Hello!

A huge thanks to Twilightluver2127, Ephany, secretobsession7, MacNNcheese95, Coleen561, mommymac0508, lynne0731, Everlasting Muse, mixmatched9, Snusa, Cina's, teamedwardtwilightfan and WeFallForever for their lovely reviews. Thank you!

Firstly, happy birthday Bella Swan. It feels weird saying that to a fictional character, but there you go. Its her birthday, so why not?

So this story is going to get pretty angsty from here, not that it isn't already (why do I treat these characters so terribly?) so just beware. Lol.

This chapter is named after "Broken Hearted Girl" by Beyonce. She's one of my favorite singers in the world. She's amazing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Dang!

Bella Swan's Point of View

I felt in rather good spirits as I woke up bright and early, but then again, I had been in good spirits for the last few weeks now.

Life was definitely on the up for me. Things had changed, and they had changed for the better. Tension no longer hung in the air in the Cullen household like it had previously. There were no secrets, no fears, no nothing. Peace and harmony had been fully restored between myself and the family, and I could not have felt any better for it.

In fact, the two weeks since the incident with the nomadic vampires had been some of the best of my entire life. With my trust well and truly restored in my employers, it was like nothing could stop me now. They were my friends again and they would remain that forever. Yes, they were vampires, and they were essentially dangerous, but they would never harm me, they would only protect me. This I honestly knew. I had entered this strange new world now, and I'm glad I had the Cullens with me as I explored it.

My friendships with the family had blossomed almost instantly. Whether it was Rosalie, Jasper or Carlisle, I loved them all and I wanted to be in their lives for as long as possible. After what they had done for me, how could I not?

It was 8am when I awoke, and after quickly getting dressed, I made my way downstairs and into the living room, retrieving the shoes I had left in there last night.

"Good morning, Bella," greeted Edward from his seat on the sofa. He put down the newspaper he was reading in order to greet me.

"Morning, Edward," I grinned. "How are you this morning?"

"I'm well, thank you," Edward chuckled. "You seem happy."

"I'm always happy," I said, picking up my shoes, taking a seat and slipping them on. "What's there not to be happy about?"

He laughed. "True. Where are you going this morning?"

"I was just going to see Jacob before Alice woke up."

I noticed his body tense up a little at the mention of the chauffeur's name, but the sight was gone almost as quickly as it appeared. I thought nothing of it.

"Will you let me know when she wakes up?" I quickly added.

"Sure," he smiled, relaxing back into his seat. I stood up. "Oh, and tell Jacob that Esme is going to need a lift into Seattle around lunchtime."

"I'll tell him," I replied. "Bye, Edward."

"Laters, Bella," he shouted behind me as I headed out the front door and around to the large garage at the side of the house.

I could not keep the joyous grin from my face as I walked. It was tattooed to my face with no signs of leaving. Of all the relationships to strengthen between myself and the Cullens, my relationship with Edward had come out strongest. I didn't know why this was, whether it was the fact that he had tried so hard to win me over before, whether I just found him the easiest to get along with, or whether it was because he had been the one to actually save my life from James's attack, but I felt the closest to him out of everyone.

I enjoyed his company. He was kind, sweet, sincere, funny. He made me smile, he made me giggle, he made me laugh. He looked after me and cared for me, and even made me blush once or twice. Edward was a joy to be around and I found myself wanting to spend more time with my savior. It even made me flush just thinking about it, but Edward was fast becoming one of my most favorite people in the whole world.

He's definitely my favorite vampire!

I didn't know what it was about him, but felt myself feeling more and more desperate for his company.

Still, I quickly tried to rid myself of my blush as the garage came into sight. I hurried to the large metal door which lay open and entered. Jacob was already there, filling up the cars with gas, getting them ready, no doubt, for the day. I smiled as I walked over to him.

"Care from some company?" I asked him.

He turned his head towards me, his eyes lighting up. "Hey! Morning, Bells. What you doing here so early?"

"Alice isn't up yet, so I thought I'd come by and say hello. You don't mind, do you?"

"Course not," he said, putting the gas can down. "You know you're always welcome here. How are things?"

"Great," I grinned, taking a seat within one of the cars whose door lay open. My feet dangled out of the car. "Couldn't be any better."

"I'm glad," he told me. "I much prefer seeing you like this than the state you were in a fortnight ago."

Since Jacob was one of the only friends I'd made around this place, apart from the Cullens themselves, I'd made everything that had happened no secret to him. Since Jake knew the Cullen's secret too, he'd been very easy to talk to about my confused feelings and thoughts. He always offered me a shoulder to cry on and an ear to talk to. He'd been fantastic really. He always listened to my moaning and never sent me away. He'd put up with a lot of my crap over the weeks and had really proven himself as my friend.

