Waiting For My Real Life To Begin
by Laura Spudzmom
Chapter 02
Renée sighed as she loaded their luggage into the trunk of the rental car. They had landed in Virginia an hour ago and she'd be so thankful to get settled into a hotel and just rest a bit.
Traveling with Bella had been like dragging a corpse around, for the most part. Oh, she'd move on her own if prompted but that was pretty much all that she would do without instruction.
Anything that a person would normally do or say in any given situation was absent with Bella and it was disturbing, to say the least. She hadn't even used the restroom without prompting and Renée wondered how she could stand it. Of course, if you're not eating or drinking, it wouldn't be much of a problem.
She slid behind the wheel, shut her door and fastened her seat belt while looking at her daughter who sat there staring straight ahead.
"Bella, fasten your seat belt. We're getting ready to hit the road and I really don't need a ticket. I have too many as it is."
She smirked over at her daughter hoping for a response, but she got nothing. She merely moved mechanically, snapping the seatbelt into it's receiver and returning to her zombie pose of staring straight into the distance, as though she'd heard nothing.
Renée frowned. "Okay then. Here we go."
Programming the particulars of their destination into the GPS, Renée pulled out, praying with everything in her that Damon would choose not to be an ass about this and that, for once in the life of their daughter, he'd step up and do the right thing.
The drive was decidedly quiet with Renée humming quietly with the radio on background level. She was beyond relieved to pull into the hotel parking lot and even more relieved to get checked in and settled with the help of a very enthusiastic bell boy.
She had to smile when she thought about the poor kid blushing and smiling shyly at Bella, even though she remained stoic and unresponsive.
The poor kid hadn't known what to do with himself and Renée had thought his awkwardness adorable, even though her daughter wasn't in any shape to appreciate his efforts.
Hopefully the tip she gave him helped take the sting of rejection out of the situation for him. He was a cutie, after all.
She got Bella to change into something comfortable and ordered food for them both from room service. She would eat and make sure that Bella ate before leaving by herself to go visit Damon. She didn't want to subject Bella to an ugly confrontation if one should take place after all. That would not be helpful, she knew.
So, she would do the initial meeting/confrontation alone and take the heat if there would be any. She also knew if there was any heat coming her way, that she was prepared to dish it back two-fold. She wasn't about to put up with any shit now. Not when the health and maybe the very life of her daughter was as stake. No. He'd skated by without having to step up to his part of being a parent until now and she wasn't about to let him off the hook without a fight.
Steeling her resolve, she got back into her rental car and programmed the GPS for the Salvatore Boarding House.
"Here we go Renée." She muttered to herself.
Pulling up outside the huge house, she just hoped that he was home. God knows she didn't want to have to track him down.
Knocking, she waited nervously, and jumped a bit when the door swung open abruptly, revealing a young man with startling green eyes and a young woman standing behind him.
He spoke then, shaking Renée out of her momentary inspection of him. "Can I help you?"
Smiling, Renée nodded, deciding to drop the bomb right up front. "Yes I certainly hope that you can. My name is Renée and I am looking for Damon Salvatore, the father of my seventeen year old daughter. Is he here?"
Green eyes widened comically and she could hear what she thought to be mild choking noises from the young woman standing in the background.
She maintained her dignity by ignoring both reactions and waiting patiently for a true acknowledgement of her question.
Green eye's recovered first and cleared his throat before answering. "I'm so sorry, where are my manners? I'm Stefan Salvatore, Damon's younger brother. Please," he gestured inside and stepped aside, "won't you come in?"
Thanking him, she stepped inside, following him into a spacious living room with a massive fire place. It was all very old world and Renée had no doubt that it was most likely all original.
"Please, won't you be seated Renée? I'll go let Damon know that you're here."
"Thank you Stefan." Her attention was caught then by the young woman entering the room.
Stepping forward, she held out her hand to Renée. "Hi I'm Elena, Stefan's girlfriend. It's nice to meet you."
Renée grinned at her after dropping her hand. "Oh I doubt 'nice' was the descriptor you had in mind at first, but no worries. I know my daughter and I probably come as quite the shock to the system so to speak, and trust me when I say that I wouldn't be here at all if my daughter's life wasn't at risk."
