I'll keep the apologies to a minimum here in regards to how long it took me to write this chapter. I really am sorry. People shouldn't waste so much time on the Internet because there is a whole world full of stuff to do. That said, enjoy reading this story online and please do me the favor of reading the story I co-wrote called Change of Heart under the penname Grangers.

-E

Chapter 21: A Day Off

Jacob placed a mug of tea in front of Nessie and she lifted her head feebly to thank him and take a sip. I could tell by looking at her that she was sick. Her skin was extra pale and there were circles under her eyes. It wasn't often that Nessie got sick with her extra-tough immune system that came with her being part vampire, but when Nessie go sick, she got really sick.

I quietly stepped out of the room to let Jake and Nessie figure out what to do. There was no way I was going to do more wedding stuff but Jake would leave Nessie's side and drive me to La Push. If I was lucky, Seth's patrol wouldn't have lasted long and he would be awake by now.

My phone sat on the bedside table and I reached for it so I could text Seth to ask if he was awake. Usually he was quick to respond to my texts, but my phone didn't buzz. How was I supposed to kill the time until he woke up? I wandered over to the closet to leaf through clothes that weren't actually mine.

Alice had stocked the racks with clothes of many different sizes so no matter how fast Nessie grew there would always be clothes for her. How she had managed to stockpile so much clothing with no doubles was beyond me. There was nothing of interest at the moment, so I walked back to the living room.

"Nessie did you know that you had this—Oh hey Carlisle," I said. Carlisle was in the middle of talking to Nessie and Jake, but he paused to say hello. "What's going on?"

"Based on the symptoms, I think Nessie has the flu," he informed me. "I don't have any with me, but there is a medicine we could try, though it may not have an effect on you."

"It's worth a shot," Jake answered for her.

"I'll have to pick some up from the pharmacy then." They could probably see the light bulb over my head when I realized that this was my ticket to La Push. And my ticket to Seth.

"Could I come with you, Carlisle?" I pleaded.

"I don't see why not." Step one complete.

"You should take her to La Push afterwards," Nessie added with a covert wink in my direction. "If you don't mind of course."

"Not at all," Carlisle replied.

"You should drop her off at Emily's. Seth's probably still out cold after patrol last night," Jake said.

"Yeah, he is." Jake stared at me. "What? I texted him and he didn't answer. Common sense tells me that he's not awake yet."

"This flu isn't going to cure itself," Nessie interjected. "Liza, please put some shoes on before you leave."

"Got it, chief." My Converse were on the floor in the bedroom and slid them on. I dashed back out while sliding my phone in my pocket.

"Alright Eliza, let's go. If the symptoms get worse call me right away, though I'm sure you'll be fine," Carlisle said, ushering me toward the door.

"Thank you, Carlisle," Jake called back as we stepped through the door and into the forest. Carlisle carried me while he sped through the forest so the trip would be shorter. Within five minutes we were stepping through the door to the garage to find Alice sitting on the hood of Carlisle's Mercedes.

"Unfortunately Alice, both Nessie and Eliza will be unable to help you with the wedding today. Nessie has come down with the flu and I'm taking Eliza to La Push now," Carlisle explained before Alice could get in a word. Ten different emotions flashed across her face and settled on a combination of annoyance and disappointment.

"There's no use in me arguing with you," she said after a moment. "Tell Nessie I hope she feels better, but I will at least be expecting you to come tomorrow, Liza." She disappeared into the house to fast for me to notice her leave. Carlisle opened the passenger door for me and we drove into town to stop at the pharmacy.

I sat in the car while Carlisle got Nessie's flu medicine. It only took Carlisle a few minutes to return to the car with a small plastic bag. Our next stop was La Push.

"I haven't really talked to you in a while," I said when he started the ignition.

"No, we haven't. We've just been so busy as of late. Alice is such a perfectionist with the vow renewal, which is a bit funny since it's not even hers," he chuckled.

"I bet you're excited."

"Yes. I love Esme so much and I'm glad to remind her of that." I smiled at the sweetness of that statement. By this time we were at the boundary line for La Push.

"You're driving past the boundary line?" I asked.

"I can't make you walk the whole way. Sam and I have an agreement," he replied as we drove through the reservation. Only the fact that Seth was asleep and I would be at Sam and Emily's prevented me from seeing Seth, and I was thrilled. We were in front of the tiny house now, and Carlisle opened the car door for me.

I skipped up to the door and only had to knock once before Sam pulled the door open. He nodded toward Carlisle before turning to me.

