Disclaimer: Nope...it's 1:30...i don't even know what disclamer means at the moment. Stop talking to me horsey...errrrrr...NEED sleep.
THANKDSthETYOUSOOOOO SLEEEEPPYYYY, BUT ILL DOIHEOIH SHOUDOUDS BECAUSE I LOVRERRR YOUOER
Eliane: Muchos gracias. That, my friend, was what you call the calm before the storm...or well, the fun before the storm? Yay...you specified. I love specification. It helps me write better. Glad you enjoyed.
Moonifrui: im sorry...i recomend a hot bath and epsom salt for those "stay up for six unhealthily worse than crack addictive hours" of reading fanfiction. Sighs...those were the days...when I didn't write the stuff. Newho, thank you very much. UBER glad you favorited it :D Come again!
Minilove4ever: awwww...i know. Glad you liked the funny factor...ooooo alliteration.
Jalice: i suppose im dead...i think its been longer than 72 hours...but hey, being dead's not so bad. I can go through walls now. Ooooo (hatches evil plan to steal shampoo from Walmart) Newho, happy to know you liked it. And did you mean EVER? As in ever, ever? Sorry I kept you up...or well, not... :D im tired right now...Sometimes I hink i see a burger in front of me...but there's nothing there. THANKS AGAIN.
Dyinginside: I would relinquish the shrubbery, but, for God's sake man! Hold on to the V8! Full serving of fruits and veggies? I mean, come on! You cant beat that. The ninjas will be like...Turbo charged on healthiness. I gave you some Emmett btw. Merry christmas. Happy hanakuh. Quanza...christmahanaquanza...watever. o and thanks!
Mattybabe: wawwwwwww (blushes) tell shamu i said thanks. He's a doll. Pandy ran away to join the circus. Im battling the court for him as we speak. The circus carnies wont give him up. He's a trapeze star...but they keep him locked up. I told himyou said hi in my two minute visitation hours tho. He said "Bamboo." In a very loving way, tho. Glad you loved my "brilliance" as you called it. :D thanks!
Thrushflightedwardsstalker: stupid fillers...i tend to skipthem and get to the main action, but ive been making myself write them for this story...neways, glad you liked it.
Kerssica: sooooo sleepy...slur. gurgle. Blup. (shrugs) Snaps for enhanced sledgehammers. They are the best kind...like me... and tigger...because HE"S THE ONLY ONE! (add music in mind please) oooo vamp in purple box would be lovely...along with a lifetime supply of jiff peanut butter if that can be arranged...gee willickers, santa is a lot more like the mafia than I thought. Scary concept, that one. Making his reindeer seduce people with beatboxing and all. GAH!! Ill pm you right away...bc ur email stil didnt appear. To your questions, IM GETTING THERE! Impatient. Impatient. (puts a slip of paper in the north poll suggestions box) Love you still, even though i dont know you, but my internet fanfictionheart lylas. Yes...las. I translated what you said on babbelfish...and blushed. Coolll...i like being a drug.
Saawariya: i couldn't tell if too much was meant in good or bad way, but o well, thanks for the review. Sleep...ahhhh...sounds nice. ALMOST THERE LILYYOU CAN DO IT! Moving right along, that sounded off to me too, but i really wanted him to say it, and that was the best way I could work out. Sry... glad it still made you giggle tho :D thanks for the input. Shall be considered. Come again soon!
Medivalagression: Muchos gracias...THANKS for the comments. Your welcome. Yaddah yaddah...too tired to think of clever response. Sincerest apologies.
Ellendean: ahh i kno. Together, they're like "a girl's best friend"...TEHEHEHE...punny. Newho, is your penname based off of wuthering heights perchance?
Meyarose: your reviews always baffle me... Thanks...errr (scratches head), I think.
CorinCullen: who knows...mwuhahaha...o, that's right, I do. Newho, glad you liked it. Ill take into considerartion your suggestion. Really glad you love it (beams like hummer headlights) Thank you very much!
Starlitenite: plot mungerer...that's right. Im accusing you of being a plot mungerer along with the rest of them! Lol. Jk i don't care. I'll write it and explain all your questions later. I do have a plan...i kno it may not seem that way, but Ido...honest. Thanks so much for the review. Ly. :D
Angelfromhell: 5 am...scary concept right now. If i stay up till five am, i might explode. Pasta...mmmm...speaking of which, I do believe its time for some chef boyardi. Newyas, i feel special that you read it (blushes). Operation wedding GO!
