AN: Hi Again Folks! Glad you came back to check out Part Two of the Poly World Series!

Family Album is not going to be a fully fleshed-out story like Wolf Pack was. It's just a series of snapshots (or summaries) of the Blackswan family throughout the kids' growing up years.

Each chapter will have one POV character who will narrate, and each chapter will summarize one calendar year. That format will carry us right through the 1990s. Then the epilogue for Family Album will cover from the end of 1999 through to the beginning of 2003.

Then, Part Three (aka Poly World: Uniting the Alphas) will begin during the summer of 2003. It will be an actual story more like Wolf Pack was (although it might be a lot longer, who knows!)

Okay, so now that you know what you're in for, let's get crackin'!

Here comes Chapter One!

Chapter One: 1989

Sarah's POV

Old Quil began to read:

"Dear Chuck and Billy. Yes, I said 'Chuck' not 'Charlie'. Renée and Sarah, you gals can't get mad at a dead man, so ha, take that, neener-neener! Anyway, let's get serious now. I'm sure you both know me well enough to know I don't get serious very often. But if there is one thing I am very serious about, it's the well-being of my family. And honestly, Boys, I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have taking care of them than the two of you.

"But before you go thinking this is some hokey arranged thing where the women don't have a say in the matter, I want to assure you that isn't the case. My gals and I talked about what would ever happen if I croaked. Where they'd go, what they'd do, if they'd remarry. So I know their wishes. Let's just face it, Boys. You two are chick magnets!

"Anyway, I know what I'm asking here is huge. Not only am I leaving two wives behind, but probably a handful of kids too. Heck, I've already got two and another on the way as I'm writing this. So I get it. You've got a lot to think about. But if you're reading this right now, I've already bit the big one, so you'd better get crackin'!

"Sincerely and with way more sappy, brotherly love than I'd care to admit, your brother in wolfiness, Harry Clearwater."

It basically amounted to what we'd already anticipated his request would be. And our household had already talked about it before coming to the funeral. We'd thought the wild card in the whole thing would be Sue and June. We never anticipated Harry would have talked to them about his wishes ahead of time or that they themselves would wish this.

But really, it made sense. Sue had grown up spending a whole lot of time at the Blackswan house and I knew she and Charlie had been sweet on each other as kids. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if she had a crush on Billy too. And June was madly in love with Sue, so she would just be happy to go wherever Sue went and keep their family together.

"I hope you know you folks are not actually under any obligation to take us in. Merging two households would be...a challenge, at the best of times. But our children are grieving. So are we. This wouldn't be an easy transition," Sue warned us.

"Yes, and I'm sure Harry has told you, I am a handful." June shrugged chewing her lip.

"Pretty sure he meant it in the best way," Billy reassured her. "Harry loved you both more than anything."

"Yeah, but he had to love me, I was his Imprint." June worried.

"Oh, June, there is plenty about you worth loving, don't worry." Renée sighed, pulling her into a hug.

"You've come so far from the rambunctious, fickle little girl I used to know. You've grown in ways I never thought possible. You continued your studies and got your GED. You took the CNA correspondence course and got certified as a nursing assistant. You've been a tremendous help to Sue at the clinic.

"You became a mother! In your heart first, with Leah and Seth, and then physically, with your own pregnancy, having Julia. You learned to cook and clean and care for a home. You've helped others without being asked, babysitting for anyone who needed it, making meals to help out new mothers, donating your old clothes to charity, you've done a lot, Juniebug.

"And those are just the things you've done. You also stopped doing all the destructive things you used to do. You quit smoking, you quit drinking excessively, you quit partying and sleeping around. You've really matured, June. And that isn't just lip service, it's the truth," Renée insisted.

June thought for a moment. "Yes, but how much of that did I do specifically for Harry because of the imprint? I'm worried that without him here to anchor me, I may go back to my old ways. I got very, very inebriated last night. More than I have in years!" She fretted.

Sue took June's hand in both of hers. "Harry might not be here to anchor you anymore, but I am. I promise I won't let you fall through the cracks, Juniper. And neither will these fine people," Sue added, gesturing around the room. "Even if the Blackswans decide not to take us in, they're still our friends and they'll help you, just like I will."

"Sue...look at me," I said, looking her straight in the eyes.

