This is the last chapter. BUT! There is a short epilogue to come. I though the readers who have stuck with this series all the way through have earned at least that much!

Thank you again for all the lovely reviews!

Chapter 12

But the next day, which was cloudy and wet, when everyone was getting ready to leave, Bella suddenly decided to stay. 'I'm just…I'm just not sure yet. I don't trust myself.'

'You can trust us,' Alice needled. 'It'll be fine.'

'No. Maybe in a few weeks we can try. I just…not today.'

'Whatever you want, love,' Edward cut in before his sister could start whining about it. 'I'll be back in a few hours,' he promised Bella.

She watched the boat disappear into the horizon. For the first time since before they had left Forks, she was alone. It felt pretty good. Deciding to go for a run, Bella set off along the beach around the island. She and Edward had run it many times, always racing and Bella always won. But now she could just go flat out and see how fast she could really run. It was rather liberating. As the sun rose behind dark clouds, she raced around the island. Once, twice, three times. Stopping at one of the natural bays on her fourth time around, Bella sat down on the wet sand. The rain was no bother to her, except that her sundress was plastered to her body. She lay back and let the raindrops hit her face, relishing in the sensation.

As such, she didn't immediately pick up on the boat that made its way around the side of the island and into the bay. The bay faced east, out across the Atlantic on this side. The sailboat was struggling in the wind that was rising, and clearly looking for calm harbour. The bay wasn't the best, but this far from the mainland it would have to do to ride out the storm that was brewing.

Bella lay in the sand watching the palm trees sway violently above her. She hoped Edward wouldn't be stuck in Rio for very long and then have to wait for the storm to blow through. Alice had said it would be sunny the next few days, hence their quick turn around on the island. They'd managed a very narrow window without having to worry about travelling at night.

The boat sailed into shore, pulling down the sail and dropping anchor. They had obviously pulled up the rudder and centre board to allow them close to shore where the sea wasn't as rough. It was a bit protected now. Over the crashing waves on shore, Bella missed all of this.

It was only when she sat up, intending to continue her run, that she noticed the boat. The wind was blowing across the beach, so any smell was being pushed away from her. Thankfully. But just as she stood up, intending to disappear into the trees before – hopefully – she was seen, the wind changed direction. A gust of it, laden with the scent of humans, washed over her.

Bella, literally, saw red. She was in the water, stroking to the boat before any further thought entered her mind. She was already half way there when reality crashed down. Not even stopping to consider it, or even be thankful for the reprieve, Bella ducked underwater. Away from the scent she could think. She pushed off in the other direction, away from the boat, keeping to the water and away from shore until she had turned around the head of the bay and was swimming at depth along the shore. She stayed underwater for a few more minutes until she surfaced, swimming to the sand. The bay was long behind her to the north. Drawing her pale limbs onto the sand, Bella choked back unshed-able tears. She buried her face in the wet sand, relishing in the scent of nature. She had nearly…God, she had nearly killed those people. She had been seconds away from taking a life.

Alice was wrong. There was no way she could move to Vermont now and be so near humans. Someone would end up dead and then they'd have to move. And she would have to live with what she'd done.

Bella remained on the beach as the morning passed and the storm blew harder. Finally, the winds began to die. It was only Edward's frantic shouts of her name that finally drew her from her stupor. Bella ran into the woods, following the sound of his voice. They nearly crashed into each other at speed.

'Alice saw, but we were nearly at the harbour and she knew I wouldn't get back in time. And then the storm was so bad they wouldn't let me leave port again. I'm so sorry,' Edward said, holding her in his arms. 'I'm so sorry I left you.'

'It wasn't your fault. It wasn't anyone's fault but mine. I nearly…I nearly killed them.'

'But you didn't.' Edward pushed her away to arm's length. 'You didn't, Bella. Do you understand that? You shouldn't have been able to do that. You shouldn't have been able to stop. Once we catch a scent it's…even I would have a hard time stopping myself.'

Bella looked at his miserably. 'Let's get you back to the house and dried off. How about a shower? Or a bath?'

She nodded as he led her back to the west side of the island. 'You stopped. You stopped before you reached the boat. I'm so proud of you. I don't know how you did it. You stopped yourself without anyone here.'

'I nearly killed them, Edward. I nearly got on that boat and drained every drop of blood from them.' The horror was clear in her voice.

He stopped and turned to face her, taking her face between his hands so that she had no choice but to look at him. 'But you didn't. You understand that? You didn't do it. Bella, it should have been impossible for you to stop, but you did.'

'I'm not going to Vermont,' she told him.

'We aren't leaving for nearly two months.'

'I'm not going. I'm staying here for at least a year, until I can control this.'

'But you can; you did!' he argued back, trying to get through to her.

Bella pulled away from his grasp and stormed off towards the house. 'Not until I won't kill someone!'

He didn't try to catch up with her. By the time Edward got back to the house, Bella was already in the bathroom with the water running. He stopped to turn on the lights out of habit. The grey sky outside made the interior of the house dim. Not for a vampire, but he was so used to turning on lights to make it seem like he was human.

Bella was in the shower for nearly an hour. When she finally emerged from the bathroom, dressed in sleep pants and a t-shirt she looked slightly less horrified.

