Jacob's not exactly a spontaneous man. As chaotic as his life seems to be, he tends to have some kind of a plan, some loose outline of a thought process. He likes to know what he's getting himself into, it's how he's survived all of these years as a cop. He always has a plan.
However, when he fumbles into his car at 12 PM after dropping Bear off with Leah, he has absolutely none. There's nothing floating around in his skull except "Get Edward, bring him home". So, he revs up the engine of the truck and barrels out of his own driveway with only that sentiment in mind.
He immediately regrets the lack of forethought when he looks up and finds himself sitting in front of a house with the magnitude of a small museum, impatiently waiting for Edward to make an appearance. He doesn't know what to say, doesn't know how to make sure everything was really and truly okay between them. He couldn't go from making the man cry to pinning him against the nearest surface. There were some steps that he definitely was going to have to take in between.
Though, that was easier said than done. His mind seems to go completely blank as soon as Edward steps out of the mammoth of a mansion. He's standing in front of the edifice that dwarfs everything surrounding it, wearing yet another one of Jacob's old, ratty t-shirts with a pair of loose pajama bottoms that also may or may not belong to him. His hair, which has gotten longer since he'd found himself stuck with Jacob, has been ruffled so much that the motion has created its own new disheveled hairstyle...
and he's pouting. Despite himself, he's pouting as he shuffles down the sidewalk. His nose and cheeks are flushed and lips are a pinkish-red from his teeth nipping at them.
For the first time, in what's felt like forever, Jacob forgets all of his reservations.
He sits mesmerized as the man steps off of the edge of the sidewalk and heads around to the passenger side to climb in. Once again, as the Edward's scent fills up the car, grounding his frazzled mind, Jacob's reminded of the fact that he hasn't thought of anything to say. He had nothing to really cement into Edward's mind that he really thought he was making the right decision. He hadn't settled on anything to really make the man feel welcome, let him know that Jacob didn't want him to go anywhere. He hadn't conjured up anything to make Edward feel the way he was feeling. Jacob starts up the engine, mind trying to work as fast it possibly can to come up with something as he pulls away from the curb.
He's so caught up in his own thoughts, that he doesn't quite register the man standing in the middle of street until he has to stomp on the breaks.
The force has them both snapping forward in their seats as the truck screeches to a stop. His heart is beating in his ears as he snaps his head up to see Lahote standing there, in the middle of a gated community of all places, staring at him. The man looks like he's been sleeping outside, dirt smeared across his cheeks and caked in his hair along with marring every single clothing item he was wearing. His eyes look wild and his lips are pulled into an unhinged grin. Jacob almost thinks it's a hallucination with the way the man doesn't seem to move a muscle as he aims a gun at the passenger's side of the car.
"Paul?" Jacob calls out, "Paul don't do this."
His mind immediately grasped for his training. How can he de-escalate the situation?
"It's not worth it. Maybe we can get you some help - "
"Maybe I need to kill him," Paul cuts him off, voice as sharp as his glare as his eyes flick over to Edward, "maybe that'll make you understand."
His voice is calm like he isn't standing in some upscale neighborhood, pointing a gun in broad daylight.
Jacob glances over at Edward, trying to devise some kind of plan to get Paul's attention on him without getting Edward hurt. Edward's eyes are wide, never leaving the gun as it glints in the sunlight.
Paul waves the weapon and Jacob can hear Edward quietly gasp beside him.
"This is your boyfriend, isn't it? Your mate? Let's see how you feel after you watch someone kill him right in front of your eyes!" Lahote threatens, voice finally betraying him as he all but growls.
Jacob watches as his finger places light pressure on the trigger.
"Killing him won't bring her back!" Jacob calls out and watches as the man's eyes dart over to him, but the gun stays aimed at Edward.
"Stop hunting me!" He barks back, eyes somehow wilder as he glances back over at Edward.
"I can't do that. You know I can't do that." Jacob says, eyes pleading with the man.
This wasn't some little incident. Three people were in the morgue because of him.
"Cops do it all the time. They get lazy, they let cases go cold, they don't investigate." He says it as if he's speaking from experience.
Not like a lazy cop, his eyes and his tone are too determined for that. More like he was the grieving family member who was told 'There's nothing we can do'.
