Chapter Text
Chapter Ten
Changes
Summer 1998, 1899, 1900
-1998-
Bella had an amazing, albeit a little rocky, summer with Barbie.
They'd had a great time together when Bella wasn't traveling. They spent the summer going to plays and musicals, mostly. Carlisle had taught Bella to love theater, and Barbie was a musician to her core, so it was something they both loved to do. When Barbie was working on recording her newest album (this one was grunge-inspired), Bella would cuddle up with a book somewhere and spend all day reading. Barbie had gotten Bella a library card to the Westminster Reference Library, the closest public library to her apartment, and would take her to check out books whenever she wanted to. There was a park very close to Barbie's apartment, St. James's Park, and they'd go there some days to enjoy the sunshine and play.
Barbie had gone on a few dates with a guy named Arthur, and Bella thought his accent was hilarious. He was a musician too; they'd met at a recording studio, apparently, and it was very clear to Bella how much Arthur liked Barbie.
Bella had also sensed a change in Barbie. She was happier, definitely, and, while she'd always been overly energetic and excitable, it was nice to see Barbie so enthusiastic about life again. Bella had noticed Barbie spending less time with her and her dad, but she hadn't realized it was because she'd been getting really sad. Bella was happy to see Barbie happy again, and Arthur treated her very well, so that was even better.
By July, Barbie and Arthur were going out at least once a week. Bella had never minded being on her own, though, so she was perfectly happy with a few hours alone while Barbie was out.
One night, Barbie and Arthur had left to see a concert, and Bella happily went to bed after her nighttime routine was done. Bella had been reading in bed when she fell asleep mid-chapter.
-1899-
When she'd opened her eyes, she found herself lying in someone else's bed.
"Bella?"
The voice startled Bella, and she sat up quickly in surprise. However, the sight before her was so shocking that she struggled to believe what she was seeing.
Undeniably, the woman standing at the door of the room was Lizzy, the little girl she'd just met earlier in the summer. Except, she was no longer the lanky little ten-year-old Bella had tea with outside on a perfect spring day in the sunshine.
Lizzy was grown now, and she was somehow even more beautiful than she was as a child. It was almost hard to look at her, because it was nearly unbelievable that such a person could exist. Lizzy was very tall and, while she was still thin, she wasn't bony-looking anymore. Her face was still angular, sharp, and her eerily green eyes were still soul-searching. Her hair was so strikingly unique. The shimmering copper strands were pulled up on top of her head, but her hair was still as pretty as it was when she was a child.
Before, Lizzy had reminded Bella of a fairy. Now, she looked like a beautiful princess from a fairy tale.
"Bella!" Lizzy said her name again and smiled so wonderfully that Bella couldn't help but smile too. Lizzy rushed to pull her out of bed, and Bella's book fell to the floor as she sat up. "Bella, oh, I'm so happy to see you! But, you look the same as you did seven years ago!"
"We had our tea party just a few weeks ago in my time. I went to bed, and now I'm waking up here, and you're grown up," Bella was trying to make sense of the strange trip. She didn't think she'd traveled during her sleep since she was a small child.
She thought back to her conversation with Barbie about what the in-between of her travels looked like, and they certainly hadn't looked like this in quite some time. It scared her a little bit to think her oddity was changing, but she had more pressing things to focus on.
"Time traveling, that's what you're able to do, isn't it?" Lizzy's grin was just as crooked as it was when she'd first called Bella out for being odd. "I just finished reading The Time Machine by H. G. Wells last week. Of course, I thought about you immediately!"
Bella was still awe-struck at this grown version of the little girl she'd only just met. She was so poised and intelligent, and it struck Bella as odd that she herself hadn't grown at all since their last meeting, even though it made no real sense for her to feel that way. Lizzy had been so vulnerable with her as a child, and she felt she owed it to this grown version of her friend to be honest with her now. She might regret it later if she wasn't entirely truthful.
"Yes, I can time travel. But I can't control it. My family, well, we all have odd things we can do. Mine is time traveling."
"My family is strange too," Lizzy gasped in surprise, "and, even stranger, I'm somehow the most normal one amongst us."
Bella had another one of her sneaking suspicions, "Lizzy, what year is it? And where are we?"
