Sorry sorry sorry! I know this took a little longer than you guys wanted! In my defense, lots of work for me at school and then the internet broke down for the weekend.

I know, I know - excuses, excuses IG.

But here it is!

Sam shook his head sharply, feeling as dizzy as he had those first few times he'd phased. The disorientation made him stumble to the side a bit, and he whined, planting his paws firmly on the ground until everything settled into place once again.

Emily.

His eyes shot to her and a howl of pain burst past his jaws.

Seeing what he'd done, what had happened to his Emily, Sam - wolf and man - went crazy.

~*~*~

Harry Clearwater frowned at the clock on the wall of his living room. Seth had gone off with his friends again. Leah was in her room. He could hear his wife bustling around the kitchen, cleaning and cooking.

He'd left Sam to get rid of Emily almost two hours ago. Even if somehow Sam had lost track of time, forgetting the Elders were wanting to speak with him about Jared (and the possibility of Paul, which Sam didn't know yet), Emily was supposed to be back by now. Leah was disgruntled because they were planning to go see a movie in Port Angeles. Of course, now they couldn't; it was too late to leave and get there in time.

A bad feeling curled around Harry's gut, slowly stretching and unfurling. Sam had come far in controlling his wolf in the past months. But if pushed far enough, even the best of them would lose their cool.

What if Emily pushed him just a little too much?

Standing abruptly, Harry stepped to the hall and grabbed the phone, dialling Billy Black.

"Hello?"

"Billy, have you heard from Sam?"

"No," the other man said in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know for sure, but we're going to find out."

~*~*~

Old Quil, Harry, and two of the other Elders approached Sam's house. The front door was open. Emily's car was still in the driveway, as was Sam's.

"Okay," Harry began, "Let's-"

An upset, crazed howl interrupted him. All of them looked at each other, uneasy and pale, and then Old Quil took in a deep fortifying breath.

"Come on," he muttered.

They were pretty sure that if Sam had taken Emily into the woods - though they couldn't think of a reason why - he'd take her along one of the trails. There were only two, so Old Quil and Harry took one while the other two went along the other.

"What do you think happened?" Harry murmured as another chilling howl reached their ears.

"Nothing good, my friend, nothing good," Old Quil muttered, feeling ill. There were very few things that had made the wolves he used to know let out that type of pain-filled, haunted howl.

The sounds of whines and whimpers, frantic frightened barks, and short, cut-off howls reached them soon. Before they broke through the trees into the clearing, the pacing of paws they could hear stopped suddenly and a low growl reached them.

Harry stiffened his spine and stepped through.

The large black wolf was crouched on farthest side of the clearing, eyes locked onto the two older men. The fur along his back, between his shoulders, stood stiff and straight, the growling rumbling from him vibrating in the air around them.

Near where they stood, the body of Emily Young lay ravaged.

Swearing, Harry made a move towards her, but Old Quil snatched the back of his jacket as the wolf's growls sharpened threateningly and he took a step forward.

Harry looked from Sam to Emily, a horrified and saddened look covering his face. "He lost control." He looked at Old Quil. More strongly, he repeated, "He lost control. Who knows how long she's been out here! Look at all that blood!" Harry gestured angrily towards Emily, glaring at Old Quil, who was still holding him in place.

Old Quil swallowed thickly, nodding. "Yes, he did. But right now, he doesn't seem to want anyone near her, and he's keeping his distance himself. He's still not fully in control, Harry," Old Quil murmured, watching Sam from the corner of his eye carefully. "I think it would be best if we spare a few minutes to make sure Sam won't do anything more that he'll regret."

After a reluctant moment, Harry nodded decisively and stepped back. Old Quil focused his attention on Sam, although inside he was panicking over the thought of the young lady needing help now.

"Sam," he said, quiet yet firm. "You need to get control of yourself. You need to calm down and let us know exactly what happened." As he spoke, he slowly eased closer.

Sam didn't move away, but he pressed low to the ground, whining slightly. He was trembling slightly, his eyes guilty and haunted looking. As Old Quil got close enough to reach out and touch Sam's fur, Sam turned his head away, going completely still and silent.

"Sam, you need to phase back so we can work out what happened. We need to get Emily to the hospital."

Sam edged himself until he was pressing against the trees, looking skittish and ready to run at any moment.

