Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for the things you don't recognize! Song credit Owl City

I must say that this chapter is necessary to the future development of the story and is longer so that I don't have to drag out this part of the story for more than one chapter. So bear with me please :) Thanks again for all of the reviews and alerts!

"As many times as I blink I think of you tonight…

When violet eyes get brighter and heavy wings grow lighter

I'll taste the sky and feel alive again.

I'll forgot the world that I knew

but I swear I won't forget you.

Oh if my voice could reach back through the past I'd whisper in your ear:

oh darling I wish you were here!"

Vanilla Twilight

Today was my last day in La Push. Cady and Seth were off in California on their honeymoon for a week so we had already said our goodbyes when they left the reception. Even though Mom and I were going back to Michigan I knew that there would be plenty of visits, especially when the two of them started to have children.

Although home was appealing, there was a part of me that didn't want to leave. I liked my job as Grace's nanny and Paul's finance lady and I knew that I would feel a little lost without my sessions with Hunter. But it was time I started my adult life, just as Cady had by marrying Seth.

"Grace is going to miss you." Paul stated as he walked in into Grace's room.

I was in the middle of changing her diaper but glanced up to look into Paul's sad eyes. He looked like a wounded dog and I wanted nothing more than to hug him at the moment.

"In a month she'll forget about me." I sighed, not liking that thought at all.

"I won't."

"Aw Paul, you're going to make me cry." I sniffed before I threw myself into his warm arms.

He pulled me close and buried his face in my hair as Grace laid on the changing table looking up at the two of us curiously, her new diaper firmly in place. He held onto me for a while until Grace let out a little cry clearly stating that she was sick of being ignored by the two of us.

I wiped away my eyes before I put her little pants back on and swung her up into my arms. After I gave her a big noisy kiss on the cheek I turned a watery smile on Paul.

"You'll forget about me too when you find your imprint."

"No, I won't." Paul said firmly. "Now let's stop this crying and enjoy our last day together. How about we go kidnap Hunter and get some ice cream?"

* * *

"Mom, why aren't you packed?! Hunter is coming at eight in the morning to take us to the airport!"

After the ice cream outing and some tearful goodbyes between Grace, Paul, and me I had come back to see that Mom was sitting on the couch watching TV instead of packing up all of her stuff. At first I had thought that she was already done, but a quick look into her room proved that she hadn't done a thing! In fact, her suitcase was still under the bed!

"I'm not going back to Michigan."

"What do you mean you're not going back to Michigan?" I asked as I crossed my arms across my chest and narrowed my eyes at her.

"I mean that I'm moving here. So when you get home I want you to start packing up the house and put it up for sale. Sue says she has an apartment above her garage she'd be more than happy to rent out to me."

"But what about-"

"You can stay in the house until you find a job and your own place, but I can't live there anymore, Sadie. I don't even know how I lived there as long as I did after he left. Anyway, you'll know what stuff I'll want sent to me; the rest of it you can decide what to do with."

I was at a loss for words. I was feeling a myriad of emotions all at once. I was scared to go back to Michigan where I really didn't have anyone and I was angry that Mom seemed to be picking Cady over me. The adult part of me understood her motives of course; she would have grandchildren here soon. But the child in me was just a little bit jealous.

"You're going to be fine Sadie. I know you'll figure something out for yourself. You've always had that strength unlike your sister. You're more independent than she is, even when you two were babies. Your sister would always have to be rocked to sleep but as soon as you were laid down you were out like a light and always the first up and out of the crib too."

After a few more instructions for the sale of the house I walked into the room I had been using and started packing numbly. This summer had been such a roller coaster of emotions and just when I thought things were starting to calm down I was up another incline again about to take a dive.

I didn't blame Mom for wanting to get rid of the house; I would be glad to see it gone once a deal was made with someone. There had been happy memories there, but everything was always overshadowed by the fact that Adam Harrison had turned that house into what it was. He had remodeled it with only the help of three other men; so even when he wasn't there physically there were traces of him all around the house.

I would go back to Michigan and do as Mom asked, but I honestly did not know what my future held past that.

* * *

"Where is your Mom?"

"She's staying here."

Hunter paused, my suitcase in hand, on the way to his car.

"You mean she's going to live here?"

I nodded my head, "I'm to go back home and sell the house."

"What about you? How do you feel about this?" He asked as he loaded up my stuff in the trunk.

I sighed, "Well, I don't really have a choice but I understand her reasoning."

He nodded in understanding and finished loading me up before he joined me in the front of the car and turned the key in the ignition. The two of us remained quiet for a while down the road until finally I saw him glance at me out of the corner of my eye.

