So there I was, writing the next part, not wanting to get lynched for leaving you hanging for too long after that cliffie in Bella's POV in the last chapter. But the chapter kept growing and growing and growing, bloody Sam just had his points to make and wouldn't let me cut him off. So I split the **EPIC** length (even by my standards!) chapter into 2 parts, then knowing that I'd be justifiably killed in my sleep if I still left you hanging at the split point, I thought I'd probably best post both parts together. then the second part kept growing and growing and growing, but I really didn't want to split it again so you lucky people are now going to be treated to 2 **HUMUNGOUS** chapters in Sam POV, in one day, and then it's back to Bella POV again. I hope you enjoy! :0)
Stephenie Meyer owns the Twilight Saga. I own twitchy fingers that enjoy writing for no profit.
Chapter 37: Groceries and Grumbling
With everyone set on their tasks, I ran back towards the Rez and (phasing back before I did so, of course) I stopped into the grocery store to find my mom. With everything else being so up in the air, I really didn't want to lose out on re-establishing our relationship, but at the same time, I couldn't exactly just tell her why I was so incredibly busy all the time and if she wanted to be spending time with me like I was hoping and expecting she would, the last thing I needed was her to be getting pissed with me because I was never available when she was. I figured a good way to prevent the issue before it even came up, without having to tell epic amounts of lies to my own mother, would be to stop in here and there whenever I had a few minutes spare, so at least she couldn't claim that she never got to see me at all. Hopefully once things settled down with the pack, and once we'd managed to kill that red-headed bitch, I'd be available a fair bit more and my mom and I could get back to the closeness we'd had before my life had gone to wolf shit.
With it being Sunday, it was pretty quiet in the store and my mom was sitting at a till, chatting with another member of staff who was leaning against the counter. I guessed that the other woman was s'posed to be stacking shelves or something, but as there were only a couple of customers wandering aimlessly about the aisles, and no manager types to be seen, taking the chance for a break seemed sensible to me. As I walked over, my mom looked up and gave me a surprised but bright smile.
"Sam! Hi there, Honey. I wasn't expecting to see you in here today. Have you come to shop or to see me?" I grinned back at her, feeling a big part of the tension I'd been carrying around with me ease off just from the simple fact that my mom was there and we were talking again.
"Holy shit, I'm such a mama's boy." I gave a mental snort. I leaned across the counter and gave Mom a noisy buss on the cheek like I used to a few years ago before the whole wolf thing blew our relationship to crap. She gave me a watery but happy smile at the gesture and then looked me over, only now realising that I was only wearing a pair of cut-offs.
"Sam, aren't you freezing your ass off? Seriously, you don't own shirts anymore?" She asked. I was just glad she hadn't noticed I was barefooted as usual.
"No, Mom. I just never seem to feel the cold. I guess I'm a walking space heater." I answered truthfully, but not elaborating further. "And to answer your question, I'm not shopping. I was heading over to the drop-in centre and I had a couple of minutes so I figured I stop in and see my favourite lady on the way." She rolled her eyes at my obvious brown-nosing, but she couldn't help but be amused by it.
"Yeah, yeah, suck-up." She snorted. "But it is nice to see you, Honey. How's Bella?" I hid an eye roll of my own.
"Subtle, Mom." I chuckled. "I've not heard from her today, but she was ok when she left yesterday, and she text me last night to let me know she'd had a good time apart from the whole burnt hand thing." Mom gave a sympathetic grimace for poor Bella's lobster hand.
"Yeah that was… unfortunate. I don't know why you risked the diner on a Saturday morning anyway, did you just forget that Leah would be there. I shrugged.
"Basically, yeah. But we didn't have much choice; I tried to make breakfast and, well, let's just say that my cooking skills haven't improved at all I the last couple of years, and I was already low o groceries before I tried. By the time I was done trying, I'd killed everything edible in the place, along with a previously decent frying pan, so it was the diner, or go hungry." I chuckled at the embarrassing memory of the breakfast disaster. Mom laughed along with me.
