Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.
Author's Note: I was going to scrap this story, but inspiration hit me. I might continue with this if I see people are into it. So enjoy!
Warnings: Explicit language and some violence/light gore.
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At first Leah was simply pissed. A frantic Sue or in her case, her mother, was all but yelling into the phone gushing out words a mile a minute. But once the gears started turning in her brain, she found herself already throwing on a shirt and running out the door.
"Shot? How? Where?" she interrogated into the phone.
"I don't know. He's with me now! I just need you to come over! Where's Leo?" Sue's voice crackled slightly.
"Leo's flying in today, I'm supposed to pick up him at the airport later this afternoon." Leah shoved her keys into the ignition. Part of her wondered if she should have just ran, but she knew she would want to bring Seth home with her and strapping an injured patient on to her back while on all fours would probably go against doctors orders.
"Mom, how's Seth doing?" Leah pressed.
"He's asleep for now. Leah… Lee… I just. He was shot, my baby was shot."
It hurt younger woman to hear how broken her mother sounded over the phone. Her own heart broke at the news. After their late father she was extra particular about the health and wellbeing of all her family members. Even good ol' Chief Charlie was included into this concern of hers.
"Mom, I'll be there in twenty minutes." Leah was just about ready to hang up as she reared off the driveway of her childhood home, when her mothers sharp tone reminded her not to speed. "Fine, I'll be there in 35 minutes. Now, bye."
Without waiting for a response, she hung up and was winding out the muddy roads. She currently lived in the reservation while her mother started moving into Charlies establishment over at Forks full time. It sucked to see everyone disperse, but it was the price of growing up.
Leah managed to find some good in the process when Leo moved into her humble abode. Seth hightailed out of the house soon after, not wanting to ruin their time together. For Leah, she was grateful for the privacy, but it pained her to see her brother move away. Especially, when he came up with the idea to follow the Cullen's over to Alaska. But the promotion to transition over to becoming a detective was an opportunity too good to pass up. Charlie was extremely proud when Seth first got that letter, and she too found herself swelling with pride.
But now, here he was back in Forks and without seemingly notifying her. And shot. What in the world he was up to was the next thing she was going to find out. Right after giving Jake a piece of her mind for not cluing her in to whatever that was going on.
Once the telltale shrubs caught her eyes, she calmed infinitesimally. Pulling into Charlie's driveway, she jumped out of her truck and ran up the stairs before pounding on the door.
Minutes later a tired Charlie opened the door. His moustache looked comically droopier, but Leah was more concerned about the state of her baby brother.
Before she could open her lips – "Upstairs in Bella's old room. Your moms with him right now."
"Thanks-" she trailed off, too busy already leaping up the old stairs.
"Mom?" Leah called out as she stepped into the dark green room. Bella's taste in interior design was questionable, but she knew Charlie didn't want to change a thing in case his baby girl ever needed her old room back.
"He's sleeping." Sue wrapped her arms around her daughter in a hug. She held her baby girl for a good while, letting both women calm down in the embrace.
"Tell me what happened." Leah walked over and sat down at the edge of the bed, one hand combing through her little brother's unruly hair.
"Edward called Charlie to ask if he could pop over to his cabin." Sue followed suit and sat next to her daughter, trying to be as close to her children as possible. "The storm brought down some towers, so the landline signal was weak for the past couple of days, so once the weather cleared out Charlie set out. And- "
Tears were pooling from her eyes. Pressing a hand to her mouth, she took a deep breath trying to steady her emotions. Enough to get the rest of the tale out.
Leah looked over her brother again, giving her mother a minute to compose herself. Seth looked peaceful. His arm was already bandaged up, and the rest of him looked unscratched. She'd only know how bad the situation was once he woke.
Taking a deep breath, Sue continued. "Charlie found him, passed out with a bullet wound."
"Was there anyone else? A suspect?" Leah pressed. It didn't make sense that Seth would get shot. He was a wolf on top of being a formidable cop. His reflexes and training should have been enough to dodge any bullet without issue.
"Nothing. No signs of burglary or intrusion. He was already bandaged up and doped up on some heavy tranquilizers." Sue reached out to trail the pristine white gauze that hugged her son's body. "Someone must have been with him. There's no way his first aid training taught him to disinfect that wound so cleanly. Or wrap himself up the way he was."
Biting back the fact that obviously someone must have been with him, considering her brother was not one to shoot himself in the arm. She instead settled to grab her mothers free hand in comfort. "Was he in pain?"
