Disclaimer: Twilight is the property of Stephenie Meyer. I do not own anything except the OCs.
[NAHTI]
I woke up to sun streaming through the thin yellow curtains covering my bedroom windows. Sunshine in La Push? It might as well be a holiday. I rolled onto my back only to find that I wasn't alone in bed. Lying beside me was my nephew, Thomas. He'd been dealing with almost nightly nightmares by sneaking into my bed at night. He insisted that monsters only lived in his room and that my room was safe and I hadn't found a way to talk him out of this yet.
I brushed Thomas' long hair back over his shoulders and cuddled him closer while I thought about everything that needed to be done. I had about a week before I started my internship at the Forks Hospital and I wanted to spend my time wisely. I needed to take him to get his shots so that I could register him for pre-Kindergarten. I figured he would be cranky after that so maybe if the sun was still shining, I would take him down to the beach to play for a bit before coming home and putting him down for a nap. Once he was sleeping, I could—
A soft knock on the door interrupted my planning. "Come in."
I was very surprised when Paul poked his head through the door. "Grams let me in."
I waved him over to the bed, shuffling a bit so that there was room for him to sit down. "Are you okay?" A quick glance at the clock on my dresser revealed that it was just after seven-thirty. During the summer, you'd be lucky to find Paul awake before noon.
Paul nodded but I wasn't convinced. I'd bet real money that he'd had some sort of run in with his father. I knew better than to push him though. If Paul felt like sharing, he would - on his own time. "I couldn't sleep."
"Okay." I scooted over some more, making enough room in the Queen bed for Paul to stretch out beside me. Thomas grumbled softly at being moved but quickly settled down.
"How was last night?" Paul asked after we had laid in silence for a few minutes.
Every Sunday night, my family gathered at my house for dinner. Paul had attended religiously until about a month ago. "It was nice. We missed you though."
Paul rolled his eyes. "You missed me."
"Not just me." I insisted. "Thomas still sets a place for you right between us at the table and Aunt Sue even put aside some of her chocolate cake for me to give to you."
"Tell her, I said thank you." Paul said with a sigh. His face remained unchanged though.
"Sam and Leah are planning a camping trip for next weekend. Seth and Jake are down to go too. Are you in?"
"I'll pass."
Now I was worried. Paul's excuses for missing dinner had been thin from the beginning but now that he was just flat out saying no to camping - I knew something serious was bothering him. "Why are you being weird about Family Night?"
Paul turned his head to look at me. His eyes narrowed and I could see that he was closing off from me even more than before. "I'm not being weird about your family night. Don't turn this into a big thing, Nahti. Not everything is a problem for you to run around fixing."
"Fine." I rolled onto my side away from him and closed my eyes again. Paul rarely snapped at me but when it happened, it stung.
A moment later, I felt his arms sliding around my waist as he tugged me back against him. "Babygirl…I'm sorry"
"It's fine, Paul." I tried to shrug him off but he wouldn't loosen his grasp.
He kissed my shoulder and held me still. "I'll come camping, okay?"
"If you don't want to, don't." I turned back to face him and we stared at each other. Paul brushed some of my hair back off of my face and tugged me even closer so that my head was tucked under his chin. I breathed his scent in and felt some of the sudden tension between us ease. "You're wanted though, you know that, right? We're your family and we need you around."
"You're my family." Paul half agreed. He kissed the top of my head and gave me a gentle squeeze. "You're too damn sensitive, you know that?"
Suddenly there was a giggle behind us. "Paw said a bad word."
I pushed away from Paul and sat up, welcoming Thomas into my lap. Thomas had taken to pronouncing Paul's name like Paw and no amount of correcting had gotten him to stop."Morning munchkin." I kissed his chubby cheeks.
"Didya have a bad dream, Paw?" Thomas asked seriously. "Didya need Nahti to make it better?"
"Something like that, Little Man." Paul laughed – a genuine laugh – and tugged the leg of Thomas' pajama pants. "You still worried about monsters?"
Thomas nodded. "They hide in my room but not in here."
"I used to have monsters too." Paul told Thomas. He glanced up at me with a smirk. "But Nahti got rid of them for me."
"You did?" Thomas whipped around to stare at me. "How?"
"Well…" I stalled, looking at Paul for help.
He got out of bed and went to my bookshelf. Built by Uncle Harry, it had been specially designed for my room – going from floor to ceiling and taking up almost half of one of my walls. Paul expertly reached to the top shelf and grabbed an old tin cookie box, where we had hidden our treasures as children. "She gave me this." He returned to the bed holding a poorly shaped clay wolf that I had made in art class. "Do you know what this is, Little Man?"
"A doggie?" Thomas looked between us. I was frankly surprised that he was even that close considering how poor my rendering was.
"Better than a doggie." I chuckled hearing Paul use the word and he gave me a smirk. "It's a wolf. And it has the power to protect you."
"Like in Uncle Billy's stories?" Thomas reached for the treasure eagerly.
"Exactly. This little wolf will keep all the monsters away. I guarantee it." Paul pressed the figurine into Thomas awaiting hands. "Take good care of him, okay?"
"I will." Thomas promised. "Can I show Grams?"
"Right after you thank, Paul." I kissed his cheek again and let him go.
"Thanks Paw" Thomas launched himself off of the bed and into Paul's arms for a hug.
"Any time." Paul set him down on the floor and we watched my nephew tear out of the room.
