Hey, I'm back again!

And I can say, with all honesty, that the reason I took so long to update is because . . . . I forgot.

We where talking about annoying authors and how they take what seems like a year to update at lunch the other day, and right after I finished a rant, one of my friends turned to me and said, "By the way, when are you going to update?" I literally had a forehead-slapping moment of, "Oh my gosh, I'm an idiot!" Yeah, it wasn't fun.

Just out of curiosity, could some of you leave a review of the weirdest place you've ever burned yourself with a hairstyling device? I was straightening my hair the other day, and I accidentally burned myself on the bottom of my arm, right next to my armpit. Now every time I move my left arm, it hurts. Huh.

PM's would be nice, but for this, I think reviews are better. Then again, reviews are nice anyway!

Long-overdue disclaimer: I own NO part of the Twilight world! If I did, I wouldn't be writing this. I'd be having lunch with Robert Pattinson to 'make sure he fully understands his role'. Enough said.

Previously:

I sighed internally, I missed my family. And, in a way that either side of my biological family never was, they really where my family. They where the ones I'd go to with my most complicated problem; the ones I would tell my most private fear, without worrying about them telling the whole world. The only people in the universe I knew I could trust with anything; isn't that what 'family' is? In my opinion, absolutely.

I just stood there, facing the ocean. What was I going to do now? I had absolutely no idea. I cradled my head in my hands. I had really screwed up this time, and my mistake wasn't going to be easy to fix.

Silently, I began to cry. My tears mixing with the rain running down my face and sobs silently racking my body. "Edward." I whispered to the storm.

From behind me, a musical voice that I knew so well murmured, "Bella."

I spun around, my wet hair flinging into my face and stinging my eyes. I hurried to brush it out of my face. "Edward." I breathed. I swallowed hard.

His eyes where big as he took in my soaked, panting figure. "Bella, wha . . . . . what are you doing here? You . . . you're supposed to be in Phoenix right now. You where getting your space . . . . I thought that's what you wanted. Why would you come back?" the rain was dripping down him now, too, and we both looked like we just stepped out of a shower fully-clothed. As if to back up my thought, it somehow started to pour down harder.

"I, um, well, I . . . . . . I need to talk to you. Right now. I-I just . . . I have some things I need to tell you, and I don't think you're going to believe me, and I just want you to promise me something."

"Okay," he said, bewildered, "okay, what do I need to promise?"

"Promise me that, no matter what I say, you'll listen to me until I'm done. And I mean really listen to me. Some people think this gets a little confusing, and I need your full attention."

"All right, I promise. Now, what exactly did you fly three thousand miles to tell me?" His eyes where still wide, and his expression was guarded, and questioning my sanity. I realized then, that he thought I had came all this way just to ask for something back, or something along those lines. That he honestly believed me, and he honestly thought there was no way I could love him anymore. The thought made me sad, knowing what I had put him through.

"Um, okay, just let me start at the beginning. So, you see, my family and I, we're not . . . . . mentally that well." His eyes got even wider, and I realized what I had just implied. "No, no! Not like that. We're not psychos or anything like that, if you're thinking I dream of being an axe murderer. It's just that . . . on my mother's side, my family has a tendency to have severe anxiety at completely random times in our lives. As in . . . I could be completely happy in my life, and all the sudden I'll be on the verge of a panic attack over the tiniest little thing. And, well, I guess I got scared."

"Scared? Of what? If you're scared of Pete, I promise, I won't let him hurt you! But, if you are, I don't really thing moving will deter him that much."

"No, not of Pete. Of you."

His eyes widened again. "What? Bella, I would never hurt you! You know that! What are you even talking about? There is nothing in this world that could make me intentionally hurt you."

"I know. I'm not scared of you physically. Not at all. What I mean is. . . . . If you left, it would kill me. Litterally, just kill me. No one else can do that to me. Not my mom, or my dad, or my friends . . . . If something where to happen to you, I don't know how I would go on. How I would keep from just curling into a ball and never moving again. That scares me, because I know that there is a very real possibility that something will happen to you. Not a very big possibility, but still. . . . . . But then, I realized, just because I was in Phoenix doesn't mean it would hurt me any less if something happened to you. Only then it would be worse, because I would have to live - well, not really live - with the guilt of knowing that instead of being together at the end, we would've been apart, and it would've been all my fault. Not to mention the guilt of knowing you died thinking that I didn't love you anymore - which was a complete lie, by the way. I couldn't take that, not even the thought. I had to come back and set the record straight. Edward, even if you don't want me anymore, which I will understand, I need you to know: I love you. I have always loved you. I will always love you. I missed you the entire time I was away. I chose to go to Phoenix because I have a lot of friends there, and I thought I could spend some time with them. But I ended up being absolutely no fun, because I couldn't thinking about how much Alice would be practically bathing in the girly sleepover vibe, or how you would roll your eyes as she talked about it non-stop on the way home." I had to stop for a breath. He looked surprised, and I wondered if he could tell through the rain that I was crying. "I missed you, I need you, and I love you. I'm sorry."

I thought he was going to ask me about my mental problems, or the fact that I had absolutely no fun at all on my trip, but he picked out a different set of words.

"What do you mean, 'even if I don't love you anymore'? Bella, what is wrong with you? Of course I love you. I promised you I would love you for all eternity, and that's the easiest promise I've ever made. Because, Bella," he grabbed the tops of my arms gently and shook me slightly, "I couldn't break my promise if I wanted to. I love you, and I couldn't stop thinking of you, either. Emmett threatened to have me committed, but I don't really think that would've helped. You're everything to me, Bella. You are my life now. There's nothing I wouldn't do for you, all you have to do is ask." He pulled me to his chest, and wrapped his arms around me. I buried my head in the crook of his shoulder, and breathed in the smell of him. It was spicy, with mint, and almost resembled Axe, but it was nothing I'd ever smelled before, that I was sure of.

