Hi! How are you? Well, this is the first Emily fanfic I've dared to write. I hope you all like it. I live for reviews! Good or bad (well, just don't hurt my feelings and tell me it stinks!) ! So please let me know how you like it! I appreciate constructive criticism as well!

OK, I just wanted to clarify the time period and change a few things. I know it was specified in the books, that if Emily were to marry, it would be when she was 20. Now, I have increased her age a bit to 23..she is still engaged to Dean, the "gazing ball" incident HAS occurred (but Emily still does not break the engagement), and Teddy has not written that letter to Emily mentioning that incident...oh yes, and he is a famous artist. No more magazine publications for him :)

I wrote this in part because I was sort of disappointed by the ending of Emily's Quest...they just settled everything in a couple hours, all of those misunderstandings? Just like that? They hadn't even talked to each other for the last 5 years! And why did he come back? Why, after so many "turn downs," did he decide to do so? This is my version of what I think should have happened, I guess, the confrontation I wanted...

There are more incidents from the books changed around and deleted.... So I hope you Emily book loyalists will forgive me for this...I am no LMM...pardon the angst stuff going around...

None of the characters belong to me...also, passages marked with a star are taken from Emily's Quest

-----

Aunt Elizabeth looked out the window to see the moon rise. It was a habit of her's, one that she not often shared with many people. No, Aunt Elizabeth was certainly not a romantic, never had been one. Her very existence relied on the firm basis of practicality. No, she only watched the moon rise because it indicated to her another day ended, another day closer to her eventual passing. Wistfully, she glanced around New Moon, her home since her birth and until her death. If only Emily had married Andrew...then she might have been assured that New Moon was in good hands, but fate often took turns no one expected. Aunt Elizabeth knew it could never happen. Still, she dreaded the day New Moon fell victim to "modernization," as Andrew often remarked. Could Emily even have stopped him from his relentless pursuit?

Either way, New Moon would never be her ancestral home ever again.

But would have Andrew and Emily been happy? Likely not, considering that Andrew had christened Emily as "temperamental" only recently and Emily had despised "his starched and ironed" looks beyond belief.

"Aunt Elizabeth?" a soft voice penetrated the kitchen. Aunt Elizabeth whirled around to find the object of her thoughts standing near the door, her hair windblown and cheeks red. She looked just like Juliet, Aunt Elizabeth mused.

"Yes, Emily?" Aunt Elizabeth's tone was unusually gentle.

Emily was a bit taken aback. Ever since Emily's decision to marry Dean Priest, Aunt Elizabeth's tone rather dripped a bit with disapproval. She knew from experience, that even though her aunt might get used to the idea, it never meant that she approved of it. But Aunt Elizabeth preferred Priest to another alternative, Stovepipe Town.

"I just wanted to know if..." Emily's voice trailed off.

This was the first request of Emily's ever since her accident and her decision to give up writing.

"Yes?"

"I wanted to go to Montreal for a bit," Emily rushed. "For a week or two. I wanted to go try to pick up some things for Dean's and mine's house and perhaps for my trousseau. Please, Aunt Elizabeth, I'd really like to go,"

Aunt Elizabeth was puzzled. "Why are you asking me for? You are a bit older Emily and soon-to-be a married woman. There is no need to ask for my permission. I doubt you need a companion if it is only for a week or two."

"Yes, yes, of course," Emily replied.

"Are you sure there's nothing wrong, Emily?" Aunt Elizabeth asked sharply.

Emily came back to herself. "No Aunt," she said. "Nothing at all."

It had been two weeks since the fateful encounter with the gazing ball. Emily felt haunted by it, so much so that she felt she needed to get away from everything and everyone. She could let no one suspect that her heart seemed to play traitor. "I was so sure last summer that Teddy no longer meant anything to me. But that night, that awful power or curse..." she thought to herself. The emerald caught the near lantern and glowed brilliantly. Emily jerked back from that memory and was brought back to reality. She was promised to Dean. She herself had encouraged those words of love to be brought forth from his being. He needed her, and she felt that only she could bring happiness from a man who had never been happy.

