A/N: Just another Leah oneshot. There's not enough fics about her.
"Leah?"
"What, Mom?"
"Emily's downstairs."
Oh.
What could Saint Emily want now? Maybe she wants the new pair of sneakers Leah bought the other day? Or maybe the new bedcovers Sue Clearwater had gotten at half-price? She has already taken the man she loves away from her. But Leah wills herself to stop thinking such nasty thoughts about her cousin. She knows the story, knows how it had all gone terribly wrong.
"I don't want to speak to her," she replies as she rolls onto her other side to look clearly into her mother's face, who is standing at the doorway. Sue Clearwater looks haggard and thin, like an underfed dog. Then again, all three of them are looking on the slimmer side these days.
A month has barely passed since he died. A month has only passed since Leah and Seth discovered they were werewolves now.
More than ever, Leah is an empty shell. Like a supernova now, a star that got burned by its own intensity and exploded. All that was left was a beautiful face and figure, but she is devoid of any sort of human compassion these days. "Leah, please," her mother begs as she steps into the mess that is her daughter's room. "Emily wants to speak to you, you need to get over this. You know why Sam left you now, you know exactly what happened. Can't you make your peace with her?"
Leah's fury is roused. Oh, she knows everything now. But that doesn't make it right. But Sam and Emily have an excuse for what they did. Imprinting. How she loathes that word, how she hates it because it is truly only an excuse. She has been inside Sam's mind, seen how he feels, has marveled and despaired at the compulsion of his love and devotion to his soon-to-be scarred wife. And she understands now. But it didn't make the pain go away. It just increases it.
But the council and the rest of the pack side with the Love Couple. They think Leah is just being difficult and infantile for not moving on, for not fawning over Emily and congratulating her on her engagement.
As if she would.
"Mom, go away."
But Leah eventually goes down, for her mother's sake. Despite being a bitter harpy, Leah does not like causing more grief to her mother or Seth than necessary. She hesitates down the staircase, taking a moment to gather herself and strides in proudly into the kitchen room where Emily is sitting, looking a bit uncomfortable with a steaming mug clasped in her copper-skin hands. Immediately she looks up and gives Leah a smile, a smile Leah does not return. Instead, she sits on the opposite end of the table and stares at Emily.
"What do you want?" she asks, getting straight to the point and not wanting to dance around the subject. Emily does that a lot, beating around the bush when she wants something and does not wish to seem to upfront about it.
"I came to see how you where," she answers slowly, her eyes looking straight at her. She looks at Leah with a pitying, sad look. A look that is usually bestowed on homeless people upon a cold winter night. Leah doesn't want her pity. She wants her to return Sam to her.
"I'm alright," Leah lies easily.
Emily nods her head slowly and her warm dark eyes look out the kitchen window. Leah sees that her cousin is hesitating. "I actually came to ask you something...but I'm not sure what you'll do or say."
"Cut the monologue, Emily. Tell me."
Leah can't imagine what in the world her engaged cousin might want to say to her. It can't be too horrible, she thinks.
"Leah, will you be my bridesmaid?"
A bridesmaid. A fucking bridesmaid. This is all what it was about then. Leah wants to phase right there, wants to scratch Emily and frighten her so badly that she will never even think about setting foot in her house ever again. Her rage comes and goes though and she's left with nothing but an empty heart and utterly hopeless. Sam and Emily are getting married and there's nothing that Leah can do to prevent it. It is inevitable.
She toys with the idea of making a cutting remark and kicking Emily out of the house but in the end, her love for the scarred woman before her wins and she decides to simply let go and accept the circumstances. She will be selfless this time.
"Yes, Emily. I'll be your bridesmaid."