A/N: WE'RE GETTING CLOSER AND CLOSER TO THE END FOLKS!!! IF YOU WANT A SUPER EPILOGE ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS REVIEW!! AND CHECK OUT MY OTHER STORIES DAMN IT! WELL I GUESS YOU DON'T HAVE TO... BUT I'D REALLY LIKE IT...

Chapter Nineteen

Nap Time

Allegra hopped through the snow, soaking the snow suit Bella had wrestled her into. Edward smiled at his daughter and the lovely woman chasing after her. Bella looked truly exasperated, but thrilled all the same. Things couldn't have worked out more perfectly in Edward's opinion (well, maybe they could have been a little better). Allegra was safe from the Volturi and would be forever. His family had pulled through this hardship and managed to remain in one piece. Bella was back and engaged to marry him. Life was good. He had everything he ever wanted, even a few things he never knew he needed.

The biggest thing he never knew he needed was currently screaming happily that she was a snow frog. Edward laughed with Bella, who scooped up Allegra and made her way back to the house. She gave him a brief kiss as she passed, heading up stairs. Edward followed. They needed to talk.

Bella lead the way into Allegra's bedroom. Their baby, quite put out that play time was over, refused to cooperate when Bella tried to get her out of the saturated pink jumpsuit. Edward added his hands to the fray and quickly had her undressed. Bella distracted her while Edward wrapped her in the soft one piece bunny pajamas Bella had picked out. Edward was curious about the choice of outfit, but pulled it onto Allegra without question. Her intentions for their daughter became clear when she tucked Allegra into her crib.

"I don't wanna! I don't wanna take nap!" Allegra yelled.

"Shh…" Edward said, trying to soothe her. Bella didn't bother, she merely put on Allegra's lullaby. She then took Edward's hand and pulled him out of the room. Allegra continued to yell for a few more minutes, but eventually settled down and fell asleep. They smiled at each other before walking into Edward's room. Bella sat down on the couch while Edward turned on some soft jazz. "We need to talk, Bella."

"Are you going to break up with me again?" she asked, humor evident in her voice. Edward glared at her over his shoulder.

"We need to talk about where we're going to live," Edward elaborated.

"Ahh… very important talk in a month full of important talks," Bella said. Edward settled into the couch next to her. He took a curl of her hair between his thumb and forefinger and played with it for a moment.

"I still feel like you must have a death wish," he mused. "What made you think to insult the Volturi?"

"We out numbered them, and they were pissing me off. You asked me once if I have a temper, I do. You should really know that by now," she chastised lightly. Edward smirked.

"Where are we going to live?" he sighed. Bella took his hand in hers. The house went silent. The whole family listening to this conversation closely.

"Well, you guys can't stay here. It's been too long. But…"

"But…"

"We could move to my world into my house. It's huge, there'd be plenty of room and if you didn't want to do that the people who used to live next door just moved and that house is bigger. Most of the people there are immortal and the ones that aren't don't think anything of it. You guys wouldn't stand out and they are in desperate need of a good human doctor. Carlisle would be in hot demand. He could work in any hospital he wanted," Bella said.

"Why are doctor's so rare?" Edward asked, confused.

"Oh, they aren't rare. It's just that most doctors have a healing gift. They can heal anything… except dead, I guess."

"Then why would Carlisle be in such high demand? He can't do that."

"And interestingly enough that would give him an edge." Edward gave her confused look. "A few of the high end hospitals and clinics offer free health care for humans because most humans are too poor. But since the hospitals and clinics don't make any money from the patients the doctors heal them as quickly and as thoroughly as possible, so that they can tend to the paying patients," Bella said. It wasn't nice but it made sense.

"As thoroughly as possible," he repeated. Bella nodded. "What does that mean?"

"The doctors can heal everything and anything, so when a human comes in to be treated for a cold the doctor will heal all of the virus' effecting that human's heath. Along with all of the bacteria, because they don't know any better. By doing that they hope to keep that human in perfect health so they won't have to treat them ever again."

