Edward

I hadn't planned to be seen. At all. That man, Eamonn… I still didn't know how he managed to find my phone number. Something related to his 'second job', he said. He told me about Jasper and Bella's wedding, and when and where the ceremony would take place. I told him I wouldn't be there, because at that time it seemed the best solution in my eyes. I hurt my brother, caused a rift in the family, almost destroyed Bella and Jasper's happiness. I couldn't face Jasper after I tried to steal the love of his life from him, and I couldn't face Bella after her rejection branded itself in my mind.

Or at least, that was what I thought during that call. The moment the call ended, my heart started aching. With the exception of a few months, I had been living away from my family for forty years. Back in the years when my family was united and happy, I would've never conceived the idea of living out of it for so long.

I decided I could go to Ireland, watch the wedding from a distance, and then disappear again. But my emotions won over reason, and I hid too close to them, in their garden. I watched Bella dancing with a human newborn in her arms, and Jasper taking the baby girl from her to give her the most delicate of hugs before giving her back to her human father. I saw my family and Bella and Jasper's human friends dancing, singing and cheering. Bella giggled madly when her human friends plus Rosalie convinced Jasper to take the garter off of her leg and then throw it to the single men in their party. I looked away. After all the times I had seen Rosalie and Emmett's weddings and receptions, that part always embarrassed me. Jasper passionately kissed his bride, and then threw away the garter with a mischievous smile. A guy named Daniel caught it, laughing, and then all the girls asked Bella to throw her bouquet. Bella and Rosalie exchanged a look, and both glanced at Esme. I couldn't help but laugh a little. Good luck with convincing Esme and Carlisle to have another wedding ceremony. There weren't enough garters or bouquets in the world for that.

I would pale if I could. The bouquet landed exactly at my feet. For a second I thought of what my options were, and running away was still up on my list… Instead I took the bouquet in my hands, and stepped out of my hiding place. Everyone was staring at me with their mouths wide open except Bella, still turned. I knew it was just a matter of seconds before she saw me… And all of the sudden, our eyes met. Bella was as beautiful as I remembered her. She was looking at me like she could faint any second, her mouth was moving slightly but she couldn't bring herself to talk. Bella took a deep breath, and then she started moving in my direction. She kept looking at me straight in the eyes. I didn't break contact with her either, otherwise I would've noticed her right hand close into a fist. Before I could even start thinking of what to tell her, her fist collided with my jaw, and I found myself on the ground.

I heard colorful exclamations, sharp intake of breaths, suffocated laughers. I couldn't see her, but I knew Esme was sighing and looking at the sky, shaking her head. From where I was laying, I raised my head to look at my aggressor. Bella was hovering over me with an angry look. I knew it. It had been a mistake to come.

"That was for leaving," she said icily. Then she extended me her hand. I looked at her and her hand for a few seconds before taking her hand and getting back on my feet. Then the unexpected happened. Bella used my hand to pull me closer to her and hug me.

"And this is for coming back," she whispered in my ear. I could tell she was smiling. I was smiling too, relieved of how the situation turned out.

"And… Edward? Unless you're planning to become a girl and get married within next year… maybe you want to give me back the bouquet so I can throw it again…"

"Of course, sister," I said, giving her back the bouquet. It was a curious mix of roses, freesia and honeysuckle, the same flowers Jasper put in her back garden all those years ago when the family first discovered their relationship, if I remembered correctly. She took the bouquet in one hand and my hand in the other, and she took me to meet her human friends – I couldn't yet believe that she had so many loyal friends between them – and to reconcile with the rest of our family. Once again, Esme and Carlisle welcomed me as the prodigal son that had finally come back home. I didn't deserve so much. Rosalie would be a tough nut to crack, but I knew Emmett and Bella would try to speak to her in my favor. But the one I was the most worried about was Jasper. His face was seraphic, I couldn't tell what he was really thinking, especially because he was concentrated only on his beautiful wife... I smiled when I realized what he was really doing. Bella was his. She had been his from the first moment he laid eyes on her. He was just reminding me of that.

