So, this part one... Yes. First time that I've done a part one/part two for this story. The problem was that I KNEW ever since I started planning, that this would be the big explanation-y chapter of this storyline that not only needed excessive planning done but also a lot of explaining. You have no idea how many shifts at work I spent trying to nut this out and try to figure out the backstory! A long, LONG time. For example, when I plan chapters, I do bullet points of what I want to cover and generally I form a chapter from about 6-8 bullet points. This chapter had TWENTY! Then there's my talking problem. I'm a talker, always have been, so keeping things concise is virtually impossible for me! So, long story short is: huge long chapter, good spot to break it into two, two chapters instead of one!

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, don't forget to review and read the A/N at the end of the chapter for a little surprise from me as a thank you... Enjoy!

Chapter 19 – The Ties That Bind Part 1

Bella's POV

I needed advice. Desperately, and urgently.

I let out another heavy sigh of the guilt that was beginning to consume me as I adjusted my position, resting my head in the palms of my hands with my elbows leaning on the safety barrier for the little occupant of the wooden cot. The problem was that as I looked down, hoping to find or figure out some sort of solution, I was forced to watch the sleeping toddler and acknowledge who the other half of her came from… That was my problem.

Truth be told, the guilt that I had managed to dodge for a long time had been catching up to me since the day that the newspaper article that led myself and everybody else to believe that Will had died. It all started in those moments when I realized that Allie and Will may have never met properly or known each other in spite of and out of spite for our former relationship. That was what had initially gotten me thinking that it wasn't fair for her, because of us.

Then, at the hospital a few days ago my unease was accentuated by Will's comments and disapproval of the decision that Rikki's mum made when Rikki was talking about her sister that she had never known… I hated to admit it, but that was more or less our situation, just with many years less damage.

Before now, I had always managed to excuse that guilt and blame him. I figured that it was Will's own fault that he didn't know we had Allie, considering that every single attempt that I made to tell him about her after the break up, he had either rejected or ignored.

You wouldn't be able to tell it from the outside, but there was a battle between feelings, morals, memories and fears within me. Part of me wanted to tell him, while the other part of me reminded myself why he hadn't known that I was pregnant in the first place. In addition to that, there were the rights that Will had and my acknowledgment that he needed to know, but by the same token my fears because of Dan that plagued the option of telling Will.

I just didn't know what to do. I don't think that there was a right answer in this situation and all that I could do was hurt as few people as possible… If I told Will, it would crush Daniel and I knew that he would react badly. I would suffer the consequences of that option... However, if I didn't tell Will, I knew that I could count on the fact that Dan would continue supporting me as he had, but although I wouldn't be hurting anyone as such, Allie would be innocently pushed into living a lie and Will would remain none the wiser.

Staring at the pink painted feature wall of the room in front of me, I was still mentally sifting through and considering my options, although admittedly I had come to the conclusion of option two – keeping the secret a secret and not hurting anyone. It was only when I looked down to sleeping Allie that everything was thrown up in the air all over again.

My thoughts were interrupted after hearing familiar footsteps making their way up the hallway and eventually, approaching me in the room. Pressure was first applied to my hair as Daniel kissed the messy bun that I had thrown my hair into earlier, before his arms snaked around my hips from behind.

"What are you doing Bel? She's fast asleep" Dan whispered as he pressed another kiss into my tied up ball of hair while we both watched the infant in front of us, sleeping peacefully and in her favourite position – arms spread out, lying on her stomach, head tilted to the side and with her bum up in the air.

"Just thinking" I replied vaguely in my whispered response.

He made some unimportant noise in acknowledgement, one that I couldn't quite identify. "That sounds heavy. What's up? You can talk to me…"

"No I can't" I whispered back, even surprising myself at how direct and blunt my comment had come out as. The same comment pricked Daniel's attention as he moved away from behind me and leveled with my position against the cot where he too lent on the wooden side, but with his attention and furrowed brow directed completely at me.

"What do you mean you can't? Course you can. You know that you can tell me anything – same goes for me to you."

