Dear readers!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the reviews you sent me. I enjoy every one of them, and as you probably already noticed, I try to respond to every one as good as possible.

What I would like to point out here but still further and for what I would like to apologize in advance: I am slowly losing track of who I have answered what. 🙈 So forgive me if I write someone something a second time. But I'm really trying to respond to the review without giving anything of the story away, and that sometimes leaves only references to Meyer's books, the movies, or just my own opinion.

And it's not always easy not to give anything away!

Verena

Chapter 74

Make Peace?

Jake

Carlisle really examined me from head to toe.

I could say as many times as I wanted that I was fine, he kept checking. The only good thing about it: Becky was with me. So at least I didn't get bored while Carlisle stared at the results of his countless lab instruments and waited for more.

"You're as fit as a fiddle!" he said cheerfully at one point.

"Told you so!" I grinned and pulled my sweatshirt back on.

We walked over to the guest room together.

Seth had been in the next room giving a rather long monologue about his opinion, to which Billy had not yet said anything.

I was somewhat undecided what to make of the picture that presented itself to me when we entered the room.

Billy looked demonstratively out the window.

"Good day, Seth. I'm Carlisle. You gave me quite a scare," Carlisle introduced himself and the two shook hands.

"Satisfied?" I murmured to Edward and leaned against the wall next to him and Mom. He had certainly followed every second of my examination closely and knew the result.

"Calmed down!" he clarified, however.

Then when Zoey came Mom left the room and Leah joined us.

With an apologetic gaze, Seth took note of our presence.

"He's sorry for what he did to you in the woods and how it all got out of hand," Edward whispered to us.

Leah and I nodded.

We already thought so.

I immediately concentrated on Carlisle again.

I was curious and when I asked him earlier what exactly was going on with Seth, he had not answered. But now he began to enlighten Seth about it himself.

"Through the twins, I now know about your gift of healing. To some extent, at least. But when Edward brought you here, I feared it was too late. Your vital functions were so weak that I barely perceived them with my vampiric senses. Edward reported to me about Jake's shoulder and that it straightened itself. Moreover, I have already been able to witness this miraculous healing in Leah. I could see no reason why this ability should make an exception for you. So, I decided to anesthetize you properly and operate. I opened the wound a bit to have a closer look at it ..." he began.

He opened a medical book he had brought with him and pointed to the appropriate items as he described them.

Apparently, I had shattered his uppermost vertebrae and at the same time also cut all the arteries and nerves at this point. A sinking feeling appeared in my stomach. A feeling of guilt.

Carlisle had pulled the bone chips out of him, and in the middle of the operation, his own healing suddenly began. The blood flow ebbed. He could watch everything vibrating inside, as if someone were shaking the stretcher. Bone splinters slowly retreated to their actual places, the removed, now missing splinters grew back on their own, veins and tendons connected, the muscle tissue formed anew, and finally new skin closed the wound still busy with the rest of the healing. Carlisle was not sure what exactly had stopped or triggered this process and what would have happened without his intervention. But he was extremely fascinated!

"It just would have taken longer if you hadn't removed the splinters," Emily interjected, however.

All of us looked at her with anticipation.

She told that something similar had happened to Sam once. Not to his spine, but to his leg. It was half torn off when he arrived home. The healing had taken all night, while Sam screaming the entire time.

"Seth lost a lot of blood from the injury, while Jake at some point stopped fighting the pain and was overcome by it. That's why they were both unconscious. But Sam was probably fighting the pain," Edward explained.

Probably Emily had been thinking about why Sam hadn't fallen into that grateful swoon, too.

Edward nodded affirmatively.

"I suspect that your healing follows a certain body-based order. In the sense of first the bones, then the veins, and so on. Perhaps the splinters were in the way of this natural sequence. In your case, Seth, I could have more or less accidentally removed the very particles that were interfering with this. Sam, however, had no doctor with him. The healing was on his own," Carlisle reflected.

"Thanks for your help, Doc," Seth said sincerely after palpating his neck area.

