Sorry for the wait on this chapter guys. If there's anything that's confusing then m me or leave a review saying that you don't understand, it made sence in my head but luckily for you guys you don't have to hang around up there, so it might sound like jibberish to you.

Remember to leave some love :)

I was confused, and with fair reason if you ask me.

I had absolutely no recollection of going to Chicago recently, so I had no idea why I was suddenly standing in front of my old house on an already hot day. My guess was that it was only morning, the sun was not fully set and there weren't many people around, most of the windows were still closed and the curtains still drawn. The next door neighbour, Mrs. Kennedy, hadn't hoisted the flag yet. Her husband, who had died when I turned fourteen, had been an ex-army major, and as a sign of respect to her husband and her country she raised the flag once she awoke every morning at approximately nine am. The fact that the flag wasn't up yet was a clear indicator that it was before that time.

"Huh," I muttered. "Bella do you – " I turned looking for her, but found that she wasn't with me. I guess that I had gotten used to her presence and suddenly I missed her terribly.

Sighing heavily and still heavily confused, I wondered where to go. I couldn't go to the house because we didn't own this house anymore. I turned and started to walk to that park about a kilometer away. I didn't know where else to go but I knew that my mother used to like to go to the park, before dad died that is, and I wondered if she was there now.

Then I heard the front door of my old house open, an extremely familiar voice ringing out a love filled good bye and then footsteps starting to walk across the wooden veranda.

With shocked eyed, I slowly turned to face the house and the man that I had thought was dead.

But there he was. Still tall, still lean and borderline lanky, with wise eyes and strong jaw, his brown hair styled formally and ready for a trim, Edward Anthony Masen Senior was walking towards me and still very much alive.

"Dad?" I said quietly, but there was no reply. "Dad, what…. what's happening? I though that you died."

Dad walked right by me and I wondered what I had done wrong. Sure, dad would ignore me sometimes but never to this extent. So I did what any curious teenage boy would – I followed. I tried to get his attention as we walked through Chicago on the summer morning, talking to him, asking him questions and waving my hands in front of his face and more than likely looking like a lunatic to anybody that happened to see us, but the people that passed us on the street ignored me just as thoroughly as dad did. I thought that this behaviour was odd. Dad always drove to work so I wondered why we were walking, why would he start now on a summers day?

Dad took an unexpected turn, and suddenly we weren't in the middle of the city an in the morning. The cold sky was dark and the noise from the cars and buses was distant. We were in an alley and dad was staring at me grimly.

I stood stunned in the middle of the alley between the entry and my dad. I was so stunned not just because of the sudden change the temperature and light but because I knew where we were. This alleyway allowed the user a quicker passageway from a small but excellent takeaway food restaurant and the parking lot near the main road. Many of the users of the restaurant parked here, this way they didn't have to go through all the back streets to get to the restaurant, why drive for fifteen minutes when you can walk for five? Unfortunately dad and I weren't the only ones that knew about this shortcut, neither were the other innocent people that use the shop. They knew where the short cut was and knew that dad was getting food there that night.

The police had told us where dad had been found when they came to 'apologize for our loss'. Mum had asked for all the information, she told them not to leave anything out.

And they didn't disappoint.

If you went to that alley after that night you would clearly be able to see the faded blood stains still on the alley wall and the dumpster. I had gone to see, unable to stop myself, and had thrown up in the dumpster when I saw the blood. I looked there now but there was no blood just the brick of the building and the blue painted metal of the dumpster.

"Why are we here?" I asked quietly. Dad shrugged. "Let's go, mum will be waiting for us now." I was desperate to get him from the alleyway. Dad didn't follow, but instead held out his hand. I sighed, thinking 'could this get weirder?' and took his hand.

As to answer my former question, yes, yes they could.

Dad and I were still together, holding hands for the first time since I was four, but we were also in front of us, as was my mother. I was eight and we went to the park for a picnic. Mum and dad were sitting on the blanket and I was running round them, then sprinting over to one of the trees.

Then I was ten and we were visiting my Aunt. Her kids, Alex and Samantha, were sitting next to an innocent me, who was completely clueless as to what they were planning to do to me after the adults left the room.

