Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns everything in the Twiverse. No copyright infringement intended.

A/N: As promised, here is the chapter you've all been waiting for. I hope I did it justice.

Chapter 22: Edward Has a Question

Edward's POV

"Chug-a-lug! Chug-a-lug!"

Just after sunset on Christmas day, Alice and Bella were chanting and banging on the kitchen table with their fists. Esme was standing by with a hefty pile of dish towels, waiting to clean up the mess, while Carlisle tried in vain to hide his amusement.

During a commercial break of the Christmas Story marathon that Emmett insisted we watch, Bella had finished her third cup of eggnog, causing Emmett to wonder what it tasted like. As Jasper never missed an opportunity to challenge Emmett, they raced to the kitchen to prove which of them could better hold their eggnog. Alice must have seen this battle of the boneheads coming because Esme had ten cases of the revolting stuff on hand.

Emmett was on his fourth gallon and showed no signs of slowing down, while Jasper was taking his time on his third. The room was dripping with eggnog and insults, and my family was all in high spirits. But my full attention was on Bella, as tonight was the night that I would ask her to be my wife.

After I survived her father's vivid and rather sadistic description of what would befall me if any harm ever came to his daughter, my mind immediately shifted toward when, where, and how I would propose. Thankfully my family was staying out of it, save the occasional appearance of random romantic comedy DVDs on my bed. While the proposals in Serendipity and Sweet Home, Alabama were special in their way, I wanted to do something different for Bella.

As a result, the next several days slipped by without my notice. The next thing I knew, we were being dismissed from school for Winter Break and Alice was playing her boy-band Christmas CDs ad nauseum. At least Bella's gift had been purchased in the summer: a handwritten rough draft of Wuthering Heights complete with ink blots and a discarded idea for a posthumous letter to Heathcliff from Cathy. Although Bella wasn't keen on receiving gifts, I hardly thought she could refuse something so priceless.

Bella had spent Thanksgiving with Charlie while the Cullens distributed food baskets to impoverished families in Seattle, so Christmas week she was ours. Before Charlie went to La Push—Bella had insisted that he not spend the holiday at the police station—he had given Bella her present. The gold locket with a picture of her in his arms as an infant had brought tears to both their eyes and solidified their closeness.

According to Bella, her gift to me wasn't ready yet, but there was nothing I could possibly want more than her acceptance of my proposal. And as I watched her laughing at my idiot brothers, surrounded by the cheers and chants of the rest of my family, I realized that I couldn't wait any longer.

Alice saw my resolve in her mind and nodded at me, but it was Rosalie who brought the contest to an end. She sidled up to Emmett from her perch at the window and whispered, "I'm bored, Emmy. Isn't there anything else you'd rather be doing right now?"

Emmett dropped the carton he was chugging and grabbed Rosalie's hand. "You win, Bro," he smirked at Jasper as he and his wife flew out the front door. Esme caught the carton before it hit the floor, and Alice smiled at her husband. "Let's get you out of those wet things." Bella laughed as my siblings left the room and offered to help Esme clean up.

"Nonsense." My mother waved her off. "This is nothing compared to the mud pie incident."

Bella raised an eyebrow at me, and I shook my head. "Don't look at me! I was at Cambridge at the time."

"A likely story," she smiled.

I led her toward the living room, my nerves increasing with each step. "There's something I'd like to show you." I took her hands and stopped next to the wall sconce. "Would you like to see it?"

Her eyes lit up, and she nodded with an ever-widening smile.

"Okay." I lifted her up and fastened her legs around my waist. She held on to my neck on instinct, and I kissed her once before raising my hand. "Hold on."

Bella's high-pitched squeal was swallowed into the floor as the tile beneath us disappeared. When we reached the floor of my secret apartment, I could feel Bella's curiosity growing.

"Where are we?" she asked as I led her down the dimly lit corridor.

"My former home-away-from-home."

We stepped into the front room, and from her perspective, I saw it for the first time. The slate gray walls felt stark and cold. The bookshelves with their thick, obtrusive volumes were defensive and off-putting. Even the pool table that Carlisle and Esme had designed and built themselves seemed more like a torture device than a source of diversion.

This was my life before Bella.

