So this was initially a footnote in the next chapter (which is the epilogue of this story) but it deserved a chapter of its own.

This chapter takes place about four years after the last chapter.

Shopping for a child's birthday party could be difficult. Shopping for two could be even worse.

So for Ariana and Jenna's fourth birthday, Rebekah put aside a whole day and went out by herself, scouring the Quarter for suitable gifts.

Elena and Katherine's daughters were turning out to be exactly as people had expected - one quiet and reserved, one outgoing and loud - except it was Ariana who was the wallflower, and Jenna who was the life of the party.

Elena insisted that she had been like that, before her parents died, but Rebekah couldn't see it.

Still empty-handed, she took a break in the park for lunch, snagging a hot dog from one of the vendors, even though she didn't really need it.

She sat on a bench beside the playground, stretching her legs out to catch the sun peeking out behind the clouds in the temporary break in the rains.

"Excuse me?"

Rebekah glanced up at the woman hovering beside the bench. "Yes?"

"I think your daughter's upset."

Rebekah frowned. "I don't have a daughter."

"You don't know her?"

Rebekah followed the woman's pointed finger and her eyes landed on a pale girl with a shock of red hair, almost hidden beneath the jungle gym, her face buried in her knees. "No. Doesn't anyone else?"

"No, we all know each other," the woman said, gesturing to the other parents. "I know all the other kids. I just assumed she was yours."

"No, I was just stopping for lunch." Rebekah balled up the hot dog wrapped and got to her feet, catching the woman's gaze. "Don't worry about it - I'll take care of her."

The woman nodded, eyes glazed a little, and Rebekah made her way over to the child, kneeling on the sand beside her.

"Hi sweetheart."

The girl peeked up from her arms.

Rebekah smiled. "Where's your mom?"

The girl shrugged.

"What's your name?" Rebekah asked. "I'm Rebekah," she added when the girl hesitated.

"Mariella," she mumbled.

"That's a pretty name," Rebekah said, scanning the girl for any injuries. She couldn't see any, but her shirt was loose, and her arms and legs were painfully thin. "When was the last time you ate, Mariella?"

"Tuesday," she answered.

Rebekah winced. It was Friday. "Would you like a hot dog?"

Mariella's eyes lit up, but she shook her head. "No thank you."

"Mariella, you need to eat something," Rebekah said gently, but firmly. "Where are your parents?"

"They don't want me," Mariella said suddenly. "I'm a monster."

Rebekah swallowed her initial reaction and touched her hand. "You don't look like a monster to me. How old are you?"

"Nine," Mariella mumbled.

"Almost the same age as my niece Hope," Rebekah said. "She's nine in December. Well, you look like a regular nine year old to me. What makes you a monster?"

Mariella sniffled. "I had an accident. I was playing in Mom's car and I pressed a button and the car started moving and it hit someone."

Rebekah closed her eyes. "Oh sweetheart … That's an accident."

"They died," Mariella said, a tear slipping down her cheek. "That makes me a murderer, Dad said."

"No, it doesn't," Rebekah said immediately. "It doesn't - it makes you a nine year old girl who had an accident."

Mariella burst into tears and Rebekah automatically wrapped her arms around the young girl, relieved when she relaxed into the embrace rather than fighting it.

"It's alright," she murmured. "Come on. Let's get you something to eat."

Mariella was so light that Rebekah probably didn't need vampire strength to pick her up, carrying her out of the park.

"Did you run away?"

"No," Mariella answered, resting her head on Rebekah's shoulder. "They made me leave. After the car, something strange happened."

"What happened?" Rebekah asked.

"I really, really hurt," Mariella said. "Mom said I looked like a monster."

Rebekah had a sinking feeling she knew what had happened, but she didn't say anything. Better to wait until she knew for sure.

Instead, she took Mariella home, letting herself into her apartment without meeting anyone else.

"Hi Bex," Matt greeted from their bedroom. "Did you get their presents?"

"No, got distracted," Rebekah answered, setting Mariella down. "Are you allergic to anything, honey?"

Mariella shook her head. "I don't think so. You don't have to …"

"I want to," Rebekah said, sending a quick text. "I've just asked a friend to come over and make sure you're okay, since you haven't eaten in so long."

"Who are you …?" Matt appeared in the kitchen doorway. "Hello."

"Matt, this is Mariella," Rebekah said. "We met in the park. Mariella, this is my husband, Matt."

