In the midst of their challenges adjusting to each other and their new life together, Leah learned, once again, to "be careful what you pray for."

Leah kept all her "pre-wolf" clothes in a trash bag in the back of her closet at her mom's house on the Res. They were all the cute, pretty clothes she had back from when she still had curves and didn't randomly explode into a giant wolf at inopportune moments. When she started phasing, her metabolism kicked into such high gear that her curves were replaced with lean muscle and she had to go down a size or two.

She kept the old clothes though – in hopes she could wear them again someday. Her new clothes, her "wolf girl" clothes, were the castoffs that her cousins had worn holes into or the cheap thrift store jeans and t-shirts that her odd jobs could afford to continually replace. Disposable clothes needed to be functional, not beautiful. She'd rather not grow attached to a pair of jeans that would end up a shredded heap of threads in a burst of temper.

"Maybe you should learn to control your temper," her brother had teased. "It would save you on clothes."

Their ensuing squabble destroyed both of their outfits and she victoriously gloated over how it was his own temper that needed a leash.

Thus, all her "non-wolf" clothes were removed from her drawers and relegated to the dark spaces of her closet, along with her box of old photographs, her shell collection, and old school notebooks. She probably should have thrown it all out, but she didn't and she wasn't sure why she didn't. Maybe it was clinging to the vain hope that she'd wear those clothes again or have a random urge to remember her tenth grade chemistry lessons. Maybe it was wishing that the "old Leah" still lived as long as she kept her shell collection and junior high photos.

She applauded herself for her foresight, though, after her imprint caused her phasing to cease. She happily retrieved the bag of clothes and brought it to Charlie's. She told herself it was to "be pretty and enjoy herself and impress Nahuel." In reality, it was because she still maintained the appetite of a wolf, even without the phasing into one. Her wolf jeans no longer buttoned on her resurrected curves and she needed the next size up. She rather enjoyed that and wore the old clothes with a feminine vanity she had missed ever since she was inundated with supernatural dramas and smelly teenage wolf-boys. She paused to admire herself in the mirror with more glee than even Rosalie could muster and she even did her hair and make-up.

She looked good. She knew she looked good. Even better, she felt good. The creaking, croaking scaffolding supporting her heart was slowly replaced with solid steel and heated iron and she could look people in the eye and smile again. She could walk with a slight spring in her step and willingly get out of bed without the grey weight of dreading the world outside her blanket.

It was a short-lived vanity and so she was glad she made the most of it while she could. The self-esteem boost was like a vitamin shot for her battered femininity and she reveled in it...even more so when Nahuel pretended to appreciate her efforts (and she ignored the fact that he found her just as irresistible in cutoff jeans and a muddy t-shirt). Two weeks later, when she outgrew and outcurved even her "pre-wolf" jeans, she reluctantly decided she needed to cut back on the calories and "pre-wolf" her appetite...for both her bank account and her wardrobe's sake.

She refused to relegate those clothes back into the closet. She kept them out, just as motivation. Her motivation lasted about as long as a snowflake in July. Then she was so starved she told herself she would try again tomorrow.

Or the day after tomorrow.

Ok, maybe the day after that.

When she noticed that her hips were not the only part of her growing curvy and her formerly flat abdomen sloped into a rolling hillside over her sweats, she started to ask more questions.

Questions she probably should have asked before she woke up with pine needles in her hair.

Back during the time Leah thought of as the "Bella-drama," Leah had ruthlessly mocked Bella for her naivete.

"Here we are. Freaks from across the globe gathered to give testimony to Bella Cullen's experimentation with unprotected sex. Congratulations. Sex makes babies. Why is that such a surprise? Do we really need to gather an army of bloodsuckers to reap from the hapless residents of Washington to testify to that fact?" Leah complained to Jacob and Seth when the first of the "visitors" arrived.

Jacob didn't think it was funny. Leah thought it was hilarious, in the most cynical, morbid way possible.

