Chapter 50 – Dawn

Though twilight lingered, it had become dark in the house so I decided to light a candle to help me see the book I was reading. I often scanned the new releases to make sure any up and coming authors weren't writing vampires as facts as opposed to a good old fashion fictional horror, and lucky for them, most reverted back to the burning in the sun, stake through the heart kind of demons.

Suddenly the front door squeaked open and the room was flooded in artificial light, making me squint with momentary blindness…

"What the hell are you doing sitting in the dark?" Emmett's voice boomed through the brightness.

"Why do you need the light? You're a vampire not a toddler," I teased him.

"Yeah, well I'm used to using lights…I know, it's a crappy side effect from trying to blend in with the humans… You should try it sometime."

"Blending in with the humans?" I asked with a chuckle. "Please, I can blend in far better than you can; I am human. I just prefer not to use artificial lights when I don't have to, they give me migraines."

"Well you'll never get over those migraines if you don't try to use electricity more. And the longer you stay way out here and don't mingle with normal people, the more un-humanlike you'll become."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not becoming un-humanlike; I just prefer some things the way they used to be before the revolution. Besides, there's nothing wrong with reading by candle light, and it's not even fully dark out," I said while looking out the window, and then I became slightly concerned. "But it's close."

"Edward hasn't come back from hunting yet?" Emmett presumed. "They've been gone all day. Want me to go look for them?"

"No, he'd just get pissed at both of us for not trusting him. I'm sure they're fine; I just expected them to be back before dark. I still get antsy at night, especially in an area like this where vampires can live inconspicuously."

"Well it's a good thing they can live that way, otherwise me and the Cullens would all have to leave, and we both know you'd miss me too much… Bella, there's no other vampires in the area; one of us would have smelled it by now. Edward knows how to handle vampires anyway."

"I'm not worried about Edward."

"Oh, you know he'd never let anything happen to any of them either."

"I know, but it can get overwhelming, and he's not used to having all of them alone."

"I bet you can't wait until you pop so you can go back to doing the hunting yourself, huh?"

I rubbed my large rounded stomach. "That's for sure. I hate being this big."

"They do have a little thing nowadays called birth control. Maybe you should look into it."

I laughed. "I'm not sure it would work on me. I doubt Edward's cells would allow something like induced hormones to prevent me from ovulating. They're pretty determined little things."

"You could always use condoms and then just get the cells you need straight from his blood."

"We did try that…and look, here we are," I said while rubbing my stomach again.

"Okay, we've been on the topic of your sex life far too long, time to change the subject. I still don't understand why you go out to the forest to hunt deer when you have acres full of grazing cows. Just kill one of them for the meat."

I scrunched my face. "I can't kill them…I've grown attached."

"You've grown attached to your cows?" he laughed. "Cows are ugly and dumb; I can't believe you'd rather kill Bambi's family than a stupid cow."

"Bambi? Who's Bambi?" I asked clueless.

"Bambi…You know, that true story of the world's strongest buck that was like the king of the forest and he saved all of the creatures from a big fire."

"It's a true story?" I asked doubtful.

He shrugged. "Mom used to tell me about it when she tucked me in when I was little. You were probably too young to remember. I think it was a true story, why would she tell me if it wasn't?"

"Because you were a little kid, and it is customary to tell little kids stories when you put them to bed."

"Really? Why?"

"Oh, I don't know, to settle them down and give them good dreams."

"Huh… No shit, I never thought of that. I always thought she told me about Bambi so I'd know which deer not to shoot if I ever came across him."

I laughed and had no other response for him other than to shake my head.

"Bella!"

I turned to look out the window. "Did someone just call my name?" I asked Em, wondering why he didn't seem to hear anything. But when I turned back to my brother, I was surprised to see that he was gone.

"Bella!" I heard slightly louder. My heart jumped, and I immediately raced towards the sound - well, I raced as fast as I was capable of in my bloated state.

