Pick A Pic Challenge
Title: The Long Road Home
Penname: akaMick (Mick)
Banner: #25 The Long Road Home
Rating/ Disclaimer: M, Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight - no infringement intended
Summary: Can Edward finally leave his solitary, immortal life that began decades ago behind him? Who is the mysterious Isabella and what is her connection to Edward's human past?
To see all the stories that are a part of this contest please visit: www .fanfiction-challenges. blogspot. com
"Carlisle? It can't possibly be her, can it?" The amazement in my voice came through although my original intent was to keep it as neutral and as nonchalant as possible. I had put my family through so much all these decades. The last thing I wanted was to watch them suffer any more on my account. Previous years of my undead life flashed in my mind as I watched him and Alice hover over the woman. Watching my father and sister as they diligently worked to treat her, I could do nothing but stare at the broken body as I quickly became lost deep in my own head.
I, no, we had left Chicago so quickly that I hadn't had time to consider the consequences of leaving my beloved Isabel. My sole concern was to leave her alive. Carlisle assured me the only way to do that was leave as quickly as possible to ensure that I could not possibly harm the creature that I loved so strongly, however unintentional that harm might be. His rational at the time was simple. If her scent was calling to me from this far outside of town, I was at risk of hunting her down. Of course, he agreed to try to stop me; after all, this was his doing. But he wasn't sure he was strong enough. I had a desire that I could not understand, much less control. That desire, through no fault of my own, was surely the side of me that was most dominant. I could feel it inside me. It was an inexplicable pull, even from miles away as Carlisle held my hand at my bedside and tried to explain what he had done to me. Over and over he explained to me until it finally set in. I, Edward Masen, was no soldier; instead, I was now an immortal vampire.
That night as I sat on the edge of the davenport, rocking back and forth, I was aware that he was speaking to me. But the only coherent thought I had was that the torturous pain was finally subsiding. I woke several times during the pain, but it was so unbearable, I blacked right back out again. My only rationale at the time was that I must have been injured in battle. I only remembered enlisting and standing at the train station, so it didn't make sense and really, when in that much pain who cares for the how of it? I just wanted the pain to end. I kept shrugging off Carlisle's soothing hand as he reached out to me, trying to explain why I was in so much pain. I saw him wince, I could not help but feel satisfaction for the small portion of his words that sunk into my once clever brain, this intense suffering, was all his fault.
The torture of the last few days was his making, not the army. His own desire to do to me what was once done to him had finally won out. It wasn't enough that this was put upon him unwillingly and he knew what the outcome would be, still he fully and methodically intended to do this to me. If not me, then surely it would have been to someone else. A small part of me that I could control felt satisfaction that I should return the 'favor' of his pain and I smacked his hand away again, hard.
Surely the ease with which I moved my hand and the featherweight force with which it came into contact with his, couldn't possibly be any match for the pain of the past few days. I lay writhing in agony as he simply stood over me continually apologizing. Carlisle's words from that night, a simple 'I apologize Edward', were no match for the compassion of his words at this moment as we stared together in horror at the young girl on the table in front of us.
"I apologize Edward." This time Carlisle's words held sincerity that my much more mature self now had no trouble believing in. "If you need to leave, please, I can handle this. I promise I will do all I can so that we may find out the answers." As sincere as Carlisle's words were, they were also spoken with a sense of urgency as Carlisle began to work on the girl's broken body. As I took in a breath and inhaled the stale stench of her blood which was now mixed with the chemicals that Carlisle was injecting into her to stop the pain and speed her healing. I had little trouble recognizing her scent. Although diluted with the passage of time and watered down with a few more subtle flavors mixed in, it was still the same smell that I recalled from decades prior. Of course it would call to me, but what I didn't understand was why. Why after all this time and added distance? Hadn't I suffered and been tortured enough?
