A/N: Hello everyone. I am a huge Leah/Jacob fan, but I recognize that the Nessie/Jacob imprint is large barrier to them ever being together, so here is a little one shot about the dynamic between Leah/Jacob/Nessie/Seth. Enjoy.
I appreciate all reviews and constructive criticism. Also, I make no money from fan fiction or Stephanie Meyers' characters.

"Where's Edward?" Jacob demanded. "Did he know about this?"

"Edward, Bella, get out here!" he shouted.

"They're not here," answered Renesmee.

Jacob turned and rushed away.

Seth reached for her arm. His eyes pleaded and a hint of fear shined through.

"You should let him calm down first," he said.

Nessie looked sweetly back at him. A strained smile formed across her rosy lips.

"Jake would never hurt me for any reason. I don't care how upset he gets," she said. Her tone was slightly scolding. She had complete confidence in her belief.

Seth examined her chocolate colored eyes. There was no denying the truth of her statement. Jacob would rather claw out his own heart than hurt Nessie.

Slowly, he loosened his grip from her arm and she hurriedly jogged after Jacob.

Jacob sat with his knees drawn up to his chest. He stared out over the cliffs at the choppy water below. Dark clouds hid the sun and the air carried a chill that his body temperature didn't allow him to notice. Nessie's scent blew toward him with the coming breeze, but he didn't turn around to acknowledge her. He was trying very hard to hold onto to his anger, though he knew it was a losing battle whenever she was near.

"Ten little monkeys jumping on the bed. One fell off and bumped his head. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said…" Nessie sang out in a soft voice. "Then how does the rest of it go?"

Jacob sighed. "I don't feel like playing nursery rhyme games Renesmee, and you're not a little girl anymore."

"Oh, I see, so you think that if you call me by my full name, then I am supposed to what? Believe that we're no longer best friends, that you don't love me, and you don't want whatever will make me happy," she said. Jacob sighed hard. She had always been too smart for her own good.

Nessie sat down beside Jacob. She pulled at his arm, urging him to wrap it around her. He grudgingly complied and she buried her face into his shoulder. Her auburn curls created a veil across her face and she hid in the familiar nook that his shoulder created.

She had been doing this all of her life and she breathed in and out slowly. Jacob felt her warm tears on his skin and pulled her closer and protectively into his side. He turned his face, and kissed the top of her head.

"Please don't cry, Ness."

Jacob could feel his heart start to break at the knowledge of her tears.

"I love him," she whispered. Jacob clenched his jaw and suppressed a growl.

"It's not supposed to work that way. You're my imprint," he said. Nessie lifted her head and stared into Jacob's eyes. She gave him a quiet, mocking laugh.

"And how is it supposed to work then? Jake, you've been my best friend my whole life. Now, I'm all grown up and anytime I mention the idea of you and m-." Nessie cut herself off when she felt Jacob's entire body tense. She pulled away from him and turned her head to face the water in front of them.

"See what I mean?"

"Ness, I just need time. Time to adjust to…"

"Jake, you're my best friend. I know you. I know what makes you tick, so to say. You're not just about to suddenly feel something that you don't feel, magical fairy dust or not. I know how hard you fight for things that are important to you, and I know how hard you fight against magic, fate, heroin addiction, or whatever you want to call it, to make things the way you want them to be, not the way that someone else tells you that they are supposed to be."

"So what Ness, now you are all-knowing on top of great in every other way? God, you really are Edward's child aren't you?" Jacob teased. Nessie rolled her eyes and cradled back into his side. They were silent for a moment and Jacob rested his cheek against the top of her head.

"No, I'm not all knowing, but I do know a few things." Nessie sat up, pulled Jacob's arm from around her and placed her right hand in his left one. Her small fingers were tiny compared to his, but she laced their fingers together and squeezed tightly before continuing.

"I know, for example, that you are Jacob Black…"

"Wow, did you figure that one out all by yourself?" Nessie took her fingers and pinched Jacob's lips shut.

"The same Jacob Black who owns not one, but two auto repair shops in La Push and Forks. And the same Jacob who I know gives almost half of his money away to pay for the reservation's public works' fund.

"I also know that you got your high school diploma by going to night classes…" Jacob looked over at her surprised.

Nessie let out a shy laugh. "Yes, I know it was a secret and you only told one other person and no she didn't spill the beans, I'm just clever." Jacob laughed at Nessie's arrogance.

