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Family Matters
“But I don't want to!” Jake exclaimed, his voice rough with emotion. Jasper and I had been trying to prepare him to meet his birth mother. Bella had finally decided she was ready to have some contact with Jacob, but he wasn't having any of it. At aged seven, he was completely content to be our son and even though he adored his grandpa Charlie, he was adamant that he didn't need 'some lady coming into his life mucking it up'.
We knew of course that this wasn't the case and that he was just scared of being rejected yet again by the woman who had given birth to him and given him away. Jake was very complicated when it came to how he expressed his emotions.
Charlie pulled Jake into his arms and rubbed his back soothingly. “It's okay buddy, no one is going to force you.” He soothed, but Jake just looked at him sceptically. He was a bright boy, our son, and he knew that he would have to meet her eventually, he also knew that it caused his grandpa a lot of pain every time he refused.
“Well of course y'all are gonna force me, I'm not stupid ya know.” He huffed out an exasperated breath and pouted his lips. I had to turn and bury my face in Jasper's neck to hide the chuckle. Jasper and I often debated about where Jake got his dramatic flair. We blamed each other of course, and on occasion his Uncle Emmett. But Alice and Rose where the front runners in the debate. Alice with her flair for pouting and stomping her foot and Rose with her need to be noticed, between all of us he never really stood a chance.
Jasper chuckled quietly, causing Jake to swing around from his grandpa and face him, eyes blazing and lips pulled into a tight line. “You...I...just no, okay. I don't want to!”
The biggest thing about Jake was that his first response to difficult situations was always a firm no, until he thought about it and finally, he would talk to Grandpa Carlisle and Grandma Esme, listening very carefully to their opinion before firmly making his final choice. The choice was only final when he would state, 'and that is my final word' at the end of a sentence. It was a saying he picked up at the age of five from Jasper, and he mimicked him perfectly when he used it.
Like a lot of things he picked up from both of us, the cutest thing was how Jake would all of a sudden have a thick southern accent when he was annoyed or angry, which made it very difficult for Jasper and I to keep a straight face, he was just too damn adorable.
“Dad, are you even listening to me?” Jake was pulling on my arm trying to dislodge my face from Jasper's neck.
“Edward.” Jasper said nudging me from my spot before I had a chance to rearrange my features. Jake took one look at me and stomped his foot.
“Great, I'm so glad you find this amusing, dad.” I rearranged my face into a serious expression.
“Sorry buddy, but you know how cute you are when you get all pouty, you can't do that when we are having a serious conversation.
Jasper laughed out loud and Jake huffed some more before laughing himself. “Sure, whatever. Pa, can you take me over to gran and pop's today?” Jasper's face took on a shocked expression.
“Umm, sure sweetheart, but I thought you would want to go see grandma and grandda today?”
“Nah, I already know what they want me to do, I wanna talk to gran and pop, since you know, pop was adopted too, so he knows more about this than you all do.” Jake rolled his eyes at the look on Jasper's face as it changed from shocked to understanding to pride and jumped into my lap.
“Okay buddy I will call em and let them know you are wanting to visit.” Jasper said jumping up and grabbing the phone. Jake laid his head on my shoulder and wrapped his arms around my neck.
“Dad?” I squeezed him to me and kissed his head, there weren't many years left of him cuddling me like this, it was getting few and far between as it was now.
“Yeah, precious?” Jacob pulled his head back and looked at me.
“One, don't call me that, dad, it's embarrassing.” I sighed and nodded my head. “Good, and two, now I know you said that I wouldn't have to leave you and pa, but I just wanna make sure. If I do decide to meet this lady, it doesn't mean that I have to go live with her, or do that weekend visit thing that Tyler has to do with his mum and dad, right?”
“Of course not,” I said, my face twisted at the thought of anyone taking Jake away. “We adopted you Jake, we have full custody and no one can take you away from us, not without one hell of a fight, that's for sure.” I added the second part without thought and Jake jumped down off my lap.
“What do you mean fight? Could she fight to take me away from you?” He started to pace back and forth, another habit he had picked up from Jasper, and throw his hands up in the air, “I'm not leaving you and pa, I don't care what anyone says. I hate this, I hate her and I wish she was dead.”
Charlie gasped from across the room, and quickly covered his mouth with his hand, he knew as we all did that Jake was just mad, and that he didn't mean it. Out of the mouths of babes and all that, but it still had to sting.
