Chapter Text
There was only a night sister walking through the corridor in front of Dr. Cullen's office.
I couldn't even be sure I would find what I was looking for in the office of Forks's head of surgery. Or more like head of hospital, seeing as the hospital was tiny compared to some others I'd been to over the years. But Dr. Carlisle Cullen was the only trace he had to a potential relative of mine. Well, one of his adoptive children was the trace. All I had so far was a letter that had an old family crest imprinted on it, and through that crest I had found the name Cullen. I also had an ancient picture in sepia colours of the entire McCarty family which had been taken before one of the McCarty siblings had disappeared, leaving only the letter I was carrying around in my chest pocket. The thin piece of paper suddenly weighed a ton, my heart was clenching in my chest. Finding this Cullen family had been a royal pain in the ass so far, I'd been checking hospitals all over the states throughout the past year, where a Carlisle Cullen had once worked, hoping to find anything. Only in Phoenix Arizona he met a Doctor who knew of Dr. Cullen's whereabouts, who'd been in an article about some groundbreaking surgery with the man.
Maybe he should have just asked someone about Dr. Cullen or should have asked for an appointment with him directly.
Breaking and entering was usually not a good idea, but maybe the size of this town would be advantageous to me.
I flinched at the sound of the lock giving in to my familiar tool that had opened a lot of doors for me along the way.
The office was empty, Dr. Cullen was either with a patient or at home with his giant patch work family. Everything was dark. The only light that would not alert someone walking by seemed to be the desk lamp that was outlined against the silvery moon whose light shone in through the double windows. On the desk there was a picture of an incredibly gorgeous woman with a pencil holding up her long dark hair. Maybe his wife. But no other pictures. There was also an computer, thankfully not secured by a password. Hacking was not exactly my strong suit. Hacking a door is one thing, easy to achieve with a lockpick set. Getting into a computer without knowing the password or anything about the person it belongs to is a different thing entirely. The whole operation had me feeling a bit like James Bond, just that there was no government to support me should shit hit the fan.
With a silent prayer to the Latin teacher I had often cursed before, I scrolled through his folders.
Why on earth would someone write all their texts in Latin?
Doctors' humor I supposed.
Well, people who have money can probably make all the jokes they want without having to face any repercussions for it. Because they are doctors, they safe lives and shit. At least that's how they sell it, in reality it's all about the money they manage to pull from people's pockets.
Documenta Gravia.
Important documents with the possible translations for gravia caught my eye in the cluster of folders. Whoever this man was, he needed a better system for his desktop. It would be a miracle if he'd be able to find anything on there. But who am I to judge?
A double click on the folder revealed a list of names, more folders, thank Deus not in their latin form. Alphabetical order. Alice, Edward, Emmett, Esme, Jasper, Rosalie. No last names. Holy moly, voluntarily taking in five children was definitely on the bottom of my list of things I wanted to do in life. From papers and stuff I knew Esme was his wife, so I started with Alice. Her folder contained a birth certificate, multiple copies of it (for whatever reason), copies of her driver's licence and passport and a hospital report card from the looks of it that had been scanned in from a hand written report. But there was not much information about Alice. Cullen was listed as her last name, so if she was a relative of mine, I'd never know.
Edward was even weirder. He at least had his own last name on his birth certificate, Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. But in his folder there were also high school certificates and a certificate for a doctorate title in medicine and microbiology. From what that Doctor in Phoenix had told me, Dr. Cullen's children were all still attending high school here in Forks, so maybe it was a fake certificate as a joke or something. But no McCarty there, so on to Emmett.
His folder wasn't any better at first glance, with a bunch of marriage certificates that were probably from his parents and grandparents, based on the date. Weirdly enough, it was always Emmett and Rosalie. My brain booked it in as a funny coincidence, knowing that until pretty recently, parents had favoured naming their children after themselves, and a name like Rosalie was definitely timeless. The most recent version of his birth certificate was a little more promising, because his full government name was Emmett McCarty Cullen. Jubilant, I clicked the copy of his passport next. And froze.
Blinking against the dim light of the desk lamp, I held the old photograph next to the desktop screen.
