Ch. 41 Barf Fest

"Iris? Are you even listening to me? I swear you're the most selfish child I've ever met."

I was gasping, tears streaming down my face. "Mom?" Where was I? I looked around. I was standing at the front door of my old apartment, the one I lived in right after I had emancipated myself. And I was...human?

"Don't call me that. That title is reserved for my daughter, and you're not my daughter anymore, not since you went to court and made sure that you were free of us. Your poor father will never recover from this. You've basically killed him. Are you satisfied now?" I couldn't really pay any attention to what she was saying. Where was Edward?!

"What year is it?" What had happened? Had I really dreamed it all? No fucking way. There was too much detail. I could still remember his scent, the feel of his skin...

"Excuse me?" My Mother glared at me, and pursed her lips.

"I'm a brat. I get it. Whatever, but what year is it?" I was practically yelling at her. What the fuck was going on? How had I gotten here?

"Are you on drugs? Oh, I'll make sure Judge Cohen is aware of this. Goodbye, Iris." She turned and left, but I couldn't be bothered with her. I was more annoyed that she hadn't answered my question.

I slammed the door closed and dashed to my room. I paused when I caught sight of myself in the mirror. I was young again. How young, I wasn't sure, but very young.

I continued until I reached the bed where I yanked the top drawer of the bedside table open and pulled out the copy of "Twilight" which had long ago become a permanent fixture there for my nightly reading. I skimmed through it, reading brief sections to make sure it was the same. It all looked right...Bella got to Forks ok. She met—I paused at Edward's name, running my hand along it reverently. Edward...my everything...They fell in love. I sat down on the bed, holding my face in my hands as I cried. What the hell? Why was I here? How was I here? Did the Volturi finally kill me? Was I like a cat with nine lives or something? Was this my punishment, knowledge of what true happiness felt like, but never able to attain it, and trapped forever in true grief?

I threw the book angrily on the bed and ran back to the wall where my simple bookshelf sat. I looked for "Breaking Dawn" but it wasn't there. Shit. What the hell? I always kept it there if I wasn't reading it. I have to figure this out. I have to know he's safe, if the story went back to how it was supposed to. I would deal with whatever the hell was going on with me after that. I had to know that I hadn't really gotten him killed. He had to exist somewhere. He had to.

I ran out the door, and down the street to the corner where I knew there was a convenience store. I snatched a newspaper off the stand, and searched the top for the date—April 27, 2006. There was no book in my apartment because there was no book yet. It hadn't been written. What the fuck? How did I get here, back to the "real world?" Did that mean that Edward was safe? Was he happy with Bella now? I could breathe—miserably, but still—as long as I knew he was ok. I knew how that story would play out.

"You have to pay for that." I looked over to see the store clerk watching me carefully. It's 2006. I'm a sixteen year old, with no shoes on since I had left in such a hurry, staring at a newspaper, almost crinkling the paper from clutching it so tightly, so, of course, he would assume I was about to steal it.

"Sorry..." I mumbled to him, still in shock. How did this happen? How did I get here? Why was I so young? Why now? Where was Edward? Was he really ok? If he was ok, I'd be ok...somehow. He had to be ok...shit.

Oh God. It was hitting me what had just happened. How did it get to that? Why would he be killed that way? He wouldn't have just showed up and turned himself in. Edward. My love. He was gone. And even if he lived on somehow in the novel, I didn't know how to get back to him. Should I even try? At least Bella didn't get him killed...No, Iris, stop it. He loved you—loves you. You have travelled through time somehow, crossed universes for a second time, which means you can do it again.

I rushed back to my apartment, not stopping until I reached my bed, feeling more hopeful than before, but still scared shitless that I may be kidding myself.

Ok, Laurent and the weirdos in the light said I neutralize myself. How to neutralize? As a vampire I was focusing on my emotions and the direction I wanted to go. Could I do that now? Even when I was in Bella, I was actually a vampire and didn't realize it...last time I was human, I had to be shot and nearly died...could I do that again? No. Yes, ok, I would do it for him. Let's hope it didn't come to that. It would be my last resort...

To bring myself here, I was feeling loss. Maybe to get back, I needed to feel love. Think of Edward. There is no greater definition of love than him. I picked up my old, tattered book back off the comforter by my feet, opening it to the scene in the meadow. I read as Bella described the way his skin felt under her fingers, about the way his lips moved as he sung quietly to himself, about the way he shone in the rays of warm sun against his skin...Edward, I will find you...I was fully relaxed as I laid the book down and thought of my own memories of him off the page and slowly drifted to sleep...

