Before we begin, I feel I should be upfront about the fact that this is largely another transitional chapter, but I promise it's setting up stuff that will be important later. Plus there's some more fluff between our favorite couple, which will be in short supply when the action picks up again, so enjoy it while it lasts.
Chapter 15: First Day of the Rest of Your Life
They spent most of the night talking (with occasional breaks in which they continued testing the limits of Bella's self-control, something they both enjoyed immensely even as her restraint persisted in flying out the window the second their lips met). Still, Peter guessed he must have fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing he knew he was waking up to her cold touch on his face. Glancing around to get his bearings, he found that he was lying on the couch in a living room that was much darker than before, with all the lights turned off and the fire burned down to a dim glow. "Bella? What time is it?"
"Just before dawn. Come on, I want to show you something." She vanished while he put his shoes back on, then reappeared just as he stood up with his jacket in her hand. "It's pretty chilly up here, especially before the sun comes up."
He wordlessly accepted her offering and shrugged it on, noting as he did so that she was still wearing the same skimpy outfit from before and hadn't bothered to put on a jacket herself, or even a pair of shoes; evidently she wasn't kidding when she claimed not to feel the cold anymore. Sure enough, she didn't show the slightest sign of discomfort when they stepped out onto the rear deck, even though there was a definite nip in the air.
"So what did you want to show me?" Though it felt a bit too on-the-nose to pose the question out loud, he also wondered how she expected him to see it, whatever it was; she might have said dawn wasn't far off, but with mountains all around them and no outside lights on, it still looked very dark to him.
"Follow me."
He was about to ask where he was supposed to follow her - like the main house, the Cullens' guest house backed up to a deep ravine, so that there was nothing accessible from the rear deck except a sheer drop of hundreds, if not thousands, of feet - but before he could speak, Bella ran across the deck and jumped off, one foot pushing off the wooden railing as she launched herself into the black void. Peter ran to the railing, straining his eyes as he tried to keep her in sight, but the darkness seemed to have swallowed her whole. "Bella?!"
"I'm fine!" At least it didn't sound like she was falling; as far as he could tell, her voice was coming from a fixed point some thirty or forty feet from where he stood but at roughly the same height. "Come here," she called again, "but be careful - don't fly into the rocks."
Don't fly into the rocks - great advice if you can see them. Now questioning whether he was certifiably crazy for going along with whatever wacky scheme she had in mind, he followed her example in jumping off the railing and flew across the chasm much more slowly than usual. Although he couldn't see the rocks, he did manage to pick out the pale form clinging to them as he got closer, her alabaster skin almost appearing to glow in the darkness.
"There you are," he grumbled as he came to a stop beside her, choosing to hover rather than try to find purchase on the steep rock wall as she had. "Where are you taking me?"
"You'll see when we get there; trust me, it'll be worth it. Just fly straight up. Oh, and one more thing..." Releasing her left hand's grip on the mountainside, she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him in for a kiss that almost knocked him out of the air, causing him to sink several feet when she let go. By the time he regained the presence of mind to stop his descent, she was scaling the towering expanse of stone with astonishing speed and agility, her voice floating back down to him. "Last one to the top is a rotten egg!"
"What-? Hey, that's cheating!" Gathering his wits about him once more, he shot upward, reaching the summit just as she flipped herself over the edge.
"Looks like we tied," she observed with a barely detectable hint of disappointment.
"I guess we did," Peter agreed while finding his footing on the uneven ground, "although you should be disqualified for your underhanded tactics."
"It's not underhanded when your opponent has an unfair advantage," Bella retorted. "Vampire speed is one thing, but you can fly fast enough to break the sound barrier! How am I supposed to compete with that?"
"I don't know, but now that we're here, mind telling me why you decided to race me all the way to the top of a mountain?"
"Elle said this is the best place to watch the sunrise."
Looking around, Peter thought the blonde was probably right - the sky had lightened to a soft predawn gray, allowing him to make out the dark, hulking shapes of the surrounding peaks and ridges, and it certainly looked like their current location was the highest point within several miles - but then something much more worrisome occurred to him. "Are you sure that's a good idea? I thought vampires couldn't go out in sunlight."
