Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight nor any of its characters, settings or plot lines. I am not intending to pass off any part of the Twilight universe as my original work nor am I seeking to profit from this work. It is a fanwork intended only for the free (sometimes sexy) entertainment of other fans.

AN~The first half of this chapter was actually written during the draft of one of the early chapters. And almost the entirety of this is first draft which is unheard of. It just came out right the first time. The contents of this chapter kept me working toward the end of this story because I wanted to get here. I love the everloving crap out of Charlie.

Oh, yeah. Sorry about that dream. I guess everyone thought it was real. Even my husband who knew ahead of time that there was a fake-out dream.

10

I was tense for a while after my meeting with Jacob but when weeks and then a month and another month went by with nothing more happening I had started to relax a little bit.

Aro had been at my house, hanging out with Charlie on the weekends a lot. They were a little chummier than I was comfortable with but at the same time I was grateful Charlie didn't hate him since I was so ridiculously in love with him I went around with an enormous, utterly idiotic smile on my face pretty much all the time and made silly, airheaded mistakes at work often. Sherry knew what was going on because she'd seen Aro picking me up from work one night. I couldn't make up any stories about us being "just friends" because I'd had my tongue in his mouth at the time. Aro had shut down public displays after that and Sherry, as far as I knew, never said anything. Andrea's mocking did not pick up in pace which it definitely would have if she known.

I thought I did see Jacob once but it was one of those things where you think you see something and then you look back and it's gone. Like seeing a ghost. That's what it was like with Jacob because I felt a little haunted when I thought about him. My truck was still broken because Aro was driving me to and from work every day so I hadn't tried to get it fixed. When Charlie asked about it I said that Jacob was going to fix it and then trailed off like I was going to cry and he never brought it up again. Then I went upstairs and actually cried. It was sort of true what I told him. I couldn't stand the thought of driving my truck. It did nothing but remind me of Jacob. And of everything that was gone. I lived in a weird limbo between pain and joy pretty much all of the time and if it weren't for the fact that the situation swung so often further into the joy side before snapping back to the tightrope between it the two, I would have gone insane weeks ago.

Charlie had gone into the station late that afternoon which he usually didn't do on a Saturday and so Aro arrived while he was gone. I let him in and took advantage of a rare opportunity to grope him in the downstairs portion of my house. He followed me into the kitchen where I had been making food and made fun of my cooking for a minute saying he was glad he would never have to pretend to like it when we were newlyweds. I had just turned on him and was getting ready to either hit him with the spatula I was holding or start making out with him again, I hadn't decided which yet when I heard the front door. We were about an inch from each other but then Aro was across the room, not very far in our small kitchen, leaning casually against a counter. It was understandable that I hadn't heard Charlie's car but Aro heard everything. I wondered if he'd done this on purpose because I was still insisting Charlie wasn't ready to know.

But Aro wasn't the one to give us away because he was looking completely neutral, bored even when Charlie came into the room seconds later whereas I was standing awkwardly in the middle of the kitchen with a hot pink face and my arm in the air in a very awkward position. I watched his eyes take in these details and then slide over to Aro who greeted him calmly.

Well, that was that. Now Charlie would attempt to kill him and something really, really bad would happen when he discovered he couldn't. I almost said something but Charlie was looking at me again and I saw Aro shake his head behind him.

"Hey, dad," I said, trying to make myself sound as cool as Aro had done and failing spectacularly.

"Game's already started," he said shortly and left the kitchen.

I gave Aro a panicked look but he just smiled happily and left the room as well. I looked back at my burnt sandwich and suddenly wasn't hungry anymore anyway. I threw it away and started for the stairs when I heard that the TV volume was unusually low. That couldn't be good. That meant Charlie expected to be talking. I made a few, probably unrealistic, fake walking-up-stairs noises and then slid along the wall until I was just outside of the door to the living room where I couldn't be seen.

Just in time to hear Charlie say, "I need to ask you something and I'd advise you not to lie to me."

Welp, there we go. I'm dead.

"Certainly," Aro said. "I don't think I've ever found cause to lie to you yet."

"Is there something going on with you and my daughter?"

Oh God, he had scary dad voice on. I almost jumped into the room then to end the conversation which Charlie had obviously waited for me to leave before starting.

"I like her," Aro said simply.

