Realization

by JessMissedHer

Installment Three in Imprintation Series. Continue following Quil and Claire in their journey, navigating life both together and separately as they struggle with the new challenges they never anticipated facing.

16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

Quil:

Bennett's teeth sank down into skin of Quil's front paw just as his jaw clenched and the pressure made something snap.

SON OF A BITCH! Quil swore in his head as a painful mix of a whine and scream slipped out of his mussel. He had to rely solely on muscle memory and instinct to bite down on Bennett's exposed flank so that Quil jumped away from him and was able to roll out from under him and take a step back. His wrist was broken from that bite, he had enough experience from all his years of fighting to know that. He kept his focus on Bennett in front of him who had backed away for a second to regroup after that gash Quil had left in his flank.

Quil used the opportunity provided by Bennett's distraction to look away as he braced himself, wishing he could hold his breath the way he'd be able to in his human form, before he snapped his front paw out with a sharp flick in front of him. It hurt like a bitch and even as a wolf Quil still hissed and flinched but at least now he knew it was aligned correctly since it'd more than likely start healing before he could phase back into his human form.

Quil could feel Bennett's wordless gloating in his mind and knew that the kid was feeling pretty good about himself for that move. Quil considered it a lame sucker punch since Bennett had been trying desperately to get the upper hand on him ever since they'd rolled far enough into the trees that Quil could finally let go and have at him.

There'd been a single second when he'd felt Bennett's sense of victory and pride over having brought Quil down with his throat grab, but it'd evaporated before they'd even finished rolling into the trees. Bennett realized immediately that Quil had let him pull him away from the Young's house, refusing to fight him until they'd made it to a clearing only a few miles from the yard they'd both phased in.

They'd been going at each other hard for the last few minutes and Bennett had finally managed to get on top of Quil with his paws against Quil's belly in a less then optimal position to keep him down which is why he'd settled for the easy shot of biting down on Quil's front leg.

Quil was still pissed as hell but somewhere along the line Bennett had gone from rage and frustration, to challenged and intrigued, to where he currently was at which was just flat out enjoying it.

Quil didn't care one way or the other how Bennett felt about it, he just wanted an outlet for his rage and frustration and Bennett's attack had provided the perfect opportunity. Quil had spent three hours literally beating the stuffing out of the punching bag at the gym until he realized that poor teenaged Beka was watching him with concern from behind the counter and that one more good hit would probably bring the whole bag crashing down. It hadn't been nearly enough, but Quil had given up and forced his too tense muscles to relax as he stepped back and grabbed his gear before he walked out. He'd caught Beka scanning his unwrapped fists in confusion as he'd pushed the door open and knew that he needed to be more careful. His knuckles should have been a bloody mangled mess but there wasn't a scratch on them.

That all you got!? Bennett taunted almost gleefully in front of him as he shook out his flank that was already healing.

Quil launched at him without responding, knowing that his true advantage lied in his ability to act on instinct without thought so that Bennett didn't have a heads up. Bennett was quick though and shot out from under him so that Quil managed to just grab his flank and force him down without any real hold so that Bennett just pivoted until he was facing the opposite direction as Quil slid across the mossy forest floor on his belly while still facing him.

They both lunged at each other at the same moment so that Quil managed to clamp down on Bennett's shoulder while Bennett only managed to graze his ear. He didn't have enough of a grasp on Bennett to force him all the way down, but he did have the clear advantage as he pushed so that Bennett landed on his right ribs and hip with a huff before he kicked Quil hard with all four of his legs so that Quil had to release him as he rolled away.

Quil rolled right back up onto his feet again at the same moment Bennett hopped up so that he was just barely above him. Quil suddenly saw his moment to bring Bennett down and end this once and for all. He'd have to be quick and flawless, and he'd only seen the move done once before (and it'd been by Jacob against a vampire and not another wolf) but he didn't have time to hesitate when he took his microsecond advantage before Bennett could realize he had higher ground above him, and lunged at his throat, clamping his jaw down tight in a lock around Bennett's jugular as he simultaneously slid his front legs in front of Bennett's, using the momentum to cut his legs out from under him. As soon as Bennett's legs gave out Quil used all the strength he had in his shoulders, pushing with his back legs as he threw all his weight away to his side in front of Bennett and then flicked his neck as hard as he could so that Bennett suddenly went over Quil's front legs, flying tail over head so that he landed with a significant smash on his side a few feet in front of where he'd been standing above Quil only a second earlier with his jugular still clenched in Quil's jaw.

Quil heard all the air rush out of Bennett's wolf lungs from the impact and a small cracking noise that let him know at least one of Bennett's bones had broken. Quil still had his hold on Bennett's throat but was lying exposed on his back and side. He quickly dropped Bennett as he rolled again so that he was suddenly standing with his back legs braced on the ground, his front legs pressed heavily on the side of Bennett's exposed chest putting pressure on his lungs so that they couldn't fully expand as he tried to catch his breath and lunged onto his jugular again so that if he clamped down and twisted again it'd be a quick and painless death for the wolf beneath him.

YIELD! Quil immediately commanded angrily to him. It was the first time besides his cursing that he'd formed any words.

I yield! I yield! Bennett thought quickly with each shallow breath he tried to huff in. He didn't seem nearly as discouraged as Quil had actually been hoping for and Quil felt like he was more disappointed than Bennett was.

With so much adrenaline coursing through him and having given over so much of his mind to his wolf instincts it took Quil a moment to release Bennett. He had to remind himself multiple times that if he actually killed him, he'd then be down a member of his own pack and even then, he had to focus his attention on his individual muscles to get them to move away, first his front paws, one and then the other, stepping off his chest so that Bennett could finally try to breathe and then finally his jaw. Quil had to blow out a deep and angry breath and flex his jaw, actually utilizing more power before he could unclench it enough to pull away from the wet, matted fur around Bennett's throat.

Damn, Quil! Bennett thought as he continued to lie there before him on his side, obviously still trying to catch his breath. Feel better now?

Quil huffed out a small laugh, entertained in spite of himself at Bennett's comment. It'd been basically the last thing he'd expected.

He knew that Bennett had enjoyed the fight, but he figured that came from the release it provided, not that he was actually having fun. Quil himself had been a pissed off sort of focused the entire time and it wasn't until he suddenly stepped back now that he realized he did actually feel better.

Yeah, a bit. Quil admitted as he flicked out his front paw again just lightly in front of him, trying to make sure it was actually set and to shake off the deep-seated ache there. You?

Hell yeah, man! Bennett thought excitedly as he immediately went through the play-by-play instant reel of some of his finer moments in his mind, that was pretty damn dope.

Quil just shook his head at the clearly much younger wolf as he slowed his panting and Bennett slowly rolled over onto his paws, You good? Quil asked a little concerned. He hadn't fought with that little restraint against another wolf since….. probably ever. If it weren't for the fact that he had so many years' experience of that nagging voice in the back of his mind constantly reminding him that he was responsible for the entire pack, he never would have the habit formed so deeply ingrained that he'd keep from outright ripping out Bennett's throat.

Yeah, Bennett assured a little hesitantly as he nodded his head, but his ears were folded down, and his shoulders were shaking.

Lay down, take it easy for a minute. Even these bodies need a second to heal. Quil instructed.

Bennett promptly ignored him as he shook out his entire body from head to tail and then hopped back up on all fours. Naw, I'm good. He assured in the unconcerned way that Quil figured you had to be a teenager to achieve.

Quil rolled his eyes as he turned away from him, Come on. Let's head to my place. We need to find some clothes before I go back to check on Claire and find my phone.

He felt Bennett's wordless agreement as he saw the replay of Bennett remembering his clothes exploding off him and wondering where his phone had landed within the mass of patio furniture they'd sent flying.

So, uh…. Are we good now, Man? Bennett suddenly asked him.

Quil stopped from where he'd been slowly walking so that Bennett would move slowly instead of trying to keep up with him as he looked over at him when he asked.

Yeah, Man. We're good. Quil suddenly agreed and was surprised to find it true. All of the animosity and resentment that he'd been feeling towards Bennett for weeks now seemed to have evaporated along with his rage and most of his frustration.

Bennett just nodded in tired agreement, not giddy or excited but as accepting as Quil that whatever feud that seemed to have been building between them was finally over. Quil saw an insight into Bennett's mind when Bennett seemed to realize all of his frustration and resentment towards Quil was just as much misplaced anger towards his situation with Macy as it was towards the way he was defensive of Claire. Quil was just glad that they'd now be able to run patrols together again and that he didn't have to worry about avoiding him in wolf form anymore.

So, how freaked out do you think Ty is now?... on like a scale of one to ten.

Quil huffed out a laugh at the question as he remembered the still too green around the ears Tyler who had been taking his early run to work out some of his excess energy before he ran with Leah later and had suddenly had Quil AND Bennett appear in his mind fighting each other before he'd panicked and then figured he'd better phase and go get help and then disappeared while Quil and Bennett had been too distracted to notice.

