Embraced
AN: Paws & Art held their second banner one shot competition. I won it last year with 'Rumour has it' but this year I made an unusual choice for me. There were 65 banners to choose from; lots of cute wolf boys, I have to say, but I chose a banner of Edward and Leah. I like challenging myself and writing different pairings. To me, Edward looked beseeching and Leah suspicious. And the plot bunnies were off. What was he asking her? So, what if Renesmee imprinted on a different wolf? What if she did it for a reason?
I was voted equal third and I was pretty happy with that for an Ed fic in a wolf competition.
Trigger Warning: death of a character in childbirth.
Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.
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The room reeked of blood. Edward held the newborn. "No, Renesmee," he chastised her as if she was a puppy. She had just sunk her teeth into the breast of her mother. "Don't bite."
Leah wanted to snort. It was a freak; a vampire human hybrid that had no right to exist. It was a minutes old abomination, not a puppy. It would probably live on blood. It had already demonstrated its true nature; blood was the only thing that had got baby and mother through the last few weeks. It had almost killed Bella… maybe it still might.
Bella's heartbeat; heard at a constant level by them all, faltered and stopped. Her eyes rolled into her head.
"NO!" Jake wailed. He started to do CPR. Pounded on her chest and got her heart pumping again. He forced air into her lungs.
Edward didn't breathe and couldn't help. Leah didn't want to.
"Help me," Jake pleaded. "What are you waiting for?"
"Take the baby," Edward said.
"Throw it out the window," Jake responded.
"Give her to me," Rose said as she sidled into the room.
Edward and Jake both snarled at her.
"I've got it under control," Rose argued. "Give me the baby, Edward. I'll take care of her until Bella…"
Bella's fluttering heart faded.
Edward made his decision. Rose scuttled away with the baby. Leah didn't like the look on her face; triumphant. As if she had been given what she always wanted.
"Move your hands."
Leah thought he was talking to her for a second and then realized that Edward was moving swiftly and reaching for a stainless steel syringe. Leah hated needles and that thing sported the biggest needle she had ever seen. Probably made for a horse or some large animal. It wasn't human sized.
"What's that?" Jake asked.
Edward didn't answer; just knocked Jake's hands out of the way. She winced as he heard his finger break.
Edward plunged it into Bella's heart and Leah understood. "Venom," he said. He had filled it with his own venom. He depressed the plunger and Bella's heart jolted as if he had hit her with an electric current.
"Will that be enough?" Jake asked.
Edward started to move over her body, biting then sealing the cuts with his venom laced tongue.
"Keep it moving," Edward ordered.
Leah wanted to protest. Jake had a broken finger, but he returned to pumping his friend's dead heart for her. Leah looked at Jake. He looked desperate and heartbroken. Bella was dying. His Bella.
Leah sometimes thought that Jake had imprinted on her. He cared too much. He stood here in the home of vampires having given up his pack, his tribe, his family… everything for her. And Leah was here with him. Not because she had imprinted on him, but because he needed her. It killed her a little more every day to see him like this.
She was here with her alpha. She too, had given up pack and family. Except for her annoying little brother. She could hear Seth's voice in her head pointing out that he had left first and that she had followed him. She loved Jake, but not like that. That was why she was here. Small 'l' love.
Jake and Edward were still working on the broken body of Bella Swan. Jake forced her heart to pump the venom through her body. Christ, he was breaking the treaty into even smaller shards. Helping turn a human had to be a big deal breaker, surely.
But Leah could already see that their actions were pointless. She had seen Bella's face as the baby was born. How she even managed to speak Leah did not know. But she was all about the baby. Stopping Edward aborting it. Killing herself to bring it into the world as healthy as she could manage. Even if it broke her pelvis.
And now she was leaving this world; her task accomplished. Her spine was broken and her body torn apart, for fucks sake. Edward had bitten her open to get the baby out before it had bitten its own way through that steel hard layer. Vampires could heal crazy damage but Bella wasn't a vampire yet. She was still human and oh, so broken. Her life blood was literally draining away.
"She's not dead. She's going to be fine," Edward said, but Leah knew he was lying to himself.
Edward started to look shocked as she didn't react to the venom. It should have started to work instantly. His arrogant assurance was shattered as well as Bella's spine.
