"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."

Albert Einstein

I didn't see Red for a full nine days after the Wolf-Pack intervention. We were still running out asses off between patrols, summer school, and work. The summer was cooling as the days flashed by us. We'd had some small victory with the vampire. Leah had managed to catch her, tearing into her leg before the leech had escaped. She was damaged, if anything; we took our wins where we could find them these days.

It was late on a Sunday evening, and I had only just picked the girls up from dance. We'd stopped for ice-cream, at the request of my mother; chocolate for Nora, and mint-chocolate chip for Ana, as always. The girls had even insisted on a pint of strawberry for Red, and really? How could I say no?

"Dude, Sam. There is a total cat-fight about to break loose at the diner. Right out in front of the parking lot," Leah said as she rushed up to my truck where I was parked outside the mini-mart. "Looks like your girl's right up in the middle of it."

I groaned, slamming the truck door behind sprinting off to the beach, Leah at my side. I had intended on spending some time with my girls, all four of them, that evening; the three hours I'd have been able to manage before needing to get some sleep. "Sh..crap, can you take the girls home?" I asked, tossing Leah the keys. "If a fight breaks loose, I don't want them there. Tell my momma I'll be late."

"Want me to send back-up?" Leah asked, buckling Nora and Ana into their booster seats.

"I think I can handle a couple of girls," I replied, rolling my eyes. "No offense."

Red was there as Leah had said, still in her work uniform, looking tired and angry and five seconds from snapping. Her truck was parked on the side of the diner, out of the view of most of the customers. A bottle-blonde had made her way into Red's space, orange-tanned finger poking her in the chest as she spoke. Another girl stood with her, looking uncomfortable, but silently so. I'd seen them both, but I'd never bothered to remember their names. It hadn't mattered until this moment.

"So," the blonde sneered, shoving Red hard in the shoulder. "Spreading your legs for La Push now that the Cullens are gone, eh? One town to another, right? I heard you fucked your way through Phoenix, and that's why you moved here in the first place."

"Yeah," Red snarled, shoulders tense. "I figured I'd bring my slutty ass to La Push since you have the whore-market cornered for Forks. What can I say? I'm not woman enough to fill your shoes, or the imprint your back left on half the mattresses in town, for that matter."

Making it to Red's side just as a well-manicured hand cracked against her mouth, I barely bit back a snarl. "What exactly is going on here?"

"Sam!" Red squeaked, cupping her bleeding mouth. "Christ. How are you everywhere?"

"Lauren," another familiar looking girl said, tugging on her friends arm. "Maybe we should-"

"Maybe we shouldn't, Jessica," Lauren replied, snottily. She yanked her arm away from the girl and turned back to Red.

"God Lauren, are you a fucking idiot?" Red said, irritated "Just shut the fuck up-"

"Oh my God," Lauren said, eyes brightening. "Oh my God, Swan, is this your boyfriend? Seriously? Wow. I mean, he certainly is a pretty face, but he's a bit of a step down from the Cullens. I heard they were loaded." Her eyes flittered back to me. ""Listen, guy," the blonde sneered, turning her obvious distaste to me. "Even if you are sticking it to Swan, this doesn't concern you-"

Cutting off anything Red might have had to say, I turned my darkest glare to Lauren, drawing myself up as big as I could. I was intimidating, that much was obvious. It was rare I would play it to my advantage, but it had its moments. "As chief of this tribe, it's my right to get into this. Now what seems to be the problem?"

"You're not chief!" the blonde crowed, smirk evident. "You're just some dumb poor Quileute kid. Everyone knows that this whole reservation is full of drunken losers. You're Sam Uley, right? Yeah, you're not a loser. You're just a twenty-something high school drop out that hangs out with a bunch of fucking kids. Seriously, don't you still live with your ugly mother or something?"

