THANKS AT THE BOTTOM THIS TIME BECAUSE SPOILER POTENTIAL HERE: DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO AVOID POTENTIAL SPOILERS: YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED: the thing is, it's all about how you read two full lives. Not that there's only one life, but rather that one was cut short... If you catch my drift... Edward and Bella are still in the story, after all...

POTENTIAL SPOILER OVER.

Epilogue - June 2005.

"Are you stuck in there?" Carlisle called, patting around his pockets to double-check he had everything they'd need for the night.

Of course, he already knew full well what he had on him, and where, but it was a habit he'd picked up a hundred or so years before and rather enjoyed.

When Carys didn't answer - he liked to think her mumbling under her breath in a different room about how he was a "bit of an impatient git today" wasn't an answer - he crossed to the mirror that took up a large part of the lounge wall of their suite and stood before it, turning this way and that to examine himself, tweaking his cuffs and adjusting his waistcoat as he wanted it.

When he lifted his head and gave himself one last check, he grinned and had to admit to himself that he could be vain every once in a while.

A few moments later, he heard Carys huff one last time from the bedroom before she hesitantly called, "I'm done," and headed for the door.

Her footsteps - muted as they were by the plush carpet - were as soothing as ever, but something in the way her skirts swished made him wonder if she was really as nervous as her voice suggested.

He wished he didn't know the difference between a confident swish and a nervous one, but, alas, that was something thing he'd picked up early on in his medical studies, when it was easier to concentrate on the way someone walked than the way their heart beat.

Carlisle clasped his hands behind his back and bent his knee whilst he waited.

It really does take humans an inordinate amount of time to walk anywhere, he thought to himself with a smile when moments later, she hadn't materialised.

Not that it was something that never really bothered him - he greatly appreciated it, in fact, and rather enjoyed matching himself to their pace - unless Carys wanted him to wait for something, and then it was more like his own brand of torture.

Her heartbeat changed and she stopped just shy of the door.

Carlisle stiffened.

If his heart hadn't have been frozen three-hundred and forty-two years, three months, and twenty-seven days before, he thought it might have stopped beating in anticipation.

He hoped she hadn't changed her mind after Alice's teasing earlier... Or, his. He felt a sudden rush of guilt. Perhaps he'd been too rash? Overlooked her feelings in favour of teasing her for her choice of birthday present that year?

"Darling?" He asked, raising his voice just enough for her to hear him, and trying to keep the worry from his tone.

He ran over every detail of their earlier conversations and their day thus far, and sighed quietly to himself in relief. No, she'd seemed fine throughout breakfast, her birthday lunch with the family, and the film they'd watched after she'd eaten.

If anything, she'd seen his continued reluctance as a challenge.

"Don't laugh?"

Carlisle pointed his toe and nodded. "Of course not," he guaranteed her.

Laughing was the last thing on his mind. Having her all to himself for a weekend? Slap-bang in the middle. Right next to how she would react to the box burning a hole in his inner left-side pocket.

Carys shifted, and her skirts moved with her. "Promise?"

"I promise, I won't," he assured her again, the instant before she opened the door and he forgot to pretend to breathe.


Despite the negative thoughts her sudden onslaught of nervousness had brought on when she decided she was ready for him to see her, Carys was pretty sure Carlisle seemed to like her dress when she stepped out into the living room, smoothing her hands over her corseted waist.

No, she corrected herself. Jasper had only the night before been reminding her to trust her intuition during one of their impromptu training sessions, so she did, and revised her thought. Carlisle doesn't seem to like it, he does like it.

So much, he'd stopped breathing. Or blinking. Or moving, in any way shape or form.

Which was good as it gave her something to concentrate on other than how good he looked. And he looked far better than she thought he had the right to when they'd made plans to go out rather than stay in.

She raised her eyebrows when he continued to stare at her, unmoving. His subtle version of gaping, she'd discovered the night after she'd gone shopping in Seattle and returned with a silk nightgown to replace the one she'd outgrown.

She just hoped her dress didn't go the same way as that and the replacement he'd bought her had. She loved the dress. So much, she wished it was still in style, even if it felt strange to be standing quite so straight, or to be wearing something that was so structured, heavy, or that cut across her shoulders as it did.

Carys bit her lip, widened her eyes, and affected her best version of his accent as she batted her eyelashes. "Carlisle? What do you think? Yes?"