Jake ignored him and kept working over her body. Leah thought she heard a rib crack as he pumped too hard.
Edward backed away into the wall. "No… no… no," he whispered. He looked even paler than normal. After his outburst he froze into that odd immoveable pose they did; not breathing, not blinking, and still staring at Bella.
Jake kept doing CPR. Leah patted him gently on the back. "Jake."
He ignored her.
"Jake! She's gone, Jake… let her go."
"She's not gone," he huffed.
"She did what she wanted… the kid is alive."
Jake's head lifted suddenly. "The kid," he repeated.
Oh, shit.
Leah knew exactly what he was thinking. "No," she hissed at him. "It's a baby."
Edward seemed deaf to them. He was still staring at the body of his dead wife. He took a jerking step forward and lifted her broken body into his arms. "She'll be fine," he repeated.
Jake ignored him. He stalked from the room; his blood stained hands clenched into solid fists.
Leah darted in front of him. "No," she said.
His eyes travelled slowly down to hers from some vast distance.
He blinked.
"A baby," she hissed.
He put his arm across in front of her body to push her aside. She didn't move. She knew Jake; if he killed that baby he would never forgive himself.
She could do this for him.
"Not you," she begged him. "You've done enough… let me… I'll do it."
His eyes focused on her. "They'll kill us."
"I know." She shrugged. Fuck knows what that shrug meant.
"I'll get you out," he offered.
"Deal."
They both nodded.
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Rosalie sat on the clean end of the white sofa. Bella had vomited blood all over the other end. She cooed and murmured to a blanket wrapped thing in her arms. She held something dark in her hands and there was a greedy sucking sound. Blood, just as she suspected, the freak drank blood.
Leah heard Jake make a noise at that sound and as the scent hit him. Was it even Bella's blood? Nothing would surprise her. That blonde was poisonous.
Did she phase? Stay human? Kill the blonde first? Leah halted as she tried to think. Could she kill it? Was it possible to kill? She could hear its tiny heart beating; unlike its mother's. She waited, torn about how to approach this task she had chosen for herself.
Rosalie cooed at the creature again and set the empty blood bottle down on the table. She lifted it to hold it against her frozen cheek.
That would work. She could rip its head off before Rose could move. Rose was so intent upon 'her' baby; she hadn't even heard Leah approach.
The thing that had killed Bella and destroyed Jake stared past Rose's shoulder. It focused with a power that a newborn should not have possessed. It was a freak with its brown eyes exactly the same shade as it mother's eyes had been.
From upstairs, she heard nothing. No heartbeat.
The next sound she heard was Edward. He started to keen; a low pitched moan of grief that made Leah's heart hurt. Bella wasn't going to wake up. Something had gone terribly wrong. Something Alice had not foreseen.
She glanced at the murderer and saw some flicker of understanding in the baby's eyes. No, it wasn't a baby… it was a death sentence. One Bella had been consigned to the second she had sex with that dead thing upstairs; crying as if his heart was broken.
She gritted her teeth and took a tiny step forward. The baby blinked at her and then caught her eye.
And she was gone. She couldn't move another step. Those eyes called to her. She felt the golden cables of the imprint as it tied her to this being. Everything in her world zeroed down to focus on this one thing. Hers.
She fell to her knees behind Rose's back. The baby watched her and lifted its chin a little.
"Leah?" Jake asked quietly.
She felt as if she was drowning. She turned to face him as her hand clutched at the back of the sofa for support.
Jake knew what had happened, just from looking at her. "Well… damn."
He reached for her hand to pull her to her feet.
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Rose was furious. Luckily, Carlisle and Esme came home from hunting.
"It's not your baby, Rose," Esme said.
"It's not hers, either," she retorted.
The baby in question started to fuss.
"She imprinted. She can't help it," Jake said.
"But she can," said Seth with a nod at the baby.
"What do you mean, Seth?" Carlisle asked.
"I think she chose Leah."
"Renesmee did?" Carlisle looked intrigued.
"She needs a mom. She chose Leah."
"Is that how imprinting works?" Esme asked.
"We are not really sure," Jake said. "Kim wanted Jared, Emily-" He stopped talking as if he thought that talking of Sam and Emily was still dangerous around Leah.