Elena nodded and sat across from her. "Knowing Damon as I do, that's understandable. And believe me, we're pretty good around here with the strange and unusual. Things that may shock others merely startle us momentarily."
They both chuckled at that just as Stefan and a sleep rumpled Damon entered the room, Damon going straight to the bar for a bracing drink.
Stefan sat next to Elena and smiled apologetically at Renée as she waited on Damon to acknowledge her which he did just after knocking back half the contents of his glass.
"Renée!" He smirked. "What brings you here? It's been, what, a good sixteen years since we last saw each other?"
"Seventeen, almost eighteen Damon, but who's counting? Trust me, I wouldn't keep count if the age of our daughter didn't make it easy to mark the time, because frankly, I'd rather forget. Isabella makes that quite impossible to do I'm afraid."
"Isabella. God, she's that old already? It seems like only yesterday you let me know she'd been born. How is she?"
Renée frowned at him. "Yes, I'm sure the time has flown by for someone that didn't give two shits about his own daughter, but I'll tell you how she is Damon. She's amazing and beautiful and broken Damon and that's why I'm here. She needs help and you are the only one who can help her at this point, unfortunately."
He downed the rest of his drink and refilled the glass.
"What makes you think I can help her?" He asked with his brow furrowed.
"Because I believe that it's her vampire genetics causing the severe reaction to her grief that's she's experiencing. Her boyfriend and his family left her and she's been in severe mourning ever since. If she was full vampire, her body would be able to handle the repercussions of such deep grief, but because she isn't her body is shutting down slowly and it's killing her."
Renée noticed Stefan nodding. "If I may interject?"
Damon smirked. "By all means little brother. Please bless us with your wisdom."
Renée shot Damon a dirty look. "Damon, if you could pull your head out of your ass for just a little while we'd all appreciate it. I'm sure the change would be refreshing for your brother at any rate."
She looked to Stefan. "Please, do continue Stefan. I'm interested in anything that may help my daughter."
He smiled and dipped his head in thanks. "If I understand you correctly, you're saying that she grieves as a full vampire does, but her weakened half human body is unable to deal with the consequences, and so her grief is killing her. Correct?"
Renée nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I think."
Stefan looked at Damon who was frowning at a spot on the floor.
"It sounds as though she's grieving the loss of a mate. That's the only grief that I have ever heard of that is so allconsuming as that. And if that's the case, then the only real cure would be for her to reunite with her mate. Anything we, or Damon could do for her would be temporary, although probably effective for the time being."
He locked his gaze with Renee's. "You are thinking of regular doses of vampire blood, am I right?"
She nodded. "Yes."
He nodded meeting his brothers ice blue gaze.
Damon nodded back, running a hand through his hair. "I'll do it Renée. I owe her that at the very least, but this won't fix the problem. Ultimately, we'll have to locate her mate."
Stefan leaned forward in his seat, glancing at Renée.
"Where did the family move to? We need to contact them as soon as possible."
Renée took a few moments forming her answer carefully before meeting their eyes.
"That may be quite the problem. You see, I don't think they were human, simply because of subtle things that Bella said about him over the course of our conversations, and the sparkling and cold bite mark on her wrist that was never there before. All of those little things added together makes me believe my suspicions are correct."
"Sparkling and cold you say?" She saw that she had Damon's full attention now and he didn't look happy about what she'd just shared as he questioned her.
She nodded. "That's right. I've seen it in full sun even though she does her best to keep it covered, and it shimmers and reflects the sun in tiny patterns where the crescent marks are."
Damon locked his gaze with Stefan and they both spoke at once. "Cold ones."
Damon hurled his glass into the fireplace causing Renée and Elena to jump.
"I won't subject her to a bunch of cold ones! As a matter of fact, I won't allow it." He looked at Renée. "Do you know what could have happened to her with such unstable creatures around her on a regular basis?"
Renée shrugged. "I figured vampires are vampires, and I knew you could control yourself and feed without killing."
Damon scoffed and Stefan looked at her and shook his head. "Renée, cold ones are altogether different from us. Their bite is venomous for one thing and for another, they can't feed without killing. Once they bite, you either change or die. Don't ask me how she got a bite mark without one of those two outcomes. I'm certain it's quite the story."
Renee's mind raced back to that outlandish tale about falling down a flight of stairs and through plate glass in Arizona and she nodded before absently remarking
"It was indeed Stefan. Although I didn't hear the true version, she spun quite the story as a cover, if it's the incident I'm thinking of."
