Hey y'all, I wrote this a while back when I became obsessed with Blackwater. A few notifications: Don't read if you like Bella. Yes, I know the beginning's not that great but get into it and it's all right. And yeah, Emmett and Jasper are out of character but who cares? I wanted to have a little fun. So anyway, read and pleeeease review! Thanks!

Leah was on patrol when she heard the first notes of that song blazing through the morning air.

She stopped in her tracks (literally, because she was in wolf form) and slowly turned toward the Cullen house. That's where it was coming from. That's where that goddamned music was coming from.

Leah had always hated the song 'She wolf.'

Slowly, deliberately, she morphed back into a human and dressed calmly. Never in a million years she would enter the bloodsuckers' house of her own will, but now was not the time for such dwellings.

She emerged from the forest with her head held high, as the music grew louder. Stomping up the Cullens' front steps, she flung open the front door, nearly knocking it off its hinges. Before her eyes wwas the Cullen living room, occupied by bella, Edward, their mutant spawn, Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper, Alice, Carlisle, Esme, and Jacob.

When they saw her, everyone froze as the song's bass came into play. Bella held hands with Renesmee, looking like they were dancing, and Jacob had been watching them, a smile now frozen on his face as he stared at Leah.

Anger was coursing through Leah's veins, hot down her legs and burning in her belly. This was not the animal rage that sent shivers down her back, but a different, purely human type of anger.

"Who," she said, low and menacingly, "is playing that song?"

She knew it would be Jacob who answered, because she would just ignore the leeches if they spoke. He had one of two choices: a) stammer and stumble in mortal fear until turning off the music under the worst of Lea's deathly glares or b) the second, which, if not carried out correctly, could result in him gratefully welcoming a very painful death.

Jacob chose b) tease her.

A playful smile crossed his lips as the chorus of voices began to sing the intro.

"Oh, it's She Wolf. You know, Shakira," Jacob said. "Maybe you should sing along, Lee."

Leah's hands clenched into fists at her sides.

"No," she enunciated fearsomely, and turned to leave.

"Come on," Jacob said, casually stepping toward her, a challenge in his walk. He paused. Except for the voices on the CD, everyone was silent and waiting. "You scared?" he said, quiet and intensely.

Leah stopped. Turned. Just as the voices began to sing the last line, she said, "Scared...? I'll show you scared." She stared mischievously at him a moment longer, and then began to sing.

A domesticated girl

That's all you ask of me

Darling, this is no joke

This is lycanthropy

Dancing around the living room, she felt like an absolute idiot. But suddenly she remembered her younger days (or nights), when she used to dance her ass of at the rez club with Sam, shaking her hips and twisting and turning her body this way and that so that all eyes in the club were on her. Jacob used to go to the club, too, in his pre-Bella days, when he was a player. Still, being four years older than him, she was way out of his league. She was out of everyone's league back then; not that that kept them from having massive crushes on her. Anyway, she used to be so good at the dirty type of dancing she'd gotten offers from pimps to go into the 'exotic' business....And the way Jacob couldn't keep his eyes off her, she could tell she still got it.

Ha! she thought when she saw Emmett's and Jasper's eyes on her backside. Even vampires couldn't resist a good Quilleute ass.

There's a She Wolf in the closet

Open up and set her free

There's a she Wolf in the closet

Let it out so it can breathe.

As she sang, she pulled Jacob into her arms and began to dance so maliciously sexy all around him she could have been a stripper; all, of course, to annoy him. Everyone in the room was just staring at her, still unmoving, shocked into a dazed state. God, they were looking at her like she had just announced she had two vaginas, or something.

Then Jacob did something that stunned Leah into utter silence. It was exactly the last thing on the list of Leah's Ideas of What Jacob Would Do. Of course he was her friend; though she would never say it out loud. She was his Beta, and he her Alpha. He used to be petrified of her and what she would do to him if he stepped one toe over the line. She was the biggest asshole he'd ever known, and he often reminded her of this fact. But after he'd gotten to know her some, he started to tease her a bit, pushing the envelope to see how far he could go, always with that malevolent half-smile. It had been that way for five years.

But this was beyond...it was just beyond. And he did it all as a joke, of course, to annoy her.

He grabbed her ass.

That's right.

He grabbed. Her. Ass.

Leah was too shocked to do anything but smack him and run away playfully, but he just chased her, all the while dancing. Leah knew he could see the reluctant smile tugging at her lips.

She danced throughout the whole song with Jacob, feeling like someone she used to be, a happier person, only better, smarter, faster, stronger, sexier. The model-body thing with werewolves didn't just work on the boys--she, too, had a flat, muscled stomach and incredible body. Haha.

The song ended, and Leah threw her leg over Jacob's outer thigh. Jacob caught it and held it there. They both stood, just panting and sweating for a second, and then broke down into uncontrollable laughter.

As the laughter subsided, the met each others' eyes.