"I am SOOO over that," Leah said. Her eyes never left Rose.
The family was shattered that Bella was gone. It hit Edward and Alice the hardest. Alice kept saying, "I saw her… she was beautiful."
"I know, darlin'," Jasper would respond.
Edward had gone back upstairs and just kept muttering that he had done everything he could. He refused to look at his daughter. Rose still clutched her and it was annoying the hell out of Leah. Carlisle blamed himself for not being there when Bella went into labour.
The bundle squirmed and made some small noises of distress. Leah stared at Rose.
Emmett noticed. "Rose? Give her the baby… you can have another hold later… just give her the baby." He spoke low and quiet as if he knew how close Leah was to her breaking point. Every nerve in her body thrummed with tension.
She didn't. Annoying to the last, Rose passed Emmett the bundle and started to flounce out of the room. The baby worked herself up to a wail and Rose looked back eagerly; thinking the child missed her. The baby's arms were held out; her tiny fists clenched as she cried. Rose turned back, just as Emmett passed the bundle to Leah. She made a couple of sobbing breaths and then quieted.
Rose spun on her heel and left.
Leah breathed deeply and she and the baby stared at each other.
"There ya go," said Seth. "Now, she's okay."
Leah wasn't sure if he was talking about her or Renesmee. Ugh, that name had to go. But she wasn't sure she could change it; the dying wish of the mother.
Jake peered down at her, shuffling closer to Leah for a better look. He reached out a finger and brushed it down her cheek. "She's warm. And she's got Bella's eyes."
Everyone seemed to wince when he said her name.
"Her heart beat is faster than a human heart rate," Carlisle said.
Leah sniffed at her. "She doesn't smell too bad."
"A mix of vampire and human," Jasper said, "But not human enough to interest us."
Leah's eyes narrowed at him.
He held up his hands in a surrender gesture. "Just sayin'."
Esme tugged at Carlisle's sleeve. He nodded. "We need to see to our son."
Leah sat down gratefully; her legs felt weird. The baby opened and closed her mouth like a little bird. "You're hungry." Leah looked up with a desperate look on her face.
"I'll help," said Seth.
By the time they got Edward to come downstairs, Renesmee had been fed and was snoozing happily in Leah's arms. "She needs a bath," Leah said to him. "But, here, you need to hold her."
Edward looked even more distraught. He held her. Leah was very glad that she couldn't read minds. She left them alone.
She was upstairs washing her hands when she heard Jake's warning yip; he had gone for a run.
"The pack is coming, they want to kill us all," Edward said conversationally when she came back downstairs.
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Leah stood on the steps of the Cullen house and waited for them. Her arms were folded and her gaze fixed. She had dragged Edward out with her to translate. She wanted to stay human and she wasn't sure why.
The huge russet and black wolves faced off; growling and snapping at each other. The Cullens slowly exited the house and flanked her. For the first time, she felt like part of the family.
"Go away!" Leah ordered. "She's dead. Really dead. Leave us to our grief."
Edward's eyes flicked to Leah. Our grief?
"Please," Carlisle said, "the venom didn't take. No one has broken the treaty."
"They want to know if I bit her," Edward said. He kept staring at the ground.
"Bella is not a vampire," Leah said. It wasn't an answer.
"The baby is not a vampire, either," Edward answered the pack. He glanced at Leah again. His face asked a question. He held the wrapped bundle out to her.
The black wolf whined a question.
Leah sighed. She took the bundle from Edward, holding her more confidently than she felt. She unwrapped her to show the pack. "See? And listen. You can hear her heartbeat. And in any case, you can't touch her."
She paused. "She's my imprint." She hugged the baby's tiny back against her chest with her arm firmly across her little body. Renesmee studied the wolves with her too intelligent eyes, but she wriggled her pudgy legs and reached for the giant puppies, just like a normal baby.
The pack left pretty quickly after that. No wolf would ever harm another's imprint.
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The next day, Edward asked to speak to Jake. Leah heard them fighting. Alice was babysitting so she hurried outside to see what was going on.
"You promised!" Edward shouted at Jake.
"Promised what?" she demanded.
