55 years Later
It was summer in Alaska.
The trees swayed in the breeze, carrying the scent of pine.
Rosalie Hale lie, peacefully daydreaming, in a field of dandelions. The heat of the sun penetrated into her shimmering, marble skin, warming her from the inside out.
Her mind drifted through the glory of her life.
Both of her lives.
Human and undead.
She pondered the moments in which her heart scattered on the ground and traced her journey to the present contentment she experienced now.
So many years spent reliving the past.
So much time wasted by dissatisfaction.
It had been so long since she was unhappy that she could scarcely remember the feeling of it, even with her perfect, vampiric memory.
Now, here, alone.
This was bliss.
As fate would have it, in this moment, so beautiful, and serene, Alice arrived.
Her solemn expression spoke a thousand words.
As if Rosalie were the clairvoyant, she knew what her sister was going to say.
"It's Bella, isn't it?"
Alice looked away sadly.
"Yes. She's... waiting for you."
Those words brought her immense forboding, as she understood the underlying meaning.
After accepting words of strength and sympathy from her family, Rosalie vanished into the forest.
When she walked through the door, somber, tall, and just as beautiful as the day they met, Bella smiled softly.
Her eyes didn't work as well as they did decades ago, but she was thankful she could bare witness to the blonde's beauty one last time.
"Rosalie Hale," she murmured hoarsely. "It's been so long."
The vampire's eyes watered upon seeing her beloved mate.
She was much older now, but somehow even more beautiful than she was five and a half decades ago.
The gray hair and wrinkles on her face told a tale of wisdom, motherhood, and a life lived well. Her cloudy brown eyes lit up with memories a lifetime could not erase.
Rosalie rushed to her side and grasped her outstretched hand gently. As if she would break at the faintest touch.
"Yes...much too long."
Bella watched the sadness pass over her face like a shadow. She knew why, but didn't understand. She had come to terms with death. Made amends with the fleeting nature of life.
"Rose. Rose. Rose," she tsked, chuckling. "There is no need to be sad. I've lived a long, happy life."
The vampire forced a smile.
"Tell me about it, then. What did I miss?"
Bella's face lit up and her eyes became distant as she thought back on her life. There was so much to say, and she had so little energy nowadays.
"The best parts of my life are my wife and my hooligans. Angie and I were married for nearly fifty years. We had two wonderful children. Jonas was the first and Lillian was the second. She gave us four, gorgeous grandbabies," she said, turning to give her a meaningful look.
"Lillian? As in..."
Her mate squeezed her hand gently.
Rosalie stopped breathing as venom pooled in her eyes. "You named her after me?"
Bella nodded, smiling.
"Why?"
"Well, Angie talked me into exploring whether I could have children a second time and, after a few miscarriages and a lot of money, it finally worked. Although, I nearly died having her," she said, looking away.
"I thought it was only right to name her after my first love. Because even after I'm gone, my baby girl will still be here. In the same way that after you left, the love between us remained. And that love...I wouldn't trade it for anything."
Rosalie kissed her hands softly, feeling a swell of emotion at her words. The idea that Bella had a child and grandchildren filled her with happiness. Her own flesh and blood. A piece of her that would live on.
One who carried the vampire's name.
"There is no greater honor I could recieve," Rosalie said sincerely. "Thank you."
"It was the very least I could do."
Bella touched her face.
She wanted to carry the feeling of her cool skin with her to whatever existed after life ended. Her fragile human brain could scarcely recall the many years she spent memorizing it.
Her frail fingers traced the perfection of her features with reverence as she faintly remembered their moments together.
Thinking back, Bella recalled the bitterness she felt towards her, but she knew that the love overpowered all of the bad.
Always.
"Now that you're...Do you want to know what I am," Rosalie asked, remembering that the human once desperately wanted to know.
Bella chuckled. "I've always known what you are, my Rose. That was never in question."
"What do you mean?"
When the blonde frowned in confusion, she continued.
"You're my soulmate. The one made for me. You're my sadness. You're my greatest hearbreak," she whispered, caressing her cheek.
"Most of all, you're my eternal love."
The vampire peered into her watering eyes with a heavy heart. She was on the verge of breaking down, but she could not allow it. Her mate needed her.
"Do you know how much I loved you, Rosalie Hale? Do you know how much I still love you?"
Rosalie nodded, closing her eyes tightly.
When she opened them, tears trailed down the other woman's face slowly.
"I never told Angie, but...I had dreams of you almost every night," Bella said, sniffling. "Dreams where we were back in my house, together. Just living. That's all I wanted, back then."
The blonde was silent, loathe to interrupt her as guilt and regret crept into her psyche.
"Sometimes, when I was feeling depressed, I regretted not leaving with you when you came to my house. But now, after the life I've had with Angie, I have no regrets at all. You understand what I mean?"
"I do," Rosalie said, her lips tugging into a smile. "I really do."
Bella believed her.
She noticed the change in her now. She was lighter than she'd ever seen her.
