Bella James Morrison McConnell (bella_mcconnell) wrote in btvsal, @ 2010-06-05 18:33:00 |
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Current location: | Saints & Sinners |
Current mood: | calm |
Entry tags: | bella mcconnell, ben bale, brandie bale, mere delany, place: la |
Welcome Home
Who: Bella, Brandie, Ben, and an appearance by Mere
Where: Saints & Sinners
When: June 4th, Friday Evening
In spite of what had happened to Rachelle and the stress it was putting on his family, especially Skylar and Neely, Ben was trying to have a good time. How? The same way he USUALLY tried to hide his inner strife. By watching strippers in his club until his brain was numbed by countless tits and asses. He relaxed at his private table, leaning back in his chair, wearing worn-in jeans, black leather shoes, and an Iron Maiden "Number of The Beast" t-shirt. He held a glass of scotch in his hand, trying to just lose his worries and his stress in the music and the sights.
After getting all but thrown into the bar by Meredith, who had been hanging out at the door that night, Bella walked over toward where she had seen Ben sitting and tapped him on the shoulder, standing behind him. She hadn't went to see anyone since she had gotten back. She had Brandie waiting outside, with a very curios Mere with her, and was going to explain what was going on, and quick.
Without bothering to look (and frankly, he'd have JUST enough to drink that he didn't immediately recognize her scent), Ben sighed and rolled his eyes. "I thought I said I didn't want to be bothered tonight."
"Figured that this was kind of important to override that little memo," Bella said loudly to him.
Ben spun around quickly, eyes widening as he recognized that voice. "Bella?" He looked at her, partially (and comically enough, OBVIOUSLY), wondering if she were about to punch him. "When... how... did you get back?"
God, so much to explain...so much that she DIDN'T want to do here. "I just got back, like...five minutes ago. You weren't at Avarice, so I took a shot in the dark and came here." She looked at him. "And when the hell did you move from above the club?"
"When I decided to get a proper house for Skylar and myself. And you, if you want to be entirely technical..." He said with a smirk. "If you just got back, why are you here? I can think of roughly a thousand people you'd usually want to see before me, unless you finally decided to get it over with and fight me..." Was this REALLY the same guy who had been so teary and loving to her in her time right before she came back?
She sighed. She actually had to remind herself that this guy would eventually turn into the oh so loving father figure that she would know one day. "Because I know who you turned into," she said simply. "And...I kind of got to tell you something, but we CAN'T do it in here. You need to come outside." No way in hell she was bringing her baby sister into this place. She had only known her for a short while, but she was already feeling fiercely protective over Brandie.
"See that, right there?" He pointed to Deanna and Eve, who were doing quite the provocative dance together for a nearby bachelor party. "If I'm going to even take my EYES off of that... this better be damn good."
"Would you be amazed to hear that you sold this place in that future I came from?" she asked randomly. "Just come outside. I promise it'll be worth it."
"I believe that as much as I'd believe you telling me I'm GAY in the future. Fine. But this BETTER be good..." He grumbled, languidly stretching as he got up from his chair, shooting the girls a comically sleazy wink before following Bella. Oh yeah... he should probably call Skylar after this, huh.
With a shake of her head, Bella led him outside, where she had left Mere standing with Brandie. As soon as she saw him, Brandie litterally pounced on him, knocking him to the ground as she hugged him, screaming "Daddy!" For being a fourteen year-old, she was strong. Damn those werewolf genes!
"Yeah, you sent your daughter with me," Bella said. "Oh, by the way, that future went kablooey. So, no going back. We're on our own now." Talk about dropping the bomb.
"Wait! I...! You...! She....!" Clearly, Ben was just full of conversational skills tonight. "I mean... who...." He looked at the girl clinging to him, and wondered how this must look: a pre-teen girl practically laying atop him, outside of a strip joint, calling him "daddy". Great.
Bella couldn't help it. She smirked as she said, "Wow, I wonder how many women have been able to render you speechless before." Brandie herself didn't seem to get the confusion. She was just clinging to Ben as if hanging on for dear life. "You should probably call Mom." Also, probably the first time this version of Ben had the pleasure of hearing Bella call Skylar that.
