So it's time for another try at Sam's POV. it seemed to flow a little easier this time, so here's hoping it reads well too.

Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I own twitchy fingers that enjoy writing for no profit.

Chapter 11: Scents and Scandals

Sam POV

I'd always hated grocery shopping.
Not 'hate' like some people hate sprouts, or Mondays, or finding out that their new pants that they love wearing are dry clean only. I really hated it. I'd never had many things in this world that I truly hated; Vampires, of course topped the list, followed closely by what I did to Leah and myself when I first phased, people who don't know the difference between 'they're', 'their', and 'there', and who say 'could of', instead of 'could have', and then grocery shopping.
Unfortunately, with the amount that the pack would eat, grocery shopping was a frequent necessity, and while I probably could've just delegated the job to Paul or Jared every time, it helped to allay suspicions about us if we rotated, and also alternated between the supermarket in Forks and the Rez store. Shopping carts as full as ours being bought by the same person in the same store every three or four days would be sure to be commented on by the local gossips before long.

It was my turn to do the grocery shopping though, so I was spending my Saturday afternoon pushing a cart, piled so I high I could barely steer it, through the aisles of the supermarket in Forks. As I wrestled the damn thing down the chips and snacks aisle, I heard a few older ladies in the next aisle gossiping excitedly in hushed tones.
"I never would have believed it of her myself, but Dianne Newton told me that she walked in on it herself. The Swan girl had poor Michael backed up against the wall in the stock room, her hand shoved down his pants. Dianne tells me that Michael was nearly in tears. Apparently he's been fending her off for months, but the little tart won't take 'no' for an answer. He told Dianne that she's slept with the vast majority of the boys at the high school, and pretty much all of them at La Push. The girl's a walking STD, he says." The shocked gasps of the other women didn't really ring true in my opinion; they sounded more thrilled than appalled, and having had first hand experience at the hands of small town gossips I knew that the women in the next aisle were far more invested in hearing more, embellishing it at their leisure, and passing it on than they were invested in hearing true facts. I stopped in my tracks and listened as they continued with their character assassination.
"You know, I believe I've heard similar things myself." A second woman interjected excitedly. "I also heard," she added in a confiding tone, "that the sudden departure of the Cullen family was less to do with the Dr getting a new job offer, and more due to a certain girl being found in a compromising position with both of the youngest boy's brothers." She said with completely insincere distaste. "At the same time!" The shrieks of gleeful horror from the other women at this "fact" actually made me gag in disgust. Literally.
"Yes, well I don't know about that," another woman, one with apparently a modicum of decency, said quietly, and with genuine sadness "but I do know that Dianne told me that when she asked the Swan girl what she thought she was doing, she was treated to an absolute barrage of abuse and curse words, and Dianne felt she had no option but to fire the girl on the spot. I've known the girl and her father all my life, my husband was the one to recommend him for the position as Chief, as you know, and I never thought she'd turn out like this." "Ah. That must be Mrs Green." I realised. She, at least, didn't seem happy to hear the gossip. Although she was still passing it on. The first woman jumped back in excitedly.
"Well Dianne told me that her Michael told her, that apparently the little slut was heavily into drugs, and that she left Phoenix so suddenly, and in the middle of the school year, under the cloud of a pregnancy scare. It seems she's not learned her lesson." The others all tutted and 'hmmed' with smug self satisfaction as I fumed on the other side of the shelves. "How dare they spread such malicious shit?" My hands clenched on the side of the shopping cart. The girl was already fighting against heartbreak, anyone who had seen her since the Cullens left could see she was in a desperately bad way, and for all of this to be breaking now, when she was just beginning to pull herself back together? Well it might just break her completely.

