"Leah? Can you turn that down please?"
Leah grumbled but lowered the volume on the television by exactly three volume points. Enough so that Sue knew she had lowered the volume, but not enough to make any real difference.
It was a Sunday morning after a night patrol with Jacob, and with nowhere to be, Leah was laying on the couch, listening to Sue attempt to talk Seth through his geometry homework and flipping through channels on the television, trying to find something to watch. Where she once had dreaded patrols with Jacob, she'd come to look forward to them. She rarely patrolled with Quil or Embry, but Jake's mind was a welcome refuge from her brother's incessant cheeriness and thoughts of the baby vamp. So she was in a good mood, all things considered.
As the weeks had passed, Leah's life fell into a simple routine. She worked four to five days a week, and patrolled one day a week. Night patrols alternated between the packs, with two members of each pack taking each shift. Daytime patrols, however, were a solo gig, since the Elders and everyone agreed that vampires were less likely to attack during the day (and also because there were only four wolves who could patrol during the day, seeing as Sue was insistent that everyone else would get an education).
Patrolling – by herself – turned out to be wonderful. Leah loved it, although she'd never, ever admit it. Sam had never allowed her to patrol alone, and even if he had, with ten people in a pack, it was likely that there'd be someone else in wolf form and in the bond while she was patrolling. But while her pack might be a bunch of teenagers, it meant she was the only one who was old enough to patrol in the middle of the day. It gave her a type of authority that even Jacob lacked.
The rest of her time was spent doing whatever she wanted, sleeping or running as a human, or even doing a yoga video set she found at the Walmart in Port Angeles. She helped Sue cook and run errands. Occasionally, Leah even baked, though she was sure to devour it all before anyone else could try it so she couldn't be compared to Emily. She avoided Sam except for the weekly meetings with the Elders and the small run-ins at the store (La Push was a small place and those types of encounters were unavoidable).
Behind her, Seth complained about triangles and Sue tried her best to explain, but Leah could tell that her mother had no clue what she was talking about. Harry had always been the one to help them with homework, not Sue, as he'd been the patient parent. There was a perpetual absence in the Clearwater household, but in these moments, it was especially noticeable.
A loud knock interrupted Sue's incoherent explanation about transformations. Leah made no move to get up and answer the door, far too comfortable to leave her perch on the couch. Besides, it was the middle of the episode. Anyone important would just barge in. Sue muttered something under her breath about lazy children as she walked to greet their visitor.
Charlie spoke as soon as Sue opened the door, "Hey, Sue. Billy and I went fishing today. Brought this over for you."
Charlie Swan had been a fixture in Leah's life for as long as she could remember. He had come to family dinners at the Clearwater's house or attended games at the Black's house while the kids played outside. Really, she hadn't minded him much – she hadn't really paid him much attention – until his idiotic daughter had come waltzing back into his life. That wasn't fair, of course. Bella hadn't really begun to affect Leah's life until she attracted the ginger leech that caused whatever was wrong in Leah's genes to go haywire and force her to transform into a wolf.
"Hi, Seth, hi, Leah," Charlie greeted them gruffly. Leah raised her hand as an acknowledgment, while Seth piped back a cheerful hello of his own.
"Do you want to stay for lunch?" Sue offered.
"I'm heading over to the Cullen's, this afternoon," Charlie explained. Leah couldn't help but notice that he called it the Cullen's still. As if his daughter didn't live there, too, "Sorry, Sue."
"I'm going over there, too!"
"If you finish your homework," Sue responded sharply.
"I'm gonna get it done!" Seth shot back, sounding like the fourteen-year-old he was in the moment.
"You should come too, Sue," Charlie said after a moment, "Nessie is Bella's kid, and Seth certainly likes hanging out with her, don't you?"
Leah scoffed. Did Charlie detect anything wrong with Seth's obsession with Bella's month old child? Or did the fact that, despite being only a few weeks old, Nessie looked much, much older, and spoke so clearly keep him from realizing that Seth's entire existence now depended on his granddaughter?
"I'm not sure that they want me there," Sue replied faintly.
"No, they wouldn't mind!" Seth spoke before Charlie could.
"Seriously, Sue, Bella's happy to show off Nessie to anyone who will see her," Charlie agreed.
"You should really meet her, Mom. She's great, isn't she, Charlie?"
"I'll go," Sue answered suddenly, cutting off Charlie's agreement.
