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

It's longer, is this one...

Hope you enjoy this.

-x-

I closed my eyes and turned to go back to the beach.

-x-

Seth's POV

I kept my arms around her as I set her down and walked with her onto the sand. Jasper looked up as we approached; he was sat away from the group, his arms folded across his chest, his knees drawn up, sad.

As we got closer, he grinned, the smile lighting his eyes, but he didn't speak, he looked away, back at Alice and the table of humans she was entertaining. I stepped over to him, Max looking at me, surprised but smiling, and put a hand on his shoulder. If he hadn't looked at me, I would have been offended.

His eyes were full of surprise as he stared up into my face.

"Thanks man." I murmured, feeling the blush rise in my cheeks. "I'm sorry for earlier."

"S'no problem." He half-smiled and nodded, "As long as we're cool." He looked at max, "And you're cool with me and her being friends?" I took a long second to pause and consider. He hadn't killed her yet, and she had been teasing him with all the blood that had poured from her body for the afternoon.

"Yeah man. As long as Max is cool with it."

"Good." He smiled, then frowned, "Man, would you eat something before I end up chewing my own arm off?"

"Yeah." I laughed and Max grinned at me from her lone spot on the sand. She stepped forward as she realised everything was cool between us.

"You've made up?"

"Yes." Jasper smiled at her and she gently reached down, patted his head. "Hey! Don't do that!" But they were laughing. She looked up at me, smiling, and I couldn't help returning it. Her happiness made me happy. Her hand wrapped around mine, she locked our fingers and clung onto me, Jasper still laughing.

I still didn't get this stupid imprinting thing.

"Maybe the others would like to know you're alive?" Jasper asked softly, realising I was starting to tire of her laughing with him. I didn't like other people taking her from me. It was Jake and Nessie all over again.

She looked up at me and nodded, putting her arm around my shoulders again. Jasper stood too, realising she was having trouble walking, he got her between us and we helped her walk easier back to the group.

There was a long silence as our strange trio stumbled through the sand - mainly Max - and back to the group. Jasper had a look of concentration on his face, I wondered if it was the blood still on her cheek or the smell of wolf on her, because I was getting mixed hits of revulsion and happiness rushing over me.

I stopped about thirty feet away from the mass of people, some sat around the table, none eating anything, the others staring out across the water, all looking utterly distraught. There was a huge pause, and Mackenzie's eyes widened. She had noticed something, but as I stared, I couldn't work out what was different - there was Jared, Embry, Jake, Quil, Sam… wait -

"Quil!" She yelped his name as his presence thunked into my mind, and he looked up, span from his seat on the sand, jumping to his feet. "You're alive!"

"So're you!" He stood before her, glancing at Jasper. "I was worried about you."

"You needn't have been." She smiled at him and then at Jasper. "I had an excellent rescuer." A surge of jealousy slammed through me and Jasper frowned at me over Max's head. I made an apologetic face and he half -shrugged. She noticed and shook her head, tiredly, bored of our little bout of friction.

The rest of the guys were grinning at me widely, staring at the fact that I was here, and she was standing beside me. Max took a deep breath and blushed as Emily and Kim practically grabbed her and hugged the hell out of her.

"I'm so glad you're alright, Maxxie." She pulled a face, "We were so worried about you, sweetheart-"

"-Gosh, you're freezing-"

"-You should get something to eat-"

"-We were honestly so worried about you, Max-" Embry had joined them, wrapped her up in a bear hug and crushed the breath out of her. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for any of earlier to happen - it was a complete accident, and-"

"Don't worry." She smiled. I loved that she was so forgiving. He stared at her, almost shocked that she had forgiven him. She shrugged at the confusion and smiled at him. "Honestly… I can't say I enjoyed it, but it was certainly an experience."

"Of sorts." I added confidently. She nodded and rolled her eyes at me.

"Indeed." Embry laughed at her accent and she folded her arms. "I shan't speak again, if you keep that up."

