A/N: I apologize profusely for the wait! I know it's been terribly too long! But this might have been the busiest week of my life! But now that things have slowed down, I'm back on this! However, I didn't get a chance to read through this, so it might be full of mistakes and typos. I hope you'll forgive me, but it was either that or wait a little longer. I hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, the characters, or Stephenie Meyer's plot. Anything you don't recognize—is mine!

Recap: Bella's apartment is demolished. Edward smells eau de Werewolf.

December Twenty-Sixth

Midnight

Bella slumps against him, but the only thing he can think about is getting her away from here. The scent is old, but not more than a few hours, and he's not taking any chances. He puts an arm underneath her knees and scoops her up against his chest.

He speeds to his car, but doesn't even bother to put her in her seat. He pushes his own chair back so that there is room for both of them in his seat. He cradles her against him like a child, and wraps his arms around her like a protective cage. He begins driving towards his unused apartment, knowing that his arms will provide more protection in the event of an accident than any seatbelt could.

"Bella?" He whispers. "Bella?"

"Edward." She whispers against his neck.

"Are you okay?"

She nods against his marble skin. "Why? I don't understand."

He considers telling her the truth, but he can't. He needs to know what brought them there. He has a pretty good feeling about why they destroyed everything. He's sure his scent was all over her apartment. That alone would have been motivation enough.

"I don't know, sweetheart. We'll figure it out though. Until then, I'm taking you to my place."

"I guess I'll be moving in sooner than I thought." She sighs.



She gasps and sits up abruptly. He struggles to keep the wheel straight behind her.

"Angela!"

"Is away for Christmas with Ben. Don't worry."

She relaxes almost instantly, and her head returns to his shoulder.

"Should we have called the police?" She asks.

"We can if you like. But I'd prefer if you'd just let me handle it."

He pulls up in front of his apartment. It is a six story building, and he owns the entire top floor. Though it is basically empty. He slips out of the car gracefully, not even jostling Bella's exhausted form. He scales three flights of stairs before he remembers that he'd dropped their bags outside Bella's apartment, and forgotten to pick them back up. At that exact moment his phone beeps. He looks down to see a text message from Alice.

I'll get the bags. Don't worry.

His fingers fly across the number pad, typing a quick reply.

Thank you. You're in Seattle? Why?

He receives Alice's reply before he even manages to hit send.

For you, silly. There's a mattress on the floor in the master bedroom. Turn the heater on. It's going to be a cold, stormy night. And Bella isn't immune to it like you.

He reaches the last landing outside his flat, silently thanka Alice before hearing a third beep.

You're welcome.

He chucklea underneath his breath.

He feels a warm kiss against his neck.

"What's so funny, vampireboy?"

"Alice." He answers.

As he opens the door, she sits up straight.

"Did she see who did it?"



"I'm actually not sure. She was just telling me to turn the heater on. She didn't want you to get pneumonia spending the night in a freezing apartment next to a freezing body."

She smiles. "Your body isn't freezing. It's actually kinda hot."

"Cute." He replies.

"Yeah, well, I try." She laughs.

She realizes their new location, and takes a moment to look around.

Her eyes widen. "Edward, this place is HUGE!"

"It only looks big because it's so empty."

"No, Edward, I mean it. This is insane. It's like three of my apartments."

"Probably closer to four."

She glares at him, but he melts it away with a crooked grin.

He turns the heater up to as far as it will go. He'll turn it down a bit once it gets nice and toasty.

"I'm sorry that there's not more in here. But there is a mattress in one of the bedrooms. I'll see what blankets I can find."

She nods quietly and moves towards the bedroom. He checks in the all the closets and rooms, managing to scrounge up a set of sheets and two blankets. He checks the thermostat, seeing that it's a reasonable temperature and turns it down to a normal level.

"Bella!" he calls, moving to the bedroom, "Is there anything else I can get…"

He trails off. "You."

She is standing next to the bed wearing one of his button up shirts that she must have found in a drawer. It is short, revealing her long, slim legs. And his sharpened eyesight can see every curve behind the thin material.

"I hope you don't mind. Alice texted me and told me that you left the bags. She mentioned you kept a lot of clothes here."

"I-I don't mind." He is far from minding. He feels like blessing Alice or maybe cursing her, he isn't sure yet. One thing he is sure of—Bella looks absolutely exquisite wearing his shirt, and only his shirt.



He moves to her slowly, still unsure after the shaky night they've had.

"I think you're trying to kill me." He groans.

"Don't be absurd. Vampires can't die."

He fingers a lock of her hair.

"I'm not so sure of that. If I had a working heart, you would give me a heart attack wearing that."

His mind realizes too late that she still thinks that Charlie died of a heart attack. But she doesn't seem troubled by his words. Instead she moves closer and slips her arms around his waist.

"It's been a weird day." She whispers.

