A/N Hello everybody, and welcome to my tribute to my favorite chapter in "New Moon". I'd like to think of this chapter as sort of an Easter egg hunt. The eggs are the charming and beautiful quotes which were taken straight out of the chapter, but given from Edward's POV rather than Bella's. And yes, the title of this chapter is an egg ;).

Hope you enjoy reading, and know that I am no Stephanie Meyer. The characters and all the good quotes are all hers and I'm just mixing them around for our entertainment.

Recommendation: "In the Land Of Milk and Honey" by .magic. That is some writing that needs to be published if you ask me ;) Go read and review it! (As soon as you're done with this chapter!—maybe before)

A/N Take 2: Soooo I'm sorry about the many mistakes on this chapter before. I'm just posting this so it's a little bit cleaner. I was just too excited to post it when I finished a few days ago. I couldn't even wait to reread it myself…. Poor choice. I promise to be more careful on the next chapter (and don't worry you don't need to reread this if you have already read through 13… I only fixed spelling and grammatical errors… not the skips in conversations etc.)

Chapter 13- EPOV

I felt completely frozen and I sat in my chair staring at the most beautiful creature on the planet, speechless. The story Bella had just told me was more than a dream, it had happened, it was a memory, a memory of mine no less.

"That was the first night I ever heard Clair De Lune," I finally said softly, mostly to myself. "At the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall if I remember correctly. I don't remember too many things from my short human life, I hardly remember my parents at all. But when you were telling the story, it just came back to me."

"We drove you home and I gave you some flowers I had picked earlier in the day," she whispered and I gaped at her even more.

"They were freesia," I realized, "They smelled wonderful, they smelled like you!" I faintly saw the figure of a very young girl giving me flowers during a late evening.

Bella stared at me intently, the expression on her face was unreadable. I was in a state of utter disbelief. I had met Bella once before in Chicago when I was still human, long before Forks, and I hadn't remembered. But this made no sense, how could she keep coming back into my life? Twice was a miracle, but now three times? I was certain that my mouth was still hanging open.

"It was more than a dream," she whispered, again toying with her spaghetti.

"But what does this mean?" I wondered.

She chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully for a few moments before answering. "I don't know if you're a big believer in fate," she began, "But I think we are," she looked at me, ready to gauge my reaction, "More than just lifelong friends. I think we're supposed to be together."

Her idea sounded appealing to me, and rather logical considering all of the supernatural which had been revealed to us in the past few days. I waited for her to continue her thought.

"I've met you twice before now. The first time I met you we were too young to be in love, but I think the way you affected me with that one meeting was huge," she sighed. "The second time around was much more, if my dreams don't deceive me. We were in love, that is, until something happened and I ended up dead?" She emphasized the "something" as a way to convey to me that she still wanted to know what that was. "So what do we do this time around?" she asked.

I didn't really have an answer. "Enjoy our time together while we can?"

"And just hope that I come back again after I die?" she glanced at me inquisitively. I hadn't really considered that maybe she would come back yet again. Perhaps it was some sort of progression in our relationship. But it made no sense, people didn't just do that. They didn't just die then come back again and again, each time getting closer to the person they love.

"We can't count on that," I insisted morosely.

"But what other option do we have Edward? You're a vampire, I am not. You cannot die, yet I die over and over again. All I want is to be with you forever, and something always stands in our way. I don't want to leave you, I just want to stay with you forever, but what can we do? It's not like you can transform me into a vampire or something so I could stay with you…" she stopped short and gazed into my eyes. I tried not to give anything away, but she had just realized the only other option that we had to consider, and it wasn't a pleasant one.

"Edward?" she began, reaching across the table to stroke my cold face with her warm and endearing fingers. I nearly shuddered with the electric pulsing I felt coming from her fingertips. "Is that possible?" she asked meekly.

"Is it possible for me to suck out your soul, make you suffer the most painful torture in the world, then condemn you to be a murdering, bloodthirsty creature of the night for the rest of eternity, just so I could be with you?" I countered bitterly, catching the shocked expression in her eyes.

I halted my argument as I heard the waitress making her way back over to the table to pick up Bella's plate and bring the check. Bella was clearly sizing me up after my outburst and it made me uncomfortable. I was dying (figuratively of course) to know what she was thinking.