"Can you phase back?" Harry asked from where Old Quil had left him, expecting an answer that he didn't get. Sam slowly shook his large head, a small whimper coming from his throat as he glanced again at the ravaged Emily.

Letting out a huge sigh, Old Quil murmured an okay. Sam's head shot to the path again, just moments before the other two Elders came into the clearing. They swore loudly as they saw the scene before them, a distressed wolf-Sam and an injured Emily.

Sam moved until he was halfway into the trees, almost out of the clearing, his eyes darting uneasily among the four men.

"What happened!" demanded one of the Elders, Walter, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"We aren't-" Quil Sr. began, but the other man spoke right over him.

"What's going on here? Why aren't we moving this poor girl to a hospital! Look at her! She needs medical attention now!"

Harry glared at him. "We-"

The faint rustling of leaves caused all of the Elder's heads to whip around, but Sam had already disappeared. Old Quil sighed, running a hand over his head, hoping that Sam would manage to control his guilt and other emotions enough to phase back.

"Walter, go bring the car as close as you can. We'll carefully move her to the car...." Harry murmured.

"And think of a cover story on the way," Old Quil muttered tiredly.

~*~*~

Slowly, so very slowly, Emily felt awareness return. The fog covering her thoughts was sticky and thick, hard to fight through. She was oh so tired, and thinking felt so difficult. Emily couldn't remember where she was or why she was in this place or what had happened last, but some part of her knew that all of that was incredibly important. So she continued to struggle free of her own mind and gain control of herself again.

Her eyes felt thick and crusty. She reached up to rub at them, marveling in a rather uninterested way at how heavy her arms felt and how little control she felt she truly had over them, when a large, rough, and warm hand encased her own, gently lowering it back to the bed.

"Careful, Emily," a familiar voice murmured. "Don't want to accidentally scratch yourself."

Uncle Harry. That's who was speaking.

The part of her mind that knew waking up and figuring everything out was important grew larger and more urgent.

Why was Harry here? Where was here? Something had happened, something terrifying and-

"Shh," Harry soothed gently. "You're okay now."

She had been talking to Sam. About Leah.

She pushed more strongly against the fog, relieved as it began lifting from her at a faster pace, and tried to remember more. If she'd been at Sam's, where was she now? Somehow, she just knew it wasn't his house anymore.

Harry was silent as she struggled to gain consciousness. She managed to just barely peel back her eyelids but they fell again almost instantly, too heavy and stuck to truly move. But it was improvement. She got the vague impressions of bright lights that burned off of white walls.

Sam had said something stupid, she couldn't remember what. They'd gone into the woods….

And something bad had happened.

What was it…?

All the effort to get this far exhausted her. She didn't want to push anymore, didn't want to fight this bone-deep tiredness that dragged her down into dark unconsciousness. Besides… a part of her knew she wouldn't want to know what had happened in those woods.

Giving up the fight, Emily fell back into sleep.

~*~*~

He'd transformed into a gigantic wolf.

Emily's eyes shot open as she suddenly, vividly remembered that one fact. That single second when Sam was no longer Sam but a huge, terrifying furry monster.

The room around her was dark. Gentle beeping and humming noises came from the whole room, a soft chorus that told her where she was - a hospital. She was almost positive of that.

She didn't remember much of what had happened, she realized as she relaxed back into her pillows. She remembered talking with him, she remembered not believing him. Accusing him of being cruel and a horrible person. His desperation as she'd tried to leave, that almost pathetically horrified fear that had shone clearly in his eyes.

That one single instant before he'd become a monster, the look of dawning realization and terror in his eyes.

Her mouth felt cottony and nasty; she'd never realized that nasty had a feel, but it did. She really needed a glass of water.... Shifting around slightly caused sears of pain to flash through her and she gasped, freezing in place, praying the pain would go away.

"Emily?" Harry's voice sounded like he'd just been startled out of sleep, and a light suddenly flicked on overhead, soft but bright enough to see by. Her uncle was sitting in a chair at the bedside, standing with a quiet groan. The curtain was pulled around her bed for privacy, making it feel even more quiet and secluded.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently.

The pain had been on her right side, the side her uncle was on, so she lifted her left hand and patted her throat, opening her mouth slightly. That caused some pain, too, but not too much.

"Your throat hurts?"

She tried to swallow, shook her head slightly and winced.

"Are you... thirsty?" he tried.

