Well, folks, here it is. The final chapter of The Ties That Bind.

Thanks for Sandy, Lalina and Grendel.

Important AN at the bottom.


Chapter 52 - The Ties That Bind

Edward stirred slowly, his mind and body still groggy from jetlag. He and Bella were in their hotel suite in Paris' Le Littré hotel. The small gap in the heavy set curtains of their bedroom allowed a slither of light to enter, letting him know it was daytime, but he had no idea what time of day it was – international travel does that to a person.

He stretched his neck and arched his back slowly to work out some of the sluggishness he felt, being careful to not disturb Bella who was sleeping next to him.

He rolled on his side to look at his beautiful wife, and his eyes crinkled at the sides as he gazed upon her sleeping form. He and Bella had been married for nearly eight months. Theirs had been a quiet, small wedding the week before Christmas. Unlike Cassie and Dan's, their wedding had included just Edward's immediate family, Bella's friends, Jessica and Mike, and Dan's best friend, Chris – not that Chris was just Dan's best friend anymore – he was now Sammy's beau. That particular relationship had been cemented at Dan and Cassie's wedding back in June and was indeed shaping up to become a permanent situation, that is, if the vibes Edward had been picking up on lately were correct. Not for the first time, Edward wondered how Emmett might deal with his own daughter's wedding hovering on the horizon.

Bella was oblivious to Edward's attention and his internal musings. She was sound asleep, her hair encasing her face and splaying over her pillow. Edward liked that Bella was wearing her hair a little longer these days. Really, he didn't care one way or the other, but he did admit that the longer style suited her. It still only touched to just below her shoulders, and she'd had it streaked with dashes of deep auburn which helped to bring out the color of her eyes.

Edward reached up and delicately pushed away some hair from her face. She looked so relaxed when she slept, a far cry from the stress they'd shared over the last twelve months.

Edward sighed quietly. It still upset him terribly that Bella had felt so torn and lost during that time. It wasn't like he'd deliberately set about to cause her pain and angst. In fact, he thought he'd tried his very best to minimize the impact of his illness on all of his family, especially Bella. The problem was that life had dished them up a certain hand that had to be played out. Edward had tried to manage things himself; tried not to involve anyone else unnecessarily in his treatment, but he finally faced the truth – his troubles were no longer his alone; they involved his wife and his son, whether he wanted it that way or not.

In that first month after his diagnosis the previous August, Edward had steadfastly refused to allow either Bella or Dan to become intimately involved in his treatment. He'd been determined to soldier on independently, the guilt he felt over their change in circumstances causing him once again, just like so many years before, to withdraw from those he loved. It had taken him quite a while, and a lot of pain and unnecessary sadness, before he'd finally come to his senses.

Edward closed his eyes as he remembered the day that Dan finally convinced him to accept one of his kidneys to replace his own failing ones. Their relationship had been strained for over a month after Edward had pigheadedly told Dan that he'd rather spend the rest of his life on dialysis than accept a kidney from his only child. Edward now understood that he had made a total mess of that situation. He hadn't explained himself or his feelings well, and his refusal to accept Dan's willingness to help had caused a major rift in their relationship. For Edward, it had been an emotionally distressing time. He hadn't been able to put into words his remorse over his rapid decline in health at a time in his and Bella's lives when he'd promised her the world and yet had only delivered her an ill and dialysis-dependent partner.

Before his diagnosis, just like many other sufferers of Chronic Polycystic Kidney Disease, he'd had very few recognizable symptoms; that was, until the disease had advanced to such a degree that he was diagnosed with end-stage renal failure.