Decades of practice helped stop me from tasting what was denied from me as a youth. I had never had the pleasure of an embrace, a kiss, even a handhold from my Isabel as I had left for the war before I had a chance to properly court her. Haunting memories came back to me as I felt Alice moving at my side, taking my elbow and moving me to a stool which sat in the corner of the makeshift hospital room Carlisle had set up in our home. I was unaware of her forcing me to sit down as Carlisle worked on the body, on her body. My mind was already lost again in the memories of long ago, memories that I had decided at the time best remain buried. I was astounded at how easily my mind found them and rested on them. I sat down numbly, my brain vividly recalling each and every detail of my Isabel.
My Isabel promising me at the last parish picnic that as soon as I could return home from the war that she would, in fact, find it favorable if I might ask her parent's permission to court her. My Isabel, there, waving at the train station as her coach left to take her back home. It was customary for members of the same churches to be at the station as their young men were leaving for war. My train was scheduled to depart the next day and to avoid upsetting my mother in her weakened state, various church friends of hers had come to see me off, each one promising to watch over my mother as closely as possible. I knew she was not feeling well, and we had both attributed it to the fact that she was becoming emotional at the thought of my departure. I closed my eyes and brought forth a particular memory of Isabel that I was fond of recalling, although Isabel herself would have no memory of how much the scene meant to me. It was one of my earliest of her, and it was certainly the one that had sealed my young heart to hers for eternity.
We had been on a retreat with other church members our age which had unfortunately included Michael Newton. Not wanting to give away my intentions in front of everyone, I nonetheless kept a close watch on her. Her beautiful hair was woven into an intricate braid that fell down her back, its end tied off not with one of the fancier ribbons like the other girl's had, but a mere scrap of cloth that looked like it might have been from an old rag. This did nothing to take away from the fact that she was beautiful. Her warm brown hair tightly bound and held in place was in stark contrast to her brown eyes, which held nothing secret. Her eyes indeed were so brown that they might almost be black. I remember more than once looking into those eyes before she would blush, then turn away. I knew that her eyes gave away every secret she ever tried to keep hidden. Every untruth she had told was open there in those eyes. And I knew there were few. When others, myself included, were going fishing in the Alcott's pond, she had told everyone that she had to catch up on her studies. After happening upon her family's small piece of land on my way back, I learned that it wasn't her studies that kept her from swimming with everyone but rather her loyalty to her family. There was my beautiful Isabel, learning to plow with her father. Although certainly not a woman's work at the time, this was a time when everyone recognized a need for women to chip in and help wherever they could.
No doubt that my Isabel was learning to plow in case her father was called to war. Her sense of pride in her family's small farm was unwavering. Everyone knew her family was one of the poorest, but their pride served to sustain them. Having only Isabel as a child, it would surely fall upon her delicate shoulders to keep her family's small farm running as smooth as possible if her father left. I made my way across to the small lot of land and held up the half dozen fish I threaded carefully on a line.
"Isabel." I called to her as she looked up from where she had stopped with her father to check a line on the plow.
"Edward, what are you doing here?" I could tell she was embarrassed, probably more worried that I might tell her secret to the others, of just why she had not come with us. Those brown eyes gave away everything. My Isabel was a horrible liar.
After properly addressing her father, I continued to talk, including both of them in our conversation. I wanted her father to see me as a polite young man. Someone worthy of one day being granted the blessing of courting his daughter.
"The fishing today was so good that I caught far more than my family could possibly use. It was my own poor judgment that made me continue to fish knowing that I should have stopped. Now, I have to find a use for these extra fish or they will surely go to waste. I was wondering if your family would do me the honor of enjoying them this evening?" I bowed slightly as I handed them to her. As she smiled gratefully and made her way into the house I made amends with her father, should my lack of propriety been seen as gluttonous or boastful. I quickly explained to her father that I was simply caught up in the moment and it was no a habit of mine to fish the pond dry, that this was a one-time accident.
It was only after I said my farewell did I realize that in my happiness to help out my Isabel, did I also block myself from helping her again. Surely if I came to her home with another gift of food, her father would certainly consider that my explanation of not being a braggart or worse, an irresponsible hunter, was false and he would assume that I routinely took, and possibly wasted, extra food. Coming from my well-to-do background, he would surely see my actions as callous had I not explained.
