I'm warm, so warm. And comfy. I'm dreaming that Sam is holding me, that I am curled up at his side. For a dream, it's pretty good. I didn't know dreams could have smells in them, but Sam smells really nice. Different from how I remember, though. Still, very masculine. I keep my eyes squeezed shut. Such a good dream.

Mmmm this is nice. I snuggle my face up closer to his chest. My arm is sprawled across him. I feel his hair with my fingertips. Long hair? This must be before he phased the first time. But he seems so muscular… God, this is a good dream. I don't want to wake up. I don't want to hate myself for having this dream, for wanting this.

A little warm bundle shifts somewhere in the region of my shin. That must be Scott. Scott isn't allowed in my bed! This isn't my bed, though. This is an odd dream.

Wait. Sudden morning realization dawns over me. It's all too realistic. This can't be, this isn't a dream. But then…?

I open my eyes very, very slowly. A broad caramel expanse of male chest comes into focus. Behind that, the walls of a room I have never been in. There's a little snoring noise from Sam… except that it's not Sam. It's Jacob.

I have my cheek pressed against Jacob's chest.

Oh god.

Why am I sleeping why my head on Jacob's chest?!

Slowly, slowly I remember last night. I was over at the Cullens'….Really tired, Rosalie said I could stay the night here, instead of running back to La Push. I remember walking upstairs and then I was out like a light.

I sit up carefully and look around. We're lying on a giant oval shaped cushion, Jake, Scott and I. It's made of…um, wait, is that red flannel? Oh. Oh god. It's a giant dog bed. Big enough that there's a few inches of space above Jacob's head and below his feet. It must be 7 feet in diameter. I'm sleeping on a dog bed.

What the hell??

Why the hell do the bloodsuckers own a Jacob-sized dog bed? I don't even want to know.

Now that I am sitting up, Scott is pacing around the room, all full of energy. Damn dog. Jacob seems to still be asleep, thank god. I don't even know what I would say to him right now. I'm so completely disturbed. Sleeping next to one's Alpha is probably not okay. Especially not with the cuddling. My hip is still burning where his hand was.

What is even more not okay is that part of me wants to lie back down. Five minutes ago, when I thought I was still asleep, I was… content. Warm. Jacob's body temperature must be even higher than mine.

Not okay, Leah, not okay, I tell myself. Bad. But… Jake looks so peaceful, sleeping like that. Well, I guess it stands to reason that he'd be less annoying unconscious than awake.

Still, he's so young! Maybe not quite so young, though. 3 years younger than I am, yes, but he's almost 20 and definitely not a child. And he's growing into his muscles, now…

No. Stop. Stop looking at Jacob, Leah. This has gone way too far. I stand up, smoothing my rumpled clothes. Nor do I think any higher of Jacob's cutoffs, now that I know he sleeps in them. Maybe he jumps in rivers in them, too, but that would be giving him probably too much credit for cleanliness.

I hate men.

I leave the room as quietly as possible. I really don't want Jake to wake up—'Oh, hi, Jake, that was great fun using you as a pillow! See you on patrol!' He'd probably make fun of me for the rest of my life. Yeah, that's not making me excited to be in wolf form again anytime soon.

I walk downstairs—none of the parasites are in sight. Scott and I head out the front door, as quietly as possible. Maybe all the leech couples are off having sex or reading poetry or whatever it is they do all night (sex for Emmett and Rosalie, poetry for the loveleeches). We're heading toward the forest, where I will stash my clothes and run home, when someone shatters the foggy morning quiet by honking their horn. My head snaps up. Sitting in front of the massive garage is Rosalie in her BMW. She's waving at me.

"Hey, I'm giving you a ride home!" she shouts at me. I roll my eyes at her and wave her away. "Oh, so you want to run home then?" Rosalie asks. I nod. "Uh huh, well, your brother and Embry are running around out there, and I am sure they'd love to hear all about what's on your mind, right now!"

