Penname: addisonj
Story Title: Mystery Box
Chapter: 15: On the Beach
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight. I just use my imagination.
A/N: this is the last chapter before the Epilogue, which I already started writing and should post next week.
Thanks to my betas: Mac216 and ErinB!
CHAPTER 15: ON THE BEACH
I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.
-Rainer Maria Rilke
Where ever you go, you know I'll be there
If you go far, you'll know I'll be there
I'll go anywhere so I'll see you there
You name the place, you know I'll be there
You name the time, you know I'll be there
I'll go anywhere, so I'll see you there
…
I don't care if you don't mind
I'll be there not far behind
I will dare, I don't care, keep in mind
I'll be there for you, I'll be there for you
I'll be there for you.
-Green Day, Poprocks and Coke
As soon as Molly heard the quiet click of Bella ending the call, she knew what she had to do. And she knew she had to do it now.
With her heart racing and while saying prayers to all gods, she knew she had to see him, and she wanted it to be a surprise. But she would need help. She texted Seth:
R U there? In private? I need to call U. Its important.
Seth responded:
K
"Seth? It's Molly. Can you do me the biggest favor of all-time and I will repay you for the rest of your life?" Molly's words were so rushed that Seth could barely understand her over the phone line.
"O-kay …. is this about Jacob and you?" Seth asked carefully. Quil was not the only one who noticed Jacob was listening to far too much emo music since Molly had been away.
"Seth, I have to see him, but I want to surprise him. Can you make sure he's at First Beach in four hours, and do not tell him I'm coming?"
"Is this a good surprise or a bad surprise?" questioned Seth.
Just then, Molly heard Leah's voice in the background. "Are you talking to Molly? She wants to surprise Jacob? Give me that phone!" There were sounds of a brief scuffle, and the victor spoke.
"Molly? This is Leah. You had better not break his heart, or so help me you'll wish we had never met."
"No! Leah, please! The total opposite! I'd tell you, but I need to tell him first! Can you make sure he's at First Beach in four hours? I'd fly there if I could."
Leah laughed, "Heaven and earth can't stop me. It's time Jacob got his happy ending."
Molly drove as fast as she could, her nerves a mess, her fingers and legs jittery. She just got off the flight from the Indigenous Arts conference in Denver, received this unexpected call from Jake's first love, and then knew the only place she needed to be at the moment was 150 miles away from where she was now. Molly was feeling a bit out of control. She couldn't control the traffic. She couldn't control his reaction. Heck, she couldn't control her feelings, but she could control her actions, and they led straight to Jacob Black.
When Molly arrived in La Push, she drove straight to the beach and saw that Leah had enlisted Luke, Seth, Embry, Quil, and Emily to help. On the way, she passed Billy, who was sitting in his doorway with a big smile and waved to Molly as she drove by. He seemed to know what was about to happen and didn't want to miss it for the world.
Jacob had his back to Molly when she came racing from her car. Everyone else seemed to be pretending to look for something on the ground, and Jacob was getting cross.
"Leah, how can you possibly expect us to find a contact lens on the beach? I can't believe you're so ..." He suddenly noticed that everyone else had stopped looking at the ground and were looking behind him with big cheesy grins on their faces. He had this strange tingly feeling over his body, as if he knew that as soon as he turned around his life would change forever, but he did not know if it was for better or worse.
He turned slowly and saw Molly standing there looking wild and windswept. Her hair was a mess, and she couldn't stand still. Her fists kept opening and closing, and her legs were shaking like she was about to leap out of the starting blocks at a track meet. She looked impassioned. She looked in crazy in love.
Before he could say anything, Molly leapt out of the invisible starting blocks and ran to him with outstretched arms.
"Jacob Black!" she yelled, her words catching in the wind as she ran. "Jacob Black, I love you!"
Joy swept over Jacob. With a huge grin, he grabbed her into a tight hug as she made the leap from the sand into his chest. He grasped her as if she was a life raft and he was lost at sea. He held her so close that the two became one.
She clutched her arms around the back of his neck and brought his face to hers. She looked deep into his dark eyes. "Jake. I will love you forever. I want you. I need you. There is no one else and never will be. You've bewitched me, body and soul. You're my moon, my stars, my heaven and hell. You're my day and my night. You make me better than I am. You are everything. I love you so very, very much."
