We left Seth at the end of a successful police pursuit and Amaya in the office waiting to hear back from the men she had directed in the field.
Amaya had been confident as she gave orders. When she had chosen Forks she had memorized the town's maps and on arriving had planned her escape from any place she might venture to. She knew how to get out and which path would leave her cornered. So long as she didn't have time to consider it, she remained confident in her judgments. However, as time wore on and nothing came over the radio, the seed of doubt was sewn.
What if she'd guessed wrong and the thief took a different route? What if someone got hurt because she was overconfident and miscalculated?
Amaya reorganized the stack of papers on her desk. She reorganized Charlie's desk. The files. The store room.
She wanted to check in with the guys but she didn't want to distract them. If they had changed course, surely someone would have called in for advising a new plan of action?
-=-Anne?
"I'm here, what do you need?"
When had Seth Clearwater's voice become so reassuring?
-=-I'm bringing him in. Could you get the holding cell ready please?
"Sure thing."
-=-ETA is seven minutes.
It would be extremely unprofessional for her to ask for a head count. She knew now that they had gotten their man. She could wait to see if anyone was hurt. Seth would have told her if someone was, right?
Seth pulled his cruiser around to the back of the station and hauled the punk to his feet. He frog-marched the guy through the back door and into the waiting cell. He was cussing and fighting the whole way but Seth was stronger than he looked and didn't have too much trouble.
Anne was nowhere in sight when he had finished locking the cell and removing the guy's cuffs. He wandered into the office and the reception area. He checked the bathroom.
A noise from the supply closet led him to her. He watched her struggling to lift a box of paper down from a shelf above her head. Seth caught her when her ankle gave out and the box threatened to cave in her skull.
"Whoa, easy there; are you okay?" "I'm fine." Anne pushed her rescuer away and stepped back. He put the box where she pointed.
"How did everything go?" "Smooth." "Then why did he come back in your car instead of Tony's or Charlie's?" "The guy drove like he was following your directions but when he realized he was trapped, he tackled Charlie and the old man threw out his back picking him up and tossing him. It's nothing to worry about. Tony drove the Chief to the hospital."
The breath she'd been holding went out of her in a long stream. Had she been worried about them?
Anne went to a filing cabinet that had been buried in crap that morning, and pulled out a stack of forms. Incident reports were placed in everyone's "in" box, as well as a workman's comp form for Charlie.
"Well, aren't you on top of everything?" "Do what needs done when it needs doing. Fill out your report while I book our thief." "You're going to book him?" "I've read the manual. Hurry up with that paperwork. You should have been out patrolling thirty minutes ago."
She didn't linger. She took paperwork and a clipboard with her, gathering the fingerprinting kit on her way. She fully expected him to do as she said, for all that she had worked there for one day.
There was no point interrupting her so Seth sat down and dug into his paperwork. It was as tedious and mind-numbing as ever. His thoughts kept straying. His wolf hearing let him catch the conversation in the other room.