I'll be home for Christmas

Chapter 50

Chapter 50 - I'll be home for Christmas

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe [ruadh sidhe] and Feebes86 for betaing and pre-reading.

Luckily for the tribe, like all behemoths and juggernauts, the Volturi was slow to get going. They were also thousands of years old and a couple of weeks was no big time span to them. So, even though Aro had announced that they were going, it took a long time to actually get them all ready to go on the road. Plus, the wives of the core members hadn't been allowed out of Volterra for a very long time and no one wanted to hurry them.

For the tribe, the days became a blur. Daylight hours filled with pack training and pushing Bella to work on expanding her shield. Josh not only had to train, plus help Bella, plus read everything that Old Quil gave him, and try to memorize a whole lot more that wasn't written down; things that he should have had the luxury of time to learn before he needed to apply them. But he was coming to the shaman role, like a lot of other things, late in his life.

He spent a lot of his time with Embry who was clearly trying to avoid Leah or Billy or fill his hours and blank days. His closest friends were busy and he latched onto his father.

"Sam is still… aloof," Josh commented to Embry one day.

"Yeah. He's kind of dogged. I can't think of a better word."

"I know what you mean… I wish I could make it up to him but I don't even know where to start."

"Nate likes you," Embry said. "Ruth is still a bit little, yet."

"And Emily is doing her best as well."

"That ceremony, with the spirit stick - that was really cool."

It had affected Josh on many levels. "And I felt much closer to Sam then, than I do now."

"He's gone back in his shell."

"Do you have any ideas, Embry?"

"Show him what you are thinking."

"Share memories in the pack mind?"

"Yeah. Sam's the strong, silent type. He's not that much into chat."

"But if he could show me what he thought?"

"It might be a bit intense. Once that door opens, it will just all flood out." Embry looked worried.

Josh took a deep breath. "I don't care if it is intense, I owe him that much. He has never been able to show me his side of the story."Catching sight of Embry's face, he realized that Embry had never had that privilege either. "Of course," he added, "as my son, you could do it, too. If you wanted to." He wasn't sure how willing Embry was to share, either. In some ways, his two sons were very alike. They both played their cards close to their chests.

Embry scoffed. "You didn't even know that I existed."

"But I want to know, now."

His face brightened. "I'd like that."

"Good. We'll ask Sam."

They were all running out of time. Everyone felt the creeping approach of the date both Alice and Josh had pegged as when the Volturi would arrive. It was difficult for most of them, but worse for Brady and Lucas, who both felt as if they needed more time.

Since the night when Brady had kissed his nose, Lucas was like a tightly wound spring. Everything that went even slightly wrong was a major disaster in his eyes. He had a tendency to wail and moan about things and to blame himself if anyone else in the pack spoke sharply to him. Billy actually made him cry one day.