A/N: The continuation of our cliff-hanger. The Graduation is in the next chapter, more stuff will happen during the ceremony, and then we will start to wrap up In-between. Shortly afterwards followed up by the climatic wedding. –Drum rolls-

A block from the hotel my mother voice spoke out the question I was anticipating. "So, where is the wedding?"

My back became a solid rod of bones; I looked through a curtain of hair at my mother over my left shoulder. My expression could probably be compared to a young kid's who was caught sticking their hands in a cookie jar, since my mother was not giving any visual show of emotion on her face. Speculatively I eyed her stone face, I wished Edward would give me a sign to what my mother was thinking, but no help was being given from the peanut gallery.

Renee rolled her hand in the gesture that said, "Well, are you going to answer my question?"

A staggered sigh blew my hair apart for an instant, and then I brushed the curtain aside to speak, "The wedding will be at Fork's First Baptist Church." My mother's expression didn't change at all, expect for the slight up turn of the corner of her lips.

"That place is beautiful. I don't know how many times I had wished to have been married in that old church." Renee spoke so light and soft. I almost –almost being a keyword- thought I had dreamt up the whole phone call experience. Edward stole a confused look between the rearview mirror and me for a non-existent second.

"I've been told that by a couple different people. One couple actually told me they remember being married there… a long time ago."

"Oh, you must have spoken to Gordon and Anna Bell Grand. They had the largest wedding Forks had ever seen in centuries," my mother excitedly chattered on about two people I never even had heard of in my eighteen years of life. It seemed this couple had tried to top the largest wedding in Forks' history, my mother couldn't remember what year or who the Grands wanted to show up. However, I had an edgy feeling it would have been Rosalie's and Emmett's very first wedding this strange couple wanted to top.

"That's interesting mom," my voice tried to sound enthused about the tale she was sharing with me. I nodded my head in what seemed like appropriate timing, gasped when I thought it fit, and even awed once.

What was taking Edward so long to get us to that damn hotel!

Finally, his liquid voice slid into the middle of another agonizing story Renee had started, "We're here." Edward's voice seemed strained and when I looked at him, he was gazing out past the semi-circled entrance drive to something in the distance. Squinting I tried to see where he was looking, but my eyes weren't as sensitive as his…yet.

Phil and my mom got out of the car, I went to follow them but Edward's arm clasped around my wrist, tightly. "Wait." Was all I got at the alienated motion and my eyebrows shooting up in question.

"Edward, what…"

"Later," he cut me short with his cryptic ways and released my wrist; which was already bruising under my long sleeve shirt from the brute strength he had accidentally used. Rubbing my wrist tenderly, I finally got out of the Volvo to help with loading the suitcases up to my mother's and Phil's hotel room.

The room was quaint, like the one that Alice, Jasper and I had stayed in during the time with James as the infamous Bella hunter. There was one window looking out to the second story balcony that also looked out to the pool. The room had one full-sized bed inside, the walls had been freshly painted coral to go with the bed spread, and there was a cheap little white nightstand on either side of the bed with pink reading lamps on them. It was a clean room; the carpet was an off-white color but unstained.

I sat the suitcase in my hands beside the dresser and looked at Renee. "This looks roomy."

"It looks like the picture on the website." She agreed as Edward and Phil brought up the rest of the luggage. I smiled at how well behaved Edward was acting around two very human people that seemed over joyous around me.

"Isabella, Renee has been constantly talking about this trip for the last two weeks. She couldn't wait to get up here to see you." Phil announced his presence in this fashion.

I froze the smile on my face, Renee couldn't wait to come see me? Edward skeptically looked between my step-father and my mother as if daring them to add something else in.

"Speaking of which, Edward mind to have a word with me while Phil talks to Bella for a moment?" My mother then cooed and laced her arm through Edward's to lead him outside. My heart leapt into my throat and I couldn't breathe for a second as it blocked my airway.

"Don't worry. She isn't going to kill him Isabella. Renee just wants to speak with him." Phil tried to comfort my worried gaze on the door. I didn't look away from it at all as he spoke to me.

"Wa-wa why?" my voice shot through several octaves as I stammered out that one word.

"She loves you and wants him to know it. Especially to warn him about what she will do if Charlie calls her again in such a fit over you. She was scared for you all those months back. Your father kept her informed about how you were so 'Night of the Living Dead' for so long, then their phone calls became livelier as you did. She dyed her hair the same color just to cover up the gray hairs that popped up." Phil paused in the middle of his explanation on my mother's defense, "Don't tell her I just told you that. She'll kill me for sure."

I laughed and looked away, "No worries there. Edward hasn't really let me out of his sight since he came back from…LA." Oops, I had almost slipped up on that one.

