4th of July

Jacob was taking me to Billy's house for a Fourth of July party the Quileutes were throwing today. Daddy had said he would drop me off but Jacob insisted on picking me up. Daddy didn't argue about it, so I assumed that maybe Jacob wanted to talk about something. We were half-way to Billy's house. Jacob was driving really slowly. He hadn't really said anything until now.

"I have to talk to you about something Nessie." His tone was guilty. I was suddenly uncomfortable. What was wrong? I didn't say anything, I just looked at him waiting for him to give me the bad news. "Sam hasn't perfected it yet, but he is giving up his wolf and turning command of his pack over to me. I know I said that this wouldn't happen for a few more years, but with a baby so close to coming, he really needs to concentrate on Emily and taking care of her." I touched Jacob's arm, asking him how much less I'll be able to see him. "I swear I won't let this effect our time together Nessie. I'll cut back my work hours if you want."

"No, don't do that. You need all the hours you can get." Jacob sighed lightly.

"You're not mad at me are you?" He sounded sad. I breathed deeply, taking in the smell of his car and his musky, woodsy smell. It wasn't that I was mad. It was better that the packs were united. It meant that the pack could work more effectively and diligently. But that also meant more wolves to handle. More wolves meant less free time for the pack leader. Jacob decided that I had been silent for too long. "Look Nessie, I know this means more work for me but I swear that you still come first." I still didn't say anything. "You're killing me Nessie. Please say something." His voice was quiet. I could still hear him though.

"You're already half asleep on the weekends and afternoons as it is. Can't Leah help handle the pack so you could have more free time?" Jacob sighed heavily. He put his left hand on my head, beginning to play absentmindedly with my hair.

"Leah's giving up her wolf too. She's starting to get better at handling her emotions. She already made it clear to me that as soon as she was able, she was giving up her wolf and leaving. I can't rely on her as much as I would like to." His voice was still quiet. He felt really bad, I could tell. He hated that we didn't spend as much time together as it was. I used to see him pretty much all day every day. But now that he has a job, a pack to handle that is getting all the larger because of Sam's retirement and the fact that he needed his sleep, I saw him only in the afternoon for a few hours and all day on the weekends. Most of that time he was half asleep.

"I know………..and I'm sorry." Jacob had pulled over on the side of the road, giving me his utmost attention. After he put the car in park, he turned to face me. "If there's anything, anything at all, that I can do to make this up to you, tell me and it's yours." His hand, that had shifted gears, was now played with my hair again. He was giving me his pleading smile. The one he used when he really wanted my approval of something or when he was trying to make me forgive him for something he had done to annoy me. I just looked back at him for a few minutes. Jacob stayed silent while I thought about it. I really didn't know what to tell him. I wanted him to stop being the pack leader so he could spend more time with me. I wanted him to quit his job and come live with my family so I could spend all day with him like I used to. But those things were out of the question. The pack needed Jacob and he needed that job to pay for a life. Me getting annoyed with him was only going to make this harder on him than it already was. But there had to be something that could make this easier. After thinking about it a little longer, I finally answered him.

"Do you think Seth could be your second in command? He doesn't appear to be giving up his wolf anytime soon." Jacob thought about it for a minutes.

"Okay. Make Seth my second in command. What else?" He wasn't being rude or getting annoyed with me. He was really trying to find a way to make this better for me. He really was my best friend.

"How about every pack member gets a cell phone. Half of the pack can handle patrol one night then another half the next night. If anything comes up, someone can faze back and call everyone else to join." Jacob sighed.

"Nessie, we have no place to keep a cell phone. Wolf fur doesn't have pockets."

"Howl for each other than." Jacob chuckled a little, but still had a guilty look on his face.

"What if we're right next to a vampire? He might have time to get away. He's already smelled us by the time we attack."

"Jacob, how many wolves are in your pack now that Sam is stepping down?" Jacob sighed.

"16"

"What's half of 16?" Jacob chuckled lightly.

"8"

"Don't you think that 8 wolves will be more than enough to handle one vampire? And at most vampires travel in groups of two or three. And a threesome is rare." Now Jacob laughed. I had won him. I felt a flash of victory run through me.

" I see your point. So make Seth my second in command and make half of the pack do patrol one night and the other half do patrol the next night."

"And make sure that either you or Seth is in one of those groups, but not both. Trust me, everyone will be happy with this system. More sleep for everyone." I pinched Jacob's Cheek and he started laughing again. He reached over to give me a hug.