But I didn't have to run far, because as soon as I rounded the corner of my house, I saw the issue. As feared, Edward was being attacked near the tree line, but I quickly concluded that the danger was good for him so instead of rushing to his aid, I approached at a much slower pace and couldn't help but giggle at the sight before me.

"They're trying to kill me," Edward called to me. "You're not even going to help? You're as useless as your brother!"

Emmett and I weren't the only ones standing by watching Edward being assaulted; Rose was there, and a few of the Cullens came out of their houses as well, and we all just laughed. Edward had been tackled to the ground by our four youngest kids, and they were absolutely merciless. Anthony, who was twelve, had him in a headlock, Little Charlie, who was nine, was sitting on his back and trying to restrain him, while six year old Riley and three year old Benny each had one of his arms.

"He brought it on himself, momma!" Benny shouted at me as he pulled back on Edward's arm.

"Yeah, he kept throwing pinecones at us when we weren't looking," Charlie confirmed.

"We warned him this was gonna happen," Riley added.

"I did no such thing!" Edward squealed. "They're lying to sway your opinion of me."

"They're not lying," Anthony told me in a serious tone.

"Hey," Edward said while rolling out of Anthony's headlock and putting him in one of his own. "You're supposed to be on my side."

"I was…until you tried convincing them I was the one throwing them."

"Ugh, you boys are so juvenile," Lizzy said as she walked out of the forest dragging a large deer carcass behind her. "Mom, I'm never going hunting with them again."

"I don't blame you," I told her with a giggle. Elizabeth Renee, or Lizzy as we called her, was fifteen and she was at that stage in life where she wanted to be an adult but often fell victim to childish moods. She was our only daughter so she loved roughhousing with the boys, but would often turn and become angry and resentful at the drop of a hat. Edward always blamed it on female hormones, but we both knew her bitterness went much deeper than that - Lizzy was terrified that she'd never find someone to spend her life with…

Edward had indeed passed his super cells onto our kids, so once they reached their full maturity, their aging would dramatically slow. Carlisle had explained it to us several years back by saying the vampire cells not only cured diseases, but they also rejuvenated their tissues and greatly reduced the normal breakdown associated with growing older. For every ten years that passed, Edward was only aging one year, and even though our kids grew at a normal rate in childhood, as adults they would all follow that basic rate of aging. Because I got regular doses of Edward's cells, my aging had slowed to match his, so it was safe to say our sons would be able to do the same with their partners in the future.

EJ, our oldest, was nineteen and currently lived with his girlfriend Angela, and it seemed she was already benefiting from his super cells…which pretty much just made Lizzy all that much more depressed. Through simple anatomy, we weren't sure if she'd be able to pass her cells onto a future love the way her brothers could, so I understood her fears. She didn't want to fall in love, only to watch him grow old and die without her. Edward always tried reassuring her by saying he could give the guy injections of his blood, but it never really made her feel better…

"Oh, so I'm supposed to tell the guy, 'Don't worry, you can stay young and beautiful with me as long as you take daily injections of my father's blood?' He'd run for the hills!" – she had told us after he suggested it.

And of course Edward replied with – "Well if the prick really loves you he'll be willing to do anything, and if he doesn't I'll just end up killing him anyway, so what's the problem?"

Lizzy and I both rolled our eyes at that one. For someone who was scared to death of not being able to feel anything for our kids, Edward was an extremely loving and protective father, which was wonderful and challenging at the same time. From the first moment he held our first baby, Edward only proved what I always knew – that it was impossible not to love something we created together. It was instantaneous. The way little EJ just fit perfectly in his arms, and looked so intensely into his daddy's eyes, Edward was powerless to resist. All six of our kids owned him, and I didn't have a doubt the one currently in my belly would be the same. God, I really hoped it was another girl – the level of super testosterone in our home was overwhelming; I didn't even know how the house was still standing.

"Okay, let's go inside for dinner!" I called to my guys, who were all still wrestling around like the monsters they were.

"Momma, Charlie said we might have to move again soon, is that true or was he just blowing smoke up my ass?" Riley asked me as we made our way inside.

