The Twilight Twenty-Five
Prompt: LITHE
Pen name: SWEETP-1
Pairing: BELLAxPETER
Rating: M

Disclaimer: No copyright infringement intended. I do not own Twilight - I am just borrowing quotes and characters.

Bella is 49. (Mary is 9).

Bella smiled softly as she watched her daughter. Mary was utterly entranced by the performance, and had barely taken her eyes off the stage since the orchestra had started filling the theater with their captivating music.

The symphony had been sold out for weeks, but at the last minute, Peter had managed to get tickets from a contact at his work. Seeing the look of pure joy on her daughter's spell-bound face was worth every cent they had paid to see the exorbitantly priced, opening night performance.

They both knew their daughter had a gift for music. Even as a toddler, they would find her beating out a rhythm with a spoon on the back of a saucepan, or playing alone, singing a made-up lullaby to her dolls. Piano lessons had been booked as soon as she was big enough to sit on a piano stool. Peter often joked that music was Mary's second language.

Bella sighed to herself and turned back to the stage. She found it amazing that a group of people could all play individual instruments and yet, make such a cohesive and collective sound together. All the parts working in harmony to create such beauty. It was no wonder Mary had been so thrilled when they had given her the tickets as an early birthday present. She closed her eyes, and listened to the wordless story that was being created in front of her.

All too soon, they were on their feet showing their appreciation with their hands. Mary looked both devastated the evening was over, and overwhelmed at having heard the world renown musicians play live in a theater. Bella touched her shoulder, gently.

"Time to go, sweetheart. If they ever come here again, I promise we'll take you."

Mary sighed, but let her mother lead them out of their seats and into the packed foyer.

As they joined the throng of people, a glance of tousled bronze hair caught Bella's attention. She gasped. Surely it couldn't be. But another flash of an all too familiar profile confirmed her suspicion.

Edward was right there, in front of her.

For a split-second, she considered pretending that she hadn't seen him, slowly making his way through the crowd to the door of the theater. For just an instant, she was content to let him go, to keep the two incompatible parts of her life - the past and the present - separate and distinct. She knew it was unlikely he would know she was so close behind him; in a crowd of humans this tightly packed, she knew he wouldn't be breathing, knew he would only be concentrating on shutting out the barrage of thoughts that would be bombarding him.

She could simply pretend she hadn't seen him.

When was the last time she had seen him, she wondered to herself. Had it really been ten years? Bella could hardly believe it had been that long, but time seemed to fly now she was a mother. Days, weeks, months and years just sped by. She had certainly never expected to happen upon him randomly like this.

She was pushing through the crowd before she realized what she was doing.

"Edward," she called to him.

He froze, and turned agonizingly slowly toward her. The look of shock on his usually impassive features answered the question that had prickled at the back of her mind, since the moment she had realized it was him.

He hadn't known she was here.

The crowd parted around them as they stood silently taking stock of each other. She smiled softly at him.

"Bella, I'm sorry. I swear, I didn't know you were here," he said anxiously.

"It's okay. Really," she said quickly as she shifted her weight nervously from one foot to another.

"How are you?" Of course, Edward came from another time, even in situations as awkward and unexpected as this, he would not forget his manners.

"I'm good. You?"

"I'm well, thank you." He did look well. Bella couldn't stop herself gazing at him. So handsome with his chiseled features, all sharp angles of jaw and cheekbones. He had always been the type of beautiful that made people take another glance, and that certainly hadn't changed. Bella could see the crowd slowly filing past them, every person stealing another look at perfection as they passed. So lean and lithe, his body was as untouched by time as his face.

"You look…so young!" The words rushed out, and Bella blushed as she heard how ridiculous she sounded. Her age, his age, and the gap between them had been at the heart of why their relationship had faltered, and why she had ultimately left him. It was thoughtless to throw it back in his face, now.

"Only the outside," Edward smiled at her wryly.

Peter touched her arm lightly, and she felt a flash of guilt as she realized she had all but forgotten her family in her haste to catch up to Edward.

"Isabella?" Peter asked, his tone asking a million unspoken questions.

Bella forced herself to smile as her two worlds collided.

