Author's Note: I don't own any part of the Twilight universe but you already knew that.

Thanks to all of you that continue to support the story. It's getting harder and harder to type these notes as the story winds down. Don't get teary eyed on me yet though, we still have a massive concert to finish! Not to mention a certain outtake that a lot of you really seem to want.

Special thanks to all my girls on Twilight Obsessers. You guys simply rock my world.

Playlist

Solitary-Evanescence

So Close-Evanescence

Hello-Evanescence

Lithium-Evanescence

Away From Me/Eternal-Evanescence

Breathe No More-Evanescence (Anywhere But Home version works best)

My Immortal (Anywhere But Home version works best)

These are the songs Edward refers to during the chapter but only the last two are must listen to songs. Live versions from Anywhere But Home give it the true feel.

Chapter 29-The Ghost of EverClear's Past

EPOV

I stood on the side of the stage long enough to watch her glide back out into the lights of the stage and the open arms of the audience. The overwhelming feelings that ran rampant through me as I watched her would have scared me years ago. Lust, pride, possessiveness, jealousy and love all dueled for dominance inside my heart. But as always with Bella, love won the internal struggle as I watched her begin the next song. I smiled at her and at my unbelievable fortune to have earned the love of such an incomparable woman for just a moment before I turned and left the paradise of the stage wings. I made my way back around the rear of the stage at a slightly slower pace than I'd traveled just a few minutes before. I could still feel her body pressed against mine in a phantom memory way. But her smell as it clung to me was anything but phantom. If I could figure out a way to keep her scent permanently adhered to myself, I would do it every single day for eternity without hesitation.

I might have to work on that.

I reached the heavy black door of our family's private viewing room and pulled it open only to run directly into Alice. She didn't say a word but smirked at me very knowingly before brushing past me, Chip hot on her heels, with a laugh. The fleeting thoughts told me the two of them were heading to the dressing room to get ready for the intermission that would follow her last three songs of the set. I stepped up to the railing just as she finished the first verse of "Cloud Nine" and gawked at how composed she was. Her voice was ungodly tonight. If she sang every song in the next two set with the same force and intensity as she'd used in the first set, she wouldn't be able to speak for days. But I could never bring myself to chastise her for such a performance. This was her goodbye to the world that she had initially entered in order to hide from her emotions but had grown to command in just a few short years.

I was lost in my thoughts and the vision of my wife in her most torturous costume to date when I became aware of my brothers standing on either side of me. I looked to the right to find Jaz staring at me with something akin to admiration on his face. Startled, I looked to my left to find Emmett looking at me harshly. With deliberate slowness, he leaned in and sniffed my neck very loudly. With a small groan, he pulled back and looked past me to Jasper, who still looked like he'd seen a ghost and had yet to say a single word.

"You motherfucker," he said a little concerningly before he broke out into a wide slightly disconcerting smile. " Fuckin' A Jaz, he did it."

"What the hell are you talking about Emmett?" I asked him with genuine confusion.

"I told you idiot," Jasper said teasingly to our hulking toddler of a brother. "Nothing, and I mean nothing, could have sent Newton into meltdown but that."

I realized exactly what they were talking about. There was no possible way that they could not know what Bella's fresh scent clinging to me had to mean. Rather than try to deny it or feel even remotely embarrassed about it, I grinned like a Cheshire cat.

"Damn it, boy!" Emmett said with a painful slap to my back. "You have got to tell me. What's the score?"

"Huh?"

"He's asking if you had time to get off," Jasper said with an evil stare at Newton, who had very casually inched his way out of the corner that had provided him with such an "interesting" view of the stage. He was trying so hard to look nonchalant but he was failing miserably. He clung to every word we said, as if somehow I would definitively deny what he'd seen just a few short minutes ago.

I looked down at the stage as Bella launched into the chorus of the song and sighed heavily but only for dramatic effect. Okay, so it was completely wrong to be discussing this with anyone and it was ridiculously childish to be so smug about it. But inflicting an emotional Spanish Inquisition on Newton had become something of a hobby for me the last several hours.