Their eyes swelled with tears as Jacob smiled and answered simply, "I love you, Molly Martin," and crushed his lips to hers. Their lips met, their passions flared, they didn't notice the smiling faces discreetly moving away, back up the hill, to give the lovers some privacy. They didn't see Leah grin (how rare that was!) or Seth give Billy a high five.
When they paused to breathe, Molly closed her eyes and said, "I love you," as she kissed his left eyelid, "I want you," as she kissed his right eye lid, "I love you," to his left cheekbone, and "I want you" to his chin.
"I need you." Jacob finished Molly's words by meeting her lips with his. The kiss started tender and grew more passionate as mouths opened wider, tongues met, and hands raced up and down bodies.
"I need you," Molly responded between breaths.
They had made love before, but this was the first time since Molly's realization that she loved Jake. And it did make a difference. Same people, same bodies, but with their love now equal and their lives spread out before them, their senses and emotions were heightened. When Jacob kissed Molly before, he felt desire, but now it was desire coupled with deep enduring love.
Their lips tugged and pulled at each other. His tongue darted into her mouth as his hands found their way from deep in her curly hair down to her sides, then, catching the bottom of her shirt, sliding underneath to touch her bare skin. Molly shivered at his passion. He then slid one hand up to her bra, dipped his fingers beneath the lace and rubbed in little circles. Her erratic breathing and increasingly passionate kisses communicated her response to his movements.
"Privacy." He growled into her ear. She nodded, and he picked her up and ran deep into the woods, where they could avoid any prying eyes.
Once they were far from anyone, he lay her down on the grass and just gazed at her. She smiled a not-so-secret smile. "Yes," she said, answering any question he might have had. Whatever the question was, 'yes' would be the answer. The question seemed to be 'May I kiss you?' because he then leaned over her and kissed her slowly, deeply, fully, and she responded in kind. The question may then have been 'May I undress you?' because her clothes were then unbuttoned, unzipped, and removed amid gentle kisses and caresses. The last question seemed to be 'May I enter you?' because he did so as her back arched and her fingers dug into his long muscular back.
They continued that way until the sun set and the wind grew colder. Molly had her arms wrapped around a human heat generator, so she did not notice the temperature change. After a while, she told him about the call from Bella. He was surprised, but pleasantly. He did not know how Bella got Molly's number, but it didn't matter now. The girl that gave him heartbreak, who caused him to be a man too soon, was also the catalyst that brought back his heart's desire, his other half, his imprint.
There was still one more, very important thing to discuss, and it had been driving Jacob crazy since the imprint; he had to tell her everything. He couldn't tell her in the past, because he knew she was simply too overwhelmed and could not handle it then. He thought of telling her at the exhibit when Bob identified him as the wolf-man, but it did not seem the right time either. He needed Molly to be sure of how she felt about him before disclosing the big secret.
He was so nervous he could barely breathe. "Molly, I love you so much. I need you to know everything about me," Jacob began. Molly stopped and looked at him, her eyebrow raised. She became still and listened.
Jacob continued, "You need to know about the legends. The legends are true." His heart was in his throat. He needed to tell Molly the most important thing about him. It was a huge risk, but he couldn't start a life with her if she didn't know the facts. He had to tell her now; their relationship would never be able to recover if she found out for herself later.
Molly stared at him with neutral eyes. "Legends tend to be based on fact," she said noncommittally. Jacob died a little inside.
"The transformation of the man into the wolf? It's true. That's what we do. We're the Protectors. We protect the tribe." Jacob chose his words carefully.
"Protect the tribe from what?"
"Monsters. The Cold Ones."
Molly was eerily quiet; her face was blank. "And the transformation? Metaphorical, right?"
Jacob shook his head. Their eyes were locked. "No, it's real. We're shape shifters. We protect the tribe."
Molly continued to stare. Her boyfriend just told her he was a shape shifter. If anyone else had said that, she would have dismissed them as insane. But this was Jake. Her Jake. This was the man she trusted with her life. This was the man she knew and loved, and she could tell he was being genuine. And he was flat-out terrified of her reaction to his words.