"Plus, I know that it was you who helped Quil get his job as a nursing assistant at the hospital, and that you make all the young wolves end patrols by 7:30pm so that they have time to study and be with their families. I know that you still hate Sam even though you will never admit it to anyone. I know that you secretly have learned to love being alpha because almost no one tells you what to do, and almost everyone listens to you." Jacob watched her now with raised eyebrows as she rattled through her observations that he hadn't noticed she ever picked up on.

"I know that you are happy at the fact that Embry never imprinted, and you hope that he never will because you want him to be free to choose whoever he wants to be committed to.

"I know that you sometimes regret that you ever fell in love with my mother, but you are happy that you did because you got me in the bargain. I know that you are smart, kind, strong, and hilarious. I know that you are beautiful, and there's no sort of about it.

"I know that in eight years, you have never once failed me. I know that you have been in love exactly two times in your life, and, I know that I am not one of the two."

"Nessie!"

Nessie sighed loudly. Jacob was so stubborn. It infuriated her sometimes .

"Ugh, my Jacob, I swear you can be worse than Mama sometimes." Jacob pulled his mouth down into a frown at the comparison. "Here, let me show you something." Nessie raised her palm up toward Jacob and he leaned away from her.

"If this has anything to do with Seth having his hands anywhere near you…" Nessie smacked him on the arm and held back a laugh.

"Oh my god, you are such a baby. Now come here," she ordered. Jacob leaned forward very slowly and Nessie touched her palm against his cheek.

"Red, and yellow, and pink, and green, purple and orange, and blue. I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow too." Nessie sang softly as she moved her crayons back and forth across the paper.

"Whatcha drawing there?" Leah asked absently as she continued to get dressed.

"It's a birthday card for Jacob," said Nessie. She lifted it up for Leah to see. "Do you think he'll like it?"

Leah turned and walked toward Nessie's picture picking it up and holding it carefully between her hands. She formed a smirk across her face. Nessie looked on nervously, not sure if Leah would crush her hopes.

"Wow, looks like Van Gogh created this himself. Jake will love it, Renesmee, but you know he loves everything you do." Leah sighed and returned to her mirror, applying mascara to her already ridiculously long eyelashes.

"Yes, I know," Nessie agreed, turning her eyes back to her card. "Auntie Alice said that we should buy my Jacob a present, but Mama said that he would like it better if I made him something."

Leah snorted. "Who would've guessed, your mom was right about something…for the first time ever," she said, lowering her voice for the last part.

When Leah finished her make-up, she sat on the bed and put on her four inch, red pumps, and then she stood up and faced the mirror to evaluate the finished product.

"You look pretty, Leah," Nessie confirmed. Leah held back a smile.

"Thanks kid."

"Jacob will like your red dress," said Nessie.

"And who said that I was going anywhere with Jacob?" Leah asked as she turned around and sat next to Nessie on the small sofa in her room. She crossed her long, toned legs and squared her body with the little girl in front of her.

"Well, aren't you? It's why I'm here and not with him right now. Mama and Daddy agreed that I could spend the day with him and the pack, and then he would drop me off here with you so that he could go home and get dressed. He's going to pick us up and hand me off to my parents on the borderline at 7pm. Then, I don't know what happens after that, but I assume that you will go somewhere with him to celebrate the rest of his birthday," said Nessie with her tiny frame too innocent to match the adult manner in which she spoke.

"Do your parents tell you everything?" Leah asked annoyed.

Nessie giggled. "You sound like my Jacob.

"My daddy didn't like the last part of the plan, where I stay with you while Jacob goes home to get dressed. He preferred if I stayed with Grandpa Charlie, but Jacob said it would be easier this way."

Leah kept her face from giving away her emotions.

"And why is that Renesmee? The part about the mind intruder, I mean the part about Edward?" Nessie's mouth pulled down into a small frown, but she recovered quickly.

"Well, Mama and Daddy think that you don't like me very much." Leah's mouth opened, and then she changed her mind and looked down at the child who continued to work on her present.

"Jacob's favorite color is red," Nessie continued out of nowhere, apparently not liking the silence between them.

"Is that right?" Leah asked with her eyebrows arched up.

"Yep," Nessie nodded her head. Leah smirked and got up from the sofa. She looked herself up and down in the mirror again and smiled.

Jacob took in a quick breath as the scene changed again. He still wasn't completely used to Nessie's gift.

"What are you doing out here, honey? You're supposed to be enjoying the rest of your eighteenth birthday with your family."

"I know, but I missed you. And…"

Jacob looked at Nessie suspiciously.

"What?"

"And I sort of thought that maybe something was wrong."

Jacob took the piece of paper that he was holding in his hands and shoved it into his pocket.

"No, nothing's wrong, Ness. I'll be back in a second. I just wanted to step away from Edward for a bit."