Edward said, "This is nothing to do with you, Leah."
She ignored him. "What?" She asked Jake.
"He asked me to kill him… if Bella died."
"What?" Leah was furious. "What the fuck is wrong with you?" She pushed between them. Jake looked like he wanted to kill Edward now. "You asked a sixteen year old boy to kill you if it went wrong?"
"Yes." Edward looked confused.
Leah was beyond angry. "Honestly? You couldn't work out a way to do it yourself? Jump into a fire or something. Ask your father to do it? How dare you ask Jake to do that! It's too much. Be responsible for yourself for a change." She poked him in the chest. "And don't you dare think of suicide now. You caused that whole stupid problem with the Volturi trying to kill yourself before. Don't you dare abandon your child because your heart is broken."
"I lost Bella," he whimpered.
"You still have a family and a daughter and more money than god. Do you honestly think you are the only person on earth who has ever lived through heartbreak? Is that why you avoided being with anyone for a century? Get over yourself!"
She grabbed Jake's arm and dragged him after her as she stomped away, swearing under her breath.
Edward watched her go.
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It didn't take them long to learn that the baby had a variation of Edward's gift. She could share mental images if she made skin contact. Day three, Leah had her lying along her thighs. The baby touched her hand and sent Leah a confused image; her biting Bella and then Bella dying.
"No, baby. You didn't kill her… it was the birth."
She held her finger up. "You bit me earlier and I'm not dead. You're not poisonous."
She stroked the chubby baby cheek with that bitten finger. "Don't worry. It was the birth. And that wasn't your fault. She fought hard for you. She looked after you as well as she could until you could breathe on your own. But she was only human and humans are not made to have a one month pregnancy."
The baby patted her hand.
"Yeah, I know… I'm not human either. Half human, just like you."
She got a smile for that.
"You're a freak. No baby has a mouthful of perfect little teeth. You know that?"
She tickled her and Renesmee laughed.
Edward was listening on the stairs. Leaning against the wall.
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Within a week she spoke full sentences. Within three she was walking. Now they could teach her to hunt. Leah and Edward spent more and more time together. Jake and Seth could go back to La Push now, but Leah stayed near her imprint.
She was getting more used to Edward's scent. She barely even noticed it anymore. Her initial hatred of the Cullen money was abating, too. They owed her big time. She had literally saved their skins.
Bella, in dying, had defused the Volturi situation. The definitely dead kept their secrets. No one told them about the baby.
Leah knew Edward needed to grieve and Ness' accelerated growth didn't give him time. The whole house was caught between missing Bella and loving Renesmee. Vampires were so unchangeable. That was the point of their existence, they never changed… and this tiny baby had thrown the whole family into chaos. Chaos, Leah could handle.
And that baby needed her sleep. The first time Leah growled at Emmett for playing the X box too loudly at 3am, he looked genuinely surprised.
Esme rescued everyone by suggesting that Renesmee, Leah and Edward move into the house she had prepared for their family. Leah fell in love with the tiny stone cottage but she refused to admit it. It only had two bedrooms. Edward said she could have the bedroom as he didn't need to sleep. Leah almost asked why they even had a bedroom in that case, before her mouth snapped shut. Too late. The thought had already crossed her mind. Sex.
"Might need to put in a kitchen," she suggested before she blushed.
"Yes," said Edward. He gave her a balancing look.
"For Ness."
"Of course."
I'm not staying, she thought. But he would have heard it anyway.
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He was particularly depressed one night. Blaming himself for Bella's death.
"Yes, it's all your fault," Leah said.
"Do you really believe that?" he asked.
"Yep. How many times have you studied medicine?" She knew now, about their crazy desire to repeat high school and college.
"Twice."
"Right… and you skipped the days they did contraception? Or high school biology?"
Edward looked at her.
"It never occurred to you to put Bella on the pill? Or to use a condom? You knew she was a virgin."
He paled. That barb had hit the mark. "You would deny your imprint?"
"She wouldn't have needed me, if she didn't exist," she snapped.
"And you wouldn't need to stay here," he snapped back.
"No - I'd have a life free of leeches."
"Except for the ones you kill."
She bared her teeth at him. "Yeah - except for those. And fuck off out of my head."
