Chapter 4 - We'll Jump the Flag Pole and Light Up the Night

- At the Cullen residence -

Emmett's POV

Four days. Four agonizing days Rosalie has been holed up in her room. The rest of us don't need to have Jasper's ability to feel Rosalie's heartbreak pouring out of her room. The emotions are so bad that the rest of the family can barely stand to be inside the house. Poor Jasper had to camp out a few miles from the house.

I can't just stand around and hope that things will get better. Which leads to the family meeting that we're having.

All we seem to be doing is going around in circles. By the tenth time of this ring around the rosie (no pun intended) I've had enough and decide to take action.

While everyone else is going back and forth I decide to go straight to the source and get the information straight from the horse's mouth.

So I scroll through my contacts until I find Amber's number and hit dial.

As I pull my phone up to my ear, I thankfully don't have to wait long for an answer. When Amber answers with a "Hey Em, what's up?" I realize that everyone has stopped arguing and are staring at either me or my phone.

"Hey Am, well I wanted to know if you were down for hanging out?" Amber replied almost instantly "Sweet sounds good to me. Did you have anything specific in mind or are you down for whatever?" I breathe a silent sigh of relief that this plan is actually working. "No, I'm good with whatever; did you have any plans for tonight?" I ask. Amber chuckled and says "naw, not really. I'm at the Class Six picking up some alcohol, and then I was just going to chill at home. Why don't you pick up some food and meet me at my place and we'll watch some movies and play some video games. You're more than welcome to crash at my place." I grin and quickly agree then we both hang up after saying our goodbyes.

As I stuff my phone back in my pocket, I look up at my family who all has a wide range of emotions. Jasper quickly steps up to me and says "this is either the best idea that you've ever had or this situation is about to get 100 times worse" as he shakes his head.

-Time Skip-

Still Emmett's POV

Later into the night finds both of us already a few drinks in and nursing our current beers, so there's no way of actually being drunk, but definitely loose enough that I feel like I can broach the subject that's led me here. I just have to find a way to bring it up in conversation.

20 minutes later we both decide to play some Mario Kart.

"Wait, wait, wait, you're telling me that there's a song called "Hey Mario" and it's about Mario?" I exclaim. "Hell yeah bro, it's by this amazing band called "Patent Pending" and you have to listen to it while you play Mario" Amber replies. "Of course, crank that shit Am" I shout.

Right in the middle of our 3rd race, Amber phone goes off, so we pause the game and the music as she grabs the phone from the coffee table in front of us. As she looks to see whose calling I notice that it's the girl that's caused my sister so much trouble. Amber says that she's sorry, but she has to take this real quick, and I nod for her to go ahead and answer as I pretend to be more occupied with my pizza than with eavesdropping, but I'm so totally listening in.

Amber: "Hey Cat, what's up?"

Kathleen: "Well I called to ask if you could come over. I missed you and I need you"

At hearing this Emmett almost chokes on his beer. Thankfully Amber was too wrapped up in her conversation to notice.

Amber: "Oh, you need me now huh?" (As she smirks)

Kathleen: "yeah, I need you to unclog my drain"

Amber: "already? I mean I just did it 4 days ago."

At this point Emmett thinks he's going to lose his mind. I mean he can only take so much, right?

Kathleen: "I know, but it's clogged again and I'd like to take a shower without also taking a bath.

Emmett feels like his been smacked in the head with a 2 by 4, not that that would hurt him, but he's so confused.

Amber: "Ok, I'll look at it tomorrow after work. Em's over and we're hanging out tonight."

Kathleen: "ok, sounds good to me. Thanks Amber. I love you and have fun."

Amber: "Thanks, we will. See ya tomorrow. Love you too. Goodnight."

Kathleen: "goodnight"

As Amber hung up Emmett wasn't sure how he wanted to approach the subject, but he found himself saying "I didn't know that you had a girlfriend". What surprised him was when Amber gave him a blank stare the proceeded to laugh her self into a stupor.

After she regains her composure, she asks "with Kathleen? Not a chance".

Confusion was plain as day on his face so Amber decided to clarify it for him.

"She's more like the weird sister in law, if I had to describe our relationship. Though thankfully over the last few months our relationship has become more settled." The only thing that Emmett says is "go on". As he swings some of his beer. Amber puts a hand on her forehead and proceeds to rub her face roughly as she exhales loudly.

She sighs and says "well it's a long story"

Emmett chuckles humorously and says "well we have liquor" as he pours a couple shots of whiskey. They clink glasses and down their shots. Amber grabs the whiskey bottle and drinks a healthy bit straight out of the bottle and says "ok, so you remember me telling you about Clay, right?" Emmett has to search his brain, but finally remembers a story about Clay and Amber when they were both sere candidates. "You both were sere candidates together, right?"

"Yeah, we were. Until Clay got injured. He fell off a cliff and into a ravine. His knee just didn't heal back the right way. He was dropped from the sere training pipeline. Clay said it was for the best, because he didn't think he would have actually made it through training even if he was able. He was cross trained into munitions systems. So he works with ammo and missiles. He loved the job right away and never regretted what happened. Anyway, we've been friends since basic. I mean you don't train and go through the stuff you get put through during the pipeline and not become close with your team. So as you can imagine we were super close."

