A/N: Updated 4/21/11: Hey Peoples! This is just a collection in no particular order of EXTRAS from S.O.A.S. I'll try to help out by stating reference chapters if you wanna re-read, I know the story was done like months ago. If you have a scene suggestion let me know. This is just me practicing/playing around with other viewpoints. Also I made a Twitter if anyone wants to follow. The link is on my homepage.
In other news: I think I'm going to start posting my Bree/Seth fic this summer. I was going to post the Blackwater one butttttttttt I need to work on it some more. Plus I don't know how it ends :p
So If you re-read S.O.A.S chapter 62: Leonard's Reprise 13 you'll find the conversation where Tamyra tells Leo and the girls that LeAnn knows their secret. Also chapter 32: Seth's Verse.
I think my laptop's smoking….oh well *shrug*
"Mr. Clearwater," Seth shook himself awake at the voice and knocking. He immediately wiped the drool from his face and mumbled a curse when he saw the wet spot on the document on the desk before him. "Mr. Clearwater?"
"Uh yeah-yes?" he called trying to vigorously dry the wet spot but the ink had already smeared.
"Mrs. Clearwater is on the phone." Seth was confused as to why his mother would be calling then he smacked himself realizing it was probably Tamyra. His wife.
"Okay," he called back reaching for the phone on the desk before staring at it. "Uh…"
"She's on the main line sir," the butler called back hearing Seth inarticulate distress. Seth nodded though the butler couldn't see. There were too many buttons on the phone and it was a landline. He barely remembered land lines. This is about as technologically advanced as the rotary phone. "Press and hold the Line 0 button," he said with a sigh.
"Thanks Benson."
"My name's not Benson sir," the butler called back. Seth finally answered the phone to hear his wife laughing, she had no doubt heard the exchange through the butler's end of the phone.
"You really rattle that old man," Tamyra said through her chuckles.
"It's not my fault. He always tells me not to call him Benson but he never tells me his real name. I can't call him butler. That's like someone calling me: hey you wolf protector!"
"Seth!" she hissed warningly though she still found it humorous.
"What is this line not secure?" he half joked.
"I don't know but I don't want it getting back to dad I married a lunatic."
"That's your problem, not mine," he teased and could feel the eye roll through the phone.
"Speaking of work, did you finish those practice tax papers I left you?" Seth's smile fell from his face as he looked down at the ruined document amongst the many documents littering the desk. It was a huge oak desk but somehow he had managed to cover every inch of it in receipts and W2s.
"About that…"
"You fell asleep again didn't you?" Tamyra asked knowingly. At Seth's lack of response she sighed. "Listen I know this stuff can get boring. I'm gonna ask LeAnn to spend some time with you. Show you the ropes and hopefully keep you awake while I'm not there."
Seth had agreed not knowing that LeAnn's constant presence would start almost immediately. Not that he minded the company, he just found she was a lot tougher on him than his wife was. "C'mon Sethy boy, we've got to get you crunching numbers!" She playfully patted his face as she dropped another stack of papers on his "work desk". He looked at the comically sized stack then over at the innocent LeAnn.
"Aren't there computers that can do this stuff?"
"Of course there are. Software that can do this stuff quicker and more efficient than you can."
"So I'm slaving over this because…?"
"Because your father in law hates technology with a passion. He's old school in more ways than one. Don't tell me you haven't noticed every phone in this house still has a cord? We're living in a world where Blue Tooth is old news. This mansion is like the vacuum of the Dark Ages." Seth laughed at that. "You know that music that's always playing from the show room?" Seth nodded. "8-track."
"Are you serious?" he whispered in astonishment. LeAnn nodded her head pityingly as she eased onto the couch across from her cousin's husband. Seth continued laughing as she smiled but she took the moment to observe him. She already knew he was a fine specimen of man but it was almost otherworldly. Even Tamyra had changed. Granted she hadn't seen her cousin since they were teens but where Tammy had looked to age only about 5 years, LeAnn had aged 20.
Then their daughter who was so obviously a teen and also gorgeous, looked barely younger than her parents who carried themselves in a way to appear older.
LeAnn had to be honest with herself, it freaked her out. Mainly because she knew she was playing nice. She had been the one to help her Uncle Terrance after both of his kids left and his wife abandoned him. She had taken some heat from her own father because of it. He didn't understand why she would run herself ragged for her uncle who didn't much care for her before.
She wasn't sure either, but the idea of helping someone as sad as him made all of his seemingly inhuman demands easier to bear. Because she knew he still missed his kids and she knew her presence was starting to ease the pain.
Truthfully she had been slightly furious when her Uncle told her to contact her wayward cousins. She had wrote messages or sent them on her uncle's behalf before but usually it was with no response or it was a check. He still cared enough for them to see to their well being but she didn't understand why they couldn't stop by or make any mention to their existence save for draining their own trust funds at an alarming rate.
