TimeSkip: Part the Tenth

Bella was unbelievably cold and wet.  She was aware that she was still in her Orion silks.  Spock—age twelve—had disappeared in the evening the first night—but had returned in the early morning and had taken her to a strange apartment up in the mountains, the one wall that looked out toward Shri’kahr made of glass. 

She began to experience her new life.  He had asked her to set a code to the door that only they would know, and she chose her birthday—19870913—remembering what Spock had told her all those years in the future.

Soon she taught herself how to cook with the ingredients Spock brought her, robes in her approximate size in Orion silks and other fine material appearing along with veils and pins for her hair.  She was surprised at how readily Spock accepted her and provided for her, and she in turn made a makeshift home for him for the two weeks that she had spent on Vulcan.

But she had stepped out of the apartment late one evening to watch the moons rise, knowing Spock would not be back until sometime the next day, and she had stumbled, falling into the forests of what could only be the earth-she-knew.

The sound of thunder clapped overhead, and she turned her eyes to heaven. 

There was nothing for it.  Bella was alone, wearing clothes suitable to Vulcan, and in the woods hopefully around Forks.

She heard another crack and realized that it wasn’t the thunder but something else.

After twenty minutes, she found several cars lined up, and she continued toward the sound of people shouting, wondering what was happening.

Then, for a long moment, all was silent.  It was as if whoever she had heard had been beamed somewhere, and a blink of a second later none other than Carlisle Cullen was standing in front of her, his eyes utterly alien and clearly concerned.  “You’re alive,” he whispered in shock.

“Am I supposed to be dead?” she questioned.

“You’ve been missing for over a week,” he told her.  “You went to Port Angeles with your friends and never came back.”

Bella blinked, trying to remember back, and nodded.  “I—Am I near Forks?”

“Quite close,” he promised her, taking her hand in a way that almost seemed lewd, and he led her into a clearing where it seemed the entire Cullen Family was waiting for her, baseball bats and mitts discarded over the side.

She took this in and looked at all the Cullens in turn.

Then, suddenly, Edward was rushing forward and took her face in between his cold hands.  “You’re alive,” he stated in elation and leaned toward her, but she immediately pulled back.

“Married, remember?” she told him as she broke out of his hold.  She had a feeling it was because he let her and not because she had the strength on her own. 

Edward seemed chastened.

“And you abducted me,” she remembered.  “I had to roll out of the car to get away from you, Cullen.  I broke my arm!”

He looked at her arm, which was hidden beneath the silk, clearly confused.

“You don’t think that your father is the only doctor in the galaxy?” she lashed out, missing Spock, missing his kisses, his dynamic mind even as a child, his young innocent face. 

“We’re not aliens from outerspace,” he told her carefully.

“Don’t believe you,” she refuted.  “You’re not human.  There’s no other explanation.  I know you drink blood, of all things.”

Edward shuddered his eyes and the others behind him seemed to shift in their anxiety.  She wished she knew their emotions but all she could feel was love and respect and patience falling through the bond.

“Why do you think we’re aliens?” the woman who seemed to be Mrs. Cullen asked.  She had the same pasty skin, the same golden eyes, the same strange beauty.  Bella would also guess that she was cold to the touch.

“Are you human?” she asked bluntly.

No one answered her, just as she thought.

“Incoming!” Alice shouted and Bella was utterly confused. 

Immediately they swarmed around her and Edward wanted to run with her, but Alice said it was too late.  This was just as confusing as the conversation between the two Spocks.  Although it had been weeks, she still didn’t know what they were arguing about—time, flames, marriage and the need for it.  The younger version of Spock had said something cryptic as well, but she had fallen into the role, not of mother, but as guide with him, and didn’t want to press him for too many details when he was so young and clearly settling into their bond.

From the tree line, three individuals, all like the Cullens, appeared.  They were wearing ripped clothes, no shoes on their feet, their skin almost shimmering in the gray light.

“There are more of you,” Bella realized in little more than a whisper.

However, one of the males, off to the side and slightly behind, turned toward her as soon as she spoke.