"Wait. So you've got no groceries in at home?" She asked, concerned. I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes at her.
"Not right now, Mom. I've got so many tribal duties on my hands these days, as well as construction work, that I have to squeeze in the grocery shopping whenever I've got a quick minute or two spare. It's not going to happen today though; I've just got far too much to do. It doesn't matter – I'll just have to buy diner food for lunch and dinner, and hope I get a few moments free tomorrow." Mom glared at me.
"With the way you eat?" she asked incredulously. "You'd spend a small fortune and still not fill that bottomless pit. If you're too busy with your duties to come to mine for a meal, then I guess I'll just stock up your cupboards myself. Leave me your key and I'll use my staff discount here to get everything you need, then I'll take it to yours and pack it all away." I stared at her in shock.
"Mom, you really don't have to do that. I really can manage…" She cut me off with an airy wave of her hand.
"I know I don't have to. But I want to." She replied. "If Mohamed is too busy working himself into the ground to come to the mountain…." She offered me a tentative smile. "Please, Sam. Let me do this for you. It's a mom thing, and I've missed being able to do stuff like this for you." I swallowed the lump in my throat and blinked heavily, my eyes blurring up a little.
"Ok, Mom." I said throatily. "Thank you. It'd mean a lot to me and it would really make my life a little easier. I'll pay you back as soon as I can grab some cash…" I was cut off again.
"Oh no no no no! Like I said, it's a mom thing, and you've already agreed to let me do it, so you can't take it back now, and I won't accept you money." I leaned across and gave her a huge hug, accompanied by another loud peck on the cheek.
"Thank you." I said simply, and she caught my hand and squeezed it in reply.
"You'd better get going, Honey. The tribe's not going to run itself." She told me with a broad grin, and I snorted in amusement and nodded.
"Yeah, I guess." I said ruefully. "I'll try to free up some time in the next couple of days so I can come by and see you properly at your house, if that's ok?"
"Of course it's ok." She replied, holding out her hand. I looked at it blankly, "Key?" she reminded me.
"Oh yeah." I chuckled. "There's a key under the black rock to the left of the steps out the front. I keep losing my key when I'm running about the Rez, so I tend to put it there when I go out. It's either that or invest in shares with the guy that cuts keys down the road." She gave an indulgent sigh. And laughed a little.
"You never were much good with keeping hold of your keys." She reminded me. "Ok lack rock, left of steps, got it. Now you go get on with whatever it is you need to get done, and when you get home there'll be plenty in the house for you to eat." Giving her another quick hug, I headed out, waving at her over my shoulder as I left. Considering it had only been a quick couple of minutes, it was amazing how much better I felt.
On Sundays when they weren't out fishing, Billy and Harry would often come down to the drop-in centre. Sometimes helping me out with repairs around the place, sometimes running activities for the kids, sometimes just hanging out and shooting the shit with whoever else was around at the time. Obviously I knew that neither of them was fishing, so I was hoping to find one or both of them there when I jogged up the steps to the entrance. Billy had been really pretty awesome at the farcical meeting that morning, but there were those few comments loaded with emphasis that I wanted to discuss with him, and as for Harry… Well we clearly needed to clear the air between us. The crazy thing was that I wasn't actually that pissed at him. I mean, sure, he'd fucked up mightily by listening to Leah's crap and going off half cocked, even though I was pretty sure that Seth had probably tried to reason with him, and sure, he'd totally ambushed me with that text, getting me to the un-announced meeting, and sure, he'd… "Hang on. Why am I not that pissed at him again?" I wondered. "Oh yeah. Because although he'd handled things almost 100% wrong from beginning to end, at least he'd realised his mistake and had switched teams the moment he's known just how badly he'd fucked up." On top of that, while I had very little basis for comparison, my own shitty excuse for a father having ditched Mom and me so long ago, I could only assume that when it came down to it, Harry was being a pretty awesome father. Technically he wasn't supposed to side with his family during tribal matters; he, along with the rest of the Elders, was supposed to be unbiased and completely neutral. But to be honest, I really didn't think I'd have been able to respect the guy as much if he'd actually been capable of that. When push came to shove, tribe was important, of course, but family should always be the most important thing to a person. Something that my fuck-awful father had clearly never grasped. I wasn't going to just completely let the man off the hook; he'd fucked up and we all knew it, but I could understand his part in it at least a bit. Old Quil was quite another matter.