"No more of this 'If' business, okay? We are taking you in. Not because of some piece of paper or even because of what Harry wanted. We're going to do this because it is what we and what you want. We love you and we want you to come home with us, just as soon as you are ready, okay?" I assured her.

"You're sure? All of us?" Sue confirmed, putting her arm around June to make it clear they were a package deal.

"Yes. All of you. We wouldn't have it any other way," Charlie informed them.

"You hear that, Junie?" I heard Sue whisper. "They want us. I told you they'd want us, didn't I?"

"Well, I think that's the last of them," Sue said, referring to the final load of their boxes as we brought them into the house from Billy's old pick-up truck.

We had done a lot of work on the house to prepare for their arrival. We had moved our bedroom upstairs and shuffled the kids around. Previously we'd had one room for the toddlers and one room for the babies. But now that the kids were getting older and there would be more of them, there would be a girls' bedroom and a boys' bedroom which would both be in the basement along with a guest room.

The main floor would have two adult bedrooms because let's face it, you can't comfortably sleep six people in one king-size bed. So Sue and June would share a room, as would Renée and I, like we were accustomed to doing, and Charlie and Billy would go back and forth in between. Or at least, they would eventually, in theory. The girls were still mourning Harry, so there wouldn't be a rush on that.

And on the same floor as the adult bedrooms would also be the nursery so that any babies would be close at hand. Currently, that room would only house Baby Julia, but who knew if there would be more children in our future? Renée had recently gone off of birth control, so that was a distinct possibility.

I wasn't interested in another pregnancy at this point because I wanted to start getting back to my pre-babies figure. Now that we had two new wives in the house who were both also gorgeous, I wanted to look my best. Especially since one of them was Sue. She and I were good friends but we'd always had a healthy competition between us.

And ever since her hysterectomy, Sue had gone back to looking almost exactly as she had when she'd won Miss Indian World back in '83. The only difference was she now had the grace and poise she may have lacked in her younger days. Whereas myself...lately, I mostly just felt chubby and worn out.

And I knew Charlie and Billy still found me to be beautiful, they told me so all the time. But still, it couldn't hurt to take better care of myself by getting in shape and eating healthy.

"Great, let's get you girls unpacked then!" I smiled sincerely, watching as Sue took the last of her boxes to their new room.

June was already in there, laying on the bed. "June!" Sue scolded. "Why aren't you working?! Do you want the Blackswans to think you are lazy?"

I was going to tell Sue we wouldn't think that but she shook her head and mouthed trust me. I nodded, Sue knew June better than I did, so I needed to trust that she knew what she was doing.

"I'm just trying it out. Anytime I go to a new place, I like to picture myself in it, so I know what to expect." June shrugged.

"Oh, you do, do you? And just what are you picturing?" Sue teased her.

June's face turned beet red and she threw the pillow over her face. "None of your beeswax!" She shrieked, though it was muffled by the pillow.

Sue just laughed. "Welcome to Juneland. She's great in a real crisis. But she makes a crisis out of everything that isn't. And I think right now she's embarrassed because we caught her fantasizing about your husbands."

"Oh, is that all?" I grinned. "You needn't be embarrassed about that. They like it when we fantasize about them, trust me."

I picked up a box that said kitchen. "Sue and June, if you're okay here, I think I'll try to make myself useful and take the kitchen boxes downstairs and start putting away your kitchen things? You can rearrange them later if you'd like but we cleaned out a drawer and a cupboard for now and then anything we have duplicates of, the four of us can go through those later on and see which things we want to keep and have a yard sale with the leftovers if that works?" I suggested.

"Sounds great, Honey. I'll be out to help once I get this little thing calmed down." Sue winked.

I nodded and made myself scarce. I had a feeling I knew how she was going to 'calm June down' but that certainly was none of my business.

I got back to work and in no time at all, the kitchen was finished. And judging from the noises their bed was making upstairs, I was pretty sure I had guessed correctly.

"How do we look?" Billy asked Renée and me as we helped our boys get ready for their wedding to Sue and June, which was finally happening. It had been eight months since they had moved in with us. Things had been going well and progressing at a fairly steady pace since then.

I could still remember when Leah marched into the girls' bedroom and told the twins and Bella that she was going to be their older sister now and would try not to be too bossy as long as they let her pick the good bunk and didn't try to steal her boyfriend, Sam. It was a pretty adorable speech coming from a three-year-old.

