I'm so glad that so many of you love Emmett. My friends have all come to the conclusion that I'm just channeling myself for him…lmao. Yeah, so I'm a goofy little prankster, what of it? *sigh* I'll never grow up. The world needs people who make others smile. There's not enough laughter today!

Chapter 36:

We're not done yet

Jacob's point of view:

At first, I didn't like the idea of leaving Sam and Leah alone. It wasn't long after I'd left her room that I decided that I didn't want to wait for Leah to ream Sam out. I wanted to kick his ass too badly. But Esme quickly distracted me with food. Damn her. She knew I couldn't resist her kickass cooking, and I was starving. Freaking werewolf appetite. As if having the metabolism of a teenage boy didn't suck enough, I also had to have an insatiable hunger that never went away. I was just one giant tapeworm—always hungry and wanting more.

I quickly inhaled one of Esme's English Muffins. How could she be such a good cook? She never actually ate anything. How did she get flavor to burst like this? I ate another muffin and then walked into the living room to check on Seth. I wanted to make sure that he hadn't freaked out and phased. He was pretty upset about Sam being here. I found him in the living room arguing with Emmett.

"Geeze, man, you're really itching to fight with someone, aren't you?" I asked.

Emmett? Really? He was trying to fight with Emmett? That would be like a kitten fighting a grizzly bear. I laughed when I realized that I didn't know which one of them would be which in that situation. Emmett certainly had the advantage in strength, but I knew what a mellow pansy he really was. Though in size he could be compared to a grizzly bear, his demeanor was that of a big fluffy kitty with pointy teeth. And Seth was usually fun-loving and eager like a kitten, but I knew that years of living with Leah, losing his dad, and watching his sister nearly die had probably helped him build up a healthy dose of repressed anger. So, I really couldn't say for sure who would win in their fight.

"What's the matter, Seth? Did he tell you one too many bad jokes?" I chuckled.

"We're fighting over which one of us gets the first shot at Sam." Seth shrugged.

Oh, okay. That was a legitimate thing to fight over. And actually, I wanted in on that fight. Because I wanted to be the one who punched Sam's lights out.

"He was going to kill my niece." Emmett frowned.

"Yeah? Well, he nearly did kill my sister."

"Hmm, that's a good point. Okay. You can take him. Just save me a piece," Emmett said. Something told me that this was the first time in his entire life where he let someone else win an argument.

"I'm not making any promises," Seth said.

"You're all idiots." Alice shook her head. "None of you will actually do it."

"How do you know? You can't see us, remember?" I laughed.

My laughter was cut to an abrupt halt when Sam entered the room. Everyone growled at him. We sounded like a damn kennel. When I looked at Sam, I could see that something weird was going on. He looked flustered. Damn, Leah must have really ripped into him. Good for her.

"Aw, what's the matter, Sam? Are you gonna cry?" I taunted him.

Sam didn't respond as he glanced at me with a stunned look on his face. Maybe he was just getting over the initial shock of seeing how bad he fucked Leah up. He remained silent as his face continued to speak volumes of anxiety. It didn't take me long to realize that there was more going on than I was aware of.

"I'm sorry, Jake." He looked around nervously. Everyone was eyeing him. I'd heard Leah yelling at him a few minutes ago. And he deserved every bit of it. But the way in which he was staring at me concerned me. He didn't look upset by the fact that he'd just been reamed out by his ex-girlfriend. He looked like he felt guilty for something. "I didn't mean to upset her."

"It's what you do best," I frowned sourly.

"Carlisle said it had something to do with her heart…" He sounded shocked.

I felt a skip in my own heartbeat when I heard Sam mention that. My palms started to sweat.

"I didn't…I mean…I…"

Crap. If Sam was stuttering, something was really wrong. I could feel the panic building up in my chest. I should have known that bringing him here was a mistake. I should have killed him in the woods and left his bloody carcass for the worms to eat.

"What are you talking about?" Seth questioned.

