Hi guys! Here's the next chapter After this I am going to jump Lena so that she's older and it's easier for her to have an actual personality and conversation! I just want to make sure that I slowly build up their relationship so that you can see their connection grow.

Lena: 3 years old

Embry's POV

"Embeeee!" I hear a high pitched squeal as soon as I walk into Lena's bedroom.

"HI kid!" I pull her up into my arms and then throw her high into the air.

She laughs hysterically and then clings her tiny, little legs around my chest.

"My dwess my dwess!" She holds the fabric of my collar tightly between her fists as she tells me this.

"Your dress?" I question.

"My dwess!" She repeats, still having quite a struggle with pronouncing her "r's".

"Are you telling Embry about how you got a new dress today?" Scarlett explains for her.

"Yes!" Lena squeals.

"A new dress? Wow, Lennie," I just barely glance at it. "You look great!"

Lena giggles and hugs me yet again, tighter this time.

I sit down and rest her in her lap as she tells me all about her day, which now consists of pre-school, which she is extremely excited about.

A little while later, dinner is served- and just to clarify, by served I mean that Paul cooked and Scarlett placed it on the table for us to eat. She still hasn't got the whole "cooking" thing down.

I can tell that this is going to be a particularly interesting dinner when Lena doesn't even try her first bite before throwing a piece of chicken at me with a wide grin.

"Lena, try more, sweetheart," Scarlett pats her head and then motions to her plate of food in front of her after a while of Lena completely ignoring her food.

She frowns rather adorably and then smacks her fork into her peas, looking at them oddly, as if she is trying to figure out what the hell these little, tiny balls are that her parents are making her eat.

I can't help but laugh.

Her giant eyes come up to meet mine and then she smiles widely as she continues to smash her fork into the peas over and over and over again, sending them flying in all directions throughout the room. She is laughing hysterically as Paul slides her plate away from her.

"Alright," He sighs. "You're done."

Lena giggles.

"You're all done then," Scarlett holds up her hands. "All done."

Lena suddenly appears to understand that this does, in fact, mean no more food, and all at once her demeanor entirely changes. She pouts her lower lip and then bats her eyelashes between Scarlett and then me.

"No," She says, her voice sweet and just barely a whisper.

"You're done," Paul repeats, though his voice is much softer now. "You can't play with your food like that- you know you can't."

"H-H-Hungy," She sucks in a breath and then rubs her stomach.

Now Paul is the one to crack. "Alright, but don't do that again, Lena. Got it?"

She giggles.

Almost as soon as she gets her food back she has a suspicious look on her face as she matches her gaze with Paul's and then slowly lowers her fork to her peas.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," I laugh.

Of course, she does it anyways.

"Done," Paul pulls it away.

Almost as soon as it is away, she is crying. "No!" She cries, her blue eyes watering immediately and her tiny mouth forming into a dramatic frown.

I frown at her. I mean, it's not really that big of a deal; she's three, give her the damn peas back.

"You can't play with your food, honey," Paul explains.

"Embe!" She reaches for me with tears in her eyes.

"Don't even think about it," Scarlett mutters underneath her breath as she narrows her eyes at me.

I gulp down the "yes" that I had intended to say.

"I can't help ya, kid," I say instead, trying to make my voice light.

She rubs her eyes and then cries harder as she lets her face drop onto her highchair.

"Awe," Now Scarlett is the one to laugh. "Are you sleepy, Lena?" She strokes her hand overtop of Lena's hair a few times.

"I not sleepy!" Lena picks her head up and then rubs her eyes again.

I laugh.

"Come on," Scarlett sighs and then stands up. She unbuckles Lena from her high-chair and then sets her on the floor. Almost immediately she is charging for me.

Once she gets close enough, I reach for her waist and throw her up in the air. She squeals as she comes back down.

"More! More!" She giggles.

"No more," Scarlett chuckles. "Then you'll throw up!"

"More!" Lena ignores her and smiles widely at me.

"How about a bath instead?" Scarlett suggests.

"No!" Lena squeals and then buries her face into my shoulder. "No! No!" She demands as she holds on to my tee-shirt with all her little toddler might.

"Yes, yes," Paul laughs.

"Come on, Lena! Daddy will give you a bath, doesn't that sound fun?"

Lena slowly picks her head up and then looks uncertainly at Paul, contemplating this.

He nods his head seriously. "Come on, baby girl; I've got lots of bubble bath!"

At that, she leaps out of my arms and into Paul's. He sets her on the ground to walk into the bathroom, though she immediately strips out of everything but her diaper and takes off for the bathroom.

"Oo! Naked baby! Naked baby!" Paul pretends to chase her around en route to the bathroom.

Scarlett and I both laugh at the scene.

"Ugh," She throws her head back once we are alone and only hearing the faint echo of laughter. "I am so freaking tired, Embry. You have no idea."