It was a whole lot less funny now.

Her first response, as with any crisis, was to call her mom. Her mom took one look at her and called Billy. Billy called Jacob. Jacob called Carlisle. And Carlisle, well, he didn't call anybody. He just came over.

"Congratulations to both of you. You are correct. You are undeniably pregnant."

"I want to ask how that happened, but I kinda know how that happened," Leah said, still in shock. "What I mean is, I stopped my period months and months ago...I thought...ok, nevermind what I thought. I wouldn't be the first girl to get surprised."

"The gestational age of the fetus is about four months," Carlisle explained after running some tests. "Since it has only been two months since Nahuel...arrived...I would assume that the fetus' development is more accelerated than a human's and less accelerated than a true hybrid."

"What? Is it a fake hybrid? Are we going to start classifying our Métis vamps by percentages with charts and all?" she bit back.

Carlisle gave her a polite smile. "Simply, I mean to say we are in uncharted territory. All appears healthy and I will do all I can to ensure you and the baby stay that way, but we can't know how this will proceed. There is no precedent for such a...one-of-a-kind... child."

ooooo

On the List of "Prayers Answered Differently Than Expected," Leah mentally added another entry. She had longed for the possibility of motherhood someday…but not at age nineteen while living with her mom and step-dad and fighting her way through college...and teaching her baby daddy how to use a toaster.

This was not in her plans.

Stupid biology.

It was yet another part of her life that was out of her control that she had no choice over. By Carlisle's estimates, she would have a full-term baby in two and a half months.

Two and a half months.

Welcome to the Freak Baby Club, Leah Clearwater.

Sex made babies, not children, and genetic compatibility was a far cry from shared socialization. When Leah looked up to see the father of her child, in his loin cloth with his venomous teeth gleaming and his brown skin glittering faintly in the sun, she groaned.

She had a pet hamster once which devoured both its wife and offspring immediately after the birth. Despite all the progress Nahuel had made on eating with a fork instead of eating Forks, Leah nearly panicked with an irrational (and kinda rational) fear that her imprint was not so far removed from Mr. Fluffy...even down to his adorable, beady eyes and "kiss-me-I'm-cute" face. Would this be some blood-drinking wolf? Visions of a red-eyed and thirsty canine ready to devour innocent humans danced through her panicking head. Or would this just be another weird kid? She thought of Seth when he was a baby and had a propensity for devouring sponges whole whenever their mother wasn't looking.

That was the problem with being one-of-a-kind. There was no "What to Expect When You're Expecting" book for shapeshifter females...and Bella Cullen may have been a resource for "true hybrid vamps" but she willingly married Edward Cullen. That fact alone excluded her from dispensing any useful life-wisdom into the life of Leah Elizabeth Clearwater.

She was so very not ready for this.

oooo

Sue brought her dinner once Carlisle left. She sat in the rocking chair in the corner of the room and silently watched Leah eat. When she placed the empty plate on the nightstand, she lay back on the bed with a sigh and closed her eyes. Sue came to sit on the bed next to her and ran her fingers through Leah's hair.

"It's growing out again," her mother observed.

Leah tried to shrug, but she was lying down and so it ended as more of a half-hearted flail.

"Yeah. I missed my long hair."

"I did too."

Sue untangled a particularly stubborn knot behind her ear before making her sit up. She was caught tight in her mother's arms, then, and Sue held her as close as she had back when Leah used to have nightmares after a scary movie.

"Nothing is more important than the work of being a Mother, Leah," she said. "Nothing. Your education and your work and your duties as a Wolf are important, but those are secondary purposes. Nothing is more important than the continuation of Life. That is our purpose and all other things exist to support that. You are creating Life and that is sacred and beautiful. This baby is part of you now forever, no matter how far he or she will go. You will always be Mother and it is the most important work you will ever do."

Leah nodded her head against her mother's shoulder.

"What did Nahuel say?"

