37 - Character
Phil had to hold me back again as Maples stormed out of the small police building. It was unfortunate that Phil was stronger than a normal human, because I really needed to get my hands around Maples's fat neck and squeeze until his head popped off. How dare he say such vile things about my little brother?
"Leah this is not the time," Phil whispered in my ear, "let Sassy handle this."
I did not have a change to reply as Sassy came out the door, her expression a lot softer than when she had first stepped into the building. Much to my relief Seth was right behind her, Phil finally released me but not before he made sure that Maples was out of sight.
"Seth are you all right?" mother asked rushing over to him and trying to give him a hug. It was kind of funny seeing the size difference between the two, my mother at barely five foot two nearly disappeared in her enormous son's embrace. I did not hesitate long as I too wrapped my arms around both of them. I noticed that Seth's nose was a little bit crooked but other than that it looked fine, even the blood that had been there was wiped away.
Out of the periphery of my eye I noticed that Charlie was hovering around us, his behavior would have been hilarious if I had not been so worried about my brother. Charlie was not cut out for emotional situations, it would be interesting to see how he would get along with me and my brother if he was going to continue his relationship with my mother - we werewolves tended to be a little more overt about how we felt. Moderation was not part of our personalities, at least not since the change.
"Fine mom, everything is great," Seth sounded exuberant and absolutely content. Not at all behaving as a guy who had just been accused of rape. I noticed that he was not looking at my mother as he was speaking, instead his eyes followed Sassy as she moved across the parking lot - the bells around her ankles tinkling a merry tune with each step. It did not take me long to recognize that look, I had seen it often enough in the past year. My little brother had just imprinted, and on Sassy of all people. It was interesting to note that even though Sassy was speaking quietly to Kendrick and Phil she still kept half an eye on Seth. I did not understand the exchange of words between the family members, but from the tone of her voice I was guessing Sassy was giving orders.
Our small family reunion did not last long, in fact Sassy gave us less than five minutes before she took action again. It looked like Phil and Kendrick were not the only ones who would be receiving orders today - Sassy was definitely all queen today.
My mother's expression was priceless as Sassy told her what to do and I finally cracked my first smile since Maples showed up at the bonfire. I don't know what made her more confused, the fact that this young woman was giving her orders or the fact that she moved to obey them even without thinking.
"Let us head back to the cabin, everyone will join us there soon and we need to make something for dinner." Phil told me as he pulled me towards the truck. I was not going to protest since I had missed out on the bonfire hotdogs my stomach was starting to grumble.
The silence in the truck finally allowed me to realize the gravity of this situation.
"How could anyone think that Seth would be capable of that?" I asked, my emotions in complete turmoil. It was only Phil and I in the truck, my mother had to stay behind with Sassy and Seth to fill out some paperwork.
Phil must have realized this was a rhetorical question because he did not bother answering, instead he kept his eyes on the road.
I don't know what came more of a shock: the accusations of rape still ringing in my ears or the fact that my little brother imprinted. I could not imagine how Seth felt, considering my own horror and I was not even the one accused of the crime. To think that anyone would consider Seth capable of committing that kind of atrocity - well that should have been a crime in itself. If you spent five minutes in my brother's company you would know with absolute certainty that he could never, ever do that. This was obviously some sort of mistake, there was some miscommunication somewhere along the lines.
When the werewolf genes kicked in our emotions tended to be a little more volatile than that of normal humans, even Sam who was the example of control had lost his temper and hurt his precious Emily. The fact that Seth never lost his temper was unnatural, not once did my little brother lose control; Seth did not want anyone to get hurt so he kept a reign on his temper. While the rest of us accepted and sometimes used our werewolf status as an excuse to do shitty things, not Seth - he cared too much about the people around him to ever let himself lose control. I had seen every other member of the pack at one time or another lose it and shift; not Seth, not my calm little brother.
I could feel my own temper rising, I knew who was behind this fiasco and that would have been that little ... for once words failed me, I could not come up with one that was bad enough to describe what Jill Maples actually was. I growled in frustration, it was lucky she was nowhere near me because I wanted nothing more than to rip her freaking little head off.
Phil reached over and touched my hand, "everything is going to be fine. It will all work out." The calm tone of my mate reminded me of another revelations.
It was amazing how far Sassy had gone to provoke Maples - but of course she would do that, he was her mate; I had only been considering the fact that Seth had imprinted on her, I had completely forgotten that Sassy's family did the binding.
"You knew," I suddenly blurted out looking at Phil.
Luckily, he did not pretend ignorance, I don't think it would have gone off too well if he had tried to get around answering the question. I was not in the mood for evasiveness. "About Seth being Sassy's mate, yes," he was staring straight at the road and would not look me in the eye, Phil knew he was in trouble - or he could just be watching the road considering how fast he was going. Yet he still continued to rub small circles on the palm of my hand - I was tempted to pull my hand out of his grasp, especially since I did not hear any remorse in his tone. He was not sorry that he had forgotten to mention this important detail. I left my hand where it was was because that small caress was making me feel better; not that I was about to admit anything out loud.
