Forty

"90 Day Fiancé," Sue said, stopping on the TLC channel. She placed the remote aside and leaned against the back of her couch. "New episodes. How exciting."

Leah chuckled.

It was just one of those days when Leah could spend the entire Sunday night in front of a television screen with her mother by her side, both munching on popcorn aimlessly. It was just the two of them; Seth was out and about, attending a gaming convention like the nerd that he was (Leah would forever tease him about it and never mention the fact that Jared might or might not have introduced her to World of Warcraft, and she enjoyed it).

Goodness, she couldn't remember the last time she spent time with Sue, just relaxing.

"I thought you hated this show?"

Her mother was more of a talk-show, political commentary (with the occasional HGTV binge) type of person.

"But you don't," Sue said, shrugging. "Plus, I never said I hated the show. I just hate that those couples lack common sense."

Leah grinned and reached out for more popcorn. The disregard of common sense that made this show brilliant, in Leah's opinion. Personally, it was television-bound train wreck she needed after a long week of work—she even got Jacob hooked on it. "You know, it's probably all fake, right?"

"I stand by my words."

"It's mindless," Leah explained. She washed down the popcorn with iced tea. "It forces me to turn my brain off."

"We all need that sometimes," Sue remarked, and then, "How is everything, exactly? I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks."

"We talk on the phone constantly—"

"That's not the same, and you know it. Talk to me, dear. Tell me what I've been missing in my sad retired life."

"Sad retired life?" Leah scoffed. "You have more of a social life than I do. You said this was the happiest you've been in years." "Nothing's changed. Just the same old drama."

"How's Jacob?"

"He's fine."

"Bring him over, will you? It's almost been a year since you two became partners. Isn't that a record?" Sue asked. She was being snarky, but it was good-hearted. "We should celebrate."

"Would it be rude for me to tell you to shut up?"

"I appreciate that you asked, and yes, that would be rude."

"I figured that."

"Is that a yes?"

"I'll ask him."

"How's Sam doing with his injuries?"

"He should be back to work by the end of the year."

Sue huffed and shook her head. "That girl's having her baby soon, isn't she?"

"Yes, she is."

Emily had her baby in mid-October.

The news was bittersweet.

Leah was glad that there were no complications, but... this was Emily and Sam's child. A reminder of that goddamn affair that still lingered in the back of her mind.

"Good for her," Jacob said before telling the waiter his order. The detectives had just finished with their shifts and decided to treat themselves before heading home. Once the waiter walked away with their orders, he asked, "What's the deal with their relationship, anyway?"

"Shit, I don't think they even know," Leah admitted. Sam was undoubtedly in denial about his new status as a baby daddy, and Emily was convinced that they would get married the moment her cousin's divorce was finalized. "They didn't think their whatever through."

"They're staying together?"

Leah shrugged. "Emily seems more into him after he got shot, so maybe she wants to pursue something. And Sam... is Sam."

"He doesn't know what he wants."

Leah shook her head.

"Does he want you?"

Leah didn't immediately respond. She had never asked Sam that question because she always had thought it wouldn't matter in the end. But she had a sense that underneath all of his lack-of-communication layers, Sam still loved her of some sort. He wanted her more than he wanted Emily... he didn't even have to voice that.

"I think he's accepted his fate as far as I'm concerned," she ended up saying. "But... I don't know." She sighed. "He needs to more focused on being a father."

Jacob nodded.

Leah let out another sigh and pulled out her phone. After spending the next moments skimming through her photo album, she stopped at the desired photo and smiled. It was a photo of baby Sam in Emily's arms.

Leah showed Jacob the picture.

"Cute baby," Jacob remarked, handing the phone back to Leah.

Leah nodded. Despite her personal feelings towards his parents, Abel was absolutely adorable, and she wanted to hold him, play with him, and pinch his cheeks. She took her phone back and asked, "Have you ever seen an ugly baby?"

"I think babies are designed to be cute, cry, and ruin diapers."

Leah let out a small laugh. "Ever wanted kids?"

