Disclaimer: This plot line is mine, most of the characters are Stephenie Meyer's. Well, dang.
Author's Note: This is, yet again, a happy chapter. And, yet again I say, it probably won't be as good, because happy isn't my forte. And sorry chapter 5 took so long, I couldn't write this one, and I like to be a chapter ahead so.. yeah, I'm sorry about that. It was also short because I haven't been to a wedding, nor have I seen one. Unless you count soaps, but you can't because they never work - someone always interrupts or crashes it and I obviously didn't want that to happen in my happy chapter.
Be warned, this is a long chapter - I seem to be trying to make up for the short one last time.
Love and Pain Go Hand in Hand
Leah's POV
Chapter 6 ~ Party
I travelled everywhere with Harry. We went far and wide, worked and relaxed, in every corner of the globe. We went to Eastern Europe, Mexico, India, South America, Northern Africa. We saw endless forests, endless deserts, endless snow. We lived in many conditions, in riches and poverty. The only consistent thing was that we helped as many families as we could, by giving them access to clean water or teaching them to grow new food in the area.
Not only this, but we often returned to the reservation. I owed Sam and Emily many apologies for the way I had treated them so despicably, whilst watching their love blossom and grow in front of my eyes. I may have been hurt, but it was out of their control - I shouldn't have punished them for nature. And it was only now I had experienced what it was like to imprint that I realised how inexcusable my behaviour was.
Harry and I also visited wherever Jacob and Renesmee moved to, as long as the vampires weren't there. I knew I was being selfish about not wanting Harry to change, but I was being selfless too - it would save him from the burden of going slowly mad at the idea of transforming into a giant dog. I owed Jacob a lot because he was the one that kept me sound in mind during the long, long years of insanity within my heart.
We passed nine years, and I stopped phasing after six - it would have been sooner, but Harry wanted to be older than me physically for some strange reason, unfathomable to anyone except him.
Due to this close friendship with him, Jacob invited us to Nessie's thirtieth birthday. The big party would be the day we left, but the aversion I had for vampires around Harry meant they invited us a day early to stay for a few days. The next day most for the pack were coming up, then the Cullens were coming the day after that. We would stay with the Cullens for a couple of hours then we'd leave. Harry wanted to see everyone (including them - why, I had no idea) so I conceded.
When we arrived, Nessie was practically bouncing with joy that I seemed to have finally mellowed out some, and was agreeing to meet everyone from her family. We arrived early morning and talked about a lot of stuff. They asked about everyone from home, who had married or divorced and the like, since they had last spoken to someone from the rez. Not much could have happened since, because Jake spoke to Billy only a week ago, so why they asked was beyond me. They probably knew more than us, due to the fact Harry and I mostly lived in the poorer areas of the world and often didn't have access to electricity, so we couldn't phone home to find anything out.
Nessie was elated with the gift we bought her from our current home in Africa - it was a specially made carpet that the women of the village had woven when I said I owed very good a friend a present. They had put as many hours into it as they could and the result was a small, yet beautiful and vibrant rug, all colours under the sun, of the highest quality. It was fit for a king.
They put us in the best guest room in the house - the blue room with mahogany cladding on the walls with a royal blue coloured bedspread and white carpet. The white en suite was just as grand, with gold taps and elaborate stands for everything. I tried not to think of the vampires that had stayed in the room - they wouldn't have needed this room to sleep in. Just thinking innuendos about made me want to heave.
I was looking forward to seeing everyone from the pack. It had been a while since we had all gotten together for some kind of occasion and I wanted everyone to know how happy Harry and I were travelling - some had shown concern at our decision to live in the areas that were very diseased and often didn't have the necessary amenities. We let them know it was our vision to help.
It was early in the morning when we woke up and went downstairs, but Nessie and Jacob had beaten us to it and were cooking us breakfast in their huge kitchen. Why did a couple without kids need a kitchen that large when they preferred hunting and with vampires as their main visitors? I bet people would have killed for this house. Despite that I really liked it her. There was a sophistication and elegance about it.
"I love this place," I said as I sat down to the breakfast table that was the kitchen island. "Who decorated?"
