A/N: Here's the next chapter for you, a little longer than usual! Hope you like it!

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

* * *

THREE

* * *

I woke up sleepily to the sounds of way too many alarms; my alarm clock was going off, the house phone was ringing off the hook, and I was pretty sure someone was pounding on the door downstairs.

Rolling out of bed, I landed heavily on the floor with thump. It used to be painful, but effective. Now it was just effective. I sighed, got up and walked across the room to turn off my alarm. The phone had stopped ringing, but the pounding on the door continued.

I pulled on some shorts - because yes, I slept commando - and went downstairs.

"Sam, what?" I said, part in confusion, part annoyance, as I pulled the door open.

He charged in without waiting for me to invite him, and spun around to face me, eyes blazing angrily. "Where were youlast night, Embry?" he snapped.

"Here," I said, rolling my eyes. "Was I supposed to be some…?" I trailed off as I realized. Double patrols. Right. "Sorry," I said, wincing.

He folded his arms. It seemed we had all picked up that habit from Paul…

"There was a bloodsucker," he said, venomously.

"You're kidding," I said, the bottom dropping out of my stomach. "One of them? Cullens?"

He shook his head. "Another one. Alone. And it attacked."

"Did you… is everybody okay?" I asked, heart pounding.

"It's dead," he said, seriously. "And everyone's fine. No thanks to you."

Ouch.

"Come on, Sam," I said, somewhat defensively. "I was grounded. My mom actually said I couldn't do any more work for you unless you called her yourself."

"That's stupid. You're 18."

"I know, right!" I said, indignantly.

"Still, why didn't you call me? Or Emily?"

"I… I didn't want to tempt the dragon," I said, sheepishly.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Speaking of the dragon… your breath is foul." And I knew I was forgiven.

I glared at him and turned to go upstairs. "Show yourself out," I muttered.

"I'll call her about tonight," Sam called after me. "We want to make sure it doesn't have friends."

Work that day was work. Boring, predictable, and achingly slow. I said hello to Miss Monotone and she glared at me for a full minute in which I was absolutely certain I would get fired, but then she was finally like, "Hello Mr. Call."

And still, no inflection, whatsoever.

After work I sprinted all the way to the library and got there exactly five minutes before we were supposed to meet. I went inside and kept going until I got to my round table. Unfortunately, there was a group of people already sitting there. Sighing, I turned around and headed to the glass room to find Cellie already there.

Which of course just made my day. Finding out that she was punctual and everything, just like me.

She spotted me through the window and signed, YOUR TABLE, something else, and then, SORRY.

I just shrugged, my smile a mile wide. I wasn't sorry. Just seeing her eyes light up at the sight of me was enough. After that, who cared where we sat, really?

HI, I waved, and she gave me a flicker of a smile and waved back.

HOW YOU? I asked.

She bit the inside of the cheek before spelling with her fingers, F-I-N-E, and then signing the word, 'Mom' on her chest instead of her chin.

I gave her confused look. MOM?

She shook her head, and spelled, F-I-N-E, then repeated the, 'mom' sign.

Oh!The sign was, 'fine,' not, 'mom.'

I laughed and got a dozen, "Shhh!"'s in my direction. Cellie, however, just gave me another small smile and looked away, letting out a sigh.

"Hey," I whispered, reaching a hand out. She wasn't paying attention to me, so I hesitantly reached out and put one finger under her chin.

Startled, she jerked her head back and stared at me, confusion in her eyes.

SORRY, I signed, quickly, pulling away. YOU O.K.?

She nodded, but she was biting the inside of her cheek again, and her expression was anything but okay. Her eyes darted to me, then to my hands, then to me again. I blinked, wondering what was up, and unsure of how or if I should pry.

Um.

She looked up and her eyes rested on mine finally before she signed, E-M-B-R-Y… and then she made a claw with her right hand and held it in front of her mouth, fingers facing inward. She jerked it down, and used her fingers to spell, H-O-T.

Well.

The blushing that ensued after this was kind of pathetic. Pleased beyond anything, I signed back. C-E-L-L-I-E HOT. MUCH HOT.

She gave me a confused look, and then understanding dawned in her eyes. I blushed some more, and her eyes widened before she shook her head.

Huh?

She gave me a small smile, and quickly signed, YOU H-A-N-D HOT. YOU S-I-C-K? And she did the sign for, 'sick.'

