Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. However, I do own almost every piece of Houston merchandise available in Texas :D

A/N: Thank you to my beta Kimmydonn who got this chapter back to me about an hour after I sent it. She is amazing and I adore her!

Thank you and tackle smooshes to my girls Weezy and Stan (a.k.a Nostalgicmiss and Newmoonholic) for being the most amazing people, who I finally got to meet last week. Which brings me on to the excuse of the day. I'm so sorry, I know it's been forever since I updated, but with moving house and then going on holiday to the States, I really just didn't have time. I promise to try and get back on track now I'm home though. :)

So on with the show. I've re-posted the last few lines from the previous chapter for you since it's been so long since I last updated.

"I love you, Edward. Thank you for doing this for me," she whispered, stroking my scalp with her fingers.

"I love you too, sweetheart. Are you ready?"

"Ready for what?" Her face scrunched up in confusion.

"Immortality.

Empty

Chapter 38

Should I resurrect this hope?
Would it Find a Home?
Or Just Leave me Alone?
Now I struggle to Believe
I'm Capable
Of Waking up these Dreams

Melectric - Ramona Falls

Bella POV

Everything was so bright. Opening my eyes was like waking up to a thousand watt bulb being shone directly into my pupils, and I squeezed them tightly shut again. It was only the cool touch of Edward's hand against my skin and the soft velvet of his voice that could tempt me to open them to that blazing inferno again. Blinking, I tried to adapt to the brightness of the light and the vividness of the colours in the room. It was as though the rainbow had taken on a whole new spectrum of colours during my change. Nameless hues danced in my vision, brilliant and strong. What were these colours?

Dust motes flurried and danced in the air around me, flamboyant and carefree, as though they had always been there. I suppose, in reality, they had been, but to me it was all new - the light, the colours and the sounds. Every small noise resonated loudly in my ears. The footsteps in the house, the hum of the television, which was left on standby, even the sounds of the forest beyond the closed windows. Each sound was clear and crisp, as though it were part of an epic symphony.

Edward's sweet words grounded me as I fought to adapt myself to this brand new spectrum of colours and the booming sounds, which would once have been too quiet for me to hear.

I swallowed several times, trying to clear the burn there. It felt more severe than the usual early morning sore throat, pre-coffee, but it was to no avail. I grimaced slightly at the thought of what I would have to do in order to ease it, but felt no great desperation to go out and drain the population of Forks dry, the way that Jasper had led me to believe I would.

Was I ready for immortality?

"Yes," I replied, tentatively taking his hand in mine and following as he pulled me towards the door.

Standing in the hallway like sentries were Emmett and Jasper, both with serious looks plastered on their faces. The sight of my goofy and playful big bear of a brother with such a serious expression sent me into fits of giggles, which I was helpless to control.

"Why so serious, boys?" I asked, when I had got my hysterics under control.

"We have a newborn in the house. We're kinda waiting for you to go lunging for something with a pulse," Emmett replied honestly, looking slightly bemused by my reaction to him.

There was no denying the burning sensation in the back of my throat, but if I was being honest with myself, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Part of me had been expecting to wake up and immediately lunge, completely out of control, for the nearest source of blood. But in reality, I was finding the thirst quite manageable. Of course, I hadn't been faced with the scent of blood yet; that would be the real test.

"I'll try to control myself, brother bear," I teased, winking at him and patting him on the cheek.

"Bella." Edward's soft voice accompanied his hand, closing around mine once more as he pulled me to him, his arm snaking around my waist. "These guys are going to come with us for your first hunt." His eyes looked into mine warily, and I could see in my peripheral vision that both Emmett and Jasper were watching on tensely.

"Um, okay, I guess... Why?" I asked, surprised that Edward didn't want to go alone. His eyes widened momentarily, before he looked down at his feet, mumbling in a low voice I wouldn't have been able to hear three days ago but now was as clear as a bell.

"Because you're stronger than me at the moment." He scuffed his shoes sullenly against Esme's shag-pile carpet, like a school boy being chastised. The sound, which would once have been almost silent to my ears, was practically deafening now, and I placed my hand on his thigh to make him stop. But I couldn't help the burst of laughter that bubbled up in my chest at his pathetic admission.

"Is little Mr. Cullen afraid of his big, bad wifey?" I teased, standing on my tiptoes to pat him on the head in mocking patronisation. He swatted my hand away then pulled me into him, my back against his chest. Wrapping his arms around me and holding me there tightly, he nodded to Emmett and Jasper, who moved forwards with mischievous looks on their faces.

"Individually, we may be weak," Jasper said, smirking as he started to wriggle his fingers threateningly.

