The Consequences {Jacob Black}

Chapter XCVIII

My family and I went home the next day, the entire trial being over with. It was hard not to get to be there when Murphy received his punishment for the shit-storm that he had created, but knowing that he was going to be put away made it a little easier. That, combined with the fact that he would have to become a registered sex offender. He would never harm another girl. He would never get another job if he managed to get out of prison. He was a convicted sex offender now. I had done exactly what I had set out to do and saved other people.

Jake was quiet the entire drive back to the house. I think he was still trying to process what he had heard. Just like me, he seemed to be a little shocked that this man was gone, no more a part of our lives.

"You okay?" I asked him after a little while. We were getting close to the La Push line now. I was hoping that he would calm down a little after we made it there, when he was on his own turf again. He just nodded and kept walking.

"You know how you hate when I don't tell you what's wrong?" He nodded again. "That's about how I feel right now. Will you please tell me."

"Everything has gone so well the last few days. You know what I mean? We haven't had to deal with your mom or your sister or my sisters or vampires or anything. I'm kind of just waiting for everything to go bad," he admitted with a sheepish shrug.

"Everything in our lives has been a little hectic. So much of what we are has been up in the air, you know? I mean from before the wolf shit. I mean, just think about it for a minute, okay? Before the wolf stuff, you hated Edward and you were sacrificing everything to try to make your sister healthy when the leech left hurt her. And then I complicated everything by imprinting on you.

And you did the whole shit again trying to let me be with Bella so that I wouldn't have to lose my choice. You were attacked by a man who tried to rape you. You almost drowned. You were forced to go to Italy because your sister needed you to. You were hunted by an army of newborn vampires. You keep giving and giving and all we get in return is bad things. You're just like the characters in those damned books you love. You just keep fucking giving. But nothing is getting better for you, Annie. When is it supposed to get better?"

I sighed and looked out the window, trying to figure out the right way to tell him my thoughts on the matter. He was right about the shit that had become our lives. I mean, everything kind of exploded on us. Every good moment that we had felt like the calm before the storm and in some ways it was. But I didn't want to change even a single moment of what happened. Jake and I had grown, had changed, had become the people that we are today because of the things that had happened in the last year.

"You know the thing about those stories that I read is that everyone has a happy ending at the end of the day. The bad guy dies, the guy saves the girl, the girl helps the guy realize that he's a lot more than he ever thought that he was. The list of things that happen are numbered. And I honestly think that's because that's how life is in real life. The number of outcomes are limited.

So while everything may seem like it's exploding on us right now, I think that at some point it has to get better. At the end of the day, the darkness comes in and we just have to wait for the dawn. That's what we've got to do, Jake. We're waiting for the sun to rise so that we can live out our ending," I told him, reaching over to scratch his back while he drove.

"You're such a nerd," he informed me. "A poetic nerd who happens to be right about everything most times, but still a nerd." I smiled at him. "But let's not wright off the night just yet, okay? There are a few things that happen during the night that I'm not ready to let go of just yet," he added with a wiggle of his eyebrows. I laughed and smiled and continued on his back.