Emmett confusingly asked "were?" Amber shoots her gaze towards the wall and said "Clay was KIA, killed in action. He was killed when his FOB in Afghanistan was attacked. Oh, a FOB is a Forward Operating Base. 3 military members died during the attack. It's been 3 years."

Emmett isn't sure how he can comfort Amber so he does what any "big brother" would do and wraps his arms around her for a hug. After a few minutes they pull apart and Emmett can't help but ask "So how does Kathleen fit into all of this?"

Amber takes another swig from the whiskey bottle and passes it to Emmett while saying "Well when he was stationed in Kansas we visited each other often. And we visited what family I have left down in Texas almost as often. "Emmett can't help but interrupt, because he wants to know what Amber means about what little family she has. Something told Emmett he wasn't going to like that story and he was proven right when Amber told him that one sad story was enough for one night. I assumed it had to do with what Amber had told Rosalie and Carlisle about her scars. I zoned back into the conversations when Amber continued "About 2 years later he met Kathleen. He fell head over heels, but couldn't work up enough nerve to finally ask her out for the longest time but, he finally did. They dated for about 6 months and he knew he was going to marry her. A few weeks before he was set to deploy for his second deployment we went ring shopping and he asked me to be his acting best man. He wanted to wait till after he got back home to ask her. He also asked me to watch after Kathleen, especially if something happens to him. Of course I immediately agreed, even given the fact that Kathleen didn't really like me. It basically boiled down to jealousy. Kathleen didn't understand our friendship. I think she thought that I was going to steal him or something. It caused a lot of fights. I mean unless you've either grown up with it as military-brats, (a kid that has either one or both parents in the military), or you're in or around a specialty unit like the sere squadron you just don't get it. Anyway, so fast forward to after Clay was killed and I have tried to look after Kathleen the best that I could, but she just never really wanted me around. Now I know it had more to do with the fact that I remind her so much of Clay. It wasn't until she was sent here for a TDY (a temporary deployment) for 4 months and she saw first hand what the sere unit was like; did she start to finally understand why Clay and I were so close. Thankfully Kathleen and I are in a good place."

Emmett just sits there, completely shocked. Of all of the things that he thought he could have been told he had no idea this would be the outcome, so I just sit there flabbergasted and I don't say anything at first. I finally come to my senses and whistle slowly, and saw "Man, that's some heavy shit. I'm glad everything is working out." Amber chuckles and says that she totally agrees. She stands up and says she going to grab some more liquor from the kitchen if we're going to keep up with these emotional heart to hearts. Suddenly I had the best idea I've ever had. I discreetly turn on my phone and set it up to record a video and prop it up so that I can hopefully bring Rosalie the proof that the situation with her mate isn't what it seems.

Thankfully I'm able to get the video footage that I need, now all I have to do it wait till tomorrow morning.

-The Next Morning-

Still Emmett's POV

I leap from my jeep and barrel into Rosalie's room. I know that she's still in an emotional downward spiral, because she didn't yell at me about knocking first. She just keeps staring out her window.

Without knowing how to snap Rosalie out of it I just rush out that Amber doesn't have a girlfriend.

Rosalie slowly turns to give me the most pathetic look that I have ever seen and quietly tells me that I shouldn't lie to her, she saw and heard it herself as she wraps her arms around her self.

I shout "NO! Rosalie, your mate is single; here watch this and you'll see." As I thrust my phone into her hands and press play for her.

Rosalie caresses Amber's face that appears on my screen. She almost drops the phone when the conversation finally sinks in about what's being said.

Emmett: "So, you're really not dating Kathleen."

Amber: "No, how many times do I have to say it. And like I told you, she's essentially my sister in law."

Emmett: "Are you thinking about dating anyone?"

Amber: "Why? You wanna?" As Amber chuckles and wiggles her eyebrows at him.

Rosalie growls at Emmett, but continues to watch the video.

Emmett with wide eyes replies, "no….I mean not that you're not great but you're just not"

Amber: "my type? Yeah, I feel the same way. Naww, I don't really date."

Emmett: "Why?"

Amber: "Well for starters, I don't believe in just dating just to date. That and my job...it's a hard life, to be in the military, not to mention a significant other having to deal with being involved with a military member. It's hard to find someone willing to put up with it. Throw in my type of job? Where there are a lot of uncertainties? It's even harder. Not to mention I have a lot of baggage. It's just not a good mix. Besides who would wanna date me?"

Then the video ends.

Rosalie stared at the blank screen for a solid 2 minutes, when she finally launches herself at Emmett in thanks. That's when Emmett knows that he's done the right thing.

He doesn't want to tell Rosalie what else he found out. That Amber honestly thinks that Rosalie hates her. That's a problem for tomorrow, because today the Cullen family are going to enjoy and bask in the fact that at least one problem has been resolved.

The other problem is I still don't know what the baggage that Amber talked about, not to mention her sad past.

As I see Rosalie come back to life, I know that by saying something to her about either of those right now is a catch 22. Either way is a lose lose situation. I'm going to let Rosalie be happy, at least for today, because I think her smiling right now is the most important thing.

We'll just have to see what the future holds.