Chapter 35

The girls arrived back at the house around 6:30 PM, after dropping Jenna, Caroline, Elena and Bonnie up. Bella put her bags in her father's rental car and they all went inside to rest a bit before Matt arrived with the food.

The boys arrived a few minutes after them and they hurried to put the fishes away and to change and clean up before dinner. Elijah guided Charlie to one of the guest bathroom so he could freshen up and wash off the smell of fish.

When Matt arrived about 20 minutes after 7, his hands full of take out bags, everyone was ready and happily talking in the living room.

"Sorry I'm a bit late. They were all out of pickles at the Grill and since I know Bella craves those lately, I ran to the store to get another jar. I didn't know if you guys have enough left or not. Better safe than sorry, right ?" He replied.

"Thanks, you're the best!" Bella exclaimed happily, giving him a quick hug.

"There are more bags in the car." Matt told Rebekah and Kol who nodded and went to get them.

"So Matt, I believe you've met my father before?" Bella asked him once he put the bags down in the dinning room where they all joined him.

"Yes, when I arrived." Charlie added, shaking the boy's hand.

"Nice to officially meet you sir." Matt greeted him.

"Go ahead and call me Charlie, son." Bella's father replied nicely.

"Something on your mind Matt?" Bella asked him when he saw is concerned face.

Everyone else was getting the food out of the bags and Charlie was by his daughter's side, listening.

"I… I think I saw my mother earlier again… I don't know if it really was her though and if she's here, why doesn't she come and see me?" He asked her and for a moment, the quarterback looked much younger than his age.

"I don't know Matt, do you want me to call Liz and ask her to keep an eye out?" Bella asked him.

"You think she can do something?"

"Of course, she's the Sheriff, your mother left you alone, without any money while you were underage. She can legally look for her, all you have to do is ask." Bella reminded him.

"I… I don't want her to go to jail or anything but I'd like to know if it's really her or not. I feel like I'm being paranoid but I want to know the truth." He nodded.

"I know what it's like. I'll call her right away, I think she's working late these days since Caroline is spending the week with her father." Bella nodded, hugged him quickly and walked away with her phone in her hand.

"Didn't you report your mother earlier?" Charlie asked him.

"I didn't want them to take me away from my school and my friends and I don't want her to go to jail…" Matt shook his head.

"You still want to protect her, after she left you to fend for yourself?"

"Bella says I have the white knight syndrome. I grew up with my older sister and my mother constantly messing up, I had to be the responsible one very early. I had to cook and know how to make sure everything didn't fall apart when either one of them decided to leave. Then my sister died because of her use of drugs and my mother, who had just come back, left again. I don't even know who my father is, knowing my mother, it could be anyone." Matt replied, feeling like he could trust Charlie.

Listening to the boy, Charlie now understood why Bella felt so close to him and felt the need to help him. She understood what he was going through, only she was lucky enough that her mother never left and brought money back, even if she wasn't always responsible with it.

"Liz was still at the office, she said she'll look into it." Bella said when she came back.

"Thanks Bella. I really appreciate it." Matt nodded.

"Now come on, everyone to the table. It's time to eat before Matt's food gets cold." Rebekah called out.

"It does smell good." Charlie agreed.

"And it's your kind of food too." Bella smiled.

"You like burgers Charlie?" Elijah asked him.

"I like anything that I don't have to cook." He replied with a smile.

"You don't like cooking then?" Rebekah asked him.

"Please, dad can't cook to save his life. He'd be able to burn water." Bella chuckled, making her father blush.

"Ah, I think I recognize that blush, nice to know where Bella got it from." Klaus commented.

"There's a big chance your kids will end up blushing like this too, it's a family trait." Charlie nodded.

"So, Charlie, you're ready to be a grandpa yet?" Matt asked him.

"Please, I'm much too young and handsome to be a grandfather. These babies will be so confused, they'll think I'm their uncle!" Charlie joked, making everyone else laugh too.

"Rebekah, when do you want to grab the rest of your things and move back here?" Bella asked the youngest Original.

"I was thinking sometime tomorrow if you're sure you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind. You'll be fine here with your family and it's not like I'll be on my own. Klaus comes over every night and dad is still here for a while. I'll be fine too." Bella smiled.

"What if you have some kind of pregnancy emergency?" Rebekah asked her.

"I'll use this little thing called a cell phone and call someone."

"What if it doesn't work?" Rebekah asked again while everyone else listened to their conversation.

