Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, or The Originals in any way shape or form. I just merely enjoy playing with the characters for my own, and your personal amusement...

Author Note: This chapter has been revised and bits added to it as of 14 Feb, 2016.

Throughout dinner, Bella continued to observe the group casually. The feeling of familiarity with them, even Bonnie to a certain extent, with the exception of Elena's brother, wouldn't go away and made her increasingly nervous that she felt the need to escape to the bathroom for a short reprieve. It gave her a chance to evaluate things, to think. The visions she had experienced through the afternoon, for lack of a better term, were confusing but felt so much more real with each one she had. Stronger each time.

She wanted to question them, demand answers to questions that she wasn't sure if they knew the answers to. While they appeared to be copies of the faces from the images, these memories, she felt like she was experiencing, she also felt a sense of peace with this group that was missing back in Forks with Jacob and even the Cullens.

She didn't understand why she felt so much. She was told, repeatedly, that she had no sense of self preservation. That in the face of danger, she was naive. She felt the intensity, the allure that both Damon and Stefan possessed. For them to hold the same faces as the ones in her earlier experience that she knew was dated so very long ago, she might have believed them to be vampires and while flesh and blood, it confused her and her knowledge of the supernatural world. Still, she felt she could trust them, much more than she ever gave herself to the Cullens.

Once she composed herself enough, Bella flushed the toilet, despite not having used it. Only making the excuse to make the escape for her privacy. Splashing some water on her face, she took a deep breath to prepare herself to go back out to rejoin the dinner party, but something stopped her as she reached out for the doorknob.

Danger… The words, though faint and in an accented whisper were familiar and welcoming. Her eyes looked up to the door as her hand jerked back from the knob. Straining with her human ears, she could feel her heart pounding in her chest, right up into her throat as she leaned carefully against the door to listen.

~o.O.o~

Damon watched Bella inquisitively as she excused herself for the restroom, mentally comparing the differences between her and the Isabelle he remembered. While the similarities were obvious in appearance, he found that what he learned of this girl so far was that she had much more spirit that the one he had loved over 150 years before.

"Leave her alone and let her get used to things for awhile before you scare her off," Elena commented from the couch, making him scowl at her.

"I'm not going to do anything to her, Elena," he sneered, still feeling bitter about everything that had happened between them in the recent weeks. As much as he understood it wasn't her that tricked him into kissing her, she also knew how to play on his emotions to get what she wanted which rattled him. And he hated it.

Jeremy let out a huff as he glared at the two. "Look, will you two cut it out? Bella is just down the hall and will be back soon. We all know how much of a dick Damon is so just leave him be and ignore him. I hate to say it Elena, but he's actually been pretty chill today so lay off."

"Aww, isn't this cute," a familiar but ice cold voice sounded with the sound of heels clacking on the tiled floor of the foyer leading to the sitting room where everyone was gathered. "Seems that the mail misplaced my invitation to the party. Pity. Damon. Hello Stefan," she purred as she ran a finger over his shoulder as she passed behind him before rounding the sofa to glare down at her mirror image. "My pitiful excuse for a replacement."

"What do you want Katherine?" Stefan questioned her as he kept his face neutral while Damon casually made his way over to block the hall that led to where Bella was for her safety.

"I just came to see you. Same reason I was here last time. Figured you might have changed your mind and see if you were bored with your human," she shrugged as she strolled around the room casually before stopping short at the loveseat where Bella had been sitting with Damon while everyone had been talking minutes before. Her eyes were locked on the cushion, momentarily frozen as she blinked through the fog of the familiar scent came to her. Leaning down to press her hand to the cushion, inhaling it deeper, recognition set in and her eyes flashed up angrily to everyone in the room."Where is she?!"

They looked at one another confused. "What are you talking about?" Damon asked, leaning against the wall as if she lost her mind, and thinking that she may have finally done so.

