(AN) There are a lot of things I like about this chapter. First off, the song is "Broken Heart" by Motion City Soundtrack, they are Matteo's favorite, and I love it for Isaac. Second, Abby is so nebby, it's awesome! Third, the secret is out there, although none of the kids know it yet!

Chapter 9: Broken Heart

I'll start this broken heart

I'll fix it up so it will work again

Better than before

Then I'll star in a mystery

A tragic tale of all that's yet to come

With fingers crossed there will be love

I kept on listening to the same songs over and over. It was some hopeless attempt to block out the internal chatter that constantly plagued my mind. Images flashed through my mind like the plague, starting with Delilah's horrified eyes, running right through watching Echo shatter into pieces, and then the smell of blood…

She thought I was a monster. That cut me to the core, utterly destroyed my heart and ripped it to shreds. She hated me, she wouldn't have me, she probably wished I didn't exist. After all the ways I'd fucked this up…

I was a monster. I saw that in Jacob's thoughts. I was more a monster than anyone else. How could I fuck this up, when I had everything? No, I thought, I had everything to lose, and I never even noticed. I turned on my side, trying to get away from the writing pain in my heart, trying to ignore the knot of guilt eating away my insides.

I heard Abby moving, her footsteps on the stairs. I sighed, closing my eyes as the door creaked open. I hoped she would leave me alone, but she entered the room and sat on the edge of my bed.

"How are you doing mopey?" She asked cheerfully. I opened up my eyes and glared at her.

"You're supposed to leave me alone." I said icily. She smirked, tossing her (now with blue streaks) hair back.

"I was afraid you were trying to off yourself in here." She stated coolly. "Feel like talking yet? Emma wants to shrink you with all the stuff she's learning in her Pysch class."

"Not funny, Abs. Get out before I bite you." I threatened. She laughed.

"Daniel would murder you. Just 'cause you gave the alpha a paper cut you think you're all high and mighty." She teased. I growled. It didn't faze her.

"Seriously, you need to get up." Abby said, prodding me with her finger. "You're being majorly lame."

"Why get up? I'm public enemy number one in La Push." I stated, holding up a finger for emphasis, she pushed my hand away lightly.

"You are not. Mom and Dad still love you, Jake's majorly pissed, but not only did you break his oldest daughter's heart, you just imprinted on his baby girl, who's only twelve by the way. And then you scratched him, which is no big deal. Ty actually attacked Quil when he first phased, remember?"

"I remember." Not only did I remember, I'd also seen it in Tyler's memories. The pack all laughed at it. These things happened when you're a werewolf, Quil was easygoing enough to take it in stride. Jacob was in no mood to be as forgiving.

"I'm not trying to sound condescending, bro." Abby said, playing with the bracelet on her wrist. "But…this whole imprinting nonsense, it's all fucked up. We all know that."

"You talk, you and Daniel are perfectly happy." I snorted.

"We weren't always happy, Isaac. It was awkward, it was hard to figure out, and I really wasn't keen on being trapped in a life relationship when I was so young. The point is, it'll work out, and everybody will see it was meant to be. Even Echo." She said with a smile. "You know…" She trailed off. "If it had to happen to anyone, at least it was Echo."

"It didn't deserve to happen to anyone, Echo and I were perfectly happy." I retorted, and yet I felt some part of me scoff at that. The part of me that had jumped a little when I'd seen Delilah smiling. When she smiled, it lit up her whole face like the sun had shined right onto her. She glowed.

"Well, it obviously didn't deserve to happen to anyone, but Echo's a tough chick. Tougher than any of us, I think." Abby mused. "She'll deal with it, she'll move on with time. She won't hold a grudge against either of you."

"I'm surprised that she didn't light me on fire." I muttered. Abby's lips twitched.

"Not to sound against you, but that would be awesome." She said with a certain amount of reverence that nearly made me smile. We sat there in silence for a few moments, her foot tapping time to the song as it played. I heard gravel crunching in the driveway and I sat up.

