Stephanie owns them….

PAUL POV.

I haven't had this much fun in…well….never. The last few days, all the anger in my dissipated. And I was just…..happy. Content. Collin and Brady had so much fun today, they were able to be the kids that they are without having to deal with all the werewolf bullshit on the side. They were just kids. I don't know if Bella will ever really know what she did for them, meant to them. Meant to me. Pulling into the driveway, Bella jumped out and ran to the front door to open it while I grabbed Brady from the back. I laid him on the larger couch, and then went to go grab Collin.

Bella came in a few seconds after I got him situated on the smaller couch, and covered them up. She gave them each a small peck on there foreheads. And watching her do that, I had to push the envy away. She turned slowly and started walking back towards me.

"I had a lot of fun today Paul." She said when she finally reached me.

"Me too… your coming over to there party tomorrow right?" I asked.

"I wouldn't miss it."

"O.k well I'm going to get going. Its been a pretty long day." I said to her. I wasn't to used to getting up that early, not that I minded in the least in the way I woke up.

"Yeah I hear you." She said

She walked up to me then and pulled me into a hug.

"Someone needs to tell Jake he's been replaced." she whispered in my ear.

I pulled back away from her a little, and looked into her eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I think I found my new best friend!" She leaned in and kissed me on my cheek, sending a flame through my overheated body. I felt like I grew about 10 feet tall. My heart was soaring. Progress.

To soon she pulled away, turned and headed towards the stairs.

"Goodnight Paul." She said looking over her shoulder to me.

"Sweet dreams Bella." And I turned and walked out the door.

There was no way in hell I could go home right now. I was to excited. Giddy really. So I pulled my shoes and shirt off and laid them on the swing on the corner of the chiefs porch, and headed for the tree line to phase and run some of it off.

"Hey Paul." I heard in my head.

"Hey Embry, what's going on?" I asked.

"Nothing, just like every other night. Sam said Bella kidnapped you guys earlier."

And I started replaying the events of the day. The zoo, the fair. Ending with the kiss she gave me on the cheek.

"Looks like you two are getting pretty close. Collin and Brady are some lucky fucks. I had a test today I would have loved to get out of."

I chuckled.

"It was a spare of the minute thing. No lie we woke up this morning, and had to rush around the house to get ourselves together in time to get there to grab the boys. She wanted to do something for their birthday."

"Wait…wait, backup… did you just say when you two woke up this morning? Looks like things are a lot better than anyone thought." He said laughing.

"Its not like that man, we had a long day yesterday, when we got back to her house we put a movie in and fell asleep." I said growling.

"What did you do yesterday?" he asked.

I unintentionally started running through our time out on the cliffs. I hate having to share everything with these dicks sometimes.

"Fuck we didn't realize it was that bad." he said.

"Yeah I know. Just do me a favor and don't bring it up. She's getting better man, there's no reason for her to start losing ground. She's getting better. You saw what it was like when we were out today. There wasn't a minute that she didn't have a smile on her face. I won't lose that right now."

"Hey, slow down, I didn't say I was going to bring it up. I will say if I ever get my hands on that fucker, he'll pay for every mark he put on her."

"I get the first go at him. Whatever is left you can have." I said.

"Alright change of subject. Are you going to tell her about the imprint?"

"Yeah.. I think I am."

"When?"

"Soon….real soon." I said.

"Just do me a favor."

"What's that?"

"Don't hurt her. Hurt her and I'll hurt you."

"I cant hurt her." I said phasing back.

"I'm need to talk to you guys later on tomorrow night. You might have to help me with something o.k?" I asked turning to Embry

He shook his head up and down, and I turned, put my shorts back on, and headed home.

Jared and Seth were both passed out on the couch sitting up, probably waiting to drill me. So I walked quietly passed them and up the stairs.

I went into the bathroom, and set the water, took my clothes off and jumped into the shower.

After I was done washing, I climbed out and dried off, wrapped a clean towel around my waist, went into the bedroom and collapsed into bed. Surrendering to sleep instantly.

LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

"Dude's, get the fuck off me." I said to Jared and Seth who were currently sitting on me.

There's nothing like waking up to two over sized men jumping up and down on you. And on top of that, while Jared had my arms pinned under him., Seth took it upon himself to start plucking my nose and ears.

"And you wonder why I'm a fucking ass most of the time." I said

"What time did you come in last night?" said Seth.

"Sorry dad. I didn't know I had to report. But around 11:30 if you need to know. Now get your asses off of me." I said as I started shoving them off. I sat up straight and turned and set my feet on the floor.

"Where did you end up going yesterday? Sam said Bella sort of kidnapped you guys, but didn't know where you were going." Jared said.

"Yeah, she did. We were sitting in her kitchen, and she just jumped up, asked if I was busy, and when I told her no, she started shoving me in the direction of the laundry room to change. We ran out of the house and caught the boys right before they got to the parking lot of school. We ended up driving up to Seattle and spent the day at the zoo and the fair. She told the boys, it was for their birthday so do me a favor and don't give them any shit about it. Okay?" I said smiling.

"Sure, sure. I'm just surprised Sam went along with it." Seth replied.

"Well he really didn't have too much of a choice, we were already out of LaPush when we called him to let him know, and even if he did say no, I don't think Bella would have listened." I told him.

"Why the hell are you guys waking me up anyways?" I said, wondering why they were here in the first place.

"We were sent over by the guys. They wanted to know if you were going to make it out to the twins birthday party today." Jared said.

"What time is it?" Fuck I need to remember to plug my alarm clock back in.

"A little after 12. The party started about an hour ago."

"Shit." I said jumping up and throwing on a pair of shorts.

