Disclaimer: Thank you Stephenie Meyer for your world and to Guy Andrews for giving me the concept. It seems so long ago that this idea came into creation. Everything here stems from your creative genius's mingled with my amateur ideas. I can never thank you enough.

A/N: Here we are at the end of the road, the final chapter of Return to Meyer and the end of Ashley's rather long and stressful story. It's time she got her happy ending don't you think? I've spent a great deal of time writing about these characters and in a way I'm sad to say that the story ends here but it must. It's had its run and I am so very happy to see that so many people had read and enjoyed it. So, for one final time, sit back and enjoy Return to Meyer.

Return to Meyer

Epilogue: Healing

6 months later

"Ashley, tell me, why do you think you're here?"

I leant backwards, crossing one leg over the other as I thought through my answer to the posed question. After having been through four sessions before with other psychologists previously over the last six months, I was slowly becoming accustomed to the direct yet indirect lines of questioning and accepting expressing my emotions to complete strangers.

"Because I need to be,"

Dr. Wong casually tapped the end of his pen against the file open on the coffee table in front of him as he eyed me through a heavy set of green framed glasses that made his eyes appear bigger than they actually were. From what I could tell, he seemed like a nice man but then again, this was the first time I'd met him and appearances could always be deceiving.

His expression suggested that he wanted better clarification. "I had a few serious things happen to me a couple of months back, which I'm sure you already know about," I looked down at the open folder, "and I need to move past them."

Dr. Wong smiled, nodding his head in agreement. "One of the issues you're referring to is the physical assault you experienced from an intruder who broke into your house?" He pressed, his tone kind. It was enough to get me to discuss the event but not so much that it upset me. Still, I had learned not to let mentioning of these experiences bother me anymore. They were in past.

"Yes." I answered bluntly.

"That must have been very frightening for you,"

I shrugged lightly. "Sure, it wasn't a pleasant moment in my life but I'm moving past it," It was the truth. A few months ago, the attack by James, that the police knew to be that of a random burglary gone wrong, was slowly becoming just a dim memory. Apparently the "offender" had simply disappeared never to be heard from again.

"You fought back?" He already knew this but the question enabled him to fish around for my response.

"Yeah, I do tae-kwon-do so I got in a few kicks. He was just stronger than I was." Seeing me noticeably begin to shut down in this line of query, he decided to close it for now.

He pulled off his glasses and began twirling them between his fingers. "You seem to be a lot more comfortable discussing what happened since your first session with Dr. Richards." I didn't respond to this. Wong smiled kindly. "It's a very good thing, Ashley."

Another shrug, "I guess so. I've been talking about it more now." At this Wong flipped over a page in his notes and briefly scanned a line.

"With your parents? Your boyfriend?"

"Occasionally with my parents, more with Edward," I admitted. I hadn't originally wanted to talk much about Edward with the first doctor I'd seen, having been unsure what to say that would avoid drawing attention to anything odd about Edward and his family's sudden appearance in Sydney. Carlisle had reassured me that as long as the words 'Vampire' or 'Fictional world' didn't enter the conversation, and I refrained from slipping into old habits such as calling them by their fictional last name, Cullen rather than the newly adopted one, Curington, everything would be perfectly fine. The name change had been necessary to draw even just a little unwanted attention from the family's similarities with the characters so very popular in film and novels at the present time. Even so, I'd lost track of the number of people who'd done a double take after being introduced to Edward. He was use to it by now.

"How is your relationship with Edward?"

I smiled instinctively at the sound of his name. "Good. We're living in an on campus apartment together." At first I'd been intending to simply board in college housing while studying in Canberra but Edward had suggested that since we were both going to be there and had little to hide after everything that happened previously, why not find somewhere together. Living with Edward was amusing and always changing. Every day he discovers something new he'd forgotten about being human whether it was the big things, differences in vision and smell, and the sound of a permanent heartbeat or the little things like the taste of chocolate.