I could kill her. I could just kill her. She is laughing at me. That blonde parasitic—

Ok, fine, I will go in her car. I start walking toward her, Scott happily running ahead, probably thinking in his tiny little dog brain "yay! Car!"

"This is stupid, Rosalie," I call to her, "You can't drive onto La Push."

She shrugs as I jump into the front seat of her car. "Don't you think we're past all that?"

"No," I tell her. "Jake and Seth and I might not completely hate you, but Sam's pack would freak," I look up as the door to the house slams shut and Alice runs out to where we are.

"Wait for me! I want to come too!" she starts attaching Scott's collar to the little doggie carseat that Rosalie has in the backseat of the convertible. Yes, she is that dedicated to my dog. "Where are we going?"

"I'm driving Leah back to the Reservation. Well, to the border anyway. So that her little packmates don't have to hear her fantasizing about Jacob's abs."

I smack her arm. Hard. "Rosalie! Do not say that."

"Why? It's true."

"He does have nice abs," says Alice from the back seat. I turn around to glare at her as Rosalie accelerates down the drive.

"No. We are not having this conversation." So I sit in sulky silence for a few miles, while Rosalie keeps grinning at Alice in the review mirror. Finally I can't take it anymore. "Why in the hell do you own a giant dog bed?" I ask.

Rosalie shrugs. "Oh, I don't know. It seemed like a good idea." She and Alice deteriorate into giggles. I hate them both. I really do. So I give them The Glare.

"So, you like him?" Rosalie asks, when she's stopped laughing at me. I give The Glare some more. She shrugs.

"Jacob is a very nice boy," Alice observes from the backseat. "He's very kind. And always happy." Then she giggles again, "But this sort of makes you a home wrecker."

I turn around and up the volume on The Glare. "Alice. I. Am. Not. A. Home. Wrecker."

She keeps giggling, "You did sleep with my niece's boyfriend."

"I slept with him, not slept with him!"

"Yet." Rosalie adds, smirking at me and raising her eyebrows. Ooooh she shall be the first to die.

"I'm not going to 'sleep with' Jacob!" I practically shout.

"Hm, yeah, because right now, you're in 'fling mode' but having a fling with your little pack leader would be bad," says Rosalie thoughtfully. I nod, they are finally starting to listen! "So what we need to do is get you to have a fling with some other guy first, so that you will have the fling thing out of your system before you seduce Jacob."

"What?! What are you even talking about?" I demand.

"Oh, it'll be easy. We'll just find some really hot guy and then get Jasper to manipulate his emotions so he thinks that his whole reason for existing is to pleasure you sexually," Rosalie says with a shrug.

"Rose, don't make my husband part of your plans. Anyway, Leah doesn't need his help getting someone to want to have sex with her."

"Yeah!" I tell Rosalie, before I realize that she'll take that as agreement with her horrible fling plan.

Rosalie turns to me. "Look," she pauses, and then asks, very seriously, "Do you like him?"

I don't answer. I can't. He's my Alpha. And my friend. And, I don't know! He doesn't think of me that way!

She's still waiting for an answer. I just sigh loudly. I don't know what I can say. No matter what I say, she'll just make fun of me. "Leah, do you like him?" she asks again, still seeming to be serious. I just look at her and glare The Glare. "We could ask Edward if Jacob likes you."

"Edward would never tell that! He's too honorable," Alice pipes up from the backseat. Her sister shrugs.

"Jasper could make him feel like he's in the mood to share. Then he could tell us all if Jacob has ever thought about Leah like that."

"Leah," Alice says very quietly, "Do you like him? Because I was just joking about the 'home wrecker' comment. You aren't a bad person if you like him. And you aren't like Emily."

I sigh again, loudly, and look out of the window. "I…" I trail off. What am I even trying to say?

"…like Jacob?" finishes Rosalie.

