A/N: So here we are with another chapter. I am posting again a day early because Wednesdays are insane. This story probably only has two to three more chapters left, so we are nearing the end. I just want to address it here, so everyone knows. I research a LOT. This is fiction but I try to put as much real word reality in it. I appreciate people telling me issues and problems they have with the story, but just know I do research. The university of Washington doesn't require students of any level to reside in the dorms, that is why Bella and Edward have made the decision to live off campus. Thank you to everyone who reviews and leave me their thoughts and concerns. I love you all! Thank you to Gabby 1017 for prereading and Sunflower Fran for her beta skills, you girls rock.

Friday was only had half a day of school, so Edward and I made the four-hour trek to Seattle right after my last class of the day. We stopped for road snacks and had to make our first of compromises, as we had to share all the snacks. I vetoed his pork rinds, and he vetoed my three different types of candy. Eventually, we agreed on chips, drinks, and each got our own candy because it almost came to a yelling match.

Once settled in the vehicle, I plugged in my phone to play music, and Edward gave me a stack of ads for apartments that his mom had printed. I went through the ads, ranking each on space, cost, and distance from campus. I read all the ads to Edward, and they all seemed to have some good qualities, but the most promising ones went to the top. The ones on the top were the cheapest too, and they were studio apartments.

I pulled out my phone, seeing if I could find any more listings.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking up places on my phone."

"But I gave you the stack."

"Yes, but I am looking for more…."

"My mom approved these; they are Esme approved, and Carlisle funded."

I giggled and raised my eyebrows. "So, you're telling me that if I found an apartment for cheap, close to campus, in a good neighborhood and nicely sized that Esme didn't approve first, that we won't even consider it?"

He huffed and sighed. "I'm not going to win this without losing man points, so I'm just going to nod and play along."

I nudged him with my elbow. "See, now you're getting the hang of it." I laughed, and he soon joined in. "You never were this scared of your mom."

"When I was getting in trouble, I cared, just not enough to do anything about it. Since Emmett and I told her the truth, I don't know; I like the feeling that they're proud of me.

"There is nothing wrong with that. It makes me love you that much more."

"When I told her that you and I decided on UDub, she got misty-eyed."

"Imagine telling her you got into Johns Hopkins or U Penn."

"You think that's gonna happen?"

"I think things will work out the way they are supposed to. If we both have to finish our degrees here, then that's the way it was supposed to be. If we get into the other schools we want to apply at, then that's our path. The one thing I do know is that our paths are meant to be together."

"I won't argue with you on that."

We were quiet for a few minutes. I know he was thinking, so I let him gather his thoughts. "So, let's assume we get into an east coast school." He started. "What about when we graduate? Do you want to stay there permanently?"

"I don't know. That may be something to talk about when we get there. My schooling will take six years and yours, eight. After that, you still have a residency."

"How is your schooling going to take six years?"

"I want to get my MSN, so I can be an NP."

"Why not just go all in and get your DNP?"

"Maybe I will eventually work up to that, but I want to get to work in the field sooner than that."

"Yeah, if I could get my MD sooner, I would want to do that too."

I nodded at him, and we fell quiet again. I picked up my drank and took a healthy gulp when he sprang the next topic on me. "How do you feel about kids."

I inhaled sharply while trying to swallow my soda, causing it to get lodged in my throat, and I started choking. Edward thumped me on the back, and I swatted his hands away. "Jesus, a little warning next time."

"Sorry, I had no idea you were gonna react that way."

"Edward, I'm sixteen years old—my mom split when I was little. How did you think I was gonna react?"

"Well, obviously not right now, or even in a couple of years, but eventually."

"Well, I mean, eventually, I think that maybe I might want kids."

He smiled at me with that confident crooked grin that always got my heart racing. He pulled me closer to him and whispered in my ear. "We could have a lot of fun practicing."

"You are such a boy," I said and kissed him on the lips, with a hard, short kiss. He had to keep his eyes on the road. He chuckled.

We kept talking back and forth on the drive there. Edward and I had never really done a drive like this together before, and I really enjoyed it. We talked, flirted, threw candy in each other's mouths, and just had an all-around good time. Soon, we arrived at our Airbnb rental. We wanted to be able to make our own food, and renting something that was meant to be home was better than a hotel and cheaper. We found a restaurant close by, so we headed there and made plans to get groceries afterward.

We made it back to our rental, and I was exhausted. After school today, a four-hour drive, eating, and then going grocery shopping, I was about ready to go to bed. We had planned to look at apartments tomorrow, so the rest of our evening was free. "Is it sad that it is only eight pm and I'm ready to go to bed?" I asked, flopping on the couch.

