Hey, all! Sorry that it's been a while again, but as promised, I won't stop this fic until it's finished! I have hearts to break and bonds to put under pressure, so I'll persevere and get it done, it just might take me a while (in case that wasn't clear).

As ever, thank you SO DAMN MUCH for sticking with me and this story that I adore writing. It truly means the world to me that anyone out there enjoys reading the brain farts that I have. I hope this chapter's okay in spite of being kind of short. There are a few more of this kind of style coming, then I have a wrench to throw into the works, so enjoy!

In all honesty, she couldn't wrap her head around it. No matter how many times it was explained to her in varying levels of detail, she simply couldn't wrap her head around the fact that Bella Cullen was pregnant with some freaking hybrid vampire baby.

Seriously, what the actual fuck?

Granted, she understood the premise of course. She understood how pregnancy came about and was silently reminded that she and Paul needed to keep on being careful. She sure as hell wasn't ready for any... surprises.

Fuck, would she have some kind of human-wolf hybrid, or was that what Paul already was? If it came out with a freaking tail, she'd run for the hills.

Okay, okay. Her hypothetical baby wasn't the one in question, Bella's was. Through it all, through the thoughts of how gross it would be to have sex with a vampire of all things with their freakishly cold and hard skin, thoughts of anything and everything, the thing that was truly stumping her? Well, the fact that the pack was planning on killing it. Not only it, but Bella, too.

Yes, she understood. She understood that it wasn't just going to be a baby, that it was going to be some kind of freaking monster that no one had seen before and that it would need blood, but how strong could a baby be? Hell, the little things couldn't so much as hold their own heads up, let alone pose an actual threat to anyone.

Only, she figured a vampire baby could probably sprint. Hell, a baby with the strength to do all of the things that regular babies couldn't, that was the stuff of nightmares.

She shuddered at the thought of some red-eyed demonic baby sprinting at her. It was a foul thought, one that was sure to keep her up at night.

Across the gym, Skylar watched her with a peculiar look on her otherwise beautiful features. "Riv?" She called out cautiously, catching the other girl's attention. "I think that bench is clean now." She stated, having watched the brunette stare off into space while cleaning the same weight bench for the last five minutes at least.

There was nothing wrong with being thorough, but rubbing the same spot of the leather seat for that long? That wasn't thorough, that was insane. Plus, not that either of them would spill Jet's secret, but they weren't all actually leather.

She didn't respond vocally to Skylar, instead simply waving her cleaning rag in some kind of surrender before moving away to the next cluster of benches.

It hadn't been all that long since Paul had told her exactly what had happened between them all that night only two nights ago. She was still silently stumped though, not only at the plan but at the fact that both Seth and Leah had run off to help Jacob.

Leah's departure had shocked her the most initially. Sure, River was well aware that Leah would follow Seth to the ends of the Earth to keep him safe, but siding with vampires? Like, sure, siding with Jacob and her little brother, but River figured that Leah would have knocked Seth out and dragged his ass home before she willingly stayed on Vampire lands and protected them from her own brothers. Hell, she'd have done it herself if she'd had the physical strength.

It was weird. All of it.

In a way though, she almost wanted to join them. She wasn't sure that she could ever voice that to anyone, least of all to Paul, but there was something inside her that really wasn't okay with any of this.

Look, she was pro-choice, right? Right, but, well, the way she saw that, that meant that the person with the baby inside them should have a choice. Not just the choice to abort, but also the choice to give birth if they so wished. For as terrifying as she found the idea of a vampire baby, the thing she found infinitely scarier was the thought of a pack of wolves descending on a mother and her newborn baby. She'd only just gotten used to seeing the other, furrier Paul. Now she had to imagine him hurting... no, killing a baby?

It was too fucking much.

In all honesty, River was actually thankful to have a few longer shifts. Spending more time at the gym meant less time sitting beside Paul and wondering if he'd be the one to do it. If he'd be the one to take both a human life and the life of whatever creature Bella birthed.

Silently, over the course of their shift, River could feel Skylar getting closer to her, keeping a watchful eye on the younger girl as they went about their duties together. Customers were few and far in between that day, so there was a lot of time spent with just the two of them finding things to do around the busier hours.

