Full Circle

Disclaimer: All Twilight characters and settings were created by Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: Back again! Who remembers 2007? Let's bring it back...

Listen To: Run by Matt Nathanson (ft. Sugarland)

Chapter 10 - We Crash and We Roll

Edward Cullen

February 10, 2007

"Come on man, rip 'em open. Just like a bandaid. Get it over with quick."

Edward glanced at his brother quickly before returning his gaze to the pile of unopened envelopes sitting in front of him. Rosalie, Emmett's girlfriend since New Year's Eve, was perched on his lap in their seat across the table. He looked to his right, where Bella sat, smiling supportively. He sighed, running his hand through his hair.

If only it were like the old days, when you could tell whether or not you got accepted to a school from the size of the envelope. All the admission paperwork was online these days. The envelopes looked the same regardless of whether they were accepting or rejecting you. The small pile of innocuous-looking envelopes mocked him from the middle of his kitchen table.

"This is what you've been waiting for," Bella encouraged. Sensing his hesitation, she placed a reassuring hand on his arm. "Do you want me to open them?"

Edward took a deep breath, shaking his head. He could do this.

He stared at them some more.

Just like a bandaid.

Rip it off. Rip them open.

Bella reached out to grab an envelope from the pile and held it out to him. He brought his eyes up to hers, and shook his head again. She raised her eyebrows in a silent question, and he nodded at her.

He closed his eyes against the sound of paper tearing open. He heard crinkling sounds as she opened the letter, and then several moments of silence stretched.

"What? What is it?" he demanded impatiently. He opened his eyes and saw her smiling, and his heartbeat picked up in anticipation.

"Mr. Cullen," she read, grinning from ear to ear. "We are pleased to offer you acceptance-"

She was cut off by Emmett's boisterous whoop. "Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about!"

Thank God!

Edward nearly sagged in relief while Bella threw her arms around him. The past three years of classes, cramming, and falling asleep at the library were finally paying off. At least now he knew he had somewhere to go after graduation.

"Where?" he asked, holding out his hand for the letter.

Bella handed it over with a giddy grin. "University of Washington!"

He read the letter for himself, just to verify what he'd heard. Then he read it again. Then he stared at it, still not quite believing his eyes. The University of Washington's Medical Studies was a great program, and it meant he could stay in Seattle with Bella and the rest of his family.

Three years! Three years of hard work, late nights, and missing my girlfriend. It's all led me here.

"Congratulations," Rosalie added enthusiastically once Emmett had released her from a display of affection that was, in Edward's opinion, a little too much considering their current company.

"Open the rest!" Emmett cried, grabbing another envelope and ripping into it. His expression fell.

Edward gaped at him in dismay, but tried to remind himself that it didn't truly matter at this point. He still had UW. "What is it? Where is that from?"

"Sorry, bro," Emmett sighed, shaking his head.

Edward craned his neck, trying to read the envelope that Emmett still had in his hand. "Which one is that?"

Emmett plowed on, ignoring his question. "It looks like you're going to have some tough decisions to make, because you're wanted everywhere!" he shouted, now laughing.

Rosalie punched Emmett in the shoulder while he threw the letter down on the table in triumph. "University of Pennsylvania!"

Bella jumped out of her seat and pulled Edward up with her, hugging him tightly and laughing uncontrollably. "Oh my gosh! I can't believe it! I mean, I can, because clearly you've earned it, but… oh my gosh!"

Edward was speechless, still feeling a little stunned. His entire academic career had led him to this moment. It felt surreal.

"Can I open another?" Bella asked him, clasping her hands in front of her. "It's addictive!"

He laughed. "Go for it."

"You should really try this, too, you know," she told him as she grabbed another envelope and tore into it.

"I think I prefer watching you," he replied. And watch her he did, raptly. He saw her eyes dart across the page before they shot back to his.

"Mr. Cullen, we are pleased to welcome you…" She let out a wordless shriek of excitement, waving the letter at him. "Duke!"

Before she'd even finished, Emmett had grabbed another envelope and handed one to Rosalie. Edward was otherwise occupied, focused on maintaining his balance while Bella threw herself against him. He absorbed the impact, and then adjusted his stance and flexed to make sure he was supporting her weight when he realized that her feet had left the floor.

Bella buried her face against his neck while he turned his attention to Emmett, who was staring at the letter in his hands with wide eyes.

"Harvard!" he exclaimed, then looked up to meet his brother's gaze. "Holy shit, it's Harvard!"

