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Over the next two weeks Edward took it upon himself to do 'human' things with me, and I must admit- it was a whole lot of fun. In fact this by far the best two weeks of my life, fun has never been a necessity in my life and I found it very difficult at first, I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Edward almost had to show me how to have fun, especially to relax. Northern Ontario really was beautiful; the cottage we were in was about a half an hour from the nearest town nestled against Sesekinika Lake spotted with many islands.

Here Edward took me fishing in a small motorboat, kayaking, hiking and swimming on the occasional warm day. He was disgusted to learn that I had never been bowling before which was apparently a sin in his eyes. We went into the small town nearby and did just that, we also found a stable on the edge of town and went horseback riding which Aiden loved.

This was one of the few days that Aiden hung around and I had to keep yelling at him to stop possessing the poor horses, they started to get really freaked out. We also saw all kinds of wildlife in our time here, loons, moose, bears, deer- I immediately took to this place. I've never loved somewhere so much in my life.

About a week into our stay here we got the all clear that the small coven had been gone from town for a few days and Alice foresaw no immediate danger from them, they were already a few states away. With no school and really no other obligations we decided to stay longer, my plan was to stay past my birthday so that I wouldn't have to deal with one of Alice's parties.

At around 9:30pm on August 12th Edward loaded us into the car and we took off for some unknown destination.

'C'mon Edward you know I hate surprises.' I whined from the passenger seat.

He smirked 'Most humans like surprises; I thought we were learning how to be human.'

I grumbled 'I definitely don't like it, but I will try to tolerate it.'

'That's my girl.' He laughed at my enthusiasm and took my hand.

We drove for about 2 hours before we arrived at a provincial park, it was about 11:30 when we arrived.

'They can't still be open?' I asked, it was way too late at night.

Edward gave me a mischievous smile 'They aren't, we're breaking in.'

'I thought we were being normal humans, normal humans don't break and enter.' I said.

'I wouldn't want to shock your system with too much normality.' He said matter-of-factly.

'Ah, naturally.' I nodded sagely.

He pulled the car to the side of the road and we got out. The cool air caused me to have a coughing fit- cold air seemed to do it every time. Edward waited, rubbing my back until it stopped.

'Are you okay?' he asked and I nodded. 'We have to get your chest looked at.' He said as he gently threw me over his back and grabbed a bag out of the trunk of the car.

'It's ok, it's just a cold. It's starting to get better anyways.' I lied, if anything it felt as though it was getting worse. Lately the coughing had increased and my lungs felt heavy and a little painful, at least though the old wound in my chest was finally starting to feel a little bit better, the flare ups of pain were much less often and less extreme.

'Uh huh.' He said as he took off running, clearly not convinced.

He stopped in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees, or at least that's what it looked like. It was absolutely pitch black; I could barely see a thing. Edward pulled a blanket out of the bag he carried and laid it out on the grass. He sat down and opened another blanket across his body and motioned for me to sit between his legs.

I sat down and leaned against his chest and he wrapped the blanket around my body to keep me warm against the chilly air and his body. 'Look up.' He said as I leaned back into him, and I gazed upward into the sky.

What I saw amazed me, the Milky Way stretched out across the sky above us, something I had never seen before because of light pollution. The expanse of lights and stars was so much more than I ever would have expected.

'This is unbelievable.' I half whispered in awe.

'Give it a few minutes, it will get better.' Edward said hugging me to him.

'How?!' I asked, and he just chuckled. We sat in silence watching the occasional shooting star and the slow blinking of faraway satellites. Suddenly the sky was alight with colours, brilliant green, yellows and the occasional purple streaking their way across the sky. The colours ebbed and flowed, disappearing before reappearing brighter than ever.

All I could think to say was 'Wow…' as Edward pulled me tighter.

'Happy Birthday.' he said quietly into my hair.

We sat and watched in awe for the next hour completely transfixed by the earth's natural light show until it faded away just as quickly as it had come.

'Thank you Edward, that was by far the best birthday gift I have ever been given.' I said softly, turning my body so I faced him, he held my hands.

'And here I thought you would put up a fuss over being given a gift at all.' He joked; my eyes had adjusted to the low light and were able to see his face by the glow of the Milky Way.

'You know me too well; you chose the perfect kind of gift for me.' I said seriously. 'Edward this time here has been the best of my entire life and I'm forever indebted to you. I was barely living before I met you; you've changed everything for me.' At that he chuckled a little bit to which I cocked my head and waited for him to explain.

