Disclaimer – This is Stephenie Meyer's universe. I'm just playing in her world for a long bit. Any names and characters not found in Stephenie Meyer's books are definitely mine or my wonderful beta and good friend Liljenrock's creations.

So here it is, the last chapter for.. what do you call this? A story? An outtake? Whatever.. Now I wonder how you're all gonna react to Mac in this chapter. How many of you want to read Mac's story? Well, he's getting his own story, everything is already plotted out, we just need to wait for him to grow up in present time.. So if you're impatient for it, Jen's the person to bug, she's writing Mac. Sorry Jen, had to tell them. HNCH!

So I guess after this I'll have no excuses not to go back to Paul.. Happy Chinese New Year everyone. Have a great Dragon year!

Eternity is a Long Time

Chapter 4 : Mac

"No! No! Dammit! It's my turn!" Dad grunted out as he held onto the headlock he had me in, not even loosening his hold when I jabbed an elbow into his side.

I managed a twist and slipped my head out from under his arm and used the momentum to twist dad's arm behind his back, something I'd learnt from Uncle Jazz. But dad was fast too, before I could lock his arm in position, he did another twist, this time kicking my legs out from under me and both of us crashed down to the floor, rolling smack into one of grandma's side tables, causing all the bric-a-barcs on them to fall.

"What's going on in there?" I heard Mom call out.

"Nothing!" Dad and I yelled at the same time.

I think both of us noticed the vase at the same time, as it rolled to the edge of the table and sort of hovered at the edge, rocking back and forth, as if it was trying to decide if it wanted to fall or not. Both of us dove for it, with me landing on top of Dad and our skidding headlong slide into the table helped the vase make up its mind and roll slowly off the table and into my waiting hands.

"Phew!" I breathed, relieved. That was one major disaster that got averted.

Dad chose to shove me off him at that point and the suddeness of it caused the vase to slip out of my grasp and crash onto the floor, shattering into a million tiny pieces.

"Shit!" Dad whispered eloquently. He always had a way with words, I should know. I learnt from him after all, much to Mom's displeasure.

"Yeah," I agreed. "Total shit."

"What's that sound?" I heard Grandma's voice, sounding just a tiny bit alarmed. She'd learnt long ago not to come investigate the scary noises when Dad and I were wrestling in a room. There were always damages.

"It's the sound of Dad making a purchase at Baccarat, Grandma! Just for you!" I called out with a laugh just as Dad reached out to smack the back of my head.

"Is it the one one on the side table?" she called out.

"Yeah!"

"It's a Waterford, dear. Get the right vase, please," Grandma didn't disappoint when she called out with a laugh, causing the lot of us to laugh too when Dad groaned.

I sat up just as Dad did and I eyed him for a moment, preparing myself in case he lunged for me again. "It's not fair," he said instead. "Dale did it when you were born, when you got married. You did Arden's. You and Dale are like ganging up on me!" Dad whined.

I turned to look at Arden as she remained seated beside Uncle Dale. She had her beautiful brown hair up in a pony-tail, her bangs neatly falling across her forehead, her elbows on the table and her chin resting on both her hands. Sometimes the disapproving look she wears is exactly like her mother's, that it's actually pretty scary.

"They've never toned it down, have they?" Uncle Dale asked, his lips twitching as he tried to hold back his laughter.

Arden sighed. "It's so embarrassing sometimes. You two are grown men!"

I patted my chest, "We're young at heart, baby."

"Yeah," Dad agreed. "Nobody wants to be a boring old grownup."

Uncle Dale laughed as he reached out to squeeze Arden's shoulder and she turned her head to smile up at him, bringing her hand up to squeeze his, her wedding and engagement rings glinting almost as brightly as Uncle Dale did from the sunlight that spilled in through the open windows. "Relax, sweetheart," he murmured and I hid my own smile. It was nice seeing him like this. He's been this sappy old fool from the very first day he laid eyes on her.

I pulled myself up to my feet and turned to give Dad a hand up. I realized then that the fountain pen that I had originally wrestled Dad over was crushed on the white rug, blue ink spread out, staining it. "Shit!"

"Oh man!" Dad said, scratching the top of his head. "This one is yours."

"Yeah right!" I snapped back. "If you hadn't grabbed for the pen after I had already—" I started my rebuttal but Arden cut me off.

"Okay, I'm out of here before they start round two," Arden shot out of her chair. "I need to finish packing. And you two," she spun around to glare at Dad and me. "I've already written in the book, while you two were fighting like a couple of kindergarten kids."

"You did?" Dad howled in dismay.

"Yup," she said. "You get to make the next entry," she winked at Dad before slipping out of the room.

I laughed as Dad sat down in the chair next to me and yanked the book out of my hands. We both looked at the last entry together and there, after the entries documenting my marriage, Arden's birth and her wedding, she had put the birth entry in. We both read her elegant writing—Wicase Shane Winters.

"I like the name. It has a very dignified sound to it. They want to call him Wic?" Uncle Dale asked.

"Yup, although Dad is adamant on calling him Shane," I replied, remembering Dad's grousing over the baby's name, which Arden ignored with the kind of airs that only my mother has ever been capable of pulling off.

