Authors Note: This chapter kind of wrote itself. I had the idea in my head, but as I started writing, things didn't go as I had orginally planned. The characters just weren't listening to me! They wanted to do their own thing! So heres Chapter 2, and I hope you enjoy it:
Today was going to be fun, I thought, as Nessie rode on my back down the LaPush res. She looked especially pretty today, and Alice had finally had enough sense to put her in suitable clothing; some hard-wearing looking jeans, a t-shirt and a thick jacket. Her trainers looked sturdy too. It did pass my mind that maybe Bella had dressed her today.
Quil and Claire were already at the beach when we got there. Nessie stood back, as always, while I phased back to human, and then she handed me my shirt and shorts.
She eyed up Quil and Claire and then touched my face gently, wondering who they were. She wasn't very familiar with the other wolves, except Seth and Leah and that was only because they had been near at her birth and Seth visited frequently.
"That's Quil and Claire. Quil is a wolf too and Claire is his friend, like you're my friend."
Claire's hair was long and soared in the wind. She was – what? – five, or six, but she still looked younger than Ness. I wondered how they'd get on and I now doubted whether this was a good idea.
"Sup, Jake. Hey Nessie." Quil said, pulling me in for a hug. It was a wolf-thing.
"I don't know who you are." Nessie said cautiously. Edward was always drilling her about talking to strangers.
"Sure you do, Ness, I just told you." I said. Usually she didn't have a problem with people; god, the amount of vamps she's had at her house and she's scared of a human and a shape-shifter?
"Will you hurt my family?" Nessie asked, her eyes narrowed as she looked Quil up and down. I didn't understand what was going on. Why was she suddenly hostile? What made her change?
"Of course not!" Quil gasped, as confused as I was.
"But you're a wolf." Nessie said. She was shivering a little bit, but I was unsure whether it was the cold or she was scared. I sat down next to her, so know we were the same height.
"Nessie, I'm a wolf. I don't hurt your family, do I?" I said, trying to comfort her. She shook her head slowly, her golden locks swinging as she shook.
"There then. Quil is my friend, and he won't hurt you." What the hell had the vamps been saying? She was scared shitless of Quil, something totally irrational!
"Jake, Claire and I will just be over here." He smiled encouragingly at me and walked away from us, sitting down a hundred or so metres from us. I was really miffed now. I knew it wasn't Nessie's fault, and I'm sure it wasn't Bella's, or any of the other Cullens for that matter. They wouldn't scare Nessie.
"Where did you find out about wolves and vampires, Nessie?" I asked calmly. I had to keep calm because I would not phase in front of Nessie out of temper. Her eyes sparkled.
"I can't remember." She whispered her face full of concentration. She wasn't lying.
"Show me." I said, and placed her hand on my face. She let me.
My mind was blank to start of with but then the picture began to appear, but badly, like a TV with a bad signal. I noticed one of the vamps faces but I wasn't sure which one. She'd been at Bella and Edward's wedding too. Tamzin? Tammy? God, I had no idea. There was so bloody many of them! She was talking to another un-known vamp about the wolves. I noticed that Nessie was looking for the arms of someone else.
"I can understand why the wolves are here, but I feel so uncomfortable," said one of them. The strawberry haired one.
"I agree, sister. How odd for them too, I must imagine. It is their nature to kill us, only now they stand with us," said the other.
The vision blurred again and I took Nessie's hand from my face.
"Nessie, does it worry you?" I asked. I was seriously worried now; I'd never seen her in this state before. And this girl had had her life at risk and she'd been totally fine during that!
"Sometimes. But you won't hurt me, will you Jake?" She asked. Her big eyes stared at me and she did not blink. Never, I'd never hurt her - intentionally. But what if I did? What if it was an accident? What if I hurt her like Sam did to Emily? Or even worse, how Edward had hurt Bella? Of course not, I'd never be so freakin' stupid and careless.
"Never, Nessie. I'll never hurt you." I agreed, pulling her close into a hug and I lay down, her head on my chest.
"What about Quil? Will he hurt me?" Nessie asked after a minute.
