Chapter 38

For an entire week, Myriam-as Aurora-stayed in the guest quarters because Klaus didn’t want her anywhere near him looking like the lunatic. Aurora-as Myriam was kept compelled at all times. Rebekah took great pleasure in playing with her, because she’d always wanted to be able to compel Myriam but out of respect never did. Now that it wasn’t actually Myriam but Aurora, Rebekah went to town – much to Klaus and Myriam’s disapproving looks.

Klaus and Myriam were still searching for the witch responsible for this swap and Bella felt guilty as hell, not leaving her and Kol’s apartment for a few days. When Kol told her that their unborn children were responsible for Myriam’s current predicament, Bella couldn’t believe him. Sure, the boys were alive, kicking Bella back and blue from the inside, but to be capable of doing magic? No, that was out of the question.

It took a meeting with the Regent to inform her about all the happenings at the Mikaelson compound to convince Bella otherwise. The Regent explained that, from her knowledge and that of the Ancestors, the Mikaelsons were once humans with great magical potential and that only Kol had tapped into that, aside from their mother. Bella knew this story, of course. Kol missed being a witch, but he’d rather be something more sturdy so that he wouldn’t be easily killed by his siblings.

To be pregnant with twins and first borns, inside a demi-Goddess shell, made sense for the babies to already practise magic, tapping into Bella’s power and convert it to magic. Bella begged the Regent to undo their magic as she couldn’t do it herself and would likely only be able to do that herself once she had given birth.

Magic didn’t work that way, unfortunately. No, Bella knew that. Kol had already told her that. But it still had been worth the try. Madame La Rue agreed with Kol in believing that it was a time related spell and that eventually Myriam would go back to her own body. Seeing how upset Bella was by the whole thing, she also cast a minor spell on Bella to block the magic from the would-be terror twins in her womb. What if they’d do it again?

By the end of the week, Myriam and Aurora did indeed swap back and seeing as Aurora was still trying to get her bearings, Myriam could kill her easily. A dinner was thrown to celebrate Myriam’s return and the end of the trio, and while the whole situation had been embarrassing, it had been a great prank, and Kol was walking around like a proud daddy which annoyed Myriam and forced them to come clean about it all.

“If they do something like this again, I will be the evil aunt!” Myriam threatened before gently tapping on Bella’s ever growing belly. “You hear me, Chip and Dale? Do that again and you will be sorry for the rest of your lives!” She then looked at Bella. “And you. Just don’t even attempt of using your gifts because I think that’s what set those two in there off.”

“Ah, she may have to use it one more time,” Elijah pointed out. “She turned our sister Freya into a tortoise.”

“And she’ll stay that way,” Myriam growled. “Weren’t you moving out, Elijah?”

December came and went; Christmas was incredibly elaborate with the gift exchange being mostly toys, clothes and items for the babies. Not even born and already spoilt rotten. On top of that, Hades and Helios both showered her and Kol with gifts too; in some cases quite literally and Bella had oh so much tried to keep calm and accept it all, but eventually she burst out in anger and decided not to leave the apartment again until it was time for her to give birth or perhaps go to the hospital.

She sometimes joked that it felt as if there were more babies kicking inside of her, no doubt she was black and blue on the inside by now, and Kol always paled and told her that it wasn’t fun to joke about it. It was impossible. Multiple times they had witch healers check up on her and they confirmed two babies all the time. Even Helios, whose visits came more frequently now because Bella did need her dad-NotDad, told her that she had nothing to worry about, that they were merely going to be two strong human beings.

Helios and Hades had both loved the prank the boys had pulled on Myriam, though, and were disappointed that the unborn babies were rendered useless in Bella’s womb by the Regent per Bella’s request. Bella found it tiring to explain time and again that they hadn’t bound their powers, merely made sure that they didn’t share it with the rest of the world because they were still in the womb and didn’t know better – granted, Bella knew that they were likely going to be a handful anyway once she had pooped them out and she was more than likely going to convince Kol about binding their powers until they were old enough.

