Edward's ears are ringing. His ears are ringing, but he can see Jacob. He watches as he moves into view saying something that Edward still can't make out. Bear's crying. He can't hear it, but he can see her mouth open in a wail, her little eyes scrunched and tears running down her cheeks. Jacob's reaching for her. Edward forces himself to let go of her. He has to let go. What if he's the one hurting her? Holding her too tight?
There's blood.
Edward's not sure where it's coming from and doesn't take the time to investigate as he watches Jacob flag down the EMT's who are bringing a stretcher. He doesn't need a stretcher, he's fine. He needs them to make sure she's okay. He attempts to tell them as much, but must not be very convincing because they pull him out of the car anyway before placing him on the stretcher. He watches as one of them, a woman, goes over to help Jacob with Bear.
He doesn't need this.
They lift him into the ambulance and Jacob follows, still cradling Bear in front of him. She's no longer crying, peering around the truck, clearly curious. The same woman continues looking her over while a different woman pokes and prods at him.
"Looks like Dad has a broken arm." She says aloud and at first he think she's talking about someone else. That is, until she lifts his arms up to show that his arm is definitely twisted at an odd angle. That's never happened before. He blinks down at it
"But we're doing okay, aren't we?" The other woman asks Bear who blinks up at her like she's some kind of alien.
The woman in front of him continues her inspection, asks him a few questions that he doesn't feel like answering.
"Nasty cut on your forehead. Definitely a concussion. Nothing life threatening though." The woman continues, giving Edward a smile that does absolutely nothing to comfort him.
His eyes wander back over to Bear, who is now watching Jacob like she's waiting for something interesting to happen. Jacob, however, is watching him. He has this look in his eye that Edward's never seen before. He looks a bit shaken up, but somehow angry at the same time. Is he angry at Edward? He'd just wanted to get away for a little while, be alone for just a second. How was he supposed to know this would happen?
Jacob sits like that for the rest of the ride and only tears his eyes away when the doctor comes in to put a cast on his arm. He watches the doctor like a hawk. He flinches when Edward flinches, looks at Edward helplessly when he groans, and holds his hand like he's dying when the doctor checks over Bear one more time.
They're picked up by Emmett, who hauls out a car seat that definitely doesn't belong to Bear. He doesn't explain how he got it, just holds it as Jacob lowers Bear into it. Jacob locks her in before his gaze returns to Edward, who's slumped next to her, eyes drooping despite his determination to keep an eye on her.
Emmett drops them off at Jacob's house. Leah would've yelled at him otherwise. Jacob gets it. They're family and someone he cares about is hurt. She wants to help. Edward's awake, but he's barely responding, mind slow to process what's going on around him. Jacob needs all the help he can get and Jessica couldn't help him and watch the street. So, he'd come home. Leah and Quil were standing on the porch and crowd around the Jeep as soon as Jacob had the car seat unbuckled from the seatbelt. He hands Bear off to Leah before going to help Edward, who has to place most of his weight onto Jacob's shoulders to keep him upright. Quil shuts the door behind them before going up to open the door and let them inside of the house.
Jacob ends up having to carry Edward upstairs. The man grumbles his complaints about halfway up and then Jacob has talk to him the rest of the way to keep him from closing his eyes. Jacob lowers him onto his bed and bends down to remove his shoes. While he's doing that, Leah is pulling the bassinet she'd rushed to collect from one of the closets, closer to Edward so that he could see that she was okay. Jacob lifts him so that he's further up on the bed, ignoring his little whines and whimpers of protest.
Jacob's able to keep him awake for a couple of hours. More for his own sake than for Edward's. They talk about nonsense, completely stepping around the fight they'd been having earlier. That was for later. Right now he just needed Edward to keep his eyes open where he could see he was okay. He manages to stay that way for about an hour before his eyes are clamped shut, mouth still mumbling little responses to whatever Jacob's saying.
Two hours in and he's quietly breathing into Jacob's neck.
Even with the weight on top of him, Jacob can still feel his own heart thundering against his ribcage. Out of all of the scenarios he'd gone over in his head, them getting hit while sitting in a parked car was definitely not on the list. There was no chasing, no hunting, no fighting. Nothing to work off the adrenaline. Edward being spread out on top of him wasn't helping. He ignores the nagging want in the back of his head and focuses on anything else.
