Embry was woken up to the feel of a weight on top of him. He was so tired after patrol last night that he wasn't sure when she crawled into bed with him. Alexander was straddling him, leaning her head against her hand. Her face was inches from his. He groaned. It was the third day that she had to wake him up in a row. This was really starting to take a toll on him.

"How late are we going to be today?" he whispered closing his eyes again.

"Not sure." She answered him. Embry opened one eye and could see she was dressed in a tank top and boy shorts. He could smell the scent of her shower gel coming off her body.

"You might not be as late as you think. Can we skip today?" Alexander buried her face in his neck. He didn't have to see her expression to know that she was worried about something.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. You ever just get the feeling that it's going to turn out to be one of those days. Like something is going to go wrong?" Alexander whispered.

"Nothing going to go wrong…" This was the last thing he needed. He just wanted a stress free day so he could get back into bed for a nap after school. "Don't worry about it. Everyone will be there for you today. Around people, you'll be fine."

Alexander rolled off of him and curled up on the bed next to him. "You're probably right, go shower." She concluded without looking at him. Embry wrapped his arm around her waist.

"You'll be fine. You're probably like this because of the weather." He then slid out of bed and stretched, "Show time. Mornin' Jack!" he petted the dog.

~----~

"What the hell did you say to her man?" Embry asked. "I did everything but beg and she still wouldn't open up."

"Yeah well, I'm the infamous neutral remember." Quil said dryly. The other guys looked at him.

"Are you kidding me? Dude this morning she woke me up, was dressed and had breakfast cooked by the time I walked out the shower. Usually it's me who is waking her up. Third day in a row. What did you tell her?"

Quil chuckled, and then mumbled to his notebook. "I never said play the happy housewife, Alexander…"

"Are you okay?" Jacob asked him.

"Yup. Fine." Quil answered.

"How much abuse did you take?" Embry finally asked.

"Enough to be called an asshole and then a Pedophile." Quil said somberly. The others looked at him sympathetically.

"Sorry man. That should have been me." Embry responded. "If she only understood."

"Oh! Being the empath that she is I think she understands how much it annoys and hurts." He finished as soon as Alexander and Sandra came up to the table. Once again there was the routine of Alexander plopping her head down on the table.

"Sorry Switz. I got practice today." She mumbled at the table.

"After practice." Quil answered airily.

"Fine." She sighed, exhausted.

"Anything bad happened?" Embry asked.

"yeah- no. not yet. The day isn't over yet. Only the usual run of the mill shit. I forgot we had a chemistry test today. I know I bombed that. Ray was being a total asshole like he has always been since he got word you and I got together. He's being overly bitter about it. Taking it out on me. Today he said something strange. Said someone was looking for me. That I got more admirer's than I can handle. Got paid to tell him a little about me. I brushed it off. Whatever. I accidentally curse in French, while in French class. Hit my bad knee, so it hurts like a bitch now, but I still have to go to practice. We have to dance for the winter solstice." She banged her head against the table. "forgot my presentation for English, didn't full my insomnia pill prescription so I got an hour of sleep last night, too exhausted to care about the world."

"Damn, girl. Maybe you should have stayed home today. You're just a magnet." Jacob joked.

"Just think about the present." Embry said softly taking her hand. She smiled at him. "It will be over before you know it."

-~~-

Practice was as practice always is. Practice. Dance, dance until you're dead tired at 5pm and then go home in the dark. Alexander walked back slowly, with a slight limp. Her knee was giving her a lot of trouble today. And that was always a bad sign. Instead of taking the normal back streets home, she decided to walk along the main road. The one that was a sort of Main Street that wound through the town and then down to the beach. She trudged along, slower than usual, but still serene. Every now and then a car would pass by and someone would wave at her and continue on their path. Humming softly to herself, Alexander tried not to think of the hairs starting to stand on the back of her neck. A cold breeze blew off the water as she rounded the corner where the road bordered the cliffs for about 20 feet or so. She stared straight ahead, instinctively using her peripheral vision to see her surroundings. Should do it? She'd get home a lot faster. No. She answered her own thought as a car rounded the corner again.