"You don't need to thank me, that was a matter of course. But I would like to ask you - as a purely precautionary measure - not to phase again until tomorrow and to rest. Jake had a very messy and painful few seconds with his first transformation earlier..." added Carlisle kindly, and Becky turned to me, startled.

I had not told her that.

Gently I took her face in my hands and kissed her.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me," I whispered in her ear and her arms tightened around me.

While I enjoyed this touch, I continued to listen to Carlisle's words, who did not allow himself to be distracted by us.

"... You were hurt far more severely than Jake from a medical standpoint and really should spare yourself that. I'd like to give you a full physical tomorrow if you don't mind. I give you my word that none of you will be harmed here. Please make yourselves at home."

"So, when are we going to have food here?" Leah took the words out of my mouth.

Everyone laughed - except Seth, Leah, and me.

We were hungry!

Esmé promptly left the room and returned shortly with well-filled plates.

I had not been mistaken earlier, when I had gone across the hall. It had smelled delicious.

Gratefully, I gave Esmé a kiss on the cheek as I took my plate from her.

She was surprised at this gesture, but was pleased.

I had never done that before. But now that I really saw Edward as my father, my connection to these other vampires had changed somehow. It had become stronger. I couldn't really explain it and didn't really want to think about it. I was satisfied with it and the way Edward looked at me, so was he.

Leah and I sat down on the bed with our plates at Seth's feet, while Billy paid no attention to his plate. Emily and Becky sat down with theirs on a small sofa in between.

I was raising my fork to my mouth when I paused in amazement.

I eyed Becky and Emily more closely. They were both sitting cross-legged on the cushion, balancing the plate on their left hand and poking around in the noodles with the fork in their right hand, trying to spear something from every single ingredient at the same time. At the same time, they both spread away their little fingers in a funny way.

I lowered my fork again, while Leah was already taking the thought out of my head.

"Say, are you guys related by any chance?" asked Leah in wonderment beside me.

But I was still one consideration further.

"Wasn't your name Young before you married Sam?" so I asked.

The two lowered their plates and looked at each other, chewing. They eyed each other in silence.

Becky swallowed first and began to speak.

"My grandmother's name is Ciara Young and she is Quileute. She was fifteen when she got pregnant. Fearing reviling and being cast out of the family in disgrace, she took off without telling anyone," my Star explained.

"Ciara?" considered Emily. "Then we're second cousins. Our grandmothers are sisters."

The two spoke about that.

Emily told her that she had heard about her grandma's missing sister. About her great-grandmother who was still alive. She would be very happy to hear that she had not died a violent death, which everyone seemed to assume.

Becky talked about her family, her father, who was half Native American, her mother and her brother. And about her grandma, who was also still chipper.

"... Even Ateara blood you should have in you!" said Emily.

"Does that mean I should be able to phase into a dog too?", Becky screwed up her pretty face into an amused grimace.

"Hey!" the WOLVES present hissed in unison.

We were ignored; however, I found the question very interesting.

Running side by side through the woods with Becky? I imagined that would be great. Just running through the woods at night as far as we could. Not having to worry about her when she was as unbreakable as I was. As fast and as strong as me ... But then she should have already phased, however, with so many vampires she was exposed to, so to speak.

"No, not necessarily. I'm not a wolf and Billy's daughters, for example, are not wolves either. No idea who makes that up and how that really comes about. We had once thought that the gene would be limited to only the male descendants. And then Leah Clearwater joined the pack."

"Too bad!" Becky smiled sweetly at me and sighed in disappointment.

So was I.

But finally, I began to eat. The others also paid more attention to their plates again.

Except Billy, of course.

He had turned slightly toward us, apparently disinterested, but now he looked again stubbornly into the twilight.

"I saw earlier that you can phase mid jump," Seth then stated, turning to Leah.

"Yeah, sure. And?" she asked conversely.

I didn't understand what Seth was getting at. Was there anything wrong at it?

"There was only one wolf who could do that," Seth said meaningfully.

