It was getting late, and the guys went to check into the only motel in town. Meanwhile, Bella decided to find Bonnie and Jeremy, and do some digging on her own, after ditching her NCIS garb. Her excuse was that she was going to catch up with some old acquaintances and maybe find out more about their case without the formal setting and with some friendly inquiry. That was the god's honest truth, just depending on her findings she wasn't going to share them with the team, or only a watered down, safe version of it.

But not even five minutes after leaving their lodgings, instead of her intended targets, the vampire ran into the last person she wanted to see…

"Well hello, sugarplum… Fancy to see you around after all these years," a dark-haired figure from the shadows greeted her.

"Damon…" the agent muttered to herself exasperatedly as she paused in her tracks.

"I am happy to see you haven't forgotten me, beautiful," he commented with his usual cocky smirk finally coming into view.

"It's not so easy to forget someone who had ruined your life," Bella spat with disdain.

"Don't be like that, sweetheart. We had a good time, I even made you a vampire," Damon pouted with a mock hurt voice, stepping closer to the girl.

Backing away a few steps, she glanced around quickly and listened for signs whether the humans mulling the street not too far off noticed anything odd about the exchange or not, making sure no one heard that last part. He had been speaking in a quite low tone, so probably no one without supersensitive hearing should have caught that, but better be on the safe side.

"Yeah, you forget the fact that I never wanted to become one. So I would say you killed me and robbed me of the chance to ever have a normal life again," the brunette hissed, leaving out the part that there once was a time when she had wished for Edward to change her. Little had she known back then that they weren't the only kinds of vampires, but after the Cullens left – her so-called boyfriend abandoning her in the woods no less – Bella had no intention of living forever.

She saw a flash of sorrow and regret wash over his face, but it was gone as fast it came, if she weren't a vampire, she probably wouldn't have even noticed it.

"I would say you are doing just fine, being an NCIS agent and all," he remarked dryly with a roll of his eyes, recovering quickly from that little lapse in his façade.

"How would you know about that?" Bella inquired pointedly, crossing her arms. She wanted out of this conversation fast.

"Besides the fact that I saw you all afternoon around a dead body, collecting evidence in an NCIS jacket and cap?" Damon quipped with that trademark smirk again. The girl always wondered how he managed to be ever so sarcastic and oddly alluring at the same time. Internally she groaned at the fact that he was stalking her.

"Did you kill the petty officer?" Agent Swan questioned bluntly. He was officially a suspect in her books from now on. Why else was he lurking around the scene?

"Would you believe me if I said no?" he asked right back, winking at her.

"Probably not, but humor me," the brunette sighed, not easing up on her defensive stance.

"I didn't kill him. It was Klaus actually," the vampire remarked as he leaned against the brick wall casually.

"Wow, so forthcoming," it was Bella's turn to roll her eyes. "What's with the honesty? If, in fact, you are telling the truth."

"Because I want you to trust me," Damon sincerely revealed with a shrug.

"And why would I do that?" she quirked her brow. Like that was going to happen.

Unbidden memories flooded her mind of the man forcing her to drink his blood only five weeks after moving to Mystic Falls on that cold February evening. Then the snapping of her neck. Later coming to with an unbearable burning in her throat…

The brunette had believed back then that they were friends. Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie, Stefan, Caroline… even Damon had been there for her despite his bad boy demeanor. Bella had figured out their respective secrets quickly enough, having had encountered supernatural before, but she didn't mind because they had all appeared to welcome her as one of their own, and they had seemed in control of what they were. His betrayal just stung even more given everything that she had shared with him.

"You'll see," he said mysteriously. In a flash, he was by her side and murmured in her ear, "See you later Bella." And with that, he was gone. That must have been the first time he had actually called her by her given name and not some idiotic endearment.

And what fucking problem would Klaus even have with a Navy Officer? Geez, James Sheridan… what did you get yourself into?

With a shudder, Bella started walking again towards the Gilbert home, hoping to see some more welcome faces.

Standing still on a roof only a few buildings away, Damon watched her go, his face in a scowl.

He never would have thought she would return. Not after what he had done to her. Or what she thought he had done to her. She had been heartbroken, a shell of herself when she had arrived in Mystic Falls, looking for a place to get away from her supernatural problems – vampires, or rather what she believed were vampires, the cold ones; and werewolves – more like shape-shifters, but who cares. Too bad Mystic Falls was just another supernatural hub like Forks.

