The Carver Café [Edward/Jacob]

4

Jacob makes it to work early the next morning. It's not out of eagerness as he fiddles with the coffee pot, trying to clean it around a yawn. He just feels like he needs a place to think. A place where there aren't four other sets of thoughts just floating in the air. 

The plan was to get some work done. Any work would be great, but instead he finds himself staring up at the brown stains on the ceiling while sipping his coffee. He was hoping it could work miracles because he felt exhausted.

Normally, he'd be ecstatic. It was a Friday. A Friday where he'd be swamped in questions about a case that he couldn't answer, but a Friday nonetheless. No one was expecting him to be in the office on a Saturday and definitely not a Sunday. He could just sink into his sheets and hope that he didn't dream about anything death related.

However, he was skating pass the entire family like he was the one who'd gone and done something...

Jacob, finally, allows himself to think about it. Really think about it. His older cousin, who hadn't imprinted on anyone that Jacob knew of, hadn't brought anyone around, hadn't told Jacob shit, was having a kid. Was he sneaking out? Why did it matter? He's family, but Jacob would rather just pretend like the conception was planned with someone who cared about him. Preferably, the person he'd imprinted on. He wanted to pretend like there was no way Quil had gone and gotten pregnant with someone from another pack. He hadn't gone and had an affair with someone who was already marked. He wouldn't do that...

"Boss?" He almost knocked over his coffee as he spun around to see Mike standing at the door.

"What?"

"Everyone's waiting." He says, glancing over to the clock on Jacob's wall that says he's a good ten minutes late to meeting with the team.

He doesn't even bother with words as he pushes himself up from his desk, ignoring the cold coffee, and followed Mike.

The meeting is just full of them throwing out more theories. No one had anything. The trail just seemed to have run cold.

"Carver's again, Boss?" Mike called over the hood of the car.

"Carver's?" Edward asks, wishing that Emmett would just shut up. "They weren't closed long."

"Yeah, Rosie really liked it." Emmett gushed and Edward was almost relieved that he seemed distracted. "But yeah, he was there with that bumbling officer. The blonde one with the blue eyes."

"Good for him." Edward mumbles, trying to sound distracted as he scribbles down notes on their John Doe. He'd fallen behind due to other work so he wasn't able to get the autopsy report to Jasper so he could drop it off today.

"Good for him? He's dating a dumbass." Emmett starts, somehow seeming even more invested in making conversation. 

"And that's his right, Em." Edward tries to remind him. He'd reread the same sentence four times. 

Emmett had sauntered into the lab this morning distracted. He'd barely spoken to Edward, but he kept watching him every so often. Edward now regretted pushing the issue. He'd thought maybe things hadn't gone over so well with his date. 

Not only that, but Jasper was giving him these looks. They were pitying. At least he wasn't drawing anymore. 

"It's a Friday. We should go out. Maybe we can find you someone with better taste." Emmett's stating, eyes now looking determined.

"No!" Is all Edward has the energy to say before he's spinning back around to reread his sentence a couple more times.

"Fine, then we'll make him break up with the idiot."