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 8-The Living And The Dead

Leah and Sam come face to face (through Jared) for the first time since she left and all of the wolves on both side of the conflict are afraid. Very, very afraid. Another AU chapter.


It was Jared. He had sent Jared.

Sam had sent Jared.

Paul and Quill too but Jared, Jared was going to be the mouthpiece of the pack.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

"Leah" Jacob warned but Leah ignored him. She was half listening half not as the pack explained that Sam and the council (which was really Sam and Billy because fuck knows Old Quill wasn't going to them a favour and at this point she was pretty sure her mother had coronated Emily Queen so why would she give a fuck about her actual children) to wait until Bella had become 'separated' from the problem.

Christ what a nice way of putting it.

But she was half listening half not and what that meant about her abilities in this pack she didn't know but she was barely paying attention. The truth of the matter was that Sam was not here.

And what were you expecting? She said to herself sternly. Him to come here on bended knee and ask for you to come back to him?

Was it wrong that she wanted that?

Just so she could have the pleasure of kicking him in the face.

Not because she would say yes. Not that at all.

Embry huffed a laugh next to her and Leah smiled. She didn't want to dwell on the fact that she might seriously have to think about what might happen if he did ask her to come back. Not just to the pack but to him. She didn't know what she might do. His engagement ring was still burning a hole in her dresser draw at home. She didn't…so much of what she felt was tied down in the pain and the misery of his betrayal that was never considered a betrayal to anyone other than her and maybe Seth.

Her mother…her father…they had all understood.

Bollocks.

And then she heard Jared speak.

"I don't know how you and Leah can put her through so much after your Dad—"

Mom. That had her Mom's sticky fingerprints all over it. Guilt tripping her and Seth to the point where they felt like they had choice to come back home. At this point she was surprised the old woman hadn't tried faking a heart attack.

Course at that point you had to have a heart.

"Leah" Seth said his shocked tone coming down the mental channel and she turned to see that both Embry and Seth were looking at her in something akin to shock. Jared was following them and she could see the clear irritation on his face that came when he didn't understand the patten of their thoughts anymore.

"Seth Mom is no more heartbroken over us being here than Embry's Dad is" she snapped before wincing because in all fairness she had promised Embry she wouldn't keep using his Dad as cannon fodder.

"S'okay" Embry said quietly.

"No it's not" she said back just as quiet and she thought she saw the mouth pull back in a smile.

"No it's not" he agreed.

"Jesus Christ" Seth said pawing the ground and rolling his eyes.

"What?"

"Pay attention"

Leah turned just in time to see Jared swing to his gaze to her. For all the money in America he looked like he really, really did not want to have this conversation with her and for one second, one split second, Leah felt a twinge of sympathy for him. She guessed why he was doing this and she was going to bet that he had been all but ordered here to do it. Nothing pissed the wolfpack off more than getting in between her and Sam and Emily but Leah was not going to make it easier for him to do Sam's dirty work so she ignored Jared's rather pained expression or the way Paul was now looking at the ground.

"Sam said to tell you he wants you home Leah. He knows you don't want to be here, he knows you're here for Seth, he's…he's offering you a safe passage home, you don't have to be in his pack I think…I think we can all say that, that might be easier going forwards but you can still run with us. And…and…he said I was to get on my knees if it mattered. He said…and please Leah alright—" he said raising both his hands in an expression of surrender and Leah just knew, she just knew that she was not going to like what was coming next.

"He said…he said he wants you home Lee-Lee"

Lee-Lee

Lee-Lee

LEE-LEE?!

The force of her scream was enough to have both Seth and Embry belly to the ground and Jacob turned to wince. Jared too looked deeply uncomfortable from that reaction but Leah didn't care. She didn't care if Edward-fucking-Cullen was giving his bitch of a wife a play-by-play version of this back at the house, all she cared about was that name.

Lee-Lee.

The fucking bastard.

Lee-Lee had been what Sam had called her in bed, actually fuck that Lee-Lee had been what he had called her when she was in the process of sucking him off and it had also been the name he had called her when she had found him and Emily entangled on the couch together after she had been 'mauled' by a bear.

For a second she was gutted by the pain, for one endless second she was gutted by it her heart bleeding, direct hit, bleeding red, red, red and the mist that came down…

She had never understood why Sam bitched out control…her own transformation had been more about trying to protect Seth than anything else. Seth who had exploded at his father when their father had defended Sam and Emily and Leah just couldn't…she just couldn't take it anymore.

She had not understood the murderous haze of red rage before.

Now she did.

Now she did.

She didn't remember exactly what she said but the ramifications were enough to have all of them, Jared, Jacob, Paul, all of them wincing. She might have said somethings about Sam and his parents that were not fit for public consumption. She might have said somethings about Emily that were not for polite company. But she thought that perhaps she had gotten the message across about what she would do to Sam if he ever, ever, so much as even thought about using that fucking name again.

By the time she was done everyone was watching her and then with an air of finality Jacob turned to Jared and said as diplomatically as he could (which wasn't very much because Alpha or no Alpha, this was Jacob Black), "I think that Leah is fine right where she is"

Jared nodded slowly and then he bit his lip for a second and then.

"Embry?"

