While You Loved Me
Author's Note: Here we go again, back to the story. Junior is reading to Bella again. I'm in a writing mood today so I may have another chapter after this one if I keep in this mood.
Disclaimer: You know the deal, I don't own it…I'm just playing with it.
Chapter 6
Junior's POV
Bella was sitting in class at Sarah Lawrence when the news hit of Japan's attacks on Pearl Harbor. She took it upon herself to enlist her services to local military as a nurse for when the troops came home. Soldier after soldier came in and behind every wounded man that she treated, she saw Emmett. There was one soldier, however, that tried to catch her attention.
"Ma'am, Pardon me for being forward but you are the most beautiful woman that I have ever seen." The voice rasped out. He was covered in bandages and all you could really see of him were his bright green eyes and messy bronze colored hair.
"That must be the pain killers talking, Major." Bella laughed.
"No, it's true." He rasped "I was hoping that after you patched me up that I could take you out on a date."
"You have a long way to go, Major, before you will be able to take anyone out on a date." Bella said with a playful smile. She had no intention of leading him on but she didn't want to hurt his feelings either.
"We'll see, ma'am." He rasped out again before drifting off the sleep.
Some time later, as Bella was walking out of class with her friend, a tall and handsome man stood beside his car. She recognized the bronze hair and green eyes immediately and knew that he was the wounded Major that she treated a few months ago in the veteran's hospital.
"Ma'am, I'm Edward Cullen. I never got the chance to thank you for patching me up back in the hospital a few months ago." Edward said with a crooked smile.
"Just doing my job." Bella said with a shy smile "I'm Bella Swan."
"Well Miss Swan, how about that date?" he asked.
"I guess." She replied.
That night Edward took her out to dinner and from then on they were inseparable. Bella was surprised how quickly she fell for Edward, he was everything her parents had ever dreamed of. He was stunningly handsome, sweet but a little cocky and fabulously wealthy coming from old money in the form of his parents' oil fortune in Texas. One night, after dating for several months, Edward and Bella went out to dinner with her parents. Her parents absolutely adored Edward. While Charlie and Renee snuck off to dance, Edward sat beside Bella.
"A lot of people keep asking me when we are getting married." He said "I know that my parents would love it, your parents would love it, but we don't have to do what everyone wants us to do."
"No, we don't." Bella said, confused as to where he was going with this.
"I think we should. We owe it to your parents to do it." Edward said cockily.
"I think that you may have underestimated my parents' affection toward you, Edward." She said with a laugh "My father is a tough cookie to crack."
"That he is." Edward said "But he gave me his blessing this morning."
"What?" Bella said, shocked.
"Bella, I love you and I know you love me. Will you do me the great honor of being my wife?" he asked, opening a little black box to reveal an extravagant engagement ring.
"Yes" Bella replied with a smile and Edward slipped the ring onto her finger and took off toward the stage where the band was playing.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for all coming out tonight. I just wanted to say that Bella Swan has agreed to marrying me!" Edward said excitedly and everyone clapped and began giving the happy couple their congratulations. As Bella stood with her new fiancée beaming and thanking everyone for their congratulations, she thought of Emmett and wondered how he was doing without her.
Emmett, on the other hand, was working in Memphis when the news came in of America heading into the war. He and Jasper immediate went to the nearest recruiter and enlisted in the Army, being shipped out to the battlefield a week later. The first week in, Jasper was killed by an overhead bomb. Emmett was hurt for his fallen best friend but he kept fighting, Bella's face always showing up in his dreams on nights that he could actually sleep. After the war was over, he went home to his father's house with a nice chunk of money from the Army for his services and his sea bag full of clothes.
"It's good to see ya, son." Emmett Sr. said as Emmett made his way inside his childhood home. "I see the Army treated you well."
"Yes, sir but I am glad to be back." Emmett grinned.
A few weeks after coming home, with the money he had saved and what he had left from the Army, Emmett made plans to buy and restore Pinhook Plantation in hopes that wherever Bella was she would see his work and see that he was always thinking of her. He went to Atlanta, Bella's hometown, to talk to people about financing and he could have sworn he saw her. He shook it off knowing that she was supposedly still in New York. After speaking with a few people about funding to help restore the old plantation house he went home to try to figure out how he would get the remaining money to buy the house. Little did he know, his father had a surprise waiting for him when he got home.
"Hey son, I was wondering when you were going to get home." Emmett Sr. said.
"I just got in, I have funding to restore the old house, I just need to figure out how to get the remaining money to buy the house." Emmett said.
"Maybe this will help." Emmett Sr. said handing his son a check for well more than he needed to buy the house.
"Dad, where did you get this?" he asked.
"I sold this place." Emmett Sr. replied.
"What? No, you can't do that…where will you live?" Emmett asked.
"I guess you'd better buy that house then, I'll stay with you." Emmett Sr. said with a grin.
The next day Emmett bought Pinhook Plantation and began restoring it. For months he spent his days fixing up the old house to the specifications that Bella gave him their last night together and at night he thought of Bella. On nights that the loneliness became too much to bear, he had Rosalie Hale.
Rosalie was a war widow from a few towns over and while he enjoyed her company, he knew that things would never become serious with her as long as Bella remained the soul keeper of his heart. He tried to love Rosalie, and she understood how he felt considering she still held onto the feelings she had for her late husband who died in the war. Rosalie provided Emmett with a companion, someone to spend time with and talk to and she was there for him when he lost his father shortly after completing the house. Still Emmett wondered what Bella was doing and who she was spending her life with and that was the reason he could never bring himself to care for Rosalie more than just a close friend and companion.