If you haven't read Ephraim, Didi and Aaron show up over there and Aaron makes a right mess of things - surprise. I'm writing that time from the Clearwater perspective.

Didi surprised me at the end of our biannual trip to visit Seth and Mom. Especially since Charlie had passed, we'd been sure to visit every other year. Mom had moved closer to us, living in a home in St. Paul with nursing staff. I thought she should move in with us. Seth would've moved if he didn't still have both the house and store in LaPush. So we swapped around. This was our first time back in LaPush in a decade.

We kept a low profile, not wanting to draw attention. I was looking younger than Seth these days. Mom was still giving him a hard time about not finding a girl, or at least a nice boy to settle down with.

"Mom!" I burst on her when she suggested Seth might be looking for male company. "Enough. If Seth wanted someone, he'd have someone. Leave him alone." I was laughing as I said it though, imaging Seth finding a nice boy. "Unless he really does have a boyfriend hidden away somewhere."

Marcus chuckled with me and eventually Seth and the kids did as well.

"I'm not lonely, Mom. You aren't either, are you?" Seth asked. I turned to look at her. That was a good question. It had been a little over a decade since Charlie's passing, and this would be the last time Mom came out to meet us. She was so frail now. All in body though, as evidenced by her prior interrogation.

"No. I haven't had time to get lonely. Getting myself washed and fed takes almost all my time," she joked. "Nah, there are a bunch of nice ladies at Lakeside. I'm fine there." She met my eyes and they narrowed. "Just as I told you I'd be!"

I raised my hands in surrender. I had tried to convince her that a home was not the place for her, but long since given it up.

"No octogenarian men trying to break your other hip?" I asked.

Seth and Marcus laughed loudly while Mom beat me with her cane until Didi took over because her arm got tired.

It was a running gag. She'd broken her hip falling for a man in the home. She said she fell 'with' him - he fell and she went down too - but I liked my version better. Obviously the boys did too.

"Okay! I'm sorry!" I begged Mom to call Didi off before she broke the cane. It had been too long since I'd phased, it actually hurt.

"Damn, I'm getting old," I muttered, rubbing my bruised arm.

Marcus' eyes softened on me and he kissed my cheek. "There's a reason I try not to break you anymore," he whispered.

He was right! We'd been having 'old people' sex for years. "Well it stops now!" I stood up and started pulling my shirt off.

"Leah!" my mother chided.

I grumbled and sat down.

Seth was red from laughter and nearly falling out of his chair. "Welcome to the 'real world', Leelee."

I scowled at him, using that archaic nickname. I slouched. "Forget your real world," I moaned.

"Deal," he whispered.

Marcus cleared his throat. "As the oldest person here, I declare this argument childish and silly."

Didi laughed, no one else did. Aside from the kids he was the youngest seeming person in the room.

It didn't happen often, but just now it bothered me that I had grey hair and crow's feet while he still appeared to be in his twenties. I wondered idly if we looked odd together.

"Mom," Didi hissed, snapping me out of my funk. I smiled at her, grateful. My signs of age were also a sign of how long we had been together. I took Marcus' hand and fingered his Wei Ha.

"Actually, Mom, there's something I wanted to ask you and Dad and Uncle Seth. Would it be all right if I stayed here? I visited the school yesterday and they need a new kindergarten and daycare worker. I really like it here; it feels like I belong. And I can help at the store," Didi added to Seth. "Mom's old room is empty," she also pointed out.

Seth held up his hands. "Fine by me, Didyme. I'm not lonely, doesn't mean I'm shunning company."

"You... want... to stay?" Aaron asked slowly. This could go badly. We hadn't told Jake that we were in town. A sudden wolf howl and Aaron would bring the Alpha down on us. And it would be the Alpha, nothing less could keep that boy in line.

"Yes, Aaron. And you should go home with Mom and Dad, or go somewhere else. I know who I am without you." He flinched. "I think you should learn the same."

"Didi?" He sounded sad, betrayed.

"Excuse us," Didi said before laying her head on the table. Aaron followed her example.

"Do they do this often?" Mom asked.

"No," Marcus answered. "Not like this." He explained that the twins normally spent time together, as spirits, in the morning or night.

"Really? Like Spirit Warriors?" Seth clarified. "I mean, not just wolves, outside their bodies?"

I nodded. "Just like that." I watched Didi lift her head, blinking.

"I think I've convinced him, for a little while."

