Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Intensity

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 20:

Sammy’s POV

Ryan and I had just joined the wrestling team and had a list of equipment we needed to purchase. Mom showed up to pick us up from school with Aunty Kim and Aunty Bella, and we were now at the sporting goods store going through the list. Some of my teammates were also there with their moms or dads. I was actually pretty psyched because this was the first sport that I’d ever participated in. My dad used to play football in high school so I was pretty sure that I had athletic genes running through my veins.

“Okay, let’s go through the list. It says here that you need an athletic supporter.” Mom looked confused. “I don’t understand. I’ve only been to a tribal school where there weren’t too many sports that we could participate in, but do all sports at standard public schools require a sponsor? How are we supposed to find a sponsor for you? We just moved here. And besides, I don’t understand why it’s the parents’ responsibility to find a supporter for our son to participate in sports.” Some of the other guys’ parents were staring at her wide-eyed.

“Emily, I think an athletic supporter is a jock strap. See, it says he needs a cup as well,” Aunty Bella explained to her, only after pulling to her to the side.

“A jock strap? Why would my Sammy Bear need a jock strap? He’s just a little boy!” she announced.

“Emily, it’s for protection. A groin injury can be very painful.”

Some of my teammates started sniggering at me. Oh God!

“Well, where are those cup thingies?”

This is the beginning of hell-I can just sense and feel it.

We went a couple of aisles over and found the jock straps. Unfortunately, there were other guys from my team looking at jock straps as well. “Oh, here they are? Hmm… What size do you need? Sammy come here.” And to my horror, my mother held a plastic nut cup right up against me to see which size I needed. Some of the guys started cackling along with their fathers. Fortunately, Ryan rescued me and pulled me out of the store. My mom and aunties followed us out.

“Sammy, Ryan, where are you going? We need to buy your equipment,” my mother chastised.

“Nah uh. I’ll go later with Dad. I refuse to go anywhere with you, Mom.”

“Why, honey?”

Aunty Bella fortunately stepped in. “Emily, I think he’s embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed? Why should he be embarrassed? I don’t understand why.”

“You held an athletic cup right up against his privates in front of his friends.”

“So, I’m his mother. I gave birth to him. I used to change his diapers!”

“Emily!”

“Well, he has no choice. Jared and Sam are working in Flagstaff. They won’t be home until late tonight.”

Ryan and I both groaned. What a nightmare? It wouldn’t be so bad if it were just Aunty Bella and Aunty Kim, but my mother was just so… so… my mother!

“Hmm… How about if Uncle Paul takes you?” Aunty Bella offered. “His office is only ten minutes away.”

“Do you think he would?” I asked, hope finally springing into me.

“I think he would, but you boys have to explain why it has to be him who takes you instead of us.”

“No problem,” I replied. Uncle Paul would be way better than any moms and aunties. He’s a dude.

Paul’s POV

One week quickly passed since our return to Arizona and life was about as hectic as could be. I’d gotten an update from Billy that Fuller’s kid was behind bars awaiting a bail hearing while Jake and Angela had separated. The latter story I got from Jake’s mind when I phased in the day he threw Angela out of his house. The witch officially gets the worst mother ever award from me. My mother may have been a drunk who swore like a sailor, but she never treated me the way Angela did. My dad; however, was a different story. My mom, though, always threw herself in between my dad and me and took his beatings. She would never hit me. Never.

Leah was staying at our house while under the care of Randy’s grandfather who is a vet. He was running a whole bunch of tests in his lab, but so far, it appeared as if her wolf had somehow manifested herself into her physiology-whatever that means. There’s a reason why I didn’t choose medicine as a career-I couldn’t stand biology.

It was around five o’clock on Tuesday when I received a phone call from Bella. “What is it, hon?”

“ How busy are you this evening?”

“Not too bad. I was actually getting ready to leave. Why? Do you want to get naked with me?”

“ It’s a possibility… later… after you do this one teensy, weensy favor for me.”

Not good. Bella doesn’t usually trade out sex for favors. She was definitely up to something. “What favor?” I questioned suspiciously.

