A/N: Well, this chapter came out a bit later than I expected. I kept working on it little bits during the day but I always got distracted. I had to finish my culminating for school, and I've been sick so it took me a while to finish up. So sorry for the delay.

And I'm sorry that it's not as long as usual. I beta myself so as I said before, all mistakes are my own.

I woke up in the morning with a jolt, shooting straight up out of the bed. My throat hurt, my eyes were puffy, my head was pounding and I felt like I was going to hurl.

To top that off, my wrist was pulsing with pain, though it wasn't really noticeable because my whole body ached. My frizzy ringlets were stuck up everywhere, sticking to my sweat that was matted across my forehead.

I was sick. Damn it.

"Mom!" I tried to call, but the words got stuck in my raspy throat. I tried to move, which was unsettling to my stomach and I leant over my bed just in time to throw up. I moaned, slumping over so my head hung over the bed because I could barely move. "Mom?" No one heard me.

I was still in that position when my brother came up and knocked on my closed door. "Kim! Hey, if you don't get up now, you're going to be late. And then you're going to have to walk, because I'm not waiting for you." I moaned and tried to breathe heavily through my nose to stop the puke in my throat from coming back up. "Kim?" He knocked once more and opened the door just as I tossed my cookies again.

He wrinkled his nose and grimaced. "I think I'm sick." I complained in my scratchy voice.

"Clearly." He mocked. "I guess I'm going to be late after all. Do you want me to call Mom and ask her if she'll come back home…? Of course not." He trailed off after I weakly raised my eyebrow at him. "Stay right here, don't move and try not to throw up again until I come back."

Jeff, bless him, came back with a bucket, two towels and some cleaning spray. He wordlessly handed me the bucket with a pointed look and worked on cleaning up my handiwork from before. I looked at him with an apology clearly written in my eyes as I didn't have the energy to speak. "Don't worry about it." He laughed. "I've got a strong stomach."

He left me with a glass of ginger-ale, some paper towels, aspirin and a nice large bucket. I fell back into my pillows with a tired sigh and grabbed my cell phone from my nightstand. Jake answered it on the first ring, obviously expecting my call. "Hello?"

"Hey Jake." I croaked.

There was a long, confused pause. "Kim?"

"Yeah it's me. Sorry, I can't come to school today. I'm really sick."

"Do you need me to come over there? I don't like the idea of you being sick and me not being there to take care of you."

I smiled in spite of myself. "No, don't cut class for me. I just wanted to let you know. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

He laughed. "Tomorrow? Honey, I'm coming over right after school to make you feel better. I promise. Now get some sleep okay? I expect you at school tomorrow missy."

"Alright, well goodbye Jake."

"Bye sweetheart, feel better." He hung up first. I dropped my phone to the bed and sighed. I really hope Billy and the rest of the council forget about their stupid, silly little order. 'Best interest for the people of La Push' my butt! Who really cares if Jacob and I date anyway? It's none of their business.

My eyelids started to droop and I fell asleep, my mind ranting blurring off.

I woke up sometime later, feeling a thousand times worse than I already had, to someone banging loudly on the front door. I closed my eyes shut tightly, waiting for it to subside.

It got louder and louder until it sounded like the person was going to bring their fist right through the door. "Hold on!" I tried to yell as I stumbled out of bed. My voice barely carried out of the room, but the banging magically stopped.

I stumbled down the stairs on weak legs, my head throbbing through my ears. I swung the door open to find the last person in the world I was expecting to be standing on the doorstep. "Jared?" I croaked, blinking

He pursed his lips, the frantic look wiping off his face, replaced with a sheepish one. "Oh. Hi Kim… You weren't in school, so I thought something was wrong…"

I stared at him for a good minute, his ice blue eyes locking with mine. Suddenly, I felt a lot dizzier than I had a second ago and I started to tilt over. I fell into his chest and he grabbed me with his arms. I then noticed that he was indeed not wearing a shirt, and that his skin was burning. I jumped back. "Jesus! Your skin is hot."

He grimaced, placing his forearm on my head. "No, your skin is hot. Do you have a fever?"

"Obviously, I'm sick."

He took in my appearance and nodded. "That you are. I'll help you up to bed and get you a cold washcloth to cool you down." He started to come in and I freaked out.

"No, no! What are you doing?! You can't come in here!"

He looked confused. "Why?"

"W-why?!" I spluttered. "Did you not hear anything I said yesterday?"

