Really can't believe we're here. Thanks to all who were here with me for the ride, (hopefully) enjoying every step of the way.

Today we celebrated my husband's birthday and I'm listening to our wedding song as I write. It seems actually kind of perfect for these two. If you want to feel the emotions I currently am while saying goodbye to this crew, turn on Fix You by Coldplay. (The whole song. The ending always gets me!)

Love you all.

-tr-

Part 4

Epilogue

June: 1 year 4 Months Later

I stretch my legs against cool, crisp sheets on an overcast morning in June. There is a list as long as my arm filled with things to do, things to complete, things to start, but other than this stretch, I don't move. This is one of my favorite parts of the day. Every single day. The loose, lazy, languid moments between dreams and reality – and like most mornings, the line between the two blur together and I delight in whichever I choose.

I am deliriously happy wherever I land.

To say that I have been fortunate enough to live in the Land of Happy is the understatement of the year. There really aren't words to describe the way life is for me now. Typical, cliché, I know. But it's the truth. Every word that I can conjure up to describe my life now falls woefully short. Inadequate, even.

As if to cement the truth in my words even further, I feel a pair of strong, warm arms engulf me from behind and pull me closer. By now, he knows I prefer my own space while I sleep. Being the early riser he is, he also knows the minute he feels my early morning stretch next to him that all bets are off and he has permission to bring me as close to him as two people could physically be.

"You ready?" He asks, running his hands over the curve of my hip and up my back. He presses a kiss against my bare shoulder and I smile sleepily. I still haven't opened my eyes, and my first words of the day come out groggy.

"Don't worry about me," I answer, my hand sliding up to join his on my shoulder. "Are you? This is a much bigger day for you."

I feel him sign and shrug against me. "I'm okay."

I turn my body so I can face him, and I know there will never come a day when I don't pinch myself to make sure this isn't all a dream. I have a lot of 'favorite Edwards'. There's 'Coming Home from Work Edward', there's 'I'm Cutting the Lawn for the New Soccer Fields Edward', there's 'Go in the Bath While I Cook Us Dinner Edward. There's 'I Have to Have You Now Edward' and there's 'Five More Minutes and I'll Be Done Working on The Rec for the Night Edward'.

'Just Waking Up Edward' is one of my Top Five Edwards. I mean, with the way the morning gray contrasts against the bronze of his messy bed head and his face crinkled by pillowcases and sheets, how could it not make the Top Five?

I shake my head at how quickly he can get me off track just by him waking up and greeting the world with his presence. "How'd you sleep?"

"Like shit," Edward laughs. "But I expected that."

I sigh in agreement, knowing that no amount of sleep could have calmed his nerves.

"Everyone's coming at 9?"

"As of now," he responds, and I feel him scoot away to reach for his phone on his night stand. He checks it and places it back with a soft clang. "No one's told me they're running late."

"Ugh that's an hour from now," I say, sitting up to see the time on the clock. I flop back down in bed next to him. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

He wraps me in his arms again and he doesn't need to answer. I don't care about anything else anymore.

"Just wanted to have a moment of peace, I guess." Both of us are silent for a moment, visualizing the hectic day ahead of us. "It's going to get wild here before we know it."

I nod. "You're right. We should enjoy the quiet while we can."

"Quiet? I don't know about all that," he says, rolling us over so that for the next good while, we are exactly opposite of that.

An hour later, I'm on the phone with Rose after a shower while Edward greets the caterers downstairs. I look at the clock.

Right on schedule.

"What does the girlfriend of a youth Rec club owner wear?" I say, rifling through my closet for what I'm looking for. A navy blue Staff shirt is already waiting for me on the bed across the room. Edward's sits on the bed as well for him to put on after his shower.

"I don't know," Rose answers on the other end. "You may be the first one."

Laughing, I ignore her and close the closet doors and head over to the dresser. "Shorts or capris?"

"I'm going with Capris," she replies.

"Alice?"

"I'm guessing with whatever she can fit into these days," Rose says, pausing a minute before adding, "It's been a sore subject ever since she couldn't see her feet anymore."

"Not too much longer," I say with an equal amount of excitement and sympathy for my poor best friend with the Shrek feet and the baby growing in her stomach.

"Not soon enough." Rose mutters.