"Good, that boy doesn't know what he missed when he left you. Lucky for him you cared enough not to go with any other guys and make him beg for you forgiveness." Phil's bass toned voice roughened in mid-sentence. I looked at him with wide eyes. "Sorry, I hated having heard about how he left you in the woods like he did. Your mother would have shot me at first glance if I did that to her."

An honest smile came back to my lips, If only you knew about my trip to Italy to save his life, things would be different. I thought to myself and then rolled my eyes at the thought of my mother shooting Phil. "She loves you too much to do that." I waved off the comment and then the door opened before Phil replied.

My mother's rock solid expression was back and Edward looked to be bored as he walked up to my side. His arm wrapped around my waist and he kissed the side of my head. Not caring what my mother and step-father would say or think, but something must have raced through one of their minds because he looked smug in his posture. I slapped his rock solid stomach and then thought about something.

"Mom, Alice, one of my future sister-in-laws, wants me to go to the florist with her, Rosalie, and Esme, two other future in-laws. Would you like to come with us or stay here and settle in? I think they all are excited to meet you," and make you play older dress-up Barbie. I added silently to myself.

"Are you going to becoming through here?" she asked standing next to Phil affectionately.

"We can. If you want us to," I answered and shrugged my shoulders.

"Nah, just go and have fun with your in-laws-to-be. I'll come with you when it is time to try on mother gowns." Renee seemed to shrug off her answer as well.

I gaped at her. Edward seemed to take that as the note to leave because we were headed out the door. "See ya later, mom," his tone was dry and he waved my hand by the wrist in a gentle hold.

"See ya mom." I echoed.

Sitting in Volvo on the way back to Charlie's house I looked at Edward.

"So…" I chiseled out the silence that was heavy in the air.

"So?" Edward repeated.

"What did my mother say to you?"

"Nothing, really."

"Really, because from where I was standing you seemed to have wanted to irk her in the hotel room," I watched the corners twitching on his lips.

"Edward," I groaned exasperatedly.

"Sorry, she made me angry talking about the what-ifs and how she would deal with me if they actually happened. Did you ever think maybe you did have a fantasized stalker back in Arizona that your mother scared off?" he condoned. I just blinked at him in bemusement.

"No, nobody was scared of my mother. I was the freak in Arizona that fainted at the smell of blood and was the half-albino. She was a harmless fly."

"I beg to differ. Her thoughts alone would scare away most uncommitted men from you side, also those glares. Sheesh," Edward gave a mockery shuddered at the point he was trying to make to me.

"Ha, ha, very funny, I'm not buying that. I was always the mature one and the one that kept peace in the house. She is a very care free spirit." I rolled my eyes to elaborate my point I was making about the woman I've known all my life and the one Edward was trying to tell me existed.

"Not when it comes to her baby…exact words from Renee. Who also told me to call her mom as well, since I am going to be her 'son' after this coming week," he grimaced.

"You're hateful. My mother…" I saw Rosalie's red BMW in the driveway.

"Have fun. Alice is upset at how much time we have wasted, tell her it was because of you and your mother talking. I had nothing to do with hogging you this time." Edward, glad for the change in subject, pulled up into the driveway behind the ostentatious sports car. Leaning over our lips met, he kissed me with a different fever and degree of passion then ever before. My head was swimming and walking was out of the question at that moment.

"Be careful, love," he exhaled inches from my face. My heart was pounding painfully inside my chest; in fact…I think I drooled a little out of the corner of my mouth!

Wiping the moisture away with the back of my hand, I fumbled with the door handle and stumbled out absent-mindedly. I heard him chuckle as the door shut and I drunkenly walked towards the shiny red BMW.

"Sucker," Rosalie's silken voice laughed. Esme frowned at her daughter. "Sorry," she added at her mother's face, trying to pull an innocent Alice façade mask out of the air.

"No, your not," Alice laughed, then taking a look back like an elegant crane, as I sat down beside her pixie-like form she snapped two fingers. The car floated backwards as if simply by her whim, this was the second time I had ridden in Rosalie's car and it was comfortable, almost like the Volvo, but it smelled like cherries instead of leather.

I was about to comment on it, but Alice looked at me. "Glad to see the wedding wasn't called off, like in that vision from earlier," she growled recalling the school parking lot thoughts and decisions I was making before graduation practice.

I sank lower into the leather seat, trying to disappear, and then Alice happily added, "But your mother seems to have forgiven you, however not Edward just yet."

My jaw hit the floorboard. "Yes, I saw her talking to him. Not all your fault on the tardiness, so don't worry about it dear. Worry about what kind of flowers you're going to pick." She sang, while I blinked in utter shock.

"How. Do. You. Know. That?" I whispered, annunciating every word separately.

