AN – I do not own the characters of Twilight. They belong to Stephanie Meyers.

Chapter 20

TPOV

A week has passed since the night Quil told me what had happened. At first, I was completely numb when I realized that mom was gone and Jim was behind bars. In a matter of days, my life had completely been upended. My mom was gone. Jim was no longer a threat. I would not be returning to Vegas, ever. My only real family was now Sam and Uma. I no longer had to worry about returning to my previous life of always being on the move, never feeling like I belonged. The constant support offered to Quil and me from the pack had proven that I had found where I'm supposed to be. My actual grieving for my mom had been quick as a result of reliving my dream for so long. Even with all of these revelations, I still didn't feel whole. My relationship with Quil had changed and I didn't know why.

He has been as attentive as he always has been. I never needed for anything and he was quick to pull me into his arms whenever I began to feel overwhelmed by my emotions. However, his kisses were chaste and his touches were brief. The only time that I felt our bond was when I slept in his arms at night. We had been sleeping in the same bed for months now but one would think that we were best friends; that that we weren't imprinted.

I missed Quil. I missed his easy laugh, the twinkle in his eyes, and the spark of his fingers as they brushed over my skin. I had tried to talk to him about us a couple of times but each time I did, he would find a reason to be doing something else as if he were afraid of this conversation. What have I done wrong that he's pushing me away?

Sighing, I pour myself a glass of orange juice. Emily was fussing around in the kitchen and Quil had taken off out the door to run a patrol as soon as she had arrived. The only sign that he noticed me before he left was the quick kiss he gave me on the top of my head; it was more like the kiss he would have given a little sister, not his girlfriend.

"Everything ok Tia?" Emily asked as she finished wiping down the counter. I nodded in reply as I sat down on the couch. I've allowed myself to be quieter than normal lately. I've never felt the need for constant conversation and I work through difficult problems best alone in my head. I didn't feel the need to open up the impending floodgates of my problem with Quil, not just yet.

An hour later, Sam comes walking in. He gives Emily a kiss and a hug before joining me on the couch. Emily tells us that she needs to run to the grocery while the streets were passable. Another snow storm was coming in the next couple of days. It's always best to have a well stocked pantry beforehand. We wave to her as she leaves.

"How are you doing this morning, little sis?" Sam asks with a twinkle in his eye. He has started calling me sis whenever no one else was around. I didn't mind at all. I never had a brother but Sam had wiggled his way into my heart as if he were.

Putting on a brave smile for him, I reply "I'm ok." but I can't keep eye contact with him. I've always known that he could read me too easily. I pull my knees up in front of me and rest my chin on them.

"Tia…I'm not buying that." Looking at the coffee table, he sees my new laptop and the scattered papers of class work that I've been doing. "How's school going? When do you think you'll be finished?" Sam knows that I came from Vegas with more than enough class credits.

"I only have a English and a history class to go. I have more than enough science and math credits. Quil is finishing up his last course this month." Feeling a bit more confident, I give him a smile hoping that he won't dig too far into why I'm feeling down.

Sam leans back on the couch, crossing his ankles out in front of him. He has a pensive look on his face. "I spoke to Officer Harding yesterday afternoon Tia. Apparently with the number of warrants and outstanding charges, Nelson is looking, at the very least, life in prison once the trial is complete." He sees me shudder at the mention of Jim's name. "Hey now,…" he says pulling me under his arm. "You know that there's no chance in hell that he'll ever hurt you again, right?"

"Yeah, I know. I feel safer here than I ever have in my entire life Sam." I reply laying my head on his shoulder.

"Well then, what has you upset? Has Quil done something?" Sam asked the questions that I really didn't want to answer. Unfortunately, my emotions got the best of me and I hated the fact that I could no longer stop the tears from falling. I start sobbing into his shoulder.

"What did he do?" he asks quietly but I can hear that there's more in his voice than concern. It sounded as if he was ready to pound Quil into the ground.

Wiping my eyes, I decide that it was just best to get this out of me rather than bottling it up. I held all of my emotions inside before I moved here and all it did for me was make me completely miserable. I trust Sam and I know that he will listen to me.

"He hasn't done anything Sam, nothing at all." I sniffle. He watches me closely and then, started chuckling to himself.

"Oh…yeah, I think I might be to blame for that." He confessed.

Raising an eyebrow and feeling more than a bit piqued at what he had just said, I had to know why. "How so?"

