Disclaimer: This chapter contains dialogue quoted from the movie, New Moon. No copyright infringement is intended.

Song: Hoppípolla-by Sigur Rós. Literally, "Hopping into Puddles." It's beautiful and ethereal and hopeful and perfect. But if you don't happen to speak Icelandic, I highly suggest also looking up the English cover by The Royalrey on YouTube.


EPOV

I was pretty sure I was in Canada by now. I had run for a long time. I'd found a herd of elk and had just drained my third. I sighed. Sometimes I tried to hold back when I went hunting alone, but today, I just couldn't help it. I was very thirsty, and angry, and sad, and confused.

As I sniffed the air, trying to get the trail of where the rest of the elk had fled, I smelled something quite different.

Bella? I automatically turned toward the scent, thinking her name for the first time in six years. I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. I turned away. It wasn't her. My love was dead.

But the wind blew in my face again, and I inhaled deeper. Freesia and strawberries. Could it be?

I was gasping now, taking in big gulps of the scent before the wind changed. It was terribly, achingly familiar, yet it wasn't making me thirsty. Whoever the scent belonged to, it was a vampire. Could it be?

Before I had time to process any other thought, before I could fully realize that this was stupid, and dangerous, and I would probably fall deeper into despair when it turned out not to be her-before I could reason with myself and think all that out fully, I was off. I was after the scent. I had to see who it belonged to. I would regret it forever if I didn't.

It didn't take long for the scent to grow very strong. The stronger it got, the more hopeful I felt. I closed my eyes, letting visions of Bella fly through my mind. They weren't all pleasant, but it didn't matter if she was, somehow, here. It didn't matter, nothing would matter, it would all be all right.

I only opened my eyes when I heard a shriek right in front of me. I skidded to a halt, but it was too late. I collided, nearly at full speed, with the vampire whose scent I had been tracking. Apparently, she had been tracking me, too.

There was a sound like thunder. The collision knocked us both back several yards. I was lying flat on my back on the ground, staring up at the sky. I scrambled to my feet. I couldn't hear her thoughts. I had to see her, had to see her face, if it was-

It was.

I ignored my suddenly shrill, ringing cellphone. It wasn't hard. I hit my knees. Our surroundings melted away. There she stood: My Bella. It was undoubtedly her. And she was different, yet the same.

She was like me. That was undeniable. First, she did not look a day over eighteen. (Well, maybe eighteen-and-a-half.) She would be twenty-four this year. But she wasn't. She was eighteen. She was like me.

Second, her eyes: Her eyes were now the same color as mine: Golden. Not the brown I had known and loved-a stark yellow. I knew what this meant, and I was pleasantly surprised and unimaginably proud of her.

And third, she was...different. Her skin was even paler, the same shade as mine. Her heart-shaped face was still there, the slightly fuller bottom lip, the big eyes and straight nose. And yet she was different. Not a bad different, just...different. Slightly. Less frail, I decided. That, of course, was a good thing.

But the best thing was that she was alive. She was alive. And she was here. Here with me, right in front of me. Unless...unless I was hallucinating again...But this was unlike any hallucination I had ever experienced before.

"Bella," I breathed.

We had not torn our eyes away from each other since they'd first met. She was crouching slightly. She looked slightly frightened and wary, like so many of the deer I'd hunted, when they'd first sensed me nearby. I couldn't imagine what was going through her mind. That had not changed, and I wasn't sure whether I was relieved or disappointed. Maybe both.

But when I said her name, she straightened slightly and tilted her head. "Yes?" she said. Her voice was like bells. How serendipitous.

"You're here," I choked.

She was looking increasingly confused. I barely noticed. "I'm here," she said politely.

"You're alive," I breathed. I finally allowed myself to smile.

And then she said the words that cracked my newly-healed stone heart in two.

"I'm sorry," she said, sounding unsure of herself. "Have we met?"


BPOV

I wasn't sure of the boy I'd run headlong into, nearly cracking us both in half. He looked like a boy; he couldn't be much older than me.

He was handsome, I decided quickly, and...vaguely familiar. I didn't need to scan my perfect vampire memory to realize that I must have known him when I was human. Had we both been human? Or had I been friends with a vampire while I was human? Either way, how strange, I thought.

