AN: I just realized, I made Rye entirely too young for Leah. Please do not judge me for making a seventeen-and-a-half-year-old imprint on a twenty-two year old woman. I thought at the time that Leah was also like, nineteen. Did the research, turns out she's twenty-two by the time I write this fanfiction. XD

AN (continued): To solve this issue, I'm going to rewrite time a little and say that Leah is back to being nineteen years old again. Thanks for reading! :)


Chapter Fifteen: Rejuvenation

Bella's POV:

As soon as Renesmee walked into the room, I knew that she was planning something. She had a look in her eye that hinted at mischief of sorts, but I knew Renesmee wasn't a mischievous child. What was Jacob talking her into?

I glanced at Jacob with an accusatory look, and he glanced back at me with a playful one. That's when I noticed the picture in Renesmee's hands. She had drawn an exquisite portrait of Leah in her wolf form. I also noticed that there was a subtle shadow behind her, stretched and molded into the shape of a familiar ruby-red shapeshifter.

I looked at Jacob again. 'Shrewd, Jacob Black, shrewd…' I thought to him.

All this was in the space of only a second.

Renesmee pranced over to Leah. In her sweet, singing voice she said, "Good evening, Leah! Are you feeling better?" Not wanting to wait for Leah to answer, she quickly moved on. "I drew a picture for you!"

Leah glanced just momentarily at me, enough to show me that she really wanted to be on the move. She wanted to be out of this room as quickly as possible. Renesmee handed Leah the sheet of paper, and I waited for her reaction.

It was almost instantaneous. Her face went slack as she stared at the portrait. I, along with surely every other vampire in the room, could hear her pulse pick up in pace as she stared at the picture.

"Renesmee," Leah said, her voice not much higher than a whisper, though she knew we could all hear her just fine. "this is incredible."

Renesmee flashed Leah a dazzling smile in appreciation of the compliment. Before she could turn to leave, Leah got her attention again. She pointed to a spot on the page. "Where did you see this man?"

Moment of truth. Renesmee giggled a peal of bell-like laughter. "Well, he's right over there, silly."

I saw it in Leah's eyes that she did not believe she was that lucky.

"Renesmee, you weren't supposed to say that, silly," I said, before giving Renesmee a quick hug, moving faster than anyone could see. I turned to Leah and exaggeratedly crossed my fingers.

Suddenly Leah glanced at me with a look of understanding, and began to shift on the cot. Her muscles were stiff from resting so long and physical exertion, but none of us stopped her as she slowly got to her feet and slowly walked around to the other side of the curtain.

She just stopped at the edge of the curtain, staring at Rye. Rye stared back at her warily.

After a moment's pause, Leah spoke again. "What happened to him?" she asked, moving to sit by his bedside. "Why isn't he moving?"

"His body's tired," Edward said quietly, appearing in the room at my side. "It's currently holding him down to rest, but when he generates enough energy again, he'll be up and moving about again normal as ever."

I could see Leah's shoulders fall a little in relief as she just stared into Rye's eyes. But as I watched, he looked away from her, glancing past Leah at Edward to ask some unspoken question.

"No, she's really not," Edward replied. "Seriously, you might even surprise yourself to hear that she doesn't care in the slightest."

I saw Leah tense automatically, suddenly in defensive mode. She turned to Edward with an angry glint in her eye. I felt myself instinctively begin to snarl, but I held it in. Surely she wouldn't attack Edward without reason.

"What exactly don't I care about?" Leah asked slowly, staring hard at Edward.

"That Rye is very clearly not human," Edward replied simply.

That took out Leah's fire. She looked slightly abashed, honestly. I could almost hear the word her expression was saying. Oh.

Beside me, Edward rolled his eyes at another unspoken thought from Rye.

"Sorry, 'That Rye is very clearly not human.'" Edward reiterated, stressing the not.

Leah's face grew somewhat hard and she turned back around, grabbing Rye's hand. She leaned forward over the bed, and for just a moment I wondered if she was planning on slapping him or something. She looked like she might've been considering it.