"Are you okay?" Skylar finally asked just a second after Dante and Owen walked past them both with kind smiles. One of the two of them was the nephew of Jet, the guy who owned and ran the place, not that River knew which one. She felt that she'd known them too long now to ask. It would be too awkward to admit that, while she could tell them apart and knew who was who, she had no idea which one of them was related to Jet. After all, they both called him their uncle, just as Jet encouraged them all to do. Hell, River had called him that a few times just out of habit.

When Skylar had finally spoken, had asked the question that had so clearly been prying her lips apart all shift, their shift was coming to a close. She'd almost made it all the way through without Skylar asking her what had put her into such an odd mood. Honestly, she wished that the blonde had just left it. After all, what could she even tell her?

With that in mind, she offered up a quick smile, re-racking weights as she went. "I'm good." She grunted out between heavy plates. "Are... you?" She then asked back, figuring it was polite if nothing else. "You, uh, you got your date soon? With your faceless, online beau?" All she had to do was shift the attention off of how weird she knew she was being, right?

What made the whole thing just that bit worse? She knew that Skylar and Bella had been kind of tight back in school. The way Paul had explained the whole Bella/vampire situation to her, Bella would have been announced dead when she was turned into a vampire, giving her family and friends time to mourn her, but now? Well, now there was going to be some kind of freaking war over vampire Bella and her undead baby, so River had no freaking clue at all what anyone else would know. She hoped silently that Skylar found a better shoulder than hers to cry on when the news of her undead friend broke.

Oh god, was a family of vampires really going to be attacking Paul and the others? Fuck, how the hell had Seth and Leah sided with that?

Breathe.

Fuck. The voice in her head, the one urging her to stay calm and the breathe, it almost sounded like Paul.

She just hoped that he hadn't felt her moment of panic, though if she really thought about it, she could feel him getting closer. He was probably on his way to meet her after her shift, but she knew that he spike of horror would speed his feet up. Dammit. She didn't want to panic him, not ever, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't ignore the situation that was happening around them all, but she could hardly talk to him about it. She knew his stance.

"River!" Skylar finally barked.

Blinking, wide eyed, River turned to the blonde who was now beside her and clicking her fingers in her face. Shit. She swatted the clicking hand quickly. "What?" She grumbled, uncomfortable with the proximity. She awkwardly stepped around a lone bench to create some room, feeling the blonde's eyes tracking her as she went. Her awkward shuffle away had been noticed.

Regarding her with an odd but caring expression, Skylar simply crossed her arms gently over her chest and shook her head. "What's going on with you today?" She asked, an odd reluctance to her voice.

Immediately, River understood. Skylar feared that River would start delving into relationship problems, possibly issues of a sexual nature. As much as she tried, Skylar clearly wasn't quite as over River as they both would have liked her to be. Try as she might, she wasn't ready to help River through sex problems with the boy she'd cheated on her with. Of course, that wasn't actually the issue, but River knew immediately that was what Skylar feared was there, bubbling under the surface.

"Just a... uh, a lot going on, you know?" River decided on, clearing her throat awkwardly. Fuck.

"Okay." In spite of it all, all of the awkwardness, Skylar pushed on. It was clear to River how much the blonde cared for her. It just made her feel worse again for having this entire life of secrecy that she couldn't ever disclose to her. After all, she loved Skylar. Sure, not in the way she loved Paul, not anymore, but she still loved her and she didn't ever want to hide things from her. "Do you want to talk about it? Whatever it is." The sincerity in the blonde's eyes almost did it; it almost broke the dam. Only, it couldn't. She couldn't cave.

Smiling sadly, she shook her head softly. "More than anything." She admitted, watching confusion wash over Skylar's face.

"Okay, so let's-"

"I just can't." She stopped her quickly. She couldn't stand there and let Skylar continue to be so good, not while she was questioning the morality of the things Paul was going to be doing. It felt wrong. Deceitful. "It's not that it's you, Sky, and it's not Paul stuff. I just wouldn't even know where to start. It's everything, you know?" She could hear the tired note in her own voice as it refused to let up.

