A/N: Hey there! So, the story continues… time for Edward and Bella to find out what the other way around is like. Hope you like it and let me know in the reviews!

Thank you for reading this and being so awesome! Special thanks to: the amazing Janna and Sujari6.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or (almost) any of the characters.

Chapter 9: Edward.

Bella's POV:

The Cullen house in Seattle was huge. It must have had three more bedrooms than their old house outside Forks, and two more baths. Looking around curiously reminded me of the first time Edward took me to see his family – the way I marveled at the beautiful design, and berated myself for expecting coffins and spider-webs. I was just as nervous, but much more aware of how nervous I was. It was amazing how, even as a vampire, I still managed to be totally awkward.

Everyone scattered quietly to their rooms and corners of the house, probably all exhausted. Carlisle and Esme showed Charlotte to her guest bedroom so she could get some rest. The guest bedroom in which she would be staying for an indefinite period of time.

I sighed internally. I wanted to be the amazing girlfriend – assuming I was even back in that position – and like the woman who saved Edward, be friends with her, even. But I can't say that wasn't difficult.

First off, she was gorgeous. And I mean gorgeous. Secondly, I could tell she had feelings for him, even if she was really good at hiding them. I saw the way she looked at Edward after our kiss in the forest… it was like she had been devastated. On the other hand, she didn't seem to want to cause any problems; she even refused to come and stay with us.

It was just then that my thoughts weighed in on me. Come and stay with us. I was staying at the Cullen's, and it wasn't because I was moving in with Edward relationship-wise. Besides them, I was all alone now. My parents were gone, and everyone else thought I was dead.

My parents were gone.

Something inside me threatened to crack, to completely break under this reality, as flashes from that night crept inside my head. But for some reason, even though I was safe now, I still couldn't bring myself to just let it break. I needed to stay strong for now. I needed to keep myself together.

"You seem wrapped up rather deep in your thoughts," Edward said as we reached his room. He was right. I hadn't even realized we were climbing up the stairs. "Do you want to talk about it?" He said, gazing at me with his piercing green eyes and running a hand through his messy hair. It made me thankful that I managed to get myself some contacts before we got to the house.

"We have a lot to talk about," I said, unsure how to start. "Let's, um, go inside?"

"Oh," he said, seeming a little jumpy for no reason I could tell. "Yeah, of course." He opened the door to his room, allowing me in before him.

The room seemed amazingly different than his old one. There was only one tiny window, for starters, and it was closed shut, including the blinds. His old room was consisted primarily out of windows. The colors were different, darker. There was a large bed in the center of the room, with piles of books scattered on it. Made sense, since it wasn't used for sleeping. I wondered if he had… entertained anyone. On that bed.

I shook that painful thought out of my head.

The only thing that really resembled his old room was the amount of CD's he had, organized perfectly in shelves. Edward loved music, and he was such a talented musician himself.

I heard the door shut behind Edward. As a human, merely looking around and taking in the scene would take a minute. As a vampire, it took about a second and a half.

"Read any good books lately?" I asked lightly, trying to break the weird tension between us.

"Sorry," he smiled and rushed to clear the bed of those books. "Truth is, I never really managed to concentrate on any of these."

I wondered what he meant by it, but didn't get into it. I wanted to talk about what mattered.

He sat down on the bed, and looked at me for a long moment. "Would you...?" he signaled with his head towards the bed.

"Yeah," I said, sitting next to him carefully.

I thought how as a human, my breath would be ragged right now, and my heart would be racing, or at least getting there. The thought made me notice that I could actually hear Edward's heartbeat. This complicated things a bit.

See, before in the woods, when Edward and I kissed – which I still didn't know what to think about, by the way – it was kind of torturous. And not in the old sense of how I wanted much more than kissing him but couldn't get it because Edward was such a prude. In the sense of how Edward smelled like the best thing I'd ever smelt in my life, and I wanted to… drink his blood. A bit. A lot.

It wasn't extremely hard to resist – I could control myself, but it was challenging; it made my throat dry and burning with thirst, and my senses go into overdrive, which only used to further fire up that kiss.

"This is weird," I finally said.