Uh, like a twenty. Quil replied with another wolf laugh as he remembered Tyler's alarm.

Bennett chuffed out a laugh too as Quil continued his almost too slow progress home, but Bennett seemed to appreciate the pace. It was surprisingly peaceful between them as their combined minds quieted and the evening forest sat still before all the smaller animals started emerging for their eager nights.

Can I ask you something? Bennett surprised him by suddenly thinking.

Quil rolled his eyes since it was impossible not to see the direction Bennett was thinking in.

No.

Bennett didn't even seem to notice his answer as he continued, Why didn't you just force me to stop? Why did you fight me?

Quil resisted the urge to groan since with Bennett in his head he wasn't able to brush off the question of why he wouldn't simply issue the alpha command to end the fight before it really began and was forced to answer honestly. It took him a second to respond, and even then, he didn't until his thoughts were too chaotic to brush aside so that Bennett couldn't see them.

…. Because I wanted that fight just as much as you did.

Yeah…. That's what I figure. Bennett replied as he continued to move forward slowly with his head low and his ears drooped like he was tired.

Quil looked over at him from around his right shoulder, hey you sure you're okay? You took a real hit back there.

Bennett chuffed out another laugh, You wish I wasn't okay.

Quil just shook his head as he moved forward now in the direction of his shop, it was almost close enough to see if the trees weren't so thick.

That was a super sick kill though. Bennett admitted readily with a healthy dose of awe and Quil just shook his head since clearly Bennett was using the term 'kill' very loosely here, You might need to teach me that move.

Quil didn't bother responding, mostly because he knew Bennett could already hear his thoughts about how he hadn't earned the right to that move yet after just a handful of months.

They reached the trees that lined up the edge before the grass led to the side door of the shop and Quil looked over at Bennett,

You ready to phase? You need more time to heal like that?

Bennett didn't respond and Quil could hear him trying to downplay his thoughts as he shook his head in answer.

You sure? It'll hurt like a bitch if you phase and your injuries are mid-heal, Quil assured him seriously.

Naw, I'm fine. Bennett responded unconcerned and Quil mentally shrugged in response before he pulled the heat back into himself.

He was just standing back up from his crouched position to his two now human legs as he shook out his left wrist that did now hurt after phasing when he heard Bennett's soft but distinct hiss and looked over just in time to see the naked kid land on his side on the ground where he'd obviously collapsed as soon as he'd phased.

"Bennett!?" Quil asked in shock as he leaned over him on the ground.

"I'm fine." Bennett mumbled between clenched teeth, "It just burned like a bitch there for a second like you said."

"Where'd it hurt?" Quil asked concerned as he tried to evaluate him beneath him with just his hand resting uselessly on Bennett's shoulder.

Bennett hadn't moved from where he'd landed on his side and Quil was starting to feel seriously concerned as Bennett shook his head and muttered, "I don't know, somewhere deep inside."

Quil blew out a heavy breath as he tried to figure out what to do. "…Alright, well let's just get you inside with something to at least cover your junk and maybe I'll give Jake a call."

Bennett laughed as he shook his head and then put his arms on the ground and pushed off, "Naw, I'm fine. It was just the phase."

He said it easily, but he didn't protest Quil's help when Quil fed his arm under Bennett's and then grabbed his opposite shoulder to pull him up and then support most of his weight.

"Do you even have any clothes that'll fit me?" Bennett asked and Quil rolled his eyes at his obvious attempt to try to deflect with humor.

Bennett was so close in size to Quil now that Quil fully expected to start being confused for twins any day now. It'd taken less than a month after he'd phased for him to catch Quil in height and the last few months his shoulders and muscles seemed to be swelling consistently as he aged rapidly until their haircuts and Quil's beard seemed to be the only noticeable difference in their appearances. Though if Quil had to hear one more retired wolf remark 'brother's huh?' to him after they'd done a double take between the two of them, he'd definitely deck them.

Quil basically dragged Bennett across the grass between the tree line to the garage praying that he'd left the door unlocked since they needed to get inside before anyone noticed two huge naked men leaning on each other as they walked and Quil had given Claire the spare hide away key months ago when she'd broken in to spend the night.

Apparently, luck wasn't on his side since he always locked the garage full of his expensive tools when he left. Quil sighed out in frustration as he leaned Bennett against the brick wall of the garage. Bennett didn't fight him as he huffed a slightly labored breath and rested against the wall.

Quil braced himself against the side door to try to minimize the noise before he leaned and shoved against it at the same time using his strength so that the wood of the door frame suddenly splintered around the lock as the door forced open into the dark shop only lit by the outside light coming in from the window above the rolling door.

"Damn, Quil." Bennett muttered in exactly the same way he'd said it in his mind after Quil had finally released his throat.

Quil didn't say anything as he reached for Bennett again and then became about twice as concerned about him when they took a step forward and Bennett's foot almost slid out from under him so that if Quil wasn't holding him he'd definitely have hit the ground.

"Can I ask you a question?" Bennett repeated again this time out loud.

Quil didn't respond since in his human form he had that luxury, and he wasn't listening as he focused all his attention on trying to evaluate Bennett's movements which was difficult to do while he was basically dragging him.

When Quil didn't answer Bennett just continued on as if he had, "Why was Claire so upset about you going to Georgia?"

Quil sighed as he pulled Bennett right up to the bottom of the stairs and wondered if he'd be able to climb them at all or if he'd need to carry him. He really didn't want to think about his trip to Georgia and the conversation with Claire that had been his biggest source of gut eating stress for the last twenty-four hours and had not ended well.

"And who's Hannah, by the way?" Bennett continued as an afterthought, not even bothering to try to hide how much of the private conversation he'd listened in on.

"Hannah's my older sister." Quil answered quickly as he pulled Bennett up the first few steps and was relieved that he was moving his feet and placing weight on them, since that was so much easier of a question to answer.

"… Oh yeah… I forgot you have an older sister." Bennett admitted sounding s little shocked as they continued upward together with him leaning heavily on Quil. "Holy shit, does that mean I have an older sister!?"

"…. Uh yeah, I guess it does." Quil replied, thinking about how many other times and places he'd rather have this conversation.

"Wow." Bennett said in shock before he asked, "What's she like?"

"Annoying." Quil answered immediately, "A little judgmental to be honest."

"Sounds nice." Bennett commented and they both chuckled as they reached the landing and Quil dragged him to the door.

"Her kids are cute though." Quil said like he was giving points to her for that.

Bennett made an impressed face as Quil shoved the door opened and then eased Bennett through it sideways since there was no way the two of them could fit together through the frame.

"Does that make me an uncle?" Bennett mused thoughtfully.

"Guess so…" Quil agreed as he shut the door, "Congratulations."

Bennett chuckled as Quil stood him up and made sure he wouldn't move before he started to pull away.

"Good?" Quil asked and Bennett scoffed and rolled his eyes as Quil left him to move to the dryer. "Boxer-briefs or just shorts?" he asked as he started digging through the load inside.

"Shorts are fine." Bennett replied and Quil threw a pair of gym shorts behind him in Bennett's direction before he pulled out a pair of boxer-briefs and shorts for himself, giving up on a shirt since he knew the both of them were filthy.

"Hannah is having another baby….. tomorrow actually…. That's why I'm flying out." Quil surprised himself by admitting as he pulled his boxer-briefs on. Bennett pulled on the gym shorts in slightly stiff but consistent movements as Quil continued, "Something's not right I guess… their worried about the placement of the placenta or something so they're just going in for some sort of semi-emergency c-section before something goes wrong."

He focused on pulling his own shorts on instead of thinking about the slight fear that coursed through him on behalf of his sister every single time he thought about it.

"Quil?" Bennett asked and Quil looked up from the dirty carpet in front of him to look at him.

Bennett was just standing there in Quil's shorts staring at him in confusion.

"Yeah?" Quil asked since he wasn't saying anything.

"I can't feel my legs."

"What?" Quil asked in confusion, wondering if he'd misheard him. He sounded so calm and factual.

"I can't feel my legs." Bennett repeated and then his legs seemed to give out from under him as he fell to the floor a few feet in front of Quil.

"SHIT!" Quil hissed as he lurched forward, too shocked to catch him in time but landing on his knees directly beside him as he grabbed his shoulders again and rolled him over so that he was flat on his back, "What's wrong!?"

"I don't know!" Bennett huffed in a slight panic as he tried to sit back up and Quil pushed him back down with his hands on his shoulders.

"Shit, Bennett don't move!" Quil almost yelled angrily, and Bennett nodded his head with what was now obvious panic, "Where does it hurt?" Quil tried to ask calmly but he was too rushed to manage it.

"… it -it doesn't?" Bennett insisted as his breathing started accelerating, his chest pumping anxiously even as Quil held him down though he wasn't trying to get up anymore, "I just can't feel my legs!" Bennett continued in his rushed panicked voice. "Quil!?" he suddenly froze and asked almost calmly.