Aaron's head came up as a rumble escaped his chest. He strode out the door, shedding clothes as he walked.

"Don't attract attention," I called after him. I didn't know if he was planning to run the whole way home, or just burning off steam. I'd find out soon.

"Well, this was a delightful visit," I said, only slightly sarcastically. I kissed Mom's cheek. "You have a safe flight home."

"I'll be fine. You worry too much."

"Mom, you're ninety, can I worry too much?"

"Yes." She glared at me.

"Have a nice visit with Seth, Didi. Let us know if you need us to send you anything."

She hugged me and laughed. "I have enough clothes for a week. I'll buy more if I need them."

"You make sure my daughter doesn't fall in with the wrong crowd." I pointed at Seth.

He cocked an eyebrow. "There's a crowd? There's more than one crowd?"

I laughed, unable to argue with that. I kissed Marcus, tipping his head over the back of his chair, my tongue grazing his lower lip until his eyes closed.

"I'll meet you at the lake," I told him. "An hour?"

He nodded. It probably wouldn't take more than that to determine whether or not Aaron was coming with us.

I walked outside and left my clothes on the step with Aaron's. Marcus would bring both.

Brat!

Leave me alone. He was still hurting.

Come on. She loves you. You know that. Give her some time to herself again. It's been long enough since the last time. A whole decade. And he had never spent time out of pack range of me.

You don't want me either?

Of course I do. I've spent a decade out of your mind, if you recall... Living in a house with him was very different from being in his head.

She won't miss me, will she?

He was moping. It drove me insane. He was spending a bit of time away from his sister; it wasn't as though she were dying.

I still had her when she went to Winnipeg.

He was still whining.

YOU MUST LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT HER! I wasn't a true Alpha, but be damned if I couldn't put my foot down with my own son. I remembered losing my father. I remembered how it hurt, having him there every morning when I woke, until the one he wasn't. Coming down to breakfast and seeing the extra coffee in the pot, the empty spot at the table, the unused easy-chair.

I heard Aaron's whimper and saw his memories of the same when Didyme attended class – her clothes hanging in the closet, her perfectly made bed.

He was near me now. He came out of trees beside me, a tear in his eye. I phased and opened my arms.

Aaron phased as well and entered my hug. "I love you, Mom. You'll stay with me."

"I love you, Aaron. I wish you wouldn't need me, but I'll be here for you, forever." His head came up, still hurt. In some ways he was still a child. "I wish you were surer of yourself. You don't need us."

He shook his head. "I don't want to." He growled at me, pushing me away. He ran in the direction of the lake.

I didn't feel angry or even disappointed at his rejection. I felt bad for Aaron. He had such a hard time showing his softer emotions. I remembered being the same. He would learn; it would get better.

I walked to the lake, enjoying the feeling of the air on my skin, the familiar sights and smells of home. Neither man was troubled by waiting for me. Aaron would need time to talk with Marcus, too.

Marcus met me on the shore. Aaron was already in the plane. My husband held my clothes out to me.

"Thank you." I carried them in my arms. Marcus was at my side, his hand on my hip, caressing my buttock. I sighed at the familiar chill and resulting burn. I had plans for him when we got home.

I tossed my clothes into the seaplane ahead of me. Aaron sat in the back, shirtless.

"No clothes, Mom?"

I shrugged. He was, of course, accustomed to seeing me naked. Marcus was grinning as he did his pre-flight checks. I caught sight of the occasional glance he gave me, and his hand found my knee and thigh.

"Why don't you go visit the others?" I asked Aaron as we landed, encouraging him to go to the hotel.

He wrinkled his nose, sensing my intentions, no doubt. I started to pull on my clothes. I got one leg in my pants and dropped them. Aaron was out of sight. I pulled Marcus off the wharf and into the water. He chuckled. I attacked his clothes, shredding them with my hands. He growled low in his throat.

"Why didn't you tell me I'd been tamed?" I asked against the skin of his throat, my nails digging into his back, just shy of breaking the skin; not because I was careful, because they weren't sharp or hard enough. I reached between us in the water, running my hand over his hardened length.

"God, if you've tamed, you certainly haven't cooled at all."

I smiled, thrilled he enjoyed my touch, that my heat wasn't diminished.

"I'm not so sure you've tamed, either. You are still wild, uncontrolled, a force of nature." His voice was fuelling me, making me hotter.

"So we haven't been having 'old people' sex?"

He laughed loudly. "I don't know what that is! I would think, being around for several centuries, I have had a lot of old people sex."