"Yeah, a little bit," he said, the corners of his lips twitching into a smile. "Bella, I need to tell you something," he seemed contemplated, looking down at his lap.

Oh no, he's going to tell me of all the women he did it with, isn't he?

I nodded patiently, even though it took him forever. "Go ahead."

He sighed and turned to look back up at me as the words gushed out. "I am sorrier than you could ever imagine. I never meant to leave you. I thought I was protecting you. After what happened with Jasper on your birthday, I… Please, please forgive me, Bella."

"I had a feeling that was the reason," I said quietly after a short pause, choosing not to share my (many) moments of self doubt with him for now. "And I have to say, there were days that I hated you for it. I hated that you were gone, I hated that you left me alone without a chance to choose my own future for myself," I said, unsure of how the words were coming out of my mouth so impulsively. We were dead silent a minute ago.

He nodded thoughtfully. "I, uh… I understand." He seemed crushed, but he didn't let me finish.

"But I never really hated you," I shook my head, biting my lip slightly. "I couldn't. I wanted to, but I guess hating you is not part of my repertoire," I gave him a small smile, and he returned one. "Life without you was… agonizing." I remembered all those days I spent going through the motions, not really feeling alive at all.

"I'm so sorry, Bella. I never meant for you to go through that. I just thought…" he looked at his lap again, running a nervous hand in his hair. "I just thought you'd move on, you know? Get over me, and move on, and live happily."

"Happily ever after?" I asked, smiling at him, even though he wasn't looking.

"Something like that," he replied softly.

"I don't think that's in my repertoire either. Getting over you," I said truthfully.

He looked at me now, solemn. "If it's any consolation, I spent most of the time without you curled up in a ball on the floor."

I laughed quietly, and he smiled. "Somehow I find that hard to believe," I said. I couldn't wrap my mind around the thought. Why would someone like him curl up in a ball over someone like me? It just didn't make sense.

"It may not be manly, but it is true," he said, as if hanging his head in shame.

"So you didn't…" I couldn't finish the sentence, so I gestured towards the bed with my head.

Please say no, please say no, please say no.

"No! God, no," he said in panic. "Bella, I'm not… joking about this. All I could think about was you. If we would ever be together again. If I should just go back and screw everything else. If you would ever forgive me."

He face was suddenly so close to mine. His scent, along with the burning in my throat, was much stronger now. But I didn't focus on that. I couldn't. Not when his eyes locked into mine so fiercely, and I could hear his heart beating rapidly enough for both of us, now.

I swallowed hard, but it only served to worsen the stinging in my throat. And on top of that, he was making me dizzy, too.

My eyes closed instinctively once our noses touched, and the distance between us was closing in a manner that was excruciatingly slow, dissimilar to the kiss we shared beforehand. I could feel his warm breathing on my face, sending out a thousand little spikes through my skin. His sweet breath was intoxicating, if possible, even more so than before.

Then his lips touched mine, grazing them with unbearable lightness, when a loud knock sounded at the door, pushing us apart.

"Yes?" Edward asked, licking his lips, and I took the moment to breathe out the tension.

Esme opened the door, looking a bit uncomfortable as she took in the situation. "I was just wondering if Bella was, erm, staying here with you, or should I make up the other guest bedroom for her," she said.

"Umm," Edward said, unsure how to respond. I wasn't sure myself.

"I'll come back later," Esme said hurriedly and closed the door again, leaving us to figure it out on our own first.

"Aaand we're back to awkward," I said once she had closed the door.

"Tell me what happened," Edward said abruptly, like he was thinking it for a long time and curiosity was burning in his bones too much to care if his question fitted in the conversation. "With James' brother. After we had left."

I sighed and closed my eyes, gathering up strength to talk about it.

When I opened my eyes again, and was met with Edward's burning eyes, the words began to flow. I told him about the night he killed my parents. How I found Renee in a pool of her blood. How I saw Charlie's neck twist in the stranger's hands. Edward held me as I shook in his arms, crying without tears. Only with him I could fall apart without completely breaking into pieces. He kept me safe.