"I want you to continue your treatment back home." Hunter began. "I've done some research into the professionals around where you live and I think you should look into seeing Roxanne Gilbert. I put her information in one of your bags while I was loading and I've already faxed her office your file."

"Well, thanks for asking me." I said a little snottily.

He chuckled, "No need for the attitude, you know you need to continue this."

"Yeah, I know. I just didn't expect to be going back alone."

"This is going to sound cheesy, but I'm only a phone call away."

I smiled a little bit at that; he was right… it was cheesy. But it was true. I probably would be making a lot of calls to Washington once I was back home and not just to him either.

The rest of the ride was spent in companionable silence; Hunter was concentrated on the road and I was lost in my thoughts as I watched the green scenery pass by outside. It was definitely green here and while it would still be green when I arrived home it would shortly turn into vivid shades of red, orange and yellow. I smiled a bit at that thought; fall in Michigan was beautiful and definitely welcome after being exposed to so much green here. However, once all of those leaves fell winter would set in and I would be surrounded by white snow. But hey, snow is prettier than rain.

"Alright this is where we say goodbye." Hunter said after we reached the point where he could no longer accompany me.

"And this is where I get all emotional." I chuckled as I already felt tears in my eyes.

Hunter smiled gently and brought his hands up to clasp my arms. He held me at arm's length and ducked his head to my level so he was looking into the watery eyes I was trying to hide.

"Hey, you're going to be fine. This isn't goodbye forever; I'm sure you'll be back here in a little while. Your other half lives here after all."

I chuckled at that, but couldn't help but finally voice the concern I had had all summer, "What if I can't find a job?"

"We'll figure something out, Sadie. Now come here."

He dropped his hands from my arms and opened his arms to me. I was more than happy to walk into his arms and bury my face in his chest. He held me tight for a few minutes while I got a grip of myself and my watery eyes. Then finally the two of us separated and after I grabbed my carry on I walked away with a small smile.

"See you later, Sadie." He called after me.

"See you later, Hunter." I called back over my shoulder.

* * *

Packing up my Mom's stuff was easier than I thought it would be. With a little music on in the background, wrapping numerous pieces of antiques and china was actually kind of fun…even when I almost broke my Mom's favorite vase. Listing the house was easy too, but after two weeks there were still no bites. I wasn't surprised though and I needed the extra time anyway.

While I had been able to find a job at an accounting office a few towns away, my search for my own place was not going well. Mostly because my job didn't pay much and I wasn't sure yet whether or not I liked it well enough to make the commitment to move.

In the two weeks I had been home I had only talked to Mom twice and my sister once. I was avoiding talking to Hunter because I still hadn't called up Roxanne Gilbert's office like he wanted me to. And I hadn't talked to Paul because Cady informed me he had a big project he was working on at the moment, but she wouldn't tell me what it was.

I was in the middle of packing up the stuff left behind in our childhood bedroom when the phone rang. I hurriedly threw the stuffed elephant in my hand into the box and rand out into the hallway where the phone sat on a table between the master bedroom and the bathroom.

"Hello?"

"Hey Sadie."

"Hunter…hi."

"You sound guilty." Hunter chuckled. "I take it that you haven't seen Dr. Gilbert yet?"

I sighed, "No, but I will soon."

"Okay. Well, I guess that explains why I haven't heard from you."

I blushed, "Yeah…"

"Your sister told me you got a job."

"I did, but I'm not sure if it's what I want."

"It's in accounting isn't it?"

"Yeah," I began, "but I liked what I was doing for Paul much better. I liked the one on one. Not only does my salary suck, but I don't get to meet the people whose numbers I'm working on."

"Keep looking."

"I am."

"How is the house coming along?" He asked.

"Good. I'm almost done packing it all up, now all I need is some interested buyers. I still haven't found my own place yet, but I'll figure that out later. Anyway, how is Grace?"

Hunter sighed, "Paul and I can tell she misses you; we all do."

Our phone call lasted for a few more minutes until I hung up feeling lonelier than I had in the past two weeks. The house had never seemed so big to me before, but now that it was empty it felt almost like an eerie mansion; although it was far from being a mansion.

I missed everyone.

I stood staring at the phone for a while before I finally dug around for that piece of paper and dialed the number.

* * *

"Hello Sadie, I'm Roxanne Gilbert."

I looked up from the magazine in my lap and up at my new therapist. I hadn't been waiting in her waiting room long and I was happy to see that she had personally come to get me. I smiled at her as I set the magazine aside and stood up.

