Bella lay there in Klaus's embrace in post-coital bliss, running circles into his chest with the tip of her fingers. The werewolf hybrid was quiet, contemplating the sudden turn of events in their relationship, a bit insecure about the fact that her encounter with her former boyfriend had been the catalyst to get them to this place. Not that he wasn't happy…
"Thank you," she said, drawing him out of his thoughts, oblivious to the turn they have taken. "I couldn't have asked for a better first."
Nik looked at her funnily. He had never even considered the fact that she might have been a virgin, especially with how natural she seemed to be, no shyness or shame expressed at exposing herself to a man.
"How did you manage to avoid sex for so long?" the Original quirked a brow at her incredulously. She was 24 years old, for cry out loud, few made it that far without losing their V-card in this day and age.
"Wasn't interested thus far," Bella giggled in embarrassment.
No, she was fixating on Edward and her abandonment issues this whole time, too blind to respond to advances from the other gender. Not to mention the fact that she was a bit fearful of trying to get it on with a human, the indoctrination she heard from her former boyfriend on the risks involved for the weaker party too ingrained in her mind to try without proper motivation.
That motivation would have been love, but she never actually found anyone she liked enough for her desire to get past the wall of inhibitions. She just wasn't too inclined to hazard killing someone by accident and having to give up her job for a hook-up. All of those concerns were a moot point with their current set up. This was neither a one night stand nor was Klaus easily breakable. Thank God!
"You are welcome then, dear," he chuckled, rubbing her arm affectionately.
Bella tensed then for a moment, a realization hitting her. They didn't use any protection… It never even occurred to her, too caught up in lust to remember or care. But her dream was just that, right? Nothing would come of this? Whatever happened in the morning was not a sign of fertility, right? I mean it would have been way too early in the cycle anyway… Right?
"What's wrong?" Klaus inquired, sensing her sudden change in mood.
"I just remembered my dream," the brunette admitted, deciding there was no point in lying really.
The Original beside her went rigid for a fraction of a second too, before relaxing.
"Whatever the outcome, I don't mind," the werewolf hybrid said, then drew Bella's face up to look at him when she didn't respond. "On the off chance that you are able to conceive from me, know that I love you, and will love our children too. All right?"
The confession hit her right in the heart, and the emotion overtook her, making her eyes dewy.
"I love you too," Bella whispered as a single teardrop escaped, making its way down her cheek.
Klaus caught it with a kiss and brushed the rest off with his thumb from under her eye.
"Well then there is no problem, is there? Come here, love, let's get some sleep," Nik pulled her even closer before throwing a blanket over themselves. They drifted off to sleep almost instantly.
The boys joined her in her slumber again. They were just teeny-tiny little babies this time, looking no more than a few months old. Bella couldn't make out specific scenes, they all just blurred together, her feeding them, doting on them affectionately, watching them sleep in their crib. As the images swirled around her, she smiled in her sleep and snuggled closer to Klaus.
There was an odd bounce in her steps as Bella made her way to the NCIS field office the next morning. Even caught herself humming a bubbly tune, grinning to herself like a maniac whenever she remembered waking up in Klaus's bed. She also loved the fact that all of the Originals seemed to be night owls because ever since she arrived into the town, there wasn't even one morning where she had to dodge awkward questions at the breakfast table. On this particular morning, this was an exceptionally lucky habit of theirs. No one was in sight to grill her about the sudden change in relationship status, allowing her to eat her breakfast in peace before heading out to work. Small blessings.
"Someone is in an awfully cheerful mood," Sonja remarked instantly with an all-knowing smirk as her female coworker came in through the green double doors. She was fiddling with the last remnants of the paperwork associated with their previous case, filing everything away into the cabinets behind her.
"You know… the weather's nice. You don't realize how depressing D.C. can be until you skip the joint," the brunette lied, setting her bag down on the desk on Sonja's left.
