A/N: ... I got nothing.

Songs:

Breakeven (Falling to Pieces) - The Script
Love the Way You Lie - Eminem (feat. Rihanna)
Mine - Taylor Swift
My First Kiss (feat. Ke$ha) - 3OH!3
Never Say Never - Justin Bieber (feat. Jaden Smith)
Ridin' Solo - Jason Derülo
Technologic - Daft Punk
Whataya Want From Me - Adam Lambert

Chapter 9

Three Words; I Love You

Carlisle immediately set to work examining her as soon as I'd set her down. I backed up, knowing I didn't like him touching her, and knowing if I allowed myself, I would try and stop him. Embry patted me on the back, but he was worried too. He and Syd were like siblings - joined at the hip. He finished his cursory examination, and started stitching the wound on her head together again. I noticed Carlisle's eyes kept moving upward, as if he were looking at something through the ceiling. My ears weren't as sharp as the vamp's, but I saw his lips move, whispering something.

He finished stitching up her head, and cut the thread. He'd done a good job, as far as I could tell, but I hadn't needed stitches for almost three years now, and even then, I'd only had them twice in my life. But it was nice and even, and she didn't wince, even when he ran his fingers across the seam her skin had made.

"Paul, isn't it?"

I looked up at the sound of my name, and saw Carlisle looking at me. I nodded, wondering how the hell he remembered that. We'd never been introduced, or anything, and I hadn't seen him since we'd all risked our necks saving Nessie, two years ago. Once Jake's pack had officially broken off, and taken patrol off the rez, I hadn't gone anywhere near them. He stood and offered me a hand, and though it was unusual behavior for me, I took it. "Is she going to be okay?"

He looked back at her. He'd cleaned her head off so that the only indication of what she'd suffered was the dried blood on her neck and shirt, what was left in her hair the row of stitches that stretched across the right side of her head. "She seems to be out of immediate danger and stable." He looked directly at me, his eyes sharp. "Was she attacked by a vampire?"

The whole room seemed to hold it's breath, waiting for my answer. "Yeah, she was." I say. I didn't want to admit it aloud, but it was the truth. "He knew her. Before he was changed, is my guess. He kept saying that she'd come to him and they'd be together, forever." I swallowed hard. "He was... obsessive. The only reason I was able to keep him at bay was because she started bleeding, and the scent caught the wind. He lost his mind; went into a frenzy. He lost all tactical advantage, and I was able to fend him off."

Carlisle nodded gravely. He knew how hard it was for me to think about her in that position. "Yes, well," he started, clearing his throat, "I have a question about something I came across while I was examining her for other injuries."

I nodded. "Name it." I assured him. I was calm now; I was sure I could handle it.

He motioned for me to follow him over to where she was laid out on the table. He took her jaw gently in his hands and lifted it up, exposing her neck. On her neck were large patches of purple and blue. Where the bruises weren't spread, it was red and somewhat swollen. "Do you recall her having these before... tonight's incident?" I could tell by his voice that he was hoping the answer was yes, that I'd seen them before; that they'd been caused by some fall or accident that she'd had. I wished that my answer could be yes too. Because everyone in this room knew what it meant for my answer to be no.

"No," I said, hating myself for it. "She didn't have those before tonight. I would have noticed." And I would have killed the bastard who did that to her, but that's beside the point. The point was that he'd gotten close to getting what he wanted. Too close to what he wanted - to her.

Carlisle looked me in the eyes, and the kindness held there showed me he understood that this was torturous for me. Quite possibly the worst thing I've ever gone through. But at least she was here, being taken care of and watched over. "Right," he started, taking off his stethoscope and putting it into the little medical box he had brought with him. "Well, we'll watch over her for tonight. You boys can stay in here with her. Maybe some of Emmett's clothes might fit you..." He never finished what he was saying because at that moment, Sydney gave a violent jerk on the table. Every eye turned to her still form. I was almost questioning if I'd actually seen it or not when she jerked again. Carlisle quickly took his stethoscope back at and walked at a brisk pace to her bed-side and laid the instrument against her sternum. "Her heart's racing." He looked to me, perplexed.

