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Post by swiveltooth on May 7, 2008 18:24:21 GMT -5
As she washed the dishes, Kate couldn’t help but let her mind drift from the task at hand. The window that was stationed about the sink was inviting for wandering thoughts and the dark forest beyond, framed by frayed white curtains, seemed to beckon to her. She had never been a very out-doorsy person and the woods seemed forbidding beyond the initial seduction of mystery, so she deeply doubted she’d ever venture far…but the sight was good for her restless mind. She felt like in light of recent events she needed an escape. If she found it in a simple glance outside, then all the better for her.
The weeks passed had been difficult at best. It wasn’t only Juno she was worried about, it was Colton. They had always been close and she could see the disease that was eating away at his sister was having a similar reaction on him. If only he’d find a good girl to help him sustain the pain (not that Kate minded filling that comforting void for now) she was sure it’d be easier on him. But he had never really showed interest in anyone she had introduced him to and Colton was much different than Annie. Kate couldn’t push him like she could push Annie. She was scared he’d break.
So for now she’d leave him alone and let him focus on Juno only. It was the least Kate could do; they were family after all. And someone had to make sure Colton didn’t starve to death or spend all his time at the hospital. Sleeping there was bound to ruin his back.
Voices outside and a heavy knock on the door woke her up and scattered her steady stream of thoughts. Casting an odd look at the door, she shrugged to herself and looked over her shoulder at Colton. “Mind getting the door?” she asked breezily, not much concerned with whoever it was. Probably just Embry requesting the company of her little sister or Jake stealing some of the muffins Emily had given her. Kate cast a side-long, protective glance at the basket filled with sweet-smelling muffins. Jake was kidding himself if he thought he was getting any, or Embry or Paul for that matter.
Only a second later there was a much more urgent, much more demanding knock that seemed to shake the frame of the front door. Annoyed and a bit scared, Kate dropped the dish she had been cleaning into the sink and yanked the faucet handle to the left roughly. “What?!” she asked, though doubted whoever was on the other side could hear her.
Honestly, what could be that important?!
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Post by Antigone Crow on May 7, 2008 18:41:36 GMT -5
Things were not good.
Juno was not improving at all, and the doctors were now saying that a transplant may do more bad than good. Her immune system was shot to hell, which meant that there was a huge chance of rejection. Only a completely perfect donor would be the best option, and Annie was not perfect. So, she was feeling slightly better, though knowing the fact that they could have done the transplant before now just made her feel like shit again.
Surprisingly, the brother of the dying girl, her cousin, did not blame her. He knew of subtsance abuse problems, and knew she had been through a lot over the years. He knew that eventually, he would probably lose it and yell at Annie for being selfish and stupid, but for now, he would keep those thoughts to himself.
A peaceful day at the Crow resident had taken place. Colton hadn't visited Kate so much as Annie, and had decided he needed a day away from the hospital. So, he made a trip to La Push and resolved to spend the day there. It had been a lazy day (that had generally resolved around playing board games, actually), and that was exactly what Colton and Annie had needed. kate did, too, no doubt--their family situation was stressful, as of now.
"It was Ms. Scarlett in the dining room with the candle stick," Colton said, watching as Annie pouted and he snickered, tossing his cards down. "I officially own at every board game." "Ha, ha--fuck you," Annie said, sticking her tongue out at him, yawning and stretching after a moment. "Soo..What now? Oh, can we play Candy Land?!" "..No." "Oh, come on, Col!" Another pout was pulled on. "Por favor?" "No." "I hate you!"
The bickering continued until there was a knock on the door, and Colton got up and opened it. Just half a second later, he was opening it wide. "Shit, what the fuck happened to you?" Annie looked up, eyes wide at Paul's appearance. Oh, fuck, this was bad. He was hurt, he was hurt bad, and she was going to have to explain to her sister why he would suddenly start healing in just seconds. "Oh, God, Paul, are you okay?" Beat. "Stupid question. Take a seat on the couch. Kate! Medical assistance, por favor, rapido!" Random Spanish was love.
