Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

The Rabbit Meets The Magic Stick

By Mama4Dukes

Chapter 10:

By the time the group returned to La Push, it was already ten pm. As soon as they pulled into the Ateara driveway, the three elders, Old Quil, and an unknown man in his thirties worriedly came out to greet them.

The unknown man was the first to speak. “Where the hell have you been? We’ve been worried sick about you! No note, no phone call, plus a sign up at the salon stating that you were closed due to a family emergency. What the hell is going on, Helen, and who the hell is the girl who looks like my mother?”

“Oh, Geoffrey, you aren’t going to believe this.”

“What? What is it?” he questioned worriedly, wrapping his arms around his wife.

“Our Charlie is going to become an unfit father!”

“Unfit father? What? Did he knock someone up?”

“No, not yet, but when he does… oh… our poor grandbaby Bella has to work thirty hours a week, slaving away for the Newtons!”

“Christ, Molly! Couldn’t you keep your big trap shut for once?” Old Quil asked.

“She overheard me. What was I supposed to do?”

“What is going on here?” Geoff Swan asked with his teeth clenched. He hated being in the dark and the girl who was with them was definitely family-she had his eyes.

“Alright, everyone in the house now. We need to explain things to Geoff,” Ephraim stated.

“Where are Quil and Charlie?” Molly asked when they sat down.

“They’re sleeping over at the Lahote’ ‘re fine.”

“Oh, good.”

“Will someone please tell me what is going on?” Geoff repeated.

Ephraim Black relieved him from his curiosity by explaining everything that had happened in the last day.

“So, you’re telling me that this is Bill’s grandson, Gene’s grandson, and my granddaughter from the future?”

“Yes.”

“What the hell kind of wolf pack mumbo jumbo did you get my granddaughter into, Ephraim? I thought only pack members were supposed to know about all of this supernatural stuff!”

“May I just interject here and say that it is a bad law,” Bella interjected. “Exceptions need to be made. For example, I wouldn’t have gotten involved with a vampire had someone thought to previously warn me.”

“What the hell were you doing messing around with a vampire? You are grounded! Do you hear me, young lady? You are grounded!”

“Gee, nice to meet you, too, Grandpa,” Bella replied.

“Geoff, do you have to be so hard on her? All teenagers make mistakes.”

“Dating a vampire is a big mistake, Helen!”

“I’d say it is,” Paul agreed.

“You’re not helping,” Bella hissed.

“I want to know why Geoff knows about the existence of the wolf pack,” Levi said.

“I might have heard stories about the legends here and there.”

“Enough! Everyone sit down!” Quil the Wolf commanded. “Gee whiz! Can all of you think about the situation at hand instead of punishing errant teenagers? We need to get these kids back to the future, and to do that, we need to figure out why they were sent here.”

“Didn’t someone tell them why they were being sent back in time?” Geoff asked.

“That’s the problem. No one told us anything. We were just kind of thrown together,” Paul stated.

“Tell us how you all came to be together again from the beginning. We’ve only seen Paul’s version from his mind,” Ephraim commanded. “Jacob, why don’t you start.”

“Well, Bella and I went to Old Mr. Hinkley’s junkyard to load scrap tires onto a truck for him. In exchange, he said that we could have any part we wanted for my car and for Bella’s truck.”

At this point, Helen interjected and said, “Can you believe it? Charlie bought her some truck from 1953. Apparently, it keeps breaking down.”

“It does.” Bella nodded her head in agreement. “It’s awful, but he bought it off of Jake’s dad so I don’t want to hurt his feelings.”

“Wait a minute! Do you drive a red, 1953 Chevy?” Ephraim asked.

“Yes, I do.”

“It’s a piece of shit. Sell it for scrap. It was my old truck. I stopped driving it about twenty years ago because it kept breaking down. That thing is a road hazard.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Now, keep going with your story, Jacob.”

