Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, items, products etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, products or locations (They ARE NOT MINE). No copyright infringement is intended. The original characters and plot are the only things that I own.

Chapter Eleven

I carefully eased the front door open and, as quietly as I could, gingerly stepped into the dark living room. Embry should still be sleeping, and I really wasn't looking forward to having the "money discussion" with him, too. Ugh. The door latch clicked quietly in place, and I stepped backwards into the living room.

Just as I was about to turn around to creep toward the bathroom, the kitchen lights flipped on, making my eyes narrow from the sudden assault of florescent light.

"Crap! Em, I thought you were still sleeping!"

"I would have been, but I knew you were going to try and weasel your way out of talking to me this morning." My twin's eyes were just as narrow as mine, except he was glaring at me, and not the harsh light.

Rolling my eyes, I started to walk toward him; his nostrils flared.

"You and Jacob made up."

Embry's comment was just loud enough so that I could the clearly detect his underlying growl. He crossed his muscled arms over his chest; it would have been intimidating, if he hadn't been struggling keep the menacing scowl on his face.

I felt my cheeks warm as his insinuation- I knew I smelled like Jake, and…certain activities, but there was no way in hell I was going there with my brother, and definitely not first thing in the morning. Who was he to act condescending about my sexual escapades! He had no room to talk, but, still I dropped my eyes to the floor, as I inched toward him. Before I could dart down the hallway, he raised one of his arms to block the way.

Grinding my teeth together, I met his eyes. "Give me ten minutes, Embry. I'm going to take a shower, then we can talk. Okay?"

He thought about it for a second. "Ten minutes." My twin slowly dropped his arm, and I hurried around him to escape into the bathroom.

After my rushed shower, during which Embry had been giving a loud countdown of my remaining time from the living room; I threw on my bathrobe, and attempted to keep my face impassive as I joined him back the living room.

Embry had moved to lean against the kitchen bar- even with my growth spurt he still was a few inches taller than me- but damn it, he had something else coming if he thought his size would intimidate me. I smiled sweetly at him; it was kind of cute when he got all puffed-out, and put on his big-brother persona.

"Where do you want me to start, twin?" I asked, opening the fridge and pouring milk into my bowl of cereal.

Embry's eyes bore into to back of my skull as I went about slicing an apple, then settled in to eat breakfast. He took a deep breath, and started on me as soon as I swallowed my first mouthful.

"What the fuck, Cassie! This isn't some casual-ass conversation about what shoes you're wearing today, or some shit!" I glanced at him. Was he seriously this mad at me? Crap, it looked like it; the bulging vein sticking out of his forehead was a clue. Even though I knew I deserved this, his words were still going to hurt. Pushing my cereal away, I turned toward him.

"You lied to me; not just me, but to all of us! What other shit have you not told your family! News-flash, Cassie, we're flesh and blood! You don't lie to your fucking family, Cas! Ever! I trusted you! I let you live here, under my own roof, and you fucking lie to my face!"

The octave of Embry's tirade lessoned slightly, so I gulped down a drink of orange juice to get ready to defend myself but he continued before I could butt in.

"How did you rationalize not telling us! After everything we've gone through in the last few weeks! Ugh! I just can't believe you!" Embry sat down hard onto the barstool next to me, causing the wood to creak. He was staring at me hard, and his expression was completely unreadable. When I had been preparing myself to tell him, I hadn't expected him to react like this!

I was silent for several seconds, while I tried to strategically plan out my response. I met my twin's eyes.

"Em, look, I'm really sorry for not telling you from the beginning…The whole time I've been here, I've struggled with it. I was going to tell you…" Embry rolled his eyes dramatically. "Really, I was. Then Brent showed up and brought everything out into the open. I had no intention for anyone to find out that way. I swear I was going to tell you yesterday, but then everything went to hell."

Embry held up his hand, and I paused. "So, Seth wasn't shitting us when he said you used to date Brent McCullin?"

Chewing on my lip, I nodded. My twin continued. "And he would be the reason you know a little something about motorcycles?" I just nodded again. "And…he was paying you back for what, exactly, Cas?"

My sigh blew up the hair that had fallen in my face.

"I helped him get into racing. We met back when he was a privateer; he was really talented on his bike, so I let him borrow some cash to get a rig, a few extra motorcycles and stuff."

Embry wasn't looking at me anymore; he was focused intently on the Formica counter top, so I just stopped talking.

