disclaimer I, unfortunately, am not Stephenie Meyer, and therefore I am neither the owner of nor the mastermind behind the phenomenon known as Twilight. / disclaimer

Again, mad thanks go out to my friend and beta, plovesh. And to all of you who added my story to your favorites or alerts – and especially to the two of you who reviewed. Two's a damn big number in my sad little world. Lol

dedication To my BFO, my eternally Robsessed cheerleader, the jandco to my wtvoc: Fer. Love you, bb! I couldn't do this without you. / dedication

Enough faux html tagging! On with the chapter!

-------------------

It's a long way from home

But I'll always come back to you

I don't know which way to turn

But I feel it's the right thing to do

There's so much for me to learn

But I'll always come back to you

- "Always Come Back to You", Ryan Cabrera

-------------------

BPOV

The next month passed in a strange, emotional haze. Emmett spent every waking moment he had with Rosalie, and most unconscious moments as well. It was almost as if he had moved in with us, which I didn't mind at all, with the distinct exception of the few times I'd caught him drinking our milk straight from the carton… with the refrigerator door held open… by his naked hip. As much as I loved him, I just did not need to see that.

By the time two weeks had gone by, I'd gotten used to saying goodnight to both of them when I went to bed. I was no longer surprised to find them sitting together on the couch, arguing over the answers to the New York Times' crossword, every morning. I got used to making dinner for three instead of two. I expected to find them together when I got home from work at the coffee shop down the street.

I guess that's why it was so strange to me when I came home to a silent apartment about a week before Emmett was supposed to leave for training.

"Em? Rose?" I called, leery about the absence of noise.

No one responded, so I drew the only logical conclusion – Emmett finally got off his lazy ass and took his girlfriend out on a well-deserved date. I smiled to myself, glad that they were being as normal as possible at a time like this, and searched the fridge for dinner inspiration. I was just about to give up my search and settle for leftovers when I heard it.

A quiet but distinct whimper from Rosalie's bedroom.

I shut the fridge and tentatively headed for her room, trying to decide which scenario I didn't want to deal with would be best. Either something had happened to make Emmett leave early and Rose was devastated, or she was trying to muffle sounds I'd heard all too frequently over the past month. As I got closer to her door, it became clearer that the whimper I'd heard was not the sound of a mid-coital Rosalie. My heart sank and panic started to set in.

"Rose?" I mumbled to the closed door. "Can I come in?"

Rosalie sniffled and did her best to make her shaky voice sound steady before responding.

"Uhm… yeah, Bella. It's… it's open."

I opened the door apprehensively and looked into a pair of puffy and pathetically bloodshot eyes.

How long has she been crying?

How did I not hear her sooner?

What the hell happened?

I hadn't seen her so upset since the night Emmett's number was called. It was disconcerting and depressing. More than anything, it was absolutely devastating.

I crossed to the bed, sat next to her, and wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug.

"Rose, honey, what happened?"

"He's… he's gone."

"What? He can't be. He's not supposed to leave for another week."

"No, no. I know. He just went out. Said he had an errand or something and left."

"Then what are all these silly tears about? He'll be back. He'll be back in no time."

"Sure, he'll be back this time. But what about the next time he leaves? How do I know he'll be back then? He could—"

"Rose, don't. We've been through this. He'll come back. He promised."

She leapt off the bed like she thought it might explode beneath her at any moment. Before I could even register her movement, she was standing in front of me, screaming at the top of her exhausted lungs.

"So fucking what, Bella?! Did they promise not to kill him?! Not to hurt him?! I don't think so! In a week, he'll be gone… and then three months and he's in that fucking hellish war zone! How am I supposed to believe he'll come back to me?! And even if he does come back, how do I know he'll be the same? Bella, people… they get… so… broken over there. They come back and they're different. War changes people, Bella. How am I supposed to know he'll come back and still be my Emmett and not some empty, broken shell of the man I love? How do I know he won't… forget me?"

