One last short, filler chapter before the wedding! Thank you all for reviewing. I hope you enjoy the short chatper. :) Sorry for the wait...work is leaving me pretty tired.

Bella

Family meetings were still new to me. With Charlie, and even with Renee, decisions had been made, often before I was even aware of them. Of course, I was a kid, so it made sense. Edward put a hand on my back, steering me downstairs. The others were all already downstairs…I could hear Emmett and Jasper talking softly, and I assumed Rose and Alice were with them. I'd rather stay upstairs with Edward, honestly, but I knew that wasn't really an option. We all needed to talk. Victoria was finally gone…and we would no longer need the wolves' help. The wolves…I froze before we could enter the living room. Jacob. I hadn't spoken to Jacob since asking him for help. Edward turned to me with a concerned frown, and Carlisle peeked his head around the corner. "Bella?" Edward murmured.

I gave him a sheepish smile. "Um…I'll be just a second." His frown deepened, and Carlisle stepped fully into the room.

"Everything alright?"

"I need to call Jacob." I told him, pulling out my phone and dialed, trying to hide my embarrassment. How could I have forgotten about that? 'Easy.' My brain spoke up. 'You were distracted.' I pushed away the embarrassing thought and pressed the phone to my ear, aware that Edward still hadn't dropped his hand from my back. I didn't mind. I was always happy to have him near me…touching me. This was no different, despite the fact that we were in a room next door to the rest of his family, which included a man that could sense my emotions. 'Our family.' I corrected myself just before my old friend answered.

"What's going on, Bells? I thought you went to see Charlie? But I went to his house and you weren't there. I thought maybe you'd changed your mind."

"No exactly. My family showed up before I could do anything."

"Ah. Well, you aren't exactly hard to track." I rolled my eyes a bit and Edward's mouth lifted in a half smile.

"Victoria is dead." I told him quietly then, relishing the words. It was a good feeling, now that she was no longer looming over me. I was finally safe, as was my family. No one had gone to the Volturi. No one ever would. Maybe I owed the Denali sisters an apology now that I thought about it. They had just been trying to help. Not very well, but still. Maybe I was being harsh. I thought back to the way Tanya had stared at Edward, her little smiles directed at me that weren't friendly in the least. Maybe not.

"You killed her?" He sounded incredulous and I was a little insulted. In the other room, I heard Jasper snort softly.

"It was a group effort." I told him a tad coldly, and even Carlisle smiled at that, his laugh too soft to carry. Edward's thumb rubbed back and forth across my back, and I closed my eyes, momentarily distracted. I could almost hear him smirk, and shot him a look, stepping carefully away from my mate. "She's gone, and so are the other vampires she brought with her. That should be the end of it."

"Alright. We'll keep patrolling just in case…maybe a couple of us will go to Seattle to check."

"Thank you , Jacob."

"Hey, no problem. Sounds like you guys did all the work." He hesitated. "Everyone okay?"

"Yeah, Jake. Everyone's fine."

"Good. See you around, Bells."

""Bye Jacob." Pocketing the phone, nudged Edward with my shoulder as I passed him to go to the kitchen where the rest of our family sat now, Carlisle once more out of sight, but Edward caught my arm, grinning as he pulled me back into his arms.

His lips touched mine before I realized what was going on, and it took Emmett's loud sigh and declaration that this could go on all night to break me out of the trance. "Family meeting, remember?" I asked, embarrassed once more and trying to hide it. Jasper's amused calm brushed against me like Carlie would sometimes, soft fur against my skin. I still felt embarrassed but it was lessened somewhat.

We joined the others in the dining room, Carlisle at the head of the table, Esme at his right, and Emmett at his left. I sat between Edward and Alice at the other end, hands in my lap as I wanted for our father to speak. I felt the respect for him in the air…everyone here loved one another and respected one another, and it was a feeling of peace, not fear, that covered the room. The threats were all gone. I could have cried with the relief of it. "I believe the first thing is this…I must say how well you did, Bella, Rosalie…I'm very proud of both of you." Not for fighting Victoria, I was sure of that. For getting along. For our friendship, and how we had learned to work together. "Also, how relieved I am. I feel as though we are finally safe once more, for the time being. We can let our guards down to some extent, although I believe the wolves will still be looking out." I nodded at his questioning look.

"Alice, would you like to fill the rest of us in on Bella's wedding."