"No, Quil won't hurt you." I said firmly. If he did…
"There was a man who didn't like me." She said, her voice trembling slightly. I growled but she didn't move. She knew I wouldn't hurt her.
"Who was the man, Ness?" I asked, through gritted teeth. Who couldn't possibly like Nessie? I'd watched about twenty vamps fall head over heels in love with her. Blondie, who had never loved anything in life except herself, loved her. I didn't know anyone who didn't.
But all it took was the touch of a face to show me. The red-eyed monster, with the jet black hair. Aro. I made Nessie pull her hand away.
"He just doesn't understand, Ness." I couldn't go into the details now. I'd always assumed that Nessie had understood what had happened, after all, she was a lot more advanced than every other child. But nobody had discussed it with her. Bella had refrained me from doing so, saying she was too young to know everything. It was Bella's excuse that I'd used just now.
"I don't fit in." Nessie said. Vampire, werewolf, human. It was true, she didn't fit anywhere. But she also fit everywhere.
"No, Nessie, you fit everywhere. Half-vampire. Half-human. Friends with werewolf. You get the best of all worlds." I said. She sat up, then, and smiled.
"I love you, Jake." She said simply. All it took was those four words to make me soar.
"I love you too, Ness." I said, hugging her. "Can we go play with Quil and Claire or do you want to do something else?" I asked. She looked warily at them.
"We can play with Quil and Claire." She answered finally. I slipped my hand in hers and we walked slowly over to where they were sitting.
"Hey Nessie. I'm Quil and this is Claire." He said as if this had been our first meeting.
"Hello." She said, hesitantly but with a small nervous smile on her beautiful face.
"What would you like to do, Claire, Nessie?" Quil asked. I'd not actually seen Quil around Claire before and I wondered if I behaved the same around Ness as he did around Claire. He moved to mirror her: always tense but so relaxed at the same time, always ready to protect her.
"I'd like to go swimming." Nessie said, oblivious to the ice cold waters and the fact humans wouldn't bear to swim in it.
"Me too! Me too!" Claire squealed. It was strange to think this dark haired pretty girl was older than Nessie. Nessie was so much more advanced on so many levels; physically and mentally, although I suppose today's beginning had emphasised how young she still actually was.
Quil gave me a look. How could we say no? It was impossible. It physically hurt to say no to our imprints.
"Errm… how about we try Seattle? There's a big indoor swimming pool there, I think." I muttered, trying to find a way out of this.
"But we could swim right here. There's water right here." She said, as if it were silly of me to forget.
"Ness, we can't do that. It'll be cold."
"Sure we can Jake. You can keep me warm, and you won't get cold. You never get cold!" She said, smiling. She loved that I was as warm as her; I loved it that she was as warm as me. It meant that I didn't have to hug someone whose skin felt like ice. Bella's hugs felt strange – like putting your frozen hands on the radiator.
"Nessie, remember, not everyone is like us. We'll find a swimming pool inside somewhere." I said, trying not to upset Claire, but we couldn't let her know about vampire's as well as wolves yet. It wasn't safe.
"How about it, Claire-Bear? Sound fun?" Quil enthused, lifting Claire up. "We'll take my truck, Jake. It's bigger." He was thinking about the size of us. Two huge men, who didn't usually travel by vehicles, needed plenty of space.
Nessie ran back with me, Claire on Quil's shoulders.
The journey there was disastrous. Claire starting crying, so then Nessie started asking lots of questions about why this girl was making so much bloody noise. I thought the same. I never liked kids. Not really, I was always too immature. That's what Bella always told me. But with Nessie? Sure she was a kid, but in a totally different way. You could actually have a conversation with her, talk to her like you would anybody else, except there was a bond there. There was more there than with anybody else. I trusted her, and she trusted me. Trust goes a long way…
We drove around for nearly an hour before we found the swimming pool. And if the day hadn't been hard enough as it was, we had to get past the reception.
"Four for the pool, please." Quil said calmly, pulling out his wallet.