"But united, we are strong," Emmett guffawed as he started to tickle me as I writhed and squirmed in Edward's arms.

"Stop, stop! You can come. Fine!" I gasped out, half-heartedly prying at Edward's vice-like fingers, as my big brothers tormented me. They stopped the torture at my verbal white flag, both of them pulling back and smirking at me. So this was how it was going to be now that I was one of them.

"Umm, Bella, not that you don't look stunning or anything, but are you going to go hunting in a nightdress?" Emmett gestured to my attire. Looking down, I realised that at some point during the three days of hellish torture, somebody had taken the time to change me. A soft cotton night dress, which fell to just below my knees, replaced the jeans and t-shirt I had been wearing when the morphine had been administered.

"Esme," Edward whispered in my ear, bringing a smile to my lips at the thought of my surrogate mother, now turned mother-in-law.

"Where is everybody? Can I see them? It feels like a lifetime since I last saw them." Identical frowns covered the faces of Edward, Emmett and Jasper as they looked at me with some confusion. "What?" I asked, confused as to why me wanting to see my family would surprise them.

"Bella, don't you want to go hunting? You must be thirsty," Jasper asked curiously.

"Yeah, sure, I guess, but can't I see the others first? I've missed them." The frowns were replaced by incredulous looks.

"You're not thirsty?" Edward's face loomed suddenly in front of mine, his eyes wide with interest.

"I guess so. I'm not desperate or anything. There is a slight burn there though, I suppose," I replied, seeing Jasper's frown deepen.

They all stood gaping at me for what seemed like forever until Edward once more took my hand in his and started pulling me towards the stairs. I could almost feel Emmett and Jasper's bemused stares boring into my back as they followed us down to the living room, where Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Alice were all sat, looking up at us expectantly.

"Bella!" Alice hopped up from where she was sat next to Rosalie on the couch, bottles of coloured nail polish scattered around them. Astonishingly I could see each movement of her body as she shot towards me at full pace and threw her arms around me. I could feel every ounce of her strength behind the embrace and rejoiced that my family no longer had to treat me like a porcelain doll. I was truly one of them now.

Eventually she pulled back from me, keeping her hands on my shoulders and studying my face carefully. Under normal circumstances, I would have blushed under that kind of scrutiny, and I had started making a move as if to hide my face before it occurred to me that I couldn't blush any more.

One of her hands left my shoulder and her finger came up to my right temple, brushing lightly against my hairline as a small smile lit up her face.

"The scar is gone," she whispered, continuing to run her finger in circles around that same spot.

"What scar?" I asked, suddenly feeling stupid for not ever knowing there had been one there.

"All of them, I imagine," Edward chimed in, pulling me back against his chest and wrapping his arms around me comfortably. His chin rested on top of my head.

I hadn't even considered that the transformation from human to vampire would remove my old scars from my body. I smiled at the thought that all the marks he had left on me were now gone, no trace of him remaining anywhere on my person.

"Bella, dear, you look wonderful," Esme sung, pulling me from Edward's arms and into her own. Her motherly embrace never failed to be comforting to me, even when I wasn't in need of solace.

"Thank you for reading to me," I said softly, turning to face Carlisle who beamed brightly.

"You heard?"

"I did! Pride and Prejudice, one of my favourites." If I was honest with him, the story didn't really get through to me in amongst all the shrieking and pain. But I could recall his soft voice caressing the words of Jane Austen for my benefit, and the fact that he had bothered was beyond sweet, in my mind.

"Welcome back, Bella," Rosalie spoke next, also pulling me into a hug. I still hadn't quite got used to her wanting me around and hadn't spent much time with her since the day she spoke to me in her bedroom. Yet she was always there in the background, giving me knowing looks when I faltered, and just the fact that she had some understanding of where I was coming from, made me feel closer to her. I squeezed her a little tighter in gratitude for her silent support, then pulled back and looked around at my family.

Looking at them through new eyes, I could see that my human sight had never done justice to their beauty. They weren't just beautiful, they were exquisite. So much so that I wondered how any of them could ever bear to look at me or why Edward constantly insisted on calling me beautiful when he had this to come home to.

I suddenly felt horribly self-conscious and realised that I hadn't even seen myself since I had 'woken up'.

"Alice, could we... I mean... I need some help." Alice looked confused for a moment before her eyes went blank and then she was squealing and clapping her hands together in delight. She grabbed my hand and was about to drag me upstairs when Edward growled at her and clung onto my other hand.

"Oh, unclench, Edward or that coal will turn to diamond. We won't be long and then you can go on your precious hunt. Bella is fine; if she was going to have a problem, I would see it." She tapped her head with her pointer finger, rolled her eyes, and then pulled me away from him sighing.

