McGee uneasily hurried up the steps to the porch of his boss's house on this balmy early Sunday morning. To say that he was bringing troubling news was putting it rather mildly. He had stayed in late – all night actually – at HQ to double check every last detail in the background information on the Cullen family. If that was indeed their name. He pushed the button for the doorbell.

"Door's open!" came Gibbs's gruff voice from the inside.

As Tim entered the utilitarian home, he spotted his team leader in the kitchen… making coffee. What else were you expecting? He wasn't the homely type. He even drank whiskey from jars in his basement on occasion. The same place where he also worked on building boats, which would never make it out on the water in one piece, since there was only a narrow staircase leading down there. When he finished one, he would take it apart, then start a new project.

"What've you got?" he asked, placing a cup of coffee in front of his subordinate at the kitchen table, out of hospitality.

"Bad news, Boss. Edward Cullen boarded a plane late last night to New Orleans," Tim wanted to apologize for only catching that piece of fact that morning since he had been busy crosschecking their information in various databases, but Gibbs didn't leave him a chance. And besides, Rule 6. Never say you're sorry. It's a sign of weakness.h

"That son of a bitch!" the team leader cursed, imagining the worst. How did he even find out about her location? So soon nonetheless! Did they have a leak somewhere? Did he hire a private investigator? Then why come in person to the Navy Yard? He must have found out then and there that Bella wasn't in town anymore since he boarded a plane just a few hours later. But how did he find out? "Have you tried calling Swan?" What if she was assaulted, kidnapped… or worse. The girl could handle herself, don't get him wrong, but with the element of surprise even the best could get into a pinch.

"She is not picking up," McGee shook his head, having tried that several times already on his way here.

"Dammit. Keep trying, I'll call Pride and have them search for her on site if she still doesn't pick up in ten minutes. Did you check her cards, where is she staying in the city?" Jethro hurried to get dressed in jeans and a shirt instead of the sweats he was wearing around the house.

"Yes, but found nothing," Tim dejectedly shook his head again. That left cash and motels, or maybe she had acquaintances in the city, and someone was putting her up.

"Let's get moving, fill me in on the way to HQ," he said when he was ready, and they were fast out the door.

"Should I call Tony?" the younger agent dared to ask in a small voice.

"No," Gibbs said after a moment of consideration. "So what were you able to find out about the Cullens?" he asked once they were in the car, Tim constantly trying to call Bella, alternatingly from his and Gibbs's phone.

"Actually, I'm not sure, Boss," McGee frowned as he fired up his notebook on his lap.

"What do you mean you are not sure?" the older man raised a brow at that statement.

"The thing is, I found a perfectly crafted backstory for Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Esme Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Emmett Cullen, Jasper Hale, Alice Cullen and Edward Cullen. I can read it to you if you want, but I think it's fake. A very professional fake, mind you, made me wonder if someone with federal clearance actually set it up," the computer whiz ranted on while he opened the appropriate files.

"How do you know it's fake?" Gibbs inquired glancing at him briefly before looking back on the road.

"I went and checked the metafiles, to see when the information was actually added to the system, and all of the entries before they moved to Forks originated on one date, a little over nine years ago," Tim revealed with a serious face.

"Could they be in witness protection or something?" the senior agent speculated. That is when they usually saw stuff like this. Somehow he couldn't imagine them being undercover operatives, there was nothing of interest in Forks.

"Me poking around in their data would have raised a red flag and FBI would have called by now," he pointed out. That has happened to them before.

"Okay, then just tell me the basics and the parts after they moved to Forks," Jethro told him, guessing that the information from that time period had to be at least partially real since they had evidence that they lived there for some time.

