I'll be home for Christmas

Chapter 2

Standard garbled author notes. This started as a one shot. I know - when has she ever done that before? Heavy sarcasm. The first chapter got a lot of reviews and I asked people some questions when I answered them. "But there are a lot of things to think about. For example: why go back now? Are the wolf gods sending them *both* back? Dream messages... if so, why now? Do they need all available wolves? What if the older generation phased too? Is Josh really Embry's father? What the heck is Sam/Embry/Jake going to say? Are the Volturi coming? Are the Cullens still around? Has Jake imprinted in the five year gap?" And wonderfully, people responded. Some people said they had never done that before. It told me that there was quite an interest in this story. Problem was, my muse wandered off with Paul (always does… sigh) and I got embedded in Swan's Mate for Life and a few other original fics. But here it is, finally. The rest of the story. Enjoy.

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"Sam?" Josh asked.

"Dad?" Bella repeated. "Dad?" She clambered off Josh's lap, even though he tried to hold her there.

He rose to his feet and stood. He managed to make it look dignified. He surreptitiously looked over Sam as he did it.

Bella wondered what he was thinking. Shit. She wasn't sure what she was thinking.

Sam watched him impassively. No one ever knew what Sam was thinking.

Bella felt that she owed Josh something. He hadn't planned this. This had to be almost the worst father son get together… ever. Given what little of his history he had told her. He had run and abandoned his family. And his family didn't look happy about it.

"How's Emily?" she blurted out.

Sam gave her an irritated look.

"Emily?" Josh repeated.

"She's Sam's-" She stopped.

"Wife," Sam substituted for her before she said imprint.

Josh looked at him. "You're married?"

There was an awkward pause, that Bella felt compelled to fill, "Oh, it was ages ago that he and Emily got together. You would have been… what… nineteen?"

"Stop it, Bella," barked Sam.

"I don't need your help," said Josh.

"Fine," she huffed. She threw her hands up in the air and turned her back on them both. She trod carefully across the pebbles until she got to the water's edge. She clenched her fists and she screamed across the silent water. "FUCK!"

When she turned back, they were both staring at her with identical looks on their faces. She didn't know why she hadn't seen the resemblance before.

"She's got history, here," Sam explained.

"She brought me here," said Josh.

Sam frowned. "I would have thought this was the last place on earth she would have wanted to go."

"Stop calling me 'she' and believe me," she snarked, "There are other places on earth I don't want to go to, worse than here." She frowned. "Did that make sense?"

"No," said Josh.

"You've got secrets, too," she told him.

"Yes," he agreed.

"Fuck! You two are the same. Same mono-syllabic answers."

Sam frowned at her.

"Sam?" she heard a voice call.

She knew that voice. Oh, fuck, no. "Jake?" she whispered.

"Here, Jake," Sam called, confirming her worst fears.