All characters except for Annabelle Causley and Frederick Randal Laskaris and a few others belong to Stephenie Meyer…and, of course, the writer is not receiving any profit for this story whatsoever.

This story starts three years after Jacob heads to Italy to rescue Annabelle in the GoodAs Gone AU. Technically, this is not a sequel to Good As Gone but it does take place in that alternate storyline.

Chapter Eleven

"Leah!"

"Mama, you sound as if we haven't talked in years," Leah chuckled as she kept her eyes on the horizon, leaning against the brick wall.

"It's been two weeks. Don't ever take that long to call me, you hear?"

"Yes ma'am. I was planning to call you when I got a room for the night in Hammond, Indiana but there wasn't a phone in my room or a public phone anywhere else I could see."

"Where are you now?"

"I'm in Michigan City. I decided to take a little detour and check out Lake Michigan. I've never seen that much still water. Just looking at it makes me realize that I miss the beach."

"Are you looking at Lake Michigan right now? Are you taking pictures of these places for me?"

"Yes, mama, I am. I'm actually on my fourth disposable camera. I'll mail them when I finish the trip," Leah pushed her hair back, shivering at the cold air.

"Where are you heading next?"

"I don't know yet…I've got two choices…continue on into Ohio or head up to Ontario."

"Canada?"

"Yup. I was remembering some of Jacob's memories of Canada…I thought it would be neat to see it for myself…get you some pictures."

"Well, sweetheart, just promise me you won't go more than two days without calling me."

"I promise."

"So do you have to go soon?"

"Yeah, actually, I do. It's really cold out here."

"Well, sweetie, I'll tell your brother you called. Anyone else you would like me to give a message to?"

"Yes, actually," Leah smiled as she teased her mother, "Tell Charlie that he better watch his step around you."

"Oh Seth…I should have known he would tell you about that. It doesn't bother you, does it?"

"No mama, it doesn't. Charlie's a nice guy. Steady and dependable…definitely someone that can look after you while I'm away," Leah bit her lip as she turned her back to the lake, huddling closer to the phone box, "Mama…"

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Have you seen them?"

"Yes, I have…they look like Sam…and they are so small they almost don't look real."

"Oh…" Leah's breath hitched as she wiped away a tear, "What…what did they name them?"

"Bailey and Bradley."

"Oh," Leah pressed her hand against her chest, her breathing getting hectic "I gotta go mama."

"Leah?"

"Yes?"

"I love you…and I'm praying for you."

"Thank you mama. I love you too."

"One more thing."

"Yes?"

"Go to Canada."


Leah knew she was driving recklessly but she couldn't seem to help it. For her, reckless equaled a possible loss of control which equaled a clear conscious if something happened to her. Taking a sharp turn, she saw the sign that would lead her through customs and into Canada. Good thing she had thought of grabbing her passport.

He had named them Bradley and Bailey…funny how those names brought back memories she had succeeded in keeping at bay for the past two days…

"Where are you taking me?"

"It's a surprise."

"Sam," Leah looked over at him, a smile on her face, "You know I don't like surprises."

"You love surprises, you little liar," Sam grinned at her as he took her hand, "Have I mentioned that you look beautiful?"

"Well, since you said it was formal, I put a little more effort into my look," Leah looked down at her deep red knee length dress, her hand reaching up to adjust the three thin straps on one shoulder than held the dress in place, "I borrowed the dress from Meredith because I didn't have anything good enough for a formal date."

"Well, you'll have to get one for prom, won't you?"

"Sam," Leah grimaced at him, "If I wasn't willing to go to your prom and preferred for us to do something else, what makes you think I would want to go to my prom? I think, once again, I'd rather we just did something together instead."

"We'll see about that."

"So where are we going?"

"Still not telling you."

A half hour later, he pulled into the parking lot of Little Italia, Leah's favorite restaurant in Port Angeles. Laughing at the look of joy on her face, Sam got out of the car and walked around to open her door, helping her out of the car as he sneaked a peak at her long tanned legs in red high heels.

"Stop ogling my legs and let's go eat," Leah closed the door behind her as she reached up to kiss him, "I love this place. Thank you."

"You are welcome."

Sam had reserved a private table for two with a view of the docks. They watched the boats coming in and going out as they talked about school, friends and parents.

"Good evening, my name's Bailey and I will be your waitress for tonight," a tall slender brunette stood by the table, giving Sam an appreciative look, "What can I get you to drink?"

Sam smiled at Leah as he took her hand, "Iced tea for her and I'll have water, for now."

