A/N: Posted this super early because if I didn't, I'd forget, which is nothing new. Thanks for all the love, I really hope you're all doing well. I can't wait until this story gets to the good part but sadly, that's still a long way off, and you awesome people have the patience of saints for taking this ride with me.

Chapter 11

Now in new borrowed clothes with her arm as patched up as it could be under a new near shoulder length glove, Riley walked through the forest next to the Cullens with a skip in her step. It had only been a half hour since Carlisle had agreed to meet at the border closest to the Cullen house to deliver the human free of charge, and already Riley felt much more at ease with them-well, some of them. They were just like they were in the books, and it seemed they really didn't want to hurt anyone unless they truly felt like they had no choice. Now knowing her death was definitely off the table, Riley couldn't have been happier. Or so she thought, until something Riley said while idly chatting with the Cullens managed to trigger Alice's memory of her last meeting with Riley. Thanks to that, Edward got to watch exactly how Riley acted around Bella through Alice's thoughts. Having seen him stiffen before shooting a tortured look at Riley, followed by him asking if she was dating Bella in a choked up, pained voice, was one of the best things that Riley could have hoped for. She didn't reply to him though, instead turning to joke with Emmett, effectively maddening the mindreader further. Edward had then demanded Riley answer him, so Riley had replied, "That's between me and Bella." Some other words were said, things happened, and, to put it simply...Riley and Edward definitely weren't going to get along, just like Riley preferred it. She still wanted Edward to pay for everything he had put Bella through, and she was nowhere near satisfied.

"I don't know how much Bella told you about what happened, but Edward didn't want to leave her," Alice said at one point when the awkward silence and guilt had become too heavy for her. "None of us did. It was the hardest choice we ever had to make."

"Doesn't matter what you did or didn't want," Riley replied with a roll of her eyes. She knew they easily could have stayed, that Edward had convinced them all to leave."Either way, you still left her, and you made sure to leave her broken."

The atmosphere got worse, all of the vampires falling into their own thoughts, but all thinking about Bella. Jasper grimaced at the overwhelming sadness and regret coming from everyone except for Riley. Not just because he only got a fuzzy feel from her, but because Riley was simply that unconcerned about having dealt such a painful emotional blow to everyone.

"You don't know anything-" Edward immediately snapped to defend himself, but Esme put a hand on his shoulder to calm him.

"We're here," Carlisle said. "Just past this rock is the meeting point with Sam Uley. Now, I know the way we're doing things might seem a bit strange to you Riley, but-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Riley perked up and jumped over a large rock, feeling stirrings of excitement inside of her. It had only been a few days since Riley had last been around the pack, but it had felt like months. She was so eager to lay eyes on any member of the pack and talk to them again, to the point it was hard to control herself. "Thanks for patching up my arm and not calling the cops, but this is goodbye. I hope I have nothing to do with any of you again." She focused on Rosalie and Emmett with a grin. "Except for you two. You two, I'd love to see again, and I don't even mean that in the lecherous sense. Consider it an honor." She didn't really have a problem with Jasper either, but Jasper was completely wrapped around Alice's finger, and she still had mixed feelings about the pixie. Carlisle seemed okay; he had told Sam they could have Riley back for free after all, but he was still a doctor, and Esme...she had been okay until she started trying to mother her. Asking if Riley needed water, wanted anything to eat, if she was feeling okay. It just rubbed Riley the wrong way and it always would.

Emmett let out a snort, wrapping an arm around Rosalie's waist and pulling her close. Despite her icy glare and scowl fixated on Riley, her expression softened when Emmett laid a kiss to her temple. "Consider the honor received," Emmett said.

Riley nodded. "It better be." Done with the Cullens, she all but skipped up the small hill to lay her eyes on whoever had come to pick her up-and froze.

She had expected Sam, maybe Paul, but instead she had the entire pack, minus Jacob and plus Emily, waiting for her. Even Leah was there, and while Riley knew the girl had called Riley's phone to try to protect her, she still expected Leah to keep her distance; yet here Leah was. Right there. Waiting for Riley.

All of them looked worried, nervous, agitated, but the second their eyes landed on Riley, all of their expressions turned to some form of relief or excitement or joy.

Oh. Again, Riley was stunned by the amount of love others held for her. To think so many people cared about her...damn it, now wasn't the time to get all sappy. Now was the time to just get the reunion over with and go home.