Sure enough, once I got inside, I found Billy surrounded by kids, all listening to him telling some of the old stories. "No-one ever tells them as well as Billy does." I smiled to myself. "Though I guess that now I'm chief, I'd better start paying a bit more attention. One day it will be my turn to do the story telling." Harry was in the kitchen, fixing up the broken cupboard doors. Something I'd had on my to-do list for fucking ages, but with the sheer length of that list, somehow the cupboards had always ended up getting shunted by something more important. I figured I leave Billy to it for a bit, not wanting to interrupt a story that the kids were obviously enjoying, judging by how amazingly quietly they were all sitting as he spoke. "Probably better to get talking to Harry over and done with anyway." I told myself, wandering through to the kitchen. I jumped up and sat on one of the counters, waiting until Harry had the door he was working on secured before I started.
"I didn't appreciate being ambushed like that, Harry." I said quietly, jumping straight into things rather than beating around the bush. He flushed darkly and ducked his head in embarrassed shame.
"I know, Sam. I fucked up royally and I'm sorry as hell about it." He replied. "It's no excuse at all, but I just sort of stopped thinking clearly when I saw how upset my little girl seemed to be. I guess I forgot that she's always been a little sly, forgot too that Seth has always been truthful almost to a fault, and I forgot that I needed to handle anything to do with tribal business from an unbiased perspective." He snorted loudly. "Guess I forgot a lot today. And going along with Old Quil when I know he'd got his own agenda when it comes to the pack was just a special kind of stupid too." I studied his open face carefully. He was being completely honest as far as I could see; not trying to hide anything or defend himself in any way. It went a long way towards helping me get past his actions.
"I'm not going to disagree with you on any of that, Harry." I told him seriously. "I'm not in a position where I can give out a punishment to you to help you feel like you've atoned for any of it, like I am with Leah, So I guess you're going to have to work through the guilt yourself, but the apology is appreciated, and as you can clearly see where you went wrong, and I'm hoping you won't be making similar mistakes again, I guess I'm going to just let it lie so we can move forward." His face held a mixture of guilt, relief and regret, and I was pretty sure that at least a part of him wished that I could give him a punishment, so that he could feel he'd really made up for what he'd done.
"Thank you, Chief." He said simply, and I felt a strange heaviness settle on me with the quiet words. I knew I was theoretically the tribe's Chief, and I sure as hell was undertaking the burden of the responsibilities associated with the position, but none of the Elders had actually called me by my title since the first time they'd acknowledged my right to it after I first phased and it made it really hit home, yet for the first time it felt right. Like a pair of jeans that had finally become perfectly broken in and moulded to my form completely.
"I guess a trial by fire like today has its hidden silver linings then." I mused. "Though I'd preferred a less stressful way to find myself finally getting comfortable with my position."
I cleared my throat, sounding overly loud in the quiet, tense room. "You know, I noticed something about Old Quil today, just after Leah phased." I said. "He was afraid." Harry snorted.
"We were all afraid, Sam." He said, slighted exasperated. "Well us three Elders anyway, I guess the pack members didn't have too much to be afraid of." I shook my head.
