Lemon Water // Paul Lahote

eighty six

Paul

"Paul" She whimpered, "It hurts"

"I know, Re, I know. You have to fight it, it's too soon" I whispered, running my hand through her hair. She was drenched in sweat and was hot to the touch. There was no way my body heat was helping her at all.

Her breathing continued at is fast pace, despite her claiming she was calming down. "Re, sweetie, please relax, you're going to keep hurting if you don't"

"I don't know how-" she cried, "how did you do it!"

"I didn't" I was honest with her. I know I've told her the story before, but right now she's not in the space to remember, "I've always had anger issues. I've never been able to control them. The first time I phased I just let go and couldn't phase back for hours"

"You don't have anger issues anymore" she whispered

"Not really, they've just shifted to a different focus. Before, they were all over the place and mostly stemmed from my dad. Now they're mostly focused on you"

"I make you angry?"

"NO!" I exclaimed, I definitely could have said that better. "When people talk bad about you, or when you get hurt, or how Luke is obsess for you, or your past, literally anything negative that is involves you makes me angry. I don't like seeing when you're hurt"

"Will you tell me a story? Listening to you talk helps me calm down"

"What do you want to know?"

"Something embarrassing? You always tell me the ones where you seem like a badass"

"That's because nothing embarrassing ever happens to me"

"Oh really?" Her heart rate was slowly decreasing, but she was still way to close to phasing for my comfort.

"Yeah totally. I'm awesome"

"Not even a few weeks ago when you fell asleep in class? Jared started to tell me but decided he wanted to live"

"What did he tell you!" I exclaimed. And here I was thinking that jared and I were bros.

"Not much, he decided that he'd rather live to see the rest of his life rather than risk it over you being stupid"

"That's the way it's going to stay!'

"How am I supposed to get better?" She whispered, winning me over. She certainly knows how to get me to do things for her

"Ok fine. A few weeks ago I was super tired because of the grueling patrol schedule and everything that's been going on with Luke that I fell asleep during math. Normally that'd be fine because I sit in the back, but that day the teacher was calling on a bunch of people for answers. When she called on me, I obviously didn't answer, so she came up to me and sprayed me with water to wake me up. When I woke up, I was in the middle of a nightmare and woke up screaming. The teacher made me get up in front of the class and solve the problem, except I had no clue how to solve it. So when I got it wrong she made me tell everyone what my dream was about"

"What was it about? You don't have to tell me"

"Everyone knows that I have problems with my dad in the past. We got into a fight a few days before it happened and he stormed out and he didn't come back for over a week. I had a dream that he died while he was gone and I never even got to say goodbye because we weren't speaking to each other when he left"

"Paul-" she whispered, snuggling more into me, "I'm so sorry. That must have been so embarrassing"

"Not as embarrassing as you falling down the stairs the other day" I laughed

"Hey! You tripped me!" She exclaimed

"And I said I was sorry!"

"My butt hurt for days" She whined. 

I put a hand on her forehead to check her temperature, noticing that she was getting close to back to normal. "Paul?" she asked, "Do you think I'm going to phase?"

"Right now? No, but maybe someday in the future. You've come close a few times so its not unlikely"

"Do you want me to phase?"

"Not really, but I know that if you do I'll be able to protect you better. If you don't phase, you're less likely to get hurt because you're not going to be constantly getting in run-ins with leeches"

"You'll always be there for me, right?"

"Always, Re, and you'll always be there for me?"

"Always, Paul"

Embry

Paul had gotten to the Cullen's place way before us and was already with Serena when we got there. Now, we're were all just sitting around waiting for them to come out from wherever they were hiding. It was going on two plus hours now, and still no sign of them. "What's taking them so long?" Sam asked.

It was just me, Sam, and Jared here now. The rest of the pack went home shortly after we got back here. "She's almost completely calm," Edward said, "she's asleep now so Paul should be coming down any minute"

Edward was wrong. Paul also fell asleep on the floor in the study, so there was no telling when they would come downstairs. "Should I go wake them?" I asked the group

"No, let them sleep for a little bit. There's no way they can stay asleep for long up there. The floors are hardwood" Esme said.

"I'm going to go back and get a car, Jared, you can go home whenever you want" Sam said, leaving the house. Jared decided to leave, claiming that he didn't want to be here to face Paul when he wakes up because he told Serena an embarrassing story about him.

"Embry, would you like anything to eat? I can whip up some pasta or something" Esme asked me

"Sure, that'd be great, Esme, thank you" I replied. The rest of the Cullen's dispersed, but Bella stayed back for a minute.

"Thank yo guys for helping us out with all of this Victoria stuff. We definitely couldn't take them all down without you"

"It's no problem, Bella," I told the girls, "It's a lot easier to make sure my sister stays safe with the help of you guys. You're not as bad as I thought you were. Honestly, you and you're leeches are growing on me"

"Thanks, Embry, it would be nice to have a few more friends around here" Bella said before disappearing somewhere around the house.