God, she'd slept terribly since finding everything out. As much as it made her feel like some broken record, she just couldn't comprehend Paul, the boy she was so madly in love with, having some part in killing Bella Cullen. Worse again, having a part in killing Bella's unborn child. Hell, maybe they'd wait for it to be born. Maybe they'd wait to see if it was inhumanly strong before they made their move, but she doubted it. The fact that they were even so much as willing to take both it and Bella out before it was even born said enough on the matter.

"Everything?" Skylar's voice was soft. Prompting.

She wasn't only stressed about the whole thing about Paul possibly having part in a double homicide, so she could talk about the other stuff, right? Hell, maybe she'd get lucky and talking about other stuff might even ease her baby related worries. Maybe. "Everything." She finally admitted, feeling that same old comfort snaking through her at simply being able to vent with Skylar. For everything that had gone wrong with them, she was so freaking glad to still have her as a friend. With a small, encouraging nod from Skylar, she carried on. After all, she had to tell her about everything else. "My family, school, the future. Don't get me started about you going to college." Fuck. She froze for a moment, groaning internally. "Shit. Not that-"

"River, relax." Skylar, for the first time in a long time, snorted out a laugh. She was quick to slug River in the arm across the makeshift barrier of a weight bench between them, rolling her eyes. "I know that wasn't some declaration of love, okay? Come on. Seriously, talk to me. What's going on?"

There she went again, being so freaking good.

So, River did just that.

For the rest of their shift, not that it was long at all, they grumbled and groaned. River admitted that she wasn't looking forward to not having Skylar as a colleague. Skylar voiced how anxious she was to go to college and meet so many new people. She also admitted that leaving the gym and River wasn't something that she was looking forward to in the slightest.

It was nice. Talking to Skylar always had been, even with the enormous secrets looming over them both.

When it finally came time for them both to clock out, River almost hadn't realised that she could feel how very close Paul must have been, though she immediately found herself wondering if his proximity had eased her heavy mind and not Skylar's chat. Seeing him as she and Sky walked out of the double doors was, for the first time in a long time, almost a shock to her. Almost.

There he was, sitting on the hood of her truck with a book of all things in his hands and an adorably perplexed look on his face.

"Looks and brains? If only we could all get so lucky, huh?" Skylar teased somewhat loudly as she locked the doors behind them, nudging River gently as she spoke.

River had to admit, seeing him looking... like that did things to her. He looked amazing, just as he always did, but there was something about seeing her big, strong man holding a book that made something in her wake up just a little. It almost seemed like some weird joke that the universe was playing on her, presenting her with him looking so freaking cute while she knew what he and the others were planning on doing.

All the same, not wanting to let anything more on around Skylar, she simply sent a playful shove to the blonde's side. "Hey, who knows, maybe your mystery girl is some hottie with a library." Not her best retort, she knew that, but she really did hope that Skylar's new beau was exactly what the blonde hoped for. Though, not that she would ever admit it, she knew that Skylar was much more interested in brawn and being tossed around than she was in any kind of literary intelligence. It had just, at the time, been a happy coincidence that River had also cared about her studies as well as physically being what Skylar had wanted.

Oblivious to the somersaults that River's mind was doing, Skylar simply groaned playfully. "I'll have to send her a reading list." She joked, waving politely to Paul as he clambered down from River's truck, peeling away from the couple and heading off towards her own car.

In all honesty, River had made a point of not parking beside Skylar. It may have seemed dumb but she knew that Paul liked meeting her after her shift and she didn't want to be forcing them as a couple onto Skylar. She imagined that it was enough to be seeing them together, it would have been cruel to make the blonde watch them getting happily into the truck together while she was still turning her engine on and unable to get away.

She knew it was overkill and that it was probably stupid, but she simply didn't want to lose Skylar. Somehow or other, she figured that Sky was as close to a best friend as she'd ever had and she really didn't want to lose that.

