Jacob's appointment is a blur. He remembers walking into the room, the woman introducing herself before pointing out the fact that he seems upset. He barely remembers her name. He couldn't even recall what he'd even said in response to her observation. The next thing he knows, she's declaring that their time is up and is sending him out to her assistant who gives him the date of his next appointment. He's handed a piece of paper at some point to take to his next destination. His next stop is just as much of a faded image. All he knows is that he walks out with a paper bag of his medicine and climbs into his truck. He'd ditched his police car at his house, which was the last stop on his outing. He drives home, pulls up next to the car, and just sits there in the driveway, blankly staring at his own home like it belonged to someone else.
He eventually climbs out and walks up the steps with even less excitement than he'd had this morning. The door isn't locked. Most likely due to the fact that he's moping so loudly that Quil could sense it down the block. He opens the door to see his cousin standing in the kitchen with a beer. Across from him is an unopened can. He definitely knew he was coming.
"Didn't go well?" He asks before Jacob can even open his mouth.
"Upset him." He mutters, eyes staring down blankly at the can.
"Does he know anything about imprinting?" Quil sounds like he's tip-toeing around what he actually wants to ask and Jacob's grateful for it.
"It wasn't that," He continues to stare at his muddled reflection in the top of the can, "I drive him and Bear to work every morning and I didn't tell him I was coming here this morning."
"Bear?" Quil asks, frowning like he'd determined this was a vital piece of information that he was missing.
"The baby." Jacob informs him and ignores the way the man in front of him has to fight back a smile. He really needed to talk to Edward about the damned name, but first he'd have to dig himself out of the unintentional doghouse that he's found himself in.
Quil has the decency to try to hide his amusement behind taking a swig of his beer.
"Sounds like something an apology could patch up." He points out after he regains his composure, but he has the look on his face like he knows more is coming.
"I tried to ease into an apology by telling him where I was and mentioning that he needed an alarm system and he told me if he got one, he wouldn't need me." He wants to laugh off the comment as some small thing, but apparently things hurt when you're invested in someone no matter how unintentional it was.
Quil has this pitying look on his face and Jacob assumes it's because he looks pathetic.
"To make matters worse, pretty sure the entire station, who thinks we're together, is now privy to the fact that we're not on good terms. So much so, that the Chief sent us home early." Jacob can feel this weirdly fake smile on his face, but he feels like he just got socked directly in the throat.
If there was ever a critical blow to his ego, this was definitely it.
"Sounds like he cares about you a lot." Quil says and Jacob's not sure what expression he's got on his face now, but he hopes it's as ridiculous as that statement was.
"And what gave you that idea?" He huffs, finally cracking open his beer despite the fact that he was definitely in the mood for something stronger.
"The fact that he got upset because he couldn't ride to work with you," Quil points out as if it's obvious,"apparently it was devastating enough to mess up his mood for the entire day. Something as simple as getting to ride with you to work."
Jacob wants to believe him, but honestly, maybe he just doesn't like being inconvenienced.
"Or, hear me out, it's because he was waiting on me to take him to work and I never showed up." Jacob points out. Ignoring the way Quil rolls his eyes at him.
"Does he have his own car?" Quil questions.
"Yeah." Jacob sighs.
"Then, why would he care if you were there or not? Why would it matter if you were the one taking him? It takes a couple of minutes to realize you aren't there and a couple of seconds to start his own car." Quil says as if he's trying to convince a jury of his client's innocence.
"Yeah, I think he made it pretty clear that he doesn't need me, Q." Jacob huffs, shifting on the stool that he'd plopped himself on, not swayed by the argument.
"People say things they don't mean when they're upset, J. How often are you two together?" Quil asks, taking a sip from his beer.
"Most of the time. We work together, remember?" Jacob mumbles, contemplating chugging his.
"When you're not working?" Quil asks.
"We're technically working all of the time. I live in his house now." Jacob explains, getting real tired of having this conversation. He didn't need false hope, he needed something slightly stronger than a beer. Vodka would be nice.
"Yeah, that doesn't mean you need to be joined at the hip. Are you always together?" Quil asks, clearly already knowing the answer if the way he was looking at Jacob was anything to go by.
Jacob nods before going to take a long swig from his can.
"So, maybe he's used to you being there and didn't like it when you weren't. Go back to his place and apologize."
Jacob sighs, pushing the rest of the beer to the side. He was now glad he hadn't had anything stronger because he really didn't need to look worse and it couldn't get worse than stumbling into Edward's house drunk, pleading for his forgiveness. He stands up from the stool and heads for the door.
"And tell Bear I said 'Hi'." Quil calls after him.
Edward's staring down at a crumpled piece of paper that Jacob must've slid under his door at some point when he hears his car pull into the driveway. He was on his way to get Bear, who was howling in the next room, but was abruptly stopped by a folded up piece of paper that stuck him in the bottom of the foot. It's a little note from Jacob, that must've been from earlier, explaining that he's going to his appointment and then to his house to meet his cousin. Edward sticks the piece of paper into his pocket and heads down the hall to get Bear.
She's beet red and not at all happy that he hadn't teleported into her room instantly. He changes her diaper, much to her annoyance, and heads downstairs to fix her bottle. He's about halfway down the flight of stairs when Jacob walks in. He looks like he's about to head to the kitchen, but stops to stare up at them as if they'd called him.