Edward laughed and held his hand out for the letter, not believing his ears. At the same time, Rosalie was reading the letter she'd opened.

"University of California at San Francisco wants you, my friend!" she exclaimed. Bella released him and ran around the table to read over her shoulder and hugged her, both of them squealing for joy.

This had moved past surreal, and was just plain unreal. He couldn't believe this. He ran his hands over his face, which did nothing to wipe away his grin.

He turned his attention to the one envelope left lying on the table, knowing the one name he hadn't heard yet, which was also the last school he'd applied to. He almost hadn't mailed in his application, knowing it was such a longshot.

"That one has to be you," Bella told him quietly. "You open it."

He grabbed it and carefully slid his finger along the envelope. He unfolded the letter without dropping Bella's gaze, and his eyes lingered on hers before they finally dropped to the page. He scanned the contents carefully.

He looked up after several long seconds and met her eyes again, and answered the question that he saw there with a small nod. "Johns Hopkins…"

With her eyes sparkling, Bella rushed toward him and threw herself into his arms again. He caught her more easily, having expected it the second time, and wrapped her tightly in a hug, as if his arms wrapped around her would help anchor him in the moment.

"Congratulations," she whispered fiercely in his ear. "I knew you would do it. I'm so proud of you!"

When he replaced her on her feet, Emmett slapped him on the back. "I'm proud of you, little bro. Graduating in three years, accepted to the top med schools in the country..." He pretended to consider for a moment. "Hey, on second thought, dial it back a bit, will you, because you're making me look bad. It took me the full four years in undergrad. Assuming I even graduate this year."

He grinned. "Sure, Emmett. Thanks."

Rosalie hugged him next. "Congratulations, again!"

Edward turned back to the kitchen table, now littered with torn envelopes and acceptance letters. Five minutes ago, he'd been terrified by the contents of those envelopes, and now he was just overwhelmed. This had been a long time coming, and yet he couldn't help but feel as if the past five minutes had altered the course of his life.

Bella tugged on his hand, and he turned to face her. She was still grinning, which made him smile in return while he reached up to brush her hair behind her ear.

"You have to call your parents," she insisted.

He complied, pulling his cell phone from his pocket while Emmett cajoled Bella into joining him in a poor imitation of a waltz across the kitchen. Edward chuckled as he watched them and listened to a couple of rings on the other end of the line before his mother answered.

"Hi, Edward."

"Hey, Mom," he answered. "Got a minute?"

"For you? Always."

He exhaled a laugh at her standard response. "Actually, is Dad there, too? Can you get him on the line?"

"He's here." He heard her hesitate. "Is everything ok?"

Edward worked to assuage the concern that had crept into her voice. "Yeah, everything's fine. More than fine, actually. I have some news."

"Oh, Edward," she exclaimed breathlessly. "You did it, didn't you?"

"Go get Dad," he reminded her, chuckling.

"Oh, right, oh my," she mumbled. He heard her pull the phone away from her ear and call out to his father, before she came back on the line. "Oh, honey, I just knew it. I'd thought you were going to wait, but… oh, what's the point, really?"

"Wait?" he questioned, confused.

But his mother paid him no heed, continuing her excited babbling. "I told your father just last weekend, after you and Bella left dinner, that it was only a matter of time. Oh, I'm just so happy for you two! How did you do it?"

"How did I…" he repeated. "Wait, what are you talking about?"

Her tone began to adopt the same confused inflection as his as she wondered at his hesitancy. "Well, your news."

His dad's voice came over the line then. "What news?"

"Edward has news about him and Bella," his mother replied.

"Me and…" Edward halted, his eyes widening as he spun his back on Bella, who was thankfully still in Emmett's clutches across the room.

Not that news! Not yet!

"No!" he exclaimed, far too loudly. He overcompensated for his volume, and practically whispered into the phone next. "It's not what you think. It's not that."

His flustered mother began to stammer through an apology while Edward skirted around the table and out of the kitchen, darting a glance behind him to make sure the others were still distracted. Even though the logical side of him knew that there was no way they could hear the other end of his conversation, he couldn't help but feel like his mom had almost spilled the beans.

Not that he and Bella hadn't talked about it before. They'd talked about it for years. It was a foregone conclusion at this point; of course they would spend their lives together. But how and when that life together would start was still ahead of them. He wanted to keep that close to the vest. A proposal didn't feel like something that should be casually discussed. He never wanted Bella to feel like she was a foregone conclusion. She deserved so much more than that.