"Ohh…"

"Yeah, killing the bacteria in, say my body, wouldn't do much, I'd just grow it back and I'd be fine. But of course the human body doesn't do that. Most humans who come in with an illness of some sort have a seventy percent morality rate, so a lot of humans don't. If they get sick they just stay home and hope to get better. If they're wounded they'll go in. But otherwise… it's just safer not to."

Edward thought a moment. "Do you think I'd be able to go into practice at a hospital or clinic? I'd be able to manage anything that didn't have to do with blood. Sickness that kind of thing."

"Probably, you and Carlisle would have to go to medical school for a while," Bella said. "Even if you guys want to treat humans you'd have to learn how to treat other species as well." Bella's eyes brightened and a smile stretched across her face. "You're never going to believe this, I know I didn't. There's actually a class called Humanology. It's taught by this guy, Babblesworth, who is obsessed with humans. Most of what he lectures on is complete crap, but it was one of the most entertaining classes I've ever taken." Bella laughed and Edward joined in.

"Is your family going to have a problem moving?" she asked, worrying her lower lip. Edward watched her do this, happy that this tiny thing hadn't changed.

So much of what happened in the field yesterday with the Volturi let Edward know beyond a shadow of a doubt that her time as an assassin had changed her. Her temper, once kitten-like, was now a force to be reckoned with. She pulled out a dagger, stared murderously at her foes and even went so far as to insult a four thousand year old vampire. This was the same girl that had nearly died in his arms five (or sixty) years ago. She was just as brave, ten times as foolish, but now she actually had the skills necessary to protect herself.

Edward knew he should be happy about that, and to a certain extent he was. He didn't want Bella helpless and fragile as she had been before. He'd hardly been able to touch her then, now he couldn't possible hurt, no matter how tight he held her. It was a good thing, a very good thing, especially if they were going to get married. But… he couldn't help feeling bereft of the old Bella.

The Bella that needed him. The Bella that would trip on a perfectly flat surface. The Bella that was nice to everyone, even people who weren't nice to her.

This Bella was strong, independent and…. somehow isolated. She felt separate from him. It hadn't been like this before he left and he didn't like it. He needed to have her so close, so close that it was almost like they were one person. All of those things she had done yesterday. Things that had become so natural to her, haunted him.

When Bella had returned Edward noticed the subtle difference in the way she was now and the way she had been before. Not only was she more graceful, she blushed less often, didn't laugh as freely. Sometime he would catch her looking out into the forest around the house with the strangest look of longing in her eyes. She didn't sleep at night, or during the day, or at all. (Another part of being Dien, she'd told him.) She gave him short little kisses, never pressing him for more, like she used to.

There was something between them. Edward hadn't paid much attention to it before. The Volturi had been closing in on them, he was focusing on that. Now that that threat had passed he needed to focus on the wall between him and the woman he loved.

Yes, she was different and the road ahead of them would definitely be hard to traverse, but Edward loved her all the same. The little things, like her biting her lip, that reminded him of the Bella he broke up with told him that she was still in there. It had been sixty some odd years of loneliness and purposeful isolation for her. That had to take a toll on her psyche.

She needed someone to break through the walls she'd erected and pull her back into the sun. Where she belonged.

"Edward?" Bella asked. He'd been quiet a moment too long. She'd noticed that he wasn't all there, something that the old Bella wouldn't have caught. She had been trained well, trained to catch everything.

"I don't think my family will have a problem with it," he said. "In fact I know they won't."

Carlisle was intrigued by the possibility of treating non-human patients and taking the classes necessary to do so successfully. Esme was excited about buying and designing a new house and the likelihood of discovering new flower species to plant in the garden. Alice was thinking about all the shopping possibilities. Rosalie was happy that they wouldn't have to move as often or ever if they so chose.

