Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: So this story was my first ever venture into Twilight Fanfiction. It's just a one-shot, but it really gave me the bug to continue. I posted it originally in the safe confines of JBNP, and let me tell you I'm damn glad I did - it was AWFUL!

So here's the one-shot, re-tweaked, re-edited, and re-posted for your viewing pleasure. I'm not saying it's good, I'm just saying it's better than the original. ~cringe~

~Home~

A frustrated curse left her clenched teeth as the wind caught the edge of her sketchbook - for the third time in ten minutes. The charcoal in Casey's hand zig-zagged across the page, ruining the beginnings of the first landscape she had managed to outline which didn't look like something that was sketched in a moving car. With an irritated groan, she tore the paper from the pad and started anew. The light of the midday sun was just too perfect to pass up, and First Beach seemed to be beckoning to her to immortalise its beauty, if only just for today. Looking around her, she wondered if maybe she should find a better place to draw, away from the relentless breeze which seemed hell-bent on ruining her morning's work. She pulled herself to her feet, revelling in the feeling of the soft sand between her toes, and the salty scent that seemed to breathe life into her once she stood up.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to live here.

She continued down the strand, hoping to happen upon somewhere which was sheltered enough to carry on her work. Coming to a spot where the breeze seemed to thin out, she sighed happily when she caught sight of a gnarled, driftwood log that seemed to have been here as long as the beach itself had. The forest edge was closer here than it had been further up the shore, and the trees seemed to shelter the area that littlebit more from the wind.

It was perfect.

Settling herself contentedly on the sand, with her back to the wood, she turned to a new page in her book.

Sketching, as always, seemed to be the one thing that made sense in her life. Growing up on a close-knit reservation with a mother who only seemed to stick around to make life hell for her dad and his new wife, and going to a school where her evil bitch of a stepsister reigned supreme meant that you spent a lot of time away from people, and it was always better to have something engrossing to occupy her time. The last few days, however, had been more than Casey had had to deal with in her tumultuous eighteen years of life.

Last week, the road ahead had been pretty well mapped out. She'd travelled from her home on the Makah Rez to La Push, hoping to scope out the Art program at Peninsula as a lengthy detour before going home. There was another reason for making the trip, though; she was also hoping to catch up with her cousin, Seth. They'd always been pretty close, since growing up only a few months apart in age, but it felt like years since they'd hung out. He was like the brother she'd never had, and Leah could always be counted on for some honest, sisterly advice if needed. Since Leah had moved away for college several years before, Seth and Aunt Sue remained the only reasons to visit the area. Of course, with recent developments, it looked like she would be staying a lot longer.

Absent-mindedly, she registered that she'd still been sketching while her mind wandered, and she really wasn't happy with what had come out. The lines weren't as smooth as she'd envisioned, and the shading was patchy and uneven at best – there was no way it would grow into something that could do First Beach justice, and she wondered what it was that made that magic connection between hand and brain that made the crap that she'd been turning out into actual art.

Sighing again, she tore the page from her pad and grabbed a new piece of charcoal to start over. The wind couldn't be blamed for this one, but if she had any luck, maybe the practice would help.

Registering movement from the corner of her eye, she swept a strand of dark hair from her vision and squinted into the sunlight. After a second of adjustment, her eyes met the dissatisfied glare of, who she now knew to be, Jacob Black. It wasn't just Casey - everyone knew who Jacob was; she'd learned more than she'd ever cared to in the past few days, including that he was the closest thing to royalty the tribe had, and he acted like it was the most important – least fun – job on the planet. His face was pulled into a mask of eerie calm which seemed in turn to keep every muscle in his body tense. He looked like an animal poised to attack, and she supposed, in many ways, he was. Somehow, though, a gut feeling within Casey told her that this scene was all wrong. Looking at Jacob a little closer, he had laughter lines around his eyes – like someone who just never kept his happiness contained, until it overflowed onto everyone around him, surrounding them and filling them up, enveloping them in the warmth of his character.

Now, though, she couldn't imagine what it looked like when Jacob smiled. She really, truly thought that if he laughed, the disused muscles in his face would cause it to crack in two.