"Hi," Mariella whispered.

There was a soft tap on the front door before it opened and closed. "Bex?"

"Kitchen," Rebekah called.

Davina slipped past Matt. "What's up?"

"Mariella hasn't eaten in a few days," Rebekah answered. "Can you make sure she's okay? Also she had an accident and it really, really hurt afterwards."

Davina's brow creased. "You're not thinking …?"

"I hope not," Rebekah said.

Davina nodded, sitting down at the kitchen table. "Hi sweetie. I'm Davina, I'm Rebekah's sister-in-law. I can also do magic."

"Dad says there's no such thing as magic," Mariella said.

"Well, he sounds boring," Davina said, getting a tiny giggle in return. "Take my hand, and we'll see what's going on."

"Can you tell if I'm a monster?" Mariella asked.

Davina faltered, anger flashing in her eyes for a split-second. "You're not. I can tell that without magic." She curled her fingers around Mariella's and closed her eyes, murmuring a few words. "I think … your Mom and Dad … did they adopt you, honey?"

Mariella nodded. "My real parents didn't want me, so they were good enough to take me in."

It was such a rehearsed statement that Rebekah had to turn away to hide the fury on her face.

"That's not how adoption works, sweetheart," Davina said, her voice miraculously even. "Your birth parents can't look after you, so someone makes a choice to become your parents. That's what adoption is. But you inherited something from your birth parents that your adopted parents didn't know about."

"They know about the hair," Mariella said. "You can't do anything about it. Dad said that one of my birth parents must have been a really bad word that school says I shouldn't say."

"I don't mean your hair," Davina said. "And I think you've got beautiful hair. You're a werewolf, sweetheart. And your accident triggered that, so the next time the moon's full, you're going to turn into a wolf for the night. I'm really sorry."

"So I am a monster," Mariella whispered, her gaze dropping to her lap.

"No," Rebekah said immediately, abandoning her search through the refrigerator to sweep the girl into a hug. "You're not, darling, I promise. There are loads of werewolves in this city. They'll look after you."

"I don't want to go home," Mariella whispered. "They won't let me anyway."

Rebekah met Matt's eyes across the kitchen, and he nodded.

"Mariella," Rebekah said gently, "I can make them forget. You won't ever have to deal with them again. And then you can come and stay with us."

If she was worried at all about Mariella's reaction, she had no need to be.

"Really?" Mariella asked. The hope in her voice was painful to hear and Rebekah tightened her arms around her.

"Of course. I can't promise we'll be the perfect parents, but we will never send you away. No matter what you do."
"I'm not very good at tidying my room," Mariella said hesitantly.

"That's okay," Matt said with a smile. "Bekah's not very good at that either."

"So what do you say?" Rebekah asked, stroking her hair. "Want to give us a shot?"

Mariella nodded, a smile finally breaking onto her face. "I'd love to."

Rebekah arrived home that evening, with several large shopping bags, to find that Matt and Mariella had cleared out the spare bedroom and made up the bed.

"Oh dear," Matt said. "How did it go?"

Rebekah smiled. "Absolutely fine." She set the bags down and withdrew a sheaf of papers from inside her jacket. "They signed the forms and handed everything over."

"I really didn't have this much," Mariella said, looking around at the bags.

"I know, love," Rebekah said. "I was surprised, but I supposed I shouldn't have been." She nudged one of the bags. "It's all in here."

Mariella shrugged. "There's probably nothing. I'm fairly sure all I had was a Bible and a chess set."

"You play chess?" Matt asked.

"They never taught me," Mariella said. "Just made me play. I never took to it."

"Well, that makes no sense," Rebekah said. "Anyway, I figured that there had to be more than that, so I compelled them to make sure. And there was something else." She reached into the bag and pulled out a slightly worn teddy bear.

"I thought they threw that out," Mariella whispered. "I'd had it since I was born, but they took it away when I was four, because I was too old."

"You're never too old for a bear," Matt said firmly. "Hope still has a rabbit she was given when she was born."

"Hell will freeze over before Hope gives that up," Rebekah said. "They told me that you came with this little guy, so I'm guessing your birth mother gave it to you."

Mariella took the bear and hugged it close. "Thank you. So they don't remember me?"

"Well, I thought about that," Rebekah admitted. "The problem with compulsion is that it can break if you start questioning it. And I figured other people must have known about you. So I compelled them to forget about anything strange and to think that you went back to your birth parents. They're not going to question it and they're not going to go looking for you."