Between deciding whether I was going to answer him or not with a confession of what I had been pondering before he interrupted me, I analyzed his last comment. He made us sound like we had such a brutally honest relationship, that we were on such a level playing ground as individuals and as a couple. There was not even a feint sign of the misuse of power and abuse that Dan would seemingly forget about after each occurrence. I was expected to be completely honest and loyal to him, while he would act however he pleased at the time. The foundation of our entire relationship was based on a huge lie, which was only covered by a complete lack of stability, respect and honesty. I hated it.

More often than what I'd like to admit, I would backtrack my life, considering it from an alternative perspective and imagine what would happen if I had chosen left instead of right or yes instead of no, so as to speak. It was this mistaken sense of reality that led to my final decision to honestly tell Daniel my thoughts, even though I could almost predict the outcome of this confession with certainty.

"I know that I promised you that I wouldn't, but I've been considering the decision in light of recent events.. I think that I'm going to tell Will about Allie…"

His immediate anger was unquestionable and impossible to mistake.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN BY TELLING HIM?! Do you honestly think that he will care about her like I do?! You and I both know that you are just going to end up back at square one again like you were when we got together…" he hissed in a sharp, loud whisper. Quiet enough to not awaken Allie, but loud enough to be a threatening authority.

"It doesn't matter what his reaction is! He's still her dad, Dan and they still deserve to know about each other regardless of what he wants to do about it!" I debated as I took a careful step away from him and his inextinguishable fury.

He huffed silently and steam might as well have been pouring out from his ears. Eventually, he had calmed himself down enough to the point that he could speak at a normal volume as he tried a calmer approach with me. "Come on Bella… You can't do this. If that moron knew about Allie, he would take her away from me... He would trample all over and ruin the special bond that I already have with her… I can't lose Allie – I can't lose another child. Even Allie already thinks that I'm her father!"

"You just contradicted yourself! A minute ago, you said that he wouldn't care and would just reject us if I told him and now you're saying that he would want to take the role on as her father and shove you aside! And I wonder why she thinks you're her father?! It's only because she knows no different – you were who she was taught to call dad. It's nurture, not nature. That's part of the reason I need to tell him too. I don't want my daughter being brought up, believing a lie that makes up a big part of her life… She's only just turned one, so there's still time to set things straight before her long-term memory improves" I said in an attempt to reason with him as I distractedly looked down at the sleeping subject of our argument with a sad smile.

His temper flared up again and he exhaled the rage out into the open. "After everything that I've done for both of you, you think I'm just going to stand by and let him take you two?!"

"Dan… You're overreacting. He's not going to take us! I'm not breaking up with you by telling Will! There's a chance that he might not even want anything to do with Allie! Besides, there's nothing there between Will and I anymore, and don't forget that he's in a relationship with Amy… As in Amy that I work with" I added, trying my hardest not to display my emotions and hurt of the betrayal from both parties that were involved in my last sentence.

"Whatever, I don't care. I don't want him knowing. End of story" he said as he turned around and began to walk out of the room.

I touched his back to catch his attention before I spoke, brushing my temple with my hand before I moved my hand, positioning it in front of me and in Daniel's direction as some sort of gesture. I sighed, before attempting to reason with my impossible boyfriend, really feeling like I had to pull out anything that would have an impact on him for him, before he would listen to reason. "Put yourself in their shoes Daniel. What if you and Nick were Will and Allie? If you were Will, you would've wanted to know about Nick if you already didn't! Why are you convinced that it would it be any different for him?"

Instead of receiving a response to my question, all I got was the unanticipated slap of a hard hand on my cheek that I really should have been expecting, given the sensitivity of my latest comment.

"THAT WAS A BIG MISTAKE, BELLA! DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT HIM" he fumed angrily at me, waking my toddler up from his yells that had exceeded the volume of his previous louder comments.

Clutching my tender and reddening cheek, I walked over to the cot, sliding my arms past the wooden barrier that I had been leaning on before, grabbing my daughter who had since stood up; holding her arms out for the comfort of being held for the same reason as to why she whimpered from the yells and rude awakening.

