Disclaimer: All cannon characters, places, and events belong to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just giving Edward and Bella a bit more fluff and a whole lot less angst.

Author's Note: Hello Fellow-Lovers of Twilight! This idea has been bouncing around in my head since I first read New Moon last summer, but lack of time and a six-year case of writer's block prevented me from actually putting keystroke to Word document, at least until now. Any constructive criticism is most welcomed, as I truly want to do these rich characters, as well as my own plotline, justice.

Thanks!

~seanchaidhe

Chapter 1 – Stitches

"What are you thinking about?" I wondered in a whisper.

He hesitated for a second before he told me. "I was thinking about right and wrong, actually."

I felt a chill tingle along my spine.

(Meyer 50-51).

"What about it?" I asked, hoping I wouldn't regret the question.

"I don't want to be wrong for you, Bella," he admitted, the soft music of Esme's favorite coming to a close.

"You're not."

He let out a soft but humorless laugh. "You can't be certain of that. I agonize about our future, Bella, and exactly what it means for you life."

"As long as we're together, that's all that matters," I told him gently, shuffling closer to him.

"I'm still not good for you. As the days go on and you get older, I see that to be a greater truth than every before."

I swallowed loudly, slowly removing my head from his shoulder and trying to catch his pained gaze. "Hey," I said, touching his chin in an effort to turn it. He allowed the movement and focused on my face, his expression relaying his conflicted emotions. "I'm eighteen today, Edward, and in one way, older than you. We've been having this discussion all summer, but it hasn't gotten us anywhere. I want to be with you forever. Do you feel the same way?"

I waited, holding my breath for his response and gazing at his perfect features. Edward's face was an unreadable mask of confliction, but then, something unexpected happened. My brave and stubbornly noble Edward crumbled. His beautiful eyes crinkled and his mouth released a quiet but heart-wrenching sob, as he brought his hands up to cover the despair leaking out of him and permeating the small space of my bedroom.

My heart jumped into my throat. My Edward was far more pained than I imagined and just the thought that my line of questions had put him in this agony, caused my own heart to hurt. "Edward," I whispered, reaching out to touch the hand that covered his face.

He allowed my hands to move his own but immediately proceeded to wrap the now freed appendages around my body and to pull me closer. I felt his face, still scrunched in agony burry in the crook of my neck and burrow into my loose hair.

"Selfishly, I want nothing more than to spend the rest of eternity composed as we are," he whispered, his cool breath tickling the small hairs on the back of my neck. "I want to be entwined with you always, Bella, but not if the cost is your own life."

My injured arm burned as I forced it to hold this tortured man while my other hand ran through his wild hair. "Wouldn't that be my price, though? My choice?" I asked softly while bracing for his rebuttal.

He gently removed himself from my arms and unfolded himself into a standing position by my bed. Even through the darkness of my room and the thickness of his shirt I could see the taught lines of his back. It pained me to see him hurt, but I knew that if we did not have this discussion now and finish it for good, something more painful would be born from this night. "All I'm asking is that you respect my wishes. Respect my choices, Edward."

He turned to face me, his featured now darkened by the silhouette created from the soft glow of the moon that filtered in through the window. "You can't know, what it is, to be what I am. I do. Please, just trust me," he pleaded.

"How can I trust you when you don't trust me?"

His shoulders sagged, frustrated, but not defeated. "Bella."

"No Edward," I interrupted, crawling to my knees and scooting closer to take his hands in my own. "I can't know because I haven't experienced it. But I understand. I hear what you're saying and I understand that it's going to be difficult. But if you really do want eternity with me, as you say you do, then you have no reason to reject my wanting the same thing. And if you still think that I can't make an informed decision, then tell me what I don't know. Talk to me. Have Carlisle and Alice and the others talk to me. But don't decide my life to me. I want to be your partner, Edward, not your puppet."