"Two to three, Bella in the lead," I said crassly. I heard the pained groan that escaped Mike's mouth without permission as Em and Jaz hooted their approval. I looked past Emmett's hulking shoulder directly at Mike as he cut his eyes toward me. With an obvious gesture, I reached down, adjusted my self and smiled at him.

"You are fucking evil," Em choked out as he leaned his giant hands onto the wall of the booth and laughed almost uncontrollably. "Bella will have you singing 'Kumbaya' with him if she finds out you just did that."

"I don't think so brother. I had her look up to see our audience while we were 'occupied'. Let's just say that seemed to rather enjoy knowing that we weren't completely hidden. What she'll kill me for is discussing this with you two, so keep your mouths shut."

The rest of the set continued with two more songs from the first album. She never lost a bit of her intensity or energy. In fact, the deeper into the set she got, the higher her fervor climbed, taking the rest of the band with her. They were like banshees by the time the lights on the stage went out and the band took their first leave of the evening.

I spent just a moment talking with the friends in our company about the show as the crowd below fell into a steady but much quieter hum. Everyone seemed to be genuinely impressed with the band but almost awe struck at Bella. They, like me the first time I'd seen her on stage, could not quite wrap their minds around the fact that this was the same painfully quiet girl they had known so long ago. When Carlisle asked me to show him to the dressing room, I politely made excused myself, leaving the humans in the company of my family. As my father and I made our way around the back of the stage, I realized I didn't know why he was going back in the first place. Generally, he stayed with my mother during intermission.

"Making her keep her promise to me from earlier this afternoon," he replied when I questioned him. "She's playing the next set and I made her swear to tape her wrist and wear the brace. I'm also going to give her a mild painkiller. Quite honestly, its much to soon for her to play but trying to dissuade her is much like trying to convince you not to beat yourself up," he said with a kind grin in my direction as we rounded the stage and started up the utilitarian hallway toward her dressing room.

I just chuckled. He was right. She really shouldn't be playing. But I couldn't take it away from her. So the best we could do was to secure the still healing bones in her arm the best we could and pray that she used a little common sense. When we reached the door, Carlisle paused as I reached for the handle.

"Perhaps I should wait here until you make sure she's dressed. I understand that they have costume changes for her and I really don't want to embarrass her by walking in unannounced."

I nodded quickly as I pushed the door and stepped inside. Bella was standing in front of a long white leather couch with a towel clutched against her chest in her right hand and her left hand piling her hair high atop her head with her left. The upper part of her chain mail and the tiny top that had been underneath lay in a pile at her feet. Alice stood behind her unfastening whatever type of clasp held the tiny skirt in place while Chip rung a soaking washcloth over her shoulders and down her arms. When she caught my entrance, she smiled brilliantly and roller her eyes at the amount of fuss being made over her.

"I got all sticky during the first set," she said innocently. Her eyes, however, danced with deviousness.

"Ugh, please shut the hell up," Alice groaned as the chains around her ass fell to the floor. With no pause, Alice grabbed the bikini bottoms and yanked them down her legs, eliciting a yelp from my poor wife at the touch of her cold hands. "I truly don't need to hear any more from either of you."

"Carlisle is outside waiting for you baby. He wants to check your arm out and then wrap your wrist before the next set," I said as tried to stifle a laugh.

Chip completed his impromptu sponge bath and slid a bathrobe over her shoulders in under a minute. He and Alice were both consumed with their respective jobs as she turned toward the couch and slumped down with a small huff.

"Carlisle!" she yelled unnecessarily. "I'm descent."

I slid into the seat next to her and pulled her back against my chest as the door opened again. "You are utterly indecent my little exhibitionist," I murmured in her ear as my father crossed the room toward her.

"I said not another word out of you two. Shut it or I swear I will tell Dad what you two were up to," Alice hissed with amusement as Chip held on to her shoulder to steady himself as he finally burst out laughing.

"I really don't want to know, do I?" my father asked as he took the seat to Bella's right. We both shook our heads "no" as Chip handed him his small travel bag of medical supplies.

We spent the next ten minutes talking about the show and the reaction of the Forks crew while Carlisle dressed her wrist as if it were vital to her survival. She was thrilled to hear that they all seemed to like the show and was much more enthusiastic about seeing them after it was over than I ever could have been. When Carlisle handed her the small white pill, she took it from him without any protest and without ever breaking our conversation. When he was positive that he could do no more to keep her from injuring herself, he kissed her cheek and made his way out of the room.

