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Chapter 5: The Slip

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A week later, Nessie's on another continent.

Nothing works. Not the rituals, not the chants, not the closing your eyes and wishing really hard that Quil said couldn't hurt to try. Nothing works so Jacob accompanies Nessie to the airport and kisses her cheeks and tries to pretend this doesn't kill him because Leah's watching, but she can't help know what his pained smile means.

Nothing works and it really does kill part of him to watch Nessie leave, no matter how tightly he clings to Leah's hand. It kills him, but not enough to set him free. He's on the phone for three hours when Bella calls to tell him they've landed safely.

Seth keeps saying it's only been a week, that we shouldn't worry, but no one's listening to him. Time shouldn't matter. It's the ideas we try and we've tried the most likely. Everything Old Quil came up with, everything we came up with, everything the Cullens came up with, we've tried. Each item we tick off the list, the remaining possibilities become less and less likely. Seth can look on the bright and shiny side all he wants, but the fact remains that there's only so much we can do before we're stuck.

There's no contingency plan for when we fail, but we can all guess. The first to admit the truth is going to shatter the pact of mutually assured destruction and we're just going to have to head to the shelters because the only result is going to be nuclear winter. After the bombs are finished, there's not going to be much of a pack left.

On happier news, Marian let me go to third base.

Marian survived meeting my friends and said she was even eager to get closer to them—I probably should take her to get her head examined. Add that to her other news... it would have been a feat of herculean proportions to keep my hands (etc.) off of her. So I didn't try.

We're celebrating today, just in a more viewer appropriate way. We have to be, since Seth showed up at my house at eight this morning. Leah was in Seattle; Jake and Quil weren't going to be up for another four hours. So despite the fact I kind of wanted to chain the kid to my front porch while I went to pick up my girlfriend, I just brought him along.

Marian was happy to see him again.

Of course.

The punk kid is this close to death, I swear.

"You're scowling again," Marian says. She's walking beside me as we wander through the grocery store. Seth is pushing the cart after us, as we wander up and down the aisles, arm in arm. Except the fact there's a hint of rotting something in the air, I am perfectly happy.

"I am not."

"You are too. It makes you look scary," she teases.

"Like the Big Bad Wolf is going to get you?"

I wrap my arms around her as she giggles, sort-of-not-really trying to escape. Then she kisses me and I resolve that I'm never going to let go.

"If I wanted to see that, I'd hang around Jake and Leah," Seth calls out. I give him the finger, even as Marian pulls away. Why did I bring him?

Oh, yeah. I can cook all right, but baking is beyond me. I need him to stick around after Marian goes home once we're finished here. Aaron's taking the family out for lunch, because he's that great.

"Just get the cake mix and let's go," I say, as I take Marian's hand.

"You don't have to bake me a cake," Marian says once again as Seth protests, "You're seriously getting cake mix? Classy, Embry."

"It's on sale, asshole," I point out. "And I told you, anything else might just end up with the house burnt down."

"I've seen you with a fire extinguisher, sweetie," Marian says. "I'm sure you'd manage to save most of the rooms."

"Brownies are evil," I can't help but mutter. "It wasn't my fault."

"Sure."

"I said I'd help," Seth offers. "We can do it from scratch. Come on. Marian deserves the best."

Thisclose to death.

"Fine," I snarl.

The worst part is Seth is really my only option. Quil and Jake are not oven sorts of guys and Leah swears up and down she can't make a cake at all. She's lying through her teeth, but Leah is nothing if not stubborn, so I pretend to believe her. She must think I'm an idiot. Sue Clearwater taught Seth how to make a cake and not her daughter? Bullshit.

And then Marian kisses me again and it's suddenly worth putting up with Seth.

"Do you have any baking powder at home?" he interrupts, like he's speaking in English.

"I think so."

"Baking soda?"

"Uh...we have the one that comes in a box. But not the other one."

Seth smirks again and tries not to laugh. "So we need to find baking powder. I think it's that way."

Now Seth might know his way around the kitchen, but I know my way around the grocery store. How many times over the years have I been forced to take care of this while my mother is at work? Turning to go in the opposite direction, I go to find us the baking powder.