Her eyes flickered to Jake after a moment. "Please tell me you're okay. Please." There was nothing she could see, thankfully.
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Post by Jacob Black on May 7, 2008 18:58:25 GMT -5
His hands would not stay still as they trembled with anger at his sides. He was trying so hard not to phase, and every time he glanced back at Paul the anger would surge through him once again. He growled under his breath, mumbling vulgar curses aimed at the leech that had hurt Paul so severely. Once Paul was completely dressed, he made a fist and banged loudly against the door. He was surprised when the door hadn't completely blown down, he hadn't really been paying attention and had hit it a lot harder then he would have on a normal day. Plus, he was angry and upset which wasn't really helping.
Jake cursed loudly when Colton answered the door. Great, now there would be two people who he would have to convince that werewolves and vampires were real. Two more people to get swept into their crazy, hectic world. What a fucking great day it was going to be. He mumbled to himself and then headed into the door, helping Paul inside the entire way. He helped him get to the couch, and then had him lay down so that he could be a little more comfortable. Jake slipped a pillow under his head and then ran his fingers threw his hair, thinking about what to do and say from here.
Jacob turned to Annie, "Yeah, I'm fine." he responded quietly, and then took a step closer to her. "A fucking leech did that to Paul." he whispered, being careful so that Kate and Colton couldn't hear him. "She crossed the border, so her and Paul started to fight. She beat him bad, Annie. He'd probably be dead if I hadn't gotten there to help." he said softly, slowly shaking his head. "We were hoping that Kate could help fix him up. Which means that someone has to tell her about... us. If you want to do it, that's fine. Just let me know if you want me to do it or if you need my help."
He turned again towards Paul.Sam would be coming over soon which meant that he would have more help to make sure everything went smoothly. He wondered who had been sent to the border line, and he wondered what was happening out there. If that bitch hurt anyone else in the pack, then she was going to have a very painful death. Hopefully the Pack wa giving it to her right now, making sure that she never came near La Push again.
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Post by swiveltooth on May 7, 2008 19:18:37 GMT -5
Kate’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion at Colton’s reaction and a heartbeat later she openly blanched at the sight – blood and twisted limbs, distorting a once familiar boy. Good God in heaven, what could have done that? And why were they here and not a hospital?!
Kate was not an ER nurse for nothing. She had been in situations like this dozens of times before when she had been interning in Seattle, though admittedly she had been expecting it then. Her house was not a medical facility. Why the heck had Jake brought him here? If she hadn’t been so shocked she might have been annoyed with his lack of forethought. The kid needed medical attention as soon as possible. Even with a well-stocked first aid kit and experience behind her, Kate could not offer him what he needed.
A blank, focused mask was what she wore as she hurried into the living room. Inside she felt fear, worry, confusion, though her mind easily discarded those thoughts and focused instead on how she was going to help him…Paul? Was it Paul? She could hardly tell with the grime and blood matting his face.
If Jake was standing he didn’t need her help like Paul did so she disregarded him for the moment and snapped at Colton, “I need water bottles, ice, towels, the first aid kit is in the cabinet above the silverware drawer.” Her light eyes flickered to Annie’s for a moment and back again to Paul. “Annie, call 911 and then his mother.” Jake had to know the number, right? They were friends she was sure.
Her hands glided across Paul’s face, studying with a sharp eye, looking for any signs that he was already out of it. Breathing, though not really responding to the situation. “Paul?” He didn’t even turn his head to look, just grinded his teeth together and winced. Flinched again. As if he was still in pain. Kate wished she could do something to make him more comfortable but he was too hurt to be moved.
From what she could see it was just his upper half that was injured. Dark, deep bruises covered much of his face and neck and shallow scrapes criss-crossed across his broad chest. A giant gash that needed to be cleaned as soon as possible was making home over his eye and his lip was also cut, though she was guessing that was of his own devices. She couldn’t blame him; he looked horrible. And that was just his face, never mind the mangled arm he was cradling weakly against his side.
