Hello hello!

Thanks so so so much for your ongoing support!

As a gift, this is the second update within 24 hours! Whoo for the updates!

You may have noticed that it is short. This is because of two reasons: 1) I promised a certain amount of people that I would update before they woke up and time is running out and 2) My fiance wants me to get off the damn laptop already!

SO! I am still DEEPLY motivated as far as this chapter is concerned and that can only mean one thing... ANOTHER UPDATE WITHIN ANOTHER 24 HOURS!

OMG can it be true??

Yes it can.

Also, I feel the need to remind you all that Stripped by punkfarie is awesome.

So is This Sort Of Thing Just Doesn't Exist by .

Read and review, my lovelies! Part 2 coming soon!


"EDWARD! EDWARD IS HOME! IT'S EDWARD! HE'S BACK! EDWARD!"

It was all I could hear before Bella basically crash-tackled me into a warm hug. She smelled so fucking good. She smelled like that flower that chicks dig the smell of... that little white one... jasmine. She smelled like jasmine and roses. And Doritos. I held onto her waist and dug my fingers in; just waiting for that noise I'd missed so much.

She giggled and my life was complete.

"Hey Bella," I greeted her, pressing a kiss to her hair before pulling back to get a better look at her. I barely noticed everyone else standing around, and the banner Alice had made to welcome me home.

"Hey Edward!" she chirped, grinning widely. "I talk now!" she informed me, looking proud. "I learned real quick, and now I talk to everyone!" she started tugging at my arm, leading me further into the house, looking like she was just about ready to talk me to death.

I was dumfounded. She was speaking fluently. I had missed so much.

"Bella give him two minutes to breathe," Esme scolded gently, prying her fingers from me so that she could envelop me in an embrace. "Welcome home, son," she sighed, evidently just as relieved as I was to have me back.

"Thanks mom," I smiled, kissing her cheek. Alice leapt on me with a squeal and gestured grandly at her banner. I chuckled and swatted Emmett over the head. He punched my arm. Carlisle smiled and gave me the dad-hug.

"Good to have you back, bro," Jasper winked, tossing me a bag full of new guitar picks.

"Dude, I'm touched," I joked, wiping a pretend tear from my eye.

"You guys are all assholes," Rosalie muttered, fighting a smile.

"Love you too, Rose," I replied, rolling my eyes.

"It's been two minutes and he's BREATHING!" Bella cried impatiently, taking my hand once more and dragging me up to my bedroom. She bounced over and sat on my bed, grinning and patting the space near her. "Tell me everything, and then I'll have my turn," she instructed, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them in patient curiosity. I sat in front of her and just stared. She waited patiently as I took her in. I was right in thinking they would take her to the beach – her skin was darker, and it glowed – she looked... older... but still young. And she had this air about her. She'd changed so much. Did I still know this girl? She certainly knew me.

"Did, uh... did you get my emails?" I asked, clearing my throat, though it still cracked in shock.

"Yeah, but I still don't read very well so Esme read them to me. I can't write well either so I didn't write back. Are you mad?"

"No of course not. Uh..." I drew in a deep breath and ran my hand over my face, trying to get used to having a conversation with Bella that was fully comprehensible. "I don't really have much to tell aside from what I've already told you. The drive home was boring until the weird homeless guy who lives on the main strip here in Forks got so excited to see my car again that he lost his shoe," I chuckled. She giggled along with me. God, I missed that sound...

"Did he find it?" she asked, eyes sparkling with amusement. I shrugged my shoulders.

"I'm not sure; I was only passing him in the car so I didn't see much. Hey," I started, reaching over to one of my bags. "I got you some stuff." Her eyes lit up and her smile widened.

"Really?"

"Yeah, let me get it..."

Just then, Esme called Bella's name from downstairs.

"You have a visitor, sweetheart!"

I looked up, confused. Bella had a visitor? I'd always thought we were going to keep her a secret until we knew where she came from. How could they reveal her to the public without even telling me, let alone without discussing it with me?

"Jake!" Bella squealed, jumping up and streaking down the stairs, pulling me in tow. I was more relieved than anyone could ever imagine. It wasn't a real visitor; it was just Jacob picking stuff up for Esme and Alice. They probably knew each other well by now.

"Hey Bells! Ah, Edward's back. That's why you weren't waiting for me at the door," he winked, eliciting a frown from me. Why would she wait for him at the door?

