A/N Hi peeps! Can you tell I'm eager to get this finished?

CPOV

Sleep hadn't been coming easy in the last two weeks. Not since the moment I came across the scene and saw it was my daughter in the middle of the road. My daughter who lay bleeding and broken. It was my daughter who died in the middle of the street.

I knew I would never get that image out of my head. I couldn't. Every time I closed my eyes there it was. Her hair spread out over the tarmac, her body lifeless. My little girl died, and I couldn't... I just couldn't.

What made it even worse was that I hated being there in that hospital. I couldn't breathe in there. It felt as if the pain and the grief and the pure rage were going to swallow me whole.

I was actually grateful when they send me home. That only made me feel worse. How could I not want to stay with my child?

Sue assured me it was natural to feel this, not beat myself up. But how could I not? I let Bella down so much in her life. I hadn't been there, I'd just let Renee take her despite how much it hurt me to watch me become a stranger in her eyes. To know behind my back, I was Charlie to her, not dad.

We'd made so much progress since Cullen left town. We started to have the relationship I've always dreamed of. Who would have thought I would be grateful to Edward Cullen of all people?

He came every day to take over from me. I watched him sometimes through the window. He sat, looking at her as if everything rested on her. As if she was everything to him.

It took a lot for me to accept her decision and I hadn't really supported it. Not until now. Not until I saw the raw love in his eyes when he looked at her. When he pressed her limp hand to his face, whispering to her as if she were awake.

I think I finally got why he tried to let her go and be happy while he was gone. I didn't agree with it. That was Bella's decision to make, and his way caused her so much pain, but I understood now, as I watched him with my daughter. He loved her. He truly loved her.

It was he who sat with her now while I paced the floor at two in the morning. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't stay. My ex-wife and her new husband were staying in my daughter's room, so I couldn't even go in there, surround myself with her things, her scent.

I sent Sue home to her kids to get some rest. She'd been so sweet and patient with me, but she needed to rest too.

When the phone rang, I froze like always. Had she woken up? Or had she died? I knew the second one was a higher possibility with every passing day so every day the ringing phone terrified me more than ever.

With a trembling hand, I reached for the phone I kept at my bedside. "Hello?" I breathed.

There was a short silence and in that time every fear I rose up, threatening to choke me. She'd slipped away, her poor body too frail to continue on. She'd died while I paced in my home.

The words that were eventually spoken had my knees buckling. The voice on the line was rough and quiet, but so incredibly beautiful.

"Hi daddy."

BPOV

Waking up from a coma kind of sucked. I was disorientated and I didn't remember a thing about being ran down. All I remembered was, well... YOLO.

Edward sat beside me, pressing my hand to his cold cheek, filling me in on everything that happened.

I smiled. Waking up felt like fighting my way through a thick fog. It had been the cold hand in mine that made me fight all the harder. Edward was with me and I wanted to see him.

It had been his voice made me open my eyes. I heard him whisper how he missed me. I heard him reminiscing of our time together. I needed to see him.

The doctors had been and checked me over. No brain damage, which was a relief and my legs ached like a bitch, which was a good thing. At least that's what they said. I wasn't so sure.

Now Edward sat beside me, pressing kisses to my hands and whispering how much he loved me.

"You look tired," I whispered. I could only whisper since my throat was sore thanks to that damn tube stuck down my throat. What was up with that? "I know you shouldn't, but you do," I added.

He smiled. "Having the woman you live for in the hospital would make any man look tired. Vampire or human."

"And your eyes. When was the last time you fed?" I demanded as I stared into his black gaze. I noticed how bruised his eyes were too. "You haven't been taking care of yourself," I accused.

Edward scowled at me. "You sound like my family. I wasn't going to leave, Bella. It killed me when I had to keep up human pretences. I wasn't leaving this damn hospital."