"Don't play dumb with me Damon! I know she is here!" Katherine growled as she flashed over to him to get past him but he threw her back into one of their end tables, destroying it, without hesitation and she was back on her feet ready to go again, but Stefan was beside him, ready to fight as well causing her to freeze. "You don't know what you are getting yourselves into with that girl. If you were smart you would just kill her and be done with it. I've already killed her every time I've crossed her. The bitch won't stay dead!"

"What are you talking about? She's just a human girl, one of Elena's new friends that's starting school!" Stefan exclaimed, making her laugh hysterically.

"You know that isn't true. You thought she was a Swan doppelganger the moment you laid eyes on her," she said smugly and frowned as she backed away from them. Uncharacteristic for her, she offered some parting advice before she ran into the night. "She is so much more than that. The longer she's alive, the more powerful she'll become and the harder to kill. Do it now. Kill her Stefan, otherwise she'll bring trouble. Believe me, I know."

They all were silent as they tried to make sense of what just happened. While the humans were still pretty much in shock, Damon was the first one to break. Pacing in his anger, he practically vibrated with his rage against his vampire ex-girlfriend.

"Witchy? Can you please find out what the hell that cuntpire is talking about? There has to be something in your ancestors journals or maybe the judgy spirits know something? Just – find something that we can use to protect her?" he whispered harshly so that Bella didn't overhear as he reeled back to check to make sure that she wasn't coming out of the bathroom yet.

Bonnie blinked up at him in surprise and suspicion of his actions and behavior towards the girl but nodded anyway as she had been considering the same thing herself. "I'll see what I can find out tomorrow morning," she replied.

He frowned for a moment as a thought crossed his mind, glancing at her very briefly. "Thanks," he mumbled, surprising her before he turned to go to the bar and poured himself a drink. Everyone was quiet as they heard the door down the hall open and tried to act normal.

"Is everything okay?" Bella asked, her eyes glancing over everyone slowly. She could sense the change in the atmosphere in the room, most notably in Damon, who swallowed a nearly full serving of liquor in his glass in one shot.

"Everything is fine now, Bella," Elena smiled as she tried to make everything seem right. "We, uh, just had an unexpected visitor from someone we don't particularly get along with. That's all."

The girl nodded slowly, recognizing the lie and secret, hidden among the truth of her statement. She spouted similar words to her father over the months with the Cullens to keep herself sane, to tell him as much as she could without actually giving him the details. "Uh - huh…" Her attention shifted back to Damon, who had already refilled his glass and was taking another large gulp of the amber liquid. Concerned by whatever occurred while she was in the other room, it had obvious upset the man greatly. "Are you okay?"

Surprised by her question, he swallowed as he made his way closer to her. She shifted slightly, still unnerved by the new, warm tingling sensations that the scar on her wrist gave her, but Bella met his gaze bravely as he nodded slowly. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Perhaps because of the liver transplant that you're destined for the way you're knocking back those drinks?" she replied, a small, playful smile on her lips.

Damon smirked. "I think my liver will be just fine. However," he said as he dramatically set the glass down. "It would be a great honor to escort you around town tomorrow, Miss Bella?" He bowed slightly and reached for her hand.

She stood there blinking, her throat going dry as she stared at him in shock. The familiarity returned, so strongly in his words, his touch. She could see him with a bit longer hair with a slight curl to it, presenting her with a single flower.

"Bella?" Stefan called her name as he approached slowly, eyeing her curiously. "Bella, are you alright?"

Shaking her head clear, she forced a smile and looked back at Damon briefly before facing him. "Uh, yeah - yes," she answered, her eyes finding Damon again. "I think I'm just getting tired is all. Long day…"

"I'll give you a ride home," Damon murmured, his hand soft as his grip tightened around hers, no ready to let go.

"I'll take her home. I'm going that way anyway," Elena interrupted, not liking the stare down that was going on between the two.

