Chapter 20

The next morning, Rebekah rushed back to her brother's house after waking up so she could have breakfast with her brothers and Sage while Bella was already working, having an early morning session with the sheriff before she went home to get some sleep after a long night of work protecting Mystic Fall's from humans and supernatural.

Klaus had dropped by in the middle of the night to spend a while with Bella in his arms. She had woken up, kissed him and fell back to sleep immediately in his arms, with her head on his chest. He had left early, at the same time she got up to start her work.

Rebekah knew that it wasn't just a family breakfast. That morning, they would discuss Gloria and Esther. They had to try and organize themselves to keep Bella, and themselves, safe.

"So, you're still going to join your mother?" Sage asked Finn as they both got dressed for the day.

"I wanted to, but with Bella… The way she made Klaus change, it gives me hope for my family. We can be united and at peace, with her, with her children." Finn replied.

"Glad to see you thinking so, but there is still one thing you need to warn them about…" Sage whispered.

"Freya?" Finn asked her and his love nodded.

"I know… They need to know. Mother's secrets can't cost us these children… It would be the end of Klaus's hopes for redemption. I'll tell them as soon as Bella is with us." Finn assured her before they left their bedroom and went to get breakfast with the others.

"So, are we finally going to talk about Mother?" Kol asked.

"As soon as Rebekah gets here." Klaus nodded.

"I'm here." Rebekah nodded.

"Good, then we can start with what we know and how to organize ourselves." Elijah nodded.

"Bella is safe as long as she's in her building, working or at home but I still want someone with her, or near her place, at all times." Klaus started.

"Well, I'm still living there, but I'm at school during the day, and there's your hybrid working as her secretary..." Rebekah replied and started on suggestions on who would watch over Bella and when.

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While the Mickealson's siblings talked about protecting Bella, Carlisle left Esme to do some shopping while he went in town to get a few vitamins he wanted Bella to take. He also wanted to see where she lived and that's why, around 9:30 in the morning, he found himself sitting in her waiting room, admiring his surroundings. He had given his name to the secretary, saying he was her doctor and just wanted to give her some vitamins and the hybrid let him into the waiting room.

"Carlisle? What are you doing here?" Bella asked him a few minutes after he arrived.

"I hope I'm not intruding on your work, I just wanted to bring you a few vitamins and to talk, if you have time to spare me." He replied while standing up.

"Well, I was supposed to have a session with the mayor but she had an emergency and canceled so I'm free now. Come in." She replied, letting him in her office.

"I've got to say that I'm really impressed with what you did with yourself Bella. Your diplomas, getting your own practice already… Congratulations." He said before he sat down.

"Well, it's kind of because of you and your family." She replied.

"How come?"

"When Edward left me, I was out of it for a few months… Charlie even considered having me admitted in a special hospital though he tried to push it back as much as possible. I didn't speak, didn't move and didn't eat for a few days. Then my mother tried to pack my things to move me back with her and I snapped out of it, yelled, threw the first tantrum of my life to stay in Forks. I was still hoping Edward would come back at this point and moving away seemed like giving up on him so I refused… That's when what I call my Zombie phase started. I just went through the motion. I cooked, cleaned, went to school, got good grades but I couldn't do anything else. I didn't laugh, didn't speak to my friends, didn't call them back, and after a while they simply stopped calling, I didn't watch TV, or listened to music, I didn't feel anything… I existed and simply went through the motion but I didn't really live. It lasted a few months but when I finally snapped out of it, I would have loved to have someone to talk to, someone I could be completely honest with. Maybe it would have made it easier for me to move on. That's when I decided what I'd do with my life. What I'd become. I wanted to be able to help people in my situation." Bella explained.

"I swear we didn't know you had such a hard time going through it… Edward forbade us to check on you and…" Carlisle started but Bella raised her hand, asking him to stop talking.

"Listen, I don't want to waste time on this, Edward is younger than you, you have the authority, you could have made things happen differently, but you didn't. It's okay, it was a long time ago and I'm over it now. I studied hard, did nothing but work actually. The only friends I had shared my classes and studies. I spent my school breaks traveling to meet with other supernatural being, learning about them and from them. I kept traces of everything I learned, everyone, every species, every person and their personal history in case it became useful someday… My best friend, who was kind of a big sister to me, shared my passion and though she went to another college, we spent all of our summers and school breaks together, meeting supernatural beings, hunting down rumors because the isolated ones where the ones with the best information… Her daughter is in this town, she's why I'm here. Isobel died because she couldn't handle what she had done in order to protect her daughter. Becoming a vampire, killing people… She couldn't handle it and I'm here to watch after Elena, make sure nobody else comes after her because of who and what she is." Bella explained, unable to stop talking once she started.