"So what's in the rest of the bags, Bex?" Matt asked.

"Well, dealing with them made my blood boil," Rebekah said. "So I went for a bit of retail therapy."

"Did you at least get Ariana and Jenna's presents?" Matt asked.

"I did," Rebekah said. "We got Ariana a set of easy-reader books, and we got Jenna a board game that looked quite fun."

"So what's in the rest of the bags?" Mariella asked curiously. "Also who are Ariana and Jenna?"

"Our friends' children," Rebekah answered. "They turn four in a few weeks. And the rest of the bags are for you."

"For me?" Mariella repeated.

Rebekah smiled. "Well, I was assuming that your former guardians would have clothes and things for you; we can't keep you in that."

Mariella looked down at her shirt and jeans. "Why not?"

Rebekah faltered, but Matt jumped in. "Because you deserve to have more than one outfit. Rebekah …"

"I didn't get too much," Rebekah said. "Just the basics. I wasn't sure of your favourite colour, so I just guessed."

"I don't really have one," Mariella said. "You didn't have to do that."

Rebekah and Matt exchanged a glance, and Matt nodded. "I thought that when I was younger."

Mariella looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"My dad left when I was a baby," Matt said gently. "My mom was … She didn't handle it well. She was in and out all the time. Left my older sister to look after me most of the time, and she wasn't that much older. My mom's school-friends would always try and help. They'd buy us new clothes, and make sure we had our school supplies, and … I always felt bad."

"Why did they do it?" Mariella asked.

Matt smiled sadly. "Because my mom wasn't. When you have a child, you take on the responsibility of looking after that child. That means feeding them, and clothing them, and making sure they're happy, and making sure they grow up to be good, well-rounded people. And if they can't do that, they make sure someone else will."

"Like my birth parents," Mariella whispered.

Matt nodded. "When your former guardians adopted you, they made a promise to raise you and look after you like you were their own daughter. They let you down, Mariella. By the sound of it, they weren't short of money - you deserved more than what they gave you. And I know it's going to take you a while to believe that. But we aren't going anywhere."

"So … what do I call you?" Mariella asked.

"Whatever you feel comfortable calling us," Rebekah said immediately. "If you want to call us Mom and Dad, you can; if you'd rather call us something else, we won't be offended."

A bell rang somewhere in the building.

"Oh yeah," Matt said. "Caroline texted; they're doing a family dinner tonight."

"Did Sophie actually get a gong put in?" Rebekah asked, a smile lurking around her face.

"No, she found an old hand bell at the antique store the other day," Matt answered.

"What was Sophie doing at an antique store?" Rebekah asked.

Matt smirked. "Elijah was walking her home from work."

"She literally works round the corner," Rebekah said. "There isn't an antique store between here and Rousseau's."

"The excuses are getting worse," Matt said. "What do you say, kiddo? Up to meeting the rest of the family?"

Thankfully, Davina had clearly talked to the rest of the family, and Rebekah's siblings were on their best behaviour at dinner.

At first, Mariella was painfully quiet, clearly terrified of doing or saying the wrong thing, and Rebekah was just starting to wonder if maybe they'd made a mistake in introducing everyone at once, when a spoonful of mashed potato hit Kol in the forehead.

"Hope!" Caroline chided.

Hope grinned. "I owed him. He turned me pink today."

"You turned yourself pink, darling," Kol said, wiping his face clean.

"You told me it would make me fly," Hope said. "And you didn't give me the counter-spell for two hours."

"Kol!" Davina said.

"Awesome!" Henrik cried, giving his father a high five.

"Don't you get involved, young man," Davina said.

"Sorry Mom," Henrik said automatically.

Rebekah caught his eye as Davina looked away, and shook her head. He put his spoon down, just as a number of peas rained down on Hope - and Rebekah, who was sitting next to her.

"Henrik!" Davina protested.

"Wrong one, Davina," Rebekah said, narrowing her eyes at her brother. "I was watching that one."

"Honestly, Kol, don't encourage them," Caroline sighed. "Rebekah, don't you dare."

"I worked very hard on this dinner," Sophie added. "House rules."

"Sorry," Kol and Hope said almost in unison.

"What are the house rules?" Mariella whispered.

"In this case," Rebekah said, "if you're going to start a food fight, you make the food for it."

"And you have to help clean up afterwards," Hope added.

