Disclaimer – The characters belong to SMeyer, I'm just having a little fun with them

Interlude ~ Edward

She was too still.

I had watched Esme's transformation, and Rosalie's, and Emmett's; and those days were as clear in my memory as if they'd taken place the day before rather than decades before. With each there had been thrashing, screaming, and pleas for death as the venom burned its way through their bodies. I'd heard their thoughts as their systems were slowly poisoned, listened as their minds came to accept what they were becoming.

For all I could tell from looking at Bella, however, she could have been sleeping. Her mind was as silent to me as it had always been, but her body told no story either. True, her heart beneath her chest beat frantically and her breath came in labored pants and gasps, but that was no different from the nightmares she occasionally suffered. The not-knowing was nearly as unbearable as the dread over what would happen when she woke; anticipating her fury and/or distress that I'd stolen her life and her future as well as subjected her to maddening pain.

"Edward?"

I turned my head towards the door and growled. There was a pause at the door and then the sound of retreating footsteps as Carlisle moved off, back downstairs. Every few hours one member of my family would attempt to intrude, or as Alice had put it the first time, "talk sense into me," but I was having none of it.

They would try to comfort where no comfort was warranted. They would tell me it was inevitable anyway, when they were wrong. They would, if they were Alice, be too busy planning futures to see that the true future had been stripped away by my selfishness.

"Bella, I'm sorry," I muttered softly, hoping for some reaction. I wanted her to scream, to rail at me as the monster I was. I expected that. Even gentle Esme hadn't gone quietly into her new life, and Rosalie had been, of course, a hundred times worse.

Her continued silence gave me too much time to think. To remember.

And my perfected vampire mind had preserved every moment in chilling, vivid detail. When I closed my eyes, I could see it all. Separate myself from the emotion and pleasure to see every mistake, every misstep.

Who was I kidding? Every step I'd taken from the moment I arrived at her window three nights ago had been a mistake, a tragedy in the making.

I should never have gone to her.

I should never have kissed her.

I should have stopped when I felt myself losing control.

I should have hunted before setting a foot near her house.

I should have locked my jaws, not given into the temptation of her warm, soft, and fragrant skin.

I should have stayed away from her, I should have been stronger.

"I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough to save you, Bella."

"Oh, for fuck's sake!"

The voice was so jarring, so loud, I actually jumped.

I braced myself for Emmett's latest attempt at "comfort." He'd tried several times, stopping just outside the closed door of my bedroom to talk to me. He'd tried, Alice, Esme, Carlisle, even Jasper.

Rosalie, of course, had said nothing. I'd heard enough of her thoughts within a second of touching her mind to know that there would be no attempt at comfort from her. She was too busy smugly waiting for me to get what she thought of as my "just desserts," knowing just how robbed Bella would feel when she finally awoke.

I hadn't gone near Rosalie's thoughts since that first glimpse. I already knew she was right.

Her husband's thundering footfalls called me back to the present, shaking the very walls as he approached. I gritted my teeth for the rumble of his fist against the wood frame of my door.

The rumble never came, however. This time it was a full fledged earthquake as Emmett pounded the door hard enough for it to swing open with a crash.

"Will you get the fuck over it already?"

I came as close as I'd been in days to leaving Bella's side and my temper rose to flashpoint in seconds. I bared my teeth just as a snarl ripped itself free from my throat. "Bella is suffering, you stupid ass," I growled. "Suffering because I was right, because I should have stayed away from her, because I was so fucking selfish I couldn't put her life before my own wants."

Emmett's mouth worked like a fish out of water and I could hear his thoughts as if he screamed them. I could also hear him when he realized such comments were going to get him nowhere. Finally, he seemed to come to a decision. He had one thing he needed to say, no matter how pointless he knew it was.

"Look, so you changed her. So what? Now you get to spend the eternity you've gone on and on about with the woman you love? I'm sorry, Edward, but I'm not seeing the downside here."

