Plot Summary: Newton's Third Law states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When Bella Swan survives James's attack, she thought things would go back to normal. Instead, the attack sets off a series of events that will not only changes everything but also uncovers a long kept family secret.
Pairings: End pairings undecided. Some Edward/Bella, Stefan/Elena, Bella/Damon, and other canon pairings for both Twilight and The Vampire Diaries.
Warnings: This is AU for both Twilight and The Vampire Diaries. It begins after the events in Twilight and before the beginning of Season One in The Vampire Diaries, but some events in canon may be altered due to Bella's presence.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Author's Note: I took some liberties with the area where the falls are located because I couldn't find out much about them from watching the show and looking at guides.
Chapter Three
Bella did not sleep well after her phone call with John Gilbert. She had always been a vivid dreamer, but the dreams she had last night had felt so real. It started off with her meeting Damon Salvatore at the Mystic Grill the day before, but it had diverged after the meeting because instead of her going out to her car alone, Damon Salvatore had followed her. Once outside, he had pushed her against the side of the building and kissed her so roughly and soundly that she almost imagined she would feel her bruised lips when she woke up.
From there, the dream had dissolved into a territory that was not unfamiliar to Bella in the sense that she often had erotic dreams, but they tended to star her boyfriend and not strange men, and they never felt as vivid as this dream had felt. She was also surprised when dream-Damon had trailed kisses down her throat to her pulse point where he bit down, his sharp teeth easily sinking into her skin and allowing him to drink deeply from her. Bella had never dreamed of Edward biting her or drinking from her. For some reason, the only connotation of the actual act of a vampire bite she had was when James bit her. The only thing she had experienced then was terror and pain, but instead of scaring dream-Bella or hurting dream-Bella, Damon biting her triggered an orgasm so earth shattering that Bella woke up still feeling the effects of it, the strange man's name on her lips.
When her breathing had returned to normal, she lay limply against her pillows for a moment before her hand flew up to her neck. She scrambled off of her bed to peer into the mirror over the nightstand. She brushed her hair over her shoulder to examine the side of her neck. There was absolutely no mark though. Her lips did not look bruised either. She went into the bathroom to throw some cold water on her face.
"It was just a dream," she muttered to herself. "Just a dream."
The sky was still dark when she returned to her bedroom. It was still early, so she decided to try to get more sleep. She was about to climb into her bed when she caught something or someone moving on her balcony from the corner of her eye. Frowning, she walked across the room and peered out the balcony door. There was nothing or no one on the balcony. She shook her head. She was just imagining things.
She tried to go back to sleep afterward, but sleep wouldn't come. She just tossed and turned for a while until she finally gave up on getting more sleep. Instead, she made a latte with the espresso machine she found in the kitchen and went back upstairs to watch the sunrise on her balcony. She was relieved to see that although a layer of gray, stormy clouds was covering the sky they did not encumber Bella from watching the sunrise.
It was the start of a new day, and she had no idea what awaited her. On one hand, it terrified her, but on another, it thrilled her. John Gilbert's little slip the night before was all of the confirmation she needed that Grayson and Miranda Gilbert were her birth parents. They might be dead, but she did have a twin sister and a younger brother. She had never had a sibling before although she had always wanted one. The closest she had ever gotten to having siblings were the Cullens. She definitely considered Alice her sister and Emmett her annoyingly irritating older brother, but the others she wasn't sure about. She was not close to Rosalie at all, and she did not have enough of a relationship with Jasper to put a label on it though she was sure that would change soon as he was due to arrive in an hour or two.
Bella took a long shower and pulled on one of the outfits Alice had bought, a pair of skinny jeans with a blue flowing lace camisole top. Since she wasn't sure if she was going to meet her birth family today, she wanted to at least make sure she looked okay. She pulled her hair back in this twist and tuck up do that managed to keep most of her hair contained with a few errant curls hanging down around her face. She was eating a bagel covered in Nutella when Jasper got there.
"Thanks for coming," she told him as she ushered him inside the house.
