A/N: Ok, so I am back with another chapter. Hope that I haven't left you waiting too long after the end of the previous chapter. Hopefully, you will not have to hunt me down :)
Once again I need to thank you all for sticking with me. I have read other fics where the readers have turned on the author for making decisons like mine. However, you have all been so supportive and caring, and I truly cannot thank you enough for that. To those who take the time to review, well you are the ones who make me feel guilty because I do not have the time to churn out a chapter every couple of days. For you, I wish I could give you a chapter every day.
As I have been saying at the start of the previous chapters, I still have a bit of story to tell- the chapter count is still at 32, plus epilogue. So please, stick with me and let me know what you think. And now, on to the chapter.
Music: Details in the Fabric- Jason Mraz and James Morrison, The Sword and the Pen- Regina Spektor, Didn't Know- Dash & Will
He heard Bella's sharp intake of breath before he saw anything. He halted to a stop, as she did. She was looking ahead of him, into the trees. He knew that she could see, or hear something, that he was not yet privy to.
"Jacob," she whispered, placing her hand in his upper arm. He shoved it off. He couldn't have her touching him. Her tone of voice was enough. It told him everything that he did not want to hear. He took a slow step forward, a loud rushing noise echoing in his ears.
There was movement ahead, and soon he saw familiar faces stepping out from the trees. Embry and Quil. They looked at Jacob with expressions that made him want to scream. But he stayed silent. He stayed strong. It would be ok. It had to be ok. Whatever it was could be fixed. Whatever it was could be repaired.
But then, Sam came into view. He was looking ahead, his expression one of stone. An expression that was fighting to become something else all together. His eyes remained focused on a point beyond Jacob. In his arms, covered by a blanket, was a body. A hand had dropped below the blanket. Jacob's eyes fixated on it, on the way that swayed with Sam's movement. On the way that it just...hung...
Lifelessly.
XXXXX
The group was sombre as they settled themselves into the Black's living room. The quiet was uncomfortable and awkward, but none knew exactly how to break the silence. What was there to say? How could they just sit and discuss what had happened.
Sam slumped against the far wall, his left hand supporting his swollen right. He squeezed it gently, wincing as the pain sliced through. When it had dissipated, he did it again...and again...and again. It was the only source of distraction that he could think of.
Carlisle saw him doing this from across the room. With a sigh, he picked up his medical bag and made his way over. "Here," he said, gently taking Sam's hand. "Let me take care of that." His cool, long fingers gently prodded at the flesh. "I don't think that it's broken..." he reached down, grabbing an ice pack from his bag. "Keep this on it- it will help with the swelling."
Sam nodded mutely, before looking Carlisle in the eyes. "How is..." he trailed off.
"He will heal," Carlisle replied, and then paused. "Physically, anyway. Don't beat yourself up about it, you needed to do it. It was the only way that we could calm him down."
"Hey," Embry spoke up hoarsely from his spot on the couch. "Who is with Sue and Seth?"
"Charlie is over there, with Quil Senior, Bella and Ness," Edward replied. "I think Emily was going over there as well." He ended the statement with a questioning glance at Sam, who nodded in response. "We should probably leave it at that for now. We don't want to crowd them. Not at a time like this."
At that moment the front door creaked open and Rosalie and Emmett walked into the room. Their expressions were etched with stress and anger. "There is no sign of them," Emmett announced to the group. "They must have fled when they realised...Anyway, we lost their scent on the beach, at the shoreline. We could have kept going, but there was no telling what direction they swam in or..." he trailed off, frustration edging his voice.
"Emmett," Sam spoke up. "We appreciate that you have assisted us in this matter. They are your kind; you have no reason to side with us."
"You have helped us before," Carlisle said. "Besides, they have arrived at the place we call home, and attacked unprovoked. We would never ally ourselves with such creatures."
Several moments of silence descended on the room, before Billy spoke up. "What exactly happened out there?" he asked. "Do you have any idea?"
"We have some," Sam said. He inhaled deeply before starting to speak.
XXXXX
Jacob was fixated on the hand. Sam was talking but he could not hear any of the words. They were completely unimportant. What was important was the hand. He knew that hand. He knew that hand too well. That hand was telling him that something was very, very wrong, and that he needed to fix the situation right now.
"Jake," Sam's voice finally assaulted his ears. "Jake, you—"
"Give her to me," Jacob demanded, stepping up to the small group. 'Give her to me."
"Jake, you need to calm down," Embry said gently. "Let us take care of this."