But at the same time, she needed to get away. There was no doubt that she couldn't break her engagement to Dean. To create one more heartbreak was unthinkable, and Emily was not sure she could survive without her friendship to Dean. Inevitably, they would always be linked.

Packing her clothes, she penned a short letter to Dean, who was now in Japan, drinking in the sights of the pale cherry blossoms in the cloudy midst, the crisp air and the lapses of the blue green ocean.

After folding up the letter and placing it in the envelope. Emily picked up Daff and wandered outside near Lofty John's Bush, no...her bush. A proud moment in Emily's life when she bought it, using her earnings from her writing.

But Emily shook her head. Writing was a dead moment in her past. Dean's comments had assured her that she would never reach the end of the Alpine Path and she ceased trying. But at moments, when an idea came to her head, she yearned for her pen, until the bitter disillusionment that Dean's opinion wrought weighed upon her heavily.

No, let others appease the jealous goddess...she was done.

Emily's gloominess lifted momentarily as she spotted Perry Miller coming up the lane. She waved at him and he smiled. Yes, Perry Miller had become a handsome man, a successful lawyer and he still had not given up on Emily, nurturing a secret desire that she might, still, one day, become his.

Emily laughed at Perry's proposals and desires. She knew only that he liked her tremendously and that he mistook it for love. It was only that she was one of the first to believe in him, and his gratefulness for her friendship was often mixed up in his belief that that was love.

"How are you, Perry?" Emily asked as she held out her hand.

"Good, and you, Em?" Perry took it.

Emily smiled. "I'm going to Montreal for a bit. To look for things to place in the Disappointed House and perhaps add to my trousseau,"

"You mean, you and Dean still haven't stuffed the house alive?" Perry's eyebrow lifted.

Emily laughed. "Not yet,"

"Had half-a-mind to go up there myself," Perry commented. "I was meaning to talk to Mr. Brockwell about running for town council. He's the party leader of the Grits, you know. When are you leaving?"

"Next Wednesday, 23rd of June," Emily told him. "I'll be staying there for two weeks, I think."

"You know, Ilse had a letter from Ted just today. I met her at Johnson's store just an hour and two ago. He might be turning up in Canada anytime soon. He can only stay for three or four days though, but he's coming nonetheless. I'm sure he'll be sorry to miss you,"

Emily smiled again, this time wanly. "I just need to get away for a bit that's all. I'm sure he won't even miss the fact that I'm not here. After all, you and Ilse will keep him company."

"Speaking of him....remember when Aunt Tom surprised you at the gate and asked you to marry me? And then I shooed her out and said I'd ask you myself. And you were so mad..." Perry reminisced sentimentally.

"I remember,"

"And then you said, if both Ted and I asked you, you'd marry Ted! How mad that did make me for a while...but neither of us won out, did we? After all, it was always Dean who was in the background..." Perry sighed. "Not that I'm pining after you yet in particular--only nobody has flavor after you. I've tried. I'm doomed to die a bachelor. They tell me it's an easy death..."

"Next thing, you'll be a staid old married man yourself, Perry," said Emily, ignoring the significance of the word we.

Perry laughed. "Well, I'll miss you, that's for sure. Do let me know the day you come back, so we can make a picnic together. Or celebrate my impending marriage," he laughed again.

"I'll miss you too," Emily said lightly. "Is there anything you want from Montreal, Perry? Anything I can get you?"

He touched her cheek. "Some color from you, Emily, you've been pale and distraught for weeks...don't tell me you haven't been...haven't I known you for years?"

Emily pushed his touch away. "Don't be silly, Perry, I'm just tired...from all the preparations for the wedding that's all. I'm not upset about anything,"

Perry knew that it was wiser not to pursue the topic anymore. Perhaps the old Stovepipe Town Perry would have, but not now. If anything, Emily had one of his best friends, but she was also a Murray, who if pushed too far, might hold a grudge forever against him.

"Well, goodbye, Emily. Take care," Briefly, he hugged her. Emily hugged back, wishing with all her heart that he wasn't right and that she could confide in him...but no, some things were best left a secret.