Upstairs, she danced around my closet, refusing me access to the mirror on the back of the closet door until I was - in her words - 'finished'. She kept bobbing her head out with hangers of clothes in her hand, looking me up and down for a moment with a studying expression on her face, then flouncing back in and rummaging some more. Evidently she was having a hard time.

"Alice, I'm not going to a ball - I'm going hunting. Let's face it, with my co-ordination issues, the likelihood of the outfit you pick out being fit for use again is somewhat limited." Her face appeared once again at the doorway, eyes rolling and head shaking, then she huffed without offering a response and disappeared back into the clothing world's answer to the Black Hole of Calcutta.

Finally, after an indescribably long time, she emerged with clothes draped over her arm and a triumphant smile decorating her face. Gaping in horror at what I thought I saw hanging over her arm, I backed away.

"Alice, is that a dress?" Her smile brightened, sadly proving me to be correct. "Alice, you're my sister and I love you dearly, but I am not going hunting in a dress."

She just rolled her eyes at me then patronisingly patted me on the head.

"Silly Bella. This is for afterwards. These," she held up a pair of ratty old jeans and an old AC/DC t-shirt of my dad's with an expression of disgust, "are for hunting."

I let the air whoosh out of my lungs in sarcastic relief that she didn't expect me to traipse around the forest and mountains in a dress, which would undoubtedly have been coupled with heels.

"Please, Alice. Can I see?" I implored her to allow me access to the mirror, desperately wanting to see how my transformation had changed my body. The loss of my old scars was an obvious bonus, but I wanted to be beautiful, just like the rest of my family.

"In a nightdress?" Alice's incredulous face was enough to have me doubled over with laughter.

"It's the night dress or the jeans... The choice is yours," I teased, knowing that she would a thousand times rather I looked in the white nightdress, which was actually quite pretty, than the tatty old clothes, which would probably find their way into the trash before the end of the day.

"Fine!" she huffed, and flung open the closet door, curling her fingers to me in permission.

I approached the mirror somewhat hesitantly, afraid of what I would see. What if I hadn't changed at all? What if I was still boring, plain Bella? What if I had to spend the rest of eternity with my bronze God, looking like some urchin he picked up on the streets on his way home?

Eventually I found myself beside the mirror, my eyes firmly trained on Alice, unwilling to face the reflection that showed how I was destined to spend the rest of eternity. I could see the light reflecting off the glass and onto Alice's face and body in small patterns, which held so many more colours than I could ever have imagined before. Maybe one day I would get used to this new way of seeing.

My sharp ears detected the sound of somebody coming up the stairs and then hesitating outside my bedroom door.

"Edward, I know you're out there. We're married; I think it's okay for you to come in." His face appeared around the door looking slightly sheepish, then turning up into his trademark crooked grin.

"I wanted to see your face, when you look."

"Yeah... I'm working up to that," I said, still avoiding looking towards the mirror at all costs. Edward frowned when he saw my reluctance and came over to me, standing behind me with his hands running up and down my arms, which were now blessedly free of bruising.

"What is it, Bella?" he asked, his lips ghosting against my ear enticingly as his fingers left trails of fire down my skin. I said nothing, but leaned my head back against his chest, my eyes tightly closed. He spun me in his arms so that I was facing him, then cupped my face in his hands.

"Look at me, Bella," he whispered, while his hands on my face sent shivering sparks shooting through me. Not only were my other senses heightened, but apparently my sense of touch had been magnified by a million, and now, each place where his skin met mine burned with a fiery intensity I had never experienced before.

I kept my eyes stubbornly closed, determined to imagine how I looked now, rather than being forced to see what was bound to be a disappointing truth. My whole body quivered with need as his lips pressed softly against each of my eyelids, before coming to rest on my forehead where he planted a kiss before whispering, "Open your eyes, Bella."

"That's not fair, Cullen," I accused, as his hands drifted from my face and down my sides, his touch light and teasing, coaxing me to do as he said.

"All's fair in love and war," he started, nipping my nose before he started planting kisses down my neck. "And this, Mrs. Cullen," he continued, as he started moving down my throat, "is most definitely love."

"Euww, gross!" I had almost forgotten Alice's presence in the room, and it seemed that so had Edward. "I'll leave you love-birds alone, shall I?" She glared at us both, trying and failing to keep a straight face, before stomping off and pulling the door closed behind her.

"Thank you, Alice," I called after her, knowing that she would hear, and receiving a hollered, welcome," from her in response.

"Now then, Mrs. Cullen. Where were we?" I leaned into his chest, my eyes still firmly shut, and breathed in his scent deeply, enjoying how it was so much more potent than ever before.

