Epilogue

A few days later…

It was snowing at the graveyard. The floor was covered in a thick blanket of snow, and there was a light layer on the gravestone before me. As I knelt down in front of it, I dusted off the snow that had gathered in the indents of the stone, where the words were written.

I looked at the name upon it and felt the twinge of sadness inside me every time I came here and knelt in the same place.

Charles Swan

I placed my hand against the smooth stone and smiled. How happy he would be if he had seen Renesmee and her children. I was glad that I felt no guilt when I came here, glad that he knew my secret, that I could see him one last time without thinking I had left and not looked back at the home I had here in Forks.

How long had it been? Almost 20 years since that day in the hospital. So much had happened since then, with Caitlin and Jordan, the Volturi.

I turned my head around and had a look at the rest of the family that were standing by the cars. Renesmee had her arms around Jacob, who, although he was still recovering from what happened, looked perfectly content with where he was.

On that field a few days ago, I feel bad in saying this, but I'm pretty sure we all thought Jacob was going to die right there in Nessie's arms. No wolf had ever recovered from a vampire bite. Instead of changing their body, its poison to their blood, a slow death that we didn't think there was a way to counter-act it.

And then there was Nessie, so determined, her love for Jacob not letting her give up, she came up with something that seemed so obvious, yet didn't seem possible for a werewolf.

By the time Nessie had stopped we didn't know if it had worked. Jacob wasn't moving, Nessie was in tears, as were Jordan and Caitlin, us vampires were on the verge of crying, Edward had his arm around me to stop me from falling apart as I watched my best friend die.

Ness was trying to check for any sign of life, a pulse or anything, but I think she was in such a state she wasn't able to recognise anything.

Carlisle had come forward to check for her, and the amount of hope that was inside me, just that Jacob was alive, was overwhelming.

And then there was a sigh. At first we weren't sure if it was an 'I'm sorry' sigh, but then we saw the hint of a smile on Carlisle's lips and we knew it was a sigh of relief.

Poor Jacob couldn't move for a while though, was subjected to the couch for a few days. Had Rosalie on her last nerve when he kept asking her to get him stuff. It was fortunate that she loved Ness otherwise Jake would have been in that couch a lot longer.

We started to pack what we had brought here to Forks, but we thought it would be best to leave as soon as Jacob was at least feeling better to walk.

He tried to get up as quick as possible though, as soon as he heard about Seth's burial on the reservation.

Carlisle forced him to go in a wheelchair if he wanted to recover properly, and although he was a bit moody at first, he was just grateful he was able to get out.

They couldn't have a proper funeral for Seth since he was still in his wolf form, so they had a cremation for him on an isolated part of the beach where no one would see.

Seth's family, his wife and his children had come up to La Push as well. Apart from the initial interest they had in all us supernatural beings in one place, as soon as they saw the large wooden coffin that some young lads from the reservation had made, just to cover the body, they fell apart.

We were surprised when an old, weary woman turned up at the beach, but Jake and the rest of us managed to recognise Leah Clearwater pretty easily. We decided to leave the catch up till after the funeral.

The service was beautiful, but it was sad to remember that young boy who had helped be all those years ago, and when protecting our family again, as a man, he died for it.

After the service, and catching up with Leah, Jake held a meeting of sorts with those in the pack. I wasn't sure what it was about, but Nessie told me that he was officially giving up his title as Alpha male. He had told her that as much as he enjoyed it, it was time to pass it on to someone else.

Jordan was pretty pleased with this turn of events, but was disappointed to hear Jake wanted him to wait a few more years before he took on the responsibility of Alpha. And, like before, to Ness's dislike, Jordan wanted to remain with the pack.

Jordan had decided to visit the graveyard with us before we departed from Forks. This was just a last stop I asked if we could make.

It felt nice when a few of them asked for some time with Charlie, mainly Alice, Jacob, Ness and Edward. Caitlin and Jordan just wanted to know something more about their great-grandfather.

Rosalie and Emmett, along with Carlisle and Esme, had left a few minutes earlier so they could get on the road and head back earlier.

Aro had gotten back in touch with Carlisle not even two days after the fight. For all of us, and the losses we suffered, he wasn't someone we wanted to be negotiating with at that moment. Basically, he and Carlisle came to a proper agreement, that the Volturi will no longer bother our family if we keep the Volturi informed about anything happening at least once a month, except if, we actually break one of the real rules, and not a made up one that Aro's created just to protect his back.

Fortunately, after the Jacob-scare, and a thorough search of the field, Emmett found what he believes is his arm, and with the miracle of the regeneration of vampires, managed to reattach it to his body. He does complain a few times saying he thinks this arm is less muscularly, and that he's picked up the wrong arm. Although disgusting at the thought, we told him that it was his arm.

I smiled to myself over Emmett's stupidity; I looked back to the stone in front of me and placed the flowers down on the floor, a small bouquet that Esme had made. In this weather I didn't expect them to survive long, but it was the gesture that counted. I'm sure there are, or will be, stories about someone leaving flowers on this gravestone. Who knows, people might talk about a strange visitor who comes every couple of years or so.

I stood back up and brushed off the snow on my legs and looked down on the stone. "Miss you dad." I whispered before I turned back around and headed back to everyone. Edward wrapped his arm around my waist as we made our way to the cars.

"You alright love?" He asked, as per usual whenever I visited here.

"I'm fine." I answered back as we got into the car.

Whilst in the car, driving back home, I just realised just how strong the ties were within our family. We've been put through hell so many times, things that would rip any normal family or coven apart. But with us, we were different, we were stronger, and no matter what was thrown at us, we would just hit it straight back and there would be no doubt in any of our minds that there was a threat that could pull us apart, even if it was as big as a full blown war with the Volturi, nothing was going to break our ties.

-The end-

AN: So this is the end :( Thanks to all those who read, alerted, favourited and reviewed this story, all was appreciated.

I've got a new story in the making, it's completley different from this one, but I'm going to finish writing it before I post anything, so I hope you stick with me :-)

Thanks again, one last review?

Jaimie xxx