『 chapter xxxix: MADE OF STONE/LAURELS. 』

AS MUCH AS IT DIDN'T SEEM LIKE IT — BECAUSE she was currently munching away on the veggie chips and downing a soda that Esme had brought out to her like she was on cloud nine — Juniper was freaking the fuck out. Even if she looked like some pretty stone statue, unfeeling, sorta stuck. Someone had been there, by there, she means her house. A Nomad, said the Cullen's from the clips of conversation June caught when she decided to pay attention to Edwards micro management and Bella's irritating worry. June had only been scared a handful of times in her life, but that wasn't just because she was a rather professional at horrible things happening to her; the list goes on ... to when she was ten, and her grandma had first told her that she wasn't gonna have a long and happy life, then soon to a year or so ago when James threatened the little bubble of perfection that June had made for herself, and shortly after that when she almost died killing him with her own power. One more time when she thought she had lost Jacob forever after their nasty breakup, pre-knowledge of anything supernatural, and the fear had risen again. And another when Bella had impulsively run off to Italy to save Edward's sorry and suicidal ass.

Other than that, June didn't scare easily. Her death didn't scare her. Leaving everyone she loved didn't scare her. Leaving the one who loved her ... it hurt her, but it didn't scare her. Was that cold of her? Was she already dead inside that such painful things didn't scare her anymore? Was she truly just some stone-carved chess piece the spirits left to move around their wicked game until it was over?

It made her wonder, as she's sitting on the recliner in the Cullen's home, if she should be feeling more? When had June ever had a chance to act her age or be scared or okay? She hadn't been able to act like the sixteen year old she was because normal sixteen year olds didn't have vampires breaking into their homes, they didn't have vampires trying to kill them— period.

"—I didn't recognize his scent." Edward's voice pierced her thoughts.

"A nomad passing through?" Esme wondered aloud.

"No, it couldn't be. A passer-by wouldn't have left June alive. Her blood is too inviting," Rosalie said chillingly, her pretty golden eyes looking at the girl she cared for dearly, a tiny smile following after.

"His scent disappeared about five miles south of Bella's house." Emmett and Jasper declared as they came through the door, shutting it behind them.

"How peculiar." Carlisle sighed, sitting down on the seat next to June, the girl offering him some chips to which he just smiled at. "No thank you," He tells her. He looks at his family. "I've been sitting on this for a while now, I'm afraid someone's orchestrating this.

"Victoria?" Juniper offers immediately. "Maybe that witch was paying me a visit — I'm sure she misses me. I'd miss me."

Alice goes over to her husband, her tiny hand enveloping Jaspers as she shakes her head at June's suggestion. "No, it couldn't be. I would've seen her deciding." She says. "It wasn't anyone we knew ..."

"It has to be the Volturi." Edward's jaw clenched.

"The vamp cops?" June frowned.

"I don't think it's the Volturi either." Alice shook her head again, her golden eyes swirling. "I've been watching Aro's decisions, too."

"So we keep looking." Carlisle declared, standing up, rubbing his temples even though she knows there must be no pain. Just a habit. "We also take shifts, guarding the Swan's at their house."

         June perked up at the sound of that. She sighed heavily. Jacob wouldn't like that one bit ... she felt the markings on her back, the imprint markings, warm in agreement. "That won't be necessary." June speaks up.

The Cullen's look at her like she's grown a third eye.

"Juniper, darling," Rosalie's silken voice says, reaching over to hold the Mender girl's hand. "You must understand that whomever broke into your home won't hesitate to enter unannounced again. God forbid you're there when they do, or your brother or parents."

Rosalie had been the Cullen that Juniper missed the most. After the initial awkward reunion, the girls had spent the day sharing stories and whatnot, going over the thin ice about how Rosalie wasn't just with June for the fact that she resembled Melanie Capote. Rosalie had been the most genuine in stating that fact and June couldn't have been more relieved.

Juniper squeezes Rosalie's hand. "Don't worry, Rose, I know that." She assures. "But I wouldn't burden you with another protection detail, okay? You've been wearing yourself out."

Edward speaks, "Nonsense, June, you and Bella need protection—"

        "You don't need to take care of me, I'm not your anything." June stated firmly, relishing the way that Edward look like he'd been slapped and Bella smirked in satisfaction. "I have a werewolf boyfriend and a werewolf cousin and a few other furry friends who are more than capable of doing the job."

"You'd be more assured with those beasts outside your window than Rosalie or Emmett?" Edward asks through clenched teeth.