"You guys look like you've had a good shift." Paul mused, a warm smile on his face as she finally reached him. His arms were outstretched in a second, beckoning her to his embrace with the silent promise to chase her worries away. Naturally, he also returned Skylar's polite smile and wave as she hightailed it out of the parking lot.

Choosing to dodge the question somewhat, not ready to admit what she'd spent her entire shift thinking about, she was quick to grab the book from Paul's hands and inspect it. "Nerd." She teased lightly, feeling a warmth within her spreading at the sound of his content chuckle. She could feel something else too, even more so when she looked up into his eyes. She could play and tease all she liked, they could both feel the conflict curled up in her gut. "Please don't ask." She offered up weekly as his eyes began to bore deeper into her.

There was a moment of silence, one in which they seemed to be weighing one another up, then Paul nodded a single nod. "I don't have to." He told her, clenching his jaw lightly. She watched the muscle jump, knowing that she would have found such a simply thing hot at any other time, but now? Well, now she couldn't help but face the very thing that she'd been so desperate to avoid with him.

Shit.

Somewhat awkwardly, River gently batted Paul's arm with the slim book that he'd been reading, handing it back to him as she wordlessly headed to the driver's door.

He clambered in after her a moment later, letting a sigh be the only noise between them as she turned the engine on.

Nothing could come between them, she knew that now, but this? How could this not come between them?

A tiny part of her, one that she'd never admit to having, secretly wished that Paul had left her in the dark a little bit longer. She figured it would have been far easier to simply not know about the whole Bella situation, but that wasn't how things worked. Plus she felt immediately guilty at wishing that she could just be oblivious to someone's pain. That was an uncharacteristically cruel wish, she decided.

What felt worse than that though, it would have meant wishing time with Paul away. It would have meant, had she not known about all of the pack stuff, she would have wished misery on them both. Bella's suffering aside, not even that tiny part inside her could wish for that.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Paul's voice broke the silence as they drove back home.

In all honesty, River could have done with a little more silence, but Paul wasn't like she was. He was constantly worried about upsetting her, constantly doing his best to be better, so he worried. He worried that he'd done something or, worse again, that he hadn't done something that he should have.

Smiling softly, not entirely fake but certainly not completely real either, River shrugged. "I'll take a dollar, not a cent less." Her attempt at deflection was terrible, she knew that, but she really didn't want to get into it, not right now and not with him. She was worried about what it would do to them if she began to pick apart their combined moralities at the seams. How would their magical bond fare if she began to push him away? She didn't want to find out, but she also didn't exactly want to think about him having any part in the murderous plot.

"River." Paul's voice was serious as he said her name. If it was anyone else, she'd have taken the tone as warning, but not him. No, she knew better. He was pleading. Pleading for her to speak to him, to not try to shut him out while she was struggling.

"Sorry." She sighed back, shaking her head. She knew that he could feel her mood, that he could feel how badly she didn't want to talk about this. "I just... I can't. Not right now."

There was a tense moment of silence, one in which she could tell that they both wanted to drop this conversation, then Paul spoke again. "I think we have to." He clearly wanted to talk about this stuff as little as she did, yet there they were.

At that, he hackles raised a little. "Have to?" She asked, voice prickling a little. They didn't have to do anything.

"You know, speak about it."

The silence consumed them once more as they drove, neither one willing to carry things on. For the first time, with an almost amused smile, she actually had the feeling that Paul was a little scared of her. Paul, who turned into a six and a half foot wolf and hunted the undead, was scared of her, the human who was only just over the injuries of a bike crash. It would have been amusing in another moment, but there was no light to the situation they were in, not right now.

"I feel sick." River finally stated, eyes firmly on the road as she drove. She silently thanked the gods that she wasn't able to turn and face Paul. Within herself, she felt both their hearts sink.

Lightly, Paul rumbled beside her, clearing his throat as he sat a little straighter in his seat. "About us possibly fighting Jake and the others or... the other thing?" She heard the reluctance in his voice as he spoke. The heartbreak at knowing that she wasn't happy in some way. It clearly hurt even more to know that it was his own actions that were doing this.