"How long have you known?" I asked casually, he might be making me feel better but that did not mean I was not pissed about the secrets he had been keeping from me. Again.
"Sassy and Kendrick were in this region before I came," he hesitated for a moment, I did not interrupt, waiting for him to finish explaining. "They have been watching over this place for nearly four years. I don't know exactly when Sassy first saw your little brother but I do know she has been vigilantly watching over him ever since."
"You know that is really creepy, Kendrick was right - she is a psycho stalker," speaking mostly to myself I looked out the window remembering a conversation a few months back. The trees were going past us at a very swift pace, Phil was seriously speeding but at this point I did not care about how fast he was going. What did bother me is that he had not told me about this.
"I mean how creepy is that, can you say pedophile? What is going to happen between Sassy and Seth now?" As much as I admired Sassy there was something a little weird about her being Seth's mate. Plus she was like freaking royalty, I mean she lived in a castle and all that jazz. Being an American I was not usually impressed with things such as titles and crap like that, but that castle was huge and older than the United States.
"That is something they will have to work out for themselves." Phil's tone was neutral. I would have agreed with him in another situation, but this was my fifteen year old little brother we were talking about, there was no way to stay impartial at this point.
I opened my mouth to protest, but Phil spoke before I could say anything, "if you think about it Sassy is bound to your brother."
"Yeah but he is fifteen." That was the problem, it was not that she was bad or anything - in fact she was an incredible woman but she was like two-thousand years older than him.
"Just because we are bound does not mean we have to have a romantic relationship with our mates." He continued in his quiet voice, there were times when it was next to impossible to have a conversation with Phil. Unless he was willing to disclose his thought process I had a hard time trying to discern what was going on in his head. At times when he would stop for a minute to consider his answers I wished to be a mind reader like Edward so that I would know what memories he was reliving - with two-thousand years of experience there were a lot of memories for him to choose from. It was at times like this that the age difference between us really became apparent.
"Well I just thought that is what binding was, you know - love them instantly." I told him, not understanding what he meant. He was making me confused, was this binding not like the imprinting thing?
Phil immediately pointed out Claire and Quil, there was nothing romantic about their relationship. There was more than one way to love a person.
"This is different from Claire and Quil, my brother is a teenager and he is capable of having a relationship." Phil was being really obtuse today.
"You forget one important factor," he paused for a second, and seemed to be struggling with how to formulate his explanation. "We are immortal, we do not need to seize the day. We can sit back and patiently wait for our mates to mature to a point where we can have a relationship. No I do not think that it would be appropriate for Sassy and Seth to start dating, but I do think they can have a meaningful relationship. I could be wrong but I think our friendship last fall was worth something."
"So what, they are going to be like best buds or something?" I could hear the sarcasm dripping from my voice.
"For the sake of our mates we are willing to take all the time they might need, Sassy is mature enough to set some rules that will not be crossed." He must have noticed the skeptical look I gave him because he turned to me and gave me a small smile. "Phila is not dating her mate, despite the fact that he is old enough."
"Wait what do you mean Phila, has she found her mate?" Why had I not heard anything about this? Thisfamilyandtheirdamnsecrets.
Phil shrugged, "it would be inappropriate for her to get involved with him so she simply makes sure he is safe and taken care of." Phil gave a small laugh, "I am pretty sure some days he hates her guts, she has very high expectations and so she tends to push him a little harder than the others."
Something clicked in my mind, a boy in shorts in the middle of March while it was pouring down rain - he was not cold because he was from Alaska. I remember him complaining about gaining an extra mother in Dr. Smith - I knew her as Phila. "Wait a minute, is he one of her students?"
"Yes, but I would not worry about that. She goes out of her way to make sure nothing inappropriate can happen." Phil was looking at me in surprise, that did not happen often - surprising the psychic.
"He thinks of her as his second mother." I recalled the conversation I had a few months ago. "Is that what is going to happen with Seth and Sassy?"
"It is a possibility, but like I said they will have to work things out for themselves. It is a little different since Seth has imprinted." That fact would change things, Seth would not be able to live his life as if nothing had happened. I pondered the situation, what did I want to occur between my brother and Sassy? I laughed a little bit at my own arrogance. Did it really matter what I wanted? My little brother would have to make his own decisions, and threatening Sassy would be useless considering she could kick my ass without even trying. Just a few hours ago I was worried that the girl my brother imprinted on would not love him enough, now I was afraid the opposite would happen.
I might not have done a very good job at taking care of my little brother but now that things were finally settling down in my life I had begun to try to actually be a sister. I was getting a little upset at the fact that he now had someone else to take care of him. The family took very good care of their mates, making sure that they had everything they needed. I would never have to worry about my little brother being fucked over by some idiot little girl that did not understand what an amazing person he was.
