"How am I gonna tell you that without telling you anything I might get in shit for?"

"You could describe the type of evidence. I will be more impressed if there are past similar incidents or explicit threats or something instead of, like, 'I just have a feeling'."

"That," says Trouble, "is because you don't know what the hell you're talking about."

"Unless you do and you're just fucking with me."

"I'm not trying to."

"I know what I know," he says. "It's the kind of thing where if it gets out, somebody is gonna have a nasty time of it, and somebody is probably gonna be me."

"You aren't under any particular obligation to trust my judgment."

"But I do have to know if you're gonna trust mine."

"I don't know if yours is any good. You are closer to the situation, whatever it is - which means you have more information but potentially also more operative biases." She sighs.

"How about," he says, "you just promise me you won't talk?"

"Is there anybody but you in the line of fire?"

"Not really."

"Does that mean 'no' or 'I want to tell you so I'm going to say the things that will extract the promise of silence'?"

"It means this shit is fucking complicated. Nobody but me is getting hurt right now, as far as I know. Somebody else might get hurt if something changed. Like, say, some asshole white knight starts spreading rumours. I don't know it'll work out that way if that happens, but I don't know it won't."

"If you wind up in the hospital several times a year I'm surprised no one's cottoned on before."

"It doesn't suprise anybody that a kid who looks the way I look and acts the way I act gets into a lot of shit. Look, what do you think is going on?"

"The obvious guess is at least one of your parents hurts you. Or some relative, anyway, I don't know who you live with because you never say."

"That's the obvious guess, all right," says Trouble. "So what are you gonna do about it, if you guess that?"

"If you lived in Forks - and Charlie weren't acting so weird - maybe I'd want to tell him. You don't, and he is. I think Renée must know channels to go through in case one of her kindergartners starts acting funny or coming in with suspicious injuries, but I don't know what they are or how good they are. I could potentially find out without mentioning you. If you have anywhere else to go - then I don't know why you wouldn't already be gone, but if it's some kind of resource you don't have and I do, I could help."

"And what if you find out all the ways you could help, and I don't want any of 'em? Could you just sit on it?"

"Don't want because we disagree about whether it'll work or don't want because even if it works you don't like the look of the endgame?"

"Either. Both."

"Second one - yeah, I can sit on it. First one I will probably argue with you. If you remain unconvinced -" She chews her lip. "I can sit tight unless someone else wanders into harm's way, I'm not turning anyone else into a human shield for you."

Trouble shrugs. "Okay, deal," he says.