Finding peace

Sequel

Part 3

Bella's party had gone well, exactly like she had hoped and now that almost everyone had left, she was left with Katherine and Rebekah to clean things up before their sleep over could start. She had fun, she laughed, she watched her friends flirt and have fun. For once in her life, she had been like every other 18 year old girl partying with her friends to celebrate her birthday.

"Bella, can we talk?" Edward asked her from the corner of the living room.

"Edward! I thought you had left with Emmett, Jasper and Rosalie! Weren't you supposed to go hunting with them? What's going on?" She asked him, still flushed from all the laughing she did at her party.

"Please come outside with me, I'd like to talk with you... privately. It's important. it can't wait." he insisted still very seriously and after a nod in her two friend's direction, Bella followed Edward outside.

Edward took her warm hand in his frozen one and guided her silently to the woods where he walked them for several minutes in silence. Bella guessed that he just wanted privacy, probably to tell her something very important so she didn't protest, already imagining a big romantic love declaration that would mark the start of Edward's real efforts to make her happy and work on their couple. She was sure that, finally, Edward would prove to everyone that she had been right to give him another chance.

"It's getting chilly... I should have grabbed my jacket." Bella commented.

She was dressed in only a knee length dress with small lace sleeves that barely covered her shoulders. It was very pretty and was perfect for the occasion, as long as she was inside. Now that she was in the woods, in the middle of the night with flip flops on her feet and a light summer dress, she was getting cold.

"You'll be fine, we won't be here long." Edward told her and his reply surprised her.

He was usually the one to scold her when she wasn't careful about taking care of herself and now he ignored this? For the first time since they left her father's house, Bella was getting worried about his intentions.

"Okay Edward, can we please stop walking? We're far enough, Rebekah and Katherine won't hear you, especially since the music was still playing when we left. I'm too cold to go any further. What's going on? You're starting to scare me!" Bella insisted.

"Fine. We can do this here." Edward nodded, sparring a look to take in his surrounding but Bella could feel that he was only doing it to give himself some composure, he didn't seem to truly care about where they were.

"Do what?" She asked him nervously, hoping that he wasn't going to grant her her wish for more intimacy in the middle of the woods when she was cold.

"My family and I are leaving tomorrow morning. We've been here too long already." Edward told her.

"What? Can't you finish off the year? What's a few more months?" She asked him, surprised and feeling like a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown on her.

She had definitely not been expecting this.

"No, we've waited much too long already..." Edward shook his head and Bella got angry.

"This is bullshit Edward! A few more months wouldn't change anything and you know it. Now, why don't you try being honest with me for once and tell me what this is really about?" She asked him.

"I want to break up with you Bella. You've changed too much since Katherine arrived in town and you refuse to see it. I can't handle it anymore." He shook his head in a resigned manner.

"I haven't changed Edward, this is who I've been all along. I was just keeping quiet even when I disagreed before because I was afraid of losing you. Katherine simply reminded me that who I am is an independent young woman who voiced her opinion and didn't let anyone walk on her feet." Bella replied in a very calm voice, trying not to get angry.

"Whatever you say. My family and I are leaving tomorrow, this won't change. I see now that we don't want the same thing out of life. The fact that you want to become a vampire... It's not natural and I can't be with someone like that." Edward shook his head.

"What's not natural is your constant denial of who you are and the great opportunity that it is. You want to be human so much but being human means getting hurt, risking death every second. You have no idea how lucky you are that you don't have to worry about your life with every step you take and every decision you make and don't even bring up the children issue because when there is a will, there is always a way. Adoption? It's not only for sterile people!" Bella snapped.

"You're entitled to your opinions Bella, even if you're wrong. I won't tell you where we're going, I don't want you to look for me." He told her, using a tone that angered her because it reminded her of the way you spoke to a young child who didn't understand things very well.

"Don't worry about it Edward, looking for you is far from being on my mind right now. And to think I was trying to give you another chance, to keep myself from breaking your heart... I was just stupid to think you even had a heart in the first place, maybe your is as frozen as the rest of you." Bella shook her head.

"What do you mean?" he asked her, surprised.

"It doesn't really matter now but I want to congratulate you."

"What for?" he asked her.

"Ruining my perfect day. I was happy, I had a great party, had fun with all of my friends... I was very happy... the happiest I had been in a very long time and you just ruined that. Did you really have to do this tonight? You couldn't do it yesterday or tomorrow? You had to do this on the night of my 18th birthday party? Did you really want to ruin things for me?" She asked him, shaking her head.

"I don't see why today is worst than any other day. It's a break up Bella." Edward shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, maybe you're right then, maybe you don't have a soul because anyone with just the smallest hint of humanity would have waited to do this at a moment that wasn't my birthday." Bella snapped.