"1899, Chicago. My bedroom, specifically."
"Hmm, I don't know if we're related or not." Bella frowned to herself. "My Aunt Tia was born in 1907, but I don't know anything about her parents. And I think she's from Louisiana, I'm not sure, but definitely somewhere in the south."
Lizzy was quick, "We don't have any family outside of Illinois besides some of my mother's family, and they're all in New York. I don't think there's any relation there. What sorts of things can your family members do?"
"Well, my dad is a shapeshifter. He can change his appearance and his body into all kinds of things, even air. My Aunt Tia can change people's fates. Stuff like making them fall in love, or change how they're going to die, but she doesn't use it very often. Her daughter, Barbie, teleports. In only a few seconds, she can travel from Europe to America."
Lizzy's pretty eyes widened in shock, "That's incredible! The four of you are well-suited as a family. You're all quite talented. My family seems fairly plain in comparison. My father is very compelling; people listen to him and do what he wishes them to. Mother is quite talented with divination; she says she senses the "essence" of a person to find out answers they might be needing. My brother, Everett, his talent is the most impressive talent out of us all. He channels spirits, but he can't control them. The older he's gotten, the more chaotic it's become. Spirits take control of him, speak and move through him, and so he sometimes seems quite insane. We're very concerned about him right now."
"I'm sorry he's struggling. I know it's not easy to have no control." Bella could definitely empathize with him. "What can you do? You told me when you were little that you 'just knew things' and didn't question them."
Lizzy laughed, "I was quite simple about it even then, hmm? I'm intuitive. Mother says I have a 'heightened sense' that lets me see into a person's spirit, their soul. It's how I knew you were strange like myself and my family."
"I don't think that's simple at all," Bella refused to let Lizzy think she was less than just because her talent didn't make her life too difficult. "I think that sounds really wonderful. I'm sure you're a good judge of character."
"The best," Lizzy grinned, but her smile didn't reach her eyes.
Bella noticed Lizzy's sudden sadness, "What's wrong?"
Lizzy sat on her bed beside Bella. She'd been coming upstairs to pout in private, but Bella had surprised her. As surprising and wonderful as it was to see the amazing friend she'd made again, even Bella couldn't completely improve her dark mood.
"I'm getting married." Lizzy sighed heavily.
"And that makes you sad?" Bella was confused. Weren't weddings supposed to be exciting?
It felt as if Lizzy's entire world was crumbling around her. "I don't even like the man, let alone love him, but my father has already accepted the arrangement for me. To make matters worse, the man only asked for my hand because my father compelled him to."
"What? Why would your dad make you get married? And why did he make the guy want to marry you instead of letting you choose for yourself?"
Lizzy got up to pace around the room, "Our times must be very different, Bella. In my time, girls don't have much of a say in anything that goes on in their lives. Fathers are supposed to make the decisions for their daughters, and that includes when they get married. He compelled the man to want to marry me because he's the son of an important lawyer in town. He's just started practicing law, too, and so Father thinks the marriage will be good for me. I'll be provided for and get to focus on the charity work I love to do. I'll have all the time in the world for caring for my future children."
"But you don't think the marriage will be good." Bella hated to see her new friend so upset. "Why don't you like him? Is he mean to you, or do you just not know each other?"
"Oh, I know of him. I have my talent of seeing into people's spirits, after all." Lizzy huffed in frustration, "Edward Masen is a shallow person, egotistical, and incredibly entitled. As hard as I have tried, I simply cannot find a redeeming quality in him. My hopes for a loving marriage are being stomped on as we speak."
Bella didn't know how to help Lizzy feel better, and she didn't like the feeling of not being able to soothe her when she was obviously so hurt.
"I wanted to find real love." Lizzy sniffed, and Bella was horrified to see that a few tears were sliding down Lizzy's pretty, freckled-covered face, "I've always wanted marriage and children, but I wanted them on my own terms. Maybe foolishly, I hoped to find someone with their own strange talent, like how my parents found each other. Someone I loved and could be proud to be married to, someone I wouldn't have to hide from. Now, I'm dreading the whole thing. I've been told to never speak of my or my family's talent, and that makes me so worried for the future. I'm not certain if I'll be having children now, but if I do and they have their own strange talents...then what can I possibly do to conceal them and protect them?"