He kept me safe while I told him about waking up in that cold room, bound to a chair. Being scared out of my mind. How Nathaniel told me he wanted to revenge James. How I realized that the only choice I had was to negotiate my own life.

"I had to pretend that I did hate you. That I wanted to kill you," I smiled sadly to him. "That if he changed me, I could help him find you."

"You got what you've always wanted, then," he smiled sadly back.

I shook my head. "That wasn't what I wanted. The only reason I even wanted to be changed was so that I could be with you. And I most definitely didn't want someone like Nathaniel to do it."

He nodded attentively. "Were you… in a lot of pain? During the change, that is?" he almost winced when he asked.

"I got through it," I said, not wanting to cause him anymore sorrow. "I contacted Alice when we got to Denali, and we came up with the plan to fight him off together."

"Wait, Denali?" he asked, furring his eyebrows. I couldn't stop staring at his beautiful face. The face I'd missed so much, and never allowed myself to think about.

"I remembered you talking about your friends there. I had no idea where else to take him," I said, and tried to man up and ask what I had wanted to ask him. "What were you doing in Denali?" I asked quietly, nibbling my bottom lip again nervously.

He sighed, looking down at his hands. "Bella, you need to understand something," he said, making my heart effectively drop. "When I left you, I was just as broken up about it as you tell me you were. I treated my family like dirt. I wanted to go back so much, but I didn't want to risk your life anymore. And one night I was reading a book. It was a history book about witches, their abilities and their relationship with other… mythical creatures," he smiled slightly as I listened attentively. "Such as vampires. It had a tale about a witch who turned a vampire to a human man, in order to kill him. I didn't know if it was in any way possible, but I remembered Tanya was the one who gave me the book. So I figured I'd give it a shot." He looked back at me now. "For us."

This was insane. We had both wanted to become something else to be with each other, and now we had just turned the tables around.

"Tanya told me to go to the Volturi, that they might, might, help me find a witch. That they definitely didn't. But one of them did try to kill me," he said, chuckling.

"How-how is that funny?" I asked, panicked. "What did he do to you?"

"He didn't hurt me or anything. He almost chocked me to death. And then Charlotte came along and saved me."

He told me about Charlotte's spy with the Volturi, about going back to her house and waiting impatiently for her to find him a way to be human again. How he did his best to hide his decision from Alice, knowing the Cullens wouldn't let him go through with it. And how the minute he was changed back, I showed up as a vampire.

I laughed. "To say that was shocking would be a major understatement," I said, and then turned serious again. "I was afraid that you would think I was really trying to kill you."

"Bella, I would never believe something like that. Even if I knew for a fact that you hated me. You couldn't hurt anyone."

I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder gently. I was scared to harm him, now that he was human and fragile as I had been. Only now did I understand his concerns about me. Knowing Edward was vulnerable while we fought Nathaniel, it was the most helpless feeling I had in my life. Or afterlife.

"Besides, I knew you couldn't be with him," he shook his head and took my hand in his, weaving our fingers together.

I bit my lip, unsure what to say. I knew I needed to tell him about how I let Nathaniel kiss me, think that I was his. But I couldn't bring myself to do it, afraid of how Edward would react. He would be devastated. I didn't want to hurt him. And more than anything, I didn't want to lose him again. So I said nothing for now, and hated myself for it.

"I was so determined to save you, I forgot that I needed to eat now," he said, and we both chuckled. I couldn't get used to how warm he was now. I wondered if I was unpleasantly cold to him.

"Well, don't get too used to being human," I said, lifting my head from his shoulder and smiling at him. "We need to get you changed back and immortal again."

His face turned severe again, as he weighed his words. "Bella," he started carefully, "I can't be changed back. If I get bitten… I'll die."

Shock hit me throughout my entire body. Shock, and anger. "So wait. You knew that if you get bitten you'll be dead, and you still came to fight Nathaniel?" I asked furiously.

"Are you mad?" he looked amused.

"Of course I'm mad!" I said, letting go of his hand in fear that I might crush it with my anger. "Have you no sense of self-preservation at all?" That sentence sounded familiar to me for some reason.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked incredulously.

"No, I am not kidding you, Edward," I said agitatedly. How could he not see how dangerous it was?

