A/N: This is a bit of a nightmare week for me but all of your lovely reviews have given me little sparks of light to push away the dark. Thank you:)

Changing Plans

Before Bella had fallen asleep the night before, she and Jasper had a long talk about what their plan had been, and what it should be. Once Bella got a bit of her anger and resentment at Jacob Black out of her system, she admitted that revenge wasn't the most important thing to her anymore. The two of them had a baby coming in roughly four months, and neither were so certain that extended violence was the right way to prepare for that.

Jasper had relayed the conversation he'd had with Esme and her comment about building something new on the ashes of what came before, and Jasper and Bella both believed building something new on the ashes of what the elders, along with Sam and Jacob's pack, had done was a much more appropriate way of spending some of that time.

Every single member of the Whitlock family had found a brighter, more fulfilling life after living through a whole lot of darkness. Attempting to help others do the same felt like the right thing to do.

After all, when it is dark enough, you can see the stars. They'd all taken turns being the star for each other when life looked darkest, so maybe they could offer the humans of the Quileute tribe some sparks of light to help guide the way.

Early the next morning, Jasper, Leah, and Paul were walking along the banks of the Yellowstone River a good ways off from their property. Paul was carrying a canoe, Leah some fishing equipment, and Jasper was carrying a sheet-wrapped Old Quil.

One of the old Quileute funeral practices Jasper had read about was to put the body in a canoe and send it out to sea. They couldn't take Quil back to Washington, obviously, and they were more than eight-hundred miles from an ocean, so they were doing the best they could under the current conditions. They were gonna unwrap Quil, pop him in a canoe, and let Mother Nature do the rest. Their corner of Montana was very sparsely populated, so it wasn't entirely inconceivable that a dude could die fishing and float downstream in his canoe for a while before anyone spotted him.

Jasper honestly didn't think the man deserved any better than just being tossed in one of the nearby hot springs, but he didn't want to piss off the Spirits anymore than was strictly necessary. Killing the Quileute pack was inevitable, so he figured he could be a little flexible on this.

"Did y'all have time to talk last night?" Jasper asked.

"We did," Leah nodded. "We're inclined to agree. Helping the humans of the tribe find a better way forward feels like the right thing to do, even if we won't be a part of that future."

Jasper smiled that their thoughts were so similar to his own. "I talked to the rest of the former Cullens after Bella fell asleep and they're all willing to come along if you want them to," Jasper told them. "The Forks house hasn't been sold yet so it's there for us to use. And if you think us comin' on the Reservation isn't the way to go, anyone who wants to talk to us can come up there instead."

Paul shook his head. "We talked about that but we both feel like if things are going to change, let's change them from the beginning. We want them all to know we trust you completely, that you're our family, and giving you permission to be on our land seems like the best way to show them that."

Jasper nodded his understanding. "Alright. We'll probably have to stash Sue and Billy somewhere temporarily, just until we've met the tribe ourselves, so they don't start shoutin' that the end of days are upon us."

"We were hoping maybe they could stay at either the old Cullen house or the Swan's house with one of the other vamps as a babysitter," Paul said. "Just until we have a chance to tell the whole story."

Jasper gestured with his chin to the fishing access coming up, so they took a break from talking to get Old Quil settled in the canoe and get him floating downstream. It was a calm day for the currents so he wasn't going anywhere too fast, which worked in their favor.

"Was Chelsea able to sever Sam and Emily's bond?" Leah asked on their way back.

"She was," Jasper nodded. "Sam felt it, and Emily felt something, but it wasn't the same bereft grief he felt. I haven't talked to her myself but her predominant emotion since has been confusion. I heard her throwing question after question at Billy and Sue about her relationship, which they refused to answer."

"What does that mean?" Leah asked, not sure why Emily would be confused.

