Revealed: After the Meadow
As the sky darkened, and the rain threatening to drench me at any moment, Edward effortlessly threw me on his back with one hand. I clung to his perfect marble frame as he lithely darted through the woods. I sighed into the wind noiselessly. Victoria was gone. Laurent is gone. Jacob... I couldn't think about that. Just as it had been predicted when I first met the Cullens, I was definitely a danger magnet. Just as soon as I had evaded another near death experience at the hands of a ruthless vampire looking to avenge her mate, I ripped open a hole in my chest when I finally said goodbye to Jacob. Poor Jake. And Edward. I swear he will never again see me looking like that.
Now, of course I was going to commit suicide. We were finally going to tell Charlie that Edward and I were engaged. Of course, I could never tell him the whole story. 'Hey, Dad, Edward and the other Cullens are vampires, and me and Edward are going to get married over the summer and then he's going to bite me and turn me into a vampire so I can spend eternity with him. I am going to stay forever 18, with him. Oh, did you know that he's forever 17 and that he was born in 1901? Oh, don't worry, even though I won't be able to visit home for a while, seeing as at that point, I'd like nothing better than to kill you all, I'll still call you all the time, and I'll send Renee emails.' Yeah right. Tell them that, and this is my future: a soft, padded room. I can only actually tell him that we're getting married over the summer and going to collage together in Alaska or somewhere else far away. Of course, I do like the sound of Ms. Bella Cullen, even if I'm not so crazy about Mrs. Bella Cullen. Isabella Marie Cullen.
When Edward and I broke through the cover of trees by his huge white house, I came back to the present, and swung myself clumsily around to kiss him. His marble lips eagerly met mine, and I once again wondered how this god-like creature could possibly love me, but I'm very glad that he did. I pulled myself closer to him, still recovering from the shock that I had received in the meadow. Edward was going to let me off the hook. No marriage, just making love to me while I was still human, and then the change, as soon as I wanted it, which he'd always been so against. But I stopped him, even if he was positively beautiful, with golden topaz eyes that dazzled me, showing endless love, his bronze hair in his eyes, and a perfect, if cold, marble body, not to mention the fact that he was about a million times stronger than me and could have forced me to do anything he wanted me to. I wanted him so bad, but I was going to do this right.
I looped my arms wordlessly around his neck as my feet lifted off the ground and we glided to my old, battered truck, sitting in the Cullens' driveway.
During the ride back to my house, and most likely my doom, my truck bumbled along the gravely road, and I muttered incoherently about getting a bulletproof vest for Edward, as indestructible as he was. Edward himself sat in the drivers seat, holding my left hand, where now sat my beautiful ring, where it would conceivably rest for all of time.
It was a beautiful ring, covered in numerous tiny diamonds, with a large, round center diamond, and a spider web of gold forming a feather web between each one. This was the ring that Edward Mason Sr, Edward's father, had given to his wife, Elizabeth Mason, whom he died alongside in 1918, Chicago.
"So," Edward said, " you do like this ring, right? Or have you changed your mind and want something more modern yet?" He looked at me with concern.
" No, no, you know I love this ring, and I also know that you like it too. It's perfect and beautiful, just like you," I grinned at him coyly as I quietly assured him. I absently fingered the crystal he had given me, which was on the silver bracelet that Jake had given me, opposite the tiny wooden wolf, as it glittered in the meanest light that passed through the truck's ancient windows.
"I'm glad. It's beautiful on you. Anyway, we need to tell Charlie soon." When ever Edward ever spoke, I hung onto every word. He was just so beautiful.
"I know that you need to be, but I'm still contemplating if I should be bulletproof for this right now, too," I said, looking into those liquid topaz eyes, with total sincerity, making Edward laugh. Suddenly, the house I shared with Charlie loomed ahead, with his old police cruiser sitting in the driveway. "Well," I said to myself, "here goes." Edward's arm was linked around my waist as we trotted up to the old door, and I personally dreaded what I was about to do.
Nodding, Edward grinned. "He's in a great mood right now, actually. It'll be fine. You know that he won't actually hurt you. He loves you too much."
I nervously gulped, muttered something about wishing I had Edward's abnormal confidence, and pushed the door open. Walking through the hallway, Charlie was found sitting in his old chair in the living room, watching, of course, baseball. I nervously cleared my throat again, and Charlie looked up.
"Hey, Bells, Edward," Charlie rumbled in greeting, nodding curtly at Edward, while grinning at me. He was in a good mood.
I gulped again, looking quickly at Edward, cleared my throat, and said shakily, "Uh, Dad, can you come into the kitchen for a minute? There's something that Edward and I need to talk to you about."
At my tone, Charlie looked up from the TV in concern. "Sure, Bells, anything." Charlie looked at me, really worried, and I felt bad about what I was about to do to him. He was just about to loose his only daughter at 18 to a vampire family forever.
