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Here's the epilogue of this story. Hope you like it!

X-X-X

Farewell.

I had never been one for farewells, or goodbyes for that matter. There was nothing good about bidding bye to a person or place you had never imagined to say bye to. It was painful and tearful, but then again at times it was necessary. It was necessary to say bye to your past in order to move ahead and welcome your future. There was no going ahead, no progress in life without letting your heart and mind accept that change is inevitable. You have to move ahead to live life. You have to accept change to live life. Being stuck to a place, person or memory will cause more harm than good, and we all have to accept this in life. At times Farewell is inevitable.

Today was one such farewell. A goodbye I wished had never come, but it had, and it had come way too fast for my liking. I was going to be leaving my home, my family, my friends… everything today. Yes, it was temporary, but still it was happening. I wish this would not have happened, but in the path that I had chosen this had to happen someday…..

"What are you thinking about, beautiful?" strong arms wrapped themselves around me as a strong yet filled with love and adoration voice whispered in my ear. His fingers intertwined with mine and played with the wedding ring that adorned my left hand since the past four years. The ring though was nothing exceptional; it was a symbol of his everlasting love for me and so was extremely precious.

"Us," I whispered back "La Push…. Our families…. Leaving…."

With one quick move of his, I was now facing him and our eyes were interlocked with one another.

"Bella," he said softly "If you want we can still change this… we don't have to do this. We can wait for some more time."

I shook my head slowly "It has been fifteen years, Paul. We are not growing any older. I still look like I am in my early twenties and you look to be in your mid twenties. We still look exactly the same like we did more than a decade back. We don't look to be in our thirties, and people are soon going to get suspicious of that fact."

He scoffed "We can always claim to have good genes. I am telling you it will work, or I can always scare those who gossip with my size. That is sure to work."

I smiled at his attempt to cheer me up as he flexed his muscles for me. Ever since he had become the alpha wolf's mate he had not only become the biggest wolf in the pack, but even as a human he had become taller and much stronger than what he had been before his change, though I loved his strong broad shoulders so it was not like I had much to complain off.

"We knew this was going to happen, didn't we?" I asked a few minutes later, resting my head on his shoulder.

He ran a hand through my hair, sighing "Yeah, but I still don't like to see you upset."

"It is not permanent. We can always visit." I said trying to lighten the stressful mood we had found ourselves in. I wanted to have only good, happy memories of this day. I had already shed my share of tears a few days back when I had been packing or discarding the belongings that we would not be taking with us, seeing old photos of happier days had especially torn me apart.

He sighed, but nodded his head "Sam is going to be dropping us at the airport. I tried to convince him that we would call for a cab, but he insisted."

I nodded my head in return, knowing that Sam was still hoping that we would change our mind, though all of us involved knew that that was not a possibility. Fifteen years back, just after the fight with the Volturi, Paul and I had probably taken the biggest decision of our lives. We were both immortal till we continued to phase, and we wanted to take advantage of that fact. Immortality was never something I had wished or hoped for, but now that I had been gifted with it, I wanted to utilize it to the best. Paul had agreed with me and so we had decided to continue phasing till….forever, to be precise. We did not want to live without the other, and this had been one of those decisions that we had reached after a lot of discussion over. The only disadvantage of this decision had been the fact that my body was frozen in the state it was till I was phasing and so my body was as of now not capable of bearing children. For that we had planned that I would stop phasing for a few years whenever we were ready for it, and once we were done with creating our family, I would get back to phasing. With us both being shape shifters, the probability of our children too phasing was exceptionally high, and I was still in contact with Jasper if proximity to them would be required in order for our children to join our immortal world, if they chose to, but then again there were years to go before that decision of life came in front of us. For now it was just me and Paul in our small little world. Our families at first had believed that we would go on to change our decision, but it had been futile. Our minds were made on this and there was no going back.

"Come on," nudged Paul "Everyone is waiting inside for us to begin our farewell party."