Here we go. I just hoped Charlie wouldn't try to shoot him. While it wouldn't hurt Aro, it would certainly reveal his unnaturalness immediately and a ricocheting bullet could be dangerous to both of the squishy little humans in the vicinity.

"You like her. Okay." I heard him take a deep breath and I realized I was holding mine.

"It would be hard not to like her," Aro said and his sincerity was pretty convincing. "She's smart and funny and I believe she has the capacity to do amazing things. I wouldn't want to get in the way of her doing any of those things. I don't want you to think I have unsavory intentions toward her."

"Uh huh . . ."

I could almost hear Charlie thinking and I wished like fuck I had Edward Cullen next to me so he could tell me what was going on in Charlie's head. That was desperation, when I wanted to hang out with Edward. He had become less frigid over the last two months but was still volatile and it made me nervous.

But Aro was doing well, I thought. Complimenting me and saying he didn't want to get in the way of my life. That was good.

"She's also pretty," Charlie said. he wasn't going to let Aro get away with BS'ing him by saying he liked me for my non-physical attributes.

"She is very pretty," Aro said and the tone of his voice made me sag against the wall. I don't know what Charlie's reaction was but I think that any outside observer would have interpreted it as total adoration.

"And young."

"Yes, she is young. But she's not like a lot of other young people. She isn't . . . frivolous."

"That's true. Bella's serious. But she's been kind of . . . drifting here since she graduated." The concern in his voice made me feel both guilty and loved. Mostly guilty. "So it concerns me to have someone like you show up here and show an interest in her while she's in a sort of vulnerable state."

"That's understandable."

"Does Bella know that you . . . uh, like her?"

"She's aware."

Shit. Fan. Go.

"So you two already have a thing going on then."

He sounded more controlled than I expected which was worrying in itself.

"I've been seeing her," Aro admitted bravely.

"Great. So it's one of those things where I'm the last person to know then?"

"Well I haven't told that weird guy in the post office who smells like Cheetos . . ." Aro said smoothly.

I heard Charlie make a sound that I knew he made when he was trying not to laugh. My scary European vampire boyfriend stalker was pretty good at this.

"I guess I don't need to tell you I'm not comfortable with this, since you've been hiding it from me, you must already know that."

"That was Bella's wish, not mine."

I couldn't be mad at him for selling me out because it was true and it did sound better.

"She wanted you to like me first. She thinks people will think I'm a pervert."

"I'm not entirely sure you're not so don't take your shoes off yet. And I did like you. Right up until I found out you were secretly dating my teenage daughter."

"Do Bella's feelings factor into this conversation?" Aro asked.

"Bella's feelings."

"What I mean is, Bella is an adult and if you were thinking of doing something like forbidding her to see me or me to see her I need to confess that it's not something I'm willing to do. It wouldn't be fair to treat her like a child. If she didn't want to see me anymore, I would, of course, go away but only if she wished it."

"If we're talking about adults now we should maybe get around to how you are an adult in a way that Bella is not. Twenty years is a big gap."

"It is. But since there is nothing I can do to change that, I can't really apologize for it."

"Look, I don't know what Bella is going to be in her life but I really don't want something happening to her that would destroy her chance for a normal life before it even begins."

"I'm not sleeping with your daughter, Charlie," Aro said bluntly and I actually clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from yelping.

"I—um, okay. That's good, uh, good to know. Well, I'm not sure I really want to know but um, why? That's a little unbelievable, frankly."

"I know it sounds unlikely, but I would never intentionally do anything I thought had the potential to hurt her."

"Okay, well, I have a lot of experience at this point dealing with liars, both good and bad I believe you're not lying. So you're either a better liar than any I've ever met or you really do care about Bella as much as you say."

"I do. I intend to marry her."

Aro! What are you doing!? Stop. Now.

"You want to marry her now? You barely know each other!"

"I wanted to marry her the day I met her so any time after that doesn't really matter all the much, I think," Aro said. I didn't know if that was true but it seemed like a very stupid thing to say. I wondered if he met the day we spoke or the day he came to the coffee shop the first time.

"Which was how long ago?"

"Four months and three days."

Okay. First day in the shop then.

"Well, that's not at all creepy," Charlie said.

Yeah, Aro, way to be not creepy.

"I would like you to tell me you have not suggested this to Bella," Charlie said sternly.