Jacob can hear sirens in the distance. It would be a relief for a regular, naive citizen, but he knew better. He knew that there were two possible responses to panic. Lahote could either flee or empty all of his ammo into the windshield and hope for he hits his target.
Paul whips his head around at the sound of the sirens before eyeing the two of them.
"Call them off!" He yells.
"I can't! I'm not on duty and I didn't call them!" He tries to explain, heart pounding harder in his chest as he watches Paul, yet again, look away from the sound of wailing in the distance to the two of them.
"Paul, don't do this!" He calls again and watches as the man focuses on him, gun finally swinging around to point directly at him.
"You don't know how it feels!" He howls, before spinning around yet again to glance over his shoulder.
"You may be able to get some kind of a plea deal, but not if you kill innocent people!"
It's a lie. No one was going to hear out someone with a mounting body count like his with a lack of accomplices to implicate, but it was worth the try.
The sirens are getting louder. Jacob can see bright red and blue lights flashing somewhere past Lahote's head, but he can't bring himself to take his eyes off of the man.
"Are you innocent?" He hears the man ask over the sounds of tires screeching on asphalt.
It's not a question that Jacob is expecting. What does he mean by that?
Jacob watches as Lahote's eyes flick over to Edward.
"You're breaking unspoken rules just associating with him." He hears Paul huff as if that was the equivalent of murdering at least three people.
"Look, I miss her too-!"
"SHUT UP!" He screams as if he's in pain, hands flying up to his ears before he remembers what he's here for and aims the gun at Edward.
Lahote spins around, but Jacob can see in his eyes that this time it's different. His eyes are flicking from side to side as if he's thinking before they become cold and distant. He's weighing some kind of odds in his head as he peers down the street once again.
He only has time to get one shot off, just one.
Jacob barely has time to react. His mind is screaming at him that something doesn't feel right before Lahote can fully whip his head around. The way he mumbles underneath his breath, the way he sizes up Edward in his seat, the way he checks one more time as if gauging if it was worth the hassle and time. Jacob moves purely on instinct, hand jutting out and gripping the nape of Edward's neck to push his head down until his nose is pressed to the seat.
The sound of the gun going off rings in his ears and he can hear the bullet as it whizzes by his head, but he doesn't move, his hand never leaves Edward.
The bullet hits the headrest.
When he looks up again, Lahote is gone.
"Are you okay?" He hears Edward squeak from the passenger's seat, voice slightly muffled by the position he's in.
At first Jacob thinks he's talking about the death grip he has on the back of his neck, mind reeling for some kind of an apology. That is, until he pulls his hand away to see that he's bleeding all over the collar of Edward's shirt and, subsequently, the back of his neck.
He doesn't wait for an answer, sitting up quickly and grabbing for Jacob's hand to inspect it himself.
"I'm fine." Jacob mutters, despite the fact that his heart is hammering in his chest.
He can hear the sirens all around them as cop cars pull up and his coworkers climb out of them. He can hear the buzz of them speaking, the sound of their radios going off, the sound of footsteps heading their way.
There's a short moment where Edward looks relieved, relieved enough to start yammering off medical terms, until he looks up at Jacob and his face somehow becomes even paler.
"WE NEED AN EMT!" Jacob hears him yell despite it seeming muffled to his ears.
The way he yells is quite dramatic for a simple gunshot wound to the hand, but he wasn't going to waste his time arguing with a frazzled Edward.
"PLEASE!" Edward yells, panic clear in his voice.
Time seems to go by in fragments as if Jacob blanks out every couple of minutes only to return to the sound of police chatter.
He glances over to see Edward wriggling out of his shirt.
"What are you doing?" His words sound slurred even to his own ears, which doesn't do much to reassure Edward that he's okay.
He needs to calm down. Everything was going to be fine.
He's expecting Edward to wrap the shirt around his hand that's laying over in his lap, but instead he presses the shirt up against Jacob's neck, applying so much pressure that Jacob sees white.
"PLEASE!" He almost sounds like he's in tears.
Jacob can't see him because his eyes have shut on their own, but he can hear it in the way he's pleading with Jacob to talk to him, voice quivering with each word.
"No, no don't cry. You know I don't like it when you cry." Jacob hears himself splutter out.
