A/N - part 2 of 3 of the epilogue.

Previously

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.

Epilogue part 2

After landing at a regional airport in Oakland, Bella and Edward rented a small road car - despite their appeal, very few cars were air-mobile yet and the routes you could fly on were still very limited - and sat back as the car drove itself the short distance to the retirement home.

Bella was quiet, clutching Edward's hand in her own as they drove past the beautiful San Francisco scenery. Bella had been here several times before to visit with Angela, but she never tired of the view of the bay, with the Golden Gate Bridge standing sentinel to the vast blue expanse of the Pacific looming behind it.

They'd arrived just before sundown - a fitting end, Bella thought sadly - the ocean's whitecaps glittering with coppery reflections from the last rays of the sun.

When they pulled through the security checkpoint at the facility, Edward held her hand and helped her from the car, before getting back in and continuing on to a hotel. Bella - wearing a wide brimmed hat and elbow length gloves - walked into the main Residence Hall, looking like a film star from a century earlier. She spoke quietly to the receptionist, and signed in as Isabella McCarty.

Bella had a second identity these days - Isabella McCarty - devoted granddaughter of Marie McCarty. This became necessary during the last few years, as Alice warned that Audrey might become curious enough to see a photo of Marie, Angela's oldest friend. Whenever Bella came to visit, she would cheer Angela up so immensely, and Audrey's curiosity often warred with her grief over her mom. Indeed, Alice said that there was a fifty-fifty chance that Audrey would ask to see the photo visitor badge; and if she did, and saw a youthful Bella instead of woman who was supposedly of a similar age to her mother...well, there would be very awkward questions asked.

Of course, Angela was informed of the ruse, and snickered and rubbed her hands in delight, loving the idea of Bella pretending to be Marie's Granddaughter. She echoed her words from six decades earlier: "like my own mystery novel, Marie, my own mystery novel."

Bella walked behind one of the nurse attendants down a wide carpeted hallway, with open doors showing seniors gathered together in small day rooms, watching holovids, playing cards or just sitting or napping quietly in soft chairs.

The nurse finally knocked on a partially open door near the end of the corridor. "Angela? May we come in? You have a visitor."

Bella took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for this, when a hoarse cough answered the query. Angela's voice - much weaker in person than it sounded on the phone last month - replied to the nurse. "Yes, come in please."

When Bella stepped into the room, Angela raised her rheumy eyes - once again behind a pair of Pince Nez glasses perched on her nose - and fixed them on her friend. A blink, and then a slow, wide smile broke across her weathered face; her whole face softened, lines of worry and fatigue smoothing away, making her look years younger.

Bella's answering smile was equally wide.

The nurse had waited by the door and was pleased to see Angela smile, as it had been a rough week, and she knew the kind old woman's time was short. She quietly retreated, shutting the door even as Bella stepped fully into the room.

"Bella," Angela whispered, her voice quavering. "I'm so glad you're here."

Bella's eyes felt heavy and her lip trembled as she heard her name fall from the chapped lips of her friend, the first time she'd used her proper name in decades. It had been hard for Angela to switch back to calling her 'Bella' after so many, many years of being Marie, so they never bothered changing, and even on their last call she was still 'Marie.'

Bella's love for this frail woman echoed through her body. She doubted she'd ever have a friend like her again.

Angela waved a hand to her, snapping her out of her reverie, big brown eyes peering over her overlarge glasses. "Come and let me see you, angel! My eyes don't work so well anymore!"

Angela had trouble sitting herself up, so Bella helped her, and then gathered her in a gentle hug. "Oh Angela, it's good to see you," she sniffed, her eyes wet and her voice cracking.

Video calls were no replacement for this feeling, this human connection.

"There there, Bella," Angela said, patting Bella's back as she returned the hug with her frail arms. "No reason to be sad, I'll be seeing my Ben soon enough, and you've come to say goodbye. No, please, no sadness today. Only happy tears allowed."

Bella held the hug for a long moment - she would have held it for even longer but didn't want to give Angela a chill - before sniffling again and sitting in the chair. Bella's eyes roamed the face of her friend, her perfect vision cataloguing all the small changes since the last time she'd been here, and the changes to her sweet scent - like muffins and fresh bread and home - now masked under chemicals and disease.