'Bella, don't you see you're describing your impact on my life. In the entire time I've been alive I've never cared for anyone as much as I care for you. My life was meaningless before I met you.' At this I rolled my eyes. He grabbed my forearms and I looked into his eyes 'I'm serious Bella. When I met you it was like waking up from a deep sleep. I love you more than I ever thought I could love anyone.'

I looked at him for a few moments 'I feel the same way, you have taught me to live and to love more in the last almost year than in my entire life. I don't know what I would have done without you.' We kissed and he hugged me to him. We sat like this for some time before I started to shiver in the rapidly freezing night air.

'Let's head back, shall we?' he asked.

'I'm sorry.' I said, I didn't want to cut the moment short.

'Oh please, it's late and cold. Last thing we need is for your cold to get worse.' We stood up and folded the blankets, shoving them back into the bag he had brought. I climbed back onto his back and we dashed out to the car.

Edward put the heat on full blast. As the car warmed up and became very comfortable I drifted off to sleep.

oOo

I woke the next morning in my bed in the cabin with Edward next to me.

'Good morning.' He said as I stirred.

'Morning.' I smiled at him.

'Happy birthday.' He smiled back.

I groaned and threw my arm over my eyes, 'My birthday ended last night, no more mention of it is allowed.'

He laughed at this 'That's not how it works Bella; you have the whole day left. And don't think Alice isn't waiting to throw a party at you when you get home. Just because we aren't home on the actual day doesn't mean it stops existing.'

I groaned again and threw the blanket over my head, which Edward pulled back down with ease. 'Why are you so against birthdays?'

'I'm not against birthdays, I'm just against mine.' I said to him.

'Why is that?' he looked puzzled.

I paused for a moment before answering 'It's not exactly the best day in the world. It's the day that Aiden died and the day that my mother was put into a coma, never to wake again because of me. It seems horrible to celebrate it.'

'Does Aiden feel that way?' he asked.

I paused again and said '…no.'

'I'm sure your mother wouldn't want you to feel that way either, although I do see where you're coming from. I won't force you to celebrate it… but I can't say the same for Alice. She's a monster if she doesn't get her way. Besides- it's more a party for her anyways, just see it that way.'

We spent my birthday enjoying our last day at the cottage, if we waited anymore before going home Alice was going to make my party so much worse for me- it was best that we just go and get it over with. It was a balmy 77 degree day and we spent it swimming and fishing from the dock- purely catch and release, I found that I really enjoyed it.

In fact I learned a lot about myself these last few weeks and I had Edward to thank for that. With a fake ID that I had from the CIA and one that Edward had from god knows where, he had taken me to a casino. Out of all the things we had done I liked this least- the blank seemingly soulless expressions on people's faces as they gambled were super depressing. We didn't last there very long.

I found out that I liked anything to do with sports, I loved bowling and the batting cages the most. Turns out baseball was actually fun, I had dragged my feet when Edward said what we were doing. I now understood the Cullen's love of the sport and was slightly less resentful. The only irritating problem was whenever I exerted myself I would erupt into a coughing fit and would have to sit until it passed and although it happened less, exerting myself caused the pain in my chest to return every now and then.

Edward was trying but failing to convince me to go to the doctor for the cough but I was having none of it. The absolute last thing that I wanted was to go back to the hospital; I had spent far too much time in hospitals lately.

We were leaving at 5am the next morning to go to the airport so by 8pm we had curled up on the couch and put on a movie I quickly passed out and Edward had to carry me to the bed. Edward woke me up at 4:30am knowing that I need very little time to get ready and I crawled out of bed barely awake. A really nice thing about having a boyfriend that doesn't sleep is that I woke up to everything packed and ready to go.

I quickly got dressed and we regrettably left the cottage, as we walked out the temperature had dropped about 10 degrees in the last 8 hours. Thankfully Edward had thought to leave my coat out of my bag because I had not checked the weather the night before.

I dozed off on the ride to the airport and sleep walked through the airport but by the time we boarded I was much more awake and Edward and I played some card games and watched a movie until we landed at quarter to 11. We got my truck out of the airport parking and drove the hour back to Forks.

As we drove into town the previously sunny sky turned ominous and black, heralding the rain that was clearly imminent.

'Even the world knows that this party is a bad idea.' I grumbled at him.

'Good thing the party is indoors.' He laughed.