"You're both studying at ANU?" Wong asked, halting my reminiscing.

"I'm doing a Bachelor of Arts. Edward's doing a…medical degree." I paused. I'd almost slipped up and said another. Despite the fact that he'd done several others previously, Edward had said that he was enjoying this one so much more. It all stemmed from the idea that once he had it, he would actually be able to progress to putting the skills into action. I had faith that he would be wonderful doctor when the time came, knowing so much theory from his past studies. Now that the whole blood resistance thing was no longer an issue, there was nothing stopping him from doing whatever he wanted to do.

"I believe that Edward suffered some bad burns a few months ago as a result of the woman that was stalking you, is that right?" Ah yes, the stalker story. Unable to use the actual excuse as to why I'd been followed by a red haired woman at school and Edward had ended up in hospital with we'd created the story of a stalker. This way, the police, hospital staff and my psychologists were satisfied. In the minds of everyone apart from the Cullens, myself and my parents, I'd been stalked by a crazed woman. I'd skipped school for the day and gone to the park with Edward where we'd decided to build a little bonfire for fun. My stalker had decided to show and ended up pushing Edward into the fire where he and his clothes had caught on fire. Like my supposed house intruder, the woman had disappeared and not been seen since. Let's just say that the police were more than a little bewildered. They probably thought I was some sort of crazy person magnet. Maybe I am.

Unconsciously, my fingers reached up and between fiddling with the heart crystal at my throat before slowly resting on the scars on my neck from Victoria's nails. "That's right." Before he could ask for more details, I cut him off. "He's perfectly fine now. It took him quite a few weeks to heal but unless you directly asked him to take off his shirt and show you the burn scars, you probably wouldn't even know the difference." It had been hard to take at first, the image of Edward bandaged and in pain. He'd had to visit doctors regularly for about two months after the "accident" but he'd long since healed, and I was glad for it. In the following months after his recovery, he'd been self conscious about showing me the third degree burn scars on his chest and stomach, knowing that they would probably give me feelings of guilt. Finally, I'd convinced him to show me. The skin that had once been white was now permanently red. The small section on his chest slightly resembled a crescent moon while that of his lower stomach an odd squiggle. He could no longer feel the skin there, the nerves damaged by the fire but he claimed that they didn't bother him very much anymore. To sum up his opinion, perfection is overrated. Not that he'd used those exact words.

"I'm glad," Dr. Wong commented. "What about Edward's family? How are you getting along with them after everything that's happened?"

Ah, this was a topic I could spend forever gushing about. "Great. I love them a lot. Emmett, Edward's brother, and his wife Rose are having a baby. It's due in just over three months. They're really excited because they've wanted a baby for a while now." Sure, there was the mood swings and morning sickness but even still, Rosalie was taking every moment of her pregnancy as a blessing. Alice had been aware it would be a girl for months – she still retained her psychic gifts, having had them before her vampirism – and has already bought about two wardrobes worth of clothes and stuffed animals.

"Alice and Jasper are living in Sydney and Alice is doing some course in business and design. She's hoping to start up her own event planning place." I was sure she'd do extremely well. With her tendency towards the detailed and over the top, how could she not? She'd thrown Edward a massive eighteenth birthday party a little while back, a day none of them had ever expected to come. Still, Alice's constant wedding hits were getting on my nerves. Edward and I are still young. We have a whole future ahead of us and plenty of time for that.

"His dad, Carlisle, is back to work as a doctor," Carlisle had taken up a position at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. They were lucky to have him. Only problem was, the concept of requiring breaks between shifts for food and sleep was something that required getting use to. Still, he appeared relieved that he would no longer have to worry about moving unless it was what he wanted or being stuck at a specific age – something people would notice over time. He still stopped a couple of the nurses' hearts every time he went by, a credit to his natural good looks even without the vampiric influence. "And Esme is running her own antique place."

"You speak very warmly of the Curington family. Edward must be glad that you feel that way," Wong surmised. "Now how about your family, your parents and sister, how are things with them?"