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Post by Antigone Crow on May 7, 2008 19:28:03 GMT -5
Annie felt her eyes narrow, and nodded. "Do you want to handle it? I know what to do, kind of, when it comes to medical shit." She offered a sigh. "I spent a lot of my life in a hospital. Besides, I think you might know what to say more than I ever would." She honestly had no idea as to what to tell Kate to make her understand. "Just phase if you have to. You don't have to tell Colton, I can keep him busy." She was good at that. "And I'll be right back." And, with that, she was gone momentarily.
"Got it already," Annie said in response to her sister's orders, dropping the items she needed before Colton could even move. She wasn't completely stupid, and knew vaguely how to attend to injuries. Though Paul was beaten badly, and it might be best to allow Kate to handle this. However, she needed to be talked to, pronto. She also handed Kate her pain killers from when she had hurt her knee. "Two got rid of a migraine for him, so I would recommend four, as crazy as that sounds. Trust me, he can handle it." She pulled her cell phone out and called his house phone. She'd had the number for his some reason, though had no idea why at this point.
Colton busied himself with calling 911, deciding he should at least try to make himself useful. He gave the address and the situation, doing his best not to go off in Spanish on the damn operator. He closed his phone after a moment, and looked over to Jake. "..What the hell happened?"
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Post by Jacob Black on May 7, 2008 21:54:29 GMT -5
A loud sigh emitted slowly from his lips as he glanced from Annie, to Kate, to Paul, and then finally to Colton. If Colton didn't need to know, then Jacob definitely wouldn't tell him. There was no reason to get him tied into all of this if he didn't need to be. "Yeah, sure. When would be a good time to get her alone somewhere to explain?" he asked, glancing over to Annie. He continued to keep his voice low and quiet so that nobody else could overhear what they were saying.
Jacob slowly ran over the conversation he was soon going to have with Kate. He thought long and hard about how exactly he was going to explain, the words he would use, and how difficult it was going to be to convince her. Kate was intelligent, so he was pretty sure that he'd have to eventually just phase in front of her and just hope for the best.
He took another deep breath, and then glanced back over to Colton. "He, uhhh....got in a really bad fight with this guy." he responded, glancing away. Jacob had never really been very good at lying in crazy situations like these, but hopefully Colton would just leave it at that and not ask anymore questions regarding what had happened.
He turned to Kate and slowly knelt down besides her. A small sigh brushed past his lips as he nervously glanced down at her. He tugged a little at her arm, "Kate, I need to talk to you.... in private about what happened to Paul." he whispered as he slowly stood up off the floor. "Please, it's really important. You need to know in order to fix him up correctly. Annie can stay here with him until we're all done. It shouldn't take long." he said as he turned and began walking into one of the back rooms, he headed into the room that looked like a guest bed room and then slipped inside, and waited for Kate to follow.
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Post by swiveltooth on May 8, 2008 18:19:08 GMT -5
“Thank you, Annie,” she said tonelessly, holding out a palm to collect the supplies. The cut on his head was the least of his worries but was the easiest cut to contend with at the moment, so she’d tackle it first. Opening the first-aid kit, she snapped on the pair of latex gloves and rummaged through the contents, looking for something to clean his wound with.
Her lips pulled into a hard line at Annie’s suggestion. “This bruising looks like it was caused by some pretty blunt trauma. He probably has a concussion, and though I’m sure you could handle it, I doubt he can right now. If we lose him I don’t think he’d wake up.” She said this all in a perfectly even tone despite the subject matter at hand. It wasn’t that she was callous, but four years in medical college and an already long history with ignoring emotional conflict had taught her more than she probably needed to know.
She almost swatted away Jake’s arm when he crouched beside her. She was pretty busy if he hadn’t noticed. But he was a smart kid and whatever he had to tell her, she was assuming was related to Paul. It could be important to hear it; she never really liked attending to a patient without the story before hand, which was why she dreaded the ER. Not for the pressure but the lack of vital information.
