The inside of the Municipal Building was entirely made of marble. The ceiling, the walls, the floor, everything was beautiful. As soon as I walked through the entrance, I could feel that Edward was here. I knew I had come to the right place. The key now was going to be trying to find out what the hell I was supposed to be doing. Sitting across from me, at a marble desk, was a woman. She looked to be about twenty-something. She has waist-length black hair, and stunning features that would make any girl fear of losing self-esteem. Clearly, this woman was a vampire. I made my way up to the desk to see if I could get any information. As I made my way towards her, I saw her lift up her head and her tiny little nose took two sniffs of the air, and her eyes darted to me. A small grin lifted across the corners of her mouth and she waved at me to move faster.

"Isabella Swan, correct?" she implied.

"Yes, that would be correct. Would you mind telling me if I am expected here?" The way she knew my name had intimidated me. I was not sure if she just had an extra sense that allowed her to read minds, like Edward, an extra sense allowing her to see into the future, like Edward's sister, Alice, or if she was just expecting me.

"Mr. Cullen has been expecting your presence all day, Ms. Swan. Please have a seat, and we'll call you when he's ready."

Mr. Cullen. Flip-Flop went my heart. I took a deep breath and sat in the waiting area. What did she mean by 'Mr. Cullen'? Was she referring to Edward, or Edward's father? I assumed it was Edward, seeing as how his father, Carlisle, was a doctor; therefore he should be referred to as 'Dr. Cullen.' My wish had finally come true though. I was going to be reunited with Edward. Stupidly, I felt scared. I was afraid of his reaction. Would he be kind? Would he be mad, angry, upset, worried? These thoughts crossed my mind for about another two minutes, until I heard my name called out by a woman standing in a doorway to my left. I looked up, and was amazed by her beauty. It's so hard to get used to – the vampire appearance. Stunning, actually. I assumed that was how they received their human prey. Any girl would be out of her mind if she did not drool over someone like Edward. In any event, I followed this woman through a corridor and finally arrived at the end. As she opened up the door of one of the rooms, my heart stopped. There was my Edward, sitting down calmly in a chair next to an open window. When he saw me, our eyes locked and his expression turned to mush. He jumped up like a kid in an amusement park and hurried over to me. Grabbing me with all his strength, he lifted me up and spun me around in a series of circles. Oh to be in Edward's arms again! At the feel of his touch I began crying. I sobbed, and when I looked down, I saw Edward's eyes holding onto mine. We stayed like that for a while. To me, it seemed like an eternity.

"Bella, I'm so sorry. There's been an emergency and I needed to talk to you. I realized once I left that it was ridiculous and stupid of me to leave you alone without me. I cannot go on without you, Bella, please forgive me."

Through my tears, I managed to say an "I'm sorry, too" before collapsing into his arms once more. He leaned down and kissed me; with the passion of a thousand years of waiting. It had been about three minutes when we relaxed. I looked around the room and noticed that we were alone. The room that we were in contained one solitary window, and in an instant, I realized where we were.

"Edward, are you in jail?!" I asked him, stunned.

"Well, Bella, like I said, there's been an emergency. It's a long story, but Alice is in trouble. She decided to go looking for you, and well, someone found out that she was looking for a human. In this town, none of us are human-hunters. We only prey on animals. When they heard that Alice was looking for a human, they assumed she was trying to kill you. Before they were about to destroy her, I came to her defense. Basically, Alice got away, and I was put in here. In this disgusting, horrible, hell-hole."

Edward looked down and once again his eyes locked with mine. "But Bella, you have no idea how much I've missed you. That's why Alice went looking. She wanted to see me happy again. She told me that she sensed your unhappiness, as well."

"Well, your absence hasn't exactly been fun. I haven't done anything but mope around. I missed you, Edward", I moaned through tears. "Please, please don't EVER leave me again. It's scary. It's so, so scary. I was so scared. So afraid of living."

"Bella, I promise. No more. I thought this would be best but clearly our love is too strong to be broken."

Edward held me for a while, and we sat in silence. It was like being in Heaven. Heaven was wherever Edward was. This love was something I could never even describe. I was totally overcome with so many different emotions at once. Happiness, sadness, anger, bitterness – but most importantly, safety. I had not felt safe once since Edward had left. I missed it, and I missed him more than my life.

"Bells, I have something for you," said Edward. He placed me down on the bench and walked over to a small bag that was placed on the other side of his "jail cell". Reaching into the bag, he pulled out a small CD walkman and a small silver CD. Edward approached me again and sat down, pulling me into his lap. Gently, he placed the CD into the player and held the earphones against both of our ears. I rested my head again his and waited. As soon as the music started playing, I began to cry. This was Edward's music. His compositions. He wrote this lullaby for me.

"Edward, what's this for?" I said, beginning to sound a little bit nasally from all of this crying.

"Bella Baby, It's your birthday. Don't you remember? You're eighteen today."

I shuddered. Through all of this Edward confusion, I had forgotten what today was. I was eighteen. And I did not want to be eighteen. Turning eighteen meant aging when Edward couldn't. What I wanted was to be turned into a Vampire so I could live eternally with Edward through time; never aging, just like he wouldn't. The problem was, Edward did not want to turn me into a Vampire. He did not want to doom me into an eternal life. I told him it was what I wanted, but he did not approve.

"Edward, this is beautiful. So very beautiful, thank you. I couldn't have asked for anything more. This means so, so much to me. Thank you."

"I love you, Bella. Thank you for giving me someone to share my music with. Happy Birthday, honey. I will never leave your side again. Don't be afraid. I'm right here, and that's where I'm staying."

I rested my head back down against Edward's chest and listened to the music. For the remainder of the night I stayed there, in Edward's arms. We let the lullaby put me to sleep, and Edward stroked my hair so I would know that he wasn't going away. I figured this was good to be true. This was not real. It couldn't be happening. But the only thing in my world that mattered right now, real or not, was that I was with Edward. For this time. I was safe, and I was happy. Edward was here, and the world was right.