"I already have five and a half kids, thank you."

"The pack doesn't count. And is the 'half' for Jared? I'm telling him," Leah said, feigning disappointment. "I mean, actual children."

"I don't know, to be honest."

"Did you talk about it with Monica?"

"I think every married couple has that conversation," Jacob said. There wasn't much emotion behind his words, not like before when he had spoken about his ex-wife, a change Leah found interesting. Jacob shrugged and continued, "We talked about it, but then… we just stopped. I guess either way, it doesn't matter to me."

"What about now?"

Jacob looked at Leah. "Not with this job."

"I see what you mean."

"So, what's up with the new interest in red meat?" Sam asked one night. He had asked that very question numerous times over the last month, ever since finding out his wife's change in diet. Leah had always given him the same vague answer. "I'm surprised you haven't gotten sick."

Leah glanced behind her, pulled out two wolfbane-free beers, and shut the fridge door. At this time, she had no intentions of telling Sam the truth. Maybe once the timing was right. Though, he technically didn't need to know, especially with Leah being his soon-to-be-ex-wife. But a part of her she wanted to tell him, and she couldn't explain why. She didn't even know how he was going to react.

She shook the thought away.

"Tried of fish," Leah said flippantly, handing a beer to her husband. He had been increasingly less infuriating during the past couple of weeks. Leah was attributing that to the fact that he still hadn't accepted his new role as a father. "Thought I'd tried something new."

It wasn't exactly a lie.

Silence fell between the couple as they opened and consumed their beers. It was broken sometime later by Leah, who had gotten up from her seat and handed Sam the most crucial pile of papers, currently, in her life. She gave them to Sam. "It's for the best," she said when he gave her a quizzical look.

Sam swallowed. "I see."

She could yell at him. About Emily about the baby, about all of the lying. But she was too emotionally drained to deal with that again. She just needed Sam to sign those damn divorce papers so they both could get on with their lives.

Sam stared down at the papers, expression… not much of one. Leah was expecting something like anger, frustration, sorrow, but instead, she got nothing. There was a flash of resignation in her husband's eyes, but it went away as quickly as it had arrived. "This is it," he said quietly.

Leah nodded. "I think this is best for the both of us."

Sam didn't fight it. Maybe, he realized that Leah was right. They supposed they could come back from all of this, not as spouses, no, that was a lost cause, but as two people capable who could to become acquaintances, not friends, but two people cordial towards each other. It seemed like a long shot from now, but it could happen. Sam's words were helping more than he could already know.

All Leah wanted was an apology. Not some bullshit one, either. She wanted Sam to regret his actions; she wanted him to feel like shit. She wanted him to fight to get back in her good graces—it would never be like how it was before she learned about Emily, but something. Something more than this.

Sam's gaze dropped to his lap. "I've been unfair to you, and for that, I'm sorry," he whispered. He lifted his gaze, locking ears with his wife; she didn't respond; maybe she didn't want to, or perhaps she didn't have the right words. Sam decided to carry on, "I'm sorry about everything. About Emily. About those past three years. About being an asshole to you."

Leah held her breath.

"I know saying all of this isn't going to solve anything. It's not going to stop us from signing those papers, but I wanted you to know that." Sam sighed. "I didn't deserve you then, and I sure as Hell don't deserve you now. And… I know I don't deserve your forgiveness. Fuck, you don't owe me a damn thing. Anything you want, I'll do everything in my power—"

"Just…" Leah cleared her throat and took a deep breath. "Be a good father. Promise me that."

"I promise."

"That conversation was more civil than I expected," Jacob told Leah the following morning as he drove to the station. He smiled at her and before added, quite cheekily, "I'm impressed. No guns were drawn. No police called. Really impressed. Very proud of you. I feel like you two have grown since last December."

"Oh, fuck you," Leah bit back, but her small grin betrayed her. She leaned against her seat and quietly added, "What's being mad at him forever going to achieve?"

"Not a damn thing?" Jacob tried.