"What?" Quil asked nervously in response.

"My hands are tingling." Bennett said quickly, "Is it bad that my hands are tingling!?" he suddenly yelled.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit… SHIT!" Quil mumbled before he finally yelled it as he immediately pulled his weight off Bennett so that he was lying flat on the floor as Quil thought through the symptoms and felt his panic rushing in especially when he remembered that both of their phones were lying somewhere in the Young's yard probably smashed to pieces.

"Don't you know any other swear words!?" Bennett yelled at him irritably as he looked up at him without moving.

Quil completely ignored him as he started rocking on his knees, "Okay. Okay. You're gonna be okay." He assured.

"…. Ah shit! Go back to saying 'shit'! You saying I'm okay definitely means I'm NOT OKAY!" Bennett seemed to obviously panic below him.

"Don't move!" Quil commanded angrily as he hoped up from the floor and suddenly lunched across his bed to grab his laptop off the floor from the other side.

"Where are you going!?" Bennett yelled in reply.

"Seriously, Bennett. DO NOT MOVE!" Quil yelled angrily and heard the attempt at a double timbre that was pointless because there was no way to issue an alpha command in their human forms. "There's a landline down in the shop, I'm going to call for help, just for once in your damn life, DO NOT MOVE! Do you understand me!?"

Quil was rushing off the bed and toward the door with his laptop in his hand as he focused on Bennett lying on the floor motionlessly while he spoke, and Bennett tried to nod his head in response.

"I said don't move!" Quil snapped when Bennett flinched in response to his small nod.

"Got it!" Bennett yelled back though Quil knew he was trying to stay calm. "I'll lie here staring at the water mark on the ceiling. You're going to call for help."

Quil scoffed without replying as he threw himself out the door and then flew down the stairs until he got to his work bench where he had to force his arms steady so that he wouldn't slam his computer down on it. He opened it quickly and then felt like he was dying as it slowly opened to a sign in screen. It took days off of Quil's life to wait for the stupid computer to open then load all his files before he was scrolling through to the shipping receipt from the part that Jake had shipped to him.

There it was, the crazy something like twelve digit number that would connect him to Jake in France in what would probably end up being the most expensive call he'd ever made.

He shook the thought away along with his panic as he grabbed the phone off the cradle and then noticed it was shaking in his palm. Quil blew out a breath as he tried to steady himself so that his fingers wouldn't shake before he punched in the number from his records.

The phone made all sorts of weird beeping and connecting noises before the line finally started ringing.

"Come on. Come on!" he mumbled under his breath as he grabbed the edge of his work benched and squeezed until he started to feel the wood splintering around the third ring, "Come on, Jake! Answer!" it rang again as he forced his hand away from the bench and then grabbed the wrench closest to him and immediately had to resist the strong urge to chuck it as hard as he could against the wall as the line rang for a fifth time.

By the time it rang for the eighth time Quil's panic was starting to surge up and overtake him. He didn't have any other phone numbers here with him and he needed to get Bennett help and fast, especially when moving him didn't seem like an option.

"…. This better be Quil!" Jake's angry voice suddenly answered right before the ninth ring.

"Jacob!?" Quil basically squealed with a mix of relief and panic.

"Do you know who is on the other line, Quil? Seth-effing-Clearwater!" Jacob said as Quil pulled in a breath of relief at having reached him.

"Jake!" Quil cut in, "Are you with the Cullens!?"

"What? What the hell, Quil!? Do you have any idea how much you freaked out Claire with your little stunt today!?" Jake continued angrily and Quil's head spun at how he could even know about that.

"Jacob! I need to talk to Carlisle!" Quil yelled before Jake could say anything else, "I think I broke Bennett's spine!"

It was silent on the other end for a moment and Quil wondered if he really should have just yelled that where Bennett could overhear but then much faster than he'd ever had anticipated, the smooth voice of the vampire doctor, that Quil trusted in spite of that, came on the line,

"Okay, Quil." He said calmly, "Tell me exactly what happened."

"…I ….I had him by the throat. I flipped him and he hit the ground hard. I heard a snap, but I didn't think anything of it!" Quil huffed in what he realized was probably hyper speed in his rush to explain what had happened.

"Was this in wolf or human form now?" Carlisle asked with the smooth cadence of a practice doctor.

"…. WOLF! When the hell have I ever flipped someone by the throat in human form!?" Quil replied irritably and was almost incensed when Carlisle laughed in response.

"True. So, what happened after the initial impact?"

Quil went on to quickly tell him the story of Bennett seeming dazed and weak until they phased and then him collapsing and Quil dragging him inside and up the stairs until he collapsed when he couldn't feel his legs.

"… He said his hands are tingling and I know that's a sign for spinal injury!" Quil huffed as an end to his story.

"Okay." Carlisle said calmly and Quil wanted to scream in response. He found the doctors calm extremely aggravating, "Here's what we're going to do, Quil, do you have a board that you can strap him to, or should I call for an ambulance?"

Ten minutes later Quil had Bennett's entire body strapped with rachet straps to a wooden board he'd found in the back of the truck sitting in the shop because he had lifted the suspension a few inches just earlier that day.

Quil had to carry him on the board across his back down the stairs as he listened to Bennett's heart rate speed as he tried to control his sporadic breathing. Quil opened the rolling door before he dragged Bennett into the bed of the truck and then yanked him forward so that he was lying flat on his back staring up at the ceiling from the board.

"Good?" Quil huffed as he used the straps still left in the bed to strap him down to the truck.

"Peachy." Bennett replied with an eye roll and Quil hoped out of the bed.

He was now officially stealing this truck as he grabbed the keys out of the lock box and then hopped in the cab. He shoved the back window open before he started the almost obnoxiously loud engine.

"We'll take it slow!" Quil called to Bennett through the window as he pulled the truck out the door and then slowly turned the corner out onto the road the garage was on.

He got nervous when Bennett didn't respond and spent the ten-minute drive forcing Bennett to tell him he was good about every thirty seconds until the moment that Quil backed up to face the back entrance of the urgent care center they had treated Collin out after his accident and the same PA that had been very good at taking Carlisle's directions without asking questions (Quil had suspected a serious pay off happening there) came running out with a neck brace and his phone in his hand.

"Did you get the machine up and running?" Carlisle's voice suddenly asked and Quil realized he was on speaker on the phone in the PA's hand.

"Yup!" he responded as Quil jumped out and ran around to meet him by the bed.

"Hey, I'm Stephen." He said quickly and Quil simply nodded in response before he dropped the lift gate and they both hopped in the bed where Quil unhooked the straps keeping Bennett's board stuck to the truck and the PA wordlessly shimmied the brace under Bennett's neck and then pulled it around until he was velcroing it closed.

It was amazing how quick and direct they were without ever even speaking to each other as Stephen grabbed the board at Bennett's head and Quil grabbed his feet while they carefully lifted and moved the board out of the truck. Quil suddenly felt like he was about to sell Bennett's organs on the black market or something equally sketchy with the stealthy way they moved so quickly in the dark to get Bennett on the board out of the truck and into the empty building where they carefully moved him down a dark hallway into the room with the x-ray machine that Quil had had to spend way too much time with Collin in, taking pictures every fifteen minutes as they tracked his healing.

Once they laid Bennett down on a table under the X-ray, Stephen, with Carlisle still on the phone asked Quil to wait out in the hall.

"You good, brother?" Quil looked down at Bennett as he squeezed his arm on the board.

"Ask me that one more time, Quil, and I will break this board in half just to sit up and beat you with it!" Bennett responded and Quil backed out of the room and shut the door behind him.

He only took a step to the side and then faced the hall as he leaned against the wall and smacked his head back against it so that he was close enough to hear the machine buzzing to life inside.

Quil threw a dirty hand up into his hair before he noticed that it was shaking. His inside's churned and he wondered for about the hundredth time what he'd do if Bennett was seriously injured.

Claire would never forgive him, that was for sure.

He wasn't even sure how much time had passed since he'd stood in front of her, falling to pieces as he asked her to just take his hand. It felt like it'd been hours…. Maybe even days but it'd probably only been eighty minutes… maybe two hours. Quil had no way to tell.

He was still in just his boxer-briefs and gym shorts with his dirty bare chest. He didn't have his phone so he had no way to contact anyone and all he could do was sit there uselessly as Carlisle waited for the x-rays of Bennett's neck and spine.

Quil's heartrate never slowed as he leaned against the wall, silently praying to God that the eighteen-year-old kid in the room behind him would be alright, that nothing Quil had done to him would impact his life in anyway, and then just a little bit he added in just a side note that Claire might forgive him.

He'd known she'd be upset from the second he'd booked the ticket to Atlanta. He hadn't planned on going for the birth of Hannah's third child. He'd told Claire six months ago that if he couldn't go with her than he didn't want to go at all and that hadn't changed, even when they'd broken up. Especially when they'd broken up, that was when Quil needed to keep a closer eye on her than ever since he had no idea what she was going to say or do anymore. But when his mom had called from Georgia, the day before, where she was already to help prepare for the baby and told Quil that Hannah was in the hospital and that they were still decided what to do, Quil's heart had dropped.

