Got the kick to write this after a Twilight movie marathon. Enjoy (:
No one wants to be here right now, but as much as it sucks for me, it is unimaginably worse for Leah. Her parents woke her up and explained to her that it was not a dream.
Not after nearly avoiding heart failure though. Harry Clearwater couldn't find his breath when he found out. Leah's mom, Sue, was there and talked to him. Then she gave him some heart medicine, and he was fine. It reminded me of the time at the diner. Poor guy needs to stop getting surprises.
We tried to make the explaining of what happened easier for her so her parents were there and everyone was human.
"So that was all real?" she asked.
"Yes," Sam said.
"Including the killing part?" she asked, a little frightened.
"Yeah, but he was a bad guy," I said, thinking that would make it better.
""Why were you in the woods, Leah?" Sam asked.
"Bella used to talk about this place all the time," she said quietly, "We made plans to go there, but since he got there," She pointed hatefully to me, "She's been ignoring me. I just wanted to see it.
"So this is the big reason? The reason you started keeping secrets?" she asked.
"It was only to protect you. Wolves are unpredictable," Sam said, "We can get angry and phase and then hurt someone."
Leah looked at Emily with wide eyes. Her cousin solemnly nodded and a tear slid down her cheek.
"You hurt her," Leah growled with accusation towards Sam. The shame on his face was all the answer she needed. She stood up and started shaking.
"Leah," her mom said, "Calm down."
"Why are you still with him?" she snarled towards her cousin.
Emily stood up. "Do you remember when we were little, and your dad told us about Taha Aki...and his imprint?"
Leah looked between the both of them and whispered, "No."
They nodded.
Leah snarled and fell back on the couch. "I can't believe it."
"I'm so sorry, Leah. We can't control it."
She swore and groaned, "This is just the thing that would happen to me."
"Well, it's in our blood. The gene is passed down from our ancestors," Jared said.
"So what about Seth?" she asked. I think he's her brother.
"Seth is still pretty young," Harry said, "And now that one of the bloodsuckers is eliminated, there should be less wolves changing."
"I think Quil's going to be it," Embry said, "His grandpa said he could watch him grow."
"I didn't get ripped like you guys," Leah said.
"Well, you probably wouldn't have phased if you hadn't run into the vampire," Sam said, "The danger must have triggered a gene that would have remained dormant."
"Why not? I'm older than most of you."
"Leah...there has never been a female wolf," Sam said, "You are the first and only."
"So you're saying something's wrong with me?" she accused, "I'm not woman enough?"
All the males were immediately uncomfortable.
"No!" Sam said, stuttering, "Uh, You're perfectly normal. You were just, er, in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"So you're saying this is my fault?"
"No! It's no one's fault!" Sam said. I know this is hard for Leah, but I think she's just being difficult to antagonize Sam. There was smugness in her eyes.
"Except the leeches," Jared said.
Leah looked at him for a long time, and hate replaced her smugness.
"So if we get rid of the leeches, we stop being wolves?" she asked.
"Well, yeah," Jared said, "Unless more come, but that's pretty unlikely."
"So who's still out there?" she asked.
"There's just the woman now," I said.
"So why don't you get her?"
"It's not that easy. She only shows up every few weeks and it's hard to catch her. She'll run into a town or off a cliff."
Leah swore again. Her parents didn't reprimand her which was probably smart since she looked like most new wolves, like a ticking time bomb. It is better she channel her anger through a colorful vocabulary than through turning into a wolf. She was rather creative with these slurs though. I hadn't heard most of them, which was a feat because Dad could have serious road rage.
"Why are they even here?" she asked, talking about the vampires.
I had decided to answer her, but Sam spoke before I could, "Last spring they were passing through, and they stopped because they smelled the Cullens' scent. There was a third one with them, but he wanted to kill Jacob so the Cullens killed him. The woman wants revenge, and the man was helping a friend."
"So why doesn't she go after the Cullens and leave us alone? Is she after him?" she asked, pointing to me.
"My name's Jacob," I told her, "And no. That would be a death wish, and she knows that. Bella was with us last time. She's after her."
"Bella?" Leah said, surprised, "Bella knew they were leeches?"
"Yes," I said, gritting my teeth at the word leeches.
"That's nasty," she said.
I shrugged. I wasn't going to voice my opinions about my uncle to Leah.
"And you lived with them?" she asked. I nodded
"Freaky," she said.
"I know," I said, exasperated. I got that a lot.
"Were you like their pet?"
"No," I answered, and I left it at that. I didn't feel like talking to this girl about how even vampires are capable of such things as love and family.
"He hurt Bella, you know," she said, angry.
"I know," I said, and my anger matched hers. She smiled at that.
"Something we agree on," she said.
"Look at that," I said.
"What do wolves do?" she asked.
"We take shifts running the border, but Leah, you really don't have to."
Paul opened his mouth to protest, but I kicked him hard. Sam loved Leah, and he was going to give her special treatment and we were going to damn well let him. I don't want this mean girl in my head.
"Think I can't keep up?" she asked.
Sam sighed. "Just trying to make your life easier."
Leah laughed without humor. "Pointless crusade. That's really rich though. I can do anything you guys can."
"I know," Sam breathed. She was so mean to him, but he was still trying to please her. How was he in a relationship with this girl?
A car alarm sounded outside. I looked out the window. Bella was stopping by Sam and Emily's house like she does every day.
