Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer and therefore I do not own Twilight or the wonderful characters I screw with.

A Walk Through the Woods

June 5th, 2034

"Order up!" Bella hollered through the window to Sammy.

It had been more than twenty-one years since her restaurant had opened its doors to her first customers. Bella hadn't regretted a minute of it. Or at least she hadn't until two days prior when her youngest, Mirabeth, had graduated.

When the twins had graduated from high school a few years prior, she'd had a sous chef working for her who'd been able to man the restaurant while she'd gone to their graduation.

But he hadn't worked for her in more than two years. So she'd had to work during Mirabeth's graduation. Which had seriously pissed her off.

Okay, so she could have closed her diner down for the day – and part of her supposed that she should have – but she hadn't closed the restaurant once since she opened it. She hadn't been about to start.

Besides, since The Lodge had closed down in town about five years prior – after the owner, Bob, had died of a heart attack – her diner was the only real sit-down restaurant in Forks...

Okay, so it was actually about five miles out of Forks. The important detail was still true.

And today was yet another day she was regretting since she was working while her daughter was packing up her stuff so she could move to Seattle.

Because her daughter was an overachiever and was starting her college education early.

Of course, Edward was supposed to be there helping her.

In all reality, he probably was.

After all, her husband of more than twenty years hadn't had a relapse in more than eight years.

And in the last few years – mostly since her kids had gotten old enough that she felt she could risk it – there had been several stolen moments between him and her.

Some might call it a rekindling.

But, the truth was, she'd never stopped loving him.

Love had never been the problem. No, the problem between them had always stemmed around Edward's needs for his next hit. And though Bella had never blamed him for how he coped, she found the only thing that she could truly trust when it came to him was that he would eventually go back for another hit.

Even now, with him being eight years sober, she still believed it.

But, at least with all her kids grown up, she could finally try to truly be there for him again.

…

"Are you sure you want to take all of... this?" Edward waved his hands over the eight boxes they'd already packed.

"Yes."

"You're moving into a dorm, remember. They have a finite amount of space."

"I'll figure it out."

"Your mom will be happy to store stuff for you."

Mirabeth snorted. "Yeah, right. That's why she's working right now."

He frowned at his youngest. "Don't bad mouth your mom. You know her running that restaurant is what kept you and your siblings in this house with food on the table. It's also what's putting you through college."

"Humph."

Edward didn't always get Bella's need to work every single day, but he did know that it was important to her. And that her ethics were a large part of what made her who she was.

"Besides, maybe if I move out, you two will stop sneaking around like a set of adolescents," Mirabeth grumbled.

He jerked, looking at her in suspicion. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Da-aad. I'm eighteen. I know what parentals sneaking in at random hours of the night means."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he muttered again, ducking his head slightly.

"Suuure."

Sometimes he wasn't sure where Mirabeth got her attitude. Other times, he wondered if it was how he would have been in another life.

He got back on topic so as to avoid what she was suggesting. "How big is the dorm room you're moving into? Aren't you going to be sharing it with another?"

She shrugged. "It's big enough, and yes."

He wasn't impressed with her non-answer, so he arched an eyebrow at her.

After a moment, she glanced at her father before looking away almost immediately, muttering as she did so, "I'll figure it out."

He crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't burn bridges just because you're in a hurry to grow up, Mirabeth Renee Cullen."

"I am grown up. I've been eighteen for four months. Besides, you didn't throw this much of a fit when Ephraim and Vanessa moved out."

"They took the summer off like normal people."

"Now, or in three months, I'm still moving out."

He grumbled something unintelligible under his breath and walked away from his little girl.

…

Bella pulled into the drive, noticing Mirabeth's car was fully loaded, and Edward's car was parked in the street.

If someone had told her when she'd been so desperate to have a child – to have the one thing she'd been told she'd likely never have – just how painful watching them grow up and form their own independence could be... Well, if she'd believed the person, then maybe she wouldn't have tried so hard.

And with Mirabeth moving out and heading off to Seattle, her house would be empty.

Part of her couldn't help but wonder if Mirabeth would even come back to visit.

Ephraim had only been back once in the four years since he'd graduated from high school, and that had been to rub his boyfriend, Boris, in his aunt's face. And no, Bella wasn't talking about her sister – who didn't even live in the state anymore – or Edward's twin. She meant Rachel, Jacob's big sister.

Vanessa came back more often than Ephraim did, usually visiting at Christmas, if nothing else.

Bella sighed and headed into her house, two cats darting out from under the couch and racing for the door just as she slammed it shut. "Don't even try it, Sharkie and Blackie."

Okay, so her house wouldn't be completely empty when Mirabeth moved out. The two cats that would only love on her for exactly half a second on any given day would still be there.

Her focus on her cats briefly kept her from noticing the shouting match that was coming from farther in the house.

"What your mom and I do is none of your business!"

"Then whether I want to date Chet or not is none of yours!"

"He's too old for you!"

"He's only twenty-four!"

"THAT'S TOO OLD FOR YOU!"

"I'm EIGHTEEN. I can do what I want!"

If Bella had known the topic was going to come up, she'd have warned Edward just to nod and smile. Of course, she'd paid more attention to her daughter's dating habits, so she knew it wouldn't last.

As it was, though, she leaned against the front door and tried to resist the urge to laugh.

She'd let Edward be all parental for a while.

…

He stood beside Bella in the front yard as Mirabeth pulled out of the drive. He clenched his right hand into a fist by his side as he watched.

The only reason he didn't do the same with the other was it was holding Bella's hand.

Once Mirabeth was down the road, he looked to Bella, finding tears running down her face.

He looked away.

He never did know what to do when she cried.

"Let's go for a walk," he finally murmured.

There was a brief pause, and Edward could practically hear her going through the more sarcastic answers and discarding them. "Sure. I mean, okay."

Instead of walking down the street and going further into Forks, he turned and lead them into the woods.

"As of last week, it's officially been a year since my last session with Carlisle," he said softly once they'd gone a little way in.

"I didn't know you'd stopped seeing him completely."

"He did as much as he could for me. I'm not... cured, I guess you could say. But I'm better. I've, if not accepted my past, at least I now understand it for what is."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, I was afraid to trust it, but I haven't gone back on any drugs since I stopped seeing him. In fact, in about another year and a half, I'll officially be ten years clean."

He could see the suspicion in her eyes.

"Look, I'm not saying I'll never have another relapse, but I think I'm finally out of the worst of it."

"So, where do we go from here?" she asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know, but we broke off our marriage mostly because I was incapable of making healthy choices and because you were worried about the safety of our kids. Even if, at the time, I was a bit angry about it... Well, I get it. Besides, they're grown up now. And I want us to try again. To start over. I want more than just a few stolen moments in the dark."

"Will starting over work?"

"I don't know, but you once told me that no matter what else happened, you loved me. Well, maybe once, love can be enough."

He leaned forward, pressing his forehead against hers.

"Let it be enough."