My heart couldn't help but melt. My hand pressed to his cool cheek, I lowered my fingers weakly, because it's all I could manage, and grazed my fingers across his throat, as if my touch alone could soothe away the fire surely burning there. "You must be uncomfortable. I don't want you in any pain."

He laughed shakily. "Trust me, my thirst for blood hasn't been all that high on my list of worries. All I care about is you. On the bright side, I doubt I'll ever want your blood again," he added with a grin.

I laughed. "Why? Because you've spent so much time around me with open wounds?" I teased trying not to think about the cuts and bruises Edward said covered my body.

His eyes turned serious. "No. Because knowing you were gone, thinking I'd lost you, is nothing compared to how good you smell. How good you taste. Even the monster in me never wants to feel that way again, Bella. So you're safe," he added with a kiss on my cheek.

"I love you," I whispered the only words that truly mattered. The words I knew he needed to hear as much as I needed to say them.

He leaned forward to press his forehead to mine. "And I love you. I've missed you. Please never do that to me again."

I smiled, tears rolling down my cheeks at the raw emotion I heard in his voice. "I'll try my best."

Edward closed the distance between us, taking my mouth slowly and sweetly. Giving me everything I needed.

"Your dad's coming," he whispered, taking a step back, gripping on to my hand. I knew then I didn't have to ask him not to leave. He wasn't going anywhere.

My dad rushed through the door with my mom and Phil close behind them. He stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted me sitting partially up.

"Bella," he whispered brokenly before he broke down in tears.

I looked up at Edward. I couldn't get to him. My dad, my strong, hates to show his emotions dad, was crying and I couldn't go to him.

Smiling, Edward winked before going to my dad and carefully helping my dad towards me.

"I'm okay," I whispered as I held out my arms for him. They felt like that time I'd foolishly tried to use the heavy weights in the gym. The next day, I couldn't lift them above my head and stayed far away from the devil weights since then.

Gently, he leaned forward to hold me. All the time he was careful of my healing ribs.

Renee rushed over and joined us, sobbing loudly as she pressed kisses to my cheeks. "I'm okay," I repeated as I looked up at Edward helplessly. Maybe he could get Jasper in here and calm them down before they both had heart attacks.

"I'm here," Edward mouthed to me when he saw me start to become overwhelmed.

My lips curved. Yes, he was there and that's all that mattered.

#

It had been three weeks since I woke up in the hospital to see Edward's face. When I felt his cold hand in mine and fought tooth and nail to get through the fog holding me hostage.

It had been a long three weeks.

Everyone I'd ever met visited my hospital room within the next couple of days, despite Edward's growls about overwhelming me. I laughed and told him to shut up. I'd been asleep for two weeks while everyone I loved thought I might die. I could had being a little overwhelmed.

My mom was a wreck most of the time. One minute she would snap at me and then she would break down in tears. Phil told me she was like it at home and I worried for her. Carlisle spoke to me about how she may need some counselling. I agreed.

My dad agreed, too. My dad, Charlie Swan, who never spoke about feelings, admitted he needed to talk to someone. It had been enough to get anyone to agree.

He'd been my rock, though. Every day he came to the hospital, and every time he walked into the door I saw that flash of fear turn to joy when I was sitting up and greeted him with a smile.

The doctors said, while doubtful, I could potentially slip back into a coma. Everyone looked at me with terror in their eyes, and a couple of times when I drifted off my mom, or even my dad, would give me a little nudge.

To be honest, I was worried too.

It was like this for two days, and I was starting to get tired of it. Until Alice visited and laughed it off. Apparently she hadn't been able to see me wake up, but she didn't see me slipping back into a coma anytime soon. Then she winked, kissed my cheek and attempted to drag Edward out of the room.

Edward, whose eyes grew darker by the second. Edward, who hadn't fed in three weeks while being in a hospital twenty-four seven. He needed to feed.

I tried not to let my heart melt every time I thought about how he'd been my constant companion. Even though he'd kept up the pretence of leaving and returning, he never left. Not once.