"Haha, shan't." He was still giggling as he walked away, "That's such as brilliant word."

"I've got a million more!" She yelled after him as the guys took a step closer to her, stared at her for a long second and then at me.

"I told you there was no splash." Jared said softly. "But none of you frickin' listened to me." He huffed and Max reached out to hug him.

"Thanks for believing in me, Jared." He smiled and looked away, blushing a nice red that I'd only seen him go when someone complimented Kim. "Sam…" She looked up at my old Alpha and smiled again, "Thanks."

"I haven't done much-"

"I know you were in the search party earlier and…" She sighed and shook her head, "Look. It's been a long time since so many people really cared about me. So, please…just accept that I'm thankful and move on, would you?" He half-smiled, nodded and she turned to Jacob; Sam caught my elbow as he passed to return to Emily and bowed his head slightly.

"What does she mean?"

"I…" I stopped, slightly embarrassed, "I don't know."

"You need to find out." I nodded and looked away, at her, for a second. She was laughing with Jake; it was as though this afternoon had never happened.

Her past intrigued me like hell, I wanted to know everything about her, and she had been reluctant to tell me up to now. I had to ask her… I had to find out. She smiled at me and hugged me tight as we ate together, so different from earlier - I hadn't said a word then, refused to touch anything I could eat.

I sighed as I walked her back to the bike, almost three in the morning by the time we got home. She made me ride behind her as she took the keys from my hand and got on. She had surprising control of the bike - but that was only to be expected when she had been learning since she was old enough.

-x-

Next morning, eight or nine o'clock, maybe, I woke up to hear the shower running. Groaning, I sat up stiffly and sighed, Max was obviously desperate to clean all the blood and salt off her from yesterday's 'happy dip in the ocean'. I looked around my bedroom, deciding that today; I would start anew and clean up. Maybe.

That's when I saw it. It was on top of her suitcase, a small, A5 sized wooden box. It was practically calling to me, screaming my name. I looked at it for a few seconds longer and stretched forward to reach it. The lid was half-open, I swore as everything fell out of it and I tried to pick it up in the order it had come out in.

"Crap, crap, crap…" I muttered as I put it all back, barely noticing what it all was. Then I stopped and realised that this was actually what I had originally planned to do with the box.

Seconds later, the contents of the box were all over the duvet. I sent a cursory glance over a couple of the pieces, a small badge and an empty bottle of cologne, and looked at the birthday cards, the Christmas cards, a long letter… I flicked through the pages and looked at the name signed at the bottom - Evan.

Even looking at the name told me a million things. The cologne was obviously his; I nearly picked up the bottle and smashed it. The letter he had written was because he knew she was leaving. I picked up the next interesting piece of the puzzle. A teenaged boy, about eighteen, with short, messy, dark blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a load of freckles across his nose was grinning, with Max on his back. She looked beautiful; her hair was all over the place, an immense grin on her face.

There were three more pictures of her with him, and one with another boy about the same age, who had his arm draped lazily around her shoulders, his messy black hair all over the place. They were half-sitting on a rug, enough picnic for four people spread out beside them. I sighed, feeling a sting of jealousy as I stared at the picture again.

"Seth?" I slammed the stuff back into the box and tried to shove it behind me as I looked up to see her standing in front of me. "What're you doing?" I shifted uncomfortably and the bottle of cologne fell to the floor, she looked at it for a second, realisation dawning on her face, "Seth, you didn't-" her face was a picture of disappointment and hurt.

"I-…" I looked down at the box, I had broken the hinge in my haste to close it and hide it, as she watched, I tried to hide it once more.

"What're you doing with that?" She picked it up from my hands and looked at it. "This is private." she shook her head and held it up to her eyes. "Where did you find it?"