There was a shift in the wind, and echo in the trees across the street as they rolled in the wind. Alexander stopped for a moment to let her knee rest, looking over at the ocean. Then something caught her eye but it was too late. By the time she turned to face the attacker he had already enclosed his hands around her neck. Choking her, tightening to strangle, to break her neck. Alexander's eyes grew wide, her mouth open gasping for air. It was a apparent this man was of human strength or else he would have broken her neck already. At first she began to claw at his hands but she was losing fast.

"Don't Struggle." The attacker growled. "It will be over before you know it."

Panic seized Alexander as she tried to move, to shake the man off. He let go with one hand and punched her in the face. She felt the force of the hit on her cheek but she didn't stop to acknowledge it. Alexander stopped struggling and her eyes turned black. Her body began to shake.

"He said you would try that!" the man kneed her in the gut, totally distracting her concentration. As a last resort Alexander's hands flew up to the man's face. She sunk her thumbs into his eyes. She had a firm grip with her left hand and dug in, pulling her finger to the left. The man screeched in pain as he felt her trying to take out his eye. His hands flew up to his face and Alex heaved in a breath.

"Bitch!" He punched her in the head again. This time Alexander grasped the front of his black jacket, rocks her body to the side, knee giving out and then fell back over the guardrail. The two tumbled and slid. The man still attempting to strangle her. They reached the edge of the cliff and tumbled off, the man hit water almost immediately knocking his back and breaking his arm on the rocks beneath the surface.

Alexander was not so lucky. She fell awkwardly. Half her body in the water and her head hit the edge of a blunt boulder. Alexander shivered, gasping, choking, bleeding from the gash on her head. Eyes staring open, she sighs, never seeing, the world gone, mouth hung ajar. Her cell phone, ringing, unanswered in her pocket.

~----~

Quil walked from his house to the store. He waited there for 15 minutes before he called her again. It was 6pm, it didn't take that long to walk from the high school to his house. 20 minutes at the most if you walked slow enough. Maybe she went home. Quil called Embry's house and got no answer. He called Embry' cell phone and got voice mail. Figures. He's probably in la-la land right now. It kept nagging him that Alexander wasn't picking up. Did she chicken out? No, that didn't seem like her. If Alexander made a promise she stuck it out no matter if she was sick or cripple.

Walking further down the lane, Quil stopped at the crossroads. On a regular everyday basis Alexander would take the back streets like all the other kids. Yet, this was nighttime, and Alexander was responsible enough to take main street where there would be someone who saw her in case something would happen. Quil began to walk along Main Street. He watched as the stores began closing up for the night, and the streetlights flickered. There was an unrest in his belly. He called Jacob.

"Yo!" Jacob answered cheerfully.

"Hey, it's me. Have you seen Alexander?" Quil went straight to the point.

"Um. Not since school, why?" Jacob said, he sounded slightly distracted.

"Are you with Nessie?" Quil asked.

"Uh, yeah. Is it an issue to be with my girl?" Jacob asked impatiently. "Why don't you call Embry."

"He's not picking up."

"Why didn't you call her?"

"She's not picking up."

"Then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe she got caught up in practice. That's happened before."

"Yeah but… I don't know Jake with all the shit that went wrong for her today, I think something is wrong. She did say that her knee wasn't doing well."

"Mmmmm- Nessie- I- uh yeah she did. Try walking to the school then i- ah- don't know what to tell you." Jacob retorted.

"Fine. Bye." Quil said.

"Mhmm." Jacob hung up quickly.

"Asshole. The least you could have done was show some sort of worry." Quil grumbled. Yet, he could understand Jake's distraction. That's what happens when you imprint after all. The rest of the world doesn't matter.

Quil quickened his pace. Something was wrong. Alexander wanted to know too badly about what they were hiding. On the inside Quil's wolf was responding growling. In the distance he could hear the swift footfalls and scent of vampires. Why? Quil broke into a run. He rounded the bend to the cliff and stop in his tracks. He lowers his nose to the guardrail, shivers, shakes and hops over the guardrail and runs to the edge of the cliff, pulling off his clothes at the same time. He madly presses the send button on his cell, hoping secretly, to hear Alexander's ring-tone playing. Ends the call and dials again.

"911, what's your emergency!" the operator answers quickly.

"I need an ambulance on Main Street La Push, by the cliff. Quickly, my friend fell off the cliff!" he speaks quickly.

