A.N. Holy, shit, guys, it's been so LONG! I'm truly sorry about that, but I was so caught up in my schoolwork-y'see, we had this final-exam type project, then actual final exams (about twenty of them) then tons of tearful goodbyes and assorted parties and such I was just. So. Busy. But now I've graduated high school (go me!) and in the time off I've gravitated back to what I love to do: write! So I've been ironing out the kinks in this story's plot and getting back on the saddle, so to speak (not that you guys care about the deets, but...). I've still got a lot to do this summer, so I can't promise regularity, but here's an update for you and just know that I'm already working on chapter eight and that I love Jasper/Leah too much to ever truly abandon this story (plus, it's like the most I've ever written for anything, ever). So...without further ado (and you guys have been going through nearly six months of goddamn "ado"): Overcast, chapter seven!

Disclaimer: As always, this stuff belongs to SMeyer...no matter how much I enjoy writing Emmett!


7. A Damn Miracle

I sniffled a little pathetically, my voice coming out much more watery than I intended. "Where?"

"Somewhere. I don't know. Anywhere. Anywhere you can be protected, away from either of our kind," Jasper said emphatically, pulling a hand through his hair.

"How do I know that I can...trust you guys?" I whispered. It was a stupid thing to say, really. If they were the bad guys, it's not like they'd tell me. Though I admit that I wasn't exactly thinking at that moment.

"We coulda easily just hauled your butt to vamp headquarters while you were out, with or without your say-so," Alice pointed out, crossing her arms. I nodded slowly but thought fast. It made a lot of sense. All six Cullens surely would have been able to overpower me, wolf-form or not. They'd already had the opportunity and decided not to take it. And why would the enemy humor their captive with all of the explanations that I had demanded? It would only have been a waste of time.

"So what now?" I asked, trying to banish my tears by inconspicuously wiping my eyes with the corner of the sheet that I held in my hand. Jasper tracked the movement with his eyes, even as he spoke: "You came in here because of a vision?" It took me a second to figure out that he was talking to Alice.

"Yeah," Alice nodded. "About us. About Leah, too, I think...but I can't be sure."

"What'd you see?" I demanded, eager to know how the whole "visions" thing worked.

"Well, that's another thing about you puppies. My powers don't work on you," she sniffed, folding her arms over her thin chest.

"What I did see, though, was Rosalie's roadster parked outside some kind of fifties diner..."

Jasper's gaze snapped to Alice with a frown. "No."

"Why not?"

"No, Alice. We've already discussed this, and we decided. That's final. Nothing you can do or say will change that."

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked, eyes darting between Jasper and Alice with confusion.

Jasper sighed. "Alice is trying to convince me to let her and Rosalie take you."

"Take me? Take me where? I don't even know where I'm going, and you guys have already decided this—"

"The only way to keep you safe would be to leave this life behind entirely. Destroy your name, any relationships...cover up the fact that you ever existed. And to do this would involve faking your death," Jasper said in a tone devoid of emotion. He gave me a warning look at the aghast expression I was making and continued: "We have a lot of experience being hunted, Leah, being tracked. And believe me when I say that you are literally going to have to wipe yourself off the face of the Earth for a while. Maybe even a few years. Both sides will be looking for you, though it's a miracle nobody from the outside knows right now. When you go into hiding, you're going to need a few people who are experts at this sort of thing. Alice," he glanced at her pointedly, "isn't. And neither is Rosalie."

"But Alice just said that she saw—" I began in earnest protest. Why fight the future if it was what was going to be what came to pass? Whether Jasper agreed or not, if Alice saw it, it would happen, right?

"Sometimes Alice lies," Jasper cut me off brusquely. Alice gave a disbelieving yelp, looking murderous.

"Excuse you, Jaspie, but what gives you the right—"

"It's Leah's future. I'm not about to risk that so you can have what you think is a fun little girl's night out. This is her life. It's not a game," he said emphatically. I frowned.

"Don't you think you're being a little condescending? What if she's right?"

"You don't understand," he muttered. Alice clenched a fist with a venomous glare at Jasper, and for a second I thought she was going to hit him, but instead, she spun on her heel and left the room, making sure to slam to door after her.