"Okay, Capris it is." I say and toss the light colored blue jeans onto my bed next to my shirt. "You guys heading over soon?" I rummage through my pile of shoes to find a pair of white converse sneakers. Toss them over to the bed as well.

"Yup. As soon as I can get Emmett off of the couch!" Rose says, raising her voice so Emmett could hear her from the other room.

"Tell him the caterers are here." I say. "The way to a man's heart is through his stomach."

I'm still in the towel I used after the shower, and I let the cool air of our bedroom calm me from the excitement downstairs below. I can hear a steady stream of people shouting friendly welcomes as Edward greets them all with a hello and a place to go. Time is of the essence, according to Edward, and he was on the move once we had dragged ourselves out of bed. I know the itinerary of the day, and I know that I can easily take some of the burden off of Edward for today, but I also know that this, today, is a day that he will relinquish none of his responsibilities.

That is why I take my time getting ready; I sing to some music from speakers that sound softly in our room. I blow dry my hair slowly, leaving it down and wavy for the day. Make up is light but visible. The Rec Staff shirt goes on last, and I turn around in the mirror for a minute or two, taking a couple of deep breaths to myself in the privacy of the room.

I'm a little nervous.

It's been a long year.

Well, a year and several months to be accurate.

Edward hadn't been fazed by the timing of all of this. He told us in the beginning that he had never put a time stamp on the day of the reopening, and he remained true to his word. Sure, he grew frustrated at the setbacks that he had come across over the past year – zoning, inspections, business plans – but as I guess he always knew, the day would come.

Today is the Grand Opening of The Rec.

The people of Forks only have to wait a couple more hours and the ribbon will be cut in front of an eager crowd and hungry local reporters. Once word had gotten out that a reopening of The Rec was in the works, people began counting down the days to see it happen. The children of Forks couldn't believe they had a new place to play in! The Teens of Forks had rolled their eyes at the thought of a place where it would be possible to see members of their own peer group – umm, eww, why would I want to see so and so more than I have to? Grandparents were happy to see a place for the crazy kids of the town to have a place to go to now – no more hanging out in random parking lots at all hours of the night anymore.

And then there were people like us. The teens of then turned into the adults of now. To everyone else, The Rec was a place to send your kid so you could run a couple of errands in some peace and quiet or a place to play for a couple of hours.

For us, it was everything, and for Edward and me, it still is everything.

That fact is present with every step I take out of our bedroom, down the hallway and into the living room. Evidence of The Rec and the life that it is has given us is all over our house in the form of pictures and anecdotes and memories, old and new, that breathe life into us. It keeps our past alive and lights the way for our future, for our growth as individuals and for our life together.

I was never really one of those people who believed that everything happened for a reason, but as I stand in my kitchen, looking out of the windows that open to the fields behind The Rec, I may have to reconsider my position on that old saying. It is hard to imagine that it was only a year and a half before that I was laid off around Christmas, leaving me with a year's severance pay and with nothing but time on my hands.

If people had told me that Christmas, just a year and a half ago, that I would spend the next year rebuilding The Rec and rebuilding a life with Edward, I never would have believed them. I would have told them they were crazy.

But it was true.

While Edward had devoted his time with the preparations and finalizations of The Rec downstairs, I turned my focus to upstairs, to the house that Edward had carved out for the two of us. I had spent my days painting and cooking and lining the walls with pictures and the floors with furniture. Together, we had turned this house into a home.

Our home.

Gazing out of the windows in the kitchen, I watch Edward instruct the DJ where to set up his stage, laughing out loud in the kitchen when I see him stress to them to avoid stepping on the new flowers in the landscape him and I had just completed last weekend. I don't know if it is out of love for me because he knew how much I love those specific flowers, or if it is because he doesn't want all the hours of stiff muscle pain that followed later that night to be for nothing.

We told ourselves that we would take moments here and there to soak it all in. The promise of today's chaos means those moments will be difficult, so I stop and take my first moment now. I memorize the sight before me and I want to take out my invisible camera like Pam from The Office and click it into my memory for forever. Click.

The lawn is meticulous for a Forks' spring. Even though it is overcast, the sky is still bright with gray and the grass is as green as the mower that Edward had cut it with. There are diagonal lines parallel with the next into rows of perfection. Soccer nets are posted opposite of the other at the other end of the field, and there is a purple soccer ball in the middle of the field. Six of us know the significance of that purple soccer ball.

