I'm serious I'm about to start crying, I can't believe I'm writing the epilogue! I'm going to miss this story so much!
L POV -4 months later-
[Lizzy- 14 yrs. Old: Dean 15 years old]
"Dean could you take those boxes?" I pointed towards the pile of boxes in the corner of the small room.
"Sure Liz." He said as he lifted three of them and carried them out the door; I sighed and looked around the room.
It would be a lie to say I would miss this bedroom… it had too many bad memories of the countless nights of pain. I was shocked when Mom had told me someone wanted to buy the house-they said they wanted to move away from the big city or something. So Mom, Dean, Edward and I were moving all of our stuff out.
I slowly made my way over to a dent that mocked me on the south wall; Jacob had been proud of that dent. It was the time he slammed my head into it and it made a loud crack, causing the crater to appear. I stroke it gingerly; there was a dried blood stain on it. My fingers ran over it, feeling the little dips.
I walked towards the mirror I had in the corner; I hated that mirror. Jacob would make me look in it after beating me and see how pathetic I was 'stop squirming Lizzy, you have a mirror for a reason-look at yourself. That is who you are and that will never change'. I would have gashes and bruises sprinkled around my arms and face.
I took off the cloth that covered it and glared at it; the dozens of images of me replayed in my mind-each different with injuries in different places, yet they were each the same. I gazed at myself now and saw someone else. I was my own person now, I have something to live for, I'm not the same scared little kid I was not too long ago. The mirror showed me the changes I had been through-and I liked what it showed me.
I sat down on the bed and felt the mattress, feeling the lumps it had and the too thin sheets. This was my sanctuary, the place where I had the best dreams-and also the worst nightmares. This was the place that gave me my strength; the place I would go back to after Jacob was finished. It was small, but I couldn't bring myself to hate it. I didn't have a favorite stuffed animal, I had this place.
I sighed and walked into the middle of the room; I gazed around the entire room. This room felt claustrophobic now. I was a different person; Jacob no longer held me. His arms no longer acted like cuffs. His face no longer was the one of a punisher. Jacob no longer scared me.
Jacob no longer had power over me.
"Liz." Edward called from the doorway. I spun around and faced him, his eyebrows knit together and he came over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders. "Lizzy… are you crying?" He asked.
I reached up and felt wetness on my cheek-I had been crying?
"Yeah… I just thought a little…" I replied.
He didn't seem satisfied. "Alright, we're pretty much done, so you're Mom and I are going to bring the car around." I nodded; he then bent down and kissed my forehead, and then left the room. I wiped the remaining tears from my face and walked to the doorway.
I stole on last glance at the room. It looked different than it used to. Meant something different than it used to.
Goodbye Jacob. I thought to the room. I then clicked the light off and shut the door.
"Dean?" I called down the hallway. He came jogging up to me.
"Something wrong?" He asked me, concerned.
"No, Mom and Edward are going to bring the car around so we gotta wrap it up here." I told him.
"Ok, well I still have to get a few boxes from your Mom's room." He answered. I nodded and we walked toward the Master bedroom.
Dean opened the door and I walked inside and grabbed a box-only to have Dean yank it from me.
"You think I'd make you carry something?" He said with a smug grin, I just stuck my tongue out at him as he carried them out to the car.
I sighed and walked over to where their bed used to be, I stood stagnant in the empty space, digesting it. This room held no meaning to me, so it was nice to think of nothing for once. I stepped over to their walk in closet and opened the door. I waltz inside. I used to think this closet was huge; now it felt so much smaller. Like it wasn't as big and scary as I used to think it.
I looked at the shelves near the ceiling and saw the corner of a box. I thought we'd already gotten them all…
I stood on my tip-toes and reached for it; I pushed the corner and it came tumbling down on my head. I fell to the floor with the contents of the box all around me. Crap… I was going to have to repack it.
I started absently grabbing the things and placing them back in the tiny box. When I looked down at what I was holding, I was surprised. I'd never seen these things.
There was a picture of Mom and Jacob's wedding, they looked so happy together.
There was a tiny, plastic little bracelet, it had numbers on it, and it was so tiny it couldn't fit on any of our wrists. That's when I realized it was the bracelet the hospital had put on my wrist when I was born.
