lightside.
—Sam Uley.

I was silent. Somehow, my intellect failed me now, only making my stupor more sluggish than it had been. Really, what was I supposed to say? I couldn’t even hope to think straight, let alone answer Emily’s impatience. She hated being out of the loop, especially when it came to her boys—her puppies—and, when it came to the recently departed Jacob Black, she was unrelenting. My brain processed it—barely, I guessed—because Emily halted all assaults on me. She only did when I was in thinking mode. My brow deepened, calculating. It really was too much, the irony of it all, how it laughed sourly at convention. I was momentarily distracted by Emily's whimpering. It must be torturing her, more so than knowing it tortured me. It wasn't about me though, or about Emily, in the "big picture". Imprinting was all about the big picture. Still, to stop her from making any sick jokes about how she wished that she was a werewolf—shapshifer?—so that she could instantly know what everyone else knew, I growled. It was more hostile than I thought, but maybe I was more angry than I knew. I did feel irriated, if not humiliated.

Finally, I spoke, my words clumped together in a chortle. "Saved by the grace of her genetics, Em! So her chromosome counts just happens to match Jacob Blacks!"

Emily, still impatiently confused, rattled. "Who—what about Jacob's chromosomes?"

I didn't respond, thoughtful again. I didn't want to believe it—couldn't imagine it concievable—that such a thing, a girl apparently, was as precious as my Emily. Bella had made her own choices, albeit how irresponsible and personally dangerous they were. Throwing her soul in the garbage to be a Cullen endangered no one but herself, and maybe the Cullens. I'd never dreamt that such a thing were possible. Couldn't genetics see how fowl and against-nature her very existence was? Bella wanted to be a leech? Fine. She wanted to live eternally with her new husband? Also fine. She wanted to drag Jacob Black down with her? Not fine. But it was decided before the panel had time to debate. It was over. Done. Finished. Jacob could just as easily leave her as I could Emily. Also impossible.

I thought it over again, but Emily was beyond patience now, and I couldn't blame her.

"Jacob," a cynical laugh embraced his name. "Imprinted today."

Emily was finally stunned silent as I was. Her face, scrunched in a jagged line—I swallowed back bile at the memory—was thoughtful now. I'm sure, even though I didn't know her every thought, every vision, she was considering his potential imprintees. "Was it Bella Swan?" Cullen now, Emily.

I'd almost wished it was, but I shook my head, defeated by the sin-against-nature. We couldn't kill her now, dangerous or not. She could massacre all of La Push if her little heart desired (and I had no trouble believing she would), but we could never lay one ill-intentioned finger—or paw—on her now. Her life was saved today, by a supposed rare tradition. Imprinting made the difference, it seemed. If she was the cause of my Emily's last breath, I couldn't pull her to shreds, cause her dying breath. Did she even breathe? Small, tingling bumps surfaced over my arms—I would find out later, no doubt, what kind of phenotypic things this child picked up from her mortal-immortal lineage. It was ironic. Totally and disgustingly ironic.

I correct my earlier mistake. "It wasn't Bella, exactly, Em. More like," I shuddered against the combination, "Bella and Edward."

Emily wasn't slow. For a moment, though, her expression was confused. Maybe it was dazed. But In an instant her eyes opened like shutters, and her jaw dropped. "No." She bit her lip, whispering harshly. "No." She repeated. "It's—"

"Very possible." I corrected her before she could say it wasn't. Who was I to talk like such a thing were common-knowledge, perfectly scientific? "Apparently." I added bitterly.

I watched Emily's startled face for many moments, watching as she drew her own conclusions. I was pretty sure they mirrored mine—abomination, blasphemy, inconcievable! But then the betrayal hit, strong and swift as any hurricane winds. Her face softened slightly, her sweet lips curling into a tiny grin. She looked as though she were adoring one of her boys, one of her own. It hit me harder, over and over again. Why did she look so happy all-of-a-sudden? It wasn't right.

"Jacob." Emily said, to no one really. Maybe the Jacob in her head—the easy going, sarcastic boy from La Push. Billy Black's son. Not the Alpha who led Leah—I scrunched again—and Seth Clearwater. Not the wolf who imprinted on the worst possible candidate.

"Damn." I said, to no one really, although Emily's still face was now disturbed. She glanced at me, eyes curious.

"Have you seen her, Sam?"

"I haven't—not yet, Em. I haven't gotten the chance to look at the damage yet, the little monster. I only heard Quil's thoughts, who was told by Seth, who, as you know, is tuned into Jacob and—"

I paused, a bit frightened. The mask of Emily's face reminded me faintly of how that glinting scar found its way onto her beautiful, once flawless face. She snarled in a cute-angry way, perfectly disgusted. Maybe she'd finally gotten what trouble this meant for us—for her boys. For all of La Push and Forks.

"Samuel Uley, how dare you. Now, I didn't like this, um. Situation any more than you did, but did you think Jacob would—could!—imprint on anything that was a monster?! Not my Jacob. Don't call her—"

"Ruh-nessie-something," I interjected dumbly.

"A monster. That would just tear my Jacob into pieces."

"Her Jacob now."

Emily did seem hurt by that, and I regretted mentioning it, no matter how true—I shuddered again—it was now. Emily would always thing of Jacob as her Jacob, as she did with the other rowdy wolves in my pack. They were a boisterous, moronic bunch overall, but they were our bunch of morons. That's all the counted. But it didn't seem like that to me now. When Quil imprinted—even when Jared and Paul did—it was a celebration. We were welcoming Claire, and then Kim and Rachel, into our pack, our family. But with Jacob, I knew, and Emily may have yet to think of it, but I knew... we were losing Jacob to a coven of 'vegetarian' Vampires. I couldn't fathom any scenario where we'd welcome her into our family with open arms. The Cullens were more likely to take to Jacob.

Essentially, he was her Jacob now. Their Jacob. Emily's Jacob might not imprint on a monster, but he wasn't hers anymore.

I paused, assesing Emily's soft, nostaligic face. My giant hand traced her jaw, and I wondered—very, very briefly—if Jacob would (could) love that monster like I love Emily. No, Jacob wasn't a blind man seeing the sun for the very first time. He was just blind.

"Let's go see the damage," I laughed again, cynically, and grabbed Emily's hand. The drive to go see the Cullens' probably wouldn't take very long, but I planned on driving slower than usual.

© Disclaimer: I own nothing from Twilightverse,
or any of the pretty quotes used. All characters, places, and
quotes remain the intellectual and creative property of whoever
they belong to, which, if you did not catch, is not me.

I actually like this. I couldn't find any other submissions that highlightdd anything about what the pack thought about Jacob's imprint on Renesmee. I know Sam isn't the cold guy I necessarily made him out to be, but he couldn't have been like "Oh, Jacob finally imprinted? Oh, how wonderful." Especially after finding out it was the evil-spawn-baby Renesmee, who turned out to be not so evil-spawn-ish. I wished Stephenie Meyer covered someone's reaction to it in the BD other than Bella's, but she didn't. I'd like to Seth and Leah's, too. Whatever. If you feel up to it, I challenge anyone to write a sequel or companion fic to this, illustrating either Sam/Emily's (or anyone else of the La Push gang) reaction to meeting Renesmee, or their reactions to learning of Jacob's imprint. Well, thanks for reading!

Review, plsh?

¤ composed by lunamaria.