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bumbleartz · 3 years

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So got inspired by @sondrawr and @gotham-mother-of-monsters and had this ramble pop into my head. Hadn't flipped through my Mercy books in a while so it was fun to go back and refresh. Covers from the first book up to Storm Cursed and has spoilers if you haven't gotten that far.

Jesse has heard the title Marrok on and off throughout her childhood. Usually the title is whispered between the wolves or her father in tones she isn't supposed to hear. These conversations always ended in her being hustled off to the care of her mother or after the divorce being sent off to her room. The first time it became more than a hushed precursor to her being shuffled off is after being taken hostage. Her father had pulled her into his office and given her a name to go with the title along with a number to enter into her phone. "He is the head of all the wolves. If something happens regarding pack business or you feel for some reason you can't get to any of us or Mercy you call that number." She'd dutifully filed the number away as instructed under Bran Cornick and promptly had the conversation fade to where she kept the rest of what was considered pack information.

The first time she sees the Marrok is in the entryway way to the house in the middle of the night. She's too distracted by the fact her father is home safe to pay much attention to the others in the room as she is carefully wrapped into his arms. He looks like crap and smells worse even to her normal human nose. She can't bring herself to care as the tears she's fought so hard not to shed wet her eyes. When she unburies her face from her father's chest long enough to take note of the others there she's honestly too tired from the stressful nights of waiting to register anything beyond them being in one piece and alive. Later, after the first good night's sleep she's had in days, there will have been too many new faces for her to register who was who. The only one she can place a name to with any certainty is Charles. Mercy laughs and tells her Charles has that effect on people when she goes to see her later.

The first time Jesse meets the Marrok is not long after on a midnight escapade to calm her nerves. Another nightmare has had her shooting awake and the images are still playing in full technicolor behind her lids each time she closes them. It's been almost a year since she was taken hostage and yet the blinding terror feels as fresh as ever. She'd turned down therapy when it was offered. What was she supposed to say? Yeah, some werewolf thought they could use me as leverage to make my dad behave so they could use him in some murder plot with a side of treason? She'd known how well that would have gone over. She'd thought they would fade over time. Maybe they would have if things had gone back to normal; a demon vampire threat, murder plotting psychos, and the attack on Mercy had happened instead. Jesse didn't bother adding the destruction of her social life and ongoing mom issues to the list since they just seemed to pale in comparison to the rest. Anymore Jesse found herself waiting for the next horror story. The most recent of which was currently causing all the wolves various fits. She currently wasn't clear which was bothering them more: one of their own being resurrected or Mercy being pulled into the pack. The kitchen light is on as she rounds the corner and she expects to see any number of people outside of the vaguely familiar stranger currently staring back at her. Somewhere between him asking her if she couldn't sleep and making the hot chocolate the same way Mercy does it dawns on her this person who looks barely older than her is the Marrok. Her tired brain tries to summon up the awe with a side of shock she should be feeling and fails miserably. Instead she finds herself nursing her mug of cocoa and making small talk while the Marrok takes drinks of his own. In the midst of the conversation he manages to get her to verbal vomit about her nightmares and the troubles she's been having at school. She manages to find out he has a deep dislike of Shakespeare, has a deep love for music, and possesses a terrifying wit. By the time she is making her way back to her room and he to the guest room she is feeling better then she has in months. He's already gone when she gets up leaving her without ever getting a chance to say thanks. While it isn't a big thing it bothers her just enough to pull her phone out and send a text to the number she'd all but forgotten. The simple thank you is accompanied with a YouTube link to her favorite Lindsey Stirling video. After all, Jesse views not knowing who she is and being a violinist as a crime. The little smiley face emoji she gets in reply makes her grin.

