Disclaimer: Twilight is all Stephanie Meyer, I own nothing.
AN: Here it is, the final chapter, it's completely from Nadira's pov, so I can write an epilogue from Embry's pov. I'm sad about ending it, but I want to do it fast anyway, since I now have four running fics, which prove to be more than I can handle. Hopefully I'll have the epilogue up on Saturday.
A poll for the name of the sequel is up on my forum, I'd be really grateful if you took the time to vote!
Ending one journey, as we start another
~*~
POV: Nadira
~*~
Embry had gone home the moment he'd dropped me off, he didn't make a fuss about it since we had just spent the entire week together . I needed time, time I didn't have, how did we get here so fast, things seemed a lot more doable when we were just planning. Tomorrow was Nessie's wedding day, tomorrow was the day I looked forward to and dreaded at the same time.
Tonight after dinner I would write Embry's letter, I'd been postponing it because it was too hard to do, how could it not be, but tonight was my last chance. Fathiya and I had both packed a small suitcase, which Bella both would send along with the car that would be picking us up tomorrow, it would be there at four, less than 24 hours left, the clock ticking the minutes away.
"Nadira, dinner's ready!" Leah called from downstairs.
I took a deep breath, my hands were shaking so bad from nerves, I had to calm down if I wanted to make It down the stairs in one piece. It was such a damn hard thing to do, my mind wandered back to when I first arrived on LaPush, the strict freakishly young foster parent Leah that had received me, the rest of the pack cautious to let me in.
How they had surprised me over and over again by sticking by me, never giving up on me, they had taught me what it was to be a family, taught me what it was to have people care about you, to care about them. The moment they had met me they had given me a clean slate, held none of my previous offenses against me, eventually they had completely accepted me into their weird, abnormally large, but most of all exceptionally wonderful family.
Part of me thought I had lost my mind, that part practically screamed at me that I had to stay here, with everybody I loved and that loved me, I could just never use any of my talents again. Than the other part reminded me that my loved ones were exactly why getting the proper training was so extremely necessary, then little happy Isa crossed my mind, as if I would be willing to give it up and never ever help a girl like her again, no that would be the most selfish thing I could ever do.
"Nadira?" Leah's soft voice reached my ears and pulled me away from my thoughts, she stood in the doorway looking at me concerned.
"I'm sorry, I was heading down in a minute, my mind just wandered elsewhere for a second" I motioned to get up, but Leah shook her head.
"I thought you would have told us by now" she said with pain streaked words.
"Wha- What do you mean?" my mind was racing, what exactly was she thinking? Did she really know? Or was it something completely different that she meant?
"Oh Nadira, I know you and Fathiya are going to where you're father came from, right after Nessie's wedding. Did you really think I wouldn't find out?" the weight that was pressing down on my shoulders lifted instantly.
"I'm so sorry for not telling you sooner, but I didn't want to hurt you. How did you know?" I really had thought nobody knew, that I had kept it hidden fairly well, but apparently not. If she knew, would Embry suspect something?
"Well after the incident with Romy, I knew you felt so guilty, you'd take steps from preventing it from happening again. The endless conversations about plane tickets and car rides, with what I expect was one of the Cullen's. Yours and Fathiya's sudden urge to graduate early, releasing you from the educational demands that I know you to think of as very important. Aside from that there are a whole lot of other small things that added to the suspicion and eventually confirmation" Leah had listed just about everything that had happened in preparing everything, she had known, but kept quiet, waiting for me to come to her.
"Do you understand why I have to do it, I don't want to, but I need to" I looked at her, wishing that she did.
"I know why you think it's something you need to do, but I honestly think you're overreacting, nothing has happened since the accident with Romy hasn't there?" Leah asked me calmly, but beneath the tranquil posterior I could see her fear of losing me.
"With me no, but something happened with Fathiya, it's so bad she won't even talk to me about it. Besides, I'm scared of something going wrong all the time, what if something scared me in a moment where I was holding one of the babies, and I put up my shield in a reflex, I would send them flying against the wall instantly!" It was hard for me to admit those fears to Leah, but I'd make my point.
Stuff like that were in my mind a lot, it didn't stop me from being close to my brother and sister, but it did mean that I was afraid every single moment I was with either of them. What was worse, it had me thinking about the day where I might be a mom, would I be scared to hold my own child? You can imagine the horror of being afraid of hurting your own child, or the guilt that I would have to live with if I ever were to hurt someone.