"Right away! Do not move the body!" the operator responds urgently. He hangs up. Quil thinks about if this were Claire, what would he do. He reaches the edge of the cliff and grips the rock with dear life as he clambers down about 15 feet from where Alexander's body lies.

Quil looks down just as he shifts to see the glassy hazel eyes of Alexander Blackfox staring back at him.

He would protect this body at all costs. He howls to the moon, please let her still be alive.

~----~

Embry growled as his phone rang for the third time. God fuckin damn it! Who the fuck was calling him and What the fuck was so urgent that it couldn't wait till he got at least another hour of sleep. The phone stopped ringing as he picked it up. He rolled over and flicked on the lamp 6:37pm. Two calls from Quil, three from Jake, 4 from his mother. Why was he suddenly on La Push most wanted list today? There was a banging on his front door. Seth yelling at the top of his lungs for him to open the door.

Suddenly something struck Embry as wrong. Quil called twice, but why would he? Wasn't he with Alexander? Jake called three times and he never calls when he's with Nessie. His mother called four times and she never does that unless she is pissed at him. Why would she be pissed? How come Alexander didn't call considering the fuss?

Embry launched himself off the bed with more force than he thought was intended. In a few strides he was at the door, had it unlocked and flung it open.

"WHAT?! What happened?!" Embry yelled.

"Dude, WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING?!" Seth shoved Embry.

"What the hell is your problem?!"

"Everyone's been calling you, trying to get through to you, you fuckin idiot!" Seth yelled at him. "Alexander nearly got murdered! Fell off a fuckin cliff and you're here catching up on your beauty rest you fuckin' douche!"

Embry's face faltered. "S-Seth that's nothing to joke about. Even if you're angry with me."

"You think I'm joking? Have you checked your fuckin' voice mails?! Quil went to fuckin' find her when she didn't show up to meet him! He found her bloody beaten damn near bloated and left for dead! Bashed against the rocks! Everyone's at the hospital now! Why the fuck aren't you the first one on the scene?!" Seth snapped at him.

Embry's whole body began to quiver. He reached for the car keys, shoving Seth out of the way.

"You can't drive like that! Let me drive!" Seth offered.

"You fuckin watch me. It'll keep me distracted so I won't change." Embry hopped in the drivers seat and started the Jeep while Seth was getting in the passenger side. All traffic laws held no meaning to him tonight. He was a truly mad man on the road. Twitching and shaking, no shirt on, cursing and swerving, parking on a diagonal in the middle of a no parking entrance. He hopped out without fully putting the jeep in park, forgetting the keys he rushed into the ER where everyone was waiting.

All of their voices sounded in a cacophony of words, accusations, confusion. He ran his fingers through his hair but what brought him back down to earth was his mother. She slapped Embry hard across the face. Embry closed his eyes and reveled in the sting, how numb it felt compared to the ache in his heart the nausea in his belly.

"You promised me you were going to protect her!" his mother hissed. "Embry! She may not be my own daughter but that girl did not deserve have to witness this. How- where- what were you doing?"

Embry was shaking violently, his eyes tearing up. Jacob grasped his arm and then his shoulder, Sam took the next side. His mother continued.

"She has bruises, cuts, all on her face and abdomen. A fractured skull… ribs… a broken wrist… They took pictures of her as if she were some kind of cadaver" Embry's mother shook her head, she inhaled slowly. "I know this isn't you're fault. I'm sorry for slapping you."

"It is! I deserve it!" Embry spat out.

"No offense but this isn't time for a pity party." A new voice had intervened. Embry looked up to see Carlisle. Carlisle beckoned for the three to follow him but asked Embry's mother to stay behind. The rode the elevator to the 4th floor, the Intensive Care Unit. Carlisle walked ahead rounded a corner and then opened the door to the room.

"Okay, I think that's about it. We'll contact you if we need anything else, or you contact us if you remember anything else. Thanks, Mr. Atera." The policeman nodded, and left as Carlisle and the three wolves walked in. Quil was already sitting on the couch. He stood up as soon as Embry walked in.

"Embry, I'm sorry-!" Quil started then Embry held up his shaking hand.

"Don't apologize. It wasn't your fault. I'm just glad you got there." Embry finished. He was trying to calm himself, end the shaking. "What happened?"

