Edward tries to argue his case with Emmett. He's pulling out all of the stops, everything that could possibly go wrong. It's a valid argument. If he's figured out that Edward's a vampire, it's an awful idea to just drop him off on the man's front doorstep. He wants to physically yell at his thickheaded brother, but Bear's back to sleeping in her car seat and she's a had long day. That on top of the fact that Jasper's the one holding her, he finds himself whisper yelling all the way to Emmett's jeep.
Edward feels sick to his stomach as Emmett practically picks him up and puts him next to Bear on his backseat. He turns to grab for the door handle, attempting to tug at it, only to find that the child's lock is on.
"You'll be fine." Emmett calls to him from the driver's seat like some kind of exhausted father.
Halfway through the ride, Edward finds himself zoning out. It's almost a defense mechanism at this point. His eyes don't refocus until he's in front of the little, red house with the white trim. Emmett hops out and walks around to Edward's door, tugging it open and looking at him as if he's being a nuisance.
Edward's about to start his tirade again when a truck pulls up behind them and out steps Jacob and some kid. The younger guy heads straight for the house. Not a good or bad sign. Jacob doesn't look particularly angry from what Edward could see, but that didn't mean anything. After all, Edward was just a case that he was working and Bear was here waiting for him. There was no need for him to be stressed. If he wanted to avoid Edward, he could very well do that while still doing his job.
Jacob rushes over to the truck and Emmett steps aside, offering him up.
"We have to get inside." Jacob whispers as soon as he's close enough.
"What?"
That's not what he was expecting per se, but that also didn't mean much. He could rip him a new one once Emmett and Jasper weren't around.
"I'll explain it once we're inside." Then, Jacob's tugging at his hips, trying to get him out of the way so he could grab Bear. He allows himself to be moved despite his confusion and follows Jacob into the house, not even bothering to glance back at the Jeep. It peels away as soon as they reach the porch.
He allows himself to be led up the steps and into the house, trying his best to ignore the fact that the same woman from earlier was once again waiting for them. She doesn't say anything to them, casually reaching for the car seat as they pass. Though, she's watching Edward when he's not looking. He can feel it even as they ascend the staircase.
Once they're in Jacob's room, Bear goes back into the bassinet. As soon as she's laying down, Jacob's eyes are on him. Edward's waiting on it, whatever it is. Whether it be threats or maybe a punch or two. Maybe Jacob won't say anything, maybe he and his family have decided as a collective to just glower at Edward until they're no longer stuck with him.
"Are you okay?" Jacob asks him, dropping down to his knees to get a better look at Edward's face.
"I'm fine." He grits, steeling himself for the other shoe to drop.
"You look pale." Jacob continues, voice filled with a weird amount of concern for someone who should definitely be angry at him.
"I'm always pale." Edward says, trying not to look too confused by where the conversation was going.
"Paler than usual." Jacob clarifies before turning away from Edward.
He slips out of the door and Edward's left a little perturbed, but keeping him at least a little alive was probably also a part of the case. Maybe he's gone to get something that he thinks will help Edward.
Maybe he doesn't know.
Edward lifts his head up at the sound of Jacob stepping through the door again. He's not sure what exactly he's expecting. If he knew, who knows. If he didn't know, maybe Tylenol or water or both.
Instead, he finds himself staring at a styrofoam cup. Jacob holds it out to him and Edward can feel his mouth become dry. He was wrong. Maybe this is it. They could have styrofoam cups downstairs, but Edward has a feeling in his gut. If it's what Edward knows it is, Jacob's been in Edward room. He's been in his fridge. He must know.
"Hey," Jacob whispers, back to kneeling in front of Edward, "it's okay."
Jacob grabs for Edward's hand and he wrenches it away like he's been burned. Edward can feel his eyes on him, then they're back to staring at the cup like he's at a loss.
"I get if you don't particularly like me, but if this is going to help you," Jacob tries again, holding up the cup like it was some kind of holy grail,"just drink it. Okay?"
He stares at the cup again.
"I didn't put anything in it, I swear." His voice is almost pleading at this point.
He blinks a few times, eyes darting around the room.
"I'll ask one of your brothers to bring you a different one, if you don't want this one." He tries again.
He knows.
Edward hesitantly takes the cup and watches Jacob breathe a sigh of relief before he's even taken a sip.
He just doesn't seem to care.
Jacob stands from the floor, slowly sits on the bed, watching for Edward's reaction as if this isn't his house.
"I went to your house looking for you," he says after he's finally seated, "y'know searching everywhere I knew to look."
He shrugs before shaking his head.
"I went through every room twice. Then, I found those," he says pointing towards the cup in Edward's hand, "and as I was going to get something to figure out what I was looking at, I realized Bear's window was open."
Edward blinked a few times, mind slow to process what he's just heard.
No one targets his house. He's an odd man who has a giant house that he lives in by himself. It seems like a prime place to burgle, but then there is the odd man who has his lights on at night because he doesn't sleep. There is the odd man who has weird music playing at odd hours. There is the odd man who glowers, is too cold to the touch, and rarely eats. He doesn't have a stellar reputation. That was his alarm system.
