*BPOV*

"Isabella Marie, it's your mother, if that even means anything to you anymore. Anytime you would like to apologize to me so we can put this silly feud behind us, we'll I'm more than ready to listen. Which is more than I can say for you!

"You won't even return my calls! Marathy wants to meet her big sister! Or don't you even care about her? Call me. "

The words my mother had left in her most recent voicemail churned around in my head.

It had been months of zero contact with Renee, and she hadn't given up. Though her voicemails had gotten increasingly more passive-aggressive with time.

She wasn't going to let go. I could see that. And I couldn't just dodge her calls forever without some sort of explanation. She couldn't know that I was a vampire. But what other explanation was there for why I could never see her again?

I could never ask Charlie to pretend that I was dead, go to my funeral, and lie to Renee for the remainder of their lives. He'd never agree to it even if I did. Some things were unaskable.

The only way to get her to let go was to do what I had done to Charlie when I was running from James. What Edward had done to me when he tried to leave me for my own safety. A clean break. I would need to hurt her terribly, only this time it would be permanent.

I was looking forward to it about as much as I looked forward to the pain of transformation, and knowing that I would need to do it sooner rather than later was putting me in a foul mood.

And if leaving my mother behind for good was bringing back any of the old trauma with Edward, I was much too stubborn to admit it.

"Watch your grip, Bella. You'll break the bolt if you overtighten it," Rose warned.

She was showing me how to change the oil on my Ducati. I had a rough idea from the times I'd worked on the dirt bikes with Jake, but I wasn't confident enough to do it all by myself on my new baby yet.

"Got it. Sorry, I was distracted. Now what?" I looked up at my sister who looked like a golden goddess even in her grease-stained coveralls that she wore when she worked on the family's ever-growing collection of vehicles.

"You replaced the filter and the drain plug, now it's time to top up the oil. The oil is in that cabinet over there," she jerked her chin over her shoulder to indicate the general direction.

Wiping my hands on a grease rag, I walked over to the bank of cabinets that lined the wall. Sniffing out the scent of petroleum, I retrieved four quarts from the shelf and quickly returned to my bike.

"Earth to Bella!" Rosalie called in an annoyed voice. "That's 10W60. What kind of oil does your bike run on?"

"Crap. Sorry, Rose, I don't know what's wrong with me today. My head is somewhere else," I quickly exchanged the bottles for the synthetic 15W50 on the shelf below.

"Look, I have a strict no-drama policy in my garage, but if you wanna talk about it we could go get a bite. I'm feeling a little parched myself," she added as she examined her nails.

I was a newborn. I was always thirsty. But even if I wasn't, I would have gone. Because it wasn't every day Rosalie Hale invited me to lunch. And luckily this time Edward wasn't here to tell her I'd already eaten!

I internally rolled my eyes and shook my head at the memory of the first time Edward brought me home to meet his family...and then snubbed the meal they'd gone way out of their way to prepare for me. It was one of his more boneheaded moments if he's ever had any, but I digress.

As the last of the oil glugged down through the plastic funnel, I said "I'm just going to check the oil level, then check the filter and drain plug for leaks, and then we can clean up and go," I readily agreed while simultaneously confirming with her the final steps of the process.

Rosalie nodded. Her expression could almost be considered approving...the closest expression to approval I'd ever seen her make.

"Why don't we take the bikes? Edward won't mind if I borrow his, and if he does...all the better," shrugged an unapologetically grinning Rosalie.

"I didn't realize you ride," I replied, my tone colored by surprise.

She rolled her eyes impatiently. "If it has wheels and an engine, I can drive it."

"Ok, just so long as you promise never to borrow my bike without asking," I amended, matching her grin. But there was a hint of warning in the narrowing of my eyes. She agreed with a curt nod of her head.

Once we had swapped our grease-stained clothes for riding gear, we left the Cullen compound behind with a spray of gravel, a cloud of dust, and a very puzzled-looking Edward watching his bike leave the grounds without him.

Going out for a bite with Rose. Back in a bit, I thought as if it were the most normal occurrence in the world. I'm sure this explanation left Edward with more questions than answers, but it would just have to wait until I got back.

I followed Rosalie onto Skyline Boulevard and we rode in silence for a few miles. When she eventually broke the silence, it was only thanks to our supernatural hearing that I could even hear her over our helmets, the wind, the drone of motorcycle engines, and the other cars on the road.

