A/N - had to split it into two parts. Second part about 90% done. I hope to have out this weekend.

Epilogue

7 years later:

Standing in the back of the crowd that congregated in front of the newly minted
Cheney Center for Woman's Health, Bella and Esme Cullen held hands as Angela stood up at the podium for the unveiling ceremony of this labor of love that Angela had decided would what her professional life would be devoted to: helping women in need.

The project had taken almost two years to get off the ground, with the required permits, oversight, hiring of staff and the myriad other things that needed to be handled. And yet, even with all the struggles to finally get the center opened, and dealing with the heartache that gave rise to it, Bella was so proud of her friend's achievement, and the part she played in helping her get there.

Ever since their tearful reunion seven years earlier, Bella and Angela kept their friendship very much alive, unwilling to let it wither again; frequent calls, texts, and discrete visits were commonplace. And under the guise of Marie McCarty, Book Curator, Bella was able to take Angela with her to several places in Europe that Angela had always wanted to see but had not found the time or the resources to make happen.

It was during one of their 'adventure' trips about three years earlier - to an Alaskan river rafting and fishing lodge - that Angela made the first steps that would eventually lead to the creation of the Women's Center.

Her college roommate, Christine, had, unbeknownst to anyone, been suffering in an abusive marriage for the past few years. When it crossed the line from 'serious' to 'dangerous,' Christine had finally reached out Angela in a panic, begging for help and fearing for her life. Christine was an only child whose parents had both passed away, and her husband had isolated her more and more over the course of their marriage and she had no one else to turn to. When she told Angela - on a sobbing phone call - of the abuses she had suffered, Bella (who had been listening from the other room in their vacation lodge) crushed her bedpost in anger and horror.

The picture painted was very grim.

Cutting short their trip, Angela met with a teary eyed Christine, with an anxious Bella nearby ready to help with whatever she could.

Over the next few months while helping Christine get resettled and filing necessary legal paperwork, Angela found herself feeling empowered, and realized that she felt like she was finally doing something that mattered. When Bella commented that she seemed to re-invigorated when she was helping Christine, something shifted in Angela and she knew what she wanted to do with the rest of her life.

Thus, the idea that would one day lead to the Cheney Center for Women was born. After discussions with Bella - and then Rosalie and Esme, both of whom told Angela slightly modified versions of their own abuse problems - Angela had left her career behind and had thrown herself into this new endeavor wholeheartedly.

She never looked back.

Smiling at the gathered crowd, Angela introduced various executive staff during the ceremony, while way in the back, almost across the street, Bella, Esme, Alice, and Rosalie watched her with wide smiles, while the rest of the family stood quietly behind them.

As her speech drew to a close, Angela waited while the applause died down. "There are a few final people I'd like to mention, who unfortunately were not able to be here today. First off, I'd like to thank Rosalie and Alice Cullen. Alice's boundless energy and enthusiasm and her ability to plan helped me immensely, at many stages of this journey. And Rosalie, with her tenacity and sensitivity to the challenges an abused woman must overcome, made us rethink several of the 'traditional' methods of intervention and support. So thank you, Alice and Rosalie - I promise we will put your hard work to good use."

There was some polite clapping, and then Angela smiled again. "The next person I'd like to thank is Alice and Rosalie's mother, Esmeralda Cullen. Esme is unquestionably one of the kindest and most amazing women I've ever met in my life. With her permission, I can say that she struggled with fertility and women's issues throughout for many years. But she met and overcame them, and adopted five amazing children, was everything a mother should be. And Esme - besides being the principal designer and architect of our new building - has helped me every step of the way with this project. And while you tour our amazing facilities, you can thank Esme for the wondrous design. If anyone is the 'heart and soul' of this Center, it is certainly her.

There was more applause, and all of the Cullen's clapped for Esme, and Carlisle stepped forward and gave his wife's shoulder a loving squeeze.