"He was mumbling something. He was pretty much out of it, but I gave him some more pain killers to help him sleep it off. Everything seems to be healing well, and there's no sign of infection but I guess I was just scared." Sue squeezed Leah's hand slightly. "Edward… strongly advised against getting the authorities involved."
"What?" Leah gasped.
Not get the authorities involved? When there was a shooting? In his own establishment?
Lowering her voice a tangent, she leaned closer and fixed Leah with a concerned stare. "What if… Lee, what if Seth is involved in something…something-"
"Mom, stop. This is Seth we're talking about. There's no way anything like that has happened." Leah vehemently denied. "We'll ask him once he wakes up. He's clearly got a lot to explain."
"Let's hope so," her mother whispered.
The two women made their way down the steps to join Charlie over in the small kitchen. He was dressed in a flannel, a trusty white t-shirt underneath and a comfy pair of black denim. He was currently pouring coffee generously into three mugs.
There were deep set bags under his coffee brown eyes, and his skin was paler than usual. All of a sudden, Leah couldn't unsee Bella in him. She often wondered who the girl looked like more out of her two parents, but it seemed Charlie was the main contender.
"Thanks," Leah softly spoke as Charlie handed her a steamy mug. "No thanks." She declined his offer of sugar and creamer and watched as he continued to pour creamer into the other two mugs before adding a teaspoon into one. He was making Sue's coffee just the way she liked it.
It always slightly took Leah off guard whenever she saw her mother being catered to by another man. By someone other than her doting dad. But she always rationalized it afterwards. Her mother deserved good things. That woman has been through too much. They all have.
"Thanks," her mothers soft voice murmured as she grabbed the mug outstretched towards her. "Any news from Edward or Bella?"
"Nothing yet." Charlie's gruff voice was apologetic. He ushered his wife towards the living room to sit on their usual love seat. "I'm sure they'll give a call when they land. They should be here by this afternoon."
Choosing to stay back for a few minutes while Charlie and Sue's voice carried off into the living room, Leah looked over at the clock ticking away on the kitchen wall. It was still morning. 8 o'clock.
She still had four hours until she had to head over to the airport. She figured she could get Embry to cover her shift this evening. She wondered when she would need to break out the news to the pack. All things considered, Seth seemed to look well, and there didn't seem to be any complications.
Well, if you ignore the fact that they were all told to avoid notifying the authorities. That put a bit of a blunder to everything. She gulped down the hot liquid, the heat barely stinging her throat. She was going to need all the help she could get.
She walked over to the still filled carafe and poured more of the liquid into her mug. This time she decided she would add in a dollop of creamer. The more caloric intake she had, the less angry she'd feel. Helping herself to some, she listened to Charlie and Sue talking softly. Sue was shaken, but rationally she knew her son was fine. Charlie soothed her worries by reminding her that Edward and Bella would never request anything if meant hurting Seth or putting him in a more disadvantaged position.
Leah didn't get the chance to ponder on the conversation before she heard a groan from upstairs. Abruptly placing her topped-up mug on the counter with a clank, she rushed out of the kitchen but not before yelling out to Sue and Charlie.
Seth felt like he'd been run over. His head was throbbing, and his throat was parched. The events of everything that transpired before he passed out starting reeling through his mind. In less than a second his pulse raced, and his eyes opened wide.
"Where is she?"
"Who Seth?" Leah responded, her eyes trailing over his face in concern. Resuming her earlier seat by his side, she picked up the glass of water that was placed next to him and brought it closer to his mouth.
But Seth had different plans. Shaking his head, his voice croaked with more urgency. "Where is she, Lee? Was there a woman with me? There should have been a woman."
This time Charlie replied, his voice reflecting everyone else's confusing. "Which woman? There was no one else there. Only you."
"What?" Seth's voice broke.
This time Sue grabbed the glass of water and tilted it into her son's lips. The water soothed his aching throat, though the cold liquid seemed to cool down his whole body as the revelation sunk in.
She was gone.
"Who Seth?" Leah pressed. Her eyebrows scrunched as a thought lingered. "Is she the one that shot you, Seth?"
This got everyone's attention. Seth didn't like how both his mom and Charlie were laser focused on his face. How would he even explain the situation? He contemplated if he should lie at first. But both Sue and Leah would see the truth through his attempt.
"She's my imprint."
It was beat before anyone reacted. To Charlie the confession didn't mean much, but gauging by his wife's and step daughter's stunned expressions, it clearly meant something important.
"When did this happen? Why didn't you tell us, Seth?" Sue rushed forward. "What were you two doing there? What happened?"
"It's… complicated, Mom." Seth wanted to gush about her, but the situation was tricky. They needed to find her now. "We need to find her, I need to look for her. She's in danger."