"I'm glad we were able to work something out. So does that mean you're not mad at me?" I giggled. I pretended to think about it. I showed Jacob an image of me saying 'maybe'. "Don't be cruel Nessie." I giggled again. I nodded my head, letting him know I wasn't mad. "Thanks Nessie." He kissed the top of my head and put the car back in drive. Jacob drove faster now. We got to Billy's house quickly. We were the last ones to get there. Grandpa wasn't able to join us for the party. Apparently, the police station was throwing their own little fourth of July party. Billy had the tables laid out and filled with a line of hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, soda, every condiment imaginable and so on. Jacob parked the car on the side of the road with everyone else's cars. Sam walked over to me and Jacob when he saw us.

"Did you let her know what's going on?" Jacob nodded at him. Sam gave him a half smile. Then he looked at me, kneeled down so I could face him and gave me a guilty smile. "Are you mad at me." It was very strange. When Sam and I had first met, he was extremely iffy about me. He wouldn't talk to me or let me touch him to show him anything. But eventually he got used to me. Now he thought of me like a niece or a sister. And I thought of him as the brother I never had. Daddy always told me that all I ever needed to do was look a person in the eyes, bat my eyelashes and smile, and I had someone wrapped around my little finger. I smiled at Sam.

"No, I'm not mad. We worked out a schedule on our way here." Sam laughed and looked at Jacob.

"Whipped like the family pig." Jacob and Sam laughed together. Jacob didn't bother to deny it. He knew it was true.

"Look who's talking Sammy." I giggled with Jacob. Sammy was the nick name that Emily had given him after she was four months pregnant. Whenever she needed something, she started the sentence with 'Sammy', make her request, and give him a pouty face that always put the final nail in his coffin. We just laughed about it together for a few minutes. And as if on cue, we heard Emily call out to Sam.

"Sammy!! Would you get my water bottle out of the car please? I forgot to take it with me." Jacob and I broke out into another laugh while Sam stood up from his crouch in front of me with a big smile on his face.

"Coming baby!!!" Then he walked to his car to get Emily's water bottle. Jacob and I were still laughing while we walked over to where everyone was. There was sauerkraut next to the hot dogs. A condiment I had recently discovered I loved. After my discovery of Portabella mushrooms during my trip to Six Flags, Jacob gave daddy and Carlisle the idea to let me just try singular things instead of full meals. With that I learned that I really liked capers, sauerkraut and figs. Jacob must have told Billy about that. There was a huge bowl of capers and sauerkraut on the table, ensuring that there would be enough for the hotdogs and whatever I might want to nibble on. Jacob noticed Seth and Leah talking next to the food. He looked over to see Jared talking to Kim.

"Hey Jared, watch Nessie for a minute. I need to talk to Seth and Leah." Jared nodded.

"Okay." He turned his face from Jacob back to me and smiled. Kim opened her arms to me.

"Come here Nessie. I haven't seen you in forever." I ran the few feet to Kim and jumped into her arms. She was strong for someone of her small size. Kim and I had been friends from day one. She loved my hair and had braided it into a messy fishtail style which I was wearing now. We've been BFFs ever since. "How have you been." I saw Jacob walk over to Leah and Seth and begin explaining the little routine that I had come up with. When I noticed that, I looked back at Kim with a wide smile.

"Great! I finally got your fish tail look right." She smiled back at me.

"I can see that. I love how it looks on you. And have you grown again?" I giggled and nodded. It wasn't much, but I had grown. "My god, you're like a weed." We laughed. Jared kept stroking his hand along Kim's hip or her arm, never taking his hand off of her. Jared led Kim with him to where the food was and made himself a hotdog and made her a hamburger.

"You want me to make you anything Nessie." I nodded.

"Just give me a bowl of capers and sauerkraut." Jared scrunched his nose. Kim just laughed.

"I see your daddy finally found food you like." Kim said to me while gently poking my nose with her index finger. I giggled and smiled. Jared got me a small bowl of capers and sauerkraut. I took one bite, and Jacob was back.

"Figures you would have bizarre taste buds." I stuck my tongue out at him and he tried to grab my tongue. I brought my tongue back into my mouth before he could, and when he failed to grab my tongue, he started tickling me. I was ticklish on my knees. He found that out by accident months ago. I had bit him because him and Rosalie were arguing over who got to feed me and I got fed up. His figure nails ran gently over my knee, and I giggled for minutes.

"Stop tickling me!!" I was smiling from laughing. That didn't help my persuasiveness. He did stop tickling me though. Then he took me into his arms, not even scrunching his nose at my bowl of food. "When are we going to light the fire crackers and fireworks?"

