This didn't go like I had planned, but here's a new chapter anyway.

Thanks for being patient, I know this is late, and I promise the next chapter won't take this long.

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So, thanks for reading, drop me a comment if you can, and I don't own 'em.

Bye!

Leah talked herself out of going to Emmett's place several times over the next few days. She didn't pick up her phone to call him (Jacob leaving his number on her bedroom door when she refused to answer it); she even tried not to think about him, but between her now constant sharp pain and the fact that, no matter how many times she washed her clothes, they still smelled like him, her efforts were useless.

They had kissed. She had kissed Emmett, he had kissed her. They had kissed. And they did it without thinking about Rosalie or the consequences or anything remotely close to what an adult would think about; because that's what they were; they were two, intelligent adults (though, one of them was dead), they should have been mature about their situation. Not acted like two horny teenagers confessing their love for each other.

Scratch that, Leah had confessed her love for Emmett. By his response, she could assume that he loved her too, but it could just as easily be him testing the waters, seeing if he felt the same. A bit stupid on his part, seeing as he's married, but why, oh why, did Leah have to kiss him back?

It's probably because she's a big idiot, or turning into one of those hopelessly romantic girls who could not function without their boyfriend. She'd shoot herself before she stooped that low. Drastic, yes, but she had lived twenty years not having to answer to anyone, she wanted to live another sixty more the same exact way. And no amount of imprinting was going to stop her.

She heard a car door slam, followed by furious knocking on her front door. No one but Leah was home; her mother taking Seth to the mall for some new shoes, so Leah wondered how long she could lie on her bed before whoever was visiting went away.

The knocking did not stop, in fact it just got louder and harder, the door rattling on its hinges, and curiously Leah stood up. She walked to her bedroom window, glancing down to see a sleek, red car parked out front, the (now very familiar) smell of vampire emitting from the car.

"I can smell you, mutt," Rosalie Cullen's voice said, a mere whisper, but loud and clear to Leah's sensitive ears. "Come down or I'll rip your door off its hinges."

"I don't have time for this," Leah muttered darkly, returning to her bed.

"Make time," Rosalie snarled knocking harder. "I swear to God, Clearwater, I'll do it."

"Good," Leah said vehemently. "Your family can afford a new one, and my mother was getting tired of the white anyway."

Rosalie sighed loudly, but she stopped knocking. Leah heard her pace across the porch, fuming as she asked, "Where is he?"

"He's not here," Leah replied trying and failing to keep her heart bear steady. Emmett was missing? How long had he been gone? And why didn't their link or whatever tell Leah? In its defense, it probably tried, but she had been ignoring all things 'imprinting' for the past few days, so she couldn't exactly blame it. "How long has he been gone?"

Rosalie sighed again, this time sounding sad, and softly said, "Three days."

"And he hasn't called? Hasn't been in contact at all?"

"No," Rosalie reluctantly answered.

Leah stood up, heading out of her room and down the stairs. Rosalie stood outside her door, arms crossed tightly against her chest, glaring at the front door. Keeping her claws halfway extended, just in case, Leah moved towards the door, opening it.

"I haven't seen him in a few days," Leah informed the vampire, readying herself for a fight.

"Yes, I know," Rosalie replied sharply, looking about ready to start said fight. "Nessie told me you two came over here, but then Emmett left her with Jacob. She's not telling us why, but I believe she knows, and I think you," she jabbed a hard, cold finger into Leah's chest, "know, too."

"First," Leah started swatting Rosalie's hand away, "don't touch me. Second, if you need my help finding him, this is a real shitty way to ask. And third, the only reason I'm not sending your cold, undead ass back to hell is because…" Leah trailed off, huffing. "Look, I messed up, we both did, and I don't want to see you get hurt…"

"Messed up how?" Rosalie took a step towards Leah, her golden eyes flashing, her face suddenly wild, and Leah brought her claws up, ready to meet the attack head on, no matter the outcome.

"Rosalie stop!" a new voice called, causing the blonde to take a step back. Alice Cullen was at her sister's side in a flash, putting her petite frame between Leah and Rosalie. "This solves nothing and you know it."

"Get back, Alice," Rosalie snarled still very much ready to fight regardless of her sister standing between her and Leah.

"This solves nothing," Alice repeated much slower, her golden eyes meeting Rosalie's. "The only thing you'll achieve is upsetting Emmett, and neither of you want that." She looked between the two girls, clearly needing them to understand.

It took nearly a full two minutes, but finally Leah and Rosalie nodded, relaxing ever so slightly from their fighting stances, willing to hear Alice out. But Leah was only giving the smaller vampire five minutes because, mistake or not, Rosalie was on her property, and treaty or not, Leah was not afraid to kick her ass.

"He loves you both," Alice said quietly, raising her hand when Rosalie opened her mouth to interrupt, cutting the blonde off. "And he's clearly afraid that, if he doesn't figure things out soon, he's going to lose both of you."

"That's fascinating Alice," Rosalie commented sarcastically, "but that doesn't explain why he had to leave. Unless she drove him to do it."

"Oh, yes, that's right," Leah retorted angrily, pushing herself up to her full height, "this is entirely my fault. Look, parasite, I never asked to be a damn werewolf. I never asked to imprint on your husband. I never asked to fall…" she trailed off, breathing heavily, her hands clenched into fists at her sides.