"Edward and Bella are on the way right now to help out… with whatever this is." Charlie offered.
"Is she the one that shot you, Seth?" Leah repeated her question.
While she was ecstatic that her baby brother found his missing link. Nothing added up. Charlie said there didn't seem to be multiple people in Edward and Bella's little cabin, so how did this happen? Was she even in danger? Or was she the danger?
"Ahem…" Seth cleared his throat. The water had done a sufficient job in soothing any discomfort, so the act was useless gesture. He knew both his family and Charlie would see through his attempt at diverting their attention.
"Seth…"
"It's not as bad as it seems. I broke into the cabin and surprised her." Seth tried to ease the growing tension.
"You broke into your own cabin? And that surprised her? And so she pointed a gun and shot you?" Leah slowly drawled out each word in an attempt to make it make sense.
"Yes – No. It's… it's complicated Lee," Seth gulped. "She has a rough history and…"
"Make it make sense Seth." She was standing now, her arms crossed across her chest. She could feel a headache coming on, Seth had really gone and lost his head. Forget finding his missing link, he definitely was simply missing his brain cells.
"It's complicated, alright?" Seth pressed. But Leah wasn't buying it. That was until Seth muttered the next words, "It's Leo-level complicated."
While he may have bought some extra minutes from his big sister as she took a second to wrap her head around that admission. His mother was another story.
"What's he talking about, Leah? Leo... complicated?" Sue wasn't clued into Leo's deep dark past. Leah and Leo had figured the fewer people who knew, the safer it would be.
"I'll explain, alright? I can explain everything." Seth was perched up on the bed, ready to grab his older sisters arm in case she tried to run out. Lest she decided to take things into her own hand.
"It all started when Leo-"
"Leo? You're telling me Leo put you up to this?" Leah was frustrated before. On the verge of mad, but now she was absolutely seething.
"Lee please, it's not like that. Leo just wanted… I asked Leo for some help on a-" before Seth could finish, his sister was already fishing out her phone in anger. Grabbing the phone out of her hands he begged her to calm down.
"Lee please. I can explain, just let me explain."
The landline rang. The sound broke the festering tension. Charlie was relieved he could escape the siblings growing dispute. He'd get around to finding out what happened through Sue if all fails.
"I'll get it." Charlie nodded and exited the room quietly.
The siblings halted before straightening themselves up. The break was sobering, causing them to regain their composure. Sue, while heavily confused figured they could all use more coffee while getting to the bottom of everything.
"Seth, put on a shirt. Leah, we'll meet Seth downstairs to hear everything. And we're going to listen to everything before we get angry, right Leah?" Sue using Leah's full name was only two levels short of being angry.
"Yes."
"Yes." Both siblings recited, before giving each other a look.
Leah followed Sue out the room, leaving Seth alone in Bella's room. He felt off being inside a teenage girls room, granted it was a while ago. Scouring the room, he found a pair of his old clothes. A white t-shirt and a pair of cargo shorts. Deciding to change out of his current pair of jean shorts, he swapped the outfit making sure to dump his dirty clothes into the hamper while leaving the room.
He could hear Charlie, and even Edward's voice clear as day. His hearing was better than Leah's after all. Edward and Bella were driving down from Seattle airport. They switched to an earlier flight this morning, no doubt to escape the sun that was bound to resurface after that storm.
By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs Charlie was about to give him a recap. "Yeah, they're on their way now." Seth supplied.
Charlie, still not comfortable with the extent of their abilities, simply settled for nodding albeit awkwardly.
"Yeah, that's the gist of it." Charlie cleared his throat. "Come, let's join your mother and Leah over at the dining table."
The dining table. Seth felt like he was back in his little teenage days. Never mind that he was a grown adult, capable of making his own decisions, his own money, his own everything. Hell, he even imprinted, if things went well then it would only be a couple of years before he himself made his own family. But there he was, subjected to the dining table talk.
His mother had a penchant for having all important decisions, and family talks on the dining table. She wanted everyone gathered around, before opening up the talk. It was a notch down from a council meeting in his eyes.
"Seth, coffee?" Sue offered as he stepped into the cramped room. It was technically a sizable room, but with two wolves seated the spacing could have benefited from a few extra inches.
"Yes, please." Sue already had a steaming cup ready. There was just the perfect amount of creamer already in there. Mother knows best, as they always say.
"Alright. From the top, Seth." Sue ordered as they all settled into the chairs.
"Mom-" Sue cut him off.
"-We're not going to go looking for anyone until we know what is going on." She was stern. "Edward said he already has some leads."