"I believe you were doing that dazzling thing, but it's fine by me if you wanted to stop."

"Oh?" he asked, with a smirk in his voice as he started nibbling at my neck again. Feeling myself starting to go weak at the knee, I tapped on his shoulder with the palm of my hand.

"Edward, aren't we supposed to be doing something?"

"I am doing something," he responded, before reattaching himself to my neck and lapping and nibbling his way down to my chest where he started to pull down the straps of the white cotton night dress. "I'm checking out my wife's new body. So far... I approve."

The soft cotton dropped to the ground, leaving me standing before him completely exposed. His face took on an awed expression as he pulled me up into his arms and carried me over to the bed, where he lay me flat and then crawled up beside me. Gazing at me with adoration in his eyes, he took away all my self-consciousness with his whispered words of love and worship of my body. He adorned every inch of my skin with loving kisses before sealing our love once more. My newer, stronger body screamed in ecstasy as every touch, every caress and every movement as he filled me, sent me flying higher and higher.

I lay in his arms watching him as he ran his fingers over my body with a smug smile on his face.

"What?" I asked, bringing his smirking expression up to meet my eyes.

"Nothing," he responded, looking back down at my body briefly and then meeting my eyes once more. "But it would appear that this body is good to go."

I waited for the usual blush for a moment, before realising that it wasn't going to come. It would never come again. I couldn't help the smirk that appeared on my face, unbidden, at the thought of no more teasing from Emmett over my body's natural response to just about everything.

"Would my wife be ready to see said body yet?" he asked, his nose tickling up and down my stomach as he continued to kiss me lightly all over.

"I...uh... yeah, okay."

He wound his hands around me, pulling me into his chest. Burying his nose into my curls again he inhaled deeply.

"You're perfect, Bella," he whispered into my hair, before lifting me onto my feet and dropping the white night dress back over my arms. "Come on then." He took my hands in his, walking backwards and pulling me with him as he led me to the mirror on the back of the closet door.

"You have to open your eyes, Bella," he chuckled as he shifted behind me and ran his hands up and down my arms soothingly.

"Yeah, eyes... open. I'll get right on that," I muttered. In truth I hadn't even realised they were closed; it was almost like an instinctive response to being in front of the mirror, and I was starting to worry that there was a reason behind it.

"Are you going to let me see those eyes again, or do I have to coerce you some more?"

"As tempting as that sounds, my throat is starting to feel less like sandpaper and more like an inferno. I'm going to need to hunt soon."

"Finally!" he exclaimed, sounding almost relieved. "You better get those eyes open then, hadn't you?" He laughed, tracing his fingers lightly down my temple and along my jaw.

Shivering at the sensations his touch brought out in me, I fluttered my eyes open and found myself face to face with a woman who looked like me, but not quite. It was like I was still there - it was still intrinsically me - but I was different somehow. All the small imperfections I was so used to seeing were gone. The small scars that had once littered my body, both from Jack and from my general clumsiness, were all gone, leaving me with smooth, flawless ivory skin.

I cringed slightly at the sight of my crimson eyes, but I had known they would be that way at first, and would fade to amber with time. Still, there was something more, something I was struggling to put my finger on. I was still definitely me, of that there was no doubt, but I was different, more robust somehow, less fragile. Before I had looked and felt as though one well placed blow could shatter me into a thousand tiny pieces, but now, I looked at my new body and I felt strong, like I could finally take on the world and come away victorious.

Edward's arms snaked around me, pulling me back into his chest as I watched a smile tug at the corners of the mouth of the girl in the mirror.

"See?" he breathed, his mouth almost touching my ear as his chin rested on my shoulder. "You're perfect."

I twisted round in his arms and rested my head against his chest, marvelling at how different his body felt pressed up against mine now that we were the same. The cool, hard feeling was gone. Now it was just like hugging another human. I smiled and snuggled into his arms further, enjoying the way that his scent enveloped me, so much stronger than before. I could feel the gentle movement of his chest as he breathed in and out, not out of necessity, but out of habit. The sound of the air moving through his lungs was as clear to me as the racket Emmett made when he was playing his drums.

He squeezed me to him tightly; the circle of his arms around me felt like the safest place in the world, and I never wanted to leave it. Then, pulling back slightly, he danced kisses across my face before quirking an eyebrow at me in question.

"Are you ready for your first hunt, Mrs. Cullen?"

Recommendation: Go read The Long Way Home by TheHeartOfLife. You will love it and fall head over heels for her Emmett, he's just perfect. I started reading and couldn't stop until I finished!

Thank you for reading :)