to Seattle. The pack would help him move everything this weekend. His wife was already there at Swedish Medical in their critical care unit. Jacob swallowed back his grief and kept packing.
His phone vibrated in his pocket and he dropped everything to pull it out. He relaxed when the caller ID identified his sister, and not the hospital.
"Hey, Rach," he answered. "Are you on your way yet? JJ is ready for you to come get him and so am I. I have so much left to pack and he's slowing me down."
"Yes, sorry I'm running late. Leena was sleeping and just woke up. Paul's with me, if you want him to stay for a bit and help you out," she told him. A groan was heard in the background, presumably Paul, not real thrilled at being volunteered for work.
When they pulled up in front of Jacob and Christa's house, JJ was bouncing up and down calling out Leena's name happily.
"Leena! Leena!" he chanted over and over. As soon as Leena was freed from her car seat, she headed to see her cousin. She smiled big and her pacifier dropped into the dirt. She reached down to pick it up, but JJ grabbed it and told her to wait while he washed it off. He dashed into the house and carefully rinsed like he had seen his Aunt Rachel do before and then raced back out to give it to her.
"Tanks," she said after she popped it back into her mouth.
Jacob walked out and gave her head a pat, and hugged his sister.
"Paul," he greeted.
"Hey, Jake. How you holding up? I really am willing to stay and help for a bit," he said, reaching his hand out to shake his brother in law's hand.
"I feel like stuff is multiplying. Every time I make headway, I go in another room that looks like I haven't touched anything," he sighed, feeling frustrated at the stress of moving.
"Well, the girls are all coming over tomorrow, Jake. So it should go better then," Rachel said. She bent down to grab JJ's bag, but Paul beat her to it and carried it over to the truck. Paul leaned in and gave his wife a smooch before putting her in the truck.
"Be good for mom, Leena. You too, JJ," Paul told them as he shut the door for her. She drove off and Paul walked into the house behind Jacob.
"Let's get to it," Paul said, as he grabbed the tape dispenser and started putting boxes together. They worked in silence for a long time and got all of JJ's room packed, as well as the bathrooms and the guest room. The kitchen, living room, and master bedroom all needed to be finished. Jacob planned to leave everything that was in his garage because he wouldn't really have time to use it while in Seattle taking care of his family.
Quil stopped by with takeout and the three sat down at the kitchen table and ate in silence. After eating enough beef barbecue and fries to feed 6 normal teenage boys, Quil broke the silence.
"Have you heard from the nurses today?" he asked Jacob, wondering how Christa's day had been. She couldn't really talk with all of the heavy medication they had her on.
Jacob just shook his head in the negative and continued to stare down at his food. He'd eaten some, but wasn't eating as much as the others. It was too stressful with everything going on. He hated to be away from her when she was so sick, and he had a lot going on at the house in La Push. Of course, it wasn't easy going to a new place away from their families that helped them out all of the time. It was going to be him, JJ and Brady.
Brady was finishing up his last year of college in Seattle, and was going to live with Jacob. It was a mutually beneficial living situation. Brady got a free place to stay and he was going to help Jacob out with JJ. JJ was going to be starting kindergarten and there would be an extra adult around to pick him up or drop him off if they got the donor call.
If-no-Jacob refused to think of it as "if," but when he got the call, everyone would make their way to Seattle. He would need to go to the hospital immediately. It was going to work out well with Brady there.
Jacob sat staring out the window, lost in his private thoughts, as Quil and Paul cleaned up the trash from dinner and talked softly about work around him. They all ran a construction business together. Really, it was the easiest thing that worked for the pack. They needed a flexible schedule and a steady source of income.
Jacob would be able to have income while he was gone, but planned on finding a part time job in Seattle. Sitting around with nothing to do was not healthy. Of course, he couldn't get a job just anywhere with his wife's current situation. Ideally, he would do a "work from home" job.
He rubbed his hands over his face. Money wasn't nearly as important as getting Christa through this. What would he do without her? He loved her so much and she was the mother of his child. JJ would grow up without a mother if she didn't pull through.
After shaking it off, he turned and looked up. His friends' voices were coming from the master bedroom. He wandered in there to see them taking apart all of the bedroom furniture.
"Hey, guys. Thanks a lot. Sorry, I just spaced out there," Jacob apologized.
"We're family, right?" Paul said, as they continued working. "Why don't you go rest up on the couch? Call the hospital, check on Christa. We'll get all of the furniture taken apart that needs to be and stage it in JJ's room."
Slowly, Jake turned back toward the living room and sat on the couch. He took his phone out and stared at it. Not really sure what his irrational fear about calling was, he sat there without calling for a few moments. They would've called immediately if something went wrong, or if she came out of it and asked for him.
He swiped his phone and called the number to the nurses' station. All the while, in his head he's chanting, "please don't let Nurse Bitchy be on duty." He hated knowing that woman was there when he couldn't be with his wife.