      "I think she means, brother, that we're taking on an awful lot more than we can handle." Rosalie cuts in again, her golden eyes understanding as she looks at June. "We cannot focus if we're on the search for the intruder, finishing school, and Victoria."

Juniper loved Rosalie more than ever in that moment.

"So it's settled," June claps her hands together. She smiles at the Cullen's. "Y'all will take turns, shifts if you will. It'll be awesome sauce. Plus it'll be more protection for when Carlisle's at work, because duh he's a doctor, and while we're at school getting our education on — it's the first time for some of us, yes, — and that means the pack can watch my mom and little brother." She says and everyone nods after a while. June giggles. "Alright. It's time you get to know my family."

•—•—•—•

JUNE SAT ON THE RABBIT, SWINGING HER LEGS as she waited for Jacob to wrap up his super senses on getting the random Nomad's scent. Bella and Edward were across the street, full on making out on his car, gross with a capital G there's children in this neighborhood, and waiting for what Jacob would say also. June was taking that time to study some Mender things from another book that Sue had given her to read. June was sitting with her legs pulled up, her eyes trailing to where her exposed skin from the shorts she wore showed a yellowing bruise. She winced as she pressed on it, pain taking over for a moment. June liked to think she was getting better, she really did, but then another bruise would pop out or she'd have a nosebleed or her head would feel like it was about to split open and those thoughts vanished.

She heard the door from her front door open and close and June looked up to see Jacob making his way to her. June promptly shut the Mender book, bookmarking the page that had a whole paragraph on BREAKING THE IMPRINT BOND—

"Whoever it was he left his stink behind, your house smells like a leech babe, no offense," Jacob says as he steps down and makes his way to her, carrying her up with ease, her legs wrapping around his waist. "I think I need to cuddle with you later to get the smell out ..."

June smirked, "Oh by all means." She says. "So what else?"

Jacob presses a kiss to her lips. "Just that. I got the scent. It'll be hard to miss it when we come across it again," He tells her, setting her down back in the hood of the Rabbit, tapping her nose. Jacob tosses a look to Edward, who's walking towards their way. "We'll handle it from here."

Edward is visibly upset, "I don't need you to handle anything." He says nonchalant.

"And I could care less about what you need, leech," Jacob laughs, his warm hand on Juniper's thigh. "It's not your decision."

"Okay, okay! Enough!" June and Bella say simultaneously. They give each other a look and then begin to laugh. June clears her throat. "No, seriously, cut off the testosterone bitches! This isn't about who can protect who or who's better at sniffing things out, it's about keeping my parents and my brother safe, yeah?"

Jacob immediately agrees, he could scarcely deny his imprint anything. "You're right, I'm sorry, ocean eyes."

June smiles at her boyfriend, then looks to Edward, "You see? This is what you're supposed to do when Bella says something even though you don't agree. The girlfriend is always right!"

It wasn't an easy alliance, the saying, better said than done had never been more true than in this situation. As much as both the pack and the Cullen's hated it, it was the only way to ensure that they ( the Swan's ) were protected. Juniper knew that it had nothing to do with the age old rivalry between vampires and werewolves but just the fact that these groups of people had different lifestyles and happened to hate the living crap outta each other and also were different species. There were days where Bella could get them to at least try and get along, June tried to sever the hostility as much as she could with some weird spirit juju but it could only go so far and her room was smelling a little too much like incense.

It seemed that everyday was a routine of seeing some pairs of eyes in the brush behind her home and wondering if they were the ones in the paintings Juniper's nightmares forced her to paint. But the red eyes were getting more frequent. But again, cold and unfeeling statue June Swan was getting used to them that they were just pictures that came in her mind while she rested ... nightmare was the word meant for things much scarier.

•—•—•—•

NOW THAT THERE WERE NO SECRETS (OR LESS June should say) between Sam and she, they could finally start to go back to becoming the tight knit pair of cousins they were before life had hit them in the worst possible way. Before life made a young boy become a man, a leader of a species that was otherwise unknown to him, before life made a sixteen year old dying girl have a purpose and a soulmate and a tiny ounce of will to survive again ... before all of that when they were just Sam Uley and Juniper Swan and that's all they ever could be. Juniper really wanted to try and get back to being that girl. No matter how hard it'd be. The days were dragging and she didn't want to leave this earth without making her peace and saying what she wanted to say before it was too late.

      On days like these, when the pack was busy and Sam was away from Emily long enough and June didn't have her nose buried in a book or her eyes shut from exhaustion, they could come up to the cliffs and sit by the edge and watch the waves below.

"Things are getting better, right, Sammy?" June voice is barley audible above the whistle of the wind and the waves crashing below, but her cousin hears her clearly.

