I open my eyes. Slowly. I really don't want to be awake. The room is already filled with light. Anywhere else, the light would be yellow, but here in La Push it's green, making my room glow eerily. It's home—exactly where I don't want to be.

I sit up, very slowly. The twin bed doesn't really work for me, but I shouldn't complain, since I'm still the shortest of the wolves. How cute, Little Leah… yeah, right. If I were actually little, instead of just relatively little, then it'd be okay. I'm not "cute." Emily is "cute."

And here I thought I got all of this out of my system on yesterday's shopping trip. Still, as condescending as I find it when Jacob teases me about being "small," well… At least when I stand next to him or my other pack brothers, I feel normal again.

It's passed 10 when I make my appearance in the kitchen. Mom's already awake and has breakfast made—in huge quantities. My brother is at the small dining room table, happily chomping away. I start filling up a plate.

"Good morning, sweetie," my mom says, going on tiptoes to kiss my cheek. I move my mouth into a smile (or is it a grimace? I need to work on that.) Her brown eyes are still tinged with sadness, but less so than when I went away. I wonder if it's a permanent thing for her—the hint of sorrow. She doesn't talk about it with me, or maybe it's that I don't talk about it with her.

I have to look away. For the first few years, not thinking about my dad's death was easy. Easier than I thought it would be. Especially as a wolf. And anytime it surfaced, I could just focus on how much I hate Sam, the girlfriend-abandoning bastard. But lately, I've been thinking about Dad more. Its one of the reasons I came back. I thought somehow that being back in the house, back with my family, would make things… better. If I had known it was going to be this hard, I would have stayed a wolf.

Seth's onto his second (or third?) helping. I sit down across from him and start eating. God, I really am hungry. And human food, well, it's pretty good. A hell of a lot better than raw deer. Honestly, I don't know how the bloodsuckers manage.

Mom's fussing around in the kitchen. Moving things around. Is she nervous about something?

"Charlie's coming over for breakfast," Seth hisses in a very loud stage whisper. He even throws a wink in. Kid can be kind of amusing, when he's not annoying me to death (then again, he's a man, he can't help it—the annoying part.) Mom pretends she doesn't hear. Hmm. Charlie. So that explains some of the sorrow that's missing from her eyes.

"Oh, hey, Leah," he starts again. Clearly pretending to be casual, like this idea just popped into his mind. Whatever he's about to say, I am sure he's been thinking about it all morning, if not longer.

"I was, uh, going to go over to the Cullen's today," he's trying to sound casual. And I'm trying not to throw up my breakfast at the mention of the Leech Family. "I mean, um, with Jacob, you know, and, uh, I was thinking, well, we we're thinking," he's not looking me in eyes, either, but staring at a fixed point over my left shoulder. And blinking a lot. It's actually kind of fun seeing him so flustered. He clears his throat and starts again, louder. "Jacob and I were thinking that maybe you'd like to come with us. To show Alice your new clothes."

He adds that last part on quietly, lamely. Like he knows it has a snowball's chance in hell of convincing me. And he almost doesn't. It's that last part that gets me. Maybe I'm not a complete bitch after all, maybe some residual part of me realizes it's polite to thank someone for a gift. Or maybe, quite simply, it's because Alice is a girl, and I don't exactly spend a lot of my time talking to girls anymore. It might be nice, even if she is a filthy bloodsucker. Because at least the leeches are in on our secret.

Another thing that vanished when I became a wolf. Any semblance of female friends. The girls whose shoulders I cried on, who brought me chocolate and chick-flicks and burned him in effigy with me after he ripped out my heart and stomped on it, the girls I used to tell everything to… the girls I barely speak to now. I haven't talked to them since I came back to La Push. What's the point? Our friendship broke when he, that bastard, put the unbreakable command in my brain. I can't tell them my secret, and since being a wolf is a full-time job, well, we have nothing to talk about. Joining the Pack wasn't such a hardship for the boys—they have all their friends there. The irony of Sam destroying my friendships with the girls who tried to help me get over him isn't lost on me. Part of the tragedy is that it was working. I was getting over him. Until I was forced to spend hours hearing his stupid little thoughts. Ugh.

