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Rhiannon Adams this is for you, thank you for pushing me, and do you have an fan-fiction account, I would love to PM you to talk about this story.
Chapter 18
If Jude wanted to get the tribe's attention before, disappearing and reappearing 'out of thin air' with news of the son she had out of wedlock was definitely the way to do it.
Someone, perhaps someone from the pack had mentioned Jordan's existence in passing. If it happened at Mark's Mart, under Old Quil's nosy ass nose, then it surely spread like wildfire all over the reservation. Jude was still figuring out the how, but most importantly the who, but no matter her crime solving skills the damage was already done. Her whole Clearwater family knew the truth now.
Grandma Julia had to hear it from Aunty Lizzie that had called all the way from California to let her in on apparently what everyone was trying to keep from her.
Jude got a call from the very pissed off little old woman, "I need to speak to you, I need to speak to your mother too."
Well there went the possibility of having a peaceful day.
Jude held back her groan to say, "we are going to breakfast Grandma."
"Where are you guys going?"
"Debbie's Diner."
Her grandmother yelled so loudly Jude felt her eardrum freak the fuck out. "Joy! get the car we are going to the Diner, the one in Forks-" apparently that was all the invitation she needed, and she didn't come alone in her witch trial. She brought the entire Ataera family with her.
Aunty Joy had gone to the table with her mother and grandmother, and Seth and she got stuck with next rico suave after Paul hung whatever medal he had gotten from getting laid the most at the tribal school. Something the great sex-lord Paul would have to keep on the down low since imprinting on Rachel. Jacob's face whenever someone mentioned his future brother-in-law's prowess brought a smile to Jude's face.
"Hey Jude," rico suave brought her back to the soon to be hellish morning, "you didn't tell me you had a kid. Does that mean we can call you Mama wolf girl now?" Quil's smile was just as annoying as Seth's was when their grandmother kissed her favorite grandchild and refused to acknowledge Jude.
"If you do, I'll murder you."
Quil laughed as if he didn't believe her. Jude knew he was in for a rude awakening.
"But why didn't you tell us," Quil egged her on.
"Because, I was never planning on mentioning it," Jude sighed into the hand that ran down her face. "It is honestly not yours or anyone's business what happens in my personal life. I have Seth, Leah, and my mother, and the rest can go straight to hell, I don't know how to make that any clearer."
Quil snorted, "Jude come on, you have two siblings that are in the pack. Whatever happens in the families is bound to get around? So, what's your kid's name? How old is he? Does your baby daddy know?"
His pestering rubbed Jude the wrong way. "Shut the hell up Quil."
"You forgot already?" He teased. "Who doesn't remember how old their kid is?"
Jude gritted her teeth at him, something she had seen Leah do once. "Bite me asshole."
"Don't tempt me."
Jude discreetly kicked him under the table, and she was sure her big toe cracked in half by Quil's boulder-hard knee of his.
When she was rubbing the pain from her toe away, Old Quil came into the Diner. It seemed like forever since they had talked, and the old racist mumbled something about everyone leaving him without saying anything. Jude shook her head sadly at the memories of working for him. He was now forevermore 'Mr. Grumpyface', and Jude leaned to look past him, half expected Billy to be joining them at their growing two tables at Debbie's Dinner.
She was disappointed when he wasn't.
Jude was still trying not to think too much into that.
She distracted herself. "When is Leah getting here? Didn't her patrol end two hours ago?"
"She was late last night to relieve me and Embry," Quil said as if someone asked him.
"Seth, why is he even sitting with us in the first place?" Jude growled to Seth, trying to look everywhere but a smirking Quil that thought that Grandmother Julia whispering curse words in Quileute was the funniest thing in the world.
"Okay Mean Girl, calm down, I'll behave," Quil chuckled and confused Jude even more.
Jude hadn't wanted their attention, of course. Jude wanted to just sit with Seth and her mother the meal they had planned all week for their severely depressed mother.
"She is finishing her patrol." Seth rubbed his lips when he continued his answer, "Jared and Sam are taking over for both her and Jacob, so they can make it here."
Jacob.
Yes, she had heard Seth right.
Jacob had started taking his patrols with her sister, taking Jude's comment to watch over aggressive little sister, and make sure the guys didn't give her a hard time very seriously. He was taking her comments very seriously it would seem, and that frightened Jude more than she cared to admit. She didn't want to have the power over another person, there was a reason why she had let Susan and Peter the greatest responsibility she had been given. She felt like she was betraying their timid relationship by even breathing in his direction.
