I Hate Flying and Did I Mention? Still Missing You
Stepping out the car Jacob sighs lightly as Nessie grabs a hold of his index and middle fingers squeezing them lightly. He smiles down at her and marvels at how small her hand is next to his own. Little Nessie looks about 10-years old and is still beautiful – even though she's only 4. Looking at her hand he notices how cold it feels compared to the last hand to touch his own. "Jacob? Mind helping with the luggage?" Edward asks snapping Jake out of his thoughts.
"Sure, sure." Jake answers and proceeds to help Edward with the luggage. Even though he doesn't show it – he's terrified of the plane flight up to Alaska. Bella had insisted that they fly up rather than driving or especially running. Jacob takes a couple of deep breaths to help calm his churning stomach. "It won't be so bad." Bella says smiling up at him. "If the plane goes down it's not like you wouldn't heal from it." He shuts his eyes tight at the poorly timed joke. His stomach just didn't like defying gravity – he hated roller coasters and knew he was going to hate this.
To his disappointment they all slip through security with no problem and now he sits looking at a huge plane…but Emmett says it's not that big which only makes his nerves react even worse. 'Great. Not only will I be tens of thousands of feet up in the air BUT it'll also be a tight, cramped space.' Jacob tells himself groaning he hunches over looking down at his feet. Suddenly his phone begins to ring and he reaches into his pocket shamefully wishing for an accident to send him back home. "Hello?" He answers and frowns because he already sounds nauseous.
"What? On the plane already?" Jacob sits up recognizing Leah's voice.
"Hey Lee." Jake says getting up and walking away from the Cullens. "Is everything okay?"
"Yea, just checking up on ya. Figured you'd make yourself sick thinking about the plane ride." Leah says knowing her Alpha all too well.
"Yea, I have." Jake admits running a hand roughly through his hair.
"Well…I've never flown before but it can't be any different than a simple hurl-a-whirl." Leah says laughing.
"I threw up on the hurl-a-whirl." Jake states dryly but feeling his nerves calm down just listening to Leah laugh.
"Yea, but that's because that ride lasted like 5 minutes. You'll only get that queasy feeling maybe two times for about 15-seconds. Just don't think about it." Leah says encouragingly.
"How can I not?" Jake groans turning around to look at that the plane. "It's staring me right in the face."
"Well think of something else then." Leah says coldly. "Imagine it's like cliff diving in reverse. Look, Jake, I gotta go. I'll check in on ya later, okay?" Leah says as a deep voice breaks the silence of the background.
"Yea, sure." Jake says straining to find out who's there.
"Bye, Jake and don't forget to call Billy when you get there." Leah says seriously.
"Right, bye Lee." And he listens as she hangs up the phone. Flipping his phone closed Jake looks at the plane and decides to take Leah's advice. The plane wasn't too cramped and that was because they were all seating in first class and left Jake plenty of room to sit hunched over. 'Cliff diving in reverse. Cliff diving in reverse.' Jake thinks to himself over and over as he sits back in his seat, eyes shut tight and his fingers digging into the armrests.
'Look Jacob.' Nessie says trying to get Jake to look outside her window. He only shakes his head and quickly snatches away his hand to prevent her from showing her the grounds tens of thousands of miles below. His mind wanders to cliff diving with the pack – which helps a little.
"Here." Edward says nudging Jacob with a laptop. Cracking one eye open Jake looks at Edward confused. "The disc Leah gave you. Watch it." Edward says placing the laptop in Jacob's lap. Taking a deep breath he reaches down into his backpack and pulls out the disc. Turning the laptop on he places the disc in and sees a video clip open up. Quickly grabbing his headphones he plugs them in to hear Leah laughing at some joke that he's already missed.