"Eager much?" Jared said, laughing at my display.

"Shut it….. Alright I'm ready lets go." I said, walking out the bedroom door.

Seth ran ahead of us to let everyone know that we were on our way. So I took the time to talk to Jared.

"Hey I might need your help later on." I said to Jared, walking beside him down the road towards Sam's house.

"What for?" He asked.

"I don't want to say right this second. I'm not sure how it will work out, but I'll let you know when I figure it out."

"No prob. You know where to find me." He said as we made it around the back of Jared's house.

Collin and Brady were running around, no doubt, telling everyone about what happened yesterday. Scanning the group, I found what I was looking for, sitting on Billy's lap over by the table.

She must have sensed my presence at the same time, because she started scanning the crowd, until she locked eyes with me. A spark lit in her eye, and she leaned over and whispered something into Billy's ear. He looked over at me, turned back to her, smiled and said 'go ahead dear'. She climbed out of his lap and headed in my direction.

"Morning sleepy head." She said when she made it to me.

"Yeah, sorry about that."

"Its no big deal. Although your waking probably wasn't as colorful as mine. Collin and Brady decided to use my bed as a personal trampoline, with me still in it." She said laughing.

"Well Jared and Seth decided I was their trampoline." I said chuckling.

"So did you sleep okay?" I asked after a couple of minutes.

"Great. You?" she said.

"Me too."

Just then a water balloon hit me on the side of my face, effectively soaking me, and most of Bella. When I looked over to see who it was, all of the guys were turned to the woods laughing.

"You want to get them back?" I leaned over and whispered in here ear.

"Who did it?" she asked.

"Does it matter?"

"How?" she said.

"Follow me." I said as we walked around the side of the house. I picked up the water hose and handed it to Bella. She smiled and turned back in the direction of where all the boys were standing. When she got there, she turned back to me and nodded and then turned back to the boys.

"Boys?" she said. Making it sound like she had a serious question to ask.

When they all turned around to see what she wanted she yelled 'NOW', and I turned the water on full blast.

I toppled over laughing at the expressions on all there faces. Its hard to surprise these guys. Sam and Jake were the only two that didn't get it, they backed away when they turned around, noticing before anyone else the hose in her hands.

They were soaked. Billy was turning red because he was laughing so hard.

I turned the water off, and Bella had a serious expression on her face when she dropped the hose. She looked them all up and down.

"Don't play with fire, if you don't know how to put it out." She said and turned and walked away, trying hard not to laugh.

"We'll get you back Bella!" Seth said at her retreating form.

"NO". Jake, Quil, and Embry all said at the same time.

"Why not?" Collin said.

"Dude you don't know her. You don't want to get her started, she can get vicious." Quil replied.

"I am not vicious." She turned quickly and glared at Quil.

"Your not….. What the time, you replaced Jake's cereal with dry cat food?"

"He deserved it. He cut the hair off my Barbie. I cried for 2 days." She said causing us all to topple over laughing.

"Yeah, yeah, we heard that before. What about the time you put a rubber band around the spray hose in the kitchen sink? You know when I went to get a glass of water I ended up soaked." Embry said.

"You put those packing peanuts in my closet Em. You set a trap. When I went to open it up, they fell all over me. I got stuck cleaning it up. That was so much worse than a little water." She said again.

"What about the time, you set all the parental controls on the tv Belly? The only thing I could watch for 3 days was Nick Jr….. I know you did it!" Quil said again.

"You snuck in my house and reset the alarm. I was waiting for the bus for over an hour before I realized that you changed it. That was your own damn fault." She said again.

Everyone was hyperventilating at there banter.

"Who knew you had it in you Bella." Leah stated walking up next to her.

"Come on lets go get something to eat." She said again, and dragged Bella away from the rest of the boys. Who were still standing there stunned.

I made my way over to where Bella was, made myself a plate and sat down next to her.

"Leah? Emily? Kim?…… I was wondering if you guys wanted to go to Port Angeles tomorrow morning? Do a little shopping, and maybe get some lunch." She asked.

"Sounds good. How about we leave around 8". Emily said.

"Eight it is." Bella replied.

"Me and Kim will meet you over here tomorrow Bella." Leah said.

"Okay."

The rest of the birthday party was a hit. Collin and Brady got a few new games for their systems. Jake thought it would be funny to get them each a new dog collar. Which set everyone into another round of laughter.

As the night came to and end, I asked Bella if she minded me walking her home.

"Of course not Paul." she said

So we headed back to her house.

"Did you have fun?" I asked her walking up the stairs to her front door.

"Yeah…"

I started rubbing the back of my neck, nervous and anxious.

"Bella…..umm…I was wondering if you'd like to go out with me tomorrow night.?

"Like a date?" She asked.

"Yeah…I mean nothing fancy or anything." I stuttered.

"Sure Paul, I'd like that." She said after a few minutes… allowing me to breathe again.

"Cool. How about I pick you up around 7?"

"That's fine…..I'll see you tomorrow Paul." she said, pulling me in for a quick hug and kissing me on my cheek.

"See you tomorrow Bella. Goodnight." And I turned and walked back down the sidewalk towards my house.

When I got around the corner I picked up my pace. I had a lot of things I needed to do. Slamming through my front door, I made my way into the living room where I knew most of the guys were hanging out. They all usually came over on Saturday night just to hang.

They all looked at me funny. Probably because they've never seen me so flustered. Walking over to the couch, I pulled Seth up out of my spot and threw him on the floor….man couldn't he get the hint, not to sit there when I'm here.

I sat down quickly and looked up at all them watching me.

"Guys…I need your help."

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