He left his suitcase by the door and followed Bella into the sunroom where she had been eating breakfast. He sat across the small table from her while she finished her meal.
Used to his usually strained expression when she was near, she was surprised to find it absent. If the look on his face and the wave of curiosity she felt brush against her were any indication, then she wasn't the only one that was surprised. His nose flared momentarily before he leaned into her and surreptitiously sniffed. When he finally looked at her face, his eyes were narrowed.
"Your scent is different," he said in an accusatory tone.
Bella scoffed and gave her vampire friend an exasperated look. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Now it was Jasper who scoffed. "Really, Bella? Do you really think you're a good enough liar to lie to an empath?"
No, she didn't think that, but she didn't know what to tell him anyway, so she deflected. How had she managed to keep it from the Cullens for the last few months only to get confronted with it now?
"Oh? And what do you think I smell like? Edward says freesia, but perhaps humans smell different to each vampire..."
"You don't smell human, though, Bella. You almost smell like one of us, but there is a lingering smell of freesia around you."
His eyes were still narrowed as he studied her. When his eyes landed on her crescent moon scar, they widened. In a flash, he reached out and grabbed her hand. "Has Edward seen this?" he asked her.
Bella shrugged. "I don't know," she answered truthfully. She had been trying to keep it hidden, but since he hadn't initiated so much as a hug in weeks, it hadn't been difficult.
She sighed at Jasper's continual perusal of her. "What?" she finally asked, annoyance leaking into her voice.
"It's not just your smell, is it? You are different."
She rolled her eyes. "I'm not," she persisted. "I'm the same as I've always been."
His eyes lit up in victory. "Care to explain then how you were able to hear me when I was just talking in a decibel too low for human ears to hear?"
Admitting defeat, Bella quickly told Jasper what had been happening since Phoenix. When she was finished, Jasper pursed his lips. "I've never heard of anything like this, but I'll put some feelers out. I'm guessing there's a reason you haven't informed anyone else of these changes?"
Bella shrugged. "What was I supposed to say? I did broach the subject with Carlisle, but he seemed convinced no one had ever survived a bite before, so there was no information to be found. I didn't say anything to Edward for obvious reasons. He has a tendency to overreact."
Jasper snorted. "Indeed."
Bella cleaned up her mess from breakfast and spent some time sketching while Jasper went out to hunt. Sketching was a hobby she had taken up one summer when Renee had forced her to go to this summer camp for creative arts. After trying and failing at pottery, sculpting, and painting to some extent, she fell in love with sketching. She wasn't a prodigy by any means, but she did well enough to suit her.
She had sketched the strange crow from the other night and was in the process of sketching Damon Salvatore's face when Jasper returned from hunting.
"Let me clean up, and then we'll head into town," he told her.
They started at the local cemetery. They wandered around for a few minutes. Bella wasn't quite sure what she was looking for—Katherine Piece? The Salvatore's? Maybe the Gilberts? There was no trace of a grave for Katherine, but she did eventually find the Gilbert family graves. She looked at the older Gilbert graves, Johnathan Gilbert, and made her way until she stood at the graves of Grayson and Miranda Gilbert. She couldn't believe that even though she had discovered her birth parents, she would never have a chance to get to know them since they had died in the beginning of May.
Jasper put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, and the tension she wasn't even aware of dissipated. She gave him a wobbly smile.
"Thanks."
He nodded and went back to walking through the graves. She pulled a piece of the paper and the stick of charcoal out of her messenger bag she had brought in case they found the graves and quickly did an etching of the Gilbert's gravestone. When she was done, she tucked the etching and the charcoal back into her bag and joined Jasper in front of the Salvatore family graves. Bella was surprised to find a grave for Damon Salvatore. His death date was in 1864 just like Jasper had told her previously. She wondered if this Damon Salvatore was the same one she had met, the one that seemed to be haunting her dreams. She did an etching of his grave as well as the one next to his, his brother's if Jasper's information could be trusted.
"What next?" Jasper asked as they left the cemetery and walked back to Bella's car.