Jasper thought on it for a minute, trying to figure out how best to explain the conclusion he was coming to. He didn't want to let Emily completely off the hook yet, but along with her confusion was a fair amount of relief. And when the bond to Sam was severed, what revealed itself was Emily's damaged bonds with others, most notably Leah. Imprinting was an instantaneous, intense connection for the wolves. Jasper was starting to question whether Emily betrayed Leah in the manner they all assumed, or if the human in the equation doesn't stand a chance of trying to deny the bond. Emily's emotions felt awfully similar to a human who'd been exposed to a vampire's thrall. At the time, they think that need to be connected, to do what the vamp wants, is their own desire. But away from that allure, their self-determination comes back and they see their actions weren't entirely their own.

Could imprinting be similar somehow? It's a supernatural bond, so how does a human fare in the face of that? It was one of the reasons vampire mate bonds were different when one party was human. The bond was nowhere near as intense as between two vamps. The human isn't part of the supernatural world yet, so they aren't just automatically locked in to an eternal bond. Bella could theoretically walk away from their relationship and lead a normal, human life if she wanted to. Jasper would suffer, no doubt, but it wouldn't be even remotely on the level of a vampire losing a vampire mate.

Eventually Jasper shrugged. "I'm not entirely sure yet, to be honest. I think talking to Emily away from the wolves and elders is the only way to get any true answers. What I do know is that she doesn't have the anger or rage I'd expect to find in someone who was forced to sever a relationship they didn't want to."

Leah and Paul both nodded, but neither responded.

As they got closer to home, they heard Chelsea's cheerful voice.

"That's not very impressive, Jacob. Look, even Embry's is larger, and his isn't at all large."

Jasper laughed when he realized she was letting the wolves know how lacking she found them, just the way Rosalie intended.

"Jane's brother Alec was not quite thirteen when he was changed and even he's bigger than you. Oh, don't pout," she said disapprovingly. "Size isn't necessarily the most important thing. Skill plays a fairly big role. You, unfortunately, won't be around long enough to learn any skills, so I suppose in this particular instance, size is all that matters."

"Holy shit," Leah laughed. "I really like her."

Chelsea spun around as they came into view. "Thank you, Leah! I like you as well," she said with a cheerful smile.

Jasper walked over and unlocked Jacob's cage, then grabbed his ankle and yanked him out - hard enough to break bones but not hard enough that his foot came off. Once his head was out of the cage, Jasper stomped on his mouth, splitting his lips and breaking his teeth and jaw.

"That's for kissing Bella without her consent," Jasper growled as he turned the boy on his stomach so he wouldn't choke on blood or tooth fragments. Then he reached down and broke his right hand again. "And that's for laughing at her when she hurt herself punching you to try to get you to stop."

Alright, so maybe a last little bit of violence.

Feeling a ball of rage heading his way fast, Jasper spun around just in time to catch Rosalie before she could get her hands on Jacob. Oops. Guess they hadn't told Rosalie that story.

Jasper hugged his growling and hissing sister. "Shh. I'm sorry, Rose, that shouldn't have been the way you heard that," he said quietly, not wanting to use his gift to calm her down.

Rosalie took a few deep breaths, then wrenched herself out of Jasper's arms and raked her fingernails from the back of the wolf's neck all the way down his back, drawing blood and making the kid gurgle a choked scream. Having gotten a little tiny bit of her rage out, she nodded.

"Better?" Jasper asked with a smile.

"Marginally," Rose shrugged.

"C'mon, you can help me with breakfast."

Rose gave him a weird look. "I love Bella but I have no interest in cooking for her. You know this."

"I know," Jasper laughed. "I'm just trying to get you to come back to the house with me so you're away from the temptation of murdering the bastard."

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "You've got better luck saying that than asking if I want to make her food," she laughed, then paused for a second. "I actually don't mind making her that smoothie she likes, so if you make the omelette, I'll make the smoothie."

"Deal," Jasper nodded.

Paul threw his arm around Rosalie's shoulder as they walked and gave her his most charming grin.

Rose laughed and rolled her eyes again. "I'll make you one, too."

"That's why you're my favorite sister," Paul laughed, then ducked out of the way when Leah tried to punch him. "My favorite sister with the last name McCarty, is what I meant to say."