"You've been happy, too, haven't you," she asked, grinning widely. That's all she ever wanted for her.
Rose nodded, chuckling.
"Ever since we last saw each other. I don't know what it was, but I've been so much more content with my life."
Bella smirked, patting her hand.
"That's because you learned what unconditional love feels like," she said, wisdom oozing from her tone. "It's the lack of expectation. It is freedom. And you freed us both-"
Rosalie flinched as Bella's small, frail body shook with the force of a violent cough. Her instincts screamed at her to protect, to nurture, but there was nothing she could do.
How can one kill mortality?
How can one defeat a natural death?
Turning her was a lost cause now.
All she could do was hold her hand through it.
When Bella regained control of her lungs, she looked utterly exhausted.
The sight broke Rosalie's heart.
For, she looked and sounded as if she were fighting for each breath so that she might extend her time on Earth. Just to have more time with her long lost love.
Not the one that got away, but the one she forced away, so that they both might find peace.
"I've got one foot in the grave," Bella whispered, struggling to speak now. "But I'm with you, Rose. In the end...I'm with you."
Rosalie struggled to keep it together, but she had to be strong.
The sound of her heartbeat would forever be etched in her mind, like a bell's toll, ringing slower and slower as it came to a stop.
Her mate already smelled of death.
It caused her unimaginable pain, but she fought through as her purpose became clear.
"Bella, I love you with all that I am. I have loved you from the moment I saw your face and I love you now," she said, kissing her forehead. "And I will continue to love you even after you leave this world behind."
Bella closed her heavy eyes as she felt coldness creeping up from her toes, into her legs.
"And I love you, Rose," she said quietly. "Infinitely."
She was exhausted. Sleep called her like a Siren, but she fought it with what little strength she had left in her aching body.
She couldn't leave.
Not when her love was finally here.
Where she belonged all along.
"It's okay," Rosalie said, holding back a sob. "I'm with you now. You can let go."
Bella squeezed her hand harder than the vampire thought possible and cleared her throat.
"Keep talking, Rose," she slurred. "I'm so tired."
The vampire thought for a moment, trying not to notice the similarity of their body temperatures.
"I never told you this, but when I first met you, I was so damned nervous," Rosalie said, shaking her head.
The human chuckled quietly, smiling as best as she could. "Rosalie Hale doesn't get nervous."
"True, but you were so mature for your age, and intelligent and beautiful that it intimidated me. Me, of all people. There was something about you that screamed...the rest of my life."
The sound of light snores reached her ears but Rosalie continued, lost in the past.
"I knew within a fraction of a second that you were the one who could make or break me. But, it turns out you did neither. Instead, you healed a part of me that I had no clue was broken. You made me aware of my own faults and forced me to fix them. You saved me."
Silence.
It echoed in the sterile, lifeless hospital room.
As it filled the vampire's ears, the light yellow walls faded to gray.
She knew why.
Her home had just left this existence.
Rosalie Hale turned to her beloved with watery eyes, and kissed her cold, fragile hands.
"Isabella Marie Swan, you were right. You are my soulmate. More than that, you are my greatest blessing," she whispered hoarsely, her eyes stinging with venom tears.
The beeping of the heart monitor did not deter her from gently pecking her love's lips, one last time. For the first time, they were colder than her own.
She stood up, hearing the sound of the nurse's feet padding down the hall.
"I promise I will remember you and all of the love it took to get us here."
With those words, the blonde walked away, shrugging past the nurses and doctors.
Further down the hall, she silently passed a tall, blonde man, and a brunette woman. The second with familiar, chocolate brown eyes, flecked with gold and a face so similar to her mother's that it was like traveling back in time.
Rosalie stopped to watch them enter Bella's room. The sound of their weeping met her ears soon after.
"At least she went peacefully," Jonas said, wiping a tear from his eye.
Lillian Swan placed her forehead against her mother's and closed her eyes tightly.
Her mother had been suffering, barely holding on to life, for the last five years. Ever since their mom died. Finally, she was able to let go.
Even knowing her mother was in pain, it was difficult to accept that the woman who fought to bring her into this world and loved her endlessly throughout her life was gone.
"Thank you for showing us what love is supposed to look like," she whispered hoarsely. "Thank you for what you endured to get me here. I love you, and so do your grandchildren. I can only hope to be as good of a mother as you were."
Jonas rubbed his little sister's back, trying to sniff away the tears, but failing miserably.
"You are, Lillian. You are."
A sad smile spread across Rosalie's face as she was filled with peace and understanding.
Their storied past was now imbued with glorious purpose. Bella's numbered days held more meaning than a shared eternity ever could.
Every ounce of pain.
Every second filled with regret.
Every aching moment of longing she ever felt.
All of the love it took for Bella to leave her. All the love it took Rosalie to let her go, converged to meet them here as they departed forevermore.
In the end, even as Bella's shadow burned across her heart like embers tide paper...
Rosalie Hale did not have a single regret.