"I'm sorry." I whispered again.

"I know. It's okay, Bella, it's going to be okay." was all he said.

Suddenly, I think he finally realized we where standing outside, in no jackets and light shirts, in the torrential downpour. At least it was only cold and not freezing. "Come on, I need to get you indoors. It's getting pretty bad out here." As if to back him up, lightning flashed in the distance, and thunder followed soon after. He wrapped his left arm around my shoulders, and used as much of his back as possible to shield my hunched over body as we half-ran-half-walked back to his car.

Once we where back to the familiar Volvo, he opened my door for me, made sure I was in all the way, and shut it for me before running back to his side and climbing in. As I adjusted my seatbelt, he fiddled with the controls until heat started blasting through the vents at full speed.

"Oh!" I said suddenly.

"What?" His head snapped up to look at me.

"I just remembered: I don't need a ride, I drove here by myself." Even I could hear the disappointment clearly in my voice.

He shook his head. "It's way over there, on the other side of the beach, you don't need to run out in that. We can pick it up later."

"That doesn't make any sense, you could just drive me there."

"Okay, fine. How about 'I just don't want to leave you'? Is that a good enough excuse?" He smiled at me.

I grinned. "Perfect."

He put the car in reverse, and started driving. We cruised down the road and into the main streets of La Push before either one of us said anything. It was a comfortable silence, and neither one of us felt like we had to fill every second with conversation. Sometimes we liked to just be together, and nothing else.

"So, aren't you afraid of what Alice will do to you when she finds out I came back and you didn't call her first thing?"

"Terrified. She'll probably stab me with something. It's worth it, though. If she knew, she'd keep you all to herself."

"You are in so much trouble." He grinned at me, and I laughed.

"I know."

Soon, though, the pouring rain outside became too torrential, and we had to pull over because even Edward couldn't see through it anymore. The windshield wipers where going as fast as they could, but it still looked like a river was pouring over the car. He turned them off after we stopped, and if I had thought I couldn't make sense of the outside world through the rain before, it was nothing like it was now. Water streamed down in massive currents, and I half expected to see fish swimming around on the ground. In my entire life, I've never seen it rain so hard. Lightning flashed in the distance, and thunder cracked soon after.

"Climb in the back with me."

I just looked at him. "What?"

"I can't really hold you with the console between us. Will you lay in the back with me?"

"Yeah." I flipped up my armrest, and climbed over the console to sit in the seat behind Edward's. He did the same, and sat in the seat behind mine. He pulled me to him, and I rested my head on his neck. He tucked my head under his chin, and wrapped his arms around me. We spent several minutes like that, with him rocking us gently back and forth and the only sound being our breathing and the rain tapping on the metal roof of the car and the pavement outside.

"I love you." he murmured. He put one hand on the small of my back, the other on the back of my head, and kissed my forehead.

"I love you, too." I whispered.

Combine the pouring rain with the almost incessant thunder and lightning, and I thought for sure any cell phone tower within a twenty mile radius was knocked out. Which is why I was so shocked when my cell phone started ringing in my pocket.

"Ignore it." Edward mumbled against my hair.

"I am."

The phone started to ring again, shrill and demanding. Once again, I ignored it. A few moments later, just enough time for someone to press redial, and it rang again. I took it out of my pocket and threw it in the driver's seat. It rang a fourth time, and Edward groaned into my hair. "Just ignore it, they'll have to get bored sometime." I told him.

It rang a fifth and sixth time, and the seventh time whoever it was called, it groaned in frustration and grabbed the phone. Really, what could be that important right now? Nothing I could think of. I had my finger on the 'off' button, ready to push it, when I saw who had been calling me. The name Jacob was flashing on the screen. I froze. Whatever he was calling me for, and so persistently, had to be big. And I was scared to find out what it was. In the time it took me to unfreeze, the ringing had stopped.

"What's wrong?" Edward asked in a concerned voice.

"I don't know."

"Who-" But I held up a finger to stop him. I knew what was coming next.

And, sure enough, within three seconds after I shushed him, the phone started to ring again. I took a deep breath, and answered it. "Hello?"

"Bella! Finally! What, do you think I press the buttons on my phone for fun? For my enjoyment? Where the hell have you been? Did you throw a party during the time I was calling you? Because I almost turned thirty-four! Do you even understand the idea of your phone ringing? Let me explain to you, Bella, when your phone makes that dinging sound, it's time to pick it up! Bella? Are you even there anymore? Bella!"

"Yeah, Jake. I'm here."

"Good, because I don't have nearly as much fun when I'm listening to a dial tone! Seriously, what in the world where you doing all that time, Bella?"

"I was ignoring my phone, and I'll do it as much as I like! Now, you tell me, what was so important that you had to call me eight times in a row?"

"Oh, yeah. That. . . Right."

"Jacob, I'm waiting."

He took a deep breath. "Bella, it's time."

"Time for what?"

"Pete, Bella, Pete! . . . It's time."

Dun dun dun! Right when she thinks Pete's gone for good, here he comes again!

Now, I'm sorry to say that this story will, in fact be ending soon. I'll be lucky if I can stretch the ending out long enough to make this a thirty chapter story. But most likely it'll only have twenty-seven.

I'm starting on the next chapter soon, but it'll give me extra drive if during that time, I can get up to eighty reviews on this story! Only six more to go, people, come on! (Chapters eighteen and nineteen have none!)

I actually got this chapter done a week ago, but FanFiction was having problems, and wouldn't let me post it. And since then, I've forgotten about it again. But it's here now!