[BamaFan121s]

Edward chuckled. “Well, be sure and extend our congratulations to him.”
I narrowed my eyes looking first at Edward and then at Jacob. “Congratulations for what?” I asked suspiciously.
“Well, it’s not really my news to tell…” Jacob teased.
“Jake…” I warned.
“Alright, alright! Emily’s pregnant.”
“Are you serious?” I gasped. “That’s really great! When did they find out? Wow…a little Sam Uley, Junior.”
“Now that you put it that way,” he teased, screwing his face into a look of mock disgust. “Speaking of kids, I’m supposed to be playing hide-and-seek with yours. You guys mind if I hang around here with her for a while?”
“Would you leave if I said yes?” I countered.
He pretended to consider that for a brief moment then grinned widely, his teeth gleaming against his dark skin. “Probably not.” And with that, he turned and sauntered off in search of his imprint.
After he was out of sight, I turned to Edward. “Wow, Sam and Emily? Can you believe it?”
Edward wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me closer. “What I can’t believe is how easily Jacob was able to con you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Talking to Leah? That’s very noble of you Bella. But I’m curious, is it really that easy for someone to talk you in to doing something for them.” He eyed me conspiratorially.
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “Well that depends on what that person is talking me into…and who it is doing the convincing? Why? What do you have in mind?”
“Oh, I have a few things in mind.” He smiled my favorite crooked smile and wagged his eyebrows suggestively.
“You must have me mistaken for someone else, Mr. Cullen. I’m not that kind of girl.” Teasingly, I turned my cheek to his smoldering eyes.
He turned my chin forcing me to meet his gaze. Then he pushed his lip out in a playful pout, mimicking Jacob. “Please?” He asked seductively.
And then my breathing caught. “I’ll race you to the cottage.”

* * * * *

The following days passed without much excitement. We resumed our normal activities and routine. Jasper, Alice, Edward and I browsed the upcoming course selection for the next term at Dartmouth. Charlie visited on occasion, sometimes alone, sometimes with Sue Clearwater.
I’d remained true to the promise I’d made to Jacob and talked to Leah. Or tried to talk to her was a more accurate way to describe it. I called her the day after we arrived home and invited her to the house. She adimately declined the invitation. I tried again the next day and although I couldn’t convince her to pay us a visit, I did manage to keep her from slamming the phone down in my ear. I was sure that there were a few wolves behind encouraging her to hear me out.
I’m not really sure that our exchange could really be classified as a conversation—that usually involved both parties. It was more along the lines of I talked and she listened. I was about to rule the attempt as hopeless and hang up the phone when she solemnly asked a question—the first noise to come from her other than grunts—that caught me off guard. “When will it go away? The pain?” That brought me up short. “I don’t know.” I replied honestly.
“Do you think that if he’d never come back?”
“I don’t know,” I said again. “I’d like to think, that in time, I would have moved on, but…” I trailed off, unsure what to say to reassure her and unwilling to lie to her outright.
“But it wouldn’t have,” she surmised. I remained silent, letting her speak freely. “I’ve seen the way you look at him. I’ve seen the way Sam looks at Emily. At the way she looks at him in return. That doesn’t ever go away.”
“No,” I agreed solemnly. “I don’t think it does.”
“But you understand?” she asked tentatively, already sure of the answer.
“Yes, I do.”
“Yes, you do.” She remained quiet for a long moment, and finally took a long, shaky breath. “And no one else ever has.”
“He’s out there for you somewhere Leah. You just haven’t found each other yet.” She didn’t respond, but I was sure I heard sniffling on the other end of the line. “Leah, I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” she scoffed, her voice hardening again. “Well, what a relief, the leach is sorry. The leach is sorry for her family having disrupted everything…for being the reason why the wolves came back to begin with!”
“Leah, I….” I stammered, taken aback.
“I gotta go.” And the line went dead.
And in that moment I understood. I understood the reason behind the hatred for my family—for me—that Leah had never been able to overcome when the rest of the pack had. If it had not been for the Cullens returning to Forks, and my meeting Edward, and the world that made sense spiraling out of control, the pack wouldn’t exist…and none of them would have imprinted. Including Sam. And that was my fault. I understood better than anyone the blinding pain that Leah felt everyday and I was the cause of it. She didn’t blame Sam, she blamed me. And she was right.
And still, despite all that, she had willingly laid her life on the line on my behalf on more than one occasion. I felt a sudden rush of sympathy for her. But more than that, I was in awe. In awe because in the months during my life when Edward had left me, when I’d clung to Jacob just to keep my sanity, I was never strong enough to persevere the way she had. She’d taken on the weight of an entire tribe, and entire way of life and never once complained about it. Sure, she was bitter, but she had every right to be. Through it all though, still she stayed strong, for her mother, for Seth, for her pack and even for the Cullens. For everyone except herself.
She could hate me with all the fury in the world for all I cared. But in that moment, I realized that I had never known another person as purely selfless as Leah Clearwater.