Chapter – 2
Lily wasn't fast enough. Truth was she didn't even think of using her powers until it was too late. She willed her to freeze but couldn't think of a spell to shut her up soon enough. By the time the spell was cast, Alice had said the words she was trying to mute. I'm gonna kill Alice!
Jake's eyes widened for a split second before he dropped like a sack of potatoes. Good thing Emmett was fast enough and strong enough to catch him before he hit the floor. "What the hell, Alice!" he snapped
Rosalie and Jasper looked at Lily before shaking their heads at Alice with disappointed looks. "I'll call Carlisle" Rosalie said as Lily ran to kneel next to Jake.
"Talk about being out cold" Emmett grunted under Jake's weight "Jazz, help me take him upstairs"
Lily held Jake's hand as they carried him to Edward's bed."Don't worry, Lily" Jaspers said "He is in shock but he will be just fine"
Lily didn't respond as she sat on the bed, holding one of Jake's hands with both of hers. She could sense his rapid heartbeat, normal for him. Werewolves had a slightly faster heartbeat than normal humans. Of course the fever was also normal. It appeared Jasper was right but Lily couldn't help worrying.
"Carlisle is a bit busy at the hospital but he'll be here as soon as possible" Rosalie informed as she zoomed in the room "Edward is on his way. He's no Carlisle but has plenty of medical experience "
"He'll be fine, Lil" Emmett assured a mute Lily as he rested a hand on her shoulder "He'll snap out it, he was just caught off guard"
"Speaking of which" Jasper interrupted "I know she does not deserve it, but Lily will you please deice Alice"
Lily snapped her head around to glare at Jasper, a warning that coming to Alice's defense was not a good idea at the moment. Alice was in deep shit with her and she wasn't sure she could control herself if she caught a glimpse of her. Even as mad as she was, Lily could tell that punishing Alice was the equivalent of punishing Jasper and he'd done nothing wrong.
"Keep her away from me" she warned
"Will do" he nodded.
Lily closed her eyes as she turned away from Jasper. One, two, three, four, be still no more. Alice's exhale was instantly heard and from the corner of her eye she saw Jasper's blur zoom out of the room.
"Alice can be many things, but stupid is not one of them" Rosalie smiled "She is not coming near you until you calm down"
Lily was about to answer when Edward showed up with Bella in tow. He went directly to Jake, placing Bella down on his way. Lily moved back to give him space but kept her hands on him as she stroked his leg.
"What happened?" Bella worriedly asked as Edward examined Jake.
"Past out" Emmett answered in a 'duh' tone that made Bella give him an 'I'm gonna smack you look "He's in shock" he added raising his hands up, palms out symbolizing surrender.
"Werewolves can go into shock???"
"Not usually" Edward answered as he examined Jake "He's a little freaked out but fine. And…" he tilted his head a bit "He'll wake up in about two minutes" obviously he was getting that info from Alice but knew better than to mention her "What did happen?" he asked looking around but not waiting to hear a verbal answer. As soon as he got his answer from Emmett and Rosalie, he turned with wide eyes at Lily.
"I'm not" she shook her head, knowing well what he was thinking.
"But Alice seems to think so"
"Alice is wrong" Lily answered "All tests are negative"
"Can you please stop doing that?" Bella complained
"So sorry" Edward apologized then turned to face Bella and gave her the short version of the story. She didn't say a word but she didn't have to. Her shock was visible as she shifted her wide eyes between Jake and Lily.
"Can Alice be wrong?" Bella asked, but before anyone could answer, everyone's attention turned to Jake as he began to move around.
Edward moved out of the way so Lily could move closer. Everyone knew she was the person Jake would want to see the moment he opened his eyes. She held on tight to his hand as he struggled to focus. The worry and fear in his face disappeared, leaving a smile on his face as he centered his attention on her. Lily smiled. Leave it to Jake to forget everything in the snap of a finger.
"You ok?"