"Keep your eyes open...Hey, open your eyes, Jacob!" Edward orders yet again and Jacob can feel his hands, the warmest he's ever felt them, cupping his face, before all the sounds begin to fade away.
"JAKE!"
Jacob hates hospitals. If he were awake right now, he'd be throwing a fit about it, but he's not. He hasn't opened his eyes since they'd closed in the truck. It really was a bummer because that meant that Edward instead had to play the scene in his head over and over again. He had to relay it to Stanley, who looks at him like he's a kicked puppy. Then, he had to tell Leah over the phone, but he doesn't even really manage that because he breaks down halfway through. Then, he had to just sit there by himself and think about it.
There was so much blood everywhere.
Normally, despite his reservations for drinking human blood, he wouldn't mind that. In over a hundred years, he'd seen all types of events where someone lost an immense amount of blood. It'd been pleasant even despite the ravenous hunger.
Though, this was different. His hands felt dirty; like he'd never get them clean again. The smell...it smells just like copper and yet he feels lightheaded every time he gets a whiff of it. The look on Jacob's face, the way he couldn't seem to grasp what was going on as he tried to comfort Edward despite the fact that he was bleeding all over his hands.
Edward feels nauseous.
He's not even sure how long he's been sitting here, how much time has passed since they'd arrived at the hospital. He's not sure who's been in and out, who he's spoken to, what words have come out of his mouth.
It shouldn't be any different this time when he hears the door swing open behind him. Just speak when it's necessary.
"Oh, Sweetie." He hears crooned behind him before Darlene steps around to get a better look at him.
He's not someone who gets particularly emotional about things like this, people like this. He didn't get attached to random strangers who knew people who actually did have an attachment to. Darlene's appearance shouldn't be any different than the others. He'd held up pretty good after the initial shock. He'd held up through Leah and Quil rushing over to check on Jacob. He'd been able to actually answer Leah's questions the second time. He's not someone who gets upset over pain or death. He especially didn't get worked up over other people's perspective of pain or death. He'd experienced too much of it. He was used to the stiff "Are you okay?" and the pitying looks as they try their best to be comforting.
That was until Darlene looks at him with this understanding in her eyes.
He opens his mouth and the only thing that comes out is a weak sob. She doesn't seem even remotely surprised by it, pulling him close like he's some kind of child that needs to be soothed. That's when he crumples like he can't hold himself up anymore.
"You should get some rest," She finally says after he's finally able to breathe normally again, "I'll stay here with him."
He doesn't want to leave, doesn't want Jacob to wake up and he's not there.
He's about to decline the offer when he catches sight of the blood caked beneath his fingernails and the nausea is suddenly back. He shoots up out of his seat, brushing past her to get into bathroom and gags so hard it brings more tears to his eyes.
"I'm calling Quil to come and pick you up, Hun." Darlene mutters, running a soothing hand over his back.
Edward hasn't gotten to know Quil very well, but he knows that he and Jacob are like brothers. They're inseparable. He must be really worried about him. That doesn't seem to stop him from throwing concerned glances Edward's way as he stares out of the window. He can feel Quil's gaze on the back of his neck the entire way home. He wants to reassure him that he's fine, but who'd believe him at this point? He looks a mess. His hair is all over his head, he has tear stains on the sleeves of the shirt that Quil had brought him, his nose and eyes are red, and he can feel himself rocking in his seat.
Quil follows him into the house, like he's afraid he's going to collapse, before handing him off to Leah. She looks at him with that same pitying stare.
"You should lay down and rest a little," she offers gesturing to a pile of pillows and blankets placed in the center of the living room.
He's confused by the suggestion. Why wouldn't he go lay down in Jacob's bed? Though, he still allows Embry and Seth to guide him over to the pile. They lay down first as if to demonstrate what it was for and he follows suit. He places his head on a pillow that he'd seen Jacob keep in his bedroom closet. It's soft and it smells like him.
Leah eventually joins, Bear resting on her chest, as they huddle up next to him.
It's a dog pile. He narrowly realizes before his world goes black.
Jacob wakes up confused. From the overly bright lights to the quiet singing coming from his left, it's all so foreign. He finds himself squinting as he looks around for the origin of the singing only to find himself face to face with Darlene. She looks calm and sweet as she knits something in the chair next to what he realizes is a hospital bed. It's not until she looks up that her expression changes and boy does it change.