Next to the soccer fields are two basketball nets on either end of a marked blacktop. Emmett had been the one to put the effort into this space, and it shows. There is a basket of fresh basketballs ripe for the picking.

In front of the soccer fields and basketball courts are swings and a jungle gym. It is closer to the building, and the new equipment shines with anticipation like it can feel the promise of use by innocent children in the air.

Click.

I take a quick look around our space upstairs, and decide that my moment is over. Even though Edward has everything under control, I know what job he needs me for today.

To simply be there.

With each passing step as I disappear from our upstairs space to the downstairs Rec, I know I am born to be there.

Be here.

Edward has put the caterers to use and has given them full reign of the kitchen. Over the course of the renovation, Edward had made the former kitchen larger and more open, and I can see why it was a great idea. Between the aroma of freshly made food and chilled drinks filling the air, and the windows of The Rec opened and the curtains flowing, I know today is going to be nothing short of spectacular.

The book nook is still there. The older couches and TVs and video game consoles have been replaced with newer models. The picnic tables that had once been arranged near the kitchen have been replaced with fresh tables and chairs, and are lined in a large U formation. Inside the U formation sits bean bag chairs and other modern chairs next to handfuls of small coffee tables. Magazines and coloring books adorn the coffee tables, crayons and pens and stickers are added to the allure.

There is one questionable piece of The Rec that often gets a raised eyebrow. Sitting on the mantle to the left of my painted picture and to the right of the framed photograph of the six of us, is a shadow box. Inside of the shadow box is an old, small, wooden beam that has been preserved and cut to fit inside of the box. The initials E.C., B.S., E.M., R.H., J.W., and A.B are etched into the wood, its owners unknown and unidentified. The three items on the mantle are permanent, not to be moved or mishandled by anyone other than Edward himself.

Edward had made sure that all general interests involving children were covered, and he had triple checked that all areas were able to be seen from every angle of his security cameras. He had joked that none of these kids were going to get away with everything that we had gotten away when we had run of this place.

There is a new addition to The Rec that hadn't been there before, and Edward had been sure to design and construct it at the entrance. Instead of being able to walk right into the building, all visitors entered through the front door with a code. Once the code was entered correctly, the visitor would enter a room with a comfortable couch and chairs. There is a desk in the corner that is decidedly Edward's. It is free of clutter and papers, no evidence that this place is anything other than a requiem for fun. Edward wants to greet each family and child before entering The Rec. He wants to know every single person that steps foot inside of The Rec. He wants them to know that he is more than just the person who makes the rules and sets the hours.

He wants the kids and families to know that this place saved him.

He wants to take the time to know them like he wished someone had taken the time to know him.

Speaking of someone taking the time to know him, I hear his voice through one of the opened windows, and I am brought back from savoring another moment.

Carlisle.

I join them outside, brought into Carlisle's embrace with a smile. Getting reacquainted with Carlisle and Esme as adults has been an absolute blessing in our lives, the two of them not able to stray far away from The Rec, either.

The six of us and Carlisle and Esme had waited for this day for a long time.

It's not long before the others join us. Emmett and Rose, who had gotten together not long after the wedding last year arrive first. My parents are followed by Jasper and Alice, and by the look on Jasper's face, the days are long and nights even longer at this point in her pregnancy. Edward has made sure she has the most comfortable seat in the shade beneath the canopy, and Jasper makes sure her glasses of water and lemonade never go empty.

Even beneath a cover of tall, green trees, the heat still manages to accompany every step of the day. Before the public arrives and the reporters capitalize on this new piece of Forks' news, Edward slips into the shower to get ready while I entertain our close family and friends. They know how much went into this day, this place, this renovation. They literally saw the blood, sweat, and tears sacrificed to make this happen.

Most of them had put their own blood, sweat, and tears into it, as well.

The six of us wear the matching Rec Staff tee shirts.

Edward and I have exactly three minutes to ourselves before the first reporter arrives to speak to Edward. She catches us as we are standing next to each other, staring at The Rec that stands before us. No longer is the driveway full of potholes and uneven gravel. The steps are aligned and freshly painted and finished. The railing is strong and study and can hold the weight of a man if he were to sit upon it. Shrubbery and greens and gray rocks line the perimeter of the elaborate log cabin before us.

