Disclaimer: Twilight is all Stephanie Meyer, I own nothing.

AN: You've made me so terribly happy with all your wonderful comments, and by adding this story to your favorite or alert list!!!! I was so blown away by so many positive responses, the next chapter was there before I knew it ;) I figured you deserved a fast update, since you were so very kind to me, so here you go! Enjoy :))

Just a little note to Boo, thanks for the extremely sweet comment! Your e-mail got wiped from the post, since this site only allows links or e-mails with its own extension. But my e-mail is on my profile, so you can send me a message, or you can PM me ;)


Picking up the pieces

~*~

POV: Nadira

~*~

Suddenly Embry stiffened against me, he dropped his arms and just stood there immovable, until I unlocked my arms from around his neck. As soon as I released him he stepped away from me, looking down at me in silence, his eyes cold and full of pain. Tears sprung from my eyes and trickled down my cheeks, I had just ran at him instinctively without thought, without considering the possibility of him not wanting me back.

Without another word he walked passed me, as he did I turned to see him walking out the door, without looking back. I crumpled to the floor, feeling as if my heart just got ripped out of my chest, I was too late, I had lost him. Within moments Fathiya and Taylan were at my side, lifting me off the floor, Fathiya were so attuned to each other she would have felt the shift in emotions instantly.

~*~

The next weeks passed in a blur, nothing phased me at all, I was on autopilot. I had been looking forward to the twins' birthday, but I wasn't able to enjoy it, my man had turned away from me. By leaving I had pushed him away, now he refused to come back, leaving me a broken mess. At some point Leah stormed into my room, demanding I do something with myself, that she could no longer bear to see me live that.

Suddenly I realized that by remaining in my current state, I wasn't only hurting myself, but I was also hurting the people around me. Besides Leah and Tom, Fathiya was there so often hoping to ease my pain, Nessie and Isa came by a lot too, but until that day neither of them had any success. But Leah's outburst had shaken me out of my self-misery, and I had forced myself to do something. So I had looked for my own place, gotten a job at the reservation library and moved out.

Leah had been extremely upset with me, telling me that this wasn't what she meant when she footed me under my ass. of course she hadn't, I knew that, but I needed to stand on my own two feet. If Embry didn't want me any more I'd have to find a way to be on mu own, because there was no one else I wanted, being independent in a financial and practical way was where I would start.

The apartment was on the first floor, there weren't much buildings higher that three floors total, and was quite roomy as it was built only a couple of years ago. It actually had two bedrooms, I had looked for a place with an extra bedroom purposely, so I could create a room for Isa. The complex was close to her and her grandmother, another requirement I'd when looking for a place to live.

After the day of our return I hadn't seen him, not once, no accidental passing, nothing at all. I told myself it was better that way, quit my Embry addiction cold turkey, but my heart ached for him non-stop. After a while things got easier, not less painful, but I was able to enjoy things again. I had made the decision to start taking classes at the community college next semester, so I had started reading up on subjects I wanted to take there.

Outside work hours, I visited Nessie a lot, her little girl growing rapidly, I had missed so much already. She was six months old, but looked like she had already passed her first birthday, according to Carlisle she'd reach full maturity at the age of 10. Nessie had reached the physical age of 2oish within only 7 years, a third of how long it would take a regular human, her daughter would do it in half the time.

Fathiya wanted to stay with her parents, her and Taylan weren't having the problems I was experiencing with Embry. Then again, they hadn't been thinking about weddings and children, or at the point where they were about to move in together. So he had been able to forgive her, it wasn't that I didn't wasn't happy for them, but it was hard to see that they quickly fell back to the relationship they'd had before.

Since we were now as close as sisters were supposed to be, or maybe even closer, so living apart had been hard for us at first. Now we had gotten used to it, tough the need to see each other regularly was still there. She brought over Taylan as often as she could, cause though it hurt me to see them together, it hurt more having to miss one of my best friends.

The twins had taken to me instantly, as if they had recognized me from the first three months of their lives, which was highly unlikely, but none of us would be surprised if it turned out to be true. But the person who became most prominent in my life was Isa, she had just had a birthday, and was taking it upon her five year old self to be the one to rescue me. She in her turn needed me in a more practical way.

Her grandmother was growing weaver with each passing day, I feared she wouldn't hold out much longer. Both of them felt it too, I could tell from Isa's demeanor whenever she spoke of her nana, that's what she called her. Nana in her turn had asked me if I was willing to take on the care of Isa full time if something were to happen to her, naturally I accepted, Isa had found a place in to my heart and had taken up permanent residence there.