Relief must have been obvious on her face because he reached over and grabbed a cup from somewhere nearby. "It's half melted ice cubes," he whispered. "The nurse came by about an hour ago and checked on you. She left this here for when you woke." With a plastic spoon, he scooped out a ice cube and set it at her waiting lips.

The cool liquid that melted in her mouth felt amazing. She eagerly opened her lips for more when the first was gone. After a few minutes, her throat felt lubricated enough to manage speech.

"Wha-" she started, feeling the raw quality of her voice, the pain that moving her lips caused the right side of her face.

"Shhh," Harry soothed. Then he sighed heavily, drawing his chair closer and sitting. He stared at the floor between his knees, where his hands hung, for a long moment, before looking up at her. "What do you remember?"

She swallowed, then cautiously breathed a broken sentence. "Sam... wolf...."

Harry nodded, sighing, and glanced down. "Yes.... I thought you would remember." Taking a deep breath, he let it out in a gust. "Alright." He looked back up at her, her dark eyes focused on his face, her right side heavily bandaged. "Alright," he repeated. He stared at her seriously. "Emily, what I'm about to tell you is very important. It's also very secret. The Elders, we have some speculation on why Sam told you, when he knew he wasn't supposed to tell anyone." He took another deep breath.

"Emily, Sam is the only one so far. There are two other boys on the rez showing signs of joining him soon. He's only been like this for a short time, he's only just truly started to get the hang of it all. I think it took him a little longer than any of us expected because he was fighting it. He never wanted to be a protector of the tribe. He wanted to have a normal life, to see the world beyond the rez, and due to things beyond his control, he had those options taken from him.

"When werewolves get really upset, when they get emotional, angry, fearful... even when they get soul-achingly sad, they can phase for the first few weeks. It takes months for them to gain absolute control over themselves. But they are always under the threat of an intense emotion instigating the transformation."

He looked at her to see if Emily was following, so she nodded just enough to cause pain to start up again and immediately stopped.

"When you're feeling better, we'll need you to tell us what happened."

Emily felt her brows pull down, wondering why Sam hadn't told them. Her uncle must have seen the question in her eyes or simply understood where her mind was going, because he spoke again.

"Sam hasn't phased back yet. He ran off into the woods after we found you. No one's seen him sense."

With an effort of great will, Emily croaked, "How... long?"

"Two days," Harry admitted, sighing slightly. "It's been two days. The doctors have kept you heavily medicated...." He stopped there, his voice catching. Several deep breaths later, he said, "Emily, you have to know the cover story for this. It's fine that you don't have details, they expect that, but you need to agree with what we're asking of you. Keep to our cover story. Please."

"Of course," she croaked, somewhat insulted they thought she'd go around telling people there were people who turned into wolves on the La Push reservation. Like anyone would believe her, anyway. She hadn't believed Sam until she'd seen it happen right before her eyes.

"You went hiking. A bear attacked you. We sent out a search team and Sam found you; we rushed you here as quickly as we could." He paused, closing his eyes. Bracing himself. "Emily, when Sam phased he...."

Breathing somewhat heavily, ignoring the pain talking caused, Emily finished her uncle's sentence. "Hurt me."

Harry looked up, deep sadness in his eyes. "He feels terrible about it. If you could have seen him when we first found you...." Harry cleared his throat, and went back to the main point he had been speaking about. "The claws... tore you open on the right side. On your side... your face," he admitted quietly. "The doctors say you'll probably have them for life."

Tears rushed to her eyes. Emily liked to think she wasn't a vain person. That looks weren't all that important to her. But somehow, she found herself unable to not want to burst into tears at the thought of forever having scars marring her face. She couldn't stop the words "ugly" and "disfigured" from crossing her mind like poisonous whispers.

Perhaps it was an accumulation of all the stress since she'd woken up. The realities of it all hitting her at once with a suddenness that stole her breath and hurt her deep inside.

All Emily knew was that at that moment, she felt ruined and she wanted to cry for her losses.

~*~*~

Sam was starving. But he still refused to hunt as a wolf. Even if the smell of rabbit and dear had grown more and more appetizing as the hours dragged on. He figured that being whatever he was burned a lot of calories and that was why he had to eat so damn much.

He hadn't eaten since the dinner he took... her to. He was ravenous, but couldn't find the inclination to phase back and get food. Besides. The thought of seeing anyone after what he had done... it made him sick with shame.

