Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, Twilight, or any of their characters.


Chapter Two

O'Malley pressed the brakes to the unmarked black squad car and it skidded to a stop outside Forks' one and only casual eatery. 'Get out,' he commanded, jerking his head to the side.

The Doctor looked around in confusion. 'But I only need to go down the street a little –'

'I don't care,' O'Malley said, cutting him off. 'I don't want to hear one more thing about the Irish Civil War or my so-called "ancestor" Ernie O'Malley. Now, get out!'

'Well, then. You don't have to be rude about it.'

O'Malley pointed at the passenger side door abruptly and the Doctor got out of the car in a huff, putting a little more muscle than needed into closing the door. He watched the car squeal off and shook his head warily.

'I was just trying to be friendly,' he muttered before starting off in the direction of the TARDIS, quickly becoming engrossed in the situation at hand once more. He needed to get back to Charlie's house to check on Bella, but first a quick stop in the TARDIS to pick up a few supplies wouldn't hurt.

And he could enlist K-9… er, Jake's help with finding this coven of vampires. Maybe Jake could think of something he was overlooking.

Unlocking the door to the TARDIS, the Doctor stepped inside and breathed in deeply.

'Ahhh, it always feels great to come back home,' he exclaimed, stretching his arms up over his head.

Jake wheeled down the metal grate floor toward the Doctor. 'Welcome back, Master,' he said with little inflection.

The Doctor took no notice, like always, and beamed. 'Thank you, Jake. Did anything happen while I was gone?'

'I refluxed the thought pattern collector and was able to reset the scanner. I also found the perception filter to be running lower than usual, so I –'

'Yes, yes. That's all well and good,' interrupted the Doctor, having just gotten a brilliant idea from something Jake said. 'Jake, can you link to the TARDIS? I need to see if what I'm theorising can be done.'

'Certainly, Master,' Jake replied, heading over to the center console. He hacked into the TARDIS and relayed that he was connected. The Doctor rushed over to the controls, punching buttons and staring at the screen with a furrowed forehead. He started mumbling under his breath as he twisted a knob and typed in a series of letters.

'Molto bene!' the Doctor shouted, grinning in triumph when it turned out his theory was correct as they almost always were. He looked down at Jake and said, 'Are you ready to go see Bella?'

'Yes, Master' came the reply. Jake unhooked himself from the control console and followed the Doctor down the ramp and through the door. The Doctor set off toward Charlie's house with hands in his front pockets and Jake in tow, but stopped when two people, a blonde man and a short, dark-haired girl, stepped into his path from the opposite direction.

'Hullo there,' he said pleasantly, mistaking them for simple townspeople.

The gentleman appeared astounded by something as the Doctor approached them, but the girl grinned quite enthusiastically, causing the Doctor to grin as well.

'Hello! I'm Alice, this is Carlisle, and you're the Doctor, right?' she asked.

'Why, yes I am. Pleasure to meet you both,' stated the Doctor and then openly stared at Carlisle. 'Is he alright?' he asked Alice.

'Oh, Carlisle? He's just trying to work out the mechanics of having two hearts but he'll snap out of it in thirty-eight seconds,' Alice replied.

'Thirty-eight seconds? That's a rather specific number… Wait, did you say two hearts? How did you know I had two hearts?'

'Because we can hear your heartbeats.' She was so matter-of-fact about it that the Doctor never doubted her for a second.

'Huh.' He swung back and forth on his heels, trying to work out how seemingly human looking beings could hear his heartbeat. Unless…

Noooo.

The look of astonishment on the Doctor's face only became more pronounced when Carlisle came back around to the conversation. Exactly thirty-eight seconds, just like the girl had said.

'I thought you were only a story, something told late at night around a fire to scare the newborns,' Carlisle said thoughtfully.

'Funny, the same could be said of you,' the Doctor pointed out, smirking.


You shouldn't go back. That's like suicide, pointed out Bella's reasonable side as she paced in the small space between her window and door.

But what if he's hurt? emotional Bella retorted.

This is ridiculous, thought the actual Bella, who was once again herself and not two warring factions. He was going to kill me. He was like a snarling deliverer of death. It doesn't matter how beautiful he is or how much pain he seemed to be in. When it comes down to it, he would have killed me if he had the chance.

There. Decision made.

But–

A tap on the glass window behind Bella startled her out of her thoughts. She spun around to see what had made that noise, expecting to see a wounded bird that had flown into the glass.

But she was wrong.

There was someone kneeling outside her closed window. Someone who made her heart pound just looking at him – partly from fear, but mostly because he was the most gorgeous person Bella had ever laid eyes on.