I was fifteen years old but only just. Today was my birthday, the last one with my parents. I had not wanted a birthday party because, honestly, who was I going to ask to come? Instead we went to dinner at a restaurant that I had liked – just the three of us – and the night had been great except for the fact that my dad questioned why I hadn't wanted a party, and when I told him the reason, had scoffed and said that if I put in more effort to get along with the other kids than maybe I would have some friends. I didn't know whether to hang my head in shame at dad's disapproval or to tell the idiot to shove any views about my social life where they would never see the light of day.

"What are we going to do next time?" Mother asked as we left.

"Nothing." I answered shortly, still stung by dad's friend comment. I think that he felt bad, putting his arm around my should and shocking me into silence.

"What, no sweet sixteen?" Mum asked me teasingly. I rose an eyebrow at her.

"Seriously?"

"At least let us do something for your eighteenth." Dad said.

"You can't miss your eighteenth." My mother chirped in excitedly.

"Alright, we can do something for my eighteenth."

Then we were at the meadow. Bella wasn't here, but the sun was.

"You are eighteen now." Dad said, pacing purposely. "And adult," and then quieter. "a man."

"Not yet," I said and his blue eyes snapped to mine. "Not eighteen yet."

The blue eyes rolled. "I'm off by just more than an hour, I think that it's safe to say that you are eighteen." Dad chuckled. Was it really my birthday? "You've got some tough decisions to make son, things will change and people get left behind. You'll need to make sure that all of your loose ends are tired up, to lessen the hurt." Dad sighed. "Tough decisions, but your mind is already made up. I like Bella though, she nice, very pretty." Dad mused. "Good work." He said slyly. "Go to her now." Dad said, pointing north. "Don't keep her waiting son."

His expression suddenly turned tender, an expression that I didn't often see on Edward's face. "Happy Birthday son."

A strangled cry escaped my lips as I shot up in my bed, looking around wildly and grasping at the sheets.

"Edward, Edward!" The Angel voice cried. "Sweetheart, relax!"

I turned, seeing her sitting on the bed with concern and love in her eyes. "Bella!" I gasped, throwing my arms round her neck and puling her towards me.

"Edward what is wrong?" She said tenderly as she wrapped her arm round me.

What was wrong? The dream had not been scary by any means, strange yes, scary no. But the dream had been so real, I had not known that I had been dreaming.

"Nothing," I gasped, still trying to catch my breath. "Just a strange dream." I lay back on the bed with her, closing my eyes again when I realized the time. "Way too early." I groaned. Seven o'clock was too early on the holidays.

"Come on," She giggled. "It's your birthday! Your mothers waiting for you. I think that she is going to make you pancakes."

I grinned, my mum made the best pancakes.

I sat up and leaned on her shoulder, taking confidence in the knowledge that I could do this without making her uncomfortable.

"Are you sure that you are alright?" Her teasing voice was gone and she was back to being concerned.

"I'm sure Bella, just a strange dream."

"Alright then." She said, getting up off of the bed and then helping me to stand up next to her. She leaned up on her tippy toes and wrapped her arms round my neck. "And happy eighteenth birthday Edward." Her lips met mine and then everything was alright again.

TNB ~ TNB ~ TNB

Bella was right, as per usual, though I have got no idea how she knew. When I got to the kitchen after my shower, mother was already there with a stack of pancakes, butter, strawberry and chocolate. Best birthday breakfast material that was.

She had gotten me a few gifts, among which were an ITunes gift card, a few DVD's and a new Nikon camera, the kind that was big and looked like one of the older one's that you could change the lenses on, but it still had a digital screen. I was ecstatic. I had taken a photography class at school but Forks didn't offer anything apart from your average art class and a type of textiles class that I hadn't expected a small school to have. The school probably didn't have enough funding for a black room.

Bella, mum and I had made plans to go to a restaurant in Port Angeles to have lunch but I had put my foot down at that, saying that that was all that I wanted to do. I just wanted to have a quiet night with mum and Bella or maybe the rest of the Cullen's.

