NOVEL NEXT Chapter 47: ch 45
Seth's POV:
"Hello," a woman who stood at the counter said and looked hopefully at me.
"Hi, how can I help you?" I smiled at her.
"I heard you have a catering service. I'm not from around here…." She looked like she was lost and exhausted.
"But you did find the right place." I grinned.
"Thank god," breathed out a sighed of relief.
"My name is Stella Waren. The mother of my husband died and I have to organize a funeral in a town I have never visited before," she shook her head. It was impossible to miss the stressed out expression on her face.
"One of the owners of the catering service is here right now. I'll get her for you." I offered.
"That'll be great." She said as I was on my way into the kitchen to get Emily.
Emily and Hayden, Brady's older sister, were cooks at the restaurant. Hayden was actually planning to become a journalist but as their mother fell ill she came back from college. Originally she just wanted to set out a semester but then Lenox Nouri imprinted on her.
She is an amazing cook just like Emily and she came up with the idea of the catering service. Hayden is a little whirlwind and buzzes with energy. She didn't give her journalistic dreams up completely though. She has a quite successful internet blog to live out her passion.
"Hello my name is Emily Uley…." The two women talked about the funeral. As I listened to them both my mind wandered back to an incident a few years ago.
*
Flashback:
*
Would you please stop thinking about food! I still have to be on patrol for another four hours! And Kim is visiting her grandparents what means that I have to cook for myself tonight and you know how talented I am in the kitchen. Jared whined sarcastically.
Sorry buddy, but Bella is back from college and my mom had gone overboard in the kitchen she had been cooking since the early morning hours. And if you are this hungry just catch some snack. I told him while I was running my round around Forks.
Jared growled annoyed.
Your mom is pretty nervous about what Bella will think about her relationship with Charlie. She had been on the phone with my mother nearly the entire evening yesterday. Embry noted.
The far more interesting thing then the food is if Bella will survive this dinner. Bella and Leah don't really get alone. Last time Leah nearly gone wolf on the chief's daughter. Collin chuckled.
Ever since Bella broke Jake's heart Leah wanted to rip Bella head off.
Sorry, I just don't see the appeal. What's so special about her? She is boring as fu** and she isn't all that pretty we have much prettier girls on the rez. Why Jake is pinning after I will never know? Collin sighed sadly in his mind.
Don't ask me. She isn't my cup of tea at all and besides as it looks like she will become my sister in the future.
Is she still pinning after the leech? Isn't it about time she gets off her little puppy crush for the blood sucker. It's been over two years already. Jared chimed in.
What are humans suddenly not good enough anymore? Embry piped up.
Interested? Collin teased.
HELL NO! Not her. That girl is just weird. Embry screwed up his nose.
We all chuckled.
Since we are talking about weird what was going on with you and Kim yesterday? I asked Jared as I heard a familiar voice yell.
"Why did you have to come here? Why did you have to steal him from me?"
What is going on over there? Collin asked.
Is that Bella's voice? Embry wondered.
I'll check. I said and ran in the direction of the cemetery in Forks.
When I arrived there I saw Bella kneeling in front of Anna's grave hitting her balled fists on the granite plate of Anna's grave. Tears were leaking out of her blood shot eyes, running down her flushed cheeks.
Her entire body was shaking with the force of the sobs that tore from her chest. She was frantic and she looked like she was in hysterics.
Man, what's wrong with her? Collin wondered.
"Why did you have to take Edward away from me?" She shouted/sobbed at the grave.
Good thing Jake isn't on patrol right now. I knew it she's nuts. Embry snort and mentally rolled his eyes at her.
I stood at the edge of the woods covered by the trees and bushes around me and observed the scene that was playing out a few feet in front of me.
On the one hand I felt sorry for Bella because she obviously loved Edward very much but the fact that she was this hostile towards Anna made me angry at her at the same time. Anna had been my friend and when someone was talking badly about her that didn't sit well with me.
I was debating with myself what to do when I heard a car park in the lot in front of the cemetery and heard Charlie's voice call for his daughter the second he spotted her.
"Bella what are you doing? Steve called me and told me that he saw you going to the cemetery and that you had been crying." Her father murmured while he slowly approached her.
Bella looked at him with a broken and tear stained expression before she sobbed again and a strangled cry escaped her lips.
"It should have been me!"
"What do you mean?" Charlie asked her with a confused and concerned expression on his face.
Bella sobbed and brushed the tears from her right cheek with back of her hand before she answered.
"E-Edward....It should have been me!"
Charlie eased himself down in front of her. It looked like he was debating with himself what to do next before his hand reached out and petted her shoulder awkwardly.
Bella looked up at him with a broken expression and that was the moment when Charlie drew her into his embrace. Once she was securely in her father's arms it didn't take long before she began to hysterically cry into his shoulder.
"Bells, I don't understand what brought this on?" He asked after she seemed to have clamed a little.
Bella pulled away from her fathers embrace and tired to pull herself together, taking deep breaths, calming down from her hysterics.
"I…I don't know how to explain it but this isn't the life I was supposed to have."
Charlie gazed with a confused expression on his face at her.