The most heartbreaking expression crossed his face. "I did, I heard every single word." His face levelled down to mine. "But nothing is going to keep me away from you. Nothing."

The intensity of his words scared me. His eyes felt like they were literally burning me and I could feel them in my stomach. Oh wait, no… It's just vomit.

Vomit which I proceeded to spray all over the floor and just missed Jared's shoes. My legs were shaking and I wanted to thank him for taking a good grip on my arm or my knees would have buckled and I would have been wearing the puke.

His nose crinkled and he looked like he was going to puke himself. But he composed himself, practically lifting me and sitting me on the couch. I trembled and shivered and he eyed me. "Do you have a bucket?"

"In my room upstairs, first door on the left of the stairs." I chattered, teeth clanking together. It was like he flew there and back, arriving and throwing the bucket under my chin just as I proceeded to vomit noisily into it. "Ugh." I grunted. "I am so sorry."

He laughed, his face screwed up into a grimace. "Don't worry about it." I fell back into the couch with a hold on the bucket. "Now, let me get you that cloth." He murmured and disappeared before I could say anything. I knew it was hopeless. Nothing I said would make him leave.

I proved myself wrong a few hours later.

After he cleaned up my puke, he insisted on staying, after the heat of my fever left and I started to get chills. His body was so hot that I just ended up laying into his bare chest and feeling better already. We stayed like that all afternoon unless I felt the need to throw up into my bucket, which had been emptied almost three times, watching videos on the TV until the clock showed me it was almost three.

"You should go." I murmured, leaning my forehead against his shoulder.

"No thanks." His voice was husky. "I'm not needed anywhere. Plus, I'm comfortable where I am."

"Not for your benefit, for mine. Jake's coming over after school and I don't think he'd be too happy to find you here."

His spine trembled and he shook once. "Jacob? I thought you guys broke up. The council said…"

"Why would we break up because of the council? I told you that it was a stupid suggestion. I'm going to quote you and say that nothing can keep me from Jake. Not the council, or you or Billy." I tried to sound angry and strong, but my voice cracked.

He stood up abruptly, knocking me around and making my stomach turn uneasily. "I have to go." He spat, rushing out the door and slamming it so hard that it splintered. Nice, Jared. Try explaining that to my mom.

I felt oddly cold without him. Not just my body, but everything else too. I tried to figure out what had him deluded into thinking that I really wanted to go out with him. The only answer I could come up with was drugs, unfortunately.

"Kim?!" Jeff called as he swung the door open. I covered my ears and cringed as the sound passed through my throbbing head. "Oh sorry." He lowered his voice greatly. "How are you- What happened to the door?"

I grimaced, pulling the blanket tighter around me. "I have no idea. And I feel like crap, thanks." He had Lakota on his back and Callie attached to his arm. She smiled at me. "Hey Cal, how are you?"

"Probably a lot better than you. Let's get you up to bed." She helped me back into my bed with a glass of water and some more aspirin. "Just relax, I hope you feel better."

She left and almost immediately, my eyes closed. The pounding of my head dulled as I entered dream-mode.

I don't know how long I slept for, but I remember waking up to someone standing beside my bed, looking worried. At first I thought it was Jared, and my heart leapt up in excitement.

It wasn't, it was Jacob. I tried to force a weak smile on my face. "You look worse than I anticipated." He complained, laying a hand on my forehead.

I tried to talk, but I ended up coughing like a maniac. I coughed so much that I started to throw up, and I grabbed my bucket just in time. Jake grimaced. "Thanks, Jake. That's what everyone always wants to hear from their boyfriend." I joked weakly. "You really know how to cheer me up. And you didn't even bring me flowers! How could you?"

He sat on the edge on my bed and took my hand, flinching from the heat. "Well, I didn't think you were into that kind of stuff." I gave him a playfully angry look. "Wait, do you like that kind of stuff?! Cause I can go right now, it'll only take me a few minutes to get you some…" He trailed off. "You were kidding."

I laughed. "I don't need anything, as long as I have you."

He looked at me and rolled his eyes. "You're going to make me sick. What did you do today?" He paused. "And what happened to your door?"

"Well…" I started, debating on whether I should tell him the truth. I went with a yes on that one. "I slept till about noon. And then… Jared came over."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"Nothing happened!" I exclaimed. "He just heard I wasn't at school and came to check on me. Then he refused to leave and I mean look at him and then look at me. I couldn't just drag him out of here. So we watched movies on TV all afternoon and then I asked him to leave because you were coming over and I knew how that would go and then he just got angry because he thought we would have broken up because of the council and when he left he slammed the door and it kind of splintered." I said that all with one breath and exhaled, coughing after.

