Disclaimer: I own no one except for my OC's and nothing except for my original plot
A/N Sorry for the fairly late chapter! I went on vacation briefly for Christmas and several days after somewhere where I didn't exactly have access to my story. I felt even worse because I was so close to being done with this chapter before leaving but not 'done enough' to feel that it was adequate enough to be published. Either way, I'm grateful for tall the support and replies! I'll be sure to try to hold up to peoples' expectations!
Also a side note: I have combined both the Black and Uley packs into one in this story just for convenience with Jake as the alpha, I'll be sure to flesh it out more later but I'm just leaving this here as a heads up!
Chapter 1
Wendy & Seth: There are over seven billion people in the world and somehow I've come back to you
"So here's your list of patients for today, not too many but Mondays are always our least busiest," the receptionist, Jen Daily, handed me a simple excel spreadsheet with my patients' names and times as I thanked her.
"Today will be a longer day than usual as opposed to your upcoming weeks, since I expect that you'll be going through your examinations and discussions and whatnot." I nodded and smiled back at the elderly woman.
"Thank you so much for everything Mrs Daily-"
"Sweetie, for the third time call me Jen, 59 isn't that old, I swear! So remember, if you have any problems call out for Jen and don't worry, I promise I won't bite," she said with a winked and we both laughed. I thanked her one more time before heading to my office.
Jen was sweet and very talkative but it was kind of refreshing to feel fussed over again, despite relishing in the freedom of being an adult it was something that was never really hard to get. Both my parents were busy workaholics and despite the fact that I understood and even admired that, it did feel nice to feel some grandmotherly care. After all, my own had been living in a nursing home for almost a decade now.
Anyway, enough with the sob story. This was old news and besides, I could never resent how I grew up, I know my parent always loved me. My childhood wasn't very remarkable as a whole but that was good right? Nothing too dramatic, no tragic backstory. Of course, not everything was fine and dandy, and I've had a few experiences with death and sadness but that's life right? Besides, normally it's the girls with deep tragic backstories like a broken family and life or who are hiding from the government who move to a new unsuspecting town that get all the exciting but scary and difficult adult lives right?
Forks was a small town as a whole. Nonetheless, the hospital was large since it was combined with the rehabilitation centre that I primarily worked at. I looked down at the list in my hands and found that there were indeed very few people today to start off my first eight hour shift at Forks, only seven patients for the entire day. I had been told more than once during my school days that the normal turnover rate was 15 patients a day, though I don't really know what I was expecting from this town.
I estimated the day to end at 4:30pm with my last patient Sue Swan, which was strange since I didn't know that the town's chief of police had remarried, how sweet. No sarcasm at all, despite my inability to express more emotion than a fish I do consider myself as a romantic.
I looked at the analogue clock up on the wall next to me, my first client of the day was due in 15 minutes. With a sigh I sat up a bit straighter, I had paid enormous amounts in school fees and interned at three different places over the last few years for this moment, it couldn't that bad of a day could it?
"Good afternoon Mrs Swan," I chimed as my last patient of the day walked through the doors. I looked up from my papers, stood up, and smiled before shaking her hand.
Sue Swan was a Quileute as far as I could tell, and I revelled in the wash of familiarity that came over me. Her hair was up in a perfectly neat bun, accentuating her long neck and beautiful caramel eyes. Despite being 52 (as was dictated in her forms in front of me), she looked fantastic, and almost in perfect working condition if it wasn't for the walking stick she had. She seemed familiar indeed, but I just couldn't lay my finger on it. I tried not to dwell on it too much though, even though I had just gotten through the day as perfectly close to protocol as I possibly could, the nerves just wouldn't die down.
"Hello Dr Lee, it's a pleasure to meet you," the woman cordially greeted. I extended that greeting back to her before continuing to debrief her with the day's events.
"Today will be a fairly straightforward but lengthy day however. We'll start off with a short interview about what's been happening with you so far followed by a short physical examination."
"I had quite a nasty fall several months ago that required surgery on my knee and I've been recuperating up until now with Dr Fairbanks. He told me at our last session before he left that I was almost perfectly fine," she beamed and I couldn't help smiling back.
"Well, according to these records that is true but I want to know more about you and your leg before really deciding on anything."
