**Disclaimer ~ any noticeable characters are the product of Stephanie Meyers' dreams

Summary: 5 years after Breaking Dawn, Sue and Charlie had a small marriage ceremony and Seth and Sue moved in with Charlie. Leah is in Mexico, having left a year after the show down with the Volturi, when she gets a call from Sam's mother that changes the lives of Sam, Leah, and everybody else in between. Can Leah put away her bitterness to help an ex-pack mate in need or will she go about her business and not look back? Can Sam move on if he loses a love again or will this be too much for him?

Leah

She stared out of the window blankly, looking out at the overcast skies and the butterflies flying in the air. She didn't pay attention to the guy stirring on the other side of her. Didn't care that he was talking to her, telling her she needed to cut her hair, "you'll come to the beach tonight, right?" to which he receive no answer. He kissed her cheek and although she wanted to wipe it off she couldn't. How did she end up here, in her mom's house, without her mom or Seth in it? Not even 48 hours ago she was in her safe apartment in Mexico, about to go out with her gay friend, Jose, before she got that phone call from Sam's mom. Why did she call? Why did she have to ruin whatever illusion of peace Leah had? Leah felt the tears in her chest, the tears that she wouldn't allow to fall from her eyes. She replayed words that friends and family have told her for the past seven years, that she'd be fine. One day she'd be fine and she'll look back at this moment and understand that everything happens for a reason. However, in this moment, where Leah covered as much of her body as possible, she wasn't sure if she'd ever understand how her life could go from perfect to complete shit in a span of one day. One foolish day that altered her planned out future forever. She wasn't sure she felt safe in this skin anymore.

CYOW~CYOW~CYOW~CYOW

Eventually Leah got up from her spot and headed towards the little hospital they had on the Res. Could she handle seeing Emily's mangled body? She wasn't sure, but looking at her reflection in the window that only showed her overcast skies was only reminding her how out of touch she felt with her body in her home.

Sue met her daughter at the hospital doors and clung to her tight; knowing that her daughter hid her pain behind a mask, she didn't bother mentioning that Leah was gone for five years with no communication. She felt Leah's shuddering breath against her scalp and pulled away to look into her daughters eyes framed with long thick hair. She smoothed her daughter hair and waited for her to speak.

"What happened mom?" Leah asked after they both sat down.

"There was an accident. Emily was driving when a deer ran into the road. She swerved off the road and the car got completely totaled. Embry was on patrol, so he was able to get her out of the car and into the hospital safely. Leah, there's some things that you've missed out on-"

"I need to see Emily." Leah whispered, cutting off her mother. "I need to see her first before I get filled in with what I've been missing."

"Alright, 's just between those doors," Leah stood up, "be prepared, Sam is in there." She turned to her mother and nodded once before opening the swinging doors to see Emily's mangled body and Sam lying there in a cot next to her.

"Sam?" Leah whispered, suddenly unsure of herself or what she should do. Sam looked at her as if he was seeing a ghost. He didn't understand what was happening. One minute everything was fine. He was with his three kids and Emily was coming back home, they were going to surprise her with a baby shower, and now everything is wrong and Leah's here. Leah's here. Leah's here. Leah's here. Sam repeated over and over again in his head. Everything was wrong but LeeLee was here, and she'll make everything better.

"LeeLee?" she fought the urge to flick him off and instead headed towards his cot and Emily's. She stood between the two cots, looking over at her cousin. She noticed the bump underneath her gown but said nothing, there were only three heartbeats she could detect from the room and nothing more. She turned to look at Sam, tears stinging behind her eyeballs.

"Sam, what's going on? I don't understand- my mom said Emily was driving and she flipped the car. I don't understand." Sam continued to look at her, struggling with the metal cord in his chest, the one that pulled him away from his Lee-Lee but ultimately gave him a family, a family he longed for. The metal cord that replaced the balloon strings that previously held him together. The metal cord that meant Emily was his imprint. He held on to the metal cord and tried to process what Leah was asking him. What didn't she understand? Where was he? He looked Leah in the eye and saw pain reflected there. Not just pain from today, pain that ran deep inside her soul. Something he was sure he caused.

"W-We were planning a surprise baby shower. I told her to go to the store and pick up some dough so that we she could bake, not knowing that we were throwing her something special. Now, now, she's going to die, and it's all my fault. I can't. I can't," he started to gasp for air.

"Don't say that Sam. It's not your fault and she's not going to die. Take deep breaths with me, okay...It's going to be okay." Leah said soothingly but with a hint of uncertainty. She didn't know any more than the doctors.

"Leah, I can feel her slipping away, and I don't know how long it's going to take for me to go after her. It hurt to be away from her at any time, she'll be gone forever, what am I supposed to do then? My kids-"

"What kids, Sammy?" With those three words, she came apart inside. She hadn't called him Sammy since before the imprint, hadn't thought about kids, purposefully, in four years. Could she have them? Who knew, but the elders told her most likely not. Her subconscious dream of getting back together with Samuel and having kids was destroyed. She couldn't rip apart a family, she couldn't ever be the reason Sam treated his kids how Joshua treated him and Embry. She wouldn't. Sam stared at Leah's vulnerable form in front of him and like every time he saw her he wondered why vampire, werewolves, and all this bullshit had to come in between something as pure and good as him and Leah.

"Leanne, Michael, and SJ. Emily was pregnant with – Leah, please, you have to help me. I can't leave Emily, and they won't tell my anything about the baby. She was too early. Emily was only 6 months, they needed to get her out before, before the umbilical chord had a chance to suffocate her."

"Okay, okay… I'll go check on your little girl. But you have to promise me Sam, please…don't harm yourself while I'm gone." She said a little roughly. She wanted to just see Emily and leave, go away forever back to the safe haven that wasn't where her house resided, back to Mexico. But she could already tell, like everything in her life, her choices were being taken away from her on important matters of the heart.