AN: This chapter begins with EPOV of what happened before he got to Bella in the meadow.

Chapter 21: This is a Battle We've Won

*EPOV*

There's a saying about hindsight being perfect that applied to my life at that moment.

In hindsight, I saw all of Bella's and my mistakes crystal clear—I could step back and look at them from a new perspective and see all of the spots where we went wrong.

Take talking, for example. It was an issue for us that probably could have resolved our unneeded drama and hurtful words and actions early on. And then there was pride, which kept us from the talks we should have sat down and had like two mature adults. Misplaced feelings of right versus wrong, fueled of course by pride and miscommunications, were a problem, too.

Not talking, going only on pride and misconceptions, and trying not to hurt anyone, had caused us to bottle up our respective emotions until they were a live wire, ready to snap and shock everyone in the vicinity.

How many times had Bella tried to tell me something, only to receive an angry outburst in return? Or, conversely, how many times had Bella's weird sense of doing what she thought was right, no matter the way those actions would have hurt her in the long run, frustrate me to no end, making me wonder what the hell was wrong with her?

If I could have taken it all back, could go and start at the beginning from the very first moment I'd learned that I was a father to a little girl who had a father figure already, I'd have done things differently—so differently.

Not to say that we were the only ones at fault here.

James—who, though I felt sorry for the guy, was still an asshole, held some of the blame in his hands, too.

I got why he'd gone about things the way he had—I did. For four years, he had loved my girl and my daughter like they were a part of him. They were his family. I knew firsthand how amazing Bella was at her very best, how easy it was for Gracie to wrap you around her finger and make you want to give her the happiest life a child could have. I'd want to keep them as my very own if I were him, too.

But they weren't. They were mine, my family, and it was time I started acting like it—to the both of them, and not just the youngest one.

Bella didn't deserve my anger, nor did I deserve her trying to throw herself in front of whatever bus came our way to make everyone but herself happy. We owed it to each other to be considerate and worried for our family together, period.

Initially, it bugged the shit out of me that she went to my brother instead of me when she was hurt, but I was thankful that she had someone she felt close enough to. God knows I hadn't been there for her when she needed me. I'd been an insensitive jerk to her most of the time I'd been back, but I resolved as I lay with her wrapped in my arms that we'd get this all out in the open.

We had some talking to do, more than just the apologies and quick explanations offered to each other in a meadow on a summer day.

It bothered me that she'd run here to try and get herself together, but not for the obvious reasons. Before I left Seattle, Charlie had told me to leave her be, let her get her head back together first before we sat down and talked. Like I didn't know where she'd go...

Our meadow.

Since her dad moved to Forks, we'd spent so much time in that open space. As teenagers it was one of the only places we could be truly alone. I grinned against Bella's hair, remembering the first time I'd talked her into taking off all of her clothes in the middle of that field—like she was now. I couldn't believe that girl let me get away with some of the things I did to her back then.

Of course, seeing her naked and next to me only reminded me of the last time I'd seen her this way. It was pure bliss and total torture rolled into one. I'd thought that something was off, but obviously hadn't grasped the full extent of how bad things were. I honestly believed everything would be fine after that. Again, in hindsight I couldn't believe how wrong I was.

Everything wasn't fine when I woke up alone, not knowing where she'd gone or why she left.

The torture was finding out that her marriage had been a lie and that she didn't trust me enough to tell me. Though I felt as if I'd been punched in the gut at the prospect of how little faith she had in me, in us, I had to believe that we would be okay, that we could work through everything—which is why I'd followed her.

I couldn't stand the alternative.

Bella's breaths evened out beside me, and I looked down to see that she was asleep, eyelashes fluttering against her cheeks as she rested her head on my bent arm. She looked so peaceful, all soft and sun-warmed against my body. I couldn't remember the last time I'd truly seen her so relaxed and calm.

We still had a tough road ahead of us, but I had faith we'd get through it, together.

James was going to be a sticky situation. There were hurt feelings and a lot of blame placed on him that she needed to let go of. So did I, for that matter. Deep down, I knew that if she held onto that anger and hatred it would only hurt her in the end.