I held tight to that memory of Isabel's expression. The simple 'thank you' she, and her father, had vocalized was nothing to the look she had given to me as her face flushed deeply and her eyes brightened with gratitude. Whether it was from the fish itself, or the fact that she got a reprieve from plowing while she took their dinner into the house to prepare, I'll never know for certain. I allowed myself a small smile as I recalled another, earlier memory of her, the one that I had always associated with combining our lives together.
At one of our church visits to an apple orchard I had the extreme pleasure of sitting next to her. Not moving in the same social circle as her family, I was grateful for these activities as it let me simply be near her. I was able to enjoy her presence as I stood nearby and watched. As we exited the hay wagon, that was my exact intent, to watch. Even though we had our own friends present, and we had found the time to talk to each other on the trip out there, our groups split upon arriving at the orchard where a small picnic was set up. I kept her constantly in my sight as the afternoon went on and it was near the end of the excursion that I noticed Michael Newton being more than a little forward with her. I knew of Michael Newton and his family. I knew they were as wealthy as my own family and that their son thought he might be able to simply take what their money could not buy.
No doubt he was thinking this same thought as he approached Isabel, I'm not sure what it was he planned to do exactly, and it didn't matter as I saw her long skirt move near her knee and saw as her small, booted foot came down hard upon his. I could do nothing but laugh in admiration of her ingenuity as she apologized profusely to Michael Newton for her 'clumsiness'. She had done exactly what she had intended and more. She had not only knowingly brought forth the priests attention to them and where they stood, thereby causing Michael Newton to stop his unsolicited advances, but she had also unknowingly gained even more admiration from me, if that were even possible.
It wasn't simply her beauty that had me coveting Isabel. It was this unseen side of her. The side of her that she rarely unleashed. It was her pride, and how she carried herself. The fact that she wanted someone to take care of her, but also, knowing that she could take care of herself if needed. Isabel was a survivor there was little doubt in my mind about that. Should her family's luck turn worse and her father be called to war, I had no doubt that Isabel would take care of her mother, herself, and every animal on their small farm.
She was clever and cunning, knowing that she could not fight off Newton's advances physically, she thought of the next best thing and brought them to the attention of someone who could. Yes, in that exact moment when I realized what her intent was to deter Michael from advancing on her any further, she had unwittingly made certain that I, Edward Masen, would definitely advance. If only fate hadn't taken that moment to intervene, our circumstances and the eventual outcome of our lives may have been vastly different from what they were.
"Edward. Edward look!" There was no mistaking the urgency in Alice's whispered voice. Snapping me out of the memory that I had become lost in, I blinked focusing my eyes on her and what she was holding. In one hand she had an old cloth bag that had obviously seen better days. In her other she held a black nylon wallet, the cheap kind that used Velcro to close. She had it flipped open to a piece of identification. It was a driver's license from the state of Arizona. Carlisle looked up briefly as I gasped and uttered the name on it.
"Isabella Swan?" I shook my head, my brain not wanting to lead on my heart. "It has to be a coincidence Alice. Carlisle?" I glanced over to my father for confirmation. He was still working swiftly over the body that we had found in the woods. The woman had taken a nasty fall from a loose piece of rock. By Carlisle's estimation, she had probably been laying out in the elements for a few hours, not long enough for anyone to truly say she was missing, but definitely long enough for damage to be done if we hadn't happened upon her when we did. If I hadn't smelled her while hunting when we did what would have become of her?
"I don't know Edward. It could be coincidence." He agreed with me but I could tell that although Carlisle wanted to be on my side, he wanted me to proceed with caution. I could hear his thoughts as well as if they were my own. I intended to do exactly as he was silently suggesting. Protect my heart, even though in all reality it was already dead. He glanced back down at the body as it shivered and then his gaze went around the room looking for something to cover her with. His eyes came upon her own jacket, which he had removed to make it easier to attend her wounds.
There were snags and rips in it; one could easily see where the jagged rocks and sticks cut through the material reaching to her flesh. She came to slowly, as if just waking up from a night of sleep. I retrieved a blanket from the cabinet on the wall handing it to my father, not wanting to touch the woman myself, not trusting myself yet. We stood at her bedside watching and waiting. Although I am not sure what exactly we were waiting for. An answer? Surely she could provide one if she would just fully wake up.