Willie and George Charles had an easier time accepting Seth into their fold since they were pretty used to being bossed around by their sisters and as such, they tended to take a more laid back approach to things. And Seth was a little sweetheart. He had recently turned two but he was still small for his age since often preemies took a while to catch up. They almost always did catch up eventually though and Seth was certainly gaining ground. He'd be bigger than the other boys in due time, I was sure of it.

And then there was Baby Julia. She had been less than a month old when Harry died. This meant that, sadly, she would never remember him. Fortunately, the Clearwaters had filmed a lot of home movies that we could show her when she was older. But for all intents and purposes, Billy and Charlie would be the only fathers she'd ever know.

But Julia wouldn't be the youngest for long. Renée was pregnant again and would be due in January. Her ultrasound showed we were expecting a boy. And I had to wonder if June wouldn't end up in the same boat soon. She had confessed to us girls that she would really like to give Billy and Charlie children. Partly because she felt it would help to unite the two families as one, which was also one of the reasons they were having an official tribal wedding.

After the wedding, Sue and June and their kids would be changing their names in the tribal record to Clearwater Blackswan. No hyphen. They would probably eventually use the Clearwater part less and less, and June had decided any future children she had would just be Blackswans. But they wanted to honor Harry themselves and for his kids to honor him.

The boys had been very touched by it. They were grieving Harry just as much as his wives and kids were because their bond as pack brothers (and best friends) had been very strong. So much so that they were having a bit of a hard time truly bonding with Josh and Lucas. And with them living in town it was even harder.

They had tried mixing up their patrol shifts so that our boys overlapped with the Uley boys, but that didn't work out very well, because Josh and Lucas had a hard time controlling their thoughts, being newer wolves. And since both of them were having intimate relations with Emmie, that wasn't something Billy and Charlie really wanted to see through the mindlink. And then, when our boys' courtship with Sue and June became intimate, all of a sudden Josh and Lucas, as Sue's brothers, could understand how they felt because the shoe was on the other foot.

So they had started intentionally staggering their patrol shifts so that there wasn't a lot of overlap, which didn't allow for the same level of bonding through the mindlink that they'd been able to have with Harry.

But it wasn't as if our boys didn't have friends. My sister Jane had been babysitting for us for quite some time and her husband was Old Quil's son, Quil Ateara IV. They'd been having trouble getting pregnant though, and so this year, Jane had pushed Quil to take a second wife, Joy Quehpa.

When that happened, Quil had started coming to our boys for advice because he didn't have any other friends who had married under the tribal law. So they had been going fishing with him when he needed someone to talk to.

Also, Connie had recently married Kevin Littlesea and moved back to La Push because he had a house on the Rez. So she and Jennie had decided to sell the house they bought together if neither of them would be living in it. And since she'd been back, they had started coming over for barbecue quite often. Kevin got along really well with Charlie and Billy, and Connie had all kinds of juicy gossip from town. All of us girls were guilty of hanging on every word.

I was glad our boys still had lots of family and friends to be present for their special day. It was probably going to be pretty emotional. I'd even heard Harry's brother, Michael, and his sister, Elizabeth, would be there. Although, that probably had just as much to do with them wanting to see Thomas and Ellen as it did about supporting their sisters-in-law.

Thomas and Ellen, Sue's cousins (whom Joshua had grown up with and previously believed were his siblings) had, according to gossip from Connie, been seen on several double dates recently with Michael and Ellen, Harry's siblings.

It seemed that somewhere between Josh and Lukey's tribal wedding, Julia's birth, and Harry's funeral, the Uleys and Clearwaters had been thrust together for so many different family events, that after all that proximity, Michael had started courting Ellen and Thomas had been courting Elizabeth.

But whatever the motivation, it was good that Michael and Elizabeth would be there to see Sue and June marry Billy and Charlie. It would serve to reassure Harry's siblings that his wives and children would be well taken care of in his absence. Not that there was ever any doubt they would be, but still.

"You both look perfect." I smiled, straightening the belt that held Charlie's breechclout in place. "Now let's go get you boys married."

I will admit to having cried tears of happiness while watching the ceremony take place that served to make Sue and June part of our family officially in the eyes of the tribe.

Connie asked Renée and me later on at the reception if we found it odd watching our husbands marry other women. We told her that it wasn't odd so much as surreal. Renée and I knew that Charlie and Billy looked at us with just as much love and respect as they did Sue and June, if not more because we'd had years to build our relationship with them and we'd been through a lot together.