At that, Bella was reminded that there were still other people present and it was not just her and Damon in the room. "Thanks anyway," she said softly. "I'm sure we'll see each other at some point for that tour." Turning to look at Elena, she couldn't help but frown at the expression of disapproval she was giving the man. She didn't know what he'd done to cause it, nor did she care. It wasn't as if he had to answer to any of them, and as much as she would have enjoyed more time, she knew she needed to go home.

Before he had the chance to respond, Elena had pulled Bella out the door with a frown on her face. As they pulled out of the drive, she let out a huff as she looked back at her, but Elena spoke up before she could get out a word about how she felt. "Bella, I know Damon may seem charming but he really isn't always the nice guy he appears to be. He can be really dangerous and – evil," she said after a moment's hesitation.

Frowning, Bella glared at her as she shook her head. "Thanks for the warning but I kind of like to make judgments on people for myself. So far, all I saw was someone who was nothing but nice to me, although maybe a little broken at times. If I went by everything that people told me, or by crazy voices in my head, I shouldn't be talking to you or be your friend either. Here's something you need to know about me Elena, and you can tell your friends after you drop me off, I don't care. Do not tell me what to do because nine times out of ten, I'll more than likely do the opposite. I make my own choice, my own decisions. I will not be told what to do or have my choices taken from me again so if you want to be my friend, don't do that to me. Got it?" Bella snapped at her with fire blazing in her eyes that echoed her anger from that afternoon.

Elena glanced at her as she drove, as if to measure her sincerity of her words, but could do nothing except shrink back in her seat at the imposing threat that her gaze reflected. "I understand. I just wanted you to understand where we are coming from and that you don't get hurt. He has hurt us all in some way over the past year, badly. In ways that I can't tell you."

"If you can't tell me," Bella started slowly as she sat back in her seat to look forward out the windshield. "Then we have nothing to discuss. Without knowing the details then they aren't important and therefore insignificant to me. Look. I understand the need for secrets. I have a world of my own that I can't share. If I told anyone, I'd end up in the looney bin. But when you say something like that to keep people from making friends, it's more than one person you're hurting there Elena. When you came and invited me to dinner with you guys, you implied that he was your friend too and now you're telling me that I can't be friends with him. It sounds kinda selfish and hypocritical and makes me wonder about the future of your relationship with Stefan if you have some secret feelings for Damon that you aren't aware of."

The girl literally choked on her own saliva as she looked over at Bella and glared. "I do not have those kind of feelings for him! He hurt my brother! Nearly killed him if you really must know! He's a monster! How could anyone even like someone like him who would do something like that?!" she demanded, not realizing just how much she revealed, causing Bella's eyebrow to rise in question.

A monster... she thought, Edward's words replaying in her head as she sat frozen in the seat as she got lost in her head, in the pain of that time before allowing her resentment to take over. "You need to know the pain that caused the man he is then. Until then, you would only see a monster Elena," she whispered, looking at her with a world of experience behind her words behind her eyes. She noticed that they had pulled up to her house and was relieved. Opening the door, she paused before getting out. "If you can't give him your friendship, then at least be civil like you were tonight at dinner, but don't give him more than that and don't interfere again if we choose to be friends. I've already given you the benefit of the doubt after some things that I've – experienced in town today. I don't want to doubt you, so please don't make me doubt Damon and Stefan as well. You've been nice and welcoming to me and it's more than I can ask compared to other places I've lived, which gave me some hope for this place. I really don't want to lost that. Have a goodnight Elena."

The words continued to replay in her head while she walked back to her house, eying her yard as she saw groups of people in period dress again, this time milling about like it was a picnic or a party of sort. She blinked as if to try to clear her vision but Elena's face appeared before her again, the same cold and calculating expression on it that filled her with fear as her eyes seemed to dilate and expand before it ended and she was alone again in the dark, breathing heavily as she watched the brake lights of the girl's car turn the corner and disappear.

