The Natural Order
The good doctor expressed his displeasure once Edward snapped out of his stupor, and gave a partial account of his waking dream. Damon was mildly surprised the tortured teen didn't reveal all and out him. Grudgingly, Damon agreed to have a private chitchat with Carlisle, though, not before a little spy session. With a little persuasion, Damon convinced Bella it was time to face Edward and resolve their relationship.
"Going to check out the sleepy little town of Forks," Damon announced to the Cullens sitting and standing around in the lounge.
"I'd offer some company, but the sun…" Jasper said apologetically.
"It's fine," Damon assured, and caught a set of keys Alice tossed his way.
"The 1964 Mustang, I saw that you like the classic muscle cars," Alice said with a grin.
"Creepy," Damon teased, "but true."
Inside a large outbuilding, a row of immaculately clean cars and a motorcycle lined up in the expansive garage, and at the far left end, a white mustang with red leather interior sat waiting for someone to give her some love. Sadly, Damon's plans for going into town were a ruse, and he'd have to hide the car and circle his way back. Bella and Edward were walking into the woods for some privacy.
With the car well hidden a couple miles away from the Cullen property, Damon shed his clothing and stashed it in the backseat, ran into the woods and his crow took shape. From an aerial view, he found the twosome in a small clearing, sitting quietly. Damon perched atop a high tree branch and tuned in to their conversation.
"He will want to leave once you graduate," Edward murmured.
Bella plucked several long blades of wild grass and started to braid them together. Damon watched her expression and almost cawed with amusement when her brow furrowed and she bit her bottom lip. "I know," she offered. "He made that perfectly clear before we left Volterra."
"Do you want to leave with him?" Edward asked quietly, sadly.
Straight to the point, Damon thought, mildly impressed.
Bella lifted her head and faced Edward, bravely maintaining eye contact. "I would be an idiot not to go with him. You had Carlisle to mentor you, show you how to live this life, and Damon agreed to do the same for me."
"We can help you, Bella," Edward said defensively. "The entire family is willing to be there for you."
"Like you were there for me in Volterra?" Bella challenged, her voice unwavering.
Edward had the decency to look contrite, and turned his head away. "I didn't want this life for you."
The crow squawked with agitation. Bella scanned her surroundings, and then forced Edward to look at her again; anger replaced her calm façade. "Then maybe you should have stayed away from me from the very beginning! My life has not been my own since I met you, Edward, and I have been in constant danger. You say I am a danger magnet, but until you, I had no crazed vampires hunting me down. I would not have been standing in the Volturi throne room deciding whether to die, or become something else," she ranted, her little tirade broke something loose in her, and Damon knew it was going to have a snowball effect.
Bella stood and paced in front of Edward. He interrupted, but his words were weak. "It wasn't my choice to make for you."
"No!" Bella spat, fuming. "It wasn't your choice! It was mine, and even when I made it, the man I loved still tried to control the outcome!"
"Loved?" he asked, and looked at her questioningly, his eyes full of grief. Edward stood and blurred in front of Bella, taking her hands and pressing them against his chest. "If my heart could beat, it would be breaking right now."
"Don't," she warned, "Just don't!" Bella tried to pull her hands away from his grip, and Edward's fingers wrapped around her wrist like stony manacles. "You're hurting me, let go!"
Damon's fury burned in his veins – he wanted to phase back and defend her, but he forced himself to wait, and watch; he needed to let her handle the situation and decided not to interfere unless she was truly in danger. Bella was no match for Edward, not yet.
"Don't do what, Bella? Don't tell you I still love you? That I have made so many mistakes where you are concerned?" he questioned desperately.
The barrage of frantic pleas didn't have the effect on Bella that Damon expected. He watched as Edward released her hands only to try to wrap his arms around her. Bella ducked and blurred away from the unwanted embrace and stood several paces away from her first love. "You can't dazzle me, Edward. The power you once had over me is gone forever."
"So you are willing to throw away all we were to one another?" Edward asked and slowly walked toward her. "Are you saying that you no longer love me?" He continued to question her as he edged closer. Damon knew it was a tactic, hoping to rattle Bella, and trip her up on her own words. "Because I don't believe you."