"Look, I know we don't usually do this, but suffice it to say… you didn't have to learn how to change your own oil. Lord knows Edward would've done it for you. But you wanted to learn for yourself and you had the guts to ask me, and I respect that."

My eyebrows shot up to my hairline at the unexpected compliment, though she wasn't done.

"And I also respect that you didn't let him bully you into getting a Ferrari when you didn't want one. Usually, you just let Edward get his way. So this is me telling you that you haven't been completely annoying as of late." And though her words were as biting as ever, I could hear the slight smile in her voice.

"Thanks, Rose." And I was sure she could hear the smile in mine, too.

"So did you get in a fight with Mr. Perfect or something? You were tightening that drain bolt back there like it owed you money."

I laughed once humorlessly. "I wish it was something like that...Look, Rose, it's not that I don't want to talk to you about this...I just don't really know what to say because it has to do with telling my mother goodbye. And I know you don't want to hear me moan about the consequences of the choice you warned me not to make."

"You're right, I don't. Though out of all the people you're leaving behind, I don't really understand why it's your mother that's causing you so much grief. Wasn't she sort of...awful to you?" Rosalie asked with her typical bluntness.

I felt my back stiffen at the question as we rocketed down the road, splitting lanes to pass slower traffic.

"No, she wasn't awful to me!" I said in the defensive tone I usually reserved for Edward whenever he criticized my mother.

"Look, I don't know what your life story is. I just know what Edward has said about it. About how Renee let you fly off across the country to go live alone with your dad, in a place she hated, during the most formative years of your life. Just so that she could follow your stepdad around the country like a minor league groupie."

I opened my mouth to defend my mother but Rosalie wasn't finished.

"Or how she couldn't be bothered to come to your graduation. Or the time you were practically in a body cast after James crushed you like a bug and somehow you were the one making her feel better. Edward was particularly insufferable that week…" she snorted with contempt.

"Renee is just a little bit…" scatterbrained, flighty, absent-minded, careless, irresponsible, selfish, narcissistic...I eventually settled with "young for her age."

"That's what I say about Emmett when he's being a dumbass."

I had no counter to that. As the silence stretched on between us, she added in a thoughtful voice, "I can't tell you how to feel about losing your mother. But if I were you, I'd focus your energy on being grateful that you still have Charlie. He seems like a pretty decent guy. Y'know, for a human."

"Charlie is the best," I smiled fondly behind the face mask of my helmet. "For any species."

"Exactly. And he's not going to be around forever. You have eternity to sit around feeling miserable about all the people you had to hurt in order to defy nature. Your husband wrote the book on that.

"If you want my advice, Bella, suck it up, put your big girl panties on, and do what you need to do to protect your mother and your new family. It's the only right way left, and it's never going to get any easier. You know that."

I followed her onto a winding four-lane highway that carved through the Santa Cruz Mountains. After a few exits, she pulled over onto a nondescript turn-out. I pulled my white bike alongside her black one and cut the engine. "You're right," I sighed. "I know you're right. I just don't know how."

In the shade of the pine trees that lined the windy mountain road, Rose pulled her helmet off and hung it from the handlebars while she shook out her golden mane. On the road, cars swerved and horns blared, narrowly avoiding a collision as she very literally stopped traffic.

"Believe it or not, I haven't always been this much of a bitch. When you look like this," she gestured to herself with a sweeping motion of her hand, "it's just the easiest way to keep people at a distance. Which is what you're trying to do, right?" she asked and I nodded wordlessly in agreement.

Placing a manicured hand on her chest, Rosalie counseled, "I find that when it becomes necessary to be a bitch, it helps to be angry while you're doing it."

"Well, that explains a lot," I quipped, shooting my mercurial sister a lopsided grin.

*EPOV*

'What fresh hell is this?' was my exact thought when Bella took off after Rosalie who was riding my Ducati. Of course, I would've let her borrow it, I sniffed, but she could have at least asked.

I tried to make sense of it. To imagine the circumstances that led to my intolerant sister and my wife up and leaving for an impromptu hunting trip together. It was enough of a surprise when Bella told me she'd be spending the morning working on her bike in the garage with her!

If she was gung-ho on maintaining her own bike, I would've loved to teach her, but for reasons unknown to me, Bella asked Rosalie instead. Rationally, I knew it was a good thing. Something to encourage, which I did.

