Swans Don't Quit

New Waters

 Today I was free! The guys finished the roof and even though they still had to fix the porch support beam I got the all clear to move in. The guys and I got all the furniture upstairs and the electrics set up. I invited everyone over for a sort of house warming once I had everything was set and I had had a chance to clean up all the construction dust, remove the paint cans, sheets, plastic wrappers and other containers that had been left around the house.

I had invited everyone that helped with the house to come to a dinner here to celebrate all our hard work. I had also invited the people I saw as family even though some of them overlapped. So the list remained as Harry, Sue, Seth, Leah, Billy, Jake, Jared and his new imprint Kim, Paul, Sam and Emily, dad, Isabella, Aggie and Henry, and Old Quil, though he declined because it was his grandson's birthday Leah was pissed that I invited Sam and Emily, but understood when I told her I invited everyone that helped with the house and it would be wrong to invite Paul and Jared while not Sam. Dad was bringing Isabella much to her displeasure because she couldn't bring the boyfriend.

I had learned to enjoy some of the benefits of knowing about the wolves. One, I didn't freak out over wolf howls in the middle of the night. Two, La Push felt safer knowing that it was being protected by the supernatural and lastly because the pack and the Cullens had a treaty that prevented them from coming even a foot fall onto Quileute land. I had never been happier that I had found this place less than a mile into the res. Isabella though I had no doubt she know about the Cullens, definitely didn't know about the pack. I had noticed that Isabella had begun to refrain from coming to the res as much as possible and I had a feeling it had something to do with her boyfriend not wanting her somewhere he couldn't get to her.

I had decided that I would order Italian food from a restaurant in Port Angeles that dad and I liked to supply the food though Sue, Aggie, Emily, and Kim had offered to make the food. I thought it was wrong to invite people to an event at my house and have the guests supply the food, though if I knew Sue she would bring a dish anyway. I just hoped it was her zucchini ravioli, no one could beat out Miss Sue is the cooking department. I had even spent a little extra for a batch of creoles from the bakery, which are Sue and Leah's favorite dessert.

The night went down without a hitch. The only problem was Isabella complaining of wanting to go home almost immediately after dinner was over. Leah got sick of listening to her and asked her to come with her to the kitchen to get dessert. When they got back Isabella was a little pale and didn't say much the rest of the night. I was curious but didn't say anything till later. I saw Leah sneak out the door onto the porch, I waited a couple minutes before sneaking out too when I thought no one would notice. At first I didn't see her but then I saw her move at the far end of the porch. She was staring out night toward the west end of the property as the last slip of the rare sun faded under the horizon.

"What did you say to my sister? That's the quietest she's been since she was in a coma." I said as I leaned onto the railing next to her. She smirked and shook her head before looking up at me.

"She was being a spoiled bitch. I told her this was a special night for you and she could show some respect for her older brother." Leah said and took a breath as she looked back out at the forest.

"I also might have told her in no uncertain terms that if she didn't quit her bitching I would give her something to bitch about." She said and I laughed. Only Leah would be brave enough to call my sister out on her shit and threat her.

"You are amazing! No one else has the guts to call Isabella out on her shit." I said and threw my arm around Leah's shoulders. We both laughed before lapse into a comfortable silence. I could tell that there was something bothering her.

"What's on your mind Leah? I can tell whatever it is has you upset." I said and looked at her intently.

"He never looked at me like that." She whispered and I was confused as to what she was talking about.

"Who never looked at you like what?" I asked trying to figure it out on my head and figuring it had something to do with Sam.

"Sam. He never looked at me like he does Emily. He looks at her like she's the sun or something. He never looked at me like that." She explained and I nodded.

"Doesn't that just prove that he was the wrong one for you? That there will be somebody better? That will look at you like you're their whole world?" I asked not fully expecting an answer. Leah nodded.

"You're right. I guess we were just stepping stones for each other to find who we're really supposed to love for the rest of our lives." Leah said and leaned her head against my shoulder.

"You know my door has always been open. They will literally always be open because I'm going to leave it unlocked. If you ever need anything, you come here. Even if it's you just need a night, you can have one of the spare rooms. I want you to promise me that. That you'll come to me for anything?" I told her hoping she would take me serious. She nodded and seemed to have taken it the way I wanted her to.

We went back inside and rejoined everyone. I smiled as everyone was at least smiling. I fell into an easy conversation with Billy and Harry about fishing and we ended up planning a trip for this weekend and roping dad into it. We were going to meet at a new spot to try it out. The new spot was up by Port Angeles, about fifteen minutes outside of the city. There was news that the fishing had been good up there lately and we all wanted to check it out for ourselves. Things were settling down when Sam came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder and tipped his head toward the kitchen. I stood and walked with him.

"We finally got word back from the Cullens. They said they had been unreachable because some nomads had been in the area. They didn't say anything about it having to do with what happened with your sister, but what are the chances of it not?" Sam said and I agreed. I had known they had something to do with what happened to her.

"I knew he had something to do with it! He didn't even deny it when I accused him!" I said and pulled at my hair as I started to pace the kitchen. That bastard and his family are going to get her killed. Her death would kill my father, he loved her more than she knew or deserved. Sam set his hand on my shoulder, stopping my pacing.

"I'm sorry Eli. There's nothing I can do since she always in Forks. That's Cullen territory." Sam said and I nodded.

"I know. I tried to stop her from getting involved before this started but she blew me off. We both know that whether she breaks up with the bastard or not that she'll still be in danger. There's nothing that can be done now." I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. Sam gave me a grim look and patted my shoulder before heading back to the group in the living room.

Today I got up early for the fishing trip. I had all my gear packed into the bed of my truck ready to go. The drive didn't take that long before I was pulling onto a dirt path that cut through the woods. The lake was secluded and was pretty difficult to find in the dim sunlight of the early morning with the heavy cloud cover. Billy and Harry were already there and loading their gear into the boat. I helped Harry launch the boat as we waited for dad to show up. Before long we were loaded and making our way onto the lake.

The fish were biting pretty good and we had brought in about two dozen fish. We hit a lull around lunch and unloaded the cooler of its sandwich materials. We were making small talk when dad dropped a bomb.

"Edward asked me to help him get Bella to go to the prom." He said as he cracked a beer. I spit my soda before starting to laugh. Everyone looked at me funny as I laughed.

"He's taking her to prom? The girl who can't walk across a flat, smooth surface without falling? She couldn't accomplish that before the broken leg and cast, how does he expect it to work now?" I questioned and dad shook his head with a shrug while he tried to hide his own smirk.

"I don't know, but he wants it to be a surprise for her when they pull up to school for prom." He said and I snorted.

"She hates surprises. We're not close but even I know that. How does he plan to get her dressed up and take her to prom without her figuring out what's going on?" I asked and dad shrugged his shoulders.

The dumb bastard didn't know my sister at all. I think my sister could figure out how to kill a vampire if he takes her to prom and makes her dance. This might be a show that I would be willing to see.