"Um ... I do that too," I interjected.

He looked at us with wide eyes for a moment before shaking his head in disbelief.

"Only your father had been able to do that until now ... The rest of us could try and practice as much as we wanted, but it never worked."

"I never thought about it before," was all Leah said.

"We've been doing that all along," I added.

"You guys are just special!" said Edward with a very sincere gaze. "Bella needs reinforcement," he then explained and immediately turned to the door.

We knew what Mom was chatting about with Zoey.

I was already tensely waiting for her reaction, but knowing Zoey, it would be rather unproblematic.

"Your father would really be very proud of you. You are not only good and upright people, but also great wolves ... I would even say without hesitation that you are better than him," Seth suddenly said very humbly.

I didn't know what to say to that. He had told us long and hard the opposite today and we had believed him. And Billy's reaction to Seth's words confirmed my doubts.

He had turned a little toward us and gasped contemptuously.

As if Seth had just insulted the memory of Jacob Black.

But before Billy could express himself in any way, Seth was already speaking again.

"It's not just that you can phase while jumping. It's more like the icing on the cake ... I can show you tomorrow how many times we broke our bones trying to do that too," Seth laughed happily. He seemingly forced himself to be a little more serious again as he shoved the next fork into his mouth and then continued, "Jacob had trouble accepting the wolf in him for a long time. That's why it took him a long time to really master it. And you're just four weeks in and you can do pretty much everything that goes with it ... In his defense, I must say that external circumstances stood in his way. After his transformation, he was not allowed to say anything to your mother and avoided her, even though he had already been in love with her for a long time..."

Emily nodded and added, while Seth used the time to eat, "It put a lot of strain on Jacob. For one thing, he was cut off from Bella by this secret. An outsider who was allowed to know absolutely nothing about it. On the other hand - what hit him much harder - was the fact that he had learned through this why he had to bring Bella back to life. Or better said, because of whom! Because Edward had left her. A vampire. The reason why he became a monster, as he saw it. He couldn't understand why Bella, the girl he loved above all else, had to cling to a 'stone' at all costs ... For a while he blamed her for everything, but not for very long."

"It wasn't until Bella knew that Jacob embraced the wolf in him," Seth then continued. "And it wasn't until the two of them were together that it showed what was really inside of him. And it showed that he was basically the born Alpha wolf, even if he refused it because of Bella. He was not only stronger and bigger than the rest of us, but also many times more controlled and skilled. But you two surpassed him in everything ... You got into a fight with someone at school, Jake. You even let three boys beat you up without the wolf breaking out of you. That's not the kind of self-control your father had. Paul just looked at Bella the wrong way and Jacob lost the control ... In our wolf form we can control our thoughts and even switch them off completely if we have to. It is very strenuous indeed and requires a lot of practice, but it works. The two of you can do it to some extent, even as humans. You kept your mother's image a secret from Edward for two days. That's really amazing."

Seth and Emily talked some more about the past, compared us both with the others and Carlisle asked a lot about it with interest, until he finally left us.

There was a lot of funny stuff, but also some sad stuff. Much from the time before they all became wolves or when it had begun. When they were mistaken for a youth gang, of which Sam was the leader.

We laughed a lot.

My father was a child head.

As it became dark in the meantime, Mom came back to us and said only briefly that everything had gone well.

Zoey would think first.

Becky asked at one point what life was like with a wolf as one got older and Emily told her story. In doing so, however, she also told about Leah Clearwater, my sister's namesake, who did not survive the vampire army and from whom Sam had separated when he imprinted on Emily.

"Im ... what ...?" asked Becky, irritated.

My hand inevitably slapped against my forehead.

I had not thought about that at all recently.

"Uh ... You didn't tell her that?" Emily hesitated.

I shook my head.

"That I no longer have a choice doesn't mean she hasn't," I explained apologetically.

But Becky just looked at me in confusion.

And also anger. Even if she did not understand the background, she had understood that I had not told her something crucial.

"Make yourself useful for once and we'll enlighten Becky!" the empty plates were thrust into my hand.

