A/N: Yes I am back and Christmas break starts for me this coming Thursday and I will have lots more time to write and possibly finish this story.
Hidden Kisses at Midnight
Chapter 25
Sitting in the car Elise couldn't believe that she was in front of the house she had grown up in, the house she had left behind when her parents refused to let her be with Edward. Glancing over at Edward, Elise gave him a soft, but nervous smile. Suddenly she felt her hand in his and she smiled at him again knowing that he only wanted the best for her. She couldn't really believe that even through everything she was the happiest she could ever imagine being ever in her life and she didn't want anything to change that, ever. All she wanted then was her forever with Edward that she had achieved, but she still felt that somehow her parents could stand in the way of her forever.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Edward asked him keeping her hand in his.
Elise simply nodded as she bit her lip. "Yeah." She breathed. She leaned over to Edward and kissed him. "I'm sure. I will be out soon." She spoke as she slipped her hand from his and opened the door to the car and leaving him in the car.
Shaking was all Elise could really do as she made her way up the walkway and towards the front door. Making her way up the few stairs onto the porch she took a deep breath and then knocked on the door. She waited a few moments and then the door opened, but the last person in the world that she wanted to see stood in front of her. Elizabeth her older sister stood there with a smirk on her face.
"Look who came crawling back." Elizabeth said with a small laugh.
Elise simply rolled her eyes at her sister. "Are mom and dad around?" she asked.
"Yes, they are in the living room." Elizabeth said and then at once Elise pushed herself past her sister and down the very short walkway into the living room where her mother sat on the couch knitting and her dad sat with the morning paper.
Suddenly her mom had dropped her needles and gasped as she looked at Elise standing there. "My baby!" she screeched with joy as she jumped from the couch and grabbed her into a hug. Elise was shocked beyond anything by the way her mother was acting. All her life her mother barely showed any affection to her at all, but now she stood as her mom held her close crying.
"Elise, dear." Her dad said as he also made his way to her and along with her mother held her close. "I'm so glad to have you back."
"I…I…" Elise was overwhelmed with emotion in the moment. "I'm sorry." She cried at once with tears falling from her eyes. "For how I acted and what I'm doing, but I love you so much and I had to see you."
"Elise I'm sorry. After you left I realized I was the most horrible mother to you. Always pushing you and never working with you and always not caring when I should have cared so much more." Her mother cried as the two of them walked to the couch with her dad not far behind them.
"Mom, dad before you go on the way you are I have to tell you something." Elise then said because she felt she didn't want to be sucked into all their love and then for them to be upset with her in a matter of seconds when she broke the news about Edward. "Well, Edward the vampire and I are still together. He is actually outside he brought me." Elise looked at her parents who joyful expressions were now starting to fade into looks of confusion. "He and I are getting married at the beginning of summer after we graduate."
"Married?" her dad questioned. "Honey you know he doesn't age?"
"I don't either." Elise then said.
"What do you mean?" her mother asked.
"Well where we moved I met this woman she is a witch and I work for her actually. We were talking and she told me about a potion to stay alive forever and be preserved the way I am." Elise then started to explain.
"I know of it." Her mother then said. "The side-effects are supposed to be horrible and can kill you themselves especially the fever."
"You are telling me." Elise said with a laugh now trying to lighten the mood.
"You've done it already?" her dad asked.
"Yeah, I did." Elise said. "I'm sorry if you hate me again or whatever, but I'm sorry. I love Edward so much and I just want to be able to be with him and that's forever."
Her mom let out a breath and then smiled. "We don't hate you. After you left we realized what a horrible mistake was made. Losing a child was the hardest thing ever and we never want to go through that again."
"Never again, so if you want to be with Edward it's fine as long as we still have you as a daughter." Her dad said. "If he is outside invite him in."
Elise's face was lit up. She made her way to the door and stood on the stairs waving to Edward for him to come in. It was only seconds as Edward was out the car and on the porch with her. He put his arm around her waist as the two of them walked into the house. Walking into the living room her dad stood at they entered and approached Edward.
"I think that should introduce myself to you properly." Her dad said. "I'm Richard Bernett and this is my wife Silvia." He extended his hand to shake Edward's. The two of them shook hands and Elise couldn't help, but smile. "It's clear that you make my daughter extremely happy and I appreciate that in the fact that my wife and I were unable to give her happiness with our horrible parenting style that we regret. I thank you for keeping her well and I understand the two of you will be married."
"I firstly thank you for allowing our union. We plan to get married the last week in June." Edward said.
"Wonderful. I can't wait to help plan." Her mother then said happily.
"You can join Alice in that. I'm apparently not doing a thing." Elise said with a laugh.
"Alice?" questioned her mother.
"My sister." Edward then answered as Elise let him to the couch and they sat down together.
"Where have you been living since leaving here?" her dad asked.
"In Mount Cove City." Elise answered.
"There is no Wizard seat there." Her dad started and then he paused. "The council years ago before I was a member exiled a woman there. She had left her family for…"
"A vampire. Her name is Carlotta Winters she is there with her now husband a vampire named Martin Winters." Elise answered. "She told me the story."
"Have you been going to school?" her mom then asked.
