Bella woke up in a grotty mood the next morning. René had been such an asshat to the Cullens, and to put a cherry on top he had suggested that she go a bit easy on seeing Edward the next couple of days. Instead he wanted her to see her old friends more. Who would that be? She was definitely not friends with Lorraine anymore, because Lorraine had been a bitch to her about something. Jessique was busy with her baby, and was a snooty bitch to boot. Alice lived with the Cullens, and she wasn't supposed to go there. That left Eponine, who she had nothing in common with. But hey, it was better than hanging out with her Mom all day, or being a third wheel on Cosette and Marius.

She called Eponine and agreed to meet her at Freedom Square, which had a huge fountain that the vampires had carved in memory of theor life in freedom. First they went shopping but both of them had little money. Eponine's payday wasn't in a week, and René had decided that Bella had spent too much money lately and confiscated her cards, the mongrel- If he had spent the last ten years owning only two outfits, one of which consisted entirely of patchwork, he would probably have been a bit more understanding. Bella had to admit she looked pretty stylish today. She wore bleached skinny-leg jeans with a studded belt at the waist, a black top with a British flag on it and the sleeves held on with lots of little rings, and knee-high black suede boots with three metal buckles on the sides. Around her neck she had a necklace that said "Isabella 3 Edward" in silver letters, on her right hand she wore a mood ring with Celtic design, and on her left ring finger she wore a simple golden ring that she pretended was her engagement ring. She had made smokey eyes make-up and her lipstick was pale pinkish lilac. Eponine wore a short, black denim dress with buttons down the front and a silver chain around the hips, combat boots and a black choker around her neck. She was wearing gothic make-up with dark red lipstick.

After they were done shopping, Bella got a new sweater for when Edward was taking her outside again and Eponine got a see-through black laced top that Bella told her she would have to wear something underneath, they went to a café to have lunch. Bella had never been to this one before. It was called Dark London, and was very old fashioned. The decor was Victorian or something like that. It had brick walls with visible beams, and was lit up by old iron lanterns. They had pizza with cherry coke and talked about what to do for the rest of the day. None of them wanted to home, because René was a douche and the Thenardiers weren't best pleased that Eponine had gone off and let Esme take the kids.

"We could go and visit Enjolras," Eponine suggested. "He hangs out with Combeferre too much, he could need some lady company."

"Do you know where he lives?" Bella asked.

"Sure," said Eponine. "I've been over there a few times before. It's a bit far from here though. We should take the car."

"I didn't know you had a car," Bella said. She wished Charline would let her get a job so she could have a car too.

"Nah, it's my Dad's," said Eponine. "He doesn't use it much, because it's too small for the family, so we usually take Mom's mini bus. I don't think he'll notice if we borrow it."

Jean Lud's car was an old red Mercedes with a star in front and all. Very stylish car. Eponine assured Bella that she knew how to drive it. She did knock over a couple of people on the way, but they were OK because vampires don't get hurt that easily. They came to another part of town where the streets were narrow and the houses were really tall. They had five and six floors, but didn't look like rich people's houses like where Edward lived. There were no ceiling lights, only the lights from the windows. Bella could see that there were lots of bars and pubs on the street level, many of them probably served human blood if you knew the password to ask for it. She shuddered.

Eponine parked in front of a mostly dark building that had a hardware shop on the ground floor. They walked up a long, dark staircase and knocked on a blue door.

Enjolras opened. "Come in," he said. "We are watching Rambo."

They followed him into the living room and sat down in a worn sofa. Combeferre was leaning against a bookshelf, sipping Martini straight from the bottle with lots of olives in it, his glasses almost falling off his face. The film was very bloody. A lot of people were blown up, stabbed, shot and decapitated. There was a bad guy who went around setting people on fire. He stabbed someone in the ear with scissors so their brain got pierced, then he shoved his cigarette up an enemy's nose. Another enemy was killing people by grinding them to death with a cheese grater. Then Rambo came in and cut a bad guy's head off with his chain saw, and blood splattered everywhere. He took a bazooka and shot a lot of enemies to smithereens, and the smithereens were eaten by hungry wild dogs. A baddy stabbed Rambo through the middle with a big, rusty sword, but he just pulled it back out and cut the evil guy's arms and legs off with it. He took a lawn mower and ran it up and down the boss enemy's back a few times, then he ran the rest of the bad guys over with a tank.

Enjolras and Eponine were cheering loudly everytime Rambo got one on an evil dude. "He is a real freedom fighter, an inspiration to all of us!" Combeferre said as Rambo put his intestines back inside, and stitched up the hole while drinking a lot of whiskey.

Suddenly Edward called. "Are you coming to Mom's baby shower tonight?" he asked. "You can bring some friends."

