Chapter 15 storm girl

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute and the Makah that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe for betaing.

Seth the baby sitter did a great job of looking after Rose. He drove her to her out-patient appointments, to meetings with doctors, and physiotherapists. Gentle exercise classes like Pilates worked well for her. They increased her core body strength without straining muscles or tiring her too much. Seth was all in favour of making her stronger. He worried about how easily she tired.

She also got anxious and she had to work on relaxation and breathing exercises. She had a lot of headaches and she complained about pain in her legs; especially the left one.

He did his school work and reading while he was waiting for her. Oddly he probably ended up spending more time on it now than he would have before. He spent a lot of time in waiting rooms. He understood now why Raven always had some needlework or something to do with her. Lucky his wolf strength allowed him to carry all his school books with him all the time. His teachers give him catch up papers and extra notes if he actually missed a class. They had to do it for most of the wolf pack members until they finished at school; their attendance at school could be so erratic. Sometimes the pack got extra help like that. Seth supposed it had been arranged by the Tribal Council; he knew how rabid Billy and his mum were about education.

He fitted into the Hoburn family well. Winona laughed about how much he ate and wondered if George will be the same when he got bigger. He was only thirteen and still had that skinny teenage boy physique. He should fill out later if he took after his father. George worshipped Seth with an adoration that eerily reminded Seth of how he used to follow Jake around when he was that young. Victor liked Seth too. He supposed they wouldn't have asked him to help look after Rose if they didn't like him.

Rose found out they were paying him to look after her. Initially she was a little put out but Seth explained that he spends so much time with her; he can't work to earn some money. She was a little upset but he calmed her down when he argued that he thought it was neat that he got paid to be with her. He would do it for nothing. He made sure to spend some of the money on her. He was not stupid, after all.

So he picked his time to ask her about the weather connection thing. He waited for her to be well rested, kind of happy and not headachy. And alone. He had been watching her for a while now and he was almost sure that it was not a coincidence and really, the only way to actually know for certain was to just ask her. It didn't strike him as unbelievable; he knew vampires and werewolves didn't exist for most people either, so a girl who could make storms wasn't outside the realms of possibility for him.

So he just asked.

They had just got home from an exercise class.

"Rose this might sound pretty weird but…" Seth started.

She looked slightly panicked and he felt the static lift in the air. Admittedly, he was looking for it now.

He continued, "I seem to have noticed that there is link between your moods and the weather."

She looked really panicked now. "Don't be silly," she blustered. "Everyone feels sad or upset when the weather is bad," she rationalized.

"Not here," Seth pointed out. "This is the Pacific Northwest, it is always raining. If people here went around sad because it was raining, we would all be clinically depressed."

She opened her mouth to argue, but shut it again without speaking. She fiddled with something with her hand.

"Every time you got really upset in the hospital the weather was bad," he pointed out.

She looked down at her lap.

"Rose?" he asked tentatively.

She still didn't answer him.

"Do you want me to ask your Mum? I think I would rather hear it from you."

She still didn't answer him, so he tried emotional blackmail. He might feel bad, but he needed to know what was going on. He put on his sad puppy face and the matching sad voice. "I thought we had got so close in the hospital… I guess that you don't care about me as much…"

"No…" she interrupted, "you're right… you have done so much for me and it is not fair that I keep this from you ...I just don't know how to tell people that … I'm not like other people; that I am a freak." She paused and looked at him, "That I can make thunderstorms."

He didn't react to that. "When did it first start to happen?"

"Puberty, I guess… I must have been about 16 when it got really noticeable. Poor mum and dad; their moody teenager had way more issues than anybody else's," she laughed bitterly. "If only all I was doing was truanting and hanging at the mall with boys… instead of frying every electrical appliance we owned…"

He reached for her and stroked her face. He needed to know, but he didn't like getting her upset either, regardless of the storm thing.

"I know," she muttered, "don't go getting upset…." She still sounded bitter. "Mum says that all the time."

Seth wanted to comfort her. "I don't think it's weird… it's different maybe… but…," he shrugged.

"It's hardly normal Seth," she berated him.

"Maybe… but its you," he said simply.

"Me?" she asked suspiciously.

"Yeah." He slid himself in closer to her. "And if I want to be with you… then it is all part of the package," he kissed her softly on the lips. "You know… like being messy or wearing socks to bed or not eating cheese or chewing your pen or any other quirky habits people have. It's just…you." He kissed her again.

"So you don't mind?" she sounded so surprised, he wished he could tell her about the wolves. But he can't. She was just his girlfriend; not his imprint and he can't share his secret with her, the way she just shared hers with him.

It hurt his heart.

He remembered suddenly that he had rashly promised to tell her all his deep, dark secrets when she was walking and talking. She was pretty much one hundred percent healed now; well, as much as she perhaps ever would be. He prayed she had forgotten about that promise. He could tell her bits of his secrets but none of them would make sense without the largest part of that puzzle. His being a werewolf.

"So the trip to Neah Bay?" he asked changing the subject a little.

"We were going to ask the Makah tribal elders if they had ever heard of it before. If any other Makah had ever had such an issue. We thought it would be better to do it in person. Mum thought they might avoid answering the question if we were on the phone or something. You know how old fashioned some of them can be. On the other hand, I guess, they might just not believe me. So we thought that I could have tried to give them a demonstration if they didn't believe us. But then we had the accident and now," she shrugged. "Bizarrely it is less of an issue now, with everything else we have to deal with. I suppose we could go and ask again…" her voice trailed off.

"Maybe it is just less noticeable because you are here. Deadwood doesn't get much rain does it?"

"No," she agreed, "it's pretty arid… probably less than 30 inches a year."

"Well, there you go," he said. "Forks gets more than 120 inches a year. So no one is going to notice that you can make it rain… seriously…"

For the first time in their conversation, she smiled at him. He was so glad to see that smile.

"Guess that explains why George is so sweet."

She frowned at him.

"You have the nicest little brother in the world," Seth stated.

"What do you mean?" she was suspicious.

"Oh come on… it is part of a little brother's statement of duties to be terminally irritating, endlessly annoying and to take all your stuff, be in the bathroom when you need it… etcetera." He lifted his eyebrows at her. "I know this because I AM a little brother."

She chuckled. "I had never thought about it, but you are right. I only had to zap at him two or three times before, he learnt to be really cooperative."

"See," he said, "there's always a silver lining."

[AN: So I have borrowed the ability to control storms from Richelle Mead's Dark Swan series – I say borrowed, you say shamelessly stole – pot-ay-to/po-tah-to – and then I have mashed it up with the Makah traditional stories of the thunderbird – it'll work!]

FF_2154210_ - 3/27/2011 02:58:00 AM

FF_2154210_ - 8/31/2011 01:48:00 AM