"Anyway since you've run off to see the world with your imprint the least you can do is make sure you take lots of pictures, buy me tons of souvenirs and send me postcards from ever place you visit." Leah demands wagging her finger at the camera. Jake smiles warmly at the image of the girl he left behind before him as she travels all over La Push catching videos of family, friends and neighbors wishing Jake the best of luck and hopes/prayers that they will see him soon. There's a quiet video of the ocean and Jake can imagine himself sitting there with Leah just enjoying the smell of the saltwater, feeling the cool breeze on his face and the sand in between his toes. "And send me a bottle of black sand." Leah voice adds off screen. They move onto the Council hall and inside are Old Quil and Mason both are cleaning up and Leah talks them into saying something – they wish him well and mention allowing Sam to be the new chief. "Stupid old men." Leah grumbles angrily. Jake laughs to himself because in her anger she seems to have forgotten the video camera is still on but at least it's a great shot of her legs – he didn't know she was wearing shorts. The video is surprisingly long about 3 ½ hours of video clips of practically everyone and everything he knows and loves.
'Jacob?' Nessie calls placing a cautious hand on Jacob's. Jake pulls out the headphones and looks at Nessie expectantly. 'We've landed.' Nessie says and to Jake's surprise it's true – the entire flight was over and he hadn't even noticed.
"So that's your home." Leah says catching Jake's attention again. "So go off and see the world. Live it up, drink and eat everything you can get your hands on and most importantly…remember there's always someone here who'll never forget you." Leah says quietly smiling into the camera her eyes full of tears.
"Jake, lets go." Bella snaps poking Jake roughly in the shoulder. Rolling his eyes he stuffs the laptop in his backpack and takes Nessie's hand as they vacate the plane. Jacob Black, a 20-year old boy, wolf and chief, looks around taking in the beauty of Alaska. Jake did as he was told by Leah and called Billy first thing once he was settled and promised he'd call once a week.
The days seemed to drag on especially since the sun didn't set. Jake couldn't understand what the appeal of Alaska was since the sun never set – but then again only two of the family members actually needed sleep and the older Nessie got, the less sleep she needed. Running around, playing and hunting with Nessie helped wile away the hours but Jake found it harder and harder to remain focus. Every new thing he saw, smelled and tasted made him think of Leah. After three days it seemed all of La Push was blowing up Jake's cell phone – it made him feel good that everyone still wanted to keep him in the loop in what was going on in La Push. Jake had never thought about it but for such a small town there was always some festival, event, high school friends hooking up then breaking up and even a massive water gun fight. Jake waited day after day and call after call – just waiting for that 'one' call from Leah, but it never came.
After two weeks of hearing from Seth everyday, Quil every 5-days, Embry every week and everyone else in between Jake finally decided to call Leah. He just had to hear her voice – the video wasn't enough for him anymore. "Clearwater residence." Sue answers.
"Hey, Sue, this is Jake. Is Leah home?" Jake asks sounding hopeful.
"Oh hi, Jake. No, no she's not. She's working." Sue says apologetically. "I'll tell her you called."
"Please?" Jake says and hangs up. The same conversation takes place every day afterwards sometimes with Seth, most times with Sue and on those rare occasions with Charlie. Jake calls everyday and always gets the same message, 'She just left for work/patrol.'
"Maybe she's got a boyfriend?" Rose asks smiling hopefully at Jake as he sits looking at his phone as if willing Leah to suddenly call him. "Touchy." Rose says quickly walking away after earning a deep growl from Jake. He'd been in Alaska for two weeks and Leah hadn't called or even sent a text.
'She couldn't be with Embry because he calls.' Jake thinks checking the signal on his phone again. Opening his phone with a sigh he dials the phone trying to keep his cool because right now he just wants to yell at the next person who tells him Leah isn't available. The phone rings. 'How dare she not call me? Or return my call? With all that I'll always be here shit.' Jake growls earning a wary glance from Alice.
"Hel, hello Clearwater residence." Jake's breath catches as he recognizes the voice on the other end. His heart begins racing as his anger completely melts away hearing Leah's voice. "Hello? Hello?" Leah repeats groggily.
