Disclaimer: As much as we'd like to claim these characters, nothing Twilight-related belongs to us.

A/N: Hey guys! We missed you last week. :) Sorry it's a little late—Ben's super sick. :( It's a short chapter, but it's a filler. The next chapter will be extra long to make up for it. Anyway, on with the story.

Turning Eighteen
By cALLIEfornia BENches

Chapter 10: Closed

The fire that coursed through my veins for hours upon hours and days upon days was cruelly familiar. I had experienced this hell before. It licked at my insides and left a burning trail of ash where I used to be. Each slow spark imbedded itself painfully into me; I remember this fire. After endless and seemingly ceaseless torture, the flames simmered down to a sizzle; the kind of feeling you get when you sit in front of a fire… instead of on top of it.

The heat, though still brutally scorching, died to a decreasing hum and I was partially able to feel soft sheets beneath me. I wiggled my fingers. Besides the burning, everything felt the same. What was going on?

The burning stopped, and I opened my eyes.

When I was brought back to reality, I blinked twice, trying to take in my surroundings. I was in a house, I realized, though it was only relatively familiar. Something about it though brought back memories…

Memories. Everything came flooding back to me like a tidal wave, and…

I smiled at the lovely girl sitting on the edge of my bed. She was watching me with a worried look, but as soon as she saw my grin she breathed a sigh of relief. I reached over and grasped her hand in mine, squeezing lightly.

She smelled so heavenly. Still like freesias and strawberries, but also with small hints of cinnamon and, if there were a scent, warmth. She smelled warm.

"Bella."

"Edward."

My name on her tongue freshened the room itself. I hadn't felt this exuberant in years.

It was all I could do not to pin her to the bed and ravage her. I missed her so much. The smile that consumed my face couldn't be matched, but unfortunately it only lasted a minute before my head was consumed with voices of different pitches, tones, and intelligence.

I wonder if he's told…

What would make her do something…

It's been such a hard day…

Oh, my…

I really wish she would stop that…

That looks so…

I held my hands to my ears, rubbing them slightly, and laughed. It was always a weird sensation to be able to hear people's minds again. Even weirder still was my excitement at being able to do so. It just meant that things were getting back to normal. I could be Edward again. Using the skills I remembered from my last vampire life, I lowered the voices until it was a dull roar, and focused back on the beautiful woman in front of me.

"Edward," she said again. Her voice sent shivers down my spine.

"My Bella. I missed you." I scooted over in what I recognized as the bed that I had not-slept in the few times I had been in Denali and patted the now empty spot next to me for her. Without hesitation, she occupied the space and threw her arms around me, burying her face into my neck and breathing me in.

I wanted to stay like this forever. Holding her. She wouldn't object, I'm sure.

I felt her smile against my neck. "I don't think it's possible for you to have missed me more. I was so worried about you. You've been out for a week," she said.

My brows furrowed. "A week?"

I tightened my grip around her as she spoke. "Demitri, when he bit you, didn't give you enough venom. Only, we didn't realize it until day four. It took such a toll on your body that Esme had to add more venom halfway through. Unfortunately, you're going to have a little scar right," she tapped a spot low on the right side of my neck, "here. But it was either that, or we waited it out. And we didn't want to risk that, considering there was a good chance that nothing at all was going to happen, and that you would simply stay in pain for… well, ever." She gently ran a finger over where I assumed the scar was before kissing it once. "We figured this wouldn't be so bad."

We sat in silence for a moment, before it all suddenly hit me.

"Wait," I said, "When did you wake up? Why can I remember everything? Why do I know you as Bella, and not Isa?"

"Shh," she said, lifting her face to it was even with mine. "Let's just enjoy the moment now for what it is."

"But—"

"No buts. Not right now. We will talk about this. But later. Right now I just want to be with you. I didn't have nearly enough time with you as a vampire last time."

My lips pulled into a smile before I closed some of the space between us. "Okay then, Isabella, what do you propose that we do?"

She moved closer to me so our noses were touching. "I love you," she said.

"I love you more," I replied, closing the small bit of space that was between us. I pressed my lips to hers, savoring the taste. The distinct taste of my Bella. I didn't know how much I had missed this until now. Pushing my lips harder against her, I rolled her so she was on top of me. Her fingers wound their way into my hair and tugged lightly pulling me, if possible, closer.

"God, I missed you," I breathed as I made my way down her neck. "So beautiful."

"I could say the same thing about you," she said, through gasping breaths, even though neither of us needed the oxygen. "Edward," she gasped. I pulled my lips from her neck and looked into her red eyes. "Even though we were together that whole time as humans… I forgot how amazing it was to be with you. As Bella and Edward."

