Chapter 4

EDWARD'S POV

"You seem tense tonight." I massaged Bella's shoulders.

She grabbed her hair, and pulled it to the front.

"No." She laid the back of her head against my shoulder.

I leaned down, and kissed the corner of her mouth.

"Then what's wrong?" I whispered.

She closed her eyes.

"We're leaving Forks."

"I know."

"Forks, where we first met," she turned around to face me, "Forks, where we were destined to be married…to make a beautiful baby." She turned to the crib at the foot of the bed.

"I know," I inched closer, putting my arms around her shoulders, "but we have to move on Bella."

"It won't be easy."

"I know. It never is."

She sighed heavily, putting her hands on mine.

"And Charlie…we'll be apart from our son during school hours." Her voice cracked, and I knew tears were coming.

"Bella my love, I will miss our son too, but we can come home during lunch to be with him, and we can take off a few days to spend with him."

"Why can't we just tell everyone that he's our son?"

"It's just too complicated Bella."

I felt tears on my hands, as they slipped between the cracks of her fingers. I spun her around, cradling her in my arms like I did with Charlie.

"All I really want are you and Charlie. As long as we have each other, it doesn't matter where we are."

"I know, it's just…this is where we have so many memories. This is where I lived with my dad."

I looked down, and wiped away Bella's tears.

"We can visit anytime you want."

Charlie began crying then.

Bella was quick to get up, and picked him up from the cradle. I watched as she put him against her chest, and patted his back lovingly.

She hummed the lullaby I had made for her. I had hummed that lullaby to Bella when she was a human, every night when she was going to sleep.

Now, Bella was humming it to our baby.

I got up, and stood behind her, my arm around her waist. I began humming along with her, running my other hand up and down the back of Charlie's soft head.

BELLA'S POV

I scribbled down the message quickly, and handed it to Alice.

Keep your mind clear, I don't want Edward following me.

She nodded, and took Charlie from my arms.

I grabbed a jacket, and pulled it on over my tank top. I then ran outside, and when I was a safe distance from the house, I stopped to walk.

Outside it was muggy from the rain. A soft fog had formed, and I broke the blanket as I walked through it.

I heard the soft sound of a few bikes. I remembered being at the age where you had to ride your bike everywhere you went.

It got pretty warm, so I pulled my long hair into a ponytail.

The bikes came into view, and I saw that there were four boys riding down the dirt road. The looked like they were probably freshman.

I smiled as the rode past.

Then I heard one of them whistle.

"Lookin' good!"

I turned around. The boys hadn't stopped, but they had looked back.

Nice ass.

I would do her.

"That's enough." I laughed, and turned back around.

Luckily they just rode off, and I blew them off.

I walked by the tiny parking lot where Edward had led me to junior year. He had told me he was taking me somewhere to show me why he couldn't be out on sunny days. That day, he had taken me to our meadow.

Our beautiful meadow, where we had been so close to each other for one of the first times. The meadow, where the wildflowers and beautiful grass grew wildly. Now, we were moving far away from our meadow.

I kept walking. If I went to the meadow, it would be too hard. I couldn't say goodbye to the meadow.

So instead, I kept going. I found myself in the parking lot of the high school. Edward had not only saved my life for the first of many times here, but he had also proposed to me.

"W-what are you doing?" I asked breathlessly.

"Bella, I am 104 years old. My whole life, I've been empty. Then, you walked into my life, with your clumsiness, your warmth, and your beauty. For 104 years I've been empty…and I don't want to feel that way for the next 104 years."

He pulled a box from his pocket, and opened it to reveal the most beautiful diamond I had ever seen. But the best part was that surrounding the band, were little topaz stones.

"Bella Swan, I have saved your life many times before this. I want you to save mine. Will you marry me?"

All I could do was barely whisper, "Yes."

"Yes." I whispered to myself.

Bella Cullen where are you!

Edward had found me.

I jumped behind a car, and waited to hear her footsteps.

Quickly, I thought.

Don't even come to the meadow.

I then heard him run, and knew he had fallen for it. It was a miracle.

When he was gone, I got up, and kept going.

The next place I came to was Charlie's house. I stopped, looking at the For Sale sign with hatred. I hated that Charlie was dead.

I walked inside, using the old key I had taken. I stopped in the kitchen. The movers had taken all of the downstairs furniture, but hadn't gotten to the upstairs yet.

I imagined the table, the fridge, everything. I imagined Charlie waiting in front of the TV for me to bring dinner to the table. Maybe I should have made more of it.