I looked up at him, my eyes trying to make out the features of his face that the darkness of his own body shielded, but nothing was revealed.

He remained perfectly and inhumanly still. "We can no longer agree to an impasse, can we?" His question seemed to come from the very darkness of the room and brought with it, all the hopelessness that this repeated argument had wrapped around our relationship.

I bit my bottom lip, worrying it between my teeth, trying to hold in the answer that eventually sprang through. "No. We can't."

"So either I change you or . . ."

"Either you respect my choices as you respect your own or I don't know what we're doing here," I breathed, physical pain coursing through my body with the words through my lips.

The silence the engulfed the room was palpable. A physical entity that wrapped itself around my heart and squeezed, but I welcomed the tension. As long as there was tension and uncertainty, there was Edward with me, still undecided, but still together. I feared his answer and that fear kept me silent throughout my wonderful summer, while I cherished the time spent with my Edward and attempted to banish the thought of being without him. The fear kept me floundering in uncertainty, wanting a decision and yet dreading one of the obvious possible outcomes: Edward without me.

Just when I thought the tension pressed so hard down on my chest that it would bust, Edward moved. He sat gently on the bed next to me, my hands still clasped within his own. Due to his change in position, the moonlight no longer darkened his face, but case an illuminating glow upon his marble skin. The pained and scrunched lines were gone, replaced by his skin's usual flawlessness. It was in that moment, when his downcast eyes tracked up my body and came to rest upon my gaze that I was finally able to release the breath that I had been holding.

I don't know what about that moment made me see, be I knew then that we were going to be okay.

"I have always respected you, Bella. I'm sorry that the manner in which I voiced my view may have relayed to you that I felt otherwise. Please know that I have only ever wanted what was best for you and prayed to whatever deity may listen that I have the strength to do what was best. I can't say that I support your desire to be changed, but I respect your wishes."

"Does that mean you'll ask Carlisle to change me?" I asked, my heart picking up speed.

"No," he responded. "But we can go talk to Carlisle about the possibility of changing you, after you have had time to say good-bye to your human life."

"What does 'after you have had the time to say good-bye to your human life' mean?" I asked.

"It means that we won't be changing you into a vampire tonight, Bella. Or tomorrow, for that matter."

"When will we, when I'm forty and look more like you mother than your girlfriend?" I asked, incredulously.

"No. I was thinking, perhaps, in a few years. After you have graduated from high school and college. After you have had more human experiences," he replied, a pleading look in his eyes.

"Edward, I'm already eighteen. After graduation I'll be almost nineteen. If we wait until college I'll be in my twenties. That's too old," I said, shaking my head. I couldn't be nearly six years older than Edward for all eternity. That just wouldn't do.

"Bella, isn't it enough that I've conceded to letting you be changed? Please, just sleep now. We'll talk about timeframes with Carlisle later. Right now you need sleep."

He gently but swiftly scooped me up and deposited me into my bed before climbing in himself. Still on top of the blankets, but close enough for me to press my burning arm in what I hoped was an inconspicuous manner, against his cool body.

Feeling the effects of the medication taking over as the rush of adrenalin finally eased out of my system, I sleepily heard Edward mutter, "Happy Birthday, Bella."

"I love you, Edward."

Author's End Notes:

Thank you all for reading chapter 1. This is just the beginning and is the major twist in the plotline. From here on out, I will be making New Moon into my own creation. Using what SM has told us about the characters in her four and a half books, I will attempt to construct a semi-believable storyline. Granted, there are a few points that may be OOC, but hopefully not by much.

At this point, the rating on this is T or PG13, but as the story progresses, it may get more lemony and force me to up the overall rating. I make not promises now, either way, but if you're particular about your Twilight fanfic and are against lemons, then I forewarn you now that they might be present in the future, but they also, may not.

Please take a minute or two and review. Constructive criticism is appreciated but so is a "good job" if you feel it was. Thanks!

~seanchaidhe