Together At Last

12 hours later…Cullen Residence

Heavy, really heavy. And really low. It wasn't the good kind of heavy like when Ed was on top of him. It was familiar though, 'Gotta take a leak.'

"Not the most profound words after a faint spell, but definitely coherent," his husband commented.

Jacob slowly fluttered his eyes open. More than half of the room was windows and Jacob saw some unplugged machines next to his bed that Carlisle must have ordered or brought over from the hospital. "Ed?"

"Hi," Edward kissed his mate's forehead, each eyelid, each cheek, and mouth.

Flashes of yesterday crossed the alpha's mind. "Edie's gone, isn't she?" Jacob buried his face in the crook of Edward's neck. Edward fastened himself tighter. Jacob tried to get closer but was somehow unable to. Then, he felt something sock him in the kidney. He looked down. "Ed. What?"

Edward's marble hands were not able to fully cover the entire expanse of Jacob's newly extended stomach. "When she left us," Edward shook his head. "It was so much growth you had to go through. You were in pain and we had to sedate you."

It was a comfortable silence with intermittent explanations. The mansion had the necessary equipment to observe Jacob, so they stayed here. The wolves were all downstairs. Emmett brought Billy over early in the morning once they explained the situation. Riley and Bree are guarding outside the room. Jasper at some point needed to leave the property to get a hold on his empathy.

Jacob caressed his sweet bump. He wanted to be able to kiss his bump, but Edward did it for him which was almost as good. Jacob smiled gently. He sighed, "How are we gonna do this, Ed?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean." Jacob got off the exam table and walked around the room. "I've never…She's so stubborn. And that's like part of the problem."

"We will do things differently. We already are, Love."

"I know but it's not just that we have a mini us to raise. It's that… I feel like we'll always compare Junior to Edie. I mean yeah, they're the same person, but are they really? Junior's life is gonna be completely different. Will that be fair to her? I don't know, man."

From behind, Edward slid his arms around his wolf and over their Junior. "No, it won't. And I can't promise that neither of us won't slip and accidentally do that." He kisses his neck and his cheek. "But I'll have you and you'll have me, and darling, that's the best kind of deal I can think of."

The couple went down to the first-floor living room. Marcus and Alec were at the end of the staircase. As Edward and Jacob came down, they were laser-focused on his abdomen. It was sort of like before when Jacob first found out he was pregnant. Plus, the bump. Jacob's face was twisted in a scowl of sorts and was trying to find some support on his lower back.

Edward picked him up bridal style and put him where Alice strategically placed various pillows. "The only reason I'm not yelling at you right now is because this is actually comfy." Edward propped Jacob's feet on the available footrest.

Rosalie planted herself on his left. He didn't need to be a mind-reader to know what she wanted. "Go ahead, Rose. You're her godmother."

She squealed. Her mouth was so stretched from her smile one could practically see all of her teeth. Even so, her hands her practically shaking. When her hands weren't enough, she put her ear against his tummy. It was an odd little heartbeat. "Hi, Little One. I'm your Auntie Rosalie."

"You're hogging the baby, Rose!" Seth put himself on the other side. "Hi baby~"

'You're okay with this?' Edward motioned to Jacob.

'Yeah, I guess.'

'Let me know when you're not.' Marcus lingered at the edge of the group as everyone approached Jacob.

An hour away from the Cullen Residence

They had to stop for gas. It was the only reason Charlie and Sue weren't racing through the highway as they had been for the last two hours.

The card reader on the gas pump would not read his credit card. This was already the fifth time he inserted the fucking thing. Ready to throw the useless piece of plastic in the trash, his motion is stopped by Sue's gentle red hand.

Sue made Charlie look at her face. When she breathed in, he breathed in. The same thing happened when she breathed out. Charlie continued mimicking her until he let his arms fall to his sides.

"You haven't said anything since we've been on the road."

"I know."

"Why?"

