Disclaimer: I do not own any character, setting, or even a book from Twilight. I also do not own any of these tales, either. I only own Gabrielle and other characters unassociated with Twilight. *A/N at bottom.

Chapter Eight

Stormy Mishaps

The following days have been rather slow and uneventful, mostly because of all the rain we've been receiving lately. Sitting in Emily's warm, comfortable house, I was stroking little Claire's back as she slept throughout the raging storm, innocently sucking her thumb. The guys and Leah had to go attend a meeting of some sort with Sam, so that left Emily, Kim, Claire here.

The three of us were talking softly to each other to prevent Claire from waking. We talked about what most girls would talk about: cooking, fashion, the latest gossip running around town, and of course, the guys.

"Hey Kim, when are you and Jared going to get married?" I asked playfully as a faint tint of pink grazed Kim's face.

"Wha-?" Kim stuttered, Emily and I laughing at her. "Aww, stop laughing!"

"Yes yes, sorry about that dear." Emily apologized as covered her mouth to prevent more giggles coming out. "We all know that he'll ask you sooner or later. The real question is: what about YOU…Gabrielle?"

If I was drinking something at that moment, I either would've choked on it, or spew it on Kim or Emily. Either way, that question caught me off guard. What are those two trying to pull?

"Well Gabrielle? We're waiting." Kim teased but was still smiling broadly. Both were now giving me that smile. That scared me to no end.

"Wha- what are you two talking about?" Now it was my turn to stutter.

"Oh you know, a certain person named…Paul!" Kim said slyly.

I swear I felt my heart skip a beat when she said his name. No, there's no possible way that I have feelings for him. I've been here for about a month and my body reacts this way when someone mentions a name? Sure he's nice…funny…has a soothing tone…incredibly handsome… Whoa. Stop right there, since when did I think he was handsome?

Maybe you do feel attracted to Paul… a tiny voice echoed in my mind. What? No! I can't feel that way to Paul…right? I mean, we just met and all. The voice chuckled softly, then 'tsk tsked'. Have you ever heard of love at first sight?

That made my eyes widen. I felt my face burning red-hot. My stomach churned at the thought. I handed Emily the sleeping toddler and stood up. Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick.

"Emily, I need to use your bathroom." I rasped out in one breath. Rushing upstairs without an answer, I locked the door and made a dive at the commode before vomiting ungodly amounts of bile.

A good five minutes passed when my stomach finally subsided. I was sweating profusely, my hands clamped tightly on the sides of the commode. I gasped for breath as I slowly got up, shaking like an earthquake.

Flushing down the bile, I made my way to the sink to wash my face and rinse out my mouth. Looking up at the mirror, I looked away immediately. Gawd did I looked scarier than the Grudge!

Meh, I was born to play that roll, I thought as I began cleaning myself up.

I was rinsing my mouth out when I heard a faint knocking on the door.

"Gabe? Are you still in there?" Emily whispered softly, but audible enough for me to hear her. I nodded my head even though she couldn't see it.

"Yeah, I'm here, Em."

"That's good. Are you able to go downstairs? Kim thinks she caused you to react the way you did and is a total wreck."

"Oh dear! Alright, let me clean up my mess and I'll be down in a jiff."

"Okay, take your time, honey."

I couldn't help but to feel guilty for leaving them like that. Who wouldn't think it wasn't their fault for having someone rush to the bathroom to vomit?

I quickly cleansed the bathroom and unlocked the door. I quickly walked downstairs to find Emily comforting Kim. I went towards the large sofa slowly, careful to not wake the still sleeping Claire. As I approached them, Kim looked up and ran towards me, throwing her arms around me.

"I'm so sorry Gabe! I shouldn't have said that to you, it was none of my business…" She rambled on and on, her eyes on the verge of tears. I stood there almost awkwardly before wrapping my own arms around her.

"Hey, it's alright. It's not your fault, you were merely making a statement. It's my stomach's fault that it decided to burst on me at that moment."