“Sure, sure. We loaded up the tires-over three hundred of them-and then we headed to my house to install the fuel pump into my Rabbit. The hood strut broke so I grabbed the stick that Quil…” Seeing the two other Quils in the room, he decided to be more specific. “I grabbed the stick that Quil the Fifth was supposed to bring back to his grandpa, but left behind, to prop the hood up. That was when Bella told me that I couldn’t use it because it was Old Quil’s stick and probably important. The two of us got into an argument: Bella tried to take the stick away and I insisted on keeping it so it could prop up the hood. We both had our hands on the stick. There was a heavy gust of wind, the garage doors blew open, and we were suddenly pulled into a twister. We landed on the forest floor, Rabbit, stick, and all. It was then we discovered that Paul was in the backseat of my car.”

Ephraim Black reached up and swiftly slapped his grandson on the arm.

“Ow! What was that for?” Jake cried, rubbing his arm.

“The shaman stick is an artifact from Taha Aki’s time. It is not to be used for propping up hoods. Why is it that Isabella recognized its importance and you-my great-grandson-did not?”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to hit me. That hurt!”

“That was the point! Hopefully, next time, you will remember not to disrespect tribal artifacts.”

“Yes, sir,” Jacob replied then turned to Bella who had a smug expression on her face. “Don’t say it!”

“I wasn’t going to say a thing.” She grinned at him.

“Alright, so you discovered Paul and then what?” Ephraim asked.

“Well, Bella and Paul got into an argument about his dick.”

“Jake, I don’t like that word!”

“Well, tough! I’m sick of the two of you arguing about it.”

“Wait a second! What the hell were you doing playing with his penis, young lady?” Bella’s grandfather asked.

“I wasn’t playing with it! Why would I play with his… his toggle?”

“Bella, it’s a penis! Just say the goddamned word! P-E-N-I-S! PENIS!” Paul emphasized.

She simply glared at him in response.

Jacob, on the other hand, clarified things for everyone. “Bella wasn’t playing with his penis. She and I were trying to figure out why he was naked in my car. It turned out that some chick’s father was shooting at him so he hid in the backseat of my car and fell asleep. He woke up because of the twister and all.”

“Do you frequently spend the night at your girlfriend’s house?” Old Quil asked.

“Oh, she wasn’t my girlfriend. She was just some girl with a warm bed. I can’t really go home on most nights. My dad’s a drunk and he… well, I just can’t go home.”

All the adults stared at Paul in horror and with sympathy at how casually he discussed his situation. Ephraim Black, particularly, was disappointed at how the tribe was handling Paul’s situation. In cases like these, another family should have taken the boy in-especially because he was a wolf. In fact, the responsibility would fall to an elder’s family. He couldn’t understand how lackadaisical tribal management had apparently become. He made a mental note to discuss this situation later with the other elders.

“Alright, so then what happened?” Ephraim asked.

“We walked forever before ending up at the Cullen house. Bella knew a way in. She showed us a framed painting of the vampire royalty as we toured the house, which looked completely different from how she remembered it,” Paul noted. “Anyway, when we saw the painting, we decided to come clean about what we knew of wolves and vampires. After we locked the house up, we decided to head to Sam Uley’s house. Instead, we ran into my grandfather and my father. As soon as I recognized them, I got everyone away from there. We ran from the house and came here instead. We figured Old Quil would have the answers, but we found something better.”

“And what was that?”

“You guys. You know-the previous pack. I figured you guys would know a lot more than Old Quil. You have live experience with the pack and with the Cullens. Our current elders are all idiots. No offense meant, Mr. Old Quil,” Paul stated. “None of them really know about running a pack so they leave it all to Sam-our current alpha. He’s just as confused. I mean he’s only in his early twenties and the guy isn’t too bright. Anyway, we were taught that Bella was pretty much our enemy because she dated Edward and that it was her fault that there was even a pack. I knew better, though, the Cullens were there a full year before she even arrived in Forks.”

“Hmm… so I’m guessing that the reason the kids were sent back have to do with vampires,” Quil the Wolf concluded.

“Why do you say that?”

“Think about it. Bella was stupid enough to become involved with a vampire so she has prior knowledge of their existence. Somehow, she knows how to get inside the Cullen house. She shows Jake and Paul an oil painting of vampire royalty. We didn’t even know that vampire royalty existed.” The elders all nodded their heads in the agreement. “Every single thing which has happened to the kids is a clue. There has to be a reason why the first house they ran into happened to be the Cullens and the second was Gene Lahote’s. And these three kids had to have been brought together for a reason. Everything had to have been aligned correctly for the spirits to send these kids here to our time.”