I rifled through the box some more and found, a scribbled picture, it looked like a little kid had drawn this, it was of three people. A little kid, a Mother, and a Father. The father looked kind with his eyes colored blue and his smile colored in red, and the mother looked loving with her eyes colored brown and her mouth colored red as well. The child was smiling a green smile… she looked happy in between her parents. At the bottom right of the paper it read 'Lizzy: 4 years old'. I had drawn this? But that wasn't Mom's handwriting…
"Dean?" I called softly, he came into the room with a worried expression, I smiled up at him. "Could you go get my Mom please?" I asked, he nodded and ran from the room. I sighed and looked back at the box.
Suddenly Mom was right next to me. "What's that honey?" She asked as she down at the box curiously.
"Wait, isn't this your box?" I asked.
"No… I've never seen that before." She said while sitting down next to me, she took out its' contents. "Lizzy, where did you find this?" She asked.
"Up there." I pointed to the shelf.
"Well this wasn't my box; it must have been Jacob's…" She concluded.
"But why would he keep this stuff?" I was so confused.
"What's that?" She pointed to a clump of tissue all lumped together and taped together.
"I don't know." I said picking it up and unraveling it. There was a small carved wolf figurine in the middle of it along with a small piece of folded paper. It had my name on the front.
"I'll let you read this alone…" Mom muttered while leaving the room.
I opened it anxiously.
12/31/98
Lizzy,
I made this wolf a long time ago, I made it the minute I found your mother was pregnant. I knew I couldn't afford anything expensive for you when you came into the world, so I wanted to make something for you. I hope you like it. I am giving this to you on your sixteenth birthday so you can learn to appreciate it, and what it means to your Quileute heritage. Look lately, things have been tough at work and I can tell I haven't been the best father for the first few years of your life… and I don't think things will change, there is a lot of things I will never tell you. You deserve to spared that much. Even if I don't show it sometimes-I love you. You coming into the world was the best day of my life, but I feel something changing within me. I'm not sure if it's a mental thing or not-it very well may be, so I'm writing this now while I still have most of my sense. I don't ever want you to think that I don't love you… but I'm not sure what's happening. I feel my control slipping a lot more lately, and I don't like it Lizzy-I really don't. But I can't control it. You and your Mom are the best things that ever happened to me, but I keep finding it harder to believe. I know you are but it keeps crossing my mind less and less often. I think it is a mental thing. But I need you to know Lizzy, this is not me. You deserve the real me, I love being a father I really do, but you need the part of me that likes it to be a father for you.
Even if I don't show it-
I love you,
Jacob Black
I let my tears make stains on the old piece of paper.
Jacob loved me. 'Even if he didn't show it'. He loved me.
I felt as if my soul was soaring at that point-that's all I've ever wanted.
____________________________________________________________________
First Date –one month after the people moved into the house-
"Why do we have to do this?" I asked Dean as he dragged me into the restaurant, he kept his arm around my waist. But not because he just wanted to-it was because I tripped every five seconds in these high heels Aunt Alice gave me.
"Because I want to." He smiled at me. I sighed.
I couldn't believe he was making me do this. We already love each other-isn't that enough? Why do we have to subject ourselves to the awkwardness of a first date?
"Come on Lizzy, smile." He pushed as we walked under the dim light of the restaurant.
It wasn't too fancy, but it wasn't like a McDonalds or anything; it was nice.
He led me to a table-I was thankful there wasn't a hostess or anything, the people here just sat themselves.
I was about to sit down in the chair-when Dean pulled it out for me. I stared at it dumbly almost not sure if I should sit in it or not. I looked up and Dean had his eyebrow cocked, almost daring me to refuse it. I sighed and sat down, and then he pushed it closer to the table before walking to his side and sitting down.
A waiter came up holding a notepad and a pen, his hair was blonde and gelled. I looked at his outfit under the apron. Hm… he had good taste.
"Hi," he said to Dean then me, I was thankful he wasn't trying to flirt with me or anything. That happened once. Let's just say I dragged Dean out of there fast. "I'm Stephone, your waiter. What can I get you?" He asked us.
I was about to answer when Dean spoke first. "I'll have the steak- Medium rare, with a Diet Coke. And the lady will have fried chicken, with an iced tea." He finished with a smug grin.
"Oh I will?" I asked 'defying' him.
"Well of course I was only trying to be polite-you are a woman and you have every right to tell this nice man what you want to have. So you can go ahead and tell him exactly what you want." Smart ass.
"No, what you said is good…." I admitted.
"Oh alright sweetie I love you." He leaned over and kissed my cheek.
"And I love you too." I said while shaking my head 'no'.
"Aw, that's just so cute!" Stephone exclaimed. "I'll be right back with your drinks." He said before walking away.