    Sam's dark eyes meet her light ones. "It been quiet." He decided to say. "I don't know if that's good or bad. I cant tell you if things are better; all I know is your imprinter is working around the clock to make sure the silence isn't some trick."

June sighs. Sam was right; ever since the tracker thing, Jacob had been more determined than ever to catch Victoria. Even if it meant he'd sleep all day or night or do nothing but go on duty. It was making her sick to her stomach to see him go off into danger like that every waking moment of the day.

"He works too hard," June sighs heavily.

"Jacob can't help it," Sam says matter of factly. "When it comes to you, he's gonna do whatever."

         "My shining knight ... he worries me." June pouts.

There's a silence.

"You know ... Jacob blames himself a lot," Sam tells her, glancing her way. "If only you could hear his thoughts all the time ... he hated himself for not being a wolf then, when you were with the Cullen's, when the possibility of something happening was there all the time ... you have to know it's the worst thing a wolf could go through; knowing they couldn't protect their imprint."

"He shouldn't blame himself," June says evenly, looking down at the grass, tapping the dead leaves and bringing them to life. "I didn't even know what they were in the beginning ... they were my friends before it all went bad." She frowns at the thought of her boyfriend upset. "Jacob shouldn't blame himself for what he couldn't control."

"But he does. He beat himself up about it a lot." Sam replies with a sigh, shaking his head. "It's the reason I made him stay away when he first phased; his emotions were too vulnerable. I didn't want to you get hurt."

"Jake would never hurt me," June says firmly.

        I know that now. June realizes numbly. That stone cold feeling rising again. Only I could hurt him ... I was hurting him.

"I didn't think I'd ever hurt Emily," Sam admits lowly. She glances to him and he's looking at the sand. "I lost myself. I saw myself in Jacob when he first phased; he thought he was a monster, he thought he'd hurt you. I remember thinking the same. And when I did hurt—when I hurt the one person who I was born for ... let's just say I didn't want history repeating itself."

June nods, understanding. Her heart aches and she's speaking before she can stop herself. "I think I hurt him." She says sadly. "By ... lying. In the beginning. Well I didn't lie, technically. It just wasn't my secret to tell."

"He isn't mad you lied," Sam shakes his head. "It's what I told you, he's mad at himself. We're born to protect people from bloodsuckers and the first thing that he realizes is that his imprint, the Mender of the pack, has been in danger this whole time."

"The whole time I just thought you hated them to hate them," June furrowed her brows. "You never explained and they never said what you were." She sighs, looking at the sun setting on the skyline. "I guess we're all at fault."

"You're precious cargo, June." Sam tells her, nudging his shoulder with hers. "I just wanted you safe and then Harry and Billy and Old Quil kept pestering me to watch over you, like I wasn't already, just to make sure that your sisters' boyfriend didn't ..."

He trails off and June frowns. "To make that Edward didn't ...? What? Kill me?"

"You know all about how you look exactly like the last Mender the Quileute's ever had right?" Sam prompted, reminding her tersely. "Well I don't know if you know, if the leech ever told you, but Melanie Capote and Edward Cullen were really close. Too close."

June's mouth went dry. She knew the story but she couldn't say she did. "He only ever said ... Melanie was Rosalie's best friend at the time. That's how he knew her. He never told me they were ... were they in love?" June asked stiffly, as if she didn't know. As if she didn't have pages and pages of their tragic and impossible love story.

               Sam shrugs. "It's tribe gossip. But from the way Billy painted the picture, yeah, I guess they were." He says gruffly, like if the words disgust him. "She was the imprint of Jacob's great-uncle at the time, by the way. Ephraim Black, the alpha."

June knew where this was going. Jacob was scared, in the beginning, at the thought of history repeating itself. About Edward taking her away like he did Melanie, about another Quileute girl falling in love with someone who wasn't meant for her. They were scared that Juniper was truly another defective Mender.

                "I'm not Melanie," Juniper has to clarify for what seems like the billionth time. It should be her fucking catchphrase or Instagram bio. "I don't ... there isn't anyone in the world who's gonna have my heart the way Jacob does. And I can't imagine loving anyone but him. That's it."

                  Sam smiles at her words, as if the words genuinely please him. "That's good to hear, Junior. Real good. You're stuck with him." He grins. "He's gonna love you for the rest of his life and beyond that."