"We seemingly have a young couple, with five adoptive children, all teenagers. There is barely twelve years between the parents and the oldest if the birthdates are to be believed. The doctor worked at the little hospital the town has, his wife, Esme, a stay at home mom, the kids going to high school. All of them perfect students, perfect records, not even parking or speeding tickets. Wealthy, or more like filthy rich, but I couldn't find the source. Dr. Cullen's income is not enough to account for it. If it's an inheritance, then I don't know from where. I can't trace it back. One odd thing I found about the credit card statements is that there was barely any spending for food and that only changed a few months after Bella moved to town," McGee fired off his summery, trying to stick to what they knew for sure, which was jack shit honestly.

Well-off with no clear source for that massive wealth? Fake identities? Drug lords, mob bosses were coming to his mind.

"They might be buying their food with cash," Gibbs said like an afterthought. Though why would they?

"There are rarely any cash withdrawals, mostly just card usage. And no, there are practically no restaurants among those," Tim shook his head dismissively.

"Are you saying they don't eat?" his boss finally showed some emotion, that of pure disbelief.

"Or they grow everything themselves in the backyard. I don't know," the computer whiz shrugged defensively.

"Do they look like the type of people who have a chicken coop out back?" the pepper-haired man pointed to their pictures on the screen.

"Honestly? No. More like runway models. And they all look freakishly similar, even though they look different," McGee made a face, not sure if that made any sense.

Jethro understood what he meant. All their driver's license photos showed beautiful people, with angular features, almost like sculpted marbles, all their eyes a golden amber color. The general shapes of their faces and hair color were different in contrast.

"Are they part of some weird cult, getting plastic surgeries to look the same?" he grunted dubiously.

"Nope. Actually, there isn't a single medical record entry for any of them, as if they never got injured or sick," Timothy brought up those record with the push of a key.

"Or the father treated them off the books," Gibbs was the epitome of logic and rationale. Everything had an explanation, there were no coincidences, but it was starting to get harder even for him to come up with something plausible.

"I guess. They did have all their vaccinations per the identity set up though," the agent sighed, rubbing his face tiredly. The all-nighter was starting to catch up to him.

"That's just thoroughness. So what do we actually know?" Jethro inquired.

"That they lived in Forks for three years then moved away to Ithaca, New York just a few days after Bella's eighteenth birthday. They still currently reside there," the younger man stated because besides their place of residence he didn't know what to make of the information.

"What about their connection to Bella? Have you talked to her father?" the team leader looked to the passenger side again.

"No, not yet. I checked, but I couldn't find anything else online that might suggest they were dating either. Oh, I forgot to mention, of course, none of them have an online life," Tim rolled his eyes.

"That was expected." He looked at the clock, 7:15 AM. That meant it was only 4:15 at Pacific Time. Maybe a bit too early to call. But worth a try.

That was when Bella finally called them back.

Bella woke up with a start, the alarm and worry she felt in her dream for those two boys still cursing through her veins. The dream had been so vivid, seemed so real, yet it couldn't have been, could it? Just her wild imagination. Yet she knew the two wolf puppies were the same ones she had dreamt of before, and that couldn't have been a coincidence. Everything was so surreal, her being Klaus's wife, them having children, who had aged ten years in just two. Were they doomed to die after a short life of fifteen-twenty years? How them existing would be even possible? She wasn't fertile, haven't had a cycle since her turning. She couldn't imagine any magic that could make her pregnant despite those conditions.

"Bella, love. You are finally awake!" Klaus exclaimed with exuberant relief, jumping up from the armchair that he had pulled up to her bed, now relocating to her side.

"What time is it? How long have I been out?" she asked a bit groggily, sitting up against the headboard.

"Nearly 16 hours, love. It's just about after 6 AM," the original answered, caressing her hand with his thumb.

Her phone started ringing. Her work phone to be exact.

"Someone has been desperately trying to get a hold of you for the last fifteen minutes," Klaus commented dryly, and Bella could detect just a hint of jealousy in there.

The agent looked at the caller ID.

"It's my former boss, shit. He is going to be so pissed," Bella scrambled out of bed and noticed that she was in a fresh set of her sweats, no blood or anything on her from the fight. Even her hair felt freshly washed.

