Okay, so this may not flow very well from the last chapter, but I thought it evil to continue and take the focus off that moment between Nessie and Emmett.
So, here we go again.
Keep reviewing. Seriously.
Thanks to BriBri, werewolfe-cupcake, dazzleglo and Just4Me, and to Katalyst00 and Anne Shirley Cullen for the favourite!
Chapter Twenty-six – Getting to Friday
As fast as Emmett's driving was they were home in half an hour. They got back with twenty five minutes to spare. Edward and Alice were already home from seeing Bella and Jasper respectively and were now sat on the sofa. They looked up as Emmett and Nessie came through the front door, Emmett yelling loudly that they were home for their parents' benefit.
Carlisle came downstairs, his jacket over one arm, fixing his cufflink. He walked into the living room where Emmett had already sat on the sofa with Alice and Edward, his long legs stretched out in front of him. Nessie was perched on the back of the sofa, waiting, knowing her parents would want to talk about her day.
Standing up, Nessie crossed to her father and fussed over him, straightening the tie, helping him into the jacket which she then smoothed, checking to see the cufflinks were on properly.
"So, how was it? Did you have fun?" her dad asked.
"Yeah, it was nice – cars, pizza. It was good fun," she said.
"She wants us to trust her," Emmett said from the sofa without looking up from the TV. "She doesn't want to be treated like a china doll anymore."
"Thanks, Emmett," said Nessie. "Subtle as ever." Emmett gave her a mock salute.
"Oh," Carlisle looked a little surprised. "Okay then. Should we talk about this?"
"It'll wait until tomorrow," Nessie assured him.
"Okay, sweetheart," Carlisle kissed her forehead. "Everyone's homework done?" he asked the room. There was a chorus of 'yes' to which he said wryly, "I'm sure."
The sound of high heels on the wooden floor of the foyer heralded Esme's arrival.
She wore a sapphire blue dress and diamonds. There were two colours Esme never wore by choice: black (only for funerals) and beige (too bland). She preferred bright colours, a clear contrast to Nessie's noir look. Alice spent hours making sure no one clashed.
"Wow, Mum, you look great," Nessie said. The three on the sofa twisted around to admire their mother then turned back to the TV.
"You are beautiful," Carlisle said, walking over and putting his arms around her. They shared a long kiss until Nessie, rocking back and forth on her heels trying to look anywhere but at her parents, said, "you're going to be late for your dinner reservation."
They ended the kiss but kept an arm around each other. "So, we'll be home by eleven," Carlisle said.
"We're on the phones and there's dinner in the oven, okay?" Esme said.
"Bye," their kids chorused. Esme kissed Nessie on the cheek and they left. Nessie walked to the sofa, sat on the back, sliding backwards and twisted so her legs were curled under her.
"Who wants to put the dinner on?" Emmett asked.
"Nessie was last to sit," Alice said.
"It was Emmett's idea," Nessie said.
"Alice is closest," Edward said.
Alice sighed, went to the kitchen, checked the oven, flicked it on and sat back down. "It'll be thirty minutes," she said.
"Cool," Emmett said.
They had beef and vegetable stew with dumplings sat on the sofa watching 3rd Rock from the Sun reruns.
Nessie finished the History project a few days early so called Jacob to see if she could come over afterschool on Friday. He sounded delighted at the idea, but then Jacob always sounded delighted at everything. Nessie envied him his happy naivety.
When she walked from the phone in the foyer to the sofa, she saw Emmett and Rosalie, and Edward and Bella were sat on the sofa, each couple curled up together on an end of the sofa. Jasper was sat in one of the armchairs with Alice on his lap, her legs draped over one arm of the chair, propped up by a cushion against the other arm. Their hands were clasped together, their fingers intertwined, resting on Alice's belly. Every so often they should look at each other and smile.
Nessie dropped into the remaining armchair, one leg pulled up to her chest so she could rest her cheek against her knee, the other leg swinging free.
"Who was that?" Edward asked. The rest of them looked at her. She was surprised they had even noticed her come in, in their loved-up, couply bliss.
"Jacob."
"What did he want?" asked Edward.
"I called him. To see if he wanted to work the car this Friday." Glanced briefly from the television to her siblings, clocking each of them in turn.
"I thought you had that project due," Alice said.
"Finished it," Nessie said.
"Friday night with a boy, huh, Nessie?" Emmett said, grinning at her.
Nessie shrugged. "He wasn't busy. I'm tired of being stuck here alone every Friday night while you guys so go out."
"Mum and Dad are here," Edward corrected. Emmett snorted.
"Yeah, and while you guys are out there being loved up, they are here being loved up. I like being around people where romance is not part of the equation."