Emmett didn't really care either way, and was focusing more on trying to coax Rosalie upstairs for 'an afternoon delight.' Edward shuddered at that one. And Jasper was thinking mostly about the emotions coming off of Edward. He didn't care much about the move either, but he was relieved that they wouldn't have to worry about being exposed anymore. It would be almost like they were normal.

Edward liked that thought as well. He wanted his family safe indefinitely and the only way to do that was to move. With the family on board there was really nothing stopping them. As that thought flitted through Edward's head he heard Esme's whispered command that everyone get packing. Carlisle immediately got on the phone to tell the Denali coven about the move. They would be sad, Edward knew (from Alice's mind), but in the end they would understand and demand frequent visits.

"Good," Bella said, with a smile. The smile didn't fill her eyes. She was happy, but not as happy as she had been before. Edward wanted her that happy again.

"Bella," he whispered. The rest of the family could still hear him, but his pitch would let them know he wanted this conversation as private as possible.

"Yes, Edward," she whispered back, laughing quietly.

"Smile for me." Bella smiled, still a gleam of emptiness stayed in her eyes. "Smile for real, Bella. I want to see your eyes filled with joy-"

"What are you talking about?" she asked, confused.

"I'm talking about the difference between you now and you before. It's all sorts of things, Bella. It's like there's all this stuff between us. I don't know you anymore-"

"This is starting to sound a lot like a break up, Edward," Bella said, interrupting him again.

"I'm not that stupid, Bella."

"Couldn't have fooled me." Edward sighed. He knew she still had some residual anger.

"I want us to be the way we were before. I want to know you so well that even if I can't read your mind, I'll be able to guess what you're thinking. There are so many things that you do now that I don't understand and I want to. I want to be so close to you that when we're apart you feel like half of yourself is missing, because that's how I've felt for the past five years-"

"Yeah, well I've felt that way for the past sixty years, Edward," Bella snapped.

"I know that, Bella-"

"Then what do you want from me? What do you want? The truth?"

"Yes, tell me, tell me everything, Bella."

"When you left me I died a little inside. It took me months to start acting human again and even then tiny things would remind me of you and my heart would break all over again. You killed me that day, Edward. How's that? How's the truth sound?" she asked cruelly. Edward cringed at the pain in her voice.

"That's not the truth I wanted," he mumbled.

"Well, tough shit. The truth isn't always sparkles and sunshine… You hurt me, Edward. And that kind of hurt doesn't go away with an apology and an engagement ring."

"Then how does it, Bella? I don't like feeling this way. Like you're going to leave me," Edward said.

"I'm not that stupid!" Bella said, throwing Edward's words back in his face.

"What do I do?" Edward asked desperately.

Bella sighed, releasing some of the anger, calming down. She rubbed her hands all over her face and pulled his knees to her chest. Edward watched her ponder their future. He'd known he had hurt her from her confession about her former profession, but he hadn't known exactly how much pain she'd been through.

"When I was training to be an assassin, my trainer told me that it was best for me to not invest much in any relationship, so I didn't. I dated a bit, went out with guys that I worked with sometimes. But neither of us wanted it to last. Dating and relationships distract from the mission and gave your enemies an easy target." She looked up, Edward shuddered at the tears in her eyes. "For almost forty years I kept myself in a forced solitude, in order to protect the people around me. Hannah was first friend in forty years. All those people you meet at Allegra's birthday party were acquaintances at best. Portia, Lucian, they're allies, not friends. Never friends." Bella choked out a sob and Edward pulled her into his arms.

"You never have to be alone again," he whispered. "Just tell me what to do to make this better!"

She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a shaky breath. "Make me feel again."

"How?"

"Make love to me."

Edward blinked. Where did that come from? How would making love fix their relationship? "Don't be ridiculous, Bella," he said.

