25. Charity queen

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer or Charlaine Harris - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their Gods.

Leah turned out to have extraordinary skills in the charity world. She started with the Quileute and then she branched out into other aid organisations. La Push got new equipment for the medical centre and then eventually a whole new medical centre. Then they built a new marina. The marina brought in better boats and that brought in more tourists and that lifted everyone in the town. More tourists meant more income for everyone. More shops opened and then cafés and kiosks. And more accommodation places followed. And they all employed local people as workers and guides. The money stayed in the community.

The medical centre was probably self interest. She had asked Alcide to let her give birth on the tribal land so that their children would be Quileute. He had his doubts after he checked the medical centre and they had almost fought about it, until she came up with the solution of building a new one. Or getting the old one all the equipment it needed. Or both.

He apologised for arguing with her. She understood that he was just terrified of losing her or their babies. Twins were tricky; there were often a lot of birth complications with twins and their survival rate was lower than that of single babies too. She knew he was just worried.

Alcide's sister Janice became one of her best friends. She had two kids of her own. And she became Leah's go to person for pregnancy advice. She knew of their dual natures. That was unusual in were families, often the eldest had to keep their real nature a secret from their own siblings. Leah could not imagine having to do such a thing. She was lucky, in one sense, the pack was respected and honoured amongst the tribal members who knew of it.

Janice also listened with great patience when Leah wanted to whine about how protective Alcide was being.

Jake organised clean-up days for the whole neighbourhood. La Push needed some cleaning up. They towed away some of the junk. The pack was tirelessly efficient at collecting garbage. A pack member would show up and mow your lawn, or fix that broken window or offer to take that old refrigerator to the dump for you.

Some of the pack argued they were behaving just like glorified Boy Scouts but most of them loved their community and wanted it to be the best it could be. The community paid the pack a stipend and they earnt it. And besides, if the alpha ordered it, it had to be done.

The community became proud of the boys and men that had scared half of them a year ago. Some people, like drug dealers were still scared of them and they left or were encouraged to go.

After the Tsunami in Japan, there was a concerted effort to shift some of the tribe's more valuable and important buildings and records to higher ground. The whole wolf legend started with a flood so large, they could tie their canoes to the treetops and the current reservation would be destroyed by another such wave now.

[AN: this is a real charity and a real issue. Google US congress bill HR 1162 if you want to find out how to help.

H.R. 1162: To provide the Quileute Indian Tribe Tsunami and Flood Protection, because...they are a very, very small voice in the wilderness. ]

She ended up on various boards and committees; all of which paid her substantial sums for the privilege.

She had acquired a confidence in herself that made her a fabulous chairperson. She would listen patiently, let everyone have their say. But she was commanding enough to cut it short if people were wasting their time, or waffling on endlessly and saying the same thing in three different ways. She pushed boards through more work in less time. Most of the boards didn't know what had hit them.

She could talk people at charity balls into pulling out their chequebooks.

She made impassioned speeches about living an underprivileged life. She stood there, pregnant and glowing with health and spoke about child mortality death rates in low income areas.

She would be a fabulous spokesperson for the Weres if and when they decided to reveal their true identity. Alcide had an idea to use Patricia, one of the wolves from the other faction that had been absorbed into his pack after the faction war. She was brunette and pretty as a picture and didn't look anything like a werewolf. She was perky enough to sell used cars and she had a face for television. So if they used her as the demonstration model; asked her to shift on live television, she would be so pretty that they would be distracted. And if went wrong and someone killed her, well… she was the new girl.

Alcide had to bite his tongue more than once when he felt Leah was too close to a man. It would not do for him to literally rip the guys head off when all she was trying to do was get more money out of them. But he growled a few times as she patted some guy's arm. And she knew it. She would give him the eye across the room and he would know she was going home with him.

It made him want to possess her all over again. It made him want that ring on his finger. She had been digging her heels in about the wedding. He suspected that she was having a rare moment of vanity and wanted to be thin; not pregnant. He stepped up the 'marry me' campaign by assuring her that pregnant she was the hottest thing on the planet. He wasn't lying about that. And he tried to convince her that his conservative family would prefer the children born in wedlock. Even if she was large with his children at the time of the ceremony.

