Chapter 12 so not a checkout chick

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer- this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute which, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe for betaing.

Deputy Clearwater; damn that sounded good. Leah was very proud of herself. She had gone with Paul and Jake to fill her mother in on what had transpired with Charlie. She was a new Police Deputy. Sure she was part time but it was a start.

Her mother was not happy; not with her nor with Charlie. Leah asked her what job exactly she saw her doing, that would allow her to stay close to the rez and perform her other security duties; her furry ones. Sue had the grace to admit that she couldn't think of anything. Checkout chick Leah was most definitely not.

She also argued that the Council should be pleased. She, Paul and Jake had listed all the advantages to vampire hunting that her job would give the pack. She could be their inside man.

She understood; her mother was just worried about her.

"Mum, the possibility of a normal life is beyond me now. You know that. Plus my wolf skills give me more of an advantage that a normal female would not have in such a job as this. I can look after myself, Mum. You know that."

"Well I don't see why you can't live in your home while you do it," Sue grumbled.

Jake and Paul exchanged a look and left her to it. She pulled up a chair at the table. "You know I kind of timed myself out this week."

Sue nodded.

"I tried to think about the issues in my life and what I need to do to repair it. I cannot continue the way I was; it's not fair on anyone." She waited, but when Sue didn't speak she continued. "I blamed myself for Dad's heart attack." She held up her hands to stop her mother speaking. "I know… I know... it's not my fault; well I know that now." She looked into Sue's stricken face, "I just need some space away from the place where it happened. Maybe just a few days, I don't know." She paused, "Can you give me that, Mum?"

Her mother gave her a tremulous smile, "Of course, honey."

"Bella and Paul have been kind enough to offer me their guest room. Honestly Mum, I don't know how long it will take; I just know I need to do this."

Her mother reached across the table and squeezed her hand. "It's a great idea, Leah. And I am really proud of you for trying to sort this out and I am especially proud that you have chosen such a traditional way to do it."

"Regardless of anything," her mother continued, "you know that I am your mother first, and everything else comes later." And then she did that thing Leah had witnessed so many times and not actually thought through; her mother straightened her back and squared her shoulders. She could almost see her toss off any extraneous worries. They would probably come back later but right now, they were not on her 'to do' list.

She wondered if some of her strength and resilience may have come from her mother, she had not really thought about it before.

"Right, we need to pack you a bag," her mother ordered, and they did just that.

AN: I read the Bureau of Labor stats page for police and a few other things – I am not American and I apologise for any mistakes I may have made in my story about police training – my excuse is, it's a small town and Charlie can do what he wants… right? Yeah, that'll work…

She was measured for her uniform. In the meantime she managed to fit into a spare. Lucky it had a belt.

She needed firearms training. Charlie ran her through some exercises at the firing range and he was impressed with her arm strength. Holding a firearm in the ready position was tiring and most people tended to drop their arms after a minute or so, but Leah was as steady as a rock. He said he would send her to more advanced training if this all worked out. It felt weird to fire a gun and she knew it would probably not stop most vampires, but she could aim pretty well with her keen eyesight. She kind of looked forward to shooting it off in the line of duty.

For the moment Charlie couldn't imagine she would be doing anything more complex than a pile of paperwork, like all police, and serving a few warrants and civil orders on people. There wasn't even much call for traffic duties in Forks. Writing out fines for a broken taillight was about it.

The rez kids were particularly docile with her. She came with an aura of pack authority; she was Jacob Black's second in command and it radiated off her and they all recognized that. If they didn't know exactly what the pack did, they knew nobody argued with them. Sam had used the pack to scare off drug dealers and anyone else the council didn't want on the rez.

Charlie was extremely pleased.

She was given a thick folder of procedures to read; how to measure an accident scene; how to process evidence; how to adhere to all office policies and procedures. She was going to drown in a pile of paperwork before she ever got to see any action. Just remembering half the radio call signs was a pain. At least she might get to drive a patrol car one day.

One of her big duties was taking fingerprints. A record of a person's fingerprints was taken with each application for a Concealed Weapons Permits and some job applications required them too. She wondered at Sam's decision to turn the job down. She would have thought it was perfect for him. Oh well, his loss was her gain.

She stayed with Paul and Bella. Jake came over a lot, but then he always had spent a lot of time with Bella so she didn't think he was there to see her or anything. She watched them together and had a new appreciation for Paul. He let them go much further than most of the pack would have with their imprints. Bella sat on Jake's lap; they hugged each other all the time; especially those huge Jacob Black rib crusher hugs as Bella called them, and they kissed and flirted with each other.

In days of watching this she had never seen a single glimmer of jealousy from Paul.

She asked him one morning when it was just the two of them at the kitchen table.

"How can you cope with the way Bella and Jake act?"

"She always was a package deal," he said sagely, "Jake and Bells."

"But how can you…?" then she shook her head. "I'm sorry it's none of my business," she apologised.

"No; it's okay," Paul added. "You remember how I tried to deny the imprint and how well that worked out?"

She nodded.

"Well after we got together publically, Jake was a mess. He didn't know what to do with himself and I realised it was because he didn't have her in his life." He grinned at her, "Truth be told, she was almost as big a mess as he was; she just hid it better. Those two just have to be in each other's lives. They are best friends and they love each other; package deal." He shrugged.

He stood and refilled his coffee. He stayed standing as if he needed a little distance. "I suppose the imprint just wants me to make her happy and 'no Jake' makes her very unhappy. I couldn't stand it. We came to an arrangement that worked for us all." He shrugged again. "I trust them," he stated.

And then as if he couldn't stay serious for very long, he leered at her, "And a happy Bella makes a very happy Paul."

She laughed. "I know that; for fuck's sake. Could you guys keep it down sometimes?" She pointed at him, "And you weird me out referring to yourself in the third person, you know."

He laughed.

Then he added, "Hey I always wanted to ask you; what gave us away that time at the bonfire. You remember when you accused Bella of being up to something with me?"

"Fuck and you were, at that stage?"

"Well not quite, maybe later that night." He smirked and managed to look pleased with himself.

"You completely ignored each other."

"So?"

"No, I mean completely. I like watching people; I find it kind of interesting. But you two that night, looked like you were trying to avoid each other. You pass somebody something and you look at them or you smile or nod or something; say 'thanks' maybe. I can't explain it really well. Your eyes meet across the table; you laugh at their jokes… you know? So if two people don't do any of that, there has to be a reason for it."

Paul looked intrigued.

"There are only two options in my book; they hate each other or they are hiding a secret love; a romance, or I suppose they could just be fucking each other's brains out."

"I'd say one option," Paul suggested, "if you hate someone, you react to everything they say, in a bad way. Scrunch your face up and wince every time they speak."

"Yeah that works too," she laughed.

She gave him an assessing look. "You and Bella go well together. I'm kind of glad it worked out okay for you both."

"Thanks Leah, I appreciate that, and I'm glad you are trying not to be such a bitch."

She laughed.

FF_2154210_ - 26/11/2010 03:38:00 AM