"Here are your menus and I will come back with your drinks," she gave him a smile before turning to walk away.

"Ugh," Leah scrunched up her nose, "Was she flirting with you?"

Sam shrugged as he played with the fingers of her left hand, "I don't care enough to notice."

"What kind of a name is Bailey?"

"I think it's pretty," Sam smiled into her wide eyes, "Not as beautiful as yours, though. Leah. It sounds like poetry."

"If we have a daughter, promise me you won't name her Bailey," Leah looked into his eyes before looking out the window.

"Well, believe it or not, Bailey was one of my favorite girl names back when I was a kid, before I got my Leah, that is. And although I told myself back then that if I ever have a daughter, I would name her Bailey, I promise you that I will not name our daughter Bailey."

"Thank you," Leah grinned at him as she squeezed his hand, "Did you have a boy's name picked out?"

"Well," Sam couldn't help blushing because he knew he was such a nerd having names picked out for his children, "I thought that if I had a boy and a girl, I could name them Bradley and Bailey."

"Oh, those poor children," Leah laughed as she reached out to brush her hand across his hot cheek, "I'm so sorry sweetheart but with names like that, they are bound to get picked on a lot growing up."

"Well, what are your names of choice," Sam frowned at her, his eyebrows lowering over his eyes, "Since my choice of names has a lot to be desired, obviously."

"Well…I haven't exactly thought of names for future children of mine…but something like Grace for a girl would be beautiful…and maybe Nathan for a boy."

"Grace…Gracie for when she's little. And Nathan…Nate for short. I must admit, those are good names. Fine, you can name our children."

"Tell you what," Leah cocked her head to the side, a look of tenderness evident on her brown-green eyes, "You can name the first child and I'll name the second one."

"What if the first one's a girl? You already made me promise not to name our daughter Bailey."

"That is one promise I will let you break."

"Are you two ready to order?"

"Yes," Sam smiled at Leah before turning to look at Bailey, "I will have the chicken parmesan and my fiancée will have the shrimp primavera."

"Oh," the waitress gave Leah a quick look before turning back to Sam, her smile polite and professional, "I'll have those out as soon as they are ready."

Leah's shoulders shook with silent laughter as Bailey walked away, "You sure put her in her place. At least she saved her tip from getting cut in half."

Leah handed the border patrol officer her passport, waiting for him to do his thing inside the little tollbooth.

"Where are you headed to, Miss Clearwater," the officer bent down to look into the car, his blue eyes showing obvious interest, although Leah couldn't understand why since she knew she looked a mess. She always looked a mess after crying, which was followed by getting sick on the side of the road before reaching the border.

"To Toronto, Officer."

"Is that your final destination?"

"No sir. I'll be spending a day or two there before heading to Montreal."

"Alright," the officer handed the passport back, "You enjoy your stay in Canada."

"Thank you."

Sam wrapped his arm around Leah as they walked down the docks, the moon high up in the sky.

"It's a wishing moon," Leah murmured, her eyes on the sky as they stopped by one of the piers.

"Well, it's got a night off tonight because I have everything I could wish for right here in my arms," Sam wrapped both arms around her, kissing her forehead before dipping his head to kiss her lips.

They stood there for a few minutes, simply enjoying the kiss as it deepened. The air around them was charged with excitement and energy and they couldn't help but move closer to each other.

"I have something for you," he whispered into her ear, sliding his hands under the jacket he had placed around her shoulders to keep her warm, "It's in my left jacket pocket."

Leah smiled as he moved his mouth over hers, sliding her hand into the pocket of his jacket, her fingers closing over a small velvet box. Pulling it out, she pulled away to look at the dark blue ring box in the middle of her hand.

"Sam," she gasped as her eyes swung to his, "I thought we agreed to save our money for the little house."

"I didn't spend any money," Sam took the box from her and opened it, taking out a simple, yet beautiful, platinum solitaire, the diamond winking in the moonlight, "I told my mom about the decision of not getting you a ring and she gave me this one. It's the one dad gave her."

"It's beautiful," Leah smiled up at him as he took it out of the box, taking her left hand and sliding it onto her ring finger, "And it's a perfect fit."

"Because we're meant to be."

Leah laughed as she threw her arms around his neck, "Oh Sam! Have I ever told you how delightfully corny you can be sometimes?"

Canada was, well…something else for sure. A whole lot of nothing, really. Leah couldn't understand why Jacob had such fond memories of this country…maybe she was on the wrong part of Canada.