There was a longer pause now, and Angela's smile was softer, somehow, than it had been all day. "The final dedication is for someone I wish could be up here with me now, but I know she's here in spirit." Angela looked over the crowd, a tear slowly falling from her eye. "I had a dear friend back in High School, named Isabella Swan. Bella - as she always insisted being called - taught me several important lessons that I've tried to live my life by, and whenever something seemed to want to stop this project in it's tracks - politicians, other groups who feared losing 'customers', zoning boards, and general naysayers - I could swear I heard her whispering to me words of support and encouragement."

All of the Cullen's laughed quietly at that; Angela was very clever indeed. Bella herself couldn't wipe the wide smile from her face, and she squeezed Edward's hand tightly, while Ness hugged her from the back.

Angela very briefly looked at the small forms of the Cullen's, huddled in the distance, a small smile flickering across her lips. Settling herself, she addressed the crowd again, her voice quieter, almost solemn. "Bella, wherever you are - near or far - I just want you to know: we grabbed on, girl, and we didn't let go."

When Angela stepped back, everyone stood from their seats and applauded enthusiastically. She stepped down, and was handed a pair of gardening shears as she approached the large blue ribbon that crossed the front doors. Turning to the photographers, she smiled as she cut, and shouts rang out in congratulations as the Center was finally open to the public.

As Angela accepted congratulations and shook many hands, her eyes would occasionally track across the street, where she knew Bella and her family would still be watching; and when she finally had a minute to herself, she turned to face them, a smile on her face, and mouthed the words she suspected they would be able to see. "Thank you, all of you. I love you."

Silently acknowledging, the Cullen's quietly drifted away, with Bella leaving last. She was leaving Angela firmly on course to pursue her new passion to help people who needed it most, but she knew that she would - as Marie McCarty - be there for her, and with her, as she lived out her life.

63 years later

Bella Cullen pulled her new Tesla AirCar Model T into the garage at the Cullen ranch in Alberta, Canada. A sprawling compound of eleven buildings spread over three hundred acres, their new home was about 500 miles northeast of Vancouver and had been their home for the past three years. They had relocated to Grand Prairie, Alberta after Alice had informed them that their time in the Washington/Oregon/Idaho area had come to an end. The family had lived in the Pacific Northwest for almost sixty years, and Alice had warned them that the odds increased every year that someone would remember them. She'd had several visions of it, in fact, and these days - with cameras on almost every street and in every car and in every front window, and the amazing advances in facial recognition software - she advised it would be at least three to four decades before they could safely live in the region again. And while this saddened them - primarily because they still remained close to the three remaining wolves and the Quileute's who'd long since stopped shifting - they knew that they'd be back one day, and the cycle would repeat.

The Cullen family was bigger than ever these days; Renesmee and Jacob had three grown children, two of which were married with children of their own. Indeed, the first of their own grandchildren - a beautiful, bouncing pair of twins - were born almost seven years ago to Ness and Jacob's eldest, William Black, and he and his wife followed that up with two more children over the next five years.

The world had changed immeasurably over the past three decades, and more than just the steady advance of technology. Carlisle - with the longest view - mused that, except for the period of the industrial revolution, he'd not seen as many advancements and changes in such a short period of time. He would often wonder aloud to his family if the time would soon come - perhaps in this century - that they could 'come out of the coffin,' so to speak. Genetically modified humans with 'designer genes' that gave extended lifespans, beyond normal beauty and physical prowess, were appearing more and more often, despite the ethical and often legal hurdles this kind of tinkering had to face over the past decade.

Additionally, incredible advancements in medicine and genetic screening meant that even average, 'unmodified' people were living longer than ever before. Synthetic organs, reprocessed skin, and artificial limbs and joints were commonplace now, and slogans such as '100 is the new 70' were often heard, and hearing of people living to a hundred thirty was no longer unusual. The next stage of this evolution - artificial bodies - was not too far away, as brain transplant experiments in animals were beginning to show success, and human trials were probably less than a decade away, despite the enormous ethical issues surrounding the topic.

The societal changes were equally as large. With the increased burden on the planets resources - there were fifteen billion people alive right now - wars and revolution had swept many parts of the world in the late 21st century. When things finally settled, there were so many changes that, even twenty years later, it was hard to fully understand what the long term ramifications would be.