~o.O.o~

It had taken everything in him not to react when Elena all but dragged her away from him after he offered to give her a ride home, causing him to glare at the door as they disappeared from his sight.

"She means well Damon. She is only afraid that you will hurt her," Stefan murmured as he eyed him. "She just doesn't know the extent of your history with Isabelle."

He turned his glare on his brother. "How much did you tell them to begin with? That's my business!"

"Just that you two were close and it hurt when she disappeared. I wouldn't say more. Bonnie can atest to that," he said, causing Damon to glance at the witch who nodded in affirmation. "As much of an asshole as you are lately, you're still my brother."

Damon narrowed his eyes as he chose to focus on his alcohol instead, growing uncomfortable with the scrutiny they had him under. "She's different than her. Aside from what I witnessed earlier, she's - I can't explain it," he admitted with a sigh. "I like it a lot. More than I really should Stefan. But this girl - whatever she is hiding, what if Katherine is right?"

"And what if she is wrong? Katherine is a jealous and vindictive bitch. We all know that. We can admit that she has some kind of power to her that I'm sure the witch spirits can give us answers to tomorrow. For now, let's just get to know her. Whatever power she might have may come in handy in protecting Elena, too," Stefan tried, only to earn a growl from his brother.

"Forgive me but Elena is the last one I care about helping after that stunt she just pulled," he snapped, shaking his head, trying to calm down. "Do you have Bella's number? I want to be able to call her before I get her tomorrow."

Bonnie spoke up then, her voice soft and sympathetic. "She doesn't have one," she shared.

"Bella mentioned something about not having one anymore. I got the feeling that something happened to it that she wasn't particularly keen to have contact with someone," Stefan added, furrowing his brows in thought.

That gave Damon a thought, making him smile as he already had plans forming for the following morning. "I think it's time we call it a night. Much to do, much to do," he said cheekily causing Bonnie and Jeremy to eye him oddly.

"Yeah. I want to also stop in and see Caroline at the hospital as well," Bonnie added, making Damon stop short with a concerned expression. "What?"

"You don't think Katherine would..." Stefan said as he approached Damon as they were lost in their thoughts.

"She would. She's enough of a bitch considering she just admitted to killing Isabelle for whatever reason she has," Damon huffed as he tried to figure out what was going on. "She said she wasn't a doppelganger, right? What does that leave? Reincarnation. She knows Isabelle's recipe, so obviously she has to know more, but maybe doesn't realize it or doesn't want to say."

"What are you getting at Damon?"

"Hush up Witchy," he waved her off. "I want to trigger reactions. Do things that I know will get a response that she has to remember."

"Damon - that is not a good idea considering..." Stefan hesitated.

He scowled at his younger brother. "Give me some credit for once. I'm not stupid. I'll think of something, just you all get some answers from the witches and deal with Caroline. I'll deal with Bella. Starting with getting her a new phone and a vervain necklace."

~o.O.o~

The following day, Bella had spent most of the morning exploring the grounds and generally milling around her room as she thought about the day before with the people she met. She was still undecided about Stefan and Bonnie, as they had kept a respectful distance from her. They were friendly, but not overly so, which was okay by her. Elena's brother Jeremy she had taken a liking to, as he reminded her of Seth back in La Push in that he was so easy going.

As she wrote about her thoughts in the journal she had picked up during the move as something to use get her feelings out since Charlie wasn't exactly someone she could confide in, she soon found the subject coming to Damon. A small smile came to her lips as she looked out the window of her room, thinking about the strange conversation she had about him with Elena regarding him being a monster. She couldn't seem to find any words to say, sighing as she took to doodling in the book instead, a delicate flower that soon resembled the bloom of a vanilla orchid. As her thoughts turned to the end of the evening and Elena, she was still firmly in the negative still with her after her comments regarding Damon and slammed the book shut, not wishing to continue with the negativity.

As she was putting the journal away, Charlie called up to her. "Bella! You have a package!"