I forced a smile over my face, pushing back all my gloomy thoughts to the back of my head. It was time to officially bid bye to all my near and dear ones. I had no idea when I would be seeing all of them again next.

Paul took my hand in his, softly rubbing over it, as we walked inside the house in Forks that though had once been mine, Sam and his family had lived here all their lives. We had already sold our house back in La Push to one of the locals who was about to have a child and needed the space, and so this was where our farewell party was going to be thrown. Sam and his wife had been generous enough to throw this party for us. Everyone we knew and had known for all this years was going to be here today. It was going to be a major throwback to the younger days. Nowadays as adults it was nearly impossible to find enough time to spend with one another outside of work and responsibilities. The reality of being an adult- Sigh!

It was strange to see the once youthful faces that I had seen in my younger days now with mild wrinkles beginning to form and slight graying of their hair. It was the harsh reality of life. Though we were continuing to stay young, our families and friends were getting older with each day that passed.

"Bella," Kim was the first one to approach me with a warm hug. Jared stood by her side with a small smile on his face. He and Paul had already done their version of a man hug.

"Hey," I whispered back, taking the appearance in of the person who had been my best friend for close to twenty six years of my life. We had seen and shared so much together, a major part of our lives to be honest. At one point of time she had known every secret of mine and likewise I had known every secret of hers. The years passed had been good to us. She was still one of my closest friends, and whenever we got the time to, we would still gossip like we were back in high school, laughing and giggling for hours together, though our friendship too had had its share of ups and downs. My fight with Jared had caused a little discomfort in our friendship in the beginning. It was natural and bound to. She wanted to support her boyfriend, and it was just unfortunate that I was standing on the other side. We had somehow managed to work around it in a way that our friendship stayed more or less the same, but another bigger problem had arose when I had found out from Paul that Kim had been the one to lie to him and cause him to believe that Jasper and I were dating. I knew her reasons, and even somewhat understood them. She was just looking out for me, but it had not made it any easier. It had taken us months to get back to where we had been in our friendship, though I still knew that Kim did not completely approve of Paul being in my life. We had just left it as a 'no go' zone. We never spoke of that period of our lives, or of Paul's past. That few months when we had hardly spoken to the other or had fought when we had were in the past, and would be staying there. After that though, we had experienced so much together. I had been the maid of honor in her wedding, with her returning the favor in mine. I was her children's godmother, and till date Kim Cameron knew almost every secret of mine. Whenever we could coordinate our schedules from her working as the English and Creative writing teacher in La Push High and with me being the legal secretary of the only lawyer's office in Forks, we would meet up at either of our houses- mine more than hers and drink wine and spend hours talking about anything and everything. I was going to miss her more than I could even think of.

"So, I am going to miss you," she said reading my mind. I could see the tears forming in her eyes, and my eyes too reciprocated to them.

I smiled looking at her, pushing back my own tears "You and Jared are going to be visiting us for Christmas, aren't you?"

She nodded her head, rolling her eyes a bit "Yeah, like JJ and Kara will let us back down at that. They are already excited for Christmas in New York. I heard Kara tell her best friend Elena the other day of what all she was going to see in New York. I tried telling her that Christmas were still months away, but you know her. She is so talkative and over excited over everything."

I laughed at that. Kara was the cutest little five year old that I knew of, and I truly adored the girl.

"So, are you all set for New York?" Jared asked Paul "It is going to be a world apart."

Paul just nodded his head in return, shrugging like it was no big deal. I had always known that Paul loved the big city life. He did not hate living in La Push in any way, but if given a chance he would chose that over this. Now that we had the chance to, we were going to be doing exactly that. The both of us knew that living as an immortal had its downs and changing residence often was one of those. We were starting with New York, but we had no idea where we would end up being. Well, Italy was also one of the options. Jasper and Riley, who were currently living with the new leaders of their kind- Carlisle Cullen and Eleazar Denali, had offered me and Paul an open invite to visit them in Volterra, Italy whenever we could. We would definitely not be staying in the castle with them, but it would be good to meet others who understood the life of an immortal like us, though of course Levi and Ellen who had moved to Portland a few years back could also be counted on for that. They, like us, were going to remain immortal till forever existed.

