It's been over a month since Derek went missing. Again.
Scott and his pack were working on trying to find him. Peter declared that he and Bella stay out of it because of who may have been responsible. The day Derek was declared missing, the loft was locked with the alarm set but inside, Peter and Bella found lots of brass bullet casings with the skull symbol which was identified as the mark belonging to the Calaveras, the family of hunters in Mexico.
While Scott and his pack were working on trying to find Derek, Peter was preparing to celebrate his daughter's thirteenth birthday tomorrow. Peter was anxious as he had not celebrated a birthday with his daughter since she was six years old. Thirteen. Bella was a teenager now.
"Where has the time gone?" Peter asked himself.
December 14th was Bella's birthday. She was born on December 14th, 1998. It's ironic that she was born on the night of a full moon. Peter remembered when his child was born so vividly. Parts of it were blurry to him but from the moment he first held Bella in his arms, he was in awe of the child he created. There are many things that Peter can not currently remember from his past, thanks to Talia. But he could never forget the day his daughter was born.
In her bedroom, Bella was catching up on some school work, blasting some music. Peter could hear the music from the living room. Bella sure had a peculiar taste in music. Peter smirked as he heard 'More Than A Feeling' playing throughout as he made his way to Bella's room. He could also hear Bella singing along to the lyrics, which made him smile.
Peter knocked on the bedroom door.
"Come in!" Bella said on the other side of the door.
Peter went inside "Hey, kiddo."
"Hey." Bella said back with a smile as she turned off the music.
"What are you working on?" Peter asked as he sat on Bella's bed.
"Biology homework." Bella said as she closed her school book.
Peter nods "Hey listen, I wanted to talk to you about something."
"What about?" Bella asked
"Well, you know what tomorrow is, right?"
Bella looked at Peter very confused "What's tomorrow?"
"'What's tomorrow'?" Peter repeated "Don't tell me you actually forgot your own birthday?"
Bella looked absolutely gobsmacked
Peter scoffed, "You actually forgot your birthday."
"It's tomorrow?!" Bella asked in shock
"Yes. I think I'd remember my own daughter's birthday." Peter stated "The big one-three. As of tomorrow, you are officially a teenager."
"My birthday is tomorrow?" Bella repeated "How did I forget?!"
"Well." Peter stated "With everything that's happened this year, I'm not all that surprised that you forgot."
"You didn't." Bella said
"I'm your father. It's my job to remember your birthday." Peter smirked
Bella laughed, "I can't believe that I forgot my own birthday."
"Don't worry about it." Peter said, taking her hand "I wanted to ask you what you wanted to do for your birthday."
Bella looked baffled. "I honestly have no clue. I've never really been one to celebrate it."
"You've got to do something for your thirteenth." Peter told her
Bella shrugged "Maybe I just want to keep it casual like always. Just hang around, have something nice for dinner. But nothing else. I never had a party in my life."
"Well, maybe we can change that."
"Dad, I'd just like to keep it between us." Bella told Peter "There's no one else to celebrate it with, so maybe I just want to spend it with my dad this year and not alone like before."
Peter just looks at her like he has an idea in mind "I think we can arrange that."
"You've got that look on your face." Bella observed
"What look?" Peter asked
"Like you are brewing something up. What are you up to?" Bella asked with curiosity
"That's for me to know and you to find out later." Peter tells her
Bella scoffed "No surprises!"
"Can't promise that." Peter said as he left the room
The next morning, Bella woke up to the smell of cinnamon filling up the apartment. She got up and found Peter in the kitchen with a freshly made birthday breakfast. Peter looked so thrilled with the cinnamon rolls and frosting all over his shirt.
"What are you doing?" Bella said laughing
"Hey sweetheart." Peter said coming around the kitchen island, pulling Bella into his arms "Happy birthday, kiddo."
Bella smiled. This was the first birthday she had spent with her father in a long time and she could tell he was extremely happy to be celebrating it with her again.
"Thank you, dad!" Bella said with glee
The two of them sat down and ate a whole pan of cinnamon rolls for breakfast.
After breakfast, Peter had pulled out a small wrapped box and handed it to Bella.
"I know that you aren't a big fan about your birthday but I really wanted you to have this." Peter tells her, handing Bella the small box.
