Thanks to my awesome beta! I couldn't do it without you... Adrena finds ALL my many mistakes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of the characters. I do however own White Carpet and Wall Sconces.
Edward's Point of View
I felt lighter than I had in years, after I'd made the discovery of my "journey". The next morning when we were getting ready to go back to Seattle, to go home, I'm sure that I was almost irritating in my jubilance. Everyone was giving me strange looks, except for Jasper, who seemed to understand what was going on in my head, but even he, after a while was giving me the typical "Dude, calm the fuck down," Jasper speech. "You're rampin' everybody up man."
"He's like Scrooge on Christmas morning," Rosalie noted as Emmett put the last bag in the mini-van and pulled her into a hug.
"I much prefer that Scrooge to the one skulking around on Christmas Eve," Emmett replied. I flipped him the bird and bounded up the steps to hug my mother and father.
If I was being completely honest with myself, I knew I was coming to terms with my past. I hadmade real progress in the last few days, I still had a long way to go. I needed to learn not to doubt myself, not to blame myself for things out of my control, and to live more everyday than I had been. But I wanted to go home to learn those things, and although Chicago had once been my home, my home was now in Seattle, with my friends, my brother and sister, and with Bella.
"Let's go!" Emmett called from the driver's seat. Rosalie sat primly beside him, both of them already having said their goodbyes. Alice came flying out of the house, scarf flying behind her, coat not quite zipped up, and threw herself at my father, hugging him, kissing his cheek and whispering something in his ear that made him smile. She hugged our mother, zipped up her jacket, and hurried to the car, Jasper in tow. Jasper was attempting to say his thanks while being dragged away by an impatient pixie.
"We understand, Jasper!" Carlisle called after him, as Jasper apologized profusely for Alice's behaviour. That boy was a saint, through and through.
Bella had hugged Esme and then Carlisle and was following Jasper and Alice to the car when I got to the top of the stairs. Esme pulled me to her chest and I inhaled her comforting "mom" smell while I hugged her back. "I'm so sorry, honey," she whispered. "If you need anything, you know where we are."
I nodded and hugged her tightly once more before backing away and smiling. "Thank you," I told her quietly and she smiled her sad Esme smile. I moved over to my father and hugged him briefly.
"I'm proud of you, Edward," he told me in his steady, Carlisle voice. "You've been through a lot but you've survived. You're tough. Take care of yourself, and be good to Bella."
I nodded in agreement. "I will. I promise." And with that, I turned my back and strode toward the car.
As much as it pained me to say it, my parents, the people who raised me and loved me unconditionally were no longer my present. They were my past. They would become part of my present but would represent another role. They had loved me and nurtured me into the man I had become. They would always be important to me and I would always love them, but it was finally time to cut those apron strings and step into the world alone.
I climbed into the backseat beside Bella and Jasper slid the door shut. Alice waved like a lunatic at our parents watching from the front step of our family's home. We all laughed at her enthusiasm. How could we not? And then we were cruising down the street and around the corner, back into the city and towards the airport.
Emmett had found some god awful hip-hop station and Alice was bopping along to the beat of something I'd never heard of before, and something I never wanted to hear again. Rose was sitting in the passenger's seat, holding Emmett's free hand, head leaned back against the seat with a small smile playing on her lips. I hoped she was figuring things out. Jasper sat in front of me, watching Alice, every so often chuckling to himself at her antics and looking very much in love. I thought back over the past few months that Jasper had been in our lives, and how my opinion of him had done a complete one-eighty. He'd gone from the irritating, stupid frat boy who was trying to corrupt my little sister, to an important part of the intricate web that was my family. Emmett looked comfortable, driving the mini-van and holding Rosalie's hand, his face not quite as pinched looking as it had been over the weekend, his booming laugh making a comeback.
And then I looked to my right. And really looked. Bella was leaning forward, whispering something in Alice's ear as Alice bopped along. The mischievous glint in her eyes told me something was up and I wondered what it was. Alice laughed at whatever it was Bella was saying, and Bella giggled right along with her. There were moments when I desperately wished I could read Bella's mind. I was aware that there was still so much she wasn't telling me, that there was so much more to learn about her, and I looked forward to nothing more than gaining that knowledge.
I hadn't told anyone about my conversation with Charlotte's parents. I wasn't sure I wanted to. It was my epiphany, and it shouldn't really matter to anyone else. The fact was that I was ready to move on, one hundred percent, and that I would move on with Bella at my side.
Emmett pulled into the car rental drop-off and cut the engine. Alice's bopping stopped and everyone clambered out.
Bella's Point of View
We'd pulled up to car rental place and we all piled out of the mini-van, Alice still giggling to herself about God only knows what. She lost me after the first sentence. I was sure it had something to do with Jasper in a toga but I could have been pretty mistaken.
