"Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Mark asked. I was back at my Dad's house, and Mark and Angela were talking with me in the living room while the fish were baking in the kitchen. Charlie would be home soon, so Mark was questioning me while he still had the chance.
"Yes," I said. "It's not like I would have much choice anyway if I didn't want to."
"Those head vampires are coming soon, aren't they?" Angela asked. She and Mark were holding hands on the couch, and I was sitting in the chair.
"That's what Alice said," I answered, "But we can't be sure."
"So you're going to become one of them?" Mark asked for the fifth time.
"Yes," I confirmed, once again.
"And you're going to marry Edward," Angela said.
"That was the plan," I agreed.
"I always knew that you two would end up together," Angela announced triumphantly.
The doorbell rang, and I went to go see who it was while Angela moved over to the chair. Just because we all knew what was happening didn't mean that everyone else did, too.
But it was only Edward at the door. I let him inside and closed the door behind him.
"You can move back, Ang," I called ahead. "It's Edward."
"Hi, Edward," Angela said shyly when we walked in.
"Hello, Angela," Edward answered. He sat on the chair and pulled me onto his lap. "Hello, Mark."
"Edward," Mark answered with a grin. He put his arm around Angela and she moved closer.
"What are you here for?" I asked Edward, turning to look at his face.
"We need to discuss what we are going to tell the unsuspecting parents," Edward chuckled. My good mood instantly dissipated.
"Oh," I said. Angela and Mark looked like they felt about the same way as I did.
"I know, it's not a very pleasant conversation to plan, but it needs to be done," Edward said. "Alice says the best time to tell Charlie would be tonight. She suggested telling Angela's parents soon as well, and then saving Renee and Mark's parents for a face to face conversation."
"I think over the phone would be best for Renee," I suggested.
"My parents, too," Mark agreed. "Though I'm sure they'll drive out as soon as they hear so that they can talk some sense into me."
"Don't you owe it to your parents to tell them face to face?" Edward asked.
"Maybe," I admitted. "But let's plan Charlie first, since it sounds like I'll be telling him in under an hour."
Charlie walked in the house an hour later, not expecting to see Edward and Angela, and definitely not expecting to see me with Edward and Mark with Angela.
"Bells?" he asked suspiciously.
"Dad, come sit down," I told him with a sigh. "We need to talk."
Angela and Mark scooted over so there was room for a third person on the couch, and Charlie sat down next to Angela.
"You've probably figured out that something's a little different," I began.
"Yes, I'd noticed," Charlie said, glaring at Edward.
"Dad, the truth is that I never stopped loving Edward," I said, cutting out part of the script and just deciding to get straight to the point. "Mark and I got married because we hoped to move on from our prior relationships. But we didn't get married because we love each other, Dad. We did it to make you, and Mom, and his parents happy. We agreed ahead of time that we weren't getting married for love."
"But don't you love each other?" Charlie asked.
"Like siblings," I answered. "He's like a brother that I never had. But we can't keep pretending that we love each other as more than that. I love Edward, he loves Angela," Charlie's eyes flicked sideways to glare at Angela, "and we've decided that our acting career is over. We're telling the truth now."
"I don't like it," Charlie thundered.
"You don't have to," I answered. "It's happening whether you want it to or not. Mark and I are going to get a divorce, and this time we're going to marry the people that we really love."
"I don't approve," Charlie told me forcefully.
I sighed. "Dad, you can make this easy or hard. You can just accept the fact that it's happening and wish us good luck, or you can fight it, but fighting it won't get you anywhere. I'm an adult. You can't tell me what to do, or what not to do. The same goes for Mark. He and I have talked about this already. We both agree that it's for the best."
"There's no stopping you?" Charlie checked.
"No," I answered. "It's happening, and it's happening soon."
I saw Charlie glance at Angela, and I hurried to clear another thing up.
"It's not Angela's fault," I said. "She didn't start this. She just happened to be here at the right time."
"Then who's fault is it?" Charlie thundered. Obviously, he was looking for someone to blame.
"You really don't want to hear that," I told him.
"Yes, I really do," he said. "Whose fault is it?"
"Yours, and Mom's, and Mark's parents," I said, some attitude seeping into my voice. "If all of you hadn't been so pushy in your attempts to make Mark and I move on then we would not have gotten married in the first place, and then we would be having this conversation."
"Oh," Charlie muttered, embarrassed. His anger had been deflated as he realized exactly what I was saying. "You really don't love Mark, then?"
"Only as a sister loves her brother," I answered. "There's nothing more there."
"Have you told Renee?" he asked.
"No," I answered. "You were the first."
"When are you going to tell Renee?" Charlie asked.
"I'll call her later," I said. "But let's eat supper first. I made fish."
He accepted that with a thoughtful nod and we went into the kitchen.
"When are the weddings?" Charlie asked.
"I'm not sure," I hedged, and looked at Edward. He shrugged.
"We haven't planned that yet," Mark continued. "We were too busy trying to find the best way to break the news to our parents."
"That is quite the task," Charlie agreed absently.
He didn't speak to me again until after I called Renee.
That phone call was interesting, to say the least. It took two hours of arguing, repeating myself a lot, and pointing out that I am an adult and she technically has no say in what I do before she demanded to speak to Charlie.
"Don't yell at him, he doesn't like it much better than you do," I warned her before handing over the phone.
I went in the living room with Edward, Mark, and Angela to wait for Charlie to get done talking. Edward kept tabs on the conversation for us.
"It's actually going quite well," he told us after a few moments. "She's finally beginning to see that this really is what you two want, and it's not just Angela and I interfering."
