A/N Thanks to all my reviewers for the warm welcome back! You have chicadee and margottenser to thank for it. They have been beyond supportive and never let me forget how fun writing used to be, even when I didn't even want to look at my computer anymore. (hugs friends tightly)
There have been some questions in reviews as to whether or not I'm writing TIC again, and my answer is a firm "probably". I'd say a flat out yes, but I've tried a couple times this last year, and always put the series away again. But I'm trying again, so we'll see. :)
TIC Extra #2
Timeline: The scene is set during TIC: B2, after everyone returns home to La Push from the fight with Calgary. Seth and Paul are still in Europe, trying to find Cassie.
Characters: Joe Carter, Sims, Embry
Rating: T
Word Count: 1380
Warnings: Strong language, gun violence
Joe Carter isn't the nicest guy in the world, but he hasn't always been like that.
Sometimes life doesn't go the way we want, and we wake up forty and fatter and disillusioned. You see, not everyone is a hero, not everyone saves the day or makes the good choices. Not everyone ends up with the pat on the back and the thumbs up and the knowledge that they were good and right and had made a difference. Sometimes all we just are who we are, sometimes we're just people, and sometimes people are less than impressive, even to ourselves.
Joe Carter had wanted to start a hardware store. He had wanted to fix up old cars on the weekends, and fish with his friends while his wife and his kids were happy at home and waiting for him to come back. Sometimes when he was drunk enough, he could pretend that Jessica stayed Jessica, that Melissa had never showed up, and that Samantha had never been dragged off to god knows where to be raised by god knows who that day. And the fucked up part of it was that everyone thought that he was the bad parent. Well, he isn't a good one. Not being a nice guy will do that to a father, but at least that girl wakes up every day knowing he is who he had been yesterday. And good or bad, impressive or not, at least she knows what to expect from him.
Funny, Samantha is the only one besides Joe Carter that seems to get that Joe Carter isn't quite the bastard the rez likes to make him out to be. Maybe that's why he does what he does when his daughter slips in the front door after being gone for several weeks, her arm in a cast, her hair cut shorter than she would have ever wanted it, and the nails ripped off her left hand.
Her nails ripped off. Joe Carter loses it.
You see, Joe Carter isn't the nicest guy in the world, but he isn't a total bastard, and somewhere in his head he understands that his daughter is the only family he has in the world. He isn't proud of her, and he thinks she's on a fucked up road with fucked up people. He figures that it sure as hell isn't anything to be proud of that she's the town bastard's most recent whore. That being said, they ripped her goddamn fingernails off, and someone was gonna pay for that shit.
When Joe Carter loses it, usually the cops get called.
It takes a while though, especially when Charlie Swan sighs because he's been called out to the Carter's residence way too much for his patience to stay contained. But this time it's because the sonofabitch is firing shots out at Call's place, and the folks on the rez were good people mostly, and that kind of thing scares them.
Joe Carter isn't a total bastard, but he figures that anyone that brings his daughter back home looking like someone fucking tortured her deserves to die. So when he shoots Embry this time, he shoots to kill, and if Embry wasn't Embry, it probably would have worked. But Embry is Embry, and once he realizes why Joe Carter just emptied his double barrel shotgun at him outside his home, Embry understands. That's why he doesn't defend himself when Joe Carter is out of ammo, just whispers how damn sorry he is he let Joe's little girl get hurt. It's the second time this has happened, and Joe's not the kind to not back up his word, although he is kind of surprised he missed the little shit, and decides to just beat him to death with a baseball bat instead.
Samantha Carter is many things on her own, but that part of her personality she's come by honest.
The Pack doesn't agree when they're ordered to stand back and watch their fourth take a beating, even one that's not as bad as it looks, but Embry's high enough ranked to make this decision for them. Paul and Seth are still in Europe, and Jake, well, Jake should be taking this beating instead of Embry, but Samantha is Embry's girl, not his. Sometimes, most times, Jake will outrank Embry, but not today, not when it comes to angry fathers.
Joe Carter isn't angry. He's fucking pissed.
Eventually the bat breaks, and then his hand breaks, because punching wolves is never a good idea even when those wolves allow themselves to be punched. Embry's bleeding, but standing there still apologizing, and Joe Carter wants a better gun, one that won't miss.
Samantha is still asleep in her father's house in his bed, because he's her father and she's had a bad couple weeks, and he may not be the nicest person, he may be a bastard, but he's her daddy, and the only one she's ever going to get. Her hair is splayed against the headboard, and Brady's head is against the siding on the outside of that same wall, because he's not doing well with this shit, not at all.
It's a tough world and things never go the way that we expect, but when Embry knocks on the door later that night after convincing Charlie that no, nothing happened and no, Joe Carter has done nothing wrong, a girl sleepily opens the door and smiles and lets him in. She and her father are on the couch, watching a movie. Embry eyes Joe, and Joe glares at Embry, and Samantha leans her head against her father's shoulder and puts her feet on Embry's lap. They watch Dracula, because for some reason that everyone in the room understands on a different level, she doesn't want to watch anything about werewolves tonight or maybe ever.
Embry wraps his big hands around her ankles, and the way his thumb rubs over the arch of her foot is soothing despite the fact that Dracula is busy sucking someone's blood. She falls asleep, not at all scared by the movie, and Embry wonders if it's because she knows that there are worse monsters out there than just vampires in black and red clothing with bad accents. She falls asleep, not at all scared by the movie, and Joe Carter wonders if it's because these fucking bastards that he knows aren't what they pretend to be have shown her the real monsters in world. They let her get hurt too many times, and she's too desensitized to care.
Samantha Carter falls asleep, not at all scared by the movie, because Embry might be sick, and her father an asshole, but she likes to close her eyes and pretend they both love her the way she loves both of them, and that kind of sensation is far easier to accept than the pain in her arm, or her fingers, or that deep bruising she still feels insideā¦as if something had clawed its way out of her and then burrowed back in again.
Sometimes life doesn't go the way we want it too, and we wake up forty and fatter and disillusioned, but it's better to be like that than seventeen and young and disillusioned the same way. So Embry stares at her feet, and Joe stares at the screen, and everyone but Samantha understands that she's got a long road ahead of her and neither of these men are going to make it easier for her. Joe isn't going to be able to lift her up, no matter how strong he was, and Embry's going to drag her down, no matter how strong he is, and when you're tied at the wrist to an Alpha, no one's strong enough to go anywhere else than where the Alpha will take them.
The best she might ever be is right now, right in this moment, not moving because she's caught in between all three. If this world doesn't manage to suck her dry the way that it has Joe and Embry, or change her completely the way it has Jacob Black, then she's the exception to the rule.
Samantha Carter closes her eyes and dreams of her mother, and smiles. Thank god they are all here.
