Chapter Text
Chapter One
Down the Rabbit Hole
1991, 1673, 1993, and 1688.
1991
Charlie Swan had suspected early on into her life that his prized daughter had not escaped his family's oddities. Of course, when your family line stemmed from a dark curse inflicted on your oldest recorded ancestors, it was safe to say the strange talents that manifested in every generation wouldn't end any time soon. He'd hoped Bella might get off easy, maybe have a form of clairvoyance like his mother or his Aunt Tia's knack for changing people's fates, something controllable and considered "normal" in his family. That she had reached the age of four and not experienced much oddity was a very good sign that her trait might be easy on her.
Bella had complained about having a headache for most of the day, something she'd never had before. While Charlie had worried, like any good parent would, he hadn't been overly concerned. Children got sick, especially when starting school, and he assumed she'd picked up a cold at her preschool. Or, maybe she just hadn't had enough water that day. Even supernaturally-influenced children could get ill.
Deciding she just needed some rest, he got her ready for bed shortly after dinner. He'd gotten her dressed in her favorite bunny-printed pajamas with matching slippers and brushed through her wet hair while she taught him the very important differences between a toad and frog. He'd just gotten her hair braided back away from her face and had turned to grab another hair tie off of her dresser when the air shifted.
Charlie turned back towards Bella, but she was gone. Usually, with any normal parent, the sight of a suddenly missing child would send them into a full blown meltdown. But, Charlie wasn't a normal parent, had never been close to normal, and so all he did was sit in the rocking chair nearby and try to think of what supernatural talent Bella could've inherited from his family line.
He tried to remember if any family member had been one to disappear on the spot. One of his cousins could teleport to pre-determined locations, and this event with Bella seemed similar to his cousins early days of adjusting to her oddity. But, he couldn't be sure of anything until Bella came back and he could ask her about her trip. Regardless of the trait, every family member had an innate sense about where they were supposed to be tethered to. He was sure she'd return to her bedroom.
To be safe, Charlie moved quickly across the room, a blurry shadowy figure one moment before he materialized at the window back in his chosen human form. He didn't see any gathering of birds or ominous signs of trouble brewing outside. After shifting into dark smoke and traveling downstairs through the air vents, Charlie reformed at the front door. There were no disturbances in the air, no feeling of unnatural electricity or hint of sulphur in the rain, so he was convinced Bella must've been alright wherever she was.
1991-1673
Carlisle Cullen had experienced many strange happenings in his relatively short existence. He'd hunted the supernatural at his fathers orders, had been forced to confront the consequences of those actions in the most horrific of ways, and was now doomed to carry out a pitiful existence of loneliness and blood.
But, no amount of previous experiences with the supernatural could've prepared him for what he was seeing now.
"I'm Bella! I'm four!" The tiny thing smiled at him, holding out four fingers quite proudly, while standing at an uncomfortably close distance.
One moment, Carlisle had been completely alone, sitting against a tree and trying to reconcile his warring thoughts after drinking from yet another deer, a change in the air and a brief blur of light later...the little girl was standing not ten feet away.
And, to make the situation stranger, she was dressed in a way that he'd never seen before. He knew he'd been hiding away from society for quite some time, nearly ten years by the days he'd counted, but he doubted fashion had changed so drastically in London since his self-imposed exile. Her pink shirt and pants (something he'd never seen girls or women wear before) had the image of white rabbits all over them, and she even wore shoes with the same rabbits on them.
The tiny creature blinked at him, her brown eyes seemed too-big for such a small face, and he realized she was waiting on him to introduce himself too.
He greeted her cautiously, unsure of what strange creature she was to be so carefree in his presence, "Good day, Bella. My name is Carlisle."
"You talk funny." She grinned. He heard that she spoke in a different accent than he did, but he did not understand the humor she heard in his voice.
He shook his head, stunned by her completely, "I suppose I do sound different than you."
