"Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you"

-Coldplay

By the second day after TJ got attacked, Paul was ready to go insane, he was torn between going after the leech that did this to his imprint and staying by TJ's side; obviously choosing the latter. She still hadn't woken up and Carlisle said that her body just went through something traumatic so it won't wake itself up until it starts to heal a little. He wished that someone other than Carlisle was helping her, but according to Sam, TJ heals too fast and it would raise too many questions.

He looked down at his imprint laying in bed, her skin looked paler than usual. He was sure that the image of TJ laying bloody in his arms would haunt him for the rest of his life, but it also made him realize that he couldn't wait forever to tell her about the imprint. God forbid, if that would've been her last day alive, she would've never known how he felt about her.

By the fifth day, he felt the air rush back into his lungs when her hazel eyes stared back at him. "Thank goodness you're okay." He breathed. He handed her some water and she cleared her throat.

"What happened?" She croaked out, her voice feeling like sandpaper against her throat. The bright lights and all white everything wasn't helping much either.

"You were attacked by a vampire in Port Angeles when you were leaving the gym."

"Fucking bitch." She muttered and then looked back at him. "What are you doing here?"

He looked at her incredulously, "Where else would I be Princess? You were attacked."

"And he stayed by your side every day." Carlisle said, coming into the room.

"Give it to me straight Doc, am I going to be craving blood anytime soon?" The thought of turning into a vampire actually unnerved her but she covered it up with humor.

Paul growled at the thought but she waved him away. Clearly he wasn't amused.

Carlisle laughed. "No, you're healing up pretty good but you should take it easy for another week."

"Thanks doc."

*

Paul refused to leave her side as she recovered and they both were out of school for two weeks. TJ thought he was being too dramatic, even offering to spoon feed her sometimes.

"I can carry my own backpack Paul." She said as they walked into school.

"I know, I just want to help."

Truthfully, he was just afraid to let her out of his sight after what happened. He wasn't with her and he blamed himself. He didn't even care about school or about his patrols, the only person that mattered was TJ.

He had one morning class with her so he made Kim and Jared keep an eye out on her for the others.

As soon as it was lunch time he waited outside her class and took her bag from her. Instead of arguing with him as she's done for the past week and a half that she's been up, she let him be. He seemed like he needed to do this.

"Stop treating me like I'm made of glass, Lahote." TJ groaned as made her way to her usual seat while Paul insisted on getting her lunch.

She started walking towards her table and evidently, someone wasn't paying attention because they walked right into her, spilling their whole tray on her shirt. She looked down to see Embry Call who looked as if he were about to shit bricks. The only reason why she even knew his name was because he was one of the only freshman in her Biology class and had grades in that class that were almost as good as her own. The cafe stopped and TJ could see Paul shaking out of the corner of her eye before Jared pulled him away.

Embry looked up to see Trinity Marks, he, like a lot of the schools population, had a crush on her. She was mysterious as she literally talked to no one up until the beginning of the school year when Jared sat with her. She kept to herself and scared away anyone who approached her.

"I'm so sorry Trinity."

She cringed at the use of her first name, "TJ please and it's all good. No harm, no foul." Both of his friends Jacob and Quil had a crush on her too and they'd be envious that he'd actually gotten her to talk to him right now, even if she did have chili dripping down her sweater.

Luckily she had kept clothes in her locker for emergencies only, this definitely classified as one, she didn't want to smell like old meat all day. After she tried to clean off her sweater as best as she could, she changed her clothes and left the bathroom as the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch.

She was so hungry

Entering her second to last class of the day, she was surprised to find Paul already sitting in his spot next to her. He placed a palm on her cheek to check her for injuries and spontaneously kissed her forehead.

"Are you okay Princess?"

"Paul, it was lunch meat, I'm fine." She sat down and he handed her a bag of chips out of his bag.

"I know you missed lunch, I could hear your stomach growling from the hallway." He joked.

"My hero." She kissed his cheek, oblivious to the shit eating grin he was currently sporting.