"No, Sue. I know. I know about you, the tribe, the Cullens, everything," Charlie confessed. Her stunned expression didn't discourage him from continuing. "I think I know more than you do, actually."

"When did she tell you?"

"I always knew. I met her in a bar after Bella left. She took me home and then she told me. Well, she got naked in front of me and turned into a huge wolf, and then she told me."

With all the supernatural knowledge she has gained, Sue didn't startle easily anymore. She shouldn't have been startled. Sue went to the cab of the back seat of the Nissan where her bag was, and she took out the letter that Edie gave her, and she handed it to Charlie. "I'll pay inside."

It was a standard white envelope with his name on it. He slid his index finger under the glued tab. He slid it under to where the letter was and tore the edge carefully enough not to damage the contents.

He read:

'Dear Charlie, I wanted to walk away and be with you–'

Cullen Residence -First Floor Living Room

"Guys! I'm getting a little claustrophobic here. Back off a bit, okay. Ed and I need the room." Jacob looked over at Alec and Marcus. While everyone else left, he motioned them to come over. Though they were hesitant, they eventually did. "Are you staying?"

Marcus could only stare at the dome that housed the infant who would eventually be his mate. He cleared his throat. "No. Thinking about it, it would be best if I wasn't too involved with your lives this early."

"Dude, look at those lines." Marcus was puzzled at Jacob's words. "I'm not saying I'm a freakin' genius to know what that means like this one here, but I'm not stupid either. You and my kid are already connected."

"It's Lord Marcus' power, Jake. He can see the connections between people. You are connected too, Alec."

"See man," Jacob motioned to Marcus. "You're gonna be involved anyway."

"Perhaps, but I still believe it's best that I not be too involved in her childhood. I want Edward to experience life without our connection to hold her back."

"It's not that we don't understand," Edward acquiesced. "We want her to grow to be a child as much as she can be. What we want to know is if you are ever planning to be in her life."

"You can't just abandon your mate, man."

"I don't plan to, Jacob Black. But I would be remiss to not express to you the…awkwardness of being near my still growing mate. I would have these feelings for a child that I would watch grow up and I do not want to put her or myself through that."

"Yeah, man that sounds like a lot of pressure," Jacob concurred. "It's not like us. When we imprint, we go through cycles of love depending on our imprints. Like Quil and Claire. He has to wait a while before he can feel for Claire like how Sam feels for Emily. If that makes sense…" He turns to Edward.

"Yes. And when vampires form the Mate Bond it's all-consuming and from what I know, it can be debilitating the longer it takes to complete the bond."

"Exactly." Marcus stared forlornly at the bump.

"And you, Alec," Edward inquired. "Where will you be?"

"I was planning to keep Lord Martyr company on his travels," Alec shrewdly smirked. "I have to keep him alive for my friend in there. I'll be by from time to time." Edward and Jacob knew Edie wouldn't be the only one he'd be visiting. Their daughter's godfather came to mind.

"Alright. If you're sure," Jacob got up from the couch, aided by Edward.

"I am. I'm sure this is the best way for Edward and me."

Jacob cringed. "Yeah, that's just weird hearing that from you. I know you're talking about my daughter, but it's still my hubby's name you're saying."

"Should I call her by her middle name? Which one? There are so many," Marcus tittered.

"Not anymore. I changed it. I mean I was tempted to call her Jacob Junior, but nah. She's still Edward minus that whole mess of names. I ended up naming her after her favorite person." When he was going to say more, his mind picked up on Alice's vision. Someone was coming. They were angry, sad, tired; it was hard for Jasper to pinpoint an exact emotion.

"Can't Alice get a clearer picture?" They went outside.

"No. And I can't read their minds whoever they are. You should stay inside."

"Nope. I'm going. I've got a feeling this is important." Marcus and Alec decided to join them. If they were all jumpy, well they really could not be blamed.

Riley and Bree had taken a proactive approach to their new visitor. They tried stopping the guy, but he was undeterred. They returned to the property a little bit before their visitor arrived.