"I tried, I really tried to ignore it but I can't anymore," she managed to say through her hiccup and then she shook her head.
"I don't know what changed…..I just….." She fell silent then while Charlie looked completely lost and scared. He was unable to cope with the situation. He had never been one to show emotions let alone to be able to deal with an emotional core melt accident.
"After I moved here. A few weeks after, I started to have those dreams." She choked out after a few moments.
"What dreams?" Charlie raised an eyebrow at her.
"About Edward Cullen," she breathed and Charlie sighed heavily. Bella immediately glared at him.
"What I feel for him isn't puppy love Ch-dad." She growled at him while a scowl settled on her face.
"Bells," he tried but she cut him off.
"No, listen, I was supposed to have my first date with him at a restaurant called "Bella Italia". I had never been there before dad when I had that dream," she looked intensely into his eyes demanding from him to understand.
"But once I accidentally found that place, as I was shopping with Angela in Port Angeles, it was as if I had a déjà vu. Everything was like in my dream the décor, the settings of the tables, the colours, even the same waitress I saw in my dream worked there."
"Bella," her father tried but she cut him off again.
"No, there is more. Do you remember the time I was camping with Jake on four weekends straight?"
"Yes, I do but what has that to do with your dreams?" Charlie asked her confused.
"I was also dreaming about a meadow. Edward's meadow to be exact. Jake and I we have been searching for it and we did find it. It looked exactly like in my dream, the trees, the river, everything."
Charlie looked more confused then ever and opened and closed his mouth a few time without saying a word in the end.
"That's not all. I also dreamed about their house. I had never seen it before but after Ed…..they left," her voice cracked and a sob tore through her chest. She needed a few moments to gather herself together.
"I went there and again it was just like in my dreams. In my dreams Edward and I had been together and happy. Alice had been my best friend and Carlisle and Esme welcomed me into their family. Emmett was like the big brother I never had." She was sobbing and brushing the big tears that rolled down her cheeks out of her face with the back of her hand.
"The dreams were so real and vivid as if someone was trying to show me how it should have been. I know I'm nothing special. I'm not pretty, or funny, nor do I have anything to offer but Edward loved me despite all that, even though I couldn't fathom that even in my dreams." She took a deep breath before she continued.
"In my dreams Anna wasn't there, it was as if she doesn't belong here and in Edward's life. We had a daughter, Edward and I, a beautiful baby girl. I named her Renesmee. She had my eyes and Edward's hair." A fresh wave of tears spilled from her eyes.
"I don't know how or why but she stole all that from me," Bella looked at Anna's grave with blazing furry and imputations in her eyes.
"It should have been me. I should have been together with Edward. It should have been Edward who saved me from that van. He should have fallen in love with me but she stole all that from me." She cried desperately.
"Bella," Charlie breathed softly and looked like he was concerned for his daughter's sanity and if I'm being honest so was I.
Despite the furry that I desperately tried to control, I couldn't stand the way she talked about Anna, I worried about her state of mind as well.
"Edward and I could have been together by now and go together to college and then have our beautiful baby girl and marry and grow old together if she hadn't appeared in his life and stolen him from me." She wailed.
At least her strange fantasies didn't tell her that the guy she is pinning after is a Vampire. Embry muttered disgusted with her display.
"Bells," her father chocked out and drew her back into his arms, pressing her firmly into his chest while a few silent tears started to leak out of his eyes because of his daughter's pain.
****
During dinner Bella was apathetic. She barely ate anything and spoke only when she was asked something. I had no idea what happened. She hadn't been that bad in ever, not even after the Cullen's left.
Mom, Charlie and I were doing the dishes while Bella sat in the living room gazing out of the window into the darkness of the night. Mom and Charlie exchanged worried glances when suddenly a loud snacking sound echoed through the space.
Leah had hit her hand on the kitchen table and was storming up the stairs into her room. Charlie, mom and I exchanged confused glances but we shrugged it off. Leah's mood swings were famous after all.
When we were finished with the dishes and were about to enter the living room we heard Leah come down the stairs and she was moving in Bella's direction, coming to an abrupt halt in front of Charlie's daughter.
"Listen, I don't like you and quite frankly you annoy the hell out of me." Leah barked at a stunned and eye wide Bella.
Leah could be really brash and she was intimidation Bella from the first time the both of them met. Bella generally reacted to her like a little rabbit would to the big, bad wolf, no pun intended.
"Leah!" Our mother chastised her.
"No, mom this needs to be said." Leah stated firmly.
Mom wanted to disagree but Charlie held her back and nodded at my sister to go on.
"You're pathetic but I'm sure you know that. You are pinning after a guy who was never interested in you in the first place."
"But…..but," Bella's quiet and scared voice tried to argue.
"Here," Leah held her hand out to Bella in which she held a piece of paper.
"W-What is this?" Bella asked timidly while confusion shone in her chocolate eyes.
"It's an address and telephone number of a shrink. He is specialised to deal with grief. I googled it. His place is near your college."
"Shrink!?" Bella shuttered bluffed.
