SM owns Twilight. We just want to live in her world a bit longer.

Chapter 8

Seth's heart was beating furiously in his chest as he looked over at Bella's startled eyes. He glanced down at the speedometer. He hadn't been speeding.

"Shit!" Seth cursed, "Bella, we need to swap seats. I don't have a licence."

Seth looked over at Bella. She looked frozen, staring out the front windscreen.

They were on a quiet section of the highway, so Seth indicated and took an exit for the closest side street.

"Bella!" Seth shouted, "Hey!" He grabbed her shoulder and gave her a gentle shake.

Bella blinked a few times before saying, "it won't matter."

"What do you mean?" Seth said urgently while slowly bringing the car to stop on the side of the road. He gazed at the police car in the rearview mirror. There was only one officer in the vehicle.

"This car is registered in the name Isabella Swan," she whispered. "But my passport is a fake and in another name."

The blood drained from Seth's face. They stared at each other. The silent exchange of fear was palpable in the car.

"Shit, what do I say?" he asked Bella frantically. "We can't be arrested." His mind was running a million miles an hour. Arrested, deported, criminal records, his mom.

Bella seemed to have shut down and wasn't responding to him. What could they do? Should they try to run away? Seth couldn't bring himself to hurt someone.

Seth watched as the policeman sat in his car. He was a young guy, maybe early twenties. He was definitely smaller than Seth, but no, Seth couldn't harm him. It went against his nature. It went against everything he was raised to be.

Seth listened intently as he heard him speaking to someone over the radio.

Matches description of stolen vehicle… approach with caution… other units on their way.

He watched as the police officer got out of his patrol car and made his way to the driver's side window. Silently, Seth wound down the window.

"Good morning, officer," Seth said happily. "I don't think I was speeding, was I?"

The officer peered in the window, looking from Seth to Bella, his eyes narrowed slightly. "No, just a random roadside check. Licence and registration, please?"

Bella unfroze as she opened the glove box and started shuffling paper around.

"What are we going to do?" she whispered, too quiet for the officer to hear her.

"Uh, Bella, did you find the paperwork?" he asked loudly.

She looked at his eyes and shook her head.

The office tapped on the roof, "come on, I haven't got all day." Seth noticed the officer move his hand around to his hip, the side holding his gun.

"Um, I didn't bring my licence with me today, and we can't find the registration paperwork," Seth managed to say.

Seth saw the officer pull his gun out of his holster but held it at his side, pointing at the ground. "Out of the car, now. You to Miss." The officer opened Seth's door for him. Seth undid his seat belt and slowly got out of the car. As he stood, he towered over the police officer. The officer seemed shocked at his height and quickly pushed on Seth's chest to move him away.

Their attention was diverted as the sound of Bella's door closing, on the other side of the car, startled them.

The officer gestured to Seth, with his gun, "move around to the other side of the car."

Seth moved slowly around to Bella and quickly took her hand, hoping to calm them both down. Unfortunately, Seth's hands were starting to shake, and he was in danger of phasing in the middle of the road.

If he phased now, they could possible get away, but what would the cost be? Would people believe the officer when he told people a guy turned into an animal in the middle of the street? Sam would be pissed. The council would be pissed.

"Both of you turn around and put your hands on the roof of the car. You are under arrest." They looked at each other, and Seth could see that Bella was trying to hold back her tears. Slowly, they released their hands and turned to face the car.

The office grabbed one of Seth's arms roughly and brought it behind his back, clasping a pair of cuffs on it before doing the same with the other hand.

"No! Please, sir, this is my fault, not his. My fiancé gave me this car, but I left the paperwork at home," Bella said desperately.

"Are you her fiancé?" he asked Seth.

Seth just shook his head. He was watching Bella as the tears had started to spill down her face.

"A car matching this description has been reported as stolen. You are both under arrest for motor vehicle theft."

Bella started breaking down, shaking her head, while muttering, "no, no, no, this can't be happening."

Seth's heart wrenched as he watched helplessly as Bella was also handcuffed. Her shoulders were shaking, her hair was across her face, hiding her tears from him.

Seth slowly turned around to face the officer, "please, this is a huge misunderstanding. We didn't steal this car. It was given to her. Her dad is a police officer back home; she would never do something like this."

He looked Seth dead in the eyes, "if that is the case, then this should easily be cleared up at the police station." The office grabbed Seth's arm to turn him around and pushed him towards the police car.

At that moment, Seth heard Bella start gasping for air. He had seen this before in Jacob's memories. She was having a panic attack.

"Wait, she needs help." Seth stopped walked and tried to turn back to Bella.

"Keep going! I will go back for her!" the officer yelled at Seth, grabbing his shoulder and try to push him towards the cruiser.

"No, you don't understand. She's having a panic attack. She can't breathe," he urgently said. Seth turned his front to the officer, so his hands were hidden. Then, gritting his teeth, he pulled on the handcuffs. He felt the steel bite into his wrists as he heard the quiet sound of a chain-link breaking under the pressure.

A sudden noise was coming from the forest, drew Seth's attention away from the officer. He turned and saw a large animal emerge from the tree line, stalking straight towards them.

The growling sound startled Bella. She looked up from under her hair, and her breathing stopped. There, standing, not thirty feet from her, was her favourite wolf.
Relief flooded through her, and a smile lit her face.

Her joy was quickly replaced with dread as she saw the office raise his gun and pointed it directly at the large animal in front of them. The officer's hand was shaking, and Bella could see the gun-waving in the air.

As if in slow motion, she watched Seth leap towards the officer, putting himself between Jake and the gun.

"BANG! BANG!"

A/N sorry it's another short one. But Jake is finally here!