I was completely unconcerned as to whether there was any grain of truth in amongst the garbage they were spouting; it was Bella's business, not mine, and certainly not theirs. It was also completely besides the point. The part about drugs, if true, I disapproved of personally, but not only did I not believe it was true, not for a second - not with the Chief for a father - but also, I'd been brought up to believe that everyone deserved a chance to change if they could, and whatever Bella had left behind in Phoenix, should stay there.
A sudden breeze from the direction of the store entrance announced the enticing scent of the worst possible person who could come in at that moment, though from the smell of it, at least she had her father with her for support. My wolf sat up and begged as he recognised her unique, delicious odour, "Seriously? What is it with him at her scent?" and I froze for a moment, undecided as to what to do.
"I don't believe it." The first woman spoke up again. "How she can have the nerve to show her face in public, amongst decent people, is beyond me." She spat with venom. "And in my store, too. I've got half a mind to ban her from the place."
"Lady, you've got half a mind, period" I thought, with a snort, and I turned to head to the end of the aisle, resolved to keep an eye out for Bella and the Chief, and step in if I thought they might need my help.

The gossips, it seemed, weren't quite brave enough to actually confront Bella, which I was even more relieved about when I saw that in fact the Chief wasn't with her. His scent was on her because she was once again wearing one of his shirts over her own band t-shirt, not because he was accompanying her to the store. Bella was, however, given a number of flat glares and disapproving, under the breath 'tuts', as she roamed the aisles, filling her cart. She kept a calm, pleasant expression on her face, though with my enhanced vision, I could see the tiny tell tale signs that she wasn't as unconcerned as she appeared to be. "Brave girl." I remembered thinking the same thing the previous day; she was obviously stronger than her frail appearance would suggest. After refusing to acknowledge the first few glares, she seemed to up her game, offering bright smiles in return for each disapproving look, and even a couple of cheery "Good afternoon"s. I even saw a tiny smile curl one side of her mouth a fraction as she noted how much her unconcern annoyed the vicious biddies. "That's the way, Bella. You show those bitches!" I silently cheered her on. I trailed her throughout her entire visit to the store, more and more impressed with her handling of the situation, and kept carefully out of sight as she walked to the checkout to pay.
"Hi, Mrs Green. How are you?" She asked and as she noticed the glare she got in reply, the smile dropped off her face. She quickly forced it back though, and continued as if she hadn't noticed, busying herself with packing her groceries away into brown bags. When she looked up to pay, and saw Mrs Green placing a big box of condoms in the last bag, she looked completely confused. "I guess she didn't add those herself then."
Seeing Bella's confused expression, mrs Green spoke up, disappointing me in my thoughts that she was at least a little better than the other gossips.
"I figured you should probably stock up, dear, if you're going to keep throwing yourself at young men the way Mrs Newton caught you throwing yourself at her Mike in her stock room this afternoon." Her voice dripped poison. "The poor dear didn't know how to deal with the situation as he'd already turned you down on several occasions. If you're so anxious to sleep with every single male in town, you'd best start to use protection. For their sakes, if not for yours."
Bella stood stock still for a few seconds, her eyes wide with shock, and her mouth hanging open. "Oh fuck! she hadn't even known exactly what the gossip was; only that there was gossip. The poor girl's going to completely fall apart!" I started forward, determined to help her maintain at least a shred of dignity in front of these revolting people.