Paul and I spoke to Jared and Kim for a little while longer. Kim told us the story of how her eleven year old Jared Junior had fallen in love for the first time and believed that he was going to marry her, to which I had replied that she too had fallen in love when she was hardly five or six and had ended up marrying said crush, and so was not the best person to comment on. We had laughed and reminisced over the years gone by, and the years that were still to come, with her dreading the teenage years of her children, before I had been whisked off by my younger brother to where he had been sitting on the sofa in the living room of the house.

Embry, Quil and Jacob- the three musketeers as they had once fondly referred to themselves were still the thickest of friends. Time had hardly affected them at all. Neither of them had phased; a thing that had confused all of us, including the elders of the tribe. Paul and Leah had been the last to phase in our generation. Jake, Quil, Embry, Seth and many others remained untouched by the magic of phasing, though we did tell most of them years later of the truth of having the gene. It was for the best was what had been decided. They had not phased but their children could, and with them being of such prominent families in the tribe it was necessary for them to know. As expected Embry, Quil and Jacob had taken it better than expected, but they were still glad that they had not phased.

Embry, my loving younger brother, was laughing and talking to Quil as I sat beside him, joining into their mindless conversation. It was strange to see him, my younger brother, look older than me, but he often joked around saying that now that he looked older than me he could go around easily bossing over me pretending he was older, to which I would huff and say 'yeah, as if, I would let him boss over me.' He had been married and divorced within a year of getting married, and had no plans to marry again. He was happy with his single life was what he claimed. He argued that the married life was just not his cup of tea and being single suited him, though a mild meddler in the form of Alice Cullen had claimed that she had seen Embry meeting his future wife a little while from now. He would have to wait for the correct time though, was what she had said when I had spoken to her last. Even though Embry still lived in La Push, I knew that he wanted an out, and I had already spoken about this with Paul. Once we settled in New York we would offer him to move in with us, till he could afford a place of his own. He had always wanted to settle in one of the bigger cities, but with lack of opportunity and finances that day had never really come till now.

Jake and Quil were the same old goofballs that they had once been. Both were well settled in their lives. Jake was a mechanical engineer and had been married to his wife Vanessa with twin two year olds William and Jerome to speak of, and Quil had recently proposed to his girlfriend of years Claire and was successfully running his family business with her joining in with him. Claire was technically from the Makah reservation, but her parents had moved to La Push years back.

After spending a half hour or so laughing with the three of them over nothing in particular, I made my way to the kitchen where I knew the hostess of this lunch would be.

"Hey, you need any help?" I asked her from where she stood peeking into the slightly opened refrigerator. She shrugged from her place, balancing the cans of diet coke in one hand while she removed the salsa dip with the other hand. Her cooking skills were famous all over the reservation, and an invite to eat at her house was generally never unaccepted.

"So, I tried convincing your husband, Sam, that I was not a kid and could manage to reach the airport on my own, but he is still insisting on dropping us." I said with amusement clear on my face.

"You know how over protective he gets," she said with a laugh "I am still betting that he is hoping you will change your mind and come back with him."

I gave her a small sad laugh at that, speaking in a whispered tone "We will keep visiting."

She nodded her head at that, choosing not to say anything more. There was no need for more words to be spoken. I had known her for years now. We could very well hear the other person's silence.

"Leah," I spoke finally, making her look up at me from where she had been checking on the dessert. Her shoulder length black hair was falling onto her face as she pushed it behind her ear with the back of her hand. "Do you ever think of how life would have been if she had not backed down?"

