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She was sitting on the closed toilet seat staring at her shower wondering just how she was going to make this work without getting the bandage wet when the front door opened. Emilie relaxed a little when her brother called out that it was just him and he brought food.

An hour earlier, she had survived Lee's torture. Pain meant nothing to her now that she lived through the doctor lancing her leg, draining the pus and the digging around to make sure she got everything out. True to herself, Emilie didn't yell, cry or lash out in any manner. She gritted her teeth and took the abuse like a champ.

Lee had been all kinds of impressed with her when she was done. Of course, Emilie kicked her out right away. She needed to feel weak for a while and didn't want an audience. Since being shot by Bobby, Emilie had not let herself feel the betrayal and the pain of the loss. Her relationship was over. Her life was over. For twenty minutes, Emilie cried to herself on her couch. She let herself feel everything she had pushed aside on her journey here. And when she was done, she took a deep breath and let it all go. Trying to change what couldn't be changed was wasted energy.

Emilie pushed herself to stand and hobbled down the stairs. Dean was hauling in two suitcases, which she hoped had her clothes. Lee had been nice enough to outfit her with sweatpants from her car but what she really wanted now was her robe and fuzzy slippers.

"Hey sis," he said as he dropped the suitcases off in the corner of the living room. It had been a good month since she had seen him last. His hair, although the same color as hers, had been cut short. Dean had always had a shaggy thing happening with his hair that she loved but this new look made him look older, cleaner. Like their hair, their eyes matched in hue and intensity. There was no doubt they shared blood. Dean had a more masculine chin and lips but they shared a nose. For what he didn't have in height, he had in bulk. Dean looked like a bear with his broad shoulders and muscular chest. It always amused her to no end that his nickname in high school had been Bear.

Using the banister as a crutch, Emilie made it to the last step with only one groan. When she looked up, Dean was frowning at her. It was then that she remembered that she never did tell him about getting shot.

"He shot you didn't he?" Dean asked as he took in her ratty hair, exhausted eyes and limp.

Emilie wobbled her way to the couch. Her fever had broken thanks to Lee and her arsenal of drugs. All she wanted to do now was clean the last few days off her body and sleep for a very long time.

"He did," she said as she collapsed into the couch. Dean didn't move from his spot against the wall. Those ever assessing eyes of his were still taking inventory of her.

"I would have picked you up if you told me you were injured."

"I know, but my stuff..."

The thing about Emilie was that she was a very private person. Once this house became her home, she would keep visitors to a minimum. Her living space, along with all of her things were private comforts which she didn't like to share. Since she knew she could make the hike, there was no reason for him to help her when her things were at the mercy of Bobby and his family.

Dean shook his head. "Your priorities are skewed."

"I had this covered," she said motioning to her leg. "What I needed were all my belongings saved from Bobby's mother and sisters who would probably be taking what they wanted and selling off the rest within days." Greedy little bitches.

With a sigh, Dean came over and sat beside her. He put an arm around her shoulders and Emilie leaned into him, her head on his shoulder.

"Who cleaned it up?" he asked placing a kiss on her head.

"My new landlord slash neighbor was in the kitchen when I got here. He called the local pack doctor. Thanks for getting me a shifter neighbor, by the way."

Dean nodded. "Lee's a good woman."

"You know her?" she asked turning to look at him.

"She bartends in Andora and works at the local clinic. I had to go in there a few months ago for stitches." Dean was staring at her leg probably wishing he had x-ray vision so he could see how bad it was.

"How's Bobby?"

He shook his head, a huff of a laugh leaving his lips. "Distraught. He is telling everyone about the bear attack. God, that man is gullible."

She worried the inside of her lip. Bobby was gullible and he didn't ask questions, not like Emilie, she questioned everything. She liked information, knowledge. Taking someone's word for something wasn't enough for her. In that regard, they were total opposites. But she loved Bobby. He was caring and sweet. He didn't deserve this.

"Aw man Em, please don't feel sorry for the guy. He'll have a new girl in no time. Sensitive guys like him always have a friend in the wings waiting her turn. You need to move on. He wasn't right for you anyway."

