Stephenie Meyer owns the Cullens, I own the original characters. This is just for entertainment reasons, no infringement or slander intended. Please review!

Chapter Twenty-Five:

I could not stop staring at my left hand. Even in the dim light of Edward's bedroom, with the moon casting in just as much light as there'd been in the meadow, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the glittering gems.

Quiet laughter filtered into my left ear and tore my gaze away from what I could only think of as my engagement ring. Edward lay beside me on his wide couch, on his side with his icy arm acting as my pillow.

"What?" I laughed lightly, failing miserably at sounding as enchanting as he did and tilted my head carefully to look up at him. "Why're you laughing at me?"

"You keep checking your hand." His teeth flashed in the dim light and sent a shock racing through my system. "It's almost as if you're afraid it's going to disappear or something."

"I am!" I blurted out suddenly then laughed again and turned to hide my face in his chest. His arms wound around me easily, pulling my body flush up against his as his lips buried in my hair.

"It's not going anywhere." He practically breathed into my hair as his hands moved languidly across my back. Every few seconds, his fingers would slide over my bare skin and more chills shot through me as a result. "I'm not going anywhere either."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." I exhaled dizzily against his chest and pouted a little when I was moving again.

Once I was laying on my back once more, he curled over me slightly with a tiny grin playing on his immaculate features as his hand cupped my cheek gently. "You're my life, Houston. That ring on your finger confirms it, but I don't want you to think that this is the only option for you. Even though I'm willing to give you this, I still can't help but worry about what it's going to cost you."

There it was. His belief that turning immortal was going to cost me my soul. I sighed heavily and frowned up at his heart-wrenching expression, reaching up to hold his face with one of my hands. "You know you don't want to get me started on the subject of your humanity, so put that card away now." I couldn't resist the small, joking tone but grew somber as I pulled my hand from his cheek and laid it over the back of his hand, which was still molded into my cheek. "This is the only way we can be together. I don't want to be changed because I'm scared of dying, Edward. Cancer forced fear from my life a long time ago. Changing and truly joining your family is something I want because I want you. I want to be with you for the rest of eternity and I love your family almost as much as I love you. I'm not looking at this as a solution to dying. While I am excited for a future that doesn't have me imprisoned in a ravaged body, I'm more excited about getting to keep loving you. That's what I want most out of all this. I want to be able to hold onto your heart for the rest of our unnatural lives, and I want you to carry my heart with you for that same amount of time."

"You have no idea how perfect that sounds." He breathed and grinned brightly at me. I could barely catch my breath from the grin when he leaned down and suddenly kissed me. But before our lips could pull us from the careful control he kept our relationship in, he was looking at me again with his fingertips grazing my cheekbone. "I don't want to throw you but I've been curious." He muttered and looked down, finally pulling his hand from my face to take the fingers of my left hand into his cold grip. "What happened to the ring you used to wear?"

"I put it up." He'd graciously given me enough time to pull myself back into the conversation as my eyes drifted to the glittering stones and white gold that seemed to brighten the skin around it. Until now, I hadn't even known that he actually knew about the simple band I used to wear. "It was a ring my mother bought after she left my father. At first, she only wore it because she didn't want to have to deal with men hitting on her." I smiled faintly at the beautiful memory of my mother's appearance. Years couldn't dim that image and I feverishly hoped that it was a memory I would be able to hold on once I'd become immortal. "She was so beautiful, even after she got sick, I would tease her that she had men lining up to ask her out."

"Like mother, like daughter." Edward's quiet musing fluttered my heart and I rolled my eyes involuntarily. I was about to protest when his lips captured mine again just long enough to confuse me.

I grunted in impatience and jokingly pushed him away with a smile on my face. "I'm talking about my mom, this doesn't happen very often and you wanted to know about the ring I used to wear. So stop trying to distract me, do that later." His quiet laugh turned my insides spongy and I quickly stuck my tongue out at him before forcing myself to continue. "She later turned it into an outward sign of some promise she made. But I never got to find out that promise. She always said that she would tell me when I turned sixteen but..."

