A/N: Hey. This is just a little idea that popped into my head and wouldn't escape it. Hope you like it. Read and review please!
Carly sighed, seeing Paul sitting by the cliff side. It was hard, seeing him. She still felt the emotions from the imprint, but there was no one on the other side. Mind made up, she walked over to her ex-imprint.
"Penny for your thoughts?" she asked. He looked at her, those beautiful eyes filled with so much pain. He looked at her like she was a stranger, but he looked so lost that she could ignore the pain from that.
"What was I like? Was I a good person?" he asked, so much desperation in his voice. He was a completely different person from her Paul. He was a different Paul.
"No matter what you act like, you're always a good person, Paul. But you were amazing. You were kind. You were so loving. I know you're trying to figure out who you are. It's okay. I can wait. Whenever you're ready, I'll be here. Waiting for my superman to be ready," she told him. The doctor's words rang through her mind.
"The venom has been known to change people, Carly. It's possible that the Paul you knew can never return. It's possible that in the process of saving him, you lost him," he'd said to her. She got up, staring at him for a second. Maybe the doctor was right. Maybe she'd lost him when she'd saved him.
"Bye, Paul," she told him softly. It wasn't obvious, but it was more than just a simple goodbye. He had the same face, but this man was different. This man wasn't her imprint. She had to accept that in order to start to be okay.
Several months passed, then a year, and Carly began to accept that Paul was gone. It became harder to be around the new Paul. He didn't feel the same way about her. He didn't want to be the old Paul. He was his own person.
Carly found it hard to believe that her fairy tale love story was over. She could deal with the rumours at school. She could deal with the dirty looks from Bella. She could deal with the questioning looks from her father. She just couldn't deal with the end of her love story. She still had love, though. Until a month before her eighteenth birthday. Rachel had come back from university.
Paul imprinted again. Her cousin and the love of her life were soul mates. She'd always been angry for what happened to Leah, but now she truly understood it. She'd been staying with her Uncle Billy, so she had to see them. See the way that they looked at each other. See the love in his eyes that he'd once had for her. See the passion he'd once had for her. She hated it.
It was made worse by the fact that Rachel was constantly talking about Paul. There was no end to it. It got so bad that she started to consider going back to her dad's. He might play favorites, but at least he wouldn't talk about Raul or Pachel. Whichever cute coupley name they were going by. It was sickening.
She felt lost. She stopped hanging around the other imprints. They understood that she was hurting, but Rachel was the imprint. They didn't truly think about how she felt. After all, it didn't happen to them.
Carly was desperate to escape them. Jake had let slip that Bella was back and staying with the Cullens. She'd never really gotten along with her sister, but she was so desperate that she'd actually decided to go visit her.
"Hello," she greeted, seeing Doctor Cullen open the door. He motioned her in, directing her to the living room.
"Carly. What are you doing here?" Jake asked, not seeming to realize how stupid of a question that was, "Oh. It's that bad, huh?"
"What are you talking about?" Bella asked. She actually sounded concerned. For the first time, Carly felt like Bella's little sister. It was nice.
"Paul imprinted on Rachel, even though I'm still completely in love with him," she confessed. Jake looked torn between the sisters. Carly needed comfort, while Bella needed warmth.
"Why don't you tell me what happened? I never really got to hear the full story. I only got little details," Bella suggested. Carly nodded, settling herself on an empty chair.
"The year before you moved here, Paul imprinted on me. I fell in love with him. He was my everything. About a year ago, I was in the woods. A vampire found me. She had planned to drain me, but Paul got in the way. She bit him. The others got there before she could drain him dry. The tribal doctor told us he had maybe a week or two to live. I was desperate, so I managed to hunt down the Cullens and got them to suck out the venom. It worked, but the venom had attacked his brain. He couldn't remember me, or even certain parts of himself. He was a different person. He could no longer feel the imprint. I waited, hoping he'd regain his memories. He never did. Now he's got Rachel and I have all these memories of our time together," she told them. She left out some things, but it was the overall story. She felt so sad, knowing that that's how their story was gonna end.
"Are you okay?" Bella asked. She considered the question for a moment. She could lie, but what was the point.
"No. Honestly, I'm thinking about moving away. I can't stand this. It's killing me to watch them. If I stay, I'm gonna have to watch them get married, have kids, and start their lives together. Somewhere else, at least I don't have to watch," she confessed.
"It might be good for you. You should stick around until my son is born, though. Get to meet him once," Bella said. Carly smiled.
"It would be nice to meet my niece once," Carly said. Bella rolled her eyes.
"It's a boy. I know it," she said. Carly just shook her head, positive that the baby was a girl.
Eventually, word spread to the pack that she would be moving in less than a month. Many thought she was just running away from her problems. Maybe she was. It didn't matter, though.
"Can we talk?" Paul asked her quietly. She nodded, already knowing what this was about. He was going to ask her to stay, just like everyone else.
"Sure. What's up?" she asked. He looked at her, and for a moment she was brought back in time. For a moment, she was fifteen years old and he was her everything. For a moment, she felt like nothing else mattered.
"Why are you leaving? You said you were cool with Rachel and I," he questioned. She laughed bitterly.
"Would it have made any difference if I said I wasn't "cool" with it? I can't watch, Paul. I can't watch you love someone else. It hurts too much. I love a person that's dead. That's what the old you is. I need to give him up, but I can't do that while looking at his face. In order to move on, I need to let the connections go. Unfortunately, that includes you," she told him. A quizzical look crossed his face.
"If you could go back and never fall in love with him, would you?" he asked. She smiled bitterly.
"No. He's worth it. He's always worth it. It hurts, but I wouldn't change anything except the end. If it had to happen in some way, I'm glad it happened in this way. If he died, I couldn't go on and I know he was the same way. Maybe you're not him, but you've got his body and you're happy. That's all that matters to me," she said. She kissed his cheek tenderly, a bittersweet goodbye to the man she loved.
Carly Swan died three months later. It wasn't sudden. It was long and drawn out and painful. She gained a lot of insight in the time, though. When she was diagnosed with cancer, it made a lot more sense. She was grateful for losing the imprint, in the end. It was what allowed Paul to survive her death.
She never escaped Forks. She never left the town that had imprisoned her for so long. She accepted it, though. It kept her by her loved ones.
Carlisle offered the immortal life, but eternity is a long time to be alone. She'd already found her soul mate. She'd already lost him.
Her life had been rushed and hazardous. It had been full of danger and anger. It was always painful. It was only fair that her death was the opposite. She died peacefully in her sleep with her family by her side. She died peacefully with Paul by her side. And it was perfectly imperfect.