Feeling a bit better, Seth thought back to how it all started. "Leo came up to me about a side project he was running. He figured it wouldn't get anywhere until one of his loose ends ended up… dead."
Charlie's eyes narrowed considerably. Sue grasped her husbands hands in apprehension, but nothing matched Leah's. Her fiancé was out there doing something dangerous and right under her nose after all.
"He approached me to see if I could find anything on the death of one of his… old colleagues. But nothing turned up in our database, so this kind of led to another trap being placed." Seth risked a glance towards his sisters stone face. She was still breathing relatively normally.
"Someone was following the trails he left. Breaking into safety deposit boxes, searching into accounts, everything. So, we decided to put a bunch of dud files into Edward and Bella's old cabin. We figured since I live in Anchorage now, it would be harmless."
Taking a sip from his mug, he could only imagine how bad everything was sounding. Especially since the takeaway message was that he imprinted. He found the person that he was waiting for his entire life. Or at least from the moment he learned about how real imprinting really was.
"One night, I was out with Jake. We were stopping by a diner, to grab food before I dropped him off to the Denali coven… uh like-family," Seth supplied to Charlie. Charlie still wasn't well versed in all the supernatural lingo. "Anyway, we met this woman. She's beautiful. Absolutely perfect in every way… my imprint."
It didn't escape Leah's attention how he spoke about her in present tense.
He couldn't stop the smile that broke out of his face at the memory. "She wanted directions to her aunt's place. She introduced herself as Amanda. But I realized afterwards that everything was set up and that she probably staged that meet to steal my keys."
To that, Leah couldn't help but snort. Leave it to Seth's imprint being a trouble maker. Seth was the golden child, and here the spirits found it fitting to set up him with the complete opposite.
Charlie on the other hand didn't look impressed by the admission. He could only predict the next couple of months of his life was going to be drastically different. Charlie wasn't sure of how much imprinting affected the wolves, but from his experience with Leah and Leo, it was enough to change up their blended family dynamics.
"So, what happened?" Sue pressed on. Her face was thoughtful. Somber. She didn't know what to think just yet. There were too many emotions running through her with each word Seth relayed.
"She got up to go to the washroom, and Jake and I started talking. By the time we noticed she wasn't coming back, we went to find her outside. That's when I realized she stole my keys. So, Jake and I had to wolf over to Edward so I could hitch a ride back. Once I got home, I noticed the cabin keys were missing. So, I flew over to catch her."
"…And that's when she shot you." Leah finished. Still not thrilled that her brothers perpetrator was fated for him, she tried to wrap her head around the ridiculous story.
She wished he could have just had it easy. Why not have his imprint be like, Kim? Someone who was already smitten by like she was with Jared before he imprinted on her. Or Claire that was just a normal girl, going to a normal school, from a normal family. But no, the spirits wanted her brother to shack it up with a girl that could possibly be tied to murder and has a proclivity for using arms. Ignoring the little voice in her own head that wanted to remind her of her own whirlwind romance, she focused on the matter at hand.
A faint rumble of an engine alerted the two wolves of their pending guests. Seth jutted out of his seat in time to open the door as both Edward and Bella waltzed in. Charlie and Sue were only still processing before the two joined the group but not before reciprocating Seth's hug and giving Charlie an arm squeeze in greeting.
"I'll never get used to that," Charlie murmured as Bella took a seat across from him while flashing both Sue and Leah a smile.
Edward pulled Seth outside to clue him in on everything that was happening thus far. "Alice knows a lawyer over at Port Angeles that knows private investigators. We are currently following a lead on a SUV heading through Idaho. She's not far, but we need to discuss some things before we can take the next steps."
Seth wanted nothing more than to snatch his mother's trucks' keys and head over there himself. He needed to know that she was okay. That nothing had happened to her. But Edward's hand grasping his good shoulder told him the older man was asking him to trust them. Trust the process.
It hurt him to stand back. It physically felt like each cell of his body shrunk in size. But instead, he slowly nodded and whispered a soft, "Okay."
As the two walked back into the warm home, one of them couldn't help but worry as his heart traversed through Idaho.
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She hadn't imagined herself waking up to a gentle rocking. The motion was the perfect combination of soothing to calm the ache that violated the side of her face. The hum of the engine was loud enough to tell her it was a large SUV. Judging by the fact that that both her wrists and ankles were bound by durable cuffs and her eyes were blindfolded she figured she was in for a rough ride.
Her muscles stung, and the growing telltale throb by her left eye was enough to remind of how she went down in the first place. She cursed herself for being so sleep deprived for the past couple of days. Yes, it was simply a bad case of sleep deprivation. The adrenaline seemed to finally let out, yet the slumber she just woke from did nothing to make her feel any more refreshed.