“ I’ll be right up. Just wait for me.”

“No, Bella, wait…” She hung up the phone before I could get another word in.

Five minutes later, my wife was up in my office with a huge enthusiastic smile on her face. She had Emily and Kim with her-both of whom had sweet smiles on their faces as well. Like I said, she was up to something and so were her two cohorts in crime.

“Hi, honey,” she chirped.

“Hi, Paul,” Emily and Kim cooed at the same time. All three of them were smiling just a bit too sweetly for my liking.

“Yes?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“We were wondering if you could do us a big favor.”

“I gathered that. What kind of a favor?”

“Um, we were wondering if you wouldn’t mind running a small errand.”

“What’s the errand?”

“Ryan and Sammy need wrestling gear.”

“Okay, and why can’t you ladies take care of it?”

“Tell him, Emily.”

“We were actually at the sporting goods store with them and there was an incident.”

“What incident?”

Emily cleared her throat. “Athletic supporters.”

“You mean jock straps?”

“Yes.”

“Alright, what happened?”

Ryan and Sammy came bursting into my office at that moment. Sammy explained, “Uncle Paul, my mom embarrassed us. There were a bunch of guys from my school and first she didn’t understand what an athletic supporter was and she asked why it was her responsibility to find a supporter for me to wrestle. She thought it was like a sponsor or something.” I slapped a palm over my forehead. Emily could be so naïve sometimes. “Then, after Aunty Bella explained that it was a jock strap. She found some of the cups and tried to measure one up against my nuts. She did it in front of everyone, Uncle Paul!” The poor kid. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Emily was simply too overprotective at times. If she could, she’d still have Sammy and Emma strapped into strollers and car seats. “Anyway, I was so embarrassed that I left the store after that, and so did Ryan. The problem is, our dads are working at a site in Flagstaff and won’t be home until late.”

I felt so bad for the kid. His mother had inadvertently made a fool of him in front of some of his teammates. One incident could spell social doom for a teenager. “I’ll take you boys now and we can go get some dinner. How does that sound?”

“Awesome!” they whooped.

“Mind if I join you?” Crispy asked, walking into my office. “Babs is working until late tonight.”

“Come along, the more the merrier.”

“Thank you, Paul,” Emily said.

“I really appreciate you taking them, Paul. Here’s a list of the items they need.” Kim handed me a sheet of paper and some money. Emily did as well. I handed the cash back to them. I knew that money was still tight for them.

“Hey, no problem. It’ll be nice to hang out with just the men.” I winked at the boys who both puffed out their chests and stood tall.

I gave Bella a kiss and whispered that I expected that she make good on her word that she’d play naked with me later before I took off with the boys and Crispy.

“Can we not go to the store on East Camelback Road? That’s where we went earlier,” Ryan informed me.

“How about if we go to the one on North Tatum Boulevard?”

“Anywhere, but where our moms took us.”

“Hey, I get it kid. Don’t worry, I’ll hook you up.”

Crispy and I got to the store and quickly ran down the list. We started with the shoes and the headgear, and then picked up their mouth guards. We threw extra socks in because boys always needed socks. We also picked up a couple of hooded sweatshirts for them when we saw them staring at them longingly. We saved the jock straps for last.

“Gee whiz, these things have changed since I was in high school,” Crispy noted. He grabbed the list from me. “It says here they would prefer it if the student purchased compression shorts with a compartment for the cup rather than an athletic supporter. When the heck did they invent those? They’re so much easier now than back when we were in high school. Look, the cup just slides inside.”

“Hey, no kidding. Will you look at that?”

I looked up to see Ryan and Sammy with mortified expressions on their faces. “Hey, boys, you’re going to have to get used to talking about stuff like this. Remember, you’re going to have to change in the locker room with your teammates.”

“Can’t we just change in the bathroom? I mean, what if… what if…”

“What if what, Sammy?”

“What if I get a boner in the locker room?” he whispered. I had no idea how to answer him. The Tribal School didn’t have a locker room or team sports.