I've sat through over 32,000 days of my eternity thus far and none moved more torturously slow than the few days I spent at her bedside. The agony of waiting for her to awaken fully was more painful than my own change had been. She had short bursts of coherency but then quickly tired herself out and fell back into a fitful sleep. Carlisle assured me over and over that her body just needed to rest. Various family members came in to help care for her, and I was grateful but they had to realize that I would not be leaving her side. I simply turned my head to stare out the window as my mother and sister's attended to her human needs of feeding and bathing her. When Carlisle came to look her over, I simply joined him at her bedside. I couldn't leave; there was simply no way to ignore the pull.
Carlisle himself couldn't explain it. How was I able to endure the pull of human blood years ago as a newborn? But now, as a fully grown adult vampire I cannot leave this woman's side? It was only after Emmett's brute strength pulled me physically from her room to hunt with him and Jasper, did I force my existence upon the forest creatures, frantically murdering and draining whatever I could find just so I could quickly return to her. It didn't matter that I could have saved time by going a farther distance and polishing off some big animal. I chose to stay close to home picking off smaller ones, taking forever to fill myself. My logic was simple, stay away longer, but closer just in case. After a day of ravaging the forest we returned, and I entered the room only to stop dead in my tracks.
I was shocked to find what I did when I entered her room. She was sitting up in the bed while speaking to Alice as if they were best of friends. Her entire body smelled clean, there was no trace of the forest or her open sores leaking blood. Her hair was now washed and brushed and every trace of dirt was removed from her limbs. My jaw dropped as I took in her appearance. Alice smiled at her bedside as she helped her sip some kind of broth from a bowl.
"That's right Isabella, eat and rest. That's what you need right now. We are all going to help you. Do you remember Edward? He came to see you a lot while you were healing." Alice's words faded out as Isabella's voice sang out into the room.
"Bella." She corrected Alice before addressing me. "I remember. Hello Edward." Isabella's voice chimed my name freezing me still where I stood. I closed my eyes as the waves of memories crashed on me. She continued talking to Alice, not realizing the effect her simple statement had on me. "I can't go back there Alice. Where else will I go? I have nothing left anymore. They took everything!" The ringing and chiming filled the room and even through its sweetness I could detect the helplessness and melancholy of her words.
"Silly. You don't need to worry about that now. You can stay here with us until you figure out what to do. I can tell your mind is all over the place and you don't have a set plan right now. Just relax and allow your mind process all this before you go making any rash decisions. Alright? We will all help you." Alice's thoughts were talking to me while her voice was talking to the woman.
My head swam as I read Alice's mind of the information she was able to get from the girl. Esme and Rose smiled smugly from a corner where they were going through various clothes deciding what would fit. Apparently I had missed a great deal in the day I was gone. They had her sitting up in the bed and she was wearing a very large t-shirt, obviously Emmett's judging by the size. My mind processed this with a moment of anger before realizing that none of the female members of my family had sleepwear, though from what I saw through my father and brother's eyes I knew they owned plenty of lingerie.
Alice's thoughts told me of a story of a woman who was just trying to get through life. She showed me brief flashes that were disturbing but I couldn't pinpoint exactly why. It was as if I were watching a silent movie and after a few minutes I realized why I had found the images Alice was showing me so disturbing. While she couldn't show me specific faces, what she was able to show me was a life full of sadness. There was no color. Everything was a shade of gray, a varying degree of melancholy was all that colored this woman's world. I found it most disturbing, because it so closely mirrored what my life has been like and I never wished that brand of sadness on anyone. I froze, my spine stiffening as I recognized a few faces from my past.
Michael Newton. Aged with lines and gray hair but still the smirk was there, plastered on his pock-marked face. I seethed as Alice showed me more flashed from Isabella's past. There was not one happy moment in the entire silent movie playing in Alice's mind and I wanted to weep. No one should have to live a life full of so much fear and sorrow. Alice had no idea what she was showing me except for the fact that they were excerpts from Isabella's life. It was strange to witness what had become of people after I left town. It was almost as if I had been the one to die, and in a sense I did. It wasn't an exact connection however I could tell that there were similarities and coincidences too strong to ignore. The main one being the flashes of Michael Newton's face that kept coming back into view.