"Now you're acting like a child Bella. It's just a birthday, don't be self centered." Edward shook his head.

"Self centered? Just a birthday? Maybe birthdays don't count to you anymore Edward, but to me, it's important. An 18th birthday is an important one, a pivotal moment in a life. Maybe your so called cursed life is so boring to you that birthdays don't mean anything and that passing time doesn't mean anything to you anymore but this one was important to me, I wanted it to be perfect, for once. I've never been self centered in my life and wanted a good 18th birthday party doesn't make me self centered Edward, it makes me human, something whose meaning you obviously don't understand which is very sad for someone who has lived as long as you have. But you know what? Fine! Think whatever you want. What's done is done anyway. Good luck with your so-called eternal life but if I can give you just a bit of advice, it's to either give up on pretending to be human or to work harder at it." Bella replied, her voice going from anger to calm in between sentences.

"Goodbye Bella." Edward nodded his head before he turned around and suddenly disappeared from her sight.

Bella blinked a couple of times in shock.

Edward had brought her in the woods, away from her house in the middle of the night without even the moon to give her light and had left her alone there. Now that she was alone, she was even colder and her hands weren't enough to warm herself up, no matter how fast she pushed them up and down her arms. Already she was shivering hard.

"Rebekah? Katherine?" Bella called out, hoping her friends would hear her and that the music wasn't too loud to cover her distant voice.

Even if they heard only a whisper of their names being called, they'd come to find her and she'd be safe and warm in no time.

Her father was at Billy's for the night so he wouldn't realize she was gone but how long would it take her friends before they got worried?

Bella knew that she should get moving but she had no idea of the direction she arrived from. It was all so dark... Was it left? Right? Behind her? One wrong step and she could go even further in the woods or even hurt herself.

Were there wild animals in Forks's woods besides the Wolves from Sam's pack? Would one of these animals try to eat her?

"Katherine? Rebekah?" Bella called out once more, cursing herself for refusing the cell phone her father offered to give her for her birthday.

She had called it "unnecessary". Oh, how she regretted it now...

For a moment, Bella wondered if Klaus had succeeded in breaking his curse, if everything would be fine with him. Shaking her head, she forced herself to focus. She needed to get help from someone, anyone, really, who could get her home, to warmth, quickly.

"Sam? Jacob? Paul? Is anyone out here tonight? Anyone? Please!" Bella called out, hoping that if her vampire friends couldn't hear her, maybe her super wolf ones would.

Bella was getting tired, probably because of the cold. Her feet were hurting and she didn't know if it was because of the cold or of something else.

"Please, anyone?" Bella called out, lower than before because she was too cold to yell.

She didn't even know that it was possible to get this cold this quickly. Too tired to stand any longer, Bella sat down, wrapping her arms around her torso and her knees up against her chest to try and keep as much heat as she could.

Bella didn't know how long she waited, but she had the time to sing "Happy birthday to you Bella" to herself over 20 times before she grew tired and closed her eyes, promising it would be for a few minutes only.

"Bella? Oh my god! Bella? What did he do? We thought he had taken you back to their house, I'm so sorry!" A worried said but Bella couldn't bring herself to recognize it fully, even if she knew that it was a familiar feminine voice that she trusted.

"Here, put my jacket on her until we get home." Another voice said.

Bella knew instinctively that it was Katherine and Rebekah. She felt herself be carried and put down on a warm and soft surface that smelled comfortingly like her father. Then there were blankets around her and soothing words in her ears.

"Bella, honey, you have to drink a bit of my blood, we don't want you to get sick." Bella recognized Katherine's voice and nodded.

She felt herself being lifted into a sitting position and opened her mouth, drinking the warm liquid, knowing it was for the best. After that, Rebekah brought her hot cocoa and Bella managed to open her eyes. The blood was working because she could already feel better.

"What's happened? You were gone so long... We thought he had taken you back to his house at first..." Rebekah said.

"How long was I gone?" Bella asked.

"About 3 hours. We had time to clean everything very thoroughly." Katherine smiled.

"If you thought he had taken me back to his place, how did you know to look for me? I tried calling out but I think I was too far..." Bella shook her head.

"We also had the music on... But one of Sam's younger wolf found you. He wasn't sure he'd be able to control the shift so he rushed back to Sam who called us." Rebekah explained.

"He didn't tell Charlie, did he?" Bella asked worriedly.

The last thing she wanted was her father worrying about her and getting overprotective.

"It's too late so no, he didn't. We told him we'd inform Charlie when we knew more. No need to have him worrying unnecessarily." Katherine shook her head.