"We can't - at least not where anyone can see us - but not for the reasons you're thinking. You'll see what I mean," she promised before turning to watch the eastern horizon, which was beginning to glow orange as daybreak drew closer.
"And you're positive you won't spontaneously combust?" Peter asked warily.
Glancing over her shoulder, Bella shot him an amused look. "Absolutely, positively positive." The humor faded from her expression as she added, "I wasn't lying when I told you I'm not suicidal...besides, why on earth would I want to die now?"
Still confused and apprehensive but choosing to take her at her word, he turned to face eastward as well. Together they watched the orange glow at the earth's rim growing brighter until the sun finally peeked over the horizon, casting its rays into the sky and turning the clouds pink and gold. It was a magnificent sight, but Peter only had a second to admire it before a flash of light at the edge of his vision caught his attention and he whirled around, afraid Bella had burst into flames after all...only to find that she wasn't burning. Instead, she glittered everywhere the sunlight touched her, as if her frigid flesh truly was made of ice. He watched in awe as the sun continued to climb higher, lighting up every inch of her exposed skin - even the thin strip between the waistband of her shorts and hem of her top - until she shone like a diamond statue.
Through it all, she kept watching the sun's ascent, mesmerized as it painted the sky in the most vivid colors she had ever seen and gilded the landscape with its warm glow. "Beautiful, isn't it? Have you ever seen anything so...breathtaking?"
"No, I haven't," Peter replied, and she was pleased to note that the spectacular view did indeed seem to have taken his breath away - whatever he might have given up in order to stay with her, they definitely didn't have sunrises like this in New York City.
She watched in rapt fascination as the colors shifted while the sun rose higher, never noticing that his eyes remained glued to her the whole time.
###
A short while later, when the sun rose fully over the mountaintops and the glorious dawn began to give way to regular old daylight, Bella decided she'd seen enough and agreed to return to the guest house, an idea that became much more appealing when Peter offered to carry her. Her new speed and ability to traverse even the most challenging terrain were exhilarating, but there was something uniquely thrilling about flight, especially when it involved him holding her.
"This is definitely my new favorite way to travel," she commented while taking in the amazing sight of the mountain range spread out below them.
"Are you saying I'm just transportation to you?" Peter demanded with mock indignation.
"Of course not," she said immediately, turning her head sharply to look at him and relaxing when she saw that he was only joking. "You know I wouldn't let anyone else hold me like this. I'd hate flying if it was anyone other than you." She started to lean in and brush her lips against his, then stopped herself. "On second thought, I don't want to make you crash."
"Someone thinks highly of herself."
"It made a pretty effective distraction in our race earlier," she reminded him with a slight smirk.
"You mean the race you didn't tell me we were having until you were already on the move? You caught me off guard there, but now I'm onto you." He then proceeded to prove his immunity to her wiles by making a perfectly smooth landing while engaging her in a rather enthusiastic kiss, which was interrupted by whistles and applause.
"Now that's more like it!"
Reluctantly breaking apart, they looked around to find Elle, Rosalie, and Emmett (who was the main source of the noise) watching them from the front porch.
"What are you doing here?" Bella asked with barely concealed annoyance while shifting her weight in a subtle request for Peter to put her down, which he did at once.
"Alice asked us for help bringing over the rest of your clothes," Elle began, before Bella cut her off.
"The rest of them?!"
"You didn't really think she only got you stuff for black tie galas and pajama parties, did you? She's upstairs putting it all away now if you want to change."
Bella did, very much, and eagerly made her way inside with Peter and the others trailing behind her, only to stop short when she found Jasper and Edward puttering around the living room and kitchen.
"When we saw that you were out, the guys decided to come along and assess the damage," Rosalie explained with a hint of barely suppressed laughter.
"Which I've gotta say is pretty disappointing," Emmett added. "A chunk out of a countertop, a broken shelf full of knickknacks, and you didn't even go in any of the bedrooms? What did you do all night, play chess and check your stock options?"
Briefly rendered speechless in her outrage at his nosiness, Bella finally managed to say, "Actually, I mostly just tried not to accidentally dismember the love of my life - not that it's any of your business!"
"He can heal, though," Emmett said rather dismissively, as if that negated the unpleasantness of having one's bones broken or limbs ripped off in the first place, "probably even better than we can."