"Please, not this again," she moaned and dropped her head back on the couch. Dean had no problem voicing his opinion about anything, ever. Especially when it came to her.

"He wasn't right for you! Maybe, at first he was what you needed but you outgrew him long ago and you know it." Dean twisted so he was facing her. "This is a fresh start for you. Make some friends and get out of your shell. I don't want to come by in a week and see you haven't left the house yet."

Emilie rolled her head on the back of the couch so she could glare at him. "That was one time and I am fine on my own."

"I know you are fine but you do get lonely, it may take longer than a normal person but it happens." The sympathy she felt pouring off of him was almost enough to drown in. Where Dean was an easy going, go with the flow, live free kind of guy, Emilie was not. He could never understand how she could spend so much time alone and not get bored or lonely. Her brother needed people. Emilie needed solitude. Loneliness would hit her but it would take a while.

"Those first steps with new things are always the hardest for you."

He wasn't wrong. First words, new places and people scared the shit out of her.

"Did you get my planner?" she asked suddenly feeling too exposed and needing her security blanket. Most people wouldn't consider a day planner a security blanket but Emilie felt lost without it. The planner might be the most intimate thing she owned and she protected it as if it were her child. No one was allowed to look at it unless Emilie was the one showing them.

The small book was part calendar, part journal. She wrote down horoscopes that she liked, followed the moon cycles, kept ideas, sayings and quotes that spoke to her.

Emilie was very in tune with herself. When she was in high school, in those years when innocence began to fade and real life started to mold a person, Emilie felt as lost as every other child her age. She had no idea who she was. The young girl who was friends with every person in her grade became secluded. She watched other's change and adapt. Groups of friends molded and twisted into new ones. Emilie was different, though, none of those kids had two halves to them. She was both human and bear. Although her two halves had always fit seamlessly together, there came a point when she found the differences between her and the rest of the kids to be too great. Connecting with people became very hard to do.

It was her bear who got her through those adolescent years. Together they looked up. The moon and the stars had guided her on so many nights in the forest, why couldn't they guide her now? Emilie learned all she could about astrology. It became somewhat of an obsession. But her findings came to be true, time and time again.

Emilie was a Virgo with a moon in Taurus and Aries rising.  

Dean teased her about it ruthlessly, especially at first. He didn't understand how tracking the moon cycles and planets as they revolve around the sun was as normal as her going to church on Sunday. The stars weren't her gods, she wasn't saying that, but they were a comfort and she knew that she could always look up and find guidance in the galaxy.

Dean's eyes softened as he looked at her. "Don't worry. It was the first thing I grabbed. It's in my truck."

Emilie exhaled. "Thank you."

He leaned over and kissed her head again, she pushed him away with a smirk. "You said something about food earlier."

He laughed. "Stay here, I'll bring you pizza. Then you get to watch me unload all your crap."

All day he thought about the bear who had wandered into his den. Lee called him a few hours ago to let him know how it went. His gut had dropped when he heard the pain she had to endure. Carter would have been there had he known what Lee had to do to get her healing again.

Emilie was a mystery to him. It was the cop in him that wanted to know who shot her and why she needed to move so suddenly. When her brother had called about the space, all he had said was that his sister was relocating to the area. Dean had paid the first three month's rent and the security deposit. Carter never questioned it. It was the showing up naked, wounded and exhausted part that had him shining up his badge and adjusting his Westlin PD hat.

Carter had resisted the urge to dig into her background. He hoped that she would feel comfortable with him enough in time to tell him about the situation that led her there. Emilie promised that it was an accident and nothing would come of it. As a shifter, she knew the ramifications if someone found out about them.

As he pulled into his driveway, a truck and trailer were blocking most of the lane. A man, Dean he presumed, was heading out of the house to the trailer. Carter was happy to see that Emilie wasn't helping him bring in boxes.

"Hi there," he said as he got out of his truck. Carter was still in uniform and the man gave him the typical once over. The one that wondered if he was here on business or pleasure. "I'm Carter. Can I assume you are Emilie's brother, Dean?"

Recognition lightened his eyes, Emilie's eyes. Yeah, they were related alright. Dean jumped out of the trailer and held out his hand. "Yeah, we spoke on the phone. It's nice to meet you."

