a/n: Certain events in this chapter inspired by my earlier short Fly Away Home, which is older and perhaps not quite my best work but still worth mentioning.
Chapter 50
'Did you know that not all zombies eat brains?'
'Oh my god, Quil,' Jared rolled his eyes, 'Why does Sam keep pairing us together for patrol?'
'But c'mon, think about it,' Quil insisted, 'In a world of shapeshifters and vampires, has no one even put any thought into whether or not there are zombies out there, too? This is serious stuff.'
'If you weren't on the opposite side of the rez from me right now, I would bite you,' Jared deadpanned.
'Oh, you don't need to include me in whatever kinky shit you and Kim are into.'
'That's it, where are you?' Jared demanded, focusing on the view through Quil's eyes in the shared pack mind.
'Oh, would you look at the time, I think our patrol shift is over. Bye!'
Jared knew that Sam had a lot on his plate as the pack Alpha, especially with the threat presented by the redhead leech who kept evading them. And so maybe the attention he paid to assigning patrol schedules was slipping a bit. But if Jared had to patrol one more time with Quil anytime soon, he was pretty sure he was going to lose his mind.
It's not that Jared didn't like Quil. For someone he'd literally gone to school with his entire life but who he hadn't otherwise spent much time with until they both got drafted into the supernatural world, Quil wasn't so bad. He was just a goofball with a short attention span and zero filter, and he was still way too excited about being a shifter. And he was always just so cheerful!
Today may not have been the first time Jared contemplated biting or otherwise maiming Quil…
Okay, and all of the patrols he'd been running lately meant less time with Kim and that potentially might be making him a bit cranky.
'I'll give you twenty bucks if you bite him,' Leah's voice filled Jared's head suddenly.
'Don't tempt me,' Jared retorted. Then, 'Who's supposed to be patrolling with you?'
'Seth, but he's not coming,' Leah replied. 'Emily kicked everyone out of the house so they're all going cliff diving. Sam thought it would be great pack-bonding or some shit like that.'
'Aren't you going too, then?' Jared asked, purposely ignoring the derision in her tone when she said both Sam and Emily's names. After spending the morning stuck in Quil's head he wasn't in the mood to also rise to Leah's bait and pick a fight with her. Not when his patrol shift was just about over and he was that much closer to being reunited with Kim.
'Not if my life depended on it,' Leah retorted derisively. 'Get lost. I'll howl if I need anything.'
Leah's attitude aside, Jared didn't need telling twice. If Emily kicked everyone else out that meant his chances of getting to see Kim (who was spending most of her time at Emily's these days) was pretty slim unfortunately.
Within a matter of minutes Jared was at the top of the highest cliff overlooking First Beach and the Pacific with the rest of the guys in the pack, including Quil who had clearly been intercepted somewhere along the way after phasing out.
"How was your patrol?" Sam asked the pair of them.
"No sighting of the redhead or any other leaches, so it was pretty quiet," Jared replied. Then he rolled his eyes. "Well, as quiet as it can be with Quil's running commentary on zombies."
"It was relevant!" Quil insisted, but Jared caught the other two musketeers rolling their eyes behind their best friend, used to his antics.
"You know, Sam," Jared began in a mollifying tone, "I won't even insist on you changing the patrol schedule so that I can get a break from this moron if you just look the other way while I throw him off the cliff."
"Jared, you can't hurt Quil," Sam intoned, and although it wasn't in his Alpha-voice, the underlying implication was there.
Still, Jared couldn't help wheedling, "Aw, c'mon, not even just a little bit?"
Sam simply levelled him with his should-be-patented Look.
"Fine," Jared sighed, though it was good-natured. Then, with a running start, he launched himself off the cliff.
A few hours and many jumps (okay, and yes, Jared definitely pushed Quil over the edge when Sam wasn't looking—but only once…probably…) later, though, as fun as it was to let off some steam and just hang out together, the line for everyone was starting to blur between 'can ignore my stomach for a while longer' and 'absolutely ravenous.'
"Emily wasn't kicking us out forever…right?" Paul asked, always the first to think with his stomach, as they all congregated on the shoreline after their last jump. "Because I helped unload her groceries yesterday and I know what's on the menu for today."
"Any kind of food sounds amazing right about now," Embry agreed. "I think I'm dying of hunger."
"That was an impressive backflip you just did for being on the verge of death," Sam deadpanned. Then he glanced at the sun overhead. "I think we're fine to head back; she only wanted a few hours. We can all grab some food and then we'll pick up with the patrol schedule after."
"I'll get Leah!" Seth offered quickly, scurrying into the nearby trees ahead of everyone else to phase and pass the message onto his sister.
