Epilogue:
August 15, 2008
"You've said goodbye for long enough." Leah barked. "It'll only be a few days."
"Shut up." Jacob said, and returned to kissing me. "I'll come by on Tuesday."
"Yes. I'll miss you." I said softly. He kissed me one more time.
"I'll miss you, too." He smiled his Jacob smile at me. It still warmed my heart, at the sight.
"Be safe." I called after him, as he started to leave.
"Always, love." Jacob returned. "Bye, Leah."
She rolled her eyes. "See you soon."
Jacob left our apartment, giving me one more smile before shutting the door.
"Our apartment" referred to the apartment Leah, Angela, and I just moved into. As sophomores at the University of Washington, we're allowed to live outside the dorms.
Our apartment wasn't anything particularly special, but it was clean and spacious, so we were all very excited. The apartment had an open floor plan, with a large - if outdated - kitchen, a family room with several items of mismatched furniture, each of us bringing or acquiring something to fill the room.
It was far from perfect, but it was perfect to us.
Leah was skeptical about moving in with Angela, even though she really liked her. Living with Angela posed several risks, the main being the possibility of exposing Leah's secret. However, we needed a third roommate in order to afford it, which trumped the risk.
Leah had grown out her hair, as she hadn't shifted in over a year. She was still my constant protector, although the point was pretty moot, as we hadn't had any threats since Victoria.
I still have nightmares of facing Victoria. Of the horrible sound of vampire fighting vampire. Of the smell of burning vampire flesh. Of the constant fear, anguish, and guilt - the phychological torture of it all.
Of Edward dying.
I still dream of his beautiful face being ripped apart. Of faceless, nameless vampires burning him, turning him to ash. I no longer remember the sound of his voice or the caress of his cold, elegant hand, and every day it's harder and hard to picture him in mind. The grief of losing him hit me differently then I'd expected. It was naive to think I wouldn't grieve at all. Edward was a part of me for so long. I suppose he'll remain a part of me forever.
I'll never shake the guilt of him dying, of that I am certain. My life may be better off without him, but I'd never have wished him dead, even in my wildest dreams.
Leah had nightmares, too, and I took comfort in that. I took comfort in pretty much everything involving Leah. She'd become my best friend in the last year. Angela and I were still incredibly close, and it was nice having a friend away from the pack and the craziness of the supernatural, but Leah understood in a way no one else did.
I still have sessions with Dr. Chiraz (over the phone when I am away at school), though I was beginning to suscept that she was putting together some of the pieces of my references. She either thinks I am severely mentally ill complete with hallucinations or she is beginning to believe in the supernatural. For her sake, I hope she thinks I'm crazy.
I still speak to Alice, every Tuesday night at exactly 6:00pm. We also exchange emails several times a week. Alice will always be my friend, a part of me. But we both understood that the only way to maintain that friendship was to be apart. It still hurts, though the pain has dulled with time.
Her life is flawless - her and Jasper were getting remarried in Venice in December. It will be the event of the season. She planned it around my winter break, of course, so I can attend.
Both Leah and Jacob are coming with me, as my protectors. Leah is thrilled to be leaving Washington; Jacob is leery of being around vampires again, but that was to be expected.
Jacob is still training to be the Alpha, though he is becoming increasingly more and more annoyed by his lessons from Sam and Billy. The pack insists that they must be prepared in the event of another vampire threat, and I can't say I disagree. Too much had been lost in between the previous packs and the current packs, which they could never afford to lose again.
This is where Leah and I come in. The tribe is funding our college tuition in exchange for the extensive research that we were conducting about not only the Quileute Tribe, but all of the surrounding tribes. Our job is to seperate myth from legend, which could be extremely challenging.
Leah and I had actually moved in a week early in order to follow a lead regarding imprinting. Leah is impatient, as always, and is currently pacing, as I gather my things. I place my throwing knife in it's leather holder inside my right boot and lace the laces.
Leah has been teaching me how to fight - I'd never stand a chance against a vampire or werewolf, but I can handle my own with most untrained humans. The knife would most likely do nothing if things went south, but it made me feel better.
"Okay," I groaned. "Not all of us have superhuman speed."
"Those are the kind of comments we have to stop using, now that we are living with Angela." Leah reminded.
"You're bitchy when your impatient." I commented lightly. "And Angela isn't here."
"Let's just go." Leah urged.
I rolled my eyes but complied. We were halfway to the meeting point when I figured I had to tell Leah.
"Our contact," I began slowly, "isn't exactly human."
