Story Title: Mystery Box

Chapter: 11: After the Muybridge Discovery

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I just use my imagination

A/N: Thank you Project Team Beta!

Okay, this is a transition chapter between the imprint/ pottery discovery last chapter(s) and the exhibit next chapter.

To say life got crazy afterwards was an understatement. The day after the Muybridge pottery discovery, Molly met with Dr. Wilson in his office bright and early Monday morning. Once the pot was sent to the lab for testing and proved to be authentic, Dr. Wilson set the wheels into motion for the exhibit; emails with photos and lab results of the discovery were sent to National Museum of American Indian as well as all the major American Indian/ Native American Studies departments throughout the country. The buzz started immediately -- the Muybridge pottery was the biggest Native American artifact discovery in the past fifty years, and Molly was in the thick of it. The rest of her life was taking a back seat, however Molly wouldn't change it for the world.

Once the pottery was authenticated, Molly called Jacob immediately so the Quileutes could share in the excitement. A bonfire and fish fry were scheduled in two weeks to celebrate – even Dr. Wilson was invited. The big news was that the museum decided to have an exhibit in a month -- incredibly fast, which meant a lot of work. Dr. Wilson and Molly had several meetings with Anna Highchurch, the curator of the exhibit at U.W. Not only would the Muybridge pottery be on exhibit a representation of other Quileute works. They went through Molly's growing catalog of Quileute artifacts to decide which ones to exhibit. (Molly was still going through Mrs. Greystone's boxes and did not see anything of the magnitude of the flipbook pottery, but there were some commendable examples of traditional artifacts.) After a conference call with Billy, Sue, and Old Quil, they decided to have some presentations of modern Quileute life, from carving to dances to drumming to storytelling (of course, Billy would do the storytelling).

There was a council meeting and much enthusiasm for the exhibit. Committees at U.W. and La Push were set up and the logistics organized. The project grew such that Dr. Wilson handed some responsibility for the project to Dr. Fletcher, one of the other professors in the department, and Molly got help from a couple undergraduates, Georgia and Michael. Molly, Dr. Fletcher, and Anna would review the database Molly had collected at La Push, and decide which items should be part of the exhibit. Georgia and Michael spent several days at La Push going through the rest of Mrs. Greystone's numerous boxes. Thanks to the internet, Molly could view items in real time and help decide if they were worth exhibiting or not. Jacob was helpful but he delegated Seth to be their point person when Molly wasn't around. He would be there upon arrival, exit, and would check in with the students to make sure they were fine, but he was busy with other commitments when Georgia and Michael arrived during the week. On Saturdays, the shop was only open half day, so he was more available if they needed him.

Molly asked the Elders if they had any notion of who was known to buy artifacts if some Quileute needed money -- particularly Quileute arts and crafts from about 50-100 years ago. They gave her some leads of several antique stores all the way from Forks to Seattle, which the undergrads pursued. Molly also spoke with Anna to find out from whom the museum may have received the artifacts years ago. Since Anna was only about a decade older than Molly, she did not have personal knowledge of what happened in the past, but knew the retired curator, as did Dr. Wilson.

One of the conference rooms in the American Indian department house became their war room. Blaine would come by every now and then with a snarky comment but Molly was too busy to notice. Megan would drop by and supply them with drinks from the vending machine, while Molly brought in a case of bottled water in an attempt to encourage a healthy diet in the undergrads, to no avail.

And Molly and Jacob? Molly was still uncertain about the whole imprint thing, and Jacob wouldn't push her. They made sure to keep the change in their relationship a secret to almost everyone except for the pack. When she arrived in La Push, Jacob would still greet her at the diner, same as he always did, but when he gave her his usual hug, he made sure that his face would always be hidden from the diners so that he could lick her neck, nibble her ear and talk dirty. Molly had to fight to keep her face unchanged in case anyone from the diner was looking out the window watching their mini-reunion.

The pack knew things had changed because Jake was their Alpha, and anything that impacted their Alpha impacted them. They did not act differently around Molly but she could tell that the pack was watching them closely. Billy began to look at Molly with a twinkle in his eye, and Sue told her to she didn't need to sneak in and out of her house in the middle of the night; if she wanted to stay at Jake's, that was fine.

"Sue," Molly took a deep breath, "I know you know Doctor Wilson. I know you know I would never ask you to lie for me…"

"But you don't want me to tell Doctor Wilson that you're sleeping with Jake?" Sue continued Molly's sentence. If Molly had been drinking liquids, she would have spat them out. She thought of Sue like a mom, but her own mother was never so … blunt.

