Author's Note: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter, the comments were greatly appreciated. As always, any thoughts, comments, or criticism is always gladly and gratefully accepted. Thank you for reading!
I heard them coming about three minutes before they arrived. I knew it must be Bella driving. Even as a vampire her intense fear for fast driving had not abated, and with Nessie in the car, well, she wasn't taking any chances. The Ferrari slowed when it got near the drive, and I heard it idle out in the lawn for a second, the engine humming with all it's power and unexplored possibility. Then I heard the key turn and the purr softly stopped. Two doors opened and closed, and then I heard footsteps on the drive. One set of feet was slow and evenly paced, graceful. The other was faster, more pronounced, and certainly not even. It sounded like someone was skipping. I smiled at Nessie.
Then the doorbell rang. Charlie moved to sit up in his recliner, but I quickly motioned him to sit back down. "Don't worry, I got it!" I grinned as he turned his attention back to the game he and Billy had been watching. When I opened the door, I almost lost my breath. Bella never failed to leave me taken aback. I didn't know if I would ever get over her being so… vampirish. Tonight she looked like the vampire version of a patronizing house-wife, her hair pulled back into a ponytail that would have looked messy on anyone else but that looked beautiful on her, as if she had tousled each strand intentionally. She was wearing dark jeans and a basic white t-shirt with sneakers, but on her new waifish frame, and aside from the rancid smell, she looked like she had just stepped out of a Paris fashion show. She was stunning, but my eyes we fixed on the person standing beside her, holding her hand.
"Jacob!" Nessie's face lit up and she smiled, answering my own probably goofish wide grin. She let go of her mother's hand and ran to throw her arms around my legs, and I immediately grabbed her and lifted her up. She touched her hands to my forehead, and images flashed in my mind… Alice's bathroom, the living room of the Cullen's house, Bella driving in the car, and finally a poster advertising a haunted house somewhere in Port Angeles. I smiled and winked at her, "Maybe after your mother leaves."
"What after I leave?" Bella had turned her attention back from talking to Charlie to look at me. She regarded me with the look of a mother lion assessing a threat to her cub, and I felt like I was in just as much danger.
"Nothing, we were just thinking about going to Port Angeles to see what was happening there." I replied calmly. It wasn't really a lie, it just wasn't telling the complete truth. I knew Bella wouldn't approve of haunted houses. She was much too protective of Nessie.
"Oh, okay." And she smiled. I knew that she was having a hard time coping with being away from Nessie tonight. It would be the first time that they were really apart since after that day last summer in the meadow, and Bella was still worried about danger from the Volturi.
"It will be okay, Bella. I'll take good care of her." And I smiled back at her. She looked relieved, then, and she replied, "I know, Jacob. I wouldn't trust her with anyone but you. I just worry… I'm a mother." And she laughed. I laughed too, and Charlie and Billy remarked on the mother-hen habits of both of their wives when we were little, and we all smiled.
Nessie touched her delicate little hands to my forehead again just then, and the image of the poster flashed through my mind again. I nodded and said, "Well, we'd better get going soon… I'm not getting any younger."
"Or any older," Bella muttered just low enough that only I could hear. I grinned at her, and shifted Nessie to my other side so that I could give her a somewhat awkward side hug.
"It will be alright, Bells. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. Go enjoy your night with Dr. Dracula and the rest of your family. I'll bring her back by morning."
She gave me a patronizing look, and lightly slapped my arm. She was getting better about controlling her strength, but it still stung a little.
I recoiled; scrunching my face into what I hoped was a very pained expression. "Ow, why did you have to do that for?"
"Because I can," and she grinned at me. She was getting more outspoken the longer that she stayed with the Cullens.
Then I felt little hands tugging at my shirt sleeve, and I smiled down at Nessie. "Okay, we're leaving now!" I called out loudly for the benefit of Charlie and Billy, still watching the game in the living room.
"So soon? Wait a second; I want to see my granddaughter!" Charlie called back, and in a second he was there beside us, holding a large neon orange plastic pumpkin already halfway filled with all kinds of sweets and candies that would have sent any normal child into fits of glee.
Nessie just smiled widely at Charlie as he held out the present. "Here, I wanted to make sure that you got all the good stuff, Kid." And he winked at her.
I snuck a peek inside the bucket as Nessie accepted it graciously with a, "Thank you, Grandpa Charlie!" Charlie really had ensured that Nessie would have all the "good stuff" as he called it. I saw more kinds of candy than any child could have dreamed of at Halloween. There were all varieties of chocolate candy bars, lollipops, and licorice in various Halloween packaging. I quickly noted that my favorite, Milky Way, was there. I would have to remember that later.
Charlie's wide grin showed just how much that he adored doting on his charming granddaughter. "Here, I wanted to get a picture, too," Charlie pressed as he pulled a camera as if out of nowhere.
Bella's martyred expression showed just what she thought of this, but before she could protest Charlie was already motioning us to stand closer together, "Just one, Bells. It's Nessie's first Halloween."
Bella must have conceded this because she came to stand next to me, her hand resting lightly on my arm, her face the epitome of familial bliss.
"Okay, hold it just like that for one more second…" the light from the flash blinded me for a second and then I heard Charlie exclaim, "Got it. That was great! Thanks, Kids."
I kept my cheesy grin in place for one more second as I looked at Charlie, and he grinned back at me. "Excited about trick-or-treating tonight?"
"Of course," I said. "It's not every day that you get to go from house-to-house demanding presents." And we all laughed at that.
Charlie paused for a moment after that and his face scrunched up in a worried expression. "Well, just watch out. You know how people can be at Halloween… people come here from all over and they can get a little…" Charlie paused as he searched for the right word, "rowdy."
"Don't worry, Charlie, I'll take good care of Nessie." I insisted.
"You'd better." Bella told me imperatively.
"Sure, sure. You know I love her more than I love myself." I shot back playfully.
"Well that's definitely saying something." She retorted, and we all laughed again.
I looked from Bella to Charlie and the back again, and then said with the utmost gravity, "We really should get going. If we don't get out there soon all the good candy will be gone."
Charlie quickly agreed and moved to usher us out the door. Bella hugged Nessie and gave her one last worried glance, and Charlie hugged her once, too, and then we were walking out into the night, and to whatever awaited us on this day of mayhem.