𝕆𝕟 𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℍ𝕦𝕟𝕥 ➾ 𝕆ℂ 𝕩 𝕆ℂ [𝕋𝕎𝕀𝕃𝕀𝔾ℍ𝕋 𝕊𝔸𝔾𝔸]

Paul

La Push, Washington

April 31, 2006

Paul was eating dinner at Sam and Emily's house with the pack (sans Leah and Jacob, who were on patrol) when a loud knock interrupted all of the conversations.  Sam looked at the pack, Emily, and Kim before ambling to the door.  When the door was opened, a teary-eyed, red-faced Terrence Lahote was revealed to be the pack's unexpected visitor.  

"Mr. Lahote," Sam greeted with a handshake.  "Are you here for Paul?"

"Well, uh, I just need to talk to him real quick," Terrance replied.

Paul heard the exchange and walked toward the two and Sam left them alone.  "Hey, dad.  What's up?" He asked.  Paul was alarmed at his father's disheveled state.

"Let's take a drive," the man insisted.  "The last thing I need is for your friends to be eavesdropping."

Paul shrugged and agreed, "Yeah, that happens a lot, though Emily usually gives us hell for it."

Terrence chuckled at that as the two climbed into his truck.  "I'm not surprised."

After a few minutes of silence, Paul decided to start the conversation again once he knew that the pack wouldn't hear them.  "So...what's all of this about."

"Um, do you remember when he had that conversation about your mother and me a few years ago?"  Terrence continued after he saw his son nod, "You remember all of it, right."

"Yeah," Paul answered.  He remembered it quite well.  It was a heart-to-heart he had with his dad when he was thirteen years old.  His dad told Paul that he and his mom haven't loved each other since before they even got engaged.  But their friends and families just expected them to get hitched so they did, but they both felt trapped.  So they agreed to stay together but try seeing other people simultaneously.  But they ended up falling back in love again after a year and they had Paul after almost two more years.  And when Paul was eight they divorced after his mom fell for another man and ran away to start a new family with him.

"While your mom and I had that, erm, compromise, I met a woman who I fell in love with.  Her name was Marcia Haney and we dated for a year-" Terrence was interrupted.

"Was?" Paul picked up on the use of the word.

"Well, I'll get to that in a minute.  But as I was saying, Marcia was actually the one to convince me to work things out with your mom.  I hid my marriage from her for almost a year before she finally find out.  She was so mad at me but she was also the kindest woman I knew so she let me explain myself.  But she broke up with me because she didn't want to interfere with my marriage.  She even accompanied me to my house and acted as our marriage counselor," Terrence chuckled tearily, "She was way too nice to me."  

Paul was confused about why his dad was telling him all of this.  He had a feeling it had something to do with the 'was' thing.  But he didn't want to push it.  This was the first time since his parents divorced that he'd seen his dad cry.  The sight of it made Paul himself want to cry.  "Dad..." his voice broke.

"I-I said 'was' because Marcia was found dead in her home just a couple of hours ago," Terrence explained as he pulled over onto the side of the road.  He broke down into tears.