With Alice's help, I was able to piece together parts of Isabella's history without being the one directly confronting her or upsetting her. I learned that her grandfather was Michael Newton Junior and that he was every bit as callous and ruthless as her great-grandfather, Michael Senior, my nemesis and my poor Isabel's eventual husband. In all my years as a vampire I don't remember being sick to my stomach as I was upon learning that my Isabel had no choice but to marry Michael Newton. I clenched at my gut, grateful that the woman on the bed talking to Alice could not see me as I hovered just outside the doorway. It felt not unlike one of Emmett's punches but instead of the pain being on the outside of my skin, it radiated from within me. I sank to the floor listening to her tell the story of how the Newton side of the family were a bunch of liars and cheats. How they took the small farm, her great-grandmother's pride and joy, and sold it to pay a gambling debt. She never made it clear how someone, coming from a lineage of the Newton family, could end up as poor as she looked. It took her a few more days and a couple of walks with various family members before she opened up completely.
I trailed after her as she went on a walk with Esme and Carlisle. I was grateful when Esme took hold of her arm linking it with hers, it seemed to be the exact show of affection that she needed to open up and as I followed behind, simply intent on reading the minds of my father and mother I realized that through all this, I couldn't read hers. That had never happened before and she had made such an open-book of her past life that it was simply too easy to listen to family members I was already attuned to than to try to become accustomed to her.
Esme, knowing the most about my past and the mystery of my Isabel, came outright asking her about her name. I could tell through my mother's mind that the woman, while loving the name she had inherited from her great-grandmother, despised being called 'Isabella'. She told of how her grandfather, Michael Newton Jr., didn't want to use his mother's name but rather it was his wife wanted to honor her sad mother-in-law since she was never able to have another child after him.
It was through great compromise that they had settled on Renee Isabel. Upon learning that their daughter Renee was going to be married to an average person name Charlie Swan, Michael Junior made his daughter's life so miserable that she and her fiancé had fled, ending up in Phoenix where Renee gave birth to a daughter she named Isabella Marie, after her own grandmother. It was then that I learned that while loving her name and the grandparents she never really knew, it also served as a reminder of everything she had, and lost.
On a walk with Rosalie and Alice, I learned that the Newton's problematic past followed Renee and Charlie and that when the debt incurred by her grandfather came due, creditors went looking, and found the surviving heir, Renee Isabel in Phoenix. Barely making ends meet on her husband's law enforcement salary, they still managed to nonetheless make good and began paying back old family debts.
Bella's parents lived their entire life paying for the Newton's mistakes and unfortunate choices but never complained. She had a childhood full of wants that were never met. She had her basic needs attended to, but there was never money for any extras. At the end of their lives, Charlie and Renee Swan were still trying to pay back what was owed by others and the only thing Bella inherited was a smaller amount of debt.
At eighteen years of age just recently graduated from high school, she had no way to pay anything back and thus began the vultures swooping in and taking everything out from under her. She was not exaggerating when she said she had nothing now. She was simply existing day to day, wandering from place to place on this planet just as I had done all these decades.
As the days turned to weeks and her health returned, Bella became more a part of the family. She never questioned why none of us ever ate, why none of us went to bed when she did. I assumed she just was grateful for having someone around her that wasn't sad. Emmett had nothing to do but simply walk into the room and flash his dimples at her to make her laugh, but I was grateful for that. She had far too little laughter in her life for someone as sweet as she was. Carlisle mentioned in front of everyone that she was welcome to stay as long as she liked, without fear of owing us anything. As the weeks turned to months, she seemed content to do just that.
It was as if our family had adopted a new pet. Bella was there whenever the girls wanted to have a makeover party, whenever Emmett wanted to try out a practical joke and amazingly enough, whenever Carlisle wanted to talk shop. Having seen more than her share of Emergency Rooms growing up, she was amazingly interested in what he had to say on the latest treatments and such. Her line of questioning kept him talking for hours on end and it seemed she never tired of it either.
