"Take My hand, take my whole life too..."

Can't Help Falling in Love; Elvis Presley

I'd called my mom to explain about Harry, to which she wasn't surprised about. He'd been brought into the hospital as a final effort to save him, but it had been useless. She merely tells me to text her later and have someone drive me home that night.

Paul is driving me to the Clearwaters and as he sits in the driver seat next to me, he holds my hand. I don't mind; I'm terrified at this moment. Everything was changing so rapidly, people were fading in and out, and all the good that used to be in my life was melting too fast for me to adjust.

"Everything wil be alright, Blair," Paul says softly.

I glance over at him, attempting to fight the tears building in my stinging eyes, and search his face for the lie. But there isn't one.

"How do you know that?" I ask.

"Because... Because shit happens. It's fucking awful and hurts like hell, but you'll heal. I know it. If I hadn't recovered from all the shit I've been through, then I probably wouldn't be here."

That's as much as I've ever heard him talk about himself. Usually he's quiet and just tries to subtly flirt with me. Was this the next step for us? Were we going to start sharing personal things and actually making ground on whatever this was? I didn't know if I wanted that, but it felt good to listen to him- to hear his voice and learn more about him.

And his little explanation had helped. I'd been through painful things before, but nothing as moumentum as losing all my friends and someone dear to me all in the same week. It was a lot to figure out how to deal with.

"Thanks," I whisper.

He glances over at me and smiles, squeezing my hand as well. I shuffle closer because I needed him and his warmth, and when I check up at him to see if this way okay, he grins even wider.

We spend the rest of the short car ride like that: nuzzled together in the cab of his warm truck, comfortable silence lingering between the two of us.

When we arrive at the Clearwaters, a crowd had already gathered. Mostly people from the reservation but there are some others from Forks and they're all hanging around in front of the house. I don't see Seth, Sue or Leah, and figure them to be inside.

Old Quil meets me when I make it out of Paul's truck, his eyes sad as he goes to rest a big hand on my shoulder. He doesn't say anything as he frowns but his hand tightens a little before his gaze flickers behind me. I feel Paul's warm fingertips gently graze my back.

The elder nods, like he's approving, and a faint trace of a smile ghosts onto his lips. I become confused at that and want to explain that Paul and I were not together; he was just a kind-of complicated friend who'd told me about Harry. But I know this isn't the time to be worrying about something as mennial as that, so I just return his emotion.

Warmth from Paul encases me as we enter the Clearwater's residence. It's comforting, even a little intoxicating, and I'm glad he's with me. I was confused about what we were and if I even wanted to be anything with him at all, but Paul made me feel better. When I could get myself to stop over-thinking things and trying to do what I know I should do, I really liked being around him. I liked it a lot.

Sue Clearwater is sitting on a sofa next to her youngest child, Seth. While the elder woman looks remorseful if not completely out of it, Seth is openly weeping. Tears are cutting tracks down his russet skin and his big, brown eyes look so hurt when he glances up at Paul and me. I glance around for Leah, but don't spot her anywhere.

"Seth," I start, but am cut off by the younger boy wrapping me up in a hug.

I throw my arms around him and hold him tight. He shakes with sobs that he tries to muffle in my shoulder, my t-shirt dampening from his tears. I rub his back while whisperng into his ear about how sorry I am. I want to attempt to make him feel better but am truly stuck on what to say. What words were appropiate to tell a young boy whose father had just unexpectedly passed away? I don't know, so I just keep saying how sorry I am over and over again.

"I don't know what to do, Blair," Seth whimpers into my shirt. "My dad is... and Leah's gone. She flipped out and I don't know where she is. She should be here with us."

I pull back to look at him, confused now.

"What happened to Leah?" I ask.

Seth seems to realize that I wasn't alone and when his eyes find Paul's, he gives a jerk of his head in greeting. He wipes the sleeve of his shirt underneath his nose and sniffles.

"I don't know what happened. She just started shaking and all of a sudden she ran off. Sam said she was okay but no one will tell me where she is," Seth explains.

Instantly, my head snaps over to Paul, who'd been resting at my side during the exchange. My eyes narrow and I try to signal him to come clean. I know he's aware of what happened to her- he has to be. He was in Sam's little gang, after all, and he'd been loafing around with Embry and Jacob, like he was supposed to be babysitting the new recruits.

"Do you know what happened to her?" I hiss.

Paul sighs. "No, Blair, I don't. I've been with you this whole time, remember?"

Oh, right.

He hasn't left my side since he found me at the beach. But, still, I know he's got some idea to what happened to her. The way he's looking at Seth, like the younger boy might eat me at any moment, is the way I'd seen him and Jared look at Jacob just before he quit talking to me, Sadie, and Quil. He knows and he's lying to me.

Sighing, I turn back to Seth. "I'll go look for her, okay? You just don't worry about anything, Seth. Be with your mom."

Seth thanks me and launches into another hug where he squeezes me tightly. He almost feels as warm as Paul and, for a second, I worry that he might be catching a cold.

Before we leave, I hug Sue, who barely seems to notice me still, and say how sorry I am before heading outside.

"The hell do you think you're doing?"