She sighed and chewed on her lower lip indecisively. "I don't know. I talked to John Gilbert last night, and he knows more than he'll tell me. I'm almost positive that the Gilberts are my birth parents, which would make Elena Gilbert my twin sister and Jeremy Gilbert my brother."
"Hmmm. Then, our next move should be to meet them," he started, but at Bella's horrified look, he continued, "or not."
There were a multitude of questions swirling through Bella's mind, but the most pressing one was the one that hurt the most. "What if they don't want me?" she finally asked, her voice sounded small and hurt even to her ears.
Jasper sent a wave of acceptance Bella's way. "And what if they do want you? You can't live your life on 'what if's.' You came here to find your family, and now you have. You owe it to yourself to see this through."
"Maybe," she said doubtfully. The chime indicating she had received a new text sounded from her cell phone.
Jasper flashed Bella a grin. "If you still aren't convinced, read the text message that Alice just sent you."
Grumbling about psychic vampires, Bella dug her phone out of her messenger bag. Sure enough, Alice had sent her a text message. It was just one line, but it said all it needed to say:
Take a chance.
They were right. She might not have been searching for information about her birth family for years, like some people did, but she had still put time and effort into the search causing her relationship with both Renee and Edward to suffer. She had left everything she knew and was now staying in a new town full of strangers. All of this for the opportunity to meet her family, and now that she had a chance, she was balking? She was being ridiculous.
"You're right," she said with a new determination in her voice. "Now all I need to do is find out where they live."
Jasper gave her a smug look and pulled a piece of paper from his jean pocket. "No need. I have it right here."
Bella's brow furrowed before she groaned. "Alice."
The blonde vampire nodded. "Of course. Did you doubt her?"
She shook her head. "No, I never bet against Alice. Well, then, I suppose we should go."
The trip to the Gilbert house was short thanks to Mystic Falls being a small town. Bella knew that if it weren't for Jasper's presence, she would have been a bundle of nerves by the time she pulled in front of the house. It was a nice looking two-story house sitting on a well-manicured lawn. Jasper followed Bella as she made her way up the walkway to the front door. She paused momentarily before knocking. Her hand was still trembling even with Jasper's influence.
After the longest minute in Bella's young life, a tall woman with strawberry blonde curls answered the door. Her eyes widened when she saw Bella.
"Shit," she said. "You must be Isobel."
Bella exchanged a look with Jasper before turning back to the woman. "I am. This is my friend, Jasper. You know who I am, then?"
"I—yes, I do. Would you like to come inside? I'm the only one here at the moment, but I'm guessing that's a good thing, for now."
"Sure," Bella said before entering the house with Jasper quickly behind her.
The woman led them to a comfortable looking living room and motioned for them to take a seat. They did so and waited for the woman to speak.
"I'm Jenna. Miranda was my older sister. I was only a kid when she decided to adopt Elena. She wanted to keep both of you, but for some reason, the birth mother insisted on the separation. "
Bella reared back as if slapped. "Birth mother? I thought that Miranda was my birth mother."
Jenna gave her a sad smile. "No, I'm afraid not."
"Oh—that's...oh."
She had come all the way to Virginia to find her birth parents. She had been sad to find out that Grayson and Miranda were dead, but there was a certain amount of comfort knowing for certain who her parents were. She thought that by coming to the Gilbert's house that she was finally going to get answers only to be sent back to the beginning.
"Do you know anything about her? My birth mother, I mean."
"I do," she admitted. "Not much, though. Her name was Isobel. She was a teenager who showed up at my brother-in-law's office about to give birth. He's a doctor, so he delivered the two of you and gave the girl a place to stay. She stayed long enough to heal after the birth before disappearing, leaving behind a letter. In the letter, she requested that the oldest twin, you, be named Isobel Katerina and that the twins be split up for their own safety, each going to a founding family. Grayson and Miranda took Elena, and you went to the Swans."
Bella frowned. "But that doesn't make any sense. Charlie was definitely not from here. He was born and raised in Forks, Washington." She paused. "My mom, Renee, never talked about her family. I'm guessing that makes her a member of a founding family, then."