I walked up the stairs, touching the railing.

The bathroom was still the same. I remembered my human minutes, taking hot showers to calm myself down when I remembered that Edward Cullen was in my room.

I touched the sink, remembering the time I had hit my head against the counter. Edward had been furious, because he hadn't stopped me from hurting myself.

"Maybe I should start coming into the bathroom with you!" He had yelled.

"Oh no, no you don't." I had said dizzily.

I laughed, and headed to my old bedroom door. I took an unnecessary breath, and opened the door.

My room was still the same. I remembered Edward humming me to sleep as he held me in his arms at night. I remembered Edward kissing my neck, making my knees give in. I remembered catching him going through my drawers.

If I looked close enough, I saw the ghosts of the old us. Edward sat in the rocking chair, holding me in his lap. I was smiling, my head against his chest.

"I love you."

"You are my life now."

They waved to me, as if saying goodbye.

The tears stung my eyes, and I fell to my knees. Well, I would have fallen to my knees…if two arms hadn't caught me before they could touch the ground.

"Bella, what are you doing?" Edward asked.

"Saying goodbye." The tears streamed down my face.

I heard a sigh, and then I was being carried to the bed.

"I know this is hard. I know you're sad…so am I. This is where we met, where we got engaged, and married, and where we had a baby. But more importantly, this is where you lived with your dad."

"I miss him so much Edward. I took him for granted."

"No you didn't Bella. You loved Charlie, and Charlie loved you."

"I'm going to miss this house, this city. Even though Forks is boring, you made it wonderful." I turned and kissed Edward.

He laid back, and I got on top of him, kissing him.

I put my hands underneath his shirt, and ran them up and down his chest. He pulled me down closer.

It was like old times, except more physical.

Finally, we stopped, and Edward held me as I laid on top of him.

"Bella, I got you two presents." Edward said finally.

"What?" I groaned.

He laughed.

"First," he moved a strand of hair from my face, "I bought this house."

I raised my head, still lying on him.

"What?"

"I bought this house, so we can always come back."

I smiled.

"Thank you."

"The other present…is that I bought the meadow."

My eyes widened.

"You bought the meadow?"

"Yes, I bought the land where the meadow is. Now, we can always go back."

I kissed his chin, and laid my head back down on his chest.

And then he hummed my lullaby, as we laid on my bed one final time.

Powerful…I was listening to the beginning of Rockabye by Shawn Mullins as I wrote this part. I nearly cried you guys.

EDWARD'S POV

It was time to go.

It was time to leave the place that had meant the most to me out of all the places I had been my whole life. This was where I had met the love of my life.

Bella had gone back to Charlie's house, one more time.

I had decided to let her go alone, so that she could do what she wanted alone.

"Ready?" Alice asked, her eyes sad.

"Are you?"

She shook her head, and I hugged her close.

"Will everything be the same?"

"Sure, except now we have Bella…and little Charlie."

She smiled, and backed away.

"Hey Alice, come here!" Jasper called.

Alice ran off.

Esme came out of the house, carrying Charlie. I took him from her, holding him tightly in my arms.

"Carlisle and I are leaving. I think Emmett and Rosalie are too, so we'll see you, Bella, Jasper, and Alice at the house." Esme touched my cheek.

"Alright."

She walked off, getting into the car with Carlisle.

"Well, it's time to go." Jasper said.

"Do you want us to wait?" Alice asked.

"No, I'll catch up." I said without turning from the house.

I heard the cars pull out, and I knew I was alone.

I looked up at the house, imagining Bella and I up in our room. So many memories.

"This is where your mom and I lived kiddo." I said, still looking up at the house.

I remembered seeing Bella open the door, and come out in her wedding dress. How beautiful she looked.

"And even though I'm going to miss it," I looked down, "we have forever to make new memories. And now we have you to share them with."

I got into the car after strapping Charlie into his car seat in the back.

I drove to Charlie's house, and parked outside. Bella must have heard, because she just walked out.

Her hair was dark and curly, hanging down her front. Her brown eyes were sad, but beautiful. She was wearing a dark green blouse and a pair of dark jeans. She looked up, and saw me watching her.

This is it.

This is it.

I was standing in front of the porch in a second.

She looked down at me from the top step, and came down slowly.

"We promised to be together forever. We said vows Edward."

I understood.

"I also said that I would protect you."

A tear escaped her eye, just as one had that night we had fought. "Then keep me close."

"Forever."