Marian says, "Since I can't talk you out of this, can we get icing too?"

"Whatever you want. It's your cake."

"Then can I have chocolate icing, please?"

"It's going to cost you."

I'm about to kiss her again when Seth says, "I hope one of you has the recipe on you because I don't."

"That doesn't have to be from scratch," I announce.

Why did I decide on cake? Marian better appreciate all the effort I'm putting into this stupid thing—she's worth it, of course, but I wish I could have thought of something easier to show how happy I am. Knowing for sure that she'll be coming to SU with me next year is the best news I've gotten all year, but cake?

The things I do for her.

Luckily, I am going to be able to keep doing them all of next year. Her parents are chipping in a bit and she's got a partial scholarship. She wants to do engineering too, a different kind, but some of the courses will be the same. It'll be good if I'm around to help her. If she's there, I might even get to live on campus instead of running back and forth all the time. Leah's moving back to La Push next year, so her place will be vacant. With Marian splitting the cost with me, we should be able to afford it. I'm so lost in my daydream that I barely hear Marian ask Seth:

"Anything else?"

"Eggs?" Seth suggests.

I knew I shouldn't have made those omelets yesterday. With a sigh, I start leading us in the opposite direction.

Marian is still talking to Seth. "So do you know where you want to end up after high school?"

Serves the kid right. I'm sort of laughing hysterically to myself. Marian's innocently posed question means the brat might have to answer it, unlike the dodging he usually does.

Though I suppose that's not fair of me. I shouldn't be gloating that the kid has less idea that I did about what to do with his future. Even with Leah coming home from Seattle at the end of the year, money's going to be tight and he's got to know that. Everyone's going to tell him it doesn't matter, but of course it does. I know a thing or two about mother's you would rather chew your arm off than inconvenience.

"No," Seth mumbles. "Embry, do you have cocoa powder?"

"That I have." He woke me up at eight this morning. "You really should start thinking about it. You only have a year before applications have to be in."

"That's nice."

"Do you have ideas about a career or something? Anything?"

"No."

"Nothing?" Marian asks. She's my imprint, but Seth can't resist her sweetness either.

He fidgets, turns three shades of red and looks down at the floor. Only then does he say: "I'm going to be an Elder. Probably. Unless Leah tries to take it from me...but even she wouldn't mess with tradition like that. Sorry."

This last bit is directed at me.

"Why are you apologizing to me for? I don't care," I announce. In twenty years when all my closest friends are the most important people in La Push I might, but right now I don't care that Seth has nothing to figure out because he was born to his destiny.

Somehow, Marian's moved back beside me. Having her hand in mine helps combat the overwhelming feeling of rejection. A bit.

"I didn't think it was hereditary," she says to Seth after a moment.

She really does have a talent for choosing the wrong thing to say. Seth answers, "It's not really, but with the whole..." his voice drops to a whisper, "wolf thing...yeah."

"Oh."

Her eyes go wide, just a little, but I squeeze her hand and she smiles. At me. Not at Seth. It puts me in a much better mood, even though she's still directing her questions at him.

"Is there a course or something you would take to become an Elder?"

"You just have to get old," he laughs. "That and other stuff. My dad taught me most of what I need to know and my mom's teaching me the rest. That's why college isn't that big of a deal to me."

I want to clutch my heart (but that would make me look like an old woman). "You can't not want to go. Boy, you can't just do what other people want you to do. What about what you want?"

"What if what I want to is do what other people want me to do?" Seth grins easily. "Wow, that was a tongue twister. Do you have a pan to bake this all in?"

"Yes. And you're avoiding the subject."

"No, you are trying to make something into a big deal when it's not."

"Sorry that I think the rest of your life is a big deal."

He glares at me in the middle of the supermarket, the way only a seventeen year old can glare—as if I was brain damaged my whole life and everyone was just too polite to tell me. Grabbing stuff off the shelves, he says, "I appreciate the gesture, Embry. I really do. But I've got a plan, so don't worry your pretty head."

