Author's Note: Okay, here's my little stalling installment. I just wanted to logic-fy the wolves' reactions later on, and I wanted to take a bit of a break from our two boys for a bit. Sorry this is so short, but I only wanted a small interlude. x3 So enjoy! Chapter nine will be up in just a couple days, hopefully. (And sorry it's taking so long… I've run out of pre-written chapters, so now I'm writing them as I'm posting them!)
Interlude: The Family
The air was full of tension, Emily noticed, when the wolf pack came into their typical hang-out in her kitchen-dining room. Everyone was edgy, something she was only used to seeing in Paul, and no one would look directly at Leah.
"It's pretty obvious to me," the she-wolf began when she entered, but Paul knocked her hard with his shoulder as he stormed past her to the pantry and she broke off with a glare. Sam came in just after her, followed by Embry, Quil, Jared and Seth. Colin and Brady shuffled in after, looking a little lost. Emily knew they weren't used to the normal pack drama yet, so it was all probably a bit jarring and uncomfortable.
"You're wrong," Embry growled, punctuating it with a thud of his first against the small kitchen table as he sat down at it. Seth sat beside him and was fidgety and worried, like he wasn't sure who to agree with: his best friend or his sister.
"Well, I hope she's wrong! Imagine if he was checking one of us out while… we were…" Jared trailed off as the rest of the pack silenced him with various degrees of furious looks. "Sorry, just trying to bring a little humor to the situation--"
"Well, don't! The whole thing is sickening!" Paul snapped, snatching a pack of crackers from the pantry and tearing it open with his teeth.
Quil, who slouched in a chair on the other side of Embry, sat up and frowned at his fuming packmate. "You can't help who you fall in love with, Paul."
Leah laughed sharply at that and Sam flinched a little at the sound. Emily looked around at everyone in the small room and crossed her arms. "What is all of this about?" she demanded. "I take it you're talking about Jacob and… who?"
They were all silent, as if saying it out loud would make it real, but at last Seth whispered, "Edward Cullen."
"You're wrong!" Embry repeated even more vehemently before, and his hands were shaking on the tabletop.
"Jacob hates that bloodsucking scum!" Paul snarled at Leah, joining the rest of them at the kitchen table. "He could never stop talking about how much he hated him when the Cullens came back!"
Sam finally spoke up from where he leaned against the far wall and staring pensively down at the floor. "Which is another way of saying that Jacob could never stop talking about him."
"Wait, we're actually taking this theory seriously? C'mon, this is Leah we're talking about!" Jared protested.
Leah suddenly sat up from her slouch and sneered at him. "Which means what? I'm not a reliable source of information? You saw the conversation with him from my own mind!"
"Maybe you just weirded him out or something," Seth said hopefully. "He always looks guilty and angry when he's upset."
Sam shook his head. "He's hiding something very serious from us, and all of Leah's points make sense. Why won't he phase anymore? What is he trying to keep secret in his mind?"
No one had a good answer to that.
"Well, if we can't be sure… maybe we shouldn't do anything yet…" Colin put in hesitantly.
Frowning, Emily finally came over to the table and sat down as well. Perhaps it would be a good idea to push the conversation away from a bunch of volatile people bouncing aggressive off of one another to a family thinking of solutions for their brother. "Why don't you think of this in terms of what you would do? What if Jacob is, indeed… romantically involved with Edward?" she asked reasonably. Frankly, the idea shocked her, but she wasn't willing to say so out loud. Jacob seemed to be so head over heels in love with Bella, it was hard to imagine him with someone else. But the boy was young yet, and things could always change. But to shift to Edward Cullen of all people…?
"Order him to stop?" Quil suggested after a moment's silence, but he shifted uncomfortably at the prospect. What if they felt for each other what he felt for Claire?
"Just a good, solid beating should suffice," Paul muttered, and he bristled as if he expected the fight to be soon.
Seth opened his mouth and closed it a couple times before speaking. "Maybe… we can just leave him alone. He's… it's his business. I don't like it any more than you guys do, but… he's family. He's our brother." He was quiet and faltering, but the loyal conviction was there.
Jared stared down at the table. "Family or not, he's still technically a traitor. And traitors are kicked from the pack."
"Hey, wait a second!" Embry growled, "It's not as if he'd ever choose the bloodsucker over us! He would only be a traitor if he would do that."
"Would he?" Quil asked quietly.
"No, I don't think so," Sam replied.
"Me, neither," Embry agreed firmly. "Jacob knows better than to throw his life away for a stupid fling."
Sam drummed his fingers lightly on his thigh and watched them silently. "Perhaps it would be better if we just let this situation… play itself out." He said at last.
They were all silent for a moment. "You think Edward will dump Jacob like a bag of rocks and go back to Bella, don't you?" Leah murmured quietly, and there was chilly judgment in her tone.
Sam nodded. "I do. A werewolf and a vampire just aren't meant to last. And… well, Edward seems pretty dedicated to his chosen prey."
He said this with a resigned assurance--as if he believed that would be the happy ending to it all. Half the pack nodded faintly, but neither of the Clearwater siblings would look at their leader and Quil only stared bleakly.
Seth put his arms on the table and laid his head on them. "Jacob's a good guy. He doesn't deserve that again."
Embry looked over at him, slightly resentfully. "Would you rather they stay together? What good could come from that?"
"I don't have a solution, okay?" Seth shot back, "But Jacob's our best friend. Our brother. Our packmate. He… he seems to have this nasty habit of getting partners that are bad for him, but he still cares for them. He'll still hurt when Edward leaves."
"It would be better for him, though," Brady put in firmly.
Nevertheless, none of them looked happy about it. They had all seen Jacob the night Bella flew off to Italy to save Edward. He was ruined. He knew he was going to lose the minute she had pulled her arm from his grasp, and he had stood with his muzzle almost touching the ground as he brought back the news to the pack. If he lost another person… If Bella had inadvertently taken another piece of him…
"And maybe he can stay with us when or if Edward leaves him alone," Jared continued, trying his best to sound bright and hopeful. Unfortunately, all he could really feel was sad and nauseous.
Sam met Emily's questioning gaze. Ultimately, they all knew, he decided what was to be done with Jacob. "No," he murmured at last, "Jacob stays with us no matter what he does or who he chooses. He's our brother."
Judgment had been passed, and everyone fell into a solemn silence again. The only sounds were the crackle of the cracker bag as Paul reached for them again and of Emily's quiet and resigned sigh.
That poor boy.
"No one tells Jacob that we know," Sam said, after the silence had dragged on a bit. "We're not going to make a deal out of this, or reveal that we've been speaking behind his back. He'll tell us when he wants to, and we will deal with it then, alright?"
Paul made a noise, almost like a strangled snort, in the back of his throat, but nodded--as did everyone else. Emily, however, worried. What would be worse for Jacob, to have the pack members confront him individually, or to have him come out to the pack as a whole against his will? She supposed neither one would be good, but there was more pressure on him if faced with all of his packmates at once. She said nothing, though. It wasn't her business to jump into a fight, it was her business to sweep up the broken glass when it was done.
"Why couldn't you have just been wrong?" Embry muttered darkly, slouching in his seat, and studied the grain of the table.
Nobody had an answer.
"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life, sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."
~Erma Bombeck
A/N: Sorry, folks. No song for this one.
Anyway, I just wanted to give you guys a small glimpse into what each pack member is thinking about the situation right now--it'll come up later on the test. =P Chapter nine should be here shortly so… the salad before the appetizer.