I looked to Crispy for an answer. “You think about the grossest, most disgusting thing imaginable. Besides, when you’re in the locker room with a bunch of guys, the last thing you’ll be thinking about is your penis. You’re going to want to get in and out of there quickly,” he assured him, ruffling his hair.

“Okay.”

“Alright, let’s get you sized up and out of here,” I suggested.

“I think I need an extra large cup,” Ryan said, puffing out his chest.

“They come in two sizes, children and adults.”

“Adult!” both boys snapped.

“I thought so.” I chuckled at the two young teens. I grabbed a couple pair of compression shorts each and threw them into the shopping cart along with two duffel bags for them to throw their gear in along with some extra shorts and tees before cashing out. “Okay, where should we eat?”

“Hooters?” Ryan asked hopefully.

“Meh, why not. It’s a sports bar,” Crispy quipped. “Besides, they’ve got great wings and we can watch the game.”

I shrugged my shoulders and drove to Hooters. As soon as we got inside, Ryan and Sammy were completely in awe of the waitresses. Crispy and I couldn’t care less, they were just semi hot chicks in short shorts and tight tank tops. We had Bella and Babs and these chicks didn’t even come close to looking as hot as our wives did. We kicked back and watched the game while Ryan and Sammy ogled the waitresses. They kept ordering more food, asking for extra napkins, refills on their sodas, and the list went on and on. In the end, the waitress offered to pose for a photo with the two boys to get them off of her back. Man, she must have been desperate to get rid of them. I left her a huge tip after I paid the tab. Meanwhile, Crispy bought each of them official Hooter’s Girls calendars which made them the happiest, horniest teenagers on the planet, and in addition-they both declared Uncle Crispy to be the most awesome uncle on earth.

After dropping Crispy back off at his car, which was still at the office, I took both boys back to their homes. I went home excitedly, looking forward to seeing my naked wife, but was greeted by a topless Leah who was kicking back on my sofa watching TV with hot compresses on her tits instead. That sight completely withered down my erection.

“Where’s Bella?” I asked.

“She had an emergency delivery at the hospital. The baby is three weeks early.”

“Oh.”

“Come sit and hang out with me.”

“Uh, sure, but Leah-you do realize that you’re topless, don’t you?”

“Like I give a shit. You’re like a brother to me. Besides, you’ve seen me naked plenty of times while I was still in my prime.”

“True.”

“So, can you believe the crap going on between Jake and Angela?”

“Nope, well… I can’t believe Angela treated her kids the way she did, and that Jake ignored all of the signs for as long as he did.”

“I think he was blinded by the imprint.”

“I don’t know if you can solely blame it on imprinting itself.”

“No, but a huge chunk of it can be blamed on it. I mean, clearly, Jake’s imprint isn’t working like it’s supposed to.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“And let me ask you this Paul. Have you thought about whether or not we would have been with our spouses if it weren’t for imprinting? I mean if you didn’t imprint on Bella, would you still be with her?”

“That’s a good question, Leah and I’m going to give you a diplomatic answer. I prefer to think that the imprinting led me to her, but if imprinting didn’t exist, I would have found her eventually.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Here’s the thing about Bella and me. I met her a few times when we were teenagers in La Push after I’d already phased. I didn’t imprint on her. Even when she slapped me across the face the very first time we met, I didn’t imprint on her. She used to hang out with Emily back then. I’d seen her plenty of times at Sam’s, but still there was no imprinting. Instead, circumstances led us both to move away from Washington and we ran smack dab into each other years later at a dive bar in Phoenix of all places. So, yes, although I believe that imprinting brought us together, I still think we managed to find each other on our own.”

“You are such a romantic, Paul.”

“Yeah? Do you really think so?”

“Think? I know so. You are so completely in love with your imprint that you’re nonsensical.”

“And you don’t love Eric?”

“I’m hopelessly and helplessly besotted with my personal geek. He truly is the best man ever, and he’s an animal in bed. He’s much more exciting than Sam ever was.”

