A New World Full of Strangers
Disclaimer: All the characters in the story are the property of Stephanie Meyer. I have borrowed them for my entertainment and (hopefully) your reading pleasure. I make no profit from their use.
Chapter 21: Reunion
Renesmee and I are in the music room when the roar of the motorcycle coming down the driveway grows louder and louder. Suddenly she stops playing the piano in mid-phrase and squeals.
"Daddy! Daddy!" she shrieks. "He's here! He's here! I'd know the sound of that motorcycle anywhere!"
She is flying out the door before I know it. I go out into the great room where the rest of the family is standing.
"Oh, joy!" says Rosalie sarcastically.
"Cut it out, Rose," I warn. "If you want her to be happy, you are going to have to learn to at least tolerate him."
She hisses in frustration.
"Come on, Rose," says Emmett. "At least he has his own place. He won't be sleeping on the couch or raiding the refrigerator."
"Okay," she says grudgingly. "I'll be good. But if he starts in with those stupid blond jokes again all bets are off."
Emmett looks at me, and grins. We both kind of like those blond jokes.
"Well, let's all go outside and greet him," says Carlisle with his usual kindness. "He probably thinks that we are all in here talking about him."
"He knows that we are talking about him," I say as I listen to his thoughts. "And he's nervous as hell about how we are going to receive him. He doesn't want any more arguing in front of Renesmee."
"Neither do I," says Carlisle firmly. "If you do not think that you can go out and welcome him properly, then you are free to remain in the house."
"I'm coming," says Esme. "He's had a long journey and I'm sure that he would like to relax and have something to eat. And don't worry about the wolf smell in the house. That's why I built the gazebo outside and furnished it with chairs."
"You think of everything, darling," says Carlisle affectionately.
Bella, who has been silent up to this point, and I follow them out. Emmett reluctantly follows Rosalie, who is quietly seething, back to their room so that he can listen to her vent. Alice is debating whether she wants to go out and be blind. Jasper makes up her mind by taking her arm and leading her away.
"He's already doing it," moans Bella, before we go outside.
"What?" I ask.
"Dividing the family against itself," she says. "I love Jacob, but I hate when he does this."
"It's not entirely his fault," I reply. "Rosalie will probably never give up her grudge against him. Emmett will always follow along with her, but he really doesn't care one way or the other about Jacob. And Alice just doesn't like being blind. Jasper doesn't want to leave her alone. If you think about it, the only one who really holds any animosity towards him is Rose."
"Who is also Renesmee's favorite aunt," she groans.
"Why don't we just go outside and forget about them?" I suggest, neatly avoiding the issue. "Renesmee will wonder where we are."
I pick up her hand and lead her out the front door. Jacob is standing in the driveway with Renesmee in his arms. He is so tall that it doesn't even look odd that he is holding such a big girl. When he sees us he puts her down, but not because he's uncomfortable. He wants to give Bella a hug.
"Hey, Bells!" he says, trying to set aside his tension and sound natural. "Great new spread you have here! Do you know that you all are the talk of the town?"
"Well, they don't have much else to talk about right now," says Bella, as she reaches out for him. "What's the latest gossip?"
"It's all good," he says easily, running through his conversation at the diner with the locals in his head for me. "They all like you guys a lot."
"Thanks, Jacob," I say, acknowledging his gesture. "Welcome to Whitehorse."
"You know you guys should really have a name for this place," he says. "Everyone in town calls it the old Parker ranch."
"Yes, we know," says Esme.
Carlisle shrugs, but Esme looks thoughtful. I can see that she likes the idea. As long as she doesn't come up with something too cheesy, it's okay by me. But we have to go to high school with the other teenagers in town and if she comes up with something goofy we will all have to live it down.
"How about the Devil's Lair?" Jacob suggests. "Or Cullen's Crypt?"
"Jacob!" exclaims Bella and punches his chest.
Once upon a time, that move might have broken her hand. But now he is the one who winces. He looks over and winks at me, remembering the same incident. He is making every effort to get things back to normal. I'm glad that the others stayed inside. It would have been much harder for him to deal with eight of us instead of four. Especially since one of the other four is Rosalie.
"You must be hungry, Jacob," says Esme. "Can I get you anything to eat?"
"I stopped at the little diner in town for coffee," he says. "But I didn't get anything to eat."
"I'll get you something," says Renesmee immediately flying off to the house.
"I'll go help her," says Bella.
"This is convenient," says Carlisle amiably. "Perhaps we can chat a bit before she comes back. Let's sit over here."
As we sit down in the gazebo, Jacob looks around.