Leah sat straight up and stared at her mom. Sue had a tight smile on her face, but Charlie and Seth didn't seem to see her nervousness. Both of the boys immediately started telling her how happy they were that she was going, how much Nessie would love her, and how much she'd love Nessie. Leah watched her mom carefully as Sue and Charlie made plans to meet up in a little while, at the Cullen's house. Seth's promise to do his homework was forgotten, and he ran off to shower while Sue walked Charlie to the door.
"Do you want to go, too, Leah?" Sue asked after she'd said goodbye to Charlie.
"I have to, don't I?"
"It would be nice," Sue confessed, "They're vampires, after all."
Leah only nodded at her human mother, as an image of the blond soldier vamp losing control and attacking Sue filled Leah's mind. Bella had told Jacob that's what had happened before. Leah wasn't stupid enough to take any chances with her own family. Sue was tough, but she was only human.
"Thank you, Leah." Sue understood her daughter's silence to be agreement, "I'll go get ready then."
Leah had showered after coming back from her patrol at five am and didn't feel the need to do it again. She should probably change from her old sweats and her t-shirt, but then again, who was she trying to impress? Certainly not the leeches. She'd never live up to their standards, so there was no point in trying. But still, Leah had at least a shred of self-esteem left, so she went upstairs and changed into some jeans and a clean t-shirt, before returning downstairs to wait for her brother and mother. She sat at the kitchen table, scanning through the newspaper without really reading any of it as she waited for the rest of her family.
"You're coming?" Seth asked as soon as he saw that Leah had changed and moved from her perch on the couch.
"Mom can't go alone."
"Why not?" Seth's voice was full of confusion.
"They're vampires, Seth! And Mom is human! She can't defend herself if one of them decides to attack her." Leah knew Seth wasn't the sharpest tool in the box, but this was on another level. How could he think it was acceptable to let their mother, their last living parent, go see a bunch of vampires without any type of protection?
"We let Charlie go over there alone," Seth pointed out, "And I'll be there."
"It's Charlie's dumbass daughter who married a bloodsucker in the first place. If he gets killed by his own daughter, then that's karma. And I love you, Seth, but you have a blind spot where the vampires are concerned."
"I wouldn't let them hurt my own mother!"
Leah simply shrugged, "Seeing as she's the only parent we have left, I'm not going to let you take any chances. I'm not taking care of you if the bloodsuckers kill Mom. You'll have to ask Billy or Charlie or someone to take you in. You think Charlie or Billy knows how to cook? Maybe you could live with Quil and have parties with your toddler imprints. That wouldn't be weird at all. Or Emily. You'd love to live with Emily and Sam, wouldn't you?"
Seth crinkled his nose in disgust but didn't say anything. Her brother's loyalty to her extended enough where, although he was on better terms with Emily and Sam than she was, he was uncomfortable spending extended periods in their company.
"Did you finish that?" Leah nodded towards his math homework.
"Almost."
"You gotta get it done."
"I know, I know," Seth rolled his eyes, "But I have time. I'll do it afterward. It's fine, Leah."
"Mom's right, you know, you can't fail out of high school your freshman year."
"I'm not going to, Leah." There was her fourteen-year-old brother. There was a normal teenager somewhere inside of Seth. He didn't come out often, but he was there.
Relieved by his normal reaction, Leah grinned, "First one to the car gets shotgun!"
From years of cross-country and track, Leah was faster than Seth, and she was more aggressive and had no qualms pushing him if it meant she got an advantage. She made it out the door before he did, and was nearly at the car when she caught Embry and Quil standing at end of Clearwater's long drive.
"Where are you guys going?" Quil called as the two of them sprinted out of the house. What he was doing by the Clearwater's house was a mystery to Leah, but he was there, with Embry by his side. At the appearance of Seth and Leah, Quil and Embry came closer.
"We're going to see Nessie and the Cullens!" Seth gave up on his sprint when he saw their pack mates, although Leah had reached the passenger seat door a millisecond before.
Embry and Quil glanced at each other, a giant grin creeping on to Quil's face, "We wanna go."
"What?"
"We wanna go see the demon spaw-" Quil stopped at the look on Seth's face, "Sorry, Seth. We wanna go see Nessie."
"You want to go see the devil half-vamp? This whole pack is out of their Goddamn minds," Leah rolled her eyes.
"We wanna see this thing that Seth imprinted on and Jacob left Sam's pack for," Embry explained.