"You don't just give someone one-hundred grand out of the kindness of your heart," my twin spat, as if he was trying to hold back.

I turned my chair to face him directly. "Well, maybe I do! I had known him for a while…we were close; he needed the help so he could do what he loved. I was happy to help him out, and he has done really well for himself. He wasn't always the asshat he is now, okay?"

My temper was beginning to simmer. Stupid werewolf hormones! I clenched my fingers around the spoon I was holding and the sterling silver bent into an angle.

"Whatever, Cassie. I don't really care about what you Brent had; I just can't believe you weren't honest with me!" He still wasn't looking at me, and my hands started shaking I was so upset. I couldn't believe Embry was being such a dick about this! This wasn't like him at all.

I narrowed my eyes. "Listen, Embry! I-am-really-sorry! I was going to tell you, but money is the sensitive subject around here. Surely you have a small inkling why I didn't want to bring the issue up!" The memory of him casually assuming I was only here for our dead mother's estate flashed to the forefront of my brain. Maybe he needed a trip down memory lane too!

Embry snorted, and his body started shaking with repressed giggles. He glanced at me out of the corner of his eyes, and then burst out laughing. My mouth must have dropped to the floor, because when he saw my expression my twin practically fell out of his chair hooting and snickering. He had been screwing with me the whole time! Unbelievable - and I had totally fallen for it!

I punched him hard in his shoulder; the resounding thwack made me feel a bit better. Embry's grin just widened, as he pulled me into a hug.

"I was just kidding, sis, I promise I'm not mad! A bit disappointed, but I'm not angry."

"You're an ass," I managed to grumble into his ear, a small relieved smile crept onto my face, as he continued to chuckle. Acting was apparently one of Embry's many talents. Jerk.

The hospital seemed quiet, even for a weekday, but, then again, I was used to the emergency rooms of San Francisco, where on weekends, the ERs were so full of patients they'd spill out into the ambulance bays.

Underneath the sharp smell of bleach and disinfectant, the hint of vampire assaulted my sensitive nose. Even with just the slight undertone of my enemy, my body was on high alert, and hyper-sensitive to every movement and every human breath being taken in the lobby around me.

I continued to walk briskly through the well-lit, if not slightly out-dated, waiting room, while I attempted to force my body to relax. Several deep breaths later, I reached the information desk.

"I have an interview with Dr. Cullen, at two o'clock." The blonde receptionist briefly glanced up and took in my appearance, before her gaze dropped back to the computer screen in front of her.

"Ms. Call?" she asked without even looking up, and I just nodded.

She looked at a jumbled mass of multi-colored post-it notes stuck next to the phone, and then back to her computer monitor, before turning her attention back to me.

"Dr. Cullen's office is on the second floor, but the in-patient waiting room is being remodeled. There's a nice sitting area on the patio adjacent to his office; his secretary said you should wait for him out there."

At least the patio would, in theory, give me some fresh vamp-free oxygen.

"Okay. Thanks," I said, briefly nodding my head to the already distracted receptionist.

After walking leisurely up the stairs, and through a small corridor of shut office doors, I finally found my way to the small balcony the receptionist had called a patio. You could tell someone had big plans for this space, once upon a time. On top of the plain cement tiles was a hodgepodge of hand-me-down patio furniture, and the one lone potted plant was barely hanging on to its miserable life.

Walking over to the rickety railing, I leaned as far over it as I could without managing to scare the people milling around in the parking lot below, and closed my eyes. Several minutes passed, and I focused on the outdoor smells trying to calm my inner wolf before I had to interact with my enemy.

As soon as the patio door opened, I knew it was a vampire; his footfalls were almost completely soundless, and I was sure whatever sound he was making was solely for my benefit. When I turned to face him, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Cassandra Call, I assume?" Dr. Cullen gave a genuine smile and held out his hand to me.

"Dr. Cullen, it's a pleasure to meet you." I smiled and briefly shook his hand. Even the short contact of my hand with his sent tremors up my arm and made my skin crawl. This meeting was going to be a lot harder than I thought. I took another involuntary step back from the Doctor and forced myself to breathe through my mouth. God, his stench was so potent, I wasn't sure my nose would ever recover.

