It was morning when we finally broke apart. We didn't really want to let each other go, but Edward had not hunted in a week and he still wasn't use to it. Then again, I hadn't had a decent drink in over a month and I was just as famished as he was.

Opening the car doors, we slipped out and ran into the forest. Immediately we picked up a few different animals and took off in our separate directions. Since we had been married, we learned that the only thing worse then trying to get me to drink every week, was trying to hold our instincts back. Once in a while, if there was enough game, we could hunt together but not this time.

There was a male deer my way but it had been scared away by my own noise. It was running away and I was about to pounce on it when I was slapped in the face by a human scent.

I skidded to a stop and used a tree to slow myself down. Unfortunately, the human was closer than I thought and when I took hold of the tree, I could see him.

A young boy around eleven or twelve, petting the scared deer to calm it down and hushing is quiet. Of course, when I try to back away, I step on a twig. Still half-way in my instincts mode, I jumped and cowered away from the noise. The boy looked up and he saw me. His hand stopped on the deer and his eyes locked with me. His eyes reminded me of someone, but I couldn't put a finger on whom.

"Hello?" His words bring me back into my human side, but the deer behind him was making me anxious.

"Hi." I smiled sweetly.

"What are you doing?" His hand left the deer and it ran away as he turned to face me.

"I was just…" At a loss for words. I couldn't say I was strolling through the woods because they were too thick here. Nor could I say I had followed the deer to suck its blood.

Just as I was about to continued my sentence, I heard someone else coming through the forest.

"Eric!"

The boy curse under his breath.

"Eric, you better not be here for the sake of your life!"

The man yelling was getting closer and I couldn't help but smile at the panicked boys' face. Finally, the man came though the trees and saw the boy, Eric.

"What have I told you about wandering off in the forest? It is dangerous and if you did, you would be in big trouble."

"But dad, it's just a forest. The worse you could find is a bear, maybe, or a wolf."

I couldn't help but chime in. "You should know that your father is right. The woods are dangerous and it's best not to be alone." Eric looked at me and I smiled. His dad stiffened and turned slowly turned to face me.

My eyes went wide with shock. A twenty seven year old Sam was before me. He looked older and his eyes held much more wisdom now. Although I took a second look at Eric and it finally connected in my brain of who he reminded me of. Eric reminded me of Sam.

"Bella?"

I smiled. "It's been a while hasn't it?" Automatically, Sam moved in front of his son as a protector. But I smiled and shook my head. "After all we have been through together, you still don't trust me do you?" I meant to say it and laugh but the weight of the words took their toll on my voice.

"Your one of the few people I do trust Bella. It's that I don't trust the other side."

I sighed. "I could say the same for you."

He smirked at my comment. "Eric, go home. Tell your mother that I will be home later this evening."

"But dad, I don't want to go. I was just about to go to the…" Sam cut him off.

"I said now Eric. Go." He commanding voice almost made me turn around. Eric rolled his eyes and with one last glance at me, ran into the dense forest.

"Why did you come back?"

"Don't worry. We aren't staying. Edward and I are just passing through. It's a part of a…journey we are undertaking." I spat it out, knowing that's probably all that he wanted to know.

"I don't necessarily care if you stay or not, I was just wondering why?"

"Oh." I looked down at the ground, ashamed.

"Let's take a walk." I looked up at Sam, confused. He smiled a somewhat fatherly grin and I finally moved my feet to stand next to him.

Sam took off in a direction and I walked next to him. Keeping a good two feet in between us.

"Sam."

"Yes?"

"Why are you being like this? The last time I saw you, you were…"

He cut me off. "Being immature and stupid."

I looked at the trees ahead. "But you were being truthful."

"You can't still believe that Bella. You can't still believe that what happened was your fault."

This time I turned my head away.

"Bella, it's not true. It was never your fault. If anything, we screwed it up as much as you did."

"It all started with me though. In the beginning, it was only me. Everyone had to pay in the end, we all lost something."

