Matrimony
"Bella, there are of course, many things that you are not taking into consideration. When I found out from Alice where you'd gone I was furious… It was as though everything I'd sacrificed to protect you was done in vain…"
"Edward, it isn't, honestly, I didn't mean anything by--- "Didn't mean anything by it, Bella? You could've been killed! And we never would have known to save you because of the mind block those mongrels—"Edward, please!—"Let me finish!—those blocks that your 'friend's' put on Alice… Do you know how much danger…?"
He paused, waving his hand dismissively. "That's beside the point, but you know full well what I'm trying to tell you, Bella. Obviously I can't hunt anymore because at any given opportunity, you might just run off."
"But Edward, I…"
"No," He said adamantly, his velvet voice, although calm was still heightened with anger, something impossible to ignore.
I had been through this a thousand times. And it was odd, I knew that Edward was slightly a bit more comfortable with the pack now but…I'd run off, and then felt myself gasp, and start into consciousness as though doused in ice water. I guess this fact was partially true because Edward had his arms around me; his lips were coolly pressed to the nape of my neck.
"Are you all right, love?" He whispered, his breath ghosting across my neck sending chills electrifyingly down my spine. Suddenly I was facing him, staring into those sloshing pools of liquid topaz.
"I'm fine," I lied.
"Bella, we've been through this before, you're a horrid liar without even the faintest pretense… Honestly."
I blanched.
"Edward, I'm scared." I admitted. Tomorrow was the wedding and my nerves had never felt so exposed.
"I know,"
I wasn't sure whether or not to be surprised by this statement. "I guess… I started dreaming that I had run off again and you were upset with me."
I could feel him resisting the urge to smile, but he didn't fight it for long before that brilliant smile stretched across his face; it reached his eyes.
"Cold feet," I could swear I heard him laughing.
"Are you laughing at me, Edward? Honestly, now isn't exactly the right time!"
"I'm—not—laughing." He said, trying to be honest, but the hitches in his velvet voice were all too hard to ignore.
My right hand was in a cast now, and my left was healing okay, not to mention the bandages. I had no idea how Alice expected me to fit in the dress now, with my cast and everything. I looked at my ring just the same as it was the first time I had laid eyes on it, its long oval face set with slanting rows of glittering round stones; the delicate and narrow gold band making a fragile web around the diamonds.
"I'm still surprised Charlie took it so well," I admitted, striking up a slight sub-topic.
"Me too," Edward agreed. I knew he knew Charlie took it better than I'd realized initially, of course because of his talents.
At first I thought he was going to have a heart attack. But I was really the one that ended up surprised.
"Ah, you've finally come to tell me!" Charlie said with a bit of a smile. I think Edward was growing on him. "Wait—huh?" I asked, a bit taken aback.
It took Edward quite a bit of effort not to smile, his lips in a forcibly hardened line that seemed to be wavering.
"Edward already asked me if he could have your hand about a week ago." Charlie informed me.
That double-crosser
I shot him a slight glare which finally broke that line he'd been trying so hard to keep and he was grinning crookedly at me.
"I figured since you put such an emphasis about going about this the right way… The opportunity presented itself and I couldn't possibly refuse."
I looked to Charlie, half of me expecting something bad, and the other half was honestly annoyed.
"I'll gladly walk to down the aisle, Bells, of course your mother and I had a serious talk about this—Phil's leg seems to be doing better and they'll be able to make it up for the wedding, but I still think that you're too young."
I nodded a little, I figured he would say that, but that was out the window when marrying Edward became part of the compromise.
I shook myself from my reverie when Edward had released me from his cold embrace, standing up and stretching as though he had slept, feigning a yawn. If I hadn't known better I probably would have believed he was groggy.
"I know what you need, you need some breakfast." It then dawned on me that I was in Edward's bedroom and not my own. How could I have possibly just realized this? And then I faintly remembered telling him last night in mid-sleep that I wanted to stay over so that in the morning Alice, Esme, and Rosalie could finish coordinating everything.
As we strolled through the kitchen to the dining room, the scent of flowers was everywhere. I thought vaguely of a funeral home, but shook that from my mind, sitting at the table in the dining room while Edward insisted he serve me, rather ceremoniously bringing me pop-tarts. I laughed, knowing the only food the Cullen's kept in the house was only for me.
"What are you doing Edward?" Alice hissed playfully, jaunting into the dining room and taking Edward by the arm. "You can't see the bride until the wedding, well, not in the gown, but she needs to focus."
I knew for a fact that I would probably focus better with Edward than I would without him, and Alice knew this, but she'd already planned for Carlisle, Jasper, and Emmett to keep him busy; I waved goodbye as Jasper whisked him away.
"Can I at least finish my breakfast, Alice?" I queried listlessly.
She eyed the toasted squares on my plate and then scrunched her nose. "Those don't look very appetizing." She noted, gracefully slipping into a seat beside me.
"They're okay. I just don't want to have too much in my stomach, I'm afraid I'm going to throw up."
"Oh it isn't that terrible." Alice said a bit nonchalantly. "Everything will be fine."
The rest of the day flew by without a hitch, and soon I was standing before myself in my wedding dress, Carlisle having wrapped my arm up in an ace bandage which wasn't so noticeable beneath the lace sleeves that covered my arms. Through the mirror I saw her enter Alice's bedroom before I had a chance to react.
"Oh sweetheart, you look so beautiful." Renée wrapped her arms around me in a hug, and I carefully hugged her in return.