Oh. Heat coursed through me. But not the good kind. No, this was the embarrassed kind. The kind that made me want to jump in a time machine and press rewind.

Except, the thing about Sign Language was that we had to keep looking at each other, so that we didn't miss anything. I couldn't even look down as most humans tended to do when they were embarrassed.

ME NO SICK, I finally signed back, daring to look her in the eyes. ME HOT A-L-W-A-Y-S.

At this, she actually blushed and looked away and I wondered if she took it for the double meaning I hadn't intended it to be.

Except… I totally intended it to be like that. But well, she knew I found her attractive now. So I was allowed to flirt, right? I hoped she wasn't uncomfortable.

C-E-L-L-I-E O.K.? I asked, still blushing a little bit myself.

She gave me a small smile and nodded. Then, her smile faded and she signed, NO.

WHY? I asked, my stomach dropping. What if I offended her? What if, oh God, she had a boyfriend? Why hadn't I thought of this before?

ME SAD. ME… she made the claw-hands again, except this time, she held them out, palms up, and brought her hands into her… W-A-N-T GO SCHOOL. She looked up at me, and my heart just about broke when I caught sight of her face expression. Can we feel our imprints emotions? I wondered.

MOM SAY NO.

WHY? I signed, indignant on her behalf.

MOM SAY F-A-R, she signed back with a sigh. Then, V-A-N-C-O-U-V-E-R. She had to spell that three times before I got it. I made a mental note to go over the alphabet a dozen more times in private before we met up next time.

ME SORRY, I signed, not knowing what else to say, and feeling sort of terrible. Because I was kind of - well, no, a LOT - glad that she couldn't go. I didn't want her to go. Vancouver was far. Still in Washington, but far enough from La Push to be a problem for me.

I stared at her while she stared at the ground, and then the announcement came on and said, "This is a reminder that the library will be closing in twenty minutes. Please bring all checkouts to the front desk. Thank you."

I tapped her shoulder. YOU WANT GO? I signed when she was looking at me.

She gave me a quizzical look. WHERE?

I shrugged. DON'T-KNOW.

She chewed her cheek and shook her head. MOM DRIVE ME, she reminded me.

ME YOU GO E-A-T? I rubbed my stomach and mimed eating food. A-S-K MOM? PLEASE?

She debated for a moment in which my happiness was precariously dancing a salsa on a tightrope. Finally, she smiled, signed, ME CALL MOM, and my happiness descended gracefully.

I watched her face as she had a conversation with her mom on her video phone. Her signing was lightning fast and consequently, I was only able to catch a few words, like, PLEASE, and E-M-B-R-Y. Which naturally caused me to be ridiculously happy that her mom knew about me. I wondered briefly if her mom was Deaf as well, and made another mental note to ask.

Half an hour later, she had hung up with her mom after signing, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! and I was in a taxi with her heading to Port Angeles for the second time that day. Briefly, I wondered if this was the smartest thing to do. Both my mom and I worked in Port Angeles, and while the chance was slim that we would see her if she was at work, I wasn't completely certain that she was. She had left before I was rudely awakened by Sam this morning. After checking my caller ID after he left, I discovered that he was also the cause of the five missed calls that had assisted with my wake-up.

WHERE GO? she asked, as we climbed out of the taxi, and I noticed that her mood had brightened somewhat.

I shrugged. WALK… LOOK-AROUND?

Within fifteen minutes we decided on a cozy looking little restaurant that I was pretty sure my mother would never visit. It was teen-city to the extreme, complete with a mini-arcade in the corner, a pool table, and a retro-looking jukebox.

We walked in, Cellie taking the lead, surprisingly. By only a step or two, but still. Of course, this led to a compromising situation because she was walking in front of me. And I was a guy. So… I really had no choice, but to check out her backside. Before I realized what I was doing, I had reached out and placed my hand lightly on the small of her back. She jumped slightly, but thankfully, didn't pull away. Hm.

The waitress asked how many, and I said, "Two," while Cellie held up two fingers. The waitress gave Cellie a tight smile, and I realized that she probably thought Cellie was being rude. I felt my stomach tighten, but I didn't say or sign anything as we were lead to our table.

We sat down and the waitress said that she'd be with us in a moment. I noticed that she directed the statement towards me and completely ignored Cellie, and I felt a slight twinge of annoyance.