I was sitting there with relief coursing through me at the thought that Seth would not have to go through the heartache that I had lived through when something occurred to me. Phil had told me that Sassy had been around here for the past four years or so.
"Why did she not do anything when the newborns attacked? It would have been nice to have the back up." There might have been a new bitter edge to my voice, if she claimed to care about my little brother so much why had she not protected him? He had to face off against a newborn vampire all by himself since Edward was too busy taking out Victoria and protecting Bella.
"You don't think we were in the woods that day?" Phil voice was almost too quiet for my wolf ears to hear.
I looked back at him, there was an unreadable expression on his face, but that was not unusual for Phil since he liked to keep his secrets very close. "Were you there that day?"
"Yes of course, Sassy and Kendrick had called several of us in as backup." Phil gave a small shrug, almost like I should have known this. "She wanted to make sure nothing bad would happen, but at the same time we knew this would be an opportunity for the wolves and vampires to bond." He made it sound like we had sat around the bonfire singing kumbaja together - but I guess there had been a big pile of burning vampire corpses. I smiled a little at the thought, it had been a really big stinky bonfire; my only regret is that Jake got hurt because of my stupidity.
My smile disappeared suddenly. What the fuck had Phil meant when he said he was here in May? Phil had met me in May but he did not come and try to pull me out of my depression until September. I pulled my hand away from him, last summer had been the worst time of my entire life and he had just walked away back to LA to do boob-jobs?
"How could you?" My angry growl finally made Phil turn towards me, my hands started shaking and the vibrations quickly spread through the rest of my body. I had not been this angry in a long time.
"How could I what?" he looked genuinely surprised. This time I did not find anything humorous about surprising the psychic.
"If you have to ask..." I was too furious to speak, all those months I could have been doing something productive instead of spreading the bile and hate around. I hurt everyone around me and for what reason? He had decided not to meet with me? Maybeyouwerenotreadytomeethimormaybeyouneededtogetyourownassoutofthatdarkplace.I quickly ignored the thought and pushed that reasonable voice to the back of my head.
I fumed silently, staring at the trees moving past us as Phil drove down the road. I was not really seeing the trees, instead I was going through the dark memories of last summer. The pack mind was pure torture, they knew all of my thoughts and there was no way to avoid the boys knowing how I truly felt about Sam. Then there was Sam himself, I don't think there was anything lower than your ex-boyfriend knowing how pathetically you loved him despite the fact that it was all over. The entire pack was amused by Sam's constant attempts to make me feel better but at the same time wishing that he could be sharing the pack mind with his wonderful Emily instead of me.
There was no way to keep my thoughts private as we spent a great deal of time on patrols during those dark months, and there was no way to hide how I felt about Sam. I might have been able to shout and curse at him when I was a human, but once we switched to wolf form everyone knew what my true feelings were. The combination of longing and lust that I felt towards Sam was not something I could hide from them. They pity that the other boys felt for me was apparent from their thoughts, but I made sure it would change into one of loathing - I absolutely hated being pitied. Why can't she just get over him? That had been foremost in their thoughts, I had wished and prayed to any god that would be willing to listen for that to happen. I wanted to find someone to imprint on, I had not cared who it was at that point. Instead of that escape I had to witness Sam's love for his Emily, it really sucked being inside of his head. I could genuinely tell that he loved her, and that was what made it so mad, he had never loved me like that. Why could he have not imprinted on me? I was from a better bloodline than Emily.
Last summer had been the ultimate low in my twenty years of life, and no matter how long I live there does not seem to be a situation where it could get any worse. I reached a point where I could not stand to be around me, and I made sure that everyone suffered for that. I destroyed my relationship with my mother, saying hurtful words that could never be undone right after she had just lost her husband of over twenty years. I had been friends with Kim since I could remember, but I somehow managed to fuck that up in less than a month. I don't know if Phil would have been able to stop all that, but I would have thought I was worth it - he should have tried to do something for me. The time I needed his support the most he had gone back to his life, leaving me to suffer another four months before he decided to try to do something to help me. I opened my mouth to ask him to stop the truck so that I could just walk the rest of the way, but I noticed that he was slowing down to turn onto the road that led to the cabin. I would be able to escape soon without having to talk to him, at this point I would probably only be able to shout. It might have seemed unfair to be angry at him, it was not his job to "save" me but at this point in my anger I was not able to think like that. It was my own strength that got me out of that dark pit but he had helped me find the way. Would it have been too much to ask that he help me a little earlier than he had planned? I mean why the fuck did he wait all the way till September, allowing me to fall further into that pit. I opened the door of the truck even before it had come to a complete stop, the seat belt stopped my escape and this made me even more angry.