Charlie stood easily for a man of his age, and I thought how much I really loved him. I couldn't believe that I was going to hurt him this way. But I loved Edward. I had found out the hard way that I needed him. He was essential to my survival, and I would die, or, as he would have said it about being a vampire, cease to exist. At least, in a sane way. When I had lost him, it was like a part of me had died, as if my heart had been ripped right out of my chest without warning, and a huge, gaping abyss had been left in its stead, leaving breathlessly heaving in anguish, sobbing myself into exhaustion.
Edward himself led the way to the old fashioned kitchen I had quickly grown to love when I first moved to Forks, looking to give Renee time with Phil. Edward and I sat in two of the chairs that were on one side of the battered old table while Charlie sat opposite us, looking quizzically at my face for any hint of what was to come. I felt Edward's smooth, marble grip on my hand, the other brushing a strand of stray hair out of my face.
"Go on," was all he quietly whispered in my ear, but it was enough for me. The time had finally come, as I had known that it eventually would.
I sighed in defeat, and, feeling a very familiar blush creep up my cheeks, I knew that there would be no beating around the bush. Once again, I cleared my throat, and Charlie laughed at the expression on my face.
"Just spit it out, Bella," Charlie kept on laughing.
Well, here goes nothing and everything. I wordlessly took my hand from my side to slide it across the table to my dad. I positioned my hand so that it would be impossible to miss the ring that sat upon my finger on my left hand, and decided to just get it over with. "Dad, Edward and I are getting married."
First his face registered comical shock, then horror. "WHAT!?!?!?!" Charlie jumped out of his skin, basically.
"Well," I said, choosing my words carefully, "you did say that you wanted me to tell you before I did anything drastic. My choice would have been going to Vegas. But I can't deny Alice her fun."
Charlie's face turned purple then he slumped back into his seat. "So," he finally said, looking from my face to Edward's, "when did this happen?"
I silently sighed in relief that his reaction had been somewhat reasonable, which was typical Charlie. I had expected a more drastic reaction, but hey, I'll take what I can. "Just after I stayed with Alice for the weekend, so only just a little while ago. When everyone else had gotten back from the camping trip, Edward proposed." I winced a little on that last word, but luckily neither Edward or Charlie seemed to notice. Of course, when I had been staying with 'Alice' I had actually been staying with Edward while everyone else was out hunting, preparing for the fight with Victoria and the newborn army she had assembled. But Charlie didn't know that, and I couldn't exactly tell him that was what was actually happening.
Edward nuzzled my hair with his nose before lifting his head to say, "Chief Swan, I love your daughter. I promise that I will do whatever I have to for Bella. I'll never let anything hurt her, or let anyone else hurt her. But I do love her, and stand to stay away from her. Will you give us your blessing?"
While I giggled at Edward's choice of words, Charlie seemed to loose focus, then replied, "Blessings, huh? Ain't that a little old fashioned? Well, if you really want it, you can have my blessing." Turning to face me, he softly inquired, "Bells? Is this what you really want? Remember what happened with Renee and me. She left me just a little while after you were born, from a marriage straight out of high school. Please, think this through."
If only he knew how long I'd been thinking about Edward's proposal, and, of course, the fact that after I married him, he would first make love to me, and then change me so I could join him forever, for eternity. That pact had almost been broken in the meadow, but I wanted to do this right, for Charlie and Renee, Alice, and, especially, Edward. "Dad, this means more to me than anything in the world. I know what I want. This is all that I need," I softly replied.
"Well, then, I guess that you're going to get married?" Charlie spoke with great effort.
"Well," Edward answered, "it will probably be August 13, at the latest."
Charlie seemed to ogle like a fish before gasping out, "So soon?"
"Yeah. I know what I want and I want to start living my life as soon as possible. I'm just not looking forward to the weird looks and comments I'll be getting, "I sighed, which I seemed to be doing a lot, "but I'll survive." I turned my head to look up into Edward's gaze, and my heart melted, as it always did when I looked at him.
"Well, uh, congrats Bella, Edward," Charlie finally shook Edwards's hand, saying, "Look after her, would you? She seems to take some looking after." Edward was probably laughing silently at that understatement, when Charlie turned to me again, and whispered, "Bella, I love you, and I want you to be happy. Good luck. You know, though, I was starting to like him again before you two showed up here tonight." He winked at me, and bumbled along back to the living room, muttering, "Married this summer? I don't want to be within a hundred miles of Bella, Edward, or Renee when they tell her." Hearing that, I had to grin. He was right.
Once we were alone in my bedroom that night, Edward whispered, "See. I told you. I was a little worried there that you might turn so red you'd explode, though."
I stuck my tongue out at him. "When I am a vampire, I better be always right, like you. It's not fair. You're better at everything. But I can live with that." I turned my face up to his, but just before our lips touched, I whispered, "Actually, I think I can live with that for eternity."
