11. Confessions
After the last of the fireworks faded from the sky, our guests quickly disappeared from our property leaving only my friends and my family behind. Connor followed soon after excusing himself to drive Jenny home. Her parents had a prior engagement and had plans to leave before the fireworks so Connor offered to escort her home after the show. They were so adorable all night as they shyly maneuvered around one another, occasionally stealing sweet glances of longing when the other wasn't looking. I had high hopes for that pairing.
The rest of my friends insisted on helping with some of the clean up duties, so we all walked around gathering trash from the grass and talking about the events of the night. Their favorite topic of conversation though was the crowd's reactions to our musical premieres.
I was more than a little annoyed when the story came out that during the time that the girls and I had gone to our house to pick out our song for the performance Danya had decided to take the opportunity to make her move on Seth while I was not around to 'cling on him like he were about to disappear' as she had so smugly suggested on prom night. My annoyance was quickly replaced with glee and pride in Seth when the boys continued with the story detailing how Seth so smoothly expressed his lack of interest and completely ignored her. Then the glee turned to raucous laughter when they explained how she responded with a look of total shock just before she literally fell out of her chair while trying to reach over to play with Seth's shirt seductively.
Then they went on to detail how both Amy and Danya were verbally bashing Leighton, Malia, and I during our performance on stage making sarcastic comments and gagging noises. The laughter continued to roll on as they reenacted their reactions when my soon to be sister in law took it upon herself to intimidate them with a dirty look which was immediately followed by my brother Emmett standing behind them and not so subtly letting them know that if the entertainment was not up to their standards they could most certainly get in their cars and go home. My smile must have been glowing brighter than the lanterns as I shook my head and reminded myself that I really needed to give my brother a big bear hug later on.
The absolute best part though was when they finally described their reactions to Seth's serenade. To be honest I was so lost in my own little world with Seth, that I didn't notice anyone or anything, but the girls then took over the story as they pulled us all over to the exact place that Amy and Danya had stood during the performance and reproduced their every expression and action during the song. I was rolling on the ground with tears in my eyes by the time they were finished because their bodies went from crossed arms and smug indignation to resembling something more like the painting The Scream and then a jealous sort of sneer as they turned around and stomped back to the car like two year olds throwing temper tantrums. Finally Seth came over and pulled me up off the ground laughing as he wiped my tears from laughing away and gave me a sweet kiss.
"Mission accomplished," he whispered with a wide smile on his face as he pulled me in for a gentle hug before walking with me to go bid my friends goodbye. As they drove away we slowly made our way back to our house to turn in for the night.
The next morning we awoke to find Leah and Danny sitting at our dining room table still dressed in their clothes from the night before and drinking coffee while taking in the view of the pond. We joined them and discovered that they had ended up sitting out in our gazebo and talking all night long after the fireworks ended. After the initial awkward exchanges they fell together as if they had always known each other. I was so pleased to see that suddenly there was a light in Leah's eyes that I had never seen before and Seth was so pleased that I thought I was going to have to fit him with a pair of cement boots to keep him from floating away. He later told me that he hadn't seen her look like that in over eighteen years.
Needless to say, I didn't get quite as much bonding time with my future sister in law as I had hoped for in the weeks that followed, but since my bigger goal was to help her find some happiness, I was definitely fine with that. Danny rearranged his plans in order to stay a couple of weeks longer to spend more time with Leah and they spent every possible minute together that they could.
Even though Leah was ecstatic, she was still so nervous about what Danny would think when he eventually learned the truth about her and what had happened between them. I had a sneaking suspicion that he would handle it all much better than she feared considering how well he existed in the presence of my family for all of these years, even if he didn't know the truth. The day that we sat him down and explained everything to him about both Leah, Seth, and Jake, as well as the Cullen's, he was understandably shocked and completely dazed, and kept looking around like he was waiting for someone to come out and tell him he as being punk'd.
"So, wait…what about Lina?" he finally asked as the realization hit him that I wasn't like any of the rest of the family members in the room.
"I'm a regular old run of the mill human, and Bella's biological half sister. They adopted me when our Mom and my Dad died and there was nobody else to take me in."
"Lina, I'd hardly call you run of the mill. But it is nice to know that at least somebody was actually what I believed they were all of these years."
I smiled, "Yep, that's me…the dorky adoptive sister to all!"
We all laughed and Seth reached over and hugged me around the shoulders while placing a kiss on my head.
Danny sat and looked into space a long time, seeming a bit lost in his own thoughts. I could see Leah's shoulders drop more with every passing second. Finally he ran his hands through his hair and over his face as he shook his head back and forth slowly. "I'm sorry; I'm just having a hard time making sense of all of this. None of it really seems real or possible. I…I just don't know how to react. I have so many questions, but I just don't know how to ask." He looked over at me with a furrowed brow and I had an epiphany.