“Eric Yorkie?” I couldn’t help but blurt.

“Yes, Eric Yorkie. He’s wonderful, you know-wild and kinky. And you know something? You’re right, imprinting may have led me to him, but I think I would have ended up finding him eventually.”

“I’m glad, Leah. How are your breasts doing?”

“They’re painful. Hopefully the lab tests will show something.” Leah sat up, removed the compresses, put a bra on, and started shoving cabbage leaves into the cups.

“Um, cabbage leaves?”

“Bella told me that it works as a diuretic of sorts and helps to dry up my milk. She contacted a friend who’s a lactation specialist for me. At this point, I’ll try anything.”

“I don’t blame you.”

We talked for an hour more before hitting the sack. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep as soon as I shut my eyes. My eyes snapped open at six am and the first thing I noticed was that my wife wasn’t in bed with me. I checked my voicemail. Nope. No message. No strange pull so I know she’s okay. Damn it! Where is she?

I took the fastest shower of my life, got ready for work, and drove straight to the hospital. I rushed up to the maternity ward. I asked the nurse on duty if she’d seen Bella.

“Mrs. Lahote has been in with a patient since nine pm last night.”

“The patient hasn’t delivered yet?” I asked.

“I believe she’s delivering her baby as we speak.”

“Well, has my wife slept?”

“I don’t think so.” The nurse looked up. “Oh, you can ask her yourself. There she is now.”

Bella walked down the hallway looking haggard. “Hi, honey. I was just about to call you. I didn’t want to wake you up in the middle of the night. What are you doing here so early? It’s not even seven?”

“What am I doing here? I was worried sick. I woke up, and you weren’t there.”

“I know, Paul. This delivery just took a lot longer than expected. I’m sorry.” She gave me a hug. “I’m sorry for making you worry.”

“Next time, call. I don’t care if it’s in the middle of the night. Just call so I don’t freak out.”

“Okay.” She rubbed her eyes. “Do you want to go and get some breakfast before work?”

“You are not seriously thinking of going to work, are you?”

“Paul, I have to go. I’ve got a ton of patients on the docket today.”

“You haven’t slept!”

“I know. I’ll be fine. It’s not the first time.”

“Fine, you’re not driving, though.”

“Fair enough. I won’t go to the gym either.”

“You were actually thinking of going to the gym?” I asked my gym nut wife with incredulity.

“Uh, yeah, I missed my workout yesterday too, but I’m pretty tired today.”

I hugged my wife and kissed her atop her head. “Are you ready to go?”

“I just need to change out of these scrubs, then I’m all yours.”

A few minutes later, we were sitting at our favorite little diner having breakfast. I was frustrated and upset because Bella simply worked too hard when she didn’t need to. I knew that she enjoyed her career and she worked hard to get where she was, but still… I made enough money to support the two of us. I really wish she would quit her job.

“Bella, have you ever thought of dropping your hours down to part time?”

“Nope.”

“It’s just that I hate seeing you so tired.”

“Paul, it was just one night.”

“One night? You’re coming home in the middle of the night at least twice a week. That’s not just one night.”

“It’s the career I chose, Paul.” She rolled her eyes at me meaning the subject was closed.

“Bella?”

“What is it, Paul?”

“I love you. You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course I know. I love you, too, but you’re not going to convince me to quit my job or drop my hours down to part time. I know where you’re going with this. We’ve been over this before.”

“Bella, these hours are unhealthy.”

“And yours are, too, sometimes. It’s a risk we take when we do something that we love.”

I sighed and accepted her reasoning. It wasn’t fair for me to ask her to sacrifice her career just because I was worried about her. I still hated the hours she kept though. “I really wish you’d let me take care of you.”

“You do, Paul. You do by just by letting me be me.” She leaned over the table and kissed my lips. “I love you.”

After breakfast, I drove Bella to work and told her I’d pick her up around four p.m. I walked into my office to find Crispy sitting in a chair with a ton of paperwork to go over.

“You look beat, Paul.”

