Hi, so this is my first story for this pairing and I have to admit I am liking it so far so let's see where it goes! I hope you all enjoy this story and this chapter.
Leah is criminally underused and criminally treated. She's the Rosalie of the Wolf Pack. Seriously the shit that she goes through because she's not skipping at the idea of being Emily's maid of honour (and seriously what the fuck possessed Emily to ask that? Like seriously Stephanie). So this story is a love letter to Leah.
I also have a huge amount of respect for Embry's Mom. Not sorry. Also I know she has a different name in the books to here but here she is Layla and she was seventeen when she got pregnant.
Also on Embry's father...I know a lot people assume it is Joshua Uley but somehow that seems to nice and neat, I also think it's pretty ironic, that both Jacob and Quill end up being friends with a kid who might be their half brother. So my views on Embry's Dad is that is has to be one of them and I do tend to lead towards Billy just for reasons I can't name. The council bit deciding whose parents should know and who doesn't is my own and I know it does not correlate with the books but then again this whole story is AU so (shrugs), I just think it's a fun angle to explore that everyone is terrified with who Embry's father could be.
Again, all of this is my own design, the characters belong to someone else, I am just playing in my writers box.
Disclaimer-Nothing here is mine.
Please Read and Review.
And on a side note, I like so many other Fanfiction Authors no longer receive notifications via email about reviews/PMs etc. So if you do send any it might be a while, if ever before I get back to you. Please keep that in mind for it is not intentional-If anyone has a fix please let me know.
Also I do not do Private Messaging anymore, any questions stick them in a review and I will get back to you next chapter note.
A First Time For Everything
Chapter 16-If I Knew Then What I Knew Now
Embry contemplates the Volturi and decides he wants to know the truth. Layla is compelled to tell him and lives in La Push are never the same again.
Embry wants to know.
And then twenty minutes later.
I told him. I think he's coming over.
God you had to admire Layla. She sure knew how to drop her bombshells.
The problem was Jake was at the Cullen's and Rachel was eating her breakfast and out of all of his children Rachel was not the one he wanted to tell first.
There was a knock at the door.
Fuck.
He opened it and Embry was there.
"Rachel is here" he said and Embry raised an eyebrow.
"Seriously" he deadpanned. "That's what you're running with old man?"
"Hey Embry" Rachel said coming out into the hallway and frowning no doubt at the tone in his voice. "Everything okay?"
Embry raised an eyebrow.
And then surprisingly at his shoulder was Leah.
"Wow" she said staring down at Billy. "Wow old man you have some fucking skill don't you"
Billy didn't know if he was supposed to take that as a compliment or not.
"Leah" he said casually.
"Dad? Wolf business?"
Leah snorted.
"Not quite dear. Can you call Jacob and tell him that I need him to come down here tonight for an hour. I mean it Rachel he has to come down here tonight, tell him I might be on my deathbed if you have to and then get your sister on one of those skype calls. I need to speak to all three of you."
Embry snorted again.
Rachel looked from the three of them and then frowned.
"Dad?"
"Please Rachel can you give Embry and me a moment?"
"Ashamed of me are you?" Embry asked softly.
Billy sighed.
"No" he said just as soft. "You know I am not. But I won't lie son—"
"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE—"
"PLEASE" Billy said turning around as best he could and wheeling to the living room. "Embry come in, Rachel go"
Rachel perhaps sensing the tone in his voice went not before shooting Leah a look. Leah gave a long soft smile and that was the end of that and Embry bit his bottom lip stalking into the house as if he lived here.
If Billy had, had his way.
"Are you coming or going?" he asked Leah finally and Leah raised an eyebrow before she popped her hip off the doorframe and headed into the house.
Clearly Billy thought she had been taking lessons from the woman whose house she was staying in.
Embry turned to look at him.
"Your not going to transform?"
"I have been prepared for this conversation for a very long time" Embry said as cold as ice. "I wasn't planning on it. Leah can always stop me if I try. And my…brother"
He was clearly testing the word out and Billy would have laughed had the situation not been so fucking tragic.
"What do you want to know?"
"Nothing I…is it true?"
"Yes, I am your father."
"And what she said about it being an affair?"
"Yes. It wasn't a long affair but it was an affair. My wife and I were both having them—"
"Jake's Mom was playing the field?"
"Yes. I wont make excuses for it but we were very young and very unhappy and we both did stupid things. Maybe we shouldn't have married young but we did and then we had children young. I was maybe one year older than you when I got married. Think about it for a second"
"My mom was one year older than me when she had a baby" Embry deadpanned. "Think about that for a second"
He would have laughed but he did think that the kid might punch him.
"You have every right to be angry with me"
"I am aware of that thank you"
"Don't be mad at her"
"You think I'm mad at her?" he asked incredulously. "She's been baring the burnt of your actions for years. She's been condemned as the home wrecking tart while you have been living out your life as the paragon of virtue and you think that I AM MAD AT HER?"
He yelled the last part but that was all. He didn't have to transform. Billy would have almost preferred it if he did. Life would have been a bit easier. But then again it was never about what made his life easier. This whole thing had never been about that. Two sons both condemned to the same curse.
And it was a curse. It was a curse no matter what fools like Quill and his grandfather said it was. It was a curse and he wouldn't wish this upon anyone.
And yet here they were.
Their children paying the price.