I kissed her lips chastely. "I know what you mean, love. Isa was beautiful, but no one can compare to my Bella." I pulled her closer to my chest. "It's so good to be with you again after all this, after everything."

She hummed lightly, agreeing.

Before I could open my mouth to keep talking, the door burst open. "He's awake!" Emmett shouted, completely unnecessarily. We were all vampires, here. He entered the room and sat down next to where Bella and I were laying. "I wanted to come up sooner, but Esme told me I should wait and give you two lovebirds," he wiggled his eyebrows towards us, and Bella buried her face in my neck, embarrassed, "a few minutes to yourself. So what's the verdict? Does he remember everything? I'm assuming so, by the lack-of screaming that came from this room."

I chuckled, soothing a hand over Bella's hair. "Yes, Emmett. I do. Do we know wh—"

"Edward!" Esme cried as she came into the room, over to the side of the bed, standing behind Emmett. Jasper and Rosalie quickly followed in. "How are you, dear?" She ran a hand over my head, like a mother checking her child's temperature, before leaning down and pressing a motherly kiss to my temple. "We're so glad you're okay."

"I'm fine, Esme. Please stop worrying about me."

Carlisle, her thoughts rang out. It was in the back of her mind, and I knew she wasn't trying to grab my attention, but it happened. She was subconsciously thinking about him. His name, their time together, everything. She was worried, her thoughts told me so, but I didn't say anything in fear of upsetting her more. I had only been awake a few moments. I should at least let her enjoy the moment a little while longer. Besides, there was nothing I could do. To dwell on it without control would drive me crazy.

"It's good to have you back, Edward," Rosalie said quietly.

"It's good to be back."

"We missed you," Esme said. "We haven't seen you in three years. When you left Bella, you left all of us, too. Not necessarily physically, but definitely mentally. We missed the happy, loving Edward that we had back then."

Even while reuniting with everyone, I kept me arms wrapped around Bella.

My Bella, my Bella. It felt so good to say that again.

I saw Jasper glance for the fourth time at his watch. Alice, he thought, I'm going to be late to see Alice.

Alice. She was human, last time I heard. And she was still as stubborn as hell; only this time, it concerned us all. Maybe I could help persuade her…

"Can we go?" I asked, looking at Jasper. "I'd like to meet Alice—er, Alison."

"What?" he asked, giving me a weird look.

I smiled. "Vampire again, remember? I can read minds now. And I never met her, only Bella did." The room suddenly fell silent as each Cullen lowered their gazes from mine, recounting a dreadful day in their minds. I had never seen it before; I could only imagine. But now, as I concentrated on this day in their minds, the way they each saw it… the fury in my chest rose.

The broken concrete. The witnesses. Jasper screaming.

They were horrible to her. Practically beating her down to the ground and then shamelessly stepping on her ego until she could hardly take it anymore. There was no way she would have come out of that emotionally unscathed. I didn't think I could ever stomach treating someone like that, and there she was, part of their family, and they couldn't bear to treat her with respect. Who did they think they were, anyway?

Unconsciously, my hands balled into fists, and my form began trembling.

"Calm down," Jasper told me. "Your fury is even stronger than everyone's guilt combined. We all feel bad about what happened, Edward. You have to understand that none of us were in the right place. Especially me," he said, "And for that, I apologize. To both you and Bella. But I was—and still am—incredibly jealous that you guys had each other. Bella," he said, turning to her, "I was wrong. My mind couldn't process that Alice didn't want me. At least you knew that, wherever Edward was, he loved you. I was able to think the same thing until I saw Alice that day. She didn't love me, and I was upset that Edward loved you." His lips pursed in thought.

"It's okay, Jasper," Bella's quiet voice came from in front of me. "I forgive you."

"I should apologize, too," Esme said, "You can't imagine the guilt. I feel so terrible about the way I acted. I was completely out of line, Bella."

"It's fine, Esme."

I shook my head. I didn't want to hear their excuses. However, I didn't want to be yelling at my family only a few minutes after waking up. So I set my anger to the side, and told myself we'd talk about it later. Bella might have been alright with it, but I was far from it. As for now, I wanted to go see Alice.

"So can we?" I asked, "Go see Alice, I mean."

Jasper hesitated. "I don't know… She doesn't really enjoy company."

"Please, Jasper?" Bella asked. "We all miss her. She was my best friend. I want to see her, too."

His eyes closed briefly, contemplating both sides. The air in the room was tense as we all awaited his decision. Finally, he let out a long sigh. "Fine," he said. "We can all go visit her." A smile spread across my face. "But on two conditions. One, you let me go back there first and talk to her. She may not want to see you. And two, if I tell you to leave, you leave. Got it?"