Bella's eyes vacillated between me and various parts of my suite. She was intrigued as she scanned the titles on the bookshelves and ran her hands along the solitary leather chair. But she wouldn't be distracted too long by the trivial; I knew she wanted to go further.

"It's all right." I released her hand. "You can ask me anything."

She passed through the first room and came to a stop in front of a painting on the wall behind the desk. "What is this?"

"This is the house of my childhood," I said. "The only place I ever lived as a human."

Her eyes absorbed the watercolored lines of my boyhood home as if they were seeking lost pieces of me. "Where did it come from?"

"Esme wanted to do something nice for me once Carlisle brought her into our family," I explained. "So she went to my house and studied it to paint from memory. It was meant to be comforting," I added as an afterthought.

She picked up one of the photos on the desk. "These are your parents," she whispered.

"Their wedding photo," I said. "Carlisle retrieved it along with some other things before we left town."

Bella studied them, her eyes scanning my mother's face. "You look like her."

The image of Bella looking at my mother's picture made my heart ache. A profound longing for the first woman I ever loved choked me, and I couldn't speak. Bella must have sensed this because she placed the stained-glass frame back on the table. "Is there more?"

I opened the steamer trunk next to the desk and showed her the baby blanket my paternal grandmother had knit for me. The silver-toned brush that had tamed my mother's unruly hair, all of my jewelry, and the fountain pen from my father's desk. Trinkets from my past cradled in the warm, compassionate hands of my future bride.

Bella reverently placed each item back in the trunk and closed the lid, murmuring what sounded like a prayer under her breath. She then took my hand and led me into my bedchamber.

She smirked at the oversized leather sofa and piles of composition paper on the floor but stopped in her tracks as she looked at the walls.

"Did you do this?" she asked in a whisper.

"Yes."

I turned on the lamp so she could better see the damage. Her delicate hand touched each of the twenty-three, fist-sized holes as she circled the room. "Why?"

I expected outrage, disappointment even. But her compassion, her decision to offer comfort instead of judgment unraveled me, and for the second time in mere minutes, I was unable to reply.

She turned at my silence and lowered herself onto my leather lounger. "Tell me."

Her gentle eyes drew me in, and I hesitantly joined her on the sofa, our knees touching. My eyes landed on a minor discoloration in the knee of her jeans and stayed there.

"Carlisle is the only one who has ever come down here," I said absently. "Esme was here when she created the space, but since its completion, Carlisle is the only one I have ever invited down here. He was always able to see through me, even from the very beginning, and that initial bond was sacred to me.

"He recently told me that he had changed me selfishly, that for decades, he had felt guilty for wanting me. But what he did not know, what I could not have admitted to myself was that I craved his covetousness. I wanted there to be a deeper purpose behind my transformation, to know that I hadn't been damned to this existence solely as a favor to a dying mother who would no longer be here to love me through it."

Bella's breathing changed, but I could not look at her. I had to keep talking before my courage faltered.

"I was thrilled when Carlisle found Esme. I felt as if I had recovered and improved upon the human family I had lost, as the closeness I shared with Carlisle eclipsed the nonexistent relationship I'd had with my father.

"But then Carlisle tried to give me Rosalie. And that," I shook my head ruefully, "was the only bad decision he has ever made. I resented Rosalie for expecting my affection, but I hated myself for not wanting her. I began to wonder if she were right, that maybe there was something wrong with me. My lack of interest in Tanya, Irina, and every other female who crossed my path only worsened my plight.

"And then Alice and Jasper showed up, and a fresh hell was unleashed. Now we were a family of seven: three perfectly matched couples and one freak." Bella winced at the term but didn't interrupt. "A freak who could read their tender minds as they engaged in superficial tête-à-têtes. A freak who could hear their passionate, fearless lovemaking night after night, a freak who was doomed to roam the earth alone without ever experiencing even a hint of such intimacy. And sometimes, that lonely reality made me angry enough to strike the walls around me.

"But then came you." I raised my eyes to hers, not surprised to find them wet. "Like the rising sun on the morning of creation, you brought light into the void that was my life. You, this self-proclaimed clumsy girl, became the only source of stability I had ever known. You, who had every good reason to hate me from day one, offered me your heart and every perfect feeling it contained. You, this angel of a woman, showed me the meaning of life, the power of love, and the possibility of felicity. You became my reason for forsaking my misery, transcending my existence, and becoming the sort of man you so richly deserved. I am far off the mark and remain mystified by your stubborn devotion, but I promise you that I will never stop trying, never stop reaching, and never grow weary in my quest to love you more than any woman has ever been loved before… if you let me."