"Can I see your membership cards please?" the receptionist asked. She was short, slim and blonde. She had that much make-up on, it looked like she was trying to cover up a huge facial deformation or something.
"We aren't members here." Quil said, confused.
"Are you interested in becoming members here?" She asked, pulling out a clipboard from behind her desk.
"Errm, no. Just four for the pool please." Quil repeated. Did it really look that we needed to be members of a gym? There were two little girls (both looking around six and seven) and two huge men, with muscles like iron!
"You have to be a member to enter the pool." The receptionist, Sarah – her name tag read, said.
"How much to be a member?" Quil said, growing annoyed. Sarah obviously didn't realise that we weren't guys to wind up.
"The initial fee is $25 each, and then a further $10 each month after that." She said, pulling out a fee leaflet thingy that neither of us looked at. Nessie pulled at my shirt, and I lifted her up. She put her hand on my face, showing me she was bored.
"For god's sake, sure, rob us blind. Sign us up, but can we make it quick?" I wasn't made of money like the god damn Cullens!
Sarah smiled, pleased that she'd just got two new customers. The signing up process was slow, but we got through it as quickly as possible.
"Quil, I don't have a swimsuit." Claire moaned. Oh my god, I completely forgot about swimming costumes.
"Come with me." I said, getting increasingly annoyed by the pace and hard work the day was turning out to be. "Nessie, Claire, pick one you like." I said, pointing to the rack of expensive little girl costumes. I grabbed some trunks for myself, as did Quil.
Another $87 later, we finally made it through to the changing rooms. But then both Quil and I stopped. Male or female changing rooms? Neither Nessie or Claire were old enough to change by themselves, and I felt really uncomfortable changing Nessie. It had never been an issue before. I hated to think what Edward would do if he saw us in this predicament!
"Errm…" Quil muttered, as unsure as me. This wasn't our job! It didn't feel right.
"Excuse me." I asked this older woman politely, but when she looked I didn't say anything. Huffed, she walked away.
"Can I help you?" Sarah was back, hands on her short hips.
"We don't know which room to go in." Nessie said innocently.
"Well, that is the girls changing rooms, and that is the boys." She said, almost patronisingly, pointing to each room like an airhostess.
"Yes, thank you. We are fully aware which one is which." I snapped.
"Well then, can you please take your daughters into the men's changing rooms as you and brother cannot go into the girls." She said, mirroring my tone.
"They are not my daughters." I corrected, leaving out the part about Quil and I being brother. Being werewolves, there were some extremely big similarities between us.
"Oh." Sarah muttered. She thought this over for minute before saying: "This is not part of my job, but I will be able to assist your niece's while they change." I did not correct her this time, but allowed Nessie and Claire to walk into the changing rooms with this strange woman. A pain stabbed my chest, and didn't stop until they came out, their clothes in their arms with their swimsuits on. I breathed a sigh.
Nessie came in with me whilst I changed. She turned her back, as did I. I couldn't let her sit outside whilst I was inside. Even though in the supernatural world where there were evils such as the red-eyed monsters, there were still human terrors too. Average murderers and paedophiles… I shuddered at the thought.
Finally, we dived into the huge blue pool.
The water was warm, not cool and contrasting like the sea. It was boring. No sudden waves, no pulling current. Nessie appeared to think the same.
"Jake, why couldn't we play in the sea?" she whined.
"Because it's cold." I said a normal answer to that kind of question this time of year.
"But you could keep us warm. Look your making steam now." Nessie said. I looked at my body in the water, and I could notice, and only a little bit, but steam was actually rising from the water! I looked at Quil, who was so absorbed in Claire that he hadn't realised. I hoped the humans wouldn't; I hoped it was Nessie's vampire senses being extremely picky.
But then Claire noticed it too.
"Quil, I think we should get out." I said, nervous. How weird did we look? It was now made clear that we weren't these little girls' fathers, we couldn't change them, we'd just ordered a membership purely because we wanted a single swim and now we were steaming.
"Quil, I am getting out. Nessie come on." I lifted her out onto the side, ignoring the peculiar looks; we'd only been in about half an hour!