"Trying to keep the wolf stench out of the house?" he says cheerfully, but still with an edge.
Esme's face falls as she reads his sarcastic remark as an insult.
"It's okay, Esme," I murmur. "Jacob was just being a jerk. He thought that he was being funny. He doesn't know how much time and effort that you put into making things comfortable for him here."
My comments hit their mark and Jacob immediately feels guilty.
"Gee whiz, Esme," he says sincerely. "I was just being my usual idiotic self. The weather is so pleasant out here, even an oaf like me can see why you would want to fix it up."
She smiles at him uncertainly, so he continues.
"At the cafe," he says. "There was a young woman named Aurora who said that she knew you guys. She said that Renesmee told her that I was coming and that you were fixing up some cabin or something for me. How did you know I was coming?"
"Charlie," says Bella briefly, as she and Renesmee return.
"Aurora already told you about the cabin?" asks Renesmee, looking downcast. "I wanted it to be a surprise."
"Oh, believe me it is," he says, but bites back a snide comment how he's surprised that Rosalie didn't build him a doghouse.
I look at him sharply and narrow my eyes. There is no way that we are ever going to effect a truce between those two unless he starts keeping his smart-ass remarks to himself.
"How did Charlie know?" he asks.
"Billy told him," Bella says. "But, um, he's not too happy about it."
"Dad never was real subtle," he comments as he takes a bite of the enormous (there must be a pound if meat on it) roast beef sandwich that Bella made him.
"No," says Bella. "Call your cell phone if you want to hear how subtle he's being. He says that you no longer have the cell phone and that you're not getting it back until you come to your senses."
"Sounds like him," says Jacob with a shrug, but I can see that the message still stings.
"If you need a cell phone, Jacob," offers Carlisle. "I can put you on our plan. Adding another line would be very inexpensive."
"I'll consider it," he replies, without any hint of sarcasm. "So what have you all been doing up here? Besides fixing up this place. By the way, it looks great."
"Thank you," says Esme. "After it was a ranch, the place was a bed and breakfast. Carlisle and the kids found it and decided that it was perfect. With nine people we need something spacious."
"Is that the old barn?" he asks, pointing to the garage. "Charlie was talking about how you have some kind of a big pickup truck, Esme. What have you got, nine or ten cars now?"
"I believe that we are up to ten. Yes, I do," she says, loosening up. "I find it more convenient fir hauling stuff around town. But I also just got a Mercedes Vito van to bring the children back and forth to school."
"Why don't you guys just drive yourselves?" he asks me. "You certainly have enough cars."
"Because none of us are old enough to drive," says Bella with a big smile. "It will be at least another year before Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie can get their licenses, legally anyway."
"Oh that's right," he says. "You better tell me how old you all are so that I don't mess up."
"You haven't already?" asks Bella with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"No," I say quickly. "The only glitch in his conversation in the diner was when he asked for directions to our place. Aurora thought that he should have known. He covered by saying that he didn't write them down."
Jacob rolls his eyes.
"Still at it, huh, Edward?" he says mildly. "Can't resist picking through my brain?"
"Well," says Carlisle, ignoring the jibe. "Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper are high school sophomores, Bella, Alice, and Edward are freshman, and Renesmee is a seventh grader."
"Carlisle and Esme are my Dad and Mom," adds Renesmee. "And Daddy and Momma are my brother and foster sister."
"Can you remember all of that?" asks Jacob.
"Of course, I can," she says. "And we are all going to be in the French immersion programs at our schools."
"I didn't know that you spoke French?" Jacob asks Bella.
"I'm learning quickly," she replies. "Vampires have good memories. But in the beginning, I'm going to keep my mouth shut. Alice will do most of my talking for me."
"Doesn't she always?"
"Stop being a jerk!" says Bella, smacking his thigh. "If anyone is going to mess up, it probably won't be Renesmee. It will be me."
"We start school tomorrow," adds Renesmee.
"Tomorrow?" he says in surprise. "Already?"
"It's almost September, Jacob," I say. "They have probably already started school back at home."
"Oh, yeah," he says. "I guess I lost track of time."
"Do you want to see your new house, Jacob?" asks Renesmee impatiently.
"I've been waiting for you to ask," he says, immediately picking up on her tone.
"Goody!" she says. "Let's show Jacob his cabin."
"I'll come," says Bella quickly. "You guys can follow."
We watch as they go back up the driveway. Renesmee is skipping between them, holding Jacob's hand on one side and Bella's on the other. I turn back towards Esme and Carlisle.