I hate men.

I could always hang out with the girls and women the other wolves have imprinted on… but really, I have nothing to say to Emily. Whatsoever. At all.

"Yeah, okay, whatever," I say, a little too quickly. Seth's jaw literally drops and I can see half-chewed sausage and eggs floating around in his mouth. "Ew, Seth, close your damn mouth, that's gross." I go back to eating my own breakfast. Really, as much as it sucks being home, nothing beats my mom's cooking. No wonder Charlie is entranced. I snort and nearly choke on my eggs thinking about it. Seth looks up in wonderment at this show of mirth on my part—still clearly not over my acceptance of his offer. He probably thinks I was being sarcastic. Wonder where he got that impression?

But it is slightly amusing to think about what Mom and Charlie talk about when they spend all this time together. I mean, I assume they talk about Dad, since the both really loved him. But then they probably move on to discuss their freaky mythological kids. 'Leah's running around Canada right now, frightening hikers and eating deer!' I can hear my mom say. To which Charlie responds, 'Well, that's nothing. Bella and her lovebunny went hunting mountain lions the other day. And my granddaughter continues to be the scariest thing on Planet Earth.'

I'm actually laughing to myself now. Imagining Charlie refer to Edward as Bella's 'lovebunny' just about sets me over the edge. I wonder briefly about how much of Bella's life Charlie actually knows anything about.

"Leah, you're laughing?" It's a question.

"Yeah, dweeb, it's called having a sense of humor," I roll my eyes at him. He swallows audibly.

"So Jacob said I should give him a call as soon as I, I mean we, are ready… he'll meet up with us on the run over." Nice change-of-subject, little brother, but you lose points for still not knowing if I am coming with you or not.

"So we are going over in wolf form? Great. I love getting dressed in the forest," I sigh. This complicates things.

We stop within sight of the house. I go behind some bushes to phase and untie the tiny bag I managed to tie to my ankle. Just because Jacob and Seth walk around in their trashy little cutoffs… Ew.

I'm tired of being the slightly more female version of a male shape-shifter.

I stomp through the shrubbery in, yes, my four inch purple patent leather pumps. With little twigs stuck to them. Take that, fleeing femininity! Jacob is standing there, fastening his shorts. He's grown up a lot, or rather, he's grown into himself. It was kinda weird when he was 16 and looked a decade older. I look away. Staring unfocusedly at your half-naked Alpha isn't really considered polite. Besides, its actually kind of creepy. I'm not that deprived, am I? (Actually, yes I am. Oh, God, how low can I fall?) Good thing Mr. Nessie didn't notice me looking, or I'd never hear the end of it.

He has, however, noticed that I am standing there.

"Nice shoes, Tiny," he drawls, looking at my feet. I roll my eyes. "And here I thought you'd have nowhere to wear them."

"At least one of us wants to be civilized." Wait, that makes me wonder… is Jacob wedded to those shorts because it makes him uncivilized, unCullen? It would make sense, since he started doing it back before Skanky McSkanky married her, heh, lovebunny… loveleechy. It would certainly set Jake apart, highlight how masculine he is.

It must just be habit now. I doubt that half-vampire spawn cares what he wears.

Note to self: stop thinking about how creepy Spawn is, because her daddy will hear you and glare at you.

Seth and Jacob are already halfway up the lawn. I inhale, filling my lungs with the less-smelly air of the outside (I tell myself their scent has probably permeated the yard, but it might just be my imagination). The boys don't even knock, just barge on in. I guess the Cullens are used to it—ever since Nessie was born, Jake and Seth have sort of been a permanent fixture in the house.

The smell hits me and I try not to gag. It's much, much stronger wafting off the actual leeches than in the diluted form I'm used to smelling on my pack. A few of the vampires are standing around their big, empty, creepy "living" room. I see the big one, Emmett, standing there in that non-moving way leeches have. The blonde baby-stealer, or at least, baby-coveter, is standing next to him. She glares at me, and I return it happily.