"Don't fucking tell me what to do!" Jacob yelled, grasping Leah and pulling her into his arms. He held her tightly as he dropped to the ground. As he did, the blanket fell slightly, revealing her eyes closed, and all expression void. "Leah," he whispered urgently into her ear. "Open your eyes, Leah. Talk to me Leah. Say something. We are going to fix this. I'm going to make you feel better, ok? Everything will be fine and we can still go away. All you have to do is open your eyes. Just open them for me."
He ignored the distressed expressions on the faces around him. He ignored the deep, bloody wound on Leah's neck, and the pallid tone of her skin. He only focused on the soft skin of her eyelids, willing them to open.
"Open them," he whispered. "Please, open them."
"Jake," Sam crouched down in front of him. "Jacob, she is gone."
Jacob shook his head vehemently. "No, she is not. She is just unconscious. She has been attacked, she needs to recuperate. She will wake up soon. She will."
"Jake, we have done everything. We found her, we performed CPR for over ten minutes, but she has no heartbeat. I hate that this has happened, I hate that you need to hear this, but she is dead. Nothing is bringing her back."
"Shut up!" Jacob bellowed. "Stop saying that! It's not true. She is fine; she is going to be fine. Come on, Leah, open your eyes. Do it for me, please."
"Jacob, I cannot fathom what you are feeling right now," Sam started, "but you need to realise that she is not coming back. She is not going to open her eyes. We can't stay out here with her. We have to take her home to her mother."
Jacob looked up at Sam with narrowed eyes. "Shut your fucking mouth," he hissed. "You have no right. You are just giving up on her all over again. You don't care about her- you made that quite obvious. You have no say in this manner, so get the fuck out of my face before I throw you away."
Sam stepped back helplessly, looking around at the people surrounding him. Quil gave him a short nod, before slowly approaching Jacob, who was still murmuring in Leah's ear.
"Jake," Quil said quietly as he gently took his friend's hand and placed it on Leah's chest. "Feel. There is no heartbeat. Just feel it Jacob."
"No, no, no, no!" Jacob yelled. "She is not dead. She can't be. Because if she is...I can't...it's not fair...she can't be. She can't be. She's not. Open your eyes, Leah!" He shook her body, desperate for some reaction. "Wake up!"
"Jacob, she's not responding to you. You—"
"It's because she needs help. Where is Carlisle?" Jacob look up and around, his eyes wild. "I need Carlisle. He needs to help her. Carlisle! Somebody get him. He can fix this. He can fix her. She needs help."
"Jacob," Carlisle's voice broke through. "I'm here." He stepped out of the shadows, from where he had been standing with Edward, Alice and Jasper. They had come across the wolf pack as they worked desperately on Leah's body. He had been the one to tell them that there was no point, that there was no chance of her coming back.
"Carlisle," Jacob's eyes lit up with a flicker of hope. "You have to help Leah. You need to fix her. She's hurt- you need to fix her."
Carlisle knelt down beside him. "Jacob. I tried to help her before."
"And you can help her now," Jacob insisted. "You have to."
"Jacob," Carlisle's voice was firm. "I need you to listen exactly to what I am saying. Can you do that?" There was a moment before Jacob nodded. "I examined Leah earlier, when Embry and Quil were performing CPR. She had no heartbeat, and her pupils were fixed and dilated. They continued to try and start her heart for several more minutes, but there was no use. I can't help her, Jacob. I cannot fix Leah, because she has died."
Jacob's hold on Leah's body lessened slightly. "But...what if you missed something? We can get her to your place. You still have all the equipment from Bella. You can operate. You can help her."
"Jacob," Carlisle reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I am so sorry. Leah is dead and there is nothing that any of us can do."
XXXXX
Sam's voice remained steady as he addressed the group. "Emmett and Rosalie had just joined us when they got the call from Jasper. We were so close to the location- we managed to get there in less than 30 seconds. I couldn't help but wonder if only we had headed out earlier, we may have been able to stop...." he shook his head slightly. "Anyway, the area reeked of vampire, but they were nowhere to be found. We saw Leah, unconscious, almost immediately. We could see that she was bleeding from the neck."
"Rosie and I took off then," Emmett interjected. "We thought that they couldn't have gotten too far, so we followed their trail, and well, you know how that ends."
"I got to Leah first," Embry spoke up quietly. "It was obvious that the wound on her neck was a bite and...and there was so much blood. If there had been, for a moment, doubt as to what had happened to her, that just confirmed all our fears. I grabbed her wrist and checked for a pulse- there was nothing. By then, Quil was next to me, telling me to start CPR."
