Author's Note: Phew. That was one major block! I've never experienced anything like it before :( It hurts, like I know what I want to write and it just won't come out!

I know you guys understand, that's why this chapter is long - to show how much I appreciate your support. Love you all :)

Oh, and a slight language warning. Just givin' you heads up, y'know ;)

ALISON ANDERSON

"Cloe, you know I hate surprises," I warned, struggling to get free of her iron grip. What did they feed that chick?

"But you'll love this one, I promise!" she said, "You'll love it so much you'll cry."

"Wish you can see me rolling my eyes now."

She laughed. "Aw come on! Wait for a second, we're almost there."

"Almost where?"

"Allie, sweetie, don't worry so much," her mother said, "We're just going to-"

"Mom!"

She chuckled. "Shutting up."

I huffed. Why wouldn't anyone tell me where we were going? Dad called and told me Cloe was driving me after school, and that I was spending the day with her as her mother requested and all I could do was wonder why Cloe freakin' blindfolded me on the way.

God, I wanted to kill her.

Half an hour later, I stepped out of the car, still blindfolded, the cold wind suddenly hitting me, making me shiver. I could hear people laughing in a distance, but the voices stopped altogether as soon as I took a couple of steps towards them. Cloe was pulling me, excitement obvious in her pace. After thirty minutes of nagging, I learned better than to ask her what was going on again, I just obeyed her demanding pulls silently.

When we stopped, she let my hand go, and before I could pull off the blindfold, a very familiar set of arms wrapped themselves around me from behind, knocking the breath out of me, my heart quickening its pace. I could smell his delicious musky scent and feel him smiling.

"Happy birthday," he whispered in my ears, taking off the black piece of cloth that covered my eyes, giving me mental and physical room to breath.

Birthday? What birthday? My birthday was last month - I turned thirteen last month.

I wished I could express that in actual words, but I couldn't; everyone was there - Jarr, Cloe, Quil, Claire, Billy, Sarah, Mr. and Mrs. Black, the rest of that goddamn large pack and probably every person on the reservation.

"Surprise!"

I blinked, my eyes as wide as saucers, unable to form comprehensible (or incomprehensible) responses, just staring at them. Colby turned around me, kneeling in front of me, his face worried. "You okay? Earth to Allie - is your brain working anymore?"

I punched him lightly. "Shut up," I breathed.

He laughed along with the others. I hate wolf/vampire/half-vampire super senses. "I know you wouldn't want anything too noisy, and I'm sorry I wasn't here for the real one - So Little Allie is now Little Allie."

I pouted playfully. "C'mon, you're only fifteen."

"And you're only thirteen, honey."

"Do not call me little!"

He shrugged. "I'll call you little as much as I want."

I frowned. "Are you-"

"O-kay! Enough of that. Give the girl some space," Claire said, pulling my hand, "Happy birthday, sweetie. Sorry there isn't much, but Colby only told us this morning."

"No, it's fine. That's great."

There really wasn't much; if it wasn't for the birthday wishes (and the presence of Jarr and Cloe), I would've thought it was a bonfire - just one held in the backyard of Sam and Emily's house (AKA the meeting and event venue and the place where Sarah and Randy hide when they want some 'time alone'. I swear it was getting more public by the second). It was sweet, though, how all those people cut their plans, made space and time for an event an idiot like my lovely imprint decided to throw on the same day. The thought on its own made me smile.

She leaned to whisper in my ear. "Let's go say hi to Billy then we're all heading to the beach. Emily is waiting for us there."

"Don't tell me," I mumbled, "She cooked for all those people?"

She just laughed and led me on to where Billy was sitting. Billy, at that time, was growing really old, and I knew that despite his young spirit, the grandfather and the elder was weakening physically, and thus he couldn't move around a lot, only in planned moves (on his wheelchair, of course). It was a good thing he had Rebecca to take care of him continuously.

He was leaning his elbows on the arms of his chair, looking at us expectantly. "And finally, we meet, Alison." I smiled kindly at him. Colby had shown me Billy's pictures before, but I'd never seen him in person. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you."

He, then, exchanged a brief glance with Claire and she nodded, leaving us alone (as alone as we could be with all those people present). "Stay here for a moment; I need to tell you something."

"Hm?"

"That boy over there," he said, jerking his head towards Colby, "Made a very unwise decision a couple of months ago."

I looked down at my feet, grimacing.

"...He thought he could prevent you from phasing that way."

My eyes snapped to meet his, wide as saucers. "Prevent me from what?"

"As Jacob told me, you are aware that you're a Quiluete, too, aren't you?"

I nodded.

"And you know that what intrigues phasing are the cold ones, don't you?"

Behind me, everyone went silent. I nodded again.