The flight response never appeared as Bella studied the boy in the frame of her window, who happened to be frowning back at her.

Why was he frowning?

She also briefly wondered how he got up to her second story window without her hearing him before now, but all that stopped as she warily watched him lift up a piece of paper with three words written across it in bold script.

I am sorry.

Bella raised an eyebrow at his slightly unorthodox method of apologizing and took a step forward so she could open the window and tell him she forgave him, but he lifted a hand to caution her to approach him slowly.

Taking small steps and stopping for several beats between each movement, Bella watched his face for signs that she was going too fast. When she was about a foot away from the window, he tensed and held out his hand, palm facing forward, to make her stop.

This close to him, she could pick out specific details of his face. It wasn't as hard to look at him if she focused on small things, like his jaw or the way his eyebrows scrunched together and a little line appeared in the middle of them.

When their eyes connected, they stared at each other, marveling at the sight in front of them – a breathtakingly beautiful boy, on the cusp of manhood, and a Siren made just for his torment.

'Do you know what I am?' he asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

'Vampire,' she whispered, more to herself than to him. But he nodded as if he heard her.

...maybe he did.

'Are you scared?' His face became an expressionless sculpture, one that any artist would cut off their arm to have the opportunity to paint him just as he was.

'No,' she said quietly, shaking her head a little.

His eyebrows shot up in surprise. 'Why not?'

She shrugged one shoulder. 'When you've been through as much as I have, you learn to accept and adapt or you'll go insane.'

'Amazing,' Edward murmured, not even realizing he had spoken out loud. He marveled at this utterly unique temptress. In more ways than one, he noticed, now that he was removed enough from her overwhelming scent.

'So, Edward,' Bella said slyly, one corner of her mouth quirked up. 'Why is it that one moment you trying to kill me and the next you're apologizing?'

His face dropped into one of remorse and heavy guilt. 'I am truly sorry for behaving as I did. I thought I was stronger than that, but when I smelled your…' He looked away swiftly and swallowed, obviously not wanting to complete that sentence.

So Bella did it for him.

'My blood?' she quietly asked. Edward nodded and slowly raised his eyes to look back into hers. 'And now?' she added, inching ever so closer and studying his face for any indication that he was going to turn back into a raging monster.

'It's… tolerable,' Edward replied.

Bella snorted. Tolerable. Just what she had always wanted to be.

Edward frowned. 'Why did you make that noise? Was something I said funny to you?'

'No…' she started to say, and then changed her mind. 'Well, just a little funny.'

'I wish I could hear you,' came the unexpected response from Edward.

Now it was Bella's turn to frown. They were having a conversation. How could he not hear her?

Maybe he was a deaf vampire that read lips?

Stranger things had happened…

'I am sorry,' Bella said slowly, exaggerating her lip movements while forming the words. 'I did not know you were hearing impaired.'

Edward appeared bewildered for a second. Then his face lit up in understanding and he burst out laughing.

It was the most beautiful sound Bella had ever heard.

But she didn't appreciate being laughed at, even if it was the music found on the soundtrack to heaven.

Bella crossed her arms across her chest and waited for him to be done. When he finally settled down, she arched one eyebrow and eyed him disapprovingly, trying to fix him with the same look the Doctor gave her whenever she did something he didn't like.

'I didn't mean I'm deaf,' he explained, sobering up when he saw she was angry. 'I… uh… do you know how Alice can see the future?' Bella nodded and Edward continued, 'I can… um, read people's thoughts.'

Bella's eyes widened and her first thought was ' Ooh, the Doctor's going to be so envious when I tell him I met a seer and a telepath in one day!'

Hold on a tick. A telepath.

Bella froze, fully understanding what he had just told her.

He can read people's thoughts.

He could read her thoughts.

No, wait. He had said that he wished he could hear her. Did that mean that he couldn't hear her thoughts?

'So… you can't… hear me?' she asked as she worked it out in her head. Edward shook his head, his eyes intensely watching her.

'Okay,' she breathed. 'Is it just you and your sister, then?'

Edward shook his head and launched into the history of himself and his family, particularly the head of the Cullen clan, Carlisle. He found himself admitting things to this girl that he didn't even discuss with the members of his family.

Bella listened intently, asking questions when they came to her, which was often. She found that she loved listening to this boy speak. It didn't matter the subject. As long as his lips moved, she was enthralled.

Once Edward was done regaling her with stories of Emmett and Jasper's fondness of betting on the stupidest things, he started asking her questions about her life. She told him about how she met the Doctor and when she mentioned the TARDIS, Edward interrupted her, wanting to know more about it.

