Summary: "Time ain't nothing but time. It's a verse with no rhyme and it all comes down to you…And you, you know that it's true. After all we've been through, there's nothing that I wouldn't do." – Next 100 Years by Bon Jovi. A story of what happens during the 100 years after Breaking Dawn ends.
Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer, I have no intention of gaining profit from this story. It is just for fun, so don't sue me =)
"Sweetie, it's been a year since the wedding–"
One year, ten days, eighteen hours, thirty-seven minutes and forty-two seconds, my mind calculated effortlessly.
"–and I haven't seen you at all. Come visit me!"
"Mom," I said patiently, using my "rough" voice, "I was sick for most of that year."
Renee sniffed. "But you're better now. There's so much I want to show you. Even Phil…"
I let her ramble on, digesting every word while listening to my family in the living room. Esme was chatting away with Rosalie, discussing plans for Emmett and Rosalie's umpteenth honeymoon. Emmett was rhythmically moving his hand up and down Rosalie's leg. Alice was scratching away on some clothing design – hopefully not for me – and I heard her mindlessly tapping her toes on Jasper's arm. Her feet must be in his lap. Jasper was silent – no, he just told off Emmett for feeling a little too excited about the honeymoon. Emmett shot back with something inappropriate. Edward sided with Jasper and warned Emmett to sensor himself, aloud at least, and then turned back to Renesmee, proceeding with their piano lesson. Carlisle turned a page in the book he was reading, laughing once to himself. I guessed his laugh was from his son's bickering rather than the book, which was a huge medical dictionary.
I processed this while Renee finished her sentence about Phil. I continued listening to both parties for two minutes and twenty-nine seconds more, then heard Edward say, "That's perfect, try this progression–" his finger tip wrinkled the music page "–while I go visit your mother."
Edward ghosted into the kitchen, a movement that would have taken me by surprise when I was human. I turned when he reached my side, looking up into his concerned eyes. He knew how much I wanted to see my mother, but we both knew that it was a near impossibility.
"…and when I think about how you see your father all the time–"
I cut Renee off. "I don't see him very often."
Renee made a "hmph" sound and said, "He tells me you see him at least twice a week."
I rolled my eyes and Edward chuckled softly. Oh Charlie. Renee probably tricked that answer out of him. It wouldn't be easy to give Renee plausible excuses and diffuse parental jealousy at the same time. "That's because he needs to be taken care of. You have no idea how bad the state of the house is."
"I thought that Sue he talks so much about was helping him," Renee said. I could practically hear the smirk in her voice.
Edward out right laughed and I smacked him. Apparently it was a little too hard – Edward fell backward with a resounding crash! on the kitchen floor. I heard laughter from the living room and one sharp intake of breath. Esme would kill me if any damage had been done to the hardwood.
"Goodness, dear, what was that?" Renee asked.
"Oh just Edward and Emmett being stupid. Wrestling, I think." Edward grinned as he picked himself off the floor, mouthing, You can't even lie over the phone! I resisted the urge to hit him again.
Renee tutted. "That reminds me, Bella, when are you and Edward going to get your own place? I know he has enough money to buy you two a nice house."
"All of my – I mean, Edward's siblings, live here."
"Bella, they aren't married." Oops. "I'm sure Carlisle and Esme wouldn't mind, in fact they might be glad to see you go."
"There's…not really a point. I think we will be getting a house when we leave for Dartmouth, anyway."
"You better hurry, semester should start anytime."
"Uh…" I looked to Edward for help. He whispered, "Second semester."
"Yeah, we are starting in the spring. I am technically healed, but Carlisle thinks Dartmouth would be too exerting for my health."
Edward gave a thumbs up, approving of my alibi.
"I still want to see you," Renee protested.
"I know, Mom, I really do. I miss you, too. As soon as Carlisle gives the okay, I can go to Florida."
My voice weakened near the end and Edward took my hand. Florida was not going to happen.
"Well maybe I could visit you there!"
Absolutely not a possibility. Renee didn't know about Renesmee, and she was too perceptive to buy the story about Edward's orphaned niece. Even Charlie didn't buy it, for crying out loud. And there was that miniscule detail, that I was a vampire, and looked quite different from when I was human. As in beautifully perfect, cold as ice and hard as granite. Plus much more graceful compared to the tripping mess I had been.
"During baseball season? No, mom, you have to be with Phil."
"Bella–"
"Listen, I have to go. I'll let you know, okay?"
"Okay. I love you, baby."
"Love you too, mom."
I hung up the phone, staring at it until Edward pulled me towards him. "Are you alright?" he asked, pulling my chin up so he could see my light amber eyes.
I nodded. "Sure."
He didn't believe me. "We'll figure something out," he promised, kissing my forehead. As usual, this simple touch made my head whirl and I wanted nothing more than to –
The sound of the door bursting open, followed quickly by the smell of ammonia, ripped me from my private bubble with Edward. "Hey vamps," Jacob greeted casually.
"Will he ever stop ruining my moments?" Edward mumbled. I smiled up at him.
"Remind me why I haven't installed that doggie door?" Rosalie snapped to the room.
"Probably because you haven't figured out how to use that drill yet, Blondie," Jacob shot back naturally.
"Oh, I know how to use it, so I can drill a hole right through your–"
"How was school, Jake?" Carlisle asked, cutting Rosalie off as he put down his book.
"Same 'ole, same 'ole, Doc," Jake replied, opening his arms for Nessie to jump into them.
I squeezed Edward's hand and said, "Let's go," guiding him into the living room where all the commotion was.
"I don't know, Nes, you have to ask everyone else," Jake was saying as we walked in. I saw her hand pressed to Jake's cheek.