I slid off the couch to kneel at Bella's feet as she watched me wordlessly. Closing my eyes, lest her loveliness distract me, I reached for the small velvet box under the couch. I'd slipped down here last night to place the ring, knowing we would eventually wind up here.

"I had considered offering you something of my mother's," I whispered. "Some rare antique to supplement your naturally beautiful hand. Then I decided that a unique, once-in-a-lifetime woman warrants a unique, once-in-a-lifetime ring."

I opened the box, and Bella gasped. The curving tendrils of the platinum band embraced eighteen miniature rubies and emeralds. Upon closer inspection, the carved metal revealed my full initials and hers joined by the Roman representation of this amazing year that had brought us together. The modified prong setting curled around the two-karat center stone, perfectly displaying its splendor. The ring was delicate and strong, beautiful and timeless. Just like the woman who would soon be wearing it.

"I offer you rubies because my passion for you will never subside and for the courage you show in choosing me. I offer you emeralds because with you, my hope is renewed, my future is bright, and I have been reborn. I offer you a diamond because I am eternally and unyieldingly yours and because your love has showered my life with brilliance and beauty. And I offer you my heart because in the absence of everything else, it is all that I have."

I cleared my throat as my emotions rattled my voice. "Isabella Marie Swan, will you marry me?"

Bella's heart was racing faster and harder than I'd ever heard it. And except for the tears streaming down her face, she was perfectly still. My soul was quivering, fearing that my declaration and the sight of this space had been too much and that she would yet refuse the thing I wanted most in this world.

But abruptly, amazingly, she lifted her head and nodded once, then twice, and then three and four times before finally throwing herself into my arms.

"Yes, Edward!" She kissed me everywhere at once. "Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes!"

Her laughter and tears covered me in joy, and I was soon crying and laughing with her, enraptured and bewildered by her love. I held Bella as tightly as I dared, spinning her around once as she screamed in delight. We kissed and laughed and kissed some more before Bella began slapping my arm, willing me to stop moving.

I put her on the floor as she wiped her damp face and held out her left hand. "I believe you have forgotten something, Mr. Cullen," she grinned.

"You are right." I plucked the ring from its cushy box and slid it onto her finger. "My apologies, the future Mrs. Cullen."

Bella squealed and kissed me again before running toward the full-length mirror on my modest closet door. Her yelps and cries of happiness as she wiggled her finger nearly brought me to tears again, and I collapsed on my couch, indulging myself on the sight before me.

Alice's vision had nothing on this reality. Bella was now my fiancée, my exuberant, exquisite fiancée, and nothing would ever look the same to me again.

—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—o—

"Bella?"

She was curled against my side on the leather sofa. "Hmmm?"

"Will you marry me?"

She giggled as if she'd never heard the question before. "Yes!"

For the next two days, Bella and I never left my underground lair. Once I'd decided to pop the question down there, I snuck away while she was sleeping to add a small refrigerator and microwave to the second room, groceries, and a supply of her clothes. I hadn't known if Bella would be frightened or fascinated by my secret space, but I knew that if she accepted my ring, I would not have wanted to let her leave for any reason. Not right away.

So we stayed cocooned two stories below the rest of the world, completely ignoring it save one call to Esme. She and Carlisle had access to the lone landline that ran to my suite in case of an emergency, and we'd told them the news together. Esme's screams nearly popped Bella's eardrum, and Carlisle had been forced to cover her mouth. Bella promised to resurface in a few days to tell Charlie in person, and my parents promised to keep Alice away until we returned to the house.

And every time I looked at Bella's left hand, I felt the urge to confirm what its third finger suggested.

"Love?"

She was sitting on the floor reading my sheet music, humming to herself. "Yes, Edward?"

"Will you marry me?"

She looked up and grinned. "You just try and stop me."

After the fourth consecutive confirmation, I usually swept her away from whatever she was doing and cradled her in my arms, overwhelmed with glee and gratitude. Bella did not stop smiling from the moment I proposed, and I never wanted us to leave my apartment.