Bella valiantly tried to hold back the sob that had been building in her chest: Angela was just so frail! But she managed to control her emotions, trying to remain positive for this last visit.

It had been almost seven months since Bella had last visited, and even the expensive camera they used to vChat simply didn't show sickly Angela really looked. Her once beautiful skin was a dull, ashen grey, covered in age spots and red blotches; her hair was white and patchy, and so thin in places that she was almost bald.

And her eyes! Even though they were filled with love, the sharpness in them had dulled, the whites bloodshot and tired.

Her friend was really dying.

Bella tried to smile, she really did. She might have actually managed a small one, as Angela's lips quirked upward, and Bella finally sat fully in the chair.

The friends just sat in silence and stared at each other for a long minute, their happy eyes expressing their deep fondness and love for one another. Finally, the quiet was broken when Angela let out a small, weak cough.

Shaking her head, she let out a breath. "Okay, enough sadness, Bella," she scolded. "Tell me all about the grandbabies!"

Smiling easier now despite herself, Bella began to relax, and the old friends spent the next hour catching up, despite Angela knowing much of it from their vid chats.

Nevertheless, Angela eagerly listened as Bella told Angela what the various Cullen-Blacks were up to, and watched her friend laugh and smile as she pictured Bella's family going through their paces; after all, Angela didn't really do much anymore, and slept most of the day away. And though Audrey visited when she could, she herself was an old woman now, with children and grandchildren of her own, who led busy lives. So Bella knew from her frequent calls with her friend that Angela was lonely, and often lived vicariously through the lives of Bella's family.

After Bella had brought her up-to-date on the Cullen's activities, they were quiet for a time, lost in their thoughts. "Bella?" Angela finally said, her voice quiet, her eyes surprisingly bright. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," Bella answered, curious.

Angela hesitated for a moment, her gaze suddenly sharper and more alert, magnified through the lenses of her glasses. "Would it still matter if you broke the rules, now?"

Bella's eyes widened before locking with Angela's - gold on brown - as she thought about the implications of Angela's question.

As a reflex, Bella threw her shield over Angela; she did this almost any time she wanted to block something from Alice. As her gift got stronger over the decades, Bella learned that when she was actively shielding someone, Alice had a lot of trouble seeing their futures; and since Bella did not want her sometimes-nosy sister seeing this conversation, the shield stayed up.

Bella carefully weighed the risks; certainly, she was the only person who could keep this a secret from Aro. And the Volturi and the Cullen's were on excellent terms now.

And, furthermore, what real risk was there, even if Aro one day actually found out? Wasn't this situation just like the old receptionists in Volterra? Death or change? By the time Aro might learn of this, Angela would be gone, leaving no 'liabilities', as Caius would call her.

Biting her lip, Bella weighed the pros and cons, when Angela suddenly leaned over and patted her hand. "If you can't, you can't. It's just that...well, for a long time I was able to put it out of my mind, just happy I had your friendship. But when Ben died, I began to think about...what comes next. And immortality; and other big questions. It made me curious, and I wondered about you, and came up with some theories."

Bella laughed despite the seriousness of the discussion. "Please don't say 'superhero,' okay? Like I once told you, I tried that one on Edward, a long, long time ago. That first time we had lunch in the cafeteria, in fact."

Angela's eyes got a faraway look to them. "I remember, you told me when we met up in Seattle. I think you told me that kryptonite didn't hurt either!" She turned crinkled eyes to Bella. "I even remember how stunned everyone was, you'd somehow caught the interest of the elusive Edward Cullen! Jessica was so green!"

Bella chuckled, as did Angela, but then both sobered, remembering that Jessica had just passed away a little over a year ago. Unlike Angela, Jessica had been alone for many years, her husband being considerably older than her, and dying when Jessica was not even seventy; since then, she'd been alone for almost forty years.

They quieted, and Bella looked at her friend steadily, finally making her decision. Leaning forward, she whispered. "Do you truly want to know?" Her eyes moved back and forth between Angela's. "Sometimes knowing can bring you comfort - but sometimes not. Knowledge can be scary."