Not to worry, she had realized that soon enough. Her keen observation skills and previous experiences had outed Damon almost instantly to her when he had first approached her after arriving. Not to mention that failed compelling. He didn't know what had drawn him to her, but he just couldn't resist. She had trusted him with her secrets, why she had fled Forks, how the cold ones had abandoned her. Probably in an attempt to warn him off, Damon thought, but it had just made her even more appealing in his eyes. She wasn't kidding when she said she was a danger magnet and he just wanted to protect her from it all. As far he knew she had never told the others about her history, which made it even more precious for the dark-haired vampire.

The fact of the matter was Damon had saved her life when he had fed her his blood and turned her. That red-headed cold one, who had been still seeking revenge for her mate, had found her and had been lurking around town for at least two weeks. Bella hadn't even known that Victoria was tracking her. Vampires are stronger and faster than cold ones, even as newborns so Victoria would have probably backed off when he changed Bella, but Damon had killed the ginger anyway just to make sure that this particular threat never followed her again. But now that she had returned, her life might be in jeopardy still after all, because there were other dangers out there too.

What he had failed to calculate into his plan and foresee the consequences of was that she had been bitten by a cold one previously and miraculously had not been changed. So imagine his surprise when she turned and sunlight didn't burn her even without a daylight ring. The vampire thought it would be for the best if no one – not even she – knew that somehow she became a hybrid of the two vampire species. She was safer away from here, doing her thing with NCIS, the police or whatever other line of work she would have chosen. But now she had come back… and surely the spirits were growing restless. Whispering their maliciousness to whoever was willing to listen…

Damon knew for a fact that this mess was Klaus's doing. What he didn't know was if this was a coincidence or if the murder of the petty officer was a deliberate rouse to get her back in this town? Could the Original possibly know that Bella was a hybrid? He had been in town when she was turned…

Bella stood perplexedly in front of the house – or better put, the remains of the house – that used to be Elena's and Jeremy's home. It had been burned to the ground. And not recently, two years or so ago, judging from the level of decay and nature claiming it back as its own. What had happened here?

"What do you want here, leech?" a familiar voice called out to her threateningly from behind her, followed by the sound of a crossbow clicking in place.

How did Jeremy manage to sneak up on me? And then it came back to her. Right, he had been starting to become a hunter when shit had blown up in her face, and she had left town without so much as a word.

Slowly, holding her hands in the air, Bella turned around.

"Bella?" as the Gilbert boy recognized her in bewilderment, his hold on the bow slackened a bit. It was loaded with a wooden spike as Agent Swan had anticipated.

"I can explain, and I mean no harm. Could we maybe talk somewhere private? Without the stakes perhaps?" she suggested, nodding towards the contraption still pointed at her, but at least not directly at her heart anymore. Nevertheless, that would hurt like a motherfucker.

"How do I know it wasn't you who killed the Navy guy in the town square?" Jeremy tensed back up as the thought crossed his mind. A newcomer vampire showed up in town, and they had a possible crisis on hand? Surely not coincidental.

"Because I'm here with NCIS, investigating said murder?" Bella very slowly reached down to her waist, revealing her belt clip badge under her leather jacket. That made the boy think for a second, so she continued. "And, though I'm not sure how much my word means to you, I have never tasted human blood, from the vein or a bag for that matter. I live off of animals."

Evidently, she had her thirst under control if she could work in law enforcement without problems, right? Even if she was a relatively new vampire. Couldn't be older than five. She hadn't been one when she had lived here…

"How did this happen?" the hunter asked finally, more sympathetically, letting the bow fall slackly by his thigh.

"Long story, let's get off the street first, okay?" the brunette insisted, glancing around nervously. She was starting to feel paranoid with all this open talk of supernatural when there were two other NCIS agents in town.

"I know just the place," the boy smirked, beckoning her to follow him.

"You've have got to be kidding me!" Bella begrudgingly exclaimed once she realized that they were headed to the Salvatore Boarding House, the outline of the structure peeking through the thick canopy of trees, only visible to her senses for now.

"Why? It's the best hideaway. Damon and Stefan are not in town right now," Jeremy explained with a confused frown at her vehement reaction.

"You are wrong on at least one account. Damon is here alright, and I have no intention of running into him two times in one night," the agent protested again, her face in a distressed, faraway look that the hunter had seen on her many times in the past, but she had never cared to elaborate on what was causing it. Jeremy could only guess that it was something the older Salvatore did this time.

