A/N - Short and sweet as I want to get this one out...RL has dealt me a bit of a blow so writing has been slow this week...will do my best to have another chap out soon though! Thanks again to everyone for the lovely comments on Ang's tale so far...get your tissues for this one...don't say I didn't warn you!

As always, many thanks and much love to my betaQueen...changedbyEdward. Thanks for getting this one done for me bb...BIG HUGS!

Steph still owns everything and I am still in awe of her and just love borrowing her stuff...no copyright infringement intended!


It might have appeared to go unnoticed,
But I've got it all here in my heart.
I want you to know I know the truth, of course I know it,
I would be nothing with out you.

Did you ever know that you're my hero,
And everything I would like to be?
I can fly higher than an eagle,
cause you are the wind beneath my wings.

Fly, fly, fly away,
You let me fly so high.
Oh, fly, fly,
So high against the sky, so high I almost touch the sky.
Thank you, thank you, thank god for you,
The wind beneath my wings.

- Bette Midler -


(Angela's POV)

I made my way down the third floor hall, my footsteps silent as I ghosted past the nurses' station and towards my father's room. I held my breath, not so much in fear of the scent of blood, but to avoid the clinical odour of the cleaners that did anything but mask the smell of death that loomed on the floor.

Reaching his door, I stopped short of entering, mentally preparing myself for what I was about to face. I rested my forehead against the frame and listened to my father's struggling heartbeat. Alice had been right. I was here to say goodbye, but apart from sending him into internal damnation, which obviously was not a choice, there was nothing I would be able to do for him.

Not wanting to waste any of the time he had left, I pulled myself together and stepped inside. My eyes immediately found him and I stood with my hand still on the door, stunned at the sight of the small, fragile body that lay in the middle of the room. Moving closer I took in the dark bruised circles beneath his closed lids, the creases in his weathered brow, the silver that had taken over what was left of his hair. Although I knew the stroke had taken a lot out of him, I feared that my disappearance was more to blame for all the changes I saw.

Tearing my eyes away, I focused instead on the machines that appeared to be for the most part, keeping my father alive. Tubes and wires ran everywhere and I listened as his breathing kept in rhythm with the ventilator to his left. My fretting over what my father would think of me was most likely in vain. Part of me was relieved, yet I felt a deep sadness that he would not know I had been there.

Moving closer to his bedside, I studied his face in greater detail – taking in each wrinkle, each crease and committing it to memory. My eyes drifted away from his face to his hands, clasped together as if in prayer. Unable to resist, I pulled the visitor's chair closer to the bed, and sat for a moment, unsure if I should continue. Covering my father's hands with the blanket, I gently took one hand in mine, hoping the fabric would be enough to keep him from being chilled. Resting my cheek against the pillow, I sat in vigil, only tearing my eyes from his face to check the monitors occasionally.

"I'm here, Dad. I don't know if you can hear me, but I hope that you can. I know I should have been here sooner, but I was afraid. I know that isn't much of an excuse and I'm sorry, so sorry that I wasn't stronger. I will never forgive myself for not being brave enough to face you. I hope that someday you can forgive me." I looked at the monitors and my heart was heavy. No response. Not even a blip to acknowledge that I was there.

"Daddy, I want you to know that there was nothing you could have done. There was no way that you or Mum or anyone else for that matter could have stopped them from taking me. It has taken me a long time to come to terms with everything that happened, but the one thing I am most grateful for is that I was alone when they came. I can live with the consequences, but I don't think I could have if something had happened to you or Mum. The rest of the family needed you both and I can take comfort in the fact that you were both there to see them grow up.

I know my disappearance was hard on you. I can see it in your face and I saw it in Mum when I saw her leave tonight." I paused for a moment, my hand moving to touch his weathered cheek before recapturing his bundled hand. "I'm so sorry for the pain that it caused you. If there had been any way that I could have found my way back to you, I would have, Dad…I would have. But I was afraid that you would not have been able to understand, so I made my choice and stayed away. I hope you can forgive me for that. I want you to know that I didn't suffer for long and that even though my captors will forever haunt me – they paid for what they did to me. I know that vengeance isn't very Christian, but that is just one of the many things that has changed about me."