"JAY!" She says and only to lower her voice after her flinches at the loud noise, "Sorry, sorry!"
Then, he watches as her face morphs into one that he's seen too many times. The edges of her lips turn down into a frown and her brow furrows as she lets out a deep sigh.
"That boy is worried sick about you," she informs him, hands clenching in her lap as she remembers, "he got so worked up, Quil had to help him stand after he was done losing his breakfast."
Why was he here?
His memory feels like it's a TV being turned on as the static slowly turns into a compilation of images. Paul Lahote standing in front of the truck. Lahote with a gun. Jacob pushing Edward's head down. Numb. Edward's scared face. Darkness.
"Mm, what happened?" He mutters, voice rough and thick as he raises his hand which is wrapped in a thick casing of gauze and wraps.
"You got shot and the bullet went through your hand, ricocheted off of the metal of the head rest and hit you in the neck." Darlene explains.
Oh.
Fuck.
"Where is he?" Jacob mutters, looking around the room as if Edward would be hiding in a corner, only to find himself returning to a very sympathetic Darlene.
"He had to go home, Dear," she says, "he used his shirt to stop the bleeding, bless him, but I don't think he does all that well with large amounts of blood."
Jacob waits for him. He's not sure why, Darlene clearly said something had happened that made him sick, but he still waits. He hopes he'll pop his head in and know that Jacob's going to be okay.
He's so hopeful when the door opens that it's almost a punch in the gut when the Chief strolls through. She doesn't bother with any pleasantries, immediately barking orders once she sees for herself that his eyes are open.
"When you're discharged, you're going to stay inside. There will be cops taking turns watching your home and the surrounding area around your home. If you need anything, an officer will provide it. Keep that girl safe." Then, she's out as fast as she'd clacked in.
So, maybe that's why he hadn't sauntered in. They were officially on lockdown.
Edward's not bouncing back as well as he usually does. In fact, he's struggling and he's not the only one. Bear's fussy. She's okay right up until it's time to sleep and it's like he's laid her on a sheet of ice as she fights against him like she's uncomfortable. Her tiny body wiggles and contorts and pushes off of him with the little strength she has and she cries out as if being in proximity to him is actively hurting her. The first night he'd, admittedly, broken down. He couldn't seem to help himself. He bawled like he was the one in pain, arms wrapped around Bear like that would fix it.
He'd almost managed to pull himself together before Leah walked in with a hot water bottle wrapped in a blanket. She hadn't said a word, gesturing for him to lift Bear up before putting the hot water bottle on top of Edward's chest and stomach and placing yet another blanket over that.
"Try that."
By the third night, he's coping.
He's working solely off routine. He showers, he dresses in something he's stolen out of Jacob's drawers. He collects that hot water bottle that Leah's placed on the desk while he was in the bathroom and he scoops Bear up from where she's been resting in the swing. He lays her on the bed where she informs of her current gripes while he wraps up the hot water bottle.
He's about to settle in for a long night when his phone rings. He's used to it by now, Jasper and Emmett constantly checking in on him in the morning and at night. So, he thinks it'll be one of them calling to make sure he hasn't lost his mind. Instead, he's met with Stanley's voice on the other end of the line.
"Hey, just letting you know that we're coming up."
We? Coming up?
Edward scoops Bear up on instinct before rushing over to peer through the blinds. He's met with a lone, black car sitting in front of the house. The door on the driver's side opens and out steps Stanley. The passenger side is next and out steps Newton. Newton opens one of the back doors and stoops down before re-emerging with a tired looking Jacob. He can see Jacob clearly bickering with Newton who's humoring him, letting go of the hold he has on Jacob's arm and allowing him to saunter up to the door without any help. They follow close behind him though, eyes darting down the street and over to neighboring houses.
When there is a knock on the door, Jacob's on his own. He steps into his own room like it belongs to someone else and just stands in the doorway, watching Edward clutch Bear to his chest as his eyes looks over Jacob. He's in pain, he's clearly in pain. His movements are stiff and he's jittering like he's in bottling some type of discomfort, but Edward was there. He'd seen the wound. He knows.