Molly thought about the Chinese legends she grew up with: the Monkey King and Hua Mulan, the woman warrior. She then thought of the stories of the saints and miracles that she learned in Catholic school. She believed the stories to be true, even though they were fantastical and made no sense whatsoever in any sort of a logical way. She had faith that they were true, and that was enough for her. So if the man she loved believed in shape shifters, she would share his faith in the magical.
Jacob's eyes were fierce and afraid. He was terrified. The high he had just felt when Molly declared her love could come crashing down. Maybe he should have waited a day to tell her so at least they would have had 24 hours of bliss before he fucked everything up by telling her about werewolves and vampires. Molly was being so quiet; it was unsettling. Her face was totally expressionless, but he knew her well enough to know that the wheels in her brain were spinning madly, processing this information. Please believe me, he prayed, something he had not done since his mother died, but it hadn't helped then. Please. This time, help me.
She blinked and finally spoke in a flat monotone, asking questions in the same tone a reporter might ask a stranger. "Are you dangerous? Am I or any of my friends or family in danger?"
Jacob smiled through moist eyes and shook his head. There might be a breakthrough. "No, love. I would never harm you or your family. We protect our loved ones from the monsters; we're not the aggressors."
"And how often does this happen? Do you shape shift on a regular basis?"
"Hardly ever. We don't need to anymore. It's been years for most of us. The threat of the Cold Ones is gone. Hopefully they won't be back for a long time, maybe for generations, but I can't promise anything."
Molly's expression was still blank, and Jacob was still in the hell of the unknown, but he had to tell her more, to tie it all together, the most important thing. "The imprint only happens to us shape shifters. It finds us our true mate."
Molly's eyebrows arched in surprise. "So Sam, Jared, Paul are all shape shifters? And Luke too?"
Jacob had a small smile and shook his head. "Not Luke. Leah. Leah is the shape shifter."
Unbelievably, Molly gave a hearty laugh. "Of course it would be Leah to break the glass ceiling for supernatural beings!"
Jacob laughed too. Not a big laugh, a small one; he was still concerned since Molly hadn't really responded yet. But she did laugh…that's a good sign, isn't it? His body was tense with fear. "Molly?" he nearly begged.
Molly finally broke the stare, sighed, and moved to clasp his hand. He grabbed her hand in both of his and held on for dear life. "Jacob," she began, "I won't lie and say I really believe this, but I believe in you, and if you believe it, I can accept that." She paused and smiled. "But I will certainly not include this in my academic research."
Jacob's face broke into a grin; he could finally exhale. He grabbed hold of Molly and crushed her in an embrace. "Thank you," he breathed huskily into her ear.
"Is there anything else I should know? Do thunderbirds fly overhead and feed killer whales to you all at the next fish fry? Does that legend happen too?" Molly joked.
Jacob was too busy covering her with kisses to answer directly. "Do you know how lucky I am?" he asked rhetorically. "I've got the smartest girl in the world who will accept me as I am."
Molly smiled and kissed him back. "Maybe if I really was smart I'd have you committed," she joked.
"I'm only committed to you, Molly Martin." They laughed and kissed. In the back of Molly's mind, Jacob's admission was bizarre, but she had no fear. It was weird, that this woman who prized logic and intellect was willing to commit her life to a man that believed he was a supernatural creature. But she had learned to trust her gut. She had learned that sometimes it was best not to think. So she stopped thinking and kissed Jacob some more.
Kissing Jacob was like embracing a volcano. He was all heat and passion. His full lips tugged and pulled and nibbled and…oh my. His eyes were half closed, his fists were in her dark tangled hair. "Love," he kept repeating. "Love. Love. Love."
As a child, Molly used to play a game called Hot Lava. She and her siblings would throw blankets, pillows, and cushions on the floor of their house, and they would need to get from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor, relying on a path created by the pillows. If you stepped on the floor, you were lost to the 'hot lava!' Kissing Jacob was like plunging purposely into the hot lava. Not only the heat from his body, but the heat from the passion of his kisses and caresses created fervor all through Molly's body, primarily deep inside her core and every erogenous zone. And to think she'd have this for the rest of her life….