Everyone around the checkouts had fallen silent, a school of piranhas eagerly awaiting the first drops of blood to begin their feast, and then breaking the silence I heard the last thing I had expected. Bella Swan, all 5'4" and maybe 95 pounds of her, was standing in front of all those hateful, vicious bullying gossips, and laughing her fucking tits off! "Forget 'brave girl'. She's a fucking warrior," I thought in awe. "The chief would be so proud of her right now. Hell, I hardly know her and I'm proud of her right now."
"S. s. s. seriously? That's what she went with? Throwing myself at her son in the stock room?" Bella grabbed at the counter to hold herself up. "Oh, and don't tell me, she walked in and caught me, and had to rescue her poor innocent son from my clutches?" She threw her head back with another burst of laughter, wild and beautiful as her hair flew back behind her shoulders.
"Like you don't already know." Another lady - from her voice, it was the one spreading that shit about Bella indulging in a Cullen sandwich with the hulk leech and the scarred leech - spat under her breath from behind the other till, but I noticed that Mrs Green was looking like she'd realised she'd made a pretty big mistake in believing what she'd heard. Bella wasn't going to allow the other nasty bitch the satisfaction of getting the better of her it seemed, and she turned and replied to the biddy;
"Yeah, ok. So I went from being a total shut in two days ago, and don't pretend you don't know about that, to 'The Great Floozie of Forks' today. When was I supposed to be seducing all these men?" Bella's laughter was starting to take on a worryingly hysterical edge, and I readied myself to step in if she lost her hold over herself.
"You lot are all so desperate to believe bad things about me, feel free." She snorted "While you're at it, here's a few freebies. When I was six, I cut a little girl's hair off in class, cos she was hitting people with her braid on purpose. When I was eight, I stole a pack of gum, then took it back half an hour later and confessed cos I felt so guilty. Oh! Yeah, and one time I tipped out all of my dad's bait when we were out fishing cos I was cold and bored and wanted to go home, then I pretended I'd tripped over the bait bucket by accident." I couldn't help a laugh of my own as Bella listed her 'heinous crimes' for all to hear. Everyone in the store had done that much, and most of us much worse in our time. it seemed that Mrs Green agreed, as she joined in the laughter.
"I'm sorry, Bella. I should have known you better. In all the years I've known you and your father, you've never been that sort of girl. I don't know what I was thinking." She apologised sincerely. "I guess that redeems her part in this a little." I thought grudgingly. At least she had the courage to speak up in front of her friends and apologise.
"Doesn't matter, Mrs Green. People make mistakes, I don't hold it against them." Bella was too forgiving in my opinion, but I guessed it was her choice. Mrs Green's apology seemed to help Bella regain a little control, and she managed to put a stop to her laughing fit. She turned to the little crowd that had, by now, gathered round her at the checkout. "What actually happened, for those that care more about the truth than idle gossip and slander, is that Mrs Newton was bad mouthing the police and their efforts towards finding the missing hikers." She boldly stared at one face at a time, unerringly picking out the gossips from the rest of the crowd. "I got mad, which I probably shouldn't have done, questioned why she didn't have any missing posters up for the hikers, or any flyers on the counter, and when she said it was because it would be bad for business, I shot my mouth off a bit, quit, and walked out. Not a very exciting tale, but of course there was no way you were going to hear any of that from her as it would make her look bad." She shrugged and turned to Mrs Green. "I guess she was relying on the fact that lately I've barely communicated with my own dad, let alone anyone else, and so she thought she could spread whatever lies she chose and I wouldn't say anything different. Well. She was wrong."
"So that's what started his all off? That Dianne Newton is an evil mare! Spreading all that shit about someone just to save face a little. And to deliberately not help out in some small way over the missing hikers so she could keep turning over her usual number of bucks. Greedy, selfish, evil bitch!" The worst part of Mrs Newton's inactivity regarding the missing hikers was that without knowing there was a possibility of danger in the forest, more hikers were wandering about in there, getting attacked, and making the job of the pack that much harder. She was all but sending an all-you-can-eat-buffet into the woods, endangering my pack every time we had to protect one of them. I caught myself growling and forced the noise to stop before someone noticed. My hands were shaking too, and tightened my grip on the cart to make them cease. Phasing in the middle of the Forks supermarket wasn't high on my 'to-do' list.

Looking back at Bella, I saw her contemplating her grocery bags. She was stuck. If she wanted a dignified exit, she'd have to leave them, asking for help or making a return trip would ruin all her brilliant work so far.

Abandoning my cart full of groceries, I quickly strode up behind Bella and reached over her to gather up all of her bags except the one she already held.
"Fantastic job, Bella. Now allow me to assist you in your grand exit." She looked up at me with a grateful smile.
"Thanks, Sam. Perfect timing." We turned towards the exit and walked together to the door and I bent down to whisper in her ear.
"Are we leaving with, or without a one fingered salute?" She gave a little giggled and seemed to give it a bit of thought.
"Without I think." She heaved a sigh. "At the moment I have the moral high ground. I probably shouldn't give it up for a rude gesture." She smirked a little "No matter how much they deserve it." I gave her an appreciative grin and her eyes widened for some reason. Out of nowhere, she tripped and I quickly shifted all the grocery bags in my arms so I could grab her elbow before she could face plant where they could all see.
"Careful, Bella. Wouldn't want to ruin that dignified exit." I joked, and she nodded at me.