He hadn't even contemplated this moment. Jacob shouldn't be home for weeks, but the Chief must've had other plans. He thinks he should be happy. He should lay Bear back in her swing and pull him over into a hug, but he's rooted to the spot. It feels like time is standing still as his heart pounds in his own ears. He thinks the moment will never begin again. They'll just be stuck like that, staring stupidly at one another until the end of time.
It's not until Jacob opens his mouth, voice spilling out into the air that Edward feels as if he's freed.
"Miss me?"
Then, he lunges at him like a starving man, trying his best to be gentle as he pulls him down into a kiss, but he hears the man quietly groan against his lips. The kiss holds a lot of things. His fear, his anger, his affection...
He only pulls away when he hears Jacob mumble something.
"You're gonna squish our kid and she's gonna hate us forever." Jacob informs him.
Jacob doesn't comment on the hot water bottle wrapped in a baby blanket when Edward moves it off of the bed. He looks at it as if he's not surprised by its presence, like he's seen it before. He just makes himself comfortable and allows Edward to place Bear onto his chest.
There's no wriggling, no pushing, no whining or crying. She just lets out a little puff of air before closing her eyes. She's asleep within minutes. Edward would normally move her to the bassinet but they've both had a time of it with him gone and he's sure she needs this as much as he does.
When he's sure she's in a deep sleep, he lays her down for the night. He then curls up under Jacob, trying his best not to disturb him as he gets into a comfortable position.
"It's not that bad, y'know?" Jacob mumbles, peering over at him, "I'm not human. It's almost fully healed."
Edward's not sure if it's that he's not fully registering the words coming out of his mouth, too warm and fuzzy to really comprehend what was being said, or if it was that he didn't believe what was being said so he was tuning it out. It's not until Jacob sits up and tugs at the bandage on his neck, that Edward's brain catches up to the rest of him as he shoots up into a sitting position.
"What the fuck are you doing?" He protests a tad too late as the bandage is pulled away to show what could be easily passed off as a particular bad wound, but not a gunshot wound. The hole has completely closed and the skin around it has mostly healed.
Edward blinks at it a couple of times.
"Hey, don't..." He hears Jacob whisper.
It was that easy, huh? He has to watch him turn pale as blood runs down his neck, he has to sit in the back of the ambulance as the EMT's yell that "They're losing him". He has to watch as he's hastily rolled off to have an emergency surgery. Then, he just has to wait. Wait to be able to see him, wait for him to wake up...
and it's gone like that.
He can feel Jacob trying to comfort him, can feel his giant hands rubbing up and down Edward's sides. All it does is remind him of that night where Jacob had looked at him all apologetically as he all but pushed him away.
Edward's about to shrug off the moment, crawl back into the little cocoon he's made on his side of the bed and settle in it for the night, but there's something in the way that Jacob's looking at him that gives him pause.
"Don't go." Jacob has a fear in his eyes that Edward's never seen before.
It's something that hasn't been there the previous times Edward has run off to clear his head. Edward chocks it up to the fact that there is an actual threat looming over them now. He can hear the sound of yet another cop car patrolling the area.
Edward gives a stiff nod and that seems to take a little tension out of Jacob's shoulders as he tugs him over. He buries his face in Edward's neck and he breathes in like he's reveling in whatever he's smelling.
"Need you." He hears mumbled into the skin at the crook of his neck.
"You're not the only one who has a hard time dying." Edward huffs out, rolling his eyes and he can feel a puff of warm air as Jacob laughs.
He's about to say something else snarky when he feels something wet brush up against his neck. He blinks a couple of times trying to figure out what just happened when Jacob's hands leave his waist to roam a little higher.
"You just got home from the hospital." He gasps as Jacob runs a rough hand over one of his nipples.
"Mhm..." He can feel the vibrations of the hum against his collarbone.
Edward's sure he's about to make a valid point once he refocuses himself and catches his breath, but they're interrupted by a knock on the door.
Jacob rolls off of him to swing the door open to an unvexed Leah who simply hands him a box and nods over to where Bear is sleeping.
"Try to keep it at a reasonable volume. I don't need Mike and Eric asking me questions when they're stealing coffee in the morning." Quil calls over her shoulder.