Sydney gave a sharp cry, lurching upwards again in an almost seizure-like move. Immediately, both Embry and I moved to restrain her. Embry grabbed both her legs while I held her torso down. She thrashed under our holds, trying to escape from whatever it was that was doing this to her. Carlisle immediately started checking her. He timed her pulse before getting out a little pen light and checking both her eyes with it. Even in sleep, they were wide and frantic.

"Sydney," Carlisle tried, trying to still her enough to keep checking her. "Sydney, what's wrong?" She was shaking violently under my arms. I saw Embry struggling to keep hold of her legs. "Sydney, can you talk to us?" She answered his question with a high pitched scream so loud and blood curdling that I felt the urge to hold her tight and protect her from the sure terror she was facing. I don't care how much her scream was was hurting me. My one and only goal was to keep her safe. I pinned her with one arm and attempted to hold her head in one place.

Her scream cut off frighteningly fast. Almost as if she'd lost her air source. And, as if on cue, her hands snaked up, gripping at her throat, but also tearing at it, as if she were trying to rip a hand away from herself. I heard her skin ripping under her nails, and soon gave up pinning her in favor of keeping her from tearing into her skin any further.

Bella had backed away, still being somewhat new at this, But Emmett and Nessie jumped in, holding her down as Carlisle stared at her, a calculating look on his features, as if he were seeing something that wasn't there; something that didn't add up. I heard a grunt from the floor above me, and the stairs creaked loudly. A weakened and pained looking Cullen - the blond who'd been the one to teach us to fight newborns - clumsily made his way down the stairs. I'd never seen a bloodsucker looked so crippled, but he looked... like Sydney. The look in his eyes mirrored hers, which had flown open, blind and terrified. "Somebody wake her up!"

I let go of her hands and gingerly cupped her face with one of my hands, and supported her neck with the other. "Syd," I called to her, but got no response other than more terrified screaming. I wanted nothing more than to know what she was seeing - feeling - and to stop it. "Sydney! Wake up!" Still nothing. I stroked her cheek with my fingers. "Baby, please wake up." I begged.

She seized up again, her eyes taking on life, and before I could even breathe, she'd launched herself up, wrapping her arms around my neck. I snaked my arms around her back and held her up, bringing her to rest in my lap. She curled in closer to me, and my hand loosely rubbed at her back in a comforting motion. "Shh, you're okay," I soothed her.

Her arms constricted around my neck. "Don't leave me," she whimpered.

"Never."

Paul loaded me into the back of the truck, wrapping me in a thick blanket to keep me warm, as one of the women in the house - Bella, I think they said her name was - had replaced my dirty bloodstained clothes with a summery dress, which it was far too cold for. Paul then got in next to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. I shivered, knowing the last person who had done this had been trying to kill me.

No, not person. Just like Bella, and all the others, weren't people either.

Embry crawled into the front seat, jamming the keys into the ignition without so much as looking back at Paul and I. I'd tried to say something to him inside, but his face had gone stony. I squirmed underneath the blanket, trying to edge as close to Paul as I could while confined by the seat belt. I leaned my head onto his shoulder, not really minding that the seat belt was pressing into the bruises on my neck. It was worth it to me now. Up until this point, I'd been using my arms to cling to the blanket, but now I let myself relax as I melted into the warmth that Paul naturally radiated. It was safe; I was safe. I closed my eyes, momentarily forgetting all I'd seen and just enjoyed the sensations that ran through me at his touch.

"Sydney?" Paul asked, and I maneuvered my neck so that I could look up at him easily. His brown eyes were full of worry and something else. "Sydney, do you remember what happened to you tonight? Do you know who that family back there was?" The words struck me, but I nodded.