"I'll still have the landline, don't worry so much. I'll be perfectly fine." Bella replied with a pointed look, silently reminding Rebekah that she was never really alone since people were watching over her.

"So Charlie, have you met Elena yet? Bella and her are very close." Elijah asked to change the subject.

"Not yet, but I think Bella has it planned sometime soon."

"Yes, tomorrow we're spending the day at the Gilbert lake house. They invited us." Bella nodded.

"Did you know Isobel?" Finn asked Charlie.

"I met her a few times when Bella brought her to spend a few days in Forks." He nodded.

"Who wants more fries?" Bella asked.

"What I'd like to know Bella is why you never told me that Carlisle Cullen was in town and watching over your pregnancy?" Charlie said, tired of them all trying to bring the subject away from the Cullen's.

"You told him?" Bella asked Klaus and Elijah.

"Kol mentioned it while we were fishing." Elijah apologized.

"Sorry." Kol replied, not looking very sorry.

"Oh, you'll be sorry." Bella assured him.

"Kol, you messed up and now you have hormonal Bella mad at you. You're in trouble." Rebekah teased her brother.

"I don't understand why you didn't tell me Bells." Charlie insisted.

"It just wasn't worth bringing up dad. It's only Esme and him and they're not that bad. It's all in the past, forgive and forget..." Bella argued calmly.

He didn't need to know right now that the entire family was going to come back as well.

"I just don't want to see you going back to how you were when they left you all those years ago." Charlie replied.

"It won't happen, it's different dad, I promise." Bella assured him.

"You have nothing to worry about Charlie. Trust me." Klaus promised.

"Alright, if you're sure you're being careful..."

"Don't worry about that, I just called him and asked him to look over this pregnancy because he's one of the best and I wanted a doctor I knew and trusted." Bella assured her father once more.

"Fine, but if anything happens because of them, you're calling me, alright?" He asked and she nodded, along with Klaus.

"We take care of our family Charlie and Bella is now one of us. She's family." Klaus added.

"We're a family because of her, she united us, helped us go over our disagreements." Finn added.

"Can we talk about something else now please?" Bella asked and Sage helped her do so by asking Charlie about his favorite sport and his favorite team.

.

Later, when they went back home, Bella felt that her father still had something on his mind so she waited until they were back in her living room to ask him:

"What's going on dad? Don't tell me nothing, I can tell something is bothering you." She told him, hoping he wasn't going to bring up the Cullen's again.

If he asked any more questions about them, she'd have to lie to him and that's something she would have liked to avoid.

"We should sit down." He nodded.

"This must be serious…" She commented.

"Do you remember when was the last time you brought Isobel home?" He asked her.

"Of course, it was during the week before her wedding. She didn't want to see Alaric for the week before they got married because she was superstitious so we came to Forks. Why?" She was confused now.

"Isobel left something behind, a notebook."

"A notebook?"

"More like a diary… I probably shouldn't have but I read it… I didn't want to believe everything that was written inside, I thought it was all creative writing or something."

"Why? What did she write?" Bella asked him feeling like she knew the answer already.

"Things about vampires and needing to protect her daughter… A bad girl named Katherine and a bad guy named Klaus… I didn't believe it until a few weeks ago when I saw Jacob change into a wolf."

"What?" Bella exclaimed.

"I was there when he learned you were pregnant and when I said that he left home in a hurry, I meant that he shifted into a giant wolf and ran off."

"Billy explained everything to you?" She asked him.

"Yes, and I read the diary again, I had forgotten to send it to you. I guess I should tell you that I saw the secret line on your sign." He told her.

"I… I wanted to protect you from everything supernatural…" She admitted.

"I understand, don't worry but now I think I have to ask if the father of your children is the same Klaus from Isobel's diary."

"It's complicated... Technically he is, but he's changed. He's always been nice with me and he truly loves our children. I assure you that he can be trusted, he made sure to have his bad reputation in order to protect himself and his family. If people feared him, they wouldn't attack." She replied.

"I'll trust you, especially since the afternoon I spent with his brothers and him. I can tell they were being sincere, if a bit immature for Kol." He agreed.

"Do you still have it, the diary I mean?" Bella asked his father.

"Of course. I brought it with me. I'm sure you'll want to give it to her daughter or something…" He replied.

"I'll read it first to see if there are any new informations inside but yes, I'll give it to Elena tomorrow." She nodded.

Charlie went quickly in his bedroom to get the little notebook and gave it to his daughter.

"I'm sure you'd like to know everything now?"

