Plot Summary: Newton's Third Law states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When Bella Swan survives James's attack, she thought things would go back to normal. Instead, the attack sets off a series of events that will not only changes everything but also uncovers a long kept family secret.
Pairings: End pairings undecided. Some Edward/Bella, Stefan/Elena, Bella/Damon, and other canon pairings for both Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.
Warnings: This is AU for both Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. It begins after the events in Twilight and before the beginning of Season One in The Vampire Diaries.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter One
When Bella fled Forks with Jasper and Alice to hide in Phoenix, Arizona, she knew there would be a certain amount of fall out. For example, she had not expected to even survive the encounter. That she did so, even with her staggering injuries and the crescent moon scar on her wrist, spoke volumes to the amount of divine intervention it must have taken to save her life. What she had not expected was for everything in her life to change.
Because Bella's femoral artery was serrated—and because Edward had drank a large amount of her blood—she had to have a blood transfusion. The blood transfusion itself had not been a problem, in the end, but Bella had overheard a whispered conversation between Renee and Charlie that made her suspicious.
"I think its time we told her, Renee. She's getting older now. If one of us hadn't been here when they did the transfusion, it could have—you know what would have happened. It could have made her really sick!"
"You know what we agreed to. She is never supposed to know."
"Yeah, well, things change."
At first, Bella wasn't sure what they were talking about. She thought about it endlessly as she recovered from her injuries. Once she was able to move on her own with more agility, Bella decided to do some investigating. Charlie kept all of his important papers in a box in his closet. She waited for a sunny Saturday when Charlie would be fishing and Alice and Edward would be hunting to go through the papers. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, it wasn't even that difficult to find what she was looking for. Tucked away underneath Charlie's previous tax returns was a folder containing adoption papers—her adoption papers.
She was adopted. The people she had thought were her parents were not, and that wasn't all. They had lied to her for her entire life about more than just them not being her parents. Both her name and her birthday were different—her birthday wasn't September 13th like she always thought. No, September 13th was the date her adoption went through. Her birthday was June 22. She wasn't 17 turning 18 in a few months like she thought. Instead, she would turn 17 in two weeks. And her name was really Isobel Katerina. What else could they be lying to her about? The adoption was listed as private, though, so there were no clues as to who her parents were, but she did know that she must have been born in Mystic Falls, Virginia because her birth certificate was issued from a hospital there, Mystic Falls General.
All of a sudden, she just had to get out of her house. She wanted to know more, and she knew who could find the information she needed. She grabbed her papers and her keys and headed for the door.
When Bella pulled into the Cullens' driveway, Jasper was hanging outside of the door.
"Edward's not here, Bella. He went hunting."
"I know," she told him as she struggled to get out of her truck with the boot on her leg. "I actually wanted to see you. I need your help."
Jasper looked intrigued. "Oh?"
She stopped about a foot short of Jasper. They had bonded during their trip to Phoenix, but he was the member of the family she felt the most apprehensive about, and she knew that Edward felt the same.
"You're good with research, right? Edward said you had a contact that did these sorts of things for the family."
He nodded. "That's right. Why?"
She handed him the packet of papers and waited for him to read the papers at vampire speed. His eyes widened, and he quirked a blond eyebrow at her.
"I want to know if you can find my birth parents."
"I'll get in touch with Jenks," he said. "But you're not giving me much to go on, so it may take a while."
Bella gave him a small smile. "That's fine. Thanks, Jasper. Oh, and could you not tell anyone? I want to tell Edward myself."
Jasper reassured her by sending her a wave of confidence and one of encouragement.
The feelings evaporated as she pulled out of the driveway bringing all of her doubts back. The truth was that Bella wasn't sure she wanted to tell Edward. Ever since the incident in Phoenix, he had become incredibly distant. He rarely spent the night with her, and it was even harder to get him to initiate any sort of physical intimacy than it already had been. What time they did spend together was spent arguing over Edward's refusal to change her and on his decision to suck the venom out. He hadn't even noticed how distracted she had been ever since she overheard the conversation in the hospital.
When she got back home, she couldn't sit still. She hobbled around the house. She studied the series of old pictures Charlie had of her on the fireplace mantel. It was funny, now that she thought of it, but she really didn't look much like either of her parents. Sure, she and Charlie shared the whole brown hair and brown eyes thing, but she really should have noticed the difference.
Of course, she never expected her parents to lie to her.
She was waiting at the table with the packet of adoption papers when Charlie got home.
"Bells?" he asked.
"Don't you mean Isobel?" she snapped.