She once came upon Jasper reading a tome about the Civil War and eagerly plopped down next to him to talk about it, causing Jasper to shift uncomfortably at her nearness as they exchanged various points. It seemed that Charlie Swan, while also being a dedicated member of the Phoenix police, was also a big history, in particular the Civil War, buff and had passed that along to his daughter. She kept Jasper entertained even more than Carlisle. As the months went on, these relationships deepened. My whole family, myself included, began to change in our attitudes towards humans; even Jasper no longer shied away as he once used to.
For me, tolerating her presence was easy. It was as if Isabel had allowed her great-granddaughter to find me and was asking me to care for her. There was no way, after talking to Carlisle and realizing the magnitude of what her return to me was, that I would deny this. Besides wanting desperately to hold on to a sliver of my past from a time when I was genuinely happy, I honestly enjoyed her company. I didn't mind when she wanted to just sit quietly in the library with me and read.
I was ecstatic, and very pleasantly surprised, when she sat down right next to me on the piano bench asking me outright to teach her. As I began to explain the basics of reading music from a sheet of paper, her long, slender fingers from her left hand traced lightly over my right hand and she smiled shyly. As my fingers moved over the keys, the excitement on her face was priceless and I knew that I was not going to let her leave. I would follow this magnificent creature wherever she went assuring the rest of her life was filled with happiness and those smiles!
For Bella, her biggest problem in life now was how to fairly spend her time with all of us. She would go from room to room, person to person and could find a reason to smile and engage all of us in a conversation. I was quite shocked when I heard in Alice's mind one day that it was so unfair that Bella stayed out in the garage with Rosalie so long and that she actually accused her sister of hogging Bella. Lingering near the garage myself, just to keep an eye on her, I smiled at my smaller sister. She was just trying to keep Bella happy, as was I, and I couldn't find any fault in that. It was around the one year mark that I realized our feelings as a family were changing. Bella was included in everything our family did now, minus the hunting. Our small trips always included her and we even took her with us on our vacation to Alaska to visit some extended family members there. She had developed a bond with each of us that could not be severed. This small creature had us all wrapped around her fingers and I was grateful that our family felt as I did, with Bella's happiness and health being our primary concern.
It was also around that point in time when Bella started to really pay attention figuring out what we were. Living under the same roof, we all knew it was only a matter of time before she asked and we honestly answered. Surprisingly she didn't seem to care. Carlisle had found a loop hole in the Volturi law and as long as we didn't tell Bella what we were, she was safe from them. Of course, everyone's interpretation of law is different and we would still need to be watchful of when the Volturi came to town. But she could figure it out on her own and we would all continue to be safe. She did figure it out, of course. She was smart enough and once she said the word out loud, she simply shrugged, letting us know it didn't matter to her.
Things turned interesting after she learned our true ages. Upon learning them, she questioned us about events in history as well as our own personal histories. With Alice and Carlisle's encouragement I revealed that I knew her family history, we ended up spending many hours talking to each other about our shared past. She filled in her family's recent timeline and I, as much as I could, filled her in on what her great-grandmother and subsequently great-grandfather were like and the lives that they led, as much as I knew. As we filled in the gaps in each other's stories, I could tell that I would cherish this bond I had with Isabel's descendant for all of eternity and protect her for as long as she needed it. Whether it be from unkind humans, which seemed to be the only kind she knew, the Volturi, or other problematic vampires that could possibly cross her path.
It was the latter that made me finally come to the conclusion that I needed to be more upfront with Bella about my feelings. As we were in a field playing baseball, we encountered three nomadic vampires that picked up on Bella's scent. It was silly really, for them to think they could take on all seven of us as we protected her. It was during the ensuing fight and subsequent bonfire that I noticed Bella's heart rate soaring as she rushed into me. Her body heaved in shuddering sobs; her arms were about my waist in a deathlike grip. I simply held her as I looked over at Alice and Jasper questioningly, the fire still going strong and all but forgotten as my family surrounded us.
