Making Up

AN: To all my dear, sweet, awesome, and irreplaceable readers- and even more so to anyone who's ever reviewed this story- here is a short note of explanation for my long absence. And a new chapter, too!

So, first off, I sincerely apologize for the several month gap. I truly do. See, it's like this: I've been writing when able, but 1. We moved back across country 2. I started working at my old job again and work more than I did before. 3. My three yr old fell and fractured his skull. He's okay now- just one more neurologist visit this week, and hopefully it'll be all behind us.

So there it is. Not great reasons, but reasons none-the-less. Life is settling down now, and winter is setting in, so I should be updating MUCH more frequently. I truly, honestly hope and pray some of you are still here, still patient with me, and still reading! Please do drop me a line if you can. I know I don't deserve it after this long of a wait, but I do appreciate it more than you know! Love and hugs to all of you!

I had discovered a whole new level of pathetic, and it's name was Leah Clearwater.

Here I was at the butt-crack of dawn, fingers drumming the countertop as I stared out the kitchen window impatiently. I should've been sleeping, considering I'd stayed up the whole night burning memories with Rose, but no. I just had to rush home at five in the morning, ostensibly to fix breakfast for Jake and Seth, but in reality to wait for Embry to show up at my door. Because he would come. He wouldn't stay angry at me; he'd show up and we'd clear up this stupid mess between us and everything would go back to the way it was before.

But the clock was ticking away the minutes, the french toast was getting cold on the table, and there was no sign of either Embry or Quil. To add another facet to my patheticness, my desire to hurl the fridge through the window was beginning to be outweighed by the urge to go up to my empty room and cry myself to sleep.

I was already half-way up the stairs in full-on pout mode when the front door creaked open. My feet refused to listen to my silent, stern lecture on the importance of dignity and pride, and rounded the kitchen doorway with embarrassing speed.

Quil looked up from the giant plate of french toast he'd already helped himself to with a tired grin, and my heart that had just been doing somersaults on my tonsils sank somewhere below my ankles.

Embry wasn't there.

"Hey, Quil. Long night?" I asked quickly in an attempt to cover it up. He shrugged and grimaced.

"Dead quiet. Not so much as a sniff of your stalker. If he's still around, he's hiding good."

I sank down in one of the chairs across from him and sighed heavily. That wasn't exactly news; Alice couldn't see anything about Cyrus, and none of us could find any other sign of him, either. Frustrating did not even begin to cover it.

I pulled the rest of the cold french toast in front of me, and the two of us ate in dejected silence. Well, Quil ate. I mostly just stabbed viciously at the food on my plate, although I didn't know if I was pretending it was Cyrus or Embry. I didn't even bother to look up when Quil dumped his plate into the sink and headed for the door.

"Hey, Leah... Embry didn't mean what he said yesterday," Quil suddenly said softly. I glanced up at him with an arched eyebrow, and he squirmed uncomfortably.

"Look, I was in his head all night. It wasn't pleasant. He feels like a grade-A shit for losing it like that, you know? We're all tired and stressed... cut him some slack and go talk to him, yeah? I'm pretty sure he was heading up to the cliffs."

What was I supposed to say to that? I couldn't come up with anything that didn't a) make me sound like a sappy pushover, or b) make me sound like a complete, uncaring bitch. So I guess it was lucky for me that Quil didn't stick around for my reply. The front door slammed behind his hasty escape, and I just kept sitting there, stabbing at my french toast mush.

Could I really be pathetic enough to go to the cliffs looking for Embry?

... Yes. Yes, I could.

Damn it all, he was being stupid. And stubborn. And... and just all around asshatty. For no reason. It wouldn't compromise my dignity if I went and beat his furry kiester until he realized it. But, just in case, I threw on an old sports bra and some running shorts. I could always pretend I was just out for a jog and happened to run into him.

I had all kinds of angry rants and ideas for making my Tank grovel ready to go in my head, but they got hopelessly twisted up the minute I saw him sitting on the edge of the cliff, with his bare, bronze, gorgeous back turned towards me. It was like all the negatives got jumbled together and turned themselves into one big positive.

Yep. One big postive in the shape of a stupid, beautifully muscled Wolf boy.

Like the pathetic loser I was, instead of walking up and sucker-punching him in the gut, I merely sat down next to him at the edge of the cliff. Embry didn't say a word; we both watched the waves rolling by far beneath our dangling feet while he fidgeted with a loose string hanging from the hem of his cut-offs.

"Why didn't you show up for breakfast?" I finally asked quietly. He blew out a heavy breath through his teeth.

"Didn't think you'd want me there, after how much of an ass I was yesterday."

"Yeah, well..." I shrugged casually, "it would've been more convenient to beat some sense into you there."