"DON'T FOLLOW ME OR I WILL TELL HIM!" I threatened, speaking louder than I had spoken for the rest of our argument, but not loud enough to alarm Allie who I clutched especially tight as I hurried out of the room, ignoring the increasingly painful sting of my cheek, grabbing my bag and leaving the house.

Daniel had unknowingly made my decision for me.

I rapped on the wood of the door frame with my knuckles one handedly, while the other held a dozy Allie. We waited outside together until there was an eventual opening of the door that was in front of us.

"Oh, hi Bella" Will greeted quickly before looking behind his back and throwing his thumb in that direction as a gesture. "Rikki?"

I assumed that he was referring to the reason behind my visit. The credibility of my theory was increased as he took a step away from the door and positioned himself slightly in the direction that he had been gesturing to before I had replied.

"No. You… Are you busy right now?"

He looked startled as he took that step back towards the door which he had initially shifted away from. "Oh, uh, no… not really…"

Even before he had opened his mouth to respond to the question that had led him to more or less trip over his own words, I could tell that he was uncomfortable. One hand in his pocket and the other hand scratching the back of his neck were the Will Benjamin moves that epitomized his subconscious discomfort.

Will's discomfort didn't help matters at all, undoubtedly only contributing to my own edginess in the situation of knowing the decision that I had made and what loomed ahead. Unfortunately, this was only going to be the 'easy' part of my day.

"Um, do you want to go for a walk?" I suggested gently to him, watching as he sighed, looking down to the ground, scratching his shoulder before his gaze returned to me. "I don't know if that's the best idea, Bella…"

"Please?" I quickly added before he had a chance to continue with his polite decline. "I really need to talk to you Will."

Another sigh. Fortunately, a nod preceded it as he told me to wait a minute and entered into the house before returning with his wallet, keys and phone less than 30 seconds after he left.

"Are there any playgrounds nearby?"

The three of us took our time making our way to the playground that Will was leading us to as I carried Allie in my arms, ignoring her grizzles and wriggles that meant she wanted to walk. Walking to the park was awkward enough as we struggled to make petty small talk and conversation. Thankfully, arriving at the park proved to put us both more at ease than what we had been for the entirety of the rest of the time we had spent together.

Putting down the anxious toddler who saw all the brightly coloured play equipment, Allie bolted for and unsteadily ran over to the yellow kangaroo shaped spring rocking seat. I watched her for a few moments, making sure that she was okay climbing onto the piece of equipment, before Will cleared his throat and interrupted my focused gaze. "So what's did you want to talk about that's so important? Have you heard something else about Lewis?"

"No" I replied honestly, shaking my head and looking over to him. "The last that I've heard, he's just been diagnosed and I'm sure Rikki would've told you that."

"Yeah, Rikki called us from the hospital."

I nodded, biting my lip and beginning to feel the regret of my impulsive decision to reveal everything to him.

I knew he was watching, waiting for me to say something else, but I didn't. I didn't until he questioned me again.

"So… What's up then?"

All of a sudden, I felt a complete regret over my brave and spontaneous move at initiating a right for all the wrongs. The thing that I wanted more than anything else in this moment was to curl up into a ball and hide away until Will became bored enough to leave. It was one of those 'please let me be anywhere but here' moments wanting the ground to swallow me up whole that was topping off one hell of an awful day. And I had no-one to blame for that but myself.

"Okay, I don't even really know how to say this – it's a whole lot easier in theory… But anyway, after some, uh recent events, I feel like there's something I need to tell you, something that should've been said a long time ago."

I paused in between speaking, looking up momentarily to see Will watching from next to me. He looked interested and engrossed in what I had to say, unfortunately, and I could tell that he was clutching onto my every word. I closed my eyes and swallowed, hard, thinking that it might have made it easier to talk for some reason. But it didn't.

"I haven't been completely honest about Allie. Most people either think or have assumed that Daniel's her father… But he's not…"

Another pause with my eyes still closed.

"You are."

Once I'd let go of my big secret and once it was released into the open, where I couldn't take it back no matter how much I could try, I eventually worked up the courage to open my eyes and to see whether or not Will was still standing there and if so, his reaction.

