Chapter 41

"OK, Alice, I have to know," Felka insisted. "How did you find my brother?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Esme added. Everyone else nodded, including me. I knew she couldn't have seen him because she wouldn't even know who she was looking for.

"Let's just say I'm a super-genius and leave it at that," she laughed.

"Oh, no. You're not getting off that easy!" Emmett jumped in. We all made similar protests until Alice held up her hands.

"OK, OK, I'll tell you! I called Bohdan last night."

"What? How did you get his number?" Felka exclaimed.

"You call him every night, so I just watched you call, then when you were done, I called him. I told him I was one of your nurses and I needed to contact your brother for a DNA sample," Alice explained. "He thought Idzi was dead, but I assured him that was not the case."

"But how would Bohdan know where to find Idzi?" Felka asked the obvious question.

"Well, he didn't, and frankly, neither did I, but I thought maybe he would be at your place, so I told Bohdan to call until Idzi picked up the phone. He wanted to go over there in person, but I knew that would be a disaster, so I made up some medical mumbo-jumbo about a mutation, and how it would be dangerous, and blah blah blah."

Idzi picked up the story. "The phone kept ringing and ringing, so I finally decided it must be important. There was this frantic guy on the other end telling me I had to help Felka and he gave me a number to call."

"So, if you talked to Alice last night, why did it take you so long to get here?" Jasper asked wryly.

"Are you saying I'm slow?" Idzi joked back. "Do you know how far it is from Poland to Italy on foot? Do you know how many mountains I had to cross? "

"Ummm… dude, there's this new invention out there. It's pretty cool. It's called an 'airplane,'" Emmett drew out the word. "You get inside of it and it goes up, up, up into the sky and right over the tops of those pesky mountains."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Idzi replied drolly. "Since I don't have an 'airplane' and I wouldn't know how to fly one if I did, it wasn't really an option."

"You can get these other people to fly them for you. They're called 'pilots,'" Emmett continued to harass poor Idzi.

"They're also called 'dinner.' Think about that for a minute. Newborn vampire locked in steel tube with humans. Nothing could possibly go wrong there!"

"Ummm… yeah, maybe running was the best bet after all," Emmett conceded.

"I had Felka's phone, so when Alice called me this morning and told me where to meet her brother and sister, I went, and when this huge hulking monster stepped out of the car," he whapped Emmett on the arm, "I figured it was a trap. Then the lovely Rosalie got out, and I'll admit… I hoped it was."

Emmett whapped Idzi back. "Hey, that's my wife you're talking about there."

"I know! Who would have thought someone so beautiful would have no taste in men!" Idzi bellowed, causing all of us to laugh. Even Rose couldn't help herself.

"Everyone's a comedian…" Emmett grumbled, making us laugh harder. It was nice to see him get a little taste of his own medicine once in a while.

**-…-**

The next couple of days were a flurry of activity. Amanda took it upon herself to show Idzi around. Of course, Fred was always nearby, even though he insisted he was not the jealous type. Idzi was extremely attractive and very flirty, although I only noticed this from afar as he was not allowed within a hundred thousand miles of me.

Idzi had what Amanda referred to as a 'drinking problem,' however… After he almost killed the first trib he tasted, he was not allowed to feed unless two vampires were restraining him. Of course, his human meal was none the wiser, waking up refreshed and ready to face the new day.

Needless to say, he was never left alone, for which I was thankful. Felka had even taken to wearing a small vial of milk on a necklace, hoping it would remind him not to bite her, if he ever got close enough to need a reminder.

It was gratifying to see them rekindle their relationship. So much had changed for them, I thought they might struggle to find common ground, but they fell into an easy camaraderie.

It didn't take long for Idzi to see for himself the extent to which the Romanians had been deceitful. Some of the stories he told us were shocking, while others were merely stupid. Even as distasteful as Aro was to me, he didn't smell like a wet goat.

Some of the stories were horrific enough that Idzi wouldn't tell them to us. That meant Edward knew them, but he refused to tell me, too. My first inclination was to be irritated with both of them, but then I thought it might actually be preferable not to know. Once you hear something like that, you don't get to 'unhear' it.

As promised, copies of a contract were delivered. We all poured over them, trying to find any loopholes or clauses that would allow the Volturi to change the nature of the agreement.

"'Periodically,'" Felka pondered. "I don't want to come here 'periodically.' Aro said six months."

"OK," Carlisle began making edits. "How about 'As deemed necessary, but no more frequently than six months apart' or something along those lines?"

"Good," Felka answered, "although I imagine we should have a clause for possible emergency situations. Add "unless both parties agree to an alternate schedule as required from time to time."

"Lawyer speak!" Fred hollered. "I can't take it!"

He and Amanda excused themselves, citing the 'anything is better than this' clause.

I wished Edward and I could escape, too, but he was needed to listen to everyone's minds, making sure no important ideas were internally judged and disregarded.