I didn't really care about changing Nessie this time round. I dried her off with my shirt and then put her clothes on over the top of her swimsuit. She wasn't cold. I put on the mildly damp t-shirt and walked outside, waiting for Quil as he changed Claire.
I felt like a failure driving home. The day had gone from bad to worse. Nessie had gotten freaked out about Quil, then I'd had to take her swimming in a pool rather than the sea, then we'd had to wait whilst we signed up. The changing rooms had delayed things even more, and all of that had built up to about thirty minutes in the pool.
The drive home was silent.
"Thanks Quil. I best take Nessie back, you know what Bella's like." I smiled – we all knew what Bella was like.
I phased quickly and ran through the forest with Nessie on my back. Unlike our last outing, Bella was not waiting for us. We walked into the house without invitation.
"May I ask where you've been?" Bella snapped, appearing suddenly from the top of the stairs. Nessie ran over to her and hugged her. I wondered whether she'd thought the day was a complete mess up.
"I took Ness swimming." I said. It may have been a bad day, but there wasn't any crime.
"You took Renesmee off LaPush res." She corrected me, her eyes narrow. She was so god damn protective over her daughter.
"Well we had to find an indoor one. Claire is human. She'd have died!" I said. What was so wrong with her?
"Jacob!" Esme welcomed as soon as she passed Bella. "Would you like anything? Food? Drink? Anything at all? I've got some nice turkey slices in the fridge." She offered.
"Err, no, thanks." I refused politely.
"Leave him be, Bella. He had a really bad day." Edward said from the sofa. I hadn't even realised he'd been there; too much like a piece of stone. I watched him chuckle.
"How do you know?" I shot defensively. Oh, he'd been reading my thoughts.
"There are advantages and disadvantages from this life." Edward smiled.
"Leave me alone."
"I had no intention of not doing so." He answered in his usual smart, well grammar-ed sentences. "You did the right thing." He said after a small pause.
"What?" This god damn vamp didn't make any sense.
"Changing Nessie. I saw what you were thinking. Thank you. For respecting her." He said, truly grateful.
"She's three, Edward. God dammit, when are you gonna start believing me?" I asked, not really expecting an answer, but he gave one anyway.
"I've seen imprints Jacob, and I see how people feel about the other." He said calmly. "All I can see is the future and I'm pretty sure what will become of it."
"What? Have you turned into Alice now?" I said sarcastically. I didn't know what was gonna happen, so how the hell did he know?
"Oh, I have something else." Edward added. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his wallet. "For you."
"Don't be stupid, Cullen." I said, pushing away his cash offer.
"You paid a membership fee so you could take my daughter swimming, and then bought her a swimming costume. I'll pay for it." He offered again. Didn't this bastard ever get told no?
"For god's sake - I took Nessie out because I wanted to. I don't want you paying me. I'm not a babysitter. I enjoyed it and I hope she did too. I don't want your money." I growled. He finally put the money back into his pocket.
"Its there, if you ever want it."
"Never."
Nessie looked at me from Bella's arms. Her expression was a little sad, but she was telling Bella about our day. Or showing her was a better description.
"Nessie, I'd going now." I called angrily; ready to get out of the house. I was furious that Edward had offered me money, angry, and offended. I hoped he could read what I was thinking.
Nessie jumped out of Bella's grasp and ran over, jumping up to me. She kissed me on the cheek.
"Bye Jacob, love you." I put her down.
"See ya tomorrow, Ness. Love you too."
I stomped out of the Cullen house and without warning, phased. There was a stomach wrenching feeling – a feeling that I realised came from the phase. Something that was too close and too uncontrolled for my liking. Half a minute earlier, and Nessie and Emily would have been able to compare scars.
Quite a long chapter I think. I'm quite proud :)
So please let me know what you think. I hope you enjoyed it, and I'm sorry that they didn't have a good day. It was weird how that worked out. Please let me know if you have any further ideas for a Jake and Nessie outting, and any tips on how to improve. All feedback is welcome :)