A/N: This is New Moon through mid-Eclipse from Edward's perspective. Thanks for reading!

These characters are not mine and all belong to Stephenie Meyer.

Borrowed Time (New Moon)

"Look, you know better than anybody it's hard for her to be here. But she agreed to come and she promised to be... civil."

I shot Emmett a doubtful look.

"All I'm asking is that you acknowledge her existence. I think the civil part sort of hinges on that."

"It does," Alice confirmed.

The three of us were walking, not much faster than human pace, back towards the car. Every few steps our skin shimmered as sunlight found holes in the thick canopy. The sunny Monday was well-timed - it forced me to leave Bella's side to spend time with Emmett who I really had missed. He and Rosalie had been in Africa since June.

When Emmett spoke again his tone was like that of a parent speaking to a spoiled toddler. I wondered if it was the tone he'd used to get Rosalie back on this continent. "So... what do you say?"

"Fine," I snapped.

I'd only spoken to Rosalie once since that wretched night in March when she'd refused to help protect Bella.

Initially Rosalie had ignored me just as I ignored her. And then, hurt - though she tried to hide it - she attempted to goad me into interacting with her. I didn't bite. The whole thing had eventually culminated in quite a scene...

Fortunately, it was the early hours of the morning when Bella was home, asleep. Rosalie was waiting for me on the porch steps when I came home briefly to change.

Can we just talk? She asked, pleading her case as soon as she heard my approach. Maybe... maybe there were some things that I could have done differently. I think if we just take a walk maybe we can work through some of this. I... I miss you.

But I breezed passed her. When I tried to do the same on my way out, she grabbed my arm, pulling me to a stop, and started screaming at me.

I stood there staring at her blankly while she launched her minutes long tirade. Emmett was by her side almost immediately and the others weren't far behind.

Emmett and Carlisle tried a handful of times to interject, but she only ever stopped her attack on me to hurl curses at Jasper who was trying to calm her down.

"...You choose her over this family, Edward. You choose her over me. And I'm your sister!"

My voice was cold when I finally spoke. "Are you?"

Rosalie froze, shocked. It was as if I'd slapped her.

"Edward!" Esme gasped.

I can't believe you just said that. Emmett's disapproval was unpleasant - it was such a rare thing - but I stood by my words.

Carlisle's thoughts were reproachful, but I didn't focus on them. Or Alice and Jasper's exasperated ones.

Rosalie flitted upstairs. She was packing.

"I want be there when Bella wakes." I turned my back on the chaos I'd helped create and raced back to Bella.

I was always racing back to Bella because there was never enough time. I could see her face subtly changing, maturing over the weeks and months. How long until she outgrew me? How long until I got in the way of her life? Was I already doing that? Taking up space that could be occupied by friends that could grow with her, stay with her...

No. I wouldn't think about that. There wasn't time to think about that.

Because right now my life was as rich as it would ever be. I'd had the most perfect summer with Bella. Dozens and dozens of near perfect days.

Near perfect due to two complications.

The first and lesser complication was Mike Newton.

It was June when Bella finally got her cast off. She'd been itching for a job. I tried to talk her out of it at first - I was happy to pay for anything she might want or need - but on top of realizing I'd somehow insulted her with my offer, I also had to acknowledge that a part-time job was a fairly regular human experience. If Bella wanted that experience - or more of it as this wasn't her first job - then she should have it.

My family frequently shopped at the local sporting goods store, Newton's, to maintain our reputation as avid hikers. One afternoon Bella and I stopped in to pick up some some props - propane cylinders and water purification tablets.

Mike Newton, working the register, was frazzled. The line was five deep. Karen Newton, too, look flustered as she tried to juggle multiple customer questions at once.

"Hi, Bella!" Mike Newton's face lit up as we reached the front of the line, and then it dimmed. "Edward." He nodded his head toward me without meeting my eyes. When is she going to get over him?

Mike Newton, with his persistent yet shallow fixation on her, was biding his time. He'd realized that Bella was happy enough to be his friend so long as he kept his feelings for her and hostility for me carefully hidden away. High school relationships came and went, he reasoned. He would be there, the warm and familiar shoulder to cry on, when the right time came.

Bella gasped. "You're hiring?"

With dread, I followed her gaze up to the "Help Wanted" sign on the wall behind the counter.