"Cullen's Crypt?" asks Carlisle. "At least he hasn't lost his sense of humor."
"He seems to be trying very hard to be nice," says Esme, still uncertain because of the wolf stench comment.
"He is trying to be nice," I reply. "He deeply regrets that way that we parted back in Forks. He has come to realize that the decision to relocate had nothing to do with him. It was all about us. But he is not just here to make amends."
"No?" asks Carlisle.
"He tried to conceal it from his thoughts, but he couldn't," I reply. "The Council of Elders has told him that Renesmee is banned from ever living at La Push. If he chooses to be with her after she grows up, it will have to be off the Rez. This is a terrible conflict for him. He has a very profound connection to La Push and the Quileute people.
"However, Sam is being very decent about the whole thing. The Council has offered Jacob the position of tribal chief and Alpha of the three-man pack. Sam and Quil convinced Sue to give Jacob a year to figure things out before he has to choose. Billy was opposed, but he was outvoted."
"Three-man pack?" asks Carlisle. "I thought that there were seventeen."
"The Council figures that since we left the neighborhood, they don't need any more than three wolves," I explain. "Sam, Quil, and Jacob have the strongest bloodlines to the original shapeshifter, Chief Taha Aki, through their grandfathers who were the last three wolves. The others will be able to stop phasing and go on to live normal lives."
"Just out of curiosity," says Carlisle. "How does this preclude Renesmee from living on the reservation."
"The Council cannot be sure that because Renesmee is half-vampire, her presence on Quileute land won't mean that the others have to keep phasing," I explain. "Jacob doesn't believe it, but he also hasn't realized that if Renesmee eventually wanted to marry and settle there, that it would mean that there would be at the very least eight full vampires who would want to stop by and visit periodically."
"And we never know about the Volturi," says Carlisle.
"If Aro wanted to acquire her, let's say as a curiosity," I reply. "Then the place to get her would certainly be one where she did not have the protection of other vampires. But the Quileutes haven't thought of that either. I would prefer that we not mention it to Jacob. He's under enough pressure as it is."
"Edward," says Carlisle. "I can't get over how nonjudgmental you are being about all of this."
I shrug.
"Back when Jacob and I were rivals for Bella's affections," I say. "I ultimately gave up insulting him and trying to keep them apart. Doing that was only hurting Bella more. I don't want to do the same thing to Renesmee. But I do intend to have a talk with Jacob about not pushing everyone's buttons with his snide remarks. Among other things, it's just not nice and it's not going to score any points with Renesmee."
"You have a point," says Carlisle nodding. "After all the effort that we have put into making him feel welcome, it would be nice if he didn't sound so ungrateful."
"Well, he is probably going to feel like a huge jerk when Renesmee shows off all the great things that she, Bella, and Esme have done with the cabin," I say.
"And he will feel like an even bigger jerk," says Esme. "When he sees the garage that you built for him when space for the workshop."
"Not to mention the Dodge Tradesman that's sitting in there," says Carlisle.
"It's not the very top of the line," I reply. "But it's a solid truck. If he only uses it for a year, I should be able to unload it easily enough."
"I'm surprised that you aren't down there with them now," says Esme.
"Well, he's probably going to feel mighty guilty about his smart mouth when he sees what we've done for him," I say. "I might as well give him the space to feel his guilt before he has to start repressing it because I'm there."
"Son," says Carlisle clapping his hand down on my shoulder. "I proud of you. You could be a real fool by refusing to be nice to your daughter's 'rather different,' shall we say, werewolf friend."
"I learned from the best," I say smiling at him. "When I brought home my 'rather different' human girlfriend, you were nothing but gracious and accepting. That's what I am going to try to keep in mind the next time he sticks his paw in his mouth."
We all laugh and then Esme says, "You couldn't have picked a better role model."
"I know," I reply. "I know. Now why don't we go down and see if Renesmee hasn't made her seven-foot friend feel about seven inches tall?"
And she is perfectly capable of doing that unintentionally, I think. Every little advantage that she proudly points out that was thoughtfully designed into his living space will twist the blade a little more sharply into his remorse.
And even though I may aspire to Carlisle's high ideals, after all the upset that he's caused, I am still petty enough to take a perverse pleasure in Jacob's guilt. I'm just lucky that no one can read my thoughts.
Author's note: I have written this chapter from Edward's POV because his mind-reading abilities allow us to look into Jacob's mind as well as his (Edward's). It saves readers the ambiguity created by wondering whether what Jacob is saying and what he is thinking are the same. The next chapter will belong to Renesmee's voice.