"But still-"

"Ah, no. It isn't your fault, Kim. It just happened. Plus, I don't want Jared to come in and see your face tear-stained." Apparently saying Jared's name did the trick, because now Kim was wiping away a few tears that managed to leak out.

"You're right. That woud make him worry and I'll never be able to do anything alone ever again!"

"That's the spirit! Speaking of that, where are the guys? They've been gone for about three hours. That meeting couldn't have been that long." I said as we both sat back down on the sofa. It might have been my mind playing tricks on me, but it looked like Emily and Kim glanced uncertainly at each other.

"Oh, I'm sure they'll be back in no time! Those meetings can last a good while." Emily said reassuringly, but I still had the feeling that they were hiding something from me. I shrugged the thought out of my head as Kim brought up a different topic and once again, we were all talking like nothing happened.

After an hour of nonstop chattering, Sam, Leah, and the gang finally came back, but absolutely soaked and dirty. Twigs, leaves, grass and mud were tangled in their hair and their clothes, oh dear Lord there was no way of saving the clothing. Truthfully, they looked like hammer goo-shit gone bad.

"Holy God, what happened to you all?! You look like you went through Hell and back." I stated as Emily handed them each a towel.

"Well excuse the Hell out of us." Leah retorted angrily.

"Leah, shut up." Seth said in a strained voice as he plucked a dead leaf from his hair.

"Make me, baby brother."

"Piss off."

"That's enough you two. Everyone's too tired to listen to your bickering." Sam stepped in, silencing them. Leah shot a hurt glance towards him, glared at Seth, then stomped off to the bathroom. Great, now I made even more tension between Leah, Sam and Seth. Nice going Gabrielle, not.

The guys took turns taking showers, thank God. They smelled like wet dogs, but I didn't say anything after the outburst earlier. While they were taking their showers, Emily, Kim, and I made supper. With the three of us cooking at the same time, supper didn't take long to cook.

Everyone ate heartily, without the food fight this time. Claire ended up making a complete mess of herself, so I offered to wash her.

"So are you ready for your bath, Claire?" I asked after everyone was finished eating.

"No! No bath for Claire!!" The little toddler shouted as I wiped a splotch of ketchup off her plump cheek.

"Now Claire, you know if you make a mess, you have to take a bath."

"No bath!" Turning her head to the wall away from me, I tried cleaning her face more, but she stuck her nose in the air and crossed her arms. I sighed, but not in defeat. I had trick up my sleeve that's full proof.

"Oh, well that's a shame. Now whose going to take a bath with me and wash my hair?" I faked a pout and threw my hands in the air in despair.

"Paul will more than happy to assist you, Gabe!" Seth yelled from the living room, followed by a "FUCK YOU" and the sound of someone getting the living shit kicked out of them.

Claire apparently didn't hear them, because she slowly uncrossed her arms and turned her head back to me.

"Claire wash sissy's hair?" She asked so innocently, that I couldn't help myself but to engulf her in a hug.

"And I wash Claire's hair. I'll even throw in Embry's rubber ducky if you want!"

"What?!! Not Toby the Viking duck!" Came Embry's voice from the same room, and yet again, met the same fate Seth did.

"Rubber ducky? Really, sissy?!"

"Of course!"

"Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise."

"Yay!!" Claire squealed as I put her on top of my shoulders. "Charrggee!!!"

"Aye eye, Captain!" I saluted as I pushed the dinning room door open. As we passed by the sofa, I saw that Seth and Embry were tied up and gagged with Paul watching them intently. Emily, Sam, Quil, Jake and Leah were sitting on the sofa while watching some action movie, not giving a second thought about the two tricksters tied up. I laughed at those two and even gave a small wave before trotting upstairs with little Claire.

I ran the hot water in the large tub, got Claire's extra pair of clothes and was thankful that Emily had a whole closet full of clothes that she no longer wore and found Embry's rubber duck. When I came back with the clothes, Claire was already stripped and sat impatiently next to the tub. I began taking my clothes off, but she insisted that she helped me. I bent down to Claire's level and let her pull my shirt off, both of us giggling like mad scientists. I set the towels on the edge of the sink and into the tub we went.