Edward doesn't say anything as he takes his time getting down the stairs despite Bear wriggling on his shoulder. He fixes her bottle quickly and places it into the bottle warmer, all the while ignoring the fact that he's being stared at. He doesn't say anything until Bear finally gets her food, suckling at it as if she hasn't eaten all day.
"How'd the appointment go?" He finally mumbles, not turning to look at Jacob.
"Truth be told, I don't know. Pretty sure I just bitched about you the entire time." He hears from behind him.
If that were true, that's going to be embarrassing the next time he sees Alice. He'd have to remind himself to avoid her more often. He really didn't want to listen to her try to talk him into couples therapy.
He's about to ask something else, when he's suddenly aware of Jacob standing so close to him that he can feel the man's breath against the back of his neck.
"My cousin told me to tell Bear 'hi' for him." He mumbles, peering over Edward's shoulder to get a good look at her. Edward stands there and watches as Jacob talks to Bear. She's watching them back and as Jacob tells her about this cousin, her eyes slowly begin to close until she's out. Well, that was one way to tell someone you aren't interested.
"Where's your phone?" Jacob asks after he's done rambling.
"Back pocket. Why?" Edward mumbles, sitting her bottle down on the counter. He's still not in the mood for conversation, but he thinks the Chief won't be pleased if they're still bickering on Monday. He just wanted to walk into work and be invisible again. He didn't need most of the police force whispering about whether or not they were on the verge of a divorce.
"Can't text you where I am if I don't even have your number." Jacob informs him, and it dawns on Edward that they apparently hadn't been apart enough for him to notice that he doesn't have the man's number. Edward attempts an awkward move of balancing Bear's bottle with his chin before digging the phone out of his back pocket to hand to Jacob.
"Let me guess, password is Bear's birthday." He says and they both watch as Edward's phone opens and Jacob goes directly to the contacts and taps in his number before saving himself with about three emojis after his name.
He calls his own phone and they both listen to it ring two times before he hangs up.
"I'm sorry I was late. Next time, I'll text you." Then, his phone is slid back into his pocket and he swears he can feel him lightly pat his ass. Edward thinks it's some reflex. Maybe he also hits Blondie on the butt.
The thought of it makes Edward recoil. He's so caught up in his own thoughts that he almost misses Jacob scooping up his own phone. He taps on the screen a few times and Edward's vaguely aware that whatever he typed was shorter than Edward's actual name.
"So, which Chinese place is your favorite?"
Edward's aware that he's staring blankly into his food, but his mind is preoccupied with the day he's just had. The only thing that breaks him out of his staring is the sound of his phone ringing. He picks up, placing the phone in between his head and shoulder and he continues to pretend to be interested in the box in front of him.
"Hey, are you sure you're alright?" Jasper's voice quietly hums through the phone. He sounds a little distracted.
"Yeah, why?" Edward asks, taking a piece of chicken into his mouth and chewing at it. He wished it wasn't cooked as thoroughly as it was.
"You were all upset and I heard from one of Black's minions that you two had a fight." He doesn't even bother trying to creep into the topic.
Edward places the box down and stands up from the couch, ignoring the way he can feel Jacob's eyes following him. He, instead, heads for the stairs and doesn't stop until he's in his own room with the door shut.
"I'm fine." He mumbles as soon as he's alone.
"Eddy," Jasper hums and he can hear the question being asked even without it actually being said.
He should be used to his brothers butting into his business, but he's been single for eight years. He lets out a sigh, realizing that he's going to have to swallow his pride to get through this conversation.
"We're good...really, Jazz." He says, sighing as he listens to the sound of the phone being jostled.
"You mind telling me what actually happened, then?" He stares down at the floor, at least thankful that it wasn't Emmett. He didn't really need threats of violence right now.
He thinks for a little bit, trying to figure how to make the situation seem less dramatic than it felt without making him look like the idiot that he was.
"He left without me this morning without telling me, I got a little annoyed. That's it." Edward sticks with the same summary, wishing that he had something to do with his hands to keep him distracted from the silence across the line.
"A little? What about the fighting in the break room?"
Edward rolled his eyes, wanting to bang his head against the headboard.
"It was an argument. It really wasn't even that." He's very aware of the fact that's huffing and puffing, but why were they sharing details like it was their favorite TV show?
"So, it was just a petty little fight? Why'd he leave without you?" Jasper asks, and Edward can hear him physically relaxing. He had to wonder what he and Emmett were planning if it was something that actually mattered.
"He had to swing by his house to talk to his sister about something." Edward mutters, glad that it was sounding like his brother was on the verge of dropping it.
"Oh, does she not have a phone?"
Edward stares into his closet, mind clearly tumbling over that hurdle. It was a valid question.
"Maybe it was something that was a bit more personal. Maybe she had something going on." Edward explains it away.
Jasper hums and Edward can feel him contemplating whether or not he should poke a hole in that theory as well.
"We usually don't have a problem even lightly disclosing other people's business. The lack of regard for other people's privacy is why I even know what happened between you two."
Edward runs a hand through his hair and regrets ever cosigning Jasper taking anything psychology related in college.
"So?"
"So, he was most likely there for himself. If he'd gone there for her, he would've said something along the lines of 'My sister had an emergency' or 'My sister needs my help'. Instead, he didn't say anything."
"Since we're on a roll, Mr. All-knowing, do you also want to tell me why he was there?" Edward huffs.
"Probably something serious regarding you. 'Cause, why couldn't you just wait in the car or on the couch?"
Then, he hands the phone off to Emmett for whatever reason.
"So, you two kiss and makeup? 'Cause we got a crime to solve."