-BONUS CHAPTER AUTHOR'S NOTE—DO NOT SKIP!!-

Woo! Alright, everybody! 20 reviews…you know what that means!

Yesiree, it's time for the…BONUS CHAPTER!!

This was written when I was halfway finished with chapter two. My friend oO-Alice-Cullen-Oo was reading what I had written so far, and when she got to the stopping point, she decided to interecede. Hilarity ensued.

If you've already read this chapter (and I certainly hope you have), you can skip down to where her part starts. You might want to read the line before it, though.

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I held on to him for a long time, letting his cold touch bring the feeling tingling back into my limbs, feeling his sweet breath banish the numbness.

After a few moments, some of my reality came rushing back. I removed myself from him, my breathing still ragged from the exhaustive emotion of the reunion. I explored my misty mind for the right words. However, those words were doing a very good job of concealing themselves behind my newly rediscovered thoughts.

"Erm…why…why are you here?" I asked. I seemed unable to regain my breath.

Despite his previously befuddled expression, he…Edward…answered steadily enough, not even taking the time to think about it. "I'm here because I couldn't stay away," he answered. "I couldn't survive without you. I didn't have the courage. I'm here because I couldn't focus on anything but you, couldn't shut down for one second, couldn't let you go. Because I love you. Because my love for you occupies the very core of my being. Because I am a monstrous creature who is unable to control his selfish desires. Because you were written into my every thought, and I couldn't remove you. Because if I were human, I could have died for love of you. Because love isn't a strong enough word. Because I just said all of that without even bothering to check if you wanted to hear it…" his voice trailed off as his pain smothered it.

My heart was a battering ram against my fortified rib cage, beating with the strength of a hundred men. I could barely breathe. I looked at him with amazement. For the second time, I was unable to find the words to answer him. My answering comment was hideously, idiotically moronic…

"Pinch me," I said flatly. I cursed myself. Couldn't I even find breath for an "I love you, too"? Couldn't I confess what being without him had done to me? How I wanted him with me forever, never to leave me for one moment? No. All I could manage were two stupid, blasé words. He backed away a little bit, clearly trying to conceal the pain in his eyes.

"I could never hurt you again, Bella," he whispered. At the agony in his voice, speech suddenly came back to me.

"What are you doing, backing away like that? I've been holding my breath for months, waiting for you. You can't take away my air again. I might suffocate." I stood up again, impressed with my borderline-poetic words, and crossed the distance between us again. Now that my feelings had returned, there was room for more passion in our embrace. When I held him I could feel myself burning, melting against the ice of his chest. At that moment, I realized something. All these months I'd been secretly afraid that I'd lost my ability to express emotion; I'd feared that I might have lost even this, the most important part of my existence, my love for Edward. Now I realized that I'd never stop loving him. That there was no way in Hell I would ever let anyone—even Edward himself—tear us apart again. I braided my fingers into his hair, forgetting to be careful, and felt a flame consume me. I pulled myself up toward his face.

In the moment that our lips met, Edward erased the universe. He was the only thing in my world, the only thing there was room for. How could there be space for anything besides his immeasurable beauty? Edward's name filled my thoughts, my senses engulfed by the feel of his hair, the smell of his skin, the unbearably delicious taste of his lips…

It was just like Edward to pull away. Just like him to tighten the line of his jaw and put out the fire in his eyes. His eyes stayed soft, though, and his gaze held only love and adoration, no hint of disgust or uncertainty or rejection of any kind. I shuddered to remember his words that night, the words that had haunted me, the words that brought a question boiling to my lips now.

"What happened to 'I don't love you'?" I asked him, my voice quiet and tentative. I really didn't want to discuss this, but there was so much doubt left over, so much shrapnel from when he dropped that bomb…I just had to know.

He winced, the pain coming back to his eyes.

"That was never true, Bella. How could I stop loving you? How could you ever doubt my love for you? It was inconceivably hard to say those words…and even harder to see that you believed every one of them. How could you believe the lie and not the truth? Do you really think so little of me?"