I snarled again, wishing I could rip him into pieces without risking Rosalie's wrath being visited on me for the next hundred years. "I've stolen her life. She's eighteen years old, Emmett. She should be going to college, marrying, having a family, a normal human life. Growing old with that family," I added, choosing the part that Rose went on about ad nauseum to make my point. "God knows you've heard Rose go on about being denied that enough to understand it. I didn't want this for her."

I'd expected anger from my brother, or at the very least a spark of temper. I hadn't been prepared for him to simply sigh, run a hand through his hair, and turn to leave the room.

"There's one thing you're forgetting, Edward," he said from the doorway. "Rose never chose this life. Bella did. Think about that while you're beating yourself up."

He paused and took a deep breath then cut his eyes to the sofa where Bella lay, still and silent as death. "You've got your hands full with this one, Bella. Hope everlasting angst does it for you, because that's what you've got in store when you wake up."

"Go away, Emmett."

Surprisingly, he listened and turned to leave. I couldn't stop myself from yelling after his retreating back. "You're not helping anything by…" I broke off when Bella's head moved. It wasn't much, just one small shake.

"Stop yelling. You're brothers, you should be nicer to each other."

I never knew how long it took me to realize that the warmth filling me in the immediate aftermath of making love to Edward had nothing to do with my emotional state. I remembered that it wasn't an immediate thing, that I could feel his cold skin covering mine, could feel goosebumps prickle along my skin as his cold warred with the heat rising inside me.

I remembered, vaguely, Carlisle's voice and a brief unease at being caught in such a position; undressed in front of my boyfriend's father having just had sex with that boyfriend. But that was the moment the warmth became heat, the pleasant became unbearable, and the sighs tried to become screams.

And I very much wanted to scream. Every pain I'd ever endured in my 18 years of complete clumsiness didn't come close to matching the agony that was trying to rip through me; even the agony of James snapping my bone in his hand was nothing. I searched for a way around it, a way to think past the torture. That's when I found it, the quiet cool mist of my dream. My dream self.

The one who shielded me from pain.

I found her there as the screams threatened to rip themselves free of my throat. Found her, embraced her, and let her take me away yet again.

It was Edward who brought me back. As it had always been, as it would always be. His voice, his presence, were the ties that bound me, just as I was the tether that held him. His voice penetrated the sensory deprivation of my shielded mind, but I couldn't hear the words, just the cadence and music of his voice.

My other senses returned, sharpened, as my consciousness returned and I let the shield dissipate. I became aware of the lessening of the venom burn, aware of Edward's hand on mine, aware of the sweet perfume of his breath as he spoke to me.

Just as the venom's hold on me broke, as I stepped free of the shield that protected me, I realized I was able to hear words. Not just the vibration of his voice, but the words he spoke.

At first, all I could focus on was the sound. I heard his voice as I never had before, clear, crisp, the most beautiful symphony ever played. But when his words broke through my wonder, when I realized what his musical voice was saying, I frowned.

"Stop yelling. You're brothers, you should be nicer to each other."

Whatever I'd intended to say was lost as my eyes opened and focused, when I realized that the ringing, musical voice I heard was mine. And then I went completely speechless, every thought gone from my mind as my eyes found and held Edward's face.

I had thought him beautiful, unbearably beautiful when I'd first seen him, a thought that had only intensified as time had gone on and I grew to know him better. I didn't think I was wrong, exactly, but as I looked at him with my new, sharper eyes, I thought beautiful might just be the biggest understatement I'd ever made.

"Bella?" Edward's voice called me back from my reverie, from the parts of my mind wondering over Edward and the changes in my own perceptions of other things about me. I knew their minds, our minds, worked differently, worked faster than those of humans. Now I knew just how differently. It was difficult to focus on one thing; every time I tried a new sense or touch or smell would pull my thoughts off in a different direction. It was getting frustrating. I didn't want to think about how the air tasted, about the muttering downstairs, about the whooshing of cars on the highway miles away. I wanted to focus on Edward.

"Bella, I'm sorry."

