(disclaimer-i do not own any of the characters from the novel twilight.)
i'm sorry that it has been so long since i've updated this story. i cannot say as to when it will be updated again,
either. all that i can say is that i know that this is not turning out the way that i planned, so it will be very hard
for me to get back on track. please bear with me, and do not be upset if i randomly stop again.
oh, and also, this chapter is mostly pointless filler. so, please don't mind it.
thank you for your patience.
Chapter 41 (no real title, sorry.)
I rolled over onto my side, carefully avoiding kicking Junior in the face. The feeling that swept over me upon glancing at his sleeping form was one of ambivalence. While the sight of him was more or less reassuring, it was also completely irritating. However large the danger was, I was still entirely unable to agree with being babysat by my own son. Not that I necessarily had to be babysat by him. Jacob, realizing that he was beginning to act like Edward again, carefully revised his instructions on how the situation would be handled, but Junior was still intent on his decision to be my guard dog.
Quietly, I sat up in the bed, throwing my legs over the side so that I could leave without him noticing. Just as I passed him at the bottom of the bed, fully on my toes as I crept through the night, he swatted the air, letting out a gusty sigh.
"Crap," I muttered to myself, freezing in place.
"Stupid bloodsucker," he breathed, switching to his left side. His long, gangly leg hung off the end of the bed in a humorous way. I smiled once at the dreaming boy before continuing quickly through the door.
Jacob found me in the hall with a huge grin on his face. His expression was almost entirely invisible in the dark house, but his teeth were so white that I could have spotted him a mile away. Nearly blind, I stretched a hand toward him, afraid to step forward.
"Couldn't sleep with all that snoring, huh?" he guessed, grabbing onto me.
"It's a little loud, yeah," I admitted, smirking.
"A little? C'mon," he laughed. "The kid sounds like a freaking weed-wacker."
We were in the living room now, and Jake was turning on the little lamp in the corner. On the table was a box of cookies. He picked it up and inhaled two of them on the spot before handing the box to me. I grabbed one of them and chewed the edge of it for a moment, thinking.
"Why are you out here?" I asked finally, looking up at him in confusion. Normally, unless he had some werewolf thing, he slept in the room with me, acting as my blanket in the night.
Jacob smirked at me, a superior expression on his splendid face. He snorted. "Isn't it kind of obvious, Bells?"
"Apparently not," I retorted, miffed. As I was speaking, I peeked out the curtain into the pouring rain, looking for something cold and white.
A warm hand found my shoulder and pulled me back onto the couch. "There's nothing out there, Bella. I've been on it the entire night. There hasn't been a single leech in over a week now. Maybe you should relax a little."
"Relax," I scoffed, rolling my eyes.
"Are you really that scared?" he asked, searching my eyes. "You are, aren't you?" His voice was a little incredulous.
I looked away, nibbling on the cookie as a way of distracting myself.
"Bells, as long as I'm here with you, you have nothing to be worried about. I am just as capable as anyone else--anyone else--when it comes to protecting you. And I have two-times the motivation, too. We've got a kid together. He isn't capable of that kind of love." His hand smoothed down the back of my pajama shirt, attempting to soothe me, but I wasn't soothed. I was actually kind of aggravated.
"I wish you wouldn't do that," I mumbled grumpily.
"Do what?" he sort of whined, throwing his palm into the air. "I'm not doing anything."
"You act as though your love for me is...well, far more superior to his. I don't like it, Jacob."
"Isn't it though? I do love you more than he does, more than he could ever even know. He isn't capable of what--"
"Jake!" I interrupted, pushing him.
"Okay, okay. Yeesh, Bells. Give me a break." He took his hand away from me, leaning over the coffee table for another handful of sweets. His foot was tapping angrily on the floor and he wouldn't look at me.
I shook my head, my eyes rolling back into my head at his foolishness. "Sometimes I just don't see how you could be so many decades older than me. You don't always seem to have matured much."
He turned back to glare at me briefly before changing the subject. "There's no room for me," he mumbled.