"I…." I start again. "It's complicated."

"Because of Nessie?" asks Alice in the same soft, musical voice. I think she's trying to be gentle.

"No. Yes. Because of everything. Because, for one thing, I don't even know if I am really even a woman anymore, and—"

Rosalie glances pointedly at my chest. "No, honey, you're a girl."

"And anyway, he's my Alpha, so—"

"So you can't help but be attracted to him. That's also probably why you were in love with Sam, too. Since you're a female werewolf, of course you are going to get all hot and bothered over male Alphas!" Alice says.

"God, are you two going to actually let me talk, or are you going to keep interrupting me with your dumbass little comments?" I snap, "Alice, what the hell, are you making a discovery channel documentary on the breeding habits of werewolves? Because you can damn well leave me out! Rosalie! I know I have boobs. But I transform like I a man, I don't get my period like a man, and I had dreams about kissing freaking Bella after Jacob thought about it so much!" I'm practically shouting now. There is stunned silence when I finish.

"You…." Rosalie starts.

"….dreamed about kissing Bella?"

I make a sort of "ugh" noise. They exchange a glance with eyebrows raised. "I'm so sorry," says Rosalie, while Alice says "Wow, that's disturbing."

I roll my eyes. "I'm over it."

"But you are confused now because you don't know if you want to go to bed with Jacob or Bella? Anyway, that doesn't make you a man. That makes you a lesbian." asks Alice.

"Ew, no, I'm pretty clear on that front. I'm not gay, and if I were, Bella is the last woman on the planet that I would sleep with, thank you very much."

"So you do want to screw Jacob?" Rosalie says with a grin. I hit her again.

"I didn't say that."

"But you thought it."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did."

"Guys!" Alice interrupts us. "Leah, you were saying?"

I slouch down low in my seat, as low as I can with my long legs. "I don't know what's wrong with me. I can't stop looking at him," I pause. "And he smells really, really good."

"Wait, are we talking about the same guy?" asks Rosalie. "Jacob the dog? The smelly unnaturally tall guy who hangs around my house smelling gross? That one?" Alice, too, is wrinkling her nose.

I roll my eyes at them. "I'm a shapeshifter, too."

"If I ever make a documentary about your mating habits," says Alice, "I will be sure to include that you inexplicably think Jacob smells okay."

"Better than okay."

"Ew. Can we stop planning Alice's werewolf porn now, please?" Rosalie asks. Uh, I wasn't aware we were planning porn, and I tell her that. "Well if Alice is making a documentary about your mating habits then what do you call it, if not porn?"

"I am not going to film Jacob and Leah having sex!" exclaims Alice indignantly.

"Thank you, Alice." I say. "Can I ask you guys something?" They nod. "I was really tired last night. I do not remember thinking it was a good idea to snuggle up with Jacob on his giant doggie bed…. Um?"

"Oh, that. Yeah, you were tired, but it was so late, we didn't want you to go home, so we told you that you could spend the night. We told you that you could borrow one of the spare bedrooms. We sort of… thought you had a thing for Jacob." Rosalie starts to explain, "At least I did. You aren't that hard to read. Not like, that any of the guys have noticed or anything. What I mean is, it's not hard for us to read you, since we're girls, and not completely dumb. Anyway… We thought maybe if we could get you two alone, he'd declare his love for you or something….And that giant doggie bed, well, we had it made awhile back, as a joke. We were going to bring it out one day for Jacob, but we never had a good opportunity. In any case, last night, Jacob said if you were staying, he should stay, so we gave him the dog bed last night, but he was so tired he didn't get why it was funny…. Oh, and we totally tried to give you your own, real, human bed, with sheets and all, but you were so tired, you just followed Jacob into his dog room."

Alice cuts in happily, "I thought that maybe it's a wolf thing to all sleep together in a big pile, you know, like puppies!" Rosalie glares at her.