"But what Colby doesn't know is that even though factors might be present, if you're destined to phase, nothing would stop you," he swallowed and I heard someone groan from behind, "Alison, I just need you to know one thing."

I looked at him questioningly.

"Your grandfather was a dear friend of mine, if you need anything, please come and ask me, okay?"

I nodded. "Thank you."

He just smiled and patted my shoulder. Cloe and Jarrett came at that moment. "How do you like it so far? There're still so many things to do on the beach," Jarr noted.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I still hate you."

"Aw, come on, it's not like I meant to - I told you I was sorry."

I sighed. He was way too tall and too goofily innocent to be mad at, he kind of reminded me of Joey of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, except that I was Monica and he'd broken my favorite set of china when he spread that stupid rumor and led Nate on - the guy probably thought he was my boyfriend or something.

I shrugged. "What can I do? It's my birthday, gotta be super gracious."

Paul roared a laugh. Literally. One thing about being around wolves: you couldn't have any kind of privacy. "If we knew that, we would've thrown it earlier, Diva."

I rolled my eyes. He'd been calling me that for a while. "Thank you so much, Paul. Such an awesome birthday present!"

He just laughed, and I was sure Rachel would at least glare at him later. How could Colby possibly compare me to that creature? Sure, he wasn't so bad, but he can be obnoxious as hell if he wanted to.

"Leave the girl alone," Colby whined, stretching out his hand for me, "Shall we? The beach is a few minutes away."

I was about to take his hand and go with him when suddenly, and for the second time in two days, my recently developed lack-of-breath attack hit me with full force, and I had to take a step back. Shit.

"I-I'll just go to the toilet," I excused myself, "Be right back," I whispered, turning around, trying to go inside before the attack took a more physical shape - when I wouldn't be able to support myself standing up. Damn, I needed to go to a doctor soon.

"Are you okay?" he asked, following me.

I nodded quickly, knowing my voice would betray me if I spoke, skimming my way in there. As soon as I was inside, I locked the door, sliding on the clean, tiled floor, wincing as another wave of breathless pain hit me. Tears were forming in the corners of my eyes, squeezed down by my wincing.

Someone knocked on the door. "Allie, are you okay? Can you breathe? Should I call the ambulance?"

I wished he could hear me think, no, no and no. It'll go away soon.

Instead, he invaded my thoughts. Allie, can you hear me? Make a sound or something. Two seconds and I'll break that door!

I tried to take a short breath in order to get any words out, but the pain was too much for me to bear. Why was it taking longer than usual? Will it ever end? Should I let him take me to a hospital? I wasn't sure, and I had no energy to even try to decide.

COLBY BLACK

I knocked again, trying to calm myself down, but it wasn't working. At all. "Alison!" Her breath hitched one more time, then it got back to its normal rhythm and I heaved a sigh of relief. "Allie, come on, open the door."

She didn't answer.

"Allie?"

"Is everything alright?" Sam asked from behind. I ignored him and pulled the door open only to find her curled in a ball, leaning her back on the wall, her head between her knees. I knelt down in front of her, caressing her hair.

"What happened?" I mumbled, "Are you sick? That's the second time-"

"Shush," she said, still in her place, "Just a sec."

Sam clicked his fingers, capturing my attention. "Hospital?" he mouthed.

Should I take her there? That was the second time that happens in two days, and when it happened yesterday, it wasn't the first time. What was going on with her?

I nodded. "I'm taking her," I said. Sarah, I need your car.

Are you going to leave her alone? Where the hell are you going?

I sighed; typical Rosie. I'm taking her somewhere. Keep them busy until we come back.

Now? Seriously?

Could you please not argue for one day? Make it quick.

"Don't take me anywhere. I'll be fine."

I stared at her. "No arguing," I decided, standing up, "Let's go - can you stand up?"

She stayed still, her head still buried between her knees. "I'm fine, Colby. I don't need to-"

"Allie!"

I didn't mean to yell at her, I really didn't; I just couldn't watch her do that to herself and not react. When did the girl become so damn masochistic? How could someone lose the ability to provide themselves with the very basic elements of survival, and then refuse the medication? She could be stubborn at anything - homework, hangouts, food, anything - but not her health; that I wouldn't allow.

One of her fists clenched tight and she took a deep breath. "Please don't yell."

"Have you lost it, Alison? You couldn't fuckin' breathe!"

Much to my surprise, she stayed silent, not moving an inch.

"Keep it down, Colby," Sam warned.

I turned to him furiously. "Look at what she's doing!"

She stood up beside me, sighing, and for the first time since I'd known her, she looked scared. I hated myself for ever scaring her. She tucked on my shirt like a little kid. "Please, I'll tell you later. I'm really fine."

