Bella's POV
I'd been staring out the car window for hours, watching the scenery pass by, when Edward's voice startled me out of my daydream-like state.
"Bella?"
Looking over at the man behind the wheel, I saw that he had his hand out, palm up. I reached over and slid my hand into his, feeling warmth spread over me when he smiled and pulled our hands to rest on his thigh.
"Are you all right, love?" he asked, looking at me once more before turning his head back to the road stretching out in front of us.
"I'm okay. Just thinking of all the goodbyes," I explained quietly.
Edward gave my hand a squeeze as my head turned back to the window and my thoughts drifted once more.
~*~FC~*~
"Got everything?" Charlie asked, patting the top of Carlisle's Mercedes gently.
I smiled, nodding. "That's it. Just us and Lizzie," I said, glancing at the baby, who was wide awake and watching the commotion around us as best she could.
He reached for her, and with a cooing gurgle, she went to him willingly. "You be good for your momma," he said sternly, but with a soft grin in place.
When he bent his head down to press a kiss to her forehead, her little hands flailed, grabbing ahold of his mustache, which was still the same dark it had always been, with the addition of a few gray strands sprinkled throughout.
Charlie quickly removed her fingers, smoothing down the prickly hairs, and grinned at her. "Yes, you've got quite the grip, don't you, Lizzie girl?"
With one last kiss, he handed her over to Sue and then turned to me. "Be safe, Bells," he said, his voice rough as he pulled me in for a quick hug.
I nodded, blinking hard to try to force away the feeling that I needed to cry.
We made the rounds, getting hugs from everyone. I watched Edward and my father share a moment away from the group, and Edward's firm tone of voice and honest words when he promised to protect us with his life had me nearly bolting for fear of letting out the emotion I was suddenly overcome with.
A wave of calm washed over me, and I took a deep breath, feeling my tense muscles relax. Looking over at Jasper, I smiled, tilting my head in acknowledgment and thanks. He smiled before climbing into the Jeep's passenger seat beside Emmett.
After one last hug to Sue, Charlie, Seth, and Jacob, I buckled Lizzie—who was quickly winding down and struggling to keep her eyes open—into her car seat in the back, gave her the pacifier, and then slid into the front beside Edward. With a wave, we followed Carlisle in Rose's BMW toward the 101, which would lead us out of town.
~*~FC~*~
Glancing at the clock on the dash, I realized it was just after six in the morning. We'd been driving since around five o'clock the previous afternoon, only having to make a few stops to change Lizzie and fill up with gas. From Forks to Spokane, Carlisle had stayed just over the speed limit, knowing if we drove like the Cullens normally did, we would attract too much attention because of traffic on the roads. But after ten o'clock, he and Edward had felt relatively safe in increasing our speed, which meant that we were already crossing the border into North Dakota.
The sun was beginning to lighten the night sky, and I knew from here on out, we were going to have to be careful. Alice had assured us that we'd be able to continue driving. We had another eight hundred miles or so to travel, but it would have to be at the lower speed, due to traffic.
After a glance back at Lizzie, who was beginning to stir, I turned back to face the radio, letting go of Edward's hand long enough to find a new station. I needed something up tempo, instead of the soothing jazz we'd been listening to. When I found a classic rock station playing a "Power Women in Rock and Roll History" marathon, I did a little bounce in my seat. Pat Benatar, Tina Turner, Joni Mitchell...and more current, Alicia Keys and Britney Spears. Just what I needed to take my mind off Forks.
~*~*~FC~*~*~
Edward's POV
Bella was quiet all the way through Washington and Montana. I was worried about her state of mind—not being able to hear inside her head was something I was having to get used to again—but rather than try to coax it out of her, I was leaving her to her thoughts for now. Eventually, we'd have to talk about it, but she was an adult. If she wanted to talk, I knew she'd tell me. Until then, I'd be here for her however she needed me.