Renesmee sullenly dropped her hand – she hated speaking aloud. She had told me she didn't like the attention, which made me smile. Nessie had inherited more from me than I thought. "Does Jake really have to be in school?" she asked. "Why can't he stay here with us? He doesn't have fun there."
"Jacob needs a complete education, everyone does," Carlisle said simply. "You, out of everyone here, should appreciate the power of learning, Nessie."
Nessie didn't look completely convinced. "My dad would kill me if I dropped out of school," Jacob assured her.
Putting a hand to his cheek, Renesmee looked very seriously into his eyes. Jake nodded. "Yeah, I wanna stay in school. I like learning."
I knew Jacob was saying that to make Renesmee feel better. He had already ranted to me at the start of school two days ago that he thought the whole concept was pointless.
"Jacob, you have the choice of immortality. It's okay to spend two more years getting an education, there will be plenty of time ahead of you," I said as I mindlessly cleaned the bookcase in our cottage.
"That's my point!" Jake raged. I shushed him – Renesmee was sleeping in her room. He began quieter. "I have forever, and I'll be a part of this family some day so it's not like I'm going to need cash from a job an education would get me."
Edward growled from the corner of the small, useless kitchen. He was already irritated Jake was cutting into our mandatory alone time each evening; talk of one day marrying our little girl was pushing him past his limits. I gave Jake a warning look and continued with, "That's not relevant. The longer you wait to get at least a high school education, the harder and more monotonous it will be when you go back. Plus I know Billy would like to see his son graduate from high school."
Jacob growled much in the same Edward had – I had hit him hard with the Billy card. He threw his hands up in the air and said, "Fine. I'll do it. But I won't enjoy it. Embry and Quil don't enjoy it either."
"Well I'm sure you would all like to be off running around together but that's just not logical or practical for any of your futures."
Jake rolled his eyes at me. "Yes, mom."
I stopped cleaning for a minute, putting the hand with the rag in it on my hip as I turned to him. Edward smiled slightly; he was happy my human reactions were starting to come back. "Is that all you wanted to whine about? Because Edward and I have things to do."
Pulling a face, Jake simply said, "Ew," and bounded out of our cottage as fast as he could. The next second Edward was grabbing my waist. "Finally, I thought he would never leave," he had time to say before I found a way of effectively silencing him.
So Jacob went to school grudgingly. It was harder when he knew Renesmee much preferred him to be with her, but Billy was firm and so was I. The family just had to get creative with ways of entertaining Renesmee all day, something that we all gladly worked on. Piano lessons were the first activity planned, but at the rate Renesmee was going that diversion was only going to last a few weeks at most.
"Wow, Nes, you are really working with that piano!" Jacob commented at the same time I thought it. Renesmee must be telling him about her day. He paused for a moment, then said, "Yeah, it looks like your dad is a good teacher."
I looked up at Edward. He was trying to hide a smile, but his face seemed to be glowing. I grasped his hand tightly and put forth all my concentration on lifting the shield from my mind. Once I felt the unsteady lightness in my head, I thought, What was she thinking about?
As usual whenever I did this, Edward beamed, dazzling me momentarily. He leaned down and whispered so only I could hear, "How much she enjoyed her lessons today. Her adoration for me was…enthusiastic."
I'm guessing that's an understatement? I thought.
Edward simply kissed my temple in response. I let my mind react naturally to his touch. Then, partly to tease him, partly because it was getting hard to concentrate, I put my guard up once again. Edward groaned quite audibly.
Our family looked over in confusion, each wondering, no doubt, what they had accidentally thought that annoyed Edward. He waved his hand in dismissal to all of them and said, "Nothing you all did." He paused for half a second, then continued with a subject changer: "Are we still going to play baseball?"
"Hell yeah! Do you really think the puppy can keep up?" Emmett joked towards Jacob.
"I'll not only keep up, I'll win," Jacob said staunchly.
"Let's just go!" I said excitedly, cutting off Emmett's retort. It would be the first time the family attempted to play baseball since the disastrous encounter with James. I wanted to test out my skills.
Renesmee leapt out of Jacob's arms and bounced to me. I crouched so she could get to my cheek easier. Her thoughts were tinged with worry about the game. What if I'm not good? she thought. Nessie had only ever seen baseball once at Charlie's and was concerned she wouldn't do well with little knowledge of the game.
"You'll be great," I assured her. "If anyone is going to be bad, it will be me."
Emmett laughed and Edward rolled his eyes. Renesmee considered this, but announced, "I can help Grandma referee the game," and went to grab Esme's waiting hand.
"She is so like you," Edward murmured as we made our way to the field, slightly above a human's pace. We were all walking together, Emmett and Jasper carrying the equipment. It was nice to be with each other, laughing and joking. I watched Renesmee being swung in the air by Esme, watched as they made guesses on who would foul the most and who would score the first point. Rensmee tried asking Alice for information on the outcome, but Alice just gave her vague answers. Nessie's laugh filled the night air and our whole family grinned because of it.
"She is better than me," I sighed happily, wrapping my arms around Edward as twilight began to descend over us.
Author Notes: For a contest I sadly didn't win, the prompt was to write 1,000 words on what happened to the Cullens 100 years after Breaking Dawn ended in Bella's point of view. What I ended up writing was a huge summary of what had happened during those 100 years instead of what happened after the 100 years. After thinking about what the Cullens were doing for so long, I decided to get it out of me and start writing a fan fiction covering those 100 years. I don't know how long it will be between updates, since I am in college, have a job, am writing original stories and fan fiction (plus writing classes for my degree), but I couldn't not write this story. It has been tormenting me and it wasn't letting my brain make room for any other writing. So here it is and I'll try to update as soon as I can. R/R!