"Not officially."

"Okay, well I need you to not do that. Bella's too young to get married."

"I would take care of her."

"That's not the point. She shouldn't be tied down. She needs to experience the world a little."

"She would be able to see as much of the world as she likes, do anything she likes, I have the resources to make certain of that."

"Telling me you're rich isn't an incentive. I'm not selling my daughter."

"I'm not trying to be obnoxious. I just want to impress upon you that I would never do anything to hold her back and everything I can to make sure she's happy."

"Okay. Enough. That's enough for now. Obviously, I cannot forbid Bella to see you because that would end badly. So I'm just going to ask you to please not propose to her."

"For how long?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well, I'd feel weird just waiting around for you to tell me when it's okay for me to ask my girlfriend to be my wife."

"If you like her you'll wait," Charlie said.

"As you wish."

But I knew he was going to ask me again as soon as possible and seriously this time. I knew it wasn't as big of a deal as becoming a frigging vampire but it seemed scarier. Maybe because people would actually know about this. And judge me. Judge us.

I heard someone stand and I immediately bolted for the stairs as fast and as silently as I could. I was at the top step when I heard them enter the hallway in front of the door.

"Bella?" Charlie didn't sound amused. I turned around quickly and as casually as I could which resulted in me nearly tripping and falling down the stairs. Aro smiled at me and I nearly fell over for a different reason. I managed to just stand there, looking as innocent as possible but Jessica was right, I was a terrible liar. Even when I wasn't talking.

"It's pretty obvious you were spying so you can stop acting coy. I don't like looking stupid and I feel like I look pretty stupid right now so don't test me. No more sneaking around." He cast a mistrustful glance at Aro and looked back up at me grumpily. "I thought you were on drugs. I almost wish you were . . ." Then he turned and went back to the living room.

I came halfway down the stairs, bending to see into the other room. Charlie had resumed his seat and was staring fixedly at the TV, obviously attempting to avoid seeing any kind of affectionate activity between us. I straightened back up and smiled down at Aro. He was standing at the foot of the steps, looking up at me. I jumped and he caught me perfectly. I peeked at Charlie again before kissing him like I hadn't seen him in a week.

"Marry me," he whispered in my ear.

"You promised you wouldn't," I scolded.

"It's not official! I don't even have a ring."

"That's really cheap of you."

"I do actually have a ring."

"You know a ring isn't what I want though . . ." I said, biting his earlobe.

He made a nervous sound and said, "You father doesn't have vampiric hearing but you should probably not be saying or—ah aaaah—doing things like that right here."

"But it's okay for you to propose when you just said you wouldn't?"

"Unofficial!" he reminded me.

"I guess I can unofficially say yes. Then you'll have to have sex with me. It's the law."

"I don't think that's a law anywhere. Unless you're required to produce an heir . . ."

"And that won't happen."

"No, I don't think so. You didn't want that did you?" he looked a little worried for a moment.

"No. Definitely no. I'm not maternal."

"That's good. You'd kill a baby so fast."

"That's a fucking horrible thing to say!"

"What? I've seen you trip over literally nothing. You'd drop a baby in a ravine or something."

"I wouldn't drop my baby!"

"Baby?" Charlie was standing in the doorway to the living room. I had said this last part too loudly. He was giving Aro a murderous look. We dropped our arms from around each other and I backed up managing to sit on the stairs in a way that almost looked intentional instead of falling over them.

"We were just talking about how we hate babies and never want to have any," I said.

"I don't hate babies," Aro said. "They smell nice."

Charlie looked back and forth between us. Aro was looking annoyingly chipper and I was poorly suppressing hysterical laughter.

"Well, it's getting late," Charlie said. It was six thirty.

"Yes," Aro agreed. "I promised Carlisle I would help him with a project."

"I'll walk you out," I said, bouncing up from the stairs.

Charlie glared, he wasn't oblivious to the fact that if you told your boyfriend you'd walk him out when he was standing at the front door that what you really meant was, "I'm going to go make out with you at your car for a minute."

"I'm going to go out back. Split firewood," Charlie mumbled awkwardly.

I heard the back door closing as I was closing the front one. Then I started laughing. I walked to the car with him and then backed him up against his door and started kissing his neck. He moaned a little and then pushed me back.

