Holy crap I'm on chapter twenty and it's taken this long for the main characters to find each other again. It's a miracle you guys are still hanging in there and reading, had the most reviews for the last chapter which made me very happy. Unfortunately this would have been out quicker had it not been for someone in the flat above getting done for downloading illegal movies. So the university cut the buildings internet until he paid the fine. Let's just say he not the most popular person right now.

Oh and I'm glad you liked the cat, I'm still trying to think of a name for him. I think he may pop up in the next chapter.

Thanks to all those who reviewed, alerted or put the story under your favourites. It brings me back from the corner of woe that is student life and nine pence noodles.

So it's due to the fact I don't own the Twilight Saga that nine pence noodles are now my staple diet.

Chapter Twenty: Te Amo

My legs felt weak. The very notion was physically impossible and yet my legs suddenly could no longer hold up my own weight. And with a bump I landed on my behind, limbs bent awkwardly at each side. Both my hands had made perfect imprints into the dust on the floor boards and had I not been having a small break down, the dirt would have bothered me tremendously. From the tensing of my facial muscles I could only guess my face was masked into something that resembled incredulity.

Edward hadn't moved. Just stood; motionless, perhaps two strides from me without word or breath. I could feel his penetrating gaze scolding itself against my features, searching for any clue as to a response.

But just how did one respond to that?

"W-what? But…..I don't." I began. Growing frustrated the words refused to order themselves or form coherently, so uttered an unladylike. "Shit." And mentally congratulated myself on a well-constructed sentence, I supposed getting a point across had never been artfully done in my case.

"That's why I've been looking for you." He said quietly. "I just wanted to know why you left and-and I wanted to see you."

I could feel an onslaught of emotion rise up from the depths of my chest, and with it a bout of unshedable venom. To hear such affectionate words after such a long time was enough to bring me to tears. "That's not fair." I mumbled, rubbing my eyes with loose fists in an attempt dispel the blurriness. It wasn't fair for him to say such kind things to me, after living alone for almost a decade. It wasn't fair that he was suddenly interrupting my perfectly lonely life and making me feel emotions I had tried so hard to burry.

"It's not fair." I yelled, banging my hands against the floor boards like a spoilt child. "Why now? Why didn't you say something back then?" Edward let out a ragged breathe in return. Leant his back flat against the wall and slid down, until he sat legs bend only a yard away from me.

"I wanted to for so long. But each and every time I came even close….I couldn't say anything. We had such a close relationship, I got scared that if you didn't feel the same way…we wouldn't be as close." He smiled lightly, but it was more a smile of nostalgia than that of present happiness. "I thought perhaps just being your friend meant we could stay together, but trying to ignore it hurt too much. So I planned to tell you. I intended to in the very moments before you left."

My palms pressed firmly against my eyes, and tried their hardest to supress the wail that wanted out. But my lip betray me and quivered along with my chest, as they fought to express the sadness his words bought upon me. Had this all been a misunderstanding? He had told me he didn't want to be friends, was that because he wanting something else? This lonely pathetic existence had been due to a misunderstanding. The very notion revelation sent my breathing into shallow succession.

"Isabella are you crying?" He asked softly.

"N-no." I sobbed. Bowing my head and allowing a curtain of thick hair to obscure his view of my face. It had been a long time since I had cried, much preferring to keep my emotions to myself and hidden from those who may perceive it as a weakness.

"Such a terrible liar." He smiled, shaking his head. "So now you've heard my tragic tale of woe."

We had felt the same way at the same time, but because of his inability to tell me and my own irrational stupidity we'd both ended up alone. I'd walked away from the only place I ever felt safe, given in to my instincts and become a killer again. If Edward had never come to find me, I would have continued living alone and ignorant to everything. And probably bought another cat.

"Isabella I understand if you don't reciprocate, but please don't leave me alone. I can't continue to live by myself anymore." He pleaded sadly.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered from my lowly position on the dust ridden bare boards.

"I tried so hard to be your friend in the hopes we could stay close, because I never thought you would ever feel that way about me. But then you said you didn't want that… so I panicked and I ran." Pitifully finishing my own story, yet dared not look up from my tensely clasped hands resting in my lap.

"I'm sorry it was not my intention to make you lonely. I just though…I thought if I left everything behind I could protect myself and you would all be so much better off without me." As a moment of quiet passed between us; only broken as he shifted position against the wall, I thought of all the things I should of said. Things that would have prevented a decade of loneliness for both of us, conversations that would have changed everything. But when it came down to the mark, they all lead to the same thing.

"I do love you Edward, I always have." I finished.

His hands moved lightning fast, curling their way around my arms and pulling me into an embrace. Although he remained sitting against the wall, I was now sat firmly in his lap. My arms naturally moving to snake around his neck and pulling us impossibly closer together

"You do?" He murmured into my shoulder.

"Yes I do."

"Then promise you won't leave me."

"I promise."

….

The wind continued to blow a gale outside, blasting lashings of freezing snow against the façade of the office building. It was the only sound that penetrated through the comfortable silence we had lapsed into, as the minutes pass my patience started to become restless and thoughts began to wonder. When I finally came to a well deduced conclusion, one that could not be ignored.

