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 17-Brothers Under Arms

Jacob and Embry have a heart to heart as they realise that they are now brothers.

Embry was lying on top of the cliff.

Okay it was a bit better than it sounded.

He had left Leah to walk home alone and he had gone to sit on the cliff but that had proved to much and so he was lying on the edge where they went cliff diving and he breathed in the scent of the wet grass and dirt and the sea salt spray and he tried very hard not to think.

The problem was as he damn well knew he had only himself to blame. He had asked for the information and to her credit his mother had given it to him regardless of what it would mean. It was his fault for not anticipating the answer would be different than the one he had banked and betted against which was that his father was Joshua Uley.

Nope. It was Billy Black.

Fuck.

The problem was he could see it. He could see being Billy's son. He could see the moments when he was a kid and Billy would make an effort to include him in things and looking back it was so epically stupid that he didn't see it.

And he wasn't mad at his mother. He really wasn't.

He wasn't sure who he was mad at it but he wasn't mad at his mother.

So he closed his eyes and listened to the salt spray and tried very hard not to think.

He was still sat there when a dirty pair of feet came into view and he cracked an eye open to see Jacob staring down at him one eyebrow raised as if to say, really? Here? Embry didn't know what to say but he pushed himself up into a sitting position and Jake came and sat down next to him.

"You wanna talk about it?"

"Nope"

"Okay"

There was a pause and then.

"You see Em I gotta talk about it"

Embry nodded.

"Go on"

"You okay?"

"Nope"

"You?"

"Nope" Jake said popping the P. "Rachel's not either. She's back at the house screaming at him. I told Leah to go to your Mom's in case she got any ideas not that I think she would. Anyone who takes on your Mom is suicidal, but nobody seems to want to hide this anymore so…so I guess it's not gonna be long before the whole tribe find out. God knows Rachel is screaming enough for everyone to hear"

"Your very calm about it"

"So area you"

"No I mean…your not…upset?"

Jake snorted. "Upset? Yeah, yeah I'm upset. But…but I'm not…I don't know, it was always a possibility you know, it was always something that I knew could happen so when it happened it didn't bother me in that sense. I think deep down I always knew. I…just…call it divine intervention or whatever crap that Bella calls it I don't know but…but I think I knew. And look I'm pissed as hell at the man, I mean he cheated on my Mom you know? But then…then again she cheated on him too, so it goes back and forth in my mind and my brain and I think that the whole thing just needs to settle"

"You're not making sense"

"Probably not. Can I ask something though?"

"What?"

"Are you…are you going to become an alpha?"

Embry nearly choked on his own lungs. Jake waited patiently until he had stopped coughing and wiped his streaming eyes.

"Are you fucking shit—"

"You can" Jake said quietly. "You absolutely can. You're the last chief's grandson too. You could do it if you wanted to. You could be the alpha of another pack and—"

"Oh God please don't"

"I am saying it because it is true" Jake said quietly. "You could do it which might be a bit of a problem but it's manageable"

"Jacob do I look like I want to become an alpha?"

"Nobody wants to become an alpha" Jake said in that wise chief like way he whipped out when he was being particularly pedantic. "But when they are chosen—"

"I will push you off this cliff if you continue" he said and Jake cracked a smile that looked a hell of a lot more genuine than anything that he had seen in a while.

"I do not want to be an alpha. Do you…I mean is this your way of saying you don't want me to be in your pack?"

"Oh please" Jake said rolling his eyes. "If this was a problem pack wise I'd have never let you join"

"I think we kind of forced our way in"

"Yeah well…I could have ordered you to go home I just never did"

"Great comfort I'm sure." "

Jake laughed looking out over the waves and then.

"I wont dick around with you Embry I am pissed, I wont lie and say I'm not pissed at your Mom too. But I think…I don't know what would have happened if she'd had come out with it. It's this whole fucking tribe thing isn't it? Harry Clearwater knew, Sue knew without indirectly knowing it, your Mom, Dad, my Mom. Everyone knew, I bet if we sat down with Quill's lot they knew, Sam—"

"Sam didn't know"

"You think?"

Embry shot him a sideways glance. "You think that if Sam had known we'd have gone through this kind of torture? Nah, Sam's spent sixteen years thinking his deadbeat Dad has been cheating on his mother and we've both done a great job of dancing around the subject. Now we don't have to. I'm amazed Sam isn't throwing himself a party right about now"

Jacob was silent for another second and then.

"You know I always wanted a brother"

"Jake—"

"No I mean…look I get it's awkward for you, it's just…it's not for me. Strip aside all the cheating and all the lying and all the hurt and it's just you and me, we've been brothers since we were kids right? So what does it matter that it's official right about now?"

There was a long pause and then Embry tore his eyes away from the waves and nodded. Out of all of this headache induced nausea it was the same for him as well and more to the point Jacob knew it as well. They were always good at reading each other well even before they shared one mind and looking back maybe it was obvious.

