Chapter 29:

Since when does everyone care about me?

I suppose I could have actually thought things through before I stripped my shirt and bandages off the next morning. But, no…I wanted my life to be more complicated, so I decided to be a stupid person.

"God Leah, what happened to you?"

I was officially an idiot. If I had learned anything about being caught in the act with Sam, it was to lock my door in my house. My mother rarely knocked.

"Hey Leah, I just wanted to ask you…Oh, God! Sam…you're naked…in my daughter's room!" Come to think of it, maybe that's what prompted the sex talk with my mother that I still shivered thinking about.

I was double checking my injuries to make sure that they didn't look any worse today when my mother barged into my room to bring me my clean laundry.

"Here, I did a little bit of laundry today and I…"

Damn it. I scrambled to put on a shirt. But it was too late. The damage was already done. When she saw my stomach, she dropped the laundry basket on the floor, spilling the contents. I think I saw a pair of Seth's underwear touching one of my favorite shirts. I was going to have to burn that shirt now.

"Honey, you're hurt…"

"Don't worry about it," I said.

"You expect me not to worry that my daughter has lacerations all over her stomach? How did that happen?" She gasped out an anxious cry. Concern flashed across her face. "If I find out you've been hurting yourself…"

"Mom, I didn't do this to myself." I rolled my eyes. "Do you really think I would be stupid enough to cut myself? If I wanted to cause myself pain, all I'd have to do is listen to a Britney Spears CD." I laughed.

"Leah, your stomach…what happened?"

As soon as she found out that Sam was responsible for this, she was going to freak the hell out. She might even go after him with a weapon. That might be fun to see. But for some reason, I still didn't want to tell her the truth.

"It doesn't matter."

"The hell it doesn't!" she exclaimed. "Start talking…"

I sighed and looked at the ground. I don't think there was a way out of this.

"It's no big deal. Being a wolf means that I get hurt every now and then." Or in my case, now…and again in three days. At the rate I was going, I was going to be averaging five to six near death experiences a month.

"That looks bad. Tell me you went to the doctor."

"I went to the doctor," I lied. The doctor of Johnson and Johnson. It was a shoddy lie and mom saw right through it.

"You just came home and put a Band-aid on it yourself, didn't you?" she frowned at me.

"Jacob already lectured me. I don't need it from you, too." I shook my head.

"It was stupid not to go to the hospital, Leah," she grumbled.

"I don't like doctors," I frowned. Man, I sounded whiny. I might as well have stomped my feet and let out a groan, "I don't wanna go to the doctor! You can't make me!"

"Why wouldn't you tell me?" Mom sighed. She was trembling with worry.

"Because I knew that you'd react like this."

"How am I supposed to react?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm.

"Without all of the dramatics." Now I knew where Seth got his temper tantrums from.

"Well, excuse me for caring about you," Mom laughed darkly. And now I knew where I got my sarcasm from. "How are you feeling?" She put her hand on my forehead. Why did everyone I know insist on touching my forehead?

"Much better," I exaggerated. I wouldn't say that I was much better. Just slightly improving. But the less I could make my mother worry, the better.

"Do Sam and the others know?"

"They were there." I chose my words carefully.

"Was it a vampire?"

"No." I was starting to get uncomfortable. I walked towards my door. "I don't really feel like talking about it right now."

Mom blocked my path. "Damn it, Leah. I am part of the council, and more importantly…your mother! When something like this happens, I need to know!"

"You don't want to know about this. Trust me," I said.

"You might as well tell me. Because if you don't, then I'll find someone who will," she snapped.

She wasn't going to leave this alone. If she asked Seth, he wouldn't keep his mouth shut. Jacob probably wouldn't either. I had to admit, it might be humorous to see what would happen if she asked Sam if he knew anything.

"Sam, do you know what happened to my daughter's stomach?"

"Oh, yeah. That was me. My bad."

"Leah…" My mother stared at me impatiently.

"It was Sam, okay?" I snapped.

"What?" A confused look flashed across her face.

I softened my tone. "We got into it…and I lost." Because he commanded me to go belly up. That asshole. I still couldn't believe that he used his command against me in a fight. I had gone a little overboard with the insults about Emily, but I wasn't expecting him to rip me to shreds.

Mom still hadn't said anything. I saw her lips purse together in thought.

"Mom?" I questioned.

"Sam? Sam Uley?"