For the almost five hours it took to cross North Dakota, Bella sang along with the radio, hopping back and forth between the front seat beside me and the back seat beside Lizzie. There was no danger with her climbing around the car while I was driving—if we somehow wrecked, there was virtually nothing that could happen to her—and it was faster to do that than stop every time Lizzie needed her mom. Not that we'd had to worry about that much. Lizzie was a dream traveler. I'd been on many planes, trains, and buses with infants, and I knew how awful traveling with them could be. But Lizzie was a calm baby, only truly fussing when she was hungry or needed her diaper changed. We stopped every time to change her and a few times to feed her, just to get her out of the seat for a while, but most of the time, Bella just left her in the seat and fed her that way. When she was dry and full, she was usually content to watch the toys hanging on the handle of her car seat or watch Bella in the mirror we'd clipped up so we could see her from our seats in the front.
My phone rang, Motley Crue's "Dr. Feelgood" blaring out of the speaker.
"Emmett!" I growled, shaking my head when Bella giggled. I could see Emmett in the car behind us, laughing his ass off.
Pressing the button on my Bluetooth to answer, I said, "Yes, Carlisle?"
"I need to stop up here for gas. You guys want to stop or go on ahead?"
I looked over at Bella. "Do we need to stop?"
Looking at the clock, she said, "Yeah, about time for Lizzie's bottle anyway, so I could get her out and feed her."
"We'll stop with you," I relayed to Carlisle, even though I knew he'd heard her.
"All right. There should be a place outside of Fargo that'll work," he said before clicking off.
"'Dr. Feelgood,' huh?" Bella asked with a grin.
I rolled my eyes. "Apparently, Emmett got into my phone again before we left."
"Mmhmm," she teased, her eyes glinting playfully.
Just then, 2 Live Crew's "Face Down, Ass Up" had her scrambling for the phone. I started laughing, watching her fumble for the thing to shut it off. Not only had Emmett messed with the ringtone, he'd turned up the volume so the sucker was on high.
Bella glared at me before turning her attention back to the phone and Emmett. "You little shit," she hissed. "You could've woken up Lizzie."
I raised an eyebrow, looking back to the baby through the rear view mirror. Lizzie was wide awake, sucking hard on her pacifier as she watched the little stuffed stars, moon, and sun swing in front of her, just within her reach. When I looked back at Bella, she just winked.
"Sorry!" Emmett said quickly. "I didn't mean to, Bellsy!" He sounded truly worried.
Finally, Bella gave up the pretense and chuckled. "Just kidding, bear boy," she teased. At his sputter, she snorted. "That's what you get for that stupid song and putting it on loud."
Emmett laughed. "Okay, okay. Anyway, you guys are stopping, right?"
"Yep," Bella answered. "You guys?"
"If you are, we are," he said. "Just in case."
Bella nodded. "Thanks, Em."
"Always, Bells."
Bella hung up the phone, smiling fondly and shaking her head. "I suppose we're going to have to go through all these and see what else he screwed with, huh?"
I laughed, nodding. "I would. Who knows what he did."
Over the next several minutes, Bella called out the songs Emmett had used on her phone—"Rhinestone Cowboy" for Jasper, "Supermodel" for Rose, and Lady Gaga's "Fashion" for Alice. Thankfully, he'd left Esme and all of Bella's other friends and family alone. After making sure everything was back to how she wanted it, Bella climbed into the back seat so she wouldn't have to get out at the gas station.
When we pulled into the Stop-N-Go, I said, "I'm gonna go ahead and fill up. Do you need anything for Lizzie?"
"We have enough water for one more bottle, so we should be okay."
I thought a moment as I waited for a free pump. "I'll go ahead and get a new bottle in case we have to stop somewhere without access."
She nodded, smiling, before turning her attention back to the baby.
Once I'd filled up the car, I parked and left Emmett and Carlisle with Bella and walked in with Jasper to get the water and pay for the gas.
How's she doing? Jasper asked silently.
"She's doing okay," I said with a shrug. "She was quiet for a long stretch of the drive."
He nodded. "Well, if it helps, all I got from her when I said hello before following you in here was excitement and happiness. A little bit of nerves, but nothing sad or upsetting."