After a few moments, Carlisle took a deep breath and sparked back to life as he shook his head quickly, then stopped, rolled his shoulders back, and announced, "You're not going out like that."

"What?!" Carys' heart dropped.

He had to be joking. Only, she didn't think he was. He certainly didn't look or sound like he was.

"I said: you're not going out like that," he repeated.

If he'd been anyone else, she'd not be surprised if he'd stamped his foot down to emphasise his point.

"I don't think I heard you correctly, Carlisle...," Carys whispered in a harsh tone, her eyes flashing in warning. "Care to explain what exactly you mean?"

Carlisle waved his hand in the direction of her dress, and then to her hair in answer to her question.

When she put her hands firmly on her waist and raised her eyebrows, he clarified. "Your dress. Your hair."

"Be very careful what you say next, Carlisle...," Carys advised. "And remember that you intend to spend the rest of our lives together."

He threw his hands up as if his meaning was completely obvious.

"They don't match!" He complained, striding towards her. When he reached her, he took her hand and she allowed him to lead her across to the large mirror. "Look," he began, standing a little behind and to the side of her, his hands on her upper arms. He met her gaze in the mirror and indicated each in turn. "Your dress? Mid-sixteen-sixties. It's French in style, but that's fine, I can let that go. Your hair, on the other hand?" He asked, his nose crinkling as he held a curl up for inspection. "This style didn't come into style until at least sixteen-ninety-two."

Carys covered her face with her hands, sank to the floor, and laughed uncontrollably, whilst Carlisle - who didn't find the situation half as amusing as she did - dropped to his knees and spent five minutes rectifying the 'mistake' the hairstylist she'd booked had spent three hours creating.

"It's really not funny, Carys," he calmly insisted again when she was finally able to look at him without laughing. "Need I remind you, you added this to the list, and you insisted on the time period. You also promised me that if we were going to spend your twenty-third birthday at a masked ball,-" he raised his index finger in the air, "-that you would take it seriously."

"I am taking it seriously," Carys promised, smiling sweetly as she met his eye. "I mean..." She glanced to the side for a moment, then raised her fan and flicked it out so she could throw him what Alice had told her was a coquettish glance whilst she drawled, "I can assure you, Dr Cullen, I take this situation very seriously indeed." She snapped her fan closed again and glanced down as she tapped it to her shoulder the way Rosalie taught her. "As I have come to understand, there are various... Mis-steps I would be wont to indulge-"

"Carys?" Carlisle sighed with a lopsided smirk.

"Carys? Fie," she protested, tapping him on the chest with her fan. "Dr Cullen! Why, anyone would think we were-" she turned her face from him and raised her chin. "-intimate."

Carlisle snorted and ran his free hand through his hair as he looked the heavens for guidance and strength.

"Too much?"

He nodded repeatedly as he pressed his lips together.

"I... In all honesty," he told her, standing in one fluid motion and holding his hands out to raise her up. "I can't say I've ever heard anything quite... Yes. Too much."

Carys pressed her grinning face to the sleeve of his perfectly tailored coat, wrapping her free arm around his as he retained her other hand and interlaced their fingers.

A few moments later, he turned them both to face the mirror again, and her heart melted when she caught sight of his expression.

"D'you miss it?" She asked him. "Dressing like this? Seeing people dressed like this?"

"Yes," he indulged her, shaking his arm free so that he could slide it around her waist. "I hadn't realised until now, but yes."

"So... This wasn't quite such a... What was it?" She pressed a finger to her chin and glanced at the chandelier in the mirror before nodding slowly and imitating Alice: "A ridiculous or completely outdated idea?"

"She was talking about the outfits," Carlisle reminded her softly, drawing her into his arms. "But no, this wasn't a silly idea at all... However..."

"Yes?" Carys prompted when Carlisle fell into a musing silence.

"Why? May I ask...? Why, of all the things on your list, did you choose this to spend your birthday doing?"

Carys didn't need to think of the answer, she'd been expecting the question weeks before and was surprised it had taken so long to come.

"It's the first day we're actually the same age," she explained, reaching up to brush back a lock of hair that had fallen out of place when he'd run his hand through it. "And since March, I've been spending so much time with your children as well that I thought you might like to spend it alone together-or," she tilted her head this way and that, and shrugged her shoulders lightly, "-at least, half of it, because of the whole lunch and movies thing, you know? I guess when I saw this was happening, I thought it'd be nice to remind you of your own time."