From all the books she had read by now – and of course hearing stories from her readers, twins were a handful. Add to that magic and them being a Mikaelson… she was in for a nightmare. Luckily Kol wanted to be included in everything, and she suspected he wasn’t going to leave most of the caring up to her. And if he was, he was going to be sorry.

Bella sent out a blog every two weeks with a baby update; pictures of new things she and Kol had either bought or received or general updates about how she was feeling and what the two creatures in her stomach were up to. She had accumulated a large pool of baby names – mostly girls names because her readers wished for her to have girls, and none of the names fancied her and Kol.

Perhaps it was a little late in the game now to still think of names, but it wasn’t easy. While Kol didn’t have a direct connection with the Old World – Scandinavia, he did want to honor his heritage by having at least one name from there and it just didn’t fit with other names. Yet. Bella had veto’ed Erik, or Eric, because she didn’t want to risk their son to become an evil warlock or something.

“What about Colby?” Bella randomly asked as she pointed at a website with Old Norse names. “Sure, it’s something about Darkness and all but I really like the name,” she then smirked. “It’s something like Kol jr, but then better!”

“Will we write it with a K then too, darling?” he replied as he set down a glass of fresh orange juice. “Kolby.”

“If you’d like…”

“Very well, put that on our list then.”

There was one name she had wanted to offer for ages now, but felt a bit silly about it. About the reason behind it all, but now that they were talking about this again anyway… “And I like the name Charlie.”

Kol sat down next to her and looked at her for a moment before a big smile erupted on his face. “Charlie and Kolby. I like it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he softly kissed her. “Wow, this took us months of work and then… all of a sudden we have it! Charlie and Kolby Mikaelson. Sounds great! The right fit and everything,” he kissed her again, harder this time. “You are absolutely brilliant, but why didn’t you come up with Charlie before? I thought that name was on the ‘no’ list?”

She sighed and ruffled his hair. “Because I don’t want to be cheesy. I like the name though, and he’s… well he was a father to me even though I found out he wasn’t.”

“Gotcha,” he replied with a nod. “Are you comfortable here? Or would you like me to move you to the bed so you can rest some more?”

“I’m fine, I have juice,” she responded and gently caressed his cheek. Kol was heading out, most likely to have some fun chasing some people around or to do something for Klaus. She didn’t mind, he was anxious for the inevitable birth of the babies and she tried to be as calm as possible as not to fuel his anxiety even further. When he took a break from her, she could take a break from controlling herself. “Bring me back a few beignets?”

“As many as you wish, darling. I won’t be long.”

“Take as long as you need.”

He placed her laptop in front of her and kissed her before heading off. Bella let out a breath and gently caressed her bulging stomach. She had a feeling that the boys wouldn’t wait for much longer to come out, despite them not having turned and settled as yet. There were feet kicking against her ribs, alright, but there were still feet downstairs too, and in the wrong position.

Oh, she knew she had nothing to worry about. Her midwives were two very excited vampires and aunties, there was enough vampire blood around to help heal the babies should it be needed. Bella was an immortal demi-Goddess and she couldn’t die. No, worst case scenario would be that she’d be in labor for days without any form of pain relief being able to help her. And that was what scared her. The babies hadn’t turned, but she also felt, almost like an instinct, that they weren’t going to keep the world waiting for them any longer.

Bella decided to, once again, put her fears into a short story. She didn’t really have time to write lately, but she felt guilty for her readers; still stemming from the 2 year long absence which hadn’t been her fault, so she kept banging out short stories instead of the long, complicated ones that required at least some planning.

She liked sharing things with them, without going in too much detail, without ever showing her face. The only place she’d been recognized by her pen name was at that convention in Las Vegas because people were loving her stories and praising her and Myriam had pointed out proudly that CeilingCat was her bestie, her wifey and RIGHT THERE. Even when sharing belly updates, Bella made sure nobody was in the picture, her face wasn’t in the picture and no identifiable objects were there.