June tried her best to not let her heart race wildly. Oh, yeah, fuck. Juniper had already decided what she was gonna do about that. She couldn't be selfish in admitting she wanted Jacob, from now until the end of days, because dammit life wasn't about that. As much as June would rather have him dead with her than watching him take and hold and make another girl have his children and have little boys with his smile. June wasn't the most selfish person in the world — but she could be. She wouldn't though. Jacob had to live. He had to get over her. He has so much to live for. His heart had to mend; even if it meant she'd be with a dead broken heart. She'd have a broken heart over her only love dying any day ...

He needs to just love me for the rest of mine, she thinks softly, but June smiles like a blushing bride anyway. "It doesn't sound bad at all." She admits, truthfully. What a life.

                     Sam nudges her and she pushes him back. Until his face gets into a frown again and he says, "Also, hey, I wouldn't ask anyone about the whole Melanie-Edward thing though. It upsets Billy whenever that's mentioned ... I guess it kinda makes him angry that she chose a leech over what should've been her duty."

June scowls, "Why would Billy be mad? I mean, she died okay ... but it isn't like his line died out with Ephraim, Gideon Black is his grandfather, so obviously had children because then how would he have been born—"

Her cousin winces. "Well, because it would've been his generation that turned into wolves as well. Harry and Quil's dad and Billy etc ... since apparently whenever a Mender has sons, her son's will always turn into wolves when they come of age. Guess he feels he was kept from his destiny because of Melanie's choice," Sam shrugs. Then he grins cheekily. "But don't worry, he's glad to know that at least it'll be his grandsons will be spirit warriors for sure."

June hums in thought, because Billy would have to be set up for another disappointment from another Capote girl. She wouldn't live long enough to give Billy grandson spirit warriors with the hearts of a wolf and the smile of their father.

"We'll see." June smiles, but decided to indulge her cousin who gave her a glance at her words. She has to be convincing. "I've always wanted to name a son Bellamy, because of Bella, and Bellamy Black is some lovely alliteration. I love Augustus. Oooh, Micah and Julian are nice too ... and maybe even a Charlie for my dad. I'll have one for each name."

"What, no daughters?" Sam chuckles.

     "Oh, no," June scrunches her nose, thinking about it rather quickly. "I don't think I could raise a girl. I put my mom through hell and I don't want to get that karma back." She says. "But back to the boys names, they all have that Quileute ring to it, don't you think?"

"Emily always thinks that way, too." He says fondly, probably imagining some russet-skinned little boys calling him Uncle Sammy and turning into wolves with his guidance and his own sons. "She says I have no say, because she's the one giving birth. Fine by me." He laughs. "So I'm sure Jacob will be okay with whatever you give him, I mean, it's you. He's been in love with you since y'all were five."

June nods, "Plus, he can't say no to me."

Sam laughs again, "It's hard to." Then he gets a serious look on his face. "But really. It's possible you could have a girl, the next generation is going to need their own Mender. You don't have any name you like?"

          There won't be another girl cursed with what I have. Menders' will die with me, and I sure as hell wouldn't want a daughter of mine to hurt as I am.

        June indulges him though; she doesn't have to think much. "Laurel." She says with absolution.

"Sticking to Blackthorn women family tradition of flower names; grandmas gonna love it," Sam says with a proud look in his eyes. "So ... Laurel? Hmm. It's pretty."

June thinks so too. Mountain laurels grew in abundance in the meadow she had made her sanctuary and in the shack that Jacob fixed for her. June thinks that's must be the most tragic thing. She had spent so much time thinking of herself, earlier, not now, wanting to die. She never thought, like really thought about all she'd leave behind. The possibilities, the possibility of sons named Julian and Micah and Bellamy and Augustus and Charlie, all with the surname Black. There was even a possibility of a little girl with eyes like Juniper's own, a magical little girl named Laurel. Juniper was weighed with a thousand stones in her heart when she found herself, wanting very badly, to just have that. She used to think it was settling, being a housewife, looking after kids, waiting on your husband. But it's not settling when it's what you want, when it's a terribly normal picture that her being wants with every fiber.

"Yeah, it's really pretty," June hums to herself, the crashing of the waves on the shore filling her body with longing.

Sam nods in agreement, staring at the waves as well, the mist of the ocean hitting his face. "One day this'll all be over and we'll get there— until then, let's tell the spirits to watch over your future sons and that little flower."

         June smiles at him, it that convincing smile that tells someone that nothings wrong. She only hums softly.

It's a garden I'll never see bloom.

authors note: what i can say??? Agahahahahahah i love that painful and suffering shit agahahahahahavav

sorry for the filler but shits heating up 😤😤

❗️❗️❗️ make a vote y'all —do you want a Daphne/Charlie wedding????? or do you just want the announcement of the newborn army to be at the grad party like every other eclipse fic ????

Comment wedding or grad party