Chapter 37: A Lead

~Bella~

With the knowledge that any public way of transportation would be an easy way for the wolves to possibly find and follow us, Edward brought up swimming across the North Sea. It would be the first time for me to swim across an ocean, but he had point. The hard part was the fact that in order to get to Dover, the city we had chosen to swim out of, we would be close enough to go home and sea our babies. We had been in contact with Esme and Rose and they told us that the kids were coping. It was for that reason that we didn't go, not wanting to get them upset all over again when we left. It took two days for us to make the journey from Oxford to Dover, making sure to travel only by night and stay in the forests and marshes during the day.

When we got to Dover it was raining. It was early morning and we wasted little time as we dove off one of the piers into the ocean. The instant we were in the water a whole new set of smells hit me and for a moment I remained still as the water moved around us.

"What is it?" Edward asked.

"Just all of the new smells, they remind me of going to a seafood market, only it's ten times more potent, and a little nauseating if that's possible."

He circled his arms around me and kissed me, taking my mind off of the smells if only for a moment. "We need to get going," he reminded once our kiss ended.

"How do you know where you're going? By land I know you have markers but out here," I said moving my left arm around as I treaded water with my legs and other arm, "Here you don't really have makers to go by."

"It's more of a sense of direction than it is landmarks. We need to swim straight out for a long while before we start swimming in a more northerly direction. It also helps to know shipping patterns as well." As we began to swim, Edward led the way and I followed him amazed at how fast we could go. We had left our clothing behind and once we reached Calais in France, we would get other clothes as well as documentation.

Close to sunrise Edward stopped swimming letting me catch up to him. He pointed ahead and I could make out a land mass though it was still far away. "Are we going to get there before the sun rises?"

"Yes, but we need to hurry," he said. Before he could swim away I pulled him closer pressing my lips to his. Any other time making love to him in the ocean would be romantic. The water didn't feel cold, though I knew to anyone who wasn't immortal like us, it would be freezing. Once we ended our kiss I kept up with him and we made it into the city just as the sky was beginning to light with the first rays of the morning sun.

Edward led the way to the warehouse that his family owned. No one was there, and it was one more surprise for me to discover. There was a place to take a shower which we did, and there were also clothes that fit both of us. "So you guys have done this before?"

"No, but we always keep prepared for any sort of event."

"So why this city?" I asked a bit confused on how they would know to get a warehouse here and stock it with things they would need.

"Alice had a vision once, not too long before you came to Forks. There were no specifics but she felt it important for us to have a safe haven of sorts. Emmett Rosalie and Jasper went with her to this place and they purchased it."

"Who takes care of it?"

"There is a company that manages this area. In the records this is just another shipment facility and from time to time we allow it to be used for that. Did you notice that this changing area is off from the main shipping room of the warehouse?" I nodded. "They know to leave it alone because it's our private offices. Jasper and Emmett along with their wives come here from time to time to keep up appearances. After Rosalie and Emmett graduated from high school, that first year after we met, they came to check on things. Until now I never realized how handy Alice's vision was all those years ago."

It was mind blowing how much everything connected to the things Alice had seen. "Are there any more visions she's had in the past that might go along with everything that's happening now?" I asked as I finished getting dressed, pulling on a pair of jeans and a button down silk top. It wasn't very practical but we could always shop later if we needed too.

"Not that I can remember," Edward answered as he powered up a computer. It was an older model but he was able to pull up what he needed. Twenty minutes later we had the IDs we needed including passports with stamps already on them from England.

It was mid morning and gloomy so we left the warehouse once we were sure no one was around, and after locking everything up. I had always wanted to visit France, but there wasn't much time to really sight see. We had more important things to do like finding out about Joham and about Peter Stubbe. Once we left Calais we stuck to the countryside as much as we could. When the sun came out we found solace in a wooded area and would stay there until night fall. "You're quiet," Edward observed as he sat down next to me on the remnants of a tree that had fallen a long time ago.

"I don't know. It sort of feels like all of this was always going to happen, like us getting married, and having our babies, Rosalie and Emmett becoming parents to Lily, these wolves coming after us. Maybe I'm just losing my mind," I admitted as he put his arms around me.

"You're not losing your mind and I don't know if it's all connected. Sometimes I worry still about the choices we made."