"We aren't doing that until it's dark, so about an hour." In the mean time, everyone was eating, the adults drinking beer (which I discovered also tasted revolting) and playing games and talking amongst one another. According to Kim and Jared, Claire and Quil had been playing tag for the past hour and a half. After I finished eating my food, I gave it to Jacob who took it to the garbage can and threw it away, still holding me. We sat with everyone at the table just talking about everything. Emily went on and on about her baby. She found out it was going to be a boy. And Rachael told her she and Paul were thinking of starting a family soon. Jacob didn't say anything bad about it. I think he likes Paul. Paul just gets under his skin is all. When Jacob finally ended a conversation with his sister and Paul, I touched his arms to show him an image of him talking to Leah and Seth, asking him how they took the news. "They said it sounded like a good idea. Leah was thrilled about the idea. She's already planned out her move to Seattle. And Seth is ecstatic to have his second in command title back. And he's confident that we'll be able to handle everything even if it's only eight of us out at a time."

Victorious once again. It wasn't Seth I was worried about. It was Leah. She didn't like me. She didn't bother trying to hide it. She never made a spectacle of it, but I never doubted she didn't like me. Jacob didn't even try to deny it. He always just told me to ignore her. Jacob and Leah had somehow become friends last year, but it was beyond me. But since he had a unanimous agreement, everything would be fine. That's all I needed. When it was finally dark out, I touched Jacob's cheek asking him if it was time yet.

"You bet. I have one that I think you'll love." He walked us over to the boxes filled with fireworks. Seth had already lit a few and was waiting for them to go off. Jacob pulled out a really pretty one that had a picture of a phoenix on it. I touched his cheek, asking him why this one had a bird on it but nothing else did. "You'll see Nessie."

Jacob walked us closer to the edge of the cliff near the road and put me on my feet. When both his hands were free, Jacob set up the firework. He took out a lighter and held it to the fuse for a few seconds before the fuse started sparking. Jacob pulled me a few feet away from the firework. When the fuse burned to the main part, it flew away into the air. When it reached the sky, it unleashed into a stream of purples, greens, pinks and gold that formed a large bird in the sky. It was then surrounded by the other fireworks that everyone had unleashed shortly after. It was beautiful and mesmerizing. Jacob crouched down behind me and put his hands on my shoulders and rested his chin on top of my hair.

"Do you like it?" I just nodded my head. I couldn't look away. It was so pretty. And as soon as the phoenix was gone, several other fireworks took its place. When the phoenix was out of the sky, I turned around to face Jacob. His hands stayed on my shoulders.

"That was really pretty." Jacob chuckled a little.

"I'm glad you liked it. I wanted to find something special for you. I couldn't find a wolf or anything so a phoenix would have to do." I giggled.

"No. It was perfect." Jacob grinned from ear to ear. I gave him a hug around his neck and he wrapped his arms around me. He lifted me up with him as he straightened out and we watched the fireworks together. Billy and the other elders lit a bonfire that blazed into the night sky. Everyone started dancing around the bonfire, couples and singles. After watching the last of the fireworks for the time being, Jacob walked us over to the bonfire. He set me down so that my feet were resting on top of his feet and he started twirling us around the bonfire along with the music that was playing. After a while a few of the others stopped dancing and went to light some more fireworks. Jacob twirled us around the fire with the fireworks illuminating the sky. After having danced through five songs, the fire started to die down a little and everyone was running out of fireworks.

"I think I'd better take you home Nessie. I promised Edward I'd have you home before eleven." I nodded. We said goodbye to everyone before we left. I hugged Claire and Kim goodbye and Jacob told Seth to get everyone ready for patrol so they could work out a few details tonight. When we were halfway home, Jacob said something.

"I'm glad you had fun Nessie. I know that it will be harder with Sam turning command over to me, but I promise that I'll make the arrangement you came up with work."

"I know you will Jacob." Jacob grinned from ear to ear again. When we were in front of the house, I heard daddy playing the piano. He was dabbling with a Mozart piece. "Good night Jacob. Have fun with patrol tonight." Jacob laughed.

"And you have fun sleeping okay." I laughed with him. He gave me his parting words in his nice, comforting tone. "I love you Nessie. Sweet dreams." I blushed a little and smiled back.

"I love you too, Jacob. Make it work." Jacob grinned.

"Don't worry. I will." When I got to the door of the house and opened it, Jacob drove off into the night. I slept peacefully that night, knowing that, even with Sam's retirement, Jacob would never put work before me.