I'm thinking about combining some of the existing chapters together, because at the rate I'm going with these short chapters, with the story I want to tell, it's going to end up being close to a hundred chapters before I'm done. But updates will come even slower if I try to write longer chapters, so maybe I'll just leave it alone. I haven't decided.

I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

Chapter Eleven – Reunion

Although I already knew, more or less, how the scene at my family's house would play out, I hesitated in the doorway in order to allow my counterpart and his wife (had they gotten married? I suddenly realized that I wasn't certain) their homecoming.

"Hi guys!" Alice called cheerfully. "I told you it would all make sense why the Denalis wanted to see the two of you. Wasn't it nice of Laurent to apologize for something he didn't even do?" I scowled, knowing that I was the only one present who realized that Laurent's mission would have been carried out fully under different circumstances. "Hey Bella," she continued brightly, "what's in Topeka?"

Topeka? Now that was a strange coincidence.

"Umm," Bella replied apprehensively, "Kansans?" Her discomfort was evident, and her eyes darted briefly to the doorway.

All eyes turned to follow, and a perfect clone of Bella's mate stepped into the room. The five people in the room who were not yet aware of my presence let out a collective gasp. The first several minutes of explanations went exactly as they had in the second universe. I began by simply explaining that my own family had constructed a device to allow me to travel between universes, knowing that the most important concern was why there were two Edwards. I would go into the reasons they had built the device shortly. Alice was perplexed that she had not seen me, and I told her of the theories Universe Two's Carlisle had presented me with. Universe Three's Carlisle nodded his head in agreement. I also let her know that she was likely to get headaches very soon, and so I would try not to stay long.

I took a breath to await the question of why Bella was not accompanying me on this journey, but Alice had a different question this time.

"Edward, what happened to your clothes?" She turned up her nose at me in disgust. I had forgotten about my cover story for Tanya and her sisters, which had been rendered useless anyway.

"Oh, that. Carlisle gave me strict instructions not to inform anyone outside of the family about the device, which means that I regrettably must masquerade as your own Edward. I had a lengthy story planned as to why I was arriving alone. The blood was to explain that Bella had gone into town to buy new clothing for me, since I obviously couldn't walk around looking like this."

"Okay, I guess. We'll get you something to wear before you leave. I am not letting you go anywhere else looking like that." I couldn't stop myself from smiling at Alice's obsession with making sure everyone looked their best at all times. "But what's the real reason Bella isn't with you?"

I smirked for just a fraction of a second, wondering whether Alice would always be the one to ask this question. As I began to recall the story for my family as Bella's whereabouts in my own universe, anything resembling an expression of amusement left my face.

"I'm glad that Laurent apologized to Bella and Edward for what he attempted to do," I started. "It saves me a few moments of explanation. You see, in my own timeline, I'm afraid he was very much successful in his mission to locate Bella, and he destroyed her during their meeting."

"What?" Bella was horrified.

"Not possible, Edward," Emmett chimed in. "Bella was still a newborn then. She would've ripped Laurent in half."

"There's simply no way we would have stayed in Forks after Bella was changed," added Jasper. "It would have drawn so much attention. We didn't even consider it as an option."

"Not to mention the hassle of trying to control both a newborn and Jasper," Rosalie added with a haughty sniff that earned her a glare from Esme. "Well, he was still having a hard time back then," she added, a bit more kindly.

This was going to be more difficult to explain. In Universe Two, I had the benefit of a few more months' worth of shared experiences. Things had played out quite differently here. "Bella was still a human," I offered.

"I don't understand." It was Esme who spoke up this time, her brow furrowed in confusion. "You said that Laurent had gone looking for Bella as a favor to Victoria. If the encounter with James never took place, then Victoria would have no reason to seek Bella out."

"The encounter with James did take place," I said patiently.

"Bella became a vampire that night," Edward spoke up. "You're suggesting that I got there sooner? That he didn't have time to bite her and bring her too close to death to do anything but watch helplessly while she changed? Do you think I haven't been over that night so many times in my mind, wondering if I had done things differently, if I had been the one with her instead of Alice and Jasper, if I had given up on catching James sooner and gotten an earlier flight to Phoenix… But I've accepted that there was no other way, once the events were set into motion. I didn't miss anything. Your story doesn't add up."

Carlisle had been silent throughout this discussion so far. Suddenly, he began to go over medical procedures in his head, and I realized that his blocked thoughts were not for my benefit. Edward looked at him questioningly, and at last, Carlisle made a sound as if he'd been holding in a breath for the past 4 years and finally released it.