"It was on your suitcase." I stuttered, "I was going to put it back, but it fell open and-"

"It fell open?" she asked politely, though there was a stilted growl in her voice. "Yeah, right." She gathered the stuff I hadn't managed to shove into the box, and put it neatly back in, then picked up the cologne bottle from the floor and snapped that back into the box. A second later, she pulled it back out again.

She turned away from me and busied herself with putting things back in their rightful places and stared for a long second at the picture of the boy with her on his back. She sighed and happily put it away again.

"Who is he?" The words slipped out of my mouth before I could think.

"I'm sorry?"

"I said who is he?" A pause, "Your ex? Is that his aftershave?" My tone was no longer curious. I had gone into full on accusatory mode now.

"Who said he was my ex?" She retorted, staring at the picture again.

"He's not your boyfriend any longer, is he? I am-"

"Who said he was my boyfriend?" Her voice was cracking, hurt, broken. "Anyway, he's gone now."

"Who was he, then?" She didn't reply, so I pressed the question three more times, getting whinier with every repetition.

"He was my brother, alright?" She threw the box at me with incredible accuracy; I caught it deftly, slightly worried that the cologne would break inside. A second later, I realised she had the bottle in her hand.

"Th-that's Ben?" I spluttered, opening the box again and looking at the picture. "Oh."

"Yeah." I realised there were tears in her eyes as she looked at the picture in my hands. "He's my brother. And yes, this is his aftershave." she sniffed and turned away. I had my arms around her within a second as she choked on the sob slipping from her mouth and tried to wipe her eyes. I went to do it for her, but she shoved me away.

"What?"

"You have no right to go into my personal things," She sniffed again, looking at the box.

"I'm sorry-"

"It doesn't matter whether you're sorry or not, Seth, there could have been something in there that-" She sniffed again and looked at me, horrified. "You didn't see the letter, did you?"

"Letter?" I had, of course. "What… the really thick thing?"

"Yeah." She nodded and sniffed again. "You didn't read it?"

"All I know is it's from Evan." Her face went pale and she looked away, "Max…?" She wouldn't look at me, "What is it?"

"He's…" She stopped, "You've seen the picture, haven't you?" Her voice was empty and slightly hollow. "I didn't want to bring him into this."

"He knows you're here?"

"No." She shook her head. "He doesn't." Another pause. "He was never my boyfriend." there was a very long pause. "He was my brother's best friend," She smiled, "and he was always over at our place. We were really good friends - he taught me how to play the guitar-"

"You play the guitar?"

"Seth, there are three things I can do: Play the guitar, bike and…" She looked away, "I can annoy the hell out of people." I couldn't help laugh.

"Seriously?" I asked softly, "Come on."

"Guitar, bike, draw a bit. That's it. You'll soon find out that's how far I stretch." She laughed emptily again and looked back down at the box. "This was his idea - when Ben died, Evan told me that memories were a good thing to keep, but that you never needed to be constantly reminded by them." Another pause, "So he said why not put it all into a box you could look through and remember…" She gestured at the box. "I never told him I was going to run, but he knew… he knew me well enough to know I wouldn't stay around any longer than I had to." She sucked in a long breath and looked at me.

"So… he wasn't your boyfriend?" She blushed, shook her head.

"No." Then she smiled. "I did snog him for a bet once, but that was Ben's fault." She grinned widely at the memory. "Stupid first kiss." My ears pricked up at that. I was a little jealous that I wasn't her first kiss…

I looked up at her, anger and jealousy making my face bright red.

"Seth… I never loved him… he wasn't anything like that to me… it was a laugh-" She paused, "And anyway, Mr three-imprints-in-six-months-"

"Shut up!" I yelped. She looked like she'd been slapped in the face. "That's totally different-"

"Don't say that to me." She frowned, furious, "Don't you dare start all the hypocrisy with me, Seth Clearwater." She waved the bottle at me threateningly and gestured at the box. "Give it here. I'm not talking about this with you."

"Oh, shut up." I folded my arms and looked at the floor.