I didn't even know if we were friends or enemies. I hoped we were friends. But better safe than sorry. I crouched slightly, trying to keep my expression neutral. I didn't want to set him off, if he was dangerous. He looked wiry, but I was small. It would be a fairly even fight, if it came to that, I thought.

But it didn't.

He looked utterly shocked to see me. His mouth fell open, and his eyes bored into mine. He was the only other vampire I'd ever seen with yellow eyes. He shared my diet, if Garrett's theory was correct. Amazing! Had I been right? Could he be one of the fabled Cullens?

He fell to his knees. I heard a shrill ring. I saw the outline of something I guessed was a cellphone in his pants pocket. He didn't answer it. I was starting to be concerned for him, and then, sure enough:

"Bella."

He knew my name. We had known each other. And if he hadn't made a move to attack me yet, I felt that we must have been friends. I relaxed my stance slightly.

"Yes?" I said. I didn't know what else to say.

"You're here."

I was starting to be deeply worried for him. Had he lost his mind, or was he just that surprised? Could vampires even lose their minds? I felt like I had, sometimes...

"I'm here," I agreed. The last thing I wanted to do was upset him, partially out of concern for his safety and mine. Partially, I just didn't want to see him upset.

"You're alive." And then he broke into a cautious smile that was achingly familiar, a crooked almost-full grin. I felt my knees go a little weak at it.

There was no way around it. How could I break it to him gently that I didn't remember him? He certainly remembered me. Maybe we had just been passing acquaintances, I hoped feebly.

"I'm sorry," I said, as politely as I could. "Have we met?"

His face crumpled, and I felt my stone heart sink. I was sure his was doing the same.


EPOV

My fragile, newly-rebuilt world came crashing down. She didn't remember me. Human memories did fade, I reminded myself. Or was she just pretending, a flimsy excuse to make me walk away from her again? If that was true, was she angry? Or had she truly moved on? Was there someone else in her life? My mind was racing with the possibilities.

Numbly, I became aware again of my cellphone, buzzing wildly in my pocket. "Excuse me, for just a moment. Please don't leave," I said to Bella. I hated to interrupt our reunion, but maybe Alice could shed some light on the situation. Who else could be calling me at a moment like this?

Not daring to take my eyes off Bella, I pulled out my phone and answered it. "Alice?" I said.

"She doesn't remember you," Alice's voice said, speaking at a mile a minute. "I don't know how it happened, who did it or why. How could I have been so wrong?"

I just shook my head, taking Bella in. She was staring at me cautiously again, no doubt listening to every word Alice was saying. She knew we knew her, and I hoped she knew we were friends. We were friends, weren't we? Oh, but how could she consider me a friend after what I'd done to her, what I'd put her through! Had she really jumped off a cliff in her grief? Or had Alice been wrong about that too? It was so strange. I couldn't remember a time Alice had been wrong. But this was big enough to mess up her average for a long time.

"Listen, Edward, you have to bring her home. We have to sit down and talk about this. We have to figure out-oh!" Bella's eyes went wide at the word, "home," and a split-second later, she was gone.

"Bella!" I yelled. I dropped the phone and took off after her.

Had she been a newborn, she would have been faster than me, and I had no doubt I would have lost her again, possibly forever. But luckily, she wasn't, and I was still one of the fastest vampires in existence. I caught up to her shortly.

I kept pace with her for a while, but she kept shooting glances at me with those big, frightened eyes, and trying to run faster. I wanted to just keep up with her and wait for her to calm down, but the longer we ran, the more I realized that for some reason, her fear was animal, primal.

We were nearing a hiking trail. I could hear people's thoughts from a distance. We had to stop soon, or there was the chance we would be spotted. I realized what I had to do, and I didn't like it.

"I'm sorry," I called to her. She had time to glance at me again, baffled, before I launched myself at her.

I drew my arms around her and brought her down like a deer I was hunting, but I did it as gently as I could. I knew that she was a vampire now, nearly indestructible and not easy to kill, let alone hurt, but I couldn't help wincing as I did it. She wasn't an animal, she wasn't a bit of prey. She was a woman, the woman I loved, my Bella, and I wouldn't have stopped her against her will unless it was absolutely necessary.