"Edward, there was another way," he said simply.

My counterpart took his eyes from me to look at Carlisle, then back to me. I allowed my thoughts to drift back to the day when I had sucked James's venom out of Bella's hand and nearly been the instrument of her death myself, and a look of horror filled his golden eyes.

"No!" he bellowed. "Carlisle, how could you keep something like that from me?" The anger was evident in his voice; I had no need to read his thoughts to ascertain that he felt betrayed.

"I'm sorry, son, it occurred to me in a flash while you were still distracted with James. I was certain it would be impossible for you to stop. We had talked at length about the appeal her blood held for you. Alice had already seen her becoming one of us, and I realized this must have been how it happened. I thought of how you would hate yourself if you killed her while trying to save her, so I simply allowed the change to happen without suggesting the alternative."

"How appealing her blood was to me?" It seemed inconceivable, but Edward's voice had actually grown louder. "What about how appealing her life was to me, Carlisle?" He took a step closer to his father, fists balled up. "You honestly thought that I would kill her? Don't you understand anything?"

"You wanted to kill her the first day you met her," Carlisle answered calmly, showing no sign of nervousness at his son's sudden aggression. "Decades of maintaining this diet, and you were prepared to throw it away just from her scent. Can you imagine, for just a moment, how you might have reacted if you'd actually tasted her blood?"

"That was before I knew her. Before I fell in love with her!" Edward took another step toward Carlisle and was now standing toe-to-toe with the man he called his father. "I trusted you to take care of her and you let me take away her soul without a second thought!"

The sound of a choked sob broke the tension. Edward turned to see Bella hiding her face in her hands. Although she had lost the ability to cry years ago, she was heaving feverishly. At once, he was at her side again. "I'm sorry, love, I won't hurt him," he tried to comfort her.

"You didn't want to keep me. You're so mad at Carlisle for making you keep me. Well, if you didn't want me, you should have said something. I can find somewhere else to go."

I heard Edward mentally chastise himself. He had never had time to speak with Bella at length about the reasons he was hesitant to change her. Once she had been changed, mere months after they met, it had become a moot point. Now she had unexpectedly discovered how strongly he felt on the subject of her humanity, and in a typical Bella way, she had jumped to entirely the wrong conclusion. Yes, that's very helpful. What do I tell her now? Edward pleaded with me silently for assistance.

"Bella," I told her quietly, "it had nothing to do with whether or not he wanted to keep you. He did, and he does, and he always will. But you only get once chance to live and die and be a normal human. You had a family that loved you, friends that cared for you, and a future that didn't involve fighting a persistent urge to slaughter everyone in your path. More importantly, you had a soul, and Edward didn't feel right taking those things from you just to satisfy his own selfish desire to keep you forever, no matter how desperately he wanted to. He didn't feel as badly about your change because he thought that it was the only way to save your life, although he does carry the guilt with him that he was the reason you were introduced to the vampire that nearly killed you. Now he found out that there was another option, one he hadn't considered, one that might have allowed you a chance to hold on to those things you had to leave behind to be with him. Can you understand at all why this could upset him?"

"No," Bella moaned, "But we'll talk more about it later." She pulled herself together, much to Edward's relief. "I still don't understand what happened to me in your timeline. So I lived through what happened with James, then I assume you came up with some kind of stunning story about why I looked like I'd been beaten with a spiked baseball bat. But I remember how protective you were of me when I was human. You hardly let me out of your sight for fifteen minutes. Even in school, you were watching me through everyone else's eyes to make sure I was okay. So why didn't you fight Laurent off? Even if you were away hunting, why didn't Alice see him coming and send Jasper to help?"

I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes. I had to tell her the truth, but she already thought that Edward hadn't wanted her. How could I possibly begin to explain that I had left her?

"You. Did. What." Edward was responding to my thoughts. The way he spoke now was quiet, calm. He spoke without any of the hostility he had just displayed toward Carlisle. His mind was another story. He had gone into a murderous rage. The only thing preventing him from severing my head from my body was that Bella stood between the two of us. All eyes in the room were shifting uncomfortably between the two Edwards, waiting for one of us to speak. It was he who finally did, voicing the words that I had suddenly found myself unable to speak. "He left her," he said simply.