It would hurt Gracie, too.

No matter the situation, she was a small child who only knew James to be a doting father-figure. He bought her dolls and watched cartoons with her, treated her like she was his own. She looked at him through innocent eyes, as she should. She was too little and precious to be dragged into this mess, and cutting her off from seeing him would only confuse her.

I had a small amount of gratefulness that he had stepped up to the plate, so to speak. He'd taken care of my girls when I couldn't, though I didn't feel bad about punching him for it. They were still my girls, after all. His lies had added to our situation in a bad way, and he had to face the responsibility for that, too.

"Edward..."

I looked down thinking Bella was awake and had noticed my blank expression as I thought about our situation. She wasn't. She shifted in her sleep, a small smile pulling up the corners of her mouth when my arm tightened around her.

I'd always liked hearing her quirky little habit of talking in her sleep. It felt good now to see that she dreamed of me in a good way, still. That in her sleep we were obviously in a good place. I dropped a kiss against her closed eyes. "Love you, baby. We'll get through this."

X-X-X-X-X

When the summer sun began to fade, I woke Bella and followed behind her in my rental until we got to Charlie's place. She was quiet as she packed her things and left a note for her father that she was going home to Gracie. With me.

We were going home.

Chief Swan was going to kick my ass for disobeying his orders, but at least my instincts had been right this time.

After dropping my rental off in Port Angeles, I climbed into Bella's car and looked at her in the driver's seat. "You want me to drive?" I asked. I fully intended to get to our talk and I didn't want her to be upset and behind the wheel.

"Yeah," she said, passing me the keys.

We spent the whole trip home doing what we should have done from the beginning: talking—really talking. Though I didn't want to have what could be the most important discussion of my life in a car of all places, nothing about us had been conventional—and it had to be done.

I didn't want there to be the possibility of Bella not knowing exactly how I felt and what I wanted. She agreed that we had a long road ahead of us, but that she knew we'd get there, too. We also agreed that we needed to talk to Gracie about what was going on. She was a little girl and didn't need a bunch of details, but we wanted her to understand as much as possible. After explaining how much I wanted to show Gracie that she could come to me with anything, like she did with her mom, I was thrilled that Bella trusted me enough to let me be the one to talk to her.

Though we didn't come to any concrete conclusions just then, we both agreed that we wanted to be together and were willing to do whatever it took to repair the damage we had both done.

It was like a weight had been lifted from my chest. I could finally breathe again, knowing for sure that we were both committed to each other and to working everything out.

When we got to my parents' house, Gracie bounded down the steps and straight into Bella's arms. They had only been apart for a couple of days, but it was obvious that they had missed each other.

"When we goin' home, Mama?"

Gracie's innocent question held so much meaning. Though we had talked for hours during our trip back, there were no decisions made on where they would be living now. I knew she wasn't going back to his house, but I didn't know if she was ready to move back into the apartment. I was sure my parents would love to have her stay with them if she needed time, and she could afford to buy her own place.

There was another part of me that wished we didn't have to bother with the figuring out because I was ready to move forward. But we needed to. We needed to get everything back to good, so, no matter how much I hated the waiting, I would if it was what she needed to feel comfortable and happy.

I didn't know how Bella would feel about it, and I would certainly discuss it with her, but I knew what I wanted.

Them.

With me.

Forever.

"Gracie? Didn't you miss me, too?" I pouted at her, kneeling down and opening my arms for her to run to me. Hugging her tightly, I rubbed my hand through her springy curls before leaning over to whisper in her ear, "hey, Princess. I missed you, you know." She nodded against my neck, and I continued, "Let's go talk. How 'bout some ice cream?"

Picking her up, I walked over to Bella and kissed her lightly before telling her we were headed out for a little bit. I didn't want to leave her when we were finally on the right path, but I felt like this was important for my relationship with my daughter. So much in her life had changed over the past few weeks and was changing still. She needed to understand that she could come to me if she needed me, and that I would always be here for her.