"Daddy and Uncle Emmett really need to watch how they talk around you kids," I grumbled. "I don't want to hear you say ass again. Got it?"

"Sorry momma…But are we moving or aren't we?"

"Well, we live far enough away from town so we should be okay for a while…Unless someone figures out who we are or EJ needs to move, but I think we'll be here for a few more years at least," I told him.

In the past our family had moved every few years or so in order to keep people clueless about our unusual aging qualities, but even more importantly, we moved to keep our kids safe. We had become somewhat famous after Aro drove the vampires into hiding, but not in a good way - people knew what Edward's blood was capable of, therefore they knew what our children's blood was capable of, which made it a very dangerous environment. There had been several attempts to kidnap EJ when he was little, and in a world no longer living in fear of monsters, human monsters took their place. There was no law, no repercussions for wrong doings, and once again, people's lives were shrouded in terror.

Between Edward's fierce protectiveness, and our vampire family always by our side, EJ and our other kids were safe, but something needed to be done otherwise the world would never break free from chaos. Luckily we had my father, who not only knew how to lead and bring order, but he was well known and respected by so many.

Charles Swan became the first president of the new America, and he was absolutely amazing at that job. Laws were made, society thrived, and people felt the safest they had in decades. So many children were born those first few years, and our population flourished. Countless people came out of hiding as well, and we realized there were so many more "wild humans" than anyone ever could have predicted. It was a wonderful time in our history, but like everything else, all good things eventually came to an end. Tragically, during my father's sixth year as president, he was shot in the head by a power hungry congressman.

For years Edward blamed himself for my father's death, insisting that if we hadn't moved away he would have been able to protect him, and Emmett felt even guiltier about choosing to follow me and my family over staying with our dad, but deep down they both knew it wasn't their fault. People died, and babies were born; that was the circle of life, and nobody understood that more than my dad. He had dedicated his life to trying to make the world a better place, and he definitely succeeded at that. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't miss him, but I found solace in the fact that he was with our mother and one day, many many…many many years from then, I would see my parents again. Despite aging incredibly slowly, we were still aging, and someday our time would be over as well, and we would see all our late loved ones again. It was something Edward and I both looked forward to with patient excitement.

But even though my father's laws remained intact long after his death, we still feared strangers learning the truth about our family, so we continued to live in as much secrecy as possible. Our current home was a 200acre farm in Washington, which was basically just a glorified family compound, where all of the Cullen couples had also built houses, and there was plenty room for our kids to build in the future as well. It was a twenty minute car ride to the nearest town, and three hours to Seattle, so we couldn't imagine a more ideal location.

In the twenty years since the revolution, many of the old major cities- New York, San Francisco, Chicago, etc. – were rebuilt. They started small, but had grown every year since, and that was where businesses were once again booming. EJ fell in love with city life after just one visit, so when he decided to move to Seattle we knew we wanted to stay close to him, and yet far enough from the city to keep our privacy. We were all very happy there; Washington was always home to me, and now my kids felt the same way. If or when we finally did have to move away, I knew we'd all miss it terribly.

And, of course, Washington's constant cloud cover provided our vampire family members with the perfect shield from the sun, which meant some of them were always around, even when we didn't want them to be…

"I'm thinking about going to Seattle to visit EJ tomorrow," Emmett announced when he followed Edward and the other kids into the house. "It's been too long since I've seen him last."

"Aww, do you miss him," Anthony teased.

"Hell yes, he's my favorite nephew!" Emmett growled at him playfully.

"Screw you," Anthony retorted.

"Hey!" I scolded him. "Language."

"Mom, I'm nearly a man now, it's time you accept my words of choice," Anthony said like a smartass.

Edward walked up and smacked him hard in the back of his head. "Don't disrespect your mother or your ass will be sleeping in the barn with the pigs. Now apologize."

"But.."

"Now!"

Anthony huffed, and then turned to me and morphed his features to look like the child he was. "I'm sorry momma. That was very rude of me."

"You're right it was, but I accept your apology," I told him, and then smiled when he hugged me tightly. "Now go wash up for dinner."