My shock at his words helped that focus more than anything else could have. My eyes widened and flew to his, confusion all over my face.

"For what?" I asked.

"For what happened, for forcing this on you, for forcing you to give up everything, for the pain you just endured…"

I held up a hand to stop his tirade. As the apologies started almost immediately, I knew that he'd been storing them up for a while – since his teeth had first grazed my neck? Possibly.

I looked into his dark eyes and sighed. No possibly about it. But something in his tirade of apologies stuck out in my clearer mind. Stuck out because it was unexpected.

"You're sorry you changed me?"

"Yes," he said softly.

I could see his mouth open to continue, but I was already on my feet. I'd heard more than just that one word response; I'd heard something else, a memory from my burning. Just as it had been when my lost memories had started to return, I heard his voice clear in my mind.

I didn't want this.

I stood staring at him, my mouth working and strange prickling at the corners of my eyes. He didn't want this?

It was almost as difficult as when my memories had been blocked, this looking back to my human life. The memories were there but murky, like the camera had been out of focus. The voices were audible, but sounded more like a radio out of tune. Despite this, the gist of it was clear enough.

Edward had told me he wouldn't change me.

My new, vampire mind had no problem comparing that memory to the overheard comment while I burned.

Had I been right all along? Had he wanted me but not forever? Was that the real reason behind his reluctance to change me, behind his regret that it had happened? My mind spun out in several different directions, each weaving its own reasons for why he wouldn't be happy I'd become a vampire, and each reason ended with the same conclusions.

I was a vampire now. There was no going back.

Edward didn't want it. Didn't want me. Was sorry I was turned.

I couldn't get beyond that last truth. And I couldn't stay here now that I'd acknowledged it. I wouldn't stay where I wasn't wanted.

My body swallowed the lump of emotion trying to wedge itself in my throat.

And then, because I didn't have enough pressing on me in that moment, the act of swallowing had awakened a part of me I hadn't registered yet.

Thirst.

Now that my mind acknowledged it, there was no denying the pain of it, so like the venom burn, but different at the same time. Confused, I gasped and reached up to clutch at my throat, my eyes flying to Edward's automatically.

I was surprised to see him still standing where he'd been when I'd first risen from the table; still standing there, and with the same expression on his face. How much time had passed since I'd spoken? A minute? A second? An hour? I had no way of knowing, but as the flames erupted in my throat, I knew that my questions would have to wait.

Right now I had only two needs, and they were rapidly becoming the twin centers of my world: I needed to get away from Edward, and I needed to put out the fire in my throat.

My head whipped around violently, trying to find some way, any way, to achieve both needs as quickly as I could. Finding no easy escape within the confines of his room, I took the only option available to me.

I barely registered Edward's cry of "Bella, no!" before I ran across his room and straight through the window that looked out onto the back lawn and the trees beyond. I didn't think of the breaking glass, I didn't think of the two story drop, until both were behind me. I landed on the soft grass and looked down at my arms and legs. My clothes were ripped, the t-shirt I'd been put in now showing big tears, but apart from that, I bore no indication that I'd just jumped twenty-odd feet through a pane of glass.

In that moment, I was able to forget Edward entirely. Freed from the confines of his room and faced with no barriers save my own stamina, I didn't stop when my feet hit the grassy carpet of the Cullen's back lawn.

I ran. And it was glorious.

I had never enjoyed anything physical. But this was... This was beyond words. The trees flew past me, clearer than they should be for my velocity, but my feet were nimble as they moved. I felt the uneven forest floor beneath them, felt rocks and twigs as well as moss and leaves, but none of that slowed my progress. No roots sprang up to tangle beneath me and send me sprawling to the ground. When the roots appeared, I saw them in plenty of time to choose a different direction.

Elated beyond anything I'd ever felt before, I couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up from my throat. I heard it bounce off the flora surrounding me and in that moment, even running wasn't enough to contain my exhilaration. I took one more step, planting my foot this time, and jumped. My eyes widened as I almost flew through the air, landing finally in the upper branches of a fir tree. I was still laughing as I clung to the branches and looked below me at the forest floor.

