Always You
continued…

Emmett

The sun is beginning to rise and I force myself to leave Bella's sleeping form – warm and content beneath her covers with a small smile graced across her lips. I pull myself back and crouch away backwards from her, my eyes being unable to look at or see anything but her. I ball my fists firmly as I take a step away from her, and another, but as I ready myself to gently pull open her window to leave I let out a soundless breath and allow myself to be drawn quickly back to her. My hands relax as I drop to my knees beside her bed and lean my face into hers, holding myself back just enough to not disturb her slumber. Running my hand ever so lightly along the contours of her thigh, hip and waist I bring my other one up and run it just as lightly over her head – feeling her smooth, warm hair beneath my fingers forces an uncontrollable feeling and shiver of happiness down my spine – I am unable to stop myself from running my nose across hers. It travels across her forehead, cheeks and chin, and finally her lips. I open my mouth and let out an involuntary breath and she shivers in her sleep, but does not shy away. I smile before leaning in closer towards her and running my lips over hers – feelings them with mine as my fingers would – and before I am able to stop myself my lips plant themselves lightly over hers. I hold our kiss for another few seconds and whisper, "I love you, Bella, I always have, and I always will."

Knowing if I do not leave now I never will, and so force myself away from her and flip open her window with noiselessness perfection and pull it back shut before landing on the grass below her window.

I close my eyes and remember the feeling of her in my arms as we laid together in the dark, looking deeply into each others eyes and breaking that lock only to bring our lips together. I remember running my hands slowly over her back as I brushed my nose and lips along the crook of her neck and base of her ear, and the sound of her heart beating contentedly with her breathing as I whispered to her words of affection and promises. The feeling of her legs winding tighter and tighter within mine, and her hands holding tightly onto my chest and hip lingers with me as I open my eyes and chance one last glance towards her window.

Pulling my eyes away from her bedroom I force myself to leave knowing that if I look even a moment longer I will be back by her side, unable to force myself away a second time.

I slow my pace to a sluggish human speed and walk the rest of the way home as I reach the end of our gravel drive. Focusing my ears on the interior of the house I hear the girls – Esme, Alice and Rosalie – laughing and talking about nothing of consequence as the sound of Jasper's 360 plays from the upstairs. The sound of a book having a page turned comes next, and I know it is Carlisle in his study. A piano key is tapped, followed by another, and then another, and the notes soon come together to form the rhythmic, soothing hymn we have all come to know so well – Bella's Lullaby.

I shake my head and wonder to myself if he ever really did care about her? Knowing I am close enough now for my private thoughts to be invaded, I don't care. The feeling of her in my arms is strong in my minds memory, and I know he is seeing what I am seeing. Yet as I purposefully think of all of the soft, tender, loving moments we shared together so recently I have no intention to stop. Why should he be able to freely think of what he wants, and who he wants, not having to worry about other people butting into his privacy while the rest of us never know when we are, or aren't, being spied on? Never knowing when it is okay to think about this, or not think about that.

The gravel beneath me crunches as I draw closer to the house, and I think to myself: could I stop thinking about her, even if I wanted to? No, I decide. And even if so, would I ever want to not think of her? Her eyes, her hands and smooth, warm, delicate skin and sound of her heart beating steadily as I hold her close to me - feeling her wonderful lips against mine as I draw myself into her and close the thin distance that separates us. How she sucks in a small, slow breath of air as I massage my lips tenderly against her neck and jaw line, whispering between kisses of how beautiful and wonderful she is. Feathering my fingers threw her hair as her eyelids slowly become heavier and heavier, until at last they fall shut and I lean forward to kiss her forehead softly as her last futile attempts to move her body brings her closer to me. I smile and wrap my arm tighter around her back to draw her closer until there is nothing between us but clothes, and she relaxes more still against me and I lean my forehead down to hers and close my eyes, acting as if I, too were sleeping in her arms. Hours pass as I slowly pull my head from hers to watch her sleep – so beautiful, so perfect – I love her so…

I force myself to leave the living memory as I bound slowly up the front steps and pull open the glass door. "I was starting to wonder if you'd come back." Comes Jasper's voice as the door clicks closed behind me, and I shake my head and laugh lightly in response. "Now that you are back," He adds as I make my way into the front room and see Edward sitting quietly playing the piano, "Get your ass up here and help me kill some aliens."