"Rye, I spend half of my time on four legs, with a tail. I've eaten whole deer raw, and had a week where I had a problem with fleas," Leah said, "If you think that a pair of wings and horns are going to scare me away, you're going to have a much harder time that you think trying to get rid of me. In fact…" she said, leaning over to whisper in his ear, "I'm rather fond of the color red."

At this point, I realized that it would probably be appropriate to let them be for now. Silently, I left the room, to which everyone else followed suit. Edward held my hand as he escorted me downstairs like a gentleman would introduce a lady to a ball. It was an old-fashioned gesture I was learning to appreciate.

"Well," Edward said, looking at me with a humorous glint in his eye, "All your scheming, and the one to actually tell Leah is your daughter, who came up with a plan in less than five minutes."

I smacked his arm mockingly, but I knew he wouldn't feel it, really. "It's hard work to actually come up with a plan when Alice is just sitting there saying, 'Won't work', 'No', 'Nope', and 'Not even close'!"

Edward just laughed. "Actually, I find it rather refreshing. Saves us a lot of time, usually."

I just roll my eyes at him.

It doesn't even occur to me that Edward and I are outside until he's already led me all the way to his car and is opening the door for me.

"Are we going somewhere?" I ask, as I slide into the seat.

"Yes," he said, as he pulls out of the driveway at what would, for a normal human, be a dangerously high speed. "Jacob wanted to take Renesmee back to La Push, and we figured that you wouldn't worry about it as much if it was a spur-of-the-moment sort of decision." Seeing my frowning face, he added with a laugh, "Jacob should already be there, so it's no use to try jumping out of the car."

"It should be illegal to trick someone into playdates,"I huffed again. "Really, this is just plain and simple kidnapping."

Edward raised an eyebrow, not even focusing on the road. He didn't need to. As with everything, he was absolutely amazing at driving. "I think it's hard to kidnap my own wife. Especially to take on another date."

"Maybe so, but the worst part is that I actually already said he could!" I groaned. "I slipped, and said yes she could go out there again. Ugh."

"Well, since you did, and since I assume he told Renesmee about your confirmation, she is already there at La Push, and you know how she feels about Claire. The two of them are already best-friends, last I heard," Edward replied, taking my hand in his. "I'm sure you made her very happy by allowing her to go back to La Push."

"Ugh, now you're just guilting me into saying yes again," I groaned, though I was taking pleasure in the electric tingle that his touch sent flashing through me.

"Well, you did say you didn't want to be tricked anymore," Edward laughed. "Guilt is the only option left."

I sat up, wanting to change the subject. "So, where are we going tonight?"

"Well, I thought I would take you to Seattle to pick out some presents for a certain someone's upcoming birthday…"

Alice. She had adopted September 14th of 1901 as her original human birthday. Though she didn't feel particularly attached to the date, it would be the first time of which any of us would be able to remember celebrating her "actual" human birthday, over 108 years later. We were all trying to find ways to celebrate, when Emmett suggested that, to make things interesting, we try to plan a surprise party that would fool even Alice.

The challenge was, honestly, too good for most of us to pass up, and each person had their own way of trying to subtly sneak through the holes sometimes left in Alice's ability.

Carlisle and Esme had taken the direct approach; a spontaneous shopping trip (excluding Alice) with spontaneous purchases so Alice wouldn't be able to see what they had decided to buy her.

Emmett and Rosalie had been, for almost a week, going full-on "Mission Impossible"-mode, just trying to get around Alice's built-in detection. Eventually, Emmett managed to get around Alice's visions by going into an internet café and randomly dialing numbers until he managed to somehow find a fashion designer who would ship whatever Emmett's purchase had been (He and Rosalie won't tell any of us, still trying to be inconspicuous from Alice).

Jasper had the worst time of all of us, because Alice, as his mate, was protectively watching him around the clock. For nearly a month he had to figure out a plan without actually doing any "figuring". Finally, he somehow struck on the idea to simply use fire against fire. He subtly began to bring up (in casual conversation, just a passing image on the screen he was watching, a random thought he'd have Edward narrate for him) candidates for gifts he could buy Alice, then watch carefully and read her emotions to know if she liked the idea or not. The whole time, Alice couldn't shake the visions of Jasper plotting something against her, but she was very confused when the prank she had assumed he was planning never came.