But a smaller part, the irrational part that wished that Bella would choose me in all things the way I chose her, couldn't help but feel the slightest bit hurt.

I had made it a point to bury myself in my new Debussy composition project so that the ladies could have some semblance of privacy as they bonded over female independence or whatever this was. I hadn't listened, but now I was wishing I had.

Since Alice was out with Esme, I dashed up to the main house to see if Emmett knew something I didn't. He was playing a game of Risk with Jasper and losing by the looks of it.

"Do you know where Rosalie and Bella went?" I queried as Emmett squinted at the little colored wooden cubes scattered over the board representing opposing troops.

Emmett's thick eyebrows raised slightly, the only outward indication that he'd heard my question as he stared intently at the cubes. Apparently, that was his world domination face.

"No. When I heard the motorcycles take off out of here like a bat out of hell, I assumed it was you and Bella leaving," Emmett answered, looking at me for the first time.

Then after a beat, he grinned and asked, "Why? You worried Rose won't play nice? Give her some credit, Edward. She's been trying really hard to be more personable."

"Would you trust your wife with your wife?" I asked flatly.

Emmett's face furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand the question. My wife is my wife."

Jasper snorted and rolled the dice. "And you wonder why they call you a Himbo."

"Well you can't deny that historically Rosalie has not been the best influence on Bella," I pointed out.

"Historically, you haven't been the best influence on Bella either, Edward, but no one stops you from hanging out with her," Emmett snickered.

Jasper hissed in a breath through his teeth at the sharp rebuttal. "Ouch. That was cold, man."

"It's ok. Emmett's still a little butthurt over that wedgie I gave him," I said coolly.

Emmett barked out a laugh. "Butthurt. Good one," he chuckled and then scowled as Jasper wiped out what was left of his troops in Australia.

"Next time we're playing Battleship," Emmett muttered.

*BPOV*

Interestingly enough, unlike her mate who treated hunting like a sport, Rosalie preferred to hunt in private. I got the sense that, to Rosalie, hunting was embarrassing. It was the one time when she couldn't pretend to be human. She didn't like to be seen in her most unguarded state.

So while I drained a large coyote, I thought about what Rosalie had said.

It wasn't like it was hard to let myself feel the stirrings of resentment buried deep down, especially when people I loved, like Charlie, Edward, and even Rosalie started running down the list of Renee's Mom-of-the-Year moments.

But at some point in my life, as a means of self-preservation, I had decided that I wasn't going to be angry about my mother's shortcomings because if I got mad about any of it, I'd have to be mad about all of it. So I put her up on a pedestal and blindly and faithfully defended her from anybody who tried to knock her down.

I knew now that I would have to knock that pedestal down with my own two hands.

A couple of hours later when Rosalie and I had returned back to the house after a quiet, thoughtful ride home, I thanked her for the talk and the oil change tutorial and then headed back to the little cottage I shared with Edward.

As I trudged back the short distance at a human pace, my silent heart felt as if it were leaden. Like it was sagging in my chest, uncomfortably weighing down my lungs making it hard to breathe. I eventually stopped trying.

Piano music flooded from our little abode as I opened the outer screen door and then let myself inside.

"Welcome back, love. Did you have a nice time?" Edward asked, playing something cheerful and unfamiliar. The welcoming melody broke off unfinished when he read the expression on my face.

"Bella! What's wrong?" Edward rushed to my side as I hung up my riding jacket in the coat closet. His angel face was wrought with worry.

"I have to call my mom," I said simply as I marched down the short hallway that separated the living room from the bedroom. Edward nodded in understanding. I could see the pain in my own eyes mirrored in his.

Hanging on the walls of the short corridor were framed photos of us and our family containing some of the happiest memories of my life.

Prom Night, all dressed up to see The Phantom of the Opera, our wedding day, me in a bikini on Isle Esme, looking slightly buzzed as I played pool with Edward in Montreal on my 19th birthday. Lots of me and Charlie.

And then there were photos of me from after the change, seamlessly blending in with the seven other pale, stunningly beautiful faces of my family. Photos of me with my arm slung around Alice. Another of me arm-wrestling Emmett. Playing chess with Jasper.

Dozens upon dozens of memories and my mother was only in two of the photos. One from the wedding, and another from last Christmas when Edward and I visited her and Phil in Florida.

"What are you going to tell her?" Edward asked quietly, interrupting my reminiscing.

