Chapter 13
Whittling
Kim and her finally managed to make their way to the Blacks' House, where Emily was keeping Billy company.
The house was similar to most of the houses on the Rez, all of them the one-story, bungalow type, except few, like the convenience of Kim's parents.
It was painted red, with narrow windows…and for the first time, Hannah allowed herself to look around as she entered it.
A tiny square living room, filled with comfortable furniture…but it was the tiny desk tucked away in one corner, covered with wood pieces that piqued her interest.
She couldn't help it. She was always interested in crafts other people did. Hannah herself liked to sew and knit…and other people…
"Do you whittle or is that Jacob?" She asked Billy Black curiously, who looked up from the book he had been reading.
"No, that's me," he told her, nodding to a small shelf just off the side of it, that held a bunch of miniature animals. The wood grain was polished until it showed beautifully. "You can touch," he teased her, and she reached out carefully and picked up a little wolf, just the size of her palm. It was sitting down, his nose pushed high up in the air. "One of the few useful things I can still do," he said, his voice quiet."Spoons and forks sell the best, but there are only so many people on the Rez that need salad tossers."
Hannah turned the wolf in her hands, a small grin on her face at that.
"In the summers, Kim and I sometimes do a stall at one of the Art Markets in Port Angeles," she said hesitantly. "I could take some of these down with me if you wanted me to? I pay the rent regardless, so it wouldn't cost you anything to try it out?" She suggested.
"That would be…nice," he agreed "What do you sell normally?" He asked her curiously and she replaced the wolf as she turned towards him.
"Stuff," she pronounced carefully, making him break a smile at her. "No, lots of things! Hair scrunchies and small bags and accessories…stuff like that…" Hannah explained. "It works quite well. We made a few hundred dollars last year."
"It was fun!" Kim agreed. "We can totally take a box with us if you want us to. We'll sit there regardless so another box on the table won't hurt anybody!"
"I'll take you up on that then," Billy Black agreed. "What do you think would sell the best?" He asked curiously.
"Small Trinkets for tourists made up the bulk of my inventory last time and we sold off most of that," Hannah explained. "Hair accessories sold really well, surprisingly."
She had thought her pouches and bags were gonna do better, but they sadly hadn't. Oh well…she was still planning to get on Emily's nerves about handwoven fabric this year.
"You know, you should try making these hair forks. I bet they would go for a pretty penny," she suggested absentmindedly.
"A hair fork?" Billy Black asked her bemusedly. "I have two daughters but I have never heard that."
She couldn't help but laugh but pulled one out of the mess her hair was this morning.
"Something like this," Hannah explained. It was a U-shape, and would hold her hair up in a bun without putting a kink in her curls. Hers was metal, but she had seen wood before.
He examined it carefully.
"I can do that," he finally agreed. "That seems simple enough."
"There also the ones that are just a carved stick pretty much. Like a chopstick?" Hannah continued. "You know you could do it out of driftwood…that could look pretty!"
"I can certainly try it out," he agreed with a smile.
She smiled back as she moved into the small kitchen to help Emily and was promptly sent off to chop vegetables with Kim and Embry. They chatted quietly, about this and that…about Jacob, who still hadn't woken up…and then suddenly…a wolf howl cut through the quietness of the morning in the Rez and Hannah swallowed.
She managed to put the knife down, holding onto the edge of the table as she stared unseeing in front of her, just as the magic provided what little information it could give her.
"Han?" Kim asked worriedly and she shook loose with a shake of her head.
"Seth is not the only new wolf anymore," she said, her voice quiet. "Quil just shifted. I think you should go, Embry. You are one of his closest friends." Embry looked at her for a moment, the expression on his face tortured and just nodded.
"I wish that was all of them," Kim said quietly and Hannah just nodded in agreement, biting her lip.
Why had Quil shifted now of all days? The redheaded vampire was dead so the threat to the tribe should have been over and done with and not…
She followed that thread of thoughts, pulling at it and the burning in her chest answered immediately.
The curse she left out was so bad that Sam would have washed out her mouth with soap if he had heard it.
"Hannah?" Emily demanded immediately. "What's wrong?"
"They are coming back. The Cullens are coming back."
The knowledge rippled across the room and for a moment it was terribly silent.
"Are you sure or is that a feeling?" Billy asked his voice hoarse and Hannah could just swallow as she met his eyes.
"I am certain."
As certain as she only rarely was these days.
And because that wasn't enough, her head snapped around because she had heard a noise from the bedroom.
And Jacob Black was standing in the doorway, his normally bronze skin seemingly ashen, right arm strapped to his chest by a construction of bandages.
"What's wrong?" He demanded, his voice hoarse.
Hannah stared at him, half expecting him to keel over, because she could feel the echo of the pain he was in and it wasn't…it wasn't good.
None of them managed to bring a single word out.
"What. ?" He demanded again.
"Nothing is wrong, son," Billy Black managed to bring out, his voice soothing in that way only parents could manage.
Or at least Hannah supposed it was so. Her grandmother had been great at it…as long as Granny was there, seemingly everything else was only half as bad.
"Don't lie to me, Dad," Jacob snapped and only then Hannah could see the near imperatively taking that run through him, like the lines of him were blurring around him.
She had no idea what she was supposed to do other than tell him the truth.
"Quil shifted," Hannah finally said quietly, breaking the silence, his eye found hers, near black, embering like coals in his face. This wasn't what he had wanted to hear, she knew that. But it was the better news than the other ones. "The Cullens are coming back."