Leah rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Cullen," Bella flinched as my sister spoke his name, "might as well be dead judging by the way you behave."
"But," Bella tried again but Leah's fierce glare stopped her in her tracks.
"We are going to make an appointment tomorrow and you will go there first thing when you return to college. Did I make myself clear?" Leah crossed her arms over her chest and gave Bella a hard stare what made the poor girl squirm in her seat. I could hear Bella's frantic heartbeat and her laboured breathing. She was scared of Leah.
But all of the sudden a stubborn expression appeared on Bella's face and determination was swimming in her eyes. She was about to tell Leah off I could see that but my sister was having non of it. She leaned over Bella, one hand stretched out, supporting Leah's weight as she braced herself against the back of the couch.
Bella looked over at Charlie I knew that her eyes were desperately pleading with him to help her out but he didn't instead there was a sparkle of hope swimming in his eyes. Maybe a therapy was the right thing to do. She obviously couldn't fix that obsession on her own.
"You are going!" Leah growled darkly just inches away from Bella's face as she pieced the poor girl with a frightening glare. Once more Bella squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.
"Y-ahhh…..Yes," Bella nodded after she got the massage that none would come to her rescue this time. She swallowed hard at that and looked like a little scared animal.
Leah nodded satisfied and handed her the paper before she went out on the front porch. The moment when Leah dismissed Bella, Charlie's daughter clenched her hand in which she held the paper with the address. Her fist was shaking before she crossed her arms over her chest while she wore a stubborn scowl on her face, just like a child that didn't get their way.
Charlie immediately rushed to Bella's side and pulled her into his arms, whispering to her that that might be a good idea and that she at least should give it a shot.
"That was….nice," I commented when I met my sister outside.
Leah rolled her eyes at me.
"Mom is finally happy again I was just making sure that it stays that way. She shouldn't have to deal with Bella's baggage." Leah winked at me.
"But…"
"Come on you didn't actually believe in any of that crap. A shrink. Pfff! Guess I watched too much Doc. Phil?" She shrugged and I shook my head.
*
End of flashback:
*
Bella did visit the shrink and with time an improvement could be registered. She seemed to be happier and her eyes started to shine with life again, little by little.
She even met someone there. His name is Cooper Dawson. His fiancée died in a car accident. He and Bella became friends first before their relationship steadily grew. One day they announced that they were a couple.
Seeing Bella reasonably happy again lifted a huge weight off Charlie's shoulders. The poor guy had suffered along with her.
"Hi, Danny how's your wife?" I heard Becky ask a middle aged trucker who drives a tour to the timber mils and back every Tuesday and Friday. He is a nice guy, quite a goof ball actually.
"She is fine like always. Oh and I shall say thank you from Tracy for the recipe. Your apple pie brought that Mrs.-Perfect-Housewife to her knees during our last party." He laughed.
"I'm glad, Danny. Say hello to Tracy from me." Becky giggled and purred him another cup of coffee.
"Honeybee, why don't you let me do that?" Embry asked his wife Becky as he slowly approached her with his hands held up as if he was stepping closer to a scared animal.
That was a really funny sight given the fact that Embry was the one who was scared witless of his pregnant wife's mood swings from hell. Becky was in her sevenths month and refused to stay at home what had Embry greatly worried.
He staked his way to the coffee pot Becky had in her right hand and was just about to touch it as she shot him an ice cold dirty look and slapped his hand away with her free one.
"In case you are too dense to understand it, I'm pregnant. You knocked me up." She was shoving her forefinger into his chest.
"But I am not suffering from a terminal disease and now get the hell out of my way I have a job to do." She growled at him.
Becky arrived at the stage in her pregnancy where everything was her husbands fault. She felt like a stranded wale that had way too much cream cake and let it all out on Embry though she didn't gain all that much weight.
I could only hope for my pack brother's sake that the nice and warm Becky would return once the pregnancy hormones were out of her body. I knew for certain that Embry prayed for it every night and even lit a candle every Sunday in church.
"Customers are waiting for their lunch," Becky pointed at the people sitting at the tables and in the booths before she whipped her head around to glare at him.
"Or even better leave the restaurant and stop stalking me." She huffed and turned on her heel.
"But you are pregnant you shouldn't work that hard." He pleaded and looked at the people sitting around who were all suddenly amazingly interested in their food.
Apparently we had smart customers today who all wanted to survive their lunch.
Becky placed her free hand on her hip, swaying them lightly, and a smug smile curled up the corners of her mouth.
Ladies and gentleman you are going to be a witness to an emasculation!
Embry's survival instincts must have hit in full force because he froze on the spot and didn't appear to be breathing as he waited for whatever her reaction would be this time.
"You are sleeping on the couch in the living room for the rest of the week." Her words were final and she turned away from him.
"But-but honeybee…." Embry whined, running after her.
Becky whipped around and locking him in place with her blazing eyes. Embry nearly crashed into her but could prevent the accident in the last second only to be met with her famous ice stare. With his tail between his legs he returned to his table and grumpily drank his soda.
I chuckled at the scene that happened like this or in variations nearly ever day ever since Becky discovered that she was pregnant and Embry went all overprotective caveman on her.
