Year Six, Chapter Fifty-Three
Answers Found
Renesmee's Point of View
The once hot water was now lukewarm and the bubbles were almost gone. I guess I had procrastinated long enough. Not that I was dreading tonight, just the opposite. I was incredibly happy and excited, too excited, and I had turned into a bundle of nerves. I thought a nice long soak in the tub would help me relax. And it did. I had stopped shaking, my heart beat slowed down to an acceptable level, still a little fast but better, and my breathing was under control.
After sneaking a peek at the clock I saw that I had stayed in the bath a little too long and was now running late. I quickly toweled off, pinned my hair up in a messy bun, and slipped on some jewelry, before getting dressed.
"Mom, can you come here for a minute?" I called from my bedroom. A second later she appeared, followed by Aunt Rose and Grandma Esme.
"Oh my goodness, Renesmee. You look so beautiful." If my Aunt Rose was capable of crying I think she would be now.
"Of course she does, she is as beautiful as her mother," Grandma Esme gushed.
"Thanks, guys. But I need a little help, I can't reach." I said making another attempt to pull up the zipper on the back of my dress.
"Here, let me get that for you. Now do you have everything?" Aunt Rose looked me up and down. "The dress is perfect. The heels go well enough, are they comfortable?"
"Why? Will I be doing a lot of walking?" Jake had refused to tell me where he was taking me tonight. He only said to "dress nice".
"You'll be fine." She said, waving off my concerns with a flick of her hand. "Now the earrings and necklace work, but I am not sure about those," she scowled, while pointing to my wrist.
"Aunt Rose, you know I never take off the promise bracelet Jake gave me my first Christmas and this is the one he just gave me this year." I said holding up the lacy birch wood bangle he carved me. "I have to wear it, I love it. If it doesn't work with the dress then that is what I'm changing, not my bracelet."
"Calm down, Nessie. I was just messing with you. It's perfect." She jeered.
"Not funny, Aunt Rose." I was already nervous enough about tonight, I didn't need any more anxiety. Tonight was Jake's and my very first Valentine's Day as a couple. He planned the entire evening and apparently, everyone in the family knew what we were going to be doing tonight except me.
"Do you have a purse to put your things in?"
"A purse? Do I need one?" What would I even put it in? I don't wear makeup, thanks to my flawless vampire skin, and even if I wanted to add a bit of color, makeup won't stick to my skin anymore than it did for the rest of my families. On the plus side, neither did dirt or sweat, so bathing was a purely recreational activity.
"You'll need something to put your ID and phone in, honey. And you should take some cash and a credit card, just in case." My mother answered.
"I'm going to need money?"
"No, probably not. It's just one of those things left over from my human life. Renée always told me to bring my own money when going out, just in case."
Just in case? Of what? But I didn't argue. "Err, sure, I guess." Two seconds later Aunt Rose handed me a purse. I think it was one from my mother's closet. When I went to open it to put in my phone and other items in I saw that she had already taken care of it for me.
"I guess that is it then," I said, giving myself a once over in the mirror.
"One more thing." Grandma Esme handed me a coat. I guess it was rather cold outside, for humans anyway. And apparently I was going to be around them tonight.
As we walked out of my room I found Jake in the living room wearing a perfectly fitted dark Navy Blue suit, with a black button down shirt and long bright blue tie. I knew it was one of the suits Aunt Alice had gotten him years ago, but up until now it had just hung in the back of our closet. I'm glad he took it out. He looked so sexy in it. Jake hardly ever dressed up this much, except the few weddings we went to, I guess. But tonight he looked . . . just , wow.
Even on the few dates Jake and I had recently gone on, he mostly stuck to some slacks and a nice shirt or sweater. Nicer than his usual tee shirt and jeans, but nowhere near as dressed up as tonight.
"Nessie, hi beautiful." He grinned to me, after my father gave him a slight nudge from behind. It looked like he was caught in some trance and forgot how to speak for a second. "You look lovely. Are you ready to go?"
"Um, maybe. Is what I'm wearing okay for what we are doing tonight? Do I look alright?"
"Yeah, I think it might do," he chuckled. "Nessie, you would look amazing in a potato sac."
"Well am I overdressed? Underdressed? Can't you just give me a hint?" I wasn't sure how dressed up to be. I thought a floor length gown would be too much, but didn't want to go too casual with a sundress, so I settled for a cocktail dress. It was in a plain dark silver, with wide shoulder straps, scoop neckline, and a pencil skirt that fell just above my knees, but it had a slit that went halfway up my left thigh, so I was still able to move easily.