"The pleasure is all mine; welcome to Washington. If you're not opposed to the idea, Cassandra, I thought we might just hold the interview out here. I think we will both be a bit more comfortable." Dr. Cullen gave me a small smile, and I couldn't help but smile back; he was just as genuine as everyone said he was. Maybe I could get through this, after all.

Dr. Cullen's sandy blond hair was immaculately styled, and was his white lab coat tailored? Wow. If he hadn't been my arch-nemesis, I may have found him attractive in a past life. Being visually appealing must be a vampire thing. It would be a lot easier to attract your pray, if they wanted to be caught. I shook my head, trying to keep my thoughts from reverting to the images of the leech on the beach that had wanted me for breakfast. Meeting the doctors amber eyes helped me refocus; right, he was a vegetarian bloodsucker.

"That would be great, Dr. Cullen. Thank you. I'm still pretty new at this, and being so close is a slight challenge." I forced a smile. "No offense meant…I probably smell just as bad to you."

He flashed me a perfect smile, that I was sure would have been absolutely stunning to any normal human, but it sent warning vibes straight down my spine. His shining teeth were designed to tear though flesh. Jeez. I wove my fingers together behind my back and squeezed them together until it hurt in an attempt to distract myself. My inner chant of "the Cullens don't eat people; they just kill Bambi's mom. It's fine. It's okay. Don't phase-" was interrupted by Doctor Cullen.

"Cassandra, would you like to take a seat, or would you be more comfortable standing?" Dr Cullen gestured to several iron chairs, arranged facing each other, but a good distance apart.

"I'll try sitting." Try was the operative word.

Sitting as far back in my chair as I could. I tried to relax; gripping the hell out of the iron armrests seemed to help. Breathing through my mouth made me feel like a fish, but it lessened the overpowering stink, and helped me to win the fight against phasing and trying to kill the good doctor.

"So, Cassie, why don't you tell me about your work experience?" Dr. Cullen gave me an encouraging smile, as he sat as far away from me as possible, and casually crossed his legs.

"Okay." I met his genuine face and tried to picture him as a human; that seemed to help calm my inner wolf further. "I got my associates degree and passed the NREMT paramedic licensing test several years ago. The San Francisco Ambulance service hired me right before I finished my degree, and I worked for them until just a few weeks ago. All of my licenses are up to date, and there shouldn't be any problems with them carrying over from California. I looked into all of that briefly, before moving up here."

Dr. Cullen made several notes on his pad, in perfect loopy script, before glancing back up at me.

"When are you due for your Department of Transportation refresher?"

"Next January. I have copies of all my certificates, if you need them." I chewed on my bottom lip and tried to take shallow breaths, while I waited for his next question.

"Oh, that won't be necessary. Leanne included all of them in your file for me." He tapped the brown folder under his notepad with his pen. "Do you have any leadership experience?"

"Yes, actually. Since I was one of only two EMT paramedics based out of our main hospital, I was acting lieutenant during most of my shifts. I also was responsible for teaching all of the recurrent training to the basic, enhanced, and intermediate EMT's at the hospital."

"I bet they were very sorry to lose someone with your experience. Which hospital were you based out of, Cassandra?" Doctor Cullen tented his fingers in front of him, and gazed intently at me.

"Mostly San Francisco General, but sometimes, I got stationed at UCSF Medical Center as part of their relief shift."

Dr. Cullen nodded. "San Francisco General is a level I trauma hospital, correct?"

"Yes it is."

"I have a good friend, Doctor Sagewrath, who works in the ER there. He had nothing but glowing things to say about you." I smiled. Dr. Sagewrath had been one of my mentors. "He mentioned you were a fill-in paramedic for their Flight-For-Life team?"

I nodded. It was a good sign that he had already called my old boss, right?

"Yeah. I only filled in for a few shifts for them but, if I had stayed in California, I would definitely have tried to get on their full-time team."

Dr. Cullen laughed lightly, "Well, I am sorry to say we probably won't ever have a Flight-For-Life helicopter based here, and the nearest level I trauma hospital is in Seattle, but this isn't a bad ER to work from."

"I've been pretty impressed with everything I've seen so far." For an older hospital in the middle of small-town Washington, it was above and beyond what I expected. Having a gracious vampire donor as your key supporter definitely had its upsides.

Dr. Cullen gracefully stood, and gestured to the door. "Would you like a tour?"

Getting a tour was a really good sign, and I couldn't help that the smile on my face grew.

