Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight, I would publish this as an actual novel and make money. Need it be said that I don't own Twilight?
Remember
Chapter 2
Leah's Tale
"Who are you?"
The woman looked stricken, panic flashing across her scarred face.
"You… you don't know who I am?" she asked, fear laced in her words.
"No. I'm sorry?" it came out like a question.
Sam couldn't remember this woman. By the way she was looking at him, he should, but, try as he might, the only face that came into his mind was Leah's. His fiancé. His beautiful fiancé.
"Where's Leah?" he asked hopefully.
"Why do you want to know?" the woman seemed shocked.
Why wouldn't he want to know about his wife-to-be? He wanted to bite out, but he restrained himself, instead saying: "who are you?" once more.
"I'm Emily…. Uley,"
Uley?! She wasn't related to him, as he was the only living Uley besides his mother. Which left one option. His wife.
Now that he looked, there was a ring on the woman's – Emily's – finger, and a matching one on his own.
But the woman – Emily – was certainly not Leah. Not Leah. Not his Leah. This left a question. Where was Leah? Scenario after scenario leapt through his mind. Was she dead? She couldn't be dead. Not Leah. Not his strong, feisty Leah.
"I don't know you. I'm sorry," Sam said, not sounding sorry. How can you miss someone you don't know? "Are you… my wife?"
"Yes," she replied.
"What happened to Leah?" he said again, sounding more frightened this time.
"She's… fine."
Emily's tone made it clear that the conversation had ended.
Ȥ
Over the next few days, Emily visited him several times. He sat in silence while she told him about her day, about how the pack was worried about him, but never anything about Leah.
He didn't remember anything.
Others came to visit him. Jacob, a boy he barely knew, came several times, along with a pale ten-year-old that he called Nessie. Nessie never spoke to him, preferring to sit in the corner, silently observing. His mother came, too. She didn't press him to remember, like Emily, instead recounting changes in the village and talking to him like she always did.
Leah never came to visit him. Never.
He had been a wolf for around six months – that he remembered, and the 'pack', the other boys that had turned into wolves, told him about the exploits of their pack, of the Cullens, Volturi, and imprints. But never anything about Leah, no matter how much he asked.
No one ever said anything about Leah. It seemed to be a kind of taboo, a forbidden topic, never tobe mentioned.
No one told him why he was married to Emily, just told him that they loved each other. But I love Leah! He wanted to yell, but they all seemed to think that he and Emily were soul mates, or the like.
He was being driven home by his mother, now, having been discharged from the hospital not thirty minutes ago, and he had no idea what awaited him.
He resolved to ask Leah.
Ȥ
Visiting Leah was harder than it should have been. She had, apparently, moved from her mother's house, and no-one would tell him where she lived now.
It was Billy Black who gave in. He had gone to his house (at the insistence of Emily), to visit Jacob so he could 'properly'. Sam was very dubious about the whole affair.
He had, as was fast becoming habit, asked Billy where Leah was. Billy had given him a strange look, and said: "You mean no-one's told you?", in a voice that plainly stated someone should've.
So here he was, at the door of a little cabin deep in the forest, about to knock on the door of his fiancé – no, his ex-fiancé. Ex. The word still ripped at his heart every time he heard it. He was supposed to love Emily now, but he didn't. He didn't remember the last three years. Blank. It was all one massive blank.
He knocked once. Twice. Three times.
The door swung open, revealing Leah. A different Leah. Her eyes, once warm and welcoming, were now hard and cold, the eyes of a soldier who's seen too much. She used to take great pride in her hair – the one completely feminine thing about her. It used to be long and silky, ending just above her waist, but now it was chopped short and ragged. Her hands were calloused and her feet bare.
She scowled ferociously at him.
"I suppose you want to know what happened?" she said, her voice icy.
Sam nearly flinched. Her voice was biting now, where once it was loving.
"Yes," he almost whispered.
"Come in then," she grunted, turning around and marching into her little cabin.
Sam followed, seating himself in one of the two chairs around the little fireplace.
They sat in silence for a few minutes, Leah glaring at him all the while, her body language screamed you're not welcome.
"So…" he trailed off, before finding his voice again, "what happened?"
"Do you know what imprinting is?" Leah asked.
"Yes. It's love at first sight between a wolf and a human."
"Wrong," Leah said flatly. "It's an obsession. Infatuation. Lust. Not love. Never love. It's when a wolf sees a person with whom they are most genetically compatible with, then the two start popping out pups to defend the tribe. It's a survival mechanism, designed to pass on the wolf gene, nothing more. Not love. Obsession."
"Oh." Everyone had treated it as the highest form of love. But then, Sam hadn't left his house much, so he had never seen an imprinted couple.
"When you go back to the village, look around for some imprinted couples. They look at each other with adoration, but they don't function as a normal couple. You'll see that after a while."
"What's this got to do with…" Sam couldn't bring himself to finish.
"Everything."
Sam waited. Leah stared into the fire, before continuing.
"You imprinted," she said, her voice filled with bitterness.
Oh. Oh. That explained so much.
"It was three weeks before we were going to get married. I had invited my cousin over to be my bridesmaid. You saw her and dropped me like a hot potato. Four months later, I was the bridesmaid at your and Emily's wedding. Neither of you gave me a second thought," she finished, her expression colder than he had ever seen.
"I'm so sorry," the words tumbled out, filled with anguish. How could he have done that? He loved Leah. He loved Leah. Not her cousin.
Leah. Poor Leah. How could Emily have done that to her? How could he have done that to her?
But Leah wasn't done.
"Three months later, I was talking to my dad. He told me… He told me…." Her voice choked off abruptly. "He told me that what you and Emily had wasn't real love. Real love you had to work for, fight for. Real love wasn't based off genes, but affection and toil. He told me that he didn't want that kind of love for his daughter. He told me to let it all out. All my anger and bitterness and fear. I did. I was yelling, cursing you and cursing Emily. I was so angry. And then I just exploded and the next thing I knew, I had phased into a wolf. It gave dad a heart attack. He died just a day after. I had to join your pack after that. I was the only female, the only female wolf ever. I thought… I thought that you would be proud of me, that maybe now I was a wolf you'd forget the imprinting, and maybe you'd come back to me. I was wrong. You resented my presence in the pack, because I reminded you that you're happy ending wasn't quite that. In your lead, the other wolves resented me too. I had to listen to you…. Fantasizing about Emily whilst simultaneously wishing I didn't exist. I wasn't nice, either. I was bitter, and I went out of my way to make the others uncomfortable. So… while no-one ever tried to make me feel welcome, I never made any efforts to be welcome. It was all just a big mess. Then Renesmee Cullen came along. She was a vampire-human hybrid, completely unknown. You thought we should kill her while we could, in case the Cullens couldn't control her. The pack was divided, but ultimately Jacob, who was in love with Bella Cullen, broke free to try to protect her. I tried to break free as well, but I ended up attached to Jacob. He forced me to guard the Cullens, and fend for their witnesses. Their human-eating witnesses. I was forced to stand by and watch them die. I never really let go of the guilt. It's just… I felt that I could have done more. Renesmee was saved, but Jacob… he had imprinted on her, when she was just a new-born. Before that, I thought that maybe we understood each other. That maybe we…" Leah stopped abruptly.
They sat in silence, staring into the fire. Sam lost track of time, just sitting, digesting everything Leah had said. She had obviously said more than she had intended.
It was nearing nightfall when Leah looked up and realized that he was still there.
"Get out."
Sam obliged.