"I don't wait for you at the door!" she argued, frowning just like me. This amused Jacob, and he yanked her into a bone-crushing hug.

"Didn't you miss me?" he laughed, with Bella being just the right height for her head to be completely lost under his arms.

"Get off, Jake! You're so STINKY!" Jacob continued to laugh at her muffled protests until she smacked him hard on the back.

"Ouch! That's not fair!"

"I couldn't BREATHE!"

"Whatever, you're just a wimp," he teased. Bella clearly didn't like this. She scowled nice and deep and pointed a finger at him.

"I'll show you one day, Jacob Black," she threatened. He only laughed again and threw an arm around her shoulders. Her scowl melted away and she wrapped her arm around his waist. "Yes I missed you," she admitted. "Now go away, Edward was about to give me presents. Weren't you, Edward?"

I shook away the look of shock that had been securely planted on my face and nodded.

"Yeah, uh... yeah lets- lets go back upstairs," I stammered.

"No way, there's a party happening!" Alice called to us. "You're not locking yourselves up there! Not when we have nachos and hot dogs and burgers and chips and all the good stuff just waiting to be eaten!"

"I got foosball!" Emmett called, and I could just imagine him waggling his eyebrows as though I could actually see him and as if that would actually entice me. Although foosball and nachos...

"Not in-ter-ested!" Bella called back, rolling her eyes. "I want to cuddle Edward!"

"Aww you big cuddle bear, what I'm not good enough anymore?" Jacob teased.

"You stink," Bella retorted. "Edward is my awesome man of total awesomeness." At that comment, I couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Your awesome man of awesomeness?" I repeated in between hysterical cackles. "Jacob, stop teaching her stupid words!"

"Awesomeness is totally a word, and it's not stupid."

"Yeah!"

"What? You're siding with him?"

"I side with whoever thinks I'm awesome."

"Okay stop saying awesome," I teased, pulling her close to me. She sighed and snuggled into me. "I can't believe how well you're talking. Honestly. You've done so well, Bella. I'm so proud of you."

"Thanks, Edward," she breathed, tilting her head up. We stayed like that for a moment, just letting everything else disappear and being there with each other and no one else. Until Bella jumped back with a startled squeak.

"JACOB!"

"What?"

He tried to look innocent, but the ice-cube falling out of Bella's shirt implicated him. She shuddered gently and glared, moving into the crouch position I'd seen back in the bathroom what seemed like a lifetime ago. A growl rumbled in her chest.

"You're gonna pay..."

"No pouncing, Bella." Carlisle's voice was stern from the doorway to the living room. "She's got quite a deadly pounce," he informed me, smiling as though he hadn't been such a goddamn prick to me in that letter – like the letter had never even happened. "Come get some food."

"Can I just have one minute with Bella?" I asked, intending to give her the gummi bears. I could hardly wait to see her face when she saw that I had 10 pounds of gummi bears, already sorted by colour. It had taken me all night, but I had done it for her. We could serve the reject colours along with the other treats downstairs. Red, yellow and orange would be for us.

"Please, Carlisle?" Bella begged when Carlisle looked like he was about to protest. His disapproving frown melted away as she turned on the puppy-dog eyes and I knew that no matter how strict he tried to be with her, she would always win. Because she owned every single one of us.

"One minute," he conceded. Her face lit up like that very first day in the shower and she showered his cheek with kisses before pulling me upstairs.

Okay so she hadn't changed that much. She was still my little Bella. She was still a bouncy, happy, affection-filled bubble. She still loved me. And when she spotted the bag of red gummi bears in my hand I knew she still loved those, too.

"So many..." she breathed, turning the bag about in reverence. I couldn't help but laugh little at her expression. It was as though I'd handed her diamonds.

"I have ten pounds in total, all sorted by colour."

"Ten pounds?!" she exclaimed, pushing past me to see them laid out on the bed. "I've never seen so many! This is so cool!" She scooped up all the bags, then decided against that idea and placed the red, yellow and orange ones back down. "I'll share some," she said sheepishly, intending to take down the clear and the green, and I think we both knew we'd spend many evenings with our hidden stash. Just the two of us. But then she surprised me by replacing the green with the orange. She must have seen the question in my eyes because she explained as we made our way back to the party. "Jake likes green the best."

Suddenly our two had become three.