Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight

A/N: So this is technically my second fanfic, but I am really writing both at the same time. I oddly got the bug, 10 years after everyone else. This take place in the future, (currently 2021 - so 5 years from now). Most of the orginal events happened, but Paul never imprinted on Rachel and Sue never marries Charlie. Paul is Alpha, after Sam and Jared retired after having children.

I Want to See You Be Brave

CHAPTER 1

May, 2026:

I waved my fingers to my ears. "I can't hear you," I mouthed, staring at the video chat on my computer screen, trying to get my brother's attention. His mouth had been moving but his eyes had been elsewhere, his right hand padding a loft of curls on one disobedient child sitting in his lap, the other cradling his months old baby. A third child, the twin of the button pusher, whizzed around the room babbling in the background.

He quickly noticed and fixed the audio issue. "Sorry, Lee. I think Casey pressed the mute button…" A mischievous drooling two year old lunged forward and started to attack buttons. The call went on and off mute again. Me and my teenage children sat with blank faces in silence watching chaos unfold, thousands of miles away.

"No Case," said Seth in a firm but sweet way, "don't press that sweetie, then we can't hear Aunt Leah and your cousins." Back on mute. Back off mute. "Sweetie, daddy said no." Back on mute.

Seth put Casey down off his lap. Back off mute. She burst into tears, screaming.

"Pooooopy!" The other twin, Avery, shouted from off screen as baby Henry started to cry, startled from all the commotion. I laughed at how my shape-shifting warrior brother who had slayed hundreds of vampires over 20 years, many single handed, became so easily startled amid toddler chaos.

"Lex! Lex! I need help, babe!" Seth called out to my sister in law, "I need backup!"

"Baby days…" I said softly, shaking my head and looking over at my two enthralled teenagers who were watching these events unfold like it was a blood sport and Uncle Seth was desperately losing.

"Could not pay me an exorbitant amount of money to go back to diaper land," I quipped. He rolled his eyes at me then craned his neck, looking for Alex.

"Not helpful, Leah. I distinctly remember a similar scene at your house one Christmas," he turned back to look at me in the eye, "where Omar pooped on the floor in the middle of dinner and Antwan stepped in it. Merry Christmas," he deadpanned.

My 15 year old daughter Akeala busted out laughing at the image, while my 16 year old son Omar blushed.

"Daddy stepped in your poop!" Akila exclaimed. I smirked, hearing her still refer to him as daddy.

"Yeah! And your mom was not cool, calm or collected," Seth said, darting his eyes at me.

I crossed my legs and pushed a few strands of gray hair behind my ear. "I didn't say it was easy, I just said I'm not doing it again. I checked that box, thank you very much."

"Hey, Lee!" my sister in law broke in, a sniffling Casey now in her hands, her black bun bouncing on the top of her head as she tried to console her daughter. "Hey, guys!" she said to Omar and Akila, now close to the screen, ducking down and gleaning a big smile.

"Hi, Aunt Alex," they cheerily said back over Casey's cries.

"Oh my goodness! It's the witching hour over here!" she said in a humorous way, but still clearly overwhelmed. "I want to hear how you kiddos are doing," she said to my kids, "I'll text you guys later, ok?" Then, she whisked the twins away to another room in the house.

Seth rocked the baby who he managed to lull back to sleep through his sister's cries. Seth breathed a sigh of relief.

"Man!" he flashed us his pearly whites and shook his head. "So, Omar, dude - tell me about track," Omar lit up and started talking about running and the track team with his Uncle. Akeala's phone started buzzing and flashing with various notifications. She gave me a look asking if she could unlock it and I nodded at her. She grabbed it and went into the other room.

After Seth and Omar caught up, he also excused himself and went out of the room. Then it was just Seth and I and a sleeping baby on the video call.

Amongst all the craziness, Seth did look good. Now in his mid 30s, he still looked late 20s because of phasing. Despite the earlier shenanigans, fatherhood suited him. He was just as adoring and present of a father as our dad was, and I swelled with pride to witness it.

"Lee, are the kids out of earshot?" he asked me. My eyebrows furrowed and he realized I knew something was up more than baby drama. "It's mom," he said.

"Is the cancer back?" I asked with a slight alarm to my voice.

"No...I don't think so. But, she fell again."

"Ugh..." I was exasperated by her recent decline after the surgeries and chemo. "When?"

"Just today, this morning. She didn't hit her head this time, but bruised her leg pretty badly. She actually got lucky with this one, but she needs help, Lee."

"Ok. Well maybe I'll see if I can come for a weekend at the end of the month… "

"No, Leah," he pressed. "I mean…" his voice went down to a whisper. "I need your help. Like longer term. Maybe just for a few months. Can't you work from anywhere? It's just that I promised Alex that I'd stop phasing once the baby got here. But with all these vamps that have been hitting us we've gotten a few more recruits, and I'm sure there are more that are about to phase. Once they do, and we have them trained, I can finally retire. Things will be calm again, but with all of this and mom. Lee, I just need some help here. With the kids, work and pack stuff I can't check on her as much as I need to, she keeps falling, Alex can't with her shifts at the hospital…" he rambled on, clearly overwhelmed.

I took a deep sign. I knew this was coming. Once she got the breast cancer diagnosis I felt a strong pull to go back to La Push. It had been almost 20 years since I'd lived there and Chicago was my children's home, but that pull was so strong. But there was something deep keeping me back.