Sure, looking back over time, Edward could now identify the odd discrepancies – a gradual increase in his blood pressure, headaches when he'd never before been a sufferer, restless legs and increasing fatigue – but, of course, Edward had just put these down to the results of the pace of life building up to Dan and Cassie's wedding along with all the travel he had been doing in the months leading up to the event. Trips to New York and to see Bella in New Hampshire had become regular occurrences leading up to the wedding. In fact, he'd made sure that he'd seen Bella every couple weeks; fifteen days had been the longest they'd been apart during the months until she'd finally moved west to join him in California. Still, the symptoms, even when he'd noticed them, had never really been more than a slight, occasional problem, and he'd basically ignored them. He'd never connected the dots or even asked his father for some friendly advice until the day, a month or so after Dan and Cassie's wedding, when he suffered severe back pain and noticed a significant change in his urine.

When the full extent of his illness became apparent and Edward was told that his long-term survival would be dependent upon lifelong dialysis or a transplant, Dan had automatically volunteered to be tested as a donor. Edward, point blank, had refused the idea, but that hadn't stopped Dan from instigating his own preliminary inquiries, determined to help his father. If only Edward's own stubborn nature hadn't risen to the forefront – if only he'd listened more thoroughly to Dan's reasoning before he'd thrown his offer back in his face – they wouldn't have spent time estranged from each other with Bella caught in the middle.

In hindsight, Edward could now see clearly how he could have managed things better. Justifiably, Edward's concern had not been for himself but for his only son. The disease was hereditary, and statistically, there had been a significant chance that Edward had passed the faulty gene onto his child. That alone was enough reason for Edward to refuse Dan's offer. He considered that he had already placed Dan at enough risk in the future without taking one of his now healthy kidneys. In Edward's mind, such a selfish act would only serve to put his son's life at risk years down the road.

Before Edward's diagnosis, in the months leading up to Dan's wedding, Edward and his son had continued to grow closer. As adults, they were firm friends. Their father/son relationship was still developing, but piece-by-piece, day-by-day, Edward and Dan forged a strong bond. In fact, when Edward stood next to his son as best man at his and Cassie's wedding, he couldn't have been prouder or put into words the magnitude of feeling he had for his son.

So, when Edward had refused Dan's offer to be a transplant donor, Dan had been cut to the core. As with most people, his pain was soon replaced by, and acted out in, anger, and the two men had fought – loudly and often. Even now, many months later in the privacy of his and Bella's hotel suite, Edward closed his eyes and grimaced at the memory of some of the things that had been said between them. Dan had accused Edward of all kinds of things – from being the most selfish bastard on the face of the planet to questioning the depth of his love for Bella – before also telling him, in no uncertain terms, that he was resigning his mother to a life of looking after an invalid and that she deserved so much better.

Naturally, all of Dan's accusations had hit home and had only served to heighten the grief and anger Edward himself felt about the situation in which they'd found themselves. And Edward, in withdrawing from his loved ones, had never clearly put his feelings and his concerns out there for them to be understood. Bottom line, he'd not told Dan just how scared he was that, in attempting to save his own life by accepting Dan's offer, he could, very well, eventually threaten Dan's own.

Both men knew that their estrangement was putting additional strain on an already pressure-filled situation. And both knew that the women they loved were caught in the middle. It wasn't made any easier since the four were living in such close quarters, Dan and Cassie having accepted Edward's suggestion after their engagement to live in the newly converted studio in Edward's backyard. In the end, it had been Carlisle who had bridged the gap between a sad and worried father and his angry son. Carlisle, armed with his medical knowledge and his calm, patient ways, had explained Edward's worries to Dan.

Once they were known, Dan, still angry but even more determined to prove Edward wrong and to do something to help both his parents, took the next logical course of action he could think of. Using Carlisle's connections at the hospital, and without Edward's knowledge, he went through an extensive amount of testing, including further DNA analysis to determine if there was any basis for Edward's concerns. That whole process took another month.

By the time Dan had his answers in the first week of November, he and Edward still hadn't shared more than a few brief words of greeting or strained conversation in the presence of family. So, it had taken Edward by surprise when, one Sunday afternoon, three months after his diagnosis, Dan and Cassie had come to see Edward and Bella while they were reading in the sunroom. Dan, armed with his test results and medical transplant statistics, had suggested that he and Edward go for a walk along the beach and talk.