"Did you bathe and change me?" the brunette asked with a raised brow.

"Uhm. No. As much I would have enjoyed that despite the circumstances, Freya and Rebekah were the culprits. They insisted, rambling about modesty," the werewolf hybrid smirked at her mischievously, his darker mood lifting immensely now that he saw her up and about even if she looked paler than usual. Probably nothing a good hunt wouldn't fix.

"Oh," Bella breathed, taken aback that the girls cared at all. Her phone still rang incessantly. "I'll just take this outside."

She was at the front door in no time and stepped out on the street to take a walk while she tried to explain why she wasn't picking up her phone. Right at that moment, a familiar scent hit her nose, though a hundred times more intense than she had ever remembered as a human. Yet the same. Honey, lilacs, and sun. Edward had been there a few hours ago, right at their doorstep.

The agent was so stunned for a moment – visions of the meadow flashing through her memories – that she completely forgot about her phone until it stopped ringing and the silence brought her back to the present. Bella pressed the call back button, starting to walk in the morning light, relieved that there was no chance of running into him at the moment.

"Bella, thank God!" Tim exhaled in relief at the other end, she was also on speaker phone, and from the background noise, she could tell they were in a car. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" the hybrid asked.

"Uhm, well, you haven't been picking up your phone," McGee embarrassedly informed her, now that he knew she was fine a bit unsure how to proceed.

"I was in the shower," she lied, this time even surprising herself by the simplicity of the creativity involved. And so believable too. Maybe she was a sociopath after all. "Having twenty minutes to myself is hardly a capital offense, why had it freaked you out so much?"

"Where are you right now, Swan?" Gibbs cut in, his voice full of that gruff vexation he got when he was in the middle of a case not yet knowing all the facts but anticipating a shit storm. Not a good sign.

"Going out to get a cup of coffee," Bella said to have a plausible cover for the street noises around her.

"Go back to where you are staying, lock the doors and don't open it for anyone. I'll talk to Pride to send someone over to you," her former boss ordered her, his voice indicating that was non-negotiable.

"What is going on?" the agent inquired, pausing in her steps.

"We have uncovered information that suggests someone might be after you," Jethro informed her, though he found her lack of knowledge of the situation a bit weird. Wasn't this why she left?

"Who?" the brunette questioned further, though she was getting a bad feeling about this. There was only one person she could think of who was "after her" at the moment.

"Edward Cullen," the team leader stated simply.

Bella was floored, her worst nightmare coming to life. Where did they even hear of him? How much did they know about the Cullens?

"I'm sorry, what?" she doubled back, getting a sudden urge to look around even though she knew that he couldn't possibly be anywhere near her. Well, maybe in a dark alley, but he couldn't get there without dazzling his way through the streets or rooftops, surely catching attention.

"Edward Cullen had been spotted by the Navy Yard acting suspiciously yesterday, and we know that he had boarded a plane to New Orleans last night," Gibbs elaborated further.

"I still don't understand why you believe that he is after me," Bella tried to lessen the significance of that event. And what even constituted as "suspicious"? Was he dragging his sparkly ass along the gate? If yes, NCIS was the last thing he needed to worry about, the Volturi would come for him soon enough.

"Isn't he your ex?" her former boss asked. Bella could practically see his brows furrowing at her obtuseness.

"He is. But I haven't seen or heard from him in six years. Not to mention he was the one who left me not the other way around. Why would he be looking for me? Are we even sure that is what's really going on here? Why does NCIS think he is some sort of threat?" the girl fired off another round of questions, generally trying to debunk their suspicions. Not for Edward's sake, of course.

"He is not who you think he is. Tim dug through their information and is it turns out, his identity is fake," Jethro revealed grimly.