Jenna nodded. "Yeah. She was a Fell before she married Charlie. I dated her younger brother when I was in high school, but she was long gone by then."
Bella supposed she should not have been surprised to discover her parents were lying to her about other things. What was one more lie compared to the growing list?
"Thanks, Jenna. Really. I'm sorry about just showing up unannounced and practically interrogating you. I was just so sure your sister and her husband were my birth parents."
"Hey, it's really no problem. I'm happy to help you any way I can. I think I have Grayson's office records boxed up somewhere. I'll see if I can get you a last name at least. You might not have been their child, but Elena is your twin sister, which makes you my niece, too, in a really roundabout way."
Bella smiled a genuine smile. Charlie and Renee were both only children whose parents had all died before she was born—as far as she had known—which meant that Bella had grown up without any extended family at all. "Thanks, Jenna. It really means a lot to me. I've never had an aunt before."
"Look, I have an appointment with my adviser soon, but you two should come to dinner tonight. Does 7 pm work for you? I'll introduce you to Elena and Jeremy," the blonde woman said, standing.
Both Bella and Jasper stood as well. "7 pm sounds great! We'll see you then."
The drive back to the house was relatively quiet. Bella was trying to digest all of the information she had just learned. Grayson and Miranda were not her birth parents. Renee was a member of a founding family of Mystic Falls—not that Bella had any real understanding of what that meant—and she had a new family member in the form of a quasi-aunt. She would also meet her twin sister in a number of hours.
"You okay?" Jasper asked her as they walked into the house.
Bella lifted one eyebrow archly. "Don't you already know?"
"Generally, yes, but you are a jumble of emotions today. Disappointment, anger, betrayal, hope, curiosity...it's enough to make an empath get whip lash."
She sighed. "Truth is, Jasper. I don't know what I'm feeling. I'm disappointed that the Gilbert's aren't my birth parents. I'm angry that Charlie and Renee have been keeping more from me than the fact that I'm adopted. The hope and the curiosity, I suppose, is for the possibility of being part of a family with the remaining Gilberts. With the exception of John Gilbert, that is. I'm still not sure what to make of him. He never really said that they were my birth parents. I just made the assumption that they were."
"Bella," Jasper started. "This is only your second full day here. You have time to figure everything out. It's not a race."
"You're right."
Jasper's lips curled into a smirk. "I usually am. Now, I happen to know that Alice made sure this house was fully stocked with plenty of those BBC miniseries that you love so much. How about you make some lunch, and we spend the afternoon watching one of them?"
Bella nodded and headed off to the kitchen to do just that. She paused at the doorway and turned back to the blonde vampire. "Thanks, Jazz, for coming. You didn't have to, and I really appreciate it."
"Don't you remember what I told you in Phoenix? You're worth it."
The rest of the afternoon went smoothly. Bella lost herself in Pride and Prejudice and the eye candy Colin Firth provided. Edward had called her a time or two, but Bella didn't answer any of his phone calls. She was still angry with him, and she didn't want to hear anything unsupportive before her meeting with Elena and Jeremy.
While Bella was nervous for the upcoming meeting, it was Jasper who really appeared to be nervous. After watching him read the same page in some large book that he had brought with him for five minutes, she put him out of his misery.
"Why don't you stay here tonight instead of going with me? I can make an excuse for you. I know that eating is uncomfortable." She left unsaid that being around humans was also uncomfortable.
Jasper looked unsure, but Bella could feel the wave of relief he emanated. "If you're sure..."
"I am, really. If you want to make it up to me, you could call Jenks and see if he could search for all teenage girls named Isobel who lived in this area 17 years ago. Jenna might not have any more information on her than her first name, but perhaps Jenks can give at least get us a list of possible women to start with."
"I'm one step ahead of you. I texted him while you were mooning over Mr. Darcy. He'll let me know when he's found something."
"Thanks," Bella told him.
She hesitated briefly before throwing her arms around him in an impromptu hug. He stood frozen for a moment before slowly putting his arms around hers as well if only for a moment. When he pulled away, Bella went upstairs to freshen up. She touched up her hair and decided put on some mascara and lip-gloss.