"What is she?" Carlisle asked her.

"A doppelganger. Her blood is very powerful to witches, even more to Travelers." Bella replied.

"This is very impressive… I'm curious though… How did you get the Volturi to want to do you favors?" The Cullen doctor asked her.

"The summer before I started College I went to find them, told them everything I knew, how I knew and what I was going to do with my life. I told them about Victoria coming after me with a new born army and me finding my own way to kill her and covering up after her, I didn't tell them about the La Push Wolves helping me. They were grateful and they let me go home with my promise to keep their secret and their promise to kill me if I broke my word. About 6 months later, I found evidence of a Cold One, in contact with the Romanian coven, planning an attack on them. It was well thought out and they would have lost a lot of people. I warned them, told them everything I had found and they decided that I was a friend of theirs now." Bella explained.

"It's impressive. Aro spoke about you like he really liked you." Carlisle told her.

"I know. He wanted to change me because he can't read my mind and most of their powers don't work on me. I told him that if he changed me, I'd use my powers to destroy him. He knew I was being serious so he just asks me if I want to change once in a while, accepting that I don't." She replied.

"Well, if I'm sorry that our leaving hurt you, it looks like it worked in your favor." Carlisle smiled, wondering if he should tell her about Alice's intervention.

"It did. I'm sure I would have been happy as a Cold One, with Edward, if he had changed me when I asked him to. Now I've changed, my life changed and my heart changed." She explained.

"You've become a confident young woman. I'd be proud to call you my friend when and if you ever find it in you to forgive me."

"Give me some time and I will." She smiled at him.

"On another note, I brought you some vitamins I want you to take. Given the special condition you're in, I think it would be best to put every chance on your side. Even if the babies have their father's blood, it's your first pregnancy, and you're expecting twins…" he said as he handed her the little boxes.

"Thank you, I'll start on them today." She nodded.

"There's also something I should tell you... I don't know if Alice will agree but if she didn't want me to tell you, she'd have called me by now. The truth is, we were all ready to fight Edward on his decision to leave you with a clean break, even Rosalie. You know that she wasn't the warmest person to you but she was also willing to fight Edward, because Emmett wanted to stay in your life. Alice was looking for the best way to convince him when she had a vision. She described it as one of the weirdest vision ever. It was confusing but she understood one thing : if we stayed in your life, you wouldn't have taken the road life wanted you to. We all knew that Edward loved you and only left for what he believed was your own good. Your shot with Edward would have passed and you wouldn't have been happy, neither would we have been, she even saw Edward dying but she saw... She saw us leaving, giving you the clean break Edward wanted and the future looked bright, not only for you but for us. She saw that we'd have room in your life once more, that we'd be happy, even Edward. She saw that if we let you go, you'd eventually come back to us and be our friend, in our lives forever and she saw that Edward would find love too." Carlisle confessed.

"That's a lot... I didn't really expect this but I have to say that I'm thankful you did it this way in the end. I'm happy and where I am right now in my life, it's perfect." Bella replied.

"I am monopolizing your time, you probably have things to do and we'll be able to talk some more later now that we're in the same town. I'll let you get back to work, we'll have plenty of time to talk about everything later." He nodded after glancing at the clock, standing up before they shook hands and he left her office, letting her welcome her next patient inside.

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That afternoon, Bella had her first session with Klaus and she wondered if it would turn into a family session or if he'd really come on his own.

It was weird, being her boyfriend's therapist, but he had insisted and she couldn't refuse. She wanted to help him and she knew that she could do it.

"Am I early?" Klaus asked from the doorway.

"No, come on in." She smiled.

"So, how do we do this? Do I sit on the couch? Am I even allowed to kiss you or do we pretend we're just friend while in this room ?" He asked her.

"You can sit in any place that makes you comfortable really, as for us, we're far from being a normal couple, I think that if you want to kiss me, you can. It's even recommended." She replied with a smile, making him smile back and rush to kiss her.

"Where should we start?" He asked once he was sitting down.

"I was thinking that maybe we could start by the most sensible subject: your father."

"I don't really want to talk about Mickeal." He shook his head.

"Which is why we should be talking about him but Mickeal isn't the one I had in mind. I was thinking of your actual father." She smiled.

"I never talked to him. I knew nothing of him until the day he died." Klaus shook his head again.

"I know that. Why don't you tell me about the one time you saw him?"

"It was shortly before Mother put the curse on me. He was impaled on a spike I know belonged to Mickeal because of the runes he had carved on it." Klaus replied, seeing the scene in his head again.