"I'm not quite sure. He spouted out something that wasn't in English and he disappeared through a window before he translated his reaction. I hope he's ok. I was gonna go after him, but I wanted to make sure I was ok before I checked to see if he is ok."

"He'll be ok. You both will," Sue said. "I'll never forget when I told your father I was pregnant with you. That day, his mother was in the hospital, his brother had just been arrested, your father was in-between jobs, and I had just started nursing school. He wasn't sure whether to kiss me or cry and so he did a little of both. But I wouldn't have had it any other way. You and Seth are the very best part of our lives."

"I wish he was here," Leah said, suddenly aching with a desire to see her father's goofy grin after making a particularly bad joke. He'd have joined them in a hug on the bed, tickled her feet till she giggled, and then said something so terribly outrageous and silly that she'd have felt better immediately. She missed that. She missed him.

"Me too, baby girl. Me too. He'd be the happiest grandfather on this side of the Rockies," Sue said, the wistfulness on her face showing her mind had followed a trail similar to Leah's.

"Speaking of grandfathers, are you gonna tell him or am I?" Leah asked her mother, one eyebrow raised.

"Who? Charlie?"

"No, the mailman. Of course, Charlie. I am pretty sure he is gonna notice something is off when I blow up like a whale this month...and don't you dare suggest we say we are adopting Nahuel's nephew."

"Of course not. You are right. I'll talk to him...maybe I will ask Billy to help. It's been long enough and he needs to know."

"Whatever. Let me know when its safe to come back into the house...and if I need to keep Nahuel away for a few days."

Sue snorted a laugh. "I am a bit more concerned for Charlie's son-in-law than for Nahuel, honestly. You know he'd barely forgiven Edward for, well..."

"Running out-of-state with Bella only for her to fall out a window...and then ditching her in the forest only for her to turn catatonic for months on end and flee the country...and then stealing her away from him only to give her back as a creepy vampire edition Barbie doll, with a super-grow baby on her hip?"

"When you put it that way, there might not be much hope, even with all the flattery and baseball talk Edward tries to butter him up with."

Both women fell into shared giggles until Sue had to wipe a tear from her eye.

"Mama, what do I do now?" Leah asked, turning serious again. "Trying to hold down jobs when I am randomly disappear to fight errant vampires is hard enough. What about when I end up carrying around a watermelon-sized baby belly in place of the virgin-flat abs of three months earlier? It will really put a damper on my 'wholesome teenage tutor' vibe - even worse than my cutoff jeans and shoulder tattoo did and I'm pretty sure that scandalized half of the Forks PTA moms I tutor for. I can just see me explaining this to my students' parents.

"'Yes, Mrs. Smith. I eloped over Christmas break and will pop out a baby by May. I'm nothing if not efficient.'"

Sue sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, the black strands now dotted with silvery grey.

"You aren't gonna like this, but I think you are gonna need to swallow your pride for a little while...hear me out. You have had so much change happen so fast, you haven't had time to keep up. This is another change...a huge change...and even faster than any of us could have imagined. You need to have the space to figure out how to Mother and Wife and Leah. You can't do that when you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off and trying to conquer the world all by yourself. You are gonna need your family and you are gonna need your husband and there ain't no shame in needing your people. That's what we are here for. We gotta hold each other strong for us all to make it through."

"I hate being needy."

"I know. You pride yourself on being strong. You gotta know, you are never as strong or as weak as when you Mother. You are gonna be ok."

Leah nestled into her mother's shoulder, her senses inundated in that scent that was so uniquely Sue. It grounded her and calmed her and reminded her of "home."

"I know," she answered.

oooo

Author's notes:

I started reading a new book: Twilight on the Thunderbird: A Memoir of Quileute Indian Life by Howard Hansen, 2013. I based Sue's speech to Leah on a quote by a Quileute elder discussing gender roles and motherhood.

This is a short one, but all the stuff I had coming after felt like it needed to be in another chapter, so here is this one.