When Rebecca and I went to Oahu together after our high school graduation I didn't expect to be coming home alone. She had met Solomon Finau on the second night of our trip and from then on he had barely left my sister's side. He had a quiet confidence and broad shoulders; I could see why she liked him. He was also six years older than us. We had always had very different taste in guys. I guess my growing interest in Paul confirmed that.

I've never been big on sitting still and I'd been having trouble sleeping lately, which didn't make sense to me. I was on my last few weeks of freedom before I was expected to start working remotely for an IT firm in Portland. My body knew I needed to start getting on a real, adult sleep schedule, but it was resisting me every step of the way.

It wasn't a big surprise that I passed out almost as soon as we took off, but I only got a nap in before a bump of turbulence shook me awake. I looked over at Paul to see him happily exploring the wonders of in-flight entertainment.

"Oh, you're awake." He shot me a cheeky smile. "I watched the fourth Harry Potter without you."

"You didn't." I sat up abruptly, tapping at my TV screen. We had recently discovered that we were both fans and had been waiting for Forks Public Library to get Goblet of Fire on DVD so we could have a marathon. We would probably be waiting a good while, given their track record.

"Nah, I wanted to but not without you. I watched 40 Year Old Virgin instead, thought it would help to know what Jake's future would look like."

"You're so funny." I pulled up the hood of my sweatshirt, rolling my eyes.

They were getting along better, I knew, but it was mostly for my sake. Both still got a weird pleasure out of pushing each other's buttons, though I sometimes got the feeling that it was exaggerated for a laugh at my expense.

"I don't hate him or anything, he's just fun to make fun of."

"I understand completely." He was preaching to the choir; Rebecca had been Jake's main tormentor when we were kids but I wasn't completely innocent. Ours had been the polar opposite of Leah and Seth's brother-sister relationship for a long time. He was an easy target, taking it with a level head until you turned your back on him, but our mom's death had made us much closer. Of course I adored him now, though I was getting tired of hearing him whine about girls—really it was only one girl.

"I did save you some snacks though, they already came by."

I gave him a confused look. I had never seen him turn down food and I didn't think he had the self-control not to eat whatever was in front of him.

"The flight attendant gave me extra." He clarified. Without looking at me, he pulled my tray down and gifted me with three mini bags of pretzels.

"Oh, did she," I smirked. "A lady flight attendant? A girl gave you extra food?" I poked at his toned forearm.

I tried not to let it bother me—because, honestly, what right did I have to feel anything like jealousy—but it was impossible to miss the looks other girls gave Paul. Prettier girls. Girls who would probably drop everything to be with someone like him and who the hell was I to keep him at arm's length when he didn't even have the ability to be with anyone else…

"Stop." He said, but he was laughing. I had nearly forgotten we were in a very public, very cramped three-passenger row when a loud ahem came from over my shoulder.

I quickly shut up, mortified, but noticed Paul moving up the armrest between our two seats out of the corner of my eye.

"She was wearing a ring. I think your claim's pretty safe." He whispered, wrapping an arm around my right shoulder so that I was suddenly much closer to him. "You're shivering. Turn on Harry Potter."

"We've talked about this, I don't want any claim…" I didn't understand how any kind of healthy relationship could be based on need rather than want. I needed him close to me, I wanted him to know me, but what good could ever come out of a dynamic like ours that was marked by a clear lack of free will?

"It does get easier," Emily had reassured me. Even though I had been wary of her at first, Paul was right. It was impossible to dislike Emily. She had a softness that Leah lacked, even though it was still difficult for me to understand why this made her the better one for Sam. I liked Leah's bluntness and I had always gotten the impression that he had too, even though I knew that the seriousness of their relationship at such a young age been a little unsettling for both of them.

"I know it's strange and it makes you feel weak and needy at times, and I'm like you, I'm not used to feeling dependent on someone either…But it settles, after a while. The needing. Once the wolf is sure that you're giving him a chance, and that you aren't scared."

"Or maybe it will be different for you. I chose him and I don't regret it. You can do whatever you want, Rachel, but Paul's a good person and I think you are too."

Paul was used to my anxiety-fueled rants by now, my worries about me becoming his jailer, and he had figured out that the only way to nip my fears in the bud was to keep them from being verbalized. We had talked our way in circles around the imprint too many times already, never really addressing it head-on because for either of us to say out loud that it meant something was to say I feel something and I think you should too.

"Rachel. Eat your damn pretzels."

"Shouldn't I be the one comforting you? You're in a metal box thousands of feet off the ground."

