Happy Sunday! Here's chapter 25 for you all, I hope you enjoy it. This is mostly a filler chapter, I felt it was needed as a transition. Only 2 chapters left after that.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 25

BPOV

Everything is silent. It takes me a while to gain enough conscious thought to notice I'm lying in a bed. When I finally find the strength to open my eyes, everything is blurry. When the fog lifts up, I notice I'm in our bed, back at the apartment. How did I get here?

I remember we were in front of that sushi restaurant where we'd just had dinner. I remember having a wonderful time with my friends, and then Edward's cell phone rang… then everything went dark. What happened?

And Edward, where is he?

Where's everyone?

I look around the room and find Edward sitting up in his desk chair, fast asleep. I can't help but wonder why is he sleeping in the chair?

"Edward?" I call quietly. I don't know what time it is, I don't want to risk waking anyone else. He doesn't stir. I see he has his feet up on the bed, so I put my hand on one of them. "Edward?" I call again. He startles awake and immediately looks at me. When he sees I'm awake, he comes to sit on the bed beside me.

"Hey," he says, putting a hand on my left cheek. I lean into his touch. "You okay?" I nod. "Bella, you scared me there. What happened?" I bite on my lower lip.

"I don't know. What happened? I know that after you hung up with Leah, you said that the investigation was over, but that's all I remember." I can see his face darken a little at my words.

"You started shaking and mumbling unintelligible things. I couldn't get you to snap out of it. Even Rose tried, and it didn't work. So, I brought you back here right away and called Leah once I was able to settle you down in bed."

"Sorry…" I say before looking away. He quickly makes me look at him again.

"What are you apologizing for?"

"Well, we missed the meeting with Leah, and I scared you and Rose, and…"

"Bella," he interrupts me, "nothing's more important to me right now than your health. We can meet with Leah some other time; I can't leave you aside while you're having some sort of panic attack. I just can't, Bella. You'll always come first."

His words bring tears up to my eyes. He really does love me as much as I love him, unconditionally. I nod, letting a few tears escape. He wipes them away with his thumbs before leaning down to kiss me softly. I kiss him back, my hand automatically drifts up to his hair.

"Sorry for scaring you." I say when he pulls away and rests his forehead against mine.

"It's okay."

We remain in this position for a moment, just taking in each other, trying to go back to normalcy… well, as normal as our life is nowadays.

"Help me up?" I ask quietly when he pulls away. He nods and offers his hand.

I grab it and he pulls me up which turns into a hug, and I can feel his relief spread through him: all of his muscles relax at once.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He asks when he pulls away.

"Yeah. I'm feeling kind of tired and slightly hungry, but I'm fine."

"Okay. Do you want to eat something?" I nod. "I'll go and get you something."

"No, I want to come. I need to get out of this bed." He hesitates then nods, standing up and offering me his hand. I take it and use it to help myself up. Once I'm standing, my legs are a bit wobbly so Edward holds me up by putting his free arm around my back.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" He asks, skeptic again.

"Yes," I nod. "I just need a minute."

He nods. I close my eyes and take a few, slow deep breaths. When I feel my strength coming back, I test my legs again and this time, they seem to be able to hold me up. I look up at Edward and nod to him. He smiles, removes his arm from around my back and pulls me out of the room and into the kitchen by my hand, which he is still holding. He makes me sit on one of the high chairs at the counter, and then goes around the kitchen to prepare something to eat. While he busies himself making a sandwich, I look around at the microwave and see the time: 5:27 AM. Whoa, I was out for a long time. I might have gasped or something, because Edward asks: "Something wrong?"

"No. It's just that I noticed the time…wow, I was out for a while."

"Yeah, for about 4 hours. I called dad to ask if it was normal, and he said it depends from one person to another. He said that if it went past 6 hours, then we should start to worry."

"Okay."

He winks before putting the finishing touches to the sandwich, which he then hands over to me. While I take the first bite, I observe him while he gets me a glass of water. He's wearing a tight t-shirt, so I can see all of his back muscles move with each movement. It's funny how the tiniest of movement on his part gets me all hot and bothered.

He sits the glass of water beside my plate then comes to site beside me.

"Good?" I nod enthusiastically, trying to shake away those sexy thoughts. But he doesn't need to know that. He laughs.

When I'm done, he wordlessly picks up the dirty dishes to put them in the sink, then grabs my hand and pulls me back to our bedroom. There, we get situated in bed with him spooning me from behind. I could do this every night, falling asleep like this in Edward's arms, there is nothing more comfortable. Being in Edward's arms brings me peace and makes me feel safe. I feel like nothing can touch me. It doesn't take too long before I fall asleep.

I wake up a few hours later to an empty bed. Before I can wonder about Edward's whereabouts, I notice a folded piece of paper just a few inches from my eyes. I smile.

Hello love,

I didn't want to wake you up, you seemed like you needed the rest. I'm out for some errands; I'll be back before you know it.

Edward

I smile, put down the paper on the bedside table, and make my way to the bathroom to take a shower. When I come out of the bedroom after getting dressed, I find Edward in the kitchen, sitting on the same stool as last night, talking into his cell phone. I walk to him, putting my hand on his shoulder when I'm close enough. He is lightly startled, but he quickly recovers and gives me a bright smile when I finally face him. I smile back.

"Yeah… ugh Leah, Bella's awake. I'll talk to her and call you back, alright? … Cool. Talk to you soon… Bye." He promptly hangs up before pulling me to him and giving me a passionate kiss. His kiss is short, but so passionate it makes my toes curl. A light moan escapes me. "Good morning, love."