"Jacob's a nice guy," Bella said, her head resting on Edward's shoulder. "If you're into cars, you two should get along well."
"Jacob's cool to be around. He doesn't make me talk," she said, fixing each sibling with a look.
"What do you do with him, then?" Edward asked. Emmett and Jasper grinned at his over-protectiveness.
"Yeah," Emmett chipped in. "You doing the dirty on his garage floor?"
"We fix his car, listen to music," Nessie said, blushing a furious red.
"So why are you blushing?" Rosalie asked.
"I'm a redhead," Nessie said coldly.
"Aw, Nessie – you're embarrassed!" Emmett laughed, tossing a pillow at her. Nessie caught it and whipped it back to him, catching him in the face. "Ow. What was that for?"
"What have you got to tease me for?"
"Because you're the youngest." Emmett looked at her like that should have been obvious.
"That's a sucky rule," said Nessie.
"It's the chain of command," Emmett smiled.
"I hate the chain," Nessie muttered.
"Who wants to help me in the kitchen?" Esme asked, leaning through the doorway. The others groaned and looked at Nessie – Emmett mouthed 'the chain!' Nessie rolled her eyes but was already out of her seat walking to her mother before they stopped groaning.
"Thanks, honey," Esme said as Nessie washed her hands. Esme put a bowl of potatoes and a peeler in front of Nessie.
"No problem." Nessie picked up the peeler. "Can I go out this Friday?"
"Oh," Esme was caught off guard by the request. "Where did you want to go?"
"To Jacob's, afterschool," Nessie said, taking the peeler. "I'll be back by curfew."
"What are you going to do?" Mother and daughter stood side by side at the counter pretending they were normal, having a normal conversation.
"Work on the Rabbit," Nessie said.
"How are you going to get there from school?" asked Esme.
"I thought I could come back here and take Bonnie," Nessie said, trying to gauge her mother's reaction. Esme was not too pleased with the idea of Nessie riding the Triumph Bonneville she had so fondly named 'Bonnie'.
Sure enough, Esme's eyes narrowed a little. "You haven't got your licence."
"I know how to ride."
"You aren't sixteen yet."
"It's my birthday in two months."
"It's illegal."
"Charlie won't arrest me."
"The others can drop you off on the way home."
"It's half an hour in the other direction! And I'll have to take all my stuff to school!" complained Nessie.
"Then they can take you once you've got your stuff," said Esme.
"It's pointless them making two trips when I can go alone!"
"Do you want to go or not?" Esme asked, looking at Nessie.
"Yes," Nessie said grudgingly.
"Then you can be dropped off."
"You said you were going to trust me more."
"This isn't about trust, Nessie. This is about my fifteen year old daughter wanting to ride a death machine around blind corners," Esme said, her voice rising a little at the thought.
Nessie gave a weary sigh – when it came to the welfare of her children, Esme was immovable. "Fine. Potatoes are peeled."
"Could you chop them up small, please? We're going to have them mashed tonight." Nessie did so then was told she could go if she wanted. She went upstairs rather than back to the living room and coupledom.
She closed the door and went to the cubby hole of her room that had her art stuff. She selected a playlist on the iPod resting in the iDock, put it on shuffle and turned the volume up. Then, crossing to the easel, Nessie picked up a pencil and started working on a new design. She had several designs for tattoos she was going to have – her parents would not consider it before her sixteenth birthday but said after that she could get them if she really wanted – and if they approved the design first. They knew she was not stupid – she would not get something because peers or the media deigned it 'cool'. After everything, Nessie's body was precious to her. She knew how easily it could be broken.
The one that she was working on, that had been in her brain for a while, was the proverb on the wristband she had given Jasper for his birthday. She tried to work it around various body parts sketched on the paper – her hip, her shoulder, her ribcage, her ankle. She liked the idea of it being under her shoulder blade.
Nessie didn't hear the knock at her door or the approaching footsteps. It was only when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and leapt to her feet, her fists tensed in front of her, that Nessie realised it was her father. Carlisle smiled gently in welcome and Nessie hurried to turn the music off so they could talk.
"Dinner's ready," Carlisle said.
"Coming."
"These some more designs?" Carlisle asked, indicating the cluttered easel. Nessie nodded. "May I look?" Nessie nodded again. Carlisle gently leafed through them, moving each piece of paper aside so he could see the ones beneath.
"What do you think?" Nessie asked.
"About having the proverb tattooed on your skin?" Carlisle asked.
"Yeah."
"You could remember it without having it permanently written on your skin," said Carlisle.
Nessie rolled her eyes. "Not the point, Dad."
"So, where would you have it done?" Carlisle asked.
"Under my shoulder blade."
"Won't that wrap around to the front; it's a pretty long phrase."