And she didn’t do it this way because of the status of her family; vampires, immortals, tortoises or Gods and Titans, but because she really liked her privacy. She didn’t even share her location, but since a lot of her stories were featured in New Orleans and with the right amount of details that some writers didn’t get, the observant readers would know. She didn’t care.

Once she was mobile again to walk around, she was going to take the babies for a stroll and learn more about the city. Its history. Find the places that Klaus, Myriam, Elijah and Rebekah helped build. She had already seen a lot of the city, courtesy of her boyfriend, but they’ve spent more time travelling away from it than to actually stay. He didn’t like the city very much and she wanted the kids to grow up with grass. Maybe they could explore the edges of the city where there was more nature but still a good connection to the center.

But for that, there wasn’t a rush. First, the babies needed to be born and they had to become parents. Parents. Capital P. She was going to be a Mom to twins and currently writing a short where Twilight’s Bella Swan had had sex with Jacob the werewolf and Edward the vampire, how the dna of the two intertwined and Bella gave birth to a monster that ripped open her stomach, killing Bella instantly without any hope of resuscitation, the monster running loose and killing everyone in Forks before Sam and Dean Winchester finally arrived to hunt the monster down and kill it.

And it was satisfying.

She finished drinking her juice after hitting ‘publish’ on the story and then slowly managed to get to her feet to go to the bathroom. She felt as if she was the size of a semi-truck, growing wider and wider by the day, taking kidney shots and a head on her bladder. She really wasn’t sure what direction the boys were in anymore. Bella thought she had it all figured out but she was dead wrong.

And it sucked, just a little, that she hadn’t stayed in contact with her ‘mother’, especially after everything that happened in her life, but Renee never really… she thought that magic and all other things were dangerous. How was Bella going to explain to her that she wasn’t really her biological mother but that a Titan had fucked with her head to raise his granddaughter and that it was likely that Renee was a low level witch with the only instinct was that she had to run from anything remotely supernatural. Renee would run from her now too, wouldn’t she? Without really understanding why? And it wasn’t as if Bella could tell her all of this, unless she’d be compelled. Kol once told her that Renee was likely easy to compel despite her being a witch. She was untrained. Low on the totem pole and more human than witch.

And while Renee hadn’t given birth to Bella, only remembered doing so, Bella felt that she needed to tell her mom at least that she was pregnant with twins. And, that if she wanted, she could come to New Orleans to visit once they were born. Or something.

And that could also be a very bad idea, but Bella found herself crying on her toilet, missing her mother all of a sudden. Surely she could tell her mother everything without telling her everything?

She fumbled her phone out of her pocket and wondered why her mother hadn’t called her over the last years, either. Granted, Bella was ‘out of contact’ for 2 years, but there had been no missed calls. She let out a soft grunt when one of the boys kicked against her kidney again and sighed. Bella was going to be the better person between her and her mother and call her. Now. On the toilet. Because she couldn’t be bothered to move right now and it was likely that her bladder wasn’t completely empty anyway.

Hello.” It felt good to hear her mother’s voice again and Bella nearly burst out in tears again.

“Hi, Mom,” she said softly.

Bella! Oh my God, it’s you! How are you, sweetheart? We haven’t spoken in so long!”

“Well, you could have called, too,” she pointed out.

You’re absolutely right, I suppose you’ve got your independence from me, and not your father,” Renee chuckled. “Phil and I live in Los Angeles now, and it’s amazing. He’s doing well with his baseball career and I hope you’re ready to become a big sister!”

Bella gasped in shock. “You’re pregnant? Aren’t you like… old?”

Surrogate. Phil’s sperm, donor eggs and a surrogate. And we got lucky with our surrogate too. And the eggs. And… we’re just very lucky, aren’t you happy for me?”

“Of course, mom,” Bella replied. “I am very happy for you and I can’t wait to become a big sister,” she managed to pull up her underwear and started to waddle out of the bathroom. “I’m living in New Orleans now.”