"I was so afraid Edward!" She said through her cries. I could barely make out the muffled words as she hiccupped against my shirt. "I wouldn't know what to do if something happens to any of you. What would I have done if something happened to you?" She lifted her gaze staring at my face as I sifted through Jasper's emotions and thoughts, for what I knew was the truth. I had no words of my own, so I simply borrowed ones from a book, knowing she would recognize it.
"You were made perfectly to be loved – and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long." I watched as her eyes came alive when she recognized the words.
"Elizabeth Barrett Browning said that Edward." She smiled and a blush slowing crept into her tear-stained cheeks. She haltingly responded to me through her now subsiding sobs.
I nodded slowly to reinforce my words to her. "She did. She said it. And I meant it. It's not your past that's here with us now is it? It's not mine either, not my past with your great-grandmother and not my past with Carlisle changing me. But the words fit what I feel for you. I was never meant to be with Isabel. I was meant to be changed, to live for eternity, in order to wait for you, Isabella. I have loved you, and the idea of you, my whole life long." She backed away, removing all contact from my body. I smiled back at her reassuringly.
"Give me your hand. I promise I won't bite it." I waited as she slowly moved her hand toward me, ready to retract it at a second's notice, unsure of what was being revealed in this small clearing. I smiled gently toward her as I felt the warmth from her tiny hand penetrate my cold flesh. I couldn't help it. It slowly traveled up my arm and hit my shoulder, slowly seeping through my body. I glanced at my brother in awe, wondering if this is what he must endure when he felt our emotions. Quickly returning my eyes to the beautiful being next to me I smiled wider. A radiant heat so powerful it continued through my very core and I could feel it become more powerful as it neared my heart.
"Jasper, do you feel this now too?" Bella asked the question of Jasper but her eyes never left my face. I could feel her heart race and I knew should I look down I could probably see it darn near beat right out of her body. She was confused, from what I could feel of Jasper's emotions. But there was something else there as well, something much stronger than the confusion. The warmth she was feeling was filling the void around us. I had to turn my eyes from her, if only for a second to hear Jasper's confirmation.
"I've felt your emotions from the past Edward, when you've looked back at your history. What you felt back then for Isabel is but a fraction of what you are feeling right now for Isabella. You know it's true. You don't need my assurances, but you have them just the same." Jasper's words only made me smile more.
"Bella." I said firmly, correcting my brother. I nodded slowly, the awe and wonder slowly fading as I embraced the emotion Jasper put forth from her. I saw the look of gratitude cross her features as she smiled, not just a shy little grin, but a genuine smile. I returned it with a thankful exhale of the breath I was holding.
"Thank you for remembering my name." She spoke the words and I could tell without Jasper's intrusion that her words were sincere, dripping with happiness from the look on her face.
"You're very welcome, Bella." I repeated for emphasis, hoping that I would be granted another such smile. I wasn't disappointed, and to my delight, she even granted me a laugh.
"You're so intense Edward." She laughed but I could detect no insult or even a trace of malice. It simply felt like she was coming to a conclusion. She shook her head softly looking down as she joined both our hands together. "I like that a lot. You're sincere and honest. I know I can trust you and that you'll help me. I know it even without Jasper and Alice's interference." Bella said the words to me while never moving her hands as they caressed mine, warming them right through to my steely bones. The feeling it was creating was overwhelming me as I fought the urge to just wrap my arms around her to pull her closer to me. A soft cheer went out from around us and I could tell Alice had just seen the decision clearly as Bella decided our future. "If it's okay with everyone else, I wouldn't mind staying." Upon saying the words, her cheeks flushed brighter.
I couldn't help it. I couldn't stop myself. Before I knew what was happening I wrapped my arms around her pulling her gently to me and spun the two of us around. At that moment I didn't care about the logistics of a human living with seven vampires. It didn't matter to me whether she wanted to become a vampire or if she simply lived out her human years at my side. All I cared about was the indescribable feeling traveling across from her chest to my own. The pulses of her heart reverberated strongly enough in my own that I felt as if it were mine that was beating again after all this time. I inhaled sharply as my mind registered the small shocks. In that instance I knew that my heart, after travelling decades down this long road, had finally found its home.
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