A/N: Here's another update for you! I want to thank you guys for sticking this out with me. I promise it'll be worth it :)

I'm standing in the bridal room in uncomfortable heels, my bridesmaids dress and my hair down in curls and I'm still having a hard time believing that Emily is actually getting married. Both Rachel and Anna are trying to put the finishing touches on the blushing bride, who looks beyond stunning in her simply elegant dress. For this first time since I've met her, Emily's hair is completely out of her face, pinned up in little curls with a veil attached. And she had never looked so beautiful.

Claire is standing by my side, tugging on my dress and chatting my ear off. I'm keeping an eye on her for Anna while she works on Emily. Her eldest daughter Danni was supposed to share the flower girl duties, however she decided that she was too old and mature to be a flower girl and that if she couldn't be a bridesmaid, she didn't want to be in the wedding at all. So I'm sure she's in the crowd somewhere, sulking next to her father.

Leah, who had spent the last twenty minutes skulking about being in a dress, is now performing her matron of honor duties by yelling at the person who brought the bouquets, because they put too much of one flower and not enough of the rest. The poor guy looks like he's going to wet himself, so I decide to save him by grabbing Leah's arm and dragging her away. "Come on bridesmaid-zilla, there's no need to eat the help." I say condescendingly.

"I can't help it. Being in a dress puts me in a bad mood." She says grouchily.

I give her a smirk and go, "sure, that's what it is." Even though she whacks me extremely hard with the back of her hand, I'm still laughing. I hoist Claire up onto my hip as Anna comes to say goodbye before she goes to sit down. Emily's father enters the room just as she's leaving and immediately makes his way over to hug his daughter.

"You look beautiful darling. Your mother would have agreed." He says and I can tell he's choking up, so I turn around and give them some privacy and fuss with Claire's hair and petal basket.

"So you remember after you're done throwing the petals and you get to the end of the aisle, you're going to go sit down with your mommy and daddy okay?"

She nods at me, but then she holds up her hand. "But I want to sit with Quil."

I fight the urge to roll my eyes. "That's fine you can sit with Quil. As long as you sit with someone."

All too quickly, they're ready for us. Leah is touching up Emily's makeup (again, as she had started crying while talking to her father) and straightening out her dress and re-pinning a curl that had come loose. Emily looks nervous, and she's asking a million questions. "Do you have the ring? What about the flowers? Who's watching Claire? Is everyone here and ready? Is Sam going to leave me at the altar?"

Without missing a beat, Leah goes, "Yes, yes, Kim, yes, no. Just breathe Emily. I promise you everything is going to be perfect."

With Leah barking orders, everyone has grabbed their flowers and is standing in the proper order by the doors. The church is small but beautiful, the same one that Emily's parents got married in up on the Makah reservation. After the wedding, everyone will be heading back to La Push for an outdoor reception. Under a giant tarp of course, one can never be too prepared for rain in La Push.

Rachel is in front of me and she turns back and winks before she opens the doors. Her walk is so graceful and confident that I feel extremely self-conscious walking after her. But I grip my bouquet, keep my head held high and proceed forward. As Rachel takes her place in line, I lock eyes with Jared as I continue to walk. He's standing directly behind Sam as his best man, looking more handsome than I would like in a classic black suit and blue tie. He smiles at me and my knees go a little weak, but I smile back shyly and bite my lip, striding to my place in front of Rachel.

Paul, who is standing at the end behind Jacob, who was recruited as a groomsmen to show pack unity or something, is glaring at the back of Jared's head and then gives me a disapproving look. I flush, remembering exactly why he's looking at me like that.

I kissed Jared. And now, he's kissing me back. Of course I'm drunk, but the more he kisses me with his soft lips and tongue, the more sober I begin to feel. He breaks contact and my arms are still wrapped around his neck and I can tell I look disappointed, because he sighs. "You're drunk, Kim. This isn't right. I don't want you like this."

I shake my head. "It's okay. I want this. I want you." I pull him down so that he's hovering over me and hitch one leg around him. I hear him groan and then he pushes his mouth back on to mine and starts kissing me again. And his warmth is surrounding me, and all I can smell, see and taste is him and suddenly I feel sick again, so I yank myself out front underneath him and rush to the bathroom to throw up. "Gross." I mutter to myself, wiping my mouth and then getting up to brush my teeth. When I make my way back to the bathroom, Jared is standing. "Are you leaving?" I ask.

He nods seriously. "I only came to drop you off. You're drunk, Kim and as much as I would love to stay here and make out with you some more, I can't do that to you or myself."