"Time to get dressed Baby Girl," Chip said in a sing song voice. He and Alice had laid the pieces of fabric out on the top of a vanity counter to the left of a door that led to a bathroom.

"Do I even want to know what you're wearing for this set," I asked as I offered her my hand to help her off the couch. She slipped her tiny fingers into mine and giggled at my reaction.

"I think this one is pretty tame comparatively," she said as she rose gracefully.

Without a backward glance, she walked toward her personal pains in the ass and dropped the bathrobe. My breath hitched and I think I actually growled as I stared at her naked and slightly damp body both from the back and in the reflection in the mirror in front of her.

"Relax Edward; we've all seen it before. I've got the same parts, Chip doesn't want them and you've had them…well, pretty much any way they could be had," Alice said as she took in my reaction. Everyone in the room howled at her assessment but I did notice that Bella blushed slightly.

With little pause in their hooting, Chip handed her the tiniest black strapless bra I'd ever seen. She fastened it quickly before Alice handed her a scrap of blue denim that she wiggled into with an inadvertently seductive sway. The jeans were faded almost to the point of being thread bare and looked like they had been painted onto her skin as she fastened them. Of course, they sat low enough on her hips to expose the entirety of her tattoo and framed her butt perfectly.

With a heavy sigh, she slumped into the chair in front of the vanity as Chip pulled her hair from its restraints at the crown of her head, sending it cascading beautifully over her shoulders. I watched in fascination as Chip and my sister worked in tandem while Bella completely ignored them both as she threaded her crest through a short black strap. I was so preoccupied; I almost missed the thoughts of the approaching visitor as he made his way toward the dressing room.

"Little Miss Muffet sat on my tuffet as I ravaged her curds and whey,"

I braced my hand against the door just as he pushed, never slowing his gait. With a loud thud against the wood and a screeched "mother puss bucket", JP ran face first into the secured door. I chuckled under my breath as I listened to him cuss up a blue streak as he rattled the handle.

"Edward! Let me the hell in. I've seen her naked before," he whined as he yanked on the handle time and time again.

"That statement won't help you any," I called to him as Alice laughed at our conversation.

"Dude, I gotta talk to her."

I only released my grip on the handle as Bella pulled her shirt, or what I assume was supposed to pass as a shirt, over her head. The tight black spandex was a simple sleeveless baby tee but had been sliced horizontally from seam to seam at two inch intervals, leaving large sections of her body exposed. He piled into the room with his nose gripped between his fingers and looked around at the occupants. He was as hyped up as I'd ever seen him, no doubt from the insane reaction of the crowds. He sank into the cushions of the couch we'd just vacated and looked over her outfit with his brows pulled together.

"What, no fucking barbed wire thong to top off that last one. You look pretty fuckin' uptight, not to mention there's not nearly enough skin showing."

"Go to hell Asshole."

"Take me with you Bitch," he replied without missing a beat. "Seriously, you sounded really fucking good out there. I thought you'd be wearin' out by the last three. You get something to drink while you were off stage?"

"Something like that," my wife muttered so low I wasn't sure that the humans could hear her. Her cheeks flooded pink as she focused on her crest again and I tried my hardest to stifle the chuckle that was trying to burst out of my chest.

It did not go unnoticed by either JP or Chip.

"Uh oh, what gives that's got you stuttering like me in church," JP pried.

"Don't you mean a whore?" she quipped, still not meeting his knowing eyes.

"Like I said, like me in church. Spill it Bitch."

Her cheeks were completely flooded with that gorgeous shade of pink by this point and Chip had joined in the staring. She cut her eyes in the mirror from one to the other, obviously realizing that neither was going to let it drop. She looked up at me and shrugged her shoulders very slightly before a truly evil grin spread across her glossed lips. She straightened her shoulders and then turned to face him.

"Why yes, JP, as a matter of fact I did swallow something during my break. It was very cold, shot straight down my throat and did wonders for my voice."

"Oh, good God! Was that necessary?" Chip wailed painfully as he halted his ministrations long enough to gawk at her.