"Going well actually, back to the way they use to be. Before…everything. I'm going home to see them next weekend." I explained, happily.

He nodded, pleased. We watched each other in silence for a few moments, his eyes carefully evaluating my emotional state. For a moment I thought that perhaps he'd used up all his major questions but then again, we'd barely scraped the surface of all the major issues in my life. Not that I was that eager to start lying about events again.

As much as I'd protested when the idea of therapy had been suggested to me back in hospital or even before returning to Forks, when I'd attempted going to see the school councillor, it hadn't turned out as bad as I'd thought. In some ways, it was what I'd needed. Someone objective and willing to listen to what I had to say. And it was working.

Dr. Wong leant forward, laying his elbow on his knee as he placed his chin in his hand. "Ashley," My eyes widened. "If I was to ask you, right here and now, how you're feeling about your life in general, what would you say?"

It was the ultimate question in the 'are you depressed or anxious?' questionnaire. I leant forward, mimicking his body position with a genuine smile. "I'd say that I'm happy. Things are back to normal. And I'm really…happy."

He took this answer at face value and with a fatherly look of pride, he sat back again. ""That's good to hear." He placed his glasses back on his nose before flipping the folder in front of him closed with a rustle of papers.

"It's a good start Ashley." He told me. "We'll go into a lot more depth next week,"

At this I uncrossed my legs and slid out of the chair, sliding my handbag onto my shoulder as I went. I walked around the table about to head for the door when he called out to me. "Oh, Ashley, one of the daughters of a patient of mine left this in here earlier. Would you mind taking it out to the reception desk in case they come to retrieve it?" I spun around and reached out to take the reasonably sized novel from him.

Without a second thought I opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, walking towards the desk. Edward sat in the waiting area, skimming through a medical journal. He looked up as he saw me come out. His bronze hair shone in the sunshine from the open window, his skin no longer deathly pale. He was still better looking than most of the guys around but unlike before, he looked alive.

The lady behind the counter, her name tag identifying her as Sally, glanced up from her paperwork. "All finished?" She asked politely.

"Dr. Wong wanted me to leave this with you," I held up the novel and placed in on the counter. The black cover with its silver writing and image depicting a pair of hands holding an apple, blazed into my mind. It had been so long since I'd last seen the Twilight Cover or even bothered to take a good look at it. So much had changed about me since the day I'd found myself questioning my sanity as a seventeen year old Bella Swan entered my bedroom. I still remembered the fact she'd told me to prove she wasn't a figment of my imagination: Odontophobia is the fear of teeth.

Now, here I was. Older and a lot wiser.

"Are you ready to leave?" Edward asked, placing a hand on the small of my back reassuringly. I took a deep breath before putting on a bright smile. "Yes, yes I am." Quickly, I removed my fingers, letting them fall back to my side. At one point, I remember not even being able to think about my once favourite novel. Having it right here in front of me again, I realised I had moved on. I'd let go. Finally.

Here and now, this would be the last time I thought about Twilight.

Sally smiled at me as she took the book and placed in behind the counter. "Let's go," I said to Edward, looking up into his gorgeous eyes. As though understanding my train of thought, he kissed me softly as he laced our fingers together.

With this, I placed the world of fictional forks behind me, eager to focus on enjoying and progressing towards my future. One in which there were so many possibilities, their outcome determined by only one author.

Me.

A/N: Once again, I thank you for reading my at times extremely frustrating, badly written and delayed writing, hoping that you enjoyed it. I am somewhat saddened to be saying goodbye to Ashley and her adventures but am reassured in knowing that she has finally gotten her happily ever after. I hope you are too.

As a final favour to me, just as I asked with Living in Meyer, I ask you to leave me a review. Even if you've never reviewed the story before or you've reviewed every chapter, it doesn't matter. Let me know what you thought of the fic as a whole and your opinion on the end to Ashley and Edward's story.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

-Bookworm