Considering that La Push was located in the heart of the Olympic Peninsula, the continuous rain wasn't really that unusual. It was the force and the amount that was keeping people in their homes or sending them to higher ground. The floods had started yesterday, and they had been more unexpected. None were dead, but a few houses were damaged beyond repair. A handful of people had been evacuated.

Claire had been visiting when the first wave of the powerful downpour had hit. Her mother had called, asking Emily if she could stay until it let up. Of course, Emily had agreed. There was no way that any of them were driving in this. By the third day, which was a Tuesday and Claire's seventeenth birthday, the teenager was about ready to strangle someone. Her younger cousins had so much pent up energy that they were quite literally bouncing off of the walls.

With Quil out "patrolling" and no one else to hang out with, Claire had decided that she was going to go out for awhile. She was sure that Emily wouldn't even miss her, not with all of the mayhem going down in her house today. So, Claire left a note saying that this jail break was to save her sanity and pulled a big t-shirt over her bathing suit. She grabbed her rain coat and shoved her bare feet into a pair of goulashes. Opening her window, Claire carefully climbed out.

The water had almost swallowed the entire beach. It was dark and there was an angry dwell. For a second, Claire hesitated- but only for a second.

Before she could really think about it, she was sprinting towards the incline, running until she reached the top. Her goal was the cliffs. She had never jumped from them before, and even though she knew today was definitely not the day to do it, she was going to anyways.

Maybe, she thought as she reached the top, she was doing it to get back at Quil. He had promised to her that he would let her jump, but when the time came he chickened out and told her no. She had been furious with him. She hadn't seen him since the rain had began, apparently the wet weather brought a vampire problem. Or so that's what she had been told. Claire wasn't stupid, and along with those big bodies came big voices, and Claire had heard Embry talking about how they hadn't seen a vampire in weeks. She was mostly mad at him because she had never once lied to Quil. Not once. She told him everything. And if he didn't want to tell her something, then he should tell her that it was personal.

Claire wasn't a complete idiot, she wasn't going to jump from the top. She reached the second peak, the one that was exactly halfway between the water and the upper cliff. She looked over the edge and took a deep breath.

It was now or never.

She pulled off the rain coat and let it fall to the ground. Yanked her boots off and set them beside the coat. She pulled her shirt over her head, wondering why she had even brought it now. Standing there, in her mismatching two piece, she wished herself a silent happy birthday.

She pushed the fact that it was almost sun down and not one person, not even her aunt or her mom, had wished her a happy birthday out of her mind. She made herself concentrate on how the rain was coming down so hard that hurt as it hit her bare skin. How her ink colored hair was sticking to her face, and every time she moved it away it seemed to migrate back to the same exact spot. Which muscles tensed as she took the first step towards the edge. She counted the amount of strides it took to reach the edge -three-, and then she forced her body into a diving position as she launched herself off of the edge and towards the pitch black and angry water.

Claire closed her eyes when she hit the water. As soon as her body had stopped moving from the dive, it was jerked back and forth from the current. She was tossed and turned, and for a moment she thought about how cold she was. She couldn't move from the shock and the realization that she couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down terrified her. Everything was dark and she began to panic.

A rush of air escaped her tightly clamped lips when her body was slammed into the side of the cliffs. Despite the pain and the now lack of oxygen in her lungs, Claire was coherent enough to latch on to the slippery rocks. She forced her arms to start working again, forced her eyes open. She pulled herself to the surface after much effort.

Gulping for fresh air, she squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. They burned.

Coughing and sputtering, she pushed herself until she reached the beach, and even though she wanted to collapse right then and there, she forced herself to stumble back to her clothes. Falling to her knees, she pulled her boots back on, and then her coat.

She looked down at her stomach and cringed, a big tear in her skin was bleeding heavily. She pressed her shirt to her stomach, zipped her coat up, and then pressed her hand over the lump to keep the shirt in place.

It was going to be a long trek back.

Claire had made it half way to the house when Leah, in wolf form, stepped in front of her. The sudden appearance of a wolf the size of a horse scared the daylights out of the soaking wet and bleeding teen.

Claire screamed. Loud.

And then she felt like a complete and utter idiot.

"Shit! Could you honestly have been any quieter?" Claire snapped, "You're so big when you phase."

She could feel her pulse in her stomach.

Even though it was physically impossible for Claire to tell that Leah was glaring at her, she still knew. And when Leah phased, she could really tell.

"Where have you been?" Leah asked.

Claire kept her eyes on her friends face, "I was at the beach."

"In this weather? Seriously, Claire?" Leah crossed her arms over her chest, "You have everyone going crazy. We've been looking for you for an hour."

"Well, why didn't you go to the beach?" Claire questioned.

"Because no one thought you'd be dumb enough to go there," Leah snapped back. Her nose wrinkled and she leaned towards Claire, "Are you bleeding?"

