The Other Mikaelson

Chapter Five - So Many Stories

Isabella Mikaelson-Cullen sat on the back-porch steps that lead out to the back garden. Scenarios ran through her head, some good and some bad, but she tried her hardest to focus on the vision that Alice had told her about. The vision that her brothers and sister would come for her, like she had always hoped for. But even when she found a flicker of hope, questions started to run through her mind like they were repeat, on a loop.

Would they even want to talk to me? How did they figure out I was alive? How would they take the news that I had gotten married and had a child?

She sighed, and then she felt a presence behind her. From the calming influence they had, she knew it was Jasper.

"Trying to calm me won't work, Jazz. I'm already calm." She looked behind her and he smiled, coming to sit beside her.

"You are, but you are also terrified. Why are you so scared, Bells?"

"All of my life, I have been alone. Everywhere I have moved to, I couldn't make friends or meet new people because I would have to move soon enough so people didn't notice I wasn't ageing. And anyone I had seen was a one-time thing because they couldn't see what I was, what I am. I was completely alone, until I met Edward. He changed everything for me, but you already know that, you can sense my emotions." Bella said quietly, Jasper nodded, urging her to carry on.

"I abandoned my family Jasper. I was too scared to feed and become what my mother made me. And then when I did feed, I was too ashamed to find them again. Even though I looked for them for half a century, us Mikaelson's have never been easy to find." Bella laughed.

"They'll forgive you, Bella. Trust Alice's visions, she's never wrong." Jasper vouched for his wife, who was leaning against the doorframe behind them.

Alice grinned and sat down on the other side of Bella.

"He's right." Alice's smile widened, and Bella allowed herself to hope, just like Elijah had taught her all of those years ago.

"Bella?" Bella turned her head when she heard Edward call her name from inside of the house.

"Go ahead, see what he wants." Alice urged. Bella nodded and got to her feet, touching Alice's shoulder briefly before walking into the house. She walked through the kitchen, into the living room, and down the stairs in search of her husband. She got to the last stair and called out of him when she saw him.

"What's up?" She smiled, reaching for her daughter.

She stopped in her tracks when she saw them, all of them, standing on the front porch. She gasped, and took a step forward.

"Isabella." Elijah spoke quietly, Bella's eyes moved straight to him and their eyes met. She could see no hatred, no sadness, just pure love and joy. Bella grinned and took another step forward, and then another. She kept on walking until she was in her brother's arms. He reciprocated and held her just as tightly.

"Elijah." Bella sobbed, clutching to her brothers suit jacket.

"We're here, Isabella." He pulled back and wiped her tears away with his thumb. She grinned and turned to the rest of her family, but there was someone she didn't recognise, or rather three people.

"Who is this?" She smiled at Hayley and Freya, who had taken a step back. It was only now that she noticed that the brunette was holding a child.

"Isabella, this is Hayley, Freya and Davina." Elijah introduced them. From the way he said their names, Bella could tell the women meant a lot to him, especially Hayley.

Bella's head snapped quickly to look at Elijah.

"Freya. As in Freya?" She asked, her voice laced with disbelief.