Chapter 26

I stood at the opening of SeaTac Airport security. My flight left in 30 minutes and the line was getting longer, but I couldn't move my feet. I just stared up at Paul, my eyes shedding tears and my body shuddering at the thought that I wouldn't see him for nearly a month.

I was going to Barcelona with my mother for a month to study under her in design. Last year, I would be so excited that I wouldn't be able to contain myself. A summer in Barcelona; what could be better? Paul. Paul is the one thing that I want more than Barcelona.

The school year was over and summer was here and I couldn't take Paul with me to Barcelona.

As much as I wanted him there, the wolf wouldn't let him leave La Push for a month. He would get antsy and irritated. He needed La Push almost as much as he needed me.

I felt like it was a "goodbye" instead of a "see you later". I told Paul about my feelings before and he made the purpose of reminding me that he would never let me go, not for too long anyway. He usually reminded me when he was inside of me and although it was super intimate, as soon as it was over the feelings would come rushing back to me.

Paul's eyes were tearing up and his eyebrows were knit together. He didn't want me to leave and I knew that. I tried to turn down my mother, but she insisted, and there was really no way of saying no to her.

Paul pushed some of my hair behind my ear and then pulled me to him in a tight embrace. I could feel every ounce of love that he had for me in this hug. I couldn't hold back anymore, my body being racked with shivers and tears flowing like a torrential downpour.

"You'll be back," he whispered. "It'll only be for a month. This isn't goodbye," he reminded me. I nodded my head into his chest, not trusting myself to make any sense if I tried to talk. "We'll Skype every day, whenever you want," Paul reassured me before kissing the top of my head. I tightened my hold on him.

"I don't want to get on that plane," I mumbled into his chest. He laughed and I could feel his chest vibrating from it. He tilted my face up so I could look at him. "Look, Kait, you've wanted this. I'm not going to stand in your way." He kissed me softly on the lips and I deepened it without a second though. Paul tightened his hold on me and his other hand was lost in my hair.

"I fucking love you so much, Kaitlyn," he whispered into my mouth. I loved him, too. I loved him so much that he scared me sometimes. Not nearly as much as it used to. It only scared me when I sat and thought about it for too long. Love isn't supposed to be thought about though; it's supposed to be felt wholeheartedly.

"I love you too, Paul. So freaking much." He hugged me to him again and inhaled my scent. He kissed my forehead again and pulled away from me. "If you miss this plane, your mom is going to come here and kill us both." I laughed. He was right. I needed to get on that plane or else there would be some consequences.

I pressed my lips to his one more time and walked towards the security line which had gotten significantly shorter. Before I was too far away, Paul slapped me on the ass. I squealed in surprise and turned around to see him wink at me. I smiled back at him and got in the security line. That was MY Paul.

I sat in first class, waiting for the plane to takeoff. I could feel my heart tightening and I had to stop myself from breaking down into sobs again. I grabbed the pendant on the necklace that Paul had given me a few weeks ago.

-Flashback-

"I'm gonna die!" I wailed, burying my face into the stupid AP Chemistry book that laid open on the kitchen table.

"Well, no one told you to take so many AP classes," Baby Doll sneered before skipping out of the kitchen. I threw a pencil at her but I missed.

Paul sat down next to me and started laughing. I peeked up at him and glared. "Is that what you do when your girlfriend is dying? You laugh about it?" He continued laughing. "Yes, if she dies from AP Chemistry then I'm sure she deserved it." I continued to glare at him and Paul rolled his eyes.

"Let me see which problem you're having trouble with." I handed him my textbook and pointed to practice question number 27. "Kaitlyn, this one is easy. Here, all you have to do is-,"

I started tuning him out and started staring at him. Paul was over here to help me study for my AP Chem exam because he's a freaking math and science wizard and I'm as dumb as a sack of potatoes. The problem is that whenever Paul started explaining things to me, I would look at his lips and want to kiss him and start fantasizing and I'd completely ignore everything that he was saying. It was a never-ending cycle.

"Do you get it?" he asked me, after he finished explaining. I nodded my head dumbly and stared down at my textbook. It was like reading Latin. I had no idea what I was doing.

Paul sighed and stood up. I looked up at him and he pulled me up along with him. "We're going for a walk. You keep getting distracted."

He started walking towards the back door and I followed behind him. "I'm not getting distracted. Are you implying that I don't have a long attention span?" Paul laughed. "I ain't implying. I'm saying. Besides, I can smell you, Kaitlyn. You're distracting me too."