Edward glanced down at her, a clear warning in his eyes, but she frankly didn’t care what he had to say.  If it had been more than a week, how had he avoided arrest?  He should be in a prison cell.  At the very least, he had broken into her room—how long ago was it?  Bella honestly didn’t know.

“What are you hiding?” the leader seemed to ask.  “I smell spices and heat and a strangeness not known to this land.”

“There is nothing,” Dr. Cullen explained, clearly standing in front of everyone else.

“And something else,” the leader continued, sniffing the air, “it’s as if the blood is tainted, repressed—”

“That would be the birth control,” she answered, her voice level, and she stepped forward although some of the Cullens tried to stop her.  “It was very strange,” she continued, “they injected it in my neck and said it would last eight months.”

The leader took her in and signaled for the other two to wait before stepping forward himself.  “You associate with these—unnatural things?”

“No,” she told them quite plainly.  “I was dropped in the woods and came upon here, same as you.  I followed the sounds of voices.  How are they unnatural?  You seem—similar.”  Bella wasn’t entirely certain how she should speak about the fact that they were aliens, but she was curious.

“They do not respect the natural order,” he told her before placing his hand on his chest and bowing.  “I am Laurent.”

This seemed to be a strange cultural meeting.  Bella had read of Terra’s first contact, and this seemed to possibly be another one.

Raising her right hand, she slatted the fingers to form the ta’al as Spock had taught her on her second day on Vulcan.  “Live Long and Prosper,” she translated.  “I am the Lady Isabella of the House of Surak.”

He tilted his head, asking her to go on.

“I am wife of Spock, son of Sarek, son of Skonn.”  She really couldn’t go further back than that.  Then again, the names would probably mean nothing to Laurent.  “I know that the Cullens are not human, but how are they unnatural?”

“They drink from animals,” Laurent explained.  “It is not the natural order.  Their eyes show their unnaturalness.”

For the first time, Bella looked into Laurent’s eyes and saw that they were a blood red, haunting, other, inhuman, alien.  “I did not know you could change your eye color based off of what you eat.”  She lowered her hand.  “I’ve never seen such a thing.”

“You are unacquainted with humans then,” the woman who had come through the trees suggested.  “They can change the color of their eyes with glass.”

Contacts.  She meant contacts.

“Really?” she asked, feigning curiosity.  “I would imagine that would hurt. Surely the glass must be close to the eye—”

“Yes,” she agreed, stepping forward.  “I would not do it myself.”

“What are you called?  What is your people?” Bella inquired, looking to Laurent, who was clearly the leader.

“We are vampires,” he told her, and she was shocked that they had adopted the name of the legendary creatures from Transylvannia.  “There are some—differences, though,” he quickly amended.

Nodding, she tried to center herself.  “You must be a long way from home.”

“We have no home,” the woman stated.  “We wander.”

That was utterly depressing, come to think of it. 

At that moment, Dr. Cullen stepped up beside Bella and placed a hand on her shoulder, a silent warning.  However, she stepped clearly to the side to dislodge the touch.  He looked at her, concern on his face, but she ignored him.

“These are our lands,” he told the three vampires.  “We would appreciate it if you don’t hunt near Forks or the Tribal Lands to the West.”

“We did not know,” Laurent apologized, though with clear scorn in his face.  “I suppose you do not wish to reveal yourselves to the humans.”

Dr. Cullen inclined his head.

“We would speak more to you, Lady Isabella,” Laurent stated, changing the subject and clearly block Dr. Cullen by turning his back to him.  “Were you once human as we once were?”

Now that was strange.  She hadn’t been expecting that.  Perhaps they infected people like the body snatchers.  That might explain a few things.

She thought how to explain it and then decided, “I’ve always been—other.  I ceased being human the day I was married, however.  It is the way.”  That was one way to describe citizenship.  She was a citizen of an unknown planet, and now she was a member of not only Vulcan but the United Federation of Planets.  Then again, with Vulcan now gone-and-yet-not-depending, she must be a citizen of something else.

The woman, who was watching Dr. Cullen carefully, asked, “How is it done?”

“How is it done for you?” she asked back.

This caused the third vampire, who had hung back, to snort.

Desperately, Mrs. Cullen walked forward.  “Perhaps we can offer our house as a place for further conversation?  Lady Isabella,” the words seemed to be choked out of her, “might be cold.”