"I don't know why I didn't think about that sooner." I laughed and laid back against the pile of pillows. Paul joined me again –not hesitating to pull me back into his arms. I snuggled into his chest and let his steady heartbeat relax me.
"Me either." Paul chuckled. "Do you remember when you gave that to me?"
"You were worried about monsters after we snuck and watched that scary movie at your house." I mumbled into his chest. "You know, you're going to make a really good dad someday.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Paul said with a trace of amusement in his voice. "I don't exactly have the best role models."
"No," I agreed. "But you're a natural with Thomas."
"He's special." Paul yawned and nuzzled the top of my head. "I'm exhausted."
"Rough night?" I tried to ask as casually as possible.
"No more than usual." Paul yawned again. "Don't let me sleep too late, okay?"
He drifted off in a matter of minutes but I continued to lay with him for a while longer, thinking about everything he'd said that morning. I needed to find out what was going on with him and why he suddenly felt so uncomfortable with my family. And I had a pretty good idea where to start.
After running errands half the day with Thomas attached to my hip, I left him with Grams and quickly went off in search of my 'brother', Jacob. Not surprisingly, I found him tinkering with Uncle Billy's old truck. The one that he was getting ready for Bella Swan, Chief Swan's daughter, who was coming to live with him at the end of summer.
"Hey sis." Jacob wiped his hands on a rag so that he could give me a hug. "I thought you couldn't hang out today."
"I can't stay long, I'm supposed to meet Leah in a bit." I leaned against the truck and looked at the progress he'd made, even though I couldn't make any sense of all the parts. "Can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure sure." Jacob nodded. "Let's go for a walk, I need a break from this anyway." Without saying much, we both took off towards the woods, headed toward a spot that had been our favorite as children. "What's on your mind?"
"It's about Paul." I tried to keep my tone neutral as I observed Jacob out of the corner of my eyes. He rolled his eyes at the mention of my best friend. "Do you not like him?"
"Why would you say that?" Jacob stopped walking and looked at me suspiciously. "Did Paul say something?"
"No." I folded my arms and stared back at him. "Should he have?"
"There's nothing for him to say." Jacob started walking again. "Paul is fine."
"Really, Jake? Because it kinda seems like you've got a problem with him lately." As kids, we'd all gotten along fine. Once Jacob got used to Paul, the three of us had played together all the time. But after we got to high school, and I started going to Forks, the only time they were ever around each other was on Family Night or some other activity that I had arranged. "He hasn't been to Sunday dinner in over a month."
"How is that my fault?" Jacob asked sarcastically. "I'm not in the guy's head. Maybe he'd rather spend time with his own family."
It was my turn to stop walking and look suspicious. Jacob knew enough about Paul's home life to know that this wasn't the case. "Paul is family."
Jacob shook his head. "We're not kids anymore, Nahti. Do you know what kind of stuff people say about you and Paul when you're not around?"
"Jake, I could care less." I shrugged my shoulders. "If people are going to gossip, they're going to gossip. What can I do about it?"
"You could stop giving them reasons to talk." Jacob glared at me.
"What reasons? What are you even talking about?" I glared back.
"Last month, did Paul take you up to the cove… at night?" Jacob demanded. The cove wasn't actually a proper cove. It was an inlet that had an old fishermen's shelter there. It had long been abandoned for its intended purposes but high school kids often used it as a hook-up spot.
"No, Paul didn't take me to the cove." I rolled my eyes. As if.
"Michael Ute said he saw you guys get out of Paul's truck and go off with a pile of blankets." Jacob challenged me.
"Right, because we went to First Beach and ate junk food and stare gazed for a few hours. Which, I've done with you plenty of times, by the way."
"You want me to believe Paul Lahote likes to star gaze?" Jacob snorted. "Come on, Nahti. You don't need that kind of a reputation. You're a good girl."
Suddenly, I was furious. "You don't know the first thing about what I need, Jacob. I love you to death but if you truly believe that Paul is a bad guy, you're an idiot."
Seeing that I was serious, Jacob tried to contain the situation. "I know he's not a bad guy, Nahti, but wherever he goes, rumors follow. You don't want people thinking you're the kind of girl. You're better than that."
"Better than what?" I snapped. "Better than my sister? Better than Paul?"
"That's not what I meant. No one said anything about Nayla."
"But you implied it. Like I don't know what people say about her. What kind of girl she is. I never would have thought you'd be so judgmental, Jacob. How about this, if you have any more concerns about me and my reputation, you bring them to me, okay? Don't you dare even try and make Paul think he's done something wrong. He's my best friend and I won't let you treat him like this."
"Nahti, come on." Jacob reached for my arm but I jerked it away and started stomping my way back to my car. "Come on, Nahti. Slow down. I'm sorry, alright, but you can't blame me for looking out for you. I just don't want to see you getting hurt."
"Paul would never hurt me." I growled over my shoulder.
"He might not mean to, Nahti, but-"
"But nothing, Jake." I stopped walking and Jacob nearly bumped into the back of me. "I know you're trying your best to protect me and I love you for it, Jake but you were way out of line. Paul is family. You don't have to like him, you don't have to hang out with him, I don't care if you two never even speak to each other again, but he has a place at Gram's table and he has a place in my life. Got it?"
"Yeah." I could hear the dejected tone in Jacob's voice so I gave him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek. "We good?"
"When Paul is back at Sunday dinner, we're good." I turned on my heel and stalked off again.
- Thanks for the reviews! Let me know what you think! I'm going to be picking up plot from the books/movie soon. -