"My dear Bella, it this really about everything that we lost or is this about Jacob?"

I couldn't answer him. I couldn't even look at him. Sam stopped walking and so did I. I just stood, doing my best not to cry.

"Since when did you get so fatherly?"

He laughed. "I guess it comes with kids. A packaged deal."

For the first time, I surveyed our surroundings. It was a clearing full of sunflowers. They were everywhere. My jaw must have dropped down to the floor.

"Yeah, when I first came here and saw the few of them I was dumb struck too. Who would have thought that sunflowers could grow in Forks? It usually has to be warm and sunny."

Completely ignoring Sam, I walked thought the sunflowers. Some where taller than me and some shorter but they were all real flowers. No illusion or trick. As I walked, I came to a small area where there were no sunflowers growing. There was a large slab of white rock. Bending down, I moved all the leaves off of the rock to see if it said anything. Engraved on it was:

Jacob Black

Son, Friend, & Brother

The sun and warmth of our lives.

May he watch over us and protect us.

My breathing got shallow and the tears wouldn't stop. Lightly, my hand traced every letter of every word. On the third line, I couldn't help but smile. So that's how all the sunflowers grew. They did have sun and warmth after all. Sam came up behind me a ways but kept his distance.

"Did you know that about two weeks before the battle, Jacob imprinted?"

I twisted around to look at Sam.

"He imprinted on a girl in Seattle. She had just moved there from another state. Her parents took over a bookstore there. At the time, she was fifteen."

"But then…the battle…he knew…" I couldn't help but ball up my fists. This was another thing I could blame myself for. I broke up fate; I cheat destiny and true love.

"Don't even think about it Bella." I looked up at Sam and his face was serious, the smile had turned into a thin line. "I didn't tell you that to make you feel bad or blame yourself. I told you because you have to realize that we didn't fight because of you. We fought by choice! Choice, Bella, is nothing that can be blamed on anyone except the person who made it!"

"How can you say that when Jacob lies dead right here?!" Frustration poured out of me.

"Because everyone had a choice. I had a choice to between maybe dying but saving my family from harm or running away and having it haunt me forever."

"That's not a choice." I whispered.

"It is Bella. To you, it might not be, but to me it was a big deal. You have to put yourself in their shoes and live their life, understanding them, in order to realize the full weight of those choices. You were his choice. He chose to save you and instead of dwelling on the fact that you couldn't save him, think about the life Jacob died to protect. Would you really want him to see you this way? Want to see the way you have lived the life he fought and died to protect?"

I was speechless. My last eleven years I had blamed myself for the while battle. The loss of Adam, Seth, Paul, and most of all Jacob. And here, the leader of the pack, the one who I though hated me so much, was telling me that I shouldn't have. But, the part that confused me most was that I was listening to him. After all the times my family, my friends, and my husband told me that it wasn't my fault, I only took it to heart when Sam said it.

"Sam, why are you telling me all this? Why do you even care?"

Sam smiled and looked at me with kind eyes. "Really, I guess it's because Jacob was like my brother and I wanted to see things his way. But, that came with maturity that I didn't have. Plus, becoming a father and really understanding what it truly meant to hold something so dear. A long time ago, I use to think of you as a sister and I realize now that nothing has changed. Except that you're cold and I'm furry."

I chuckled and sat on my knees, putting my hands in my lap. "Its funny, how, I understand now what everyone was trying to say to me. But it took you to tell me. It took a werewolf to tell me that I was being childish."

"Maybe you don't think of me as a werewolf maybe as a friend?"

I shook my head. "Yeah, I think that might be part of it. But, I think it's also has something to do with that day. That day you found me in the woods, when you carried me back home. I think you're the only person who really felt my loss. That connected me to you, in a way that made of something of brother and sister. But, I feel that you would tell me the truth, even if it hurt me."

Sam squatted down and took my hand in his. "I'm so sorry I hurt you so much. The day after the battle, but now you understand. That you weren't villain, but rather, Jacob was the hero."