"Leah, do you still-" Embry cut himself off sharply in mid-sentence and clenched his hands into fists. "Did you really agree to this bridesmaid thing to keep things smooth for the Packs?"

I sighed and looked out across the horizon. "That's the biggest reason, yeah. But, I didn't have too much of a choice, you know? If I refused, then I look like the bitter ex-girlfriend who still can't move on with her life, and I don't want that. I don't want people to keep thinking I'm in love with Sam, because I'm not. It's not Sam that still hurts- it's having to watch a kind of life I can never have. It's seeing the pity on everyone's faces, because it should've been me. It could've been me. If only I was a normal girl instead of being this... this genetic mess. If only I wasn't some kind of freaky mistake-"

"Stop it, B. Stop," Embry interrupted me harshly. One of his strong hands gripped the top of my arm, and his dark eyes locked on to mine intently. "You're not a freak. You're not a mistake. My god, don't you even see yourself? You- you're amazing. You're strong, you're smart, you're unbelievably hot, you're a shitload of things no other woman could even dream to be, and you think you're not good enough?"

He pushed himself back from the edge and stood up in one fluid, graceful movement. I slowly got to my feet, gaping at him as he rubbed a frustrated hand over his hair. I got the feeling that he wanted to shake me until even the bones in my toes rattled.

"Why the hell can't you see what I see, B? What if maybe, just maybe, Sam didn't imprint on you because he wasn't good enough for you, and not the other way around? That maybe you being a Wolf doesn't make you a freak, but just shows how unique and special you really are? What if-"

Suddenly, I was kissing Embry Call with every iota of passion in my body, and I had no idea how I'd gotten there. Although, considering the fact that my arms were wound tightly around his neck while he just stood there in numb shock, I'm guessing that I was the one who started it.

My brain just had time to register that thought before Embry's hands found my hips and he kissed me back with so much force that I forgot why I ever thought this would be a bad idea. And stopping? Ha. Not an option.

The heavy clouds began dumping bucket loads of icy rain onto us, but it hardly mattered. It only made the feeling of his skin on mine feel more like searing fire, and I pressed in closer. I couldn't get enough of him against me.

His lips broke off from mine to trail across my jawbone to the sensitive spot just below my ear. The world spun around me, but whether it was from the lack of air or from what he was doing to me, I couldn't tell. A breathless moan escaped my lips as his muscles- oooooh, his muscles!- rippled underneath my fingertips.

There was a logical part of me that still knew this was wrong. The little voice was doing it's damnedest to shout all kinds of warnings at me, but it just couldn't compete with the rest of me screaming, 'yes, yes, YES!' at the top of my proverbial lungs. Actually, I was pretty sure I was seconds away from shouting it out loud, too, since Embry's hands were slowly sliding up my sides.

I blame those hands (and his magic tongue skills...) for why the sudden outbreak of wild howling didn't register in my brain immediately. And when it did, I really didn't want to care about it.

"Dammit!"

Embry growled out the frustrated curse as the sound of the howling intensified, and I silently agreed with him. There was no way to ignore it now, especially as our sensitive ears caught the faint, baying timbre of Jacob's call over the sound of the waves crashing beneath us. On the up side, there was no time for awkwardness as Embry and I darted to the edge of the trees, stripped in record time, and phased.

Owwwww. I guess Carlisle wasn't kidding when he told me it wouldn't be a good idea to phase yet. My bones and tendons protested the sudden change with sharp, stabbing pains that settled into a dull throb.

"Leah! Thank god!" Seth's worried voice instantly took my mind off of my aching bones.

"What is it? What the hell's going on?" I demanded just as Quil joined us, groggy from sleep.

"One of Sam's pups caught Cyrus's scent," Jacob answered quickly. From the bits flashing through his and Seth's minds, I could see that they were sprinting back to the Rez as fast as their four legs would take them. And not just to the border, either. They were heading straight into the heart of La Push.

"Wha- inside the Rez?" Embry exclaimed. "You're telling me he got past the borders?"

Jacob didn't answer, but his thoughts were grim.

Jared, Colin, and a few of the younger Wolves cut through the woods in front of us, and Embry and I raced after them, following them to what I was guessing would be the source of the scent.

"I do not like the direction we're heading," Embry growled next to me. I had to agree. We were heading back to the more populated areas of La Push; more specifically, we were heading in the direction of my house.

"Keep focused," Jacob commanded shortly.

I refused to acknowledge the tiny shiver of fear rippling down my spine and did what Jacob ordered. We were now running alongside the creek that wound it's way through the woods behind my house, keeping our noses close to the ground for any hint of the leech's scent while Jared and the others did the same. By the time the first, faint traces of it began to curl our noses, we were damn near in my back yard.

