A/N: ... I still got nothing. Three months later and I've got absolutely nothing witty or remotely funny.

WARNING: Yelling match bellow may contain some very violent and silly name calling.

Songs:

Beauty and the Beast - Jordin Sparks
Buckbeak's Flight - John Williams
Better Than Revenge - Taylor Swift
Cannibal - Ke$ha
Hedwig's Theme - John Williams
Mean - Taylor Swift
Pain - Three Days Grace
Runaway - Avril Lavigne
Sick and Tired - Anastacia
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) - Shakira

Chapter 10

Making Progress

Paul carried me inside the house, and within, I saw a conglomeration of various men and women, all wearing bright smiles. Sam was the first to approach me, his hair plastered to his face by the rain, and picked me up in a giant bear hug. "Welcome, little sister," he whispered into my ear, but I now knew that almost everyone in the room had heard him, with the exception of the imprints. I grinned ear to ear as he set me down. "I think this one needs a hug, gentlemen, what do you think?" My eyes widened. Pack group hug? Oh, shit.

Everyone, including the girls, closed in on me. I tried to move, but Paul trapped me, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Oh, no you don't, little missy." he said teasingly as I kicked up, trying to loosen his hold on me. Oh, Godfrey, now my own imprint is against me. What has the world come to? The pack slowly stalked forward. The bruises. I could tell Paul that a group hug would hurt me because of my bruises! But just as my mouth opened to bring up the subject, Collin and Brady closed in on me, muffling anything I might have said, and I could see out of the little gaps between them that more people were piling in. But the great thing was I could still feel Paul, right behind me, holding onto me tightly. Maybe pack group hugs aren't so bad.

After everyone finished suffocating me with their hug, someone suggested we play truth or dare. 'To bond,' or so Jake claimed, because it was raining outside and 'Sydney has a gash in her head the size of Canada.' Yeah, and I'm gonna give you a bruise the size of Canada, alpha boy, how does that sound?

So I was sitting in the circle, laying on Paul's chest as one of my cleaner dares had been to sit on Paul's lap through seven of my own dares. Naturally, I'd only picked truth since this had been mandated, but they didn't offer me the choice anymore after they figured out my game plan. So after one dare, where I'd been forced to kiss one pack member - not Paul - of my choosing. I cheated and kissed Sam's cheek. Kim, who had been the one daring me, was really pissed that she hadn't specified how I had to kiss someone. Everyone's against the shorty.

Speaking of my being short... "Hey, Embry, I gotta good one for you..." I trailed off, my smile slowly fading as I looked around the circle. How had I not noticed he wasn't there? Or Seth for that matter? Shit, I must be losing it. How did I not notice that my best friend - Embry has officially made it to that status, despite my current threat to his life - and someone I considered t be a brother were missing? "Uh, where's Embry?" I asked after a short silence.

Which was then followed by an uncomfortable silence.

People shifted uncomfortably and Emily and Sam jumped up to 'get the twins' when one of them started making a gurgling sound. What the hell was happening around here. Okay, I must be in shock or something because my temper flared before I could blink. "Enough with the freaking secrecy. Where are Seth and Embry?"

"Embry's... angry," Quil finally said, looking down on the floor in a sort of guilty fashion. "He's angry at you for almost getting yourself killed, irrational as that may be." He took a deep shuddering breath. "But Jake and I, we saw you too. You looked," his face had gone pale and he cringed as he remembered just how I looked after Cade's attack, "you looked horrible; almost dead." Jake nodded in agreement. "I wouldn't ever show anyone what you looked like the night before last, even if I had an option. It was bad, Sydney. Really Bad."

"And then he heard you screaming," Paul said prom behind me, one warm hand against my stomach, my hand intertwined with his. "When we were with Dr. Fangs and his family. He felt helpless." I had the feeling by the tone of his voice that Embry hadn't been the only one feeling helpless. "He told me, after we left you here, that your screams were the absolute worst thing he'd heard in his life. They were the worst I'd heard in mine, too." He buried his face into the crook of my neck and I could feel him breathing in and out, inhaling my scent. I absently stroked his hair while he did this, just to comfort him.

There was a short pause, in which no one seemed to want to add anything. "And Seth?"

Everyone looked at a loss. They all looked at each other, seeing if anyone had the answer. Sam and Emily came in, each holding a twin, but they didn't seem anymore clued in to Seth's whereabouts than anyone else. But one person's behavior stood out to me. Leah was staring steadfastly at the floor, barely moving. I stared at her for a moment. The weight of my gaze must have weighed heavily on her, but no one else seemed to notice. She looked up at me with pleading eyes and mouthed the words, 'Not now.'