"Not a thing, a baby! She's a very talented, very wonderful little baby," Seth protested.
"Sorry, Seth. We wanna see the girl that caused all these problems," Embry corrected himself, as Leah stood by horrified, "Why are you going, Leah?"
"To protect my human mother! Not for a social visit!"
"Leah's already met Nessie," Seth explained with a shrug.
"Won't Jake be upset?"
"I don't think Jake cares who meets the devil spawn so long as he doesn't have to spend any time with it," Leah told them.
"So can we go, oh-powerful-Beta?" Quil smirked.
"I'm not here to give you permission to do anything," Leah said, "Go if you want to."
"Cool. We'll meet you there." Both of Quil and Embry took off running towards the forest, talking excitedly to each other as they jogged. Why they were so excited to meet the demon spawn, Leah wasn't sure, but at least there would be three real werewolves and one half-werewolf in case anything went wrong.
"What was that about?" Sue had joined her children by the car, but not before seeing Quil and Embry take off.
"Quil and Embry are coming too," Seth explained happily.
A thin smile crossed Sue's face, "It's nice that your friends want to meet her, too, Seth."
The ride to the Cullens was relatively quiet, although Seth mentioned several times how excited he was that Sue was finally meeting Nessie. Each time, Sue tightened her grip on the wheel, and Leah muttered something about vampires and human mothers not mixing under her breath.
Quil and Embry were waiting by the time the Clearwaters arrived at the giant white house. They weren't standing too close to it, but they had already phased back to their human forms and met the Clearwaters at the end of the drive, jogging after the car the rest of the way.
Charlie pulled in mere seconds later, and after awkward introductions, they all made their way to the front doors. Charlie's eyes had bulged when Embry and Quil were introduced as Jacob's friends – he evidentially put two and two together to realize what that meant – before recovering with a resounding "I don't want to know" when they had explained that Jacob wouldn't be coming today.
"Aren't you going to ring the doorbell?" Quil asked as Seth put his hand on the doorknob.
Seth shrugged nonchalantly, "I never ring the doorbell."
"You never ring the doorbell? Did I raise you with no manners?"
Seth rolled his eyes, "It's fine, Mom. They know we're here anyway."
As soon as Seth said the words, the door to the giant white house opened. The sickly sweet scent of vampire flooded the air immediately, stronger than it had been ever before. The psychic pixie answered the door and welcomed them in a smile.
"I knew it was you all were coming as soon as the afternoon disappeared! But I didn't realize you were bringing guests," she chirped cheerfully, before sticking out her hand, "I'm Alice!"
"Sue Clearwater. Seth's mom." Sue took her hand without hesitation and shook it with astounding confidence.
Alice herded everyone into the main room, Seth bounding ahead, followed by Charlie and Sue, and then Quil and Embry, with Leah lagging behind. In the main room, Blondie and her bodybuilder husband were both sitting on the couches, the television blaring with some football game. Upon seeing Seth, Nessie immediately got down from Bella's lap to greet Seth with a hug.
Nessie was unlike any child Leah had ever met before. Leah had seen her in Seth's mind, but it was shocking to see the mini-monster with her own eyes. Despite being slightly less than a month old, she walked gracefully across the room to greet everyone, and introduced herself in flawless English. She had the body of a twelve-month-old, but she was clearly not a toddler. It was horrifying and unnatural, simply put.
As Seth made introductions, Leah saw Quil and Embry exchange a glance, before she made eye contact with Embry. Like Leah, Quil and Embry were reacting like they had thought that Seth's memories were some type of exaggeration. But Quil and Embry managed warm smiles at Nessie, at least, which is more than Leah could do.
Quil, used to being around Claire and her siblings, immediately bent down to Nessie's level and greeted her warmly. Embry mirrored him, though much more awkwardly. Sue did not approach the child but managed an earnest smile and a wave.
"Do you remember Leah, Nessie?" Seth asked. Nessie nodded and waved shyly. Unsure of what else to do, Leah waved back. Nessie shouldn't remember her – they'd met when she was all of twenty hours old – but still, Leah waved, intimidated by the child's darling looks and cherubic face. She had inherited the vampire's appeal; she was truly an enchanting little thing. But unnatural, Leah reminded herself; Nessie's whole existence defied the rules of nature.
