"Quil, man you're looking good!" Jared exclaims giving me a brotherly hug. He looks so aged, even though I know it's only been three and a half years. Probably because he's getting no sleep because of the baby.
Kim stands behind him, car seat in one arm and diaper bag in the other, with the same exhausted look on her face. "Thank you so much Quil," she says handing me the diaper bag. "Claire's mom always said you were the best babysitter in the world. We just couldn't find anyone else, and we really need a good night's sleep."
"I'm sure she'll be fine. Melody and I will have a good weekend together, you guys can go and rest. You're welcome to stay for coffee, but I suggest you get going," I say taking the car seat with Melody sound asleep in it. Jared opens the door to my house and helps me inside. Together, Sam and I set up one of the twins old cribs in my old bedroom for Mel, but from what I've heard she doesn't like to sleep much during the night.
Kim follows us with two bags of baby stuff and drops it right inside the front door. I place Melody, asleep in her carrier, on the coffee table in the living room and turn back to Jared and Kim.
"Get some rest," I tell them gauging their worried expressions. They hadn't left Mel under the watch of anyone but themselves before, and I could tell they had apprehensions about this decision to take a weekend away. "Believe me, if I need any help Emily's just minutes away and I have your phone numbers just in case."
Kim sighs and Jared wraps an arm around her shoulders reassuringly and kisses the top of her head. She walks over to Melody and kisses her on the forehead and says, "You take care of uncle Quil."
Jared chuckles and takes Kim's hand and leads her out of the house, turns back to me right before he reaches the door, and shakes my hand saying, "Thanks man."
Once they leave I shut the door to keep the air conditioning in and unpack all the essentials and more that Kim packed for Melody's weekend with me. Melody stays sound asleep during this entire hour long process and I don't dare move her. Jared has told me that she rarely sleeps for more than one hour at a time, and in interest of getting some form of sleep this weekend, I lay down on the couch to take a nap.
Twenty minutes later, screams erupt around me announcing that Melody has awoke from her sweet little slumber. Wailing, she looks too much like Jared when he's pissed about something, and I laugh at the terrible resemblance. I carefully take her out of her carrier, hold her securely in my left arm, and walk into the kitchen to get out a bottle for her. As she takes to the bottle quickly, I lean up against the counter and stare out the small kitchen window. It's almost as if I could see the heat waves outside. Somehow this May has been sweltering hot, almost unbearable.
Melody coos in my arms and I carefully lift her up to burp her. After a few minutes, she's silent and I know that she's probably fallen asleep on me but I'm scared to move her. She'd probably start to cry.
But her silence is broken by someone else; someone knocking on my door. She begins to wail and I rub her back trying to get her to stop as I walk to the door to open it.
"Need help?" Emily asks reassuringly as I open the door. She smiles and takes Mel out of my arms at once. I move out of the door way to let her in and immediately shut the door behind me, to keep out the heat. "Kim asked me to stop by and help you out, and I was just driving by- had to drop Laker and Tripp off at baseball camp- and thought I'd see how you're doing."
Melody wails almost drowning out Emily's chatter, as Emily walks her back and forth through my living room. "Obviously, I didn't know what I signed up for," I say rubbing my head. Melody's giving me a headache.
Emily chuckles. "She can just tell that you're not Jared or Kim." Slowly Emily rubs small circles on Melody's back trying to soothe her, but Mel just screams louder. Emily's cell phone rings, and she artfully transfers Mel to one arm and pulls the phone out of her back pocket with the other. "Hello?"
She eyes me to take Melody so that she can hear the person on the other end. As I do, I say to Mel, "There's no need to be overly fussy. You're just like Jared, actually more like your uncle Paul. He's got a really bad temper."
As I talk to Melody, she begins to quiet down and whimper. Emily eyes me and then says, "give me twenty minutes," and then hangs up.
Melody begins to cry again.
"What happened to being quiet Mel?" I ask her, but the second I speak she begins to settle down.
Emily smiles, "You sound like Jared. You voice. She likes it when you're talking." Melody begins to cry again. "Anyway, sorry I have to go. Tripp forgot his glove in my car, I have to take it up to him. I'll change her for you before I go," she says apologetically and takes Mel out of my arms once more.