Stefan looked at Damon then. "And just how are you going to keep her from one of them if he's her mate brother? It sounds as though she's already bonded to him. If you try to forbid their connection, then she's right back where we started; grieving herself to death over a mate that she cannot have."
Damon locked his gaze with Elena then and uttered a name. "Bonnie."
Elena looked down at her lap for a bit and then nodded, looking back at Damon.
"Okay, I'll talk her into it somehow, for your daughter's sake Damon."
Renée looked around at the others in the room. "What is it Bonnie is supposed to do anyway?"
Elena took in a deep breath letting it out slowly before answering. "She's a witch and she can cast certain spells. If I'm thinking along the same lines as Damon, then he wants to have Bonnie send your daughter back to before her mate became a cold one, thus solving the problem. Am I right Damon?"
He smirked. "Very good sweets. Give the girl a prize. She got it in one. That's exactly what I would like to do."
He looked at Renée and gestured with his hand in front of him and a slight bow. "With your permission, of course."
Renée felt her eyes go wide. "How the hell is she supposed to survive in another time period for christ's sake?"
Stefan cleared his throat, gaining her attention. "You forget we are very old Renée? We will gladly tutor her in period etiquette as well as clothing and mannerisms. Since it could be any of the males that resided in the home, we'll need to touch on all of those times and prepare her for anything she may encounter. We'll provide money and period clothing."
He tapped his chin, thinking.
"We'll have to pick clothing that can span a couple of decades without looking outrageously outdated."
Damon smirked. "I'll leave that to you and Elena to accomplish little brother as you're much more conservative in your tastes."
Renée smiled at the pair. "Thank god, I wouldn't want her dressed as a barmaid after all."
Damon refilled his glass yet again and turned back to the conversation. "A barmaid is a very noble profession."
He drawled out arrogantly.
He nearly choked when Renée answered. "Oh really? Then you wouldn't mind your virgin daughter walking around that time period dressed as such?"
Coughing, he wheezed out, "Of course not!"
She smirked and looked back at a grinning Stefan and Elena. "When can we get started?"
Renée sighed as she loaded their luggage into the trunk of the rental car. They had landed in Virginia an hour ago and she'd be so thankful to get settled into a hotel and just rest a bit.
Traveling with Bella had been like dragging a corpse around, for the most part. Oh, she'd move on her own if prompted but that was pretty much all that she would do without instruction.
Anything that a person would normally do or say in any given situation was absent with Bella and it was disturbing, to say the least. She hadn't even used the restroom without prompting and Renée wondered how she could stand it. Of course, if you're not eating or drinking, it wouldn't be much of a problem.
She slid behind the wheel, shut her door and fastened her seat belt while looking at her daughter who sat there staring straight ahead.
"Bella, fasten your seat belt. We're getting ready to hit the road and I really don't need a ticket. I have too many as it is."
She smirked over at her daughter hoping for a response, but she got nothing. She merely moved mechanically, snapping the seatbelt into it's receiver and returning to her zombie pose of staring straight into the distance, as though she'd heard nothing.
Renée frowned. "Okay then. Here we go."
Programming the particulars of their destination into the GPS, Renée pulled out, praying with everything in her that Damon would choose not to be an ass about this and that, for once in the life of their daughter, he'd step up and do the right thing.
The drive was decidedly quiet with Renée humming quietly with the radio on background level. She was beyond relieved to pull into the hotel parking lot and even more relieved to get checked in and settled with the help of a very enthusiastic bell boy.
She had to smile when she thought about the poor kid blushing and smiling shyly at Bella, even though she remained stoic and unresponsive.
The poor kid hadn't known what to do with himself and Renée had thought his awkwardness adorable, even though her daughter wasn't in any shape to appreciate his efforts.
Hopefully the tip she gave him helped take the sting of rejection out of the situation for him. He was a cutie, after all.
She got Bella to change into something comfortable and ordered food for them both from room service. She would eat and make sure that Bella ate before leaving by herself to go visit Damon. She didn't want to subject Bella to an ugly confrontation if one should take place after all. That would not be helpful, she knew.