The next time they meet she's the one providing the hot chocolate. The pack has managed to get themselves entangled with a fairy queen and Mercy has yet again made the sacrifice play. Everyone is chasing their proverbial tails trying to find her while remaining outside of her father's war path. In the meantime, Jesse feels she's improved in her chaos handling as she's only broken down twice. Apparently having your boyfriend kidnapped and going on to a fairy queen's court doesn't have the same punch as other things she has dealt with lately. When she sets the mug on the coffee table it's the wee hours of the morning and the Marrok has been seated cross legged on their monstrosity of a couch for the better part of a day. If she hadn't gotten to know him a little better over the previous months she would have felt she was intruding. However, Bran was not against using all available resources and she'd been pulled in regarding the newest resident of Aspen Creek. Kara and Jesse had clicked right off the bat and become faithful texting pals ever since. Bran rubs the bridge of his nose and blinks hard a few times despite his eyes having been closed before reaching for the mug. He looks beyond exhausted and she knows not all of it has to do with the current situation. Kara has confided in her about his lack of sleep and the way he's been running himself ragged. Jesse does her best to lighten the mood with a joke about the fairies contacting them any moment begging them to take Mercy back. Her effort is rewarded with an amused smirk and a quiet chuckle. She ends up rambling about different ways Mercy is driving the fairies nuts and is encouraged when Bran joins in. Jesse wakes to the noise of people rushing around. Bran is smiling and gripping a walking stick with a white knuckled grip from his spot on the couch when he tells her Mercy has been found.

Jesse is biting her lip to keep from laughing too loud as she informs everyone the butterflies have succeeded where the dove idea failed. Marji is cackling on the video feed in victory while Bran seems too amused to care he has just lost a hundred bucks. Two days pass in a blur of emergency calls and group texts. Despite the short time frame the wedding goes off without a hitch. Mercy is surprised and Jesse can't remember the last time her father looked so blissfully happy. Once the two love birds are off Jesse spends the rest of the reception twirling around the dance floor with Gabriel. The raised eyebrow this gets her from Bran makes her stick out her tongue. The fact Mercy comes back from the honeymoon in a wheelchair shouldn't have been much of a surprise. Jesse can picture Bran doing his iconic bridge pinch when she sends him the picture.

Bran's text to Mercy makes Jesse's lips quirk in amusement. After the destruction of the Rabbit she could use the humor. That humor plummets when the number comes up disconnected when Mercy tries to reply. The knot of concern only tightens with each person Mercy tries and fails to reach. The pain of it becomes near unbearable when they find Ben and no one else. The pain doesn't start to ease until she recognizes the dark haired man fighting beside Tad. After months of having Asil tease her about her hair after seeing it during a video chat with Kara she'd know him anywhere. Seeing her father and the pack alive and well makes the knot come undone. At least it does until she realizes one is missing and hears of Peter's death. She knows how her father will take the loss and can't bring herself to add more weight to those already overburdened shoulders. So she turns her focus to looking after the younger Sandoval children and burying her feelings as deep as possible. This works until Asil catches up to her in the kitchen getting together snacks for the kids. All he has to do is ask if she's alright and she falls apart. Asil pulls her into a hug and gives reassurances in Spanish. Jesse doesn't understand a word but it soothes her all the same. He tells her everyone in Montana is safe and she sags in relief. When everything is over and she gets a new phone that has been programmed by Charles, Asil's number is listed in the contacts.

Her mother has only been living with them for a day and Jesse wants to scream. She loves her mother but watching the resulting train wreck her mere presence is causing makes her wish she'd just leave them all alone. Even though her talk with Mercy has eased some of the hurt and anger, it hasn't gotten rid of it. Mostly because despite what Mercy said she can see the way her mother has gotten under her skin and cut her to the quick. Anger and the need for a voice of reason has her contacting Bran. Bran gently reminds her Mercy is more than capable of holding her own in a dominance dance. He must know this isn't what she was looking to hear because the next message contains Charles' number and instructions to text him. Jesse has no idea why Bran would have her talking to Charles but she copies and pastes the message she previously sent like instructed. Bran must have warned his son because Charles doesn't seem surprised to get the message. Charles turns out to be an unexpected fount of wisdom when it comes to the difficulty of broken family dynamics. It's odd how hearing from someone else that she is allowed to love her mother and yet not like her makes it feel OK. By the time her mother's stalker has been dealt with Jesse thinks she might finally be finding the path between love and hate.