She felt like she didn't know her two cousins anymore that she looked up to once upon a time.
She felt guarded around the three people she had let into her uncle's home. They were strangers. Not because she'd never met Seth or Sahara before but because Tamyra looked like she was forcing something. There was this huge pink winged elephant in the room that was staring her in the face and everyone seemed intent on ignoring it.
Everyone but her.
"Are you an alien?" Seth stopped chuckling immediately. Then gave her an amused and confused look.
"What?"
"Are you an alien?" she repeated with a straight face and his face became serious when he realized she was serious in her questioning. "Because you and Tammy are hiding something and before we go throwing you into this complicated family I want to know what it is."
"…what would you make think alien first?" he asked tentatively.
"It was metaphorical I just want to know who or what you are." Seth blinked a few times finding himself completely out of his element. LeAnn had seemed like a fun loving cousin to his wife but it was obvious she was far more astute than he gave her credit for. He wondered if this was what it was like growing up in this family, being suspicious of everyone and trying to find allies amongst your own blood.
"I'm Quileute," he started.
"And I'm black. That's just a race, doesn't tell you a thing save for a bucket full of stereotypes and my skin pigmentation." Seth tensed feeling uncomfortable. "You're native american unless there's a reason you specifically stated your tribe. Is perhaps the reason you're different because of your tribe?" Seth's throat seemed to close. LeAnn was sitting across the room on a couch but she was getting too close. Too close to something that she shouldn't be dragged into.
He wondered if this was how the Cullens felt when someone got too close to their secret.
"You're not saying anything Seth which is making me more and more suspicious." His eyes darted around the room looking for some obscure salvation from this moment. There would be none. Sahara was somewhere with Leo, Emileah, and Collin. His wife was half way across town closing some deal. And the woman in front of him was not going to let him leave without some answers.
"I'm not a drug dealer," he finally said.
"Never said you were. My uncle may want to downsize whatever is going on with you two but I know better. You're not mob because you're too nice, that could be a front but you're sweating bullets right now and I'm just asking innocent questions. A spy maybe or a mole one of my uncle's rivals planted but why would they go through such lengths to go after Tammy without guarantee she hadn't already been cut off?" A finger slipped under LeAnn's chin and the wolf inside Seth was itching to bolt.
Or maybe that was just his human flight reaction kicking in.
Seth? He had to stop the relieved breath from slipping from his lips at his wife's mental voice. Babe you're pumping out some serious anxiety right now.
LeAnn's cornering me right now. She's onto us being different and the interrogation is getting to me.
You haven't told her anything have you? She sound panicked in his head at the prospect. He denied that he had. Sit tight I'll handle it.
She pulled away from him which only caused him to start to panic more. How was she going to handle it from 45 miles away?
"Well Seth?" LeAnn asked not perturbed by his bout of silence. She was studying his actions. She couldn't lie to herself, part of her was scared stiff that she was right and he was…strange. She had foolishly locked herself in with this whatever he was. She was like 5 foot nothing trying to intimidate this 6 foot something man. So far it seemed to be working but how long before he figured that he could get rid of her easily if he wanted.
"I-"
"Mr. Clearwater, Mrs. Clearwater is on the main line." Seth let the whoosh of air come out of his mouth.
"Thanks Benson," he said quickly picking up the phone after switching lines.
"My name's not Ben-"
"Myra. Hey!" Seth asked far too cheerily even for him. LeAnn stared at him before rising to her feet.
"Don't think Tammy can get you out of everything," she hissed as she made her exit. Seth followed her with his eyes knowing that Tamyra could hear what was happening on his end. When the door clicked he cupped the phone closer to his mouth.
"That was way too close," he whispered.
"Yeah I know, I had to feign a potty break to get out of the meeting but I can't be gone too long," Tamyra answered. "I'm so sorry Seth I didn't realize that if she spent more time with you she would pick on things," she said sounding sincerely apologetic. "Actually what did she pick up on?"
"I think she already knew. It was so weird. We were laughing and joking then all of a sudden she just asks me if I'm an alien. I knew she'd been stewing over this. It's like she's been studying me- studying us!" Seth had to maintain his control and not get too loud.
"LeAnn is an observer, I'd forgotten that after being away so long." Tamyra murmured more to herself. "Seth this kind of information is too dangerous for her to know. You're gonna have to keep her at arms length until I can come home. If you have to, be rude to her." Seth gaped, she might as well have asked him to go kill someone.
"But Myra," he began to whine in a 'manly' voice.
"Seth." She stopped him immediately. "Man up. I promise to get through this meeting as quickly as possible and be on my way home to save you from my cousin."
