BELLA

I kissed Stefan goodnight. Our mother wasn't doing too well so I put Stefan to bed. Dinner didn't specifically go to plan.

"Bella." 11-year-old Stefan said.

"Yes Stef."

"I broke that statue, by accident I promise."

"I know you did sweetheart."

"Why did Damon say he did it."

" Stefan baby." I stroked his hair. "Father can get angry sometimes. Just better if Damon was to say he did it."

"Why."

"Good question. Damon and I love you so much. We'd do anything for you." He nodded.

"I love you Bells."

I walked downstairs.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine. Is he asleep?" He asked.

"I just put him in bed. He doesn't understand why you told him you did it."

"Why would he? Bella he's 11. Which is the exact reason why because he's 11."

"What's wrong Damon?"

"Father wants me to serve in the civil war."

"Well you get leave. I'll just be here, I can't go to war."

"You won't you're going to University. To practise medicine. In London."

"What! I can't go to London." I said.

"Well you are once we turn 18. We're out of here."

I just stared at him.

"It means Bella, you can't look after Stefan forever. You think I don't notice the little looks you give your twin. You two need to leave so Stefan can grow up." Father said.

"Why can't I go to Virginia University."

"No London has the best. End of discussion." He said. "Oh, as you two love your brother so much you can tell him you have to leave."

"No, you are forcing us to leave." She said angrily.

"Don't speak to me like that young lady." Damon pulled me back. "That's it listens to your twin Bella. You two seem to do everything together, will be a bonus you're on the opposite side of the world."

I glared as Father walked out of the room. "Bella we've got two years. We don't have to tell him right now. Maybe us leaving might help him."

"I can't believe you just said that." I said.

"I don't like it any more than you Bella, I think of it like this you will be getting a medical degree."

"Yeah but I'm a woman Damon. Will I really be able to become a doctor?" I said.

"If anyone can do it's you." We both hugged each other tightly.

STEFAN

"It means Bella, you can't look after Stefan forever. You think I don't notice the little looks you give your twin. You two need to leave so Stefan can grow up."

"Why can't I go to Virginia University."

"No London has the best. End of discussion." He said. "Oh, as you two love your brother so much you can tell him you have to leave."

"No, you are forcing us to leave." She said angrily.

I laid in bed under the sheets crying. This is all my fault, they can't leave. I don't want them to.

My door opened. Damon walked in and saw me moving. He walked over to the bed and playfully tickled me.

"Ah you're being a little eavesdropper."

" I don't want you to leave."

" We don't either." Damon said.

"We won't see Bella that much will we?"

"I will try come home as frequently as possible. I will even try not to leave." Bella said to me, trying to reassuring me.

"Can Bella do that?" I said.

She just smiled at me.

Bella

We were at the funeral.

"Where's Damon?" Stefan asked.

"I don't know sweetheart." I held his hand.

"Your brother is embarrassing us Bella. Where is he?" Father whispered.

"I wish I knew." I said.

"Now Damon has a few words to say." The vicar said.

Father looked at me. "Get up right now." I stared at him in shock.

"Now!" He mouthed.

"Um. Yes so, um my Mother was loved very much by my father. Her children." I said. 'Yeah right.' I thought. I'm not going tell you stories of what she did or didn't do, because who really needs to know about that. Doesn't matter who we lost or how much we lost. There will always be a whole in your heart where that someone used to be. Those holes are never filed not matter what you do. Everything ends, relationships, life, people but all of those begin again. Lily would want that for us all to begin again." I smiled.

I got home and went straight to my room . Damon was sitting on my bed, 'don't even. You got some nerve coming in here."

"I'm sorry. I just couldn't do it."

"Do what? Say goodbye? Or right the bloody speech. Which by the way I had to make up on the spot?"

"I just-"

"Get out." I said. He frowned at me. "Get out!" I yelled.

DAMON

I woke up the following morning, Bella was so angry last night. I've only ever seen her like that when she speaks to Father.

I got up and walked into her room.

She turned over so her back was to me. I laid next to her, "look I'm sorry. I messed up."

She turned to me.

"You messed up big time Damon. I really don't think you should be asking for my forgiveness. Stefan asked where you were the whole ceremony."

Crap. I knocked on Stefan's door.

He frowned and looked at me

"I'm sorry." I said. "I couldn't do it."

"You could've just had to turn up." He cried. I looked at him. "Father had a go at Bella because you didn't turn up."

I looked at him shocked. "She had to do your speech on the spot. All you had to do was turn up."

"Yes, I get it." I said. "Can you forgive me?"

He sighed and hugged me. "She talked mainly about grief more than mother." He said.

"She would." I kissed the top of his hair. "It's Bella."

I walked downstairs and found Bella talking to a Man in the gardens.

"I don't know. London is a long way from Virginia."

London? What?

"I'm staying in a B&B. Let me know by tomorrow. It is a brilliant opportunity, you're very talented Bella." She nodded and shook his hand.

She was walking towards the house.

"You can't go to London, Bella."

"I didn't say I was Damon, I said I'd think about it…"

Father barged past me "Bella what did he say?" Father said.

"He wants me to attend The University of London for medicine."

"Well that's brilliant. When do you leave?"

"I don't know if I want to go. Mother has just past and Stef-"

"No Bella! No! You are going end of story."

"As I said I'll think about it." I ran after to her and I closed the door.

"Are you seriously thinking about going Bella?" I asked.

"Maybe. I don't know Damon. Can't I do something for me. For once." I bit the inside of her lip.

I sat next to her on the bed.

"Go. He'll be fine." I said to her.

"What about you? "She said to me.

"Oh, I'm going to be great. I'm going to die in the war anyway."

"Don't say that!" I playfully punched Damon.

"You leave and I will tell him. You'll get too emotional and change your mind." Damon said

"Isn't that just what mother would do…"

"Fine write him a letter."

Stefan

I was now 17, Bella and Damon were now 25. I haven't seen Bella, since Mother's funeral and the letter that Damon gave me all those years ago, that I've kept in a box under my bed with the rest of her letters.

It was like I lost two people that day, but one was on the other side of the country and wrote letters to me, I didn't blame her that she left. I just wished she had said goodbye.

A girl with long brown hair, got off a cart as I was writing a letter to Bella. She is supposed to be coming back to the States soon as she has become a surgeon but she always makes an excuse for travelling back here.

"Hello." She said.

"Who me?" I pointed a finger at my chest.

"Yes. The one writing. Is it someone important?"

"My brother and sister. One is serving and the other is in London, practising medicine."

"I guess it's the sister in London." She said to me.

"Yes, it is. I don't know why I'm telling you all of this. Where are you headed." I asked the girl in a cream dress with patterns on it.

"I'm just an orphan girl finding her place." She said and smiled at me.

"Well come and see my home." I asked her.

"I do not know your name?" She asked as I stood up from the grass and headed back to the main house.

"Stefan Salvatore." I said as I walked alongside her. "Who might you be may I ask?"

"Katerina Petrova." She looked at me. " Who might your brother and sister be?"

"Isabella but we all call her Bella. My brother is Damon. Our father is from Italy." I told her.

"Your mother." She asked me another question.

"From America."

I looked up at the house where Damon was sitting on the steps.

"Damon?" I asked him.

"Brother." He hugged me and patted my back. "And you might be?"

"Katerina Petrova… people call me Katherine."

"Well hello Katherine." Damon took her hand and kissed it.

"Damon Salvatore." He told her.

"Yes, Stefan told me about you." She smiled at him.