Summary: A lapse in judgement forces them to realise a truth about consequences. That sometimes living with the consequences is the greatest chance they'll ever get. An alternate direction in the pre/Entangled universe. Where Edward and Leah fight against fate and destiny.

Rating: M

Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to Stephanie Meyer

Author Pre-notes: If you have not read Entangled, here is a summary of what you need to know.

Edward ends the relationship with Bella before the wedding.

Jacob and Bella decide to attempt a relationship and move to Arizona and away from the Supernatural. Months after they leave together, the Volturi descend on Forks and LaPush, led by Demetri, to find Bella and turn her, had the Cullen's not kept their promise. Unfortunately, their sights were set to the Quileute Reservation after coming up empty with the human girl.

A war raged; with Colin Littlesea, Jane, Alec and Felix all becoming casualties of the war, allowing Demetri to only get out by a fingernail. During the war, Sam had abandoned the pack for his imprint, leaving Leah as Alpha and Seth as Beta. Both were injured critically. Rachel Black, a doctor, accepts Edward's help in saving the siblings, having come back to protect Bella, only to find out she was no longer in the area.

Very little will be lifted from Entangled, and will hopefully give a different insight into Leah and Edward's world.

Entwined

verb; past tense. wind or twist together; interweave

[ I ]

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Edward sits on the floor next to her cot, his legs drawn up and his forearms resting on his knees. The crisp light blue dress shirt he wears is rolled up to his elbows, his hands still stained with wolf blood.

The female is covered in bandages and is still not breathing completely on her own. Her chest rises and falls shallowly so he sits in wait, gauging her condition while Rachel Black lays sleeping near Seth, her hands tucked under her head, exhausted from the day gone.

Because they are alone, he can't help but stare at the wolf-girl as she lays unmoving. Her eyelashes brush against her cheek bones, fluttering slightly as her eyes unconsciously move under her lids.

Letting his head drop, he tries to block out the barraging string of thoughts that the thrones of humans just outside the internal door throw out. Their thoughts pulsate through him, accusations and fear all ringing true. They are frightened to have him so close, to allow him to stay and help, even though he has offered nothing to have them doubt his intentions.

Like a knife through butter, a single thought rings out, drowning the mangled chatter of the humans. It's a single ribbon, but it's so clear he swears he could almost hear her raspy voice. It whispers only two words, words he would never expect from a mortal enemy.

'Thank you.'

.

When Leah wakes, a slither of sunlight catches her barely open eyes.

She grimaces and presses her eyes together tightly causing a pain to throb in her temple. Her throat is dry and every part of her body hurts, not only the outside, but deep inside, as if she has been thrown from a ten-storey building and lived to tell the tale.

There's an uncomfortable pressure in her neck and chest and her fingers slowly rise to touch her face. Bandages cover a majority of the area but it's the tube leading to her mouth and down her throat that gauges the most attention. Tears prickle at her eyes when she tries to pull the tube. It seems endless as she pulls, and she feels it as it slides inside her chest, pressing into the flesh of her oesophagus.

"Honestly... so impatient," she hears a male voice mutter, before a blur of pale skin and copper hair stands by her bed. "Ms Clearwater, please lay back down, let me assist you before you hurt yourself more."

She does as she's told, even though her eyes are glassy and the image in front of her is blurred. She could swear the person looked exactly like Edward Cullen. Which would be impossible, because, well, it just was. Edward had left Forks almost a year ago, forsaking both his family and Isabella Swan.

He uses the most delicate touch and removes the tube without causing much more pain. Her throat is dry and hoarse when she tries to speak, so when she feels a straw touching her lip, she is relieved.

"Drink this first. It's a mix of essential minerals and an electrolyte enhancer. It will help with your healing abilities. And there really is no reason to speak. I can hear your thoughts now that you are awake."

She presses her lips together and slowly sips the cool liquid. It goes down easily but it feels as if there are tears in her oesophagus because it's an uncomfortable motion. She winces at the soft burn as her throat gets use to the feeling. It's not an issue considering she feels like death warmed up, though the bigger issue remains.

What was Edward doing here and why was she accepting help from a vampire? Especially this one.

"You suffered a lot of internal injuries as well as external. It's going to take time to recover. Some things may take longer than usual."

'What things?' she wants to ask but she still can't get her voice to work.

She blinks, trying to will away the blur behind her eyes, when she hears him huff. The world around her is still only fuzzy shapes and strange smells. Light contrasting off of light, confusing all of her vital senses at once.

"We can't be certain until we get you mobile and walking around. You were very lucky to survive," he says softly as a reply to her thoughts, something akin to concern lacing his smooth velvet voice.

'How is everyone? The pack? Were there casualties?' she thinks at him, the pain in her abdomen and back flaring as she struggles to move. Panic, and the feeling of sinking engulfs her mind, causing a splitting headache. She wants to grasp her head in her hands but her arms and even fingers refuse to move again.

"Please, calm down. You'll be able to talk to the pack once you rest a bit longer. I'm going to give you a sedative to help, and some more morphine for the pain."

She remembers Jacob's reaction to morphine after the newborn war and tries to convey that she would rather go without. She had seen the absolute pain he had been in, his whole body covered in sweat, the terrible nightmares because of it.

"I promise to be here, Ms Clearwater. If you experience any adverse symptoms, I'll be sure to lower or increase the dosage to make you more comfortable. Your metabolism is still quite slow from the venom, so you shouldn't burn through it too quickly."

Leah shifts her head on the pillow, watching as his blurred shape stands beside her bed, toying with something above her head.

"Everything is being received through intravenous drip. You should feel yourself becoming tired very soon."

'Edward, why are you helping me?'

Another sigh.

"I'll let you sleep, now. I'll answer any questions I can, once you wake."