Oh yeah, Mere was standing by as well, howling with laughter at the scene, since apparently she didn't quite catch the part about 'the future blowing up' or whatever. "Oh my god, Ben!" Mere screamed. "Did you have a litter or something?"
"Ok, ok..." Maybe this was the part of Ben, hidden deep within, that really WAS a good father. He pushed back his shock, his confusion, all of it, and JUST thought of the poor girl who literally just lost everything. "Ok, sweetie... calm down... I know this isn't easy to hear, but I don't know you right now. Calm down, talk to me, and let's fix that, ok?"
Brandie nodded, finally getting off of Ben and allowing him to breathe. "Sorry," she said, blushing just a tad. "I just...I thought I'd never see you again." She lifted her hand to her mouth and chewed on her ring a little out of nervousness.
Bella remembered something and fished a letter out of her pants pocket. "Yeah, you and Mom asked me to, well, give this to you, if that makes any sense at all. Future you, did." She handed him a letter.
Ben blinked and took the letter, opening it and beginning to read it, trying to calm down enough not to just... hyperventilate and pass out right here. What the HELL was going ON here???
While Bella herself hadn't read the letter (she had felt it to be an invasion of privacy at the time), she tried to peak over Ben's shoulder while he was reading it. Brandie had sat down on her suitcase while Mere herself fidgeted back and forth on her feet. What? Do you REALLY expect her to miss this juicy bit of knowledge? Hell to the no!
"Well... fuck." Ok, so maybe Ben wasn't TOTALLY Ward Cleaver yet. Oh, how he couldn't wait to explain to his wife that somehow... future versions of themselves had just sent them a teenager to take care of. "Bella? Go... go call Skylar, ok? Tell her to get home immediately. Feel free to tell her alllll about this. I'm gonna get Brandie here home. And try to help her adjust. And... shit... try to come up with SOME kind of story to give people about who she is."
"Sometimes the best thing to say is the truth," Bella offered. "Like our family isn't strange enough as it is." Well, she had a point. And she was using 'our' instead of 'your.' How interesting..."I'll go make the call."
As she walked away, Ben looked at the... he had to admit.... completely adorable young girl who was practically glued to his hip. "Alright... now... you DO understand how much younger your mother and I are here, right? People outside of the family wouldn't exactly... understand this future stuff. We're going to have to make SOMETHING up for them. Maybe that your parents passed away or something, and left you in our care, and we chose to adopt you. Hell, it's not entirely untrue, right?" He put an arm around her, since she clearly needed and wanted some affection from him. It made him wonder just how much he'd changed in the future. Well... in HER future. Which was gone now.
Brandie nodded. Bella had explained a little bit on the way over to this...club or whatever it was. She wasn't even aware of this place in her future. "I know, you haven't even had Brayden yet," she said. "Where is he?" She might feel better if she were around him. "I know we can't go around and tell everyone what's going on. Schools don't exactly accept that you're from a future or something."
"Bray is staying at a suite in the hotel next to Avarice, sweetie." He just let her cling to him, as, honestly? The part of him that knew this was right somehow... liked it already. "He's pretending to be a cousin, because face it, no WAY could we explain HIM away as being adopted."
She nodded. No, he would be too old to say that they adopted. "I could be like, a distant cousin's child or something," she offered. Right now she was just happy that *any* version of her parents were alive, even if they weren't quite *her* parents, or at least not yet.
"We'll talk to your mom about it, and come up with something good. You hungry, squirt?" He grinned, almost half-ready to take her into the club for some food before catching himself. Yeah. BAD idea.
She nodded. "I could eat something." She wondered if they still lived in the same place as they had in her future. She knew that her parents had lived there for a while, anyway.
"And, um... anytime you need me? If I'm here? Just call me. Don't... don't come in. Trust me on that one." Because even HE wasn't a big enough asshole to corrupt his own daughter like that. "C'mon... let's go home." He said soothingly, hoping to ease her mind a bit.
She nodded, following him over to his car so that they could leave