She had never cared much about her appearance in the past, but she found herself wanting to make a change. Maybe she was tired of being frumpy Isabella Swan with her flannel shirts and jeans. It was no wonder people looked so surprised when they found out she was with Edward. The disparity between their appearances was startling, and not all of it had to do with the fact that being a vampire made him supernaturally attractive. Instead, Bella was beginning to realize that Edward was right when he said she didn't see herself very clearly. Her self-esteem was so low; it was surprising that she had any at all.
At 6:45, Bella said goodbye to Jasper and made the short drive to the Gilbert's house. She parked in the same place she had done so before, noticing another car parked near that had not been there that morning. She took a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to sooth her nerves before exiting the car. It worked, somewhat, but not completely.
For the second time that day, she knocked on the door, and for the second time that day, Jenna answered. She looked a little more careworn than she had that morning, but she greeted Bella with a smile and welcomed her in once more.
"I hope you don't mind take out," Jenna said. "The only thing I can cook is toast, and even that is pretty dicey."
Bella gave her a smile. "That's fine."
"They're waiting in the living room. Come on. You guys can talk while I get everything set out."
Bella followed behind Jenna into the living room where she came face to face with Elena and Jeremy. Elena was pacing back and forth in front of the couch while Jeremy was sitting on the couch looking sullen and bored. They both looked at her when she entered the room.
"Holy shit," Jeremy breathed. "It's true."
Bella fidgeted under their gazes and chewed on her lower lip. What were you supposed to say in this sort of situation? Luckily, she was saved from speaking by Elena. At Jeremy's quiet proclamation, she had shot him a quelling look before turning back to Bella. She looked hesitant at first, but she seemed to steel herself and walked to where Bella was lurking in the entrance of the living room. She took one of Bella's hands and pulled her to the couch where Bella sat down awkwardly.
"You'll have to excuse Jeremy; he has no brain-to-mouth filter. I'm Elena, but I suppose you already know that."
She nodded. "Ah, yes. I did. I'm Isobel or Bella. I've always gone by Bella. I only just found out my actual name was Isobel and not Isabella when I found out..." she trailed off, not knowing if she should mention the adoption.
Elena seemed to get what she was leaving unsaid because she scowled. "Found out that you were adopted, and everyone in your family had been lying to you?"
"Something like that."
After that, the three teenagers sat in an uncomfortable silence until Jenna called them into the dining room. The same uncomfortable silence followed them to dinner. Jeremy shoved his helping of Fettuccini Alfredo into his mouth. When he was done, he left, muttering something about meeting up with his friends.
Jenna tried to make conversation with both Bella and Elena, but Elena was obviously angry with Jenna for something, likely keeping the adoption secret, if her earlier comment was any indication, so it often fell flat.
"So, how long are you in town for?" Jenna asked.
Bella shrugged. "I don't know. I don't have a real timeline in place. My dad will probably expect me home in a week or two, I guess."
Jenna looked concerned. "Wait, your dad just let you come out here alone?"
"Um, well, it did take some convincing, but when they did the adoption, they changed my birthday, so legally I'm going to be 18 in a few months. Plus, I've always been the responsible one in the family. I'm not alone, though. Jasper is with me. He's my boyfriend's brother."
At the mention of a boyfriend, the conversation shifted to discussing their relationships. Jenna told Bella about her failed relationship with Renee's younger brother, Logan Fell, who was a reporter for the Mystic Falls news station. The only thing that Elena shared, on the other hand, was that she had only just recently broken up with her boyfriend. Bella didn't pry into it as it seemed to still be a touchy subject.
"So, what about you, Bella? You said Jasper is your boyfriend's brother? Is your boyfriend as hot as he is because he is ridiculously hot?" Jenna asked.
Bella hesitated. "I think he is hotter than Jasper, but then again, I'm biased. We've only been dating for a few months."
Jenna gave her a knowing look. "But?" she prompted when Bella fell silent.
