It's not until Edward's perched up in the front seat at a crime scene with Bear laying on his shoulder, that he notices the shift in his mood. He'd been enjoying himself. Even with the light teasing and the hand kissing and even being pushed up against the car, it'd felt like they were playing some kind of game, like they were in this together.
Now, he was watching a body be carried out on a stretcher, pressing Bear's head down into his shoulder as if she would even realize what she was witnessing. She'd been hungry and hadn't appreciated the loud wail of the sirens jerking her out of her sleep. Currently, he was waiting on some kind of burp so he could put her back into her car seat. He was hoping to be out of here before he could think too hard about why they were here.
After about thirty minutes, Jacob makes his way back to the car, climbs inside, and slams the door behind him and for a moment they just sit there. Edward's watching Jacob and Jacob's watching the scene around them.
Eventually, he starts the car and puts it in drive, but he doesn't look at Edward the entire ride home. The card in Edward's pocket suddenly feels like an iron against his skin.
When they pull up to the house, he slips out of the car and grabs Bear, not waiting for Jacob who seemed determined to spend the night outside. He places Bear in the crib, saving her bath for the morning, and quickly dials the first number on the little piece of paper. It's late, he knows it's late, but Alice picks up anyway.
"Do you have a clock, Cullen?" Is the first sentence out of her mouth.
"Yeah, I need your help," Edward lets out a sigh as he collects himself, "my boyfriend needs your help."
He sat on the phone for a good twenty minutes playing the role of a distraught partner until Alice agreed to see him. Granted, mostly because she was way more interested in the fact that he was dating someone and he hadn't told her.
"Okay, okay. I have a slot open for Friday at 2:00 PM. I'll have to get the records from his previous therapist, though." She finally concedes after asking him for the fourth time when he was going to come for a real visit.
The second call is much shorter, mainly because Rosalie isn't the 'I miss you, I haven't seen you in thirty years' type. She simply marks his name down and says that Alice will give her a call when he needs meds.
With that weight gone, he saunters back downstairs to see Black's coat hanging on the coat rack. He'd come in at some point.
Edward thinks maybe he'll spend the rest of the evening in his room, but about five minutes later, he's stomping down the stairs with a file tucked under his armpit.
"Don't you ever take a break?" Edward asks with a straw still between his lips.
"I just did. We sat at the diner for like an hour." Jacob pointed out as if Edward was the one who wasn't making a lot of sense.
"That's not a break." Edward takes the risk of sliding the file out from in front of him.
"You're gonna have to talk with the Chief or something, you have an appointment with a therapist at two tomorrow." Edward informs him and watches as Jacob stares at him like he was the one with a second head. He looks annoyed for a second, but eventually that changes into something that Edward couldn't quite label because he'd never seen it before. He peers up at Edward for so long, that he's convinced that he has something on his face.
"How'd you-?" His voice doesn't sound irritated, instead a little airy like he's in disbelief. He stares at Edward for a long moment before going to grab for the file.
Edward slides it over further out of his reach.
"You need a real break. Like a crappy movie and some popcorn that's going to get cold before you can get halfway through the bowl." Edward informs him.
Jacob stares down at the manila folder for a long time before letting a huff and rolling his eyes.
"Fine, but only if you suffer through it with me."
Edward's not expecting that. They'd been doing a lot together lately, but they were in Edward's house with no audience and no real obligation to do what they're doing. Edward pops the popcorn while Jacob plops down onto the sofa to find something for them to watch. While the timer on the microwave is counting down, Edward hides the file in one of the kitchen drawers before rummaging in the fridge. Jacob seemed like a beer guy, like he's never touched wine and he never would. So, Edward grabs a beer that Emmett had probably left in the back and grabbed a glass and the bottle of red wine he'd placed in the front of the fridge. He takes a sip of it and sighs when he can taste the copper even behind the alcohol. He puts the popcorn into a bowl and carries his glass, the beer can, and bowl over to where Jacob is sitting. He hands the bowl over to Jacob and places the can on the table and as he's raising back up, his eyes get a glimpse of what's previewing on the TV.
He finds himself staring at Leonardo DiCaprio as he clutches Kate Winslet. When he'd said crappy, he hadn't really meant an actual romantic movie. He thought he'd end up watching some action move about stealing cursed objects or saving the president. He sits down next to Jacob and he can tell that the man is waiting for some kind of comment but Edward keeps his lips pressed together as he waits for the movie to start.
He'd been alive to watch the Titanic sink and he has to say that this is the weirdest rendition of a tragedy he's ever seen. He's so caught in watching Rose being drawn like one of Jack's french girls that he doesn't realize that the space between them was getting smaller and smaller. It's not until the ship hits the iceberg that Edward realizes that they're about one scooch away from Edward being in Jacob's lap. The popcorn bowl is empty and Edward would bet a lot of money that the can sitting next to is also empty.