I let it go. "Alright then," I said with an over-dramatic sigh, "I guess since Embry's not here, I'll have to make a substitution." I gave an evil grin and every male in the room's face went stony in a 'she-can-smell-fear' sorta way. Except for Paul; he was laughing into my neck and messing with my fingers. If he thought he was safe just because we were soul mates, he had another thing coming. "How about you, Mr. Giggles?"

-Forever His-

I was at home, helping the boys settle into their new rooms and unpack their things. Apparently, this was the first time they'd ever not shared a room with one another or with other people for that matter. Raf had decided that he wanted to pain his room black and then splatter it with neon colors. Leo, being a little more artistic than his twin, was going to paint his walls over in white so he could paint and draw on them whenever he liked. Mom was thrilled that they became comfortable enough to establish a real room quickly. It took me months to even acknowledge that it was my room, let alone do anything with it. But now that we were at a new house, I was making plans to do my room too.

Currently, Raf and I were having a tape war and Leo was snapping picture after picture of us while we attempted to laugh around the tape. I stuck a wad of pink duct tape in Raf's hair and got up, running around his room while he ran after me, red duct tape in hand. "Ahhhhh!"

"What's going on up here?" Dad asked with a laugh as he appeared in the door frame, watching us, amused at our childish behavior. Leo immediately turned around and snapped another shot. I veered at the sight of him and ducked around his lean form, coming up behind him to use as a human shield. "Back! Back I say! Foul demon!" Leo took another picture, and laughed, saying how that one would be a great one when it was developed. I, on the other hand, jumped onto my dad's back and said, "I command the, noble steed, direct me away from the demons!" And made a whipping noise with my mouth for emphasis.

Dad laughed again, but did as I said, turning on heel and running. Raf, after he registered what had just happened, ran after us, red duct tape in his hand, all the while yelling, "Sydney's a cheater!" Leo had also dropped his camera and had come after us, bearing green duct tape. Well, that's no fair. I spurred my dad on as he looped through our roundabout office and clomped down the stairs, me still riding around on his back.

Raf jumped at him, barely missing, but managing to attach a red strip of duct tape to his leg. "I'm hit, Syd, I'm hit!" Dad cried, pretending to limp. "Save yourself, my dear child." He let me get off his back before falling to the ground, 'dead,' apparently. I immediately started running in the general direction of the back door.

"I will avenge you, father!" I cried back, switching directions and heading to the kitchen. I could hear Leo helping Raf off the ground, and ran to one of the drawers, grabbing a roll of blue duct tape before shutting it. I turned to see two ominous, identical shadows standing over dad. Time to put my height to use. I opened the cabinet that led to the hallow space in the island, and slipped in, shutting it behind me, hopefully leaving no evidence as to where I could be. I sat back and listened carefully.

"Sydney," one of the boys called - I couldn't tell which; their voices were eerily similar - and I edged farther back into the cabinet, glad it was empty. "Come out, come out, where ever you are." Okay, if that's what you want, dear little brother of mine, if that's what you want.

I jumped out of the cabinet, quickly tearing off one blue strip and tackling the twin closest to me.

Five minutes later, my mom walked in on me sitting on two wriggling boys who were yelling between their laughter for me to let them go. I just smiled at mom and waved. She laughed loudly, gasping for me to wait until she got the camera. I shrugged, still sitting on my brother's like a queen, grinning like the cat who ate the canary. My mom came back and took a quick shot of the three of us, and then of her husband, who had yet to break character and was still laying on the ground, dead. I loved my family. "Oh, by the way, Sydney," my mom said after she'd finished unbinding Leo's arms, "Leah called earlier, said your cellphone kept going to voice-mail." Oh, right, Kim broke that. She owes me a new phone! "Said she wanted to talk to you."

What could Leah want to talk to me abou- Oh, yeah! That thing about Seth this afternoon; she still owes me an explanation, especially since I covered for her ass.

"Mmkay, thanks mom, I'll be sure to call her back."

And I did call Leah, which is how, not twenty minutes later, we were sitting on the beach, about a mile from where we knew the boys might be - any number of them. We'd talked about a few smaller things, like why my phone wasn't working - KIM! - and how the weather was so nice today, and then we got into why there was a piece of green duct tape stuck to my ass that I hadn't noticed before - very sneaky, Leo, very sneaky - but she'd still yet to get down to the point, and though I was impatient for the answer, I didn't want to push her.