"Better than you?" Peter echoed, curious in spite of the disturbing turn the conversation had taken. "What do you mean?"
"When one of us loses a piece of ourselves in a fight, we're able to reattach it with our venom," Edward answered, setting down the fragments of a broken figurine that he had been inspecting. "The venom acts as a sort of sealant or glue, repairing the tears in muscles and nerves so that full feeling and functionality are restored, but the tissues themselves can never grow back together...and as you know, when you glue something, no matter how seamlessly, there are always cracks." He picked up the figurine again to demonstrate; when he fitted the pieces back together, it almost appeared whole and undamaged, but when you looked closely enough, the tiny fissures were still visible. "It's the downside of our cellular immutability."
Peter said nothing, but looked at the vampires around him, particularly Bella, with a strange feeling of unease. After feeling how hard her skin was and seeing what they all were capable of, he'd never expected to catch himself thinking of them as vulnerable in any way, but learning that the very thing that made them so unbreakable also meant that any damage they did sustain might never truly go away put a different slant on things.
Seeing his troubled expression, she was quick to offer reassurance. "Look, it's nothing you have to worry about, okay? Like Edward said, a little venom and we're practically good as new...but if it really bothers you, how about if I just make sure I never get hurt?"
He couldn't help smiling at that. "Sounds good to me."
She smiled back, glad to have alleviated his worries. "I'll be right back." She gave him a brief kiss on the cheek before darting off in pursuit of a more appropriate outfit.
###
When she came back a short time later, dressed in dark jeans and an embroidered blouse (apparently Alice couldn't bring herself to buy plain t-shirts) with the aforementioned fashionista in tow, Emmett and Rosalie had left and Peter was eating a bowl of cereal.
"So, what's on today's agenda for my favorite new couple?" Alice chirped, looking expectantly between him and Bella.
Putting his spoon down, Peter took his time chewing before answering. "I need to go see Mom and Nathan - Matt's probably told them everything that happened in Odessa by now, but they deserve to hear from me why I'm not coming back. I should also close out the lease on my apartment, since I won't be needing it anymore."
Alice and Edward agreed that taking care of such technicalities promptly was a good idea, but Bella was clearly disappointed to hear of his plans.
"Don't be sad, Bella," Jasper said gently. "He'll be back - maybe not before you know it, but he will be back." Lowering his voice, he whispered in her ear, "He loves you too much to stay away, trust me."
"It's not that. It's just what he said about explaining things to his family, giving them closure... I wish I'd had a chance to do that with my parents. I know you guys put together a great cover story, but now they think I'm dead."
"I'm sorry, Bella." Peter reached across the bar where he was sitting to squeeze her hand while all four of her new coven-mates added their own expressions of sympathy and regret that it had to be that way. "I wish I could help."
"Maybe you can," Jasper offered, his relaxed posture perking up as a wave of inspiration hit him. "You can put thoughts into people's heads, right? What if you took Bella to visit her parents - no, listen, this could work - and made them think it's a dream? That way she gets to say goodbye without exposing our secrets."
His enthusiasm, naturally, was contagious, and the others quickly warmed to the idea. "You could use Jasper's gift too, to create the right atmosphere," Alice suggested. "Sort of surreal, but vivid enough to stick in their heads, you know?"
"And Candice's illusion power to make Bella look like her old self," Elle added, "although I don't know how well it'd hold up if they touched her, so you probably shouldn't let that happen."
"This sounds awfully complicated," Bella noted, biting her lower lip and trying not to get her hopes up. "Do you really think it could work?"
"I don't know," Peter told her, "but for you, I'm willing to try."
"Just be careful," Edward cautioned him. "If your ruse fails and Charlie or Renée should guess the truth of what Bella's become, we'll all be in danger."
"Does that mean you don't think they should do it?" Elle demanded, frowning slightly at him as Bella's face fell.
"Well, it's risky, possibly even reckless, with potentially catastrophic consequences...so of course I'm all for it," he replied with a wry grin. "You've been a horrible influence on me."
"You're welcome."