Various affirmatives rang around the room.

"Alright," he said. "We're leaving in fifteen minutes. Hurry and get ready."

"Wait," Esme said. "Edward needs to hunt. And how are we going to control him around the humans? Him and Bella both. They're merely children, when it comes to vampires."

Jasper shrugged. "It's not up to me to figure that out. I'd say hurry up."

With that, he left the room.

Rosalie, who had been quiet until now, finally decided to speak. "I think he's just a little protective of her," she said. "We can figure it out. It won't be hard. How about this: Edward and Bella, you go hunting. Get as many elk or deer as you can in thirteen minutes. Use the other two minutes for traveling time. Emmett, go scrounge out some sunglasses, so people don't start freaking out when they see your red eyes. Esme, go drain some elk and put them in bottles, just in case. I'll go talk to Jasper and see if I can convince him to keep you two calm out in public. Hopefully, if the worst happens, the four of us can contain you."

I nodded. "Okay," I said. And before another word could be said, I had grabbed Bella and dragged her out the window.

When we arrived back at the house, everyone was already in the car. I hopped in and pulled Bella onto my lap—the Jeep only had so many seats—and we were off.

The drive to the flower shop was a very fast one, as Jasper threw his foot on the gas, naturally ignoring the speed limit… by a lot. He was very anxious to get into town.

Great. I'm late. I hope she's not upset, he thought. It amused me that he still cared how she thought of his arrivals.

In no time whatsoever, Jasper screeched to a halt in the nearest parking lot before scrambling out of the car, intent on reaching the shop as fast as possible. The rest of the family followed suit.

Jasper seemed to know everything with habit; he turned the corners sharply as he walked, squeezing in between civilians if necessary. Even for a vampire, his sense of direction had to have been learned over time. When we finally reached the front doors of the shop, he didn't hesitate strolling in. And even when there stood rows upon rows as well as numerous aisles to choose from, Jasper only looked at the circular wall block before making his way to the back of the third aisle.

I frowned; he obviously knew where he was going. It meant he had been here too often.

"Stay here," Jasper said as he made his way through the flower beds. "She's in the back now, making orders. I have to go talk to her. If I don't warn her you're here, she'll get upset." He disappeared behind a wall, his footsteps careful and quiet. His routinely ordered manner here only made it that much more depressing.

I didn't need to strain my ears as I heard the soft clinking of garden pots stop once the door Jasper used closed with a resounding thud.

"You're late," we heard a small, tinkling voice say. She sounded both disappointed and relieved.

"I know," he said. We heard the movement of a chair, and assumed Jasper sat down. "The family wanted to come."

The flowers that had been rustling and the scissors that had been snapping stopped. "They're here?" she whispered, thinking we couldn't hear them. There was a short shuffling of feet before a resounding thwack echoed against the walls. She smacked him. I had to throw a hand over my mouth to hide my laugh.

Bella tugged on my hand, and gave me a look that told me to shut up, despite the smile in her eyes. I couldn't help but kiss her quickly.

Alice's thoughts were racing so fast, I couldn't keep up. "Why didn't you warn me?" she demanded. "God, I hate it when you do this. You know how I feel about surprises, and you know how I feel about you." I cringed, hearing Jasper's heartache through his thoughts. "Why would you insist on combining the two? I already told you I don't want to join your family."

"I know," Jasper said calmly, even though I could tell in his voice that it killed him a little—theoretically speaking—each time she said something like that. "But they wanted to see you. You have to understand that they miss you—or, well, Alice. They haven't seen her in two years. Please, even if it's not for me, could you please just go out and say hi? Please, Alice."

"It's Alison," she snapped.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't do it on purpose."

"You never do," she said, somewhat condescendingly.

"Alison, please. I know you say you don't like me, but some part of you, way deep down, knows that I'm telling the truth. If you didn't you wouldn't have been upset that I was late today. And you would have already kicked me out." He paused. "Not to mention, you've met them all before, remember? The only one you haven't met is Edward. Granted, it was only a brief encounter, but at least it won't be so terrible."

She was silent a moment. "Fine," she said. "I'll say hi to them, but only because I have to go out there to show you out the door."

"Fine," he said.

"Fine."

Their footsteps grew louder, and all the sudden a tiny little girl's head appeared from around the wall. She was barely visible through the tall flowers that stood on the tables. Her long black hair was swishing back and forth across her back as she stormed into the front of her store. She had a few stray leaves stuck on her sleeves and one even in her hair, and her tiny legs made her fly across the room.

"Hi," she said, stopping quickly and putting her hands on her hips. "I'm Alison. It's nice to meet you." Jasper was hot on her trail, following so closely that when she stopped, he nearly crashed into her.