We sat there for a while, staring at the water, until finally, she spoke. "Seth... is good at keeping things from other people, when he wants to," Leah started, not looking at me. "I'm the only one who found out, and that's because he didn't know that I was there. If he had, he wouldn't have been so careless." She went silent for a second. "He doesn't want anyone to know, especially you, but I think you, of all people, have the right to know.

"Seth, from the moment he set eyes on you, had very strong feelings for you. He'd almost thought he'd imprinted, until he saw the way Paul looked at you. Jake and Embry were jealous of the imprint itself, and the fact that Paul had imprinted on someone so beautiful, but Seth - Seth was jealous that Paul got you." She stopped short to give a pained little laugh. "My little brother is so stupid, sometimes, but he knew you from the inside out the moment Jared brought you into the room. He doesn't want to see you with Paul, accepting him in a way that you could never accept Seth. But more than anything, he doesn't want to see you pitying him." She had still yet to look at me, up until this point. "He loves you, you know."

I let a sharp breath escape my throat. Seth loves me. That's a bit... difficult to swallow. Leah turned away from me, leaning back and propping herself up on her arms. The wind blew through, sending both our hair into the air, dancing like ribbons on the breeze. It wasn't fair to him. That's all I could think. Why the hell did he have to fall for me when I could only fall for someone else? Was this a cruel trick to make me regret my love for Paul? Was it my retribution for surviving Cade's attack? Had I died, Seth would have been set free of me.

But I hadn't, and I couldn't let Seth know I knew about his feelings; he would hate himself and Leah for it. No, I had to keep it between Leah and I. With time, maybe Seth would be able to move on, find someone else; someone who could love him like he loved them.

"Okay," I breathed. "Okay." I looked at Leah. "Don't tell him I know. For now, I want things to remain as normal between us as possible. So just don't tell him. I'll figure it out."

Leah shrugged. "I don't know what there is to figure out, but I'll keep quiet."

-Forever His-

I hummed lightly, rocking back and forth on my heels. The weather had gotten a bit colder in the last three days, or maybe that was just Embry's new found icy attitude towards me. He hadn't spoken to me since that night a week ago when I'd gotten hurt. Whenever I was over at Sam and Emily's he wasn't; whenever Paul came around to pick me up from school, he had already gotten Collin and Brady and left. Things between Seth and I had gone back to normal, except for now I was noticing the signs of what Leah had said. A look that lasted too long in my direction, a smile too happy when I gave him a compliment, brushing against me more often than was absolutely necessary.

I wrapped Paul's black jacket closer around myself, having stolen it from his truck yesterday when he picked me up for our second date. That's right, I have an official, full fledged boyfriend! I didn't think that would happen here, of all places, but then, a couple months ago, I also didn't think Cade and I would break up, and he'd be turned into a vampire who is fanatic about getting me back... when the fuck did my life get so messed up?

The wind blew even harder against my back, and I knocked again. "Coming!" a motherly voice responded as I heard the dead-bolt turn and came face to face with a short - and this is coming from me - woman, who was wiping her hands off on her apron. This had to be Embry's mother. Her brown eyes glowed with mocha flecks and her hair fell in gentle waves down her back. Embry had clearly gotten her eyes. "Hello, little lady," she greeted in a friendly manner, pushing the door open father and giving me a friendly smile. She couldn't be too much older than Missy - far to young to have a son around my age. "What can I do for you?" The smell wafting out of the house and the smell of cookies that surrounded her like a thick cloud was suddenly very prominent.

I gulped down the saliva that gathered in my mouth and smiled back at her. "Hello, Mrs. Call. I need to speak to Embry, please, if he's available." I hadn't met her yet - in fact, I do believe she is the only pack parent I had yet to meet up until this point. Well, besides Paul's mother, who lived off the reservation.

She smiled warmly at me. "You must be Sydney. Embry talks about about you all the time." I wondered briefly if she meant talked about me all the time, but didn't linger on that. "Please, come in. Must be freezing out there - is that Paul's jacket?" She changed her train of thought almost as fast as I inhale vanilla ice cream. "Embry was right," she shook her head with a young laugh, "you've definitely ensnared Paul." For some reason, I didn't like the word 'ensnared.' It made it feel like I'd trapped him, and not like the imprint wasn't mutual. "I always figured Paul would never imprint and just end up with some tough, biker-looking girl. But you're so small and sweet looking; nothing at all like I thought." Was she trying to make me feel uncomfortable? Because if she is, she's doing a smashing job, really. Maybe Embry put her up to it...