"Hey, Blondie," Jacob starts, and I smirk. This'll be good. "A one armed blonde is hanging from a tree, how do you make her fall?" he pauses, mugging at her. The glare intensifies. "Wave at her! Aha, aha, man, I am so funny!" He waltzes over to one of the white leather couches and plops himself down, apparently taking up as much space as possible. Seth sits on the sofa opposite him. I wonder if the furniture is only there for Jake's benefit.

"Awww, Emmett, look" Rosalie starts, "the little puppy brought his little doggie friends over to play! I wonder if they'd rather have a tennis ball, or a Frisbee?"

I'm more than half-tempted to punch her in the face. Her musclebound husband meanwhile is trying hard not to laugh. Whether at her astounding wit, or just at the apparently commonplace exchange between her and Jake, I don't know. Fortunately for her, and her (for now unbroken) nose, Dr. Sparkle and his wife come in. I imagine the Lovebirds are off on their own—no surprise there.

"Jacob, there's food in the kitchen," the female one, Esme, says. Wait, they're feeding him now? Loathe as I am to admit it, maybe the blonde was onto something with this whole "trained dog theory." And speaking of which, Seth bounds off to get the biggest tray of junk food I have ever seen from the kitchen. He and Jacob begin devouring, putting their bare feet up on the coffee table. Classy, those two.

Jacob pauses, mouth full of food, "Oh, hey, is Alice around? Leah wanted to talk to her," Jacob nods in my direction as he says this. Just so everyone can focus their attention on me. Joy.

Esme smiles at me. Damn, I really hate it when the bloodsuckers try to be nice. It's just… wrong. "She and Jasper will be down in a moment. We weren't sure what time to expect you, and you know how that upsets Alice."

Jasper. Which one was he? Oh, right, the one with all the scars. The fighter. Wait, he was married to Alice? Little Alice? Just proves you can't really ever understand leeches, I guess. Sure enough, Alice skips down the stairs, followed by her husband. He regards me slowly and nods. "Dog."

"At least I'm not undead," I shoot back. And smile. Yes, an honest-to-god smile. Must be the irresistible combination of insulting a man and insulting a vampire.

"Alice, Leah wants to thank you for the gift card you gave her, like, a year ago. She finally spent it. On clothes, and on those ridiculous shoes she's balancing in," Jacob says. What, is he like my conversation pimp now?

"Really?" Alice asks. "Oh my! I love them! They are so cute! Oh, Leah! You look so feminine!" She sort of sings the sentences all together. And, unlike when Jacob talks to me, I don't have the sense that she's mocking me.

I force a smile. I actually really hate having an audience. Why did I even agree to come? Seth and Jacob could have just delivered my message for me.

The door swings open. Aw, and look! It's the happy family! Vampire Spawn runs over to the sofa where Seth and Jacob are now sprawled side-by-side and vaults up, inserting herself between them. She puts her little hand on Jake's, and judging by the unfocused look in his eyes, she must be telling him something. She's… well, she's growing up. She looks like she's in maybe fifth grade. How many months before she's a teenager?

And I'm smirking again. Imagining Bella trying to manage a teenager. Aha.

Oh. My. God. I remember I'm in a room surrounded by vampires. Someone, please kill me. I am completely disgusted. And yet…. Too comfortable. I should be vomiting.

I glare at the scarred one, guessing it's his freaky-ass mind abilities that are making me this calm. He even has the nerve to smile at me. Like he's doing me a favor.

"Hey, Leah, there's something I want to show you. Come upstairs?" it's Alice who asks. Enter farther into the lair? Ew, no, thank you. But wait… it does mean being in a room, alone, with one vampire, instead of in a room with 8 and a half vampires and two other shapeshifters. The ratio Alice offers is better.

"I'm sorry, it's just very hard for me to be around your pack. It throws off my predictions," she's telling me, as she leads me down the hall. Damn, this is a big house! "I'm really glad you used the card! I just… well… it sounds horrible to spend all of your time running around with those boys, changing, ruining clothes, I don't know," is it just me, or is Alice feeling as awkward as I am?