They shared a few minutes to talk cordially to one another after Sam had told them the rules to stay far away from the Cullens at all possible times, Jude had almost chomped off Paul's head for talking mess about Leah being too tall, among other vulgar descriptions, and just the thought of them made her ready to rip her paper napkin in half. Jacob had picked up on that and immediately asked for patrols with Leah instead of her being stuck with the now annoying as hell Paul.
"Calm down Jude, your worse off than Leah," Seth put his hand over my now torn napkin, "everything is going to be okay."
"I know. It's just mom doesn't need all this drama-" Jude's eyes met her mothers from their booth across theirs, and her mother had the strength to give her a subtle smile while their Grandmother chewed her head about the grandchild she had no idea about, and apparently she was too upset to speak to Jude about her son.
Jude saw through her mother's comforting shield.
Sue had thought she had been hiding that bit from them, but there was a reason why Leah and Seth, the wolves in the house, got out of their beds to go to their mother's. A grumpy Jude would hear of it in the morning, and be upset that her mother refused to have anyone sleep with her at the beginning of the night, because by the end of it they all ended up the in the same bed anyways.
"Who ratted us out to Auntie Lizzie?"
Quil snorted for some reason.
Seth shrugged too quickly that it made him look suspicious.
"You both know who did it? It isn't a question, I know you do," Jude could see right through them. Seth leaned back in his seat with a groan, and Quil chuckling didn't make it any better. "I am going to find out who it is, and when I do, that person is getting their ass handed to them."
Quil outright laughed and Seth's head fell to the table as if it was killing him not to tell me. As if he couldn't tell me. "Sam alpha ordered you not to tell me anything didn't he? His ass is grass when I go over Emily's too." Jude yanked playfully on her brother's neck. "Don't worry bro this is not your fault, I got this, don't worry. Why you are stressing Seth?"
"Yeah, why are you stressing out Seth? Looking a little green, do you have anything to say little pup?"
Jude was ready to rip Quil a new one when from the corner of her eye she spotted a very familiar family of with sandy-colored hair.
She felt her heart drop to her stomach, and it only increased when Casey turned around to find her petrified face staring guilty right back at her.
Casey froze, and Jude was thankful her family didn't notice.
Hopefully they wouldn't get to see the way Jude's eyes landed on the back of the man next to Casey. The four o'clock shadow was evident as Conner turned to hear what his older brother was telling him. It was Conner. He looked so much older, his hair sandy-hair short and cropped, and his same grin widened at his brother Lucien Whitney. That smile caught her heart, and the second brother's roaming eyes made her want to shit her pants.
"I need to get out-" she shoved Seth, who grew rigid as he too saw who it was.
"Don't run Jude, it will look suspicious to Grandma," he had a point, but if she stayed here than Conner would look at her with the same pleading eyes Casey was sending her way, and then the Whitney cold-blooded mother looked her way, and she shoved Seth to run to the restroom.
Damn being suspicious. In the women's restroom at least, the men could stay out, and Jude wiped her sweaty forehead, and fanned herself trying to find a reason to stay in here for at least an hour until they left, hell even until her grandmother, mother, Seth, who would care if she disappeared for a moment, Jude needed it.
"What the hell are you doing in here?"
Jude was ready for Casey to confront her, but it wasn't her. It was the opposite of Casey.
Leah's glare made Jude feel filthy, like the coward she was acting like, and the fear that she let consume her at the sight of Jordan's oblivious father.
"I can't see him, I won't-" Jude made it very clear to a disapproving Leah, "I don't care what that says about me. I just got my life together with my own family, I don't have the time to try to fix another."
"You are so damn selfish Jude, I knew you would do this," Leah leaned against the sinks, "you don't have a problem trying to make things right, but only with some people. The people that benefit you right?"
"Who then? Who benefits me? Because all you give me is shit Leah." She had it up to her with her sister's prideful attitude. "Seth is more stressed out than ever, and don't even get me started on mom. None of that benefits me, seeing my family in pain doesn't benefit me Leah, so what the hell do you mean?"
"Emily," she said it like their cousin was a curse word. "You go and forgive her for everything as if she didn't drive a wedge between everything I ever wanted, and everything I was promised. Instead," she drawled. "I get to see you play house with her and Sam, and here I am, being this fucken bitter person, I am now."