I tried pushing the freaking button but it would not let go of me, I felt Phil brush my hands away and release me. Oh,nowheiswillingtohelpme,thejerk. I slammed the door shut as I headed for the cabin. There was no way to escape this house, I did not have a car to drive to Seattle and even if I did that was not possible - Seth would be coming by in a little bit so that we could figure out what to do about these accusations. I had allowed my own problems to consume me for long enough, somehow I would get through this evening for the sake of my little brother. So I sat down on a barstool in the kitchen and fumed, not willing to make eye contact with Phil.
"Leah, what is the matter?" Phil had asked when he followed me in, but I had given him a look that I hoped showed him how much I hated him at this point. In the back of my mind I was aware of the fact that my behavior was bitchy at best and Phil did not really deserve it but the months of secrecy had finally caught up with me. Phil would have to learn to tell me things. Fortunately for him there was no more talking, right now he was a breath away from having his head ripped off.
I watched in silence as Phil threw together the quickest dinner I had ever seen, next to me he placed a large bag of apples to peel and chop up into cubes - nothing else was said. My werewolf healing abilities came in handy as I kept cutting myself while peeling, it did not help that my hands were shaking with restrained furry. I was supposed to be chopping up the entire five pound of apples - I considered a mutiny. Phil still had not talked to me beyond giving me the instructions to cut up the apples, I always knew he was an intelligent man. Except for the whole fucking keeping secrets.
"Why don't you use the potato peeler?" Phil asked as he loaded up a large pot with a great deal of rice and water, he had finally turned to look at me.
"I could not find it." The words came out through gritted teeth, my voice sounded a little hoarse. The truth was that I did not even bother looking for one, from the looks of things someone had moved stuff around since I had been here last.
Phil gave me a concerned look, oh that is right now the fucker wants to help me out.
I shrugged, not wanting to say anything else, afraid that if I did not bite my lip all this anger would pour out and there would be no way to stop. I had to keep it together until we were done dealing with Seth's problem, someone would get a little extra iron with their apples and they would just have to get over it. Phil still had not offered any explanation as to why he had left me to suffer alone for a whole four months. Maybe he did not have a good reason, and that was my greatest fear - he did not think me worth it.
Phil shook his head as he pulled open a drawer and tossed me not one but two peelers. I resisted the urge to growl as I dropped my knife in the bowl before gracefully catching the projectiles headed for my head. If I did not know better I would guess that Phil was pissed off at me, but there was no reason for that happening - I was not the one who abandoned the person I claimed was my mate.
He continued to pull stuff out of the fridge, it seemed he took out every vegetable as well as a couple of white plastic boxes of stuff.
"What is that?" I finally got my voice under control. Small talk, I would stick to the present and ask only insignificant questions. Not talking was allowing me to think too much, and I could tell I was heading for a major tantrum - there would be lots of shouting, crying, and throwing things involved. I would rather put it off until later when we could be alone.
"Tofu," He told me as he cut the package open and dumped out the fluid. The sponge looking thing did not smell very appetizing.
I considered telling him that was one thing I was not going to eat but that would have sounded too much like a joke. I was not in a joking mood, and from the looks of things neither was Phil. "What does it taste like?" I asked in response to his one word answer.
"Tofu does not really taste like anything, so I can add spices to make it taste like anything I want." It was like he was reading a lecture. He was starting to piss me off - all right he had already pissed me off but what the fuck was his problem? I was not going to let him make me feel bad about giving him the silent treatment in the truck, I was in the right here. For once he would have to admit that he was totally wrong - I pulled my righteous anger around me like a protective cloak and went back to peeling and chopping apples.
I glared at his back as he prepared dinner, it was actually starting to smell good - my stomach was going to betray me. He fried up the tofu first before taking it out and adding the vegetables next.
"You had better not tell Seth what that stuff is or you will never get him to eat it. Why don't you have meat?" I tried once again to talk to him normally, this was going to by my last attempt at conversation especially since he was being an asshole. I would not have bothered but I did not want to be left alone with my dark thoughts.
"Sassy is a vegetarian," he pointed out quietly. That should have been obvious to me, I remember both meals with her had lacked any type of meat. Phil did not say anything else, but continued to stir the veggies.
All right so he wanted to give me the silent treatment, two could play that game. I went back to the apples, I was not going to say anything else.
Phil finished with his stir fry and the rice, and left them covered on the stove to stay warm. He had gathered up the apples I had peeled to make some sort of dessert he had put in the oven. "I have a phone call to make," he told me before he disappeared upstairs.
Why did he have to be so mean? I could feel the tears starting to form in my eyes, but I was not going to let them fall. Instead I stormed to the cabinets and started to gather plates and utensils to set the table. I concentrated on making sure all the plates had an accompanying fork, napkin and glass. Then I filled all the glasses with water, upstairs Phil made his phone call - he was checking in on his patients, Carlisle had been watching over them while Phil had taken the weekend off.