She almost laughed. "Both." She answered quickly. The thought of him fighting the others was horrible. It made her stomach turn and groan. "More the other thing." She then admitted, trying her level best to keep the images from her head as they began to creep in. It was impossible to not see images of a silver wolf stalking toward a mother as she crouched over a newborn, cowering and pleading.

Another silence took the cab over, leaving only the sounds of the tires crunching gravel as they travelled the unpaved roads to make noise alongside the roaring engine.

River did her best to not get her hackles too raised, not to get ready to strike like a backed up animal, but there was something else. She could feel Paul doing the same. Perhaps her guilty thoughts earlier had been right, maybe this was something that could truly come between them. She prayed not, but she couldn't see them reaching common ground. Hell, that was why she hadn't wanted to talk about it. She hadn't wanted for it to become an argument.

"You have something to say." She finally uttered once Paul had taken a good long minute to think about his words.

A sigh was all she got at first as a response, something that left her with white knuckles around the steering wheel. She was anxious. Then, a reply. "It's going to be born without any way to control itself. Powerful and dangerous, right next door to our people." In his voice, resentment and annoyance swam together. Neither were for her, but still, they were cutting.

With each word from Paul's mouth, anger boiled in River's blood. It wasn't specifically at him, nor at the rest of the pack, but at the situation. Anger that teenage boys were having to contemplate the life of a newborn baby. Anger that the Cullens were even still in the freaking area. Even anger at Bella and Edward, no matter how misplaced, for inadvertently putting them in this situation.

"It's going to be a baby, Paul. A baby, like Claire-"

"Don't."

"Don't?" She scoffed, shocked to actually hear such a stern tone from him.

"Don't compare that thing to an imprint." He stated stiffly. There was no waver in his voice, no give or leeway. He was, in that moment, actually angry. Possibly even at her. "It's not human. When that thing's born, it's going to be stronger than you are. It won't matter that it won't know how to walk, it'll already be strong enough to sprint, to hunt. It'll be capable of killing and it'll be hungry. Thirsty. You think the leeches are going to stop it? They won't, or they'd have done it already, so now we have to."

"And what if it's not?" She snapped back, voicing the very thing that terrified her most. "What if it's just a fucking baby, Paul, and you kill it?" Quickly, she veered off the road. They were close to home but this conversation, this conversation that neither of them fucking wanted to have, it had to be had and she couldn't be driving for it. She needed every ounce of concentration she could muster.

The second she'd all but skidded to a stop, she unbuckled her belt and turned to face him, crossing arms petulantly over her chest and leaning back against the driver side door.

In spite of seeming a little caught off guard, Paul didn't waver. "It won't be." He growled, doubling down.

River almost scoffed aloud. "What if it is?" She demanded. She needed to know.

She needed to know that he knew that could be a possibility.

"Well?" She asked again a moment later. Though her voice was harsh and challenging, she knew they both heard it waver. They both heard the note of desperation that begged him to back down and just freaking agree with her.

He heard. He heard and he ignored. "I'll do my duty to our people." Paul's usually warm, loving eyes grew cold. As he regarded her, his love didn't shine through. Perhaps he could feel her disgust at the whole situation. Whatever it was, it sent a chill down River's spine.

As the chill began to spread, she shook her head in disbelief. "You'll kill a baby-"

"I'll do my duty to our people." He growled back, quick to cut her off. She knew what he was saying. Yes, that's what he'd do.

Still, she tried to hammer it home once more, ignoring the frustration that was growing on his handsome face, marring his beauty. "You'll-"

"To our people, River!" He finally barked, loud and fed up. A single fist shot out and hit his seat, rocking the entire truck. Though she hadn't expected it, River didn't move a single inch. She didn't jump, didn't yelp, didn't even panic. All she did was take a deep breath before swiping a single tear from her cheek as it began to fall. "Fuck, I just... I get it, okay? I get that you don't like this. None of us do, but it won't be able to control it's thirst and we can't let this get out of hand and let people die." Paul's tone softened, be it due to her single tear or to something else, she had no idea, but it wasn't enough.

The whole thing about actions speaking louder than words was suddenly in the back of her mind.

Silence settled over them once more. Paul watched River carefully while River... well, she watched through her mind's eye as everything she thought she knew began to crumble.