Becky handed me her plate with a stern raised eyebrow.

I wasn't afraid of losing her just because I left out one little detail. Leah, in particular, knew my feelings for Becky too well for that and knew that I had been in love with Becky longer than I had been a wolf. After all, as a wolf, Leah had to experience and share these emotions with me.

"I love you," I whispered, with a soulful kiss on her sensual mouth.

"That bad, huh?" she asked skeptically.

"No. So irrevocable!" I smiled at her and she smiled back.

I slowly walked towards the kitchen and put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher.

Not knowing when I was wanted up there again, I sat still with a drink on the kitchen counter. My senses had improved considerably due to the wolf in me, but so good that I could hear from the kitchen up to the guest room - which was on the other side of the building - it was then unfortunately not.

I thought for a moment about my imprinting and the fact that Becky was related to Emily. And what we had been told about this during the week in La Push. One of the assumptions about why wolves imprinted on certain people was that stronger wolves would come out of the connection. If Becky carried the blood of the Ateara line, it somehow made sense to me. I didn't really understand much about genes and such, but Leah and I not only have the blood - and thus the wolf gene - of the Blacks. But also the Atearas. So, in our children, the gene from both parents would reunite. And then the gene pool of the Blacks would come as a gift on top of that? That gave one a headache!

I shook my head and thanked Esmé for the delicious food instead of continuing to ponder about my genes. Of course, she also wanted to know if I was okay after my dizzy spell.

"Well, sure. It was no big deal," I played it down.

"Don't exaggerate!" warned Carlisle, who also came into the kitchen.

"Leah and I are even!" I admitted, and Esmé's eyes drew together for a moment in concern.

But I was sitting in front of her. Healthy and happy. In this respect, this expression did not last long.

"So, how's Billy doing?" Esmé then asked.

"Hasn't said anything again yet," I said scornfully.

By now, I didn't really care. All this time, Leah and I thought we were doing abysmally as wolves. After all, they had not pulled to pieces on us so far. It wasn't just because of Seth this afternoon. Sam and Paul had put us down in the same way, but their common motivations I could understand by now. After all, the time Seth had with us was very limited. If we lived in La Push, he said it would have been very different. It was different with Billy. For him, there was no one better than his son, whether humanly or wolfishly seen - and Leah and I were allowed to listen to this from him our entire lives. There were never any direct accusations. He never said that Jacob would have done this or that differently or even better, but you could see it clearly if you looked between the lines.

"Don't be so hard on your grandfather," Esmé reprimanded me.

"Why not? He doesn't treat us any differently," I replied defiantly.

"Have you ever thought a that the only reason he is being so coldhearted is because he just wants to avoid losing you guys just as young?" asked Carlisle meekly.

I swallowed.

I was older than my father had ever become.

"Billy is no more the youngest himself. At his age, one sticks to one's principles and they stipulate that a vampire killed his son. This is a fact that no one can contradict. Not even us ... You and Leah are surrounded by vampires and show no fear or mistrust. That doesn't fit into his world view. He only sees the danger. You've already followed in your father's paws, and he's probably just afraid you'll follow him even further."

"Give him time and help him see past his own worldview," Esmé said, giving me a kiss on the forehead and walking to Alice, who was just calling from somewhere in this huge house.

"I don't know how I would react to the death of one of my children," Carlisle considered aloud. "No one should bury their own children."

"And what about Samantha?" I asked skeptically.

"There's no comparison ... I really tried to see her as my daughter, but I just have to admit that Edward is more important to me than Samantha was. Edward had warned her often enough and Samantha had decided to ignore his warnings ... The way Edward told it to me, I would have even destroyed Samantha myself if I had been there," he said, getting quieter and quieter as he spoke.

I only nodded.

My thoughts drifted back toward Billy as I mindlessly played with the cap of my water bottle.

