The next year had proven to be rather awkward for Cris and Jackie. He had saved her life and she was entirely thankful for what he had done. In fact, when she realized she couldn't quite remember everything that had happened to her when she had been human, she had been more than happy. She was downright thankful with every fibre of her being. Her home life had been anything, but safe which was made obvious by the fact her goddamn brother nearly shot her lungs out of her chest with a shotgun. That part she could remember just barely. Cris had explained that human memories were fuzzy now that her senses had proven to be far stronger than when she was a human.
Despite being thankful, Jackie also realized she knew nothing about her savior and had forced him to tell her everything he knew after she got over the initial bloodlust stage of her transformation. He told her about his father, Carlisle and how he was a doctor and had kids of his own, who weren't really his kids, but vampires that decided to be in his coven. Cris had actually left because most of Carlisle's attention had been stolen by Edward, who had an amazing power while Cris had a weak, pathetic power. When Jackie asked, Cris showed that he had an impeccable ability to know exactly what people wanted. Not by reading their minds, he just somehow knew what people wanted and what pleased them and how to act around them.
He further explained that this was probably due to his job when he had been a human. He had been a very good servant for a rich family and he had made sure everyone was happy to the point where no one bothered to ask anymore because he could simply know and get whatever it was dealt with. He also explained that he was a servant as he had been an Irish serf who fled to England to work as a servant and did it wonderfully. His family had reluctantly been slaughtered and Carlisle just so happened to come across him and he was turned. Carlisle showed him that he did not have to feed off of humans and happily went with an animal diet. From there they traveled until they split ways and he had begun just traveling wherever the wind took him.
Jackie was also able to learn to control her power a bit better when the blood lust left her and she could actually form more coherent thoughts that didn't involve screaming at Cris. She found she was able to predict the movements of others in flashes, about a minute or two before anything actually had happened. She couldn't really see into the future, but instead she saw what would happen within the next few moments so she knew where to move. The ability proved useful for hunting and Cris had been on the short end of the stick a few times when they had wrestled for the hell of it.
After they had been able to get to know each other, the awkwardness between them left and they found comfort with each other's presence. Cris had suggested they pretend to be siblings and they both took up the name Johnson, courtesy of Jackie and her lack of creativity. Life had seemed to continue on easily for the two and they decided to find a place to settle down for a bit, just to relax and get Jackie more use to being around humans.
They settled upon a cabin around San Bernardino, near the snow. It was far enough away from the resorts and a lot of people, but still within range of human contact, plus it had plenty of wildlife which made for a perfect home for the two.
"Uh… Cris?" Jackie paused as she noticed that they had received mail, which was strange. As far as she knew, no mail services made it out to their home. The fact they even had mail was worrisome.
"Sup?" Cris poked his head from his spot in the 'office' where he usually tinkered with whatever he could get his hands on. Sometimes it was parts of cars, other times it was computer parts. More than a few times Jackie's computer had been taken apart and put back together and it got to the point where she was considering getting a lockbox for her computer.
"There's a letter on the table, why? I didn't think we got mail." Jackie frowned as she lifted the envelope towards Cris. She lazily waved it around between her pointer finger and middle finger and watched as Cris dove for it. She grinned as she tugged it out of his way, easily predicting the movement before she tore it open with a cackle.
"Hey! Gimmie that! What you're doing is technically illegal!" Cris hissed out as she rolled her eyes and unfolded the letter.
"Oh… shit. Here." Jackie paused as she handed Cris the letter and tried her best to seem as innocent as possible. Sure, she might have seen that it was from Carlisle, but other than that, she had no idea what it said.
"Great. Seems ol' Eddie boy found himself a mate and she's a bleeding human." Cris groaned as he flopped down on the couch beside Jackie. Instantly he grabbed his Camel Lights and lit one. Jackie had been all too happy to hear that despite not needing to use her lungs other than to smell things, she could still smoke and it would have no problem. She really did miss the burning of her lungs, but she was happy she could at least hold onto her pretend addiction to Winston 100s.
"So…? What does that have to do with us?" Jackie frowned as she followed suit by grabbing her own cigarette and lighting it. It was really nice to live in a cabin that no one really knew about, that meant they could happily smoke inside and not have to deal with any issues.
"He wants me to head down there to see if I can be any help. Sounds like stuff is going down. Thing is… He doesn't know about you, so that's going to be fun to explain." Cris sighed as he took a long drag from his cigarette and glanced towards Jackie with a pathetic glare.
"Hey, not my fault I got changed, plus I'm fine around humans, so what does it matter, really? Where does he live, though? I mean, it isn't like we can go strutting out and about in the sunlight. And did you really pick up that letter from the post office and not open it? Or did you pick it up, intend to open it, and forgot?" Jackie stared at Cris as he shrugged lazily and let his cigarette hang limply from his lips.
"Forks, Washington. Apparently it rains there a lot, like… The sun rarely comes out, so it's a perfect place. Kinda like Alaska. Only issue is, there's some treaty where we can't pass by into La Push, because some shapeshifters live there and protect the land. And I might have picked up the letter and left it there because I was scared to open it." Cris sighed as he sat up and began to pace in the small area that they called a living room.
"Well, let's go. I'm getting kinda stir crazy here. So let's load up the truck and head on out. You know anything is looking better than hanging around here any longer." Jackie grinned as Cris continued his pacing back and forth. She let out a frustrated groan and kicked out her legs, causing Cris to topple over and just barely catch himself before he fell against the floor.
"Fine! Fine. Go pack. Just do it quickly before I change my mind." Cris grumpled from his position on the floor as Jackie excitedly ran to their rooms and began to pack up all of their clothes. She made sure to pack up everything that they had so if the cabin was found, it wouldn't have any valuables inside.
"Done!" Jackie beamed happily after spending the last hour packing everything they needed up and dragging it next to the front door. Cris reluctantly got up from the floor and began to haul everything into the back of the truck. He tied everything down so it wouldn't go flying about and by the time he was done, Jackie was already in the car, happily bouncing in the passenger's seat. Cris could only groan as he awaited to meet the newer members of his "family" and introduce Jackie to them all. While the last two years of getting Jackie settled had been awkward at some points, he had a feeling his life from here on out was going to be twice as awkward.