In the end, we only made four changes to the contract, and none of them were substantial. From all appearances, the Volturi were actually making good on their word. I figured Idzi must have had some really useful information about the Romanians to make Aro sit up and take notice like he did. Even Caius didn't backpedal.

As Edward and I went back to our room, I was thinking about tonight's meeting between the whole of the Volturi and 'Cullens and Friends,' as we'd begun to call ourselves. There were really only two agenda items: Aro would read Idzi. If he didn't pass inspection, everything we'd worked for would be null and void, but I really wasn't worried about that. If what I saw was the truth, Idzi would pass with flying colors.

The second item was quite a bit more ominous… Fred's future.

He was still under Aro's protective order, and I could tell by the looks he got that the Volturi guard members were, at best, apprehensive around him. I didn't know if he just wasn't able to make friends here, or if it was because he spent all his time with Amanda, or because he could be just plain out-and-out terrifying, but he hadn't warmed up to any of the other vampires and they avoided him like the plague.

I knew if Fred had his choice, he would bring Amanda home to Forks and the ten of us would live happily ever after. Literally. But even as much as I didn't want to admit it, that couldn't happen. Amanda was needed in Volterra. We all knew it.

Fred never wanted to talk about it, which made me nervous. Was he just in denial that something had to be done? Neither Alice nor Edward knew what he was going to do, which meant Fred had yet to make a decision and he wasn't thinking about it.

That would have been fine, except we were meeting with the Volturi in a few hours. A decision would be made tonight, whether Fred made it for himself, or they made it for him. I hoped it was the former rather than the latter.

"A hundred million dollars for your thoughts?" Edward chuckled as he pulled my hair up and away from my neck, exposing my tender skin to his icy lips.

"I'll need half of that up front," I whispered.

"Half the kisses, or half the money?"

"Yes," I answered on a bit of a moan, causing him to chuckle again.

"Can I write you a check?"

"You probably could, couldn't you…" I rolled my eyes as he buried his nose into my hair, planting full, open-mouth kisses behind my ear. My eyes fluttered closed and I just allowed myself to feel the nearness of him.

"Could what…" he murmured between nuzzles.

"What?" I asked on a sigh.

"Nothing…" he mumbled before kissing my mouth with so much passion, I thought I was going to implode from the force of it.

It seemed as if we'd been talking about something, but I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was.

"I love you so much," I breathed to him.

"Oh, Bella, I love you so much, I don't know what to do with myself."

"Come lay down with me?"

He picked me up bridal-style and gently laid me on the bed, following only a second after. In all the tension-filled hours of the prior few days, we hadn't spent much time like this… without a thought in the world outside of each other. This was pure bliss, and the only thing more blissful would be sharing ourselves with each other more fully. That time would come, and soon.

Suddenly, I bolted upright. "Edward! It's July 15th, isn't it!"

"Yes, what's the matter?"

"I just realized we're less than a month away from our wedding!"

"And this alarms you?" he asked guardedly.

"Well, yes, but not for the reason you're thinking. How are we going to get everything done in time? Alice won't be there for who knows how long. I don't know anything about planning a wedding! We invited the entire town!"

"Calm down, Bella. You don't really think Alice would leave you hanging, do you? She's been making arrangements the whole time we've been here."

"When? Are you sure? Is there anything that still needs to be done?" I asked in rapid succession.

"Yes, you need to turn around," he motioned for me to face away from him so he could massage my shoulders. "You know Alice doesn't need sleep. Every night, she's been online and on the phone, ordering things and double checking ship dates and making sure every detail is handled. She's given us all task lists, too. Trust me. Alice won't allow anything to interfere with our wedding. It will be perfect, and you'll be stunning."

"How do you know?" I asked, puzzled. "You weren't supposed to see the wedding dress yet! You promised no peeking into Alice's mind."

"Bella! I didn't peek. I know you'll be stunning because you are stunning," he said as he nibbled at the bare skin at the base of my neck.

"But what if I trip and fall and make an idiot of myself and rip the dress and expose my backside to the whole town?"

He chuckled again. "I don't think any of that is going to happen. Besides, Charlie won't let you fall, and once he places your hand in mine, I'll never let you fall."

I took a deep breath and finally relaxed into his strong hands as they gently kneaded my tense muscles. My mind kept replaying those words: 'I'll never let you fall.'

**-…-**

The next thing I knew, Edward was kissing my shoulder, but I was lying down under the covers. My cheek felt wet and I realized I'd been drooling. If that wasn't a good look, I didn't know what was.

"Time to wake up, my beautiful almost wife," he cooed in my ear.

"I think you mean almost beautiful almost wife…"

"I meant what I said and I said what I meant. A vampire faithful one hundred percent."

"Horton Hears a Who?" I giggled.

"I see you know the classics, m'lady."

I wiped at my face before rolling toward Edward. "But of course. I have to keep up with my exceptionally cultured fiancé."

