EVENTIDE

Summary: During 1x11 Damon saves someone else by mistake instead of Elena. Bella Swan discovered she's adopted and wants to meet her twin sister Elena. She therefore decides to move to Mystic Falls to live with her Dad. As soon as she sets foot into the town limits though, she's almost attacked by a vampire and saved by another, Damon Salvatore, who decides to bring her with him to Georgia. Damon/Bella.

This story starts in the eleventh episode of season 1 – yes, the Georgia episode. Instead of Elena having the accident, she doesn't. She returns home, upset about finding out that she and Katherine are identical. Stefan then explains things to her, once she has calmed down enough to listen to him, and she finds out that she's adopted (all this will happen off-screen since it's pretty much the same as Canon).

Instead the one who has the accident is Bella Swan. Bella in this story is identical to Elena (except for wavy hair like in the photo). They are twins and obviously Bella is also a Petrova Doppelganger. Also Bella is not clumsy in this story, only shy and quiet.

The story starts at the beginning of Twilight – though it's set in 2009 like the Vampire Diaries – but instead of Bella moving to Forks, she moves to Mystic Falls. In this story, in fact, Charlie Swan doesn't live in Forks but Mystic Falls. He was born there and he's lived there all his life. He's the sheriff of the town (Liz Forbes is one of his deputies but the one with more years of experience) and the Swan family is also a founding family. Also, imagine every scene between Damon and Liz in the show from the Pilot to this point in the story with Charlie as well; and of course the scenes with the Founders Council, same thing – both Charlie and Liz are in it.

The Cullens don't exist or any other vampires of their type – the Cold Ones – therefore no Volturi, James, Victoria etc. either. In reality the only characters from Twilight that will appear in this story are Bella and Charlie (and Renée at the beginning and probably at some point later on). The shapeshifters like Jacob exist but they live at the Reserve near Forks like in Canon and therefore nowhere near Mystic Falls.

Like in Canon Twilight, Bella lived with Renée all her life except for those few weeks during the summer where she saw her father. In this story, obviously, she doesn't go to Forks but Charlie is the one who goes visit her in Phoenix. Therefore Bella has never been to Mystic Falls before.

When Renée and Charlie tell her the truth about her being adopted, Bella decides she wants to go live with her dad, so she can meet her twin sister Elena. Charlie was Grayson's best friend. When Isobel showed up pregnant at Grayson's clinic, Grayson called Charlie because Isobel wanted to leave the children to be adopted. However, as soon as she gave birth, she disappeared. That was when Grayson and Charlie decided to take one baby each to take care of. Renée can't have children and that's something that always weighted on her so she jumped at the chance of taking care of Bella. Charlie and Renée's marriage didn't last long however – just like in Canon – and when Bella was barely a few months old, Renée left Mystic Falls with her. In Mystic Falls a few people knows already that Elena and Bella are adopted and identical twins – Carol and Richard Lockwood, Liz and Bill Forbes to name a few – because they actually made things official and legal though neither Elena nor Bella knew. BTW, Charlie really doesn't know that Bella and Elena are John's daughters, Grayson didn't tell him. He doesn't even know that Grayson knew – or at least knew of – Isobel.

This will of course be a Damon/Bella story. BTW, some parts of this chapter are taken directly from chapter1 of Twilight (I'm sure you'll recognize which).

Hope you like it! Tell me what you think!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Vampire Diaries or Twilight nor any of their characters, nor do I make money by writing this story.

I'd never given much thought to how I would die — though I'd had reason enough in the last few months — but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

I stared without breathing at the forest around me, at the two bodies on both sides of me and finally into the dark eyes of the monster smiling pleasantly back at me.

Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.

I knew that if I'd never gone to Mystic Falls, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. After all, If I had chosen differently I wouldn't have met him.

The monster smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.

Prologue

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt — sleeveless, white eyelet lace. I was hoping it would be bring me luck where I was going.

In the state of Virginia, approximately halfway between Lynchburg and Charlottesville, there is a small town called Mystic Falls. Population: 6923. It was in this town that I was born though I can't say I remember it.

My mother escaped from it when I was only a few months old, bringing me with her. I hadn't found the reason why until recently but Charlie – my father – had never wanted me to visit there. Instead, every summer except for the past one, he was the one who visited me and together we would spend a month in a different city. Two years ago was Chicago, the Windy City.

It was to Mystic Falls that I now exiled myself. It was a decision I hadn't taken lightly but the new revelations had only cemented my decision to leave.

I would have missed Phoenix. I loved the blistering heat; the vigorous sprawling city. Though Mystic Falls was sunny from what I had heard, it was also small and unexciting.

"Bella," my mom said to me — the last of a thousand times — before I got on the plane. "You don't have to do this."

My mom looks a little like me, dark brown hair, chocolate brown eyes and olive skin, except with short hair and laugh lines – it was something I had taken pride in, before finding out the truth.

I felt a spasm of panic as I stared at her wide, childlike eyes. How could I leave my loving, erratic, harebrained mother to fend for herself? Of course she had Phil now, so the bills would probably get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car, and someone to call when she got lost, but still...

"I want to go. Not just for dad. I want to meet her." I had repeated the same line five times already today and at least ten other in the last three days.

My mother smiled at me but her smile was forced. "Tell Charlie I said hi."

"I will."

"I'll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want — I'll come right back as soon as you need me."

But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise.

"Don't worry about me," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom."

She hugged me tightly for a minute, and then I got on the plane, and she was gone.