I didn't give Sam a chance to explain as I threw him against the wall.

"What the hell did you do to her?" I snarled.

"She was yelling at me. She got herself fairly worked up…"

I slammed Sam against the wall again and it created a dent where his head hit. My heart started racing as I thought about Leah being hurt again by Sam. I still didn't know what the hell he'd done to her this time, but I wasn't about to let him explain. He was done. He wasn't going to hurt her anymore. Not if I had anything to say about it. I threw a couple of punches at Sam. My hands pressed angrily against his windpipe. He tried to fight back, but I just slammed him against the wall again.

"You can't possibly hate me as much as I hate myself right now," Sam whined out. I was sick of his complaining. "Oh, poor me. Feel sorry for me...because I feel sorry for myself!" Shut the hell up already!

"Wanna bet?" I snapped.

"Jacob, she's okay." It was Edward behind me. He didn't dare touch me. I'm sure that he could see how pissed I was. I saw Sam starting to turn purple. He gasped for air. I felt Edward's disgusting icy leech breath against my back. "Jacob…" Edward spoke softly this time.

"No! I am sick of his shit," I snapped. "He doesn't deserve to live happily ever after. After everything he's done, he doesn't deserve it." I glanced at Edward. "Did you forget that he wanted to kill your daughter?"

"I am fully aware of what Sam Uley holds in his thoughts." Edward reminded me. The way he looked at Sam enraged me. It almost looked like the parasite felt sympathy for the same guy who wanted to kill his kid just days ago.

"Yeah? Well, tell me when they're silent." I turned my attention back to killing Sam. And you're a fucking moron if you're falling for his "I repent. I'm so sorry" act. I snapped at Edward in thought.

"Twenty bucks on Leah's new man." I heard Emmett chuckle from behind me.

"No way. Even without my power I know who's going to win this," Alice responded. "I'm not going to just give my money away like that."

"There are more important matters at hand…" Great. Preacher Father Carlisle was here to break us up. I still didn't take my hands off of Sam's neck.

"Jacob, you need to listen to Carlisle," Edward said.

Just give me a second. I'm almost done killing him. And also…don't tell me what to do.

Sam was able to deliver a blow to my stomach. I loosened my grip on him and stumbled back a few feet. Sam collapsed on to the ground, coughing and trying to catch his breath. He had dried blood from where the cuts on his face were already healing over.

"Jake…" Seth said softly from behind me.

"What?" I spun around. I'm sure he could see the irritated look on my face. I stiffened up when I saw Carlisle next to Seth.

I'd almost forgotten that I'd heard Carlisle's voice while I was concentrating on blocking Sam's airway. That pesky "murder" thing was the only thing driving me.

Carlisle had that "worried" doctor face again.

"What happened?" I asked.

"The MRI has brought something to my attention. I'm still waiting on her bloodwork to be certain." Carlisle did his whole "medical" thing.

"How long will that take?"

"Esme has it running now. We should know something in about ten minutes."

I looked at Sam. He was still on the ground, leaning against the wall.

"We're not through here, yet," I growled at him as I disappeared back to Leah's side. I wanted to see for myself that she was okay, so I quickly made my way back to her room.

She was asleep. She was getting pale again. I sighed. I wish she would stop doing this whole "life or death" thing. It was really starting to upset me.

"You know, if you wanted my attention there are better ways of getting it." I brushed some hair out of her face. I leaned forward and put my cheek against her chest for a second. My ear was right above her heart. I just laid there listening to her heartbeat for a few minutes and then sat back up. "God, Leah. What are you doing to me? You can't keep freaking me out like this," I said quietly. Her constant crashing was cruel…even for her.

I heard Seth come in the room behind me.

"Carlisle should be here in just a minute to go over the bloodwork." He paused and then lowered his voice. "Hey, do you think I should call my mom?"

"Not yet." I shook my head. We still didn't know anything yet. Telling Sue would just freak her out…and piss Leah off.

