Title: The Evolution of a Fluke
Author: Winter Ashby (rosweldrmr)
Disclaimer: Twilight Series © Stephenie Meyer
Rating: M (for Language)
Time Line: Post Eclipse. Future-Fic.
Summary: Leah, if not bitter and vindictive, was anything but forgiving. (Leah/Jacob)
Authors Notes: I love the werewolf mythology of the Quileute's. This was my attempt to infuse my own concepts of imprinting with the UBER angst of Jacob and Leah. I mean, come on. They are just so frickin sad. Also, this is for my new soulmate, kaiwynn, you rock for fueling my non-canon shipping.

"Stop, Jake. Just stop!" Leah put her hands to her ears, trying to block out the incessant sound of Jacob Blank droning on and on about that insipid Bella Swan.

No one would have mistaken Leah Clearwater for a patient woman, nor a very magnanimous woman. So, it was of some surprise to her when Jacob showed up on her doorstep thirty years after he ran into the forest. Twenty-nine and a half years after the treaty was violated. And twenty-two years since the hollow-stinking corpse of his beloved Bella brokered a deal for peace.

Too late to save Seth.

Leah, if not bitter and vindictive, was anything but forgiving. The loss of her brother was the end of her timid, fleeting attempts to get a handle on her animal form, something she was strangely proud of. It gave her leeway – to wander, to lash out, to fight when no one else would or could. It gave her something she never had before: purpose.

Therefore, it was not a welcome surprise to see Jacob at her doorstep, naked and half asleep. The one thing that didn't surprise her was that he looked exactly the same as he had thirty years ago. But from the look on his face when she dragged him over the stoop, he hadn't expected her to look the same. She chose, long ago, not to age. She feed him, gave him a pair of her ex-boyfriend's basketball shorts, and told him, in as many words, to get the fuck out.

If he hadn't left them, if he hadn't loved Bella, if he'd never aligned them with the vampires, if so many things had been different she could have a been human, or at least had a family. Maybe she'd still be part beast and malicious, but at least she'd still have her brother. At least she could've had a chance to have a semi-normal life, with a semi-normal husband, raising semi-normal kids.

After just as many years of researching, Leah had come to a few very frustrating, very academic conclusions.

One: she was the first female wolf in the history of her people, which extended back over 9000 years.

Two: If there had been other packs of wolves similar to the Quileute in the past, there were certainly none still in existence today. Although, she doubted that other Tribes ever had such packs. The only other tribe with a wolf-man legend Leah could find was the Blackfeet Tribe in Montana. And then, it was just the story of a man saved by a wolf, who could speak. So, Leah was forced to concede that, perhaps, there had never been other tribes with taxilit (spirit warriors) like the Quileute.

And finally, she came to the last point after decades of desperately wishing she were wrong.

She would never imprint.

She knew this because she was the record keeper for the pack, and as she categorized, and counted, she noticed the patterns. Sam and Emily's two sons had grown to join the pack, and had both imprinted young. Paul imprinted about three years after the treaty was renegotiated. His son is now a member of the pack. He'd just imprinted the previous year. Collin was late to imprint, with Sam and Emily's granddaughter. Embry left the tribe for a couple of years, to live overseas. He came back with a wife, only to imprint two years later with Jacob's five year-old niece. Rachel came back to La Plush to burry her father, and brought her kids with her. They were now married with a couple of kids too young yet to be in the pack. Jared and Kim had no sons. And Quil eventually married Claire. Their eldest son had his first transformation a few months ago. And Brady was killed eight years ago, before ever imprinting.

It wasn't until a few years ago that Leah ever allowed herself to believe that she would never find what the others had. With a tribal population of just under 1000, less than 400 on the two reservations of La Plush and Hoh, she was pretty sure she'd looked into the face of every tribes-member she ever would. She was the first and last of her breed. There were now plenty of men to keep the pack alive, and safe. Especially considering the Cullens no longer lived in Forks.

This only left her even more spiteful than she was before Sam left her. And without a family of her own, the last thing in the world she wanted was Jacob Black sitting on her porch whining about Bella Swan.

"Shut up already! She's gone. She's dead. She's worse than dead, Jake. She's one of them, our sworn enemy. The reason the pack exists. So, just get over it. They come back to Fork once every ten years, just to make sure the wolf gene will be activated in the next generation. That was part of the new Treaty. By virtue of their existence, we will never be safe. We will always be hunted, by some freak Italian bloodsucker cult who arbitrarily decided it'd be fun to hunt us. They killed Seth. They killed Brady. And you're still mooning over her like you're 17." She stood up and ushered him off her porch.

She was probably the only member of the pack, past or present that refused to coddle him. She was sick of everyone feeling so sorry for Jacob Black.

"Leah, come on." He held her arm, tighter than he would have a human girl's, and she was only a little pissed that it still bothered her to be treated differently. "I just don't think you're right about this."