"Yeah, I love my father, but having him constantly read my thoughts gets kind of old, very fast."

Jacob gave her a small smile.

"So do you like my dress?"

"You always look beautiful, Ness, you know that," he assured her.

"Yes, but I wore this one because today is a special day. I wore it for you."

Jacob looked toward the ground avoiding eye contact with her. Nessie frowned and moved closer to Jacob.

"Jake, what's the matter? Mama already told me about the imprint, and I just thought that…"

Jacob started to shake his head, but he stopped when Nessie crashed her lips against his. He stood completely still, frozen in place until he grabbed her by her shoulders and gently pulled her back.

"Don't do that," he said. His voice was gentle. He stared into Nessie's chocolate colored eyes as her perfect mouth formed into a pout.

"But I'm in love with you, Jake," she said in the sweetest, most innocent voice he had ever heard.

Jacob smiled warmly at Nessie and he brushed strands of her reddish-brown hair from her eyes. "Oh, honey, you have no idea what that even means."

"Is that what it means?" she said, pointing to the piece of paper hanging from his pocket. Jacob turned away from her and took in a deep breath. "Is that why you were crying?" He looked at her quickly and then sighed in resignation. He couldn't hide anything from her, even if he tried. She saw everything. That's just how she was, always watching, and taking in the world around her.

He nodded his head slowly. "But it doesn't matter now," he said in a whisper.

Nessie moved closer to Jacob and placed her small hand inside of his. "But don't you love me, Jacob?"

"Of course I love you, Ness."

Jacob was quiet for several minutes and they stood motionless staring out into the forest, until he finally spoke again.

"Nessie, you know I would do anything in the world for you, be anything for you?" he asked. His voice was low and serious. Nessie furrowed her brow at the gravity of his tone. She nodded her head slowly.

"Is that what you need, honey, for me to be in love with you?" he asked. Nessie thought before answering.

"Well, no. You are exactly what I need right now, just as you are. Just as we are," she said definitively."

Jacob gave her a small smile and moved to wrap his long arm around her petit shoulders. She nestled her head into his shoulder and he kissed the top of her head.

"Okay, good," he said.

"Jake?"

"Hmm?"

"What is it that you need?" Jacob let out a quiet laugh with no humor.

"Oh, Nessie, what I need is a hundred miles away and a whole lifetime apart," he said with a sad acceptance. Nessie hugged Jacob harder as they continued to listen to the sounds of the forest.

The scene changed suddenly and a new memory flooded from Nessie's palm:

"Jake can you pass me all of those hangers?" Leah asked as she folded clothes into her suitcase. Jacob moved slowly, painfully as if weights held him to the floor.

"Here," he said, laying the hangers next to Leah's suitcase on the bed.

He moved behind her and slid his hands around her small waist, burying his nose into her hair. She stood tall. Her slender frame fit perfectly next to Jacob's muscular form. Her raven hair sat above her shoulders and shaped her beautiful face.

"I don't want you to go." His voice was barely above a whisper.

Leah leaned her head back into Jacob and let out a sigh. Then, she wriggled her hips so that he released his grip from her waist.

"Don't do that in front of her," she said quietly.

Jake looked toward the small sofa in the corner of the room. "She's sleeping."

"Her eyes are open."

"Yeah, it's just a habit she picked up from trying to stay up with her family all night. I mean, she is half-vampire…I would close them, but I don't want to wake her."

Leah stared toward the sofa, and then back at Jake incredulously. "Trust me, she's asleep. I can feel her heart beating," he said.

Leah shook her head annoyed. "Right, of course you can."

"Lee, don't do that. Don't change the subject. This isn't about Nessie. This is about us, or more specifically about you running away from us."

Leah huffed away from Jacob and started tearing through her closet tossing clothes onto the floor. Jacob stood with his arms crossed, his eyes searing into her with every movement, watching as her muscles contract and relax. When it finally looked like she had found what she was looking for, she turned around. She was holding a red dress in her hands.

"First of all, I'm not running away from anything, Jake!" she said in a painfully squelched scream. She threw the dress into her suitcase.

"Second of all, this is about her. It's always about her! I'm tired of setting myself up for the sad, epic fail that we both know is coming."

Jacob paced back and forth. His shoulders started to shake and he worked to keep himself from phasing right there in the room.

"What in the hell are you even talking about? She's just a little girl for god's sake."

"She's sixteen!"

"Like I said, just a little girl!" Jacob growled out.