In hindsight maybe it was a good thing that Edward Cullen had not tried to delve into the confines of his mother's mind because human or not he was pretty sure his mother had a glare on her that would have made even him turn tail and run.

Besides, kind of okay they might be but if the damn leaches knew before he did he would have been really pissed off.

"What happens when the rest of it crashes down on us"

"I don't know" Jake sighed leaning back on his hands. "Right now, right here and right now and even with his threat hanging over us it doesn't matter too much. I know it should but right now…I don't know. Rachel on the other hand…if your expecting a warm sisterly reaction then you are pissing in the wind my friend"

"I'm not. You know I love your sisters Jake but I don't need sisters. I certainly don't…especially if they are going to be bad about it. I know what I need and I know what I am and…" he shook his head feeling so desperately tired. It was a hot muggy day, they were rapidly approaching the end of September and even the colder days that were nearing them and there was still so much time and still none at all. If you were to believe Alice Cullen then they had only until the snow stuck the ground.

And this was Washington.

Snow was going to stick to the ground pretty soon.

And there was still so much to sort out as well.

He bit his bottom lip again and Jake sighed.

"I know" he said finally and it jolted Embry back. Made him remember a time that they had actually been talking about this. He closed his eyes and flopped back down on the grass and Jake stayed upwards sitting cross legged and watching the waves below crashing against the rocks.

"I am sorry Jake"

"Hey, my Dad's as much as the adult as your Mom is, more so considering. I don't know what she thought, I don't know if she knew he was married, I don't know…all I know is that it stopped and I suppose we have to be glad for that. And I don't like that my Mom was also playing the field but I guess…I don't know if that makes it a bit easier for me. Either way I know only the one thing, the one simple thing and that is that you and I stay the same. Cause we were brothers before this you know? So what does it matter if we are brothers after it? Blood isn't everything."

Embry took a problem to dissect that.

Problem with Jake was that there were moments where he made sense and moments where he didn't and it was always hard to tell them apart.

Jake stuck his pinky finger out and Embry stared at it. They had not pinky sworn since that day after he and Quill had first met Bella and Embry had told them that Sam was looking at him funny and that he was scared. Quill had stuck out his pinky finger and had made them all swear that they would be best friends forever and ever and ever.

That had fallen apart in three weeks but before that they had sworn to be brothers forever and ever and ever in the sandbox, throughout their lives.

And so it was an easy choice if not even a choice at all. Because of course he took the pinky finger and they shook on it.

Jake smiled at him though it didn't quite meet his eyes. He looked like an old man trapped in a young man's body. The opposite really of his father…of Embry's father (and oh that was going to take some getting use to wasn't it?) who had always seemed to be a young man in an older man's body.

But then again Billy had done fuck all compared to what they had to do.

"Wouldn't have been too bad" he said trying to keep his voice steady and knowing that he was failing miserably.

"What?"

"Living with you, being family and all that"

Jake considered it for a second but he didn't say anything. Instead he let his gaze linger on the ocean for a second longer than he should have done and it allowed Embry to dry his eyes on the back of his hand.

Finally the arm came around his shoulders and he leaned into the embrace. Jake and him stayed like that for what felt like a very long time but in reality was probably not very long at all and then Jake stood up staring down at the water below as if it held the answers to all of lives mysteries.

"Fuck it" he said quietly. "Once more for the road baby bro?"

"Oh fuck that" Embry said suddenly grinning. "I am four months younger than you"

"Size is no guarantee kid, come on"

And with that Jake with his shit eating grin turned his back to the ocean and fell off the cliff.

It was not the traditional dive but then again nothing about Jacob Black was traditional. He hit the waters in a graceful way that probably would have broken the bones in an average human's body (to be fair he reckoned the Doc and his wife would not approve if they said they were pushing their mortality by jumping off cliff's backwards) but he saw the little dark head on the surface and he grinned jumping off the cliff too (story of his fucking life so far today) feeling the breeze hit him before the rush of the cold water.

It was such a fucking rush.

He had forgotten.

He surfaced next to Jacob and the two of them grinned.

"Come on" Jake said. "Current's not great and I need to get back and make sure my house isn't a crime scene. You wanna come? No pressure if you don't—"

"I want to go and see Leah"

Jake rolled his eyes.

"Course you do"

"You can't judge" he yelled over another wave as they struck back to shore. "You can't. .SWAN"

Jake turned as they hit the more calmer waters and considered that for a second and his grin was like nothing had changed.

"Fair enough" he said grinning and despite it all Embry grinned back.

Yeah, I made Jacob the mature one. So shoot me.

Next Chapter-The Clearwater women have their reckoning. Layla Call is a bystander. Rachel Black is pissed. And the Volturi are still coming.