AN: Before you all kill me, I know this took for-freaking-ever. I'm so sorry, and I have no really good excuse. But it's a little longer then ususal, and I hope that help to make up for the lateness.

Disclaimer: The ususal.

Chapter Three

Bella POV

I'm getting married to Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. I tried to put my feelings into words, but I had no idea what to say. I was happy but also very nervous. I wasn't ready to be married, but I would get to be with Edward forever. Part of our bargain was that I was going to be changed. All I had to do for now was tell Charlie. Edward stood behind me, silently assuring me that everything was going to be okay, but personally, I wasn't so sure.

We walked into the house, and saw Charlie sitting on the couch with a game on.

"Hey Dad, we… we have something that we want to tell you."

"What's up kiddo?" He looked up from the T.V. to watch Edward and myself.

"Umm… well, Edward proposed to me and I sort of accepted."

"You did what?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm.

"I'm getting married to the man I love more then anyone else in the world. Dad I want this more then anything else." It wasn't quite the truth, I didn't want to marry. I wanted to loose my mortality, but I thought that my true desire would go over even less wonderfully.

"Do you remember when he left you? You were broken, and nothing we could do would fix you. You can't marry him that would make a repetition worse." Edward tightened his grasp on my waist, and I knew that the reminder of what his actions had accidentally caused was hurting him. I put my hand gently over his, giving what comfort I could.

"I won't be leaving again sir. That was a mistake and it would cause me something beyond mental physical torture to do it again."

"I'm going to do this Dad." Charlie glared at Edward, and it was then I decided that it was time for us to leave.

As soon as Edward had put me into his Volvo, I broke down in tears. I knew that Charlie didn't like Edward, but I still wanted my father's blessing on my marriage.

"Bella love, he'll get better about it. He's just surprised that you decided to get married so young, and he's a little upset that you're marrying me of all people."

"I know. It's just, I really needed his approval."

"He will. If nothing else, Nia and Alice can do some convincing." I smiled at the idea of Nia and Alice grouping together against Charlie. Nia would no doubt consider hitting him upside the head until he agreed. Alice would just go on and on about how I would be really related to her until he said yes.

"Better?"

"Yeah, thanks Edward."

With Edward's insane driving, we were back at the Cullens' before I had time to think things through. We were up in his room before I realized that something was odd about Edward's comforting statements in the car. Nia wasn't in Forks, she left a few weeks ago.

"Why did you say Nia would help? She's off across the country with Adrian and the Flock."

"Did you think that she would miss your wedding? She's on her way now." Nia and the Flock were coming for a visit, and at the very least they would make the werewolves back off. The Pack had been giving everyone a lot of trouble lately, mostly because Jake was so upset about me and Edward.

The week it took for Nia and the Flock to arrive seemed to last much longer. Six days after our visit, Charlie was still furious and I was staying over at the Cullen's house. There was a knock at the door, and Esme walked over to get it with a grin. I knew that she would be aware who it was; she would be able to smell them just like always. So I sat and waited, hoping her smile meant that it was the Flock. Then Esme walked back in the room, Nia following her closely. Before I could so much as stand up, Alice was half-strangling the girl in a bone crushing hug.

"Alice, if you don't let go I'm going to shoot you. Not that it would do you any harm…"

"No it wouldn't, which frees me to hug you all I want."

"It does not, even if I can't think of any working threats at the moment," Nia argued heatedly.

"I agree with Nia," the person in question smirked at her quiet boyfriend standing up for her.

"Hey Bella, Max is coming but she had to stop to make Iggy drop off some bombs before he came in. She said that he had so many that you would think he was freaking suicidal." I laughed as I gave my old friend a timid hug, which she returned.

"Alice, is Nia one of my bridesmaids?"

"Of course she is. It's me, her, Rosalie, and Max." I nodded my pleasure of her plans, and then she went on, "We're going to get you a dress and maybe our dresses as well."

"Are you coming too, Nia?"

