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Chapter 22

Dreams. I laid back on Edward's couch and contemplated his statement. It's time you told me about your dreams. I looked into his eyes, trying to see any kind of emotion. There was nothing, just emptiness. I sighed, "Edward, would you believe me if I told you it was nothing."

"No" he said firmly, "Bella, I don't want you to lie to me about this just because you feel you are doing the best thing for me."

I rolled my eyes, went up to him and grabbed his face between my hands, "Edward, I'm not lying to you. They mean nothing. They are just stupid dreams."

"Bella," Edward practically groaned, "I almost killed you. You scream in your sleep. It's my fault."

"No Edward, it's not." I sighed at slumped myself back down on his chair. "The dreams started once you left," I said quietly, talking more to myself than Edward, "All I would do is dream about you leaving me alone in the forest and I would scream for you to come back to me. I had the same dream for months after you left. Charlie was threatening to send me back to Mom or a hospital, who knows what else. So I started not sleeping. I would go days without sleep. Finally when I was so exhausted I slept, dreamlessly." I paused for a second, remembering the pain and emptiness I felt during Edward's absence. I shuttered, glad that he was back and that loneliness, pain and the empty feeling would no longer bother me because he was back. "Finally after probably six months I stopped dreaming about you. But every now and then there you would be, haunting my dreams. Then you came back," I looked at him with absolute hope in my eyes, "you came back, you saved me. But then you told me that you had wanted to kill me. The dreams came back. Only this time instead of leaving me you said 'this is the only way' or you would say 'Bella, you will always be mine and one day I will consume you' that was the one that scared me the most." I made eye contact with Edward for the first time since I had started talking about my dreams. "Now I only dream of is Victoria."

Edward came over to me and wrapped his arms around me. I rested my head against his chest. I hadn't realized that I was crying. He was rubbing my back and muttering some soothing words. "Don't worry Bella, I won't ever hurt you again."

"I know that." I muttered against his chest. My tears soaking his shirt.

"And we will get Victoria. I promise you that."

I nodded again, "so now you don't have to worry about my dreams."

Edward looked at me cheekily, "what about all those dreams you have when you are muttering my name. Surely that can't be a good thing."

I flushed red. "They are dreams…" I started, and then paused for a second, "about you." I finished really quietly.

He laughed with a small hint of evilness sneaking through, "good or bad?"

My face flushed to a deeper shade of red, "good" I muttered refusing to make eye contact with him.

Edward continued laughing. I attempted to throw a cushion at him but it, of course, missed him because I'm a bad shot but he still managed to catch it before it broke anything. After this deflation I turned to the real mature answer of poking my tongue out at him. He rolled his eyes, stopped laughing but was still grinning stupidly and grabbed my hand and led me out of his bedroom.

"The tribe is back." He said explaining why we were leaving his room, "and Emmett is mad."

As we descended down the stairs I looked out the large window and saw Emmett emerge from the forest making enough noise to wake the dead. He entered the house and slammed the door behind him in attempt to show how angry he was.

Edward groaned and whispered to me, "Jasper is bragging because he caught a bigger bear than Emmett."

Rosalie was the next to enter the house, "Emmett," she attempted to reason, "it's not that big of a deal."

Even I knew that was the wrong thing to say. Emmett spun around so he was facing Rosalie, "not that big of a deal?" he yelled. The mirror on the wall actually started swaying from side to side.

Rosalie rolled her eyes and headed up the stairs, "I'm not going to deal with you when you are in a mood like this." Then a few seconds later I heard a door slam upstairs.

"Do you want to go?" Edward asked me.

I shook my head, "no way, this is too exciting" I turned and faced Edward, "do you reckon Esme has popcorn?"

Edward stifled a laugh and shook his head, Emmett spun around facing him now, "Something funny Edward?" he asked spelling out all the syllables in Edward's name.

Edward threw his hands up in the air in an 'I'm innocent' kind of way. He then rounded to me. I was ready for some comment, but it never came. Instead Emmett threw his arms around me, in what, I'm sure, was supposed to be a hug but instead was a spine crushing hug. Once he put me down he smiled at me, "Didn't know you were here Bella."

Alice then entered the house, "Liar. You could smell here from a mile away." She walked up to me and hugged me in a nice, not spine breaking way. "Good to see you have sorted everything out. I never had any doubts." She said smiling cheekily and winking slightly.

I rolled my eyes and leaned back against Edward's solid body. I thought it might be safer because Jasper was just coming out of the forest now with Carlisle. Emmett had noticed this too, or heard, hard to tell and turned his attention from being nice Emmett to angry Emmett.