"Good." Bella nodded.

"So, what happened?" Katherine asked.

Bella told them everything, not hiding anything. Of course her two vampires friends were very angry and Katherine called Jasper who didn't even know the Cullen's were living. Rebekah only muttered that Klaus wouldn't let them get off this easily, especially Edward who had put her at risk by living her alone in the woods in the middle of the night, wearing only a little dress and barely no shoes.

"Right now I just want to get some sleep and try to forget about the fact that I thought I'd die in those woods on my 18th birthday. Did Klaus's ritual work, by the way?" Bella asked.

"Yes, it did. Elijah sent me a message right before we went to look for you. They'll be home the day after tomorrow." Rebekah nodded.

"Good. Now come on, let's go get some sleep." Bella decided.

She wanted to try and forget about the entire thing, mainly because she thought it was her fault for giving Edward a second in the first place when she was starting to have feeling for Klaus. Maybe she had deserved what happened, to be left alone in the cold and in the woods, not knowing if anyone would find her or if she'd end up being food for wild animals.

Shaking her head, Bella's last thought before sleep claimed her was that the blame ought to be placed on Edward. He was the one who was supposed to be older, more responsible. He was the one who asked her to follow him in the woods on the night of her 18th birthday. He could have acted differently, he had a choice, but he didn't and she refused to take the blame for this.

.

Bella convinced her friends not to mention the night in the woods incident to her father and to simply tell him that Edward had broken up with her on her birthday. When she got back to school two days later, everyone knew that the Cullen family had left town and they believed they had moved to LA where Carlisle had gotten a job offer he simply couldn't refuse.

"So, I heard that Edward wasn't very gentlemanly when he broke up with you. Your father only got the short version of it all, didn't he?" Klaus asked her, surprising Bella with his presence in the living room of his house where she was waiting for Rebekah to get 'something important' from Elijah's personal library.

"Klaus! I didn't know you were back already!" She exclaimed, rushing to hug him, unable to control herself.

Of course Klaus hugged her back, longer than he usually did and whispered his 'happy birthday' wish in her ear, sending chills all over her body.

"Do you want me to hunt him down and make him pay, love?" He asked her and she knew who and what he was talking about.

"No, forget it. I decided to let it go. Be the better person. Thinking any more about it won't help anything." She shook her head.

Bella was almost certain that Rebekah wasn't getting anything from her brother's personal library and that she was simply giving Klaus and her some privacy.

"You don't seem too sad about it." Klaus realized.

"I'm not. I was thinking of breaking up too... I was just waiting to give him a chance to win me back... Now I know that it just wasn't meant to be." She smiled and tried to hide her blush.

"Your growing blush is telling me that it's not everything..." Klaus guessed.

"Maybe I was falling for someone else." Bella knew that as she spoke, her blush was still deepening and that her heart was beating faster.

Klaus took a step closer to her.

"Maybe? Was?" He asked her with a hopeful smile.

"Okay... I AM, for sure, falling for someone else." She smiled, knowing he was getting it and obviously not pushing her away o running in the opposite direction.

"Anyone I know?" he asked her again.

"I'd hope so. I think you're the one who knows him best." She smiled, noticing that he was now right in front of her.

"And if he was to ask you out this Friday, what would you say to him?" Klaus asked, replacing a loose strand of her hair behind her left hear.

"I guess to know you'll just have to ask me." She smirked, making him chuckle.

"What would your father think?" he wondered.

"Probably something along the lines of 'Finally!'. He's been rooting for you for a while." Bella chuckled.

"Then Bella, would you like to go out on a date with me this Friday night? Allow me to celebrate your birthday with you?" Klaus asked her, suddenly very serious, yet a teasing charm was still present on his face.

"Would this be a date or a birthday celebration?" She asked him.

"A bit of both, but more of a date really." he smiled.

"It would be my pleasure then, Klaus." She nodded.

"Good. You won't regret it Bella. I promise you, I'll make you happy." He assured her as he kissed her hand in a very old fashioned way that still sent butterflies in her stomach.

"I know you will." Bella nodded before Rebekah finally came back in the room, without the book she was supposed to be getting, and hugged Bella, telling her how excited she was that they were going to be sisters and ignoring Bella telling her that she was getting a bit ahead of herself and that being best friends was the same as being sisters anyway.

.

By the time Friday arrived, everyone in Bella's life seemed aware of her plans for the evening and they all wanted details.

"Is there even one person who's sad that I'm now broken up with Edward?" Bella wondered as Katherine helped her get ready.

"I doubt it honey." Katherine smiled.