Humming to herself, Bella left the garage and walked into the living room of the main house, smiling as she heard the soft gurgles of little Kenyon Black - William and Dora's second son - as he waddled across the floor to greet her. His wide, toothless smile was completely adorable, and his tight bronze curls - he was the only one of Ness's grandchildren so far that had inherited her hair color - bounced as he rushed to grasp Bella's legs.

"Gee Gee Bella!" he squeaked, trying to wrap his chubby arms fully around her legs, and not quite succeeding. She was 'G G' - short for Great Grandma - to all her grandkids, and found herself loving the term of endearment.

She leaned down and kissed his rosy cheek, before crouching and taking his hand and leading him back to Rosalie, who sat on the floor surrounded by soft toy blocks, and Emmett, who was playing a 3d video game with Jasper on the couch. These days, Rose was happier than Bella had ever seen her, as the sound of children's laughter could always be heard in their home, and more seemed always on the way. Indeed, six months from now a new baby would be joining them, as Jake and Ness's daughter Sarah - named after Jacob's mother - had just finished her first trimester of her pregnancy.

The last of Ness and Jacob's children - their youngest son Samuel - was a hardcore bachelor, and enjoyed the company of the females a little too much to settle down. For a while it seemed like he and Tanya might have something, but it didn't last more than a year. He was currently living in Rio, and would often visit Zafrina and her coven. He had recently sent back photos from Carnivale - with a woman on each arm - and it didn't look like he was in a rush to marry any time soon.

Smiling at all the content faces, Bella walked down the long hallway to the kitchen, and sat herself on one of the stools, falling into an easy conversation with Alice and Esme while the latter cooked for the kids. Having a bunch of hungry mouths to feed always made Esme happy, and Bella was thrilled for her, since it that it looked like she might get to do this for a long, long time. After all, only one of the younger family members had any inclination to move away, at least on a long term basis. All the grown kids had their own houses on the property for their wives and children, or - in Samuel's case - a house across town where he could 'entertain' without being disturbed by his Uncle Emmett. Of course, they all had access to the family homes spread all around the world whenever they needed to get away for a while, and the family now owned a very spacious private jump jet. All the Cullen's, it seemed, enjoyed the comfort of staying together as a unit, and seemed to thrive under the communal living arrangements that had naturally emerged between them on their large ranch properties.

The family felt tighter and happier than ever before, and Bella sometimes had trouble believing this was her life.

It had, truly, turned out to be like something from a fairy tale.

Esme began to share details with Bella about an upcoming renovation project when Alice suddenly went still in her seat. Esme was facing the stove and didn't notice, but Bella did and waited patiently for the vision to end.

"Alice?" she asked after a few moments when Alice's lip trembled. It had been a long time since Alice had any disturbing visions, and Esme, sensing Bella's nervous voice, turned to see what was happening.

Finally, Alice turned to Bella with sad eyes. "Bella, it's...it's Angela."

Bella sucked in a breath, a phantom pain flaring in her chest; she had known this was coming for a while now, but it still hurt.

When Angela was in her early 90's, she took a bad fall and broke her hip and ribs on the right side. There were some complications with infection the replacement surgery, and had suffered with a lot of health issues since. Modern medicine had kept her failing body going well past what it should have, but when she turned a hundred and nine earlier this year, Alice had sadly informed Bella that she didn't see her making it to her next birthday.

Since their reconnection in Seattle all those long years ago and the subsequent opening of the Woman's Center, Bella and Angela had maintained an amazingly strong friendship. Always under the pseudonym Marie McCarty, Bella would be sure to speak with her at least once every week or two, and sneak away to see each other every six months or so, no matter where Bella was living.

Indeed, on many occasions over the years, Bella had taken Angela on trips under the guise that Angela was doing fundraising trips for the Center. The pair had skied in the Alps, taken a Gondola in Venice, seen Broadway shows in New York, and watched the Northern Lights together. Their friendship was extraordinarily deep and completely effortless; and the fact that - unlike every other friendship Bella had with other vampires or the shifters - she knew her friendship with Angela had a time limit.

After all, unlike Bella, Angela wouldn't live forever.