"No, not afraid that Billy was hurt, or that someone might see a giant wolf in the council rooms, or even afraid that he might get hurt himself by accident." I explained. "He was genuinely terrified of us wolves. Not just of Leah and Jake in their wolf forms, he was petrified of Seth and I too, and for a split second I saw it, before he covered up and went back to his usual pompous expression. He looked like he genuinely though one of us might kill him." I shrugged, confused. "I know that he must've seen werewolves before; Billy can vaguely remember seeing his grandfather's wolf form on one occasion, and Old Quil is older than Billy, so he has to have seen it a long time ago too. Maybe now that he's so much older he feels more vulnerable or some shit like that though, because I'm pretty sure now that that's what his agenda has been about all along. If he's in charge of the pack, then he has less reason to fear us. That's why he's been throwing spanners in the works from day one, and why he tries to claim control over each little thing whenever he has the chance. He thinks that in some way that'll lead to him being in command of us all." I slapped the counter I was sitting on in irritation. "Does he really not understand that the pack loyalty is an absolute? It's just physically impossible for us to be under the command of someone who's not a part of the pack."
"He knows that he can't really be in charge of the pack, but knowing something and understanding it and accepting it are completely different things." Billy's voice came from the doorway and Harry and I looked up to find him there in his chair, a gaggle of kids playing noisily in the background behind him. No doubt acting out parts of the stories Billy had been telling them. "In reality, Sam. No matter how hard we try to understand, and no matter how much we think we get just how things work inside the pack, it's just not possible for us to fully comprehend it all without having phased ourselves, and that's just never going to happen." Billy gave Harry a significant look and after a pause, Harry nodded at him. "It's one of the reasons I've been trying to get the Elders' agreement that we hand the old pack journals over to you. Old Quil's been almost rabid about keeping hold of them ourselves and up 'til now, I don't think Harry's seen much reason to fight him over it, but it makes no sense to me that we should horde the only historical records the tribe has that would be of specific use to you as Alpha, only letting you look at them here with our permission. It seems to me that very little of it would be anything we could understand properly, not having been in your position ourselves. But maybe there's stuff in there that can help you out with any issues that might come up, like that strange separation you mentioned that you feel between you and your wolf. It's not something we would've known to look for, and we'd probably not have recognised it as unusual even if we had read it, but it would've jumped out at you and explained things without you having to worry over it. Stuff like that."
I nodded eagerly at him, glad that Harry was now on-board with his plan, meaning they had a majority vote and that I could keep the records and use them to help strengthen the pack. "Actually, I was thinking that maybe I should start keeping a journal of my own, and encourage the rest of the pack to do the same." I suggested. "You know, provide a bit of knowledge for the next generation of wolves." The two older men grinned and nodded.
"That's a very good idea." Harry agreed. "Probably something we should've suggested ourselves." He shrugged ruefully "That's actually been one of Billy's main arguments against Old Quil's rigid control over the pack; we're in a unique position here – it's never happened before that a new pack has sprung up under a Council of Elders who've never phased themselves. It's always made sense in the past for the Elders to be the guiding force behind the pack's actions, but I guess that's only because those Elders had experience phasing themselves and so knew what they were talking about. Right now I guess we're more like the blind leading the incredibly well-sighted. Makes no sense now that I've pulled my head outa my ass long enough to admit it." I laughed outright at that, relieved that Harry had obviously completely changed his tune. Considering just how crappy the day had started out, it had definitely massively improved. I wanted to ask Billy about his loaded statements during the meeting, but though I now knew Harry had adjusted his position, I didn't feel completely comfortable with getting into it in front of him, "Just in case." I thought. "No point shooting myself in the foot. I'll catch Billy another time and ask him then." As it happened, Billy saved me from even trying.
"Well as productive as all this talk is, I really need to get back to where I abandoned Charlie earlier." He announced, reversing his chair back through the kitchen door. "When Harry called me to tell me he'd… um… invited you to a meeting…" Harry flushed and looked at the floor. "I was out fishing with Charlie and I had to get Jake to come fetch me to the Council building. Harry, could you drive me back out to find Charlie again? You're welcome to join us, if you've got your fishing gear handy." Harry laughed.
