(no subject)

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

Wanda makes arrangements to meet up with the officer from Tennessee and the evidence is starting to look grim.



For the meeting, Wanda had picked a quiet coffee shop that was close to the office. It was a better environment than trying to schedule one of the meeting rooms at work and, if memory served her well, McLellen had enjoyed his coffee well enough. And considering the last time she'd seen him she'd used Madelyn's name she wanted some comfortable breathing room. He was well aware of that but she was jumpy and irritable and neutral ground was probably the best bet. She sat with her back to a wall after placing her order and waited.

McLellen walked in, pausing only for a moment to look around before spotting her and walking over. The officer was dressed in civilian clothes today, a pair of jeans with a neutral coloured sweater and a tan leather jacket. He didn't look out of place in New York, but his face was a little too sun-darkened, hands a touch too rough to make automatically fit as a local.

"You are one hard lady to find, Agent Bartlet." He said as he sat down.

She smiled at that. "Let us call it a bit of a hobby," Wanda remarked evenly before letting her eyes flicker beyond his shoulder and then back again. There was no hair raising feeling of being watched but it didn't mean she wasn't being followed by something. "Though considering the circumstances, I do apologize for that – expedience would have been in both of our interests."

"You might say that. FBI field office in Nashville couldn't give me any details, and the main Bureau office said that your files was restricted access. If it hadn't been for that journalist, I don't think I ever would have chased you down, ma'am." The state trooper reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a collection of photographs. "These looks familiar?"

Wanda reached for the offered photographs and started to flip through it. With McLellen sitting in front of it, she wasn't horribly surprised to be finding herself flipping through police pictures from an accident that had been unexplainable. "I take it you do not come bearing these with simply the intent to reminisce?" she asked, her throat suddenly dry.

"If only. Coffee?" He motioned to the waitress. "Those photos are new. Most importantly, they're also not just from my town. I've been following little leads for the last couple of weeks. That's why I was trying to get a hold of you. Whatever happened a year and a half ago is back, and it's moving. This is from Cincinnati, outside of Pittsburgh, northern Maryland, New Jersey. It's all moving, and headed for New York, I'll wager."

The pictures fluttered down to the table and she stared at them with new eyes. Josh Chambers had been a troubled, misguided young man whose actions had resulted in the direct deaths of several other young people - but in the end, he had made the necessary sacrifice to remove the stain of the warwolves. "How many deaths?" she asked, wondering what could have summoned these things this time.

"Four so far. But I'll tell you, this is the one that worries me, ma'am." He tapped on photo, of a field in which one of the skins was found. At least five sets of prints were there. "Lots of prints, lots of whatevers."

"Holy shit," she breathed as she took in all the prints. At the very least five of those creatures were running towards the direction of New York and there could easily be more.

It felt like she were being hunted.

Maddie's call had sent them on the right trail but the empirical evidence before her meant that for whatever reason, a pack of warwolves seemed to be heading straight for her team. She took a minute and then looked back up, giving the officer a tired smile. "Thank you. This is more useful than you think right now and you did not have to take the time to track me down for this."

"I'm not keen on seeing more people hurt by this." He nodded his head as he accepted his coffee. "You can buy me a piece of pie in thanks."