With a helpless look at Paul’s quiet body and then another glance back in Jake’s direction, she sighed, standing. “What? What do you need to say?” Before she let him answer she caught Colton’s eye. “When are the paramedics coming?”
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Post by Antigone Crow on May 8, 2008 18:34:45 GMT -5
Annie rolled her eyes at her sister, and waited until her back was turned before popping the cap off of the bottle and pulling out four pulls, offering them to Paul. "If you're gonna take 'em, hurry so she doesn't look and kill me." She knew he would be fine. He was a werewolf and would be healing soon, but this would just make him feel better until he did heal.
"They said it might be a while," Colton said, grimacing. "There was an accident on the Park Way and they're coming all the way from Forks, so.." So things certainly were not looking good. "Hopefully the traffic will clear up quick." Definitely. Paul did not look good at all.
"Kate, seriously, just go listen to him, it's important." Annie was hunting through the bag for something to clean him up with. "I can handle the cuts, at least. Go."
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Post by Jacob Black on May 8, 2008 18:58:01 GMT -5
Jacob ran his fingertips slowly through his hair, trying to decide where he was going to start. With a small sigh, he turned and waved Kate into the guest room he was in. It would probably be best if he explained to her with just the two of them together, that way Colton wouldn't have to find out. When she came inside, he closed the door behind them and then slowly turned around. He closed his eyes for a moment, breathing slowly and then opened his eyes and took a step towards Kate.
"Kate..." he whispered as he glanced down at her. "I'm not really sure where to start, and there's really no easy way to go about this." he said, unable to make eye contact any longer. "You know how your mother used to tell you and Annie stories about the 'cold ones'?" he turned his head to the side, looking over at the mirror beside him. He took a deep breath and then forced himself to look at her again. "I know that you probably won't believe me when I say this, but the stories are real. There really are werewolves, and there really are vampires. Me and all my friends are werewolves, and we protect La Push from this family of vampires that live in Forks." he whispered, scared as to what her reaction was going to be.
Jacob decided to just let her swallow this part first, and then he would go into detail about what had happened to Paul. He didn't want to suddenly throw a ton of this on her, he figured it would be best to just go piece by piece, slowly letting her put the pieces together to make sense of the whole situation. He felt bad for Kate, she was having so much information thrust upon her in only a short span of time. He hoped she would be able to handle all of it.
He positioned himself between Kate and the doorway. If she tried to escape and call the cops or something, Jake would have to be able to stop her. He hoped that she wouldn't do such a thing, because he'd only end up scaring her even more. Hopefully she'd just sit there like Annie had.
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Post by swiveltooth on May 8, 2008 19:36:22 GMT -5
“But…” her voice trailed off as Jake waited in the doorway of the guest room. It did not seem like a good idea to have her klutzy baby sister patch up a half-dead kid who she hadn’t even gotten a good look at yet. Thank God for Colton. “Keep an eye on her, please,” she sighed, following Jacob reluctantly into the other room.
She hadn’t known Jake for long but it was clear from the way Annie talked about him that his current behavior, nervous and hesitant, wasn’t completely normal. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. She had seen this act before. What had hurt Paul? Had it been Jake’s fault? She certainly did not want Annie hanging around with someone who was doing such reckless things. Kate was like that most of the time, jumping to conclusions, but she couldn’t really be expected to guess the words that fell from his mouth.
The cold ones? God, that had been so long ago…she could barely remember. Her memory was horrible, but she could recall some stories about icy people…she’d always thought of them as giant snowmen. Annie had been the one to say she had thought they were vampires or something similar. Well, no one said Annie didn’t have her wits about her.
Her face was blank as he talked. Oh, come on. Couldn’t she just get one day off? First, Colton runs her butt into the ground in Clue, then a bloody, beaten boy arrives at her doorstep with no explanation as to how and why, now she had a deluded Jacob talking about…what? Vampires? Werewolves? A family of vampires?