That surprised me and I turned to look at him. I knew what he was thinking and kissed him. "I'll never regret marrying you and most certainly never regret having our babies. If I never would have met you I'm not sure that I would have stayed out of danger. It always seemed like something was going to happen to me, even when I was living in Phoenix. Now I have a way to protect myself and those that I love. My life is with you and our children, and there isn't ever going to be anything else I want. Don't ever worry about me that way, okay?"

He nodded and I placed my hands on his cheeks pressing my lips against his, kissing him with all of the passion and love I had for him. A moment later I was straddling his lap. We kept kissing as his hands moved between us and my hands rubbed over his chest pushing the shirt he was wearing upward to reveal his skin warm and soft to me. I broke the kiss first gasping as I felt his fingers inside my jeans before I kissed down his neck. When I bit the area of his jugular, Edward growled and at the same time I groaned lifting up as he slid my pants down.

A moment later I was pinned against some sort of tree too occupied with the feelings I was experiencing both emotionally and physically as he pushed into me, and I continued to lick and kiss around his neck and up to his ear. His movements grew more demanding and I matched his thrusts with ones of my own as our lips met again. Edward's tongue matched the in and out movements of his member while his hands slid in back of my head cupping me there as he pulled his lips from mine watching me as I watched him. Our completion was joint and powerful and for a long time afterward we stayed as we were. His eyes were on mine, and mine on his as we saw the love we had for one another. It was a confirmation he had needed and one I had needed myself.

Later, much later we agreed to hunt having not done so in the three days it had taken to journey here. We fed on some wolves because it was the only thing we could find without having to make a wider search. Doing that was difficult because I thought of my friends in La Push, and after finishing with one I couldn't think of hunting another. Edward didn't try to push me and once night time came, we headed northeast toward Bedburg, Germany hoping to find the answers we needed.

~Edward~

As we made our way through the dark holding hands, I thought over what my wife had said about everything being connected. I'd never truly believed in destiny or in finding a true love until I saw Bella. She had made a valid point, it seemed like something was drawing us to this place to find these answers. The question was if it meant it was destiny or if some powerful vampire like Alice had seen this future long before it ever played out, and was pulling us in to finish the story or game. I'd not shared that with my wife yet, not even with my family, but now I wondered if this sister Alice once had was the one who started it all. If she was there would be no surprises, not unless she was on our side and trapped to do the bidding of this Joham like her daughter Lily.

"So what's on your mind?" Bella asked.

"I'm not sure you would really want to know," I admitted as she growled at me. "Well, I was just thinking about Alice's sister, wondering if she has visions like Alice, only hers are more of the type that control ones future."

"So she sees a future she wants and it happens that way?"

Hearing Bella say what I was thinking didn't make me feel any better but we kept going. "My only hope is if it is that way, she has to do this because Joham is making her, and she's not sharing everything with him." After our brief conversation, we ran in silence reaching Germany's border by morning. The sun began to rise as we found shelter in a forest not far from Bedburg. There we found a variety of animals to hunt and fed until we were full, knowing we needed to have our strength to fight if that's what was in our future.

Once we were done, and the carcasses of the animals we had drained were disposed of, we sat together wrapped in on anothers arms. "Have you told anyone else about this?"

"Just you."

"Do you think Emily blocks the things Alice can see?"

I sighed, "I don't know, and I wish I did. We need to be careful when we get underway again. If this is a trap then we can't think of the children or our family. Hopefully Alice will see what is coming."

"You should call her."

My instincts were not to and I shook my head. "It doesn't feel like the right thing to do."

Bella huddled closer to me. "Do you think we're going to get caught?"

"If we are, maybe it will lead us to the answers we need."

AN: First of all I want to extend my appologies for making you all wait so long for an update. My reason is that I finally found a job which is good for the needing money to live type of thing. The bad part, as some of you have noticed is that I'm not updating as much. It doesn't in any way mean that I've forgotten about this story. I swear you will get more just give me time to adjust to working again and getting a good schedule with home and work and I promise I'll start working toward an ending. I'm not trying to drag this out and I'm sorry again for such a short chapter. I want it to be longer but I also didn't just want to post this AN without giving you something to read and get excited about, at least I hope you guys are still excited. As far as the next update two weeks at the most and if something happens to mess that up I'll do another short post, but hopefully it won't be that way.

Anyway thank you all for the reviews for this story and for After the Honeymoon. You are all wonderful for keeping up with me and I really appreciate the feed back I've gotten for both stories. More soon hopefully. Take care.

~Ella~