Jesse isn't a wolf, but she can still feel the moment Bran breaks ties with the Columbia Basin Pack. She doesn't wait for her father and Mercy to come out of the office. Tad seems to know something is up but doesn't say anything when she gives the excuse of homework and heads to her room. Her phone is a lead weight in her hand because what do you say to someone who just had to throw away someone they love? A part of her is angry too. Angry at the pain she knows this has caused Mercy and the difficulty it will cause her father. However, Jesse knows what it is like to be caught in a situation outside your control due to the actions of those you love. She types out a promise to do what she can for Mercy and to send a warning the instant something happens requiring help. She ends the text with a little heart emoji. Current circumstances might make it harder but family out ranked all else. Jesse already knew if something happened Bran would help. She's proven right when Baba Yaga saves her father in Underhill.

Jesse's proven right again when Bran goes with her father to get Mercy back from the Lord of Night. He sends her a message promising her he will bring Mercy and her father back in one piece. She replies telling him she knows. She also tells him to come back in one piece too or she's going to have to go all Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At this point she's gone to battle to protect her new pyro of an adopted younger brother and managed to keep him from burning the house to the ground. She's pretty sure she can at least annoy a vampire lord. The fact she'd have backup from an Italian mercenary, a Dark Smith and more than one werewolf pack was completely irrelevant. After all the one thing she knew for certain was you always looked out for your pack, your family. Which is why as soon as she hears everyone is returning from Italy in one piece she sends a message to Tad for him to tell his dad. She also makes sure Warren passes on the message to Stefan though he doesn't need reminding. She snaps a picture of everyone getting out of the car when it pulls up and sends it to Charles and Asil because she knows hearing someone you care about is safe is not the same as seeing it. And because he is family in her eyes at this point, after she hugs her father and Mercy, she hugs Bran too.

#mercy thompson #patricia briggs #Bran Cornick #Jesse hauptman #writing

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blueteehood · 4 years

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Little things I loved in the Mercy Thompson series:

Jesse consistently changing her hair

Zee calling Mercy "Liebling"

All the times Samuel goes to have a private talk with Adam

Gary Laughingdog is a bissexual disaster

Aiden not understanding love

Matt Smith giving his shirt to Honey so she could feel safer in Italy

Wulfe

Marsilia's joy every time Mercy brings chaos to other people who aren't her

Miniature zombie goats

"Nudge"

Bran showing up out of nowhere

Mercy's childhood pranks becoming urban legends between the wolves

The little oak tree

The Dread Pirate's Booty

#mercy thompson #mercy thompson series #Adam Hauptman #Bran Cornick #Samuel Cornick #Wulfe #Gary Laughingdog #Jesse Hauptman #books stuff

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incorrectmercythompsonquotes · 4 years

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Jesse : Better get to class.

Mercy : When I was a teen, I never went to class.

Jesse : Well, I’ll try and be a better influence on you.

Mercy : Aww.

Mercy : A lot of people have tried, good luck with that.

#mercy thompson series #mercy thompson #jesse hauptman #incorrectmercythompsonquotes #source the wizards of waverly place

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thegrowingwordsmith · 4 years

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Hey! Re: writing prompts, could you try Jesse Hauptman teaching Aiden some pop culture stuff and Aiden being confused?

Hi! OMG I absolutely love this prompt! I hope you enjoy what I came up with.

Jesse had been trying, with extremely mixed results, to bring Aiden into the 21st century for the past few weeks. The plan was to teach him anything he might need to know so that he could assimilate into this new world he found himself in. She figured the easiest and most enjoyable part would be covering pop culture; boy was she wrong.