"A strawberry milkshake!" A cute little voice demanded.
"I do get a strawberry milkshake, right Quil?" Clair looked up at her imprint with her big watery eyes.
"Of course pumpkin what ever you want." He smiled down at her.
She cheered as Haley walked in with Claire's sister and Sam's and Emily's kids, Taylor and Dixon.
"Milkshakes everyone?" I asked and they all yelled "yes".
After the little ones were satisfied and busy with their drinks we left them to themselves at their favourite booth while always having an eye on the rascals.
"How is it going?" I asked Quil who sighed heavily.
"Not good actually."
"What happened?"
"You know that Claire's and Melody's father died in war oversees?" Quil asked me and I gave him an incredulous look as if anyone in La Push didn't know that.
Their father, Marshall, was what we called a pale face at the rez. Marshall's father was a business man and owned a few factories but Marshall never had the intention to take the family business over instead he dreamed of a career in the army.
Three weeks after Claire's had celebrated her 5th birthday the sad and painful news about Marshall's death reached the family.
"Anyway his parent's want custody for the two of them now." He said through clenched teeth.
"What?! Why?"
"Bits me! As far as I know they think that Claire and Melody would have a better life with them and they don't want them to grow up her on the rez but send them into a boarding school in England." He snort.
"What do you expect from rich white people that have far too much money and time at their hands but the best thing about the whole thing is that they actually dare to claim that Linda wouldn't be a good mother to her daughter's." He shook his head angrily.
"Oh man! Can't there be done something? They can't just come here and take them." I stated.
"Linda already consulted a lawyer and no they can't just take the children from a mother but that doesn't mean those f*** won't try." Quil grit his teeth together while his fists were clenched tight and he looked like he wanted to kill someone.
"Don't worry bro none is gonna take Claire away from you. Those pale face's have no legal right to do so and Linda would never give her babies up." Haley tried to cheer him up.
"I can't lose her." Quil whispered softly as he looked at me with troubled and pained eyes.
Haley put her hand on Quil's shoulder to offer him moral support. It would kill him if he wouldn't be able to see Claire on regular basis. A wolf can't function without his other half.
"Hey Seth," Haley suddenly demanded my attention.
"Yeah."
"I'll have two cheese burger's deluxe, fries a lot of them, a chocolate milkshake and don't forget three of those, yummy, cupcakes with coconut frosting." She ordered, licking her lips in anticipation for her favourite desert.
"I'm having a crisis here and you calmly order your food?" Quil raised his head and stared with a look of utter disbelieve at her while I placed the order in the kitchen.
"What a girl got to keep her strength up." She shrugged at him. "And besides I already told you those snobs don't stand a chance in court."
"I wish I had your faith in god." He snort at her.
Haley rolled her eyes.
"Just because I haven't gone all lovey-dovey Disney style on someone yet doesn't mean I wouldn't know how it feels like to lose someone who is important to you." Haley stated and luckily Quil had the present of mind not to say anything to that.
If he dared to point out that having lost their first crush because he had to move to France with his family when Haley and he were fifteen and after that lost contact, was nothing compared to imprinting he might have needed an ambulance by now.
She knew of course that a normal love and imprinting were two different worlds but that didn't mean that she would let anyone talked her first relationship down.
"Quil!" Claire called and had Quil's attention immediately.
In moments like this I hoped that when I imprinted it would be on an adult girl. Not that it would bother me if she was a child or a baby but somehow it was more appealing to me to get to know about her past then being a part of it, though that also had it's advantages.
Well it would happen when it happened.
Quil stood up from his seat and his entire paralanguage changed the second Claire looked at him. Gone was the depressed wolf and in his placed stepped up the best friend who adored a little mine year old girl named Claire.
He went over to the group of laughing and chatting kids, squeezing himself between the little ones into the booth while they asked him all kind of questions about the bone fire on Saturday night and the old legends the elder would tell.
It was a bone fire for everyone free to attend what meant that none would mention Werewolves and Vampires besides they were still too young to full understand the responsibility that came in with the territory of knowing the legends.
"So how does the other one holds up with his imprint?" Haley asked while popping a handful fries into her mouth.
"He sulks at his usual table."
"Man you guys become such wimps once you imprint." She whispered to me so the human customers wouldn't hear but Embry did.
He looked briefly away from Becky only to shoot Haley and me a dirty look before returning to sulking and observing his wife. It was only a question of time before she would have enough of his staring and throw him out.
"What did I do?" I asked in respond to the dirty look I had received.
Haley only laughed and went to wolf down her cheese burger deluxe.
"Seth a refill, please!" Alisa the other waitress smiled at me in her usual cheerful way as she handed me her empty coffee pot. She was twenty and was going to the community college to become a teacher. Brady had imprinted on her two years ago and was currently a bundle of nerves because he was preparing to pop the big question.
"Here's the coffee," I said while the door bell rang, announcing a new customer while Alisa ripped pages from her small notepad.
"Thanks and here are the new orders." She said in a sing sang voice as she grabbed the coffee pot.