We headed over to her truck and put the grocery bags on the passenger side of the seat when she unlocked the door.
"Thanks again, Sam. I really appreciate the help."
"Of course." I shrugged "You seriously handled all of that so well. I couldn't do anything else but help you out. You're doing good, Bella. Charlie will be so proud of you when he hears about this. And you know he will hear about it. That was a good half of the Forks gossip brigade you just set in their places. Someone's bound to fill him in, and probably pretty quickly too." Knowing I was right, she quickly unlocked the driver's door and scrambled into her truck.
"Good point. I'd better shift it if I want to get to him before the gossips" She said, and chucked the single grocery bag she held over with the others.
The pack of condoms fell out of the bag and landed at my feet. I looked down at them, idly wondering for a few seconds why she'd kept them. Who she was planning on banging. The thought bothered me for some reason and I frowned a little, then looked up at Bella, then my laughter started. She was so embarrassed! I'd never seen anyone's face get so red, so fast. Bella banged her head against the steering wheel and hid her face in her arms.
"Oh for fuck's sake. In front of the hot bodied guy? Kill me now. Seriously. Just open up the ground, and swallow me and my truck. Please, God, you'd be doing me a huge favour." She though it was hot bodied? even through my laughter, i preened a little. I got the impression she thought she was only saying this inside her own head. My laughter doubled.
"Did you know you're saying that out loud?" I chuckled, and to my surprise, she managed to turn even redder.
"Shit." She banged her head once more against the steering wheel. She turned to look at me, her head still resting on the wheel.
"Well that was embarrassing." She stated obviously. "Any chance you could just pretend that I just walked with dignity from the store, climbed into my truck, thanked you politely and drove off?" She almost begged me.
"Wellllllll" enjoying myself immensely, I dragged the word out, deliberately making her think I was debating it. She began to bang her head again, but I couldn't have that; she'd hurt herself if she kept it up. Moving inhumanly fast while she wasn't looking, I reached across from the passenger side and shoved my hand between her head and the wheel, protecting her forehead.
"Careful, you don't want a huge bruise there" I murmured, her face was just a couple of inches from my own, my nose was full of her incredible scent. My wolf wanted to roll around in it like a Jack Russell terrier in a pile of fox shit. "Weird."
"Ok. I'll give you a pass on this one. It never happened." I gave in. She smiled gratefully at me and I grinned back. I let my grin turn a little evil. "But now you owe me." Winking at her, I pulled back and closed the passenger door. I gave her a quick wave, and strode off back into the store as she drove off quickly; I had my own quick mission to accomplish.

I found my abandoned cart and took it to the checkout, deliberately waiting in the longer queue so I could be served by the owner, who was still muttering nasty little insults aimed at Bella, and obviously planning what she would do to make Bella pay for talking back to her. Finally it was my turn to be served, and I waited patiently as she rang everything through, the bill coming to nearly $200. When she looked expectantly at me for the money I gave her a bright smile and said in a loud, carrying voice;
"Oh I don't want to actually buy all this... Well actually I do, just not from an evil, bullying, gossip like you. I really just wanted you to total it all up so you could see just how much money I won't be spending in your store every week. And neither will either of my work mates who, I'm sure you know, usually spend about the same." It looked like the pack would be doing all of our grocery shopping in the Rez store from now on. My grin turned feral. "In fact, as Chief of my tribe, I'm suddenly realising I should encourage my people to keep their money to the Rez as much as possible." I looked around, noticing that several other members of the vicious little pack of gossiping biddies were the owners of businesses in Forks. "I do so hope that won't put a dent in any of your profits, ladies. After all, then you'd all have to work that much harder, and might find yourselves short on time you could be using to spread nasty little lies about other people behind their backs. Well." I clapped my hands together once, loudly, "I guess I'll be off. I've got a couple hundred people to chat to about the new tribal policy on spending outside the Rez. Ta ta." I raised my hand and wiggled my fingers at the store owner in the most sarcastic wave I could muster, turned and strode back out of the store, grinning fit to split my face.