Charlie's eyes widened comically, and he sank onto one of the kitchen chairs. He sighed heavily and rubbed a large hand down his face. "You know."
Bella's laugh was bitter and forced. "Actually, I don't know. Don't know my own name, my real birthday, my age... or even my own parents."
"I've wanted to tell you for a while," Charlie said. His voice sounded strangled. "I never thought it was a good idea to change your birthday or your name, but Renee insisted. When I pushed the matter, she left."
Bella frowned and cocked her head to the side. "Why didn't she want to tell me?"
Charlie shrugged. "Don't know. She never gave me a real reason. She just said it was safer."
Bella's brow furrowed in confusion. "Safer? What's that supposed to mean?"
"You would have to ask her what she meant."
"Believe me, I will," she said. Her eyes hardened, and she set her lips in a line.
"Bella, this changes nothing. You're my daughter even if we're not biologically relayed," He paused, clearly embarrassed. "I love you, Bells."
She sighed. "I love you, too, Dad. But I'm really..." she trailed off, searching for the right word, "confused. I feel like my entire world has been turned upside down. If I was just adopted then that would be one thing, but it's so much more than that. Who am I? Am I Isabella Marie Swan or Isobel Katerina? Suddenly, there's this whole other part of myself that I don't even know about. It's going to take a while for us to get back on track."
She gave Charlie a brief hug before heading upstairs. Without even changing clothes, she fell into her bed and cried herself to sleep. She slept restlessly, her confusion following her into her dream where she wandered around in the dark lost and scared.
It was late when she felt herself be moved and a cold body settled down next to her on the bed.
"Edward," she breathed, her eyes still closed. "I wasn't expecting you until the morning."
She opened her eyes when she felt a cold finger trace a line down her cheek, wiping off a tear as it did so.
"You've been crying," he said, surprised. "Is something wrong?"
She moved into she was tucked under Edward's arm and resting her face against his cold chest. She breathed in his familiar scent. "I found out something about myself today that I wasn't expecting. Apparently, I'm adopted."
Edward's reaction surprised her. "That isn't such a terrible thing, is it? Family doesn't have to be biologically connected. It takes more than blood to connect a group of people together. Look at my family. We all consider ourselves adopted, and I know that Carlisle and Esme love us just as much as our biological families."
"It's more than that. They changed my name and my birthday!"
Once again, Edward seemed nonplussed. "I'm sure there was a reason for both changes. We should talk about this more in the morning. It's quite late."
Bella bristled at Edward's dismissal and his chastisement, but when he began humming the melody of her lullaby, she fell asleep.
She was alone when she woke up making the entire encounter with Edward in the middle of the night seem like a dream. She was surprised to find herself pleased that Edward was gone. She needed to be alone for the moment to try and get her thoughts in some kind of order. She went through her morning routine in a daze. She had no idea what to think. She was still trying to process everything, incorporating the new information with the existing information.
She had no idea what she was supposed to do now. Now that she knew about everything, would anything really change? Would she go on with the charade of her being 17 and turning 18 in September, or would she adjust her birthday to reflect her actual birthday of June 22. Under the confusion, there was anger—anger at Charlie and Renee for lying to her and keeping secrets, anger at her nameless, faceless birth parents for not wanting her or loving her enough to keep her.
It was summer vacation, but Bella still liked to keep a semblance of a schedule even when she wanted nothing more than to bury herself in bed and do nothing. Once she had showered and had breakfast, she decided to do a little digging. She pulled out all of the family photo albums she could find. She was sitting cross-legged on her 1bed surrounded by her baby pictures when Edward jumped through her window. She was still a little miffed at him, so she continued looking through the pictures without speaking to him. She should have noticed. There were no pictures of her as a newborn, no pictures of her in a hospital or right after delivery. She appeared to be a few months old in the earliest pictures she could find.
She pushed the photo albums away from her, not caring when they tumbled to the floor, a disgusted noise erupting from her as she did so. When she did finally risk looking at Edward, who was sitting in her rocking chair, his disappointed look made her scowl. She raised a brow at him in challenge, but luckily, for him, he said nothing. He just eyed her warily.
Suddenly, Bella was filled with annoyance with him. Not only had he not supported her last night, but he had also chosen to treat her like a child, telling her it was too late for her to be awake, singing her to sleep, even. Of course, he had been singing her to sleep for a while, but for the first time, she felt angry by it. She also felt bothered by his coming through her window uninvited especially when she would have rather been alone. In order to avoid speaking to him for just a little longer, she took the time to pick up the fallen photo albums and put them away.