"I'm Edward," I said cautiously, "And this is Bella." I pulled her closer to me.

The rest introduced themselves in a similar manner. As soon as we were done, she smiled so briefly that it didn't reach her eyes. "Nice to meet you." She spun on her heel and looked up at Jasper. "There, I did it," she said as if we weren't standing right there. "Are you leaving yet?"

My eyes widened in shock, as did Bella's, Esme's, Rosalie's, and Emmett's.

"What happened to you?" Rosalie asked, disgusted. "You were my sister. And now you're this cold-hearted… bitch." She shook her head and grabbed Emmett's hand. Alison spun around to look at Rosalie, a little intimidated. But who wouldn't? Even as a vampire, Rosalie was intimidating. "I don't know what's wrong with you. For two years now, Jasper has come in here just to spend time with you. He's told you about our world, and how we live. We aren't expecting you to jump into our arms and leave your life here behind, but you could at least pretend to be considerate to Jasper."

"Rosalie," Esme said softly, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Enough."

"No, she needs to hear this." She turned back to Alison. "I won't just sit here and watch her tear my brother into pieces like this. You're killing him. You may not even notice it, but every time you tell him you can't stand him, or that you never want to be a part of this family, it hurts him. Have you no respect for other people's feelings?" She turned and headed toward the door. "I don't get you, Alison."

She pushed her way through the door, dragging Emmett behind her. Esme left as well, leaving just Bella and me. For loyalty purposes, I put my arm around her waist and followed them.

"What was she thinking, Edward?" Esme asked quietly as we walked along the sidewalk away from the shop.

"She was embarrassed, mostly. Mortified, even. Her thoughts move insanely fast, but they made sense. She kept thinking about what a terrible impression she made, and how she couldn't believe she had let her frustration get the best of her. She cares for Jasper, whether or not she wants to admit it. It's just hard for her to cope with everything, and she's been resisting him for so long that she feels like she can't give in now."

Bella's eyebrows furrowed. "She wants to be a vampire?"

"Not necessarily. She likes Jasper, but she doesn't know exactly what that means. And she feels like she can't tell him because if she did, he'd assume she wanted to be part of the family and she doesn't think she wants to yet."

"Man, it's gotta be hard for Jasper," Emmett said. "He just found out that Alice will likely remember everything if she becomes a vampire again. But he doesn't think it ethically right to change her without consent. I'm surprised he was so calm when you woke up, Edward."

Esme shook her head. "He wasn't. He was really angry when he found it all out with Bella. That's why he was gone for a majority of the time until Edward woke up. He couldn't be near Bella knowing that, so he took off. He had carefully composed himself by the time he came back. It's extremely difficult for him."

And then, as if he heard us, Jasper ran by. We knew humans wouldn't see him, but it still worried us. He was obviously upset at something.

"It's probably best you two don't come home for a while," Esme said, looking at Bella and I. "Go hunting, go for a run, anything. But don't come back to the house for a while. He doesn't seem like he's in the mood to talk to you guys right now. No offense."

"None taken," Bella said. "We'll take the long way home. You think you can get him to tolerate us in like two hours?"

"Yeah," Rosalie said. "We'll talk to him."

Esme gave Bella and me a soft hug before walking toward the car, where passerby stared in awe at the beautiful people hastily piling inside.

The gray clouds slowly began to swirl apart, and I knew it was only a matter of time before the sun would peek its way out of the overcast. I turned to my angel, and inched my arm across her waist.

"We need to go."

She nodded, before setting our bodies in motion towards the woods and back to home. I motioned her chin up with my finger and placed a tortuous and chaste kiss upon her lips. Bella needed to know how much she always would mean to me. A sigh escaped my lips; I hadn't been this happy in so long. Yet, I could be happier. Carlisle, wherever he was, could come back. Alice could come back. Jasper could come back.

Then I would be happy.

I wanted to feel sorry for Jasper; and I was.

But I knew he hated the sympathy the rest of the family regularly placed on him, so I tried not to care so much.

All I could do now was stare back into the red orbs of my Bella, and pray she would never leave me. That I would never leave her.

I didn't want to have to be where Jasper was.

I craned my neck back towards Alison's Flower Shop for a fleeting look, just in time to catch the pixie herself gracefully turn the "Open" sign to "Closed."

It was still really hard to act like it did not bother me.

A/N: Reviews make Ben feel better. :)

Ben's sick A/N (when you read this, cough after every sentence…it's a good representation of what I'm doing.): I hope you like this. Edward and Bella are finally back! But that doesn't mean the troubles are all over!!! Stay tuned. And I'm sorry for the late post; being sick is not fun.

Until next time,

cALLIEfornia BENches