"That's it."

It's the only warning I give before I put him in a headlock. He's not that much bigger than me and he knows better than to try fighting in the middle of the grocery store. I'm cutting off his air, so he starts protesting.

"Geddoff," he chokes out. "Jeez."

"Say you're sorry," I demand.

"Fine. You're deformed, Embry. Kiddies everywhere run in fear. I don't know what I was thinking saying your weren't. Now let me go."

"Did Leah teach you how to apologize? Because that was shit."

"Let go or I'll kill you."

"Better," I say. "Still not good."

"Nice to see things are going well for you guys," a voice says behind me.

Rotating around Seth—I'm not letting go unless I have to, because I said I wouldn't—I find that an audience has formed behind Marian. It consists of a few old women with horrified expressions and a very familiar werewolf.

"Hey, Jared," Seth calls out. "A little help here?"

The other, less annoying beta wolf comes forward to help (maybe I shouldn't have said he was Sam's whipping boy all those times) so I let go of Seth. There's no way I can take two of them. Jared laughs as he stands there in front of the packages of Jell-o pudding.

"I did you a favour," he tells me. "The kid would have beaten you eventually."

"Drop dead," I say as we shake hello and I introduce him to Marian (the 'my imprint' part is said quietly, but it still feels great to say). He doesn't seem to scare her as much as my other friends, mainly because I don't spend all my time talking about Jared.

It seems like forever since we talked, which is really weird because two years ago we practically lived together. I've missed him a lot. Sometimes I even miss Paul and I know that's messed up because the guy is a Class A Dick (A stands for asshole, obviously. Paul likes to multitask and be both at the same time; then make not-so-subtle dirty jokes about it). But Jared's a good guy, most of the time, and I'm not sorry to see him.

"How have you been?" I ask. Talking about myself is a dumb idea since I spend my days either with Marian or working on Jake's little problem. Talking about Marian makes me sound inane—talking about Jacob is not a good idea if we don't want word to get back to Sam. And Jake said we don't want word to get back to Sam.

"Good. With the wedding coming up and everything I've been pretty busy, but it can't last for much longer." Jared can't help but add, "And Kim feels so guilty for inflicting her mother on me that she'll do just about anything to make it up to me."

"She does look sort of terrifying," Seth says. "Not Kim, her mom."

Jared sighs. "She's worse than she looks. If the whole town doesn't come out to see her baby girl get married, she'll throw a fit. And he is even worse—he's must have told me three hundred times how much the wedding's costing him, like I was the one who wanted a big wedding. I would have been happy with my parents and you guys." He gives Marian a wolfish smile just to piss me off. "And your beautiful friend, of course."

"But then how would you show off?" I can't help but mutter. The boy has no shame.

Jared doesn't even bother defending his future in-laws. Why would he want to? I think Kim's great (if a little unfortunate looking) but her parents are living nightmares. They're always trying to interfere with everything around the rez, like it's their right, just because they've got some dough. Hell, Kim's mom even tried to shut down Sam and his protectors, at the beginning. Even though he was doing more to stop the drug problem in La Push than anyone else ever had, she didn't like the idea of a bunch of teens policing themselves (or messing with her dealer, but we're not allowed to say that). It was pure dumb luck that Jared imprinted on Kim—for some reason her parents love Jared, especially bragging to him. He can do no wrong, so Sam can do no wrong. I think it went to Sam's head.

"How come you didn't tell me you were seeing anyone?" Jared asks. It's hard not to hear the reproach in his voice. He's my brother and I haven't told him anything in almost two years.

"Sorry." Who ever invented the word should have made it sound a little more impressive. How was I supposed to sound convincing when the word was two syllables—two boring ones at that? I turned to lame excuses instead. "I was trying to introduce her to the guys slowly. Not scare her off, you know."

"I guess that's a good idea. Kim almost had a panic attack and she only had to meet the three of you."