He'd slept out in the open for the past couple of nights. He'd patrolled the very edges of the treaty line in the darkest parts of night before running deep into the forests of Washington that surrounded the rez. He'd slept and patrolled and run. He was exhausted and starving and full of shame and guilt.

Sam had no clue what to do with himself.

It was the middle of another afternoon where he was idly wandering the woods when something happened and caused him to yelp out loud with surprise.

He suddenly wasn't alone.

With an abruptness and strangeness that was mind blowing, Sam was suddenly aware of a whole other set of actions and feelings and thoughts.

Then a voice became clear past his shock and the other mind's whirling chaos.

What the fuck just happened! Shit! What..! I... I'm going crazy. What the hell is going on?

Sam literally sat, hard, on the ground and stared dumbfounded in front of him. Old Quil had never mentioned being able to hear the thoughts of others.... But Sam recognized these thoughts. He had had them himself when he phased for the first time.

Tentatively, he called out, ...Jared?

The other thoughts froze, then exploded with more worries about insanity and more confusion.

Sam tried again. Jared, it's Sam. You're not crazy. The same thing happened to me. The legends we heard as kids? Looks like there's more than a a few facts that are correct.

Great, I'm insane. I think I've turned into a monster and I can hear Sam Uley's voice in my head. Dandy. And I hate white rooms, dammit.

Sam snorted in amusement, rising to his feet and turning towards where he somehow knew Jared was. Just stay where you are, he advised. I'll be there in a while.

Sam ran as fast as he could back towards the rez. He hadn't realized just how far he'd gone until then, and picked up his pace as much as he could in his tired and weakened condition. A part of him was mentally flogging himself for being so stupid, but another part of him was feeling like it had been understandable, considering what he'd done to Emily....

I thought a bear attacked her.

After a while, Jared's thoughts had calmed down, especially since his mom had called one of the Elders in a panic and they had also told Jared he wasn't crazy. They didn't know Sam was on the way, of course, but Jared did and the Elders had managed to get him outside somehow.

So to hear Jared suddenly make a comment startled Sam; badly enough that he tripped over a gopher hole. Jared's mind chuckled, but then Sam sensed his sadness as his family stumbled away uneasily, afraid of the noise from him.

You get used to it, eventually, Sam mentally told Jared quietly.

Jared wasn't convinced, Sam could tell. I thought a bear attacked Emily, the other boy repeated.

Sam winced, unable to stop flashes of the scene from running through his mind, unable to hold back the guilt, the shame, the pain at what he had done.

Fuck... Jared was horrified, amazed in a morbid way, and sympathetic. Thank God that didn't happen when this happened to me. He thought of his mom in the place of Emily and winced.

Both wolves went silent.

As Sam neared where Jared was, at the edge of the woods behind his house, he could pick up the scent of the other boy, plus of Old Quil and Walter. Sam slowed, cowardly not wanting to face the Elders after what he had done.

The memory of Emily's accusation of him being a coward hit him and he trembled.

He could hear Jared whine in sympathy and maybe even some empathy, feeling Sam's pain echo as his own. It was an accident... you didn't hurt her on purpose.

I should have been more careful.

Gathering his strength, Sam stepped carefully out of the trees, sparing only a glance for the humans on the back porch watching. Jared came forward just as carefully, a bit ungainly as he hadn't quite mastered moving as a large four-legged mammal yet.

This is... weird, Jared announced.

Sam snorted. You've got that right, he agreed with a slight nod of his head.

"Sam," Old Quil called from the porch.

He flinched down slightly, but turned his head to the Elder, watching him cautiously and shamefully.

"Take care of Jared. Help him in any way you can."

Sam nodded once, then looked at the other wolf beside him. Jared was a light gray splashed with white, smaller than Sam was but not by too much.

Come on... let's go run. We can work it all out without an audience.

The two wolves turned into the woods and dashed off, the black one easily and with surprising grace for such a gigantic animal, the other with awkwardness that steadily grew into comfort and then even some grace of his own.

They quickly disappeared among the trees, fading from the sight of the humans like ghosts in daylight.

So... I hope that didn't disappoint. ;) This is all still such new territory for me, I'm basically feeling my way somewhat still.

Don't go away - more coming up as soon as I can get some free time!