Edward has to make a split second decision. Did he make the right one?

Bella had spent the evening with the Cullens. She had been helping Alice plan, in her words 'an epic graduation party'. It had rained all evening, and she was trying to wait it out but she needed to get home. Even though school was almost out, she had two finals in the morning.

"Please call me when you get home," Edward asked her as he walked her to her truck. "Maybe I should drive you home?" He asked.

"I will be fine, it's a ten-minute drive. I will call you when I get there. I love you, Edward, see you in the morning." She kissed him and backed out of his driveway,

A few moments later they all heard the sound of screeching tires and metal hitting trees. Within seconds the Cullen men were up and out the door.

They found her truck. Bella had run off the side of the road and down an embankment. She was trapped in the twisted metal. Emmett tore off the door, Edward pulled her out and laid her on the ground. Carlisle kneeled beside her looking for a pulse.

"No pulse." He looked up at Edward, " We have to make a decision right now, if we can get enough venom into her system and pump her heart we might be able to turn her. what would she want, son?"

Edward couldn't think. He just kept hearing Carlisle's words echoing no pulse. His Bella was gone.

"Edward!" Carlisle yelled.

"Save her. Save her! Whatever you have to do, save her!" He knew she wanted to be turned eventually, they had talked about that a few weeks ago but she had also wanted to stay human a little longer. He hoped he made the right decision, he knew it was selfish, but he didn't want to be without her.

"Edward, I need you to bite her, I will pump her heart. No guarantees here, but we will try." Carlisle started working on Bella's chest. Edward fell to his knees beside her. He hesitated for a moment, questioning his judgment.

"Edward, she's gone, there is no bringing her back. This is her only chance."

Edward leaned down and swept hair off her rain-soaked face. He whispered "Bella, please forgive me," as he bit her neck and tasted her blood. He bit her again on the other side of her neck as Carlisle cracked her ribs to cycle the venom through her bloodstream. He needed this to work. Edward had been alone for so long and he had fallen so madly in love with her. They all had. She was sunshine in all of their lives, but he had never tried to turn someone without a pulse. They continued to work on her until Edward started to taste his own venom. He looked up at Carlisle, devastation filled his eyes.

"Let's get her back to the house," Carlisle ordered. "Jasper, Emmett, I need you to push her truck farther down this hill. We need to give ourselves a few days' head start. The Chief will be looking for her. We need to hide her truck." He turned away from Edward, "It needs to look like an animal got to her. There needs to be a reason why, if this works, there is not a body at the accident site." Carlisle hated to sound so callus, but they needed to cover their tracks, they needed a cover story for Bella.

Edward picked Bella up and carried her back to the house. Alice, Esme, and Rosalie are standing in the doorway.

"Move!" Edward bellowed as he pushed past them and up to his room. He laid her down on the bed, he ran across the hall to the bathroom for towels and started to dry her off. She was so wet, she must be freezing. He carefully took off her wet clothes, then dressed her in his sweatpants and hoodie he had found hanging on his closet door. Once she was dry and dressed, he tucked her into bed and gently stroked her hair. She would turn, she had to.

Hours turned to days. Edward sat vigil by her side. No one could convince him to leave her.

"I will sit with her, Edward. I won't leave for a second and if she even stirs I will call for you." Alice promised as she stood behind him. "You need to hunt, it's been three days."

"No," he snarled. "I did this! I need to be here when she wakes up."

Alice left his room wordlessly. They were all concerned. It had been three days since the accident and no change in Bella at all. Edward just sat in the chair beside her holding her hand. He blamed himself for everything. The accident, her death, and if she turned her new life as a vampire.

"Bella, please I beg you…please don't leave me. Please…please don't leave me." He murmured to her over and over.

The next day, a knock at his door startled him. The night before he had told everyone in a fit of grief-induced rage to leave him alone. He did not want to hunt, he did not want to leave her. He did not need a break or whatever else his family thought. He was not leaving until she woke up.

He glared at Carlisle as he came into the room.

"I'm not here to tell you what to do. I just came to check on Bella." He said concerned.

"No change," Edward said, defeated. It had been too long, something should have happened.

Carlisle touched her forehead, she was cold. Normally when someone was turned they burned with fever, but they were also still alive. Carlisle sighed. "I know you don't want to hear this, but…"

Edward cut him off, "Can we just wait one more day, please?"

"One more day Edward."

Sometime in the night, Bella started to stir. At first, it was just an eyelash flutter, he thought he was imagining it.

"Bella, Bella my love," he shook her shoulders. She started to moan, she was regaining consciousness.

"Ed-ward," she said, barely audible.

"I'm here Bella" She continued to mutter his name throughout the night. Carlisle came in every few hours to check her progress. She was moving her hands and feet. Edward felt such relief.

Later that day she opened her eyes for the first time in four days.

"Bella, I'm right here," he stroked her face.

"What, what happened?" She gasped. Why was everything so loud and bright? Why was she so thirsty?

"I will tell you everything, but I need you to drink this." He handed her a tall glass. She drank it as she was told and immediately the burning in her throat stopped.

She drained the glass and handed it back to him.

"You were in an accident. You must have hit some standing water on the road the night you came over to plan the party with Alice. We heard the crash from here and came looking for you." She just stared at him. "When we found you, Bella, you had no heartbeat. Carlisle checked. I had to make a decision. I know this isn't what you wanted, you wanted a life you wanted to travel…"

"What are you saying, Edward?" She cut him off.