So, she would do the initial meeting/confrontation alone and take the heat if there would be any. She also knew if there was any heat coming her way, that she was prepared to dish it back two-fold. She wasn't about to put up with any shit now. Not when the health and maybe the very life of her daughter was as stake. No. He'd skated by without having to step up to his part of being a parent until now and she wasn't about to let him off the hook without a fight.
Steeling her resolve, she got back into her rental car and programmed the GPS for the Salvatore Boarding House.
"Here we go Renée." She muttered to herself.
Pulling up outside the huge house, she just hoped that he was home. God knows she didn't want to have to track him down.
Knocking, she waited nervously, and jumped a bit when the door swung open abruptly, revealing a young man with startling green eyes and a young woman standing behind him.
He spoke then, shaking Renée out of her momentary inspection of him. "Can I help you?"
Smiling, Renée nodded, deciding to drop the bomb right up front. "Yes I certainly hope that you can. My name is Renée and I am looking for Damon Salvatore, the father of my seventeen year old daughter. Is he here?"
Green eyes widened comically and she could hear what she thought to be mild choking noises from the young woman standing in the background.
She maintained her dignity by ignoring both reactions and waiting patiently for a true acknowledgement of her question.
Green eye's recovered first and cleared his throat before answering. "I'm so sorry, where are my manners? I'm Stefan Salvatore, Damon's younger brother. Please," he gestured inside and stepped aside, "won't you come in?"
Thanking him, she stepped inside, following him into a spacious living room with a massive fire place. It was all very old world and Renée had no doubt that it was most likely all original.
"Please, won't you be seated Renée? I'll go let Damon know that you're here."
"Thank you Stefan." Her attention was caught then by the young woman entering the room.
Stepping forward, she held out her hand to Renée. "Hi I'm Elena, Stefan's girlfriend. It's nice to meet you."
Renée grinned at her after dropping her hand. "Oh I doubt 'nice' was the descriptor you had in mind at first, but no worries. I know my daughter and I probably come as quite the shock to the system so to speak, and trust me when I say that I wouldn't be here at all if my daughter's life wasn't at risk."
Elena nodded and sat across from her. "Knowing Damon as I do, that's understandable. And believe me, we're pretty good around here with the strange and unusual. Things that may shock others merely startle us momentarily."
They both chuckled at that just as Stefan and a sleep rumpled Damon entered the room, Damon going straight to the bar for a bracing drink.
Stefan sat next to Elena and smiled apologetically at Renée as she waited on Damon to acknowledge her which he did just after knocking back half the contents of his glass.
"Renée!" He smirked. "What brings you here? It's been, what, a good sixteen years since we last saw each other?"
"Seventeen, almost eighteen Damon, but who's counting? Trust me, I wouldn't keep count if the age of our daughter didn't make it easy to mark the time, because frankly, I'd rather forget. Isabella makes that quite impossible to do I'm afraid."
"Isabella. God, she's that old already? It seems like only yesterday you let me know she'd been born. How is she?"
Renée frowned at him. "Yes, I'm sure the time has flown by for someone that didn't give two shits about his own daughter, but I'll tell you how she is Damon. She's amazing and beautiful and broken Damon and that's why I'm here. She needs help and you are the only one who can help her at this point, unfortunately."
He downed the rest of his drink and refilled the glass.
"What makes you think I can help her?" He asked with his brow furrowed.
"Because I believe that it's her vampire genetics causing the severe reaction to her grief that's she's experiencing. Her boyfriend and his family left her and she's been in severe mourning ever since. If she was full vampire, her body would be able to handle the repercussions of such deep grief, but because she isn't her body is shutting down slowly and it's killing her."
Renée noticed Stefan nodding. "If I may interject?"
Damon smirked. "By all means little brother. Please bless us with your wisdom."
Renée shot Damon a dirty look. "Damon, if you could pull your head out of your ass for just a little while we'd all appreciate it. I'm sure the change would be refreshing for your brother at any rate."
She looked to Stefan. "Please, do continue Stefan. I'm interested in anything that may help my daughter."
He smiled and dipped his head in thanks. "If I understand you correctly, you're saying that she grieves as a full vampire does, but her weakened half human body is unable to deal with the consequences, and so her grief is killing her. Correct?"
Renée nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I think."
Stefan looked at Damon who was frowning at a spot on the floor.
