A.N. Hey guys, some people left me messages about the last chapter asking whether or not Bella overdosed or whether Paul was overreacting. I wrote it this way on purpose, because I wanted to leave it to you guys to choose which one you preferred.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where are you taking that?" Bella asked Paul as he proceeded to the door with a tray full of little brown bottles.

"Where does it look like I'm taking it?" He snapped; she chased after him, struggling to keep up. Her body was still weak as she had only been discharged this morning.

Lying in a bed for three days did nothing for her joints.

"You can't! That's worth like a thousand dollars!" She shrieked; he turned to her and her heart almost stopped.

His whole body demanded that she'd listen to him.

"Well, I'll give you the money for it so relax but this is not staying anywhere near you. How did you even get this much anyway? You know, if the police ever found this in your house, you'd be going inside." He lectured her.

"I don't care! You have no right to do this!" She told him; all she could do was talk.

She may have been a little clueless but she wasn't stupid enough to think that she could stop him physically.

Bella pouted and crossed her arms over her chest.

He walked over and kissed her pouty lips.

She stood there frozen; it took her a while to get over it.

"Don't pout, Bella." He told her before walking out of the door with her stash.

"Don't kiss me, asshole." She retorted before wiping furiously at her mouth.

Her small fists clenched.

He was actually getting rid of it.

Asshole.

She should have known that he had had an ulterior motive when he offered to drive her home from the hospital.

Well, she guessed that it couldn't be helped.

Her truck was at home, so there was no other way for her to get back.

How did he even find her heroin anyway?

Asshole.

She waited in the kitchen until she heard him enter the house again.

By then she had calmed down.

"You want something to drink?" She called.

"Sure, water would be great." She was kind of surprised; he had actually picked water.

For some reason, she was expecting him to ask for red wine from 1922 or something equally as expensive.

She laughed at herself.

That's just stupid.

Bella got his water, and was pouring hot water into her green tea when….

"What is this?" Paul asked as he brought a painting of a pack of large wolves into the kitchen.

Bella shrugged.

"I dunno… One of my paintings I guess…"

"You guess?" He repeated as if he couldn't comprehend what she was saying.

"Why did you paint this?"

Bella shrugged again as she sipped at her green tea.

"Come on Bella, I need to know why you painted this." Paul told her; the urgency in his voice didn't make any sense to Bella.

She shrugged yet again.

"I don't know, okay? Sometimes I just draw things. Things I can't really explain… I was high." She replied, a little embarrassed.

He stared at her for a minute.

"Huh."

"I'm tired." She suddenly announced; Paul walked towards her and picked her up like a new bride.

"Why did you pick me up?" She asked him as he started towards the stairs.

"Because you're tired and weak; there's no way you could make it all the way up these stairs." He told her; she laughed.

"I'm sure I would have been fine."

"Yeah, yeah."

He walked straight through to her bedroom without asking where it was; it smelled so much like her.

Paul placed her under the duvet and tucked her in before kissing her forehead.

Bella unintentionally leaned into his touch.

When his lips left her, she shivered.

It was suddenly really cold.

"You cold?" He asked her.

It was early December.

"Yeah, actually can you pass me a sweater from that draaa-oh my god…" She was cut off as he slipped under the covers with her; she wasn't sure that she even saw him move.

She must have been really out of it.

He held her close and she snugged into his chest.

"Sleep now." He murmured.

Bella woke up a few hours after that at around seven p.m.

It was cold again.

And he was gone.

But she could still see the indent of his body.

She could still feel his heat.

Bella casually scooted over to his side and tried to fall asleep again.

The next day

Bella was tired; she hadn't slept very well last night, it was just too cold.

She shivered as she walked through the cold dirt roads of La Push for the first time in five days on her way to school; she really regretted not taking her truck today.

She snorted.

As if she could take her truck; the stupid thing just wouldn't start.

It always got like that in the winter.

She cursed when it started to rain and sped up but school was still over fifteen minutes away.

She was going to soak.

Great, sometimes she really hated La Push; at least she was off to Florida tomorrow to visit her mom.

Hmm, sunshine.

That would probably be fun.

A blue Porsche stopped in front of her on the dirt road; please let it be someone she knew.

The front window rolled down and her face dropped.

"Need a ride?" Paul asked her with a slick and mocking tone to his voice; Bella blinked twice.

"No. I don't think so." She replied as she walked around the car and back on her path to school.

She shook her head with disbelief, sure he had helped her out before but it didn't mean that she liked him.

