Le Visiteur
~"The worse feeling is regretting not having done something when you had the chance."~
Preface
It was a chilly Autumn night the day the Doctor was visited by the vampire. She had just returned from work and was starting some coffee when she heard the doorbell ring. 'I wonder who could be visiting me at this hour.' she thought. After all, it was a little past three in the morning. Humans were not known to be nocturnal. As she went to open the door, an ominous presence over came her, and she shivered. She was half way regretting her decision by the time she opened up the door to face her unexpected visitor.
The woman before her was strikingly beautiful. In fact, her features were so flawless and perfect, it seemed inhuman. There was an appealing fragrance, like a strong perfume, that seemed to waft itself around her. She was considerably taller than the Doctor as well, and had healthy dark brown locks cascading past her right shoulder. She wore a white coat that screamed "I have money!" all over it, and black stockings adorned her legs, accompanied by black wedges.
"Excuse me?" began the Doctor. "How may I help you? Are you lost?" The Doctor tried her best to mask her fear. She had an inkling as to what this stranger wanted. This was no human and if it was, it would have to be a direct descendant of gods or angels. Seeing that she didn't believe in either, she highly disregarded this notion.
"You are Dr. Brown." It was more of a statement than a question.
The Doctor paused. "...Yes."
The Doctor watched as the visitor retrieved a small vanilla envelope from her purse. The sudden pleading look the vampire gave her made the Doctor's heart clench. "This contains 5,000 dollars for your cooperation. Please, I beg of you; help me."
And the Doctor, not knowing how to refuse a vampire or keep herself from falling into the depths of those pitiful brown eyes, ignored the alarm bells sounding off in her head, and allowed the woman entrance into her home.
The two females were now sitting in the doctor's den. Bella watched as the older lady took a sip of her freshly brewed coffee. Her nose wrinkled at the scent; it wasn't the most appetizing smell her vampire nose had ever inhaled.
"So," The Doctor put down her mug. "I see that you already know my name. May I ask how?"
"Ms. Tolbert."
The Doctor had to refrain from spewing her drink all over her guest. "Oh!" She silently choked for a moment. The vampire watched her with concern.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Y-yes. Just a bit startled is all." Yes, now she was certain. She definitely knew why the woman was visiting her here.
"Where are your napkins?" the visitor asked.
"In the kitchen, next to the microwave."
In a flash, the vampire held napkins in her hand, holding them out to the Doctor. It was such a brief span of time that Mrs. Brown didn't even see the other female leave her seat.
"Thank you." she said awkwardly, taking a napkin to wipe the leftover coffee that dripped from her chin and onto her shirt.
The vampire only nodded.
The Doctor cleared her throat uneasily. "Your name?"
It took a second for her to answer. She noticed that the vampire was now playing with a ring on her finger.
"A Mrs...?" she started to guess.
The vampire stiffened. "Just Bella will be fine."
She quirked an eyebrow at this. Maybe she came here for a reason other than what she initially thought after all. "Do you seek marriage counseling?"
She shook her head. "No. I've...we've already tried."
The therapist continued to read her carefully.
"What do you seek then, Bella?"
She wasted no time in a response. "Confidentiality. Someone to talk to. A person that already knows the existence of my world and won't be threatened by it." Bella took a second to glance at a picture that was hanging on the wall opposite of her. A black man with peppered gray hair was holding a slightly younger looking Doctor Brown in his arms. They were both smiling at the camera. "I hear your husband will be on business leave for the next few weeks. I know he doesn't know. It'll be safer if we meet now, where I can tell you my story in secrecy, before he comes back."
"Your story?"
"Yes. But...only if you are willing to listen to me, Mrs. Brown. I am not like most of my kind. I am actually quite a lot like Ms. Tolbert. I don't drink human blood and I have a better grasp over my thirst than most. I don't wish to harm you or betray you. I simply want a person to confide in and who can give me guidance and reassurance over the things I've done."