His father dragged him back to the conversation. "I'm missing something. What news do you have, Edward?"

"I'm calling because I heard back from grad schools today."

"Oh!" his mother exclaimed again, no less excited this time. "I didn't realize you would hear so soon!"

"What's the word?" his father asked.

Edward relayed the real news, and sometime between his father's heartfelt congratulations and the time when his mother's praise disintegrated into sniffles, Bella found him. She pressed herself against him and stood on her tiptoes so she could hear the conversation.

Thank God she hadn't been listening in earlier.

Emmett leaned in on his way past them to the door to shout a greeting to their parents, then he and Rose waved on their way out the door for dinner.

Esme and Carlisle were talking excitedly amongst themselves, and Edward took the opportunity to pull Bella to him and kiss her. He'd meant it to be quick and chaste - mostly - but she pulled him back and kissed him properly and thoroughly before pulling away only when the need for oxygen became too great to ignore. She looked up and grinned at him, pressed against him in such a way that she could no doubt feel the reaction she was causing.

She made a game of distracting him for the rest of the conversation. Their stolen kisses grew more heated, requiring him to hold the phone away at arm's length to hide their heavy breathing from his unsuspecting parents.

When he realized that the murmurs from the phone had quieted, he cleared his throat and brought it back to his ear.

"Sorry, what was that?" he managed.

"How long do you have to make your decisions?" his mother asked patiently.

"Oh, um," Edward stammered while Bella's fingers trailed down his abdomen. "I'm not quite sure."

Esme continued on excitedly, but Edward couldn't process anything she was saying while Bella's hand inched lower. He finally caught her wrist just as she reached the waistband of his jeans. He caught his breath as the tips of her fingers curled ever-so-slightly beneath the fabric, just above the button of his fly.

Bella was looking up at him, and he squeezed his eyes shut against the image in a last-ditch effort to pull himself together. It was futile, though, as he was already so sensitized, and as always, every fiber of his being was attuned to her. He felt her body slide against his as she rose up on her toes to press her lips to his throat.

He swallowed hard, then realized that his father had just said something that required a response. He choked out an incoherent sound that he hoped would pass for vaguely affirmative.

He felt Bella's lips curve in amusement, right before she drew away, removing her mouth and her hands from him and stepping back to give him space. He reopened his eyes just in time to see her smile, clearly pleased with being the clear winner of the game they'd been playing. The corner of his mouth lifted in response, but then he turned away to work on refocusing his attention on the phone call.

Thankfully, he didn't need to hold on to his frayed wits and dwindling patience for much longer, as the conversation was winding down. After more copious congratulations and a few more joyful tears from his mom, he wrapped up the call.

After saying goodbye to his parents, Edward turned back to Bella, who was sitting on the couch with her chin in her hand, smiling up at him.

"You've got some decisions to make, Mr. Cullen." She walked over to where he was still standing and wrapped her arms around his shoulders while he automatically placed his hands on her hips. "The world is your oyster."

He laughed at her cheesiness. "I still can't believe this. UW, yes, and even Duke, sure. But Harvard? Johns Hopkins?"

"I knew you would do it," she assured him, her eyes bright.

He loved the way she looked at him. He rested his lips against her hair, inhaling the scent of her. His heart was still beating faster than normal from all the excitement.

"What are you going to do?" Bella asked softly.

Truthfully, he had no idea. He had hoped, dreamed even, but he'd never actually expected to gain acceptance everywhere he'd applied. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he knew what he wanted to do right then, and he still had awhile to figure out the rest. Instead of answering, he hooked his fingers under Bella's chin and tilted her head up for a scorching kiss. He pulled her closer and could feel her heartbeat pick up again, echoing his own.

She broke away so they could catch their breath and frantically pulled up the hem of his tshirt, making his muscles twitch as her touch skated over his skin. She couldn't get the shirt past his arms since his hands were busy. With one hand tangled in her hair and the other slowly heading north from her hip, he turned her frustrated sound into a moan while he nipped gently at her bottom lip. She pulled back, breathing heavily and gazing up at him through her eyelashes. Her eyes were heavy-lidded with arousal.

She tried once more to pull at his clothes, but Edward had other plans. Without warning, he leaned down to grip her thighs and threw her over his shoulder in a fireman's carry while she yelped in surprise.

She'd played with him for long enough, and though he knew she considered herself the victor of their little game, he had plans to make sure they were both winners in the second round. He smacked her ass as he turned and carried her towards the bedroom while she laughed.