I cringed at the harsh sound. For a long moment the only sound in the room was the echo that reverberated in the aftermath. Jasper stared unblinkingly at the white fur rug, jaw clenched. And then he let out a large, drawn-out sigh.

"What is it between you and Alice, anyway?" I blurted out unthinkingly, my undying curiosity getting the better of me once again. Jasper raised an eyebrow at me and I immediately felt myself flush. Stupid. I was so stupid. I didn't have any right to pry.

Just when I thought Jasper was going to level an icy stare on me and tell me to drop it, he surprised me by doing the exact opposite of what I expected. He leaned back on the wall and looked at me thoughtfully.

"What makes you ask that?"

"Um, well there just seems to be a lot of...tension between you two, I dunno. Like she just knows how to press all of your buttons and you let her get away with it?" I trailed off, thinking immediately to how she'd been pestering him when I'd first met her, in the lunchroom.

He let out a small chuckle of concession. "She knows how to push everyone's buttons. I'm surprised she didn't get the power of annoyance when she was turned."

"She does seem kinda immature," I agreed. "But it's in a good way. I like Alice. She's just, well, Alice-ish," I said, rather lamely.

"Your vampire power would have been the ability to express yourself, no doubt," Jasper said sarcastically, a slight twist to his mouth to show me that he wasn't being intentionally cruel. As if I was that easily offended. I giggled, a little embarrassed that I had previously thought that myself. Then his half-smile faded, his eyes becoming lost, somewhat troubled.

"Or perhaps the power of perception..."

"What are you talking about? I'm dense as a brick wall," I contended playfully. Well, it was true. My observation skills rivaled that of a sponge's.

Jasper shook his head. "Au contraire, darling—" My heart did a funny little wiggle at that word, the way he said it in his low, honeyed drawl. "—but you're actually right. There is something between me and Alice. Was, at least. We came to the Cullens as a pair. By the time we'd settled in Forks the first time, Alice had found someone else."

"You don't sound too bitter about it," I pointed out. It was true: he spoke of whatever past he shared with Alice lightly, as if he were commenting on something so mundane as the weather. Of course, I had no idea when they'd first settled in Forks. It could have been anywhere from a decade to fifty years since the end of that relationship, for all I knew.

Jasper, however looked a little surprised at the comment. "I don't? Hm...well, that wasn't how it used to be," he said musingly. "I wonder when that happened?"

The force of his violet eyes hit me, a slight crinkle and a dimple I'd never noticed before causing my face to heat up even more and my mind to desperately clutch onto a different topic of conversation.

"So if you don't believe Alice, what'll you do? I mean, what'll happen to me?"

"Your life's been turned upside down. And now we have to eradicate any trace of its existence." He stood up a little straighter, his pose more authoritative. He'd already formulated this plan.

"Fake my death, yeah, you mentioned it," I said impatiently.

"Carlisle has a body already prepared in the morgue."

"What? Already?" My mind was suddenly consumed with the reality of the situation. My death, faked. A new life, probably one where I'd never see my parents again, never own a stable home...and all because I possessed a functioning uterus. What would Mom say when they presented her with a mangled corpse and told her it was her daughter? How would she feel? I tried to imagine any sort of response contorting her face, but I quickly realized that nothing I had ever gone through matched the gravity of this.

"Yes. The body of one of the victims of the vampire clan we found outside of the sewer only just hours ago. You've been missing for roughly two hours, so it wouldn't be until later today or tomorrow that we would plant the evidence."

I grimaced. "And, what, I happened to die with two little puncture wounds in my neck? Blood drained from my body?"

Jasper laughed, but it was a dark sound completely without humor of any kind. "You clearly have no idea how we feed. It's not as clean as you think. The body is virtually unidentifiable. In fact, I think there's only the spinal cord and some flesh on the thigh to look at."

I felt a sickening lurch in the put of my stomach, my face drained of blood. "You...eat people?"

He gave me a sideways look that was part concern, part something else. "No. But the rate at which newborn vampires or those completely careless rip through bodies makes the action seem less like drinking blood and more like butchering people."