“So, what you’re saying is that we don’t meet people by accident. They are meant to cross our path for a reason,” Bella surmised wisely.

“You are a very perceptive young lady. That’s exactly what I’m saying. What I think we need to do now is…”

The front door abruptly opened and a man ordered, “Get in the house! All three of you. Now!”

“Gene, what’s going on?” a concerned Geoff Swan asked.

Gene Lahote had just herded Adam, Charlie, and Quil the Fourth. He had a furious expression on his face as he explained the circumstances, “I went to check on the boys and they weren’t in Adam’s room. I found the three of them drinking over by the abandoned Cullen house with those degenerates Billy Black, Harry Clearwater, and Josh Uley.”

Geoff Swan approached his son. “Well? Speak! Or have you lost the ability all of a sudden.”

Charlie caught sight of Bella. “Hey, what are you doing here? Couldn’t stay away from me, could you, babe? Do you wanna hook up?”

“Gross,” Bella simply said. Jake and Paul each stood protectively in front of her.

“Hey, assholes, you’re blocking the pretty view.”

“Watch your language, boy!” Geoff chastised.

“Alright. Hey, sphincters, you’re blocking the pretty view,” Charlie corrected.

“Do you even realize how ridiculous you sound?” Paul asked.

Adam Lahote laughed. “Hey, nerd boy. No one like talks all proper like that. Where are you from? Mars or something?”

Nerd boy? Paul had been called many things before, but never that. Nerd boy was practically a compliment as far as he was concerned. “Maybe you should focus on learning to speak properly? Perhaps focusing more on school so you can actually become a respectable… Ow! What the hell was that for?” he asked Bella who had just elbowed him in the ribs.

“Those guys are too immature to keep a secret,” she warned in a whisper. “Besides, if you tell them the truth, you’d be screwing with the future too much.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“He’s like Mr. Proper.” Quil the Fourth snorted. “What? Are you too uptight to be cool?”

“No, he’s just not an ass like you are!” Bella replied.

“Ooh, the beauty queen speaks. Hey, if you don’t like Charlie, why don’t you slum it with me?”

“She’s got standards, you little twerp!” Jake argued. He had stayed silent until that moment, and had let his indignation build inside of him. He was shaking and his face was contorting into an angry ball.

“Ooh, tough boy, aren’t you?”

“Why you little piece of shit!” Jake lashed out at Quil the Fourth. He stepped forward to hit him, but Bella had a firm hold on his hand.

“Let go of me!” Jake yelled at Bella.

“Discipline your children instead of standing around watching in shock!” Quil the Wolf chastised all the adults. “Look at how disrespectful they are compared to our visitors!”

“Oh, shit,” Paul whispered in Bella’s ear. “Jake is going to phase soon.” He was turning red in the face and his body tremors had gotten severe. All the while, Bella had a hold on him. It seemed to be keeping him calm.

“Now?”

Paul nodded to her in reply.

“What do we do?”

“Bella, stay here, okay? I’ll be back. I promise.” He whispered in Jake’s ear before tugging him towards him. “I’ve got you, buddy. I won’t leave your side.”

“Stay!” Levi Uley ordered Bella firmly before he assisted Paul with Jacob.

She looked up to see the concerned expressions of the three elders. Quil the Wolf whispered something to Old Quil who quickly took control of the situation with the three drunk boys. They were sent upstairs straight to bed with the promise that some heads were going to roll tomorrow. Meanwhile, Paul and the other two elders practically shoved Jake out of the door. Bella went running after them despite protests from her grandfather.

“Bella? Bella? Goddamnit! These woods aren’t safe!” Geoff Swan yelled. He had just met his granddaughter and he sure as hell wasn’t going to lose her now.

“Did you find her?” Gene Lahote asked. “Who is she?”

“No, and what are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here.”

“Who is that girl anyway… wait, there she is!”

Geoff and Gene went sprinting to the clearing where Bella was standing by a tree.

“Oh my God! What’s wrong with him?” Bella asked.

“What are you three doing here?” Levi Uley shouted.

“What’s going on? Jacob?” He was thrashing and struggling while the elders tried to get a hold of him. “Are you okay?”