Edward and I, however, had had the fortunate insight to realize the one factor that could foil Alice's ability; the wolves. Edward and I had asked Seth or sometimes Jacob to partake in the conversation of what we could get Alice for her birthday, knowing that Alice would not be able to see our futures if we involved the werewolves of La Push. Not only that, I knew that we were actually heading to the borders of La Push to pick Seth up so he could help us shop (and block Alice) with ease.

Alice, this whole time, was suddenly rather self-conscious about not being able to see what most of the members of her family were doing half the time they were away. It was making the rest of us begin to feel bad about keeping secrets, but we knew she would be honestly surprised if we could at least plan an event without her suspecting anything. It was a race; the need to keep things a secret for the big reveal versus the rest of us feeling horrible for making Alice feel bad.

Luckily, Alice's birthday was only two days away. It wouldn't be long now. We just had to finish shopping, and invite the Denalis to the party (them being the only other friends of the family who could really come to Alice's 109th birthday). Carlisle and Esme had already gotten most of the decorations, Emmett and Rosalie were taking forever to figure out how to somehow make a cake.

The car slowed, and Seth was already there, with a big grin on his face. The werewolves didn't have to be so careful to hide anything, because they all knew Alice couldn't see them.

He loped over to the car, and slid in quickly. "Go ahead, we've probably only got a few more minutes until she starts to wonder."

He knew the plan, like I said he had helped us formulate it. Edward started the car and began barreling towards Seattle. Seth chatted with us casually, and we chatted back.

Things were going well in La Push. Billy caught a ginormous salmon the other day, and between all the fish the werewolves had had a fish-fry contest between Paul and Embry. Paul had won, but only by just barely. Had we seen Jessica and Mike recently? Man, they were back-and-forth bickering and making out half the time. It was like a soap opera. One time, Quil even snuck up to watch from the forest's edge with a bowl of popcorn. He almost laughed and gave himself away when Mike tripped over a log on First Beach, while arguing with Jessica.

We were there before we knew it, and we all got out of the car. We walked into the store, and immediately walked into the "online pickup" line. Because we had been the only ones in our family to utilize the werewolves' helpful ability, we were actually able to do some research and find a good gift for Alice. One that we hoped she would appreciate. We had asked that it come wrapped already. We didn't want to give away the surprise until the time it came to unwrap the gift.

We also picked out a nice card, and Edward wrote to the Denali clan to invite them to Alice's party. Seth shyly asked us, on behalf of the pack, whether or not the Denali clan drank humans. After our reassurance, he looked very relieved and said that as long as the Denalis observed the Cullen's end of the treaty as well, they shouldn't have any issues.

Seth, all in all, was much more excited about the prospect of doing something nice for one of the Cullens than almost any of the other wolves. He was almost as invested in this party going well as the rest of the Cullens, honestly. It was adorable, in some ways.

I personally was unnaturally excited about this party. Never had I ever been so eager to participate in a social event than this one and, of course, my wedding with Edward nearly two years ago.

Wow, has it already been two years? Time flies when it doesn't apply to you anymore, doesn't it?

I wondered how Leah and Rye were doing as we sat there, waiting for our gift to be delivered to the front desk…


Leah's POV:

For the longest time, we just sat there. I sat by his bedside, not willing to leave and perhaps lose him again. Call me paranoid. I didn't care. I just knew that I absolutely couldn't leave him again.

Which is why I also knew that I would have to accept food from the bloodsuckers. There was no telling how long Rye would be out cold, resting, and I wasn't confident enough or tempted enough to go out into the woods to hunt.

I heard a car leaving, but I never strayed from the stool on which I sat. In my hand, Rye's fingers still clutched my hand as though he was awake, his eyes simply closed for a moment. But I knew he was deeply asleep.

He was also really hot. I don't mean figuratively (completely, anyway), rather than physically. I was afraid that he was sick with a fever or something, but I saw no signs of any symptoms, and the doc reassured me that he could find nothing wrong with Rye, other than the obviously strange shapeshifting.

And so I waited. I sat on the stool, and looked at the setting sun as I waited for Rye to wake up again.

It was about the time that I decided I would have to go downstairs and grab something to eat when I felt motion in my hand. I looked up, and saw Rye gazing back down at me from the bottom of his eye.