We arrived at the ice cream shop and Gracie picked out her favorite flavor with "spwinkles." We talked about what she'd been doing with her Nana and why elephants were her "favwet" animals. When she was just about finished with her ice cream, she started telling me how much she missed Bella while she was gone.

"Your mama missed you while she was away, too. We both did."

Giggling, she leaned up and grabbed my face with her sticky hand. "I know. It's your job. You're my daddy—you s'posed to miss me."

"You're right." I laughed. "You know, daddies have lots of important jobs. I want you to know that you can always talk to me about anything you want, whenever you want, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed, kissing the end of my nose with her little cold lips.

I knew she didn't really understand right then, but I needed her to hear that I would always be there for her. We chatted for a few more minutes before the conversation turned to James.

"Jamie said maybe we can getta puppy," she said, looking up at me with a hopeful expression.

Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and pulled her into my lap. "Baby, you know that Jamie loves you very much."

She nodded. "And I love him vewwy much."

"I know you do, Princess. Jamie had to go to work for awhile on an important case. You know that sometimes he has to go away, right?"

Again, she nodded. "He has bizzness. But he awlways calls me."

I laughed. "Yeah, that's right. So we don't know how long he'll be gone. His business is very important, and he might not be able to call you for awhile. He wanted me to tell you that he loves you very much and can't wait until he gets to see you again."

Tears pooled in her big green eyes, and it broke my heart. "Can we call him? Right now? So I can tell him bye?"

I didn't want to go against Bella's wishes in this situation, but I also had a say in this, too. I refused to let my daughter suffer because all of the adults in her life fucked everything up.

Pulling out my phone, I dialed the number and handed it to Gracie. He must have picked up right away because she jabbered happily to him for a few minutes, telling him about her overnight stay at my parents' and that she'd just had ice cream. I smiled when she asked him about his "bizzness" and told him she'd have me buy him ice cream when he was "done with his 'yoy-yer stuff'".

"Okay my Jamie. My daddy has to take me to see my mommy. I missed her so much last night. Bye, love you," she whispered into the phone before handing it to me.

"Thanks, man."

His voice was choked, quiet. I just nodded, ending the call and wrapping my arms around my daughter while she poked dejectedly at the last of her ice cream.

"Gracie, it's okay to be sad. But Jamie will be back soon, and I know he'll miss you. Remember what I told you? I want you to let me know how you feel, all the time. When you're sad, you just tell me, and we'll try to go do something fun, together?"

"Okay, Daddy. Can we get a puppy? It would be really fun to take my puppy on walks."

I laughed but gave her no answer. I needed to talk to Bella about it first. She was determined about the puppy thing, and I was glad it seemed to take her mind off of James' sudden disappearance from her life. It couldn't be easy on a child to go from seeing someone every day to not seeing them at all.

Sometime later, with her hands washed and her face clean, we walked out. It was dark outside, much later than I realized. Still having one more thing to discuss with her, I led her to a nearby bench and sat down.

"Gracie, remember when you asked your mom when you were going home?"

She nodded and leaned up to kiss my cheek.

"Well, I was thinking…how would you feel about living with me at my apartment someday?"

Seeing as how I wasn't sure yet what Bella's plans were for housing, I didn't want to get Gracie's hopes up if her mom still needed some time to think things over, but having her thoughts couldn't hurt when I brought it up to Bella.

In my mind, when things were back on track completely, I knew that I wanted to marry Bella; like I was supposed to before everything went to hell. I'd have her and Gracie with me, and finally my life would be back where it should have been if not for the plane crash. Gracie surprised me by shaking her head in response to my question.

"You don't want to live with me, too?" I asked, devastated.

She smiled up at me, a mischievous gleam in her eye. "Course I do, silly. But it's my 'partnement," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

I laughed and hugged her to me. "You're right. Let's go get your mama."

X-X-X-X-X

Since Gracie fell asleep on the way back to my parents' house, I carried her in the house, loving the way her tiny breaths felt on my neck. I tried to rouse her as I walked so she'd wake up enough to brush her teeth and get changed into her pajamas. Bella came in with Gracie's elephant, Beauregard, and together, we tucked her in. It was awesome, being real family.