Her heart hammered loudly against her ribs and she grasped at her chest single-handedly upon setting eyes on him, willing her breathing to slow down. After a dry swallow, she attempted speech.

"Hey, Jacob," she ventured, nervously. Why does he always put me on edge?

His onyx eyes seemed to zero in on her own, and he tore his gaze away only to take in the sight of the log and the sand surrounding her. A curt nod accompanied by a snort was her only reply, and he turned his long, loping strides away from her, covering a vast distance with minimal effort.

A few days ago, the man before her had been but a stranger, but Casey now knew all about him, and that she and Jacob were irrevocably part of each other's lives. Learning the wolves' secret, and how she now fit into that life, had been somewhat of a bomb dropped right into her lap. Sure, she'd heard the legends many times during visits when Uncle Harry had brought her and Seth to the numerous bonfires. She'd even played 'Wolves and Villagers' with her cousins when they were kids, but learning just how much truth had gone into those stories had knocked the wind right out of her. And that was before she'd encountered a very smug Quil Ateara phase back human into his naked glory, unabashed and almost more curious as to her reaction to his human form than the wolf one. She coughed to dispel the embarrassment that particular memory still caused.

Her reverie was broken by a warm body slumping clumsily to the ground beside her, covering her blank page with sand, and she turned her attention to the mischievous grin of her cousin, dressed in his uniform of cut-off shorts - and not much else.

"What'cha doin', Case?" Seth said, his brow furrowing as he registered her breathing only just returning to normal. "Everything alright?"

Casey nodded, relieved that she wasn't alone any more. She couldn't explain it, but something about the way Jacob had looked at her was unnerving.

"Just doing some portfolio stuff, I didn't hear you guys coming," she replied, her vision for the first time taking in the group of tall, muscular men emerging from the tree line.

"Ah, figures. It's something you should probably get used to though, if you're gonna be sticking around," he prodded, and she recognised the thinly-veiled question in his words.

"I don't know. Seth, it doesn't really figure in with my life plans, y'know?" Casey answered.

The pressure the pack had exerted in the days since she learned their secret had been nothing short of suffocating. She knew they were all great guys, but did she really want to give up a future, give up options, because of some ancient wolf magic? It all seemed too much to sacrifice for a guy she wasn't sure shewas into, let alone loved.

"I get it, believe me," he said, his eyes focusing on the middle distance, too withdrawn to really be seeing anything. "But it's not so bad, and hey, you were looking at colleges in the area anyway, right? So it wouldn't be that much of a stretch for you."

"What about after? I mean, we can't really travel the world, can we? There was so much I wanted to do, places I wanted to see.."

Seth chewed on his lip as she trailed off , barely waiting for her to finish and clearly well versed in this debate, champing at the bit with his own argument. Casey wondered if he was preparing to have this particular discussion with his own imprint some day.

"We won't be wolves forever, Case. In a few years we'll have more freedom. Believe me, he'll take you anywhere you want to go. You're his imprint," he enunciated. "It's one of the perks of the job, along with the hot bod and never having to buy a heating pad." He ended his sales-pitch with a grin, eyebrows waggling with insinuation.

"Not appropriate, cuz," Casey laughed.

"I'd just really like it if you moved here. I have an opening for big sister I need filled. Nobody has insulted my dress sense or taste in women in a long time. Lee can only do so much over the phone," he whined dramatically. Then, more quietly he added: "He needs you, sure, but so do I."

She could see the traces of sincerity in the way he failed to meet her gaze. It was a lot to think about, but Casey was sure that even without the imprinting, she would probably move here to be with the only people who felt like family to her.

Wolves or no, La Push could really be a home.

"I am thinking about it," she surrendered, and was rewarded with the warmest, most bone-crushing hug she'd ever had.

"Puny human here, Seth!" she spluttered, and he sheepishly relinquished his hold. Just then, a shadow fell over them, and a shiver ran down Casey's spine.

Jacob.