I laughed at muscles that weren't protesting the sudden use, I laughed at lungs that were not panting from unfamiliar aerobic exercise, I laughed and laughed until I realized that my eyes were prickling and my shoulders were shaking – my laughter had turned to tears, or whatever the vampire equivalent was. I was shuddering with tearless sobs, my anguish echoing off the same trees that had bounced back my laughter mere seconds before.

How could I feel elation and desolation in the same breath? How could my mind, so much more focused than it had ever been before, be so completely messed up that I didn't know what I was feeling from one minute to the next?

I dropped my head into my hands and tried to hold in the shaking sobs that felt so wrong without tears to cleanse the sadness away, I tried to find the happiness that had filled me so completely just moments ago.

I tried…

Snap!

My body went rigid, my entire being on alert. Then I heard it, the soft, wet thudding beneath my perch on the tree. The sound was appealing; the steady beat of a large heart nearby. The flames in my throat, muted during my emotional upheaval, burned hotter than ever, wiping out every other thought, every other need, until there was only one thing to do. I closed my eyes and listened to my body, letting it lead me now as it had when I'd first landed in the forest.

I crouched low on my branch, eyes searching the undergrowth, listening for any hint of where relief was. One snapped twig was all it took. My head whipped to the side and I leapt from the tree in the same second, my body soaring towards my prey and landing neatly on its back. The buck barely had time to register my presence before my hands and mouth found his neck. Instinctively, my teeth went straight for the spot where the blood flow concentrated. And bit in.

Unprepared as I was for the sudden rush of fluid into my mouth, I gagged at first. But that only lost me a precious few swallows of the warm, wet blood. I couldn't say it tasted good, but it wasn't altogether unpleasant either. It was wet and it cooled the flames in my throat. In that moment, nothing else mattered.

Before my thirst was even remotely quenched, the animal beneath me ran dry. A growl of frustration ripped from my throat and I sprang to my feet in a lithe, fluid motion as I pushed its carcass from me. Grace was another thing I was going to have to grow accustomed to, apparently. I wondered idly what it would be like to never trip again and smiled as a laugh bubbled up again.

I heard it then, another snap of a twig, to my left this time, and I was off before half a second had passed. I sprang without thinking, letting my senses lead me. If the sound had been further away, I would have lost my quarry altogether because there was nothing else to guide me save that single snapping twig. No heartbeat thudding, no scent of deep, rich blood.

If I'd stopped to think, I probably would have been less likely to spring.

But I didn't think, and I did spring.

The next thing I knew, Edward lay beneath me, pinned to the forest floor, eyes wide while I growled in frustration at being denied relief from the burning ache in my throat.

"Bella?"

I would never know what pulled me from the depths of a hunting frenzy; his voice, his face, his scent, or the myriad of memories that accompanied his use of my name. Whichever it was, the spell was broken. I leaned back and looked into his eyes, that same prickling returning to mine.

I felt his warm hand on my arm, smooth fingers on the inside of my wrist, gentle pressure as he tangled our fingers together.

"Bella."

Just as it had before, memories came back to me in a rush. There was no pain attached this time, however, no confusing rush. My mind was more able to deal with the onslaught, even though the images were murky and out of focus.

The pictures were fuzzy, the voices muted, but the overall tenor was the same. This was the man I loved more than anything, this was the man who'd pledged to love me the same. I'd wanted forever, an eternity, with him, he had wanted only the span of my human life.

"Why?" I asked, my voice clear as a wind chime in a soft breeze.

"Why what?" he asked softly, his body still beneath mine.

"Why are you sorry you changed me?"

"Bella…"

"No," I said sharply, cutting him off with a glare. "You said it, I heard you. While I was…I heard you tell Emmett you didn't want this for me. Then I asked and you said yes, you were sorry. Why? Is it because you didn't want me forever?"