"How about you and Jasper, how are the two of you doing?" Bella asked her.

"Very well. It's like we were never parted at all. I'm very happy with this new life I'm getting." Katherine smiled.

"You don't even miss the Salvatore brothers? Rebekah told me that Elijah crossed them in Mystic Fall's... They're dating your doppelganger so that means they didn't forget you..." Bella wondered.

"Well, I'm hard to forget Bella, I'm too awesome!" the vampire joked before she added "They never meant anything to me anyway. They were just something to occupy my time, to keep me busy and help me mourn for the Love I had lost..."

"Good, I'm very happy for you and Jasper." Bella smiled.

"Thanks, now it's time for you to be happy as well!" Katherine replied before she started working on Bella's hair.

When 7 arrived, Bella was ready and strangely enough, she wasn't in the least bit stressed or nervous. She figured that she wasn't nervous because she knew that it would all work out in the end, that she'd be not only safe but also happy with Klaus.

"You're okay Bella? You looked lost in thoughts there..." Her father said.

"I'm fine dad. I know that everything will be perfect." She nodded her head confidently.

"You know that you don't have to do this, right? If you feel like you're not ready to date him, you can always cancel." He reminded her.

"I thought you liked the idea of Klaus and I together?" Bella asked, turning to face him.

"I do! I just want you to be sure too." He added.

"I am, don't worry." She smiled.

"Good." He nodded.

Bella didn't have to wait for long before Klaus parked his car in their driveway and rang their doorbell. Feeling her heart jump in her chest, Bella opened the door, smiling brightly at the tall, strong and very handsome man standing in front of her.

Was it possible that breaking his curse had made him hotter than before? She didn't know why but her heart screamed yes to answer that question.

"Good evening Bella. Are you ready to go?" He asked her, handing her a small bouquet of very pretty wild flowers.

"I am. I'll just... Put the flowers in some water. I'll be right back." She blushed while her father greeted Klaus and confirmed that Bella didn't have a curfew but that she needed to come home at some point.

When Bella came back, Klaus offered her his arm and opened her door for her before he sat by her side and started the car.

"You're very pretty tonight Bella." Klaus complimented her before he started the car.

"Thanks... I hope it's appropriate for whatever you've got planned." She replied with a soft blush on her cheeks under his compliments.

"Don't worry, you'll be perfect, Love." He reassured her.

"And where are we going?" She asked him.

"It's a surprise. Do you trust me?"

"Of course I do." She nodded.

"Then trust me on this, you'll love it." he replied and she nodded.

Klaus drove in a comfortable silence for about 30 minutes and finally parked in front of an isolated restaurant that Bella had never seen before. Klaus was a gentleman the entire time, opening doors for her and kept an arm around her waist when they walked. The conversation was easy between them and Klaus knew how to make Bella laugh. She particularly enjoyed that he'd use any excuse to touch her, even if it was just the hand when they were sitting at the table.

"How did you find this restaurant?" Bella asked Klaus when the waitress left after giving them their drinks and taking their order.

"Elijah heard about it from a witch contact of his that doesn't live too far from here. Billy Black knew about it as well and confirmed that it was a nice place to go to... So I tested it with my family and decided that it was worthy of our first date." Klaus explained.

"Well, I really like it." She nodded.

"Good."

"So, you didn't have any problems breaking your curse?" She asked him.

"No, everything went well. Elijah had planned things perfectly, as always but let's not talk about this yet. I'd rather talk to you about lighter subjects tonight." He smiled.

"Were you always so talented... with your paintings I mean... or did you have to learn it?" Bella asked him as the waitress brought them their orders.

"Well, growing up I never really had the opportunity to try it. It's only later, once we reached the old world, that I managed to have time on my hands to try my hand at drawing... It caught my interest and I took some lessons with renown masters to perfect my tactics." He explained.

"I'm sure that being able to compel them to take you as a student helped as well." She smiled.

"True, but for the record, I didn't need to compel them all. I happen to be very charming when I want to be." He protested lightly.

"Oh, I know." She nodded, a smile never leaving her face.

They talked about lots of things during their dinner, from their interests to what they wanted out of life. They did their best to ignore the Edward subject and everything went very well between them.

When they were done eating their deserts, which they shared in a very intimate way that had Bella blushing but made them both happy, Klaus drove them back to his place where they had the movie room for themselves.

"Where is everyone else?" Bella wondered when she saw that the room had candles light everywhere and snacks already prepared in front of the couch.

"Rebekah is spending the night at Angela's place to help her with her history problems. Elijah and Kol left for Port Angeles right before we came back, to have some fun in a bar." Klaus replied while he took out a selection of movies for her to choose from.