He was good for a girl's ego.

Eventually, I told him to go and feed. Jessica and Angela were coming and they wouldn't leave until he got back.

He looked at me dubiously before Alice rolled her eyes and told him to kiss me, so they could leave me in peace. He growled, but he complied.

True to my word, I wasn't alone for a single second. Jessica and Angela cried, laughed and then threatened to put me in a coma if I ever even thought about leaving them again.

They caught me up on everything that had happened, which was never much in Forks, but it felt nice to be back in the loop. I knew that if I saw Suzy Knight not to mention her mom and dad because she'd just left him because he'd been having an affair. I knew that the pregnant check out girl in the supermarket was the woman he'd been having the affair with.

Yes, it felt good to be back in the loop.

To my surprise, they told me that our apartment in Seattle was now fully decorated and furnished, every shade of paint, item of furniture, was the exact ones we were discussing before my accident. Alice set everything up while I had been sleeping, they explained. She believed that I would wake up.

It frightened me I didn't know if I would be able to start school with the others, but my friends hushed me and said we had plenty of time before school started. That the only thing I missed out on was visiting my mom, and she ended up visiting me, so it didn't matter.

Soon, I was able to come home, and everyone had been wonderful, but I needed a break from it all. Three weeks later and my mom still hadn't returned home. She and Phil were our houseguests in a house with only two bedrooms.

Because I couldn't get up the stairs, they were sleeping in my room. I wish I could tell them Edward, even Alice, was quite capable of getting me up the stairs without knocking my plastered legs, but then they would ask questions. So, Charlie bought a single bed and shoved the sofa up to the wall, and I currently slept in my living room.

Charlie also brought some sort of temporary toilet for me. I had never used it.

Alice was here a lot. It was easier for her to help me dress, bathe, and generally move around. My mom seemed a little hurt by it at first, but Alice reassured her, in only the way Alice Cullen can, that we were pros when it came to me convalescing. It made her laugh, just like she knew it would.

It was only night time I had to worry about. Edward tried his very best to convince my parents that at his house I would have everything. I wouldn't bash into everything in my new wheel chair, my dad wouldn't have to rearrange his living room, or buy that stupid toilet.

It had been very tempting to try and get my dad to agree, until I saw the look in his eyes. The panic, the desperation and fear. My dad wanted me at home, with him. He didn't want me to leave. So I hadn't.

Edward would come every night, after everyone went to bed, and if I needed anything he'd just whisk me around. I loved him for that alone. I missed being able to move freely. To get up and stroll around whenever I wanted. To do things I took for granted, like get a bottle of water from the fridge, or grab Rhino when he was about to smash into a wall. The poor little dude had missed me terribly and took off whenever Edward was nearby.

I wasn't the best patient, I could admit. I hated everything about being stuck in a wheel chair. I hated that my ribs were still mending, and I had tiny little scars on my body from the glass. I hated being dependant on everyone. I hated that I'd missed weeks of my life and how everyone looked at me like I would break if they so much as breathed to heavily around me.

I hated it right up until I realized what a selfish bitch I was being. I was still alive, that's all that mattered. Edward, of course, reassured me I had been through a lot and mood swings, depression and resentment at my situation, were just normal thing to feel. I had every right to and everyone understood.

I didn't, though. I just wanted things to go back to normal.

My mom still woke up crying sometimes, and I'd lay awake, listening to Phil try and soothe her back to sleep while she sobbed my name. My dad still paced some nights. Poor Edward would have to dive out of the room when he came to check on me in nothing but his underwear.

Dark circles under their eyes, my parents would sometimes come down before I woke up they would shake me a little harder than necessary to wake me up. That or they would 'accidentally' drop something loud enough to scare the crap out of me.

When Edward came by this morning and asked me to spend the day with him, I almost jumped at him. As much as I loved my mom and dad and understood how much of a scare I'd given them, I needed some normalcy. Badly.