Bella stepped further away, crossed her arms over her chest and Damon watched as he saw anger, strength, and then pity flash across her features. "I suppose I will always have love for you – you were everything to me – an all-consuming thing, but Edward, it wasn't healthy. We were never equals, and you had no intention – no, you refused me equality in our relationship."
"You're wrong," he disagreed with her, still attempting to close the gap between them. Bella moved away again, and Damon felt a swell of pride in his protégée. "You gave me a strength I never knew I had. You brought out the best in me, I thought was gone forever when I lost my humanity."
She snorted derisively. "Humanity isn't about being human, Edward. It is keeping in touch with your beliefs, being able to love, and feel empathy for others, and the ability to feel emotions and deal with them."
"You have made me a better man, love," Edward pressed on, and Damon wondered if he was even listening to her. "The day I left you, I uttered the darkest of all lies, when I said you were not good for me. The truth is, Bella, you are very good for me."
Damon focused in on Bella, and her eyes shone with deep sadness. When she finally spoke, he wanted to go to her, and assure her that everything would be all right in time. "Edward," she spoke softly and something in her gaze had Damon confused.
Was she backpedaling? Did she truly want Edward back?
Bella inhaled deeply and let out a long sigh. "There is one problem with your confession, whether it was a lie or not. You, Edward, are not good for me," she said, and it ended their conversation. Bella walked away at a human pace, leaving Edward standing in the woods, alone to deal with the outcome of what he wrought.
Damon's crow form remained perched on the tree branch until Bella was out of sight, and he knew Edward wasn't going after her. Once he felt all was secure, he flew back to the hidden car and drove into town, covering his tracks.
Forks offered little interest, or anything to occupy his time, but he made a show of it in case anyone decided to check on his whereabouts. He drank coffee at the only diner, and flirted with a middle-aged server. After, he found a small bakery and purchased a half dozen mixed doughnuts, and then walked over to a general store and bought a few magazines, making sure several people saw him in town.
When he returned to the Cullen home, Bella was sitting on the couch talking with Alice, and Edward was nowhere around. Carlisle, however, waited at the top of the stairway, and motioned for Damon to join him for a little one-on-one. Repressing an eye roll, Damon glanced over at the two women on the couch, nodded when Bella looked up at him and he placed the doughnuts on the coffee table. "For you," he offered, opened the pastry box up, and grabbed a cinnamon roll. "And for me," he said with a grin and took a bite of the flaky confection. "The good doctor would like a chat with me. Gather up your things, we'll be going to deal with your father next."
Alice looked into the doughnut box and made a face, and Bella pouted. "They're not for you," Damon said teasingly to Alice and laughed at Bella's pouty lip. "What, you don't like pastries?" he asked her.
"You grabbed the only cinnamon roll," she pointed out. Damon chuckled, and tore the roll in half and offered it to Bella. "Thanks," she said and bit into the sweet goodness with a little moan.
Damon reacted to the sigh of pleasure and considered all the ways he could get her to do that again, repeatedly. He cleared his throat after the tiny fortune teller smirked, and he hastily bounded up the stairs.
Carlisle stood in a doorway on the second floor waiting and waved Damon into an office. Floor to ceiling bookshelves lined the back wall behind a large oak desk full of medical journals, and personal reading material. Hung on the walls, old and new paintings methodically displayed throughout the room with care. The desktop was tidy with few personal effects.
"So, this is what a doctor's man cave looks like?" Damon asked, trying to break the awkward tension, and the feeling he'd been called to the principal's office.
"Please have a seat," Carlisle offered. Two high back, leather chairs sat opposite the large desk, and Damon sat, crossing a foot over his knee.
"I assume this is about what I did to your son," Damon said without hesitation. "No reason to beat around the bush, is there?"
The doctor steepled his fingers together and placed them on the flat surface of his desk, leaned forward and grimaced. "It is one of the reasons I asked to speak with you, yes. Honestly, I have a few questions, if you don't mind, that is?"
"Depends on the questions," Damon said honestly. "And whether or not I'm willing to answer them."
"Fair enough," Carlisle agreed. "How did you get into Edward's mind?"
"Oh, that," Damon said with a smirk. "Your first born is very cocky."
"I'm aware, though Edward's gift makes him somewhat of a know-it-all."