"They set all of this up for us then?" She asked him.

"Well, I did asked them to do it, but yes. Do you mind? I can take it all out if you'd prefer another ambiance..." He explained.

"Oh no, I really like it! Don't change anything. Any of these movies is fine by me." She replied.

"Very well then... Let's try this one." Klaus put the DVD in the player and went to sit by Bella's side on the small and very comfortable couch.

As the movie started, Bella moved closer to Klaus and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her even closer to him.

"I know that I shouldn't feel like this yet... That I should take some time before wanting to be serious about us but... This feels right..." Bella told him softly while the movie started.

"I feel the same way Bella... I've never felt anything so deep for anyone before you and I can guarantee you that I'll do my best to make you happy. We'll take things at the speed you decide." He assured her.

"Not too slow... But not too fast either." She smiled.

"As you wish, Love." he smiled and kissed her on top of her head very tenderly.

"This means we're together right?" She asked in a whisper, afraid to have misunderstood everything.

"Of course it does. It also means that if this Mike Newton doesn't back off soon, I'll handle it myself." He warned her.

"I don't understand how he can still be after me when Rebekah compelled him to forget he ever had feelings or any sort of attraction for me..." She shook her head.

"Some people have a natural resistance to compulsion. It's rare, but it happens. I usually resolve these problems with a murder." He explained.

"Let's watch the movie before you start plotting the murder of one of my classmates." She chuckled.

At some point during the movie, they shifted position so that Bella's head lay on Klaus's knees and so that he had one hand over her stomach, drawing small circles on the skin under her shirt and the other one stroking her hair tenderly.

When the movie ended, Bella really didn't want the night to end yet and after Klaus turned the movie off, offering to drive her back home, she motioned for him to sit back next to her and once he did, she initiated their first kiss, knowing that he wouldn't do it and would wait for her to be ready. Their kiss started out small and tender but quickly grew much more passionate.

When Elijah and Kol came back home, around 2 in the morning, Klaus and Bella were still making out on the couch. Klaus was laying on top of Bella who had her hands firmly wrapped around his shoulder, keeping him as close to her as possible while his own hands visited the skin under her shirt. If Elijah wanted them to go in their room silently so that they didn't disturb the newly formed couple, Kol ignored him and noisily barged in the room, turning the lights on and commenting on their position and on Bella's blush.

"I... What time is it?" Bella asked, trying to hide her face in Klaus's chest as they both sat up.

"A little after 2 am." Elijah replied apologetically, not hiding his own smirk.

"So, did you two have a good time then?" Kol asked teasingly.

"Yes." Bella nodded, her face still hidden in Klaus' chest while his arms were wrapped tightly around her, holding her to him.

"Maybe I should drive you back home Bella." Klaus suggested and she nodded.

"It's not that far, maybe we should just walk over there." She suggested and with a smile, he guided her to the door, ignoring Kol's teasing.

Klaus walked Bella back to her father's house, where they kissed for a few more minutes before she finally walked inside with a very large smile on her flushed face and the promise that they would have lunch together the next day.

Later, after Bella's graduation, they would talk more seriously about their future but right now, they would simply enjoy being together.

Klaus and his family would make sure that Bella stayed safe and that she enjoyed her last months as a teenager in high school. They were in no rush because they had forever in front of them and they both knew in their heart that they were made to last forever, or at least a very, very, very long time.

Bella knew that unlike Edward, Klaus wouldn't be afraid to change her into a vampire when she decided to join him and that he wouldn't push her away when she was finally ready to have sex with him.

That night, before she fell asleep, Bella was thankful for the way her life turned out since she came to live with her father. She had gained and lost a first love, learned who she was inside, made real friends, reunited her old friend Katherine with her long lost Love, found a family in the Mickealson's and found who she felt was the big love of her life.

As for Klaus, he finally felt at peace with his life. He had his family, a girlfriend who loved him for who he was and he had broken his curse.

"So brother, how does it feel to be in Love and have it returned by the lady who has won your heart over?" Elijah asked him as soon as Klaus came back home.

"Great. You should try it." Klaus smiled.

"She's changed you, you know... Ever since you met her... It's like... You found your inner peace..." Elijah commented.

"That's the way it feels brother. It feels like when I found Bella, I didn't only found a mate but I also found Peace. Peace for my mind, peace for... everything." Klaus replied before he started painting Bella.

Later, he'd call that particular painting "Finding Peace" before hanging it in the family living room so that everyone who entered their home would be able to see it.

And this is the end people, I sure hope you enjoyed it. Who knows, maybe I'll add more to it later but this is all I had planed.

Reviews please?

Lorelei Candice Black