A/N: I just wanted to say to whomever nominated my one shot- 'Sunday Father Dance' on the (www . thegloryawards . webs . com .) it was totally unexpected but I adore the love so thanks! :)

Disclaimer: SM owns Twilight,...

Ch16:Stripped Bare

Shock, shame and confusion fueled Leah's footsteps as she hurried down the car lined drive. All she could think of was those faces staring at her while Emma Call exposed her secret. Emma hadn't meant to be cruel—she had appeared to be overcome by sadness and compassion, Leah reasoned, trying to dampen her furious panic. But the words had come so unexpectedly out of Emma's mouth, striking Leah like missiles on an unprotected target.

Then she had glanced at Embry. Had that been disgust mingling with the disbelief on his face? What did he think, knowing the singer he had previously admired had once been a freakish novelty, a frightened, helpless child with a woman's voice who performed like a pet dog doing tricks for its supper?

For its master's love.

The realization that she had desperately wanted her father's love crashed into her with the impact of a hurricane force wind. She staggered and hauled up short, putting her hand on the hood of a car to steady herself. She fought for air against the encroaching weight that settled on her chest.

Would it have a stranglehold on her for her whole life, this anxiety that accompanied her shame and helplessness?

No, god damn it, she thought furiously. She was a woman now, not a child. She was capable of facing her demons.

Despite her resolution, when she heard the sound of men's voices behind her, she had to resist a primitive urge to run like crazy… to escape. Instead, she wiped off her damp cheeks and turned around.

"What are you doing out here?" Sam asked.

Leah noticed his nose swelling and left eye starting to blacken. Edward dropped a stub of a cigarette onto the road and stamped it out. They must have paused up by the front of the house after they had left the kitchen and missed Leah as she stormed out the door.

"Are you leaving?" she asked.

Sam glanced at Edward uncertainly. "Yeah."

Leah straightened and smoothed back her hair. She knew she must have looked awful, but she wouldn't cringe in front of the likes of Sam Uley. He didn't look so hot himself.

"Give me a ride into Waikiki?"

"Of course," Edward agreed smoothly.

"What about Bry?" Sam asked as they walked down the drive toward the car.

"Are you worried about him having his feelings hurt if I leave without him?" Leah asked coldly.

Sam snorted, which must not have been easy to do through that swollen nose. "No, I can't say that I am."

"So what are you worried about?" She marched ahead of him on the road, ensuring Sam understood she was done talking. He and Edward were just a means to get where she needed to go, and she certainly didn't plan on chatting about Embry with them.

She couldn't think about Embry right now. She needed to go back to Waikiki.

And she needed to go alone.

Embry grunted in rising frustration when Rebecca and Quil joined the others on the terrace and shook their heads dismally. They were the last members of the impromptu search party that Embry had sent out to look for Leah.

"Where the hell did she go?" he asked, raking his fingers through his hair.

He had waited for all of five minutes to go after Leah. When he had finally ignored his father's warning and went to search for her, however, she was nowhere to be found. The children had continued to play and enjoy the party, but several of the adults had helped him search around the extensive grounds.

"I've made a mess out of things," Emma muttered under her breath. "I was just so shocked to see her standing there in my kitchen—the girl Patricia had worried about for so many years. What a shock. And with everything that had happened with you and Sam beforehand, it just all sort of spilled out of me. I had no idea 'Aileah didn't even realize she had her brother here on the islands this whole time." She gave Embry an entreating look.

He hugged her in reassurance. "This was a hell of a mess, but none of it was your fault, Gran. Although you probably should have waited and talked with her in private about all of that." Embry added softly.

"Look at my Bry all grown up." Emma gave him a small smile as he released her.

Had it been another occasion Embry would have rolled his eyes and laughed her off, but he was still hell bent on finding Leah. "I have to find her, if something happened to her and I wasn't there to at least try and protect her..." he growled not finishing his sentence. He couldn't even think about that without his rage boiling over.

His grandmother gasped before she whispered at him, "You love her don't you?"

Embry paused in the action of running his hand down his face, as his heart began to triple its pace at her question. It was something that had popped up in his head when he had first made love to her instead of just fucking her.

Could someone—could he— fall in love with someone he had only known for a week?

Yes, yes he could, it was possible. Maybe he had loved her before he had even met her, he thought wryly.

When Embry finally peeked at his grandmother through his spread fingers he nodded. "I do..." he loved her so much it actually kind of hurt, but he wasn't going to tell his grandmother and the other bystanders that. What if Leah ran off with no trace to ever find her again?

No, she couldn't leave him, not yet. Not when they had so much left unsaid and so many things left unexplored. Embry shook his head to bring his attention back to his small grandmother standing in front of him.

"Well then you must find her, now." Emma got that determined expression on her face, Embry had only seen a few times in his lifetime.

He grasped her elbows. "I'm going to get in the car and search the road for her."

Austin stepped up and put his arm around Emma. "Do you want me to drive in the other direction?"

"Nah," Embry replied distractedly. "Someone call me if Leah shows up at the house again, though."