It's almost a six-hour flight from Phoenix to Richmond, another forty minutes in a small plane up to Charlottesville, and then an hour and a half drive back down to Mystic Falls. I would rent a car to reach Mystic Falls instead of forcing Charlie to come pick me up at the airport. The hour I would arrive in Mystic Falls would be late, probably the early hours of the morning.

Charlie had really been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that I was coming to live with him. He'd already gotten me registered for high school and was going to help me get a car. Though I couldn't imagine what people would think once they saw me. It was already difficult being the new girl, looking identical to one of the girls who lived there was going to be ten times harder.

It was sure to be even more awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn't know what there was to add regardless. He knew why I was moving to Mystic Falls. He couldn't just drop a bomb like that on me and expect that nothing would change.

See, the thing was, I was adopted. The news had completely threw me for a loop. I never suspected it. But there it was. Not only that but I had a sister, a twin sister to be exact. Someone who looked identical to me. The idea alone was a little freaky but I couldn't deny that the idea of having a sister appealed to me. I only hoped she would be willing to know me.

As far as I knew, which wasn't much, her name was Elena Gilbert. She had lived with her adopted parents – Miranda and Grayson Gilbert – all her life until the tragic accident that took their lives last May. She also had a brother, Jeremy, who was two years younger. I also knew she used to be a cheerleader and she was popular and well liked by everyone.

The story of our birth was a strange one. A heavily pregnant girl – only 16 years old – had shown up one night at Grayson's clinic. She had given birth to two identical babies and then disappeared without a trace. Charlie said that she had only left her name, Isobel Pieterson, but it was probably a fake one. Grayson had called Charlie and together they had decided to take one child each. Both Grayson's wife Miranda and my own mother didn't have children yet so it had seemed like the perfect solution at the time. My mother, actually, can't have children – I always thought that had happened after me, turns out I was wrong. Anyway she had been more than happy to take me in and treat me as her own from that day forward. I had been very lucky. Even if my parents divorced, they still loved me very much, even if I wasn't really theirs.

I landed in Charlottesville that it was already two in the morning. It was way past three when I reached the town limits.

It was dark so I didn't immediately notice the man standing in the middle of the road. When I did, it was too late. I tried to hit the brakes and swerve but he was just too close. I hit him anyway.

I lost control of the car that started to roll over and over on itself. I felt myself bouncing around from side to side, my back, neck and head getting the brunt of it. When the car finally stopped spinning, I found myself upside down. The window was broken and I could feel some broken glasses cutting my exposed arm. I tried to free myself from this uncomfortable position but I was stuck.

Then I noticed to my horror the man I hit getting up again before realigning his broken bones of both his arms, shoulders and legs with loud cracks before starting to walk towards me like nothing had happened. It was a terrifying sight. It was also impossible.

Suddenly, all those stories my father had told me growing up, those about vampires, looked much more real. I hadn't really believed in them until now. Sure, Charlie had shown me the family journals – the ones every founding family of Mystic Falls possessed – but I've always thought they were just scary stories born of fear and ignorance, especially because they all came from the time of the Civil War, where the Confederacy thrived on stories about how awful and cruel the Union soldiers were.

The man had almost reached the car I was still stuck in when suddenly, he disappeared from my line of vision, in a movement too fast to be human. He was definitely a vampire.

A second later he reappeared right in front of me – or so I thought at first – and I screamed.

The man in front of me didn't seem fazed. Instead, he looked at the situation I was in and asked, "How ya doing in there?"

"Not too good." I replied, my voice coming out breathless. He didn't seem inclined to attack me so I relaxed a little. He obviously wasn't the same man as the one I hit but he was still obviously a vampire. I didn't know if I felt afraid. I knew I should. After all, my father had always liked to remind me that vampires were monsters, and that was it. And yet, this vampire was obviously trying to help me – he had also chased away the one who was probably going to attack me – so maybe not all vampires were monsters?

"You look stuck." He commented then.

"It's my seat belt. I can't get it." I explained at last, hoping I was doing the right thing in trusting him.

"Let me get you out of there. I want you to put your hands on the roof. Just like that. You ready? 1, 2, 3." I did as he told me to and the man immediately ejected my seat belt, using an obviously inhuman strength. Despite the not ideal circumstances, I was a little fascinated. It wasn't everyday one meets a vampire after all.

I felt myself falling as soon as I was free but the sensation didn't last long before the man caught me in his arms. "I got you." He brought me out of the car.

He kept me in his arms for a few steps. "Are you okay? Can you stand?" I tried to look at him through glazed eyes but I felt so weak and sleepy. "Is anything broken?"

"Uh-uh." It was the only thing I was able to answer.

He put me down but I could barely stand. I stumbled on my feet and the man immediately caught me. I vaguely noticed that he was very handsome with deep blue eyes, now staring at me in worry.

"Whoa, you're fading fast, Elena." He said then and I realized that this man thought I was my sister. This vampire knew Elena, how? And why had he saved me?

"Elena, look at me." He grabbed my face in his hand to get me to focus on him. "Focus. Look at me. Okay."

I tried, I really did, but it was difficult. I felt so tired, I just wanted to go to sleep.

"I'm not Elena." I said in a whisper.

"What?" He asked me, surprised, probably thinking he hadn't heard me right.

"I'm not Elena." I repeated before fainting.

"What am I going to do with you, hum?" Damon wondered to himself, looking at the girl passed out in his arms. This girl who looked identical to Elena and Katherine but wasn't apparently either of them.

Damon looked at her face and sighed, before deciding to bring her with him to Georgia. He wanted answers and he was going to get them, one way or another.