I'm leaning up against the refrigerator in old shorts and a tank top, munching away happily on my mom's tuna salad. She and Seth aren't home, so I skip the whole unnecessary bowl stage and am eating straight out of the Tupperware. Mulling over everything that's been happening recently.

I'm contemplating getting the milk out and drinking it straight from the container when the front door opens. As I weigh the pros and cons of shoving the tuna salad back in the fridge or hiding it behind my back, my mom comes into the kitchen with Charlie right behind her.

"Oh, hi, Leah, it's nice to see you," Charlie says awkwardly as I brace myself for my mom's lecture on "table manners."

"Hi, honey, how are you?" Mom asks, sounding…un-angry. Actually, a little embarrassed. I look from her to Charlie and try not to laugh. I swallow the tuna salad that's been in my mouth for the last few minutes.

"Mom, Charlie," I nod at them and take another bite.

"I see you've decided not to use plates," her lips are pursed as she says this. "Just because when you're a wolf you can eat like an animal doesn't mean it's okay in my house, young lady," she scolds. I feel like I'm 16 again. Surprisingly, Charlie managed not to grimace too much when Mom mentioned my… condition. He must be more used to it now than when Jacob did his big reveal. Not that he knows yet what his darling baby girl is. At least I'm not a filthy bloodsucker… Speaking of which, I promised Alice and Rosalie I'd go see them again soon.

Mom hands me a plate, one of those tiny ones that doesn't really have a purpose, except to annoy me, and I use my fork to shove the last four bites out of the Tupperware. This is ridiculous—at least I was saving dishes, and, you know, water and dish soap and stuff.

"You didn't eat the lasagna from last night, did you honey?" my mom asks. I shake my head, but before she goes to open the fridge, I tell her that Seth must have gotten his paws into it, because it's not there anymore.

"Leah, don't talk with your mouth open, dear," she tells me tiredly. "Charlie, I'm sorry, I really did intend to feed you that lasagna. But obviously my children thought otherwise. Here, I'll make some soup…" and just like that she's bustling around the kitchen, getting things out to make soup for Charlie.

"Hey, can I have some of that soup?" I ask innocently, finishing off my tuna salad. She 'tsks' under her breath and mutters about how hard it is feeding me and Seth. Well, it wouldn't be so difficult if she hadn't also taken over the Feeding Charlie project. Charlie is sitting at the counter, generally looking out of place. And nervous. I really don't think he likes being around people. Well, he annoys me a lot less than his daughter does. Granted there are probably skin rashes that annoy me less than Bella does.

"So what did you do yesterday? More patrols?" Mom asks as she starts cutting up vegetables.

"Um, well, um….hung out with the Cullens, um," I say lamely. I was really hoping she wasn't going to ask. Most people in the Tribe don't exactly love the leeches.

"Oh." There's an incredibly awkward pause. "Your brother is over there a lot, you know." Another pause. "With Jacob." Charlie immediately perks up at the mention of Jake. Mom likes Jacob well enough, especially since Seth looks up to him so much, and Jake doesn't seem to mind having my brother following him around all the time and generally worshipping him.

"Were you helping Jacob baby-sit Nessie?" Charlie asks. Oh, Charlie, how I love you right now.

"Yup!" I agree, possibly too quickly. "That's exactly what I was doing." I start rinsing off the plate. Ugh, as if I would ever want to help baby-sit that creepy little freak Spawn. Not that Nessie even needs baby-sitting. She seems to tolerate her mother and Rosalie's cosseting with a sort of good-natured patience, but it's almost like she's…above all that. Still, it's probably all around better if that's what my mom thinks I was up to.

I should just leave out the part where Jacob and I were seeing how fast the Ferrari could go on a dark road in deep, Washington fog in the middle of the night, with Alice and Edward zooming around us. Yeah, my mom probably doesn't want to know about that.

