Disclaimer: I don't own anything here. I'm sure you can figure out who owns them. c: Unless you don't recognize it and I don't give credit for it… then I own it.
((AN: Much thanks to FishFriend who posted a story almost similar to this, an argument between Bella and Edward after they were married, otherwise I wouldn't have been inspired to write this.
I wrote this in one sitting which is just freaking crazy.))
Final Fight
I had never gone this long without talking to Edward. Well not since he changed me after graduation (after much begging on everyone except Rose's part.) But that had been two years ago. And I tried to pretend the time Edward left me just didn't exist.
He had whisked me off to Carcassonne, France. The countryside was beautiful and secluded enough to keep me away from humans, but we never had to travel too far to test my resistance.
Edward had told me that I was stronger than he thought I would be. Of course, I keenly responded, "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Being treated like a mental patient hadn't done anything to improve my mood after being taken away from Forks. I wasn't aware that was part of our deal. Yes, I had married him, but leaving my family to the point where I could no longer watch them was just unfair.
Then again, life wasn't supposed to be fair and I was given the opportunity to stay with the love of my life for eternity. I guess that meant my Chance cards were all used up. Damn.
I had only asked Edward if we could go back to Forks, just to check up on Charlie and Jacob. Okay, so checking up on Jacob would pretty much be impossible, and perhaps fatal, since I was now technically his enemy. But certainly they made excuses for best friend vampires. Right?
All right, maybe not. But they should. Edward seemed to agree with the lack of best friend loophole in the treaty, once again I had no idea why.
Edward and I were bonded for eternity now and yet his mind was still as much of a mystery to me as mine was to his, but at least most of the time I shared what I was thinking. Sometimes, Edward could just be so God damn guarded.
And sometimes I understood why he didn't say everything that was on his mind, times like these.
"Edward, I told you! Human blood doesn't affect me. We went in to town yesterday and I didn't have any problem! You remember how human blood affected me when I was human. I was revolted by it then! Who's to say that's not my power? My ability." Rather lame ability if that's what it was. Why couldn't I have something cool like reading minds or seeing the future or – flying, "I just want to see that they are doing fine, Edward."
"And I told you, they are. Alice has been checking in on them. Your father and Black are fine. I don't want to risk losing you now. And we don't know if that really is your power, it's rather ridiculous," we were both walking around the house. Edward was trying to find a quiet room I wouldn't follow him into, but I refused to give up on this case.
"Yes, Edward, 'cause mind reading, that's logical," my voice burned with sarcasm, something I rarely achieved in his presence as an angry human. Edward could still dazzle me, but I had more control over whether I let him or not and vice versa. Much to my pleasant surprise, I could dazzle him as well.
"It is when it comes to powers for vampires, Isabella. You're a vampire; you drink blood –" he halted, "by definition that is what you are supposed to do."
It was true, in the past two years I had never once felt the feeling Edward constantly described as a tickle in the back of your throat. The only times I hunted were when Edward or another one of the Cullen's forced me to.
"So, I'm broken? That's it?"
"No, that's not what I meant. Bella, it's just –"
We were in our library now, my books on one side his music on the other. A couch and a table were in the middle of the room and our wedding photo album sat on it. I walked over and opened it to see the beautiful pages Alice and Esme had arranged.
Near the end of May, Edward and I had finally come to a compromise. I would marry Edward as a human and he would change me, but I also wanted to marry him as a vampire. I wanted to at least be able to remember one wedding.
And so, the album was arranged in a different format; our human-vampire wedding going from front to the middle, and our vampire-vampire wedding going from back to middle. In the core, on the parallel pages, were nearly identical wedding photos of us. It was the same place and the same time of day and of course Edward looked stunning in both.
But the left side Bella, looked awfully round and slightly awkward in the too nice wedding gown, her cheeks red from blushing too much and fine strands of hair flying away in the wind. But on the right hands side, I looked – I looked sleek and comfortable. My face was one color, pale, and nicely accented with make-up Alice and Rosalie had done.
In this picture I looked so elegant and delicate. It nearly made sense why Edward wanted so badly to protect me from the invisible monsters only he saw. When I was human I needed the protecting. I didn't look delicate as a human, I just looked clumsy, and in all honesty, I was. And I also had a terrible knack for finding trouble where it generally wasn't found.
But, as a vampire, although I now looked delicate, I no longer was. I was Isabella Marie Cullen, newly turned vampire. Hear me roar.
But, to Edward I would always be the stupid lamb, forever in need of protecting, never the lion.