“Bella, get out of here! It’s not safe!” Paul yelled.

“No, I’m not leaving!”

“Why the hell do you have to be so goddamned stubborn?”

“Let go of me!” Jake hollered as he punched Ephraim Black in the stomach.

“Bella!” Geoff Swan put his strong arms around his granddaughter and attempted to pull her away from the clearing, but she was fighting him with everything she had in her. “Come away from there now, young lady!”

She was still in her grandfather’s hold when Jacob suddenly let out a howl in agony. He twisted his body into an odd shape and suddenly phased into an enormous, chocolate brown wolf. At the same time, Paul and the elders also phased into their wolf forms.

“Gadzooks! Did you see that?” Gene Lahote asked. “The legends I told you about when we were boys are true then?”

“No shit, Sherlock!” Geoff replied still keeping a firm hold on a struggling Bella. “Ouch!” he cried as she stomped on his foot and got loose. She ran straight for the wolves.

Paul phased back into human form. “Seriously, Bella? Get back to where your grandfather is!”

“No, I want to help.”

“You can’t help. We have to keep him calm. Jake is very volatile now.”

“I don’t understand.”

Paul sighed. “Alright, when we first turn into wolves, our minds and bodies are scrambled because we’re still trying to get used to our new situation. To make matters worse, usually it’s anger that makes us phase. Jake became angry-that’s why he phased.” He cupped Bella’s chin with one hand. “Now, go back to your grandfather. It’s for your own safety.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I’m serious. I don’t know what I’d do if you got hurt so, please, just go. Do it for me?”

“Fine,” she muttered. Just as she was about to turn back, Wolf Jake thudded straight to her. She turned to him with a big smile on her face. He stopped abruptly in front of her. “Hey, Jakey. You know, you’re a really pretty wolf. Your fur is the same color as my hair.” He got down on his haunches in front of her, allowing her to wrap her arms around him and give him a big hug and stroke his fur. “I’m here for you, Jake. You’ll always be my best friend.”

A minute later, he phased back to human form. “Is my fur really the same color as your hair?” Jake asked.

“Yep, it is.” She nodded her head. “What was it like being a wolf?”

“It was weird. All of a sudden everyone was reading my thoughts and I could read them as well. By the way, I read Paul’s memories, and I’m positive that Embry Call wants to do a whole slew of sexual things to you. He read them in Embry’s brain and shared them with me. We should keep an eye on him when we get back. I didn’t think he was capable of coming up with stuff like that-I mean it was kinky stuff!”

“Oh, ew!”

The elders returned to human form as well. Levi Uley stared down at Bella. “What part of ‘stay’ did you not understand, young lady?”

“Um…”

“Um, is right. You know that you deliberately ignored my command.”

“Well, I had to make sure Jake was okay!” Bella protested. “He’s my best friend!”

By this time, her grandfather was by her side as well. “Listen to me, young lady. When you’re told to stay put for your safety, you do exactly as you’re told! I am serious when I say these woods are dangerous.”

“Oh, I know! Once, there were three rogue vampires-a Rastafarian named Laurent, a psychotic redhead named Victoria, and a wacko named James-roaming these woods. Anyway, they were killing off humans in Forks. One of them, James, thought it would be a game to find me. Anyway, he played his own version of ‘Capture the Flag’ but it was more like ‘Capture the Human.’ I had to run away to Arizona to get away from him, but he found me and he bit me here.” She showed everyone her wrist. “Luckily, the Cullens saved me. They sucked out the venom and killed the bad vampire. Otherwise, I would have been a vampire. Unfortunately, Laurent and Victoria are still around somewhere.”

Geoffrey Swan stared at his granddaughter with a bewildered expression on his face. Why had she been allowed to run wild with vampires? Why hadn’t Charlie supervised her? He thought about Charlie’s state this evening and the sheer disrespect displayed by the boy and his friends. He wondered how he was even able to produce a child!