Billy was a father, just like Carlisle was. Sure, these vampires weren't really his children, but that's how he felt. And his son had killed someone. More precisely, he had us do it, but with his blessing. If we hadn't been there, he would have settled it himself. Carlisle defended Edward's behavior, or rather Leah's and mine. He passed over it and said he would have done it himself as well. Isn't that what parents were for? To defend and protect their children - from anything that happened? Could a father even have a bad opinion of his child?

"No. He can't!"

Edward was suddenly standing next to me.

I flinched, startled.

"Can't you announce yourself before you come!" I accused him played.

"What are you doing down here and why aren't you with the others?" he asked.

"I got kicked out," I just said, offended.

He looked at me questioningly and I explained the more detailed circumstances of my ejection.

Carlisle wanted to know what Edward's remark earlier meant, who in turn divulged my thoughts.

Sometimes it was really annoying, but right now it didn't bother me.

We talked about this topic for a moment.

"It's not like your father was killed by some random vampire who happened to be in Quileute territory," Edward said, whereby his face looked incredibly vulnerable. He was even shaking slightly. "Victoria only came to kill Bella. And she only wanted Bella because of me. In that sense, I'm to blame for his death. Billy has reminded me ever since he arrived at our house. And he's right about that!"

"But you didn't know she showed up there. You tried to find her yourself," I interjected.

"Billy doesn't know that, though. He only sees the facts. Victoria wanted to kill Bella for something Edward - or strictly speaking - we all did. However, none of us were there. Neither to protect Bella nor to stand by the pack," Carlisle added.

"But you would have come?" I dug deeper.

"Of course!" said Edward, without thinking about it.

"Immediately!" also confirmed Carlisle.

"And would you have stayed afterwards?" I asked.

"If Jacob had survived, certainly not. Bella must have been happy with Jacob at that time. I had wanted nothing else for her. She let him into her heart and he gave her two wonderful and great children in addition," Edward said meaningfully.

I rolled my eyes in embarrassment.

Now he was also starting to equate us with such completely exaggeration!

"Nothing but the truth!" said Edward, and Carlisle, after briefly explaining my mental complaint, also confirmed it as well.

I sighed in surrender.

"If Jacob had died despite our assistance, I would have stayed. Provided Bella had taken me back, of course. However, I would have done anything to ensure that your father survived. Even if it would have cost me my life."

I tried to imagine what my childhood would have been like with a father.

I chuckled.

It would have been more difficult. I had been able to wrap Mom around my finger often enough when she wanted to punish me for some nonsense or had been able to successfully shift the blame for something onto Leah, and vice versa. But would I have succeeded if I had had to compete against two parents? ... No matter who would have been there, it would have been nicer! Even if I couldn't really imagine it with Jacob Black. I had only extraneous memories, which showed him only as a rather young man of about sixteen years. With Edward, on the other hand, it was easier for me to imagine. Because now I had a father!

I smirked at this curious situation.

Here we stood. Three generations. Two sons, two fathers, one grandfather, one grandson. No blood relationship at all, but still we felt it. It was somehow familiar and it felt good and right. And one floor above us sat my biological grandfather, not speaking a word to me. How wrong the world was sometimes!

"Fathers always see only the best in their children," Carlisle clarified in conclusion.

"No matter what they do," Edward added, tousling through my hair.

On the way up, I remembered why I was down there for so long in the first place.

"Say. Am I still together with Becky?" I asked Edward. Just to be on the safe side.

"Are you having doubts about it?"

"Not really, but Leah can be resourceful when it comes to teasing me," I explained my concern.

He grinned and pushed me through the door. And I landed right in Becky's arms, who held me down in a downright possessive way and kissed me stunningly.

"Then I guess you're not mad at me for not telling you about the imprinting?" I asked.

"No. I'm not," she came closer to my lips again.

Wasn't life beautiful?! Around us was a rather serene mood, whereby I wondered what might be the reason for this.

Billy sat defiantly in front of his window now as before.

It was now not only dark, but pitch-black outside, so that one could see basically nothing. So, it was still just his stubbornness!

Seth had gotten up in the meantime and was moving aimlessly around the room.