Suddenly, Red had Lauren by the front of her shirt, dragging her down to her shorter level. Her face was flush with her anger, eyes narrowed as she spat. "Listen here you highlighted little ho-bag. You do not get to talk about them like that. These guys on the Rez? They're better than any man you'll spread your legs for, Cellulite Barbie. And Helena is more beautiful then your fake ass will ever be. So shut your fucking mouth, unless you want me to knock your teeth in."

My own heart slammed and swelled in my chest as she defended me, my brothers, even my mother. It seemed as if Red had in the last few weeks had a change of heart. A weight I hadn't even realized I carried lifted. I hadn't realized how heavily I had been carrying her earlier words of loser, and worthless and nobody.

"Oh! I get it! It's a group-thing! I guess when you're poor you get use to sharing everything." Lauren barely blinked, tugging herself free and running her mouth. "So do you share her with your friends? I bet she's into that. Just...pass you around like a peace-pipe at the pow-wow." It wasn't funny, but I let it roll of my shoulders. "I bet she fits right in here, with the rest of the trash."

Red however, did not. She grabbed the girl by the back of her bleach blonde hair and smashed her face into the hood of her old truck. "What the fuck did I just tell you bitch?" Red asked, yanking her back. I caught her arm before she could smash Lauren's face down again, tugging her away.

Lauren laughed, cupping her bleeding nose. "Oh you've done it now, Swan," she said, spitting at Red's feet. She was taller then Red by at least six inches, even without the heels, but Red never wavered. The girl just didn't know when to quit. Even bleeding, and possibly broken, she carried on.

"You know what your problem is, Bella? You've always thought you were better than us. Always acted like we weren't good enough for you. Well you know what?" She shoved Red hard in the shoulder, smearing blood across the collar of her work shirt. It took everything I had not to step forward. Red wouldn't appreciate it. "It's no skin off our teeth if you want to hang out with these deadbeat losers. Sam's your boyfriend now? Big fucking surprise. Didn't his dad leave when he was like, two? Hell, at least your mom had the brains to take you with her. Too fucking bad you had to com-"

The crunch was wet and squelching, and Red cursed as she drew her fist back to herself. "I told you to shut up!" she bellowed, shoving the bleeding girl. "I told you to shut your motherfucking mouth, you bitch! You do not talk about my Sam like that. You do not! I will kill you, do you hear me? I'll fucking kill you."

Deciding it was probably time for me to intervene, I curled my hand over Red's bicep, tugging her close. She squirmed against me, arms pinned to her sides as she hissed and spat like a feral little thing. I didn't doubt the smile that stretched across my face was a frightening thing, given the situation. My Sam, she had said; I wondered if she even noticed. Her apparently subconscious possessiveness only seemed to spur my own on and if I held her a little closer than necessary, well who could blame me? "Come on, Red. She's not worth your time."

"This is assault! I'm going to report you, you know! I have witnesses!" The girl clearly hadn't learned her lesson. She reeled back, mouth and nose bloody. "Threatening me, hitting me; I'll report you-"

"To who?" I cut in, sick of her shit. "You're in La Push, you want to report her, you'll have to talk to our chief. He's this deadbeat loser named Sam Uley, I think you've heard of him. " Red snickered, but I ignored her, and forced back the smile that threatened my face. "I think it's time for you to leave La Push."

"I'll go to the police," the girl screeched, hard enough to make me want to wince. "I'll tell-"

"My father?" Red supplied helpfully. "You're seriously going to run and tell my daddy?"

"I don't know if that's wise," I cut in, a towering force behind Red. "After all, I'm sure you'd hate to be brought up on assault charges."

"Assault! She hit me! She punched me in the mouth!" the girl replied, as I expected, mouth stained with red. Her lip was fat and swollen, and I wondered if any of her teeth were loose. Red threw a mean punch, but her form was bad; she had gotten creative with the truck though. Not that I had any intentions of teaching her: an armed Red was a dangerous Red.

"You slapped her, first" I replied saliently. "And I saw it. Consider me king here, wisatsu'upat,"I spat at her."So why don't you and your friend go home, and think real hard about whether or not coming back is all that important. Because all them boys you just called losers and deadbeats? No matter what you think, those boys are her brothers."