He shook his head. "One day, he's going to get what's coming to him."

I frowned. "Hey, he was only coming over here to see how I was feeling. He didn't do anything bad…"

He looked at me sceptically. "You're defending him?"

"No!" Then I paused. Was I defending him? It didn't seem like it to me. I was just stating a fact. But I felt offended when he brought up Jared like that. "I mean, I don't think so."

"You don't think you're defending him?" He snorted. "How exactly does that work, Kim? Either you're on my side or you're on his. There's no in between."

"Sides?" I asked as best as I could. "Sides!? There's nothing happening that would make sides appear in the first place! When did this become about sides?"

He narrowed his eyes. "Sides were born when you started hanging around Jared behind my back."

"I told you about it, didn't I!? I don't understand how that's behind your back!" I got myself so worked up that my stomach started to turn and I could feel the nausea creeping through my stomach. My strong point in this argument was ruined by the sound of me puking everything I had tried to eat for lunch.

But it wasn't once. It just kept coming out and I couldn't stop. Jake put his hands on my shoulders. "Easy, baby. You're okay, it's okay."

I groaned and wiped my mouth on the long sleeve on my shirt, slumping against Jake and completely forgetting about our argument. He stroked his hand across my matted, sweaty hair and kissed my burning forehead. "I'm sorry, I know you told me. Sometimes, I just get a little too mad for my own good. I'm sorry, I never meant to get you so worked up."

"It's fine." I murmured, closing my eyes. "I should have…called the cops or something."

He laughed his infectious laugh. "That's a little extreme. You should have just called Sam Uley. Jared's like his little pet or something, he'd do whatever Sam told him."

"Hm." I mumbled thoughtfully. "I'll have to keep that in mind next time."

He brushed my forehead with his lips again. "No you won't. Because there won't be a next time, I'm going to set him straight. No, we're going to set him straight. You and me together, deal?"

"Alright, tomorrow. But I swear to God, please don't get in another fight. I can't always protect you, you know." I winked at him.

He shook his head and pressed a kiss to my nose. "Tomorrow then."

It turned out that we would not be talking to Jared tomorrow. Or Thursday or Friday, or the whole weekend. I had the flu, a really bad case of the flu. I think I lost about ten pounds during that little episode.

But it was Monday again, and I was back at school. I looked a lot better, I felt a thousand times better and I was so glad to be out of that bed it was insane. My brother drove me to school, with a hand placed comically over his mouth. I rolled my eyes as he laughed, thinking he was just hilarious.

"Kim!" I heard Summer scream from across the parking lot. I'm pretty sure everyone within a five person radius turned to look at her as she busted her way through the slung of people to throw herself at me. "Holy crap, I've missed you so much!"

I laughed, squeezing her back. "You saw me on Friday."

"Yeah, but you haven't been at school. And I have been stuck with them." She jerked her thumb back at the boys. "Jacob has been whining the whole time about missing you, Embry never talks and Quil, is an obnoxious, perverted loudmouth."

I smiled at her. "Well, it's good to be back."

She laughed heartily, linking her arm through mine. "You better believe it's good to have you back. God, have you talked to Jared lately?"

I blushed, glad Jake didn't tell them about our almost fight. "Briefly, why do you ask?"

"He seems I don't know… Fucked up. Like this whole time you've been gone, he looked haggard and worn out. And worried, definitely worried. I was just wondering if you'd heard anything."

Really…? "Nope, nothing." I murmured.

She laughed. "So he's finally stopped stalking you?"

"Well, I guess we'll see." I told her as she dragged me over to the guys.

Quil bear hugged me, twirling me around. "Kim! God, how could you do this to me? How could you leave me alone with these idiots!?" Summer glared at him. "And my beautiful, wonderful girlfriend, of course."

I rolled my eyes when they started kissed and Embry tugged my arm back and we started to walk away from the couple, Jake following silently. "Let's leave them."

"How was your week at school without me?" I teased Jake, jabbing him in the ribs.

He shook his head. "Very strange. I didn't confront Jared, like you told me to. But I've seen him in the hall and he looks really distressed. And he keeps sending me glances with different emotions varying on them. Pity, regret and amazement. He's looking at me like he idolizes me or something." He told me gruffly, almost with a hint of disbelief. "He's just gotten stranger, Kim."