Seth laughed softly, "Maybe I should at least take the car back. She's probably reported it stolen by now."

"She's too busy making out with the policeman to actually talk to him." I teased him.

"You are such an ass sometimes," Seth grumbled. He punched me in the shoulder. But it wasn't a "serious" punch. It was more like a "you're annoying, so I'm going to slap you like a little girl" punch. I knew Seth was frustrated, so I didn't mind if he wanted to take it out on me. In fact, I was encouraging him to do so, because he needed to vent in some way…or else he might just go off the deep end.

Carlisle was in the room a few minutes later. The look on his face was one I'd never seen before. He almost looked…confused?

"Her body isn't producing platelets." Carlisle shook his head. "Her hematocrit is very low."

"I'm sorry—I don't speak 'doctor.'" I had no clue what the hell he'd just said.

"It means that we need to find a blood donor for her after all." Carlisle put it in the simplest terms that he could. "She's still losing blood."

"I thought you fixed her." I frowned.

"I can't explain where the bleeding is coming from. She's a medical anomaly."

"Fancy word." I had to laugh. Leave it to Leah to be dying of something that even the world's oldest doctor couldn't figure out.

"There were some lesions on the MRI. They look almost…metallic."

"Like important words highlighted in books or something?" Seth asked stupidly. I was going to chock that up to the fact that he hadn't been sleeping lately. Or, the fact that he hadn't been to English class in a while.

"Metallic. Not italic, you idiot." I turned to Carlisle. "What does it mean? Carlisle, what's wrong with her? Why is she having these problems?"

"Well, I'm not certain, but I think it has something to do with the vampire venom she was exposed to earlier in the week. I believe that some of the venom stayed in her bloodstream. It circulated until it could attack all of her systems from one area."

"Again—you're speaking in tongues. I don't understand." I furrowed my brow.

"The lesions that I saw in the MRI are in her brain. Simply stated, the venom is still poisoning her."

I remembered something that Leah had said the day after she'd been bitten. We had been joking about her snoring. She'd laughed as she lightheartedly asked me, "Do you think it's related to the venom poisoning my brain?"

How close was she when she spouted that out?

"I believe all of the symptoms that she is having is just masking the real problem."

"Which is what?"

"The venom." He explained that the venom was short circuiting something in her brain…which was 'confusing the hell out of her body'…my words, not the doctor's.

"What can we do to fix it?" Seth asked quietly.

"If we don't get the venom out of her brain there isn't anything else I can do."

Crap. And there was the phrase I would have paid him a million dollars not to say. I'm sure that doctors said it all the time. I thought about how difficult it must really be to be a physician. There was just so much that could go wrong. Things like this happened every day. And even though we thought that Leah was going to be okay, it was hard to know for sure. The vampire doctor was trying his hardest. I knew that. I also knew that if something happened to her the outcome would weigh heavily on Carlisle. It didn't have to be like that, but it would be…because for some crazy reason, Carlisle cared about everyone.

"Do everything you can." It was hard not to scream, because I was so aggravated. Not at him, but at the situation.

I looked down at Leah and sighed. I shook my head. Why couldn't anything in my life ever go according to plan?

Oh, right. Because it was me. Just my luck. Just our luck. We had both finally gotten to a point in our lives where we were happy and now this was happening.

"How long do we have?" I wanted to hit myself for asking that question. I really didn't want to know an exact time and date. I never won when I was fighting against the clock. I laughed at the irony. A werewolf frozen in time that couldn't beat time.

"I don't know. All I do know is that when her heart rate increases her symptoms worsen. When she was agitated a few minutes ago…" At Sam. I growled to myself in thought. "…her heart went into an arrhythmia. I gave her some medication to help, but it's important to keep her quiet and calm."

Jesus. She was screwed. How in the hell were we going to keep Leah Clearwater calm? That was nearly an impossible feat. Maybe we could use Jasper. He would have his work cut out for him with her.

