I have received so little reviews so far and would like to hear more…please!

XXXXX

I am stretched on your grave and will lie there forever,

If your hands were in mine, I'd be sure they'd not sever,

My appletree, my brightness 'tis time we were together,

For I smell of the earth and am worn by the weather…

…The priests and the friars approach me in dread,

Because I still love you, my love, and your dead.

And still would be your shelter through rain and through storm

For with you in the cold ground I cannot sleep warm.

Excerpts from "I Am Stretched on Your Grave" – 17th century Irish poem sung by Dead Can Dance

Bella POV

After we landed in Port Angeles, skipping Seattle all together since we were on a private jet, Alice gave the pilot a very big tip and maneuvered me to the entrance of the airport.

"Wait here." She said "I'm going to rent a car."

I nodded dumbly as she pranced off. Now that we were so close, my nerves were getting to me again. Once I saw Edward, what would I say?

"I'm not dead so you don't have to kill yourself from guilt. But I will be soon after you leave, so don't even think of going to Italy."

I shook my head. Definitely not the thing to say. If he knew my plans once he left, he wouldn't go. He would feel too blameworthy and stay chained to my side out of some forced sense of obligation. I loved him too much to do that for him.

A red Mustang drove towards me and the driver lowered the window.

"Get in." Alice said from inside the car.

"A Mustang?" I inquired getting in the car and shutting the door as we drove off.

"Well, they didn't have any Porsche 911 turbos." She made a disgusted look on her face. "And I needed something that goes fast."

"How long do you think it will take to get back into Forks?" I knew normally, it was an hour drive but I was curious to see what time estimation Alice would come up with.

"20 minutes at the most." She said. "In a Porsche, it would have been less." She sulked.

"20 minutes?" I was incredulous.

"I didn't think you would be opposed to Grand Theft Auto, Bella. We don't have much time."

She was right; I wouldn't be opposed to speeding. "Why don't we have much time Alice?"

"He's heading to the cemetery now."She explained. "He read your letters...you're like a sister to me too by the way...anyway he read your letters and he is making one last stop to what he thinks is your grave. After that, we won't have much time."

"My letters, Oh my God! We have to stop at my house so I can get the letters. I can't have Charlie see them." Crap! Why didn't I think to get rid of them? I was in too much of a hurry to get to Ital, that's why.

"Relax." Alice said patting my leg reassuringly. "Edward took them."

This I did not understand. "Why would he take them?"

She sighed and looked upward apparently annoyed. "Really, Bella? Can't you can't guess? They were supposedly you last words, he wants to keep them with him until the end."

"I am confused." And I was.

Alice rolled her eyes then "Because he loves you so completely, you idiot. He never stopped, will never stop."

I shook my head, my brain not wanting to believe the words even if my heart fervently hoped they were true. "No, you're wrong." I whispered. "If he loved me he wouldn't have left. He would have never said those words to me in the forest."

"Oh, Bella, Bella, Bella. He only left because he is a self-sacrificing, arrogant ass." She shrugged her shoulders. "But this is a conversation you need to have with him...and you will."

I usually didn't bet against Alice but I knew in this instance she was wrong.

"I know you don't believe me." She said. "But trust me."

Dare I trust her? Dare I hope? I shook my head, No. If I did, then when he left again the pain would be that much more magnified. I threw myself off a cliff before, If, I allowed even a margin of hope, what would I do when he left again?

Edward POV

I watched from a distance as the cemetery workers shoveled the last of the earth on her grave and wondered briefly how she was found. Was her body discovered on the shore, broken and bruised? Had they thought it was an accident? Clearly no one had found her letters yet. And they wouldn't I thought. Selfishly, I stole them and they would remain with me until I left this world.

There was no headstone yet. No markers to name the grave as hers and it surprised me that there weren't many flowers either. It also astonished me that Charlie had not hung around but maybe the pain was too great at seeing her coffin being engulfed in the earth.

When there was no one left around, I made my way slowly to the grave. It took every mental restraint I had not to dig it up and embrace myself around her cold form and lay there forever with her.