I looked Paul straight in the eye and let my mouth form the words of their own accord. "Vampires; all of them. Except the one girl." I paused. "I was attacked by one tonight." It wasn't a question, but Paul nodded, looking at me as if I were about to burst into tears and run away screaming. Maybe he was concerned I would. All these ideas frightened me, yes, but I knew I had to face all this if I wanted to have a relationship with Paul, which I did. Badly. "I knew him, when he was a live." I told him, looking away from his eyes. "He was my ex boyfriend."

I felt Paul's muscles tense underneath his skin, and I subconsciously put my hand on his bicep to soothe him. I could almost see the thoughts running through his mind; seeing me and him hugging and kissing.

"You and Embry and... everyone. You're all werewolves."

"No." The flat, hard response from Embry stung as he turned another corner, clenching the steering wheel much harder than necessary. "Not everyone. Leah is part of the actual pack... all the other girls are human." He seemed... angry. I didn't know why. It confused me, that he should be mad at me for something I had no control over. But I'd also been mad at my dad after he'd died. It was something you couldn't argue with, unreasonable anger. It was just there to be dealt with.

Paul's grip tightened around my shoulder and he glared at the back of Embry's seat. "Embry." His voice was warning and short, and Embry said nothing more, just slumped in his seat, tensed. Paul turned to see me, and said, "Sydney, there's another part to us being wolves."

I cocked my head to the side, wondering why he sounded so pained. It couldn't be all that bad, could it? "Yeah?" I asked, reaching up to grasp the hand around my shoulder reassuringly. "What is it?"

His hand gently slid out of mine, and came to rest down at his side. I tried not to look into this so much, and just looked at him, waiting. "There's something called imprinting," he started slowly, glancing up to guage my reaction. I stared back at him calmly, not at all phased by the word, whatever it may mean. "It's something that we really didn't think was all that common, but... it seems we were misled." I crinkled my brow in confusion. He was starting to babble a little bit, and I really didn't understand what he was saying. What was imprinting? And as if he were reading my mind, he looked up at me suddenly - his eyes intense and striking. "Imprinting happens when a wolf meets... his soul mate, I guess, is the only was to describe it. You're instantly drawn to them, and them to you. Sam and Emily, Jared and Kim, Quil and Claire - all imprinted." I could feel my eyes going wide. "You and I - imprinted."

I knew I'd felt something the day I met him. I'd thought myself crazy... but here was the explanation, crazy as it may be, ready and waiting for me. And what scared me is that I was so ready to just believe it all. "I-I, erm, I," I stumbled, my eyes searching frantically for something to say, as if it would just appear. "I need to talk to Emily."

Paul took on a wounded look at my words, but nodded. He seemed to understand my need to talk to the sort-of leader of the pack's women, including Leah. She was our mother figure as much as she was to the boys, and even more to us. She provided for everyone, and she provided a role-model for us girls. She had to know about this better than anyone. I settled back against the seat and just took a big breath.

Shit.

-Forever His-

The drive to Emily's house was a short one that held a ringing silence in my ears. Embry was still pissed about something or other, and Paul was... complacent. He hadn't said anything since I'd told him I needed to talk to Emily, and had scooted as far away from me as possible, and damn that had hurt a lot more than it was supposed to. Or maybe just as much as it was supposed to. I was questioning everything now. Was Embry mad at me cause I knew?

We pulled up in front of Sam and Emily's and Paul, despite the pain that shone in his eyes, he gathered me up in the blanket and carried me to the door. Emily was waiting, baby in her arms, to recieve us. She told Paul to set me down at the table. He nodded, but said nothing, and I instantly felt a pull in my chest at the absence of his lulling voice. He sat me down in a chair that had two mugs in front of it, and one whiff of both told me that one was filled with coffee and the other was filled with hot cocoa. The door shut behind Paul, and Emily came into the room, setting baby Nick in a bassinet next to his sister, and sliding into the seat across from me. She gave me a warm smile and said, "Pick your poison."

I almost snorted at her humor, but opted for the one full of coffee. Emily picked up her own mug and took a sip as well, and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked, sleep deprived and touseled as she was.