Carter shook the bear's hand. "Can I help at all?"

"I'd love some. Seems my sister forgot to mention the part that she was wounded in her little getaway. I would have brought some help had she bothered to tell me."

Carter dropped his bag on the porch and stripped out of his uniform shirt. Besides a box or two, the only thing in the trailer was the big furniture.

"She strikes me as the independent type," he said as they lifted the mattress and slid it from the trailer.

"You have no idea."

Actually, he was beginning to. Dean opened the door and lifted the mattress up again. "Don't you dare get up," he said to Emilie. "I've got myself some help."

"Hello again," Carter said as he came through the door with the other side of the bed. She was sitting on the couch, her leg propped up on the coffee table. He recognized those pants from the pack's collection of emergency gear and she was still wearing his shirt. He smiled at that.

"Oh. Hi." She looked stunned to see him. Well, she better get used to it, he thought, since he lived next door.

They took the bed upstairs to the bedroom. Dean had already brought the frame up. A few more trips and Emilie soon had a bedroom set.

"I know it's not your stuff, but I could hardly take it from Bobby since he was using it. I did get your desk, though," Carter overheard Dean say to Emilie.

"Thanks. I'm just happy to have a bed. Where did you get it?"

"My guest room."

She huffed. "You didn't have to do that."

"My baby sister calls me up and says she needs a new life; I'm going to provide her with just that. You think I'd let you sleep on the floor?"

Carter didn't hear the rest; he went right upstairs with the last of the boxes. Emilie's eyes followed him, waiting till he was out of earshot to answer.

It sounded like a breakup gone wrong. He did want some kind of confirmation that the guy wouldn't be comin' round and stirring up shit. But that could wait till tomorrow. Emilie looked like she was about to pass out. The fever had broken but now there was a little crease in between her eyes that told him she had a headache.

Dean was waiting for him at the bottom of the stairs. "Thank for helping. I'm on my way home. Only live ten minutes from here so give me a call if you need me for any reason. You too," he said over his shoulder toward Emilie. "I don't want to get a call from this guy saying that you had to go to the hospital or some shit because your leg got worse."

"Yes, Mom," Emilie groaned dutifully, her eyes never leaving the page of the book she held. "Love you."

"Love you too."

Carter followed him out shutting the door behind him. "You're just leaving her like that?" he asked. He hadn't meant for it to sound accusatory. "What I mean..."

Dean waved away his worry. "I know what you mean and yes I am because I have already overstayed my welcome. Emilie is fickle with things. She will call if she needs me and when she does I know it is something serious. Like I said, she's independent. If she can do it herself, she will. And right now she wants to do it herself."

He didn't like any of that. But Carter didn't have a say since he wasn't family. "Thanks again for the help," Dean said as he got in his truck.

"See ya."

Carter waited till he was down the driveway before heading back inside. He still had to have a talk with Emilie.

He knocked twice and entered. She was frowning at him, obviously surprised to see him back. "Forget something?"

"Just thought now would be a good time to go over some shifting rules."

"Now?" she deadpanned, looking down at her leg.

He grinned. "Yes, now." She'd have a hard time evading him while she was injured. Carter sat beside her again. She eyed him suspiciously and tugged the blanket, that was wrapped around her shoulders, a bit tighter. "Stick to the trail out back. Once you get to the stack of rocks you can wonder. It's about two hundred yards in. You're in pack land and I'll tell the alpha that you're here. He won't care knowing that you're Dean's sister."

She nodded. "Alright, I think I can handle all that."

"Do you need anything?" he asked wondering what she planned on doing in here by herself with no TV or internet hooked up yet. "You can always come over to my place if you want to watch something."

Emilie's expression softened just a little, into a real smile. "Thank you, but no. I plan on reading and sleeping for the foreseeable future."

"Can I help you up the steps before I go?" He hated to see her in pain. Carter could easily carry her up.

She shook her head. "I'm good."

"You only need to yell if you change your mind." She sighed and he knew it was time for him to cut out. "Ok, alright," he said holding up his hands and standing up. "I'm done. Have a good night Emilie."

"You too, Carter. Thanks again for the help today."

At the door, he turned to smile at her. "Anytime."