His eyes widened, his entire body going rigid for the briefest of spans before I felt him relax. I watched as a smile slowly spread across his face. "Is that what you think, Bella?"

I was shocked when he laughed – a true laugh, the type I hadn't heard from him in what felt like forever – and then looked into my eyes, his familiar crooked smile curving his lips. "Bella, you are so absurd."

My anger flared again, immediate and deadly, my eyes narrowing to slits. I could feel the snarl ripping its way free of my chest, bubbling up my throat like noxious gas. Then Edward's hand rose and he touched my cheek. Touched it, cupped it, held my face in his hand while his thumb caressed the apple of my cheek. Just as quickly as it had flared to life, my anger died in the warmth of his touch, the silk of his voice. "My beautiful Bella, how could I not be beyond thrilled that I'll never have to lose you? But at the same time I've robbed you of your future, the life you should have had. How can I be happy that my selfishness has cost you everything?"

"Edward," I said softly, raising my own hand to cover his. I had memories of this, I knew I did. Vague ones covered in the veil of my human eyes. "From the moment I saw you," I paused there, because that wasn't entirely true and I wanted this moment to be made of absolute truth. "No. From the moment you first took me to that meadow. When we talked, when you touched me, and I touched you, when you explained everything to me, I knew one thing with absolute certainty. I knew it would cause me physical pain to be separated from you. A fact that has been proven over, and over, and over again. There is nothing," I took both of his hands in mine and squeezed, "nothing I want more than what I have now. I lost you once. I don't think I'd survive losing you again."

The smile on my face froze when I realized Edward's face had contorted into a grimace, into a face I'd never seen before. It almost looked as if he was…in pain?

"Edward?"

He eased his hands from mine and shook them. "Careful, Bella."

I felt my eyebrows contract again. "What do you mean, careful? You're a vampire, it's not like I could hurt you."

The pain in his face left in an instant, replaced by a smile bright enough to light the entire Olympic Peninsula. "Actually, you can. You're a newborn, Bella. You're much, much stronger than the rest of us, and will be for at least the next year."

I took almost a whole minute to process that. "Stronger than…you? Than Emmett?" Another wide grin crossed my face, mischief twinkling in my eyes. "Think of the fun I can have with that."

Edward blinked up at me, looking more surprised than if I'd suddenly sprouted antlers.

"What?"

"You. I…I don't understand your reaction. You're not angry, you're not upset. I thought you'd...have at least some of that. Some sense of loss. Your friends? Your family? I've…Bella, I've taken that away from you, too."

I sighed and reached out to his cheek, stroking his skin, marveling at the warmth of it for a second before forcing my mind to refocus. "I'm going to miss them, Edward. I'll miss my parents and yes, I plan to spend time mourning them, too. But Charlie…Charlie will understand and Renee? Well, Renee's never had any problem making the decisions that are best for her. So how can she…"

I broke off then, shifting my fingers to cover Edward's lips when he moved to speak. My eyes found his as thirst ripped to life in my throat once again. The scent of the animals near us wasn't the most appetizing, but their heartbeats promised warmth, wet, something to ease the fire burning in my throat.

"Why am I still so thirsty?" I asked him, my voice a whisper my human ears would have never heard.

"Because you're new, Bella. Do you…do you need help?"

I shook my head, remembering the deer I took down earlier. "No." I sprang to my feet in a lightning movement, one that a human would never have registered. I held out my hand and smiled. "But I would like the company."

We spent the afternoon in the forest. Hunting when prey crossed our path, laughing as I discovered all the things my new body could do. Running, leaping, climbing. I was amazed to find myself easing into my new vampire body as comfortably as if it was an old pair of slippers found pushed under a bed. Where I had always felt graceless and awkward, I now simply felt whole and right.

As if this was how I was meant to be all along, I just had to find the right path to get here.

We had been running the forest for what must've been hours (the sky overhead was filled with stars rather than the clouds from earlier) when I stopped abruptly. Edward was standing in the middle of a field. He was watching me as I ran and jumped, testing my new body to see what I could do.