Somehow I couldn't shake off the feeling that she knew why Brady was behaving so strange the last few weeks and that this was her reason for her awesomely good mood all of the time.
"A coke please," Jake sighed as he let himself fall down on the seat next to Haley.
"You alright Jake?" I raised an eyebrow at him while I got a coke in the bottle out of the fridge for him because he didn't like the soda out of the spigot.
"Your sister," He half-heartily glared at me before he drew a long drink out of the bottle.
"When she said she would help to paint the house I haven't quite expected that she meant she would push me around and make me her errant boy." He grumped under his breath.
I just gave him an understanding look. Leah could be quite bossy if she wanted to.
"She may be my sister but she is your best friend and how that happened I still don't understand." I shook my head.
"Trust me neither do I." He sighed again while playing with the empty coke bottle in his hands.
Somehow Jake and Leah had a very weird but good friendship that also helped her over the tragedy with Sam. And to be honest Jake needed her to kick his ass. Without Leah's constant nagging and painfully brutal honesty he wouldn't be the great Alpha that he was.
"Anything new over at camp fang?" He asked all of the sudden.
"Why do you ask?" I wondered.
"I'm just curious if Anna already is...or if she still is…."
"According to her voice she is still…" I assured him, why it mattered to him if Anna was a human, well Vampire hunter or Vampire I would never know. She was still she same person no matter what she was.
"O.K. I get that the rules don't apply to the Cullen coven, clan or whatever after what happened but accepting one another's territory and an actual friendship are two different pair of shoes." Haley stated.
"What do you mean?" I raised an eyebrow at her.
"Seth I hate to break it to you but she will be one of them at some point." She looked pointed at me with her brows kneaded together.
"I know! So?" I shrugged.
"It doesn't matter to you?" She starred at me rather incredulously.
"No, it never did."
Haley sighed and shook her head sadly.
"I'm surrounded by wimps." She exclaimed.
"Excuse me?" Jake starred at her.
"It's true a pretty face and you all turn into puddles of goo." She accused us.
"Well sorry but I don't see Anna that way as you may have noticed and second she is my friend, period."
"Then you are in desperate need of new friends."
"Honestly what is it with women always talking back?" Jake suddenly asked probably referring to Leah.
"Because we can." Haley said simply and looked at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Jake rolled his eyes and groaned before he let his head fall on the counter table and exhaled heavily and long.
"Seems like she really took him firmly into her hands." Haley laughed before she raised an eyebrow.
"Could it be that our fearless Alpha is hiding here from a single she wolf?" Jake tensed as Haley asked him that.
I shook my head while Hales nearly fell from her chair she had to laugh that hard.
"Are you done anytime soon?" Jake barked irritated what made Haley stop laughing for a second. She starred at him incredulously before she started laughing even harder again.
Jake growled under his breath when suddenly his mobile rang out. He fished it out of his pants and answered.
"Jordan...hmm…..hmmm...…When is it?"
"Hmm....yeah….tell Mr. Newton I will be there."
"The body shop in Forks?" I asked.
"Yeah, old Newton wants me to be there personally when he's getting his car back." Jake answered.
"Who would have thought you would own three body shops. Now only a bottom down and a tie are missing and one could confuse you with a business man." I mocked him.
After High School he opened a body shop in La Push that was going quite successfully. Two years ago the old Neal Scott died who owned the body shop in Forks. His son didn't have any intentions to stay in Forks which is why he wanted to sell the place.
It was Leah who urged him on to buy this place. Jake was reluctant since he had just opened the one here at the gas station but of course Leah convinced him in the end and she had been right. My sister is a genius when it comes to economics and she loves her profession.
The body shop in Forks is the one that makes the maximum turnover though Jake has to mange all three of them he is still the happiest when he can disappear under the hood of a car.
"Oh really?" He raised an eyebrow at me. "What about you Doctor Clearwater?"
"Wait!" That one got Haley's attention. "You got accepted?" She asked looking at me with her eyes wide open.
I wanted to become a Doctor for a really long time now but college was quite expensive which is why I had been saving up and finally had enough money to cover all expenses and with the pack being as large as it was now they could spare me here.
I had visited a program that the hospital in Forks offered and made an apprenticeship to become a medical orderly.
Of course I had taught myself a few things and my mother who was a nurse was giving me tips and showing some tricks, telling me what I had to pay attention to and even letting me assist in some cases when she would look after the older people here in La Push who weren't all too keen of going to the hospital or just didn't have the opportunity to.
That was one of the reasons I wanted to become a Doctor. We didn't have any in La Push if someone got sick here they had to drive to Forks.
"Yeah," I awkwardly scratched the back of my neck, "I got the acceptance letter yesterday." I admitted as my cheeks were getting hotter.
"And you didn't tell me?" Hales nearly screamed.
"What didn't he tell you?" Becky asked as she and Alisa walked to the counter we were at.
"Seth got accepted into the college in Seattle." Jake informed them.
"What?! That's awesome Seth." Becky congratulated me.
"We got to celebrate that." Alisa insisted.
"We can celebrate during the bonfire on Saturday." Haley proposed.
"Sounds good to me." I nodded.