The 'she' in the question did not have to be mentioned. It was a known fact that we were talking about Emily Young. Days after we had all returned from Italy, she had approached Sam, telling him that she no longer wanted to be tied to him. She was letting him go. Apparently seeing Paul and Leah phase had freaked her out to another extent and she did not want to be around such monsters in her life. Good riddance was what we all had said. Their imprint had been broken and Sam and Leah had been free to be together since. Jane, on the other hand, had moved out of state as soon as possible. Her family had obviously not believed her crazy story of humans changing into wolves, and overnight her bags had been packed and she had been shipped off to her uncle's house, somewhere in the south. We had never seen or heard from her since.

Leah slowly shook her head, determination clear on her face "No, I believe I would have kept fighting for him."

I smiled, nodding my head as a whisper left my mouth "I miss mom. She was the happiest when Sam was free to be with you."

She softly whispered "Me too. I wish she was here."

Allison Uley had lost the fight to breast cancer nearly four years back. Her last wish had been to see me get married. Paul and I had been engaged for years at that time, having decided that marriage would happen at its own time, but when she had called me and told me of her last wish, I had not been able to decline. A month later in a small ceremony Paul and I had been married. We had chosen to postpone our honeymoon and be with Allison in her last days. Tears still came to my eyes when I thought of my mother lying on her bed, surrounded by her children as she breathed her last.

Leah came and hugged me as she let me shed tears for the mother whose absence still pained me as much as it had years back. Some pain just never completely goes from your heart and mind, and losing my mother…. my best friend…. the one person who knew me better than myself was one such loss which never really lessened.

"Mom," said a voice, as our moment was broken with Sam and Leah's son Sebastian entering the kitchen. He was a complete clone of the younger Sam, and was as overprotective and caring as Sam had been at the age of thirteen. His younger two sisters were already replicating a bond with him the kind that I had shared with Sam and Embry in my growing up years. Leah had quit phasing soon after the fight, deciding that this was not something she wanted for long in her future. Her future included marriage, kids and a normal routine of work and looking after her family.

"Sarah is crying for you," he continued with a frown on his face. Sarah Isabella was the youngest daughter of Sam and Leah and had recently entered her troublesome twos. She also had the habit of crying for Leah like it was the world's end whenever she was not in sight.

"I will just be back." Leah gave me an apologetic glance as she left the kitchen to look after her daughter. I just shrugged back in return, giving my attention to the salad that was half prepared.

Lunch passed by quickly and without any mishaps. Paul and I managed our time talking to everyone and once again assuring them that we were not cutting ties from La Push. We would be coming back for holidays or for random visits, at least for a couple more years till we could pass by with looking the same as now. After that, I had no idea. Probably we would have to stay out of public eyes on our visits, only meeting the people who actually knew of the truth, but again, there was a long time to go before it came down to that.

Kim had even gone as far as suggesting that if we ever wanted to move back to La Push for good, we could use make up to look older or claim of getting Botox and multiple plastic surgery done. Well, that was one of the last options if it ever came down to that.

Soon it was time to go and after hugging and leaving multiple kisses on my nieces and nephew, promising that I would get them lots of gifts when I came to meet them next, Paul and I sat in Sam's Nissan as he drove to Seattle.

The ride to the airport was filled with Sam, the man who still hardly spoke, sharing stories of our childhood together, making me laugh and cry at the same time. It was a goodbye, I knew it. It was never going to be the same. We were never going to spend such time together in our lives again, the carefree years of childhood and adolescence had passed, never to return again. We had our lives. We had our own families to look after, but maybe, just maybe, we could steal a few more minutes to smile at the yesterday that had passed before we looked up to see tomorrow.

Sam hugged me tightly as I got out from the car on reaching the airport. A major chapter of my story had ended, making way for another to begin. It was not the end of the story though. A lot was yet to come. A new chapter, a new beginning was about to make its way. A new turn had come in my simple life, but this time around, I had my imprint, my husband, my Paul to walk this journey with me.