"Dean-what the hell was that?!"
"He's gay." He said simply.
"…what?..."
"Stephone is gay." He explained slowly.
"You can't know that." I replied.
"Oh I can and I do."
"Even if so-what does that have to do with your smart-ass attitude?"
"Did you see the way he looks at me?" It clicked in my head…
"That little…" I sneered in the direction where he had walked away.
"And I was doing that so he knows I'm straight." He finished.
"You suck." Was the brilliant come back I had.
"I love you too babe."He leaned across the table to plant a sweet kiss on my lips
____________________________________________________________________________
B POV
"Oh Edward do you think she'll be alright?" I asked biting my lip and staring out the window, I couldn't believe my little girl was going out on a date.
Edward patted my shoulder lovingly. "It's ok love, Dean loves her, she'll be fine."
"Why do you seem so at ease? I thought you were just as over-protective as I was."
"I've just had time to grow accustomed to it."
"But I've have 14 years and I'm still not over the worry it causes me when she's out."
"It's alright Bella." He kissed my forehead lovingly. I fumed silently, I felt so alone.
Rosalie then came down the stairs and sat next to us. "Do you think she'll be alright?" She asked, staring out the same window I was.
"Gee Rose; you've really taken to the whole 'overprotective family member thing'." Edward joked, I giggled.
"Well maybe she made me see some things I needed to see…." She said absently.
I smiled and placed my hand atop of hers; she turned to me and smiled warmly. At once I felt whole with Rose, I felt as if we were finally at the point where we needed to be.
"So…" Edward started. "I guess we're going to the dealership tomorrow."
"Why?" I asked.
He faked confusion. "Aren't we taking the car back?"
"Why?" I asked again.
"So you're saying you want to keep it?" He asked, elated… huh?
"But I don't-"
"Nope you already said it. We get to keep the Ferrari." He said with finality.
I sighed. It didn't matter anymore. I didn't even care.
"Bella?" He asked softly. "Did I upset you?"
"No… It just doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore…"
He chuckled and kissed my forehead. "I love you."
______________________________________________________________________________
3 months later.
L POV
Ok you can do this… just one foot in front of the other…
I linked my arm in Dean's and leaned there, I couldn't find my stability in these shoes, and this puffy dress didn't help any. (AN- picture on profile)
"Dean hold still for a second." I steadied myself on his arm as I best down and fixed my shoe. I got back up and played with my hair, the bun was coming out.
"Liz relax, you look perfect."
"Thanks, but you're a little biased don't you think?" I said sarcastically.
"Ok, do you want me to get someone whom you don't know to tell you?"
"No thanks sweetie, I'm good." I joked.
"Come be happy, as long as you're happy, your Mom will be happy and if your Mom is happy Edward will be happy, and if Edward is happy, I'm happy because them he won't kill me for doing this." He grabbed me by the waist and crashed my lips to his.
"Edward says at least half a foot space between your faces." Aunt Alice called to us. She and Uncle Jasper were right in front us getting ready to walk doing the aisle. Dang…. How did Edward do that?
Edward had purposed to Mom a few months ago-I would be lying if I say that I didn't expect it. But Mom was excited and couldn't bottle up her emotions, so it made me feel that way too. I was one of the bridesmaids and… well I wasn't entirely sure on what Dean 'was', this whole wedding thing confused to me to no end.
The music started playing and the two white heavy doors opened up to the church; it was beautiful- white flowers, white fabric, and white everything littered flawlessly in the chapel.
My breathing got harder and more labored as Dean and I started walking in a robotic like rhythm ; I had no reason to feel this way though, it was Mom and Edward's wedding, if anyone should be freaking out it's Mom. Oh boy please don't let that jinx anything!
When we finally reached the end of the long walkway, Dean and I separated and took our places facing the door. The doors reopened and Mom came out looking stunning in her big poofy white number. Her expression was one of elation and it looked like-if she could- she'd be crying right now.
I was suddenly filed with the feeling of extreme happiness. Mom was getting married, after all we've been through, on this day, she gets her happiness. She gets to have Edward, Edward gets to be the husband she never had to Mom. I get to be the daughter to the two most wonderful people in the world.
I no longer feel hate towards Jacob-it feels as if I have some sort of closure now. I feel better than I did while hating him. I feel as if I finally have to answer to the million dollar question.
Now Mom gets the life she always wanted, and I get the family I've always wanted.
I felt a tear escape my eyes as Mom made it up to Edward, and he took her hand in his.