"Are you honestly concerned about things like that?" Leah asked me surprised.
"I am, all the time, it's killing me, I can't live like that, I won't!" being who I was could be a beautiful gift to me and my community, but until now it had been a burden to bare, with the occasional upside when I could help someone. I wanted to change that, do good, help people, in order to do that, I needed to be trained by people like me.
"Ok Nady, it's ok" she hugged me tight and for a moment I wished that I could be a little girl, so that I could crawl into her and forget all my worries.
"So, are you ready to come downstairs and tell Tom?" A deep sigh escaped my lips, before I nodded, it had to be done, better do it now.
~*~
It was an hour after dinner and I sat at my desk, writing the letter to Embry, words were finally coming to me. The finality obviously gave me the incentive I needed to put pen to paper, all that was troubling me now, was preventing my tears from flooding the letter as they gushed out while I was writing it. After I had finally finished it, it wasn't that long, but I had to start over at least five times before being able to actually sign a dry one, I folded it and placed in an envelope, on which I had written Embry's name.
Telling Tom hadn't been as easy as my conversation with Leah, he was hurt, sad, but most of all mad, that I could even think about doing something like that, let alone actually planning it. When he threatened not to let me go, Leah stepped in, being the one to reason with him, the one able to calm him down, as always. He accepted it eventually, though he still wasn't happy about it, but after dinner he pulled me into his arms for a big hug and told me that he loved me, that he would support my decision, as long as I was a hundred percent sure.
That was it, I was finally done, I showered for what seemed like an eternity before getting into bed. I lay there awake, unable to catch sleep, well tomorrow on the plane I'd have plenty of time to sleep. While lying in bed, thinking about tomorrow, I felt my sister trying to make contact with me.
"Faat? You there?" I asked when I opened the connection.
"Nadira!" Her cry entered my head loudly.
"What's wrong, what happened?!" Instantly I sat straight up, frantically waiting for her to answer me.
"I told my parents tonight! It was horrible!" now I identified her cries as sobs and let myself fall back down onto my pillow.
"Yes, Leah and Tom weren't happy about it either" my words were said as I sent them to her.
"But it's different for me Nady, they don't know! They kept asking me if I wasn't happy with them, if they had done something wrong, they just don't understand why I would go searching for my family there, if I am happy with the one I have here. Thankfully Romy was there to help me talk to them, but I know they're still blaming themselves!" her words were drowned out by tears as she finished.
Poor Fathiya, I had never stopped to think about her parents, since she couldn't tell them the truth, she must have told them she wanted to look for her family over there. A few months back, right after the wolves had killed him, we had told them that we shared the same father. So the story of her and me going to see our family made sense, after all I really did have relatives who still lived in Lebanon.
With Romy physically with her on the other end, while I talked to her in my mind, we managed to calm her down together. Being exhausted by the time our connection broke, I fell asleep at two in the morning. Shreds of dreams disarrayed trough my mind during my unconscious hours, Embry's face, Nessie's wedding, Tom, Leah and the twins, all came flashing by as our final moment came creeping closer.
~*~
When Nessie came walking down the aisle she looked magnificent, she was radiating happiness and appeared to be floating in her floor length dress, which looked beautiful on her. Her eyes were one Jake's and his didn't leave hers as she approached him slowly, a tinge of envy swept through me. They looked so happy, taking the plunge together, with their baby on the way, Ness was now clearly showing, but is still wasn't as big as I would expect to see one a women halfway through her pregnancy.
The vows were simple and as they promised themselves to the other, I couldn't help but lock eyes with Embry, who stood behind Jake as the best man, while a single tear escaped me, as maid of honor I stood very close to Ness. Besides Embry, Quill was also standing up for Jake, they were his best friends and had been so ever since they were kids. The second bridesmaid was Claire, she was only eleven years old, but she looked beautiful and stood next to me, perfectly realizing just what a cute picture she made.
As we followed them back down the aisle, Embry took my hand and squeezed it lightly, whispering in my ear that he loved me. Trying to keep these moments to last forever, I clung to him and told him that my heart was his and forever would be. It took a lot of restraint not to kiss him right here in front of everybody, while we walked out of the tent where the ceremony had been held, and headed over to the one where the reception would be.
