Author's Note: Thanks everyone for the lovely reviews and follows! I've also published a few New Moon related short stories on my profile this week if you'd like to read more of my work.

I'm happy with the direction The Gift is taking, but also feel like it's veering off from the characters a bit. I do want Edward & Bella to be normal teenagers and curse and live a little, especially now that they can share thoughts, but I don't want this to go totally crazy OOC in future chapters, so we'll see what happens.


We had barely walked in the door of the Cullen's house when Esme grabbed Edward & me in a hug. "I'm so happy for you both!" she exclaimed as she let us go to look at us together. I was positive if vampires could cry, Esme would be crying tears of joy. "Thanks mom." We said together, smiling at her.

"How did you know she said yes?" Edward asked.

"I knew she would. It's clear how much you both love each other. But also, check your phone." Esme said with a laugh. Edward pulled his phone from his pocket and shook his head, laughing. He showed me. It was a group text from what I assumed was Alice to the entire family "Edward I'm so happy for you!" and a bunch of emojis.

"Of course the little pixie would see Bella saying yes before I would." Edward smiled and helped me remove my coat to hang by the door. "Will they be here soon?" he asked Esme.

"Within the hour." she said, clearly excited. I was excited to see them all again too. It had been too long.

Edward led me up to his room to help him wrap the gifts we had gotten for everyone. He sat down beside me on his couch. We laughed as we each reached out a hand to put on the other's face at the same second. "Looks like we don't need to be linked to read each other's mind sometimes." I said with a smile as I looked into his sparkling golden eyes.

We spent a while together just enjoying our shared connection. Neither of us could remember ever feeling this happy. Well, Cullen. I thought after a few minutes. You should be pleased with yourself. You know how much I don't like gifts or expensive things and yet you have two of your rings on my fingers. I could feel the happiness Edward was radiating at that thought even without our connection.

I smiled at him and pulled him closer to me for a kiss. So, since we're getting married, when can we start talking about the honeymoon? I thought, picturing us both naked in bed. I felt his arousal in my mind in an instant as he kissed me a little more intensely. Tease, he thought.

"The family is here, love." He spoke out loud.


"Honey, I'm hooooome!" yelled Emmett as he walked into the house. Edward took my hand and we walked downstairs to greet them together.

"Having fun, kids?" Jasper asked of us with a wink as he registered our emotions. Edward smiled back at him and looked down in a way that told me he might have blushed if he were human.

Alice grabbed me in a hug so tight I couldn't breathe for a second. "Bella! I've missed you so much! We have a lot of catching up to do!" she said loudly in my ear. "I missed you too Alice."

"Edward!" she screamed as she grabbed him in a hug as well. "I'm so glad you finally came to your senses. Don't you ever doubt me again when I tell you something has already been decided." She whispered more sternly. "I won't." he replied.

"Bella." Jasper said approaching me. "I'm truly sorry for what happened at your party. I'll see that it doesn't happen again."

"I forgave you the second it happened. Thank you, Jasper."

Emmett then put his hand on my arm and whispered "We missed you lil sis" as he walked past me to smack Edward on the side of head so loud it echoed. I was positive he must have hurt him, but Edward just smiled. "I deserved that."

Carlisle placed a hand on my shoulder and shook Edward's hand. "Son, I'm happy to see you made the right choice to come home." He looked at me and then back at Edward and then took a step back to address us together. "If you ever replace the stick in your ass again, we're keeping Bella in your place." he said, causing the whole family to crack up laughing. I even saw Rosalie smiling a little.

The rest of the night was pretty uneventful, as nights spent with vampires go. Everyone spent a little while talking and catching up. We gave the family our gifts to them: some new video games for Emmett and Jasper, a diamond bracelet for Rosalie, art supplies for Esme and a heavy set of journals for Carlisle. Alice cornered Edward with her laptop at the first opportunity to make him order her the exact Porsche she wanted, as I laughed at them and sat down beside Carlisle and Esme.

"Bella, tell me everything you can about your shield. I'm extremely curious." Carlisle asked.

"Well, it started when we noticed that Edward could hear my thoughts sometimes when I'm extremely relaxed around him. I had never really felt that way before because I was always afraid that I wasn't good enough for him or that he was going to…leave." I whispered, looking down at the rug. "Edward & I were kissing and….he heard me afraid I was accidentally pulling his hair too hard….and then I tried to block him like you guys do because I was scared I'd embarrass myself and I accidentally started remembering some really nasty song lyrics…" I felt the blush taking over my face. Emmett was laughing hard and shaking his head.

"I never knew you had it in you kid! What song were you thinking of?" Emmett asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Um – I don't know the name of it. I just heard some kids listening to it at school and it was catchy."

"I do." Edward whispered softly. He was looking down to avoid my eyes, but I could tell that he was trying hard not to laugh for my sake. "It was Get Low. She thought about how much she likes my butt, the word 'fuck' and then started singing about her balls." Edward managed to not laugh too much until he got to the other room, where he absolutely lost his composure. I'm not sure that I had ever heard him laugh so hard. I don't think I had ever blushed this much either. I heard him step out into the yard, still laughing his ass off and trying to spare me the embarrassment.

I heard Jasper follow Edward outside, clearly enjoying his emotional high. Emmett put his hand on my shoulder and looked me in the eyes. "I bet you have very nice balls, Bella. And a great taste in music." he said before stepping outside to tease Edward some more. I hid my face in my hands and groaned.

Esme put an arm around me. "I'll have a talk to the boys about their language if you'd like, honey."

"I'm afraid I started this one Esme, thank you though." I said, still hiding my face.

Carlisle was the one to help me calm down. "I'd like to hear more about your shield if you're up to it, Bella. What happened after we talked on the phone?"

"Edward and I got home, and I started trying to visualize that I had a shield and how to remove it, and I couldn't. But then Edward put his hand on my face to kiss me, and I did the same with his, and it seems like if I'm relaxed and if we touch each other's faces we can like share thoughts back and forth. I can hear Edward too. It's like a magnet pulling him to me or a small weight going from me to him."

"Interesting. You are certainly talented, Bella. It will be interesting to see you after you've changed and how your talent develops more."

Our conversation was ended by loud laughter and thunderous noises coming from outside. "My garden!" Esme exclaimed, running out to try to break up the boys' fighting.

Alice put her arm around me and sat down beside me on the couch. "Bella, I really am sorry. After we told Edward we'd leave, which we all regret very much, I had the vision of him coming back. I knew that if I told him, he wouldn't follow through, and if I told you, I would have broken my promise to him….I called him at the airport as soon as I saw him deciding on things to do while he waited for his flight because I knew he wouldn't back out then. I had to tell him not to come straight to you that first night, because without physical proof and something you could keep with you all the time, you wouldn't have believed him and you would have panicked, Charlie would have freaked…."

"It's OK, Alice. Everything is perfect. More than perfect now. I forgive you all."