"I always have my fishing gear handy." He said. "Sure, sounds like a plan. Come on then, old man. Let's go catch some fish. See you Sam, and again, I really am sorry for today. I'm grateful that you've let me off a lot lighter than you maybe should've." I clapped him on the back.
"It's done with now, Harry." I told him. "Let's just look at the positives that've come from it, and leave it at that." Billy gave me an approving nod.
"See you, Sam. Come by my place later, about half five?" He gave me another of his significant looks and realised I'd get my explanation then. I nodded.
"Will do. See you later, Billy, Harry."
After they'd left, I wandered back out into the main area of the centre, finding Embry there helping a couple of younger kids with their homework while he waited for me to be free. Seeing me, he wrapped up what he was saying to the kids and, waving cheerily to them, he walked over to me and we left by unspoken agreement through the back door to sit on one of the benches out there.
"You heard all that?" I asked him, gesturing over my shoulder to the kitchen behind us.
"Not all of it, I don't think." He replied. "But the important stuff anyway. I got here just as Billy was saying that we should have access to the old journals. It should be pretty helpful I reckon. And the idea of writing our own is probably a good one too, although good luck getting Paul to actually do it." He grinned cheekily at me and I chuckled.
"Yeah, Paul's not much of the literary type." I agreed. "But it's a worthwhile project, and maybe he'll get a kick out of one day being a revered ancestor to the future generations." We both laughed this time. "So basically I just wanted to check-in and see what was with the hospital trip. Was it about Bella's hand? Is the burn worse than we'd thought?" Embry shrugged.
"I really couldn't tell you, sorry." He said. "They didn't talk about it when I was near enough to hear, and when they got to the hospital, I did a quick run around the buildings to make sure there was no sign of a threat nearby, but I wasn't anywhere near close enough to get an idea of what was going on inside." He paused for a moment, thinking. "She didn't have any dressings on when she came out though, so I don't think it could've been to do with her hand. Shit, for all we know it was her friend that needed to make the hospital visit, and Bella tagged along for, I don't know, moral support or something." I nodded; that was the sort of thing Bella would do if asked, actually she'd do it even if she wasn't asked.
"So nothing really to report other than the run there and back then?" I checked. "No sign of the redhead?"
"Nope. Nothing at all." Embry replied with a casual shrug. "Bella and her friend left the hospital, made a fairly quick stop at a bookshop and drove back. Bella said she had a ton of homework she'd not touched yet, and I guess we both know why." I nodded again. "From what I could tell, she was still doing that when Jake and Seth came to take over. All I was really doing was sitting around outside just in the tree-line, ad making a slow loop around her house every so often so nothing started growing on me." We both chuckled a little at that and I clapped him on the back, standing up to leave.
"Thanks, dude, good to hear it was nice and boring. I get the feeling that boring's going to be getting a bit rare in the near future, what with one thing and another. Oh yeah!" I suddenly realised I'd forgotten something. "What about when you went to check on Quil? Anything new to report on that front?" The expression on his face was an odd mix of frustration and fond amusement.
"Nothing new. He's always been so fucking laid back, I think it's why he's not completely lost his temper and phased already." He sighed heavily, a familiar sad and guilty look crossing his face. "It's got to be any time now." I could completely understand the sadness and regret for his friend; while each of us had found a certain acceptance of our new lives, none of us would wish it on our friends. But for both Jake and Embry there was also the guilt for how lonely their friend was feeling without them, and also for their anticipation of getting their friend back once he did phase.
"Well, all we can do is keep an eye on him and wait like we have been. Judging from the way he handled himself today, I think Jake's ready to get back to school, although I'd prefer to hold off at least another week before he spends much time around Bella. Much as I hate to say it, maybe him being back at school and yet avoiding Quil we be the thing that sends Quil over the edge into finally phasing." I winced at how callous that sounded, but really it would end up being for the best, rather than having it drag on much longer. We both fell quiet, neither of us really knowing what to say to lighten the atmosphere.