Melody continues to scream as Emily changes her and hands her back to me. "Try telling her a story, she might quiet down when you're talking," she shouts over Mel's screams, walking towards the door. "I'll bring you back food later. Do you mind if Sam and I come for dinner?"
"Sure sounds good. Thanks Emily!" I call over to her as she shuts the door and heads out to her car.
Melody continues to cry. This kid's got a set of lungs on her. I take her to the couch to sit down, and try to think of a story. I set her down in her carrier and put a light blanket over her, but she still cries.
"Okay, okay," I say. "What can I tell you? Let's see you're a girl, something with princesses I assume," I ponder, but I can't think of a story that's long enough to shut her up. "You want to hear about me?
"Well, I'm you're uncle Quil and I'm a math teacher for the time being. I'm also an engineer, so don't worry when you're in high school and you're mom and dad can't explain limits and velocity, I'll be able to help you out. But I might not be living here in La Push then, so you'll have to call me on the phone."
Melody's cries begin to calm into a whimper as I talk to her. I gently rock her in her carrier with my left hand and lean forward, placing my right elbow on my knee for support.
"Let's see. Why won't I be living in La Push? Because I may take a job in West Virginia, that's on the other side of the country, as an engineer. But see that all depends on Claire. Claire is the girl I met when she was just a year or so older than you are right now. And when she was eighteen I got the chance to date her. Dating is something that you won't be doing for many many years if you father has anything to say about it.
"Well, let see…Claire is very special to me. I've loved her since she was two, so that's a very long time. I'm not going to tell you about things that I'm not sure you're parents would want me telling you. Ask them about imprinting and werewolves one day. I'm sure your dad would be thrilled to tell you.
"So anyway, Claire broke up with me because she didn't like those things that I'm not going to tell you about," I say chuckling, but at the same time internally nursing the sore spot she left with me. Melody stares at me intently to continue. Like she can actually understand what I'm saying. "Well, Claire went to college that fall and met another guy, Nick, and they've been dating to this day. Four years. I only had two other conversations with her after she left. Both during Thanksgiving break.
"After that she didn't come home for Christmas, instead her family went to visit her in L.A.. Then she stayed at school for Summer, studying. In the fall, she studied abroad to Italy, which almost gave me a heart attack. Italy, of all places! She escaped right into the center of the world that I was made to protect her from."
Melody tilts her head as if she were questioning me. I chuckle at the one sided conversation.
"Yeah, I called Jake. He owed me anyways. Bella and Edward went to Italy and kept an eye out for her somehow for the two years that she stayed there. They both guaranteed me that she would never see them, so I could keep my promise of keeping them away from her. I never asked how they did, but they'd give me bit of information regarding how she was and how her friend Summer was too. Nick went with them too. Though, I certainly told Bella not to worry herself over keeping him safe. She would laugh and then tell me that if anything would happen to him it would make Claire sad, and I didn't want to do that.
"And during her second year in Italy, my dad got sick and died. I repressed every urge to call Claire or even fly out to see her myself. I did get a post card two months before she left Italy, saying that she was having fun and that she had run into Jake, who was there on vacation with Nessie. Jake simply forgot to tell Claire that they were there visiting Bella and Edward.
"This past year she went back to U.C.L.A. to finish up. She spent Thanksgiving with Nick's family in California, her mother told me, and during Christmas her and her parents took a trip to Hawaii," I say smiling, imagining her on the beach running through the water.
Melody is now fast asleep, smiling. Knowing what I've been told. I'm supposed to get sleep when she sleeps, because that's all I'm about to get. Laying down on the couch I close my eyes and fall fast asleep.
Two hours later I'm awoke by the sound of Melody whimpering. Groggily getting up, I pick Mel up out of her carrier. She's tired of being incased in it, I can tell. I go through Kim's check list of what to do when she's crying. Feed. Change. Nothing really stops Mel's quieted whimpering. I lay a blanket down on the floor, and sit down with Mel, pulling her little bouncer toy over for her to play in.
She quietly plays by herself for a few minutes and I head to the kitchen to make a quick sandwich. Once I get my lunch on a plate and get only a few bites in Melody begins to cry again. I head into the living room and pick her up and walk back to the kitchen. Stroking Mel's back I try a few more bites of my sandwich.
After concluding that I wasn't going to be able to eat any lunch, I set the plate with my food on it in the practically empty fridge. Still carrying Mel, I walk her back into the living room and sit down on the couch with her. "Is it story time again?" I ask between screams.