Bella's stomach sank. This problem, Lizzy's fear of being shunned for her talent by someone who's supposed to love her, for her children to be odd and suffer the same fate...that was something she knew very well. Mostly, she thought of her dad and wished he were here. He'd lived through the nightmare Lizzy had described, although he'd actually been in love with Bella's mom, but he'd survived it all.
Bella had to try to help, "Lizzy, I know I'm only ten and anything I say probably won't be enough, but I do know why that's so scary to you. My dad and my aunt have both been hurt by people they loved. I don't have my mom, and Barbie doesn't have her dad, because they were too scared of our oddities to stay. But just because something scares you, it doesn't mean it's not worth trying. When I travel, most of the time it's to a man I've been friends with for hundreds of years in his time. He's like a dad to me. But, he's different than anyone else in the world, and so he's all alone because no one tries to understand him or make friends with him. He's scared, all the time, that he's going to be alone forever, or that he'll never do enough good things to make up for being a vampire-"
Bella froze. She couldn't believe she'd made such a terrible mistake by so casually telling someone about vampires!
Lizzy noticed the panic, "Bella, breathe, your friend's secret is safe with me. Besides, I don't even know the man. I won't breathe a word of vampires to anyone. Please, keep talking."
Of course, Lizzy wouldn't say a word. No one would believe her. As desperate as she was to escape her impending marriage, it wasn't worth being sent away to an asylum. She wasn't even sure she entirely believed Bella about vampires; she was only ten after all. Surely Bella's friend was some other immortal being.
"Well, okay." Bella tried to calm down and continue her story, "even though he's so afraid, he still tries so hard to be a good person. He's a doctor and loves his work so much. He says he has to have faith that things will change, but he also has to work for that change to happen."
"I'm understanding your point, Bella." Lizzy nodded. "As much as I cannot find something good in Edward now, in time, he might grow to be a different person. We're quite young still; I only just turned seventeen, and he's only twenty, and time changes some people. Regardless, wallowing in self-pity won't help me change anything for the better. I've got to hope for better, inspire some change for the better, or nothing will change at all."
Lizzy, for the first time in weeks, felt like she could breathe again. The world wasn't on fire or crumbling to ashes before her anymore. It was still treacherous, but the end of the world wasn't in sight any longer.
"Thank you, Bella," Lizzy said, hugging her tight. "You've helped me quite a great deal. I will try to make this new life something worthwhile. Of course, I wish your friend all the best in changing his luck."
"Elizabeth," Lizzy's mother called for her from downstairs, "the Masens have arrived!"
Elizabeth took a deep breath and went to her vanity to check her face and hair. "They're beginning wedding preparations already." Elizabeth shook her head and searched through her hairpins, "Which color do you think, Bella? Green or brown?"
Elizabeth turned to show Bella the two options of hairpins she had, but found that she was alone in her room. Bella had traveled, silently, without a proper goodbye. She noticed Bella's book lying on the ground and delicately picked it up before placing it on her vanity. Elizabeth had to shake off the sudden bout of sadness. She had guests downstairs waiting for her.
When she'd joined the group downstairs, her mother had not-so-subtly directed her to sit on the sofa next to Edward Masen. They'd hardly spoken, really, and they both felt terribly awkward as they were forced to endure their families planning a wedding neither of them truly wanted.
"I like that color," Edward had spoken so quietly that Lizzy wasn't sure she'd heard him. She looked at him questioningly, and he had taken a deep breath before clarifying, "I like the color of your green hairpin, especially with the color of your hair and eyes. It suits you."
Strangely, Lizzy found herself somewhat touched by his words. It was absolutely the tiniest, most minuscule thing he could've chosen to compliment her on, but he'd still tried to compliment her on something. He'd spoken to her despite both of their extreme discomfort.
Lizzy smiled in thanks, and she watched as a new trait in Edward's spirit swirled to existence. It was care, specifically for her, and while it wasn't anything close to true affection or love, it was an encouraging change.
Maybe Edward and Elizabeth Masen's marriage wasn't doomed after all.