I had to laugh when he put it like that. "I haven't changed?" I asked, still smiling.

His kiss was full of passion. My lips still tingled from the chill and his tongue traced my teeth. "You are always changing," he whispered once I was breathless. "You haven't stopped changing. That is what fascinates me. I haven't changed in so long, but you... You are a mother; you have grey hair. There fine lines here and here." He kissed the corner of my mouth and eye.

I was getting old. That didn't stroke my ego one little bit. He caught on quickly, though.

"You go from hot to cold, from hard to soft to hard. You are a friend to those you should hate. You are always learning, adapting. You can't know how I envy you." He brushed the hair from my cheek, kissing me gently.

"Can I change back then?" I asked. He quirked an eyebrow and I clarified. "Can I be the foolish new imprint who can't control herself? The new wife who can't bear to wait when you take your time making love to her?"

He chuckled. "You can be anything, anyone you want to be."

I pulled Marcus to me, leaning on the wharf. "Break me. Make me who I was again."

He closed his eyes briefly. "I'm not sure I can do that."

I knew he could. I knew I could drive him to it, and I would.

I pushed him against the dock, my hips over his. I resisted him entering me, teasing him. I skated over his tip, maddening myself, even as I provoked him. He kept his hold on me gentle, even as he tried to press my hips down onto him.

"No," I told him. "You're going to have to take me."

He growled low in his throat again and his lips closed on my shoulder, his eyes darkening. "You play with fire."

"You play with fire," I told him, thrusting my hips into his belly, rubbing the heat of my sex over his abs.

"God. I don't want to hurt you. You don't heal like you used to."

"I will. I will be what you make me, just as I have always been." I bit on his lip, pulling it into my mouth and listening to his breathing break further.

He growled a last time and flipped me face down on the wharf, my hips on its edge. He lifted to his elbows on either side of me before thrusting into me.

"Yes," I hissed as I felt my hips bruising on the rough wooden planks. "Like that. Harder."

"You've made me hungry," he whispered, his tongue on my ear. I shivered. "I haven't changed, Leah. I want you as much as I've always wanted you." He released me only to thrust as hard again. I moaned into the dock, my nails digging into the boards to hold on. He pulled out again and my weight pulled me into the water until he pinned me again. His hands were now between me and the dock, but he was picking up speed. Still pulling completely from me each time, but crushing me in his grip. I felt the bruises deepen, spread. The pinching in my back was becoming more painful.

Through the haze of pain, the rough rasp of the boards of the dock, I felt the pleasure. His fingers were spread along the edges of my lower lips, each thrust brushing me slightly. His balls were swinging up, rubbing the inside of my thighs. I was panting on each thrust, still scrabbling on the wood of the dock, pulling myself out of the water. He was no longer braced on the wharf and I was the one holding us up. My arms strained, my hips were on fire, and my pussy was being pounded. He felt so good in me, and at the same time he was tearing me apart, shaping me from the inside, turning me into his wife, the woman who loved him, the woman who needed him, and the woman who wanted to be what he needed.

He was close, which was good because I couldn't take a lot more. All the pieces were laying there before him, waiting for him to pick them up. On his last thrust, he pressed me further up the wharf, both our thighs on the rough wood now. My cheek was scraped and bleeding slightly, my breasts were raw, and he had fractured my hip. I panted in pain.

He lowered himself slowly over my back; his breath was even and slow, with the occasional catch. Fighting my body's desire to lie still, I rolled away from him so I could look at him. He was trying to sob.

"What?" I whispered, my throat as raw as the rest of me.

"You're still hurt," he murmured. "I never want to hurt you."

I shook my head. How little he understood. "I asked you to." I shifted now to lay my healing cheek against his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, still shaking slightly. Almost all the abrasions were healing now. The hip was going to take a while. "I want to be what you make me." I closed my eyes, exhausted. It hadn't been a short day, and that had been a serious work out. "Can you carry me home?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Leah," he still sounded awful.

"Marcus, I wanted this. I'm sorry if you didn't. I wasn't trying to make you do something you'd regret." My voice caught now. Was being tired making me emotional? He'd better not have gotten me knocked up again. I couldn't handle another Aaron.

He kissed my head. "Okay. I'll try not to regret it. If you'll try not to limp."

I laughed. "Promise! Will you still carry me home?" I asked with a yawn.

"Of course I will. I'll carry you anywhere."

Thanks to Sharebear, my ever vigilent beta!