I suddenly remembered my thoughts earlier that day. "Hey do you think you and Jake might want to pick up a little work here and there on a few of my construction jobs?" I asked him as he stood up. "Obviously you'll both have school, but when you're not in there or on pack business, you could both be earning yourself a bit of cash and it'd make life easier, faster and safer on the jobs if all my workers were wolves. Maybe Quil will want some work too, once he joins us." He grinned widely, already nodding before I'd even gotten to the part about school.
"That'd be really awesome, Sam, thanks." He replied eagerly. "Obviously I can't be certain without checking, but I'd bet Jake would be glad of the work too. I know I'd really like to be able to help my mom with the bills and stuff, especially now I'm always eating her out of house and home, and a job might get her to back off on the whole worrying I'm becoming a delinquent." A dark look crossed his face for a moment and I could only wince and squeeze his shoulder in empathy. I'd had similar problems with my own mom, and I knew how hard it was on all of us (except perhaps Jake) to be working our asses into the ground to keep the tribe and our families safe, and yet not be able to tell them, catching their disappointment and worry instead of the pride the whole pack deserved from our families.
"Yeah I know it's tough, man, but you're right, maybe telling her you've got a job will help a little. If nothing else, it'll give you a reason to be leaving the house, so you won't have to keep pulling a Houdini out of your window." I teased, pulling another grin from him. "So I'll ask Jake too when I see him, and I could actually use some help on one of the projects I've got going on now. I'll text you the details. For right now, you should take advantage of a little down time and head home. Maybe spend a bit of time with your mom and tell her about the job; no time like the present." He grinned again and, flicking a casual wave at me over his shoulder, he headed off into the trees, obviously planning on phasing and running home through the forest.
Pulling my cell out of my pocket to check the time, I realised that if I was quick, I'd be able to catch my mom over at my place where she was probably just now packing away the groceries she'd insisted on buying for me. I stuck my head in to shout goodbye to the few people still at the drop-in centre and began a steady jog back through town towards my house.
I timed it just right. My mom was just putting away the last few things as I walked in through my door and called out hello.
"Hi, Sam Honey." Mom called back. "Just finishing up in the kitchen. I wandered slowly in, finding it a little weird and surreal to see my mom in my house; she'd never been here before, and it was actually really nice to see her bustling away in my kitchen. Made the place feel more homely, just like it had to see Bella zooming around the kitchen making me lasagne.
"Hey Mom. Thanks again or getting me the groceries. You really didn't have to pack it all away for me. It's already more than enough that you bought them for me, you could've just dumped them on the counter."
"Pffff." She responded, flapping one hand at me in the universal signal for 'don't be ridiculous.'
She put away the last couple of boxes – family packs of Pop tarts "Fucking awesome, whatever else I have for dinner, those are going to be desert." And turned to look at me.
"It was no trouble packing it away, and if I'd left it to you, half of it would've ended up being eaten before it saw the inside of a cupboard." She joked. "So did you get all the pack business squared away?" she asked, leaning back against the counter.
"Most of it." I replied with a shrug. "It's kind of a never ending avalanche of crap sometimes – Council issues and day-to-day stuff like keeping the drop-in centre up and running half the time. I've got to go see Billy in a bit, and then later on this evening I've got some other stuff that needs doing, but I've at least got the early evening off so I can see what I can rustle myself up for a decent dinner from all this great stuff you've got me… Well as long as I don't screw it up like I did with yesterday's breakfast." She grinned at me, trying to hold back a laugh at my expense.
"Well if you're available, why not give your groceries time to settle in before you demolish them, and come have dinner with your old mom?" She suggested. "It's been so long since I got to feed you and I've really missed it." She added with a watery smile. I swallowed past the lump that had formed in my throat.
"Thanks, Mom, I'd really love that." I said, a little huskily. "I'm s'posed to meet Billy at his place at about half past five, but I shouldn't be there all that long." I had a sudden thought. "I tell you what; how about you take the chance to have a nose about my place while I grab a quick shower, then we can sit around and chat here 'til I have to go to Billy's, then I'll give you a ride to yours on the way, and head back to yours right after I'm done?" The smile I got at my suggestion was positively beaming.