Topics such as history and politics were boring but pretty simple. Technology was fun, and Aiden fell right in with the pack playing video games. Aiden had even started quoting memes, much to the confusion of select members of the pact. Ben still hadn’t stopped laughing at the bewildered look on Darryl’s face when a soda can flew past his head followed by a loud ‘yeet’.

Movies, music, and the like were proving much more difficult. The worst experience had been during their foray into Disney when Alice In Wonderland caused Aiden to have a panic attack. Adam, Mercy, and Mary Jo (with a well-placed fire extinguisher) had prevented any real disaster.

Even still, the incident made Jesse more conscious of the thing she showed the boy. Yes, she understood that he was hundreds of years old. Regardless, she would probably never stop thinking of him as a little brother.

The two were currently beginning to cover reality TV. None of the pack had joined them for the past few days as no one really cared to watch the crazy drama that is Jersey Shore or Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Truthfully, Jesse didn’t really care for the shows either, but she felt it was important for Aiden to get the whole pop culture experience. Even the mind-numbing antics of reality television stars contribute significantly to the experience of modern day America.

“Why?” Aiden finally voiced as they watched people shouting at each other about something Jesse honestly couldn’t remember.

“Why what?” Jesse responded innocently.

“Why would anyone find this entertaining? I fail to see the appeal of prying into other people’s lives.”

Glancing over, Jesse saw that he was staring intently at the TV as if he might suddenly find the show interesting if he just watched it hard enough. Upon seeing this she couldn’t resist teasing him a little.

“What are you talking about Aiden? This is one of the best shows of this generation! It’s won practically every award, and the stars are basically royalty!”

This prompted the boy to turn away from the show and stare incredulously at Jesse. It was at that moment that Adam walked into the living room and sighed when he saw what was on TV.

“You’re still watching this garbage? Why are you even making him watch this, Jesse? No one even likes this show.”

Aiden began spluttering and looked at Jesse with such indignation that she fell off the couch in a fit of laughter.

“Wh-what the… I can’t believe you!” Aiden shouted as he flung a pillow at her and stormed out of the room.

#ask #mercy thompson #jesse hauptman #siblings #Writing

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mercythmpson · 5 years

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Ok, seriously guys please tell me i’m not the only one wanting more “family” scenes with mercy, adam, jesse and aiden

#mercy thompson #mercedes thompson series #adam hauptman #jesse hauptman #aiden

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sondrawr · 8 months

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Jesse: In my defense, I was left unsupervised.

Mercy: Wasn’t Ben with you?

Ben: In my defense, I was also left unsupervised.

#mercy thompson #moon called #patricia briggs #incorrect mercy thompson quotes #incorrect quotes #mercyverse #jesse hauptman #ben shaw #source: tumblr

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aspencreek · 6 years

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Jesse Hauptman

#mercy thompson #jesse hauptman #jessica tamarind hauptman #adam hauptman #mercy thompson series #patricia briggs #werewolves #vampires #moon #witch #my edit

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blog-sliverofjade · 2 years

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Jesse: I’m having guy troubles

Mercy: The “his body won’t fit in my trunk” kind of trouble or the “I like him” kind of trouble?

Jesse: The “I like him” kind

Mercy: Shame. I could have helped with the other one.

#Incorrect Quotes #mercy thompson series #Patricia Briggs #Jesse Hauptman #Mercy Thompson #mercyverse

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i-mushi · 7 years

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Izzy

I’m on a roll! Izzy was only mentioned briefly as Jesse’s friend in the beginning of Fire Touched. (Whose first chapter I wish I could pin on my wall. Mercy vs. the Multi-Level Marketer.) She isn’t mentioned again as far as I know, but I wanted to peek into Jesse’s life, especially when the revelation about werewolves and her dad became public. I know it didn’t go like this and she probably didn’t have many friends sticking up for her, but in my head Izzy was there. Also, Adam would totally be that hot dad teenagers have passing thoughts about because come on, we’ve all been 16 and crazy.