I nodded and he pulled me up to my feet. Breaking off one of the sunflowers, Sam handed it to me and then turned to leave.

"Sam, wait!"

"Yes?" He turned around to look at me.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome Bella." With that, he turned and walked away.

I didn't move from where I was standing. My fingers traced the soft petals of the sunflower over and over again. Everything in me was turning, trying to make everything else in me to understand that maybe it wasn't all my fault. After a couple minutes, I gave up.

I knew I would never be able to forgive myself for bringing the pack into my war, just as I could never forgive myself for the things that I had done with the Volturi. The only thing that really made sense to me was that Jacob had died for me and this was how I was living. Exactly the way I had before when Edward had left. That needed to change, for my sake, my husband, my family, and Jacob's sake.

"You alright?"

I turned around and faced my husband. Clutching the sunflower to my chest, I slowly nodded.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry Edward. I never meant anything to end up this way. Never in a million years would I have wanted my life to come to this."

Edward walked over to me and put a piece of hair that was hanging in my face behind my ear. Then, bringing his hand smoothly down the side of my face until he lightly held my chin he replied,

"You might want to write that down. Because I doubt you will remember that in a million years." I smiled and Edward ran his thumb over my lips. "I missed that smile of your so much. I'm glad someone was able to get through to you, even if it wasn't me."

I looked him straight in the eyes. "It's not so much that he was able to talk me out of blaming myself, it's just that I don't think it's fair. I'm wasting my time fretting and being depressed over something that happened a while ago. I want to be the girl I was before, when I first met you."

"Bella, too much has happened in order for you to go back when we were in high school. Now, right now, I wouldn't want to change a thing. Because I know I am more in love with you now then I was back then." With that, he pulled me to him and kissed my lips. Softly at first, savoring each touch until I wrapped my hands around his neck.

Pulling myself closer to him, I kissed him fervently back. My mind and body had gotten use to not breathing, making it easier to kiss longer then two minutes. Edwards' hands slipped around my waist and hoisted me up bridal style in his arms. I broke contact with his lips and just rested my head against his.

"I love you. I'm so sorry of what I have put you through."

"I forgive you. And, I love you too."

I smiled and put my head in between his shoulder and neck, kissing his neck affectingly. Edward began walking away and I, from behind, I threw the sunflower in my hand onto Jacob's grave.

"I think I am ready for eternity now."

Edward smiled and kissed my forehead. "I do believe I am too. For the first time, I think I am truly happy to face eternity. That is as long as you stay by my side."

"You ask such a trivial thing. You know that I can never part from you, Edward. You are my eternity."

"As are you Bella, as are you."

The End

I cannot believe it has come to this. The end of not only the story, but of the epilogue. Something that started so small (a request from my friends) actually turned out huge into a somewhat well written story. I seriously can't get over it actually being done. Its pretty much two emotions for me. Happy that they weight of this story is off of my shoulders and sad that I won't be able to come back, knowing I can twist the fate of characters such as Bella and Edward.

As my final chapter in this story, I just wanted to give a special thanks to all the people who reviewed! You guys kept me going till this point, otherwise I would have given up long ago. To the people who Favorited and Alerted this story and my as an author, thank you so much! Thank you for the ones who stuck with me in the beginning and theough horrible grammer, until now.

For the last time on this story. I hope you liked this chapter, and I hope you review.

'Let all sunflowers be a reminder of a great friend. Jacob, I dedicate sunflowers to you.'

-Gina

Now, all we have to do is wait till August we shall see how the real mind of Stephanie Meyer works!

Breaking Dawn: Coming...August 2, 2008

--Well, if you actually read this far down the page...I am excited for you. I just wanted to let you know for all my fans out there, Im starting a new series. Its called Crippled Hope. Its not a fanfiction though, sorry to dissappoint some of you guys. But my real gift lies in creating characters myself. So, it will be on my homepage. My username is the same so it should be easier but I will be posting it soon. I hope you read it and enjoy it as much as you did this story. Gina is out.