Take Me Home
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE TWILIGHT SERIES. ALL THE RIGHTS BELONG TO STEPHANIE MEYER. I ONLY OWN THE PLOT AND OC'S IN THIS STORY.
CHAPTER EIGHT
The bar was busy. Filled with mostly Forks resident's and a few tourists type people. Paul sat at the bar by himself, nursing a cold beer bottle.
"You mind if I sit here?" asked a female voice. Paul looked up from his beer to the woman who had asked the question. The bar was loud, he hadn't heard her approach.
"Are you following me or something?" He asked Addison. She smiled.
"I could ask you the same thing." Paul couldn't stop his eyes from giving her a glance over. She had a thing for long skirts Paul declared as he saw she was wearing yet another long skirt, this one green with white stripes. Very conservative, he thought it odd as her top half was only covered by a white singlet. She hooked a black jacket over the back of the chair next to Paul before taking a seat.
"You need another one Paul?" the bar tender said as he looked at the now empty beer in Paul's hands.
"Yeah, keep them coming," He nodded to the bar tender.
"Can I get you anything, miss?" The bar tender asked. He was a man in his late twenties, his pale skin and blonde hair made him stand out behind the dark bar.
"No thanks," Addison said, brushing some hair behind her ear.
"Come on," the bar tender insisted. "Anything at all, on the house." Addison hesitated.
"Okay... just a beer thanks." Paul heard the girl next to him say as he took his new beer from the bar tender and paid the man.
"Cool," The bar tender smiled, grabbing a beer, and handing it over to the girl. "My names Duke by the way."
"Addison," The girl smiled taking the drink. Some people down the other end of the bar called for Duke.
"Be right back," Duke told her with a wink, before going to serve the other customers.
"Here," Addison said sliding the beer towards Paul. He gave her a confused look.
"I don't drink," she said with a shrug.
"Then I think you came to the wrong place," Paul scoffed.
"It's the only place in town still open and my hotel room doesn't have TV," she shrugged. "Long day?"
"Yeah." He showed no sign of elaborating, so Addison sighed looking up at the flat screen TV in the corner of the room. After a few minutes she got bored of the game on the screen, already seeing one team as the clear winner as it neared the final count down. She saw Duke was on his way back to her end of the bar and smiled. Grabbing one of Paul's empty beer bottles she acted as though she had just taken the last sip. Paul looked at the girl questioningly out of the corner of his eye but didn't say anything.
"Done already, wow. Want another Addison?" Duke asked smiling wider than he had before. Paul could tell this guy only wanted one thing but kept his mouth shut and acted like he wasn't watching.
"Sure," Addison smiled. "You can just call me Addie by the way."
"Cute," Duke whispered handing her another bottle. The pair talked for a few minutes before Duke had to go get other people drinks. As soon as his back was turned Addison swapped her full beer for the one Paul had already finished. She bit her lip a little, trying to hide her smile.
'Now that was cute,' Paul thought to himself.
Soon Duke returned and Addie shook her empty bottle in the air.
"The damn thing had a hole in it," She giggled, eyelids fluttering. He gave her another drink, and this was repeated several times until Paul could no longer keep up with the rate of the beers. Each time Addie giggled a little louder and acted more and more drunk.
"Thanks," Paul muttered once Duke had left the pair sitting alone once more.
"For what?" Addison asked, acting like she had no idea what he was talking about.
"You just saved me thirty bucks," Paul said with the smallest of smiles.
"All good. I best be getting back to my room though. Got to get out of town especially early in the morning so Quil doesn't have a fit," she sighed standing up and pulling on her jacket.
"Where are you going?" Duke asked seeing Addison move towards the door.
"Sorry Duke but I'm not actually as drunk as you think I am and you're not actually as hot and funny as you think you are," she smiled as she spoke and with a toss of her hair she was gone. Leaving not only one but two men with shocked and confused expressions. Paul couldn't help himself, there was something about this girl and he just had to follow her.
"Thanks for the drinks, man," Paul said with a nod to Duke before going after Addison. He had over a dozen beers but with his high temperature the alcohol wore off as fast as he drank it. He spotted Addison as soon as he exited the bar. She was unlocking a yellow sedan.
"For someone who doesn't drink you sure know your way around a bar tender," Paul said catching the girl's attention.
"Practice makes perfect. Plus, it's easy when the bar tender is using his little man's head to think," Addison scoffed opening the car door.
"You are smarter than you look," Paul said.
"Thanks. You need a lift home? I don't think you should really drive after that many drinks. I have to admit it, you did pretty well at drinking them all." Paul knew he was fine to drive home but went along with it anyway.
"Sure, thanks." He was kind of surprised by how nice she was being to him.
"Ok, get in," she said dropping into the car and shutting the door behind her. Paul got into the passenger seat as Addison started the engine. As they left the bar, he gave her some directions on how to get to his house. They travelled a long way in silence before pulling up outside Paul's dark trailer.
"Where's your girl at?" Addison asked. She didn't mean to do it, it kind of slipped out.
"Hospital," Paul said.
"What?" Addison's eyes were wide, looking at Paul for any sign of a joke.
"It's a long story," Paul sighed as he reached for the door handle.
"And here I was thinking you were just a weekend dad. No, you are a low life dad," Addison scoffed. Paul stopped for a moment as a wave of frustration rushed through his body.
"Up till yesterday I didn't even know I had a kid, so yeah I'm a pretty shitty dad," Paul snapped.
"Oh," Was all Addison could say.
"Yeah, oh," Paul got out of the car, slamming the door shut.
