AN: We get our first look at Paul about halfway through the chapter. I'm not writing from his POV until he's older, so his parts will be in 3rd person until then. Next chapter will skip ahead a few months, and we'll get to meet Bella! And just an FYI, I have given Paul a June birthday, the year following Bella's. So she is about 9 months older, but they are in the same grade. Jake, Quil, and Embry are younger.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but some shirtless pics of Alex Meraz that clog up the memory on my phone. SM owns all.

Chapter 3

January

Charlie POV
I had an uneasy feeling in my gut as I watched my uncle walk into the house and close the door. It wasn't that I didn't trust them, but I did feel like I was responsible for Paul, and I didn't feel right leaving him in someone else's care. It felt almost like when I had to watch my Bells walk away with the flight attendant in Seattle.

Billy honked his horn and I climbed back in the truck, knowing Mark would look for me at the Black house first, and Sarah was probably ready for Billy to be home. Before we got there, I needed to talk to the Quileute chief.

"Billy, you know I can't leave that kid in that house. You saw the conditions they're living in. They're nothing more than squatters!" I couldn't shake the fury I felt seeing Paul hiding in the closet that served as his bedroom. "I mean, the boy doesn't even have a proper bed!"

My hands were clenched into fists on my knees as my mind raced through the options. "It's not that simple, Charlie," Billy said firmly, using his don't-argue-with-me-I'm-the-chief voice. "You can't take him out of the community, but it will be hard to place him in another home. Quil and Molly won't be able to care for him long term."

I doubted that. My aunt was the very definition of caring, and she had helped me out after I lost my own parents just a few years back. I think she always wanted a larger family, but Quil was the only child they were able to have.

"Look, let me talk to some people and see if I can get Tommy a job," Billy offered. "I think Charles Uley can always use the help since Josh took off. He has a hard time keeping enough hands on deck, and you know he's practically an uncle to Tommy."

Charles was a good guy, running a successful construction business that brought a lot of revenue into the tribe. He'd raised Tommy and Josh together whenever Tommy's dad chased him off, but neither of those boys amounted to much. I was determined to see Paul do better.

"What about his mom?" I asked Billy, still not even sure what the woman's name was.

Billy sighed and shook his head. "Tonya is worse than Tommy when it comes to drugs and fighting. Those two are like gasoline and a lit match—eventually they're going to destroy each other and everyone else in their path," he sighed. "I heard from her chief, and they ran her off for excessive drug use and prostitution. Cost Tommy the only job he's been able to hold for longer than a month."

Further conversation was put on hold when we pulled up at the Black house to see Sarah standing in the doorway. Her face lit up with a smile when she saw me step out of the truck, and I made my way up the porch steps to greet my old friend.

She shot me a wink as she looked me up and down, smiling as she took in my uniform. "Looking good, Charlie…" she said, and we both laughed as Billy shoved me off the steps to wrap his wife up in his arms.

He laid a deep kiss on her and turned to glare at me as he herded her into the house. "Eyes off my wife, Swan. She's taken," he growled as she tickled Sarah's ribs, bringing out a fresh round of giggles. "And eyes on me, woman."

I couldn't hold back a sigh as I watched them together. Renee and I used to joke around like that, before she left me. Before she took my baby girl and ran as far away from Forks as she could get. I couldn't trust myself after that, and I couldn't open my heart to anyone else since I lost her.

Shaking my head, I stepped into their living room and plopped down on the sofa. It had been a long night, and I knew Mark would be by soon to pick me up for six more hours of patrol.

I accepted the hot coffee that Sarah offered, wishing I could have a cold vitamin R instead. I would have to come back this weekend and fish with Billy. Maybe I could bring Paul along with us, if Jake would behave himself.

We chatted comfortably as I waited for my ride, but it didn't escape my attention that Billy avoided all discussion of Tommy and Paul. I wondered what Sarah thought of them, as she tended to be stricter with Jake and the girls than Billy was. I didn't think she would be as biased when it came to Paul needing help.

It was nearing two a.m. when we finally made our way back to the station, and Tommy was passed out cold on the hard cot in our only holding cell. It was probably for the best—I wasn't sure I could keep my temper in check if I had to deal with Paul's worthless father tonight.