Jacob drove me home afterward. Actually, we sort of drove around for awhile, on all the small, curving, barely two-lane road, going up and down little hills, in and out of the fog, but not really heading toward home. Bella and Edward must be pretty fond of Jacob to let him drive Bella's Ferrari so much. Or maybe Edward is just excited that someone appreciates the car. I kind of hate Bella for not being as excited as she should be about owning a Ferrari. If a man bought me a Ferrari I'd be pretty damn happy, even if he was a useless pretty boy like some bloodsuckers I know.

We talked. It was the first time in awhile that we were together without Seth the One-Man-Jacob-Fan-Club there. I asked him if he talks to Sam or anyone in the other pack. He said it was inescapable, what with Paul being his brother-in-law. I asked him if he'd tell Sam that I'd come to the wedding. He nodded and didn't say anything. We weren't racing the Cullens at this point, so he was driving at a slightly less ludicrous speed (which continued to drop as our conversation continued, giving us more time to talk). Anyway, Jacob took his eyes off the road for an instant and regarded me. I couldn't tell what he was thinking so I shifted uncomfortable, fidgeting with my purse on the floor.

"Sure, sure, I'll tell Sam," and then we were back in silence. "Did your mom say when the wedding was going to be?"

I shrugged. Have they even picked a new date? His turn to shrug. I guess he doesn't exactly spend a lot of time chatting with Sam these days.

"I thought the packs were on 'friendly terms?'" I asked.

Again with the shrugging. "Yeah, I guess we are. It's just hard for me to be in a room with Sam for more than a few minutes. It's even worse if we're in wolf form."

I smirked and let out a quick, slightly mocking laugh. "Now you know how I felt."

He raised one dark eyebrow. "Felt? Do I detect a past-tense?" I stared out the window and told him "maybe." He lifted one shoulder (no one can be quite as casual as Jacob) and told me he thought his issue with Sam was an "Alpha thing." Oh, sure, like they both have too much testosterone to be in the same room at the same time… uh huh. Men can be so arrogant.

"Well then maybe I hate Sam because I'm an Alpha, too," I told him, and stuck my tongue out for good measure. "I'll just run off and start my own pack. My own pack of one." He laughed and told me that a "Leah Pack" was just about the scariest thing he could think of. And then he stopped laughing and said, "But you don't hate me like you hate Sam, right? I mean, I don't annoy you as much, do I?"

"Of course not. You didn't break my heart." Jacob shut up then, staring at the road. Did he honestly forget why I had Sam-issues?

"Leah, I'm not like Sam, am I?" his voice was raw, raw and as vulnerable as I'd ever heard it. He'd slowed the car almost to the speed-limit.

"What? No, you're being ridiculous, Jake," I told him, exasperated. For one thing, he wasn't nearly as sure of himself as Sam had always been. It's one of the things I liked about Jacob. As an Alpha, that is. And as a friend. And… I guess that's just another thing about Jacob that will be wasted on Nessie.

"I mean about the imprinting thing," Jacob said it so quietly I had to strain to hear him. He was changing gears a lot more frequently than was necessary. Not unlike my right hand's constant probing around in my purse, checking to make sure my phone and iPod and everything was still here. Just to have something to fidget with.

I didn't know what to say. What do you say to that? Did he want me to tell him I approved of Nessie? Did he want me to say 'No, I think it's really super that the love of your life is the creepiest freakin' thing on planet earth, and that means a lot, since I'm a freak of nature myself!'

Instead I said, "Jake, lots of wolves have imprinted. Maybe you're like Paul." And then I stuck my tongue again. He told me if I kept doing that it would get stuck and I'd look stupid forever. I said his insults were just about the lamest thing on the planet and I didn't care if he thought I looked stupid, so there, asshat. And we fell back into silence.

"Just tell Sam I'll be at the damn wedding," I said eventually. It didn't come out as bitchily as it might have. Instead of angry, I was just resigned. And sleepy. Jacob had claimed to be driving me home, but it had been about fifteen minutes since our race ended, and I didn't think we were getting any closer to La Push.