Edward had been privy to the minds of thousands, if not millions of people throughout his life and he knew for a fact that sex complicates most relationship, especially ones that are unstable already. He didn't like to think that his relationship with Bella was unstable but if he was entirely honest it was. Making love at that moment wouldn't fix anything. Besides he'd waited over a hundred years to have sex, he wasn't having it on a whim.

"Edward," Bella called his attention back to her. He looked up, determined to put this asinine plan out of her head. Making love wouldn't fix anything and they weren't doing it until they were married, end of story.

"I've only had sex twice in my life, with two different men and to be honest with you, I didn't enjoy it much either time… But I've never made love. I'm not asking you for a quick fuck to make me feel better, Edward. That wouldn't work and I'm sure with your special gift that you already know that. I'm asking you to trust me and yourself. I'm asking you to give me something I've never gotten before," Bella whispered.

"Making love won't fix anything, Bella," Edward insisted.

"You're right," she said, much to his surprise. "It won't fix our relationship, that's up to us. But think about what it will do," she urged.

Edward thought for a split second. "It will make our relationship exponentially more complicated. It will make you feel like I'm using you. It will make you think that the only reason I'm with you is for the sex. It will make me feel like I have to stay with you because we had sex. It will-"

Bella's laughter stopped him.

"I don't see what's funny about anything I've just said," Edward snapped.

"You're talking about other people," she said. "You're talking about people who are going to break up and think that having sex will bring them closer together when in fact they aren't supposed to be together at all. You're talking about a couple of idiots who are quite literally fucking around. But that's not us! We aren't going to break up, Edward. We are in love and when a couple is in love, making love, not having sex, making love, can bring that couple closer. And that's what it'd do for us."

Edward wasn't convinced and Bella could tell.

"Think about Rosalie and Emmett's relationship before they first made love," she prompted. So, Edward did.

They would spend hours talking, hours kissing, hours arguing, hours in the garage fixing the cars. They would simply spend hours together. Loving the little intimate moments alone that were afforded to them. It was a simple love, it always had been and always would be. They loved and needed each other and neither of them knew entirely why.

Being privy to their most personal thoughts, Edward knew a few months into their relationship that they both felt something was missing. He'd recognized this feeling immediately having witnessed it with Carlisle and Esme. Both Rosalie and Emmett felt like something vital to their relationship was missing. Something was keeping them apart and neither of them liked it.

So, they got married. And went on their honeymoon. And when they got back that feeling was gone.

Edward was flabbergasted. Bella was right. If they did something as simple as make love, they would feel closer to each other because they were meant to be together.

This principle didn't work with most couples because most couples weren't meant to be together. But since Bella would be with him for the rest of his unimaginably long life, making love could only help strengthen their relationship as it had done for Rosalie and Emmett. And once they felt closer, once Bella felt closer to him, she would open up and they would be something like the couple they once were. It wouldn't be the same, because they weren't the same, but Edward was okay with that.

Edward reached out suddenly, clasped Bella's cheek in his hand and kissed her with all his might, no longer afraid that he would hurt her. No longer afraid that he would never be close to her again.

---

Allegra popped her head up and looked over the rungs of her crib. She'd just heard the door close on Daddy's bedroom and knew that if she wanted to make a run for it now was the time to do it. Mommy and Daddy would be too busy playing, or whatever it was that they did when they were alone to notice her expertly planned escape from nap time.

She called it her EFNT plan for short.

Allegra had been working on this plan all week, ever since Mommy came back. Sure she was happy that Mommy had returned, but she couldn't help being slightly disappointed as well. Mommy was a lot stricter then Daddy and always enforced nap time. With Mommy back, she'd spent as much time as she could with Uncle Emem and Jacob. They let her climb on them. She was sure they just thought she was being cute or something, when in fact she was being diabolical.

'Diabolical' was a word Uncle Jazz-per taught her a few days ago and it was quickly becoming her new favorite word. It meant being smart while being naughty.