"Fucking shit! I am never going to be okay again," Alice said in mock abhorrence.

I couldn't contain my laughter any more as I looked into the stunned face of JP, who stood motionless, his eyes bugging nearly out of their sockets. I leaned forward and kissed the top of her head, still laughing, only to be met with a harsh swat across the back of the head.

"I can't do that to her, so you can suffer the wrath," my sister lamented as she tried to resume her efforts on Bella's makeup, only to find the task difficult to do through her laughter.

"By the way, the new song is incredible. You did good buddy," she said kindly to a still stunned JP. He sat for a moment longer before he made quite a production out of shivering.

"I really didn't need that Bitch. You're gonna send me onstage with a break-neck boner." He huffed out a breath and then pushed the palms of his hands roughly into his closed eyes. "So, anyway we were thinking that we need to finish the next set up with 'Immortal' rather than leave it in the third set."

"Why?" I asked, still chuckling over Bella's boldness. "What's different about the second set?"

"We're pulling out several of our oldest songs and most of them are very piano heavy," she answered me, lifting her mummified wrist in the air. She stared into nothingness for a brief moment and then continued. "It makes sense but it feels a little strange."

"Yeah, I thought you might think that. But with the set we put together, I think it will work best."

"If it makes any difference baby, I would love to see you play it. As much as I adore playing with you, I've told you that my absolute favorite thing in the world is to watch you play," I said as I gently rubbed her exposed arms with my fingertips.

Her eyes caught mine in the mirror and she leaned back into her chair, her head resting against my stomach. I leaned down and kissed her forehead, fully intending on claiming her lips, when a groan from behind us distracted me.

"Ugh, could you two be any more disgusting?" JP smirked as he reached for the door. "By the way, we've only got about five minutes left, so move your ass."

I stood back from her as Chip threw a pair of very long boots at her feet. They were both moving at break-neck pace to finish the necessary preparations. Alice looked at me expectantly and cocked her head toward the door. With a reluctance I was somewhat surprised at, I realized she was right. We needed to leave them to finish and get back to our seats. With a much quicker kiss than I would have liked, I left the dressing room and followed Alice back through the corridors behind the stage.

We stepped back into the small room and into a mass of conversations. Rose and Esme were completely absorbed in discussing the crowd's attire while the humans were going on and on about the show. Even Lauren was grudgingly admitting that the concert was good even as she cut her eyes toward my father to see if he was listening. Jasper and Emmett were off in the corner of the room and looked much more serious than anyone else in the small alcove.

"Guys?" I asked curiously as I stepped in front of them, interrupting a clearly excited Jasper.

"She's here Edward," he said simply.

"Who?"

"Heidi. She's here, just behind the soundboard on the upper balcony."

All three of us turned to seek out the enigmatic woman that had, up until that second, been a grainy image on a television screen. She was easy enough to find once I'd been given the direction to look toward. Her long dark hair had waves that hinted at Italian descent and her skin was a fair olive complexion. She stood in stark contrast to the peopled around her, all laughing and conversing easily. Her back was rigid with stress and she kept her arms wound around her waist tightly. But her eyes were what held me. The darkness of them went beyond her irises and gave away the engrained pain of the last several years.

"I saw her this afternoon," I said with a start as I realized she was the small figure I'd seen at the ticket window as we'd arrived at the auditorium earlier in the day. It all made sense now that I watched her look over the crowd. The hesitancy I'd sensed from her this afternoon was evident even now as she stood among the mass of leather and metal.

"Should we tell him?" Emmett asked as the three of us continued to watch her shift in her seat.

The band answered for us. The lights above the general seating went dark and the crowd responded a second later. The screams and yells were steady and growing strong, like a tide of noise was coming into the shore. The stage itself was completely black. No spotlights, no over heads, not even the blue haze that sometimes lit the way for them as they took their positions.

The two large video screens on either side of the stage were suddenly illuminated. The bright white of the screens shone like beacons through the enormous room. Very slowly, large black letters on each screen came into focus

It Started Over Four Years Ago

The whistles and cheers from the crowd would have suggested that Elvis himself had stridden onto the stage rather than the few words suspended high above. As slowly as they had faded into focus, the faded out and were replaced by another verse.

