Disclaimer: Stephenie owns it all. I used to have some letters.

IAmToWait beta'd and made me feel. Damn you.

Bella,

Nighttime is the worst. I think about all the nights we'd get tangled up in that little bed of yours and how much I hated the bed but loved the feel of you. I'd kill to be there right now.

Edward leaving was something Bella had tried not to think about and, in turn, she thought about it constantly. Edward was only given a couple of month's time before deploying and, much to Bella's dismay, they didn't get a chance to see each other. With his training and her school schedule, not to mention working at the on-campus bookstore… there was no possible way.

In the short time before he left, Edward managed to rack up a seven hundred dollar phone bill. His mother let him pay her back weekly and as the days drew nearer Edward and Bella found themselves more and more reliant on the internet as a way of communication.

"It just feels weird," she complained one night as she fidgeted with a tiny earphone that refused to stay put.

"I know, but it is cheaper and we'll be able to talk this way while I'm gone, too," Edward reassured her.

"Fine," she grumbled into the microphone on top of her monitor and she heard Edward laugh softly. "What's so funny?"

"You should get a webcam, that way I can see you." He said innocently though Bella knew Edward well enough to know that he had an ulterior motive.

"Edward Cullen! I am not going to have internet sex with you!" She cried and then burst out laughing because the idea was so absurd.

"Why not?" He whined through his laughter. "I'll be all alone in the desert, Bella. Don't you want to support your troops?"

"What if there are people around you?"

"Well, I won't do it if there are people around, crazy girl."

"You're insane." She smiled.

"You love me."

"I do."

xXxXx

"Bella!" Jessica called as she ran after her friend. Edward had been overseas for three months. She had spoken to him three times on the phone and a few more through the computer, sent him four care packages, seventeen letters, forty-two emails, and one dirty picture, but only because he asked.

She also hadn't spoken to him in nearly a week. It worried her to know he was in a dangerous area, especially if she wasn't able to talk to him. There had hardly been a day without an instant message (which usually went straight to her phone) and the abrupt stalling of communication made her sick to her stomach.

"Are you alright?" Jessica asked in a worried voice when she finally caught up with Bella. "You look sick."

"I'm fine. Just tired," Bella mumbled as she took the stairs to her next class two at a time.

"Have you talked to Ed-" Jessica started but the look in Bella's eyes caused her to silence herself, a large feat indeed for Jessica Stanley.

"I have to get to class," Bella replied tersely as she walked away.

Nearly a month passed and Bella's contact with Edward had become very minimal. He responded to emails with short, noncommittal words. Their spoken conversations over the computer were nearly obliterated and he seemed to sign out of his chat program every time she signed on.

Early on in the sixth month of Edward's deployment the contact stopped altogether. Bella feared the worst, so many scenarios running through her head and keeping her up until all hours of the night.

She checked her email daily – before and after class and work. Bella kept her instant messenger always signed in and her cell phone in her pocket at all times.

It didn't matter how prepared Bella was because what she'd hoped for never came. For a solid month, after a brief conversation through instant messaging, Bella neither heard nor read one word from Edward.

On the rare occasion that Bella visited home she would run into Edward's mother.

"He's been quite busy… he says to tell you 'hello,'" Esme would say and Bella would die a little more inside.

Nearly nine months after Edward's deployment Bella had almost given up hope… almost. It was late as she returned to her building after class. She parted ways with an acquaintance (Bella rarely called anyone 'friend' anymore) and made her way to her small room, anxious for sleep to take over and rid her mind of any thought.

But something stopped her dead in her tracks. Books tumbled to the ground and she felt like her heart dropped there, too. It was not a package at her door, nor a letter or even a Post-it. He was there, flesh and blood and smile and soul, leaning against the doorframe of her dorm room.

She practically threw herself into his arms, burying her face into the desert camouflage that covered his lean build.

"I've missed you," she whispered to his nametag, just above his heart. He kissed her hair as she opened the door. It was barely closed before he pulled her flush against him, his mouth covering hers, breathing in her air and making her his again.

"I'm so sorry," he murmured against her mouth. "I was so scared but… I wanted you so badly."

"Why were you scared?" She held his face in her hands, unable to control the tears that streamed down her cheeks.

"The guys there – they just talk so much. And – and they try to talk you out of things and I listened and I'm just… I'm sorry." He kissed her again, harder and with more purpose. Part of Bella wanted him to stop and talk to her. She wanted to know exactly what he'd been convinced of and how to make sure that it didn't happen again. The much larger part of Bella, of course, didn't care as long as he was in her arms.

"You're what's important, not them. I meant it, Bella. I'm so, so sorry." He whispered against her mouth.

"I know." Bella replied. She didn't want to fight. There would be time to discuss his insecurities but it was not at that particular moment. Not the first moment that she'd seen him in months. Edward was what was important, not his flaws. Edward and the fact that he was standing in front of her and that he was so very… alive.

That's how their weekend was spent. Being alive, in love, and completely wrapped up in each other.

"Do you want to go get something to eat?" Edward asked from his spot on Bella's bare stomach. She looked up from the book she was holding with one hand, the other was absently running through Edward's short hair.

"That depends." She sighed and set the book her nightstand.

"On?" He asked cautiously.

Bella smiled as she leaned forward causing Edward to leave his sweet refuge of her exposed skin. She stood on her knees in the middle of the bed and he looked up at her, the sunlight barely coming in through the closed blinds dancing red in her long brown hair. He smiled and reached out to touch her but she playfully slapped his hand away and slowly inched toward him.

"On whether or not you really want to put on pants." She whispered as she settled herself in his lap.

"You… have a point." Edward's voice was low as their bodies found each other, pulled together like magnets searching for their mate.

They decided takeout was their best bet.

xXxXx

Bella could feel the little hole in her heart begin to heal during the short time she got to spend with Edward. Before he left on a bus to Forks for a brief stay at his parents', Edward wrapped Bella's ribbon around her wrist and kissed her until she couldn't breathe.

"You're stuck with me now, you know." And Bella just kissed him some more because she didn't want to be anyone else's.

"You'll always be my girl." The words made Edward sound like he was living in some romance movie and Bella giggled and let him spin her around before he finally dragged himself aboard the bus.

She should have known that not all movies have happy endings.

Thank you so very much for reading.