That talk was to become the penultimate turning point in Edward and Dan's relationship.

As Edward lay in bed looking at his wife, he could remember Dan's exact words – his reasoning, his explanations and his justifications. But it had been one lone comment that had stood out from all the others and shot down all of Edward's objections.

I want to do this, not just for my mom, but because I can't stand the thought of losing my dad.

Even now, nearly nine months later, tears welled in the corner of Edward's eyes as he remembered that conversation. Dan had been so sincere, so full of pain and determination, that Edward had finally agreed to accept a donor kidney from his son. Every question that Edward had, Dan had an answer for. Every concern Edward had raised, Dan had allayed. In the end, Edward came to look at the situation through Dan's eyes and saw that he was truly being the selfish one, and upon that realization, he did something that he had never, ever done before – he broke down and cried in front of a member of his family. To do it in front of his son changed the nature of their relationship, forever.

Bella stirred, her body rousing itself from its slumber.

Brought back to the present, Edward, with his head still resting on his pillow, smiled with affection at the woman who had given him everything in life he could ever want.

"Mmm," Bella groaned as she stretched her feet and lifted her head only to flop it over on its other side, away from Edward.

Edward sniggered quietly to himself. Bella really wasn't a morning person. They did walk on the beach each morning back home, but not as early as Edward had always done. As a single man, Edward used to wake up around five each morning, but he'd changed his routine to suit Bella's slower morning schedule. They'd started hitting the beach sometime between seven and seven-thirty, and would walk for an hour or so before having a leisurely breakfast back home. Edward loved the change in his routines that Bella had brought to his life. Despite his initial suggestions of dinner out on a regular basis, he found he preferred their home cooked meals, the time they spent in the kitchen preparing them, and then the time spent around the table at the end of each day. More often than not, Dan and Cassie would eat with them, but sometimes, it would be just the two of them with a glass or two of wine, along with effortless conversation or companionable silences.

After the move West, Bella had struggled with not having teaching to occupy her days. Initially, she'd been busy with last minute wedding preparations and sorting out her things after the move, but once she had settled into their house, and Dan and Cassie's wedding was over, she'd been at a loss as to how to spend her time. With Edward working from home, she always had company and could often be found simply sitting in his studio with him while he worked on his latest composition or arrangement. Edward, quite conscious of her lack of a social network in her new home, had encouraged her to join local community groups as a way of meeting people, and for a short time, that seemed to give her an outlet. That was, until he became ill.

After his diagnosis and the subsequent stress at home, Bella had tried hard to not lose her verve as she struggled with the extent of Edward's illness and the effect it had on their lives. Their life seemed to become nothing more than a series of doctor appointments and treatment schedules. Despite Bella's best efforts, Edward's thrice weekly dialysis sessions impinged on all their time, even on non-treatment days. And all the while, as she tried to negotiate what had become some very complicated and turbulent family relationships, Edward became more and more unsociable and withdrawn.

Aside from dealing from the fall-out with Dan, Edward's treatments affected him in other ways. He was always tired and appeared to lose the light that shone behind his eyes. Bella tried time and time again to show Edward in as many ways as she could that her love for him was unchanged, but as the demands of the treatments and the emotional toll from the strained relationship with Dan took hold, there seemed to be another bitter pill they had to swallow – the impact on their sex life.

On more than one occasion, Edward had found that despite his determined efforts, he'd been unable to make love to his wife. His loss of sexual vigor made him feel desolate, and it was something he couldn't bring himself to talk about, not even with Bella. Edward felt that this previously hidden but devastatingly debilitating disease and its treatments were robbing him of everything in life he'd recently found and treasured.

Bella, being ever supportive, hadn't cared. While she'd missed that physically intimate part of their relationship, she'd figured it would just be a matter of time until Edward adjusted to the new demands his body and the treatments were placing on him.

