Thank you all so much for reading. I won't ramble because you've waited long enough for this chapter and event xxx
Chapter Twenty-Five
Carlisle
Bella scooped up another handful of popcorn and began to pick up the kernels one by one and pop them in her mouth with a look of relish. As pleased as I was that I no longer needed to eat in order to spend time with her, I missed the hours we spent batch cooking meals for our freezers. I had enjoyed seeing her moving around the kitchen with confidence, creating the meals she so obviously enjoyed.
"Bella," I said during a slow moment in the movie we were watching in which the lead couple stopped to kiss.
"Hmmm?"
I smiled. "Never mind." She was obviously more involved in the movie than I realized.
She frowned. "No, what were you going to say?"
"I was wondering if I could take you out to Seattle for an evening."
An impish look came into her eyes. "A date?"
"Only if you want it to be," I said awkwardly.
She grinned. "I want it to be a date, Carlisle. I was just teasing you. I would love to come to Seattle with you. What would you like to do?"
"The Oper Frankfurt is coming to perform La Dafne. They don't often come out of Germany, and I would like to see them. I thought you would enjoy it, too."
"La Dafne!" Bella said excitedly. "I'd love that. I saw Gagliano's La Flora in the 1900s, and it was amazing."
Not for the first time, I marveled at the proof of the life Bella had lived. Though I had lived just as long, my experiences seemed less incredible than hers as I had a good reason for my long life. The thing Bella called a curse, but I called a miracle, made her life all the more marvelous to me.
She stared at me a moment and then grinned and said, "A little weird proof of my life again?"
"Not weird," I said, taking her hand and cupping it in my own. "It's just the life you've lived… Emmett said you would have stories, as your life would be so much freer than ours, so you would be able to experience so much more than us as vampires, and it sometimes just hits me."
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. I have journals if you ever want to read them. Some of them are brief as I was too busy to log what I was doing, especially during the wars, but most of it's there."
"I would enjoy that very much," I said, thinking of the gift she was giving me. Edward kept journals, but I never had. My eidetic memory meant there was no need.
"I'll get them out of the attic for you," she said. "It'll give you something to read at night." She grinned. "Bedtime reading."
I chuckled. One of the things that had amazed Bella most about my nature was the fact we didn't sleep. Apparently, that was more impressive than the fact we beat our craving for human blood to protect life and fed on animals. I wondered if the reaction our skin had to sunlight would amaze her more. I'd not yet had a chance to show her.
"So, we're going to the opera?" I asked.
"Definitely. You'll get the tickets?"
"Actually, I have already reserved a private box. I was hoping you would say yes, and I thought tickets would sell fast. It would be easier if we stayed the night in Seattle, too. Do you object? I will arrange separate rooms, of course."
Bella laughed. "I would expect no less from a gentleman like you, Carlisle."
She set aside her bowl of popcorn and then moved closer to me, resting her head against my shoulder, and I leaned my cheek against her hair. These were the most intimate touches we shared since the day she had told her story, no more than I had as a human, but they were still perfect to me.
It felt like heaven.
We drove to Seattle in the morning, and Bella went out to enjoy the city while I was trapped in the hotel by some early sunshine that would last until twilight when I would be free to go to the McCaw Hall for our date.
The word gave me a thrill of pleasure. I was taking Bella on our first real date, and that was what she wanted it to be.
She visited me in my room when she got back to the hotel, and then she returned to her room to eat and dress for the evening.
I took extra care dressing, ensuring my bowtie was straight and my hair carefully groomed, and then waited for her to come. In my hands, the box I had brought with me, a once given gift to return, was cradled.
I heard her leaving her room, and then there was a soft tap on my door, and I rushed to open it for her.
Though my breath was unneeded, it caught at the sight of her. She was beautiful. Her dress was a deep blue that left her shoulders bare and cinched at the waist and then spread into a full skirt. Her hair was styled into curls that were gathered on top of her head with a clip that would be perfect with the gift I'd carried with me for over three centuries.
"You look amazing," I said.
She beamed. "You look pretty amazing yourself. You should wear a tux more often."
"I find the opportunities rare in Forks," I said.
"Yeah, I guess you would."
I stepped back and gestured her inside. "Come in. We have a little time before we need to leave, and there was something I wanted to give you."
Looking curious, she came in and stood by the window, taking in the view of the city, the Space Needle, and the bay.
I walked to her and held out the velvet box I had brought for the gift. "I wondered if you would wear this," I said carefully.
