Epilogue. God Love Her

"God, Daddy! Did you have to scare him like that? I really liked David!"

"And he seemed to really like you. Or at least your neckline."

"Ugh! You don't know anything about him!"

I smirked to myself as I heard Emily charge up the steps. Edward sighed heavily, and I had to let out a chuckle.

"Find that funny, do you?" he asked, entering the library/study and coming to sit on the edge of my desk. "I don't remember you ever being that dramatic. Where does that girl get it from?"

"You're right, I was never that dramatic," I agreed, grimacing as one of my students, a fourth year who should have known better, made yet another glaring grammar error in their paper. "I mean, it's not like I ran away with a boy in the summer of my senior year to go on a cross-country road trip to find myself… or that I banged him in approximately fifteen different states."

"Are you sure it was fifteen?" Edward replied, coming around to rub my shoulders, and I let out a low moan at the feeling. "I could have sworn it was more."

"I didn't actually keep track," I admitted, setting aside my paper and grabbing his tie to pull him down for a kiss. Even after thirty years together, his kisses still made me feel like that teenaged girl. "When do you have to go back to the hospital?"

"Not for another four hours," Edward replied, happily letting me lead him where I may by the tie. "Plenty of time."

I laughed and pulled him to our room.

We had been married for twenty-two, but it hadn't been an easy road to get there. The eight years between our road trip and our marriage had been tumultuous at times. It turned out that I was an obsessive student and that getting honors at Cornell wasn't as easy as it had been at Forks High. Between my graduate degree and the graduate studies that had taken me overseas to Oxford for four years while Edward had stayed in the U.S. we'd had our share of struggles. There had been Isaac, the adorable Irish poet who had almost lured me away from Edward, and Candice the architect that Edward had dated for close to a year before we had come together again. Then there had been the struggle of Edward's internship and residency in the years just after our marriage, a new marriage forged on a mountain of debt.

But he had come out of it as a Pediatric specialist, and I as a Professor of English Lit, teaching at Cornell where I had gotten my Bachelor degree. Looking back, I could remember those struggles with something approaching fondness, even Candice, who I had once wanted to tear apart with my bare hands.

She had married a fellow architect five years ago; we had gone to their wedding. It was beautiful. My split with Isaac hadn't been quite as amicable; we hadn't been invited to his wedding, though mutual acquaintances had told me when it had happened.

Now, we lived in Ithaca, the pair of us, our hot-headed daughter Emily and our thirteen year old twins Chuck and Aiden. We had remained in love through the other loves, through the trials, and we had ended up married.

Renee had told Esme she'd known it was going to happen since the first day she saw us on the day we got married. Edward had hidden a smirk and I had rolled my eyes, but neither of us had called her on the lie.

Rosalie and Alice had been my bridesmaids, while Jasper and Emmett had stood up with Edward. Once on the same side of the country, the six of us had grown incredibly close. It had been on my girls' shoulder that I had cried about Edward and Candice, and it had been Emmett and Jasper who had gotten Edward so drunk that he had called me to tell me that he was still in love with me and would marry me one day, so I'd better sow my wild oats with the Irish bastard fast, when he'd found out about Isaac.

They were also the god parents of our children; Emmett and Rosalie for Emily and Alice and Jasper for the twins.

And now Emily was sixteen and dating for the first time, and Edward was finally beginning to realize why Charlie had hated him so much.

Emily, you see, had a thing for the bad boys.

"I don't get it," he admitted while I was trying to soak in the afterglow. "What's the appeal of all those leather wearing little bastards?"

"Should I be worried that you're still caught up in that?" I asked with a yawn.

"No. You were spectacular. I'm just good a multi-tasking. It's a doctor thing."

I rolled my eyes at that but cuddled closer.

"Bad boys are cute. They're dangerous. It's hot," I replied. "I recall being so enamoured with one that I climbed onto the back of his motorcycle."

"You obviously got over it," Edward muttered. "That soulful little poet was no bad boy."

"I came back to one in the end, though." I pointed out with a smug little smile, and Edward kissed me until it left my face and I wanted to stop talking about our daughter.

He wasn't done, though.

"I wasn't that much of a bad boy. Not really."

"She'll get over it," I told him, pressing a kiss to his neck. "And if she doesn't, then we'll welcome whatever leather clad hooligan she chooses to the family. Maybe you guys can exchange stories of your juvenile delinquency."

"Minx," Edward growled, rolling so he covered me. "There will be no leatherclad hooligans. But I'll apologize in the morning for chasing the latest one off. Now, no more about our daughter."

I laughed as he began to nibble his way down his body, and allowed myself to be overtaken with complete contentment.

This was it. This was the future I had seen all those years ago in Jacksonville.

It was perfect.

AN: And that's it, the end of Edward and Bella's story. I know it probably seems rather rushed, but I wanted to actually get an end to it out there. I hope you like where they wound up, and thank-you to everyone who has followed this story since the start. I feel that it was good way to end their story. I always planned for it to be a happy ending, and that's what they got. So, thanks again. It's been a long time coming.