Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters.
A/N: Thanks to katmom and Angelinia, who beta this story.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Graduation
As soon as Bella and Edward got to the Cullens' house after their exciting night, they were congratulated by everyone there and to Bella's horror Alice seemed to have decorations for this event. She was just glad that Emmett was still in Denali because he would have been teasing her all night for the blush that she was wearing. Still, she found that she liked how excited everyone seemed to be about this news and she was happy that for once the worry was out of not only Edward's eyes, but all of the Cullens as they celebrated their engagement.
It was spring break and Bella thought that this would be the perfect time to use the gift that Esme and Carlisle had given her for her last birthday. She and Edward went to visit her mom in Florida. It was a much better spring break than she had in the books as she was able to see her mom and relax even though Renee was able to see how close she and Edward were. She couldn't lie to her mom, especially knowing that she had practically figured it out, and on the last day of the vacation she told her mom that they were engaged.
Renee reacted slightly more shocked than she had in the book, but in the end she couldn't deny how much Edward and Bella loved each other and she was happy that her daughter was able to find that. Besides, she knew that Bella was mature enough to make this work far better than she was herself.
When they got back to Forks Bella tried to concentrate on her studies and with all the extra work she had to do because of the accident, plus the normal demands of the class she found that most of her time was spent on that. The only supernatural problem she had during that time was that Quil and Embry did in fact turn into wolves, but seeing as they liked the change, especially since they were able to be real friends with Jacob again she felt as if this was a good thing. However, Jacob was still a little pissed that because of Garrett's curiosity his friends had to go through this. Not to mention there was now a big discussion about what they should do about the Quil and Claire relationship. No one was sure if he should meet her at such a young age or not, and not being able to tell her parents (because they weren't to know about the wolves) it made it even more difficult for them to decide on what they should do.
Still, most of Bella's time was spent studying and whenever she had a spare moment she was with Edward. Bella had even allowed Edward to take her to prom again, because though he said he didn't care, she could tell that he really wanted to go. He had just been so stressed the last semester that she thought it would be nice for him to have a few hours to relax. After that there was another advance in their relationship. Though they had firmly decided that they weren't going to have sex until after they're married (Edward and his values) that didn't mean they couldn't progress farther than they had in the book (which they were both happy to explore).
When it came to graduation though, Alice insisted on having a huge party still, and no matter what Bella tried to say, she couldn't talk the little vampire out of it.
"You know, I don't even think this party is for me," Bella huffed on the night before graduation. She had passed all her classes with even better grades than Edward, as he couldn't make up all of his classes. Jasper had teased Edward about being the first one of them to get not only a B but to get three. Edward just rolled his eyes; it was clearly a good thing that Emmett still hadn't come home because he probably could have annoyed Edward more than anyone else.
"Then who is this party for?" Edward questioned.
"For all the kids at Forks," Bella said. "They're the ones that are going be entertained by all this... and they've wanted to see what the Cullens' house is like."
"I suppose you have a point, but I'm pretty sure this party is still for you," Edward chuckled and Bella rolled her eyes. "Are you nervous about graduating?"
"Not really," Bella said.
"Are you worried about what's going to happen in the future," Edward said. "I mean, becoming a vampire and mother and all of that?"
"A little," Bella admitted. "But I also can't wait for it to happen. And what about you, Edward, are you nervous about that?"
"No... I'm actually counting down the moments until then," Edward sighed, pulling her closer.
"You're still worried about some kind of danger coming for us," Bella sighed.
"Yes," he admitted. "I hate saying this, because I really do want to you experience things as a human, and it feels like wanting you to become a vampire quicker is wrong. But I'm terrified that if we just wait around something terrible is going to happen to you."
Bella sat up and stroked his face to try and get him to calm down, when he closed his eyes with slight smile she asked, "How long as this been bothering you?"
"Since Garrett came," Edward admitted. "Well, actually it was since the car accident, but the other incident made it almost unbearable..."
"That was months ago, why is this the first time I heard of this?" Bella questioned.
"Because I have more control over that fear now," Edward said. "If I said something before... I think it would only have tempted me more and this isn't something I wanted to happen."
"Does it help if I say that I thought of this too?" Bella asked leaning down again.
"Not really," Edward sighed and then started humming her lullaby.
"Are you trying to make me sleep?" Bella grumbled, he knew she almost always went to sleep when he started humming that.
"Alice would kill me if I kept you up all night and you didn't look perfect for your graduation," Edward chuckled and Bella sighed, letting herself drift off to sleep.