"Cleaning a house is such hard work."

"Don't make me punch you because you're pretending to be sexist," She rubs her temples.

I laugh. "Wouldn't be the first time."

At this she smiles. "Question."

"Possible answers."

"Can you help with Lena tonight? If not it's okay- I mean, I know it's really last minute and all, but she has been impossible with the breathing machine these last few nights. Paul literally had to wait until she fell asleep and then hold it overtop of her face until she woke up and freaked out. We barely got any sleep last night, and I thought she might react better if she had you there."

"Of course," I answer without thinking. About a week ago, Lena woke up in the middle of the night sobbing and gasping for breath. By the time they got her to the hospital she was blue and had an oxygen saturation level of about 80. After the initial panic, it was determined that she had a breathing disorder due to her premature delivery and her lungs not being mature enough. Now, she is required to use oxygen therapy at night- but the thing is loud and quite terrifying for a three year old.

"Thanks," Scarlett smiles. "It would be nice if she could sleep in her own bed tonight," She admits.

I can't help a sinister smile from forming on my lips. "Why? Your sex life taking a hit because of a toddler?"

She smacks my arm.

I laugh and pretend like she hurt me. "Jesus, Princess! I haven't learned how to file a restraining order yet, so chill!"

"How is that going, by the way?"

"I have no idea how your sex is going."

"God, Embry!" Scarlett laughs astonishingly and then shakes her head at me. "Could you not be an arrogant asshole for two seconds? Please?"

I chuckle. I remember a time when making Scarlett angry had boiled my veins as something other than just good, clean fun; but now, when I look at her, I love her for much different reasons: She brought my Lena into the world.

"How's school," She finally clarifies.

"Oh, school," I flash her a smile. "Why didn't you just ask?"

"You're as bad as a toddler, I swear," She rolls her eyes.

"School is good," I laugh. "I'm about half-way through pre-law and then it's off to actually apply to Law school itself, so we'll see how it goes."

"We'll see," She scoffs and then playfully hits my arm. "So modest. I don't even think I could have gotten a bachelors in business and a minor in pre-law at the same time."

"Wow, not even you?" I feign astonishment. "That's really saying something. I feel honored, actually."

"Shut up," She moans and stands up. "But seriously," She begins as we both carry plates into the kitchen. "If you are too tired tonight I get it. I don't mind, really."

"It's fine, Scar," I reassure her. "You know I love Lena."

She nods her head, a small smile forming at the corners of her lips.

"Hey," I nudge her shoulder and lean in close to whisper to her. "Think you're ever going to learn to cook, or is that just a complete lost cause?"

"That's it!" She smacks me with an actual rolling pin, which does hurt just a little bit. "You're on dish duty." She throws me a rag and then begins walking away. "I'm going to go make sure Lena didn't drown Paul."

"Don't you mean the other way around?" I ask.

"Not at all," She giggles.

After I finish the dishes, I find them all in Lena's nursery. She is sitting on Paul's lap as he reads her a story, and Scarlett is squeezed in on the side of them with Paul's arm around her. I lean against the doorway and stare at my best friend's little family for a moment. I truly found it hard to see her with Paul for so long; I cared about her so much, and seeing them together was nearly impossible. Now, I still care, but in a different way. The thing about imprinting on Lena, is that finally everyone understood Scarlett and I's connection, and it all made sense.

Lena keeps picking her head up and then letting it slowly drop down, her eyes closing in the process, before quickly picking it back up and blinking her eyes rapidly to stay awake. This is a practice that goes on for a while before they finally give up on her falling asleep and we all realize that we're going to have to do this the hard way.

"Hey Lena?" Scarlett strokes her cheek. "Do you want Embry to stay to put you to sleep tonight?"

Lena picks her head up and rubs her eyes. She nods sleepily and reaches her hands out.

I take her easily and go over to her bed to rest her in my lap. "Tired, Lena?" I kiss the side of her head. She nods and then rests her cheek against my shoulder.

Paul pulls the breathing machine out of the closet and attempts to discretely place it next to us. As soon as it turns on I wince, for the sound is ridiculously loud, almost like they created it as a joke for parents and their kids.

Lena screams and shoots her arms around my neck in a death grip. "No!" She screams, immediately crying.

"Shh, shh," I pat her back. "Lena it's okay. You're okay."

"No, no, no," She cries into my shoulder.

Scarlett hands me the oxygen mask and I look at her like she is crazy; does she honestly think that I would force this thing onto her when she is crying like this?

"Look, Lennie, look," I nudge her shoulder.

"No!" She sobs, hugging me tighter.

"No, look, Lennie," I demand, pulling her away from me. I slip the mask onto my face and try to cross my eyes in a goofy way.

She screams so loud I swear it could break glass, and then she scrambles off of my laugh like there is some sort of a fire. Lena literally bounces off of the bed onto Paul and then clings to him like she had just clung to me.