When the priest spoke, I saw them place the rings on each others' hands, sealing their love. Then when the priest finished, Edward kissed the bride-bonding them for eternity. I let out a shaky breath, this moment was more beautiful than I ever imagined even in my wildest dreams.
Edward was no longer just Edward-he was Dad. My father.
The crowd clapped-it didn't seem fit. They should have cheered joyously. Well, I guess none of them are as lucky as I was.
For once in my life, I felt lucky, I felt loved.
_____________________________________________________________________________
5 years later
L POV
"Mom, Dad," I said looking at them. "Dean got a big inheritance from his Aunt and his parents so… we're going to the college we've looking at for a couple of months…" I didn't know how to say this; it was going to be so hard to leave.
"Dean and I are going to aTm University in Texas." I breathed [Sorry, that's the only college I know of that teaches both what Dean and Lizzy want to be] as you know Dean wants to be a mechanical engineer and I want to be a teacher, and since we have the money, we're going to the best college we can afford. Plus Hannah is going there too…" They sat emotionless.
"Lizzy… you're sure you want to go to school so far away?" Mom asked slowly.
I breathed again. "Yes. I know it will be hard but…" It would be rude to say what I thought right now.
"Oh…" Dad said. "Lizzy we know you have your own life, and we don't want to hold you back by any means. You could have just come out and said it, it wouldn't have offended us." He said softly, I felt the tears well up in my eyes.
"You're sure?..."
"Yes, of course Lizzy. We love you." Dad said. He got up and brought me into his arms, I sobbed into his sleeve. "I love you too."
__________________________________________________________________________
One month later
L POV
"Are you ready?" Dean asked, taking my hands in his own. I looked up into his big kind and caring eyes.
"Yes… " I said unsurely. He pulled up my chin by his finger.
We were standing inside the Cullen's living room with all of our bags ready to go. We were alone.
"Liz… can I ask you something?" He said shakily.
"Sure…." He looked into my eyes with deep emotion.
He got down on one knee and my breathing picked up…oh my god…
"Elizabeth, I love you and when we're done with college… would you marry me?" He choked out, looking straight into my eyes.
I brought my hand up to my moths and squealed like a little pre-teen. "Yes!" I blurted out.
"Yes!" He exclaimed and picked me up and spun me around in the air. I squealed openly now. "I love you Dean!" I told him.
"I love you too! So much!"He exclaimed.
I suddenly felt cold arms wrap around my waist and yank me out of Dean's embrace.
"Oh I'm so happy for you too!" Aunt Alice squealed, still hugging me.
"Thanks Aunt Alice!" I said politely, but I really wanted to hug Dean again.
"Alice put the girl down." Dad said from behind her. I felt her arms being replaced with Mom and Dad's.
"Congratulations honey…" Mom repeated while hugging me tightly. Dad did let go before Mom did.
"Dean you and I are going to have a talk…" He said to Dean, I turned and saw Dean smiling brightly.
"Looking forward to it sir." Whoa… Dean is good.
"Oh Dad leave him alone." I laughed, falling back into Dean's arms. I laughed and looked down at my watch.
"Oh no, we gotta get going!" I said to Dean.
"Lizzy you have time…" Dad said sadly. "Would you come with me for a minute?"
"Sure…" I said, Mom followed after Dad and I out the door; I was suddenly picked up and the three of us were flying through the forest. I smiled and held out my arms-I loved it when they ran with me, I always felt so free.
I laughed when they set me down, but when I saw where we were. I got quiet.
Mom, Dad and I stood in the middle of the very meadow I'd met Dad in all those years ago. I looked around in awe. It hadn't changed a bit.
"Oh my god…" I whispered.
I turned to Dad; he had a very somber expression on.
"I couldn't let my little girl get away without coming here one last time…" He muttered.
"Oh Dad…" I wrapped my arms around him. Damn, I was crying a lot today. "Thank you…" I whispered before turning to hug Mom.
"Mommy, I love you so much, I love you." I whispered.
"I love you too baby…" She replied in a shaky voice.
"I love you both." I said hugging them both.
"And we love you…"
Suddenly the wooden wolf in my pocket felt as if it were sending electric shock waves through my body, and I knew it was Jacob's way of saying he loved me too.
I love you too….and I forgive you…
THE END!
Ok I'm seriously crying right now! It's the end! Oh my god…
I love Lizzy and Dean so much… I guess I'll just go to updating my other stories… This is the longest chapter I've ever written for anything! [I think] I'm so… I'm so sad!
I love you all.
And for the very last time… Review.