"You did?" Bella asked as she opened it to reveal a small gold locket. Inside the locket on one half was a photograph of Peter holding Bella as an infant. The opposite side was empty.
"I thought that maybe we'd create new memories, take a new photo of the two of us." Peter said as he took the locket from Bella and clasped it around her neck.
"Thank you." Bella replied almost inaudibly as she gave Peter a hug "I love it, dad."
"God, I can't believe that you are thirteen." Peter sighed "Where has the time gone?"
"I know." Bella said as she pulled back.
Bella looked down at the locket and looked at the photo inside of it "I've never seen this photo before. Where did you find it?"
"Well, in the photo album, of course." Peter replied
"You have a photo album?" Bella asked curiously
"I do." Peter said with a smile
"Can I see them?" Bella asked, "I've never seen family photos before."
"Ever?" Peter asked
Bella shook her head
"Of course we can." Peter said as he got up and went to one of his bookshelves. He pulled out a large, bulky looking book.
He sat down again next to Bella and presented it to her. The cover said "Memories." engraved into it. "This is one of the family albums. This is the one I had put together after you were born. I have several others with the rest of our family in them."
"I'd love to see them all." Bella said with a smile
"We can most certainly do that." Peter said "This is the book I put together for your first year."
"This whole book is based on my first year?" Bella's eyes widened
Peter rolled his eyes as he scoffed "The family went nuts taking pictures. Happened to Derek, Cora and Laura as well."
"Oh, jeez." Bella chuckled
"I guess it was Talia's way of treasuring the lifetime of memories within the family."
The two of them spent the rest of the morning looking through old photos. Peter ended up telling Bella embarrassing stories about her when she was younger to the point that her face turned red.
"Do you know what your first word was?" Peter asked her
"Had to have been 'dada' was it not?"
Peter shook his head "You said 'Der'."
"Der? As in Derek?" Bella asked
"Precisely. Back then, he was your favorite cousin."
"That's so not true!" Bella laughed when Peter argued that the story he told was in fact true.
"You and Derek used to be so close." Peter told her as he took out a photo of baby Bella with teenage Derek. "Every single time you wanted something from Derek, you would scream 'Der!' to get his attention."
Bella sat back to take in everything Peter was saying. She and Derek used to be so close and she didn't know. Look at where they are now. Derek takes off for six years, only to come back to start a rocky relationship with her, which made it worse by killing Peter in front of her, his then beta scratching her face off, and Bella almost tried to kill him. The two of them used to be so close and she did not realize it. She didn't even remember it.
"I...I never knew." Bella said sadly
"What? That the two of you used to be close? Now we're a dysfunctional family. Happens to the best of us. "
"Yeah." Bella sighed as she continued to look through the book
Later, Peter surprised Bella by having them bake her own birthday cake. Bella could never imagine how much fun it would be to cook with Peter. It was amazing, they were both floating effortlessly around the kitchen. Listening to music and dancing around.
As 'We Didn't Start the Fire' was playing in the background, Peter said "Well, you most certainly have a good taste in music."
"I enjoy a good song here and there." Bella stated
At some point or another while mixing up the batter and playfully throwing pieces at each other, they were looking at each other laughing and Peter reached over and dabbed some chocolate frosting on her cheek.
"Hey!"
Peter was laughing. Bella then took some of the frosting and attempted to do the same only for Peter to playfully take off and Bella was chasing him around the kitchen island. When she couldn't catch up to him, Bella decided to fake getting injured. She pretended to bang her knee against a chair and fell to the ground, pretending to be in pain.
When Peter knelt down next to her, Bella took the chocolate that was in her hand and smeared it across Peter's face. Peter turns to look at his daughter who is trying and failing to act like she's done nothing wrong.
"You're horrible, you know that?" he asks and Bella chuckles and nods her head before getting up from the floor fast and laughing hysterically.
"You did it first!" Bella cried out
"You rugrat!" Peter growled playfully. "That was pretty clever though."
"You underestimate my power" Bella said with a smirk
"What are you talking about?" Peter cocked his head in confusion
"Oh, nothing. I was just quoting Star Wars."
"You've watched Star Wars?"
"All six of them. Originals and prequels"
"You, my darling daughter, continue to surprise me every day."
The two continued to laugh as they attempted to bake a birthday cake, which ended up overflowing in the oven to which Bella and Peter thought was hilarious.