She seems to settle at the sound of my voice almost instantly.
"Okay where did I leave off?" I ask myself out loud. "Claire moved back to L.A. and she just finished up her last year and graduated about two weeks ago. And her mom just went out to L.A. to help her pack and move her back home. She's got a job as an Italian teacher at Forks high school, which is the place where I work."
I pace through the kitchen back and forth and Mel seems to settle down. I walk back to the living room and gently lay down with Melody resting on my chest. She's awake and drooling, but I don't really care. As long as I keep talking she doesn't cry, and that's good enough for me.
"So that's why it all depends on Claire. See if I can handle her being here without being in a relationship, we'll be fine. We'll be coworkers. But if neither of us can, I'm taking the job in West Virginia.
"Melody, this is all a very good lesson for you, although you're probably too young to understand. Really, if a boy, besides you dad, loves you. You should stay with him, as long as you love him too, that is."
Melody hums and I take that as a signal that she's understood. Together we fall fast asleep on the couch, Melody humming in her sleep every so often reminds me of the way Claire used to when she was little.
When I wake, Mel is still sleeping soundly, drooling on my black t-shirt. I don't dare move for fear of waking her and having her cry. I just stay as still as possible and think about the story I told Mel, today.
It's been almost four years since I've seen or spoken to Claire, but I'm still in love with her in every single way. I stopped pushing her when I realized that it wasn't going to work anymore. These past four years have been almost unbearable without her, but I have had the time to make myself better. I took a group of students to Florida for habitat for humanity, and I've done a lot with Embry, Mark, and Leah to improve the reservation. But after that I did little. I didn't travel. I feared that I would go against better judgment and fly to Italy, or show up in L.A.
Leah gave up about two years ago. She put a lot of will power into it, and she stopped phasing, acknowledging that she couldn't stay in a twenty five year olds body anymore. It took her the better part of the last two years to manage it, but I know she's succeeded because it's been six months since I've heard her voice in my head.
Embry on the other hand, he planned on doing what Leah managed, but then he realized that he wouldn't be able to sleep with twenty five year olds if he stopped phasing. So it's just Mark, Embry, and I. And as I note that Claire is turning twenty two, within the next three years, I'm going to stop phasing too. So that if there's any chance we can be together, the supernatural stuff will be gone and we will be the same age, physically at least.
Melody twitches in her sleep, bringing me back to my current reality. I really can't believe she's not too hot against my body, but I guess I'm just warm compared to the air-conditioned house. Thinking about my every movement and trying not to wake her I turn my head to see the clock on the television. Five thirty, it reads. So basically I slept the whole day away. Emily should be here soon with food.
And then the knock at the door sounds almost the instant I thought of it. Melody doesn't wake as I slowly get up from the couch and walk towards the door, keeping her sleeping form as close as possible to the same position it was in when we were laying down.
"Hey! How'd it go?" Emily asks exuberantly as I open the door. Then she sees Melody fast asleep and mouths, "okay."
She comes through the door with her arms overflowing with food. Sam follows behind her with another armful of things.
"I'm going to set her down in the crib," I say quietly.
When I return I swear there are more people in my kitchen than I originally let in my house. Paul and Embry have crashed the party and are hooking up the old rock band set to my television. On my couch is one person I clearly recognize as Summer, who's back to sporting her traditional blonde look. Next to her is someone I don't know.
"Quil!" Emily calls from the kitchen. I turn away and walk into the kitchen to see what she wants. "I hope you don't mind, but I invited a few extra guests for a welcome home party."
And then from behind Emily, I hear her voice. "Hey mom? Where did you set the pasta salad?"
She's standing at the counter facing away from me, talking to her mom who's in the dining room setting the table. Her black hair is back in that sporty pony tail, but it's cut really short. I'm guessing when it's down her hair just reaches her shoulders. On her neck in directly below her pony is something new. A tattoo? Four symbols of the changing moon.
"Claire?" I ask dumbfounded.
A/N: hehe!
This chapter and the couple after it that I'm writing are the ones that have been in my head since I started writing this story. I'm excited to write them! Which means they should be out faster!
For Summer fans...you are just going to love me!
actually...oh man I think I should go write some more after I post this. AH!
If I'm excited, you should be too!
-c.c