And as she looked at Jacob's smile, she could see the old Jacob. His smile was not Bella's full-on, perpetually happy grin. It was something different, a boy from even further back, pre-Bella days. It was the smile of the boy who used to pick her flowers when he was seven, who used to send countless Valentine's cards to her with her friends. It was the smile of a gangly pubescent teen who got a glare from am when he stared at her chest as she walked by. It was the mischievous half-smile of a boy who dunked heads with Quil and Embry at the rez pool and then all three stopped to whistle at her when she came by in her yellow polka-dot bikini. It was that Jacob Black, who made the best dream-catchers and wove the best bracelets. One of the innumerable Quileute boys who knew she was way out of his league, yet couldn't help crushing on her for her model body and perfect features.

Yet Leah knew that it was not just good looks that had drawn boys to her from an early age. Leah knew what Jacob was seeing on her face.

It was that girl, that sexy girl with the playful, come-hither smile on her lips, the one who used to painfully tease boys when they handed her flowers, all the while with a smile on her face. The girl who used to write sarcastic, yet sincere thank-you notes for all the Valentines she got. The one who would tell you, "I'm up here!" when you were having a conversation with her chest. The girl who would be mean jokingly, then hug you reluctantly afterwards. The girl who boys loved because she was sassy, sexy and (sometimes) sweet at the same time.

And a half-smile was playing at Jacob's lips while his eyes danced. And he looked like he was going to kiss her.

A million thoughts ran through Leah's head. Was he going to kiss her? Did she want him to kiss her? Had he fallen for her? Had she already fallen for him? Or was she falling for him now, all at once in this one moment? Would it last?

Five years ago, she never would've dreamed this would happen. It had been years since those summer days in a polka-dot bikini at the rez pool, and things were different now, she was different, and Jacob was, too. It was as if he had snuck up on her, and now suddenly he was so totally in her league. He was as old as her, in body and in mind. And he was damn hot, in more than one way. And she was hot too, might she say so herself.

But through all these thoughts, one penetrated: Renesmee. Renesmee was the girl who would grow up to be even more beautiful than Leah. The girl who would grow to have silky white skin and a sleek neck and legs so long she would be almost as tall as Jacob. She would have red lips and manageable boobs and a tiny ass and hair the chocolate brown color her mother's eyes had once been. She would be the girl with eyes forever young, untouched by sorrow. She would never be broken.

And it wasn't fair. No matter how hard Leah tried, she would never prevail. Though this moment may belong to her, the years and the future belonged to Renesmee, and soon these few fleeting seconds would turn to dust, overshadowed by something much larger. If she kissed him now, the only thing that would happen would be a falling, a breaking-down of the walls around her broken heart she had so carefully built; the bitch façade she put on every day would be uncovered, and she would be revealed, vulnerable and broken, to the world. She'd had enough pain over an imprinted man to last her two lifetimes, and a part of her would never get over Sam, just like a part of Jacob would never get over Bella. She wasn't going to stand by and watch as her world crumbled on her shoulders for the millionth time. Though Jacob's reborn smile may belong to her, his heart would forever belong to someone else.

It wasn't fair. No matter how hard Leah fought, she could never win.

Jacob was leaning toward her now, his eyes fluttering closed, his loveable face relaxed and looking more at ease than it had for years. It was as if he belonged here, without the stress of something forced on him; this was something he wanted. Renesmee was like a cult he wanted to break away from, but loved so much he couldn't. Leah was a choice, but he would only choose her for as long as it took for her to fall madly in love with, and then he would leave her. Leave her for the beautiful girl with the untouched eyes. The one who would never—could never—feel pain.

And so she turned away, pulling her leg from his grip, his scorching hands still around her waist. A great pang rose in her chest, and a twist formed in her throat as she forced herself not to cry. A silent tear rolled down her cheek, and as Leah could think of nothing to say, she said the only two words that would come out, the two words she had refused to say to anyone for so many years, because to her it meant showing how ripped and blackened she felt her soul was.

"I'm sorry."

She would not look at Jacob's face, because she knew what she would find there. And she wouldn't--couldn't--see his crushed and injured eyes, his beautiful features darkened by hurt. She knew that it would only make it harder, that he had wanted it that badly, that he came so close, that she came so close, that together they came so close. Seeing him like that would only make her want to smooth the creases in his forehead away with her fingers, kiss the smile back into his lips. But she couldn't. She would not hurt herself again.

Leah turned to leave, and felt ten pairs of eyes on her back, nine of which were relieved to see her go. All but one pair of coal black eyes.

There is no triumph without trial, Leah thought as she closed the front door silently behind her. Trials make the heart grow stronger. Trials made two people grow stronger, too; draw closer to each other. So how, thought Leah, will Jacob and Renesmee ever grow stronger if she is protected from everything that could touch her? How?, she thought, if Renesmee is forever young?

There is no happiness without sorrow. Leah had the sorrow part of the equation down pat.

So when would Leah's happiness come?