"Sure." She chirped and Carlisle took Esme's hand squeezing gently. "Edward's suit will be ready in time, and Bella's dress will be here tomorrow. The wedding will be next Tuesday." Tuesday. On Tuesday I would be married to Edward. I turned to him with a smile, only to find him staring at me, the same expression on his face as he took my hand. I squeezed, my thumb rubbing against his fingers. "The reverend…"

"Wait!" Emmett suddenly cried, making us all turn to stare at him. "What do you mean, reverend? I thought…"

"The reverend I asked to officiate has been called and informed that a member of our family will be officiating, as long as that's okay with Bella." She checked with me and I nodded, feeling a little hesitation, but sure that he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize my…Alice's wedding. Emmett sat back with a satisfied smile, but sobered when I gave him a look.

"Hey! I'm not going to do anything! You two are finally getting married. I wanted to be a part of it." I smiled then, sure that he was sincere.

"Thank you, Emmett."

"Sure thing, Bells. Besides, I told Edward that if he didn't let me, I'd tell you where the honeymoon was." I glared at Edward.

"Does everyone know?" He nodded, a bit sheepish.

"I needed some help." His voice was maddeningly reasonable.

"What could you possibly…" Alice cleared her throat, giving me a look, and I sat back, resigned to the fact that she had the floor.

"Anyway, they will be married on Tuesday and off that evening. And then, we'll all have a vacation, and we'll be back in time to start school…if anyone wants to." She shrugged at that point. "I haven't looked at that. Bella, if you want to wait a semester or two, that's fine. I think I might study archeology this time…" She trialed off, leaving us all with that news.

"So we're staying here until the wedding?" Carlisle nodded.

"If that's okay with everyone." Everyone around the table nodded as well, except for Edward who was watching me. "Bella?" Carlisle asked.

"Oh…yes, of course." I nodded. Mentally, I was making sure I had enough clothes, and Alice chimed in, obviously seeing the question I was going to ask her.

"You brought enough." She told me simply. "If you need more clothes, we can always go shopping." I smiled a bit weakly at that. I still didn't do well with so many humans at once. It was something I would have to work on. I had plenty of time though…the thought made me smile a bit as I leaned against Edward. "Tomorrow you and Edward can spend the day with Charlie. He's going to call in the morning, and he wants to see you." Edward nodded at the idea immediately, looking to me almost as an afterthought. I could tell hat was something he was working on…not making decisions for me. It had been necessary at times when I had been human, in his opinion anyway, but now we were equals…all of us.

"Sounds good." I almost asked about Renee before I remembered. She thought I was dead. Of course…she had to. I shook that thought off. "Can we still invite the wolves to the wedding?"

"Of course. In fact, we can invite the whole pack. Really fill up our backyard. Emmett and Jasper will be getting the yard set up, and Rose and I will find the flowers with Esme's help. Carlisle…" She trailed off, looking at our father.

"I was going to go with you to extend the invitation to the wolves." He told her. It made sense, of course. He was our leader, and it would help solidify their new friendship. I was glad that, at least, had come of all this. They were friends now. We were welcome on their land and they were welcome on ours. I was almost sad that we would, eventually, be returning to our new home in England. I wondered how long it would be before we could return here. Probably not for a hundred years or more…it seemed so long to me. The thought that I would live that long was still strange…so I didn't think about it. I pushed the thought away now as the others started to disperse, family meeting apparently over.

Edward

Bella stood in the circle of my arms, her head on my shoulder as we stared up at the stars. It was beautiful…she was beautiful. Having only my own thoughts in my head was the most beautiful thing, though. Having this perfect woman in my arms, no noise in my head, was the very definition of happiness. "I love you." I murmured, nose in her hair. I heard the smile in her voice.

"I love you too."

"We're getting married." I couldn't help the giddiness. She laughed softly.

"We are getting married." She confirmed, her fingers finding my hair, trailing them over my head.

"I can't wait."

"You won't have to. Not for long." She looked up at me. "I can't wait either. Still no chance of you telling me where this mysterious honeymoon will be?"

"None whatsoever." I whispered, kissing her forehead.

"I'm going to find out soon anyway." She whined a bit, the smile giving her away. She was perfectly happy to wait…to play this game with me. I leaned in, kissing her gently, my lips on hers.

"Have I mentioned how beautiful you are?"

"Today? Probably." She smiled, her head resting against me once more.

"Have I mentioned how happy I am to be marrying you."

"Yes." She pulled back, looking up at me. "Everything okay?"

"Of course." She continued to stare at me and I smiled ruefully. "Being with you is more intense…it takes getting used it." I admitted, my arms rubbing against hers. "It's like the current between us…it's stronger all the time. It's quite pleasant."