She sighed. "Things aren't going well," she paused. How could she describe the issues plaguing her human/vampire relationship with someone who didn't know vampires even existed? "All we've done lately is fight, mostly about me wanting to know my biological family, but it's brought out some bigger problems."
Bella didn't say what those bigger problems were because as she had tried to define them in ways she could actually share, she began to see how disturbing the problems actually were. She knew that if she told Jenna and Elena how he had been acted, they would think he was being abusive to her or at the very least that he was exhibiting red flags for abuse.
That is when it dawned on her. Edward was controlling. He thought he had a right to dictate her actions, and when she didn't comply, he was angry with her. She had known that, of course she had, but she had excused away his behavior as a side effect of his vampirism. She just assumed that with the disparity in species was to blame and that this would change once she became a vampire.
The justifications sounded weak to her now. He'll change was something she knew that abuse victims always thought. She remembers Renee talking to her about domestic abuse and bringing her home pamphlets about it after she discovered one of her friends were being abused. How could she not have put it together until now? Even if Bella became a vampire, he wouldn't change. He would still want to be controlling. Maybe it was part of his Edwardian upbringing or maybe it was a part of his personality, but whatever the reason was, it wasn't likely to change.
Wanting to divert attention off of her after her little epiphany, Bella asked Jenna about her schoolwork, which then led them into a conversation about her thesis that lasted through the rest of dinner. Bella had hoped to be able to get to know Elena a little more after dinner, but Elena had ducked out, to head to her friend Bonnie's house no sooner than the last plate was clean.
When Jenna noticed the frown on Bella's face, she gave her a reassuring smile. "It's not you, Bella. She's mad at me for keeping the adoption from her, and she's still dealing with my sister and her husband's death. We all are. She'll come around, you'll see."
"I understand. It's a lot to take in. I should go. Thanks for dinner. I had fun."
Her words sounded almost mechanical and empty, but thankfully Jenna didn't call her out on it. "Here, take my number, and I'll take yours. That way you can get in contact with me if you want, and Elena will have a way to get into contact with you."
Bella took the post-it note Jenna offered and scribbled her cell-phone number down on it before exchanging it for the post-it note with Jenna's phone number. She said goodbye and headed home.
Jasper was watching a documentary on the history channel in the living room when she walked in. He took one look at her face—and no doubt her mood—before frowning.
"That good, huh?" he asked.
"It wasn't too bad," she tried to say. "Elena was upset about finding out that she was adopted. I understand what that's like. I don't know how receptive I would have been if I had had to meet her only hours after finding out."
"Well, that's true. What else is bothering you?"
Bella sighed and stopped next to the couch where he was sitting. "I just realized some things about Edward and our relationship that I hadn't thought about before. I'm going to head up. See you in the morning."
She went straight into the bathroom. It had been a really long day, and all she wanted to do was soak in the Jacuzzi tub in her bathroom. After using Charlie's tiny bathroom for the last six months, she had been incredibly pleased to discover her new—if only temporary—bathroom was roomy. Instead of having a tub/shower combo squished in the corner like she was used to at home, the bathroom here had a Jacuzzi tub was in the middle of the room on a raised platform with two little steps leading up to it. There was a shower across from the tub in between two separate bathroom sinks.
She hadn't bothered using the controls when she had taken a bath the night before, but this time she played around with settings before finding one that she enjoyed. She wasn't sure how long she stayed in there, but she was decidedly more relaxed when she climbed out. She dried herself off before pulling on the red knee-length silk robe she found on the back of the bathroom door. She went downstairs and grabbed a bottle of water from the refrigerator before going back to her bedroom.
She went outside onto the balcony and closed the doors behind her. There were several more missed calls from Edward on her phone, so she knew that she had to call him back, and she wanted at least the illusion of privacy to do so. Jasper could probably still hear, but this was probably the best she would be able to get.
He answered on the second ring. "Bella," he said, relief evident in his voice. "Alice got a vision earlier that she has been extremely tight-lipped about. I thought for sure you had been injured when you didn't answer the phone."
