A/N: My inbox is getting more work today than in the entire time I've had it. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside. :) So, I decided to put this up. Let me know if there's any problems or if anyone has suggestions. Also, I just figured out page breaks so bear with me. Thanks!

The next morning it was sunshine that woke me up. Groaning, I plopped Jacob's pillow over my head. Too early, too bright. But then I remembered.

Claire, get your lazy booty up! You get to meet people today.

I scrambled up and looked at my phone. Still no messages. Ok, Colin you're taking this emo thing to an annoying level. I sighed and sent him one that said good morning. With my conscience cleared on the Colin front, I pulled open the door and padded down the hall in my pajamas. Billy looked up from his coffee and paper and a smirk came to his face. Noticing my bedraggled look he pointed to my left, "Shower's through that first door. You're welcome to use it."

"Thanks."

I was out of the shower and dressed in record time. I stuck with the same green jeans and shoes. But today I pulled on a white t-shirt with green polka dots. My hair went back into its braid. As soon as I was back in the kitchen I questioned, "So can we go yet?"

Smiling again, Billy nodded, "Sure. You'll just have to help me into your car."

Small price to pay for meeting your family. The Civic was a bit small but after unceremoniously shoving his wheelchair into the back, I shook off my annoyance and got in the driver's seat. I turned around in his yard and then followed his directions through the reservation. He pointed out anything he deemed important as we went.

He pointed to the right and said, "Their house is just up this road. It's kind of the universal meeting place so anybody you need to meet will probably be there." We were driving up another one of those gorgeous arboreal tunnels. The foliage loomed comfortingly overhead. Despite that, the closer we got the more nervous I became.

What if they didn't like me? What if I didn't like them? Oh come on, Claire after meeting Billy how could you not like them? What if they don't remember me? What if they're offended because I couldn't remember them?

Billy seemed to notice my anxiety because he smiled, "They're going to love you. They did all those years ago, nothing will have changed."

Was it just me or did he have a weird mind reading ability. Maybe along with the wolf shifting Quileutes could read minds and he just didn't want to tell me. As he gave me a sidelong grin, I couldn't put it out of the question.

I parked in the large driveway in front of the wood shingled house. Grabbing Jasmine and throwing my keys in, I went around to help Billy out. I'd never been weak and despite being short I could still heave him the foot from inside the car to his chair. I followed behind him to the doorbell.

A woman answered the door. My mouth dropped open but it wasn't because of the scars running down the right side of her face. The unharmed side of her face was like looking into a mirror. She looked about thirty five. I saw her mouth move but I couldn't hear anything. I was too caught up in shock.

Her gaze turned to me as I heard the distant rumble that was Billy's voice. Her face became even more mirrored to mine as she took on an overwhelmed expression. Without skipping a beat, she practically leapt forward and embraced me. I hugged her back and realized when my senses began working again that she was crying.

"Oh, I'm so happy you're back! I've missed you, Claire!"

Blushing, I admitted, "I can't remember you but I'm really glad to be here, too."

She heard the silent I'm sorry. "Oh, that's completely understandable. You were only three when you left. Come in! Come in!" Emily shepherded us into the house, then taking my hand, pulled me down into a chair beside her. She began asking question after question about everything that had happened to me since I'd moved.

Even through some of the painful stuff, I didn't want to stop. Talking to Emily was amazing. She sat there and wanted to hear everything. It was odd. She hadn't seen me in fifteen years and yet she understood me perfectly.

We'd been there close to two hours and Billy had drifted off to play with her four-year-old twins, Abby and Harry. We both looked up toward the door at the same moment as a rumbling of laughter and voices sprang up. With a huge grin spreading across her face, Emily grabbed my hands again and pulled me to my feet. Excitement and love filled her voice to the brim when she exclaimed, "That's Sam and the boys. I can't wait for you to meet them again!"

She met Sam, or who I correctly inferred was Sam, at the door. He was huge. He towered above Emily at probably 6'8", muscles rippled through his bare chest and arms. As soon as I saw his face though, I felt like an intruder. There was so much love and tenderness in his eyes as he bent down and kissed first her mouth then her scars. It was like she was his light. I was frozen watching them, envy creeping into my every pore. Colin didn't look at me like that. Hell, he didn't even look at me anymore.

Stop whining, Claire.

Emily grabbed Sam's hand and pulled him into the room towards me, allowing eight other guys of varying ages to file in after him…None of them had shirts and they were all gorgeous!

Bad Claire! Bad, bad Claire.

They all looked at me with confusion, except for one who looked oddly familiar.