So it wasn't a bad experience for us that our men would be making room in their hearts to love their two new wives as well. It was just different. And Renée and I were in the unique position of having been through it already ourselves. So we would be well equipped to help Sue and June navigate the waters of their new marriage if ever they needed it.

And as time marched on, we found that our expertise was very helpful for June who didn't know her new husbands all that well yet.

Sue, on the other hand, didn't need our expertise. As much as she'd kept them at arm's length during her marriage to Harry, Sue (or Suzie as Charlie almost always called her) had grown up with our boys and as it turned out, in many ways, knew them even better than we did.

In fact, it ended up that we had more we could learn from her than we could teach her.

Especially because we hadn't realized how much of the time the imprint dynamic would cause the boys to humor us instead of arguing, even if they actually disagreed. But Sue would pick up on it and get on their case about it until they told us how they really felt. It was helping everyone to learn to communicate better.

By the time the fall birthdays rolled around, we had gotten into a pretty decent system with most things. Of course, there was still the occasional argument or disagreement, especially when it came down to parenting.

For one thing, Renée and I had a very hard time being strict with Leah. Her behavior at times was pretty awful, but our first instinct was to make allowances. After all, it had been less than a year since she'd witnessed her father's death at the hands of a vampire and watched all the men in her family burst into giant wolves. That had to take quite a toll on the developing psyche of a three-year-old.

But Sue reminded us that any preferential treatment we gave her, she would pick up on, and so would the other children. And that it was likely to result in her developing an inflated sense of entitlement and the other kids developing an inferiority complex. None of those were things we wanted, so with Sue's help, we learned to discipline her, even when our first instinct was to excuse her bad behavior.

And speaking of discipline, June was proving to be surprisingly helpful in that regard as well. The way she explained it, her parents had let her run wild, so much so that she struggled in social situations for a long time because she hadn't learned how to rein her emotions in until she was a mother herself since she hadn't had to as a child. So she was able to teach the children how to self-discipline because she'd had to learn how to do it herself.

She taught them that there was a tiny little moment when most people would realize for just a split second that they were being mean but that most of the time they barely noticed it and just ignored it. She explained that they could choose to stop and take a deep breath instead and think of something to say that wasn't hurtful. Frankly, that was a good lesson for us grown-ups too.

I knew exactly what she was talking about. Oftentimes, if I got a good mad on, I would yell at someone about something and for a second I would think 'oh! I'm yelling, I should stop,' but then I would remember that my feelings were hurt and I'd keep yelling until I finished my tirade. It didn't happen very often, I was a pretty calm person most of the time. But in the rare instance that I did blow up, I was basically Mount St. Helens.

Thanks to June's coping techniques, I had learned to take a moment before exploding and just breathe and think about what I wanted to say. Surprisingly, I found that what was manifesting itself as anger was usually actually something else. Like the time when Rachel walked in on Charlie and I mid-coitus and I yelled at her for not knocking. I wasn't actually angry at her, I was just embarrassed by it and feeling guilty for forgetting to lock the door.

That was also another thing we differed on. Our views on privacy. Sue and June had a habit of leaving their bedroom door open, regardless of what might be going on inside. And that was fine for them, but because they didn't care much for privacy, they tended to forget that we did.

I'll never forget the day Renée and I were getting frisky and June walked in to ask a question about the washing machine. Renée was on top and June got quite an eyeful and commented with "Huh. I assumed your boobs would be a lot bigger." I seriously thought Renée was going to murder her right then and there.

Thankfully, however, even though 1989 was a year of drastic adjustment for all of us, we managed to make it through everything relatively unscathed. Including a very noisy, busy, boisterous Christmas with a house full of people and presents and food. But of course, that would have been the case even if Harry had still been alive to see it. It was bittersweet having Christmas without him, but we still managed to honor most of the Clearwater family traditions as well as our own which I know Sue and June appreciated.

And as we watched the ball drop on New Year's Eve, I was able to look back over the waning months with a reflective fondness. Things had gone pretty well thus far and I could only hope that 1990 would end up running just as smoothly.

AN: Please, please, please review!

I'd like to know how many of those who read Part One are planning on sticking it out through the series.

And if you're new to the Poly World stories, welcome!

Blessings,

-BMW