But on the morning of the third day, Bella was sitting on my lap twisting her ring. Her sigh was heavy, and I knew what she was going to say.

"We have to go, don't we?" I asked.

"I don't want to," she admitted. "But I'm sure that Esme has run out of legitimate reasons to explain why I haven't called Charlie back. And Alice is probably about to burst."

I kissed her hand. "I suppose you're right."

"We can always come back," she said hopefully. "Right?"

I glanced around my room and marveled. This dark shrine to the past used to be my personal sarcophagus, the tomb in which I mourned my nonexistent life. But with Bella's love and understanding here, it had finally become the sanctuary I had always desired, a place where I truly felt peace.

"Yes, Love." I kissed her softly. "We will come back."

We walked up the sloping corridor toward the back door that let us out a few miles away from the house. As we stepped into the morning light of the forest, Bella turned to me. "Do we have to back right now?"

"No." She began blushing, and I was instantly curious. "Why?"

"Because—and don't think I'm a weirdo—but I was thinking that I'd like to go somewhere first."

Her cheeks were flaming as she fidgeted, and she had never looked so adorable. "Where?"

She smiled. "La Bella Italia?"

I was confused. "That restaurant in Port Angeles?" I asked.

She nodded vigorously, despite my frown. "Why?"

"Because…" Her eyes softened as she looked at her ring. "That's where our relationship really began, and I thought it would be, I don't know, fitting to have our first meal as an engaged couple there." She rolled her eyes. "It's silly, right?"

I cradled her face in my hands, touched by her sentimentality. "No. Like you, it is perfect."

She sighed. "Your bias is still out of control, but I don't even care. I'm engaged!" she shouted to the trees.

I laughed as her outburst scared a flock of birds above us and took her hand. "Then let us away to La Bella Italia."

I had asked Carlisle to bring the Volvo out here, knowing that we would need to drive back to the house. But the change in plans required me to stay out of my family's range a little longer, so we took the scenic route to Port Angeles. My eyes stayed fixed on Bella for the entire journey, and her blushes and smiles told me that she didn't mind one bit.

When we walked into the restaurant, Bella chuckled strangely.

"That's the flirty hostess from our first visit," she whispered.

The startled thoughts of the blonde before me confirmed Bella's suspicions. Oh, my gosh… he's back! And damn, he's more gorgeous than ever. But why the hell is he still with her? Must be a pet project or something.

Her dismissal of Bella made me angry, and I determined to set her in her place. I took Bella by her left hand and led her toward the hostess stand.

"Good morning," I purred. "I would like your best, most secluded table for me and my fiancée."

The hostess visibly started at the last word, and her mind stuttered in jealousy. As she forced a smile and produced two menus, I lifted Bella's hand and kissed it. The blonde dropped her professional façade and gaped at Bella's ring. "Is that real?" she asked.

"Yes," Bella said calmly, angling her hand for Blondie's inspection. "Would you like a closer look?"

The hostess grimaced as the jewels on Bella's ring shimmered beneath the lights. It really was perfectly suited to her hand. "That won't be necessary," she deadpanned. "I'll show you to your table."

Whether by design or coincidence, she led us to our original table and dropped the menus on its surface. "Your server will be out soon."

Bella and I were too enamored to mind her rudeness, so after we settled into our seats, our hands immediately drifted toward each other. I caressed her left hand, shaking my head. "I cannot believe you said yes."

"What did you think I was going to say?" she asked.

"Oh, I don't know," I said casually. "Maybe 'Not in a million years' or 'Not even if you begged' or 'Not unless your life depended in it.' Something along those lines."

"I'm sorry about that," she smiled. "You must have been so anxious."

"You have no idea," I said seriously, causing her to laugh aloud.

An older male server came to take our order, and not surprisingly, Bella ordered mushroom ravioli and two Cokes. He noticed Bella's ring and our goofy smiles and congratulated us. He and his wife had been married for thirty-two years, and he wished us the best of luck. "But I have a feeling you two won't need luck," he said as he collected our menus. "The strength of your bond is obvious."

I never thought that I would care what a stranger thought of my relationship with Bella. But the unexpected blessing from this older married gentleman touched my heart in a peculiar way. It was as if we not only had support in the mythical world, but there were humans who also believed in us. And that was a comforting notion.