"Hey Lee." Jake greets smiling.
"What happened to that anger?" Emmett teases heading outside as Jake quickly swipes at him.
"Jake?" Leah asks. "Oh, hey – hey, how's it going?" Leah asks quickly yawning.
"I'm okay. What are you doing?" Jake asks smiling – he's surprised by how happy he is to hear her voice.
"Uh…just letting the TV watch me sleep." Leah says shifting.
"Oh, really? Not now Nessie." Jake says shaking his head at Nessie and walks outside away from the nosey vampires. Leah only yawns out her reply and after some long strides Jake has distanced himself from the house and leans up against a tree. "So who exactly is watching you?"
"Oh!" Leah says seeming to wake up and Jake's face fall a little. "It's Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in X-Men 2. Gawd he's so hot." Jake chuckles lightly remembering Leah's fan girl crush on the fictional mutant, Wolverine.
"Alright now before you get too excited – change the channel." Jake states shaking his head.
"No, not yet. Here comes my favorite part," Jake rolls his eyes and can just picture Leah now sitting up on the edge of the couch holding her breath watching Wolverine in the kitchen as he pops out and impales a guy with his claws against the fridge. "OH! THAT HAD TO HURT! SEE? HE'S SO FUCKING BADASS AND HOT!" Leah says now fully awake.
"Leah?" Jake calls.
"Alright, alright. You know I'd never begrudge you watching your favorite female character – even though she'll never be anywhere near as hot as me." Leah declares haughtily. Jake smirks to himself as a thought crosses his mind.
"Speaking of hot. So what you wearin'?" Jake asks his voice getting deep and husky.
"Oh…we're playing that game, huh?" Leah asks sounding breathy and sexy. "Well I have on…a small black tank top."
"Yea, what's it say?" Jake asks hearing Leah giggles – he loves making her do that. "Is it my favorite one?"
"Yours and everyone else's." She says giggling while Jake growls. "Yes, Jake, it's the 'wet pussy' tank. And I have on those cute lil' black shorts you love so much."
"Man…that is sexy." Jake says picturing Leah sitting up on the couch in her pajamas same as any other day or late night. Leah again giggles sending a shiver up Jake's spine. "I miss you, Lee-Lee." Jake says quietly.
"I miss you too, Jake." Leah says. "How's Alaska?"
"It's alright." Jake admits shrugging his shoulders.
"Only 'alright'?" Leah asks skeptically. "Jake, what's wrong?" Leah asks. Jake sighs rubbing his head debating over whether or not to tell Leah the truth or lie to her. Truth was Alaska was beautiful and new but…it wasn't home. Leah Clearwater 'is' his home.
"Nothing. Look I'll call you another time, okay?" Jake says hating himself.
"Oh, alright." Leah says sounding worried. "Jake? You know that just because we're miles apart doesn't mean that we're still not friends, right?"
"Of course." Jake replies fearing she's taking his attitude the wrong way. "Look, I, you see…it's just that," Jake begins but finds himself unable to tell her. He couldn't – he couldn't tell the girl on the other line that he loved her since he was 7; not over the phone anyway. "It's just that I don't want to burn through all my minutes." Jake says with a sigh.
"Oh, I understand how that is. I've got a phone now too. I'll send you a text later on, okay?" Leah asks excitedly.
"Okay." Jake admits smiling back.
"OMG, we're gonna like BFF." Leah says with mounting excitement.
"What?" Jake asks as Leah starts laughing again.
"Don't worry, Jake, I won't start talking in text code. But you get back to enjoying Alaska. Talk to ya later, Jake." Leah whispers sadly.
"Definitely." Jake promises. "Lee, I miss you."
"I miss you too." Leah says and hangs up the phone.
"I love you, Lee-Lee." Jake whispers as he flips his phone shut.
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Well here's the second chapter. Sorry if it's not very good but I was writing in between phone calls. I'm glad everyone enjoyed the first chapter so much. Read and review!