I sighed heavily. "The truth," I replied to his worried, questioning eyes as I softly shut the bedroom door between us, leaving me alone in our room.

I dug my phone out of my pocket and stabbed in the familiar number. It rang four times before a breathless Renee answered the phone.

"Well, well, well... if it isn't Bella Cullen, risen from the dead," she greeted sarcastically. "Phil," she called, "can you go take Willow outside?"

"Who's Willow?" I blurted unthinkingly, wondering briefly if Renee had come to her senses and changed her baby's ridiculous name.

"Willow is our new puppy, which you would've known if you'd called sooner. What's wrong with your voice? Are you still sick? Phil said you sounded off when he called and that was months ago…."

"A dog? I thought you were allergic," I accused in a skeptical voice, ignoring her other questions.

Renee made that nervous giggling sound that usually preceded an admission of some sort of wrong-doing…like when she forgot to pay the electric bill and the power got shut off.

Or the time she missed my school play because she had a date. It was a non-speaking role, but still…

"I guess you're old enough to know the truth. I was never allergic, I just told you that so you wouldn't ask for one. Dogs are a big responsibility! And when you were a little kid and I was a struggling single mother, I wasn't up for taking care of a dog because you probably would've gotten bored of it and left me with all the work."

"No, that's what you do, Mom, not me. Get bored of things and quit. You know, like yoga, guitar, ceramics, feng shui, scrapbooking, Pilates, acting, parenting."

Renee gasped at the sudden lividness of my tone. "Where is this coming from? I thought you were calling to apologize…"

"Apologize? For what!" I blustered into the phone in a voice that was two octaves above my normal speaking voice. "For not dropping my whole life to come help you with your new baby? I have classes and a new husband, Mom. I have a life and other commitments that I couldn't just leave on a whim."

"What's happened to you, Bella? I think Charlie may have been right about Edward. He's changed you…you never used to talk to me this way before."

"This has nothing to do with Edward, Mom. This is me, as an adult, telling you that your idea of parenting really messed me up."

"Is that so?" Renee tartly replied, anger brewing just below the surface.

"I didn't need a friend or a cool big sister, Renee, I needed a mom. And you were so busy spending all of your time and money trying to find yourself and your passions that you don't have the slightest idea who I really am. Or what I'm passionate about."

"Well…what are you passionate about?" Renee finally asked in a dumbfounded voice.

"I don't know!" I exploded. "I don't know because I'm 19 years old and the only thing I'm any good at is reading. It was the only hobby that stuck because I didn't need to rely on you to take me to the library or buy me a uniform," I spat.

"Bella, I…I don't know what to say…I did the best I could…You don't know what it was like for me being a single—"

"You were a single mother because you left him! Threw him away! A perfectly good husband and father who loved us….because you…didn't…like…the…weather," I snarled through my teeth, overenunciating my words so that she could hear just how ridiculous it sounded.

"And the worst thing, worse than having to worry too much about bills getting paid and the lights staying on, worse than getting made fun of for my thrift store clothes because you could never hold down a job...

"Worse than any of that is knowing what my childhood would've been like if you would have just once done the selfless thing and left me with Charlie. He would've been better at it than you."

A soft gasp on the other end, and then silence. I swallowed the lump in my throat, the one that had been growing for the better part of two decades.

I worked to soften my tone. "I love you, Mom. I could never not love you. And as thrilled as I am that you have a new family of your own, I don't want to watch you have a do-over at motherhood.

"Because, honestly, I don't know which would be worse, watching you make all the same mistakes all over again with another helpless child…Or watching you be a great mom because you're older, happily married, and living somewhere sunny—and knowing what kind of mom I missed out on because I had the misfortune of being born first," I spat.

"If your childhood was so terrible, why didn't you say anything before now?" Renee asked in a tremulous voice.

"Because if I let myself be mad at you every time that you chose yourself over me, I would've never stopped being angry. So I'm saying it now. I'm angry now."

"Bella, I don't know what to say. I'm crushed that you feel that way. What do I…How do I…where do we go from here?"

"If I've learned anything from you it's how to take care of Number One. And what I need right now is to live the next part of my life," the eternal part, "surrounded by people who care about what I need. And that's never been you."

"You don't mean that!" she gasped.