"Hey Danny, would it help if we went for a ride? Maybe I can help you sort things out if I explain things from the point of view of a run of the mill human who's had many, many years to get a full understanding of this world."
He shot me a weak smile and nodded a little, so I continued. "Okay, why don't you go grab some water bottles and something for us to snack on from the kitchen and go meet me at my car? I'll be out in just a minute."
He nodded and I walked over to Leah while he collected the things I suggested from the kitchen to give her a hug. I took her shoulders in my hands and locked eyes with her. "This is going to be okay Leah. He's already taking all of this really well considering all he's just learned and I know he'll be okay. Just give us a chance to talk about everything and let me answer all of the questions that he doesn't want to ask in front of all of you okay? I've known Danny for a very long time. It's going to be fine, okay?" She nodded weakly.
Next I turned to the room and addressed everyone else. "Okay, I'm probably going to take him to the valley, just because it's a nice private relaxing place to talk. I know you'll send security, but here's my suggestion. First of all, no wolves…he needs to be able to talk about all the things he's feeling and going through and he deserves to work thorough that without it being shared across the pack mind." Seth and Jake nodded although I could tell that Seth didn't like the idea of not being nearby. "Secondly, no Edward, Alice, or Jasper for essentially the same reasons…and we probably need Alice to be here in case of emergency. Finally, whoever does follow us; I want you out of hearing range for our voices. I'll have my emergency whistle with me so if we do end up needing you I can let you know and you'll be close enough to come help, but yet we can still speak in private. Is this okay with everybody?" I looked around for anybody to disagree. Satisfied that everyone was in agreement, I walked over to Seth giving him a hug and a kiss and turned back to rub Leah's arm to comfort her again before turning to run out the back door to join Danny.
Thirty-five minutes later we were sitting on the retaining wall looking out over the valley with the food and water bottles laid out between us on the wall.
"Wow, beautiful view." Danny commented barely above a whisper.
"Yeah, this is my favorite place to spend time around here." I responded at the same volume before taking a big drink of my water.
"So, you lead a pretty interesting life huh?" I nodded weakly.
"How long have you known?"
"They adopted me when I was four and I knew pretty much right away. The only ones I would allow to touch me were Jake, Nessie, and Edward."
"I just can't wrap my head around it. Edward and Bella are Nessie's parents? Nessie just turned seventeen in September? Jake's actually thirty-four and Edward is over one hundred years old? And Jake turns into a giant wolf? It's like I'm going to wake up from a dream in a few minutes and totally laugh at myself all day for the weird things that I managed to make up in my head or something."
I laughed, "Well Dan, I hate to tell you this, but there won't be any waking up from this one. It's a lot to take in, I know. If I hadn't grown up with it, I'd probably not be able to process it myself."
"But how does it work, don't vampires kill humans?"
"Most do, they have a bloodlust and human blood is the most delicious for them, but my vamps are 'vegetarians'," I answered using air quotes, "they only hunt animals, which is why their eyes have that topaz hue."
"So, if they want human blood so much, how were they able to live with you in the house all the time?"
"Honestly I don't know how they did it. From what I've been told the smell of human blood makes their throat burn and constantly tempts them, but they claim that even though it was hard at first, eventually they didn't feel it anymore around me. Like they became immune over time thanks to their love for me or something." I shrugged not really understanding it all myself.
"Wow, well that's cool." He frowned for a minute running his hands through his hair again before sighing and looking at me again. "Okay, so your family is full of vampires who don't age and drink animal blood instead of human blood right?" I nodded before he continued, "And Nessie is some kind of vampire human hybrid?" I nodded again. "Who is pregnant with Jake's baby, and Jake, Seth, and Leah are all werewolves?"
"Well, technically they're more shape shifters. They aren't confined by the phases of the moon and are far more civilized than the actual children of the moon."
"So there are real werewolves like in the movies besides what Jake, Seth, and Leah are?" I nodded again as his eyes grew wide and he took in a deep breath. He swallowed with a loud gulp before continuing on.
"Okay, So the non Moon werewolves."
"I just refer to them as wolves myself to keep life slightly more simple." I interrupted.
"Okay, so the wolves, they can change whenever they want to or when they're really upset." I nodded. "And they are protectors of humans designed to keep them safe from vampires?"
I smiled and patted his shoulder comfortingly. "You really do have a better grasp on everything than you think. That's exactly right."
"So how come they are all chummy with the Cullen's?"