Cellie looked up at me, and I guess she caught some lingering expression because she immediately signed, MAD WHY?

NO MAD,I denied, then I smiled. And I wasn't reallymad, anyway. Just irritated. Slightly. I let out a breath, and refocused my attention on Cellie. This was a date. Well, kind of. I would ignore the ignorant people, and pay full attention to her. My eyes and hands would be on her, and only her. I blushed at the thought. Totally not what I meant.

C-E-L-L-I-E, I signed, YOU L-A-S-T NAME WHAT?

She looked surprised at the question, but replied with only a little hesitation. C-E-L-L-I-E D-O-N-O-V-A-N. Once again, she had to sign it a few times before I understood, but by the time I did, we were both grinning, so neither of us minded.

SORRY, I signed anyway, and she rolled her eyes playfully.

YOU LAST NAME WHAT? she signed, and for, 'last,' she held both of her pinky fingers out, and brought the right one down to flick past the left one. I tried it and she nodded, her smile back in full force, so that I was momentarily dazzled.

She waved her hand in front of my face and I jumped, startled before she laughed loudly.

SORRY, I signed, embarrassed. She just shrugged, and I started to answer her question when the waitress showed up.

"What would you two like to drink this afternoon?" she asked, and I didn't miss the strange glance she threw at Cellie. I fought the urge to throw something at her.

"Lemonade," I said, and I looked at Cellie.

She signed, I-C-E T-EA, and I translated for the goggle-eyed waitress. With a nod, and another weird look at Cellie, she took off. I scowled at her retreating backside before Cellie waved and caught my attention again.

I looked across the table at her, and was stunned to see her point to the waitress, and then cross her eyes and stick out her tongue. I couldn't help the laughter that burst out of me, and Cellie grinned as well.

The mood seemed to lighten after that. I finally answered her question, and then laughed when she made fun of my last name, 'Call,' by mimicking someone on the phone. And then I started questioning her. On everything I could think of. Because I wanted to know everything.

Her age? 16. Two years younger than me. When she found out I was 18, some emotion flitted across her face too fast for me to figure out.

Her favorite color? S-I-L-V-E-R. Mine was B-L-A-C-K, and when I spelled that out, she pointed to her arm and laughed, causing me to blush again.

Food? S-P-A-G-H-E-T-T-I, though she had ordered a cheeseburger. That one took me a while to figure out because of the way she signed the T-T. For two T's, she just signed one, then kind of slid it over to her right, my left.

Siblings? NO, ONLY ME. I noted that she kind of sighed when she answered this, but when I asked what was wrong, she refused to answer me.

Our food came after that, and we ate in 'silence' for awhile, our hands preoccupied by our food. With the looks that we were sneaking each other, though, I don't think we needed to talk. I had never blushed so much in one day. I felt ridiculous, but happy. Ridiculously happy.

I watched as she dipped a french fry into her ketchup, and then proceeded to suck the ketchup itself off without biting into the fry at all. My eyes widened, I swallowed, and I had to force myself to look away.

And that's when I spotted them.

There were a group of guys sitting across the restaurant, near the mini-arcade. One of them was laughing loudly while another one made grunting sounds and screwed his face up into a goofy expression. He fluttered his hands in front of his face and made jerky movements. The other two were making similar sounds and egging him on. I could have ignored them, and it would have been fine. Perfectly fine. If at that moment, they hadn't looked up and stared knowingly directly at me and Cellie.

White-hot rage flooded through me, and I saw red. I was halfway out of my seat when I felt a cool hand on my arm.

I looked down, then up again at Cellie. She looked at me, completely perplexed, and I had to remember who I was with. And what the end result would be if I acted on my instinct to protect my imprint with her sitting right here. Without a clue as to what was going on.

TOILET, I signed, and with a lot of hesitation, she let go of my arm, but not without a skeptical look on her face.

So badly I wanted to rip into those guys, that it literally hurt to force myself past them and into the bathroom. I splashed water on my face, willing myself to calm down. It wouldn't do to explode right here. In a public place. Without a change of clothes. Not smart, Embry, so just… calm down.

I pushed the doors open, and once again, forced myself to keep walking past them. Even as they laughed more loudly now.

" - couldn't get a regular chick, so had to go for a retard - !"