"Someone's here." I said. Abby looked at me skeptically, standing and beginning to walk out my bedroom door just as the doorbell rang.

"Coming!" She shouted. I could hear her taking the steps two at a time, something Emma couldn't do for the life of her. She opened the door, but she didn't even greet whoever it was before they barged in. I swung myself off the bed.

"Honestly Sam, I can't believe you don't keep a spare key anywhere." Leah's voice floated up the stairs.

"It makes Emily nervous to have spares floating around." My dad explained. "Isaac!" He called.

I sighed, pushing myself out the door. Abby stood at the foot of the stairs looking mildly sympathetic. I made sure to mess up her hair as I walked past, just to be spiteful.

"Yeah dad?" I asked, popping my head into the kitchen. Leah was slouched in one of our chairs, her hair wild. It looked like she had just gotten off patrol.

"So, heard you have your dad's bad luck?" Leah asked. Sam turned to glare at her and she raised one eyebrow.

"Leah…" He warned.

"What? You dumped me for Emily because the same thing happened. Jesus Sam, that's old news. It's not my fault you're still not over me." She replied flippantly. My dad growled and Leah smirked again, winking at me over his shoulder.

"It's like a bad case of déjà vu. Back to the beginning, full circle, all that karma crap." She waved her hand in a circle.

"Are you here to laugh?" I asked, feeling my hands shake minutely. "Jesus, Isaac made the same mistake his dad made, and his genes fucking suck."

"Language." My dad and Leah both said at the same time. "And calm down." Leah added.

"How am I supposed to be calm! This sucks, Delilah hates me!" I moaned.

"Far from it, that's why I followed your dad home." Leah said, leaning back further. "Tell Abby to go to her room or something, Sam."

"Abby out of the hallway!" My dad yelled. Abby laughed, but I didn't hear her move.

"Abby, I can still hear you!" Leah yelled. Finally there was a huff and I heard her take the steps again.

"What about Lilah?" I asked, feeling my heart seize in anticipation.

"I was running by the school this morning, when I heard something very interesting. Turns out a certain red head has had a crush on Isaac for some two years. And you know, witches have ways of knowing these things before the rest of us do."

"Echo didn't know." Sam murmured.

"Echo's a teenager. Ruled by her hormones, same as this one." She gestured to me.

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked, trying to process it. "You…you have no reason to even be talking to me right now. You're Blaze's imprint, those are his sisters."

Leah leveled a meaningful glance at my dad then, her dark eyes unreadable. "Unlike some people…" She started. "I actually believe Echo is strong enough to handle this. I think what would really kill her is if something happened to Delilah or you because you two fought this too hard."

"Abigail Uley, if you take one more step down the stairs, I'm going to ban Daniel from the house for a month!" My dad yelled up the stairs, distracted momentarily. It allowed me to fully process what Leah had said. Delilah loved me, Delilah had loved me far before I'd ever even noticed her as anything more than Blaze and Echo's baby sister. Guilt swarmed over me, rolling in my stomach.

"There's more at stake than just us, Leah. Keep that in mind." My dad whispered. I looked between the two of them confused.

"I know that. I won't let Blaze deal with…to see that happen to his family. Hell, they're my family too. I watched her grow up, I have faith in her." She said quietly, all traces of jokes gone from her face.

"What are you two talking about?" I asked, only half my frustration for them, more of it for myself.

"I expect you'll find out sooner than later." Dad said softly.

"It won't happen that way." Leah argued harshly.

I rolled my eyes, stalking past the two of them and out the door, banging it on its hinges. I headed straight for the woods, phasing immediately.

Hey Isaac. Collin said as I shook out my fur. What's up?

I couldn't stop my thoughts from racing back to what Leah said, that Delilah loved me. That she had for a long time.

Oh, yeah, I heard that too. Wondered where Leah raced off to. Collin commented. Never underestimate the power of werewolf hearing. Leah and I always run by the school in the morning to see Dawn and Blaze.