We had proceeded with the interview and subsequent physical check up before I told her I would only recommend a couple more sessions before she was as good as new, she barely even limped anymore. After that we were both clearing up when she started asking me questions of her own as I walked her back to the lobby. It was nice talking to Sue, she was bright yet kind like another type of mother that I didn't grow up with.
"You look fairly young, if you don't mind me asking, what is your secret?"
I laughed before answering, "Well, I guess you could say that being 23 has something to do with it. I actually just graduated not too long ago."
"Why, you don't say! You're the same age as my son."
"Is that so? What a coincidence!" I really was in shock, who would've known? There weren't that many people in Forks and, judging from my own observations, La Push so hearing of someone my age was definitely rare.
"Yes yes my son, he's just turned 23 this past May. Now if you don't mind me asking again, but are you perhaps a Quileute?"
"Absolutely ma'am, my mother is a full Quileute while my dad is more of a mix of here and there but some of the 'there' is from the Makah tribe nearby. I actually lived in La Push until I moved to Seattle several years ago."
"Really," she asked with a smile "so I supposed you knew my son Seth from La Push high school as well?"
My heart almost failed on me? Did she say Seth? Now that you mention it….
"Seth? As in Seth Clearwater?" My mouth ran dry.
"That's me," a deep voice cut through my mental breakdown "Hello you must be mum's new physical therapist."
…
God?
Is that you?
This is a very cruel joke.
God?
Buddah?
Taha Aki?
Santa?
"Oh um-" Good job Wen, "I-it's nice to meet you too?"
Wendy he didn't say it was nice to meet you in the first place you big bumbling idiot. I deserved to be hit in the face with a truck this time around. Luckily I had realised that my mouth was so dry that no sound actually came out, I was just a gaping mess.
I finally found the strength in me to look up but almost had to look down again. This couldn't be Seth Clearwater, he was nearly 6'0 tall and what happened to his long hair? It was cropped short in a crude sort of way. But that wasn't all, oh no. The Seth Clearwater my younger self had pined for was fairly tall but lanky like a praying mantis. The man in front of me looked like he had been working out since he was in the womb. He was toned, muscled, and looked huge as he towered over his mother and I.
Seth was looking directly at his mother as they conversed briefly but the more I looked at him, the more the familiarity came back. His russet skin, like beautiful copper and smooth without blemish. His dark brown eyes, that got lighter in the dim lighting of the hospital were somehow different from all the other Quileutes at La Push. I know I know, you could say they were mostly the same colour and I might've agrees with you, if not for the fact that I could pick out his eyes from a mile away. His face shape was more defined with less cheeks and more jaw. His nose and mouth were the exact same though, and looked similar to his mother's own delicate features, which may have been weird since the rest of him was so manly but somehow it worked because I could still feel the boyish Seth Clearwater inside him. Before I could examine him more though, he looked up at me and I automatically rearranged myself so that it didn't look like I was staring at him as I was.
"Thank you for your help-"
I almost let my right hand fly to my chest to make sure it was still beating. In front of me was the boy who I had completely humiliated myself in front of years ago, I should be standing and proving that I was stronger and more independent. But here he was staring at me all weird and I felt like my legs were about to give way. His eyes were wide and his mouth had popped open to form a little 'o' shape, not what I was expecting at all. Did I have something on my face, did he think-? Ah, of course he just remembered who I was didn't he?
"Hey Seth, long time no see huh?" I smiled and held out my hand. He didn't take it though; he was rooted in the same spot.
"Seth what in the world are you doing? Be polite," his mother interjected this time but when she saw his face her own face changed too. From her initial frustration grew confusion and was that happiness? Elation? No, it couldn't be. It seemed like they were in on a secret that I was pleasantly excluded from but just… What?
"Oh I'm so sorry, I don't know what I was thinking," he finally snapped out of his thoughts and stood up a bit straighter before finally taking my hand. "I'm Seth Clearwater, as you know, and you…"
I frowned (and it may have been my imagination but I'm pretty sure he frowned too). I'm pretty sure I hadn't changed that much from high school, I mean, sure I had grown a couple of inches and sure I had lost the roundness in my cheeks but didn't that happen to everyone? Ah, it must be the glasses then, my eyesight was deteriorating then but it wasn't until I was a junior that I started wearing my glasses full time… But was that really enough to warrant complete amnesia? I brought my hair in my ponytail over to one side, something I always did when I was nervous, and answered him.