"Hey," he mouthed.

"Hey," I said, sitting up straighter. "Are you feeling better now?"

His head shifted in sync with his shoulders in a shrug, "a little."

"Think you can sit up?" I asked.

He grimaced, and at first I took this as a no until he smiled again. "Won't know until I try."

Slowly, and grimacing all the while, he pushed himself up against the wall into a sitting position. I helped him as I could, but there wasn't much for me to do. Once he was in position, he leaned back against the headboard.

"Ouch," he whispered.

"Are you okay? Does it hurt anywhere?" I asked, noting with surprise just how strong his body really looked from an upright angle.

"No, thank you, I'm fine," Rye whispered.

His hand reached up and grabbed mine again. I looked back at his expression.

"Are you?" he whispered again.

His touch sent a shimmering sort of energy through my arm. It felt amazing.

"I'm fine," I said. Honestly I was impressed how level my own voice sounded in my ears. Just like I was talking casually with someone I had just met.

He gazed deeper into my eyes, and I couldn't help but wonder at the marbled grey hues in his eyes. Like thundering stormclouds. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," I said. After a moment's hesitation, I added, "I'm going to be right back with something to eat. Do you want anything?"

"Yeah," Rye whispered, groaning a little as he sat up straighter. "Food sounds amazing."

I was pleased that bit by bit, his voice was coming back to him. But I began to freak out mildly as he suddenly swung his legs out from under the cover, putting his feet against the floor. He swayed in place, as though dizzy.

"Be careful!" I said automatically, "You still need rest!"

"I've gotten all the rest that I'm going to get at this point. My body needs to get used to living and moving again. Let me walk, I can do it," Rye told me, steadying himself. With a quick motion, he was standing, though he looked like he regretted moving so quickly. "Aaaahh…"

"Really, I'll bring you back something to eat—" I began, performing what I could only assume the verb "fluttering" would entail, as I tried to make sure he didn't hurt himself anymore.

"I need to walk, Leah," Rye said, his voice growing steadily steadier. "The aches will work themselves out if I give them the chance."

"Well at least come here, you idiot, and let me help you walk for a little ways," I said, positioning his left arm around my shoulder to help prop him up as we went towards the door. I set my arm around his shoulder as well, and along the full length I could feel the pleasant glowing sensation as I touched his scale-and-human skin(s). "You won't be able to get down the stairs on your own, yet."

"I can do it," Rye said, though he did not move his arm.

Together, we walked out into the hallway of the second story, and towards the staircase. Rye leaned on me as we came down the stairs, one at a time. It was only when we finally reached the bottom step that the actual tenants of the house stepped forward.

"Oh, hello dear!" Esme said, walking quickly forward. For only a moment I felt an instinctive growl build up in my chest as she approached, but it died as I soon as I recalled that Esme was actually one of the most thoughtful of the bloodsuckers. And then I saw what she was carrying. Food and clothes. She had even put on rubber gloves, probably to avoid as much of applying the sickly-sweet vampire scent as she could. I knew I was forced to admit, this was a thoughtful gesture towards us. "It's nice to see you up and about! I heard that you two were hungry, so I cooked some quick food. There's more on the table if you want it!"

Rye turned and looked at the dining room table. I could almost see the expression of acute hunger in his eyes as he stared at the table laden with a basket of dinner rolls, at least two kinds of meat, and several condiments.

"Thank you, Mrs. Cullen," Rye said, beginning to turn towards the table. "I really apprecia—"

"It's just fine, dear. Who else is going to eat all this food we prepare for the human charade?" Esme said softly. "And you can call me Esme."

With that, Esme passed us by, and the doctor vampire walked into the room.

"Carlisle and I are going out to hunt, we'll be back later. Jasper took Alice out to Seattle earlier to shop, and Emmett and Rosalie should still be at their house. You should have the house to yourself for maybe an hour. Have fun!" Esme said, as she and Carlisle walked out into the brisk night air.

And just like that, all the bloodsuckers had cleared out of the house.

Rye limped over to the table and plopped down in a chair. I sat down in another one nearby. I was prepared to be disgusted by the taste of the food, expecting it to taste somewhat like it was riddled with vampire scent, but as soon as the first bite of meat hit my tongue I realized just how hungry I really was.