She was cold, but that wasn’t unusual in Forks.  However, she was wearing the sandal-boots, which Spock had provided on the third day after carefully measuring her feet, and Orion silks while durable were unfortunately breathable—which did not suit the humid air of a thunderstorm. 

“Are you hungry, dear?” Mrs. Cullen asked.

With a sinking feeling, she realized that the food was different here.  It was almost as if she had been waiting her whole life to eat Vulcan food, as if that’s what she craved, and now it was several galaxies away.

“I’m not sure,” she responded, the thought of bacon and eggs sickening her slightly.  Maybe she would become a vegetarian.

“Laurent?” Dr. Cullen inquired and he gave a signal, which seemed to decide it all. 

They all walked toward the cars and Edward held a door open for her, and she just stared at him.  “You abducted me, Cullen. I haven’t forgotten.”

“I’m not abducting you now.”

“I’m not so sure,” she disagreed, but the woman who came out of the woods approached.

“I will sit with you,” she promised, her eyes raking over Edward disapprovingly. 

They all barely fit in the three cars, one being a jeep, and Bella was careful with her veil, though she doubted it would tear.  A sadness ran through her at the thought that the young Spock would not know where she went.  The tea was set to boil and the kettle would probably be scorched.  She would have vanished into thin air, and she hadn’t warned him that that might had happen.

“I never caught your name,” she asked the red haired vampire beside her.

“Victoria,” she informed her with a macabre smile. 

Bella offered the ta’al again, not saying the words, and then looked out the window at the trees.  The big one—Emmett, she thought—was driving, with Rosalie sitting stiffly beside him. 

“So you were human,” she began, trying to make small talk.  “How long does your body survive, not that it isn’t clearly—enhanced.”  Bella wasn’t exactly certain what else to call it.

“We should wait for Laurent,” Victoria responded airily, though there was a hint of apology in her voice.  “I know James is curious, although he would never say.”

“He’s the other one with you?” Bella inquired.

“Yes,” she answered.  “He’s my mate.”

That was interesting, and Bella turned toward her in curiosity.  “You must tell me about that.  Is that a word, like ‘husband’ and ‘wife’, or is it something else?”

“It is something more,” Victoria returned with a smile.  “There is no greater privilege than to have a mate, nothing we crave more, even blood.”

Bella could tell that Rosalie was listening, her head turned slightly toward them.

“It’s like us then,” Bella responded.  “I’m a ‘bonded mate’—which is different than the human concept of marriage.  My husband, though, calls me ‘wife’ in his language because he knows how much I dislike my name and to remind others that I’m not available, that he is unavailable.”  She remembered how he had purposefully used the word again and again in front of Uhura when they were on the Enterprise.  It was a claiming, a possessiveness, and a deep unabiding love.

“How romantic,” Victoria purred.  “I think I like your husband.”

“I miss him,” she returned.  “I saw him just earlier today—but I am gone from him for now.”

Victoria nodded, clearly not understanding, and the jeep drove up to a house made all of glass walls that partially reminded Bella of the Vulcan Embassy in San Francisco.

Emmett helped her jump out of the jeep as it was rather high up, and she walked at a sedate pace into the house, looking around at the white walls and white furniture.  It looked like something out of an architectural magazine, and she instantly hated it.

Alice led her into a sitting room that had a large flat-screen tv, and Bella took a seat at the end of one of the couches, waiting as everyone filed in.

“Lady Isabella,” Victoria informed Laurent before going to sit next to James, “is interested in ‘mates’.”

“Really?” he asked, his red eyes flicking over her veil.  “I have not been blessed.”

“Is it like destiny then?” she inquired.

“It is biological.  We feel a pull to our mate that is unlike anything that can be described.  We know when we set eyes on them.  It is a bond stronger than blood, stronger than human’s poultry marriage.  We go insane if our mate dies and often drift away to our own death.”

Bella nodded and looked down at her hands.  “Priestesses place telepathic bonds between—my husband’s people—at a young age to form a marriage.  You can feel everything the other person is feeling, you can find them over a great distance.  They cannot be placed between their people and any other species—except for me.  I am the only person who has a telepathic bond who was not born one of them, and my husband and I didn’t need a priestess.  It formed as soon as we were in proximity to each other.”