Though on second thought there was some truth to her statement. Fall always set in a lot faster up there, whereas in the Crescent City the temperature was still comfortably in the 70-80s region. Also, the sun did seem to be shining brighter that morning if you asked her.
"Alright… if that's what you want to call it," Percy shrugged it off, not wanting to push her for details, realizing they weren't that close as colleagues to speak of personal stuff with each other just yet.
Pride came barreling down the stairs from his office right at that moment, completely oblivious to their banter.
"Dead Marine in Belle Chasse. Come on, guys," Dwayne said to them with a frown, already making his way out to the cars, bumping into a very, very hungover LaSalle. "Percy, you better drive the other car. Swan with me," he added, tossing the keys to Sonja from the rack, because sure as hell Chris wasn't in any shape for that, even though usually he was their other driver.
"I guess I'm riding with the boss then," Bella mumbled as she glanced at Sonja, getting her gun and badge from her drawer. The other girl just shrugged her shoulders, having no idea what this could be about.
Once they were on the road, Pride glanced to his right at Bella, pondering if he should speak up. The younger agent noticed his hesitation, so she met his gaze to ease the struggle.
"Something's up, Boss?" she asked, propping her elbow by the car window as she turned to him.
"Made it home okay last night?" the team leader inquired, looking back onto the road.
"Absolutely. Told you, it was just a few minutes walk," the brunette nonchalantly replied.
It was kind of sweet that he worried, especially since from a human perspective, she had way more to drink than what would have allowed her to just casually stroll down the street. Most would have crawled. Although this innocent question made her wonder… why did everyone around her have inclinations to continually worry about her? To the point where their checking on her bordered on meddling… Wait a minute…
"No unwanted visitors then?" Pride probed on. Oh for the love of… so this is what this was about! Did he actually know something? Followed her? No. She surely would have noticed a human sneaking around the entrance of the alley, trying to eavesdrop. Klaus would have too.
"None," the girl shook her head with a small smile, trying to come off as genuine. Dwayne eyed her for a few moments before switching topics.
"How was that apartment you looked at yesterday, by the way?" he switched topics.
"Good. I rented it. I'll get the exact address to you when we get back so you can put it on my file," Bella said. Come to think of it, they never got around to discussing the matter with Klaus yesterday. He was surely going to flip.
"Bet that friend of yours is glad that they get their place back for themselves," he quipped with humor, trying to ease the tension his previous questions might have caused, carefully phrasing so as not to assume whether it was a male or female friend, trying to fish for information.
"Yeah," the agent lied again, with a half-hearted shrug, careful to not confirm one way or another.
Actually the opposite. That place could house a small army, so it wasn't like she was bunking on the couch, or forcing him to sleep on the sofa while she took over his bed in a tiny one bedroom apartment. And truthfully, he had wanted her as close as possible, so even if that were the case, he would still insist, in fact, haul her ass right into bed with him. By now their desires were oddly aligned. But maybe it was best if she had a place of her own, to get away from his nosy siblings if nothing else. Elijah was still peeved with her for the stunt she pulled when Marcel came to threaten them. Though he hadn't confronted her ever since. Maybe she and Klaus could both sneak off for some alone time, though certain security measure would have to be made if they were going to spend time at the apartment.
The rest of the journey to the scene was spent in silence. Bella hopped out and got their equipment from the trunk without a word after they parked. The base guards had already secured the crime scene, the familiar yellow tape greeting them. Bella flashed her badge to them then ducked under the tape to enter the small house.
"Swan, bag and tag. LaSalle, pictures. Percy, go question the neighbors and witnesses," Dwayne rattled off their orders then turned to the guard standing by the door to give him a report. "What can you tell me?"
"Staff Sergeant Brooks was absent from the 0700 muster, we were sent to find him. I found the body like this and called HQ to send for NCIS. No sign of the perpetrator," the guard rattled off formally.