"I'll have it broken down into two lines," Nessie said. "I want it in a pretty compact space."
"Okay, we'll talk about it later," Carlisle said. "Dinner's ready."
"Okay, cool." Nessie put the designs back. Carlisle held out his arm and Nessie went to him. They walked down to dinner with Carlisle's arm around Nessie's shoulders, hers around her father's waist.
The nine of them sat down at the dining table, the table in the kitchen where the Cullens usually ate dinner being too small for all of them.
"Right, Nessie is going to Jacob's Friday afterschool – is he expecting you from school, Nessie, or later?" asked Carlisle.
"He said whenever – Jacob isn't that bothered by time," Nessie said.
"So, who can take her when?"
"It's the concert this Friday for me and Alice," Jasper said, referring to the concert Edward had gotten him tickets for as a birthday presents. "Sorry, Monster, or we would take you, but we've got to get to Seattle by six if we're going to eat."
"No problem, Jazz," Nessie assured him.
"I don't think me and Rose are doing anything special, are we, Rose?" Emmett asked, turning to the stunning blonde next to him.
Rose shook her head. "We could take you on the way to Port Angeles."
"Hold on, you took her last time, Emmett," Edward said.
"So?"
"So, I haven't gotten to put my brotherly two cents in," Edward complained.
"Oh, God," Nessie groaned quietly.
"Edward, you said you would be nice to Jacob," Bella reminded him.
Edward harrumphed.
"Why don't you like Jacob, Edward?" Esme asked. "He seemed like a very nice, together young man."
"Uh huh," Edward said, stabbing his chicken with unnecessary for, making his fork scrap across his plate with a horrible scree.
"Edward doesn't like him because the first time he met Jacob, Jacob was talking to Bella and getting further than Edward was at that point," Emmett said. "Since Jacob has since transferred his attention to our youngest sister, Edward can still hate him."
"Oh, did you know Jacob from your summers here, Bella?" Carlisle asked, helping himself to salad.
"Apparently," Bella said, blushing as the table's attention turned to her. "I didn't remember him at first – I knew his sisters a little better than Jacob. We spent time together before my dad started coming to Arizona for our two weeks together."
"Why did he start doing that?" Alice asked.
Put on the spot, Bella looked down at her plate for a second before answering. "I put my foot down. I didn't want to spend my summers in Forks."
"So, why did you move here?" asked Alice with characteristic bluntness.
"Alice!" Esme was a little scandalised at the grilling her daughter was giving out.
"No, it's okay. Um, well, my mother remarried and her husband is a minor league baseball player so he moves around a lot. My mum stayed with me but it made her unhappy so I decided to move in with my dad."
"That was very selfless of you, Bella," Esme said, smiling warmly at the girl. She approved very much of Edward's budding relationship with the Swan girl. She was a sweet girl, the perfect foil for Edward's darkness. She was shy where he was cocky. She hated getting presents where Edward had learnt staggering generosity at Carlisle's knee – she would want for nothing while he would not be used for his wealth. Edward pushed himself to be perfect, an overachiever in every aspect of his life. Bella wanted him just as he was. Oh yes, Esme could see this relationship going very well.
Looking around the table, Esme realised all their children had found a good match. Until she got to Nessie. Her youngest baby had not found the one. She was still battling her demons. A thought came into Esme's mind and she felt cold – what if Nessie did not heal? What if James had broken something irreparable and Nessie never found the person to spend her life with?
Carlisle looked at her, concerned – they were so in tune with each other he just knew when something was wrong. Everyone else was completely oblivious to Esme's distress. Esme gave him a brave smile and Carlisle let it go. For now.
Nessie was only fifteen, Esme thought. She would be fine.
"So, what do you think of Forks, now?" Alice was still playing twenty questions with Bella, Jasper looking at her with an indulgent smile on his face.
Bella's eyes darted to Edward who grinned at her. "It's growing on me," she said. The blush that had receded came back, deeper than before, making Emmett guffaw. He loved having his brother's girlfriend around for three reasons: 1) she had forced Edward to engage in multi-gender interaction instead of glare at everyone, 2) she was clumsy, 3) she blushed all the time. Reason one made him like her, reasons two and three kept Emmett highly entertained.
Edward's smile was dazzling as he leant over and kissed Bella on the mouth. Emmett wolf-whistled (he found he was doing that more and more lately), bringing them both back to reality. Bella was scarlet and Edward was still grinning when they broke apart.
"Have we actually decided on whose taking Nessie to Jacob's this Friday?" Carlisle asked. "Emmett or Edward?"
"Me," both brothers said.
"Well, that's helpful," said Carlisle smirking.
"How about Rose and I drive Edward and Bella to Port Angeles after dropping off Nessie?" Emmett offered. "We're going to the same place so we might as well save the gas and this way Edward gets to assess Jacob."