"Did you know he was there? How did you find him?"

"I asked my mother why I was different, why I turned into a wolf when my siblings didn't and she didn't have a choice but to tell me the truth. But as she spoke I noticed that Mickeal was nowhere to be found and asked her about him. She said that he left, angry, after finding out the truth. I left running, hoping to find Ansel, my father, before Mickeal did but I was too late." Klaus explained, reliving it in his head.

"What did you do?" Bella asked him.

"What do you mean?" He asked her, confused.

"When you found your father dead, what did you do? Did you leave? Stay?" She asked him.

"I looked at him… The tattoos on his arms, his face, everything. I wanted to know him, to know what he looked like, to be sure I'd remember him forever. I did my best to brun his image in my memory." Klaus told her, a tear in his eyes.

"Did you bury him?"

"I didn't get the chance. Mickeal, Elijah and Mother arrived. Mickeal and Elijah tied me up and left me with mother until the full moon rose again. I asked her why Ansel never went to find me, why he never took me away from Mickeal and she told me that he wanted to but that she stopped him, because she didn't want to lose me." Klaus confessed.

"It must have made you angry…"

"It did… That's why, as soon as her ritual was over, I went to find her and killed her, I didn't do it immediately though… I asked her to justify herself, to give me a good reason why she kept me from a father who loved me and wanted me to leave me with a father who hated me."

"Something tell me that her answer wasn't what you wanted…"

"I was very angry and she just told me that she couldn't let me go with Ansel, that I was part of her family, her son. I couldn't contain my anger and ripped her heart out. Then I went to find my real father's body but it was gone… I think his people took him." Klaus replied.

"Have you ever tried to find them?" She asked him.

"His people? No. I was afraid they wouldn't know about me, that they'd try to kill me too." He shook his head.

"They wouldn't have. They knew about you." She told him.

"How do you know?"

"Well, I happen to be in contact with lots of werewolves over the country. They have legends and your father's pack has one about you, well about a hybrid vampire – werewolf. They know that you're their true Alpha. They know that one day you'll find them and they'll follow you. They know you're their family." She told him.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" he asked her.

"Honestly, I didn't want to give you false hope before I knew more for sure. I got confirmation from one of the members of this pack just this morning. They asked me to give you this to prove they were who they said." Bella replied, handing him a ring.

"This was his…" He said, holding it delicately.

"Yes, they're not far from here. Here, the current Alpha's phone number and their location. They're camping in the woods, a couple of hours from here. One call from you and they'll be here, ready to welcome you as their true Alpha." She smiled at him.

"This is why you wanted to talk about Ansel, you wanted to know if I'd welcome them…" He asked her, falling even deeper in love with this woman.

"Partially… I… I might know a witch that would be able to allow you to speak with him, Ansel I mean… I've seen her do it before. She can lighten the veil with the other side for a couple of hours, just long enough for you to see him and speak to him. She can only do it once a year and since she did it right before I moved here, it'll have to wait until after our children's birth but… It's a possibility. She owes me and she'll save her possibility to do it for you, if you want." Bella explained.

"You really are the best friend I could ever ask for, on top of the best life companion I could have asked for if I had known what to ask for in the first place and I know you will be a great mother to our children Bella." Klaus told her, tears in his eyes.

"I'll tell her you said yes then." She smiled, blushing at his compliment and at the fact that he called her his life companion.

"Thank you, really. I don't deserve your friendship." He added.

"Of course you do, my friendship and my love. Now, I think we should cut this session here. I think you need to think about what you'll do next: call the family you didn't know you had and was waiting for you or ignore them." She smiled.

Klaus nodded, gave her a kiss on the lips and went to leave her office, his pack's information tightly in his hand and his father's ring on his finger.

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After school, Bonnie went to the Grill, like she had promised and found the two Cullen already waiting for her at a table, looking a bit uncomfortable. They told her that they needed 12 more sun stones to put in rings or necklaces for their family and friends.

Bonnie reminded them that she wouldn't do it for free and they assured her that they'd pay a lot of money. Before she could ask for any amount on her own, they offered her enough money to pay for 4 years in an ivy league college and a new car of her choice, assuring her that they had plenty of money.

She agreed and told them that she wouldn't be able to do them all at the same time, it took time and energy to spell such rings, even more energy that the lapis lazuli rings for normal vampires. She suggested having a stone done each week and they agreed, offering to give her half the money with the first stone and the other half with the last one.

When she left to do her homework, she was happy, she'd be able to go to the college of her choice, her father wouldn't have to worry about money.

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Lorelei Candice Black