As The Plumbob Turns
Chapter 1: "Bella's Return"
Written by: AkiraTheAngel
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Cassandra was holding Lunetta, preparing for her daughter's birthday. She looked around. Alexander was smiling, holding a noisemaker. Her father, Mortimer, and Dina, his new wife, were smiling. She didn't completely trust Dina, but she seemed nice enough...
'Mom, I wish you were here to see her...' She said, looking at the smiling face of baby Lunetta. She didn't look like most alien babies, which was interesting. Cassandra had been surprised when the adoption agency brought an alien baby, that's for sure, but she saw Lunetta and fell in love with her. She was a Family Sim, after all. Lunetta looked familiar, but Cassandra couldn't quite place the facial features. 'Oh well, maybe I'll be able to when she's older.'
She held the baby near the cake, and started to sing. Alexander got a bit too excited and started spinning the noisemaker, which distracted her for a moment. Once the candles had been blown out, she held Lunetta. At any moment, she would get older...now they just had to wait and see...
She aged up, in a colorful burst of confetti. Cassandra looked at Lunetta. Her hair, which had been an indeterminate color during her baby years, was raven-black, falling in curls over her head. Cassandra picked her up, and Mortimer walked over to her.
"Hi, Lunetta...glad you've aged up. Now you can be potty-trained...no more diapers!" The toddler reached out an arm, and he smiled.
"She's going to be a beautiful woman when she's older." Dina added, taking in the child's facial features. She wondered who the toddler looked like...trouble was, she couldn't place it. She turned to Cassandra. "If you need any help, I'm here for you. I doubt you'll have any trouble, but you never know. Some kids are stubborn."
She laughed, thinking of her sister. Nina had refused to do her homework for the first two years of school, and it had driven their mother crazy. Dina, on the other hand, had been pretty good with math...especially math involving Simoleons.
"Do you ever miss your sister?" Cassandra asked, catching that look in her eyes. She wondered how she'd feel when Alexander moved out...by then, she'd hopefully have found someone worth marrying. Don Lothario, being a Romance Sim, had gotten cold feet and left her at the altar...
"Sometimes. She's probably having the time of her life, not having to clean up after me, though!" She couldn't help it. It was a personality trait she never bothered to fix. "What was it my mother used to say? 'We'll be best friends once you have your own house, when I won't have to remind you to clean your room', or something like that."
"I bet she still misses you, though. I know I'll miss Alex when he's grown, and out on his own." Cassandra smiled. She didn't say it, but she had been filling the parent role for Alex since their mom's disappearance. Once their dad met Dina, it had been different. He was happier, and it showed.
She heard a strange sound, like someone knocking on the door. 'Who visits someone at 9 o'clock at night?' She shrugged, walking over towards the door. Maybe someone was pranking them.
Cassandra opened the door, shocked by the face on the other side. A familiar face, but one she hadn't seen in forever.
"M-mom!?"
"Cassandra, Alex...you two have grown so much..." Bella said, frowning. She'd been trying to find her family since the aliens dropped her off in Strangetown. Well, not so much dropped her off, as crash-landed. There had been a clone of her they were working on, and that escaped too. That was a mess.
Bella didn't remember much, like a chunk of her life was missing. She hadn't aged while on the ship either, but now that she'd gotten some information, she realized she'd been gone for ten years. She looked past Cassandra, and saw Alexander running up to her.
"Mommy!"
"My baby boy..." She said, hugging him close. She never wanted to leave either of them again. "Where's your father, sweetie?"
"In the other room." Cassandra said nervously. She didn't know how her mother would react to Mortimer remarrying. She gestured for Bella to follow, and led her to the living room, where Mortimer sat on the couch, watching Lunetta play. Dina sat beside him, looking up at Bella. Her green eyes were wide, like a deer caught in headlights.
"Who's this girl?" Bella asked, scanning Dina's figure. Her dress was too tight, and too low-cut for her opinion. She felt a twinge of jealousy...why was there a strange woman in her living room? Sitting by her husband, no less? She sighed. 'Great. Now I've got to deal with this floozy.' She thought, but ignored it. She walked over to Lunetta.
"And who's this beautiful bambina?" She said, reaching out a hand towards the toddler.
-[flashback]-
*Devilish, all-black eyes staring at her. Light green hands poking her arms with sharp needles, filled with strange mixes that made her sleepy. Watching her home, her town, flying out of sight. And she couldn't do anything about it.*
-[end flashback]-
Bella recoiled, as if the toddler was a snake.
"Her name is Lunetta. She's my daughter. I adopted her." Cassandra responded. "Are you okay, Mom?" she asked, looking at her worried expression.
"Sorry, honey. Just had a long day." She said, dismissing her daughter's concerns with a wave of her hand. "But at least I've found my family again." She said, motioning for both children to come over to her. She hugged both of them.
"Mommy? You're going to stay, right?" Alexander said, dark brown eyes flashing with worry.
"Of course, honey. I won't leave again, I promise." She said, almost crying at her son's expression. She had missed so much of his life...first day of school, first friend, maybe even his first crush.