The mental image that accompanied his words only furthered that acute sense of nausea, and I noticed the way he deftly seemed to dodge the other interpretation of my question. Jasper was, in fact, a vampire. What did he eat?

My inner horror went unsaid. Jasper seemed to mentally deliberate with himself for a minute before turning away from me.

"Come on, the sedation effects should have worn off by now. We have to leave within the hour. It's a miracle that the pack hasn't broken the treaty by now and demanded your return."

. . .

"It's a damn miracle we don't have your little wolf clan up our asses right about now," repeated Emmett with a growl, ducking his head back to glance over his shoulder as his foot slammed on the accelerator, the car engine shuddering obediently as it reached dangerous speeds. My rolling stomach dropped further as I gripped the edge of the car seat tighter, biting my lip as I fought the urge to shut my eyes. I was already terrified. I didn't need to be in a car going nearly a hundred miles an hour with a questionable driver at the helm.

"If we're not being followed," I began through clenched teeth, "then why are you driving like a drunk?" He hit a turn in the road with a sharp swerve, sending my guts sliding along with the wheels of the car.

"Drunk drivers drive badly," Emmett said with a playful grin in my direction. I glanced at his face and felt like hurling, my eyes quickly returning to the window in an effort to quell the nausea.

The trees flanking the road were a blur of charcoal and green, only serving to remind me of the ungodly speed we were traveling at, though not without good reason. We weren't being followed as far as we could tell, which, for both Emmett and I, only included the road behind us. There was no telling of what lurked past those trees, an effective barrier from which to follow completely unseen. Even if the speed made me sick, I knew it was necessary to get me out of town as quickly and safely as possible. The faster we went, the harder it would be for someone or something outside to detect my scent: an absolute give-away in this escape plan of ours.

It was all necessary. Even if it meant faking my death. Even if it meant that I would have to leave without so much as a word to Mom. It would devastate her, to know that her only child had died. I could only imagine the look on her face, and then the heartache she would feel when Dr. Cullen would tell her that he didn't rule out suicide. That it was possible that she could have been the cause after our petty fight. But this was the only way unneeded suspicions wouldn't be cast on my disappearance. Jacob was the last person seen with me, and I would have hated to get him thrown into jail.

Now, if they could somehow implicate Sam, well, I wouldn't have any qualms. My palms curled into fists around the upholstery I was gripping so desperately as I fought the anger that welled up inside of me summoned by the mere thought of him. He was responsible for my life turning upside down. Why we were fleeing Forks as though the Devil raced after us, just out of sight. Jasper said that he hadn't detected any wolves when we left the Cullen house, but who was to say that that remained true now? Hopefully, this plan would work...

"It's been nearly an hour. The wolves will have gathered by now. We need to get you out of here," Jasper had said, his voice urgent.

"Emmett, Edward—Alice had a vision, and we have our plan..."

Edward and Emmett, the mind-reader and the strongest out of the bunch. Carlisle, Alice, Esme and Rosalie were to stay as the denizens of Forks to keep the treaty, though that had been most likely broken the moment Jasper and Alice had stolen me away from Sam and Jacob in the forest. Despite that, they would stay to make sure that the war didn't touch the town's residents.

"I have too much here to just throw it all away," the blonde doctor explained, a touch of solemn determination coloring both his words and expression.

"But why risk it? Why would you jump in this whole...thing, just for me?" I asked.

"It's not for you. It's for all the times we could have stepped in, saved people, and walked away. It's for all the lives I've taken. Saving you brings us one step closer to something redeemable, almost human. The cause is what we fight for. Shape-shifter or vampire, both of them once used to be human."

I bit my lip at the surge of gratitude I felt at his words. "Thank you."

I wondered if I would begin to forget that I was once human. I wondered if any of the Cullens had forgotten. Was Carlisle's devotion to humankind his way of remembering? Did it just...slip away with time?

"Alice has seen two cars. And that's what we'll do: Edward and I in one, you and Emmett in another," Jasper commanded firmly, quickly bringing me back to the danger at hand. I could tell that while Carlisle seemed to be the leader of this group, Jasper was the strategist. Everyone obeyed his order without question. Even Alice, though she wore an expression of immense displeasure for some unknown reason.