I wrapped an arm around her. "Just come for me, and if you're fine then you shouldn't be worried."

She grimaced. "Dad'll have to know."

"Mmm... Carlisle's still in town - and I'm sure he wouldn't mind-"

"Will Edward be there?"

I blinked, leading her outside. "Well, yeah, I guess."

She rested her palm on her forehead, drawing relaxing circles. "Colby, I swear I'm fine. It's no use."

C'mon. They'll eat dinner as we go, no one will even notice we're gone.

As soon as we stepped outside, and finally became alone, she spoke. I noticed how Sarah's Porsche was parked and running in a distance, left for us to use. "It's - is - is that normal?"

I frowned. "What's normal?"

"I-" she glanced around her nervously, her heart thumping faster, her hands clenching to my shirt harder. "Tommy, I'm afraid."

Why?

I opened the door for her, sliding in the driver's seat soon afterward. "What are you afraid of?"

She shrunk in her seat. "Oh God," she breathed, covering her face as I started the engine, quickly heading towards the Forks mansion.

"Frankly, Allie, I can't understand you."

She hitched a sob. "You just came yesterday!"

I frowned. Was she on something? "What? Allie, for heaven's sake, tell me what's on your mind."

She didn't speak; instead, I felt her hand rest on the top of my arm and I reflexively let go of the steering wheel and held it reassuringly when she gave me a slip of paper. I raised an eyebrow and held it in eye-sight, reading what it said.

Wondering what's wrong?

Every time you get a little closer to your imprint, I will knock your breath away.

A shudder, stronger than any other, ripped through my muscles and a growl escaped the back of my throat. I had to concentrate to get my driving straight. "Who gave you this?"

"I couldn't see who it was - it slipped through the bathroom window just before you opened the door," she whispered.

I brought it closer to my nose and sniffed. Nothing. There wasn't any scent on the piece of paper, not even human. "Oh shit."

"What is it?"

I huffed. The bitch. The only one who could go around without having any scent - Jemma, an Italian half-vampire and one of the few survivors of the Romanians/Volturi encounter several years ago. "I need you to listen to me, Al," I started sternly; the last time that creature was involved, Sarah was almost killed, "From now on, someone's gonna be on your trail - either me, someone from the pack or one of the Cullens, you-"

"Please, no," she said, shaking her head, "If he or she wanted to hurt me, they would've done that months ago."

"How many times did that happen exactly?"

She concentrated for a minute. "Today's the fifth."

"The fifth?" I exclaimed disbelievingly, "But I wasn't here - and we didn't even call each other. How did that happen?"

She blushed subtly, looking out of the window. "One time I was with Quil and Claire, and I was looking through your pictures when you were little in Paul's house," she explained, "And the other two I was...typing something on my laptop."

"Typing something?" I retorted, tilting my head sideways, forgetting -for a second- what was going on.

"T-typing, uh," she stuttered, "Diary entries."

"Oh." I still couldn't get it, but I let it go, looking for the nearest U-turn. "I'm gonna take you back now then call for a pack meeting, I should be back before the cake."

She blinked. "Can it wait until we're done? I don't want you to leave me."

I smiled at her. "I thought you said you didn't need protection."

She looked down at her hands. "Looks like I do."

And, just then, I knew how much she needed me; getting her to admit that was the next hardest thing after trying to move earth the opposite direction.

ALISON ANDERSON

He didn't leave my side.

For the rest of the day, I didn't care what everyone would think with us moving around together like that - especially Jarrett and Cloe. All I cared about was that I felt...safe. It was one powerful thing about imprinting, and the one thing I would trade the world for.

Of course, I knew there was a good chance whoever sent me that note wouldn't hurt me, but I didn't get the point out of it. And, even though I knew me being even closer to him was directly defying them, I couldn't care less; either ways I'd be afraid, and after the three months I witnessed without him, I knew that if I had to endure something, I'd rather endure it with him there.

The pack members plus Mrs. Black shot us worried and confused looks every now and then, but Colby would explain, mentally, that he would tell them later. Putting everything aside, though, I had to admit, the cake was delicious. Emily couldn't go wrong on anything that had to do with food.

"You didn't tell me, though," I said between chunks of cake, "How'd you convince your Mom?"

Cloe shrugged. "I knew about that just when you did. Mom's the one who told me."

I raised my eyebrow at Colby, who was standing beside me. "She knows Jasper."

"Aha," I said, swallowing another chunk, when he suddenly stiffened.

"Al, stay here," he said before he called for his Dad and Paul and sprinted towards the woods.

Author's Note: Finally! What do you think?

Balloons for reviews 'cause Im on a diet xD

TooToo