A/N: Ok, I know I haven't updated in a while and I'm sorry. If my friend wasn't so obsessed with the other story *you know who you are* then I would have gotten to this one sooner. But either way, I can say there isn't much left of this story, only a couple more chapters and then there will be a part three. I have decided to break this into three parts to signify the the three parts to Edward and Bella's commplicated relationship and reunion along with their futures. So enjoy...
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Chapter 7
Edward called and made the arrangements while Alice worked on Bella. He called the restaurant to make sure they'd have privacy, knowing there was still a lot to discuss. He went and changed after he made a trip to hunt, not wanting anything to ruin their night together, not wanting anything to even momentarily distract him.
"You do realize how important tonight is?" Carlisle said as he came into Edward's room as he started to get ready.
"Yes Alice hinted to that already. I just think if we talk, I mean really talk we can figure this out. I mean, I'm not even sure where we stand with one another anymore. Things are so confusing and I just want my Bella back. Not a roommate, or someone I'm afraid to argue with cause she might leave, I just want my Bella, our life together back." He said and Carlisle came over and put his arm around his son, knowing it was hard for him.
"You two do need to talk, and I'm sure it will help both of you to figure things out with one another. But know you are still a vampire and her a human, and I am still her professor, and that means something."
"I know that, and you are only her professor for a couple of week!" He countered and Carlisle laughed.
"You really want her out of that dorm." He said, skipping over Bella being changed, knowing Edward already knew everyone's opinions on the subject.
"It's co-ed." He said and pinched he bridge of his nose. He looked and seen Carlisle laugh and held his hand up. "Don't even start, I just want he with me, is that so wrong?"
"No its not, if that's the only reason." He said and continued to laugh.
"She's better off here, we all know that. She's just being difficult."
"That's funny coming for you. You are more difficult then anyone."
"Doesn't matter, I'm getting her to move in, or let us get a place near campus together."
"Good luck," he said and headed to the door. "But Edward what you two really need to figure out, is not where she's going to sleep tonight, but where your future is going to take you, both of you. You need to make a choice and stand to it, stop running and decide if you want your forever with her or not." Carlisle said and left. Edward finished getting ready and headed to wait in the living room, Carlisle gave him a lot to consider and he didn't want to glance over any of it.
Alice had a hard time working with Bella. It seemed she couldn't sit still to save her life. Bella was nervous for her talk with Edward, and anxious at the same time. There was just so much she wanted to say, and yet so much she wanted to keep to herself because she didn't trust his reaction to it all.
"Bella you need to relax," Alice said as she picked out her outfit. "Everything will be fine, you two just need to be honest with one another." She said and sat on the bed while Bella changed in the bathroom. "Do you need Jasper to help you?" Alice said and Bella came out shaking her head.
"No, if he manipulates what I feel then it won't help anything. You're right, we need to be honest and that means all the crazy emotions that are going on with it." She said and Alice nodded as she finished Bella's make up.
"Fine do this the hard way. But I can honestly say you two are in for it." She said with a giggle and Bella shook her head, messing up Alice. "Stay still." She growled and Bella smirked before sitting to let Alice finish. "Alright, all done."
"Thanks Alice, but I think its time I go see Edward. I'm sure he's pacing in the living room." Bella said and Alice just looked at her confused. "He tends to do that." She said and shrugged.
"He was right, you are too observant sometimes." She joked and Bella headed out to face Edward, and their inevitably uncomfortable conversation. She headed down the stairs and tried to calm herself, think of peaceful thoughts, but it didn't seem possible. She couldn't erase how anxious she felt.
"Bella you look amazing." Edward said as he met her at the foot of the stairs. She blushed and smiled as he led her out to the car. Both were quiet on the way to the restaurant, so many thoughts wandering through their minds. The questions they wanted to ask, the reactions they wanted.
Edward escorted her into a nice restaurant, and let out a low growl as the host kept his eyes focused on Bella. Bella seemed oblivious, she was too busy putting her thoughts in order. Edward escorted her to the table in the back, a booth that was quiet so they wouldn't have many interruptions. They ordered, and Bella laughed at Edward ordering real food.
"What are you laughing at?" He asked and she shook her head.
"The pretense of you pushing around food like you plan to eat any of it. We both know you'll just get it to go for me to eat later." She said and he smiled.
"You know me too well."
"We could have gone somewhere else, without the pretense of dinner. Somewhere where you wouldn't have to pretend to be something you're not."
"I like taking you out though, you know that. Sure, I can't eat but that's besides the point. I figured we needed some place neutral." He said and shrugged while she smiled.
"Ok," she said and then took a deep breath. "Edward what do you want?" She blurted out and he answered without a second of hesitation.
"You," he said and reached across to take her hand and kiss her knuckles.
"For how long? Today, tomorrow. Fifty years until I'm old and useless?" She said and he just shook his head.
"You'll always be the most beautiful women in the world to me, and by no means will you ever be useless. Isn't it enough to have a long happy life with me?"