It started to rain then. I turned my face to the sky letting the droplets run down my face. How fitting, I thought, that the heavens would open up and shed the tears for me that I could not. My knees buckled then and gave way until I was kneeling in the dirt that covered her.

This was not how it was supposed to be! She was supposed to live a long, healthy life.

"Why Bella? Why?" I sobbed brokenly.

My hands fisted in the mud underneath me. I wanted to slay myself for my arrogance in believing that her love for me was not as great as mine for her. How could it have been? She was a human. Vampires felt emotions so much more amplified. But then hadn't I always underestimated my Bella. Hadn't she always continued to surprise me?

I was drowning in my grief. I heard light footfalls behind me but they barely registered. I was too wrapped in my own anguish to care who saw me.

"It's not mine." Whispered a small voice from behind me. Her voice. It cannot be!

My head whipped around and there I saw her, standing in the rain. It was impossible. Had the Volturi somehow discovered what I had planned and killed me while I was standing here? I didn't care, I'll take it. But no, they wouldn't do that, out of respect for Carlisle, if anything. My brow furrowed as I tried to understand. This had to be a hallucination. But this image of Bella was nothing like the ones that invaded my mind during my months away. In this hallucination, Bella was gaunt, haggard and dangerously thin, but she was still beautiful to me.

"The grave, it's not mine." My fantasy whispered again. Then the realization dawned on me. The vision on front of me wasn't a hallucination. It really was Bella.

I was on my feet so fast and over to her in less than a second. I had to touch her, needed to touch her to reassure myself that I wasn't imagining things. Cupping her face in my hands, I let out a small sob of gratitude that she was indeed real and put my lips on hers.

Bella POV

Alice dropped me off at the cemetery saying she would be back out the house awaiting the arrival of everyone else.

"This is something you need to do on your own." She had told me. "It'll all work out, you'll see. Trust me." And she had driven off into the distance.

It started to rain as I was making my way to the area where I knew the grave would be. Part of me wanted to run to see Edward again but I slowed my steps down and walked softly.

What I saw was nearly the undoing of my resolve. There Edward was, on his knees sobbing, his whole body shaking with the force of it. His hands were fisted in the dirt atop Harry's grave as if he were poised to dig it up with his bare hands.

"It's not mine" I whispered knowing with his vampire senses that he could hear me.

His head turned to me and the raw anguish that I saw in his face nearly staggered me. His brows furrowed then as if he were confused. Did he think I was a ghost coming to haunt him?

If possible, he looked even more confused, as if he were trying to do a very difficult math equation in his head.

"The grave." I said looking pointedly at where he knelt. "It's not mine."

I saw understanding in his features and before I could blink he was standing right in front of me, his hands cradling my cheeks. Then his lips descending on mine and suddenly we were kissing in the rain. This kiss wasn't the passionate yet cautious kisses I was used to from him. No, this kiss was raw. Raw, desperate and hungry and my body responded in kind.

Without any recollection of what was happening, we were flying backwards to the shelter of a nearby mausoleum. My back was pressed against the wall, his body molding against mine, his hands fisted in my hair, his mouth on mine. He pulled back slightly and looked me in the eyes with what seemed like reverence and wiped a tear from my cheek. I hadn't even realized I was crying. What caught me off guard were his eyes. They were black as if he hadn't been feeding and there were dark purple smudges under them. They matched my own.

"Bella" He whispered and his mouth was on mine again. I felt whole again and I wanted to shout from the joy of it. But this was wrong. He was kissing me like this out of guilt and relief. As much as it pained me to stop, I had to. For both of our sakes. This intense display of emotion wasn't real, at least for him anyway. For me, it was what I had dreamed of for months.

I pulled away, pushing him away with my hand against his chest. We were both breathing heavy. His hands still didn't let me go but he had stopped kissing me and was now looking at me perplexed.

"We have to stop." I said and it nearly killed me to say those words.

"Why?" He said leaning in to kiss me again. I turned my head away.

"Because it isn't real." I whispered turning to look at him again, tears making tracks down my cheeks. "Because it's a lie."