A/N: I don't own Twilight.

So it's been a while. I'm sorry. Like, SO sorry. I meant to update a while ago (probably a month ago), but I've started college and completely overestimated the amount of free time that I would have, especially free time to write. This story is still my baby, and I have not forgotten about it or you guys. I've missed writing dearly.

This chapter took a long time for me to complete mostly because I did not have much time to write it, and also because I've been sort of uninspired. My mind has been in a weird place. Nothing too wild happens in this chapter, and I've changed directions too many times now. So I'm not the proudest of this chapter, but I am still excited to share the rest of the story with you guys because... well, because it's my baby.

This chapter, chapter 74, is heavy on relationships - in particular, the primary ones (Bella x Paul, Jacob x Leah) and a secondary one that I have a few ideas for, but am still a little nervous to pursue fully (Leah x Kim). Like I said, nothing wild happens in this chapter. And if you still hate Bella x Paul at this point... I don't know why you're still here. Anyways, here is chapter 74 of Static. Thanks so much for your patience.

Enjoy.

LXXIV.

i've seen your scars and kissed your crimes

Kim hugged her knees to her chest as she sat in the passenger seat in one of the three proclaimed "kind of shitty but definitely durable" Toyotas that Paul had bummed off Craigslist for the road trip. It wasn't half bad. It made a little noise when it ran, but it was low in miles and Kim had been in worse cars, so she didn't mind.

Also in the car with her were Leah, who was driving, and Emily and Sam in the backseat. Not far ahead on the dark road were Paul and Bella by themselves, which Kim didn't find to be much of a shocker at all. It was always just those two together—she wondered what they could possibly have to talk about within the two of them all the time. Just behind Kim, Leah, Sam, and Emily were Jacob, Embry, Quil, and Seth. Whoever was driving that car was swerving around like a maniac, and trap music was being bumped. Kim decided that an anxiety attack would have been a given had she been in that car.

"I'm just glad Paul picked the route with the most cities," Leah said easily. The trip consisted of 27 major American cities, and it was pretty ideal even though she could see herself driving most of the time.

"I kinda wish he picked the more scenic route," Emily countered. "Especially between here and California. We're just gonna be on the freeway most of the time."

"You can still see things from the freeway, Em," Leah replied, her eyes dead set on the road. "The Pacific Ocean is a big place."

Kim studied the itinerary in her phone for the billionth time. "Yeah," she agreed. "We're gonna be seeing a lot, anyway. It should be good."

It was almost eight o'clock on that first night, and the group had already hit up Seattle for dinner. Kim had found out a little bit about everybody so far, like that Embry had never been to Pike Place Market before and Quil didn't know that the Seahawks played at CenturyLink. It was funny to her. They were all on the way to Tacoma now, and from a separate car, Kim could practically see Paul's excitement going through the roof. They were gonna go see his mom, and even if it seemed like Paul didn't care about anything or anyone besides himself and Bella, he adored his mother.

On the freeway, Leah's eyes strained in the darkness.

"Need to pull over?" Kim asked her. "We can switch."

"No, no, it's fine," Leah replied even though it clearly wasn't fine. She'd been driving for a while now. She needed to look at something other than the road, but she knew she needed to get through the worst part of Tacoma first.

"Now I remember why I don't like Tacoma," Emily said, a disgusted look on her face. "It smells like a fart."

"That's the Tacoma Aroma, girl," Leah told her. "Trust and believe. Oh, and rolling down your window won't make it better."

"Shit, how does anybody live here?" Kim asked.

"The same way anybody lives anywhere," Sam piped up. "You get used to it."

"That's real deep of you," Emily said sarcastically. "Kim, how far are we from Paul's mom's house?"

Kim reopened the Maps application on her phone. "Twelve minutes," she replied.

"So let's say we stay until nine," Leah began. "Where are we gonna spend the night?"

"We're not stopping until we hit Portland," Kim said.

"That doesn't sound right."

"It's all in the itinerary, sis."

"Okay, but Portland is almost three hours away from here."

"Do you wanna talk to Paul? 'Cause I can call him if you don't believe me."

"Then call him," Leah said.

