Phew. Finally managed to get this chapter finished :] My IT teacher would kill me if she knew I was doing this instead of coursework, but ah well, there's still most of the afternoon left :L I'll try to keep updating whenever I can, and I have finally planned out every chapter from now on until the end. I've known how the last few chapters of this fic were going to go for a while, but it was filling in the middle that I had trouble with. But now it's done, and I'll be working my butt off to keep up with it :] I'm also waaaayyy excited because Sweet Escape got nominated for the Best Blackwater Story award! :D It's my first nomination so I have no idea how most of it works, or how I even got nominated, but if it was you guys who got me there then I officially love you all to pieces! ^^ Thankyou :D

And thanks for the reviews for last chapter too, they were awesome :] And the ones for my oneshot Breakeven, they were just amazing to be honest, they made me so happy :] If there's anything you're confused about, I promise it'll all come together and will all be explained by the end! I'd like to be able to PM you to answer your questions but I daren't, in case I say too much :L Anyway, on with the chapter :]

Hope you enjoy, and don't forget to review :] We've officially hit 270 reviews and almost 26,400 hits! :P :D You awesome, awesome people ;] Let's keep 'em coming! :]

Em xx

Disclaimer: One more time - S. Meyer owns Twilight :L .


"Do you ever think about me? Do you ever call my name?

Ask me now and I'll give you the reasons,

My love will not fade,

Through the fire and rain, the fire and rain."

Mat Kearney - Fire and Rain.


Leah and Jake walked to the clearing where the meeting was being held instead of phasing. The going was tough in some places and Leah had to watch her footing where tree root jutted out, but it was more fun than simply phasing and running there. It took them a lot longer than it would have in wolf form, but it gave them time to talk and laugh as Jake held Leah's hand tight and helped her through the rough parts at the edge of the forest. Surprisingly, the further in they got the smoother the terrain became, and it was easier for them to work their way through the trees without stumbling. "You should probably know," began Leah as they reached the clearing, finding it empty, "chances are Seth's going to be giving you weird looks." Jake laughed, pulling her close and wrapping his arms around her.

"How come?" Leah relaxed into his embrace, smiling contentedly.

"He left a note for me this morning. Said he crashed at Embry's last night, but when he came home your scent was really strong so he knew you were upstairs. I think he knows what happened." She chuckled lightly as she looked up at him. "I'm starting to think he may really have psychic instincts, y'know." Jacob just smiled at her and kissed her on the forehead.

"Well, I won't blame him if he goes all protective little brother on us," he said.

"Remember when Paul Imprinted on Rach? That 'protective little brother' was you, O mighty Alpha of La Push." Leah had to hold back another laugh at the look on Jake's face.

"I keep telling myself that this is what's best for everyone, but somehow I'm still not looking forward to it. I mean, it just feels...kinda wrong to give orders to people I grew up with. Like I'm their boss, or something."

"Jake, you already are an amazing Alpha – and me and Seth know that you're just doing your job. We don't feel like you boss us around or anything. You've never called Alpha command on us. You always give us a choice. You're just gonna have a bigger Pack is all. You'll do great."

"Thanks, Lee...I hope you're right."

Leah snorted and looked up at him. "Jacob Black, if there's one thing you should know about me by now, it's that I'm always right."

"True," agreed Jake with a laugh. "You are always right."

"Now, see – I beg to differ." Their few moments of peaceful solitude were interrupted as Quil came out of the trees, closely followed by Paul. "You said I wasn't good-looking, but admit it, you were checking me out when we all first phased." Leah rolled her eyes as she and Jacob reluctantly broke their embrace.

"Shut up, Quil."

"Oh come on, we both know it's true." She folded her arms and raised an eyebrow challengingly at Quil's mischievous grin, daring him to press the topic further. Thankfully he took the hint and dropped the subject with a wink.

Jake chuckled and put an arm around Leah, and she relaxed, smiling again. "So it's true," began Paul. He studied Jake's arm with curiosity etched on his face. "You two really are together?" Jacob honestly tried not to let a frown cross his face, and was pretty sure he succeeded. Since Leah and Paul had made up after that last horrendous fight they'd been pretty civil to each other, but he's seen too many of their arguments to not recognise an opportunity for Paul to start one. He nodded, giving a small smile. But it was Leah who spoke up.