I rolled in the air so I was the one who hit the ground. It knocked the wind out of me, but that was of little consequence.

I'd caught her so her back was to me, but I could tell from the way she was hissing that she was unhappy with me.

I was distressed about that. But though I would never admit it, I, personally, was ecstatic. I was touching her for the first time in nearly six-and-a-half years, and thrills of electricity were coursing through my body. She was really here. She was really alive. She was really with me. If only she remembered me. If only she could forgive me. If only she could be happy, too. Then things would be perfect.

But they weren't, not yet.

"Let me go," she spat.

"I'm sorry, Bella, I can't," I said. "I tried that once, and things weren't right for a long time. They still aren't."

"What are you talking about?"

I sighed. It seemed like she really didn't remember.

"Please, Bella. I understand you're angry. But please, come home with me and we'll figure this out."

She started to tremble in my arms, and she didn't speak. She must have been livid-understandably so. I worked up the nerve to spin her around in my arms and look at her face.

I was wrong. She wasn't angry, she was scared. Terrified. Her lips were parted and her eyes were wide. "Bella?"

No response. I shook her gently. "Bella?"

"I-can't-go-home," she finally got out. Was she having a panic attack? Could vampires have panic attacks?

"What?" I said.

"I-can't-go home," she whispered. She was trembling so hard and fast she was vibrating. "Jake-said-"

"What?" Jake who? Was this my replacement? I thought about killing him.

She swallowed the venom the panic had caused to pool in her mouth. "Jake said-they would kill me-"

Jake? As in, Jacob? Jacob Black? Her Quileute friend? Whatever the case, this settled it. Whoever this Jake was, I would kill him.

"-if I-went home."

She managed a deep breath and buried her face in my chest. "Idon'twannadie, Idon'twannadie, Idon'twannadie..." She kept going like that.

I just held her. I held her tight and rocked her and made unhelpful shushing noises, but it was all I knew how to do. She wasn't going to hear me until she calmed down.

Eventually, the panic passed. She stopped vibrating and then went silent. I stopped rocking and stopped the shushing noises. I pushed her away from me so I could look into her eyes.

"Bella," I said calmly, "it's okay. I won't make you go home."

She breathed a sigh of relief, almost collapsing back onto me. "Thank you," she breathed.

"My family will come here."

She was on her feet a yard away from me, wary. "Who said I wanted to talk to them?" she said. "I don't even know who you are!"

I sat up, making certain to keep a calm demeanor. "Bella," I said patiently. "You may not know us, but we know you. We knew you when you were human." She tilted her head, intrigued. "We mean you no harm. If I had wanted to harm you, I could easily have done it a few minutes ago." She looked down, embarrassed. Her embarrassment could not compare to my shame. She didn't realize that I had caused her harm, but that had been the last thing I had intended. "I just thought we could give each other some much needed answers, that's all."

She didn't have to think long. "Okay," she said. "Okay."

I smiled and got up. I gestured for her to follow me, and she did, to my delight. We ran back to where I had dropped the phone. I could hear it ringing, but once I found it, I picked it up and put it on silent. They could make the travel arrangements without my input. Alice would have seen what I told Bella.

Wouldn't she? Her blind spot concerning Bella seemed to be gone now. Hmm. I would call her when we got back, just to make sure.

I started to head back to the compound, Bella not far behind me. I looked back at her. She was perfect. She had been perfect before, but she was perfect now, too. She was just a different kind of perfect.

She looked down shyly when she noticed my gaze, just like she always did, but something was missing. I realized, sadly, that I could not make her blush anymore. I shook my head. It was a small price to pay to have her here with me. I slowed down, so we were at an even pace. Did I dare?

I held out my hand to her. She looked at it deliberately for a long time, and then took it.

My heart soared. Everything was going to be all right.


A/N: I was really, really nervous about putting this chapter up. I hope it lived up to expectations. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review and alleviating my anxiety! Constructive criticism is also welcome, of course. :)