"You tried that once and my answer hasn't changed. I want more, I want eternity with you and I just don't understand why you can't give me that."
"I don't want to turn to into this, I don't want to be the reason you're a monster." He said as he played with his glass of water.
"That's funny, because what I want most. The thing I want more then anything else in the world, is to be like you. To have you change me and give me eternity with you. You aren't a monster Edward, James was a monster, Victoria even. But you, your family are the exact opposite. You don't kill if you don't have to, you travel to not destroy the population in the forest. Give more to charity in a year then most in a lifetime, then there's Alice with her quest to rebuilt the economy one shopping trip at a time." She said and he smirked.
"She has been working on that for decades." He joked and then turned serious. "Why do you want to be a monster?"
"Don't call yourself that," she said sternly and he nodded. "Because I want to be with you, one lifetime isn't enough for me. Call me selfish but I want more." She said and finished her salad before pushing the plate away. "Look, I know this isn't easy for you, that you see this as a bad thing but I don't. I never did. Since we met it's all I thought about, and according to Alice it's inevitable, so why not just start it now?"
"What about school?"
"I quit and go back in a couple years. Let me get use to the whole 'repeated high school years' this time a little more popular then last."
"You were popular and you know it, you had me."
"Until you left and then I was the pariah." She said and he snapped his head up to look at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Well a lot happened when you left, I was so upset and depressed that I just sort of shut myself down. I didn't want to deal with people, I didn't want to see happy couples when I was miserable. It wasn't fair, my world ended, so why did theirs continue?" She said and he slid in the booth so he was closer to her.
"I'm so sorry to have put you through that, you know that I can never make what I did right."
"Edward I can get past that. I can get passed what I felt when you left, part of me is. These days with you, being with you again has been amazing. The hole that was in my chest while you were away is gone. I don't have to hold myself together or hide from the real world. I don't need to do that because you are here and you do it for me. You keep me together, and let me live in the real world. Not having to run from anyone who looks happy, and not hating happy couples I see on the street. Because I feel like one of them, even if we haven't figure out what we are. We're connected, me and you there's no one else for us. I just don't see how I can be so sure on wanting forever with you and yet you don't want me forever." She said and he seen the tear slip down her cheek.
"Never doubt my love for you." He said and lifted her chin to make her look at him. "Bella there is nothing I would like more then an eternity with you. To have you with me always, to be able to be my true self. No holding back or pulling away. Never having to worry if you are going to get sick or hurt if you fall. Being able to take you hunting with me, like everyone else in my family. Finally turning my family into a whole again with you by my side." He said and paused. "But I don't want you to look back one day and regret it all, regret not having a normal life, not having kids or your family with you. Not being able to grow old and see your grandchildren in the yard. All the normalcy will be gone, and then there's no going back. You don't have the luxury of waking up the next day and asking for it all to go away. There is no way to reverse it, trust me I've looked."
"Edward I'd never regret it. Even with all the pain, with the way things ended before, even if I spent the rest of my human life alone, if I never found Carlisle or you again. I wouldn't trade the time we had together for anything. Good or bad outcome, I will always be grateful for the time I had with you, no matter how small it was. I love you whole heartedly, and that is never going to change." She said and put her hand up to his cheek, knowing he loved the warmth of it. "I want forever, that is the only thing I have ever asked of you, but can you give me that?"
She said and waited for his answer, waited for him to either give in to her desires, or crush her once again. She waited with baited breath, watching his ever movement. Knowing he was weighing his words, go over all the outcomes. The silence seemed to last forever, and the tension was thick, even the waitress shied away from ruining their moment with one another.
"Bella I want you forever, I want to call you mine and have everyone know you're taken. Call me old fashion but I like the certainty in it." He said and she smirked, having the same thoughts of him marking her as his. "I know I can have all this if you remain human and I know that I could keep fighting you on this, come up with every excuse to keep you human. But I don't want to fight anymore. I'm selfish too and I want you too much to think of world without you. I've been there, I lived it, or better existed in it. I didn't like who I was then, and neither did anyone else. I wasn't alive, I was a shell of what I was with you. What I am when I'm near you. I had the same anger you did, hated to see everyone happy around me and yet still feel so miserable and I know I drove Jasper to the point of insanity on more then one occasion." He said and paused, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. "Even if it was to be me and you for the rest of your days I would be devastated when you died, of any cause. My life would be over too, because I would just follow you." He said and reached to wipe her tears away. "So ok." He said and watched as her face lit up. Never knowing he could make her that happy again, realizing how much he missed that smile.
"Ok you'll change me?" She said, and he seen the question still left in her voice.
"Yes, finish your semester," he said and she nodded. "Go home to Forks, see your dad and I'll get you a trip to your mom. After that if you decide this is still what you want, then come back to me." He said and sealed his promise with a kiss. "I never was good at denying you anything." He whispered more to himself, then anything as he pulled back and she smiled, knowing visiting her family wouldn't change anything. She'd step off the plan from Jacksonville and run to him, it's the only place she ever belonged.