He was watching. And laughing.

I tried to remember, sifting though the muck and mire of my human memories to see if this sound was familiar to me. It wasn't. In all the time I'd known Edward, and I thought I'd known him better than myself, I'd never seen this level of joy on his beautiful face. I'd never heard his voice so carefree and easy. I smiled in return.

"Do you know where we are, Bella?" he asked softly, though he was easily fifty yards away.

"Should I?" I answered back in the same normal voice, turning my body to face him completely.

"Look around. It was daylight the last time you were here. The sun was shining."

I did look then, my sharp eyes taking in the grassy field, the surrounding trees. Did it look familiar? I thought it did. The darkness shaded nothing from these eyes, it merely robbed the flora of color, turning everything differing shades of gray. I closed my eyes and tried to envision the area in the light of a sunny day.

I gasped when it hit me, when I realized just where I was. "This is our meadow."

"Yes, it is," Edward said, his voice a whisper now as he was directly in front of me. I'd seen him approach, watched every step of his progress that would have been only a blur before.

My arms were already raised to greet him, to enfold him, to pull him close. "The last time we were here," I said softly, my voice a little breathless, "you showed me the speed, and the strength. You showed me why you," I stopped and corrected myself, "why we have to stay hidden. Then you took me home and told me that night that a physical relationship wasn't possible for us."

His eyes darkened for a moment. "And I was r-"

I cut him off with a finger to his lips. "You were right in one sense. You lost a second's worth of control and now." I smiled into his eyes. "Now I need to know one very important thing."

"What's that?" he asked, his voice low and grave.

Because I'd been so focused on that night in my bed at Charlie's house, I knew the words without having to search for them. "Do I appeal to you…that way?"

Edward hesitated a second. A long, full second, and then his hand was in my hair and his arms drew me to him. Warm lips pressed to mine and I was lost.

I thought I'd been pretty well attuned to Edward's kisses, that I knew every way his lips could touch and caress mine. I was very, very wrong. When his mouth crashed onto mine, the explosion was immediate and intense, nearly rocking me off my feet.

Where my lips had once yielded under the strength of his, they now fought back, giving as much as they took. Our hands moved with lightning speed, human movements not enough for either of us. Twin growls of frustration issued from both our throats as we were thwarted from skin contact by our clothes. The sounds of ripping replaced the growls as our fingers worked to free our bodies.

"Yesss," I hissed when my fingers finally found the soft, warm skin of his stomach. "Edward."

"Does that answer your question?" he asked, his voice a rough growl in my ear.

"Not entirely," I gasped back, sliding my hand from his stomach to encircle his erection in my hand. "But there's a way that might convince me."

"Oh God, Bella," he groaned. A second later he'd rolled us until he towered over me, his eyes boring into mine. I arched under his hands and mouth, my back coming clear off the ground when his lips and tongue closed over my breast, when his teeth tugged my nipple deep inside his mouth. Gone were the hesitant and tentative touches from my bedroom; this was an Edward free to take what he wanted, and me free to give right back.

My soft moans mixed with his groaning as our hands roamed and stroked, touching and driving each other with our mutual need and growing desires until finally, it was too much. My legs rose and wrapped around his hips, arching my body into his.

"Edward, please," I gasped against his throat.

It was all the encouragement he needed. In one twist of his hips, he thrust deep, not stopping until his cock was buried to the hilt within me. My head pressed back into the soft grass as he filled me completely. We lay that way for a full minute, our eyes locked together. Then Edward moved and I was lost to him, lost in him. There was nothing but the need to move, to increase the friction, to drive the pleasure. His hips thrust roughly into mine and I met each motion with one of my own, my legs wrapped tight around his hips to draw him deeper into me. Over and over he thrust, our bodies crashing together with the force of head-on collisions. We both gave, we both took as we drove each other nearly mindless with need. On twin shouts of ecstasy, we both crashed over the edge, clutching each other as the pleasure nearly ripped us to shreds.