She giggled in her light musical tone, "I know everything silly. You should know that by now." Alice dismissively waved her hand at the thought as Rosalie was driving crazily through the streets. Esme was telling Rosalie in a hushed whisper to slow down for my sake on the sharp turns.

"No, but seriously, I saw that part, ironically, because your mother told Edward she would rip him to shreds and burn the pieces, if he hurt you like he did ever again. She doesn't even know what we are, but she is determined to rip him limb from limb, if he breaks your heart and spirit again that is."

This couldn't have been that same woman that I called mom. This wasn't my Renee that they were talking about. My mother loved me sure, but I couldn't see her hurting someone over me. My thoughts were wild in my head, and then I saw a white hand waving inches from my face.

"Bella, do you like these flowers? They would go perfect with your gown!" Alice shrieked and Rosalie joined in when she walked up.

"She's right. They'll go purr-fectly." She purred.

I looked down at the carnations that my thumb caressed the blossom of. When had we arrived at the florist? I pondered now looking around the rounded roof room of the green house we stood in. The carnations at my fingertips were white and Alice was animatedly talking about them already to the gardener a couple aisles down.

Wondering away from the little nursery, I moved out side. The temperature was nothing, but the mugginess inside was something else for my lungs. Forks had humidity sure, but nothing to the degree of the green house we stood in. Esme followed me outside.

"Are you getting excited yet, dear?" her voice soft, sweet and motherly. I smiled at her. Watching a sweet smile take over her face and the corner of her eyes wrinkling a little as it reached them.

"More nervous about everything," I truthfully told her.

"To tell you a secret, Rosalie was nervous before her and Emmett were married the first time. Have you seen that show on TV, Bridezilla?" Esme's light humor had me laughing softly and shaking my head. "Well they have nothing on Rosalie. She could have even those brides crying over her weddings. The first time for her and Emmett, we tried a wedding planner." Her topaz eyes were serious, "The planner ran away crying and Edward was scolding Rosalie over it for about a month. Until she apologized for her rudeness to them; they never came back though and the wedding turned out just fine. In fact I think they still have the recorded best wedding here in Forks."

That made something click in my mind, "You know a few years back, meaning before I was born, there was a couple that tried to top Rosalie and Emmett in best weddings of Forks." I informed Esme.

"Really, I couldn't believe someone would try that. Rosalie had the church packed full of strangers and people that thought her and Emmett were gods themselves. Nobody missed their wedding. How large was the one that tried to top her?" Esme tested the subject looking over her shoulder to see Alice and Rosalie coming towards the door.

"On second thought, hold that answer for later." Esme held up a silencing finger as the front doors opened.

"We have everything now." Alice and Rosalie chorused, beaming from ear-to-ear at their accomplishment. "All we have to do is decorate the church!" That was when I saw that dreaded clipboard in Alice's granite hands about to break with the clip bent all the way back.

"You need to think of a filing folder next time Alice," I commented pointing to her tortured organizer; that looked to have groaned in protest every time something new was added in.

She gasped happily, "Oh, you plan on marring Edward again in the future." She squeaked happily and hugged me. Rosalie grabbed her shoulder and was shaking her blonde head faintly.

"Alice, I think she was referring to the next time I marry. Not her and Edward. For some reason, my gut is telling me they are going to marry only this one time, kind of like you and Jasper or Carlisle and Esme did." Rosalie came to my defense with a warm sister-like smile, Alice pouted.

"Very well, I guess. Well we should get Bella back home, my phone vibrated about a bazillion times. Edward must be worried." Alice's face looked like that which you could compare to a fallen angel's. I pitied her, but I wasn't desperate enough to promise her another wedding in thirty years.

We loaded back into Rosalie's car and sped home. Alice was flipping through the load of stuff on the miserable tortured pink clipboard. Charlie was in the living room, I could tell because the glow in the window was dim from the TV. He probably had ordered pizza, since I hadn't cooked for him. I hadn't spoken to Charlie since before the stay over at the Cullens and to be honest I was afraid to.

Waving goodbye to Rosalie, Esme and Alice I stepped into the front door.

"Hey and night, dad," I tiredly yawned and walked through the living room straight for the stairs. Today had been eventful and surprisingly I hadn't had an issue with death lurking around the corner every ten steps.

"Night, Bella," His equally exhausted voice chased after me half way up the stairs. I guess he wasn't ready to talk yet, I bet Chief Swan felt useless having not killed the "dogs" while up in La Push. "See ya at the school tomorrow for graduation at…seven, right?"

"Correct a monde, Dad. Seven pm it is." I stated and went the rest of the way up to my room. Where I knew Edward would be waiting for me to take a human minute, and them crawl into bed where his arms expectantly laid open waiting for me.