“Jake, have you been stealing some of my sister’s drugs?”
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Post by Jacob Black on May 8, 2008 19:54:38 GMT -5
Jacob shifted nervously on his feet, moving the weight of his body to his right leg and then to his left. He groaned quietly at her reaction, which was pretty much how he had expected her to react. If most people had just heard from someone that vampires and werewolves were real, they would probably come to conclude that drugs were the main suspect for their strange behavior. It was a perfectly reasonable idea.
He shook his head, "No, I'm not on drugs." he responded, glancing down at her. "I'm telling the truth, Kate. Do you seriously think I would joke around with something like this? Especially when one of my best friends is practically dying right in the next room?" No, Paul wasn't dying and he definitely wasn't going to die, but Jacob wanted to get his point across. "If you aren't going to just believe me, I'll have to show you." he whispered, glancing off into the mirror again. This whole thing was so familiar, he had said the same exact thing to Annie. Jake had prepared himself for this, and he had a pretty good idea how he was going to phase in a way that wouldn't be too frightening. It was still going to be scary, but he was going to try and tone it down a little bit.
He only had to blink once and his body was already changing, changing in ways that no normal 18 year old should be able to. That was the thing though, Jacob was no normal teenager. He was a werewolf, which he was proving to Annie at that very moment. As his bones moved underneath his skin and enlarged, it slowly pushed the towel off of him. Towels were pretty handy, they covered you completely but fell off at exactly the right time so that it wouldn't rip. His teeth lengthened into sharp canines, and his jaw moved out into a large muzzle. He tried to make himself look as small as possible, but he still took up a large portion of the room. He kept his mouth shut to hide his teeth, and he looked at Kate with pity and sadness in his eyes. Hopefully that look alone would let Kate know that everything was okay and that he wasn't going to hurt her.
Jacob lowered his head and whined softly, trying to show her that he was still Jacob even though the was as tall as the ceiling with giant paws and hair all over his body. He tilted his head to the side, and slowly sat down on his haunches to make him look a little bit smaller. He just stared at her, waiting for some kind of a reaction.
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Post by embry on May 8, 2008 20:02:32 GMT -5
Running was easy and natural, and usually for Embry Call, running was the best thing in the world. Wind his hair-- er, fur. Long strides and smooth stretches of muscle. Even when his true form, his wolf form, couldn't calm him down, he could do this. This was easy, this was calming. Unfortunately, upset as he was now, running did nothing but making him curse that he couldn't be faster. Even though he could cover ground faster than vampires, even, it wasn't quick enough. Paul might be dying and Embry wasn't there now.
When he reached the Crow house, changing back in to human form was a trial. He couldn't seem to concentrate, and every time he closed his eyes he could see the rage that burned with fear around his mind. Embry felt himself growing frustrated and it took him several moments to change from the black brown wolf he had become back into the tall, gangly youth with messy dark hair and wide, frightened hazel eyes. He was pale beneath his tan, and stumbling into jeans before racing towards the house in front of him.
He had to get a grip on himself, but he couldn't for the life of him find a handle. Embry rapped his knuckles against the door, an angry, loud tap and felt his anxiety rising. As much as he'd hated how slow running felt, at least he'd been moving. Now all he could do was stand and wait.
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Post by swiveltooth on May 8, 2008 20:15:13 GMT -5
If he wasn’t joking, high, or crazy, then what was it?! Because she couldn’t even entertain the thought of mythical beasts being real. That was beyond ridiculous. There was no doubt in her mind that either Jake was lying and had in fact taken something of Annie’s or was deeply, deeply disturbed. And did Annie know about this? She had heard bad things around town about Sam and the young group of boys constantly at his house but Emily had easily pacified her. Was there really some sort of cult? Was Sam brainwashing them or some such?