"Maybe she wore it as a devotion to her daughter." He surmised and his words filled me with a sudden stranglehold of hope. Maybe that had been her reasoning behind it. It was an idea that I thrilled at vigerously. "What was her name?"

"Angela." I smiled as I said her name, lifting my eyes so he could see the grin fill my eyes. "Angela Elizabeth Morgan. She wanted to start her own tradition with me when I was born. I'm the third generation of Morgan women with that middle name." I revealed and didn't bother to repress the sudden giggle that filled my throat. "You ever think that maybe it was fate that brought us together? Like, maybe I was made just for you?"

"Why do you say that?" Even though he was asking me that question, I could still see the familiar tightening of his eyes and lips as he mulled over what I'd just said. Maybe it was fate that had brought us together. The coincidences were just too overpowering to ignore. Had the supernatural part of his being not taken over, we would've had the exact same eyecolor. Even though I was convinced he would look so much better with the eyecolor than I did, it still filled me with a strange sense of rightness. Like history had mapped out our exact courses. Carlisle had saved him so that he could enter a new life and end up saving me.

I ended up shrugging as I turned carefully onto my side to face him, sliding my arm over his cold waist as I leaned up on my other elbow. This position would hurt after a few minutes, I was absolutely sure of that, but right then I didn't care. "There are too many coincidences for me to believe that this was just a random, chance happening." I replied, surprised that my voice had dipped into the quiet tone that it had. "I never dreamed that someone like you existed. Not just the things I fell in love with. Not the way you smile at me when you think I'm not looking, or the way your eyes light up when you figure something out before I even know what's going on. Think about it, it all seemed to start when you let me see who you really are."

That time I got a better reaction from him. At first it was confusion, clear and utter confusion before it faded into the thoughtful expression that always made me fall silent and watch him work through whatever was going through his mind. "You're right." He breathed then looked up at me as his eyes flashed in the recognition I'd just mentioned. "I've always been wondering how you could've been so accepting of our lifestyle. Why the true nature of me and my family hasn't scared you once. You've never consciously run from that, not even when I almost..."

For once, I was faster than him. My lips blended against his icy, immobile lips before he could finish his last statement. I knew this action would backfire and when he automatically responded to me by parting my lips against his own so he could carefully trap my lower lip between his, I wasn't the least bit surprised when my head started to swim. Because I was so distracted by him, I just sighed against his lips as he carefully pulled me tighter up against his body. With the way we were laying now, I could easily feel every single plane of his statuesque form against my flushing skin. I didn't resist when he shifted and pulled me on top of him, his back hitting the couch with the most silent of thuds. Bracing myself on my hands, I gasped for air and kept my eyes shut when he released my mouth and started to rain kisses down my jaw, then along the bone trail that my tilted head created against my neck.

I wasn't fearful of him losing control as he continued to kiss as much of my exposed skin as he could, and I willingly moved when he shifted again. Suddenly, I was the one with my back pressing into the cold leather underneath me, with his body still pressed against me. Even though I felt absolutely none of his weight, I could feel the artic draft emanating from his body and into mine. I sighed again and leaned my cheek against my shoulder as his lips moved lower, now gliding over my collarbone then across the flat plane of my upper chest. Against my better judgement, I hooked my thigh against his hip, molding my leg through the curve of his as his hand once again began to slide over my side. It was almost as if he knew where my bare skin was without even looking and his cold touch against the side of my stomach, fingers disappearing underneath the hem of my tank top, the heat swelling through my body ignited furiously. I'd never felt like this with anyone before, never wanted to just...lose myself the way I wanted to lose myself with him. But it was something I knew couldn't happen. After all, I was still recovering from surgery, damn doctors and their rules. And second? I knew that he wouldn't let things get that far.