She took it with a curious look and eased open the lid. The wooden comb with its carved flowers was nestled in silk, and for a moment, Bella just stared at it. With a gasping breath, she traced her finger over the flowers with an awed look on her face.
"Oh," she breathed.
"You don't have to wear it," I said quickly. "It's just that this…" I fumbled for words. "You gave it to me the last time I saw you when I was human; it was a gift to—"
"To bring you luck," she whispered.
I stared at her wordlessly as my heart soared at the possibility of what she was saying. Did she remember? That would be the next best blessing to me finding her again. If she remembered me, knew me, I felt I would be completed at last.
Tears slipped down her cheeks, and she made a soft gasping sound, and then she looked at me and said, "I told you to be safe, and…" She wiped at her face. "And to come back to me."
I nodded, unable to speak.
"You were scared," she went on. "I told you that you were doing God's work."
"You did," I whispered.
"And you kissed me," she touched her forehead, "right here."
I cupped her cheeks in my hand and pressed a kiss to the spot she had touched. "Just like this."
"Yes," she swallowed hard. "I remember."
I drew a shaky breath and forced my hands to be gentle as I stroked her face, being careful as my emotions were so overwhelmed that I wanted to hold her closer, feel her completely.
"I remember it all," she said, her grip on the box loosening, and it dropped to the floor. "I loved you. I remember loving you so much."
She said loved, remembering loving me, but it was as good as a declaration of current love for me to hear it. The fact she remembered was more than I had allowed myself to hope for. It was the most amazing gift she had ever given me in my life. No touch or chaste kiss meant as much to me as this. It was everything.
She brought shaking hands to my face and pulled me close. I felt her warm breath against my lips, and then she pressed them to mine with her full strength, and my heart soared with exhilaration. I kissed her back, being careful to not allow her access to my venomous teeth, pouring all my love into it.
She pulled back with a gasp, and fresh tears poured down her cheeks. Her lips trembled, and the words she spoke were so soft I might not have heard them had I not been a vampire.
"I love you. Here, now, I love you, Carlisle Cullen. I love you."
I made a choking sound and kissed her again, holding her face in my hands, treasuring the miracle I was touching.
She pulled back, breathing hard, and stared into my eyes, which I knew must be dark with the most powerful need I felt, even greater than my need for blood. I wondered if she would fear them, the last time she'd seen a vampire with eyes this dark was when Edward had attacked her, but her fingers traced my cheeks, across my eyelids as they fell closed and I exhaled a shaky breath, and then she pulled my face to her and kissed my closed eyes. The touch felt like nothing I could imagine, the intimacy of it, and the complete lack of fear they showed given her previous experiences. It made me feel truly alive.
"I love you," she said again. "Carlisle, I love you so much." She began to sob, and her tears wet my face as she pressed our cheeks together and nuzzled me.
"I love you, too," I said fervently. "I have never loved anything or anyone as much as I love you. You are my world. You were always my world, even when I thought you were gone forever."
"I never thought I could have love," she said, her gasping words feather touches to my skin. "All those years, all those people I knew and cared for, I never loved because I thought I couldn't. But it wasn't that I would leave them that stopped me. It was because my heart was already too full of you, even though I couldn't remember." She leaned back and stared at me, her gaze seeming to penetrate me all the way to my soul. "You were my world, and I never knew it. You are my world. I feel it now."
My eyes prickled as if they would tear, though it was impossible, and my breaths became sobbing gasps. "My world," I said, pressing kisses to her cheeks, her lips, her eyelids, and her temples. "Always, Bella, my whole world."
I held her close and felt her heaving breaths pressing against me, her heart racing in her chest, beating against my skin.
"My Bella," I whispered. "Always, my Bella."
She made a soft gasping sound and became limp in my arms.
"Bella?" I said anxiously. "Love?"
I held her away from me and saw that her eyes were closed and her breaths slower now. She had fainted.
"Bella," I crooned, lifting her into my arms and carrying her to the bed.
I laid her down and then sat on the edge of the bed beside her, my fingers pressed to her throat to feel the steady and strong beats, checked her breaths, and then, seeing nothing to concern me but the results of shock and overwhelm, I went back to the window where she'd dropped her comb and carried it back to her. I took her limp hand and curled her fingers around it, giving the gift to her that had created this perfect moment, the moment that was the purest gift I could ever have wished for, and then I kissed her cheek and whispered against her skin.
"My Bella, my world, rest now."
So… She remembers! At last! I know you have been waiting for this for a long time, and I hope the payoff was worth it. Let me know.
Until next time…
Simaril xxx