Sam rubs the back of his head as if he's trying to figure out how to put it in words. "After we came back from Vegas, I told Quil to keep a reign on his wolf until you were recovered. I didn't want him to push you too far when you were already dealing with so much. Remember what he told you when he told you about the imprint?" I nodded. "Well, he was your boyfriend up until the night that you had the dream about your mother. Then, he switched to protector mode and it would seem that he's stuck there. Have you talked to him about this?"

I shook my head. "He won't sit still long enough for us to have a conversation. He always seems to find something to do." I put my glass down on the table. "How do I get him back to being my boyfriend?"

"Ah…geesh, Tia. I never thought I'd have to have this talk with a girl, let alone my little sister. Um…" he hesitates. "Your relationship with him was just getting started when Vegas hit, which put the brakes on the normal progression of an imprint relationship."

"The normal progression? I'm almost afraid to ask what that means." I add raising my eyebrows.

Sam sits forward and puts his hand over his face, turning a bit red. "The wolf normally wants to push the relationship faster than it would be for normal humans. It's not unusual for an imprinted couple to be …intimate…and married within a year of the bond being formed."

My jaw hit the ground. "What?!"

Sam blushed even brighter. "Now you understand why I told Quil to rein it in, Tia. You two have been squirreled away up here in this cabin for months with no real adult supervision. I told him that I trust you two and I do, but I don't want you to feel rushed into something that you are not ready for."

Standing up, I walk back into the kitchen with my glass, staring out the window over the sink. "Thank you Sam, I appreciate that but I am at a loss. I have no idea how to handle this."

"Tell you what, why don't I have Emily come up when she gets back from shopping. She should be back in the next half hour or so. If Quil shows up while you two are still talking, text me and I'll find a reason to get him out of here." His face is turning back to its normal coloring now that he feels like he's no longer in the "girl talk" danger zone and making decisions again.

"I'd like that a lot." Sam grabs his cell and calls Emily. "She'll be here in about 10 minutes." He stands up to get a soda from the fridge. "Can we talk about something else until she gets here?"

Poor Sam, I think to myself. "Sure, so have you and Em set a date yet?" I'm excited for them and can't wait for the wedding.

Sam smiles "We're thinking about this spring, maybe in early April." His face lights up as he talks about the ceremony. "We're going to do a tribal ceremony, maybe on the beach."

I can't help but smile as I watch him talk about Emily. It's really sweet to see a guy all wrapped up in his woman. I can only hope that one day, Quil will be the same way with me.

Speaking of the devil, guess who just walked through the door?

QPOV

I walk into the cabin to find Sam and Tia in the middle of a conversation. Given the look on Sam's face, I knew that they were talking about something serious. For a second, I considered turning around but my curiosity got the best of me. "Hey, what are you two up to?"

"Sam came by to keep my company so that Emily could run an errand. She should be back in just a few." Tia answers as she looks up at Sam. They share a look that I don't understand.

"Quil, why don't you come down and give me a hand at the house when Em gets here? I need your hand getting the engine out of the Wrangler that I've been working on. I need an extra set of hands."

"Uh…sure." I scratch my head confused. He's never asked me to give him a hand before. What is going on? I walk into the kitchen to fix myself a snack. After making a couple of sandwiches, I sit down at the table.

Tia walks over to me and kisses me on the top of my head. "I'm going to go grab a shower. Let me know when she gets here, okay?" She walks into the bedroom, shutting the door. Soon, we hear music playing as the shower switches on.

Sam grabs the remote and turns the tv on. Settling onto the couch, he looks over at me. "Seems like Tia is finally back with us, huh?" he smiles.

"Yeah" I finish my sandwiches and put the plate in the sink. "She's been doing much better this past week." I allow myself a small smile.

"Tia tells me that you're almost finished with your class work for the online school." Sam finds a sports channel and puts the remote on the coffee table.

"I will be able to finish by the end of the month. If I want to do the actual graduation thing, then I could walk across the stage in May. By then, there's a good chance that Tia will be finished as well. We could graduate together." I smile to myself. I really like the idea of getting on with life rather than wading through another year of school.

"What are you planning to do once you finish?" He watches for my reply. It's like he's waiting for me to give him a certain reply but I'll be darned if I know what it is.

From the MP3 player in the other room, I hear one of Tia's favorite songs playing and she starts to sing. I turn my head towards the bedroom door feeling my heart melt as she poured her heart into the lyrics. Sighing, I answer his question. "College, both Tia and I want to go and we've talked about it a couple of times." Sighing, I just wish I knew if Tia was still interested in our plans.