"Come on in, Eliza."

"Thank you so much for letting me hang out here today," I said.

"Anything to help my brother," he replied, referring to Jake. Emily stood at the counter of the tiny kitchen, assembling a multitude of sandwiches.

"Hi, Eliza." She turned from her work to give me a hug.

"What are the sandwiches for?"

"We're having a picnic on the beach to celebrate the news," she replied with a huge grin on her face.

"Awesome—wait what news?" I pressed, glancing from Emily to Sam.

"I'm going to be a father," Sam answered, looking happier than I'd seen him in a long time.

"Oh my gosh! Congratulations!" I exclaimed hugging them both. "Not to be rude, but it's about time."

"I won't argue with that." Emily jokingly elbowed Sam for that comment.

"We knew for a while, but we've been keeping it as much of a surprise as we can," Emily said. Sam laughed at the notion of keeping something a surprise in the pack. "The guys were all sworn to secrecy until today." Emily began packing the sandwiches into large containers to take with us to the beach.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I asked her.

"Yes there is. Could you go to the linen closet and get the usual picnic blanket?" I nodded and proceeded up the stairs to the tiny linen closet. Of course, the blanket I was looking for was just out of reach, so I kicked off my shoes and stood on a stack of towels to pull it off the shelf. I was about to bring the blanket down to Emily when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket.

The blanket fell from my hands as I rushed to pull it out to read the text from Seth. I'm awake. Is everything okay, Liza?

My reply: Nessie's sick. But otherwise all is well. Are you going to the picnic? It took only a moment for him to respond.

Tell her I hope she feels better. And I am going to the picnic. How do you know about that?

I'm at Sam and Emily's house helping them get the food together because I'm going too. :) I wished I could be there to see his reaction to that text, but his response was all I got.

You should have seen the happy dance I just did. Well, probably not because I'm a bad dancer. Now you get back to helping Emily so I can see you sooner. I love you.

I love you too, Seth, I typed. I picked the blanket up off the floor and ran back down the stairs. The sooner I could see Seth the better. When I got to the foot of the stairs, Sam and Emily were kissing, obviously taking advantage of their time alone.

"Hi, guys," I said, interrupting their moment. They looked startled, as if they forgot I was in their house before that moment.

"Sorry," Sam said with a laugh. It looked as though the sandwiches were packed and ready.

"Thank you, Eliza," Emily said, taking the blanket from my arms. "We're ready to go now." Sam picked up the sandwiches and a cooler full of drinks and left only the blanket for Emily to carry.

"Do you want me to carry anything for you?" I offered.

"Are you sure, Eliza? This might be heavy for you," Sam answered. I rolled my eyes and imagined the container of sandwiches hovering just above where Sam had previously been holding it and when I looked back, it really was hovering.

"I think I got it." He threw a quick glance at me, but he knew it wasn't his place and let me continued to walk. We were the first ones at the beach, and Emily quickly spread the blanket onto the sand. There was no rain and the air was warm enough, though there was the slight chill that always came with cloudy days, as perfect as the weather could get for a picnic on the Olympic Peninsula.

We had a few moments of calm before a football flew through the air above my head and Sam stood to make a perfect catch. In his moment of victory, he didn't notice that Jared was barreling toward him at top speed, going for the tackle. Embry jogged over to high five Jared for their teamwork. Kim walked over next, and went straight to congratulate Emily on her pregnancy

As the others started coming, I found myself staring intently in the direction of Seth's house. Rachel walked over to give me a hug and ask me where Jake was.

"Nessie is sick so Jake stayed home with her," I replied. But I missed her response because one glance over my shoulder revealed what I had been waiting all day for. Seth quickened his pace when he saw me and soon I was in his arms.

"I'm so happy to see you," he said, sneaking in a kiss next to my left ear. A huge smile was my reply. Sandwiches were already being passed around and Leah had thought to bring about ten huge bags of chips. We sat on the blanket and started eating, or inhaling in the case of the wolves.

"Before we continue, I think we need to have a toast to Sam and Emily on their baby who they are most definitely going to name Paul regardless of the gender," Paul said, lifting his soda.

"No way," Sam replied through a chorus of "cheers".

"That's 'cause they're going to name the baby Eliza," I spoke directly to Paul, making a face at him in the process.

"In your dreams, kid," he countered.

"You two are both children," Emily laughed.