"Good morning." I reply, putting my hands flat on his chest. "How's Leah?"

"She's good. I told her about your episode last night. She was worried, but I reassured her you're fine now. Are you up to meet with her today?" I nod. "Okay. I'll let everyone know, and she'll come by after dinner tonight."

"Okay."

"What do you want to do today?"

I think about it for a moment. I'm not in the mood to do much, I just want to escape for a while… an idea pops into my head.

"Let's go for a ride." I say with a shy smile. A bright smile stretches his lips.

"Wonderful idea, love. Let's go."

We go to the bedroom to get our stuff and leave. We drive down to Aberdeen, pausing a few times on the way to stretch our legs and take some pictures. The feeling to be on that motorcycle with Edward, to just ride with no real purpose in mind, it feels liberating. While we're eating lunch in a small restaurant that gives directly on the Pacific Ocean, I realize that this is where I want to be. No matter how awful the last 2 years have been, I would go through it all over again if it brought me to this, to Edward and my wonderful friends and family. I wouldn't give it up for anything. It's time to move forward and start living. I can't help but smile.

"What are you thinking about?" Edward asks me with a smile.

"Just… this. You, me, our friends. What happened… I'm ready to live." At my words, he grabs one of my hands and kisses it before giving me a bright smile.

"You don't know how happy I am to hear you say that. So let's start to live, love. There will be bumps in our road, but as long as we're together, we can get through anything. Our meeting with Leah tonight is the first step to take. Then we'll go from there." I nod, my eyes wet.

"I love you, Edward." It didn't seem possible, but his smile gets even brighter. He stands up and pulls me from my chair and into his arms.

"I love you too, Bella. So much." He replies, hugging me tightly. We remain like that for a moment; then he pulls away lightly and kisses me passionately. I answer with just as much passion. I don't know how long we kiss, but I don't care. For that moment, we're alone in the world. When we finally come up for air, I notice that some people around us are looking at us. I blush and burry my face into Edward's chest. He chuckles.

"Let them look, love. We're in love, there's nothing they can do about it. They're probably just jealous. Ignore them."

"Okay." He chuckles again, kisses my lips lightly and helps me back into my chair before sitting back down in front of me.

"Are you done?" He asks after a moment, seeing I'm not eating anymore.

"Yeah. I'm full."

"Alright then, let's go."

He calls for the bill and quickly pays for our meal, and then we make our way out to his motorcycle and drive back to Seattle. After we relax for a while, we make ourselves some dinner. I force myself to not tense up and dread the expected visit from Leah. I do a pretty good job for most of dinner. There is a knock on the door just as Edward is putting away the last dish in the cupboard. When I open the door and greet Leah, I'm always blown away by her smile. She works with the worst of the worst yet, she is still able to smile every time I see her.

"Hey Bella, how are you?" she asks.

"I'm fine, thanks, Leah. Come on in."

"Where are the others?" she questions as she takes a seat on the sofa in the living room.

"They should be here any minute. Would you like something to drink?" I ask, making my way to the kitchen to get myself a glass of water. I just want to keep myself busy, as I'm suddenly nervous again. I just want to put all of this behind me and move on, but somehow, I don't think I will be able to do that without knowing everything. I just hope I will be able to handle everything that Leah has to say.

While I'm pouring water for Leah, Edward and myself, the others arrive. Their arrival is clear especially since Emmett always makes a ruckus whenever he's in a room with other people. He just has to be the centre of attention. Rose isn't far behind, and I can see she's a lot happier. She's been here a little over a week, and there is a drastic change.

She makes her way over to me, laughing at something Emmett has just said.

"Hey," she says a bit shyly.

"Hey Rose, how are you?" She seems to hesitate a little, but she smiles.

"I'm good, Bella. Not 100%, it will take a while to get there. But I feel like I can get there. You were right. Being here, with all of you, is the best thing that could happen to me. Emmett has been so wonderful…"

"I'm perfect, Rosie, and you know it!" Emmett interrupts from the other room.

"We were in the middle of girl talk." Rose replies over her shoulder to him.

"I love girl talk!" Emmet replies cheerfully. I laugh.

"Yeah… I kinda got that." Rose says flatly. I laugh harder. Emmett winks at her, gives her a quick kiss, and walks away.

I turn back to finish up with the water as Rose drops a revelation on me.

"I want to stay." Rose says simply. I stop dead in my track and look up at her.

"Are you serious?" I ask, somewhat flabbergasted. She nods. I quickly put back down the glasses and hug her. "You won't regret it, I promise!"

We hug for a moment longer before we are interrupted again.

"What are we celebrating?" Alice asks. I look at Rose for confirmation. She nods.

"Rose is staying." Alice beams at us.

"Really?" We nod. She squeals and hugs us both. "This is so great!"

"What's going on?" Edward asks. Everyone else had stepped closer at Alice's squeal.

"Rose has decided to stay here in Seattle." I answer.

"That's very good news." Edward says, pulling me into him. "We're all here for you, Rose."

My best friend blushes a little and buries herself lightly into Emmett's arms.

"Thanks, Edward. I'm seeing that more and more, and I couldn't be more grateful. I'm gonna go back to New York at the end of this week to get my stuff. Jasper, would you…"

"Of course, Rose. " Jasper replied before she could even finish her sentence. She smiled at him in thanks.

We're all silent for a moment, basking in the good news.

"I hate to spoil the good mood," Leah interrupts, "but are you all ready to hear about the investigation?" Edward looks down at me at that. He knows me so well. I nod at him.

"Yeah, let's do this." I say, taking a deep breath.

We all go to the living room and sit down.

Thoughts? Please review :)