It's been a long time since I thought about those days, hanging out with Sam, Jared and Paul while Jacob and Quil looked at me like I stabbed them in the back. Sam told me all about how Jake would one day be our Alpha—and Quil was pretty much guaranteed to transform, too—but I still missed them. So Sam, Jared and Paul tried to make it up to me. They kept me distracted, they made me laugh, they attacked me without warning (okay, so that was mostly Paul). But they were good guys.

"It helped that Emily was there," I say.

"Yeah. It's too bad your pack doesn't really have anyone like that. The toddlers can't be good company." A slow, slightly evil smirk appears on Jared's face. He's trying not to laugh as he says, "I guess there's always Leah to roll out the welcome mat."

Seth rolls his eyes and pretends he has to get something down the aisle. He knows better than to try and stop the guys from insulting Leah. She just makes it too easy.

"It's helped having Leah around," Marian says. Jared and I try not to let on that we think she's crazy, my darling, innocent imprint that can't see the demons even after I've pointed them out to her. "Having another girl too talk about you crazy boys with is nice."

"Nice?"

Jared was always a good guy. Though he wants to burst out laughing, he manages to make the word sound only a little bit surprised. I'm the one who is cackling at hearing Leah called nice.

"Embry," she says reproachfully. I stop. "When she and Jacob took us out last week, she was very nice to me."

"Jake was probably stepping on her foot the whole time."

"Didn't you say that's just the way they show affection? If that's how they like being happy together, who are we to judge?"

I kiss her, because she's just too adorable.

"Together?"

Shit.

Jared looks slightly confused. If he was Paul, or even one of the younger guys, I would be able to play this off. The fact that Jared has a brain is slightly inconvenient. This requires some finesse. As I'm searching for the right thing to say, Marian thoughtfully screws me over.

"They're dating. At least, I hope they are because otherwise it would make no sense for them to call each other boyfriend and...why is everyone looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing, sweetheart," I mumble. Jared's just staring: "Jake and Leah are dating? What happened to Nessie?"

"Who's Nessie?"

I really can't deal with both of them. Telling Marian about the Cullens is something I decided not to do—it's against the treaty to tell about that group of pale faces and they might not care about the treaty, but I'm an idiot, so I do—but means it's far too late for me to tell her about Nessie now. And Jared's going to report whatever I say back to Sam, which is not going to end well. Luckily, Seth managed to return. He offers up a quick explanation.

"Nessie's just this girl Jake knows. She left town awhile back, but her family's still around. They're friends of ours," he says clearly. I never noticed before, but the kid got pretty scary looking recently. "They stay in Forks, but they're our friends. They've been really cool about Jake and Leah dating, so we help them whenever they need it."

Translation: Sam touches the Cullens and we tear him apart.

It's a simple message and Jared picks it up easily. His eyes are locked on Seth's and he's nodding. "Cool. I can't really picture it, but...well, I hope it works out."

He's going to tell Sam.

We are so fucked.

"We're going to bake a cake," Seth smiles. "We've got to get going or it's not going to be done in time. It was nice seeing you, Jared."

"You too, kid. And you, Embry."

"Yeah. Take care of yourself. Say hi to Kim."

A hundred other meaningless pleasantries pass between us before he finally leaves. I have a sudden urge to tear my hair out.

"What's wrong?" Marian asks me.

"Nothing."

It takes me six minutes to hustle her out of the grocery store, two minutes to load the groceries into the car, five minutes to talk her into going home right then and eleven minutes to drive her there. It's twenty-four minutes before it's just me and Seth sitting in the car.

"Shit!"

"Calm down, Embry. It's not that bad."

"Uh, what part of Jacob's begging us not to tell Sam yet did you miss?" Tomorrow I knew I would feel terrible for yelling at Seth, but right then I couldn't help it. "Shit. What happens if Sam decides to break the treaty? That'll just—shit. It'll be all my fault."

"Why don't we talk to Jake first?" Seth said like this wasn't a huge deal that could start a civil war.

"I don't have any idea where in the hospital he'd be."

"Hospital?" Seth finally sounds worried, but not for the reasons he should be. "Why would he be there?"

"Billy had tests, I thought."

"Oh. Are you sure? Leah said Rachel was taking him."