"You are responsible for the beer." Jake pointed with his finger at me while he stood up from his chair.
"Alright, alright beer, got it." I laughed.
"See you later guys," he said making a move to the front door of the restaurant, "just in case I will not make it out alive of Leah's visit. It was nice knowing you."
"Get out of here before I tell her you said that." I called and he rushed out of the door.
After my shift in the restaurant that was part of the gas station complex I made my way to my mom's place in Forks that she shared with Charlie her husband after they got married.
"Hey mom." I greeted her when I entered the house.
"Oh honey there you are finally." She cried and threw her arms around my neck.
"Why didn't you tell me you got accepted into college?" She scolded me.
"I wanted to surprise you but someone couldn't keep her mouth shut." I playfully glared at my sister who was standing in the door frame that belonged to the kitchen and she stuck her tongue out at me.
"Mom is that…" I started to ask as the delicious smell of my favourite meal reached my nose.
"Beef steak with potatoes, your favourite dark gravy and in butter panned vegetables."
"I love you mom." I breathed out while my stomach was growling.
"I know honey. I know." She laughed as we made our way into the kitchen where Charlie already sat at the table pointing at the seat next to him where a cool beer waited for me.
*****
"Congratulations man." Paul boomed as he smacked his hand against my back.
"Thanks Paul."
"You are going to be an awesome Doctor." Rachel said while she hugged me.
"I hope so."
"Uncle Seth can you make Stacy's owie go away then?" Little Maggie Paul's and Rachel's little baby girl asked me while she held her favourite doll tightly to her chest.
She was a cute little well-behaved four years old what I couldn't say about her twin brother Dave he was just like his father. He had a bad temper and a big mouth that had to be washed out with soap ever so often despite his tender age.
"Of course Sweetheart." I told her as I scooped her up in my arms while she giggled gleefully.
I was about to get myself a second helping from the delicious food that Emily and the others made when I saw Shayla sitting on a rock.
She was barely eighteen and already pregnant but she was also a bright girl. The best in her class and she intended to finish High School. She would only take a short break for about three to four weeks and return then to graduate.
She had already gotten a place for her baby in a day-care where she would work to repay them. Conner, my cousin from my mothers side of the family, was the father of the baby, her fiancé and in two weeks her husband. He was already twenty and intended to become a cop.
The school for cops was only forty five minutes away from La Push and my mom also offered them help with the little one.
My uncle Bob from my mother's side had remarried and Conner and his step mother didn't get along at all which is why his dad threw him out. His mother left them when Conner was just six and with his new wife Bob wanted to start anew and the child of his ex had been in the way.
Though he never said it out loud I knew that Conner wanted to be thrown out from under his father's roof. Sometimes the damage is to serve and what had been broken can't be repaired. This was what he told me one day as I asked him if he would try to repair his relationship with his father at some point in the future.
Conner was fifteen when he came to live with us. We got along right from the start despite the fact that we were cousins we had never met before. The death of uncle Bob's wife had changed him and he broke off nearly all ties with his family.
When Conner was seventeen Shayla moved here with her family and it was love at first sight. They had their ups and downs but always stuck together.
"Shayla you alright?" I asked as I approached her.
"Yeah, the baby is just kicking." She breathed out through clenched teeth.
"Oh."
"I only hope that he or she will be nice on my wedding day." She mumbled while she carefully stroked her little bump.
"Shayla!" Conner called when he saw us sitting on the rock, running panicked to his pregnant fiancée.
"I'm fine your child is just kicking the crap out of me." Shayla laughed.
He let out a heavy sigh of relief. The both of them loved each other very much. They were our perfect couple that wasn't created by the wolf magic.
"You scared me baby."
"Alright I will leave you two love birds now." I said and stole myself away from the lovey-dovey couple.
*****
"Bella it's nice to see you again." I greeted her when my mother finally let go of her.
"Hi Seth. How are you?" She asked while she gave me a hug.
"I'm fine. Same old over here." I grinned.
She looked happy and at peace now that she was the mother of two adorable little kids. I was glad she had found her place in life after all the hardship she had to go through because of her obsession with Anna's fiancé.
"Not exactly if I'm correctly informed," Cooper winked at me, "we will have another Doctor in the family, soon." Cooper Dawson, Bella's husband, murmured as he shook my hand in greeting.
"Nothing's a secret here, ehehe?" I laughed and glared playfully at my mom.
"Oh, don't give that look. I'm your mother and it is my right to be proud of you." Mom shot my glare down.
"Uncle Seth, uncle Seth," Marli demanded my attention.
"Hi, little princes how are you?" I scooped her up in my arms and swirled her around a little.
"Where is Tanner?" Charlie asked as he noticed that the little one year old was missing.
"Unfortunately he has a little cold and we couldn't take him. He stayed with his other grandparents in Chicago." Bella answered while Charlie's face fell.
"Why don't you and Sue visit us again? I still own you a baseball game." Cooper tried to cheer him up. Charlie nodded at that.
"So is Conner nervous?" Bella asked Sue as the two of them sat down on the couch while Marli was sitting in my arms and telling me all about her new teddy bear.
