EPOV

When I returned to Bella's house, I decided to wait in the woods instead of in her room. She and Charlie were sitting at the kitchen table, playing cards, and I had a good view of them from my hiding place in the branches of an ancient spruce.

Bella seemed to be truly enjoying herself; she was laughing at a story Charlie had just told her, and her cheeks were a becoming shade of pink. As Charlie was dealing out another game, Bella sneaked a glance at the kitchen clock and her eyes widened when she saw the time; it was already past ten. Her gaze shifted to the ceiling and her blush grew, causing me to smile: she was thinking about me. She turned her attention back to the card game, still smiling and talking to her father, but she threw in a few yawns as she played.

"It's getting late, Dad. Why don't we turn in after this one?"

I felt a pang of guilt. She was obviously enjoying her time with Charlie, and I didn't like being the reason that she was trying to end it. If it wasn't for this ridiculous restraining order, I could be in there too, enjoying a game night with my girlfriend and her father. But Charlie had never been comfortable with me, and after the events of the past week, this didn't look to be changing anytime soon. Although I spent a great deal of time at Bella's house, I always felt like an outsider when it came to scenes like the one before me now. No doubt Charlie would be more than happy to have Jacob Black sitting at the table with them tonight. He wouldn't have any trouble with Charlie, because he already had his trust and approval.

My hand gripped the branch in front of me more tightly as I thought of Jacob again. I was looking forward to telling Bella about the Quileutes tonight, though it would have to be an edited version. As much as I wanted to tell her about the possibility of Jacob being dangerous, this was no time to go against Carlisle's wishes; upholding the treaty was too important.

I felt disappointed that I couldn't tell her everything, and not just because I wanted to be forthcoming. Even in my fear earlier, I had been strangely pleased with the idea of forbidding Bella to be near Jacob again. It wasn't that I wanted to control her in any way; hadn't I just been reminding myself the other day about how I would have to let her go, when the time came? No, I simply needed to keep her safe, and this newest threat just happened to be one of her friends. One of her many admirers, I thought bitterly.

In the two times that I had observed Jacob's mind, his attraction to Bella had been obvious. And though his mind was nowhere near the gutter that Mike Newton's was, I still didn't like him spending time alone with her. Earlier tonight, when Bella had been telling me about her evening at the reservation, we had gotten sidetracked when she mentioned Billy's injudicious comments about Esme. I had never heard the rest of the story, and I still didn't know what had passed between them today. Had they really been alone in a tiny shed all those hours? Was the scent on her shirt because he had touched her? Had he touched her hair? The thought made me angry, though I understood that in this era, young men and women frequently touched, and even embraced, regardless of romantic involvement. In my day, it would have been frowned upon.

So this is why I was disappointed; until we could confirm our suspicions, I didn't have a decent excuse to ask Bella to keep her distance from Jacob. It was ridiculous to think that I could feel threatened by the boy, but I was; Jasper had been smirking at me even as I had the thought earlier. He confirmed the jealousy and fear that I felt, and I couldn't blame all of it on the possible presence of werewolves. It seemed I was more human than I had thought- it made sense that Bella was the one bringing out those human feelings. She always was.

And now I felt even more jealousy as I watched Bella from the shadows. I was jealous that Jacob had known Bella several years before I had. He had a history with her, and for the first time, I was glad that Bella hadn't spent the previous two summers in Forks, as she had done when she was younger. And now I was also jealous that Jacob had Charlie's approval. It was clear that he would be all too glad to see Bella turn away from me – toward him. The branch broke in my hands as an unwelcome memory surfaced: Jacob dancing with Bella at the prom. He had only come as a messenger for his father, but it was clear that he didn't mind enjoying himself while he delivered his message.

As they had danced, the thoughts of our classmates assaulted me: they look great together. I hadn't really minded at the time, knowing he had come reluctantly. But tonight, the memory made me uneasy. Even now, Charlie was remembering how happy Bella had looked when she and Jacob had rejoined him after the baseball game. He was thinking about it right now, even as he laid down his winning cards and Bella groaned her defeat.

Nice to see her having fun with a normal guy, for once. Maybe we could do it again next week.