She felt Embry's eyes wide. His eyes were on Quill who was all but miserable. She was actually surprised that he was here to be honest but she wouldn't have put it past Sam to make this some kind of test. Or perhaps he was just afraid that Colin or Brady would defect the second they smelt cake wafting on the horizon.

They were twelve and thirteen respectively. It was not out of the realm of possibility.

"Embry?"

Embry jerked his head as if to indicate that he was listening.

"Your…Sue and Sam told your Mom"

"No dipshit I told my Mom"

"She didn't take it well"

"No kidding. Apparently she took your Mom to the carpet Leah"

"Christ" Seth thought with a wince "I don't think I would have liked to see that"

"She's…she's really worried about you"

"I know, she rang Dr Cullen to speak to me and—"

"You know he can't hear you right?"

"Yep" Embry thought pawing the ground "But for old times sake I'll let him try and explain the phenomenon that is my mother to me"

Leah snorted. She couldn't help herself. Jared shot her a look but considering he couldn't hear her it was one of confusion. Leah loved it.

"She…she is really worried Embry, I know…I know that we hurt you when we said that you couldn't tell her—"

"Using the Royal We I see" Seth said quietly.

"He's speaking for the council" Embry said quietly. "I surprised they've not threatened to boot my Mom out unless I come home. Doesn't make much of a difference, she's told me all of this and a great deal more, you know she's managed to negotiate a deal with the Doctor? I have to go and report in once a day, he actively stands on the porch with the phone until I do. She likes him too. She calls him Dr Bloodsucker and not in a bad way"

There was a pause and then Seth whistled.

"Your Mom's got some balls dude"

Embry sighed and then he turned back to Jared who was watching them sheer irritation etched on his face. Embry jerked his head as if to tell Jared to get on with it and Jared sighed again.

"Embry…I know things aren't great right now, but she's your Mom dude—"

Embry let out a low growl and that seemed to be the end of it. Jared sighed.

"Billy thinks you should come home too" he said quietly. "You and Embry, both of you. He wants you to come home. I was told…I was told to tell you Embry he wants both of you back home"

Embry shot a look at Jacob who shrugged his face a picture of confusion. Okay he was Jacob's best friend, he had been in and out of that house since childhood but there was something to Jared's words that he couldn't quite but his fingers on and it unsettled him somewhat.

He didn't know…no…he didn't want to think what that might be. He didn't even want to think it.

Jared continued his message and then he and Jacob drew out the lines of the revised treaty and then they were gone. Quill shot them both mournful looks and then the second they were gone Jacob transformed back into a wolf and cracked his neck from side to side wincing as the pain hit him.

"Well that was interesting"

"Was it? "

Leah sighed and then, "Do keep up, they don't plan to attack, clearly the council is divided, Sam doesn't trust his wolves and he is clearly banking Jacob on you being so angry when Bella croaks that you will kill the thing and Edward yourself so why should he bother"

Jacob said nothing and the four of them on the horizon paused.

"Jake…" Embry said slowly. "What have you done—"

"Nothing"

"JAKE"

"EMBRY" Jacob shouted suddenly jerking his head in direction of the house. "WE ARE NOT HAVING THIS DISCUSSION WITH THAT LOT IN HEARING DISTANCE OKAY! WE JUST…LET'S JUST TELL THEM WHAT'S GOING ON OKAY?"

Embry clearly wasn't happy and Leah couldn't blame him. There was something here that they were both missing and she didn't know what to make of it. She didn't know if she had to make something out of it. She hated the fact that she did.

"Are you going to call Dad?" Jacob asked suddenly turning to Embry who blinked all big and sluggish (and dare she say it cute)

"He's your Dad"

"He clearly wants to speak to you"

"Can't see why"

And again they danced around the subject.

"Could just be Sam's way of getting under your skin Jake" Seth said softly but Leah didn't think it was. She didn't dare think more on it but she knew Sam. For all his views that Emily was the love of his life she had known him, she had been with him, she understood him and she knew him well enough to know that there was no way he was sending that kind of message along just to be cruel.

But Lee-Lee…

He had not intended to be cruel she knew that. She could only imagine how much her defection had hurt him. How hard it must be for him to understand that she hated being shackled to him more than she hated the vampires. She had no sympathy for him, he had brought this whole thing down on himself and she imagined that he was more than a little relieved once the dust settled but at the same time…

Why had he used that name?

"Because he's an asshole" Jacob said suddenly and she realised all three of them were looking at her. Seth was even nodding.

"And you can do better" Embry growled and with a swoop she was reminded of the rather nice afternoon spent by the waterfall in which they had shared cake and she felt something erupt in her stomach.

She would not call it butterflies

She would not.

"Thanks" she said more than a little subdued.

"Yeah well" Jacob said gruffly. "Your not that bad, still pretty terrible but in small doses. Your kind of like cough medicine Leah"

For a second they all stared at him and he shrugged his massive shoulders and Leah thought the future Mrs Jacob Black (whoever she was) was in for a lovely life of deeply thoughtful compliments.

She didn't realise she had thought that until everyone started laughing and even Jake cracked a smile that was a little more human and a little less twisted.

"Come on" he said jerking his massive body towards the house and as wolves they all followed him a little bit closer and a little bit more like a real pack than they had done before.

"Back to work"


And there you go,

Next Chapter-Embry sees vampire life up close and personal and Jake reaches his breaking point. Incidentally so does Leah.