When Two Neighbors Met in the Early Morning Hours of a Rainy Seattle Night

As the line came into sharp focus, two solitary spotlights burst from the ceiling above the stage to illuminate JP and Bella, both perched casually on wooden stools in the middle of the stage. JP held his acoustic guitar perched on his lap and small silver mic stands were positioned in front of each of them. They were looking at each other rather than into the crowd that had nearly exploded as they came into view.

"Damn it, they're brilliant," Chip muttered from his seat next to Alice.

"What do you mean?" Emmett asked from directly behind them as JP quietly counted off the start of a song onstage. The clear chords of the solitary guitar began to fill the room.

"They're going back to the beginning," he said simply.

I recognized the song from the tape we'd watched just over a week ago in our hotel room. Chip was right. It was "Solitary"; otherwise known as the song they considered the first real EverClear song.

How many times have you told me

You love her

As many times as I wanted

To tell you the truth

I was floored as I watched a large majority of the crowd sing the song with her. Chip was right; they were going back to the beginning. I realized with a pang of guilt that they were literally going to play almost every song they'd ever written together. Because after tonight, there would never be another opportunity to do so. Alice, recognizing the song as well, leaned her head over and rested it against my shoulder while the rest of my family took in the beautiful song. I watched her.

She sat on the stool, her back straight and her hair falling gracefully into her lap, and sang with spell-binding clarity. They both looked completely relaxed and radiant. With the simple staging and earliest melodies, they had transformed the cavernous room filled with thousands into an intimate venue full of old friends.

It was a stroke of genius the way that as the song progressed, another simple line of text would appear as each of the instruments were added to the song. The band's conception was written out for the mass of thousands and carved in stone the legacy that would no doubt follow the band for years to come. When the song's tempo rose sharply and the full wrath of the instruments kicked in, the full stage lights came and the crowd erupted into the loudest applause of the night as the last line of text appeared.

And EverClear Was Born…

"I wish someone had thought to record the show," Chip mused to Marcus. "They are unstoppable tonight."

Alice smiled knowingly at him as she pointed to the side of the stage furthest away from us. Nestled in the corner, was a small black video camera with a blinking red light at the top. I scanned the room and found eight more of the camera, all angled toward either the stage or the audience and laughed.

"My wife is extraordinary," I said to no one in particular. She had very discreetly found a way to keep this part of her life after she'd changed. She'd known that her human memories would fade and had taken steps to ensure that she had something tangible of her past to hang on to.

"She really is," my father agreed, although whether it was her performance or her forethought, I wasn't sure.

The song came to a howling close and they immediately launched into a song that I'd never heard. Bella stood up off the stool and walked toward the front of the stage into the open arms of the audience. These truly were the hometown fans. I honestly thought as I watched her sing the surprisingly light song that she could have sung them the phonebook and they would have hurt their vocal chords shouting their praise for her. Clad in her thigh high boots over the tight denim and the peek-a-boo shirt, she looked both innocent and sinful at the same time as her voice rose through the air with a joyous grace. The ending of the song cam abruptly and the surge of noise from the appreciative audience was overwhelming.

"Oh, Seattle, I've missed you," she called out to the still deafening crowd. "You like the old stuff do you?"

She turned and walked back toward the gleaming piano just a few feet behind her and took her seat at the bench. She leaned forward and kissed the gleaming black top before she flipped the lid away from the keys. As the crowd registered that she was indeed going to play, the yells and shouts grew even louder. I was on my feet, my fingers in the corners of my mouth whistling when she looked up at me and winked.

JP stepped up to his mic as the noise level began to die down minutely. He seemed almost as overcome with emotion as he peered into the sea of faces below him as Bella often did.

"Good to see everyone where they belong," he said happily as he turned to face her at the piano with a grin. The crowd's obvious agreement rang through the room. "So, we thought we'd take a little walk down memory lane with you guys tonight. This next one was written to someone…" he trailed off and briefly looked down at the floor. "For someone that I hurt. I hope that one day she can forgive me."