Quil sighed. "I don't know what happened. I estimated the time it would take from school to my house… no more than 20 minutes. I was waiting at the store for about 15 minutes after that time had passed. I kept thinking to myself something was wrong but I didn't want to jump to conclusions. I called and called but no answer, not from you, not from her, Jake was with Nessie…" Quil swallowed hard, his eyes shifting all around the room. "I… I started to walk down Main, toward the high school. Half way there I started smelling then hearing the sound of vampires approaching. Alexander's scent disappearing into the ridge. Then I smelled blood, lots of it. I look down and she's there in her own pool of blood and water, eyes glassy, staring up at me." Quil covered his face.

"Did you see who did it?" Embry asked as lightly as he could.

"No. I know the scent though. It was a human." Quil whispered. Embry ground his teeth in. He had been hoping it would be an unsuccessful vampire but now that he knew it was a human, he could not exact revenge as he saw fit. When embry thought he was calm enough he went to Alexander's bedside. She was black and blue in the face. Bandages and swollen. There was a tube down her throat that was helping her breath.

"Tell me everything that is wrong with her…" Embry whispered.

Carlisle nodded. "Well.. where to begin…" he mused, "She was certainly beaten, but she fought back. Which was uplifting." Carlisle paused, but Embry just waited. "We had to drain her lungs from the water, which is why the tube is down her throat, to help her breathe. Since the culprit nearly successfully crushed her trachea- or windpipe. Uh, the broken wrist and rib happened when she fell as well as the fractured skull…" Carlisle stopped at looked at Embry.

"Will she be okay?" Embry was holding Alexandra's hand.

"There is some worry about a concussion… she might be in a coma for a while… her lung might collapse. All these things are worries but she is healing." Carlisle said.

"Well we know that." Embry snapped.

"No- she is healing!" Carlisle said. "Lucky thing your mother thought to call me in as her doctor of choice. She's not healing as fast as you or I would but she is certainly healing faster than human standards. Do you know anything about that?"

All the wolves exchanged glances and shook their heads.

"Well, she's over all lucky to be alive."

"How lucky if she can't talk!" Embry snapped, shaking again. "How lucky if she can't walk? How lucky if her brain won't be the same?"

"Patience. We don't know that yet. One other thing I want to ask you is about her knee."

"Yeah, what about her bad knee?"

"Well, the thing is, it isn't just bad. It looks like someone purposefully tried to either dislocate, take off completely or shatter her knee. Anything to keep her from walking because it certainly is not an injury you simply get from dancing. I had to re-break the knee cap and fix it back right. She should be fine but it won't change the fact that she may have pain if she stresses it too much."

Embry looked at Carlisle funny. "Was it the attacker?" Carlisle shook his head.

"This happened before that."

"Why would she do that to herself?" Embry asked.

"I doubt she would. That is a very, very, painful injury to inflict. Now I am asking you. What do you really know about her?"

Sam sniffed. "Apparently not enough!"

"She…" Quil began. "Alexander said to me three days ago that she was a freak. Which was the reason she was meeting me today." He swallowed.

"You were going to show her your powers?!" Sam growled incredulously.

"Yes, but we were going to exchange secrets!" Quil defended. "She wanted to know, and I wanted to reassure her!"

"You idiot?! We have no clue what she is or what she was going to do to you! We have this secrecy for a reason-!" Sam's voice began to raise.

"Hey!" Jacob interjected. "Calm down. Think about it for a moment. It's Alex we're talking about here. Being as observant as she is obviously there would be something odd about us she would see. We're all freaks! So isn't it obvious that she would want a little reassurance first."

Embry growled impatiently. "Can we talk about his some other time? I would much rather be alone with her, thank you."

That was everyone's sign to get the hell out. Carlisle paused before stepping out the door. He lifted Alexander's left hand again.

"Under her fingernails and on her fingers was blood that was not hers. Now the police would be able to get a DNA match from that but with you… there is a faster way. You want to find your culprit? There is someone walking around here without an eye. And with Quil's sense of smell, that shouldn't be too hard a job to find him. I don't condone fighting, but I understand your pain." Carlisle rest Alexander's hand back down on the bed. "Good night, Embry." He closed the door silently behind him.