Glad you Came

Chapter 2

Family dinner bonding time

It was pouring by the time I reached the garage behind my house. My flip flops were covered in mud and my hair was dripping. Jake was working on some old rusted car, but he glanced up as I sat down on a stool in the corner.

"Good beach day?" He commented, flinging an old towel at me before continuing with his work.

"I've had better," I mumbled as I wiped the water from my body with the towel before wringing out my hair with it.

Once I was no longer dripping I went to looking around the garage that seemed to be my little brothers choice hang out. There were pieces of car parts splayed all over the carpenter bench and tools strewn across the ground around where Jacob was currently working. There were a couple cars parked in here and one out in the driveway. But none of them happened to be the truck that I had fond childhood memories riding in with my hands and head sticking out the window.

"Jake, what happened to dad's old red truck?" When I was met with silence I turned to him only to find a look of slight pain cross his features.

"He sold it. A couple years ago," he murmured softly. "To Bella Swan. I'm sorry Bella Cullen."

I could have smacked myself in the forehead after hearing his answer. Bella: the girl my brother had fallen in love with and who had married someone else. Of course this had all happened before I came back home or I would have had a few choice words for the girl who broke my baby brothers heart.

"Guess I missed saying my goodbyes to it then huh?" I attempted to lighten the mood and move my brothers thoughts to an easier subject.

"You've missed a lot of things." His tone had grown bitter, almost resentful and I flinched at its harshness. "Birthdays, awards, me growing up," when he looked at me his eyes showed both anger and a hint of hurt.

"Now Jake that's not fair. I had school, responsibilities." Attempting to throw my excuses between us to protect me from the look Jacob was shooting me did no good. He was beyond accepting my excuses.

"Yes, you had school, Rebecca had her husband and you both moved away to escape the burden of family after mom died." Wincing in emotional pain at the mention of mom it took all my strength not to break into tears of grief and frustration.

"I couldn't stay here Jake, everything reminded me of her." He was shaking his head, unsatisfied with my explanation.

"You were selfish. Mom's death affected me same as you and Becca. But I was left stranded here with all of the memories and nowhere to run to and I was the one helping dad deal with his grief, helping him deal with his new life without the use of his legs."

Jacob's words stung. Of course he was right, I had been incredibly selfish. Jacob was only a kid when I left for the university. And I stranded him in La Push to take care of dad while I escaped from all the memories. He had reason to be angry, to hate me. Right now I made myself sick. Collapsing onto an old dusty car seat that had been removed from one of the many old cars inside the garage I let my hands drag across my face.

"You didn't have to deal with everyone telling you how much you resembled her: her hair, her eyes, her smile. There was a time I couldn't even look at myself in a mirror because I could see her staring back at me in my own reflection." I whispered the last part to my feet covered in sand and mud. "I'm sorry Jakey. I'm sorry I abandoned you. I was young and stupid and scared. I'm just. Sorry."

Looking up I found him staring at me with an undistinguishable look in his eye before he sent me a small lopsided grin. "You still like pepperoni and sausage on your pizza?" He asked as he picked up the wireless extension kept out here.

"My treat," I smiled back. And just like that the subject was closed. I'm not sure that it was forever closed, but the hostility behind it would no longer be there. Jacob had forgiven me, as was his nature. Best little brother ever.

We spent the evening in the garage eating pizza, fixing cars, and waiting out the rain. It had been a while since I had worked on one and my mechanical skills were rusty but it was fun. Jacob was patient with me as I did things at a slower pace due to my lack of practice. When we finally stumbled into the house we were covered in grease and oil and laughing fighting to be the first to get to the sole bathroom in the house. Despite Jacob's newfound speed I won but only because I had a slight head start and I might have played a little dirty.

After asking repeatedly and then doing a bit of begging I got Jake to agree to spend the night in Becca's bed so it wouldn't seem so forlorn in there. It was highly comical seeing him under the flowery bedspread with his feet sticking out the bottom. He really had grown since I saw him last. That night I was lulled to sleep by my baby brother's snoring; I had never thought I would miss it.

I woke around three in the morning to silence and when I turned over it was to find Becca's bed empty. Wiping the sleep from my eyes I padded barefoot to the kitchen to fill a glass with water. I had expected to see Jacob up and watching TV but it was dark and quiet in the living room. He wasn't sleeping back in his room either and I was starting to get worried. For two hours my worry grew into a tangled knot until Jake walked through the front door nonchalantly as if it were natural for him to be out until five am.

"Where in the name of Sam Hell have you been?" I tried to keep my voice to a harsh whisper because as angry as I was at Jacob worrying me, I didn't want him to get busted by dad.

"Rachel, you're not supposed to be up." His sense of calm faltered slightly when he realized he had been caught.

"And you're supposed to be snoring away in Becca's bed. So I repeat where have you been?" There seemed to be a slight inner debate going on in Jacob's head before he squared his shoulders and looked me dead in the eyes and I knew right then whatever he said would be a lie.

"I went for a walk," and not even a good lie at that. He must have felt that answer was good enough though because he started making his way back down the hall with me close on his heels.

"Jake," I called after him when we reached his room and I leaned against the door frame. "What aren't you telling me?"

"Get some sleep Rach, please." There was no way I'd be able to sleep without an answer. But Jacob was as stubborn as I was so he wasn't about to budge. The look of pure exhaustion in his eyes was what led me to letting the subject slide for the night. He needed sleep and whatever kept him from sleeping before could wait.