"Where are we going?" I asked eagerly as Edward strapped me into the Volvo.

Ever since I returned home, the passenger seat had been pushed all the way back, so I could fit in comfortably. I didn't know why but I thought it was incredibly sweet of him.

Turning the key, Edward grinned over at me. "You'll see."

I shrugged, happy to be out the house and with my man, alone, in what seemed so long. I was really excited to spend the day with him. Ever since everything happened we'd barely spent any time alone unless it was in the darkness of night.

Edward took me to the store, to see my work friends at the diner, but we hadn't really gotten time together.

When we pulled up at only the familiar road, I smiled. "We're going to get soaked," I laughed as I stared out at the pounding rain. It had been raining nonstop for two whole days. It drove me insane since I couldn't even hang out in the back yard in such bad weather.

"Never doubt me," he chuckled as he flitted out of the car.

Within a heartbeat, he was pulling my door open, an umbrella somehow already in his hand and opened up ready for me. Showing amazing skills, Edward managed to lift me out of the car and I smiled at the memory of when he had done this so long ago. Only that time I'd only had one broken leg.

"Hold this," he ordered as he swooped me up into his arms.

I laughed as he took off with me in his arms, holding the umbrella against the strong wind so I wouldn't get wet.

Eventually we came to a stop. I gaped at the sight before me.

When he'd pulled up on the road, I knew we were heading to our meadow. The meadow I ruined, I thought with a cringe.

I expected us to find a dry patch and huddle under the umbrella. Boy, was I wrong...

In the middle of our healing, but still hacked up meadow, was a steel grey canopy. Under the canopy stood a bench just big enough for two, and a small fire flickering nearby.

"How?" I whispered as he carried me over, placing me gently on the seat.

"Alice," he said as he pulled out a blanket from the backpack I didn't know he wore. I had to smile at his response. He said her name like it explained everything, and it kind of did.

Smiling, I tucked the thick blanket around me. Under the blanket and canopy, I didn't feel the cold wind or feel the icy rain on my skin. Alice created a safe little haven in the middle of a storm, and I loved it.

"This is nice," I whispered as I watched the rain all warm in cozy with Edwards's cold hand in mine.

"It is," he agreed quietly.

I turned to see him staring intently at me. I didn't find it strange that he was looking at me instead of the beautiful rain soaked meadow; Edward always did things like that. What I did find strange was the way he was looking at me.

Ever since I woke up in a hospital bed, every now and then I would catch this look in his eyes. A look that had nothing to do with me almost dying. I just didn't know the reason behind the look, and that needed to change. Now.

"What's wrong?"

He took a deep breath as he looked out at the rain. "I have to tell you something and it's difficult."

I shrugged. "Then just say it. We'll figure it out. We always do."

"I almost turned you, Bella," he whispered so quietly, over the rain I almost didn't catch it.

"You did?" I asked just as quietly.

He nodded. "When you were lying there, when Alice didn't know if you would wake... I panicked. I saw you'd been right all along. I should have turned you a long time ago. I shouldn't have let my fears for your soul stand in the way."

I tried to take it all in. Edward was actually going to turn me. "What stopped you?" I demanded since clearly something had.

"Alice," he replied darkly. "I had a syringe filled with my venom and the window open. I was going to inject you in your hospital bed with your family and friends sitting outside the door. The moment I was certain you were going through the conversion, I was going to detach your needles, and everything else keeping you alive, and take you home."

I blinked at him. For the first time in a long time, I had no words.

He continued before I could find them.

"I tried to get it done before Alice returned, but she stopped me with only seconds to spare. Told me you enjoyed your humanity… and if I turned you now I would be condemning you."

My breath hissed out sharply. "That was uncalled for."