Was the person who hit a parked cop car in on the scheme? Did they know anything about the family? Had someone told them about Bear? He would usually call Mike about this type of stuff. Mike would tell him whatever he wanted. In hindsight, it probably wasn't because he wanted to help.
Jacob runs a hand up Edward's back and feels bad when it elicits a groan. He's probably going to need to take some strong pain meds once he's able to open his eyes again. Jacob rolls him over on his back so that his arm can rest against his stomach instead of hanging uncomfortably. He lets out another groan in protest, but Jacob needed get up and go do something, anything to get his mind off of everything.
The scene replays in his head even as he marches down the stairs.
He's standing at the cash register feeling like an idiot as Jared swipes his card. He looks up and out of the window at the sound of tires screeching and starts running towards the door, bill forgotten, as he tries to get to the car. By the time he has one foot outside, they've already crashed. They had to have been going at more then a hundred miles per hour, speeding along a quiet street like they were being chased.
The driver was in police custody. Jacob knows it's not a good idea to go and see them, probably shouldn't even be told who they are, but that doesn't stop him from wanting to know.
He gets down the stairs and finally looks up to see Quil standing in front of the front door. He has this look on his face like he's about to do something he may regret. Jacob turns towards the backdoor to see Seth standing there. They're both watching him, waiting for something.
"What?" He finally says, feet heading towards the kitchen.
He's not hungry. Even if they hadn't just left the diner, he doesn't think he could stomach anything, he just needs some kind of distraction. He rustles through a couple of cabinets and comes back with a bag of chips.
"We know you're upset, but you can't go after whoever hit him." Quil says, body relaxing a little despite his eyes still being wary.
"Don't plan to." He's got two people upstairs that he has to keep an eye on.
He's not running out to play vigilante. Plus, if he wanted to kill the guy, he had ample time between the crash and the cops showing up. It may be difficult with an audience, but not impossible. He doesn't want whoever it is dead, he just wants to go upstairs with his chips.
They're still casting him worried looks and, if he's being honest, if they were mated, he would've probably had a different attitude. If he was younger, he'd have no patience. Despite his best efforts, he wasn't a saint and he definitely wasn't his father. He might've shoved a hand through the windshield and tugged whoever it was out head first before pummeling them in the streets. He might've done that, but they aren't. He could practice restraint. He was fine.
He opens the bag of chips and eats one before scurrying back up the stairs.
He opens the door to his bedroom and is met by Edward laying in the same spot he'd been in when Jacob had gone downstairs, but Bear's laying on his chest. Jacob hadn't heard her cry and she definitely hadn't put herself there. He knows it's going to be an issue in the future. He knows that just because some family members are under investigation, it doesn't mean they will stay under investigation, it doesn't mean they won't want to adopt her. Though, for now, he can't help but just watch as she wriggles against him, almost as if she's getting comfortable, before little eyes begin to droop.
Honestly, worrying about adoption is just one thing on a long list of things he should be worried about. He decides to leave them for another day, placing the chips on the nightstand next to the bed before climbing in next to Edward.
Edward's disoriented. He opens his eyes and it's dark, but he can smell Bear just under his nose, feel her barely-there weight against his chest, but the things he can make out in the dark are unfamiliar. He goes to use the arm that's not on Bear's back to push himself up off the bed and immediately regrets it, having to stifle his cry in his other forearm. He breathes through the pain, before going to try again, only for there to suddenly be light.
Jacob's looking at him. He's looking at him with his eyes squinting against the light as he attempts to understand what's going on. He doesn't speak, just hums quietly as if that's a question, before turning over and blindly grabbing for what sounds like a pill bottle. He holds it out for Edward as if it was a response to his unanswered question. Edward takes it and listens to Jacob hum in content before watching the man bury his head into Edward's neck.
Edward waits until Jacob's breathing evens out before he pops two pills into his mouth. Then, he fishes his phone out of his pocket with his free arm and calls Jasper.
"Hey, Emmett told me about the accident. Is Bear okay? Why didn't you call me earlier? Is your boyfriend okay?" Edward doesn't know if he's ever heard Jasper this talkative.
"Bear's fine." He mumbles, eyes scanning the room as he spoke. This must be Jacob's bedroom. There were photos of him and, who Edward presumes to be, his dad. There was one with him and a woman. One with him and some of the people from downstairs. There was a desk with a bunch of crap on it. There was a pile of clothes sitting in a corner. There were little trophies from when Jacob had played little league baseball and ran track.