The Cullens followed Riley until the very start of the border, as if worried someone would attack and kill Riley if they didn't stay with her. Riley quickly but casually bound across the border line, stopping once she was in front of the pack. "Sup?" Riley asked, and then nearly punched Seth in surprise when he was the first one to crack and sweep Riley up into a huge hug. Right after, the other members of the pack swarmed her save for Sam, Paul, and Leah, who stood there keeping their eyes on the vampires. Paul was trembling, looking ready to shift and murder the Cullens, treaty be damned. Leah looked torn between murdering the Cullens and wondering if she should step in and help a clearly overwhelmed Riley. The voices of the pack overlapped each other, all loud and excited and welcoming, and it overloaded Riley's ears.

"It was smart of you to bring her back in one piece. You can go now," Sam said when the vampires didn't leave immediately. Rosalie looked ready to say something rude in reply, maybe stay there just to piss the wolves off. Before she could, Carlisle nodded, and with that, all of the vampires were gone.

"Okay, enough, let me check on her," Emily said once the tension eased. "I need to figure out what happened to her arm."

Riley tried not to obviously stare at Paul and Leah; she didn't want them to know how much she wanted them to hug her too, even if she was still overwhelmed by the rest of the pack's greeting. Instead, she smirked at Emily and said, "I feel like you're always looking for a reason to take off my clothes."

Emily absently swatted her on her good arm as she slowly pulled off the glove of Riley's injured arm. "Don't even try that with me, I'm not Leah."

"What do I have to do with anything?" Leah growled. The sound of the she-wolf's voice drew Riley's eyes despite herself, but the second she met Leah's irritated gaze, she quickly looked away. Riley really didn't want to risk making Leah upset, not when it had been so long since she saw the other girl.

Since Riley was looking away, purposely fixating her gaze on Emily as Sam's imprint removed her bandages, she didn't see how Leah visibly deflated at Riley's clear avoidance. Paul grimaced in sympathy, but had no idea how to help either girl. The pack got a little uneasy as all of them saw and wanted to help themselves, but were just as lost on how to. Seth was the only one who did anything, slipping his hand into Leah's and squeezing it in comfort.

Emily let out a hum as she finished looking at what she could see of Riley's arm. "Those bloodsuckers patched you up really well, but I just don't get how you started bleeding in the first place. You were healing so well, and now your skin is split all over, and…" Emily fell silent, examining Riley's arm with a new intensity.

"Shit, that's right, you bled in front of them! You should totally be a new legend now for future Quiluetes to tell around the bonfire! The human who bled in front of the leeches and didn't even get attacked!" Quil announced excitedly, but then his expression darkened. "They didn't actually attack you, right?"

All eyes fixated on Riley, and it became hard not to shift under the scrutiny. "No, none of them did," Riley said, and at least that was the truth. Since she couldn't admit what she overheard them say about her blood, she came up with another reason she didn't die. "Maybe they have super strong control? I don't know much about vampires after all, only that they exist...and that family is one of them. Right?" Ugh, it was so hard to play dumb to her friends, but besides a few words exchanged about the Cullens with Bella, a few words spoken in disgust of vampires or pride at killing them from the pack, and the original "slip up," Riley hadn't been told much. She had almost wished Paul or Leah had accidentally thought about the truth when they had been wolves so that the others had learned through the mind link. If they had, then Sam and the others might be willing to tell Riley more about vampires. But noooo, they just had to be good at keeping secrets, so Riley had to keep playing along.

"You were lucky," Sam agreed, but he still looked troubled, as if he couldn't quite believe that Riley had survived. "Emily, how is she?"

Emily had still been checking out Riley's arm, her frown becoming more pronounced as time went on. "I mean...I don't know." She looked up helplessly. "This is just so weird. It's almost like she got hit by lightning all over again." Emily gave Riley a concerned yet suspicious look. "You didn't get hit by lightning again, did you?"

"Nope. Bitch's honor," Riley swore, putting her middle finger over the right side of her chest, as she couldn't exactly use her injured hand again. "I was just sitting in their house and it happened. Freaked the fuck out of everyone too."

"How the hell does that even happen?" Paul demanded, his face a mask of such strong disbelief it made Riley laugh.

"I'm just sexy like that," Riley said with a smirk, earning a punch in the shoulder from Paul. That punch somehow turned into a huge hug that almost squeezed the breath from Riley's lungs, Paul for once being careful not to touch her injured arm.

"I was worried about you, dumbass. If you getting fucked up is your kind of sexy, stop being so fucking sexy all the time."

"You think I can just turn all of this," Riley gave a sweeping gesture to her body, "off? Just like that? I'm not a magician, Paul. It's a hard way to live, but I can't control it. My sexiness is a blessing and curse that I have to live with."

"You could at least try to console me you asshole-"

"Why the hell would I do that? Do you know how much work that is?"