"I believe that if we act fast enough we can still save her," Carlisle continued. "As soon as she's stable enough we can take the next step."

"And what exactly is the next step?"

"The lesion is on an area of the brain that I believe can be reached surgically."

"More surgery?" Seth whined from behind us.

Carlisle wanted to do brain surgery on Leah? She was going to throw a fit about that.

"The leech wants to give me a lobotomy? Forget it!"

"We need to get her stabilized first. And to get her stable she will need a blood transfusion. It would be best to see if anyone in your pack has the same blood type as her."

We already knew that Seth and I weren't a match.

"What about all that O-negative blood you had stashed for when Bella was pregnant? How about we just use that for the time being?" I didn't understand why he wanted to waste time trying to find someone with Leah's exact blood type. Besides, the girl was one of a kind. No one's blood would ever be exactly like hers.

"At this point, I don't know if it would do much good. I think the best chance she has is if she receives blood from someone with the same cells and genetic make-up that your pack shares."

"Carlisle, what if no one is a match?" I swallowed a knot in my throat.

He pushed his lips together in thought and refused to answer. Maybe he didn't have an answer. Or maybe the answer was, "In that case, we're fucked." I would love to hear the good doctor say the "f" word. I couldn't imagine His Holy Father spouting that out.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Carlisle said. "Let's just see if anyone in your pack is a match."

Oddly enough, I didn't have anything to worry about. I heard a soft voice from the doorway.

"We have the same blood type," Sam said quietly.

"Are you certain?" Carlisle asked.

Sam nodded.

"How do you know?" I questioned. How did I know that this wasn't just something else Sam could screw up?

"When Emily was in the hospital we found out that she, Leah, and I all share the same blood type. I…uh…couldn't donate for Emily because of my status as a wolf."

"Why? She gets your spit and your sperm," I growled angrily. Why was it any different than Emily sharing other bodily fluids with Sam?

Sam ignored my anger. The fact that he kept ignoring my fury just irritated me further.

"Billy told me that it would be too risky since I was a wolf. He was concerned about a human getting a werewolf's blood. But Leah hadn't started phasing yet, so her blood was safe for Emily. No one else was a match, so Leah donated for her."

God, Leah had given her cousin so much. She came off as someone who didn't give a shit, but underneath it all she actually cared. She cared so much that she was willing to put on a brave face just weeks after Sam had broken her heart so that she could be there for the person who had helped him break her heart.

Carlisle walked over to Sam. Sam flinched away uncomfortably. He was in a room full of people who wanted him dead and he was afraid of Carlisle? How much wussier could Sam Uley get?

"Would you be willing to allow me to draw some blood from you to verify that you are a match?" Carlisle questioned.

"As long as you don't take it from my neck," Sam nodded with a sneer.

"I'll be happy to make you bleed." Again. I offered. I watched as Carlisle and Sam disappeared.

"Are we really going to let him do this?" Seth huffed angrily.

"It's about time he lost some blood to Leah," I said. I had to ignore the fact that ten minutes ago I wanted to murder him. Because if keeping him alive meant keeping Leah alive, how could I disagree with that? Besides, I could always murder him later. Or let Leah get better and then let her murder him.

"He's the reason she's in this situation!" Seth complained.

"What other choice do we have?" I asked.

Seth looked at his sister and sighed. He knew that I was right. But that didn't mean that he wasn't going to complain. And I let him. He grumbled and groaned and acted like a two-year-old throwing a tantrum.

"Geeze, chill out, kid. You're worse than Claire when her mother refuses to buy her ice cream." I shook my head.

"It's Sam Uley," Seth grumbled. "The same Sam Uley that yanked out her heart…and then her intestines."

"I know." I gritted my teeth together. I hated this as much as he did.

"Can we kill him afterwards?" Seth questioned.

"We'll see," I nodded. Hell, yes.