"Where's Edward?" Charlie asked after everyone had settled in, and the conversation had been flowing awkwardly for several minutes. The bodybuilder, Charlie, and Seth had been discussing the game. Quil, Embry, Sue, and Leah had all sat in silence ever since entering the house, although Quil was brave enough to sit on the floor and play blocks with Nessie and Seth.
"He's upstairs with Carlisle and Jasper," Bella explained, "They're doing some research."
Bella's eyes didn't leave her child as she said it, and Leah discerned that they were trying to figure out what type of ungodly creature they had created.
"Have you asked your friends in Denali yet?" Seth asked as he stacked a block on top of a perfect tower.
"Our friends in Denali?"
"You know, the ones who were at the wedding." He picked up Nessie and let her stack a block on the top of the tower, far taller than she could reach. She centered it perfectly.
Bella and Blondie exchanged a glance, "We haven't asked them about it, yet," Bella explained.
"We should though," Blondie said, "They might know something. Or if nothing else they'd probably want to meet her and help us research."
"They'll say yes!" Pixie exclaimed suddenly, jumping up, "They'll come in one week's – but not Irina. She's traveling, she's still upset, the poor thing. Oh, how exciting!"
Out of the corner of her eye, Leah saw Charlie stare at Pixie with an unnerved face, before looking pointedly at the game. Beside him, Sue was sitting awkward and stiff, looking nervously over at Seth. It seemed as though the Cullens had given up all pretense of being human, which made the humans in the room uncomfortable.
"That's an excellent idea, Seth," Dr. Bloodsucker appeared at the top of the staircase, with the minder reader and the soldier vamp behind him. All were smiling, looking positively thrilled at the suggestion, "I can't believe we didn't think of it. Eleazer and Carmen might know something from their time traveling. I'll call Tanya now."
Dr. Bloodsucker disappeared back into his office, while the other two made their way downstairs. After polite greeting and introduction, the mind reader and the soldier joined the rest of their family, although Leah did notice that the soldier stayed significantly farther from the humans than Edward.
Their rag-tag group stayed for several hours. The whole time, Leah sat stiffly and protectively close to her mother, who was nearly as tense as Leah was. Charlie eventually relaxed and got into several rousing discussions about the state of Seattle football with Emmett and Embry.
The baby vamp stayed mostly silent, although she did lecture Quil on not stacking the blocks in alphabetical order since she apparently knew the alphabet at the age of four weeks. To his credit, Quil took it well and gave Nessie back her blocks before retreating to sit next to an unsettled looking Embry on one of the couches. Other than that, most of the attention was paid to the game, which Leah watched only with a slight interest. She cared little about football or sports in general. Leah did notice, however, that Charlie kept at least a partial eye on his granddaughter, and whenever she did something too advanced, he would look around and made panicked eye contact with whomever he could find who had seen the same thing – normally Leah or Sue, but occasionally Embry or Quil. Seth never seemed to let Nessie's capabilities scare him.
"We better get going," Sue announced a few hours later after the Seahawks had lost their game, much to the dismay of all the males in the room. Leah stood up immediately after the announcement, but Seth stayed put, so Sue continued, "Seth has geometry homework to finish and Leah and I both have work tomorrow."
"Seth, if you need help with geometry, I'd be happy to help you," Edward offered, abusing his mindreading skills once again, "While I wouldn't call mathematics a passion of mine, geometry is certainly something that I'm proficient in."
"Really?" Seth's face lit up at the prospect of getting help from someone who wasn't Sue, "I'll run and go get it and then bring it back here, if that's okay? It's due tomorrow and it would be really awesome if I didn't have to turn it in late."
"Of course. If your mom is amenable, that is," Edward hastily added, after noticing Sue's displeased face.
"Just be back by eight pm, sharp," Sue relented. Leah knew her mother would just be happy not to have to try to help Seth anymore, even if it meant Seth was out late with the leeches.
Seth quickly agreed, and bid farewells to the Cullens, including a promise to Nessie that he'd be back shortly. Embry and Quil followed Seth out the back door and into the woods. Charlie looked at all three of them suspiciously as they left and muttered, "Don't wanna know," for the fortieth time that day.
For their part, Leah, Sue, and Charlie thanked the Cullens for their hospitality (Leah only after her mother elbowed her), and left the bloodsuckers and their giant, too perfect house. The Cullens thanked them for coming, with Bella pointedly saying they were welcome back at any time, although Leah heard Blondie complain quietly, too low for human ears.