Though neither of us needed the oxygen, we were both panting as we clung to each other in the aftermath. Like two lone survivors of a tornado, clinging to the one remaining girder of a ruined building, our arms wrapped around the other.

"Um," I said, looking into his warm, golden eyes. I waited for the warmth to flood my cheeks, the rush of my embarrassment over my own boldness just moments before. But it never came. I realized then that I would never blush again.

"Um…?" Edward said, repeating my stammer as he found my eyes and stared into them.

"I wasn't. I mean, I wasn't too…did I hurt you?"

Edward's laugh bounced off the trees surrounding us, then he lowered just enough to press kiss after kiss to every inch of my body he could reach. "Hurt me? No, love. You didn't hurt me."

"I…are you sure? I went a little…," I had to stop because it was getting harder to concentrate. I kept expecting my body to have reactions it couldn't have now. I was still waiting for the blush, the fluttering heartbeat, the clammy hands, all the usual signs of my embarrassment that wouldn't, couldn't, happen anymore.

"Bella, I assure you, I'm fine. More than fine," he grinned and rolled us until I was sprawled across his chest, looking down into his topaz eyes.

I raised my hand and laid my palm across his cheek then let my fingers trace patterns over his face. "No more regrets then?" I asked, my eyes focusing on my fingers, unable to meet his eyes.

"I will always regret taking your human life from you, Bella," he said softly, then took my fingers in his hand. He tugged on my hand until my eyes met his. I swallowed the fear clogging my throat and opened my eyes, gasping slightly when I saw the laughter in his.

"I will regret that, Bella," his smile widened even further as he spoke, "but I think I can learn to live with my regrets, in time. After all," his fingers traced the curve of my spine from my neck all the way down, causing another shiver of desire to take hold of me, "there are compensations I never expected."

His eyes met and captured mine, heat burning through each of our gazes, and I felt him move inside me, his body already recovered.

"I like those compensations," I said, my voice low and thick with the need that spiked through me the moment my body registered Edward's renewed desire.

He raised up to kiss me then, his eyes dark and hungry, but stopped mere inches from my lips, the look on his face pained to the point of comical. "Edward?"

Edward shook his head. "Alice."

I gasped and, stupidly, made a move to try and cover myself, cover us, before she arrived. That only served to make Edward's comical grimace turn into a chuckle.

"It's all right, love. She stayed far enough away so that I could only hear her. She said there are some pictures she doesn't want in her head, and my bare ass is one of them," he stopped then to raise up and kiss me before continuing.

"Why did she come out here then?"

"To let us know that our presence is requested back at the house whenever we can spare a few minutes. Everyone wants to welcome you to the family officially. Alice called me a few choice names for selfishly keeping you to myself."

"I've never minded when you're selfish," I said with a smile, lowering to kiss him before I started to move away. His arms were around me in a flash, holding me to him.

"Just where do you think you're going?"

"But Alice said...," I protested.

"Alice says a lot of things, Bella. Wants a lot of things, too. But as she's been harping on me for weeks now about my lack of patience, I think it's time she learned some of her own." His hands drifted to my bottom, fingers pressing against the unyielding skin as if to make his point.

Then he spent the next hour proving that point to me in the most delicious way.

Later, much, much later, I managed to disentangle myself from Edward's arms. I should have been shaky or dizzy or even sore from spending so long on the forest floor engaged in all manner of physical activities. At the very least, I should have staggered a few steps. But I didn't.

When I stood I was still and steady as if I'd been standing there for hours. It was going to take some getting used to, this sudden sense of grace. I wondered for a moment how long it would take me to stop expecting to fall every few minutes.

Then I realized we had rather large problem if we were heading back to the house.

"Um, Edward?"

"Yes?"

"We can't go back to the house."

"Why not?"

I huffed, then gasped. "Well, you might not have a problem parading past your family wearing nothing, but I'd rather not if it's all the same to you." I gestured towards the fragments of clothes surrounding us on the forest floor, none larger than a handkerchief.