"So, why didn't you call me?" Jasper asks, fiddling around with something as he spoke.
"I have a concussion and I broke my arm." Edward mumbles and listens as the line goes quiet.
"How fast were they going?" Jasper huffs as if he's not believing what he's hearing.
It sounds like he turns around and says something to someone.
"Were they going at the speed of fucking light?"
"I didn't have time to prepare for the blow, my arm was in a weird position so I just maneuvered enough to where I could block her from getting hurt when we slammed into the glove box." Edward informs him.
He wasn't impenetrable or unbreakable, especially when he was caught off-guard.
"Yeah, but...was there anyone around. Y'know, who might be about to weaken you?" Jasper whispers into the phone like he's sharing a secret.
A werewolf? What are the fucking odds?
"Only Jacob was..." Edward stops, eyes peering over at the pictures on the wall.
They show a progression of Jacob when he was a young boy to him now. Around thirteen or fourteen maybe, he'd grown really long hair. Around fifteen or sixteen...around the time that werewolves usually matured, he'd chopped it off. He suddenly had a tattoo that signified the fact that he was in pack. All of the pictures from there on out were in or near the edge of the woods. Always with the same group of people. Edward breathes in, the scent filling his nose, his brain racing to place it despite the fact that he already knew. Suddenly, his heart was beating faster than it probably ever has.
"Jasper..."
"Yeah?" He sounds confused, like he may have been speaking and Edward cut him off.
"Can you come and get me?"
Edward should've left Bear. He knows he should've left Bear, but he can't help himself. He just wants to make sure she's okay. So, he sneaks around the house until he finds the car seat, trying his best to keep in the sounds of his own discomfort as his body screamed at him to lay down. His eyes catch sight of it sitting next to the couch in the living room and he hobbles over towards it, slowly lowering Bear into the seat. He's about to lift it, when he's suddenly aware of the fact that someone is watching him.
"What are you doing?" A woman asks, stepping out from the shadows with her arms crossed.
Great. He's weak and in the heart of the nest of a pack of werewolves. He can't fight her and he sure as hell can't run right now.
"I need to go." He says truthfully, eyes peering over at the front door.
"Go where? Why?" She asks, taking a step closer.
He takes a step back.
"I just need to go." Edward mumbles.
"Where? Jacob's not going to like not knowing where you two are." There was something about the sentence that makes his heart plummet. Jacob doesn't know what he's dealing with and once he does know, there's no telling what he'll do to him. It's best if Edward just leaves.
"I just want to go home." Edward tries again. He's sure his eyes are as round as saucers, but he doesn't have enough in him to look intimidating. He just needed to get out to the Jeep.
"Well, just let me tell Jacob and he can go with you." She tries and he agrees with a nod. Because, what the fuck else is he supposed to do?
As soon as she's far enough up the stairs, he darts for the door, trying his best not to swing the car seat as he made a run for it. He doesn't answer his brother's questioning stares as he throws himself into the car after Bear.
"GO!" He yells when Emmett turns around to say something.
Jacob's jostled awake. It's less like light push and more like he's being wrestled as Leah shakes him. Based off of the look in her eye when he's finally able to focus, it must be an emergency.
"What?" He asks looking up at her. His hand subconsciously reaches out to touch Edward.
He's not there.
Jacob whips his head around to look at Leah, who's eyes have somehow gotten wider.
"He left. He got up and he ran like he was in some kind of trouble."
Honestly, Edward admires the amount of restraint his brothers, especially Emmett, have regarding his predicament. He knows they want to laugh, want to fucking cackle at his misfortune. Of course they do, why wouldn't they? It was probably fucking hilarious. From anyone else's perspective, it was probably hysterical.
He feels that sensation again. The one that leaves his eyes all itchy and makes his throat hurt.
"I think we're overreacting a little here," Emmett tries after about thirty minutes of them just sitting in silence, "I mean, if he loves you, why does it matter?"
That was a cute, little sentiment.
Only problem is that he doesn't love Edward. They were playing a game and now it's come to a screeching halt.
Edward rubs a hand over his stomach. He feels like he could throw up.
"We're not - It's not like that." Edward mumbles.
Emmett looks over to Jasper as if he's misread something, looks for the answer in the "wiser brother". Jasper just stares at Edward like he's an idiot.