I laughed. "Maybe he's having problems at home or something." He looked at me again with that look, the same look from last night. "I swear I'm not defending him. I'm just saying."

He sighed and kissed my lips, lingering there for a bit longer than usual before Embry coughed awkwardly. "Sorry man, I just can't help it, you know?" He gestured to me and winked.

I grimaced. "You're a pig."

Embry laughed and the two of them trailed off while I got my books from my locker. My morning went smoothly, except for the monstrous amount of homework that I had from being away for so long. No one said anything to me as usual, but they all glanced at my ring finger before they looked away just as quick. It was a lonely morning.

I got to my table a bit early, the boys were missing. So I sat down with my tray quietly at our usual spot and pulled out a book to read. I could feel someone's eyes on me.

Jared.

He was sitting two tables away from me from my front, staring at me with furrowed brows. Beside him, there was a guy that looked like him. No, they looked identical. Same height, same posture, same haircut. Their features were almost the same too. Wait, was that Paul?!

Oh no, Sam got to him too. He hadn't been gone as long as Jared. It was only a week, but he looked a lot more tensed up and scared than Jared ever did.

Paul was looking at the table but he sort of side glanced at Jared and when he noticed his eyes were focused on something, his head snapped up to look at me. He narrowed his own eyes when they locked with mine and I blushed, shifting in my seat awkwardly.

Jared's hand came up almost naturally to smack him across the back of his head. Hard. I could hear the resounding smack from all the way over here. Involuntarily, my lips bubbled out a laugh. The sound of it was so silent, I didn't think even I had heard it correctly.

But Jared's whole face lit up and he looked over here and grinned at me. Again, I blushed even deeper and smiled awkwardly back. He seemed to whisper something over to Paul and Paul looked disgusted, but he got out of his seat and looked at me.

Then, he started to walk over. My jaw nearly dropped as I realised he was headed straight for me. I didn't know what to do. It would be too obvious if I looked back at my book and tried to ignore the fact that he was coming over. And it'd be extremely creepy if I kept staring at him like the idiot I was.

So I settled for turning my head to look at Jared and I relaxed almost instantaneously. He was looking at me, still confused but a little bit amused too.

A chair squeaked and I jumped, startled. I had gotten lost while looking at Jared. I tilted my head to the side a fraction to look at Paul, who was sitting in front of me, looking awkward. "Hi." He said curtly.

I heard Jared snickering in the background. "Um…Hello." I muttered.

He sighed. "I'm sorry." I thought I heard him mumble.

"Excuse me?"

"I-I-" He stuttered, glancing at my right wrist pointedly. "I said I'm sorry. It was uncalled for to ruin your painting and grab your wrist like that. I'm a very violent person and sometimes I can't control my temper. Sorry." It was voiced mechanically, almost rehearsed.

I raised an eyebrow at him, placing my book on the table and forgetting about it. "Was that scripted? Did Jared write that for you?"

His hard, annoyed face lifted into an almost smile. "How'd you guess?"

"Just a feeling. Well, thank you anyways. That was…nice of you, I guess." I scrunched up my face at the word nice. "Even if you were forced."

He gave me a mix between a half smile and a smirk before his eyes narrowed dangerously and his face twisted into a sneer. "Can I help you?" He growled.

I was confused, until I felt a hand on my shoulder. Jacob. "Yes, I was just wondering what you were doing at my table… Talking to my girlfriend." He mimicked a cheery voice.

"Jake, relax. He wasn't bothering me at all. I am allowed to talk to people, right?" I asked him, not looking away from Paul. He gave me a quick wink and despite myself, I almost laughed.

Jake saw it though, and he was mad. "Get the hell away from her!" He growled.

Paul stood up, he was a lot taller and bulkier than Jake was. But that didn't seem to scare him. "You want to make me, shorty?" He spat back.

He was shaking just like that day he popped my wrist. I saw Embry and Quil in my peripheral vision, debating whether or not to come over and break up the fight. Jared was headed straight towards us though, pushing Paul back from his stance right up in Jake's face.

"Easy Paul, relax. Let's go outside." They started to walk away and he looked at me. "I'll be back before history, we're starting a project and you're my partner. Bye Kim." Then he locked his eyes with Jake and saw what he had meant before. He looked at him like he was Superman.

Jake was looking at the ground angrily and Quil and Embry approached us cautiously. "Come on Jake, let's sit down." I coaxed, grabbing his arm. He tore it away from me, gave me this look that sent my heart crashing into my stomach and walked out the doors, leaving his tray of food beside me, untouched.