"Okay, so I have a confession." Wow. Alice is being really talkative. She must be nervous, especially without her husband around to control her emotions. "So I wouldn't have gotten you the gift card—usually I only get things for people that I see they will need, and I can't see you, but Edward can hear you, and he said you were miffed about tearing up all your clothes and not being feminine, and I thought, well, I really like clothes and style, and I thought maybe you'd like it." She bites her lip. She's clearly waiting for me to say something.

"Thank you," I pause. As long as we're being honest… "But I sort of don't like the idea of your creepy brother reading my mind."

"He can't help it, you know. Actually, it's hard for him, sometimes. Like when Jacob used to like Bella, well, Edward didn't really need to know every thought that popped into his mind."

I laugh. Actually laugh. She smiles. We've reached the room, well, more of a closet. We take up positions at opposite ends, as far apart as possible. I guess the smell must be bothering her, too. Still, it's not so bad. I'm actually talking to a girl.

I look around. The room she's lead me to is full of clear plastic boxes. "Oh, um, I thought maybe you'd want to have some of this? It's all the beauty products I bought when Bella was human." Her voice trails off.

"Uh, thanks?" I say. I didn't intend it to come out as a question. I open a box near me. Alice does the same, on the other side of the small, cramped room. This box is full of creams. The one next to it seems to be hair products. All of this for Bella? Wow. The shoes are one thing, but I was never a big beauty regime sort of girl.

"She doesn't really use any of it anymore. I mean, not that she used any of it before… I sort of used to have to kidnap her so I could give her makeovers. And dress her" Alice smiles. She's really trying to be friendly. This is too weird.

"You don't strike me as the sort of person who is big into fashion," I say, trying like hell to make conversation.

She cocks her head to the side. "Really?"

"I don't know, you just seem really…" what's the word? "quirky. In a good way, but you know, different, and—" I just stop. I really don't know her at all. I really don't know any of the leeches at all. So why am I trying to be nice to this one? And it doesn't help that she's not saying anything, just watching me, waiting for me to finish. I've really gotten out of the habit of, well, of talking. I'm used to my pack brothers just hearing everything I think, and when I don't want them to know what's on my mind, or when I'm in human form, there's always bitchiness to fall back on.

"So I don't know you, but you have awesome hair, it's just sort of all over the place… It doesn't seem like the hair of a person who does makeovers. Unless they were funky makeovers."

"You like my hair?" she asks, eyes big.

"Uh… yeah, yeah I do. But it, um, doesn't seem to fit you."

She just looks at me. "So, Leah, I'm a vampire. That means I don't change. I can't grow more hair. I'm sort of stuck with what they gave me in the asylum."

"Asylum?" I'm sensing that in my effort to be nice, I've gone and really screwed things up.

"I used to be a patient in an insane asylum. Before." She must be noticing the shock on my face, because she smiles at me. "It's okay. I don't remember any of it. But that's why I used to love brushing Bella's hair so much. I mean, I still can brush it, but it's different now that she's changed."

"Sorry, I really didn't know." I'm staring at a patch of ground a foot in front of where she's standing.

"Leah, I mean it. It's okay. I just really want some of this stuff to go to a good home." She gestures toward the room. Nice change of subject. Waaaaay more talented at it than Seth the Incompetent.

"I'll, um, take a bit. But I would have thought that Blondie would be wanting it all for Nessie."

"No, not really. Maybe when Nessie gets older, but right now, she won't put up with any of it. She would rather run around in the forest with Jake, actually."

"Why is Blondie so obsessed with Nessie?" I ask suddenly. I really didn't mean to say it, but I was thinking it, and, well, maybe the whole self-censoring thing is washed out of my system from being in a pack.

"Oh, because she wants a child of her own, but she can't ever have one."

I bite my lip. "Yeah, I thought vampires couldn't reproduce. But then how did Edward manage to impregnate Bella? I mean, if Edward can, can't Rosalie?"

"No. Male vampires can sire children, but we can't become pregnant. Our bodies don't change." She says the last part quietly and looks away. "It's hard for my sister to deal with."