Repeating my entire grocery shop at the store on the Rez was a real (for me) trauma. When I got back to my place I found Jared and Paul lounging around in my sitting room.

"Make yourselves useful and put this lot away." I said, dumping the bags on my kitchen table and making my way into the sitting room to flop down on the couch. I was too restless though and after a moment I got up again and began pacing.

"What's got your panties in a bunch, Boss?" Paul asked, coming back into the room and throwing himself down in a chair. Jared strolled in behind him and leaned against the wall.

"I'm going commando, just like you, and for the hundredth time, Paul, don't call me Boss" I growled.

"In answer to your question though, nothing's 'got my panties in a bunch'. I'm just too full of adrenaline to sit still." They both tensed.

"Why? What happened? Was it the red headed leech again?" Jared demanded.

"No no. Nothing like that. No vampires. Just people. There are some seriously nasty pieces of work living in Forks, and it's not always the ones you expect." They looked confused at my cryptic answer, so I tried to explain. "I was in the store in Forks and..." I stopped. "Hold on. I've got a better idea. Come outside and phase. I'll show you. It'll be quicker than explaining it and you'll understand it better that way anyway." That was one of the big advantages and disadvantages of the pack mind. Not only could we see and hear what each other was thinking, but we could feel the emotions of the others too. It helped us understand each other so much. We might not agree with the emotions we felt from each other, but it helped us to understand where one another was coming from on a lot of issues. They both followed me out of the house and around back, where we would remain unseen by any passers by, and we all stripped and phased.

"Look." I showed them my entire trip to the Forks supermarket, from first hearing the nasty gossips, to my final sarcastic finger wiggling wave and triumphant exit.

"Fuck me. Those are some lovely people, right there." Jared's tone dripped sarcasm. "But I've got to say damn, that Bella Swan's a strong one to handle all that so well. Who'd have thought it from someone so tiny?" He compared the brief memory he had of her from just a couple of weeks after she first came back to Forks, with my memory of her from the store. "Holy shit, dude. What the hell happened to her? Has she got cancer or something? She must've lost about twenty pounds. You think she's got an eating disorder or something?"

"Bad, isn't it?" I said "but she looks better than she did yesterday." I showed them the memory of her from the previous day, the huge bruise-like bags under her eyes, the drawn, dry skin, I even showed them her weird panic attack.

'Yeah. I see what you mean." Jared agreed. "She at least looks like she got some sleep last night. But still..." Jared was cut off by Paul jumping in angrily.

"What the fuck is all this shit about? Who the hell cares? So the little leech lover managed to hold her own against the Forks biddy brigade. Big deal. She deserves whatever she's got coming to her anyway for fraternising with vampires. In my opinion there's no smoke without fire. Even if she's not been doing the same here, I'd be willing to bet she slept her way through half her school back in Phoenix, so if the gossip caught up with her she deserves that too. No way you're telling me that a girl who looks like she does, or did before the leeches left anyway, hasn't had more than her share of boyfriends." Paul was pacing back and forth in his anger, the grey fur of his hackles raised. "And as for the drugs thing? I wouldnt be at all surprised. If she doesn't look like a heroin addict - pale, unhealthy skin, drastically underweight, bags under her eyes, long sleaved, baggy clothes and zoned out expression - then I don't know who does!" I growled at him angrily.

"That's not the point, Paul. No-one deserves to have vicious rumours spread about behind their backs, especially not an already damaged young woman. You know, you've seen, how I feel about gossips and why. I don't care if she's sleeping with every guy from here to Seattle, that's her business and no-one else's." I wasn't prepared for the flinch of pain that caused me, so I wasn't able to hide it from the others. "And seriously, Paul? Heroin addict? Do you honestly think the Chief wouldn't catch onto that shit in a split second?" Paul had made me so mad that had I not already been in wolf form, I would've phased instantly. Jared took the momentary pause in our argument to interject.