He dropped me off at home with my truck and ran to his house; we both had things to do before the party tonight. I immediately went upstairs and started my laundry, after two weeks I had gone through most of my wardrobe in the time we had been away.

Being back in Forks I found that I had missed my little home and of course the lawn was perfectly tended even though I hadn't been here in weeks. I walked around wiping off the dust that had settled on things while the house sat vacant.

I decided then to take a shower and get myself cleaned up for the party tonight, after I got out of the shower I wrapped a towel around myself and ended up falling asleep on my bed shortly after. I woke up about two hours later.

'Damnit Aiden, you should have woke me up. I only have 2 hours till I have to leave.' I would be going to the Cullen's house tonight so Aiden was close. I quickly got dressed into a dress and went to the bathroom to do my hair, blow drying and straightening it. About a half an hour before I was to leave I picked up my guitar.

While I was growing up one of the only forms of entertainment I had was playing the guitar. It brought about a sense of calm and I played for about 20 minutes before I heard a creak and looked up.

Edward stood in the doorway to my bedroom 'I've never heard you play before.' He said quietly 'It's beautiful.'

I shook my head and put the guitar down 'Far from it, I'm out of practice.'

He darted over quicker than I could see and handed the guitar back to me 'Please don't stop, I could listen to you all day.'

'I thought we had a party to get to?' I smirked.

'Screw the party.' He sat down next to me and tried to pass me the guitar again.

'No' I laughed standing up, I took the guitar from him and put it on its stand 'let's get it over with; I don't want to deal with Alice when she's on the warpath.'

'Alice…' he grumbled and I pulled him up off my bed. 'Let's just get it over with.'

He pulled back on my hand and stopped me from walking; I turned to look at him. 'Play for me later?' he asked.

'If I survive the night maybe…'

oOo

Once we arrived at his house the beginnings of a storm was moving in, there was a large drop in temperature and you could feel the electricity in the air and feel the strong winds as it moved into town- I shivered.

'C'mon, let's get you into the house.' He said wrapping an arm around me.

Once we crossed the threshold into his home we were hit with a chorus of 'Happy Birthday' and I cringed, this kind of attention made me extremely uncomfortable. Edward could feel this and pulled me closer to him laughing. It was so much worse than I could have imagined.

Every available surface was covered in pink candles and crystal bowls filled with hundreds of roses. There was a large table set up near Edward's grand piano that was draped with a silver table cloth. On the table sat a beautiful cake with a stack of ornate plates and silverware and a small pile of wrapped presents.

As the song ended Carlisle came and hugged me.

'Happy Birthday Bella, I'm sorry we couldn't reign Alice in.' he whispered to me. Esme came next pulling me into a maternal hug that I had never truly experienced before I met her.

'We've missed you!' she said to me as she pulled away.

'I missed you guys too!' I smiled at her and turned to look at Alice. 'Alice, you ARE aware that I'm the only one that eats, right?' I said, eyeing the cake.

'So you'll have leftovers.' She said dismissively. 'Come! Open your presents!' she said beckoning me over to the table and reluctantly I followed with Edward holding on to my waist.

'I hope you guys didn't spend a lot… I really don't need anything.' I said to them.

Alice just rolled her eyes and tossed me a square box that was so light it felt empty. 'This is from Emmett and Rosalie.' I noticed that Rosalie was nowhere to be seen but Emmett watched from a few feet away leaning against the wall.

I opened the box to reveal a long serial number and the picture of some kind of electronic box; I opened it to reveal that it indeed was empty. 'Thank you?' I said to him and he laughed.

'It's a car stereo.' Edward laughed 'Rose is currently installing it so that you can't return it.'

'Thank you Emmett, it's unnecessary, but very nice. Thanks Rosalie!' I yelled louder so that she could hear me from outside.

'Here, this one is from Jasper and I.' she said handing me another square box, this time handing it to me much more carefully- this present was not empty. I opened it to reveal a DSLR camera.

'Jesus Alice, so much for not spending a lot of money on me.' I said strained.

'It's your senior year of high school! You have to take pictures to remember it.' She said unapologetically. I just sighed, no point in being ungrateful.

'Thank you Alice, Jasper. That is really thoughtful.' I said with a small smile.

'You're welcome!' she said happily. 'Here, this one is from Esme and Carlisle she said as she handed me an envelope. I slid my finger under the sealed fold and drew it across ripping the paper- I felt a small sharp pain in my finger and as soon as I realized what had happened I clamped my hand shut hoping to cover the scent of blood before it hit the room- of course I wasn't successful.

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