Chaos broke out in the living room. Even with my more than adequate ability to process information, I couldn't keep track of everything that happened. Somehow, Carlisle and Esme had managed to place themselves between my brothers and myself. The couch on which Emmett had been seated was suddenly overturned, and I heard the sound of several vases being shattered. Bella had flung herself to the floor in despair and seemed unable to stop herself from shaking. Alice had returned to the room with an armload of clothing from Edward's closet, and her smile disappeared at the scene. The only person who had not moved at all was Rosalie. She sat in the corner giving herself a pedicure and humming absentmindedly to herself. Moron, she thought, but not worth ruining my toes over.

"Just tell me why," Edward snarled, struggling to break free of Carlisle's grip. "Whatever would possess you to do such a thing. Tell me now!" He was shouting again.

I began to speak as quickly as I could. "On Bella's eighteenth birthday, Alice decided to throw her a party."

"Of course I did!" Alice proclaimed, trying to lighten the mood. She had come up behind Jasper and was working to wrench him away before he broke through Carlisle and Esme to tear into me.

I continued. "Bella was opening one of her gifts when she got a paper cut. Jasper, as Rosalie pointed out earlier, was still struggling with our diet at the time. He moved to attack her." At this, Jasper stopped struggling against Alice and went slack. "In my haste to protect Bella, I managed to make her injuries much worse, and nearly everyone was ready to pounce on her. I left, because I thought that if I didn't, she would surely die. As much as I wanted to be with her, I sacrificed my own happiness in order to save her life." Edward, too, stopped struggling to reach me. Emmett, seeing that his brothers had given up the fight, let out a snort and moved to place the couch back into its proper position.

After a long pause, Edward finally broke the silence. "I suppose I might have done the same. It would have killed me in the process." He tried to help Bella up from the floor, but she did not seem ready to stand again yet. She pulled herself into a seated position with her knees tucked against her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs.

"It was my fault," Jasper whispered.

I shook my head. "No, Jasper, it could have been any one of them, given the right weak moment."

"And then we built you that little machine so you could find Bella all over again, and now here you are!" Alice spoke up, cutting the tension and bringing everyone's minds back to the present. "But Bella already has an Edward, so what happens next?" Edward glowered at me, fully prepared to fight me for her.

"I'll move on to a different universe and keep searching," I stated simply. My counterpart relaxed his stance. "But there are just a few things I need to tell you first."

"Is this the first universe you've visited?" Carlisle cut me off before I could talk about what I had done in order to get to their home. His mind was racing, full of questions.

"No, it is the second." I briefly filled them in on the tales of the second universe. Rosalie looked up with interest at the mention of Edward and Bella's daughter, but quickly shifted her attention back to her toenails. Not like that could happen anymore now. She's already one of us.

"Incredible," Carlisle looked to be in his own personal heaven. "But Edward, you mentioned the wolves in both of your stories, yet we've seen no evidence here that they have returned."

"They have," I allowed.

"Are you certain?"

I recapped the story of my conversation with the wolves. "I regret that they have spent nearly four years suspecting the treaty to be broken," I finished. "They lacked evidence, of course, but it will take a great deal to convince them that James was the one who bit Bella."

"This certainly presents a complication, but one that we have plenty of time to figure out. I don't think we will be able to return to Forks for several decades." Carlisle said, glancing at Bella, who was resting her chin on her knees, looking forlorn.

"Which brings me to the final matter I needed to speak to you about before I could be on my way," I began. "You see, when I arrived here, of course I had no idea what to expect to be different in this place. I start my search in each universe at your old home in Forks. In this case, I found that it had been empty for some time. Since I had no way of knowing how events had been different, I had to check to see if Bella still lived in town before I could go in search of all of you. It was possible that Edward had never returned to her here after leaving, or that he had stayed away from her from the beginning, or any number of other options." Edward glared at me once more at the mention of leaving Bella, but he was genuinely curious about where my search had led.

"Of course her scent had been long gone from her father's house," Bella was deliberately looking away from everyone at the mention of her father, and I pressed on. "I thought perhaps she might have gone away to college, and so I went in through her window to see if she might have left anything behind that could point me to her whereabouts. Charlie had turned the room into an office." I grimaced at the memory of my own carelessness at failing to actually look at the room before clambering in like an oaf. "Unfortunately, I was not as silent getting into the room as I should have been, and I woke him."

Bella gasped, and this time it was she who lunged at me. "What? Why did you do something so stupid? Poor Charlie, he's already been through enough, and it's all my fault!"