"You're just going to have to wait and see, honey. But trust me, you look perfect."
After a quick kiss between Jake and I, since my parents, Aunt and Grandmother were standing right there after all, and a hug to the four of them, Jake and I got in his car and headed off to . . . wherever Jake had planned.
I'm sure, as excited they were for me, they were eager for us to leave as well. Each couple had their own plans for the night as well.
The night ended up being perfect. Knowing how much we both loved them, Jake took me to a vintage car show nearby, followed by dinner and a walk under the stars, and ended the night at the Mountain View Grand Resort & Spa, in Whitefield, NH. Valentine's Day unfortunately fell on a Tuesday this year, so we could only stay the one night since we both had class the next day. But before we left, that morning, Jake had arranged for us get side by side massages. It was the perfect end to a perfect Valentine's Day.
Jacob's Point of View
Nessie and I were just about to get in the car and head off to school when Alice's yellow Porsche sped past us, stopping in front of the Doc and Esme's house. Alice and Jasper had gone to South America, to see if they could locate Nahuel's sisters, over a month ago.
It was February 18th and they had already missed the first three weeks of classes, after the winter break ended, at Dartmouth, but finding out what was going on with Joham was deemed more important than school right now. I just wondered what their story was going to be to explain their absence, and not draw suspicion. Knowing Alice, I'm sure she had everything all worked out.
"Family meeting." Alice called as she exited her car and vanished into the house.
"I guess she and Jasper found some answers." I surmised over to Nessie.
"Come on," she said grabbing my hand. "Maybe if we hurry we will only miss our morning class, and we can still make it to class this afternoon."
When we walked into the house, the living room had already been rearranged once again to now hold the dining room table. Almost everyone was already sitting down around it, including Nahuel.
"Should we wait for Esme?" Bella asked.
"I think she had mentioned needing to pick up some new swatches for a chair she wanted to recover." Nahuel informed everyone. "She should be back soon."
Alice looked like she spaced out for a second before returning to the present and announcing that Esme was happily off on some design tangent and would be gone for hours. She would let her know everything later.
"So what is this news? Do we need to be concerned?" Bella asked.
"Yeah, when do we get to go find this Joham and kick his butt?" Emmett added with a smirk.
"I don't think that will be needed." Jasper replied, before letting Alice fill everyone in on what happened.
"After searching for weeks, we finally came across Jennifer's scent and followed it until we came across her and Maysun."
"Were Serena and Joham with them?" Nahuel looked hopeful, if they were there, it meant they were no longer around here to do . . . whatever he thought Joham had planned for him.
"No." Alice chirped. "Jennifer and Maysun have not heard from them in over a month. Last time Joham called they were still here. Or at least they were up until a little while ago."
"Here!" I and several others gasped.
"Still?", "Why?", "What are they doing?", "So they are behind the bodies?", "But there hasn't been a body found around here in over two months.", "What does this mean?" Everyone was talking over each other and asking questions at once.
"According to Maysun," Jasper yelled, getting everyone's attention, before dropping back down to his normal speaking voice, "Joham was upset to learn of Nahuel's change in diet. He was dropping off the women's' bodies in a misguided effort to attempt to get him to revert back. He hoped that just the mere smell of blood on a fresh young body would prompt him to relapse back to his true self."
"Jennifer seems to be under the impression that they will be returning home soon."
"Not that I would want to see him, but why would he not just come talk to me?" Nahuel asked no one in particular."
"And why would he leave?" Bella added.
"Would that have worked? Really?" Edward asked. "You changed your diet for a reason. For Renesmee. Nothing he could have said to you could have convinced you to change back. Which is probably also why he left. Since you are no longer with her, he must have assumed, just as we had, that you would be giving up your new diet."
"Do you really think that that is it? That it could be that easy?" Nessie asked.
It did seem a little too good to be true. Not that I really cared much about what happened to Nahuel, but Joham was killing innocent women.
"It's just a theory, but if no new bodies show up, or anything else happens, all we can do for now is wait and see. I found Jennifer and Maysun because they were relatively stationary, just like when I originally located Nahuel and Huilen. Joham and Serena must be constantly moving around because I cannot get a fix on their blank spot." Alice cooed.
"Alright, well for the immediate future I suggest we carry on as usual. No need to arouse suspicion. I believe some of us are suppose to be in class soon. Everyone please stick to your school schedules. Just keep your eyes out for anything unusual." Carlisle added.
"Come on Nessie. If we leave now we can make it to French." I said grabbing her hand and began walking us back to the car.