My thoughts circled around musingly as I tried to focus on anything other than the possibility of being torn out of the car by a hulking wolf.

"Do you trust Alice's visions?" I asked finally. Emmett shot me a weird look as he suddenly pulled into another hairpin curve. The car jerked into the curve, I felt my body swing to the right, and I shut my eyes tightly, clutching at the armrests with all my might. Then the wheels leveled out and went smoothly as before, still hurtling at a speed of over eighty miles an hour.

"Are you—" Emmett began to ask, turning his slightly worried eyes to me before I snapped: "Keep your eyes on the road, Goddammit!"

He grinned, but complied, staring straight ahead even as he addressed my earlier question.

"What, ten minutes of no talking and now this? Wouldn't you rather be panicking over our potential pursuers?" the brunette joked. I glanced at him, saw the forced quality of his smile, and felt a little guilty. Hulking Emmett with his supposed super-strength was anxious, perhaps even a little afraid, all because he'd decided to help me. I guessed that shape-shifters and vampires had to at least be equally matched for any of the Cullens to be reacting with the same level of grim determination I'd seen in Jasper.

"Well, if Alice's vision was correct, then we'll come out alright, right? I mean, Jasper said that she saw two cars outside the city limits, which means that we make it," I said quickly. Even I could tell that it sounded like I was trying too hard to convince myself. There were a myriad of ways that those visions could fail, I knew that much, even if I didn't know the specifics of the murky art of fortune-telling. But maybe hearing the specifics would help me stop doubting and bring me at least a modicum of security. It was better than thinking the same circle of pessimistic thoughts, chasing each other around like a twisted ouroboros.

It'shopelesswe'regoingtodieit'sallmyfault—I clamped down on my half-realized fears and bit my lip.

Emmett began to answer my question, which at least momentarily diverted my attention from the whirling world outside and the assorted stabs of fear swirling just as fast inside me.

"What you don't understand about her visions is that there's a bunch of ways that they can be wrong. Just pieces of crap filtering around the radar, static, y'know?" With a glance at my confused look: "Alice can only see the endings of certain things. Like 'if Carlisle goes to work today, he's gonna be hella pissed when he comes home.' Stuff like that. She doesn't see actions in the making, or what leads to it, and sometimes, there's the flukes."

"So it's entirely possible that the vision she had of everyone coming out okay was a fluke?" I asked, trying and failing to ignore the pitch in my guts as Emmett swerved the car into another lane.

"We don't even know if she actually saw anyone in that flash," Emmett muttered. "No people. No bodies. So we coulda been gutted and ripped up and burned to pieces behind the cars, 'cause all she saw were the damn things undented."

I'd heard of this particular shortcoming before, but with the gory picture Emmett painted, it suddenly seemed like a very idiotic idea to rely on so much guess work.

"Oh, God," I breathed, my terror melting into my carsickness to create a horrible, devouring hole in my stomach that made it difficult for me to inhale.

"Sorry," mumbled Emmett sheepishly upon seeing my reaction.

"Just—drive." The very real threat of death or worse loomed over me. I could imagine, any second now, the massive, shaggy wolves bounding behind us. One swipe at this speed would derail the car, send it into the nearest copse of trees, and—

I shook my head and tried to clear those thoughts. All we had to do was get to Seattle. Jasper and Edward would meet us there, we'd switch drivers, and then pick the next town at random. It was part of a clever little plan that Jasper had apparently been thinking of for a while.

"Travel completely unpredictably. Pick towns by pointing at a map with your eyes closed. Or choose someplace you've always wanted to go that nobody could guess," he'd said. "It makes tracking someone much, much harder."

"Can we go to Disney World?" I joked half-heartedly, already upset with the plan. For how long was this going to go on? I couldn't spend the rest of my life on the run simply because I happened to have a working pair of ovaries. How long would it be before this would become routine? Would I ever be able to settle down? Finish high school, even?

Jasper gave me a troubled look, which clued me into the fact that he'd guessed the line of my thoughts. "We'll meet up in Seattle, but..." He trailed off, unable to hold my gaze. "We can go wherever you want to, Leah."