"Yeah," she said, smile never faltering. "Took you guys long enough, it's been almost three weeks." Jake half-expected Paul to make some kind of jab back, but to his surprise he only shook his head. He was smiled slightly, arms folded across his chest. But then his expression turned to one of disbelieving horror, and he covered his face with his hands.

"Oh no," he groaned, voice muffled slightly. "One day, if you two get married, I'm going to have Leah Clearwater for a sister-in-law!"

"Wait, does that mean I'll be your brother-in-law?" Seth stepped into the clearing, Sam, Jared and Embry close behind him. Colin and Brady followed not a moment later. "Hey, that means half of us will be related!"

"God help us."

"Thanks man, love you too."

"Nice Quil, nice."

"I'm just saying!" said Quil, holding his hands up in front of him. "You're all going to be one heck of a dysfunctional family, and the rest of us are going to have to put up with it."

"Who's to say that you other five aren't going to be a part of the 'dysfunctional family' too?" Leah said, grinning evilly. "Then we'll all be one big happy family unit."

"Speaking of units, shouldn't we get down to business?" Sam's tone was serious, but the corner of his mouth was turned upwards in an amused smile. "We're practically one Pack anyway, so we might as well make things less complicated and make it official." Everyone now stood in a rough circle in the middle of the clearing, looking from Sam to Jacob expectantly.

"How is it going to work?" asked Embry. "Like...do we have to do anything complicated or what?" Sam shrugged.

"I went through all the old legends with Quil's Dad and managed to find one. It's simple. I just have to renounce my title as Alpha of my pack, and then we all have to accept Jake as our new Alpha."

"Right."

"Mmhm."

"'Kay." An awkward, confused silence fell over them all.

"So, um...everyone ready?" There were several 'yes's and 'sure's. Jake wanted to say no. There was no way he was ready to be Alpha of La Push, to be responsible for all of them. It was times like this that he remembered he was only 18 years old, even if he knew he was a man now. But then, he thought, he hadn't been ready to let Bella go, but he'd had to, and that had turned out great. It had brought him closer to Leah. And a few months later he hadn't been ready to tell Leah he was in love with her, but he had, and that had worked out amazingly. Who was to say that this wouldn't work out just as well? So he found himself nodding firmly along with Leah, and tried to forget all the 'what if's. "Okay...right..."

Sam cleared his throat and stood up a little straighter. Then he spoke again. "I, Samuel Uley," he began in a clear, confident voice, "hereby renounce my title of Alpha, and instead pass on all responsibilities and...stuff...to Jacob Black." The way to step down was so simple, he almost didn't expect it to work. But no sooner had the statement left his lips then he felt deflated, emptier somehow as the power of the Alpha position drained out of him. To check, he tried to summon the energy and feeling that made an Alpha command possible. He couldn't. Jake, meanwhile, was feeling...weird. He had doubted the simplicity of the whole thing too, in the back of his mind.

But he could feel Sam's Alpha abilities transferring into him and combining with his own, and he knew it was working. He still wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing. It filled him with a kind of internal glow, reminding him of the feeling he got when he was with Leah. But that was love, and this was power, and they were two completely different things. Although...were they, really, so different? Wasn't love about giving someone the power to make or break you, and trusting them not to? A quiet, intrigued question from Seth brought him out of his thoughts. "Well? Did it work?" Sam and Jake looked at each other. Sam's face now bore a smile of relief, and Jake couldn't believe that it had finally happened.

"Yeah," he answered. "Yeah, it did." Everyone visibly relaxed. Leah reached for his hand and found it, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze as the tension evaporated from him. He hadn't even realised he'd been tense in the first place, let alone notice that the others were all on edge too.

