No one is at the airport when the girl arrives. It's not like she was expecting anyone to be there, after all she hadn't been able to get word out that she was coming back. But still, it would've been nice.
The fluorescents are almost blinding, and she flinches at the seemingly artificial noise that comes from all directions in the small regional airport. For the past four years she has been surrounded by the organic noise of the village. This world, the one that she originally came from, is foreign.
In the large international airports, she hadn't stuck out nearly as much as she did here. All sorts of interesting people passed through those all the time, she was nothing new. But here, in a place that is practically rural and where almost everybody votes straight ticket republican, she is exotic.
Her once translucently pale skin was now a light bronze, something she would have never thought possible. When she first left the states four years ago her hair was a light, straight brown, cut evenly to her shoulders. Now it curls wildly into a long braid down her back, decorated with beads given as a parting gift on her last night in the village. A long light skirt colored brightly swirls around her ankles as she retrieves her bag at the carousal and an old button up shirt hangs off her shoulders when she picks up her backpack.
Nobody bothers her or offers to help her when she signals for a taxi cab. Silently she muses that these small town people are afraid of her. She wonders if they would be quite so hesitant if she had returned from her stint in the Peace Corps as the same reckless teenager she started out as.
The cabbie is missing several teeth in an obvious way, and the back of his car smells a bit like Borscht, but she's just thankful that he's willing to take her as far as the next town over with what little she can pay.
(The car ride makes her a little sick, but she steels herself to having to relearn how to be around technology and running water.)
The cabbie nearly gets lost in the dense woods of north-west Washington state, and he asks her every few minutes if she's sure she knows where she wants to go. She's sure, and repeats the address for him; she's memorized it so that she no longer has to pull out the worn letter from her sister.
Dear Henri, Best news! I'm getting married!
The turn off for the driveway looks narrow and dense, so the girl pays the cabbie on the side of the highway before hiking her duffle over her shoulder and setting off down the overgrown path. She's wearing the same pair of converse sneakers that she left in four years ago, only now they're the color of pale dust instead of the yellow that they started out as. And they're full of holes that let the dampness of the grass in.
As she tramps up the long driveway, she prays that she's got the right address. Her sister hadn't actually given her the address of the house, just the name of the boy she was marrying. From there she'd held on to the letter and then googled the hell out of the boy's family. That was where the address came from. If she's wrong, it means another expensive cab fare across town to her father's house.
Finally the house is in sight. (And ohhh what a house it is) Big and white with a grand porch and a swanky feel to it. She remembers the hut she had been living in not three days ago, how there was just enough room for her and the seven family members, no plumbing or electricity available. This house is the opposite of that hut. It is big and looks like it could house an army. A very rich army.
The girl can't find a doorbell once she's on the porch, but there is a large brass knocker, and so she lifts it and lets it drop.
Please let this be the right house.
Almost immediately someone answers the door.
The man is blond and beautiful like a renaissance painting. He also looks rather confused.
"May I help you?" His voice is like honey.
"I sure hope so." She smiles her best and tries not to look so wild. "I'm looking for Isabella Swan… well Cullen now, I guess."
The man stares at her with something very much like bewilderment spreading across his features. It's as if he doesn't know how to reply, and so he remains frozen at the door.
From inside the house a woman calls his name. "Carlisle? Who is it at the door dear?" her voice is the female version of his, and when she strolls into sight she is just as beautiful as he. She looks surprised as she takes in the girl on the porch, but manages to hide it behind a motherly smile. "Ahh hello, may we help you with anything?"
The girl feels her smile start to slip. There is something very Stepford Wives about all this, and she wonders what exactly her sister got herself into. "I'm looking for Bella Cullen. Am I right in thinking that she lives here?" She repeats.
"Oh. Yes." The woman is just as bewildered as the man.
The smile on the girl's face becomes strained and she can feel her foot begin to tap, a nervous twitch of hers that never went away. "May I see her?"
"She's not seeing visitors at the moment." The words are spoken by yet another woman, this time tall and statuesque. The blond supermodel looks haughtily down her nose at the human girl on the front porch.
"Well, I've just flown all the way from Africa, I don't have enough money for another cab fare and I would like to see my sister please!"
If the small group of people that had assembled in the door way didn't look shocked before, they surely did now.
From far back in the house she could hear a faint and very familiar voice. "Henri?"
"Bella!" She calls, and pushes her way past the three people in the door way to follow where it sounded like her sister was.
Behind her the family protests. "She's very ill—" "Contagious!" "Can't see anyone"
Henri ignores them all.
"Bella!" In the back living room, on a couch, she can see her younger sister curled up in a blanket, looking horribly ill.
At the sight of her though, the sickness seems to melt away from Bella's face and a smile lights her up.
"Henri! I didn't know you were coming home!" Henri drops her bags to the floor and runs to the couch, completely ignoring the warning growls coming from her sister's in-laws.
"I knew you needed me, so I got the first flight back that I could! I found the address online and I figured that even if you and loverboy had a house of your own, these people would at least know where it was." She knelt down by the couch and drew Bella's soft hands into her own rough callused ones.
"I'm so glad you're here Henri." Bella's voice is weak again, and this scares her sister.
From the doorway the Cullens watch the two girls, sisters, murmur softly to each other. Their thoughts hum with confusion. Bella never mentioned a sister – Looks just like Renee—wonder why we've never heard of her—dressed like a gypsy but very beautiful – wonder why Bella's never said anything—. The taller girl leans her head closer to Bella's, tells her she knew she needed her help, and the Cullens wonder what that could mean.