Can you forgive me again

I don't know what I said

But I didn't mean to hurt you

The tinkling melody of the song chimed through the air like knife as Bella began to sing "Forgive Me". JP was looking down again, seemingly unable to face the crowd just yet. As the song picked up, he joined in as she sang the pleading lyrics and seemed to relax just a bit.

I couldn't help but find Heidi in the crowd. Her face was a mask of indifference as she stared at the stage. But silent tears slowly streaked her cheeks and she sang the lyrics word for word along with Bella. I also noticed that Jasper was looking in her direction, his jaw tight with some emotion he was trying to suppress.

The gentle sorrowful song continued, as did the dark haired girls tears. As Bella's solitary voice sang the last line, Heidi picked her coat up off her chair and turns up the aisle behind her. Before I even made the conscious decision to do it, I ran out of the box and moved down the hallway outside the arena. Just outside the main entrance into the street, I found her leaning against the wall with her head in her hands.

There were people milling around the hallway, laughing and talking or buying refreshments but no one seemed to pay any attention to the attractive woman that seemed to be lost in her grief. I walked toward her very tentatively; unsure of what I even intended to do.

"Dude! That's Bella's fucking husband," a man in his early twenties with extremely long hair and very blood shot eyes said as he and his friends passed by me. They chattered on about how lucky I was as I put on my best friendly face for them and thanked them for coming to the show. When they moved on and headed back toward the show, I looked back to find Heidi staring at me.

"No need to ask who you are is there?" she said in a surprisingly deep voice. Her thin frame and unsure posture did not fit with the deep husky voice that she spoke in.

"No, I guess not."

"I spoke to, was it your brother? He told me you had asked him to find me. I need to know why."

I thought for a just a moment before I answered her. This was not a scenario I had envisioned when I'd left the small private room above the stage. Truth be told, I had no idea why I'd even left. I could hear Bella's voice echoing through the theater behind me. The song she was singing was a torturous one from the first album. Long before I'd known who EverClear was, I'd avoided the song whenever I listened to the album because the words were simply to painful to listen to. I stepped back and gazed into the large open double doors that lead back into the concert. I could see my wife at the piano, her hands flying over the keys as the desperate words stabbed through the air. As I looked at her, I knew I had my answer for Heidi.

"Do you hear the song? Do you hear the pain in it?"

"I was there the first time she played it. She didn't sing it then but she'd written the lyrics out. What does that have to do…"

"Pain," I interrupted her as I shoved my hands into the pockets of my trousers. "I forced not only myself but her to live with so much pain for far too long. Her forgiveness, her love makes everything in the world seem right again. I watched him," I said softly, aware of how sensitive Bella had been to the use of her name and mine, "sit on the floor and try to hide his own pain as he watched a video that you were in. He couldn't do it. I watched his tears as he stared at you on the screen and I…"

"Wanted to make it better," she finished softly.

"For both of you, not just him. But yes."

"We were very different than you and Bella," she whispered as her eyes filled again with moisture.

"Not really. You and Bella were on the receiving ends of ridiculously bad misinformed choices that we made that had terrible consequences. It's not that different."

"I can't be with someone I can't trust," she retorted with an edge in her voice.

"That's what forgiveness is about. Learning to trust again. Yourself as well as him. I don't know how Bella ever forgave me for my actions. I never will understand. But she did and I thank God every day for that second chance," I said as I heard my wife start another song.

"He loves you," I said simply, hoping the words meant to her what they had meant to Bella. "He's an idiot with no filter but he's a good man that loves you desperately."

She smiled at my characterization. She stared past me toward the far off stage. JP was standing on the side of the stage as they played "Lithium". The song was always a showcase for Bella's voice and playing but he was no less intense in his performance than always.

"He needs to cut those damn dreads," she said with an amused smile on her face. "I hated them from the very beginning." Her thoughts were torn between running from the building and wanting to at least finish watching the show. There was a current of extreme pride in her thoughts as she watched them play their hearts out that made me think I'd touched a nerve.

"I think Chip would celebrate for days if he would," I laughed.

"Chip's still with them? Wait, of course Chip is still with them. He couldn't cut the umbilical chord with either of them. How is he?"

"Why don't you come say hello? We have a private viewing box on the left side of the stage. I'll be down with them during the third set but we'd love to have you join us."

