Lies, Goodbyes, and How the Story Ends.

A/N- I wrote this because I felt that Leah deserved an ending. Not necessarily a happy ending but a least some form of one, since Stephanie Meyers refused to give her one at all. I own nothing. She owns it all.

There is love of course. And then there's life, its enemy.

Jean Anouilh


Leah's POV

I don't remember much of the ride home after leaving Jacob. I don't remember washing my body of his scent even though I knew Derek would never be able to tell. I don't remember making dinner or the kiss he gave me while he pushed me out of our small kitchen as he washed the dishes. I do remember what happened that night in our small but cozy bedroom. I remember Derek reaching for me and the way he smelt of fresh water and mint scented soap. How crisp his movements were when he pulled my legs to the edge of the bed and slowing began his accent up my body. The touches that made me shudder not from pleasure, but from guilt. I had always been good at hiding my feelings and from what he could tell he had touched me in a way I found comforting and erotic. He never noticed my wheels turning and grinding as I compared him to the man that would always hold the number one place in my heart. But what he did notice were my tears. He noticed how our room was so silent the sounds of those tears hitting our pillow could be heard. He stopped his feather light caresses and sweet kisses and pulled me to him. It was then that I felt my heart break for the second time that night.

That was the beginning to how I told the biggest lie of my life. To this man I was all that mattered in the world. I was his angel. I knew this because

he had told me so many countless times before. What sickened me most was that this man, that worked so hard to build me up, that never let me slip, fall or stumble without being there to catch me, who never once mistreated me or had given me a reason to doubt his love for me, was not the man I wanted. Derek was perfect in all the ways that a man can be perfect. Thoughtful, loving, kind, but above all he was patient. Never once can I recall a time in this glass house of a relationship where he had forced even an idea on me. It was always "what can I do to make her smile?" He was always there to fix whatever needed to be fixed. Even when that meant picking up a then heart- broken 21 year old girl off the side of the road and taking her to a diner and filing her broken spirit and body with a hot meal and non-prying conversations. These conversations lead to friendship and then on to a type of love that was often warped and one sided. He was the type of man that picks up your favorite candy bar at the gas station when he goes to fill up your gas tank. The kind of man that never let you walk on the side of the street nearest traffic. Who always kept a protective hand on the small of your back when returning to the car after a late movie in an empty and dark parking lot. In so many ways he was everything I needed, but in the one way that mattered he could never be perfect. He wasn't and could never be Jacob. None of that mattered anymore. If I had to live in a sort of false perfection in order to achieve my happy ending then I had to suffer knowing that this man, though not the one I wanted, was the one I had chosen to let love me and stand in as a surrogate for one, Jacob Ephraim Black. That night instead of following through his original plan to make love to me he held me close to the steady rhythm of his heart and held me as I cried myself to sleep.

XXXXXXXXX 2 Months Later XXXXXXX

Though all of the love that I had for Jacob still existed, for the fate of myself and for Derek, I had to pretend like none of it mattered. In two days Leah Clearwater would no longer exist. Instead, Leah Cartier would take her place. I hadn't lied when I told Jacob I had found someone and while I wasn't joyous in the love I had, life had left me no other options, and I had chosen to live my life in exile of my pack, family and home, I was indeed relatively happy. Relatively being a word that traveled with its own list of semantics. I turned my head on Derek's shoulder and eyed my wedding dress hanging on the back of my door, next to his freshly pressed suit and tie. His shoes neatly polished next to my modest and comfortable blue heels. I would take vows to love this man, forsake all others and cherish him as my husband. In the haze of my own need to be forever masochistic, I removed myself from the warm heat of my "husband" and felt him stir answering his question of where was I going with a simple, "Kitchen." Pouring a small glass of the Merlot from dinner, I reach for the phone to make the call I had been planning in the final days leading up to the wedding. I dial the number and on the third ring, he answers. I don't speak for a moment allowing the wine to give me strength and letting the depth of his voice wash over me.

"Say it for me Jake."

I listen as he moves away from her and takes his leave of their bed and travels to the most probable place of all desperate and final conversations, his own kitchen. The chair moves softly from its resting place and I hear him sigh the words that are to seal my fate on the life I have chosen.

"I love you Leah. You will always be mine. Always and Never."

"I'm getting married Jake. Thursday."

He begins to speak when he stops himself. I know what he wants to say. To say again how he loves me and to try and stop me from the perpetual limbo of a life that I will be placed in, but he doesn't. He would not doom me to the fate of being his mistress.

"I'm happy for you Lee. You deserve to be happy. I'm sorry."

I know why he is apologizing. He knows what I have delivered myself into but will never stop me because this is the only way. He can never be mine. I will never be his. And while he holds my battered heart in his hands, she will always be his salvation.

The thing that he doesn't know is there is a child growing inside of me. I had given up my wolf in an attempt to leave the part of me that would be forever connected to him behind. Derek and I had conceived the child I have craved for. In this child would lay my salvation. My saving grace of all past transgressions.

"Me too Jake. Me too."

His voice cracks and I hear as his throat tighten as his says two words that forever close the book on what was and never will be the Jacob and Leah story.

"Be Happy."

Knowing full well that I can't promise that, I say the only thing I can say,

"Goodbye Jake."