"That's what I wanted to speak to all of you about. I understand why you took the actions that you did. However, Charlie was perfectly content, in the last place I visited, to be included in Bella's life without specific information being revealed to him. He is unimaginably distraught over Bella's last words to him and the way that he was allowed to believe that she had died. I think it might be kinder to try to find a way for Bella to be a part of his life. He may not be pleased that he was lied to, but I think he will forgive the deception in exchange for the knowledge that his daughter is all right." I told the rest of the story of my encounter with Charlie, including my quick thinking about why the Cullens had coincidentally left town at the same time as Bella, and his newfound belief that the Cullens now lived in Topeka. Alice looked questioningly at me at the last part, but said nothing, either aloud or silently.

Bella looked up hopefully at Carlisle, who was pondering my words. "Well," he said thoughtfully, "perhaps if we began by sending Charlie a letter. We could come up with a story to explain why Bella's truck was left on the side of the road and why she never contacted him. They can correspond for several months, and if he doesn't seem to ask too many questions, perhaps we'll try a visit."

Bella leapt up and threw her arms around Carlisle's neck. "Oh, thank you Carlisle! Thank you so much! I think of you as my father now, too, but I still miss Charlie. I already know just what to say. I've spent years thinking about what I would say to him if I ever ran into him again, just in case." In a flash, Bella was gone, and she returned moments later with a letter she had hastily scrawled at top speed.

Dear Dad,

I know you must be furious with me. I owe you a world of explanations and apologies. I'll start with the apology. I am so very sorry for what I did to you almost four years ago. I have spent the last few months tormented by how you must be suffering. Why only the last few months, you ask? This is where my explanation begins.

The night I left, I made it almost all the way to Phoenix before my truck broke down. That part you must already know. What happened next, you've been unfairly left to draw conclusions about, and I know what conclusions you must have come to. It breaks my heart, now that I know what you must think. Even though I don't know anything about cars, I thought that I would try to see if I could figure out what was wrong with the truck. I popped the hood and started looking, but of course, engines are pretty hot. I burned my hand a little, and it startled me so much that I jumped straight up and hit my head on the open hood, hard. The impact knocked the hood support rod loose, which caused the hood to come crashing down on my arm. I managed to get my arm out, but I tore my shirt. By this point, I still hadn't realized that I'd cut my head open when I hit it. All I could think about was that I had to change shirts. I'd been driving for so long, I figured I might as well change all of my clothes.

I was rummaging through my suitcase trying to find a change of clothes. It was dark, so I couldn't see very well and I ended up just grabbing several things. I headed pretty far from the road because I didn't want anyone to see me changing. I had grabbed three or four shirts and a couple of pairs of pants. As I changed, I realized I was bleeding. A lot. You know how badly head wounds bleed. Since the shirt I'd just been wearing was already ruined, I used it to apply pressure to my head, and I thought I'd better get back to the truck in case anyone came by, since I might need medical attention too.

I waited with the truck for a little while, but no one came by. It was the middle of the night. Eventually, the bleeding stopped, and I realized I'd left the rest of my clothes when I came back to the truck. I went to go get them, and not long after I was out of sight of the truck, I tripped and fell, hitting my head on a rock. Two head injuries in a row, and I was out cold.

I don't know how long I was unconscious for, but it was light outside when I woke up, and I had no idea where I was. Or who I was. I had damaged my memory with the second head bump. I started wandering, and the direction I picked happened to be the opposite direction from where I'd left the truck I didn't know about.

Eventually, I found a town. I really don't know where I was. I sort of drifted in and out of consciousness for the first few days. I probably should have gone to a hospital, but I just kept going, hoping that something would remind me of who I was or what I was trying to do. I was run out of town because I looked like a homeless person, so that's what I assumed I was. For the next few years, I went from town to town, sleeping wherever I could find a spot, stealing food when I could. I'm sorry to say, I did some things I'm not proud of to try to make money. Things that you wouldn't be proud of either. I'm so sorry, Dad. I didn't know what else to do.

One day, one of my "clients" mentioned that he was from Topeka. I didn't really know why, but Topeka meant something to me. I thought maybe it was home, so my new goal was to get there. By then, I had made enough money for a bag full of clothes, so I packed it all up and bought a bus ticket. I got to Topeka and nothing looked familiar. I decided maybe it was finally time to see a doctor, especially after everything I'd done in the past few years. I made a few hundred dollars more and then found a big hospital and went in.