"I'm not drunk anymore." I tell him and he gives me a look that clearly says I'm crazy. "No seriously, watch!" And I start attempting to walk in a straight line and spell the alphabet backwards and touch my nose with my fingers but I end up screwing them all up and I just give up with a laugh. He's smiling at me now, so at least I've lightened up his mood. "Okay fine, maybe I'm still a little drunk. But I know what I want right now, and that's you. That's not a crime."

He shakes his head at me. "No, I'm sorry. I won't change my mind."

"Will you stay with me tonight then?"

"Kim I said…"

I cut him off. "No kissing. Nothing more than sleeping together. That's all I want."

He sighs and I'm feeling my face heat up as the silence grows, embarrassed that I would be so stupid as to put myself out there just to get rejected and get my heart broken again. Without saying anything, he strips out of the jean shorts he's wearing and takes off his shirt so that he's in his undershirt and boxers and climbs under my covers. "Get in crazy girl." He propositions, holding the blanket up for me. "Before I change my mind." I quickly strip off my dress and into shorts and a tank top, knowing that Jared's body heat will probably cause me to die of heat stroke during the night and I crawl underneath the blanket. Tentatively, I curl up into his side and put my head on his chest. His arm wraps around my automatically and I can feel him press a kiss into my hair. I close my eyes, feeling unbelievably comfortable and the happiest I've felt in a very long time. "I've missed you." He whispers quietly into my hair.

After a moment of silence, I whisper back, "I missed you too."

I woke up sometime the next morning, still sprawled out on Jared's chest, a happy, sweaty, aching mess. My eyes opened a crack, but I didn't have the energy to even move. The blankets had been completely kicked to the ground sometime last night but wrapped in Jared's arms, I was warmer than I had ever been. "Morning." He mumbles sleepily, eyes still shut.

"Hi," I whisper. I shift so that I can move in between his legs and rest my chin on his chest, looking up at him. He tilts his head down and opens his eyes. Just as I'm giving up resisting the urge to kiss him, the door swings open and Paul rushes in furiously. Startled, I roll off of Jared and sit up. "Paul, what the hell?"

I can see that he's fuming and he's starting to lose his temper, which seems to happen a lot when I'm around. "Get the fuck out of here, Jared!" What the fuck is wrong with you!?" He yells, completely ignoring my question.

"Paul, stop it!" I yell at him, getting to my feet as he comes over and yanks Jared out of the bed by the arm. "What is wrong with you?"

Jared seems to understand what's going on better than I do, however. "Man, I swear it's not what you think! We didn't-" And before he can finish his sentence, Paul had punched him clean in the nose.

I screamed as I heard the crack and saw the blood squirt all over the floor. Rachel, hearing the commotion, comes running up the stairs and into the room frantically. She finds Paul and Jared on the floor swinging at each other with me grasping the back of Paul's collar and trying to pull him off. Rachel yells, "Paul, get off of him!" from the doorway but he doesn't listen. With a sigh, she disappears.

Ten minutes later, they're still going at it as I watch helplessly from the bed in tears. A few seconds later, Sam shows up. With his authoritative bark, he yells, "enough!" Finally, Paul drops the fist full of Jared's shirt that he was holding and Jared falls against the floor for a second with a thump before he scuttles up and comes over to me, noticing my distress.

"Are you okay, Kim?" He asks, wiping the tears off my cheeks with his blood stained hands.

This starts Paul off again. "Don't touch her!" He yells, enraged. Jared rolls his eyes and holds both hands up in the air, stepping back. Satisfied, Paul turns his attention to me. "I thought you were smarter than that Kim. How could you do this to yourself?"

"Excuse me?" I ask indignantly, finally catching on to what he's insinuating. "First of all, you don't even know what you're talking about and second of all, what I do and with whom is none of your goddamn business. You are not my brother, nor father, nor anyone who has any say over what I do in my life."

His teeth are bared, like he's about to snarl at me, when Sam steps in between us. "Can someone tell me what is going on? Please?"

"Paul stormed in here this morning and started punching Jared because he thinks we had sex. Which by the way, we did not." I emphasize, directing the last part at Paul. "And even if we did, it's none of his business anyway."

"None of my business?" He asks me in a hard voice, with a tint of anger. "I was the one who was there for you every step of the fucking way. Every time you cried over him, every time you felt like your life had ended and every time that you felt that ache in your heart, I was the one who was there! So don't you go telling me that this is none of my god damn business you entitled, selfish bitch!" And he turns around in a rage and slams the bedroom door.

I sink to the floor in shock and the tears start rolling again. Jared goes to reach for me, but Sam gives the slightest shake of his head and instead of coming to me, he exits the room. "Are you okay, Kim?" Sam asks me softly.

