Chapter 31- Tale as old as time

Bella POV

93 years after it all began….

Dawn can be defined as the first appearance of light. When dawn breaks, the world changes, as if to start over again. And that was what I was doing. For the umpteenth time I found myself moving, and beginning a new life. After watching sunrise, I stepped back from the window, looking back at the room that had been mine so long ago.

There on one of the residential streets of Forks Washington, I sat on the bed that had traveled with me since my human teenage years. I had moved it in the same spot it had been when I had first moved here, ninety three years ago.

Christ, I was getting old.

The house had stood empty a long time. Charlie and Sue spent their time divided between their two homes of La Push and here, and after his long life had ended, I didn't have the heart to come back to the house, much less sell it. So it waited until I was ready, and now I felt I was.

Enough time had passed that no one here remembered the Cullen's or even the Swan's. There was no evidence that we had even been here. Everyone who had known us was long gone. Some absences still hurt to think of, no matter how naturally they had occurred. After all, half our family was gone now.

Sam, Emily, Paul, Ripley, Embry, Morgan, Kim, Jared, Lulu, Elan, Seth, Quil, Claire, Athan, Leah…all were lost us. Some of their children were still alive and knew of us, but it would only be a matter of time before they too passed. It was the worst part of this life, losing them. But we had their grand and great grand children to carry on. We couldn't stop living just because life did as it should with them. It moved on, and so did we in our way.

But after all this time, we had decided to go back to where it started. Back to home, even though it would never feel as much like home without them.

It still felt right to be here. Over the last few decades we had been jumping from place to place, settling for five or six years and then moving on. There were worries from time to time, but since the Volturi had fallen and Carlisle had started the Quen there had been no major troubles. No fights or running. We were finally safe.

With that safety came our freedom for the first time in too long. For decades we went where we pleased, without worries for what could happen. We still had to move often sure, but we at least had each other and no fears of being hunted. Every so often we would visit La Push, or our family there would make trips to see us. The time we had with them was full and watching them have the lives they built was a great joy.

It had been especially remarkable to watch the life my daughter and son in law made for themselves. After Rory had made the choice to remain a hybrid rather than make the human part of her dormant, Jacob decided he would continue phasing so he would always be with her. And since she still had a human side, a few decades after we had defeated the Volturi, Rory and Jacob had their first child. He was a beautiful boy they named Matthew William, who was human, ended up falling in love with our friend Irina and made the same choice I had and had been a vampire for some twenty years now. My granddaughter Alexia Christine was a surprise that came later in Rory's life, and brought a new excitement for us all. She had neither the human or vampire gene, but at the age of fifteen phased for the first time. Now at nineteen, she still moved around with Rory and Jake, who were currently living in southern France.

The rest of the Cullen's had been spread out over the last eight and a half decades. Yet we always ended up finding each other, like we had now. For the first time since we left they were back in the main house, and ready to start another cycle of our living in plain sight.

As I got up from the bed and reached for my clothes, my fingers fluttered over the note Edward must have left while I had been in the shower. It read, "Gone hunting, I'll meet you at our spot."

Of course I knew what spot he meant, but over our almost century together we had made many other spots for ourselves. We had managed to live in every country I ever wanted, twice over. He showed me everything I had ever wanted to see, and with him I lived more than I ever expected to. He still managed to surprise, excite, and amaze me. Through every fight and bad time, there was Edward, and there was us. No matter where we went, we were together and had all we needed in that.

Ninety three years, a daughter, grandchildren, and countless homes later, he was still exactly what I wanted, and I could never imagine that changing.

I grinned as I stepped into my jeans, prosthetic leg first, and yanked on my green sweater. If I didn't stop reminiscing and get moving soon I would be late.

A few minutes later I rushed down the stairs, pausing as I locked the door behind me. It felt so familiar. I had to close my eyes as I pictured seeing Charlie's police cruiser in the drive. Instead I only saw the truck I had bought two years before, and Lua's car. She was over eighty and after Aaron Uley, her husband, had died, she didn't want to stay in La Push, but didn't want to go far. So we recently moved her into Charlie's house, and she would now be acting as our great grandmother rather than niece.