He took one of the bags of pretzels off my tray and dropped it in my hand.

"I've done weirder things, babe."

"Checking bags seems like a money and a time-suck," Paul had said when we were buying his plane ticket. I had agreed; I had managed just fine with a carry-on the last time I had been here. "And aren't you supposed to wear fewer clothes in Hawaii anyway? What?"

Since we were able to skip baggage claim, I didn't expect to see my sister already waiting for us, but there she was. We had Skyped sometimes once we figured out how to use it, but I hadn't seen her in person since she had come home for Christmas two years ago. She looked happy. I was happy for her even if she had to be thousands of miles away to really feel at home.

"I heard your flight was delayed a little bit and the A/C in my car is being a butt again so I couldn't wait outside," Rebecca explained after I had thoroughly hugged her. "Times like these I really wish Jake was around. Speaking of Jake, he's told me a lot about you."

I didn't need the confirmation, I was well aware that there was a lot about Paul that was objectively attractive even without my personal bias, but when my sister hugged him and leaned around his bicep to mouth a swear I still felt pretty good about myself.

Rebecca and Solomon lived about forty minutes from the airport in Kaimuki and the size of the bathroom on the plane made Paul nervous so she doesn't have to wait long to get me alone. "Tell me what's going on."

"There isn't a lot to tell."

"Don't start with that, there's obviously something if you brought him here. And it's only been going on since graduation—Jesus, girl, I didn't know you moved that fast."

"It's different than with other guys." It was. My only somewhat serious boyfriend in college hadn't wanted me to hang out with any of his guy friends, for one, and now I was constantly in the company of half-naked teenage boys.

"I'll say."

"Becca, you're married."

She winked at me. "Happily. I just would've thought if one of us were robbing the cradle it would've been me, that's all."

"Don't remind me about that."

"I can hardly judge you and I wouldn't. It's just unexpected. But exciting. And anyone who can go toe to toe with our brother and still want to stick around is obviously special. He's good in my book."

"I'm sorry we're only having pizza."

"Said no one ever."

My sister and Paul had quickly warmed up to each other and I was living for it.

"Sol's the cook around here—he's in California competing."

"That's so badass, that you're married to a surfer."

"It really is. I'm not in college full-time—I'm not as smart as Rachel." They both smirked at me. "But I take some classes here and there and when we have to introduce ourselves that's my go-to. And no one ever believes it at first, that I'm married or that he's just that sick."

I hadn't seen Solomon since I left Becca in Hawaii, so I wasn't sure what to expect. They had gotten married after only a few days and though I had agreed to be a witness for their wedding I had thought they were both crazy. She had casually dated through high school but she had never seemed to be too keen on the idea of marriage, at least not anytime soon. Our parents had gotten married fairly young too, but at least Dad had waited for Mom while she was going to college in Seattle. I knew that he still hadn't gotten over the fact that Becca hadn't just stuck with the college plan and held off on a wedding so she could do something similar.

"I don't think it could ever be anyone else. Do you trust me?"

So I had come back to the reservation alone, and even when my dad spent hours on the phone begging her to come back she had told him flat-out that her life was here now.

It had turned out okay, if their approaching three year anniversary was any sign. But I knew that it still hurt our dad that he never met his son-in-law and that his second daughter had only been able to find happiness so many miles away. Not for the first time, I wished that Rebecca hadn't been so impulsive.

"I get up early these days," she told me as she showed me the guest bedroom. "So don't feel weird if you hear that I'm up, I want you to feel comfortable here. I'll try not to wake up the hunk."

Rebecca had gotten the message and had directed Paul to sleep on the couch downstairs. ("I just hope you'll fit.")

"I'll remember to knock in case you change your mind," she told me slyly.

I closed the door in her face. "Good niiight."

I still couldn't sleep.

When I heard Rebecca's bedroom door close across the hall I snuck downstairs and found that Paul had moved from the couch to the floor.

"You look comfortable." I crouched down next to his pile of blankets. Without opening his eyes he moved over onto his side to make room for me.

"You're going to get too warm." He protested as I laid down next to him, even though he was the one who had offered in the first place.

"I opened the window when I came in."

He grunted and opened his eyes as I nudged him closer to the couch. He had fallen asleep in my bed at home before, dead on his feet after a night of patrolling, but this was a kind of intimacy we hadn't exactly explored yet. That, and I didn't think waking up in a pool of my sweat would help anything.