"Jake, why are we going so fast, class doesn't start for another twenty-three minutes?" Nessie wondered over to me with her gift as we approached the school's parking lot.
"I know, I just thought we could use a little alone time." I said as I pulled into a spot on the back edge of the lot. We were so far away from the buildings I was sure we would not be disturbed.
"So what did you want to talk about?"
"I don't want to talk," I said with a smirk as I pulled Nessie onto my lap and began kissing her.
We were a bit squished in the front of my Ferrari but I had pushed the seat all the way back, and had made some adjustments to the cars original design as I was rebuilding it so there was even more room up front than this car had originally been designed for. I also had the brilliant idea to make the steering wheel removable, just to be able to get my above average frame in and out of the car, but now realized its other advantages, as I took it off now.
Tap, tap, tap.
What the . . .?
"Dudes! About time." Someone yelled. Looking out the car's side window I saw it was Rob, grinning stupidly and giving me a thumbs up. How had he found us and what was he even doing way back here?
I assumed Nessie wouldn't be mad or embarrassed by the interruption, she never seemed to care what humans thought about her. Just as I thought she smiled and rolled her eyes at Rob.
"Well, that was fun, but I guess we should head to class," Nessie huffed a second later, a bit out of breath, yet a small smile still shown on her face. I think she was also a little upset, not about Rob, but that our make out session was cut short. "Rain check?"
"I probably I could be persuaded into another baby making attempt tonight." I smirked. We had been trying for just over a month and I was loving every minute of it. For all I knew Nessie was possibly pregnant already. We should really stop and buy one of those tests on the way home.
Once I had gotten over the initial shock of her reproductive deadline I jumped completely onboard with her desire to have a child. I had always wanted a baby and while it was sudden, I did not see it as a bad thing. I had know Nessie her entire life after all. We didn't really need time to just be a couple before a baby "got in the way". I know that is how some thought of it, but I didn't. They could only add to our love. I was going to have a family. Well a larger family.
I already considered Nessie my family, she was my imprint and my life after all. And by extension her family was my family, no matter how awkward it was sometimes, mostly in the beginning. But now I would have a family that was mine, Nessie's and my own. Ours. Our Family. I could not be happier just thinking about it.
No one knew how long a half-vampire/part-wolf baby would take to grow, but I assumed it would be at least a little quicker than a normal humans. Maybe, if Nessie was in agreement we could try for more than one child.
But the whole pregnancy issue got me a bit worried. I did not want to see Nessie repeat the trauma Bella had gone through. Hearing my concerns, Edward had come to me a few weeks ago, with Carlisle, to assure me that they did not think Nessie's eventual pregnancy would be as traumatic as Bella's. She was half-vampire after all. Unfortunately none of Nahuel's sisters had given birth so there was no way to be certain.
And added to all of that I was a wolf; but then again, I had been born human. It was only the propinquity to vampires that triggered the wolf gene during adolescence. But I was living with Vampires. Would that have any effect on my child's wolf gene?
There were so many variables, so many questions, so many unknowns. I just had to have faith. I had not imprinted on Nessie just to knock her up and kill her. Surely the imprinting magic would never have bound us together this way, if that was to be the end result.
"Jake, you coming?"
"Huh?" I looked around and saw that Nessie was already out of the car, waiting for me to come out of my contemplative daydream.
We walked towards the picnic tables, just outside our engineering building where we usually met Rob and Andy, and, just as usual, there they were. Rob was wearing a smug look on his face. He better not say anything around school again.
"Rob, hey man. I wanted to talk to you about what you saw back in the parking lot."
"Yeah that was amazing. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see an actual 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE up close. That was you I saw on TV in the bleachers at the Playoffs game, wasn't it? You were sitting in . . . what? The first or second row at the 50-yard line. How many thousands of dollars did you have to drop for tickets like those?"
I hadn't even thought about the cost of the tickets Nessie got me for my birthday. They probably did cost a lot. "Um, they were a birthday present." I simply answered him. I didn't really want to get into it too much.
"A gift?" Rob questioned, a bit disbelievingly. "Yeah, sure it was. Must be nice having that kind of money."
"No Rob. You don't . . . I don't . . ."
"Oh yeah, don't even try to deny it. If you're not loaded then how'd you afford that sweet ride. I wish I had six-figures to splurge on a car. But not everyone has that kind of money to throw around."
Six figures? Is that how much this car would cost if I had bought it?