"And I'll phrase it just like that, too. 'Leah says she'll be at your damn wedding.'"

I rolled my eyes. "Tell him I'll be a bridesmaid if he really wants."

"Isn't the whole bridesmaid thing up to the bride? You can always be a groomsman. Since you're so masculine!" And then I punched him on the arm. Which only actually proved his point and made him laugh harder. Bastard. "Sure, sure, Leah, don't freak out. I'll tell Sam, ok?" and then a pause.

It was late by then, very late. Around 2. Which isn't so bad, in wolf form, when we've got a task to do, like stop Leech War 17 or whatever. But in human form, when you're tired, you start saying stupid shit you shouldn't say. The whole benefit of being human is that your packmates don't have to hear every stupidass thing that pops into your mind. But get tired and comfortable (curled up in a comfy little Ferrari) and your filter dies. At least that's what I'm thinking as I wash the plate clean of the tuna salad, watching my mother get soup ready for Charlie (and me, and Seth, probably). I'm going to blame the conversation on the tiredness. That's the only way to explain Jacob's stupid question about being like Sam and everything else that came after.

Because after the pause, I said, in a voice as quiet as the one Jacob used earlier, "they want me at their wedding, in their damn wedding because it will mean they haven't done anything wrong." No need to say that Rosalie said it first, Jacob will only make fun of me more.

I was watching him as I said it, watching him in a tired, unfocused way. So I saw the muscles in his arm tighten and his jaw clench. He shifted gears. "They have done something wrong," and then Jacob turned and looked me straight in the eye. "They have done something wrong, Leah. They hurt you. And there's no excuse for it. None." And then he swallows and goes back to watching the road.

Awake, alert, fed-on-tuna-salad Leah thinks "Wow. Something is really going on with Jake." But the special nighttime version of myself, the tired, thinking about Sam and my pretty cousin, unfocusedly staring at the muscles in Jacob's arm (I was tired, okay? Really tired! And there wasn't anything else in the car to look at) Leah was not addressing such subtleties. I just smiled up at Jacob. Smiled because he was upset that I had been hurt, because for so many months when I was in Sam's pack everyone hated me, everyone, and now I had Jacob on my side and seeing him say something nice made me smile. Maybe I was getting soft.

So as I smiled up at Jake, I said, "I thought you thought I was a harpy," and instead of telling me that I was just less annoying than Paul, or that all his afternoons in Casa de Vampire had given him new appreciation for what it means to be a harpy (I should thank Rosalie for providing a baseline) he told me that he understood now and that he didn't think it was right.

"Oh you understand, now that Bella has done a happydance on your fragile widdle heart you understand how sucky my life is?" and I elbowed him. As if loosing a hopeless, pathetic schoolboy crush on freaking Bella is like having years of an actual relationship wrenched away by my damn cousin. Jacob just looked at me out of the corner of his eye and told me that no, he wasn't talking about Bella. He was talking about Nessie.

"Sweet! I love soup! Can I have some? When will it be ready?" Seth bounds into the kitchen, startling everyone. I nearly drop the plate that's long clean by now. I dry it too quickly and shove it in the cabinet.

"Seth, what have I told you about clean feet?" My mother says tiredly. The soup's already on the stove, and it smells great. My stomach growls loudly. Ugh, just another great part of being a werewolf shape-changer thing. Well, at least I wasn't as bad as the boys. "I don't care if you want to run around in the forest barefoot as a wolf, but you will wash your dirty feet before you come in my kitchen, young man," Mom is saying.

Wow, she's wound up tight today. I wonder if it's because Charlie is here. Or if it's because I am home and now she has to cook for two bottomless pits instead of one. Seth rolls his eyes behind Mom's back and grins at me.