“You can feel your husband’s emotions?” one of the Cullens asked.  He had blond hair and a slightly pained look on his face.

“Yes,” she answered.  “I also have a telepathic bond with his father, as a daughter of his house, and can sense him.”

“And you became—one of them,” James checked, his voice casual, “when these bonds were created.”

“Yes,” she agreed, wanting them not to think she was a possible food source.  “I am now Vulcan.”

Their eyebrows lifted up and everyone seemed to be glancing at each other, the Cullens somehow communicating through their eyes, and the three nomad vampires doing the same.

“This was done to you as a child,” Dr. Cullen stated carefully.

“When does it matter when it was done?” Bella asked, leaning back.  “I’ve known love and acceptance I didn’t even know was possible.”

“What is your husband feeling now?” Victoria asked, sitting forward.

Bella smiled to herself as she reached for the bond.  “He sleeps.  He’s lonely but I know he loves me.  It’s always there in his mind.—With the distance it’s difficult to get a clear reading more than just the broadest of general emotions.—How do you become vampires?”

“We are bitten,” Laurent told her with a gleam in his eye.  “Venom replaces our blood and stops our heart.  Most of our human memories are lost.”

So this venom took over the host body and created an extraterrestrial.  That was utterly peculiar.  “How long has this been going on?” Bella inquired.

“The Volturi,” Dr. Cullen offered, “are at least three thousand years old.  They are our overlords.”

“So you have a secret government,” she murmured, her brain moving from thought to thought, quicker than she could process them.  “I suppose that only makes sense as you’re not human.”

“I wonder what Lady Isabella’s blood would taste like,” James mused, as if he didn’t realize he was speaking aloud.

Alice and Edward both tensed, but Bella paid it no mind.

“I wouldn’t try with the birth control in my blood.  You know, the doctor didn’t even ask permission.  He only stated that I was married and then injected me.  Sarek was standing right there, watching.  I suppose Spock and I are a little young to have children, but it was a bit high-handed.  I always assumed you needed to give consent.”

“You do,” Dr. Cullen told her quite firmly.  “You could sue whoever this doctor is.”

“I’m sure Spock will logically explain to him why he broke the Hippocratic Oath,” she mused, wondering if they even had such a thing in the Federation.  Glancing around, she decided, “I should call Charlie and tell him I was abducted, rolled out of a moving car, and then have been surviving in the woods.”

Edward looked panicked.

“You’re too clean to have been subsisting off of berries in the woods,” Rosalie sneered.

“Well,” Bella decided, “this is Orion silk.  I am not tearing it or getting it dirty.”

Someone giggled behind her and she went over to the phone and immediately called the Police Station, as she thought she would get a quicker response that way.

Laurent promised to be in touch and the three left, blurring across the fields, and Bella sighed.  She sat down and it was a matter of minutes before several police cars, sirens sounding, drove up to the house.  Charlie hopped out of the front one, not even bothering to close the door, and ran into the house and she threw herself into his arms.  She was glad to see him, but she missed Spock desperately.

“My god,” he breathed, pushing hair away from her face.  “I thought I’d lost you for good.”

She shook her head, a bittersweet smile on her face.  “No, I think I’ll stay for a little longer, if you don’t mind me.”

Charlie sat her down on the couch and the Cullens were told to go into the kitchen where they were questioned.

Bella spoke to a nice female officer, telling her story about how she was followed by a group of men in Port Angeles, how someone she didn’t know shoved her into a car, and then how she rolled out of it and crawled into the woods.

“You never saw his face?” the officer asked.

Shaking her head, Bella replied, “No.  I mean, it was so fast.  And I was in the back seat and he was looking forward and I was more concerned with escaping, than anything.”

“Did he rape you?” she asked carefully. 

“No,” Bella stated emphatically.  “No, I was lucky.  He didn’t have time, if that was even on his mind.”

She was eventually wrapped up in a blanket and taken to the hospital.  Charlie was the one who took off her veil, never quite asking although there were questions in his eyes. 

