"Leah, stop it."

"But I am. I really, really am."

"I swear to God if you say sorry to me one more time, I may just throw this plate at you."

"The plate that you ate the dinner that you had to cook off of on a school night when you should've been...hey!"

The dinner plate sailed past my ear to clatter to the floor, stray pieces of pasta rolling off in all directions. I tried my hardest to look reprimanding and failed spectacularly, ending up laughing with him and throwing a pillow at his head.

"You're cleaning that up! And then straight to bed," I shouted, running up the stairs to my bedroom.

"But it's a school night and I had to cook my own dinner," came his reply.

"Don't make me throw another pillow!"

I could hear him laughing as he went into the kitchen. Despite his protests that he was fine making dinner, I still felt terrible. Mom had been spending more and more time around Charlie's recently, something that I didn't really mind as it seemed to be helping her cope with Dad and Charlie with all this extra crap his daughter decided to dump on him. The only problem was that with me out helping Jacob with pack matters, Seth was having to become more independent. Of course I knew he was fourteen and certainly able to do these things for himself but he had enough to worry about without having to help around the house. I had promised to make him dinner and leave it in the oven for later yet what with being pulled out of the house and trying to sort things out with Jacob, I had managed to completely forget. Which left him, once again, home alone, doing everything for himself. And I had a go at Sam for not thinking of Seth's education.

I opened up my laptop, a page for Washington State University still glowing from where I'd left my search a few days ago. For awhile now I'd been looking into college courses; I wasn't really sure what to do yet but I knew I wanted to do something. I couldn't spend the rest of my life working in the coffee shop down the road, I wanted to get a proper job. The only problem was that I still had Seth to look after; unless mom decided to come home a bit more I would have to wait until at least four more years to go. Although it made me feel guilty as hell, I thought mom was being seriously selfish. I understood that Dad passing was difficult for her, it was difficult for all of us, but she seemed to hate being in the house more and more, saying that she could still feel him there. Being at Charlie's made her feel better and I was happy she was starting to move on, yet we missed her. She was hardly ever home anymore.

"Washington State University? Has my sister been telling about that place? It's really not all that great y'know," said a voice close to my ear.

I screamed, whirling round and punching out, catching Jacob on his left cheekbone. He fell backwards against the bed, clutching his cheek and groaning.

"Okay, ow. That actually really hurt."

"What the hell do you think you're doing Jake?! How did you get in here?" I clutched at my chest, desperately trying to calm my pounding heart.

"I came in through the window. I wanted to talk to you. Obviously, you don't feel the same way."

"You sneaked up on me! What did you expect me to do, thank you? And anyway, I only saw you ten minutes ago."

He gave me a look and continued rubbing the sore spot on his cheek. Honestly, I doubt it would've even bruised but he seemed intent on making a big deal out of it so I grab his hand away and brushed my fingers across his cheek, probing at the cheekbone. "See? It's fine, stop being such a baby."

Unfortunately, Seth took this time to burst into my room without knocking (I really needed to get a lock on that door). He paused when he saw us, sitting close together on the bed with my hand on Jacob's cheek. I immediately pulled it back, opening my mouth to explain. He just put up his hands and walked out without saying a single word. I heard his own bedroom door close a few moments later.

"Brilliant. That'll be going round the pack by tomorrow," I sighed.

"What does it matter? They know Nessie's my imprint so...crap, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to start with that, I actually came to apologise."

"Apologise? Shouldn't I be the one apologising to you?"

"No, it's definitely me." He furrowed his brow. "I'm sorry for pushing you so hard, with Nessie and Carlisle. I just...look, you'd say we're friends right?" He continued at my nod: "I've got you and Seth on one side, Sam's pack on the other and the Cullen's on the third. Our packs are starting to get better at working together, which isn't surprising seeing as we've known each other forever, but no one apart from Seth will even attempt to get on with the Cullen's. Like it or not, they're going to be a huge part of my life now I've imprinted on Nessie. And I thought that if you got friendly-"

"-then the rest of the pack would follow, seeing as I'm the most difficult," I finished for him.

"Well...yeah, I guess so. Although I'd probably have put it more nicely."

"What did I tell you about buttering me up?" He laughed at that before turning more serious, waiting for my answer. "Jake, you know I love you like you're my brother. Following you into the new pack was the best thing I've ever done; it's helped me to forget about Sam and made me happier. I want to help you, you have no idea how much. But...I don't know if I can. I hate the vampires more than anything else in the world. If it weren't for them, my dad wouldn't be dead right now, Seth and I and all the others; Quil, Brady, Collin, they wouldn't be wolves right now. If there were no vampires at all, none of us would be wolves. Seth would have a normal life. He could have a girlfriend without worrying about breaking her heart by imprinting."

