Disclaimer: I own nothing.

I'd like to thank everyone for their enthusiasm, especially UnicornYoda343, kouga's older woman, and a bunch of others, you all make me smile with the excitement. Here's the newest chapter dump, enjoy!

BPOV

The pain was excruciating, like nothing I'd ever felt. I would have been happy for the relief that death would provide. I could only think of the pain. I was surrounded by darkness, the only reprieve I had was Edward's musical voice. It gave me an opportunity to focus on something else, anything else except the burning. It was like I could feel when he left, I wasn't sure how long he had been gone, time seemed to have lost all meaning. I heard the words that each member of my family spoke to me. I wanted to talk to them, but I remained silent.

The only measure of time I had was my slowing heart rate. I heard Edward's forlorn composition. He continued to talk to me, about the future, about me, anything really. I wanted to open my mouth to console him and the rest of our family, but I knew I couldn't without letting out a scream. It felt like forever before I thought I could manage to send Edward a signal so he knew I was okay, when it felt like I could, I tried to move my fingers. Apparently that was enough. Soon, I heard Carlisle's voice, it felt like I could hear him so much more clearly, like I had never really heard him before.

My heart beat one last painful thud. The fire began to subside, first in my fingers, then my legs, and it slowly, painstakingly slowly, stopped.

My eyes flew open.

It was surreal, I could see everything, the detailed grain of the floor, the dust in the air, everything looked a thousand times clearer, like I could really see for the first time. I smelled Edward's scent hit me, it felt more potent, if it was possible, it smelled even better. I looked at Edward and it was like I truly saw him for the first time. It was instinct going to him, it took less than a second before I was right in front of him.

"Welcome back, my love. I missed you so much." His musical voice was tainted with melancholy.

"I told you, I'll always come back to you," I consoled him, then I pulled him into an embrace. My own voice shocked me, it sounded like wind chimes, almost as musical as Edward's. It also shocked me how quickly I could move, even through the speed I could still make out the smallest details of our little cottage.

"Hey Bella," his voice sounded strained, "You're a little stronger than I am right now, you're crushing me."

I instantly released him, "I'm sorry."

"It's your turn not to break me," he laughed as I pulled him to me again. I kissed him fiercely. I didn't need to come up for air anymore so we didn't stop until Edward pulled away.

"Bella, don't you want to get your thirst under control?" Now that he mentioned it, I felt the burning in the back of my throat.

"Yeah," I froze. "Wait what happened? What did you tell Renee and Charlie? Are they okay?" I was so worried about them, I needed to know that they were okay.

"I'll tell you everything, but you should get your thirst under control. Isn't it bothering you?"

I shrugged, "Only when you bring it up."

He looked at me in disbelief.

"What?" I was feeling self conscious under his intent gaze.

"Nothing. We should go," he said, taking my hand and leading me out the door. "Oh one more thing. Alice insisted I have you look at yourself in the mirror, it was practically a crime that she didn't do that at our wedding."

I laughed as Edward led me to the floor length mirror in our room. When I saw my reflection, I almost didn't recognize myself. I carried the same features, but I looked more like someone who was Edward's equal. It wasn't until all the pain from my human life had ceased that I realized how bad it truly was. I took a deep breath, while there was no real relief because I no longer needed oxygen, it didn't hurt anymore, my ribs and lungs no longer ached. There wasn't pain radiating from my bones anymore. Ironically, in my death, I had never felt more alive.

"You're so beautiful, and now we're the same temperature." He took my hand and led me out the door.

Edward assured me that hunting was instinctive, but that he would show me. It was amazing running with him, it made me question how I ever thought he'd hit the trees. After a little running, I caught the scent of something that smelled better than the elk that we were watching. I instinctively ran to it, to find it. I clawed my way up the cliff, and stopped on a ledge I started to come to my senses. I turned before I reached the human, I didn't want to hurt the hiker. As Edward caught up to me, I told him I needed to leave, so I jumped off the cliff and ran back to the elk, but found a mountain lion instead. It soothed the ache in my throat, but Edward was right that it wasn't satisfying.

Once we were done, we returned to the main house. My dress was slightly ruined and torn from hunting, but everyone was waiting for me inside. They all welcomed me with relief and apologies. Esme apologized for watching me instead of helping, but I told her I understood, and then I apologized for throwing up blood all over her floor. Edward found that amusing.