He laughed. "Maybe," he allowed, "but she was right. I was so scared to lose you. I knew of one way I could stop that from happening. You were right, Bella." He smiled as he turned to me. "You were right when you said I should turn you. When I saw you lying there, dying, I called myself every fool under the sun and the stars. I love you, and I can't live without you. I won't. I'm too selfish. If I thought you would allow it, I'd do it right this minute."

If I thought I was speechless before… "Could you repeat the part where you say I'm right. I'd like to record it for future reference," I joked.

He leaned over the ruffle my hair with a pale hand. "I finally agree to turn you and you're teasing me."

"Edward, I'm not ready," I blurted out. I squeezed his hand. "I love that you would do that. Alice was wrong when she said you'd condemn me." And you could be your ass I was going to rip her a new one the next time I saw her, deadly vampire or not. I love Alice, but sometimes, she needed to keep her mouth shut. "That's not true. She had no right to say it. You were trying to save me. If you had changed me, I would understand. I would deal." I squeezed his hand again, harder this time, trying to convey to him that I meant every word. "You would not have condemned me. Do you understand? Saving my life, getting to spend an eternity with you, is not being condemned. Do you understand?"

He nodded. His eyes soft and filled with love as he looked at me. "I do."

I nodded. "Good. That being said… I do want to be like you one day, but I'm just not ready," I finished lamely.

He surprised me by laughing, leaning forward to place a kiss to my cheek. "I know that, silly. I know that you value life now. I just wanted to tell you. I wouldn't let die. I wouldn't let you leave me."

"Good," I replied. I wasn't freaked out by his words. I knew he didn't mean them in a creepy 'I'll lock you in a basement' kind of way. My man would save my ass, I thought with a smile. And if he ever needed saving, I'd save his ass, too. I didn't know how to save an all powerful vampire, but for him, I'd figure it out.

"So," he drawled. "It seems we've come to an agreement of sorts. When you're ready you will be turned."

I smiled. "Wow, we actually agree on our future. Good for us," I added as I gave myself a mental pat on the back.

"So," he drawled again.

I frowned at him. His eyes no longer that strange look in them now that he'd shared his secret. "What?" I demanded.

"Nothing." He grinned. "It's just that a certain someone promised that when we had our future agreed upon we could discuss something else. Something just as important, if not more, as turning."

I bit my lip to keep from giggling. Of course, this is what the dude focused on. "Marriage," I answered.

He smirked at me. "You said you couldn't consider my proposal when we didn't know where our future would take us. When I couldn't get you the answers you needed."

To my shock, Edward slid to the ground. To one knee, to be specific. "I can give you those answers now, Bella. I never want to feel the way I did in that hospital room again. I never want to fear losing you again. I won't lose you. Ever. So," he said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small black velvet box and popped it open.

I felt tears burn my eyes as I looked not at the ring, but at the man.

"When you're ready, Bella, to enter my world, we'll do it. We'll face it together. Partners for the rest of eternity. The way it's supposed to be, just the two of us. Marry me. Please," he whispered.

I looked into the eyes of the man I loved with all my heart. Edward was not an easy man to be with, I thought with a smile, but he was mine. He may be too serious at times, and he may be over protective, but he was mine.

There he was, kneeling in front of me promising me every dream I had for our future could come true. That it would come true. All I had to do was answer him.

"Yes," I breathed as my tears finally fell. "Always yes."

Edward closed his eyes for a second, and it seemed as if he didn't even breathe. After what seemed an eternity, he opened his eyes and looked into mine. "Did you say yes?" he demanded hoarsely.

Laughing, tears pouring down my cheeks, I nodded my head. "I did."

I squealed as he all but dived for me. Cupping my cheeks, he placed sweet kisses all over my face. Joy was a terrible word for the look in Edward's eyes, in his kisses as he continued to pepper my face with them, but it would have to do.

Eventually, he pulled to meet my watery gaze, and I knew if it were possible his would be filled with tears too.

I reached up to cup his face, to stroke the strong lines of his jaw. "Yes," I whispered again.

"I love you," was his response and it was perfect.