“I...sorry grandpa.” Jake shuffled his feet, staring at the floor intently. “I didn't mean it, I'm just really mad.”
“I know buddy, I know.” Charlie said and he held his arms open for Jake, who flew into them and buried his face in Charlie's neck, a little sob coming from him.
I could understand it, Jake had only had two days to try and get used to the idea, and he wasn't very happy about the fact that the woman who abandoned him now wanted to come see him. Alice had tried to explain as best she could the day before, but Jake wasn't having any of it. He flatly refused to discuss it with her at all, just shook his head and crossed him arms over his chest, defiantly.
Alice had been visiting Jake every time she came home from college, and now she was working at the Forks high as the drama teacher. Bella was also working there as the English teacher. After they had left for college, Alice had only been home on a few occasions, until Bella had decided to start to come home too, she missed her dad and the Cullens. She never saw Jake when she was home, though, it was only two years ago that both Alice and her had moved home to be closer to everyone. Bella was strong and independent now, having faced her nightmare and moved on from it. Slowly but surely she had been asking about Jake more and more, requesting photos and updates on his life. Now she was ready to meet him, and this is what was causing the problems.
Jake was happy enough to know that Bella was his birth mother, cause it gave him grandpa Charlie, but he had no interest in meeting Bella now. He had asked about her many times growing up and every time he was told that she wasn't ready to meet him. After a while he just stopped asking, Esme had asked him why he had stopped and his response at five was, 'if she doesn't want me, then I don't want her'. He cried for a week after that admission.
It was all so damn messy, especially since we couldn't share with him why exactly Bella had given him up. He was too young to understand. He had asked about his birth father once, and we were able to tell him the truth about that.
The man that attacked Bella, had mysteriously disappeared when Jake was two, his body was found three weeks later. Or what was left of his body. Wolf attack had been listed as the cause of death. Jasper and I had other suspicions but whenever we brought it up Charlie would start fidgeting and change the subject.
So Jake was told that his birth father had passed away.
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Three weeks after Jacob had spoken, privately, with Jasper's parents, he walked into the kitchen and announced that he was willing to meet 'the lady' and after talking through things with him, we made the call to Bella.
Jake had decided that he wanted to meet her, but only if he was surrounded by his family. That meant that everyone, Jasper's parents, my parents, Charlie, Alice, Emmett and Rose needed to be there.
Rose and Emmett had been inseparable since the dinner at our place and had married two years ago, with Jake as the ring barer. Rose was currently expecting their first child, and we all couldn't be happier.
Jake was very tense waiting for everyone to arrive. It was a Sunday afternoon and Bella was told to arrive at four, giving everyone else enough time to be there before her. The only person who wouldn't would be Alice who was arriving with Bella.
Jake went between pacing nervously around the house to curling up in either my arms or Jasper's. He really did take after Jasper, with nearly all his mannerisms, and if today wasn't so stressful I would have laughed at his antics, as it was I was barely keeping it together. If it hadn't been for Jasper I would have fallen apart completely.
We both knew that this day would come eventually, and we made a promise that when it did we would support Bella, but now, seven years later, it was extremely difficult for us to have someone come into our home and make a claim on our son. As much as we loved Bella for giving us the gift of Jake, a huge part of both of us just wanted to take him and run away where no one could ever find us. We wanted to save Jake the pain of having to go through this and selfishly we wanted to save ourselves the pain, that one day, Jake may decide he wanted Bella full time.
The door bell rang at exactly four and Jake who had been sitting with Jasper, whispering quietly to each other, jumped and shifted so he was sitting part way on both of our laps, one arm wrapped around my neck, one around Jasper's, in an awkward position, causing Jasper and my heads to be held together.
Charlie got up to get the door, and lead Alice and an uncomfortable looking Bella into the room. Her eyes immediately fell on Jake, who had his face buried between mine and Jasper' necks. He peaked around, twisting his body so he could look at Bella and then quickly buried his head back in its previous position.
Bella walked over to us, sank to her knees and tentatively raised her hand to Jake's back, “Hello Jake, it's a pleasure to meet you,” she said. Jake pulled his body away from her touch and grunted out a small noise. Bella sighed softly but didn't move from her spot in front of us. Jasper gave her an encouraging smile, while I whispered into Jake's ear, encouraging him to face her.