The grey Altima disturbed the grass on the Cullen's front yard. The Forks Police Chief stormed. "Where is she? Where is my daughter? Where is my girl?" He literally growled. Sue hurried out of the car.

Carlisle advanced to Charlie like a wild animal, "Charlie, I can explain everything if you would come inside." Charlie grabbed the arm that Carlisle attempted to place on his shoulder. He twisted it then he threw Carlisle away from him.

"Tell me where my daughter is now!" Bree grabbed him from behind. Riley held his face.

"Charlie," he struggled. "We couldn't…she…"

Charlie held onto Riley. Bree wrapped her arms around Charlie. The trio held each other as they bawled the absence of their Edie; their daughter, their sister, their teacher. Instead of joining the trio, Sue went to her children and Billy.

A human cried for his lost mate. What is his business here? How did he know his wife? Just as the once-lord went to the small group, Alec stood in his way. "He belongs to her."

"Explain." For now, the heat stays in his forearms.

"He is her human. If you touch him, she will never forgive you."

Charlie stood and faced the back of Alec's head. "She told you about me?" Alec turned around.

"Very briefly. She didn't give an explanation. Not that she had to; anyone could see on her face how much she loved you."

"What happened to her?"

Marcus growled at this. The heat from Marcus' forearms is spreading to through his body. Charlie goes to Edward but is stopped by Marcus.

"Who are you?"

"Police Chief Charlie Swan." He assessed the vampire lord up and down. "You're Marcus."

"How much do you know?"

"Answer some of my questions. What. Happened. Here."

Edward carefully crafted his answer, "We were camping. Edie woke up before any of us. There was a snake. It bit her and by the time we got home, the poison had spread, and she died. In my arms."

Jasper observed Charlie pace in front of them then when the human punched one of the trees on their driveway and it split in half. Needless to say, an ordinary human should not be able to do that. The strength most likely came from the venom that Edie poured inside him.

Charlie didn't stop to admire his destruction he kept pacing about. "She's so stubborn. I told her not to fight. She wasn't strong enough. She was too weak."

He knew Riley and Bree. He knew about Alec. Plus, he just... It wasn't a coincidence. It couldn't be. Esme and the others had observed.

"How long have you known?"

"When Bella left, she told me." The rain started to pour as it usually did in Forks. Maybe it was just him, but for Charlie, the weather was harsher than normal.

Alice handed Charlie a glass of water. He thanked her for it.

"What was your relationship with Edward, exactly?" Marcus awaited.

"She was mine. I needed her like she needed me." He left the rest of the statement in the air for now.

"You said she was weak. Can you tell us more?" Sam encouraged.

"It started the night she came clean to Carlisle, Esme, Billy, and Sue. When she came back, she told me it was too late. I didn't know what she meant until later when she started –it was like she had the flu. She was weak all the time and she could barely move. She told me that that night, she was conceived. She said the universe was making room for the other her and she was being pushed out." He sipped. "Right around April, it started getting worse."

For a bit, Charlie shifted his focus on his thumbs and how they moved across the condensation on the glass of water. He looked up briefly to Edward and Jacob.

"I think in her own mind, she didn't want you to be held back by unnecessary sadness. Edie knew that she would go, and she knew why."

"And it was because of this." Jacob's own russet hands mapped the dome that held their little girl. "When we were in Brazil, it grew. And then when we came back here it stopped. Edie stopped herself from growing."

"Why," Edward asked the only one who could know.

"To keep her secret," Riley revealed. "You know how she was. She was scared."

Bree continued, "She hoped that she could keep it from you at least until she left, and that didn't work out."

"In her mind, you had already rejected her. It was dumb. She knew it was dumb. But I don't think she could help it. So she, I guess, she made plans or wanted to make plans for Charlie to adopt her."

Charlie hadn't known about her plans, but he did suspect. Jacob could tell that much from his expressions since his thoughts were unreadable.

