Part Three
"I used to be my own protection, but not now
Cause my path has lost direction, Somehow
A black wind took you away, from sight
And held the darkness over day, that night"-Linkin Park, Valentine's Day
The first thing I see when I open my eyes is Leah. She looks down at me with a worried expression on her face, obviously waiting for something.
"Leah…" I mumble weakly. My voice sounds dry and tired. "Is this heaven…or something?"
Leah smiles warmly at me. "You're not dead, Jacob," she says. "You were just unconscious for a few days."
"Where are we?" I ask. I try to sit up, but my strength feels so drained I can't do anything but lie here.
"Some tiny, uncharted island," Leah answers. "I found it after I cliff dived the other day. Apparently I can't be killed that easily. But the imprinting feeling can. If your body thinks you're dying, the imprinting sort of snaps. Like a rubber band or something."
"So you're saying…we're free?" I ask.
Leah nods. "We're free," she confirms.
"How exactly did I get here?" I ask, staring into Leah's eyes.
"Some wolf instinct. Apparently we can tell when the alpha is in trouble, and we can tell where they are. I swam out and got you."
"Thanks, Leah," I say, no sarcasm in my voice.
"No problem."
After a minute of silence, I whisper, "Your family is really worried about you, you know that?"
"I know," Leah says sadly.
"How could you do that to them? Sue was a mess, Seth was…" words fail me. "How could you possibly think they would be ok with losing you?"
"I don't need a guilt trip from you, Jacob," Leah says quietly. "I know how much it hurt them. But I just couldn't give into this imprint thing, you know?"
I sigh. "I know. But what was your imprint like? What was his name?" The curiosity washes over me as I question about Leah's imprint.
"I don't know," Leah says. "As soon as I realized what had happened, I got out of there. Then you were in wolf form and I told you about it…I never found out anything about my imprint."
"I had no idea there were ways to stop imprinting."
"None of us did."
The silence starts suddenly then, and I find the strength to sit up and touch Leah's face.
"The last thing I thought of before I jumped," I mumble, "was you. Of how you refused to let yourself imprint…how you kept fighting…I knew I had to do the same."
"It wasn't your fault, Jacob," Leah says. "You could have gone on with your life, with Renesmee."
"No, I couldn't have. I couldn't just go on with my life, after knowing what you did. I would have felt too…too guilty."
"But this had nothing to do with you, Jacob. There was no reason for you to feel guilty."
"Please don't tell me how I feel about this," I sigh.
"Ok, Jacob, you can feel guilty if you really want to."
I laugh a tired, quiet sound. "Thanks, Leah."
One of my hands moves to stroke Leah's hair and pull her closer to me, so close we are almost pressed against each other. Then I lean my forehead against hers, and smile at her.
"Some day we're going to have to return to La Push," I mumble.
"Some day," Leah agrees. "But not today."
(A/N: Hello, everyone! I hope you liked this last chapter, and the whole fan fic. I know I enjoyed writing it. I realize Jacob and Leah skip around a lot with the talking and not staying on one subject, which is a little weird, but think about it. Jacob seems like the type who would ask a lot of questions like that. Reviews are love!)