"Nurses' Station, this is Janie," was the soft drawl on the other line. Immediately, he relaxed. If Janie was on duty, things were going well. The older lady was so sweet and grandmother like. Christa seemed so much better when she was there.
"Hi Janie, it's Jacob Black. I wanted to see how my wife was doing," he told her with a small smile on his face. He leaned back on the couch and crossed his leg over to rest his ankle on his knee.
"Oh, hi, Mr. Black. She's resting well," she continued on with all of her stats and a rundown of how her day went. "When do you guys get here? Saturday?"
"Yes, ma'am. I can't wait to be close by. It will be so much easier on all of us," he confessed. "I've got to get back to packing, but I wanted to check on her since I hadn't gotten a call today."
"It's been busy. I was going to call you as soon as we finished shift change. I'll be here tomorrow, but Saturday I'm off," she told him.
They said their goodbyes and Jacob put his phone on the coffee table. His wolf needed out and he could use the run. The back door slammed as he let it go, stepping out into the crisp night.
…..
It was finally moving day. JJ was excited about the big moving truck in the front yard. He kept running up and down the ramp and circling around the truck before running out and doing it all over again.
The pack stood around Jacob's kitchen eating the doughnuts Emily and Sam brought. Everything had been packed or taken apart to load onto the truck. Everyone would be here to help load the truck, but only a few of the guys would be at the house to help unload. Rachel, Paul, Leena and Billy were all going to help Jacob get settled in Seattle before they drove back. Paul was going to drive Jacob's car. Christa's car was in storage near Jacob's garage. She hadn't been able to drive it for a couple of months anyhow.
Things moved swiftly with all of the strong, muscled men to load everything into the truck. Jacob stood looking around at his empty house wondering how, at 25 years old, he ended up here.
He had met Christa after high school, after phasing, after taking over as Alpha of the pack. It took him almost no time to get used to his life as a wolf, but it took him a long time to accept that life as he knew it had changed.
Everyone had imprinted and it was believed that he never would. The Alpha would never need an imprint. In journals of past alphas, none of them had indicated they imprinted.
He met Christa one night at a bonfire. She was the friend of Seth's imprint and really pretty. She was smart too. They enjoyed their time together and she wasn't afraid to try anything once. The pack got great joy out of daring her to do things. Eat a pig's eyeball, jump off the cliff in her birthday suit, and tell Leah what she really thinks of her. The latter actually going over better than they all thought it would.
Christa was tall and had curves in every place that mattered. She had a short haircut, her straight black hair shaped around her face. But, to Jacob, he loved her eyes. They lit up her whole face and he could read her thoughts there. One look and he knew what she wanted, needed or was thinking about. She was amazed at his ability to read her.
Of course, she had fallen fast for the carefree young man she met at the beach that night. He had a smile that would light up the dark and make a crying baby silent. They started dating right away and got married in a whirlwind romance. The pack took an instant liking to her and there was no looking back. When JJ was born, their love just grew.
Even though they weren't an imprinted couple, they were easily accepted and eventually Jacob let Christa in on the big secret. She had been so shocked, she passed out. Jacob thought he killed her and almost started crying. When she came to and saw the tears in his eyes, she laughed and held him in her arms.
It didn't take her long to accept all of Jacob, including the wolf and alpha sides of him. She was a little more wary of the Cullens in town, but they didn't stay too long and they never spoke to her.
Embry slapped Jacob on the shoulder, and Jacob turned to look at him.
"Hey man, you've been in here staring at the wall for twenty minutes," he said, raising his eyebrows in a way that said he was worried.
"Sorry. I'm just sad about leaving this house. Christa and I designed it together. I'm trying to be positive we'll be back here soon, but I…I…I don't know what I'll do if she never gets to come back here," he said as the tears he was holding in spilled over and down his cheeks.
Embry wasn't sure what to say. They all knew how grave the situation was. He reached out and hugged his best friend. Jacob cried onto his friend's shoulder.
"What's this shit?" Quil mouthed off, as he walked in to break up the moment.
"Fuck you, Quil," Embry said, smacking him across the back of his head as he tried to escape.
Quil ran out of the room, rubbing his head. Jacob took a deep breath and walked outside to say goodbye to those who were staying behind. Hugs and tears were all around as they loaded the cars up and headed out of town.
JJ was really excited to be riding in the big truck. Jacob had strapped his car seat into the moving van's front seat.
"Ready, buddy?" he asked his son as he looked over at him and smiled.
"Yes! Daddy, this truck is big! I can see everything!" JJ replied excitedly.
Chuckling, Jacob reached over and stroked his son's face. He didn't think he could love another human being more. A horn honked signaling their caravan was on the move. Jacob checked all of the mirrors and shifted the truck into drive before easing off the break and ending the group of vehicles on its way to Seattle.