"Alice! What did I say about the werewolf porn! Anyway, it's a pretty big bed, and when you guys went to sleep, you weren't like touching or anything."

"…yeah, well…." I say lamely.

"Oh my, did you wake up with him holding you?" Alice asks dreamily. "That is so romantic!" She bats her eyelashes. "Even if you are a home wrecker!" The two of them laugh and laugh. "Don't worry, we won't like, tell our niece that you were cuddling with Jacob or anything."

"Oh, good, because I would hate to get in a fight with a 3 year old."

"She's scrappy," says Rosalie. "So speaking of home wrecking, how are you about the whole Sam-Emily wedding thing?"

I was so busy thinking about how I could possibly have been cuddling with Jacob that the question takes me completely off guard. "Uh, fine, I guess…" What else is there to say? That I'm delighted to watch my first love marry my cousin, the girl who was once my best friend?

"Can I do your hair before the wedding?" Alice asks. I nod. What do I care?

"It's not your fault," Rosalie says.

"Yeah, I know. It's my damn hormones."

"No, I don't mean about Jacob. I mean about Sam," she tells me, looking straight at me. "It's not your fault he did this."

I say nothing. "Leah, it's not your fault. It's not about you. And he'll be happy with Emily, but you know what, that just means he wasn't nearly good enough for you." She speaks with such conviction, such passion in her voice, it makes me smile, against my will. Not really a happy smile. Just a smile because someone gets me.

"Afterward," I say, quietly. Alice leans forward from the back seat. I know with her leech abilities she can hear me just fine, but she is very good at acting human. "After he left me, I was getting over him. When I didn't have to see him, see her. But then I phased. And we could all hear everything everyone thought. And the other guys… they all think Emily is the perfect woman. She cooks for them all, you know. She even cooked for Bella, when Bella was chilling with the pack." The leeches exchange a smile. They must be imagining Bella sitting around with a bunch of teenage werewolves. "They all… felt sorry for me. It was hard for them, since they all looked up to Sam so much… Sam is the Great Leader, the guy who everyone thinks is the best thing to happen to our Tribe in a long time. They all want to be Sam. And Emily… God, have you seen them together?" I ask.

They shake their heads. "It's like Bella and Edward, basically," they can probably tell from my face that I'm disgusted. For the thousandth, millionth, billionth time I wonder if it's the imprinting that makes them that way. If it is, then Sam had no choice to leave me. But if that's the case, then I am even more pathetic for the way my eyes follow Jake's muscles as they ripple underneath his smooth, perfect skin. Because if imprinting made Sam and Emily the way they are, then imprinting is going to make Jacob and Nessie that way.

I don't say any of that, but somehow, somehow they know what I am thinking. Maybe I am easy to read. Alice pats my shoulder, and I feel the heat being pulled out of my body. I smile a smile that only stretches my mouth. "I don't think Jacob and Nessie are like that," Rosalie says quietly.

I shrug. What's it to me?

We're sitting at the border of the Reservation, now. We've been here awhile. Talking… Yesterday I was in such a good mood. And this morning, when I was still asleep, when I still thought I was asleep, I was so happy. Because I thought I was back with Sam. Except I knew… I knew his smell was different. His chest was broader, his hair longer.

What the hell is wrong with me? This is so not okay.

"Guys, um…" I don't know what to say to them. "Thank you. For everything. For driving me home. And for letting me crash at your house. For talking to me."

They both smile, but it's Rosalie who speaks first. "Leah, you aren't that bad, for a werewolf."

Alice unclips Scott from the dog car seat and hands him to me, still smiling. "I'll see you soon, Leah!"

I let Scott jump to the ground. He doesn't have his leash, but he'll stay right by my side. It's like he knows that I'm a wolf and I outrank him in our pack. Strange, that he can stand to be around parasites, too. But I suppose he's used to it. He probably doesn't know any better. Kind of like Seth.