"Esme," Nessie replied. "She works wonders with houses. She is the driving force behind any refurbishments they do to any of the houses. She's nearly as bad for the redecoration of houses as Alice is for trying to create events that you just do not want. And then she, the psychic, wonders why you're going to have a future hissy fit when you learn of her plans..." She shook her head.
"How are Rebecca and Paul now?" I asked Jacob.
"Paul is still as annoying as ever. You would think, with responsibilities like kids and animals, that Paul would try to calm down, but no. He still tries to irritate you to death with his stupid laugh. God, that's annoying."
"What is it with you two and dysfunctional families?" Harry asked.
"Vampires are hardly normal," I snorted, and received death stares from everyone, even Harry, the love of my life who was supposed to agree with me at all times. I tried to justify myself. "Well, they aren't. Not by human standards. Or werewolf standards. Any creature in the world is more normal than they are."
"My family are nice, thank you very much," Nessie sniffed, as she flipped the bacon harder than necessary in mock offence. "It always depends on what standard you judge by."
Jacob was just about to butt in when two sharp raps at the door announced visitors.
"Who could that be?" Nessie wondered. Well, we were all wondering it. "It's not even eight yet. Paul and Rebecca are the ones showing up earliest and they wouldn't be an hour and a half early. Their time keeping is so appalling I'll be surprised if they show up before four."
She walked to the door, out of my line of sight, and opened it.
"Nessie!" I heard Rosalie call. "How are you?"
"I'm fine. You look good, but if you don't mind me asking - what are you doing here?" Nessie asked, surprise only entering her voice when she asked the question.
"You didn't think we'd miss your big day, did you? Especially not your mother and father. Honestly, you shouldn't look so shocked." She must have been more disconcerted than her voice let on.
"Yeah," I heard Emmett say. "We came to spring you. Your parents are hunting - each other probably - but some elk we found was the excuse they gave. Why they'd want to be alone to do that..." All in the kitchen shuddered at the mental image gained on such information and I heard Nessie's gag at it. You just don't want to hear that about your parents.
"But now's not the best time, you guys," Nessie replied.
"Trying to get rid of us won't work you know. We're here for your big 30, even though you don't look a day over seven," he laughed. It wasn't even funny. A short silence followed, where I guessed my name was being announced via the still freaky mind-speaking-to-you-through-physical-contact gift Renesmee had.
"We didn't realise. Sorry. We can leave. We'll find somewhere for tonight," Rosalie sniffed, very put out by the extra effort she would have to make because of mongrels.
"Oh, don't," Jacob called loudly, momentarily forgetting that these were vampires who could hear every heartbeat and breath in here. "Come through. The rest aren't here yet and I don't mind the smell anymore." That loosened up the slightly tense atmosphere that had settled since Nessie told the others about myself and the arrival of the rest.
We all laughed as Emmett and Rosalie walked in. Rose had, apparently, learned to live with Jacob due to his constant presence within the family and Bella's persistence. However, she still carried with her an air of disdain for all others and I could tell she wasn't best pleased with having to stay for the arrival of most of them, despite the fact most were human now, nor with having to endure my company. Emmett was Emmett - huge but childish, scary but immature. Bless him.
In walked Alice and Jasper, although danced might have been a better description of Alice. They were totally unconcerned with the slightly tense atmosphere and this created a sense of ease within us - another explanation could be Jasper messed with our moods. Alice was still as lively as ever and Jasper was still as reserved as ever. But this was hardly surprising - vampires didn't change in anything so describing them as being exactly who they were was obsolete, really.
Next came Carlisle and Esme, holding a huge bag of presents. Nessie saw it and turned to look at everyone in the kitchen with her tongue stuck out at the size of it. We all laughed.
After the meet-greet-and-failing-to-get-them-to-leave session, all the vampires strolled in, their noses wrinkled in distaste at the smell of the cooking bacon.
"So how are you?" Carlisle asked, placing the bulging sack of presents on the ground, whilst rearranging his face into something more friendly.
"We're fine, thanks Carlisle," Jacob replied, glancing at the bag with a strangely pained expression on his face. Based on the fuming expression of Nessie's face, he was expecting an earful a some point for telling the vamps to bring some presents for her. He obviously forgot Alice was a family member of the Cullens and her insatiable need to shop wouldn't be restrained to one present if told to buy something. Trying to prolong conversation and avoid Nessie's future argument, he asked, "How about you guys? Where are you moving to now?"