I slowly nodded. I had learned the lesson… But there was one thing I couldn't do, I couldn't consider her a little sister. There was too much of her mother in her for that. But a friend… that I could do, at least for now. Jasper felt my inner turmoil, and got closer to me while the girls and Bella were occupied with their game.

"I know what you want to tell me, Jasper, no need to…"

"I know what you still feel about her. The feelings have changed, of course, but they're still strong. And potentially dangerous."

"Are you afraid I might try again to steal her from you? Don't be."

"Let's make this clear. I don't care about me; all I care about is her. Bella tortured herself every single second of these last twenty years because she blamed herself for your getaway."

"But it wasn't her fault."

"Of course it wasn't. But now the family is happy and whole once more. Bella is happy. And things have to stay this way. The question is: can you make an effort and see her just as a family member?"

"She's your wife; I respect that. But I can't see her as a sister. Not yet, anyway."

Jasper was going to reply, when I saw Bella's arms hugging his shoulders from behind and kissing his neck.

"There you are! You missed all the fun. Esme caught the bouquet! Well, not exactly caught, it landed in her lap… anyway, she has to get married again! Oh, Rosalie and I will have so much fun in planning the ceremony!"

Jasper smiled, "You convinced her?"

"With some help from the other girls. But she wanted something in return…" she said, biting her lip. She let Jasper go and put herself in front of him. I frowned as well.

"What is it, my love?"

"Esme wants us to go back to living under the same roof… in the States. Chicago."

I was happy to hear it. It had been a long time since I saw my hometown, but Jasper and Bella didn't look so enthusiastic. They had built a life there… I could imagine they were sad at the idea of leaving their house, the farm and their friends. But when I finally saw them talking with the famous Eamonn I realized the real reason behind their sadness: they would be thousands of miles away from their infant goddaughter, Abby. For a second, I thought they were going to refuse and stay in Ireland, but as Bella put it while I was helping her packing her books, a couple of days after, that branch of her family would go on without them just fine. Now we had to concentrate on us and how to heal the tiny fractures still present in our family.

Bella laughed at the thought of us getting in a session of family therapy with a shrink. I laughed too. The young, silent girl I remembered had grown up; she was now witty and ironic, always smiling and ready to offer her help to complete strangers, so that they could find peace in whatever there was after death. I was still confused by her gift, though… I always thought we vampires were soulless creatures, that there was nothing for us after death, or that the only thing we could aspire to was hell. Bella was convinced that since she had been able to see Alice's ghost, vampires had immortal souls after all. According to her there wasn't only hell for us; we could still be awarded with paradise, or whatever its name really was.

At the beginning I didn't realize why Jasper had left us filling boxes in the library all alone, jealous as he was of his young, adorable wife. But after that conversation, and Bella's explanation of what her gift really meant to her, I could feel my feelings for her change. The creature in front of my eyes had stopped putting herself first in order to help others. She didn't need a man in her life that didn't know what to feel for her. She needed someone to protect her, even from herself. And Jasper knew that after I had spent some time alone with Bella, I would arrive at that conclusion. My brother was really good at manipulation... But like he had said to me, the only thing he cared about was Bella. And I could understand his desire to protect her at all costs. It was what I had felt for her mother.

Bella

I was happy Jasper let me talk to Edward alone. We needed to reconnect after all the years spent separated. And he didn't know how much my power evolved in the last years… the only good thing to have ever come out of my Quileute heritage. Jasper didn't exactly approve of Eamonn's and my decision to go to college to study 'the dark arts', as he called them, but I needed to know what I was getting into. I needed to study the supernatural world, since I was a supernatural creature myself. Eamonn was even more interested in that field than me. After we got our degrees he started doing research work dividing himself between Abby, the farm and the university. We nicknamed him 'The Professor' because he was always ready to start a lecture on whatever supernatural subject he was studying at the moment. It was very useful to have someone like him as backup, when I couldn't do my job on my own. It was only thanks to him that I solved the mystery around that box I had found in Volterra. Ironically much, I had been in the right place all along.