She explained how it was a "Time And Relative Dimension In Space" ship that had a cloaking device that used to change the outside appearance to match its surroundings, but somehow got stuck on the blue police box. The Doctor gave up trying to fix it some time ago.

Then she started in on her adventures with the Doctor.

Edward seemed mesmerized by the idea of so many planets in this universe – and so many other universes – that were home to countless species. It made him feel less alone in the world somehow.

And he was so invested in her tales that he failed to notice that she was standing directly in front of the window, leaning her shoulder against the slightly recessed frame.

Bella was just starting on one of her favorite stories, the one where the Doctor and she had barely escaped from the Dalek emperor, when Edward suddenly looked behind him and then back at her.

'Alice and Carlisle are approaching with another man. The Doctor, according to their thoughts,' Edward said.

Bella's face lit up. The Doctor! He was alright!

She had known the chances of him not being alright were slim, but she still always had an uneasy feeling whenever she was separated from him for long periods of time. He found his way into more trouble than she did.

And that was saying something.

Bella grinned excitedly and flew downstairs, running out the front door and scanning the surrounding woods for the Doctor's crazy hair and billowing brown overcoat.

'Bella Swan, where on earth have you been?' called out a familiar voice. To Bella's utter shame, she completely lost it when she spotted him walking out of the trees to her right.

'Doctor!'

She ran toward him and was delighted to see that he was running to meet her too. They collided in a giant bear hug that was probably so not cool, but she just didn't care. She had the Doctor back.

One short minute later, the Doctor let her go and they just grinned at each other for a moment, then both began speaking at once, stopped, started again at exactly the same moment and then stopped again, laughing.

'You first, then,' Bella said finally.

'No, no...' insisted the Doctor, 'you carry on.'

'Actually, I don't know quite where to begin,' she confessed.

The Doctor threw a look in the direction of Edward, who was standing about twenty metres behind Bella, looking very grim and almost possessive after the overt display of affection he and Bella had shown. 'How about starting with introducing the new boyfriend?' suggested the Doctor with a grin.

That earned him a lovely blush from Bella and a deeper scowl from Edward, who the Doctor almost immediately recognized as another vampire with the same colored amber eyes as Alice and Carlisle.

'This is Edward,' Bella said, recovering quickly from the Doctor's teasing. 'We were just talking,' she added, turning back and gesturing for Edward to come forward before realizing that would probably be a bad idea. She stood there, awkwardly caught between the two men, not knowing what to do.

The Doctor took charge of the situation, as he tended to do, and strode toward Edward. 'Pleased to meet you,' he said, extending a hand for the lad to shake. Edward hesitated only briefly before taking the offered hand in his.

'The pleasure is mine,' Edward replied slowly. He was having trouble concentrating with this new and startling alien man in front of him. Filtering out the thoughts coming from around him, he focused on the Doctor and heard the most astonishing things. 'What are the Great Vampires?' he whispered, actually finding it hard to keep up with all the directions the Doctor's thoughts were taking.

The Doctor smiled disarmingly as he shut his mind off to Edward with a practiced ease. 'Your ancestry, my boy. Just your ancestry.'

With that, the Doctor walked back toward Bella and with a theatric boom of his voice, proclaimed, 'You must tell me what has happened since I last saw you.'

Edward was sure his face relayed the shock he felt from someone completely blocking him. Even the own members of his family hadn't mastered that trick yet.

Who was this man?

He cared for Bella, that much Edward knew, having seen the glimpses of relief the Doctor had felt when he saw Bella again, safe and whole.

Their hug had been… difficult to witness, but Edward was glad Bella had someone who cared for her because this strange new attachment he felt toward the girl was misplaced and monstrous.

Alice called for him to come over because they had much to discuss while Carlisle strode toward the reunited Doctor and Bella.

Bella was in the middle of telling the Doctor how Edward had shown up at her window when the very person she was talking about caught her attention. She watched him stride over to Alice, who was waiting just under the cover of the trees, while the blonde, older man who had arrived with Alice and the Doctor began walking toward her.

'I don't believe I've had the pleasure, but I've heard so much about you from Alice and the Doctor,' the older, blonde man said upon reaching the Doctor's side. His hand reached out and Bella shook it, shivering a little at the slight chill that ran up her back from the simple touch.

'I'm Carlisle,' he said, his hand once again resting by his side.

'Oh, yes! Hi!' Bella smiled and glanced quickly over at Alice and Edward, who were both engrossed in their conversation, heads inclined toward each other. She refused to get jealous that everyone else but her could get close to Edward.