Before he even finishes his sentence, a world of darkness welcomes her.

.

Leah sits on the white sofa.

Bandages still surround half her body, but she feels better having showered, eaten and dressed in something other than a paper dress with half her ass hanging out the back. It's not that she's ungrateful. More just - annoyed. Between the paper dress, the inability to grace the bathroom herself, the sickly scent always germinating in the house, she's way past annoyed. She can feel the tendons in her back pull tightly as she shifts on the couch and struggles to bite back a whimper.

"It fucking reeks in here," Jared comments as he slips through the open door, Paul, Embry and Quil following close behind him.

"Tell me about it. I'm the one stuck here." Leah scowls as her pack finally decides to show up.

Late as usual.

"You're not stuck here, Leah. You're under our care," Rachel Black snarks as she bounds down the stairs with another round of pain medication in her tiny hands.

Leah shoots an annoyed glare at the woman but is met with nothing but a smirk.

"It looks different from the last time we were here," Embry remarks as he gives a swift push at Quil with his elbow, who hovers much to close for his liking.

"Yeah. Way different. Even though the party sucked. Is it a pale face thing to have chips and crackers? I mean damn, they could have at least served up something with a bit of bite? Burgers, hotdogs-" Quil responds as he takes a seat next to Leah, jolting her frame.

She grits her teeth and holds the bandages over her stomach and ribs. "Dick. Head." she bites out through the pain.

"Oh fuck, Lee. I'm so sorry. Shit!" Quil panics as he leaps to his feet and moves as far away from her as possible.

"Forget it." She grumbles as Rachel hands her a cocktail of pills and she downs them with a glass of water from the girl as well.

After a few heavy breaths Leah rights herself on the couch, looking over the boys.

Her boys.

"How are they?"

The mood seems to plummet from her words. Colin's funeral had been several days ago, and with the order of bed-rest looming over her, she hadn't even been able to attend. There was something about her absence that didn't sit right with her conscious. She was technically their Alpha at the time, and Colin had died under her watch.

Embry sighs as he runs a tight hand through his hair. "They've... been better. Charlotte is over there now."

Leah nods at the affirmation. Charlotte was good people and she was more than grateful the girl had taken on a caretaker role for the Littlesea's by helping organise the funeral and even going as far as cooking for the wake. She was glad Embry had her as a girlfriend, even if they were fairly new in their relationship. The pain was still so raw, not only for the family but for each and every one of them. Losing a brother hurt like hell, even if he wasn't related to them by blood.

"And Brady?"

Embry gives her a stern look and she understands without the exchange of words. Brady was Colin's best friend and even in death, Leah knows nothing could sever a connection like that.

"What about my brother?" she asks, her eyes zeroing in on Jared.

"He's up and about. That's all we can ask for at this stage." he replies as he sits tentatively on the couch across from her.

Seth had been released from Rachel's care days ago and had dragged himself back to LaPush. He didn't want to stay in the Cullen home any more than she did. Paul was still at odds having to leave Rachel alone in the huge monstrosity of a house, so she would visit twice a day for a few hours and in her absence, Edward remained as her primary caretaker.

Being cared for by not only a vampire, but one who was stuck as a seventeen-year-old boy was strange enough. She had to admit that Edward didn't look seventeen though. His eyes gave his true age away, and she could see past that honey golden hue that hid the truth. He may have officially been seventeen, but he had been that way for longer than she could have ever imagined.

"So," Paul drawls, his skin itching in agitation at the smell inside the large house, "When are you going to be cut loose?"

All their eyes snap to Rachel who is still hovering in the room.

"It's going to still be a few more weeks."

Leah groans, Paul scoffs and the rest of the boy's frown at the statement.

.

Edward holds her elbow gently as he guides her down the back steps. Each step is met with a tiny whimper, or groan, and he feels impossibly helpless.

"We can stop if you like?" he asks as he stills so she cannot move forward. He feels slightly embarrassed at the way he hovers over the female wolf, but he knows it's for her own good. Over the last three weeks he has found that she is completely stubborn, more stubborn than both Rosalie and Bella combined, which is a feat within itself.

"No. I can do this. Plus, I'm sick of being in that house. No offence but you smell horrible, Cullen." she grinds out.

"The feelings are reciprocated, I assure you." He says gently.

She laughs under her breath, an action which he has not anticipated. It takes him off guard to see light dancing in her eyes, even if it is briefly and fades just as fast as it comes. He steps down carefully, allowing her weight to rest against him as they take the last few steps. The crisp smell of morning dances around them, the cool winds lacing them both in comfort. Nature is at its finest, deep in the corner of the forest where the Cullen home sits.

When her bare feet hit the dewy grass, she sighs in contentment. It's been weeks hauled up inside the house and it's her first taste of an almost freedom.

'Why is it so quiet here?' she asks softly in her head, turning to him.

Her almond eyes gaze at him as the wind picks up tendrils of her jaw length hair, pushing the softness over the side of her face. His fingers itch, remembering an almost automatic motion of dusting stray hairs from Bella's heart shaped face.

"The animals sense the danger." He tells her with a small frown. "However, they rarely ever come close enough to understand what the danger is. I figure it's a self-preservation mechanism."

"Huh. Smart." She replies as her weight loosens on him.

He almost panics.

"It's fine, Edward. I need to do this myself. I won't always have you by my side."

He presses his lips into a firm line, his instinct to tell her she's wrong is strong inside of him. He doesn't speak though, but rather watches as she takes timid steps across the green grass. He doesn't want to voice any of his thoughts to her, in fear she will misconstrue his intentions. She is still so raw with hurt, both physically and emotionally, that he will allow her time to see his truth; to feel it, rather than hear it.

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