Show her? Huffing in agitation, she made to move past him and into the hallway. He was scary enough now, tall and muscular and frustrated with her inability to understand what the hell he meant when he said he was a werewolf. If he touched her she’d just get Colton and, well, Colton would probably kick his ass.
But, as it were, he was telling the truth.
She felt her back meet the wall behind her as she flinched away from his exploding figure. She didn’t know what to make of it. He was a wolf and was Jake and somehow both at the same time…in her guest room…in her guest room. For goodness sake, not on her carpet!
Taking a deep breathe she figured it was only a matter of time before she went crazy and decided to humor him. “Okay…” she started and only realized then how long she had been staring at the wolf, Jake, and how many moments had passed in which there was a very stifling silence. “So, you’re a…werewolf?” Oh, goodness, she couldn’t honestly believe this.
“Can you…change back or something?” she asked, frowning. She couldn’t very well talk to him. “Or you could blink once for yes.” She was hoping for more than just a yes or no answer, though. An explanation would be nice. An explanation for why she had just watched a teenager turn into a giant wolf for starters, preferably.
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Post by Jacob Black on May 8, 2008 23:16:29 GMT -5
Jacob slowly moved his large head up and down. Yes, I'm a werewolf. he thought, but knew that his thoughts were completely useless, there was no way she could understand him. Jake took a step back a little when she bumped into the wall behind her, but was grateful that she hadn't screamed at him or thrown any hard objects at him.
He grabbed the towel in his mouth and let it fall down so that it covered him. Jake didn't want to talk to her through blinking, so was just going to phase back and talk to her human to human. In only a heartbeat he was already changing, morphing into his human form. Once again he stood tall on both of his legs, looking down at her. Still holding the towel in front of him to cover himself up, he wrapped it around him and then let his hands fall at his sides.
Jacob sat down on the bed in the room and patted the seat next to him. "It's probably better if you sit down for this." he said quietly. "Paul will be fine for the moment, werewolves can heal on their own. He just needed some help so that he heals properly and everything." he said, followed by a small sigh.
"Anyways, Me, Paul, Sam, Embry, Leah, and Quil are all werewolves." he said as he glanced to the side to look up at her. "So, there is this family of vampires who live in Forks. We have this treaty; they stay on their side of the border line and don't hurt any humans and we don't rip them to shreds." he said simply, glancing away for a moment. "The vampires, also knows as 'The Cullens," have learned to resist the urge for human blood, and they live of the blood of animals."
Jacob folded his hands in his lap and looked over at Kate, making sure that she was handling everything okay. He continued, "The Cullens are the 'Cold Ones' in the stories your mother used to tell you and Annie. When they moved back to Forks, members of the Quilette tribe had to become werewolves to make sure that they followed their side of the treaty." he took a deep breath, "Paul was on patrol out in the woods. We all take turns just watching the border to make sure that the leeches stay on their side. Some new blood-sucker, who we don't think is a member of the Cullen family, crossed the border line and attacked Paul. That's why he's so injured. I got there just in time and chased her off, and now we're here."
Jacob closed his eyes for a moment and then looked over at Kate with a concerned look in his eyes. "Have any questions, comments or concerns?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. "If you have anything to ask me, ask me now. If you wait I don't know when I'll be able to have time to sit with you and answer your questions."
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Post by Antigone Crow on May 9, 2008 14:27:48 GMT -5
ooc; Sorry this sucks. Friend here+I can't type
Annie quickly starting cleaning up Paul's cuts (yes, he would heal, but she didn't want to risk infection), murmuring 'Lo siento' as she did. She knew it would sting, but it would just benefit him in the end. "You should start healing soon, right?" She hoped so--she was sure he was in pain, and she wasn't very good with pain and could only imagine how much he was hurting.
Colton went to answer the door, leaving Annie to tend to Paul. He stepped aside when he spotted Embry, offering a nod in greeting. "Annie, more company."
Annie looked up and cast Embry a quick smile, knowing he was going to freak out over Paul's injuries in a few seconds. ooh, well.
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