"It sounds as though she's grieving the loss of a mate. That's the only grief that I have ever heard of that is so allconsuming as that. And if that's the case, then the only real cure would be for her to reunite with her mate. Anything we, or Damon could do for her would be temporary, although probably effective for the time being."
He locked his gaze with Renee's. "You are thinking of regular doses of vampire blood, am I right?"
She nodded. "Yes."
He nodded meeting his brothers ice blue gaze.
Damon nodded back, running a hand through his hair. "I'll do it Renée. I owe her that at the very least, but this won't fix the problem. Ultimately, we'll have to locate her mate."
Stefan leaned forward in his seat, glancing at Renée.
"Where did the family move to? We need to contact them as soon as possible."
Renée took a few moments forming her answer carefully before meeting their eyes.
"That may be quite the problem. You see, I don't think they were human, simply because of subtle things that Bella said about him over the course of our conversations, and the sparkling and cold bite mark on her wrist that was never there before. All of those little things added together makes me believe my suspicions are correct."
"Sparkling and cold you say?" She saw that she had Damon's full attention now and he didn't look happy about what she'd just shared as he questioned her.
She nodded. "That's right. I've seen it in full sun even though she does her best to keep it covered, and it shimmers and reflects the sun in tiny patterns where the crescent marks are."
Damon locked his gaze with Stefan and they both spoke at once. "Cold ones."
Damon hurled his glass into the fireplace causing Renée and Elena to jump.
"I won't subject her to a bunch of cold ones! As a matter of fact, I won't allow it." He looked at Renée. "Do you know what could have happened to her with such unstable creatures around her on a regular basis?"
Renée shrugged. "I figured vampires are vampires, and I knew you could control yourself and feed without killing."
Damon scoffed and Stefan looked at her and shook his head. "Renée, cold ones are altogether different from us. Their bite is venomous for one thing and for another, they can't feed without killing. Once they bite, you either change or die. Don't ask me how she got a bite mark without one of those two outcomes. I'm certain it's quite the story."
Renee's mind raced back to that outlandish tale about falling down a flight of stairs and through plate glass in Arizona and she nodded before absently remarking
"It was indeed Stefan. Although I didn't hear the true version, she spun quite the story as a cover, if it's the incident I'm thinking of."
Stefan looked at Damon then. "And just how are you going to keep her from one of them if he's her mate brother? It sounds as though she's already bonded to him. If you try to forbid their connection, then she's right back where we started; grieving herself to death over a mate that she cannot have."
Damon locked his gaze with Elena then and uttered a name. "Bonnie."
Elena looked down at her lap for a bit and then nodded, looking back at Damon.
"Okay, I'll talk her into it somehow, for your daughter's sake Damon."
Renée looked around at the others in the room. "What is it Bonnie is supposed to do anyway?"
Elena took in a deep breath letting it out slowly before answering. "She's a witch and she can cast certain spells. If I'm thinking along the same lines as Damon, then he wants to have Bonnie send your daughter back to before her mate became a cold one, thus solving the problem. Am I right Damon?"
He smirked. "Very good sweets. Give the girl a prize. She got it in one. That's exactly what I would like to do."
He looked at Renée and gestured with his hand in front of him and a slight bow. "With your permission, of course."
Renée felt her eyes go wide. "How the hell is she supposed to survive in another time period for christ's sake?"
Stefan cleared his throat, gaining her attention. "You forget we are very old Renée? We will gladly tutor her in period etiquette as well as clothing and mannerisms. Since it could be any of the males that resided in the home, we'll need to touch on all of those times and prepare her for anything she may encounter. We'll provide money and period clothing."
He tapped his chin, thinking.
"We'll have to pick clothing that can span a couple of decades without looking outrageously outdated."
Damon smirked. "I'll leave that to you and Elena to accomplish little brother as you're much more conservative in your tastes."
Renée smiled at the pair. "Thank god, I wouldn't want her dressed as a barmaid after all."
Damon refilled his glass yet again and turned back to the conversation. "A barmaid is a very noble profession."
He drawled out arrogantly.
He nearly choked when Renée answered. "Oh really? Then you wouldn't mind your virgin daughter walking around that time period dressed as such?"
Coughing, he wheezed out, "Of course not!"
She smirked and looked back at a grinning Stefan and Elena. "When can we get started?"
DISCLAIMER: Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.