I'd followed her through the interior of her small house to her living room. Embry was leaning against the door frame of what I assumed was the kitchen, stone-faced. "Mom," he said, catching her attention and stopping her rambling. "You're doing it again."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Mrs. Call turned to me, looking very apologetic. "I always do this!" Her facial expression turned irked. "I always tell myself, 'Alicia, you aren't going to say the wrong thing to this one. You're going to make her feel welcomed into the pack and you are going to tell them all about the great impact they've had.' But I always mess it up by saying things I shouldn't. I'm sorry, Sydney, dear."

"Oh," well how do I respond to that? "It's alright Mrs. Call."

"Please, call me Alicia. Mrs. Call makes me feel old." She shot a quick glare Embry's way, as if daring him to make a joke. But with the look Embry had on his face, I'm guessing he wouldn't have cracked a joke if she said she still felt seventeen. Alicia seemed to sense the tension between the two of us - or maybe she just saw sparks fly as our steely glares fought against each other. "Cookie?" she asked weakly.

"No, mom," Embry said, speaking for both of us, I suppose. "Sydney came here to talk to me. So let's talk."

I physically winced at the uncaring tone of his voice. Alicia didn't reply; just stood there, looking back and forth between us helplessly before disappearing into the kitchen. Embry turned on heel and headed down the hall that had four doors leading off of it, and then another door that led to their back yard. He led me through the second door on the left, and I immediately knew it was his room. It was distinctly Embry. The bedspread was army green, just like his off-roader, and the sheets underneath were heather gray, slightly mussed, like him. The posters on the wall were of some nice cars, one or two nice looking girls, and a couple movie and band posters. Embry turned on me quickly so that I almost ran into him, not realizing I had been staring at his room and not looking where I had been going. Embry's jaw was set and his eyes were cold. Unreasonable anger? Yeah, this is so past unreasonable.

I mirror his position and cross my arms across my chest. The only reason I came over here is so he would have to talk to me, but I'll be damned if I make the first move in this conversation. He's the one making an ass out of himself, and if he's going to continue to do it, I'm gonna have to slap that ass, as much as its probably going to hurt me. Maybe I'll have Leah do it for me...

"What do you want?" Each word was pronounced crisply, emphasis on every syllable and venom lacing it artfully. Who knew you could convey so much anger into four little words? I'm thinking about cutting to the chase, grabbing the hockey stick in the corner of his room and ramming him in the balls. He deserves it at this point.

I give him an evil little smile, and for a moment, I see a flash of the old Embry - the one who would have been challenging me, but scared at the same time - but before I could blink, his mask had replaced that little glimmer of him. I took a second to smile inwardly to myself. This might be a bit easier than I thought. "Oh, Embry," I said, shaking my head, letting traces of the oncoming threat color my tone, "I want what I always want; revenge, retribution, an explanation." My voice turned harder than his eyes and it was his turn to flinch.

He reigned himself in again and scoffed. "Fine then, Syd," my name was acid on his tongue, "take your best shot. Don't worry. I can wait for you to curl up in a ball and start screaming again, clawing at your skin like you're trying to rip yourself apart. Go ahead; I'll wait." Oh, low blow. I'll go lower, jackass. Don't tempt me. I glared harshly at him.

"I hit my head, dick for brains. What's your excuse for tearing me apart?"

I swore that his eyes flared red and his arms shook for a second. I stepped back, but was far from backing down. I had Jake and Quil circling the house right now, in case Embry was rash or made a bad move. They were both ready to come busting in and tear his ass down. I didn't tell Paul what I was up to because he was protective and would never allow it, but this had to be done sometime, and sooner was better than later. But it appeared that Jake and Quil were unneeded for now. Embry took a deep breath, shut his eyes tight and with clear effort on his part, stopped the shaking. He seemed to realize the danger of being in such a small place while discussing such a touchy subject, and through gritted teeth, managed to say, "Maybe we should take this outside."

I gestured for him to go first and he glared at me before brushing past and down the hall, out the screen door. I was feeling snark-y and followed after, mocking his movements with overly big steps and making faces all the way. Basically, I acted like a four year old. The response this earned was a narrowing of the eyes. "You wanna take another hit, Em? I'm open." I lifted up the hair I'd been using to cover up the bruises on the back and sides of my neck. I tapped my jugular with two fingers. "How 'bout right here?"

He looked away from me, horror splayed across his face. I knew I'd hit a nerve. "Don't even joke about that, Sydney."