I didn't want that feeling to end.

Taking Bella's hand, I led her through the back door and over to the tree house that still stood in the back yard. She giggled before turning and scrambling up the rungs of the ladder. When we reached the top, I realized too late that it was dark inside and I'd forgotten to turn on the lights while we were still in the house. Kissing Bella gently, I started to move back toward the exit when suddenly a thousand tiny lights illuminated the space around us.

My mom is so fucking smart.

Reaching out, I pulled Bella to me and held her face in my hands, breathing her in. Fucking finally. We were here—together.

She tightened her grasp on the back of my shirt and moved closer, tilting back her head to touch her lips to mine. She gently bit down on my lip before slipping her tongue in my mouth and I groaned. Having her so close, breathing the same air as me, her thundering heartbeat proving she wanted me as much as I wanted her, was all I'd ever wanted.

Right then I decided to hell with worrying. We had a tough road ahead of us, but I knew we could make it through. Why waste time being away from each other when we both knew how much better we were together?

Tightening my hold on her for a brief moment, I moved back and pulled her up into a sitting position. I ran my hand through my hair, scratching nervously at the back of my neck before I took her hand in mine.

"Okay, so I think we had a really good day today. And I think we'll have a bunch of really good days in the future. I think we have a lot of things to deal with, but I also think that there isn't anyone in the world I'd rather face this tough road with than with you."

"We'll get through this. I know it, Edward. If we found our way back after this...whole thing, I know we can work together on everything else."

I kissed her, letting my lips touch hers only briefly before I pulled back. "I know we will, too. So, here's the thing. I've been away from you for too long, missed too much time with you and Gracie that I'll never get back, but that's okay. I have the rest of my life to make it up..."

"I love you, you know that. I've always loved you, even when I couldn't remember. I knew, somehow, that you were out there. Without you, I'm just pieces—parts of an incomplete puzzle. You make me whole, Bella. I know it might seem sudden to some people or, to everyone that knows us, it might seem like it's about fucking time."

Glancing up at her beautiful face, I moved my hand to pull her lip from between her teeth. Her eyes met mine and I could just tell by the look on her face that she knew what I was doing, and that she was with me. She laughed as tears spilled over her cheeks. "Don't cry, baby," I whispered as I ran the pad of my thumb under her eyes. "Shit. The first time I did this, I had it all planned out. I hope this doesn't suck in comparison."

I stared at her, so thankful I had the chance to ask. I knew it was fast, but I wasn't willing to give up another day of our lives.

"I want to marry you, girl. I want to go to sleep with you every night and wake up with you every morning and come home to you every day. I don't have a ring or even a sharpie this time, but I hope you'll say 'yes' just the same. I can't promise you sunshine and rainbows everyday of your life, but I can promise you that I'll be your strength and I will do my best to make you happy until I draw my last breath."

She threw her arms around me, the force of her embrace knocking us both backwards. "Of course I'll marry you. I've only ever been yours."

X-X-X-X-X

Getting married wasn't going to magically solve all of our problems. I knew that just as well as Bella did. There were issues to work through, and we needed time to heal.

Still, it was also obvious we weren't willing to be apart any longer. Issues could be worked out together; time was a balm for wounds, and I didn't mind if she got mad at me occasionally as long as I got to have her in my arms when I fell asleep at night.

Sure, we could've lived together first—we'd already done that. But, I wanted it to be legal. I didn't want her to ever doubt my commitment to her again.

We talked all night in our tree house, setting up plans and conditions. She wasn't allowed to run away when she needed to say something, no matter if she thought it would hurt anyone's feeling or not. I wasn't allowed to get aggravated and push her away when things didn't go my way.

We took Gracie out the next morning for breakfast when she woke up. As a family.

Four days later we all piled into a caravan and drove to the Wedgewood hotel in Vancouver.

Bella took my breath away as she walked toward me in a dress that hugged her curves in all the right places. With our daughter standing between us, we exchanged vows in front of our family and friends and then laughed and danced the night way, blissful and just celebrating being together.

Finally.