"Bella, I'm so sorry, you don't know how sorry I am. I still can't believe I almost attacked you like that, I don't know how you can stand the sight of me, how you don't hate me," Jasper began.

"Jasper, it's fine. There's some assumed risk when you marry into a family of vampires," I joked hoping to put him at ease. I don't know if it worked.

"That's too bad, it would have been fun to watch you rough up Jasper," Emmett laughed. Rosalie smacked his shoulder in reprimand.

Edward started recounting the story about the poor human hiker that had been too far off the trail. Esme was worried that I could've hurt Edward. Everyone else was amazed that I walked away from a human mid-hunt. It didn't seem that impressive, I didn't want to hurt the human, so I took off. Jasper took this as another sign that he should have been able to control himself. I, once again, insisted that it was fine.

Right now, my main concerns were about Renee and Charlie.

"Wait, what happened? How are Renee and Charlie?" Suddenly everyone's faces dropped, the relief that I had made it through was lessened by the tragedy of my death, and even though it wasn't a sudden death, I knew it would be just as painful for my parents. Edward grabbed my hand, and sat me down. There was no relief in sitting either, there was no strain from standing, it felt like I could have just stood for forever, and it wouldn't have made a difference.

"Officially you died, three nights ago. We told them you passed peacefully in your sleep," Carlisle answered then paused. "It's been difficult. They printed and posted your obituary this morning. Esme and I will be going to your parent's house to offer our support."

I felt so many emotions all at once, but I stopped them before they could run rampant. Both Jasper and Edward were watching me curiously.

"I remember you saying that. I could hear everything," I admitted.

"Fascinating," Carlisle responded in astonishment. "I'd like to ask you some questions about the change later, if you'll allow it."

I nodded. I knew Carlisle's hope was that I wouldn't be able to feel the pain from the venom with the amount of morphine they gave me, but it didn't work. I felt every excruciating moment of the change.

"Your funeral is tomorrow," Edward stated somberly. "Alice, do you see anyone coming here to give condolences?"

Alice took a moment to respond. "I don't think so, they'll send flowers, but most people are too uncomfortable to come here. And most people don't know that you two married, they'll find out in the obituary."

It seemed like forever ago that we had married, but in reality we were still newlyweds. I felt sadness that Edward and my parents were suffering because of me. I once again reigned in the emotion before it overwhelmed me.

"How are you doing that?" Jasper demanded.

"What?" I asked in confusion. I wasn't sure what I was doing to upset Jasper.

"You're controlling your emotions too well for a newborn. You should be practically out of control, everyone was worried you'd attack Jasper out of anger, but you're sitting here too calmly. It's making Jasper question everything," Edward chuckled.

"It doesn't feel like it, I feel all over the place, and I wouldn't attack anyone. I'm sorry, Jasper. I'm not trying to upset you."

Emmett and Edward both snickered.

"We should go, your parents are expecting us," Carlisle said, taking Esme's hand and then quickly leaving.

"Want to go back to the cottage?" Edward asked, rubbing circles on the back of my hand.

As I nodded, Edward shot a glare to Emmett and then we left. He raised his hands feigning innocence.

Once we made it back, Edward pulled me into an embrace.

"I was so worried about you," Edward's voice was filled with grief.

"I'm right here, and now I'll never leave you again," I promised.

"I'm holding you to that."

"Are you okay? With the funeral and everything?" I could see that he had been so inundated with worry, and if I could comfort him in any way, I would do it.

"I won't lie, it's been," he paused to think about the right word and then sighed, "challenging. I hope you don't mind. I broke the rules and showed some of your songs to your parents. I think I soothed them a bit, and I gave them what you wrote for them."

"No, I don't mind," I assured him, "and thank you."

"They want me to give your eulogy," Edward continued. "It was agony not knowing if you'd come back, I'm still not sure how to do this, how can someone muster the strength to write a eulogy and then eulogize someone you love?"

"I'm sorry, I know this is hard, but there's no one I'd rather have," I paused to think. It was amazing how fast my trains of thought were going. I could think very deeply about something and it would only take seconds. "Maybe I could help?" I offered.

He laughed a humorless laugh, "You want to help me write your own eulogy?"

"Anything to make this easier for you."

"You're incredible," he whisper, and leaned in to kiss me deeply, I could feel the sense of relief in the kiss.

"Even though I hate to leave you, I need to see your parents tonight, " Edward said as he pulled away. "But I have the whole day with you."