I gave a sick sounding laugh. Oh, hell no. "Why not?" I asked, sounding frantic. "It's not like you care. You've been acting like I was dead for the past week!" I threw myself into the sentence. I was making jerky little movements with every word I said, a bad habit I had when I was worked up; almost made me look like I was having a mini seizure every other second.

"I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" he bellowed. "Do you wanna see how you looked, Sydney, because I'm sure as hell never going to forget it." His eyes were wide and... haunted. "Paul called us to come get your car," he said, shaking again, but not in anger this time; more hysteria. "He didn't tell us anything! And when I got there, do you want to know what the FUCK I saw?" His hand went up and grabbed a piece of folded paper from the pocket of his plaid shirt. He unfolded and threw it on the ground in front of me. "I saw THAT!" I looked down at the slip of paper. "I saw Paul fucking grasping at your corpse, like he was fucking trying to will the goddamn life back into you!" One of Embry's hands went to the side of his head as he ran his hand roughly through his short hair. I don't think I've ever seen someone look so freaked out. I picked up the piece of paper off the ground.

The paper had five small drawings on it, none of them colored. The first of them was a picture of Paul holding onto something long and slender that was so shadowed over, I couldn't tell what it was. The next was of Paul's face as he looked at the person who was viewing the photo, his face mirroring desperation, the figure in his arms still hidden in vague shadows. The third finally showed the figure, or should I say me. My neck hang somewhat limply off of Paul's arm and one of my wrists was bent in a awkward and painful looking position. The fourth must have been me when I was in the back seat of the truck - I'd begged Paul to tell me what happened while I was out - because I couldn't see my own face. I could see one of my arms bent out, making the shape of a triangle at the back of my head, and my long hair spilling out over the seats, some of it tangled and I could see where he'd made it obvious that it wasn't just tangled, but matted with blood. The last must have been me when they got me to Dr. Cullen. My hair was splayed out underneath me on the flat surface. My bangs had fallen away from my face, revealing the large gash in my forehead, and the hair had fallen away from my neck, revealing a series of bruises. This sketch almost made me look like a body laid out on an autopsy table.

When I looked back to Embry, both hands were gripping the back of his head and he was pacing. "Syd," he breathed, a waver in his voice, "you didn't even look fucking alive." There were tears in his eyes when he looked at me, his arms dropping to his sides limply, like he'd lost the will to keep them up. "Shit, Sydney. I thought you were dead." It was a mere whisper.

I fought the tears I knew were glistening on the edges of my own eyes. "Embry," I breathed, letting one tear slide down my cheek, "acting like I'm not here anymore and being mad at me isn't going to erase what you saw. You're just hurting me." That was the last straw. My dam broke and tears began to stream down my cheeks one by one and two by two. A pitiful sob erupted from my chest without my permission, wracking my body and making me shake uncontrollably. "Don't do this to me, Embry," I cried, attempting to wipe away my tears with my sleeve, but my efforts were in vain because fresh ones took their place.

I hadn't even noticed the cold in my rage. Not until Embry wrapped his arms around me, engulfing me in his warmth. I only stopped for a second in my shock. Embry just stood there, but I could see two tear tracks that led down his cheeks. I pressed my face into his chest and cried. He rubbed my back with his hand, bring me closer in to him. "I don't want to hurt you."

I just sat there for a minute, crying my eyes out, and I could swear I could here two very approving barks in the difference. I had my big brother, my partner in crime back. But now I definitely had to get him back for ignoring me for the last week, as well as the incident on the road. I'd do that later, I decided, not wanting to ruin today. It felt nice for everything to feel normal again, and I wanted to keep that feeling for today.

"Hey," I said, sniffing, "you think the offer for that cookie still stands?"

Embry laughed. "Yeah."

A/N: Okay, I know it's been three months, but as today was my last day of school for two weeks, I was finally able to finish this baby. I almost started crying while I was writing the last part of this chapter; not even kidding.

Anyhow, I should be able to get one more chapter up before my break ends; maybe two if I can figure out a good idea and get it down. But the next one's going to have no major drama, what so ever. In fact, it's going to be three parts of pure filler chapter. It's going to be all about the holidays with the pack. For anyone whose confused, so far this story has been taking place in late September, early October, which is about the time (in the North) when it starts getting cold, but the next, it'll give you actual dates.

I love all of you who reviewed and I'm sorry it took so long to reward you, but I hope you enjoy it.

So what did you like about it? What did you dislike about it? LET MEH KNOW!

Until we next meet.

Madly Yours,
Jassabella