Keeping my eyes open was getting harder as we drove through the streets. They snaked around the city's ancient architecture and modern skyscrapers before leading you to your destination. Our destination was the rink. This was it. Suddenly, I wasn't so sleepy.

There was no more falling. Because, if you did, it was likely you'd never get up again. No more anything. It was either winning or a future with the whole world knowing what a failure you where. No pressure or anything. I paled just thinking about it.

Edward was sitting next to me in the back of the van we were in. It was supposed to be a limo, but Edward was too scared to be pissed at anyone. We were gripping each other's hands, but not speaking. Music played softly in the background, but I couldn't hear it. I had my iPod on, playing some sadder, songs that Tanya said were okay to listen to calm the nerves before we got there.

When someone said count your blessings now
Before they're long gone
I guess I just didn't know how
I was all wrong
They knew better
Still you said forever
And ever
Who knew

The mood the song set in my mind wasn't helping at all to be honest, yet this was a song I'd never been able to turn off. Before I knew it, I was sobbing, and the van was standing outside the back entrance of the rink. Tanya and Jacob, both sitting up front with Jacob driving, gave me sympathetic smiles and stepped out. Edward didn't move. I turned to look at him and saw that he had a tear leaking out of the corner of his eye. It was so small that I almost didn't notice. He was watching me, his jaw set.

That last kiss
I'll cherish
Until we meet again
And time makes
It harder
I wish I could remember
But I keep
Your memory
You visit me in my sleep
My darling
Who knew

Thoughts started racing through my head. The song was ending. What if this was it. Maybe there was nothing after this. We could totally screw it up and then never have a future. This really could be the end. The song was ending! I leaned over and stared at Edward, my face as close as I could get it to his without getting out of my seat.

I kissed him. It was hopeful yet defeated, short, yet it seemed to last a lifetime. For a moment, time stopped and the Nationals didn't exist. We didn't have responsibilities and there was no pressure. I think that for that moment, I didn't have any dreams either. It was just me and him, and we were alone and together.

"Bella," he whispered when we parted. "You really did it."

I was about to ask what exactly I had done, when he leaned in and kissed me. I settled for happy confusion and was prepared to spend all day like that, when reality finally decided to come knocking.

Tanya and Jacob were both standing there, holding a man with a camera (my first paparazzi!) by the collar. He looked entirely too pleased with himself.

I slid the van door open again. Edward cut in before I got a word out, "do you mind? We're in the middle of something here."

I tried to hide the foolish grin from spreading over my face. A glance back at Edward showed he had the same goofy smile plastered on.

The paparazzi guy beamed, and snapped another picture. Tanya and Jacob growled in unison, and hit him. He lowered the camera and attempted to look upset….fail!

"Sorry," I said, smacking Edwards' leg lightly. "We'll be right out….let him go, please."

I slammed the door in their faces, and didn't bother looking at how they reacted.

I looked at Edward. "Whatever happens, I'm glad I did that. I could be our last chance."

"No, never," he whispered, tucking a stand of hair, fallen from my ponytail, behind my ear. "I know we'll come out of there with a gold medal, but I've already won" he said looking at me with intense eyes.

I smiled at him. "We've already one," I said, fluttering my eyelashes at an unnatural pace. He laughed. I pecked him one more time, just because I could.

Our song was brilliant, I knew, when we watched the first duo perform. They had chosen to use Another Heart Calls by the All American Rejects, which by itself was a great song, but the remix definitely lost them presentation points. The beat was dull, the lyrics too dominant and the music too fast to be agreeable with their dancing…ahem, skating.

Our performance was to be a show, a theatre coming to life before the audience's eyes. We wanted to show them something different, and I knew….I jumped as a pair of hands touched my waist lightly. I turned to see, "Nina!". Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward turn sharply, disregarding the poor reporter trying to get in a decent interview.

I ignored him. "What are you doing here?" I hissed. She didn't look as she had before. The last time I had seen her, she looked sad, but strong. Now she looked livid and torn.

"You did exactly what I asked you not to do! I told you, did I not, that you getting in a relationship with Edward would ruin everything? I told you that it ruined us, did I not? Who are you to go ruining his life? Who do you think you are, Isabella Swan?" She jeered.