"What are you thinking?" Edward asked, studying her face intently. "I never know what is going on in that silent head of yours."
"What am I to you?" she asked. "Am I your child or your girlfriend?"
Edward looked completely taken aback. His brow was furrowed in confusion, and his lips were pulled down into a frown. "I find the term girlfriend severely lacking for what I feel for you, but for lack of a better term, yes. Why do you ask?"
"I was just thinking of your behavior. You always treat me like a child."
Edward's frown deepened. "Compared to me, you are a child, Bella. I don't understand where this is coming from."
"I may be younger than you, yes, but I am not a child. I don't need you to set a bedtime for me; I don't need you to sing me to sleep. I need for you to treat me like an equal in this relationship."
Realization crept over his face. "This is about last night. I wasn't setting a bedtime for you, Bella. I never meant to wake you up, so when I did so, the natural thing was to help you return to sleep," he paused, his expression turning hurt. "As far as my singing you to sleep goes, I thought that you enjoyed your lullaby. If you would rather I not sing to you, I won't."
Bella felt like screaming. He was missing the entire point. It wasn't his actions so much that bothered her; it was the motivations between his actions that bothered her. "Compared to me, you are a child." She would always be a child to him since he refused to change her. She didn't
mention that because she had no desire to open that can of worms at the moment. There was no reason to borrow trouble today from tomorrow.
"Fine," she sighed. "I guess I'm being a little sensitive because of this entire adoption thing."
"I understand. Would you like a distraction? I thought we could visit the meadow seeing as it is supposed to be sunny this afternoon."
She shook her head. "Not today. I'm going to call Renee in a bit and see if I can get her to tell me anything about my birth parents. Charlie said that the entire reason she changed my name and birthday and kept everything from me was because it was safer. I want to know what kind of danger I could have been in as a baby."
"Perhaps it would be better if you just left things as they are," he suggested. "I'm sure Renee had a good reason for keeping things hidden. Why do you want to stir things up?"
"I'm not...stirring things up," she spat. "I'm trying to find out things about myself that I need to know. When Alice decided to research her human family, you were supportive of her. All I'm asking is for you to support me in this, or if you can't muster that, then at least pretend to be supportive."
"Alice researching her human family posed no danger to her whereas you know that Renee kept this information from you to keep you safe. I do support you, Bella, but I think it would be foolhardy for you to continue."
Now Bella was the one to study his face. There was actual worry in his eyes although the expression on his face was one of simple concern. She had seen this look on his face before—mostly when he had been keeping things from her. Specifically things that Alice had seen.
"What did Alice see?" she demanded. "What's going on?"
He flinched and then stiffened for the briefest moment before a look of disinterest settled over his face. "Nothing is going on."
The problem was that Bella had always been observant, and she knew Edward well enough to read his expressions. He might fool an outsider, but he couldn't fool her. She crossed her arms over her chest, cocked her head to the side, and lifted one brow. The look on her face said it all.
Edward said nothing. He merely lifted one brow in return. His expression remained the same. He was unflappable.
They had come to a stalemate it seemed as neither side appeared to be backing down. Bella finally shrugged.
"Well, if nothing is going on...if Alice hasn't seen anything, then there's no reason for me to call Renee now, so problem solved."
Her boyfriend groaned in frustration. "Why can you not just listen to reason?"
"You can't have it both ways," she told him. "Either Alice has seen something that makes me investigating further dangerous—in which case, you should tell me—or she hasn't seen anything, and it is perfectly safe for me to do so. So which is it?"
He hissed out a sequence of angry words, pinching his noise between his thumb and his finger, before finally settling his unhappy expression on Bella. "The problem is that Alice can't see anything. Whenever you make a decision to look into your birth family, your future goes blank. That's why I came home early from hunting. When she saw your future go black, I left immediately to see to your wellbeing."
"Hmmm, that is strange," she allowed, "but I'm not going to stop investigating my birth family just because Alice can't see me. I refuse to believe that simply calling Renee could be dangerous."
"Bella, be reasonable."
Bella sighed. "I was about to say the same thing to you."
Edward quickly rose from the rocking chair and began to ace around the bedroom. He pushed his hands through his already messy bronze hair, making it even messier.
"After what happened in Phoenix, I can't bear the idea of you in danger. I almost lost you once before. I won't let it happen again. Your safety is paramount to me."
She sighed at his low, urgent voice. She could tell that he was being truthful. He was legitimately concerned about her safety. Still, he was being completely unreasonable, overprotective, and not to mention ridiculous.