"I'm not staying here." I huffed, aimlessly playing with the collar of the rather unattractive coat he wore.

"What do you mean?" He asked, giving me a slightly adorable quizzical look with a raised brow. With a sweeping hand, I gestured to the shabby building around us. Having been situated on the upstairs landing, I was able to spy various other rooms on both floors. It seemed Edward kept to one room and one room alone, as none of the others seemed to be in use. They were derelict looking and void of any furnishings, the ideal place for vermin and not to mention numerous species of spiders.

"You don't have any sentimental attachment to this place, do you?" I questioned.

"No, not at all." He replied, playing idly with a strand of my long damp hair and in no clear hurry to move. And while I was content remaining sat together, the notion would have been much preferred within the clean confines of my own home.

"Good. Can we go now?" I smiled, tugging the hair free from his grasp and pushing onto my feet in one fluid motion.

"Go where?"

"To my house." I exasperated. "You don't honestly think I live on the streets." The floorboards creaked loudly as I crouched slightly too where he still sat, wrapped my hand around his own and tried to pull him up.

"Not at all you're far too high maintenance for such a life." He chuckled; holding tighter to my hand and in one graceful move was back to his feet. We continued back into the small box room that was currently acting as his makeshift home, I took an awkward; but eagle eyed, seat upon the desk. Watching Edward pack his minimal belongings into a leather case, in which appeared from under one of the large sofas.

From my perch I watched in faint amusement as he diligently packed his beloved records, before hastily and without care threw articles of clothing in. With a roll of the eye, I took to the floor and grabbed the white shirt he was currently brandishing.

"Here let me." I smiled, beginning to neatly fold the items and pack them with a little more due care an attention.

"So may I ask how you came to own a house?" Edward asked, halfway through sorting a pile of documents and sheet music that had accumulated in the desk draws.

"A gift for speculating on the stock market, bought low, sold high and made myself some money." I replied. "Lost a bit last September when prices dropped, so pulled out to regroup and let the market recover. Of course it never did."

"I never thought of you as a speculator." He smirked.

"Well think again." I stated audaciously. Taking the hand of papers from him and placing them on top of the pile, as not to crease and tear. Finishing by clicking down the trunks brass clips and fastening the leather buckles. "Everything is so much easier when you have money. I can buy property and live how I desire without questions being asked." He nodded in agreement with the truthful fact that humans were easily influenced; it was probably the reason our kind and survived so long undetected.

Edward took the case from my hands, lifting the bulky weight effortlessly before grabbing a nicer looking coat from the stand. "Here take this." He said, passing it to me. And although I had no need for such a thing at the current time, I took it no questions asked. Just happy enough he had given it to me.

"Thank you."

We made our way back onto the roof with ease, and straight into the snow gale that had now begun to stick to the ground. The only sights visible though the white blizzard came from the blinking lights of the navigation buoys across the lake.

With one step forward we both plunged down the two stories and hit the asphalt, an inaudible sound due to the blanket of white covering everything. And suddenly the coat protecting me from the freezing precipitation was a welcome addition, even if it was far too big for my smaller frame.

"Onwards." I muttered, turning towards the south and starting to trek back towards home. Deciding upon a human pace until I reached the safety and cover of the trees.

"How far is it?" Edward asked quietly from my side, his footsteps tapped in perfect rhythm with my own as we walked at the same pace.

"About three miles from here, in the old suburbs." I replied, rolling up the sleeves on the coat and allowing my hands exposure to the air. And no sooner had my right hand dropped to my side I found it intertwined within Edward's, and the space between us impossibly smaller.

"Can't say I've ever seem that part of the city." He mused. "In fact I haven't seen much of Toledo."

"How long have you been here?" I asked, sidestepping a pile of rusting equipment along the dockside.

"About two months." He said. "I don't stay in the same place for very long; more ground can be covered that way. After all I've never been the most skilful at tracking."

"Well I think you did good." I resorted. Moving closer to him and intertwining our arms together, in the hope physical contact would help reinforce my beliefs.

"You do?" He whispered, grip tightening on my hand and forcing the dips in our palms together.

"Well you managed to fine me didn't you? And I don't mean to be boastful but I'm pretty good at hiding, not to mention the small fact that I could have been anywhere."

"Hmm not anywhere."

"Pardon?"

"Not anywhere." He repeated again. "For example I know how much you detest boats; the idea of being stuck in a limited space with humans makes you uncomfortable. So you were most likely still on the content. I know how much you love the different seasons and you had no desire to live in a place where weather dictated the amount of time you could shop. But then again you always said you didn't understand how the Denali's could live in such a cold place, that amount of snow was just annoying. So the southern states and too far north of the boarder was probably out of the question. And while we lived in Wisconsin you said you liked looking out across the lakes, so great expanses of water were a must." There was a pause and had I not been close to tears once again, was sure that I should have been embarrassed about just how much of I tendency I had to moan.

"You idiot." I sniffed, the sound muffled as I hid my face against the arm of his coat.

"But no matter how long it took, I would have kept searching. Because I love you and I was determine to tell you that."

….

This is the chapter I was really dreading, I'm no romance writer and I will be the first to admit that. So thought of what any normal girl would do in this situation, minus the vampire bit of course. Well I hope you enjoy my best efforts.