"No. Today was eventful, and you had school on top of it." Edward said, sitting next to me, and pulling my legs into his lap. He pulled my shoes off and started rubbing my feet.

I moaned when he pushed his thumb into the arch of my foot. "Mmmm, that feels so good." I closed my eyes and let myself relax. Before too long, I realized that Edward's hands were starting to massage higher and higher. I opened my eyes and looked at him. "Edward, what are you doing?"

"I'm just giving you a massage." He said innocently, but I saw that little smirk playing on his lips.

I laughed and grabbed his hands in mine, and moved to straddle his hips. I put his hands on my hips, and I locked my arms around his neck. "You're not a very good liar."

He shook his head. "Not anymore, and not to you."

I knew he was referencing the past mask he wore daily before our relationship had been mended. I cupped his cheeks with my hands. "I see you, Edward Cullen. I know who you are, and I love you more than I could ever imagine." I leaned in and kissed him softly. Neither of us tried to make it faster or stronger. Though our lips were physically touching, it wasn't sexual; it was emotional and soothing.

We stayed there for a while, just holding each other and being connected. I soon started to fall asleep, and without much warning, Edward picked me up, carrying me bridal style to the bed. I laughed and laid down while waiting for him to turn the lights off and lock up. He rejoined me, and I flung one of my legs over his and laid my head on his chest. He grabbed my hand and held our interlocked fingers over his heart. He kissed the top of my head. "I love you, too, Bella. Sweet dreams."

"You, too, my Edward," I said sleepily, and I drifted to sleep.

~BTS~

"You're in an exceptionally good mood today," Edward said as I finished making breakfast for us before we headed out to go look at apartments.

"I got to wake up next to my gorgeous boyfriend for the first time in months, and our life is moving forward. What's not to be happy about?"

"Bella, I'm leaving in a month. Yeah, we will see each other as much as we can, but looking at apartments, where I might be living soon, it's just driving home that this is bringing us closer to a months-long separation."

My face fell, because of course, I knew this, but maybe I was trying to push it aside for all the other exciting things coming in our future. "I know that. Obviously, I'm not going to forget it, but I do try to push that aside sometimes. I'm gonna have to do that for six months, so why not start practicing." Edward sighed and fisted his hand in his hair. "I'm not mad, so don't do that. This isn't a fight, and it doesn't need to be. We have different ways of dealing, and me being in a good mood and pointing out that right now, at this moment, everything is perfect, is not me being delusional or deflecting. I'm finding the positive where I can, okay?"

He looked at me for a long moment, studying me. Finally, he nodded his head and smiled. "Thanks for breakfast."

"You're welcome. Now eat up."

We were silent while we ate, and soon after, we were both showered and ready to go. Having lived in my dad's house my entire life and not knowing what a studio looked like, I was really surprised at how small the apartments we saw were. Several of them had upscale features, but I still was curious as to why it was so much money. We looked at studios anywhere from 400 sq ft, all the way down to 130 sq ft.

After looking at four tiny-ass places, I stopped Edward. "Okay, we need to go with plan B."

"Which is?"

"My list." I pulled the phone out and looked up any and all apartments near the University of Washington. In a stroke of luck, I found two that were closer than the studios we were looking at, and close to the same price as the others. "Ask your mom what the limit is, rent wise."

"Why?"

I explained to him what I found, and he got on the phone, explaining it to her as well. She wanted pictures, so I emailed her the listings, waited for her to look at them, and give the okay. She gave us the go-ahead, but warned us to look at both places and really pay attention to what we were seeing.

By the time we got back to our rental, I wanted to scream into a pillow for an hour. We found a place that didn't make me want to take a shower immediately or give me visions of Edward getting cabin fever from being in that tiny ass room for months. We found that some of the more expensive listed places were actually off-campus housing for UW students, so there was a discount. Had we known that from the beginning, it would have been much easier. Obviously, when I looked up housing rules, I didn't look far enough.

A lot of universities required freshmen to stay in dorms, but UW didn't, and for that, I was glad. In every story I've read, people got paired with some horrible roommate, or they became best friends. Hopefully, I would only be there one semester, so I didn't need to meet a best friend. My biggest concern was who Edward would meet. I didn't think that he would cheat on me, but I knew college girls would throw themselves at him. I was biased, but I saw the way girls looked at Edward. He was absolutely swoon-worthy, and he was all mine.

We decided to make dinner together. "Are you sure that it's safe for you to be in the kitchen. I seem to recall a recent incident with a dishcloth and the stove that happened when your mom left you in charge of Sunday dinner."

