SKIN DEEP
two | into the woods

Imogen's leg was bouncing up and down repeatedly due to her boredom, but also slight nervousness. She was at the Fork's Hospital, waiting to meet her new doctor who had been the reason for the drastic move across country. She had been waiting for only half an hour, but had been waiting in silence apart from the echoing sound her leg caused to resonate down the empty white hall. Neither Evelyn nor Thomas was with their daughter - they thought it would be best if she were to meet Carlisle without them as there presence would most likely put her in a worse mood than what she normally was in.

Thomas and Evelyn had dropped Imogen off at the hospital with the clear instruction to behave and that they would be back when her appointment was scheduled to end. Evelyn had to go to the school anyway to acquaint herself with the layout, the class she would be teaching, and to collect her daughter's timetable. 

Imogen stared at the ticking clock, getting agitated through both the long wait, but also being able to hear the clock ticking away clearly throughout the silent hallway. Her eyebrows scrunched up, her annoyance increasing, before a throat cleared and read from a clipboard, "Miss King?" 

Imogen glanced at the nurse and huffed, "About time." She stood up from her seat, her legs tingling from the sudden movement, and grabbed the handle to her small suitcase/roller bag which contained her oxygen tank. She rose her eyebrows at the nurse, and the nurse raised her hand to point at the room Imogen should enter. 

Rolling the bag behind her, she turned into the room the nurse had directed her to and shut the door behind her before turning to face the young doctor. He was pale, though, and tired-looking with circles under his eyes. Imogen stared at him expectantly and he questioned, though it was obviously an order, "Would you like to take a seat?"

Imogen walked over to take a seat on the chair which was on the other side of the desk to the doctor's chair. It was this way so that the doctor and patient could face each other, but Imogen also imagined that it was so that the patient couldn't see what the doctor wrote on the computer. 

Imogen's murky brown eyes pierced the doctor's golden ones, waiting for the man to speak. He cleared his throat, uncomfortable with Imogen's stare, something that made Imogen smirk. "I'm Carlisle Cullen, which I'm sure you're already aware of."

Giving a fake smile, Imogen said extremely politely, "Of course." She would've been herself and come out with something like, "Yes, how stupid would I be if I didn't know who you were." But, she went against saying that. Her parents had told her to behave, and for once, she was actually listening to their order.

As she watched the doctor write type something on the computer, he glanced back over at Imogen, scrunching his nose up the slightest, but it was barely noticeable. Note the word barely. "Imogen, how are you liking your new home?"

She decided to be polite to the doctor, despite not wanting to be in the same room as him. She wasn't all that fond of doctors, which you can blame on her parents. "House, not home. And, the weather's nice."

He chuckled, "You like the rain?"

Imogen turned her head to the window, the blinds open, letting in the sight of dark grey clouds signalling the storm that was coming. She only nodded.

"So, Imogen, why did you move to a small town such as Forks?" 

She looked back at Doctor Cullen, confused slightly, until she realized that he knew where she actually lived, he was just wanting to start a conversation with her. "La Push is where I live." She sighed and turned back to face the window again, finding comfort in the slight pitter patter that could now be heard. "But, you already know the main reason we picked up our lives just to move out here, in the middle of nowhere."

Doctor Cullen sighed, knowing that the girl that Imogen had been for years with both parents and her doctors was coming through (he had been warned at how she may be with him). "Imogen, I'd like to hear that from you."

"Well, my parent's don't really care about what I, a seventeen year-old girl wants." She then sharply turned her head to face the doctor, and then air quoted her next words, "All they want is what's best for me." The air-quoting signaled to Doctor Cullen that what her parents think was best for her, Imogen thought wasn't.

He had her talking and because he wanted to see what made her click, he egged her on, "What do you think is best for you?"

Imogen seemed to shut down, not wanting to answer the question that she had answered to her parents a million times, an answer that constantly broke their hearts. "Well that doesn't really matter now, does it? It only matters what my parents want."

"What do you want?"

That's when Imogen completely ditched the whole 'behave' order that her parents had given her. "Geesh, stop it with the 911. You're my doctor - a doctor whom we lifted out whole lives up for by the way - not my psychiatrist." Imogen then muttered under her voice, a statement that no human would be able to hear, "I've had plenty of them."

Doctor Cullen pressed, "Answer the question and I may be able to help you."

Imogen glared at the doctor, "That's the thing, Doc. I don't want your help. It's pretty obvious that I'm skin deep, so what is the point in trying to make me better. I know I'm dying, I have been my whole life, and I don't exactly care if I die in a month or tomorrow. My life is over before it has begun, and they should learn to accept it."

Carlisle knew what Thomas and Evelyn felt, but he could also understand Imogen's feelings having many adopted children who were dramatic like his new patient. "Parents can't imagine losing a child. It should be the children burying the parents, not the parents burying the child."