It was already two o' clock, how was it that the time seemed to speed up whenever you wanted to slow it down most? Most of the time I stayed close to Embry, trying to tell him exactly how much me meant to me, without raising suspicion. But around three thirty it was time to face the music, I'd danced with both Tom and Leah and said goodbye to them, I had kissed each of the twins one more time.
Nessie came over requesting my services as a bridesmaid to help her get changed, it was our cover, that way Embry wouldn't come looking for me. When I saw her approaching, I couldn't resist, and kissed Embry and poured every emotion I had into it, the intensity was enough for him to realize something was wrong. He eyed me questioningly as I walked away with Nessie, but let me go for now, Fathiya was asked along for assistance, since Claire was too young to be any help anyway.
In the back of the tent there was a small tent attached where Nessie would change into the clothes she would be wearing when they'd leave on they're honeymoon. But along with her stuff, there was a set of clothes for both Fathiya and me as well, we all changed in silence, not knowing what to say at a time like this. Just when we were ready, Bella rushed in holding two packages in her hands and she handed us one each.
The packages turned out to hold photo albums, personalized for each of us, pictures inside of those who we loved most, it was a beautiful gift we were utterly grateful for. Then it was time to say goodbye, the car was waiting for us on the parking lot close to first beach, where the wedding was held. As I hugged Nessie, I thought it was the perfect time to give her a gift of my own, so I whispered in her ear what she was having in two and a half months. Her eyes grew wide and she held me close one last time, and finally let me go with tears in her eyes, as we headed over to the parking lot.
~*~
During the car ride both of us felt sedated somehow, like reality hadn't set in yet, we held each other's hands and waited for the moment when it would strike. It wasn't until we were up in the air that it did, first it were a few tears running over our cheeks, but soon we were sobbing into each other's arms. It took us a while to calm down a bit, but from time to time during our long flight, one of us would burst into tears, while the other held on tight.
When we landed to transfer onto another plane we had to wait, the perfect occasion to contact home as we promised we would. Fathiya had worked on a similar connection with Romy as I had with Nessie, with the difference that they'd been able to reach a lever where they were able to communicate with each other, whereas I hadn't been able to hear Nessie without the help of her gift.
As I focused and reached out to Ness, she responded instantly, I could feel her there, sense some of her emotions but nothing specific despite my efforts, I still couldn't hear her. Eventually I settled on telling her that we were ok and that I was sure that soon I would be able to hear her, before I broke the connection again.
Fathiya had talked to Romy, everything was ok back in LaPush, sure there had been panic, but apart from a devastated Taylan, things had calmed down after it had become clear what had happened. Our second flight was announced over the intercom, and would start boarding right now, so we headed over to the gate. The second flight was shorter and on a smaller plane, both of us slept through most of it, due to exhaustion from all the emotions that were consuming us.
Instead of exiting the plane into a terminal, we landed onto a huge asphalted space, where the stairs were attached before the doors were opened, a blistering heat pressing down on us the moment we left the air conditioned cabin. We scanned around to take in our surroundings, before getting into one of the bussed parked close to the airplane. They would take us to the airport, which was a ride that took at least twenty minutes, but then the actual airport came into view.
We went through the motions of claiming our baggage at the conveyor belt, passing through customs and searching for a sign holding our names when we came out of the arrival hall. We spotted the immaculately dressed driver in full costume, he welcomed us into Syria and took our suitcases, as he guided us to the car, which turned out to be a limo.
Under other circumstances we might have enjoyed the lavished interior and luxury, but now it was a wasted effort. We ate during the drive that lasted a few hours, since we were absolutely famished, it's true what they say about airplane food, it's disgusting, and slept during the rest of it.
When the car slowed down and eventually halted completely, the door was opened instantly. A face that held much resemblance to ours peered in smiling widely. As we stepped out of the car, we were welcomed by at least a dozen girls and women, with varying ages, but all bearing the same physical characteristics.
Each of us received a hug from every single one of them, no words sounded during the meeting of sisters, since they spoke a language we didn't understand and neither of them spoke English. The guided us to a small house, with one bedroom for the both of us, and left us to get settled. Despite the fact that neither of us had ever been here or met these people, we somehow felt at home instantly.
AN: Not as long as usual, I know, but I wanted to leave their experiences there for the sequel, so this is where I decided to stop. Hope you liked it!