I sniffle. "I'm fine. I just want to be alone for a little bit please. If you don't mind."

"Okay." He agrees, and then goes to leave. Before he opens the door, he pauses. "Kim, I understand that being near Jared has some powerful side effects. And I know better than anyone how strong the bond between imprints really is. So I'm happy for you, but try to understand how Paul is feeling, okay? He loves you more than you know and seeing you heartbroken over the last year has been extremely painful for him. Don't shut him out."

After he leaves, I sit there in a mess of tears. How does Sam manage to make me feel so many emotions at once? Why does he have to be so damn smart?

Finally, after wallowing for what seemed like hours, Paul comes back. I tentatively open the door to find that he's awkwardly standing outside. "Hi…" I say softly. I open the door wide so that he can fit beside me. "Come in if you want." After a moment, he does and he goes straight to the bed. I sit beside him, knowing that I should apologize first. After all, Paul has really been the only person there for me through everything. "I'm sorry for what I said. It was extremely stupid of me to think that my life doesn't concern you."

"Well, I shouldn't have called you a selfish bitch. And now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't have come in and immediately start wailing on Jared either. But you know me and my temper…" He trails off. "You bring out the worst in me, Kimberly." And then he sighs jokingly. "How am I ever going to stay friends with you?"

I roll my eyes. "You'll manage, I'm sure." And then my smile fades and I lean into his side. "Thanks for always being there for me, Paul. I love you."

"Yeah, yeah." He says gruffly. I can tell I've embarrassed him, but he wraps his arm around me tightly anyway, like always. What a marshmallow.

I didn't see much of Jared over the few days between now and then, but whenever I did it was playful flirting and Paul forcing us apart. For the first time in a long time, being around him felt nice and comfortable, instead of that nervous, stomach churning sickness I used to get whenever I thought about seeing him.

I look up after daydreaming and notice that he's still staring at me with that small smile on his face. I can barely see him, now that Leah is standing in front of me, but I know he's staring. Trying to shake him off for the time being, I turn my focus to the aisle, where Claire is skirting her way down, throwing petals everywhere. Quil's megawatt smile will blind you if you look directly at it, I swear. She finally makes it to the end and scuttles off to go sit with him. As she reaches him and sees me looking at her, she gives me the thumbs up and I return the gesture.

And finally, the music starts to play and everyone stands and the doors open to reveal an extremely gorgeous Emily hand in arm with her father. The look on Sam's face is literally priceless, and Leah is watching Emily walk with a smile on her face. I watch Jacob sneak a peek at her and she notices when he winks and I can see her smile grow a little bit bigger and I'm amazed at how much as changed since I left. It seems like everyone has managed to get his or her lives together and be happy. Except for me.

But I look back across at Jared from the corner of my eye and notice him doing the same thing and I can't help but wonder if it's time to put the past behind me and let myself be happy. As I watch the happiness radiating from Sam and Emily as they say their vows and finally become one, I finally realize that things need to change.

They are ushered down the aisle hand in hand as husband and wife, and we are ushered out for pictures before the reception after they touch up everyone's makeup because as much as we all tried to deny it, we all got caught crying. Even Leah.

We take a group photo, and then an all girls photo and each one of us gets a shot with the bride and the bride and groom and then all the bridesmaids and groomsmen together and then we watch as the newlyweds get their pictures together and I don't think a single one of them will be bad with all that love radiating around them. Every time I stand near Jared, or brush his arm or catch his eye, my heart starts racing a mile a minute.

Finally, after standing two inches deep in the grass with my heels sinking into the dirt, it's time to head back to La Push. Jared is quick to rush to my side and grab my hand. "Want to ride back with me Kim?" He asks.

"Sure." I respond, letting him lead me to his car. He opens the passenger door for me and I slide in extremely ungracefully, brushing the back of my dress down smoothly.

He slides in the driver's door, but we don't move yet. He's just staring at me and my cheeks start to heat up. "You look absolutely radiant today Kim." He says, and then he gets quiet again. "Can I…?"

"Okay." I mumble shyly, and he leans in and presses a very soft kiss on my lips. I let him linger for a minute before I pull away and turn to look out the window, tucking my hair behind my ear and blushing furiously. "We should probably go." I say after a moment. "I think everyone has left already."

"That's okay, I like having you all to myself." He smirks. "But you're right. Besides, I would like to get to the reception so that I can dance with you."

He starts the car and as we're driving, he takes one hand off the wheel and reaches over to hold my hand. I hesitate for a moment, but I quickly let my fingers interlock with his and smile to myself.