No doubt Alice's vision had something to do with Bella's epiphany earlier. She sighed. "I'm fine, Edward. I was having dinner with my sister and aunt. We need to talk though."
"I know," he said. "I wanted to apologize for yesterday. It was childish for me to refuse to drive you to the airport, and I should not have done that."
"No, you shouldn't have," Bella said, quietly. "It really hurt me, Edward, and it's made me think about our relationship. Putting aside the whole question of my mortality, I don't like the direction things have taken lately. You have become so fixated on protecting me that you've started trying to control me."
"I'm not trying to control you, Bella. I just want you to be safe. You have no idea how much I worry. You're so breakable, so fragile. When I saw you that day in the ballet studio, I thought you were dead, and then only moments later, I nearly drained you dry trying to save your life—"
Bella cut him off. "This is exactly what I'm talking about. I don't doubt that you worry, and I don't doubt that you want me to be safe. But I don't want to be controlled. I don't want to have Alice monitoring my every decision looking for danger; I don't want to have Jasper or Emmett or you trailing me around 'protecting' me."
There was a pause. "What are you trying to say?"
She took a deep breath. "I think that we should take some time apart."
Edward gave a low humorless chuckle. "Just yesterday we were fighting over my refusal to change you, and today you are breaking up with me. Clearly, you are not ready for the commitment an eternity requires. I've never known you to be fickle, love, though it is a common human quality."
Her breath hitched in her throat at his hurtful words, but she swallowed the sob threatening to choke her. "This has nothing to do with me being ready to commit to you for an eternity. You've already made it very clear that you don't want an eternity with me. This has to do with me wanting to be treated like an equal in a relationship. I don't want my every decision watched; I don't want to be held back from experiencing things because you're afraid that something will happen to me. I can't live like that, Edward, and I shouldn't have to."
"You think I'm holding you back? That my being protective and caring about your well-being is holding you back?"
"Not holding back exactly. The problem is that you are so worried something will happen to me that you won't let anything happen to me—good or bad. Like coming to Mystic Falls and searching for my family. If you had your way, I would never have looked into my family at all just because there was the possibility of danger. I may not be a century old vampire, but I am capable of making my own decisions. Before I lived with Charlie, I practically ran Renee's entire household. I have always been independent."
"If this is what will make you happy, if this is what you think is best for you, Bella, then I have no choice but to respect your decision," Edward said after a moment.
There was a hint of condescension in his voice, as if he was only patronizing Bella's need to make her own decisions that only served to anger her further. She did not react angrily, though. Instead, she steeled herself and simply replied in the affirmative.
"It is."
"Very well, then. Goodbye Bella," he said and ended the call with a resounding click.
The phone call and ensuing conversation had zapped every ounce of energy that the bath had managed to restore, so Bella left the balcony and readied herself for bed. A part of her was ready to dissolve into tears at the ending of what she had expected to be her forever love, but another part, a larger part, felt a sense of freedom she had not expected. She did feel awkward knowing that she was living in a house and driving a car that his family had provided for her, but she remembered Alice's promise that she was a part of the family no matter what happened with her and Edward's relationship, and it gave her some comfort.
Thankfully, Bella's sleep that night went undisturbed, and she woke up in the morning feeling refreshed and with a new sense of purpose and the bright sun flooding her bedroom through the room's many windows.
She was surprised to find Jasper was waiting for her downstairs with a cup of latte and a stack of chocolate chip pancakes, which she supposed answered her question of whether or not Jasper had heard about her breakup with Edward.
"Thank you," she told him sincerely. "I didn't know you could cook."
He shrugged and ducked his head. Bella had a feeling that if he could, he would be blushing right now. "Alice said something about comfort food. There are also several different pints of ice cream in the freezer along with the alcohol she insisted you might want if those are more to your liking."
Bella laughed despite herself as she imagined Alice instructing Jasper to buy the items she deemed necessary for breakup recovery, items she no doubt took from the multitude of movies she had seen over the years.
"Just the pancakes will do for now. It's a bit early for alcohol."