"Well duh, Bella. Like hell I'm missing you dressing up for hours." Max walked into the room just in time to hear Nia's last careless comment, and immediately replied, "Language Nia, the Flock is coming."

Emmett laughed at Nia's submission only to hear her mutter, "Max is leader. I follow her."

"And the darling Max won't let you forget it for a one freaking second." Iggy walked in already mouthing off, but none of us minded. We all loved his banter really, it made us laugh.

"Hey Alice, so we need to leave?" Nia wanted to leave for some reason; I wondered absently what was wrong. Alice wanted to leave too, but I knew that her behavior would just be excitement about shopping.

Until we left, I had no idea that Esme and Rosalie was coming with us as well. We started with a small boutique in Port Angeles, where Alice said that we probably wouldn't find much. I had no idea why she was looking if that was so, but she was. Racks and racks of white dresses later, Alice gave up on a dress for me, and sent us to look at bridesmaid dresses. She also wanted to convince me to have the colors be bright blues, while I would prefer something less—eye catching. I had to have those colors in my bouquet, after all. We were lightly arguing on the subject, when Esme and Nia went off to a corner of the store. I didn't even notice it when they came back holding four dresses.

"Hey, do these colors work? They aren't showy, but they are pretty," Esme asked. She held up the dresses. They were a simple steel blue, with a navy sash tied around the waist. They looked slightly Grecian with draping around the torso and almost waviness around the bottom.

"Let's go try these things on so that we can see how they fit." Nia handed out the dresses to each of the girls.

It only took a second for them to come back out to show me. The dresses looked like they were made just for them, and I knew that no matter what dress they got me, I was going to look like a pauper in comparison. Alice grinned, "These are what we're wearing. Nia and Esme chose perfectly." I smiled agreement at her and carefully failed to look at the cash register as the clerk rang then up. I was sure that those gown cost way more then I was comfortable with the Cullen's spending on my wedding.

After we left that boutique, we all drove up to Seattle where Alice swore we would find my dress. We went into boutique after boutique, looking at literally hundreds of gowns. After four hours of searching, Max came to trumps; with a dress that Alice liked enough to have me try on. Then she gave me all the dresses that she had found for me and ushered me into the fitting rooms. I slipped into the dress that Max had found before walking out to let someone else hook it up. They all stopped dead when I came out. "That's it; I told you we would find your dress today. You look amazing." Alice was jumping up and down so fast that I thought that she might alert everyone that she wasn't human. "Well Alice, are you planning on fastening it for me, or just mooning over it?" Everyone laughed as Nia said, "Maybe I should be in charge of this." She quickly did up the dress and when she realized the perfect fit, Alice almost threw me back into the dressing rooms.

"Hurry up and take that off so we can buy it for you." I heard the sound of someone being hit and guessed that Rosalie ad gotten tired of Alice's over-excitement.

When I came back out in my jeans and a T-shirt, Alice grabbed the dress from me before I had the opportunity to tell her that I would like to pay for my own dress at the very least. Nia and Max both giggled at my scowl, something that I wouldn't guess of either of them; they weren't the giggling type. Nia grinned as my look went from anger to confusion.

"You might not want to look at the price tag."

"I doubt I want to see. Why does that girl refuse to let me buy my own things? I could have paid for it."

"Because money burns a hole in Alice's pocketbook and if she doesn't spend it she goes even crazier then she is normally."

"Well can she please not spend it on me? I hate people spending money on me."

"Sorry, I think that's out of the question. She's paid so let's go." Max was still laughing as we walked out the door, and Alice joined her.

"Now we can go back to the house. I'm sure Edward has been missing his fiancée, Bella." Max's laugh grew more pronounced at my blush. In a rare moment of Nia standing up for me she said, "Well, at least she admits that she's in love with him…. unlike some people."

"I'm not in love with my best friend. That's what he is, my best friend. Now come on, as we have to go meet up with your boyfriend."

"Those jabs have never worked before Max, but let's go as I would like to see Adrian." Now that was something that I would agree with. We were going home, which meant we were done shopping and wedding planning for the day. Thank you God.