I scowl at Paul over my shoulder, the tone he'd used making the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

"What're you talking about?"

We're at his truck now, but I don't know if I'll get in. I might call Sadie and have her come with me to look for Leah. I would ask Paul, but I know he's lying and I don't want to fight with him today.

"You can't go look for Leah. Harry had a heart attack because some big fucking thing popped out from the woods, Blair! Did you forget that?" he says.

"I won't go far into the woods and I'll be careful. I'll bring Sadie with me."

I don't know why I'm explaining myself to him. I don't owe him anything, least of all some sort of plan that'll make him happy.

"No, you're not. It's too dangerous."

I scowl at him again. "Who do you think you are, Paul? You have no say-so over me whatsoever. I'll go if I want."

He lets out a sound that resembles a growl and it makes me step back. My eyes widen a little as my heart starts to race. I know he wouldn't hurt me but I'd never heard another person make such a realistic sound before.

Paul sighs and runs a big hand over his face and through his hair. His honey eyes find mine, peering up from underneath his long lashes, and then his shoulders slump.

"I can't let you go into the woods, Blair. There are things that you don't know about and, well... they could hurt you. I'd never be able to live with myself if anything happened to you," he says, tone softer than before.

"Why do you care what happens to me?" I nearly whisper.

He eases forward, till he's able to ease a big hand onto my hip, and then uses his free hand to push tendrils of my hair out of my face.

"Because I like you. Have for a while now, Blair."

My heart starts to thud so fast in my chest, excitement and happiness and a little bit of fear running through my charged system. His words roll through my brain, over and over again, while I can't help but ease into him even more.

He liked me. Paul Lahote, the bad boy of the reservation who'd been skulking around so much lately, liked me. He actually liked me.

I want to think that I knew there was some reason behind him always being so close but the way he went about trying to spend more time with me had been a little unorthodox. Most guys asked you out for a burger, made their intentions known, but I guess now was better late than never.

I remember my embarassing delcaration of a crush to him a few days ago and nearly burn again just thinking about it. But it's not just a crush, I decide. I did like him and I liked him a lot. Being around Paul made me feel safe and content, and though I was scared, I liked it. I'd never felt things at this magnititude before, but this one boy was causing everything to whirl up inside of me.

"I like you too," I say.

I think I sound stupid when it comes out and my cheeks flame in embarassment.

He glances at my lips for a second, causing a heat to rush up from the tips of my toes, and I think he might lean in to kiss me. But then he's clearing his throat and sliding around me to open the passenger door to his truck.

"We can go look for Leah around the reservation, but we're staying out of the woods."

Sighing, I decide to take his compromise. He'd go with me so long as we didn't venture to the forest and, honestly, I was okay with that. I hadn't ever really talked to Leah and the only reason I'd volunteered to go look for her was because I had to do something to help Seth. He'd looked so sad and heartbroken, and I didn't want him worrying about his older sister getting hurt on top of all of that.

As he's sliding into his truck, a howl emits into the air. I gasp and slam the lock on the door down while peering out the window. It'd sounded like it'd come from the woods, but the trees are so cluttered that it makes it hard to see anything clearly. But I try. I squint my eyes to see if I can make out another figure like the time before. There's nothing, though. The trees gather too tightly here, so I see no shadow like before.

I sink back in the cool fabric of Paul's truck as he starts the engine.

We've been looking for Leah for over an hour now. Paul had driven around to some of the local spots before saying that he'd take us to others that I didn't know about. But we hadn't found her. The reservation was big, though, and I knew that the older Clearwater sibling wouldn't be found until she wanted to.

"Do you wanna go grab some food?" Paul asks. I glance over at him and smile. He returns the gesture ten-fold, which makes me giggle. His tanned skin turns a little crimson. "We can go to Emily's. She makes the best food."

"Oh," I say. "Well, uhm... I'm not exactly allowed over there. My mom- you see, my grandparents live over there and they'd tell her."

Paul searches for my face for a second, probably trying to see if I was lying, but then he nods.

"That's okay. I think the diner is still open."

He sends me a lopsided grin that makes my heart race again.

The diner is, indeed, still open when we arrive in the parking lot. A steady trickle of rain has begun to fall as we get out of Paul's truck, dampening my hair and t-shirt. Paul is by my side so quick that I wouldn't have guessed he was completely on the other side of the vehicle and is shielding me overhead with his jacket. I chuckle at him while trying to keep step with him as we head inside the diner.

When we get into the warm building, Paul motions for me to pick a seat and I choose a booth by the two large windows that took up the front of the shop.

I know my hair must be a frizzy mess now and I blush, embarassed, while trying to rake my fingers through it. It was no use, though; my waves were turning into curls that were a little too knoted for me to comb through.

"Don't worry," comes Paul's deep voice, causing me to look up at him. He's grinning. "You look pretty with wet hair too."

Authors Note: Hey folks! Long time no post, huh? Like, really long time. Sorry about that. BUT! In this chapter we see a lot more of Blair/Paul action and that will increase as the chapters continue on (which they will; I promise). How 'bout you pretty gems tell me what you think of this chapter? :)