It was there, standing in the room and she knew that this wasn't what he wanted to hear. She knew that he hated them. Understandably. Of course, he would hate his natural enemy…he would hate the monsters that had hurt the girl that he clearly loved, clearly adored…
And he would probably hate her for telling him this news.
Still, Hannah hadn't expected the lines of his body to blur even more, to see him fall forward and…and feel the pain that ripped through him, through her at that, pain and heat echoing through her.
She came suddenly face to face with a pony-sized wolf, right there in his father's postage stamp-sized living room and she couldn't help but step in front of Billy, because she knew that Jacob would never forgive himself for hurting his father.
She half expected to feel the dinner plate-sized paw to come swiping down her face, to feel the teeth close around her neck…and if that happened, then that would be fine.
It would be fine.
She felt horrible that Emily and Kim needed to watch it happen.
It wouldn't really be Jacob's fault and it was better that she was the victim of it than his father…
Instead said wolf scrambled away from her and destroyed the fly screen door while he was already at it. At least it was only that one.
Hannah could just stare after him.
"He's a fucking idiot," she seethed.
Everything she had heard about it was that shifting while still having not healed broken bones would end up making it even worse. "I think you should call Tiffany Call," Hannah suggested with a sigh, looking over into the kitchen where Kim had a hand pressed in front of her mouth and Emily looked like she had seen a ghost. "Whenever Sam drags him back in…"
Sam did drag him back in, just in time for Tiffany Call to arrive and to start the methodical job of patching him up, again.
Whatever he had done again, really hurt like a bitch.
And Hannah didn't even think that she was getting…all of it. Not the full impression anyway, maybe just the bad echoes of it.
Hannah didn't say a single word as she helped Emily cook, handing her whatever she needed next because, for everything else, her hands were shaking too badly.
"Are you sure, Sunshine?" Sammy asked her quietly, looking so exhausted that she wished he could tell him something else entirely and she just nodded.
"Yes, I am sure," Hannah responded. "They are coming back."
"We can't let them come back," Jacob growled. "He broke her heart, Sam. Who knows what he is going to do next?"
"Not everything is about Bella Swan, Jacob," Sam responded resolutely. "We can't break the damn Treaty."
"Why not?" Jacob seethed. "I don't want them anywhere near here."
Hannah agreed. But probably not because of the same reasons.
"Bella Swan has made her choice. She's going to need to live with the consequences," Hannah said quietly and the near subterranean growl of Jacob didn't even make her flinch. She just looked up to meet his eyes. "You probably won't be her choice."
Definitely not. Hannah was quite sure that Bella Swan was way too obsessed with her vampire lover to even realise that she was dragging Jacob along with her…or that he thought himself in love with her.
"Oh you would like that, wouldn't you?" Jacob said with a dark laugh. "That's what this is about? You are just jealous."
She was but probably not because of what Jacob thought.
"Bella Swan cares about one thing and that is herself," Hannah said cuttingly. "She is so self-obsessed that that she probably doesn't even see things if they don't have her name written on them." That much was apparent. "You have so much more to life for other than her. And you don't even realize it. Bella Swan calls and treats you as a bandaid for her own problems and you just continue to be at her beg and call, even when the one thing that she clearly wants is to have her ex-boyfriend back."
"I am not yours."
Oh, she knew that. But she ignored that because there was something way more important than that.
"You have a father that loves you. You have two sisters that adore you. You have a wolf pack that depends on you. And you are willing to throw all of that away for what? This little dramatic scene just put everybody at risk." Hannah snapped, pushing the salad bowl down onto the table. "You could have easily hurt yourself even worse!"
Hurt her worse as well, but he didn't need to know about that.
"You have no idea what you are talking about," Jacob gave back, cuttingly and she just sighed.
"Clearly I don't," Hannah muttered.
"You have it all figured out, don't you? Because you can see the future." His voice dripped with disdain.
"I can't see the future," Hannah disagreed, crossing her arms defensively. "I am a hand of fate if I am anything at all." And she hated being that so much.
"Of course, you are," Jacob snorted. "I thought you were annoying, but I didn't think you were actually insane."
"Jacob," Sam snapped but Hannah held up her hand.
"Not insane. I wish I was," she countered. "I know things."
Jacob just rolled his eyes. "You are nothing special. Regardless if Sam amuses you. You toy with the people around you and you don't even realize it."
That hit the intended target.
"I don't," she choked out. She didn't. She really tried not to. But hasn't she? She changed circumstances to suit her purposes constantly. Even if it was only to right things. She had changed her seats so that Kim would meet Jared…she was the reason why Emily had lost an eye.
That had all been Hannah. All of it had been her fault.
"Yeah, you do," Jacob snapped. "And guess what? I am not interested in being one of your experiments! All you are is a fucking obligation, and I don't want you. I have to basically put my life on hold for you and I have no choice in that matter."
Right.
She pushed back from the kitchen counter. She could argue. She could tell him that she only ever rid to help and that he had a duty to their tribe and that keeping away from Bella Swan would be a good thing…but she didn't.
Because she knew that he wasn't going to listen regardless of what she told him. He wouldn't.
And she had enough self-respect to realize that.
He didn't want to be one of her experiments. That was his right.
But her right was to go away right now and not think about him any longer.
"I am going home," Hannah said, her voice icy. "And if I could, I would gladly never talk to you again."