"I'm Wendy, Wendy Lee? We were in the same English class-"
"Wendy Lee!" He exclaimed. There it was. Faint shock and recognition clouded his face before it moved back to his previous expression of just pure, awe was it? No way, I was probably just that inept in reading facial expressions.
"That's me," I replied in a small voice and a smile.
"I remember you," he said out loud, "I'm sure I do."
He frowned as he murmured the second bit. It looked like he was trying to convince himself more but then again, as with everything else about this boy I couldn't be sure.
"You didn't have glasses then," he continued quietly, still staring at me intently.
"Well I do now." I looked down again and pushed my glasses back up my nose as if to prove a point. He was gorgeous, I honestly couldn't deny it, but he was acting so strangely I didn't know if I could even look at him properly without red pooling in my cheeks. I don't know why I was so nervous anyway I mean, he's the one who's done the forgetting and stumbling so far. Nonetheless, I never was one for meeting new (or in this case old but haven't seen them in like 300 years) people in an unprofessional setting. And that's when it hit me, this was a professional setting, I shouldn't have allowed myself to get carried away by my own childish inner turmoil.
"Your mother's doing perfectly fine," I said, finally pulling myself together enough to look at him before I continued, "I think I'll only need to see her once more before she can be on her way."
He blinked before slowly saying sincerely, "Um, thank you, yeah thank you so much for your help Wendy Lee!"
His smile was so bright but hearing his voice say my full name again was something new. Too bad it didn't mean anything in the long run. I helped his mother, of course he'd be smiling. He was a bit strange but nothing too out of the ordinary, he was probably just shocked to see someone he practically grew up with again. I mean, we did spend our childhood in the same building at La Push Elementary and Middle School. I looked away so that I didn't have to face him head on.
"Today wasn't a problem at all, it was an absolute pleasure and Mrs Swan is doing just fine as it is, I didn't do anything at all actually. She's done a great job with Dr Fairbanks up til now."
"But still, thank you for your time though today Dr Lee." Mrs Swan looked me directly in the eyes and smiled, and I couldn't do anything but give her a small one back.
The silence around was awkward, normally I dropped off my other patients at the reception desk and left to go back to my office, I should've done the same.
"Um, so Wendy Lee," the voice broke me out of my thoughts again, "I just wanted to say sorry for the last time…" He trailed off.
"Don't." Seth's face looked like it was in pain just saying it and I knew exactly what he was talking about.
"But-"
"Please don't say it, we're adults, high school is a thing of the past." I smiled at him, hoping that it didn't look to force with the way my eyes were squinting.
"It's the end of a long day, I'm sure your mother would appreciate going home to rest. It was nice meeting you again Seth, and I hope to see you back again the same time next week Mrs Swan." I nodded my head at them briefly and shot an especially sincere smile at Sue before turning back to my office.
I heard a "Wait!" behind me but I pretended I didn't hear. I had a bit more paperwork to do before the end of the day, and I needed this time to clear my head. Despite this, part of me was drawn back to him but I just shook my head. I was thinking like an insane person, probably just the residue of my old crush.
But the way he looked at me, if I didn't know any better I'd say it was like how someone would look at something actually beautiful, he looked awestruck. But I needed to get out of there, and it was just because of a silly high school mistake of loving him and telling him and my eventual embarrassment. No, I just didn't feel like I belonged being so close to him, it almost felt too personal even though we didn't even talk about anything of the like. Too casual, like we had been close friends and were reuniting or that we were two halves becoming whole again. I rolled my eyes at myself, that was something that people who believed in soul mates would say. There were over seven billion people on this floating rock we call earth; it was silly to have soul mates you just 'loved' after one look (even if you looked at them a million times more nine years earlier).
It was just too much for me, I didn't need some strange warm feeling in my chest, I needed to remember who I was and why I moved all the way here in the first place.
I closed my eyes as I sat down at my desk and propped my head on the edge of my fingertips, rubbing my temples and repeating the words my first and only boyfriend had once told me. It was strange, I know, an ex's words typically shouldn't be reassuring but then again, I didn't have any of those messy break ups that I'd read about in teen magazines and online articles.
"You're an enigma Wen."
