a/n: EverlastingMuse is my sparkling apple cider on New Year's Eve.
Chapter 6: Set Up
I have to admit, despite the ribbing I took from my siblings and the fact that Bella thinks I'm weird, I am still feeling like I'm getting this whole "not killing the chief's daughter" thing under control. Which is great because I've been spending a near obsessive amount of time worrying about it and not nearly enough time drumming up business.
Not that Alice and I need the money. Living for decades or centuries, not needing to eat or worry about medical bills and the like and living with a psychic and a mind reader, we are pretty well off. But I want our agency to have a good reputation, even if all we can take are small-time cases like missing pets and wandering spouses.
I am talking with a divorce attorney I know from Seattle about a potential case when Alice runs in and hands me a set of keys. It is the afternoon of her play date with Bella, and I look around her in fear that the appetizing Miss Swan is going to follow her up the stairs.
"Can you drop Bella's truck off at her Dad's?" Alice asks me and I nod, still listening to the lawyer drone on about the case. I am immensely grateful that they are not taking Bella's deathtrap to Port Angeles.
When I finally get off the phone, wanting to scrub my ears with bleach after hearing what the divorce lawyer said about his client's soon-to-be ex-wife, I go downstairs and get into Bella's truck. It is strangely satisfying to be surrounded by her scent without her actual presence there to endanger her. I drive slowly, inhaling her and taking the time to steal one of her gloves so I have something to smell later. Purely for safety purposes, of course.
I park the truck outside Chief Swan's and walk up the drive to give the keys to her dad. Unfortunately, I was so busy wafting in on Bella's heavenly scent that I failed to notice the distinct aroma of rotten dog coming out of the little house.
Until it hit me as the Chief opened the door, that is. Then I was faced with the stoic mustachioed face of Fork's finest along with the deadly glare of two of La Push's smelliest. Chief Swan was watching ESPN with a werewolf and a might-as-well-be-one-for-the-way-he-was-glaring-at-me.
And here I was, whistling my way up the path without a care in the world, twirling her keys around my finger with one of her little knit gloves in my pocket, paying no attention to the mongrels in the house. Sucker.
"Mr. Cullen." Chief Swan greets me. I think I hear a growl from behind him.
"Chief Swan, I apologize for disturbing you. My sister and your daughter went to Port Angeles together and she asked me to bring Bella's truck by." I hold out the keys to him. I can hear the thoughts of the mutts behind him. They are less than thrilled by Bella's choice of friends. I tend to agree.
"Thank you, Mr. Cullen. I wasn't aware that Bella knew your sister." Charlie's mind is not as silent as Bella's but it's quiet. All I can hear is slight confusion but no specific words or pictures. The wolves, on the other hand, are having some pretty specific thoughts about my family and our viability as campfire logs.
"Yes, Sir, I believe they have become friends." I don't bother with responding to the wolves threats. It's not like they'd do anything in front of Charlie, anyway. "I won't disturb you further, Sir. Have a good evening." With that I turn and walk back down to the street and walk the few blocks to my office. Where I take the time to sniff her glove. In the most non-creepy way possible.
I am contemplating whether I want to listen to Coltrane or Monk when Carlisle comes into my room the next day. I can see that something's up; he's got wolves on the brain.
"What now? It's not time for the Westminster Dog Show again?" He shakes his head somberly.
"The tribe has asked to meet with us at a neutral location tonight. I gather it has something to do with Chief Swan's daughter?" We haven't necessarily been 100% transparent with Carlisle about how much Alice has been getting involved with Bella. What started out as a mere surveillance project to protect her from me has turned into the first friendship Alice has ever had outside the family.
"I should have foreseen it, Carlisle. I've run across the wolves a few times lately. I imagine they're worried about her." Thinking about it, I can't really blame them.
We meet up with several members of the tribe that evening. Since they appear in their human forms and are not thinking about immolating us we stay pretty calm as well.
"It's been brought to our attention that some members of your family have befriended Isabella Swan." The man who spoke to us was not the man I'd seen last night in a wheelchair at Chief Swan's house but another of the older men in the tribe, Harry Clearwater. The young man, Sam, who had been driving the tow-truck stood next to him, staring me down as Harry spoke to Carlisle.
"My children mean no harm to Miss Swan. We do not feed from humans and we would not accompany her places in public if we intended to do so. To do so would draw unnecessary attention to us."
"I understand your family has a different diet than most of your kind but Isabella has ties to the tribe and it concerns us when she associates with any dangerous creatures." I want to interrupt at this point, feeling that the wolves themselves are just as dangerous but I am forced to remember my thirst for Bella's blood which, while certainly less now, is still a danger to her.
"I appreciate your concern. How would you have us proceed?" Harry looks at the young man next to him and nods.
"We will protect Bella." Sam is speaking to Carlisle but looking at me. "We will patrol her home and protect her as one of our own. You have helped her and we thank you for that but we can take over now. It will be safer that way." Alice utters a little cry and Jasper slips his arm around her. Carlisle looks at her and then at me. He is going to make me make this decision. I am torn between what I want and what I know is the right thing to do. After a long pause I nod at him. I hate to admit it but really the wolves are the best ones to protect her, especially from me.
Carlisle looks at Alice and murmurs an apology to her. He turns back to Sam and Harry. "Very well. We will maintain our distance from Miss Swan." He shakes hands with them although they wince at his touch.
We turn to return home solemnly with the exception of Rosalie, who really just doesn't care. When we get to the house Alice finally looks at me with a look of deep sadness and hurt. "How could you?" she says quietly. I open my mouth to explain how I am doing the noble thing, the safe thing, the right thing. Nothing comes out and I turn from her look of anguish and go upstairs to my room and back to my empty life.
a/n: I should be back on schedule this Sunday, my apologies for the delay. Teasers will go out Wednesday.
I have a Christmas surprise for you! http: / bit (dot) ly / fNpUc1 (remove my spaces and (dot)s). It is an interpretation of Neil Gaiman's "Nicholas" from a collection of short stories, "Smoke and Mirrors." This book also contains the short story, "Only The End Of The World Again," which inspired this story. Enjoy! JuJu