A/N: This is where I'm starting to complicate this. I was going to start this part of the story at a later point but I wanted to start from the start - exactly how Serena and Edward ended up in where they did in the first place. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed!

Sarah x

June 4th 1994

Edward watched Serena as she answered the phone. Having just finished Harvard, she had applied for several jobs and the phone had been ringing daily with offers over the past week. From Alaska to Arizona and back again, she had at least half a dozen offers. The Naval Hospital in Bethesda had actually approached her – not the other way around.

She was even considering joining the military. She was considering moving to Canada. She was considering moving up to Alaska. She was the leader; he just followed. She was the decision-maker, the breadwinner, the realist, his backbone, his sense and his light. She gave him courage he didn't know he had, and he adored her for it.

"Hello," she said. He watched her intently as she said, "I see. And when would I start?" There was a slight pause. "Well, I'm sure I could be set up in a fortnight." She was keen; this must have been the one in Georgia, the one she was really after. The smile of on her face told him all he needed to know. He was moving to Georgia with her. "Thank you. OK, bye!"

She placed the phone back on the hook with a wide grin. "Macon?" he asked her.

"Yep," she smiled. "General surgery."

He stood up and kissed her. "Well done," he smiled. In all honesty, he couldn't wait to get out of Massachusetts; he felt like he had stopped here too long. "My beautiful, brilliant wife." Her cheeks turned pink at the compliment, just as they always did. He hugged her tight, reminding himself she was too good for him. That he was lucky to have her. Why she had chosen him, he would never understand. Of every man she had met at Harvard in their several years there, she had married him, the one who couldn't handle a permanent job and couldn't sit still willingly. He would never understand it but he was very glad she saw something she loved in him, even if he wasn't quite sure himself of what that thing actually was.

"We have to find a house," she said. It wasn't the massive obstacle he knew she saw it to be. This house would be easy to sell, and there was bound to be one in or near Macon. "We have to find you a job."

"I'm easy," he smiled into her hair. "I can find a job anywhere." It was completely true – he had always had the fortune of being flexible and easy to employ. He got along easily with everyone, so employers had no issues with extending locum contracts for him.

"Are you OK with this?" she asked his chest. "Georgia's a long way."

He put her at arm's length and sorted her hair, pushing it behind her ears gently. "I would follow you anywhere, Serena. Even Georgia." Her smile was bright and falsely optimistic. He planned on building a life with her, and a family if she wanted it. England, Scotland, Massachusetts, Alaska, Texas, Oregon California, Georgia...anywhere she wanted. And if she had wanted to work as a civilian for the military – a plan she had seriously considered when offered a job at Bethesda – he would have supported her. Even if she had chosen to join the military itself.

She reached up for his face, her warm fingers against his cheeks. "I love you, Edward," she said. He smile had faded, and he knew that her excitement had quickly worn off to reveal her stressed nature.

"And I love you." Serena had a strange look about her. The kind he didn't like to see. It told him she was seeing things that weren't there, that she was stressing over things that hadn't even happened yet. That might never happen anyway. "What are you thinking? I thought you wanted this job."

"I've not got a good feeling about this," she confessed. She sat down on the sofa and started twisting her hair between her fingers; it was a sure sign that she was worried. It was her tell when she was lying, her giveaway when she was anxious, her tell-tale sign when she was nervous or embarrassed...she was never aware she did it. "It's too easy."

"What do you mean?" he sighed, sitting down next to her. He pulled her hands from her hair.

"Just that. It's too easy. One interview and two weeks' waiting?" she raised an eyebrow at him. "Nothing is that easy."

Edward smiled. "It is when you're Serena Campbell, and you're beautiful, intelligent, witty and charming," he pointed out. "This was the job you wanted most."

"I know but..." she trailed away. He could see that, now she had the job, she was nervous and slightly fearful, probably thinking something had to go wrong. She was never much of an optimist, but she had never been a pessimist either. She had always looked at the reality in front of her and accepted it. "Oh, just ignore me," she moaned. "I'm being silly."
"Nothing is going to go wrong, OK?" he said to her. "I won't let it."

She laughed. "Believe it or not, my love, you are not the ruler of the universe."

He pressed his lips into hers, feeling her kiss him back as she sought reassurance from him. "Maybe not. But you know I would never let anything happen to you." Her eyes were distant and still worried, not put at ease by his promise to keep her safe and well. "What is it you think is going to happen?" he asked her.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I just feel a bit weird about it. Maybe it's just because I convinced myself I wasn't getting it and now I think there must be some kind of catch." Edward just sighed. This was Serena all over – she didn't believe that anything came for free in this life, even when a person was as skilled and intelligent as she was. She believed the world had to balance itself out, that for everything good that happened to a person there had to be a negative event too.