"You and Sam would still be together," Jacob said quietly, saying what I couldn't. We're silent for a moment.

"I guess I could have dealt with all that, maybe if I really tried. For you. Yet out of all of them, every single vampire in the world, it had to be Bella's child. She just...I can't be near her, I just can't. Everything that's happened, everything we've been through, it's all been for her. It's like suddenly, not only am I some kind of a freak, a genetic dead end, but my whole world, my family's whole world, has to revolve around her. She screwed around with you for a year; you were a mess because of her. But even after all that, you still go back to her. You still try to protect her. You still give her a chance. And what does she do all this time? Keeps on stringing you along, acting all innocent and repenting when it all goes wrong. She made all the wrong choices, she took advantage of you, she had two guys fawning over her when I couldn't even have the one I wanted more than anything..." I took a deep breath, tears pooling in my eyes as I desperately tried to reign in my emotions. "...and I can't look at her daughter without seeing her. Without seeing my Dad dying for her, my brother forced into this life, my mom barely able to come home anymore. I've tried but I just can't do it Jacob, I'm sorry I can't."

Jacob reached his arms around me, pulling me tight to his side as I silently cried into his shirt. Getting all of that out felt good, therapeutic even. I was glad that he finally knew although I didn't think he'd leave the conversation here; he was serious about me getting to know the devil spawn. Once my shoulders had stopped shaking, the tears had dried up and Jacob's shirt was completely soaked through I sat up, wiping the remains of my mascara from my face. I couldn't force myself to look up at Jake and the silence that stretched on quickly grew awkward. Finally, he spoke up.

"I'm not going to ask you to make friends with Nessie or even spend time with her," he said thickly. I looked up at him now. "I never realised how strongly you felt about all this and I get it Lee, I really do. But can I ask you something else instead? Could you be...slightly less hostile to Nessie? She doesn't really get why you don't like her and I'm going to explain it all to her when she's older, whether Bells likes it or not, but just for now it would be a lot easier if you could, I don't know, ignore her. At the very least stop glaring at her?"

In normal circumstances it would seem so ridiculous that he would have to ask this that I had to laugh. "Okay," I said after a minute or two. "Okay, I'll ignore her. If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all, right?" He laughed at that too. The laughter soon stopped though and he followed it up with a long, scrutinising look that made me feel as if I were naked. "Look, it's getting pretty late and I've got to be up early to make sure Seth doesn't skip school."

"And for Sam's meeting," Jake reminded me.

"Damn, I forgot about that. Oh, and thanks for earlier. You know, for sticking up for me with the whole Seth thing." He waved his hands to show that it was nothing. "We never did get a chance to talk about the stuff with Carlisle."

"Or the other vampire," Jake once again reminded me. "It's fine, we can talk again tomorrow. Go for a walk up the beach or something after Sam's meeting."

"You really should stop calling it 'Sam's meeting'. It's yours too, and you're the true alpha. Plus, a lot of the negotiations today came from you, you should start taking credit for this stuff, you deserve it."

"Mmm, maybe. Look, we're both exhausted and have got an early start tomorrow. Let's get some sleep and we can worry about the other stuff later." He walked over to my window, shoving the glass up with a loud squeak. "Night Leah. Try not to worry too much?"

"I will. Night Jake."

After he left, I pushed the window shut and got changed into my nightwear, an old vest top and sweats. Just as I was shutting everything off and getting into bed there was a timid knock at my door.

"You can come in Seth," I called out. His head peaked around the door, a sheepish smile on his face. "It's almost two am, you have to be up in five hours."

"Sorry, I wanted to see if you were okay first. I kind of heard some of your conversation. I wasn't listening in, I swear, just overhearing it!"

"It's fine. And I'm fine, so you can get some sleep now."

"Both of you need to get some sleep." Mom walks into the room then, hands on hips and a stern look on her face. "Seth, how can you expect to do well at school if you don't sleep at all?" I smirked at him rolling his eyes. "And you can stop smiling miss, I hear you've got a lot going on right now. How do you expect to deal with it all on a bad night's sleep?"

"Mom, I'm almost twenty-"

"I don't care how old you are! My roof, my rules. Now, get to bed!" Seth rolled his eyes again and, kissing mom on his way out, left for his room. Mom came over and sat on the edge of the bed, stroking my hair. "I'm so sorry I haven't been around lately baby. I know I've been a terrible mom but I'm going to be around more, I promise. With everything you have to do at the moment, taking after Seth should be the last of your worries."

"Seth will never be the last of my worries."

"I know, I know. I mean it though. I promise. Now, you really need to sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"Night mom."

I was too happy for a minute to consider how strange it was that she had suddenly done a complete 180. It came to me, as I was almost asleep, that Jacob really did do an awful lot for me.