A/N: Hey

A/N: Hey, guys. Sorry I've been lame with updates lately; hopefully this chapter will help make that up to you! Or, you know, make you dislike me more than you probably already do for being a crap uploader. Either way, enjoy! 3 xxx

CHAPTER EIGHT: DIAL TONE

Jacob's POV:

Nessie was lying in bed, the blankets pulled up around her as she nestled into her essentially throne of pillows. She held our newborn daughter in her arms, cooing soft things to her. We'd been home for about half an hour, and Nessie and Rose had both gotten cleaned up.

I could hear Seth and Makenna whispering excitedly in the hallway. We hadn't wanted Seth seeing Rose until she was sufficiently clean and sweet smelling, and now that she was both, Seth knew that it was almost time to meet his baby sister.

I kissed Nessie's forehead and opened the bedroom door, cuffing Seth on the shoulder and ruffling Makenna's hair. "You ready to meet her, buddy?" I asked him, smiling as he kept trying to lean around me and peek into the dimly lit room.

"Yeah," he said with a grin. It made me happy to see that Seth wasn't displaying any signs of jealousy or resentment. I'd heard of too many older siblings who'd ended up feeling unloved or left out because of a new baby in the family. Hell, Becca and Rachel had felt that way about me. It was something common. I could remember, even once I was about eight or nine, that they would get upset when it seemed that I got more attention than they did. I didn't want Seth to feel that he had to ever be upset or jealous.

"Do I get to see her?" Makenna asked eagerly, dark eyes shining. Seth smiled at her, clearly just worshipping her every word. I mentally reminded myself to start keeping an eye on them over the next few months. I trusted them both; they were great kids, but they were also close to becoming true teenagers. And there was no way that once their hormones picked up that they were going to be allowed to just have sleepovers whenever anymore.

That was where Seth had been when we'd pulled in the driveway, hosting one more person than we'd left with. Two, if you counted Carlisle, who had eventually met up with us and helped tidy up some of the necessary medical procedures that Emmett hadn't been as knowledgeable on, like cutting the cord. Half of the nails on his left hand were currently painted, as Makenna had asked if she could give him a makeover. Seth wasn't going to say no, obviously. I couldn't help but smile at the silver polish.

"Of course you get to see her," I laughed. "But I think Seth should see her first, okay? It's his baby sister, after all. I'll tell you what. How about you wait here for a minute, and then once Seth gets to meet her, I'll let you come in too. That sound okay?"

Makenna nodded, hugging Seth. "Go meet your sister, big brother," she said happily.

Seth looked up at me then, fear showing on his face for the first time. "I'm an older brother," he breathed reverently. "Dad, what if I mess this up?"

I squeezed him. "You're not going to mess anything up," I said. "Come on; you have someone waiting to meet you."

I gently steered him into the room, and Nessie smiled broadly at him. "Come meet little Rose Leah, sweetheart," she said, patting the space next to her on the bed.

Seth slowly walked over and climbed up next to her, sweeping his hair out of his eyes in order to get a better look at the baby. "Hey," he said softly, tentatively reaching out one finger to our unusually alert daughter. She grabbed a hold of it, and I saw something in him melt. "Well, she's cute," he conceded, one corner of his mouth turning up in a gentle smile. "And little. Was I this small?"

Nessie shook her head. "You were a bigger baby, Seth. Rose is pretty small."

Seth looked up at her. "Do you think she'll like me, mom? Do you think I can be a decent big brother?"

"I don't know how you couldn't be a decent big brother, sweetheart," Nessie replied. "You're going to do just fine." She saw Makenna standing shyly in the doorframe and grinned. "Come see her, Mickey."

Makenna grinned back and entered, her mouth opening a bit happily when she saw the infant. "She's so pretty!" she cooed, looking star struck. "I hope my baby looks just like that when I grow up."

Nessie smiled. "No doubt she'll be beautiful if she takes after you," she said.

Makenna flushed. "You're too nice. You sure do know how to make them, Aunt Ness." She hesitated. "Everyone back at the house is desperate to see her; should I tell them to give you some time alone?"