As she stuttered out the last few words, she burst into a fresh round of tears and collapsed on the floor. I sat there on the bed, just staring at her, watching her sob harder than I thought humanly possible, and wondering what I could possibly do to help, to make things any better. After a long minute, the shock of watching my ever-confident best friend doubt herself, her boyfriend, and the only stable relationship I had ever witnessed, passed. I crawled down onto the floor beside her, and did the only thing I could do.

I cried with her.

"I don't know, Rose. I really don't. I guess… I guess you just have to have faith in him. You have to believe in him, in what you two have together. You have to trust it's strong enough to keep him alive and keep him… him."

"How do I do that?"

"I don't know."

"I do."

We both snapped our heads up, surprised to hear a third voice respond to Rosalie's seemingly unanswerable question.

Emmett reached a hand out to Rose, begging her with his eyes to take it. When she put her hand in his, he pulled her off the ground, sat her on the edge of her bed, and sat next to her with a very sincere and determined look on his face.

"Bella was right, Rosie. You have to have faith in me, in our love. You have to trust me when I say that I will come back to you. All of me – physically and emotionally. I'll serve my time and think of you every moment I'm there. And when my time is up, I'll come back to you, and things will be right again. And I need you to understand that there is nothing in this world – no war, no peace, no place, no person – that could possibly make me forget you. You understand that?"

"Yes," Rosalie sniffled, not sounding the least bit convinced.

"That's what I thought," Emmett half-chuckled. "And that's why I had to go out today. Because I knew I was going to need to prove myself to you. And because I want, more than anything, for you to be sure of me and of us."

Rosalie looked at him, confused. I couldn't blame her – I couldn't for the life of me figure out an errand he could run to make her believe in him. It sounded stupid even in my head as I tried to figure it out.

He had to leave to make her realize he would always return? How the hell does that make any sense? You can't buy trust and faith at the grocery store, Emmett…

Then I saw his hand emerge from his pants pocket. I saw the small black jewelry box concealed in his palm. And suddenly, it all made sense.

I gasped and Rosalie looked at me like I had lost my mind. Emmett ignored my outburst completely. Our apartment could have been set on fire and he still wouldn't have taken his eyes off of Rosalie's face.

"Rosalie Lillian Hale, I have loved you from the very moment I set eyes on you. There is nothing is this world, in this universe, that could possibly make me stop loving you. I need you like the air I breathe; when I'm not near you, I swear I'm suffocating. I love watching you sleep at night, and waking up next to you in the morning. I love arguing with you, I love agreeing with you, I love making you laugh, and I love making love to you. And the second I get back from that stupid war, I refuse to spend another moment without you. Would you please make me the single happiest man in existence and say you'll marry me?"

I wasn't even the one being proposed to and I could feel the happy tears gliding down my cheeks.

Rosalie sat, stunned, on the bed, staring at Emmett with her mouth wide open. It looked for all the world like she'd forgotten how to breathe. Then her mouth slowly closed and turned into the happiest smile I had ever seen in my life, and her eyes began to glisten and sparkle as her glee overwhelmed her. Tears once again silently streamed down her beautiful, glowing face – this time for all the right reasons. She cried happily for a full minute before anyone said anything.

"Uhm… Rose… usually, it's… uh… customary to… uh… respond to a request like that," Emmett pled.

Rosalie simply squeaked with joy and nodded before she abruptly lunged at him. Emmett laughed a clearly relieved laugh, and threw his arms around her. I'd never seen either of them so happy before. It was positively infectious. I couldn't decide if I should leave and let them have their moment or go join in their hugging and celebrating. Finally, I decided on a combination of the two.

"This most definitely calls for a celebration!" I said. "What do you say, Rose? Do we all go out and celebrate, or do I go get groceries for the best engagement dinner ever?"

"I say—"

"Wait!" Emmett interrupted. "Don't either of you want to see the ring? Or did I leave my beautiful fiancée here alone all afternoon for no reason?"