He debated constantly if he'd do any good by even going and if he should even mention it to Claire who was giving him a colder treatment the last couple days then she ever had before. Her resentment of him was simmering at a level reaching close to distain and barely tolerable this past week and if he was being honest with himself, he hadn't been completely thrilled with her either. Half the time he wondered if she intentionally put herself in situations no normal sixteen-year-old would find themselves in just so that she could get under his skin and needle him with constant age-inappropriate behaviors.

But when his mom had called only that morning to tell him Hannah would be having a c-section for the first time and that she'd be put under anesthesia to do it, he had booked the flight. It left in only eight hours or something if he'd kept track of the time at all since he'd phased, which he probably hadn't…. if he could still make his flight, then he'd arrive just in time to get to the hospital before they took Hannah away for the surgery.

"Quil?"

Quil looked up in surprise that he hadn't noticed Stephen approaching before he opened the door. He just held out his phone to Quil and Quil grabbed it.

"Yeah?" Quil asked nervously as Stephen went back into the room with Bennett.

"Okay, Quil." Carlisle's voice came over the line with the same calm tone but this time with a more business-like edge to it, "It's like I thought. One of Bennett's upper vertebrae in his back shattered when he smashed to the ground." Quil pulled in a sharp but mostly silent breath as his stomach dropped, Carlisle seemed to be either too professional or too polite to acknowledge it and continued, "It did start to heal basically immediately, as all you wolves do, but unfortunately not all the pieces came back together." Quil bit the inside of his lip as he turned to the wall and then tapped a fist lightly against it, resisting the urge to smack against it as Carlisle continued, "When he phased I have to assume more of the pieces became dislodged and one piece is, unfortunately, pressing on his spinal cord."

"-Okay." Quil replied and his voice shook so badly he was surprised it was coherent. "What do I do? How do I fix this?"

Carlisle was quiet for a moment and Quil's heart continued to race as he waited to hear how he'd respond.

"Keep him calm, he needs to stay strapped to the board for now. He's not in any pain but that may change if inflammation causes swelling while his body continues to try to rapidly heal… I've already given Stephen instructions about what to give him." Quil just nodded as he took in all the instructions, "We already have a jet on standby so with any luck I should be there and operating on him within ten hours." Quil blew out a sigh of intense relief at this. He already knew that this was bad, much worse than any injury they'd ever faced since Jake had been crushed, but if Carlisle was actually coming then there was a shot that he could fix this. He was also shocked since he knew commercial flights to Paris took at least eighteen hours and usually involved lay overs but if Carlisle said he'd be there in ten hours then he'd take his word for it. "Just stay calm, Quil. You handle this well. I feel pretty confident in saying I can repair his spine before he has any permeant injury." Carlisle assured him and Quil wanted to cry with relief except for the fact that he also knew Bennett wouldn't be in this situation at all if it weren't for him.

"…. Okay…" Quil finally mumbled around his thick and closing throat, "… Thank you, Carlisle."

"You're welcome, Quil. I need to go now but I'll be there soon. Just hang tight, alright?"

"Of course." Quil replied.

He expected to either hear Carlisle saying goodbye or hanging up but instead suddenly Jacob's voice was on the line, "I'm coming on the jet with Carlisle and Esme. I'll deal with you, Dipshit, when I get there." and then the line went dead.

Quil just sat in the hallway for a moment as he leaned against the wall and held the phone in his shaking hand.

Finally, he gave up on trying to force his hands to quit shaking as he opened the door and walked back into the room.

Stephen was in the back behind the glass and seemed to be typing at the computer, but Bennett did his best to look over when Quil walked in. He no longer had his head strapped to the board where Quil had tightened a strap across his forehead but with the neck brace on he didn't have much more, if any, range of motion.

Quil handed Stephen his phone before he moved back behind the barrier to Bennett's side.

"…. You hear all that?" Quil asked as he came to stand directly above Bennett so that Bennett could just look up at him instead of craning his eyes.

"Yup." Bennett answered a little stoically.

Quil swallowed and nodded in response. A heavy silence settled between the two of them as the severity of it all weighed down on the both of them.

"How are you doing?" Quil asked quietly without really being able to look down at him, still a dirty shirtless mess in just Quil's shorts strapped to a board.

"…. Surprisingly well all things considered." Bennett answered in a way that made Quil think he'd shrug if he could, "It doesn't really feel real… It doesn't hurt or anything."

Quil nodded as he swallowed again and squeezed the side of Bennett's plywood on top of the table before he finally choked out, "…. Bennett…. I'm so ….. sorry. I can't even….. I don't know… I don't even know how to say how sorry I am-" his voice sounded so rough and low that he almost sounded angry before Bennett cut across him,

"-Please stop."

He sounded so confident and self-assured that Quil looked down at him in surprise.

"Seriously, you're making me feel like it's permanent or terminal or something with that super serious apology." Bennett continued and Quil suddenly laughed in response before he whispered as he grew serious,

"We don't know for sure if Carlisle can fix it."

Bennett rolled his eyes before he said, "Isn't he like the best superhuman doctor surgeon in the world or something?"

Quil just shrugged and tilted his head back and forth, "Pretty much."

"And didn't he fix Jacob after like half his skeleton was crushed?"

"Yeah." Quil agreed.

"So, see I'm obviously in great hands." Bennett surmised before he said, "Positive. I need this to stay positive."

Quil nodded his head in agreement quickly, recognizing that the only way Bennett was going to get through the next few hours strapped to a plywood board that smelled distinctly of cheap beer and cigarettes was if they talked about Carlisle's pending surgery exclusively as a success.

"Carlisle never fails…. You'll probably be stronger than before." Quil said easily and Bennett laughed but it was with a tone of nervousness.

"What can I do?" Quil asked and he sounded almost like he was begging with how desperate he was.

Bennett blinked a little and the small amount of moisture collecting in his eyes quickly dispersed around the corners of his skin before a small tear rolled down the side of his face until it ran itself out about halfway down. He cleared his throat a little gruffly like he was trying to brace himself,

"…Um…." He hesitated as he seemed to consider it and then continued, "Don't tell my mom. I don't want her to know until after I'm out of surgery. She'll just expect that I'm staying over at Claire's."

A few hours ago, that statement would normally have made Quil cringe or feel a distinct urge to slam Bennett against a wall with his hand around Bennett's throat, now he had seemed to work through a lot of those jealous rage feelings and after tonight he really didn't feel in a position to begrudge Bennett anything.

"Okay," Quil agreed confidently as he nodded his head but felt fairly certain Bennett could see directly through his bravado, "… It'll probably be better to tell her after everything is fine anyways."

"Exactly." Bennett sighed and Quil squeezed the board around his hand tighter as he wondered how in the hell they were going to stay calm and positive through the next ten hours.

"What else?" he asked.

Bennett hesitated again before he finally cleared his throat, "...Uh, if you could try to find my phone that'd be great….." he hesitated as he looked at Quil before he admitted nervously, "…also, Claire."

Quil watched Bennett's throat seem to swell a little and then bob underneath his brace as he swallowed before he continued and for the first time his voice lost its edge of trademark confidence so that even though he spoke bravely all he managed to sound like was a scared, vulnerable kid, "-If you could get Claire…. I think it'd help a bit if I could just have Claire here with me."

"Okay." Quil agreed quickly, "I can bring Claire."

Bennett sighed with relief before he said, "Thank you, Quil." And Quil suddenly realized Bennett thought that there was a significant chance he would keep Claire from being with him while Bennett was too incapacitated to do anything about it.

"Don't thank me for anything…" Quil gasped harshly as he took a step back away from the table.

Bennett didn't seem to have anything to say in response and Quil shoved a hand through his hair before he took a breath and asked, "Are you going to be okay here with just Stephen if I go to get her and our phones?"

Bennett sounded a lot more like usual when he replied, "Yeah, dude, I'll be fine for a few."

Quil just nodded as he stepped forward again back into his line of sight and then grabbed his bare shoulder. He didn't even know what to say as he squeezed it, so eventually he just let it go as he nodded and then walked out the door, down the hall and then out the door he'd come in through.

His heart pounded as he got back in the stollen truck and started the engine again. He had no idea how he was going to face her, but he knew that he had to as he pulled out and drove straight to Claire's house.

He blew out a resolved breath as he pulled up in front of the Young's house and parked the truck behind the Camaro in the driveway. His hands had finally stopped shaking but his stomach dropped with just the anticipation of what he was about to face. He was still in just shorts and all he had were the keys to the truck in his hand since he didn't even have pockets to store them in. As he made his way around the truck and then past the Camaro up to the front door, he finally noticed that he wasn't wearing any shoes. He'd hadn't even thought to find some in his rush to get Bennett help. His feet were dirty and even spattered with a little bit of dried blood though he didn't know if it was his or Bennett's from their fight as he forced through the feeling like he was on the march to death. His urgency to get back to Bennett with Claire in tow kept him moving quickly.

