AN: Okay…I decided that I'm better off finishing what I started, whether it's consistent with NM or not. Besides, rewriting the entire thing seems like a much too daunting task at this point. I appreciate everyone's input!

Also: this chapter came up a bit short, mostly because it started getting late and I have to get up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. But it's an update, at least, and I promise more soon. :)

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The thought of my parents took my enthusiasm level down several notches. What was I going to do about my parents? Telling them the truth was completely out of the question. It would do more harm than good in the end.

I began to realize that my best option was to simply vanish. The thought broke my heart. How could I do that to the people that raised me? I was their only child. To simply vanish into thin air…

I didn't worry too terribly about Renee. She was newly married. She'd already mentioned that she wanted to have more children. It would kill her, but she would survive, rebuild. But Charlie…this would devestate Charlie. I was the only family he had. Who would feed him, wash his clothes, keep the house together? Not to mention that Renee would surely hold him responsible for letting something happen to me. He would be miserable.

I realized that the idea didn't affect me as much as I thought it should. My father's pain was something distant to me, something trivial and fleeting. Something that would never really involve me personally. I was disturbed by my detachment from the situation.

"I could just say I had some work done. I'm not that much paler, at least," I suggested, only half-joking.

"Such excuses invite far too many questions, Bella," protested Edward. "I don't think there's any legitimate way to explain the changes you've endured."

He was right, I knew. There was a sadness in his eyes as they met with mine, and I already knew how things would have to be.

"Why can't she just write a note to her father? Tell him that we're leaving and she's going with us. That she wanted to tell him in person but she was afraid he'd try to stop her," suggested Alice, trying to find the middle ground.

"You honestly think that would stop him from looking for me? He'd spend the rest of his life trying to hunt me down. The least I can give him is a little closure."

"Bella, without a body, he'll never get closure. You'll always be missing. You'll always be his lost child," Carlisle told me, his gentle tone contradicting his cruel words.

"There's no way to do this without hurting them, is there?" I concluded, more of a statement than a question.

"I'm afraid not," confirmed Carlisle. "But they both have things to live for. They will move on."

"So I'm just going to…disappear."

"That'll be the simplest way," agreed Carlisle.

Edward put his arms around me as I released a deep sigh.

"What a mess," I muttered, leaning into his embrace. "But all right."

"We do what we have to," sighed Alice, giving my upper arm an encouraging rub. "You'll forget. That's what keeps us going, really. We just…forget."

I nodded, feeling somewhat empty. "I'll forget."

The Cullens erased the evidence of their existence at an impressive pace. After the slate was wiped clean, the plan was for the eight of us to board a flight to Anchorage, Alaska; from there we would travel to Homer, where we could start over. Since winter was approaching, it would be the safest (and darkest) place for us to settle in.

It was odd thinking of myself and the Cullens as "us." It was always them – what was safest for them. They had to hide from the daylight. I began to realize that all of this applied to me now as well, and an odd pit began to form in my stomach. Was I regretting this? Surely there was nothing to regret, especially if death was my other option. It was simply a new challenge I would have to rise to.

But suddenly, I wanted nothing more than to wake up in my own bed, with Charlie awkwardly patting my back and telling me it was all just a nightmare.

I shivered at the yawning ache that was growing inside me, and jumped a little when I felt Edward's arm slide around my waist.

"It's hard at first, realizing what you are. It'll pass," he reassured me, his voice soft and sweet against my neck.

"I'm fine," I protested, pushing the lonely, empty thoughts away. This was still what I wanted. Because thoughts of Edward visiting me in a nursing home were far lonelier and emptier.

"You will be," he said quietly, brushing a strand of my hair – now soft as silk – off my shoulder. "I love you," he added, almost as an afterthought, as he pressed a kiss to the hinge of my jaw.

I knew he did, but he said it so rarely that the words sent a thrill through me. "I love you, too," I reciprocated, letting my eyes flutter closed as his mouth explored the sensitive skin of my neck.

"It's odd, you know. You've lost most of your scent. It's almost like…I have a cold. I can't smell you hardly at all."

"Oh," I murmured, slightly alarmed. Any hint that he might love me any less because of the change scared the wits out of me. The possibility that my scent had made up most of his attraction towards me was distressing.

"I'm still mad about you, silly girl," he chastised, seeing the worried look on my face. "In fact, it's much better now. Less painful, to be around you. I like it."

I relaxed and turned my face to kiss him, delighted with the ability to do so without risking my life. His mouth was smooth and pillowy under mine, like the give of an overripe plum. He held my head between his hands as if I were still so easily broken, and I fisted my hands in his shirt with frustration, wanting to truly feel him. I wanted him to touch me firmly enough that I could still feel it after his fingers left my skin. I wanted to finally see the passion he guarded so well flare to life in his eyes.

I wrapped my hand firmly around the nape of his neck to show him, but he immediately began to pull away.

"Bella, by God, this isn't the time or the place to encourage me. I might not be in danger of breaking you anymore, but I am very much in danger of ravishing you on our dining room table, and that would more than likely get both of us kicked out of the family."

I felt my cheeks flush with all the human blood that was left inside me, and I looked away, suddenly shy. Only now did I realize the safety our old relationship had promised; that I had secretly taken comfort in the fact that we couldn't share more than a few pecks before having to stop. All this talk of ravishing made my stomach flutter with new, strange, frightening feelings.

It was a little bit of a shock to realize that nothing, not even Edward, was truly safe anymore.