As Scott and I start walking into La Push, I turn around and wave at the girls as they speed away.

I walk along the edge of the forest. Convenient, that our house is so close to the woods, since Mom has too wolfchildren constantly coming in and out of the house. I get a few blocks from home when my brother materializes out of the fog at the edge of the forest. He's wearing a Jacob-inspired outfit, and must have just phased back from wolf form.

"Where'd you come from?" he asks me. "I didn't hear you in the forest."

"The leeches drove me home."

"And you say Jake and I are trained dogs? What's the matter, can't run home like the rest of us?"

"Listen, Dweeb, I had a lot on my mind." I stick my tongue out at him. God, how can something this annoying be related to me? Maybe he's adopted. Maybe Mom and Dad found him under a rock. But that doesn't explain how he's a wolf. Maybe you can catch shapeshifting from being around other werewolves—I should tell Embry he might not be a bastard after all. He might have caught it from Jake and Quil.

"I'm sorry," Seth says. "Was it about Sam? I'm so sorry, sis," he pats my arm. "I'll be at the wedding, too, and no one expects you to be really happy or anything," he saying. At least he thinks I'm angsting over Sam. God forbid my baby brother know that I was thinking about what it was like waking up with my head on Jacob's chest. Oh God. Jacob is only a year and a half older than my baby brother.

What the hell is wrong with me?

Seth pats my arm, just like Alice does sometimes. I look up at him in shock. "Leah, can I ask you something?" there is so much emotion in his voice, I don't know what to say. So I nod.

"Um, your dog, Scott… uh… he's a lot of responsibility…. Um."

I nod to encourage him along. Yes, Seth, dogs are a lot of work. What the hell?

"Um. So. You have Scott," he nods toward my dog. "So you… you'll be here awhile? I mean, you aren't going to leave again? Right? Now that you have Scott, I mean."

"Seth…"

"Leah!" his voice breaks, and he grabs both my elbows, looking down at me. "Leah, please. Don't leave!" He takes a big breath and seems to steady himself. "I… After Dad died… and Leah, I don't want you to leave again! I thought once you quit Sam's pack everything would be better, but… and the wedding is so soon, and I don't want you to be gone again!" I meet his eyes. They're moist, like he is about to tear up and cry. He hugs me, tightly. My little brother never hugs me. "Just don't leave. Even if you are sad, Leah, no one will think less of you. And if Embry and Quil piss you off, I will just beat them up, and Jake and…"

I pull away, and now I'm the one patting his arm. "Seth, I'm not going to leave, okay?" He nods, but I am not sure if he believes me. "Is there something else you want to talk about?" I ask. He nods weakly.

His voice is cracking with emotion. "It's Dad, Leah. I miss him so much," he says it quietly, and he's staring at the ground. Like he can't bring himself to make eye contact with me. "I know we never talk about it, I don't want to make you sad, I don't want to make you leave, but—"

"I know. I miss him, too." Now I'm also staring at the ground. I can see little wet drops on the dirt where his tears have fallen. And maybe mine. Fuck I hate crying.

And then my brother and I are walking home together through the fog, with Scott trotting along beside us while we talk.

"I did miss you, and Mom, and everything, when I was gone," I tell him quietly.

God damn I have a stomach ache. It really, really hurts. It's like having cramps, but I don't get those anymore (the one perk to being a werewolf. Well, okay, one of two perks—no cramps, and being able to run at some wicked serious speed.)

I roll over in bed and bury my face into the pillow. I actually slept with a blanket last night; now that my body temp is so warm, I don't really need them. But just laying on a bed without covering really does make me feel inhuman.

I didn't feel inhuman when I was sleeping on a giant dog bed with Jacob, though. Go figure.

Jacob's skin is even warmer than mine is. I wonder if I could ever touch a regular human and not feel his skin is cold. Not creepy-cold like the parasites, but cold. Ugh, I do not want to be thinking about this.

