*Author's Note*

Just wanted to let you all know that I like to take pointers! It's my main goal to please my readers so if you'd like to see the story head in a certain direction, you should review and let me know!

It had been a long morning. I bit my lip, staring intently into my untouched breakfast, concentrating as hard as I could.

"Nothing." I murmured after some time, looking up at Yaya apologetically. She smiled softly, patting my hand. We'd been at it all morning, combing through what little memories I seemed to have left.

"It's alright, Sweetheart. You took a pretty hard fall."

I sighed, folding my arms on the table and laying my head down. So far, what we'd been able to find wasn't much. I remembered Mom. I remembered Yaya, and Adam. I'd remembered Emily, but not Kim. I remembered Adam. I remembered Aldin, who'd burst into tears the second he saw me covered in blood and water. But there was nothing else.

After minutes of silence, Kim shifted awkwardly in her seat.

"So," she started sheepishly. "Does this mean we can't be friends anymore?" A pang of guilt shot through me. I'd never meant to make her feel less important.

"Of course we're still friends Kim. If we were friends before I'm sure I love you just like everyone else does. I just don't know what's wrong with me."

"Nothing is wrong with you Honey, alright?" Emily pressed confidently. "Nothing at all. None of this is your fault."

I looked down at my hands and twiddled my thumbs uncomfortably.

"Haley?" Emily asked tentatively. I looked up at her.

"What happened before you came home? When you jumped, I mean."

The room went silent. I stared at her for a long time before sitting up straight in my chair. His face flashed across my mind again, like it had a million other times that morning.

"There was a boy." I answered honestly. True and simple. Straight to the point.

The truth was, I'd been thinking about Paul ever since I'd woken up on the couch. There was something about the rush of heat leaving my body as he stopped touching me that left me unnerved. Why had I felt so hollow without him, even though I hadn't known him? Why did I still feel hollow, surrounded by people who supposedly loved me? It wasn't right. None of this was right. I had feelings for a stranger. I'd woken up with his hands on my face, barely dressed, soaking wet. No matter what I'd felt, no matter what odd stirrings had flickered through me, he had shoved me off of a cliff. He tried to kill me.

"What about him?" Emily pressed.

"There's nothing about him," I snapped, a little too harshly. Emily flinched, and Yaya wrinkled her eyebrows, as if snapping was such an uncharacteristic thing for a teenage girl. "He shoved me off a cliff. Who knows what had happened before that, I was barely wearing clothes. And when I didn't die from the jump, he tried to drown me. He tried to kill me. I don't want to go near him."

"No, no, Hales you have it all wrong!" Adam protested, shaking his head.

"You weren't there!" I snapped again, my eyes piercing as they flickered to his face accusingly. "Don't tell me what happened because you weren't there."

"Haley we hadn't heard from you for days, you and Paul had gotten caught in the storm and gone to his parents cabin, he saved you-"

"Stop it!" I yelled, throwing my hands in the air and standing. My heart was racing at a million miles an hour and I couldn't breathe. I didn't know what to believe. "Just stop." I panted, my arms lowering slowly. I looked down at my feet again.

"Adam, she's had a rough few days. Give her some time." Yaya whispered, stroking his arm. I looked up at them, my bottom lip quivering slightly.

"I'm sorry," I croaked. "I'm sorry, I just-"

"Shhh." Emily cooed, standing and taking me into her arms. She stroked my hair gently, tears sliding down my hot cheeks. My knees buckled.

"You need sleep. Now." Adam ordered, taking me from Emily's arms. I didn't protest as he scooped me up and started up the staircase. I stared at the ceiling as he laid me across my cool green sheets, letting him plant a kiss on my forehead before turning to look at him.

"I know it's hard," he whispered, kissing my hair. "I know it's scary. But you have to trust us, Hales. You have to believe that we'll take care of you. We love you."

I didn't answer, but kept my eyes on him as he strode across the room and closed the door behind him. I was smart enough to know that the conversation wasn't over, and couldn't simply be left alone. As soon as I knew he was back in the kitchen I crossed the room silently, sliding through the door and out into the open hallway, crouching at the top of the stairs where I could only make out the faint murmur of voices.

"...nothing at all..."

"...can't we help her?..."

"..Who knows what will happen..."

"What will we tell him?..."

"...hasn't eaten since he brought her home..."

I closed my eyes and sighed quietly.

*Paul POV *

When the Pack strode through my front door, I was back in the same place they'd left me in yesterday. Sprawled out amongst the large black leather sofa in the living room, the flatscreen blaring in front of me.