"Here, I brought these for you."
"Mum, honestly, you didn't have to," I objected.
"Your soon-to-be husband told me you weren't too objectionable to hand-me-downs."
Of course, I thought with a bit of a sigh. "Okay, let's see."
Renée pulled a small grey velveteen box out of her purse, handing it to me to open. I flicked open the box to reveal two small pearl earrings.
"They're beautiful, mom, thank you." I said before taking them out of the box and putting them in my ears. They were just the something I thought I was missing.
Once the time drew nearer, everyone was fussing over me, my hair done up with white lace ribbons, falling in delicate chocolate curls, my makeup done very lightly, considering my complexion was already quite fair Alice (much to her disappointment), really didn't have to do much.
I was then in the kitchen, hidden from view, a bouquet of calla lilies in my hand also tied together with a white ribbon. And finally, Esme added the veil, placing a gentle kiss to my forehead.
"I love you Bella," Esme whispered.
"We all do." Alice added.
The music began to play, provided by Jasper, who wasn't half that bad of a pianist, honestly, although, no one in my eyes was better than Edward. And I felt my stomach drop and erupt in millions of butterflies.
I then walked through the archway and turned to the left, holding my arm out for my father to take, and then I saw it…
The large white pillars they had moved into this section of the house, a ballroom, just for this, a white carpet rolled out all the way to where it teed off, Emmett standing there, holding a bible, and then my eyes fell on Edward; Carlisle standing next to him as his best man.
He was in a purely black tuxedo with a white button up shirt beneath and a black bow-tie. He was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I felt my knees begin to weaken as I slightly stumbled, my father wrapping his arm a bit more securely around my waist so I wouldn't pitch forward. Who ever had come up with the idea of your father giving you away was a genius. It made everything practically foolproof until I was standing in front of Edward and as he was lifting my veil I realized I hadn't written any vows…
Oh no…
Edward must have seen the look on my face as Emmett began to speak, and I blocked him out somehow, staring into Edward's eyes, feeling a faint blush creep onto my cheeks.
"Here," He mouthed, handing me a card.
No one had really seemed to notice the exchange between us as I held them delicately with my bandaged hand.
"You may read your vows," Emmett said with a grin that was far too mischievous for someone who was supposed to be playing the role of the leader of pious matrimony.
"I'll start," Edward said before taking my less injured hand within his and looking deeply within my eyes until it was just us alone in the whole entire universe; no one else existed at all.
"My Bella, for you are the light that illuminates my darkest days, you are everything I have ever dreamed of for eons upon eons of time, twisting in a delicate vice, as pure and as white as the lace that falls from your curls, around my heart.
For my starless nights are bright, for you are the moon in my sky, forever pulling the tides, that monumental gravity, that has held us together, and will forever.
My wife, Isabella Marie Swan-Cullen, I love you, and I will forevermore."
I'm not sure when I noticed the tears streaking down my face.
"I'm sorry," I whispered, holding up my card, blinking away the tears that remained in my eyes. I recognized the words immediately that had been scrawled onto the note card in his brilliant calligraphy. But I didn't want something clichéd, I wanted something from the depths of my own heart that I had written him, so I let the card flutter to the floor.
He eyed me suspiciously, then, that crooked grin playing on his perfectly chiseled lips.
"Edward, until you came into my life, it was devoid of anything it seemed, the same monotonous patterns that I fell into every day, and then… My first day in Forks, I laid eyes on you. You were so beautiful to me, and yet you seemed so far away; untouchable. Once we got to know each other, and even when you were gone…"
I could see pain flit into his eyes momentarily, then. I continued.
"I realized how, no matter what happened, I could never possibly live without you. You're as much my brand of heroin as I am yours."
I could hear a few of the Cullens', including Emmett laugh. My side of the family was a bit lost, but the ceremony continued onward, my tears which had stopped began pouring down my face again when Edward slipped the band on my finger that went with the engagement ring which would probably later be wrought together to signify the bond.
I then slipped his silver band onto his stony cold finger, and before I knew it Edward had his arms wrapped around me and was kissing me with such fervor, he even dipped me down, our families all applauding, our mothers (and the rest of the girls), were crying. I don't think I ever could've imagined being any happier than I was.
Edward was mine forever.
Of course he had been before, but everyone knew it now, and through some insane twist of fate, both of our families supported us. Renée, Charlie, and Phil all ecstatic when I told them that Edward and I were both going to be attending Dartmouth. I swear, everyone in Forks knew; it was a small town after all.
The reception was small, and had been moved outside onto the patio which I was grateful for in quite a few ways, and I was on Edward's feet the whole night dancing, it seemed. (Well at least once we cut the cake, and Alice insisted on the bouquet tossing and garter tradition: Alice having caught the bouquet, and Jasper having caught the garter).
"You were very clever considering you forgot to write your vows, I was touched." He whispered into my ear.
"As was I," I agreed. "What you said was so beautiful."
"Are you still scared?"
I gave Edward a glance, I was slightly bewildered.
"I think I got so caught up in everything, I didn't really have time to be scared." I admitted.
"Good," He said with a smile that reached up to his eyes as he looked into mine. "I love you, Isabella Marie Swan-Cullen." He whispered as we swayed gently to the music.
"I love you too, Edward Anthony Masen Cullen." I replied.
For the night seemed to last forever in his arms until dawn broke over the horizon.