"Sure!" said Bella. "I'll be right over." She knew her Dad wouldn't be happy about it, but she had been away from Edward long enough. She was yearning to see him right away, and the film was really boring, so she asked Edward to pick her up.

At the Cullens' house the party was already going. Since it was a party for a baby, they weren't drunk this time. Esme's new baby was named Lynette, and she was the most beautiful little girl Bella had ever seen. She had curly golden hair and golden brown eyes like Esme. Vampire children grow fast, so she was already sitting up and smiling at all the people. Bella had bought her a little plush panda and some blue PJs. She had also bought herself a new dress, so she could be appropriate for the occasion. She was already in so much trouble with her Dad she didn't care.

Alice and Rosalie were squeeing and cooing over the baby, and Esme almost had to push them off. Bella hoped that little Charlisme would be just as pretty when she was born in the future, and she couldn't see why not. Edward was much hotter than his Dad, and she was quite pretty herself.

Cosette was there too, it was almost weird to see her without Marius. The guys had their own party out in the garden because Carlisle wanted to celebrate that he was a Dad again. They were having a BBQ and Carlisle was burning everything because he was that bad at cooking. Eventually Eponine showed up to, in a pretty dress for once. She could have been kind of beautiful if she hadn't been so scrawny and had those dark circles under her eyes. But Eponine had looked dreadful when she became a vampire, because she had been very poor and starving. So even though she became a whole lot prettier she had never become perfect like many other vamps.

Jessique had brought baby William, so he and Lynette could play. She was very changed now that she was a mother. The mean glint was out of her eye, and she was being friendly to people. Bella thought that maybe they could be friends again now.

Suddenly Bella felt a strong but friendly hand pulling her away from the party. It was Edward, who else. She was so happy to see him again. He led her away fromt he others and into a room she assumed was his bedroom. He had lots of posters on the wall, a flat screen TV and a piano because he liked Mozart and Beethoven. They tumbled over on the bed and kissed passionately.

"Oh Bella, my darling love, my lovely darling!" Edward moaned against her neck. "I love you so much!" Then he got up, stood in front of her, and fell to one knee. "Bella, I absolutely love you more than the moon and the stars. Will you do me the outmost pleasure of being my lovely wife?"

Bella could scarcely believe her ears. "Yeeeees!" she squealed, tossing herself around his neck. "Oh yes, oh yes oh yes!"

Edward picked a ring up from his pocket, and placed it on her finger. It was a lovely diamond ring. "Then no one shall ever come between us!" he said solemly.

Outside the room, Enjolras and Combeferre were spying, using a listning device Carlisle had invented for the Resistance to use on werewolves.

"Well, that settles it," said Enjolras, sounding releaved. "I can't pretend to have a romantic interest in her now, when she is betrothed to Edward. Besides, I like someone else, in case you haven't noticed."

Combeferre's eyes grew narrow. Enjolras suspected it was because he had hoped for a little audio porn, but the young turtle doves were a bit more chaste than expected. "You still have to watch her," he said. "She is not trustworthy. Remember how she was all to willing to question her father's obvious and well documented guilt yesterday?"

"Yes, yes," said Enjolras. "I will be her friend and confidente if she needs me. But right now I think Edward is first stop for all news bad and good. And I kind of have a girlfriend myself."

"Edward is blinded by his infatuation," said Combeferre. "He can see no fault with her, he is willing to believe everything she tells him. I have seen this happen to good men before, Enny. It is not pretty when they get betrayed."

"So you think she is leading him on?" Enjolras asked incredulously. "No way! That is not the case. I know her, and she would never sink that low. Besides, it is obvious that this is not an act."

"Try her," Combeferre said simply. "You are a good looking man, you can have any girl you want. If anyone can save the Cullens and the whole Resistance from her, it's you."

"Not happening!" said Enjolras. "I can't do that to two of my best friends. And I don't know if you have heard me, Com... but I have a girlfriend!"

"Yeah, yeah," said combeferre. "The Revolution is your girlfriend, we all know that. But just because you don't have any interest in real girls, you could at least pretend for the Revolution's sake!"

Enjolras sighed. Combeferre was slow today. Maybe he hadn't put enough olives in the Martini.

Inside the room, Bella and Edward were lying next to each other on the bed, looking into each other's eyes. In case you wonder, they were still fully dressed, much to Combeferre's chagrin.

"We have to keep this a secret," Edward said. "No one can know of our engagement yet, in case your father finds out." He gave Bella a golden chain. "Keep your ring on this when you are at home, so it will be closer to your heart."

Then they shared a fiery kiss that blew the roof away, metaphorically speaking.