Izzy

Izzy swallowed for the third time as she drove down the dead-end street to Jesse's house. She and Jesse had been friends since third grade, and she was a wholehearted supporter of almost anything Jesse did. (Dyeing her hair with Kool-Aid was the only time Izzy had truly regretted that blind loyalty. It stained. Badly.) She loved Jesse and they were best friends, but Jesse's dad would always be intimidating to her.

He was, unfortunately for Izzy's hormones, attractive, all while somehow looking young despite being at least thirty-five. Christy, was starting to show her age, though woe be on anyone who mentioned it. They'd been divorced for a while now, and Jesse's dad worked a lot, so Izzy didn't see either of them much, but whenever she had he'd been hard to look in the eye. Her grandmother had always stressed being polite, shaking hands, and making eye contact, but Izzy had never managed the last one. She'd only seen him truly mad once and that had been enough to scare her badly.

She'd once even tried to tactfully bring up how… well, she couldn't put her finger on it, but there was something about him. But despite being best friends forever, Jesse didn't talk about her dad or his colleagues and friends much, though Izzy had seen them around the house before. She wondered if that impromptu party, work event, or something she'd seen had been why Jesse came to her place now and she didn't go over anymore.

This lab project had to be done though, and since Jesse was grounded for getting that temporary tattoo at a party she wasn't supposed to be at (and making her dad believe the tattoo was real for a couple of minutes), Izzy had to go to her. She just hoped her dad didn't open the door; Izzy had kind of been dating a guy named Dave in school, but she was old enough to know the difference between boys and men.

She pulled up and grabbed her backpack as she got out of the car, jogging up the front steps before she lost her cool. Just because Mr. Hauptman looked like he could read her mind and was uncomfortably good looking sometimes, didn't mean he actually could or could tell she noticed.

The door opened before Izzy could hit the bell, but it wasn't Mr. Hauptman at the door. "Oh, uh, hi Mercy," Izzy greeted with an awkward smile. She was never quite sure how to act around Mercy, who Jesse loved like a big sister and who Jesse's dad was obviously smitten with. She was a family friend who Izzy had only met tangentially.

"Hi Izzy. Jesse's in her room with the music turned up. Can she change that scream-o metal for something a little more… classic rock?"

"She'll know you wanted me to ask that," Izzy pointed out.

Mercy shrugged with a smile. "Had to try."

Izzy headed up the stairs, spotting Mr. Hauptman as she passed Mercy. He smiled at her and she waved before focusing slightly harder on the stairs than necessary.

Jesse was flopped back on her bed when Izzy opened the door, the music indeed very loud. "I'm not turning it off," she said before Izzy could get a word in.

"I like the third track better, but the whole album is good." Izzy dumped her bag and crawled on the bed to lay down beside her best friend. "Any chance your mom could come back and plant a different bush under your window so you could jail break?" Being grounded sucked. Outside of school she hadn't seen Jesse in almost a week.

Jesse snorted and blew her stylish purple bangs off her forehead. "Probably wouldn't work anyway."

"Why not? We got out of my house over the garage roof."

Jesse rolled over until her face was planted in the pillow and muttered something, but Izzy couldn't make it out.

"What?"

"Not important. Let's get this lab done so I can get Mr. Bailey off my back."

Izzy frowned, sensing one of those secrets Jesse kept from her. "Is something going on Jesse? Is your dad and Mercy—"

"No, though she's been around more often recently, and he's better when she is. It's nothing, really." The way that Jesse turned away quickly to dig out her homework felt like a betrayal.

"You can tell me anything Jess, you know that. I don't keep stuff from you."

Jesse seemed to consider that, then scooted closer on the floor until she was at Izzy's feet, beckoning her down. Izzy sat cross-legged on the floor too and watched confused as Jesse pulled the heavy comforter off her bed and over them.

When their knees were touching and their breath was starting to heat up the impromptu tent, Jesse leaned her forehead forward until it was on Izzy's shoulder. "I wish I could tell you," she whispered, barely audible above the stereo blaring and the muffling of Izzy's shirt. "But I can't. Just… let's always be friends, okay? No matter what?"