She reached for the knob on the radio, switching radio stations until she found one with somewhat decent music. She knew she should eventually stop and rest but for some strange reason, she was feeling very reckless and that included driving while exhausted…which she heard was the equivalent of driving while drunk.

Who knows? Maybe some eighteen wheeler could come around the bend and sweep her off the road, end her miserable existence. She had only tried killing herself once before…it hadn't worked well. What that did to her parents had stopped her from trying again. And after she became a werewolf, well, there was no point when she healed that fast.

"Sam, you remember my cousin Emily Young, right?"

Sam looked into a pair of doe brown eyes and smiled, briefly noticing that she was beautiful with her dark skin and long black hair, "Yes, I do."

"Briefly, I bet," Emily smiled at him as he placed his arm around Leah's shoulder, "Last time I was here, you stared at Leah all the time. Looks like you've gotten used to having her next to you."

"Well, that's because I know that this is where she belongs –next to me," Sam smiled down at Leah before kissing her forehead, "Anyway, Leah's told me that you've been a great help with planning the wedding. I want to thank you for that. What with us doing school and such, it's hard to plan a wedding without help."

"It's no problem," Emily blushed prettily as she shuffled her feet, "Leah knows what she wants and you seem to agree with everything she says, so that helps the planning go much faster."

Sam laughed before he hugged Leah, "I gotta go Lee-lee. I have a late night study group up in Port Angeles. I'll be spending the night there with some of the guys from my class. I'll call you tomorrow morning when I head back."

"Okay," Leah smiled at him as he leaned down and kissed her, briefly suckling her bottom lip before pulling back and walking out of the Clearwater's house, looking over his shoulder at Leah, a smile on his face that made her heart take flight…again.

"Earth to Leah."

"Oh, sorry." Leah looked into the amused eyes of her cousin, "Were you saying something?"

"Just that you are one lucky gal. That boy absolutely adores you."

"I know," Leah smiled gleefully before returning to the kitchen table, which was covered with magazines, notebooks, paper, and fabric, "You couldn't stop looking at him."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. He is beautiful to look at. Plus, I know you wouldn't do anything to get him away from me."

"Of course not," Emily sat on the chair opposite Leah, reaching for her notebook and pen, "So have you and Sam decided on the invitations? We need to get them mailed in a month."

"Yes," Leah pulled out the magazine she had marked, "We decided on these. And we wrote down what we wanted them to say. Let me see…here it is."

"These are beautiful, Lee. I'll go ahead and send in the order. It should take a week or two for them to get done unless you want to pay extra for a rush order."

"Rush order them, just incase. Daddy won't mind the extra expense," Leah pushed her hair behind her ears, "I was thinking we can go shopping for my dress next weekend. What do you think?"

"Wonderful! Is Aunt Sue going to come?" Emily moved magazines until she located the one she wanted.

"Yes, and so are Sadie and Meredith. Have you found a dress for the bridesmaids that you liked?"

"Yes," Emily pointed at the picture, "This one. What do you think?"

"I think that if you were the one getting married, I would love wearing that dress."

They both laughed as they continued working on wedding plans, well aware that eventually Leah would have to break away to do homework but they couldn't help enjoying their time together. It had been a while since they've spent so much time just hanging out and getting to know each other all over again.

Leah sighed as a song about heartbreak and lost love ended, a growl in her throat as another one about glory of first love began.

"Music nowadays is nothing but sentimental crap," she muttered, jumping slightly at the sound of her own voice. It had been two days since she last talked to her mother and it seemed like she was not used to the sound of her own voice anymore.

She was sixty-five miles outside of Toronto, wanting nothing more than to find a motel to crash in. She was so exhausted she was seeing double lanes on the road…at least she thought she was seeing double because it didn't make sense as to why a highway out in the middle of nowhere Canada would have four lanes.

Cussing as she pulled to the side of the road, she couldn't help but admit that she needed to sleep. Although she wouldn't mind being run off the road by another driver, she couldn't break her promise to her father to never try ending her life again. And driving this exhausted…that's exactly what she was doing. Locking the doors and lowering the windows just enough to get fresh air, she unbuckled her seat belt and leaned her seat back, closing her aching eyes, a sigh escaping her as she wiggled around, trying to find a comfortable spot for her numb bottom.

"Hello Mrs. Uley, is Sam there?"

"How many times have I told you to call me Linda, Leah? And no, he's not. He left two hours ago to pick you up for prom."

"Oh."

"He hasn't gotten there yet?"

"No he hasn't, that's why I called. I thought maybe he'd gotten sick and hadn't been able to call me. He's been running a fever for the past few weeks."