I wasn't one or the other, I wasn't a love-struck teenager in an adult's body or a bitter ex-classmate. I was me, I was Wendy Lee, a smart, calm, recently graduated physical therapist. I was my mother's daughter. If I could deal with human cadavers, Seth Clearwater was a piece of cake.
"How do you feel sweetie?"
I was sitting behind the steering wheel of my car with my mum in the passenger seat. This wouldn't have been considered a problem if I had moved within the past 15 minutes but I just couldn't bring myself to leave the hospital parking lot. To leave her.
"I don't know mum, what did I just do? I acted like an idiot." I let my head fall onto the steering wheel, not caring that I sounded like a teenager.
"Oh honey you know that's not true. But she is beautiful though, I'm so so happy for you," she reassured as she rubbed my back. In two seconds flat my head shot up as I remembered why I even was there in the first place. I was there to drive mum home because, after all, she was the one who was injured in the first place. Just on my way here I was still revelling in the fact that after such a nasty fall she could get right back up again. I shouldn't be caught up with my own love life – or at least lack of one.
But this was just so new. Of course I'd always been jealous of Sam, Jared, and Paul hell, even Jake and Quil sometimes! Having an imprint seemed so special and beautiful, no matter what Leah said. Imprinting was fascinating, there's over seven billion people in the world but this one person just captures you. Having that much love to want to care and protect someone could've made any wolf seem like a knight in shining armour, and I guess you could call me lucky since my present situation didn't seem like anything that would warrant any paedophilia charges or a love triangle fiasco (yet).
And it was just so easy to fall for her. Her career in health probably said a lot I suppose, a desire to help people? Kind hearted, but I guess she always was, always being the only person in class to lend out her pencils when she knew she wouldn't get them back and the first to stand up on the school bus for our older teachers. She was the same Wendy Lee I guess I knew from my youth, long beautiful black hair like silk, even though it was up in a ponytail. It looked soft, like her skin that boasted a smooth copper skin tone. Her features were delicate too, like a china doll, and this was accentuated by one of my favourite features of her. Her almond shaped eyes looked cold when you first met her, but seeing her smile just once and seeing them turn from chocolate brown to a bright caramel, even in the dull light of the hospital was enough to light up my world no matter how corny it sounded.
"I'm sorry for just going off into space there mum," I said sheepishly back to her. She shook her head.
"Don't worry sweetie, I saw that look in your eyes back there. I've never seen anyone look so awestruck, except maybe for her when she saw you looking at her like a blind man seeing the sun for the first time." My mum chuckled but I was partly mortified.
"You don't think she thought I was weird right?" I surprised even myself. Normally I wasn't too self-conscious, I had always believed in positivity and pizza as remedies for world peace after all. But she was making me more worried about myself in ways that I'd never really considered before.
Wendy Lee always seemed to be independent and mature, much like her mother who I'd seen a few times when I was in middle school. What would she think of me? I mean, I always got a lot of flack from the older pack members for apparently being naïve but really, I just enjoyed life. What would my Imprintee think though?
I shook my head. The fates chose us for a reason right? And so far I was happy, I was ecstatic, but would she feel the same way when she found out?
"You're meant to be together," mum reassured. I thanked her and finally started towards the Swan residence where my mum and by extension I now resided after her marriage to Charlie a couple of years ago. I felt a stab in the 'dad' portion of my heart again, but I've long since learnt to just shake it off. He would've wanted mum to be happy, he loved her more than anything.
Leah was a different story however. While she was civil to Charlie, thankfully, and often times didn't mind being in his company, she still resided in our own house in La Push. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't spend more times there than with my mum in Forks, it was just the only place that would crop up into my mind after thinking 'home'. Of course, the Cullens were perfectly nice enough to let me crash at their house, but I knew that the stench of me being a shape shifter could get too much to them sometimes.
As I helped make sure my mum entered her house safely, I couldn't help my thoughts floating back to the young woman at the hospital. Her voice, her eyes, her very aura, I wanted to experience them all again. Did she get home safe? Where did she live? I hadn't seen her in years, where did she even come from?
So after letting her go I immediately headed to the woods and phased. There were a lot of things on my mind, and Leah, Jake, and Paul were on patrol.
Yeah I'm sure Leah wouldn't be happy about this one bit.