"Oh, I don't know, Spence. With those sounds she makes, I'm sure she's good for something!"

"Mmmm, vibrations!"

I froze on the spot, wanting so badly to turn around and tear them to pieces. They knew I could hear them. And they knew that Cellie couldn't. I would not, could not, should really not touch them. Because they were human, and I didn't do that to humans.

But I did something anyway; something that I knew Sam would not approve of.

I picked up their scents. For later.

The mood was completely ruined, and Cellie could sense it, even though I'm sure she didn't know what was wrong. She asked, and I just shook my head, so eventually she stopped asking. I lost my appetite, so I sat there and tried very hard not to watch her eat. Eventually, she was finished, and I paid the bill. We left, and I was very aware of those guys still laughing as we left.

Anger reaching a boiling point now, I did something very stupid. I turned to Cellie, signed, PLEASE WAIT, then turned on my heel and re-entered the restaurant.

I bee-lined to their table, and before they believed what was happening, I had picked up the nearest one - the one I assumed was the ringleader - by the throat and was holding him pinned against the wall while I lightly choked him. I hadn't completely lost my mind. I knew what my strength could do.

"HEY! WHAT THE FUCK!?" another one of them said, and still holding his choking friend in the air with one hand, I reached out and grabbed this one, too.

"HEY, PUT THEM DOWN, YOU ASSHOLE! YOU'RE CRAZY!"

The problem for me was, since my hands were occupied, I couldn't defend myself from the chair that came crashing down on my head.

The problem for them was, I didn't feel the chair that came crashing down on my head. I only realized it was a chair at all because I saw the pieces go flying out of my peripheral vision.

"Whoa," the fourth guy whispered, have wisely chosen to hang back. By this time, I heard short screams and shocked gasps from the other customers, and the employees, too.

"Don't you ever fucking make fun of her again, do you understand me?" I growled.

But I actually didn't know if they were capable of understanding me because by this time they were turning quite interesting shades of blue and purple.

"What the hell are you on, dude!? It was just a little fun! They're… they're sorry!"

"Stop! Sir, you're going to kill them!"

"Somebody call 911!"

At that, I dropped both of them, and they fell quite a distance to the ground sputtering and choking.

Glaring at everyone in the room, and mildly shocked at myself, I turned towards the door.

To find Cellie staring at me in horror.

… fuck. Again.

* * *

The good news was, Cellie wasn't afraid of me because she agreed to take a taxi back to La Push with me. The bad news was, she wouldn't leave me alone about what happened. I didn't want to talk about it, but she kept signing, WHY? WHY? WHY? and completely ignored my protests of, NO. NO. NO.

I looked up to see the taxi driver staring at us in the rearview mirror, and finally I was just so fed up and embarrassed that I turned to Cellie, grabbed her hands, and pushed them down and away from me.

Immediately, I knew that I had done something very, very bad.

Shock enveloped her face expression to be quickly replaced by hurt, and in one swift movement, she turned her entire body away from me to face her window, spine going completely rigid.

Shit.

No, Cellie. I tapped her shoulder, but she jerked away from my touch, pressing herself into the door on her side.

I reached out, grabbed her shoulder and physically turned her around to face me. SORRY, I began to sign, but -

"NO!" she said, voice raw, loud and angry, and I was so shocked that she had talked that I let her go.

I'd never been so ashamed of something in my life. I had… effectively told her to shut up. In the most literal way to someone who couldn't hear.

My hands began to shake, and my vision blurred. Control, Embry! I fought the change harder than I had ever fought anything. I will not phase. I will not hurt my imprint. I closed my eyes and had to just concentrate on breathing the entire way back.

When we climbed out of the taxi, I immediately started signing, SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, but Cellie shook her head, and looked away.

PLEASE, I signed, stepping in front of her. I didn't touch her, though. I had learned my lesson from that.

She glared at me, then pulled out her phone, and called her mom. She signed rapidly with only one hand, then replaced her phone in her pocket.

PLEASE, I signed again, but she shot me a look of pure malevolence, and then closed her eyes!

Feeling as if I were about to throw up, I couldn't do anything, but stare at her until her mom arrived. Then, I heard her phone vibrate, and when she opened her eyes to check it, she looked across the parking lot. So I assumed that her mom had called or texted her or something to let her know she was here.