When she hung up Seth toyed with the idea of jumping out of his window and making a run for Columbus where his wife was. But he knew that would be even more suspicious than him staying. Surprisingly LeAnn managed to stay away from him for the rest of the day until evening. He was walking out of the bathroom and she was standing right there in the hallway with her hands crossed across her chest. Waiting for him. Creepy.
"I know I'm a fun guy to be around but following me to the bathroom is a little overboard don't you think?" Seth teased but LeAnn only half smirked.
"Uncle Terrance wants to see you."
Crap.
"Uh…right now?"
"Yep," she said looking way too pleased with herself. "Don't keep him waiting. He already doesn't like you." She sauntered past him and once again that urge to bolt like mad came over him. How long does it take to merge two friggin companies? He thought aggravated that his wife had yet to return which left him hanging with potentially two suspicious in laws. When he reached his father in law's bedroom door he knocked hesitantly.
"Mr. Foster?"
"Enter," came the familiar gruffness. Seth stepped inside the doorway then sighed and walked to the man's bedside knowing he grew aggravated that he always had to motion Seth closer to him. "LeAnn talked to me about you."
"She did?" Seth fought to keep his tone light.
"She told me about how you've been helping Tamyra out, helping out with our operations here. Learning stuff about the companies." He nodded not knowing what else to do and not expecting that this was what LeAnn talked to him about that. "She also found out that you didn't go to college, nor finish high school for that matter." Seth knew he didn't need to refute the claim, but there was an unasked question in that statement.
"My father had died when I was a freshman. A lot of things happened after that and I tried to keep up with school but my family and the community needed me more," he said by way of vague explanation. "I had planned on finishing but…"
"But what?" Terrance Sr. pushed.
"Well I met your daughter sir," Seth said honestly. "And I fell for her. I knew she was meant to be mine forever but we may have gone through things too quickly."
"You regret marrying my daughter."
"No not that sir. Never that. I loved and still love and will continue to love your daughter. I just know that we made some childish mistakes. Some that gave us a lot of responsibility that we may not have been ready for."
"Sahara," he concluded. "So you had a family too soon. Many in that situation have managed to continue their education."
"That may be sir but raising a child with my wife was not the only responsibilities I had. I still had my tribe to think about. My sister." Seth stopped before he inadvertently revealed too much. "My hands were tied in other stuff and school had to take a back burner."
"But what about Sahara, she seemed educated."
"Myra home schooled her mostly. We were on the road a lot so it made more sense though she's no stranger to the classroom either."
"You say you were on the road a lot but you also had ties to your tribe, how does that work?" Seth couldn't gauge whether the man was sincerely curious or if this was some tag team between him and LeAnn to weasel answers out of an unsuspecting slightly naïve Seth.
"My responsibilities for my tribe didn't limit me to within its borders." Seth mentally bit his fingernails. His earlier paranoia was hitting him hard. He had only been with these people for a few months and he was already suspicious of LeAnn and his father in law.
Terrance looked him up and down and he couldn't help but think how similar the action was to Tre when he tried to size people up they came across.
"I'll accept those answers for now," the older an said. "But I guarantee you, Clearwater, if you're hiding something, I will find it." That was as much of a dismissal as Seth was going to get but he tried not to walk too fast out of the room despite his urge to flee.
When he was out in the hallway his sigh of relief caught in his throat at a new voce.
"By the way," Seth jumped when he almost barreled into LeAnn. "Your security for your tribe's school account sucks," LeAnn chastised standing before him. "It must have been programmed by a high schooler or something because I logged into that site and basically downloaded your life story in under 15 minutes." Seth paled at the notion.
If she could get information on him that easily what about everyone else he knew. Leah? His mother? The pack?
"Don't worry," she placated with a pat on his arm. "It's not like I'd sell it on the black market. I wouldn't do that to hurt Tammy. I just want to know what we've let into this house so I can deal accordingly." She turned and walked away calmly but Seth was anything but calm.
He'd gone to his guest room after that and stayed there, long after Myra had returned and confronted her cousin. She'd joined him and tried to talk to him but he was withdrawn. Tamyra may be used to it but how was he supposed to spend the rest of their forever watching his words, being under scrutiny, distrusting every person in the house, wondering if Benson was going to murder him in his sleep under orders… hiding himself?
Simple Answer: He couldn't.
Five days Seth held on by a thread. Five days of the butler trying to convince him that his meals weren't poisoned. Five days of him trying to reassure himself that the tiny crack in his wall above his bed wasn't housing a miniature spy camera. Five days of him flipping through news channels and scouring websites of Washington news to see if his entire pack had been discovered.
"I'm going to Cleveland for a few days." Five days until she said those words and he cracked.
"WHAT?" He jumped off the bed startling Tamyra who tried her hardest not to react more to his outburst.
"I'm meeting with a Colgate rep and he's going to be in Cleveland for a few days so I'm heading up there-"
"Tamyra you can't leave me in this house alone."