"I know your father said he was going out back but I'd prefer that he didn't come around and see you doing that to me in his front yard. I know he couldn't actually kill me but it would be bad for everyone if he were to try. And as he is currently hitting something with what sounds like a very sharp ax we should be extra cautious. He'd likely hurt himself."

"You're a really boring stalker."

"I'm trying to convince you to become a vampire and take you away to Italy with me, this is boring for you?"

"Meh."

"You're a strange girl."

"Come see me later?"

"How much later?"

"Surprise me."

"Oh that I could. You are unshockable."

"You just have to try harder," I said and walked away.

I heard an exasperated sound and then a car door. I turned then and watched him drive away with a light feeling of hope inside of me. Charlie knew finally. It was over. Now it didn't matter who knew. I went back into the kitchen but I still wasn't hungry, I opened the fridge and stared into it so long the light went off. I shut it when Charlie came in from out back, stripping off dirty industrial gloves.

He looked at me for a long time. I smiled back, trying to look the right amount of innocent and mature.

"Arrow."

"What?"

"That 'friend of Jacob's' that called. 'Arrow', that was him wasn't it?"

"Yes. But even I didn't know his name then so my guess could have been right . . . I mean, you talked to him . . ."

"But you knew because you knew he was going to be calling."

"He said he would but I didn't know when."

"Is this why Jacob and you broke up? I really hope not, Bella because he's—"

"A really nice boy?" I'm sure the irritation in my voice was unmistakable. "I know. because everyone keeps telling me that! Well, he broke up with me, okay? And Aro is really nice too, which you already know, so don't start down that road unless you're going somewhere with an actual point and not just planning to yell at me about my choice of boyfriends."

He looked defeated and my indignation was crushed immediately under the massive weight of months of compiled guilt.

"I'm your dad, Bells. I'm supposed to protect you. But it looks like I didn't do a very good job of that."

"This isn't your fault. I mean, I was already dating him when you guys became friends."

"Great. That's great. So all of this was a plot? That doesn't make me feel any better."

"No. It wasn't like that. Look, you invited him over, not me. What would you have done if I had said something then? Or at any time?"

"Something not very nice I guess."

"You like him dad, so what's the problem?"

"I liked him as a sports-watching-occasional-drinking buddy. Son-in-law is a whole different thing, Bella. He's too old for you."

Oh, if only you knew how old, twenty human years would be nothing.

"Well, I don't think that's really your decision. I mean, I wasn't going to stay in Forks forever."

"Are you talking about leaving?"

It hadn't occurred to me that the worst thing he had imagined so far was that Aro would get me knocked up and then we'd stay in Forks and I might end up as unhappy as Renée had been. He was seeing his own past in me and it must have been heartbreaking.

"Um, you knew he was just visiting here so . . ."

"Yes, I knew that when we were friends but when he starts talking about marrying you the first thing that occurs to me is not when he's going to take you away from m—from Forks."

"Wait, you want me to stay in Forks now? I thought you wanted me to experience the world? I've experienced this part of the world, believe me."

"You have an aunt in Canada."

"Whoa. No, wrong century."

"I just meant that if you really want to get out of here, you don't need to marry some guy because he's promising you all of these things."

"That's not why I'm marrying him, dad. I love him."

There, now I had told everyone except Aro. Even Jessica knew.

"You—" he stopped, probably trying to decide which thing was more upsetting, that I said I'd already decided to marry him or that I said I loved him.

"I'm going to have a good life," I said. I was trying to be reassuring but I didn't know how well I was doing. "Aro loves me." I think. "He's not going to hurt me." Except for that whole turning me into a vampire thing.

"You're eighteen, Bella. What do you know about love?"

"I'll be nineteen in two days. And what do you know about it?" I said cruelly.

He winced like I had punched him in the stomach and I'd never regretted saying anything so much. I was about to break down and hug him when the phone rang. He just stood there so I slipped by and picked it up. It was Jessica.

"Hey! Do you want to go into Port Angeles tomorrow?" she asked. She had on a bubbly voice but she sounded really tired.

"Uh, maybe, why?"

"Because I need a dress."

I recalled Alice's words about going shopping with Jessica the Saturday before my birthday. But this was the Saturday before my birthday, she was asking me to go on Sunday. Wait, Alice said if Jessica asked me to go on the Saturday not asked me to go on Saturday.