Kim dialed Paul's number, and he picked up immediately. She put him on speaker phone. "Yeah?" he asked.

"Are we spending the night in Tacoma or Portland?" she asked him.

"We're gonna see my mom in Tacoma for a little bit," he replied, "and then we'll keep driving until we hit Portland."

"Thanks, Paul."

"Mm-hmm."

Kim hung up and gave Leah a teasing look. "See?"

"It's whatever," Leah replied. "Except I'm not driving all the way to Portland."

"I said we can switch," Kim told her gently. "I got you."

"What would I do without you, Bambi?"

"You'd have someone else drive," Sam said.

"Thanks, Sam," Leah said. "Never thought of it that way."

Even though they weren't at Paul's mom's house for too long, by the end of the night, Leah felt that she had been there for a century. Paul loved his mother more than anything—more than the entire world. Leah hadn't expected him to be able to leave easily, especially since all his family was there and it was his birthday. The amount of time they were there seemed to take forever in the moment.

The small living room of the Tacoma house only got smaller and louder with ten more people entering it. Plenty of Paul's family members were already there. Leah, who often lived in the conversations in her head, soon became overwhelmed with the idea of socializing with people besides Kim. She soon found herself catching up with Rosa over a beer. It wasn't Rosa's first—or second or third—drink of the night.

Rosa still loved Leah. She loved Leah so much that she was the second person she hugged and kissed when the group arrived, after Paul, of course. Despite the fact that she had given birth to a selfish, misguided fool of a man, she was still the nicest person Leah had ever met. Her giving birth to Paul couldn't change that. If anything, knowing that Paul's mother was so wonderful made him a little more bearable.

"How've you been, mija?" Rosa asked Leah. "I was starting to think you were ignoring me."

Leah smiled. "I'm good, I'm good," she said. "I've just been busy with school and work."

"Keep it up," she told her. "You're such a good girl, Leah. You make me proud."

"Thank you, Rosa," Leah replied.

"You been keeping Paul out of trouble?"

Leah quickly tried to find the most appropriate way to tell her that she was doing much better without Paul fucking with her head anymore.

How could she not have seen Paul enter the house with his arm around Bella? Leah thought. Maybe she doesn't want to believe that her son had picked some white girl over me—over someone he had so much chemistry with almost a year ago.

Rosa's attention was quickly drawn to Paul, who had struck up the courage to finally introduce Bella to his mom. He didn't want it to be a huge deal, and he didn't want anybody knowing that he and Bella were engaged or that Bella was pregnant. It was his twentieth birthday and he didn't want any drama.

"Mamá," he greeted her. "I want you to meet mi novia, Bella."

Leah scanned the room for an out, and she quickly found Kim. She was convinced that Kim was her guardian angel with how convenient her appearances were. She got up from the couch and evaded the shitstorm that was to come.

One of Paul's male cousins was flirting with Kim, but Kim wasn't flirting back. She looked rather annoyed and more interested in adjusting her backwards cap every two seconds. Leah approached them, and Kim had found her out. They retreated to the kitchen where Leah got another beer from a cooler.

Fuck it, she thought. I'm not driving to Portland.

"Thanks for that," Kim said. "I don't know how else I can signify that I'm looking for a girl instead of a guy right now. Like, is this backwards cap not enough?" She took off her cap and ran a hand through her curly brown hair only to put the cap back on. It was a good look on her.

"I'm so fucking embarrassed right now," Leah said. Her hands kept slipping against the beer bottle. She was too shaken to even open it.

Kim grabbed it from her, popped the cap off, and then gave the bottle back.

Leah took a sip. "Thank you."

"Uh-huh. So why are you embarrassed?"

"I love Rosa, like, I do—"

"Who's Rosa?" Kim asked.

"Paul's mom. The really nice one who loves me like her own child. I just feel so bad, though, because she really expected me to keep Paul good and out of trouble and all of that. She thinks we're still together."

"With the way she's talking with Bella right now, I don't think she thinks you and him are still together," Kim pointed out.

"Well, she thought we were, like, a minute ago."

"So you moved on." She shrugged her shoulders. "I'm sure she'll understand."