It takes Edward a solid two minutes of not focusing on the people violently drowning on the screen to realize that Jacob isn't in fact watching the movie. He glances at every so often, but Edward can feel his eyes scanning the side of his face. Edward doesn't think too much into it, his focus going back to Jack and Rose running around the ship. That is, until he hears a voice booming over the sound of the ship creaking as the metal bends.
"Are you actually enjoying this?"
Edward scoops up the remote and immediately pauses the movie.
"What as opposed to gazing at the side of your head?" He quips back and watches as Jacob rolls his eyes despite the fact that Edward can see his ears go pink.
"I'm a cop, I'm taught to analyze the perps behaviors." He points out with a goofy grin on his face.
"I'm not a 'perp'." Edward says, rolling his own eyes as he scoops up the bowl with the intention of refilling it.
He slams the door of the microwave, ignoring Jacob's eyes on his back as he watches the bag twirl around inside.
He's not alone for long, however, as Jacob makes his way over to join him. He's expecting some kind of snarky remark but Jacob just sits there watching him watching the timer.
"You know, I thought you'd be a dick." Jacob finally says as Edward takes a sip of his wine and doesn't sound even a little apologetic when Edward chokes. He moves over to the sink to get a glass of water, feeling like he's about to cough up his own lung.
Jacob does, however, pat him on the back while trying to stifle his own laughter against Edward's shoulder.
"No offense, but the haircut, the shirts, the way you walk, and the pants don't help." Jacob informs him, "You have like the starter pack of one of those arrogant doctors that's in every TV show about the healthcare system."
He's still cracking jokes but his voice has gone all soft again and Edward can feel him about a half a centimetre behind him. Eventually, his chest presses up against Edward's back, hidden behind him cracking some joke in Edward's ear that he rolls his eyes at, then his thighs, legs, and crotch follow. Edward can feel his breath ghosting against the nape of his neck and his hands landing lightly on his waist.
Edward's not even sure how they got here, but they're here and neither one of them moves away until the microwave beeps a second time. Edward moves to grab the popcorn and when he turns around, Jacob's back on the couch, scrolling through movies like nothing had happened.
By the time Edward's back on the couch, an action movie is queued up and he's pecking on his phone. He doesn't even look up when he starts the movie and Edward is basically left to watch Keanu Reeves kill some guy with a pencil on his own. Edward ignores the way he wants to feel disappointed.
After the credits roll, Edward calls it a night, ignoring the way Jacob looks up at him like he's surprised that he's leaving. He drifts upstairs and gets about halfway into the shower when the phone rings. He lets out sigh, contemplating ignoring it, until he sees the name pop up on screen.
"Do you not know how to text?" Edward gripes at Emmett who doesn't seem too put off by the question as he bypasses it quickly.
"Did you hear about the woman they found in front of that dance studio?" Emmett asks as soon as he gets an opening.
"Yeah, I was at the crime scene, Em." He says with a sigh, turning off the water so that it doesn't run cold.
"What do you mean 'at the crime scene'?" He can already hear the "protective big brother" tone through the phone before he can even explain himself.
"We were coming back from eating and Jacob had to stop at the crime scene." He mumbles, hoping this conversation would end quickly if he gave short answers.
"He took Bear to a crime scene?"
As much as Edward loved his brother, sometimes he wished he'd shut up.
"We stayed in the car." He sighs into the phone.
"She's going to need a therapy session too after all of this." Emmett says in his best disapproving uncle voice.
"I'm going to hang up on you in five seconds if you don't give me a good reason not to." Edward grumbles, glaring at the phone that's balanced beside the soap container on the sink.
"I just wanted to call because my brother who still tells me things, told me that your boyfriend was having some mental health issues and I just wanted to check in." Emmett says as if it's not twelve p.m.
They don't sleep, but they also don't call each other in the middle of the night.
"He's -"
"I'm not interrupting you two bumping uglies, am I?" Emmett bursts out, seeming mortified.
Edward hangs up.
He gets up the next morning, gets Bear dressed, and goes downstairs only to realize that he doesn't hear any commotion upstairs. There is no sound of Jacob stumbling to get dressed, no sound of him snoring, there is not even the sound of him showering.
Edward feeds Bear and places her in her car seat and waits a good ten minutes before he's slowly heading back upstairs to see if he can maybe hear him brushing his teeth or something. However, the only sound he hears coming from the entire house, are the sound of his own footsteps. He heads back downstairs and opens the front door to find himself staring at the empty space where Black's cop car is usually parked.
Edward ignores the way his heart drops, instead focusing on uprooting his feet so that he can scoop Bear up. His feet feel like lead as he heads to his own car and puts her in the backseat before climbing into the front seat. The drive is silent because he's too far into his own head to bother with the radio.
Why would he leave without saying anything?
Honestly, it's not a big deal. It shouldn't be a big deal.
However, he still can't shake how dejected he feels as he shuffles into the station with Bear on his arm by himself.