Chapter 3: A Great Leap
A/N: This is a story inspired by the many (wonderful) stories about Bella being torn between Edward and Jacob, as well as some others. Please remember that this is listed as humor/romance, and everything is meant in good fun!
This story takes place as an alternate course of events at the end of New Moon, and completely ignoring Eclipse. The characters might be a bit OOC, but since it's an alternate universe, so please allow me a bit of poetic license.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse. I just like having fun with the characters and world the wonderful Stephenie Meyer created.
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Emmett tired Mystic out over the next couple hours. Apparently even dogs bred for herding cattle aren't designed to play fetch with vampires. I started to get chilly, too, so we bundled back in the Jeep so I could go shopping.
Emmett bravely volunteered to sit in the car with the sleeping dog while I bought groceries. Very selfless of him! I was pretty tired myself, but at least I had just been watching the game of fetch! I got the groceries as quickly as I could, and then we drove back to Charlie's house.
Emmett walked Mystic around the house a bit while I got dinner into the oven. He didn't like smelling the food being prepared, and she needed to be familiar with the yard and do her "business", so it was all good.
At about 5:30, Charlie came home. "Hi Bells! What's cooking?"
"It's Tamale Pie - Billy and Jake are coming for dinner, so I made a casserole."
"Smart. Jake really can pack it away. Growing boys, y'know!" Charlie smiled. I restrained myself from wincing - I knew that he was comparing Jake's voracious appetite to Edward's non-existant one.
"Good Evening, Chief Swan!" Emmett walked through the door with Mystic on the leash. It wasn't until that moment that I realized I hadn't asked my dad about getting a dog. Uh-oh.
"Hi. Emmett, right? Well, who have we here?" Charlie said, squatting down before Mystic.
"Her name is Mystic, sir. I took Bella to the animal shelter today, and they just bonded. I thought with all she's been through, a dog would be good - for protection and for attention." He winked at me.
I blinked rapidly. Hunh? Did he really have a plan other than annoying Edward by getting me a dog (which I also, only realized at that moment)? Or was he just play-acting? Well, I guess it didn't matter.
"Smart man!" Charlie said, petting Mystic, then standing up. "I'm sure you know that I have mixed feelings about your brother dating my daughter. But you and your sister Alice seem to be very thoughtful kids."
"Thank you, sir." Emmett grinned. No, he smirked. I knew that one was going to be repeated to Edward over and over and over. "We all care about Bella a great deal, and never want to see her hurt again."
Charlie grunted.
Emmett seemed to realize that he could and should escape at that point. He unbuckled Mystic's leash and hung it up, then scooped me into another bone-crushing hugs. He seemed to remember about me needing to breathe, though.
"Bye, Bella! I'm sure Edward will be over tomorrow morning. He'll be getting in from camping late tonight. I sure did have fun with you today!" Emmett waved, a smirk still on his face.
"Thanks for all your help, Emmett! I had fun too. I think I'm going to have one tired dog tonight after all those games of fetch!" I waved to him, grinning despite myself. He was far too much fun!
It wasn't long before Billy and Jake showed up. Mystic clearly wasn't meant to be a watch dog - she barked once, then laid her head back down on the couch. I introduced her to Jacob and Billy, and they petted her for a minute. I checked the casserole, and it still had a few minutes left to cook, so I told Jake I had something to show him upstairs.
"What's up?" Jake hadn't been in my room since I had gotten back from Italy, so there's no wonder he was curious.
"Emmett and I spent the day together. The others were off ... um ..."
"Being mosquitoes?" Jake laughed.
"Exactly!" my laughter joined his. I had forgotten how much fun he can be. "Now, you keep your sense of humor, OK?"
Jake nodded his assent.
"So I told Emmett about the switch from leech to mosquito, and he laughed - mosquitoes are just pests. So he decided that the wolf equivalent was a chihuahua!"
Thankfully, Jake's sense of humor was fully funtional that night, he started laughing hard. His laughter only got harder when I told him about the man and his matching dog at the pet store.
"Wait - this is Emmett we're talking about, so it gets even funnier!"
Jake shook his head at me, not believing that it could get funnier.
"Did you realize that a vampire bought me a dog?" At this, Jake was truly on the floor laughing, clutching his sides. "Never mind that, he got a gift from you, too."
"What? He bought you a gift from me? That doesn't make sense!" Jake's laughter died down a bit, and he looked confused.
"C'mere! You'll see what I mean." I led him over to my bookshelf. "Emmett was very disappointed to find out that you can't buy leeches as a pet. He said this was the next best thing."
"Coooool! A tarantula!"
"Yep, his name is Stripes. Emmett said you might want to feed it. Otherwise he agreed to do it. I said I'd only keep him if I didn't have to deal with that part."
"No, I'll do it. You're right - this is brilliant! Emmett sounds like the kind of guy I could hang out with. Y'know, except for the whole mortal enemies thing ... "
I grinned, but rolled my eyes. "Yeah, you'd be best buds when you weren't trying to kill eachother." The timer dinged. "Saved by the bell! It's probably good I made enough to serve an army. All this laughter must have built up your appetite!"
"Breathing builds up my appetite!" Jacob smiled again, and gave me a warm hug as I was walking past him to go downstairs. "I'm glad we can still be friends, even if we have to work at it."
"Me too, Jake. Me too." After that giant leap in werewolf-vampire relations, we sat down and enjoyed a nice, normal meal together.
When Jake and Billy left after dinner, I was worn out from the busy day. I walked Mystic around the house one more time, then brought her up to my room to go to sleep. I gave her a treat after she laid down in her bed, then I took a shower and changed into my pajamas. When I got out of the bathroom, she was sound asleep on my bed.
I sighed, and climbed in, enjoying her warm body at my feet. Feet can never be warm enough on a cool night! I slipped into sleep quickly, but startled awake in the middle of the night - Mystic had picked up her head and let out a low growl. I looked around and saw Edward stopped at the window.
"It's OK girl. He's OK." She put her head back down. He was at my side in a flash.
"Is this what Emmett was laughing about? He said he left you with some presents and some surprises for me. What's going on?" His voice was quiet and uncertain.
"I missed you!" I reached my arms up to him, and he knelt down to kiss me. "I'll tell you about it if you'll hold me."
Now a smile played on his lips. "That sounds fair."
When I was in his cool embrace, I told him the story about the re-naming and the pets. A few times he started to let out a low growl, but then he remembered my companion and stopped. By the end of the story, he was laughing, too.
"Mosquitoes and Chihuahuas? I thought you thought of me as more than a pest." I could feel his grin as he kissed my hair.
"Of course, you're much more to me than a pest. I don't want to live without you!" I turned to face him and kissed him soundly. "I just wish that you didn't need to be so protective. Jacob cares about me, too. I can't stop being friends with him. Maybe if you can laugh about something together, you can see eachother as something more than rivals and enemies."
"Maybe." Edward replied, doubt evident in his voice.
"I know you'll do it for me. Jake said he'd be nicer." I let out a smile, which he kissed.
"If Jacob can be nicer, I can be nicer too," he replied.
"Smart boy." I patted his head, but he took my hand to kiss it. I greeted this loving sign of affection with a huge yawn.
"Sleep, Bella, and dream of your pets. And of what we can do together tomorrow."
"Walk the dog ... " I smiled, sleepily.
I could feel his silent laughter shake his body and mine, and then he started humming my lullaby, and I fell back to sleep.