DISClaimer: I'm not Stephenie Meyer. I make no profit from this.

I cried. You might too.

Hope you enjoy this.

-x-

I sunk to my knees and sobbed at what I had just tried to do.

-x-

Max's POV

I rubbed my stomach as I stood up.

"Did I hurt you?"

"Kind of. You're pretty strong."

"Thanks." She smiled proudly, "I do try."

"What were you doing down here?"

"What were you doing throwing yourself off a cliff?"

"Touché." I conceded and looked away. She half laughed. "What's so funny?"

"You look so guilty."

"Thanks." I paused, "I guess." She stared at me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"What is it?"

Only then did we fall silent. I had just tried to throw myself off a cliff to finish it; I had just attempted to kill myself. She was acting as if this was perfectly normal. I shuddered a breath and felt my legs give way beneath me. I hit the floor hard, my leg hurt, my shoulder hurt; my body was aching like nobody's business.

"Max…" She started again, rubbing my shoulder slightly. "You can tell me." Did I really want to? The answer was yes. Of course I did. My shoulders shook as the torrent of sobs slid out of my mind, I lost it all and felt her put her arm around me.

"I had a row with your bloody brother - he took me cliff diving and… well, it all went wrong, like it generally does with me, and J-Jasper had to save me and-"

"Right." She paused. "He was jealous?"

"Jealous?" I looked at her, "You make it sound so easy."

"What do you mean?"

"I-I think the imprinting… I think it made it worse." I looked at the floor. "He was… furious. He just stopped everything. He looked so…" I looked back up, into her eyes. "He looked so empty."

She stood and looked at me for a long time, trying to understand, I think, trying to work out exactly what I was on about. My predicament seemed to amplify in the silence and I felt more tears falling down my face, burning me.

"I don't know." She returned after a few seconds. "I don't understand why he would do it, Max… if I had imprinted, then… I guess I would… but I can tell you, that… when you love someone with everything you have, with every…fibre of your being," She shuddered at the cliché. "You feel so empty when they display any kind of emotion towards someone else."

"No…" I shook my head. "It was more than that. It was as if I'd betrayed him… by being alive because of Jasper. It was like it was my fault that I'd been rescued." I closed my eyes and let the tears fall again. I hated it. I did not understand it, so I hated it.

"Max… I'm sure it's not that drastic…"

"You didn't see him, Leah." I sighed. "I have to leave."

"You can't-" She said too quickly.

"Why not?" I looked at her, "I'm not from around here. Does it honestly matter where I go?"

"Seth will die if you leave him."

"Leah, I'm sure it's not that drastic." I echoed sarcastically.

"You think so? Look at what happened when someone else saved your life, Max. Look at how he reacted to that." She stopped, looking for all the world as though she was having a good epiphany on the edge of the platform. As she spoke, she counted her fingers against her palm with a quiet slapping sound. "You," She pointed at me, "Have the wrong end of the popsicle."

"Sorry?"

"Oh, shut up and listen to me, will you? I know we're not exactly friends, but still-"

"You've saved my life. I think that changes our friendship status from frosty to firm friends."

"Again. Shut up and listen. Seth's not mad at you. Imprinting is like a gravitational pull - you have to be near the subject to be happy, you don't feel like a whole… like a person, without it." I nodded. "You're getting this?"

"Just about?"

"Well, then you should understand that…" She bowed her head, "We're all frightened of Jasper. Apart from Jacob, we're all… kind of uncertain about him."

"What?"

"You noticed how he screws with your emotions?" I nodded, "Well… this is what we were worried about - when he first met…" She bit her lip and looked away, "Emily," Another pause, "And Kim," Her name came freer. Seth hadn't explained what history Emily and Leah had, but they clearly weren't happy together. "He made them feel so free and easy, that we were worried what he could do to someone…"

"I don't get you."

"He could make you… willing." She said softly. "Me and Seth worked it out… ages ago, and I mean… a really long time…"

"Willing to what?"