Jasper nodded. "She also told me that the sun will be out for the entirety of the day but that you shouldn't let my being trapped inside stop you for going out."
Alice's earlier words of, "take a chance," echoed through her head. She may not want to dictate her actions based on any supposed danger contained in Alice's visions, but she couldn't argue their usefulness on certain occasions.
"I won't. I haven't had an opportunity to do much exploring around the town. We're playing the waiting game right now for the most part. I am interested in going to see your friend Slater to see what he can tell us about Katherine, but that can wait. I think I'll look online after breakfast to see if there are any touristy type things to do in Mystic Falls."
She hadn't really expected to find any touristy things to do in Mystic Falls, so she wasn't disappointed when she only found some links describing the waterfalls in the area. She had never been much of a nature lover or an outdoor enthusiast, but the idea of seeing and perhaps sketching a real life waterfall was intriguing. At the very least, it sounded peaceful.
She got dressed in a pair of shorts and a spaghetti-strapped tank top, braided her long hair in a side braid, and packed her sketchbook, some snacks, and bottled water into her messenger bag before leaving the house. She drove to the parking lot near the public friendly trails to the falls with the top down on her car and the music blaring. It was such a nice day that she was surprised to find her car the only one in the parking lot, but she didn't think about it much.
The hike itself to the falls shouldn't have taken Bella very long to make, but she had stumbled along the way several times and had stopped to rest once or twice. When she finally did get to the waterfall, her face was flushed with heat, the curls around her face had escaped her braid, and she had skinned one of her knees and one of her elbows. All of it was worth it, though, when her eyes landed on the waterfall.
She sat down on a fallen tree trunk and just looked at the waterfall for a while, the rush of the falling water lulling her into a relaxed state. She went to text Jasper and let him know she had arrived at the falls as she had promised to do—she wasn't against people worrying about her safety, only those who acted ridiculously when doing so—only to realize she had left her phone behind in her car. She shrugged it off and watched the waterfall for a few more minutes before pulling out her sketchbook.
Her sketch was half finished when she heard a voice behind her right over her shoulder.
"You're very talented."
Surprised, Bella jerked away from the sound of the voice, dropping her sketchpad and nearly falling off of the trunk in the process. Her heart was pounding when she turned to find Damon Salvatore standing behind where she had been sitting, her mind immediately going back to the dream she had had with him drinking her blood.
"I didn't mean to startle you," he apologized. "I thought you would have heard me approaching."
She hadn't heard him approaching even with her more pronounced sense of hearing. His ability to sneak up on her gave credibility to her suspicions of him being a magical vampire or not being a human at the very least.
She swallowed reflexively and took several steps back, away from Damon. "It's okay. No big deal."
He didn't reply, which gave her an opportunity to study him. Unlike her, he neither appeared to be fazed at all by the hike he would have had to take to get to the waterfall nor did he seem to be dressed appropriately for a hike into the woods. He was wearing black pants and a black shirt with a black leather jacket on despite the heat of the day. His hair was artfully tousled in such a way that suggested it had been styled and not arrived in its messy state because of the hike. His appearance reminded her of how Edward had looked after their first trip to the meadow.
She was not alone in her study as Damon was once again looking at her intently. She was the first to look away. She bent over to pick up her sketchbook and to grab her messenger bag where it was sitting on the ground. In the seconds it had taken her to retrieve her belongings, he had moved in front of her.
Holding the sketchbook against her chest like a shield, she tried to side step him and make her way back to her car only for a pale hand to reach out and take ahold of her arm effectively stopping from leaving.
"You weren't leaving, were you?" he asked, his head cocked to the side.
His words were conversational, and there was a friendly look on his face, but Bella could hear the steel and danger beneath the surface of him.
She tried to calm her wildly beating heart by taking a deep breath, bracing herself with confidence she didn't quite feel. "I was—I am," she replied and attempted to leave once more, but his grip was unyielding.
"Let me rephrase that: you aren't leaving," he told her when her wide, frightened eyes met his.
For next time: The rest of her encounter with Damon.