He seemed maybe a couple years older than me and wasn't as big as Sam but only an inch or two shorter. He was just as ripped but his frame was slightly bulkier. Not fat or anything, it just seemed that if they were sled dogs Sam would be the lead and this guy would be the wheel dog. His black hair was cut short with some natural spikes on the top. He had the most gorgeous dark, dark brown almost black eyes. And those eyes weren't confused. He was looking at me with the same look Sam had given Emily moments before. Oddly enough, it didn't freak me out either. I could only stare back until Emily's introduction interrupted my shameless staring.

"Guys, you all remember Claire, right?"

Every single jaw dropped. I looked from one to the other and back to Emily uncomfortably. My hand went up to absently play with my braid. Ok, this was getting a bit awkward…

See Claire, they really are mind readers and now they're all wondering why the hell you thought they were gorgeous. There you said it again dunce.

Emily continued, "There on the end is Paul, and then Seth, Jared, Collin, Brady, Embry, Quil, and Jacob. And this is my Sam." I noticed she paused when she reached Quil. He hadn't taken his eyes off of me yet. I felt myself blush.

It was then I realized that I was beginning to get a crick in my neck just trying to look all of them in the eye. Not one of them was shorter than 6'4". I smiled, "I'm going to get a sore neck just talking to you guys aren't I? No consideration for the small people whatsoever."

Jacob rushed forward and grabbed me in a huge bear hug that lifted me off the ground at least two feet. His happy, relaxed grin made me laugh instead of being creeped out. As soon as he put me down, I got much the same reaction from the others except Collin and Brady who both merely shook my hand. I guess they hadn't known me back then. Seth spun me around, Embry gave me a kiss on the cheek, Paul and Jared trapped me between them and Sam threw me up in the air with a smile.

My high-pitched giggle came out before I got through half of them, only making me blush more at sounding like a four-year-old. I didn't remember them but I was ecstatic they remembered me. And they were just happy people to begin with.

Seth was an absolute cutie and I couldn't imagine anything but a smile on his face. He was around my age and had already dubbed me midget by the time he put me down.

Jake seemed a bit older than me and had the same carefree attitude as Seth. I imagined I could see some darkness beneath the surface but all in all he seemed happy, despite the fact he kept looking toward the door, like there was someone he wanted to see.

Embry was quieter than the rest but seemed genuinely excited to see me. He and Jacob looked a lot alike age and attitude wise.

Paul seemed like the occasionally cranky one who always got over things quickly. Aubrey was like that sometimes. He seemed to be hovering around thirty.

Jared seemed the most mature after Sam. He struck me as about thirty. He seemed very joking but able to quit when necessary.

Sam was like a huge, steady rock. It occurred to me that smiles from him were probably scarce when he wasn't with Emily. He just had this no nonsense vibe that vanished when he looked at her.

After I'd been set down and had regained my footing I looked over at Quil. He was still paralyzed in place. I didn't think he'd moved an inch. In fact, the only way I could tell he was still alive was the occasional blinking of his eyes and his chest heaving. He looked like he was having an asthma attack of some sort.

Slipping her hand from Sam's, Emily turned around to her kitchen island and poured a glass of water. I saw her hand it to Quil as Sam smiled at me again, "Welcome home."

"Thanks."

Emily hurried back into the kitchen and with Sam's help got food on the table for everyone. The meal was filled with questions shot my way about anything and everything. It was the third time in twenty-four hours I'd had to retell my entire life story but I didn't really mind. Although, like the other two times I left out my freaky Einstein-ness. I wasn't about to say quite yet that I was two years ahead in college. I wasn't ashamed of being smart but I didn't go around bragging about it either.

Again, Quil was the only one who didn't interact with me. He sat next to me, and since we were squeezing twelve people around Emily's rather small table, we were pretty close. My knee was unconsciously touching his the whole meal.

After Jacob had told a joke in the middle of me drinking my milk and me spitting it all over my plate and Quil's, along with having some come out my nose, Seth turned to me, "So, midget, did you recognize any of us? Well, excluding Collin and Brady since you didn't know them."

I couldn't answer right away. Quil was holding out a napkin to me, a smile on his face that almost made my heart stop. Returning it with my own ridiculous grin and fighting a blush, I shook my head, "No. I feel really bad but I don't remember any of you. I didn't even know that I was from La Push until Billy told me yesterday. My mom never told me."

No, bad Claire. You have Colin. Stop it, Claire. Ignore the gorgeous excuse for a man next to you this instant!

It was probably just my imagination, but I thought Quil stiffened next to me as I mentioned my mom. But when I looked over at him his beautiful face had turned a tad sour. I laughed sarcastically and mentioned for his benefit, "And people wonder why I chose to put a country between us." The following silence had an unintended awkwardness.