"That sounds really great, Honey, Thank you." She said, reaching up to stroke the side of my face in a familiar and long-missed gesture. "You go ahead and get cleaned up then, and I'll make myself busy sticking my nose in every corner of your house. I hope you haven't got anything embarrassing lying around that you don't want your old mom to see." She teased. I scoffed.
"Firstly, that's the second time you've called yourself old, and we both know that's bull." I winked. "And secondly, seriously, nothing could ever be as embarrassing as the time you found my porn stash and laid it all out on my pillow so I'd know you'd found it. So I really couldn't give a shit if you find anything embarrassing now."
"I see your language hasn't improved." She mock-glared at me. This time it was my turn for the 'don't be ridiculous' signal.
"Pffff. Like I didn't learn most of my curses from you." I grinned at her over my shoulder, heading for the bathroom and narrowly avoiding the snap of the dish towel she'd grabbed from the counter and flicked at my ass. Laughing all the way down the hall, I went straight to the bathroom, pausing only to grab a towel from the linen closet on the way. I could hear her familiar laughter following me as I went and I marvelled again at how such a crappy start to the day could've turned around to something so great. Shutting the bathroom door behind me, "great, the scent in this room still gives me a semi." I rushed through my shower and dressed in a pair of cut-offs as usual, and as a nod to my mom, pulled on a faded band t-shirt too; She'd already passed comment that day on how little I wore, no need to rock the boat.
The time before I needed to go to Billy's went past too quickly in a blur of swapping news and laughing over old memories, and if it hadn't been for the fact that I knew I'd be having dinner with her in around an hour, I'd really have been sorry to have to tell my mom we needed to go.
Dropping Mom off on the way, I drove my truck down to Billy's and was surprised to see Charlie's cruiser still parked outside. I was less surprised to see Paul's beat-up truck there; even if I hadn't told him he should go see Rachel, the need to spend as much time as possible around his imprint would've driven him here anyway. Judging from the two already imprinted, both our human and wolf sides needed the contact with our imprints, almost as much as we needed air food and water, particularly when the bond was still new. Paul had had trouble keeping his wolf instincts at bay the day before when he'd pulled extra patrol. They were pulling almost unbearably at him to turn around and run straight to Rachel, even if it was just to look at her sleeping through her window, to make sure she was safe and well. "Something else to look up once I've got my hands on the journals." I thought to myself, climbing out of my truck and heading up to Billy's back door – I could hear him and Charlie talking in the kitchen back there. I tapped on the door frame and pulled the door open when I heard Billy call
"Come on in." To me. Sure enough, as I walked inside, Charlie and Billy were just finishing up a beer each, and Charlie was reaching for his keys, ready to leave.
"Hey, Sam." Charlie greeted me, waving his almost empty bottle in my direction. "Good to see you, how's it going?"
"Hey." I smiled at him. "It's been a hell of a couple of days, but this afternoon's been a lot better." I said, avoiding the details. "How about you? And Bella? How's she doing today?" I'd been sort of hoping that I wouldn't run in to Charlie too soon after the events of the previous evening; it was a really awkward situation, him knowing about me being a wolf, Bella knowing that the wolves existed, and neither one knowing that the other knew. I just hoped that Charlie would assume I was just generally checking up on Bella, and wouldn't wonder any further than that. Of course I hadn't taking into consideration the perceptiveness of the pair of them, nor their unusually close father-daughter bond.
"I'm glad you asked actually." He said, putting down his now empty bottle. "When she came home last night I had to have it out with her over a note she'd left me." I raised a questioning eyebrow at the dark look that spread over his face as he mentioned the note. "It was the closest thing I've seen to a suicide note without actually being one." He said, his distress clear in his voice. I couldn't reply for a few minutes, locked in a silent three way battle with my own emotions at the thought of Bella harming herself and my wolf's sudden rabid insistence that I phase right there and run off to check on Bella right the fuck now! I gripped the kitchen counter fiercely, locking down all my muscles as the struggle went on, and when a few minutes later I'd managed to battle down both my own sense of dread and my wolf's too, I noticed I'd snapped a large piece of the Formica work surface away in my hand.