"You were out late last night, sis. Wild date with a, I don't know, a poltergeist or something?" I glare at him. "You know, because of the whole mythical creatures thing?" It's truly sad that Seth feels he has to explain his lame jokes. Charlie actually looks more than a little uncomfortable with the direction this conversation is going. "Leah was dating a merman," he says to Mom and Charlie, "but he started acting all fishy," and he starts laughing.

"No, Seth, I'm actually dating a zombie, and we're just biding our time until he eats your brain. Oh wait, you don't have one. Aha," I tell him in a deadpan voice.

"Ooooooh, wow, you're so witty! I wish I was in wolf form right now so I could hear every thought that pops into your twisted female brain. Oh wait, no I don't!"

"Yeah, that'd be great, and then all I'd get to hear your constant monologue about how great you think Lord Jacob is,"

"It's better than hearing you think about—"

"Um…" comes a pathetic little voice from across the kitchen. We both look over at Charlie. "None of those things are real, right?'

"No, of course not!" Mom says, ladling up four bowls of soup. Two of which are larger than the others. "Don't joke about mythical creatures in front of Charlie."

"Hey, Charlie, Bella's not a mermaid, don't worry. Although you probably would have noticed. And she's not a poltergeist or zombie either," Seth says, sitting down next to him. "So you watching the Seahawks tonight?"

The soup is good. Everything my mother cooks is good. It's easy enough to tune out Seth and Charlie chattering about sports. Mom looks happy when she finally sits down. Huh, well, that's something, at least.

Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, I'm going back over to the Crypt. To hang out with my leech buddies. Or something. God, how do I even get myself into these situations? Anyway, I promised Alice I'd come back, and it's really hard to say no to Alice.

As I eat my soup I think about last night again. It's all sort of fuzzy. Not like drunken-fuzzy, but like those late-night memories where you can't remember exactly what you said or what was said to you. Jacob was definitely upset about something. And we drove around for a long, long time. "Silly boy, aren't you tired yet?" I finally asked him. It wasn't that I wanted to go home, back to my mother's house, but I didn't want him to think he had to keep me out for my sake. To show me the car, or cheer me up, since I'm such a bitter old maid.

He shook his head. "I like driving you," he murmured. "The speed's pretty good."

"If it's speed you want, we could run around as wolves," I told him.

"Then I'd have to listen to your thoughts," he paused. "I like talking to you. Sometimes it's nice telling you things because I want you to know them, not because you hear me think them. And…. Being out here, with you, driving, doing something very human, it's like I'm human again." Wow, he must have been as tired as I was, but I didn't appreciate it last night. So I snorted out a sort of laugh.

"We're more human than some."

"I feel like how I used to feel, when I was a wolf, but…." He trailed off. I really had no idea what he was getting at, but I was curious. We hadn't really talked this much, this openly, since before Nessie was born. We were friends, and packmates, but not exactly confidantes. I used to think it was because he didn't need that in his life. But I suppose I didn't know much about his life now. "…sometimes when I am out here by myself, or sometimes when I am with you, I feel like I did before I imprinted."

I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything. The words start tumbling out of his mouth,"It's hard for me, being away from Nessie. I hate even letting her out of my sight. It's like… like there's a chunk of me that's hers, and hers entirely. And when I'm with her, that part of me is all that I am. There's nothing else, nothing else matters but her. But other times… I feel different. Like now, when I'm with you. And it's weird. It's like being two different people, but both of them are still me."

He was being so serious; I was tempted to pat his arm, like Alice had done for me. But I didn't.

The next time he speaks, it's even quieter. "If I could, I would phase and run up north and see how long I could stay a wolf. See how I felt, see who I was. But I can't, I can't leave her," and then our eyes met, and he said, "I'm so jealous of you being able to leave like that…"

I shake my head, as if a physical gesture can clear away persistent thoughts. Seth and I are polishing off the last of the soup. Charlie is talking to Mom now. "You look thoughtful, Leah," my little brother says to me, quietly. I shrug. "Jacob said Bella said Alice said that you were going back over to the Cullens' soon." I shrug again. As if I need Seth to be my social secretary.