"Uh, I wasn't going to use those exact words…" Molly stuttered.

Sue patted Molly's arm. "Molly, dear, I have two grown children and neither one took a vow of chastity. You're a grown woman and Jacob's a grown man. You're both very levelheaded. You don't need to sneak around."

"But I'm also representing the university. I don't want to compromise the project…"

Sue smiled and shook her head. "Molly, we all know you, and we all know Jacob. We've seen you two together, trying to avoid the attraction the two of you have had for each other from the get-go." Molly blushed, and Sue patted her arm again. "Don't worry. Only the Elders and the pack know about your new relationship, and we won't tell Doctor Wilson unless he asks us directly."

"He's not-my-boyfriend!" Molly said in a rush, and then felt really ridiculous when she realized how stupid that phrase sounded from her lips.

Sue laughed, "Billy told me that's what you two call it! Well, well. Charlie's not my boyfriend either then!"

Molly got a visual of Sue and Charlie together and started blushing for a whole different reason.

***

In the midst of keeping the imprint and their new relationship a secret, Jake's room became their sanctuary, where they could interact without half the town watching. During the day, they would try not to brush up against each other, but as soon as the day was over and they were alone in Jacob's room, they could do as they liked.

Jake would get the music going (heavy metal or hard core rap seemed best), and they would have heavy make out sessions. Molly was uncomfortable actually having intercourse with him since the one time they made love, Jake imprinted. She still saw a cause and effect relationship between the having sex and Jacob imprinting. She didn't really understand the imprint, but didn't want to negate it (imprint = love, non-imprint = hate?), so they found creative solutions to do everything physical except actual intercourse.

Jake (and a couple others) noticed that Molly stopped wearing the Claddagh ring that Spencer gave her.

The Cosmo Club certainly noticed when she stopped wearing the Claddagh ring. They also noticed when Molly was nearly walking around like John Wayne after a particularly physical weekend with Jacob.

"You've been fucked within an inch of your life, haven't you?" Nancy asked the moment Molly sat down with the foursome.

Molly was under the microscope. She could not lie. "Yeah." She breathed with embarrassment. Big smiles around.

"And it's Jacob? And it's amazing?" asked Shannon.

"Eff yeah," answered Molly with a sly smile. 'Whoo hoos' and upraised cosmo glasses were the result of that revelation. "It's not noticeable, is it? I gotta hide it from Dr. Wilson and the department. Totally bad form to be in a relationship with the project liaison."

In unison, the three other members of the Cosmo club made the zip-the-lips and the throw-away-the-key maneuver.

***

For Jacob, finally imprinting was a weird experience. It hurt more than he would admit that his love did not understand being imprinted. He was too impatient to tell her; he should have waited until after the project was over.

He knew he was lucky in that Molly wasn't a stranger; he felt that in the back of his mind he always knew she was special—really special. Super incredibly awesomely special. If this imprinting thing didn't exist (wouldn't that be nice?) he would have pursued her as a girlfriend. But imprinting just messed everything up. He mentally kicked himself for telling her about it. He should have kept his big mouth shut. He could have at least pretended to be normal. But no, he had to tell her because he was so freakin' happy. Overjoyed. Like a goddamn hallelujah chorus was singing background music just for them. Fuck all good that did. He scared her, and he couldn't take the words back. He was even physically ill when she was away.

At least she agreed that they'd be more than friends, that he'd probably be her boyfriend when this was over. Boyfriend? Girlfriend? What the hell kind of terminology is that to describe your imprint? How would this all work even if they were together? Would he have to move to Seattle? He couldn't leave the tribe. And he would never have her abandon her career; he would not even suggest that.

Meanwhile, he learned to shut up and deal the hand he was dealt. He was her Not-My-Boyfriend (yet). He was the one who spent Saturday nights with her tangled up in his arms, who knew every inch of her skin and knew ways to make her cry in pleasure. He was the one who talked to her every night for hours on the phone. He was the one who caused her face to light up and heart to race when they reunited. He was the one who had now learned to shut up and not discuss the imprint (and instructed the pack not to discuss it either) and wait. He could wait. He waited 25 years for her to come into his life. He waited nine years after Bella married the leech to find his own love. He could wait a few more weeks. He'd have to. He had no other choice.

While Molly was in Seattle, she would still talk to Jacob each night before bedtime. He would catch her up on what happened at his garage or La Push gossip, and she would give an update on what was happening in the exhibition and the project.

"Tell me what's up with you. How's Billy? Is Leah pregnant? How are my undergrads behaving? Any complaints?"