Rosalie seemed to be in a much better mood, and Emmett seemed much more relaxed than he had in a while. Hopefully Rose was figuring things out. No one but Rose could honestly make the decisions, and they were tough decisions to be making at twenty-three. She wasn't talking much about it, but judging by the knowing looks she and Emmett were sharing, I was sure she had at least discussed it with him.
The Edward I woke up next to this morning seemed like a totally different person compared to the guy I'd woke up next to the morning before and I was a little bit on edge about how long that would last. How he could truly believe he'd aired all of his dirty laundry and dealt with it all was beyond me. It wasn't possible to do a complete one-eighty over night. I feared that this was the calm before the storm, but didn't want to mention it for fear of being deemed unsupportive. I loved him regardless; of this I was completely sure.
Alice yanked me out of my thoughts with a very violent tug on my arm. "Bella! Come on, we have to go. Apparently I made us late and we might miss our plane? I think Edward is being mellow dramatic, but since when is that new?" Her babble continued as she dragged me towards the shuttle that was taking us to the airport and shoved me in. "I don't know what she was doing," Alice said, as though I wasn't there. "Found her day dreaming about God knows what. I had to call her name three times!"
"I'm right here, Alice," I reminded her, settling in beside her and buckling my seatbelt.
"It's twenty feet, Bella. I don't think the seatbelt is necessary," Alice said, turning to look at Jasper and tell him something.
"It's much further than twenty feet. If it were twenty feet we'd be walking."
"Probably not," Edward interjected. "Alice made us really late."
Alice turned to stick her tongue out childishly at him and the van lurched forward. Rosalie cursed under her breath and Alice shrieked.
"Should have worn your seatbelt," I muttered under my breath.
Emmett was jumping out before the van stopped moving, grabbing bags from the back while we all hurried out behind him. Alice ran ahead, her carry-on bumping against her side as she ran, looking as harried as she had when she first left the house. Edward laughed outwardly at her antics. Rosalie dug out both hers and Emmett's tickets and handed him his with a stern look. I shook my head at them. Jasper seemed to be keeping a pretty low profile but stayed with the group, away from his crazy girlfriend.
"Is it too early to ask her to marry me?" I heard him ask Edward as we all hurried along. Edward's steps stopped abruptly and he turned to look at Jasper, looking nervous and a little bit excited. Edward's face twisted into a look I didn't recognize and then his features smoothed.
"No way, man. I think it's perfect timing. No one else will put up with her."
Jasper exhaled loudly and nodded.
Edward slipped his hand into mine and kissed my temple. I thought back on how far we had all come in the last couple of months. Jasper was willing to ask Alice to be his wife, to spend the rest of her life with him. Edward was willing to accept Jasper into the family easily, a far cry from when he thought he was a toga wearing, beer drinking frat boy idiot. Rosalie was hopefully coming to terms with everything, and she had Emmett to help her along the way.
And Edward and I were good. Maybe we weren't ready for marriage like Jasper and Alice, or ready to have the kids talk like Emmett and Rosalie, but we were good. We were whole, and we were on our way to settling into something real. We were ready to face everything head on. The good and the bad.
We handed over our tickets, went through the gates and everyone was in a very different place than when we'd crossed a similar threshold just days before. We were better, we were bigger, and we were stronger for it. Chicago had taught us all a whole lot.
Edward's point of view.
I had Bella's hand in mine, my family surrounding me, and a plane to board.
I was walking away from my past, and toward my future. The plane would land in Seattle and I would be home. Chicago, the place of my parents, my childhood, my roots, would be a place only to visit from that moment forward. The centre of the circle was reserved for the tiny brown eyed girl who never really left my side. It was for her that I would live, and would be a better person. I would live for her smiles, rejoice her successes, and cry when she cried. She was the reason I would wake up in the morning. Her very existence breathed life into me. I needed her like the world needed sun and rain and day and night.
I loved her flaws, the parts that made her real. Her dramatic outbursts, how she always squeezed the toothpaste from the middle (and never put the cap back on), and the way she left her shoes strewn in the doorway. These were all little Bella quirks, and even if they irritated me, they were her and I loved her for them. I loved how she always meant well, how she gave me, and my family second chances, the way her body curved into mine when we slept, and the way she constantly pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. I loved Bella. Through and through. Because maybe Bella wasn't perfect, but who gets to say what perfection really is? Maybe there is no such thing as perfect. Some people say fighting isn't perfect, but if you didn't fight, you couldn't make up. Some people would say that the way her hair fell in messy tendrils over her face first thing in the morning wasn't perfect, but I thought it was downright adorable. So maybe there was no such thing as perfect, or maybe there was. Maybe Bella didn't fit the mold for perfect. But that wasn't my concern. Because Bella Swan, was perfect for me.