Jacob loved kissing Molly because he knew how to unlock the crazy sexy girl inside the book-nerd, left-brain-centric geek. He knew the rest of the pack saw her as smart and pretty, but he was the only one who knew that inside were untapped depths of passion she had kept hidden her entire life. Jacob was the key to Molly unlocking bits of her true self, the parts of Molly she hid behind her bookish persona. The warm wonderful loving woman blossomed with Jake at the helm. And watching her discover these depths within herself made Jake proud.
Jacob spoke between laying kisses all over Molly's face and lips and neck. "Let's get married here! Here on the beach. And I can build a house for us; we have some land just behind Billy's home."
Molly paused and tried to stop responding to Jacob's kisses. "Wait a minute, Jacob Black. Did you propose to me?" Her body was focused on Jake's tactile embrace, but her ears heard something wonderful and unexpected. She was so happy; a missed proposal did not change her mood, but heightened it.
Jacob grinned. "Did I forget something?" He kissed her swollen lips, and then cradled her face in his hands and looked into her blue eyes. My God, she's beautiful, he thought, and she's mine. "Molly Martin, will you marry me? I have never loved another soul as much as I love you. Nothing would make me happier. And I promise to spend my life making you as happy as you make me."
Molly grinned and then softly stroked his jaw. Her smile became softer, her eyes moist. "Jacob Black, I would be so honored to be your wife. You're the best thing that ever happened to me and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Forever." They kissed. "'And you gotta promise not to stop when I say when'," she quoted.
Jacob caught the reference. "Foo Fighters. I propose and you quote the Foo Fighters?" he laughed and kissed her some more before she could answer. He was desperately happy, letting wave after wave of joy and bliss and lust wash over him. My imprint…
After a bit, they discussed their future. Molly would continue her studies at U. Dub and keep the apartment with Karen in Seattle for classes and such, but she would do most of her work at La Push, thanks to her VPN connection to the U. Dub library system and the department's servers. Jacob would build a home for them right by Billy and ensure it had wheelchair ramps for him. They would get married on the beach at La Push and have a Chinese wedding reception in San Francisco for Molly's friends and family in the San Francisco Bay area. Their wedding and reception would join their families and their cultures.
"You'd love a Chinese wedding reception. A meal with 12 courses!"
Jacob gave her a smile and a kiss. "Now that's what I call a meal!"
Molly thought for a moment and then said, "You know, a wedding is just saying to the world that we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together. I feel like we've already done that, at least to ourselves." She looked Jacob in the eye. "I feel like we're married already."
His eyes darkened and he pulled her impossibly closer, burying his face into her sweet smelling hair. "Oh, Molly!"
They kissed with a renewed passion that made tingles shoot from their toes to their heads. They kissed with an urgency as if there was no future, but knowing that there was forever.
"When did you fall in love with me? Was it the imprint?"
Jacob considered. "Yes and no. I was always attracted to you, and the more time we spent together, the more I liked you. I think it was that morning in the diner when you talked about love. That sealed it. I saw you in a whole new light. I think the imprint just fast forwarded what was already happening at a normal pace. It also made me certain that you were the one for me, that any obstacles we had were going to be overcome, that this was forever." Jacob's words melted Molly's heart. The only thing she could do was answer him with a lingering kiss.
Their lips parted. "How about you, Molly Martin? When did you fall for me? A couple hours ago?" Jacob joked. She laughed.
"Oh, I think it was pretty parallel to yours, imprint aside. I was totally hot for you when I first saw you at Doctor Wilson's office. Who knew a button down shirt and jeans would be such a turn on? But I figured you were probably just another obnoxious cute guy, looking for another notch in his bedpost. Plus, I was dating Spencer, and we were working on this project together, so I pushed it aside. But the more time we spent together, the more I realized how much I admired you. I admired the work you were doing at the Rez, and I really just liked talking to you. I looked forward to weekends so much, even though it was physically exhausting to do everything with my regular course load."
Molly continued, "Oh god! That conversation at the diner about love! I was certain I had word vomit! You really didn't react, and I figured I had just made a fool of myself, but what the hell, I'd live. But as the months went by, my emotional attraction to you grew, so my physical attraction grew too, and I just could not take my hands off you!