"Look, I get that you have come to rely on Alice's visions, but I'm not going to stop just because she can't see what happens."
Luckily for her, Edward dropped the subject. She knew it was only the beginning though. He didn't linger at her house much longer, choosing instead to continue his hunt as planned. Bella spent a while doing laundry and other chores before she couldn't stand to wait any longer. She closed herself in her bedroom for privacy in case Charlie came home early and called Renee.
She answered on the first ring with a cheerful cry of, "Bella! I'm so glad to hear from you. Phil and I are sunbathing by the pool. You'll have to visit us soon, darling, and get some sun."
"Maybe," Bella said when she was able to get a word in edgewise.
Renee rambled on about some remodeling her and Phil were planning to do on their new house for a few minutes before Bella finally interrupted her.
"Mom, not that I don't enjoy talking to you, but I did call for a reason."
There was a pause. "Oh? What's going on? Is everything okay?"
Bella took a deep breath. "Who are my birth parents?"
"What did you just say?" she asked after a moment. Her voice was no longer cheerful. Instead, she sounded shocked and unusually tense.
"I think you heard me. I want to know who my birth parents are."
"Who told you?" Renee asked after several seconds of silence.
"Does it matter?"
Renee exhaled harshly. "No, it doesn't, but if you called me looking for answers, you're going to be disappointed because I'm not going to tell you anything."
Bella swallowed and blinked furiously at the tears that were welling up in her eyes. Renee had disappointed her a number of times as a child. She had always been so scattered, so child-like, leaving Bella to practically raise herself and Renee along with her. She had always been the one who had to make sure there were lights on in whatever house they lived in and that there was food in the refrigerator. Instead of Renee making sure Bella had her homework done, Bella was the one making sure Renee went to work on time and paid the bills on time. The one time she asked Renee for something she refused.
"Fine, then I have nothing left to say to you," she finally said before hanging up the phone.
She threw herself down on her bed and closed her eyes, mentally checking Renee off of her list. The list of people she could count on was dwindling, getting smaller and smaller.
A bell tone from her phone tore her from her thoughts a few minutes later. She opened her eyes. Who could be texting her now? She sighed and checked her phone to see a text message from Alice.
How would you feel about going on a trip?
Bella pursed her lips and called Alice. "What sort of trip?" she asked, not even giving her the chance to say hello.
Alice let out a peal of bell-like laughter. "A trip to a little city in Virginia."
"I thought Edward said your visions aren't working right now when it comes to me."
Bella heard Alice make a disgusted noise. "They haven't gone completely blank. Besides, I think you know that Edward's just a teensy bit overprotective when it comes to you. Anyway, it's not his decision, it's yours."
"Won't he be mad at you if you help me?"
"Don't worry about him. You let me take care of my brother. In fact, I'll take care of everything. All you need to do is pack—if you're saying yes, that is."
Bella sighed but couldn't help the small smile that spread across her face. "Yes, I'm saying yes. I definitely want to go to Mystic Falls."
"I may not be able to see what will happen, Bella, but I have a feeling this is the right thing to do, and you know what they say: never bet against Alice. You made sure that I would be able to find out about my family history, so I want to repay the favor."
When the conversation with Alice had ended, Bella felt relieved. Now that she had some sort of plan for discovering who her birth family was, she could finally acknowledge something she had kept hidden from everyone. In the weeks since the attack, Bella had begun to experience certain changes. She hadn't noticed them at first because they had been subtle, but as time went on, she began to take more notice of the changes.
The first things she noticed was that her senses had become keener. She noticed this mostly when she was at Edward's house because she sometimes overheard conversations that she knew were taking place out of the human range of hearing. It was more than her hearing though. Her senses of sight and smell had also increased.
The second thing she noticed was that her appearance had also seemed to change. It was nothing too extreme. The color of her hair had become richer while it's length had grown, changing her simply wavy hair into more defined curls. Her skin had also become smoother and paler. She hadn't noticed any real difference in her facial structure or anything else. She could almost believe that she was imagining the changes or that they were the result of her taking more vitamins or simply growing up. If it hadn't been for the changes to her senses, then perhaps she would believe that. Combined with those changes, though, it was strange, and she had no explanation for it.
She had tried to subtly probe Carlisle about the occurrences without giving away anything because she was sure that if she told them that Edward would overreact. Carlisle was no help though because he had never heard of anyone surviving a vampire's bite since the venom was absolute. He had also been adamant that Edward had removed all of the venom from her blood stream.