"Definitely." He pauses, "Can I give you your last present now?"

She snakes a hand around his neck and plays with the curls of hair there.

"I suppose if you must."

He reaches into his pocket, and pulls out something hidden in his closed fist.

"I don't want you to freak out. This doesn't have to mean anything that you don't want it to mean. Mainly, it's something from my past. Something that I want you to have. My present and my future are yours alone. My past is the only part of me that you didn't already have. Which is why I wanted you to have this."

He opens his hand to reveal a small ring in the palm of his hand. It looks old, like an antique. With a few large stones placed in the gold band.

"It was my mother's. My birth mother's. It's one of the only things I have from my human life. And I want it to be yours."

Her mouth is open and her eyes are fixed on his palm.

"Edward." She whispers, whether in shock or horror, he can't tell. "That's a wedding ring."

"I know. It was my mother's. And it doesn't have to mean that, it can just be a ring."

"Doesn't have to?" She asks. "Does that mean that it could mean… that?"

He transfers the ring to her palm. "Bella. You already know that I love you more than my own life. Nothing could make me happier than making you my wife."



A tear gathered in her eye.

"I don't mean to pressure you, Bella. That was not what I intended at all. If you don't want to marry me, that's fine. That wasn't what I was aiming at, per say."

"I do want to marry you." She whispers.

The tears are streaming down her face, unending.

"You do? You'll marry me?"

"I want to, but I can't Edward."

He steps back, and she lets him slip out of her arms.

"You can't?"

She nods. Taking a deep shuddering breath, she covers her eyes with her hands.

"Ugh. I don't understand! How can you want to marry me, but refuse to change me?"

"Bella…" He says in a warning tone.

"No! No. This needs to be said. What did you expect of me? Marry you, and then grow older and older why you'll stay the same. What about when I'm so old people think you're my son? How can I be your wife, how can I kiss you, love you, when you'll be half my age?"

"If you wanted to leave me, Bella, you know I wouldn't begrudge you that."

"I wouldn't want to leave!" She yells. "Don't you get it? I never want to leave! But how can I stay? When I'll always be changing and you'll always be the same? How could you possibly want me when I'm old and wrinkled?"

He pulls her against his body sharply, and forces her eyes up to his. He hates seeing the tears there.

"I will always want you, Bella Swan. Every second I'm on this earth, and even when I'm not."

"Then let me spend every second of your life with you! Just think Edward! We could get married and if I were a vampire, then I could love you like a wife is supposed to love her husband. You wouldn't have to quit your job to spend time with me during my short life span! We could spend time with your family without making things difficult for Jasper. We could be happy, Edward. Forever."



"I-I can't think… Don't ask me to do that to you, Bella. I'm weaker than you can possibly know. Please don't push me."

"Explain to me exactly why you won't."

He growled low in his throat, "I've told you, Bella. This is not a happy life. You think you want it now, but it's different when you actually get it. Rosalie has never regretted anything as much as becoming a part of this life."

"But she didn't have a choice, I do!"

"It's painful, Bella. You can't know if you'll regret it or not."

"Do you?" She asks bluntly.

"I have before. But not now, I can't regret anything that allowed me to meet you."

"Then why can't you assume it will be the same for me? I can't regret anything that allows me to be with you."

"It's different, Bella."

"How?"

He begins to pace across the room. "Human emotions are different, they fluctuate. They come and go. Vampires are different. We are set in our ways, when we change, it's permanent."

She fixes him with a cold glare. "Understand something right now, Edward Cullen. What I feel for you is permanent and unending. That. Will. Not. Change."

"I feel the same, Bella."

"Then why—"

"Can we finish this another time, Bella? Nothing is going to be decided tonight. You're exhausted, and you need sleep. We'll just call it an impasse."

"For now." She sighs.

She opens her palm to reveal the ring he'd given her.

"I don't think I can take this, Edward. At least not now."

Edward's face sets into a deep frown. "Does that mean someday?"



"I hope. I'd be glad to marry you, but only when I can say that my life is truly bound to yours, forever."

"You're giving me an ultimatum?"

"If that's what you want to call it."

He nods, but doesn't reply.

He takes her hand in silence and leads her to the mattress. He lays out the sheet first, and then covers them both with the blankets.

"I hate that we keep fighting." He whispers.

"Me too. I'm scared that one day, one day we won't stop."

He wants to tell her that they'll figure it out, that they'll fix this, but he's not sure that's a promise he can keep. He's not sure that it's fixable, not if both of them are determined to keep their way. He'd been hoping that he would get a bit more blissful time with her before they hit this point. When he told her that life was short, he didn't necessarily mean her actual physical life. He was thinking more along the lines of how long she'll allow him to stay in her life.

She'd asked him to keep her. But he was beginning to think that he needed to be the one asking her to keep him.