"She's a cute little girl, Charlie," Sue told him after they were safely out of the Cullens house. Leah had no doubt that the bloodsuckers could still hear them, but she didn't bother to tell them. No point in freaking them out anymore than they already are.
"She's real cute," Charlie agreed, "Smart, too from the looks of it. I told them I don't want to know what's going on with her, but I know she's special."
Leah snorted. Special. That was one word for the monstrosity that Charlie's daughter and the mindreading leech had created.
"She'll be okay, Charlie," Sue assured him, though only after shooting Leah a look, "It's a strange world, but she'll be okay."
"Thanks, Sue," Charlie smiled at her, "Just wasn't what I was expecting my first grandchild to be, that's all."
"Charlie, life is never what you think it's going to be." Leah caught Sue glancing at her as the words left Sue's mouth.
"You're right about that," Charlie agreed, before saying goodbye to Leah and Sue. He climbed into his cruiser, as Leah and Sue started their car. They drove behind him for a period, until Charlie turned into the diner in Forks and they continued to La Push.
The car was quiet for the majority of the drive. The radio wasn't on and neither Sue nor Leah spoke. The only sound was the quiet hum of the engine which continued for the entire drive.
"Thank you for going with me, Leah," Sue said quietly as they crossed the reservation boundary.
"I wasn't going to let them kill you."
Sue chuckled quietly, "I appreciate that. I know this has been hard on you, Leah. All of it. It's been hard on all of us. But I thank you for looking out for Seth. He's so young and you've done so much for him. I hate to imagine him going through this without you. I'm proud of you, and I'm thankful for you."
As Sue finished speaking, she pulled into the driveway parked the car. Leah didn't respond, even as Sue left the car and walked inside. For as long as he had lived, Harry had handled all the emotional speeches in the Clearwater house. Sue's attempt at one stunned Leah into silence. The sudden change of her mother's demeanor allowed Leah to see the truth: the events of the past few months had taken a toll on her mother, just as they had on Leah.
Leah walked to the secluded cliffs where all the werewolves' bonfires were held alone. Seth and Sue had driven, but she'd declined the ride, instead opting to take her sweet time walking, although Sue hadn't left without threatening Leah's life if she ditched.
It wasn't like Leah hadn't seen the other pack. She'd seen Jared and Sam at the weekly meetings, she'd run into Paul at the store and Brady and Colin still came to hang out with Seth on occasion. The reservation was small and there was nowhere to hide. But she hadn't seen them as a pack since she had left with Jacob and Seth over a month ago. And Leah wasn't looking forward to it.
It had been bad enough when it was just one pack, where she was the only girl. Sure, she could pretend to gossip with Emily and Kim or talk about the past with Rachel (when Rachel bothered to show up to these type of things – which wasn't often – but she'd be there tonight if only because it was for Jacob's birthday), but Leah was always the outsider. Now she was the outsider of the renegade pack.
As she approached the cliffs, the sea air filled her nostrils, salty and fresh all at once. Leah could hear the noise of the event long before she arrived. They weren't a quiet bunch, and despite their isolated location, she had no doubt that any human who was passing by would be able to hear the party, even if they couldn't make out all the individual conversations as Leah could.
Everyone else had arrived earlier. Sam was on grill duty, flipping burgers and hot dogs, while Emily, Old Quil, and Sue sat talking nearby. After so many of these events, Leah knew that Emily always managed to be perched by the food, so she put on her brave face and greeted everyone as politely as possible and grabbed a small plate of food. She'd had enough sense to eat before coming, knowing that food with the werewolves was always a free-for-all.
Leah sat down on the far side of the fire, further back and away from everyone else. The heat of the fire warmed her, although she wasn't cold to begin with, not even in the nippy October air and her tank top.
Opposite her, Jared was strumming some song on his guitar. Quil was nearby, a nauseating look at of happiness on his face as Claire clapped her hands and danced in her adorable toddler way. Between Jared and Quil sat Kim, an almost equally delighted look on her face as she watched Claire dance.
"Hey." Rachel sat down beside Leah without waiting for any type of invitation. Leah scowled, not happy that her angry expression hadn't been enough to scare people away, "How's it going?"
"Fine."
"Bet you never thought you'd come to another one of the dork's birthday parties," Rachel continued unprompted, nodding her head at the direction of Jake. He, at least, looked like he was having a good time, playing Frisbee with Seth, Colin, and Embry.