We know the image portrayed outside has nothing on the sense of belonging it fills you with on the inside.

"Edward Cullen?"

He smiles at the reporter and then back to me, and I encourage him with a smile to go ahead. Own this day, and all the rest after it, Edward Cullen.

"To some of you, this is just a building," he says a while later in front of the largest crowd Forks has ever seen in one place in a long time. "That's what it was to a lot of us at first," he adds, pointing to some familiar faces in the crowd.

He pauses and continues. "But then we grew up and we didn't realize that The Rec was growing older, too, and eventually, we all had to say goodbye to it for a while. Too long."

We listen and nod, a murmur of consent amongst the crowd of hopeful faces. The closing of The Rec was as scandalous as it got here in Forks, and it had been at the center of the gossip tracks for years.

"I was homesick for a home I could not return to," Edward's voice softens, and I remember the dark stories Edward had told me of his time after The Rec closed and before he had decided to change his path. "Some good came out of it, though." He pauses and looks out at the crowd, pausing on me before smiling. "I had to lose my home for me to find my soul, and my soul lies right here in this building before us."

And with a goofy pair of big scissors, Edward cuts the ribbon, and a stream of laughing children flock to the fields, the courts, the swings, the book nook, the video games, the tables, the bean bags. Adults take tours, stay on the outskirts, mingle with old friends and reminisce on their old days at The Rec.

Edward and I are torn in opposite directions for most of the day and night, and when we do catch a glimpse of each other, it becomes another moment of the day to save and store for later.

Click.

"Check this out," Rose says later as twilight descends on the grounds. She points over to the outside patio area where a small group of kids kick the purple soccer ball back and forth. We count the three girls and three boys with knowing smiles on all of our faces.

We watch as the girl with long blonde hair, the obvious leader of the group, shouts a bossy order to one of the boys in their gang of friends.

"Run away, kid!" Emmett hollers to the boy, all of laughing as we recognize a part of ourselves in those kids on the field. "Now is your only chance!"

He's right, though. After I stepped onto that soccer field with my purple soccer ball twenty years ago, the six of us were inseparable from that moment on. Emmett and Rose are back together for what looks to be finally permanent, Alice and Jasper weeks away from bringing a baby into this world, Edward and I finally living out the life together we had always wanted.

It was pretty damn perfect, if you ask me.

The event comes to an end before we know it, even though our feet protest at the thought of the day going quickly. Even with tiki torches and string lights illuminating the trees and grounds around us, darkness has settled upon the evening and the last of the guests say goodbye with a promise to absolutely return. The caterers have left the kitchen as immaculate as they found it, even leaving us with what few leftovers we have left after the swarm of activity from earlier in the day. Parents, wanting to leave a good impression, had made sure the toys and activities and furniture was returned to the proper location. Edward and Emmett had shown the guests how and where to retrieve outdoor equipment and how to store it properly store it after use.

All in all, the place is looking settled enough for me to be able to sleep tonight without worrying about the mess left behind. I tell myself I will finish the rest tomorrow after a good long sleep until whenever I feel like waking up.

I survey the downstairs Rec, also satisfied with what I see, and open the front door to see if I can help Edward with anything outside. I had seen him walk towards the tree line before I had disappeared inside to slip on one of his sweatshirts.

Even for June, the chill beneath these trees is ever present.

I lose myself in the comfort of Edward's sweatshirt as I walk the path to follow him.

"How the hell did you get up there?" I call up to him, wrapping my arms around myself in the darkness.

"Not gonna lie to you, Bella," he pants in response from his place up in our tree, "It wasn't pretty."

"I would imagine not," I laugh at him loudly, picturing him struggling with this monstrous tree in the dark. "You're thirty now."

I hear a mock gasp come from up above. "No, I'm twenty nine. Again." I laugh again and hear him tease me again. "You comin' up or what?"

I stop laughing. "You're kidding, right?" I can see his face from here. "Oh, you're serious."

"Just do it." He goads.

I glare at him. "I'm Bella, not Nike, remember? If I 'just do it', I'll probably 'Just Die'."

He laughs again, knowing I'll succumb to the pressure. "Just put a foot here, here, and here," Edward points to the various spots on the tree he wants me to step on. "Easy."