Her heart stuttered for the span of a few beats as her thoughts warred. With a sharp huff, she nodded her head. Not wanting to make her any more nervous than she already was, I turned and started back down the hallway toward the small room. Her heart pounded in her chest almost as violently as Bella's hands on the keys did. When we reached the doorway, she reached out and touched my forearm hesitantly.

"Can they see into the room?" Her voice was very different. Small, fearful and wary.

"Occasionally, when the lights hit it from a certain angle. But he doesn't know you're here. We didn't say anything to him. He won't know to look for you," I said as soothingly as I could.

With a small nod from her, I opened the door. We stepped in and the energy of the room enveloped me again. It was amazing how the proximity of the stage could change the feel of the music. I'd heard every note they played while in the corridor outside the arena. But actually being inside was like the difference between night and day. The electric pulse of the crowd was almost physically present now that I could once again feel the heat of the lights and vibrations of the instruments.

Chip looked over his shoulder at me as I reentered the room, his eyebrows high in question. But shock overtook his entire body as I stepped aside and held the door for our newest guest. His hand rose to his mouth as he gasped, his eyes instantly filling with tears. Faster than I knew him to be capable of, he pushed me out of the way and wrapped his arms around her. She returned the hug fiercely. Seconds later, Marcus joined them and the three of them stood huddled together in the embrace of long lost friends.

"That's a good thing you did there Edward," Jasper drawled as I stepped beside him to allow the three humans a little privacy.

"I don't know," I said honestly. "But it just didn't feel right to let her leave without saying something."

Alice didn't speak as she stood in front of Jasper. Her gaze never left the stage but she reached out and took my hand. With a hard squeeze, she smiled and pulled me closer to her and her husband.

When they finally released each other, Heidi allowed herself to be pulled toward the chairs. She took her seat between Marcus and Chip, his arm around her shoulder in a protective hug. On her other side, Marcus slipped his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together. The hesitancy of her thoughts gave way to comfort as she reconnected with the first of her former friends. But her eyes sought JP on the stage with the same staggering need that mine did as I watched Bella.

The rest of the set continued with Bella behind the piano for the majority of the songs. I got lost in the incredible sight of her as she played with a determination that I'd rarely seen from her. Every song brought a stronger more forceful reaction from the crowd. When they launched into "Away From Me" the crowd nearly exploded out of the room. They couldn't seem to get enough of the band's newest songs. It was an unprecedented display of premiering so many new songs, particularly since the second album had only been out for a few weeks. When they transitioned from the song into the instrumental piece they had composed together earlier in the day, the crowd went ballistic.

They were so into the song, they seemed to almost forget that the crowd was still there. I watched as a strange mix of happiness, determination and discomfort shrouded my wife's face. With every movement of the song, the screams of the crowd grew more unrestrained. I watched the small crease between her eyes deepen as the song progressed and understood that her arm was starting to bother her, although she never faltered her playing.

"Their new stuff is so different," Heidi said to Chip, her head leaned against his shoulder as if there had never been a years long separation since they'd last seen each other. They had kept up a steady stream of conversation since she'd sat down but I had not paid much attention to it. I wanted to give them some time to reconnect and obviously, they had had no problem doing so.

"They're in a much different place now. At least she is," he said comfortingly.

"Is she doing alright since the attack?" My back stiffened at the mention of that horrible night.

"She's coming along. Edward dotes on her like she's made of glass. I think if he could get away with it, he'd carry her everywhere they went. But he's good for her."

I smiled at his words. He was one of the few people besides Bella and my family whose opinion meant something to me. I was surprised at how good it made me feel to know that he now fully trusted me.

"I always hated that bastard. I'm glad she's doing well and is happy. She looks incredible. Married life must be good for her," Heidi laughed as the closed the song.

"You guys are so awesome," Bella called out to the crowd. They responded to her praise with ever increasing enthusiasm. "We've got a couple more for you and then we're going to take a short break. You up for more?"

She immediately began to play "Breath No More". I smiled like an idiot as my song filled the heated air. Without realizing I was doing it, my fingers began to play the notes on my lap as I watched her. No far into the song, the band joined in with a subtle accompaniment. It wasn't the original composition but it was still beautiful. She looked up towards our seats and smiled dazzlingly at me. The excited growl she'd sang with all night was present again, making the song even more emotional.