Leah gave him a single sharp nod. "That's what I thought."

As the Whitlock family sat around the table while Bella and the wolves ate breakfast, they talked some more about how exactly to move forward.

"I'll stay with Sue and Billy while the rest of you go to La Push," Emmett offered. "We know my size makes people edgy and that's the last thing we want in this particular situation."

"Thanks, Em," Jasper nodded.

"What time frame are you thinkin' about?" Peter asked.

Jasper shrugged. "That's a decision for all of us to make together. Bella has an appointment at the Clinic in two days, but that's the only commitment we have here. She's still early enough in her pregnancy where the doctor only needs her to come in every four weeks, so after this appointment, we're clear for another twenty-eight days."

"Would you like me to ask the brothers if we can fly you all there so you won't need to make such a long drive twice?" Chelsea asked Bella.

Bella looked at her in surprise. "You think they'd agree?"

"I don't see why not," Chelsea shrugged.

"We can't take Emily, Sue, and Billy through an airport," Jasper said. "Even a small private airport gives them too much of an opportunity to cause trouble."

"I could drive them in my SUV," Esme offered. "Perhaps with Rosalie or Emmett, just to be safe. Assuming we time it right, one of us can pick the rest of you up at the airport, and then when it's time to drive back, we'll have that and Bella's truck. Will that give you enough space for anything you'd like to bring back with you?" she asked Bella.

Bella thought on it before nodding. "There's not much I'm gonna be taking, honestly. Clothes, books, some of my dad's things I want to hold onto, but that's it. No furniture or anything like that. I actually had an idea about the house I wanted to run by you guys. Since I don't need the money from the sale, what if we fix it up a little and I sign it over to the tribe? There may be a time when a family needs the Forks school district for some reason, or if a tribe member has a job in town and it's more convenient to stay in Forks through the week. I'm hopeful that with the changes, there won't be a similar need in the future, but I was grateful it was there for Leah and Paul when they needed somewhere to go."

"Actually, the school option could be a huge help," Paul nodded. "The school on the Reservation doesn't offer any support services for students with special needs."

Bella let out a relieved sigh. "I'd like to do that. I think my dad would have, too. It'll need some updating, specifically the kitchen and bathroom."

"That's easy enough for us," Rosalie smiled. "There's a Home Depot in Port Chester, so we could go together so you can pick everything out."

"Are you going to come with us?" Bella asked Peter and Charlotte.

Peter shook his head. "Nah, not this trip. There'll be more opportunities in the future, and it's better not to have red-eyes be some of the first vamps they meet."

"Plus it'll give us some alone time," Charlotte added. "We love all of you and are thrilled with this new giant family of ours, but Peter and I have been used to it just being us most of the time. This is a big adjustment," she laughed.

Jasper smiled at them and nodded. "Alright, that's a whole lotta shit sorted. So who has thoughts about the wolves?"

No one answered right away, all of them lost in thought, and all of their thoughts strikingly similar. There had been a whole lot of rage for the Quileute pack inside the Whitlock house. Not only had their actions led to Bella's dad dying, but all five wolves in what was at the time Sam's pack made life a nightmare for Leah and Paul and eventually led to them being ousted from their homes and tribe.

But because of all of those awful things, they'd found themselves right where they were - in the middle of a huge, slightly strange, loving family.

Paul, Leah, and Seth had originally planned to fight the wolves, telling them if they won, the Whitlocks would let them go. Which, with all their training, would never happen. But now, after having gotten some of that rage and resentment out, they were left with the feeling that continuing on that path made them no better than the Quileute pack.

How important was revenge when it threatened to to pull you closer to the darkness, rather than the light they'd all found with each other?

Leah took a deep breath and looked around at her family. "I think… I think maybe we need to change our plan," she said quietly.

After seeing Paul and Seth nod their agreement, the rest of the Whitlocks did the same. Just like the decision about the elders and the tribe were ultimately Leah, Seth, and Paul's decision, the same held true here. Bella had gotten her pound of flesh from Jacob for her dad, so she was content to follow their lead, and just like they'd done from the very beginning, the family as a whole would support them however they could.

