Seth drummed his fingers against the door of Chief Swan's cruiser, not entirely enjoying the oldies crooning from the radio, but following the beat none the less. Charlie had never been much for conversation so the tunes were better than silence or awkward ice breakers. They had just come from La Push and were driving along the main road through Forks when Charlie's radio buzzed and he agreed to help some lost tourist find their way.

"Sorry, Seth." The older man grumbled wearily as he turned the car toward his new objective. "I'll bring you out to your friend's as soon as I'm done with this."
"No hurry, Chief, I don't mind." Seth assured him happily. They had still been a bit away from his friend's and he usually liked meeting the people who passed through Forks. Travelers had the best stories.

The two had to wind down a back road and further out of the town to get out to the wayward roamer. For a while it seemed they might not ever find them and Charlie had to call back in to the station to make sure that he was in the right place. They warned him that the woman had refused to stay in one place and might have even left already. Just as Seth was starting to notice Charlie's agitation rising, he spotted a little, blue and white VW bug parked on the shoulder and Charlie pulled up behind it.

The chief told Seth to stay put in the car and the teen dolefully obeyed. He watched out the windshield as Charlie approached the other car and found it abandoned. The older man threw a glance into the trees on both sides of the road before he noticed a figure trotting toward him from a ways up the street. Seth chuckled at the sight of the girl; a heap of windblown, blonde hair flying around her, a pink flip-flop on her left foot and its mud sodden mate hanging from the fingers of one hand, and a too big map held up over her eyes in place of a visor. He didn't understand what she was shielding herself from, Forks was as cloudy as ever.

As she came closer she lifted her eyeshade and gave Charlie a thankful grin. Seth didn't understand this, either.

One look at the girl's face and Seth felt something he had never imagined a person ever could feel. Something inside him shifted and seemed to transfix to her. She was a thief, she had broken in past the walls of his skin and vault of his bones and she stole away some portion of his very soul. It didn't matter who she was, what her name was, where she'd come from, what sort of life she lived, because none of that ever mattered about a rogue. All that mattered was what she had taken and what she would do with it. Now, she possessed him. Now, his will and all his life were in her hands.

Seth was roused by Charlie's knuckles rapping lightly on the car frame as he slipped back into the driver's seat. "Alright, turns out she was looking for the Cullens' place. We're going to lead her over there and then I'll drop you off." He told the boy, a soft note of exhaustion seeping in to his voice at the end. It was still so early in the day.
"Oh…" Seth tried to recollect his thoughts or at the very least pry his eyes from the silhouetted girl inside the bug. What just happened? Of course a part him knew, but it seemed ridiculous. This was just some girl he happened to run into. If he hadn't asked Charlie to give him a ride, if he hadn't agreed to come out to Forks, if she hadn't gotten lost…how could some random girl be his imprint? He didn't want to accept it. He didn't want to acknowledge her as having anything to do with him.

But what had Charlie said? The Cullens. She was looking for the Cullens. For Carlisle and Esme…and Edward and Bella and Nessie… for a good noose to fit around his neck. "Did, uhm, did she say what she wanted?"
"Nope. Just said she was here to see Carlisle and couldn't figure out where his house was." Charlie replied.

They drove in silence and Seth's mind twisted itself into a knot around the frozen image of that smile. He couldn't even manage any coherence, only her face. Only that mess of golden hair. Only those eyes, so dark in the forest gloom. Only the relief that stretched across all the surfaces of her appearance, but didn't seem to sink any further. His mind circled her, stalked her, built a perfect globe around the image of her – seared into his mind – to protect and preserve her, there, where he could keep her.

As the cruiser slinked out from the tunnel of trees and into the clearing around the Cullen house, Seth knew he would be expected to get out and say some hellos, but he didn't know if he had it in him to stand within the same space as the girl. He worried his legs might give out. He worried his brain might overheat. Most of all, he worried he might kneel before her and profess his undying love to her.
That isn't the kind of thing you do with a girl you just met and it would be damn hard to explain.

Esme and Bella came out to greet them, waving as Charlie parked and climbed out of the car once more. He raised a questioning brow at Seth when he noticed that the boy didn't reach for his seatbelt, but instead sat stone still, his elbow perched on the door and his hand supporting his increasingly heavy head. As the older man hugged his daughter and then her mother-in-law, Seth watched from the passenger seat. He watched Bella point to him and heard her ask Charlie why he wasn't getting out. Charlie tried to brush it off that the boy had gotten a headache and Bella accepted it easily enough.