"I imagine you have questions," she said as she set the mug down in front of her and leaned forward on her arms. "I've sent Sam to bunk with Kim and Jared for the night, so its just us and the babies. I've sent out word that no boys are allowed over here - just for tomorrow," she added at my look, "and that tomorrow all the girls are to be present for a girls' day. It's up to you if you feel comfortable enough to invite Leah."

I nearly coughed up my coffee and sputtered. "No," I hurried, "Please, invite Leah." If anything, having Leah there would make me feel all the more at ease.

Emily smiled at me and took another sip of her cocoa. "Good." she said shortly - approvingly. "You're taking this much better than I did. And the way I found out was scarcely as frightening as yours." Her features softened a little more and she reached her bronzed hand toward where I had laid one of mine flat against the table. "It must have been terrible. Sydney... are you going to be alright?"

The concern in her voice was touching and felt almost maternal. I gently turned my hand so that I might clasp hers. My grasp was light and butter-fly like, but it reassured me. "I will be fine, Em. This is just going to take some getting used to."

"That it will," she chuckled softly, "that it will." She sighed softly, patting my hand and then returning both hands to clasp the mug. My hands felt cold, so I did the same, but made no movement to take a drink. "So," she started, "I imagine you want me to start from the very begining."

I nodded. She started with the tribal legends, and I was transfixed on them for the hours yet to come all the way till dawn. We were only interrupted when the shrill cry of one of the babies would pierce the lull of Emily's tale. Em would pick them up and cater to whatever was causing their cry, and then the story would resume. It was only when the early lights of dawn poked through the window did I start to feel the reaches of my exhaustion caused by the night before. The terror, as I was just then realizing, had drained me completely, and left me battered and bruised. When I went to the restroom, I discovered a ring of bruising around my neck that was near every color of the rainbow, and there was a line of stitching right down my forehead that was bordered by yet more bruising and blood-matted hair. The circles under my eyes were deep enough to have been bruises themselves.

When I returned to Emily, she was gently rocking one of the babies to sleep and humming. "Aren't I a sight," I said quietly, and she laughed quietly.

"Paul still thinks you're beautiful."

She said it surely and simply, turning away from me to watch the brilliant splay of colors light the morning sky as the sun rose. Yellows and pinks were thrown across the sky messily and, the clouds splashed with their tint. It was quite the sight, a Washington sun-rise, because though the sky was clouded and the tree-line was thick, it still was a sign of hope and of beauty.

As the sun rose higher in the air, the sky changed from the magnificent sprawl of colors to a dim grey and blue. Patches of the sky were visible through the thick blanket of clouds, and through those patches, the suns rays penatrated, like spot lights on a darkened stage. This is where I found myself staring as I listened to Emily go through some of the finer points of werewolves that I would have to know if I wanted to stick around. She told me all about their appetites, their body heat, their anger problems and I felt as if I couldn't know enough. I felt that all of this was vital to me, just as it was vital to them.

"Alright," Emily said after she'd finished telling me a funny story about Sam and Jake, "I think its time you and I got some rest. The girls will be here in about five hours."

With this, she retired to her room, and I lay myself down on the couch. The view of the forest meeting up with the beach was spectacular, and I looked outwards as far as my sight would let me and watched the distant waves that rolled and crashed into the shore. And, for a moment, just before I let my eyes close, I could swear that I saw a large wolf emerge from the tree line. And it looked right at Sam and Emily's house, right through the window, right at me - perhaps even right through me. But in that moment, I knew it was him, watching me - watching over me - and I never felt safer. As my eye-lids drifted slowly shut, I murmured, "Thank you, Paul."

-Forever His-

Six hours later, after the girls had finished fawning over me and making sure I wasn't going to go into shock - cough cough, Claire, cough cough - we were sitting around, having a Johnny Depp movie marathon, simply for the fact that Johnny can make anyone feel better. That, and all the movies that Orlando Bloom is in are long trilogies. Leah had sat there for about twenty minutes, trying to cover up the bruising around my neck, but it didn't work. Great, now I look like the poster child for domestic abuse.