The waitress walked away eventually, taking her maddening thoughts with her so I was able to once again focus on Bella's beautiful eyes. I couldn't know for sure how much longer I had to look at them.

Finally she spoke, "So it is possible?" she asked quietly. My lips hardened into a narrow line and I didn't dignify that remark in any other way. "We could be together?" she continued and I fought my face's desire to soften and show her the enormous love I felt for her, she didn't understand what price our togetherness would come with. It was too much to ask of her, and I couldn't allow it.

"I think I already knew that," she whispered and I lost the battle to fight the curiosity from taking shape in my facial expression.

"What do you mean?" I asked earnestly.

"I think I've always known that even real life honest-to-goodness vampires can still add to their numbers, just like in the movies. I mean, you weren't always seventeen. I saw it for myself, you were thirteen or fourteen years old with sparkly green eyes lit up from a symphony performance," she smiled a little with the memory, and I waited for the rest of her explanation. "I already knew that you would never change me though," she finally said softly. "I don't know how I know that."

"Bella, it's getting late," I averted. "Perhaps we should talk more about this tomorrow?"

"We don't have to if you don't want," she said with an even quieter voice littered with resignation. "It's your choice to make, it's just…" she trailed off sadly and I stood up from the table after swiping my credit card in the machine on the side of our booth.

When we walked outside, I noticed her shiver involuntarily with the cool windy Chicago air. I regretted not having Alice grab Bella a jacket and I easily slid out of mine and wrapped it around Bella's small shoulders. I knew that it would have no body heat leftover from me, but it was better than nothing and at least could block the wind.

She relaxed into it with a contented sigh and "Thank you". I opened the door to my Volvo for her and she climbed in as I raced to the other to get the car started and the heat going before her door was closed.

By the time we got back to my house she was fast asleep in my front seat. I carried her up to my room and Alice accompanied me so she could get Bella changed and ready for bed.

Alice kissed her cheek then mine before she turned to head out. Oh the Denali coven should be coming sometime soon, she thought for my benefit as a vision of their arrival replayed in her head.

"You know they haven't lived in Denali for years, I don't know why everyone insists on calling them that," I whispered teasingly as she stuck her tongue out at me in a most childish gesture of sibling banter.

She turned to walk away again, but this time I met her at the door and embraced her in a strong hug which would have easily crushed Bella. "Thanks Alice," I gave her my heartfelt thanks, "You've done so much, and you've always been there for me. Just thank you," I finished.

She beamed at me, then her thoughts turned sour, "Just don't waste this Edward," she commanded out loud, "I highly doubt you'll get a third chance to make things right with Bella," she advised.

"Actually," I cut her off before she could get too carried away, "I think I might already be on my third try," I whispered.

She stared at me with confusion. I don't understand.

"I don't completely either, but I'll try and explain what I know tomorrow once Bella has woken up," I told her.

"That may have to wait until after school," she admitted regretfully. She was dying inside to find what new information I had, but tried to be patient.

"True," I agreed, "Good night Alice!"

"Sweet dreams Edward," she joked. Mostly I just hope Bella has sweet dreams so you can share them with her she clarified in her head with a birdlike laugh.

It wasn't long before the sleep talking began, much to my entertainment. My family was pretty well engaged throughout the rest of the house. Rosalie was out inspecting and tuning up the cars, Emmett was attempting to beat Jasper at yet another video game. Alice sat in Carlisle's office with him while he worked at lightning speed on files for an orphanage he had recently taken interest in down in Ecuador. Alice was searching through the future for random things to do with our family and Bella while Esme was looking up different kinds of breakfast, lunch, and dinner recipes on our kitchen counter flat screen computer.

"Edward?" whispered the beautiful slumbering girl beside me. I knew better than to think she was awake but I answered anyway as I began rubbing circles on her arm which was grasped in mine.

"Right here Bella, I'll never leave you," I soothed.

It was silent for few minutes before she began speaking again. "You…don't…want…me?" she said very slowly and I cringed when I recognized the words and the pain she felt with them.

"No Bella, that's not true. That was a lie Bella, don't believe it. Please don't believe it," I all but begged the unconscious girl.

Then she screamed. It was the most horribly beautiful, (figurative) blood curdling sound I had ever heard. My family was in the room in less than half a second.

"Bella! Bella!" I roused her from her sleep crazily. Finally she opened her eyes as tears came streaming down her face in torrents. She was a mess, a beautiful one at that, but nevertheless a complete mess.

