A/N: This was going to be a part of Step Five as told by Jacob at the bonfire, but I couldn't quite make it work with everything else I wanted to do and eventually Leah won out. The bits and pieces I already had written have been put together and posted as this outtake because I still liked what I had, and because there were no more steps to squeeze the words into. (I hope this slightly makes up for the missing affection between them, Jacobleah.)

4AM A/N: So y'know that "undecided but unlikely" thing I said about a sequel? Absolute crap. Someone needs to talk me out of writing a companion fic which focuses on the rest of the Pack. I even have a title. Help.

Outtake/Bonus Material: The Bonfire (Jacob)

Leah's different.

Maybe it's because of all those self-help books she buried her head in, or those heart-breaking novels she devoured day after day for a week straight while looking for answers to questions she didn't quite have the courage to voice. Maybe it's because of all the other library books she ruined with her highlighting and her marking, after finding what she had been looking for and then forcing him to see it, too.

Maybe it's the sense of purpose she's found, the responsibility and pride which comes with being an Alpha's Second. Jacob has no doubt that Leah was born to flank an Alpha—she has Ateara, Black and Uley blood running through her veins, after all, and he often wonders whether they've stumbled upon the reason she had pushed against Sam's leadership so often. Perhaps it wasn't simply down to loving him and hating him at the same time. Perhaps it is Leah's natural-born fire which cannot be extinguished, a will that is stronger than even Quil's, who had sensed it and had accepted his new role as Third without so much as a fight. Perhaps it is nothing but her own magic which makes her stand taller, her body radiating a different type of confidence and now strong and lean with muscle she has regained.

Or maybe she's changed because of Joshua, whose first word was Mama and not Lee or Jay like they had spent months trying to encourage.

Or maybe it's all down to Leah alone. She's really the one who has kept them in one piece, because she's been keeping him in one piece, whether she knows what she's doing or not—even after she'd broken her two-year streak and had gotten half-way across Oregon in an escape attempt, before coming home hours and hours later covered in dirt. (She still thinks he doesn't know about that, about where she went, about how quickly she ran, but he doesn't say anything because he's guilty of wanting escape sometimes too. He still dreams about what it would be like to see Canada again.)

She's not the same person he remembers making snide remarks in his head all those years ago, purposely trying to rile him, to get him to snap at her. Neither is she the same as when she was standing in his old living room, planning with him to free Josh from foster care (she'd looked more animal than human, then, more unsettled than ever before) and yet looking at her now, he sees that there is a softness in her. He's not sure whether it's always been there, buried and forgotten about, or whether it's something new, but it's only recently that he's noticed.

It's hard not to look at her, as they walk towards the bonfire their brothers are building. (Because it's important to celebrate, to welcome a new brother, even when the guilt and upset of doing so without Sam and Emily damn-near cripples him. The only reason he's not run a mile yet is because of Josh, toddling unsteadily between him and Leah, his tiny hands linking the three of them together.) Leah thinks the gathering will do them all good, that it will teach Micah a few things despite nearly having traumatised him with her own lessons. Jacob had truly felt for the boy, but if there had been any doubt in the past few days about her being the raging fire to his calm waters, she had extinguished it and had re-established her position amongst them all.

Leah takes her eyes off Joshua's funny bemusement of walking in the sand for the first time and meets his own, catching him staring openly at her. She doesn't falter one step in the last rays of winter sunlight which still warms the beach as she studies him the way he is her. "What?"

Once, she might have said it with a daring snarl. Now, her lips pull with the same smile she'd been giving Joshua still wobbling between them. At some point her eyes have lost the dangerous shadows within them, just as the dark circles underneath them have faded now that she's become used to surviving on less sleep again.

"You did good," he replies, because he knows that sometimes she needs to hear it as much as Micah had needed to after having his braid cut off. But Leah had in fact been brilliant—she had torn the arm off the red-eyed white-haired leech and had stopped its foreign mate escaping with a type of lethal anger he's only ever noticed in the wolves who have imprints. He knows that he, too, had seemed different than before, and that it's because of what they now stand to lose should they fail.

Jacob also knows that while they'd chased the bloodsuckers down Leah had seen and heard every single thought he'd had, after so long of ensuring that they led separate patrols. While Quil had chanted Claireclaireclairemineminemineclaire, Jake had been unable to distinguish himself from his brother in their frenzy and had kept up a steady chorus of Leahjoshleahleahleahleahjoshjoshleahleah. Betraying himself and his new feelings had been the very reason he'd made a point of not running with her after she'd started phasing again, because he knows that months ago it would have probably scared her further away than even Oregon; she would likely have been in Arizona by the time he'd heard from her again.

But she's still here, even after she'd been compelled to lift the shutters of her own mind and they'd all heard her own mantra of Joshjoshjoshjoshjoshmyjoshmyjacobmyjoshandjacob, which had stunned him as much as it had seemed to stun herself.