"Of course! That would be nice." I stood and followed Dr. Cullen into the building, after taking one last huge gulp of fresh air.

There wasn't much to see, but the hospital had everything it needed, and everyone was very nice. It helped that they all seemed rather dazzled by Dr. Cullen's presence. Every interaction with a human left me wanting to shake my head. If they had any idea…Being able to dazzle your pray into submission would be very beneficial, plus it would keep things from getting as…messy, if there wasn't much of a struggle. Damn it. I just couldn't shake the whole bloodsucking murderer thing!

Luckily, Dr. Cullen was introducing me to some of the ER staff, and pretended not to notice when I took an involuntary defensive step toward the guy whose hand I was shaking. Once again, my wolf was trying to wedge me in between the vampire and the humans. It got awkward.

I wanted to roll my eyes at the guy who was shaking my hand, as he took my advance as just that, and grinned widely while glancing down at my chest. You don't stand a chance, buddy. I thought to myself as I squeezed his hand a bit harder, making him wince.

Eventually, we found ourselves back in the lobby, after I had met all of the fifty employees of the hospital. The ambulance that wasn't out on a run was in decent shape, even if it was just a basic-life-support system unit. It was newer than what I was used to, and all the equipment seemed to work -which was a nice bonus. But now came the potentially awkward 'how'd the interview go' conversation. Dr. Cullen stopped walking just inside the main lobby, in a mostly abandoned alcove near enough to the front doors that the fresh air circulated around us. It helped ease my overly frayed nerves from being inside with a vampire for almost forty minutes.

"Cassandra, why don't you come in on Friday morning? That's when we have our quarterly meeting. You'll be able to meet everyone and I can get you connected with Richard. Richard is leaving us and moving back to England to be closer to his family. You would be filling his spot as lieutenant, if that is okay with you? I was planning on having you shadow him for a month, or so, until you're comfortable, then you can step in when he's gone."

A huge smile blossomed on my face; I got the job, and not just any job, but the lieutenant position. Holy crap!

"Everyone under you has considerably less extensive experience. Richard is our most senior EMT- though he only has a little over two years' experience - and all of his work has been here. I think you will bring quite a lot of knowledge and skill to the team."

"Thank you, Dr. Cullen! I really appreciate the opportunity. I can't wait to get back into this."

When I shook the doctor's hand for the second time, my urge to kill him was barely there. We were making progress!

Giving a small wave to the oblivious receptionist, I told Dr. Cullen I would see him on Friday, and then practically skipped out into the parking lot.

As soon as I dug my phone out of my purse to call Jake, it rang. Leah. Oh, here we go. Holding my phone carefully away from my ear, I climbed into my truck, waiting for the verbal assault to begin.

"Hey, Leah. What's up?"

"Don't you 'what's up' me, sister!"

I rolled my eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." Sheesh. Already I was feeling like a broken record.

"You should be sorry! I ought to kick the crap out of you!"

I started my truck and shifted my phone to my other ear. "If it would make you feel better, go ahead."

There was a short pause. "Oh, please, Cassie. I just have one question for you".

"Okay, Leah…"

"You have all this money, right?…Are your Jimmy Choo's real?

I snorted and glanced down at the phone, like that would somehow confirm for my brain what I just heard.

"Yes, they are real. Umm…why?"

"I'm borrowing them indefinitely."

Smirking, I started my truck and pulled out of the parking lot to head back to La Push.

"They are all yours. So, the second date went well?"

"Of course it did! I'll be at your house at five; you're helping me get ready. Tonight is the night."

"The night for what, Leah?" I asked, but only the dial tone echoed in my ear. At least she wasn't mad at me, and now I got to call Jacob. My huge smile was back on my face as I dialed the garage.

Maybe I could get some semblance of a normal life back. Whatever normal was anymore.

AN:

If you're still reading you'll be happy to know even though I thought of bagging this whole dang story…I didn't. My melt down was part of the reason this chapter took so long to be uploaded. Hopefully the worst is over. Thank you for hanging in there with me! *wolfy kisses*

Huge thanks to Leanne Golightly and Lauren (TaysWifey) for pre-reading and beta-ing the hell out of it! Much love to you both! Robotprospektor, my grammar beta didn't have much to do after they got through pelting me with commas, tenses, and semi-colons!

Check out this marvelous Fan Vid the lovely Ms. Golightly created for this story!

http:/www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=Ib8xuVuN1rs