"What I'm curious about, Sam, is your wolf's fascination with her scent. What's got him so excited that he wants to rub himself all over her?" He paused to think for a moment, then leapt up in excitement. "Did you imprint on Bella Swan, and somehow keep it from us." Since Jared had imprinted himself, about two months before, on a girl in his class, he had been almost obsessed with seeing Paul and I join him in his perma-happy state. Paul froze, almost incandescent with rage at the thought, and I was quick to set them right.

"No, of course not, Jared. Number one, I don't think that's even possible - dont the Elders say that imprinting is about genetics, about creating better wolves for the future? - She's not even native, so that rules that out. And number two ..." I deliberately thought of every moment in which mine and Bella's eyes had met, to show them the proof. "See? No earth moving, no gravity shift, no choirs of angels singing in the background. Nothing. I don't know what my wolf's issue is, but I'll tell you this. If I was able to choose freely for myself without having to worry about hurting the woman later on should I imprint, Bella Swan is exactly the sort of woman I'd pick for myself. She's selfless, strong, loyal, forgiving and kind." I flashed through memories showing examples of each of these qualities for them to see. "And she may look pretty unwell right now, but she really is very beautiful when she's healthy." A brief flash of Bella laughing today, head thrown back, face light and open, smooth white throat exposed, and sheets of thick wavy hair falling down her back like a mahogany waterfall, ran through mt mind. "Hell, she has her moments even now." Paul shot forward to stand so close to me that our muzzles were touching.

"You've got to be kidding me." He snarled in fury. "Have you forgotten? Do I have to spell it out to you? She. Is. A. Leech. Lover. She fucks the undead. She's a necrophiliac. She likes to ride an icy, stone pole. She is the definition of scum" My frail grip on my temper failed. Snarling and growling I leapt up, pinning Paul to the ground, his belly in the air, and his head turned to the side in submission. The Alpha tone rolled through my words.

"ENOUGH. Be silent, Paul." I continued on in my normal voice. "I couldnt ever offer her a committed relationship, as Ive got no guarantee that I wouldn't imprint and have to leave her, and anyway, as of right now, she's in no way ready to think about dating, and I don't know if she ever will be, at least before she graduates and leaves for college. But I do know, that if she ever is ready, and looking to date before she leaves, I would count myself very lucky to have the chance to date Bella. And I will take that chance if it comes up. And you, Paul Lahote, will show her some respect, or if you can't manage that simple task, you will keep your fucking mouth shut. Am I understood?" I issued the Alpha order with relish. Normally I hated the thought of removing Jared or Paul's free will, but on this occasion I was more than glad to do so. It was only a small measure of protection I could offer her, but I was determined that she would not be hurt by at least this one person. I hadn't actually planned on saying any of that about dating Bella, I'd not given the matter any conscious thought at all, it had just sort of spilled from my mouth all by itself, but now that I had said it, I found myself very pleased with the idea, and planned to follow up on it if the opportunity arose.

"Let's have no more of this for now. Paul, you have patrol from now til midnight. Jared," I turned at looked at him over my shoulder "you and I have quotes to make at a couple of houses for repairs. We're due at the first one at 7:30, so lets phase back and grab what we need so we can head out." Paul scrambled to his feet and tore off through the woods to start his patrol like there were a hundred marriage minded women on his tail, and Jared and I shifted back and grabbed our clothes. As we climbed into my truck Jared grasped my elbow and pulled me to a stop.

"I don't want to piss you off, Sam, but you know that wolves are monogamous animals. They mate for life. Casual dating might really send your wolf for a loop. It might not work out, and I don't wanna see you hurt yourself trying to be with Bella even if its just for a short time." He swallowed and took a deep breath. "And I won't let you hurt her in the process either." He warned me with a wary expression, obviously worried about my response. I smiled. This was why he and I were so close. He really was a good guy. I was truly lucky to know him.

"I really hadn't thought about that, Jared. I wasn't planning on saying any of that, it just sort of said itself. But now I think about it, my wolf seems to like Bella a whole lot for some reason, I think it might actually work out. But if it looks like its not going to, I'll make sure to back out of the situation before either of us are in too far. I don't want to see her hurt any more than you do." I clapped him on the shoulder and jerked my head towards the truck "Now come on. We've got a quote to make." I started the engine and turned to smirk at him. "At Chief Swan's house."