It wasn't until he was in his car and driving back to Honolulu at a speed that was far too fast to be legal that Embry realized he wasn't searching for Leah on the side of the road. Something inside of him must have known he wouldn't find her there. He kept thinking about what Emma Call had said. He kept seeing that frozen, terrified look on Leah's face when she realized all those people were staring at her while she was exposed and vulnerable.

He had seen that expression before.

She had looked like that until her father's portable recording equipment started blaring out the notes of a song. Then that little girl would open her mouth, and her voice would flow like magic through the night, carrying her terror right along with it.

He parked his car on Kuhio and walked to the always crowded Kalakaua Avenue. The bright, glitzy storefronts contrasted markedly with the gentle twilight and violet colored sky. Tourist from countries across the globe bustled along the sidewalk. Some were dressed in high class couture and carried shopping bags while others wore swum trunks and carried their surfboards. He heard strains of music coming from several directions. Live Hawaiian revues took place at several of the beachfront hotels every night, and the tourist board paid entertainers to perform on and around Kalakaua Avenue.

And then there were the street performers: guys doing tricks with their exotic birds; the girl who painted herself silver, stuck a torch in her hand, and stood stock still while tourists dropped coin and dollar bills in a hat in gratitude for her statue of Liberty imitation. Three were the musicians… and the singers.

When Embry was still in high school, he and his friends used to come to Waikiki almost every weekend. As kids, they had loved the energy of the tourist spot. They would surf from morning to dusk, stroll around the beach, meet girls, and goof off. When night came, they would hand out on Kalakaua Avenue.

He might have been fourteen or fifteen when he had first seen her.

'Aileah Nahua.

Course, he had never known her name back then. He just recalled seeing her perform several times, a thick ring of tourists around her. She always drew a bigger crowd than anyone because of the unusualness of such a small thin girl possessing such a phenomenally powerful voice. She never smiled, just sang with a heartbreaking intensity.

Embry hadn't given her a lot of thought back then, other than to admire her talent. He had been a kid after all, and Kalakaua Avenue and Waikiki Beach were filled with novelty performers and people trying to make a buck from tourists who were all too willing to shell out plenty to be entertained.

Once, though, his carefree teenage bubble had been pricked. It had been the summer after his graduation from high school. He had begun to train more rigorously as a swimmer, and he was attending college in the fall. He might not have been a man yet, but the thoughts and concerns of a man had started to enter his brain.

He had separated from his friends, who had been too loud and boisterous, and sat against a tree trunk, sipping a coke. Harry Nahua had arrived on the corner, carrying his amp and equipment, and the small singer trailed him with a reluctant step. He had studied the girl more closely than he ever had on any previous occasion, obscured as he was in the shadow of the tree.

It was the first time he had seen her when she wasn't singing with an enraptured crowd gathered around her. For the first time, he had noticed how thin she was, how a loose thread from her dress trailed down her skinny leg, and how the hem had started to fall.

When her father had handed her the microphone, Embry had seen the terror on her face. She had glanced into her father's face and had shaken her head.

"Don't even think about starting with me tonight. Sing." The man's voice had been harsh and hard. Harry Nahua had been tall and broad shouldered; the remnants of handsomeness were still evident on his face.

The girl was as slender as a willow. There was no doubt in the young Embry's mind as to who would be forced to bend if there was a contest of wills.

Nahua had punched a button and notes had fluttered into the still summer night. When her cue came, the frozen look of anxiety on the girl's face abruptly melted as she sang.

"Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Embry closed his eyes briefly in regret as he hurried down the crowded sidewalk. What could he have done, after all, as a seventeen year old kid… a stranger? Even her own flesh and blood hadn't been able to save her from her father's self-destruction and misery.

He had been in such a pressured rush to find her, he found himself nearly walking right past the corner of Kalakaua and Seaside avenues. He brought himself up short when he saw her sitting motionless on a bench. Her face was wet with tears, but she didn't seem aware of it. Her eyes were fixed on the spot where she used to sing like her life depended on it.

Which in a way, it had, of course.

Leah stared at the spot of the sidewalk like she believed she could make her past rise up out of the pavement. What had she looked like, standing there with that cheap microphone in her hand and singing to a crowd of strangers?

She glanced at the passerby. None of them had the hungry expression she had imagined on the faces that had once hovered around her. A child's fears had made the crowd seem intimidating back then, so ravenous. She had sung her heart out in order to appease them.

In order to appease her father.

He would buy her cheap dresses in Chinatown…dresses that Leah was embarrassed to wear to school. They had been gaudy and tacky, garments that her father had foolishly believed made her appear more dramatic when she sang.

Two small children holding ice cream cones darted past, playing and skipping in front of their parents as they progressed down the street. Leah watched them with a detached sort of wonderment.

She hadn't been any older than that little girl with the blonde braids when she started singing on Kalakaua. How in the world could the child scampering down the sidewalk be considered weak and helpless, just because she did what her father told her to do?

And it had been a far more complicated scenario in Leah's situation. She hadn't just performed for her father's approval. She had done it because if she didn't, there possibly wouldn't be food on the table the next day. They might be kicked out of another apartment and have to sleep on the beach or on the floor at one of her father's drinking buddy's home.

