When Goddesses Appear

E.C.

I don't know why I agreed to go to this concert tonight. It's not like I'm a huge Weezer fan or anything, but this is the first time in the five months I've been back stateside that I'm doing anything. Getting shot really does something to a person. I'm a lucky fuck that Emmett was there to press his fingers into my artery until the medic made it over. I could've bled out in that sandy hell hole really damn quick without him.

I'm pretty sure the fucker thinks I owe him one. Maybe I do. The guy took a bullet to the ass while he saved my sorry hide. He's the asshole forcing me to go to this Wounded Warrior thing tonight. Nothing like reminding someone they're an invalid, right? Let's host a fucking concert to make you poor, destroyed bastards feel better.

I'm a little jaded. Bullets in the neck will do that to a guy.

Some of us, the fucked up ones still in recovery, get to go backstage after the concert to meet the band. My chest swells with envy when I pass the drumset onstage. I gave up a lot to fight for this country. Look where it landed me.

And then suddenly, I'm the happiest fucking patriot on the planet; grateful to the gods for sending that lead my way because it landed me here in this moment: where she is.

Holy god, she looks as amazing as the day I told her I loved her. She's older - fuck, like twenty-nine now - but she's a million times better than any wet dream I've had about her in the past decade. Bella is dressed like a queen; owns the room and the floor and the world. Everything in me is fighting to stay on my feet.

"Dude, wanna get a picture with the band?" Emmett asks. I kind of hear him, but there's a goddess blinding me to anything else around us.

"No..." I trail off. I can't even form coherent words. "I have to do something."

Emmett snaps his fingers in front of my eyes, and when I don't blink follows my line of sight toward Bella's majesty.

"Oh fuck," he says. "Is that...?"

"Yeah." A single worded answer is all he needs, because he knows. I have a photo of the two of us in my helmet. "Bella."

Speaking her name conjures her attention. And those hazel-brown eyes meet mine under the hot stage lights.

A million scenarios play out in my mind; a trillion more words crash into a brick wall at the tip of my tongue. But I never expected my feet to about-face and send me one hundred and eighty degrees in the other direction.

I'm such a chickenshit, but I don't want her to see the broken fuck I am.

"Eddie!" I'm out the backstage door when I hear an older, more mature version of the voice my memory recalls, calling out to me. "Edward Masen Cullen! Wait!"

A decade of waiting is crash-landing on me here and now.

xxxxxxxxx

A/N:

So sorry I didn't post yesterday. The seder prep had me busy busy ... and wine. lol

I fucking love Edward's POV. It's so much fun to write.

Thank you for the reviews!

I'm gonna watch some Outlander and work on my angst contest entry. ;) And maybe another chapter or two for your Easter Sunday.

Guest Reviwer,

Hi. Please log in and message me and we can chat about CS, though I have a feeling I might already know who you are.

I know I don't owe you a bit of explanation, but I'll offer this:

I left the fandom when shit was coming out about plagiarism. I left when my publishing deal took over my world. I left because I am an author.

After leaving, I didn't think about this place. I needed the space I took, and the fresh air it offered.

I pulled CS, thought of the great bones of a story it is, thought of publishing, and then realized it wasn't itself anymore. I didn't look at it for a long time. Then I realized it was just sitting there, taking up space on my computer. I threw it in Dropbox and deleted all the files from my computer.

I didn't write for months. I had a terribly invasive surgery and went through a deep bout of depression at the time as all this shit happened. But it was *my* story to pull and my sabbatical to take.

I've missed this place; the comraderie and love that is shared. I missed some of you more than I realized. But what I didn't miss? The sense of entitlement and ownership some people have.

Welcome me or don't. I shan't lose any sleep over your feelings.

Everyone else, now you know - an explanation I owed to no one, but it's there.

Please have a great Sunday.

xo,

Madi