Hello! Where have I been? What the hell happened? Well, it's a long story and I won't bore you with the details. Let's face it, you've waited long enough for this! Please read and review, as it will be the last one for this whirlwind of a story! I hope the journey has been a good one. And thank you to everyone who has followed this with me. It feels a little sad to be posting this but here it is...

Epilogue – Life Meets Death

It wasn't raining like Bella expected it to be. Wasn't that what it was like in movies? When you're walking up to a grave with a bouquet of flowers?

The plastic wrapped around the orchids rustled in the gentle breeze and Bella paused, letting the cold air soak into her skin.

It had been three months since the end of the Volturi. It had been in the papers the following day and also on most major networks. The building had been burned to the ground. There was nothing left of it—no bodies and no research. Bella was even sure that the earth had been salted for extra measure. It was truly the end of the vampire project, but it hadn't come without its losses.

A stray tear slipped down her cheek and she bit her lip. She wasn't going to cry. She had already done enough of that. She had to be positive. She had to look to the future.

At least the nearly dying had made her more open with Carlisle and Alice. It had even given Jasper the courage to start dating Alice. It had strengthened Emmett and Rosalie's relationship and Rosalie was now two months pregnant. Even Carlisle had started to spend time with Esme, although he had said he 'just liked the company.'

Even with all of the people around her, Bella felt lonely. Her hand brushed the tombstone in front of her and she placed the flowers carefully in front of it. She weeded out the oldest flowers and put them to one side. She'd take them back with her and bin them. It was the least she could do, but she found it an important thing to do. It was important to her. Graves were only there for the living. The dead didn't care about flowers, she knew that.

The sunlight chose that moment to emerge from the clouds. All Bella could think was, it should be raining.

She heard a sound behind her and the gun came out of her holster and she aimed it as she turned. An automatic gesture-one that had kept her alive more times than it had hindered her.

"You've still got that thing?" Amusement filled her ears and she let out a breath, lowering the gun slowly.

"I thought you wouldn't come," she said quietly, not trusting her voice.

Edward laughed and the sound was like music. Music she felt she should dance to with the very composer. It made Bella smile. She would never tire of hearing his voice, even if she wouldn't admit it.

"What?" she asked, tilting her head to the side in a sceptical manner. Her eyes were still shiny with unshed tears but now the sadness was for the man stood in front of her like an apparition. Real in her mind, but she couldn't physically touch him. No, life had its sick humour.

"You're jaded," he stated, moving closer. Bella still held the gun in her hand, but she knew it wouldn't be much use if Edward meant to eat her. He knelt down by the grave with her, careful not to touch her skin. She didn't close the distance, but her heart was screaming for her to. Even her head was. So much for logical thought.

"Yes, I am." She turned her head back to the grave and Edward followed the motion.

"You know, Charlie would be so proud," Edward said. Bella felt her eyes start to sting. Another tear escaped and she squeezed her eyes tightly shut and trembled.

"He would," she whispered, her voice cracking, "But he'd still be mega pissed at me."

Edward laughed again. A small line of sunlight hit his face, making it shimmer like diamonds. Bella swallowed her gasp and averted her eyes from the blinding gleam as she said, "It usually rains in Forks."

"Maybe it's a sign?" Edward said, looking as though he was pondering something.

Bella knew where the conversation was going. "Valentina and London would kill you."

"I already asked them. They cleared it with the big cheese. He said yes."

"The big cheese?" questioned Bella. She couldn't hold the disbelief out of her tone. The whole situation was just this side of insane.

"I'm not allowed to speak his name to humans. It carries a death sentence."

"As does telling us weak little humans that you exist in the first place," Bella added, glancing at the eerie shade of his irises. It made alarm bells scream in her head, but she blotted them out and concentrated heavily on the bouquets littering her father's grave.

"You were the exception."

"And Alice," Bella interrupted.

Edward sighed, feigning irritation, but the smile on his face ruined the effect. "You're changing the subject on purpose."

"No I'm not," Bella said, teasingly. She was starting to relax slightly-both a good and bad thing when near Edward.

"You might be. I don't know. You're head is a closed book to me."

Bella still hadn't gotten over the fact that Edward could mind-read, or the fact that he couldn't read her mind. Hell, she still hadn't gotten over the fact that Edward was here. Valentina had changed him, not wanting to leave him behind when she could have saved him. She thought it defeated the object of what vampires were, but who was she to bitch about the motives of the ultimate predator? At least Edward still existed in some way. It was better than not existing at all, the selfish part of her mind told her. But what will it cost him in the future?

"Give me a few more years of humanity and I'll consider it," Bella said. "I'm still hating you right now. You made me think you were dead and then you came back as the very thing you said you didn't want to be."

"I had a change of heart when I woke up, knowing you loved me. I'm trying to live a better life, to make up for everything."

"'Life' being the operative word," Bella said dryly.

"I didn't have the choice, but now I'm here, I might as well use it." Edward sounded angry.

"I know, I know. Just give me time to get my head around it."

"Time," Edward mused. "I have plenty of that."

He looked at Bella and the weight of his gaze was almost physical. She could almost feel it burning her eyes. She stood up, holstered the gun against her better judgement and picked up the dead roses Alice left two weeks previously.

"I'm going to visit one other grave whilst I'm here," Bella said. She started walking, with Edward beside her like a silent, ethereal shadow.

Jacob had had a memorial service, as had Carmen and even Irina, but Jessica hadn't. Jessica's funeral had been years ago, when the world thought she was dead. Her old grave was near Charlie's and it was covered in fresh flowers. It wasn't like this the last time Bella was here. It was just mud and stone-Insignificant and forgotten. The graveyard was filling Bella with melancholy. She took a deep breath and looked up at Edward when she knelt down.

"You didn't."

"She sacrificed herself, she deserves to be remembered."

Bella looked down at the grave, her eyes watering all over again. There were red roses covering the tombstone and a wreath above it with 'Jessica' shaped out of bright marigolds.

"There's one other thing it needs," Edward said. Bella watched him put his hand in his pocket and pull out a small card. He passed it to her and she opened it and read.

Thank you.

Bella looked up in confusion.

"It's from the rest of us. It says 'thank you'."

"Ahh." Bella put it amongst the roses feeling silly for wondering.

She held out her hand to Edward. He hesitated, his jaw tensed. It was a ghost of the expression Jane had held, but it was there. She started to slowly pull her hand back, but then Edward reached for it and his fingers skimmed across her skin.

She fought the urge to pull back. It wasn't just the icy feel of his fingers that sent a shiver up her arm. She had tried not to acknowledge it in the past, but she couldn't deny her feelings for him. Edward wrapped his fingers around hers and they walked back towards the cemetery gates.

Bella knew nothing was perfect, but holding Edward's hand and walking with him, she knew that it was close. There was a small thought in the back of her mind that she didn't want to regard, but with her ignorance, it grew stronger.

It could be perfect, it said.

I know, she thought back.

The End.