"Great," I say as I pull the mask off. "Now she's scared of me."

"Lena, honey," Paul pats her back. "It's not scary, really; it's just to help you breathe."

That goes absolutely nowhere.

"Try?" He asks her softly.

"NO!"

Paul sighs and comes to sit down with her on the bed. He takes the mask from me and slides it against her face where she is resting it against his chest. She screams and fights against it, though Paul successfully slips it on and holds it in place.

"I don't want it," She sobs, over and over again.

"Fine!" I finally can't take it anymore. I pull it off of her head and throw it onto the ground. "You don't have to. It's okay, Lena."

She crawls over to me and wraps her arms tightly around my neck as I pat her back.

I don't have to look up to see Paul and Scarlett's death glares upon me.

"Really, Embry?" Scarlett states blandly.

Paul hits me upside the head. I wince but don't feel to bad about it. "She's scared," I explain.

"She needs it, Embry!" Scarlett argues.

"Why can't we just put it on her when she falls asleep again?" I ask, nervously. I seriously don't think I could handle seeing or hearing that again.

"Oh, I don't know, Embry," Scarlett is seething. "Probably because we can't wake up every hour for the next year every time she wakes up and freaks out!"

"I'll just stay with her," I narrow my eyes at her.

"Ugh, obviously." Paul looks at me funny. "Your fault- you get to be tired tomorrow."

Well, it turns out that Paul and Scarlett hadn't been as dramatic as I was originally thinking; the thing about them is that they are highly sexually active all the time, so sometimes I can't tell if they are being overly dramatic or seriously have a point when it comes to their sleeping schedules.

Lena wakes up about once every one or two hours… screaming, which results in me immediately taking the mask off of her and then rocking her back to sleep before the whole process started again.

Needless to say, I need a new system.

I spend the majority of the next day falling asleep in class and trying to figure out what the hell to do about Lena during work. It isn't until I do a little internet searching until I find an idea that just might work.

That night, I go over to see Lena expecting her to hate me for last night, and being surprised when she rushes right over to me and demands that I play with her. At her bedtime, I bring in the bag of things that I prepared and hope for the best.

"I got you something," I tell her excitedly.

Lena puts her sippy cup down to sit up straight in bed. "For me?"

"No for another little girl," I roll my eyes. "Yes, for you Lena."

I pull out one of the two decorated masks and hold what just so happens to be the zebra one up to my face. "Look!"

It takes all about five seconds for Lena's eyes to light up with excitement. "A tiger!" She exclaims.

I chuckle. "No. A zebra."

She frowns. "Tiger."

I roll my eyes and pull the other mask out, this one of her favorite animal, which is a tiger, and gently place it overtop of her head, securing the strap in the back.

"Look, look," I hold out a mirror for her before she has a chance to feel uncomfortable.

Lena springs up. "I'm a tiger!" She squeals, and then she makes a loud rawr and puts her hands into claws.

I can't help but laugh. I toss her onto my lap and begin ticking her sides. "God you're so scary Lena," I joke. "I better warn all those pre-school boys to stay away from you or they won't know what hit them!"

"Rawrrr!" She says again between giggles.

I tickle her lightly as I discretely turn the machine on. Lena's smile fades and I notice a frown form between her eyebrows as she tries to figure out if she is going to freak out or not.

Before she has a chance to really panic. I switch my phone onto Pandora and hand it to her. Lena isn't too freaked out to go for her favorite thing ever… my phone. She notices her favorite playlist and then hits it a few times before it pops on Disney music.

When Lena and Paul come in expecting the worst, to say that they are pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Paul's mouth actually drops when he sees Lena sitting up in bed, perfectly content, joking around with me whilst her breathing machine is turned on and running.

"Daddy!" She jumps up. "Look at me! I'm a tiger!" She growls and then tosses herself off of the bed. Scarlett gasps as Paul just manages to catch her.

"Jesus, kid," I look at Lena like she is nuts. "Are you auditioning for the next American Ninja Warrior?"

Lena giggles, though I doubt she has any idea what that means.

"I see that," Paul laughs. "Did Embry make that for you?"

She nods her head.

"That was very nice of him," Scarlett tells her sweetly.

Lena cups her hands to cover her mouth and then whispers into Paul's ears.

"No, Lena. It's bedtime, honey," He answers gently.

She frowns and whispers into his ear again. Though this time when she pulls away, she pouts and bats her eyelashes at him.

"Okay," Paul breaks before our very eyes. "But you can only watch a little while because then you need to go to bed."

Scarlett is hysterical as Lena drops to the ground and reaches for my hand.

"Where did she learn to do that?" Paul rubs his jaw, looking quite terrified as she rushes out of the room with me on her heels.

"It's the eyes!" I call out behind me.

"Definitely the eyes," Scarlett laughs.

I'll be posting soon! Who wants an Embry? I know I do!