I looked up and met Edward's eyes, surprised to see my crooked smile turning the corners of his mouth and lightening his eyes. "Oops?"

I laughed then too, remembering back to that first kiss. When his simple experimental kiss had resulted in nothing less than a full attack from me. "Guess we've never had much control about each other, have we?"

I was glad to see none of the shadows in his eyes when I mentioned control. To see nothing but the same smile he'd been wearing most of the afternoon and into the evening.

Edward simply walked over to me and took my hand, raising it so his lips could brush the back of it. "Alice left us clothes to change into when she came earlier," he said softly. "She thought there might be a need."

"Thought there might be a need?" I asked, my eyebrow raising.

Edward looked sheepish. "I thought that was a better way to say 'she saw us out here ripping each other's clothes to shreds and knew we'd need replacements before we came home,'" he paused, looked into my eyes with a smile. "Was I wrong?"

My free had flew to my cheek, still waiting for a blush that would never come. I laughed instead. "No, you weren't wrong. I suppose that's something else I'll have to get used to? Alice seeing everything, not just the weather and what I'll wear a week from Tuesday?"

He kept my hand as we started towards where Alice had left the clothes. "She tries very hard to not look in that direction. Just as I try to keep others thoughts quiet in my head most of the time," he grinned and bumped his hip against mine, "self preservation, you know."

We walked in silence for a time, content with human speed, content to just be together. We were close to the trailhead when we found the small backpack filled with jeans and sweaters for us to change into when my brow furrowed.

"Bella? What is it?"

"I just...it's nothing really, but I just wondered. One question that never did get answered."

Edward was in front of me a half second later, his hands cupping my face, eyes searching mine. "What, Bella?"

I looked up and into his eyes, my smile wide on my face. "Whatever happened to my truck?"

There was a moment of silence before Edward threw back his head and laughed. "She's facing eternity as a vampire, and she asks about her truck?" he asked himself, shaking his head but seeming to finally accept that I was fine, more than fine, with my new life.

It was a new Edward that walked beside me through the forest, talking of everything and nothing. He wasn't in pain, he wasn't berating himself, he wasn't worried about anything. I thought that it would take me a while to get to know this new Edward, the one unencumbered by constant worry and self-recriminations.

"What's that smile mean?" Edward asked as we neared the house.

I laughed. "Nothing, really. I was just wondering what you were going to do with all your free time now that you don't have to worry about me anymore?"

He laughed again, long and full, and swung me into his arms. He grinned down at me, a grin that looked more like a leer. "I'm sure I can think of something to fill the time," he said on a low whisper.

"Anything I can do to help?"

"Oh, I certainly hope so," he growled back, seconds before his lips met mine in a long, lingering kiss.

"I love you," I said breathlessly when his mouth finally released mine. "Forever."

"As I love you, Bella. For eternity."

Hard as it was not to succumb to a rising need for him, and his need for me, we managed to pull apart and finish our walk towards the house. We would give my new family time to welcome me, Carlisle time to question me, Esme time to fuss, Emmett time for his teasing and lamenting the loss of my blushes, Alice time to squeal and dance and make plans for redecorating our room in the big house.

We would give them that, because we had forever for the rest. As I felt the warmth of Edward's hand in mine, I thought that just might be long enough.

~Fin~

I hope you enjoyed the little run through my creative mind as much as I did. I've had a blast writing this little version of Twilightverse and am hoping it won't be long before I'm posting again!

I spent some time debating an epilogue for the story, one that would take place a year after the fic ends, but as I was already so late in posting this I didn't want y'all to have to wait while I decided

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed. I cherish your words more than I could ever express. I'm glad y'all came along for the ride. I know I dropped off the response wagon, but I blame my Real Life for that. It doesn't mean I don't love you guys for letting me know what you thought of the chapters, just that I spent what little free time I had writing rather than responding.

Love y'all and thanks again, so much!

.