Rye ate like there was no tomorrow. While I had been afraid of perhaps looking like a pig (or perhaps a starving wolf, which I was) with the amount of food I was eating, Rye was easily out-eating me by at least double the amount. By the time I finished, the rest of the food was gone as well. Rye looked more animated than a moment ago, too, as he set down his fork.

"Aaaah," Rye said, closing his eyes. "That was good."

I nodded. I was honestly surprised. Even though the food had been touched by the same sickly-sweet aroma that haunted the entire house, I couldn't detect it. Maybe it had just been my hunger, having not eaten for the better part of the day. Maybe it was something else. I didn't know.

Rye turned to me, his eyes searching my face eagerly. Then, after a moment, something came over him, akin to shyness, "So, Leah," he began slowly, "I suppose we should start by formally introducing ourselves—"

"Screw formally," I interrupted him, eager to actually talk to my imprint. "You already know my name, and I already know yours."

Rye gave me a lopsided grin, though he still looked somewhat bashful. "So, then, how do you want to start this?"

I thought about my first question for a moment. "How old are you?"

Rye glanced over at me for a moment. "About seventeen-and-a-half. How about you?"

"Nineteen," came my response. (AN: I refer you to the top of this chapter. XD I'll stop interrupting now.)

He gave me a subtle grin as he thought of his next question. "What's your favorite color?"

"Grey."

"Cool. Gray's a nice color. Like your wolf form?" Rye asked.

'Like your eyes,' I thought, but I wasn't about to say that out loud. "Yeah. How about yours?"

"I like natural colors," Rye said.

"Natural colors?"

"Like the green of a forest in the rain, the orange in a campfire, the grey in thunderclouds… that sort of thing. But as for just a normal favorite color, I think I'd say purple."

"Why's that?"

"I don't know. It just seems like me. I identify with purple."

"You are a very purple person," I added, eliciting a laugh from Rye. I smiled.

Rye swung his leg under the table, as though testing it. "So, do you live here?"

I snorted. "No way. I only came here to keep my brother safe. And to meet Bella's mother."

Rye looked over at me with a confused expression. "Safe?"

"From the bloodsuckers. I mean, they haven't broken our treaty, but I still don't really trust them…"

Rye grinned. "I don't know. The Cullens seem to be alright. Although any others I might have to agree with you."

"You've met other leeches?" I asked, my eyes widening.

"Yeah, quite a few, actually," Rye said, his expression quickly darkening. I knew this was a dangerous topic of conversation for him.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I said.

Rye did not respond for a moment. But slowly, his expression lightened again, and he smiled at me. "Okay, thanks."

There was a moment of stillness. Awkward, horrible stillness.

"Have you ever been to La Push before?" I finally asked. He had already asked where I lived, basically. Might as well pursue that topic of conversation.

Rye shook his head. "I've never been to Forks or 'La Push' before. I just came here recently."

"Would you like to go?" I asked. "I'd be happy to show you around."

Rye bit his bottom lip and looked out the window. "Maybe later—"

"If you're worried about your other form, don't be," I quickly reassured him, "We Quileutes are actually very open-minded about the shapeshifter thing. In fact, I'm sure my mother would love to meet you, and Billy Black, too."

Rye glanced at me as if to gauge my expression.

"Seriously, everyone already knows," I added. "It's kind of a part of our culture. There are already seventeen others that we know are shapeshifters, so it's not like they should be too surprised, if at all."

Rye seemed hesitant still, so I finished, "I mean, you don't have to if you don't want to. I just thought you might like to see where I spend most of my time."

Rye glanced out the window again. "Okay, if you say they won't… be surprised…"

"Great!" I said, standing up. Then I thought of something else. "Oh, I just realized I ran here. Um, do you trust me?"

"Of course," he said, as if it was totally natural that he should trust me only having met me a few hours ago. He stood up, grimacing only slightly as he got to his feet.

"Great, follow me," I said, walking outside. He followed close behind me, and when we came outside, I turned to face him.

"Okay, when I shift, you get on my back and lay low," I said, warning him. "When we get there, I'll give you a signal. Don't follow me for a few minutes, I'll come back to get you."