I buried my face against the soft blanket and fought the urge to flee the room, unsure of how to continue. There was so much I wanted to say and even though I didn't believe he could hear any of it, I felt compelled to continue. But how could I tell him? How could I put into words everything that had happened without it sounding as if I had just moved on and forgotten all about them?


(Edward's POV)

We sat together in the lofty branches of an old oak directly across the parking lot from Rev. Weber's room. Still unsure of how everything was going to turn out, I was relieved when Jasper and Alice offered to drive Angela to the hospital. As much as we didn't want to smother her, she needed to know that we were all there for her if she needed us. For that very reason, Bella and I decided to follow behind in the off chance something came up.

I really wasn't worried. The wolves knew we were in the area, Bella and Jacob had spoken on the phone several times before we made our way into Forks, just to be sure we were all on the same page. Although I still wouldn't call us friends, things had definitely improved between us and the pack, and that definitely made things easier for our visit home.

The only worry I had was Angela. The remorse and guilt she was feeling towards her father was heartbreaking and I could not help but blame myself for what she was going through. I listened as she spoke in soft tones, apologizing for things she really had no control over. Her sorrow of not being able to come to him sooner, of not being able to let them know she was all right. These were things that she could never have done before now and even if she had, it would have been risking their lives to know what really happened. Not to mention revealing to her father, a man of the cloth, that she had become something his God could never accept.

I closed my eyes and fought back the memories of that fateful day. Had I made the right choice? It was not a question I had asked myself in recent years, content to allow Angela's quiet indifference to her situation be answer enough. But now, as I listened to her pour her heart and soul out to her father, her guilt and remorse so real – I couldn't help but wonder.

"Edward, stop." I felt Bella's loving touch on my cheek and opened my eyes to meet hers. Moving closer to me, she cupped my face in her hands, her thumbs gently caressing my cheeks. "You can't go back and change things and Angela wouldn't want you to."

"I thought I was the mind reader, love." I pressed a kiss into her hand; her touch calming me as no other's could.

"I know you well enough to recognize when you are beating yourself up inside." Bella took my hands in hers, squeezing them gently. "She is going to be sad. It was different for you because your parents were already gone, but not only is she losing her father; she is losing a link to her human life."

"But you didn't feel that way about Phil and Renee." I watched my wife carefully, unsure if it had been wise to bring up her mother. We had been so worried about Bella's mother and stepfather when Victoria was on her rampage. They had disappeared around the time Charlie was killed and we feared the worst only to learn that they had relocated to Upper New York State where Phil had been offered a coaching job. Although we were relieved to find them still among the living, it had devastated Bella that her mother had basically washed her hands of her daughter once she was institutionalized. When Carlisle finalized the paperwork regarding Bella's 'suicide' and had the appropriate documents forwarded to Renee, there had been no response.

Jenks, our lawyer, informed us that there had been one phone call to confirm that funeral costs for both Charlie and Bella had been covered by the insurance and that had been the only contact. Just the memory of how cold and indifferent she had been was enough to make my skin crawl. Bella had simply shrugged it off as simply 'being Renee.' I knew it had hurt her, but she tucked the pain away and moved on.

Then, only two short years later, word came to us that Renee and Phil had been involved in a head-on collision with a tractor trailer; both of them being killed instantly. Part of me, the monster I suppose, was glad to see vengeance for how they had treated Bella. However, the rest of me mourned Bella's loss and waited for her to fall apart…to go through the same emotions that Angela was going through right now. But again, my wife surprised me, compartmentalizing it as a sad event, yet not really allowing it to affect her emotionally.

"Edward, it isn't really the same thing. Angela had never been separated from either parent before she was taken. She didn't get a chance to prepare herself for the separation or say goodbye. I hadn't seen my mother since my move to Forks, other than her fly-by-night trip when I was first committed. And before that happened…" Bella stopped.

"You had already prepared yourself because you were hoping I would turn you." I finished her thought and was overcome again by regret. This time not for Angela, but my own foolish mistakes that had caused this mess in the first place. If only I had changed Bella when she first asked, none of this would have happened. She would already have been a vampire when James, Victoria and Laurent came into our lives. James wouldn't have hunted Bella, thus Victoria still would have had her mate and never turned Mike Newton.