"They weren't originally, but thanks to my family's, um, dietary choices…and facing some common foes they eventually learned to work together, then when Jake imprinted on Nessie, it sealed the friendship because it's sort of an unwritten imperative that the pack could never do anything to hurt a member's imprint because it would destroy the pack member and ultimately the pack."
"So there are more out there besides Jake, Seth, and Leah?"
"Oh yeah, back on the reservation there is a rather large pack that is still growing actually I think last I heard they were back up to eighteen."
"And they don't age either? Jake still looks like he's in his early twenties."
"They don't age as long as they continue to phase, but once they give up their wolf form they will age normally again. Jake is going to keep phasing so he can stay with Nessie. Since she's half vamp she's not going to age any more beyond the age she appears to be now."
"So will Leah stay this age or will she grow older eventually too?"
"It all depends on her. She's been so unhappy throughout all of these years. None of the wolves chose this, but she's always had an especially rough burden thanks to all of this. First she lost her first love when he imprinted on her cousin and then shortly after that she became the first and so far only female to ever phase and since she tends to have a wee bit of a temper, she's never really been able to completely let go of the wolf inside her. She's held onto many years of pain and resentment over it all and she's been so sad and lonely. That's why I was so pleased when she imprinted on you because I know that you are a good guy and I can't think of anybody else who would treat her better and help her to learn to trust again. Seth says that since she's been with you, she's been happier than he's seen her in over eighteen years. This imprinting thing is major; you don't even know how much you mean to her. I can tell she loves you very much already."
"I love her too. I know it's crazy to say that after only knowing her for such a short amount of time, but I do. I think I started to fall for her the first minute I saw her, and then it didn't take very long at all before I was completely head over heels."
I smiled at him and hugged him around the shoulders. "I'm so happy for you Danny. Seriously, I love you and I love Leah and I know that you guys can have something totally amazing together if you can learn to accept the oddities of our lives."
Danny smiled at me for a little bit and then frowned slightly, "So then you and Seth, did you two go through this whole imprinting thing too then?"
I nodded as I reached over and picked up one of the apples that he had grabbed for us to snack on and spun it by its stem, "Yeah, but it was a lot simpler with us because well I already knew about the whole thing. I didn't have to struggle to accept it as reality because I've seen it all develop between Nessie and Jake. Actually, believe it or not, we fell in love first via phone calls and web chats, and since all he'd ever heard was that seeing a person's face led to imprinting, Seth thought that he would have imprinted on me from seeing my pictures and face on the web cam and since he didn't that it wouldn't happen, but then the first time he saw me in person it happened and we've been inseparable ever since."
He smiled at me warmly, "Well of course he fell in love with you first Leeny. You're an amazing girl. I find it hard to believe that you haven't had more guys falling all over you all of these years, but I'm glad that you found a good one early on. I wouldn't have liked to see you get hurt from kissing a bunch of frogs before finding your prince."
I smiled back, "Yes, I did find my prince, the question is do you think you can handle being Leah's?"
He ran his fingers through his hair again letting out a small groan, "I want to be Leeny, I really do. She's amazing! She's beautiful, smart, witty, and utterly unique. She's everything I ever wanted in a girl and I'm crazy about her, but all of this mystical stuff, it's just SO MUCH."
I put my arm across his shoulders and pulled him into a side hug before I looked over at him and smiled. "It sounds to me like you already have your answer though. Can you honestly say that now that you found her you can just let her go?" His eyes got wide as he shook his head no.
"The rest of it is all just shock, but the most important part is the fact that you love her and you can't see your life without her, right?" He nodded his head as he gulped.
"Then what the heck are you waiting for? You know she's going crazy worrying about what we're talking about and that you're going to break her heart."
He looked out over the valley for a second before his back straightened a bit before he stood up and turned to face me offering me his hand. "Well what are you waiting for then kid? Take me back to my girl."
I shot him a crooked smile as I jumped up and ran over to the car sliding behind the wheel and slamming the car into reverse and then speed shifting through the gears to get home as quickly as possible. I had to drive very cautiously on our way out to the valley in an attempt to not freak him out any more than he already was. He tensed a little in the seat next to me before I explained that this was normal for me and I was a very competent driver. He seemed to relax a little after that, but his leg began to bounce steadily the closer we got to the homestead.
As soon as I got the car stopped Danny was out of the passenger door and running up to the house. I followed closely behind and walked in just as he took the last step that closed the space between Leah and himself and pulled her into a passionate kiss.
"I love you Leah. You are everything I ever wanted in a girl. Basically you're my dream girl and honestly I don't care about all the other stuff. I just want to be with you. We'll figure the rest of it out as we go."