"You aren't bitter Leah." That was the least of it. Jude had plenty to say about that, and no time was better than now. "You have been hurt time and time again, and let me say this once. You deserve ten times better than Alpha Douchebag Sam, and fuck Emily, she is not my buddy, she's barely my cousin," Jude didn't like saying it, but if Leah needed to hear it, then she would. "I told her that I would try to make peace with her- no wait Leah- I would try, but I am never going to forget what she did Leah. How weak she was to go along with this whole love at first sight with the guy that told me he loved my baby sister more than anyone in the whole world. Come on, I was here when you first started dating Sam."
Leah got this forlorn look in her eye, and Jude came to stand right next to her, tapping her elbow with her sister's. "Don't you think I understand just a bit? I am on Team Leah, all the way, and I mean it Leah. So, don't make me feel like shit, you are good at it, but I appreciate if you didn't doubt everything I do. My word means something now, and I think you have seen that."
Leah gave a long sigh. "You are such a damn hypocrite Jude. You still run away when things get tough."
That made Jude grind her teeth. "You don't get to say that, I have stayed, even when things got hard, I am still here-"
"Yeah, so why are we having this conversation in a restroom instead of with the Whitney family. Does he scare you that much? That you can't face him, and tell him the truth, does he get to you more than we ever could? Is that why you are afraid of fixing things with him?"
"Fixing things." Jude didn't even want to do that. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? I never made a promise to fix things with him, why the hell would you expect me too?" Jude crossed her arms, leaning toward the she-wolf. "My priority is my own family Jude, that is what I am doing, trying not to make a scene in front of my family."
Leah pointed at the door. "You did make a scene. Grandmother put two and two together when Conner and his family passed by, and she recognized that he was your old boyfriend."
"Oh damn, she did?"
"Yeah." Leah chuckled coldly. "Thank god no one understands Quileute, she had some words to describe you, then mom got mad, and then everyone left after that. Now I gotta pay for two bills, and Quil is such a fat-ass he bought three breakfasts. Who the hell does that?"
"So, everyone left? Why didn't you tell me sooner, we didn't have to stay in here and smell someone's shit, god-"?
"Yeah, you don't have to see Grandma's prissy face-"
"I can do without that honestly Leah, she is going to already give me hell, might as well let her heat off a little."
"Yeah, like that will make it better."
"If I get an extra day, I'll take it." That was all the encouragement Jude needed to go outside into the less crowded Diner, grinning to see that everyone was indeed gone from their tables, and yet… there was still someone at her table.
Jacob Black gave a little wave at her, and Jude turned back to glare at Leah's smug face, "why is he waiting out here?"
Leah saw how much it troubled her sister to be tricked into coming out. She was enjoying it a bit too much how much it made her sister uncomfortable to be in her strangely happy imprints presence. "Oh, he told me, that he needs you to help him with a little problem?"
"Oh, a little problem," Jude whispered as they came up to a calm and confident Jacob. "Well if it is only little."
He had changed into a fresh pair of clothes, still levi cut-offs, and showered it would seem with his wet raven hair. He looked different with a shirt and shoes on, decently dressed look he was going for was a bit too handsome for her to shake off, and Jude could smell the shampoo she had showered with when she had lived with him.
She didn't wait for it to get awkward. "What's up Jake? Trying to get some free food?" That was the first time she had ever dare call him it, but it sure did break the ice. "Or you are sending me a message from Billy?"
"No." He flexed his biceps as he brought Seth's plate to him, digging into it, "didn't Leah ask you for me?"
"I'm not your messenger asshole." Leah flipped him off, and Jude raised her eyebrows as what that could possibly mean.
"Yeah." Jude scratched her head. "She told me you need help with a little problem? I still don't get it," Jude confessed as she sat next to Leah, looking sadly at all the tables she had cleared because of her cowardice to face one person, "is that pack-speak for the leech problem?"
"No." He made it worse. "I am going to go meet with Bella, and I want you to come with me."
That was like a cold pale of water had been dumped over her head, but not so bad as having to face her own ex in the Diner.
"Oh, is that it," Jude took some bacon from the plate, for once not so worried for some reason, because focusing on Jacob's problems seemed a bit more therapeutic than ignoring her own. "Why do you need my help? You need someone to distract Charlie while you talk to your girl?"
Jacob made that funny face whenever he got flustered, "I already told you, she isn't my girl, we are friends, I just wanted to return her motorcycles."
"Oh, is that it," Jude winked at Leah. "Then why do I need to come for that, doesn't seem so hard to me, I mean unless there is something you aren't telling me Jake."
"He doesn't say a lot," Leah mumbled loud enough for Jude to hear.
"Leah, you promised." Jacob snapped back, and that perplexed Jude. He tries once more, his tone sweet and pleading. "Will you Jude? Will you come with me, it will only take thirty minutes at the most and I will drive you back home. It will be easy."