"Who is it?" Sam asked.
"Bella," I said. Leah raised her eyebrows.
"Let her in," Leah said.
"Leah," her mom said uneasily.
"No, I want to talk to her. Tell her how magical the meadow was."
Instead, I walked outside and intercepted her.
"Hey Bells," I said, walking until I was directly in front of her and blocking her path.
"Hey, Jake," she greeted, trying to step around me. I shifted my weight to that side.
"Is there a reason you don't want me going in there?" she asked.
I grabbed her hand and led her a few yards from the house. "You need to be filled in about a bit."
"Okay," she said.
"Laurent's dead," I said.
"Oh, that's good."
"Leah killed him."
Bella's eyebrows collided. "And how did she do that?"
"She was hiking, looking for the meadow-"
"Oh my God."
"She's descended from wolves so a dormant gene triggered when she was in danger. And she fought him. Then she passed out so we took her back to my house, and Emily picked us up from there."
"How's Leah?"
"Difficult and sarcastic."
"That's good. That's how she handles things. I want to see her."
"She isn't going to be pleasant."
"I didn't become her friend because she's pleasant. I'm her friend because she's honest, and that's what I needed. A bucket of cold water not a warm bath."
"What's wrong with warmth?" I said cupping her cheek with my hot hand.
She smiled. "Warmth...has its place, but there wasn't any during that time. So I worked with ice, and ice worked for me."
"Are you sure?"
"You weren't there, Jake. She helped me through my time, and I need to help her through hers."
Then she pushed past me into the house. Leah sent out all the wolves so she could talk to Bella, but we stayed around in case Leah lost it. But she didn't. I don't know what they talked about, but no one lost it.
XxxxxX
Edward's PoV
I worked in a hospital once.
It was a short period of time. My self-doubt in my self-control made me end my career.
It was a long time after my rebellion, but I still felt like I needed to compensate for that time by doing as much good as I can.
So Carlisle got me in as an intern at his hospital, a job I was massively overqualified for, but it was so much tougher than I thought it would be when I was studying it.
The worst part was being surrounded by the pain all the time. The thoughts were always there.
There was one time when a surgery that was still in its infancy ended badly. The success rate for it hadn't been high, and the family of the young patient knew that, but they were running out of options, and they had to try.
That doctor who performed the surgery was a coward, almost as much as I was. He couldn't look them in the eyes and tell them they had lost their son.
So he asked the intern to do it.
I had accepted the solemn task. I thought it would be help me supply myself with more self-loathing because some of the men I killed must have had mothers, fathers, wives, or friends who missed them when they were gone. I would be witness to a semblance to the grief I had caused, and I would have more reason to never go back to that.
I was an egotistic, awful thing for thinking of myself when I agreed to bear that news.
Because when I went into the waiting room where the mother and father were huddled together, with a younger son in between them. When I saw their hopeful eyes fall. When even the little boy understood the sadness of the situation. I felt so small. I was older than both of them, but I felt like a child. It baffled me how one would move on after losing their child. It was the worst sadness I had ever heard in someone.
Now I was getting a sip of it myself. I had followed every hunch I had, looking for the monster, but there was no sign of Jacob.
I did love Jacob. I really did. I regret every time I lashed out at him in the last few months. It will eat me up forever. When I realized that there was no more searching left, the weight of it brought me to my knees.
I had to tell Rosalie and Emmett.
Their lives would lose meaning. What cruel world can fulfill all of her dreams and strip her of them without warning?
Rosalie had prepared herself for a world where Jacob decided to stay human, but him dying an old man would give her closure that he had a good, full life. She also sometimes imagined having his descendants to take care of when he was gone.
I found Rosalie and Emmett huddled together in Esme's living room like the parents of that boy a million years ago. They looked at me with the same hope.
"Rose, Em. I've tried tracking him to the best of my ability, but the scent just ends. It hurts me to fathom it, but I don't think we are going to find Jacob."
Rosalie let out a wail that made me feel cold. Neither of them could cry, but they could sob. They embraced each other tightly.
I joined their sobbing; I allowed myself to grieve for the nephew I had fought with and screamed at in what I never imagined would be the last few months of his life. I grieved over the boy who refused to let me wallow in self-pity when my solitude became unbearable. Who I taught to play piano and who said my name with the garbled way that infants do.
The boy who I watched make his first touchdown. Who had made Bella trust me. Who had taken care of her when I was hunting James. Who had made all of us feel human.
The entire family had heard me and had gathered in the room to grieve as one. Each couple was holding each other. And then there was me, crouched on the floor alone. I realized that Jacob had been right all along. Only in death had he finally made me see the light.
I stood up.
And I started running.
Carlisle and Esme were worried.
Rosalie and Emmett were too buried in their grief to notice me.
But Alice knew. I saw her vision of my reunion with Bella play out. My heart sang and embraced it as my feet carried me from our dark house with the curtains drawn.
She would have smiled if not for the heaviness on her heart. She wished me good luck.
I prayed to Jacob. He was human so his soul must be somewhere better. I envisioned him sighing, "Finally, the idiot gets it!"
I think to him, You were always right.
I want to thank all the readers and reviewers. February was the most successful month for the story (so far!). Every review means the world because I never thought anyone would love this story as much as I do. You guys are the best. Have a great week, and I will see you soon.