What Bella had found most difficult to cope with was not having anyone of her own outside the family that she could talk to. While Bella had always been a private person, someone who had regularly played her cards close to her chest, her time in counseling back East had taught her a valuable life lesson: that nobody could be expected to handle everything life threw at you on your own. With Edward becoming seemingly more and more depressed, Bella contacted Esmé, and without betraying Edward's confidence, asked her for the name of a professional counselor she could see. That had been an extremely difficult phone call to make, but it had confirmed for Edward's family the full extent to which the relationships between Bella and Edward, and Edward and Dan were suffering.

Prior to that phone call, for the first few weeks after Edward had returned home from his initial hospital stay, Cassie and Bella had tried to keep the tensions at home hidden from their family. They had both believed that a little time would mend the rift that had developed between father and son. They'd been wrong.

Alice, Rosalie and Esmé, as Bella's closest allies, had tried their hardest to support Bella as she came to know a side to Edward that his sisters and mother had known for years. It was a difficult time for all of them to see someone they loved slip back into unhealthy behaviors, and thankfully, this time, it was Carlisle who had been able to intervene and address the situation.

Edward gently reached out to stroke his wife's hair. Bella, with her eyes still closed, smiled at the gentle caress and turned her head back to face her husband.

"Morning, Beautiful," Edward said softly, his voice sounding like a caress.

Bella continued to smile. "Morning."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Hmm," she replied ineloquently. "What time is it?"

"I'm not too sure," he said, rolling on his back to glance at the digital clock built into the night table at the side of the bed. Without his glasses, the number was decidedly blurry. "A little after ten, I think."

"Have you been awake long?"

"Not too long. I've just been lying here watching you sleep."

"That'd be boring."

"On the contrary, it's one of my most favorite things in the world."

"You're a sap."

"Guilty," he said, reaching out to caress her hair again.

"You're a good looking sap, mind you."

"Why, thank you."

Bella opened one eye. "I love your gray hair, and your eye crinkles."

"Good to know."

Bella reached for Edward's feet with her toes. She succeeded in finding his shins and began to run her freshly manicured toenails, a going-away present from Alice and Rosalie, along them.

"There are other things, too, you know," Bella continued as Edward moved his legs to accommodate her tantalizing toe work.

"Really? Like what?"

"You have a cute smile."

Edward smirked. "Cute, is it?"

"And your fingers…you have sexy hands."

Edward laughed this time. "You have a hand fetish? Why didn't I know this before now?"

"You've known," Bella said, trying to pinch his shin between her toes.

"I don't think so."

"Yes, you do. When I watch you play the piano at home. It's just so…"

Edward's voiced teased Bella huskily. "So what?"

Bella blushed.

"Why, Mrs. Cullen. There's no need for you to go getting all shy on me," he said, playfully tickling her in the ribs, which made her giggle aloud and roll away from him and onto her back. Edward pursued her across the bed.

"Stop," Bella giggled.

"Not until you explain your little hand fetish to me."

"OK. OK."

"Well?"

"It's not really your hands," Bella started to explain, reaching up with her hand to caress the skin at the side of his neck as he held himself aloft next to her. "It's your fingers."

"My fingers?"

"You have the most gorgeous fingers," she said, as she watched her own fingers trail across the stubble along his throat.

"Good looking fingers, huh?"

"When I watch you play and see the way they move, it makes me think of other things."

"Other things?" he teased as the fingers in question started to trace their way up her thigh and over her abdomen, pushing her nightgown out of the way as they went.

"Hmm hmm," Bella replied, her eyes closing against the sensation.

"Like what they're doing now?"

"Something like that."

"Or maybe this," he said, a few moments later as his fingers disappeared from view under her panties.

"Hmm hmm," she replied in a slightly higher pitch than before.

"Or this?" he asked, as one finger traced the seam of the delicate skin between her legs.

"Mmm," Bella concurred, her voice almost an octave higher than her last response.

"And what about when I do this," Edward asked as he lowered his lips before beginning to suck and tug gently on her earlobe while continuing to explore the moist skin he found with his fingers.

"Oh, God."