As Bella took in the scene from the doorway, she was happy to find that it looked pretty straightforward. Thank God! Nothing supernaturally freaky, just the good ol' run of the mill murder. She put on her gloves and entered, LaSalle close behind her.
First thing's first, the body, number one evidence. Brooks was still in sweats and a T-shirt, lying there in the living room by the upturned couch, nowhere near ready to go to a muster. If Bella had to guess he was killed in the middle of the night.
After tagging and letting LaSalle take a photo, she looked around to find some ID of the victim, to make sure he was who they thought he was. Though evidently, this was the housing of Staff Sergeant Lyall Brooks, the guards might not know him personally and just assumed his identity based on the place where they found the body. This was a large base after all. The brunette found a badge pinned onto his jacket by the door. After comparing it with their victim, she deemed them to be a match. Of course, the lab would run his fingerprints just to be sure, but at the moment this was enough evidence of his identity.
Bella continued on with processing the scene, leaving the body alone for now since medical examiners usually hated it when the crime scene investigators messed with the body before they had the chance to take a look at it. In all honesty, the vampire could have worked a lot faster if she was doing the whole process alone. LaSalle was barely keeping up with her pace as she marked the points of interest and evidence in the room for him to take a photo of before she came back around to collect the objects or take swab samples where appropriate.
"You good there, Chris?" Bella asked after a few minutes when she noticed the male agent's face turning positively green.
"I think I'm going to hurl…" he moaned pitifully, clamping a gloved hand against his mouth.
"Just do it outside, we don't need you contaminating the scene," the brunette patted him on the shoulder sympathetically, taking the camera from him to finish up on her own. "I'll take it from here."
As he made a beeline for the door, a plump African American woman came in. Their coroner, judging from her attire and the equipment she had brought with. The woman gazed after Chris curiously when he rushed past her without so much as acknowledging her presence.
"Loretta!" Dwayne called out, greeting the woman.
"What's crawled up that boy's ass?" the coroner asked with a laugh, apparently not offended, just amused by his antics.
"Well, Dr. Wade, our new girl here, Bella, drank him under the table last night," the team leader chuckled, effectively introducing the vampire in the same go.
"You seem to be doing just fine," she eyed Bella appraisingly for a moment.
"I know how to handle my liquor, ma'am," the brunette offered her hand. "Bella Swan."
"Oh, please, call me Loretta. More of that ma'am nonsense and I might start feeling old," the medical examiner laughed, before turning to business. "So what do we have here?"
The question was more rhetorical than aimed at anyone in particular, and Loretta crouched down beside the body to begin her examinations. Bella took that as a cue to finish off the bag and tag. She noticed by smell alone that the blood present in the room originated from two people. Whoever got the Staff Sergeant was met with heavy resistance, there were signs of a serious struggle. Upturned furniture, glass shards everywhere from a knocked over vase. But unfortunately no murder weapon. She really wanted to check outside, particularly the trashcans in the neighborhood in case the murderer was sloppy enough to dispose of it right here in the vicinity.
"Talk to me," Dwayne prompted Loretta after a minute or two.
"Cause of death is a single stab wound to the stomach, perforating the common hepatic artery. Time of death based on liver temperature is six hours ago, so around 3 AM," the coroner stated her preliminary findings. "Murder weapon should be a serrated blade based on the entry wound, most likely a six-inch, more specifics after the autopsy. Also, the abrasions and contusions both on his hands and face suggest that he was putting up quite a bit of fight before going down."
With that information in mind, Bella looked over the crime scene again. No sign of forced entry or lock picking on the door, so the Staff Sergeant must have opened it himself. At 3 AM no less. He must have known the assailant. If it were a random stranger asking for directions or something he wouldn't have let the person in so far into the apartment, were the brunt of the struggle was, right next to the kitchen.