Was he trying to drive me insane? But now Bella was standing up, stretching her back and telling Charlie goodnight. I instantly forgot my brooding and eagerly ran around the side of the house, scaling up the siding to her window. We reached her room at the same time, and when she broke into her usual smile upon seeing me, I couldn't help feeling a little smug; she hadn't smiled that big when Charlie saw her with Jacob.

"I'm going to need some comforting tonight, you know," she pouted. "Charlie just kicked my butt six to three."

I had her in my arms before she had finished her sentence, and I reveled in the cleanness of her scent; all traces of the stench were gone. I bent to kiss her, but she was eager, and too soon, I had to end it. She had definitely been faking the tiredness before. As I pulled away her pulse was erratic and she was standing on her tiptoes to reclaim my lips.

"You don't need comforting," I teased. "In fact, I think this is the happiest I've seen you all week."

As soon as the words left my lips, they echoed again in my head. Had this day been the best because of her visit to La Push tonight?

"That's because this is the third time I've gotten to see you today," she said softly, leaning her face on my shoulder. Then she looked back up at me with a sly grin. "That's not too bad, considering you being here is illegal."

My hands relaxed against her back; I hadn't even noticed they were clenched into fists until now. I needed to stop worrying so much about Jacob–he wasn't worth the effort. I pushed away the images I had been brooding over, and returned Bella's secretive smile.

"Well, we had best make good use of this clandestine visit, then. I believe I promised you a history lesson?"

After she had brushed her teeth, I tucked her under the covers, and stretched out beside her. I began the story back in 1935, and she was soon laughing at my account of Emmett's newborn "adventures". I had intended to gloss over the part about why we had to move again so soon after settling in Tennessee, but as usual Bella picked up on all the wrong details. When I gave a brief account of Emmett's first "accident", she hardly flinched. She knew by now that most of us had made mistakes at one point or another, and she was gracious as always. I quickly moved on to the part she had asked about, and she began asking more questions as I talked. I had just been describing our first meeting with Ephraim Black and the others, and was explaining that we were only first able to communicate via my mind reading.

"Why did you have to do that? Didn't they speak English?" she asked.

"They couldn't speak at all," I said slowly. How would she respond to the news? I picked up her hand and continued on, watching her carefully. "They couldn't speak because they weren't in their… human form at the time."

Bella just stared back at me for a moment, and I briefly wondered if she thought I was joking- especially when she burst out laughing a moment later. "You mean the werewolves were real?" she asked, between giggles.

"Yes. I'm glad you think it's so amusing, although we didn't at the time." My sarcasm belied my pride in her response; once again, she had managed to react in completely the wrong way. Was she afraid of anything?

"I'm sorry," she said, attempting to straighten her face. "It's just that it's so funny that Jacob doesn't believe any of this. For all he knows, they might have been his ancestors!"

I cleared my throat and continued before she could continue that line of thought. I told her about the tense negotiations that had taken place, and the treaty that had been drawn up. She asked more questions, and I found myself sharing everything that I knew about werewolves: our natural enmity, their physical qualities, their role in the tribal government… it felt good to talk to her about it. She already knew so much about my world- more than any human should, of course- and it was nice to finally let her in on one of the bigger secrets my family had been holding back. I had learned a great deal about the wolves by reading their minds back in the thirties, and I knew far more about them than they would have liked.

I was just about to explain the phenomenon of the pack mind when Bella's eyelids finally started to droop. I drew the covers up further until they were tucked around her chin, and I laid a gentle kiss on her brow. I reached over to turn off her bedside lamp, and began humming her lullaby.

I was sure she was asleep when I heard her whisper my name.

"Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"What happened to the werewolves in the end?"

"When they stop phasing, they began to age again. They died of old age long ago." I was guessing at this point. I knew about the aging from having overheard one the wolves think about it back then, but I had no idea if this had really happened. It was entirely possible that some of the wolves living today were the same ones we had encountered before.

"So… what about now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean now, today. Are there still werewolves in La Push?"

"We're not sure. When we first moved back, we wondered about it, but we found no evidence to suggest that they still existed. I thought I had found a trace of their scent once, but I was never really certain that it was the same scent." I just neglected to mention that this just occurred today, and that Bella herself was the source of the scent. It wasn't a lie.