"Edward, stop!" I felt Bella's hands once again as she pried my hands away from my head. "You have to start accepting that some things are just meant to happen. Fate has a strange way of dealing its hand, but we have to play with what is given." Her hands once again cupped my face, her lips pressed lightly against my forehead. "I love you. I love my life and have no regrets and I think you need to ask Angela how she feels instead of trying to gauge the answer from what you hear in her head." She tapped her fist against my scalp. "Sometimes your gift is more of a curse...you know?"

I chuckled. "You're just now realizing this?"

"Well no, but I think you forget sometimes. Now, instead of hanging out in this tree with me brooding, why don't you go and help my sister?"

"Bella, I don't brood."

It amazed me how very human Bella could still appear, her eye roll being a distinct feature she had carried over perfectly with her change. Sticking my tongue out at her, I pulled her close, kissing her fiercely on the lips before moving down the tree.

"I still say you brood," I heard her laugh as I made my way across the parking lot and in through the hospital doors. I wasn't sure that Angela would want my company, but I would be close in case she did need me.

I continued to listen as I approached the door, pausing just outside as I processed the conversation in my mind. Smiling, I opened the door, Angela's eyes immediately meeting mine, questioning my presence.

"Don't stop talking, Ang. He hears you." Angela froze momentarily, staring at me, her eyes shining with the tears she would never shed. I smiled encouragingly and she looked down at her father, gasping as she saw his eyes were now open and fixated on her face.

"Dad?" Angela whispered, her hand still clutching his.

"The stroke has affected his motor skills, Ang. He has little ability, but his mind is quite clear. He can't believe you're really here." I moved closer to the bed and watched as Rev. Weber's eyes found mine. "He recognizes me as Carlisle's boy and he's wondering why I am here with you."

"What do I tell him?"

Her thoughts were chaotic and I answered softly and quickly so only she would hear. "You can tell him whatever you wish, Ang."

Understanding what I meant, she looked down at her father, his eyes again meeting hers. Even though he was unable to speak, his mind was sharp and I was not surprised when he came to an accurate conclusion. "So the legends are true then."

"He knows what we are." Angela looked at me in surprise.

"You can hear my thoughts?" Rev. Weber looked back to me and I smiled again, nodding slightly at the question in his eyes. His eyes closed for a moment and opened again. "Tell my daughter I love her and I'm so glad that she is here."

I relayed his message and then stepped back, giving them a moment just to be together – finally reunited. When Angela began to tell her father about what happened, I waited for any comment or question he might have, but he simply listened to his daughter talk. I watched the monitors carefully, ready to steer Angela away from her tale at the first sign of distress. But one never came.

I feared the moment when Angela told her father that I was the one to end her human life. How would he respond knowing his daughter's killer was in his presence? I was terrified that it would be too much for him to bear. As if sensing my fear, Angela looked towards me, her eyes locking with mine, and I froze at her words.

"Edward found me and saved me."

Overcome, I nodded when I heard the Reverend's unspoken thank you. Angela continued her story, giving her father highlights of the years she had been away, thankfully glossing over some of her more stubborn moments as a newborn. As well as her father was handling everything she was telling him, I didn't know how well he would handle some of those stories.

A lone tear trickled down his weathered cheek when Angela told him that she had completed her Masters in Renaissance Art History and hoped to complete her PhD as soon as possible. His pride was evident, but I voiced his thoughts to Angela anyway, knowing it would be good for her to know how pleased he truly was.

As Angela continued to tell her father about our family and where we had travelled, I watched the monitors closely. I knew it wouldn't be much longer as his body was shutting down and his heart was slowing. His thoughts were becoming more jumbled, but I felt him struggling to stay, even though he knew his time was near.

He caught my eye so I nodded and moved to Angela's side. She looked at me, her expression full of sadness, knowing it was time. Leaning down, she pressed her lips to her father's forehead, her hand never leaving his. "Goodbye, Daddy."

His eyes held hers for a moment and then closed. I hugged Angela close, whispering the verse her father had asked me to recite to her.

"As a shepherd carries a lamb,
I have carried you close to my heart."

"Isaiah 40:11," Angela whispered, choking a sob back as her father's hand relaxed in hers. Wrapping an arm around her tightly, I led her from the room and into the night.


End of chapter - would love to hear your thoughts...