"Yes mom," he said before running up the stairs.

With all the kids running about the house getting cleaned up, I took a few minutes to question my husband. "So…it really took all day to shoot one deer?"

Edward smirked. "Taking five kids into the forest alone isn't easy."

"Hey, I offered to go with you," Emmett jumped in.

Edward scowled at him. "Don't you have somewhere to be…like at your house…like, not here."

"I'm sensing that I'm not wanted here," Emmett joked.

"You're not," Edward deadpanned.

"That's harsh," Em feigned hurt. "Fine, I'll leave…I'd rather be home with my beautiful wife anyway…But I'll be back tomorrow first thing in the morning."

"I thought you were going to Seattle tomorrow?" Edward whined.

"Maybe I'll just call EJ and beg him to come home for the weekend instead. I'll give him a guilt trip or something; tell him Rose is having a hard time with him being gone so long."

"It's only been two weeks since he was home last. Give the guy a break," Edward said full of irritation.

"Don't pretend like you don't call him every day, twice a day," Em retorted.

"Well I...He's…I'm his father, so I'm allowed," Edward said defensively.

Em laughed at him. "Yeah well I'm his uncle, and since I'll never have kids of my own, I'm taking a more hands on approach to yours. It's not like you don't have enough kids to spare; at this point you should really start divvying them up between all of us."

"If you really want one of my kids, take one of the younger ones. I actually like EJ, and he's not even a kid anymore anyway."

"Hey, we heard that!" Charlie yelled from his room above us.

"But EJ is my favorite too," Em argued.

"You guys are mean!" Riley protested from somewhere else in the house.

"God, they're always listening, aren't they?" Em whispered to me with a smirk.

I shrugged. "That's super hearing for you."

"How the hell do you two ever get enough privacy to make more kids?"

I huffed. "Goodbye Em, see you tomorrow," I said while ushering him out the door.

"Thank god, I was starting to think he'd never leave," Edward grumbled.

"That's what happens when you deny his company for the day," I replied before leaning into him for a kiss.

"I didn't want him to come hunting with us. The man is a bear; he scares everything away before we have a chance to shoot it, and then he chases after it and brings it back completely drained of blood."

"Hmm, reminds me of another vampire I used to know who always brought bloodless animals back to his human companions," I mumbled into the skin on his neck, and then kissing him again.

"Yeah well, it was a matter of survival back then. I want the boys to know how to hunt on their own just in case they were to ever find themselves without a vampire catering service."

"Boys? What about Lizzy?"

"Lizzy is her mother's daughter. That girl in a natural with a bow, and I doubt there's anything I could even teach her. She's the one who killed that buck today, and then she refused to let me help her drag it home. The boys were too busy goofing off to even attempt to kill anything. I swear, the world today is making them too soft. I should take them to the local prison and have them kill a few murderers to toughen them up."

I stared at him incredulously for a moment. If he were anyone else I'd assume he was joking, but I knew him too well for that. "How about we don't do that, and just let the boys grow up without becoming murderers. EJ never killed anyone and he's absolutely fine."

"Yeah, but he could kill someone if he had to, and he would. He shot his first buck at two years old, and didn't even flinch. Remember when he asked Bill the butcher if he could watch him slaughter a few of our cows? That was an amazing day."

"Oh, to raise a serial killer, what greater pride could a parent ever have," I joked.

"Not a serial killer, but definitely someone unafraid to do whatever needs to be done. And a little bloodlust never hurt anyone," he said seductively while nipping at my bottom lip.

I giggled. "You're damn right about that."

It never took much to send us into a fit of kissing and groping, but unfortunately for us we had a house full of kids with way too keen hearing. "Eww, gross!" – one of them yelled from up the stairs.

Edward and I just giggled. "Is it their bedtime yet?" I whined playfully.

"Soon, my love," he replied while kissing the tip of my nose. Then he rubbed my stomach tenderly. "I think I'll need to give you an extra-long full body massage tonight too, huh?"

I smiled. "I'd never turn that down."

Needless to say, we finished dinner and made the kids go to bed early that night.