Socialdistortionist: awww...enchanting...(dabs at tears) thank you. And no, not plain...but when i heard alice before, i thought of terrifying cats with no bodies, queens trying to behead me, and that damn irritating "painting the roses red" song. Now, I think of alice, and then Twilight, and it makes me happy. I always thought it was perty tho. I just hated alice in wonderland with a blazing passion.
Jjrenee: lol. That it does...and sometimes rose is like confucius...only with pg13 related subjects. Muchos gracias.
Futremrsedwardcullen: no...his name is really jacob. Maybe that's why im dating him...I try not to think about it. Lol. U cant see her saying that? I dont know why, but i just can somehow. Thats okay tho. To each her own. EDWARD COME BACK TO ME! Neways thanks, ly, YAY!
Albnal33: Thank you. I thought so too. Now, ive got to try to keep that standard.
Nobodyparticular: YAY! Glad you like. Thanks for the review. Did it snow where you live?
Supernaturalgirl: YAY...more specification. Sry, i just love it a lot. Makes me happy to know i have some sort of effect on people. I really try hard to pull readers into stories. Neways, thank you very much madameuosille. Ly, come again plz! :D
Marriage. I'd put it off and put it off...and now there was barely enough time for the act.
I felt selfish right then, looking at myself in Rosalie's mirrors (in the plural because three walls in her closet were devoted to them). Selfish for denying this part of myself to Edward and for making such a big deal about it. I was already his. I knew that. All he wanted was to make it official – get it in writing, and I just had to be stubborn.
I surveyed my future sisters' handiwork for the umpteenth time today. My dress was all lace and sweeps, the soft, natural makeup accenting it and me perfectly.
"Hey Anne," I joked to myself quietly, and I certainly looked it. My ensemble suggested that I had stepped right out of the book.
My hair, fortunately, was the only thing saved from being green-gables-afied, as I called it. No ringlets, just a smooth modern updo. It was elegantly caught above my neck in a gorgeous tarnished silver and pearl clasp. My fingers lifted of their own volition to touch the twisting bands of yet another possession of Elizabeth Mason's. Edward's mother had had really good taste.
I hadn't donned the veil yet. For some reason, it reminded me of good-byes, and I couldn't bear to think of good-byes right now, faced with the prospect of telling my husband one, possibly permanent – No, my mind quickly scolded itself.
"Bella," a soft voice floated to my ears.
My eyes shot to the glass, to see the reflection of the speaker.
"Mom," I greeted Renee, turning around and running to her. "You made it!"
I threw my arms around her.
"Honey, you look gorgeous!"
Leaning back to observe her reaction, I noted tears running down her cheeks. "What's wrong?"
"Just...happy tears, I promise," she breathily replied. "I was watching our home videos downstairs. Do you remember when you were little how you used to hate baths and you would run around the house naked as a jay bird whenever Charlie and I tried to give you one?" She wiped the moisture off her face, then pointed to her heavily lined eyes. "Good thing I brought the water proof stuff."
I smiled and nodded. I'd seen that video a hundred times. And then, the mother-daughter reunion moment was promptly squashed by mortification. "Downstairs?" I demanded.
Renee looked guilty.
"This downstairs?"
She nodded.
Right on cue, the blood rushed to my cheeks. "Who was there?"
My mother looked down at her wiggling feet. It was a nervous habit she had developed. "Just...a few people. They're almost our family, Bella, really. Esme's very nice...and her husband, the doctor...Dr. – What's his name?"
"Esme was there? Carlisle?" My voice had grown high pitched and squeaky in my panic.
"Carlisle." My mom snapped her fingers. "That's it."
"Who else?" The tone of my voice suggested that there would be hell to pay should she decide to plead the fifth to this question, not that there wouldn't be any less hell to pay if she did answer.
"That muscular boy...Emmett, I think."
I groaned. I'd never hear the end of it. "And?" I urged.
"Alice and Rosalie came down after a while."
So, that's where they were...
"And that quiet one, Jasper!"
Dramatically, I sunk to the floor and buried my face in my hands. "How could you? My life is...they are going to..." My sentence was finished with a sigh. "At least Edward didn't see." Not that Emmett wouldn't be only all too happy to relay it to him mentally, but still...first-hand was far worse.
From my position on the floor, I could see my mother's feet wobbling precariously, like Jell-O. I gave her a glare to melt glaciers. "He didn't, right?"
"Well..." she began.