"And they might think twice about hitting a girl, but I sure as fuck won't," Leah said, coming out of fucking no where. She gave me a questioning look, eyes lingering where I was still holding Red against me. She turned to Lauren. "What the fuck did Sam just say? Go!" she barked out, cackling when both girls scurried. "Looks like you got it covered."

Twisting her way out of my arms, Red squirmed. "I'm sorry, I-"

"What are you sorry for?" I asked, cutting her off rudely. "What she said to you, Red-"

"I know but...I mean, I'm trying not to...you know, start shit like this. You don't need to be worrying about my bullshit when there are other things to worry about. I don't want to-"

"No," I said firmly. "Remember what I said about being angry for the wrong reasons? In my opinion, you had every right to be angry, Red."

Red nodded, huffing. Her lip was swollen at the corner, smeared with a faint line of rusty dried blood. "I know, I know. Just...those things she said about you and the guys, I just got so mad."

"I uh...I meant what she was saying about you," I said, feeling my face heat up a little. I was too fucking old to be blushing, but the whole situation was just so ridiculous. I wasn't embarrassed by what the girl had said about me; it had all been said before. I wasn't even embarrassed that Red had heard it. No, my embarrassment stemmed from the instinctive manly need to not be defended, my pride, if you will. But opposite that, I was delighted she'd want to. It was all very contradictory, twisting up my insides and making me act like an idiot. I was flustered. "I uh...I don't care what people say about me. Not that I'm opposed to you defending our honor and all, I guess. But uh...you know, maybe without the face smashing."

Red flushed too, clearly as flustered as I was. "Uh..."

"Right," Leah cut in, startling both Red and I. "I'm just going...to go somewhere else and let you two crazy kids awkwardly fail at forming proper sentences. And you wonder why people think we're not educated? Don't blush too hard, you might pass out."

"Leah!" I hissed at her, earning a snort as she disappeared into the diner. "So."

Red sagged, shoulders sinking tiredly. "Want a ride home?" she asked, tossing me keys. "You can drive."

"Sure," I said, smiling a little.

She climbed up into the passenger seat, curling her legs up under her butt. "Can...um. Can I hide out at your place? I know you were planning on spending some time with your mom and sisters. I was gonna grab dinner at the diner and surprise my dad but now I just kind of want to crash."

Biting my lip, I pulled her truck up next to mine in the cabin drive way. "Ain't letting you skip dinner," I said, cringing a little. "That came out wrong. Sorry. Yeah. What I meant to say is that I have food and I am willing to share."

"Oh, but what about the girls?" Red replied, and I took notice that it was not a refusal.

"It's been kind of a long day for me too?" I shrugged, pulling the keys out of the ignition. "Let me run over there and take a rain check. I could kind of use a night of just..."

"Vegging out?" Red asked, quirking a smile. "Alright, go on. But you know, spend some time with them? Or I'll feel guilty. You go, I'll start dinner." She paused, halfway to the door. "And uh, thank you? For today."

"I didn't do anything," I replied, confused. "Seriously, you seemed to have it handled. Honestly, I was a little impressed."

"Still," Red drawled, pulling open my screen door. "It was kind of nice, someone having my back."

Kissing both the girls on their curly heads, I weaseled my way out of the house a half an hour later with a pint of strawberry ice-cream and an all-too-knowing look from my mother. She kissed me on my head, and slapped my cheek. "Good luck, mijillo."

Red was in my kitchen, absently stirring sizzling hamburger meat in a pan. "It's not raw," she said with a wry smile. "I hope you don't mind." She pointed to the boiling pot of noodles on the stove. "Drain and plate those, would you?"

"I'm sure I can suffer my way through your cooked meat," I replied easily. I'd eat a shoe for her, I was pretty damn sure of it. Draining them first, I separated the noodles onto the plates, putting more than I knew she'd eat on hers. "How's your mouth?"