"You're so bloody jealous." I heard her mutter as she put the box in her suitcase.

"Well excuse me for caring-"

"Yeah, right. You just want to own me-" She turned around, fury in her eyes, "I mean… look at Jasper-"

"I'd rather not-"

"Exactly, what… has he done to you?" She looked at me, furious again; I made a face, "Don't look at me like that. He saved my life, so I thanked him-"

"You don't have a clue what was going through my head all the time, Max-"

"Yeah, I do." She swallowed and looked at me, "How do you think it felt to watch your brother die in front of you, choking on his own blood because a car practically knocked a four hundred pound bike through him?" I swallowed. She'd seen him die?

"Max… I-"

"Don't even bother." She pulled a pair of socks out of her suitcase and pulled them on. Her shoulders shook, and I wrapped my arms around her. She didn't push me away this time. "Please… don't do this, Seth… I-" I kissed the top of her head and let her cry.

"I shouldn't have, Max-"

"You needed to know, but I didn't want you to… find out like this." She swallowed and pulled away. "Leah said something about… you thinking Jasper would be able to make me…" She shuddered, "Submit to him."

"We figured he could screw with people's emotions hard enough to make them want to be like him… want to be bitten by him…" she put her arms around herself and rubbed her upper arms for a second.

"What makes you think that I wouldn't be able to… fight it?" She breathed the words.

"No. You can't fight what he does."

"You can. Because… you can fight everything." She whispered. "You should have a little more faith in me, Seth."

"I'm sorry-" But she shook her head.

"Don't be. You were scared. It's alright-" there was a long pause; I looked over at her suitcase, looking almost through it, at the box. "You want to know."

"You don't want to tell me?"

"Of course not!" She half-shrieked, shoving me away and looking at me in horror. "It's…" She paused, "I was going to say none of your business… but… it is, isn't it?"

"Yes." I said after a long silence. She nodded; she shrugged, taking a deep breath.

"Well… I don't want to tell you now." She murmured. I smiled at her.

"That's alright. I don't mind." She looked at me.

"You do." Another pause, "Because everyone wants to know why I'm here, don't they?"

"I don't know. Max, I've not asked any of them what they want to know, what they think… because it's none of their business." Another pause, "I don't want them to know, and I don't really care what they think either."

She stood up and picked up the box from her suitcase. The lid came off where the hinge snapped and two of the photos slipped out, one of her and her brother, the other with her and Evan at the picnic.

A knock at the door stopped her from picking them up immediately; she was crouched down beside one of the photos, her hand hovering inches above it. She sniffed and looked up at the doorway to my bedroom.

"Leah?"

Leah's POV

"I heard shouting." I said softly, stepping forward and stopping as something crackled beneath my foot. I picked up the picture and looked at it. Max was in it, smiling with a boy. I closed my eyes as I stared at him for the longest time.

My stomach did a somersault and it burned for a second. Suddenly all I wanted to know was who he was, an amplified curiosity swam through me and I had to know. I blinked a couple of times and looked at the picture again. The undercurrent of panic, which had risen in me when my eyes had closed, disappeared as I looked at him again.

Oh, dear god.

Not now. Not right now… and not him… I didn't even know him…

"Leah?" Mackenzie repeated my name. "Mate, what is it?"

"I-… I- who is this?" I held up the picture and she blushed, looking away.

"Why?" Seth was immediately defensive. I wondered who he was to her… to him.

"B-because." Max looked at me, raising an eyebrow. "Just because, alright?" She knew there was something behind it, something else in there.

"Lea-"

"Drop it, Seth." Max said softly. He looked at her; she smiled and rose, picking up another photo and joining Seth on the duvet. "She'll tell you when she's ready."

Hell. I wasn't gonna tell him. I'd just imprinted on a frickin' photo.

-x-

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

Sort-of-happy-reunion chapter is here...i hope you like it and the little happiness for leah... perhaps.

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

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

Love you guys

xxx