That weekend EJ must have gotten tired of all of Emmett's incessant pleading, because he and Angela came home for an unplanned visit, which was more than fine by me. I was never happier than when all of my family was together, and all joking aside, EJ did hold a special place in everyone's hearts. We loved all our kids equally, but EJ was our first miracle, the first child that was able to easily navigate between the natural and supernatural worlds. He was basically worshiped since his birth by all that knew him, and he deserved every last bit of that devotion because he was just that incredible of a person. He actually reminded me allot of my father, but the added level of intense fierceness that he got from Edward only made him that much more amazing. And of course it couldn't hurt that he looked so much like his dad. Our kids all pretty much took after Edward in the looks department, but EJ was practically a carbon copy, so much so that when they were seen together in public, most assumed they were twins rather than father and son.

After spending the day catching up and listening to stories of their life in the city, EJ and Angela suggested we get everyone together for a big bonfire. It was weird how much the Cullens loved a good bonfire seeing how fire was the one thing that could really kill vampires, but they always jumped at the chance, and of course all the kids loved it as well. But an hour into it, we had some extremely unexpected visitors.

"Oh my god. Jacob!" I shouted as soon as his face came into view.

I jumped up to give him a hug, which he eagerly returned. "Wow, look at you. You're in the same state you were in the last time I saw you," he said while looking at my expanded stomach, and then he turned to Edward. "Don't you ever let her rest?"

"Pfft, she's the horny one," Edward replied, making all six of our kids cringe.

"Damn," Jake said while looking around at all the Edward look-a-likes sitting around the fire. "How many kids do you guys have now?"

"This will be our seventh," I told him.

"Wow. The last time we saw each other you were only on your second."

"Yeah, I was pregnant with Lizzy, she's right over there." Lizzy smiled grudgingly, and shot him a little irritated wave. All of my kids knew of our wolf friends, and without even meeting them they had formed prejudice opinions simply based on their species. I tried convincing them that they were good people and had helped us, but because of their vampire cells I suppose their disdain was just bred in them, but that didn't mean they couldn't be cordial... "After Lizzy we had Anthony, then Charlie, Riley, and then Benny is our youngest over there. Say hello kids."

They all grumbled a greeting of some sort, and I chose to not push them any harder than that.

"And you remember EJ," I told them while pointing at our oldest.

"Holy shit you look just like your father."

"Yeah, it's my lot in life," EJ joked.

"So, how have you guys been?" I asked. "Where's Seth?"

"Oh, he's living in the Brazil area with his wife. She's a Ticuna tribal shape shifter," Leah explained.

"No shit?" Edward asked way more interested than I would have thought, but I suppose he always did like Seth.

"Yeah, she's really great," Jake added. "But she doesn't turn into a wolf, she's actually a jaguar."

Edward broke into a belly laugh, though I wasn't quite sure why, but I wasn't surprised whatsoever when all of our kids started laughing as well. They usually followed their father's lead when it came to being snarky or mean spirited.

"A wolf and a jaguar?" Edward asked through his hysterics.

I still didn't see the humor, but apparently Anthony did. "Someone forgot to tell them that cats and dogs don't get along. I wonder what their kids will be; puppies with kitty whiskers."

"Maybe they'll bark and purr," Emmett joined in.

"I'd actually be very interested in their offspring," Carlisle said seriously. "Have they had any children yet?"

"No, they just got married a couple months ago, but hopefully one day," Leah said, trying to overlook the mockery that my husband, brother, and sons were continuing with.

"You were pregnant the last time we saw each other as well, weren't you?" I asked her, wondering where their child or children were.

"Yes, with our son Will….Where did he go?" she asked confused when she looked out into the darkness and didn't see him.

"Ah, you know he's still a little uncomfortable around vampires," Jacob said dismissively. "It may take him a little bit to warm up; I'm sure he's just exploring the farm. You guys don't mind, do you?"

"As long as he doesn't piss all over everything," Emmett said straight faced. "I know you dogs like to mark your territories." And of course that just prompted a new round of laughter from my hooligan sons.