"At some point, Edie, the one we knew, became a copy of the one inside you," Charlie soldiered on. "It's my guess but then Edie said something about balance. If she didn't go, then they would both have to go."

"So, if Edie told us that. If she told us that she would have to go, we would've only wasted time trying to save her," Jacob realized.

"Time that we would have spent researching a dead end instead of laughing, talking, loving," Edward agreed. "She wanted to be with us one way or another."

It wasn't that the whole time-travel multiple dimension paradox didn't intrigue the couple or anyone else in the room; it was more like the knowledge of that explanation. The why of why their Edie had to go was a footnote. They could read it later, but what mattered (the main text) was that she left as she arrived, in the way they had least expected.

Maybe it's knowing Charlie's importance or maybe Edward had had enough of the secrets. As calmly as he could, Edward recited the battle. "We were done. We left the field and we sent our friends off to their homes. Then she just fell." He helplessly looked at his palms. "She, her body turned into orange petals in my arms. She scattered in the wind."

It was a sense of kin, possibly, that drove Charlie to tell Edward. "We were there for each other. I fell in love with her," he admitted. "I fell for the girl that would watch cartoons with me every night and Saturday morning. The girl I went to AA meetings with. I fell in love with the girl that made me believe in hope. She made me happy. And she loved me too."

It was simple. Because it was, Marcus had to begrudgingly accept the chief's role in his mate's life. He would repeat this to himself over and over every time he saw them together in the future.

Edward did what was perhaps the least expected of him and hugged Charlie. Ferociously. Jacob would not blame the hormones for the tears on his face. The kicks coming from his tummy reminded him of an earlier conversation he hadn't finished.

"Charlie, I wanted, I mean." The chief walked over to the little kid he had watched grow up about to become a parent.

"I don't know much about Edward, but I do know you, Jake. I've watched you grow up into the most caring person I know. The way you take things as they come and try to make the best out of them, that's all parenting is. That's all life is. That little lady you have in there is fierce. She is kind, and she's very lucky to have you."

Charlie had never been an emotional guy to begin with, so this day had him ragged by the end. He left for home with Riley and Bree.

"Hey Charlie!" Jacob jogged to them, well, sort of. "We're sticking around for a while. Ed and I have this little house and you're welcome to come anytime. Oh!" Jacob grabbed Charlie's hand put it on the underside of his stomach. "Looks like Junior agrees."

Charlie, Riley, and Bree rode in Charlie's car all the way to the Swan house.

Charlie retired from the force when he reached seventy. He wasn't tired. He just wanted to try something new. He traveled within the states mostly and went to foreign countries in his later years until he couldn't. Occasionally he would get emails from Angela Weber. After Brown she traveled the world with friends and became a War Photographer and Pulitzer winner by 32. She and her wife Sezen come back to the Forks every few years.

Riley and Bree stuck with the Cullens for a few years at a time and kept an eye on most of the world's affairs. They even stopped an assassination or two. They went back to high school when it was time for their teacher to go. They attended Forks.

For the Olympic Coven, they mostly stuck to their routine. High school some years, college for others, and the workforce every once in a while. With technology evolving the way it does, changing their identities was a bit difficult until they eventually met up again with Alistair who, by that point, became a master at cyber-ghosting. Sometimes the couples drifted off for a few decades, but they eventually came back together.

The Quileute pack, under Sam, once Jacob and Edward left Forks, grew and eventually stopped shifting altogether. Everyone except Seth. Future generations were taught about the Cold Ones. They added new stories about the Cold Ones with gold eyes and the adventures they had together. Chief Black-Lahote, the descendant of Paul Lahote and Rachel Black-Lahote told the story of his ancestors at every bonfire, every wedding, every new child's birth. Whether a new pack came was a secret of the tribe and their Cold Cousins.

Marcus and Alec decided to do some traveling in South America. They eventually found Nahuel's father and Dr. Mengele. After they solved that trouble, Marcus decided to live a few years exploring the world's oceans. Two thousand years on land does get boring eventually. He would take his mate there on their honeymoon.