"Sorry, Billy." I muttered darkly. "I'll come fix that tomorrow for you." He waved me off.
"It's no problem, get to it whenever you can." We both looked expectantly at Charlie, waiting to hear more. He watched me warily, clearly understanding just how close to things getting hairy we had been.
"So yeah, Bella had accidently left a note in her jeans pocket and I found it while sorting the laundry. It was basically a goodbye letter in case she ran into difficulties and didn't make it out of them again. That's why I was in such a foul mood yesterday while we were out with Harry; I'd challenge anyone to not be beside themselves if they found a letter from their kid saying that they were sorry, and they loved you, but to keep the parent out of danger, they were basically gonna sacrifice themselves. She kept it all incredibly vague, and if I hadn't already known about you wolves, Sam, then I'd have had no clue what she was doing, but as it was, I did have more than a clue, and even though I knew she'd not made good on the details of her note… yet… I can tell you that the thought of her throwing herself straight at a vampire threat to keep me safe scares me spit-less." I could totally empathise with him there; the thought of it had all the blood wanting to drain out of my body, even knowing that she was being guarded by Jake and Seth right at that moment and so was safe. Charlie continued.
"So when she got home last night I had it out with her, pushing her to tell me what she knew, or as much of it as she would tell me without violating any promises she'd made, and in return I shared as much as I knew, without" he added, noticing my and Billy's bristling "without actually giving her any more information about the wolves than she already had." I settled back down. "I basically let her know that I knew what she knew, and we talked about her relationship with the Cullen boy and I made her promise if she finds herself in more of the same trouble, she'll let me, and whichever wolf is around, know straight away, before she goes wading in all self-sacrificing for the greater good." He gave a sour, humourless chuckle at that, and I couldn't help but feel the same relief as he must've been feeling; Bella had promised, and she wasn't someone who broke promises if she could help it.
"Ok then." I said. "So she knows that you know, and you know that she knows, but there are still a few things that she knows that you don't know, and things that you know that she doesn't know. That about sum it up?" I asked. The two older men grunted with surprised laughter, lightening the atmosphere in the room somewhat.
"Yeah, that's one way of putting it, I guess." Charlie chuckled. "I refused to tell her who you are in human form, but she was surprisingly knowledgeable about your other form." I shrugged.
"Yeah, she filled us in on what she knows and how last night. I'm guessing she did the same for you?" He nodded. "Well then, thanks for giving me the update, I guess. How is she today? Not too over-stressed about everything, I hope." I was mainly fishing for any kind of Bella news by this point; looking for a sop for my wolf's desire to go see her, and for my own wish to spend time with her too.
"Not so as anyone could notice," Charlie snorted. "That girl of mine is incredibly good with the weird, and has a disregard for her own well-being when weighed against other people's needs that borders on deserving of a Darwin Award." This time it was my turn to let out a bark of surprised laughter. "I think that basically, once she's made a decision on something, she can face everything that comes from that decision calmly and with an almost Zen-like acceptance. It's disconcerting at best for a father to witness, but I can't help but be proud of how brave she is, not that she sees it as bravery." He grabbed his keys from the now broken counter, and opened the back door. "Well now that I've filled you in on all of that, I'll head home. Bella and I are doing the pizza and movie thing at home tonight and I'm looking forward to spending a nice quiet evening at home with my little girl."
"Have a good evening, Charlie." I told him. "Co-incidentally I'm doing something similar with my mom tonight before I have to take over the patrol, so I can see why you're looking forward to it." Billy said goodbye to Charlie too and then wheeled ahead of me into the living room as Charlie left out the back.