Around the body there was plenty of blood, pooling around him from the stab wound, and some splatter from the fist fight. Someone had a broken nose for sure. By the looks of it, not the victim. The brunette crouched down by a couple of blood droplets not fitting into the pattern, quickly tagging and snapping a picture before, swabbing it. Inconspicuously she took a whiff of the smell it had. Definitely not Brooks', the essence that permeated the room.
"What've you got there?" Pride turned his attention to Bella, just as she was screwing the swab sample into the tube.
"Blood that doesn't fit the pattern. Might be the killer's," she replied. "If I have to guess, our perpetrator got punched in the nose really hard, and this little droplet escaped before he or she realized they were bleeding."
"Did you specialize in blood splatter analysis somewhere along the way?" the team leader asked incredulously.
"Not officially, no, but I have a photographic memory, sort of picked it up along the way as we processed a bunch of crime scenes with different MOs," Bella shrugged. She didn't really have another choice if she wanted to have plausible explanations for the stuff that she perceived with her enhanced senses.
"Not grilling you, kid, don't worry. So how did you come to the conclusion that this particular blood droplet is not from our victim?" he asked, genuinely interested in her theory. The lab would confirm the validity of it anyway.
"Well, for one the Staff Sergeant doesn't have a broken nose, or a nosebleed that could explain a droplet landing this far from the rest around his body, in fact, his only bleeding wound is the stab wound itself. His clothing absorbed any splatter that would have resulted on entry or exit of the weapon. The marks on his pants indicate that the killer wiped the knife off on it after the victim collapsed, so it couldn't have dripped from that either," the brunette explained in one breath.
Life would have been so much easier if forensic vampirism was a thing. She could just point and say because that blood smells different, dammit!
"She is probably right, Dwayne. The bruises on Brooks' knuckles are consistent with punching someone in the face really hard," Loretta looked up with an approving smirk as she stood up, motioning the crime scene techs to load up the body onto a stretcher and into the coroner's van. "Thorough analysis there Agent Swan, I'm sure Sebastian will corroborate it."
"Just Bella, please," the girl smiled tightly under the praise. Her eyes then wandered to the kitchen noticing a knife set in a wooden block. "Loretta, you said the murder weapon is probably a six-inch serrated knife, right?
"That's correct," the medical examiner replied.
"Look what's missing from here," Bella tagged it and snapped a picture quickly, before holding up the block, pointing to the empty slot. She then went around the kitchen just to double check that the knife wasn't in the sink or dishwasher or something. It wasn't.
Meanwhile, Pride examined the set to see what kind of knives were in there. All serrated, in different sizes. Though they couldn't be 100% sure without finding the knife they were pretty sure that was their murder weapon.
"Good eyes, Swan," Dwayne complimented proudly. "When you are done with the evidence catalog, take it over to the Jefferson Parish forensic scientist. Just make sure you get the keys from Percy and inform her of the change."
Apparently, he concluded that Swan was up to driving if her observation skills were this good even after a night of drinking.
"Sure thing, Boss," the brunette replied before following the African American woman out the door.
Bella found LaSalle still hunched by a tree over a few yards away from the edge of the crime scene tape. She could smell the stench of vomit even from this distance, and it almost made her own stomach turn. Which was weird because she had never been particularly squeamish. Well, if you didn't count that the smell of blood set her off when she was still human.
Sonja was just wrapping up talking to the next door neighbors when the brunette jogged up to her.
"Hey, could you give me the keys? I gotta pop by the lab at the coroner's office to drop off the evidence later," she rushed through the words, trying to block out the smell of puke from her consciousness.
"Good luck with that. You'll find that Sebastian is a bit… weird. Don't worry, he is great at his job… just thought to give you a heads up," Sonja winked with a laugh before handing over the keys.
"Thanks," Bella furrowed her brows at that. Seriously could he be more eccentric than Abby with her full on Goth fetish? "Take care of Chris, will you?" she added glancing to the other side where their fellow agent was starting to look like he wasn't going to acquaint his gut contents with the asphalt anymore.