I wrapped my arms around her securely and tried to calm her, but she squirmed trying to get away from me until I released her.

With tears still pouring down her face and confused thoughts flying at me from every member of my family, Bella tried to get as far away from me as possible in the large, yet crowded room.

"You, you… you…" she stammered, looking at me completely horrorstruck. "You left me!" she sobbed and she collapsed onto the ground allowing her arms to wrap around her legs in a position meant for self preservation.

She cautiously looked around at the eyes of my family members. Like their minds, their faces were all filled with horror, devastation, but also understanding about what Bella had dreamt of tonight.

The weight of our emotions struck us each stone solid, unsure of what to do. We waited for her to continue. "You said you didn't love me!" she accused mournfully, "And you left me in the woods!"

I finally was able to thaw myself enough to move off the bed in order to wrap my arms around her stiff body. "Bella, I'm so sorry," I whispered, readying myself to explain.

She cautiously buried her face into my chest, and finally asked, "Is that why you don't want to change me into a vampire? You don't want to have me around forever?" she looked heartbroken at the thought and I heard several members of my family inhale sharply with her question. They silently took their leave so that I could try to explain things properly to Bella. They each wished me luck in their minds before they went, even Rose. I was wondering if she remembered that part or not. Well Edward, looks like you have some explaining to do tonight, don't screw this up—always the demanding one. They were gone and off the property in seconds, and I was left to my thoughts as I tried to comfort the agonized angel I held in my arms on the floor.

And where to begin? "Bella, I'm so sorry," I repeated, more forcefully as the words began pouring out of my mouth at a frantic pace. "I'm so sorry that I left you, I left you alone in the woods, unprotected. I wish I could take it all back, I never meant to hurt you, I never meant to leave you unprotected, it was a horrible mistake—"

"Edward, stop," she cut me off, shaking her shoulders out of my grasp once again and meeting my eyes with a tragic stare. Then her face hardened into a look of determination, I waited for her to gather her thoughts and I attempted to gather mine. "Edward, you can't think about things that way," she commanded. "There is no law that says you have to love me. I am my own person, and you are your own person. If you don't want me around, there's nothing either of us can do about it. You can't let this… this guilt… rule your life. So you left me? Big deal. There's nothing to compel you to keep me, so why stay? I don't want to hold you back and I certainly don't want to be a source of guilt and pity in your life. And you don't need to have me over for an extra week, you don't even need to visit me in the hospital. I'll be fine."

The look of horror on my face must have been noteworthy because it brought Bella to a stop in her speech as she reached over to try and comfort me. She tried to comfort me! I was the one who left her and broke her heart, and she was trying to comfort me.

"Isabella Marie…" I halted my words, knowing that this was not her only name, "Rachel Elena Meyer," I whispered. I wasn't certain what she saw on my face, frustration? Sickness? Anger? Whatever it was, it kept her silent and waiting for me to try and explain myself. "Do you think I invited you to stay here, and visited you in the hospital because I felt guilty?"

There was nothing but blank incomprehension on her face and my guilt intensified to the point of pain. I was momentarily glad that Jasper had left the house with the rest of the family in the name of privacy. He would not have enjoyed my emotional state at this moment. "Didn't you?" she asked quietly.

"Feel guilty? Intensely so. More that you can comprehend." I stated sadly.

"Then…what are you saying? I don't understand."

"Bella I invited you here because I love you, because I can't stand to be away from you. I know we don't have that much time left together, and I just need to be with you while I can. For half a century I prayed every day, in every second of every day, to anybody who would listen, for a second chance. I prayed for a chance to see you again, to hold you again, to never let you go. Finally I have you once again, and even though it's not forever, I cannot allow this opportunity to pass."

She eyed me dubiously for a moment before speaking. "You left though," she countered, "You said you didn't want me to come with you. You said you were tired of pretending to be something you are not, and Edward, I cannot deny it. You're not human, and you said it yourself, I'm not good for you. You promised you would never see me again, but apparently I couldn't let you go as easily as you thought, because here I am—fifty whatever years later, back from the dead to annoy you some more," she finished, her voice taking on an air of petulance.