Well, damn. They sure were thorough. Just don't dig any further. If she remembered correctly, Cullen was Carlisle's original last name, same with Hale being Rosalie's. Back in the distant past, before digitalization, pictures were not part of official records. Or if they were, utterly unsearchable. A number of people sharing the same name, having different birthdays, is perfectly normal. Until you see pictures and the level of similarity just couldn't possibly be merely familial. What will McGee make of identical looking people, not aging a day since the late nineties (more actually but he won't know that), yet with different birthdates when he finally does connect the dots?

"Unexpected and troubling, but how does this rise to an official NCIS investigation? Do you also have information that he is planning something against the Navy?" the agent asked because truthfully this wasn't their jurisdiction. Not that FBI handling it would have eased her mind. Agent Fornell was just as inquisitive as Gibbs. They shared many qualities. Not to mention wives, having married the same woman. Not at the same time of course.

"It's not an official investigation... Yet," he said ominously.

Bella knew that Gibbs wasn't shy doing things… under the radar… to put it nicely, if it involved people he cared about.

"Wait a minute. The only reason you are looking into him is that in the distant past he was connected to me?" she asked incredulously.

"You don't seem awfully worried about him," Gibbs commented skeptically after a moment, not really wanting to confirm or deny that statement.

"Honestly? No. If he tries anything funny, I'll shoot him in the face," Bella huffed, which earned a proud smile from the older agent. More like tear him into tiny pieces and set the pile ablaze, but no need to go into details. "But I do have another question."

"Fire away."

"Am I under internal investigation?" the agent inquired earnestly, almost like an accusation.

"No, you are not," Jethro warily said, sharing a look with Tim in the car.

"Then why are you looking into my past? Because I can't really imagine a full-blown, off the books investigation launched on the basis that a guy was looking shady near HQ. Something made you look into him. Was McGee snooping around in my personnel file again? Looked me up on the internet or something?" the brunette demanded, not bothering to hide just how much this irked her.

"Again?" Gibbs raised his brow at his subordinate.

"When we went to Mystic Falls, Tony was curious why Bella was so alarmed when she heard we were going there," Tim quietly admitted, ashamed, trying to take up as little space as possible. The peppered-haired man glanced up at the ceiling of his car asking for patience.

"I appreciate the warning, and it's kind of sweet that you are looking out for me. But I didn't ask for help. And truth be told this awfully feels like stalking and a gross violation of my privacy. Not too different from what you assume Edward is doing. I'm not on your team anymore, and you had no right or jurisdiction to start this in the first place. If Edward does show his face, I'll handle him," Bella announced after a while, the awkward silence getting a bit too much for her.

"Understood," her former team leader gruffly said, and with that, he hung up.

"That was… weird," Tim scowled as he ran the conversation back in his head.

"That's one way of putting it," Gibbs agreed. Something was not right.

"Do you think she knows more than she is letting on?" the younger agent asked, though dismayed by the mere suggestion, he couldn't help but feel it was true.

"Check if she was really out of contact with the Cullens in the past years," he really didn't like that they had to do this, but they had to know. This wasn't just about Bella anymore.

"Just a sec…" McGee cross-referenced the phone records, check the server for her work correspondence, then hacked into Bella's private email. "No phone calls between their known numbers, nor emails…" Could they have had contact in person? He looked into passenger lists, but none of them came to D.C. in the past five years, and then something caught his eye. "But Alice Cullen did fly out to Charlottesville on Wednesday evening."

"Didn't Bella say she was hiking with friends around there on Thursday morning?" Jethro frowned. His hunch was rarely wrong, but he surely didn't want to be right at that moment.

"That she did," he nodded.

"I think we ought to pay a visit to Ithaca," he swerved the car then took a U-turn to head towards the interstate, he also got his phone back out. "What's Chief Swan's number?"

They had to find out who the Cullens really were and if Bella was compromised as an agent because of them.