"Don't worry, I'll give him my momma's secret cure it all," Percy laughed a bit sardonically.
"Do I want to know?" Bella asked with a chuckle, guessing the ingredients were not all that conventional.
"No, you don't, girl," she shook her head, way to too amused for that to mean anything good.
And on that note, the brunette returned to the crime scene to finish up taking photos and do another sweep to make sure she didn't miss anything.
Klaus – taking advantage of the fact that Bella was at work – made a phone call. One he had been putting off for a few days now, due to various excuses and promises, but with last night's events, he just wasn't going to be taking chances any longer. Edward Cullen must die. There just wasn't any way around it. He was reckless, delusional, and erratic in his quest to win Bella back that besides being highly annoying, not to mention unwelcome and grating against his nerves, left the supernatural world vulnerable. Bella doesn't even have to find out… he thought as he dialed.
But alas making contact with one of the Volturi over long distance was trickier business than one might think. Even if you knew that one particular phone number that only a few select around the world were given access to, and were one of the even fewer beings the Volturi – or more specifically Aro – feared, it still took a grueling fifty minutes until his minions got the millennia-old cold one on the phone for Klaus. They were more used to dealing with their "subjects" in person in Volterra. Good thing the Original wasn't one of their subjects.
"Niklaus, my friend, what do I owe this pleasure to?" the ancient cold one asked in a sickly sweet tone. Like anyone would fall for his pretenses. Nobody was "friends" with the Volturi. They were a tyrannical force of pompous ass. The only reason they were still in power was that no one dared to challenge them, not because they were respected or loved by other cold ones.
"I have some information that might interest you," the werewolf hybrid hinted mysteriously.
"Ah, what might you have for me?" Aro allowed with faked interest. He was confident enough in his information network to think that there wouldn't be anything actually new in what this relative newcomer in the supernatural world had to say.
Their "professional" relations were tentative at best. They tolerated each other's existence because Aro knew that most of their tricks didn't work on the Originals (some not even on vampires in general), and they could never hope to match their physical attributes, while Klaus saw nothing to be gained by attacking this other race of vampires. That is until cold ones posed no specific threat to him, he was content with letting them live.
"I am sure, you have already heard, but one of your kind has stirred up some unwelcome attention on this side of the Atlantic," Klaus hinted with a smirk, awaiting Aro's reaction to his taunting.
"Would you be more specific, my friend? There have been all sorts of whispers carried over by the wind. Which one are you referring to?" the cold one royalty quipped back with disinterest, trying to dodge the fact that he had absolutely no clue what the werewolf hybrid might be talking about.
If someone were stirring the pot publicly, killing too many humans in an area in conspicuous ways, he would have known by now of course.
"All right, let me spell it out for you. Edward Cullen, who I'm sure you at least know of given your little obsession with collecting gifted cold ones, has drawn the attention of a federal agency to himself. They are investigating his background and have already stumbled into an array of troubling facts. Only a matter of time until the secrecy of the supernatural world is at stake as they put the pieces together," the Mikaelson explained through gritted teeth.
He knew that Aro was full of shit, and his evasive, pretentious manner of speaking was capable of riling him up in a fraction of a second. No wonder Klaus rarely had dealings with them.
"Ah, one of Carlisle's," Aro hummed, his eyes already glinting with a greedy satisfaction that finally he had a just reason to snatch the other mind reader away from his coven and into his own. He had wanted to do so for decades. But they had a certain image to uphold to avoid unrest and revolt among the cold ones. "Yes. Yes, we will deal with him."
"Excuse me, if I wasn't clear. Edward Cullen needs to die," the Original spat, the fact that "dealing with" in no way ensured the prat's demise did not evade his attention.
"You are in no position to make demands of us, Niklaus. We will find him and deal with him in a satisfactory manner that will ensure the continued concealment of the truth about vampires," the head of the Volturi replied calmly not at all frazzled by the younger creature's outburst.