'I'm sorry. I got angry with you and it's not your fault. It's not anyone's fault other than mine.'

'It's not your fault either,' Edward reasoned. 'You didn't do anything wrong.'

'Nearly.'

'But you didn't. Bella, can you understand this? Emmett killed three humans in his first month as a vampire. Even Esme…even Esme slipped once, and that was in her second year. Jasper…don't even get me started. Bella, there are only two vampires I know who have never killed a human.'

'Carlisle and Rosalie?'

'Exactly. And Rose, well, that's a fine line. She did kill more than a few humans, but she didn't do it out of thirst.'

Bella finally moved away from the wall and came to sit on the sofa with him. 'I know the story. It's not the same. The fact that she could kill them and not drink from them proves she had it under control.'

'She did. She still does. And Carlisle has always been unique. But you, you're even more unique. Bella, the fact that your thirst does not control you is unheard of. You heard Carlisle before; even he suffered in the first months. It drove him nearly insane. It's not been a problem for you. And today you did something that should have been impossible for even one of us. Once we catch a scent, it's nearly impossible to stop. It took me years to handle being around other humans. You've been a vampire for two months, love.'

'I just don't think it's worth risking the residents of Vermont on a chance.'

'You heard Alice, it's not a chance.'

Bella levelled him with a thoroughly annoyed look. 'And did Alice see today? Not until it happened and then it was too late. You can be with me every second of every day and even if you are I could probably get away from you. You said yourself that I'm still stronger.'

Edward sighed. 'I just don't think it'll be a problem. I was planning on hiring a plane to get us home. Even that long on a commercial aircraft gets to me. We can leave at night and avoid most human interaction. As long as you don't breathe it will be fine. It was the smell today that did it, right?'

Bella nodded, still clearly miserable. It was almost adorable, except that Edward knew this was a serious matter. It was something every single one of them had faced at one point and it was up to him to get Bella through it.

'Don't breathe and it will be fine. Before then, however, I think we should do a test run to the mainland. But we can wait a few weeks for that, if you'd like.'

'Yes please,' she agreed. 'I don't want to…I just want to stay here for a while.'

'Not until October then. There's no rush, really. I don't want to force you, Bella, you know that right? I just honestly believe you can handle this.'

'Okay,' she whispered into his shoulder. 'Can we stop talking about this? I don't want to think about it anymore.'

Edward grinned at her, happy to change the topic. 'That almost sounded like a challenge.'

'Oh, good call,' she told him. It was the last thing he let her speak for quite some time.

xxx

Despite Bella's continued protest, in early October Edward put her in the boat and took her to the mainland. It was well after sunset when they left the island and by the time they arrived at the coast, fifteen miles south of Rio, there wasn't a single person in the fishing village still awake. Edward drew the boat up near shore and dropped anchor a mile north of the village. The wind was blowing from the west, but he couldn't scent any humans around.

Bella refused to let go of his hand as they swam to shore and disappeared into the jungle. He didn't want to risk her in the presence of a human, but the scent of them would be all around the village. The point was to get her used to it.

She smelled it first. He could tell when she froze beside him in the darkness. 'Edward,' she whispered, pleadingly.

'It's fine. Are you feeling thirsty?' They had hunted right before leaving the island.

She shook her head. 'Not really.'

He drew her closer to the houses. 'It's alright, I'm right here.'

They managed to get within sight of one of the buildings. The scent of humans pervaded everything, even the forest around them. Bella wasn't breathing. 'Try a breath love.' He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

Slowly, Bella took a small breath of air. Her body was rigid, fighting against its nature, but she didn't struggle in his arms.

'Again,' he told her.

She took another breath. And then another and another, until she was breathing normally. Edward slowly relaxed his grip, but Bella remained where she was.

'Any desire to, you know, run into that house and attack?'

Bella chewed on her lip, one of the endearing human motions that had carried over into her new life. 'No,' she admitted.

'I think, as long as you aren't actually exposed to blood, we'll be okay.'

'Really?' she asked, nearly amber eyes shining in the darkness.

'Really,' he promised. He believed it too, she could tell.

'Okay.'

'Okay. We'll leave in a month then. Thanksgiving at the new house sounds nice, doesn't it?' Edward asked her, taking her hand once more to lead her back to the boat.

Bella nodded. 'Yes, it does sound nice. It's been a long time since June.'

It had. For Edward, it seemed like a lifetime had already passed since graduation. For Bella, one life had ended and another had begun.

'Whatever happens, I'll be right here with you, you know that,' he told her.

Bella pulled him to a stop on the edge of the beach. Above them the only light was from the moon, casting a shimmering silver pattern on the ocean. 'I know that. I've always known that.'

'We haven't talked about this again,' Edward started, looking uncertain, 'but I wanted to ask you. Things have changed since June but, I'm hoping your answer is still the same.' He knelt down in the sand.

Bella's eyes widened. 'Edward –' she began, but he interrupted her.

'Please? Bella Swan, will you marry me?'

For a moment she just looked down at him, marvelling once more that this was her life. That this man she loved was hers and would be hers for eternity. Together.

'I will never stop saying yes,' was how she answered him.