The Twilight Series belongs to S. Meyer, no copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing with the characters.

AN: Tissue warning. I'm sorry guys...maybe I need to change my name to the Queen of Angst.

Chapter 9

My Immortal

It was the tapping sensation on her leg that pulled Leah from her musings. She blinked a few times to clear the vestiges from her vision before focusing on the small girl who looked up at her curiously.

"You're pwetty."

She was speechless; a thick painful lump balled in her throat and her eyes began to burn with tears. What had she thought for all these years? Paul's replica didn't wait for her to respond before continuing.

"I'm Amelia but evewyone calls me Melli. 'Cept for papa he calls me Mia." Amelia's hazel eyes fixated on Leah's and she declared as she stuck her chubby hand outwards, "You can call me Mia."

A broken sob left Leah's throat as the tears fell free from her eyes. She pushed her chair away from the table abruptly. Amelia running over to Sue and wrapping her tiny arms around Sue's legs was the last thing Leah saw before she ran from the room.

It was a child, an innocent child. Not some monster who intended to ruin her life and destroy her happiness with Paul. All these years she had thought or imagined the baby to be an unknown entity and something completely different than what it really was. Until she laid eyes on his daughter—she hadn't even know the baby was a girl.

She slammed the door to her room shut and locked it. She was a monster for having those awful beliefs. In her head she had rationalized the baby to be something from a horror movie—like Rosemary's Baby. A demonic creature from the loins of the devil's right hand woman, Emily.

The moment she knew of the pregnancy, she shut herself off from Paul, Emily, her parents, and her brother. She simply waited for the two weeks she had until she left for university. Paul turned down his hard-earned scholarship the moment his impending fatherhood was announced.

At the time she didn't see the gleam in her cousin's eyes as Emily rested a hand on her lower abdomen; appearing to lovingly cradle it. All she saw, felt, and heard was her pain. Her own agonizing sobs that tore from her body as a hurricane tore across the coast; it left destruction in its wake.

And her parents, she couldn't even imagine the position they were placed in. Paul had been such a fixture in their life for so many years—they were his family after his parents died. Then there was Emily—their niece from Sue's side of the family. She had been staying with them that summer and they felt accountable, or liable for what happened. Lastly, there was their daughter—caught in the middle of it all.

So, she ran as far as she could at eighteen years old and seemingly without funds or skills. That just happened to be the University of Washington in Seattle. She vowed to never return to La Push again. She couldn't stay and watch; torturing herself with what could have been.

Fate though had other ideas for her. It was two days after Valentine's Day when Seth called her. The phone ringing in the middle of the night jarred her out of a sound sleep.

"Hello," she answered as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes to glance at the clock. Three am. Why would anyone call this late?

"Leah…" her brother's voice on the other end cracked midway through saying her name. "It's…dad. He had a heart attack."

"What," she interrupted, sitting up in bed abruptly startling her roommate. "He's okay…isn't he?"

The silence from the other end was deafening. Her lip quivered and she convulsively swallowed against the lump in her throat. "Seth…please…tell me," she begged.

"Lee, he didn't make it. They did everything they could but…I'm sorry. He's gone."

She broke down at his words. Her father, the strongest yet gentlest man she knew was gone. He had taught her how to ride a bike, to swim, and to fish. He never minded that her version of fishing usually required her wearing a dress and her patent leather dress shoes and it involved them coming home without any fish as her giggling and constant chatter most likely scared away them.

He was supposed to be the one to walk her down the aisle; giving her to a man who was truly worthy of her heart. And she would never see the look on his face when she placed her first child in his arms. There wouldn't be another holiday—Christmas, New Year's, birthdays—none of them with him. And she had missed so many opportunities to go home for just a day or two in the past six months.

She didn't remember the rest of her conversation with her brother. Her roommate, Kate sat next to Leah, putting her arm around her and comforted her while she sobbed. The next morning after falling into a fitful slumber Kate helped her pack a bag so she could return home for the week to say goodbye to the only man who was guaranteed to never hurt her.

AN: *clears throat* BTW some of you have been awesome and reviewing which I love...though there is a little place I can go and look at my stats and I've had 900% more visitors than reviews so don't be shy. Tell me what you love, hate, hell tell me my story sucks (okay I'm lying about the last one) but reviews are my payment. ;)