Allegra clasped her hands on the top rung of the crib and jumped. This helped her get her right leg up high enough to swing it over the top. Once situated with on the edge of the crib, Allegra wiggled her way over to the chest of drawers next to her bed. From there she opened the top drawer and stepped in. She opened the second drawer, climbed in and closed the top drawer. She repeated the process until she was on the ground.

Allegra closed the bottom drawer and crawled as stealthily as she could to the door. She was too short to reach the knob on her own, so she climbed onto the luggage and held on as it jumped its way over to the door. Allegra reached up and quietly turned the handle. The luggage jumped back helping her open the door.

Allegra dropped to the floor and made her escape. Out of childhood curiosity she stopped at her Daddy's door to listen in on what was going on inside. She cringed away from her Mommy's yelling. She had only heard her Mommy yell once and it had scared the poo out of her then. Allegra wasn't interested in hearing her Mommy yell at her Daddy, so she made her way over to the stairs.

Daddy usually carried her up and downstairs, so this would be a challenge she had yet to encounter.

Allegra sat on the top step, landed her feet on the second step and brought her bottom down onto it. She repeated this several times until she made it to the second floor. She stopped at Uncle Emem and Aunt Wros-lee's door. She wanted to play and no one was better at play then Uncle Emem. But there was a lot of banging noises and groans coming from that door, so she figured that they must have been yelling too.

Allegra hated it when the growed ups yelled!

She grumbled to herself and moved on to Uncle Jazz-per and Aunt Alice's room. It sounded like they were just talking, so she knocked. Aunt Alice was good at playing too, so she would have to do. The talking stopped and the door opened. Allegra smiled at Uncle Jazz-per's cow boy boots, before looking up.

"Hi, Uncle Jazz-per!" she called. "What are you doing? Do you wanna play?"

Uncle Jazz-per smiled down at her, but he looked a bit stressed, so she reached up. Maybe a hug would make him feel better. Mommy always said that hugs were good, they made people feel better. Uncle Jazz-per picked her up, pulled her into his arms and took her inside. Aunt Alice was zooming around the room, faster then Allegra could see. It looked like Aunt Alice was taking things out from where they belonged and putting them in boxes.

"We have to pack, Allegra," Uncle Jazz-per said, putting her on the gigantic bed in the middle of the room. Allegra giggled and crawled all over the bed, forcing her uncle to follow her.

"What's pack, Uncle Jazz-per?" she asked.

"When we pack, it means that we're going to move."

"I'm movin' right now, Uncle Jazz-per! See!" Allegra got to her feet and jumped up and down on the bed. He caught her mid-hop and settled back on her bottom.

"I don't mean that kind of moving, Allegra. I mean that the whole family-"

"Me too?"

"Yes, you too. The whole family is going to move back to the house you used to live in with your Mommy," Uncle Jazz-per said.

"Really?" He nodded. "Right next door to Oliver! I'm so excited! Does this mean that I have to pack too? I should go start now." Allegra made it to the side of the bed before her uncle stopped her.

"Your Mommy and Daddy will pack for-" he stopped talking suddenly and looked over to where Aunt Alice had frozen, with a dazed look in her eyes. "What is it, Alice?"

She laughed weakly and turned to the two of them. "Edward and Bella have stopped arguing." Uncle Jazz-per tilted his head to the side and snorted.

"Took them long enough," he muttered.

"What are you guys talkin' bout?" Allegra demanded. She really hated not being the center of attention. Uncle Jazz-per was still staring at Aunt Alice, not paying due attention to the adorable baby in his arms. Aunt Alice danced over to her and leaned in close.

"You're going to have a little brother or sister pretty soon," she said. Allegra scrunched up her face in confusion. Mommy had never told her where babies came from, not even when she had asked.

"Aunt Alice, Uncle Jazz-per, where do babies come from?" she asked. Both her aunt and uncle froze. They were silent, obviously thinking. Allegra decided right then and there that she was never taking another nap. Too many interesting things happened during nap time.