"Hey Jake! Casey said she'd think about moving to the Rez, isn't that great?" Seth said breezily.

Once again, Jacob's gaze was intent on Casey's, and it seemed like the sea breeze had finally made it to their part of the beach. Seth was met with no more than an icy shrug and a muttered 'Cool'.

Jacob wandered off towards where the wolf pack were arguing over teams in, what was sure to be an aggressive, game of football. Apparently, somehow the teams hadn't been fair since Leah bailed, but not everyone agreed that she'd balanced out the numbers in the first place. It seemed to be an ongoing debate, carried on from the last time they'd made an attempt at organised sports. Whatever the argument was about, Quil seemed to believe the only way of resolving it was taking the ball and punting it into the tide. The result was a six-wolf-high pile up with a certain wolf crying "Mercy!" from the bottom.

"Why does he look at me like that?" Casey asked, curious as to why the largest of the pack seemed intent on freaking her out. There was a few beats of silence as Seth followed her gaze, and she wondered if she was to be thoroughly fobbed off or if Seth would actually be straight with her.

"Jake? Oh he's the Alpha, it's in their genes or something. Alphas are always wary of new people being let in on our furry secret, regardless of whose imprints they are." He turned in the sand to face her. "He can't really help it, so you shouldn't take it personally," he evaded, and Casey knew it had been option number one; Seth was lying, or defending Jacob, and after all she'd learned over the past few days, she was sure there was a damn good reason as to why. It didn't mean she didn't want to get to the bottom of it, though.

"It's kind of hard not to when he looks like he wants to claw out my insides for lunch," she retorted. "Come on, what's his deal?"

Seth sighed, as if she'd asked him to explain String Theory to a poodle.

"It's... complicated," he said, hesitating as if he didn't know where to start. "It's just that you kind of remind him of someone, and it's someone he'd rather forget, if you know what I mean."

Casey could guess. "Oh. Ex-girlfriend?" she asked, and Seth's mouth turned up on one side in contemplation.

"Not exactly. They never really got to that point. She loved Jake, but a lot of stuff happened and they never weaved through all of the crap to finally get together," he replied, and Casey's curiosity was only piqued more. Gossip was a pastime you naturally grew up with when you lived somewhere that everyone knew everyone's business, and the equivalent of tabloid gossip was what happened earlier that day at the Reservation store.

"What happened?" she asked, hoping for something to keep her mind off the life-changing decisions she'd soon be making. Seth cleared his throat uncomfortably and rose to his feet, diminishing Casey's hope of a good story. She should have known that Jacob's business was just that - Jacob's business - and no matter how much a part of each others lives they had become, she should respect his privacy, and if he ever wanted to bring it up himself, she should leave that upto him.

That was, until her cousin reached out a long, muscular arm to pull her up to her feet and dusted sand off his cut-offs.

"If you want to hear this story, I think we'd better take a long walk," he sighed, eyes darting almost invisibly back to the ruckus that loosely resembled a football game, and Casey began to follow his extended strides back down the beach the way she came. When they were what he considered a safe distance from the rest of the pack, Seth began to speak.

"It all started when Bella moved back to Forks to live with her father, and she met Edward Cullen..."

"... and she just told him she loved him but it wasn't enough? Gosh, poor Jake. It seems so cruel.." she mused sympathetically, her heart constricting for the stoic alpha she'd not so long ago been afraid of. It all seemed to go some way into explaining his character, to unravelling the complext puzzle of the guy with the laughter-lines who never laughed.

"Yeah it was, but you have to remember that they were just kids, we all were. Still are, in most ways. Bella wasn't sure what she wanted. She wasn't great with decisions, and Edward wasn't a normal vamp. He could offer her so much more than Jake could, and I think Jake knew that," Seth answered. He seemed to be defensive of Bella's decision, even after seeing what it had done to his alpha and friend.

"So that's it? She just married the vampire and left?"

"Hell no, it wouldn't be a good story without the dramatic gesture," he replied, smirk dancing on the side of his mouth and an admonishing eyebrow raised. "It's just a shame Bella waited until her wedding day to figure out she didn't want to leave a human life behind..."