Without a backward glance, she jumped in the car. I kept staring even as she signed rapidly to her mom, and even as her mom looked over at me with a confused glance. I kept staring even as Cellie shook her head, and signed, NO, and something else I didn't understand. I kept staring even as they drove away, until I couldn't see the car or even hear the engine anymore.

Then I stumbled into the nearest bushes on the side of the library, and threw up.

* * *

After I had pulled myself together enough to walk, I stumbled in the direction of my house. I'm sure to any passersby I probably looked drunk. Belatedly I remembered I was supposed to go over to Sam's house after 'work,' so I changed direction and headed that way instead.

"Embry? Dude, what happened!?" Quil said, quickly running over, so I could lean my weight on him. He helped me into the house.

"I don't want to be - I don't want - " I tried to say, but I felt sick again, and before I could help it, I threw up on Sam's floor.

"Embry, what the hell!" Sam said, coming from the direction of the bathroom.

I coughed, and shook my head.

"Is he sick?"

"Impossible."

Everyone went quiet as I stared up at Sam. I can only imagine what he saw in my eyes right then. "I don't want to be human right now," I whispered, hoarsely, willing him to understand. After a second, he nodded.

"Get him outside," he told Quil, quietly.

Between Quil and Jared, they helped me outside, and the minute I set eyes on the woods, I phased, destroying my clothes and missing my friends by only inches.

What happened Embry?

But no one really had to ask because the second they phased, they could see it on constant replay in my head. And they felt my pain.

And for the first time in a long time, I didn't mind that others were here in my head with me.

* * *

"Well, you know her last name now, right? Maybe you can call her. Or… call her mom. Explain to her what happened?" The suggestion came from Seth.

"Nah, her mom probably hates him, too," Paul interjected, and everyone turned to glare at him. He shrugged, apologetically.

"Give her time," Rachel said, softly, giving me a small smile. "And in the meantime, learn more Sign Language. I've done some research for you."

She attempted to sign the alphabet. Paul corrected her without thinking about it, and I realized that he had picked it up from my head.

Fantastic.

"For you, you mean," Paul said, rolling his eyes, and Rachel gave him a sheepish look.

"I'm interested," she said, defensively while everyone laughed.

Well, everyone except me and Sam. We were the only ones who weren't having a good time. My reason was obvious. His was because he had just found out that Leah Clearwater was moving. And while everyone was in my head as we patrolled, he had phased also, allowing us to see what was going on in his.

She was moving. Had decided to go to college, actually. Far, far away. To get away from Sam, Emily, and the pack. Seth had rejoined Sam's pack after he left us to be with the bloodsuckers, and Leah had too by default, but not really by choice. She had been happy to be out of Sam's head, and happy to have Sam out of hers. I knew first hand that it was super difficult for both of them, and I couldn't say I blamed her.

I just shrugged, still seriously bummed out.

"It's going to be okay," Kim said to me, softly, while everyone else was distracted by Rachel and Paul.

"I hope so," I replied, and Jared touched my shoulder.

"Just give her a chance to cool down. Then go back to the library. She'll be there," he said, confidently.

* * *

I didn't get home that night until past midnight, and I walked in to find my mom dozing on the couch, and the smell of something burning in the oven.

Typical.

I turned it off, disposed of whatever it was - I couldn't even tell - and then woke her up.

"Embry," she said, sleepily. "What time is it?"

"Time to start ordering takeout instead if either of us have the urge to cook after ten p.m.," I answered, and at that, she sat straight up.

"You turned the oven off?" she asked, frantically, and I nodded. She scrunched up her nose and gave me a sheepish smile. "I messed up, didn't I?"

I nodded again.

"I'm sorry," she said, wincing.

I shrugged. "I'm sorry, too, Mom. I haven't exactly been a model son, lately."

She smiled and patted the couch next to her "How was work, and uh, Sam?" she said, gesturing with her hand absentmindedly. I realized that my eyes were naturally following her hand movements, and I felt pathetic all over again.

"Fine, and… fine," I answered, sighing.

"You know, you've been looking really tired these past few weeks, honey. Maybe you should slow down a bit, hm? I know you want to graduate early, so maybe cut back on your work hours?" she suggested.

I shook my head, "Can we afford that?"