"Great, thanks. We're not entirely sure where to go, although some of us are voting to stop near Tanya's for a few months. Since there's no other input - surprisingly - we probably will go there." Esme smiled at the thought of seeing such close family. It seemed a little pointless since they could get there by running from any point in the US within a day, never mind about the ridiculously fast speeds they travelled at in their cars.
We all descended into small talk and separate conversations. References to the past were made a lot, especially as I hadn't seen the Cullens for a while, so I was often filling Harry in on the little family and friend jokes that had been made some twenty or so years before.
The all-human-now "packs" eventually arrived, and because all vampire/wolf feuds had dissipated due to the Imprint, everyone greeted everyone else like we were the best of friends. In some cases, they were, like Seth and Edward. Only Edward and Bella still hadn't returned, so Seth was slightly disappointed, but that was alleviated when we mentioned that they were coming soon. Emmett pointed out that he and Rose would have been quicker than Edward and Bella at what they were doing, to which everybody shuddered. He continued to make suggestive jokes all through the conversation, the deep boom of his voice interrupting other, happier conversations, not about the sex lives of our friends.
Edward and Bella finally arrived, more than three hours later, so I suspect they were buying something, especially by the way Bella seemed to shuffle around when Nessie tried to look at her back and the sniggers she received from Edward. That made me guess it was his idea to get Bella to hold the gift. Either that or they had been a bit too eager and Edward had ripped her clothes. I, once again, had to mentally shake myself, and I was glad Edward seemed to be laughing at Bella too much to care what the others in the room thought, especially me.
Ever eager, Nessie opened her presents. To avoid pages of writing on what she received, let's just say that she may need to buy a wardrobe for each designer shop - Versace, Gucci, you name it. There were also a lot of shoes and necklaces coming out of the bag. The only presents that probably meant anything were her parents (a gorgeous bracelet with diamonds and emeralds inset that belonged to Edward's mother and now had a personalised engraving to her) and Jacob's (a wooden jewellery box, with life-like roses carved into the sides).
All who liked to eat cooked food, i.e. everyone except the Cullens and Nessie, had lunch and all sorts of party food thrown at them, so much so that it took several hours to feel normal again and actually move without feeling like being sick.
Eventually, all the "pack" left, Harry and I included though we left later than the others, at around half past five, having been drawn into a long conversation where I had to admit that all the Cullens were brilliant - again! It was very annoying, especially as I was extremely aware that every moment spent with the Cullens was risking Harry's future. After having my fretting constantly attacking his thoughts for nearly an hour, Edward finally pointed out to everyone that I wanted to leave very subtly and succinctly, for which I threw him a few grateful thoughts.
As we left, I heard Edward sigh and call us back in.
"Peter and Charlotte are going to be here in a minute. Do you want to say hello?"
"Not if I've got to stay here for another eight hours like last time," I smiled at him, remembering the last time they had persuaded me to say hello to some friends, that time was the Amazonian vampires, that were visiting. "Erm...are they thirsty?"
"Not that I can see," Alice answered, her eyes seeming to go sightless. "You'll be fine."
"Sure," Harry replied and he plonked himself down on the floor.
"Can we go for a walk around the garden first? It's roasting in here," I asked Harry. He heaved a sigh and dragged himself up and we walked into the large back garden, although the description of "large" wasn't really appropriate - "large" couldn't really describe four acres of land.
We walked through the wildflowers, and Harry picked several for me in my favourite colours, some pink, some purple, some yellow, some blue. I clutched them to my heart, knowing that's where Harry would always be. I took his hand, and we walked through the garden in the dwindling sunlight.
That's the chapter. All happy. Sorry for the delay. I have had very little time to do it, as of late. But, I have had a good writing brainstorm tonight, so it shouldn't be too long before the next chapter's here.
So, as this is the end of the chapter, I am goin to shamelessly ask, plead and beg you wonderful readers for any reviewsyou have locked up in you. I have the next chapter written, so, fingers crossed, it won't take as long to put up. Pretty, pretty, pretty please?