The village where Eamonn was raised was the same place from where those tourists left all those years before. Unfortunately my attempt to give back all the objects anonymously failed. Jasper and I had started to be a part of the community after Eamonn and the other kids adopted us; the villagers already suspected there was something weird in us, and when those objects started to appear out of nowhere they connected the dots and moved to our house… where they found all our human friends and their children. It took a lot of time, but once they realized we weren't dangerous they let us be. Like Eamonn, they saw the advantages of having two benevolent and immortal creatures as protectors of the village. In exchange for that and for a little help with the wild animals in the forests nearby, they kept our existence a secret. Like in La Push with the werewolves… everybody knew, no one talked about it. Esme and Carlisle were really impressed when I first told them this. It was a not-so-subtle attempt to convince them to move here, but, alas, it didn't work.

When the moment to say goodbye came, I was happy my heart was cold as stone and equally as strong. It would break, otherwise. But like I said to Edward, this branch of the family would move on without us just fine. Our residence, the farm, our beloved Angelus and Liath would be taken care of by Eamonn and the others, and they promised to write us lots and lots of letters and emails to keep me and Jasper up to date with what happened in the county and in the village. That made the separation bearable. But when it came to say goodbye to Abby… Jasper and I had made a huge mistake. We got too close to that baby. I felt like I was abandoning my child, and Jasper was feeling almost as sad as me. We came to Ireland looking for a shelter… we weren't prepared to find so much more on its shores. Maybe we would get lucky again in Chicago.

Edward

Once we arrived in Chicago, we immediately moved into the house Carlisle and Esme had previously bought for the family in the in the northern area of the city. Esme's hand was clearly visible in the furniture and in the renovation of the house… I missed that. Our cover story was always the same: Esme and Carlisle were a young couple that decided to adopt teenage children out of kindness of heart. Rosalie and Jasper would resume being the Hale twins; Emmett, Bella and I would be Cullens. Forging the documents took us a couple of days, days that we utilized to get used to the city, in order to meddle with the humans.

I decided to take a walk to my old house and to my parents' grave, to pay my respect. Ten minutes after I was out of the house, I heard Bella shouting my name and running in my direction.

"Finally! I thought you didn't hear me!"

"Bella? What are you doing here?"

"I'm coming with you. Emmett is busy playing Guitar Hero with Jasper, and I'm done with the chores Esme gave me, so I'm completely free."

"I'm going to the graveyard, Bella. I don't think…"

"I know. Carlisle told me. Thanks to my gift I spend more time around graveyards than I want to admit, but if you want to go alone, I'll…"

"No, Bella… I'm glad if you come with me."

Bella gave me a smug smile. "Good. So we can have a nice, long talk while we walk."

I chuckled. It seemed that Jasper wasn't the only manipulator in the family.

"What is it like? Coming back to the city where you lived as a human?"

"It's not my city anymore. It changed so much I barely recognize it."

"I won't have this problem. Forks is off limits for me… and the rest of the family. Sorry about that."

"Like it was your fault. You know they would do that again for you, in a heartbeat."

"Carlisle never told you? I didn't want to be changed at first."

"I didn't know that… so, how…?"

"I thought I was strong enough, but when I faced death… I got scared. Scared of losing the only family I ever had. Scared of losing Jasper. I chose this life because I couldn't bear to live separated from him… because I didn't want to cause him pain. But I mourned my lost mortality for many years, after the change."

"Does Jasper know?"

"Like I could hide anything from him. I tried, though. He's been… himself, you know? Perfect. Supportive. I didn't have problems adjusting to the diet or being around humans… but on the emotional side, well… it took me almost three years to find a balance. Going to Ireland revealed itself to be the best thing we could do."

"You have a nice house there. And a farm too, right?"

"We love the Irish countryside."

We walked in silence for a few minutes, and I wondered why Bella didn't tell me what was really on her mind. Except for the few moments we had spent in the library, this was our first chat alone, without our family around. The last time it happened, Bella ran away from me after I had told her I loved her. She was thinking of that awkward moment too… comparing the situations in very analytical way.

"Out of my head, Edward," she said with a little smile.

"Sorry. I just wondered why we weren't talking about… that."

Bella sighed. "If you're back, that means you stopped being in love with me. Right?"

I wished it was so simple.

