Finally back.

"Thirteen" - The Antlers

Interlude II

Monday, September 12, 2005

At the border, the old sedan was crumpled in on the passenger's side, crushed against a tree like a soda can. Oddly, it would seem that something had torn off the driver's side door, but no one besides Harry could account for the source.

It would later feel like one sharp instant:

Leah's feet pounding against the ground and the earth rolling under her soles. Edward pulling her by the wrist, almost snapping bone and tendons. The taste of the air drying, dying, and the pinch of gray between her tears.

Vampires didn't attack Harry Clearwater. But they had come close.

Seeing her father in the hospital for the second time in just a few short years. Only this time Edward hadn't been there to save Leah's father. Harry had trooped on all on his own.

"His heart?" she croaked to the doctor.

The nurse took in her bare feet, her messy hair, and wet clothes, but not after noting the Cullen boy behind the girl like a guard.

"It's a miracle it's still beating. But the other injuries… It'll be a long recovery."

Leah muscled her way through the staff to stand at her father's feet. So many tubes and contraptions covered his wrinkled face and barrel chest it was difficult to separate man and machine. But his heart was beating and he was breathing. Leah hadn't done the worst to him.

"I'm sorry, Dad," she sobbed into her fist, teeth near-breaking the skin.

Edward pulled her to his chest and kissed the top of her head. "Shh…"

"I'm sorry," she repeated, even if it didn't make sense to anyone else but her.

She didn't touch him, just stood there, willing him to survive. Who knew what she'd do to him if she did. But she'd surely find a way to ruin him eventually if the past was anything to go off of.

With her grief came a heightened sense of awareness. Of the monitors beeping, staccato rhythms, all of them out of sync, so much so that it was more a steady drumroll throughout the hospital building, punctuated by the shuffling slippers and squeaking sneakers. The glass and wood and brick all seemed to shudder with the heavy breathing, the gasping, the crying. All pain. Somewhere, down the hall, a laugh rang out and it felt so wrong, she flinched away from it.

"Leah," Edward breathed in her ear.

For half a second, she started to curl into his side, but then something brushed past her, drew her in. She locked eyes with the nurse nearest her, an older lady who pointed and said something, but no sound came out.

Edward's icy grip loosened, and she watched him watch her, his alabaster skin glowing under the hideous fluorescents. He, too, was speaking without noise. She backed away from him, crashing into the doorway. When she righted herself, she felt the buzzing energy at her fingertips. The fighter in her was awake and hellbent on destroying the lurking vampire.

"Come out!" she whispered harshly, tracking the sickly sweet reek. Doctors and nurses gave her a wide berth, a few of them reaching out, but most of them recoiling. A little boy pointed as she rounded on the waiting room. Leah didn't listen to any of them. She marched out of the hospital, nearly crashing into a gurney and crossed to the parking lot.

"Come out you fucking coward!" she screamed.

"Leah!" Edward's image was at the edge of her consciousness but he was like a bird flitting in an endless desert.

"It's me you want!" She was deeper in the woods now, just barely away from civilization. Her glowing hand thrust into the core of a tree. Her limb was caked in rot when she pulled it out. "You want me, don't you?"

"Leah!"

"You knew what I'd do if you dared to kill him," she screeched to the sky, her voice cracking at the end. "You knew I'd tear you into pieces. You're afraid of me. You're pathetic."

She sent a blast of energy heavenward, and firecrackers went off, blue sparks lighting the sky like lightning. Above them a thundercloud ripped open, and the heavy rain blurred her sight.

"Leah!" Edward grabbed her by the sleeve, dragging her to his chest. He held her hands in his, hissing just barely at the painful energy. "Please."

They fell into silence, listening to her ragged breath. Her few tears fell silently, blending into the storm. Lightning struck the tree, she'd punched, but they didn't run. Couldn't.

"My fault," she whispered.

"Stop it."

"They know what I did to Naomi."

"Who?"

"Somebody who cares," she growled, frustrated with herself.

Edward cleared his throat, only to drag out time. "Ella should know," he tried to tell her.

"She won't hide me." And Leah allowed herself a thought she'd been hiding from own conscience. "She may even want to leave me to take the blame out here. With Echo gone, who knows anymore?"

"But -" He closed his eyes, and she showed him the dangers of the realm - what they had been in the process of becoming, not too long ago. A place where fairies were denied their own magic. A prison. "Right," he said at her reminder, venom creeping into his tone. "It's just you and me, and those we love."

"Nowhere is safe. But here is all we have," she said, brushing wet hair from Edward's forehead.

"Yes." His gaze darkened to a pure black against the sooty skies.

"What is it?"

"Nothing."

"No, what?"

He avoided her eyes. The words were hard for him to get out. "It is as much as you are thinking."

"I'm not - " She swallowed, pressing her hand to her sopping wet shirt. "I had an idea - a random idea."

"And a dangerous one, which is why neither of us wished to give voice to it." He was quick to strike down her hope.

"But you're weighing my safety against everyone else's."

"I refuse to feel guilty for that," he challenged her as the thunder boomed once more.

"Leah!" a faint, female voice called.

Her eyes snapped to the direction they'd come, that of the parking lot. Her mother.

Leah launched herself into high speed, forcing herself to slow down as she reached the somewhat populated car lot. She threw herself into her mother's arms hard enough for it to echo slightly in her sensitive ears. It must have hurt. But Sue was strong, even with her heart broken and her family shattered.

"I'm sorry," Sue sighed.

"No, me." And she realized her mom had lost as much as she had, but how unfair it was for this woman, who lived on the edges of the supernatural world.

Sue squeezed her tighter. "Shhh."

"Where's Seth?"

Sue peered around Leah to where Edward was keeping his distance. "With Sam." Her tone was regretful.

"Not Billy?"

"Sam was the only one who could reach him," Sue struggled to say.

"I -" Leah stumbled backwards. "Did he…?"

Sue gave a humorless laugh. It was then that Leah noticed her mother still hadn't opened the umbrella in her hand. "It was fate," she said bitterly.

Sam had told her Seth had shifted and promptly fallen asleep, perhaps as some defense mechanism. To her irritation, her brother was indeed left all by himself, but thankfully, the others were all patrolling the perimeter. He was just a mile outside their family home, by the time she found him, and wide awake.

She tucked herself into his side, a gray splotch against his sandy fur. How funny that he was finally bigger than her and yet so much younger. So young for his life to change irreversibly and tragically. For a while, they watched their house in the distance, the way the last step of the porch was beginning to splinter apart. Someone would need to fix it soon.

An errand thought passed through Seth.

'You can shift back?' Leah asked, surprised.

'I don't want to.'

She nudged him with her nose. 'It can eat at you. It can ruin your life and tear up everything that's still good.'

'What, guilt?'

She tilted her head, considering. 'No, grief.' Conquering the guilt was still a foreign task, but she thought she was getting better at this part.

Seth stared at her, and those deep brown eyes shone with innocence and understanding. He made a sad noise in between a growl and a whine.

And Leah leaned against him, feeling her resolve strengthen. For her mother, for her brother, and especially for her father, she was going to do everything to protect her home.

No matter the consequences.