The Peace Keeper

The Peace Keeper (Twilight) 41

Robyn was crying.

She was hungry.

I found myself in the kitchen, holding my child in one arm, while my free one prepared a bottle (given to me courtesy of Esme. She had been an angel, and gone out to get me an emergency baby-kit), of formula.

The formula was a mixture of the regular powered milk most babies got, along with ginger, salt, and carrots.

Most of the Cullens had left to give me my space. For safety reasons, Carlisle had asked Edward (whom of which invited over Bella) to stay with me and watch over Benjamin in case he awoke. I had sent Victor out for some more baby supplies, and for a while it was just us three. But, that didn’t last long, as Ed and Bec returned from where ever they went, and absolutely fawned over their “favorite little monster,” when they found out Robyn was here. So, of course, they invited themselves to stay.

“She’s only about five months, isn’t she?” Edward asked inquisitively, gazing at the variety of ingredients I chose. “Shouldn’t she still be breastfeeding?”

I shook my head tiredly, giving Robyn the bottle to suckle on. “Fire demons don’t breastfeed.”

“Why not?”

I shrugged, “Somewhere during their evolutionary process, mother’s had become pretty much obsolete out of the fetal stage. Demon children are strong enough to live without their mother’s nutrients, and only need to be fed this formula to get all of the vitamins they need.” I sat on one of my kitchen chairs, as my bad leg was starting to hurt pretty badly. Which was odd, seeing as it had been doing well the past couple days. “Of course, most of their mothers do stay with them throughout their childhoods to take care of them. But, usually, when the children reach a level of adolescence in their bodies, she leaves to start a new family.”

Bella, who had been standing next to Edward in my kitchen, listening intently, spoke up, “Why would she leave the family she already has?”

Robyn finished her bottle. I placed it on the table, and propped her up on my shoulder so she could digest upright. “Female fire demons keep their age around their late-teens or early twenties, when a woman is the most healthy and able to conceive. When the children she has reach an age where their independent enough to live without her, she has no other reason to stay other than emotional ties. Father’s, on the other hand, are given the social expectation to keep their sons, and raise them to carry on the family name in case the father dies. Male fire demons spend the longest portion of their lives in their forties or fifties. Mostly because of that age difference, the woman ‘biological alarm clock’ or whatever you want to call it, compels her to go find a younger mate and begin the process again.”

“Isn’t it normally the other way around?” Edward’s curiosity knew no bounds. “Doesn’t the mother keep the family and the father leave?”

I rolled my eyes, “Well, yeah, if you’re an animal.” I stretched the last word sarcastically. “But fire demons are humanoids, and have a social standing. Family name means everything to them. And who carries on the family name? Males.” I shifted Robyn back to a horizontal position in my arms, finding her to be asleep. “It’s all basic Darwinism.”

“So… Are you going to leave Robyn when she grows up?” Bella asked.

I looked up at her, nearly horrified, “Oh, hell no!”

I doubt our conversation would have continued much farther, but either way it was ended when Ed and Bec walked into the kitchen.

“Hey, Emma,” Ed stated, her voice airier than usual, “A friend of yours is on the porch…”

“We didn’t recognizing him, so we didn’t let him in.” Bec continued for Ed, her voice, too, was missing the same down-to-earth-ness it typically held.

“Who was it?”

“The one with the chest.” Ed answered quickly with a dreamy sigh.

I quirked an eyebrow, standing now, “Well, what did he look like?”

“He wasn’t wearing a shirt,” They said in unison, “And was wet from the rain…”

“Anything… Else you can tell me?”

“Well,” Ed gestured to her front, “He had a chest.”

“And abs.” Bec added.

My eyes closed in disbelief, “That’s not very helpful… What color was his skin, then?”

“You know that color you get when you put just the right amount of milk in your coffee? That light, chocolaty color?” Bec answered.

Shifting Robyn in one arm, my other slapped to my forehead, “You two are being very unhelpful. Just describe his face, please.”

“Face?” Ed questioned, “We saw no face. What part of ‘dripping wet, mocha colored, naked torso’ do you not get?”

“Oh, my God.” I whispered in vexation. I turned to Bella, “Would you like to hold her for a bit?”