"Where are we going?" I asked him once we reached the forest line. "Just a little further," he said. We walked for ten more minutes, until we were pretty deep into the forest. "Here's good," he said before pulling his shirt over his head.

I nearly died. Was he planning on having sex here? He's crazy. I wasn't going to have sex with him HERE! "Paul, we can't-," Paul gave me a bored look. "We can't do it at your house because everyone's home. We can't do it at my house because my dad is there and I don't think we'd make it anyway." He pushed me up against a tree and took my shirt off.

"But what if-," "No one is going to show up, Kaitlyn." He pressed his lips to mine and I moaned into the kiss. His hand ventured down my pants and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. He was right. I needed this.

"Fuck me, Paul. I need you, please!" Seconds later, we were both naked and Paul was inside of me. I sighed in relief and it quickly turned into a gasp. "Yes, Paul! Give it to me! God, yes!" I hissed. Paul moved me to the forest floor and moved his hips faster and harder.

I started moaning louder and I was slightly aware of Paul leaving a hickey on my right breast. I briefly thought about not being able to wear a tank top for a few days, but then I lost all thought.

I could feel my body shivering and my muscles tensing. My orgasm was close and Paul was pushing me towards the edge. I looked at him and saw the look of concentration and utter bliss on his face and I tumbled towards my finish line, clenching him in the best way possible. "Fuck, Kaitlyn," he grumbled before collapsing beside me.

We both stared at the treetops above us, trying to calm our breaths and regain control of our muscles.

"So, do you think that you'll be able to pay attention now?" Paul asked me, kissing my temple. I nodded lazily. I'd do whatever Paul asked me at that moment.

We both laid down, hugging each other and giving each other small kisses. I was no longer worried about anyone seeing us. I honestly couldn't care less.

Paul reached over to his discarded pants and pulled out a little black box from his pocket. My heart started beating out of my chest and my eyes were as wide as saucers. I was way too young to marry Paul. Of course I'd planned a life with Paul before. I could see us married with children, living happily ever after. But, I was still in high school! I hadn't even finished my AP Exams yet. I knew that we were serious, but were we really that serious?

Calm down," Paul said laughing. "It's not what you think. I just couldn't find a better box to put it in." He handed me the box and rubbed my finger along the soft velvety edges of it.

"Do you really think that I would propose to you after I just fucked you on the forest floor? Give me a bit of credit, Kaitlyn." I smiled at him. "I wouldn't be surprised." He rolled his eyes at me. "I'm going to hide your ring in nachos." "I wouldn't be surprised by that either."

Paul laughed and stood up, not at all ashamed of his nakedness. Then again, he spent a lot of time being naked.

"Come on. You have to pass this exam. And I need to help you." I looked down at the little black box and opened it and my breath caught in my chest. It was a necklace and with a wooden heart pendant. It was nothing special, or it wouldn't be to someone that didn't know Paul. This was so unlike him.

"Paul, this is beautiful," I gushed, tears springing up behind my eyes. "Did you make this yourself?" He looked embarrassed and nodded. I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him as if my life depended on it. "I love you so much, Paul. More than you'll ever know."

-End Flashback-

I pulled out the book "Wicked" from my carry-on and tried to stop thinking about Paul. However, I found myself reading the same page over and over again. I couldn't focus and I knew that it was because of Paul.

We were in the air for a few hours when I started feeling queasy. I had never been sick on a plane before so it was really weird that I was. I had flown so much that I could be a pilot if I wanted to (not really). There wasn't even any turbulence to blame my sickness on. It was smooth flying. I had only eaten toast and egg whites before flying, so it couldn't have been something that I ate.

I decided that I would quell my sickness by forcing myself to go to sleep. I plugged my headphones in and listened to Katy Perry. I smiled to myself knowing how much Paul hated her. She was too "poppy" for his taste. He hated "California Girls" more than he hated tofu. Well, not more than tofu, but as much as he hated tofu.

I let Katy sing me to sleep and by the time I woke up, it was well into the afternoon. At least I thought so. It was hard to keep track of time while you were flying across time zones and couldn't tell the position of the sun because you were too close to it.

"Excuse me miss." I turned to see an older women sitting next to me. I hadn't even known that she was sitting next to me or when she sat next to me. I guess I should've been paying more attention to my surroundings.

