A/N: I promised it would be up and here it is! Mostly filler, I'm struggling a little with this fic right now. Reviews are always appreciated!
Rachel awoke with a frown, finding her limbs tangled in Paul's, her body covered in sweat from being buried beneath his and she vaguely recalled him waking her last night, although she wasn't entirely sure why.
A soft knock on the door had Paul grumbling, and burying his head deeper into the crook of her neck as the door opened and Jared popped his head around.
"Sorry Rach," he winced "but we need Paul. Leah's gone after Jake and Seth, and Sam wants us all to meet him as soon as possible."
Rachel sat up, effectively pushing Paul's weight from her body, his hand shooting out blindly behind him to stop himself from falling off the bed as she glared at Jared. "What do you mean Leah's gone after Jake? Where did he go?" She turned her attention to her wolf. "Where the hell is my brother?"
"Babe…" He started wearily as she sat up on her knees, straightening out her top and smoothing back the hair that clung to her sweat dampened face.
"Don't 'babe' me!" She growled as Jared slunk back out of the room and quietly shut the door behind him. "If something's going on with my family I have a right to know! Now tell me!"
"I would if you let me get a word in!" He spat back, swinging his legs off the bed and turning his back to her as she huffed and crossed her arms over her chest.
Paul threw a glance at her over his shoulder and sighed. "You remember the Bella girl I told you about? The one who married the vampire?" She nodded. "Well last night Jake went to the house to find out her status and…"
"Her status?" Rachel cut him off with a frown.
"Human or vampire." He stated bluntly as her mouth dropped open in a silent 'oh' and gestured for him to continue. "Anyway when he got there the situation was-well it wasn't what we expected."
Paul rubbed the palms of his hands against the rough denim of his jean shorts and pushed himself to his feet, pacing agitatedly back and forth across the room.
"Bella, she's…well she's pregnant." He heard a soft gasp behind him and looked to find his imprint wide eyed on the bed. "It's the vampires'."
"Are you sure?" She breathed and he nodded. "Shouldn't that be impossible?"
"You'd think!" He agreed. "And she's not just pregnant she's…" he held his arms out around an imaginary bump "she's already huge!"
"But we only saw her a couple of weeks ago and she was tiny!" Paul shrugged. "What does this have to do with Jake? I don't understand." Rachel frowned and he stopped pacing, breathing a out a large whoosh of air as his eyes locked on hers.
"Sam and Jake had a disagreement about how to handle the situation." He told her. "As far as Sam's concerned, this…thing, is unknown, unpredictable-we have no way of knowing what will happen once it's born. He wants it taken care of before it's to late, whatever the cost."
Rachel tilted her head. "You mean kill it, kill the baby?"
"It's not a baby, it's a monster." He gritted. "And it won't just be the… it'll be Bella too."
"But you're not supposed to kill humans." She whispered and he nodded. "And what about her vampire? He won't just let it happen, he'll…"
"Whatever the cost." Paul repeated softly as Rachel finally pushed herself from the bed and there was another knock at the door. "I have to go."
"No!" Rachel cried stepping in front of him to block the door. "You can't tell me something like that and leave! You still haven't told what happened to Jake!"
"Jake chose to protect Bella. He embraced his Alpha and broke from the pack, Seth Clearwater went with him, they're at the Cullen's." He said sternly. "Now please move?"
"Will you fight?" Her voice was lower again and Paul shook his head with a sigh.
"It won't come to that, not yet at least, not with Jake, Seth and Leah gone. Sam knows better that to try and attack against those kinds of numbers." He dropped his gaze to the floor. "At least I hope he does."
Another knock sounded at the door and this time Jared barely bothered to wait before letting himself in.
"Dude, we really need to go." He said, glancing between the two apologetically.
Paul walked towards the door, pausing quickly to bring a hand to his imprints face cupping her cheek and running his thumb over the bow of her lips as she stared up at him silently, before following Jared through the house.
"Paul!" He stopped, barely off the porch as he heard Rachel call his name and cleared the distance back to the railing in one step as he waited for her to appear. "I…" She trailed off and he pulled her against the guard rail, pressing his face into her chest as her arms wrapped around his head, he could hear her heart thumping erratically as her fingers worked soothingly through his hair.
"I know babe," his lips found her skin "me too."