"I've made a mess, haven't I?" Angela asked.
"No, we made the mess," I assured her. "You just got caught in the middle of it."
"I feel like I just made things worse, though," Angela told me.
"No, you're actually the reason that this is working so well," I said. "If it had only been me, then my parents would think that I had been cheating on Mark and they'd never accept this. But since they can see that Mark wants to move on to better love than just sibling love too, they're more accepting."
"Are you sure?" Angela asked worriedly.
"I'm positive," Edward answered, and that settled it, because, after all, he is the resident mind reader.
Another hour later Renee finally accepted it, Charlie, seemed happier, and we headed over to Angela's house to tell her parents. They were shocked, but took it better than my parents had.
"Well, that is rather surprising," her mother said, "But not altogether unsuspected. We thought that she had found someone that she liked. We're just surprised that she picked a married man, is all. Are you sure that you really want to get a divorce?"
After assuring her that, yes, we wanted to get a divorce, and yes, this was a mutual agreement, she seemed fine with it, and they seemed happy that Angela had finally found someone that she liked.
Mark's parents were going to find out over the phone, but that plan changed.
"They didn't answer the phone," Mark said, relief tainting his voice as he hung up our phone.
"Try their cell phone and ask when they'll be home," I suggested.
He glared at me, but complied. "Hi, Mom?" he asked.
"No, everything's fine," he told her. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about something important, but I think you need to be at home before I tell you what it is… No, Bella's not pregnant," he said, rolling his eyes at me. "Well, when will you be home? … What am I doing tonight? What do you mean? … You're… you're on your way here, and you'll be here in about twenty minutes?" he asked. I gave him a panicked look. "No, now's a great time. Bella and I will go get the couch ready so you can sleep here." He nodded towards the living room and I ran off to find the spare sheets so I could get the pull out bed in the couch ready. "Yeah, love you too, Mom. I'll see you in a little bit."
He hung up and came to help me pull out the bed in the couch. "They'll be here in twenty minutes," he told me.
"Why are they coming?" I asked. "Why didn't they call?"
"They wanted to surprise me," Mark answered. "I'm going to go call Angela and have her come back over so my parents can meet her."
"Call Edward, too," I requested. "Will your parents be mad?"
"Furious," he answered. "Why?"
"Tell Edward to bring Jasper, too," I suggested.
"Great idea!" Mark said enthusiastically. He ran off into the kitchen, and I finished making the bed before going to tell Charlie about our guests.
The doorbell rang three times in the next twenty minutes. The first was Edward, who had been on his way with Jasper before Mark even called (sometimes having someone in the family who sees the future is very convenient), the second was Angela, and the third was Mark's parents.
They, like my father, seemed surprised to see me sitting with Edward and Mark with Angela, but they waited patiently for the explanation. They took it amazingly well; I suppose there is something to be said for hiding Jasper in the back yard.
Once they had accepted the news and given their congratulations, I snuck upstairs and let Angela and Mark talk with his parents. Charlie saw Edward to the door, but Edward snuck back in through the window once he had told Jasper it was safe to go home.
"This brings back memories, too," Edward chuckled as he climbed in my window.
"I'm sure it does," I whispered. I sat on the bed, and Edward sat next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and leaned back so he could support himself on the head of the bed. He obviously pulled me back with him, and I giggled.
"What?" he asked.
"I'm still married, you know," I said. "I probably shouldn't be cuddling with anybody but my husband."
"I know," he answered, and then teasingly added, "I'm just holding you. I don't want you to fall off the bed and hurt yourself."
"Very funny," I told him. "That's so funny I forgot to laugh."
He sighed, and I turned my head to look at him. "What?" I asked.
"You won't be clumsy anymore in a few days," he sighed. "You won't be warm, you won't blush, you won't have a heart beat…" he pulled me closer and buried his face in my hair. "I've been away for so long… I've missed all your human qualities. I've missed you, too, don't get me wrong, but I will always miss your human characteristics."
"Will I be very different?" I asked. "Will you still love me after I'm not warm and I don't blush and you can't catch me when I fall?"
"I will always love you, Isabella," Edward said. "Becoming a vampire can't change that. Even if this doesn't work, nothing will change my love for you, unless it makes it stronger. But I don't know that I can love you anymore than I already do. You are my entire life. You hold all of my love."
"How can someone as wonderful as you love someone as plain as me?" I asked. "I look at you in all of your god-like glory, your beauty and grace and… and… and your perfection, and then I look at me."
"I have better eyesight," Edward teased me, and then stopped. "Wait, did you just say I have god-like glory?"
"I… oh, forget I said that," I pleaded as I blushed.
"No, you said I have god-like glory," Edward insisted. "I'm not forgetting that!"
"One disadvantage of having a vampire lover is that he never forgets anything," I groaned.
"One advantage of having a human lover is that she says such adorable things about me," Edward said. "I like it."
"But I'll be one of you in about five days," I pointed out.
"I know," Edward said. "I haven't forgotten."
"I'm a little nervous," I admitted.
"You should be," Edward said seriously. "It isn't a laughing matter. It's a very different way of life. It's a very painful transformation."
"I'm not worried about the pain or the difference in life-style," I scoffed. "I'm worried that my idea may not work."
"It is a little odd," Edward allowed, "But then again, so are you. It should work."
I heard the front door open and close, and then I heard a car start and pull away from the house.
"Was that Angela?" I asked.
"It was," Edward confirmed. "Mark is coming up now. I should leave."
"I'll see you tomorrow," I promised. I gave him a quick kiss. "I love you."
"I love you, too," Edward answered. He left me on the bed then, and escaped out the window before Mark could open the door.