"Oh my God!" I cried, before returning my face to my palms. The family that I was going to spend eternity with, literally, had engraved into their super vampire memories images of a two-year old me running around my house in Phoenix stark naked.
"By the way, Edward looks dashing Bella," she said by way of apology.
I moaned.
"They thought it was funny."
I glowered. I should have known that my blush-less, outgoing, done-everything-under-the-Sun mother wouldn't know the meaning of "embarrassment". Right now, I could only pray that my vampire power was memory eraser.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my veil, and was once again reminded of how silly and selfish I was being. This was Edward's big day, my beloved family was going off to war, and my mom had flown in all the way from Florida on short notice; these were probably some of my last moments with her. And here I was, on the floor, sniveling like an idiot.
"Bella, I'm sorry," Renee stammered. "I thought you'd laugh, and I wanted to watch them at the hotel, but there wasn't a DVD player, so I just..."
I cut off her babbling with a hug. "It's okay Mom. I'm just all nerves today."
"Honey, I know," she said, "I just...I mean...are you sure you're ready for this?"
"I love him, Mom." My voice took on a defensive tone.
She looked like she was biting her tongue, staying the words she wanted to say to me.
"Just spit it out," I said.
Renee took a nervous breath. "Bella, sweetie, I – I know that it feels that way now, but you're young. You're just a teenager. You can't know what true love is yet." She unwisely stroked my cheek.
Swiftly, I pulled myself out of her reach. "Are you questioning my love for him?" I was outraged.
She sighed. "It's just...you act like you need each other so much. Charlie told me what happened when he left you. That kind of infatuation..." I didn't miss her choice of noun. "It isn't healthy."
I hated to sound cliché. I really did, but circumstance called. "It's not infatuation, Mother," I spat. "It's love, and I think that real, true love isn't supposed to be healthy."
"But Bella..."
I ignored her, caught up in the bliss of my epiphany. "I'd give my life for him in a second," I continued. "Surely that isn't healthy, but it is love. He's more myself than I am," I smiled as I quoted Wuthering Heights, "I'm not delusional, see. I'm perfectly aware that love isn't the pure, white, frilly stuff you see in the movies. It's work and it hurts sometimes, but...the point is that I need him. I'll always need him, and married or not, nothing can change that."
Renee looked stricken. A slap to the face couldn't have done it better. "Bella, I..." She paused, speechless.
"So, try to be happy for me, okay?" I playfully nudged her with my elbow, trying to lighten the mood.
It worked. She pulled me to her in a hug, tears freely rolling down her face again. "Oh, baby, I am."
Sniffling, she held me at arm's length. "I love you."
I could feel tears welling up, but I struggled to stop them. Unlike my mother's, my makeup was not water-resistant. "Love you, too."
She glanced at her sterling silver linked wristwatch. "Six o' clock."
I inhaled shakily. Knowledge of the time had knocked the breath out of my lungs and set the butterflies loose to flutter around in my stomach. "Let's go."
Miraculously, I made it to the bottom step before I was assaulted. An irritating, tux-sporting vampire named Emmett swept me up into a bone-crunching bear hug and swung me around a few times.
"Thank you for existing!" he exclaimed, before setting me on my feet. He swiped a nonexistent tear from his left eye. "Those videos were...possibly...no, definitely the best moments of my life." He walked over to my mother and clasped her small hand in both his large ones, shaking it vigorously. "Thank you so much," he told her, pretending to be choked up. "I will forever be indebted to you." To finish, he bowed. Renee giggled.
Next up, was Jasper, who bestowed a much more polite and gentler version of Emmett's hug to my still blushing self. "You did make quite a charming toddler, I must say."
At this rate, the wedding guests were all going to think I had a bad sunburn.
"But really," he said quietly, "Thank you." His eyes spoke novels. "For what you've done for him."
"For what you've done for us," Carlisle corrected from behind Jasper, Esme at his side.
"It's been a very long time since we've felt this..." I could tell Esme was choosing her words carefully because of Renee's presence.
"Accepted," Carlisle finished. "You've truly completed our family."
At the moment, the sight of my face would make even the ripest apple weep for envy.
Carlisle and Esme held out hands for me to shake. I ignored them, and instead threw my arms around the both of them. They seemed taken aback at first, but slowly their two cold arms patted my back in a parental hug.
"Thank you," I said.
"Ready Bella?" Alice sang, dancing towards me.
"More than I was."
"Good enough for me," she said. "Where's Charlie?"
I scanned the room for my father.
"And Carlisle!" she exclaimed. "You're conducting the ceremony! Get out there now!"