"Come on man." Jared whispered from behind them and Paul sighed and pulled out from her arms. "Hey Rachel? Kim's hanging over at Emily's for a while today, she's been dying to meet you, I'm sure neither of them would mind if you went over. You can all paint each other's nails or whatever it is you girls do?"
"Thanks!" She smiled, blushing when her eyes caught Paul's. "I might just do that."
And with that the boys disappeared across the reservation.
A couple of hours later found Rachel in front of Emily's open front door. "Hello?" She called, leaning through the doorway. "Emily?"
"Come on in, we're in the kitchen!" A voice called and Rachel followed it through the house until she found Emily and another woman sat at the small kitchen table, surrounded by magazines.
"Hey," Emily smiled getting up to greet her with a swift hug, "You want some coffee?" Rachel nodded, nervously brushing her hair behind her ear.
"Jared said it would be okay if I came over." Her eye's fell on the other woman who sat beaming at her from her seat. "You must be Kim?"
Rachel eye's widened slightly when Kim stood and revealed a petite bump that had been hidden beneath the table.
"Nice to meet you." She leaned across the table and pulled her into a half hug. "I'm sorry I missed you at the bonfire the other week, my morning sickness is more of an 'anytime of day' sickness and it's still not worn off. One whiff of fish fry and I was barfing all over the place!"
"Don't worry about it, I wasn't there for long anyway!" Rachel said quickly, waving her off. "Uh, congratulations!"
"No one told you about this huh?" Kim smirked and Rachel shook her head. "I'm surprised, Jared has told pretty much anyone within a hundred mile radius who will listen!"
"Well they've been a bit distracted lately," Emily shrugged placing three mugs on the table "can't really blame them."
"I guess you heard about Bella too huh?" Kim asked, looking back at Rachel.
"Eventually," she nodded sipping her coffee "once Jared barged in to our room this morning and told me."
"I swear, he has no idea about personal boundaries!" Kim exclaimed. "You weren't- ya know? Were you?"
"Now who has no personal boundaries?" Emily chuckled, eying Kim who poked her tongue out in response. "Saying that, if you had any to begin with you wouldn't be knocked up!"
"Oh but it's so worth it!" She moaned playfully before a frown fell across her face. "Anyway, you're one to talk! I've lost count of the number of times I've walked into the kitchen and found you pinned to the table!"
"It was one time!" Emily yelled, her cheeks blooming.
"And I will never let you live it down!" Kim grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. "Sam has a great ass though!"
Emily scowled and swatted at Kim with a dishcloth. "Hey! No assaulting the pregnant lady!"
All three women descended into a fit of giggles, barely noticing as Embry strolled into the kitchen.
"What's so funny?" He asked, disappearing behind the fridge door.
"You really don't wanna know." Kim hiccuped. "What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be at the meeting?"
Embry shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "Sam sent Jared and a couple of the other guys up to the boundary lines to talk to Jake and Leah. I wasn't needed so I got the rest of the afternoon off," he shrugged.
"How's peanut?" He said pointing at Kim, and quickly rounding the table as she stood to reveal her stomach.
"She's good!" Kim beamed, softly rubbing her bump. "I've been feeling her moving a lot more, it's like lots of tiny bubbles insides."
"You sure it's not gas?" Embry asked cocking an eyebrow and earning himself a playful slap on the arm, before squatted in front of her and lifted her shirt a little. "Are you just gonna let her get away with hitting your favorite uncle? Give her a kick for me, you can get away with it better than I can." Kim swatted him again.
"Hey and remember what I said? When you finally get out, you gotta be my wingman. One look at you and the ladies will be all over us!"
"You are not using my child to pick up women!" Kim exclaimed as he rose back to his full height.
"Spoil sport." He huffed. "Well, I think I'm gonna go get some sleep- may as well do something productive with my afternoon."
"Any idea what time the guy's will be done?" Emily asked and he shook his head.
"Guess it depends on how the meeting with Jake goes." Embry shrugged and pushed the screen door. "See you later ladies."
Silence fell over the room, and Rachel glanced at her companions, sighing. "How do you both do it?"
"Do what?" Emily asked, standing to retrieve the coffee pot and refilling their mugs.
"Handle all the waiting?" She clarified. "One minute they're with you and the next they're gone and I don't know about you, but Paul never tells me anything about where he's going, or when he'll be back."
