Author's Note:

Welp, here you go! Here's chapter four for whoever wanted it-those freakin EIGHT people who reviewed. Yeah, just so you know, I love them more than you! HAHA!!! So, go ahead and review and I'll love you!!

And I don't know if this will end up being co-worked on by LaBellaBella. I asked her about it the other night and she said that she would love to, so I don't know what will end up happening. After this chapter we'll probably start working together and coming up with ideas that weren't originally created by me, so...yeah. But you guys are in for a treat-she's a great writer!!!

But here is some news about what we are DEFINITELY working on together: it's a story called Love in the time of Drought. The name may change, but we don't know. We created a username together, and you can see it at we-r-gonna-eachu, but not quite yet. still in the process of making it, so...yeah! Can't really tell you what it's about yet, but maybe you'll hear about it from her, when she next posts to "By Moonlight"check it out!

"Shh...shh...Bella, it will be all right...Everything will be just fine."

Suddenly, I pushed him off of me, still sobbing those dry, tearless sobs. For a moment, a flicker of surprise at my newfound strength flitted across his face, before concerned washed his features. I wiped my eyes angrily, before realizing again that there was no water on my face. "No, Edward! You don't know what happened!" I screamed at him. "You don't understand!"

I covered my face with my cold hands, trying to conceal my feelings from him-something that I had so perfected over the sixteen years I had been away from him and the world. But now it was as if all of the time had crumpled away, like fragile paper with one crush of the hand. All of the years of practice and curling into myself, just gone. Now it was only the present, with him here, however unlike the fantasy I had always dreamed of when I would finally see him again.

He looked as if he wanted to reach for me again, his stone-hard arm hesitant in the air, but seemed to decide against it, and dropped it to his side. He frowned, his coal black eyes, thirsty from the lack of feeding it looked he had been going through melting into me. "Bella..." he whispered, stepping towards me. "I want to..."

"Get. Out." I hissed, the hurt and guilt and anger stinging in my voice. It was anything but what I wanted him to do. I wanted to hold him and let him kiss me and smell his sweet frangrance and feel his strong arms around me, and just let it be like old times, when I knew he was in love with me. But it wasn't like that now-it couldn't be. He didn't love me now-he just felt guilty that he had left so abruptly, or maybe that he had heard that I, like the fool I was, went after him and got lost in the woods. Or maybe it was that I never really got the chance to say goodbye to my best friend, or my almost-family. I would never know, because now I was sending him away.

My thoughts were jumbled in my mind, and I couldn't think or understand a single line of thinking. It was like I was watching a foreign movie without subtitles, and all I could hear was the complicated string of sounds that was probably a sentence, and I just wasn't comprehending.

But when I thought he would protest, or say something against it, he just turned around to walk to the door, without saying a word. I was right, I knew it. Once he saw that I didn't care, his concience was cleared and he could go home, probably to a prettier, more exciting girl who could give him what he wanted. Instead of me. Boring Bella, who was now thirty-something and a vampire. Hell, not even my scent was worth anything anymore. He was free to be happy and live an eternity without me.

But, yet again he surprised me. As he put his hand on the chipped, dull silver handle, he looked at me with a fire burning in his coal black eyes. He gazed at me for a long moment and shook his head. "I won't give up without a fight, love." He murmured, finally turning the handle.

I almost thought that I had dreamt it-him saying that. It was barely even said out loud, like it was just hanging in the open air. I didn't have a chance to say anything in reply, though, as he silently stepped into the warm, gloomy Forks' summer air. And just like that, he was gone.

"Well, that was wierd."

I jumped, Lucy startling me for the first time in my life. Her blonde hair (a mystery to me as to how she got it) was tied lazily up in a messy bun, her pink tank top clinging, too much for my liking, to her body. I narrowed my eyes, becoming the mom I was. " Listen, miss, you aren't a prostitute. Shouldn't you be wearing more clothes than underwear out in the open?"

She groaned, rolling her eyes as she plopped down in the kitchen chair beside me. "I swear, you can be such a mom sometimes, Bella! Some of us have to hold onto what we have. And besides," Her gaze lowered to my chest, which was pretty much concealed by the loose t-shirt I seemed to always sport. Old habits die hard, I thought. "Not all of us have triple D cups!"

I glared at her, and then looked down at myself. "I do not have..." I trailed off, deciding to leave that thought where it was.

It had been strange at first, my new body. The perfection. I mean, as much as I had like to have thought that my figure was slim enough before, now I was a size one, and very...full, in places I had never thought could be curvy in my case. My lips became fuller than ever, and my legs longer. My chocolate brown hair became shinier and silkier and my skin even paler. I was like a life size porcelain doll, pretty and without a beating heart. And I knew how beautiful I was-but it didn't matter. It was just a fact.

And besides, in my eyes I would never be beautiful enough or interesting enough to please the one person I wanted most to be with.

Finally, breaking the silence that had been looming uncomfortably in the air, Lucy looked at me questioningly and asked, "So...who was that guy?"

I almost choked on the oxygen I had been breathing in. Temporarily, I had forgotten about Edward's recent...visit, and hadn't been paying attention enoguh to see if Lucy had witnessed any of it. I wondered how much, exactly, she had seen, if any. I hesitated, but replied, hoping she wouldn't catch my worst skill in the world: lying. "He is my...cousin."

I could tell she wasn't satisfied by this. "Cousin? He called you love, mom."

She meant business-she called me 'mom' only when she wasn't kidding. "Well...that's because it's short for Lovett. You know, from that old play Sweeney Todd?"

She gave me an incredulous look. "Sweeney Todd?"

"Yes, Sweeney Todd. You see, in it there was a character named Mrs. Lovett, and of course, a character named Sweeney Todd. We loved it so much that we called each other just that. He called me 'Love' and I called him 'Todd'. But then he left...and took something very valuable of mine. Something he can never replace, and never make up for." He took my love and my soul with him. It was too late for him to fix me now.

She finally seemed satisfied, and nodded her head in approval of my story, not seeming to realize that everything was a lie. Then, her eyes brightened in realization. "So...wait a minute-he's your cousin? As in...you're related?"

I hesitated again, but nodded.

"That's so freaking awesome! He was so hot..." Her eyes dreamily lolled to the back of her head.

My Lucy with...I forgot how to breath for a moment, before remembering that I didn't need to. "Edward Cullen," I said, choking the name out. "Is not right for you."

She narrowed her eyes. "Why not? So you can get him? God, Bella, you only think of yourself, don't you?"

I felt a sharp pain sting inside of my stomach, the hurt stabbing at me. "No, Lucy...Lucy, please! Come here, Lucy!" I grabbed her into a tight hug-as tight as I could manage without hurting her. "Lucy, honey, I don't want him to hurt you..." I was trailing off into my own problems, I realized, and made a quick recovery. "Physically, I mean. Lucy, you nkow what he is. It's too dangerous-he could hurt you. It's already dangerous enough living with your own mother." I looked at her sadly, my face showing all of the grief and hatred I felt towards myself.

Her face softened, her light brown eyes-much lighter than I had once had-looking at me deeply. "I'll be careful, don't worry, silly!" And with that, she turned and headed upstairs to her new room, leaving me standing there alone to face my worries.

I sighed and looked at the door, where moments ago had left the only man I had ever loved.