"It wasn't expensive, Rob. It was a hunk of junk not too long ago, when I first got it. But I did spend a ton of hours working on it. Nessie too, and her Aunt, both lent a hand. Nessie's Aunt actually found most of the parts for it. And Nessie gave me the grill detail as a Christmas present." I added, while pulling Nessie into an impromptu thank you kiss.
"Sorry, Jake, but I still don't buy it. Even if you had to buy the thing, piece by piece, it would still have cost you a fortune."
Sheesh. This never would have happened back in La Push. I had to save up every time I want to buy the smallest part for the Rabbit, and even then it was some second-hand, used, broken down thing, that I would need to rebuild. I hadn't even noticed the change in myself. When did this happen?
Rose and I have been just buying parts online using the family accounts. I never even bothered to think about how much each individual part cost. I guess it was true what Emmett said years ago; that you just get use to having money.
When did this change even happen? It snuck up so gradually. It's not like I went shopping for designer clothes, like some of the rest of the family. I mean I did wear them, but that was only because it was the only thing Alice ever bought for me, it's not like she would even let me shop for myself. And I carved homemade gifts for Nessie's birthday and for everyone on Christmas, those years we celebrated it.
But I guess, thinking back on things, I never thought about how much money I spent on things like food, both at the house and at restaurants when Nessie and I went out to eat. I was enrolled at Dartmouth, which Edward was paying for, that was not cheap. Nessie and I were planning on buying a house just so Seth could fix it up, which we would then pay him to re-do. I lived in an amazing Victorian house with the Cullens and didn't even give a second thought to how all of the furniture and decorations were designer pieces.
Just thinking back on the newest acquisition, the $30,000+ painting, that Esme had just bought, for the hallway, it dawned on me how different my life was now. Especially compared to Billy's broken down little house in La Push, with the paint chipped walls and leaky roof, not that it was like that anymore, thanks to the Cullens, but still . . .
"Rob, I . . ."
"Psssh . . . yeah, whatever. I completely understand getting the car." He started to whisper into my ear. "If that was what it took to get a juicy little slut like Nessie between the sheets, I would have done it too, if I had that kind of mon . . ."
"Jake, no!" I heard Nessie yell just as my fist made contact with Rob's jaw.
"Oh my god!" someone screamed. "Is he dead?"
I was pretty sure I didn't hit him hard enough to kill him. Sure, he was currently not moving, lying on the ground, but I think I just knocked him out.
"No, he's still alive." Andy said after she knelt down and took his pulse. As she slapped him a few times on the opposite side of his head, the jerk began to stir.
"You might want to stay down there, if you know what's good for you." I growled quietly at him.
"Jake, let's just go." Nessie started pulling my arm, but I wasn't through.
No one talks about my Renesmee like that.
I though Nessie might say something to Rob, but she just grabbed my hands, "Come on Jake, we need to get out of here."
"Just a minute, sweetheart." I said giving her a reassuring kiss before kneeled down to speak to Rob. He actually had enough sense to listen to me and not get up.
My words came out very slowly and calmly. I didn't want him missing anything. "Rob, do you remember back in September when we talked about the inappropriateness of your comments towards Nessie, and women in general? How did you put it . . . locker room talk? Didn't we agree that I never wanted to hear you say anything like that again? Especially about Nessie? She is a lady, just like every other women, and ALL of them should be treated with respect."
"Oh, c'mon J," Hearing him try to speak, I knew I had at least broken his jaw. Good! "Ya kne I dn't mean 'ting by it. Bit I hev a poi't. Ness's 'n leven. She's freakin gogus. Bit look't me, em an eat, nine et moss. How'd yo spect me ta get gurl like Ness, w'out a litt help?"
What? Was he delusional? And did he just call himself attractive and put himself down in the same breath? And insult his girlfriend on top of everything else? Not to mention he completely missed the point of what I had said. Clearly trying to get through to him was not even worth my time.
"Hey!" Andy was rightly pissed by his comment and he wasn't helping his case with either or us. "What the hell is that suppose to mean? What? Am I not pretty enough for you? You think you are so hot you could do better than me? Well, see how you like it . . ."
Andy kept going and going, yelling and slapping his chest while Rob tried backtracking, and apologizing to his, soon to be ex-girlfriend, I'm guessing. I figured my work was done, him being human after all there was not much more I could do, and left them. I quickly joined Nessie and we quickly walked off towards my car. I came to the realization that Rob was not worth getting more worked up over. Nessie didn't care about anything he said, and he was most likely getting dumped.
"Sorry, honey." I apologized to Nessie as we walked at human speed to the car. I hoped this wasn't going to be like the time I punched Edward. "But what he said about you, it just . . . I know he's human and I shouldn't have . . ."