Mother went up the stairs to get showered and dressed after watching me gleefully mess around with my gifts, taking pictures and reading the backs of the DVD's even if I had seen the most of them before. When she went up I put one of the movies into the player and lounged about on the couch until we were ready to go.

We had planned to pick Bella up at the Cullen mansion and I had dibsed driving. With mum in the car I couldn't go as fast as I usually did, but I still went faster then she did, so it was a win / win situation. Driving past the inhabited parts of town and through the dense forest, the trees on either side closing in on is, I realized that I had come to love this place, despite my complaining.

I had moved here expecting to suffer my way through another year and a half before I could go to college. I had wondered what mother would do then. Would we both move closer to whatever school that I chose, would I leave her in the rainy town or would I go to the university of Washington so that I could still be close to her if she needed me. Then after I met Bella, I knew that I would do whatever she wanted to do. She made me adamant in staying here for as long as she was, even if I had to stick around with the rain and the cold. Being in this tiny town had seemed like a chore. But now, now I was slightly regretful knowing that someday soon I would have to leave, either for security or to keep up appearances.

It was then that it struck me that Chicago was no longer 'home'. I never said 'back home' anymore, home had changed. Home, in a perfect and sappy definition, wasn't just the place that you were staying or the place that you grew up, but home was where you felt happy, safe and loved.

Home is where the heart is.

Isn't that was mother always said? What you hear those wise old women say when trying to teach the younger generations about matters of the heart?

Home is where the heart is.

So where was home now? At my mother's home in Forks? At the Cullen mansion? Does home even have to be a geographical location, or can home be something else, or more so, someone else.

Did that make Bella home? She had my heart, most certainly. I felt safe with her, I felt loved and I felt needed. I felt like I could protect her, even though I couldn't, not physically anyway. I loved Bella, more than I thought that it was possible to love another person.

Home is where the heart is.

She always had my heart, no matter if we were physically together. I knew then, without a doubt, that she was home. What did where we were matter when we had each other? I could be in Alaska or Spain or anywhere in the world and as long as I was with her I would be home.

This thought filled me with a squishy warm feeling that burst in my chest and spread through my stomach and torso, making my toes curl and my mouth pull up into a grin.

I was loved and I was wanted. I had a home and somebody that missed me when I was not around. And this wasn't just somebody, this was Bella.

"What's got you grinning over there?" My mother's voice snapped me from my musings.

"Just thinking."

"About." But her tone implied that she already knew what.

"Bella." What else?

"Ahh," She grinned and nodded. "And what about dear Bella?"

"Nothing specific."

"When's her birthday?" I didn't know if the question was random, if my birthday made her think about this or if she was thinking back to my married proposal-at-Bella's-birthday comment from the other night.

"September the eighteenth." I nodded as I answered her.

"That's just two months away."

I gulped. "Yes."

"Hmmm."

"Why do you ask?" She was planning something, I knew that voice, something was going on in that brilliant mind of hers.

"I was just thinking."

"About…." I said, repeating her words from earlier. I could see her smile from the corner of my eye and knew that she knew that I was repeating our previous conversation.

"Just how my son is going to convince my future daughter in law to marry him."

"You think that she won't say yes?" I asked, trying to keep the hurt from my voice. As if I wasn't nervous enough about proposing.

"Oh she will say yes even if you just asked her in the school cafeteria, but for goodness sake Edward please put a little bit more effort into it than that."

"You know that I will." I said. I was a little offended that she thought that I would do something like that. Sure, Bella liked to keep things simple and would more than likely kick up a fuss that I was going to make a big deal about taking her on a date or however I was going to propose, but I think that I could do a little bit bitter than a cafeteria. I really didn't want her to think back on how I proposed and having thoughts about uncomfortable chairs and smelly human food that made her want to gag.

We started to wind through the Cullen's driveway now and I stopped all conversation on proposals, not wanting to risk them hearing.

When I finally pulled up in front of the house, Bella was already waiting, sitting on the porch steps with a midnight blue bag next to her. I realized that her dress was the same colour and grinned, I loved that colour on her. She stood up as we got out of the car and I pulled her into a hug once I got close enough to. She pulled away to kiss me and I couldn't even be embarrassed that my mother was watching, probably still thinking about weddings and grandchildren. Too bad that she would never get any, but thank God that Bella can't read minds.