It just meant that they were now even.

She heard a car door slam behind her so she sped up without looking back.

"Bella." The voice pleaded; she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Bella, you'll catch a cold." She rolled her eyes; he sounded like her mother.

"Bella." She stopped with a grunt as her arm was pulled back softly; she turned to see Paul behind her with a neutral but sad expression.

"Let go of my arm." She told him forcefully, he shook his head.

"Not until you get in the car; it's not good for you to be in the rain, you were only discharged yesterday, remember?" She flinched at his words; she was trying not to remember.

So she ignored him.

"There's just no fucking peace with you is there? No more Mr. Fucking Nice Guy. You're not walking to school in this weather." Bella didn't even have time to comprehend the words before she was swept off of her feet and over his shoulder like a bag of spuds.

Before she knew what was happening they were already travelling back towards his car. What the hell did he think he was doing? She asked him.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked him as she beat her tiny fist against his muscled back. She squealed when he hit her butt. It stung.

"Relax Bella, we don't need people coming out of their homes because of your unnecessary noise now do we?" He asked her.

"Fuck you." She mumbled; he chuckled and squeezed her ass this time.

"Anytime." Bella's face flushed red.

Asshole.

He placed her lightweight body down into the passenger seat of his Porsche and closed her door before getting into the driver's side.

She crossed her arms over her chest and refused to look at him.

"You cold?" He asked her, she didn't answer; instead she squealed when her body was lifted and laced into his lap.

Bella stayed still, she did in fact feel a lot warmer in his arms; she moved even closer to his body. He felt so comfortable. So right.

"What were you thinking anyway? Walking in that rain… you have a truck." He scolded; Bella rolled her eyes.

"I was gonna cut through the woods anyway, it wouldn't have taken that long." She justified; his arm curved around her waist and pulled her closer.

"Will you do something for me, Bella?" She didn't answer.

"Don't go into the woods, there are things in there that you don't understand. Dangerous things." Bella wanted to laugh at how serious he sounded.

Was he really talking about La Push?

In those woods?

The most wildlife she'd seen was an obese squirrel eating waffle fries.

Now that was wild.

"I'm serious Bella." He told her as if he could sense her amusement.

"Whatever." She answered, turning over in his lap to grab her bag from the back seat before moving back to the passenger's side.

"You can just stop here. Thanks." She almost muttered the last bit; Paul's eyebrows furrowed.

"Bella, school's a block away from here." She nodded.

"Yep, but this is my stop; don't want people getting the wrong idea." She told him as she looked out of each window to make sure that no one was around.

"What? You don't want people to think we're together?" Paul asked her with a chuckle as he pulled the car to a halt.

"Exactly…" Bella started as she got out, closed the door behind her and leaned through the window. Luckily, the rain had eased up but it was not that fine rain that you couldn't really feel but somehow you got really wet.

She frowned at Paul's face, he looked a little rejected.

"Hey, it's not like you do 'together' anyway, right? What was it you said that girl with too much make-up on that one time in front of everyone? Oh yeah, you 'hit it and quick it.'" She answered with actual air quotes; Paul's face dropped.

"I'm not like that anymore, Bella." He told her, there wasn't a trace of humour in his voice.

"I'll never be like that again." He promised; Bella stared at him for a little while before whistling awkwardly.

"Well, that's nice to know; thanks for the ride." She said before backing away from the car and walking towards school.

As she watched him drive away, tiny rain drops pelted at her forehead.

She frowned.

Not again.

Soon enough, a car pulled up in front of her again.

This one was different.

"Bella?" Qahla called; Bella smiled a little.

"Hey."

"Oh my God Bella get in." She said in a hurry; Bella jumped into the passengers' seat, shaking her head like a wet dog and shivering a little.

"Are you okay?" Qahla asked, her hand on Bella's thigh and her head peering under the wet hair which was now stuck to Bella's face.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for stopping."

Qahla smiled brightly.

"No problem…. More importantly, where have you been anyway? I was really worried."

Bella cringed.

"I've been a little ill is all. Nothing special, just flu." She lied; Qahla nodded.

"You should have called me, I could have made you some chicken soup or something and come round to look after you." Anyone could easily feel the happiness rolling off of Qahla at this point.

That would have been the ideal scenario for her.

The thought of nursing Bella back to health made her blush.

Thoughts?
Please tell me what you
think of Qahla and her motives.
Thanks for reading.

PLEASE no flames.