"Are you hurt?" The little thing—Bella—asked him with worry. "Blood." She pointed at him, and he looked down to see he'd gotten blood on the shoulder of his shirt during his recent hunt. He was covered in old blood stains and dirt. Carlisle had no idea how the child wasn't frightened completely by him.
He felt strangely fond of her worry for him though, "no, Bella. I am well." He tried to soothe her, but she didn't seem convinced at all. "Where have you come from?" He tried to divert her attention.
She cocked her head at him, and he thought she might not have understood his question. He had to remember she was quite young and, from what murky images he could remember, he'd never spoken to such a young child before.
"Where do you live?" He rephrased his question. "Are you lost from your home?"
Bella giggled, a sound that Carlisle couldn't help but smile at, "I'm not lost! I live with Daddy." She spoke as if she made perfect sense.
"In town?" Carlisle pressed her for more answers, trying to figure out the creatures circumstances and who she was talking about. He didn't know how he'd get her back to where she belonged.
"Forks." She nodded, as if her answer was absolute. Carlisle couldn't understand how a utensil was where she thought she lived.
Bella rubbed at her eyes and yawned, and Carlisle realized the little thing was very tired.
"Do you know how to get home?" He asked her. "You look as though you need to rest."
Bella shook her head, "no, I don't know how." Water welled up in her eyes, and Carlisle wasn't sure if the tears were due to sadness or her exhaustion. "I'm scared."
He was hesitant, extremely wary, but he offered his hand to her anyways. "Bella, it is alright, please do not cry."
Bella came close but ignored his hand, and he froze in shock when she instead climbed into his lap and put her head against his shoulder. She...hugged him, tightly around his neck, and he was surprised to find that he had no fear of harming her. Her blood was noticed by him, of course it was, it was the first human blood he'd been near, but it was far from his mind. The too-trusting little angel needed his comfort, and apparently he needed hers as well.
He put his arms around her, careful to not harm her in anyway, and he held her close. She took a deep breath and suddenly got very still.
Bella had fallen asleep on his shoulder.
Carlisle couldn't understand how or why the girl had appeared but, as hesitant he had been about her company, he was very glad to have met her. A strange idea began to surface in his mind, one that he knew he had to stomp out quickly before he got too hopeful, but he couldn't help but think through the possibility.
If Bella's blood wasn't difficult to ignore, then maybe other humans blood might be the same? He'd hunted animals for a decade now, surely that had become habit enough that he might avoid any disasters? Bella had been so brave and so kind, she'd given him a sense of hope he had never experienced.
She gave him hope that he might be able to make this new existence something worthwhile after all.
1673-1991
Charlie had been lounging on the couch for less than half an hour when he felt the disturbance in the air. He vanished into the shadows and reappeared at Bella's bedside. Bella was soundly asleep, curled up against her pillow, and Charlie smiled widely that she'd returned home safe in such a relaxed state. He'd been expecting fear, tears, and a long night of trying to soothe her. If she had to have the curse, then he could at least be proud of her strength while handling the trait inflicted upon her.
"Bella? Baby, wake up." Charlie brushed his fingers through her hair gently and she stretched as she opened her sleepy-looking eyes.
She smiled at him, still tired, "hi, Daddy. I missed you."
"Hi baby," he chuckled, "did you have a nice trip?"
"Mmhm," she nodded, "I made a new friend."
She sat up in her bed, pushing her blanket off of her. Charlie panicked at the sight of her clothes being marked with dried blood and filth.
"Bella, are you alright?" He worried over her, trying to appear calm in an effort not to scare her, "where did this blood and dirt come from?"
Bella looked down at her clothes, but didn't seem concerned, "my friend had blood on. He wasn't hurt."
"And it's not yours?" He checked her quickly when she shook her head, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't find a scratch on her. "Good. Well, come on, you've got to have another bath now."
As Charlie helped wash Bella clean from the dried blood and dirt on her arms and in her hair, Bella told him about the friend she'd met in the woods. It was daytime where he was, but rainy, and he'd looked so sad sitting by himself. There was blood on him, but he said he wasn't hurt. He was very nice and talked to her and helped her not be scared. She wanted to go home, but didn't know how, and he held her so she wouldn't cry.