Mrs. Newton, behind us, answered before her son could. "Yes!" She half-ran in her high heels to duck behind the counter. When she came back up she had a small stack of forms. "Fill these out and the job is yours. Here's a pen. Can you start tomorrow?"

"Yes," Bella said eagerly. "Absolutely."

"Oh, thank God. Tara just stopped showing up after only one week on the job and we're in our busiest season. I know Chief Swan's daughter would never do that to us."

"Never," Mike said with a huge grin. "Bella's the best."

I had the sudden urge to throw him through the glass display at the front of the store.

"You know," I said once we were back in the car, "Carlisle mentioned something about an opening in reception at the hospital. It would certainly pay better."

"Thanks, but I think this is perfect for me. I've worked in retail before - it keeps you on your feet. Plus, poor Mike and Mrs. Newton..." She smiled empathetically. "They need the help."

I felt genuine anger over the situation. The clock was ticking. The time winding down. I wanted every single second. It was bad enough that I would lose time with her while she worked, but almost unbearable that a newly single Mike Newton would stand in my place by her side. He was human. A human who was looking less like a boy and more like a man every day. A human who, after long hours spent with her, might give her a reason to let go of me.

No, I couldn't bear it. Them alone together. Me in the dark.

Only Alice knew that I spent most of Bella's shifts hidden in the trees behind the store, always monitoring his thoughts. It became clear fairly quickly that Bella's feelings hadn't changed. He was only a friend. At least so long as I was in the picture.

That assumption made me territorial and acted as another incentive to not think of the future. To live in the present and extend that present as far out as possible. Senior year was important. She didn't need any distractions. And college, the foundation for her future. She couldn't be distracted from that either.

So Alice saw it now, me threading that very careful, fragile line. Staying in Bella's life and by her side. Us graduating together next June. And again from college when Bella was twenty-two. Bella at twenty-five, still by my side. It wasn't right. This slice of future I would take from her. But it was bearable. Even if it would always be too short.

But nothing was set in stone. The further forward Alice looked, the blurrier things became. There were paths that inexplicably vanished and others, still, that led to an inhuman Bella, ice-white and red-eyed, somber and still. Evidence of Bella's will. Evidence of my weakness. Because I was the gatekeeper to that destiny. Consciously I was resolved - I absolutely would not bring her into my world - so I feared whatever it was that brewed in my subconscious that made these visions possible.

And then there was the path that was too painful to think about. The one that I was not strong enough to take. Not yet.

The second complication, the greater complication, was Bella's dissatisfaction with our trajectory. With her insistence on bringing it up and challenging this destiny.

Because the more she brought it up, the more I was reminded of how unhealthy it was for her. She should be focusing on her education. Her career. Her friends. Her family in the present and the family, if she wanted it, that someone else could give her in the future.

Today would be hard. A boiling point. I was sure of it. Today was September thirteenth. Bella Swan's eighteenth birthday.

It didn't have to be this way - tense, uncomfortable, mournful. Bella made it this way. We couldn't discuss the topic without her circling around to more forbidden ones.

Home early from my hunting trip with Alice and Emmett, I sat in the rocking chair in Bella's room and watched her dream. She grew particularly restless as the morning light started to fill her room. Her alarm would go off soon. It was probably better for me to duck out before she saw me here - she might try to label my very normal behavior as special treatment for her birthday. Plus, I had an existence to acknowledge.

I pressed my lips to Bella's cheek. "Happy birthday," I whispered, and then I was gone.

A/N: I'm currently writing Edward's perspective throughout the series. This volume will extend into mid-Eclipse and I'm already twenty-two chapters deep into Vol. 2 which covers mid-Eclipse through BD. I'm writing both at the same time so I can bounce between them whenever my motivation dwindles.

I have a couple more chapters written (but not edited yet) for both volumes so look out for more soon. For those that have been following Vol. 2 for a while, my sincere apologies for the lag. Life is getting busy again.

This volume will eventually absorb and end on the first few chapters of what is now Vol. 2 because I left parts out of those initial chapters that I really want to write. When I started the project I was just going to do random parts. Then I got sucked in and decided to do it all.

Last note, my intention is to make this canon with Vol. 2 (obviously), but I may need to do some smoothing to make everything fit together right. Please be patient with me if you notice any little hiccups.

Thank you so much for reading!