With an eager nod, Bella took Robyn from my arms in a very delicate manner. I smiled at the girl, and the way she held my child like a piece of porcelain.

‘I bet she’ll make a great mom one day.’ I thought idly, leaving the four in my kitchen to go to the door.

Opening the front door, I was relieved and also a tad confused to find Jake standing on the porch.

By his expression, I could tell he felt the same way.

“Hey,” He greeted me with a lopsided grin, flicking some of his shaggier wet hair out of his face.

“Hey,” I greeted back, taking a step to the side to let him in. Closing the door behind him, I asked, “Why wouldn’t Ed and Bec let you in?”

He struggled as we stood in the parlor, “I don’t really know… I asked if they would let me in, but they just said no and stared at my chest for a while… It was weird.”

I nodded, “Well, that’s a mystery for another time.” Jake began to walk into the living room, but I grabbed his hand, tugging him back next to me. “But, there’s something you should really know right now.”

Jake ran a hand through his still damp hair, “Can you tell me while we sit down? I’m tired as hell, Sam made us patrol the same section seven times…” He began to walk back into the living room.

I tried to stop him again, but his long strides out matched my shorter, slower ones.

“Emma,” He stopped in front of the couch that Benjamin was laying on. “What happened to your friend?”

“We don’t really know yet…”

“How could you not know? How’d he even get here in this condition?” Jake was obviously shocked at the state of Benjamin’s wounds.

“We aren’t sure.”

Jake turned to me, worry etched into his perfect features. Our eyes met for a minute, before I turned my head away, looking down to the floor, my right hand reached up to grab my left bicep, nervously rubbing my tattoo. My werewolf lover approached, placing two strong hands on my shoulders, bending slightly to look at my face better. When I didn’t look back up at him, it was obvious he’d realized the state of trepidation and fear I had been left in during Ben’s arrival.

“Emma…” Jake’s voice gave me little comfort, as opposed to the joy it normally surrounded me in, “I’ve only been gone a few hours now. What’s happened since I left?”

Tears threatened to fall as they painfully pricked the insides of my eyes. It’s funny… I haven’t cried since my parents died, and that was almost eight years ago. Now, I was trying to hold back salty tears for the second time in one day.

“I don’t know,” I choked, feeling helpless in the situation, “He just showed up like that and passed out.” The strain of the entire incident was taking it’s toll on me. One of my best friends, who I loved as a brother, was badly hurt. My daughter, who I haven’t seen for nearly five months was brought here for some reason or another. On top of all that, I’m a peacekeeper. The peacekeepers are supposed to remain cool and collected in all situations. I’ve tried to keep up my poise, for the sake of my daughter, and for the sake of the people around me, but… Maybe it was just the fact that Jake was here. He always brought out the more humane side of me. Made me weaker. “When I saw her in his arms… All bundled up like that…” My voice was faltering, my chest was tight, “Why is she even here?” I reached forward, wrapping my arms around Jake’s waist and hiding there in his arms. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to me.

Stroking the back of my head, smoothing down my frizzy curls, Jake sought to calm me. No such luck.

“Who are you talking about?” He whispered more to himself than to me.