He only let himself stop long enough to blow out a breath at the front door before he grasped the handle and pushed the door opened.

There was a collective sigh of relief as he stepped in and closed the door quickly behind him and then set the truck keys on the table next to the door.

"There you are! What the hell took so long!?" said a familiar masculine voice and Quil looked up in surprise.

"Seth!?" he asked in shocked confusion as he took a look around the room.

Seth was the only one approaching him from where he'd just stood up from the couch. Claire was also standing like she'd just stood up, but she turned away to the side as soon as Quil looked at her and he felt the stab deep in his heart at the way she had her arms crossed tightly across her chest like she was trying to hold herself together or the way her face was all red and blotchy and wet from the tears that still seemed to be just slightly leaking from her puffy, swollen eyes. It was enough to make him take a step farther into the room just to get closer to her.

Rachel was still sitting on the couch openly staring at Quil with what looked like concerned confusion. He suddenly spotted Jamie asleep on the sofa and realized that was why Rachel hadn't stood up because his head was resting on her leg, cushioned between her baby bump and her lap.

Quil looked down in surprise when something hit his leg and realized that an unusually silent Butch had come up to him nervously.

"Hey, buddy." He murmured as rubbed around his ears and then under his jaw. Quil could sense his immediate relief and Butch let his mouth roll open and then started rubbing his entire side against Quil's leg.

"So…. How's …. Everything?" Seth asked and Quil looked up at him as the room all seemed to stand on bated breath waiting for the answer.

"…. uh… well….." Quil replied and was shocked when his voice came out higher than it had since he was a teenager.

Seth just looked at him in skeptical confusion and Quil tried to think of how he could explain when Claire suddenly turned toward him. Quil immediately gave up focusing on Seth as he watched Claire suddenly focus solely on him as she quickly crossed the room. Her face was still wet from the tears that made Quil's chest ache, but she had quit crying as she came right up to him until she was only inches away and Butch had to move to the side to get out of her way.

When she reached for him Quil wasn't sure what she was doing, and he vaguely wondered if she was going to kiss him as she placed her right hand on his jaw until her fingertip almost reached his ear and then her left hand on his bare shoulder so that it wrapped around to the back of his neck, and she was almost cradling his face above her… until she suddenly turned his head up and then to the side as she leaned in closer to look directly at his neck.

Before he could respond she was running her fingers across his neck like she was inspecting it before running her hands down his chest as she looked intensely at it too.

He was about to say something when she put both of her hands on his jaw so that this time her thumbs were on his cheeks and as bad a time as it was to notice he felt like his whole body was on fire from every single place her fingers had touched.

"… Are you okay?" she asked in a shaky voice as she used her hands to force his face down at an angle she could look directly into.

Her lower lip quivered as she looked intensely at him like she couldn't rest until he confirmed to her that he wasn't harmed.

His hands found her waist of their own accord, forcing her dress to bunch together under them, as he whispered directly to her in a voice so soft that only she had ever brought it out in him and he hadn't thought he was even capable of producing anymore, "…I'm fine, Claire."

She whimpered softly in response as her head dropped forward instead of forcing him to look in her eyes and he immediately pulled her closer to him.

"Are you sure!? There was blood, and your covered in it and he had his teeth around your throat!" she whimpered as she resisted leaning into his chest the way he was encouraging her to with his hands on her so that she could look back up at him with her hands still on his face.

"I'm sure, Claire. He didn't hurt me." He whispered again directly to her as he tried again to urge her forward so that he could hold her head against his chest.

She nodded in response as she continued to hold to him. "Good." She sighed and when she pulled her hands down Quil thought that she was finally letting go to lean into him until he heard the sharp slap that rang out when her palm came directly back to make hot contact with his cheek.

Quil blinked in shock for a second as a slight sting tingled through his face from where she had clearly hit him as hard as she could.

"…. okay," he said a little skeptically as the surprise began to wane, "I probably deserved that.

He'd barely finished speaking when her hand came down a second time with an even louder smack ringing through the entire room.

This time Quil dropped his left hand from her waist as he used it to rub at his cheek that stung more than he would have expected it to.

"… Well, I don't know about that one…" he muttered in slight confusion.

This time when her hand came flying up to make contact with his face again, he caught her wrist in the air before it could reach him. He had to use his right hand to do it so that he'd dropped her waist completely and the only place they were now touching was his hand holding her wrist.

"Okay, that one I don't think I deserve…" he defended as he looked down at her face that had that same angry stubborn look she had on it as the day almost exactly a year earlier when she'd refused to leave his apartment because he was sick.

Her face suddenly crumbled though, and her wrist was still in his hand as she collapsed into him when she started crying.

"How could you!?" she cried angrily at him as he dropped her wrist and wrapped his arms around her, "How could you, Quil!?" she used her now free hands to suddenly beat at his chest with her fists even as she kept her face and chest smushed against him.

"..Claire," he said, a little shocked to see how hurt she obviously was especially when he hadn't even told her about Bennett yet, "I'm sorry, babe…."

"You phased! You phased at me!" she demanded angrily as she wrapped one arm around his back to hold herself to him while using the other to keep pounding angrily against his bare and dirty chest.

"What? No!" he gasped in surprise. She sucked in an angry breath like she was going to continue but Seth spoke before she could.

"What happened then, Quil?" he asked calmly and Quil looked up in shock as he suddenly remembered there were other people in the room with them, "The entire pack is freaked out that you'd accidently attack Claire…"

"…. Attack Claire?" he repeated back in shock, too stunned to even process the idea.

Seth nodded as he replied, "I thought I'd show up to find her mangled up…."

"What the hell are you even doing here, Seth!?" Quil suddenly snapped. He still needed to get Claire back to Bennett and there was too much going on to deal with explaining to Seth the intricacies of the night he didn't really want anyone else to ever know about.

Seth looked shocked for a second as he stared at Quil still holding Claire in his arms as she clung to him but continued to sporadically bang angrily against his chest.

Seth shrugged at him in a mix of exasperation and surprise. "I got the call from Paul! The whole pack things you went crazy with repressed raged and attacked Claire until Bennett could pull you off of her!"

"..Wha- … Are you kidding me?" Quil asked seriously even as his arms tightened around Claire pulling her tighter into his chest until her entire body was pressed against his and he took a deep breath.

He thought he took the breath as a calming mechanism the way he usually did but when the scent of Claire's hair hit him, he realized immediately he did it in response to holding her. He could finally breathe again so of course he took a big one.

Seth shrugged a little like he felt guilty before he replied, "Obviously it didn't get that far….. but from what Claire said, it got close enough."

"Wha-…?" Quil replied in confusion as he pulled back from her just enough to look down at Claire in his arms. '…you're scaring me….' Claire's voice suddenly rang through his memory from just a few hours ago. "… You thought I was going to hurt you?" Quil asked in a shocked and hurt voice.

Claire looked down as she pulled one of her arms away before pulling her fist up to her mouth to cover it and then looked back at him. "You were mad, Quil…"

Quil suddenly dropped his arms from around her as he took another step back. he vaguely noticed Claire's arm around his back trail across his skin as if it was trying to linger before he was out of her reach.

"… I can't believe this." He muttered in shock as he looked at her, feeling more shocked and disappointed in her than he ever had before.

"… What do you want me to say!? You were phasing!" she said defensively, "You did phase!"

"Are you serious right now, Claire?" Quil asked in shocked frustration.

Claire just looked over at him in obvious frustration and confusion before she proclaimed, "You could have hurt me! I thought you were going to!"

Quil just stood there wondering where the hell she'd gone so wrong and feeling like it'd have hurt less if she'd just taken the needle full of air and injected it straight into his vein.

"So, it seems like the story got mixed up a little bit here for everyone, but it seems like it's safe to say everyone's okay and I can go home now, right?" Seth asked, reminding Quil of his presence once again and snapping him out of his heartbroken reprieve.

"No… I mean yes." Quil looked away from Claire to address Seth in a numbed and confused staccato. "… Bennett got hurt but you can go home now."

Seth looked at him in obvious intrigue, clearly wanting more explanation but Quil just shook his head at him, still feeling too dazed to explain.

"Bennett got hurt!?" Claire asked in a whisper of a voice. "You HURT him!?"

Quil couldn't look at her, he was so disappointed and yet the guilt settled over him so heavy that he almost couldn't breathe as he sat down on the couch behind him and brought the fingers of both hands to his temples where he pressed together and rubbed, wondering if today could possibly get any worse.

"…..Yeah." Quil finally admitted with defeat. "… We… I-" Quil stopped to correct as he cleared his throat and spoke directly to the coffee table, "…I shattered one of the vertebrae in his spine."

The room sat in a chilling stunned silence even as he continued,

"…. He can't move. Carlisle is on his way right now to come operate on him… he thinks he can repair it."