"Yes?" I asked, pulling my headphones from my ears. "Are you feeling well? You look a little green around the gills," she told me. I hadn't felt queasy since I'd woken up but then again I hadn't been awake for more than 5 minutes. My body hadn't remembered that it was supposed to be sick yet.

"I guess I'm a little plane sick. It's never happened before," I confessed. She nodded her head.

"Are you leaving someone behind? A young gentleman perhaps?" I smiled and nodded. I quickly thought about how awkward it would've been if I were a lesbian and then cursed myself for hanging out with Paul and Baby Doll too much.

"Oh, I remember the first time that I was flying away and leaving my husband behind. My mother was sick and I'm her only daughter so it was my place to go back to Greece and check on her.

My husband had to work so he couldn't leave and we had two small sons and you know how cranky kids can be when they're flying," she rambled. I smiled and listened to her. She was a nice lady and although I wanted nothing more than to try my best to go back to sleep or to try reading "Wicked" again, I found myself becoming very interested in her story.

"So, we decided that Matthew would stay back with our boys, Jonathon and Pearson. Ugh, that was the most dreadful flight of my entire life. I was so sick that I couldn't keep anything down. I had these blinding headaches, and was just about to toss myself from the plane window," she laughed.

"How did you get over it?" I asked her.

"Well, I decided that I would write to my boys back home. I wrote letters to them while I was on the plane and the more I wrote the less sick I felt. I found that I was literally HOME SICK. Isn't that the craziest thing?"

She made a lot of sense. What if this was somehow related to the imprinting bond? What if magic was interfering with our distance and the only way that it could handle things was to make me physically sick.

I pulled a small notebook that Melissa had bought for me from a bookstore in Tacoma a few weeks ago, and started to write to Paul. I didn't know where to begin, or what I should write, but I decided to start with the nice woman sitting next to me. I told Paul about her and about how sick I was feeling. I told him how I felt about him and I told him about my fears of being in Italy with my mom after I'd changed so much.

"I was so surprised to find out that I was pregnant when I landed. I had a beautiful baby girl, Katherine. I named her after my mother."

I stopped writing in my notebook and slowly looked at my neighbor. The look of terror on my face must've startled her because she quickly started to back pedal.

"Oh, but I had been trying for years before my boys were born and they said that it was unlikely that I'd ever have them. So when I got pregnant a second time, it was really surprising. But I'm sure your reason is different. I mean, there are all kinds of birth control out now. Not like in my day."

Pregnant? Me? Pregnant? That was impossible. I was in high school, I couldn't be pregnant.

That was for stupid girls that wanted to be on MTV too badly. That didn't happen to girls that were straight A students with well-to-do family members, right? It had to be written somewhere in the Cosmos that it was impossible for a girl like me to be pregnant. This woman was off her rocker.

The possibility of such a thing was laughable.

I wasn't laughing though. I was counting the days in my head. When was my period supposed to start? Had I been so busy spending time with Paul and stressing out for finals and AP exams that I didn't even notice that I hadn't had a period? I couldn't even remember my last period and the blinding headache that had come back all of a sudden wasn't helping.

I couldn't check my phone because we were in flight. I knew that I could put my phone on airplane mode, but still, I was too apprehensive to even chance it. What if the plane plummeted to the ground because I decided that I wanted to make sure that I wasn't pregnant.

I always made sure to take my birth control pills at exactly the same time every day. I didn't even mess around when it came to the placebo days. But, even the birth control pills were 99% effective. Paul and I had sex well over 100 times. This had to be long overdue, right?

I wasn't even making any sense in my head. I loved Paul, but I didn't want to have his children. Not yet, anyway!

I could forget about going back to sleep or reading anything. My head was racing and my queasiness was back with a vengeance.

What would I do if I were pregnant? What were my options? I knew my options but I couldn't think straight long enough to focus on them at the moment.

What would Paul do? Would he still want me? Would he want our baby? What if it was too much responsibility for him and he just took off and left me to raise a baby on my own?

What about my parents? My mom would kill me and my dad would die. The look of disappointed on my dad's face would kill me; my mom wouldn't even need to touch me. How could I let them down like this?

How the hell could Baby Doll not get pregnant, but I do? No one was betting on this!

What the heck was I going to do when I got to Italy? I'd have to buy a pregnancy test, but I wouldn't know how to do that or how to hide that from my mom. I'd have to sneak off from her and go to a pharmacy or something.