He'd been beyond pissed when he discovered what James had done, or tried to do, but at the same time relieved that Edward had gotten to me when he did. He was right though. I much preferred feeling like I was now that what I felt two weeks ago.

We talked for about half an hour whilst Jake continued on with his morning chores. With my spirits so high, it seemed we could talk forever. But Rosalie came to interrupt us mid-conversation, claiming there was a phone call waiting for me in the house. I gave Jake a quick kiss on the cheek, said goodbye, and made my way into the house, the first few drips of a downpour of rain just beginning.

Typical Forks weather!

I took the phone, ran up to my bedroom, sat on my bed and held the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" I said politely, a smile on my lips. "Bella Swan speaking."

"B-Bella?" came Heidi's voice. Normally, this would have filled me with joy since I would be able to speak with my sister, but her voice was not like normal. It wasn't cheery or happy like it usually was, it was melancholy and sad.

My smile dropped instantly. "Heidi, what's wrong?" I asked, my previously jolly spirit suddenly turning serious. Something bad must have happened for her tone to be as it was. Something was going on, and it didn't seem good.

"I can't… I don't'… I'm not sure…I… I…" Her voice sounded hectic and rushed.

I immediately stood up from the bed and began pacing my room in agitation, trying my hardest to calm my sister down. "Heidi, I can't understand you, you need to relax. What's happened?" I felt the strangest sinking feeling in my stomach as I uttered my question.

I heard her sobs before she spoke. "He's… he's…"

"HEIDI!" I exclaimed down the phone, begging her to snap out of it and tell me what was wrong.

"He's dead, Bella," she finally said. "Dad… he's… I found him this morning… I-"

But I didn't hear the rest of her words. The phone slipped from my hand, hitting the floor with a thud before her sentence could finish. Her voice continued to ring out from the other end of the phone, but none of it reached my ears.

… What?

My heart stopped…

My head stopped…

No…

My body filled with an unbearable numbness as the life rushed out of me…

He was… dead.

"Oh… God," I whispered as I sunk to my knees. I didn't register the pain in my body as I hit the ground; I was far too numb for that. I slowly wrapped my arms around my body as I suddenly began to shake and tremble, tears escaping my eyes, tumbling down my cheeks in streams. My breath came out in pants as my throat locked up and my heart threatened to beat right out of my chest. I didn't know what to do.

Oh lord…

It had happened, it had finally happened. I knew it was coming, of course I did, but why did it have to happen so soon?… Why did it have to happen whilst I was away?… I didn't even have the chance to say a goodbye to my father. I didn't say goodbye…

My father was dead...

"Bella?… Bella?" came my sister's voice faintly from the phone, but I ignored it. My body refused to work, the numbness spreading like wildfire. I felt the bile rise in my throat as raw emotion left my body. My chest heaved as sobs wracked through my entire being, my voice wailing and crying, the sound echoing throughout the room. I'd never heard sounds like them ever leave my lips before, they were almost primal. But I knew exactly what they were.

They were the sounds of a broken person.

Almost suddenly, my bedroom door burst open and Edward was instantly at my side. He saw my tear stained face and defeated body and his eyes widened.

"Good god, Bella, what the hell happened?" he asked me, taking my face into his hands, checking me over to see what was wrong. Ha! He thought I was physically hurt!

I could not speak, the sobs had completely taken me over. So I just continued to cry my heart out, my body trembling in what I could only describe as shock, fear and utter sadness.

"Bella," he said softly, gently whipping the tears away. "I need you to tell me what happened, please." His eyes swam with concern as I looked into them, but I couldn't speak. I just couldn't. I just wanted to cry, I just wanted to grieve, I just… wanted to be alone. I didn't want him to see me like this, so, with a big breath and without looking back, I bolted from Edward, from my room, and from the house.

I ran out of the front door, the rain immediately lashing heavily down upon me, but I did not care. I continued to run into the pouring rain and straight into the forest by the house. I could not tell which drops of water were rain and which were tears upon my cheeks as I began to run, pumping my legs as hard as I possibly could. I just wanted to escape. I didn't know why, but I couldn't stand to be inside anymore.

He was dead.

Dead… Dead… Dead.

It didn't seem real, it seemed like a horrible nightmare, and I would wake in the morning with everything back to normal. My dad would still be lying in his bed back in Phoenix, a smile on his face and his heart beating with life. This wasn't real, it simply wasn't. It couldn't be…

My foot suddenly caught itself in a fallen branch, tripping me up and sending me crashing to the ground. I lay still in the grass when I landed, no energy left in my body. I couldn't run even if I wanted to.