"Not a damn thing," Leah confirmed with a nod before taking a sip of her coffee. "He fucked up," she carried on without the usual bite. That surprised her. "We all know it. He knows it. But now, after everything, we just have to move on with our lives. The divorce's going to be uncontested. Sam's got a baby and a maybe-girlfriend to worry about. I have to get used to the fact that I'm no longer human, and more or less have been transferred to the Supernatural Crimes Unit."

"Nothing's official."

"Oh, it's going to be official. The new superintendent is making it official for everyone in the task force. But anyway, why waste my energy on something I can't change?" Leah asked with a shrug. The question was rhetorical. "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm just going to live my life. Drama, be damned."

Jacob gave her an honest, warm smile. "I'm glad you two were able to work it out."

"I'm glad, too," Leah replied. She wished she could apologize to him for all the times she had ranted about her soon-to-be ex-husband. He was her partner, her friend, and now, her alpha… not her goddamn therapist. But she knew he wouldn't accept her apology. Not out of malice but out of the belief that it wasn't necessary.

A comfortable silence fell between them. Leah took the moment to roll down the passenger seat window and deeply breathe in, no longer repulsed by the intense smells of outside, she had gotten used to the mixture of sounds and smells to the point that she could finally tune them out.

Leah exhaled slowly, relaxed as if all the weight stemming from her marriage had finally rolled off her shoulders. She couldn't fight back her satisfied smile even if she wanted to. "Now, I can finally breathe."

"Well, Edward Masen officially belongs to the United States government," Aisha announced hours later, pulling up a chair to Leah's desk. "Fifteen years. It should have been longer, but the man's lawyer may be better than Rosalie."

"He accepted the plea," Jacob said, leaning back in his chair with hands behind his head. "Fifteen years."

"I guess Esme's the new boss," Embry said. He snorted. "Did anyone have that in their pool? Esme Cullen being the boss. I sure didn't."

"This makes things interesting," Leah told everyone. "She isn't her husband. She isn't Edward. She's going to legitimized the Cullen business the best she could—"

"But underneath everything, she's still a criminal," Aisha said. "She'll slip up one of these days. We know she's involved in some shit. Unfortunately, our evidence isn't enough to bring her down."

Aisha was right. As she explained to everyone, Esme had her hands in everything relating to the Cullen's, but that could only be described as merely being influential. She had been with the Cullens since the 30s; of course, she was going to have clout… and she was going to get information not available to the others, including proof of Irina and Demetri's affair, which had been given to her back in the 90s.

Esme had also known about Carlisle's growing "affections" for Jessica. As revenge for sleeping with her husband, she had introduced Jessica to Demetri a few weeks before her murder under false pretenses that he was an ally—according to Esme, she had no idea that Jessica was going to die that night.

"You believe that?"

"I don't believe in anything a person of interest says unless proven otherwise," Leah told Aisha. It was probably an unfair judgment, but her murder investigations had scarred her. Expect everything and nothing, her former captain had told her during her early years as a detective.

"This Esme is one smart cookie," Aisha said. "I pity those who doubt her."

"At least, she's talking to us," Embry said.

"You think she's going to admit to everything?" Jacob asked Leah.

Leah shook her head. "I think she's trying to be on our good side. Make us believe that the main issue is Victoria's crew, the Velasquez cartel, and of course, the Volturi."

"Cooperation is a good way to stay away from the heat," Aisha said with a nod. "The feds aren't going after her?"

"They have Edward. For now, they probably think that's enough," Leah said. "He's currently being held in Alcatraz until his next court appearance."

Aisha sighed. "This shit isn't going to be over anytime soon."

Jacob and Embry shook their heads.

"No, it's not," Leah confirmed. "No, it's not."

"Good morning, this is Priya Sharma reporting from Cook County Jail where over forty members of the Chicago Police Department, the Office of the Medical Examiner and the Cook County Court office are being held. Just a half an hour ago, they were arrested for connections with various criminal organizations, including the..."

"Look at this shit. It's is so fucking embarrassing," Paul remarked with a hand on his forehead. "As if CPD doesn't have shitty enough reputation as it is. Fuck."