-New Year's, 1900-
Bella thought she was dreaming that Carlisle was talking, but when she opened her eyes, he was really there with her.
It was so disorienting to be with Lizzy one moment and with Carlisle the next. The sick feeling of her traveling wasn't dissipating as fast as it usually did, and she assumed it was from the sudden back-to-back trips to the past she'd experienced. Thankfully, Bella was lying down, so she didn't throw up like she might've done if she were upright. But it took her a moment to realize she was in a hospital bed.
"Hello, Angel," Carlisle smiled at her as if nothing was wrong and asked her their customary greeting, "How long have you been away from me?"
"A month," Bella sat up slowly and looked at the white hospital curtains surrounding her, "How long for you? And why am I in the hospital?"
Carlisle laughed, "It's been just under five years since I saw you last, an impressively short time. And you aren't in the hospital, not as a patient anyway. I was headed out for the evening and found you here."
"Good," Bella shuddered to think she might've been admitted accidentally, "I hate hospitals."
As always, Carlisle was entirely thrilled to have Bella visit him. He didn't know how he'd ever survived the early years of knowing Bella when he'd been forced to wait decades in between her visits. He'd been blessed and spoiled to have Bella visiting him more and more frequently.
"Let's go home, hmm?" Carlisle offered, and Bella cheered in response.
Carlisle caught Bella right as she began to fall off the bed. She really was an incredibly clumsy girl, and, once she was solid on her feet, he bundled her up in the heavy winter coat he'd thrown over his arm on his way out of his office. Bella held his hand as they walked together, and Carlisle told her about how much he enjoyed working at this new hospital as they headed to the main doors.
"Dr. Cullen," a nurse greeted excitedly as they reached the reception area, and Bella worried about their cover story, "Do you have family visiting for the holiday?"
Carlisle patted Bella's shoulder lovingly, "Yes, this is my niece, Bella. Quite a last-minute surprise!"
The pretty nurse smiled at Bella, "Oh, how wonderful! It's very good to meet you, Miss Bella. Your uncle is the best doctor we have here."
"He's the best in the world." Bella smiled proudly, and the nurse just about melted.
"What an angel," the nurse fawned over Bella, "have a happy New Year, Dr. Cullen, enjoy your time off. We'll miss you terribly!"
Carlisle nodded, wished the nurse a happy New Year, too, and led Bella outside. Before her feet could even touch the snow on the ground, Carlisle pulled her up into his arms and began to carry her down the sidewalk. Which was fine by her. First, because Bella loved how safe she felt whenever she was being carried by Carlisle. Second, because it was freezing outside and she didn't have on shoes thick enough to walk in the snow.
Bella, over her lifetime of being a time traveler, had made it a habit to wear clothing that she could travel in at all times. One of the worst things that could happen during a trip, a surefire way to ruin one, was to be underdressed. Even while sleeping, she wore slippers just in case she traveled and would need some kind of shoe on. Still, most things were left to random chance and luck. In this case, she was severely underdressed to be out in the snow. She was happy to have Carlisle's coat on, and it was so large on her that it shielded her from the cold very well.
"Did she say it's New Year's?" Bella asked.
Carlisle adjusted his grip on Bella as he reached the door of his apartment building, "Yes, it's New Year's Eve. I've taken a week off from the hospital at the suggestion of the chief."
"You said that like you're mad about not getting to work." Bella frowned. "In my time, it's July. I only have another month until I have to go home and back to school, and I don't really want to do that."
"Working at the hospital is my way of being helpful, of making a difference. Otherwise, I'm left with far too much time alone." Carlisle set Bella on her feet and took her hand in his as he led them to the elevator. "I'm only taking some time away because the chief noticed I haven't taken a day off in the year I've worked here. I've been dreading the time off, honestly."
Bella was terrified, but still slightly intrigued, by the strange elevator Carlisle led them into. She held on to Carlisle's hand tightly just to be safe.
She felt a little breathless by the time the doors reopened onto Carlisle's floor, "but now I'm here with you."
"As always, you have fairly impeccable timing." Carlisle escorted her down the hall and into his apartment. "You said in your time that you'll need to go home soon. Where have you been spending your summer break?"
