Only the "Strong" Survive | Paul Lahote |

*chapter twenty-two*

"Joni wake up.....Joniii." Emily said as she shook my shoulder.

I opened my eyes looking around a bit, I was on her couch. A couple of blankets covering me and a pillow under my head. I stretched out and sat up, I didn't remember falling asleep or even laying down on the couch. The last thing I remember was cuddling Paul after I kissed him while watching some episode of Two Broke Girls.

"Where is he?" I asked her as she sat down in the chair.

"He had to leave for some training, but he'll be back in a couple of hours."

"Training?"

"It's a much longer story, and it's more Paul's place to explain than mine. Let's get you some coffee and something to eat."

Apparently there was so much to learn when it came to this stuff. I followed her to the kitchen were there already sat a fresh cup of coffee and plate with bacon and eggs. She sat down across of me while I ate, telling about her plans to replace all their dishes and cups soon. She said they'd gotten the set from her parents, a hand me down for them moving in together and with Sam and her getting married she wanted a change.

"So do you wanna talk sweetie?" Emily said after a few minutes of silence.

"I don't know. I guess I'm still processing everything."

"Did Paul talk to you about the wolf stuff?"

"Yes he did. I'm okay with it, I think. It's strange to think all of this was going on under my nose, I went to school with the Cullens. I met their dad, he stitched me up after the last incident with my dad. I never would've guessed they were vampires."

Emily giggled, "Trust me the whole thing too me by surprise too."

"Did Sam imprint on you?"

"Yes. It was a rocky beginning, he was actually dating Leah when we met. I tried to ignore it but I couldn't. The imprint pull is strong, I know that even though Leah knows about it all now, she still resents me for it."

"I can only imagine. You guys are perfect for each other, anyone can see that."

She smiled at me, getting up and pouring herself another cup of coffee. I finished eating, and put my plate in the sink. Also sitting back down to finish my coffee. Despite somehow falling asleep last night, and sleeping until the late morning I was exhausted. I needed all the caffeine I could get.

"Do you maybe want to talk about the other things that happened last night?" She asked gently.

"Well," I took a big deep breath, "I thought he was nice. I was so excited when he asked me out, it had never happened before."

"You'd never been asked out before? You're 18!" Her eyes got wide, she was shocked.

"Trust me, I know. With my parents I couldn't date or bring anyone home so, the guys at school just left me alone. Anyway... it was fine during the movies. He kissed me, he put his hand on my thigh but when I said stop he did, so I figured it was okay and then we went to leave. It was the same truck Em, the same one I'd seen following me around for a week. That parked outside the house and sat there. He was the same guy who hurt me months ago, who r..raped me. And he tried again so I took off and came here."

I could tell it made her sad. I had never said that word out loud before, the r word. But that's what he did to me and tried to do again.

"I'm so sorry Joni. Do you want to go to the police? Sam knows the Chief of police in Forks, they cover out land too since we don't have a force of our own. He can call him."

I shook my head, "I've seen the news, movies, tv shows - no one's going to believe me."

"Of course they'd believe you, Charlie would definitely believe you."

"There's no proof Em, I should've gone right after it first happened." My voice cracked and I just began to cry.

If he chose to do this to someone else, if he came back and raped me again or did worse. The only person I had to blame was myself. I should've told earlier, I should've immediately gone in. Tears just kept streaming and Emily tried to hug me for comfort telling me it was okay. Telling me it wasn't my fault.

"Hey, hey pretty girl. It's okay, everything's okay." I heard Paul say, not even realizing he'd come back.

Clutching onto him, taking in his warmth I managed to calm myself. I wiped the tears off my face, gave Emily an apologetic look. It wasn't her fault I was crying, my heart just felt really heavy today.

"What did we miss?" Sam said from behind Emily, he was rubbing her back as they just watched me pull myself together.

We both shook our heads, I couldn't keep talking about that. Emily clearly didn't want to either.

"Do you want me to take you home?" Paul asked, only loud enough for us to hear.

He gathered my things, and we thanked Emily and Sam for everything. Promising to bring back the clothes she had leant me another time.

Emily came over to me giving me a big, sisterly type hug and spoke softly in my ear, "I believe you. None of it is your fault."

I walked out before I could start crying again, the words flowed so easily from her mouth but took a moment before making it to my heart. Far too difficult for me to believe. Paul examined the car before we got in, the back bumper was completely smashed. Pieces of it could be seen pulling from the road into the drive way, there was a dent in the back door too. It was going to cost a small fortune for me to fix, and we weren't even sure if it was safe to be driven as it was.

We opted against testing it out, instead Paul just pushed on the front of it until it was straight in the driveway, like it had meant to be parked where it was and we took his truck instead. To my surprise everyone was home, Sue greeted me with a hug and so did Seth. Leah just gave a look as she sat on the couch still scrolling through the TV. I didn't feel like talking to them, I just needed more rest. A lot more rest.

"Did you sleep okay?" I asked him, kicking off my socks.

"I didn't sleep at all Joni." He responded, fluffing the pillows on the pull out. Putting them in my side since he only used one.

"Why not?"

By the look in his eyes I should've been able to guess what he was going to say, it was angry and sadness in one look. Accompanying the bags under his eyes and the messy hair that proved his statement to be true, "In case he came back."

We laid down face to face, his arm loosely around my back. I brought my fingers up to his face playing with the hair on the side of his head. He kissed my palm before closing his eyes and I soon closed mine too.