A few cops came up to the captain and patted his shoulder.

Leah shared the captain's sentiment. The scandal was bad, really bad. If it had been any other year, she would have been fully invested in the police department scandal, but not this one. Most of the details she hadn't learned about until earlier the week, courtesy of Aisha, who had some connections in Internal Affairs.

Four people initially assigned to the task force were among the ones arrested, a major embarrassment for a captain who prided himself in making sure that his unit didn't entangle itself in any mobster bullshit.

"Don't be hard yourself, Captain," Jared said, handing his supervisor yet another cup of coffee. "No one knew we'd have some traitors here, and at least, you're not in handcuffs—"

"That's not the goddamn point," the captain snapped, apologized, and then thanked the man for his much-needed drink. After taking a few long sips, he cleared his throat. "First, the superintendent of the police and his entire goddamn staff resigned yesterday, and now this shit!"

"I knew the Deal was bad news from the start," Martinez grumbled under his breath, shaking his head along with the rest of his co-workers in the office. It was supposed to be a regular workday, but everyone's attention was focused on the news coverage playing on the television hanging from the ceiling of the open workspace.

"What is the deal about anyway?" Another cop, a rookie, asked. "I keep hearing about it and how it screwed everything up around here, but I don't know what it's for."

"Just know that it was a bad, terrible idea," the captain said as he watched Carolina Barba's short press conference. The woman was practically smug, and the captain couldn't even get mad at her. This was a high-profile case.

Jacob and Leah quietly watched on as the rest of their coworkers as Priya reiterated the events from the past several hours. They were standing in the back of the crowd, sporting a cup of coffee with two extra espresso shots—it was usually a bit of an overkill to ingest so much caffeine. Still, thanks to the arrests, everyone at CPD had accepted that they would be sleep-deprived for at least, the next few weeks.

"I didn't think they would arrest so many people," Leah remarked.

Not even Aisha's useful intel prepared Leah for this.

Leah knew about the mass resignations, starting with the superintendent, most of his staff, and the deputy superintendent, all strongly "encouraged" to save face. She knew that their replacements had to be aware of the human-supernatural relations and the federal and state laws concerning them.

She also had known that arrests would be imminent, although not how many. Sorio had decided to refer to common sense upon the realization that the feds were coming after him, too, so he did the most sensible thing: sing. Charges against the cops and other city and state officials included aiding criminal organizations, perjury, accepting brides, transporting and selling contraband, such as UV's, unclaimed dead bodies, and copious amounts of human blood.

In other words, those arrested were fucked.

"Word on the street is that it wasn't supposed to be so many people, but ever since Mike's suicide and Irina's suspicious disappearance and subsequent reappearance at the morgue, and Sorio finding God, the feds are... let's just say: determined."

"Great, the G-Men are pissed off."

"An understatement," Jacob mumbled into his cup before ingesting more of his coffee. By the time this whole situation blew over, the entire station would be extremely caffeinated. "Do you think Barba's gonna prosecute everyone?"

"Like you said, the feds are determined," Leah said. "One another note: I picked up on the conversation Jenks had with Paul and the city reps earlier. I did try not to eavesdrop, but it was too tempting. The city's thinking about creating a new Deal."

"As expected," Jacob said, crossing his arms. "I doubt they'll ever scrap it. Maybe once everyone learns about the supernatural, which I doubt it'll happen anytime soon."

Leah nodded, and then, "Also, the feds are becoming more involved in supernatural federal cases. No more punting it to municipal police departments, which I think we'll lessen our work loud." She nudged Jacob with an elbow. "So that means you're going to have to do something about your disdain for the Bureau."

"I don't hate them," Jacob insisted as always. "If they want some of our shit, then be my guest. Is that going to affect the Voldemort taskforce?"

Leah shook her head. "As far I know, it's going to serve more as a joint-taskforce to help out the feds when needed. But it's still going to be business as usual. Now, the question is what's going to happen with the revised Deal."

Jacob sighed. "Yeah."

