Previously: "Welcome home, little sister."
"Explain now." I practically growled at my favorite brother. I loved Damon dearly, but my mood had taken a complete nosedive after all the surprises that were being thrown at me left and right.
"Calm yourself, don't want the fangs to come out and scare our guest." he said as he motioned toward the now still as stone Katherine, whose face still looked utterly terrified, but now also held a bit of confusion within it.
"Guest? What the hell are you talking about? I know exactly who she is. What I want to know is how she's alive and why she's in bed with Stefan."
And why you don't seem to care that she's in bed with Stefan. I didn't dare voice that last thought though.
"Everything is not as it seems, little one. You of all people should know that by now." By now he had completely lost me and I'm sure that my confusion was visible on my face because he motioned for me to have a seat and once I complied he spoke again.
"I believe proper introductions are in order. Bella, this is Stefan's human girlfriend, Elena Gilbert. Elena, this is our baby sister, Isabella Marie Salvatore." Human girlfriend? My head was spinning.
"Bella." I corrected curtly. The girl no longer looked frightened instead she just looked outright confused. Despite this fact though she stood up with her head held high, stuck out her hand, and spoke.
"It's nice to meet you, Bella. I had no idea that Damon and Stefan had a sister. I'm sorry about screaming, I was just a little shocked." She laughed nervously at that last part and that softened me to her just a bit, but because of her resemblance to Katherine I decided not to trust her until I knew all of the facts.
"It's nice to meet you to Elena. And I'm sorry for just dropping in and scaring you like that, but I didn't figure that there would be anyone else here and just wanted to surprise my brothers." I took her hand and shook it and I could feel her pulse so she was definitely human. Now I just wanted to know why she looked exactly like Katherine.
Then, Stefan spoke for the first time since I got here. "Bella, would you like me to attempt to explain instead of trying to figure out Damon's vague riddles." When I turned my head to respond, I was shocked by what I saw. Stefan was smiling, and he looked truly and completely… happy? That's definitely something that I haven't seen in years, but it was definitely welcome surprise.
Once I regained my composure I asked him, as kindly as I could, to explain.
"It's a long story, so everyone might like to have a seat." he spoke mainly to Damon, who was still leaning against the doorway of Stefan's bedroom and then came to sit next to me on the couch while Elena sat in Stefan's lap across from us on the bed.
" So," he began "about two years ago, when I first moved to this town, I was in the woods hunting." Damon scoffed at this because he was never truly a fan of mine and Stefan's animal diet. Stefan just decided to ignore Damon's little outburst and continued. " I smelled something so delicious that I just couldn't ignore it so I ran towards it, but once I realized what I was doing and that it was massive amounts of exposed human blood that I was smelling I stopped dead in my tracks. I knew I couldn't just leave a possible accident so I made sure that I had myself under control, held my breath and continued toward where I was previously headed. It was then that I came across the source, it was a terrible car accident." at this Elena immediately stiffened and looked as though she was about to begin sobbing at any moment, but instead she just steeled herself and told Stefan to continue.
"I dialed 911 then ran to the car to see if there was any way for me to help. I noticed that the woman in the passenger seat had already passed away and that the man in the drivers seat wasn't in much better shape, but when I tried to help him he stopped me and told me to save his daughter in the backseat. I did as he said because I knew that even if I helped him that the chance of him surviving were still slim. I safely removed the girl from the backseat and still heard a strong heartbeat coming from her, but no longer heard one coming from the driver. Once I got her out of the car and I was able to fully see her face I was shocked to see that she looked exactly like Katherine." He motioned towards Elena and it finally clicked for me that Elena was the girl and her parents were the people in the front seat that apparently didn't survive.
"By this time I could already hear the paramedics coming up the road so I knew that I needed to leave, but I couldn't without knowing that she would be okay, so waited in the forest as the paramedics took her away and then compelled one of the nurses at the hospital into giving me her name and telling me whether or not she would be okay. The nurse told me that Elena would be just fine and that her Aunt Jenna, now her legal guardian, was on her way to pick her up." I couldn't help but feel bad for this poor girl sitting in front of me that had apparently been through such hell at such a young age.
"After that I kept track of her. I guess you could say that a basically turned into a stalker, but I was just so fascinated. I initially watched her for her resemblance to Katherine, but after watching her and seeing how strong she was through the whole nightmare, and witnessing her kindness, and seeing how she took on the role of mother for her little brother, Jeremy, I fell in love." At this he looked at Elena with such adoration and love that I began to tear up because I recognized that look as the one that Edward had given to me so many times before he left. I choked back a sob, but no one noticed, for which I was very grateful, and Stefan continued on with his story.
"I had to meet her but I still hadn't figured out why she held such as striking resemblance to Katherine. So I did my research and eventually found out that Elena's blood line could be traced back to Katherine's, and even though that doesn't explain it all, it's the only form of an explanation that I have."
He then went on to tell the story of how he went to high school, introduced himself to Elena, and how they fell in love despite their obvious...differences. He also told how Damon showed up and tried to get Katherine out of the tomb, but still stuck around even after they found out that she wasn't and never was in the tomb.
Eventually, after hours and hours, the story came all the way to the present. And apparently, the present was filled with werewolves, witches, and Katherine stuck in the tomb that she should have been in all along. I had also managed to figure out that Damon had some pretty strong feelings for Elena, maybe even love, even though Stefan never came out and said that. I just knew Damon well enough to know that he would never do the things that Stefan says he has done for Elena if he didn't care for her.
After that they began to ask questions as to why I had unexpectedly come to visit.
"Not that I don't love having my baby sister home again," Damon begun "but last time we spoke I thought you said that you were happy living with Uncle Charlie. Did something happen?" I hadn't told them about the Cullens, I had only told them that I was happy where I was for the time being. But this is exactly what I came home to do. I came here because I needed them right now when I was hurting, but now I'm completely reconsidering telling them at all.
"Nothing happened. I just wanted to see my brothers again. Is that so hard to believe?" I lied because they had been through so much that I hadn't helped them with, so why should I have the right to ask for any emotional support from them? Unfortunately they could always tell when I was lying.
"You little liar." Damon said playfully with his trademark smirk plastered on his face "Come on tell us what brought on the sudden visit."
"I don't want to." I said truthfully
"Why not?" he asked with just the faintest sound of hurt in his voice and his now worried expression mirrored Stefan's and even Elena's.
"I haven't been there for either of you lately, so I definitely don't have the right to ask for either of you to be there for me." I answered sadly, I wished I could've been here and helped them when they needed it because I do love them both so dearly.
"We didn't ask for your help, we didn't even tell you anything was wrong, so don't you dare think that we wouldn't be there for you." Stefan said fiercely.
"Exactly." agreed Damon " We love you and if something happened then we want to know what we can do to help." I knew they were both incredibly sincere so I decided to tell them. Everything.
"Well, my story's kind of a long one too."