Disclaimer: I own nothing

EPOV

When I came back I could tell that Bella was close to waking. Her heartbeat was humming like a bird, fighting my venom to keep itself alive. This was the end of Bella's human life and I was utterly unprepared for what would happen when those eyes finally opened. As if on cue, the rest of my family came into the room.

Jasper was exuding excitement, anxiety, love and fear. Normally, this crazy amount of emotions would drive him over the edge, but it seemed as though some of the emotion was stemming from himself. He was eager to see Bella as a vampire.

Unfortunately for Jasper, he had the hardest time adhering to our diet of animals. He had spent many years of his life as a vampire drinking from humans. His empathetic gift was one of the biggest reasons for his change of heart, but Alice was the true motivator. He wanted to be the best man possible for her and that meant feeding from humans.

His previous indulgence in human blood made it extremely difficult to be around them and so he never got to meet Bella as a human. Though Bella was my singer, she still had a very appealing scent and Jasper thought it would be safer for everyone if he stayed far away. He had become interested in her once he could sense how I felt about her, recognizing the beginnings of a bond that would turn out to be much more than distanced curiosity.

I also gleaned that he was excited to be relieved of his place as the most bloodthirsty of the family. Jasper was a genuinely good person and I think it was a very secret burden of his to be the family member that couldn't fully control himself around human blood.

Emmett was also very excited. He saw Bella as a new sister for both himself and his wife. He had no ulterior motives and was sincerely thankful that I had someone to spend the rest of eternity with. I could only hope that Bella would be as interested in that possibility as I was.

Esme was beaming, leaning into Carlisle. She thought of me and about how our family would finally be complete. I smiled quickly at my beloved mother.

Carlisle was thinking pragmatically, as usual.

I left a bag of blood in the next room, but I was thinking maybe we should just avoid using human blood altogether. It may help take away any temptation she may have.

I nodded towards him subtly. Anything at all that could make this easier on her is what I would do.

Rosalie surprised me a bit—she was obviously fearful and slightly jealous of Bella. She thought Bella was beautiful and wondered if Bella's beauty might surpass her own. Aside from these rather self-centered thoughts there was also a current of excitement running through her. Rosalie harbored no ill will towards Bella. If anything, Rosalie had determined that she would take Bella under her wing and protect her from anything and everything. After all, it wasn't Bella's fault I had chosen this life for her. I was very glad for Rosalie's decision to befriend Bella, since her stubbornness tended to make all decisions final.

Alice was positively vibrating next to Jasper. I could tell she was just about to jump out of her skin with anticipation. I knew how hard it was for her to rein it in when she had seen so much in all of our futures that directly involved Bella. I saw Bella and Alice together in many different scenarios flashing across Alice's mind, and in all of them they seemed genuinely content. Alice flashed me a gorgeous smile.

"It's time" she whispered.

All of us listened as we heard Bella's heart slow to an agonizing pace before beating for the last time. We held our breaths as Bella took her first breath in. She seemed to hesitate and then exhaled as her eyes opened as wide as saucers.

I was more alive than ever as my eyes raked across this beautiful girl's body. I felt like a plucked tension wire, trembling and waiting to snap. I didn't know what to do as she wiggled her fingers and slowly brought her hand up to look at with her new, improved vision. She swiftly reached down, feeling the area where the van and truck had nearly severed her in two and found it whole and smooth under her shirt.

Suddenly her eyes locked with mine. I was frozen and terrified while my body pulsed with energy and anticipation. Why had she looked at me first? Was she as aware of me as I was of her? Her brows furrowed as she looked at me.

"Was that real?"

She jumped at the sound of her voice, which hadn't changed much but had taken on that ethereal quality all vampires shared.

"Was what real, Bella?" I asked.

She sat up swiftly and was by my side in less than an instant. Seemingly undisturbed by her superhuman speed, Bella reached out to touch my face. Her hand sent a warm current through my body and I shuddered involuntarily. Her eyes opened wider as she looked at me.

"Were you really here the whole time? Did you…was I…" her voice trailed off as she heard Alice clear her throat behind her.