O
The next day Bella got ready and Charlie stared at her with pride. Just like in the books, he had insisted he be the one to drive her to the graduation, though he was happy to drive Bella's new car instead of the police cruiser. Edward came with them of course, and Charlie happily chatted about the car as they drove to the school. However, as soon as they got out of the car, he turned to Bella more seriously so he could express his pride with her in words.
"I'm so proud of you, kid," Charlie said clumsily, looking rather awkward. "Getting such good grades even after..." he paused there shuddering, "what happened... getting into Dartmouth. You did good, kid."
"Dad," Bella said blushing.
"I don't say this enough, Bells," Charlie sighed, "but I'm really glad you decided to come here, I'm happy that I got to..."
"You don't need to say anything for me to know this," Bella interrupted him with a smile. "I'm happy I decided to come here too."
"Well, that probably had something to do with him," Charlie said looking at Edward, who was talking toward Ben and Angela to give them some privacy.
"He's part of the reason," Bella admitted knowing that it was a big part of the reason that she was happy she moved to Fork, but that didn't make what she was going to say untrue. "But I really enjoyed living with you, Dad..."
"Okay, that's enough," Charlie said, turning red, but looking pleased. "You better go before you're late."
"Okay," Bella smiled at him before joining Edward and the others and heading off to the back stage. Bella found the ceremony to be nice, and of course she blushed when it was her turn to walk across the stage. Not only Charlie, Billy and Jacob cheered for her, but also all of the Cullens, including Emmett. He was making quite the scene and she could see the smirk on his face as she blushed more than before. After the ceremony and before she could leave with her dad to go to a restaurant, she was stopped by most of the Cullens.
"So when did you get back?" Bella tried to grumble after Emmett had given her a bear hug, but she was finding it to difficult not to smile at him when he was grinning like that.
"This morning. You didn't think that we would miss your graduation, did you, little sister?" Emmett chuckled. "I'm a little disappointed you didn't trip though..."
"You know it's things like that that make me wish you hadn't come," Bella huffed.
"Oh, you know you missed me," Emmett was still chuckling.
"Of course I did, big brother," Bella smiled at him and she hugged him again before she moved on to the other people who were congratulating her. Soon after that she found herself with Charlie and Edward at the Lodge, the restaurant that Charlie was fond of and not long after that they were at the Cullens' house, getting ready for the party.
The party wasn't as bad as she thought it was going to be, though she didn't really like all the attention she was getting. She was able to have fun with her friends. Jacob was even there, along with the other wolves who were starting to come around more to Cullens, though it was obvious that some of them would never more than tolerate them.
O
It was about a week after the party that Bella decided it was time to tell Charlie about her engagement to Edward. He took the news pretty well, though he seemed to think it would have been better if they could have waited a few years before doing this. He wasn't really surprised. He was annoyed when he found out that Bella had already told Renee, but besides grumbling about it under his breath he didn't mention it out loud.
Alice was now spending all of her time prepared for the wedding; so much so that Bella was afraid of what she had planned for this event. However, before she had too much time to do anything, something happened that put everything else on hold.
Alice's eyes went wide in horror as she saw them coming, three pairs of red eyes that seemed to be finding pleasure in the terror they were causing just by being there. She couldn't see more than that, but she knew it was bad enough.
"Alice?" Esme asked as they were working on the dress for Bella, who was insisting that it be the same one in the book, though she allowed Alice to make all other decision concerning the wedding. "What's the matter?"
"They're coming," Alice groaned her voice was so full of misery that Jasper, who had been beating Emmett in a game, was by her side a moment later, so he could calm her down.
"Who's coming?" Esme asked, but judging by her expression she knew who Alice was talking about.
"The Volturi!" Alice answered. "Jane, Felix and Demetri to be more precise."
"When?" Emmett asked, a second later he was in the room with them, and the next Carlisle and Rosalie were too.
"I'm not sure when, but it's soon," Alice sighed. "Em, could you call Edward and tell him to bring Bella here... we really need to decide what to do about this quickly."
"Right," Emmett said, and did as Alice said and twenty minutes later everyone was gathered around the dining room table looking serious.
"What's going on?" Bella asked as her eyes were on Edward and saw that he was looking angry and scared (not to mention the grip he had on her) about whatever it was that everyone was thinking about.
"It's the Volturi... they're coming," Alice explained.
"Why?" Edward asked this time. "They don't have any reason to came after us this time... we haven't done anything."
"I don't know," Alice frowned, but before she could say anything else Carlisle's phone rang.