Kendrick and Sassy were the first one to arrive. Sassy stormed into the house, she looked absolutely furious as she stomped into the study. I never knew you could slam sliding doors but Sassy achieved it - she was a very impressive woman, especially since she also managed to stomp her feet while wearing heels. For a moment her display of temper managed to distract me from my own problems, but soon I went back to contemplating Phil's desertion both today and a year ago.
Kendrick greeted me with a smile as he headed to the kitchen and lifted the lids to see what Phil had made. "Dinner smells good."
I was still staring at the spot where Sassy had disappeared, did everyone in the family throw such tantrums?Youshouldfitinjustfine,Leah.
Kendrick noticed the direction of my attention. "Don't worry about her, she is just pissed because she knows it would be wrong to hunt down and murder a fifteen year old girl."
"I could help her get rid of the body," it was a plan that I had considered earlier. I thought I heard a chuckle coming from the study - I don't know the extent of their abilities but I wondered if Sassy had heard my offer. That was another place that I could focus my anger, Jill Maples, how dare that little... bitch. But my anger quickly deflated, as I thought of Phil upstairs. Seth's little girlfriend did not give a shit about him, and accused him of rape. This was nothing compared to the fact that Phil had claimed to love me and then he abandoned me in my time of greatest need. I threw an angry look at the ceiling, Phil the jerk was up there somewhere.
"Are you all right?" Kendrick was being very observant today, not to mention extremely serious. I missed his usual lighthearted banter.
"Yeah just fucking peachy, nothing like realizing your boyfriend abandoned you when you needed him the most." My voice came out like a growl.
Kendrick gave me a look like he thought I was going insane, but he quickly cleared his face of all emotions. "What makes you say that?" His tone was soft and mild, sounding just a little curious.
"He met me in May," I spit out the word, for some reason I could say it to Kendrick but not Phil, "and he did not try to help me at all until September." I could barely get the words out, I could feel the tears gathering in my eyes.
"Have you spoken to Phil about this?" Kendrick told me putting a hand across my shoulders, giving me a small squeeze. "Maybe you should tell him how you feel."
"There is no time for that, we have to deal with Seth's problems right now." I could feel a single tear leave my eyes and I quickly brushed it away with my sleeve. I was not going to cry.
"Don't worry things will work out in the end," was he referring to the fact that my little brother was accused of rape, or the fact that Phil was a total asshole to the woman he claimed to be the love of his life?
I needed to be calm for when everyone else showed up, it would be best to change the topic. "So does it not bother you to eat vegetarian all the time?" Kendrick was a big guy it would be hard to maintain that sized body without eating a great deal of meat.
"Not really I grew up this way, so I don't really know any different? There is also the misconception that people that are vegetarian eat only healthy foods. Trust me, deep fried veggies are just as bad for you as deep fried meat. Plus very rarely I do eat meat, when I get hurt really badly that is the quickest way to heal myself. I am not hard core about it or anything." He leaned against the counter and gave me a funny look. "So where is Phil?"
Phil had wrapped up his conversation with Carlisle a while back but he still had not come downstairs, I could hear his heartbeat so he had not left. I chose to ignore Kendrick's question, this was not something I wanted to talk about right now. "Seth is going to love this part."
Kendrick gave a funny look before he continued, "what part is that?"
"The whole eating vegetarian part." We had pretty much always been kind of a meat and potatoes type of family. Unless of course you considered the fried fish - I guess there was a reason that my father had a heart attack that young.
"Seth has been eating vegetarian for a couple of months," Kendrick told me in a neutral tone, I noticed that he was concentrating on my face.
"What do you mean a couple of months?" I latched onto this new piece of information, it was better than thinking about Phil.
"Ever since he decided to run away in March he has been hanging out here a couple of times a week at least, I made the mistake of feeding him the first time he came by to apologize for being an overreactive teenager." There was a small smirk on his face. Kendrick really liked my little brother, it did not bother him one bit that Seth had been hanging around here.
I could not help but laugh, seems as if I was not the only food slut in the family; and if Kendrick cooked half as well as Phil my brother would have been here daily waiting to be fed. "He never met Sassy during all that time?"
"She is very good at going unnoticed when that is her wish." Kendrick told me with a smug smile, I was willing to bet Phil was good at that too. How else had he been following me around all those months? All those months before he finally decided to meet me in September. I started to get angry again.
I heard a car heading in our direction, taking a deep breath I tried to think of the waves crashing against the cliffs, a calming technique I had picked up - anything to help me stay calm long enough to get through this meeting.
My mother, Seth, and Charlie drove up in the police cruiser. Seth just walked up and entered without knocking. "Hey guys where is Sassy?"