Izzy put her arms around Jesse without thinking twice. "Of course, you couldn't keep me away. Who'd dye your hair after all?" Izzy's mother was a hairdresser who'd lent her talents and time to showing Izzy how to properly dye Jesse's hair and how to undo the horror that was Kool-Aid coloring. Jesse had been most impressed at how calm Izzy's mom had been when she'd walked into what looked like a murder scene in the bathroom.

"Ha," Jesse said without humor.

"Is it your dad? Or your mom?" Izzy considered how awful Jesse's mom was sometimes, and then how intimidating Mr. Hauptman could be. He worked in security, had Jesse seen something? "Witness protection program?" she joked.

That made Jesse smile and finally pull back from her shoulder. Her face was red, though Izzy couldn't be sure that wasn't the stifling warmth under the blanket or how hard she'd been pressing on her shoulder. "My dad's not a serial killer and mom only ditched me for Reno once."

"And for Las Vegas," Izzy added. Jesse had spent a spring break at her house instead of going to her mom's. Mr. Hauptman had only found out after day three when Christy finally called to ask when Jesse was getting on the plane. Izzy had been terrified when she'd opened the door to that ferocious glower, but when Mr. Hauptman had seen Jesse the flash of relief had been real. That had been the only time Izzy had seen him mad, and if she didn't know how much he loved Jesse she'd have been worried for her.

"Why can't you tell me?" Izzy asked, but Jesse shushed her.

"Not so loud. I—" She looked pained, but was getting more composed. "It's better if you don't know. Please trust me on that."

Izzy gave her a long look before grudgingly acquiescing. She knew Jesse and trusted her absolutely, even if she disagreed with her decision. It didn't mean she wasn't going to keep a sharper eye out. "Okay, fine," she whispered back.

"Great! Lab time," Jesse chirped with unnecessary force and threw off the blanket. Izzy blinked sharply in the light of the window, their moment of solidarity and secrecy gone in a flash.

Werewolves. Izzy sat dumbfounded in front of the small TV in the kitchen watching the morning news with her mom. Werewolves were real. Just like the fae.

She thought of all the movies about werewolves she'd seen and how dumb the Hollywood ones probably were in comparison to the real thing, and then to how uproariously Jesse had laughed when they watched Teen Wolf together—

"Do you think they go to dog groomers?" her mom asked.

"Yeah, sure," Izzy mumbled, standing up and swaying for a second under the epiphany she'd just had.

Normally Izzy didn't bother with the newspaper, but when she spotted the front-page article in her dad's hands she sat back down. "What's it say?"

"There's a list of known werewolves. Mostly in the military apparently. Probably a violent lot." Izzy winced. Hauptman Security wasn't quite like her father's accounting work.

"Anyone we've heard of?" her mom asked.

Her dad scanned down the list and Izzy held her breath. Surely she was wrong. They couldn't have outed every werewolf in the country, so maybe she was wrong or he wouldn't be on the list.

"Izzy," he dad said slowly, and her stomach felt like it dropped to the floor, "your friend Jesse. Her last name is Hauptman, right?"

Her stomach started sinking into the black hole beneath the floor. "Yeah."

"Related to Adam Hauptman?"

Izzy nodded, and her head felt like it was buzzing. Her dad opened his mouth to say something more when her mother cut him off. "That poor girl, living with werewolves. She's got good manners, though no wonder her father looks so young. Goodness, I wonder if the press will be at school."

The press… God Jesse probably wouldn't even go to school if they were there. Would they pull her out? Was her dad the only werewolf in town or were there more? Was Jesse one too?

"You've been over to her house before, haven't you?" Her dad interrupted, sounding alarmed. "Izzy, did you notice anything? Has Mr. Hauptman ever done or said anything to you? I can't believe such a dangerous creature was here under our noses!"