Rye nodded as if these instructions made perfect sense to him, and for all I knew they actually did. My brain was a little short-circuited at the moment.

I phased, and knelt to the ground. I felt Rye climb onto my back and lean forward, like a jockey on a horse. I stood.

'Here goes nothing,' I thought. I took a few steps forward at a fast pace to make sure Rye was holding on tightly. This was about to get speedy.

Confident he would hold on to my fur, I dashed forward. I couldn't see his expression, and I made sure not to crash through any brush. It might feel just like caresses to my wolf fur, but to Rye on top I wasn't sure if he had the same effect.

We crossed into La Push territory a few minutes later, and I slowed to a trot. I turned my head back to glance at Rye, who was still on my back. He was grinning, and looked unharmed. I gave him a wolfish grin before paying attention to where I was going. After a few more steps, I stopped and knelt down again.

Rye slid off my back and stood on the ground as I dashed off to change back into the spare clothes the Quileutes left for the members of the pack. I threw something on and jogged back as a human. I grinned. I couldn't wait to show Rye around La Push.


Renee stormed into the Swan residence. It had only been a few minutes ago that she had defied Billy and left La Push. There were pine needles in her hair, and her daughter was still cradled lovingly in her arms. She was scraped up, and already her body was back in perfect condition. She loved her werewolf healing capabilities.

Charlie rounded the corner, and did a double-take. Then a triple-take.

"Renee!" he said, surprise coloring every feature on his face. "How are you—when did—I thought you were—"

"Charlie, everything is alright. I was on the way to the hospital, but Isabella came a little early," Renee said softly. Isabella was sleeping soundly in the towels that smelled faintly of vampires and pine trees. "Carlisle was passing by, and he pulled over and helped me through it. I was extremely lucky."

"But—" Charlie said, his eyes on Renee's waistline that was now small enough to wear normal Tshirts again. "I thought that you would have to be in a wheelchair for about a month or something like that! Should you be up and walking around?"

"I'm fine, Charlie," Renee said, biting her lip subtly. "Carlisle didn't really have a wheelchair, and I didn't really need it anyways. I deflated like a balloon, oddly enough. I feel fine. A little sore, but I'm fine."

The phone rang, and Renee's head whipped to the sound. Who would that be, at this hour? Her mind raced with possibilities. Either it would be one of the Cullens, or maybe Billy, trying to get Renee on the phone.

"Charlie," Renee said, stopping him before he could pick up the receiver. "That's probably Billy. He's pretty miffed with me at the moment."

Charlie's face colored a little bit. He looked angry, but at Renee or Billy, she couldn't say. "What happened?"

"Well, Carlisle was too close to the reservation's land for Billy's liking when he helped me. You know how Billy feels about Dr. Cullen."

Charlie nodded. He knew how his best friend had ranted, when Dr. Cullen had moved into town.

"What happened to make Billy mad with you, though?"

"Well, I stood up for Carlisle. Billy gave me a choice. He said to choose the Cullens or my friends at the reservation. I said that I didn't want to be forced into a decision, and I left," Renee explained.

Charlie's face grew red. He knew how his wife felt about both her 'friends' on the reservation and her friends of the Cullen family. He knew she felt very strongly about both of them. His hand moved away from the receiver. He stared at the ringing telephone for a moment. After a moment, he turned away from the phone.

"I'll answer him when I calm down," Charlie said, moving away from the phone and towards Renee. His eyes lit up with his usual sparkle as he stared down at the child in Renee's arms. "Hello, Isabella."

Isabella's eyes opened as Charlie addressed her, and she giggled. Charlie reached down and touched her rosy cheek, and she giggled again.

"Can I hold her in a little bit?" Charlie asked. Renee laughed.

"She's your daughter too, y'know," Renee said, but she did not want to let go of her daughter just yet. She wanted more time.

"I know, but I thought you might want to keep holding her for a little bit," Charlie said. Renee was grateful that he had had enough foresight to know this about her.

"Thank you," Renee said, smiling down at her newborn daughter in her arms. Through the sadness of leaving her pack, she felt the mother-wolf within her smiling at the pretty picture her daughter painted.