"I would hope not" he said once he was sure that Embry had calmed down. "In a perfect world your mother would shoulder none of the blame for this, only me. But this is not a perfect world. I know that your mother has born the brunt of her past when in reality it should be me. I know that in this world the woman get the blame for it when the men should pay the price. Please don't think I have been ignorant to it. I have not been. I am aware of everything. If I could have helped I would but your mother is a proud woman—"
"Seriously? She should have took you to the cleaners for child support"
That was Leah and Billy nodded.
"I know" he said to Sue and Harry's daughter who he noted with a wry sense of amusement was there supporting her man in every sense of the word (and considering what Jacob had got himself entangled with—to say nothing of that…thing Rebecca had ran of with he knew he should be glad).
"I know" he said acknowledging her point. "I won't…insult you both by telling you that she did it for me. I don't know why she did it, hell I was half expecting it. I would have…Embry I wanted to be your father, I really did. I wanted to be the man who picked you up from school and who got to tuck you in at night, I wanted that. I wanted it all and to be fair to Layla she wanted that too but the situation—there is bits of it even I don't understand. She is fiercely independent and no I do not mean that as a bad thing but she is fiercely independent and she wanted to do it herself. I offered…Sarah was on board. I won't put the blame on her door but I offered."
Embry watched him lip curled.
"You offered" he said finally. "You offered? Well that was nice of you wasn't it? Tell me this, I went through that transformation alone, I went through it alone and I was scared and I was humiliated and I had Sam and Quill looking at me sideways and even Jacob sometimes and you knew all along that this was going to happen to me, you must have known and you let me go through that alone. And more to the point you allowed an edict that left the woman who claims that in your own way you loved in the dark. You're a parent Billy. Not to me but to three other children and you put my mother through that. For what? KICKS?"
"I WANTED TO TELL HER" he shouted back. "Embry" he breathed in and he breathed out. "I wanted to tell her. I did. I wanted to tell her the second that Sam came to me and told me that he had seen the signs. I wanted to tell her. I fought Sam on it but Sam was so paranoid that you were his half brother and he didn't…I don't think he was ready for that. I don't. I think he chose to keep your mother in the dark because he knew that the conversation would turn to your father and he wasn't ready"
"You didn't think that maybe pulling him aside and telling him was a good idea?" Leah chimed in. Billy tracked his son and he saw the look Embry threw her and he had to resist the urge to roll his eyes because he knew what that look was and he knew what that look could do. He knew Leah Clearwater of old and he knew his son despite what Embry thought of him. He knew the two of them were in love.
"I know Sam" Leah said her dark eyes on his face. "I know him. I know how he feels about his father, I am the only person in this room that knows how he feels about his father, I probably know more about Sam than Emily does. I made him half the man he is today Billy Black, I taught him how to be a leader and I taught him how to stand on his own to feet and I damn well taught him what a clitoris was because he couldn't find his way down there with yahoo maps and all you had to do was tell him. He wouldn't have given it a second thought after that. And you didn't. You let him live in a world of what ifs as well"
Billy blinked.
He had never thought of it like that.
"Perhaps" he conceded. "Your father—"
"Dad knew?"
"He saw Embry and Jacob together as children and he knew. He never asked and I never told but he knew I had, had an affair and he knew…I think he knew the second he saw both boys together—"
"Did Mom?"
"Yes. Harry didn't know how to keep a secret from Sue and I never asked him to. I never asked him to keep it a secret. Sarah and I never wanted to keep it a secret. We patched up our marriage and if it had gotten out—I don't know but we—Embry I never ever wanted to hurt you or your mother. The fact that I have is amongst my biggest regrets"
Embry said nothing.
Leah said nothing.
Billy didn't know what to say.
"Your going to have to tell them" Embry said bluntly. "I wont keep this a secret from Jacob I wont do it"
"I know"
"And so we are completely clear. I don't recognise you as my father. Blood only. I have been a Momma's boy my entire life and it's a label I wear proudly"
Billy swallowed. He had been expecting that but it was no less a bitter pill to swallow.
"I know that too" he said finally. "I would like that to change Embry. I want to be your father if you let me but I am not going to demand anything of you. Layla has been a fantastic parent, I know I couldn't hold a candle to her. And for what it is worth…I did…I do love her. She gave me something…you wouldn't understand you are too young and I don't mean that in a bad way but she gave me something that I didn't expect. I chose to stay with Sarah but looking back I know I would have been happier if I had chosen your mother. I chose the safe option and I loved Sarah, I still do don't get me wrong, but your mother was fireworks and passion and I know that too. Go where your gut tells you to go"
He didn't know which one of them he was saying that too Embry or Leah but he thought that out of the two young adults in the room with him Leah was the one that understood what he was saying more than Embry ever would.
Embry watched him for a long second and then.
"I have to go, the Volturi are coming"
"I know"
"Stay the hell away from my mother old man"
And then he was gone.
Leah watched the empty door with one raised eyebrow.
"You love him Leah?"
She turned to stare at him eyes wide.
"I don't…Leah I don't care I don't just…he adores you, kids too much like me in that regard. He adores you and he's showing it out of every pore. Go and be with him and go be happy. Cause life is too fucking short to live it with regrets"
For a second he was sure that she was going to snap and then she did something quite different.
"I do love him" she said quietly. "But we are all going to die so what does it matter?"
"It matters" he said firmly.
She smiled at him that cynical little half smile and Billy had never hated imprinting more.
"Take care of yourself" was all she said and he noticed with a wry kind of amusement that she passed Jacob and Rachel on the way out and that part two of this complicated little nightmare was just about to begin.
And there you go, I hope you enjoy and I will bring you the next chapter sooner rather than later.
Next Chapter-Jacob and Embry have a heart to heart as they realise that they are now brothers.