"Missed you so much Bella. I got your letter maybe a week ago. I could hardly believe it, you getting married and all. Remember when you were twelve and said you'd never get married?"
"And mom thought I was a lesbian? Yeah, I remember that." Bella chuckles and reaches up to run her fingers through Henri's hair. "Your hair's gotten so long Henri. It's beautiful like this, with the beads and everything. You look like how I always thought Jane should look like in Tarzan."
The Cullens can hear the older girl's laugh as they move silently from the room to give Bella and her sister their privacy. "I can't lie sister, you look like what I always imagined Dracula's victims would look."
The house is so quiet you can hear a pin drop, but Bella's sister doesn't seem to notice, and neither does Bella. She just laughed. "You always did have a morbid imagination!"
Henri's face turns serious. "Bella, you really don't look well. The in-laws say you're sick. How bad?"
"I really don't know." For the first time, the Cullens watch as Bella begins to look her age, and looks as scared as they are. "Henri, I might not… I might…"
"Is that why you married that boy Isabella? Some weird A Walk to Remember bullshit?"
"No, not at all!" Bella's hand smoothed out the angry lines on her sibling's forehead. "I love him Henri! And he loves me! I didn't get sick until after the wedding!" A blush tints her cheeks.
"Well, you aren't really sick are you? I mean… you are, but it's not an illness is it?" Henri stares her little sister in the eye and pulls the truth out of them, the way only she can.
"Henri, I'm pregnant. And it's not going well." Bella whispers and her voice is filled with the kind of fear that Henri hasn't heard in a while. "Something's wrong… with me, with the baby, I don't know what." From out in the hallway Edward makes a sickened groan.
"Does Charlie know?"
"No! And Henri, you can't tell him. This would kill him!"
Now it is Henri's turn to sound pained. "That's nice of you to think that he would even speak to me Bells. You were there that summer, when he threw me out. I don't think he'll let me past his front stoop, let alone let me get enough words out to tell him his baby girl is pregnant!" Both sisters remember their father's explosive temper, that night that Henri had sat him down to tell him she was gay, and oh by the way she was joining the peace corps as soon as college was done.
But just as the dark moment starts to settle, it is gone. Henri smiles, "At least Charlie will get those grandbabies he was yelling so much about now that you're safely married off to a nice boy!" Bella smiles too. Somehow, she muses, Henri always knows exactly what's going on. Somehow, Henri always knows exactly what to say. And then the younger sister's eyes start to droop, and her breathing smooth's over.
Henri gives her sister a kiss on the forehead before standing and heading towards where the in-laws disappeared only minutes ago. She finds them huddled in the hallway, not quite with their ears pressed to the door, but she knows that they've heard everything.
"So," she sticks out her hand to the one that she assumes is her sister's husband. "I'm Henrietta Swan. It's… nice to meet you." His hand is like ice, but she is not at all surprised about this.
"Edward Cullen," He nods stiffly.
For a moment there is a terribly awkward silence, before it is broken by a man who seems to be the Jolly Green Giant incarnate. "So. How come we've never heard of you before?" Someone elbows him hard in the ribs, but the damage is done.
Henri grins a bit. "Well, for the past four years I've been in a village in a very remote part of Togo, Africa, where there is no electricity or running water, so I've never called home and mostly communicated with Bells by letter. Before that, Charlie and I had a bit of a blowout concerning who I decided to date, so I probably wouldn't have been mentioned by him, or in his presence." She pauses, as if considering something, before continuing. "Oh, and you can't read Bella's mind, so of course, you'd've never heard her thinking about me."
It was as if a bomb had been dropped. Snarls filled the spacious hall and the entire family shifted, going in an instant from being very human to being very wild.
"How do you know such a thing?"
Henri's face splits in a smirk. "I know things. Lots of things. Things that most people can't imagine in their dizziest day dreams."
The Cullens' eyes narrow and sweep over this very willowy and unassuming girl, each of them letting their minds linger over her every detail, as if her appearance held her secrets. But their eyes find nothing abnormal, and their tongues can't grasp the words that would give life to their questions and fears.
Henri steps in. "Thank you for taking such good care of my sister." Her gaze fixes itself on Edward and her eyes soften substantially. "She loves you, that much is clear. And I know that you must love her."
Edward stumbles towards her, lands on his knees. "You know things?" She nods. "Do you know that she'll be alright? And the baby too? Do you know if she'll live a long happy life?" He sounds desperate, burning. Like if he could he'd be crying.
Henrietta looks down on her brother in law, letting her mind wander over his questions. She doesn't honestly know the answers. But in her gut, she believes "That's why I'm here. Because Bella needs me. I'll be here until she doesn't anymore."
Henrietta Swan is mysterious, that much is for sure. The Cullens don't really get any kind of answers from her, but what they do get is Bella's health. And her laughter.
The girl has secrets that even the family of vampires cannot comprehend, but then again, they always knew something was different about the Swan family. Isabella Swan in particular. The appearance of her sister only reminds them that she is not normal, and never will be.
AN: Okay kids,this is another oneshot that probably doesn't make any sense at all. But it was something that I just felt like writing, and so I did. Please forgive the incoherency! Love ~ Rosie