Confused as she hadn't ordered anything, she made her way downstairs where her father handed it off to her as he wandered off with the rest of the mail, leaving her to her business. Returning to her room, she tried looking for a return sender, but she noticed that it wasn't actually mailed.

Opening the paper, she was surprised to find a brand new cell phone in its box and a small note card. Bella peered out of her bedroom door to make sure her father wasn't around and closed it, making her way over to her favorite spot in the window seat as she pulled the card from the envelope.

Dearest Bella,

My brother had mentioned last night after you had left that you didn't have a cell phone anymore during your conversation at your house in the afternoon. Personally I find it ridiculous that a beautiful teenage girl such as yourself doesn't have such an important piece of modern technology and felt the need to remedy that situation.

I hope you do not mind, but I added you to my plan – and before you try to argue, it won't cost any extra, not that I would take no for an answer on this. Besides, in this town, you never know when you might need to call someone for an emergency. I am pretty sure that I can anticipate you not wanting to accept such a gift from someone you just met, but I ask that you let me give you this as I am simply concerned for you. If you are truly unhappy with the arrangement after perhaps – 6 months? - then we can revisit the subject to get your own account.

The phone already has some numbers that I thought you should have, and maybe a few extra. I included everyone's that was at dinner last night as well as a few of the others in our group that you will likely meet soon. I just hope they don't chase you off, but I think you would be fine.

Unfortunately, I also cannot be there to take you on that tour this afternoon as I had hoped as something came up, but I promise to make it up to you soon.

Please be mindful when you are out by yourself, and never invite anyone inside your home that you do not know or trust. It is a long standing policy in Mystic Falls and I am sure you will hear it often in the coming days.

Soon,

Damon

Bella smiled softly before smirking at moments in the note. She was unable to do anything but think of what a cheeky bastard he was to go out of his way to get her a phone simply because he worried about her having communication in an emergency. While she was well aware that she was harboring a crush on the man, she didn't want to allow herself to think that he might like her back, especially after the hurt she suffered with Edward and then Jacob's rejection of her, despite him only being a friend in her eyes.

Taking the phone out of the box, she powered it on. As she waited for it to load, she flipped through the instruction manual for the device quickly before letting out a chuckle at seeing Damon's face on the screen. Shaking her head, she figured that as he added his friends to the phone book, he also took a silly selfie photo and set it as her wallpaper.

After all the painful thoughts she had that morning, it was just the thing she needed to pull her out entering that pit of despair she was close to rolling into. Opening his contact page, she quickly sent off a text message to him with a smirk on her lips.

Cheeky bastard ~ Bella

It wasn't long before she got a response. In fact she practically jumped as the phone vibrated in her lap as she tried to think of an excuse to explain the phone's appearance to Charlie.

One night and you know me so well! ~ D

You didn't have to do this. I was planning on getting something eventually ~ Bella

I'm sure you were...eventually. But I wanted to. Just say thank you Bella. It's not hard. It's 2 words. Try it. ~ D

Chuckling, Bella shook her head. He was somehow well aware that she had a hard time accepting things and knew just how to press her on it. As much as she wanted to continue to deny him, to insist on taking the phone back, the pure fact that it was from him stopped her.

FINE. Thank you Damon. ~ Bella

You're welcome Bella. And I'm sorry for today. I had something come up that I needed to take care of. ~ D

It's fine. Things happen. Don't worry about it. Besides I need to mentally prepare myself to start another new school ~ Bella

Good luck with that! You'll have the Scooby Gang with you at least. I finished awhile ago so no more school for good ol' me! ~ D

Asshole ;) ~ Bella

So true, but you like it ;) ~ D

Bella laughed as she put the phone down, her face red as she couldn't even face him via text message with a little smiley flirting. "I am so pathetic," she muttered to herself before laughing again, feeling like a silly teenager for the first time.

~o.O.o~