"She used a ballpoint pen!" Dad stated in disgust. "You let her use a ballpoint pen?" he glared at Uncle Dale.

He shrugged carelessly. "You two destroyed the fountain pen. Besides, she said you get to make the next entry. Don't destroy the fountain pen when that day comes."

"The next entry would be Shane's wedding. That'll take a very long time," he groused.

"Technically Emmett, it's Arden's bible now. You know, she should be making the entries," Uncle Dale tried to explain but Dad wasn't too interested in that.

"Doesn't matter. She said I could write in Shane's wedding."

"I think she meant her next baby," I said with a laugh.

"Her next baby?" Dad sat up. "Do you think that punk is already pressuring her to have another baby?"

"Seriously Emmett, it's been six days since the baby was born," Uncle Dale was obviously trying to pacify dad.

"I think I'm gonna go talk to him."

I grinned at Uncle Dale once Dad left the room. "You did that on purpose, Mac. Everytime I watched Emmett go after that poor boy, it's because of something you'd say just to instigate him."

"I know! It's so much fun and both of them need it too," I said as Uncle Dale threw back his head and laughed heartily. It was nice seeing Uncle Dale loosen up like this. The smile on his face remained longer these days. He'd come a long way from the man I met as a child.

"She's very happy," he stated in his usual way, using a tone that you'd sometimes be unsure if he was asking a question or making a statement.

"That she is," I smiled. "But she's not gonna be happy with Dad for long."

"The McCarty's of the past, we were never happy, I mean truly happy."

"Well, I guess all that changed, thanks to you. I think Dad would be happier if you changed your diet. I'm sure he'd like to see you all year round instead of just for the season," I tried what Dad's been doing for years. "I'd like to have you come visit me anytime too."

Uncle Dale laughed. "Nice try, Mac. But no, I'm not ready yet."

"Well, I tried," I grinned standing up. I knew first hand how stubborn the McCarty men could be. "Come on, Uncle Dale, let's go admire my grandson some more."

"I think there's a 'young punk' out there who would appreciate an intervention too," he laughed as he got up to follow me out.

Yeah, he'd appreciate an intervention but sometimes I just like to let him sweat it out.

The next morning, we were all gathered in the front of the house as Arden and all the females in the family did their last minute checks to ensure she was all packed up, and taking turns to coo at the baby who was wide awake in the middle of all the craziness. I watched as my wife wrapped her arms around our daughter, their identical colored hair glinting so beautifully as they whispered to each other, last minute advices. Mom was not letting go of the baby as she rocked him and pressed kisses to the top of his head. I walked up to her.

"No heart to let him go?" I asked.

"No, it's too soon. I'm gonna miss my little wolf boy," she crooned down to the wide awake baby who stared seriously at her. "Do you want to hold him, dear?" she asked me.

"May I? Please?"

Mom handed him over to me and I cradled him to my chest. "Hey Wic, today is gonna be the day of many firsts for you, buddy. Your first car ride, your first plane ride, the first time you meet the other half of your family. I know I'll be seeing you again pretty soon, but I want you to remember something important, okay? Your mommy, she's an amazing girl, she's my little girl and she's as smart as her mother. So when she tells you to eat your vegetables or tells you that it's time for bed, you listen to her, you got that? Grandpa's orders."

Wic chose that moment to let out a huge yawn before his eyes drooped shut, to the sound of mom's chuckles. "Not quite the reaction you wanted, huh?" She asked, smiling wider when I shook my head no. "Give him to me, I'll strap him in and get this little family on the road or I swear they're going to miss their flight."

I did as she said and I stood back to watch my daughter in action. Uncle Dale stepped up beside me. "You're going to miss her," he murmured as we both watched her hug and kiss everyone goodbye all the while shooting frowns at Dad as he remained in a lecturing mode, hassling the new father who was trying to engage Grandpa Carlisle in a conversation in an attempt to avoid Dad.

"I always miss her. She's my baby, man."

And then my baby was there, hugging Uncle Dale goodbye and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Bye Uncle Dale, come visit us soon, okay?"

He smiled down at her and nodded.

"I don't suppose you'd go steer Grandpa away?" she asked hopefully. "Otherwise, I'm going to have to listen to my grouchy bear all the way home."

"I'll give it my best shot," Uncle Dale promised as he walked away.

And then finally, it was my turn. She walked into my embrace and I wrapped my arms around her as she wrapped hers around my waist, and suddenly all those times when she's run into my arms as a child, as she toddled shakily into my waiting arms when she had first started walking, when she was a little older and I taught her to skate on the pond behind the house in Colorado, she had glided so perfectly to me, and when she got a little older, I'd hugged her just like this when she went away to college, and I'd hugged her exactly like this just before she had walked out of my arms and into her husband's. I felt the prickling behind my eyes and I blinked them away. She'd always be my baby, even if she had a baby of her own now.

"Bye, Daddy," she whispered into my chest. "Love you for always." Her mother's favorite line.

I loosened my hold on her a little so I could lean back and smile into her eyes. "Eternity is longer," I whispered back, my favorite line.

A/N : So? I want reactions. What's the verdict? Share your thoughts and feelings people..