He leaned in to kiss me, and although I was a little self-conscious about the possibility of having late afternoon breath, I tried to ignore it. It didn't take long before it didn't matter… I'd forgotten how to breathe entirely.

"Why did you let me sleep?" I whined. "We could have spent all afternoon doing this."

"Believe me, I thought about waking you up just for that purpose, but you almost never take naps, so I figured you must really need the sleep."

"Why can't you just be selfish like other boys?" I fake pouted.

"I'll work on it," he promised.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and worked my fingers into his unruly, luscious hair. We made out like the teenagers we would forever be, until he broke our kiss. "Felka's on her way with your dinner, sweetheart."

"So?" I whimpered, trying to get my lips latched back onto his.

"Honey, I don't think you want her walking in on us like this, do you?"

"Eh. She's practically family," I dismissed his concerns, leaning in again.

"While I appreciate your enthusiasm, Bella, I don't think 'family' is exactly a valid reason to have someone peeping at us. Remember – Emmett is family, too."

"Oooooohhh…," I grimaced. "You just had to say that, didn't you. Well, if you were trying to turn me off completely, mission accomplished."

He scratched his head. "Ummm… yeah, what just happened here? I've got this hot girl that I love in my bed, crawling all over me, and I'm trying to get her to stop?"

"At this rate, you're going to get yourself rousted out of the male gender entirely," I teased.

"We'll see if you're still saying that after our wedding night," he waggled his eyebrows.

His words gave me a warm feeling all the way from my toenails to the ends of each strand of hair on my head, with most of the warmth settling in the middle of my body. I launched myself at him. "OK. Officially turned back on."

When I heard a tap at the door, I jumped out of bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. Once I was securely inside, I heard Edward greet Felka. Their conversation sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher talking. 'Wah wah wa wa wah.'

I ran a brush through my ridiculously messy hair and straightened out my clothes a little. I wasn't going to get much more presentable without serious work, so I gave up and went to join the others.

Felka was giving Edward the lowdown on Idzi. We all felt pretty confident that he would pass the Aro test with no problem. She said he was actually looking forward to it.

We still didn't have any news on Fred. I supposed he was playing it by ear. He was nothing if not spontaneous. It was one of his best and worst traits.

As had become our custom, Felka brought food for both of us. Of course, it was delicious. "I'm going to miss your cooking. I never knew I would like Polish food so much. I'm not going to find pierogi like this in the States, am I…"

"I'll do some research, but in a word, no," she giggled.

"You can ship me some!"

"Not for too much longer. I'll have to do that while you're still human."

"Wow! How did I not think of that? I should slow down and savor this a little more," I mused.

Edward looked troubled, and I knew why. "Oh, stop it," I mildly reprimanded him. "Felka's pierogi is really good, but not as good as spending eternity with you, so there."

I leaned over and stage whispered to Felka, "They're almost as good, though."

Edward growled and we both giggled at his silliness. We hadn't had much light-heartedness in the past few days, so this was a welcome reprieve.

**-…-**

All too soon, we found ourselves in front of the Great Hall for what we hoped would be the last time… maybe ever. If I never entered this room again, it wouldn't hurt my feelings in the slightest.

There were now 12 in our party. I was surrounded on all sides by Cullens, and even though I hadn't been given specific marching orders, I knew this was no accident. Jasper, Alice, Fred, and Amanda surrounded Felka, although Idzi was becoming more accustomed to his sister's scent and therefore less of a threat. It warmed my heart to see that, even though Idzi wasn't right next to her, he and Felka held hands as they walked.

"Come in! Come in," the booming echo of Aro's distinctive voice bounced around the stone walls. "Welcome!"

When they said all the Volturi would be there, they weren't joking. I didn't know there were so many vampires in the guard, and there were still a few others outside actually guarding. I had to think this was some kind of message to Idzi and Felka, like 'we might let you go, but don't forget how powerful we are.' If so, I'm sure the message was received loud and clear.

Aro was still spouting pleasantries and making introductions when I returned my attention to the present proceedings. It was all I could do not to roll my eyes at the pompous ass before me. Aro liked hearing himself talk as much as Rosalie liked looking in the mirror.

"Idzi, step forward please," Aro directed. "Will you give me your hand?"

"In marriage?" I heard Emmett whisper. If I heard it, that meant everyone heard it. Many of the guard member's lips were twitching. Aro didn't break character, however.

Idzi confidently took Aro's hand.

"I see," Aro said distantly. "Yes, this is exactly as I'd hoped. You are free to go."

"Just like that?" Idzi asked.

"Well, not quite…" Aro answered rather mysteriously…

**-…-**

A/N: I know I said there was only one chapter left, and that was true, but when the final chapter hit over 6,000 words and it's still not done, I figured I should break it into two parts. I hope you don't mind.

So, far be it from me to beg for reviews (please please please), but I only received two from the last two chapters, and both were from the same (lovely) person. I had hoped to break 200 by the end of the story. It could still happen, but 150 may be a more realistic goal! Write to me, people!