While watching Bella I remembered the first visit in Cooper's and Bella's new home in Chicago. Cooper had many offers of the best hospitals. He was a very capable physician just as his father. While he couldn't decide where he wanted to live Bella wanted to go to Chicago.
This is why Cooper accepted an offer of the Mercy Hospital and Medical Care in Chicago.
*
Flashback:
*
"Wow that house is really impressive!" I stated after Cooper and Bella gave mom, Charlie, Leah and me a tour through their enormous Victorian house.
"Thanks though it is not the house that Bella wanted, we did alright." He answered.
"What do you mean? What couldn't you possibly like about this house?" Mom asked puzzled.
"No, I love it. It is beautiful." Bella assured.
"She actually fell in love with that house over there." Cooper pointed out of the window at the neighbour house.
I couldn't see much because of the trees that were shielding the house from the view but what I saw looked well taken care off and I think bigger then the house I had been currently in.
"But the owners didn't want to sell it." Bella dismissed the case.
"I had tried everything but with no success. I couldn't even get to know who owns the house." Cooper murmured.
"What do you mean you couldn't get to know them?" Leah asked.
"I could only contact the lawyer. He told us that the house was not on the market and that no amount of money would change that." He shrugged.
"When I asked about the owners he told me that it was his job to protect their privacy and that was the end of the conversation."
"That's strange." Mom wondered.
"Tell me about it. None even lives in that house. I asked neighbours some of them live here for decades and they said that none lived there or ever had. A cleaning company goes over there every two weeks but aside of that none enters the house."
"Like a ghost house." Charlie mused.
"Yeah, though Mrs. Belflour, another neighbour, claimed that she saw a young man live there a few years ago for about two weeks if I remember correctly." He shrugged his shoulders while he had his arm locked around Bella's waist as she was looking at the house with longing swimming in her eyes that I knew every well.
After the Cullen's left Forks Bella would often drive to their house and spend hours there walking around their land. It was as if she was wishing willing them to come back. Willing him to come back but of course he never did.
Bella started a relationship with Jake. He was her sun as she always called him. Jake brought her back to life after she seemed to be depressed after the Cullen's, Edward, moved away.
The obstacle that the both of them just couldn't overcome was the secret Jake couldn't tell Bella. She had always been every perspective. She did notice our disappearances on regular bases. She knew something was off and she did question Jake over and over.
Of course he never told her. Bella accused him of not trusting her of lying to her, which is what he did but for a good reason though. Eventually they broke it off.
"Oh boy." Cooper exclaimed after he looked at his watch.
"We better get downstairs and get ready for dinner at my parents place. If there is one thing that my parents can't stand then it is someone who isn't on time. If we are as much as a second too late I won't hear the end of it. So please spare me." Bella's husband nearly begged.
"Of course, dear." Mom laughed.
One after another they cleared the room until only Leah and I were left. I was about to follow Charlie out when I noticed that Leah wasn't moving.
I turned around and saw her staring with narrowed eyes at the house that Bella originally wanted to by.
"Are you coming?" I asked her.
"Hmmm," was all I got in response.
"What?" I wondered and walked up to her following her line of sight.
"Just wondering?" She murmured while she titled her head to her left side.
"About?" I urged her on.
"Didn't Anna tell you that her leech was born here?" She suddenly blurted out.
I gave her a blank stare.
"He is from Chicago, right?" She pressed.
"Yeah, so?" I shrugged my shoulders. Anna had told me how old Edward was, where he was born and so on. I was rather interested in those details but she could only tell me about the ones that agreed to share their story. I loved to hear about Doctor Cullen the most, all the little anecdotes made me hungry for more.
Leah shook her head disbelievingly and disapprovingly at my answer.
"What's wrong?" I asked confused.
"Nothing," she sighed.
"Seth, Leah what's taking you so long?" Mom called just as I was about to ask her what she meant with nothing.
"We're coming!" Leah called back stepping around me.
We made our way down stairs and saw how Cooper helped Bella into her jacket. He was head over heels in love with her. His eyes and every small gesture of his showed the love he had for her. It remained me of the way Edward treated Anna.
With relief I watched the same love reflect in Bella's eyes when she looked at her husband. She was happy with him it was plainly written across her face though I knew that for as long as she lived she would never forget the Vampire who wasn't hers.
"Ready to go?" Cooper asked and we all nodded in agreement.
*
End of Flashback.
*
"Tell me Seth which medical field do you want to enter?" Cooper asked me bringing me out of my memory.
We ate dinner and chatted for hours until it was time to go to sleep. With the wedding on the next day we had a busy time ahead of us.
****
"You ready for this?" My mom asked Conner as he was looking at himself in the mirror while Charlie sat in the loveseat at the widow and drank his beer.
"I'm ready. Nothing had ever felt that right in my entire life." He said while his eyes sparkled with happiness and anticipation.
"You definitely look good in a suit." I heard Leah's voice say from the door of my bedroom.
"Leah," he greeted, walking over to her, giving her a tight hug while he had a big smile on his face.
"Seems like you can't wait." Leah noted.