I chose to ignore them. "So, I can't believe it's actually been sixteen years since we saw each other last."

"Yeah, we would have come for a visit sooner, but the whole point to us moving away when we did was because I was pregnant and we didn't want to expose our child to vampires until he was older," Leah reminded me.

"Of course…Well, we'd love to finally meet him. Did you have any more kids?"

"No, we just have Will, but he's definitely enough," Leah said with a laugh. "Fortunately he took after Jake's family and didn't start phasing until puberty."

"We were actually hoping he wouldn't phase at all, but a few months ago a small coven passed through our area so he and a few other teens from the tribe phased for the first time," Jake explained. "He has better control of it now, so we thought it would be a good idea to bring him here and let him get to know you guys a bit, that way if he ever crossed paths with the any of the Cullens in the future, he'd know not to kill you."

"Like he could," Anthony said like a smartass. Edward snickered, but because EJ was sitting closer to him and he could see my annoyance with his little brother, he smacked him in the back of the head for me. I smiled my gratitude.

"Well, I think that's a great idea," Esme told Jake and Leah. "A visit has been long overdue. Will you be staying for a while?"

"Just a few days, if you don't mind," Jake replied.

"Of course not. Edward and Bella's house is pretty full, but we'd love for you three to stay with us," she offered.

"Or we could put together a quick doghouse for you," Charlie mumbled.

"Charlie!" I chided him. "I'm sorry, my boys are…"

"Their father's sons; we get it," Jake said with a laugh - it was a comment Edward wasn't about to dispute. "We figured there may be a little hostility at first, which was another reason why we wanted to come see you guys. I know your kids aren't really aging normally, and unless Will stops phasing they're all going to be around for a very long time, so it would be nice for them to at least have an understanding with each other."

"Of course," Esme said with a warm smile.

"We do appreciate you guys coming," I agreed.

"Well, if nobody cares, I'm going to bed," Lizzy said before getting up and sulking off towards our house.

"I should probably take the younger kids to bed as well," I told everyone. "Ben, Charlie, Riley, say goodnight." They moaned their protests, but each said goodnight anyway. "Hopefully they can meet Will in the morning."

"Definitely," Jake replied.

It certainly was important for our children to at least form an uneasy alliance just in case trouble were to ever arise in the future, but I wasn't quite sure how peaceful it would be. However, the next morning Edward and I were completely dumbfounded by the unusual relationship that was suddenly struck between Will and one of our kids…

"What the hell?" Edward asked when we looked out the window and saw the young wolf-man sitting on our porch flirting, and even holding hands with Lizzy.

I covered my mouth with my hand to avoid smiling, but then things became serious when I noticed just how angry Edward actually was. I had to grab his arm and practically shove my body in front of the door to prevent him from darting outside and exploding at them. "They're not doing anything wrong," I tried convincing him.

"Like hell they're not!" he spat. "I haven't even met the punk yet, and now he thinks he can hold my daughter's hand? That little fucker is about to see what an ex-vampire is really capable of."

"Okay, just calm down. You know Lizzy has been worried about finding someone who will live as long as she will…"

"So getting a pet is the answer?" he asked bitterly. "She's fifteen!"

"So is he. It's not like they're getting married. Just let them be for now," I urged him.

"It's bullshit! I'm not going to just….Where the hell are they going?" he asked when we saw them get up and run off somewhere.

I allowed him to go outside to see if we could tell where they went, but I kept my hand firmly on his arm to hopefully prevent him from attacking the poor kid. We saw them run into Carlisle's house, which made Edward relax a fraction amount simply because he knew Carlisle would never allow anything funny to happen under his roof.

"Just give them a little time, and if they don't come talk to us we can go question them," I suggested.

I could see Edward grit his teeth, and I almost laughed at the way his vein popped out of the side of his temple. "Fine."

He stood there like a statue and waited for over ten minutes until Lizzy emerged from Carlisle's house with Will and his parents…and surprisingly Carlisle and Esme as well.