"Edward, this is my husband, Peter." Bella said quietly, thankful that the pain she had been anticipating to see on Edward's face never came.

"Edward is…" Bella faltered, not knowing what to say. There were so many things that Edward was, but none of them could be shared. Not with Peter. "Edward is a friend of the family." She finally settled on a not-quite lie, hoping Edward would forgive her truth-bending.

"Nice to meet you, Edward." Peter said warmly as he shook Edward's hand.

"Likewise." Edward said curtly, before quickly withdrawing his hand. Bella could only guess what kind of questions were racing through her husband's mind as he shook hands with this young "friend" he had never heard his wife speak of before.

"And this is Mary. My daughter." Bella said as she pulled her daughter to stand beside her.

Edward stared at the little girl in front of him, glancing between her and Bella with wide, shocked eyes. Bella winced as she watched the storm of emotions flash over his face; the regret and sorrow she had expected, and then a softening of his features, a slight smile gracing his lips. As much as it had hurt him when she had left, he had only ever wanted her to be happy. Bella hoped he would know that all her dreams and hopes had come true.

Edward crouched down to Mary's height.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mary," he said softly. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"Oh yes. I'm going to play in an orchestra one day! I play the piano and the violin," she replied with her usual enthusiasm.

Edward chuckled. "Well, I hope one day I will get to hear you play, Mary."

Bella felt her heart clench as she watched the ghost of her past interact so naturally with her own flesh and blood. Edward would have been an attentive and loving father, if only...the thought was too painful, too close to home, too hard, and she shut it away quickly before turning to her husband.

"Why don't you go ahead and take Mary to the car? I'll be there in a minute."

"Sure." Peter said as he reached out his hand for Mary to take. "We'll see you in a minute?" Bella nodded, but she didn't miss the lingering gaze he shot at Edward. She couldn't read minds, but she knew there would be questions for her to answer later.

As her family walked through the theater doors, Bella realized that the foyer was now pretty much deserted. She hadn't even noticed the crowd dispersing as they talked.

"She's beautiful. Does Alice..?" Edward asked hesitantly.

"Yes, she does." Bella felt oddly guilty. She had often wondered if Alice had slipped up and accidentally shown Edward a glimpse of the little girl that had been named after her. Alice had assured her that she could keep things from him if she tried, but there had always been a part of her that had wondered how long she would be able to keep it up.

"Oh." Edward said with surprise, running his hand through his hair. "I should probably give her more credit, then," he joked, flashing her an apologetic grin.

She grinned back at him. It was a relief to see Edward smiling. The few occasions she had seen him since their relationship ended had been so strained and difficult. She had found a new kind of happiness without him, and all she had hoped for him was that he would one day find the same, that one day he would smile again.

An awkward silence stretched between them. Bella searched her mind for something, anything, to say, but everything seemed trite, or forced. Nervously, she began to fidget with the hem of her blouse as Edward remained silent.

The vision of Edward interacting with Mary replayed over and over in her mind. The realization crashed over her that 17-year-old Edward was closer in age to Mary than he was to her, and she felt her knees go weak.

She had spent so long agonizing over her decision to leave, so long wondering if she had, in fact, done the right thing. Tonight, for the first time since she had left him, she no longer questioned herself. Tonight, she had seen first-hand the impossible nature of the future she would have had at his side. It took Bella another moment to finally recognize that the strange sensation washing over her was relief.

"I should probably go," Bella said as she stared at the floor. Suddenly, the carpet seemed infinitely more interesting than whatever emotion she might see in Edward's face.

"Okay." She could hear the reluctance in his voice, and she raised her eyes to him again.

"It was good to see you, Bella." He reached his hand out to her, but stopped before he touched her. The hesitation in the gesture made her heart ache, and she took his cold hand in hers and squeezed it briefly.

"You, too," she replied as she dropped his hand and pulled her handbag up on her shoulder. She tried to pretend she didn't see the pain in his eyes as she walked away from him, again.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she walked out into the night.

A/N:

Once again, I played around with a couple of lines of dialogue from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (movie) which was one of the inspirations for this story.

Thanks to Vanpirenz and Betham for betaing and sticking with me.

Thanks for reading x