Sleeping Dogs

Chapter 11: Shit Hits the Fan

Chapter Eleven:
Shit Hits the Fan

"Caroline!" Small hands starting banging on her head like a drum. "Car-o-line!" The young girl repeated. "Wake UP!"

Caroline covered her face with her hands as she was abruptly pulled from sleep. "Claire? What are you doing here?" She wrapped her arms around the little girl and pulled her to her chest so she would stop beating her. She opened her eyes and looked around. "Is your mom here?"

"Mom is with Emily and Auntie Jan and Auntie Sue. Quil is here," Claire pointed to Caroline's door, where the massive Quileute man was leaning on the frame.

He waved. "Morning, Care. We are here to kidnap you."

Claire giggled hysterically. "We're kidnapping you!"

"Oh?" Caroline said. "You're kidnapping me?" She looked down at the little girl in her arms. "Looks like I'm the one who has kidnapped you!" She flipped Claire over so that she was below her and started tickling her sides mercilessly. The young girl squealed for Quil underneath her. "Quil can't save you now!" Caroline laughed, tilting her head back as Claire grabbed for it with small hands.

Two large arms wrapped around Caroline's midsection and pulled her into the air before dropping her unceremoniously on the bed next to Claire.

"Sorry, Care. I gotta do whatever Claire says." Quil grinned down at her but didn't look sorry at all as he and her little niece starting tickling her until she was breathless.

"You're - on - my - shitlist!" She said through laughs, trying to glare at Quil through the tears in her eyes brought on by their tag team assault.

Claire's mouth dropped open and she stood on Caroline's bed and yelled dramatically. "That's a bad! Word!"

"That's right, and you aren't allowed to say it but I can!" She said. "And I'll say it again if I have to, traitor!"

Quil grabbed Claire off the bed and rested the seven year old on his hip in a motherly gesture. "But you won't be saying it again because we don't teach little kids bad words," he gave her a half-hearted glare. "Now get dressed, Talltree. We're going to the beach."

"The beach? It's not exactly beach weather," Caroline frowned. It was starting to warm up, but it was still relatively early spring.

"Any day it doesn't rain is beach weather, if you're brave enough," Quil argued.

"You think I'm chicken?" Caroline narrowed her eyes.

He grabbed Claire's hand and lead her to the door. "I didn't say anything! Now hurry up, we're burning daylight!"

"It's 11 AM!" Caroline called after him and he laughed before shutting the door. "Crazy ass mother fucker," she said to herself. She dressed quickly, putting on a thin sweatshirt, jean shorts and sandals. She put her swimsuit on underneath, in case the weather was nicer than she thought.

Quil drove them to First Beach and Caroline was pleased to see that Jared, Kim, Embry, Shawn, Brady, Colin and Seth were already there. She felt a pang of disappointment when she didn't see Jake but pushed it down.

To no surprise, all of the guys were shirtless. It was a rather beautiful, sunny day. The light breeze was cool on her legs, but not entirely unpleasant. Caroline sat down next to Kim and Shawn on their towels.

"Long time, no see," Shawn said. "We missed ya."

"It's been a wild week." Caroline laid back on the towel and covered her eyes from the sun. Wild wasn't exactly an appropriate word for all that had happened recently, but Caroline didn't know how else to describe the events of the week. Her sister had a miscarriage, she'd slept in the same bed with a man who used to irritate her endlessly, she'd almost kissed said man, and now she was reeling over her mother being in town.