He made it sound easy.
What was the point to reject him?
Especially since he rarely asked for anything, well, he never had asked her for anything.
"I am free today." His eyes lit up with her words. "I don't see what's the problem Leah. I will go with you Jake, no worries," Jude shrugged, "this can even be fun. I will be your wing woman." He smiled with all his teeth at the suggestion, a full grin, and it was like the sun was shining out of his ass. As if she had just accepted to take him to prom or something cutesy like that. It was so cute Jude couldn't help but smile back at him too.
"You can't be serious. That actually worked?" Leah complained, bracing her hands against the table, "Black stop using my sister as bait. If you're trying to get back at Bella for choosing her leech, then you better get another piece of trash girl to do it-"
"It's not like that." Jacob blushed red. "I am inviting her to come with me, I don't see-"
"You were going to use me," Jude raised her eyebrows in surprise. She had not seen this coming, not from a mile away. "To make your girl jealous?"
Jacob Black at least didn't deny it to her, and for that she was grateful to him. There was something attractive about honesty It had been awhile since she felt…so flattered. As if the gorgeous doll like Bella Swan, a girl that attracted vampires and Spirit Warriors alike, would ever feel jealous of her.
"He's crazy Jude," Leah snarled. "Come on let's get out of here. Let me pay-"
"No. I think he has something here," Jude was intrigued, "what did you plan for us to do? I want to know."
He was analyzing her, just as she had done to him. Both refusing to back down. He did eventually explain it. "I don't know why Leah is making a big deal, I was just going to drive us to Bella's and then head straight back to La Push. It was just so…" he mulled his words. Slapping his lips, "just so I wasn't alone when I went. I wanted to control myself, and with you…" he didn't finish that sentence.
He didn't need to. His words hit her below the belt, and for whatever reason Jude could make, she caved. "Well then why didn't you say so," Jude smiled encouraging him. "I will gladly hang off your arm Jacob, make Bella into a green little monster."
"She is not a monster"-
"Yeah, yeah she's an innocent little dove yada yada." Jude waved her hand, he was so incredibly protective sometimes it could be annoying as hell. "You flatter me too by wanting to use me, but honestly jokes aside, it's been a while since I've been eye candy, I might be a little rusty, so sorry if I come off a little strong." Jude licked her teeth, and Jacob shook his head at her heavy sarcasm.
"I feel like I am going to regret this."
"This was your idea," Jude said, getting her wallet, "now excuse me, I need to pay for this morning's mess."
She left the table, and Leah sank her claws into Jacob. "You told me you were going to tell her-"
"Here they are." The chipper waitress gave her the two paid bills, "thank you for coming to Debbie's Diner, please come again!"
Jude could not understand the totals. Who had done this? "But I didn't pay for these. Who paid?"
The waitress pointed to the seat in the back of the Diner, and it was filled with a handsome young man with a buzzcut, a tattoo of a ying yang koi fish on his arm, and beside him sat Winona of the Makah Reservation.
The spiritual woman lifted a hand to her cheek, making a motion with it,
Call me.
Jude nodded and waved back.
Someone must have tipped her off that she would be here today. Jude swallowed down the nervous fear that brought on. She forgot how small this town was, and feared for what that meant of strangers knowing about Jordan when she had yet to tell Conner the truth herself.
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He brushed her hands away from turning it on full blast. "What type of wierdo puts on the air conditioning when it is this cold."
"I am heating up." Jude said as she messed with the air conditioning again while Jacob drove to the infamous Bella Swan's house. It had only been a minute and he already had a problem with her trying to calm herself down. "What's wrong with air conditioning? You're not cold, are you? Seth told me that you guys couldn't get cold anymore."
"I don't."
He said it with such finality as he switched gears, his wrists were skilled, and she could tell he loved the feel of the gas under his foot. It reminded her a bit of herself when she was younger.
"Do you race cars Jacob?"
The face he made said enough. "No."
This was a conversation that was going nowhere fast. Talking to Jacob had once seemed so easy with Leah between them. The aggressive ass buffer that her sister had perfected had kept them at arm's length from one another. Now they didn't have any excuses not to get to the nitty gritty of what this car-ride was turning into. As the older one Jude guessed she had the honor of jumping right into it. "Ok, Mr. One Word Answers, what's the plan? Do I stay here or do I go in cracking some vampire skulls?"
His hand gripped the wheel, "No. You can stay here."