"I do not care how much you want him in your pathetic little circle of brainwashed fanatics or what your petty little politics dictate," he snarled menacingly. "One of your good for nothing sparkling abominations is wreaking havoc in my city. I am merely giving you a chance to kill him yourself out of courtesy since he belongs under your domain. He will die either way, but if I have to do it, I won't stop before your whole race is wiped off the face of the earth. Are we clear?"
"Our tracker, along with our best fighters will be on the move within the hour. I assure you that his remains will be set ablaze within 72 hours," Aro decided reluctantly. Demetri, along with Jane, Alec, Felix, and Santiago, the usual should be enough the deal with the Cullen boy if he was alone, which was likely based on this account.
"That's more like it, Aro. Good doing business with you," Klaus smirked triumphantly. "Ah, and don't forget to send me evidence once it is actually done."
The Volturi hung up without further comment, but the Original knew that events have been set to motion. The foreseeable demise of his adversaries always filled him with a sense of glee, something he was strongly feeling now.
"Isabella will be displeased when she finds out about this, Niklaus," Elijah remarked, leaning against the doorway casually. He happened to overhear the last part of the conversation as he walked past the art room, where his younger brother liked to dwell most of the time.
"She had already anticipated the possible involvement of Volturi. I just have to make sure she wouldn't learn the identity of the informant," the werewolf hybrid shot a meaningful look at the other Original in the suit.
"Don't look at me, I won't say a word," he held his hand up in retreat, only hoping that none of the other Mikaelsons bothered to pay attention to this specific phone call, or that none of them had reason to make Klaus's life more miserable by revealing the truth to his newfound mate. "I'm just not sure if lies are the best foundation to build your budding romance on."
"If she asks no questions, she'll hear no lies," Nik shrugged as he pocketed his phone and strutted out of the room.
"Lie of omission then. Secrets if you prefer. Same difference," Elijah turned after him with a forlorn expression. He might not have agreed with the girl's latest decisions, but he was still rooting for their relationship. He could see that she was right for Niklaus, the same way Cami had been. Bringing out his humanity.
"You should know by now, brother. Everyone's got secrets," Klaus smirked, the diabolical strategist in him who liked pulling strings behind the scenes coming to surface.
Ignorance is bliss after all.
Somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, there was a small wooden hut, hidden from human civilization, not even a lone hiking trail within a hundred miles of it. Inside a tiny-framed woman with a pixie cut, dark hair sticking out in all directions, suddenly went into a trance, her whole body going rigid as she concentrated onto the flashing images before her eyes.
"What is it, Alice?" Jasper asked frantically, recognizing the tell-tale signs of a vision.
They were alone here in the middle of nowhere. Their family decided that it was best if they split up into pairs in case the feds decided to try and track them down. They also agreed on not contacting each other for a while, decreasing the chances of giving away the others in case the agents got whiff of one of their trails.
Although if things came to the worst, they should have been together, to have even a slither of fighting chance.
"Edward… the Volturi… they decided to hunt him," her golden amber eyes snapped open, full of trepidation.
Things just came to the worst. Somehow the Volturi got wind of the fact that the truth regarding the existence of vampires might be in danger of coming to light.
"When? Why?" the blond cold one inquired with a puzzled expression. Even if the Volturi knew of his recent infringements, wouldn't they want to try and recruit Edward first as a form of atonement? Aro had shown tremendous interest in him and his abilities in the past.
"I didn't see what triggered Aro's decision. But the guard is moving out within the hour," Alice informed him. "With the intent to kill."
"We need to get to Edward. Screw NCIS and them possibly finding us," the former Confederate major declared. They could always just disappear again, not resurfacing in the human world for decades, but Edward didn't stand a chance alone against the Volturi guard.