"Eh," Red shrugged, emptying a jar of sauce into the pan. "I've had worse. Stings a little, I guess. Lauren didn't so much hit me as much as flailed at me."

"What was her problem?" I managed to ask as Red poured the sauce over the noodles. "I mean, I've seen her around. She doesn't look like the nicest person, but uh...I don't know. That seemed intentionally cruel."

"She's never liked me," Red replied tightly. "There's just...I don't know. I guess there's a rumor going around that I moved here because one of you guys got me pregnant. Apparently I don't know who the dad is, but everyone has their money on you, since I'm living with your mom."

"Shit," I breathed. "I hadn't even thought about that when we brought you and your dad here."

"I don't really care what people say about me either Sam," she shrugged it off, echoing my earlier words.

"But you care about what people say about the Pack," I replied, handing her a fork from the dish-drainer.

"Yeah," she nodded. "I do."

I was full of pasta, sleepy and content with Red curled up at the opposite end of the couch. She tugged my empty plate out of my hand as I nodded off, head propped in my hand. When she returned from the kitchen, it was with her pint of ice cream and two spoons.

She plopped down, this time on the center cushion, chucking a spoon at my chest. "So, I stole the remote while you were sleeping," she said conversationally, peeling the lid off the carton. "You're mother does not have cable, Sam."

"She says it rots the brain," I murmured back sleepily. I was half-awake, but she didn't seem to mind. To be honest, my current state of half-sleep was more restful than half the naps I'd managed to steal in the last week and I knew without a doubt it was her. I watched her poke at the remote for a full minute, before I took pity on her. "Was there something you wanted to watch?"

She flipped the TV on, scrolling swiftly through the channels. "You're going to mock me," she said seriously. "But I accept that."

Fifteen minutes later, I was eating ice cream out of the carton with Red, staring at the TV in horror. "What the fuck is this shit?" I asked around my spoon. "Seriously?"

"True Blood," Red replied, rolling her eyes. "Shut up, it's not like I'm watching Vampire Diaries. Although the werewolves are hotter on that show, but I can't stand Katherine. Shut up and stop looking at me like that."

"This is...really fucked up," I commented, pointing at the screen with my spoon. "How can you enjoy this when you know the truth?"

Her smile was benign as she looked at me over the pint. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I'm fixating, that this is me clinging to whatever. Them. Him. What happened. But it's not like that."

I fixed her with a stare, because yes, that was exactly what I was thinking. "Kind of looks like that's what this is. Seriously this...this is nothing like the truth. This can't be healthy."

"It makes me forget the truth," she murmured. "Seeing it like this? It's cheesy and romanticized and...so...wrong. It kind of reminds me when the truth wasn't my reality. Simplifies things. This is fiction, you know, I know that. It's just so...so ridiculous that just for a moment I can pretend that none of it's real. Not the vampires, not the werewolves, no offense, none of it. That it's all ridiculous and not real and I'm just Bella, just a girl and that's the end of it. Sometimes I need that."

"It is all a little ridiculous. The vampire and werewolf thing. I mean, I can't imagine what it's like to find out it's all real. I mean I can, obviously.But I think it's different for me, because I'm a part of it. But to be on the outside of it... " I sighed, nudging her with my shoulder. She had closed the gap between us under the pretext of sharing her ice cream. Her hair tickled my shoulder as she turned her head, looking up at me, and if we were closer, if we weren't on the cusp of something fragile and new, it would have been the movie-perfect moment to kiss her. As it were, the thing between us was too new to press, so instead, I let the moment pass. "I mean...I don't know. I guess I can understand the appeal even if it's complete bullshit."

She gave me an arched look, pulling her spoon out of her mouth. "Well I'm so glad I have your approval on what trashy TV I watch, Sam."

I laughed, leaning against the back of the couch as the latest vampire drama unfolded on the screen. "Could be worse. You could watch Jersey Shore," I shuddered. "Quil loves Jersey Shore."