My eyebrows met as I digested his words. "What are you talking about?" I asked.
"On the bed. There's no room for me on the bed with him in there. I thought it was pretty obvious, seeing as how you hardly have enough room for yourself."
"Oh." I said blankly, staring at his bare back. There was a long pause. "Jake?" I finally said, breaking the silence.
Jacob repositioned so that he was face to face with me. His eyes were tired and his jaw was tightly concealing a yawn. His flared nostrils were all that gave him away. Even in doing this, he was pretty. I took his hand in mine, pulling him closer.
"You really are very beautiful. It's almost insulting." I grinned at him, tugging him playfully closer. Picking up on the new emotion in the air, a smile grew subtly on his lips as well, and he leaned in close to me.
"So, what? Did you get bored pretending you were my mother or something?" he joked, raising a black eyebrow.
I narrowed my eyes, frowning. "I wasn't pretending to be your mother, Jacob."
"Sure seemed like it to me," Jacob muttered, making a face.
Sighing, I sat up a little straighter. "You think anyone who acts even remotely mature is someone pretending to be your mother, Jake."
"Do not," he complained, planting a kiss on my cheek. A smile lit up his face when I looked back at him and he took my face between his hands. "I think you're beautiful. Way prettier than me."
"I think I'm prettiest, actually," a new voice concluded sleepily. Junior rounded the corner in a robe, his eyelids drooping heavily with sleep. "You guys are so loud," he grumbled. "It's bad enough I have to be on the lookout for vampires 24/7, but to keep me awake with corny comments like that one, Dad? Come on."
"It wasn't corny," Jacob defended at the same time that I said, "You don't have to be on the lookout. You put yourself in that position, mister."
I was really becoming my mother, and Jacob was becoming my second son.
"Someone has to watch out for you," Junior insisted, shooting a vehement glare at the man pinning me to the couch. "He sure as hell doesn't do anything anymore."
"Hey!" I scolded, ready to defend Jacob.
Jacob placed his hand over my mouth, stopping the torrent, and spoke for himself. "I sure as hell do what needs to be done, kid. Have you seen anything in this house for the past week? No. Has anything gotten even a little bit close to Bella? No. You aren't the only one on the lookout. I'm just a little bit more...oh, I don't know, sufferable, maybe? So back off and think about your role in this house before I have to physically make you. Hear me?"
Junior jumped into a salute before rolling his eyes. "Yes, sir," he mocked.
I sighed, getting off the couch. "That's enough, you two. I think we've all developed cabin fever or something. Too much time together."
"You're telling me," Junior muttered.
"She said that's enough," Jacob warned.
"Seriously. You make me almost wish I had my blood drained by a vampire. The both of you. You act like children." I stomped angrily toward the kitchen, carrying the cookies with me, and put them in the cupboard. "I can't believe I'm supposedly the youngest here," I hissed to myself.
Insane laughter had me spinning around so quickly my hair gave me whiplash.
"What is the matter with you guys?" I shouted in irritation, watching in puzzlement as they choked and chuckled, leaning over the table.
"That can't really be her," Junior snorted, looking at me. "She looks..."
"Completely in her element?" Jacob finished, chortling.
Curious, I walked over to peer at the paper in his hand. It took me a minute of dazed staring before I realized that it was a picture of me. In this picture, I was spitting soda all over Jacob's little garage.
Gasping, I tried to rip the picture from Jake's hand. "Where the hell did you get that!?" I demanded. Jacob just laughed at me, swirling so that I couldn't reach it.
"A long, long time ago, I'm assuming," Junior answered for him, squealing with laughter. "Don't worry, Mom. You look beautiful. The whole...water-fountain/horse-face look totally suits you."
Jacob, always at my rescue, merely swatted his son on the head, laughing along.
I couldn't believe it. I had given up a polite, beautiful, gentlemanly, and potentially-dangerous vampire for this? I was mentally challenged.
Angry and red-faced, I stomped off to my room alone, slamming the door behind me, and tried to pretend that the two idiots in the other room did not belong to me.