"You literally just said it wasn't pretty when you did it," I remind him, and begin my climb.

"Eh, that's because I'm thirty. You're not yet."

I stop mid climb. "So you do admit that you're thirty now?"

"Damn." He concedes and shakes his head in annoyance, "Just get up here."

I make it up there eventually but like Edward had said, it definitely isn't a pretty sight. I pity the forest animals for what they had to be subjected to.

"Was it always this high?" I ask, refusing to hold onto anything but the limb beneath me. One sway of the wind and Edward and I are going down.

Edward ponders it for a second and then scoffs. "We were kids. We had no idea how dangerous this actually was."

I know I shouldn't, but I look down anyway. "This is terrifying." I clutch the branch tighter in my grip. It's crazy how fearless we were as kids. "These new waves of kids are going to be climbing this bad boy tomorrow."

As old as the tree is, it is steady and reliable, and a dream for little climbers.

"How did we never fall out and break our arms?" Edward asks, copying me, and we peer down to the ground below us. He groans a minute later, putting his head into his hands. "This is an insurance nightmare."

"You're going to have to get rid of it," I suggest, the thought of losing this tree sickening me. This was our tree. We broke each other's hearts in this tree, had our first kiss in this tree. This tree had heard our laughs, our tears, our hopes, our dreams.

My heart broke at the thought of it gone from our future.

"No way," Edward disagrees, his decision strong in his words. "How could I?"

"I know." My hand ventures away from its Kung Fu grip on the branch to reach out to hold his. He brings my hand to his mouth for a kiss.

"Too much history in this tree," he whispers, looking up and around all the twists and turns and merging of the branches.

I follow his eyes towards the sky above us, and I'm a child again, feeling small and infinite compared to this timeless piece of nature. The branches sway in and out of the gaze of the moon, the brightness unparalleled on this June night.

His voice breaks through the soundtrack of the forest. "How could there not be a future here, too?"

His words cut off the soundtrack of the forest around us completely. Gone are the sounds of the cricket quartet and the brushing of the leaves against other trees in their proximity. The owls cease their nightly calls, and the moon keeps shining down on us, but the only thing that matters is the feeling of a ring slip quietly onto the awaiting finger on my left hand.

I tear my eyes away from the moonlight abruptly, and find myself staring into a pair of eyes that shine emeralds brighter than the moonlight itself.

"Will you?"

He looks down at our joined hands and slides the diamond all the way onto my finger. I'm too busy staring at him to even look at it.

Edward swallows and continues. "I know I'm supposed to be on one knee and maybe you would want your family and friends here, too," he begins to ramble but he composes himself and exhales loudly. "But when have I ever done things the right way, huh?"

I laugh beneath my tears, unable to do anything but stare at this man in front of me while I try to gather words together. Some words. Any words.

Will I marry him?

In what world would my answer ever be no?

"I had no idea what love was until I met you, Bella Swan. It was just a word to me until you came along and gave it a meaning. And none of this," he points out towards the open fields, The Rec, our home, and then reaches for my hands again, "absolutely none of this means anything without you."

"Will you marry me?" He asks again, the smile on his face one that I will take with me for the rest of my days.

"Yes," I respond. It's simple, but sometime that's what the truth is. Simple, easy, and staring you right in the face. He wipes away my tears as I squeak out, "Always."

With that same smile, Edward pulls me in for a kiss that brings me back all those years ago to our first one.

Same tree. Same spots. Same dreams.

Same boy.

Same girl.

In the backdrop of a sparkling diamond, happy tears, and joyous kisses, something else also remains the same. Weathered years and abandoned walls, but always standing with unparalleled potential.

Same Rec.

-tr-

This was hard, guys! It's really hard saying goodbye to characters I love so much. It took two years but their story is now complete, and even so, it doesn't make saying goodbye any easier.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed and rec'd this story – it truly makes me feel that I have created something worthwhile. I hope you can agree with me.

That being said, I am 80% sure there could be a sequel. It's your job to review and rec this fic enough to convince me of that other 20%. YOU TELL ME. SOUND OFF IN THE REVIEWS! I'm very picky about sequels (I like sequels that have a point OTHER than just seeing beloved characters for a bit longer). Convince me!

On a happier note, expect a new story from me, Pursuing the Proposition, within the next few weeks!