"My head was telling that there was no point," Quil added, feeling sick at the thought. "That she was already long gone, and that there was nothing we could do, but I had to ignore it. I, we just had to do something. As difficult as Leah can be, she is one of us and I couldn't just stand there and do nothing...what if I willed this? Maybe if I had truly believed that I could have helped, then the outcome would have been—"
"Exactly the same," Carlisle spoke up. "Looking at the nature of Leah's injury, I can safely assume what happened out there. When Leah stumbled across them, in human form, those vampires would have attacked before they realised what she was. The taste of her blood would have spooked them- the thought of having the face other wolves would have been enough to have them run. As vampires, we are aware that you run in packs. They may have even thought that it was a trap. I can only assume that they ran when they realised that Leah was a werewolf."
"So you're saying that she died from one bite, and that's all?" Billy questioned. "How does that work?"
"It works when they severed her jugular while biting," Carlisle replied. "She would have bled out in minutes, seconds even. It wouldn't have mattered if you arrived at the point when they attacked. It wasn't the fact that they bit her, it was where that killed her. She never stood a chance."
XXXXX
"Jacob," Carlisle reached out, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I am so sorry. Leah is dead and there is nothing that any of us can do."
Jacob stared at Carlisle for several seconds before letting out what could only be described as a howl. He yanked Leah's body up closer, holding her tight. "You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong...you're WRONG!" he screamed at the doctor. "You all are," he spat viciously at the rest of the gathering. "I won't let her go. I won't!"
"Jacob, you need to do the right thing for Leah," Carlisle started gently. "Let us take her, and you can go home so that we can help you through this."
"Like I am going to let you touch her," Jacob snapped. "You will just throw her in ground and forget about her. You don't want to help. If you want to help me, you can fucking do something for her instead of just giving up."
Carlisle frowned as he watched Jacob grow more and more agitated in front of him. He was fast realising that Jacob was not going to accept anything they were saying. Worse still, there was no way he was going to relinquish Leah, either. He needed to do something. The longer they were out there, the worse for Jacob this was going to be. He needed to be home, in familiar surroundings with his family.
"Jacob," he tried one more time. "Please listen to me. I will help Leah. I just need you to give her to me."
Jacob's eyes flashed. "That was a quick change of tune. I won't give her to you. I won't let you touch her. Should have realised that you were just like all the other parasites. Only help others when it suits you...You won't touch her. I won't fucking let her."
With a sigh, Carlisle stood and gestured for Sam. "We need to get him calm," he said when the Alpha stepped up next to him. "Otherwise, he will take every one of us on...and quite possibly succeed."
"Do you have something you can give him?" Sam questioned. "Something that will settle him."
Carlisle nodded. "I do. But with the rate his heart is going, and with the adrenaline that is pumping through his body right now, he will metabolise the drug before I have even finished injecting it. The only way it would work would be if he were unconscious. Then I could pump him with it, so that when he wakes..."
"Ok then," Sam said and then stepped up to Jacob. "Jake."
"What?"
"I'm sorry." And with that, Sam's fist connected with Jacob's face, with all the strength he could muster. For a second Jacob looked at him with complete and utter devastation, before collapsing to the ground, out cold.
XXXXX
Carlisle stepped back into the living room. "He is still out," he announced. "I gave him some drugs...a few more hours and he should wake."
Billy nodded sombrely, the worry etched on his face making him appear even older. He had no idea what to do when Jacob finally woke. He knew that he would be there for his son, help him in any way that he could. Jacob had said that he and Leah had broken up, but his behaviour that day indicated that he still felt strongly for her. Billy knew exactly what it felt like to have a loved one ripped from under you. To see his son experience that again would be enough to destroy him.
"Can I ask a question?" Quil piped up. "Why was Leah out there? I mean, going out for a walk is not unusual, but she knew the coven was approaching. Why would she be on their path?"
"Because she had other things on her mind," Edward replied. "She was distracted by something huge."
"What are you talking about?" Billy asked. "What do you know?"
"I'm sorry, Billy, that you have to hear it like this, but you need to know. And so will Sue." Edward replied. "Jacob and Leah never broke up. They pretended to so that they would be able to sneak out of town and out of the country without you suspecting anything until they were long gone."
"What?" Billy gasped, clutching his chest as if the wind had just been knocked out of him.
"They had tickets to fly out of the country tonight. They wanted to travel the world..." Edward paused. "I helped them. If I had known...this wasn't supposed to happen. But as for her exact reason for being out there, well, I think only Jacob would know."
Billy was shaking his head in disbelief. "I can't believe this..."
"Billy, I am so sorry—" Edward stopped when the older man held up his hand.
"I am not blaming you...it is just a surprise to hear. I spoke with Jacob earlier. I felt that something was off, but I could never imagine..." he brought his hands up rubbing his eyes. "An hour ago my son believed that he was jetting off with the girl he loved, and now she is dead. How on Earth is going to work through that?"
His question was met with only silence. None of them knew how Jacob was going to do it, they could only hope that he would.