I couldn't stand the fact that Sam might think of himself as some shithole white knight riding in to save Leah. He did not deserve to feel good about himself in any way. This was his fault. Who cares that he just so happened to have the same blood type as Leah? That was just a very unfortunate coincidence. If he acted like a savior, I'm pretty sure everyone in this house would rip him to pieces. Sam wasn't a white knight. He was the freaking dragon that needed to be slayed.

Besides, Leah never struck me as the damsel in distress. She was more the type to face the villain herself. When the hero got there all he would find was pieces of the bad guy's skull and Leah with a big fat grin on her face.

The hero would ride in with a determined look on his face. "I'm here to…save you?"

"No, thanks. I'm good. By the way, what took you so long? You know if I was a regular helpless storybook idiot I would have been dead by now. You're too slow. Congratulations. You suck, Prince Charming."

"What's on your mind? Try not to think too hard. You might give yourself an aneurysm and end up in the same position I'm in." I heard Leah laughing softly at me.

She was awake. Thank God. Every waking moment that I had with her was important to me…even if she was going to rag the hell out of me for being a clingy emotional werewolf.

"An aneurysm isn't the thing that's going to be the death of me. You keep scaring the crap out of me, and I'm going to have a heart attack."

"You are such a 'fraidy cat, Jacob Black."

"Am not." I argued with a smile. But even our playful argument couldn't hide the fact that I was freaking the hell out again. She could see right through my façade. I couldn't act for shit.

"Carlisle lied, didn't he?" Leah sighed. "I'm not going to get better."

"He's working on it."

"Great. And while he spends half a century trying to figure it out, I'm going to die in a pink dress and…" She wiggled her toes and glanced down at her feet. "Who the hell put booties on me?"

I laughed. Emmett must have done that when he took her to get her MRI. I think he wanted her to kick the crap out of him.

"I'm going to die looking like an effing ballerina!" she complained.

"You can't die. I've ordered you not to." I told her about my command. For now, I was going to have to hold on to hope that she couldn't die when I was ordering her to stay alive. I guess we were going to see how strong my Alpha command really was.

"Well then, since my Alpha has commanded me to do something I guess I have to do it." She rolled her eyes. "Because we all know that I always do what I'm told," she sighed. "How bad is it? Do I need to do some creepy ass last will and testament?"

"You're going to be fine, Leah." You better freaking be fine! I pushed my hand against her cheek. "You are going to be fine." My brain couldn't think of anything else to say.

For a moment, she didn't respond. Then she sighed and put her hand on top of mine.

"Don't bullshit me." She shook her head. "You're a crappy liar."

"I am not," I frowned. "You really are going to get through this." I hope. I really hoped.

"So, what's wrong with me this time? Did the doctor not take enough of my organs out? Do we have to go back in and remove my other ovary, my kidneys, and one of my lungs?" She closed her eyes softly.

"No. First, Carlisle says you need a blood transfusion. Your color looks like crap, my dear." I winked at her. "The fact that you're starting to look paler than the vampires is a bit concerning."

"Maybe I've got some weird skin bleaching disease. Maybe I have Michael-Jacksonitis." She pushed back playfully. She cringed and then frowned. "As long as they don't make me actually eat the blood I guess it couldn't hurt."

"There's just one more thing that you need to know about it…" Seth said.

"What? The blood?" Leah asked. "As long as it's not Keith Richard's or Ozzy Osborne's blood I think I'll be okay," she said. I laughed. If she ended up with some drunk rocker's blood I could see her running around the house screaming nonsense. "Why do you care who gives me the blood—as long as I get it?"

"Because Sam's the one donating it," I admitted.

Dumbass. I wanted to hit myself. Why couldn't I keep my mouth shut? Carlisle said to keep her calm. That was not going to keep her calm.

Thankfully, she didn't react as strongly as I expected her to. It worried me, because I knew that she was either too tired or too weak to throw a fit.

She grumbled, "Well…this day sucks."

This day did suck. But tomorrow would be even worse if Leah didn't make it. I did not want to get up in the morning having lost everything I'd fought so hard for.