"Wanna see my room?" He said, not noticing her tear-filled eyes.
"Of course. Show me the way!" She said, pretend-chasing him. Despite being a Romance sim, she'd found life with her family rather fulfilling. She followed him into his room, smiling at the decor. The walls were striped with purple, and the carpet was dark blue. A few drawings, possibly his, were taped up near his bed.
She wondered if that woman in the living room had helped. She had a bad feeling about her...Bella couldn't place it, but those facial features were familiar. She looked around, and wondered why he had a dollhouse in his room. She looked inside, and saw a tiny alien figure.
-[flashback]-
*A smiling face, with thin lips and large eyes, staring at her. Laughing as she tried to pull her arm away, holding it there with his gloved hands. They'd learned to restrain her after she got an arm free and scratched one of them. She'd smiled, briefly, as blue blood welled up around the cut.*
-[end flashback]-
She must not have realized where she was, because she looked down and saw a destroyed dollhouse at her feet. 'Llamas! That'll be hard to explain...'
Alexander looked at the dollhouse, seemingly unfazed. "Did my dolls make you angry? I told them to be nice to you..." He said, looking at the broken pieces. Most of the dolls were undamaged...even the alien one.
Bella scowled, turning away."Only one of them. The green man was being rude. He made me think of bad memories." She said, hugging her son. Alexander then walked over to the little alien doll, picking him up.
"You've been naughty. You need a time-out." He said, putting it in the toybox. Bella giggled slightly. Was she ever like that as a child? Those memories were buried...easily 40 years old...
"Do you wanna meet Dina?"
"Dina?" She repeated, thinking of a pet; dog, cat, parrot, something.
"Yeah! She's the nice lady daddy married."
"Married?"
"Yup. He thought you were gone forever...what's going to happen now?" He said, eyes shining.
Bella thought of the woman downstairs...'Dina? That's why she was so familiar...She looks like one of the aliens...' She thought, running down the stairs. Alexander tried to keep up. She didn't hear anything else; all she wanted to do was get Mortimer away from the alien girl.
Bella stood by the couch, pulling Mortimer's arm. He stood up, and she stood between him and Dina.
"Stay away from my man." She said, eyes flashing with rage.
"I didn't do anything!"
"You're an alien! You look just like...just like them!" She said, curling her lip.
"This will be fun to explain..." She said, putting a hand on her forehead. "Sit down, you crazy perra. I'll explain everything."
Bella sat down, not taking her eyes off of Dina, convinced that if she watched long enough, she'd see...something. A flash of green skin, black eyes, something...
"Okay. You see Lunetta?" She said, pointing to the blissfully unaware toddler. Bella nodded. "My father was born the same way she was. My grandfather was abducted, like you, then he came back and gave birth to my father. My father married my mother, then had me and Nina. That's why I have some alien-like features."
"Why isn't your skin green?"
"Because, my mother was a normal Sim. She had a normal skintone, as did my father, strangely enough." She said, sitting down on the armchair, a safe distance from Mortimer, in case Bella got possessive.
"Mom? Why are you two fighting?"
"Nobody told me your father married this...this puttana!" She said, returning to the couch. "That's not okay!"
"Mom, everyone thought you were dead. Me and Dad included." Cassandra said, being the voice of reason. Not the best idea, when her mom had some form of PTSD and her father remarried someone who's 1/4 alien.
"You didn't think I'd come back?"
"10 years is a long time." Cassandra said, sitting beside her mother. "Alex, he didn't even remember much of you. Just a smile."
"Great. This is the family I come home to. I missed half of my son's life, most of your teenage years, and my husband married her." She said, pointing to Dina.
"Try to be a bit more logical, Bella. I'll gladly give you your husband back. He clearly loves you, even after 10 years. He would go up onto the roof and stargaze every night to find you. I'd hear him talking, to himself or you, I don't know. Something like 'I'll find you, someday.' He never gave up on you." She said, with a faint smile. "He always thought I was asleep when he did."
Bella rolled her eyes. There must be a catch in there, somewhere.
"I'm not going to deny it, because you'd call me out on it. All of you." Mortimer spoke, for the first time since the whole argument started. "And you're right, Dina. Some part of me knew she'd come back. Someday. I tried to move on, but I couldn't. I never meant to hurt you."
"You didn't...I figured it was natural. To be completely honest, I used to talk to Michael after he died."
"Michael? My brother, Michael?" Bella asked. How much had she missed?
"Yeah. I thought you knew this..."
"He told me he got married, but never said who." She shrugged. What could she do now? Scream at his ghost?
"When I moved in here after marrying Mortimer, I brought his urn with me. It's in the graveyard out back." Dina continued.
"So, what's going on here?" Alexander asked, looking extremely confused.
"Your daddy isn't going to be married to me anymore. We can still be friends, but we won't be married. I'll come and visit, say hello every so often." Dina said. "Let me call my sister. She's going to lose her mind." She said, with a faint smile on her face.
"Maybe you're not so bad..." Bella muttered, barely audible. Cassandra looked over at Dina, and noticed a change she hadn't payed attention to before. Was she gaining weight?