Jasper entered the house, surveyed everybody, noticed me, gave a slight nod, and then attempted to make his way up the stairs avoiding conflict. Emmett moved to fast, blocking the stairs. "Do you want to tell Bella what happened today?"

Jasper shook his head, "not really."

Emmett pretended to look shocked, "What? You don't want to brag to some else about how fabulous you are?"

Jasper just shook his head again. This was not the answer Emmett wanted so he growled and pounced on Jasper. They started fighting, but I couldn't see anything. It was just a blur colors. It all seemed to going well, I guess, until they hit something. There was a vase on the table, they had hit. All of a sudden it was like everything moved in slow motion. Edward lunged after the vase, Emmett and Jasper froze mid battle to see if they had broken Esme's vase, I decided to stay right out of it because I would only make the situation worse and Alice for some reason hadn't seen it coming, or maybe she did and she just wanted them to get into trouble.

The scene played out in slow motion; well at least it seemed like it. Edward was vertical in the air at one point, like Superman and then with a great thump (and a dent in the floor I'm sure) he missed the vase and it bounced on his back. Emmett decided then it was his turn to attempt to save the vase before it bounced of Edward's back and on to the floor, where in hindsight would probably not break because it wasn't that far. So then it was Emmett's turn to 'fly' through the air. He somehow hit the corner of the table the vase had been on and then is 'fly' turned into a 'fall'. Edward quickly rolled over, throwing the vase back up into the air again and Emmett landed on Edward in a rather unflattering position. Jasper then thought, now that the vase is in the air, I'm going to try and catch it. Emmett decided that he didn't want Jasper to have all the glory of saving the vase so he grabbed his legs and pulled. Needless to say Jasper ended up on Emmett and Edward and the vase ended up flying through the air and smashing into a thousand pieces.

The boys where all rolling around on the ground wrestling and arguing about whose fault it was that the vase had smashed. I didn't need vampire hearing to hear the sound of high heel shoes clicking against the wooden floor. Esme entered the room with her hands crossed against her chest. If her face could change color I am sure it would have been bright red in anger, but somehow Esme, quite convincingly managed to look very angry.

"Who did it?" she asked, with a surprising amount of calm.

The boys stopped fighting and turned and pointed to the offending person. Emmett was pointing at Jasper, Jasper at Emmett and Edward was using both arms to point at both Emmett and Jasper. I swallowed a laugh from escaping. The last thing I wanted was an angry Esme turning on me.

"Is it impossible for you boys to act your age?" Esme asked throwing her arms up in the air.

"I'll replace the vase" said Jasper rather quickly.

Esme rolled her eyes and shook her head, "It is, rather it was, an antique. You just can't replace it."

Jasper and Emmett dropped their heads, "Sorry Esme" they both muttered both of them taking a large interest in the shoe laces on their shoes.

I was surprised when Esme just turned and left the room. I was waiting for the yelling. It never came. I was actually rather disappointed.

"She's got to the point where she has decided to stop yelling at them because they never change." Edward whispered in my ear. I jumped. I wasn't excepting him to have returned to his original spot behind me.

I grabbed Edward's hand and lead him up to his bedroom. He looked at me quizzically. "What's up?" he asked.

I sighed and sat on the edge on his couch. I didn't say anything for a while. Edward groaned in frustration, "Please just tell me what's wrong Bella."

"I want you to change me." I said finally after what seemed like an eternity.

Edward collapsed next to me. He gently pushed me down so my head was nestled nicely under his arm. He began stroking my question. We laid like this for what felt like hours, but what was only a few minutes. "Bella, what's wrong with how we are now?"

I turned my body slightly so I was facing him. I stared deeply into his eyes, hoping he might give something, anything away. "We can never be together properly if I stay as a human." He opened his mouth to say something. I placed my finger over his mouth to stop him from interrupting. "I love you Edward. Without you I can't survive. I don't want to live in a world that doesn't include you. I don't want to be content spending the rest of my life with you. I want to spend eternity with you. You are my Mr. Darcy and if Elizabeth could have spent the rest of eternity with him I'm sure she would of."

Edward looked a little shocked at this outburst for a moment, but then he smiled, "I love you to Bella. But I cannot take your life away from you."

My eyes gleamed with determination, "We'll see." I said and then kissed him lightly and closed my eyes and drifted to sleep, my dreams only filled with Edward.

A/N: So this is the last chapter! I really hope you have enjoyed this story. I have loved writing it! Thank you to all you wonderful people who have been there from the 1st chapter. I love you all! I will be starting work on a sequel, but probably not for a few weeks. Just keep an eye out.

Shelby

xx