Bella stared at her phone. She should have handled that better. Gibbs knew something was up that was for sure. That unsettling phone call she got from him on Thursday, asking where she was came to her mind. Her former boss was suspicious of something even back then. Probably only about her reasons for relocating initially. But now… Maybe trying to stay in NCIS was a mistake, she should have just disappeared to New Orleans, and then Edward wouldn't have been able to find out where she was. He most likely heard it in someone's thoughts. Maybe that whole display with DiNozzo was a mistake, too suspicious, or out of character. Clearly, Gibbs didn't entirely buy the story. Maybe everything was a mistake. Why was she even trying to assimilate into the human world in the first place?

"Boo!"

Suddenly a set of hands covered her eyes from behind, and she instinctively elbowed the culprit in the ribs at full force, knowing it was a vampire. There was no way anyone else could have sneaked up on her, no matter how distracted she was.

"Ow!" the older Salvatore brother exclaimed in pain, hugging his abused torso. The hit wasn't as hard as Bella anticipated, clearly she hadn't broken anything. Then she remembered that she had lost quite a bit of blood yesterday.

"Damon! What the hell are you doing here?" Bella spun around, recognizing his voice now, peeved by his prank, not to mention the fact that he somehow deduced that she was in New Orleans instead of D.C. like she had told the gang.

"Oh, how pissed Caroline will be to learn I won this bet!" he snickered amusedly, already picturing the blonde's face.

"What bet?" the hybrid grimaced. Damon was so predictable in his childish ways.

"She said you went home to Washington, I said there was no way you would be anywhere else than where Klaus is. And these days that means New Orleans," the cocky vampire elaborated, enjoying the girl's reaction a bit too much.

"Well, you found me. Now go home," Bella turned around, intent on going back to the compound.

"Wait a minute. What's going on? Are you okay?" Damon stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder, appraising her appearance. She looked a bit run down, pale, dark circles under her eyes.

"I'm just dandy, now leave me alone," she huffed, not in the mood for this conversation. Too many problems to deal with it.

"Hey, why are you pushing me away?" the Salvatore brother asked with concern, getting all touchy-feely, which wasn't his usual style.

"Because honestly, you are too damn nosy," the brunette forced a sarcastic smile at him, batting her eyelashes.

"Excuse me for fucking worrying. Sorry to break it to you, but you look like shit, baby doll," he got all snarky in response.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bella quirked her eyebrow at him.

Truthfully she hadn't looked in a mirror today yet. His sass could have referred to anything from bed hair to the appearance of a rotting walking corpse.

"You look... kind of anemic. Which is saying a lot given…" Damon paused because some people passed them on the street. "Our diet," he finished quietly with a less suspicious phrase. He wanted to say "given that you are a vampire" or "given that you suck blood for a living."

"I lost a bit of blood yesterday, and need to go hunting," Bella hissed back as an explanation. Now that she thought about her foul mood, and lack of self-control with Gibbs too, could very well be a sign of her thirst flaring up.

"What do you mean you lost blood?" the older Salvatore practically seethed, his eyes wide with anger, but it wasn't directed at her.

"Got close up and personal with an Upgraded Original vampire. I won, by the way, before you ask." Which also meant that she had killed him, that fact hitting her hard again. She knew Damon had done a lot worse in his lifetime, yet she couldn't help but avert her gaze. She felt so dirty like she needed to take another shower to scrub away the blood that wasn't even on her anymore.

"So this is what Klaus got you up to? Saving his sorry ass and cleaning up his messes?" the vampire inquired with eerie calm.

"I volunteered. Besides I was the only one who could do it, I'm immune to werewolf venom, even the kind that kills Originals," Bella shrugged off his concern, again, very purposefully not mentioning the fainting nor the dreams.

"And you say we shouldn't worry… wow… do you even have a single bone for self-preservation in your body?" Damon quipped skeptically.

"Now you have an objection? If I remember correctly you were the one who suggested that Tyler should bite me just to experiment with my freakish hybrid powers," she pointed out, crossing her arms defiantly.

"I was just joking. You know that," his blue eyes softened, desperate for her to believe him.

