This is newly edited. I tried to fix the small typos.

I don't own Twilight.

EPOV

"I think we should go back." Emmett's loud voice insisted. I don't know why they bothered to go in the other room. I could hear them just as clearly as ever from my position in the dining room.

"It's too soon. You don't know what he'll do." Esme's voice was quieter than Emmett's, but I could plainly hear the worry in it.

"My dear, I think he's right. It's been nearly 50 years. It's time." My father responded, hesitantly.

"As much as I hate to admit it, it would be nice to be able to go outside again." Rosalie's wind chime voice said. My breathing was coming faster. They couldn't honestly be considering this! It hadn't been long enough. The pain was still just a sharp as it had been when I left her. The darkness had not retreated.

"I'm sorry, my son." Carlisle's thoughts came to me. For a moment, the dull numbness that had been my constant companion for the last 50 years retreated, giving way to anger. My fists clenched and I bit back a growl.

"Edward, don't be an idiot. She's probably long gone by now." As always, Rose knew just what to say. I exploded inside; pain and anger warred inside of me, filling the shell that I had become. I jumped up from the table and ran faster than I ever had before. My only thought was escape, escape from the memories that had never stopped haunting me. Even 50 years later, exactly 50 years today, I still loved her, still wanted her. As I left the small piece of land that we were occupying in Arizona, running out into the heat hazed desert, my family's thoughts found me.

"Edward, come back to us." My mother's pain almost made me turn around.

"Stop being such a wimp. What are you afraid of?"

"We will still go back to Forks. It is your choice whether or not you join us. You and I both knew when we came here that we would have to go back eventually, Edward. This is not the place for us." Carlisle warned me.

"What is he so worked up about? I'm right."

A growl of anger burst out of me, causing a flock of birds to fly into the violet sky. I could not go back to Forks, I had promised her.

BPOV

I could feel Alice's eyes on me, Jasper's too. I put up my shield to block them. Over the years I had learnt to expand my protection to include my physical body as well as my mind. It took almost no effort now, though at first it had left me drained and thirsty. They were worried now, wanting to know how I would respond, like I was some troubled newborn.

"I'm fine, Alice. Jasper I'm okay."

"Bella," She began slowly, "Did you hear what I said? Charlie's dead, Bella."

"I heard you Alice." I just can't process it. I finished mentally.

When I had first been changed I had been afraid of his every stumble, every sigh. It had made me truly appreciate what Ed-what he had gone through. Charlie seemed so fragile, so vulnerable. However, as the years passed I took his health for granted. And now he's gone. Charlie was gone.

"How did it happen?" I said. My voice was very soft. A human would not have been able to hear.

"He passed away in his sleep. We knew this was coming, Bella."

"He lived a good, long life." Jasper added. As if that fixed anything.

"I'd like to see him."

"At the viewing, Bella. He's not ready right now." Alice whispered. I could hear pain in her voice. I looked up and was surprised to see that she looked as if she would be crying if she could. Jasper had his arms around her and was stroking her back soothingly. A pang of jealousy whipped through me, sharper than usual. I wondered why that was. It wasn't the first time that I had envied their relationship. That happened almost every day. Was it that my loss, my emptiness, was made more profound by Charlie's death? My gaze flitted to the calendar and fell on today's date. Of course, that's why. I thought, It had to be today. The 50th anniversary of the day that he left me.

This is my first FanFiction so please be nice. I'll post another chapter if I get just one review, just one, that's all I'm asking.