Disclaimer: Just playing with Stephanie's toys.


Possession

In the days after Bella popped out her mini-monster, Leah found she had no idea where to go. She wanted to go home, but after weeks of sleeping in the forest, waking up every couple of hours to spell Seth and Jake, her bed felt weird, and La Push felt… unwelcoming.

Mom was furious, which Leah had to admit she had a right to be. Sam was furious, too, and he had absolutely no right to be. After everything, he still somehow thought he was enough her Alpha (or enough her boyfriend) to chew her out for leading Seth astray and terrifying Sue, and he'd actually laid into her for a full minute before she told him to go fuck himself and boss Emily around for once.

He'd started shaking then, like he was going to phase, and she'd stormed off, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of actually fighting her. Screw him – she wasn't in his pack. That wasn't actually as satisfying she'd thought it would be, but it was definitely still a relief.

It also wasn't very satisfying when Quil and Embry left Sam's pack to join up with Jake's. Leah had anticipated at least a little perverse joy at seeing Sam abandoned – picked second for once – but she'd felt nothing.

Well, not nothing. It was a little annoying to have Quil and Embry, who were supposed to be Jacob's BFFs or whatever, jump on the Team Jake bandwagon a day late and a dollar short. Not to mention it was two more horny, adolescent boy-minds to put up with.

She was going to complain about it to Jake, but when Quil and Embry came to tell him they wanted to join, tails between their legs (metaphorically), he'd just said, "That's cool, guys – thanks. Leah's my Second," and she'd decided maybe not to argue this one.

So, there it was. The rez felt claustrophobic and lonely, and Jacob and Seth (and, grudgingly, but more and more, Embry and Quil) felt like home. It still felt right to be with Jacob, even if he had cheerfully imprinted on the Spawn of Satan, and now spent his days giving it pony rides and feeding it human blood in a sippy cup in the middle of the Cullen House of Horrors.

Leah sat on the lawn behind the mansion, her knees pulled up to her chin, watching Jacob play with the thing a few feet away.

It was a gorgeous, sunny day, and it would have been nice to sunbathe, but Leah couldn't relax here, and she definitely wasn't about to expose her bare neck anywhere near the leeches – pint-sized or otherwise.

The other Cullens had been out here earlier, sparkling in that way that made Leah's shoulders tense up to her ears. They'd trickled away slowly, in ones and twos – had to feed baby Bella, after all, and the doctor wanted to do research to make sure the spawn was growing right or whatever, and now it was just her, the Thing, and Jacob, who seemed like he'd decided to teach his imprint the word for everything, ever.

"That's a robin," he was saying. "It's a very common bird in North America."

Leah watched the Thing press its palm to Jacob's face. How he managed not to flinch was beyond her, and would have been beyond him just last week. The spawn didn't sparkle like her family – she glowed in the sun; like a pearl or something. An evil, brainwashing pearl. From hell.

"Oh, there are lots of kinds of birds. Probably thousands. Crows, eagles, hawks, vultures, sparrows, gulls, penguins, ostriches, griffins–"

"That's not a real bird," Leah interrupted. Her voice was muffled because she couldn't get her jaw to unclench, but Jacob and the monster looked up at her. The Thing frowned and put its hand on Jake's face again.

"She's right; that one's not real," he said, still looking at Leah. "It's an imaginary bird. Like a harpy."

Leah rolled her eyes – like the harpy comment was anything new – and turned her face away.

"Oh, you're hungry?" Jake asked, his voice softening again. "Sure thing."

"Blondie!" he shouted towards the house. "Nessie's hungry!"

A few moments went by, and Barbie vamp didn't burst out the back door, scowling at the two werewolves who had the audacity to babysit her demon niece all afternoon as though they were yesterday's lunch dragged out of the grave. That was weird. Then Leah remembered the looks Blondie had been getting from her big, dopey husband all morning, and thought maybe it wasn't so weird after all.

"I think she and her pet man went to have some alone time," Leah muttered, and Jacob actually blushed. Blushed? Where was the Jacob who would have curled his lip and snarled in disgust?

At least he rolled his eyes and said, "Jeez – don't these vamps ever do anything else?"

Leah raised her eyebrows at the Thing, who was wrapping a blade of grass around Jacob's fingers but obviously, creepily, listening to everything they were saying.

"Clearly not."

Jacob ignored her, or didn't get it.

"Well, I don't think Nessie needs to learn that much biology today," he said, hopping to his feet and lifting the spawn into his arms. "I'll go rustle up some grub, kiddo. You stay here with Aunt Leah."

"Don't call me that," Leah snapped. "And no!"

"Oh, come on, Leah, don't be such a wimp," Jacob said, bringing the Thing closer. Leah flinched away. "Just watch her for two seconds. And watch the teeth; when she gets hungry, she gets snappy."

He held the Thing close to her face, and Leah was forced to take it, just to get it back out at arms length.

"See?" he said, sounding idiotically proud of himself. "That's not so bad. Be right back, honey." He kissed the monster's ringlets and bounded towards the house.