His panic made her angry, as much as her mother's telling silence when she looked at her. "Yeah, dad," she snapped. "He has said something to me. 'Hi Izzy, how are you?' and 'Jesse's upstairs right now'. He's a dad, dad."

Her father jutted his chin out like he did when he argued with her grandmother. It wasn't a flattering look and warned of his stubbornness. "Don't take that tone with me. Wolves are vicious animals, and we don't know anything about these werewolves and what their capable of. I don't want you around Adam Hauptman until the we know more."

"I'm not going to stop talking to her or hanging out with her, dad!" Izzy stood up quickly, knocking back her chair. She'd never feared for her safety around Jesse or her dad, and her father sounded like those pundits on TV talking about the fae.

"Izzy, honey, we just want to know if she, you know… 'inherited' it, if you know what I mean." Izzy's mom had gone for the placating tone, forgetting that nothing made Izzy angrier. She wasn't a child who needed the world to be explained to her, and she knew in that moment that Jesse wasn't a werewolf.

"Jesse's not a werewolf, she's my best friend. That's what matters to me." She grabbed her backpack and left for school, fuming and righteously indignant in turn.

Izzy had arrived earlier than usual, but her ears were already ringing with comments from the parking lot. Jesse wasn't going to stick out just for her purple hair anymore from the sounds of it; other students had put two and two together. Izzy ignored Dave asking if she'd known or ever seen Mr. Hauptman turn into a beast and stomped through the crowd to the front of the school.

She waited outside for Jesse to pull up, brushing off questions from hanger-ons. She recognized the SUV when it parked in front of the school but not the man driving it. Jesse took an extra minute to open the door, and Izzy was there the second she did, trying to act like normal even as the whispers around them surged.

"Hey Jess, did you bring my scarf? I texted you last night that I forgot it."

Jesse looked so relieved to see her that her white knuckles loosened just a little around the strap of her bag. "Yeah, I've got it."

The guy in the driver's seat tipped an imaginary hat at Izzy, eyed the crowd behind her, and drove off.

There was a three-foot buffer around Jesse and Izzy as they headed inside the school. People talked behind their hands and a few brave ones approached to ask questions, but Jesse refused to say anything more than they knew. "He's my dad, that's it. I'm not a werewolf too," she repeated all day. By the end of the day curiosity had started to wane, perhaps because Jesse had yet to turn into a wolf or because she refused to say anything more.

Her shoulders were slumping though, and she looked tired when Izzy caught up to her. They didn't have the last three classes of the day together, otherwise Izzy would have tried to be a buffer for her.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, sure. Jack won't talk to me at all and Ms. White passed over me three times to answer questions. I feel like they're scared of me." Izzy leaned on the locker but turned in time to spot heads looking at Jesse then jerking away.

"Looks like your dad is outside waiting for you."

"Great, just what I need." She exhaled heavily. "I know it's not his fault, and it sucks that everyone knows what he is now, but he doesn't have to deal with school." She shot a nasty look at some of the girls down the hall who were obviously gossiping about her. Jesse had never gotten along with that group to begin with, but now they were outright ostracizing her.

Jesse saw their looks and his lips tightened as she packed her bag. "Guess I won't get invited to another school party."

"Well if I am we'll go together," Izzy promised. "And if I don't then we'll just party by ourselves. Maybe we should try rainbow-dyeing our hair for LGBT Awareness Month. You said the purple just made your dad roll his eyes."

Jesse looked up at her and finally smiled, though it was a bit more wobbly than her usual ones.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. No promises my parents will like it, but we've already proven it's easy to sneak out from my place." Izzy grinned down at her best friend.

"And now you know why I can't do the same. Dad can hear a pin drop from across the street." Jesse looked rueful for a moment. "I better go before he draws a bigger crowd."

There was already a large crowd loitering around watching him, but they didn't get much of an event. Mr. Hauptman smiled at Jesse, opened her door for her, and then hopped in his side before driving off. Not a snarl, growl, or tuft of fur in sight.

#mercy thompson #patricia briggs #fanfiction #jesse hauptman

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