I pull the blanket over my head, curling my legs up to my chest so that the blanket-shift doesn't expose my feet to the air. As always, my room is green from the light filtering in through all the foliage outside. I tell myself to concentrate on something I know.

Let's see… What do I know? I know I hate men. I really, really hate men. I hate men, and short girls. Because short girls are cute in a way that I will never be cute, short girls like Emily and… I also sort of hate blondes, just on principle. And bloodsuckers. Yep, that's everything I hate.

That also describes all of my friends.

This is not cheering me up.

"Leah? Honey?" My mom calls, knocking on my door. I make a nondescript groaning noise. "Honey, can I come in?" I respond by groaning in a sort of affirmative way. She pokes her head into my tiny room and looks at me. "Are you awake?" Ugh, obviously. That's why I am groaning at you! So I groan again and lower the blanket from my head.

"Rise and shine," she says, gently. I hate that phrase. I glare at her. She doesn't notice the glare through all the sleep in my eyes. "My beautiful daughter," why is she still talking? Oh, great, now she's sitting on the edge of my bed, patting my leg under the blanket. "Are you okay?" I nod. "Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. He was such a nice boy."

I roll my eyes. "Ugh, Mom, 'nice boy' aside…" I trail off. I don't even really want to talk about this. I can't deal with the sympathy.

"Last night wasn't so bad, was it?" she asks quietly. I shake my head. No, last night wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Last night was what passed for Emily's bachelorette party. Or maybe Bridal Shower. Or maybe some combination of the two. Maybe she had those parties separately, with her human Quileute and Makah friends. But I doubt it. Her whole life was about Sam, about his Pack. This is the girl who takes notes on our Tribal legends for crying out loud.

So last night, the night before she's going to marry Sam, she had a party with all of the women who knew about the wolves.

I suppose I had to be there, being the only wolf with a uterus in the history of the Tribe. And once, years ago, Emily was like a sister to me. And once, after boxes of chocolate and boxes of Kleenex, but before my first phase, I promised her I'd be a bridesmaid. So I went to her stupid party.

Mom was there. And Kim. And Jacob's sister, Rachel. And Claire, who was sitting happily in Emily's lap. And Claire's mother. Huh. I had wondered if she knew, but I guess they had to tell her, had to explain why Quil suddenly wanted to spend every waking moment with their daughter. If I had a 2 year old daughter, and some tall, muscley teenager suddenly started hanging around my girl, I'd freak.

Emily's mother was there too. My mother's cousin. I had the feeling that Mom and Emily told her very, very recently. Sam doesn't want anyone to know who doesn't "need to know," but I suppose his mother-in-law is now "need to know." Before Emily and Sam start having puppies.

Emily had made food for us all, little cakes and desserts. And we all brought her presents, girly presents, not suitable for the wedding. Lots of little lacy nighties and things. Kim and Rachel and I were the only three about her age, and from the other two, there was lots of teasing about, you know, what was to come (what is it with me and my bad choice of words?) I didn't say much. What could I have said, "Hey, Emily, enjoy having sex with my high school sweetheart?" Actually, I was a little surprised that they had waited for the wedding night. I mean, especially considering the number of times the wedding got postponed. Well, I guess Sam isn't aging, and Emily doesn't seem to be a particularly sexual person. Sam must have put all that behind him when he became the responsible Alpha, technically Chief of the Quileutes, and besotted of Emily, the most pure and lovely. Huh.

Mom is still sitting on my bed. Still petting me. "Seth took Scott on a walk," she's telling me. I just nod. "Honey, are you sure you're okay? No one expects you to be happy today, you know, but… you need to at least get out of bed and put on your bridesmaid dress." That's almost exactly what Seth told me last week.

I groan again. I know all of this. But if I get out of bed, then I'm acknowledging that today is really happening. And… I'm not even that upset about Sam and Emily, now. That's why at the end of the party, I went over to Emily. She looked up at me and said, "I'm glad you're here."