"Yes, but my point is that she won't stay that way too much longer. One day soon, you are going to turn around and your sweet, little imprint is going to be a fully grown woman and then, then, you and she…"

Jacob held his hand up defensively trying to stop her from continuing. "Please, please don't. You're gonna make me sick." He closed his eyes tightly, and grabbed at his forehead. "You know I don't like thinking about that."

"Jake, Jake are you okay? Just breathe. I don't want another upchuck incident," Leah tried to say coldly, but concern slipped through her voice.

Jacob breathed in slowly. Finally, he calmed himself and opened his eyes.

"Look, you are running and you know that I lov-."

"Stop Jake. Don't say it. You will only make this harder."

Jacob moved to Leah at the closet. She stepped backward one step, but he stretched his arms out and pulled her into his chest holding her tightly. At first, she pretended to fight him. She was almost as strong as he was. She could have gotten out of his hold if she wanted to. But eventually, she looked up into his eyes. Her hazel orbs locked on to his dark brown ones and he pressed his forehead against hers.

"But you know it's true," he whispered. "And you feel it too."

Leah shook her head in opposition, but she could do nothing to cover the tears that accumulated in her eyes and fell from her feather lashes.

Without warning, she knocked his arms away and backed out of his hold. "It doesn't matter anyway. Not anymore. I won't do this again. Not again."

"So what, this is about Sam?" Jake's voice was icy with disdain. "You're going to ruin everything that we have because of Sam?"

"No, Jake, it's about me. I need to get out of La Push for awhile okay? See some new things, make some new friends. Don't you want me to be able to go to school and to learn and grow and change? Nothing stays the same forever, Jacob. And I for one don't want to be trapped here until I die, and never have experienced anything different. I mean don't you want me to have those things?"

Leah studied Jacob's expression carefully. He nodded slowly, and she let out the breath she was holding in. She shook her head absently and returned to packing her things.

They were silent for a few minutes. Jacob moved to the window and stared out blankly with his hands shoved into his pockets.

Leah spoke, trying to lighten the mood. "Look Almighty Alpha, I know you're worried about running the pack without me as your Beta to keep everyone in line, but I think Embry will do a pretty good…"

"Don't do that. Don't belittle how I feel about you. This has nothing to do with pack business and you know it. I had someone else do that to me once and I didn't appreciate it then either," Jacob said in a strained voice, trying to force down the lump that had formed in his throat.

Leah closed her mouth, then opened it, and then closed it again with a slight popping sound. She zipped up her suitcase and turned her body to face Jacob's. "I'm not Bella, Jake."

Jacob scoffed. He turned his face to Leah and stared her up and down. Then, he turned back to the window. "Don't I know it? Bella, I could get over…"

"Nessie?" Jake said, gently, moving her hand from his face.

"You love her, Jake, don't try to deny it now," she said.

Jacob shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

"It does matter. Especially, now that she's back. You have to go to her, explain this whole thing to her, make her see it your way," Nessie insisted.

"So what, that's what you think of me? That I'm some pushy jerk who thinks I can make women fall in love with me just because I want them to?" he scoffed.

Nessie laughed. "Mama did tell me about your kiss."

"God, is there anything that Edward and Bella don't tell their kid?" Jacob asked annoyed.

Nessie suppressed her laughter.

"Well, no, but really, this would be just like that." Jacob rolled his eyes and sighed loudly. "I just mean, you had to show Mama that she really was in love with you, and now, you just have to remind Leah of the same thing," said Nessie. Jacob groaned.

"Yeah, well, I'll think about it.

"So Seth huh?"he asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Oh come on, he's your brother. You love him," said Nessie nudging Jacob.

"That's not really the point, Nessie. You're still my imprint. I have to make sure that you are well looked after, loved, protected, taken care of. I mean Seth's a good guy, but he's still young…"

"Jake, you know how you're always telling me that I'm not a kid anymore? Well, Seth's not a kid anymore either. You can trust him. I do."

Jacob let out a low growl and Nessie giggled. "I swear to God if he does anything, and I mean anything to make you cry I will k—"

"Don't say it! I know that you are serious, believe me I do, but just like there are certain things you don't like to think about, the idea of you and Seth ripping each other to shreds over my 'honor' is not something that I ever want to think about.

"Guess, I have less Mama in me than I thought," Nessie snickered. Jacob shook his head and wrapped his arm back around her shoulders.

"No more monkeys jumping on the bed," said Jacob as he touched his index finger to her nose, tapping lightly.

"What?"

"That's how the rest of it goes," he said with a smile in his voice. Nessie's face broke out into a wide grin, her eyes shining and her bright smile lighting up the gloomy sky.

"I love you, Jacob Black."

"I love you too, Nessie Cullen, and don't you ever forget it."