All credit for the Twilight story and characters belongs to Stephenie Meyer. I just enjoy playing with the characters. My thanks to my wonderful beta, EdwadsMate4Ever, and to jaspersdoll for suggesting the title.

Catching Bella

Chapter 4 – The Cat Turns Back

But they didn't need to visit the circus after all. One afternoon, the cat fell deeply asleep and transformed into a young woman.

Esme jumped up and covered her with an afghan, and Jasper removed his shirt to hand her when she woke up, but not before Emmett gave a low whistle, earning himself both a sharp glance from Esme and a growl from Jasper.

"Both well deserved," Carlisle commented quietly.

After a few moments, the girl on the sofa stirred and stretched. It was a while before Bella realized she was in a human body. When she did, she yanked the afghan up her neck and took the shirt, buttoning it up quickly.

"You looked!" she exclaimed to Jasper accusingly.

"Ummm…hello. It's nice to meet you," he replied. "I'm Jasper."

Glaring for a minute before pulling the afghan around her waist more securely, she bounded to her feet. "What are you?" she demanded. "Your body is hard as a rock, and you don't have a heartbeat. What did you do to me?"

"What did I do to you?" Jasper asked.

"Why was I like that?" Bella demanded.

"I don't know," Jasper replied. "One moment you were a girl, and the next minute you were running up the tree as a cat."

"That's because you were chasing me. I'm not a freak," Bella exclaimed. "But maybe you are. What are you? And don't try to tell me you're human."

"Actually," replied Jasper, "I am a vampire. We all are."

"I knew it," Bella said. "You're not normal. Well, I don't know what you did to change me into a cat, but I'm perfectly normal. I'm not a freak," Bella mumbled, dropping her voice at the end, as if she were trying to reassure herself.

"Of course not, dear," said Esme. "Would you like to come upstairs and get some clothes? My name is Esme."

Jasper, Carlisle, and the rest of the Cullens waited, hoping the beautiful stranger would respond to Esme by giving her name.

"Yes, I would, thank you," Bella replied, standing up again and releasing the afghan. As she stood, she glanced down at herself in surprise. The movement of her hair behind her caught her eyes next, and she reached out to finger it for a few seconds.

Bella looked back at Jasper. "What did you do? This isn't my body! I mean, it's certainly a nice body, these are nice legs, and…" she paused, opening up the shirt to look inside "…she has a very nice figure. But it's going to stay that way. I don't know how I ended up in this body, but I'm making sure it gets back to her in perfect condition, you understand?"

"Dear," said Esme, "let's go upstairs."

Bella and Esme went upstairs with Jasper hot on their heels.

Esme took her to the en suite bathroom of one of the guest rooms. As soon as Bella got to the door, she turned and looked as Esme. "Just a little privacy, OK? I kind of need to go…"

Esme nodded and said, "I'll get some clothes. We'll see if we have something that fits until we can shop for something in your size."

As soon as Esme left, Bella closed the bathroom door. Jasper was right behind her and pushed on it gently. Anticipating his move, Bella had slid to the floor with her back to the door, and put her fingers under it.

When he tried to open it, he was met with, "Ow! You're hurting my fingers!"

"Then take them out from under the door!" Jasper replied.

"No," Bella exclaimed. "I knew you were going to try something as soon as the nice lady left. I just knew it. Bathrooms are for privacy, not a contest to see how many of you freaks can fit inside of a small room. This room is not a clown car!"

Finally, once Esme assured her that no one would come in while she was using the toilet, Bella agreed to take her fingers out from under the door. Esme promised she would come in with some clothes and fresh towels when Bella was through.

Of course, once the door was opened, Jasper followed Esme inside the small room.

"This is a boy-free zone, dude," said Bella. "It's called, 'I'm going to take a shower and you got enough of a free peep show for one day. Leave, please."

Esme turned to Jasper but could tell he wasn't going to leave.

"Can you turn around at least," Esme asked, "while she gets into the shower?"

"I won't have her locking herself in here again," said Jasper firmly.

"And she won't. I'm here now," replied Esme gently.