"Then we might all die," she despaired, closing her eyes again to try and search for all the possible futures and outcomes this confrontation might have. "Give me a minute. I need to see."
Eccentricity didn't even begin to cover the enigma that was Sebastian Lund. He was the epitome of a geeky nerd. Tall, gangly, wearing hipster glasses. Talks too fast, nervous as hell, especially around women. Full of conspiracy theories and wild ideas about the world. That's the impression Bella got from just spending one second in the room with him when she finally got over to the lab at lunchtime. And then he started speaking.
"Hi," Sebastian waved to her like a kid with ADHD out of Ritalin, failing miserably at staying cool. "Just put those down on the counter, I'll get started on them in a second."
"Okay," she placed the cooling bag with all the samples inside on the pale green ledge the guy pointed to, then turned around to introduce herself and offer a hand to shake. "I'm Bella, by the way."
"Yeah, I know. Loretta said we have a new girl," he replied without taking the hand, just stared at it for a moment. "Sorry, I'm not going to shake that. I hate germs, and you look a bit too pale to be healthy."
Seriously? You are a germophobe working in a morgue? True that you are separated from everything nasty by latex gloves… but still…
"I'm part albino, don't sweat it," Bella tried to lighten the mood. Should have thought better of it. This joke had already failed in high school, why would it be funny now.
"You know, that's just impossible. You show none of the physical characteristics associated with albinism," the forensic scientist stated with a deadpan face.
Bella just sighed. This is going well…
"Never mind," she mumbled and stood there awkwardly for a few moments before deciding it was best to just exit the situation. "I'm just gonna go."
In the hallways, she ran into Dr. Wade, who was just exiting the autopsy room.
"Hey, Loretta," Bella called out when she noticed the woman. "Done already?"
"Yes. Are you here to collect the report? That's not typed up yet," Loretta looked at her in confusion. She had just spoken with Dwayne over the phone to give him the main points of her findings for the investigation.
"No, I was dropping off the evidence with Sebastian," the brunette said, pointing toward the lab where she had just come out from.
"Ah, so you two have met," the African American woman smiled sympathetically. Sebastian could be difficult she knew that.
"Yeah, I'm not sure if we were off to a great start…" the agent trailed off unsurely.
She wasn't the type to be buddy-buddy with everyone at the office, but always strived to have a decent working relationship with those who she had the most contact with. It just made things easier, people who at least didn't hate her guts questioned her "quirky" behavior less. She could get away with stuff that resulted from her superior senses without getting challenged too much if she presented her observations right. If people didn't like her, everything she did got scrutinized more, so she tried to avoid these situations.
"Don't worry, he is like that with everyone at first," the M.E. waved off her concerns.
"Sonja tried to warn me. I guess I just wasn't expecting that anyone could trump Abby in the eccentric department, and we got on very well back in D.C.," Bella explained, a pang of guilt marring into her heart.
She hadn't spoken with Abby ever since she compelled her to forget her way too spot on findings regarding Klaus's DNA in James Sheridan's neck wound. The Goth girl had gone all the way to Mystic Falls on her birthday just to warn her, because she thought Bella could be in danger too. Her birthday had been disastrous on so many levels. Though this wouldn't be the first one.
"You gotta realize Ms. Sciuto has a very open personality," Loretta offered sympathetically. Being the new girl wasn't easy.
"You got that one right. Anyway, should I wait for the report, or come back for it after lunch or something? I'm not sure what the system between you and Pride is yet," the brunette quickly changed subjects.
"I was just on the phone with him, but if you could get the full written report to him, that would be great. I should have it ready in an hour," the coroner informed her as she glanced at the clock.
"Lunch it is then. I'm starving," Bella declared, sort of like an exaggerated joke, but as soon as it left her mouth, she realized that it was actually true. She could kill for a burger or a steak just about now. Practically craving them. She had never felt this hungry in her life, and she had a hearty breakfast in the morning.
What the hell is going on?