AN: First of all thanks to fredandgeorgeweaslywife101 () for reviewing my story. And thanks to everyone else who took time to went through it. This is another chapter. I hope you enjoy it. Sorry for the grammatical mistakes. Please read and review, thank you.

Chapter 2: Welcome To La Push

The flight from California state to Washington D.C was very long. But I didn't get tired at all because of all the excitement I was feeling throughout the journey. The ride from airport to our new home was more interesting though. Mom and I kept looking around the place out of the car windows. The new buildings, malls and people walking around in crowds; all very familiar sights but still different, new.

The house we were going to stay in was huge for the two of us, not to mention very very beautiful. It was closer to mom's hospital than my school which was a real good thing because then mom could come home earlier after her shifts. And there were also many shopping malls and restaurants near by. When we arrived at our new house, both of us were extremely tired; so we didn't start unpacking right away instead planned on doing it the day after.

The following day in the morning neither of us wanted to get up from bed but Mom had to go to the hospital to report her arrival. So we decided to do the house decorating thing after she returned home from work. While mom was gone; I decided to look around the neighborhood and get to know the city. It felt like an adventure to me, wondering around a new place and seeing new things, walking by stranger people. Altogether it was an amazing experience for me. When I got back I found mom home already. She was sitting on the couch with her face buried in her hands. And it appeared that she was crying. I realized right away that something wrong had happened. I rushed to her in panic.

"Mom, what happened? Are you okay?" I asked her frantically. Getting really worried. Mom looked up at me with tears in her eyes. She pulled me into a hug immediately, making me more worried. She hadn't acted like this in many years.

"Please mom, tell me what's wrong? Did something happen at the hospital?" I asked impatiently. Mom sighed out heavily. She wiped the tears from her face before nodding her head. I let her take her time to start talking. What I understood from mom's explanation was that, the new job she took at the hospital requires a three months training in abroad where she can't take me with her. To top it off mom can't even back away from the training course since she has already signed up for the job at the hospital.

This was a huge problem for us to say the least. Mom would never let me stay alone all by myself. And if she unofficially backed away from the deal then she'd be sued for that, not to mention it would cost her her medical license which was totally unfair. It'd undoubtedly ruin her career. Mom couldn't think of anything to solve this problem. Her brain had just stopped working at that point. However, I had an idea.

"Mom, I think I should go and live with grandpa and grandma for these three months." I said which truly was the only solution I could think of. I had never spent one single day in my life without mom. And truth to be told, at that moment I didn't even know how was I going to manage without her for three months. But I had to give it a shot at least. Mom didn't like the idea much and honestly, neither did I but we really didn't have any other option here.

In the end, mom finally decided to go along with the plan and called grandpa. She explained to him the problematic situation. Grandpa however sounded beyond happy to hear that I'd be staying with them for three months. Feeling his happiness I realized too that I've actually missed my grandpa and grandma a lot. Later the more I thought about it, the more I started to get excited actually. Afterall I hadn't seen them in the past two years. We did talk over the phone but it would be really nice spending some time with them.

"Don't worry Tania dear, we will take care of her" said my grandma enthusiastically after taking the phone from grandpa. She obviously heard the conversation between mom and grandpa. Happiness was highly evident in her voice.

"Thanks mom, thank you so much. I won't be so worried if she is staying with you" said mom to grandma and I couldn't help but snort to myself hearing that. It was hardly a believable thing that mom wouldn't worry about me. But she trusted grandma and knew that they would take very good care of me. After putting down the phone, mom got her sad look back on her face again. I hated to see her upset like that but the situation was out of our hands.

"They are living in Washington currently in a small town called La Push." Mom informed me and ran a hand trough her hair with a sigh of frustration. I had heard before that grandma and grandpa also moved out of Chicago after Uncle Frank and Aunt Carly moved on to their own lives. But I didn't know that they had settled in La Push. I checked the location on the net in my laptop.

"It's a small Indian reservation, ma, near Forks." I said to mom. She came over to me and wrapped her arms around my shoulders from behind as she bent over to look at the screen herself. She remained silent for a while before speaking up. However it sounded as if she was talking more to herself than to me.

"This will mess up your schooling. What will you do there for three months? You don't even know anyone there and I won't be there with you either. What if you get sick for the change of weather? Who will look after you, your grandma is very old now... and who will cook you your favorite dishes and tell you bed time stories when you can't sleep... and wake you up on time in the morning..." She was still speaking but I turned around and hugged mom like I would never see her again. I couldn't stop the tears from coming out of my eyes and mom also started to cry while holding me close to her. But I didn't allow myself to get weak in this situation. We needed to go through this tough time and stay strong for each other.

"Mom, you have to trust me. We can do this. I promise I will take care of myself and you have to promise me that you will take care of yourself." Mom nodded her head only as she couldn't speak up that moment or say anything. Deep down I knew mom was still thinking of a way to get out of this situation entirely. But I wouldn't let her do anything reckless and risk damaging her career. So I said once again, strongly this time.

"We have to do this mom. It's only a matter of three months. Our lives will be back to normal again before we know it. We will talk to each other everyday and I will make some friends over there to spend my time with. Maybe I will even join the school there as well so that I won't get too bored." I told mom all these positive things and hoped that it will make her see that this sudden change in our lives wouldn't be so terrible. Mom relaxed a bit when she realized how very excited I was to see grandpa and grandma again. After all she missed them too.