"No, mom. Sammy Davis Jr," I said sarcastically. She glared at me. "Yes, Sam Uley," I nodded.

"What happened?" She was starting to sound like a broken record.

"We had a disagreement. He wanted to control me. And I disagreed." I decided to leave out the fine details. She didn't need to know everything...

"Well…first I called Emily 'peppy' and 'disfigured', and then I called Sam a 'fuckhole…'"

"When did this happen?"

"The day before yesterday."

"I see," she nodded. "So for the past two days, every time I have asked you why you were acting so strange, you lied to me?"

"Not entirely. Blood loss does make you tired." Why did I always have to be such a smartass? My mother frowned at me. I smiled, "Mom, I'm fine…"

"Stop saying that!" she exclaimed. "You have severe injuries!"

"But they're healing," I assured her. "And Seth and Jacob have been watching me nonstop," I grumbled. Not that I didn't appreciate their concern, but it was getting really annoying having those two constantly on my case. "Come on, please don't make a big deal out of this. I just want to move past it."

"Leah, you are impossible," my mother grumbled.

"Yeah, I've been hearing that a lot lately."

"With injuries like that, you could have died…"

Nah, I don't do anything right in my life. I can't even die correctly. I resisted the urge to tell her that I'd already stared death in the face and come out the other end. Her little miracle child. I still wasn't sure how I had managed to survive vampire venom. I guess everything about me was defective. I could see the vampire venom running around in my bloodstream, desperately looking for a way out, "Retreat! Find the fastest way out of this body as possible! Run! Run like the wind!"

"Do you know what it would have done to me and Seth if we lost you?" Mom asked softly.

"Mom, I didn't die. I'm here and I'm fine." I put my hands on her shoulders comfortingly. I wasn't that stupid. I knew that my injuries were severe. But I also knew that I would heal. If I felt like I was going to die from my injuries, I would have pretended to pass out so Jacob and Seth could have dragged me to Carlisle to patch me up. I would never go to the vampire's place willingly. But I knew that if it got really bad, I could count on my brother and Jacob to take care of me. It hadn't gotten to that point. So, I got to gloat. A lot.

"Leah…" My mom inhaled a deep breath.

"Sue?" I heard a light knock at the front door. "Are you ready?"

Saved by the policeman.

Charlie and mom were going to some kind of festival today. Normally, I would have bitched about how close she was getting with him, but at the moment, I was thankful that he would be getting her out of the house so I didn't have to deal with her crap.

Mom stared at me with a stoic look on her face and then shook her head angrily. But I got the feeling that she wasn't angry at me.

"Go have fun with Charlie." The words didn't sound right when they came out. I was actually telling her to go on a date with the Andy Griffith Rent-a-cop? No, Charlie wasn't even worthy enough to be Andy Griffith. The dude was Barney Fife.

"We're going to discuss this at length when I get back," she said quietly.

"Can't wait." I faked a smile. Of course, anything was better than her sex talk. If she wanted to talk to me about the dangers of associating with a werewolf with the temper of Attila the Hun and the claws of Freddie Kreuger, that was fine by me. It was better than a seminar on Gonorrhea and Herpes.

"Do me a favor and try not to get maimed again, okay?" Mom kissed my cheek before she walked out of the room.

I heard her ask Charlie if they could make a stop on the way.

"Sure," Charlie agreed.

I had a pretty good idea where my mother planned to stop. If Sam thought that I was a bitch, I couldn't wait until he saw my mother when she was pissed. I wondered if he would tell her what was going on with the packs. Plural. God, it was nice not to be following Sam anymore.

I put away the laundry that mom had brought me. And then I went to find out where everyone in this house was hiding. I found Jacob and Seth in the kitchen…as always. They both glanced at me when I walked in the room. I still wasn't completely healed yet, but I was well enough to bruise Seth's arm for not changing the channel when I wanted him to the other day. I punched him in the shoulder.

"Ow." He didn't really sound hurt. I threw his underwear at his head. He shrugged and looked back at me. "If you really wanted to do something malicious, you should have thrown your underwear at me." Seth stuck his tongue out at me.

"Yours were girlier," I said without missing a beat.

He grinned, "You must be feeling better this morning."

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"You're being violent again," Seth smiled.

I made myself a bowl of cereal and sat down at the table. Seth and Jacob were still watching me closely.

"God, would you two stop watching and waiting for me to fall over and die? It's not going to happen any time today," I frowned at them.