"And this is coming from the girl who gets involved with vampires, because getting nearly killed by inanimate objects on a daily basis just doesn't cut it."

"You're the reason I got involved with vampires in the first place!"

"I didn't force you to be with me. Actually, I recall doing quite the opposite – trying to scare you away," he said, now definitely amused.

I snorted. "You call that trying to scare me? You followed me around and climbed up my window to watch me sleep."

"You just look so adorable in plaid pajamas," he said, grinning wickedly.

I laughed and shook my head at his words, and we fell into silence again.

"So what do we do now?" I asked. "Turn me into a human?"

I figured it was our only way of being together with the least chance that death would separate us untimely. If we were both human, we wouldn't need to be in supernatural danger. And even though the thought hurt, I figured if Edward didn't want me after all, I would have no desire to remain a vampire.

"Well, Charlotte injected the last of the human serum into Nathaniel, and since her house blew up with the formula…" he sighed heavily. "I guess we'll just have to ask her to try and remember how she made it the first time around."

"Too bad, though. I enjoy being stronger than you," I said, smiling cheekily.

"Well… I can always do this," he said, paused, and then started to tickle me senseless.

What the hell? I'm still ticklish?

I laughed out as he kept going until I was curled up on the bed, begging for his mercy. He stopped tickling and lay down next to me, facing me with a huge grin on his face. He tucked a misplaced strand of hair behind my ear, making me shiver slightly at his touch. We just lay there, looking at each other silently, touching each other's faces every once in a while. I had no idea how much time passed, but Edward was close to falling asleep when he pulled me closer to him.

"Bella?" he said softly, almost inaudibly.

I hummed in response.

"Do you think you could you ever forgive me? For everything that I've put you through?" His eyes felt like blazing flames, burning through me intensely. He still had so much power over me, it was almost scary.

"And before you answer," he added. "I think you should know that I love you, Bella. More than you will ever think you know. I will do anything for you."

My still heart soared, and I couldn't help but smile. He did still love me. He did still want me.

"Edward," I said. "There's nothing to forgive."

"Yes there is," he insisted.

"No, there isn't, Edward. How can I be mad at you, if everything you did was meant to keep me safe?" I smiled.

"Don't be stubborn, Bella, just forgive me," he seemed serious, agitated, and joking all at the same time.

"I can't forgive you if you didn't do-"

"Do you want to be pinned down and tickled again?"

"Okay, I forgive you," I said quickly.

He chuckled and pulled me on top of him, as I let him shift me easily in his arms.

"You still haven't told me one thing, though," he said, his breath making me foggy again.

"What's that?" I asked hazily.

"Do you think you could ever love me again?" he asked, running his hand through my hair gently.

I shook me head at the absurdness of what he said. "And what makes you think that I ever fell out of love with you?"

I considered that for a moment. "Well, I guess you could say you kind of left me hanging when I just told you I love you," he said, smiling now.

"Really? Did I?" I asked, stalling the moment to tease him.

"Yes," he said, narrowing his eyes. I remained silent. "Well?" he asked impatiently.

"Well, what?"

He groaned.

I laughed. "Edward, don't be silly. I love you. I could never stop loving you."

He grinned brilliantly now, and then a huge yawn took over him.

I laughed. "You have got to get some sleep. I think we've been talking for hours."

"Will you stay with me?" he asked.

"Of course," I said, and rolled to my previous position, facing him. "I'll be the one watching you, this time."

He smiled. "Good night, Bella."

"Sweet dreams, Edward," I said, smiling back, and shut the light switch next to his bed as he closed his eyes.

He lay still in the dark with his eyes closed, and I listened to his quiet breathing.

"Say it again," he whispered.

"Don't push it," I replied playfully.

"Sorry," he said. "I love you, Bella."

Bastard. He knew I could never refuse him when he was being so sweet.

"I love you too, Edward," I whispered back softly. "Even if you are stubborn as hell."

He smiled for a moment, before he finally drifted to sleep.

So, what did you think? They finally reunited! Please tell me your thoughts in the reviews – was it too much, too soon? Did you like it? Hate it? Do tell! :) thank you for reading!