Addison sat in the car, shocked for many moments as she watched Paul storm his way into the trailer, slamming the door behind himself. Paul paced the house, his head throbbing, his heart thumping, and his thoughts mixed.
There was a knock on the door.
"Go away Addison!" He yelled.
"I just wanted to say sorry." Paul sighed before drawing in a large breath and opening the door.
"No, I'm sorry I shouted, it's just been a long day," he said scratching the back of his head.
"No, it's okay. At least you have a reason for it. I'm a shitty parent and I don't even have a good reason," Addison said lifting her hands in defeat.
"You have kids?" Paul asked.
"Yeah," Addison said with a small, sad, smile. "A daughter. She lives with her grandparents most the time. So, I shouldn't really judge you. No matter what people tell you kids are hard work, being a parent isn't a job for everyone."
"You are the first person to tell me that, everyone keeps saying it's easy. That I should just talk to her, it's easy. I don't even know if she's mine..."
"Well, you're not going to find out sitting here, are you?"
…
The pair were halfway to Forks hospital when Addison's car decided to die. The engine stopped unexpectedly, and she coasted it off the road.
"You have to be joking," Addison hissed, hitting her hands against the steering wheel.
"It's fine, I'll have a look at it," Paul said climbing out of the car. Addison popped the hood before getting out of the car herself.
"It's the dam spark plug, the stupid thing keeps coming off. Heap of useless crap," Addison said muttering the last part to herself. She held her phone light out over the engine and sure enough one of the spark plugs had come lose. Addison grabbed the cord and clipped it back to the engine. There was a spark of light as it zapped Addison's hand. "Dame it," she stumbled back a step and ended up losing her balance. Addie prepared herself for the hard ground, but two strong arms broke her fall. Sadly, her phone wasn't as lucky and hit the road with a crack. The torch on it still shined up into their eyes but the screen was surely smashed.
"Are you okay?" Paul asked, helping Addison stand back up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said but as soon as she let go of Paul she was falling back down.
"You sure?" Paul asked after he stopped her from hitting the ground, again.
"Yeah, I'm fine, my leg just came loose," Addison hissed as she now clung to Paul's arm to stabilise herself. She lifted her skirt part way up to her knee to show a metal bar where her leg should be.
"Your, umm? Missing a leg," Paul said slowly.
"Really? Hadn't noticed," Addison laughed. Her leg had gotten twisted, she held onto Paul with one arm and reached down with the other to straighten the prosthetic and pull it on tighter.
"That was a really dumb thing to say," Paul muttered as Addison let go of him and stood back onto her prosthetic.
"No, it's fine, most people don't notice it," she chuckled as she picked up her phone.
"Oh," was all he could say.
"Come on, get back in the car before I get attacked by a wolf or something?" She smiled at him as she climbed back into the car, he followed after now even more confused.
"Why would you get attacked by a wolf?" Paul asked, both surprised and nervous by her choice of words. He was sure she didn't know about shapeshifters.
"I just got shocked by my car, smashed my phone, and made a complete fool of myself in front of a," she stopped herself.
"In front of a...?" Paul asked, wanting to know what she was going to say.
"In front of a friend of Quil's. Really the only way to make my night any better is if I was attacked by a wolf or abducted by aliens," Addison spoke quickly now and laughed after she had finished. Paul watched her start the car.
He had never met anyone missing a leg before. When he thought of someone missing a limb he thought of an old army vet, not a young, beautiful, woman like Addison. But he hardly knew her, for all he knew she could have been a criminal. He thought about that for a moment before he decided she wasn't a criminal. He was so deep in thought that he didn't realise the car had stopped and he was still watching her.
"Car accident," she said quietly.
"Hu?" He said not understanding what she was saying.
"My leg, I lost it in a car crash," she spoke clearly looking at him this time.
"Oh, I uh... sorry," Paul said.
"Why are you sorry?" She smiled now.
"I didn't realise I was staring, sorry," he looked around the hospital parking lot. It was late and dark but out of the few remaining cars he could make out Jared's truck.
"I know, I don't mind, I just... can you not tell Quil?"
"He doesn't know?" Paul asked.
"No, and I would like to keep it that way. I want him to talk to me but not out of pity."
"Yeah sure, I won't say anything," Paul knew his words were a lie, but if he did tell someone it wouldn't be intentional, wolves just couldn't keep secrets.
"Thanks... Well, I guess you better be going," Addison's eyes were watching her hands fidget on the steering wheel.
"I'll see you when your back in town," Paul said opening his door.
"Most likely. By Paul," she said looking over at him one last time.
"By Addison," he said with a small smile as he shut the car door. She drove off a second later and Paul hoped that she would come back soon.
Author Notes: Good news the next chapter is pretty much finished.
Fun fact #1: Addison was originally going to be a solider who lost her leg in war but it didn't fit with the time line so I put her in a car crash which you will read more about later.
Fun fact #2: Not much is known about what happened to Quil's Dad or what happened to him, so I chose to give Quil a sister and explain more about Quil's mystery father as time went on.
Fun fact #3: Addison is not Pauls imprint. I didn't have plans on giving him an imprint in this story but who knows what could happen in the future.
And for every three fun facts about the story there will be three true fact about me.
True fact #1: I love the walking dead and other apocalyptic shows and movies.
True fact #2: The last time I updated this story I said I was working a full-time job as a gas station manager (youngest manager they have ever had) and I run my one Hatchery. I quit that job seven months ago and went back to waiting tables as I found out happiness is worth more than money.
True fact #3: As of this Friday it would have been one year since my last update on May 10th 2018 how time fly's by and things keep changing.