"Uh, yeah sure."

"Wow. I thought I'd have more trouble than that. You and the Count have a fight or something?"

"No, he's fine, we're fine. I'll tell you about it tomorrow."

"Cool. I'll pick you up at eleven."

"I think we should go earlier," I said, still eyeing Charlie, who seemed to be recovering from my revelations and my insensitivity.

"All right, ten."

I sighed. "Yeah that sounds good. See you."

"See you, bitch!"

She hung up. I stared at the phone for a minute. I wished she would stop calling me that. But I was grateful to Jessica for being my friend the last few months. We'd gotten strangely close. As she got further from high school, she got less silly and I started seeing a real person emerge, one I could definitely have moved to Seattle with if I weren't already going to Italy. Someday.

"I'm sorry, dad," I said. "I never expected this to happen, you know? He just showed up here and we met and . . . I know this looks crazy, but we're right together. I can't explain it to you."

I could tell he wasn't very moved by my lame little speech.

"Yeah. He did just show up here. That doesn't seem suspicious to you?"

"What, you think he just came to live with his sister so he could stalk this tiny town for a girl to seduce? There are better places than here for that."

"Don't joke, Bella. Something is off with him and you know it. Middle-aged men don't just come and live with their sisters for no reason. Something wacky happened wherever he was living before, I guarantee it."

I guess I had underestimated the depth of knowledge Charlie had of human behavior from his police work. I assumed that being the police chief in Forks was kind of a throwaway job and now I felt ashamed of it. Charlie wasn't a fool and he was closer to the truth—at least about Aro's motivation for coming here—than I would have ever gotten myself.

"He's not middle-aged, he's still in his thirties." His thirty hundreds. "And you're right, something happened. But I know about it so you can relax. He's not hiding anything from me."

"What's his last name again?"

"No. You are not running a background check on him." I wasn't even sure anything would come up. "He's doesn't even live in this country!"

"Well, we have ways of communicating with other countries."

"You're going to run an international background check on an innocent man for no reason other than he wants to marry your daughter? Don't you think that's going to sound crazy to the International Background-Checking Bureau?"

"They have daughters, too."

"Fine. It's Maida. M-A-I-D-A. But you won't find anything, because he hasn't done anything."

Except eat thousands of people.

"I'm sorry, Bella. But I have to trust my instinct over your love-addled brain. Something is off with him and unless you let me check it out . . ."

"I know what you're talking about," I blurted. Oh. Crap.

"Oh?"

"He's . . . sick."

"Sick."

"Yes. He has a terminal illness." But I didn't sound very convincing because I really should have appeared more upset about the man I was supposedly in love with dying.

"Well, if you're going to tell me a lie like that, it must be something pretty bad."

Desperately I scrabbled around for something. I knew what I could say but it wouldn't make Charlie like him any better. But he would like the truth a whole lot less . . .

"Okay, fine. He's . . . married."

"Yeah, that part was obvious already, Bella."

"What do you mean?"

"It's not hard to spot a cheating husband if you know what to look for. It would also explain why he's going after someone so much younger."

Rage was climbing up inside of me. I was just trying to make him feel better so he didn't worry and this is what I was getting back?

"It's not like that. They haven't been together for a long time. He's trying to find her so they can finalize their divorce."

"Find her?"

"He doesn't know where she is right now."

"So his wife is off somewhere hiding from him? That sounds like a safe bet. I'm completely relieved now."

"She's not hiding from him," I said through my teeth but now I was seeing how bad this all sounded. Or maybe it was that bad and I just didn't see it. "They—don't you trust Dr. Cullen?"

"What does he have to do with it?"

"You've always liked him and he's known Aro for a really long time," a really, really long time, "don't you think he would have stopped this if there was something bad about Aro?"

He looked like he didn't know how to answer but still wanted to argue.

"Aro hasn't done anything to make you suspect him, so I'm going to ask that until he does that you trust me and believe that things are as I say they are. Please?"

"The second something does—"

"You can haul him away to the Prison For Inappropriate Boyfriends. Now. I'm going to go upstairs and call him and let him know that, for now, he's not going there. I will ask you not to listen in out of respect for my adulthood and because you don't want to hear some of the things I intend to say to him. About our honeymoon." That was mean. But he kind of deserved it. And it would stop him from even thinking about picking up the other phone.