"I love you, Mom, but I do mean it. Just do me a favor, okay? If you want to do right by me, choose Marathy. In every decision you make, think of her first," I urged. "That's how you make this right. Goodbye, Mom. Kiss my sister for me."

And before I could take it all back and beg her to forgive me, I ended the call by crushing the phone into a handful of plastic splinters.

Two strong arms wound around me then and I was pulled into the sanctuary of Edward's embrace. In all of my righteous fury, I hadn't even noticed him enter the room.

Edward surprised me then. Instead of the murmured apologies I had come to expect from him, and the outpouring of guilt and grief, he held me while I sobbed tearlessly in his arms and stroked my hair. He told me how brave I'd been and how proud of me he was.

It was unexpectedly comforting because in that moment, I felt like the purest definition of a monster and it helped to know that at least one person, my person, felt otherwise.

As long as I had him, I could go on. I'd always known that. Today was hard. Maybe the hardest it would ever be, but I survived it. And tomorrow will be a little easier. And the days after that would be easier still.

And most importantly, my mother and her family would be spared from the danger that existed by living in such close proximity to the supernatural.

She'd never know what my brutal honesty had cost me. I'd never be given the chance to apologize and explain the way I had with Charlie, and I'd just have to live with that.

But I consoled myself with the knowledge that at least this part of my life, the much longer part, I'd get to spend pouring my energy into being a good daughter to people who were worthy of my devotion. Charlie, Carlisle, and Esme, the three people who had been more involved parents to me in the last three years than Renee had even been or could ever hope to be.

As horrible and as counterintuitive as it had felt, for once, I'd made the right choice for myself. Surely Renee could understand that; she was the one who had shown me how.

"What can I do?" Edward asked in his most soothing voice. The words were slightly muffled by his lips still being pressed against the top of my head.

"I thought…I thought saying those things to her would make me feel better somehow. Why do I still feel so angry?" I asked in a pleading tone, pulling back to look up at him then.

Edward smiled sadly. "Because unfortunately, one phone call can't rid you of a lifetime of repressed anger and resentment. Only time can do that, love…And beating up the forest helps, too," he added, the corner of his mouth lifting into my favorite crooked smile.

"Can we do that, then?" I asked weakly, desperate to take out my residual rage on something that would put up more of a fight than a cellphone.

Edward took my hand and led me outside. "I know just the tree. There's this one not far from here. It sticks out like a sore thumb and just rubs me the wrong way."

When I was standing in front of it and could see what he meant, I had to laugh. When you lived in Forks, a town populated mostly by loggers, you learned a fair amount about trees whether you were interested or not.

The redwood giant was at least 100 years older than any other tree for miles. Its low-hanging branches spread wide in all directions and its root system dominated the area, outcompeting the younger trees for sunlight and nutrients. Because it was a thief of resources, this type of tree was what was called a Wolf Tree.

I felt the venom flood my mouth as the anger roiled just beneath my granite skin. My hands clenched into fists. Whatever it was called, when I was finished with the tree it would be sawdust.

"I don't know, Edward...I think it's high time these younger trees had a chance to grow and thrive. What do you think?" I asked rhetorically as my fist connected with the spongy red-brown trunk for the first time.

*A/N* Whew, that was cathartic! I knew when I started this sequel that I really wanted to explore the hardships of vampirism that SM completely glossed over. She made Bella's experience so completely toothless that she never had a chance to grow as a character. And then she just capped it off with a vague AF happily ever after. "We continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever…."

WHAAAAT? Are we really just supposed to believe that it was smooth sailing after that? I'd like to think that life for them got pretty boring after the Volturi left them alone. But that doesn't mean Bella had an easy time of things afterward.

What about Renee? How does she deal with her thirst? Or the mind-numbing tedium of the Cullens chosen lifestyle? How do the dynamics of Bella & Edward's relationship change when she is no longer human? Don't even get me started on the questions that arise if we put Renesmee back into the equation...

Anyway, that's what I set out to write about when I started this fic, and that's what I'm going to keep on writing about. If you're looking for wild plot twists and Edward rescuing his damsel in distress from the supernatural threats that endanger their epic love, this probably isn't the fic for you. I really just wanted to know what their "perfect piece of forever," in all its mundaneness, looked like when you consider all of the things that SM conveniently left out.

Thoughts? I'd love to hear 'em! As always, thanks for reading and reviewing! Til next time, lovelies! And sorry if I worried you that this is the end. It's not! :D