"Yea-"

And then Leah was right in front of her, her arm gripping Claire's elbow. She started pulling the younger girl until Claire yanked her to a halt, "Leah!"

"What? I have to get you back to the house before Quil finds you bleeding in the rain." She pulled Claire again, but was faced with resistance.

"I am not walking around with you being stark naked," Claire ground out.

In truth, Claire had always been slightly jealous of Leah's body, and she wasn't about to walk out of the woods with a naked girl. Not to mention she wasn't exactly looking forward to facing a frantic house of wolves and Aunt Emily.

Even if she was bleeding, wet and cold.

"Claire," Leah glared, "You need to get back to the house. Everyone's running around the reservation like their heads have been cut off looking for you. You can't just disappear!"

"I left a note!" Claire protested, "And I can get back by myself. Or you can phase and get me to the edge of the forest. I don't care. But, no offense, I am not walking around with you being naked!"

"If I was Quil you wouldn't have a problem with it."

Claire was so angry at Quil that the thought of him being naked really didn't phase her like Leah wanted it to. When she didn't respond, Leah tried again, "Come on, he's really worried about you."

"I don't care," Claire glared.

Leah crossed her arms once more and frowned, "Why so angry, Claire Bear?"

"Because Quil is a liar," she told, "And you all helped him."

She started walking past Leah, and when the older girl grabbed her arm, she yanked it out and kept walking. She didn't look back, but she knew that Leah wasn't behind her anymore. She also knew that once Leah phased, Quil would know that she knew he had lied.

She made it back to the house, which was full with bustling people. When she pulled her boots off, she winced in pain. She left them leaning against the house, upside down.

When she opened the door, every single person in the house instantly stopped what they were doing to stare at her. Claire looked back with indifference.

Closing the door, she kept her head high as she made her way to the kitchen. It was an open floor plan, so of course everyone could see her just as clearly. The only thing that separated her from them was the counter.

Bending down, she reached under the sink to pull out a kitchen towel and the first aid kit. Unzipping her jacket, and then shrugging it off, she let it fall to the floor with a wet slap. Very gently, she peeled the blood soaked t-shirt away from her stomach.

A collective gasp was heard from the living room.

"Claire!" Emily was next to her in an instant.

She dropped the shirt in the sink, reaching over to turn the water on.

"What did you do?" Emily asked, voice soft.

Claire didn't answer, she just pushed her hair out of her face and let Emily take care of her.

The cut was from just below her right breast to her above heft hip. The ends were shallow, but the middle was deep. No one said anything while Emily cleaned and bandaged the run away. They just stared, all with different expressions, and she stared right back.

Claire didn't miss the fact that Quil was no where to be seen.

"All done," Emily announced.

"Why didn't tell anyone you were leaving?" Sam asked, arms crossed. He would have looked intimidating if she weren't so upset.

She didn't answer and Sam pointed towards the stairs, "If you aren't going to answer go to bed."

Claire turned towards the hall, and before she disappeared she turned to face her audience, "Happy Birthday, Claire."

She didn't wait to see their expressions, she just walked to her room.

The rain pounded on.

Later that night, when everyone was supposed to be asleep, Claire heard a knock on her door. She closed her eyes and pretended to sleep. Her door creaked open.

She could tell that it was Quil by his smell, which she got a whiff of when he bent down to kiss her forehead.

She listened as he took off his wet clothing, then rummaged through her dresser for something dry. Most of the clothes were his anyway. She didn't open her eyes when he climbed over her, laying down beside her.

He lifted the front of her shirt and traced the bandages, "What did you do?"

"I gave myself a birthday present," she whispered back.

"You mutilated yourself?" he asked.

"I went cliff diving," she corrected.

His hand stilled, and then he brought it up to wrap his fingers around her chin and tilt her face so he could look at her, "There was a reason I wouldn't let you do it, Claire. The water was dangerous. You could have died."

"I didn't."

He sighed, "Why did you do it alone?"

"Because you were to busy lying to me to take me like you promised," she frowned.

"I was getting your gift," he nuzzled her ear. Claire looked to the nightstand, where a cluster of bright red flowers sat, "Do you know what that are?"

She nodded her head, "Tulips."

"Know what they mean?" his breath tickled her neck. She shook her head, "They stand for a declaration of love."

Claire felt her heart stop beating.

He leaned over her and smoothed her hair, "If you're not ready for that, it's okay-"

Claire reached up and tugged on his shirt, bringing him dangerously close to her face, "You brought me flowers."

"Yeah," he swallowed hard.

"Declaring your love."

"Uh huh," he nodded.

"You brought me flowers in the pouring rain," Claire slid her hands to rest behind his head, "I was so mad at you."

"I know. I saw," Quil brought his hand to her race, rubbing his thumb over his bottom lip.

Then, Quil leaned down and pressed his lips to hers.