We were chowing on brownies and cookies and gummies. It was most yummy. Em had drawn the curtains and turned off the lights so that we sat in almost total darkness, except the glow of the TV screen. Em, also, during some point, had managed to trade off the babies to Sam without me noticing, but I had no idea how, since I had only been out of her sight and her out of mine twice, both under two minutes. Right now, Johnny was traversing across the screen, dressed as constable Ichabod Crane, and Kim in particular was immersed in the scene as he said that they must never move the body.

The remote was between Claire and I, since she was a famous remote hog - she claimed she got it from watching TV with Quil, who flipped channels constantly - so I grabbed it up and pressed the power button, effectively shutting off the TV and our light source. There was a series of exclaims and I felt gummies pelt me from behind - the doing of Leah, I'm sure.

"Why'd you turn off Johnny?" Kim whined from my right, and the others joined in on her exclaim, which made me giggle. Leah, Kim and Emily were all full grown women, yet they were acting like teenagers.

I turned on the flashlight, which we'd been using earlier whilst watching Sweeney Todd because it scared the bejeezus out of Claire, and it up so it shined upwards, illuminating a large circle on the ceiling and parts of everyone's faces. It was ominous looking, but at the same time, completely awesome. And the gummies that were bouncing off my back were now aimed with much more accuracy. "I was hoping you guys could give me the dirt on the guys," I said, grinning deviously, "I need to get them back for keeping it a secret so long." I added an evil cackle for effect, which caused everyone to relax. It had been clear they'd been avoiding certain terms and names all day. They were worried about how I was faring, despite how much I told them I was fine. I guess no one had taken it as well as I.

The scooted in towards the flashlight, Leah getting down on the ground next to me. Her face was very poorly lit, since she sat half way behind me, and looked malformed and most evil. I found this appropriate and stopped her from moving any closer, less the effect be lost.

The all started speaking at once, but Em held up a finger which inspired silence. Everyone looked towards her expectantly, as if she were going to impart some great wisdom. "First," she said sagely, "I suggest we impart the technique of controlling your wolf." Everyone awed at this suggestion, and I found my grin widening. This sounded like a great place to start.

"Ooooooh, ooooh, pick me, pick me!" Claire proclaimed, raising her hand as high as she could, and I laughed, pointing to her. She sighed deeply and put her arms out in front of her as if she was about to say something huge and life changing. "When arguing with an imprint, if you don't break first, you will always win." Everyone else nodded in agreement, and my smiled widened at this info; that would come in handy. "And if all else fails, start hyperventilating, crying or threaten to harm yourself. They will do anything to stop any of the above."

"Example," Kim stated, "the other day Jared and I were arguing the venue for our wedding, and I told him I would stick a fork in my arm if he continued to insist that we get married on his grandparents farm. Instantly, his resolve disappeared, and I won." She paused, her brow creasing with a bit of a frown. "Though, I haven't been able to find a fork in the house since then."

Everyone started laughing hysterically at this, except for Kim who still seemed put out at the lack of forks. "The lesson there," Leah said to me, "never threaten to hurt yourself with something you either need, or something that can be taken away. Or just don't specify how you'll hurt yourself." Leah grinned at Emily, and Emily grinned back, obviously in on something that the rest of us were not privy to. "Em knows that secret all too well."

"That's also a great was to get attention if you really need it," Claire told, though she sounded like she was pretty skeptic that I would ever need to use this for attention purposes. "It freaks them out enough that they can't focus, and their respective alphas have to let them off of patrols because having them there is more dangerous than not."

"Example," Em volunteered, "When I was in the middle of my pregnancy, I had all sorts of odd cravings, and..." she trailed off, her giggles interrupting her speech, "I kind of hinted to Sam that I might hurt myself if I tried to run to the store in the middle of the night." At this point Leah and Kim started laughing too, and Claire still seemed to be trying to hold her own in. "He not only made a new pack law - after an imprint's fourth month of pregnancy, the wolf responsible and imprinted on her is assigned no patrol time; the only exception being if several pregnancies overlap - but he literally did not sleep at night for two months, just in case I decided I wanted to be independent."