Alcide looked particularly nervous one night and not happy about it.

"What is the matter?" Leah asked.

"I have to take you to meet the Sherriff of area five, that's Shreveport."

"Sherriff?"

"Vampire sherriff… Eric Northman. Sookie's Eric. He wants us to meet him at Fangtasia, his bar."

She blinked. "And you are worried about me."

He was pacing frenetically. "Yes," he growled out. "I don't want you on his territory and I don't want you anywhere near him. He is unhappy enough that I have kept you away from him this long."

"Tell him I'm not old enough," she suggested. "To be in a bar."

He stopped and then he laughed out loud. "You are so smart."

"Where would you be happy to meet him? We have to do it. He is powerful, you said."

"Sookie's house? I still haven't managed to show you the old house I bought either," he looked suddenly eager. "And I want to."

"Perfect." She smiled at him.

He pulled out his phone and had a quick conversation. "He agrees that having an underage woman in a vampire bar would be a very bad idea. They have to be extra careful. Can't afford to put a foot wrong with the authorities. No feeding on humans on the premises. So it's Sookie's tomorrow night."

"Eww… seriously? People want to do that?"

"Yep. They call them fang-bangers. They're like vampire groupies."

She laughed and then grabbed her stomach. "Ouch. Don't make me laugh, they kick me back."

"Atta boys," he crowed.

"Humph. They might not be boys, you know."

"And you know I don't care either way." They beamed at each other.

The car trip to Shreveport was quiet. Leah preferred to use his truck and it was what he was most comfortable in. They had to go after dark of course. They timed the trip so that it would be just sundown when they arrived.

"How old is he? This Eric guy."

Alcide glanced at her. "He's ancient. More than a thousand years old. Their pecking order works on age, so he is powerful. He is also cunning and very, very smart. I think he used to be a Viking."

"Whoa… that is seriously old."

They turned off the narrow parish road into a driveway. It had been recently refinished and the drive was smooth. The drive continued through some woods and then arrived at a clearing in which a large wooden house stood. It was painted white with a tin roof. Its broad front was covered by a screened in porch.

"Now that's a family home," commented Leah.

"Sure is. Her great-great-great grandfather built it."

A security light came on as they approached the back door. "Sookie? Where you at?" Alcide called out.

"Hey y'all," a tiny woman shouted out to them. She had a strong southern accent.

"Sookie," Alcide called. "This here is my Leah."

She opened the back screen door and met them out in the yard.

"Oh well look it at you. Alcide, you didn't tell me she was bearing?" she chided him and smacked him playfully in the shoulder.

She just rushed up and grabbed Leah's hands. Leah was a little flustered.

"Oh wow. Twins, that's wonderful!"

Of course. Leah had momentarily forgotten her ability to read minds. She glanced at Alcide and he shrugged.

"You get used to it," he said. "Yes, twins. We are very excited. Where's Eric?" he asked her.

"He should just be getting up. I left him some nicely warmed Trueblood in the kitchen for him. It's polite to warm it a little in the microwave for them… body temperature 'n all," she explained for Leah who was looking a combination of off put and clueless. "You come inside now."

The vampire was standing in the kitchen. He was blond, blue-eyed, tall and broad shouldered. His hair was long, straight and parted in the centre and hung below his shoulder level. He was wearing boots, jeans and a vest, period. He looked every inch the Viking he had clearly been a long time ago.

Leah could get a better look at Sookie now in the light. The tiny blond woman standing next to him glowed with good health. She had an even tan. She was also blue eyed and maybe twenty five. It was hard to tell. She had a tiny waist but made up for it in the bust line. She was wearing a white sundress with bright red flowers printed on the fabric and red shoes. The white dress showed off her tan to its best advantage.

They made a striking couple.

Alcide stopped some distance from Eric and bowed his head. "Eric," he stated formally. "This is Leah Clearwater."

"Alcide."

No hand shaking she noticed.

Eric studied Leah as if he was counting her eyelashes. She found it seriously unnerving. She was trying desperately hard not to growl at him. She knew he had influence over Alcide somehow.