"If it helps, I don't see them having any trouble," Alice began, then frowned as another vision intruded on her scan of the near future. "Wait, I'm seeing something else... Oh! Oh, that's wonderful!" She clasped her hands together excitedly as her eyes refocused on her present surroundings. "I just saw Carlisle and Esme going into town to pick up our mail-"
Her elation over this prediction was met with a raised eyebrow from Peter, who couldn't resist asking, "Is getting the mail a high point of your day around here?"
She made a face at him before saying, "I'm sure all of you except Bella and my dear nephew remember Laurent-"
"The guy who was with that psycho James when he decided to hunt me? I remember him, all right," Elle said darkly. "What about him?"
Refusing to be put off by her grumbling, Alice happily continued. "What Carlisle told him about our lifestyle caught his interest, so after leaving James and Victoria he decided to visit our friends in Alaska, and it seems like he and Irina hit it off - they're getting married! Our invitation will be in the mailbox tomorrow."
This news met with mixed reactions: Jasper and Edward were thrilled for Irina while Elle, who'd never met her and didn't exactly have fond memories of Laurent, merely shrugged indifferently (a feeling Peter shared, though he kept it to himself), and Bella, who didn't know either of them, felt a more understated happiness. Having discovered for herself how lonely immortality could be, she was glad to hear that someone else had found the kind of love that made eternity something to look forward to.
"Good luck with your parents," Alice said to her, "and Peter, don't let Angie give you too much of a hard time about staying with us; if she does, I'll have a talk with her. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to start figuring out what we're all wearing to the wedding!"
Manhattan, NY
Peter went to his apartment first, figuring that it would be the easiest item on his agenda to take care of; only after his belongings were packed up and teleported to the Cullens' guest house, and his lease officially terminated, did he head to his family's mansion for what he expected to be a much more difficult conversation.
It started out smoothly enough as he filled Angela and Nathan in on the details of his adventure that Matt hadn't been able to provide, then veered sharply into thornier subject matter when Nathan said, "Well, I'm glad that's over. Now you can come home and start working on finding yourself a new job; I've been thinking, this could be a great opportunity for you to reevaluate your career path, get out of hospice care and finally do something-"
"I'm not coming back."
Nathan took a second to process what he'd heard, and when he did he appeared to have trouble believing it. "What? What do you mean, you're not coming back?"
"I'm not going to live here anymore," Peter elaborated, looking Nathan in the eyes so his brother couldn't doubt his sincerity. "Bella's moved to Colorado with the Cullens, and I'm going to stay with her."
"You've gotta be kidding."
"No, I'm not," Peter sighed. "I love her, Nathan...and I know she's a little different now-"
"A little different?" Nathan sputtered. "Her eyes are red, Peter!"
"Yeah, she's, uh, on a different evolutionary track than us these days, although I've been told the eye color's only temporary... Anyway, that doesn't matter to me. She's still the same person in all the ways that count."
Seeing that his mind was made up on that score, Nathan tried another tack. "So what do you think you'll do in Colorado, huh? You've never even been there, you don't know anyone there except her and the Cullens, who have their own set of peculiarities - your life is here, Pete."
"Not anymore," Peter replied, his voice as gentle as he could make it yet still unwavering in its resolve. "She's the most important thing in my life now. I don't expect you to understand-"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nathan demanded.
"I know you love Heidi, but you married her because she fit in with your plans; she wanted the same things you did, and she was willing to do what she needed to do to help you get where you are now. If she hadn't been, I don't think you would have changed your plans for her."
This observation drew some indignant sputtering from Nathan, but it soon died out under Peter's unflinching stare, because as much as he wanted to say his brother was wrong, deep down he knew the kid had pegged him more accurately than he wanted to admit. "I still think you're crazy," he muttered before looking to their mother, who had been uncharacteristically silent throughout their exchange, for support. "Ma, tell him he's crazy."
"I tried that once already, Nathan, and it didn't deter him from pursuing the path he'd chosen; I hardly think anything I say will make a difference now." She then turned a thoughtful gaze on her younger son. "You know, Peter, I've worried for a long time about what would become of you - I thought you were drifting through life with no solid goals or plans for the future - but not anymore. You seem much more sure of yourself now, and if that's partly due to the Swan girl's influence, I suppose I owe her my gratitude."