"You get used to it." Kim shrugged. "We don't really have much of a choice. Sam calls, they have to go, it's always been like that."
"Some days are easier than others." Emily chimed in. "Sam doesn't tell me a lot of stuff because I honestly don't want to know. If he just ups and leaves, I can convince myself that he's just tracking a foreign scent and that he'll be home as soon as the pack have taken care of it. Other times, like now, when I know there's a bigger threat, it's harder to ignore."
"It's hard, but you do it- for them as well as you." Kim squeezed Emily's shoulder. "They need to know that you're okay and that you're safe otherwise they loose focus and it put's them in danger. I learnt that the hard way."
"What do you mean?" Rachel frowned.
"Do you know about the newborn army?" She shook her head. "About a year ago, a vampire came after Bella- revenge for her vampire killing her mate. She built up an army of newborn vampires in the city and brought them here to fight against the Cullen's, but the numbers were to big for them to handle alone and the pack agreed to fight with them.
When I found out, I told Jared to stay away from me- that I couldn't handle the waiting around, the not knowing if he would come home safe. I thought it was for the best, but the imprint doesn't see it like that. Separating a wolf from his imprint is never a good thing."
"I know all about that!" Rachel agreed and Kim smiled.
"Jared did as she said- he stayed away from her, but he became a nervous wreck." Emily added. "He spent most of his time in wolf form, because he physically couldn't manage to stay human. He was hard to control and it affected the whole pack. They felt everything he felt, Sam said it was overwhelming."
"I didn't realize how stupid I'd been until my brothers turned up and told me that the army was here. I went running through the forest in my PJ's until I found him!" Kim snorted. "Not the most appropriate way to tell someone you love them, but I couldn't let him go without him knowing."
"I knew anyway." They turned as Jared followed Sam into the house and Kim grinned before standing from her seat and launching herself at him, his hand automatically reaching down to cradle her stomach as he whispered in her ear.
"You all finished?" Emily asked standing up to greet her wolf, who enveloped her in his arms and nuzzled her scars.
"Yeah, for now anyway." Sam nodded. "You girls have fun?"
"Of course!" Kim exclaimed. "Hanging out with me is always fun!"
Two more boys came barreling through the door towards Kim and Jared scooped her out of the way, releasing a low growl as they straightened and mumbled apologies.
"Rach, these are my brothers, this is Brady" Kim said, trying to push one of them away when he tried to wrap his arm around her "and that's Collin."
Collin waved and dumped himself onto the couch while Brady grinned and stalked towards her, gripping her hand and bring it to his lips.
"Hands off pup!" Brady winced and backed away, rubbing the back of his head as Paul scowled at him. "Go find your own fucking imprint, she's mine!"
Rachel chuckled allowing herself to be pulled into his arms, her head finding it's place on his chest right above his heart, feeling his lips on the top of her head and hearing him breath deeply.
She pulled back an looped her arms around his waist. "Any news on Jake?"
He shook his head. "He's staying where he is." Rachel sighed "You wanna get out of here?"
"Would you mind?" She edged and Paul shook his head.
"We're out, I'll see you guys later." Paul shouted across the room while pulling her towards the door.
"Nice meeting you!" Kim yelled back and Rachel smiled and promised to see her again soon.
Paul tucked her under his arm and led her around the house to the tree line.
"Where are we going?" She frowned.
"I don't feel like taking you home just yet," he said helping her over a fallen tree. "Is it okay?"
"Of course it's okay!" Rachel smiled, resting her hand on his stomach and relishing the heat of his skin. "Hey listen, I'm sorry I got angry with you this morning."
"Don't worry about it." He squeezed her harder. "You were right, I should have told you, I just didn't want to wake you up. Sorry baby."
"But you did wake me up." Her frown returned and she stopped to look at him. "Why didn't you tell me then?"
"I was a little distracted," Paul grinned "do you not remember anything?"
Rachel shook her head. "Just that you woke me up. Why?"
"You were talking in your sleep." He pulled her to him. "It was…interesting."
"Oh god!" Rachel dropped her forehead against his chest, her words muffled against his skin. "What did I say?"
A soft chuckle shook his body, he reached down and lifted her head. "Nothing bad. Trust me."
His lips met hers and she sighed, melting into his body, her hearth thrumming in her chest as his hands ran the length of her back and pulled her hips against his.