"If you'll follow me we can get started." She smiled.

As I followed her down the hallway and to her office I took in the sight of my new Doctor. The most obvious thing about her was her height. She towered over me in her three inch black heels and I knew that even without those beastly things I'd still be staring up into her bright green eyes. She was definitely younger than I had expected; probably twenty seven or so unlike the forty seven I had been picturing. And her hair…it was to die for. A deep rich red in loose curls that I'm sure many other women lusted over.

I pulled myself out of my musings when we reached her office and took a seat on the large black couch as she took a seat in a comfortable arm chair. Just like Hunter she had nothing in her hands and seemed to have her attention solely on me.

"We both know I have all your information in your chart, but how about you tell me about yourself?"

It was surprisingly easy to pour my heart out to her now that I had become accustomed to doing so with Hunter session after session. I didn't stop at my past though, I continued to tell her about the summer leaving out the part about mythical beasts and imprinting of course.

"It seems like you've had quite a summer of change." She stated evenly. "How do you feel about being here alone with both your Mother and sister across the country?"

"I understand my Mom's reasoning, but a part of me is jealous and a bit resentful."

"Are you angry at your sister?"

"No… more so at my Mom. Cady has a husband; I don't understand why Mom thinks she needs her too. I understand that there will be grandchildren but it feels like she just shuffled all of her business over to me. She didn't ask me to go home and sell the house, she told me to."

"And what do you get from that?"

"Anything I want to keep and a place to stay until I find my own." I replied a bit resentfully.

Roxanne looked thoughtful for a minute, "You said that after your Father left your Mother ceased to be a Mom for a while. Would it be accurate to say that she never truly stepped back into that role?"

"I don't know." I shrugged. "She did as a Mom is supposed to do while we planned Cady's wedding and she was genuinely happy for her."

"That role is easy to fill though." Roxanne pointed out.

"You know she fed me a line about how I am more independent than my sister."

She nodded her head, "I don't know your Mother, but it sounds to me like she's there when it's easy. Selling the house that she hates sounds like too much work so why not pass it off? A wedding is easy for her to deal with; no negative emotions. You, unlike your sister, are still filled with these negative emotions from your Father and that is what she wants to avoid."

"She did automatically assume I invited him to the wedding when he crashed." I added almost to myself. "Are you saying that she resents me or something?"

"No, but I would guess that you make her face her own suppressed emotions unlike your sister who at the moment is going through the happiest times of her life."

"So what should I do?"

"I can't tell you that. But what I can tell you is that you should try to communicate to your Mom about these things." She replied. "Well, I think we've covered a lot today. I hope I'll see you again in a few weeks alright?"

"Yeah."

* * *

I was anticipating the Petty's arrival with a hint of dread. They seemed seriously interested in buying the house and I was nowhere near ready to move out of the house. I still had no prospects for a living space and each day I hated my job more and more.

But I had business to do, so I cleaned the house until it shined and waited for the newlywed couple to arrive. I had decided not to mess with realtors and instead put a sign in the yard that said: For Sale By Owner. After the house was to my liking I quickly dressed myself appropriately and waited.

At exactly three o' clock, just as they said, the Petty's arrived with a tag along. A tag along that happened to be my therapist, Roxanne Gilbert.

"Sadie?"

"Dr. Gilbert?"

"Roxy, how do you know Sadie?" The new Mrs. Petty asked.

The Petty's were what I considered to be your typical 1950's American newlywed couple. Greg Petty was tall dark and handsome and his wife, Lynette, was short with strawberry blonde hair and a kind smile. But as I looked closer I noticed that both Lynette and Roxanne had the same eyes. And with the way the two of them looked at each other I could only assume that they were sisters.

"Sadie and I have a professional relationship." Roxanne replied.

"Oh." Lynette smiled. "Well Sadie, this is my older sister Roxy; we brought her along for her advice."

Inside I cringed because she knew all of the intimate details about the house.

"Alright, let's get started." I smiled my best business smile.

By five o' clock I was shaking hands with the Petty's with a smile. I had sold the house and for the price we had asked for. Roxanne and I exchanged glances; she sent me an encouraging smile and I sent her back an apprehensive one of my own.

"When do you two want to move in?" She asked for me.

"We can wait until you're ready." Lynette replied kindly turning her eyes to me.

"Thank you."

Later that night I picked up the phone and stared at it a minute before I dialed. The phone rang four times before finally he picked up and breathed a 'Hello' into the phone.

"Hunter, I sold the house…but I…don't know what I'm going to do now."