Quil could only look at the ceiling as he ran a hand down from his chin to his throat and felt how strongly his fingers were shaking before he stretched them out in front of him trying to flex them.

Claire suddenly sat down on the coffee table a few feet away before she simply whispered, "What?..." like she was too horrified to compute what he'd just said.

Rachel was the first to speak from her spot angled across from Quil with Jamie still asleep on her lap, "….. You broke…. His back?"

Quil's eyes filled with hot tears he tried to blink away as the words hit him in sequence, you broke his back. the thought of Bennett strapped to the table at the clinic all alone had Quil's gut churning, and it suddenly occurred to him that he'd just assumed he'd never feel guilt worse than he had after Robert died but now he had another huge tally against him that he'd carry for the rest of his life.

Quil cleared his throat that felt like it was swelling shut before he looked at Rachel and kind of tilted his head to the side in a sort of shrug.

"…. Yeah." he admitted with defeat, refusing to back away from the claim.

"How?" she asked, sounding more surprised than anything else.

"… It's a long story, but we were fighting, and I took him out." Quil sighed as he looked at the ceiling and blinked the moisture out of his eyes knowing that he was running out of time and needed to get back to the clinic.

"So, you did it on purpose?" Rachel asked just sounding like she was digging for more details instead of judgmental like he would have expected.

"No!" Quil sighed out with a quiet confident assurance as he shook his head back and forth mostly at the floor as he leaned forward to rest his arms on his legs and then run his hands through his hair before leaving them on top of his head.

"… So…. It was an accident?" Rachel surmised.

And Quil could only nod aggressively toward the floor as his throat seemed to close completely, his eyes were burning, and he couldn't see anything through the blur, but he was still staring at the floor between his knees.

"It was just an accident, Claire." Rachel muttered softly and Quil suddenly wondered what Claire must look like for Rachel to feel the need to assure her of it.

Quil jumped a little when he felt a hand come down on his shoulder until Seth (who he had forgotten was there, again) said, "What can I do, Quil?"

Quil sucked in a breath through his nose as he sat back up and blinked his eyes clear again, "Uh… can you call, Leah and Collin?" he replied in a dazed voice, "I need to get the pack organized and informed."

"Yeah, I'm on it." Seth assured him as he pulled out his phone and then stepped out the front door to make the call.

Quil finally looked up at Claire sitting on the coffee table looking like a broken shell of a person, his heart stabbed at the thought before he muttered, "…. He asked me to bring you back with me. He wants you there with him."

It seemed to snap Claire out of her daze as she blinked and then looked over at him. She suddenly shook her head and then muttered, "Yeah, of course. I need to be there for him." She jumped up and started looking around herself as she pulled her hands through her hair and sniffed through her nose. She spun around slowly as she bent down and picked her purse up off the floor and then kept spinning as she slowly looked around, "Rachel, can I borrow your shoes?" she asked in her daze.

Rachel just nodded as Claire pulled on a pair of canvas shoes by the door and then kept looking around herself like she wasn't sure what she'd need.

"… He asked me to find his phone for him." Quil muttered as he stood back up.

Claire snapped her fingers and pointed at Quil before she said, "Right, phones." And then marched purposefully into the kitchen behind them where she grabbed a bunch of phones off the counter and came back as she shoved two into her purse.

"Here." She said to him as she pushed Quil's phone toward him even though the screen was so shattered there was a piece missing from it.

"Thanks" he muttered as he took it and then took a breath as he looked down at her in front of him, "Are you okay to drive right now?"

She shook her head in confusion again before she looked up into his eyes and seemed a little clearer, "I think so, why? Do I need to?"

"It'd help a lot if you could follow me in my car so I can drop off the truck and lock up the shop… I left it opened." He explained and she just nodded before she dug into her purse and pulled out a set of keys with her set to the Camaro on them.

"Kay, I got it, let's go." She muttered, clearly in a hurry to get to Bennett.

"Text me updates!" Rachel called and Quil nodded as he followed Claire out the door.

She didn't say anything as she marched past Seth on the phone, straight to the Camaro and unlocked it before climbing in the driver's seat. Quil just sighed as he also bypassed Seth and got into the truck and then started the engine, he pulled it out and then spent most of the short drive to the shop watching the headlights from the Camaro in the rearview mirror.

When they got there Quil realized he'd been in such a hurry that he'd left the bay door open which was convenient since he was able to pull the truck directly into the garage but worrisome since anyone might have just walked in of the street if they wanted.

Quil didn't have the time or energy to worry about it though as he got out of the truck and grabbed one of his toolboxes. He carried it directly over to the side door he'd busted through earlier and then pushed the door closed before setting the box in front of it to simply hold it shut.

He yanked the rolling door down as he stepped outside and then made sure it shut all the way. He sighed before he climbed into the passenger seat of the Camaro.

Claire stayed quiet as she pulled out to head towards the Urgent Care Center, but she was a jittery mess with her knees and fingers bouncing continually and Quil could tell how nervous she was.

There was so much that he wanted to say to her as she drove silently but very efficiently across town, but he doubted that she was even thinking about him at all.

He wanted to tell her that Bennett would be okay, he knew her just hearing him say it would help but the truth was he couldn't say it. He didn't know if Bennett would be okay and if he wasn't…. well than it would all be Quil's fault for what he'd done to him.

"Pull around back." Quil murmured quietly, speaking for the first time since he'd gotten into the car as they pulled into the front of the strip mall.

Claire didn't respond as she maneuvered the car through the parking lot until they rounded the building and then she was pulling up to where he had first parked the stollen truck earlier.

She shoved the gear shift almost angrily into park before she smashed her finger against the button to the kill the engine. She was already throwing the door open and hoping out of the car, but Quil just sat there.

He wanted to stop her. To talk to her. To explain how wrong she was about everything that had happened tonight, but he knew it wasn't the right timing and he doubted she'd listen anyways.

"Let's go!" she yelled back to him just as he was getting out of the car.

She was standing with both of her fist clutched tightly around the straps of her purse as she stood in the dead space between the car and the back entrance to the building, obviously waiting extremely anxiously for Quil to lead her in.

Quil just nodded his head as he let the door fall shut, not bothering to lock it since Claire had the keys and he didn't want to make her come back to do it.

His legs ate up the distance until he passed her and then opened the door leading in. She didn't hesitate as she stepped passed him holding the door and then walked into the short hall that led to a T with another hall in front of it.

She didn't pause but Quil took a nervous breath as she quickly asked, "Which way?"

"Left."

She turned left and Quil followed before he took the one step to slide his body passed her and then open the door that led into the room with the X-ray. She didn't acknowledge him even when her body brushed his as she slid past him. She gasped at the sight of Bennett still lying on the table strapped to the board with the neck brace.

She froze right in the doorway with half her body still touching Quil holding the door.

"… Bennett?" she hissed in almost a whisper with its soft brokenness.

She sounded childlike with the fear quivering her voice and Quil automatically placed his free hand on her lower back, steadying her and trying to offer comfort.

Bennett probably couldn't see anything except the machine hanging above him since he couldn't move at all and couldn't see them in the doorway, but he chuckled his normal laugh and responded easily,

"Hey, Meredith….."

Claire suddenly jumped when he referred to what Quil had to guess was her nickname and seemed to get over the shock of him as she squared her shoulders and then moved directly into the room abandoning Quil's hand on her back as she walked away from it.

"…. How'd you know it was me?" she asked as she quickly wiped at her face and moved purposefully toward where he was lying in the middle of the room. She stopped and grabbed a chair lining the wall and then dragged it until it was aligned with his head next to the table. She dropped her purse on it without looking as she squared up to the table, as close to Bennett as she could get.

"I've gotten used to recognizing your teary voice I guess." Bennett said easily and held up his arms at the elbows as far as he could move them like he was attempting a shrug of sorts.

Claire gave a watery sounding chuckle as Quil slowly made his way into the room behind her until he stopped close enough that he knew Bennett could see him but that he wasn't touching Claire.

"I've been crying more than not lately, huh?" Claire replied to him easily as she grabbed his hand lying on his stomach without hesitating.

"… Maybe…" Bennett admitted with a smile and Quil saw the way his hand grasped tightly onto Claire's like it was his lifeline.

Maybe Bennett's hand grabbing hers was her trigger or maybe talking about it had brought it on but somehow Claire quickly went from silently leaking tears, to sniffing as it increased, to a vast downpour in the matter of only a couple of seconds.

When it was obvious she couldn't hide her crying she seemed to give up and embrace it as she let her entire shoulders shake with it before she simply folded in half until her forehead was directly on Bennett's chest below her with her hand still gripped tightly in his.

Bennett immediately used his free hand and placed it directly on the back of her head, holding her there as his fingers threaded into her hair.

"… Bennett!" Claire painfully whimpered out desperately against him with her watery cry and Quil could see Bennett suddenly blinking moisture out of his eyes as he kept his gaze focused directly on the machine above him and gave a small sniff.