Casey's eyes widened at the twist in the tragic tale. "She didn't!"

"She did," Seth replied softly, enjoying the reaction of his captive audience, but somewhat lost in the memory of the day. "I'll never forget the sight of her tripping over that puff-ball wedding dress trying to get into her beat up old truck."

"Jake had gone wolf a few weeks before the wedding, he couldn't handle how everything got so real when he received the invitation. He just...checked out," he finished, shaking his head glumly.

"It took a month, but with our help, she found him. He was in Vancouver, human again, but with a girl."

"No way!"

"Bella thought he'd been lying about his feelings for her the whole time, or worse yet - had imprinted, and she fled before ever talking to him. Of course now we know that was impossible," Seth said, eyeing Casey conspiratorially.

"Didn't he track her down to explain?"

"He tried, but she wouldn't see him. She wouldn't take his calls, changed email addresses, and his letters came back unopened," Seth said absently. As he continued to talk, his own theories came to light, all the questions that Jacob had posed about Bella over the years having long since been ingrained on the Pack's collective psyche. Each and every one of them, at one time or another, wondered exactly why Bella Swan would give up a future with Jacob without letting him have one last shot.

"Maybe she decided her heart had been broken enough for one lifetime, and didn't want to risk letting it happen again. Maybe she just loved Jake too much to be a distraction for him; she thought he'd found his soulmate, after all,"

It seemed then that Seth stumbled back into the moment, and shook off the remnants of Jacob's heartbreak. It was a constant shadow over everything they did – their lives and minds and hearts were so intertwined that the emotions of one affected them all. Break a wolf's heart, and you crushed an entire Pack. Give the wolf happiness, and you have a warm and loving family for the rest of your days.

"She went to college after that, and moved out of state. He wrote a final time telling her he hadn't imprinted on the girl, and needed to see her in person to talk, but she eventually replied saying she wanted a clean break and she'd met someone else."

"Oh god, poor Jake," Casey answered.

"It was bullshit, we all knew that if Bella didn't have Jake she wasn't going to end up with anyone else. He went to her campus to see her, but he saw her heading out for an evening with a group of friends, some of them guys. She looked so happy in a normal human life, he kept his distance, he cared too much about her to disturb it."

Seth looked out over the ocean, pausing to throw a rock into the depths, much farther than a human could. It wasn't showing off, it was just part of who he was now, who they had all become. They'd grown accustomed to their duty, their purpose, and the importance of what they did to those they loved. As people, they didn't have a whole lot to look forward to anymore, so when they found something that made them happy, something that once again made them truly excited about the future, they held on with an iron grip. Casey knew that no matter what her choice, she'd never not be a part of their lives again. She had transformed, too.

"He gave her the clean break she wanted. I think she was so afraid of the possibility of him imprinting that she didn't dare open herself up to that."

Casey sighed, mulling over the new information and the heartbreaking story she was now privy to. She finally understood Jake's behaviour, and couldn't find it in her to resent him for it anymore. Not only that, but by entering his life, she was a constant, painful reminder of what Jacob had lost. Casey not only looked like Bella, but the imprint meant she was a symbol of why he lost her. Unfounded guilt wracked at her conscience, and she felt unshed tears stinging her eyes.

Enthusiastic chatter behind them turned her attention around, and she was met with the sight of the pack closing the distance up the beach. Jacob trailed along half-heartedly behind them, eyes trained on the sparkling water as the breeze pulled his hair away from his face, exposing the chiselled magnificence of his heritage and his genealogy, right there in his features for the world to see. Take away the modern clothing, ignore the twentieth-century buildings in the distance, and Jacob Black had the presence and stance of an ancient warrior, walking the land he loved and cultivated, protecting it from harm without a second's hesitation. Inspiration spiked in the pit of Casey's stomach, as she imagined immortalising the imagined scene, and showing Jacob that he was every bit as valuable and noteworthy as the warriors of his tribe's stories... but she thought better of it.

With everything Jacob had gained in birthright and reputation, it had been robbed of him in happiness and choice, and Casey's heart broke for him once more.