Then the two vampire women asked about the girl. Seth listened intently to the sound of her door opening and her feet padding on the grass. He wondered if she had taken off her other shoe. Refusing to look over, he could only spy her through his peripheral vision and see her step cautiously toward the others. She made sure to stand further back than Charlie and silently stared forward. For a moment no one said anything and then, oddly enough, Charlie broke the tension. "I found her out on the road, not a clue which way was up. She said she had been trying to find this place for quite a while. I guess she couldn't find the turnoff."

Esme nodded and gave the girl one of her nurturing smiles. "Don't worry, that happens with a lot of people." Which was a lie, seeing as there were only a select few who ever drove to the Cullen's house and they all knew how. "I'm Esme Cullen, is there something I can help you with?"
For a second or two the girl only continued to stare and Seth wondered if they would have to call for Edward to get anything out of her. Then a dam broke and a flood of stuttering and sputtering poured out of her. She sounded like an old engine that not even Jake would be likely to salvage.
The women exchanged a wary, but sympathetic look before ushering the girl into the house. Bella called a quick goodbye over her shoulder and Charlie came back to his seat.

He eyed Seth and asked, "Are you going to be alright? You're usually a lot more chipper than this."
"Yeah, I'll be okay. I just feel a little funny." Seth explained, hoping that was enough of the truth to not count as a lie.
"How about I take you back to the reservation, then? You probably shouldn't meet up with any friends while you're feeling under the weather." Charlie offered and Seth accepted the older man's judgement and his offer graciously.

Once was safely at home and waving the police chief's car off, Seth felt a crushing weight on his shoulders. Here, on the res, someone was on patrol. He was pretty sure it was Quil, but Paul might've already relieved him if more time had passed than Seth had realized. Either way, someone was in their wolf form, here. So close by. Soon enough it would be his own turn to take patrol and he would have to phase just as they did.

And then everyone would know.

Inside the Cullen house, the family members who had opted to stay home rather than hunt were doing their best to make their rather anxious visitor feel welcomed. Jasper made tea for everyone while Esme and Bella led the girl to sit in a wingback chair, the two women taking their own seats on a sofa opposite to her and Emmett did his best not to stare too intently at the as of yet silent girl. Bella had thought to ask if the girl was looking for Carlisle, as he was the most likely suspect, but the girl only stared at her with wide, deferential eyes. Her emotions were a jumbled mess that bounced around as though they were trapped inside a pinball machine, hitting most notably upon frustration, determination, futility and wonderment.

Emmett caught his brother smirking and whispered so that the human in the room would not hear, "What are you picking up on your little ham radio, over there?"
Jasper hissed back without turning. "She's a complete mess, but she sure does like Bella."
"So what, does Bells have a stalker on her hands?" Emmett chuckled quietly.
"I don't know. She's like a lit fuse on a stick of dynamite." Jasper replied, finding the poor girl's distress shamefully amusing.

"I'm!" Their visitor suddenly shouted when Jasper came and handed her a cup of tea. The family waited patiently, but the girl sat with her mouth open, ready to say more, until finally she took a sip of tea, defeated.
Emmett couldn't manage to keep his laughter quiet, at that point. He snickered loudly from his seat at the bar until Esme shot him a dark look that sent him heading out the back door without another word.

From the porch, the door shut solidly behind him, Emmett called Alice from his cell phone and hoped his sister might be able to clear the confusion up for them all. As soon as she answered Alice asked laughingly if Emmett had been kicked out and explained that she didn't have any information to give him. "That kid hasn't got any clue what she is about to do next. Every time she makes anything close to a decision, she chickens out and changes her mind. Honestly, it's giving me a headache."

And so, once again, no one expected it when the girl suddenly burst. "I'm Mckenna! I-I'm Mckenna Bristol!" She stuck her hand out roughly toward Bella and her tea cup tumbled down to crash on the floor. Mckenna gasped and bent hurriedly to rescue the thing, which was beyond saving. Jasper sighed at the flow of embarrassment and grief he gathered from the girl and moved to help her. he made her sit back down and picked up all of the little pieces, himself before collecting a dish towel from the kitchen to soak up the fluid.

"Well, hello Mckenna." Esme started and repeated her initial question. "Is there anything we can help you with?"
Mckenna watched Jasper work with a tight frown. When he was finished, her eyes darted back to Bella before they finally found Esme and it seemed that she only then heard the question. Her expression softened and her mouth opened long before any words worked their way out of her.

"You eat animals." This was all she managed to get out, but her voice wrapped around it as though it were her favorite phrase in all the English language.

My second fic. I'm excited about it and I hope it's well received. This one is much more straight forward than Magic in the Name and I'm hoping that will keep my thoughts on track. Honestly, I'm having a bit of trouble staying on the rails with my other story since their are so many ways I could go with it. This one is almost exactly as it seems here.

I hope you all enjoy it and I would love to hear any comments, questions or concerns!