It was still early but I put on my pajamas anyway. I wasn't going anywhere after that.

I dialed Aro's number and it took him three rings to answer. Just enough to make nervous.

"Hello, my love," he said.

Love. He hadn't told me that he loved me either. That's why I was still waiting I think. I didn't want to look like the dumb, inexperienced one by saying it too soon and it felt like anytime before he said it was too soon somehow.

"Hi. So, Charlie isn't going to attempt kill you. But he also thinks you're an international criminal of some kind and I barely talked him out of a background check. And he knows you're married."

"That was a busy half hour for you," he said sympathetically. "You can let him run the background check if it makes him feel better. On paper in the human world I'm even more impressive than I am in person. Military service, a few small patents and some very large donations to several European children's hospitals. He'll be asking me to marry you."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen. But it would be nice if he just didn't hate you. And stopped thinking you were hiding some great evil from me."

"Nope. Already told you all about it. His problem is his daughter's poor judgement, not my deception. So he thinks I'm a cheating rogue now does he?"

"I told him you and she weren't really together anymore and you didn't know where she was so that's why you weren't divorced but something about the way I said it made it sound like she was in hiding because you beat her."

He laughed loudly. "Me? Beat Sulpicia? That's hilarious. And I'm sure it was nothing you said, he's a police officer and a father, if he's decided not to like me, everything I do from now on will appear cloaked in darkness."

"Guess it's good you look so hot in the dark then."

"Do you honestly think about nothing else?"

"Before me met: No. Afterwards: Basically, yeah. I'm addicted to your sexy vampire pheromones. So if you don't want me following you around literally forever drooling on you, you should probably take this opportunity to skip town like the deadbeat Charlie thinks you are."

There was a pause.

"I told him not to listen in lest he hear me saying something dirty, don't worry. I know Charlie, he wouldn't dare."

"It's not that. I just feel bad about putting a wedge between you. I said I was going to do whatever I could to make you happy and already I'm failing."

"You are not failing in making me happy, I promise. Charlie will get past this as long as there aren't any more surprises. Maybe. Just act as normal as possible."

"I intend to become so boring you won't even be interested in me anymore."

"Yeah. I wish I hadn't brought up that married thing. I couldn't think of what else to say."

"Don't worry about that. I'll take care of it."

"Okay," I said skeptically. "Just be careful about how you do it. He'd figured out a lot of things that surprised me just while he was outside."

"Oh, I doubt that. I'm pretty certain he's suspected us for a while. He's not stupid and we weren't very subtle. Well, you weren't, I should probably have an award of some kind."

"Coming to my bedroom to feel me up when you were supposed to be in the bathroom is subtle?"

"Well, I never got caught. It's the same thing."

I could hear him smiling. I wanted to see him so badly it was painful. "I miss you," I said. Then immediately felt lame.

"Would you like me to turn into a bat and come to your window?"

"Yeah. But be quiet, because Charlie is not in the mood f—" I was interrupted by a tapping sound. I looked up and he was hanging, casually, by one hand from the top of the window casing, holding a cell phone to his ear with the other. I hung up and unlatched the window. He kissed me as soon as the glass between us was gone, still dangling twenty feet from the ground.

"I can't turn into a bat. Sorry."

"I was joking. I didn't think you'd actually come here!"

"Oh, well, I can leave if you—"

I cut him off with another kiss and he allowed me to pull him in the window.

"I'm glad you did. Will you stay?"

"I don't think that's very safe."

"No, it's okay. Charlie never checks on me and he always knocks."

"He is not the one I'm afraid of," he said, gently removing my fingers from the buttons on his shirt. "I've been here less than a minute and you're already trying to undress me. I think we have some things to discuss. Which is why I really came over."

"Ug. All we do is talk." I flung myself back onto the bed dramatically.

"Just talk to me for a few minutes and then I promise I will kiss you until you cannot breathe before going home."

"It won't take much."

He made a humming noise and closed his eyes then shook his head as though to clear it before turning to me. I had moved back so I was propped on the pillows, my knees drawn up. I was fully aware that my night shirt was too short for this to be in any way modest. I saw his gaze flicker to my exposed underwear before staunchly pretending I wasn't half naked.

"It's time," he said.

"What? For what? You said we weren't going to . . ."