Behind the petulance and the mask of determination I could easily see the pain. I had hurt her so badly, there was little to no possibility she would ever forgive me, but I had to try. "I'm a good liar, Bella, I have to be," I began, and she froze. The pain in her features surfaced and I realized she probably thought I was retracting my previous statement of endless love. I shook her shoulder, trying to loosen her rigid pose. "Let me finish!" I begged. "I'm a good liar, but still, for you to believe me so quickly." I winced. "That was…excruciating." She waited, still frozen.

"When we were in the forest, when I was telling you goodbye—" I struggled to continue. I didn't want to relive the pain that I felt and caused that dreadful day back in Forks, but I had to make her understand. "You weren't going to let go," I whispered. "I could see that. I didn't want to do it—it felt like it would kill me to do it—but I knew that if I couldn't convince you that I didn't love you anymore, it would just take you that much longer to get on with your life. I hoped that, if you thought I'd moved on, so would you."

She sat still for a long moment. I heard Carlisle's car start out in the garage and I realized that he and Esme must be leaving for work. The sun would be up in a few hours and Bella had hardly gotten any sleep tonight. From the looks of it, she wasn't about to either. I was selfish enough to keep her awake long enough to make her understand. "So you left me, so that I could move on?" she asked skeptically after chewing on her lip for a moment and wiping the last of the tears from her eyes. "Why?"

"Something happened," I began, not entirely sure how much she remembered, "The week before I left. It was your birthday, and there was an incident—"

"With Jasper?" she asked knowingly. I nodded with a hard face. This was still not one of my favorite subjects to discuss. The night had been a disaster, and I had realized that evening, what I thought was the truth. I put Bella in too much danger by being with her, and I had to leave. I wanted her to have a normal life.

"I just wanted you to have a normal life. I didn't want to make your life so difficult. I wanted you to fall in love with a normal human being, live a full life, have children someday. But you couldn't do that when I was around. I thought I was doing the right thing because I was finally doing something for you rather than for me. Because only you could be more important that what I wanted… what I needed. And I had to convince you that I didn't love you anymore." I sighed and pulled her closer to me, as if proving to myself that she was actually there.

"I never imagined it would be so easy to do," I stated sadly, rubbing circles on her arm as I held her to my chest. "I thought it would be next to impossible—that you would be so sure of the truth that I would have to lie through my teeth for hours to even plant the seed of doubt in your head. I lied, and I'm so sorry—sorry because I hurt you, sorry because it was a worthless effort. Sorry that I couldn't protect you from what I am. I lied to save you, and it didn't work. I'm sorry," I finished and sat there quietly waiting for her to say something. She didn't.

"But how could you believe me?" I finally had to ask, remembering perfectly the shock and shame I had felt when she believed me. "After all the thousand times I've told you that I love you, how could you let one word break your faith in me?" I continued, "I could see it in your eyes, that you honestly believed that I didn't want you anymore. The most absurd, ridiculous concept—as if there were any way that I could exist without needing you!"

She still sat there on the floor, leaning into my chest, completely frozen. I couldn't take it anymore, "Bella," I pleaded, "What are you thinking?"

She didn't answer but I felt her falling tears begin to warm my shirt again. I tried to comfort her again. "I'm sorry I left Bella, but I'm here now. I'm here, and I love you. I have always loved you, and I will always love you. I was thinking of you, seeing your face in my mind, every second that I was away, and then every second of the fifty years while you were gone. When I told you that I didn't want you, it was the very blackest kind of blasphemy." I finished off breathlessly, running out of words which would convince her of the truth. I looked at her hesitantly and stroked her hair, "I love you Bella, and nothing can ever change that."

So she kissed me. I was pleasantly taken aback, but it took about an eighth of a second for me to respond. She kissed me hard and passionately, wrapping her fingers in my hair and letting her heart race away in her chest. I didn't even think about breaking away for her safety. I could feel her soft body pressed firmly against every crease of my stone being, but I only pulled her tighter. Her soft lips moved furiously with mine and I allowed mine to react naturally, humanly. I couldn't be sure whether minutes or hours passed, but all too soon she was panting for breath and I finally released her. She looked dazed and dizzy, but content.

"Bella," I scolded, "You really need to get to sleep. Your body needs it right now to fight off the illness, or to at least keep you well enough for the surgery," I tried to hide my internal cringing at the thought.