"Oh, quite pleasant is it?" She teased, making me laugh quietly. I ran my fingers through her hair. "I have to agree. Quite pleasant indeed." I pushed my shoulder against hers.

"Would you like to go back to the house?"

"Why would we want to do that?" She asked, a little smirk turning her lips. I gave a half smile, my forehead resting against hers.

"Well…I was thinking…" I lifted my eyebrows, trailing off, and she laughed softly.

"We don't have to go back to the house for that." She took a step away from me, pulling me along, and I followed her deeper into the forest, keeping an ear out for my family, hoping they didn't stumble upon us.

Emmett

The day of the wedding was approaching quickly, and it was hard to get Edward or Bella alone. The two were always going at it, usually in the woods, sometimes upstairs. Bella seemed to like the woods, but I wisely kept all jokes about the great outdoors to myself, although I got the idea that, even had I made them, she was too busy with Eddie to care. We all gave them a wide berth. I remembered my early days with Rosie and smirked. Well, not the early early days…the in between days. The days between fear and calmed passion. Good times. Jasper glanced up at me, and eyebrow raised, and I lifted mine several times, making him snort in laughter.

"Go think about that somewhere else." He told me, waving his hand lazily at me and rolling his eyes. I shook my head. He leaned back on the sofa, finally at ease. It had been so long since any of us were really calm. But now he sat back, no longer on edge, eyes on the TV, pretending to pay attention to an old sitcom.

"Wasn't thinking about anything."

"You sure you know what to say? At the wedding?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Course I do!" I tossed a pillow at him on principal. Of course he caught it easily, and I felt more than saw Esme peek her head in. Just because we weren't going to live here long term anymore didn't mean she wanted us destroying the furniture. The downstairs had been aired out and uncovered, as well as our bedrooms, but the rest of the rooms, with the exception of the downstairs bathrooms which were stocked for the human guests we'd have at the wedding, were still shut up. Still, I wasn't supposed to break any furniture.

The girls had gone off for the day, out to get flowers or cake or something. I honestly had no idea. And Bella and Eddie were off somewhere in the forest…that made about six hours I supposed. No one was about to disturb them. Our parents stood together in the kitchen, talking about something on the news, and I was trying to entice Jasper into a game of Mario Kart. He apparently wasn't in the mood, as my repeated attempts had been met with a shake of the head and silence. "What's up with you?"

"Just wondering if there's anyone left that wants to kill us." I chuckled.

"We're probably safe for a while. Bella's bad luck sure rubbed off on us." As soon as I said it, I was glancing around, making sure our sister hadn't heard that. She hadn't yet learned to take things like that as the jokes they were meant to be. Jasper just shook his head.

"Yeah, worth it though." He murmured, partially to himself. I nodded, watching him. That wasn't all. "It'll be nice to have a vacation for a while. Are you going back to college?"

"I'm thinking about it. I might try to get an actual degree this time." He smiled, no doubt thinking of his many degrees in criminal psychology, history, chemistry, history again, English literature, and a few more history's for good measure. I'd only managed to finish the degree programs for Spanish and some math degree. Both had been boring enough that I'd taken the bare minimum for my actual degree programs and filled in my other classes with fun things like underwater welding and film 'studies.' Other times, I'd given up halfway through, choosing instead to spend time with Rosalie, skipping class and meeting up with her in a janitor's closet or remote corner of the library. College was fun, especially when your wife was in your classes.

"What about you, Jazz?" He shook his head.

"I'm not sure."

"Really? I thought you wanted to study philosophy or something."

"Bella's going to need a lot of looking after. She's a newborn…and she hasn't had any time to get used to being around humans. Not really. And the wedding…"

I'd been wrong. He looked relaxed, but he was still stressing. "Jazz, stop." I told him seriously. "We'll look out for Bella, she'll finally get married, she and Edward will disappear for months and when they finally come back, they'll enroll in school. We won't let Bella eat anyone, and all will be well once again." He chuckled softly as I smiled at him, leaning back on the couch.

"Sounds good."

"You really should try and relax. Aren't you excited for the wedding?"

He was smiling genuinely now, and I could see in his eyes that he was. Reaching out, he grabbed the controllers sitting on the table, tossing me one that a caught easily. "Come on. Let's play." He suggested, in lieu of an answer. I knew though. He was happy for our brother and sister. We all were. Now if only they would come out of the forest long enough to hang out with us. We'd been feeling their absence around, but I didn't begrudge them their fun. Especially not thinking back on my own early days wiith Rose. No, I didn't begrudge them at all.

Thank you for reading.