"I guess that doesn't include Forks."

Jasper sighed. "I know this isn't the most ideal of lives, but it's either running or submitting. You have to trust us, Leah."

I swallowed over the lump in my throat. "Yeah..."

"How much longer, Emmett?" I whined.

"Well, subtracting the entire five minutes it's been since you last asked, it's about, let's see," he paused in a show of mock mental math, "still three more hours. Now isn't that funny? I mean, you'd think with so much time gone by—"

"I can't take your horrible driving any more, I'm gonna barf, I swear to God," I complained, effectively shutting down his snark-fest when he took the time to glare at me.

"Cool. Just so you know, if you vomit on me I'm dumping your ass on the shoulder. I don't care what Jasper threatens to do to my manhood. We all know Rose'll just—holy shit!"

The car was rocked violently, the back wheels curtailing to the left and swinging the car so fast that my head spun, my stomach dropping like a stone. I screamed and Emmett counter-steered reflexively, muttering a panicked string of colorful curses beneath his breath. I whipped my head back at a look at what had derailed us, and there it was. Two large, shaggy wolves, teeth bared and blood rimmed eyes, snarling in fury as they bounded towards our car. The back of the car bore the brunt of a sharp set of claws, a large rip across its painted surface signifying where they'd snapped us.

I swallowed and forced myself to breathe, sitting back upright and closing my eyes tightly to counter the urge to hyperventilate.

"They're here," I gasped. "Two of them. Big ones."

The terrifying thought of crashing at this speed crossed my mind. Emmett's jaw was clenched tightly as he once again cursed vehemently, his foot pressing the accelerator to the floor. I was grateful that the roads were so deserted. I hoped that they would stay that way—imagining an oncoming eighteen-wheeler faced with one of those hulking beasts made my heart beat louder, faster. I whimpered, trying not to let the beast inside of me take over, the natural fight-or-flight response to what was happening. The size I'd rapidly become would destroy the car for sure, not to mention how suddenly being ejected at ninety miles an hour would effect Emmett.

"Leah," Emmett called urgently, instantly bringing me out of my panic. "Leah, when I say go, I want you to change." He wasn't looking at me as I gaped at him in horror.

"What the hell did you just say?" I demanded, my mind whirling. "I can't, I've never done it before, not on command—what if I wreck the car? What about you? You could die!" I realized belatedly that I was shouting at him. I still struggled to hear myself over the rumble of the car, the pounding coming from heavy paws hitting the road, the dizzying thoughts rushing through my head, and the thunderous sound of my heart.

"Don't worry," he said tightly, though he briefly glanced at me and shot me a shaky smile. "I've got a plan." The car swerved, but this time it was Emmett—Holy God, why did he do that, did he do it on purpose Why in God's name would you swing into the guardrail you idiot—

And then a leg shot up and kicked my passenger door so hard it flew off its hinges, fast enough that I barely had time to flatten myself to my seat. Emmett's face was frozen into a look of determination, but he was shouting at me, something like a dull roar—

"Leah, NOW!"

I only caught a split-second glimpse of two shades of fur, enough to know that they were still there and approaching fast and damnit, I was still worried about Emmett but he had a plan and I sure as hell trusted his instincts more than I trusted mine so I managed to gather all of the fear and energy pent up into my body and sprung out of the newly-opened side in the car.

It only occurred to me after I jumped that Emmett had slammed the car into the guardrail, which happened to be on my side. Which meant that I was now hurtling through about fifty feet of air until I would either hit the ground, so far below, or get speared by a tree on the way down.

I curled myself into a ball and shut my eyes tightly, the brisk air whipping my face and hair with a force that felt like a thousand stinging slaps. The only thing I could comprehend was that I was falling probably to my death, and Jesus Christ my stomach was a mess—was it possible to vomit mid-air because I felt like what little I had in my stomach would be thrown all over the place and I'd probably choke on it while falling and what a stellar way to go, Leah—

Suddenly, my body was on fire. The wind wasn't enough to cool me down, there was a shiver running down my tightly clenched body, and I was being stabbed in every pore, every nerve ending, with a live wire. I wasn't aware that I was screaming until it turned into something more shrill, more ferocious, more...animalistic.

