Hi all! I am finally taking the time to update and finish all of my stories. This is the final chapter for AMC, but I may add a future-take down the road. Enjoy!

EPILOGUE:

Esme POV

Silence followed their departure. There had been so many changes, it was unbelievable to think that merely a week ago we had been gathered here to celebrate Bella's 18th birthday.

"Well," Emmett said, finally breaking the uneasy silence. "That was sure a twist from our normal boring existence."

SWACK!

"Rosie! That hurt!" Emmett said, rubbing the back of his head.

"You deserved it you big oaf! When are you going to learn any tact?" she hissed.

"Nobody else knew what to say," he said, still rubbing his head. "I had to do something."

Alice and Bella giggled softly at Emmett's explanation and I couldn't help but join in.

"I, for one, am just glad that we're all here," Carlisle said.

"All together," I added.

Everyone agreed from his or her place around our still mostly destroyed living room. Each of the couples were together, some sitting closer than others. Jasper had Alice pulled tightly to his side, needing to keep some form of contact with her after the threat we had just lived through. He was more aware than any of us how different today could have turned out. Rosalie and Emmett maintained more physical space between them, yet their movements almost mirrored each other. Oddly enough, though they were the most passionate during private times, they were the least demonstrative in regular settings. Carlisle and I also maintained a slight distance in our bodies, though my hand was clenched tightly in his.

Edward and Bella's need to be near each other far outweighed any of their siblings' needs. The changes they had faced had been by far the greatest.

"So are we going to talk about shit or what?" Emmett asked.

"Language!" I admonished, while Rosalie smacked him on the back of the head.

"Why is it that I am the only one who gets in trouble for using bad words?" he asked, rubbing his head.

"You are so uncouth," Rosalie growled, and Emmett's question was swept aside for a moment.

Carlisle, of course, wouldn't let it die completely. "There's so much to say. I don't even know where to begin."

I didn't either.

Jasper looked at Bella and opened his mouth to speak. He seemed to lose what he wanted to say and sat back with a frustrated look on his face.

"I don't blame you, Jasper," Bella said, looking at him.

"How can you not?" he asked her, not looking like the vicious God of War he had been mere hours ago.

"I always knew there was a possibility that something would happen," Bella said with a shrug. Then she smiled and looked over at Carlisle.

"Even as I stitched her up, she didn't blame you," Carlisle said, looking at Jasper.

Edward rubbed his hand along the length of her arm, where the long gash had been just days ago.

"It wasn't your fault," Edward said, looking at Jasper. "It was mine."

"And mine," Alice spoke up.

We all looked at Alice, surprised by her statement.

"How do you figure it was your fault?" Bella asked her.

"I insisted on the party. I didn't even look for the possibility of anything going wrong…" she said, looking down. "I just…"

"Alice," Bella said with a sigh. "Did you intend for any of the events of that night?"

"Of course not," Alice gasped. "But I should have seen…."

"But you didn't," Bella said. "It was a paper cut. An accident. One simple slip of my finger on the paper."

"But I should have been able to prevent it," she said.

"By that line of reasoning we were all at fault," Rosalie said. "None of us had hunted in a while. We all knew that having a human in the house was an inherent danger, yet we had all gone without hunting for days prior to the party."

"Yeah, and she was the klutziest human ever," Emmett said. "We all should have known something could happen."

"But none of you lunged at her," Jasper said. "That was all me."

"Jasper, if you had really wanted to hurt me, not one person in that room could have stopped you," Bella said, seeming to stun everyone with her astute observation.

"The fact that you had allowed yourself to be pulled from the room after I hit the table proves that," she continued when nobody else spoke up.

"But the damage had been done," Jasper said. " I caused Edward's overreaction."

"Did you?" Bella asked. "I think Edward did that all on his own."

"It's true," Edward said, speaking up. "I kind of have a habit of doing that where she is concerned. It's something that I'm working on."

"I may be a little prone to that now too," Bella said. From the look on her face, I could tell she would have been blushing if she still could.

"What do you mean?" Alice asked.

"Look around," Bella said, surveying all the damage in the living room. "All Tanya did was touch his arm."

Everyone laughed, including Bella and Edward. When the laugher died down, the conversation of Bella's birthday seemed to have ended and silence descended on the group again. Carlisle broke the silence this time.

"Then we left," he said, looking at Bella while he rubbed the back of my hand.

"Then you left," Bella said quietly.

"I'm sorry," Edward said, nuzzling into her neck.

"I know," she said, leaning into his embrace.

"And I'm sorry too," Carlisle said, looking between Bella and me. "You didn't deserve that. Neither of you did."

"I still don't understand it," Bella said. "I'm struggling to understand Edward's reasoning. Struggling to see a point where I could make the same choice. I think maybe that Laurent's situation with Irina is the closest I could see… but even then…"

"I think it had to do with a lot of misconceptions," Rosalie said, looking at Bella. "We were all so certain of our vampiric superiority that each of us felt, in our own way, that we deserved to decide your fate."

"And some of that had to do with me as well," Bella said.

"And how do you figure that, Bella?" Carlisle asked.

"I never felt good enough for any of you. I wasn't as smart, as graceful, as beautiful…." she said. "So I sat back and allowed things to happen in a lot of ways."

"You can't blame yourself," Edward started to say.

"I don't," she said. "Not completely. But it played a large roll in everything that happened."

"I should have known, after all the times that you said you loved me. I should have known with all the stupid things you did to protect me that this was just another one. But I didn't. I allowed myself to believe your vile lies because I didn't feel good enough for you. For any of you."