Alec, having spent most of his life inside Volterra's walls, decided to stay on land for a few decades during Marcus' underwater exploration. On a visit to the United States for his Clyde's wedding, he picked up a wolf of his own. Seth stopped shifting for a few years so he could physically and mentally mature. When Alec came back, he started shifting again.

In mid-Autumn 2010, the baby was born. Charlie Swan was the first to hold her, after her parents, of course. For the rest of his life, he was Papa Charlie.

Jacob and Edward stayed in town for a few years just before Junior entered the 2nd grade. The day they left Forks; their daughter sequestered herself in her room at Papa's place. The couple would have been glad to stay in Forks, but even with clothes and makeup that made them look older, they had been pushing. People were starting to ask questions.

After Junior was born and extensive tests were performed, Carlisle had found that Jacob had gradually become an immortal just like them. It was partly due to his Moon-Child heritage and party due to the venom secreting from Junior's womb. Either way, Jacob didn't have to shift to stay with Edward anymore. He could still enjoy human food; much to his relief.

Junior grew and matured like a human normally did. Some years she was their adopted daughter and in others, she was their cousin or their sister. When they couldn't stay in Forks anymore, they went to Chicago. When the Corona Pandemic hit, they decided to go to South America for a bit. Those years were the hardest on their little girl. She would video-chat Charlie every day, but it wasn't enough for her. When it came time for Junior to go high school, the worst of the pandemic was over, and they decided to attend Forks High. It worked for them mostly because people that they had known years ago left to warmer regions except for the ones that stayed and were affected by the virus.

Junior was sixteen when she met Marcus again. He decided to attend high school as well. He said it was for the experience; he had never had formal schooling. There was some drama with Edward. Sixteen or 1600, she was his little girl and Marcus was too old for her. No dating until she was at least 100! Jacob talked him down and, in some ways, he was worse than Edward. It was something about how mothers knew best and being the ultimate alpha of a vampire killing species…

By the time Marcus asked for their blessing, an old vision came to pass. Their sunshine was twenty when she married.

Charlie was the first documented human to live to be 175 years old. When people asked how he lived up to an impossible age, he told them "Two shots of tequila every day and fishing." Every once in a while, his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren visited.

Edward Charlotte Cullen Black held her Papa Charlie in his last breaths.

While he drove home on that unforgotten day long ago, Charlie kept thinking about the letter Edie left him.

Dear Charlie,

I wanted to walk away and be with you, but I couldn't step away from the fight. I'm the one who amped up everyone. Even if it happened the same way as before, I had to try. For my family, for my friends, for Marcus. It was my last chance to see Marcus.

You made being without Marcus bearable. You know just how much I was tempted to go straight to Volterra and kidnap him and Alec.

I stayed because of you.

You were right Charlie. You were right about a lot of things. But mostly you were right about being my imprint. I was lucky enough to have two.

I was so lucky to have my parents who would die for me. My Marcus who loved me beyond what was possible to love about me. I was lucky to have my friends and family by my side through every decision I made. Mostly, though I am lucky that I met my soulmate; I am blessed that I met you. You're the only one I trusted without reservation. You helped me to love myself. You. I love you.

The day we met, we were both fractured glass balls and it seemed like only one more injury would just break us completely. As we rolled through our lives and we cracked some more and our shards fell away, we each picked up each other's pieces. The pieces we left behind filled us and made us whole for each other.

Make sure to stay in my life. I want you in my life for as long as I can. It's the only thing I ask. I won't ask you to miss me. (Though you should. I'm pretty awesome.) Tell my parents, do what you need to, I don't care. I don't want to live another life where I don't know Charlie Swan.

Charlie. Thank you. Thank you for letting me be Edie Black Swan.

I love you. Beyond my heart. Beyond my body. Beyond my soul. I love you.

In Charlie's eyes, there are specks of emerald where there weren't before.