"Okay… Don't get me wrong, I know Damon can be a douchebag, but you two were practically best buds back then."

It was true, out of the whole gang they had seemed to be getting along the best, spending long hours talking by themselves. Jeremy had assumed Damon used it as a good distraction from Elena, who he couldn't have at the time because of Stefan. He wasn't sure what the brunette got out of it.

"Yes, until he snapped my neck with his blood in my system," the girl huffed with as much sarcasm and disdain in her voice as she could manage as they reached the front door. Oh, the memories this place held.

"Ah," the Gilbert boy sighed with realization. "Well, that explains quite a lot, why you left so suddenly."

"Anyway, what happened to your house?" Bella changed subjects once they stepped inside, not wanting to dwell on her woes for too long. She had made peace with what she had become already. But that didn't mean she had forgiven her former friend.

The rustic interior evoked visions of the gang sitting by the fireplace, talking all night among themselves, with Damon especially. She suppressed them deeper into her psyche.

"That's a long story. Elena became a vampire, then later I died. She lost it and in her grief burnt the place down then switched her humanity off," the hunter nonchalantly revealed while pouring himself a scotch from the Salvatores' collection. Was he even legal yet? Bella wondered for a second before concluding that he should be turning 21 that year. Technically she herself was frozen in time at nineteen, but vampirism and makeup tended to help with that, she looked solidly twenty-three, the age she would have been if left human.

"WHAT? But you are here… does this mean she's gone off on a rampage? Where is she now? Did she kill the petty officer?" her mind was reeling with the possible scenarios.

"Calm down. That's not all. I was brought back by Bonnie. Too long of a story again. Elena is human again since then too…" Jeremy scratched his head, trying to gather his thoughts on all that's happened. "There was a cure… Only one though…" he added when Bella's face lit up with hope, then continued to bring her up to speed on where his sister was at now. "God, this is so fucked up… her life is now linked with Bonnie's, and until she's alive, Elena is in a semi-dead state, in deep slumber. By the way, Stefan and Elena broke up… she is with Damon now."

"Wow… and I thought my life was a mess…" the agent slumped back against the couch. A cure for vampirism would have been nice. Elena and Damon, huh… She knew he had a thing for the doppelganger, never really understood why he was hanging out with her instead of trying to win the other brunette over from Stefan. "But who killed our victim then? Has he gone off the deep end? Didn't seem like it… but…"

"All we know for sure is that Klaus is back in town. Seems like his MO, stirring the pot and manipulating everyone into getting what he wants. Supposedly he is after some hybrid vampire. For what end and who that person is exactly we don't know. I didn't even know there were different kinds of vampires until the spirits spoke to Bonnie about it," he explained exasperatedly.

Bella's blood froze for a second, glancing down at the pale scar on her wrist. Damon wasn't lying about Klaus then. And she had been nearly turned into a cold one before… some venom had inevitably lingered in the scar afterward, giving it that weird iridescent glow she had always found fascinating. Not to mention that there were some oddities about herself that she couldn't explain, some things that didn't make sense based on her research into regular vampires. Could it be that she was the one Klaus was after? The murder of the Navy Officer would fit if it were aimed to lure her back into Mystic Falls, provided he somehow found out that she was with NCIS, betting on the fact that her team would be the one dispatched.

"Jeremy… there is something I have to tell you. Possibly everyone," the brunette glanced up with trepidation. She didn't really want to rehash her past, but it seemed like there was no other choice.

The hunter studied her for a second. Whatever she had to say must have been serious.

"Alright, I'll call Bonnie and anyone else I can get back here. Stefan and Caroline for sure… And Alaric, although he is a bit preoccupied right now…" he cut himself off. The dead wife story surely could wait. "Maybe Damon could be of help if you can manage him," he tried running a list of people who he thought could be conducive to the situation.

"I…" Bella wanted to protest for a second. No, it was better if he came, at least to make sure they could keep an eye on him, so he didn't go and cross whatever plan they came up with by just accident. "Fine."

"It's really late. Tomorrow evening, here?" Jeremy suggested since Stefan, Caroline, and Rick would surely need time to get back into town.

"That should be fine. Around 8 PM maybe," she just had to come up with some excuse to ditch her colleagues again. "Also… I'm not really fond of the idea… but we need a scapegoat to pin the murder on so that NCIS leaves town before it explodes in their faces if we want to keep the supernatural world hidden. But I think we have enough time till tomorrow to think on that. I'll know more by then on what they have found out from the evidence they collected so far too."