Sam and half of his Pack were already scouting the small area with the strongest scent by the time we joined them, and Jacob and Seth caught up with us there. It was frustrating as hell to only hear Jake's side of the conversation with Sam, and for the first time since I'd broken away from the La Push Pack, I was annoyed that I couldn't hear their thoughts. The only thing we'd figured out for certain was that Cyrus' stench was localized right here, with no trail leading in or out, and it was already a half and hour old. The bloody leech was most likely long gone by now.

Four hours later, neither Pack had any more to show for our search than sore paws and mounting frustration. Sam's Pack was still spread out over the Rez when Jake called our Pack to regroup at the source of the stench.

"Jeez, what'd he do? Crawl up the creek underwater the whole way?" Quil asked with expasperated fury as he flopped his enormous, shaggy body to the ground.

"Make sense," I replied, deliberately ignoring the disturbing mental images of Cyrus doing just that. "It'd be the easiest way to get in and out of the Rez without us picking up his scent."

"Christ. Why didn't any of us think of this before? He's probably been getting in and out of the Rez this whole time, just lurking around underwater and laughing his frozen ass off at us!" Embry snarled angrily.

Seth freaked out, and I was grateful for it. My own whispered and sternly repressed freak-out was effectively buried by his, and Quil was freaking out a bit himself. Embry's thoughts were dark, half-hidden and repressed as my own, and without focusing intently on him, I couldn't make out much more than a general feeling of anger and worry.

"Calm down, guys," Jake suddenly cut in. "We're gonna get this asshole- it's what we're designed for, and we're good at it. We've just got to wait it out until he makes a mistake. Then we move in and take the bastard out."

Silence tinged with doubt and anxiety followed his thoughts. I forced myself to feel confident and calm, and hoped none of them would notice the little tongue of fear licking at the back of my thoughts.

"Jake's right. Cyrus already made his first mistake today, letting us know how he's been hiding. It's just a matter of time."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Lee," Jake grinned a wolfy grin at me, then cocked his enormous, shaggy head to one side. "You know, I distinctly remember you being under orders not to phase..."

"Sod off, oh Mighty Alpha. It was an emergency. I wasn't going to stand there like a damsel in distress," I replied defiantly. Four different, but equally bizarre and hilarious, mental images of me as a 'damsel in distress' hit me simultaneously, making all of us snort with laughter.

"Right. Enough wasting time," Jacob said shortly, reigning in his amusement sternly. "Seth and I will stay here and see if we can find any other trace of our bloodsucker. You three-" he nodded his head at Quil, Embry, and I- "head back to the Cullen's and let them know what's going on."

"What, no lectures?" I replied, faintly surprised. The smugness suddenly radiating off of Jake made me instantly nervous.

"Naw. I'll leave that to Carlisle."

Ooooh, that asshole! He laughed at me as Quil, Embry and I took off for the Cullen's, but his thoughts were fully focused on the hunt before we'd reached the borderline.

Quil offered to stay in Wolf-form once we reached the Vamp mansion, which left Embry and I free to phase back into our human skin. It took a fair amount of will-power and gritted teeth for me to force my aching bones to shift, not that I would readily admit that to anyone.

Embry caught up with me as I headed to the house, bare-chested as usual and looking uncharacteristically serious. The memories of just what we had been doing before Cyrus' scent had been discovered on the Rez suddenly flooded back to me full-force. My mouth went dry, and my steps faltered just enough to catch Embry's notice.

He stopped and turned towards me, his dark, serious eyes searching mine out. I felt a moment of sheer panic. He wasn't thinking about what I was, was he? For the love of all that was holy, please don't let him try to talk to me about it! I wanted to scream at him that it was nothing. It meant nothing. It was just a mistake, and it wouldn't happen again! I settled for cutting him off feverishly instead as he opened his mouth.

"I can't believe none of us even thought about Cyrus using the creeks to get in and out of the Rez. And just how the hell are we supposed to stop him?"

"B, we've got to talk-" Embry cut in, but I ignored him and started walking towards the big, white house with steps as fast as the words pouring out of my mouth.

"Carlisle is probably going to kill me for phasing. But now that I have, Jake better not try to stop me from patrolling, because I-"

"Leah-" Embry tried again, and I turned to face him with a half-pleading, half-defiant look.

"I really should get in there and have the vamp doc check me out," I stated, and my voice sounded curiously flat and emotionless in the damp air. We stared at each other for several long, silent moments. Finally, Embry clenched his fists and looked away.

"Okay," he said softly, and I felt immensely, irrationally, and unbelievably relieved.

"Okay," I replied, and I couldn't keep the lightness out of my voice. He glanced at me and blew out a heavy breath, but he followed me silently into the Cullen's house.

I felt like I'd dodged a silver bullet. For now.