Someone broke into his house. Broke into Bear's room to be exact.
Edward blinks a few more times.
"We were going to wait at the house for you, but after a couple of hours, we didn't think you were coming home. So, I was going to try to..." Jacob's sentence trails off and Edward looks up from the rug.
Jacob clears his throat, eyes darting over to Edward before dropping to the floor.
"We were going to try to sniff you out." He concludes.
Edward stares down at the cup. Then, something suddenly clicks.
We.
They were going to act as a collective. Jacob's family isn't chocked full of police officers and he doubted they cared that much about his job to go out hunting for some random guy they just met. Maybe he didn't mean his family. Maybe he meant he was going to call up his team. Though, as far as Edward knew, they weren't werewolves. Though, that wasn't really saying much. How long had he been living with Jacob and not knowing?
"Sniff me out?" He mutters, eyes following a pattern on the patchwork quilt that was thrown over the mattress.
"Yeah, if he could get your scent. We could search for you. Leah would've definitely found you, she's got a track record to uphold." Jacob says, voice all warm like he's recalling a fond memory.
"Leah?" Edward asks, eyes feeling as if they were going to close on their own.
"You met her downstairs. She's the one who took Bear's car seat." Jacob says and he's back to looking at him like he's afraid he's going to just topple over.
Edward wants to ask more questions, but he gets interrupted by Jacob nudging him in the side.
"Maybe you should lay down." His voice is all soft like he's trying to coax a child.
He slips the cup from Edward's fingers and sits it on the nightstand.
Edward mumbles something that's probably incoherent before leaning down to take his shoes off. His good hand is caught by Jacob, who is back on the floor, slipping them off of his feet gently. He then scoops him up like he weighs the same as a bag of air, and places him back in the spot he was in before.
What was with everyone picking him up today?
Jacob props his head up on a pillow before handing him back the cup.
"It's been a long day; I should let you rest." Jacob mumbles, but he's not getting very far because Edward has a firm grip on the first thing he can get his hands on, which is the collar of Jacob's shirt.
"No!"
He'd meant to elaborate, explain that he has more questions to ask. He would like to clarify a few things. Maybe ask if he'd seen the person who broke into his house, maybe inquire if he'd checked the security footage. He wanted to ask if Jacob had noticed if they'd taken anything.
None of that makes it out of his mouth though. No, he just lays there gripping the front of Jacob's shirt while staring at him as if the thoughts were going to suddenly transfer over into his brain.
Jacob seems just as thrown off at the sudden outburst as he is, seemingly frozen as he probably waits for the rest of the sentence.
It never comes. Edward's so tired all he can do is tug at Jacob's shirt, probably stretching the fabric, and hopes that he understands.
Jacob sits back down on the bed, gently removing Edward's fingers without much effort, before leaning down to remove his own shoes. He slides in next to Edward and, for the second time tonight, lets out a sigh of relief.
Edward means to ask him questions, he really does, but he's out cold before he can even articulate any of them.
Edward wakes up on something soft. Something soft with a beating heart and for a second, he thinks maybe he's lost his mind, stumbled into the woods, and accidentally half-assed a kill. It was unlikely, but so was him getting a concussion. He lets out a sound that could battle any dying animal and ignores the chuckle he hears coming from the thing underneath him.
"Wake up, Sleeping Beauty." He hears mumbled somewhere near his ear and he nuzzles further into the warmth that's radiating off of the lump.
He's about to pass out again when his brain is suddenly aware of about three different things at once. First, the thing underneath him smells a lot like Jacob. He's not sure how to explain it exactly, but he's about 90% sure that this is what he smells like. Edward leans up taking in a deep breath to make sure and he can feel as the lump underneath him stills. Second thing he realizes, animals don't talk. Third thing, animals don't sound like Jacob.
He opens his eyes and immediately regrets it as he's hit directly in the face with the sunlight coming through the curtains.
"What's the point of having curtains?" He grumbles and freezes when he realizes that there's two people laughing at him and his early morning plights.
He slowly turns around to see Jacob lying next to him and over near the door is...well he doesn't really know his name.
"Sorry to wake you up from your beauty sleep, but your house has to be searched and I thought you'd want to get there before the team does." Jacob says, shifting up into a sitting position.
Oh, great.
He doesn't risk bringing Bear, opting to leave her behind after Jacob assures him about four times that it's safer. So, he's free to roam. Nothing of value has been taken. Someone had broken into his house and not taken any of the priceless decorations that he'd haphazardly put up. They hadn't stolen any random appliances. They hadn't taken the TV's. Edward steps into Bear's room. He searches her closet, her stuffed animals, the dresser he'd just bought. Nothing.
"Maybe this was a diversion." Jacob says, nodding towards the window.
So, they end up in his room. All of his jewelry is there. All of his work on the case is gone.
All of his work on this case in particular is in a bag that had gotten thrown around in Jacob's car during the accident. It was now on Jacob's desk, waiting for Edward to open it again. Though, whoever had broken in, had tossed a bunch files from that same pile, clearly looking for something that wasn't there. Based on the state of the drawer, he's assuming they hadn't found what they were looking for.
So, this was also case related.