"I promise you sweetie, nothing like this will ever happen again." She promised. Inwardly, I felt glad that mom finally accepted the fact that we'd stay away from each other for three months.

"Well now it turns out to be a good thing that we didn't unpack last night." I said to lighten up the mood. Mom smiled a little to make me feel better. She knew very well that I didn't like to see her miserable at all. Afterwards, We decided to go out for lunch and bought a couple of things for our journeys ahead. After coming back home, we discussed the plan for my travel to La Push.

"Blush will arrive tomorrow morning. We will drive all the way to La Push. After I get you settled down there, I will leave for that bloody training" said mom, followed by some more grudged words under her breath.

Tomorrow came and went by very quickly as well. We did a lot of shopping and ate our dinner at a popular local restaurant. When we were planning about the things we would do on the road, someone called mom. After speaking to the person over the phone, Mom became very upset. Whoever had called her, certainly didn't give her any good news. I stared at mom with questioning eyes, wanting to know who called her and what did he say. She started talking after a moment.

"The time to leave for the training has changed. The whole team will have to leave tomorrow at nine" said mom with a heavy tone of voice. I knew as well as mom what exactly that meant. She couldn't come with me down to La Push and get me settled there or meet grandpa and grandma for that matter. None of what we had planned so far would happen now.

It took a long time and talking from me to convince mom to let me go there alone. This trip would be an opportunity for me to prove to her that I could really take care of myself. Mom had no choice but to agree with me but she wasn't a bit happy about it; obviously. It was a very difficult situation when I got ready to start my journey to La Push. Blush had arrived around five in the morning the previous day. I wanted to leave early but with mom crying and all, it was a pretty emotional moment for us. It would be a very long drive from DC to La Push. After I finally started my journey, mom called me after every half an hour to check if I was okay until she boarded the plane herself to leave for South Africa.

The road to Port Angeles was pretty cool. I listened to my favorite songs while driving. I decided to take a little rest in Port Angeles and eat something solid because my stomach was making funny noises by then. After the break, I crossed Forks and finally reached La Push, a little before the time I anticipated to arrive.

After I entered La Push I got confused about which direction to follow to get to Grandpa's house. I had the address but I couldn't find the house even after driving around for thirty minutes in this small town. It was a new and stranger place to me so I had no choice but to take help from someone local. Luckily, I noticed a man walking by my car. He looked local to me. I decided to ask him about the address. If I wasn't so caught up in my own thoughts of finding my grandparent's house I'd have noticed how huge the guy was. He was definitely over six feet five and really muscular and tanned. He was extremely handsome too but the fact that he was walking half naked in heavy pouring of cold water, seemed really crazy to me.

'Does this guy want to kill himself?' I didn't spend much time thinking about it though. I quickly rolled down my window to call out the guy. The cold air made me shiver instantly.

"Excuse me!" I yelled out for him. He turned around right away. I was actually surprised that he heard me over the rain so quickly. He walked back to my car in long strides and bent over the window. He looked at me with questioning eyes. For a moment I couldn't get the words out of my mouth and had to struggle to speak up.

"I'm sorry for bothering you. Actually I am new here. Could you please give me the directions to get to this address?" I politely asked. He glanced at the paper and recognition flashed over his face immediately.

"You are looking for the Castle residence." He stated and I nodded my head and felt a little relieved that this guy knew the place I was looking for. Maybe he even knew my grandparents. La Push is a small reservation town after all. Everyone must know everyone here unlike in big cities where people hardly know their neighbors. I was bound to have a totally different experience in this place. I've never lived in a small town before so I was quite excited about it actually. The guy gave me the directions quickly.

"Thank you." I said and was about to ask him if he wanted a ride somewhere but he was gone already. He disappeared just like that as if he was a ghost or something. Anyway I found the house in no time with the given directions. I parked Blush in the front yard of the house. I walked up to the door and knocked twice. A few seconds later the door opened and I came face to face with my old grandpa. His face brightened up immediately as he saw me standing there at the doorway. I had a huge grin plastered over my face as well. Grandpa engulfed me in a bear hug while we laughed in joy. He yelled for grandma to come out quickly. She came running out of the kitchen. When she saw me, her eyes became teary instantly. Grandma pulled me into a warm hug and kissed my cheeks affectionately.

"Laila, my lovely child, I am so happy to see you." She held my face in her soft warm hands and looked at me with love filled affectionate eyes. There was also admiration in them. I did change a bit after they saw me the last time almost two years ago.

"You've grown up so beautifully, my dear." I smiled at her, feeling a little shy. Grandma kissed my forehead as grandpa wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me inside the house. I liked the house right away. It was warm and welcoming. I was very hungry so we ate an early dinner together. Grandma already had my favorite dishes cooked in the noon. My grandma was my second favorite cook right after mom. The three of us remained awake until late night as we spent the whole time talking with each other and catching up mostly. I asked them about why they chose La Push to spend their remaining days and found out an interesting tale of their past.

"After your grandpa and I fell in love with each other, we decided to get married but my family was against it. They wanted me to marry someone else. We had no other choice but to run away from home. We came down here, in La Push and got married. We stayed in this town for one year before moving to Chicago. And now in the remaining days of our lives, we just wanted to relive those happy memories again." The tale didn't end there. I insisted them on telling me more about how they met first and how they fell in love with each other? It was a long and really romantic story. I didn't know my grandparents were so romantic when they were young. Just like my mom and dad were. Hearing their love story I only wished to get my own love story one day. And somehow I had a feeling that my love story would begin very soon.