*****
The question startled him, he wasn't aware there was a reason why he wouldn't be. Lil looked at the bed and then up at him which she supposed was gonna clue him in. It didn't at first, it only confused him to notice he had been lying on Edward's bed and even more so to see Edward, Bella, Emmett and Blondie looking at him with worried expressions. Then it hit him. He squeezed Lil's hands and snapped his head around to face her.
"I'm not pregnant, Jake" she shook her head
He looked at her not knowing what to think or believe. He looked around the room and noticed everyone had the same 'who knows' look going on which wasn't much help. Of course he also noticed the primary plaintiff wasn't present.
"Where's Tink?" he asked Lil, who pressed her lips together as she cocked her brow. She was pissed.
"Downstairs" Edward answered "Extremely sorry and begging Lily to let her come in"
"You kicked her out???" Jake asked amused and shocked. Lil loved Alice.
"No" Emmett laughed "Just froze her nosy ass at the stair rail and then forbade her to come in"
"Really?"
"Please, Fido" Blondie smirked "After what she did to the newborn, you still doubt what she is capable of doing when it comes to you?"
"Hell yeah" Emmett added "Anybody messes with you and Lil goes wicked witch of the west"
Bella and the bloodsuckers laughed and he couldn't help but join in. Lil tried to hold in a laugh but failed miserably.
"I think it's best if we all sit in this discuss this" Edward suggested
"I'm with you on that one, bloodsucker"
"Since I've been kept in the dark about all this. Something extremely hard to do" Edward smiled at Lil "I'm just as curious as you are, Jacob"
"I had to" Lil explained "You would've told Bella and she would've told Jake
"Sneaky, clever and capable" Edward smiled while shaking his head "Lethal combination"
"I thought we said no more secrets, Lil"
"Did you really want to spend a week worrying about it" she answered "Or worse, sleeping with an eye open, waiting for Billy or Jess to go for the kill"
"We could've kept it to ourselves until we knew the results"
"Yeah?" she laughed "How well are secrets kept within the pack?"
She had him there and she knew it. She smiled triumphantly knowing he couldn't argue with that reason. The pack couldn't keep secrets from each other or from their imprintees. If Lil had told him they would've had over a dozen people spreading the 'possible' news.
"Let's just get Tink here so we can get it all in the open"
"She won't come until Lily allows her" Blondie stated
"Come on, Lil" Jake smiled
"Fine" she answered, not too happy.
Jasper walked in the room with Tink hidden behind him. She peeked her little head from under his arm to look apologetically at Jake, and then winced as she turned to Lil, probably expecting to be told off. Lil didn't look at her; she just looked away which by the look of hurt that crossed Tink's face, was much worse. Everyone turned to Lil with a 'come on' look but no one dared to say a thing to her.
"Well" Edward said, starting the conversation and breaking the tension the room was filled with. "We know Lily's heartbeats began the day of the fight, right?"
"We noticed them the morning after" Rosalie answered "When we were undressing her for her bath"
"Alice's theory is that Lily's pregnant, right?" Edward went on.
"Why else would they be heard louder in her belly?" Tink stated
"An echo" Lil snapped
"Has there been any other…abnormalities?"
"No" Jake answered "Everything else is the same, temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, breathing patterns, sleeping patterns, eating patterns, all the same"
"You've been keeping track of that?" Lil asked Jake who smiled sheepishly as he shrugged his shoulders. "Crazy" she smiled with a head shake
"For you" he smiled
Bella, Emmett, Jasper and Emmett smiled and Blondie rolled her eyes, but Edward stared at the ceiling, looking as if he was deep in thought.
"I am not pregnant" Lil stated
"Don't you remember the positive pregnancy test?" Alice asked her, directing herself at her for the first time "Or Seth holding a baby girl?"
Jake looked at them with the same wide eyes of confusion as everyone else. No one had a clue what they were talking about but them.
"Precisely my point" Lil snapped "Positive pregnancy test, mine was negative"
"But Seth holding a baby girl, that could only mean it was a wolf baby" she insisted
"I'm not the only one capable of having a wolf baby" Lil argued "There's Emily and Kim, and god knows what girls are getting busy with the pack, any of which can very well end up pregnant"
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Jake and Emmett chorused as they noticed they had no intention of explaining.