Bella's hips rose swiftly from the bed before she halted his hand by squeezing her legs together, pinning it in place.

"Too much?"

"Never. But I gotta pee."

Edward laughed. "You and your morning bladder."

"Don't you go making fun of my bladder, Mister," she said, deliberately poking him in the chest. "Not after what your bladder has put us through."

Edward rolled away from his wife and looked at the ceiling. "It wasn't my bladder's fault. Blame the faulty kidneys," he said, smiling back at her. His illness, since the successful transplant, had become a bit of a running joke between them.

Bella leaned across and gave Edward a closed-lipped kiss on the cheek before scurrying out of bed. "I'll be right back."

"I'll be waiting."

"I'm banking on it."

Edward smiled as he watched Bella flee into the bathroom and close the door. After more than a year together, nearly eight of them married, she still closed the door.

Edward put his hands behind his head and thought some more about the last year. Once he had finally agreed to use one of Dan's kidneys, everything had seemed to happen fairly quickly. The only thing Edward had been adamant about was that he and Bella marry before undergoing any transplant surgery. Despite the doctors assurances that the transplant surgery itself, while extensive and complicated, posed only a limited threat, there was no way he was going to have it until he was sure that Bella and Dan would be protected by law. As his wife, and with his altered will, he could provide her the most secure future he could in the event that something went fatally wrong during the procedure. While Bella wanted no part of such morbid thoughts, the surgery was scheduled for two months from the time Edward agreed to the transplant. That was enough time for Edward and Bella to obtain their marriage licenses and have their quiet, but romantic wedding on Catalina Island the week before Christmas. His pre-operative preparations and regular dialysis meant that there wasn't any possibility of anything more than a one-night stay on the island, but that's what this trip to Europe had been about.

As he rolled over on his side and waited for Bella to return from the bathroom, Edward remembered his and Bella's plan for their first major holiday post-surgery. They'd planned it for the six month mark – agreeing to wait until that all important medical clearance; it also just so happened to coincide with the twelve month anniversary of his diagnosis. This was their honeymoon. This was the start of the life that Edward had promised her more than fifteen months before. They departed for this holiday at the end of July, a month after celebrating Dan and Cassie's first wedding anniversary. If things went well and there were no health complications while they were away, Edward and Bella planned to travel for three months throughout Europe, returning to the States by the end of October. They were starting their trip in Paris, and then planned to drive, making their way through France, Spain and Italy before flying on to London and traipsing their way across the British Isles.

Bella had surprised Edward with her nonchalant attitude toward the planning of this holiday. He'd expected her to be the first to make plans – detail their trip and make accommodation arrangements – so it came as a complete shock to him when, aside from booking their flight to Paris and their initial Parisian accommodations as well as the return trip home from London, she was prepared to leave the rest of it to chance. No predetermined destinations, no specific timetable. Throwing caution and her old ways to the wind, Bella wanted a carefree, relaxed holiday. True, she'd read up on all the places that people told her about – the "must-dos" and the "must-sees" according to everyone else – but she was perfectly prepared to let the holiday unfold as it happened. Aside, of course, from the language lessons she'd been taking online. Edward smiled at the memory of Bella, vacuuming the house with her earphones in place, repeating phrases in French, Spanish and Italian upon command from the some of the preprogrammed lessons she'd been undertaking. It made Edward smile even wider to know that even though Bella had been extremely nervous about putting her new found knowledge to the test, she'd been thrilled to pieces the night before when, upon arriving at the Charles de Gaulle airport, she'd been able to understand all the directions made over the loud speakers, en français, without having to rely on translations.

Edward looked up at the sound of Bella coming out from the bathroom and crossing to their bed.

"Miss me?" she asked as she jumped into bed and snuggled up beside him.

"Absolutely."

"How much?"

"Want me to show you?"

"Yes," she giggled playfully.

"How many times?" Edward teased as he began to snuggle into her neck.

"Hmm," Bella paused, pretending to give the question considerable attention. "I think twice should do it."

"Comme vous voudrez, madame."