"No. I didn't." Leah hadn't been to one of Jacob's birthday for years. The only reason she remembered his birthday last year was that she'd ran into Jacob and Billy in Port Angeles after Jacob had taken his driver's test and she had enough manners to wish him a happy birthday. Other than that, her last distinct memory of one of Jacob's birthday was the year he'd turned seven and the macaroni salad had gone bad and she and Seth had both gotten sick from it.
Sarah and Billy Black and Harry and Sue Clearwater had all been friends, the closest of friends, but their relationship had not extended to their children.
Sure, Leah considered Rachel and Rebecca to be her friends, if only because they had played together so much as children. But the twins were a year older than her and their friendship had slowly faded, especially after the twins went to middle school and Leah was stuck in elementary school, simply not cool enough to hang out with them. They were into boys and teen magazines and Leah wanted to play outside and go fishing. So by the time Leah had entered middle school a year later, her friendship with Rachel and Rebecca was mostly childhood memories.
For years, the three of them had been friendly enough with one another, saying hello in the halls at school and catching up whenever their parents had an event together. But then Rebecca and Rachel had both left the res and hadn't managed to keep in touch, outside of a few brief phone calls with Rachel a year. Rebecca never bothered to call, not even after Harry's death.
But, courtesy of Billy, Leah always knew what was going on with them, and it wasn't like she didn't care about them. She did. Spending every single Saturday from birth to the age of ten bonded people. So Leah had always considered Rachel and Rebecca to be her friends, even though the title wasn't fully appropriate.
"Things really have changed," Rachel remarked.
"How are grad school applications going?" Leah changed the subject, not wanting to wallow in her sorrows tonight. Not when everyone else was having such a good time.
"They're not," Rachel admitted with a sigh, "I took the GRE and didn't do as well as I wanted. I didn't have enough time to study this summer, between classes and work. So I'm just going to wait another year and apply then. Besides, I think Paul needs another year before he can safely leave the reservation."
"I'm sorry."
"It's no big deal," Rachel shrugged, "Gives me more time to figure out where I want to apply."
"Where all are you looking at?"
"Everywhere. The University of Chicago and Harvard, of course, but those are reaches. A bunch of schools down in California. Basically anywhere with a half-decent labor economics program. I'll just go the best program I get in to, that's fully funded of course."
"And Paul doesn't mind where you guys go?" Leah asked doubtfully. She couldn't imagine Paul anywhere but La Push.
"Surprisingly, Paul's cool with it. He said the south might be too hot, but I'm inclined to agree. At the end of the day, he'll do whatever I want."
Sickening, Leah thought to herself. The stupid imprint blinded him from seeing anything he might want – not that Paul really had high ambitions before all this – but now he really had nothing but the desire to serve Rachel on hand and foot.
"Probably seems pretty fucked up to you."
"A bit," Leah admitted.
"I would have thought the same thing just a few months ago," Rachel acknowledged, "But things change."
There was nothing to say to that. Leah knew things changed. She kept her eyes trained on the crackling fire, trying to ignore the activities of the packs around her. It had always been her strategy at these types of events: look bitchy and stare at the fire, and nobody would bother her. Leah expected Rachel to leave, but she didn't. She just kept sitting there, next to Leah, making no moves to get up or leave or find Paul or do anything other than just sit there.
A commotion caused both Rachel and Leah to turn around, where the game of Frisbee had been expanded to include Sam and Jared, who'd given up the grill and the guitar and were now chasing the others. Everyone was laughing, and Sam hollered gleefully and jumped up and down as he caught a particularly fast Frisbee thrown by Jacob.
"What a show-off," Rachel muttered.
"Who? Sam?"
Rachel nodded.
"Sam said you were too ambitious once." Leah glanced around, trying to find Paul. He was in some sort of eating contest with Brady, with both boys trying to down as many of Emily's sugar cookies as they could. With werewolf hearing, he was certainly capable of hearing their conversation, but only if he was focusing on it. And regrettably, he didn't appear to be.
Rachel barked out a laugh, "I think he said that to my face a couple of times back in the day."
"What?"
Rachel chuckled again before continuing, "You know, I feel kinda bad. Back when he first disappeared for two weeks and basically forfeited his chance to be valedictorian, I was ecstatic about it. Now that I know what really happened I realize I could have been a little less gleeful about it."