This wasn't a nightmare, was it? He was dead. My father was no more. He was merely just a memory now, he no longer existed. He was… gone.

The sobs shook my body again as I continued to cry tears that I didn't even realize I had left. They blurred my vision and fell down my cheeks, refusing to stop, refusing to die. I whimpered and I whined as I cried, the sounds echoing not only through my ears, but through the entire forest. The physical pain of falling was nothing compared to the mental pain of what I had just heard on the phone. The pain burned, it killed, it was like pure torture.

I continued to sob as a pair of icy cold arms gently wrapped around my fallen form, picking me up and cradling me to their body. I wondered how he had found me so deeply within the trees, but he was a vampire; of course he would find me. He carried me through the forest as I turned my face into his chest and continued to weep. His clothes were only a little wet from the rain, whereas I was completely soaked through. Thankfully, he didn't seem to mind.

"Shhh…" Edward gently soothed me, his pace slow and steady, almost moving human speed. He took me to an over-hanging tree and sat down at the base of it with me in his lap, the tree providing perfect shelter from the weather. I hid myself in his body, curling up and refusing to come out. He rubbed my back and wrapped his arms around me, trying his hardest to give me comfort where he could. I merely continued to sob and he let me until I could sob to more.

Finally no longer able to cry, I pulled my face away and rested my cheek upon his chest, inhaling his welcome scent. We were silent for a time as Edward rocked me like a baby and allowed me to calm down. Finally, he spoke.

"I… I spoke to your sister on the phone," he told me. "Bella… I'm so sorry."

"I can't b-believe he's gone," I said through a broken voice. "It doesn't s-seem real."

"It won't for a while," he said.

"It hurts so much," I whimpered, a single sob leaving my lips. "Why is it so painful?"

He didn't answer me. Instead he just held me tighter, pulling me closer, offering me a physical comfort rather than that of words. But what could he say? I knew the truth, my father was dead. Nothing could ever change that and nothing would ever make it easier.

"It feels like my heart has been torn into a thousand pieces," I whimpered. "It's killing me."

"I know," he said. "I know."

"I d-didn't think I c-c-could feel anything like this," I said.

"I know it hurts, Bella," he told me. "And it may take time for the pain to lessen, but it will eventually ease."

"How can you b-be so sure?" I asked him. How could this feeling disappear? It was the most horrible thing in the world, it would never leave me. The pain had marked me for life, like an everlasting scar that I would carry around forever.

"I'm a vampire," he explained. "I've been losing the people I love all of my immortal life."

I removed my cheek from his chest and looked up at him then, tears blurring my vision only slightly. He was looking back down at me with his beautiful bright golden eyes, but his mind was elsewhere. His face had a far off look, almost like he was recalling memories or moments within his mind.

"Did you lose your father too?" I asked him. I knew Edward was immortal, but I did not know when he was turned into what he was. Was he like Jasper - hundreds of years old - or was he turned recently?

He nodded. "I did. I lost my mother too, almost within a few days of my father."

"My mom is dead as well," I explained. "I was 11 at the time, and she died giving birth to my youngest sister."

"I'm sorry," Edward said calmly. He smiled then, his lips slowly letting a chuckle escape. "Guess we're a couple of orphans, huh?" It was his attempt to lighten the mood, if only a little.

I nodded before resting my head back upon his chest again, craving his comfort and his embrace.

"How did your parents die?" I asked him softly. Perhaps if we could share our miseries and stories and open up to each other, it could make this thing a lot easier on me. I knew it was a long shot, but if was to feel like this for the rest of my life, I needed the burn in my heart to disappear at least for a few moments.

"It happened a few hours before I was turned actually," he began. "They caught Spanish Influenza in 1918."

1918... Wow! Edward sure looks good for his age…

"Father died within a few weeks of contracting the disease. The loss of my father only served to make my mother worse and she was rushed into hospital a few days later. By this time, I'd caught the illness too and followed her there."

"You had Spanish Influenza?" I asked suddenly, shock in my voice. I looked up at him, almost making sure that he was real. Poor Edward…

"I did," he continued, looking down at me with a comforting smile, wiping a fallen tear away with his thumb. "I was just lucky that Carlisle was the doctor serving in the hospital that day. He could do nothing to save my poor mother, but he managed to save me. It was just a shame that the only cure was vampirism."

"He turned you to save you," I said, though it came out as more of a statement.

He nodded. "At first I was angry with what I had become, the monster that I now was, and the life I now had to lead. But as the years passed by and I got used to my… condition, I began to accept what I was. But in those years, I lost everyone. My family, my friends, every person who I had ever known. I remained 22 years old, whilst everybody around me slowly died, and there was nothing I could do to prevent it."