They weren't far from Sam and Emily's house, so the rest of the group remained human and began making their way through the trees on two feet.
"I can take over for her for a little bit, so we don't have any gaps," Quil said, even though he'd recently run a patrol shift himself.
"Take the break while he's offering it, newbie," Paul advised before Sam could say anything. "Besides, if you don't come back with us now, I can personally guarantee you that I will not be saving you any leftovers."
"We'll be fine for an hour, Quil. Things have been quiet with the redhead lately," Sam said, and Jared didn't miss the side-eye he shot Jacob before continuing, "And we know she's after Bella, who's with the Cullens again. We'll pick up patrol with the next shift after everyone gets a chance to eat."
"Since that's settled," Paul said as they neared the tree line behind Sam and Emily's house, "Last one inside has to help with dishes!"
And without another word he took off at a sprint, the rest of the pack close on his heels. As a result, they were all on top of each other as they poured into the house, laughing and shoving each other. And while the smell that assaulted Jared's senses as soon as the door was opened was absolutely mouthwatering, his attention was immediately drawn to the person standing in front of the oven.
Kim.
The smile that spread across Jared's face was automatic. By his count, it had been at least sixteen hours, forty-two mninutes, and thirteen seconds since he last saw her and had the opportunity to bask in her presence. In other words, far too long. Jared barely registered shoving one of his pack brothers out from in front of him (okay, so it was definitely Quil he shoved, but he was currently the only thing standing in between Jared and his imprint right now so for once today it wasn't actually personal) before he was making his way across the small kitchen.
And then Kim was in his arms again. Finally.
"Hey, you," Jared said, smiling down at her, vaguely noting in the corner of his mind that Emily had just entered the opposite end of the kitchen with a sniffling child in her arms.
"Hey, Jared," Kim sighed out and it was like music to his ears.
Jared's smile widened and he was content for the moment to stand there just a bit longer with his arms wrapped around his imprint.
Content, that is, until he realized that Kim wasn't returning his embrace due to what appeared to be a bowl of salad and a tray of buns in each of her hands (and also that her face was more red than her usual blush accounted for as well as looking overall pretty stressed) at the same time that Emily started, well, shrieking, for lack of a better term.
"Where is that smoke coming from? Something's on fire!"
Okay…and maybe if his imprint wasn't so distracting, he might have noticed the smoke sooner…
With his imprint's safety a top priority, Jared pulled Kim away from the oven at the same time Emily thrust the child she was holding (who had started crying loudly as soon as Emily started yelling) at the nearest pack member (ha ha, good luck with that one, Quil), while Sam meanwhile jumped into action to rescue whatever food item was currently meeting an unfortunate end (although, to be honest, Jared was quite certain Emily could make even burnt food taste good), and of course that's when the Clearwaters chose to make their appearance.
The resulting chaos was…well, chaotic, to put it mildly.
"My cookies!" Emily moaned dramatically once the baking sheet was pulled from the oven, at least half of them burnt to a crisp and still smoking.
"Some of them are still salvageable, babe," Sam reassured her at the same time Kim blurted out, "I'm so sorry, Emily! I thought I could handle it all! And you were only gone for five minutes!"
"But, like, is the rest of the food also okay?" Paul questioned.
Jared couldn't help but roll his eyes at his pack brother even as he gently pried the salad bowl and tray of buns out of Kim's hands and placed them on the nearby counter. "Here, let's get these out of the way."
"I ruined everything," Kim moaned, wrapping her arms around Jared and burying her face in his chest.
"Nah, just some cookies," Jared said easily. "Besides, I like them crunchy."
"You're impossible," Kim stated, but he could hear the smile in her voice so he'd count it as a win.
Now that the offending sheet of cookies were out of the oven and a few windows had been cracked open to air the kitchen out, the earlier chaos seemed to be settling down. Even the small person Quil was holding at arm's length had stopped crying, probably due to the shock of coming face-to-face with Quil's ugly mug. (Okay, so he clearly had to talk to Sam about switching around the patrol pairs a bit to get a break from Quil, Jared was starting to see that now.)
Alright, and maybe Jared assumed a bit too quickly that things were settling down now because all of a sudden—
"Cookie!" Quil hollered, a panicked look in his eyes. "I need a cookie!"
"Calm down, dude," Embry, the person standing closest to him said, giving his friend a startled look. "I think there are still some other priorities before we eat."
"I need a cookie now!" Quil repeated even as the girl in his arms started to giggle.
And while he still looked panicked, Jared thought he recognized something else in Quil's gaze as his eyes remained locked on the little girl. But it couldn't be…
"Holy shit. Did he just imprint?"