Tossing and turning the rest of the night and trying not to think of all the wrong reasons why Jake was out at two in the morning it was no surprise my eyes were puffy and my hair a mess when I awoke from a fitful little bit of sleep at eight. Jake was eating at the table and avoided my gaze when I entered the room a half hour later. Dad and him had been talking in hushed tones until he noticed my presence.

"Morning honey," dad was the first and only one to acknowledge my presence. I mumbled a response before grabbing a granola bar and leaving the two to their obviously private conversation.

It was raining again today so I decided to spend the day checking for job opportunities and making the necessary calls. The first few companies I got through to hadn't had time to read over my resume yet and promised to contact me as soon as they had gotten a chance to do so. Eventually my hunger drew me from my room and back to the kitchen. Dad was there making a sandwich but Jake was nowhere to be found. I was beginning to sense a pattern.

Trying to ignore my big sister protective side I grabbed the paper from the kitchen table and immediately flipped to the wanted section. I needed some way of making money, even if it was only temporary. Nothing too appealing jumped out at me at first though.

"Are you alright Rachel?" Dad snapped me out of my job search. I hadn't noticed I was tugging at a piece of my hair as my eyes flew across the printed page.

"I want a job, need a job. Just until offers come back from the companies I've applied to." Sighing I wrestled with the pages trying to fold them back into order but ended up leaving them a crinkled mess.

"I think I may be able to help. Follow me."

The job my dad had in mind was working at Forks Library. They were finally switching over to an electronic catalog system after all these years. Trying to switch over, that was. The older women working there weren't very technologically savvy. That was where I came in, computer engineering being my major and whatnot. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it paid decently enough and kept me busy. Busy was good; being away from the house was nice. It kept too many memories from flooding back.

I tried my hardest to avoid a reunion with the members of the reservation community, not wanting any conversations to lead towards my mother or how much I reminded them of her. Over the years I swear my likeness to her just grew stronger and stronger. I'd been pretty successful at my avoidance especially by doing the grocery shopping in Forks.

Locking up Saturday afternoon I ran by the supermarket to pick up a few extra things for the night's meal. There was some big game on and I was planning to surprise dad and Jake with Chili. I had most of the ingredients already from my last grocery shopping trip, however Jake eats a lot more than any normal person so I was planning on making quite a bit more than the original recipe. Laden down with a paper bag in each arm I made my way towards the house, attempting to open the door with my elbow when I reached the front porch. Simply put, it was hard to do seeing as I was supposed to turn the knob and my elbow kept slipping.

Giving it another go I felt the knob turn underneath me, and for a second thought I had actually succeeded in my endeavor before turning to see Jake. Before I could take a step he had removed the bags from my arms, carrying them himself to the kitchen. He was still trying to pretend things were normal, like I hadn't caught him sneaking in a week ago. And I was trying to forget it, trying to accept that he was never going to tell me, but it was harder to do than I thought. Especially when a small part of me knew that dad already knew all this as well as the reason behind it. I didn't like feeling left out. Then again, I had left Jake out of my life for so long, it's natural for him to retaliate and do the same to me.

"It's going to take more than carrying the groceries to get me to trust you again, little brother," I half joked with him, getting pans out for the night's meal.

"Then what will it take?" He sighed stepping up beside me. Handing him an onion and a knife I went to get the meat from the fridge.

"The truth," this time my reply received a sigh and eye roll. No matter how grown up he looked physically, he still had most of the annoying tendencies of an adolescent.

Dad came out to the kitchen when I had already started browning the meat, sniffing the air appreciatively and giving me the thumbs up. "Jacob, could you bring in some chairs from the deck and garage while your sister finishes up in here?" Jake nodded, heading for the back door to the garage units leaving me a little more than confused.

"Why do we need more seating dad?" Dad's famous sly grin answered me as he wheeled his way back towards the living room.

A half hour later I had my answer as the house was filled to the brim with people. Most of who were sitting around the old television set, anxiously awaiting the game. I was joined in the kitchen by Emily Young, Sam Uley's girlfriend, who had brought food of her own as well. It boggled me really because when I had left, Leah Clearwater and Sam were an item and seemed about ready to take their vows. But it would be too awkward to question Emily about it so I let it go to the back of my mind.

Hearing one of the many boys in the room say something about chips, I grabbed one of the extra bags that Emily had brought and went to refill the bowl. More people had come since I had returned to the kitchen last, greetings had been heard as the others entered. Thinking it might be better to bring more than less as I turned to grab a second bag of chips. As I was turning back towards the living room I found myself almost bumping into someone who was on their way to the kitchen, probably to get the chips.

"You," my eyes squinted in a glare as I took in exactly who had almost bowled me over.

"Rachel," the guy from the beach smiled down at me as if I wasn't giving him a death glare; Paul.

A/N: Hey everyone. For those of you who were brought here from my other story: Live like you are dying, I want to applogize for how long overdue this is. I'm not even sure what all prevented me from writing. Part of it was a lack of inspiration and then school started back up. I want to let you know for now I plan on trying to update both this story as well as start up Peyton's story as well. I could not choose between the two. This one is only out first because I had half of it done already. Hope you enjoy it and as always I love to hear from all of you.

Rach

xoxo