What if I wasn't pregnant and this was really just me being homesick for Paul? What if it was the imprint fucking with me? What if all of this was because I hadn't been flying as much as I used to do? But what if it wasn't?

"Honey." I looked over to the old lady that I was irrationally starting to hate. "You're going to need this." She held out a glass of red wine to me and I looked at her, shocked. Number one, I was underage. At least according to the United States, I wasn't allowed to drink yet. Number two, I could've been pregnant. She was the one that told me that I could've been pregnant! How could she give alcohol to a pregnant woman? No, not a woman. A teenager. A stupid, pregnant teenager.

"Honey, there's no need to worry," she said, still holding the drink out to me. "If you're pregnant, you're not nearly far along enough to where this would affect the baby."

"I'm underage," I whispered.

"I won't tell if you won't," she said with a wink. "It'll calm you down. I don't want you having a panic attack. And it'll only be this one glass. There's no harm in only one glass."

She drove a hard bargain. I grabbed the glass from her hands and started sipping the wine. I didn't know much about wines, but it tasted really good. Who cared what year it was made and from which vineyard? As long as it had alcohol in it, it was good in my book.

"I'm sorry for making you worry," the older woman said, a sad smile on her face. "Sometimes I just need to say, Gertrude, you just keep your pie hole shut. Not everyone wants to hear your life story."

I shook my head sadly. This wasn't Gertrude's fault; this was mine. I probably would've started worrying about pregnancy if she hadn't said something. Or, worse, I could've completely ignored the possibility and that would've been just as bad.

Gertrude placed her hand over mine which was laying on the armrest. "Honey, these things work themselves out. I know that you're scared, but you don't know anything yet. I'm just some old woman with a big mouth. My story and your story are completely unrelated. I don't know you from Eve. I shouldn't have suggested pregnancy. I'm sorry. When you get to wherever you're going, all you'll have to do is get checked out. It's the only way you'll know for sure. Worrying about it on a plane that's thousands of feet in the air won't help you at all."

Gertrude was right. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. It took a few more deep breaths and a few more gulps of the wine before my arms could stop shaking.

I prayed to whoever was listening that I wasn't pregnant. I had dreamt of a life with Paul and I with a few kids running around. But, in all of those stupid day dreams, I wasn't studying for SATs or filling out college applications. How could I have done this to myself? I should've forced Paul to wear condoms. Sometimes we would use condoms, but most times we were in such a rush that we'd forget.

That'll be the first thing my mother will ask if I'm pregnant. "Weren't you using condoms?" and I'll just say "Oh, yeah, but sometimes mom, you just don't have the time for such things."

Then, she'll proceed to chase me around with an axe.

Baby Doll and I had talked about her talks with Mom. Mom would always talk to her about being safe and how she should be super careful and how that if she got pregnant that Seth wouldn't be able to support them financially. Baby Doll was going to get a kick out of it if I were the one to get knocked up.

What was I thinking? If there were anyone that I could depend on right now, it would be Samantha. Sure, more times than not, Samantha was immature and selfish, but she was my twin. She was always very protective of me and when it was time to be serious, she delivered. If anyone would be able to help me with this, it'd be Samantha. She'd even stand up to Mom for me. I wouldn't ask her to do that, of course, but that wouldn't stop her if it was what she wanted to do.

I took a few more sips of the wine. I needed to stop thinking about this. I could almost feel wrinkles forming on my face and my hair graying. This stress was going to age me 50 years.

"To be honest, when I first saw you, I hoped that you might've been single. I have a grandson who is about your age. He goes to school at MIT. Nice young man, but he's so shy. Always behind a computer. I tell him, I say, Peter, if you don't get out and live life, you're going to miss out on such great opportunities. A computer can't keep anyone warm at night, no matter how smart they are."

I laughed at her. Gertrude liked to ramble and it was kind of sweet. I wasn't very close to my grandparents. My mother's parents didn't talk to us because they didn't like that my father was white and my father's parents lived in Ireland. It was nice to listen to someone complain about their grandkids. I wondered if my grandparents did that with us. What would they even be able to say? Well, they'd be able to say quite a bit if I were really pregnant.