He looked calm. Calm?! No hyperventilating, no pacing, no flight response. Was it perhaps just a case of the calm before the storm or something crazy like that?

I noted that the only change in him was that he was holding onto his nose from between his thumb and forefinger with the rest of his hand trailing down and covering his mouth in that male manner that was generally adopted by men when deep in thought or total shock. It was like their feeble attempt to mask their emotions.

"What? So she's not Daniel's? Are you sure?"

"Positive. Allie was a newborn when I met Dan. That's how we met… I hired him to babysit her when I worked."

His hand that appeared to be almost acting as a security blanket to his feelings eventually moved away from his mouth that he had been protecting. I watched him closely, waiting for a cue that would lead to the inevitable questions that he would have, but his next movement was surprisingly just calm speech.

"Do you know what? In all honesty there was this one moment a few weeks ago when I thought 'maybe she is mine' - but I excused that thought because I was so sure that you would have told me… I thought I knew you better than being the kind of girl that would hide something like that, Bella."

I saw his look of disappointment that flitted in my direction before he turned his whole body around to face the playground that had since caught his focus.

"It's not like I didn't try to tell you about her when I was pregnant! You're partly responsible for not knowing too!" I replied in defense of myself, crossing my arms to appear stronger than I felt even though he wasn't even looking in my direction.

"What? How on earth am I partly responsible for that?! I'm sorry if I missed seeing the fact that you were having my child when I was looking into my crystal ball, Bella! I'm not a mind reader and I had no reason to even be cynical of the possibility that you were pregnant."

His response was irritable and short with me. I could tell that he wasn't happy. This was not the way that I wanted this meeting to pan out; even though I knew there were few better ways and countless worse. In conjunction with that, I sat down on the park bench with a sigh.

"Do you want to sit down and let me explain things?" I offered softly, choosing not to take a verbally aggressive and sarcastic comment as my reply to his similar comment. Turning this into a self-defensive argument of who was more in the wrong than the other was not going to help matters.

He hesitated, staying standing in the spot where he was still overlooking the playground, something else evidently on his mind.

"Otherwise this is just going to be pointless so I'll leave" I added in the same soft tone, but with a more serious annotation to my original suggestion.

He looked over to me briefly before taking a seat on the park bench alongside myself. I waited momentarily, expecting my eardrums to be blasted with questions and demands of answers, but no he only uttered a mild question that he stumbled over his wording with once again. "Is she a merm-" he started to say carelessly before pausing mid-word and scanning our surroundings. "I mean does she have your marine physical attributes?"

I was slightly stunned. Checking whether she was a mermaid or not was one of his first questions? By the same token, I had to remember who I was talking to… Will, Queensland's teenage diving extraordinaire… Not Daniel who was more opposed to water and anything remotely marine than anyone else I had ever known.

"Yes, she's like me but just a little bit different. She's only been like that for six months. I'm not sure if that's because that's around the normal age that babies can do swimming lessons and all that, so if it was almost like she uh, changed at a safe age. She also takes 30 seconds instead of 10, and since she was born, it's taken me 20 seconds to change too."

Will nodded, displaying an expression that was a mixture of shock and fascination. "What does Lewis think about that? Did he come up with some genius explanation about it?"

"No. He couldn't narrow it down past the obvious fact that pregnancy and birth must have an impact on it since the other girls haven't changed at all."

A smile slid across his lips before it was controlled and contained as he started to speak. "Um, would I be able to see her like that sometime? Take her on a swim? A baby like you girls sounds really awesome."

I didn't want to prohibit Will from seeing Allie, but he was getting too close. Way closer than what Daniel would be happy with, meaning that the chance that he would learn that Will knows would be way too risky. "Um, maybe… At some point…She's never actually swam in open water before. And she's a bit different to us. Hers isn't orange or golden, it's like a pearl-white sort of colour – really pretty."

His face lit up a little more before it dropped rapidly, at an even faster pace than the previous expression.

"What about your boyfriend?" he asked as his eyebrows furrowed marginally. "Does he know about her? Or about either of you?"

I should have known or at least realized that he would ask that. Both boys seemed to have a mutual hostile disliking towards each other and if Daniel didn't want Will to have anything to do with Allie, then I could just as well assume the same with Will.