I smiled, looking back out at the car. "Yeah, I think she's happy about seeing the girls."
In his head, Jasper said, I talked to Alice, who said she didn't see anything to worry about, so...
Giving him a nod to show I'd heard him, I grabbed a bottled water from the refrigerated case, and we made our way to the counter. There was no line, so once the guy rang us up—with a wary look on his face the whole time—we walked back out to the cars.
"Okay, we should only have to fill up once more before getting to the house," Carlisle said. "You doing okay, sweetheart?" he asked, looking at Bella, who smiled and nodded. "Good. Let's get going, then."
"Wait!" Bella said, grinning up at me. "I wanna drive."
~*~*~FC~*~*~
Bella's POV
Somehow, I was able to convince Edward to let me drive the rest of the way to Rhinelander. He'd been fine the last six hours, crawling back and forth between the front seat and Lizzie in the back. It was pretty funny to watch, though, since he was so much taller than I was. On one trip back to the back, he'd hit his head on the light on the ceiling and now owed Carlisle a new light cover and light bulb, since he'd cracked the original.
When we got into town, Carlisle led us on a detour, showing us around—per Alice's instructions, he'd said when Edward called him to ask why he was going the way he was. Now we were on the winding road that would lead us back to the house to the east of town. It was a good thing Carlisle was leading the way, though, because I'd have gotten thoroughly lost otherwise.
As they always did, Alice and Esme had found a house that was pretty well secluded. I knew it was close to a lake—although not right on it, for privacy's sake—and big. When I'd asked why we needed seven bedrooms and a guest house, Alice had patiently explained that of the extra bedrooms, one would be Carlisle's office, one would be Lizzie's nursery, and the third would be a second office-turned school room for when Lizzie was older; the guest house was for Charlie or the wolves if they came to visit. That had shut me up pretty quickly, and I'd swallowed any further protests, thanking them gracefully.
They'd sent pictures of the place once they had gotten up there, yet... Nothing could've prepared me for my first real glimpse of the house when we came around the final curve.
To say it was big would have been an understatement. It was three stories and made of the most gorgeous hand-hewn logs. I could see a wraparound deck that looked to span the entire way around the house, and there was a pretty stone chimney off to one side of a huge peaked roof. It was beautiful.
The minute I stopped the car, Alice, Rose, and Esme raced up from where they'd been waiting on the front steps, pulled me from my seat, and bombarded me with questions.
"How was the trip? Did Edward drive you crazy?" Alice nearly squealed.
More sedate than her sister, Rose asked quietly, "Did Lizzie do okay?"
I laughed. "The trip was okay. Long. No, I think he was probably ready to take back control of the car and the radio, though," I said, grinning at Alice, who nodded. "Lizzie was fine, Rose. She was good almost the whole way."
Esme pulled me into her arms and gave me a hug. "How are you, Bella?" she whispered, pulling back to look into my eyes. She looked worried for me.
Smiling, I gave her another hug and answered, "I'm doing okay. It was hard...saying goodbye...but I'm excited to start this next chapter in my life."
She nodded, patted my cheek once in a motherly gesture, and then turned to say hello to the boys and Carlisle.
Rose had already pulled Lizzie's car seat out of the car. The seat was now on the ground, but Lizzie was safely ensconced in her arms, looking wide-eyed up at Rose.
"Hey, Rose, would you mind carrying her in while I help the guys with unloading the cars?"
Rose looked up and smiled. "Sure, Bella. Here, I'll take that, too," she said, taking the car seat, which I'd already picked up.
As she turned with Esme to walk back into the house, Edward moved up beside me and pulled me back against his chest.
"Welcome home, love," he murmured into my ear. "Should we go see the rest of the house?"
I turned in his arms, wrapping my own around his neck and pulling him down until I could feel his sweet breath ghost over my face. As his eyes darkened, I murmured, "In a minute," barely getting the words out before his lips covered mine.
Suddenly, more than anything else, Edward's arms made me realize that all my fears from before were baseless. Forks, Rhinelander, or Timbuktu...it didn't matter where we were.
Edward was my home.