Even with Bella being always there for her, Angela had been lonely this past decade, as Ben had died of a heart attack eleven years earlier. Audrey and her husband came from their home in California to stay with Angela for a while, and help her with arrangements, but Bella knew her friend would never be the same.

She knew, as Ben was truly her soul mate; and Bella knew that, if she was in Angela's shoes and something happened to Edward, that she wouldn't recover either.

After Ben's funeral, Audrey had pressured Angela to move to California to live near her and the grandchildren: she worried about her mom all alone in Washington. However, despite being almost a hundred years old, Angela loved her home, as she'd lived there for forty years and it was filled with so many happy memories of her life. She wanted some more time there to reminisce before she moved to California.

So, to appease Audrey and to help her friend, they hired a 'nurse' - Bella - who came to Washington and stayed with Angela for a couple of months, helping to ease her friend's burdens.

Bella's perfect recall made her smile as she remembered those months where she cared for her friend and how effortlessly they melded their lives as if they had been roommates for years. It had been a wonderful time, filled with happiness and laughter and tears, and Bella would cherish those memories forever.

One particular memory suddenly floated through her mind. Bella had been fussing, tucking a blanket around Angela's feet to keep her warm, and fluffing her pillows just the way Angela liked it before turning her attention to cooking lunch and doing some household chore

"Bella, I have to say, you were wrong about at least one thing," Angela said tenderly as she watched Bella twitting around the kitchen before filling a large grey metal watering can and pulling out a short stepladder.

"Oh?" Bella grinned, stretching on the ladder as she watered Angela's plants; despite her superior physical abilities, Angela was still taller than her, and the stepladder didn't quite give her enough height to water the highest plants.

Finishing, Bella jumped down lightly, then zipped over to the stove to turn down the heat as the water for Angela's tea had just come to a boil. "What's that?"

Angela - who, at her advanced age had shrunk until she was only a few inches taller than Bella - stood carefully from her chair and walked slowly to her friend, ignoring the pain in her knees and hips. She grasped Bella's shoulders with bony hands, the chill of Bella's skin not bothering her a bit, and looked down into her youthful face. "You really are an Angel, Bella. And I'll never believe otherwise."

Placing the watering can down, Bella pulled her old friend into a gentle hug, enjoying the warmth - both from her body and from her soul - that radiated from her. "I think you might have it backwards, Angela," Bella sniffed. "After all, what are the first five letters of your name, anyway? Your parents clearly named you well."

Angela's chuckle at Bella's sweet but silly joke was a happy reminder of better times.

Coming out of the memory, Bella's smile slowly faded. During the last few years in Washington, Bella had switched off with a legitimate nurse - usually spending one week for every three or four that the real nurses did - Angela's health slowly deteriorated and her mobility decreased. Bella and some of her family would be frequent visitors to Angela's, helping when they could.

However, after taking another fall and re-injuring her hip, Audrey refused to be budged and Angela was moved into the Aldersley Retirement Community in Northern California, only a few minutes from Audrey's home in San Rafael. It was a nice, comfortable community, with beautiful grounds for the Seniors to walk around. Angela settled in without much complaint - she never did complain much - and would sometimes wryly email or video chat with Bella about her skill in Bridge or Canasta, or perhaps her winnings in Bingo. She sometimes even teased that her poker skills had improved enough now that she could challenge Emmett; when he heard this, his laughter shook the house.

After Alice assured Bella she could make it on time, Bella quickly packed a bag and made quick arrangements to visit her friend for the last time. She brought Edward along for emotional support, and a few hours later they were winging their way to California on the Cullen's private plane.

As she stared out the window at the clouds rolling below the wings of the plane, Bella felt an ache she'd not felt in years. Not since Charlie and Renee passed did Bella lose someone who was important to her, that she loved.

She thought back to Edward's words, spoken long ago and now just hazy and barely remembered, as they lay on her bed and discussed his reluctance to change her into a vampire. He'd said that, after a while, everyone she ever knew would be gone.

Feeling the sting of venom tears that would never fall, she huddled into herself, knowing this goodbye was going to hurt.

A/N - one more to go.