"With Barbie," Bella shrugged out of Carlisle's coat before going to make herself comfortable on the couch, "she's living in London right now. She lives in a cute apartment right by Westminster Abby that you took me to when I was little. We've been having a lot of fun, but I secretly think she's ready for me to go home. She just loves me too much to say it out loud."
Carlisle couldn't fathom such a thing as he began to put a meal together for Bella. "I'm sure that is not the case, Angel. Why do you think Barbie is wanting you to go home to your father?"
"My trips scare her a lot, and I think it freaks her out so much because she worries I won't come back." Bella's casual tone didn't sit well with Carlisle, but he didn't interrupt her. "Plus, Barbie has a boyfriend now, and I think she's trying to make sure he doesn't find out that we're odd."
"Both of you having your own disappearing acts certainly creates added stress, hmm?" Carlisle half-grinned. "I'm happy to hear Barbie has found someone to enjoy her time with. I only wish she could be comfortable enough not to hide her talent. But, regardless, I hope she's happy."
"She is." Bella was sure of it. "Oh, and she and my dad really liked the letters you sent them! They both thought you were silly for worrying that they didn't like you, though. And Barbie called you a nerd."
Carlisle couldn't help but laugh, "First, Barbie calls me a vegetarian, and now a nerd? What is a nerd?"
"Is that not a word yet?" Bella laughed with him.
"Not one I'm aware of, no."
"A nerd is someone who's really smart, but kind of different too." Bella struggled to explain it well enough. "But she didn't mean it in a bad way."
Carlisle was sure of that, "of course she didn't. I'm glad to hear our letter experiment worked, and I'm happy your father and Barbie liked their letters."
Bella didn't like being so far away from Carlisle, so she left the couch and hopped up onto one of the barstools in the kitchen.
"So," Carlisle changed topics, "have you taken any interesting trips lately?"
"A few weeks ago, I met a little girl, Lizzy, and had a tea party with her in her backyard. She was odd, too. She knew who I was and what I could do, without me even having to tell her." Bella disclosed, and she smiled when she saw Carlisle's awestruck expression. "Then, right before this trip to you, I woke up in her bedroom. She was seventeen and upset because her dad was making her get married to someone she didn't like. Her oddity was being very intuitive, she said she knew what made a person who they were, and she didn't like anything she found in him."
Carlisle felt a pang of sympathy for Bella's friend. "I'm sorry your friend's father didn't take her wishes into account."
"Yeah, she was so upset. And, oh my gosh, she was so pretty that it felt wrong seeing her cry. But, I told her a little bit about you, and that seemed to help her calm down a lot." Bella still couldn't believe she'd let the vampire thing slip, but she trusted Lizzy with the secret. "I told her what you've said about changing things. You have to have faith that things will change, but you also have to work for the change to happen. She seemed better after hearing that, but I traveled really soon after that, so I don't really know how she felt."
"Well," Carlisle felt proud for Bella to have helped someone by echoing his own sentiments, "I hope everything has worked out in her favor. Do you think you might see her again?"
Bella shrugged, "I'm never really sure of anything anymore. I hope so, but I don't know."
"I understand." Carlisle nodded and tried to push away his creeping fears of Bella leaving one day and never returning to him again. He had no idea what time she lived in and wouldn't know when or where to start looking for her in the future. "Have you taken any trips since your last one to her?"
Bella looked at Carlisle strangely, and it sent Carlisle's nerves on alert immediately. There was something he had missed, and it was apparently something Bella was very concerned about.
"There was no trip between Lizzy and you," Bella spoke slowly, "I didn't even go back to my own time. I left Lizzy and woke up with you in the hospital."
That had never happened before, never. Bella had never traveled concurrently in the past. She had always returned home to her own time in between trips taken. Sure, she had taken some trips that were quick turnaround times, but she'd never stayed in the past this way before.
Carlisle knew that having Bella see him panic about the sudden change in her oddity would only worry her more. He put her plate of dinner and a glass of water on the counter in front of her as he collected himself. When he spoke to her, he did his best to approach the situation as scientifically as possible.
