The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter LXXVII

It had been a day since the battle had taken place. So many things had changed since the battle. Sam had forced Leah and Paul to tell their imprints in order to keep them safe. So Paul's Charlotte was now a part of our little family. It was a little difficult to communicate with her. We were all working on our sign language; but she seemed pretty nice. And she had the perfect sense of humor for us. She fit in quite well.

Before the battle, we had been seeing more of Nate. It had been nice. He and Leah had been doing great. I wasn't sure what exactly had gone wrong, but I knew that Leah was back to the angry bitch she had been before. Worse, if we were being honest. She refused to go to the gym and work out. She wouldn't talk to him, wouldn't see him. And what was worse, she wouldn't come out of her room.

"Maybe I should go talk to her, Annie," Emily said while I was resting in her living room. I shook my head.

"I don't think it would be, uh, appreciated, Em," I said cautiously. I had once promised Leah that I wouldn't talk to her about Emily. So I didn't. And that was the exact reason that I didn't ask her what she was thinking about Emily and Sam.

"She won't eat, she's not sleeping, she won't come out of her room," Emily stated.

"Leave her alone. She'll come around." I said the words, but I didn't believe them. I just knew that Leah wouldn't appreciate having Emily there to console her. I mean, we didn't even know what was wrong. Jake appeared in the doorway, jerking his head towards the front door of the house.

"I've got to go, Em; I'll talk about this later." She nodded, but was chewing on her lower lip.

"Do us all a favor and leave Leah alone?" I suggested as I turned back to her.

Emily smiled and nodded at me, but I knew that she was going to try anyways. I was about to turn back and get her to promise me that she wasn't going to try to talk to Leah when Jake's hand wrapped around my waist and pulled me against his chest. My feet were dangling off the ground, basically lying on top of Jake's. Finally, he gave up on trying to tow me along, completely impatient. I rolled my eyes, but let him sweep me up against his chest. He marched with determination to the truck, balancing me against in one arm and prying the door open with the other.

Gently insistent, Jake pushed me into the car and jumped in next to me.

"Where are we going?" I asked, looking up at him. I had learned, after so many ordeals, to just trust Jake. While I wanted to retain a part of myself, a part of my independence I couldn't. That was part of being in a relationship, I guess. It wasn't about changing yourself for the person that you loved, it was about growing into a bigger person. And I had someone that loved me enough to come within inches of his life trying to save me. And I trust him to take care of me.

So I didn't care about where I was going. As long as Jake was with me. But I was still curious. What exactly did the boy have up his sleeve?

"You can find out in a little," he said simply. I shrugged and rested my head against the seat. Jake reached forward and turned the radio on. So we were in for a long drive. That was the only reason that Jake would turn on the radio. Otherwise, he was content to listen to me chatter on for a little while.

I reached up and tangled my hand in his hair, scratching at his hair. He kept his eyes on the road, but twisted his head in different positions to make sure that I got all of his head. I pulled away then, worried about the road and the rain... and the fact that we were driving. He groaned and tried to wiggle his head back into my hand.

"No; no," I said. "Don't start that. I don't want us to crash." He groaned and rolled his eyes before wrapping his arms around my shoulders and dragged me closer to his side.