"As soon as we got there Mr. and Mrs. Cullen enrolled all of us. Also Madame Winters has been helping me finishing my magic school. I should be done in a month." Elise said.
"I'm glad." Her mom then said. "I am so happy to come and see you all the time."
"I'm happy. I was so scared to come here and I'm so happy that everything is good." Elise said happily.
"We better get going. Alice has a dress fitting for you in a few hours." Edward said.
"Tell me when your next fitting is. I will come up." Her mom said happily.
"I will." Elise said quickly with a smile as she and Edward stood. Her parents walked them to the door and hugged her.
"We love you." Both of them said in unison before Edward and Elise started off the porch.
Elise sat in the car with Edward before she turned to him while he drove. "So I know you were reading their minds. What were they really thinking?"
"How they acted. They were actually very happy for you to be there and your mom was happy about us getting married since she has been waiting for Elizabeth to get married forever. Your dad was happy like your mom, but he is a little apprehensive about us being together. He worries for your safety, but in the end he wants you to me happy and he is glad to have you back in their lives." Edward said looking at Elise.
"Wow." She said happily. "I was so afraid they would be so mad, but it turned out more than perfect. It kind of scares me." She said with a laugh.
"You don't have a dress fitting. I could tell you were anxious so I knew it was time to go." Edward said with a laugh as they pulled in front of a diner that Elise recognized right off the bat. She squealed with delight. "I knew you would want to see Tara. So I am going to drop you off. I will be back in a couple hours."
"I love you so much, thanks." Elise said happily as she leaned over to kiss Edward. Elise quickly kissed him before getting out the car and jogging into the diner.
"I'll seat you in just a minute." Came a voice that Elise knew always as her best friend in the entire world. After a moment came a girl with shoulder length dirty blonde hair in a sky blue waitress uniform who gasped as Elise came into her sight. "Lissy!" she screamed at once as she ran and grabbed Elise into a bone crushing hug.
"Hey Tara." Elise said with a laugh.
"Oh my goodness, what?" she questioned happily. "Mom can you get my tables." Tara yelled down to a woman that Elise knew well.
"Elise." Her mother said with a smile. "Of course you girls must catch up."
"Thanks mom." Tara said before turning back to Elise, "Let's hang in my dad's office like old times." Tara said.
Both girls made their way up a hallways and Tara book out a key ring where she unlocked a door marked, 'Employees Only'. Going inside Elise sat down on a burgundy couch that was in the corner and Tara sat on the couch also.
"I can't believe you are here. How long are you here? Do your parents know? Is Edward around?" Tara had started to spew out what it seemed every question that came to her mind and Elise simply laughed remembering this was of course her best friend and this was how she always was and she hadn't changed a bit.
"I'm only here for a couple more hours." Elise said as she started to answer the questions. "My parents know. I saw them not long ago and Edward went to run some errands. He drove me down."
"So your parents, how is everything?" Tara asked.
"They were happy that I came and not mad at me anymore. My mom is so excited to help with the wedding." Elise said happily.
"WEDDING!" screamed Tara suddenly who was now looking at Elise intensely.
"Sorry, I was going to call and tell you and I kept forgetting. Edward and I are getting married at the end of June and I needed to talk to you anyways since you are my maid of honor, of course." Elise said with the biggest smile on her face.
"Duh I am maid of honor." Tara said happily as she pulled Elise into a huge hug. "I am so happy for you and so excited."
"I'm beyond excited. Alice has been planning everything. I haven't had to do a thing." Elise said with a smile.
"That's good. Where are you living I have to come and help." Tara said in that Elise knew she was just beyond excited.
"We live in Mount Cove City." Elise said.
"I have a cousin there. I can totally come up and help with wedding stuff." Tara said with her ever going happiness.
"I can't wait." Elise said with a huge smile.
Elise and Tara talked the entire two hours until Edward called Elise's cell phone to let her know that he was outside. Elise and Tara said their goodbyes and Elise went out to Edward to was waiting with his ever so handsome smile. Mount Cove City is normally about a 3 and a half hour drive from Middleville, but it wasn't nearly that long of a drive with Edward driving. It seemed like no time to Elise that they were back home. She and Edward went inside and immediately up to their bedroom. Elise went into the bathroom and came out in her nightgown while Edward sat on the bed reading a book. Slipping until his arms Elise sat in silence.
"So today was a good day?" Edward questioned.
"Better than a good day." Elise said happily as she yawned and placed her head on his chest. One thing she didn't like was that she was still required to sleep and couldn't just be awake 24/7 like the rest of the family. She heard Edward start to hum, but this time it wasn't his normal tune that Elise knew was a lullaby for Bella, but this was something different and something that was more 'Elise' than anything. "I like that."
"It's a lullaby just for you." Edward said smoothing before going back to his humming and running his fingers through her hair.
In that moment Elise could feel that it really was them forever. It was all just flowing and going in all the right ways. There was no more remnants of Bella and she knew Edward was fully for her now. She also was at peace for the way things now were with her parents and she didn't have the heaviness in her heart that had been weighing her down all these months, but it had been released. Elise closed her eyes and enjoyed the true peace that she finally had and she didn't even notice that while listening to Edward she had drifted into a truly peaceful slumber.