"At least for me that wasn't an insult," I stuck out my tongue at Paul. Every sandwich was devoured within ten minutes and we sat basking in that quiet minute of full stomachs. I leaned against Seth and he stroked my hair as we listened to the other conversations.

"Football?" Quil asked after a minute. The pack collectively nodded in agreement. "Ladies, if any of you want to play, we'll switch to touch football."

"I'll pass," Leah replied a little bitterly.

"So will I," Kim and Rachel said at the same time. They laughed at the coincidence.

"I'm game," I said standing up. When they were playing fair, a game of touch football with the pack could be a lot of fun.

"Awesome," Quil mussed my hair. "I believe Collin and I are captains for this game."

"I'll take first pick," Collin said, immediately gesturing for Brady to join him.

"To be nice, I'll do ladies first and pick Liza." I thanked Quil with a grin.

"Paul."

"Embry."

"Seth. Sorry Liza." Collin worriedly glanced at me, hoping I wouldn't be too angry that Seth wasn't on my team.

"I'm fine, Collin," I assured him.

"Back to picking teams. Sam," Quil said.

"Since you took Eliza, I'll give you Jared," Collin finished, pulling a quarter out of his pocket. Quil called heads, but the coin landed on tails so we were going to be defense first. We formed a huddle to figure out whom we'd each be defending.

"I'll take Paul, Sam take Collin, Embry cover Brady, and Jared you should cover Seth—"

"No fair!" I interrupted Quil. "If I get Seth I swear on my life I won't let him get past."

"Fine. But Jared keep an eye on her and I could also use help with Paul."

"No problem," Jared said. Before we could begin Sam stepped forward and turned on his alpha voice.

"This is TOUCH football, so any tackling and there will be serious consequences. Understand?" We nodded our assent and got ready for kickoff. I tried to avoid Seth's gaze as the ball flew threw the air and was caught by Brady.

Jared urged me to start running toward Seth, but we weren't needed there. Brady was already halfway across our designated football field, skillfully dodging the guys on my team. Finally, Embry was able to tag him, but the other team was incredibly close to the end zone.

"That was awesome, Brady," the guys on the other team congratulated him. Quil just shook his head and assured us that we would make up for it and whip their sorry butts later. We assembled at the line of scrimmage for the next play. Seth smiled at me before Collin could shout, "hike" and I smiled back with a bit of laughter playing at the corners of my lips.

Again, I ran, this time I was right in front of Seth, making it clear that Seth would get tagged as soon as he caught the ball. He was incredibly fast, dodging me easily before effortlessly catching the ball. He didn't even make it a full yard before I tagged him.

"Really, Liza?" There was annoyance in his voice but he was smiling.

"Yes, really," I giggled getting ready for the next play. Collin's team scored the first touchdown, but we were ready at kickoff and gained about 35 yards. By second down, we were 25 yards from the end zone and I was the only one on my team open when the play began.

Silently, I prayed that I would catch the ball as it flew, landing in my arms. I dashed the remaining distance with Seth and Paul on my tail and I made the touchdown a second before Seth grabbed me around the waist in a failed attempt to stop me.

"Touchdown!" Sam called.

"In your face!" I laughed at Seth, kissing his cheek before he let me go. The members of my team high-fived me with.

"It's a good thing you picked Liza for our team, Quil," Embry said.

"If Jake were here, he'd be so proud of you." Quil patted me on the back. We continued to play for another twenty-five minutes and our team was up by one touchdown, but I was getting tired. Before we kicked off to Collin's team I told Quil that I was done and jogged back to the picnic blanket. Emily handed me a water bottle and I started gulping it down.

"You were great out there," Rachel complimented me. I thanked her in between gulps.

"You guys should play next time. We could do girls vs. guys and we could potentially kick butt," I suggested.

"That's wishful thinking." Seth was standing behind me. I hadn't noticed him leave the game.

"I don't know about that Seth," Leah said. "We're better at football than you think, Eliza being a prime example." That got the rest of the wolf girls talking, already planning for the game. I held my arms out to Seth, and he pulled me up from my seated position.

"Be careful you two," Emily warned as we started walking down the beach. When we were out of earshot, he pulled me to his chest, almost crushing me, but not quite.

"Things will be back to normal soon," he said.

"I can't wait," I replied. "I'm tired of everything happening at once."

"When things calm down, I'll spend every moment I can with you." Seth's eyes bore into my own with an incredible amount of love and admiration.

"Promise?"

"I swear on my life." And we sealed it with a kiss.