He was probably just tired of lying down.

But then he stood with me and Leah.

We involuntarily placed ourselves in front of him.

Somehow, I had the feeling that he had something important to say.

"I forgot about something all afternoon. Let's rather say I was ashamed and put it off. But I should probably make up for that now," he began, taking a deep breath. "I apologize to both of you! For all the things I threw at you. None of it was the truth... I had tried to challenge you even when you were in La Push. But I never intended to hurt you physically. You had recognized me as Alpha wolf, which is not surprising in itself and was also perfectly okay. But that could not be a permanent condition. Unlike you, I am actually only a simple wolf. I merely have more life experience. But you, Leah, were born to lead a pack. Well, in the end, you both are ... But having that birthright and using it are two different things. You had to get that right back from me, and Sam was convinced that the only way to do that was probably by challenging my leadership. Because your father was also bound by Sam's orders and could not disobey his orders. Even if we all knew that he was actually the alpha ... That's the only reason I tried to break you guys out there. So that you would doubt me ... I'm sorry!" he explained calmly and looked at us apologetically.

We took him in our arms at the same time.

Well, twins.

"You are now together the new chiefs of the Quileute!" interjected Emily solemnly as we broke away from each other.

"And how do you feel about this burden?" mom asked us.

We shrugged our shoulders.

"No different than yesterday!" we laughed, and everyone laughed along.

Billy. I had forgotten all about him. But now he came rolling closer to us. Was he smiling? I really wasn't sure.

Seth, meanwhile, turned to Edward.

"I also have to apologize to you. By the time I realized what you meant to them, it was already too late to back out. If I had known that before, I would have let you in on it and taken you with me," Seth explained.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Billy, surprisingly calmly.

Seth turned to him and looked him in the eyes.

"Edward loves Bella. I don't think anything or anyone will be able to change that. And he loves the children as if they were his own ..." Seth began to say and paused a little.

Leah and I turned our heads to Edward.

"Yes, I love you both!" Edward nodded affirmatively, looking at us in turn.

The first time he said it so directly.

We walked up to him and hugged our parents who were already standing together.

Long and firm.

It was so good.

Seth continued in a calm voice, "Edward will protect Bella and the twins. From whatever may come. Not only he, but this whole family ... Jacob would be very happy to see the three of them in this beloved and sheltered environment ... And the children love him ... They were willing to risk their lives to protect Edward from me ... Your grandchildren see Edward as the father they never had."

I couldn't find a term to describe Billy's face.

Disgusted? Surprised? Moved?

I took Leah's hand and walked with her toward Billy. We knelt down in front of him and looked up at him.

"You weren't there when Edward came into our lives ..." I started to say.

"We were determined to destroy him. He broke the treaty, which gave us the right to do so," Leah said.

Taking turns, we continued to speak, "We are not stupid, letting Edward into our home. We just realized that Edward and his family were not our enemies. He didn't leave Mom to hurt her, but to give her a life with a human. With our father. Your son ... We blamed him for dying so early already, but he would have come to the pack's aid back then to protect Mom. If he had known about it. Not only him, but also the others ... He tried to find the vampiress himself back then, but had no luck. He more or less asked us to kill him after seeing in our thoughts about what happened back then. And when he saw that, he was almost dead himself. I wish I could show it to you so you could see it for yourself. So, you can see that we are not as stupid as you might think ... We will always carry Jacob Black in our hearts. We are proud to be his children ... But in Edward, we have found a father."

Billy looked at us in turn for a long time, putting a hand under each of our chins, and I thought I even saw a tear in his eyes.

Edward came closer behind us and held something out to Billy.

"I was hoping you'd reconsider your view," Dad said explanatorily.

Billy took it from Edward and nodded to him approvingly.

"I am very proud to be your grandfather and grateful for two such unique grandchildren!" he said simply, holding out two bracelets to us.

Long leather straps with a hand-carved little wolf on it.

"These are from Jacob. I'm sure he'd be pleased if you wore them."

Thanks for reading!