All Bark, No Bite [Jacob & Edward]

11

Needless to say, this isn't what Jacob was expecting. When he woke up in the middle of the forest with dirt smeared across his front and an intense headache, he wasn't expecting it to result in anything more than a sore day in bed. Instead, he's listening intently to Edward and Esme hurriedly whispering to one another about something that they were intent on him not being able to hear. He caught small sections of it. 

"Moving a bit fast...I don't know..." 

There is small gap where another female voice, Alice, breaks into the conversation.

"Think it's a bit late for that..."

Emmett hums.

"Knocked him up already."

Rosalie chimes in next.

"Yeah, Emmett and I...mashed potatoes...better be glad..."

His head is starting to pound with how intensely he's focusing but they're talking so fast and so low that it's a fruitless endeavor. He allows himself to fall back into the pillows.

It's about a minute before Edward slowly enters the room, tray balanced on one arm as he shuts the door with his other. He's trying to put on this front as if he'd spent the last ten minutes warming up what smells like chicken and macaroni, but he has this frazzled look that tells Jacob otherwise. 

"Good talk?" Jacob mumbles, taking the tray and sitting it on his lap before reaching for the glass of water in Edward's other hand. 

Edward doesn't seem even slightly taken aback by this as he slides in next to Jacob with a sigh. "Yeah, just discussing what to do next." 

"Come up with anything?" Jacob's mind replays what he'd heard. It didn't sound like the future they were discussing. It sounded more like regretting the past. It sounded like they were all letting him know that what had already happened was done and he couldn't change it. Jacob tried not to think too hard about it as he stabbed into the macaroni haphazardly.

Yesterday they'd been riding on some kind of weird high. The witch had randomly shown up, done some magic on Jacob and now he was healed. He was high on relief. Then, Jacob had spent all night thinking over the fact that he wasn't thinking rationally.

How could he in his condition?

Maybe Edward was feeling the same thing, whether he was willing to admit it to Jacob or not. Maybe he wasn't looking to go crawling back to Bella, but he was probably thinking a bit clearer now. He could see that without the option of simply placing the baby back where it came from, they were going to have to actually start taking this seriously.

"You feeling sick again?" Jacob heard the buzz of Edward's voice coming from his right. 

"No." 

He doesn't mean to be short with Edward, but his head is swimming. He's no longer clouded with thoughts about how he's going to explain to any other werewolf that: Yes, he smells like a new parent. Though, no, he doesn't have a baby to show them. 

Now he has to figure out how he's going to take care of a kid he didn't prepare for. So far, he'd give himself a solid 2/10 when it came to keeping both of them alive. 

"Jay," the nickname is new in the sense that it only leaves Edward's lips when he's not really thinking too hard, "talk to me." 

It's only slipped twice so far and maybe Jacob's the one thinking too hard about it.

Why doesn't he just listen to my thoughts? What's the point of having them? What's the point of him being able to hear them?

He doesn't necessarily have questions as much as he has too many thoughts, but he finds one that maybe Edward can answer.