She sighed and examined the bite mark in question. It had healed, yes, but there was still a perfect indentation of James's teeth marks not to mention the fact that the skin there was much cooler than the surrounding skin and that if the sunlight hit the mark in a certain way, it would glitter and sparkle like Edward's skin.
She should probably tell one of the Cullens about the changes, but to what avail? Edward would definitely overreact. Carlisle might not overreact, but he would definitely be a healthy combination of worried and curious. She did not want to become a specimen for study, which was definitely one possibility. What else would you do with the one human who was able to keep her thoughts hidden from a mind reader, and who survived a venomous vampire bite? She was pretty sure she wasn't slowly changing into a vampire because she think she would notice the hunger for blood, but since this was something completely unheard of, she had no idea what was in store for her future.
The two weeks leading up to Bella's departure from Forks was tense and uncomfortable. Bella spent equal parts worried someone would notice her changes and equal part angry at most of the people in her life. She still wasn't exactly on friendly terms with Charlie though his easy acceptance of her going to Mystic Falls had served as a soothing balm to the hurt of his deception. She still wasn't speaking to Renee, but Renee was having a difficult time understanding that and called her at least once a day and sent her multiple text messages and e-mails between calls. Bella ignored them all.
Edward, on the other hand, was making things excessively difficult for her. Instead of being supportive like she had hoped, he was all doom and gloom. His protests had the opposite effect, though, because the more he told her she shouldn't go, the more she clung to going. The only thing his protests had done was cause the gulf between them to widen. She refused to be treated like a child by him. When he finally saw that he could not convince her to not go, his new goal became to convince her to allow him to go with her. She refused. She had no idea what to expect from her trip, but she knew that she needed—and wanted—to make the trip alone. Plus, his unsupportive attitude made her both angry and hurt in turns.
It was not like she was being unreasonable. She had made certain concessions. She had reluctantly agreed to staying in the house that Alice purchased—as an investment or so she said—and she had allowed Alice to cajole her into accepting the black American Express credit card if for no other reason that she had no idea how long this trip would take or how much money she would need. Well, that and the fact that when she tried to give it back, it found its way into her wallet again. She figured the card wasn't something new since it was ready to go with her name imprinted on the front of it from the minute she agreed. She had even agreed to Edward renting her a car for the duration of the trip although she had a feeling it wouldn't end up being a rental. He had always made his displeasure at her rusty, reliable truck known.
It was dark and rainy the day Bella left Forks, Washington. She had breakfast with Charlie, who had managed to cook her bacon and eggs almost to perfection, before he left for work that morning. They didn't talk much, but Charlie had pulled her into a tight hug when they finished eating.
"I love you, kiddo," he told her, his voice rough with tears.
Bella nodded into his chest. "I love you, too, Dad."
He left with a warning for Bella to be careful and a plea for her to call him when she arrived.
She puttered around the house uselessly until it was time for Edward to pick her up. He was supposed to drive her to the airport in Port Angeles. Thanks to her newly enhanced hearing, Bella opened the door the second she heard the car pull into the driveway. She was surprised and hurt to find that it was not Edward driving his silver Volvo. Instead, it was Alice. The hurt must have been obvious on her face because Alice was quick to sweep her into a hug.
"He's just sulking, Bella. It's not often that he doesn't get his way," she tried to explain as she loaded Bella's luggage—what was likely ridiculously expensive luggage—into the trunk of the Volvo.
"Yeah, sure," she murmured.
His refusal to drive her to the airport was only one of the many ways he had shown her his displeasure since discovering her plan to go to Mystic Falls. The other ways mostly included him distancing himself from her. In the previous two weeks, Bella could count on one hand the amount of times she had seen him. He didn't come to her at night anymore. Instead, she only saw him when she went to his home, and even then, he was distant because her visits typically included either discussing the upcoming trip with Alice or the search for her birth parents with Jasper, two subjects that he did not like.
Before Bella boarded the plane, Alice pulled her into another tight hug.
"No matter what happens between you and Edward, Bella, I want you to know that you are still a part of the Cullen family. We love you—I love you. I told you once that we were going to be the best of friends, and I stand by that. Edward's presence in your life is not a requirement for that."
"Thanks, Alice. You have no idea how much that means to me."
Alice laughed and pressed her cold lips to Bella's cheek. "I think I do." She paused and pulled out a manila envelope from her oversized bag. "This is from Jasper. He's managed to find some information for you. Don't open it until tomorrow at the Mystic Grill."
With those last words, Alice was gone. Bella took a deep breath and steeled herself against her rising nerves. She could do this. She was going to go to Mystic Falls and find her birth family.
Consequences be damned.