"I've accepted that you love Jasper, not me. And I respect the vows you've both taken in front of God. I just need… more time. But staying away for so many years taught me that no sacrifice is too much if the alternative is being separated from my family."

"You didn't answer my question. And… that sort of scares me."

I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, and put my hands on her shoulders. "Bella… maybe at the beginning I was drawn to you because of your mother, but now I've had the chance of knowing you, the person you've become… what I'm trying to say is that the infatuation I had for you is gone. Whatever took its place, I don't know yet. But I do know one thing: I want to be part of your life."

"Cause my mother asked you this?"

"No. Because I want to."

"And I want you to be a part of my life as well. But I really can't see you as a brother. Probably because you weren't there teasing me mercilessly since the beginning, like Emmett," she said with a little laugh.

"Friends, then?"

"For now it will do. And now let's move… I want to see the graveyard. Just to know if I'll be busy at night during our stay here like I was in Ireland…"

"Rosalie told me some stories on what you can do. Bella… how can you bear it?"

Bella smiled. "It's what I am… what I was born for. I couldn't do anything different in my life. At the beginning I was really scared, but after I accepted this gift… what happened in Volterra was just the tip of the iceberg. The learning curve is so fast… it's unbelievable!"

"Still… it must be a burden, emotionally speaking."

"Sometimes it is. But it's really rewarding in the end."

Bella

Edward was staring at me with a weird look on his face. Whatever Rosalie told him made him worry for me. And what I just told him shocked him. But how could I explain what I could do? It was my vocation. I hated to say it but Sam had been right all along. It was my destiny. But if I hadn't became a vampire, I never would have had the force required to use this gift. Sometimes I felt drained… I, a vampire. What would've happened to me if I had stayed human? Would I have celebrated my 39th birthday?

Oh wait, if I had stayed human I would've died at 19. Stupid question.

I didn't know when exactly, but Edward's hand found mine and gently held it in his. I didn't mind. Friends did it, right? Or at least Dave and I did. My wedding ring, along with my engagement ring, was now in the safe in Carlisle's studio, together with all the others rings belonging to Emmett and Rose (and she had quite the collection of engagement rings). I couldn't help but smile while looking at the claddagh ring on my finger. To Jasper and me they were almost as important as our real wedding rings. Edward saw my reaction and gave the ring a closer look.

"What's this?"

"You never heard of claddagh rings? It's an Irish thing. If the heart is pointed at you, it means that you already belong to someone. I wore it for twenty years… the priest blessed this ring as well, during the wedding."

I caught my reflection in a shop window. If I could blush, it would make a nice pair with the goofy smile I had on my face. Edward laughed at me. Kinda difficult not to do it, actually… but what could I do? Jasper had that effect on me. Always had , always will… and I loved it.

"Not nice, brother. I'll get my revenge, though, don't think I'll forget!"

Edward gave me a puzzled look. "Revenge?"

"When you find someone."

I realized what I had said too late. Edward's smile disappeared from his face. I never saw him so sad.

"I'll never find someone else, Bella. The mere thought of allowing another woman in my life is an insult to your mother's memory."

"She told you to be happy and live your life. Don't deny it, I was there too."

"She also told me she would come back."

"Edward… in twenty years I never saw it happen. I'm sorry… she's gone. And this time I'm sure."

"She'll never be gone from my heart and mind."

"And from my heart and mind neither, but it's not the point. You know why I like what I can do? Because I help people move on. Life is never over, even when it seems it is."

"It's different."

"God, you're stubborn, aren't you? Unfortunately for you, so am I."

Edward rolled his eyes. "The reason why Jasper's wives are all tiny, pigheaded and annoying, I'll never understand."

I hit him on the head. "Oy! Watch your mouth! I'm not tiny at all!"

We ended up laughing so hard that people started looking at us with perplexed looks.

Suddenly, I felt observed. I stopped, and I started looking at the other side of the street. Someone was watching me… I felt it… and I could swear I had caught a glimpse of someone – girl or boy, I couldn't tell – disappearing in an alley…

"Bella? Is there something wrong?"

Good question. Was there something wrong?

I shrugged and smiled. "I… no, nothing. Let's keep walking."