She looked as if she was going to protest so I picked her up carefully and carried her back to the bed before placing her gently beneath the sheets and comforter. I moved to close the curtain on the window. According to Alice it would be overcast today, like most days in Glen Ellyn outside of summertime. I sat down on the bed beside her above the blankets so as to not contaminate her warm cocoon with my frigid temperature. She smiled at me, slightly dazed, but I knew that smile well. She had questions, and by the looks of it, she seemed to think I had answers.

"Edward," she began sweetly. "Can you tell me about how I died?" she paused for a moment looking at me quizzically as I inhaled an unnecessary breath. "I mean, was that the last time I ever saw you?"

I stalled effectively for a few minutes as I tried to convince her to sleep now, and I would explain more in the morning. The very essence of stubbornness herself adamantly refused over and over again my attempts at dazzling and persuasion. Finally I gave up and told her, reliving my most painful of days for the second time in a week.

"So you came back?" she asked, interrupting the story at one point.

With a glimmer of hope and a slight smile in my voice, I answered, "Of course I did, I already told you, I can't live without you."

She looked at me for a moment, calculating, "So it really is just about my soul isn't it?" she asked, completely distracted from the story. "That's why you won't change me. The night of my birthday, Carlisle told me that you believe vampires don't have souls, and you don't want to take away mine."

I nodded. I was not ready for another tense discussion about the future, but I knew at the same time that Bella needed to know. From somewhere outside I heard the sound of my siblings approaching the house and garage. They would be leaving for school momentarily.

"I don't care about my soul, Edward," she spoke sternly, as if explaining an elementary math problem to dull high school student. "Take it, it's yours. All I want is to be with you, and you seem to want that too. Why can't we just do things the easy way for once in your existence?" she argued.

"You don't know what you're asking," I replied through clenched teeth. "You will feel as if you are passing through the very fires of Hell itself during the change. Then for the rest of your existence, you will want nothing more than to kill every human that comes within fifty feet of you. Your life will be over, and your afterlife will be nothing but pain and temptation, but you will have no choice but to suffer, no way out."

The look on her face said that she thought I was being melodramatic. "Never mind," she said with frustration, "How about you continue with your story." I obliged and picked up where I left off. I got a little bit careless with my explanation, though. When I mentioned werewolves, she gasped.

"This world is certainly not what I thought it was one week ago," she mused. "That name sounds familiar though, Jacob Black was it?" she asked vaguely. I nodded and noted that she was completely absorbed in thought, perhaps trying to remember.

"I think he was a friend of yours, though I must say I do not approve of you hanging out with werewolves, they're very dangerous creatures. In fact, I can't believe that as soon as I left, you seemed to link up with the only thing more dangerous than a coven of vampires." I shook my head, amazed. She was some sort of magnet for trouble, that much was undeniable.

"I didn't jump off the cliff to kill myself," she stated suddenly. I waited almost patiently for her to expand upon her out of the blue statement. "It's weird how I remember some things so clearly, but others are very vague. I've dreamt many times about jumping off the cliff, and my thoughts are the same every time. Like Jacob said, I wanted to hear your voice, and somehow by jumping off the cliff, I would be able to hear you. It was strange, and it makes no sense, but in my dream it does. Somehow, doing reckless things made me hear your voice," she stopped and looked a bit embarrassed. "That sounds crazy doesn't it."

All I could feel was guilt, she had just confirmed the fact that it was my fault she jumped off the cliff. "Bella, I'm so, so sorry that I left you," I apologized for the eighth time tonight, though if it had been the eightieth it still wouldn't have been enough.

"Please stop apologizing," she insisted, "Don't you see, I'm the mental one. My subconscious must have known that you still loved me, even though my conscious mind refused to believe it. Every time I did something reckless or dangerous, I would hear your angry voice in my head. All I could think about was how beautiful it was, but what I should have realized is that you cared, and you cared because you loved me. I should have believed you that you loved me, but it never made sense to me," she finished explaining her little epiphany, and the look on her face was a mix between triumph at her conclusion and self frustration that it took so long.

She could be downright outrageous though sometimes. How could she not realize how much I loved her, how much she meant to me? I decided to try to illuminate this point for her, "Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were starts—points of light and reason…and then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything."

"I think you just described my life without you," she whispered.

"I love you Bella."

"I know that now," she smiled, "I love you too."

A/N Still a little rough, but slightly less embarrassing… Thanks for the reviews everybody!