"Seth… but what if it's Omar. I don't want to do that to him…"

"Lee," he whispered leaning into the computer screen, "if he has the gene he can phase in Chicago if a vamp gets close enough. Wouldn't you rather him be here, so we can train him — so he does have to be alone."

I realized my bedroom door was open ajar, got up and closed it shut and then went back into the frame.

"Ugh, Paul is such a dominant, hard ass Alpha, Seth. Omar is like me. He's not going to just eat his shit up with a spoon."

"I'll train him myself Lee," he implored, " 'sides, Paul has mellowed out over the years…kinda…"

I rolled my eyes at that statement. I had mostly tried to steer clear of pack bullshit since I left, but every few years or so there would be a bonfire that coincided with a weekend we were visiting. The last one was a few years ago. I distinctly recalled him barking alpha orders out like he was tossing around candy while he hit on random 20 something girls. Not the ideal role model for my impressionable teenage son.

Seth could see that I wasn't convinced. He took the baby, now fully asleep and put him down in a nearby bassinet. He crouched back close to the screen.

"Lee, when Antwan died, I told Paul to stick it and took a 6 month sabbatical from the pack. And that was a pretty fucking crazy time with the pandemic. You needed me, so I was there. Leah, I need your help right now. Omar and Akeala are older, they can help out with mom too, maybe babysit a little…they will be fine. There's a lot of pack kids now, so if something happens they can go through it together and we can actually guide them."

My face softened at my little brother's pleas.

"I'm so sorry things are so crazy right now, Seth.

"If he even shifts at all, I'll oversee his training. Okay?"

I signed and resigned myself to returning to La Push. At least for a little while. "Let me talk to the kids. I think I could probably swing for a chunk of summer…"His muscles softened as he breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled his boyish grin at me.

"You may be old now, but you are still very cute," I said to him.

"35 is not old. And of course I am cute, how do you think I got a hot babe like Lex," he smiled again as she entered the room.

"Whew, those girls are going to kill me. I'm not sure how you did it, Leah."

I glanced at a picture of the four of us, placed prominently on my desk. Antwan's warm chocolate hands around my waist, a 9 year old Omar and an 8 year old Akila smiling broadly and huddled close to us.

"I suppose there are harder things…and older kids certainly present their own challenges," I chuckled.

And then, a soft knock on the door. Omar opened it wide eyed with his sister's phone in his hand.

Akeala POV

I knew he was going to break up with me. For weeks he kept avoiding my questions and just repeating that he wasn't into Maya Peterson. They were friends, he said matter of factly and I was being crazy, jealous, and paranoid. And maybe I was, he had liked all her posts, they made two dance videos and uploaded them that week and all I could do was watch them over and over again in a loop like a psychotic hamster on a teenage social media wheel.

I pressed the play arrow again and again, forcing my eyes to look at the way their hands grazed each other between moves and how they locked eyes and laughed boisterously at their own absurdity.

"Stop, watching that shit!" my older brother said to me earlier in the day, throwing a pillow at me trying to knock my phone out of my hand. But I couldn't, I was passively watching as my first love slipped away and I couldn't tear myself away from it.

At least I thought he was my first love. His beautiful blue eyes and warm smile melted through me. I couldn't even believe it when Devin asked me to be his girlfriend over winter break. It was invigorating, holding his hand down the hallway, laughing together and taking pictures while feeding each other spoonfuls of ice cream.

But now it was ending. I was sure of it. I was distracted momentarily watching my usual unflappable uncle wilt around his three children, but then like a lightening bolt my phone flashed and brought me back to my current anxiety.

My mom signaled it was okay to breakaway and I grabbed my phone to see what the notification was.

Maya Peterson added a new photo. I clicked on it. And there it was. She and Devin kissing on the lips with a heart emoji. And then over a dozen DMs from "friends":

Girrrrrl! Did you see Maya's post?

OMFG

Dead!

WTF?!

There were more comments and they all tagged me so I'd see it over and over again. And then, like an afterthought, I got a text message from Devin:

Devin: Hey, Keal. I don't think it's working out between us. Sorry.

Sadness poured through my whole body. I was just completely crushed. I flung myself into my bed and as tears pooled out of my eyes. Omar, now off the call with Uncle Seth, had seen it all on his phone and came over to my room.

"Break up with that shithead, Keal," he said.

I threw him my phone. "He just did me the honors." Omar looked at the text message and immediately clenched his fists.

"Fucking douchbag. He sent this to you after she posted that picture? I'm going to fucking murder him."

Tears still poured into my pillow, but I turned my head, unable to say anything except, "where is mom?" I knew the answer so before he could say anything I left him behind in my room scrolling through the social media messages.

I got up and went back to mom's bedroom. She was still on the video call with Uncle Seth. The door was open.

"Seth… but what if it's Omar. I don't want to do that to him…" she said.

"Lee," I could barely hear him whisper, "if he has the gene he can phase in Chicago if a vamp gets close enough. Wouldn't you rather him be here, so we can train him — so he does have to be alone."

I heard footsteps make their way back to the door. Whatever they were talking about, I wasn't supposed to hear it. I swiftly went back to my room as my mom shut her door. What about Omar? Phase? Vamp? What's a vamp? What gene? Train him for what?

What the hell were they talking about?

A/N: What did you guys think? Would love your reviews. What will happen when they return to La Push? Will Akeala find out what they are talking about?