Bella… that was the one place I never wanted you to go to.”

“I know, but I found what I needed in Mystic Falls, and while I still have my little house there, my destiny brought me to New Orleans, and we’re traveling the world, have fun, see things, do things…”

That is great honey, who is the lucky man?”

“His name is Kol,” she looked at the guy in question as he walked in, all bloody and looking incredibly high and handsome. “And he’s a very messy eater,” she giggled as she put her phone on speaker. “But he really takes care of me, protects me and Charlie loves him.”

“Who are you talking to, darling?” Kol’s eyes sparkled as he inched closer to her, wrapping his arms around her frame and started to nip at her neck.

“My mother,” Bella replied and laughed when Kol immediately let go of her. “She’s pregnant. Well, she isn’t, but someone else is pregnant for her,” she explained. “Imagine that, I called her to get an update and I’m turning into a big sister!”

He nearly let out some negativity about mothers and how absent hers had been before she realized she’d been crying and needed some human comfort, something not even Charlie could give to her. “Want me to invite Cami over? I’m sure she can tear herself away from my brother and her bar long enough-”

“It’s fine,” she replied and gently nudged him towards the bedroom to get changed.

Kol scowled and hated his own thoughts right now. “Invite her over. I want to meet her.”

That is very kind of you, but I don’t go to New Orleans. Bad vibes all around, doesn’t feel safe even though I have a baseball player for a husband!”

“Mom lives in Los Angeles.”

“Then we’ll head to Los Angeles sometime next year when the twins are born and ready to travel long distances,” Kol softly kissed her as Bella winced. “Oh, you didn’t tell her?”

“Mom’s expecting, of course I didn’t…”

Twins? Bella? Are you going to make me a grandmother? But I’m too young for that! You’re too young! You can’t! Oh my God, you’re pregnant. Baby, come to LA so I can be with you and help you.”

Bella looked at Kol’s retreating back with a look on her face that said it all. Really? “I’m huge, mom,” she forced out a laugh. “I’m not going to travel.”

But you can’t have the babies in New Orleans!”

“New Orleans is safe, mom. Safer than ever. It’s safer with me in it. We’re fine, we’re safe and we’re going to have a beautiful family. You’re more than welcome to visit and if not, like Kol said, you’ll just have to wait until we feel confident enough we can travel with the twins,” she said curtly, now wondering why on Earth she called her mother, despite Charlie’s – Helios’ – asking her to multiple times and wanting to have her little human moment.

It was this exact phone call that made Bella realise that her human days were over. That while she and Kol enjoyed living as human as possible, that it just wasn’t in the cards anymore. The babies were going to be witches. Their dad was a vampire and their mother a demi-Goddess. Their aunts and uncles vampires, the more extended family Greek Gods and Titans. The regent was likely going to be their fairy Godmother or something. There wasn’t any room for humans like her mother. Not anymore. Now the realisation had to stick around permanently and not that she’d forget due to being pregnant or something. That’d be stupid.

And it sucked. But it had to end. “I love you, mom, and I hope that my baby sister comes into this world safely. I’ll call you when I do,” she said as she disconnected the call and followed Kol into the bedroom where he was undressing himself to change into something clean. “Hold me?”

 

4 Comments:

  1. Binding the babes was good idea. So much magic and not even born.
    Renée was always a piece of work, only caring for herself.

  2. interesting and fun to read

  3. It was established that Renée is a low level witch who feels the ‘vibe’, hence why she moved around with Bella a lot to keep her ‘safe’. Renée still believes she’s Bella’s bio mom.

  4. i thought it was the twins who did the switch with aurora and myriam. but i wasn’t sure and then to bind them for the time being i don’t blame them. what if they did something like turn elijah into vensin again lol the call to renee is so like bella and damn i feel for the kids if she is still like she was when bella was growing up. and i guess Renee could feel something different in new orlean. makes me curious if she was a *witch* that doesn’t know about herself or her family history. Update again soo want to read more like always!

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