A/N: Hi everyone! Thanks for all the great reviews last chapter! There will be a talk between Bella and Paul this chapter, let's hope it all goes well! And by the way, does anyone here like the Outsiders? If so, there's a poll on my page about my next story so please vote on it! Enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: Not mine, unfortunately. They belong to Stephanie.

Paul POV: I sat bolt upright in my bed as soon as the phone rang. As tired as I was, I was alert. "Seth?" I asked as soon as the phone hit my ear.

"Hey man," Every muscle in my body tightened and my throat closed as I heard his voice on the other end of the line. What if Bella wasn't feeling well? What if something went wrong? What if she woke up and said she hated me? All the worst case scenarios were running through my mind on rapid fire. "Paul?" Seth broke me out of my mental attack. "You there, man?"

"I'm here," I gulped, my voice husky. "It's like two a.m., Seth. Is everything okay? Is Bellsie okay?"

He chuckled and I could practically hear him shaking his head at me. I don't know why this idiot found me so funny. His imprint was in a hospital bed next to him for goodness sake! "Paul, would you calm down? Bella's perfectly fine. As a matter of fact, she woke up a few minutes ago and we had a talk. Now, she really wants to see you."

"She… wants to see me?" I asked bewildered. How could she want to see me after what I did? How could she not be terrified of me?

"Yeah, she does," his voice had taken on a soft, reassuring note; much like one you would use to console a small child whose dog had just died. "Is there any chance you can get down here? Like right now?"

"Of course," I immediately made a grab for my shoes. "Should I wake my dad?"

"Not right now. She said that she needs to talk to you alone right now."

My stomach dropped. With Bella, that was never good. Any time she didn't want dad to be around when we talked, she always needed to yell at me. And every time Bella yelled… well let's just say I think she can reactivate an inactive volcano. "O-of course," I stuttered. "I'll run and be there in five minutes. See you soon." Without waiting for an answer I slammed the phone back into its' cradle and ran out the door.

Within about three minutes (I had beat my own personal best now), I made it through the doors to Forks hospital and up to Bella's ward. Fear was instilled throughout my entire body at the confrontation we might have. I wouldn't blame my poor sister if she despised me for the rest of her life. That was less than I deserved by far.

Mustering up all the courage I had in me I slowly opened the door to see her and Seth laughing as he fed her a chocolate chip cookie. As much as it angered and disgusted me to see my friend with my sister I pushed it aside and cleared my throat.

The couple jumped apart and Bella looked kind of upset as soon as she saw me. Seth just smiled and kissed her forehead before he stood up. "Hey Paul," he said brightly. "Well, I know you guys have some things you need to talk about, so I'm going to go home and get some rest for the night," he turned to Bella and squeezed her hand gently. "I'm just a phone call away, sweetheart," he smiled and walked out the door, clapping me on the shoulder.

I turned back to my injured sister only to find her momentarily dazed and staring out the door. Imprinting made me sick sometimes.

"Bells," I whispered. "Please look at me."

She slowly turned her eyes towards me. "You know… I'm not mad at you, Paul. At least not for this," she motioned to herself and the hospital bed.

I blanched and fumbled backwards a step. "Y-you're not mad at me?"

Bella laughed. "No silly, of course not. I should have known not to get in the middle of the two of you. And I forgive you. You never intentionally meant to hurt me."

I sighed out of relief and went to kneel down by her side. "Bella, sis, you don't know how much that means to m-"

"But," she cut me off loudly and I winced. Here it comes. "I am however angry about how resistant you were towards Seth and I. That's what caused everything. I know you still think of me as your baby, but Paulie, I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm going to be with Seth, and you need to accept that whether you like it or not. And until you do, I won't speak to you again."

Okay, I said I deserved whatever was coming, and worse, but I couldn't lie and say it didn't still hurt. The spasm of pain must've flickered across my face because she took my hand and squeezed it. "I'm sorry," Bella whispered. "But you need to ease up when it comes to babying me."

I sighed. "Bells, earlier when we were in the waiting room, Seth and I had this exact same talk basically. I made him swear up to the heavens that he would take care of you, otherwise he gave me his consent to being murdered. I don't particularly like knowing that you're growing up and not needing me as much anymore, but I'll work on accepting it, I promise."

I mentally smacked myself for whatever I'd said wrong, because her eyes filled up with tears. But then, she did something that surprised me. She smiled. "Paul," she said softly. "You're my big brother. I'm always going to need you, whether I'm sixteen or one hundred and six. You just need to give me independence sometimes. I love you, Paulie."

Kissing her forehead as the tears spilled over I whispered, "I love you too, Bellsie. Just promise me one thing, okay?"

"What?"

"Don't spring a wedding on me yet, okay? I said I can be accepting, just not that quick. Give me like… another twenty years, alright? At least another twenty.

She covered her mouth to muffle her laughter. "Paul," she gasped between giggles. "I agree we won't be getting married anytime too soon, but I am not going to agree to wait to get married till I'm in my mid-thirties."

I groaned. I knew Bella wasn't going to play along with that, but you can't blame her poor brother for trying. "Okay fine," I sighed. Just… tell him to come talk to me before he does it. So I have some notice.

Bella laughed again. "When the time comes where Seth and I talk about marriage, I'll be sure to mention it," she assured me as she patted my hand.

Bella will always be my baby sister, and I'll always protect her, but she's growing up too fast. I guess that's what I get for all the yearly visits and missing all the key points. I didn't like it. Not one bit. But I have to learn to live with it for her sake.

A/N: Okay, that might have been a bad ending, but I'm kind of blocked! I do know what to do with the next couple chapters, though so I guess the block is gone and I'll be updating a lot sooner! That is, I'll update if you review! So go on and click the button! Love you guys!

Thanks for Reading!

-thewolfgurlgleek :)