"No, he's definitely in love. No one else would put up with you this long if they didn't love you." Jasper mumbles, taking a sip of something that he'd put in a mug.
Edward glares at him and he only shrugs as if it was just fact and there was nothing he could do about it.
Edward sighs, realizing that there long series of lies was about to come to an end as he turned to look at his brothers.
"We're not together," He states plainly, "the Chief put us together to protect her."
The admission gets less of a response than he's expecting as his brothers glance at one another.
"We know." Emmett says as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"You just randomly get a boyfriend, who just so happens to work in the same station and accept that you decided to keep Bear." Jasper looks at Edward like he couldn't possibly be this dense.
"It was all of the stuff after," Emmett says waving in the air, "the whiny blonde was bitching about you two kissing in front of him. Didn't sound like it was necessary."
"The way you got all upset when he didn't bring you to work." Jasper pointed to Emmett and Emmett nodded in agreement.
"The cuddling where no one could've possibly seen you." Emmett notes.
"The getting upset when you thought he was fooling around with someone else." Jasper lists.
"The way he looked like he was going to have a heart attack when I came to pick you two up earlier." Emmett throws in.
"The way he keeps calling Bear by that dumb name even though we all know it's ridiculous." Jasper huffs.
"Yeah, right. 'Not together.'"
Jacob probably broke about four laws getting to Edward's house only to be left standing alone in the middle of the living room. They hadn't gone home. Of course they hadn't. He'd probably called up his brothers and gone to one of their houses, but he didn't have their numbers. They probably wouldn't have picked up anyway.
What was this about? Was it about the accident?
Seth steps inside as if he's trespassing, looking at Jacob as if he had the right to give him permission to enter. Seth scans the place, clearly in awe before he, of course, makes his way over to the fridge and yanks it open.
"All of this and the man barely has food in his fridge." Seth mumbles quietly.
Jacob tries his best not to glare at him before he goes for another sweep around the house as if it would be different this time. As if they'd be hiding in some secret compartment somewhere. He goes into the guest room while Seth wanders down to the other end of the hall. He goes through everything. He even flips over the mattress. He's about to give up when he hears Seth call his name.
"Bro, you gotta get in here." He hears as he's jogging down the hall.
He pushes open Edward's door, thinking - he doesn't know, maybe Edward was just in the bathroom. Maybe he'll be standing there, holding Bear, looking at Jacob as if he's insane. Instead, he sees Seth's head popping up from beside Edward's bed.
"What?" Jacob says, wandering over to get a good look at whatever Seth's gotten into.
Seth moves out of the way, leaving Jacob to stare into a mini fridge. A mini fridge full of little styrofoam cups. He stares at them before looking over Seth.
"Smell." Seth says, pointing at the cups.
Jacob bends back down, takes a deep breath and is thrown off balance when a strong, metallic scent hits his nose. He pushes himself back up, reaching for one of the cups and rips the top off only to find himself staring down into a cup filled with a dark, red liquid.
It's blood.
Jacob stands there for a minute before Edward's voice pops into his head:Â 'Animal and human blood are different'. He remembers having the conversation while bickering about something he pointed out in one of the files. Jacob turns and heads downstairs to grab his work bag and he can hear Seth flying down after him, calling his name.
He grabs it off of the front of the truck, trying his best to ignore Edward's blood, that'd clearly dripped onto it at some point during the accident, and pulls out a folder that holds that little tester that Edward had shown him.
Jacob rushes past a confused Seth, heading back into the house and up the stairs. He takes no time, stripping off the protective plastic layer and dipping it into the cup.
"If it's animal blood, it turns blue."
Edward says, dipping the tester into a sample of human blood and watching as it turns bright red.
Jacob pulls the little tester out and watches as it lights up fluorescent blue. He stares at it for a moment. Not human blood, animal blood.
That still doesn't take away from the fact that there is blood. A large amount of it.
Seth's staring at him with this unreadable expression, like he's waiting for whatever Jacob does or says first. Jacob sits the cup down, almost feeling dazed as he turns toward the door. He wants to be angry, wants to be fucking furious. What was he going to do? Hurt him? He felt his heart hurt just thinking about it. How could he be mad at him, he hadn't told Edward his little secret either...
He must've found out.
Jacob lets out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and plops down on the edge of Edward's bed.
What the fuck was he going to do?