I crumbled into my seat, devastated and guilty, tears springing into my eyes. Embry hesitantly lowered himself into the seat that Paul had previously occupied while Quil touched my head briefly with his hand and followed where Jake had left.

It was an awkwardly silent lunch with just the two of us. I lowered my head to the table, trying not to sob out loud in the middle of the cafeteria. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I felt like such a shmuck. Maybe he was right. I was standing up for not only Jared but Paul, the angriest person in the world. The one who, up until today, I wouldn't even stand near.

What in the world was wrong with me?

About three minutes before the lunch bell rang, signalling lunch to be over, Embry's phone rang. It was Quil, obviously, but I didn't listen to anything that either of them said. I stared at the doors, hoping that Jacob would walk through them and kiss me.

"Jake went home." Embry murmured to me, the first words spoken all lunch. "Just to cool down, he was pretty upset. Don't worry about it too much, Kim. He'll be back to normal by tonight, I promise. And if not, well, tomorrow's a new day right?"

I dried my eyes on my sleeve. "Yeah, a new day." I murmured to myself.

Like the gentleman he was, Embry offered me his arm. "Let me walk you to class."

Despite everything, I smiled up at him tearfully and placed my hand on his inner elbow. History, great.

I got into my class as soon as the bell rang, grimacing that Jared was already seated and ready for me to arrive. I sat down quietly. "Hello Kim." He whispered.

"Hi Jared."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you feeling better? No aches or pains or anything anymore?"

"Nope," I murmured back as I pretended to pay attention to what the teacher was saying. "I'm all healed."

The worried, anxious look that had been on his face all day finally disappeared and his pretty blue eyes sparkled with relief. "I thought for sure that you…" He trailed off as if he just realised he was talking to me. "Never mind."

My face lit up with curiosity but I didn't push it, looking away back to the blackboard. The teacher was busy today, swamped with papers and stuff, so he gave us a free day. I turned to Jared. "I thought you said we were doing a project."

"Would you be mad if I told you I lied just to make sure you didn't leave after Jacob?" He asked me sheepishly.

I tried to glare at him, but I couldn't keep the flattered blush from spreading across my face. "Yes." I muttered lowly.

He laughed at me heartily, sounding a little bit too carefree as if a great weight was lifted off of his shoulder. "You're not mad. You can't resist my good looks and cunning charm."

"That was really nice what you did for me today." I told him softly.

His brows furrowed. "What did I do?"

"Paul…"

"Oh right, right." He answered, realisation lighting up his face. "Yeah, Paul's a bit hard headed at times. But I helped him see what was wrong with the situation and with Sam's help, we both convinced him to apologize. He's actually not a bad guy, Kim. I promise."

He looked at me with worried eyes when I didn't answer him, shifting my own eyes away from him to look at my desk. There was that name again, Sam. I didn't like the way Jared talked about him. Like he was his dad or something, maybe even his hero. It was creepy.

Someone nudged me. "Kim?" Jared asked. "So what do you think?"

"About what?"

He looked at me with amused eyes and shook his head with a small smile on his face, like he knew exactly why I hadn't been answering him. Almost like we were long-time friends who knew each other inside and out. "I said, you have to pick up your sister from Emily's house right? Why don't I give you a ride over? I drove, Sam lent me his truck. Besides, it's supposed to rain." He gave me that heartbreaking smile. "What do you think?"

Oh, Jake would probably be mad… But he went home. And I really didn't feel like walking in the rain. "Sure." I smiled hesitantly. "Meet me at my locker?"

"I'll be there." He grinned so wide that his teeth looked like they were going to split.

I nodded. "Great." Then I dug into my bag, pulled out the book I never got to read at lunch and opened it to the page I was at. He was staring at me looked amused. I stuck my tongue out of the corner of my mouth at him absently and grinned to myself when I heard his laugh.

The bell rang and before I could bolt as I usually did, he grabbed my elbow. "I'll walk you to your locker." He offered, leading me away before I could answer. I passed by Embry and Quil while I was still attached to Jared and they gave me an amused look and mouthed stalker.

I tried to contain my giggle before Jared caught it.

He nodded at Paul, who was staring at us suspiciously before he walked me to the door of my art class where Summer was waiting for me. "I'll see you after school." He winked before he left.

Summer and Paul shot me almost matching looks and I groaned. Oh boy.

She grabbed my arm. "We need to talk."