"… I'm still here, Claire…. Always still here." He promised with an assurance in his voice that sounded so believably real except that Quil could see the small tear that leaked out of his eye when he blinked again.

For the first time ever Quil suddenly felt like some sort of voyeur watching Claire leaning against Bennett.

Claire was his imprint. Had always been his imprint. It had always been his job to watch her, to keep tabs and look out for her, but for the first time he suddenly felt like he didn't belong in a room Claire was standing in.

He rubbed a hand across his chest over his heart as he thought it but did the only thing that felt natural and slowly let his legs carry him away from the scene in front of him of Claire wordlessly shaking as she cried against Bennett's naked and dirty chest and Bennett stroking his fingers through her hair as he held her hand, until Quil walked through the door and then silently closed it behind him.

Somehow, he couldn't force himself to move any farther away once he'd closed the door before he leaned against the wall where he'd waited while Bennett had been x-rayed. He pulled his hands up above his head to run through his hair as he let his legs mostly fall out from under him so that he slid his way down the wall to the floor.

He let his head fall forward until it was between his legs with his arms resting on his knees as he held the back of his head in his hands. He could still hear Claire crying inside before she murmured,

"… Does it hurt?"

Bennett sniffed slightly before his voice said, "… Naw, Stephen gave me something before you got here."

"Stephen?" Claire asked in confusion and the rustle of her dress let Quil know that she'd stood back up again as she spoke.

"He's the P.A. working for Carlisle." Bennett explained, "He's taking care of me."

"Oh…" Claire more hummed than spoke, "That's good."

"You can sit down, Claire, it's okay," Bennett seemed to assure her and Quil wondered if she was hesitating to move where he couldn't see her, "I can still talk to you and hold your hand with you sitting next to me."

Her dress rustled again and Quil could tell that she'd sat in the chair she'd already dragged over.

Claire sniffed and Quil guessed that she was wiping her face before she said more brightly, "….. I brought your phone."

"… Oh good, thanks." Bennett said a little awkwardly.

It was quiet between them for a couple of seconds as Quil just sat against the wall raking his nails against his scalp and wishing he had some sort of time machine to take him back, just a couple of hours…. If he could just redo the last couple of hours, he would undo everything if he just had the chance.

"You remember how they took us to the hospital in separate ambulances after the accident?" Claire suddenly asked almost randomly.

Bennett gave another heavy sniff before he said, "…Uh yeah… I didn't think you'd remember that. You weren't conscious when they took you and they were still cutting me out of the car."

Quil couldn't be sure but from the soft brush of her hair he would bet that Claire had just nodded.

"I woke up as they wheeled me into the E.R.. I was strapped to a board just like this…. Did I ever tell you that?" Claire asked softly, sounding more like herself as she talked about it.

"… No, you didn't." Bennett mused with interest and Claire continued,

"Yeah, I woke up strapped down with my arm strapped to my chest and an oxygen mask covering my face….. I was really disoriented but the one thing I knew immediately is that you were supposed to be with me… that we'd been together before I blacked out."

She took a breath and Quil wondered vaguely if Bennett's thumb was rubbing circles around the back of her hand the way Quil always used to do when she was upset.

"I freaked out when no one would pay attention to me to tell me what was going on and what happened to you… I started yelling 'Where is my BOYFRIEND!?' until one kind nurse popped in front of me and told me he'd make sure you were okay."

Bennett snorted at that before he laughed, "Freaking Greg! Is that how he won your good graces!?"

"Yeah!" Claire readily admitted with a laugh, "He won me over the second he told me that you were yelling at orderlies that you were fine and to let you come see me."

Bennett chuckled in response and when the carpet that Quil was staring at beneath him suddenly splashed right where he was staring at it, he suddenly realized he was crying.

It was silent in the room behind him and Quil blinked in surprise which just released more tears, hot and heavy as they ran silently down his nose and then dripped off one by one to land on the carpet in a small splash the same as the first one.

"… How could he do this?" Claire suddenly choked with obvious tears in her voice that sounded muffled like she was leaning her face against something again.

Quil released one hand from his scalp to rub painfully against the skin of his chest where it ached so deeply as he held his breath, refusing to release the shudders raking through him as the hot tears flowed undeterred right onto the carpet below without ever making a single sound.

"… It wasn't his fault." Bennett muttered with a sort of peaceful acceptance that just seemed to make Claire more upset.

"He admitted directly to me that he did this to you!" Claire said angrily with a choked voice and Quil wondered if she was pointing toward the door he'd left through.

"… Naw, Claire. You should have seen it… his execution… it was flawless. The most badass move I've ever seen even in memory…" Bennett assured with a laugh, and he almost sounded excited about it, "... You'd have been proud."

"I'm not proud of any of this!" Claire said angrily.

"Shh," Bennett assured and Quil suddenly heard Claire's sobs, "He could have really hurt me, Claire, but he held back…. he has so much strength….. -really he's basically who I want to be when I grow up." Bennett suddenly joked in a clear effort to lighten the mood, "… I just hit the ground too hard…" he assured her softly.

Claire seemed to reign in her crying a bit before she asked, "….. Really? Bennett, you swear on your life, this was just an accident?"

She sounded so desperate, like she needed it to be true and Quil suddenly wondered with a sobering reality what she would do if Bennett didn't convince her he hadn't hurt him intentionally.

"I swear it, Claire." Bennett didn't even hesitate as his voice confidently assured her, "I actually have much better feelings about him now than I've had in months."

"… Really?" Claire asked in shock.

"Yeah!" Bennett said with a laugh and Quil held his breath again because the urge to shake and sob along with his tears came on stronger than ever once Bennett said it.

It was quiet again and Quil had to continue holding his breath to keep from being heard.

It wasn't until a full minute later when Claire broke the silence between them that Quil finally let out a breath, shaking steadily with it.

"What can I do? How can I help?"

"…. There's nothing, really…. just stay with me, I guess." Bennett muttered and Claire seemed to sigh in discouragement.

"There's got to be something to make this better for you." She said almost angrily.

"…. I'm strapped to a board until I wake up post-op, Claire….. there's not much anyone can do." He argued like he'd already thought through it a million times, he was quiet for a moment, and it seemed like they were just sitting there together before he started again, sounding much more like that scared kid again as his voice broke when he said, "….. I just wish…" he faded off suddenly.

"What?" Claire asked in a mix of softness and firmness that Quil figured only she was capable of.

"…. I just wish I could see Macy's face one more time before Carlisle puts me under…."

"That's what you want?" Claire asked seriously and Bennett huffed out a frustrated sigh.

"She won't even talk to me, Claire…. It's never going to happen."

"That's what would make this better for you?" Claire asked almost angrily.

"… It's never going to happen, I'm telling you, Claire. She told me to drop dead the last time- Claire!?" Bennett suddenly asked as the chair scrapped across the floor.

"I'll take care of it." Claire had barely said confidently before she whipped the door open before Quil was prepared for her to.

She stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her so that she was standing right next to Quil on the floor.

Quil barely had time to sit up against the wall again and use the back of his hand to wipe at his nose that was running along with his tears before she looked down at him.

Her face didn't register any sort of surprise, either at finding him on the floor or of him obviously crying when she looked directly into his eyes with her gaze that always felt like it connected directly to his soul and said in a tone that brokered no argument, "I'm taking your car- stay with him. I'll be back as soon as I can."

When she didn't move from her position above him, he suddenly realized she was waiting for a response from him. He just nodded quickly at her and then she shoved her purse up her shoulder and was gone the way they'd came quicker than he would have expected.

Quil just sat in the hall for a second as he sniffed and wiped his nose again since it was running significantly more than it had in years, and then palmed his eyes, grateful that the shock of Claire's appearance had finally made them stop watering. He dropped his face to push off the ground and then shook out his arms before he walked back into the room Bennett was in, leaving the door open behind him.

He didn't look at Bennett as he came in and took Claire's seat but knew that Bennett could see him as he walked past. He didn't say anything as he sat down and then reached his hand out to pat Bennett's shoulder, wordlessly communicating that he was there with him, and he wasn't going anywhere.

"She going to try to get Macy?" Bennett asked easily like he wasn't surprised.

"Yup." Quil replied.

"She's on a fool's errand."

"Sounds like it." Quil agreed.

Bennett chuckled a little before he asked, "She give you my phone?"

"… It's in her purse." Quil answered as he realized it.

Bennett groaned a little before he said, "You got yours again?"

Quil chuckled as he pulled his phone out from under him on the chair and then reached it over Bennett's shoulder so that he could grab it where his arm wasn't strapped down and look at the shattered screen in his hand.

"Nice!" Bennett laughed before he chucked it back to Quil without being able to see where he was throwing it. "You deserved that one though."

"Probably." Quil agreed with a laugh.

It was quiet between them as they both chuckled.

"Man, I wish we had some hard liquor right now." Quil suddenly mused with regret.