At this point, Claire couldn't contain her laughter either, so I assumed we were getting close to the punchline. "Well, one night, I get up, go into the kitchen to make some ice cream. I somehow manage to slice my finger with a spoon. Sam comes running out of our room, car keys in hand, and telling me we were going to the hospital right then and there, and that I'm not allowed to drive until my pregnancy is over. Somehow, the scent of my blood to his sleep deprived mind made him think 'car wreck.' To this day, if you ask what happened that night, he'll tell you car wreck, and then he'll check me for broken bones."

"Just be glad he doesn't know it was the spoon," Kim interjected, rolling her eyes, "all your spoons might suddenly disappear. And then eating soup would become a bitch."

"As would cooking," Leah added sympathetically, nodding her head.

I rocked on my haunches at this story. I didn't find it as funny as they did - yeah, it was funny, just because it was Sam, who was supposed to be mature and rational, but I dunno, there just seemed to be something about the story that made it a little less funny than it should have been. "So," I started, "I know that the boys didn't realize how they felt about you until after they imprinted, but did any of you like them, you know, beforehand." I looked around the circle of other girls, but only Kim's hand went in the air.

"I sat next to Jared in a class for more than a year before he imprinted on me," Kim said with a slight grin. "I was totally transfixed by him, and I put his last name together with my first on the inside of my journals." She sighed happily. "So naturally, I was thrilled when I found out."

I looked at Emily and Claire, and there was some sort of silent agreement that Claire would go first, I suppose, because she didn't even hesitate or look at Em to confirm it was her turn. "I met Quil at school, and he was already a wolf, so he imprinted, but didn't tell me about until I was so head-over-heels that it wouldn't have mattered if he had a Siamese twin." The look on her face was a blissful smile as she remembered her imprint - because, as I had learned first hand, the imprint works two ways.

"What about you, Em?" I asked.

But Em didn't answer me. Instead, Leah piped up from beside me. "You know, Sam was actually dating me first, right?" she asked, and I instantly felt my jaw drop. I shook my head dumbly at her, my eyes wide. Leah looked... subdued. Like she was still sad about it, but she was okay now, or, as okay as she could be. "Sam was dating me when he first transformed. I, of course, didn't know anything, as I was one of the last to transform." She gave a small bitter laugh. "And one day, he just tells me that he doesn't love me like that anymore, and that he's in love with my cousin, who was like a sister to me." At this point she smiled at Em who smiled back warmly, brightly. "I was mad at them for a long time, but when I joined Jake's pack, and I didn't have to constantly hear about it, all that started to kind of fade into the background. And now, I couldn't be happier for them."

Her expression told me that what she said was the truth. And I could also tell that she was happy to have her sister back in her life. I turned to look back at Em, and she nodded. "Yes, that is the truth. But when I found out, I tried to shun it. For a short while. But once, Sam got angry, and changed right in front of me," her hand absently went up and traced the scars that ran the length of her face, "and that's how I got these. You ask anyone outside the pack, they'll tell you bear attack, but the truth is, being with a werewolf is dangerous."

"But worth it," Kim interjected. "You will never feel more loved than when they hold you in their arms and tell you you are their world. And that their love for you will never die or lessen. It will always be you to whom their heart truly belongs."

"Yes," Emily agreed, "totally worth it." She sighed and wrung her hands. "After the accident, Sam nearly tore himself up in grief, and in this, I saw how true his love was," she gave a short, humorless laugh, just like the one Leah had not a few minutes before, "and I was so angry at myself for it taking that sort of thing for me to realize it. But eventually, I was able to forgive myself for my mistake; Sam never could." She looked at the window, and I saw her fiddling with her wedding ring. The rain was starting to splatter it in a distorted image, but there was just enough dull light to make out the beach. "He can never forgive himself for what he did. He's still guilty, no matter what I tell him."

Claire said, "All of them are like that; self-tormenting."