"The thing is, Bambi," Leah said, "Paul didn't even tell her we broke up, and that was six months ago. I just feel so… so—"

"Lee," Kim said sternly. "Paul ain't shit. We both know this. If anything, he should be embarrassed. He went from a you to a Bella. That's the downgrade of the decade. Girl, you've just gotta remember what you're about."

"You're such a bad feminist," Leah teased, echoing Kim's last love affair.

Kim put her hands on Leah's cheeks and smiled. "I know. Now, drink up—I'm driving and you need to relax for the rest of the night."

She ended up downing two more beers before Kim stopped her. She told her they were about to leave, and Leah had never felt happier.

Leah was on her way out the front door when she nearly tripped over the air and down the porch stairs. She wasn't even a klutz. She felt somebody grab her arm, keeping her from falling, and when she looked up, it was Jacob.

"Keep it together, Clearwater," he told her.

She shrugged away from his grip. "I'm good, Black," she told him. Then she tripped down another stair—this time, it was more of a dive. She scraped her knee against the wooden step. "Fuck," she muttered.

"Shit, you okay?" Jacob asked.

Leah just tried to compose herself and sat down on the step. Jacob sat down next to her.

"How much did you have to drink?" he asked her. The sky was empty, so it was even colder than he expected. And it was April, but it was still cold. Not as cold as New Year's Eve, though, the last time he and Leah had been semi-faded and sitting on a porch.

"Why do you care?" she mumbled.

"I'm supposed to make sure you're okay, Lee."

"Nobody asked you how to do all that. You should take care of yourself."

He sighed. "So you're still on that."

She leaned towards him and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I'm such a bitch, Jake," she told him, pretending that her voice wasn't cracking and that she wasn't upset.

"You're not a bitch—"

"No, I am," she interrupted him. "I… I think it's because I wanna be in control all the time. It's always been that way. I'm always pointing out the bad things in people, but the second someone calls me out on it, it's fucking World War III. No wonder you left me."

"Just because you fucked up doesn't mean it's over," he told her. "We just need some space."

She looked up at him and wanted to cry. "I love you, Jake," she said.

He stood up and walked away. The image of him grew smaller and smaller by the instant. Her whole world shrank with him.

She stared at him from the stairs with tired eyes and a devastating frown. "I love you, Jake," she repeated, louder this time.

His silence was ear-splitting.

Under the freeway lights, Paul drove just a little past the legal limit. He'd gotten to see his mom and introduce her to Bella. Next up was Portland and everything felt just right. Nothing had ever gone so well for this long in his entire life.

"I'm so glad your mom likes me," Bella murmured.

The truth was that Rosa would never love any of Paul's girlfriends as much as she loved Leah, but Bella was a close second place. When Rosa had seen Bella and Paul together, she had seen nothing but love. And anyway, she only wanted her son to be happy. Bella was his happiness.

His happiness was sitting in the passenger seat of his car, but leaned over to be as close to him as possible. His happiness was tired but happy. His happiness was full of cheesy, undivided affection as well as warmth and something special that was theirs and theirs only.

Bella scooted over and picked up her purse from under the seat and pulled out a sonogram. She'd seen it a dozen times. She had gotten an ultrasound just before they'd hit the road, and Paul didn't even know.

"Paul," she began. "I wanna show you something. Just don't crash, okay?"

"There's nothing to crash into," he said. "Besides, I know how to drive."

"Just slow down, okay?"

He slowed down a little, and she handed him the sonogram. He put it right over the horn and looked down at it, his mouth agape. "Is that…?"

She nodded. "That's our kid," she said.

"How long have—?"

"Eyes on the road," she said. "But since yesterday."

He looked up but quickly glanced back down at the sonogram. "Baby girl, this is… This is the best birthday present I've ever gotten."

She gripped his arm and rested against him again. She focused on her breathing, focused on making this image last forever. She wanted the memory of this moment to be as timeless as they were, and she knew she was—they were—succeeding.

A/N: So there's a little fluff out of the way. The next chapter should have a little more drama and should hopefully come around sooner than a month.

Thanks as always to those who stuck around,

HS