"Your eyes are so pretty." I told him, and as much as I was teasing him it was also completely true. I thought he was overall pretty beautiful until he opened his mouth, and I had convinced myself that I wasn't being shallow if I still liked him even then.

"You're fucking dangerous." He closed them again but he was smiling and I snorted into his pillow. "Go to sleep."

I was quiet for a long time and figured that he had actually fallen asleep. I didn't know how he was when he was sleeping. Sharing a bed with someone in a situation that wasn't completely platonic wasn't something I was used to. I was self-conscious. What if I did weird things in my sleep and my roommates had all just been too nice to tell me about it? Would he tell me?

I was curled up, desperately trying not to touch him, but couldn't get comfortable in that position and rolled onto my left side. As if he sensed my movement, he moved onto his right side in the same instant so that we were facing each other.

He shifted and for a second I was nervous that he might expect more than just this but he was only trying to give me more of his pillow. I touched his arm, stopping him.

"So."

"So." He repeated back.

My hand was still on his arm.

"I…I thought I was fine for the longest time but I didn't realize how much I was trying to just get through life the way I thought I was expected to, and...I'm just glad that I'm here with both of you. I'm really glad you came. I know it's not easy, being away. Thank you."

"No problem." He reached over to rub my back. "I'm not going anywhere. But it's been almost forty eight hours since I phased and that's a new record, so if you wake up covered in fur try not to freak out."

Laughing, I caught his hand in mine before he could pull away again. This felt okay. His hand was warm, there was no mistaking who it belonged to, but it wasn't so much that I needed to spend time thinking about what it meant and what it might mean to him. Neither of us needed to be so careful. Jake and my dad weren't around to scoff, the Pack wasn't there to tease us and Rebecca had only the vaguest idea of what 'us' even was. I slept more easily than I had in weeks.

I woke up to a spot of sunlight on the rug by my face and Paul pulling one of the blankets over me.

"Don't leave." I said groggily, finding him out of reach.

"I really need to go for a run, Rach."

I yawned and could hear the smile in his voice as he kept speaking. "I'll probably just go like this, I don't know if there's anywhere safe to phase, but I need to go burn some stuff off. I'll be careful, promise." Before I could protest he kissed me hastily on the cheek and was gone.

You're making this hard, I thought dimly, but it didn't take long for me to fall back asleep.

I dozed for a little while but I could hear a mug clinking against counter-top and knew that Rebecca had gotten up.

"I didn't leave you down here." She said, turning towards me as I padded into the kitchen.

"We were talking and I fell asleep."

"Mm, sure."

I stared at her, trying not to smile. She looked pretty pleased with herself. "Do you have coffee?"

"Where did your man go then, is he making himself decent?"

"No, he went for a run." My man. Honestly.

"Of course, he has to keep his figure." She shot me an exaggerated sultry look over the top of her mug but couldn't keep a straight face and we both quickly dissolved into a fit of laughter.

"It's really not like that, I swear."

"I know, it's just sweet. I want you to be happy. I know there's a tiny age difference and that makes things a little trickier but don't let it scare you."

"In a few years it won't matter, right? And he's legal, it's not wrong." She nodded. "I mean, look at you and Sol."

"Yeah." She sighed, setting her mug down.

"Is everything not okay?"

"I love him, it's just hard. He's gone a lot so it's been rough lately. I know that's what I signed up for and we're both trying but it's just not as easy to be on the same page when you're not even in the same time zone all the time. And I can't always go with him…"

On the phone she had always glossed over any trace of unhappiness, always the optimist, so this was news to me. That was likely my fault – she had been my rock from two thousand miles away for so long. What worried me more was that my sister wasn't looking at me.

"Becca?"

She sucked in a breath. "I'm pregnant."

A/N: I know this is a cop-out, clichéd ending to a chapter but since I've been writing this as one long dialogue-heavy jumble over the past month I'm having to work at where to split it up. I wouldn't pull the drama card with a minor character for no reason, this means something to Rachel and will have an impact on her relationship with Paul. (It's also been an element of this story for as long as it's been in my head so it was never going anywhere, lol.)

It might be a few days before I get the next chapter up because one of my classes is starting this week but I am writing everyday and working on ideas for some other stories too. I'm constantly thinking about writing and coming up with new little bits I want to include in the middle of the day so I'm so glad that I finally bit the bullet and decided to get this out of my head and into words. I hope you're enjoying it too! Reviews, follows, even constructive criticism – I'll take it all.

I added a cover image to this story as well - I'm at a point in the writing process where the picture does mean something to me, but it's more of a placeholder and subject to change.