"Looks like someone missed you," Seth muttered smugly, and the sly smile adorning his features left no room for confusion. It took less than a second to seek him out, but the unmistakable pull, the tether from one heart to another made her feel that she could be blindfolded and put in a darkened room, and still she would be able to seek her wolf out. But still, she'd never called him 'her wolf' before.

Embry Call, forcing down a beaming smile, broke away from his brothers and jogged the short distance to Casey and Seth.

"Hey," he said, and she sensed the thinly-veiled effort to appear nonchalant. "I was wondering where you were." He took her hand and the warmth that bloomed from the gesture soothed the ache in her heart for his unfortunate pack brother.

"Seth was just telling me a story," she replied with a new-found shyness. The butterflies in her stomach were clouding any negative thoughts, and for the first time, she wondered what it would be like to just let them free.

"Oh? I hope it was a good one. Preferably with robots. Or dragons. Dragons are always good." His face cracked into a heartbreaking smile then, and Casey couldn't recall a single reason she was hesitating in her decision to move to La Push. Of all the wolves to imprint on her, she was pretty sure Embry would have been top choice.

"It was a love story, actually. It was pretty sad, though," she said, pointedly shifting her stare into Jake's direction. Embry followed her gaze, and recognition spread over his features. The same shadow she'd seen on Seth's face clouded Embry's expression, but Casey instinctively knew that, even if he didn't have to share a conscious with Jacob, he'd still feel the same way. They were brothers, in every way that counted, and Embry couldn't stand to see Jacob suffer. He sighed heavily with sympathy for his best friend, and squeezed Casey's hand just a little tighter.

"I see."

"I had no idea things like that happened outside of romance novels," she said thoughtfully, in an effort to break the tension. She'd decided already that she didn't like it much when Embry wasn't smiling, It was like the world grew that little bit colder. Luckily for her, the chill didn't last.

"Uh-oh, don't tell me you're one of those Prince Charming girls, are you?" he wailed dramatically, pressing the back of his free hand to his forehead."What have I gotten myself into?" Casey scoffed and smacked his firm chest good-naturedly.

"No, I just think some people deserve their happy ending. It's not so hopeless is it?" she asked, eyeing Embry's small smirk. He was looking off into something in the distance, and she couldn't help but be curious as to what had snagged his focus.

"Embry?"

"It's not hopeless, Case. In fact, I think there may be a happy ending after all."

She followed his line of sight and came to rest on the sight of a petite, pale brunette ambling towards them, stumbling over the sand with the effort of every third or fourth step. As she got closer, Casey could make out the tracks of tears on her pretty face, and the small, crumpled envelope clutched to her abdomen with both hands. Her chest was heaving with the effort of the sobs that wracked her body, and the half-run she'd broken into once she'd spotted the Pack. She darted past them to the imposing frame of their Alpha, and stopped.

Both figures stood rigid as they drank in the sight of one another, and silence fell on the beach.

Tentatively, she took a step and rasped an incoherent syllable before clearing her throat and trying again.

"I was moving out of my dorm...I found... it's one of your..." she stammered, holding out the envelope by way of explanation. His gaze fell to the now ruined letter and shot back up to hers, tremors of what could only be described as hope shining in them as he surveyed her expression.

"I didn't read... I never knew...why didn't you tell me?" she attempted, and the Alpha's gaze fell to her shoes.

"I didn't want to be a compulsion, I wanted to be a choice, Bells," was the reply, and his eyes flitted back to catch her own. The Pack could only look on with rapt attention.

"So it's true? You im- I mean, I'm your-" the rest of the sentence was drowned out in the shuddering breath that overtook her small body.

"It's only ever been you, Bells."

With that, she collapsed into his embrace, both figures grasping tight to what had been denied of them for so long. The deafening silence was finally punctuated by the ever tactful Quil Ateara.

"Bout time you pulled your head outta your ass, Swan!"

Casey needed no explanation as to who the young woman was, one look at Jacob's face told her everything she could ever want to know.

Bella Swan was home.