"Seth you're not alone. And LeAnn won't try anything as long as you don't act so suspicious." Tamyra looked him up and down. "But by how high strung you are right now it's probably too late for that talk isn't it?"
"Myra you don't understand," Seth continued barely listening to her last statement. "I can not stay here any longer. I can't do this!"
"You want out?" She asked and his face fell at how she made it sound like he wanted to divorce her something.
"No not like that Myra, I just I can't do this corporate America thing. I mean I can for you I will but I can't do all this secrecy and tip toeing around -"
"So it's my family," she concluded and Seth sighed.
"Myra I-"
"Seth, my father is dying. He's dying okay." He stopped at the swell of emotion in her voice. "And I have been kept away from him for 20 some years. I have not seen him and he may not be father of the year but he's my dad. And me and my brother made a promise to him long before I met you that I would come back. I know you lost your dad sudden but I have to watch mine die slowly. I can't leave him now." She took in a breath. "But that doesn't mean you have to stay."
"Tamyra, I-I just wish-God I wish Tre was here."
"So do I Seth. Everytime I have to meet with those people I always think how much better he would be at this. But he's not here. We can't depend on him to always be alpha to always be here. For all we know my brother could be dead. He's protected me all my life but I have-we have to keep going." Seth knew she was trying to help but it was only serving to make him even more antsy.
"I can't- this is too much- I-" he tried to get a grip but Tamyra caught onto his shaking.
"Please don't tell me you're about to have a panic attack right now?" she asked in mild disbelief. "Seth pull it together," she hissed noticing his increased trembling. Seth tried, he really did. He hadn't phased out of loss of control in years yet here he was, the happy one, the optimist about to phase out of control in his in law's guest room. "Seth," she warned but he stopped her with a hand as he felt his control continue to slip.
He couldn't handle the mantra that seemed stuck in his head of self doubt. He saw the open window and lunged.
"Seth!" Tamyra called after him but when he landed he had only made it a few feet towards the trees in their backyard before the phase hit him full force. He instantly felt as if some of the anxiety had lifted that is until he looked up at the house.
And straight at LeAnn who was staring at him wide eyed through her bedroom window with papers fluttering to the ground. It felt like minutes passed in his mind but he saw her mind calculate what it had just seen and then her chest heaved. Seth tensed waiting for the high pitch scream…
…that never came.
Tamyra with her controlled feline reflexes had already slipped out the guest room window and into LeAnn's and half tackled her cousin to muffle the squeal with her hand. Seth wasn't sure whether to flee or phase back. He knew he'd just brought a whole other load of problems to the table.
"You're…you're…" Seth had grabbed some pants and slipped into LeAnn's window. She put up a hand to stop him from coming any closer as she stuttered. "I thought we agreed the whole alien thing was a metaphor!" She whined. "You're a freaking wild animal! Tamyra," she turned to her cousin suddenly. "You do realize that he's an animal don't you? You don't have to put up with this! You don't! Think of your daughter-"
"LeAnn," Tamyra snapped grabbing a hold of LeAnn's shaking shoulders. "I know that."
"He pulled you into this didn't he?"
"No he didn't," she said slowly. LeAnn kept looking between the two of them before her eyes widened.
"You don't mean…you're not-"
"He's a shape shifter and so am I." LeAnn took three full steps backwards to get out of Tamyra's hold. Seth could feel Tamyra's wince of sadness at the distance. "LeAnn, you know me."
"I what?" she asked disbelieving. "I knew Tamyra Foster, a 15 year old girl, that was fun and idolized her brother. I knew Tamyra Foster, a human, not some-some-monster. And how in the world did you get into my room?" She was barely maintaining a whisper yell.
"LeAnn if you don't calm down you might burst into some fur!" Tamyra chastised and LeAnn immediately went stiff and wide eyed. "It's in the genes." Seth figured this was the reaction his wife was looking for so he didn't give hint to the fact that it was a white lie. Even if the gene was dormant in LeAnn, she was in her 30s already. "Look, if you give me about two hours, I can have you up to speed on everything."
"Everything?"
"Yeah…" Tamyra sighed heavily. "But I'm swearing you to secrecy, like take to your grave secrecy." LeAnn glanced between the two of them quickly before nodding. "Good. I'd rather not have to hog tie you and ship you off to Cambodia." Both LeAnn's and Seth's eyes went wide at that.
"Uh…what's in Cambodia?"
"Everybody that didn't play by Veronica and Orson's rules." Seth was shocked by the statement considering he'd hoped his wife was joking. He checked her thoughts.
Nope. Not joking.
"…the heck are Veronica and Orson?" Seth rubbed his face. It was going to be a long night.
Btw: the butler's name is Mr. Fitzderm...Sahara says it in one chapter lol