Bella kept telling him about her new friend, she could really be a chatter box when she had something important to talk about, "He talked funny too."
"How?" Charlie asked her before rinsing her hair with a cup of water.
Bella thought for a long moment, "he talked old."
"Oh, your friend was an old man?" He chuckled.
"No," Bella shook her head, "he talked old."
That's when Charlie began to suspect that Bella had experienced something a little more complicated than teleporting, but the final verdict on her talent would have to wait until there was more information she could give him later on. For now, he had to support her the best he could in this new found oddity and hope that she'd continue to meet "friends" that would help her during her travels.
1993-1688
"Hello?" Bella called out, but no one answered her.
Bella had been sitting on the couch one minute, trying but failing to ignore her headache, when the next moment she was sitting on an old stone floor. She would've been afraid, terrified of the sudden change in location and time, if it hadn't been for her dad's constant reminders to stay calm. After her first trip when she was four, she'd had quite a few over the last two years, and she was finally starting to get adjusted to the sudden changes. So far, her trips had been safe ones, so she tried to keep herself calm and hoped this one would be too.
The house she found herself in was strange. The floors were stone, like the walls, the roof had wooden beams running along the ceiling, and she couldn't find any light to turn on. Bella went to open the door nearby to try to figure out where she was, but it opened and someone came inside before she could move.
The figure, dark due to the lack of light in the room, froze as soon as it stepped foot inside, "who's there?"
Bella kept quiet, and wondered whether she should answer or not. If the person walked a little more into the room, then she might be able to dodge them and run outside before they found her. She had no luck at that plan though, because the figure struck a match and lit an oil lamp before turning to look at her.
"Carlisle!" She smiled widely, thrilled to see her friend standing there, looking the same as he did their first meeting, and he looked back at her with wide disbelieving eyes.
"Bella?" He asked, and he looked equally as happy to see her. He opened his arms to her and Bella ran to him happily.
Carlisle lifted her up into his arms and sat her against his side in order to get a good look at her, "Bella, I am very happy to see you!" He smiled warmly at her and she felt as safe as she did her first time meeting him.
"Me too!" She laughed. "I'm six now!"
"I can see you have barely aged at all since we last met. But, it's been fifteen years since I've seen you." He shook his head in complete confusion.
"My dad says I'm a time-traveler." Bella explained easily. "But I can't pick my trips." She frowned in disappointment.
Carlisle believed her easily, he'd seen with his own eyes twice now that she came from a very different time than he did, but the idea made his head spin.
"I'm not supposed to tell anyone so...don't tell him I told you." Bella shook her head and Carlisle laughed at her. "Please don't tell anybody."
"Bella, your secret is safe with me." He promised her. "And I won't tell your father you told me."
"Good." She giggled. "I missed you, Carlisle."
"I missed you too." He smiled at her.
He had missed her, terribly. Bella had disappeared from his arms in a flash of light and a rush of air, and he'd panicked at the idea of losing her. He couldn't be sure she wouldn't be harmed, wherever she had gone, and he worried that she wouldn't make it home to where she belonged. The little angel had given him hope to lead a worthwhile existence, something that he had been trying his best to do since he lost her, and there wasn't a single day that he hadn't thought of her. Now, to know she'd gotten back to her home, her own time, safe was a blessing. To have her visit him again was far more than he ever could have deserved.
Bella hugged him tightly around his neck, like she'd done the first time they'd met, and relaxed in the feeling of safety Carlisle brought her. She didn't have to worry about being in a strange new place, trying to figure out how to survive the trip, with no one around to help her. She doubted that Carlisle would ever let something happen to her. He smiled at her and hugged her like her own father did.
"Carlisle, if I could pick trips, I'd pick you." She promised him.
He kissed the side of her hair fondly, "I very much hope that you would. You're safe with me, in any place and in any time."