I don't say anything. I want, really, really want, to make a snide comment like, "thank god she won't ever breed—the world doesn't need any more blondes," but I don't.

"That sounds pretty familiar." God, why am I opening up to a bloodsucker?

"Wait, what? Female werewolves can't—?"

"Apparently not. I don't get my period anymore, so I doubt I could get pregnant," Assuming I could find anyone who'd want to have a child with me, I add in my head. At least I'm not in wolf-form for the boys to hear.

"But what about the other female werewolves?"

"There aren't any," I say it like it's obvious. Actually, it is obvious.

"I know, not now, but I mean, historically. There aren't any stories about female werewolves who have children?"

"No, I mean, there aren't any other female werewolves. Ever. I'm the only one." The only one of my kind. Even Renesmee the Half-Vampire Spawn has others like her.

"Oh," she meets my eyes, "I didn't know. I'm sorry."

I smile. "It's okay."

I stare up at the ceiling. Willing myself to sleep. Not that it ever works, but what else are you going to do when it's pushing 3 am? Note to self: next time Seth busts out one of his dumbass ideas, like, say, "oh, let's pop on up to the Cullens! They feed us now, you know!" I should just punch him in the face. Ugh.

I really didn't need any more complexity in my life. At all. Let's see. I came back from Canada to see if it made missing my dad any easier. Because running away from my pain wasn't working. Because I got tired of eating uncooked meat.

Because I didn't want the other wolves to think I was weak.

And after I came back, I remembered part of why I left. I was tired of being treated like a freak. Leaving Sam's pack was amazing, and being in Jacob's was nowhere near as bad, but I was still… female. But not female enough to be a woman, just female enough to be an outsider. They didn't know what to do with me.

So I tried to be a bit more… oh, not even girly. Refined? Bare feet and dodgy cutoff sweats are great… for Jacob, but not really for me. And even with the inclusion of a manky t-shirt, well, I still wasn't me. I was just reacting, building on what the boys did. So I tried to act. Which led me back to the Cullens, to thank Alice for something she probably didn't even remember doing…

…Which got me here. What the hell is wrong with me that I have civilized conversations with leeches? They aren't even alive for chrissakes. Why couldn't I have nice, human female friends?

Oh, right, because I'm not human either.

I rolled over in bed. I would have pulled the covers up over me, but I didn't really use them anymore since I was never cold. Sleep, damn you! I told myself. It wasn't working.

So apparently there's some really, really weird vibe coming off the Cullens' house. Maybe produced by the mould that only grows in sepulchers or something. You don't notice it, because you're too busy trying not to inhale their scent, but in it comes, messing with your mind. (Or was that Jasper? He was downstairs at the time, but what exactly is his range?)

Because I had agreed to "hang out" with Alice Cullen. Alice "I'm a vampire" Cullen. And she was bringing Blondie.

AN: Hello! I hope you enjoyed chapter two! You may have figured this out by now, but Endless Daylight is not big on plot or epic battles between rival vampire clans. It's a lot more about exploring Leah's world through Leah's eyes. And exploring the relationships between characters that I feel got left out. After reading Breaking Dawn, I have a lot of lingering questions. It seemed to me like everyone got a happy, dare I say, sugary sweet ending? Except Leah. In Meyer's work, it's the minor characters that have attracted me and piqued my interest. And recently, I haven't been able to get Leah out of my mind. So this is my take on how her future would evolve post-BD.

There are other things that I am interested in, as you might have been able to tell from this chapter. Jacob's relationship with Nessie particularly interests me, both for Jacob's sudden character transformation, and for imprinting in general. Edward described the pack as a soap opera, and that's what I want to dig into. Plus I can't resist exploring Alice and Jasper a bit more, too.

This little fanfic is getting a lot of hits, but no reviews. Which probably means that you don't have anything to say, so I can't really blame you. Up until now, I've done strictly humor fics, so really, reviews would be very helpful to me. Further, I am curious to know who is reading it—Leah fans? Jacob/Leah fans? Bella/Edward fans who don't appreciate my/Leah's bitchy comments about their Twue Lub? Nessie lovers? Nessie haters?