Chapter 13

Ceremonials

"Leah! Oh my goodness you need to stop scaring me like this! One more 'your daughter is almost dead' call from Carlisle and I'll have to lock you in a tower!" Sue was hugging her so tightly it hurt.

Leah had arrived back in Italy just in time for the wedding taking place the following day. She and Sue went up to their hotel room. Sue feared she would be too excited to go to bed and, consequently, requested that Leah act as her baby-sitter to ensure that she at least attempted to get some sleep.

"So, Mom, it's your last night as a single woman." She smiled at Sue who had a nervous shake to her. Leah had to pour water for them both in fear she would spill.

"I know. I'm not nervous though, just excited. Charlie is one of the best men I have ever known." She sighed, "You know I loved your father, right, Leah?"

Leah smiled a bittersweet smile, "Of course, and I know he would want you to be happy."

Sue paused and Leah allowed her silence to reminisce. "Would you like to see your dress?" Asked Sue, at length.

Leah laughed. Her mother was more excited to see Leah in a dress than she was to wear her own wedding gown. "Sure, it can't be too awful if Alice helped you choose it, right?"

Sue pretended to be insulted, "You doubt my judgment?"

"No girl wants their mother choosing any of their clothing," Leah pointed out.

"I suppose I won't be choosing clothes for my twenty-one year old much longer, huh?" Sue appraised her sadly as she walked over to the closet to retrieve the dress.

Leah couldn't help, but gasp when she pulled it out. It was dark blue with a gold patterned design. It had straps, but basically no back and was extremely low cut. It looked more expensive than the rest of the wedding combined.

"It's amazing," she whispered.

Sue smiled and put it back in the closet, "Thank Alice tomorrow."

Part of Leah wished she could just study her gown for the next couple of hours, but, then, she remembered the job Sue assigned her.

"You should head to bed, Mom, it's getting late."

Sue sighed, "Yes, it is and it's a big day tomorrow."

Contrary to her worries, Sue fell asleep five minutes after shutting off the lights. Leah, on the other hand, laid awake in bed. Demetri hadn't been at the hospital when she really woke up. She wondered if she had imagined the first time she awoke. She had so many drugs pumping through her system it was entirely possible she hallucinated the whole incident or, more likely, dreamed it. She couldn't be sure. She would have to ask him. She turned bright red just thinking about posing the question. What if she had made it up in her head? She would only embarrass herself, but what if she hadn't?

She wondered when, if ever, she would see Demetri again. She didn't doubt Aro would call for her and her pack again, but would Demetri be there? Would she get a moment alone with him? She could answer none of her own questions. But why did she care so much? She should hope she had only dreamed it. Kissing a vampire, that was ridiculous. Vampires were her natural enemies. They drank human blood and smelled pretty bad most of the time.

But Demetri, somehow, undeniably attracted her to him in more ways than one. Leah cursed herself for the thought. She needed to stop this. She needed to stop thinking about him, especially, like this. Starting tomorrow, she would ban all thought of Demetri from her head.

...But did he kiss me or not?

It was a warm day in Florence, Italy for the beginning of February at 60 degrees and sunny. For Leah, it was almost perfect. She preferred it a bit colder, but, for the dress she was wearing, it was perfect.

The dress, oh the dress. She would never admit it, in fact, she would shoot herself in the foot before she admitted to anyone that she had spent an hour spinning in it, sitting in it and just admiring it on her while Sue was in the shower. Alice had spent the day helping them both get ready. The result was breathtaking. Lucky for her, her wolf healing ability had not been effected by Joham's injection and all wounds were healed. Leah could not remember a moment when Sue, or herself, had looked better.

Finally, it was time. Leah stood to Sue's right while Seth stood to her left. The ceremony was taking place a few miles outside of the city. She looked across the beautiful green landscape and rolling hills. There was a makeshift archway covered in red flowers at the end of a long aisle separating rows of white chairs.

Carlisle had sent for a private jet to fly the whole wedding party out to Italy a few days earlier. Of course, it was still extremely expensive to stay in hotels, but everyone had banded together with as many as three families sharing a single hotel room in order to afford it. Leah, heartened by their sacrifice, gained a new appreciation for the tribe. She had never been more proud to be one of them.

"They're about to start the music!" Sue said, her voice almost a squeal.

Nervousness gripped at Leah and she found herself unable to breathe. Her heart was racing and blood rushed to her head. She tried to remind herself that she was not the one getting married.

Then, the music began. Sue pulled Seth and Leah forward with a huge smile spread across her face. Leah caught a glimpse of her brother and was grateful to see he looked just as nervous as she felt. Everyone stood. Leah had planned on playing the friendly daughter, waving and smiling in greeting, but found her entire focus on keeping pace with Sue and trying not to cry or trip or let her nerves show in any way.

They reached the end of the aisle and the first person Charlie hugged was herself. He was beaming and their were tears in his eyes. Leah smiled back. Sue had been right, Charlie was a great man. He would keep Sue happy and safe and provide for her. He would be there to comfort her when she and Seth left for life threatening battles against vampires. He would be there if anything ever happened to them, and, for that, Leah was more grateful than she could ever express in words.

He moved to hug Seth then took Sue's hand in his own. Seth moved to stand behind Charlie while Leah moved behind Sue next to Bella who smiled at her and gave her hand a quick squeeze. Leah smiled back. The woman who had almost caused the destruction of her pack, the Cullens and the supernatural world as they knew it would be, in minutes, her sister. If Leah from a couple years ago had known that...Leah smiled to herself at the thought.

For the first time, she looked out into the faces of the crowd. Almost instantly, her eyes found a face she did not expect to see.

"Why are Demetri and Felix here?" She asked in a whisper to Bella while the crowd laughed at a joke the preacher told.