Some doctor she didn’t pay attention to drew blood and she was asked if she was injured, but her arm had been healed on the Enterprise, so there was nothing to say.

Falling asleep, she was awakened when a light was turned on several hours later.  Charlie was slumped in a chair, but he quickly sat up.

“Miss Swan,” the doctor approached.  “Chief.  I have to ask some difficult questions.”

“Right,” Bella agreed, afraid what he might have found.

“We found a compound in your blood.  It’s an odd mixture of hormones and vitamins and some compounds we can’t identify.  Were you injected with something?”

Bella swallowed, trying not to tense, and the doctor continued.  “We determined that it’s some type of fertility drug, although we can’t quite identify it.  We’ve sent it to the CDC.  Miss Swan, were you—I know you have denied being raped—but you’re dressed in silks with a veil.  It’s not exactly Middle Eastern but—”  He cleared his throat and looked nervously at her father.  “Were you taken hostage by someone who wanted to impregnate you?”

She shook her head vehemently. 

“Your last gynecological exam, less than a month ago, states that your hymen was still in tact.”

Trying not to sigh and wondering how people were allowed to ask these sorts of questions, Bella immediately stated: “I have a boyfriend.  We—do things.”

“Are you certain, Miss Swan?”

“Very certain,” she stated.  “I was in that car for less than ten minutes—”

“It can take less than ten minutes,” the doctor informed her.

That was just confusing and she looked up at him.  “Really?”  She bit her lip, thinking.  “You sure?”

“I am unfortunately very certain, Miss Swan,” he responded.  “Were you using protection?”

“What?” she asked, suddenly angry.  “What’s with the fifth degree?  I wasn’t raped.”

The doctor looked at her for a long moment and then glanced nervously at Charlie, who was leaning his elbows against his knees.  “You have been gone for approximately eleven days.”

“Have I?” she responded, confused.

“Our tests indicate that you are pregnant.  Looking at all factors and the amount of estrogen in your blood, you are approximately eight to ten days pregnant, from what we can tell.”

Bella just stared at him in shock.  She knew she was on birth control.  Dr. McCoy had given her a hypospray.  How was she pregnant?  And could she even given birth?  Spock had green blood—how did his Mother?—God, she was dead.  Bella could never ask her.  She seemed to be the closest thing to a human who had procreated with a Vulcan.

“I think the police can take it from here,” Charlie stated very firmly.  “Bella is pregnant.  That’s understood.  The police will investigate.”  He stood and walked up to Bella, taking her hand in his.

“Miss Swan needs to know her options,” the doctor continued.

He held out a pamphlet but she didn’t take it. 

This didn’t seem to bother the doctor, and he simply set it down beside her bed.  “There is, of course, abortion.  It is definitely early enough.”

“No,” Bella stated very firmly.  “Are you heartless?”

“Not at all, Miss Swan,” the doctor told her.  “Legally, I must inform you—”

“I’m keeping the baby,” she returned quickly and Charlie looked down at her with unreadable eyes.

“Many women find it difficult to carry and raise their rapist’s baby—”

Bella grabbed the pillow behind her and threw it at the doctor.  He ducked, but he nonetheless seemed a bit ruffled.

“Get the fuck away from me and my baby,” she demanded. 

The doctor tugged at his labcoat, nodded, and then said the nurses could call him if he was needed.

Deflating, Bella leaned back and realized she didn’t have a pillow anymore.

Charlie sighed and fetched it for her, and placed it behind her back.  “We’re going to have to talk about it.”

“Of course,” Bella agreed, not realizing what she was going to say yet.  “I’m keeping the baby, though.”

“Okay,” he responded tiredly.  “I would never force you to abort the child or give it up for adoption.  But I’m here for you, whatever you decide.  This is not your fault, Bells,” he told her very firmly.  “This is in no way your fault and this is your choice.  Not mine, not the doctor’s, and certainly not your mother’s.”

The last part made Bella smile slightly and she let her hands rest on her stomach, wondering how this was even possible. 

She was so young, her husband flying among the stars, both so far away from the other and unable to reach other. 

But this, somehow, strangely, was right.  She’d figure it out.  She had to.

There was no other option.

2019/09/05