"So, I signed him up for that online dating site. What's it called? eMatch or something or another? Well, anyway. I thought that he would be ecstatic about it. It's online and you get to meet such pretty women, you know? He was so angry with me. I could tell that he was. But, he'd never say it to me. But I knew. I could tell. So, ever since then, I've stayed out of Peter's love life. But still, if I just nudge women in his direction, he couldn't be too mad. How would he know that it was me anyway? I'm nearly 80 years old! I've already met one of my great-grandkids. Oh, Mary Elia! She's the most beautiful little girl on the planet."

Gertrude took a break from talking and searched in her purse for her great-granddaughter's picture.

"Look at her! Isn't she absolutely precious? Her mother is Spanish. Puerto-Rican. I think it's great because she has a little color to you know. She doesn't look so sickly and pale. Lord knows that Jonathon's son, Jonathon Junior is as white as a ghost. But Mary, she looks so healthy and gorgeous. My skin used to be that color when I was younger. The older I've gotten the more color that's left me. Oh, I remember growing up in Greece in the warm sun…"

I listened to Gertrude talk and talk and talk. I was happy for it though. She was very good at distracting me. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep again, and woken up and we were landing in Ireland. I stretched and moaned as my joints popped. Sitting in one position for so long will do that to a person.

I finally cut my phone back on and checked the time. I had an hour before my connecting flight left for Italy. I sighed in relief. How terrible would that have been if I missed my flight to Italy? I'd have to stay in Ireland! Of course, I have family in Ireland, but that would've been the problem. I would've had to stay with my dad's parents! There'd be no hiding it from my grandmother.

There's no hiding anything from my grandmother.

I checked the calendar on my phone and realized that I was supposed to start my period a week ago.

Unfortunately, on the next plane, there wasn't a Gertrude sitting next to me. I sat alone and had to be with my thoughts. All of the thoughts that I had been trying so hard to avoid were rushing back to me. My worries and fears were coming at me like a freight train and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. I was tied to the train tracks and I was the one who did the freaking tying.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. No. Gertrude was right. Worrying about it wasn't going to help me. I needed to think of a plan. I needed to worry about my next moves. What was I going to do if I was pregnant and what was I going to do if I wasn't?

If I wasn't pregnant, then I was going to throw myself a huge party and buy a shit load of condoms so I'd never be scared about that happening again. I could continue living my life, applying to colleges, and being a teenager with no worries.

If I were pregnant… I'd have to give all of that up. At least for now. College would have to be out of the question. There was no way that I'd be able to raise a baby while I was in school. I'd become an adult. I'd have to get a job to support the baby. I'd have to move in with Paul. I'd have to at least finish high school and I'd have to face everyone at Forks High.

I knew that Paul loved me but he had a track record for not really being the fathering type. He paid for a girl to have an abortion before. Would he suggest that? I mean, we talked about it, and he told me that he would never even think about aborting our baby, but that was back when I wasn't worried about being pregnant. Right now, this could be a real possibility.

Would I want an abortion?

As soon as I thought the question, tears started falling down my cheeks. My chest tightened and I could feel my heart beating in my ears. The tears had a mind of their own and there was nothing that I could do to stop them. My body was reacting as if my thoughts were causing it physical pain. My body wouldn't even think of the possibility.

"So, abortion is out of the question," I whispered to myself, once my tears stopped.

I took a deep breath and laid my head back. I needed Paul now more than I'd ever needed him before. The queasy feeling in my stomach was so strong earlier that I hadn't noticed the tight pain in my chest from the distance of the imprint. I wanted nothing more than to hug Paul and let him hold me until everything was better. Paul always made things better. He never had to do anything. He just needed to be there.

I awoke with someone shaking me awake. "Excuse me, miss, we've landed in Italia!" I smiled up at her and stretched. Everyone else was out of the plane. I guess this whole stressful baby thing was tiring me out.

My mother and her assistant were waiting for me by baggage claim.

"My love! I missed you so much! OH, we have so much work to do while you're here! I'm so glad to have you hear my baby!" my mom said as she kissed me all over my face. Never let it be said that my mom wasn't affectionate.

My phone vibrated and it was a text from an unknown number.

Hey. It's Alice. We have to talk.

Holy Smokes! What is up with this chapter?! Intense right? Who was expecting that? I sure wasn't! Except that I was, because I wrote it! Hahaha!

Please leave a review and let me know what you think! I make it a purpose to try and respond to all of my reviews. I love to get feedback!

I must also ask you to read my other stories: Embry's Oak, Jacob's Figure Skater, Edward's Comfort and Seth's Baby Doll!

A special thanks to my beta RaphaelofTheDarkness!