“Robyn!” The name burst from my mouth in a quiet shout. I pulled away from Jake, escaping his comforting embrace, and composed myself with a shaky breath. This time, when I spoke, my voice was much calmer, “Benjamin brought my daughter here, and we don’t know why. So far, I’ve tried to get in touch with her foster parents, but no one’s answering my calls or e-mails.”

~~~

Emma was curled up on her large bed, sheets still unmade from that morning, in a childish and angelic way. One arm was folded under her head as a pillow, while the other rested possessively close to the small child next to her.

Robyn slept close to her mother, the baby on her back, limbs flung out in different directions. The baby’s small breaths had lulled Emma to sleep.

Jake sat in a nearby chair, staring at the two. He tiredly rested on hand in his fist, while his half-hooded eyes never left Emma’s form. He promised to protect her in every way he possibly could, but today had been a trying day for the peacekeeper. While he tried to console her over-emotional state, she pushed him away, turning the table so he would be the helpless one. It reminded him a bit of when him and Bella used to hang out. How she would use him as an escape to run from her emotional turmoil, never really confiding in him.

“Women, right?”

A bit startled that he hadn’t heard the owner of the voice approaching, Jake jumped a bit in his chair, and turned to see Victor walk into Emma’s room.

Jake returned to his former position, and nodded at the other boys words.

Emma’s brother placed a full bottle on the nightstand, “So, she sprung the whole kid thing on you, eh? I say you dump her.” He joked, knowing full well that wasn’t the case in the situation.

Jacob managed a small chuckle.

“You know, wolf,” Victor started again, now taking a seat on Emma’s desk chair. His posture was purposeful, but leisurely. Jake could tell right away this was going to be one of those “man-to-man” talks. “I’ve never liked you. Still don’t.”

“I know.” Jake responded, his dark eyes returning to be fixated on Emma again.

“But, I’m obviously stuck with you,” Victor didn’t mind Jake’s lack of attention, just as long as he listened, “Imprinting’s a hard thing to break.”

To this, Jake nodded absentmindedly.

There was a pause before Victor said, “Peacekeepers aren’t supposed to imprint.” This time, Jake’s curiosity peeked, and he turned his head to the older boy, “Peacekeepers aren’t really supposed to have any inhuman relations at all.” He sighed a bit, shoulders slumped, “As peacekeepers, it’s our duty to protect humans from things like demons, and vampires, and werewolves, too. Now, Emma-Kay and I aren’t religious, but we kinda have to believe that there’s some sort of spiritual force out there that controls everything… Fuck if I know what it is.” He trailed off again, but returned with, “When Aidyn died, Emma didn’t cry. She just kept asking herself why. She’d stay up really late, and barely ever slept, just thinking and asking herself questions of why this happened. One of her theories was that Aidyn died because their relationship was forbidden, and karma or something like that offed him.” Victor stretched, folding his hands behind his head, “Personally, I thought it was bullshit. Karma didn’t drive Bhaltair to do what he did. But, Emma pretty much convinced herself that Aidyn’s death was somehow blamed on her.”

“She creates her own logic sometimes, doesn’t she?” Was all Jake inputted.

Victor nodded, “But, it affected her a lot. Still does… Your imprinting can’t erase everything.”

Again, Jake silently agreed.

“But…” His next words seemed reluctantly forced, “You can help.”

Jake glanced over to Victor.

“She’ll need you a lot more than she needs anyone else, wolf. And you better be there for her, and my niece.”

Jake smiled, now, “You honestly think I won’t be?”

“No, I’m a hundred percent positive you’ll stay by her side ‘til the day you die. But, as a brother, I have to re-enforce this.”

Jake grinned, perplexed by Victor’s logic. “Even if it was up to me…” His black eyes skimmed the petite form of the girl before him, “I’d never leave her. Hell, I’d give her the moon if she’d just ask.”

“That sounded really gay.”

“I know.”

Victor smirked, standing to leave, “You know, wolf…”

“What?”

“You probably chose the worse girl in the world to imprint on.” As Victor was strolling out the room, he listed, “She’s a peacekeeper, she’s independent, she has all these bizarre friends, she’s an equalist, she’s got some badass fighting skills, a bad sense of humor, anger issues…” The rest of the list became more muffled as Victor traveled down the hallway, until Jacob couldn’t hear his words at all.

Shaking his head, Jake sighed to himself, “I have to disagree with you. I think she’s perfect.” Then he, too, closed his tired eyes and drifted off to sleep.
♠ ♠ ♠
2,345 words, seven pages.
This is my longest chapter so far. Hope you liked it.
It's like 2 am right now, and I started around 1:30 or something, so I hope I fixed all the major errors and whatnot.
Anyway, I still haven't told you guys what happened to Ben, huh? Well, I guess you'll just have to keep reading. Sorry.
And yeah, the reason Ed and Bec didn't recognize Jake right away was because they didn't recognize him without a shirt on...

Funny story about that, actually. I was in my friend's car, and her mom was driving us to work. We somehow started talking about New Moon, and my friend's mom was trying to name a character, but for the life of her, she couldn't remember his name. Eventually, she just said, "The one with the chest." And both my friend and I were like, "Jacob."
T'was funny. Mostly because it's my friend's MOM commenting saying that, but heck, she's just awesome like that.
Anywho, until next time...

XXX
Ruby