"You're a right little cynic," he smirked lightly. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"Um, everything?" she retorted. "You can spend your whole life building something from nothing just for it all to get knocked down in a day," she explained.

"Build it anyway," he said. "You can't give up your perfect job just because something might go wrong, now, can you?" He touched her face lightly, his fingertips lingering on her lips. "For such a brilliant woman, you say some completely illogical things."

He saw the dark clouds forming in her eyes; she was doubting what she wanted because she had it. He could see that she was scared of the move and the shift in lifestyle. She would never admit to that and he wasn't about to try and force her, but she was talking like it was the worst idea in the world, even though rationality said it was just a new job with a new house in a new town in a new state. Logically, it was nothing that they hadn't done before, but they hadn't made that move together. This time they were moving from Massachusetts to Georgia as a single unit. And that, he realised, was terrifying to her.

"I'm being silly, aren't I?" she smiled slightly. To view it as silly probably screamed that he didn't really know his wife, but he did think she was being slightly silly. He had always been care free and positive but she was unflinchingly realistic, and anticipated hard knocks and setbacks, often obsessing over them until they occurred.

"Little bit," he grinned. "And anyway. We have each other," he reminded her. He leaned in and kissed her gently, feeling her anxiety melt away. She was such a tense person that she worried about everything humanly possible. If it was even a remote possibility, she would worry about it. Half the time she kept quiet, but she still worried; he could always see it a mile away. "Now," he asserted, his hand resting against her soft face. "You stop worrying and you look forward to it. It's an adventure. Everything is just an adventure."

"Your optimism is sickening," she said, but he saw the smile twitching on her lips.

"Your realism is depressing," he retorted with a smirk. "I'm going to find an estate agent," he added, standing up to look for the phone book that was never there when they needed it.

Serena sat there with an odd glint in her eyes. "I've got a better idea. There's one a couple of blocks from here that Kate used when she moved to Memphis," she explained. She reached for the car keys from the coffee table. "I'm driving," she stated.

"No, you're not. It's my turn to drive," he said. He knew just how childish that sounded – that was exactly why he said it. Though Serena loved to moan about his juvenile tendencies, he knew they amused her.

She danced towards the door the long way around, behind the coffee table and the sofa, dangling the keys in front of him as she opened it and twirled away; he ran after her and grabbed her around the waist, his arms tight around her. "Edward!" she squealed loudly. The high-pitched noise echoed through the garden, the sun beating down on them as he pulled her down to the warm grass.

"Give me the keys," he ordered her. He pinned her down, straddled across her with her hands resting on his chest.

"No," she giggled. He kissed her neck, her sweet laugh in his ear. "No, Edward, don't!" she protested loudly. Her self-control didn't last long, though, and she was soon laughing as she kissed him; he knew she was trying to distract him from taking the keys but her grip on them was loose. He took them from her with ease. "That's not fair!" she accused. He just grinned and helped her up to her feet. Brushing the grass off her, he looked around when he felt the presence of another.

The elderly woman who lived next door was standing at her fence with a smile. "It's always lovely to see a couple so obviously in love," she commented, pushing her shoulder-length grey hair behind her ears.

Edward just smiled. "Do you need anything while we're out?" he offered, just as they did every time they headed out and she was in her garden. She was a lovely woman who had sent her two sons to help unpack the removal van when Edward and Serena had moved into this house.

She thought for a moment before she answered, "I could so with some coffee, if you wouldn't mind."

"Of course," he replied. He had bought coffee for her before and so knew exactly which brand and strength she used. By now she knew better than to offer him money for something as insignificant.

"Thanks."

"No problem," Serena smiled, wriggling slightly as he pulled her into his side and kissed her hair with a smile. She giggled and wormed away from him, jumping back for fear of him turning into a child again and pulling her down to the ground.

He went to the car, waving the keys in front of Serena teasingly, just far enough away that her attempts to swipe them were in vain. He started the engine and put his seatbelt on, making sure Serena had put hers on too. She was wearing a strange, soft expression. "What?" he asked her. She was such a hard woman that softness was an unusual expression to see in her. It usually meant one of four things: either she was exceptionally worried, she was drunk, she was in love all over again or she was in pain. Today he guessed it was a mixture of worry and love.

"Never change, Edward Campbell," she ordered him gently. She reached out and pulled him into a quick kiss. "Never change."

Hope this is OK, and makes some sense!
Please feel free to leave me a review and tell me your thoughts!
Sarah x