"What?" Leah snapped. "If he's not human, than what is he?"
"I've never met him, so I'm not sure, but this is Alice's contact. I'd imagine Mr. Scott is a vampire."
"What the hell would a vampire be doing with an old Quileute Chief's diary?" She wondered, though there was an edge to her voice.
"Alice said he was friendly. He provides the Cullens with new identities when they need to move on." I said softly. "He's a collector."
"But it's our legacy. He's collected a piece of our history."
"I know." I said treading carefully. "And we are going to get it back. It's not in English, and I doubt the vampire, no matter how old he is, is fluent in Quileute, so none of your secrets have been revealed."
"Our secrets." She corrected softly.
I smiled, and although I appreciated that she considered me a part of the pack, it'd never be my history.
When we arrived in Seattle, I was surprised to be greeted by a middle aged human. Leah gave me a worried look, but I shook my head.
"Mr. Scott?" I asked. The man nodded.
"And you must be Miss Swan." Mr. Scott smiled. He noticed my hesistance. "I'm not like the Cullens, if that's what you were expecting."
I blinked. "I'm sorry. My friend and I were under the impression... well never mind. It doesn't matter. Do you have what we came for?"
"All business, I see. I had hoped to take the two of out to lunch. It would do wonders for my reputation, you see, having lunch with two such beautiful young ladies."
Leah smiled dangerously. "I'm afraid we don't have time for all that, Mr. Scott. We'll just take what we came for."
Mr. Scott visibly gulped. Leah looked like an ordinary (extremely athletic) nineteen year old, but her voice had an edge to it that clearly made grown men quiver. Or perhaps he knew vaguely what the Cullens were, and expected us to possess their strength.
Either way, he quickly handed over the book in exchange for an envelope Leah had brought with.
"It was a pleasure." I added softly as we took our leave. Leah scowled.
When we got back to the car, Leah skimmed through the book, as I drove back home.
"Anything good?" I asked.
"It's all about imprinting." Leah confirmed what we had already suspected.
"Anything useful?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. It's not a chief's journal, as far as I can tell. It appears to be a member of one of our packs, though I'm not sure when."
"Whose journal is it, then?"
"I don't know the name of the writer, but it talks a lot about one of his packmates, Annawon. Annawon was married with two children when he imprinted on Siu." She said.
"Yikes." I winced. Leah flipped to the end.
"You can't just skip to the end!" I admonished, laughing at Leah's inpatients.
"Oh, it's not a book. I'm not spoiling anything." She sushed me and continued reading. She didn't stop reading until we returned home.
I pulled the car into our lot, and looked at her. "So?"
"Annawon rejected the imprint and refused to leave his wife and children." Leah said quietly.
"How is that possible?" I asked.
"It really wasn't. He ended up taking his own life a month after meeting Siu."
"Oh." I said. "We'll that's bleak."
"Yeah." Leah said.
"I'm sorry." I said softly.
"Don't be. I didn't know him."
"I know, but I know you wanted it to be possible." I took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
"It doesn't matter." She said. "Let transcribe the journal this week and send it to the pack."
"There will be other leads, Leah."
"And we'll be there to find them." She smiled. "I know there is no escape from what I am, but I'm really glad that we get this reprieve for however long it lasts."
"We'll make it last for however long you want it to. There will always be another lead, Leah."
"What did you say, that one time?" I raised my eyebrows. "When you first told me this was an option."
"Ah. The werewolf and the bookworm." I confirmed.
"No there was more... the misadventures of the werewolf and the bookworm." She grinned.
"Yeah, that was it." I grinned back at her.
"Though, I suppose we'll have to take Jacob on some of our adventures or he'll get whiny."
I laughed as we climbed the stairs to our apartment, reflecting on how I ended here, in this moment.
For once in my life, I did not have my future planned out for me, and that was okay. In fact, it's freeing. Throughout my life, I had planned my life to be many things, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect this.
It's exciting, scary, and unpredictable, but its exactly where I want to be. It's exactly where I need to be.
AN: This epilogue wasn't really about Jacob and Bella, so I'm sorry. In fact, this wasn't what I had planned at all. Yet, it feels right. Jacob and Bella are happy and together, in a healthy relationship. Bella has friends and other things in her life besides her love life. I think Dr. Chiraz would be proud. Don't you?
This took me over a year to write, and I may go back and edit a little, but overall I'm happy with this ending. Bella moved on from Edward, grew up, and became her own person, so she's exactly where I wanted her to be.