What if the Cullens weren't the first immortals that Bella met? What if she had an encounter with a more transitory immortal while she was in Phoenix? One that had a history with Caius…

Stephenie Meyer owns the original story of course. I am just playing with the characters.

Chapter 10 – The Proposal

HEY GUYS, SORRY THIS IS LATE. WE HAD BAD WINDSTORMS LAST NIGHT. THE POWER WAS OUT FOR HOURS, AND TREES WERE KNOCKED DOWN ALL OVER THE CITY. I'M BEING TOLD THAT TWO FREEWAYS ARE CLOSED THIS MORNING, AND MY CITY HAS BEEN DECLARED A DISASTER AREA DUE TO THE POWER OUTAGE. OVER A THOUSAND TREES ARE DOWN, AND MOSTLY STREWN ABOUT THE STREETS, IF MY NEIGHBORHOOD IS ANY INDICATION. THIS WIND IS SUPPOSED TO CONTINUE FOR TWO MORE DAYS…TWO WINDOW PANES WERE TAKEN OUT IN MY ROOM, AND OUR WOODEN GATES WERE DESTROYED WHEN THE WIND USED OUR TRASH CANS AS PROJECTILES. I'LL SEE HOW THE NEXT TWO DAYS GO.

(Bella's POV)

As graduation approached, I began to get my acceptance letters from the colleges I had applied to. Of course, everything depended on the scholarship money that came with those letters. Edward wanted me to go to Dartmouth, but I knew that school was expensive. Wherever I went to college, I wanted to pay my own way. This was the subject of many discussions between Edward and me.

Edward had been spending the nights in my room, and so far Charlie had never caught us. Charlie did allow me my privacy, and the nightly doses of "Vitamin R", as the local beer was called, helped him doze off in front of the TV. I don't know why he had a separate bedroom, maybe it was only because the bedrooms came with the house. He seemed to live in the living room, spending almost all his time on the worn leather sofa in front of his beloved flat screen TV. I could have Jasper, Emmett, and Edward upstairs in my room at night with me, and Charlie wouldn't have been the wiser because he slept so soundly on that sofa.

One night, though, Edward did surprise me. We had spent the early part of the evening in a discussion at the kitchen table with Charlie about the colleges we each planned to attend. Charlie and I were having spaghetti for dinner, and Edward was managing to stir his food around without eating it. Charlie was usually very observant, but he never seemed to notice that Edward didn't actually eat. Or if he did notice, he didn't comment on it.

As our conversation about schools continued, it was clear that even Charlie could tell that our relationship was on the verge of becoming serious. I wasn't sure why Charlie seemed so stand-offish around Edward; maybe it's just the way fathers are around their only daughter's boyfriends. After all, I hadn't lived with Charlie in years, and he was still used to thinking of me as a ten year old girl.

Edward made his usual formal departure for the evening, at eight o'clock, driving off in his car. I said good-night to Charlie and then went up to get ready for bed. When I came back to my room from the bathroom, I opened the window and sat by it, waiting for Edward's return.

When he quietly slipped in the window, with raindrops still shining in his hair, he put out his hand in a gesture for me to stay seated. He got down on one knee, opened a box that held a diamond so big it belonged on a queen's tiara, and said, "Bella Swan, will you do me the great honor of being my wife?"

I was stunned, as I had not seen this coming. Edward was traditional, but getting married at eighteen? I stammered out "I have to think…" and his face fell. "I love you," I said, "but getting married at the age of eighteen? We just don't do that nowadays, unless someone has to."

Edward replied, "If we go away to college, I want to live together. And I can't do that if we're not married."

"Just give me time to sleep on it," I said, desperately trying to think of the right thing to say. "I'm not saying no, I'm just saying not right now."

Edward put the box away. He looked somewhat crushed but still slid onto my bed, in his usual position with the blanket between us. That blanket between us. If we were married, it would be removed…no, that couldn't be the only reason for marrying a vampire.

It seemed, however, that Edward had told his family of his intentions to ask me to marry him. The next weekend, when we went back to the Cullen house for our usual visit, Emmett grabbed me, swung me in the air, and said, "So when are you going to become my real little sis? You turned ole Eddie down, huh?"

"Modern couples live in sin for a while, pal. Helps reduce the divorce rate," I replied, trying to get some air despite Emmett's tight hug. I realized that if I wanted to join this family, Edward was going to make a marriage part of the deal. Without it, I would stay with Charlie, and that blanket would stay between Edward and me.

"I think you'll find the divorce rate very low among human-vampire couples," remarked Edward.

"Because if things go wrong, the human part of the couple becomes lunch?" I asked casually, and then realized the room has gone quiet.

Jasper had fixed me with an intense stare, and the others were waiting for Edward's lead to answer. Great, if they were all going to be this awkward, maybe it would be better to bring up the whole change thing right now. "Wouldn't it be easier if you just changed me, and then we did this wedding?" I asked Edward.

Suddenly, the tugging in my stomach began again. I realized that I had spent the whole day with Edward, and hadn't gone back home. Things were always easier when I was at home; I hadn't had a single tug while in my own room for quite a while.

I tried to mask it with a smile, but Jasper wasn't smiling. There was some kind of three-way communication going on between Jasper, Edward and Carlisle. When I became a vampire, I thought, I was going to put a stop to this vampire whispering too low for the human to hear. But then, why wait?

"What are you guys talking about? Don't you know it's rude to do this in front of a guest?" I demanded.

Esme eased the tension, saying, "You're hardly a guest, dear. You are at minimum my son's fiancée, and I'm glad you two have finally found one another." I smiled at her warm response, but the tug in my stomach became a pull that doubled me over. Edward immediately put both his arms around me protectively, but protecting me from what? Carlisle and Jasper both looked alarmed but not surprised.

Carlisle was the first to speak, after my breathing returned to normal. "Will you come up to my office, dear?" asked Carlisle. It clearly wasn't a real question, he wanted me upstairs. Doctor Fang has some questions, and I stifled a grimace. He'd been treating my minor ailments, such as my recent sprained ankle, sprained wrist, and cracked rib without any questions. I guess I owed him this one.

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