They talked about everything but the imprint. Molly needed it that way and Jacob, the Not-My-Boyfriend (yet), understood.

***

While Molly was in the war room, she received an unexpected call on her cell phone.

"Molly? It's Luke, Leah's husband? She suggested I call you."

Molly wrinkled her brow in confusion. "Hi, Luke. Is something wrong with Leah? Can I help you with something?"

There was a deep chuckle on the other end of the phone. Luke had a nice, deep voice. "No, Leah thought I could help you."

"Oh, really?"

"Yep. Since we're both objects of imprints."

Oh. It started to make sense now. Previously, Molly only had half a mind on her phone conversation while she was multi-tasking on her laptop, snacking on some almonds, and barely noting what Gloria was doing. She suddenly dropped her other distractions and focused on Luke.

"Okay. What do you want to tell me?" Molly was still uncertain about this whole imprint thing. Even though her work with artifacts involved numerous legends from various tribes, not just the Quileute, she still had a bit of a precise mind, and imprinting did not compute.

Luke could tell Molly was not altogether welcoming of this discussion. He decided to change his approach to address her skepticism.

"Hey, I know when Leah imprinted on me, I had no idea what hit me. All I knew is that I looked at this gorgeous woman, and she was looking at me like the sun rose and set on me. It's all kind of intense. It's intense for them too. It's not like they plan for this to happen or anything. But it does. And you know, there's something to it."

"Oh, really?" Enlighten me, she was thinking snarkily.

Luke laughed. "Hell, look at the evidence: Leah and me, Sam and Emily, Jared and Kim, Paul and Rachel. Have you seen so many crazy lovesick fools in your life? And look at Jacob? Sure, it didn't happen like the rest. You all had time to get to know each other first. That's really cool. It's like—heck, it's almost normal with you two!"

Molly frowned. "So, how did you feel when Leah told you about the imprinting. You're not Quileute. It's just so…illogical."

"Yeah, it's illogical. Falling in love is illogical. Leah told me after we'd been dating a few weeks. She was too afraid she'd scare me off if she told me the truth, but by then I was head over heels in love with her." Luke laughs. "Hell, maybe I imprinted on her too, because I never fell for someone so quickly in my life. Three weeks! It's insane. Yeah, it's illogical. It's crazy good, I mean, a good kind of crazy."

"So if you imprinted on her, why didn't I imprint on him?" Molly's voice cracked with emotion. (Gloria looked up from her laptop, saw that her fellow student was on the verge of tears, and got the heck out of the war room. She knew Molly needed privacy and could always find out later what was happening. It didn't sound like a death in the family, so she knew it'd be a long story fit for another time, when the older woman was calmer.)

"I don't know," Luke answered softly.

Molly sniffled, calming down. She had asked the million dollar question that was bothering her so much, and Luke's answer didn't help. This whole imprint thing, well, their imprint specifically, wasn't following any of the pre-described patterns. They'd known each other for months; it wasn't love at first sight, and her feelings for him were strong, but hadn't changed to mirror Jake's feelings for her. She was supposed to believe this kind of supernatural thing happened, but then it did not follow the standard M.O. of supernatural events. WTF?

"You know, Luke," she said finally. "Maybe you're not the right person for me to talk to."

Luke was no longer laughing. "Maybe you're right there, Molly." He sighed loudly. "I hope I didn't make things worse."

"No, it's the way it is."

***

That night, Molly talked to Jacob, as usual, during her evening routine.

"I cannot believe you are brushing your teeth while on the phone with me!" Jacob laughed.

"I take care of my teeth."

"But do I need to hear you spit? Too much information!"

"I'm multi-tasking! I want to talk to you and I only have so many hours in the day." She paused and said in a softer voice, "I miss you."

He answered in the same tone, "I miss you more."

"What do you miss about me?"

"Your smile. Your laugh. Your sense of humor. Your ass."

Molly laughed. "I was wondering how long it would take before you got smutty!"

Jacob's voice grew deeper. "Did I pass the test? Should I ask you the same?"

"Yep, your ass too, Jake. I'm thinking I need a bronze replica here so can rub it and think of you."

"Only my ass?"

"Your personality doesn't bronze well."

"Touché, . You didn't fall into that trap."

"I can be smarter than the average Not-My-Girlfriend."

"You're my only Not-My-Girlfriend."

"And you're my only Not-My-Boyfriend."

"Yet! Don't forget the yet!"

"Yet." She said the simple three-letter word with certainty, with finality. Yet.

***

A/N:

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