"Not for that, Isabella. My goodness, girl. You've anticipated that so much I can't possibly do anything but disappoint you when it does happen. I'm talking about you turning."

"Oooooh. But what about Charlie? He only just found out. I thought we were going to let get him used to the idea of us before, you know, we leave."

"Is he going to 'get used to us' you think?"

"No. Probably not. It might be worse actually the longer he has to think about it."

"It sounds like we're more justified it moving quickly than waiting. As long as you're ready of course . . ."

"I'm ready," I said without hesitation.

He smiled. "You should probably see your mother."

"Yeah, about that. I was thinking that she might be able to visit in Italy sometime later. If I look kind of different she'll think it's just living in Europe and being all rich and snobby."

"Oh, so you think you're going to be spoiled, do you?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"You're probably right. You will have to win over Marcus and Caius I'm afraid. Marcus is a sweetheart, he'll be easy but Caius . . . he's a little prickly. Might take some delicate work."

"Well, good thing I have forever. I'll just accidentally knock him down a flight of stairs or something. Dudes love that."

"I'm sure you'll manage to find a way in spite of yourself."

"I'm really excited."

"So am I. What would to you like to do for your last human birthday?"

"Be with you."

"Wouldn't you like to see your friends?"

"Oh yeah, guess I should do that. I still want to see you though."

"I'm not trying to get rid of you, my dear. I will be there too."

"Wait. You already have something planned don't you?"

"So suspicious. Are you ready for the kissing part now?"

"You're trying to distract me."

"Well, I could just leave as well. I have plenty of other things to do . . ."

"Nice try." I slid over and climbed into his lap, straddling him. I gave him a look and tilted my head to the side, exposing my neck to him. He glanced at the door and then looked down at my bare legs and how my shirt had ridden up to the tops of my thighs and nervously asked if I had pants I could be wearing.

"Sorry, I burned them all."

"That's going to make for an awkward birthday if all of your friends are coming along."

"I'll buy some new ones tomorrow. Jessica is making me go to Port Angeles with her."

He was true to his promise to kiss me until I couldn't breath and I was right in my prediction that it wouldn't take long. Far too soon he moved me off of him and got up to leave.

"Soon, my sweet."

"Sigh."

"Call me when you get back from shopping."

"Sure."

"Monosyllabic now?"

"Yup."

"I'll miss you."

A thing I couldn't answer with one syllable without being rude.

"Cheat."

"You are really pretty you know."

"Thanks."

"You should marry me."

Well that was yes or no.

"Fine."

"What a lovely acceptance. I'm going to go record that in my diary."

"Cool."

"Goodnight, pretty girl."

"Night."

He kissed my forehead and disappeared out the window again.

Sweet.

END NOTES:

You may have noticed that I often leave the hyphen out of word combinations that should technically have them. I do this with words I think should be considered single words because their common usage has more than justified their designation as a valid word. Ex. "douchebag", "airhead", "fuckface". That last one isn't in this story, I just like it. Also my iPhone autocorrects the word "douche" to "doucheface" now so I guess I've used that a few times as well. I don't think there is a standard grammatical agreement about the punctuation for "BS'ing" so I chose the one I like best.

Apparently there is a missing "to" in here somewhere and that could take a while to find. So instead of making you wait, I will post this now and fix it later. If I can find it.

/mostboringANever

Fave lines: I was seriously laughing so hard about that Cheetos thing that I couldn't even tell my friend about it.

And then that fucking asshole thing Bella said about Charlie not knowing anything about love. Damn man. That exchange made me a little teary on the final edit.

Unnamed Guest: Thank you for loving that I am a dork who likes my own lines. I figure that, as a writer, if you don't enjoy your own work enough that you would love it as someone else's then you shouldn't be requesting that other people use their time reading it.

Nina: I'm fairly certain the first line of that review made me blush.

01katie: Your ASAFP makes me laugh.

ladymoonscar: It could have been worse. The concept for that dream was originally the epilogue. Because who kills the main character in the epilogue? Me. Because I am an asshole.

Savysnape7: I just love your reviews. They're so manic I'm forced to read them super fast in a really excited, shaky voice in my head. They just make me happy.

psycho-doll-behind-you: You came in late and reviewed every chapter. I love your fucking guts.

Gigi: My husband works at arguably the best genetics laboratory in the country. I'll see what I can do.