"Happy birthday." She whispered against my lips.

Grinning and not thinking about the repercussions of my words or what they could quiet easily imply I said, "You already said that this morning."

Her eyes widened fractionally, as did mine once I realized my mistake.

"But over the phone isn't the same." She shrugged. I sighed in relief, thankful for her save.

My mother greeted Bella as the front door flew open and an excitable Emmett and Alice dragging a tired looking Jasper came from the house.

"Happy birthday Edward!" Alice squealed, hugging my tightly and stopping my breathing.

"He needs to breathe Alice!" Bella said sternly.

She let go of me but I didn't have much time to recover before Emmett picked me up in a hug that had me feet dangling off of the ground.

"Happy birthday Eddie!" The boy really was like a two year old, and I suddenly understood his relationship with Rosalie. She loved children, and he loved pretty girls and sex. After he let go of me, Jasper clasped my shoulder.

"Happy birthday kid." He grinned. He had gotten quite fond of that nick name.

"Thanks Jasper." I grinned, thankful for the non life threatening greeting.

"Esme and Carlisle would be here too but Alice sent them off." Jasper rolled his eyes, but smiled at his wife fondly.

"Sent the off?" I questioned.

"To get…..something."

"Should have been done weeks ago!" Alice exclaimed, shocking my mother who up until that point had been having a conversation with Alice.

"What did they need to get?" I asked.

"Oh nothing." Alice turned to wink at my mother.

Okayyyyyyyy….. since when did they have secret codes and secrets?

"What time is our booking?" Bella chimed in.

"At one so we've got about an hour." I told her.

"We should get going then." I nodded and opened the backseat for her, knowing that my mother would prefer to sit in the front.

The drive went quick enough, we made small talk but there wasn't any mention of past birthdays. Bella's more than likely would have been lies, and mine and my mothers would have been to much for Elizabeth to hear or talk about. They all involved dad, and she didn't like mentioning her husband unless necessary.

My last two birthdays, my sixteenth and my seventeenth, had been the only one without my dad, and they had both been uneventful, boring and horrible.

Mum was still in barely functioning mode and had forgotten until the actual day. I hadn't minded, I didn't want to celebrate. I had know that she would get upset about dad not being there and hadn't known if she would try to do something or shut down again. The guilt that she had felt after she realized that se had forgotten made me feel terrible though, and part of me wished that I had told her. If she had forgotten, but hadn't known that I knew that she had forgotten, then she probably wouldn't of felt as bad.

My seventeenth, I had insisted that there were no celebrations or going out to resturants, but instead that we would have pizza and watch movies. This birthday had been marginally better. She had remembered and only cried twice and mentioned dad once. I was just happy that my birthday was on a Saturday that year and not a Thursday because I was so fucking sick of tacos.

This year though, this was the year that she wanted to do something big, something to symbolize me becoming a man or whatever. And the whole party/celebration idea had been dads. That was part of the reason that I didn't want to do anything. I was concerned about what her reaction would be if there was a party of any kind. She would be reminded of the times that her and dad had spoken about what they were going to do to celebrate, and now dad was gone along with the plans and we had moved to the other side of the country.

I hadn't been altogether surprised when she had offered to go to a resturants, but I had been surprised about how insistent she had been on the matter, and annoyed at how much Bella sided with her. I had let them have their way but I wasn't altogether happy.

When we got to the restaurant I saw from the corner of my eyes my mother taking a deep breath and then opening the door without waiting for me to do so for her. Bella leaned forward and squeezed my shoulders.

"Don't be so tense," She whispered. "she just wants you to be happy, and by doing this she is happy. Just let us take you to lunch."

I nodded but sighed heavily, wishing that I could explain to her but knowing that I couldn't right now.

She opened the door without waiting for me and I grumbled about them not letting me be useful as I got out. I locked the car and hooked my arm through Bella's before meeting my mother at the top of the stairs to the restaurant that Bella and I had our first 'date' in.