"I never deserved your love to begin with. It was easy to believe what I'd been telling myself the entire time. That you didn't love me, that you couldn't love me. It's not doubt when you never believed it at all." Edward looked at me incredulously.

"Isabella Swan," he said simply, "that is the most foolish excuse I've ever heard. I could never let you go. There is nothing so incredibly important as you…nothing so incredibly beautiful. I don't know how you could doubt that for one second…"

"Why'd you leave, then?" I asked bitterly, almost harshly, and felt him stiffen in my arms. It took him a moment to gather his thoughts.

"Well, that's exactly it…you are the center of my universe, and I wanted to protect you. I thought I was strong enough to protect you. I thought, maybe, if I could remove myself from your life completely, could make you forget…that you might be able to lead a human life, away from danger, away from…I thought that maybe you could just be you. I want the best for you, Bella…and I am the worst possible choice for you.

"THAT'S CRAP!" the fangirls all shrieked in unison. "IT'S MORE THAN CRAP! IT'S CRAPPY CRAP! IT'S ABSURD CRAPPY CRAP FULL OF CRAP!"

Edward glanced up at the enormous mob, his eyes smoldering unfairly.

"Would you mind leaving us alone?" he asked politely, yet sexily in that way that only he could pull off. Every fangirl in the room passed out at the sight of this except for one in the front named Annie. Jasper walked in the room and swept her off her feet to the bright yellow Porsche 911 Turbo that was waiting in the driveway.

Edward turned back to face Bella. "Now, where was I?"

"At the part where you're all self-hating and emo and telling me how you're no good for me."

"Oh yes, thank you."

"No problem."

As soon as Edward opened his mouth to speak again, he heard someone breathing erratically behind him. He turned to see the other leader of the Team Edward Vampire Mafia, Eve, hovering near his left shoulder blade.

"Hi Edward!" she said rather loudly. She stood there with a creepy smile plastered to her face.

"Hello…?"

"So, why are you so emo, Edward? I mean not that we don't all find it incredibly sexy and gorgeous and god-like and pretty much everything else Bella's ever said about you and your gorgeously over-used liquid-topaz-butterscotch-golden-amber-peanut butter colored eyes. And did I mention that…" She ranted on for a little while longer while a loud CRASH! Could be heard coming from the front lawn, followed by a loud, "IT'S NOT MY FAULT!" which everyone could only assume came from Annie after she had crashed her beloved Porsche.

While Jasper called Emmett for some help with straightening out the Porsche pretzel, and Alice to take Annie to do some insane no limit pity shopping, Bella stared at Eve for a moment.

"You know, that's a really good question! Why are you so emo, Edward? At least Jasper has a good reason with all the emo kids running around the emo school in this emo little town and the emo werewolves emoting all that emo how can he not be absorbing all that emo floating in the air? What's your excuse?"

The two girls stood there with their arms crossed, awaiting an answer.

"Oh, well I erm…" before he could finish that "thought," his cell phone went off. He picked it up and before he could say anything, Alice and Annie could be heard on the other end yelling in unison.

"SERIOUSLY EDWARD, WHY IS THAT? I MEAN OUR POOR JASPER'S REALLY THE ONE WHO'S GOT IT HARD! ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS STAND THERE WHILE BELLA FAWNS OVER YOU! JASPER GETS BLAMED FOR EVERYTHING! GIVE THE GUY A BREAK!" The dial tone sounded and Edward blinked as he hung up the phone.

Eve and Bella gave him another expecting look. However, as soon as he opened his mouth again, the phone rang again. He picked it up, annoyed.

"What?" he demanded.

"Edward, my best buddy! Hey, I need your help with this puzzle."

"Not now, Emm—"

"Great! Okay, so I need a seven-letter word for a mythical creature. The first letter is v, the fourth is p, and the last is e. Any suggestions?"

Edward looked at the small silver phone in disbelief and promptly threw it out the window.

Meanwhile, back at the Cullen residence

"Edward? Eddie? Damn! I hate crosswords!"