"How are you really doing this morning?" Jacob asked curiously.

"Fine." It was still easier to bend the truth every time he asked me how I was feeling. I was still a bit weak, but I was improving, so that was good enough for me.

"Is that so?" Jacob didn't sound like he believed me. "Then why haven't you taken a shower?"

"What is it with you and wanting to see me naked all of the time?" I laughed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seth cringe. He was having a tough time getting used to the fact that his best friend and his big sister were dating. And I was making it harder on him...because he was my brother and I loved to torture him.

"You haven't showered because you're still not completely healed," Jacob said.

Well, wasn't he Mr. Know-it-all?

"I didn't realize that you were monitoring my hygiene, too." I rolled my eyes.

"You're still hurting," he frowned. What did he expect? A werewolf had ripped into me two days ago.

"No, I just figured that I'd give the whole "naturalistic hippie" thing a shot," I grinned. "Just wait until I stop shaving…"

"Not all of the razors in the whole western hemisphere could keep that hair off of your body. You're a wolf. Hairy beast." Jacob smirked back at me.

"You will pay for that." I warned him. I accidentally bumped my stomach against the table and hissed out a groan.

Jacob's smile was gone now. "You're supposed to tell us if you're still in pain. Carlisle is more than willing to treat you."

"I don't need him to. I'm healing just fine on my own." That part wasn't a lie. Though I was still hurting, the wounds themselves looked significantly better. After my mom found out about my injuries this morning, I had rewrapped my stomach. And the roll gauze still kicked my ass. But I didn't bleed all over the place, and it looked like the wounds were starting to seal up.

Although I didn't want to admit it, Jacob was right about the reason I had yet to take a shower. My stomach was still very tender. I had tried to put an ice pack on it yesterday to help with the swelling and bruising, but the moment the cool pressure made contact with my skin, I nearly leaped through the roof. I needed to heal a bit more before I was ready to brave a shower.

Jacob and Seth were still staring at me. I took a bite of cereal and tried to ignore them. But ignoring them was hard to do. I could feel them staring at me.

"Please, Leah?" Jacob put his hand on top of mine. I looked at him impatiently. I didn't mind him touching me, but I didn't want him pleading with me to go to see someone about my already healing injuries.

"I'm healing fine." I wondered if I should tell Jacob that it wasn't the "vampire" thing that made me want to stay away from Carlisle. It was the "doctor" thing. I didn't like doctors. I didn't trust them.

"I'll leave you alone if you just go to Carlisle," Jacob promised.

"I don't want you to leave me alone." I nearly dropped my spoon. I'd just said that out loud. I had just admitted to Jacob that I liked having him around. Now he was never going to leave me alone. Oh, shit. Way to go, bigmouth.

A smile formed across Jacob's face. "I knew it."

Seth grunted irritably from across the table and rolled his eyes. "Get a room," he mumbled.

"How about yours?" I smirked at my brother. "You still have those Star Wars sheets?"

"I. Hate. You," Seth wailed. He ran out of the kitchen dramatically. "No one in this house respects my things!" Wow, he screamed like a little girl. His tantrums always made me laugh.

"Nicely done," Jacob chuckled. His smile quickly faded. "But just so you know, you're not going to get away with changing the subject that easily."

"What could the vampire do for me that I haven't already done?" I questioned. "The wounds are wrapped, I'm healing, and I've got pain medications just in case."

"Humor me." Jacob shrugged.

"Okay…a Rabbi, a Priest, and a Nun walk into a bar…" He did say humor him.

"You know what I meant." He rolled his eyes.

"How about I meet you half way?" I questioned.

"I'm listening," Jacob nodded.

"I'll go to see Carlisle…" I saw him starting to get excited, so I quickly finished, "If…I start to feel lousy again." He didn't look happy, but he didn't look upset either. "I get that everyone is worried about me. But there's a lot going on. I'm sure Sam is just waiting for the vampires to slip up so he has a reason to attack them."

"That's bullshit." Jacob shook his head. "Sam's numbers are down. He's not going to attack the Cullens. Stop trying to find excuses."

"I'm not." I really wasn't. I was surprised that I actually didn't want anything to happen to those stupid vampires. I knew how much it would hurt Jacob if something happened to his leech friends. If I was going to love him, I guess I was going to have to love his damn friends, too. But I didn't have to be happy about it.

