Another cause to make it go away

Another false alarm and so you say

We walked the mile

And it was worth the while

Sometimes I miss the simple lies

When you're caught up in the compromise

But at least we never had to say goodbye

Goodbye

"Last Salutation"

-Randy Coleman

Chapter 49:

I refuse to sing "Happy Birthday"

Seth's birthday went well. Apart from when my mother asked him what he was going to wish for this year. He and I had just kind of stared at one another silently. I knew what he was wishing for: Not to die. It was a simple enough wish.

He had also gained his license. I didn't see what the big deal was. It's not like he was going to get to use it. Besides, when you can run faster than most speedsters, having a car is kind of pointless. Seth was so proud of his achievement that mom let him drive home. I prayed the whole way. He managed not to hit any mailboxes, but he did run over a lawn gnome.

We went through the rituals that mom had been making us do since we were toddlers. The day ended up winding down with an early dinner with just the three of us. Charlie was originally going to join us, but he got held up at work. Apparently, there were a few criminals that needed attending to. He promised to stop by after his shift so he could give Seth his gift.

"Oh, I just can't believe you're sixteen." My mom had tears in her eyes.

I rolled my eyes. She always got emotional on our birthdays. It's a good thing I wasn't going to be around for my next one, because I don't think I could get through another birthday with her asking me, "What have you learned about life?" Like my answer was ever going to change. It sucks.

She pulled the question on Seth.

"So, what have you learned?"

"Um…well, I learned that putting aluminum foil in the microwave will start a fire…" Seth shoved a piece of cake in his mouth. I laughed. I remember when he'd done that. His reaction had me laughing like a maniac. I believe his exact words were, Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit…it's burning, what do I do? Oh…shit!

My mother frowned at him, unsatisfied with his answer. He just smiled back at her innocently.

"Well, did you have a good birthday?" she asked.

"You bet." He nodded. I had to wonder if he was lying. If it were my birthday and I knew what the future held for me, I don't know if I'd be able to enjoy it. But Seth seemed perfectly happy.

I heard the front door open and Charlie walked in out of the drizzle. He wandered into the kitchen.

"Hey, I didn't miss all the fun, did I?" he asked.

"Nope. Now that you're here, we can officially start the party." My mom laughed.

"Great." Charlie nodded. He glanced at my mom. "Hey, Sue, can you give me a hand with something?"

"Sure." My mom leaped up.

Okay, so they were planning something. They weren't being very subtle about it. If it was a surprise for Seth, he was going to see right through their terrible acting. It's funny how parents think that their kids are completely clueless. I laughed as my mom followed Charlie out to his car.

"It's a good thing I've had sixteen years to practice how to act surprised." Seth's eyes followed where mom and Charlie had disappeared to.

He wanted a surprise? Well, I could manage that.

I grabbed the present I had picked out for Seth and tossed it on the table.

"Here. Don't say I never gave you anything."

"Ah, Leah, you didn't have to do that." Seth glanced into the bag.

Yes, I did. Because if I hadn't gotten him anything, he would have whined like a little baby, You forgot about me. You don't love me. Wah!

"It's not much." I shrugged. "I'm not exactly rolling in the dough these days." Not having a job made it kind of difficult to purchase things.

Seth pulled out two CD's of his favorite band.

"Awesome!" he exclaimed. "I didn't know the new album had been released yet!"

I winked at him. "I know a guy…" I joked.

He reached in the bag and pulled out the other present I had stashed at the bottom. At first, I wasn't sure that he would recognize it.

I saw him swallow a knot in his throat as he fought back tears.

"Dad's pocket watch?"

My father had carried around a pocket watch that his father gave him before he'd died. It had been in the family for generations. I figured Seth had earned it.

"I found it going through some of my things last night," I explained. "I forgot I even had it." I looked at the rusty watch. "Anyway, dad gave it to me to give it you on your eighteenth birthday." I looked down at my feet. "But considering the fact that you won't listen to your older sister when she tells you to stay out of a fight, I figured I might want to give it to you now."

"He told you to give it to me?" Seth questioned.

I nodded.

"When?"

