DISCLAIMER: I do not own the character concept. However I own the story in which the name lay.

RATING: M for Sexual Situations and Light Drug Use

SUMMARY: It is June in Edward and Bella's mean time between college and graduate school. Newly married they embark on a road trip that takes them across the country, to oceans, lakes, mountains, rocks and down into the valley.

Story is told in the first person from Bella's point of view. Story is all human and slightly OOC. Also, the story is not linear. It will jump to different points of the summer.

Please review and tell me what you think.

Waist Deep

August 9th - 3 weeks until the start of fall semester - Somewhere in Tennessee

"Classes start in about a month you know." I say looking at the road before us.

"I know."

I prop my feet up on the dashboard. "I wish you wouldn't do that." Edward sighs, looking at my feet.

"I know."

Then we are quiet. This is what our life has become in these midday hours of long driving stretches. A series of silences separated by short spurts of conversation about one thing. Saying good bye. He told me as we lay in an open field together under the stars that he would not be starting school in the fall, instead he will continue to drive, continue to take pictures of the country. I tried to be understanding. Like when my mother left. When she left she told me "I'm going to go live with Phil in Florida" and I, not wanting to be difficult, supported her and said it would be okay and it was for the best.

But it wasn't, it left a hole that I felt I couldn't complain about because I had said it would be okay. So I stayed quietly supportive.

History repeats itself. Now this distance I feel with Edward as we drive east could be fixed so easily if Edward would stop holding out on me and decide to take a break from the life he is building for himself on the road. I'm afraid that is what it is, he doesn't know how to compromise. He values an aspect of our relationship that doesn't actually exist, this idea he has that the two of us can be completely independent of each other and still together. He builds distances of open fields, farm seas for miles around us, and I can't get to him.

My mother built a distance too. Convinced herself that our connection as mother and daughter was enough. I suppose in some ways it was. I felt like I was drowning in the loss of her presence. Maybe that is why I didn't cry when she drowned in the Gulf. I had already mourned and there was an embarrassing relief in being able to say that she was really gone, it was the completion of my feelings. Phil told my dad that she had waded to a point where the water was waist deep and turned to wave at Phil on the shore. A wave came and took her under. She was never a strong swimmer.

Edward breaks my thoughts. "I made arrangements for us to go to Boston a couple weeks early." He says.

I turn and look at him "really?" I ask hopefully.

He smiles a little "I thought we might want to get home base set up before you start classes."

His words kick up butterflies in my stomach and I feel their wings against my insides "is that what Boston is going to be? Base?" I ask with a smile.

"Wherever you are is base for me."

"You'll Really come back and see me often?"

"Of course, did you think I was going to drop you off and rune?"

"Not exactly." In truth I don't know what I expected. "I thought you would visit and call, but I wasn't sure how often."

"I plan to see you often. You're my wife Bella. My only. I need to see you."

Edward takes my hand and holds it in his lap and I am lulled to sleep. I dream of California and the coast. I dream of waves hitting the sand slowly and silently. I used to dream of the beach all the time, but it has been a while since my subconcious allowed me to hear the sound of the water.

Time passes slowly when you drive. A few hours feels like days and Edward wakes me from my sleep and I look around. It is night outside and the deep blue sky is full of perfect starts and blinking satellites chasing each other through space.

"Where are we?" I ask.

"Somewhere on the edge of Tennessee." He says. I look out the front window, then the sides. There is open country for miles around the road we are stopped on, land so open that I can see the horizon line. Edward gets out of the Volvo and I follow him. Stretching, I look up and see the moon high in the sky and sigh.

I am startled by Edward, who stands close to me and whispers "I have a surprise." He takes my hand and pulls me away from the van into the grass and trees. I walk behind him slowly looking around and the open country with apprehension.

"Is it safe back here?" I ask.

"Probably not." Edward says with a smile in his voice. "Probably tons of bears or something."

"Not funny."

The trees become sparser and we begin to walk through a filed of grass. "You're checking me for ticks later." I grouse.

A couple minutes walking through the field and we come to a small lake. It's surface is like glass in the night, the still pool reflecting the moon and stars and sky as they are above, but darker. The blues of night become oil slick black in the water and I am lost in its void. I stand a few feet away from the edge of the water and Edward stand next to me, his arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"I saw a water spot on the GPS and took a chance." Edward says quietly. "I promised you we would stop at a water hole."

I look over at him and he is smiling. I look back to the pool and imagine jumping in and get a vision of jumping into space and floating breathless in the antigravity. Edward steps away from me and being to take off his shirt, revealing his smooth lean body to the night.

I take a step back from him. "You want to swim here?" I ask.

He heels off his shoes. "I want to skinny dip here." Edward pulls his socks off his feet and stuffs them into his shoes.

"What if this is someone's property?"

He is pulling down his pants now. "Probably is." Boxers are gone.

"What if they come out here?"

"Look around Bella, this is like the outer Siberia of someone's property."

He walks naked to the waters edge and looks over his shoulder at me "I don't think anyone is going to be coming out here."

"What about leeches or other stuff like that?"

He bends down and touches the water with his fingers then straightens and walks the yard or so it takes to get back to me. Bushing my hair out of my face he looks at me with a glint of mirth in his marble eyes. "I'll check every inch of you when we get out." He kisses me hard, holding me close against his naked body and half arousal then stops abruptly, smiles at me, turns, and walks back to the water and slowly steps in. "Not too deep." He looks back at me and I can hear the smile in his voice. "Not too cold."

Please review. If I get a review I will post the next chapter, which is the continuation of this one. If you want to see what goes down in the water, please review.

THANKS!