"...I...I have committed a horrible crime against my daughter recently, and I don't know how to fix it. The pain is becoming unbearable, and the worst part is, I feel I deserve it. I can give you more money, if that's what you want. If I think you or your family is ever going to be subjugated to any terror due to my presence, I will vanish completely from your lives. So please, consider. I won't force anything upon you. Just simply say the words, and I will act like this meeting never happened at all."
To prove her point, Bella began rising up from her chair, her purse already back in its place on her left shoulder. A mixture of sadness, sincerity, and a tiny dash of hope roamed her features.
The way the vampire talked and her body language reminded the Doctor of someone who was depressed. No, let her correct that; the girl was depressed.
The Doctor bit her lip. "No. Stay. I guess I can listen for a few minutes. I don't have to go into work until twelve tomorrow. However, I am not promising that we will continue these meetings, especially since they will probably have to occur in the early morning hours, and not just for your benefit. You say you can have this story finished before my husband comes home towards the end of this month. We'll see."
Mrs. Brown then rose from her seat as well, and gestured for Bella to lay down on the now vacant couch. "Pardon me, but I am used to counseling humans. I know it will make no difference to you whether you lie down or not, since you are dead, but humor me, won't you? It makes an old cat like me a little more comfortable."
The vampire said nothing as she did what the Doctor requested of her.
After obtaining a notebook and a pen, Mrs. Brown sat in the chair the vampire had previously occupied and set her timer for sixty minutes. "You've got one hour."
At this, the beautiful enchantress leaned her head back against the couch cushions and closed her eyes. The doctor became uncomfortable as she saw her body suddenly go rigid and motionless. All human characteristics and life seemed to flutter from the vampire's body. So this was the true state of the living dead.
"I will start at the very beginning." the vampire murmured, sounding as if she had gotten lost in a sea of memories. "I was far less mature back then, and me and my husband just saved my daughter from the Volturi. I assume you know about them?"
The Doctor began to nod her head but remembered that Bella had her eyes closed. "Yes."
"Good. Right now, I physically appear as an eighteen year old. Mentally, however, I just turned forty eight. So not much younger than you. I am guessing you are in your fifties?"
"Fifty six."
"I thought so. I was nineteen when the Volturi had threatened us. They came again later, but I'll talk about that at another date. After we managed to ward them off thanks to my sister-in-law's unique abilities, my family returned home and we said our fair wells to the vampire covens and wolf packs who helped us."
"Why were they threatening you in the first place?"
There was silence before "Have you ever heard the legends of immortality producing offspring with mortality?"
The Doctor gasped.
"Yes. Me and my husband did not realize that our marital actions would make me conceive child, but lo and behold, it did."
"When you had mentioned daughter earlier, I assumed you were speaking of one you had way before the transformation, or perhaps you had adopted. But never would I have ever dreamed..."
Bella lightly chuckled. "I understand. I could hardly believe it myself when I had received the news. I had never wanted children, though my husband did. I must admit, if I hadn't given birth to Renesmee, I probably wouldn't have grown in my way of thinking. It's plausible to say I might have even died. I almost let go during the transformation. My husband, who I had placed above God, couldn't give me all the strength I needed to survive. No, it was my baby, my precious Renesmee who gave me the will to fight... and who I've betrayed, so harshly."
She made a noise that reminded the doctor of someone trying to cry. She could not fathom not being able to cry. Letting go those few salty tears could help anyone feel better. How lucky she was not to be a vampire.
She allowed Bella to regain her composure. "Take your time dear." she told her.
"Thank you. I'm fine now."
A beat.
"Let's continue."
Suddenly, the world around Bella slowly began to change as her thoughts went back to twenty-nine years ago. She was no longer in the Doctor's den but in a meadow. Their meadow. She recalled her last thoughts there.
"And then we continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever." But that was the thing; it was small. And it wouldn't last forever.
A/N: I lay no claim to the Twilight Saga. It is respectfully owned by Stephanie Meyer. If I had been the author, Jacob and Bella would have gotten together. This is a mixture of the movie and book universes. I will try to stay as canon as possible, but some things may be changed in order to fit this story line. Please leave a comment below.