Everything had been set up officially through a notary, so in the worst case scenario things were settled, though I hoped she'd stay with us for a few more years. In the meanwhile Isa stayed with me as often as possible, if she wasn't I would take her to school and back, wanting to relieve Nana of as much of the duties as possible.

In the mean time Isa was fighting my battles for me, no matter how many times I told her not to, I still kept hearing from the others that she was. Apparently she and Embry had gotten quite close during the months I'd been gone, but she refused to speak to him now, whenever she did feel the need to express herself towards him she just yelled at him. Telling him that he was mean, that I missed him and needed him, she was too young to understand things weren't always that simple.

~*~

Isa and her grandmother were sitting in the living room, Isa was talking continuously about an incident she had at school today. Apparently she had gotten into a fight with a girl in her class about how her injuries had been fake all along, and that's why she was able to go to school again now. Her telling the story made me realize how incredibly cruel kids can be, and how bad I felt that she wasn't able to defend herself by telling the truth.

"I'm sorry that happened to you today Isa, as much as I am sorry that you're forced to keep my secret, I'll talk to your teacher about it next Monday." She was really sweet, and knew about our arrangement, every aspect of it. So I was certain that she had not been aware of the situation today, or she would have done something about it.

"Oh I don't mind, I'll just let her talk, she doesn't know anything! Besides I will happily keep your secret, because how many kids can say their best friend is a witch!" The moment the words crossed her lips, her eyes grew wide and she quickly cover her mouth.

"Isa!" Nana gasped at her granddaughters' remark.

"I'm sorry! I don't mean it like that, but I think you and Fathiya are witches, good ones of course!" She rambled quickly, making me smile genuinely.

"Well actually, in Arabic we're called 'kahina' that basically means witch or sorceress , so to call us witches isn't that weird at all," I looked at Isa encouragingly, who's shameful blush burned brightly on her cheeks.

"So you really are a witch?!" Isa gaped, I nodded my agreement, still smiling.

"See Nana! I knew it! She's a witch, she's a witch, she's a witch-"I interrupted her chant, which was accompanied by a wild happy dance including an enormous amount of jumping, by laughing full out for the first time since my return.

Isa's cheerful presence warmed my heart, she made me live again, she almost made me happy. Looking at her proud face, which resulted in her realizing she was the one to make me laugh again, I knew we were connected for life. After starting over from scratch, which was a hard thing to do, I was finally picking up the pieces.

~*~

POV: Embry

~*~

She was back, her return should've made me happy, but it didn't. Sure I was relieved that she came back in one piece, or that she even came back at all, but she had don an irreparable amount of damage to my heart. No, don't start accusing me of being a girl, I'm not! What?! Men don't have feelings?! Well, I do, and right now I'm angry at the world, but most of all I was angry at Nadira, and everybody close to me had to suffer for it.

When she had flung herself into my arms I couldn't think anymore, the familiar shape of her body pressed against mine, right where it belonged. Her scent intoxicating, she smelled better than she ever had, I inhaled deeply to take in as much of her as I could. Wrapping my arms tight around her, pressing her as close to me as I could manage. Just for an instant, and that instant alone I'd been happy.

Though, as soon as my brain came online again, I went rigid, horrified about the way I hadn't stood my ground as I had promised myself. The cold found its way back into my heart, making it drop down again, after its momentary rise. I had released her and gotten out of there as soon as I could, feeling angry glares from a few of the wolf girls as I went, but it didn't made me go any slower.

Now I'd been getting in arguments over her, all over the rez. all the time, I couldn't believe how much of them were taking her side. Had they forgotten, she was the one to start it all, she had lied to me over and over again, to my face. She had betrayed me, up until the moment that she was gone I hadn't had a clue about what was going on, until it was too late and she had fucking left me! I was all her fault.

The person that I was mad at almost as much as Nadira was Taylan, sad little wimp. He had just taken Fathiya back without a fuss, spreading his lovey dovey feelings throughout the pack mind whenever he phased. He was the one in part responsible for making me look bad, everyone just assumed that if he could do it, why couldn't I.

But what they didn't get, that while he was still in the phase where he constantly dreamed of fucking his girlfriend senseless, I was imagining her carrying my babies. To see her round with my baby growing inside of her, had been my deepest desire, and the fact that my best friend was living the exact life I wanted didn't help much. Sure they had their fair share of issues, especially when the Volturi decided to show up, but Nessie had remained by his side through all of it.