"But you were and are too good," Edward said. "You were the first one to really try to get to know us. You didn't judge us based on appearance. You didn't judge anyone. Not even when we deserved it."

"I used to want to bathe in your emotions," Jasper said with an embarrassed smile. "So pure, so genuine, so gentle."

"You accepted me, warts and all," Rosalie said.

"And me," Alice said. "I know I can come on a little strong…"

"A little, Alice?" Bella asked, laughing.

"Okay, a lot strong," Alice said, laughing along. "But you accepted me for who I was."

"You did that for us all, Sweetheart," I added. "Even once you knew what we were, you never passed judgment based on what we were."

"But…" Bella started to say.

"But nothing," Emmett said. "You just gotta accept that you are special."

Bella was speechless and sat nestled into Edward, chewing on her lip.

"I am not one to say anything against our family, but before you came into our lives, we weren't complete," Rosalie said to Bella. "And I don't mean just Edward, who we all knew was an emo ass…"

"Mom! Why don't you get mad at Rosie for her language?" Emmett asked. Rosalie wound up and... SWACK!

"Hush Emmett!" I admonished, wanting Rosalie to finish what she was saying.

"You complete us Bella," Rosalie said. "You are Eddie's better half. But you complete the rest of us too. I'm only sorry I was too stubborn to see that before."

Bella nodded and smiled softly at Rose.

"I think we all need to make amends," Carlisle said. "Not just with Bella but also with Esme. I for one owe both of them a huge apology. Bella, I too focused too much on something that I never bothered to ask you about. I wanted you to have all the human experiences possible, but I never asked you what you wanted or needed, and that was wrong."

"Thank you," Bella said softly.

"Es," Carlisle said, shaking his head. "I know we have spoken about this in private, but I need to do this more publicly too. I was unfair to you in all of this. I disregarded your feelings and opinions in a heinous way. I wouldn't even listen to you because I was so certain of my own morally superior judgment. But I was wrong. I was wrong to make you feel like you had to choose between members of our family."

"Thank you," I said, placing my hand on his cheek.

"And Bella," Carlisle said. "A week ago I was so certain of myself. I was certain of my skills as a doctor, as a judge of character, and as a man of faith that I was willing to make decisions for you, not with you. I was wrong. I didn't even consider your feelings in my decision.. That is unfathomable."

"I understand," Bella said.

The others all took their turns apologizing to both Bella and I, and though things were still uncomfortable, we were well on our way to becoming a family again.

"So where do we go from here?" I asked, looking around the room.

"Disneyland!" Emmett yelled, before smacking himself on the back of the head.

"Why did you hit yourself, Emmett?" Rosalie asked, looking at him as though he had lost his last brain cell.

"I was just trying to save you the trouble," Emmett said, kissing her hand.

We all laughed at his momentary comic relief.

"Well we need to be here for a few more days," Carlisle said. "We have a funeral to attend."

"And I can't even be there to say goodbye to him," Bella said quietly from Edward's lap.

"It wouldn't be prudent," Carlisle said. "But I know it's important to you, so we'll try to find a way."

"Thank you," Bella said softly.

"Cool! You'll be the only one of us that got to attend their own funeral," Emmett said smiling widely.

"Emmett!" Rosalie growled.

"Sorry," he said, ducking out of her reach. I smiled at his antics as we all agreed to talk again later. Carlisle and I headed for his study, while the children each went their own ways.

Carlisle sat behind his desk and smiled. "Come sit with me?" he asked.

"Always," I said, moving to sit on his lap.

"You think they'll be alright?" he asked me.

"Bella and Edward?" I asked.

"All of them," he responded.

"I think so," I said. "It may take time to find our new normal, but we will."

"Bella has taken to this life with amazing grace and ease," he said.

"She was prepared for it in ways none of the rest of us were," I said. "I wonder if that was why her change was so fast."

"Maybe," he said. "Or maybe she was just truly meant for this life."

"I know that without a doubt," I said. "I knew that the moment I first met her. She really does complete our family."

"She does," he agreed. "Es, I really am so…."

"I know," I said, soothing the furrow in his brow. "We can't change what happened, we just have to learn from it and move on."

"I know, but I should have known better. I have been around for over three hundred years…"

"We all made mistakes, Carlisle," I said. "We all made choices and we all have to live with them."

"But you made the right choice," he said.

"I made the only choice I could," I told him. "Everything happens for a reason, though we are not always privy to it. How would things have gone if you guys hadn't left? Victoria was on her way here no matter what. Would she still have killed Charlie? I think so. We didn't know we needed to protect him. We didn't know she was a danger anymore."

"But…"

"But nothing," I said. "What if she had come when we were hunting? She could have killed both Charlie and Bella before we even blinked."

"And Edward would have followed," he added. "One way or another, there was no way he would have gone on in this life without her."

"Right," I said. "And the guilt and blame Alice would have placed on herself, it would have killed her, and Jasper for that matter." He nodded in agreement.

"But you protected her," he said, hugging me tight.

"I did," I said.

"And you were strong enough to change her," he said.

"It was the only way," I said.

"Maybe," he said. "Alice saw her as a vampire. No matter what actions any of us took to sway that, it seemed that her fate was always to become one of us."

"I don't know if I could have changed her," he said softly. "I believe in heaven and hell. Could I have taken her human life?"

"In this situation, I think you would have," I told him. "You changed us all because it was either vampire life or death. It was the same for Bella. And Edward…"

"He wouldn't have lived without her," he said.

We sat in silence for a while, just relishing the peace that being together always brought.

There would be tough days ahead, but I knew that we would face them together. There would be healing and forgiveness. There would be love. We were a family and that meant more than anything else.