Leah closed her eyes briefly, overwhelmed by memories. When she opened them again, she found herself staring at Embry.

He stood almost exactly on the spot where she'd performed as a child. His face held her spellbound, speaking to her without words. If she had seen pity in his expression, she didn't think she could have taken it. He was seeing her exposed, after all, deprived of all the defenses he had accused her of erecting against him time and time again. And he had been right. She would have done anything yesterday to stop him from seeing her like this: naked and stripped bare.

He looked at all of her.

The experience wasn't what she had dreaded it would be. What she saw on Embry's face in that brief few seconds.

She saw certainty and concern, regret and sadness. But she also sensed strength and most importantly love. Like a spark of electricity, it seemed to transfer to her through the warm humid air.

Leah stood up slowly from the bench.

She hadn't been weak. She had done what she had to do.

'Aileah Nahua Clearwater had been a survivor.

The wind chimes tinkled in the breeze. In the distance, Leah heard the waves breaking gently on the beach. It seemed like an eternity since she had first sat with Embry on the spit of sand and gazed out at the sparkling lagoon, and yet it had just been last week.

Their conversation echoed in her brain.

Don't you get tired of it after a while?

What?

Perfection.

Embry opened the door for her, and she walked into the quiet houseboat. Neither of them spoke. Maybe they had talked themselves dry after Embry had found her on Kalakaua Avenue and they had walked on the beach. Now they walked over to the patio doors and stepped out into the sultry night. She kicked off her sandals, and they sat cross legged on the deck, her hand in his. The moon was waning, but it still cast the lagoon in silvery light, making it look like a magical place.

"I told myself I hated this island."

Embry stirred next to her. "That's not too surprising."

"I had always felt like an outsider here. It seemed too beautiful… too unreal. And then I met you," she rolled her eyes in his direction as she continued. "You flipped my world upside down all within one weeks' time."

"I wasn't trying to flip your world up—" he started before she scoffed interrupting his sentence. His calloused thumb caressed the underside of her wrist as he began to talk again. "Okay maybe I was, you kind of needed it though. You're no more of an outsider here than I am. But then again… I can understand why you were glad to say goodbye to it when you left with your grandmother." His soft wet lips brushed the inside of her wrist softly. "I'm glad you're here now."

Leah shivered before she started to speak then stopped herself. "How many times?" she finally asked hoarsely. "How many times did you see me sing when I was a little girl?

His arm brushed against hers as he shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe a dozen times. Maybe more. Does it matter?"

Leah's throat felt sore when she swallowed, like the muscles had been taxed by the storm of emotions she had experienced tonight. Knowing Embry had seen her—naked and exposed—had been an uncomfortable yet strangely liberating experience. "What did you think of me?"

"I thought you were an incredibly brave, talented little girl. I wasn't the only one who thought so Leah. People were enraptured by you." His words seemed to linger in the still warm air.

A silence stretched between them.

"It's so strange to think about having a brother here." Leah finally said after some time had passed.

"Strange good or bad?"

"I don't know….. I mean I don't even know how old he is… or what he looks like, if he likes lucky charms or cheerios, if he had his own room. Who he stayed with. Why I never knew he existed. Does he know who I am? What is he up to now? Is he married with kids? Did he suffer any? Is he suffering now?" she began to ramble out all the thoughts that had been running through her mind since Emma Call had told her about her brother. "I don't know anything about him besides his name… he could have passed me in the street one day and I would never know...some great sister I am." she sighed sadly.

"That isn't your fault babe and you know that." he squeezed her fingers in reassurance.

Leah nodded in agreement even though she still felt horrible, "This is all so strange and unexpected. Strange good though. I want to meet him, do you think you can ask Emma to get in contact with Patricia and Seth?" Leah asked softly.

"Of course," he answered with hesitation.

"Embry…" Leah paused a second before saying, "...about last night."

"Don't worry about it now, babe." He spoke gruffly.

"But I want to talk about what I did. I had no right to make you the focus of all my insecurities."

"Another time, Leah."

She gave an exasperated sigh. Her eyelids burned, and her muscles grew heavy from a growing fatigue. "You're just brushing me off."

"No, I'm not," he said as he stood and put out a hand for her.

"Well, what are you doing then?" she asked as he hauled her up to a standing position before pulling her into his warm body.

Leah leaned against his body as he snaked his arms around her waist pulling her even closer. "I'm just stalling. I figure as long as you haven't officially apologized for tying me up to that bed and torturing me, you won't leave."

Leah gave a small smile that he couldn't see. "Who said I was going anywhere?" she mumbled snuggling her face more into his chest.

"I had thought after—" he cut himself by chuckling before pulling her back and lifting her effortlessly in his arms. "Come on, we'll talk about it after you get some sleep. You look like you're about to fall over."

Strange place to end? I know.

This chapter was broken into two because the second part of it just made this chapter horribly long and choppy when I tried to add it to this one.

So shall I say the next chapter is one of my favs, that's all I'm giving away for now. :)

Review!

xoxo