Pouring what remains of my wine down the sink I return to Derek. Eyes dry, but head and heart low, I slide into bed and close my eyes.

XXXXXXXXXXX The Wedding XXXXXXXX

No Ones POV

It had been decided that after the news of the baby, Leah would make contact with her family back in La Push. It had also been decided, by non-other that Sue Clearwater, that the wedding would be held in La Push in the same small church where she and Harry were married.

Preparing herself in the bridal suite, Leah sat applying the finishing touches of the small amount of make-up that she never really needed, in the vanity mirror while her mother, after telling her how beautiful she looked and how happy she was for her for the millionth time that day went to get Seth so that he could walk her down the aisle. There were no bridesmaids or groomsmen so the ceremony would be short and simple. Just like she wanted. She took a breath as her not so little brother knocked on the door signaling that it was time to start. He kisses her and although he can see in her eyes the slight lack of luster that she once had, he smiles at her anyway and kisses her again. This kiss is of a brother that understands that this is her one shot at some form of normalcy and happiness. He would never judge his sister for playing the hand that life dealt her, but he would on occasion let his heart bleed for all the things that she lost in this process.

The exchange of hands is made as Leah reaches the end of the aisle and Seth places her hand in Derek's. Derek pulls her ring out of his pocket and while taking his vows with all seriousness, devotion, and no hesitations, places the small gold band on her finger. She in turn does the same, but her voice waivers at the part where she promises to forsake all others and love only him. She had lied. In front of God and all her family she lied. But it was for the greater good of herself and her child that she did it. She had too. She then places the ring on Derek's finger and the rows of people clap loudly as they are pronounced husband and wife and share the first kiss of the rest of their new life. As she turns to face the crowd of family and friends no one catches the quick tear that falls from Leah's right eye. She gently and quickly wipes it away and places as sincere a smile as she can muster on her beautiful face.

No one catches it but the man standing out in the alcove of the church. This man had watched her from the crack in the doors and took notice of the slight bump in front of her dress as she said her vows. Taking one last longing filled look at her and he turned away from the true love of his life. The one he never fought for because he knew it was pointless. The one he had given himself to fully and without hesitation before he had been tied to the other half of his soul. The woman he had wanted to love and that he had loved until fate gave him a new purpose. Placing the note and a single blue rose on the vanity, Jacob walked out of the church with a heavy heart that he knew would lighten the moment he saw Renesmee. Was it fair for him to forget Leah so easily? No. Would he do it in order to keep her and Renesmee happy? Yes. Would he always love Leah? Yes, but he would always love Renesmee more. A fact they both knew all too well.

After countless photos, hugs and congratulations, Leah returned to the bridal suite to retrieve her bag so they can put it in the car before heading to reception hall. Picking up her lipstick from the side table she notices the rose. She doesn't have to question who it's from because she already knows. The only one who could ever know that the when she was 13 she had taken blue dye and a white rose and made a creation so unique it had become her favorite flower. Sitting down she reads the letter that for 3 years she had never given Jacob the opportunity to say. She wipes her eyes as she reads the last line, reapplies her mascara and picking up the rose and leaving the letter behind on the table, walks out the door and begins her new life with her husband and child. No longer relatively happy, but still on her way there.

"Never begins today Jake. I love you and I promised to love them more."

XXXXXXX The Letter XXXXXXX

To my long lost love,

I used to think that time couldn't separate us. That the love we once had was eternal and could survive anything. The world was right. I remember staying up late at night and looking at the stars with you wishing the sky could just suck us up and take us to a new dimension where it was only us forever and ever. Where nothing could make us leave one another. But that never happened. Fate had other plans for me. I hung on to the hope that someday things would change and we would reunite. That someday you would come back and we could start over again as if nothing had happened, as if you had only gone to the store and come back. I've lived in a delusional existence for so long. I really don't know any more what is true and what is imaginary. The love I hold for you will always exist but it must stay hidden away like all the pictures I have of us. Placed in an old shoe box at the back of my closet where she will never find them. Whatever the truth may be the only thing I know now is that you aren't here anymore. You have to move on. This letter is more for me than you, and as selfish as it is I needed to let out my feelings and tell you that I once loved you and can no longer do it. I can't keep allowing my love for you and your love for me to cause you any more pain or guilt. I see you beating yourself up wondering what went wrong, if it was something you did or said, please know that if I could change it all I would but since I can't then I beg that you do your best to forgive and forget me. Perhaps I will pass you in a store one day or see you on some strange island. But honestly, I hope I don't recognize you or in a more honest sense I hope you don't recognize me and the love you once felt for me is replaced with that that you feel when you look into his eyes causes you not to notice me at all. I hope you go away and live a beautiful and joy filled life and forget all the places of our home that can hold memories for us. It's too painful to think about seeing you again. I don't you want to fall into this madness once more. I loved you, I will always love you but the truth is that my love for you is killing you. I would have done anything and gone anywhere for you. I would have given myself to you completely if it was meant for us and in those few precious moments that we shared, please believe me when I say I did give you everything I had. But that time has passed and it's too late. Goodbye my love, may you find the happiness that you deserve and that I could never give you.

Please love me no more,

Jacob.