Disclaimer: All characters belong to S. Meyer.
Jacob waited for three days and three nights by Leah's bedside. The days he spent quietly absorbing the world passing by around him. He watched as Sue and Seth came and went, over and over again, never leaving for too long. He sat silently by as Emily wept over her cousins lifeless body. He dug his nails into his palms and clenched his jaw as Dan tenderly kissed Leah's forehead.
And at night he prayed. And begged. And often screamed. However the screams were silent and the begging was in his head. He spoke to Leah, the broken girl of his dreams. He apologized over and over again for leaving. He described every single fiber of her being that kept him so enthralled. He argued with her over her imprint, because he hated the bastard even if he was some superhero.
He told her he loved her.
But none of what he was saying seemed to matter because the monitors showed no changes. Dan explained that things weren't looking so good on the third day, and he sat Sue down and told her Leah's opinion on being kept alive on respirators and trache tubes.
Of course she was against it, Jake wanted to scream at him, but that does not mean anyone is going to take her off of it now!
He wasn't losing her, not now after everything. If it meant he had to take up permanent residency in the hospital room, then he would make a bed on the floor and put a toothbrush in the bathroom.
He wasn't leaving and she wasn't quitting. That's what he told Sue, because ultimately the decision was left to him. Sue wanted what her daughter would have wanted, and hearing her talk about Leah in the past tense made Jacob want to cry and scream and rip his hair out.
She wasn't gone! She wasn't in the past, damn it!
When Dan came back, after his shift on the third night, he sat down across the bed from Jake. This time he didn't immediately begin whispering to Leah of his love and showering her with gentle kisses.
This time he looked at Jake, who was holding Leah's right hand. It was her dominant hand, on her dominant side, and Jacob had experienced her mean right hook on several occasions. It was her stronger hand, and it held scars from fights he wasn't around to witness.
Dan let out a deep sigh, the sound of a man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and Jacob tensed knowing that whatever he said was bound to say would be terrible news. It was always terrible news in these situations.
"I'm transferring out of the hospital next month." He blurted out suddenly and Jake's head lifted so quickly, he felt the sudden signs of whiplash.
He stared at Dan, wondering where this was coming from. He noticed that there was something in his hands, some small object he was mindlessly fiddling with. It was shiny and looked to be almost two karats.
Leah's engagement ring.
"You know, when I first moved here there was this nurse in pediatrics. She had blonde hair and was tiny. Total opposite of Lees. We flirted, and I can remember how I would try so hard to make stupid jokes just to make her smile." He sighed again, his head still down, the ring in his hand still making endless circuits between his fingers. "I was almost ready to ask her out, had almost built up the courage… Then I was paged to geriatrics one day and bam, there was Leah in all her Amazonian glory."
Dan lifted his head and met Jake's stare.
"I have never felt such a strong pull towards anyone in my life, and I was shocked when she came on to me first." He smiled to himself. "Leah was so far out of my league, ya know? Completely untouchable. And within minutes of meeting her she was asking me to coffee… I was thrilled."
Jake wasn't sure what was happening, but he couldn't bring himself to shut Dan up. He definitely didn't want to hear the story of how the two came to be, but at the same time he wasn't able to quench his morbid curiosity. He stayed silent and Dan took it as a sign to continue.
"She told me about you from the very beginning…Jacob Black. The man who had her heart and left with it. She said you weren't coming back, but I think she always knew deep down that you couldn't leave her forever…Who could?" he laughed quietly. "When she told me about you shifters, and imprinting, I wasn't fazed. How else could such a goddess give a guy like me a chance?"
Dan took a deep breath and seemed to be holding back tears, "I never had to try to make Leah smile and for the longest time I thought that was the best thing in the world…Then you come back and she hates you, I mean really hates you, but you're persistent and…you earn her smiles. You'll earn back her trust and… you'll probably earn back her love soon, too."
Jacob couldn't believe what he was hearing…couldn't comprehend what Dan was saying.
"Her body won't survive fighting this, her heart won't survive. So, I'm pulling myself out of the running." Dan looked to Leah and brushed a hand over her silky locks, "I want her to live and be happy… and I know that she can only do that with you. So, in a month I'll transfer across the country, somewhere warmer maybe, and hopefully meet a nurse to woo with my lame jokes. A nice girl that's all smiles and big blue eyes, maybe a brunette this time." He grinned.
And for the first time in days, Jacob cracks a smile. His heart slowly lifts and he feels a sort of brotherly camaraderie with Dan. He no longer despises the young doctor. He appreciates him, and maybe even respects the man. And he quietly gets up from his chair, his back popping from disuse and his knees slightly creaking.
"I'll give you two some time to…talk." Jake says quietly.
He can give Dan this, this time for goodbye. He steps out of the small hospital suite for the first time in three days and walks the halls for a bit.
He wanders down to the cafeteria and gets himself a coffee, black.
He stands outside of the pediatrics ward and thinks about the black-haired babies he and Leah were meant to have.
He visits the geriatrics floor and smiles at the thought of Lee spending her time there everyday, batting away frisky old men and doling out compliments to grandmothers with so much spark left in them.
He finds a bench outside in the courtyard and reflects on his life, pre-Leah, during Leah and realizes he can't even imagine post-Leah. Even during the years he was away, she was still the center of his life, the reason he agreed to the dangerous mission in the first place. He wanted their kids to have a safe and secure future, one where vampires weren't a constant fear.
He finally returned to her room and was about to open the door when Dan came out. There were tears in his eyes but a smile on his face, as he gestured to Jake.
"I think there's someone who wants to talk to you." Dan grinned and Jake couldn't help the sudden inability to breathe.
Did that mean…?
He barged in the room so fast he almost knocked Dan over in the process. He could hear him chuckling in the hallway at his enthusiasm, but it didn't matter because Jake's eyes were full of the women sitting up in front him. Her dark eyes were clear and her face looked fresh and rosy instead of the pale it had seemed just hours before.
He couldn't move, couldn't breathe, and was sure the smile on his face made him look like some sort of deranged man. He'd never been so happy.
Leah noticed his joy and laughed at his speechlessness. His Lee was back, and he welcomed the joyful tears streaming down his face. They matched the tears shining in her eyes.
"You have some explaining to do, mister." She wiggled her finger at him reproachfully but the pure delight hadn't left her features. "What's all this about renegade vampire hunting? And why was I not invited?"
A/N: I personally love this chapter, and secretly love Dan. (In case you're wondering I based his character off of Pacey Witter from Dawson's Creek. Joshua Jackson is dreamy and Pacey is the perfect guy in my eyes!) Anyways, there you have it… The imprint is broken, and Leah did have a heart attack when she herself went against the imprint. But since Dan went along with her true wishes and 'pulled himself out of the running,' she recovers from her heart attack almost immediately. I hope this chapter gets lots of reviews, I'd really like at least fifteen because I haven't gotten that many for one chapter yet, and they do make me update faster!!!