ONE: INTRODUCTION
Alternate title: "He Knew Her as Leah"
He first knew her when she was with Sam.
When people talked about either one of them, they always tacked the other one's name on the end. It wasn't Sam. It was Sam and Leah. It was never just Leah, either. It was Leah and Sam.
Jacob had thought it was stupid. They weren't the same person. They were two people. He hadn't understood that they were like two halves of the same whole, as cheesy as he thought that was. How could he? He had been young. Girls had just barely stopped having cooties. The Quileute boy had seen them a few times around La Push, laughing and smiling and (ew!) touching.
He knew her as a wolf, too.
She was the bitter wolf girl with her fuck off looks and thoughts. Always moaning about how sucky her life was, though she dared people to be sorry for her. Jake had told her to shut up. A lot. A lot a lot. They hadn't ever gotten along in her heartbroken, bitter harpy stage.
He knew her as a follower, too.
Leah had been nicer then. He had learned just how hurt she was, how they actually had things in common. She was actually kind of cool, then. Loyal, a person he could trust and get along with.
Now he didn't know her as Sam's, a fellow wolf, or a wolf who took his orders. She was just Leah. No, that wasn't right. She wasn't just anything. She was Leah, yeah. That was it.
She was Leah. He was Jacob.
They weren't Leah and Jacob or Jacob and Leah. But he thought they could be, some day. When he finished being sad about Nessie. When her bitterness over Sam disappeared.
There was potential. And if there was one thing Jacob Black was good with, it was potential.