The buzzing in my pocket snapped me out of it as I reached for my phone, smiling at the name on the screen.

"Hey kiddo."

"Your granddaughter is grounded." Rory scoffed.

"Uh oh, can you ground a nineteen year old?"

"Oh I plan to. She imprinted. On some random French dude."

"She did! Oh my god! That's great."

"Do you want to be a great grandmother?"

"Well I am a hundred and ten; it's high time your kid made me one. You can't really be mad."

"Of course I can, she's my last baby and now she's going to chase after this guy and leave me."

"My baby left me; it's the way of life. Least you can have another if you're that cross with her."

"How did you know I was pregnant?"

For the first time in nine decades of being a vampire I nearly fell over. "You're pregnant!" I shouted.

"Yea call the guiness book of world records, I'm the knocked up again. You should have seen the look on Jacob's face when I told him."

"Wait til I tell the family! Can I?"

"Yea might as well. I really am happy for Alexia I just don't like this growing up business my kids are in."

"Welcome to the club."

After a few more bounces and squeals and a quick chat with Jake I got into my truck and drove the memorized route to Forks High School. I could still dimly see the seventeen year old version of myself making this drive for the first time. And as I walked to my first period class, I smiled mile wide as I saw a familiar someone sitting in the farthest desk by the window. I winked at him as I turned to the teacher and gave him my new student slip.

"Hello, I'm Bella Swan."

"Right, go ahead and take a seat next to Mister Cullen, he's also a new student here."

"We know each other actually, old family friends." I walked down the aisle to the same table I had walked to all those years ago.

"I promise not to trip on your arm again." I said lowly as I sat down, knocking on my fake leg.

His crooked grin appeared as he shook his head. "This is what's a trip."

"Tell me about it. I feel like I've been walking down the yellow brick road called memory lane." I laughed as I whispered. "This place has changed yet not at all really."

"Angela and Eric's granddaughter was the principal here for a little while."

"Wow." I sighed as the teacher began his lesson. "What a ride it's been huh?"

He covered my hand in his and squeezed as we relived a high school biology class.

A few periods later we got another trip as we met up at lunch, seeing Rosalie Emmet Alice and Jasper at the table by the window. I tugged Edward over to them with me, hearing the muffled whispers amongst the teenagers about how we all looked and rumors of our moving here. Some things certainly didn't change.

"And here come the trouble makers." Rosalie said as we sat down. "What's that face for Bella."

"Tell them! Tell them!" Alice bounced in her chair and then glared at Edward. "Don't you cheat!"

"What's happening now?" Jasper said as he steadied his wife.

"Oh nothing too earth shattering. Unless you count Aurora Black being pregnant again." I announced.

"She's…we're….a baby?" Edward said as a laugh escaped him and he pulled me close to his side.

Everyone erupted in happiness, drawing more attention to us than we would usually want, but none of us cared. We no longer saw ourselves as vampires that needed to hide, but as a family that needed to live as much as we could. And in all our years combined, I couldn't think of a time we were happier. Nothing like today reminded us of how our lives could still change and grow. It was only just beginning.

As Edward rested his forehead on mine I felt the same flutter I had the last time we were in this room.

"I love you." He whispered and I smiled back at him, because that was our tale even after all this time.

I had moved here in the dawn of my life to find where my home was, and came to be reborn here. Through feeling broken, the fighting and the times of running away; it was he and ours that made me whole and built the life I belonged to. I found who was me, and the family I was a fan of. The ones that I could honestly say if we were to die, we would die together. I learned that love wasn't just for the imprints, werewolves, and vampires, but for anyone who let it in. And from the man who could read my mind from just a look, I could finally feel that forever love usually reserved for animals such as lobsters and otters.

So I rested my hand on his face as we listened to the laughs of our family, reflecting on the years that passed, and dreaming of the ones to come. For what we had was love, and time.

Until the next Jae Bee book hits the shelves, in the words of Ludwig Bemelman: and that's all there is…there isn't any more.