Leah waited until she couldn't hear his footsteps anymore. Then she looked the spawn right in the eyes and whispered, as quietly and vehemently as she could, "I know you can understand me, and if you so much as think about biting me, I will pull out your baby teeth one by one."

The Thing's big brown eyes got wider, but she looked more surprised than scared, like she'd never expected anyone to talk to her like that in her life, and wasn't sure what to do now that someone had.

You should have heard what they said about you before you were born, kid, she thought, but didn't say it out loud. She wasn't cruel.

After a moment, the Thing reached for her face, and Leah held her out further.

"Uh-uh. You talk to me like a person, or not at all."

Thing huffed, then sniffled like she might cry. Leah felt her face heat up, realizing what would happen if Jacob came running out and asked what was wrong, and the Thing showed him…

Thing seemed to think better of the crying venture, and her face smoothed out into a haughty mask. God, she was creepy.

She pointed forcefully at the ground, glaring at Leah.

Leah was happy to oblige, and set the Thing down on the ground a few feet away.

The monster contented herself with trying to stand up for a while. She couldn't quite get it, and after a moment, she gave another frustrated huff.

She didn't even look that much like Bella, Leah thought, watching the leechlette try to balance on wobbly legs before falling on her butt. Leah wondered if she'd understand Jacob's imprint better if it at least looked like Bella. If it would be easier to accept his new obsession if it had something in common with his old one.

But it didn't look like Bella. Except for the eyes, it looked like Edward.

"You need to use your stomach muscles," she said after a few more minutes. She hadn't meant to say anything, but it was annoying, watching a baby squirm around and grunt on the ground and not make any progress. "Not your legs."

Thing seemed to give it an honest try, and finally straightened up, only swaying a little. She turned a brilliant smile on Leah, who rolled her eyes and looked away.

"Leah," Thing said so clearly that Leah turned back in surprise.

The little viper beamed at her, then pointed at her chest.

"Jacob's," she declared. Leah's eyebrows shot up.

Thing turned her pudgy finger towards her own chest.

"Jacob's," she said again.

"That is not something we have in common," Leah retorted, but then Jacob himself was bounding back out of the house, Blondie hot on his heels.

"It's my turn to feed her," Blondie snapped, yanking the blood-darkened sippy cup out of Jacob's hand. She scooped the demon up from the grass and put her glittering face down close to its glowing one. "Isn't that right, my angel?" she cooed, and Thing reached happily for her face.

Blondie watched whatever the Thing was showing her with an expression of mild surprise. Leah felt her face heat up again, wondering how long it would be before the vamp hive found out she'd threatened to remove their miracle baby's teeth.

The little parasite didn't seem like she was going to squawk yet, at least. When she took her hand off her aunt's face, Blondie just raised an eyebrow at Leah.

"Is she?" she asked the Thing, her voice dry. "I hadn't noticed."

"What?" Jacob asked, looking between Leah and the blonde. Leah busied herself with dusting imaginary grass clippings off her legs, and Blondie didn't answer.

"She'll need a nap this afternoon," Blondie said. "So there's no need for you two to hang around, scrounging for treats."

"What a tragedy," Leah snarled before Jacob could protest. "Can we go home now?"

"You know you don't have to –" Jacob began, but then he broke off and shook his head. "Yeah, we can go. I have a meeting with the Council and Sam at three, anyway. You should come with me."

"Okay," Leah said with a shrug, trying not to feel too pleased. Jeez, it was just a meeting. It wasn't like he was putting her in charge of anything. But it was nice to have him treat her like a partner, instead of just another pack member, and an annoying one at that. She could definitely get used to this Second thing.

"Aw, bye," Blondie said, all sugarcoated sarcasm.

"Bye, Flight Attendant Barbie," Jacob said, flicking Blondie's silk scarf out of the way as he leaned in to kiss the demon imprint.

"Bye, Nessie. See you later, okay?"

The Thing's eyes crinkled as she smiled around the nozzle of her cup, and she put her hand against Jake's face for a moment, then pulled it back to wave at them both.

Leah caught the Thing's eye by accident, and then jerked her head away and started jogging towards the woods, Jacob a few paces behind her. They undressed behind separate trees, then phased and started the run towards La Push together. Luckily, Jacob was too busy thinking about the Thing to notice Leah's stonewalled silence.

She listened unhappily to Jake's thoughts for a while. The way he saw the Thing was very different than the way Leah did. Jacob saw Nessie, a tiny, brilliant, pearly white angel, quick as a whip, excited to learn, sweet, loving, and adoring of him. He even thought it had a sense of humor, or at least that it understood and enjoyed his. He thought it was a real person.

Leah thought back to the Thing's comments earlier and snorted a bitter laugh through her snout.

Jacob's. Right. Leah might be Jacob's, but he belonged to the Thing, heart and soul. As if the demon didn't already know.


A/N: This is my first attempt at publishing Twilight fanfic, and I'd love to try more. What did you think? Thanks for reading!