"Yeah" I started to confess honestly and painfully as my vision shrunk down to watching the ground. "We'd already been together for several months when she changed and a trust was already starting to be built up since he'd started babysitting her. Before that, I had managed to keep the secret when it was just me, but Dan worked out that I was hiding something pretty quickly after she changed. I had no choice but to tell him."

Will looked away, a contained sigh subtly leaving his evidently fuming face. "There's always a choice, Bella."

"There hasn't been a choice in a long time, Will" I replied with an equally as short answer to his question.

He remained silent for a few moments until his look and his gaze deepened marginally. "What do you mean by that? There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

"Of course. I'll tell you anything you want to know about Allie, but Daniel isn't your concern or your business to be quite honest."

The next expression that Will portrayed was increasingly harder to identify. I wasn't certain whether it was anger, annoyance or agitation. Perhaps it was a mixture of all of the above. All that I knew was that it wasn't a good expression.

"Okay, I understand, your relationship – none of my business, not that I even especially want it to be, but I'm allowed to be concerned if I think Daniel, regardless of whether he is your boyfriend or whether he's a total stranger, is a risk to putting my child at harm. You made your decision when we tried to help you Bella when you came over a few weeks ago. We were all there for you, the three of us, but you completely rejected it!"

With everything else that was going on, I'd completely forgotten about that day. Dan and I's domestic in the street out the front of the other's house. The day the others saw what he did to me. The day that I was torn between my head and my heart… All I remember is wanting nothing more that day than to run over to Rikki and the boys and to be protected with Allie. That was my heart. But in that ultimatum with Dan's all too smug look and the other's desperation, my head knew that I simply couldn't. Again, I had no choice – I knew what he would do if I chose the option of short-term safety that my heart was pleading for.

"Again, it wasn't that simple…"

He looked at me, the complete frustration inscribed all over his face... He wasn't the only one. "How?! How is it not that simple?!"

"Listen. Daniel has evidence of what I told you before. If I left, there would be no fairytale ending. I know that he would stop at nothing to get us back. He would expose me and try to expose the other girls. He has the photos – one blood test and it's all over. Life for me and the girls would never be the same."

Will forced his head into his open hands, pushing down with his head as fast as he could and staying in that position of desperation until he looked up again thirty seconds later. "You have got to be kidding me... Do you want to try tightening up this massive knot anymore than you possibly have?!"

"I know… I'm fully aware of how messed up everything is, thank you!"

"Messed up?! Messed up is not telling me that we have a kid. Messed up is staying with that mentally unstable nutcase! This is WAY beyond 'messed up'!"

I sighed before defending my boyfriend's cause, all with the understanding of where Will was coming from too. All that he could see was the negatives, the risks. He had no idea what was underneath that top layer of mess. "He's not mentally unstable… He knows full well what he's doing… He's emotionally unstable, Will. He might seem fierce and powerful from the outside, but he's a completely broken guy who still's trying to heal. If I left, I might as well pull a trigger to shoot him dead. I don't want his blood on my hands!"

"Oh god, Bells… What have you gotten yourself into?" Will sighed, rubbing his temples as his voice softened since he'd snapped with the last statement he had spoken.

I sighed, remembering back to the night that had unfolded just under a year ago… Where that part of my mess had really began.

So as mentioned in the first A/N, as a little treat for you guys as a thank you for all you support for getting to me to 300 reviews (well hopefully I will considering I'm 3 off, LOL!) I want to send everyone who reviews this chapter (and is logged in obviously) a generous little snippet of the next chapter. It applies to everyone that reviews both before AND after I reach the 300 mark. Also, the longer that your review is, the longer your preview will be! Thank you guys!

Now, considering that this chapter and the next were initially written as one chapter, I've actually got chapter 20 sitting here ready and waiting so I will be able to message you the treat as soon as I've read and got access to my laptop (ie, after school).

Next chapter - Bella explains the remainder of Daniel's past and the reasons why she had never told Will about Allie. Bella and Will both receive a bit of much needed closure regarding their past relationship and decide where to go from there.