"At least you admit it," Damon replied, a little surprised. "I may have gone a little too far, but now he knows what it feels like to have his mind invaded."
Carlisle looked at Damon curiously, and relaxed back in his chair. "Perhaps, and it may be a good lesson for him to learn, however, you were rather extreme with your example."
"Extreme is never forgotten," Damon said, unrepentant. "Bella has owned up and taken her part of the blame for not standing her ground, but your son took advantage of her heightened emotional state, and don't try and tell me otherwise."
"I cannot speak for my son's motives or his intentions," the doctor pointed out, "though –I am inclined to agree with your assertions."
"All right," Damon said, shock evident in his voice after Carlisle didn't disagree with him. "Have to say, doc, not what I was expecting. I was prepared for an argument"
"Mr. Salvatore," Carlisle's tone took on a serious note, "I may be protective of my family, and I am guilty of far too much latitude when my coven behaves in ways I do not agree with. At the same time, I also know they have been around a long time, and it is not my job to intervene when I disagree unless I feel it is best for all involved."
Damon listened with interest, but something niggled at him after Carlisle finished. "How long do you think Edward would have stayed away from Bella after you and your wife forbade him to speak or see her, and why not enforce the ban once you knew he was taunting her to begin with?"
"They needed to resolve their own problems," Carlisle defended his actions, not that Damon bought any of it."
"I'll agree with part of that, they did need to resolve their relationship, and while I may agree with that, I do not agree with the fact that you left a brand new vampire vulnerable. It isn't as if you are new to having a newborn in your ranks."
"How many have you sired since becoming a vampire, Mr. Salvatore?" Carlisle deflected Damon's question and asked one of his own.
"One," Damon admitted. "Since 1864, I have created one vampire, and trust me when I say this, the fact I was willing to create a second one was something I swore I'd never do again."
"Why?" Carlisle asked, requesting Damon to elaborate.
"Unlike you," Damon pointed out. "I wasn't looking to build a family. She was fun, and after a time, she begged me to turn her, so I did. Big mistake, by the way." It appeared that the doctor was going to ask him to explain why it was a mistake, and he held up a hand, halting Carlisle's query. "End of discussion on that subject. Next?"
"Very well," Carlisle agreed. "The ring you brought Bella allows her to walk in the sun without being burned, and you wear one as well, how do they work?"
"Witchy-power," Damon explained and held up his hand, and wiggled his fingers. "Not many of us have them, and those that do, made nice with a powerful witch, or the witch owed a debt. Vampires and witches do not have a natural friendship, quite the opposite, actually, though the rules of nature have always managed a few loopholes."
The doctor's brow furrowed and he leaned forward in his seat. "Is a witch able to kill a vampire?"
"Not easily," Damon admitted. "But one with enough power can make you beg for death. They can be quite vindictive. A witch is a part of nature – a balance in the world – whereas, vampires, not so much. I disagree, of course."
"You believe we are part of the natural order?" Carlisle asked, and appeared very excited with the conversation.
"Humans believe they are the top of the food chain, and they are in most aspects of living creatures. Not because they are stronger, but because they are thinking, resourceful beings," Damon explained thoughtfully. "Who is to say that vampires, witches, and the like are not the equivalent to that balance?"
"Perhaps," the doctor murmured.
"Look, as fun as all this speculation is, it is getting late and Bella needs to deal with her father," Damon explained, stood up and stepped away from the desk. "I can send you some journals if I return home at some point, and you can sate your curiosity. One last thing, I'll not apologize for teaching Edward a lesson, though I suppose I can promise not to do it again, as long as he leaves Bella alone."
The coven leader accepted his assurance and before Damon left his office, Carlisle made another request. "Take care of her."
"A promise already made," Damon reminded him, and left to find his charge.
When he reentered the living room, Jasper had joined Alice on the couch, Edward was standing on the back deck, looking out towards the forest, and Bella leaned against the wall of the foyer with a duffle bag sitting at her feet.
"Ready for your dad?" Damon asked as he plucked up her tote.
"No," Bella scowled. "He's going to ground me for life!"
"Don't worry," Damon said with a wink. "Unless you plan on turning him, you'll be free in forty or so years."
"Asshat," Bella spat, and stuck out her tongue.
"Yep," Damon agreed and flashed her a wicked grin. "Let's do this."