"There are a few others," Rebekah said. "Some of them are witch-specific or vampire-specific, so you won't need to worry about them. We'll go through the others tomorrow; you've had a long day."

Mariella nodded. She didn't eat nearly as much as Rebekah would have liked, but then again the poor girl hadn't really eaten anything for a few days.

Little and often was probably a good idea.

Hope chattered away to Mariella throughout the meal, telling her about the Saltzman Academy that was being built, and the art classes she had with her dad, and the Saltzman twins.

The one thing everyone was avoiding was any mention of the full moon, which was in a week's time.

The thought of Mariella being forced through that at this age made Rebekah feel physically sick.

After dinner, once Matt had taken Mariella back upstairs, she slipped into the kitchen to box up some of the leftovers.

"Planning a midnight feast?" Caroline asked, carrying the last of the dishes in.

"Lunch was the first meal she'd had since Tuesday," Rebekah said quietly.

Caroline shook her head. "Davina filled us in; I just … How does one child get so unlucky?"

"Bad luck's got nothing to do with it," Rebekah muttered. "It's people who don't think before they let people adopt."

"I wasn't talking about her guardians," Caroline said. "I was talking about triggering the curse. The chances of her managing to knock the handbrake off is slim by itself. The chances of someone being behind the car and dying from a crash at such a low speed … That's bad luck."

Rebekah was silent for a few minutes. "I hate magic sometimes" she said finally, in a low voice. "I hate that she has to go through that. And I can't even be with her."

Caroline hesitated. "I'll go."

"Caroline …"

"I'll go," Caroline repeated, more firmly this time. "I've got hybrid abilities. I know Jackson and Aiden would look after her, and I also know that she's not likely to build up that much confidence that quickly. I've already seen the transformation; I know what to expect."

Rebekah hugged her tightly. "Thank you."

Caroline rubbed her back. "As I said to Elena - Welcome to motherhood. It sucks. You're gonna love it."

Rebekah sniffled. "When Matt and I talked about adoption … I hadn't thought about what it meant really. For her, I mean. For me to be a mother …"

"What happened to her was not your fault, Rebekah," Caroline said. "You can be angry for her. Just … don't let her see it."

Rebekah took a deep breath. "I know."

Bidding Caroline a good night, she took the leftovers upstairs to her apartment.

"She's getting into her pyjamas and brushing her teeth," Matt told her softly, in answer to her unasked question. "She says she doesn't need tucking in …"

"Need and want are two different things," Rebekah said, setting the leftovers in the fridge. "I'll go."

Matt nodded. "Can we do this?"

"Bit late to be asking," Rebekah said with a smile. "We're both a little broken too, Matt. Maybe we're the best people to put her back together."

She took a glass of water in with her to Mariella's room, since she had a feeling that the girl would lie thirsty all night rather than ask, or go and fetch one herself.

"All sorted?"

Mariella nodded shyly, settling down into bed in her new pyjamas. "They're really pretty, thank you."

Rebekah smiled. "You're welcome. I tend to err on the girly side when I buy clothes, so if that's not okay, I need you to tell me; I won't be upset."

Mariella hesitated, gnawing on her lower lip, and Rebekah waited, silently urging her to say it.

"Some … Some of it's a little too pink," she said finally.

"That's okay," Rebekah said easily. "Once you've settled in a bit, you and I will go shopping and you can pick some things out yourself."

"You're not mad?" Mariella asked.

"No, darling, I'm not." Rebekah sighed, sitting down on the edge of her bed. "I'll be honest with you, Mariella; Matt and I … we've never been parents. We won't be perfect. And we don't need you to be perfect - whatever you think that looks like."

"What happens if I break the rules?" Mariella asked quietly.

Rebekah thought for a moment. "Well, I think that would depend on the rule. If you didn't realise you were doing it, or you'd done it for a good reason, that would change things. Probably a grounding. It might actually work with you; Hope just magics her way out."

Mariella let out a giggle. "Doesn't that get her in more trouble?"

Rebekah laughed. "Well, there's normally a spell in place, so if she can get round it, I think that earns her extra credit." She squeezed Mariella's hand. "The one thing we will never do is use physical punishment, Mariella. Neither of us agree with that. I promise." She stood up, seeing Mariella stifle a yawn. "Get some sleep; it's been a long day."

Mariella nodded, her eyes already drifting shut. "Night."

Rebekah bent down, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Goodnight, sweetheart; sweet dreams."