A few minutes later, we hear the shower shut off in the bathroom and then, Emily pulls up outside. I get up to tell Tia that Emily was here. I open the door to find that Tia was standing in our bedroom in nothing but a towel, a short towel. Holy hell! I felt like I was to explode in embarrassment. "Emily's here." I tell her very quickly and turn back around to the living room shutting the door. "Let's go take a look at that Wrangler Sam." I walk out the front door to wait on him outside, not noticing that Sam was smiling at me as I hurried by.

SPOV

After I hear the door shut behind Quil. I walk over to the bedroom door. "Tia, hon, I don't think you need to worry too much. Things are going to work out just fine." I laugh to myself.

Emily walks in and I give her a quick rundown of my plan to get Quil out so that she and Tia can talk. "She needs a girl talk and I think you can help her." She smirks and nods in agreement. I give her a kiss and head for the door.

TPOV

After getting dressed, I walk out again to find Emily putting away some groceries. She puts the bags away as I sit down at the table. I pick up a napkin and start creasing it to help my nerves.

"Sam said that you wanted to talk to me?" she sits down beside me waiting.

Feeling a bit overloaded after my imprint talk with Sam, I decided to get straight to the point. "I'm beginning to think that Quil doesn't see me as his girlfriend anymore. He barely spends any time with me now and I've had only one chaste kiss from him today. I want my boyfriend back."

"Whoa, this might explain why I saw Quil flying out of the house just a moment ago." She shakes her head. "Men are complicated creatures, T." She reaches forward and grabs my hand. "And with our particular men, they are even more complicated thanks to their wolf side." She thinks for a moment. Sighing, she stands up and starts pacing. "I don't talk about this much but I think my situation might help you." She brings her hand up to the right side of her face as if lost in thought and then turns to face me. "After my accident with Sam, the guilt and shame that he felt seriously impacted our relationship. Even after I had healed from the scratches, he was so worried that he would hurt me again. He wouldn't touch me. He rarely kissed me. Sometimes, he couldn't even look at me because of how bad he felt. It took us a while to get our relationship back and when we did, Sam became even more attentive and concerned about my well being than he ever was before."

Sitting back down, she continues. "From what I've heard from Sam, Quil feels very guilty over what happened at the hotel. He's beating himself up about it. A human man feels the need to protect the woman he loves but with our wolves, that need to protect is even stronger. He believes that he let you down and that he's not worthy of you."

My mouth dropped at her last words. "What? I don't feel that way at all." Frustration grows in my chest but I refuse to cry. "Emily, I don't know how to fix this. I am so worried that I won't do this right." I drop my head to my folded arms on the table.

Suddenly, Emily stands walking to the pantry. She opens the door and takes something out. I raise my head to see that she had set a candle on the table in front of me.

Sitting back down in front of me, she says "I know that you don't want to abuse your gift but I think if you can get a glimpse of your own future, you might gain the confidence you need. What do you think?"

I look at the unlit candle for a moment and take a steadying breath. "Light it."

I am walking through the misty forest. I could hear the night time creatures stirring. My feet did not make a sound as I walked on. Then, I hear a rustling to my left. As I turn my head, I see a flash of red and hear a woman's laugh. The red flash and laughter encircles me but I keep walking. My dreamscape shifts and I'm walking through a field in autumn. The forest in front of me is alive with red, orange and yellow leaves. The breeze feels cool against my skin. I am walking towards my loved ones. I see Quil and Sam on my right with Emily opposite of them. They are waiting for me. To either side of my path, I see two small bonfires. Emily turns to face me as I approach, noticing that she is holding something small. Her smile is gentle and so full of happiness. A realization hits me and a glorious smile spreads across my face. Again, my dream changes. The mist that was once covering the ground changed into smoke and then into fire. I come face to face with a set of glowing gold eye that turn into the silhouette of a man reaching his hand out to me. I take his hand and walk through the flames.

I blink a couple of times as I come back to my surroundings. I notice that Emily is watching me carefully. "Well, whatever you saw must have been wonderful Tia. Your smile was amazing."

Smiling to myself, I have a decision to make. Should I tell her what I saw in my dream? If she knew now, could it change the future that I saw? Determination sets in. No, I think I'll break my self-imposed rule this one time.

"Emily, have you and Sam officially set your wedding date?" I ask, trying to be nonchalant but I can't keep the small smile off of my face.

Confused, she answers "We're thinking about early April. Why?"

"I wouldn't push the date any further, earlier might be better" I smile and then glance down at her stomach.

"Huh? What?..." Realization passes across her face and her look of confusion is replaced by a beaming smile. "Really?"