"Any ideas for what the new plan should be?" Emmett asked. "Those five wolves aren't going to let us live in peace after this."

No one could deny that, but they also didn't have any answers in the moment, so they decided to all do some brainstorming on their own. No hard and fast decisions needed to be made just yet. The one thing they did all agree on was that they wanted this to be over before Bella's appointment at the Clinic. She and Jasper wanted to walk in there with nothing ugly hanging over their heads, which gave them two days.

What they didn't know yet was that the decision would be taken out of their hands in an entirely unexpected way.

After breakfast, the Whitlock wolves went and unlocked the shed. After gesturing for Sue and Emily to come out, Paul unfolded Billy's wheelchair and sat him in it.

Leah ignored Emily for the time being, looking at Sue and Billy with a hard glare. "You seem to think we're all crazy for wanting to be a part of this family, so I want you all to see why that's a crock of shit. Everyone here has been more of a family to us than you ever were."

When Sue went to open her mouth, Paul held a hand up. "It's not your turn to talk. You listen and you look, that's it," he snapped.

Paul pushed Billy with the others walking behind him and headed for the changing room by their cabin that Jasper had built for them. When they got to the doorway, Leah crossed her arms and looked at her mother.

"Do you remember what you said to me when I told you the pack was making me uncomfortable? That there had to be some way to keep them from seeing me naked all the time?" she asked.

"I told you being a protector was an honor," Sue snapped. "And that you needed to get over any hardships that came with that honor."

"And do you still not see how wrong that was? That I have a right to at least a little bit of dignity, even if I was honored enough to be a wolf?" Leah asked, then nodded when Sue didn't answer. "I figured. You are the woman, after all, who told me to just suck it up. That if I didn't want to walk in our back door naked that I should just climb through my window."

"Do you know who did believe Leah deserved some dignity and respect?" Seth asked. "Who saw that being a protector was an honor but it didn't have to mean losing that dignity and respect in the process?"

"One of your precious bloodsuckers, I assume," Sue sneered, then screamed when Paul stomped on her foot.

"Watch it," Paul growled. "I've heard both Jasper and Charlotte ask you to stop with the names. Was Charlotte breaking your finger not enough of a deterrent? I'm happy to have her break your whole hand if that'll help you keep that shit from spewing out of your ugly, hateful mouth."

Leah shook her head in frustration. "Seth's first morning here, we walked up to the main cabin to see a building project out front. When we asked about it, Jasper said he was building us changing rooms, one for each house. We'd be able to fit in them as wolves, and it was a private place we could phase so that none of us had to put up with anyone seeing us naked if we didn't want them to. It also gave us a place to keep changes of clothes so that we didn't ruin the things we had by running with them tied to our legs. He told us we were just as deserving of dignity and respect as anyone else, that as a member of the family we should have the same ability to come and go that the rest of them did, whether in our wolf forms or as humans," she said, then stepped inside and turned the lamps on.

When Sue made no move to walk inside, Paul bumped the back of her legs with Billy's chair to nudge her along. Leah showed them the curtain for extra privacy, and pointed out how Paul had helped heighten the roof. Then she showed them the lockers and how there was a space for each wolf and one for the pack as a whole.

"Charlotte got us clothes that were easy to change into and out of, and thought about things like towels so that we could dry off after running through snow or sleet," Seth said.

"So it's about them spending money on you?" Sue sneered.

"Seriously?" Seth huffed. "That's what you get out of this? This could've been a stack of plywood just high enough to cover Leah and it would've meant the world to her. A group of people who she barely knew were more than happy to claim her as family and treat her the way she should've been treated by the people who kept shouting that being a wolf was an honor. What the Whitlocks saw was that self-respect should go hand in hand with that honor."

"Seth's right," Paul nodded. "You all kept trying to drill it into us that becoming wolves was some great privilege, but the way you and the rest of Sam's pack treated us took all the honor out of it. Jasper and his family gave that back to us."