As she looked at me from below, her eyes widened as she caught sight of the new occupant. I didn't think it was feasible but her smile grew even wider. She tilted her head in acknowledgement and I looked over to see Heidi smile her thanks. The song grew in its intensity as it climbed toward its end. When the final note died out she thanked the crowd very simply before she looked at the keys in concentration.

She played the opening bars of "My Immortal" and the crowd nearly took the roof off of the building in their response. It was so loud that I could just barely hear the piano above the din of the crowd. I, like most of the occupants of the room, was on my feet clapping and cheering along side the people below. But when she opened her mouth to sing, I was stunned.

The crowd sang the song to her.

She was obviously surprised at the response but never stopped singing. Every line, every lyric echoed with the voice of twelve thousand people. Everyone in the small booth of our family was singing along with the mass of people below. My parents, my brothers, even the Forks crew had joined in the appreciative serenade from the fans. By the time she got to the first chorus, she could barely contain her joy.

"You guys sing it," she said with a smile to the hundreds of cell phones that were raised in the air.

She just barely whispered the first line, the crowd singing at full volume. She continued to play but let them shout the lines. They never missed a beat. I was so proud of her at that moment, I could have burst. The song that had been born of overwhelming grief had now become a signature piece for the band. I knew that this song would still be the quintessential EverClear song. Five, ten, even twenty years from now, this would be one of the songs that immediately came to mind of anyone who mentioned the band's name.

The audience continued to sing with her as she sang the next verse. Her voice was building with the adrenaline of the song. I'd heard her sing this many times, most of which were spent staring into her eyes. But I had never heard her sing it with such raw abandon.

"I knew the first time I heard her sing this that it was a masterpiece," Heidi said from my right. She turned to face me briefly. "She deserves to be happy. Don't ever forget this song and where it came from."

"I won't," I said as Bella began the second chorus. Even though the audience was still singing every word with her, she sang with the full power of her incredible range. It was a remarkable feat that her voice was so much stronger than the crowds', given the sheer number of competing voices.

When she sang the bridge, she looked up at me. Her eyes were shining with tears of happiness. I sang the words back to her, hoping that she could see just how much I loved her. When the band joined in to finish the song, the room erupted into a deafening thunder of applause. They all seemed to be basking in the adoration of the people in front of them. Felix played his drums wildly as JP and Dimitri slung their heads around dramatically.

When the song came to a close, the noise level had reached such proportions that it was just possible to hear the closing notes of the piano. As the last notes faded out, the lights on the stage went down slowly until there was blackness once again blanketing the instruments. As they left the stage, the dim lights from the backstage area illuminated the figures as they walked off. I was delighted to see them all grab each other in giant hugs as they reveled in the response from the crowd. JP picked Bella up and swung her around like they were children, her head tossed back laughing.

"I have to go Heidi," I said, the goofy smile still plastered on my face. "I'm playing with them next set."

"Of course. If it's alright, I'd like to stay with Marcus," she said as Chip kissed her cheek and left the room with Alice again.

"Please. We'd love for you to stay. Should I say anything?" I hoped she would let me tell JP she was here with us but I wanted to make sure it was her choice.

"Tell Bella I said hello. But, for now, don't say anything to him."

I leaned forward and placed a quick kiss on her cheek. She didn't flinch at the coolness of my body, making me wonder if she too knew what we were.

"I'm glad you're here. We'll see you after the show, right?"

"Right," she said with a smirk that looked so much like a JP smirk that I was a little taken back.

Chapter Notes: Thanks to everyone that checked out the new story. English Rose is nothing like EverClear or Revamped and I appreciate all your support. Further updates will be done under the penname the Lion and the Lamb for those of you that liked it. For those of you that didn't…I understand.

Having said that, I have a new story outlined for when EverClear finishes up that I think you guys are going to like. We probably have 3 more chapters here and then 2 epilogues. But I won't keep you waiting for too long.

Hit that button below!! I think we can probably make it to the magic number of 1000 with this chapter!!!!