"She thinks she's my partner. You know, the space you vacated when you left me for Regan's contract," Edward had slid into the conversation, pushing me out easily. "She didn't ruin me, you did that…or you tried anyways. Looks like you can't get anything right these days. Yeah, I saw that triple the other day, good luck to you. Have a nice life." He said, grabbed my arm, and marched towards our coaches.

Edward didn't glance back, his face stayed fierce, and nothing in his body language indicated remorse, longing or nostalgia. He had finally moved on, and a little voice in my head told me I had helped.

We walked up to our respective coaches. Me with Tanya and Edward with Jacob…funny right?

Tanya dragged me off to the side, taking the towel from around my neck and sitting me down to get laced up.

"You have a great song. Your routine is pure poetry. You know that if one of these clones (the judges) saw you at practice that they'd be floored. When they see you now, they'll get six feet under the floor. You're going to kill it. Just remember what I always say. Skating is 20% presentation and 80% perspiration," she laughed quickly, letting me know she was just as nervous as I was. Meanwhile, Edward had arrived, ready to go. "You guys will be phenomenal," she ended, grasping both our shoulders and giving a little shake. Jacob nodded at her admiringly. He had never been good at talking me up before a big performance. Then he grasped her elbow and they pulled out of the 'bubble' we were supposed to be in.

"You ready?" Edward asked in a shaky voice.

The frazzled man, who I just now realized was the coordinator, saved me from replying by running up to us to tell us we were next….as if we needed reminding. He hurried away shouting unintelligible things into his mouthpiece, which in any other moment would have been hilarious, but I couldn't force out a laugh.

I glanced at Edward, who looked at me at the same time. I'm sure we had identical strangled looks on our faces. Instead of saying anything, I hurried to fix my tiara, making sure my updo was going to hold it in through the performance. I glanced down to make sure my midnight blue dress wasn't stuck anywhere…no wrinkles….If I kept worrying like this, I would get wrinkles.

"You look fine, lets go," Edward said out of the corner of his mouth. The camera was on us. We were on. This was it. It was happening…right now. As in, this very second. I felt like this would be an appropriate time to have my life flash before my eyes, but nothing of the sort happened. It would also be nice to say that as I stepped onto the dark ice I felt as if I was home and that nothing mattered, but that didn't happen either. To tell you the truth, I didn't relax the entire performance, but oh did we perform. It was the smoothest skating, the farthest jumps, the highest throws…it was exactly what we had set out to do. It was a combination of two striking sports, two lyrical ways of life. It was clashing cultures emerging as one stronger entity. It was our love story, and it started, like this:

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes
And the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air

I kneeled in the middle of the rink, a lone spot light making the ice, which was previously a sea of black, shine. I started drawing circles by knees, but not under the beam of light, getting farther and farther away, pretending not to notice the other spotlight that had appeared. Edward was pretending to creep up on me, making exaggerated 'shh' motions, making the crowd laugh. I was stretched, almost flat on the ice now, my butt in the middle of the knees, still drawing aimlessly. He seemed like he was going to scare me, but instead, at the last minute, my hands shot up.

See the lights
See the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
And say hello, little did I know

He grabbed them and swung me up. On leg latched onto his waist while the other shot straight back, moving my torso to hang upside down. At the same time as this was happening, his leg extended behind him. The crowd went wild. I left my position by moving the leg around his waist to join the one extended out above me, and flipping around his arms. The crowd screamed themselves hoarse. Edward still hadn't lowered his leg.

That you were Romeo, you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don't go, and I said

I lifted my leg to join his, and we locked arms, skating fast circles. The only thing I looked at was his eyes. His startling, capturing and stealing eyes. We skated under our own arms, both bent back as far as we could while still joined. We let go, he skated away, and we turned, locking eyes, pretending to be dragged away. We were still bent back, skating backwards. I brought my leg up and grabbed the blade of my right skate. I knew Edward had started his 'struggle skate'. He would put one foot in front of the other, appearing to be trying to surge forward, but really skating back. The idea was derived from the moonwalk.

Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story baby just say yes

He had gone a whole round of the rink and, I was still gliding back, in a seemingly random direction. He caught my leg, and I let go of the skate. We shared a Spiderman 'kiss' while spinning in circles so fast that they blurred together. We exploded out them in opposite directions, leaving the crowd to wonder when I had straightened.

'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said stay away from Juliet
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don't go and I said

We met again, going into our hard core skating. We started with a sit and catch–foot layback, spinning into the pair camel spin and then the most grueling, the side by side triple axels. However, that wasn't what I was worried about. It was what came next that I had spent countless hours thinking about.

Romeo save me, they try to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story baby just say yes

Edward had not been comfortable with this idea at first, especially because he had never done any advanced dancing on ice before. We started with two steps of the tango, ending with a extra long dip, during with Edward skated forward fast enough to move us towards the judges before pulling me back. We both jumped, just pulling our knees to our chests and then back down, sending ice in all directions.

The music in between verses changed and we did a few steps of the west coast swing. Then it started to catch, randomly at first, worrying the audience. Then it became steady, and our smooth glide became a little…different. We started popping, just the arms, back to back. We were still moving, but very slowly, and the lights were turning different colors in time with the catches in the song.

Then, just when the audience got used to this, we changed back, the song smoothing out and the lights relaxing. We brought our arms up together, as if we had been gliding all along.

Romeo save me I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head? I don't know what to think
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring

Edward pulled a ring out of his pocket and went down on one knee.

And said, marry me Juliet
You'll never have to be alone
I love you and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story baby just say yes

I pretended to sob and nodded. He slid it onto my left ring finger, and we both did flying sit spins to 'celebrate'. The music didn't stop there, and we added a just one more crowd pleaser: the headbanger lift. It was a dangerous one, but we needed something to throw it over the edge. My leg came out smoothly and I didn't stumble, though the dizziness was overwhelming. Edward caught me, and we ending with a flourish.

"That, Cindy, was the stunning performance by Edward Cullen and the newcomer Bella Swan. While they wait for their results, we can see here the highlights of their routine."

"Yes, Collin, stunning it was when they started out the night with that impossibly pleasing upside down lift."

"Let's not forget the groundbreaking work they did in the middle there. There are just so many difficult things thrown in there, starting with the sit and catch–foot layback and ending with axels."

"Oh no, Collin, the groundbreaking part of their performance was the hip hop they added. Never before has a couple 'popped' on the ice."

"Oh I think they were looking to 'pop' and steal the judge's hearts, but the question is, did they succeed?"

"Well here come the results now…Cullen and Swan waiting anxiously…and THEY HAVE DONE IT!"

"Oh, and that is a large margin to win by, Cindy."

"That it is, Collin. Oh! Look what we have here!"

"Oh Cindy, looks like gold wasn't the only thing these lovebirds were after!"

The camera's were trained on us, but after seeing our score, our gold medal winning score, I didn't think. I just turned to Edward. I don't know who started it, but right there, on international television, we were kissing. It didn't feel like a kiss that said 'we did it'; instead, it said, 'it's not over by a long shot, but you and I are going to conquer it every time'…or maybe that's just what I wanted it to say.

I just felt bad for the poor paparazzi guy, who thought he had front page worthy news…sorry buddy.

Hey guys....I'm sad....do you know why?...it's b-b-b-because this was the LAAAAAAAST chapter....Wwwaaaaaaa.I-I-I was putting off writing it out, but eventually, there were too many ideas buzzing around in my head, and I had to write s-s-something. I didn't b-b-bother proof reading it, because it's far too late at night, and I'm far too tired....and saaaaaaaad. *blows nose

No, for real, I really am depressed to be ending it. This story was my baby. I loved it more than anything else I've posted here. I want to thank each and everyone of you who took the time to review. Let me tell you, each review made my day. You guys were so wonderful.

I hope you like the ending...for now anyways. I tried to provide closure, without making it permanent, in case I feel like continuing it sometime in the future....It could happen - you never know.

Okay, so basically I'm rambling so I don't have to be done with this...but there has to be some end....so, just check out the new links I have for you on my profile, and make my day one last time with review

"In the end we are all separate: our stories, no matter how similar, come to a fork and diverge. We are drawn to each other because of our similarities, but it is our differences we must learn to respect."

Soggy XoXo,

Wait for the Stars