"The imprint scared me. I wasn't ready yet, and I'm so glad you took it slow. And when you met my family and Seattle friends, then I knew my two different worlds could co-exist. That was a critical moment. But honestly, I've been resisting my feelings until today. And then I realized what a fucking idiot I'd been, and I had to see you immediately. That I'd been wasting months, and I had to make up for lost time."
Molly paused and grew more solemn. She held each of her hands in his and said, "Jacob Black, I promise to love you to the end of our lives. I will honor, cherish, and adore you as long as I have breath in my body. You are the most genuine, the most loyal, the most honorable, faithful, funny, strongest, wisest, and loving person I've ever known. I don't deserve someone as wonderful as you, but since you trust me with your heart, I promise to hold it and love you for the rest of my days."
They kissed softly, because it was Jacob's turn next. "Molly Martin—I mean, Mary Margaret Martin. From the moment I saw you in Dr. Wilson's office, I knew you were the woman for me. You're smart, you're brave, you're funny, and you're beautiful. You have entered my life, the lives of my family and friends, and made them better. My heart pulls to yours like a compass pointing to true north. I never want to be away from you." Remembering that they would be apart sometimes, he added, "But I know that when we're away, we'll still love each other, call, and text each other," they chuckled, "and be back in each other's arms because you, Molly Martin, have my heart and soul. You're my true love. We were meant to be together, and nothing can part us now."
They kissed softly, sweetly, expressing their deep, enduring love with the press of their lips against each other.
Molly had a thought and suppressed a giggle. "Too bad we didn't record it for our real wedding! I think we just wrote our own vows!"
They kissed again. Molly looked into the eyes of her beloved. "Jacob, I want to be your happy ending."
He kissed her gently. "You are, my love, you are."
It was serendipity. A long-forgotten box tucked away in the basement of a museum was the catalyst that led to the greatest discovery in Native American artifacts in 50 years, and, just was as remarkable, it led Jacob Black to his imprint. The likelihood that the two would have found each other without the events that unfolded as a result of that box, the box that Joe Albright's mother packed up one angry day and left at the museum 70 years ago…. Jacob couldn't even fathom how tenuous was the path from one long ago fateful day to today. To Molly. Destiny? Fate? Incredible luck? Did the ancestors who looked down on them from the stars put the stepping stones in place that led her to him? Jacob simply felt profound gratitude. Not only for the precipitous path that brought them together, but that she accepted him as a werewolf. Did not ask for proof, just said yes. Yes. Yes!
Love. Love, love, love, love, love. Trust. Honor. Gratitude. And more Love.
THE END
A/N: Epilogue in about a week. I'll do my Oscar speech and thank everyone then. ;-)
A/N:
1) Please review! Reviewers get teasers. And if you've been lurking, now is your time to hit that little button on the bottom and let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate it!
2) That's it. Jake finally has his Happily Ever After. Finally! Thanks for putting up with Molly and her indecisiveness for five chapters. I'm already writing the epilogue and should publish it next Thursday night (just before New Moon opens!).
3) Check out HotnCold's Character Exploration of Billy and Sam in The Lazy Yet Discerning Ficster blog. And big thanks for including Mystery Box (where Billy is the 'sensitive sensei'). Thank you!!! Please check out her Jake x OC fic, Love and Gravity. It's posted on my profile as well and it's great!
4) Contests? I wrote an entry for the Google-ward contest. I'm considering writing one for the La Push Quileute contest, which has very few entries so far. Here are the links:
4a) Voting for Googleward from 11/23 to 11/28. My fic is called the Instant Messenger Wooing of Bella Swan and if you like it, please vote for it!
www {dot) fanfiction (dot) net/community/Google_It_Googleward_Challenge/74086/
4b) I'm working on a Jared/Kim fic for the La Push challenge. There are only two entries so far, so I really encourage people to enter. Submissions until 11/30 and voting in December 9 to 23rd.
www {dot} fanfiction (dot) net/community/QUILEUTE_la_push_CHALLENGE/74774/
5) Have I mentioned the funniest blog ever? SparkLife has Dan Bergstein's Blogging Twilight series. I literally LOL every paragraph. The best cure for the blues.
community{dot} sparknotes {dot} /2009/07/16/blogging-twilight-index-page/
6) Any Pride and Prejudice fanfiction recs? I'm interested in that fandom as well now.