The Emmett McCarty in the photograph did not just look similar, he looked exactly the same, like a freaking clone.
That was the exact same person I was looking at!
My worst nightmare unfolded with the doorhandle moving. The faint light of the desktop was illuminating my face enough to make anyone realize I was not someone who worked in a hospital. Maybe I should have borrowed someone's work clothes, a nurse's uniform or something. But in a hospital and town this small, it was unlikely the chief of surgery didn't know his entire staff, if he wasn't a total douchebag. So standing there, I was fucked.
The chief of police handled me as roughly as any decent person would handle a toddler.
He probably hadn't had more to do than write parking tickets or traffic violations in the entirety of his career, so facing an actual burglar who was not even after money must have been exciting to him. At least I got to ride in another police car, those rides were always fun, if the cuffs were digging into my skin a little bit. It might have been childish, but I imitated the sound of a siren, because the chief didn't bother to turn his own next to the god awful country music. At least play some decent country music if you have to, not this Nashville mass production crap!
His colleagues stared at me like I was an alien when the chief dragged me into the station.
It would probably have been easy to run.
But if he booked me in, I'd have a roof over my head for the night.
The key I always wore on a delicate chain around my neck burned itself into my chest, making me think of the home I had left behind. The home I'd return to soon enough. It was mine, and would never be sold, Mum had made sure of that. The property had been in our family for as long as the United States existed as an independent country. Our house would be waiting for me, taken care of by our neighbour who had agreed to manage the property until I could get back.
Soon, Mum.
"You can step into my office, or wait out here Doc", the chief said to Dr. Cullen who had apparently followed the police car to the station, "Or you can get home to your wife and I'll call you tomorrow. I'm sure she'd appreciate it."
"Esme and the children are asleep, I don't mind waiting", he said in this enfuriatingly satiny voice that sounded like he was trying his best to imitate an angel.
This whole town was weird.
"Okay then, knock yourself out if you need a coffee or anything. Now to you kid, I'll need your full government name and some form of ID."
"Passport is in the left pocket of my jacket", I huffed, leaning back in the chair without attempting any move against the cuffs. I knew all to well how much they could hurt if I tried to resist. Los Angeles had not been sunny in that department.
He pulled the document from my pocket, typing my name into his computer only old people do. "Nikolas Patrick McCarty, born in Galveston, Texas, March nineth in eightyseven, that correct?"
"Maybe. Just don't call me Nikolas. I go by Kol."
"Do you really think you should be disrespecting me like that with the length of your file?", the chief glanced at me sideways from his chair, "They might all be closed and stuff, but it looks like you're not an empty sheet. Now why on earth would you break into a Doctor's office? Where you hoping for expensive jewelry?"
"No."
I was debating whether I should just tell him what I wanted there, but I didn't have to. As long as I said the truth and left some less important parts out, everything would turn out fine. That much I had learned from sitting face to face with more police officers than I had fingers. Telling the partial truth always worked.
"Then what were you lookin' for in there?"
"Nothing special."
"Okay Kol, we can do this all night, I got time. Or maybe we skip this charade and I call your parents to come and pick you up. Where's your Mum right now?"
"Graveyard in Galveston, with her ancestors. Pretty tomb, you should check it out."
He raised his bushy eyebrows, seemingly fighting a laugh. The Doctor was pacing in front of the office for a while, before standing still again. The metal cuffs began to cut into my wrists, my shoulders straining slighty.
"And your Dad?"
"A couple rows down at the same address."
Thank God.
"And who are you staying with?"
"Doesn't matter, I'm of age."
"Maybe, but there has to be someone who's your guardian. Someone you live with or who looks after you."
"No, not really. I've been on my own for... Eight years now? Should all be in your data archive, was pretty big news, at least over in Texas."
The chief clicked around for while, all kinds of expressions crossing his face within a matter of seconds. Naturally, my case was entertaining to read. Every cop had had the same look as him, one that turned from annoyance into pity. Pity was the worst thing to face on planet earth, but at least it got me places.