"It's Tanya," he said before he answered the call apprehensively. All the vampires could hear exactly what was being said but Bella was growing more and more wary as Carlisle frowned. "I understand... thanks for the call."
"What happened?" Bella asked when Carlisle put the phone down.
"It appears that Volturi had gone to Denali," Carlisle answered seeming to be thoughtful. "Tanya mentioned something about them investigating James and when they found out that a group of vampires had chased and killed him they were curious about what had happened."
"And now they're going to come here," Bella groaned.
"Yes, but this shouldn't be that bad," Jasper said thoughtfully. "It doesn't sound like they should have anything against us... and we didn't break any law..."
"That doesn't really matter," Edward said, his voice was tense and he was obviously trying to control it.
"I know it would have been better if they never came anywhere near us," Jasper calmly, and it was obvious that he was trying to pass some of his calm onto Edward, but it didn't seem to be working. "But even you have to admit..."
"What are we going to do?" Edward cut him off. He didn't really want to discuss his feelings on this issue, not when he was facing one of his biggest fears.
"Maybe you and Bella should leave," Carlisle suggested. "I don't really like the idea of her being near any of the Volturi..."
"I don't think that's going to work," Jasper frowned. "You heard what Garrett said, and he's quite right. Bella's scent is all over this place, and Edward's is always near it. What if the Volturi decided to be curious about the scent...?"
Edward growled loudly.
"Sorry, Edward," Jasper sighed, he had obviously not thought of what would have happen if Edward and Bella where alone against the three vampires.
"Maybe we can send Bella away with all the mutts, it's about time that they did something," Rosalie said.
"I can't believe that you would actually trust them with her safety," Emmett said smiling at her. "I think you're starting to like them."
Rosalie's response to that was a growl and glare that only made Emmett chuckle.
"This is serious," Edward hissed at them. "And I don't like the idea of Bella being alone with the wolves..."
"I don't think they would want to leave either, knowing that the some of the Volturi would be here," Bella added. "And I would appreciate it if you would all stop talking about me as if I wasn't in the room."
"Sorry," Carlisle and Rosalie said.
"We're going to have to warn the wolves about the Volturi coming," Alice frowned. "And try to tell them to refrain from transforming if at all possible. It would only mean more trouble for all of us if the wolves are brought into this fight."
"Yeah, that's probably true," Jasper agreed. "Let's just hope that the Volturi had fed before coming to this town, because I don't think the wolves would stand by and let them hunt anywhere near here."
"No, they wouldn't," Edward said, frowning because he wouldn't have minded one bit if the wolves killed these vampires, but he knew that would only cause more trouble for them down the line. They were hoping to avoid a war with the Volturi if they could help it.
"So what are we going to do?" Bella asked.
"Well, it doesn't look like we can run," Edward sighed. "Demetri would find us if we even try, so..."
"It would be best if you stay here with us," Emmett smirked. "That way we could protect you if things turn bad."
"Emmett, we are not going to be fighting them," Esme said sternly.
"I think what you meant to say is we are not going to be starting a fight," Emmett corrected. "I know we don't want that, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be prepared for one."
"I doubt it would actually come to a fight," Jasper said seriously. "We outnumber them two to one. However, you're right Emmett, that doesn't mean we shouldn't be ready for one."
"So that's it, we're just going to wait here for them to come," Bella groaned. "And you don't know when that will be."
"Sorry," Alice said.
"It's the best that we can do," Jasper sighed. "Running away won't do us any favors."
"Don't worry, Bella, everything is going to be okay," Esme said sweetly.
Bella nodded her head, but she didn't think anything was going to keep her from worrying now. It was okay before to be optimistic because she didn't know what or if anything was going to come for them, but knowing that they were faced with their greatest threat again, she felt numb with worry. She wasn't sure how she did it, but Alice had talked Charlie into allowing Bella to stay over, for the Cullens felt safer having Bella in the house for the time being.
A/N: Okay, so I didn't think this story would be complete without some trouble from the Volturi. I just wanted to say that when I first thought of this part of the story (which was about the time that I had decided to do this story) I thought that Edward wouldn't have told Bella about killing James and Victoria and there would have been a fight between the two of them. However, after getting some reviews from people on the chapters where Bella read Twilight, I realized that Edward wouldn't have let Bella worry about that so she already knew this fact. The next thing I wanted to say is that the next chapter probably won't resolve the conflict here because I'm planning on it focusing mostly on the Volturi and what their reasons for coming to Forks. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter.