AN: Hello boys and girls! I am still alive, as I like to start every chapter that takes literally years. Sadly my inspiration is always elsewhere but I want to finish these stories for you all and I am so close. Soon it will be finished and you all will be happy, I promise. Thanks for sticking with me and enjoy!

Chapter Forty Two

And Then Comes Marriage

It was a long four years for everyone. Vampires still attacked at a rate of at least once every six months and kept everyone on edge. I had been living with Quil for two years and it was a lot easier than I expected. I still spent a lot of time with Willa at our dad's house. Our mom had started coming over on the weekends and we would have a big dinner with Quil and Seth and no one screamed. It was almost like we were a normal family. It was nice.

Seth and Willa were living together now too. And there were half a dozen more kids running around from the pack. None for me or my sisters though. Dana was engaged now and was going to be finishing her Masters soon. Everyone was proud of her and excited to see what she would move on to do. Willa graduated with a bachelors in engineering and I graduated with the much less impressive degree in education. I really still hadn't decided what I wanted to do and it was the easiest degree to get.

We had technically graduated for months but there was an actual ceremony to be had and everyone was losing their cool. Willa and myself were completely content, we were done with school and we didn't have much to stress over since school was done. Our parents were the ones freaking out the most. Dana never wanted a party when she got her B.A. because she knew she was just going to be going back for her Masters so she made everyone wait until then. Now it was just me and Willa, sitting in front of our friends and family twiddling our thumbs while they plan whatever they think they need to plan.

Seth and Quil wanted to be a part of it as well and tried keeping secrets from us, which wasn't really working. It was cute to watch them try though. We liked watching them try to dance around us. They would get nervous when we got too close to the truth.

We began to realize the party was more for them, then for us, so we let them do what they wanted because it wasn't like we had to do anything anyway. We just had to do what we wanted and pretend it wasn't going on. That gave us time to spend together in a way. And since Dana was coming down for the party it gave us the perfect excuse to go about our normal lives while they tried to plan a surprise party.

Dana would be flying into Seattle, alone, so Willa and I decided to meet her at the airport and spend a day out in Seattle with just my sisters. When I told my dad about it, he was fine, when I told Willa she was super excited for it, but when I told Quil, I thought he might stroke out.

I told him the day before Dana was to fly in and Willa had to tell Seth. "Alone?" Quil choked out.

I sighed and sat in his lap on the couch, stroking his jaw. "I won't be alone." I promised him as I tried to calm him down.

"Without anyone that looks scary and intimidating." He clarified with his eye starting to twitch.

"Have you seen Willa lately?" I asked sarcastically. She might have graduated but she was on edge as of late as well.

"I don't like it." Quil said firmly as he shook his head.

I tried not to laugh because I knew he was just being dramatic. "We will be fine, just give us the day, okay, I will call every few hours." I promised him and turned to straddle him and kissed him. "Okay?' I asked as I settled more comfortably on his lap.

He pulled me close to kiss him again. "Okay," He murmured against my lips.

Quil didn't sleep well that night, knowing I would be leaving in the morning with Willa to go to the airport. Willa was going to be taking Seth's Jeep because her Mustang wouldn't fit everyone comfortably. So when I woke up early to the sound of the rickety Jeep waiting for me, Quil tried to ploy me back into bed.

I laughed as he pinned me to the bed and reached up to run my fingers through his much longer hair, it was almost shoulder length now and I wouldn't let him cut it because I preferred it that way. I kissed him, and twisted so that I was above him and then sat up. He followed suite and kept his arms locked around me. "I need to go now, Willa will just storm in if I make her wait." I reasoned with him.

Quil sighed and released his tight grip on my waist but his hands were still on my hips. "Call me if anything happens." He said with his very worried face.

"I will. I love you." I told him with as much of a comforting smile as I could give him to try and calm his nerves.

He sighed and gave me as much of a smile as he could. "I love you too." He said as he kissed my fingers.

He helped me off the bed and walked me to the door right when Willa was going to barge through it. "Finally!" She yelled and then stormed back to the Jeep. I laughed as Quil rolled his eyes and I stood on my tip toes and kissed Quil's cheek.

"I'll call you when Dana lands." I told him.

"Have fun." Quil said as he let go of me and I walked toward the Jeep.

"We always do!" Willa yelled for me as I climbed into the Jeep. I laughed as I buckled myself in and Willa took off.

She hadn't gone out in a while and it was nice to go out alone. We sped down the road and sang loudly with the radio. It took a few hours to get to the airport and we parked and waited for her outside of security since we couldn't go into the gate. If any men tried to come near us they were quickly dissuaded by Willa's loud annoyance of the late flight and all the profanity she yelled. I tried no to laugh so much but it was no good.

Ten minutes later we found Dana rushing toward us. We were all caught up in a group hug and squealed like children. It was nice to have my sisters again, especially without having to worry about anything else.

"Your flight took forever, lets go get some food." Willa whined.

We had to go to the baggage claim to get Dana's other bag and then took off from the airport to downtown Seattle. Dana picked the place, which ended up being a small diner and it was great. We ate so much food that was insanely terrible for us. Once we were filled with food we went shopping, not because we needed anything but I loved looking and Willa liked to spend money and Nessie had given her one of her father's credit cards because they were going to miss the party.

What really happened was Nessie knew that the Rez wanted a party for all the family to come to, even the humans so they were planning another party for us later that was going to be more horror show than anything with the amount of werewolves and vampires running around. Everyone was very understanding and no feelings were hurt but Nessie still liked to make it up to Willa.

I called Quil between shops and he was always happy to hear from me. Seth got a call or two as well from Willa. Dana thought it was adorable and just randomly texted her fiancée every so often. We ended up with new outfits for the party the next day, as well as some accessories and books just because. That was before we went back to the comic shop.

Being back in the place that literally changed my life was surreal. If I hadn't run into Nessie there, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have Quil or my father and sisters, or even my mother. I'd still be alone. I didn't make it sound so depressing as I regaled my sisters about my first meeting Nessie here.

We bought some more things at the comic shop and something's for our imprinters as well. Once we were settled on what was ours and happy with what we got and full with cupcakes, coffee and strange salads, we finally made our way back home to the welcome wagon for Dana waiting at our fathers house.

Quil and Seth were there too because they were too impatient not to be. There were a lot of hugs and a little bit of tears before we all sat for dinner and enjoyed everyone's company. We were going to talk late into the night but we were stopped just before nine at night.

"There is a party for you two tomorrow, so that means you need to be well rested, off to bed!" Jeff ordered to me and Willa. I laughed as Willa pouted. Seth was only excited because Jeff was letting him stay to keep Willa home and in bed.

I hugged my dad tightly. "Goodnight Dad," I murmured, trying to hide a yawn.

"Night Claire-bear." He said with a kiss to the side of my head.

I said goodnight to my mom and to Dana, who were going to be up late talking anyway, Willa was already stomping off to her room with Seth so I let Quil guide me out to his truck.

"Have fun today?" Quil asked once we were driving down the road.

"Yes." I said with a tired smile.

The drive was extremely short, but Quil preferred to drive me home after I got sick one too many times walking in the rain from my dad's to our house. Once we got inside, Quil scooped me up and carried me to bed. I laughed the whole way but I didn't fight it, there was no point. He took off my shoes and jeans while I took off my jacket and bra, just settling to sleep in my shirt and underwear and Quil crawled behind me in bed after stripping down to just his boxers. He didn't bother locking doors because no one was stupid enough to try and break into our home.

He pulled me close to him, like always and held me while I fell asleep. I didn't worry about an alarm because I knew Quil would wake me up because he was so nervous about the party going right. I slept easily because Quil was there and that's all I needed at any point in time.

I woke up to sun as bright as it got in the summer of La Push, which had a haze to it because it was Washington. Quil was not in bed with me and he wasn't waking me up with kisses or caresses, I woke up on my own but I could hear Quil rummaging around the kitchen. I got up and changed into the outfit that we had bought for the party the day before. It was somewhat matching with what I had picked out with Dana and Willa. Dana had a grey skirt with lacy white top, with capped sleeves and cute flats. Willa had grey skinny jeans with a dark blue top that had a lot of cleavage because she liked to make Seth nervous in front of our father and new heels to be as tall as Dana at least. Mine was a simple grey dress with a white belt to go around my waist and a dark blue cardigan with modest grey heels, because I was not known to flaunt anything.

I left the bedroom once I was dressed and I was pleased with my hair to find my bracelets that I couldn't find in the room. I was tossing the guest bathroom when I felt Quil step behind me and put his arms around my middle. I sighed and put my head back.

"Have you seen my bracelets?" I asked as I rested my hands on his arms.

"Nope, can't look at anything but you." He muttered as he started kissing my neck.

I would have gladly stayed home with him, forgoing all searches for any accessories but we were expected elsewhere. "We will be late to this party you've been stressing over." I mumbled as I gripped his arms, not really doing much else to stop him.

He growled a little. "Fine, they are in the medicine cabinet." He told me as he begrudgingly let go of me.

I opened the cabinet and found what I was looking for. I put the bracelets on and turned back to Quil who was looking nervous again. I put my arms around his neck and kissed him. "Lets go." I murmured.

"Okay," He sighed.

We took the truck to where they were having the party, the Rez meeting hall. Everyone was there, all the family and wolves. No vampires though. We parked and made our way inside, everyone cheered when they saw us but Willa wasn't there yet. I smiled and kept a tight grip on Quil because the attention made me feel a little uncomfortable.

I made my rounds and said my hellos to everyone. Willa showed up a few minutes later and everything was in full swing. They were talking to us about our careers and what we would do now that we were out of college and it was almost overwhelming just thinking about it. For so long me and Willa were just keeping our eyes on actually graduating that we really didn't think about what would come next.

We retreated to our father when it got to be too much. He stuck out like a sore thumb, the pale face in the crowd with his greying hair and big green eyes. He was still so proud of all of his girls, he couldn't stop smiling. But when he saw me and Willa coming, without our werewolves, he held his arms out and let us hide under them as best we could.

"A lot of people huh?" He asked as he pulled us close.

"They keep asking when I'm going to have a baby." Willa hissed.

"I never said they were normal." He muttered to us.

I chuckled a little. "There isn't going to be a speech is there?" I asked hopefully. That was not going to help matters at all.

"Probably." He sighed. "Billy likes his speeches." He said with a smirk.

Willa grunted and we just held on until someone pulled us away from him to talk about life or careers or weddings or children. It was strange how much they wanted to talk to us now that we had graduated. Like we were magically adults now. It didn't feel like that at all.

The next time I found Quil I latched onto him and wouldn't let go. He smiled and held on to me and listened to the ramblings with me, hiding me under his massive hold. I knew this would be our life and I wouldn't trade it for the world. Even if it made me uncomfortable at times and I had to hide with him.

He seemed to notice I was sinking deeper and deeper in his arms. "Wanna go outside?" He whispered to me. I nodded eagerly.

He picked me up and stood up off the couch and took me away from it all. We sat out front of the hall on the garden planters, huddling close cause it was cold, or at least I was. He was laughing as he put his arms around me again.

"It always gets so crowded so fast. Maybe one day I'll get used to it." I mumbled to myself as gripped onto his side.

"I'll always get you out." He promised to me.

"I know." I sighed in relief, breathing in the outside air deeply. I knew I only had a few minutes before we were called back in in again.

Quil was playing with my hair, brushing it over my shoulder and down my back for a few moments. It was a soothing motion, I almost fell asleep as he continued. "I gotta ask you a question." He said almost rushed

"Sure, what is it?" I asked curiously as I looked up at him.

He looked awkward for minute before he took in a deep breath and shifted as he dug his hand in his pocket. He was nervously turning something in his hand but I couldn't make out what it was. "I couldn't figure out how to do this, so I figured I'd wait until I was comfortable." He told me with shaky breath. He was normally so calm and collected now and it made me a little nervous. I sat up straighter and waited for him to continue, hoping it wasn't bad news.

He moved from the planters and knelt on one knee and held the object toward me and I realized it was a ring. There was a simple gold band that was perfect that had a circular cut emerald, nothing flashy but it was perfect. If I could design my perfect engagement ring, it would have been the ring he was offering me.

Quil was trying to maintain himself as he held the ring. "Would you marry me?" He asked carefully punctuating every syllable, like he might get it wrong.

I started smiling so much I laughed. "I would like that." I told him nodding.

He laughed too and put the ring on my left ring finger and kissed it. I grabbed his face and kissed him for being so perfect and thoughtful. I had never thought about all this, I just figured we would get married at some point and live together forever. I loved him even more for proposing anyway.

"Finally!" I heard Jake cry out from the Res hall and we stopped and looked to see everyone was watching us. Even my dad was looking over us with a smile on his face as he shook his head at us while we stayed close.

I hid my face in Quil's chest as I continued to laugh because I was engaged now, to the only man I could ever imagine being with and everything was right in the world because of.

AN: Review! If you're into that sort of thing.