"Submit." The single word sent connotations of anything and everything through my mind. I realised what she meant almost immediately and it shook me. "I don't think he's considered it before, I don't think it means anything to him, he couldn't do it… but there was always the possibility." She looked at me, "I'm guessing you came out of it covered in blood?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, I think you can excuse Seth for being a little… worried? I guess he thought he'd lost you, and then you came back, real, alive…" there was a long pause. "And Jasper had saved you… well, with the blood everywhere; you would assume the worst, wouldn't you?"

I stood up shakily and looked at her.

"You really believe that?" It was an honest question. "But… he's so…"

"I know. And I don't think it's even a possibility." She replied simply, "But… you have to consider…" Another pause, "If Seth thought you were dead… and Jasper was the one trying to save you-"

"Oh… oh, god." I had only been on my feet for thirty seconds, forty-five at best, but I found my self back on my knees, falling to the floor, losing every single faculty.

"It's OK." She wrapped her arms around me and I felt safer. "You know he'll forgive you if you talk to him."

"Shit, Leah. He must think I'm dead."

"He'll know." She looked at me and smiled. "We should get you back to the beach."

Jared's POV

Seth fell to the sand, his head in his hands.

"No splash." I repeated, things turning over in my mind. Someone could have saved her. It wasn't as if she had arced out too far for a wolf to jump… and I mean, Quil could have been on the platform. Edward might have got it wrong; he could have been south, rather than north.

"It wouldn't work, Jared." Edward said from somewhere to my left. I'd forgotten he could read my mind. "There's no…" He wouldn't say it. He couldn't be so… heartless. "No way."

"Seth…" Jacob sat down beside him; put his arm around his shoulders. "Man, I'm so… so sorry."

He looked up at Jake and pushed him away, then rose to his feet and shoved past the Cullens too.

"Just leave me alone."

"Seth, man, wait!" Embry followed him, walked away with him. He didn't say a word as he caught up to him and put an arm around his shoulders, Seth pushed him away again and strode off into the trees.

The pack and the coven froze as they heard a howl, it sounded like he was hurt, like he was burning up, caught in a fire, losing his mind.

Then there was a sudden returning howl. This one wasn't so full of anguish, it was more… hopeful. I looked at Embry, he had phased too, one by one, the wolves around me were collapsing into their lupine forms, and I joined them, almost automatically.

When a fellow wolf, one of our best friends, was in trouble, our packs merged seamlessly, to open our minds to each other. Today, it seemed, Seth was closed off to everyone but… Embry. It was as though Embry was in two minds, our pack, and his little duet with Seth.

"What're you seeing?" I yelped into his head, pounding up the beach beside Jacob. Twelve other voices yelped it a syllable after me.

"I don't know… it's a rush of sobbing, of… I don't understand it." Embry tilted his head to the left and my sight shifted into the diagonal.

"Damnit Em'! Keep your frickin' head up, will you?" He nodded and the world shuddered again. It didn't usually make a difference - when we were running, all our heads were shaking everywhere. It hurt to see through everyone else's eyes when they made gestures, though.

I caught up with him within half a minute, and I heard another howl in the forest.

"He's saying 'stop messing with me,'" Embry turned to look at me, a second-hand picture falling into my mind, across my vision. "I think he's talking to Leah."

Jacob was on Embry's other side.

"He's closed his mind off to our pack."

"I figured." I returned. The others had been pretty quiet throughout this. I bowed my head and sighed as Embry stopped and Jacob followed suit. "Why're we still here?"

"Because we don't want to see this." Embry returned to human form and pulled his jeans on. Reluctantly, I returned to my own skin, and pulled on the sweatpants I had saved.

There was a long silence and a horrific howling sound. I shuddered and put my hands over my ears, a thousand images flying through my head. Memories of Seth that I wouldn't let go of. Not in a million years.

Leah's POV

"I'm not messing with your head!" I yelled at him, "For god's sake, Seth, don't be ridiculous."