"How… how did you get through that?" I asked curiously.

"I stopped making friends," he smiled, though it was more to himself. "If everybody was going to leave me, I made sure that I didn't know anyone to leave. The pain of loneliness was far easier to bear than the pain of losing all those you love."

The words that left his mouth brought even more pain to me. To hear his story and to hear what he had to go through made me crave Edward's company even more. Yes I had lost my mother, and now I had lost my father, but he had lost everyone. At least I had my sisters, Edward was completely alone. It was true that he had Carlisle, Esme and his siblings, but his real family were lost forever and he would never get them back. He shouldn't be alone… I didn't want him to be alone…

It turned out this life as a vampire was more of a curse than a blessing.

I gently took his hand in mine, linking our fingers together. He was here for me in my time of need, he had to know that I was here for him and that I always would be. He looked curiously down at our held hands before a satisfied and content grin spread across his lips.

"How long did it take you to get over you parent's deaths?" I asked him next.

"I never did and I never will," he told me in earnest. "The death of a parent is something that you will never fully recover from, no matter how hard you try, but the pain does get a lot easier, Bella. I promise."

His words were true. The pain of losing my mother was not as raw as it had been 9 years ago, but it was still there. I still loved her and missed her every day. Now I would miss my father too.

I let go of the vampire's hand and wrapped my arms around his waist, snuggling deeper into his body. "I never even got to tell him goodbye."

He softly rubbed my back. "I know how that feels, but your father would not have held that against you. You would have been in his thoughts."

I nodded as fresh tears formed in my eyes. "I know."

I suddenly felt Edward's lips touch the top of my head, kissing my wet hair gently before he kissed my temple. My skin tingled wherever his lips touched. "I'm here for you, Bella. Just know that, ok?"

"Thank you, Edward," I whispered as I began to sob once again, my tears soaking his shirt.

"Shhh…" he said as I began to sooth me again, gently rocking me back and forth, allowing me to cry. His embrace was far more welcoming now than it had been when I first received the phone call. I no longer wanted to run from him and be alone. I wanted to remain with him and stay by his side. I wanted him to console me and tell me it was all going to be ok. Edward understood what I was going though and right now, I needed his support more than anything.

"I…I need t-to go home, I have to go back to Phoenix," I eventually said as my tears lessened. "There will be a f-funeral, and my s-s-sisters will need m-me."

"Alright," he said, standing up and carrying me with him. I shivered and Edward immediately noticed. "But first we need to get you back to the house. You're soaked through and I don't want you to catch a cold."

He held me tight and ran to the house faster than I could have ever imagined. I had witnessed Edward's speed the day he found me in the woods with those men, but this was the first time I had experienced it first hand. The wind blew through my hair and hit my face, making the whole thing seem unreal. We made it home in less than 30 seconds.

The entire family surrounded us the moment we stepped through the front door, all of them frantic with worry and alarm. Edward must have explained what had happened before he left to find me.

"Bella, are you alright?" cried Esme.

"What's happened, Bella?" asked Alice.

"You gonna be alright?" said Emmett.

"Her emotions are everywhere right now," observed Jasper.

"Can everyone please just give her some room?" Edward finally said in an annoyed tone, causing everybody to stop and calm down. I smiled at his defense and protection of me. Edward was turning out to be quite the hero today, at least he was in my eyes. "First things first, she needs to get out of these wet clothes before she falls ill."

"I'll take her," Rosalie interjected. Edward handed me to her and she ran me up the stairs to my bedroom. We were silent as she helped me change, no words really needed. Rosalie knew that if I wanted to speak, I'd make the first move. I felt like an invalid as she dressed me, but I couldn't have dressed myself to save my life. My body was so weak and in so much shock that I felt my legs would give way if I tried to stand on them.

Once I was in a set of dry clothes and Rosalie had towel dried my hair and tied it back, she carried me back downstairs to meet the rest of the Cullens. I smiled internally when Edward instantly took me from her and held me in his arms again. I buried myself in his chest as he took a seat on the sofa.

Carlisle checked me over to see whether I had been affected by the pouring rain, but he deemed me fine and healthy… well, as fine and healthy as I could be in that moment. The whole family took seats within the living room before Edward decided to speak.

"Bella's going to need to go home," he said, mindlessly playing with the tips of my hair. "I'm sure there's a funeral to arrange and she needs to be surrounded by her family right now."

Everyone agreed, with Carlisle adding, "We'll book her a ticket onto the earliest flight to Phoenix."

"How does that sound, Bella?" Edward whispered to me softly.

"That's perfect. Thank you," I replied with the best smile that I could muster.