"Oooooh, la, la," she giggled.

There was no need to translate that.

oooOOOooo

It was mid-afternoon before Edward and Bella made to move from their hotel. After spending much of the day enjoying each other's company in bed and a hilarious phone call to room service in which Bella attempted to order a light meal using her newly acquired French, they were in the final stages of dressing for a late afternoon stroll on the streets of Paris.

"Here," Edward said, noticing Bella struggle with the clasp on her bracelet. "Let me."

"Thanks."

"It really does have quite a bit of weight to it now, doesn't it?" he commented as he secured it to her arm.

"Hmm."

Having finished his task, Edward played with the piece of jewelry. "Do you have a favorite?"

"Charm?"

"Yes."

"No," Bella answered. "They're all special to me. Each and every one."

Edward continued to toy with the bracelet, turning it around and around on her wrist as he remembered with fondness, selecting each and every charm on it.

"Surely you must have one favorite," he asked.

Bella shrugged.

"I do," he persisted.

"You do?"

"Ah-huh."

"Which one?" she pressed.

"This one," he said, turning the bracelet again to locate the silver pillow with the two golden rings sitting a top it.

Bella smiled. "That was the one you gave me the day Dan and Cassie got married," she remembered fondly.

"Yes, it is," Edward said, lost in thought. "It was also the last charm I gave you. A promise of my intentions."

"I remember."

"Do you remember the first?"

"Yes," she said, turning the bracelet to show him. It was a two-toned charm; a seashell with a gold starfish on it.

"Can you remember what it was meant to represent?"

"My promise to move to California."

"That's right," he said, smiling softly. "And this one?" he asked, touching the Christmas Tree with the gold star on top.

"You gave me three that week."

"I couldn't make up my mind," he admitted sheepishly.

"The Tree, the Golden Angel and the Gold Heart with the diamond."

"From our first Christmas together. The time when I knew I'd fallen in love with you."

"I know."

The morning Bella had left California after Cassie's twenty-first party, Edward had driven her to the airport, full of remorse that he hadn't stopped off in L.A. the day before when he'd had the chance and bought Bella an ostentatious piece of jewelry to mark her has his before she flew home, alone, to New Hampshire. It had been after their sad farewell at the airport that Edward had thought about the idea of a Pandora bracelet. Instead of driving back to Long Beach, he'd gone into L.A. and had found a jeweler who'd stocked the brand. He'd immediately chosen a two-toned platinum and gold bracelet for the base, and several charms that had caught his eye. He'd driven home and placed the first charm, the seashell, on it before organizing Fed-Ex to deliver the package to Bella's work place the next day. From that moment, once or twice a week, another small package would arrive at Bella's work place. In it, would be a charm, sometimes even two or three, each one a symbol of their journey to this place in time. It had been the most public way Edward could think of to demonstrate his commitment to her without actually being there in person, or without giving her a ring.

Bella laughed quietly as they both looked over what had become a very unique declaration of their love. "I remember when you sent me the three letters," she said, fingering them each in turn. "I thought it was a bit blatant of you to send me three charms that spelled, BED." She chuckled once more, and Edward joined her.

"I can't believe you thought I would do that," he said, remembering when Bella had relayed the story that she'd been embarrassed as all hell at work to think that her boyfriend had sent her a not-so-cryptic sign of their more intimate times, only for a coworker to point out that the charms carried the initials of Bella, Edward and Dan.

"I was just a bit flustered, that's all," Bella said in her own defense. "You have no idea how popular you became," she laughed. "Every time a delivery came, the office staff would wait until lunch time when the staffroom was almost full to give it to me, and because I never knew when you were sending one, every day, somebody would ask…any special delivery today yet, Bella?"

"I thought I was rather clever."

"You were very clever," she said, reaching up to kiss him. "And extraordinarily charming."

Edward wrapped his arms around his wife. "I earned a few bonus points, then, did I?"

"You know you did."

"I admit, my first trip over there afterwards was…pleasurable," he said, before kissing her.