"You know," Bella said after he left. "I was terrified when we were here the last time."

I thought about her four attackers, still wishing they were dead rather than rotting in jail. "I remember."

"Not that," she said to my somber tone. "I was terrified of you."

I sighed. "I can understand why."

"Wrong again. Don't you know me by now, silly boy?" I smiled at her tone, refusing to let my penchant for melancholy ruin the day. "I was terrified that you wouldn't let me in, that you would try to keep me away from you and never show me who you really were."

"I thought about it," I admitted. "I had wrestled and tortured myself with all the negative possibilities of being with you. But in the end," I raised my eyes to hers, "I realized that I loved you too much to let you go. Showing up in Port Angeles gave me a legitimate excuse to reveal myself to you, but even without that unfortunate incident, I would have invented a reason. Before I even knew what was happening to me, I wanted you to know me, wanted you to see me as I longed to see myself. And more than anything, I wanted you with me, to be mine and no one else's. I had never before been so selfish."

Bella reached across the table and touched my hand as she had done all those months ago. "And I have never been so grateful that you were so selfish."

The waiter appeared at our table, clearing his throat. "I hate to interrupt."

"Thank you," we said together, our eyes still locked as he placed Bella's food in front of her.

"Enjoy," the server winked, and his thoughts revealed that he was referring to more than just the food.

I eventually released Bella's hand to allow her to eat, and she had taken only four bites before her cell phone rang, the tinkling chimes signaling who was calling. I smiled, knowing that we had held her off long enough.

"Hi, Alice," Bella smiled with a mouthful of food. "I… We… Yes!" Bella finally said. "We are indeed engaged!"

The second of the Cullen women screamed into my fiancée's ear, and I decided then and there to have Emmett tinker with her phone to add some sort of muffler.

Alice was speaking so quickly that I doubted Bella understood any of it. But her mirth spoke volumes, and that made her screeching tolerable.

"Yes… I know… They are?" Bella sighed. "Okay, we're coming. Just let me finish my food, okay? … Yes, yes… we promise. Okay… okay, Alice! Bye!" Bella laughed and put her phone in her pocket. "We've gotta go home. They've waited as long as they could."

Bella finished her meal and primly wiped her mouth with the napkin. I paid the bill, leaving a generous tip for our waiter, and looked across the table at my eventual bride. "Are you ready to face the music?"

"No," she grinned. "But let's go anyway!"

As we drove back to the house, Bella was silently vibrating. Her excitement was infectious, and I found that I needed to concentrate much harder than usual to keep the car between the proper lines on the road. For the first time in my existence, I was profoundly happy and could not wait to share that happiness with my parents and siblings.

Their thoughts entered my listening range, and I wasn't surprised to hear my name and Bella's cross their collective minds so frequently. But as I paid more attention, there were other thoughts that made less sense to me.

The caterer assured me that the quiche would be vegan. I hope everyone likes it.

This is getting me excited for when Rosie and me do it again next summer.

Thank God the mild weather will hold. Otherwise, our guests might get too cold in the tent.

I began to drive faster, their confusing musings urging me steadily onward. And as I got close enough to see and hear what was going on, I brought the car to an immediate halt.

Assorted utility trucks and vans were parked in the driving lanes around our home. Thousands of white sparkling lights were being suspended from the trees, while another group of men carried white padded folding chairs into the house. And in the side yard, the very place where Bella and I had reunited a few months ago, an enormous white tent was being erected, large enough to fit at least one hundred people.

And then, I heard their voices... they were asking questions that only prompted more questions in my mind.

"Did Charlie's tuxedo fit?"

"Where is the aisle runner?"

"What time are the guests arriving?"

I had gotten out and walked toward the front door, barely mindful of my limbs. The hustle and bustle continued inside the house, and I was too flabbergasted to speak. As a host of strangers ghosted all around us, I remembered that Bella was beside me.

"You asked me a question the other night." Her gentle, teasing tone turned my head toward her. "And now I have a question for you."

She took my hands and gazed into my startled eyes. "Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, will you marry me tonight?"

Oooooooooh, did you see that coming? I hope you all are as shocked as Edward is. Please review and tell me what you think of Bella's surprise.