There was a short silence, and I could feel the weight it held as all four women looked at me, and then at one another, silently debating something. I looked around at each in turn, but they all averted their eyes from mine. Emily held my gaze, and her lips moved, as if to speak, but no sound came from her. Leah stared down at her lap, Kim at the blank TV screen and Claire at the window.

Leah glanced up from her lap, and the look in her eyes practically commanded my silence, so as to hear what she said. "That's how Paul is feeling right now." She took in a shuddering breath, "He feels as if last night were all his fault. He loves you so much, and he feels responsible. I bet he's near."

"They all are, I'm sure," Emily added, a good-natured roll of the eyes accompanying this statement. "They'll do that on days they don't have patrol; stay near us. If one of us screamed right now, they'd probably come running before we'd had time to blink." But this didn't seem to annoy her. In fact, it seemed like a pleasant thing, to have a group of people who could protect you from almost everything so ready to be right there for you.

Claire caught my eye, and though her usual personality was sort of flippant, and maybe even slightly shallow, the understanding in her eyes was undeniable. "They're here for you too." she said. I couldn't help the smile that spread across my face, or the blush I could feel blooming in my cheeks. "Every last one of them."

"And they all love you." Kim added with a nod.

"And I love him," I said absently. But I blinked. And then I blinked again. I put my fingers to my lips, tracing them, trying to find the source of the sentence. My eyes were wide, and as I looked at the others, they seemed to share my surprise. Had I really just said that? I knew I had, but could it be possible? Did I love Paul? And right in that moment, I knew. I knew I did. That I loved him, or was beginning to at least. "I love him. I love him," I repeated, the reassurance coloring my voice in happiness. "I love him!" I exclaimed, and each of the other girls eyes grew wider in excitement and they all glowed in their shared happiness for me. I was breathing hard - it felt as if I had run a thousand miles. But I could run a thousand more. I scrambled to my feet, and headed toward the front door before I knew what I was doing.

"Sydney, it's raining outside!" someone laughed, but I paid it no mind.

The screen door shut behind me, and I ran a bit of the ways out, toward the general direction of the beach. Once I hit the sand, I was like a bullet; I almost slid off my feet at more than one point as the fine paste beneath my feet shifted. I breathed harshly, inhaling some water droplets, but hardly noticing. I stopped about twenty yards from the water-line and just looked around; there was nothing, besides me, the gray sky, the crashing waves, and the rain. I brought my hands up to cup around my mouth.

"PAUL!"I shouted loudly, and then again. I heard something, and twisted round, but saw nothing. I called his name again, but was met with the crashing of another wave against the shore, and the rain beating harder upon me. My smile was slowly starting to fade from my face as I stared at the emptiness. The euphoric feeling that had fueled me to this point started to recede, leaving a trembling chill.

I don't know what I was expecting, running out here like this. Some crazy, staged romantic scene from one of those cheesy movies that every teenage girl secretly loves to watch, I suppose. But I hadn't expected to be left out here, alone, and in the pouring rain. It was disappointing, to say the least. I wrapped my arms around myself as I started shaking, tears hidden by the rain, and backed away from my spot on the beach.

Arms slipped around my shoulders from behind, engulfing me in warmth. "You shouldn't be out in the rain," he said, burying his face into the crook of my neck.

I sniffed, and grabbed one of his hands in my own. "Oh really? I'm not supposed to be out here? Could have fooled me."

He gently turned my around in arms so that I faced him. His eyes were soft, vulnerable. I could see that he was trying not to let himself hope; let himself think this was anything more than it was. "Now what do you mean by that?" he asked.

I smiled, slipping my arms up and around his neck. "Well," I started, "the way I see it, you're out in the rain, and I belong in your arms, so therefore," I let my hand trail down to the front of his shirt to where the collar was and grabbed it in my fist, "I belong in the rain - with you."

His smiled could have stopped the rain. "Maybe you do."

And I brought him down to my height for our second kiss.

"I love you."

A/N: I so don't care how long it takes me anymore, as long as I get it out.

Tell me what you think. Review! PLEASE! For a starving writer?

Madly Yours,
Jassabella