Leah walked out and opened the front door of their cabin. "I want you to see this, too," she said quietly, starting to think this was just a wasted endeavor. She and Paul each took an arm of Billy's chair and carried it up the steps. "When Paul and I got here there were two bedrooms. After I got the call from Seth, I ran up to the main cabin and told Jasper what happened. He didn't hesitate to give me the keys to his truck, all he asked was that I try to calm down a little before getting behind the wheel so we were safe. By the time we came back, the whole back of our cabin had been redone."

Seth opened each bedroom door so they could see inside. "They turned two bedrooms into three so none of us had to share, and then made the bathroom a little bigger since there would be three of us using it rather than two. When we went up to thank them, Jasper gave me a gift from him and Bella. It was a baby outfit asking if the baby could call me Uncle Seth. This was after I'd been here for no more than twelve hours."

"He told us we were family. Wolves, vamps, human, it didn't matter… we were all a family and family looks out for each other," Leah added. "So the material things definitely made our lives easier, no doubt, but it was being enfolded into a family who cared about and respected us that has made all the difference."

"This is what our tribe should've been for us," Paul said quietly. "And it's what we're hoping to do for the tribe so that any future wolves don't have to go through what we did. We're going to turn being a Quileute protector back into the honor it should've been all along."

Leah looked at Emily a little curiously when she saw a small smile on her face. Unfortunately, she was the only one of the three who seemed to understand what the three wolves were trying to show them. Sue and Billy looked just as angry and resentful as ever.

"Come on, let's go sit so we can tell you where we're going from here," Leah sighed.

After explaining the bare outline of their plan for the tribe, Billy and Sue both started shouting.

"Any of the Cullens stepping foot on our land is a violation of the treaty," Billy yelled. "That's a declaration of war."

All three wolves gave him incredulous looks. "And who's going to enforce that?" Seth laughed. "There are no wolves and no elders. You and Sue hold no position of authority anymore."

"You can't—"

"Enough!"

Leah, Paul, and Seth looked at Emily in surprise when she cut Sue off with a shout of her own.

"They're right," she said to Billy and Sue a little more quietly. "This family took them in when they had nowhere to turn. You stripped them of their dignity, their homes, their families, their tribe. All because they tried to protect someone. You've all acted shamefully, from the council down to the last wolf in the Quileute pack. The Whitlocks are trying to make the changes that every member of that tribe deserves. You've pushed aside the needs of the humans since the moment Sam shifted the first time, and every single person noticed it. Everything that's happened, every consequence that you don't want to face, is a direct result of your actions and the actions of Sam and Jacob," she said, then turned to the three wolves. "If you let me, I'd like to help with the changes you're hoping to implement. Just like all of you deserved the dignity and respect the Whitlocks gave you, the human members of the tribe deserve the same."

"Uh…"

All three wolves were a little thrown by that.

Seeing their uncertainty, Emily nodded. "I know there are some things we need to talk about, but for now, all I could do is apologize and offer to help set things right in any way you'll allow me to."

The wolves just nodded hesitantly, not sure how to respond to that, and Leah wanted to talk to Jasper to make sure Emily wasn't trying to deceive them in order to spare herself the consequences of her actions.

"Let's head back to the main cabin," Paul said eventually. "We can talk more with the others."

As they were walking, Leah gave Sue a cheerful smile. "By the way, in addition to the million dollars Jasper has earmarked for the tribe, Seth, Paul, and I are now millionaires in our own right."

When Sue looked at her in shock, Seth laughed. "It's a real shame you're such a cold-hearted bitch. If you'd treated your kids a little better we would've made sure you were more than comfortable for the rest of your days."

While Sue crossed her arms and started stomping like a toddler, Seth, Leah, and Emily all laughed, and Paul started whistling his favorite jaunty tune.

Revenge sure was sweet.

A/N: Sorry if there were multiple notifications. There were some glaring errors that I had to edit.