Emily sighed at the two's squabbling and started wrapping Riley's arm back up. She focused back on the more serious topic, knowing how worried getting a look at Riley's arm had made the pack. "I'm not a doctor, I'm not experienced enough to deal with this. All I can do is my best at treating what I see, and hope her arm actually heals properly this time." Emily didn't want to voice her suspicions about how the injury seemed to have almost gotten longer in a few places. She didn't want to get everyone worked up over something that was hopefully Emily's imagination. After all, wounds didn't just grow. She was definitely seeing things.

"I still don't know what you were thinking," Sam said, interrupting Paul and Riley's argument. "Staying at a random house instead of with us. No wonder Leah and Paul insisted on spending the nights with you."

Riley shrugged. "Abandoned houses are the best place to live for someone like me. It gives shelter, keeps you dry, and relatively warm," although not nearly as warm as the Cullens' house, usually the utilities were off, "and while you have to worry about other people breaking in, you can barricade the doors and windows and not even get in trouble for it." Again, this wasn't something that she had to do with the Cullen house.

Riley got some looks of pained sympathy from the pack, but she ignored them. It was a part of her life, her past and probably her future, and she wasn't going to tiptoe around the subjects with them. She wanted them to know more about her, the good and the bad.

"Still-"

"Oh yeah!" Riley hadn't meant to cut off the alpha, but now that she had, she might as well keep going. "I don't have a place to live now, so I guess I'll have to find a place to camp...anyone have some gear that they don't mind me borrowing?" Riley could probably survive without any, but if it got colder, Riley would probably freeze to death without any proper shelter.

The human had barely finished asking before everyone was speaking at once, protesting her plans to live in the forest, each insisting that she stay with them, that they'll convince their parents somehow. All of them really hated the idea of their friend living anywhere but in a home, and Riley could tell none of them would allow her to turn down all of the options. No matter how much Riley argued with them, no matter what ideas she came up with or how she pointed out that she would have never ending debt that way, no one would be swayed. It got to the point that Paul looked ready to start fighting everyone, Riley included, to make sure Riley ended up staying with him.

That is, until Leah, who had been incredibly quiet during the fight ,along with Seth, finally spoke up. "Enough already! Riley is coming home with me."

Oh, how tempted Riley was to give Leah a dirty reply, and even the pack seemed to stifle their own teasing words at what Leah said. Leah also tensed, lips lifting in a snarl and glare at the ready to decimate anyone who dared try to reply with a joke at Leah's expense. When no one did, she relaxed, although only a little.

"My bedroom isn't being used much anyway. I'm not saying you have to stay there forever, just until you get something figured out. Got it?" Leah expected Riley to protest, of course, but what she hadn't been ready for was how that protest would come out.

"But why?" Riley blurted out. She was completely flabbergasted, her brain struggling to figure out how this ended up as a possible outcome. "I made you mad! Don't you want nothing to do with me? Don't you want to never see me again?"

"Of course not!" Leah almost asked how that idea wormed its way into Riley's clearly broken brain, but stopped herself. She kept forgetting, this wasn't a girl who grew up like her. Riley had told Leah quite a bit about her past before the fight, and one thing had been a constant in quite a few of them; Riley was used to being thrown away. She was someone who put on an act for strangers, because she knew all she had to do was one mistake, and the person who she charmed into wanting to help her could choose to get rid of her in a heartbeat.

Damn it, Leah really should have made her move to fix things sooner. Even if Riley had run from her, she should have chased the girl down.

"No, of course not," Leah grumbled. She threw an arm around Riley's shoulders, pulling the girl into a side hug. "It's my choice to be stuck with you, even when you're being a pain in the ass. I want to keep you around, and that's not going to change, got it?"

Riley took a moment to look deep into Leah's brown eyes, searching for any hint of deception. Seeing any hint of insecurity just looked so wrong on the tiny girl that it made Leah desperate to make things better.

"I can't imagine life without you anymore, goofball," Leah said with complete sincerity. "These last few weeks have been hell without you. I regret what I said to you every day, you have no idea. I'm so sorry for what I said to you."

"And I'm sorry I said something that hurt you," Riley replied. As she realized Leah didn't want her gone after all, a smile threatened to break out on her face, but Riley kept it hidden. She didn't know if now was the time to smile. "I suck at dealing with death. I wanted to help but I made things worse." Riley threw her arms around Leah suddenly, ignoring her injured arm screaming in protest. She felt too relieved to let a thing like pain stop her. "I love you, Leah, even when you have a giant stick up your ass."

"Fuck off, short stuff." Leah's arms wrapped around Riley and tightened, returning the hug.

Finally, the smile on Riley's face broke free. "Never."