After a moment of Lamaze breathing (she found a website after her first few transformation, finding it actually worked better than she expected at helping her control herself), ignoring the confused looks the vampires gave her, she calmly and quietly continued, "I never asked for any of this, and I tried to stay away, really I did, but it's just not possible. And it's impossible for him too, no matter how hard he tries.

"And, don't get me wrong, I know what it feels like for something like this to happen. Believe me, I know, and if there was any way for me to fix this I would, despite me not exactly liking you, but it happened, okay? And you just need to learn to accept it."

"I…"

"She's right, Rose," Alice said quietly, giving her sister a grim look. "He's been disappearing more and more over the past few weeks. I hate to say it…"

"Don't." Rosalie took a step back, shaking her head.

"Look, nothing is set in stone," Leah added quickly, pushing past Alice to get a step closer to Rosalie. "I'm sure we can work something out so you don't lose him…"

"What, like sharing him," Rosalie muttered under her breath.

"…but we need to find him first," Leah continued, ignoring Rosalie. She couldn't quite ignore the sharp jab in her stomach at the idea of sharing Emmett with anyone, a small bout of possessiveness rolling through her, but she fought to do anything about it. Instead, she tried to keep her mind on the topic at hand. "Where would Emmett go if he needed to get away?"

"He bought a shooting range for me for our thirtieth wedding anniversary," Rosalie supplied after a long pause, clearly not happy about sharing the information. "We don't exactly need the weapons, but I still find shooting targets to be relaxing."

"Emmett hates guns," Alice and Leah said together, both sharing a quick look before looking away.

Rosalie sighed. "I know, but he also bought a house close to the range, and we stay there occasionally. He likes the forest, spends most of his time hunting, so he probably went there."

"Where is this house?" Leah asked curiously, trying and failing to not think about the absolute love and fondness in Rosalie's voice when she talked about Emmett.

"California," Rosalie replied already heading towards her car. "Hurry up mutt, or I'm leaving you."

"Go," Alice said softly, nudging Leah forward. "I'll stay and tell the others where you have gone."

"Don't expect me not to fight back if she tries to kill me," Leah retorted before walking towards Rosalie's car, not bothering to look back at Alice.

"Good luck," the petite vampire whispered, clearly unperturbed by Leah's words. Leah seriously needed to surround herself with normal people.

Twilight

Emmett wasn't hungry. Okay, that's a total lie, he was always hungry. If he had been given the chance to hunt every weekend, he'd do it in a heartbeat. He liked to go after bears, they put up a much bigger fight than deer or mountain lions, and it made him feel a bit vindicated since his death was ultimately caused by a bear.

But today he wasn't hunting a bear. He wasn't hunting anything really. Mostly Emmett was thinking about everything that had recently happened to him, from learning Leah Clearwater had imprinted on him to kissing her on her front porch.

It had been a mistake, he knew that, but he also couldn't bring himself to regret it. He loved Rosalie, he would always love Rosalie, but there was just something about Leah that he just couldn't put his finger on. It could be the fact that they'd imprinted, that they were destined to be together or whatever, but it was more than that; there was more to it.

He thought back to what Alice said, in his car, the day he and Leah decided to be friends. It felt like a lifetime ago, but in reality it was only about a month. She told him he was disappearing more and more from her visions, that he knew who he was going to choose, and at the time, while knowing that she was right, he decided to ignore her. He needed to ignore her. But he could no longer do that.

He had to do what was right, and subconsciously he did just that by kissing Leah when she told him she loved him. He loved Rose, she was his wife for christsakes, but it was always going to be Leah. Alice saw it (or didn't see it), Renesme sensed it, and even Seth and Jacob knew. And it hurt like a bitch to admit it. It hurt worse than Emmett would ever admit. He'd been with Rosalie for decades, had always suspected they'd one day get in a boat and sail away, feeding off sharks and whales when they were hungry, maybe an occasional bass or eel.

He hated this, hated what had happened, hated it more than anything, but he wouldn't change anything. And that, above everything else, hurt worse. He should want to change things, should want everything to return to normal (or what passes for normal with him and those he had surrounded himself with), but he didn't.

He felt like scum, and he deserved to feel that way. He deserved everything bad that happened to him after making this decision, should never be allowed to have another good thing in his life. He just didn't deserve it.

"Self-pity is so unbecoming of you," a familiar voice said and Emmett turned to see Leah standing a good ten feet away from him, arms crossed, with Rosalie standing next to her.

"What…?"

"We're taking you home," Rosalie said stiffly, her face blank, eyes locked on Emmett's face. "Let's go." She turned and stalked away, and Leah glanced back at her, looking sad.

Emmett and Leah looked back at each other and said, "I'm sorry."

"Wait," Emmett said quickly, "why are you sorry? I should be sorry."

"If it wasn't for this stupid werewolf/imprinting thing…"

"Let's just…" Emmett trailed off, spotting Rosalie standing a good distance from them, glaring at a tree. "Let's talk about this back home."

"You're seriously coming back with us?" Leah asked curiously.

Emmett looked away from Rosalie, glancing down at Leah, and said, "Do I have a choice?"

"No," she answered softly and turned, walking away from him and towards Rosalie. With one, final glance around the forest, Emmett slowly followed her, dreading the inevitable fallout coming his way.