Leah melted into his arms as tears flowed down her face. "I love you too," she whispered just barely loud enough that I could hear from my place by the front door.
Seth crossed over to me and stood behind me wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder. "Thank you," he whispered into my ear before placing a kiss on my cheek and then returning his gaze back to Leah and Danny.
I smiled and sighed as I watched Danny lovingly stroke her hair and whisper comforting things in her ear for a second before motioning that we should all give them some privacy. Seth and I turned to walk out the front door and make our way to our house when I heard Leah's voice behind me. I turned to look and she was standing behind me with a warm smile on her tear stained face that reached all the way up and twinkled in her eyes.
"Thank you Lina. I don't know if I can ever thank you enough."
She pulled me into a hug and when she let go I shrugged and smiled, "That's what sisters are for," I replied with a wink. She grabbed me again hugging me even harder and when she let go Seth and I left to walk to our property and instead of going inside the house we sat on the front porch swing and rocked together holding hands and watching the animals run and play amongst the trees.
"So, how is he doing?" Seth finally asked.
"He's struggling with the supernatural aspects of it all, but he really does love her. I think they're going to be just fine. They go back home in a few days and that's going to be when things will really get interesting for them. I have no doubt that they will figure it out though. I have faith." I whispered smiling up at him beside me. He looked back down at me and leaned over to give me a peck on the lips. I knew I was going to miss Leah, but I was so glad that she was going to be able to face going back home with a new hope. Her life had changed tremendously during her month with us and I sincerely hoped that it would be the final thing she needed to complete her life and make it what she really wanted it to be. Of all of the people in this world for her to possibly imprint on, I knew that she hit the lottery with Danny and once he got past his shock he would do everything in his power to make her happy too.
A few days later they flew back to the west coast together. I found myself crying as I watched them walk through the metal detectors and disappear from view still walking hand in hand. I smiled through my tears knowing that they really would be okay. Leah was going back to Portland with Danny for the work week so that he could get caught up on what he had missed at the office during his extended vacation and so she could meet his family and then the next weekend they were planning on going to La Push to introduce Danny to Sue, Charlie, and the pack. I had a sneaking suspicion that before too very long Leah would be making the move to Portland permanent. After all, what wolf could bear to be away from their imprint for any extended period of time?
I turned and smiled at Seth when I saw that he had tears in his eyes too. He looked down and smiled at me looking so incredibly happy. Finally all of the pieces of his life were fully aligned for the first time in eighteen years. I reached up and hugged him around the neck and he pulled me tightly against his warm body.
"Now life is perfect." He whispered in my ear. I kissed his cheek before taking his hand and leading him back toward the parking lot to find his car and make our way back home alone.
Author's Note: I am so excited guys…You are all such dedicated reviewers that I already have nearly half the total number of reviews for this story as I had for all of In The Shadow of the Day and I've only posted ten chapters so far! You guys rock!
This brings me to the next thing that I want to start doing. I saw this on another author's fanfic and thought it would be cool to do here too…although she was doing it for the 100th, 150th, 200th etc. reviewer as incentive for people to review. I don't care to try to bribe or ransom your reviews, so instead I'll just highlight my regulars. You guys are so great about supporting me that I want to send a shout out to all of you who keep coming back for more and reviewing for me providing me with feedback and encouragement. I'll pick one special repeat reviewer that have their own stories to be checked out every few chapters that I will have added to my favorite author's list and tell you guys a little about them and if you get some spare time, please do them a solid and go check out their works too.
So my very first featured reviewer is actually the wonderful lady who I met on twilightmoms .com and encouraged me to post what I had so far on ITSOTD and was my very first reviewer: Unofficial Cullen, aka Ness. She's a very creative writer who has two stories. They are both AU, the first being an all human that is focused around high school chorus with original characters and pairings. The second story is one of my favorites: Something Other. Bella is a tough as nails member of the Quileute tribe who is very special and Edward is inexplicably drawn to her. This time it's no longer the lion falling for the lamb, but now the lion falls for "something other". She also has a great one shot called Edward's Wish. Please take some time to check her out on my favorite Author's list and show her stories a little love!
Thanks again guys! I hope you like the chapter and thanks I advance for reviewing!
P.S. I just got a review that let me know I wasn't clear enough in the author's note above....If you want to read the stories posted by my featured reviewer, please go to my profile by clicking on my pen name link at the top of the page and then click on my favorite author's tab. Any featured reviewer will be on my favorite author's list so that you can go to their profile and link to thier stories from there. This way I won't have to clutter my profile with even MORE links and it gets them on a favorite author's list as well :D