As promised, I let Claire wash my hair after I scrubbed hers. Claire was playing scuba diving with Toby the Viking rubber ducky when I splashed her on the back. Uttering a short "eep", she cupped some water with her hands and threw it at me. I swept the bathwater at her once more, then she narrowed her eyes and growled out,

"This means woar."


Downstairs, Author's POV

There sat in the living room was Sam, Emily, Leah and the guys. Sam had his arms wrapped around Emily's waist, Leah kept shooting hurt glances towards them. Kim was on Jared's lap, along with Jake and Quil sitting on a larger sofa. Seth and Embry were still tied up and gagged with Paul watching them over like a hawk as everyone was watching Arnold Swartznagger's Predator.

When the Predator was about to blow everything to Hell, a faint giggling sound and something being thrown upstairs in Emily's bathroom was heard, but no one paid any attention to it. A few minutes went by quietly until the giggles erupted back and three times louder.

"Damn, must be some kind of war going on up there." Quil muttered, earning a nod from every person in that room. Silence passed over them once more until they heard Gabrielle's,

"I got you now, Evil Duck Lord of Doom!!" If you were able to sweat-drop like the anime shows, right then would've been the perfect time.

"Shit, can't they stay quiet?" Leah quickly stood up and marched upstairs to yell at the noisy bath-mates. Going through everyone's mind was the same word: bitch.

Leah was up to the bathroom in no time. Stomping towards the door, she knocked loudly and yelled,

"Hey, keep it down in there!" Meanwhile beyond the door, Gabrielle and Claire continued their game of, "Evil Ducks", Leah unnoticed. By now, Leah was more than pissed. "Answer me when I'm talking to you!" Still no answer. Now Leah was shaking with anger, one wrong move and she might phase right there. "That's it! Listen here goddammit- whoa shit!!" Leah yelled, but as soon as she jerked open the door, she was overthrown by a wall of bubbles flowing out of the bathroom.

Gabrielle and Claire were in the middle of Toby walking the plank when the door swung open, releasing all the bubbles that accumulated during their game. The only thing Gabrielle heard was Leah's "whoa shit!" before she fell backwards from the impact of the force of the bubbles tumbling out of the bathroom.

"Leah?" Gabrielle called out to the unmoving mound of bubbles beyond the bathroom door. Claire popped her head up and tried looking above the bubbles, but couldn't. "Don't move, Claire." Gabrielle said sternly as she got up from the bath tub and slipped on a large blue bath robe. Stepping out of the bathroom, she knelt down and started removing the bubbles when everyone else was upstairs also.

The guys began laughing immediately at what they saw, Sam and Emily not so. Gabrielle finally reached Leah's downed head, a sigh of relief released from her system.

"Oh good. Are you alright- Leah what's wrong?" Gabrielle began, but stopped when she saw that tears were streaming down Leah's face. "Leah, I'm so-"

"Don't touch me." Came Leah's cracked voice.

"But you have-"

"I said don't fucking touch me! Don't ever touch me again you bitch!!" Leah screamed, her face burning with embarrassment. Quickly standing up, she ran passed the guys and out the door into the forest that neighbored Emily's house. Without even taking her clothes off and tying them around her ankle, Leah phased and ran further and further away from them. Further away from that house. Further so she couldn't hear their laughter. Further so they couldn't see her shattered dignity. Further away…from Gabrielle.


Holy fucking shit, sorry that this took so long to get out everyone. Talk about a major writer's block. And with summer band coming up in ten days, the stories may take even longer to come out. Damn…I'm sorry.

Alright, now with the story, I felt bad about making Leah humiliated in this chapter. Yes, I know I said that I am going to Leah a bitch, but come on. Even writing about someone getting their dignity crushed like that is hard to write…but it depends on who the character is.

Okay then, again, sorry it took hella long to come out, but trust me. You wouldn't have wanted to read that first piece of shit I had written out. K, I'm out. 'Member, review!