"Hey, Dweeb, don't you have any actual friends you could annoy, instead of me?"

"Oh, yeah, Shorty, because there's sooo many people to chill with. Oh, I know! I could go kick it with the other pack. That's a great idea."

I let out a quick laugh despite myself. "It's ridiculous that it's less awkward to run around with bloodsuckers than with our own kind," as soon as the word 'bloodsucker' has left my lips, I regret it instantly. My eyes flick over to Charlie, but he hasn't noticed nor heard. He's busy talking to Mom about the new building going into Forks. That was close. Seth kicks my shin under the table. So I jab him with my spoon.

Fastening my bra in the middle of a forest is about as far from fun as I can imagine. It's always getting stuck on brambles. Oh, and that's on top of sometimes when I'm a wolf, I get the feeling that I should be wearing three bras. Ugh. And yes, I brought the shoes. I never go anywhere, so if I want to wear the damn things, it's going to be around the Cullen's supercreepy house. As great as "neutral ground" was… I'm really not in the mood to sit in a car in Port Angeles.

I go up the walk and knock on the front door. Alice's husband, the blond one, opens it. "You don't have to knock, you know. The other dogs don't," he steps aside and lets me in.

Alice and Rosalie are waiting for me inside. As I walk over to them, I turn my head around and tell Jasper that, "Well, one of us has to be civilized."

It doesn't smell as bad as the first time I was here last week. The windows are open, though, and they seem to have a fan set up. I wonder if they got it when Jacob started hanging out here all the time. He's not here now—he and Bella took Spawn to kill a poor little innocent animal, most likely Bambi's mother. I don't see Edward, or the muscley one, Rosalie's husband, anywhere. Or, come to think of it, the so-called "parents" of this little leech squad. Now that I'm like, hanging out with Rosalie and Alice, maybe I should stop thinking horrible thoughts about leeches.

Or not. It's not my fault they're bloodsuckers.

"Thanks for coming by," Alice says as I pour myself into one of the chairs. I make a noncommittal noise and tuck my feet up under me.

"So we got you a present," Rosalie says, her voice neutral. I like that about her, that she doesn't feel the need to enthuse over every damn thing, like Bella. Well, Bella mostly just whines. Ugh. Why did Jacob even like her for so long? I would hang myself if I was in love with someone who moped and whined and cried every freakin' day.

I raise my eyebrow at Rosalie. "That was very kind of you. Is it a leash? A Frisbee?"

"Oh, no, we should have gotten more accessories!" Alice hisses to her.

"Uh… in that case…. A bracelet? Did you guys get me a nice little silver bracelet? Or silver earrings?" I ask, trying to keep a straight face.

"NO!" Alice is practically bouncing up and down where she's sitting. "Jasper! Go get him!" Her husband sighs and rolls his eyes, going into the kitchen. I wonder briefly if their kitchen is missing the usual sink, oven, etc, and just has about 20 freezers full of blood that Dr Sparkly steals from the blood bank. Hm But I suppose if they had their own little supply here, they wouldn't always be off decimating the wild animal population.

I am actually a tad excited to see what they got me. I am expecting, I don't know… an action figure of a werewolf? Or some sort of ridiculous anthology of werewolf mythology? Sort of like how I was tempted to buy them this book I saw the other day called Vampirates. What I am certainly not expecting is the tiny dog that charges into the oversized main room and beings running around wildly.

"What the hell is that?" I ask, pointing.

"That's your present! He's an Italian Greyhound!" Alice chirps happily, while Rosalie calls the dog over to us.

It is the funniest looking dog I have ever seen. Like a typical greyhound…. But… small. Very small. With a tiny little body suspended on freakishly long legs. And it can't walk right or something, because it's wobbling all over the place.