"I don't want to be in the dark anymore, but I trust you to keep to yourself any secret that could be too big for me." He nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Bella started by telling her father the truth about the Cullen's, what happened when she went to Phoenix and she told him the truth about making peace with them all and welcoming back in town. Then she told him the Original's story and ended with the story of Mystic Fall's.

After that, she told him who knew of the supernatural in this town and what everyone was.

"I can't believe that there is this entirely other world out there… Shape-shifters and Quileute shamans was one thing but all of this… Witches, vampires of two different breed, real werewolves, hybrids… Wait, what will your babies be?" He asked her suddenly.

"We're not sure yet. Because they have Klaus's blood in them, they will have the werewolf gene that won't be triggered unless they cause someone's death, but they'll also have magic because of Klaus' mother."

"But they won't have fangs, will they?"

"No, they won't have fangs. Carlisle said that right now they're just normal babies, with normal DNA and everything, so that's good." She shook her head with a chuckle.

"Are you safe?" he asked her then, seriously.

"Klaus' aunt is a powerful witch who'll try to come after our babies once they start showing their powers but we have a safe plan to take her out before she can sense them and comes for them. And I'm more than safe because Klaus has hybrids patrolling the town and reporting to him and Liz. There's always a couple of them around my street. Also he's convinced me to hire an hybrid secretary. She's sired to him, very loyal, and so it extends to me because I carry his children. I couldn't be safer in a padded cell." She explained.

"And the protections you put on your office, you put them on my house too?"

"Yes, the last time I came for a visit I had someone who owed me a favor do it while you were at work. I just wanted you to be safe." She explained and he nodded.

"Matt's mother, does she have anything to do with the supernatural?" Charlie asked her.

"I'm not sure… I haven't told him but I had contacts of mine look into it, try to locate her and there are rumors… A woman who looks like her and was where she was when she was there… If it's her, she might be a succubus and killing men. That would mean that Matt's father was killed when they mated."

"You didn't tell him?"

"No, I don't know if he'd want to know." She replied honestly.

"What do they do? Succubus?" He asked her.

"They're female, going after men. They have sex with the men and feed on their health. After being with her, men get sick and their lives are greatly shortened. For her to have gotten pregnant twice, it means that she killed at least twice, that's the only way they can get pregnant."

"Then it would be for the best if she stayed away." Charlie guessed.

"Yes, he'd be better off without her in his life but if she's coming back… I know I should tell him, even if I'm not sure. I know he doesn't love his mother anymore but I want him to be happy and safe… He can only protect himself if he knows what's going on. And if he has children some day and they ended up being girls, there's a chance they'd be succubus when they reach their 18th birthday, so I need to warn him so he stays on his guards." She said.

Bella and Charlie talked for a while longer before they both went to bed. Bella would talk to Matt he next day before they left for the Lake House and she'd give him a book she has on succubus so he'd know what to expect.

Before going to bed, Bella opened Isobel's lost diary and started reading to see if she could give it to Elena. There wasn't anything new inside, just thoughts and plans, notes on her work… It looked like this had been a notebook she wrote anything that came to mind in. There was the date of the day and lots of bit and pieces of thoughts, even a couple of recipes. Bella placed it in her purse, planning on giving it to Elena the next day along with the Christmas presents she'd bring them.

It had been a long day and Bella was happy to finally be able to lie in her bed. She didn't know if the fact that he father knew everything made her feel better or worse, she didn't know if it was a good news or a bad one but she tried not to think about it for now. It would only prevent her from sleeping and she really needed her rest now.

.

Jacob had spent the entire afternoon watching from afar as Charlie had fun with Bella's men and feeling jealous. It wasn't right. Did he even know he was fishing with thousand years old vampires?

It wasn't easy for Jacob to concentrate since he spent a lot of time watching over Leah and making sure she stayed in line and didn't rat him out to anyone in town. He had stolen some sleeping pills and injections from the hospital and force fed them to her. It didn't force her to sleep but at least it kept her slow and calm. Even if it wasn't right and if he had to give her more often, he was sure that it was worth it. She was stuck in her human form, unable to fight him back.

He just needed a few more days to make sure that Bella was fine and that she didn't need him, then he'd be ready to leave.

"You've been thinking that for days. You're an idiot and when I'm better, I'll make you pay for this." Leah growled at him.

"Sure Sure." He replied, brushing it off.

It angered her to see that he wasn't taking her seriously but she tried to calm down, or to at least appear calmer. She'd get her revenge later. He'd pay for what he did to her, even if she had to play along for a while.

Review please?

Lorelei Candice Black