"After you tried to flush it down the toilet when you were four." I laughed. "He said he'd gotten to it in the nick of time. It was almost lost to the sewers forever…like three sets of keys and two pairs of mom's earrings before it." Seth had a habit of flushing things down the drain when he was younger. "He cleaned it up and told me that you weren't ready for it yet. So to make me feel important, he put me in charge of it and told me that it was my responsibility to make sure that you got it when you were old enough." I smiled thinking about my dad's love for us. "I told him I'd wait until you were ninety. He went with eighteen."

"This is just…" Seth couldn't find the words to describe how he was feeling.

I chuckled. "Don't go getting all girly on me," I teased him.

"Thank you." He stood up and walked over to me.

Crap, he was going to hug me. I grimaced. I didn't really like to be hugged, not even by family members. But as Seth embraced me I was surprised to find that I wasn't annoyed at all by his affection. I squeezed him back.

Seth laughed when I didn't push him away. "Ha, you looove me…"

"Ew, cut it out. You're crowding my space." I finally shoved him away. I smiled as I rolled my eyes at him.

Our friendly bickering was interrupted as we heard the front door open again. It sounded like Charlie had thudded something on the floor.

They were in the middle of a conversation of their own.

"I'm sure everything is fine, Charlie," Mom said reassuringly.

"I just don't understand why I can't go and see my daughter and Nessie." Charlie sounded like he was verging on furious. They walked into the kitchen and Charlie looked over at me. "You still offering to rip people's fingers off?" He referred to me answering the phone yesterday.

"For the right price."

"Bella still won't let him visit," My mother explained the obvious. She glanced at me curiously, as if she was waiting for me to reveal some big secret. She'd been trying to get me to talk ever since the new kids started phasing. I wasn't going to do it.

"That blows." I frowned. I did feel sorry for Charlie. He'd been very understanding with all of this supernatural stuff. He hadn't asked a lot of questions…up until now. He was having trouble understanding why his daughter suddenly didn't want him around.

"I swear, sometimes I think there is something seriously wrong with that child of mine," he grumbled under his breath.

I snorted out a laugh. If he only knew…

Charlie cleared his throat and smiled at Seth.

"Sorry, Seth. Didn't mean to ruin the party."

"No worries." Seth smiled back at Charlie.

"Charlie brought you something. It's in the living room." Mom waved us to follow her.

When we got into the living room, Seth didn't have to look very hard for his gift. There, leaning against the sofa, was a brand new fishing pole. And on the floor next to it there was a huge tackle box with a bow on the top. Wow. Charlie had wasted no expense. Seth pretty much had everything he needed for a good day of fishing.

"Geeze, Charlie, did you buy him a boat, too?" I laughed.

"The store was having a going out of business sale," Charlie explained. He looked at Seth. "Happy Birthday."

"Wow! Thanks, Charlie!" Seth overdid it a little on the enthusiasm as he raced to the fishing equipment. He looked like a kid running towards his stocking on Christmas Day. I watched as he examined the bait inside the box.

"You know, your dad loved to fish. I figured he might have passed that on to you…" Charlie pat my brother on the back.

There was a knock at the door. All this male bonding was making me nauseous. I didn't have a problem running to get it.

"I got it."

When I opened the door, I was a startled to find Nicolas, one of the new kids in Sam's pack, standing there nervously shuffling around. He looked up at me nervously.

"Uh, hi, Leah…" he stuttered out softly.

"Nicolas?" What was he doing here?

"I'm sorry, I didn't know where else to go. I tried to go by Sam's place, but no one was home." Nicolas looked down at the ground. "And Jared is out with his sister and Kim." His eyes darted around, looking for something to focus on. "Sam gave us the night off. Said we were going to resume training tomorrow. He didn't realize…" He was shaking.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Well, Justin and Danny are freaked out by this whole "wolf" thing. They were trying to convince all of the new wolves to run away."

I grumbled. I knew I couldn't just let the kids take off. I mean, I understood why they were doing it. Hell, I didn't want to die either. But they were new at this. They didn't have control yet, and that made them dangerous.

"Where are they going?" I questioned.