I spent the rest of the day with them. We went outside in one of the few days of sun and just hung out. I ended up talking with everyone and, while it was catching up to them, I acquired ten new friends, something of a personal record. I absolutely loved Abby and Harry. Abby and I discussed Disney princesses while Harry discovered a new game with me as a main player. Whenever I wasn't looking he ran up behind me and pulled on my braid, counting on me to chase him and spin him around.

Quil was never very far from me but he still didn't talk. While Emily and I were making supper, I saw him drift over to Jake and Embry. While talking to them his eyes never left me. I wished I knew what they were saying.

Forgoing the cramped quarters around the table everyone just grabbed a spot somewhere in the dining room. I sat down on the stairs, back against the wall. Quil was only a few feet away at the foot of them.

This boy will talk, I promised myself. He seemed really nice and was definitely nice to look at. Everyone else was amazing and I was becoming curious about him. Not only about whom he was but, also, why he had some aversion to talking to me. It was starting to tug at my feelings.

"Claire, what're you going to college for?" Sam asked from where he sat on the floor, Emily comfortably in his lap.

"I'm going to be a wildlife biologist." I smirked, "Emily, you'd be great at that. You cook for a bunch of animals every day as it is…Yes, Harry, I know you're a boy, not an animal. I'm not talking about you." We both laughed as various food items shot through the air toward me, most of them hitting Quil. Immediately feeling bad, I set down my plate and apologized, "Sorry about that, Quil." I tried to pick some of the potatoes out of his hair.

He looked up at me and looked about to say something when…my stupid phone rang. Why did I have to get service out here? Honestly! But I gave him another apologetic look before stepping over him and making my way toward the door, "Excuse me guys." I just stepped through the screen onto the sunset-lit porch, not knowing what kind of conversation was going to come next.

"Hello," I answered without really looking at the caller ID.

"Why aren't you in Portland yet?" Ok, note to self, set Colin to have a personalized ring tone. My hand unconsciously went to my braid. This was not going to be good.

"Colin, honey, I'm not going to Portland. I told you that." Stay calm, Claire. That's all you need to do. Stay calm and Colin will stop being emo and snap out of it.

"Oh yes you are. Why do you think I texted you Sunday? You have to come. I told you, you need to support me. You missed the quarterfinals of Halo 2. What's wrong with you?" His tone kind of reminded me of Harry when he'd wanted an extra cookie at snack.

I bit back a sigh, "I'm sorry, babe. How did Halo 2 go?"

"It was amazing! I got at least an extra hundred points every round because I'm such an amazing sniper. I'm going to the semis tomorrow which is why you need to get here. Just get over the hotel room thing. It's not like we haven't been dating long enough. Sex isn't that big a deal. Where are you anyway? You're not doing that gay 'track your… that whatever you were gonna do?"

Calm, calm, calm… Ok, yeah, calm just wasn't doing it for me.

My hands started shaking and my scalp hurt from tugging on my braid. "Yes, Colin, I'm finding out my teepee of origin! It's not gay. If you gave a damn you could've asked and I would have told you that I actually found out whose teepee! And no, I will not just get over the hotel room thing! And we haven't been dating that long! I am not going to drive all the way to Portland to watch you play video games and spend two weeks in a hotel room with you. Dammit NO! NO! And NO!"

"Hey, there's no need to be a bitch, Claire. You're the one who bailed on me. It's not my fault you decided to go soul-searching at a crappy time. And if you actually gave a damn about me you could've found out who I'm playing tomorrow and if I feel good about it or not! Isn't that what good, caring girlfriends are supposed to do?"

I had to fight the urge to hang up very, very hard. He's right about being a good girlfriend, Claire. Just ask him and he'll get better. Once he gets back everything will be fine. Just keep him from being so emo…but he called me a bitch!

"Ok, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. Please, just stop asking for me to go to Portland. It's not going to happen. So how is the-,"

He cut me off mid-sentence, "Oh, some people want me to go out. I'll talk to you later, Claire Bear. And yeah, that's great about your teepee and crap."

Before I could say bye he'd hung up on me. Again with the Claire Bear! My hands were shaking again as I snapped my phone shut. He just made me so, so mad! "Goddamn him!" He didn't understand. Why was he so dense and why did I care so damn much that he was disappointed in me. He had no reason to be but he was and it bothered me.

Forcing on what I knew was a pathetic excuse for a smile, I turned to see everyone staring at me. Looking toward Emily and Sam I said, "I'm gonna take a quick walk." They both nodded in understanding. "And Harry don't repeat what I said."

I shoved the phone in my jeans pocket and ran up their driveway. Around halfway to the road, I stopped and just screamed, the sound echoing eerily off the trees. I collapsed in a heap on the ground, my anger melting away into this pathetic confusion. I didn't notice the feet coming toward me until they'd stopped.

Quil asked, "You ok, Claire?"

I looked up with embarrassment and yet pleasure he was talking to me. "Yeah… yeah, I'll be fine."