“Just stressed out. Bella worked all night. When I woke up she wasn’t in bed so I freaked out and drove straight to the hospital. She had just finished delivering a baby. I want her to quit working.”

“You can’t ask her to do that.”

“I know, but I hate the hours involved with labor and delivery.”

“It’s the path she chose.”

“I know that. I just hate seeing her so exhausted.”

“Would you prefer she resent you for making her quit?”

“Of course not.”

“Well, then, buck up and put up with it. It’s what she enjoys doing.”

“Yeah, I guess I’ll have to.”

Sam and Jared walked inside a few minutes later. “Hey, guys, thanks for taking our boys to get their wrestling gear last night.”

“No problem. We had fun with them.”

“Uh, yeah, you two have become their new heroes for taking them to Hooters. Ryan couldn’t stop talking about it. He said the waitresses were hot.”

“They were okay. No big deal. Just a bunch of young chicks in tight outfits.”

“Uh-huh and a fantasy come true for adolescent boys. So, why did you end up taking them?” Jared asked.

“I take it that Kim didn’t explain what happened to the boys?”

“No, neither did Emily,” Sam said.

“Ah.” I relayed to them exactly what the boys told me happened when they went shopping with their mothers.

“Poor Sammy. Emily really tried to fit a cup up against him?”

“Right up against his nuts, and in front of his teammates.”

“Jesus! She can be so overprotective sometimes. Scratch that-all of the time. She’s got to let him grow up.”

“She’ll get there someday, but she’ll never stop worrying about him. She’s a good mom.”

“That she is.”

---

The week flew by after my brief spasm of worrying about Bella and now it was Friday night. We were at Sammy and Ryan’s first wrestling meet-we meaning Sam, Jared, Crispy, Jeff, me, and our wives. Leah was here, too. So far, Bella sat stunned and horrified at wrestling, and quite frankly, everyone else did as well-everyone except for Kim and Jeff. Jeff wrestled in high school so he assured us that the boys would be okay. And Kim seemed to be made out of Teflon or something because, while I was cringing at how dangerous this sport seemed to be, she didn’t even flinch when watching the matches.

“There can be up to three starting periods with each match. It depends on whether or not one of the boys’ is pinned or not. They’ll start in the neutral position where they’re both standing and facing each other. If there’s no pin in the first period, then they’ll move on to the second period during which they’ll start in what’s called the referee’s position. Well, you’ll see,” Jeff explained to all of us.

After three boys finished their matches, it was finally Sammy’s turn. We all cheered raucously hoping to encourage him. Sammy looked confident going into the starting position. He and his opponent were facing each other.

“Sam, look at that other boy. He looks like a beast.”

“He does not, Emily. He’s shorter than Sammy. Besides, he’s a she.”

“Well, that girl looks vicious! What kind of a mother allows her daughter to wrestle? Why is this even a high school sport?”

As soon as the referee gave the signal to start, Sammy moved to… um… Splat! Sammy was pinned flat on his back and was staring straight up at the ceiling… no… at his opponent’s tits.

“Aaagggh! Sammy, baby, are you okay?” Leah yelled in horror. “Aunty Leah’s right here, honey!” Apparently, our she-wolf’s maternal side was making an appearance. Obviously, psychotic overprotective tendencies run in the family.

“Oh my God! You monster!” Emily screeched. “What kind of an evil girl are you? Get off of my baby!”

Sam yanked her back down to her seat and clamped his hand over her mouth to keep her quiet while Crispy did the same with Leah.

“Shouldn’t we check him for a concussion?” Babs asked.

“Nah, he’ll be fine. He’s wearing head gear and the mat is padded. This is his first year wrestling. Generally, most high school wrestlers spend the first year staring up at the ceiling,” Jeff chirped. “He’ll be fine.”

“Still, shouldn’t I go and give him a quick look see? That girl was beastly.”

“You’ll embarrass him, Babs. Sit the hell down.” Jeff looked over at Bella who was attempting to sneak down to check on Sammy. “You too, Bella.”

