I have figured out that i have written 253,986 words of fanfiction (not including the remaining 4 chapters of TLITL.) I celebrated with a little happy dance!

Over 1000 hits for TLITL - serious happy dance followed that little realisation!!!! You guys rock! Anyway - next chapter

Chapter 7: Technicalities

Bella paced the floor of the living room and Sophia watched, mildly amused. She had never seen her mum like this. Usually her mum was cool, calm and collected but now she was on edge and very anxious. She had like the Cullens, especially Esme and Carlisle. They had taken her out of the forest and into a meadow to play catch with a baseball. It felt so good to run at her full speed. Bella let her use abilities on a regular basis but she could always feel Bellas' anxiety in case she lost control. It had been 32 years since her last slip and it had taken her years to convince Bella to let her go school. Sophia found children fascinating, their ways, their thoughts and the relationships they formed with each other. Children were different from adults. Whenever she and Bella went to the store, adults stared at Bella and her insanely beautiful sister. They were drawn in by the strange girls but their beauty and gracefulness also repelled them, as it should. Sophia had felt rejection when Bella first found her and they would go out, as was a natural reaction for a child. Now that Bella had helped her develop and control she saw that their reaction was for their own protection and it helped Sophia control her thirst with a little more ease.

She could hear Bella mutter speedily and low. The youngest one, Edward, had obviously done something to piss her off. Sophia had only seen her mother so angry once and it was Jane had reduced Sophia to a cowering mess on the floor when she had first been taken to the Volturi. The Cullens were clearly someone from her mums past, way back past, but they had seemed friendly enough.

"Mummy, doorbell."

Bella looked at her daughter with an unamused look. A few seconds later the doorbell rang. "That gets really annoying you know rugrat. Who is it?"

"I think we both know who it is going to be."

Bella flung her arms up in frustration and stalked to the door. Edward stood on the door step looking at his feet as Bella pitched the door backwards. She walked away, leaving the door open as a barely disguised to come in.

"I must say, i'm surprised to see you here." Bella muttered, her hands on her hips in a defensive position over the other side of the room.

"Me too, i was in two minds about whether or not to come."

"I know." She said sarcastically, tapping the side of her head for clarification, a smug smile on her face. "Not nice to have someone in your head is it."

"You did that. Bella! Alice convinced me, couldn't understand why i wouldn't. How could you."

"Hey, i didn't like it any more than you did. Free will is especially important to me; i don't take any pleasure in my ability. Why are you here?"

"To talk. You walk into our lives after 150 years and you expect me to not want to talk."

Sophia jumped down from the couch and walked towards Bella. "I'm going for a walk. Be OK mum." She hugged her mother's waist before zipping in front of Edward. She reached up and pushed his chest, causing him to rebound backwards. "You upset my mum and you will have me to deal with." And she was gone.

"She calls you mum. Bella you still look young, early twenties at a push, how does she get away with being your child?"

"Edward, she's a child but by no stretch imagination is she stupid! People think we are sisters. She only calls me 'mum' in the house or in front of other vampires. Jeeze."

They now stood directly opposite each other still on other sides of the room. Edward resisted the temptation to close the gap. Somehow she seemed freaked out enough without the closeness. "Carlisle said you chose to be turned. You forgot that part."

"You knew my feelings on that. It was partly your fault anyway. You told me that human memories fade after you are turned and that was exactly what i wanted. Victoria wanted revenge on you and i told her it would hurt you more if she turned me. A month after you were gone i went looking for her. I couldn't take it anymore. I was lost without you. Not the love sick kind of lost when you break up with someone, the real kind of lost when life isn't worth living anymore. I tried to imagine the next 70 or so as a human without you and it ached, the kind of pain that no amount of morphine would take the edge off."

"You promised me. You promised me that you wouldn't do anything reckless, Charlie needed you. I needed you to be safe."

"You broke your promise first when you left me. You promised me you would never leave me."

"I said i would stay as long as you needed me. You didn't need me in your life, i was dangerous to have in your life."

"Pfft, a technicality and you know it."

He paused, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "I came back you know."

Bella looked up at him at the revelation. "You did, when?"

"About 10 years after we left. I found your grave, Charlies too. It was dated about 3 months after we left, Charlies a couple of years after. Why is there a grave if there was no body?"

"I left a letter for Charlie in my truck, when i went looking for Victoria. It told him that i had gone to find somewhere to die, that i couldn't live without you anymore. It must have taken him a few months to accept i had meant it. We were too much alike. I can't believe you came back. Why?"

"I couldn't do it anymore, live without you. I was too selfish so i came back for even though i thought it would be best for you if i left. When i saw that grave, i completely lost it. Alice came with me when she saw a vision of your grave before I left. I managed to hold us together for long enough to get her home. It was a very dark time for my family, losing you. You were one of us." He paused to take stock. "You do realise that Esme is now talking about Sophia as if she has gained a granddaughter. They all love you that much."

Bella took a step towards. His anguish was genuine; he hadn't lied like she had expected him to. "You said you completely lost it, what happened."

"Alice kept getting visions of me killing myself. Carlisle and Esme refused to let me leave the house except to hunt and even then one of them went with me. I was under constant guard for 30 odd years. Eventually they saw that i was coping, withdrawn and silent but not suicidal and Alice had stopped having visions of my demise. I waited for Carlisle and Esme to take a trip to an island that Carlisle had bought her, Alice and Jasper went with them. I think they all needed a break away from me. I waited until they were all on the island and too far away to make it back in time, i made the final decision to go to Volterra. I went to the Volturi to plead for my death but they refused. I tried to make them, exposed myself to the humans but they still refused." Bella sniggered. "You find this funny?"

"No, god no. The Volturi's refusal was just Aros warped sense of humour. Did you really think that your family would be able to keep a human pet a secret from the Volturi? Edward, you were a vampire dating a human and you broke one of their laws. Aro knew of my past but i have made him swear never to tell me. He probably thought he was protecting his favourite plus and with a gift like yours he probably would have preferred you join him rather than die."

"I even tried purposely provoking other vampires in the early days but Alice and Emmett always came after me. Carlisle had tried most of the other methods when he was turned. In the end Esme and Alice begged me to stop. I was hurting them so badly so i stopped on the agreement that they would leave me alone to wallow. I moved out of the house and lived away from them for a while, for a decade every so often. In the last 20 years or so i have been finding it easier to cope with the loss. I'm moved back in with the family and made an effort to be part of them for their sake. I never once forgot you. You were always on my mind, your face in my thoughts every night when the world went to bed." He took a step towards her. "Of one thing you can be certain, i loved you so much, i still do. With everything i am, i love you."

As if there was any doubt that Edward loved Bella! Big thank you to stariinights for a very wonderful review that made me smile and picked me up from a depressing funk.

To Tellytubby101 - Edwards lack of reaction was mainly due to guilt and on the other question - i have written a fic with Bellas time with the Volturi and it will go up soon (will also be able to be read as a stand alone piece)

Read and Review pretty please with sprinkles on top!

Next chapter is a little Bella and Alice 1 on 1 time with a walk out West!