The detectives returned their focus on the press conference—the interim superintendent was now speaking about transparency and the usual jargon. Nothing special. As soon as he finished, Leah let out a deep breath, finished her drink, and jumped off the desk she was sitting on. "Come on, they're not going to say anything new anytime soon. We got much work to do concerning Mike Newton."

"What is there to investigate?" Jacob asked. "Did we determine that he committed suicide to avoid being labeled a rant?"

"Paul wants us to look into the circumstances behind Mike's suicide," Leah explained, drawing from the meeting she had with the captain while Jacob had taken a bathroom break. "For reasons, I'm sure we'll discover, Paul is under the belief that someone took Mike Newton's life. And a part of me thinks that he may be onto something."

"Another thing to cross off the list," Jacob said, following Leah out of the station. "Hopefully, we won't have to add on more items onto it."

"Wishful thinking," Leah said, capturing Embry's attention with a wave. Embry waved back and mouthed that he would be out in a few minutes. "Nothing, in this case, is easy."

Despite the progress from the past couple of months, the investigation was far from over. The case was so convoluted with twists and turns, but that didn't mean they had to give up. They would continue bringing those to justice one way or the other. And if it wouldn't be them, it would be their fellow cops after them.

There was one thing for certain: the Olympic coven and the Volturi coven would be brought to their knees. The Voldemort Taskforce vowed to be the ones who did it.

Leah was happy to be home.

She didn't have to worry about work for the next several hours, and with Sam and Emily being with the baby that night, she had the entire place to herself. Damn, Leah needed the rest. She needed to shed off her work clothes, jump into the shower and toss herself onto that very enticing bed until midnight when she would have to meet up with the pack—

She opened the apartment door and froze.

Perhaps she was hallucinating. Perhaps her exhaustion finally got the best of her. But the sight of Jane, sitting at her dining room table, inside her apartment was too real.

Leah considered calling in for backup but found herself unable to move any limb. The two women stared at each other for a few seconds, before the detective let out a sigh. Fuck it. This was Jane she was talking about. The woman wouldn't be here, putting herself in such a precarious situation if there wasn't a damn good reason.

"How did you… get in?" Leah carefully asked, slowly closing the door behind her and locking it without moving her eyes from the vampire. "What are you doing here?"

"It is nice to see you again, Detective," Jane replied, not exactly answering her question. She was alone, didn't appear murderous. Relaxed but understandably cautious. "It appears that due to circumstances beyond my control, I am no longer employed by the Volturi. Apparently, my actions or lack thereof during a particular certainly ill-fated tunnel raid has displeased by superiors."

Oh shit. Leah cleared her throat and walked further into her home. So, the rumor's real. She stopped at the kitchen table, tossing her bad aside before pulling out a chair. She sat directly across from the vampire. "Why are you telling me this?"

Why are you here?

"For over a thousand years, the Volturi's purpose has been to preserve the vampire world, to make sure that the humans do not interfere with us. They have made laws to ensure this, including, but not limited to, the law Sasha Denali had foolishly broken... and they have insisted that all matters, criminal or not, remain a vampire-issue. I joined the coven out of necessity and later remained because I believed in their cause. But after that fateful night in the tunnels, I have begun to question their objectives. Among other things…"

Leah's eyes widened.

Jane just officially implicated the Volturi for the Denali murders.

Holy shit.

"Again," Leah said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. "Why are you telling me this, and what are you doing here?"

"You can ease your concerns. I am not here to kill you," Jane stated in her patented emotionless voice. She must have sensed the slight and confused apprehension rolling off of Leah. "I am only here to talk."

"You want to talk?" Leah couldn't help but scoff. "You?"

"I believe that was what I said," Jane replied. "It has come to my attention that the investigation into the death of Jessica Stanley and the others has more or less stalled with a probable unsatisfying end in the near future." Her mouth curved into a smirk. "I'm here to bring it back to life."

Whew! It's finally complete!

I want to thank you all so much for your support! If you enjoyed this story, check out the sequel, The Emancipation of Leah Clearwater.