"Pleasurable?" she said, between kisses. "Do you have any idea how much I spent on lingerie before you arrived? I could have bought a year's worth of my regular bras for what I spent on that little ensemble."

"It worked to your advantage, did it not?"

Bella giggled as Edward nibbled at her neck. "Yes, it did."

"Are you sure you want to go out?" he asked her momentarily. "We could just stay in and order more room service."

Laughing aloud, Bella pushed back against her husband's upper arms. "An hour's walk. That's all it will be, and then you can come back here and ravish me all over again if you like," she told him. "You've got to do your exercise, doctor's orders," she added, giving him a stern look. "And I promised him you would, so that's the end of it."

"A little dinner at an outdoor café, maybe?" Edward suggested. "It would help me build my stamina."

"You're still incorrigible."

"Don't you mean insatiable?"

"Both," she said, swatting him on the shoulder.

oooOOOooo

Nearly two months into their trip, Edward and Bella were at Cannes, enjoying drinks at a local bar over lunch and planning their drive to Monaco and beyond. They had been told that their first stop in Italy should be Genova, and they were trying to plan how long it might take them to reach it. So far, their casual approach to their holiday had seen them visit some fascinating places, staying mostly at small "Chambre d'hôte" or "Gîtes", the French version of Bed and Breakfast style accommodation in either a person's home or a small cottage on private property. Bella had had ample opportunity to use her now-much-more-than-rudimentary French, and had even managed to make herself understood using Spanish when they spent a week traveling the Spanish countryside. There was no way that either of them intended to cut short their time in Italy, and both were beginning to wonder if their trip to London might end up being nothing more than a brief stopover on their way home. Still, that would mean that London and the rest of Great Britain could be their next major holiday – for both Edward and Bella had been well and truly bitten by the traveler's bug. It would not be a case of IF they traveled again, but rather, how soon it would happen.

Edward also remained healthy and strong during their travels, despite some minor hiccups here and there having his array of anti-rejection medications dispensed. The only difficulty he really experienced was fatigue if they pushed it a little too much on their travels. Occasionally, his scar seemed extra sensitive. Twice daily, Bella diligently rubbed special ointment into the long crescent-shaped scar. While the ointment was designed to help minimize the visual affects of the scaring over time, it seemed little more could be done to lessen its presence in the short-term. Still, scar or no scar, it made no difference to Bella. As far as she was concerned, the evidence of his surgery was a very small price to pay for the wonderful life they now lived.

As Bella and Edward enjoyed the last few weeks of their delayed honeymoon, they already began planning future adventures. The list of places to see appeared endless, and fully appreciating how lucky they were to have the opportunity to travel, they were determined not to waste it.

There were times, in the years to come, when Bella would look back on her life, pre-Edward, and wonder how she could ever have thought she'd been happy. She had been, of course, but it was all relative, and with Edward's love had come new freedoms and new opportunities. Certain things that had been important to her before, like her independence and self-sacrifice, now, no longer were. Her life blossomed in such a dramatic way that she could hardly reconcile the Bella before Edward with the Bella she became. She'd been strong before, but now, she was resilient. She'd been self-assured before, but now, she was self-aware. Before, she'd been burdened by the past, but now, she was free to embrace the future.

Edward, and his love for her, had allowed Bella to finally become the woman she'd always wanted to be - a mother, a wife, a lover, and a truly happy soul. Love and acceptance had taught her that the past only helped to shape you. Who you are and who you become is a matter of choice.

Life, Bella now understood, is too short for regrets. Life's blessings, and surprises, are just too precious.


AN: There will be a separate AN released in the next day or so that will contain a special message from me as well as details regarding the posting of the Epilogue to TTTB. As per my review replies (and I did try to reply to everyone who left reviews or messages after ch 51, but some of you have your PMs disabled), I intend to release the epilogue this week.

Many, many thanks for everyone who has read this story through to this point. It's been a pleasure writing for you.

Until next time

Leisa.