I had stormed into the room and picked up the hefty book with ease, my only indication that it was actually heavy was the fact that my dictionary was much smaller than it was. To me, the huge book was as light as a feather. Even more proof that I could easily protect myself.
I flipped to the middle page and tore out the human picture of me, "Is this who you think I am? Because, it's not Edward. I'm strong. Just like you," any sense of logic I once held flew out the window and I began tearing up the photos of human me and vampire him.
And as I stared at the ripped up pictures, the thought of Alice's mean wrath not even entering my head, he simply stared at me. I could almost feel the waves of pity that were coming off of him. I took a deep breath and wiped my eyes, a habit I had had after being emotional that I just hadn't dropped, "I just want to see my father. I can understand not talking to him. I just want to see him."
Edward walked over, stepping on the wasted photos and pulled me into his chest cradling me like a wounded child.
"I just want to see with my own eyes that he's been able to carry on with out me, since my – our death."
In order to carry out the plans of changing me, we had had to figure out a conceivable way for Edward and me to disappear completely. Edward had asked Charlie a week before graduation if he could take me out on a date after the ceremony, and Charlie had reluctantly said yes.
Edward's car was driven off the cliff after he lost control of it that night. Our bodies were never found, but remnants of our clothes and my hair and blood were found in the wrecked car when it was discovered three weeks later.
Permanently lying to my father wasn't something I had enjoyed doing.
My favorite blouse had been taken by Alice and shredded. I remember sitting at the house, shivering in one of Edward's sweaters. Esme kindly snipped a long strand of my hair from the bottom of scalp, somewhere where no one would ever notice the missing hair, though I would know it was no longer there. Carlisle had come by and taken a vile of my blood, the most physically painful of the event.
All the while I had been sitting there in Edward's lap, not saying anything. What could I say? There were no guidelines for this.
"It hurts, Edward. It hurts a lot. Knowing that I left him like that, he doesn't have anyone. I have you and you have me, but who does he have?"
Edward sat down on the couch, still holding me close. He picked up the remote and turned the gas fire on, knowing the warmth would comfort me, "We can go," he kissed the top of my head, "But, the moment I even sense anything from you I can drag you away. And you only get to see him, if he sees you there is going to be a lot of explaining for us to do that I'm just not ready for. Deal?"
I turned around and kissed him fully on the lips, "Deal," I leaned back against him and tried to rest. Two years ago, after an emotional argument like that, I would have gone to sleep. But that wasn't an option now. That was something that was hard getting used to.
For the most part Edward and I still spent nights in bed; it wasn't like we had anything else to do. Okay, sometimes we would do other things besides just lay there. But, all couples did that. Some nights we would stay in the library and read a book together, or take a moonlit stroll, or hunt in the dark, an outing I never found very fun.
But, the only way I could regain my strength after that fight was by simply being in Edward's presence and closing my eyes. I found some things helped. Lying in the sun was my favorite. It was the best memory I had from home. The first time I saw Edward sparkle in Forks and the good times I spent with my mother in Phoenix, who, by the way, I knew was pregnant with a boy due in March.
Good luck to him.
But, it was December right now and the sun had gone down long ago. So lying in the sun and taking energy from it would not be an option.
"Do you want to go lie in bed?" Edward asked softly. Even if he couldn't read my thoughts and I couldn't read his, we were still so in tune.
"Yeah," I stood up first and went over to the destroyed photos, "That was really immature of me," I looked at Edward remorsefully, he just shook his head, "Alice will be mad."
"She still has all the files and she'll have fun making another one. She still wants us to have another wedding," Edward bent down next to me and scooped up the rest of the shredded papers, placing them on the coffee table.
"Thanks, but two was two too many," I shuddered at the thought of another wedding thrown for Edward and me by Alice.
"What do you mean?" he sounded hurt and hadn't understood my meaning. I had never explained to him that I had never wanted a big wedding.
"A big wedding like the ones Alice threw was never what I wanted. Marrying you at the local court house with just one of your family to witness for us would have been fine. You know I'm not one for the dramatics."
Edward seemed relieved and I was thankful, "After that scene I would have to argue against you on that," he joked, trying to poke fun at the still tender situation. I scowled at him, slapping his arm. We left the mess to be picked up later.
"You'll have to call Alice tomorrow and apologize for ruining her hard work," Edward chided.
I sighed but agreed, "How can I say sorry to you?" I leaned against the door to our room and Edward looked at me softly and then glanced at our bed.
"I can think of a few ways, dear."
((AN: Oooooo… he, he, anyway don't forget to check out my other Twilight fics Sundown (almost complete) and Bleeding Pain and Maybe it was Fate.))