"Jake, I understand . . ."
"Nessie, Jake." Andy called, as she ran to catch up with us. Oh, great. What did she want? I hoped she wasn't going to start more trouble for us. We were already heading home to deal with the current disaster, I didn't really need more from her. "I'm so glad I found you. I could not believe Rob. He had no right to say that about you Nessie. I mean just because you're sleeping with both Jake and Nahuel and . . ."
"We broke up.", "She's NOT sleeping with him," Nessie and I said at the same time.
"Oh, I thought you were . . . whatever." She waved her hand, figuratively blowing off her own assumptions. "He still should not have said that, I'm going to go get him so he can apologize . . ."
"No thanks, I'm pretty sure it would be worthless anyway." Nessie snapped back. This was the first time I had seen her upset by something a human had done.
"But . . ." she began, but I was still pissed and her assumptions were not helping. I was currently working hard to keep from phasing right there. And more importantly, I did not want her upsetting Nessie anymore.
"You know what, I'm done talking to him, I don't want to be anywhere near him, and I don't want him anywhere near Nessie. Right now I don't even want to talk to you. I think you should leave." I could feel a growl building up in my throat, but I refused to let it escape this time. Andy was human too, and I had already done enough damage to Rob.
"Fine, whatever," she huffed, as she turned and left. Good riddance.
A few minutes later, once Nessie and I were safely in the car, and I had calmed down, I felt bad about how I treated Andy. She didn't deserve that. I would have to call her later and apologize.
On the way home Nessie called Edward and gave him a rundown of the afternoon's events. I don't know how bad this was going to be but I knew it wasn't going to be good. And how was Nessie doing with all of this?
"Nessie, I'm sorry about all of that. What Rob said was awful, and I . . ."
"No Jake, don't apologize. This is my fault. I was with Nahuel and now I am with you. They're just humans. Of course they'd jump to that assumption. It's not like I broke up with him in front of them. It's no big deal," she said, but I could feel the hurt behind her words and I could see the tears building up in her eyes that she was refusing to shed.
By the time Nessie and I got home, I had managed to calm her down. Some of the family who weren't in class had been assembled in the living room and Emmett once again starting on his France related move questioning.
"No, Emmett. This isn't why we're moving."
"Damn, Alice. What good is it having you around if you can't tell why we're even moving to the other side of the Atlantic?"
"Hey," she scoffed and Jasper growled.
"We'll have to call Jenks and see what needs to be done," Edward decided.
"I could sneak to his place in the middle of the night sometime and cut the brake lines to his car." I half kidded before seeing Carlisle's condemnation riddled face, and began apologizing. "I'm sorry about all of this. I shouldn't have hit him."
"Don't worry about it Jacob." Edward said. "I understand why you did it. And even though I wouldn't have hit him, he probably would no longer be alive now. You should be commended for your restraint."
No kidding. I thought just so he could hear.
After a minute Edward spoke again. "How many people witnessed the event?"
"Well Andy was there and a bunch of other people were around but I don't really know them. Nessie?" I looked over at her while she was probably thinking of the exact faces that were there. Of course she had much better recall and memory than me.
"Just six, I'll acquire the rest of their names tomorrow." Edward announced. "The others were merely bystanders that came along afterwards. We can handle six."
What is that supposed to mean? They weren't going to kill six innocent people, plus Rob, but I couldn't care less about him right now. But they were planning this because of me? Crap. What had I done?
My mind was racing. I started thinking about how I would do this? How would I be able to protect the humans from the Cullens? They were my family now, how could I fight my family? I didn't want to do that but I needed to fix this. But how could I protect a bunch of weak humans, against all of them, all by myself? But I would have to try. I was a werewolf after all, it was in my DNA. This was what I was made for.
"No Jacob, That's not what we're going to do." Edward huffed. "I'm pretty sure this can all be taken care of easily, with just a little bit of money exchanging hands."
Money? How is that going to solve things?
A couple of days later I found out. That was why they called Jenks. Within a week Rob, and a few others, including Andy, (apparently my apology phone call didn't go over as well as I had thought) had been paid off. I didn't even want to know how much it had cost. In addition to the money Rob received the best medical care, his hospital bills were paid, and he was now enrolled at Cal Tech, 3000 miles away.
I wasn't too happy that Rob seemed to have made out in the end, but at least go the comfort in knowing that he was in a world of pain, at least temporarily, as his jaw healed and he had to eat through a straw for the next two months.