And then I grabbed her hands and said, with no malice in my voice, "You are perfect for each other. I hope you will be very happy."

That's all. And I know I could have said those words a thousand different ways, and had them convey a thousand different things. Sarcastic, I could have mocked her. Bitter, I could have cursed them both. But I meant it, and I didn't mean it any way but that I knew that Sam was not the man for me, but he was the man for Emily.

Because I knew something. I understood something about Sam. He tries to do too much, to be responsible for too much. He blames himself for Emily's scars, those scars that in my darkest moments gave me secret, vindicated smiles, which I buried in my pillow at night. And he blames himself for what he did to me, for leaving me, for breaking my heart. For imprinting. Because when he imprinted, he hurt both of us, me emotionally, and Emily physically.

Sam has an even bigger martyr complex than does Bella. And yes, it is his fault, but he needs to get over it. He needs to stop looking at us with pain in his eyes. Don't apologize, Sam, make it better.

And I couldn't live with a man who blames himself for everything, all the time. Who carries the world on his shoulders and can't sleep when something is wrong. And I couldn't take care of everyone the way Emily does. I'm not that gentle pillar of quiet strength, always baking and cooking to feed hungry wolf boys.

That isn't the life I want. So I can't blame Emily anymore because that's the life she wants.

But that doesn't mean I am excited for the wedding. I wish it were already over. I wish everyone could forget that Sam broke my heart. Because I know that enough people at that wedding will be casting glances my way, wondering what I am thinking. Wondering if I am torturing myself about how much I miss Sam.

If I think about Sam, it's going to be imagining him as a little bug that I step on. Once, I would have fantasized that I stopped on him willingly, maliciously, that I had my sweet vengeance. Now, it's that he's a tiny little ant crawling around and I step on him and don't even notice, because that's how much he means to me. That's how much I want him to mean to me. To mean nothing.

But how can I explain all of this to my mother? How can I tell her that right now, the thing that worries me most about Sam and Emily is that I wonder if, as I'm watching Emily walk down the aisle to his arms, if I am getting a preview of 4 or 5 or 10 years from now when Spawn walks down the aisle to Jacob's arms.

How can I tell my mother that I don't care about Sam anymore? But if Jacob marries that creepy vampire child, I will throw them both off of a cliff. And Bella, too, for good measure. Just to be thorough.

So instead of telling any of this to Mom, I just give a weak smile and drag myself out of bed. "Thanks, Mom, I'm fine. I'll be fine,"

"Do you want breakfast, honey?" She asks softly, following me out of my room.

"Uh, sure, thanks. And then I should be going over to the Crypt. I promised Alice that she could do my hair."

If my mother doesn't approve of my going over there, she never says anything. And I am pretty sure she doesn't approve. But she surprises me, smiling, "I'm glad you have friends like that," she says. "Even if they are the sworn enemy of our Tribe, I mean."

AN:

This is a shout-out not just to everyone who has been so kindly reviewing (I love you!) but also to everyone who has wondered why Jacob is not in this fanfic more, since he is allegedly one of the main characters in it. He seems to only show up every other chapter, but I promise, he will start being around Leah more. He is just so confused! (And he was in this chapter… except that he was asleep…) He just spends too much time with Nessie! And of course, Leah has been avoiding him.

Also, I thought about ending this chapter when Leah and Seth walk off into the mist but that would make it the shortest chapter next to chapter one, and, well, I really didn't want to end it in such a depressing way. Which means that this chapter has some of what was originally going to be the next chapter in it. The next chapter, of course, will be about the wedding, and it's going to be good, trust me. Assuming you're into that sort of thing. It's got some of the scenes in it that I have been planning since Chapter 1.

Please review!

PS I did sort of accidentally post this chapter, realize I forgot to put in the lines dividing sections, delete this chapter, fix it, and then repost it. So sorry about that!