"I'll head out towards your house and see if I find him…maybe he got sick on the side of the road."

"Thank you Mrs. –Linda. I'll head out and meet you in the middle. I'm sure we'll find him."

Leah hung up the phone, her stomach queasy with worry as she ran up the stairs to her room, quickly taking off the peach colored prom dress she had bought with Sadie, Meredith and Emily a month ago. She was close to hyperventilating by the time she had pulled on jeans and a t-shirt that belonged to Sam, shoving her feet into her tennis shoes without bothering with socks.

Running downstairs, she grabbed the car keys, calling over her shoulder at her confused parents, "I'm going to go look for Sam."

Several miles down the road away from her house and towards his, she hit the breaks, her headlights illuminating Sam's blue Honda on the side of the road, the driver side door opened, the headlights still on. Turning her car off, she quickly got out and ran to the car.

"Sam! Sam!"

Her heart gave a jump of relief to find the car empty but it started beating hard as she noticed black scraps of cloth on the seat and on the pavement. Looking closer, she realized that the scraps were what should have been the rented tuxedo she had helped him pick out last week for this night's events.

Reaching down to the floorboard, she pulled out what she thought could be one of his black loafers. Her breath stuck on her throat, she looked around for blood but even though she noticed markings of what was obviously a large and wild animal, she didn't find any.

Headlights coming from Sam's house swung around the corner, blinding her as the car came to a stop several feet away from the car.

"Leah?"

"Linda," Leah gasped as she leaned against the car, her breathing labored as tears rolled down her face and sobs chocked her, "Sam's not here. Something, some large animal…his clothes are shredded…there are claw markings on the door…"

"I'm going to call Charlie," Linda rushed back to her car, pulling a cell phone she only used for emergencies out of her purse and quickly dialing the number.

Leah pushed herself away from the car, looking around to see if there were other markings…perhaps signs of Sam being dragged away…she couldn't breathe as she stumbled across the street towards the forest that bordered the road, still holding what was left of Sam's shoe in her hand against her chest.

"Sam," she sobbed out, her breath hitching, "Sam!"

"Leah, no!" Linda shouted as she ran across the street and grabbed Leah by the arm, pulling her away from the forest line, "Charlie's on his way. He said he would call the Forest Rangers to come help. We'll find him."

"Oh God," Leah collapsed onto her knees, clutching tightly at that torn up shoe, "What if something's happened to him? What if he's hurt? What if –"

"Leah, you can't think like that. We will find him. He's going to be okay," Linda place her arm around Leah, scared at how hard she was shaking. It soon became apparent that Leah was having a hard time breathing, her crying causing her to choke. Pulling out her cell phone again, she dialed the Clearwater's number just as she saw the flashing lights of Forks' Chief of Police.

"Hello?"

"Sue, this is Linda Uley. I'm on the road bordered by the forest. We found Sam's car but he's nowhere in sight. Charlie just arrived but Leah's not doing well. I'm calling the ambulance. I thought I'd let you know."

"Oh God! Linda, we're on our way. We'll meet you at the hospital. Please don't leave her alone."

"I won't," Linda ended the call, about to dial for an ambulance when she heard the far off siren. Turning to look at a concerned Charlie, she sighed with relief when he looked away from the car towards her.

"I thought it would be a good idea to have the paramedics nearby, just in case. You go ahead and go with Leah. I'll have a deputy drop off your cars and the Forest Rangers will get here in about ten minutes. We'll find him, Linda."

"I can't –I can't –" Leah moaned as Linda tried to get her to stand up, doubling over and vomiting, her hair falling from its up-do due to the force of her retching. She fell to her knees just as the ambulance stopped, the paramedics jumping out and running towards Leah, quickly assessing the situation.

"She's going into shock," David called out just as he turned to run back to the emergency vehicle, opening the back doors and pulling out the gurney, piling blankets on top and raising it before pulling it towards Leah and his partner, Keith, who was helping Leah lean back, coaching her breathing.

They quickly transferred her to the gurney, covering her with blankets. Leah turned to the side and threw up again, weakly fighting the hands that held her in the gurney when she tried to get out.

"Sam!" Her tears chocked her and she coughed hard, her body shaking uncontrollably, "Please…I have to find him. Please."

"Charlie's going to be looking for him, Leah," Linda took her hand, shocked at how cold Leah's skin was, feeling worried at the ashen look of her face, "He and the Forest Rangers will find him."

"Please…Sam."

Leah's eyes rolled back into her head as she blacked out, no longer aware of what was happening around her.