"Of course I'm right. I've spent the past thirty years documenting imprinting. I could have written a doctorial thesis on it by now! I'm telling you, with 100 certainly, you will imprint, and when you do, it will be with a member of our tribe. That's how it works. I teach the younger boys not to get attached, and to maintain their age until they imprint. It's the only way to ensure the pack will be strong. Imprinting is a genetic way of choosing the best mate for breeding." She pulled her arm from his grasp and sat on the steps leading to her sea-side home. She lived a mile or two from La Plush, and everything about life that was missing or taken from her.

"It's has nothing to do with selective breeding, Leah. Imprinting is about the spirit."

"Spirit, wacky genes, call it whatever you want. It doesn't change the fact that we only imprint on members of our tribe, or that everyone, with one exception, will imprint. And that the timing of imprinting is becoming more in tune with the pack's actual ages than in the past. It doesn't take three generations to imprint anymore. Most of the members of the current pack have already imprinted. This means imprinting is changing; it evolves as the stability of the pack does. Evolution, genetics, spirit… whatever." She tossed her hand through the air and wished it were winter already.

Leah hated the summer. It made her itchy and nostalgic.

She used to love the summers, in another life.

"Maybe I missed mine, while I was gone."

"You didn't miss it. It'll just come back around again. The longer you live, the greater the likelihood that you will imprint."

Jacob sat beside her. His bare shoulder brushed against hers, and instinctively she pulled away. "What makes you think you won't imprint?"

"A scientific calculation."

"Oh," he asked, and quirked an eyebrow. "and what calculation is that?"

"A Girl plus a girl does not equal a boy. I won't imprint, because imprinting wasn't designed for a female. Imprinting is designed to create offspring so the bloodline will be passed on to the next generation of boys. I shouldn't even exist. The pack has always been men. But with the Cullens living so close, and the dwindling number of direct descendants back then, an evolutionary fluke occurred. Flukes don't procreate, and flukes certainly don't imprint." She didn't feel sorry for herself anymore. It was just a dull ache of always being different, even from the rest of them. Always on the outside, always just tolerated, never accepted. She stood to clear her mind, and to get some distance from Jake.

There was always something about his pain that reflected hers. Made her see what she'd thought she buried, like somehow his agony complimented hers. She hated it and him for showing up after so long and managing to stir up her past. He had no right to come back here, after he abandoned them, after he left his family.

"Shouldn't you be happy?" he asked, tentatively. And she was glad to see that she still intimidated him a little. "You can marry for love, anyone you want. And you won't have to worry about losing it, like Embry did. You're free."

She turned to look at him; the furry in her face was palpable against the roof of her mouth. "I only ever loved one man." She held up a finger to illustrate her point. "One. And he left me. You may have forgotten, Jake. But you're not the only one who hates imprinting. We can't all have love stories like Quil and Claire."

"Now who's acting 17?" his voice was soft, softer than it should have been. It reminded her of the way he looked at her when she spoke about her feelings, about what it was like to be a cosmic mistake. It was pity, and it only fueled the rage in her. Leah hadn't been this close to losing control in many years. His face fell into a carefully guarded mask. Perhaps he could sense the animal in her clawing its way out. "Why do you want to imprint so badly?"

"Why are you pushing me?" Leah was surprised at how ragged her voice sounded. She clamped her eyes closed, willing the beast to subside.

"It's better than watching you become me." He gripped her shoulders and her eyes flew open. The heat of his hands barely registered against her skin. She hated to be touched. She hated pity, and thinking about things like this. She hated the tenderness in his eyes, because she knew that it would only magnify the pain she was sure was in hers. "You think if you imprint, you can erase what's happened? You want to forget Sam, I get that. Part of me wants it too, wants to push Bella out. Just replace her with something realistic and intense – like a force of nature."

"Then you already know why I need it." The tremors in her arms started. But the anger was swallowed whole by the sheer depth of their shared grief. And in its wake, she was left with raw, unhindered sorrow and the gnawing fear of spending forever alone.

"No, Leah. You need to heal."

And for the first time, perhaps since her first transformation, Leah felt herself crumble. Jagged, spiteful pieces of her fell away, in the shadow of his misery. And she wept, like she was a girl again. All the fight in her was swept away, pulled back like the tide before a huge wave. Leaving her exposed and unable to cover it up with anger and brute force. She wept for Seth, she wept for Sam, and Emily – who she really did love, she wept for Jacob who still couldn't forget the face of the young girl he risked everything to love. And she wept for her father, who hadn't known this would happen, who would've patted her head and told her 'Everything will work out' the way he always did, even though she wouldn't have believe him, it would've helped.

So she misses him now, most of all. Still 17, still scared and lonely. Still just as lost as she always was, even after decades of living without him, without love or hope – she is still the same girl underneath all the mythology and cynicism.

He rubbed her arms, and let her cry. Let her burry her face in his chest and pull at the skin of his arms, demanding that he hold her tighter. And he lets her. He lets her cry, because he the only one who can, and because he's the only one who really understands what it means to break like this. He's the only one who ever had a chance to reach her.