Turn the Page a series of drabbles about Jasper and Leah. I do not own the Twilight Saga.
Faded Into You
The engine of her Bronco idled in the driveway of the Cullen's house. Leah sat behind the wheel, knuckles white over the top of the steering wheel. She clenched her teeth and exhaled. Casting a sideways glance inside as she hoped, for once, that Edward was around. She could really use the mind-reading bloodsucker right now to pass on her message. Several heartbeats passed and there was no movement in the front of the house. Pulling forcefully on the emergency brake she moved her manual into neutral and threw the door open, stalking up to the door. She paced back and forth on the porch for a moment before raising an unsteady hand and knocking lightly on the door.
Within seconds the door was open and Esme stood before her, smiling. Finally, as if the rumble of her engine hadn't signaled her waiting, Leah shifted back and forth on her feet, her eyes focused on her dirty toenails. Esme frowned, opening the door wider and reaching for the shape shifter on her porch. "Leah, what's wrong?"
Leah cringed at everything: Esme's gesture of kindness, reaching for her in comfort, the motherly tone of her voice, the concerned furrowing of her brows, the saccharine smell that wafted into her nostrils. Drawing back slightly she cleared her throat lowly, "Um, I just wanted to know if Jasper was around." Before Leah could even finish saying his name, the vampire in question appeared behind his adoptive mother his own brows knitted together on his forehead.
He took one look at Leah, her submissive manner, the Bronco rumbling lowly in the background and he rested a hand on Esme's shoulder. "I'll be back later," he said offering her a weak twitch of his lips. Stepping past her he raised a hand, gesturing Leah to lead the way.
She turned on the heel of her flip-flop and stutter-stepped to the edge of the porch and bound down the stairs. She stuffed one hand in the pocket of her unzipped hoodie and ran the other through her lengthening hair.
When she looked up, Jasper was holding the driver's side door open for her and she shot him a pointed look that said several things, including 'Stop the chivalrous, bullshit,' and 'Thank you'. She hoisted herself into the seat and buckled in, the door shutting quickly and Jasper entered the passenger side just as fast and was buckling in as she pushed down the e-brake and shot out of the driveway, over-revving the engine in first, sputtering next into second, and catching third too soon.
The road winded down through lush green, the Bronco roared and moaned as Leah downshifted too early and shifted up too soon, Jasper, this time remained silent. The radio was switched off so the only sound was the engine, Leah's heavy breathing and Leah's poor shifting. She released the wheel, steering with her left knee and rubbed under her nose, "Crack a window," she said lowly.
Jasper complied, reaching for the handle.
"Please," she added softly.
Jasper contained the small twitch of his lips and rolled the window about halfway down. His silence meant he wasn't breathing in her scent in the stuffy cabin of her truck.
Several more minutes and complains from the engine around turns and up hills, and Leah swerved dangerously off of the road onto an emergency pull-off section and she shut the car off, leaving the keys in the ignition. She slammed the door shut and strode across the front of the car pulling off her hoodie as she walked. She dropped it near the side of the road and reached for the hem of her shirt.
Jasper slowly rolled up the window as he watched her strip herself of her clothes as she charged blindly into the woods on the side of the road. Once she was out of his line of sight he heard her pause, denim hitting the brush of the forest floor before four paws clawing at the dirt.
Leah relished the silence in her head. She knew Jacob and Seth were still at the house, and if she was lucky, Esme hadn't told them she had stopped by so there would be no reason for them to be in wolf form. She bound up the hillside until she came upon a clearing in the forest, sitting at the edge of a cliff. She could see over the ridge of trees to the flowing water beneath her, and the clouded evening sky while the wind was blowing on the side of her head. She sat back on her hind legs and whimpered, staring out.
That was how Jasper found her, whimpering and whining. "Leah," he began, stepping forward, her discarded clothes balled in his fist.
She threw her head back and howled, a disconnected scream that echoed across the valley below them.
Jasper shifted uncomfortably in the background, still holding her clothes tightly, watching as her body became rigid and her howl broke off.
She turned snapping and growling before standing erect once again as a naked woman, yelling profanities about stupid boys and intrusions.
Jasper cleared his throat and held her clothes out to her, casting his eyes toward the heavens. Once she snatched them away he turned around and folded his arms across his stomach while she continued to snapped and growled more, with sniffles and whimpers splicing the angry noises.
"Can't they see that I just wanted some PRIVACY!" she screeched across the valley. Two howls sounded in the distance.
All was quiet for a moment before Jasper risked a glance over his shoulder.
Leah was facing away from him, now fully clothed, her shoulders shaking; a shaky sense of annoyance covered the surface of her emotions.
"If you wanted to be alone, why did you come for me?" he asked lowly.
She turned her head into the wind, her hair billowing out past her. "You know loss. You understand what it's like to lose someone. Fresh pain," she grimaced. Her voice cracking.
He took a tentative step towards her. "Is this-"
"I lost my dad a year ago. Tonight," she admitted. "And you lost Alice-"
"Two months, fourteen days, and approximately 3 hours ago," he replied frowning deeply.
Her shoulders shook and she wobbled dangerously on her legs. "I just know, that, everyone that I love is going to leave me. My dad is already dead. I'm going to way outlive my mom. Jake imprinted on the Leech Spawn, and I know that eventually Seth is going to imprint and is going to leave me. As much as he promises that he won't, I know it," he voice quaked, but she didn't cry.
"I've lost everyone I've ever known in my human life. After I was turned I never saw them again, and the only thing that is keeping me here now, is my family, but it's hard. I want to go looking for Alice so badly," he admitted and stepped closer to her.
Leah didn't answer just looked forward, a frown pulled on the corners of her mouth. "Please don't," she spoke quietly. "You're kinda the only one in that house that I can actually stand being around, and it's mostly because we're different than them. So please don't leave me, don't leave me like them."
Jasper didn't know what surprised him more: that she hadn't mentioned losing Sam (because he knows how much it affected her), that she identified so strongly with him (because if he's honest with himself, he enjoys that they are practically outcasts among their own families), or that he mattered enough to her that it may break her if he left. He stepped closer and tentatively reached out a hand and gently rested it on her shoulder.
She didn't tense at his touch, just inhaled and released a mighty scream, her pain washed over him like a tidal wave and he stumbled backward, recoiling.
Out of breath she whirled around and launched herself at him, and he caught her in his arms, and cringed at her heat. He held her to his chest as she clung to him, until her sobbing reached his ears, and he bit his lips knowing that if he could he would be sobbing as well.
He wasn't sure how long they stood there commiserating, but he begun to recognize when she was shivering and if he could've sweat he would have been. He led them back to the car he drove them back to the mansion, Leah's eyes focused on nothing but the trees passing, the sound of rain pelted the roof.
"You're welcome to stay tonight," he offered as he casted a sideways glance at her.
She did not look at him, but shook her head. "No, I'll be fine to drive home."
"I want you to stay tonight," he insisted.
She barked a harsh laugh. "And stay at the crypt? No thanks, I can only stand so much of the cotton candy smell," she frowned.
He frowned as well, as he pulled the Bronco up the drive. "It'll be less of a drive for breakfast in the morning," he suggested.
She sat still in quiet contemplation for a moment in front of the house.
"And before you go to sleep we can plot pranks against my siblings and your pack?" he offered now with a perverse grin.
She smirked and turned towards him, "you had me at breakfast," she informed him as she stuck her tongue out.