Brother, brother, brother, she chanted in her head. Edward is her brother.

'Bella, we would love for you and the Doctor to accompany us back to our house. We have several items to discuss, of which the most pressing is how to deal with the nomad vampires heading our direction.' Carlisle held out his arm in the direction of his house, presumably. 'That is, if you don't mind.'

'Allons-y!' said the Doctor enthusiastically, walking briskly in the direction Carlisle had pointed to.

Bella hesitated. 'Is it alright if I leave a note for Charlie? I would hate for him to worry about me any more than he is already.'

Carlisle nodded. 'I understand. We will wait for you to return.'

Bella said a quick thanks, turned, and ran back to the house. She quickly scribbled out a brief note telling Charlie that she had to leave and she would be back soon. There was only one place Bella knew Charlie wouldn't miss the note, so she taped it to the television screen and darted off again, making sure to lock the front door behind her before taking off across the yard toward Alice, who is standing in the exact spot where she was before, but very alone from the looks of it.

Bella stopped in front of Alice and quickly glanced around, blatantly looking for Edward. Alice smiled a little and shook her head. 'It was better this way, trust me.'

Bella smiled sadly at Alice and nodded. 'He's still having trouble?'

'Yes, but not the way that you mean,' Alice said cryptically. Bella's eyebrows knitted together in confusion, but Alice continued, 'Everyone's already left. Are you ready to go?'

'Yes, but you should know that I tend to be a bit clumsy, so you're going to need to go slow for me to keep up,' Bella replied.

Alice laughed. It didn't sound quite as good as Edward's laugh, but it was still musical and beautiful in its own right. 'Do you trust me, Bella?'

'Yes,' Bella said. There was no need to think about it. She just did.

Alice grinned, picked Bella up and twisted her around so she was secure on Alice's back. Then Alice took off, hearing Bella's squawk of surprise, but not feeling the death grip Bella had around her neck.

Alice didn't hear anything out of Bella during the short run back to the Cullen's house, but when Alice slowed down as they neared the house, she figured out why. Bella had stopped breathing.

Loosening Bella's arms from around her neck, Alice gently dropped Bella to her feet and watched as she took a rasping deep breath.

'What just happened?' Bella asked, her eyes crazed.

'We can run really fast. Sorry I didn't warn you ahead of time, but if I had, you would have balked. It would have taken us an hour to trek here at your pace,' Alice explained.

Bella just stared at her. 'Next time…' she started, pointing her index finger at Alice's chest and then rethought what she was going to say. 'Scratch that, there's not going to be a next time.'

Bella started off toward the house, which she could barely make out through the thick branches and overgrowth, and Alice skipped along beside her. 'You know, the Doctor loved it,' she claimed. Bella looked at her skeptically. 'He did. He traveled on Carlisle's back and laughed the entire- '

Alice cut off abruptly and Bella stopped to stare at her. Alice's eyes glazed over, which worried Bella. Was this something else that vampires did? Or could she possibly be having a vision?

Alice's eyes shot up to Bella's in the next instant, full of worry, and then Alice spun around toward the house, opened her mouth and screamed, 'Edward!'

Bella turned in time to see the Cullens, with Edward at the lead, rush out of the house just as three menacing-looking vampires ran between her and Alice and the house, effectively cutting her and Alice off from Alice's family and the Doctor.

How did she know they were vampires?

She ticked off the list in her head – same pale skin as Edward, Alice and Carlisle; they moved incredibly fast; and last, but not least, their blood red eyes were a clear indication that something was off about them. It didn't take a genius to piece the clues together.

Bella ran through her options. To her right – a hissing female vampire with wild flashing red hair that surrounded her pale white as a corpse skin. To her left – a male vampire with dreadlocks and the darker skinned of the three. In front of her – another male vampire, but with blonde, pulled-back hair, who appeared to be grinning. Then, of course, Alice stood beside her.

Just another day at the office then. No possibilities up or down, so the only way to go was backwards, deeper into the forest.

She took a tentative step back and then tensed when the vampire in front of her smirked and cocked his head to one side. 'What have we here? A snack for the family?' he hissed sinisterly.

Bella tensed, not wanting to attract anymore undue attention. Alice shoved Bella behind her as Edward growled in a tone so low Bella got goosebumps, 'Get her out of here!'

James turned his head briefly to look at Edward and the rest of the Cullen clan and Alice took that small opening, pulling Bella onto her back again and running as fast as she could in the opposite direction. Bella squeezed her eyes shut when she heard a furious yell and Alice said one of the most terrifying things she had ever heard.