"Where did you find such a specimen?" the vampire asked.

"Pacific Northwest. She is Quileute. Their tribe are shifters who take the form of wolves."

"Not for a long time, I believe…" he studied her again. "Maybe three generations…" He lifted his eyebrows as if that had been a question and Leah had missed it.

"That's right. You've heard of us?" she asked.

"Large wolves," stated Eric.

"Yes." And then just because she couldn't resist, "And we hunt vampires."

Alcide made a small movement; like a nervous twitch.

Eric looked at her and then he laughed. "And let me guess… you have a problem with that now… in polite society?" he sounded sarcastic.

"Yes, I do," she admitted. She assumed the vampire could tell if she was lying, but she could feel Alcide almost twitching again.

Eric smiled; his fangs showed when he smiled. He still had blood on his teeth from the Trueblood bottle he held in his hand. "As do I," he stated then he drained the bottle and placed it on the sink. He turned and hugged Sookie. "Lover, I need to be at Fangtasia tonight. You will call me later." He kissed her goodbye so thoroughly Leah felt like they ought to leave the room. She met Alcide's gaze. He frowned at her. She was misbehaving again.

Eric deposited Sookie back on her feet. "Alcide, Leah," he nodded his head at each of them and then he strode out the back door.

"No car," Leah spoke without thinking.

"Oh Eric can fly," said Sookie.

"Flaah?" repeated Leah.

"Fly," Alcide stated.

"What the fuck?" Leah blurted out.

"They can't all fly," Sookie prattled on. "Just like not all people can sing or tap dance… it's a special skill… I mean, it don't seem fair, what with all the other skills most vampires have… but then I lie on my chaise longue in the sun and I thank God for being human you know?"

"Amen," said Alcide.

It struck Leah as pretty funny given none of them were entirely human. Sookie insisted on them staying for a drink and she asked Leah all sorts of questions about her home and how she was settling in and did she miss her family and when the wedding and the birth was.

"Y'all gonna check out the house now? Oh, that place is a real antebellum house; predates the War of Northern Aggression as my Gran always called it."

She hugged them both goodbye and they finally got back on the road to see the Civil War era place that Alcide wanted to show her. Given they both had excellent eyesight, she had no problem actually seeing it. And it looked better somehow in the dim light; as if its scars and blemishes were hidden.

It was a big place, like Sookie's, with two storeys and windows in the roofline that showed there was an attic. It had a wide veranda all the way across the back and partly around the side. But the front had massive pillars that stood the full height of the front of the house. It looked like something out of Gone with the Wind. He held her hand and they walked all around it. He wouldn't let her go onto the veranda because some of the timbers were rotten and he didn't want her to fall.

When they got back to the front she stood on the potholed drive that had been overgrown by the grass and she looked at it. He stood behind her and wrapped his arms around her. He knew her well and he waited for her to speak first.

"It's a plantation house," she said.

"Uh huh."

"How many bedrooms?"

"At least six, but there are so many rooms, and extra space in the attic. And at one time they have walled in parts of the back veranda; it's pretty clear that was used as a bedroom too."

"Oh what a pity."

"I'll fix it. Put it back the way it is supposed to be."

"With polished floors and white painted walls and a porch swing…"

"Leah Clearwater… are you a traditionalist?" he teased her.

"I guess I must be." She turned to face him. "Alcide Herveaux, it is a beautiful house." She kissed him.

"Might take me a while to find the time to fix it. It needs a lot of work." He looked worried. "And I want to do most of it myself. I could pay someone, but it wouldn't be the same, you know?"

"I know," she agreed. It made her feel warm inside that he would actually build their house with his own hands. "I agree and I can help." She looked mischievous. "That's a lot of bedrooms, though."

He leered at her. "Oh I don't think we'll have any problem filling them."

AN: I don't get much time to read fanfic these days, but this one caught my interest (probably because she quotes Trent lyrics):

www(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/s/7254155/1/Broken_Black_Heart

She has listed it under Jake/Paul but its not slash; she just hasn't decided who gets the girl yet… well, you all know who I'd be voting for… lol …

FF_2154210_ - 7/09/2011 03:19:00 AM