•PTaT•

"This is a great movie, isn't it?" I opened my eyes to see my friend Abby looking over at me. I hadn't seen her since she had transferred units back in 2009...? I glanced around us. We were in a movie theater, and a scene with the Volturi was playing...I shuddered...It was the end of "New Moon." Yup 2009. Shit. Why was I here? Doesn't matter. The point is that I AM here. I did it. I can do it again.

I gave Abby a thumbs up, and motioned quietly that I was trying to watch the movie. I watched the actor playing Edward and wanted to laugh. He had him all wrong. The real deal was so much better...I laid my head back, and let the darkness flow over me again. Edward...I'm coming.

•PTaT•

"Let's go NOW." I heard Edward—my Edward—yell.

I opened my eyes, and I was in the Cullen dining room. Why here? Who the hell cares! Edward was alive! I was here! I did it!

"Edward?!" I shouted as I jumped up to run toward the sound of his voice. I was much slower than I would have hoped because I seemed to still be human. What the...? No time.

I heard something crash to the ground, and then a gasp. "Iris?!" Alice and Edward both ran to me.

"Iris? What happened?!" Edward scooped me into his arms, holding me to him tightly before he released me just as quickly. "You're human?! How?"

"Human?" Carlisle said as he and Esme appeared beside me.

Alice inspected me closely, confounded. "I just saw you get killed! How are you here?!"

"Does it matter?" I laughed at both of them, giddy with joy. Edward was here! I was here with Edward, my Edward! Holy shit...Suddenly there were tears in my eyes as my laughter turned to sobbing. I felt like I might have a mental breakdown from everything I had gone through in the last 24 hours...the last couple of years actually. Total emotional overdrive.

Edward was overjoyed and then instantly frantic when I started to bawl. "Shh...love, I'm here. What happened?" He pulled me back into his arms, kissing me everywhere he could reach as he moved to the living room to sit on the sofa. Jasper came upstairs from the direction of his study, and I felt his steady flow of calm rush over me. Emmett and Rosalie came downstairs, obviously having made up based off the goofy grin Emmett was wearing.

Bella and Jacob came around the corner then too. "Iris? Is that you?!" Bella was smiling ear to ear.

"I...you...they...and...you were...you..." My breath was hitching. I felt like I might hyperventilate. Edward was alive. I was here. We were ok for now. Though the Volturi May be after us soon if we didn't come up with something. When was this? Was there another me—a vampire me—out there? Was she waiting for Edward to save her?

"What happened to her?" Carlisle was instantly at my side, looking me over for injury.

"Slap her!" Emmett shouted which earned him several glares and a growl.

"Love? Iris? Breathe, baby. You're ok. I'm here...that's right. Deep calming breaths." He was holding either side of my face like he did in the airport, so all I could see was him. So much better looking than movie Edward...

He chuckled, relieved at my thoughts as they calmed. "What have you been up to?" He kissed my forehead and pulled me close to him. He didn't seem willing to let me go yet. "Never." He responded to my thoughts again.

"They killed you. The Volturi. You were dead." There was silence in the room. "I must have gone into shock when it happened...I don't know. I just remember not being able to think clearly. It was almost like I literally fell apart...Then I was back in my world, but it was 2006. My mom was yelling at me...I thought I had dreamed everything, but there was no way. I couldn't have. It was all too real..." I looked into the faces of each of my family members because that's what they were to me, even Rosalie who wanted to drain me dry from her bloodlust or just kill me out of annoyance most of the time. Edward smiled slightly and shook his head at me and planted another kiss on my cheek. "I figured out how to drift—not to here at first. It was 2009 in my world, but I was so happy that I did it, that I COULD do it without having to try to kill myself or something...now I'm back." I marveled at the notion. I was back. Hell yes!

"I'm so glad too. You have no idea." Edward spoke quietly to just me. He nuzzled his face into my hair and pulled me closer to him. "You were wrong, you know."

"About what?"

"Your body, your face, your mind...your everything. There's nothing plain about you. You're the most beautiful thing I have ever beheld in over a hundred years. If you had arrived here looking this way originally, I might have forgotten all my manners..." Oh God...my breathing which had finally calmed was becoming erratic once more.

"Barf Fest." Emmett and Alice said at the same time as everyone, except Edward and I, laughed together.

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