"Later," I tell him shortly as I walk around the piano to face Edward with my hands half buried in my front pant pockets. His head is bowed slightly to look upon the keys he is playing. "I've got some things to take care of first." I add as his shoulders remain still and proper as his hands glide effortlessly across the keys.

"Suit yourself," Jasper sighs, "I'm easy."

I wait patiently as Edward's music continues, and after what seems like an endless silence, mute of voices, he smiles softly and says, "That was beautiful." His hands are still gliding across the keys as he makes a graceful transition form Bella's Lullaby to Clair de Lune while lifting his eyes up to meet mine. "What you were thinking about, it was beautiful, I'd even say poetic."

I pull my hands out from my pockets, "That's a hell of a better response than the one I was expecting to get." I don't talk out loud, he hears me clearly all the same.

"It wouldn't be reasonable for me to say anything to the contrary," He says as he drops his eyes back to the piano keys and does another transition to a song I don't recognize. "Besides," He adds as he looks up at me for a moment and then back down to his fingers. "I can't say I didn't see it coming, considering the fact that I've known you've known for a while. Except instead of pretending things were the same as I have done; pretending nothing was happening, nothing had changed, and you come fearlessly to me the moment something happens with you; with Bella."

"I'm not going to hold any grudges, neither of you are even worth it… but if you knew that I knew why didn't you just tell me? Why didn't you, or Rosalie, have the respect to just come to me and Bella and tell us instead of making us both have to find out the hard way?"

"Like I said, you came fearlessly to me - I don't have that kind of self control, I was scared. I didn't know how to bring it up, and I didn't want to hurt Bella. I guess I was always hoping that you'd be the one to tell her." He says honestly as he transitions back to Bella's Lullaby.

"Well I guess I'm lucky on that part then, because I didn't have to say anything – she walked on the balcony and saw you two." I tell him bluntly. "'Happy Birthday Bella' was all I said, and all she did was shed one tear. So being worried about hurting her, don't worry, you didn't. And though I'm not really concerned about her, tell Rosalie she didn't hurt me either. The only emotions I really ever felt were shock, anger – for not telling me – and acceptance. I nev-"

"She never worried about you're feelings, Emmett." He cuts me off. "And honestly, I wasn't ever truly worried about Bella's – I saw the way she looked at you, even if she didn't realize it. She looked at you in a way she never looked at me, and as I saw that I thought about it and realized I never really looked at her the way she looked at you either, or the way you looked at her. You two have had feelings for each other long before either of you realized it, even though everybody else did. We're not blind, but as the saying goes…"

"I knew." I say before I can stop myself, and he looks up at me curiously. "I knew the first time I ever laid my eyes on her. Then the two of you became an item, I figured I was just being stupid, but the harder I tried to force myself to try and stay devoted to Rosalie, the harder it got to stop thinking of Bella is ways I should have been thinking of Rosalie.

"It wasn't until last night, after that whole… catastrophe with the glass, that I realized she wanted to be with me as much as I wanted her. And as soon as I was alone with her, taking her home, it was like… like I couldn't breath, like the space between us was a vacuum, and as soon as that space was gone and I was holding her in my arms, she was my air. Being with her, it makes me feel… human. It makes me feel alive again, and I'm not going to give up that feeling for anything."

"So don't." He says simply as he shrugs his shoulders and pulls his hands away from the piano keys.

I smile and pull myself away from his piano, and before I turn to run back to Bella I add, "Thanks for not being a douche."

He smiles and chuckles. "And thank you for loving her the way I was never able to."

"I guess that's what Rosalie is for," I tell him as I back towards the front hall. "Besides, you're the reason Carlisle changed her in the first place."

His smile is the last thing I see as I push open the front door and run.

A N: I know it has taken me two years to finally decide and follow through to turn this from a one-shot to a multiple-chapter story, and for that, I apologize. But lately this story has just been weighing down on my subconscious, begging me to give it life again, and so begs the question to you all: would you like to see this story go on?