Carlisle smiled. "You also liked the thought of dressing up, didn't you?"

Carys grinned and pulled away from him to twirl, bunching her skirts up a little so that they swirled about her ankles. "Yeah," she admitted happily as she came to a stop and waved both hands towards him in an exaggerated motion. "But I also wanted to see this! I mean! Damn. Carlisle. Look at this!"

"I mean," Carlisle chuckled proudly, tucking one foot behind the other as he posed and turned in a slow circle. When he came to a stop, he shrugged and adjusted his coat in several places. "What can I say?"

"You can say-" Carys hopped towards him and pressed up onto her tiptoes to close the gap between their faces. Carlisle's hands moved to her waist. "-that you know full well nobody, and I mean, nobody, was coming to your church just for the sermons."

Carlisle's jaw dropped, but he didn't manage to sound quite as censorious as he clearly wanted to when he argued, "You've been spending too much time with Emmett, he's rubbing off on you."

"Maybe...," Carys admitted with a smirk.

She had been spending much of her time - when she wasn't at work or with her friends - with the Cullens for the past few months, hanging out with Emmett, trying to get Rosalie to admit she didn't dislike her as much as she pretended to, helping Alice to build her wardrobe for five seasons' time - mostly by judging her sketches, getting to know Edward and Bella better when they were about, chatting with Esme when she'd returned from college again, and hanging out with Jasper - though, that tended more often than not to turn into a mini-lecture about how she could develop her natural abilities when he got too excited about the prospect.

"Or, and this is, you know, another option if you will? Maybe? Maybe I'm just dating a very sexy vampire, who used to be a very handsome pastor?"

Carlisle buried his head in her neck. "You really shouldn't say things like that, darling," he laughed against her skin.

"Why? It's true."

"Perhaps, and, like you, I'm merely offering another option? Most people don't go around lusting after men of the cloth?"

Carys' grin slowly faded away as she focused on smoothing his collar.

"Perhaps...," she whispered, hiding her face from him when he pulled back and tried to assess her expression. When he asked what was wrong and settled her into his embrace, she sighed and fiddled with one of the buttons on his waistcoat instead. "Perhaps... They did if they were being courted by them...?"

"Perhaps," Carlisle agreed, dropping a kiss to the top of her head. "Though, in my time, it would be far more acceptable to engage in lustful thoughts, if it was clear we were going to be married one day."

Carys met his eye and half-smiled, half grimaced.

"You don't mean like getting engaged or anything, do you?" She asked hurriedly when he raised his eyebrows in confusion at her expression. "I mean, it's on the list-" twice, she added to herself, as Carlisle hadn't quite checked the last filled page before he'd added it. "-but we've not actually been together for all that long, and I-"

Carlisle interrupted her by reaching into the inner pocket of his coat to remove a box.

"Happy Birthday, my love," was all the indication he gave her of what was inside.

Carys' gaze darted between him and the box a few times before she finally took it from him and opened it, gasping softly as she saw what was inside.

Two small pendants rested on either side of the box. The larger of the two, a small crucifix made of gold, the smaller, a pearl that matched the colour of the ones that hung from her earlobes to a shade.

"Carlisle, they're beautiful," she whispered, sliding her fingers gently over them.

"You like them?" He asked nervously.

Carys felt tears sting her eyes as she continued to stare at them, and when she looked back up, she met his gaze directly.

"I love them," she insisted softly, drawing him down for a kiss.

When they separated, she let out a small watery laugh and blinked back her tears before they fell.

"Sorry," she murmured, "I don't know why I'm getting so emotional about them."

"I think you might... Why do you think you are?" He asked her, rubbing his thumbs back and forth as he held his hands to either side of her waist.

Carys sniffed gently and kissed his cheek again. "Because I know you? And so I know these must mean a lot? 'Cause you gave me these," she explained, touching one of the earrings again, "and-"

"They ended up going on the didn't think list when you found out how much they were worth?"

"You put them on there when you had them valued, not me. But no, and, so I know the sort of present you'd give me last year when we were just friends. You gave me these now,so they must mean more to you. And they really are beautiful, Carlisle, thank you."