"He's a puppy," Rosalie is telling me while she pets his hyperactive body. "But he won't get much bigger."

"You guys got me a dog?" I finally ask.

"No, we got you a coffee table," Jasper tells me, sitting down next to Alice. "It just looks like a dog."

Ok, so I have to admit, the puppy is pretty cute. Quite small though. But not small in an annoying, celebrity lapdog kind of way. With those ludicrous legs, it doesn't look like he'd fit in a purse or anything gross like that.

Alice is petting him now as she explains more about the dog to me, "Italian greyhounds love to run very quickly, so we thought you could, you know, run around with him." The puppy notices me, and comes over to where I am sitting. Instead of sitting and letting me pet him like he did for the others, he promptly jumps up on me.

"Awww, he likes you!" Alice giggles.

"Of course he does. She's warm," Jasper says to her, putting his arm around his wife's shoulders.

"That's why we had to get a puppy and not a dog—we had to condition it not to hate us, just because we're vampires," says Alice. Wow, they put a lot of thought into this.

And… I'm sort of touched. No one's ever given me an overly hyperactive dog before.

"His name is Scott," says Rosalie, watching me and the dog with a slight smirk. Or is it a smile?

"Scott? Not like, Rover or something?" I ask. Rosalie just rolls her eyes at me. "Or, you know, something exotic? Usually when people give dogs human names they make them exotic ones. Like—"

"Marmaduke?" Alice asks. "That's what I wanted to name him."

"I wanted to name him 'dinner'" Jasper says in an undertone, looking away. He smirks after he says it.

"Oh, yeah, threaten to eat Leah's dog. That's real nice," Rosalie snaps back, glaring at him. Wow, this family seems to play-argue just as much as I do with my charming little packmates.

"I can't help it that the dog, sorry, Scott or Marmaduke or Rover or whatever he's called, smells like food," he looks up at me and smiles, "I'm sorry, Leah, does that offend you? That this puppy smells more like food than you do?" and he tries to give me what I am sure he thinks is his most dangerous smile.

"Yes, I'm really, really sad that my lifelong ambition of smelling like food to a foul bloodsucker has been thwarted."

"I just meant because humans smell the best, but you and your pack smell worse than dog to me, I was wondering if that upset you?" still, with the same smile, plus now an arched eyebrow. Alice and Rosalie are watching us, Rosalie with a grin, Alice like she might separate us if we come close to physical violence. I should reassure her later that I won't mess up her husband's pretty face.

"Maybe we don't smell like food to you, leech, because if you ever came near one of us, we'd probably break all your bones and otherwise kick your ass, and that would be really sad for you, wouldn't it?" Scott, or whatever the dog's name is, is nuzzling my hand as I say this. I smile at the girls. "By the way, thank you for the dog. He's pretty cute."

"You like him?" asks Alice, "We weren't sure if you would. Jacob said shape-shifters don't have time to take care of pets, but—"

"—we wanted to remind you that men are dogs," interrupts Rosalie, "Aren't they, Scott, yes they are, yes they are!" she addresses that last part to the dog. "Oh, and his name isn't really Scott. You can name him whatever you want."

"Or you can let Bella name him," says Jasper.

AN: Thank you for all the reviews and favorites I've been getting! Please continue! Reviews make me excited to update more! And thank you to the people who took the time to put this on C2 lists! I hope everyone is still enjoying reading it as much as I am enjoying writing it. I am especially excited about all of you Blackwater fans who reviewed—I think maybe you can tell that I am I in your camp.

Lastly, I hope no one is too upset that Bella hasn't really been in this fic a lot. I'd probably make her trip off a cliff into a meat-shredder and then land in some gasoline with a strategically placed magnifying glass over her, igniting her instantly. That's the only way I can think of to get rid of her, now that's she's a vampire. (I don't really hate her. But I think Leah does.)