Gene Lahote finally lost his patience. It appeared no one was planning to tell him what was going on, yet bewildering events were happening right in front of his eyes. He knew it had something to do with the three strange teenagers. He felt he had the right to know the truth. For Christ’s sake, he just ran over a mile to follow some strange girl who seemed to be very important to his buddy Geoff. “Alright, someone better tell me what the hell is going on! Who are these children? Why did they show up in my living room last night? That boy,” he pointed to Paul, “was naked. I thought they were Makah kids, running around all wild and loose; but then again, there was the odd Hok’wat girl with them. They asked for Sam Uley. Isn’t that the newborn Uley boy?”

“It’s a long story, but I think you need to know. It all started last night when these kids showed up on Quil’s doorstep.”

And so Levi Uley explained the entire story to Gene Lahote, including the history of the three kids and their journey to La Push from the future. Then he introduced the kids to him formally, leaving Paul for last, and Gene broke down in tears at the thought of the miserable childhood his grandson had experienced and he wondered how things got so out of control for his own son.

“Bella, what the heck am I supposed to do?” Paul whispered. “Should I comfort him or something?”

“I’m so sorry!” Gene cried. The man had tears streaming down his face as he pulled Paul into his arms and held him.

“Um, I don’t know what you have to be sorry about. Shit happened. My dad lost control. Anyway, my life won’t be so crappy when I get back. I’ve got friends now-real friends-not fake ones from the pack. Well, except for Jacob. I think he’s got my back and so does Bella. She even said I could stay at her house instead of at mine.”

“You can.” Bella nodded her head. “I’d welcome the company. I’m alone at home most of the day when I’m not at school or working. Dad is always in La Push at Billy’s house. Jake even hangs out with me at my house on most days.” She suddenly had an epiphany. “Hey, do you want a job?”

“Sure, where?”

“Well, Mr. Newton is looking to hire more people. You can work with me. I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He pays 3 bucks above minimum wage and he’s really flexible with hours and stuff.”

“Awesome.”

“Hey, Bella. How many people does he want to hire?” Jake asked.

“A few, why?”

“Duh, if the three of us worked together, we’d be able to afford an apartment. I’m sick of taking care of my dad! I really am. I’ve been doing it since I was twelve years old because my sisters are both selfish bitches! Even when they come home for a visit, they don’t lift a finger. And it’s not like my dad is an invalid. He somehow has the strength to go fishing with your dad, but for some reason can’t cook dinner or help clean the house or anything. It pisses me off!”

“The next time I see them, I’ll tell them all off for you-those ingrates! I think the apartment is an awesome goal for us!” Bella said.

“Not bad, Jake. That’s a great idea. I can get away from my dad and so can you,” Paul agreed.

“Ahem! Before the three of you can make plans for the future, we have to get you back there first,” Ephraim Black stated. “Although I’m not so sure I want to send you back to your dismal lives at this point.” He sighed. “I suppose we must, though.”

“It’s late. I say we call it a night so we can think with a fresh mind tomorrow,” Geoff suggested. He took his granddaughter’s hand. “Come on, honey. Say goodnight to your friends.”

“Hang on there, son. Bella can’t stay with you.”

“Why not? She’s my grandbaby, which makes her my responsibility!”

“I agree with Geoff. I was going to take Paul home with me, too,” Gene piped in supporting his friend.

Ephraim turned to both men. “Hey, if I had my way, I’d take Jacob home with me, too. Unfortunately, there are many factors we need to take into consideration-first and foremost being the fact that these kids have not, in fact, been born yet. We do not want to jeopardize their existence. It’s bad enough that two of them have been exposed to their fathers already. What if Bella and Paul are never born as a result of that?”

“Well, where are they supposed to sleep then?”

“They will continue to sleep in the hunting cabin until we figure out why they are here.”

“In Elder Quil’s hunting cabin?” Geoff and Gene both questioned, appalled.

“They’ll be perfectly fine. It has to be this way. We will deal with all of this tomorrow.” The alpha looked pointedly at Geoff Swan. “Jake and Paul can protect Bella. They’re wolves and they’re strong. She will be fine.”

Ephraim Black drove the three teens back to the cabin himself lest the two worried grandfathers decided to defy orders. He gave explicit instructions to Paul that he was in charge, and that he was to howl if anything went wrong. After that, he headed back to have a talk with his grandson Billy. He couldn’t condone him offering alcohol to minors or to anyone for that matter. He planned on putting a stop to that nonsense immediately.