"I lied," Paul said suddenly, pulling away and Rachel looked up him, confusion plastered across her face "about why I brought you out here. I wanted to show you something."
"Okay?" She cocked an eyebrow. "What?"
"Close your eyes." Rachel did as he asked, and squeaked when she felt her feet leave the floor. "Don't worry babe, I've got you."
Rachel kept her face pressed against his skin as he walked them both through the trees without falter.
"Now, you have to use your imagination." He said cryptically putting her back on her feet and keeping her turned towards him. "It was just an idea, so it doesn't matter if you don't like it just…"
"Why don't you let me see so I can decide for myself?" She smiled softly and Paul nodded and let her turn around.
Her eyes widened at the sight before her. A small wooden house, set a few hundred yards back from the reservation, it was missing a few boards, the porch steps were broken, the door was gone and the windows had no glass.
"Remember, I said to use your imagination." Paul reminded her, taking her hand and leading her towards the building. "I've checked it out and the structures pretty sound, although obviously it needs some work."
He lifted her over the steps and placed her on the porch. "The entire outside needs re-cladding and window frames, but the roof is salvageable." He guided her through the doorway, instructing her to watch her step and leading her into a rather pitiful kitchen. "These cupboards aren't too bad and with a scrub and some paint the should be better than okay. I can put an island in here and the stove over there." Paul twisted around, pointing out various things, what he planned to do and what would go where.
He pulled her past the small den and down the hallway. "This is the bathroom, again not up to much but it does have…"
"A roll top bath!" Rachel squealed and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"I don't think I'll ever get the female obsession with roll top baths." He shrugged dragging her out of the room and across the hall. "And this is the bedroom. So what do you think?"
"What do I think of what?" She asked, folding her arms and stepping towards him until they were chest to chest.
"The house!" Paul exclaimed. "Do you think you could like it?"
Rachel pursed her lips, fighting the smile that she was desperate to give. "Paul, is this your way of asking me to move in with you?"
"Okay, fine!" He rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. "Rach, will you move in with me? Here- when I get it ready?"
She unfolded her hands and traced her finger over his chest, her lip between her teeth as she glanced up at him from under her lashes. "Where would our bed go?"
"What?" He frowned and she cocked her eyebrow, firing him a lopsided smirk.
"Well if this is the bedroom, where will our bed go?" She dragged her finger back down, his muscles twitching under her touch until she came to rest at the button of his shorts. His eyes darkened as she flicked it open and teased her way underneath the waistband.
"We can put the bed wherever the fuck you want!" Paul growled, lifting her from the ground and dumping her on an abandoned shell of a dresser that sat in the corner of the room. One hand tugged at the neckline of her shirt, dragging it down to reveal the swell of her breast, his mouth claiming every inch of visible flesh as while the other fisted the hem of her skirt.
He slid his hand up the soft skin of her thighs, until he reached her ass and dragged her forward until her covered core was flush against his erection.
Rachel worked frantically at his shorts, loosening the zipper and dropping them to the floor, her hand automatically finding his length and settling into a tantalizing rhythm.
Paul groaned and dropped his head onto her shoulder, whispered profanities filling her ears as her fingers worked the head of his cock. With a final growl he ripped her panties aside, dipping his fingers into her folds to test her readiness before sheathing himself in her slick heat.
The dresser slammed against the wall with each thrust, his fingers digging into the flesh of her hips as she drove to meet him.
He lifted her effortlessly as the wood began to split with the force of their bodies, turning her into the wall and continuing his welcome assault on her body. Rachel's fingers clawed at his shoulders as she began to feel that familiar flutter in her center, a loud cry escaping her lips as she went tumbling into her climax with Paul not far behind.
She held his head to her chest, his breath heating her already blushing skin.
"Should I take that as a yes?" He grinned up at her as she regained her breath and she nodded with a soft laugh.
Their lips met softly, without frenzy as he lowered her back to her feet and helped her straighten her clothes.
"I told you I loved you." Rachel's quiet words had him whipping his head towards her. "Last night I told you I loved you, didn't I?"
Paul nodded. "Yeah, but you were sleeping so…"
"It's true." She said cutting him off. "I do love you, more than I probably should after such a short time, but I can't… it feels right!"
He stared down at her, searching her eyes as his hand cupped her cheek and finally a wide grin broke across his face. "I love you too, babe."