He said it so casually that it shocked me. Collin continued on. It's only so horrible because it's Echo. If it was anyone else, we'd be shocked, sad, angry, then get over it. But we spent so much time worrying over her…

There was something behind his words I couldn't quite see. An image of a field, covered by inky darkness, fire with deep purple smoke, a group of figures and three wolves. It was only there for a second and then it was gone, replaced with images of Dawn. But the feeling lasted, at least for me, the feeling of dread.

What was that? I asked.

Nothing. Collin answered, then studiously went back to worrying about how Dawn was doing in that science quiz she was worried about the night before. He was really quite good at thinking about absolutely frustrating.

And was I just being really paranoid by thinking that I was missing something vital? That thing Leah and my dad had been talking about, the flash of the image in Collin's head and the feeling that accompanied it. I phased back just by the school, not wanting Collin to hear my musing.

Something was going to happen, and it involved Echo. Did Eva see something? That didn't seem right to me, Echo would have known about it, and everyone would know what Echo thought about it.

Was it going to happen to Echo because I'd left her? That thought made me sick on two entirely different levels, the part of me that still loved her…as a friend, a future sister. Then there was the part of me (and it was rather large) that could think only of what Delilah's reaction would be if something happened to her sister. I could too easily imagine those big lilac eyes filling with tears that she tried not to let fall. That thought caused a sharp pain in every cell of my body. That's how she'd looked when I'd had to leave yesterday…and I'd left her like that.

Delilah…Delilah was vulnerable in a way Echo wasn't. If anything bad was going to happen, Echo could handle it, but Delilah needed someone to watch out for her. I just had to see her to make sure she was alright. I could hear people laughing, talking. It was nice outside, people were spread out along the school grounds, I supposed it was lunch time. I concentrated, listening.

"Lilah, are you listening?" Someone asked. It focused my sight on the three girls sitting on the hood of a car.

"Hm?" She asked, turning her head. I couldn't see her eyes from her, but her hair was brilliant in the sun.

"I asked if I could have your tomatoes." Joy asked. "Since you don't eat them."

"You always take my tomatoes. I don't even know why you ask anymore." Lilah said softly as Joy plucked something from the tray on her lap.

"Did you put C for number thirteen on the test? It was asking about magma and volcanoes, I couldn't quite remember…" Dawn asked, skimming over her notes.

"Lilah, what did you put?" Dawn asked. There was a pause, Delilah's head was turned, looking at Aaron and Blaze toss a football.

"Lilah? Geez, you're completely out of it." Dawn commented again.

"Sorry." She muttered.

"Get your mind off of it. Listen, Daniel is taking Abby out to Port Angeles, I'm sure I can force him to take us along and drop us off. We'll go buy something pretty for you to wear. Something green, green is your favorite color, and that green t-shirt of yours is over worn." Joy babbled.

"And it goes great with your hair." Dawn added on. There was silence.

"I don't feel like it tonight." Delilah finally said, slipping off the car with her tray, past where Eva, Daniel, and Tyler were standing, missing Echo. I wondered where she was.

"This isn't going to get any better soon, is it Princess?" Daniel asked gravely.

"Come on, you guys are so pessimistic." Tyler tried to say.

"I've never seen Delilah look so sad." Eva cut them off. And when Delilah passed by them again, I could see it, sadness etched in her face. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to go to her side, to very gently brush that sadness away.

Delilah looked up then, right to where I was standing. And I knew she couldn't see me, her eyes had nothing on mine, but I knew that she felt me. And she stayed like that, silent and still, as I tried my best to communicate to her how I felt, how I wanted things to be.

"Delilah? Bells about to ring." Joy called. She turned away then, walking toward her school, I was about to turn around too, but right before I did, she turned back and looked over her shoulder, her words barely a whisper on the wind, something I could barely hear. Something that wounded me like a knife to my soul.

"Go away Isaac. You're not worth it."

I'll destroy this useless heart

I'll fuck it up so it'll never beat again

Not just for me but for anyone

So much to say

But no words to convey

The loneliness building with each passing day

You never get used to it,

You just have to live with it