It felt like my skin had rapidly disintegrated, leaving bushy fur in its place. All at once, my body both shrunk and expanded, unnecessary bones being retracted and new, unfamiliar ones popping into existence with a series of sickening-sounding crunches and scrapings. This happened in the space of a few seconds, in less time than it took for me to fall to the ground.

It was the most fucking painful thing I've ever felt in my entire life.

But I managed to grit my teeth—foot-long fangs—and get through it, another snarl ripping from me as I hit the ground and immediately let the adrenaline drive it at dizzying speed alongside the road from the thick cover of trees.

Oh, Emmett, please be okay...

I was gigantic. And judging from what I saw earlier, still smaller than those two wolves. The brief image of a body torn and bloodied wearing Emmett's face flashed through my mind before I roughly shoved it aside. Whatever happened, I had to get out of here. I could accept the guilt later. If I was dead, I wouldn't even be able to feel guilty for Emmett's sake.

I bounded through the dense forest, smells of greenery and moistness and the chill air assaulting my nose in much the same way getting that first whiff of the Cullen household had. I could get used to this form later—I needed to run now, Goddamnit!

It was nothing but the sound of my heavy paws hitting the packed earth and the harsh breathing of some feral beast, of me in this form, for several tense, unthinking moments where I solely concentrated on sprinting the hell away. Then I felt something, something wholly strange and yet familiar, rooting around in my brain like some kind of disembodied tentacle.

And then a distinct voice. I instantly realized that these weren't my own thoughts, then promptly attempted to shut down whatever it was out of my brain like forcing down bad memories. But it was persistent. And something about this wolf-body's mind welcomed it, just like the instincts that screamed warning whenever I was faced with the Cullens.

Leah!

Leah!

LEAH!

Each blast of my name was harder to block out until I couldn't run and concentrate on keeping whoever it was out at the same time. So I decided to run instead of trying to achieve mental Zen; even if having this alien voice in my head scared me all the way to hell and back, it couldn't be worse than stopping and letting myself get taken.

It's Sam.

Oh Jesus fucking Christ, I take that back.

Don't be like that.

Holy shit, he can hear my thoughts, too?

I'm the Alpha here. Everyone in my pack shares a mental connection.

I don't recall ever joining your pack, I thought at the vague echo of Sam's voice that floated through my mind.

You reached your shifter maturity under my influence. That puts you squarely in my pack's territory; part of the pack.

Well, fuck that. Did this "mental connection" have a range or was I doomed to hear this jackass' voice in my head at all times? If so, that would kind of throw a wrench into our plan.

Oh, shit. In a second, I obstinately disconnected my mind from anything Cullen-related; anything that had to do with Jasper's plan or where we were going could not reach Sam. I had no idea how far they were willing to chase me...I guess it all depended on just how much demand they had for female shape-shifting brood-mares.

I could feel Sam's mental strain as he attempted to root the memories out of me. I stubbornly sang "Caramelldansen" mentally, focusing solely on the annoying repetitiveness of the techno song to drone out all other thoughts. It wasn't hard. The song's uncomplicated melody and lyrics rattled off like the Pledge of Allegiance.

And then, just because fate decided things weren't confusing enough, a wave of anguish and utter shock nearly bowled me over; I had to catch myself mid-run and briefly dropped the tune. I quickly resumed, now anxious as to just how much he could have gotten to in that moment. Though I no longer felt that invisible presence in my mind—could whatever have elicited such a powerful response in him have jolted him out of my head? What could have caused that much of a distraction? That much surprise?

I just hoped it was Emmett opening up a can of whoop-ass on Sam and didn't allow myself to waste anymore time thinking about it.

A few seconds later, and I sensed that I was drawing closer to the city limits. The subtle changes in scent alerted me that I was drawing further and further away from the town of Forks. Regardless, I didn't stop running. I would never stop running.


A.N. I don't exactly like how I wrote this one. I've always been bad at building tension. And there was not enough Carlisle.