"I didn't have them strung because wanted to give you the option of a chain, cord, or ribbon. That's what they were originally hung on, so I'm told."

"So you're told?"

"Well... I never met her, but... Well, do you remember the cross I took from my father's church?"

"The pretty hard to miss one right in the middle of your hall? I'm somewhat familiar," she teased.

"Well, that wasn't originally what I went back for," Carlisle explained, staring wistfully at the box she still held open in her hands. He met her eye and smiled as his eyes filled with venom. "Those were. I... My mother. She died when I was born as many women did, but she made sure to leave them to me... They made up part of her wedding gift. I hoped, if you liked them-and only if you truly do-"

"I love them, Carlisle," Carys managed to whisper past the lump in her throat.

Carlisle pulled her closer, lifting her onto her tiptoes as his expression turned hopeful. "You do?"

"I do."

"Well good, then... Yes. Good." He nodded and smiled so brilliantly, Carys thought it might have been the most beautiful thing she'd seen in her life. "Well, I hoped you might have them now, as a... Symbol, I suppose? Not a ring, but-well, I suppose if we are to marry one day, I'm simply giving them to you a couple of years early."

Carys slowly closed the box. "I'll only wear them on special occasions-," she began to promise before Carlisle cut in.

"No," he insisted gently, "no, these were what she wore most days, from what I remember my father telling me once, but..." He frowned in concentration for a moment and then shook his head. "It's not as clear as I would like. He only spoke about it the once, when I was old enough to receive them, but I remember him saying that he couldn't see why she'd left those ones."

Carys trailed her fingertips slowly over his cheek and jaw.

"Why do you think she left them?" She asked, wondering if her own thoughts matched his.

"I think she did it so that I would have a part of her," he told her, his voice wavering. "The real her."

"That sounds like a very Carlisle thing to do," she replied, her gaze softening further when his brilliant smile returned.

"Do you really think so?"

"No, I know so."

Carlisle lifted her from her feet, and she had an instant of weightlessness when he let go of her waist to wrap his arms around her, catching her in the air to settle her tightly against his hard chest.

They held each other for a long while, wanting nothing other than to continue their embrace, until Carlisle finally drew back and fixed her with a look of intense worry and apology.

"What's wrong?" Carys asked, alarmed by his expression.

"We're late," he explained, nodding over her shoulder at the clock. "We were late before, but-" He returned her to her feet, checked his phone and frowned. "-I should have had a call from the driver by now-"

"Oh, don't worry about that," Carys told him as she waved a hand and turned away, walking towards the sofa as she stared down at the open box. "I called to cancel it when you were in the shower."

Carlisle dropped his phone back into his pocket. "Why? I thought you wanted to go?"

"There's always next year."

"Then why did we spend hours driving across to Seattle and get dressed up?" He asked, not nearly as bothered by the prospect of staying in as his words might have suggested as he walked across to the sofa and sank down beside her.

"To paraphrase you, my love, I had the chance to spend my birthday with you-and, I mean the original you-, so why wouldn't I take it?"

A/N: So... There you have it. Twilight is now complete, and in two to four weeks, I'll be back with New Moon. This story took a few detours from my original plans, so I just need to take a break and think about how parts of New Moon are going to go, but I'll be back soon!

Thank you to everyone who's read this story, even for one or two chapters, and especially to everyone who's stuck with it up until now. I hope I didn't scare anyone off with the end of the last chapter! I would thank everyone who's favourited and followed by name, but I think that might be a bit much...

So, I'll say thanks, as always, to the reviewers: castleiris, Jane (if you want the answer, check the top!), souverian, Ella (don't worry!), Adela (very glad to hear it!), BMBMDooDoo- Doo - Doo - Doo - Doo (yup! I'm following them all the way through!), BrambleBranches (I'm so honoured you've reviewed then! Thank you so much for your review - I definitely don't deserve the praise, but it made me tear up a little!), Guest (thank you!), carlapaz. astroza (I promise it's not what you might be thinking!), Ella (I agree - that's actually going to come up at the start of New Moon, and was in the flashback too - that Carys kind of takes charge about that problem!), LarissaValentiMeedachi2613, KEJunge, and InSincerely (I will happily continue to have both shoes, no LEGO, hang all my canvases straight, and have unbent spoons, I promise).