"Do I? Anyway, you got what you came for. I'm fine, crisis averted, I can go on with my life," the hybrid summarized, although she wasn't sure if that was actually true. The "going on with her life" part that is.

"Does that mean you are going home?" the Salvatore brother perked up, hoping that his sire would be safe from now on.

"This is my home. I got myself transferred here, and I think the change in atmosphere will do me good. I like the city already… If I still have a job on Monday that is…" the agent trailed off, the doubt and worry about what could be going on at HQ plaguing her.

"What do you mean?" Damon asked, trying to look very sad about her career troubles, but actually wishing that Bella found a less scrutinized profession. Or none at all. Mingling with humans was always risky for secrecy sake, but working for the government… that was a whole new level of crazy.

"Other complications," Bella attempted to say nonchalantly, but the apprehension was evident on her face.

"Such as?" he inquired again, getting a bit flippant and frustrated.

"Edward. That is the complication. He was snooping around in D.C. and Gibbs being Gibbs spotted that something was off about him and started digging. Made the connection to me. Plus they also know he got on a flight to come here. They believe he is a terrorist, drug lord, mobster or something along those lines, living under a fake identity and stalking me..." the brunette gabbled on, her walls starting to break down around Damon like they did five years ago.

"Back up a bit, who is Gibbs?" Damon interrupted her.

"A senior agent. My former boss."

"Oh…" he breathed in understanding. Then sighed exasperatedly. "Go figure… Edweird showing his face again. Do you want me to track him down and kill his tooth fairy ass?"

Bella snorted in amusement. "Seriously? Edweird? But no, I can handle him. Really, go home, tell everyone I'm fine."

"If that is really what you want. But you know I'm just a call away if you need me," the older Salvatore brother relented with a shrug and the fact that for once he didn't argue warmed Bella's heart. Maybe her friend was still in there somewhere.

"Thank you for taking my wishes into account for once," she beamed at him.

"Brat," Damon quipped with a roll of his eyes.

"Old fart," Bella retorted.

They broke out in giggles. God, this felt nice. Falling back on their usual banter. It was amusing how in total Damon was more than seventy years older than Edward, yet he had none of that antiquated stuffiness to his personality.

"Did someone mention me?" Klaus came up to them with an unreadable smirk, which could hide anything from amusement to murderous intent, effectively killing the party. He regarded Damon with a lingering disapproving gaze.

"He is right Bella, I'm still in my prime, but he on the other hand… gotta be tough without your cane… grandpa," the vampire daringly taunted the original.

"You were just leaving, Damon, weren't you?" Bella suggested, while preemptively placing a hand on Klaus's chest before he could jump her friend – yes she was going to call him that again. The gesture didn't evade Damon's attention, nor the casual ease the two were starting to develop around each other.

"That I was," he cordially confirmed. He was halfway done turning on his heel to make his exit when as if changing his mind he faced them again. "If I hear that there is even a hair out of place on her head again, I will hold you personally responsible, do we understand each other?"

Klaus possessively placed an arm around Bella's shoulder before replying.

"Oh, don't you worry…" he began, but the girl in his arms interrupted him.

"I'm quite capable of handling myself, Damon," she smirked, having none of the male chauvinistic bullshit.

The Salvatore brother mock saluted her then disappeared.

"Now, love, tell me who this Edward is," the original asked in a serious and concerned voice.

How much had he heard? Probably everything, maybe even her phone call with Gibbs.

"I need to feed first," Bella sighed, relenting to the fact there was no avoiding this talk now.

"We have bags back at the compound," the werewolf hybrid offered again graciously, his smirk telling that he knew that it would be refused.

The agent looked at him with an unamused glare.

"You don't need to come, just tell me where I can find some wild animals in the area," she said pointedly.

"Oh, don't worry, love. I want to see this," he laughed.

And that is when Bella realized she totally forgot to ask Damon about his meeting with Jasper. Probably hadn't been that exciting if he didn't bring it up himself.