Most of the fights I had were with Taylan, he had me mad within a flash due to different reasons. First: he was actually having contact with Nadira, being her friend and all that shit. Secondly: I actually had to see it whenever we were phased at the same time, he was deliberately showing me images from them hugging and laughing. Third: he was taking her side and calling me out on what he called chikeny behavior. Fourth: this wasn't the first time I had issues with him over Nadira, the time her father was released from jail, he had seen it as his job to protect her from me, loser! Fifth: I was one hundred percent positive he had been totally in love with Nadira before he imprinted. Sixth and last: he was just a prick in general, I had gotten along with ok before all of this shit, but now I couldn't stand the guy.

As I said plenty of reasons for me to hold a grudge against the guy, so at least once a week we were going at it, leaving us severely injured whenever we were done mauling each other. Jake just let us do our thing, knowing we were both angry and would survive just about anything we'd be able to do to each other. Sometimes he messed me up so bad I'd need more than a full day to heal, getting instantly angry again when I saw his cocky ass prancing by completely scratch free, his witchy girlfriend having healed him the moment she saw him.

Then there was the occasional verbal assault from either Leah or Nessie, I figured Fathiya would like to do her fair share of scolding, but for some incomprehensible reason didn't. Leah and Nessie were not that easy, whenever one of them decided it was time again, I'd had to undergo an endless lecture about how I couldn't ignore my imprint and that I was destroying my chances with Nadira. Most of their rants would go in one ear and out the other, it couldn't hurt me if I wasn't listening, so I kept to the tactic that worked for me.

The only one that was able to reach me, was Isa, she had turned on me, practically the same moment Nadira had came back. She was always so cheerful, I really missed her, the girl was infallible when it came to deciphering good from bad. So the fact that she had forgiven Nadira for leaving, in fact not being mad at her at all, was unsettling to say the least. The things she said to me, hurt me to the bone, once I'd made the mistake of telling her she shouldn't believe all the bad things Nadira was saying about me.

That had been the worst thing I ever could have done as far as Isa was concerned, she screamed at me that I was stupid, that Nadira loved me and would never say anything bad about me. Now, of course I knew that she wouldn't do that, I had just been mad. Which made me feel even worse, because it meant that I had been lashing out at a five year old. Man was I screwed up.

~*~

Throughout the weeks I kept track of whatever she did through Jake, so I knew it when she had started working at the library, that she had found her own place and when she moved out of Leah's place. I tell ya, you wouldn't believe how much it stung that she was moving on so quickly, doing what we should have been doing together. Then there was the part of her signing papers along with Nana, making sure she'd be the one to get Isa if and when her she would leave us. So in some weird way she would even be starting a family without me.

But when I noticed Nathan taking an interest in her I nearly lost it, remembering the situation with Seth and Lily last year, I knew Jake would never forbid him to be with her, if that was what she wanted. When I confided in Jake with my worries, his reply had been simple, if I would forgive her already, she'd never want to be with Nathan in the first place. If I couldn't do that, I'd better stop whining about it now.

Unable to do so, I had to watch him bond with my imprint, but when I confronted him with it he just laughed. Said it was ridiculous to claim her if I had no intention of being with her myself. That shit head even had a point, what if I never would be able to forgive her, should she remain single throughout the rest of her life for my sake? Realizing it was the most ludicrous idea ever, I started contemplating trying to forgive her, maybe if I told myself often enough I'd be able to do actually do it.

One faithful day, I ran into her in the grocery store, we had managed to avoid each other for nearly three months, but there she was. She didn't see me at first, her back towards me as she stood in front of the cereal section, grabbing what I recognized as Isa's favorite. But suddenly she froze, as if sensing me watching her, before turning around slowly.

Everything happened in slow-motion then, as her face appeared before me, unbearably slow, I reacted. At first she seemed unsure of what to do, I read the hesitance on her face, but it shifted into sadness when she saw what was going on inside of me. There was no need for me to consider forgiving her, the anger immediately filled my chest when I saw her face, apparently I hadn't hidden it very well. Because she turned and walked away in the other direction, instantly I dropped my basket and ran out the store. Later that week I heard Nathan was no longer trying to persuade Nadira to go on a date with him, he had succeeded, they'd be going out this Saturday.


AN: Now I know a lot of you are not happy with me, after reading this! But pleaser try to imagine being in his shoes, I'd be pissed about a lot of things ;))