Finally Jasper turned around, and Bella dropped the afghan and shirt and got in the shower.

Once inside the shower, her bravado collapsed.

She closed her eyes, feeling the water washing over her while she tried to relax. But she couldn't, not knowing there were two people who claimed to be vampires in the room with her. She glanced around the small shower stall, watching the shadows of the other two through the frosted sliding door. What had happened to her? She was scared, not knowing who the others were, and even more importantly, who or what she was. Had Jasper changed her? Or had she changed on her own? The lady out there, Esme, seemed nice enough, but she was unsure about the others. The doctor was the same doctor who had examined her at the hospital. How had she ended up at his house?

Confusion and fear overwhelmed her, and she slid down to the floor of the shower stall, sobbing as quietly as she could, clutching her arms to her chest. She could hear the quiet murmur of voices outside. Jasper and Esme were talking. It looked like one of them, maybe Esme, had moved towards the shower, but the other one had held her back.

Then she snapped her eyes back open. They had told her they were vampires. What interest would they have in her, other than her blood? She shivered.

Maybe this was all a dream. She was quite sure, during the times she had watched a tail flicking at the end of her body, that she was dreaming. But now she knew she was awake. And in lots of trouble. Who could she trust?

She stood up and turned off the water. Esme handed a towel and some clothes into the stall, and Bella came back out. Feeling more herself, she combed out her hair in front of the mirror. Gazing at her reflection in the mirror, she realized that even her face was different. She looked more mature, more beautiful. Her features had sharpened, and her cheeks had hollowed, so that her cheekbones were more pronounced. This face is almost as beautiful as my mother's, she thought.

When she was done, Bella announced, "I'm decent."

Esme and Jasper turned around, and Jasper said quietly, "I think you're more than decent."

Bella blushed, and her stomach rumbled.

"Lunchtime?" Esme asked.

Bella nodded, so they went back downstairs and into the kitchen. Though confused about what was happening to her, there was no confusion about her hunger. She was ravenous.

"What would you like to eat, dear?" asked Esme as she pulled out the makings for sandwiches and fruit salad from the refrigerator.

"Everything looks great," Bella replied shyly. She downed three sandwiches in a few minutes, followed by four oranges, as fast as Esme could peel them.

Once she paused, Esme said, "May I ask you name?"

"Helene," Bella replied.

"Lovely," Esme answered. "I had an aunt named Helene. She was French…"

"It is lovely, but it's not your name, is it?" asked Jasper, leaning against the doorway.

Bella's eyes flicked at him, then back at Esme.

"Sorry, it's not," Bella said. "I don't want to give it until I know what he's done to me."

"I haven't done anything," said Jasper.

"You killed that deer in Eagle Rock," said Bella.

"So you did see that," Jasper answered. "Awfully acute vision for a human."

"I am a human. I just don't know what you've done to me," Bella began.

Carlisle decided to intervene. "Did you really have family in Port Angeles, or were they just passing through?"

Bella stared at him, biting her lip. "How long was I out? I remember seeing you in Urgent Care before going back to my car, and then I remember waking up. Curled up on one of Jasper's knees."

"Two weeks," Carlisle said. "And please, call me Carlisle."

"Angela must be…" Bella began then stopped, not wanting to reveal anything about identity or friends to the vampires.

"We already spoke to Angela," Jasper said. "She's very worried about you and wanted to fly up, but…"

"How did you find her?" Bella demanded, surprised.

"We traced the car through the DMV," Edward replied as he entered the kitchen.

"But you decided not to show her a cat," Bella filled in.

"Something like that," Jasper replied.

"Do you have any idea of what happened to me?" she asked, turning to Carlisle.

"We are immortals, and I suspect you are a different type of immortal," Carlisle answered. "There are those I have heard of called 'shifters,' referring to shape shifters."

Bella gasped. "You mean I'm like a werewolf?" she asked.

"We're not sure what you are," Carlisle said.

"You're quite different from an ordinary human," Edward commented. "I can't read your mind."

"Freak," Bella mumbled under her breath. Whether she was referring to Edward or herself was unclear to the others.

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