"Right here," was her quiet reply, I watched as both my mother and Charlie jumped at her sudden appearance. "Please come in, we have a great deal to discuss." She must have spent the few minutes in the study getting her anger under control, the cool and controlled mask was solidly back in place. It almost seemed like I had imaged the furious woman who had entered the house a few minutes ago.
"We have dinner ready, if we want to eat first then discuss strategy afterwards." Phil made his appearance as well, to my mother it would have looked like he had been standing there all this time. There was something different about him, I could not tell what it was - even though he was smiling pleasantly there was something off about his expression. It took me a moment to realize the problem, he might be smiling but it never reached his eyes. His movements seemed jerky as well, I got the impression that he was even more angry than when he had gone upstairs - in fact he looked furious underneath the mask he was presenting to my mother.
We were in the middle of eating when the doorbell rang, it sounded like the rest of the pack had decided to join us. Jake and the boys did not waste much time grabbing some food and sitting down around the table. It was a good thing Phil had made an insane amount of food, but I guess he had anticipated this.
Nothing much was said regarding Seth's problem until we were sitting around the coffee table. Seth seemed to have forgotten about the entire incident, he was too busy staring at Sassy. He was looking at her like she was the sun, the moon, and all the stars put together. It was a little sickening, I really hoped I did not look at Phil like that or I might have to do something drastic like jump off a cliff - not that I was looking at Phil that much right now, and at this point I would probably push him off the cliff. He was loading up the dishwasher with dirty dishes when my mother brought up the topic we had been avoiding for the past hour.
"Seth? Jill Maples? How could you?" I don't know what my mother was thinking - quite possibly she was not thinking at all. There was no way Seth would ever rape someone. We would not have been more shocked had my mother announced she was leaving the Rez in order to join the circus.
"Mom I did not hurt that girl," my mother's accusations were enough to cause Seth to tear his eyes away from Sassy.
"Well I know that," she redeemed herself quickly. You could hear a sigh going through the room, it would have been hard to convince anyone of Seth's innocence if his own mother did not believe him. "What I meant was how could you mess around with some girl without protection?"
Seth turned a bright red, I had not thought that it was possible for someone of our skin tone to blush that deeply, it was kind of impressive. "Mom...umm... I..." He was trying to avoid making eye contact and was having a hard time considering the room was filled with people.
"What he is trying to say without actually admitting it, is that he is still a virgin." Kendrick told us in a matter of fact. Seth managed to cough and look even more embarrassed; we all looked around the room trying ignore what that implied. Seriously I did not need to know what my brother had or had not done in regards to sex. "Therefore he could not possibly be the father of her unborn child." I wondered how Kendrick could possibly know this - oh yeah he was a mind reader. Not to mention that Seth had been hanging around here, I guess they had talked about stuff.
My mother started to look between Kendrick and Seth, back and forth. I was wondering what was wrong with her. "Oh my god, you are gay!"
That was when I could not help it, the emotional roller coaster of the day finally caught up with me - I started to laugh, there might have been a slightly hysterical note to my laughter. I could hear others laughing around me but there were tears in my eyes so I could not tell who had joined in.
"MOM! I am not gay!" I heard Seth protest, this did not help, I started laughing even harder. How had my mother not noticed how Seth was looking at Sassy?
"The point is irrelevant, what is important is the fact that someone has accused him of sexual assault." Sassy's single sentence spoken was spoken softly but there was steel behind it. The laughter stopped instantly, we all looked up at her. She had been very quiet during the entire meal, but you could see the cogs working in her head as she silently ate her meal.
"That was pretty awesome what you did with Maples, I can't believe you got him to hit you." Embry chimed in with a smile that died as soon as Sassy gave him a cool look for interrupting.
She continued as if he had not said anything. "Jill Maples is pregnant, and rather than tell the truth she has decided to go with the 'I was raped' scenario. I understand the issues she has to deal with, her extremely conservative parents that had expressly forbidden her from dating, let alone having sex. Unfortunately this means Seth will be made to be the scapegoat in this situation. This is not a speeding ticked, we are talking a serious sentence with jail time especially if her father gets his way and you get tried as an adult. The worst part is that at this point it will be her word against yours, and if we don't take care of this soon it will follow you around for the rest of your life."
"But that is not possible, everyone who knows Seth." I interrupted, you would have to be a moron to think that Seth would be capable of that.
"We are talking about a straight A student, that attends church twice a week with her parents, one who on the surface looks like has been the perfect girl. Versus Seth who hangs out with a bunch of older boys that the local police force suspect are likely doing drugs. His father died last year making his home life possibly less than stable, which might explain why he has been missing so much school, as well as the reason he has joined a gang. And speaking of school, his grades are not exactly the best."
I started to protest, she was talking about my little brother. How dare she say these things about him, I thought she was supposed to be his mate. For the first time since he came downstairs Phil looked at me, well more like shook his head slightly in my direction. I took a deep breath understanding his message - wait for her to finish. I guess it was nice to know that he would be willing to look out for my little brother, maybe I was the only one he did not care about.