"Bella, we turned you, I turned you." She was a vampire.

"Edward," she said quietly as she reached out to touch his face. "If my heart had stopped, my human life was over. All of those things I wanted didn't matter anymore. I… I died Edward, you saved me."

He felt the knot in his chest loosen. She wasn't angry.

"Charlie. How's Charlie?"

"He's coping. He came by the morning after the accident. They still think you are missing. We moved your truck, and they haven't found it yet."

"I can't let Charlie think I was killed in a wreck and eaten by wild animals." Edward smiled for the first time in days. Of course, she was worried about Charlie.

"Once you feel safe to be around humans, we will go over to his house and explain things to him the best we can. Carlisle agrees that it's only right to tell him the truth."

Bella couldn't believe it, she was a vampire. It's not exactly what she had planned, but she would trade all the human experiences in the world to be here now with Edward.

They had found her truck two weeks after the accident. Charlie came by himself to break the news to the Cullens. She hid up in Edward's room as she listened to him tell them Bella was gone. Esme and Carlisle had comforted him as he cried.

Bella adjusted to her new life. Everything was dialed up a notch from her human life. Sounds louder, colors brighter. Edward was teaching her to hunt, and she was learning to be around humans. They had made several trips to Seattle and back without incident. Becoming desensitized to human blood was the first thing she had wanted to conquer. It was a struggle, but she was learning to fight the urge.

As they settled into their nighttime routine one evening, Bella spoke up, "I need to go see Charlie. It's been three months, Edward. I can't let him suffer anymore."

"I will call him and we will go see him this weekend." Edward hoped she was truly ready.

Finally, Saturday morning came. Edward had made plans with Charlie to come by around ten. Edward drove, and Bella ran and waited in the woods outside her house.

Edward shook Charlie's hand as he came in the front door. He looked so tired.

"Come in Edward, sit down," Charlie said.

"Charlie, there is something I need to tell you, It's going to be tough to hear, but I need you to keep an open mind."

"O-Kay," Charlie responded.

"I'm a vampire." Charlie looked at Edward in disbelief. He decided it was best to charge on and let Charlie ask his questions later. "I have been with Esme and Carlisle since 1917. Over time we joined together with others and formed our own family. We have chosen to subsist on animal blood so we can be around humans." He looked up at Charlie. He was pale, his heart racing.

"What does this have to do with me? Did you hurt Bella?!" Charlie said with anger in his voice.

"No sir, I loved you daughter… love your daughter. That is why I wanted to talk to you. The night of the accident, my brothers, Carlisle, and I found her. She had passed as a result of the wreck. Her heart was not beating. Understand that, I would have never taken her human life, Charlie. Never." Edward cleared his throat. "Let me backup just a bit… Bella knew what I was and we had talked about our lives together. She had expressed to me that sometime in the distant future, she wanted to be like me." Edward tried to choose his words carefully. "So when we found her I made the decision to turn her."

"Turn her? You mean my little girl is a vampire?" Charlie could not believe the words coming out of his mouth.

"Yes. She was in a coma for several days, and when she woke up she was not able to be around you. Her thirst for human blood was more than she could control, but the first question to me was 'How's Charlie'? She has worked so hard to control her blood thirst because she wanted to come talk to you. She is here, outside. I want to prepare you though…she looks a little different." Charlie didn't care he wanted to see Bella.

"She may not be able to breathe around you right now, and she will be very still. It takes a lot of concentration to stay under control, and her eyes are red. That will fade over time and look more like mine, but right now, it can be a little jarring. She will also feel cold, her skin hard like marble." Charlie nodded. "I will be right here in case something happens. She is very strong, Charlie. Let her come to you. No sudden movements."

This had to be a dream from all the stress he had been under these last few months. "I want to see her."

"Bella," Edward called. Before Charlie knew what had happened she was standing in the entryway.

"Dad," she said. Charlie looked up at her.

"Bells, you're okay, you're…" He didn't know what to say.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She said smiling. "Edward, can you give us a few minutes please?"

"I will be outside." He said more to Charlie than her.

Bella sat down on the couch. "I am so sorry, Dad. I wanted to come by as soon as I woke up, but I didn't want something to happen." If Bella could cry she would have been sobbing. "I am so sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"It's okay, you're here now. Can I hug you, just once?"

"Yeah" Bella stood up, walked slowly over to Charlie, and put her arms around him carefully.

"I love you, Bells, no matter what" Charlie whispered into her hair.

They talked the rest of the morning. She was glad he knew. He understood that she may not be around as much for a while. The drama around town needed to settle down. She and Edward would come by and see him though. She promised to be around for basketball season.

"I will call you every week." She said as they all stood on the front porch. "I love you, Dad."

"I love you too, Bells. Take care of my little girl, Edward."

"I will, that's a promise"

Bella and Edward drove away from Charlie's. In some ways, she felt better. Now she knew he didn't have to grieve her death anymore, but things would never be the same. Edward reached over and kissed the back of her hand.

"Where to now, my love?" Edward asked.

"How about Paris?"

I hope you enjoyed this retelling. It was supposed to be a 10 chapter story…. Well… things changed and now there will be a part two coming soon. It's called On Razors Edge. I had planned on a different ending for this story, I posted original ending as Ch 11 if you would like to read it. I couldn't get it out of my head even though it no longer fit with this story.. All comments and feedback are greatly appreciated! Thank you again for reading