She grinned at me. "Embry, we're not destitute. In fact, we've been doing so well lately that I got you something," she said, leaning down and pulling something out of a bag I hadn't noticed. She put a box in my hand I looked down at it to see… a cell phone!?

My mouth dropped open as she continued to smile at me. "I thought you deserved it. It's unlimited everything, but don't go crazy now. I got myself one, too, and we're on a family plan."

"Is it… does it have video messaging?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"It's unlimited everything, so probably," she said. "It has one of those cameras on it, so I'm pretty sure it has video-whatever."

I leaned over and hugged her, not nearly as tight as I wanted to.

"Thank you so much," I said, hoping she didn't notice that I was trying to speak over the sudden lump in my throat.

"Now I fully expect that you'll use this the next time you decide to skip out on our plans," she said in mock-seriousness, and I laughed as she pulled away.

She started to stand up, but I pulled her back down on the couch, steeling myself for what I was about to say. It was confession time.

"Listen, I - " I said, taking a deep breath. "I've been… kind of seeing somebody."

Her eyes widened, and I didn't miss the way her eyes darted to my left hand. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

"You're gay, aren't you?" she asked, quietly, eyes concerned.

"What? No, mom!" I was appalled at her question. Not that I was opposed to anyone who was gay - we had all had had thoughts about Collin at one point when he decided to experiment… on Seth. That didn't go over so well, and we quickly learned that he wasn't. Neither of them were.

"So… who is she? A girl at school?" she asked, voice too eager now.

I just blinked at her for a second. She had no idea what she had just done. The guys would never let me live this down, because of course, no conversation I had with anyone was sacred.

"No," I finally answered. "She's… I met her at the library. Her name is Cellie. And… she's Deaf."

She looked at me in confusion. "You mean, she's can't hear? Anything?" she asked.

I shook my head. "She can't hear anything. One-hundred percent Deaf."

"Oh, Embry," she sighed, reminded me of Emily. "Are you… sure you want to date this girl? It's not going to be easy, honey… there are a lot of ignorant and prejudice people in the world."

"I like her," I said, simply, unable - and unwilling, anyway - to explain about the imprint.

"Well," she finally said, though I could see the worry all over her face. "If it makes you happy."

"I'm learning Sign Language," I blurted.

"Yeah, the conversation with Rachel makes sense, now," she grinned, and I smiled… but then my smile quickly dropped when I remembered how I left Cellie.

"Mom, I… I know I was grounded, but I did something very stupid today."

"You were with her?" she questioned.

"Yes, but that wasn't the stupid thing, though I'm sorry about going out while I was supposed to be grounded, but… I did something very, very stupid. I - " I tried to think of a tactful way to put this, but couldn't think of one. Because what I had done wasn't tactful.

"I told her to shut up," I finally said. "She was signing to me, and I was frustrated about something else, and I grabbed her hands and pushed them away. So now she's not talking to me."

"Yes, that was very stupid," Mom said, and I gave her an exasperated look. "Well, it was."

"I know, Mom, but what do I do now?" I asked, uncomfortable. It's not like I had never asked my mom about girls before. I mean, she was one, so when I was younger, it was kind of the obvious thing to do. But, still. That didn't make it easy.

"Wait," she replied, simply. "Give her time to think."

"But what if she doesn't come back to the library? Like, ever?" I asked, a bit desperately.

Mom smiled. "She will. If she likes you half as much as you obviously like her."

I sighed, and she tugged on my hair. I looked at her in surprise. She hadn't done that in a long, long time. Since I was little. I missed it.

"She'll come back, Embry."

* * *

She didn't come back. For three weeks. I know because I was there every day after school since Miss Monotone had taken me a little more seriously than I wanted her to when I asked if I could lay off the hours a little bit; she only had me working on the weekends. Although they were double shifts, but still.

At night, I was double patrolling with the guys. Even though I was doing a lot less work than before, I seemed to get more and more tired as the days dragged on. Sam worriedly let me know that this was because of the distance from my imprint, but that it wasn't as bad as it could be because obviously she lived in Forks.

Emily was another one who had told me to keep my distance and give her space, but one night when she put food in front of me and I just looked at it without eating, she changed tactics quickly, and told me to use yellow pages and look up her phone number. Or ask around.

As it happened, I didn't have to resort to either one because the very next day - a Wednesday - her mom showed up after school at the library. I would have missed her if I hadn't taken to standing outside of the library to wait, rather than at my round table.