"You want me to hurt? This is how you want it? Can't anybody have a minute to themselves?"

I pulled up on the top of the cliff; Mackenzie got off my shoulders and pulled her clothes back on.

"Do you know where he is?" She wondered aloud. I did my best to nod.

"Stop nodding in my head, for Christ's sake, Leah… you're such a bitch-"

"I'm trying to help you!" I stared intensely at Max for a couple of seconds.

"You're really freaking me out." She murmured, I made movements to try and get her back on my back. I hated carrying people, it was so uncomfortable, but I didn't have time to worry about that.

She climbed onto my shoulders and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Stop imagining this shit." Seth growled into my head and I started pounding down the track, trying to zero in on where he was, trying to get to where he was before he did something stupid. Images were flying through my head and I tried to decipher them as fast as I could.

"None of that shit will work, Seth," I grunted, "You're pretty indestructible, remember."

"Yeah, right, whatever." He really did sound empty. "Why're you headed my way, anyway? Wanna see the show?"

"I'm coming to prove to you, Seth… she's alive." He shook at my words.

"Don't fuck with me Leah." He growled, I heard a howl in my ears. We were closer than I thought.

"It's just a wolf, probably Seth, happy that you're alive. He knows… Leah's told him-" Max was whispering to herself, trying to convince herself it was all OK. I bounded with her on my shoulders for a few moments longer, until we blasted through the treeline, less than a quarter of a mile away from Seth.

I circled the clearing and stopped at Seth's point of entry. Max dismounted and looked at me, I nodded as I heard him howl again.

"It's alright?"

I nodded, realising I was going to have to phase back without clothes. I closed my eyes, leaned forward and tugged at her t-shirt.

"You've got nothing to wear?" I nodded again. She smiled and pulled the top off her, leaving it on the floor beside me. "Well, here goes nothing."

Wearing her bright blue bra and a pair of Jacob's spare-board shorts, she stumbled forward, barefoot, over a large log, and into the near blackness of the clearing.

"Seth?" Her voice was hesitant; I returned to human form and picked up the T-shirt, hoping it would cover everything.

He choked. I heard the half sob, she gasped. I assumed he'd phased too.

"Max?" He said softly, hardly believing it.

Seth's POV.

I saw her walk towards me, half-dressed, pale and shaking. The leaves rustled as a breeze blew up and I saw her shudder. She took another tentative step forward, reached out a hand. A slice of pain crossed her face, marring her beautiful features. I closed my eyes and prayed I wasn't dreaming.

"Seth?" She whispered my name, without thinking I phased back, covering myself; I heard her gasp, shuddering, and I held my hand out silently for the board shorts. She closed her eyes, pulled them off and threw them to me.

I let the sobs fall from my lips as she stepped even closer, reaching her hand out to take mine.

"Max?" I couldn't believe it. I pulled her towards me by her outstretched hand and she whimpered as her skin hit mine. "You're not…"

"I'm all real, Seth," She whispered into my ear, shaking against me. "You didn't believe Leah, then?" I pulled her close and shook my head.

"I had to see it for myself." She smiled against my neck and everything through the past hours was gone. Nothing mattered but the here and now; nothing mattered but being with her.

I squeezed my arms around her and heard her sobbing. Her shoulders shook and I pulled her right against me.

"I'm so sorry, Se-" She started, but I didn't need to know.

"Don't." I murmured, pressing my lips to her jaw, then against her cheek. "We can talk tomorrow," I pressed my lips to her hair and inhaled the strawberries and cream again. I couldn't smell Jasper on her anymore.

It was wolf. Wolf, and home.

-x-

A/N: Please review and let me know how I did... :P

To all those who said they was Leah, well done!

Oh, and For all those who are desperate for a happy reunion... be careful what you wish for...

I'm really glad you all like it... so i'd appreciate more feedback...

And i'm really, really happy that you keep reading :)

Please Review!!!

Love you guys

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