"Sounds good to me," Edward said. Bella liked the idea of seeing Jacob again.
"The both of you?" Nessie asked, her voice a little higher than normal. "At the same time?"
"I only want to say hello," Edward said innocently.
"Sure you do," Nessie muttered, already fearing for Jacob's nerves.
Friday rolled around quickly enough. Bella got ready at hers while the others congregated at the Cullens. The Hales went home in Rosalie's Mercedes so Jasper could get ready for the concert before coming over. The four Cullens went home in Edward's Volvo.
Jasper and Rosalie were at the Cullens by four thirty, Jasper in head-to-toe black and boots, Rosalie managing to look stunning in loose jeans and a T-shirt with her hair pulled back.
Jasper and Alice had to leave straight away, Alice looking like the dancer/dead girl from My Chemical Romance's music video "Helena".
"Is everyone here? Can we go now? Because I told Jacob I'd be there by five and it's nearly twenty to," Nessie grumbled from her place on the stairs.
"You that urgent to get to Jacob, Nessie?" Emmett said, smirking.
Nessie rolled her eyes.
"Let's see," Emmett said, counting it off on his fingers as he spoke. "You gave him your phone number," (one finger) "you're going to see him on a Friday night," (two fingers) "which you're eager to get to" (three fingers) "and comes only six days after you last went over there" (four fingers)." Keep this up and you're going to have yourself a boyfriend."
"Emmett," Nessie said, looking up at her brother from where she sat, "did you know you sound a lot smarter when you don't open your mouth?"
Emmett laughed and Nessie smiled at him. He reached out and ruffled her hair. "Emmett!" she squealed, pushing his hand away and attempting to sort out the mess – it was not like her curls were not a riot on their own!
"Come on, let's go," Emmett said, holding his hand out to haul Nessie to her feet. She took it, picked up her bag, said goodbye to her mother and followed everyone out to the car.
Emmett, Rosalie, Nessie and Edward piled into the Jeep, Rosalie and Emmett in the front, Nessie and Edward in the back, Edward eyeing the legroom dubiously.
When they got to Bella's, Edward hurled himself out of the Jeep, and knocked on her front door.
Bella opened it immediately. She was wearing the blue dress Alice had snuck into her bag in Seattle. "You look beautiful," Edward told her.
"Thank you. You look...incredible as usual," Bella told him, taking in the black jeans and ivory polo shirt under the tan leather jacket. The sweatshirt clung lovingly to the body beneath making it difficult for Bella to tear her eyes away.
Edward was having similar trouble with the way her dress hugged Bella's curves. They kept smiling at each other until Emmett leant on the horn.
"Come on," Edward muttered, "before he gets out of the car."
"Bye, Dad!" Bella called over her shoulder.
Charlie came in from the living room. "Bye, Bells. Edward." Chief Swan was not overtly hostile to the young man that had gone from Nessie's older brother to, far more worryingly, Bella's first boyfriend. Still, Edward could tell the Chief would not hesitate to abuse his official position if Edward stepped out of line.
"Bye, Chief Swan."
"Hey, Bella?" Charlie eyed Edward's hand resting on the small of Bella's back.
"Yeah, Dad?" Bella said, looking back at him.
"Got your pepper spray?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah, Dad," Bella flushed, eager to get out of there.
He stood on the doorstep as they crossed the drive to the monster-sized truck.
"Hey, Charlie!" Nessie said, grapping the roller bar above her and standing up to wave.
"Hi, Nessie. How's everything?" Charlie waved to Emmett and Rosalie as well.
"Cool. Can I see you Wednesday? I'll bring some more of Mum's cake." Nessie said.
"Sure thing, kid, I'd like that."
"How's the case going?"
"Hikers are still missing, kid."
"Oh. Did you think about what I said?"
"Yeah, I'm looking into it," Charlie assured her. The redhead had good instincts – Charlie thought she would make hell of a cop if she wanted to.
"Okay, cool. See you Wednesday," Nessie gave a final wave and sat back down in time for Bella and Edward to make it to the car. Bella didn't look comforted by the distance between the ground and the backseat. Charlie did not look comforted by the way Edward gripped her hips as he helped her in.
But finally, and without bloodshed or bruising, Bella and Edward were in the back, strapped in and Emmett was gunning the engine.
"Watch your speed," Charlie yelled over the roar of the powerful truck. Emmett waved in acknowledgement and the Jeep disappeared around the bend.
Right, so my mum and I went and picked up our new puppy – a black Labradoodle by the name of Ralfie – and now I'm thinking that Emmett needs a dog. He's going to get a huge Saint Bernard. At some point. If anyone's got an idea for a name I'd like to hear them!