"Sam can't do anything to us if we go over the border," Jacob said.

"Look, if I'm not improving, I'll let you take me to Dr. Lestat. Deal?" I chuckled in amusement when I thought of how that name might go over at the hospital that Carlisle worked at.

"This woman is crashing! We need Doctor Lestat…LeSTAT!" It would be like watching a French version of ER.

Jacob seemed to be thinking it over.

"Come on, Jake. Take it or leave it." I shrugged.

"You'll tell me if you aren't improving?" he asked suspiciously. I nodded. "I'll know if you're lying to me." Jacob warned me.

"Then I guess I'll just have to be honest with you," I paused and then smiled. "Your hair looks like crap this morning. There. Honest enough?"

"Too mean." Jacob faked a frown.

"I'm just saying…you look like you have a drowned cat on your head."

Jacob laughed and leaned in towards me with a grin on his face. He spoke very quietly near my ear, "At least I don't smell like I haven't had a shower in three days." He pulled back with a wink and quickly leaped out of his chair playfully.

"I don't have to be close to you to cause you physical pain." I shrugged. I smiled as I picked up my empty glass and hurled it at him.

"Whoa…" He caught it right before it reached his head. He glanced at the empty glass. "Is this your subtle way of asking me for more to drink?"

"Sure. More ice this time."

He quickly filled my glass up with water and sat back down next to me. When he slid the glass over to me, I noticed a band-aid on the side of his hand…complete with pink flowers and puke-worthy kitty cats.

"That's a mean looking Hello Kitty Band-aid you've got there," I laughed. "Did you get in a bar brawl with some roughnecks?" I teased him.

"Ah, yeah. I forgot about that." Jacob looked at the cute kitties. "Quil dropped by with Claire earlier. She had a box of these and a sheet of Dora the Explorer stickers." He peeled the Band-aid off. He looked at it. He lifted my shirt softly and exposed my bandages. He gently put the Band-aid on top of the bandages. "I think you need this more than me."

"Wow, you must have gone through years of med school. That's some impressive doctoring." I couldn't help but laugh at the cute oaf. "All hail the Japanese kitty. The little pink pussy cures everything!" I shouted jokingly. It wasn't until after I shouted it that I realized how horribly wrong others might take that. I couldn't stop laughing.

"It's good to see you actually smiling again," Jacob admitted. He leaned closer to me and cupped my face in his hands. He pulled my face to meet his and gave me a quick, sweet kiss. I figured that he was probably being gentle with me since I was still healing.

He ran his index finger across my lips and I surprised him when I took the tip of his finger gingerly in my mouth.

"Leah, are you…"

Before he could say another word, I ran my teeth along the tip of his finger and I bit down forcefully. Jacob pulled his finger back in shock.

"You…you bit me," he frowned.

"As you so kindly pointed out two seconds ago, I am a wolf," I explained. "That was for the 'hairy beast' thing." If he thought that was bad, he was in for a rude awakening. I had some fun, torturous things planned for him to get back at him for all of his snide little comments the past few days. Just because I was injured didn't mean that I wasn't going to fight back.

"So, I'm attracted to a hairy woman. Nothing wrong with that." Jacob leaned so close to me that we were nose to nose.

I put my hand on the back of his neck and traced my fingers down his spine. I found the back of his shirt and started tugging on it. As his eyes burned curiously through mine, I made my move. I grabbed my water from the table and poured the icy drink down his back.

"Holy shit!" He leaped up, startled by the sudden cold water dripping down his back.

"And that's for the shower remark," I smirked at him.

"Ahh…cold, cold, cold!" He shook the ice from inside his shirt. The ice had all pretty much melted the moment it came into contact with his skin. "Jesus, Leah. Warn a guy next time."

"Got anything else you want to make fun of today?" I asked. "There are a lot of different ways to torture you."

He looked at his finger and shook his head. I hadn't bitten him hard, but I saw him observing the fading teeth marks.

"Aw, do you want your Band-aid back?" I laughed.

"I am in love with a crazy person," he muttered.

I wasn't going to make it easy for him. I knew how much he cared about me. I cared about him, too...as much as I hated to admit it. Caring about someone was hard for me. Because there had never been a situation in my life that didn't end badly for me. But Jacob had done a lot for me these past couple of days. He took care of me while somehow letting me still be me. I was willing to give it a shot. It's not like love was any more terrifying than death…