"Embry Call?" she asked as she walked up to me, but I just stared at her, my mouth open. Because she looked so much like Cellie that it was ridiculous. Except that she was obviously Native American, and Cellie was black. I was starved for a glimpse, though any bit of Cellie I could find in her still wasn't nearly enough.

"I-I'm sorry," I said, nervously. "Hi."

"Hello," she said, a relaxed smile on her face. A smile that made me very, very nervous. "Would you mind if we had a chat?" she asked.

I nodded, attempting to swallow the lump in my throat. Oh, no. Was something wrong with Cellie? Did Cellie tell her mother that she never wanted to see me again?

We didn't go far inside the library. We stopped just inside of the doors, and I noted that the same dude was working there again. I nodded at him, and he winked at me, causing me to recoil. Then he smirked and went back to whatever he was doing. Jerk.

"So what kind of spell do you have my daughter under?" she asked without preamble.

"Wow," I muttered. "Straight to the point."

But her answering smile was warm. "Embry… Cellie really likes you. Or, she did." At that, my stomach dropped, and I couldn't say anything, so she continued.

"I know you haven't known each other long. And you've only seen each other, what, three times? But that first day, she came home, and she was so excited that someone wanted to talk to her. Don't get me wrong, I mean, she has friends sort of. She belongs to this Deaf community online. A website, or something. But I know there's only about five other people in this whole town who are Deaf, and they're either older, or they're babies, so she's lonely. Naturally. And I try be a friend as best I can, but I'm her mother. A single mother at that." She looked sad, and I wanted to reassure her, but I didn't know how.

Another thing Cellie and I have in common, I thought vaguely.

"I want her to be happy, but lately, only two things seem to be working. You, and this library," she admitted.

I sat up straight when she said that, and wild ides started to race through my mind. Would Cellie's mom be my ally? Would she drag Cellie to the library and beg her to talk to me? I had to see her, at least.

"What does that mean?" I asked, hesitantly, trying not to appear overeager.

"She told me what happened, Embry," her mom said, giving me a disappointed look, and I looked down, ashamed all over again.

"I tried to tell her I was sorry," I mumbled.

"I know. She told me that, too. And I can see that you are. I mean, my goodness, you're still here waiting and it's been almost a month!" she said, shaking her head. I wondered if she thought that was pathetic, but her next words made that thought disappear quickly. "And the rate at which you're learning ASL is quite impressive if what Cellie has to say is true."

"So I'm going to cheat a little," she continued. "I'm going to give you her cell phone number. I don't know if you have a cell phone…?"

"I do," I said, scrambling to get it out of my pocket to show her.

"Good, and it has a camera, nice. I'm sure it doesn't have TTY-talk enabled, but does it have video messaging?"

I nodded emphatically, and she smiled again. "Good. May I?" she took it from my outstretched hand, and promptly entered Cellie's number into it.

"Th-thank you!" I said, more grateful than I could ever let her know. She stood up, dropping my phone back into my hand.

ME PRACTICE ASL. 3 WEEKS, I signed, shyly, on impulse, and her shocked smile was a mile wide. It almost took my breath away once again, it was so reminiscent of Cellie.

"I don't know you at all, Embry Call, but somehow… I don't know, something tells me you're good for her. But if you ever hurt my daughter again," she said, her voice turning serious, "I'll kick your butt."

And as I followed her outside, and she jumped in her car, I remembered something and I called out, "Wait! Does she have a boyfriend?"

She just smiled at me before she locked her doors and drove away. Probably a dumb question.

But still, her mother - and mine, too - kind of rocked.

* * *

Important A/N: First, I just want to thank absolutely everyone who read and reviewed and added me to their favorites list and author/story alerts list. You guys seriously are awesome.

Secondly, I would like to add for the people who added me to their list, but did not review, I WOULD REALLY love to hear your opinion on this story. I also don't want to take out anything by accident that you like because you didn't review and tell me. It helps me know what direction to go in.

THIRD, I'm going to give you guys a little challenge. As of posting this chapter, I had 15 reviews. If I can get ANOTHER 15 reviews, then I will post the next chapter extra early as well. Like within the next 3 days.

There, I said it, it's up to you! So be kind, and please review!

- FadingSlowly