"Well, I guess I follow you now, Jake." This came from Paul, who even managed another smile. The clearing filled with voices as one by one the others all agreed with him. Even Seth and Leah. 'To be on the safe side', they said. Eventually everything was over. Jacob was Alpha, Leah was Beta, and they had redistributed patrols so that they all got more free time. Seth, Colin and Brady would be able to finish high school, Sam could spend more time with Emily, and likewise Quil, Paul and Jared with their Imprints. Jake and Leah could be together even more often and Embry toyed with the idea of getting a job. Or a cat.

"It's not fair," he said sadly, throwing his hands up in the air. "What am I going to do when all you guys are at school or with your other halves?"

"Get a hobby?" suggested Quil.

"Get a job, instead of just talking about it?" put in Seth.

"You'll find something, Em," said Paul, patting his friend on the shoulder. Embry rolled his eyes and shook his head.

"If I take up knitting, I want you to all to kill me."

"Already planned it man."

"On the bright side," said Embry, running a hand through his hair. "At least Mom won't try to ground me as much."

"You might as well just tell her what's going on, Embry," Jake said. "It'd make things easier for you both." The next half an hour was spent agreeing on minute changes they'd make to the running of things, before they finally called the meeting to an end.

"Right," began Sam, smiling. "I'd better run. Plane to catch and all that."

"Tell Em I said hi," said Leah. They all parted ways after that. Sam went to pack for his honeymoon while Jared and Paul went to find Kim and Rachel. Quil had to babysit Claire, Colin and Brady disappeared off to wherever it was they went nowadays, and Seth and Embry headed back to the Clearwater house for their usual date with junk food and the Xbox.

Leah looked up at Jacob when the others were gone and smiled warmly at him. "I'm proud of you," she said, standing on her tiptoes to kiss his lips. "Really, I am." She was happy, too. Incredibly happy. Now that Sam and Emily were married, Leah could let go of that part of her life fully, and she didn't plan on looking back. They were one Pack now, too, which made things a lot easier. She could find herself a hobby or something now that she wasn't patrolling as much, and that might open up a whole new world of opportunities for her. Or maybe not. That was a decision she had time to think over.

The Pack knew about her and Jake, and they were happy for them. Thoroughly freaked out – that was always something she had expected - but pleased. Things would be able to settle down again, and she was looking forward to it. All she had to do now was stop her Mom from trying to castrate Jacob.

XXXXXXXXXX

When Leah got home later that night, she found Sue sitting in the living room watching TV. "Hey, sweetie," she said, not taking her eyes off the screen as her favourite cop solved yet another gruesome murder.

"Hey, Mom."

"No Jake?"

"Uh...no..." Leah frowned in confusion and ran a hand through her hair to try and tame it, thinking. "Um, Mom, you...you haven't, uh...spoken to Billy today, have you?" Sue didn't even look up.

"Me? No honey, I haven't even seen him since last night." Leah relaxed. Thank God.

"Ah. Good. Cool. I'm uh...gonna go upstairs. It's late and all..." For a moment, she stood there awkwardly. She hoped Sue wasn't picking up on it, because if she did then she would definitely know something was up, and there would be questions. "'Night, Mom," Leah said finally, and started for the stairs. She heard her Mom call a goodnight after her.

She was all of a sudden very tired by the time she reached the top of the stairs, and Leah couldn't wait to just crawl into bed and sleep. Or maybe she'd just flop down on the covers and pass out. That idea sounded more appealing. That way she wouldn't have to bother with getting changed or anything that would delay a chance for her to shut her eyes.

Leah was standing in front of her bedroom door before she noticed. From the door handle hung a large, red sign that blared Do Not Disturb! in big, white letters. For a second she could only stare in horror. Then she groaned in frustration. "Mom!" she yelled, pulling the sign off the handle and flipping it over. The other side read Free. Oh, somebody was going to die. "Mom, you're not even funny!" Leah shouted down the stairs.

But all she could hear from the living room were her mother's futile attempts to smother her fits of laughter.


Hehehe, couldn't resist that last bit :L Okay, I'd better get some homework done before my teachers all kill me. Don't forget to review and let me know what you think :] Until next time (which won't be too long! :P) Toodles ;] xxxx