"That was one hundred percent Emmett's dumbass," He said defensively. "And my mom has been teaching me little things here and there. Just tell me what to do."

I surveyed him and nodded. "Okay, let's see what you got, Cullen," I said, smirking. I pulled out all the ingredients we would need to make homemade mac and cheese. "I'm going to teach you how to make a roux. First, fill this big pot with water," I said, handing him a medium-sized stockpot. Once he filled it up, I turned the burner onto high and then got out a large saucepan. Once the water started boiling, I put the elbow noodles in. I showed him how to make a cheese sauce from scratch, starting with a roux. He was attentive and seemed like he really wanted to learn, so I made sure he was getting it and let him try with me leading. He actually did a really good job, and after two failed attempts, we had a good base to dump all the cheese into and mix. I tasted it, and it was actually pretty tasty. "Hey, you did it; you made mac and cheese," I said, hugging him. He squeezed me tightly, then pulled back to look me in the face.

"Thank you for everything today, love. The apartment stuff and this. You have helped me in so many ways." He pulled me to him and was kissing me deep and hard. I kissed him back, and soon he was pulling away. I smiled at him, and he gave me his crooked smirk. We both got our own helpings of mac and cheese and sat down together to eat. This was our last night in Seattle, but tomorrow we were going to do all the touristy stuff before driving back home.

After dinner, we cleaned up and snuggled on the couch to watch a movie. I fell asleep halfway through and was only half-conscious when Edward carried me to bed. When I woke up the next morning, it was to Edward staring at me. "Why are you watching me sleep. That is so creepy." I said, laughing.

He laughed with me. "I miss waking up next to you. I almost forgot how beautiful you are in the morning." I rolled my eyes and scoffed. He pulled out his phone and turned on the camera. "Say cheese."

We squeezed in together. He, smiling like a goofball, and me, looking like I just woke up. He snapped the photo, and soon my phone was pinging with a text message from him and the picture attached.

I opened it, and it was a good picture of us. I saved it and set it as my phone wallpaper. I turned over and snuggled back into Edward's side. He put his arm around me, and we dozed for a little bit until it was time to get up. We were quiet as we both focused on getting all our stuff packed and cleaning up any messes we had made. I could see that when living together, we would at least be matched since we were both tidy. We sometimes left small things to be picked up later, but we didn't leave clothes and towels strewn all over the place or a sink full of dishes to be done.

We headed out to the car, packed it up, and set off for our day in Seattle. We went to Pike Place, Woodland Park Zoo, the Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens and Glass, and the Museum of Flight. There were lots more places to visit, but it would have to wait until things were a little more permanent. Around four pm we got some fast food and then started the drive back to Forks. I offered to drive, but Edward said he was fine.

I was content with being a passenger and controlling the music. I gave Edward my phone before we left so he could add his favorite songs to our road playlist, giving us a very interesting mix.

Even though Edward and I knew everything about each other and spent so much time in the past talking, we still had no problems finding things to talk about on the drive home. I found out that he was torn between pediatric and internal medicine as his specialty when he became a doctor. He thought it might be cool to do internal medicine and then train to become an infectious disease doctor. He explained they get to explore some of those different specialties when they do clinicals, so he would know better when he neared the end of his schooling before he had to decide on his residency.

We made it back to Forks at about nine pm, and unfortunately, I had school the next day, so we had a brief goodbye outside, then he carried my bag in for me, and said hello to my dad. They talked for a little bit, and then Edward had to leave. I gave him another brief hug and kiss at the front door, then he was on his way back home.

I got my stuff ready for school the next day and grabbed a short shower before I conversed with my dad. I told him about our apartment hunt and our sightseeing trip. He seemed to be in a really good mood, and I was glad he had a good weekend too, probably fishing with Billy.

I made it to bed by ten-thirty, and I still wished Edward a goodnight through text and stared at our picture until he replied. I fell asleep with that picture and our memories in Seattle carrying me into dreams.

Terms:

MSN: Master of Science in Nursing. This requires 4 years of school past gen ed requirements, so basically 6 years. Can sometimes be done sooner if licensed, but in a usual university setting, it would usually be 6 years.

NP: Nurse Practitioner. Requires an MSN to become one, but some states are moving to require a DNP.

DNP: Doctoral degree in nursing can take 8 years to complete.

MD: Medical doctor. 8 years of schooling and a residency anyway from 3-7 years depending on specialty.

A/N: So, how are we feeling. Let me know your thoughts and until next time, mwah!