Kneeling down in front of me he questioned, "You sure?"

"Of course," I began but the longer he stared at me the more I couldn't lie. There was too much true, pure concern in his eyes for me. "No, not really. My boyfriend, Colin, is being…difficult lately."

"Why?" I shrugged and looked down at the ground. I felt him sit down next to me with a rush of heat hitting me. He was so big I knew I could've fit as easily into his lap as Emily had Sam's. I usually didn't like sharing my feelings but it felt ok this time, like with Emily.

"He's being emo. He's at a gaming tournament in Portland right now and he just automatically figured I was going to go down there with him. I said I probably wasn't going to and now he's all mad because I came out here instead. And for some reason, he doesn't get why I think that sharing a hotel room with him is a big deal. I don't want to do that yet and he can't understand that. He thinks I'm being a bad girlfriend."

"Is he being a good boyfriend?"

At first, my mouth opened to defend him immediately but froze when I saw the look on Quil's face. It suddenly struck me that Quil would never ignore me like Colin did or misunderstand me like he was. I just kind of mumbled, "He's been better."

A splash of pain seemed to cross his face when he asked, "Do you love him?"

"I don't know yet. I'm trying to give us the time for me to find out."

A prolonged silence fell over us. I didn't know about Quil but for some reason under his intensely caring gaze I suddenly felt guilty about already having a boyfriend. It was odd and I batted it away as Claire's social stupidity. Why should I feel that way? I didn't even know Quil. But…even though we'd been talking less than five minutes I had the vague feeling that I'd known him forever.

Suddenly, he stood and held out his hand, "Come on." Not thinking about it twice, I grabbed his huge, warm hand and let him lift me into the air. He kept a hold of my hand as we walked into the trees. My chronically cold hands were instantly warmed by this radiant heat from his hand that spread up my arm and through my body. At one point he glanced back at me and must've seen the confusion. Grinning he stated nonchalantly, "Don't worry, this is just where I turn out to be a psychopath and kill you in the middle of nowhere."

Giggling, I replied, "Oh, ok. Just no strangulation or gunfire, please. Just throw me off a tree so I get a decent view on the way down." His grin became bigger. It made me want to just smile all the time that I could make him this happy with just my laugh and smile. It made me feel needed and beautiful and…loved.

We trekked through the forest in the dusk light. I couldn't shake the feeling that I'd been here. I'd walked through these trees and…I'd done it with Quil? It made no sense but my heart kept telling me that it was true. We stopped just as the trees ended. "Wow…"

We were standing on a cliff overlooking the ocean as the sunset sunk into the water as the clouds closed in. All the green and ocean-grey was drowned in yellows and oranges. My feet took me a step closer to the edge, trying to take it all in, and my grip on Quil's hand tightened.

There was laughter in his voice as he asked, "Feel better?"

I mutely nodded. We stood there staring until the sun disappeared, though at different things. I was enraptured by the view and he couldn't take his eyes off of me.

I know that I should have told him to stop. I should have reiterated that I had a boyfriend. I should have put a stop to it and told him right out that he really shouldn't stare at me like that... But I couldn't.

The rain began to pour down as the final rays of sun were blinking out. Looking up I began to laugh. I grabbed the tie from my hair and let the braid disintegrate, the water soaking into the strands. Letting go of Quil's hand, I began spinning. At that point, Colin would have grabbed my forearm and told me to stop being a little girl. People were probably watching. Quil just laughed.

When I tripped over one of my own feet a few moments later, Quil caught me. His smile made my breath catch. I still couldn't get over it. It was so happy and juvenile and it made his already gorgeous face light up. Colin didn't smile that much.

Dammit Claire, stop comparing them. You're dating Colin, Colin, Colin. Quil probably just took pity on you because you were friends when you were both little. Stop fantasizing about being with him instead of Colin. Maybe Colin has a point with the whole 'horrible fucking girlfriend' thing.

"Claire likes rain apparently?"

I nodded with a smile, "Yeah. I can't help it. It starts raining, I start spinning." That seemed to amuse him. Suddenly, as the wind picked up I shivered. "Aren't you cold?" Quil was still very noticeably shirtless.

"Nah. I'm just warm-blooded. I never get cold."

"Lucky people who get to embody both meanings of the word hot." Whoa, wait Claire. What was that? I couldn't believe that had actually slipped out. Had I just actually said that? I looked over at Quil. There was a tinge of a blush on his face. Dammit, I had said that.

Blushing furiously, I quickly went on, "So, Billy told me you're going to be a mechanic. What's your favorite car?"

Quil sent me a, for lack of a better work, love struck look. "You know cars?" At my nod, Quil reached over and caught me up in a hug akin to Jacob's from before. "You're never leaving again."