"You have to eat something, Dude." Embry murmured, sitting on the matching couch adjescent to mine. Sam switched off the T.V as Quil sank to the floor, his elbows propped up on his knees as he leaned against the front door.

"I was watching that." I grumbled, sitting up and stretching.

"Bullshit," Jared quipped, crossing his arms. "You've been sitting there for three days now."

"Three days?" I repeated. I hadn't kept count of time. I hadn't known how to. I could never sleep, and whenever I did, I'd be jolted awake by the nightmare of Haley's face when she'd woken up in the sand.

"Yeah, three days. You've got to get out of this fucking house, Bro."

"Where the Hell am I gonna go Jared?" I asked seriously, looking at him with irritation. I'd been kicked off patrols. My thoughts were so cloudy that an entire army of leeches could've marched right past me and I probably wouldn't have noticed. Fantastic, Lahote. I chided myself. Useless to the girl AND your Pack.

"There's got to be something we can do," Embry tried. "There's got to be some way to get her to remember you."

"Good luck with that." I grumbled, laying my face in my hands. I rubbed my cheeks tiredly. I hadn't slept since I'd taken her home.

"You know what's killing me about this whole thing?" Jared demanded, his voice raising. "Haley's supposed to be your Imprint and you're just giving up on her."

"Easy!" Sam warned, but he was too late.

"What the Hell did you just say to me?" I hissed, challenging him. Just the mention of her name had me shaking.

"You know exactly what I said Paul, you're not fucking deaf. If you really fucking loved her, you'd be at that house, every day, until she remembered exactly who you are."

Fury blazed through me for an instant, and I almost thought I'd phase, causing my father to have to replace the front of the house again, but it was gone in the same instant, leaving me with the same hollow, empty feeling as before. I slumped back into my seat on the couch.

"You see?!" Jared yelled, throwing a hand out at me. "This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Paul what the Hell happened to you?!"

"How would you feel?" Quil interjected. "What if Kim woke up one morning and forgot who you were and didn't want you to come within ten feet of her?"

I flinched, and so did Jared.

"Sorry, man." Quil murmured at my expression. I waved him away.

"He's got a point, you know." Embry said quietly, staring at me. "You can't just give up on her."

"What the Hell am I supposed to do then? She doesn't want me near her and all I want..." All I wanted was her, but when it came to Haley I couldn't be selfish. If she didn't want me near her, if that's what would make her happy, that's what I'd have to give her. No matter how much it killed me. "All I want is her to be happy." I finished, sighing.

"She can't just feel nothing," Sam said. "She's your Imprint for Christ's sake, that's got to count for something."

"What if it doesn't?"

"But what if it does? Do you still remember that there's a fucking maniac going after her or did you hit your head too?"

Of course I remembered. It'd been eating me alive.

"Watch it, Sam." I warned, narrowing my eyes at him. Heat rippled through me at the thought of the Leech. It was his fault. His fault we'd had to jump. His fault my Mother's cabin was in pieces. His fault Haley didn't remember me. It gave me all the more reason to hate him, as if I didn't have enough before.

"That only brings us to our next problem," Jared muttered, running a hand through his hair. "We've got a leech infestation on our hands. A massive one, God knows what he wants with her."

"Why does it always have to be OUR girls?!" Sam cried, throwing his hands into the air. Jared nodded knowingly. He and Sam had possibly the two wildest girls in La Push, although the things I'd been hearing about Claire only made me feel worse for Quil. There was something odd about the girls that were linked to us-it seemed that we'd both get everything we'd ask for, unconditional love, at one cost- She'd have to be with a mutating freak and we'd have a nutcase on our hands.

"If she can't remember you then there's only one thing left to do," Embry stated matter-of-factly, rising from his seat. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Start over." he shrugged.

"Yeah," Quil nodded. "If she can't remember your old relationship then start a new one. You can't just let her go, Paul, not now. She needs you more than ever."

I stared at the floor for a long time before nodding. They had a point. I couldn't give up on her. I wouldn't. I loved her. I always would. The only chance of survival I had was with her in my life.

"So it's settled then," Sam smirked crossing his arms. "Emily's having a dinner party tomorrow night before everyone goes back to school."

Quil smiled. "Looks like it's time to get you cleaned up, Loverboy."

I rolled my eyes and laughed for what felt like the first time in decades. But although my voice echoed off the walls, a deep, heavy hole opened in the bottom of my heart, pooling with an all too familiar feeling- dread.