After what seemed like hours, but was probably only ten minutes, Jake turned, wedging himself between me and Jasper and looked up into Bella's face, he had tears in his eyes as he spoke. “Hello Bella,” he said softly. He gave her a weak smile and relief filled her features and tears fell from her eyes.
“Hello Jacob, it's so nice to meet you.” Her voice quavered with emotion as she reached out her hand to him, not touching, just waiting to see if he would take it. Jake looked at both me and Jasper who nodded at him encouragingly and he reached out a shaking hand and placed it into Bella's.
Jake had a look on his face I knew very well, his eyes held a million questions, and I could see his mind going a mile a minute. But what he did next surprised everyone in the room, including us, and Jasper let out a gasp of surprise as Jake flung himself into Bella's arms and sobbed openly. Bella held him tight, rubbing his back soothingly as she let her emotions flow.
They stayed that way for twenty minutes, just holding on to each other before Jake pulled back, dried his eyes and returned to his position between myself and Jasper. He cleared his throat before looking between the two of us and then back to his mother.
We spent the next hour, with Bella asking Jake about school and his favorite hobbies, and Jake answered all her question with enthusiasm, pleased that she wanted to know so much about him and even more pleased that she obviously knew a lot about him anyway.
“Aunty Alice has been telling you about me, hasn't she?” Jake asked after Bella had finished firing off questions and telling him everything she already knew.
“I suppose she has, yes,” Bella said, before adding, “she has also been giving me photographs.” Bella reached into her bag and pulled out a photo album, the cover had gold letters on the front reading 'Jacob' and Bella handed it to him.
The next hour was spent with the three of us telling Bella about what we were doing on the days each photo was taken.
It was time to get some dinner going, by the time Jake pulled Bella by the hand to take her to his room, he wanted to show her all his toys, his favorite books and where he slept. The rest of us piled into the kitchen, talking about how things were going while we decided what to prepare for dinner.
In the end we decided on Jake's favorite take away and Carlisle and Charlie left to pick it up. My nerves were on a thin thread by the time the food arrived and Bella and Jake were still upstairs. Jasper went up to get them for dinner and was shaking his head as he entered the kitchen to help me with drinks, while everyone else was in the dinning room, setting out plates and dishing up the food.
“I caught the back end of a conversation while I was walking to his room, apparently, Jake is happy to be friends with Bella, and maybe one day he might call her mom, but he is very happy with us and would rather that she not disrupt his life.” Jasper laughed quietly as tears filled his eyes, and I hugged him tightly as relief flooded through my system.
“He also said that if she even thought about trying to take him away from us, he would never speak to her again, because even though she was the reason he was alive, we were his parents and he would be very mad if she tried to split us up. He was very adamant about how much he loved us and made it clear that though he might love her one day, he would never love her as much as he loved us. Out of the mouths of babes, hey baby. I always said he was seven going on forty. The boy is way too wise beyond his years.” Jasper was smiling into my neck and my body trembled with tears of joy.
It had been one of my biggest fears that Jake would one day want to live with his real mother, and that we were not enough for him. I had never been so glad to have been proven wrong.
Jake came bounding into the kitchen, a smile on his face, “she's not so bad ya know,” he said, “but she's got nothing on you two. I love you dad, pa.” He ran and threw his arms around our waists, squeezing his little body between us.
Later that night after we had put Jake to bed and read him a bedtime story, Bella had offered but Jake had informed her that it was something he did with his dads only and didn't want that to change ever, we made our way down to find the family sitting around the living room with coffee.
“That went so much better than I expected,” said Charlie, a happy smile on his face, as Bella sat beside him, her arm around his waist and head resting on his shoulder.
“Yes, it did,” said Jasper, before he turned and kissed my cheek.
“Thank you both,” said Bella, “I know this must have been hard on you, and I appreciate all you have done for him. He is beyond happy and healthy, and he is such a smart boy.” Bella sighed before continuing, “he was a little worried that I was planning on taking him away from you, and made me promise that I wouldn't.” She laughed slightly as a few tears escaped her. “I'm just happy to have the opportunity to have any part in his life he will give me, I've made so many mistakes in my life, but the one thing I did right, about the only thing I did right, was giving Jacob to you two. I couldn't have asked for a better home for him, your son.”
We talked well into the night, and it was midnight before Jasper and I finally fell into bed, happy, content and wondering what the future would hold for Jake, our son.
awww yay! Thank you, bb
ReplyDeleteThat was so good. I want to read more and more and more. Your Jacob is so adorable. And his dads... ung.
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