In an instant, Bella crouched in the corner of the room, her eyes blazing red. She was clearly frightened, though I couldn't say what was truly happening inside her mind as it was still silent to me. I had lost the sound of her heartbeat and the brown of her eyes, yet the most infuriating feature of this young woman lingered in her immortality.

"Hi, Bella. Do you remember me?" Alice asked in the most quiet and soothing voice she could muster.

Bella nodded from the corner. She stood up slowly, but the wary look in her eyes persisted. She took a step away from the corner and looked at me again with so many questions in her eyes.

Still conflicted, I took a step towards her. I held my hands up in a way that I hoped signaled that I meant her no harm.

"Bella, do you know what happened to you?"

"What happened to me? I…remember a van coming towards me in the school parking lot and…I think it hit me," she started to curl in on herself and sunk back into the corner of the room repeating the words, "why can't I cry?" over and over again in a hushed, panicked tone.

I could see Alice flashing me visions of the different ways this next part could pan out. I was used to navigating these images but with Bella being a temperamental newborn there were endless possibilities as to how she would react. It seemed if there was going to be a hysterical breakdown, it was going to happen now. I had to try to make her feel as comfortable as possible to stop her from truly falling apart and risk her running away or shutting us out.

"Alice, do you mind taking the rest of the family downstairs? I think I need to explain some things for Bella and it'd probably be easier if it was just us."

The visions slowed in her mind and I could see that I was on the right track. Alice smiled and nodded at me while ushering the rest of my family out. I knew they were slightly disappointed but I had brought this upon Bella and I needed to be there for her. If that meant asking my family to leave as I explained things then so be it. Alice gave a reassuring look towards Bella as she shut the door but Bella was still cowered in the corner looking at the ground.

Once my family cleared the room, I waited for a moment. I didn't want to overwhelm her but I also knew that there had to be a million questions buzzing through her mind and I desperately wanted to set her mind at ease.

"Bella, I'm not going to hurt you. You can trust me." I paused and let me words sink in. I was going to calm her down and explain myself if it was the last thing I did. "Please, if you just sit next to me, I promise I will answer all of your questions truthfully".

She looked back up at me with the strangest expression on her face.

"Am I dead?"

She wasn't cutting corners. I inhaled deeply to comfort myself and prepared to tell her about the worst thing I had done in all my life.

"You did die, Bella. The van almost severed your body in two pieces."

With this comment, Bella's hands flew to her waist once again. I could tell she was working through the last events of her human life to figure out what had happened between now and then. I decided to continue.

"You were going to die and I couldn't let that happen. I saved you, but that interference had some very serious consequences."

I paused to let her absorb what I had just said. She seemed to be thinking very hard while looking at various parts of her body—her arms, her legs, her hair.

"Edward, I…I don't understand. If I died then how am I here? Whole? Alive?" her voice trembled.

If I could still cry, I would have shed a tear for this poor girl. In my selfishness, I had sentenced her to an eternal half-life. What kind of monster was I?

"Bella, you are a vampire. My family, we are all vampires, every one of us. I was able to save you because I am not human, but unfortunately, in order to save you I had to take away your humanity as well."

"So it was real. All of it," She stated.

Again, she was talking about reality and I was lost. Times like these made me so frustrated by her silent mind. I relied so heavily on my gift that I truly didn't know how to interpret words at face value. It was unnerving to have to understand to what she said aloud without seeing her mind's true intentions.

"Bella, all of this is real, I promise. What do you mean real?"

I'm certain that if she were still human, she'd be blushing. My interest was piqued once again as I wonder what could possibly make her embarrassed right now.

"I thought that I was in a coma, losing my mind. I kept hearing your voice, telling me all these crazy things. I heard your family and thought my mind had devolved into this twisted, elaborate world of senselessness. I thought the burning was my body dying and the voices were my mind's way of coping. I'm an idiot."

I wanted to rush to her side and comfort her, but I thought it might frighten her.

"You aren't crazy. I sat with you while you turned as much as possible. I didn't know you could hear me. What do you remember me telling you?"

Bella paused for a moment before answering.

"Everything."