Leah finally averts her eyes and trains them back on Joshua, but she doesn't lose her smile. "If you're going to start getting all territorial about this," she says quietly enough that their brothers with sensitive ears can't hear, "you can take my turn on the couch tonight."

"I was kinda hoping you were going to get into a my horse is bigger than your horse thing with Kim or Rach," he replies, "because I'd so win that."

She tries to cover her laugh with a huff as she reaches down to pick Josh up. "It wouldn't be a fair win. I've probably seen more of their husbands than even they have."

He tries to not get all territorial about that, and his silence is enough to make her laugh again as Josh burrows into her warmth and they get closer to the Pack.

"Anyone see the last Seahawks game?" Paul yells suddenly. "What was the score?"

Jake's not sure whether Leah can tell it's a bit forced—he knows what they've all been secretly talking about for weeks now and he'll honestly be surprised if she hasn't figured it out yet, because he knows the new kid already has.

"Ignore him," Rachel says, shoving Paul as she passes. (Rach and Kim are dependable in that they are always the first on their feet and gunning towards the poor kid who just wants to be with his mama, but when Jake looks for Kim he sees the look on her red face and knows she's going to be pretty shit company tonight. Kim and pregnant do not go well together.) His sister starts smoothing down Joshua's dark hair. "He's been weird ever since he realised he was missing out on all the fun."

A lie, Jacob thinks, but a good one. As Leah rolls her eyes, seemingly unsuspicious and instead rather annoyed that Paul will forever be an idiot, Jacob smacks a kiss on the top of his sister's head by way of a greeting and a thank you.

Paul scowls as he crouches beside the wood. "Have not."

"Dunno about you, but I barely kept myself on two feet." Embry shakes himself, as if he still feels the sharp current of an Alpha's call rippling over his skin. "Didn't stop lookin' north until you shut up howling."

"Drama queen."

It is easy to bicker and laugh and to fall into an old life as Paul and Embry build the fire higher and higher, a warning to their enemies and a welcome for family, while they wait for the elders. Seth kicks a ball around with Quil, Collin, Brady and Micah, while Rachel continues to fuss over Josh even though Leah does not relent her hold on him, and Kim watches from the sand, seething as Jared seems at a complete loss. Jacob keeps an eye on all of them—some more than most, of course—as he pretends to arrange the blankets and the logs.

Leah notices his lingering gaze—again—and gives him a pointed look that he thinks might mean, Territorial fool. The couch is yours. But he simply grins back, triumphant and feeling lighter than he has in what seems a very, very long time.

"Moron," she says, later, when the elders arrive and they all take their places around the wood which is now burning bright. Beside him, she wraps Joshua and his favourite plush toy (which she's still never thanked Sue for) in a blanket on her lap and, though she might indeed think that Jacob is a moron instead of a fool, she leans into his touch when his fingers slip underneath her shirt and he splays his hand on the warm skin of her back.

He keeps her and Josh close all through Billy's tales and Old Quil's wise words, because now that his world has finally stopped blurring around the edges, he knows he must protect them—this—above all else. All too often has he found himself with nothing else to give, his whole heart spent, empty in its loneliness, but finally, finally he has learnt that he must be as fierce and wild as Leah can be to keep it—them—safe, to be selfish and not feel bad in wanting this only for himself. He has suffered enough loss for a lifetime. His mom, Harry, Bella, Emily, Sam… He's not sure how he's managed it, unsure of how he's still here.

Then, after their dad has left, parting with an approving nod and pride dancing in those old eyes, Leah finds her way underneath his arm and his sister positively beams.

Paul winks.

Embry looks pleased; Jake realises that his brother has probably won the secret bet they had going.

Seth gives him a thumbs-up.

Collin and Brady lean over the log and pretend to empty their stomachs. In between them, Micah is quiet but clearly amused.

Quil laughs. "So who called it?"

This, Jacob thinks, is how he survived all those years.

"Me," Embry says, perhaps a little too excitedly. Jacob can feel Leah's growing annoyance, and so he keeps his arm locked around her shoulders.

She growls regardless of the anchor he provides. "If you carry on," she says dangerously, but low enough to not wake the sleeping child with a bubbling threat in her throat, "Christmas at ours is cancelled."

Embry scoffs loudly, although for a moment Jared seems downright petrified—Kim's mood will undoubtedly be even worse next month, and he has no plans to suffer his wife alone.

"I mean it," Leah warns.

Jacob has to hide his smile in her hair.

But Embry just waves a hand as if to say, Yeah, as if, before stretching it out expectantly. "Ok, people. Time to pay up." He grins at Leah. "You don't even wanna know what we're betting on next."

Return of the A/N: I woke up to awesome emails. You guys blow me away.