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Edward tried to spend money on Leah. She refused it. He soon worked out that if Renesmee came shopping, too, Leah couldn't say 'no'. She got some nicer dresses and some great shoes. Alice stopped tutting at her every time she went out. Edward complimented her and she growled at him.
One day, about a year after Bella had died, they were in a department store when she heard an older lady tell Edward how lovely his family was. Renesmee looked about five years old.
"Your wife is particularly striking," she gushed. "How wonderful that your daughter got her beautiful eyes."
Leah was walking towards the change rooms as she said it. She spent too long studying herself in the mirror. Her eyes were just brown; dark and not like Renesmee's at all. Hers were more of a chocolate brown. She dressed better than she used to, but she wasn't striking.
"What are you doing?" hissed the voice of her angel.
"Give me a sec."
She wriggled under the door rather than wait. She reached for Leah's hand. She got a tangled vision of concern and guilt.
"It's okay, Ness. I'm not upset."
She knew Edward could hear their conversation, silent or spoken, and she was suddenly aware that his opinion mattered to her. She wasn't sure when that had happened.
"You are upset," Ness argued. "You're hiding in the change rooms."
"Fine. I was just looking at my eyes."
"And they are brown like mine."
"But not the same. Why would they be? I'm not your mother." She lifted one of the girl's waist length ringlets. "You've got your father's hair; that pretty bronze colour." She turned her to face the mirror. "And your face is all him, his high cheekbones, straight nose, strong jawline, and full lips." Huh. When had she noticed all of that? She hugged her back against her and put her arms around her
"And the curls come from Grandpa Charlie."
"Yes."
Renesmee put her hands over Leah's and looked at her in the reflection. "You're beautiful. You just don't see yourself."
She certainly looked more sophisticated than that young girl she had been when she phased for the first time. Her hair was combed down and tightly held at her neck, her makeup flawless, her jewellery simple and her clothes expensive. But no one told her she was beautiful. Nor had she 'had' anyone in any sense of the word for years. The last time she had sex was with Sam, all those years ago. Ugh. She had thought about sex near Edward.
When they came out with their chosen pieces, Edward leaned down and whispered to her, "You are her mother."
She had to blink quickly so that she didn't cry.
He took her hand and smiled his secret smile and when she tried to swap hands with Renesmee he wouldn't let go. She didn't want to arm wrestle him in the department store, so she thought swear words at him until she made him laugh out loud. Renesmee beamed at them both.
They did look like a family.
It occurred to her later, that Edward tried to compliment her, but she wouldn't let him.
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It took him a week to bring it up. She read a story to Ness every night. She could read, but it was a part of their ritual. He was waiting for her with a glass of wine in his hand.
She took the offering and threw herself down into the armchair.
They sat in silence. He had lit the fire for her, too. He knew she liked it. She wondered what it cost him to toy with the only thing that could destroy him.
"You like the fire," he said.
"Yes. Thank you."
When Ness was sound asleep he asked her, "What do you need?"
"How do you mean?"
"I heard you that day."
"I know."
"I meant about the sex."
"I know."
He looked momentarily embarrassed and very much as young as the man he had been. "I haven't had sex for years, either."
She blinked. She tried to laugh it off. "You mean you don't pick up pretty hikers on your hunting trips?"
He gave her a look. "No." He fiddled with the magazine he had been reading. "The last time I did, it ended rather badly."
Oh, shit. "Sorry," she muttered.
"No, you were right."
She wasn't sure what to do. He was a vampire. Her mortal enemy. But she hadn't thought of him like that for a year. And maybe he missed sex the way she did, too. They had nothing in common. She had held his hand last week. She was a confused mess.
"She unites us," he said.
"Yes, she does."
He studied her with those odd light coloured eyes. He had even fed recently.
"Did you want to try?" he asked carefully.
Did she?
They stared at each other.
"Okay."
"Can we kiss without hurting you?" he asked.
"Let's find out."
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In the morning Ness found them in bed together. She didn't say anything; she just crawled into bed with them. Leah's arm lifted and she hugged her back in against her. They were all spooned. Edward's arms closed around them both.
Renesmee's happiness radiated out of her skin.
~~~~THE END~~~~~