"I can't wait to finally call her my wife." He laughed, nervously and joyful at once.
"Since we are already talking about life partners let me introduce my boyfriend to you." She said and Conner, mom, Charlie and I looked stunned at one another when a good looking man with blue eyes, dark brown hair and what seemed a well trained body entered the room.
"May I introduce to you this is my boyfriend Eric Cain. He is a lawyer in Seattle." She introduced him to us.
"Eric this is my family…" she introduced every one of us to him.
"Well that's what I call a surprise." I told her after mom whisked Eric away to gush over him and question him about everything and anything.
"What can I say I'm full of surprises." She shrugged dismissively.
"How long have you been together?"
"For about eight months now."
"And you never thought of introducing him to us?" I was shocked.
"I wanted to be sure."
"And you are now?"
"Yes."
"Do you love him?" I asked carefully.
Leah sighed long and heavily.
"He loves me. He treats me as if I was the most precious thing in the world. We can talk and we can fight. He makes me laugh. His family loves me. I can see us in twenty, thirty years still together, even longer."
"But Leah…"
"Look," she held her hand up to stop me.
"I know you believe in the big, one and only love but truth is not everyone gets it. Not everyone finds the one person and Eric makes me happy. He makes me feel like I'm worth it. He makes me feel like a person again. And for that I really like him. I want that. I want what he can give me and what I'm giving him is enough for him so don't question my relationship with him." She told me sternly.
It was my turn for a long sigh before I looked up and gazed at my sister. She did seem to have more life back in her features and she did seem happy.
"As long it is what you want."
"It is." She nodded with a small happy smile on her lips.
"O.K." I said and hugged her.
*****
"That was a beautiful ceremony." Kim said to Bella and me as we stood at the end of the dance floor watching the couples dance while Bella's and Kim's husbands danced with their mothers or step mother in Bella's case.
"But where are the newlyweds?" Bella asked looking around. I searched for them myself but couldn't find them either but I did see Collin running my way while he looked troubled and a little panicked.
"We have a problem." He whispered in my ear.
"Is something wrong?" Bella narrowed her eyes at us.
"Just with the surprise for Conner and Shayla." Collin answered smoothly but Bella didn't believe him at all.
Kim jumped in after Collin gave her a pleading look and occupied Bella's attention.
"What's wrong?" I asked while he dragged me to a building that was located near the town hall and was used mostly as a storage room. There was also a kitchen were we warmed up the food for the wedding.
The wedding was taking place in the grand hall of the town hall. Katie, Jackson's imprint and some of the other wolf girls took the decorations over. Shayla and Conner had no idea about us, the entire Werewolves-thing, but nonetheless they were fully accepted among us.
"Owen Rowan phased, just now, and imprinted on Shayla." He answered my question and I stopped death in my tracks.
"Come again?"
"He saw her and it happened but that's not all."
"T-There's more?" I stammered out stunned and shocked.
"After Kevin saw Owen approach Shayla in his wolf form he stepped in…."
"Is he O.K.? I mean Owen didn't…."
"No, he had no opportunity to because Kevin phased then as well."
"What but he is already twenty and he hasn't phased before. I did notice his higher temperature but..."
"Bits me." Collin shrugged.
"What about Conner? How's Shayla?"
"Jared and the others separated the two of them and are currently trying to keep them from killing each other and Shayla fainted after she saw her husband explode. Your mother is taking car of her."
"Did anyone see?" I questioned.
"No, but the room it happened in is completely destroyed. Luckily Shayla pressed herself into a corner when it happened and she and the baby were spared of any injuries." He told me as we rushed to help the others out with the two new wolfs.
*****
"Hey man." Jake greeted as he entered my house through the backdoor.
"What's up?"
"Conner and Shayla are moving away from La Push?" He asked. It had been three weeks since the wedding and total chaos broke loose.
Owen was insisting that Shayla was his since he imprinted on her while Conner was her husband and the father of her unborn child. Shayla was completely beside herself after she saw two wolfs phase in front of her. Luckily she and the baby didn't get hurt.
"Yes, Shayla wants to get away from here. The stress isn't good for the little one and Conner would do anything to keep Owen away from his wife."
"Owen asked me to forbid Conner from leaving so Shayla would stay." Jake shook his head while he let himself fall into a chair next to the kitchen table.
"You gonna do it?" I questioned.
Jake ran his hands over his face and looked years older.
"I have no idea what the best, what the right solution here is. There is a child involved and they are married...I have no idea." He moaned.
I fished two beer out of my fridge and sat down next to him.
"Jake you know Conner is my cousin so I'm biased…" the ring tone of my cell interrupted me.
"Hold on a sec." I told Jake while he nodded, opened his beer and took a long swallow.
I by the ring tone that played I knew that Anna called though I wondered briefly why she used the house phone of the Cullen's she usually called me from her cell but I shrugged it off. I had told her about what happened but not even she could give an advice in this case other then that it was something that the people in question had to figure out themselves.
"Hi, Anna listen…" but I got interrupted by a voice that wasn't Anna's.
"This isn't Anna. This is Jasper Cullen....."