"River..."

What the hell did all of this mean? Truly, when she searched within herself, she hadn't ever actually expected that Paul was truly on board with this whole plot. Sure, she had horrible thoughts about him being the one to do it, about Sam ordering him to do it, even him being attacked and having his hand forced by the Cullens, but this? This willingness wasn't something that she'd expected.

"River... please. None of us likes this." Though his voice was pleading, it wasn't at all pleading for her understanding, it was almost as though he was pleading with her to stop being so childish. As if he wasn't the one advocating murdering a newborn.

Sighing deeply, she blinked her tears away and shook her head lightly. "We danced at their wedding, Paul." Was all she could mutter, thinking about that beautiful day.

He nodded sadly, reaching out and laying a cautious hand on her thigh. "I know. That was one of the best days of my life; getting you back, getting to hold you again after so long." The sincerity was clear in his voice, but so was the pain.

She brushed his hand away, ignoring the hurt on his face and within them both for a second. "But you'd still kill them? Them and their baby?" She asked, looking deeply into those eyes that she loved so fucking much, searching them for answers. She had her answers before he'd even opened his mouth.

Sighing, defeated, Paul slumped in his seat and took a deep breath. "I'd do a lot of things to make sure our people are safe. To make sure that you're safe." He told her easily, as though it was the simplest thing in the world.

Immediately, she felt sick. Of course he felt as though he was doing this for her.

Wordlessly, she turned the truck back on and began driving.

Neither of them spoke the rest of the way home. Neither of them needed to. The air in the truck was foul, filled with anger and pain. They were both glad to be out and in the fresh air by the time they pulled up at the house, though it then became clear that they'd have to go inside together and make the choice of whether or not they were going to sit together or find a reason to be in separate rooms.

"I need to go to the store." River stated dryly after a long second of them both standing outside the truck. "Alone." She then added as Paul turned back to the truck.

As foul a mood as they were both in, he'd still wanted to go with her. She'd felt his heart sink as she'd said she was going alone, but neither of them said anything about it. "Okay." He nodded reluctantly. "We'll hit Sam and Em's when you get back-"

"Go without me." She climbed into the truck and yanked the door shut behind her, registering the shock on his face as she did so. She was quick to roll the manual window down though. She hadn't wanted to angrily slam a door between them, she simply wanted to get going. "Please go without me. I just need to unwind, take a bath, watch some TV or something." She then added.

Paul watched her for a moment, uncomfortably quiet before he simply nodded and stepped away from the car, giving her the space to turn around.

For some reason, all of her limbs felt heavy. She felt like she weighed a thousand pounds in that moment. Still, she moved.

It wasn't until she was all turned around and ready to go that she finally breathed out a sigh of relief. Paul, having breathed the same sigh, was beside the window, moving his huge frame to lean through it. "I love you." He stated as firmly as he could, laying a kiss on River's jaw before his frame retreated from the window. He hadn't pressured her for a kiss, nor had he expected one. He'd been in and out of her space quickly and respectfully.

For all of her fears, he was still her Paul. "I love you." She responded, praying that the same resolution was in her own voice. On the off chance that it wasn't, she quickly reached out and grabbed the side of his shirt, yanking him back to her as firmly as she could. She knew that she couldn't move him if he didn't want to be moved, so she was glad when his body collided with the truck, rocking the body as she brought their lips together through the window.

It was a short kiss, over almost as soon as their lips touched, but the love was there. It was so present, so very full and loud, almost deafening.

They would be okay. They'd have to be. They were just learning how to navigate their bond through situations that felt as though they were pitted against one another.

It was difficult and it would continue to be so, but River had every faith in that moment that things would be okay with them.

End of the chapter... I didn't want to leave them on a bad note, but things sure as hell clearly aren't aren't okay with them. At least, not completely.

As before, thank you again so much for reading! It would mean the world to me if you could leave any comments of messages and let me know what you think, but it's obviously completely okay if that's not your style, I appreciate the readership more than anything in the world. Thank you for sticking with me, hopefully I'll see you again next time!