Howdy. (Forgot it last time so multiply by 2 and you'll have your fill of greetings.)

So, aparently colds are bad for me, but good for you because, seeing as how I'm completely immobile today, I typed up another chapter for you lovely readers. My reviewers, are even lovlier than my readers. Just so you know. Anyways, this chapter is two years after Judy bans Quil from seeing Claire...And I'm kind of in love with it. I really do like it...Don't ask why. Or, ask why, but do it in a review. Hah.

Anyways, R&R, get me a kleenex, and remember that I don't own any of these characters...except Judy...and Jim...and Marie, who is Claire's sister...but other than that...nada.


This is ridiculous. Quil shook his head and tried to block out Embry's condescending thoughts. It was not ridiculous…he had to see her. That pull, that gravity, was crushing him now after two years. He could hardly breathe from the pressure; so the way he saw it, it was healthy. Not ridiculous.

Shut up and tell me if there are any cars coming! A brief picture of a dark, empty road clouded his vision and he nodded his head. He was good for a few minutes at least. Howl if you see them. He felt Embry's contempt at being ordered around, since technically Embry was higher ranking than Quil was, but he obeyed nonetheless.

Quil focused his thoughts on his human form, and slowly, very slowly, the fuzzy thoughts of his pack faded away, and he was standing naked in the woods. He shook his head – phasing back always left him a little light headed – and pulled the sweat pants from the band around his ankle. They slid on easily; he was ready to go…sort of.

The white house sitting not fifty feet away, seemed to be mocking him, teasing him and declaring it's power over the little girl he so longed to see. Suddenly the packs incredulous thoughts didn't sound so absurd. What if she didn't remember him? What if she was too different, not the same Claire he'd known?

But he was determined to prove them wrong. She would remember him. She would be the same. She would hug him and bury her tiny head in his chest just like she'd done two years before. She was his Claire…she was still his Claire.

With that thought in mind, he jogged to the tree that sat just outside of her window and pulled himself up onto the lowest branch without hesitation. Each passing second sent a pang of worry and excitement into his chest, spurring him forward until finally he had scaled the entire tree, and was staring into the window of his little girl's room.

Claire.

His heart thudded against his rib cage as he reached for the window to pull it upwards, but then he froze. The light flicked on. Something beautiful, and wide eyed, and so much bigger than he'd ever seen her, made his heart stop. Had it really been that long? Could Claire really be five years old now?

She was staring right at him, her dark brown eyes wide with surprise, her hands, still small and chubby with youth, lingered over the lock on the window. Her chest rose and fell quickly, either frightened by the giant man outside her window, or excited to see her long lost babysitter.

Apparently the decision was an easy one for her.

She opened the latch and flung the window open with a wide smile playing at her perfect lips.

"Quil!" She shouted and reached out into the night to grab one of his gigantic hands.

He couldn't believe it. After two years, she still remembered him...and she'd said his name right.

He smiled and stepped through her window carefully, and the gravity lifted from his chest.

Quil could finally breathe.


"And I'm starting kindergarten next week!" Claire smiled hugely across the kitchen table at Quil, her tiny ineffectual hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate. It was silly of him really, to ask her any questions at all; she never stopped talking once she got started.

Quil had gotten so used to the three year old Claire, the one who called him Quiw and couldn't form more than one intelligible sentence at a time. Apparently she'd learned to talk in the two years since he'd last spoken to her.

"Marie says that my teachers a real meany, but I don't care because my best friend Anna's in the same class as me and she's really funny so I'll just talk to her all the time and then I won't have to pay attention to the teacher so he wont have a chance to be mean."

Her logic was dizzying.

"You'll have to pay attention to the teacher Claire. It's school." He whispered, trying to get the point that they needed to be quiet across. Her older brother and sister were still sleeping upstairs, and he knew for a fact they would tell on him to Judy. He didn't want to deal with her right then.

"Oh I know that, but if I'm talking to Anna while I'm working then I won't get in trouble." She'd taken the hint to be quiet and was now whispering, something Quil was more than happy about.

"Okay Claire Bear, whatever you say." She wrinkled her nose and frowned at him.

"I don't like that." Her little hands balled into fists as she attempted to look menacing. Quil had to fight not to laugh.

"What Claire?"

"Nobody calls me Claire Bear anymore. It's gross." That struck a cord. The day Quil had met Claire, she'd insisted on being called Claire Bear, and nothing else. It had never bothered her before.

"Oh," he sighed and took a swig of his hot chocolate so he wouldn't have to talk anymore. An earsplitting howl broke the silence of the house and Claire jumped straight up in her chair; Quil spit hot chocolate out of his mouth and coughed as quietly as possible.

"What was that?" He was a nineteen year old werewolf. He was six ten and weighed over two hundred pounds, and the thought of leaving made him want to cry; seriously curl up in a ball and sob. The howl meant that Embry had seen Judy and Jim's car on the road less than a mile away. The howl meant that his time with Claire was up; and he couldn't let that happen. Not now, when the weight that had been crushing him for 730 days was non-existent. Not now, when he had her so close, pouring her little five year old soul out to him.

Another howl broke the silence and he resolved himself to a life of crushing pain.

"I have to go Claire."