"It is not about reality, it is about perceptions. This is not over yet, this afternoon was just a small skirmish. Jill Maples can still easily file charges against Seth and quite frankly if this went to trial today Seth would lose. So I need you to focus." Sassy was using the cool, calm voice. I recognized it as the queen voice from the Senate. "Even if he is later proven innocent the damage might be already done to his reputation, his record will show that he was accused of rape. For some people you don't need a conviction, a simple accusation is enough to stop you from being accepted into that school or hired for that job."
Jake, Embry and Quil seemed to instantly settle down and line up, damn she was going to have to teach me that voice.
My mother brought up the topic of paying Sassy for her work, we all laughed at her and got back onto the task at hand - how to make sure that Seth would not end up in jail for a crime he did not commit.
"We need to do something called character assassination. We will destroy the good girl image and show the world what type of a person she really is. A girl of loose morals with little to no care for the people around her; one that is willing to blame an innocent young man in order to avoid facing the consequence of her own actions. We might have to involve the rest of her family as well, the father that is too rough with his suspects as well as the cold and distant mother who cannot seem to fit into her community."
Everyone was floored with the idea, it seemed cruel and mean; especially involving the family. Surprisingly it was Charlie who spoke up first. "I don't know how legal all this sounds."
"It will all be the truth, so I don't see how that is an issue." There was enough conviction behind her tone that even Charlie backed away. But I always got the impression that Charlie backed down from most fights, he was not a coward but he did not like unnecessary conflict.
"How do you plan to do all this? It is not like people will believe us, they will all think we are just trying to save Seth from going to jail." Jake chimed in with a very reasonable objection.
"People will not believe you or me, but they will believe pictures." Sassy said in a mild tone. My mother seemed a little suspicious, especially since Sassy just happened to have pictures of Jill dressed like a complete slut making out with random guys. I was not that surprised, well maybe a little regarding at Jill's appearance and behavior - I had believed her to be a bitch for cheating on my brother but I had not realized what she had done to my brother was not abnormal behavior for her. Sassy's possession of such damning pictures was not shocking, she was very dedicated to keeping an eye on her mate. Some might call it stalking, but she had the best intentions; the family took care of their is what made it so much harder to imagine how Phil could have just stood by. MaybeyoushouldjusttalktohimlikeKendricksuggested.Maybethereisaverygoodexplanation. Damn I hated that reasonable voice at the back of my head, especially when my temper cooled enough to actually listen to it. While everyone around me discussed how they would distribute the photos I started to worry about the new place my thoughts were going. Phil had been nothing but supportive of me, that small nagging voice started to be a lot more persistent in its observations. That pesky voice pointed out that I had been judge and jury before even asking Phil for his side of the story. WhatifyouwerewrongLeah?Didyoujustfuckupagain?
I looked over at the man who had become such an important part of my life in the past couple of months, the promise ring felt heavy on my hand as I considered how quickly I had jumped to conclusions regarding what happened last Spring. Phil was facing partially away from me so I could only see his profile, but having spent a great deal of time trying to decipher his thoughts I had become pretty adept at noticing anomalies in his expression. There were small differences from this morning, a double set of lines bracketed his mouth indicating a high level of tension. Though he might appear relaxed in that chair I could see that every once of his muscles were clenched as he listened to his cousin talk. I was willing to be this stress was not simply due to my brother being in trouble.
My mind went through the possibilities of Phil not meeting me until September, it was not impossible for him to have missed me. A lot happened in May, there was a whole army of newborn vampires that he would have had to avoid. Things with exceptionally keen senses - it was a possibility that he was so busy avoiding them that he did not encounter the only female werewolf of the tribe.
My anger quickly diminished as a small knot began to form in my throat, the probability that Phil did not encounter me until September was high. Had I let my former relationship color the way I saw my current one? Oh shit, there I went again in typical Leah style, open mouth and insert foot - though at this point I had probably managed to insert my entire leg. As much as I hated this was not the time to concentrate on Phil, I had to finish seeing what we were doing for Seth.
Sassy had another strategy just in case, she was counting on the fact that Jill would say on record that she only had sex with Seth. That way when we got the DNA test to prove otherwise she could be accused of perjury. We spent the rest of the night eating the apple-cranberry cobbler that Phil had made with my help and ironing out the strategies. At this point we would take orders from Sassy, because she wanted to make sure we got our stories straight - aka no talking to anyone without calling her first.
It was past eleven when Phil and I got back to Seattle, we had jumped home not long after my mother and Charlie had taken Seth home. The opportunity to speak privately with my little brother never occurred, it would have been nice to be able to discuss his imprinting on Sassy, but my mother was always around so we both had to watch our words.
"I wish we were back on the island, things seemed so much simpler back there," I cringed, that had come out sounding like a whine.
