PROMISE - S. CLEARWATER

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘: 𝐈𝐍 𝐌𝐘 𝐑𝐎𝐎𝐌

    Quil catches up to me swiftly, still buttoning his shorts on. I smile and look at him sideways, trying to see if everyone felt the same way as Sam about Jacob's imprinting. He smiles back at me, so I assume he's got more of a positive outlook on it than his leader. "Jake's just like me now."

"You creepy weirdos."

    "Hey, at least he has someone to sympathize with him. It's been hard for me to get anyone, including Claire's mom, to understand exactly what's going on there."

    "Yeah, no kidding!"

    He hits me with his shoulder gently as we make it back into the house. "Seth put up a good fight, though. Before we knew Jake imprinted on the thing. Doled out more good hits than he took. Should be fine in a few days - good as new for when Jake and Sam make peace."

    "They're not rejoining you guys?"

He shrugs. "Sam is a great leader, and Jake is too. I think we'll just stay separate for now, until we can figure something out where they can both lead or one decides to step down."

"But I'll get to see Seth again?"

    "I can confidently say yes to that."

I can't help the grin that takes over my face as I pull Quil into a hug. He hesitantly pats my back until I let him go, happy tears brimming in my eyes. "I'm so glad you guys didn't all kill each other!"

"Why are you crying, then?"

    "Because I'm happy!"

He looks at Sam and Emily as they come into the house too, gesturing at me with widened eyes. "She's...happy crying? Help?"

    Emily chuckles and Sam smiles, the first smile he's directed at me in weeks. I go over and hug him next, even though me from a few hours ago would rather claw my own eyes out than be this close to him. He's a little less scared of me, hugging me back with both arms instead of just one like Quil. I pat his shoulder quickly before I let him go, thanking him with my eyes instead of verbally. I'm not sure I'm all the way there yet. He nods in response and lets me go.

    "You were right," I admit to Emily. She grins at me with her hands on her hips. She'll be a great mother someday.

    "I know I am, and I knew I was going to be."

"I get it."

    "Give us a few days to sort everything out," Sam says, his voice going all official again. "The Clearwaters and Jacob will be welcome to come back whenever they please once Jacob and I have discussed some things."

    Everyone, including me, cheers. This is how it was supposed to be. I'll have my Seth back in no time.

━━━━━━♡♥♡━━━━━━

    Sue lets me into their house to grab some more of Seth's old clothes for myself, and a couple sets of everything for Emily's house. Since she's been staying at Charlie's so often, she figured Seth should have some stuff where I am for when he comes back so he doesn't come home to an empty house. This is the perfect opportunity to finally put away all the clothes of his that have been sitting in the corner of the room since he brought them over months ago. There's more than one pair of swim trunks in there, reminding me of how warm it was when this all started happening.

    I organize them into neat piles, with his favorites on top, and put them into two drawers. I figure he would want a second one for when he starts putting them away himself, like I'm going to teach him to do. Emily managed to teach Sam, so why wouldn't that work on Seth?

    I smile at each shirt I put on the top of the piles. That's what he wore before his suit the day of the wedding, he wore that one the day we met, he gave me this one for a month before he decided he missed it too much, he was wearing this one the day before he left...maybe that one could go at the bottom of the pile. He seems to have several pairs of identical black khaki shorts, so I figure those can go in the pile in any order, since they're all the same anyway. Then the hoodies, then the socks and underwear, until everything is tucked into the drawers and all I have left to do is clean the entire rest of the room.

    I'd let myself turn this room into a bit of a rat's nest after he left. I never had any motivation to do anything, so if something fell, it stayed where it landed. That meant clothes, pillows, blankets, you name it - if it came into my room from anywhere other than the kitchen, it didn't leave where it was set down. I fold the blankets and toss them to my bed along with the pillows, put all the laundry in my basket and put it outside my door to bring to the washing machine, and gathered all the wrappers of snacks I had foraged for after the pack picked through them to throw out. I run into Sam in the hall, who looks surprised to see me out of my room. I suppose it had been a while since the last time we had seen each other anywhere other than the kitchen at dinner. I smile brightly before passing him to wash my clothes.

    The entire pack sits in the kitchen when I come down, and all stop talking to look at me. I stop too. "What?"

    "You remember how to use that washing machine?" Paul teases lightly. I mock-laughed, flipped him the bird and ran into the laundry room. The fact that I could look them all in the eye again, and that they could joke around with me was also an improvement. As I toss my clothes into the machine, a small piece of paper flutters to the ground. I ignore it, assuming it was some garbage my clothes had picked up from their home on the floor. But the writing on the front catches my eye when I'm pouring in the detergent. My curiosity gets the better of me, so I pick it up. It has a drawing of two stick figures holding hands, with a heart in the middle. It says Seth and Willow above the figures' heads, respectively, in Seth's handwriting. I chuckle and tuck it into the waistband of my yoga pants, making a mental note to add it to my box of memories since the pack rescued me.

    The boys are all staring at me again when I leave the room. I put my hands on my hips and glare at them, waiting for another jab about my lack of laundry from the last few months. Then someone's grabbing my waist, hugging me as tight as they can to them and I know I'm home; more home than I've been in months.

    "Seth!"