"Seriously." Bennett agreed.

Quil cleared his throat a little gruffly before he could said sincerely, "…Thank you, Bennett."

He held his breath as he waited for Bennett to ask him to explain himself but to his eternal relief Bennett was quiet when he simply replied, "…. You're welcome, Quil."

They didn't speak at all again as they sat together in the room ticking with the clock on the wall and a slight buzz coming from the computers behind the barrier. They just sat together as Bennett laid strapped down and Quil resumed his posture from the hall floor again except bent farther forward as he rested his arms on his knees and held his head in his hands. Much sooner than they ever would have expected they both heard the back door that led to the back alley open. There was the distinct ruffle of clothing and scuffing of hurried footsteps as Quil sat back up just before Claire rounded the corner and marched into the room, dragging by the hand a ruffled looking Macy in behind her in pajama shorts and a t-shirt from their high school football team that looked like it might have belonged to Bennett before he'd phased.

"Claire?" Bennett asked in confusion since he couldn't see the doorway and Quil stood up from his seat.

She didn't reply as she walked forward, still pulling Macy's hand as she walked past the table until she was standing next to Quil where he had stood in front of the chair, and then dropped Macy's hand before putting both on her back and pushing her forward until she was right in front of the table where Bennett could see her.

"… Mace?" Bennett whispered as he smiled, and a tear suddenly leaked out of his eye and ran down the side of his face facing them.

Macy reached forward and used the side of her bent index finger to stop the tear and then wiped softly upward, erasing the trail it'd made, "…. Hey, B." Macy muttered quietly.

"You came?" Bennett sounded shocked even as he lifted up his arm at the elbow, opening his hand up in an obvious invitation.

"Of course ..." Macy sniffed quietly like she was trying not to cry as she immediately grabbed onto Bennett's hand he was offering and squeezed it tightly.

Quil was still standing right next to Claire close enough that her side was almost touching his arm just behind Macy and he used the proximity to softly place his fingertips on the small of her back. She looked up at him in shocked surprise like she'd forgotten they were standing together while she'd been engrossed in watching Macy with Bennett. Quil simply nodded his head toward the door as he looked at her and she looked back at Bennett in front of her before looking at Quil again and then nodding in agreement with a soft smile.

Claire led the way silently out of the room with Quil's hand guiding her, still glued to her back as he followed, closing the door quietly behind him just as they heard Bennett's whispered, "… I can't believe you're here right now." muttered so lovingly to his imprint.

"How in the hell did you manage that one?" Quil asked in whispered shock and awe as he dropped his hand from Claire's back and then automatically grabbed hers hanging beside him.

He froze for a second when he realized he was holding her hand, but when she wrapped all her fingers into the space between his thumb and index finger, holding tight to him, he relaxed with relief.

Claire just shrugged as she let him lead her down the hallway toward the waiting room he was heading for, "I just told her what she needed to hear…. actually, I just told her the truth."

Quil was about to respond when they walked out of the hall around the corner to the waiting room and saw Stephen sitting in a chair scrolling on his phone.

He looked up as they walked in, "How's he doing?"

Quil shrugged a little as he pulled Claire to a set of chairs across from him and wondered if the three of them would have to sit there together all night. "He seems okay."

He was relieved when Stephen stood up and said, "I'm going to try to lie down in my office for a few minutes, just come get me if he's in any pain or needs anything."

"Will do, Doc." Quil replied as more of a sigh in a tired voice as he and Claire sat down next to each other, and Stephen left.

It was quiet as they sat right beside each other staring out the floor to ceiling windows facing the parking lot in front of them. The only light on was in the hallway behind them so they had a clear view of the empty parking lot illuminated by a streetlamp across the road.

Quil absentmindedly rubbed the back of Claire's hand with his thumb for a second the way he'd wondered if Bennett had until Claire suddenly seemed to feel it and then yanked her hand away.

He looked over at her beside him in response.

"…. Claire…" he said softly, and his voice sounded rough, and he wished again for something hard to drink.

Claire sighed loudly in a way that sounded deeply discouraged as she looked away from him to pull her feet up and tuck them beneath her and her dress on her chair and then leaned forward, placing her elbow on the hard plastic arm rest between them, hiding her face in both of her hands before she said,

"….. Quil….." her tone sounded just as desperate as his had, ".. I don't even know what to say to you right now….. I don't even know what happened tonight!"

Quil sighed and felt about a thousand years old as he ran a hand through his hair. His mix of emotions swirled within him until the frustration grew to overshadow all the others and he suddenly yanked his hand aggressively across his scalp rubbing it furiously back and forth before shooting his arm out in front of him and making Claire jump beside him.

He sighed again as the frustration seemed to leak away and he suddenly sighed out,

"Why didn't you just take my hand?"

"… What?" she asked in obvious confusion as she pivoted her whole body in her chair to face him, "… Quil…. You… you lost control, you were phasing…. I couldn't grab you…."

Quil blew out a breath as he rubbed at that spot on his chest again, he wondered if the skin there was growing red and rough from the pressure of being rubbed away.

"-Claire…." He sighed out in discouragement as he put his face in both his hands.

"Quil! You were going to hurt me… you'd already lost control!" she explained, and he wondered if she already knew the truth deep down and that was why she was so eager to try to defend it, she was trying to convince herself too.

He sighed again as he mumbled into his hands, "That never would have happened."

"… But…. But… I saw your eyes! You were already changing!" she exclaimed, "… You told me! You told me in January! You were pissed when you were losing control and you yelled at me to never be near you when you were like that!"

She was tearing up, he could hear it in her voice, and he dropped his hands from his face to look at her as he replied sadly, "Yeah, Claire, and I meant it because I'd always rather you be careful, even around me, but I also said you couldn't be around any of the wolves when we lost control…. I was thinking about Bennett and you trying to somehow stop him the way you'd stopped me."

She just looked at him in shock and confusion as she opened her mouth and then closed it again before she said, "….. But you were losing control!"

"I know, Claire, that's why I wanted you to just take my hand….. but even if I had lost control and phased, I never would have hurt you, have attacked you!" he told her certainly.

Somewhere along the course of the conversation their eyes had locked together, and they just maintained the connection as he watched her process what he was saying.

He could see the wheels turning in her mind as she continued to try to piece together the memories of that moment only hours ago, "…. But…. but…" she insisted, "… but Sam and Emily! ... Like you said!... You said Sam would never intentionally hurt Emily!"

Quil sighed again in discouragement as he held her eyes and then reached over and took her hand again, she seemed too shocked to notice.

"Claire," Quil began in a tone of confident assurance, "Sam was all alone and had been a wolf for three months when he attacked Emily…. I've been a wolf for seventeen YEARS! Six of which I've been the alpha responsible for the entire pack. You think that I don't have complete control the second my paws hit the ground running?"

Claire just squeezed his hand as she opened and closed her mouth again, "…. But…. You phased!?" she insisted though she sounded much less sure now, as if history was being revealed directly in front of her and it looked a lot different then she'd thought it did.

"I phased when Bennett attacked me….. after you chose him over me…" Quil admitted and the pain in his heart betrayed him in his voice.

Claire just looked at him as a tear suddenly leaked out of the corner of her eye, "…. I just called for help when your eyes went all wolf…." She whispered but Quil heard the tiny note of shame in her voice.

He shrugged ashamed too before he explained in a whisper, "You were running away when I needed you most, Claire… it hurt."

Claire squeezed his hand tighter, and he returned it as she whispered, "I would never choose him over you!"

"You called his name, Claire!" Quil said softly but like it was irrefutable evidence.

Claire shook her head in confusion and another tear rolled down her face, "I… I just called for help…"

Quil smiled sadly at her as he shook his head, "You might as well have thrown down a checkered flag in a bikini top between us…"

Claire gave one sad laugh as she asked, "…What?..." and then her face changed as she suddenly grasped what he was saying.

She had been the one who had issued the challenge between the two wolves.

She closed her eyes, breaking their connection as she began to cry in earnest.

"… It was all my fault?" she suddenly asked in shock as she dropped his hand and used both to cover her face.

"No!" Quil immediately corrected her as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her toward him, she immediately collapsed against his chest as she cried with her face still in her hands, "No, Baby! It was all MY fault. ALL of it." He took a breath as he wrapped his other arm around her and held her tight and then leaned down to press his lips to her head as he muttered against her hair, "I never should have put you in that position… I was so stupid…. I just need you to know….. Claire, I would never hurt you!" his voice sounded sharp when he said it and he knew he sounded angry from the sincere intensity of it.

Claire just nodded against his chest as she continued to cry.

"I'm so sorry, Claire…" His voice broke with the pain as he muttered it still into her hair. "….. I'm so so sorry I hurt him…"

"…. It's okay." Claire muttered through her tears that were shaking her against his chest.

They just sat with each other as Claire cried into his chest from over the armrest and Quil held her, squeezing her with his arms wrapped around her and his face buried into her hair until Leah and Collin got there an hour later.