"Perhaps your oddity is growing as you do, Angel." He offered the explanation with as smooth an expression as he could maintain, "When you were much smaller, you only stayed for very short amounts of time on your trips. For me, your visits were decades apart. Now, you're staying for longer amounts of time, and your visits are becoming more and more frequent, which I appreciate. Maybe this strange trip is your trait continuing to develop."
Bella felt a little relieved, but was still keeping a healthy skepticism about it all. "Maybe so. I guess I need to tell my dad and see if anything like this happened with him or Barbie."
"That sounds wise, Bella." Carlisle agreed. "So then, if you've stayed the summer with Barbie in London, where has your father been?"
"Oh," Bella frowned and sighed sadly, "he's been trying to find out what happened to his mom. He doesn't have a lot to go off of, though. Really, all he has is her name and that she was sent away by her parents before he was born, and he hasn't found out anything about her yet. And no one knows who his dad is, so there's no information to go off of there. He only has the very basics from Aunt Tia to use."
Carlisle hadn't been expecting that sort of news. "Angel, I'm sorry, I knew your family was quite small, but I didn't realize your grandparents were unaccounted for. That must be very difficult for your father and you."
"Yeah, it is." Bella nodded and tried to push away the memories of her conversation with her dad about their absent mothers. "But, he has Tia and Barbie, and me, and he says that's more than enough for him. I think he just wants to know what happened to his mom so he can let all the hurt go."
"I imagine so." As always, Carlisle was in awe of Bella's empathy and wisdom. "I hope he finds the answers he's looking for."
Bella nodded in agreement, not knowing what else to say about the sad topic, and enjoyed her dinner. She didn't know how Carlisle had learned to be such a good cook, considering he didn't eat and only ever cooked when she was visiting him, but she was happy he was. By the time she was finished, it was getting very late, and she felt drained of all of her energy.
Carlisle had watched Bella get progressively more and more sluggish, through both her movements and her words, and he declared that it was bedtime as soon as she was done with her food.
Bella certainly hadn't protested. She'd been glad to hear the words and even happier to see that Carlisle had stocked her trunk with some updated fashion. Well, for his time period, anyway.
Since her visit to him in Yorktown, he'd toted the wooden trunk around with him and kept all of her essentials and belongings in it for her. Whenever she'd visit him, she'd have clothes for that time period, her books, and other necessities for her stay with him. This time, he'd added some pajamas that were perfect for the snowy weather outside. She was very grateful for the added warmth.
When Bella was all dressed for bed, she left the little bathroom and joined Carlisle in the bedroom. She climbed into bed and got under the cozy blankets while Carlisle sorted through her books.
Once he'd found the book he'd been looking for, Carlisle sat with his back against the headboard and let Bella get comfortable beside him as he searched for their bookmark.
They'd been re-reading Alice in Wonderland (for the fourth time) and had just reached the part where Alice joins the Mad Hatter and March Hare for tea.
Bella was nearly asleep, tucked against Carlisle's arm sweetly, when Carlisle read the Hatter's line, "If you knew Time as well as I do, you wouldn't talk about wasting it." He paused for a long moment after saying the line, and even the half-asleep Bella noticed his change of mood.
"Carlisle," Bella mumbled, "what's wrong?"
"It's after midnight, Bella. It's New Year's Day, 1900." Carlisle sounded very sad for someone who'd lived to see a new year. "I think I may be wasting time waiting for our times to match up and not attempting to do anything more than my hospital work. I gave up seeking others like myself decades ago, and I've done nothing otherwise to improve myself. Maybe I should take my own advice, the advice you gave to Lizzy, and start looking for a way to create change, or I fear I'll lose hope."
Bella, who was an easy crier anyway, couldn't keep the quiet tears from rolling down her cheeks. She buried her face against Carlisle's arm to hide the tears from him.
"We get closer together all the time." Bella sniffed. "I promise, Dad."
Carlisle, if it were possible, felt like his heart burst in his chest hearing the term of endearment. He'd loved Bella as if she were his own child for centuries, but he'd never try to upstage her biological father in her life, of course not. But, to hear he had a place of such high regard in her life, it was all he could've hoped for and more at such a dark moment in time for him.
"You're right, Angel." Carlisle smoothed Bella's hair down and made sure her blanket kept her protected from his cold nature. "Closer all the time."