Nessie shook her head. "They can come; I don't mind. Get your mom over here first, though, alright? And mine? That'd be awesome." She turned to me. "Jake, you can text Leah and ask her if she wants to see her. I mean, she has her name after all."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll try, but Leah isn't answering my texts. Again. She does that periodically."

"It's because of the imprint," Makenna blurted.

I stopped. "What?"

Makenna looked embarrassed. "Seth came and got me to take me to Grandpa's house the other day; Seth Clearwater. Leah was in the passenger seat, and I heard her talking to Seth about the imprint. She doesn't like me much, if you haven't noticed; she tends to pretend I'm not there."

"I don't understand that in the least bit," Seth interrupted sullenly.

Makenna smiled absently, patting his shoulder. "Anyway, she said something about the imprint. About how talking to you just makes things worse on her? But then she looked up and caught me watching her in the rearview mirror, asked me what I was looking at, and quit talking."

I frowned. "Huh. Guess I didn't think about it that way. She probably doesn't want anything to do with me, does she?"

Nessie put a hand on my arm. "That's not your fault. Don't feel bad over something you can't help."

I'd learned my lesson with defending Leah to my wife, so I just nodded and bit my lip. But I could only imagine what Leah must be going through. She only saw me on occasions now, and when she did, it wasn't like we were overtly affectionate. I would have done anything to change her situation for her if I could; she was my beta, and it really sucked to turn into a wolf and feel her pain.

Emmett strolled in without knocking, still wearing his blood splattered tee shirt. "So in other news, Nahuel nearly burnt the house down," he said casually. "He stuck a fork in the electrical socket like the three year old he is; I'm not quite sure where he thought he was going to succeed with a move like that, but it was funny nevertheless." He leaned down and kissed Makenna's forehead. "Your older brother isn't that smart, my darling."

Makenna smiled slightly. "He isn't used to living in civilization. He learns by experimenting. And here you were getting on to me when I laughed at his startled toaster reaction."

"Rose was watching," Emmett winked. "I had to look like the responsible adult I'm not." He chuckled. "What do you think of your little sister, Seth?"

Seth grinned. "She's adorable. I love her already."

"Yeah, well, she's getting my dry cleaning bill," Emmett said in mock seriousness. "She sure is something, though, isn't she?"

I started to respond, but my phone rang insistently. Glancing down, I saw Seth Clearwater's goofy face smirking up at me from his caller ID. "Hello?" I answered, mouthing Seth to Nessie.

"Hey, Jake, heard you had your baby!" he said. "Wait, I mean, you didn't have the baby. Talk about painful…"

"How'd you find out?" I asked clulessly.

Emmett, whose hearing was good enough to make out Seth's end of the conversation, started whistling and busying himself with adjusting a photo of Nessie on the fireplace.

"Emmett texted me," Seth laughed. "He didn't tell you? Anyway, I was just calling to say congrats. Oh, and did you hear? I got a girlfriend!"

I laughed, remembering how stressed he'd been over the short lived imprint with Edward. "Awesome. I wanna meet her sometime."

"Bring her over to your crazy family's place? Right." Seth chuckled. "Just kidding. Of course you can meet her. Hey, have you heard from Leah?"

I stopped. "No? Why?"

Seth didn't sound too concerned. "I haven't heard from her since last night; I was just wondering. She's probably out with Rachel or something. I heard Paul and Rachel talking about how Leah needed to loosen up and go for a night out with them, so that's probably what happened."

"Let me know when she gets back, alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure thing. Hey, can I come meet that baby?"

Nessie had heard him, and she nodded.

"Come on over," I said. "Don't bring Joseph or any of the pack though; Nessie can't have it too loud in here."

"Wouldn't think of it. Hey, I think I hear Leah, hold on. Leah? Leah, is that you?" he called.

There was a moment of silence.

"Leah, are you home?" he called again. "Jake's worried about you; are you ignoring him still? Leah?"

Suddenly, though, I heard a cry of surprise and maybe pain. It belonged to Seth. The phone obviously clattered to the ground on his end.

"Seth?" I asked in alarm. "Hey, did you bounce your head off of the cabinet door again?" I laughed nervously. "Uh, hey. You there?"

There was no response, but I heard fumbling, as if someone had picked up the phone.

The call ended.