Her thoughts said more than the words she spoke, and for once she didn't try to censor them - she understood what Peter's regenerative power meant for him, and it gave her peace of mind to know he'd found a companion who shared his immortality, who would never leave him. As for future plans, what did it matter that his career was currently on hold when he had unlimited time to do whatever he wanted?
Of course, Nathan wasn't aware of any of this, since Peter had deemed it too much to dump on him on top of everything else, so he just let out an exasperated sigh and went to get a drink of water. Left alone with Peter, Angela wasted no time on further discussion of such sentimental matters, instead asking in a rather urgent undertone, "When you handed Adam over to Hiro, you said there was no indication of what he intended to do with him?"
Peter blinked at her, taken aback by the abrupt return to a subject he'd thought was closed, but went along with it; judging by the determined set of her jaw, he knew she wouldn't let it go until she got an answer. Unfortunately, there wasn't much he could tell her. "No, he didn't say and his thoughts didn't exactly spell it out, but he was confident he'd be able to keep Adam from causing any more trouble. I don't think he planned to kill him, if that's what you're getting at."
"No, based on what Kaito told me about him, I'm sure he wouldn't - which is why you can't let your guard down." Nathan returned from the kitchen at that moment, water glass in hand, forcing her to finish her warning telepathically; after all, there was no sense in worrying her eldest with it when he needed to get back to Washington and focus on expanding his influence in the government, not on hunting down and neutralizing a psychopath with messianic delusions. Peter was much better equipped to do that, and as much as she wanted to believe otherwise, Angela was afraid he would have to sooner or later. As long as he's alive, Adam will never stop.
Tokyo, Japan
The irony of his situation wasn't lost on Adam - and since his current position barely allowed him any room for movement, leaving him with only his thoughts, he had plenty of time to reflect on it. Plenty of time... The words seemed like a cruel joke now. Once he'd realized he was immortal, immune to the ravages of age as well as disease and injury, he'd never expected to see the inside of a coffin...yet here he was, trapped in such close confines that he often caught himself thinking longingly of his tiny cell back in Level Five. I didn't know how good I had it...
Cramped and spartan as they were, at least his previous accommodations had boasted a constant supply of clean, if somewhat stale, air. That was the worst part of being buried alive, as the lack of air repeatedly sent him into hypoxia; the damage was soon reversed as his cells regenerated, but he still felt its effects, felt his heart racing in an attempt to supply his tissues with oxygenated blood that simply wasn't there because there was no oxygen, the headaches, and the creeping numbness that spread from his fingers and toes each time the cycle began anew, could never stop himself from gasping for breath he knew he wouldn't be able to get...
There was no reprieve even when his healing was complete, because in those moments when his physical discomfort lessened his mind and muscles almost screamed with the burning desire to move, and the suffocating weight of the dirt above him nearly drove him mad. This time, however, something was different; as he lay there trying not to pant in relief at the temporary cessation of pain (panting, he had learned, only used up what little air he had and started the whole process over faster), he thought he heard a faint scrabbling noise overhead.
With his heart now speeding up for an entirely new reason, Adam lay as still as possible, for once not even trying to breathe as he strained his ears...and yes, it definitely sounded like someone was digging their way toward him. His lips curled into a triumphant smile; Maury Parkman hadn't been his only ally, and he should have known one of them would come for him although it must have taken them a while to track him down. After all, he was half a world away from his last known location, in the very same cemetery where dear old Kaito had been laid to rest thanks to him - yes, he thought wryly, Carp had a keen sense of irony indeed.
When his rescuer finally unearthed him (in what was actually a remarkably short time, though it felt much longer to him) the first thing he did was suck in a huge lungful of blessedly fresh air and scramble to his feet, savoring the freedom to stretch his limbs at long last. Only after he'd worked the kinks out of his muscles did he turn to face his savior, who was now standing beside him in the casket they'd broken open...and his eyes widened in shock when he realized who it was.
"Well, well... Out of all the people I'd hoped might come for me, I must admit I never expected you."
Oh dear, Adam's on the loose again thanks to...who? His unexpected rescuer's identity will be revealed in the next chapter - in the meantime, feel free to take a guess - and the second major plot arc will officially get underway.