I yanked my wife onto my lap and kept my arm firmly around her lest she try to escape to check on Sammy.

Sammy got up warily and the girl was declared the winner. He stared straight at her breasts the entire time. Okay, we’re going to have to teach the boy how to be subtle when ogling a chick.

“It’s okay, baby. You’ll get ’em next time!” Emily shouted. “We can get some ice cream later!”

“And Aunty Leah will make your favorite brownies for you tomorrow!”

Sammy looked up towards the stands with a mortified expression on his face.

“Will you two cut it out? You’re embarrassing him!” Sam chastised his wife and Leah.

“Oh, stop, Sam! I’m just showing our son that I’m behind him a hundred percent.”

“Yeah, you’re so insensitive. That… that girl he was wrestling was a brute!” Leah agreed-this coming from a she-wolf who could take out vampires.

One more pair went up, and then it was Ryan’s turn. Again, we all started cheering to encourage him. The referee gave the go ahead and the boys started circling each other. The other boy-obviously a seasoned wrestler-quickly took hold of Ryan and knocked him down for a pin. Ryan, unlike Sammy, was trying to wiggle his way out-of course, he didn’t have a pair of breasts distracting him either. If I was his age and I had a guy on top of me, I’d be doing my best to get him off of me really quick.

“Keep those shoulders up, Ryan!” Jeff advised.

Kim suddenly stood up. “Don’t take that crap from him, Ryan! This should be easy for you! Think about when your brothers jump on top of you!”

And with that, Ryan suddenly heaved the kid off of him and got back to standing position.

“Oh, yeah! Go Ryan!” I cheered.

“Okay, the other kid has two points for a takedown and Ryan has one point for an escape. He just has to take control of the situation quickly,” Jeff explained.

“Show him what you’re made of-you’re a Cameron!” Kim bellowed.

The referee got them back into another starting position. The other boy got his arm around Ryan and took him down. Ryan wasn’t going to go down without a fight. He clawed, wriggled, and refused to put even one shoulder down.

“Flip him over, boy! You know better than that!” Kim hollered.

Meanwhile, Jared was quaking in his boots in abject horror. “Shit, Paul-what if he breaks his shoulder or something. This sport isn’t safe!”

Suddenly, Ryan clamped down on his opponent with his legs, flipped him, and took control of the situation.

We all stood up and started cheering for him.

“That’s it, Ryan! Get his shoulders down on the mat!” Jeff was standing up, and shouting out advice. “You’ve got the upper hand! Seize control!”

With all of his might, Ryan held down the kid’s shoulders using his knees. The referee started counting and Ryan was declared the winner. We all stood up and cheered. In fact, everyone in the gym broke out in a wild applause.

“Yes, yes, yes! That’s my boy!” Kim whooped.

I looked over to my right to see Jared sitting down and letting out a sigh of relief. “Glad that’s over with. Did you see how big that kid Ryan was up against was?” Jared asked.

“He may have been tall, but he was lanky. He was still in Ryan’s weight class,” Jeff noted.

“I thought my heart was going to drop out of my chest.” The poor guy looked like he was going to cry.

“Man, that was scary,” Crispy added. “When I have kids, wrestling is completely out. I don’t like fighting.”

“Jeff, you’ve got to give my boy pointers,” Sam told him. “I mean, he was… My God! He didn’t even attempt to fight back.”

“No problem. I was planning on it already. Ryan and he can practice together. In fact, I have a friend who runs a wrestling studio over in Apache Junction. I’ll take the boys there on Sunday morning. We have to get Sammy to at least resist a little.”

“I know. I never thought my boy would be so… tame.”

“It can be scary out there. We’ll get his confidence up.”

And this was what was nice about my pack. We were a family and we took care of each other no matter what. Tomorrow, we were heading to Number Six’s football game to cheer him on and last week we had gone to Barry’s daughter’s piano recital and had given her a standing ovation even though she’d fumbled four times while playing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.’ We did this because we wanted all of the kids to feel happy, confident, and loved because they absolutely were-by all of us.

And love is a wonderful thing.