Swans Don't Quit

Moving On

I was extremely grateful for the peace the last month has presented. Since Renee left empty-handed things have calmed down and things have gone as back to normal as can be expected. But as nice as the peace had been I've been tense. Peace never lasts long and there was bound to something that will come up and pull us into the whirlwind once again. I just hoped it would something that could easily be handled. Alex's appointment at the hospital here and in Seattle had gone well. He wasn't happy about the shots, but had easily calmed down once he was in Leah's arms. The doctor in Seattle had said his incision was healing perfectly and that everything looked good on the ultrasound that she had done on his chest.

Valentine's had come and gone with little for a production. Since we had gone way out for Leah's birthday we had decided that Valentine's was just going to be a night off with a nice meal at the diner. Aggie had been ecstatic when we showed up with Alex. She had cooed over him like she was a grandmother. Even Henry had come out of the kitchen to catch a glimpse of the little guy and held him for a minute. Only La Push and dad had met Alex and I know that people in Forks had been itching to catch a glimpse of him and their reaction to him had not disappointed in the least. He was the star of the night and seemed to enjoy being run around the diner being introduced to the patrons of the diner by Aggie.

It hadn't been long after Renee and Phil's departure that dad had snapped from the stress of Isabella's depression and learned that tough love was the way to go when it came to his daughter. He had demanded that she get her act together and get some help or he was going to ship her off to Renee and Phil in Florida whether she wanted to or not. He had surprisingly seemed to spark a little life back into her. I had gotten a call from Angela at the station one day telling me that Isabella had made conversation today in lunch and had actually ate the lunch on her tray. I had been stunned and pleased at the same time and thanked her for the great news.

My only issue with Isabella's new lack of depression was that it only took a week before she went down to La Push and started hanging out with Jake again. Jacob had been getting closer and closer to phasing and she was once again getting closer and closer to him. Even Billy was worried about this now. He feared what it would do to Jacob if he phased in front of Isabella and accidentally hurt her. The boy would never forgive himself if he ever hurt her even by accident. It would damn kill the kid, the guilt. Jake was too good of a kid to be brought down by my sister like so many people.

There had been reports coming in to the station of missing persons and deaths in the area. People were being found mutilated and murdered. The reports came from Bremerton, Sequim, Tacoma, Port Angeles, Oak Harbor, Olympia and the furthest being Seattle. One of the reports from Seattle had struck a chord here in Forks. One of the missing was a guy named Riley Biers he had graduated in my class from high school and had left for Seattle for college. He had last been seen leaving a book store before disappearing. His poor parents were distraught and desperate to find him. There were also the phone reports that came flooding in of bear sighting. Huge bears had been seen in forest scaring off tourists while also encouraging some.

Hunters, trappers, and hikers had come from all around to catch a glimpse of the huge bears that were suddenly occupying the Forks forests. Everyone in Forks and in La Push had been warned of going into the forest without protection by the stations while a number of us knew that nothing could protect you from what would really attack you. Though even if we warned them of that fate there would still be a swarm of people into the trees. Though I would bet it would be a shadier crowd than what washere.

As I came out of the station to my truck to go home to Leah and Alex I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I took a glance at the forest's edge and saw Paul and Embry moving from the trees toward me. I looked back at the station to see no one else was coming out yet and motioned to the truck. We all got in and I started driving toward home. Both were thankfully wearing a shirt so if anyone saw theywas riding with me it wouldn't look too weird.