"What the hell is going on?" Edward snapped at them.

"Um…Just please try not to freak," Jacob said unexpectedly.

"Start talking," Edward seethed, knowing something was definitely up.

Jacob took a deep breath and strangely moved in front of his son in an almost protective stance. "Well see, as wolves we have this thing where, sometimes when we see someone…"

Edward put his hand up to stop him. "Don't say another word. I was there when you imprinted on your wife, remember? But if you're about to tell me that your little puppy imprinted on my daughter, you seriously have another thing coming."

Will looked absolutely terrified, but he appeared to swallow roughly, and then he puffed out his chest and stepped around his father. "Mr. Edward Sir, I wanted to start off by formally introducing myself. I'm William Black…and I'm in love with your daughter."

Edward strangely smiled and nodded his head as if he was in some psychotic trance, but then he broke. He lunged for Will's neck, but Jacob got in between them. Edward easily knocked Jake away, but then Carlisle and Esme both jumped in to restrain him, and finally EJ came running out of our house and was able to get Edward to fractionally calm himself. Of course, when EJ found out what set his father off, he became just as livid.

"There's no way in hell my little sister is going to be with some fleabag!" EJ shouted. I was actually really surprised by EJ's outburst, he was usually more reserved than that, but I suppose underneath it all, he was just like Edward, and when it came to his family, he was fierce and unyielding.

"Now everyone just needs to calm down," Esme tried, but it was of no use.

They continued to fight about it through most the day, but at some point Will and Lizzy had snuck away and disappeared, which only pissed off Edward that much more. We all figured they were on the property somewhere, but when Emmett followed their scents through town and out into the forest leading south, we realized they had actually made the hast decision to run away together. Of course, it wasn't hard to track them down and drag them back home, but it was certainly an eye opening experience for Edward.

"Now listen…I don't agree with this, and I definitely don't like it, but…if you can follow some ground rules, I might be willing to allow chaperoned visitation," Edward told them.

"For how long do we have to be chaperoned?" Lizzy asked hopeful yet wary.

"How old are you?" Edward asked evenly.

"Daddy, you know I'm fifteen," she replied with a cautious giggle.

"So in fifteen more years you can be around each other unsupervised."

"Dad," she whined. "That's not fair. EJ is only three and a half years older than me, and he lives with his girlfriend in the city. All I'm asking for is a couple innocent dates."

"You're too young."

"Everyone dates at fifteen!" she argued.

"And I agreed you could…as long as someone is with you at all times."

"UGH! You're so…infuriating!" she shouted before storming off towards her room.

Edward hinted a smirk, and then he moved to get into Will's face. "If she ends up pregnant, I'll make sure nobody finds your body," he warned him menacingly before following Lizzy into the house.

Will was absolutely terrified of Edward, but the fact that he still persisted was commendable, and ultimately it would show Edward just how devoted he already was to Lizzy. At the end of the day, our daughter's happiness was the most important thing to both of us, so I knew Edward would come around sooner or later.

…

Since Will refused to leave Lizzy, the Blacks moved into a forest cabin a few miles from our farm, which for me anyway, was really nice; I had forgotten how much I enjoyed my old best friend's company, and having more people around that we could be ourselves with could only be a good thing. Edward, Emmett, and the boys never really relaxed fully with the Blacks, but I believed that they enjoyed being able to razz them more than they let on.

Life had become blissfully peaceful, and with so many endless possibilities ahead of our family, we lived in a constant state of excitement and eager anticipation. Edward had once told me that with every end there was a new beginning, and he was absolutely right because as twilight fell upon us once again, the breaking of dawn would soon follow…

The End

***A/N: Thanks so much for sticking with me. This story has been a lot of fun and I can't believe how long it became, but I'm definitely going to miss these characters. I often use music to inspire me to write, so if you're interested here are the songs that influenced Revolution...

Demons - Imagine Dragons
Clarity – Zedd ft. Foxes
Locked Out of Heaven – Bruno Mars
Human – Christina Perri
Unconditionally – Katy Perry

Thanks again!