"Yeah, he was pretty annoyed with how everything turned out."
Three days after Sam had returned to school after he was found in the woods, he had disappeared again, after running out of school in the middle of fourth period. Rachel's bragging about being valedictorian had set Sam off, and he had just enough sense to get away before he had phased. Leah had only learned what happened because she had been in wolf form and in the mind link at the exact moment that Sam found out that Paul had imprinted on Rachel. Hearing Rachel's name out of the blue forced Sam to relive the memories of their fierce rivalry vividly, and the bond allowed everyone else who was phased to see them, too. Sam had quickly phased out under the guise of "helping Jacob deal with the news," but it was obvious that he only phased to stop the others from seeing anything else.
"Whatever. I'm glad you two aren't together anymore, Leah. Like I know it sucks for you and everything, but you can do so much better than Sam. I never understood what you saw in him anyway."
Reflexively, even though some part of her hated Sam with all her guts, Leah let out a noise of indignation. What did she see in Sam? Wasn't that obvious? He was smart and driven and funny and loyal. He liked the outdoors almost as much as she did. He was great with her family; Harry had loved him, Seth had adored him, even Sue had thought highly of him. Sam, at least when Leah fell in love with him, had been a great guy.
He had been smart enough to give Rachel Black – Rachel Black who took AP Statistics as an elective and got a full ride to WSU – a run for her money on for valedictorian. He had had a scholarship to Western and was determined to get a degree in biology. But that didn't seem to matter now that Sam was stuck on the res for the foreseeable future. Even as Jared and Leah had thought about college and possibly picking up classes in the future, Sam had remained resolute that he'd continue his job in construction. So he was still intelligent, but his drive had disappeared, focused instead of running his pack and his future with Emily.
Long before he had a scholarship to Western and Leah knew just how smart he was, it had been Sam's sarcastic joke about something some teacher had said that had first made Leah notice him. Sure, she'd always known Sam, but she first noticed him after she'd heard the sarcastic comments he'd make under his breath at cross country practice her freshman year. He had her howling with laughter at nearly every practice; their shared sense of humor guaranteed that what he found funny so did she.
But ever since Sam came back from his first two weeks in the woods after the first time he'd transformed, the jokes had stopped. She'd spent nearly six months in Sam's head, aware of each and every one of his thoughts in a way more intimately than she ever considered possible. But his thoughts had never been funny; there had never been any of those witty comments that she'd fallen in love with.
Even in the six months between his transformation and Emily's ill-fated visit, he hadn't been as amusing. Something about being a wolf had hardened him in a way that Leah wasn't sure would ever fade. Even now, as he settled close to Emily by the fire, with a look on his face more peaceful than Leah had seen in months, he seemed to have lost some of the pleasant, sunny nature that was Leah's Sam always had.
And, of course, even when they were dating, he'd had flaws. He always followed rules diligently (his refusal to keep Leah out past curfew was part of the reason her parents had loved him so much). But he was a stickler for the rules - Jacob had figured out a way to tell Bella the truth and she was a stupid pale face who he wasn't even dating - but Sam had never managed to do the same to her, and they'd been dating for three years when he first phased. Jacob had mere weeks with Bella and everything had come out, Sam had months and had never even come close.
And loyal? Well, he wasn't so loyal after all, now was he? It turned out that he wasn't loyal and that he liked certain members of Leah's family a little too much.
So for the first time, Leah saw why exactly she was the pathetic ex-girlfriend. She was pining after someone who didn't exist. Her Sam was gone, engulfed by the wolf that he had become.
"Yeah," Leah said slowly, "I don't either."
A/N: Did Stephanie Meyer address why the Cullens, who considered the Denali clan to be family, did not inform Tanya and her family of Bella's pregnancy and/or Nessie's birth? Or is that just a plot hole that was never filled? I scanned my bootleg copy of Breaking Dawn (the copy I bought on release day is at my parent's house on the other side of the country and I found a version online that I think is legit but honestly it could be slightly off and I wouldn't know. Yes, I know I'm a bad person) but I didn't see anything about it. But I've always wondered why they didn't just tell the Denali clan, especially after Bella survived and they realized that she wasn't the monster they thought she might be and everything with the wolf pack got sorted out
Remember how I said this chapter was going to be shorter? Yeah, that didn't happen. Sorry.
As always, thanks so much for reading and please please please let me know your thoughts!