The minute I saw Dr. Cullen, I remembered everything, and I just started crying. It was so lucky that he was my doctor. If I hadn't run into him, I might never have figured things out. Carlisle wanted to call you immediately and tell you everything, but I begged him not to. Since he was technically my doctor and I was legally an adult, he was bound by regulations not to tell you anything if I asked him not to, so please don't blame Carlisle for not calling right away. He insisted that I come to stay with him and Esme though. All of the kids were away at school, so they had tons of rooms that no one was using. Carlisle didn't want to call Edward and tell him that I was there, for fear that Edward might come home right away and end up falling behind on his studies. Edward came home on a break from school last night, and when he found me there, he told me that he'd spoken to you. Once he told me how badly you were suffering, I knew I had to own up to everything, even the horrible things I've done.

Dad, there's a little more to the story. I can't come to visit you right now, but maybe one day I'll be able to. You see, Carlisle ran some tests on me, and sure enough, my lifestyle and occupation had left me with a condition that would normally be incurable. You might have noticed that Carlisle and his family are a little… Different from everyone else. Carlisle gave me a special treatment that he himself has undergone, as well as everyone else in his family. It cures all diseases for good. There are some side effects, but they are manageable. Please believe, Carlisle would never give this treatment to anyone who had another choice. I would have died if Carlisle hadn't done it. It's not a treatment you will be able to find in any medical journal, and as far as I know, Carlisle is the only doctor who is able to use it. I really, really, really can't tell you any more than that. If you think you can be okay with that, I hope to be able to visit you soon.

I'm doing okay. Still staying with Carlisle and Esme, and they consider me one of their kids now, too. I'm hoping to go to college myself soon. Please write back to me as soon as you can. I know I already apologized, Dad, but I owe you so much more than that. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me.

Love always,
Bella

"I'll go to Topeka first thing in the morning and get a post office box so Charlie can write me back," Bella said excitedly while Carlisle read over the letter to make sure that all of the bases were covered. "Then I'll mail the letter so it'll have the right postmark on it. I'll run out there twice a week to check for a letter from Charlie."

"I think this wraps everything up nicely, Bella," Carlisle said, impressed. "You really have put a lot of time into thinking about this. Are you certain you really want to lead Charlie to believe that you led such a… Questionable life?"

Bella scowled. "I don't want to. But it's the only way. Otherwise I would have had you call him immediately once I got my memory back. Plus, I had to think of a reason why my life was in danger and you had to use the 'treatment' on me. Besides, Charlie thinks I was murdered. I think he'd prefer to believe that I did those things, if it means I'm alive." she said reasonably.

Carlisle nodded. "All right. You need to add a P.S. asking him not to speak to anyone else about this. Otherwise, I think this sounds like a good explanation." Bella quickly added the requested post script and addressed an envelope.

"Incidentally, where exactly is it that you're living? It would help me tremendously if I knew where to look for you the next time I encounter an empty house in Forks. I don't really want to have to involve Charlie, the wolves, or Tanya's family again if I don't have to." I directed my question to Carlisle.

"We considered moving to Vancouver, but it really hadn't been too long ago that we were there, so we ended up about a hundred miles outside of Cleveland," Carlisle filled me in. He recited the address to me. "There are nearly as many cloudy days here as there were in Forks. This would be a good place to begin looking for us if you find the house in Forks empty again."

"Thank you for your help. I can see that things have worked out well for Bella, so I'll be on my way now."

"Not so fast, mister. You're changing into those clothes before you go anywhere. What would the next Alice think if she thought I let you leave here looking like that?" I chuckled scooped up the clothing Alice had brought me, heading into the next room to change.

"A sport jacket, Alice? Really?" I called out while dressing, laughing.

"You never know when the right accessories might come in handy," she responded readily. She immediately began blocking her thoughts, and I just shook my head and finished putting on my new attire.

"Do I pass inspection?" I asked her, returning to the room.

"Hmm, well, you might do something about that hair, but I suppose you'll do," she said passively.

"Good enough. Thank you all again," I said, about to excuse myself.

I know I've been rather… Gruff with you. Edward spoke to me silently. I'm sorry. I thought you were a threat to my happiness with Bella, and I couldn't allow that. I see now that you've suffered a great deal. Bella and I have a lot to discuss, but you've also given her a chance to reconnect with her father, and so I thank you. I know that will make her very happy. I hope you find what you're looking for.

I hope so too. Please take good care of Bella.

Always, he told me.

Even though it was quite a distance to traverse, I decided that I should return to the clearing in Forks. It wouldn't take too long, really, at the speed I traveled. In a few short hours, I would once again be on my way to try to locate my Bella. I would not give up hope. She was out there, somewhere, and I would find her.