"I don't know. Something about running over the border and never coming back…"

I really hoped he was referring to Canada and not the Cullen's land. That could be a problem with all the new vampires showing up.

"The border?"

"Last I heard, they were running to the east." Nicolas nodded. "I…I tried to stop them. To warn them about the vampires. They didn't listen."

Shit. They were going to cross the border.

"Justin and Danny are the only two going through with it. The rest of us were too afraid of running into vampires…"

"Seth!" I exclaimed. Seth was behind me an instant later. He could tell from the tone of my voice that something serious was going on.

"What's up?"

"Sorry, we've got to cut your birthday a little short." I frowned. "We've got a couple of runaways," I explained. "Go with Nicolas to find Sam…and tell him to phase. If Justin and Danny are wolves, he'll be able to find them faster that way." He would also be able to make them come back home. I had never been a fan of the Alpha command, but in this case it could be extremely useful.

I quickly filled my brother in on what was going on.

"Should we call Jake and tell him and the Cullens what's going on?" Seth pursed his lips in concern.

"Don't know how much good that will do." I shook my head. "Justin and Danny don't know the Cullens like we do. In fact, involving vampires might just make the situation worse. And I doubt Jake is willing to leave Nessie to round up a couple of runaways. The best thing right now is going to be to find Sam."

"What are you going to do?" Seth questioned.

"What I do best: act impulsive and hope it gets me to where I need to go." I shrugged as I raced past Nicolas out the door.

I heard Seth say something to Nicolas about explaining the situation to mom. I'm sure she would understand. The safety of the boys was the most important thing here. Though I'm sure she would lay into the kids for ruining Seth's birthday.

When I phased, I realized that Embry was already running as a wolf. He was on his way to my place to wish Seth a happy birthday.

Perfect timing. I showed him what was going on with my thoughts.

There's never a dull moment around here.

We met half-way and started on our way to the Cullen's land. When we got to the border, I was able to pick up the kids' scent. It seems as if they had run parallel to the line for a while before deciding to actually go through with it. Their trail ended abruptly over the line. It was odd.

I was trying to formulate a plan. If the boys were hiding, maybe I could call out to them to let them know that they needed to get their asses home.

Why would they hide from us? Embry questioned.

Did you ever run away as a child? I asked. The last thing you want when you're running away is for someone to find you and drag you back home.

I had run away once when I was younger. I was seven. I hadn't been gone for more than twenty minutes before I started to miss home. When I came back, I figured that my parents would be mad. Instead, they were impressed that their seven-year-old daughter had thought to take toilet paper with her when she ran away. I was a very practical kid.

I'll just phase to see if I can get them to talk to me, I sighed. I didn't like the idea of being human on the vampire's territory.

Embry didn't like the idea any more than I did.

I don't know. I don't like the idea of you being that vulnerable.

Lighten up. You're here to protect me. I laughed. My big bad boyfriend.

I took a moment to thank God that I had been smart enough to stash a bungee cord on my porch. I had grabbed it on my way out. I phased and changed into my clothes.

Embry was by my side, glancing around the woods protectively.

"Justin? Danny?" I exclaimed. "Look, I'm not here to yell at you…" I managed to sell that lie. If they showed themselves, I was going to rip into them. "I just want you to know that I know what you're going through. It sucks, I know. But you can't run away from your problems." I learned very early in life that no matter how far away you ran, you couldn't escape what was bothering you. "What you're doing is very dangerous…" I glanced at Embry. "Am I just talking to myself here?"

Embry glanced to the east. Something had caught his attention. I heard a commotion not far from where we were standing. Embry's hackles stood up on end. I heard a yelp.

A few seconds later there was a whirlwind of leaves and dust flying around us. The action stopped long enough for me to realize what was going on. I saw four figures. Two wolves and two vampires. They were running circles around each other.

I took a moment to sniff the air and my jaw dropped when I recognized the smells around me. Justin and Danny were easy to decipher.

But the two vampires were a scent that I clearly recognized, though I hadn't smelled them in quite some time.

Danny and Justin were trying to fight to the death with Emmett and Rosalie.

The new pups were going to get creamed.