~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~oOo~

Paul

Paul Lahote was, above all else, a survivor. He was born seven weeks early to his alcoholic mother, and still managed to hang on against all the odds stacked against him. The care he received in the NICU was the most love he'd had in his mere seven-and-a-half years. Even at just under four pounds, he was fierce and earned the name of "bruiser" from the nurses.

At home, Paul learned from an early age to stay out of his parents' way and stay quiet. From age three he was pretty much fending for himself as his mom floated her way from man to man in a cloudy haze of drugs and booze, and his father worked long hours at dead-end jobs to support both their habits. Whenever they got mad, he was an easy target for that anger.

School was just another battlefield for the small boy. He was shorter and slighter in build than his classmates, and his filthy ill-fitting clothes did little to help him fit in with the other kids. He fought back against their taunting the only way he knew how—with his fists.

Teachers turned a blind eye to his malnourished body covered with bruises, and instead focused their attention on his atrocious behavior. He was punished constantly, spending more time in the principal's office than the classroom some days. All he needed was one person to notice his plight.

When Charlie Swan showed up, Paul was at the end of his rope. Since moving to La Push, his home life had gotten more unbearable than it was before, and his mother was even more violent and strung out. Paul's father blamed her for everything wrong in his life, and by extension, Paul. Paul did his best to stay out of their way, but he was invariably caught in the crossfire.

The night of the big fight, Paul had snuck a few pieces of stale bread to his little closet room and shut the door. His mother had lashed out at him as soon as he got home from school, leaving a fresh bruise on his arm and another deeper one on his tender heart.

He couldn't hold back the tears as he listened to the war outside his safe zone, and the siren on the police car terrified him even more. He'd been told as long as he could remember that he was a bad little boy, and everyone knew that the cops liked to arrest bad boys and haul them off to jail. That's what Paul's dad always said, anyway.

So when the object of his nightmares discovered him hiding in the small space, he was unable to pull up the tough persona he had perfected. Charlie Swan got the first uncensored look at the real Paul Lahote, and what he saw broke a barrier between the two. For the first time in his life, Paul met someone he could instinctively trust, at least a little.

He was terrified when Charlie handed him over to the older couple, but something about the woman was familiar and comfortable. Molly made him want to let down his guard, even if he wasn't sure he could.

The next couple of weeks were an eye-opening experience for the boy. Molly never pushed him, but simply offered him all the comforts of her home. She didn't bat an eye when he slipped the food from his plate to his pockets, to be eaten later in the safety of his too-big bedroom. She didn't reprimand him when she found him sleeping night after night curled up in the small closet instead of the comfortable bed.

Charlie stopped by with clothes handed down from some of the older boys in the tribe, and Molly used her sewing skills to make sure they fit his small frame. With baths every day and clothes that smelled clean and fresh, he looked like a new person. Unfortunately, the kids at school were not so easily fooled, and they continued to follow Jacob's lead in picking on Paul every chance they got.

It was after Jacob's second black eye that Paul found an unlikely ally. Embry persuaded Jacob to back off and give Paul a break, and without an adversary, Paul settled down into the classroom routine. After Paul was seen standing up to Jacob, some of the less popular kids began to hover in his general area, even if they weren't quite brave enough to approach him. Only Jared Cameron made a true effort to befriend Paul, though Paul was somewhat baffled by the other boy's sunny personality and constant smiles.

Little Quil had nothing to do with his nearest neighbor, and his parents weren't inclined to force the boys together. Old Quil kept quiet, holding his tongue around the boy, and only telling his son that Paul had future importance to the tribe.

The first fishing trip with Charlie, Paul, Billy, and Jacob was an immense failure. Jacob whined the entire three hours they were out on the water, while Billy interrupted every time Charlie tried to teach Paul something. After that, Charlie simply walked Paul down to the fishing pier, just the two of them.

Paul never asked, and Charlie never told him, but Paul's mother had run off as soon as she was released from the council center. Tommy had made a half-hearted attempt to clean up their small house, and he was a fairly dependable worker for Uley Construction.

Despite all that, no one expected him to show up one cold February morning ready to bring his only son back home.