"Don't worry Leah, if all else fails we will take Seth away from here." I looked at him in shock even before the words were fully out. "It is a last resort, but we both know it would not be a good thing for someone like him to go to jail."
"All I want right now is a long hot shower and a bed. At this point I don't really care whose bed it is so long as I am allowed to sleep." The slow pace of the island had made me forget how exhausting people could be; once again I wished that we could go back there. I was too drained to deal with the issue of what happened last Spring with Phil, so I left him examining the contents of the refrigerator.
"One thing Leah before you go. I was there in May, I knew about your situation, but I did not actually meet you until late September." His tone was cool, but I could hear the hurt underneath. "Do you think I am capable of walking away when you are in pain?"
His calm words made me stop in my tracks. I had suspected as much but it was a relief to hear the words come out of Phil's mouth. I thought back to last Fall, all the things that Phil had done for me - the patience he had shown while I tried to pull my head out of my ass. "Oh my god I am sorry, I am such a bitch." When I actually considered it, and not just reacted to the memories I became ashamed. No I did not think him capable of abandoning me, Phil had proven over and over again that there was nothing he would not do so long as I was happy. I rushed over to him and threw my arms around him.
It took him a while to answer me, and despite the fact that I was nestled next to his heart it started to feel like were were a mile apart. His reply did not help me get over the feeling of distance. "It is fine, nothing to apologize about. You went through a great deal last summer, it will take you a while to get past those memories." He spoke the words precisely, enunciating each word; there was little emotion in his voice. The distance between us increased, the usual feeling of comfort and peace that went along with embracing Phil was suddenly gone.
In my mind I knew that Phil would never leave me and that he would go to any lengths to protect me - but I had not forgotten what it was like last summer, I hope that he was right and this pain would not live in my memories forever. I promised myself there would be no more comparing Phil and Sam - they were completely different people, it was grossly unfair to do that to Phil and to myself. I wanted to go back to the island, things were a lot simpler back there, it was just Phil and me - the memories of last summer had been mostly forgotten there.
Phil pulled away from the embrace, "I need to head up to the hospital for a few hours, there is a patient I need to check on." His tone sounded practical but there was something missing.
He walked away from me and headed upstairs, he came down a few minutes later dressed in fresh clothes, his hair neatly combed. The distance I felt was not just due to my imagination, it was a large chasm right now. I did not know how to cross it, apparently an apology was not enough. "Look Phil..."
"Leah, despite the fact that we have lived for millennia, we still get our feeling hurt sometimes. I need to leave before saying something I will regret. Goodnight," he replied. I was afraid he was still pissed off at me, and I could not blame him. All I had done was assume he would be willing to let me suffer through the worst summer of my life alone - so pretty much I had told him he was a total asshole.
I heaved a quiet sigh, going upstairs but deciding to forgo the shower. Instead I threw myself on my bed and cried. There were many reasons for me to do so, I had acted like a total bitch hurting the man that I loved, but the worst part of it was that I knew for a fact I would do this again - it was in my nature to be impulsive. No matter how many promises I made to myself not to compare Phil to Sam I knew it would be something I would do over and over again.
A/N: Sorry about my tardiness, that pesky real life popped back up again and now I have to contend with deadlines.
Connect2jtb: I don't think I changed much in the last chapter, just cleaned up some of the grammatical errors. Maybe a little better description of the area, the current chapter was altered a great deal which is why it took me so long.
Toshii519: Glad you like everyone else thought that Seth is not capable of rape. My baby boo would never do anything like that. Too bad he is still jailbait.
Jaime22772: Yay 500 Reviews that is so awesome, I don't have cookies for you being the 500th reviewer but I do have some awesome oatmeal pecan pie. This story will not have a section from Phil's point of view but I might do one at some point, I was playing with the idea of doing the diner scene from his point of view.
ASH186: Yes Seth imprinted and don't let me confess how hard it was to give baby boo away, but Sassy will take care of him. Yes since Sassy is queen at one point Seth be able to help her rule, but he has to grow a great deal more before he can do that.
BlacknCallwaterFan: I don't know why Jill did what she did other than she was desperate and maybe Seth seemed like the easiest target of her choices. Maybe she was afraid the other boys would have called her out on it, but Seth was too kind to call her out on the lie. She probably did not consider how her father would react - she is 15 and selfish. By the way "for the love of everything tasty and fattening in the world" - seriously I will have to use that line. I am now going to have to engineer a situation where I use it.
Twilighter: Jailbait story will have to wait a bit more, I am too busy right now. Plus my mind gets confused if I switch around through too many writing projects. I don't know if I said this before but Kendrick has a story it is just not in SM's universe.
Lamia-amo: Sassy does already have a mate, it was Seth all along. Kendrick did not want to say who it was because Leah shares her thoughts with the pack and it was supposed to remain a secret.