Of course Imogen knew that she shouldn't be dying - that she was supposed to outlive her parents, but she honestly didn't care anymore. She had been living life day by day, not knowing whether she would wake up the next morning. She had gotten over the fact that she would be dying before her parents a long time ago, now she was just waiting for the day to come. 

***

"Did you behave?" Evelyn asked her daughter, already knowing that Imogen was acting strange compared to how she normally acted when first meeting her doctor. Normally, Imogen would sit in the back-seat with her arms crossed and point a glare at her parents. But, this time she stared out of the window at the passing trees, in a daze, obviously thinking deeply about something, or not thinking about anything at all. 

Imogen let a hum in confirmation pass her lips for speech wasn't necessary. For some reason, she liked this Doctor. Yes, she had been a bit of a bitch to him, but he was different to the rest, she could tell. She knew that he was a Doctor because he wanted to help people, not earn a hefty paycheck. From what Imogen knew, Carlisle Cullen could be a doctor to the stars, but he instead resides in the small town of Forks.

Of course the King's knew that Imogen had behaved herself - well, a Hell of a lot better than she did with other doctors - as they had had a quick conversation with the good doctor before getting into the car and began the drive back to La Push. That is why they left the conversation to their one interrogative and he short hum as a reply - no need to get her back into a bad mood.

***

Once they pulled up to the grand house in the middle of the woods, Imogen opened the back door - which no longer had the child-lock on - and walked up to the house silently. She took in her surroundings again, taking in the beauty of nature. Glancing over her shoulder at her parents to see their smiling faces, she hollered, making her voice echo through the trees, "What are you two smiling at?" 

Their smiles dropped slightly, knowing that her mood had been too good to be true. They shook their heads, showing that they weren't going to answer the teenager's question. Imogen huffed, looking at the house she was heading towards before shouting back to her parents again, "I'm going for a walk." She wanted to explore the woods, her new 'home', as she most likely wouldn't have time all week. She knew that she would have a lot of catching up to do considering she was starting in the middle of the semester.

Thomas looked at his daughter, who had already changed directions to walk into the woods, worriedly. "I don't think that's a good idea." He had a few reasons why it wasn't  a good idea, and he definitely wasn't going to voice one certain reason to his daughter.

"And why not?" came back Imogen's question in a snippy voice.

Evelyn replied - for they are husband and wife and have to work as a couple to try and control their daughter - with a concerned voice, "It'll be dark soon. Plus you don't know your way, and you'll get tired easily. You'll also have to carry your roller bag, which will weigh in on the tiredness."

Imogen didn't care about either of those reasons. "I'll be back before it gets dark!" Within seconds, Imogen had crossed through the line of trees and out of view. Instead of Thomas running after his disobedient daughter, he let her be, pulling his wife to the house.

Realizing that she could no longer roll her bag behind her - the bag that contained her oxygen tank - she pushed down the handle and pulled the straps over her shoulders. It was heavy, but she wasn't going to turn around and go home, proving her father right. 

The air around her grew cold as she kept on a straight path through the woods. She had only been walking for a few minutes, and it had already grown surprisingly dark. Probably with the shade of the trees, it appeared darker, but she wasn't afraid.

Looking around, she huffed out a breath, fog appearing in front, showing how cold the surrounding area was, but also how warm she was. She felt the cold, but it didn't bother her at all. She was a source of heat, like a radiator walking through the woods. Imogen chuckled out loud, even adding a monologue, "Imagine that? A radiator with legs."

Suddenly, she came to a halt when she heard rustling from behind her. She turned her head, looking at every tree and the spaces between, but she saw nothing. "Maybe a bunny rabbit?" She questioned aloud, her voice slightly quivering from the cold but also in slight fear, fear she'd never admit to. She tried to move, to flee, but couldn't. 

Glancing around again, she her head to face the way she came, which was when she saw it. In front of her, just meters away from her, stood a great black wolf, watching her with beady eyes. Imogen would've let out a scream, but let out a shocked breath before closing her eyes to blink. But, the second she closed them, she collapsed to the floor and was surrounded by darkness.

***

"Thank you, Sam, for bringing her back." Thomas knew that he had good reason to not let his daughter into the woods alone, but she was never in fact truly alone. That he should have realized. The woods were full of wolves - werewolves - so she would be safe no matter what. 

Sam smiled at the couple, "No problem."

Evelyn held tightly onto her husbands arm, whispering to the Alpha, "What happened?"

Sam shook his head, unsure of what actually happened himself, despite witnessing the fragile girl crashing to the ground. The only plausible explanation was that she fainted at the sight of him, "She got a glance of me, maybe that was why."

Thomas shook his head before smiling at the Alpha who had carried his daughter home, "Thank you, Sam."