Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of the characters.

Love and Pain Go Hand in Hand

Leah's POV

Chapter 3 ~ Complete

Harry and I were made for each other - although that was stating the obvious. Every imprinted couple are made for each other.

I became the happiest I had been since Sam had left me, nearly twenty years before. Even so, the happiness then was nothing to what it was now. This was an entirely new sensation, so heightened that all of my nerve ends tingled at a single touch. Even Sam hadn't done that.

Harry became the most important thing to me; food, drink, breath, none of it mattered. Only Harry.

We talked. A lot. It was what we did most. Just talked. It was nice. Not being pressured, not needing to do anything more, because just talking revealed so much of what we had missed in each other.

I probed for information to do with what he wanted in life, but he wouldn't tell me for a time. He said it would alienate me from him but I quickly shot that idea down.

We were on the beach, after I had been pestering him about it yet again, when he heaved a sigh and finally replied, "a family." I nearly died with that; the weight of the pain at not being able to give him what he most wanted from life. It was nearly unbearable.

"Leah?" he asked, his voice full of concern at the undisguised torture in my eyes and on my face.

"I can't have children, Harry," I sobbed, my shoulders heaving. "I can't have children. I can't give you what you want most. That hurts so much, you can't imagine how much. We both want a family and I can't give you one." My voice broke down completely towards the end as the truth sunk deep within me. No family with Harry, and I couldn't imagine wanting one more. My brain, shooting off thoughts that didn't matter, recognised Rosalie had nothing on me here.

"Shush, Leah," he said, his voice soothing and calming. "We don't know that. Let's face it, you've been wrong about werewolf nature before."

I looked up at him, my eyes still shedding tears, which Harry wiped away with gentle hands. I looked at him, barely comforted. "Would you mind not having a family?"

"As long as I am with you, I will take whatever comes."

"Thank you," I whispered.

He smiled. "There's nothing to thank me for, Leah. I can't bear to see you in pain. We don't have to think about this right now. And, when you start aging again, it'll work out. You just wait and see." He gently kissed my lips and I smiled. I had finally found my happy place. Until he spoke again.

"Will you tell me something?" he asked, breaking a few minutes of comfortable silence.

"Anything."

"What did you think of Dad when he imprinted?" Well, that was a surprise. We had had this discussion not so long ago, but at the time, I thought it would be better to diplomatic - or rather to lie.

"Haven't we had this discussion?" I questioned. It was rude of me to answer a question with a question, but I was unwilling to have to repeat the lies.

"Yes, you said you didn't mind. But I've been thinking..." It didn't matter what he said after. The long and short of it was that I'd been busted. Well, seeing as how lying hadn't made a difference, it was only the truth from here on in. I wouldn't do that again. Harry deserved the truth. But at the expense of his father? It had all changed through my eyes now. Sam hadn't done anything wrong. Truth it was, I decided.

"You were thinking I wasn't telling the truth because I told you we were serious and that must have hurt so I actually did mind." He nodded. "You're perceptive. At the time, I really...I just couldn't see how he could have done that to me. With the relative I was closest to, as well. It hurt. A hell of a lot. And I minded a lot too. I have to say, I turned into a bitter old harpy. I had heard the stories of the imprint, heard how strong the connection was, had Sam tell me several times that he couldn't help it and that he was sorry, but it didn't make it better.

"It didn't help that I turned wolf less than a year later - it was all too close to the pain, at the time. I had to force it off on others to cope. I couldn't have been happier when I learnt that separate packs couldn't hear each other. I had an escape route for once. But it didn't help as much as I thought it would. Only you have helped." I reached up to kiss his cheek, one show of affection that was to help portray how much he meant to me now.

"Glad to be of service," he murmured, kissing me fully on the lips. Then he froze.

"What else?" I sighed.

"What did you think of Mom when Dad imprinted on her?"

"I was pleased with her."

"Pleased that she was with Dad?"

"She wasn't with him at first. She refused him again and again, unwilling to hurt me more than I had been already. Then, one day, he lost control around her, and..." I took a deep breath. Although it hadn't happened to me, it was still a sharp, painful memory - I had seen the emotion in Sam's face and the pain in his eyes when he looked at those scars. "Well, you've seen the scars." He winced."Your father couldn't have been sorrier or more devastated at what he had done and Emily couldn't bear that, so she tried to comfort him. The next day I had my heart broken all over again."

"It doesn't still hurt does it?"

"Not any more. All the damage has been healed by you. You are my life." Then I laughed.

"What?" I wasn't surprised that he was puzzled - I hadn't explained every little detail of my life with the vampires, nor would I.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this but - I sound like Edward Cullen." I laughed again.

"That's not funny."

"More ironic, actually. I swore to myself I'd never sympathise with a vampire and now I understand every single member of the Cullen family from Carlisle to Rosalie."

We started to walk across the beach.

"How hard is it to stop phasing?" It was an odd question and, although I could usually read Harry like a book, his face was thoughtful - not much to go on then.

"Very hard. It might be easier for me, now that I have you." I squeezed the hand I was holding.

"How can I help?"

"You'll help by just being around - I'm a lot calmer around you. As for the specifics, I'm not exactly sure. I didn't exactly want to give up my wolf self before I met you - it gave me a lot of peace to talk to Jacob and the cheapest way to do that was go wolf. He actually knew how I felt because he'd been in exactly the same situation, and I mean exactly. The whole love about to have a baby thing, I mean. He imprinted on an immortal half-vampire though, so I couldn't ask him about stooping phasing through personal experience, because he wouldn't know. I tried to stay away from the other members of the pack. So, in short, I have no clue."

"Oh well. It was just a thought."

"I'll try to stop phasing. You have no idea how much I want your theory to come true."

He smiled down at me and I felt whole again. I had found the person who made me complete.