She waited for him to speak, hell, put on the radio, comment on the weather, but he did none of the above. He sat there driving his Rabbit, probably counting her breaths and heartbeats with his wolf hearing, but that just ticked her off even more. This was not what she expected him to be like, and Jude was honestly a bit disappointed. "What am I supposed to do in the car, twiddle my thumbs," Jude lowered the window, fanning herself, "do you feel the heat, damn, I might be getting a fever again."
In a second his palm was against Jude's head, for a burning second his hand only added to the flames that were crawling up her spin.
"You feel fine." Jacob told her. Obviously immune to the fire that refused to cool the fuck down.
"I feel like I am turning into a wolf," she gasped in the cool spring air of the open window. Leaning her head out to feel the soothing air whip by, "it's coming on, it's getting me." Jude gripped her throat in a playful manner. "Stop the car, I'm going to phase!"
"Not funny Jude."
Jude dropped her hands, smiling. That was the first time he had used her name. "I thought it was funny."
They turned a familiar street and Jude knew they were getting closer to their destination to ground zero.
"So, I sit here," Jude droned on. "I wait for you to come back, and then what? You aren't making this worth my while Jacob Black? I mean if you were just going to bore me to death, you could have just told me."
"I am sorry we all can't be daredevils." He nodded to the backseat, "we could take the motorcycle for a spin?"
Jude's eyes blazed with mirth. "Is that a dare? If it is, then I am going to wipe your ass on the asphalt. I don't hold back, I'm fast Jacob." She teased him, "bet a hundred that I'm faster than you. Maybe I can use the money to pay for something better than your shitty air conditioning."
She got him to laugh, and for some reason that felt like a victory.
"Stop bagging on my air conditioning."
They turned another turn, and he began slowing his car. They were too close now to turn back.
"Hey Jacob."
"yeah." He paid attention to the road, but Jude knew he was listening.
"When I talked to your dad the other day." He dropped his smile the same time Jude felt her heart pick up speed. "When I talked to him about the imprint, I am sorry if I was out of line. I just wanted to let you know that you had the choice"-
"That is what I wanted to talk to you about." He slowed his car to park in front of a house that she was guessing was Bella's. He turned the car off, and Jude sat there waiting for him to tell her. When he finally spoke again, Jude's hands were a sweaty fiddling mess. "I wanted to thank you for giving me the right to choose what I wanted. I know that sounds selfish or fucked up, but this whole imprinting thing is really just that," he swallowed, his eyes hardening. "When I imprinted." He turned in his seat, and Jude was once again trapped in his stare. How the hell did he do that?
He cleared his throat. "When we imprinted." He corrected himself, "I expected you to claim the imprint like the rest of them had done, and I expected the wolf"- he paused, "what I am trying to say is that I appreciate you giving me back my freedom back, letting me have a say in all this. You didn't have to-"
"I am not cruel like that Jacob, I am not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do. That is just disgusting, especially when you"-
He commented quickly. "I am getting that, I'm getting to know that the stories they tell me about you, some of them are true." He vaguely put it, "and some of them were downright wrong about you."
His heartbreaking smile returned.
That was the reason why he had been so kind to me lately. Jude thought. He was grateful, not because he liked her or found her cute. Not even because he was trying to get back at Bella, he was grateful because for once he got to keep some part of his old self. That made Jude feel an overwhelming sense of happiness, and knew some of it was leaking from Jacob's side of the imprint bond.
If she could keep feeling like this, then she knew that no matter what Jacob or she chose in their lives, they could stay in this good place. Here it was safe and warm, not burning hot, but Jude would take it.
The reason was obvious enough. Jude bit her lip, "I hope things work out with Bella. I mean"- she coughed like Jacob had done, teasing, "I hope things work out with your friend."
This time he didn't deny it. He didn't make a big deal that Bella already had a boyfriend, and was giving him the biggest cock-block he would probably experience in his whole life. Because the moment he found out how downright classically beautiful he was, how his extremely muscular body was downright a piece of art, and how well his incredibly sweet attitude worked on breaking social barriers. He would be a narcotic to the female population, when he learned that, well hell, Jude would be there for the day he did.
Jake went to the back to the get the motorcycles, and he winked at the rear-view mirror she had been watching him through.
Jude couldn't help but roll down the window as he pulled the motorcycles across the lawn and to Chief Swan's house, returning the motorcycles to him or Bella she was not sure. Honestly, with the whole Cullen and Bella drama, she chose to be out of the loop, but she knew enough to see that Jacob was nervous about doing this.
She yelled to him, "do you need any help?"
"I got it." He waved back over his tense shoulder, and for some reason she became a bit more nervous.
Not for herself, but for him.