So when he stopped at the swell of my breasts and laid his head on my chest, right over the source of my heartbeat, I sighed heavily and slid my hands up the back of his shirt. As uncomfortable as my body suddenly felt, there was no real way I wanted to move right then. What little weight he was allowing to cover my body felt like the most perfect kind of heaven, and I idly began to wonder what things would be like when my body was less breakable. Would we be able to do more? Would he no longer be afraid that he would hurt me with what was supposed to be the simplest of touches?

"I'm going to miss this." He sighed and turned his face into my chest more. I managed to surpress the small giggle that formed when his nose glided over my still over-heated skin, tickling the area and let out a low breath.

"Are you..." Suddenly, words seemed to stick in my throat as my right hand moved and began to play with his tousled hair. Mentally kicking myself, I just sighed and looked up at him when he leaned back to look at me, my hand managing to stay in place against the back of his skull. "Are you going to hate it when my heart doesn't beat anymore?"

"Of course not." The words were a breathless whisper as his breath washed over my face. I closed my eyes long enough to savor the taste that always formed on my tongue then forced them open when his fingers smoothed over my cheek. "Yes, I'm going to miss listening to your heart beat. I'm going to miss a lot about your human characteristics." He smiled suddenly and I felt that rush of blood fill my face. Of course, Edward chuckled then leaned down and kissed both of my cheeks before he laid his cheek against my chest once more. My fingers picked up their previous habit of gliding through the bronze strands of hair, and I waited in unconscious anxiety for him to go on. "But I'm going to love what I...what we get in return."

If I'd been able to look at him, I was sure that he would be wearing my favorite grin on his angelic features. "What's it going to be like?" I asked quietly and tried, in vain, to keep the fear from leaking through my words.

I didn't succeed and we were moving again before I even felt him leave my body. I curled up against his cold chest almost automatically as he pulled me into his arms and buried his lips in my tangled, brown hair. "The first few years are probably going to be your toughest. As a newborn, it'll be extremely difficult for you to control your thirst. You won't be able to be around people, humans especially. Everything's going to be different for you. Every single one of your senses will be heightened and you'll be able to see things that you never really saw before."

"And you still won't be able to hear my thoughts." I surmised, honestly not sure where that had exactly come from. I knew it was difficult for Edward, not having his gift work on me. But then I began to wonder what my gift would be. Esme had the power to love so passionately that it turned even the truest of human loves into a joke. Alice had her visions of the future, and Jasper could manipulate the emotions in a room. Carlisle's abstinence from human blood was very clearly his gift and Rosalie...well, she was dangerously beautiful. I could only guess that had ended up being her gift into this life. But the more I learned about Rosalie, the more I ended up liking her. And vice versa. She had claimed, not too long ago, that it felt refreshing to have someone in the house that knew as much about the mechanics of a car as she did. No doubt, once I was turned, I would become her buddy in that area. Emmett was a great companion, her preferred company whenever she had to work on a car. But she had always, unconsciously, wished for someone who could help her whenever she seemed unable to figure out a car problem.

Of course, my love of cars appeased Edward greatly as well. While Rosalie exceeled him in her knowledge of workings under the hood, he was still an avid fan of automobiles. Just hours before, I'd had to shut down a conversation that consisted of him asking me what kind of car I would love to have, if I could have anything. He'd been hinting at something and I could only guess that it was his desire to buy me a car of my very own.

"I still know what you're thinking sometimes." His quiet, soothing voice pulled me from my drifting thoughts gently and I snuggled against his chest even more, my face hidden in the soft folds of his tee shirt as he wrapped the blanket that had fallen around my waist, around me more securely. "I've gotten quite good at reading your facial expressions."

"Oh yeah?" I looked up suddenly, adamantly determined to at least try and prove him wrong. But the more generous side of my head won out and I would only end up proving him right. So I just stared up at him, letting my eyes shine with all the love that filled my body. All for him, with the rest of my expression under tight control. "What am I thinking right now?"

His eyes burned into me for a few, short seconds; then a bright grin stretched his features as he leaned down and gently touched my lips with his. "I love you, too."