'I'm not fast enough.'

Alice veered suddenly and Bella tightened her grip around Alice's neck. 'Edward's going to catch up to us in time,' she promised right as she spun around to face their three pursuers and unceremoniously dumped Bella on the ground behind her.

Ow, Bella thought with some bite and then felt immediately guilty for doing so because Alice was just trying to protect her.

Alice crouched down in a defensive stance and growled at the three 'evil vampires', as Bella had coined them in her head. They crouched down as well, but were taken aback when Edward showed up behind them. Bella could just see him past the blonde and red-headed vampires.

Those two turned to Edward while the dreadlocked one remained focus on Alice.

'If you touch her, I'll kill you,' Edward spat out in rage. Bella wasn't sure if he was referring to herself or Alice.

She hoped it was herself.

The blonde one hissed and then the red-head girl did as well. Edward bared his teeth and launched himself at them.

Bella had apparently missed something, but she didn't have time to work it out because the scene around her erupted with a flurry of movement, most of it blurry to her. She heard snarls and sharp cracks of sound, but couldn't make out what was happening.

All she knew was that she was scared and she didn't want anyone to get hurt.

Bella gasped as Edward and the two vampires he was fighting suddenly came into focus. Edward was standing in front of her, facing off the two vampires.

The blonde man smiled a bone-chilling smile, one that said that he was thinking about how she would taste. And then he, the red-head and Edward all disappeared from view. Two strong hands pulled Bella up to a standing position and the arms connected to those hands crashed her into a solid chest as they wrapped around her.

Everyone froze and she could clearly see them once again, sans the blonde evil guy.

Guess that means he's the one holding me, Bella reasoned, her heart pounding as fear pumped into her system.

The other evil vampires sauntered over to stand on either side of her and her captor and, from out of nowhere, Carlisle and four other vampires, two men and two women, appeared next to Alice and Edward. And the Doctor!

'Hold it right there,' ordered the Doctor in such a commanding voice that even Bella's snarling captor found himself obeying. The Doctor slid off Carlisle's back and gave him a thankful nod before turning back to Bella and the vampire holding her.

'What are their names, Edward?' he asked without taking his eyes off the evil vampires.

'The woman is Victoria, the one holding Bella is James, and the other man is Laurent,' answered Edward without missing a beat.

'I don't think you want to do that, James,' the Doctor warned as every Cullen crouched into defensive stances, mimicking the evil vampires' actions. 'You're outnumbered. How do you possibly think you'll escape with your life?'

'That may be, but at least I'll get a taste of this sweet' – he sniffed Bella's neck, making her tense and hold her breath – 'specimen before that happens.'

'Is that what you want? A specimen?' asked the Doctor, a crease appearing between his eyebrows as he studied the deadly predator in front of him.

'We can take them,' Victoria interrupted with a hiss.

James didn't acknowledge her, but kept his eyes riveted to the Doctor. He seemed to be studying him right back. 'I don't like being denied, especially when it's over the life of a human.' The way he emphasized the word "human" told everyone there how little he valued their lives. The Doctor's eyes flashed in anger.

'If you need a victim, then take a proper one,' suggested the Doctor with a nod.

James motioned to the frozen sweet-smelling girl in front of him, enjoying the feel of his fingers brushing through her hair. Victoria's unruly hair rarely saw the talons of a brush. 'I intend to,' he told the Doctor.

'Not her,' said the Doctor dismissively. 'She's no one. Just another human. They're ten a penny.'

Bella, as terrified for her life as she was, couldn't believe what she was hearing. Just another human? Since when was she not good enough to eat?

'If you want to do this properly, you should treat yourself to a real delicacy,' suggested the Doctor. 'How about someone with two hearts? One who's the very last of his kind? One who has been hunted by every species known to… well, not man obviously, but certainly known to me? Now that's what I call a treat, eh? Am I right or am I right?'

Alice and Edward were the only ones who didn't respond to the Doctor's self-sacrifice. James hissed and stared at the Doctor as if listening to something far off. 'What are you?'

'Last of the Time Lords,' said the Doctor, throwing his hands in the air proudly. 'The one and only. A genuine dodo – last specimen of an extinct breed. You want to drain the blood from a "specimen" before the rival clan in this area kills you – better make it a good 'un.'

The Doctor stood waiting for a response. Bella's wide eyes met the Doctor's and, to her delight, he winked at her. Her spirits rose when she realized he had something in mind. Her gaze shifted momentarily to Edward and he locked his eyes with hers, silently asking her if she was alright.

Of course she was. The Doctor had a plan.