"Maybe she stepped in last minute." Good. It's about time Jacob had some sort of help from his lazy ass sisters. "He'd be at home then, right?"

"Probably." Seth sits up straighter. "You could drive a little slower. This isn't an emergency."

"When Sam is tearing your precious Cullens into tiny pieces, you might feel differently."

"Sam's not going to attack."

"You willing to bet their lives on that?" I finally realize what I'm saying. "Actually, why don't we wait? Might get rid of them for good."

"You really want to become a murderer?"

"Wouldn't count. They're already dead."

When Seth doesn't respond I turn to...I don't know. Maybe I'm going to heckle him some more or something. But I don't say anything because when I look at him he's shaking.

Transforming in a car is a bad plan.

"I didn't mean it, Seth," I lie. "I'm just upset."

"Whatever," he mutters.

You can't be friends with guys like Quil and Jacob if you like silence. It either bores me to death or creeps me out. Today it just makes me realize what a prick I am.

Seth loves the vampires. I don't get it, I think it's stupid, but I can't seem to get him to stop, either. At first, it was only Edward, then Bella, then Emmett and all of sudden he was their new favorite toy. He doesn't bother explaining it to me—even if I could, I'm not sure I want to understand. How can Seth, who might not have a hurtful bone in his body, give a damn about the vampires, who can only bring hurt? It just doesn't make sense.

But I feel protective of the kid anyway, so I try and take it back.

"You know, Jake might be pissed, but I'm sure Sam wouldn't do anything too stupid. They'll probably have to get together and talk it over, but I'm sure nothing too terrible will happen to anybody."

He doesn't say anything, but he's stopped shaking. Good. We don't have many rules, but up at the top of the list is: shaking equals bad.

I continue: "When we get to the house, you can let me do the talking. Let me take the blame on this."

"Okay," Seth agrees. He's not crazy enough to want both Jake and Leah mad at him.

The car finally gets to Jacob's house, but now that I'm here I don't really want him to be home. I don't want to explain that I'm the useless, letting Marian leak classified information when I shouldn't have. Treason (even the accidental kind) has always been a pretty big deal. With a sigh I get out of the car; Seth follows along behind me, keeping his word and not saying a thing.

The door is locked when we get there and trying to force the knob doesn't work. I want to turn tail and run away, but Seth is right there. Instead, I call: "Jake! Billy! Is somebody home?"

There's no answer, not for a good minute or so, even though I'm pounding on the door. But, finally, I can make out Jacob shouting back.

"Come in," he says. Even with my hearing abilities, it's hard to make out the words, but it doesn't matter if I've heard correctly or not. If he's home and not telling me to go away, I can grab the key I know is under the mat.

I let myself in. There's a pile of plates on the kitchen table, but I'll lecture Jacob about cleaning up after himself another day, a day when I haven't potentially endangered the pack. Instead, I look around and see him nowhere. There's not many possibilities so I head to his bedroom.

The very first thing I see is the smirk on Leah's face.

It doesn't distract me very long from noticing the way the white sheet that's lazily covering her leaves little to the imagination—and I have a pretty good imagination. It's barely covering her chest and if it were to slip down and inch or so...

There's a hand on her hip that belongs to my best friend, so I try and look up at her annoyed but laughing face. She's trying to teach me a lesson here and wants my attention. Jacob is lying beside her, shaking his head, half-bored, half-amused, but letting her be the one to say: "Jeez, Embry, haven't you ever heard of privacy? It's not like—Seth?"

Her voice goes up so high it breaks. One second she's sprawled across Jacob's bed like she owns it (and the world), and the next she's completely wrapped up in the sheet and diving right over Jake to the other side of the bed. They crash to the floor with a particularly painful sounding thud. The boy who came up beside me is so bright red I'm afraid he's going to go supernova. Jacob's head comes up, so I can see him behind the bed.

"Embry," Jacob announces, "Shut the fucking door."

"Right," I agree.

I still can't do it fast enough.

"My eyes," Seth murmurs faintly.

Crap.

Today is not going to be my day.