"Ooh! Yeah! I wanna see!" Rose was bouncing up and down on the bed like an excited child on Christmas morning.

"It's nothing fancy… I mean, I'm not exactly wealthy here… but…" Emmett trailed off as he opened the little black box.

He was right; it wasn't fancy. It was simple. Simple and simply perfect. And it was absolutely beautiful. Something about its simplicity made it almost… ornate?

A delicate silver band held an amazingly crystal clear, round diamond set in a square silver setting. It was surrounded by several smaller diamonds, and it sparkled brilliantly when the light hit it. The placement of the smaller diamonds made it look almost like a flower.

"Emmett… it's…" Rose began.

"I know. It's nothing. You deserve better. I can do better. And I will! One day… I just need time and mo—"

"No. It's beautiful and I love it. It's perfect and it will never leave my hand… Once it gets put on there," she not-so-subtly hinted.

"Oh! Sorry." Emmett looked a little embarrassed as he slid the ring onto Rosalie's finger.

Rose laughed and kissed him softly on the mouth, before intently admiring her now-shiny ring finger. After a long moment of ring adoration, she turned back to Emmett and looked him in the eyes with the most intense and joyous look I had ever seen.

"I love you. So, so much," she whispered, barely loud enough for me to hear, and kissed him again. Just as I once again began to feel a bit voyeuristic, Rose whipped around and shrieked blissfully at me. "Bella! I'm getting married! Can you believe it?!"

"I know! I'm so happy for you!" I replied, as Rosalie jumped up and hugged me. "And I am going to throw you the best engagement party ever – so long as you promise not to make the maid of honor wear a bow on her butt."

We laughed together like we hadn't in ages before Rose broke our embrace and ran back to Emmett on the bed. She threw herself on his lap and he laughed at her excitement.

"Now what was that about a celebration, Bella? I think we should go out and show my incredible fiancé off to the world, don't you?"

"Absolutely, Rose. You pick the place; champagne's on me."

"Did you hear that, Em? Champagne! For us! And do you know why?"

"Why, Rosie?" Emmett laughed, humoring Rose in her moment of overwhelming excitement.

"Because…" she began, running to her window. She threw it open, stuck her head out into the cool evening air, and shouted at the top of her lungs. "Because we're engaged! Did you hear that, Chicago? Emmett McCarty and Rosalie Hale are getting married!"

"Rose… I'm sure the neighborhood is really glad to hear that, but…" I started, but I was quickly cut off as a chorus of cheers and congratulations erupted from the street below our apartment.

Rosalie laughed blissfully and threw her entire left arm out the window. "Look! See? He's amazing and he's all mine!"

Emmett's loud laughter filled the room as he walked to her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"And she's mine! Hands off, Chicago!" He laughed out the window before pulling Rose back into the apartment and shutting out the rest of the world.

People on the street were still laughing and cheering when we left to celebrate. More men than I could count patted Emmett on the back and shook his hand. Women I'd never even seen before kissed Rose on the cheek in congratulations. Her face absolutely lit up every time someone asked to see the ring up close.

The news seemed to travel like wildfire. By the time we got to the restaurant, everyone had already been told. But Rosalie couldn't be upset about not being able to declare her love for Emmett in yet another public setting, because the second we walked in, the entire place erupted in applause. I never even got to buy them champagne – half the population of the restaurant sent them a bottle. We celebrated for hours and stumbled happily back to the apartment carrying a decade's supply of vintage champagne.

A/N: Rosalie's ring is real – and really from the late 1960s. That's right, people, I do my homework. Okay, no, I don't. I write fanfiction and blow my homework off, but you know what I meant. If you want to see it for yourself, the link is in my profile. And, as usual, comments plz! I love hearing what people have to say about my little pride and joy here, whether it be positive or negative.

Reviews are better than grand, romantic proposals from Vietnam-era Emmett. :)