"They got invited. Carlisle thought it would be best to just invite them instead of having them lurk around in the shadows all night. Seth was all for it, he sent them last minute invites."

Leah couldn't decide whether she was glad or not. At least, she could try to talk to Demetri. She winced at the idea. Or not. If he wanted to talk about it, he would bring it up.

She tried to focus on the ceremony, but her eyes kept darting back to the Volturi vampire. He seemed to be doing a much better job paying attention to her mother's ceremony than she was.

The ceremony wasn't too long. Leah managed to tune into the exchanging of the vows and rings, and clapped along with everyone else when they kissed sealing the deal. Bella actually hugged her for excitement.

"I haven't seen Charlie look so...so...happy in years," She laughed.

Leah smiled back, sharing in her joy. Following Bella's lead, she hugged Charlie and Sue and they went together as a family to talk amongst the guests. Nearly every person had brought a present and wanted to personally congratulate the happy couple.

Last were the vampires. Leah couldn't even imagine the cost of their gifts. Sue seemed to be thinking along the same lines and handled each package carefully as she placed them on the pile.

Felix and Demetri, too, brought a gift. Leah could tell Sue remembered meeting Demetri after the immortal child incident and knew he was Volturi. She was proud of her mother for showing no fear and shaking their hands graciously.

"I wonder if all of the Cullens' friends, you know, look like that." Charlie murmured to Seth. Seth chuckled and shrugged in response. He caught Leah's eye and they shared a smile.

The Denali sisters both brought their own gifts. Eleazar and his wife brought a gift, as well.

"We brought gifts for each member of the family," said Carlisle smiling towards Seth and Leah, last of the Cullens to approach.

"Oh, we can't accept gifts from you, Carlisle! You have already done so much, flying everyone here!" Sue exclaimed.

"We insist," said Esme with a dazzling, kindly smile.

Finally, the gift giving ended. Leah had never spoken with so many people in such a small amount of time before. She was use to the company of her pack, the Cullens and her immediate family and that was all she needed. She use to be closer with other members of the tribe, but the secret of being a shape shifter had been too much for her to maintain relationships with human friends. She felt a moment of sadness. She did miss human company sometimes.

"You two get going," Edward offered to Sue and Charlie, "I'll pack the gifts away in the car and bring them over to the hotel."

"I can help you pack," Seth added quickly.

"Sure, I'll take Nessie, too. You can go with everyone else." Edward added in Bella's direction.

"Well, don't I have just the most helpful sons," Said Charlie with a smile while he wrapped his arm around Sue. "We will take you up on that offer."

Charlie and Sue bid farewell to Bella and Leah and made their way back to the car they had rented for the occasion. A red chevrolet truck.

"They drag us all the way out to Italia to have their wedding then go and rent a truck." Said Leah.

Bella laughed, "It's a mix of the two of them. Italy for Sue and a truck for Charlie!"

"Bella, Leah, it's time for the party, come on, Emmett's driving." Alice skipped over to the two of them with a wide smile on her face. As usual, her voice danced on the line between song and normal speech. She looked incredible with a short, periwinkle dress and huge gold heels she still managed to skip in and, Leah had no doubt, could dance in as well.

Bella and Leah walked over to join the large group of vampires. They attracted glances from the tribe and humans, but their looks were less hostile than Leah expected.

"Leah!" Felix greeted her enthusiastically. "So, I heard no one warned you we were coming?" He smirked.

Of course, he had heard her ask Bella why they were there, vampires heard everything. But, he had brought up an interesting point. Why did no one warn her?

"Don't look so unhappy, Lupa, we're just here to enjoy the party."

"No, it's quite alright with me," She reassured him with a somewhat forced smile directed towards him and, also, Demetri who stood watching their conversation at his side. She wasn't annoyed they were actually there she was annoyed no one had told her they were coming.

"In that case, you look quite magnificent." Felix winked at her.

"To the car," Emmett interjected, "you're with me or Carlisle, we're racing, so choose wisely."

The group of vampires plus Leah made there way back up the dirt path and towards the parking lot. Leah made quick eye contact with Demetri while Alice chattered in her ear about the shopping trip she and Sue had taken to find Leah's dress. It seemed she had taken Felix's compliment to Leah personally and gushed about every detail of how she had found the dress, hair styles she had planned, but eliminated and everything Leah couldn't stand to talk about.

Leah sent Demetri a helpless expression as Alice jumped into an explanation of the differences between chiffon and brocade. Demetri smirked in response and fell in step with Eleazar directly in front of them. Leah took the time to look him up and down, or rather, his back up and down. The vampires had dressed to kill. No pun intended. Each of the male vampires' tuxedos looked brand new and, Leah didn't doubt, were of expensive making. The long dresses fit as though they had been designed uniquely for each female vampire who wore them. Shiny, new heels were matched up with each gown along with jewelry, mostly diamonds. They were, hands down, the best dressed group at the wedding.

Most of the members of the tribe had worn black suits while the wolf packs had rented tuxedos which they didn't know how to put on and needed lessons on from the man at the rental store. Leah dearly regretted missing that. The human girls and women of the tribe wore the same dresses they had worn to every formal event for the past two years.

The 15 vampires piled into two escalade rentals, driven by Emmett and Carlisle as Emmett had promised. Leah noted that only vampires could make jumping over a back seat while wearing an ankle length dress look graceful. She ended up between Rosalie and Alice who talked about different dress designers the entire ride, taking little notice of Emmett's chaotic driving. Leah thought about Demetri some. She decided she was very glad he was there. Maybe more glad than she should be.

Thank you, as always, for all of the reviews! And I apologize, yet again, for taking so long to update!

All Stephanie Meyer's