Bella's brow was wrinkled as she thought, and for the millionth time, I tried in vain to push my way into her mind. Was she remembering my reaction to her scent earlier tonight? What was she going to ask me next? I decided the best defense was a good offense.

"Bella, in telling you all this, I am technically breaking the treaty. Do you understand?"

"Oh, it's not like it wasn't already broken," she said easily. "But don't worry, I'm getting pretty good at this acting stuff."

"You are."

She smiled at my approval, and a moment later, the smile was still on her face as she began dreaming. Would her dreams be frightening tonight? I scooted until I was half-reclining next to her, and began humming her lullaby again as I reached out my finger and gently traced her smile.

I would never tire of watching Bella sleep. Her skin had picked up a hint of color in these early days of summer, and the sun had lightened her hair a shade. The overall effect was breathtaking; she was just as beautiful, but the subtle change in her coloring, and the tan blanket wrapped over her reminded me of the effect that photographs used to have back in the twenties. Laying as still as she was now, it was as if I had captured her beauty in sepia, and could hang the picture on a wall, where her youth would remain unaltered forever. Immortality, as it was meant to be.

But Bella was not immortal. Her beauty was all the more real because it was always changing. I had already observed changes in her appearance and voice since we had met; Bella was aging. In many ways, she was still growing into adulthood, and her beauty was a flower that opened more fully each day. Her mortality was beautiful, so unlike my frozen stillness; how I wished that like her, I could change with the seasons, grow, age…

Of course the irony was that she had made me mortal, as well. My days were numbered now, whereas before Bella, eternity had stretched out before me, an endless, monotonous horizon that could never be reached. Now I knew that I only had perhaps seventy years left to my life, and the thought was comforting. The idea of living in a world where Bella didn't exist wasn't just unthinkable, it was unknowable. I couldn't comprehend why anybody would want to live in such an empty, desolate place. As far as I was concerned, the world itself had no business continuing after Bella's eyes closed for the last time. What would be the point?

As I watched her face, I allowed myself just a moment of indulgence as I pictured Bella as Alice had seen her: transformed, like me. Her soft beauty, chiseled to statuesque perfection, her eyes a brilliant red- no, I altered the vision so her eyes would match mine. Her hands were pale and cold, and they tangled in my own forever, our gold wedding rings never warming to our touch. For a second, I had the tiniest glimpse of what our wedding day would be like: the exact scene that Charlie had been picturing back in the police station, altered only by the changes in Bella's appearance that I was now imagining. It was what Alice wanted; it was what I wanted, if I was brutally honest. Bella would say, might even believe that it's what she would want. If my daydreams of our both-human love were wistful, this new daydream was forbidden, and I dashed it from my mind.

Because that's all it was, a dream. I had been so close to destroying her life on the first day we had met, and now that she wanted me to destroy it, I found that I couldn't. I had no idea where my own soul was, so there was no way I could jeopardize hers. But more than that, my reverence for her life wouldn't allow it. It was the most sacred thing on this earth, and her willingness to throw it away made me all the more determined to protect it. It was painful to deny her the one thing she asked of me, when I wanted to give her so much- but like Charlie had said, sometimes the most loving thing to do is to say no.

I had been in agony earlier today, when I was afraid for her life. Because of this, she seemed even more fragile tonight than usual. I reached out again to touch her cheek, and brushed aside a stray lock of hair. My fingers drifted down to her throat, resting on the pulse that had once tormented me. Now, it was my salvation, my reason to live another day. Even with the slight tan that she had picked up, the skin of her throat still had a translucent quality. Silk over glass…

In all the decades of living with the three couples in my family, I had never understood how their love was able to stay so fresh, so new- but now I understood. Bella had altered my stone heart forever, and I would always see her with the eyes of first love. The only change would be that the love would continue to grow, swelling each time I learned something new about her, each time she grew in some way… even when she grew out of me.

I quietly got up and moved to the rocking chair, sitting down to watch her as I had done back in March, back when I was still afraid to touch her. I sat motionless for the remainder of the night, watching in awe as my mortal angel slept.