"I hope you said your farewells to your loved ones. Cause the second I get out of these, you're dead Kelso." She croaked. Her throat burned from the action, and she wondered if she accidentally ate a gallon of sand somewhere in between.
"How you know it was me?" A males voice equally croaked back. Except his sounded more from years of chain smoking than simple rough handling. "Wha? You missed me or somethin'?"
It pissed her off hearing him speak, knowing he probably had that little shit eating grin plastered on his pug face. "Cause only you smell like truck stop restroom and lung cancer."
"It warms my heart you remember me so well," Kelso gruffly chuckled. His accent was a mod podge of everything foul. Yes, she was biased, but she really couldn't think of anything pleasant about him. Even his accent strung him as grotesque. "It's too bad you're gonna die. Guess it can't be helped."
"Fuck," she cursed softly. She knew he wouldn't be able to hear her, no doubt his hearing took a turn for the worse through the years of his rather sketchy career. She had hope she would be able to run free for a bit longer before she'd have to answer for her actions.
Tugging at her arms and legs she heard the clangs of chains. The fucker chained her handcuffs to her bounded ankles. Guess he had more than two functioning brain cells.
"What? And they picked you out of everyone else to do the job? You?" She called out. With as much as stealth as possible, she turned her wrist until her other hand was able to grasp her thumb.
"Fuck you. This is why you're dead. It's cause you're a bitch. Ain't nothing good ever comes from bitches like you." Kelso spit out. He continued to grumble though she long stopped paying attention.
But as angry as he sounded, it didn't sound like he could do anything but drive. The dull radio noise from the background that was constantly teetering between static and old rock told her no one else was in the vehicle. Kelso was too busy, no question still ticked off by her earlier jib.
Using the momentary distraction, she bit the inside of cheek while thrusting her thumb forward causing her bone to break from her other hand. A crisp crack graced her ears through the background of the car engine, Kelso's dumb voice and radio static. She could taste the coppery taste of blood from holding in the grunt of pain. Kelso was a classic ass hat, but he wasn't that clueless to escape tactics. He was in the business since before she was born, she imagined.
Willing herself to breathe normally, she calmed herself and shimmed her broken hand out from its cool metal binding. Patting her now free hand down, she felt around for the chains. She contemplated if she should just remove her blindfold but thought the better of it. The last thing she needed though was Kelso picking up on her free hand.
Instead, she opted to do both at the same time. Kill two birds with one stone. Pressing her face into the old leather of the seat, she swallowed the feeling of nausea that threatened to escape. She chose not to think too deeply on the types of activities that may have taken place in that leather to create that foul stench and instead focused on trying to shimmy up the blindfold with her face.
It took few tries before her right eye was able to focus on a glimmer of light. It was dark, but the passing interstate lights lit up the chains every few seconds. Narrowing on the hint of silver between her ankles, she smirked. A lone swivel clasp graced her lone eye.
She thanked the universe for making Kelso the idiot he was. He was definitely a brutal man. Cruel to the bone. But underneath all that rough exterior was still that dependable idiot with a questionable IQ. With that, she focused her slight vision towards the idiot himself.
He was now fumbling with the radio. They were most likely between towers judging by the static that seemed to dominate the radio. They were much farther than Forks. Maybe even Washington. Swiftly unfastening the little clasp, she focused on her next set of plans. Her options were slightly slim with one broken thumb, and her ankles still bound.
"What? You crying or something now? You been too quiet." Kelso goaded.
She tried to push down the tremors of anger that wrecked through her body. Normally she lived the improv life. But something about just shook her to the bones in pure anger. She wanted to see him suffer. He ruined everything, he ruined her plans. He took her from…
"Bitch I'm talking to you." This time Kelso turned his torso around while taking one hand off the wheel to prod at her as if she were road kill. Taking that as an opportunity, she lunged forward and jabbed her fingers into his eyes.
The second her fingers contacted the soft tissue of his eyes, she could hear the disgusting quelch and feel the flood of liquid pooling around her hands. A loud yelps tore through the space and at the same time the car swerved uncontrollably.
It happened so fast.
One second, she was causing injury and the other second, she found herself falling through gravity as the car flipped continuously. Seconds dragged on for what felt like hours.
The only thought running through her mind was how badly she didn't want to go just yet.
Not when she finally could envision a real future.
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Well there you have it folks! I switched over to third person so I can better describe the situation better. Don't forget to leave a review! It really helps build up the inspo :)