"She's referring to the visions we had at the clearing" Lil answered
"I don't think Lily is pregnant" Edward stated, reminding everyone that he was in the room "I think it's something else"
"Thank you" Lily exhaled, throwing her arms in the air "There are a thousand reasons for the heartbeats. Think about it" Lil asked everyone "Witches usually get their full powers at 18, the heartbeats could be something that comes with that, like the fever for the wolves. I got full use of my powers at the battle, this can be due to that, or like I said before, it could be due to Emmett's blood, or to god knows what, but it isn't pregnancy"
After much debate between Edward, Tink and Lil, Tink was finally convinced that the birth control was working just fine. Edward had a point, if all other medication worked perfectly fine on Lil, why wouldn't anti-conceptive medication as he called the pill, work.
It wasn't until the issue of Lil's pregnancy was discarded that Jake realized how he felt about it. When he heard Tink assure it, he was overwhelmed. He had several visions go throw his mind, Lil's belly beautifully round with their baby in it, a little girl with his skin color and her gorgeous eyes, a happy family. Then the flashes changed, Lil being angry and resentful for knocking her up, his dad throwing a major fit, and even Jess castrating him in his sleep. Jake didn't have control of his own body, how the hell could he handle a kid. Then the overpowering fear of not being a good father hit him like a right hook from Tyson, Mayweather and Ali combined, hook that sucked the air out of him and knocked him out cold.
Yet knowing she wasn't pregnant was bittersweet. Once again his feelings were mixed. Half of him felt relief, like he'd just dodged a bullet, but the other half felt like the bullet had hit him right in the chest, but instead of leaving a wound, it was leaving sadness and disappointment. Forgetting that they were not alone, he pulled Lil in to his chest and felt his eyes burn. The way she soothed him let him know that not only did she understand, she was feeling the same way.
"This is exactly what I was trying to avoid" she whispered in his ear as she rubbed his back "I didn't want you to go through all this unless it was absolutely necessary"
"But we're in this together" he answered "You should never take things on alone when you have me to go through them with you"
"I would've told you if I was pregnant"
"Big or small I want to know it, and know it immediately, not a week later"
"Promise" she smiled
"See" Alice smiled "This is what I was going for"
The room erupted in 'yeah right' smirks. Jake laughed and Lil cocked her brow as she turned to Tink with a 'are you kidding me?' look.
"Believe it or not, she was" Edward smiled "She was completely wrong about the way she did it, but in her abnormal mind she figured it would work out ok"
"I didn't want a repeat of the Paul fiasco" Tink explained
"It's all good" Jake smiled "I know it's just your way of having my back"
"Having your back against the floor, that is" Emmett laughed
"Are we, all good?" Tink asked Lil, who rolled her eyes. "Come on, Lil" she said as she wrapped her tiny arms around Lil's shoulders "You know I love you, I just wanted to do the right thing"
Lil shook her head before enhaling "We're good"
"Great" she beamed then turned to Jake "You know I love you too, right?"
"Yeah?" Jake answered knowing something was up
"Good" she smiled "Cause I need to steal Lil away on Friday"
"Excuse you?"
"Rose, Lil and I have to get our dresses fit for the wedding" she explained
"You're not taking Bella" Edward stated
"Don't need to" Tink stuck her tongue out "Her dress is done"
"It is???" Bella asked completely taken by surprise.
"Fabric masterpieces don't just happen" she said in a 'duh' tone "Perrine Bruyere has a waiting list you know? If I hadn't ordered your dress last year you would've ended up with something off the rack" she added in disgust.
"Per who?" Bella asked as everyone laughed.
"Don't worry about it" Tink waved her hand "He specializes in what we need. It's perfect and you're gonna love it" she looked around the room "I'll show it to you when us girls are alone. Can't have the groom get a look, visual or mental"
"Is not like he hast seen it in your mind" Bella shook her head
"He hasn't and he won't" Tink smiled as she looked meaningfully at Lil, who gave Bella and Edward a big cheesy smile.
"Alice and Lily conspiring together" Edward shook his head in false terror "God help us all"