"Relax, there's been a bunch of foster families, just didn't stick with anyone longer than a year", I scoffed upon the utter shock that was now forming on his face. That was new. Maybe this kind of shock would open a bunch of new doors for me. Not that I needed any, all I needed was a plain ticket or something to finally go home. I didn't need any long lost relatives anyways, Mrs Nelley was still there. And I could possibly buy back my horses. I had saved a bit from selling my drawings to tourists in New Orleans or Los Angeles. Tourists were suckers for little trinkets like that, the crazy ones willing to pay the thirty dollars I charged only rich people for. Anyone else was happy to pay five bucks or to buy me a beignet or something like that. With this money, I'd buy my way back to Galveston.
"Well, since you haven't actually taken anything, I'll drop this if Doctor Cullen agrees", the chief sighed, waving in the Doctor.
"I can't agree just yet, I have to know what you were doing with my computer, what files you were looking at", the Doctor said, his voice still satiny, but the smile forced while the chief finally took off the cuffs.
I rolled my shoulders before standing up to look at his pale face.
"All I wanted was to look into a trace about a possible relative of mine. Don't know if you've heard, but I barely have anything left."
"Why were you hoping to find that in my computer? My family tree is not that excessive."
"Maybe not Doc, but one of your foster kids has the same last name as I do. And I had this little thing to go on."
He pulled his perfectly groomed eyebrows together when I passed him the letter from the mid 1930s. Of course that Emmett McCarty couldn't be his adoptive son, but he could be his grandpa. All the other McCarty's had either died in the second world war or moved to Texas, where at some point in 1987 their family tree mixed with that of the Browne's. It had been a shot into a dark room from the beginning, but it was the best shot I had at getting something like a family back.
"And you couldn't tell me that?", the chief of police grumbled at me, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"Didn't really find much", I shrugged, taking back the letter that was definitely from that disappeared relative of mine, "Was probably just delusional anyways, McCarty's not that rare a name since the big wave of Irish immigration with the industrialisation. If we can drop this, I'll be on my way back to Texas and you'll never have to see me again or anything like that."
"Well, I happen to know that this is indeed from my son's grandfather", Doctor Cullen spoke up again, the serious expression didn't suit his soft gentle features at all. Something was definitely weird in this town. "Emmett told me his grandfather had ran away from home when he was barely eighteen, leaving only this letter and some money to support his family, but they never saw him again. I never... My wife and I never dared to hope there would be any more living relatives, considering most of them died in the second World War. But apparently, at least one of Emmett's great aunts and great uncles has made it to Texas. I won't be pressing charges Charlie, there will be no need for that. And Nikolas, if you ever wanted to meet Emmett, you're welcome to come by."
"Thanks, but...", I sighed, running a hand through my hair, "I'm not sure I should. I shouldn't even have looked for relatives in the first place. I'm bad luck."
"Nonsense, you just have a tough past kid", the chief, whose name was apparently Charlie, tried to encourage me, like all those social workers used to, "I'd think about it. Just stay the night or something, I gotta go to the airport in seattle tomorrow at noon, if you still wanna leave then, I'll give you a ride."
"Thanks chief. I really appreciate that."
These people were astounding. Friendly. They didn't treat me like garbage, which was a first for regular adults in small towns. It was so stupid, pathetic almost. But what was one more night? I'd just find a hotel or something similar and there wouldn't be any flights over night, I had already checked in the morning in some internet café in Port Land, before hitchhiking to Forks with some kids from the local high school who'd been out to the movies. In a town this small, maybe it was normal to have a sense of community. We had a great community in my little part of Galveston.
"You can just come along with me if you like", Doctor Cullen offered, surprising me even more, when he switched back to his gentle smile. "My son might murder me if I kept a relative from him. No pressure of course, it's your decision entirely."
Oh hell, what did I have to lose?
"Yeah, sure. But if I bring bad luck, remember that I warned you."
Maybe that was the biggest mistake of my life, who could tell?
But it was also a desperate final attempt at something like a normal life after eight years (more actually) of hell on earth. I would still go back home, my house wouldn't suddenly grow legs and run away. Mrs Nelley would still be there tomorrow. Everything would go back to normal soon enough.