Carlisle gestured to Alice and then looked at me. "And you're certain you want to be a part of this family?"
"One-hundred percent," I laughed.
Eyes twinkling merrily, he tucked a Bible under his arm, opened the door, and strolled out onto the lawn.
"Awww man," I heard Emmett grumble. "I wanted to do it."
"Maybe next time," I joked.
He rolled his eyes.
"Charlie!" Alice called frantically. "Charlie!"
My puffy-eyed father poked his head around the bathroom door. I winced.
He'd been crying.
"I'm here," he said, pulling on a brave face.
He silently came to stand beside me. The music began, and from that point, time sped up.
People were there in the room with me, and then they weren't, scurrying around Charlie and I stoically standing unmoving in the center. The number of occupants in the room steadily decreased as they walked out the back door in their designated order.
I had still not donned my veil. It was innocently draped over the edge of the dining room table.
Renee kissed my cheek before exiting the room. Now, only Charlie and I remained, and I still didn't have my veil on.
Charlie didn't give me a chance to "forget" about it. He picked it up, walked over, and slowly pinned it to my hair. When he was done, he somberly pulled one layer down to cover my face.
Good-byes...they couldn't be avoided now. This would be the first of many.
"Ready?" Charlie croaked out.
I gave him a small smile and kissed him on the cheek. "Love you, Dad."
He beamed, and I could see the iron determination in his features not to cry.
He pulled me to him in a hug. "I love you too, Bells. And I'm glad...I'm happy for you, as long as you're happy."
I wrapped my arms around him awkwardly. "I'm happy."
"Then," he said, pulling back, "you've got a wedding to get to." He choked out one hollow laugh. He offered me his arm with an uncharacteristic flourish.
I smiled and took it. Charlie opened the door, and the wedding march filled the air.
The aisle was much, much longer than I had pictured. That was mainly due to the hundreds of guests. Both ways I looked, there was a sea of people. I staggered a little. Rosalie and her damned heels. There was no way, not if I practiced every day, that I could make it down this petal-covered walkway of doom without stumbling.
Even if I would ruin the pretty picture she had painted, I had to admire Alice's work with the place. It was beautiful, a fairy tale. The theme was clearly powder blue and pearl. Classic romance.
The chairs on each side were wrought from some sort of dusty silver metal. I imagined that they had cost a few hundred dollars a piece.
Lily petals were scattered on the white stone walkway in front of me. White candles in tall stands lined it on either side. Poles had been erected at either end and down the sides of the seating areas. And across these were invisible lines strung with softly illuminating white lanterns. It was like walking through a cathedral constructed of frozen fireflies and silver.
The air was sweet and warm, and beyond the wide arch where Edward stood, I could make out a faint sliver of orange sun. Twilight.
I smiled. How fitting.
Finally, I brought my gaze to my husband. I might as well call him that now.
The moment my eyes landed on his figure, my breath caught in my throat and my feet were welded to the ground. He was looking at me in awe. I'm sure I had a similar expression on my face.
My mom had been right. He did look dashing in his suit, with his arms folded in front of him, a small smile playing at the corners of his lips. Through my dazzlement, I beamed at him. This time, he looked dazzled, too.
Charlie quietly cleared his throat beside me, and I began to slowly walk...or was I floating?
I couldn't tell. I was entangled in the blissful snare of Edward's butterscotch eyes, and I never wanted to escape. Sometimes, I noted, Edward would shuffle his feet or tug on the cuffs of his dress shirt.
I smiled. When it came down to it, he was just as nervous as I was.
I barely acknowledged the feeling of Charlie kissing my cheek and then unlinking our arms to take his seat. I just kept walking, making my way towards the angel who, in a few minutes, would be mine all mine. I lifted my dress to proceed up the five short steps separating us. Edward took my hands in his when I reached the top.
I could have stood there forever. Unfortunately, Carlisle spoke. Now that I was properly given away, it was time to get the formalities over with.
A/N: MY GOD!! Why is this taking forever. Hey, at least we're there now. Right? Right?! Don't hate me. So, I just realized what a detail OCD person I am. But...errr...next chapter out tomorow...or well, since its 1:30 am, today i guess. Love you all. Tell me what ya think. I just had to...As bella so rightfully thought "get the formalities over with". Look out for these next few chapters. I promise mushiness, OODLES of drama, comedy, and actioney/adventure stuff...hmmmm...why the last one? :D you'll see. 62 favs. 92 alerts baby!