Angela took a deep breath, not dismissing her friend's warning, but determined anyway. Angela was a spiritual girl, and believed that there were many unsolved mysteries in the world. This one was tantalizingly close, and she knew - both from the looks of the nurses and her own body telling her - her time left on this Earth was very, very short.

Resolved, she looked at Bella steadily and nodded. "I want to know, Bella. I'd never think less of you, no matter what your secret is. And if it helps, think of it as my last request."

Bella relaxed, letting out her own, quite unnecessary breath, as her eyes stayed locked with Angelas. Her voice was soft when she spoke. "Okay. But first...please know, I'd never hurt you."

Angela scoffed, the way only an incredulous old lady could pull off. "I think that's obvious by now, Bella."

Bella's lips twitched and she nodded again. She tried to relax herself, taking additional unnecessary breaths, calming herself. If she had a heart, it would be thundering.

She was about to admit - for the very first time to a human - what she was.

"Angela...my family and I...we are vampires. We drink blood to survive, and we are immortal. And though my family and I drink animal blood and don't harm humans, not all of our kind are like us in that respect."

Angela's eyes slowly widened, and Bella heard her heart rate increase, watched as her friend mouthed the word a few times. Bella sat completely still - as only a vampire could - as Angela digested the news, her scent changed by the adrenaline in her blood, her eyes moving rapidly back and forth between Bella's eyes and mouth. Bella worried that it might be too much for Angela, and she feared for her friend as her pulse was thundering.

Finally though, Angela's heart began to slow. It took a minute or so to fully return to normal; but Angela eventually let out a shaky breath, and followed it up with slow and measured breathing for a few minutes.

Fully calmed, Angela raised her eyes up to meet Bella's, her gaze steady and her expression stoic. Bella bit her lip nervously as she worried over Angela's reaction as the seconds ticked by.

But then, to Bella's surprise, Angela simply nodded, her lips quirking into a small smile. Her expression slowly changed, her eyes getting brighter, filling with wonder.

Angela seemed to sit straighter on the bed. "Tell me everything!"

Pleased by Angela's reaction and seeming acceptance, Bella did just that.

She cast her mind all the way back, pulling her fuzzy human memories from the depths of her consciousness. Back, back, all the way to her arrival in Forks, barely remembered now, to the clearer memories of Edward that - even though they were human - would remain engraved in her mind forever.

With those thoughts firmly in mind, Bella leaned forward and began to talk, her voice a quiet whisper as she told her story, of how a shy teenage girl from Phoenix fell in love with a beautiful boy from her biology class that may have hated her...of how a centenarian vampire, against all the odds, fell in love with his singer; of how the Lion fell in love with the Lamb.

And the two friends sat there, huddled together, as Bella wove her tale while her oldest friend leaned in, riveted, as all Bella's secrets were finally revealed.

Perhaps forty minutes into her story - just as Bella was discussing her encounter with a thirsty Laurent in the meadow and how she was barely saved by a pack of giant wolves - a nurse knocked, bringing Angela a small dinner. Up until then, Angela had sat very still - completely enthralled by Bella's tale - and she hadn't even heard the nurse knocking until Bella told her to come in.

After the nurse left, Bella cut Angela's food into small pieces at vampire speed, leaving Angela gawking at her with wide eyes.

"Too much?" Bella asked sheepishly, putting down the knife.

Angela stared at her for a moment before blinking, and then let out a breath. "No, no, not at all. No, I was just thinking...how useful that speed would have been with cleaning up after Audrey and Ben. You've no idea the mess those two made!" Her eyes twinkled in amusement.

Bella laughed, and they shared a secret smile, that special smile that Angela saved just for Bella; after all, except for Ben, Bella had been her closest confidant over her long life.

When Angela had eaten her small meal, Bella continued her story, holding nothing back. She told of vans and dark alleys, mushroom ravioli and beautiful meadows; baseball games, nomads, and trips to Phoenix; ballet studios and hospitals and arguments about souls. Proms, paper cuts and walks in the woods; zombie phases, Jacob Black, motorcycles and meadows; giant wolves, cliff diving, trips to Italy, and vampire kings; proposals, newborn armies, compromises, weddings, honeymoons, and hybrid babies; imprinting, hunts, cottages, and immortal children; gathering allies, standoffs, shields, and renewal; Alaska, Angela's wedding, Renee, the Tangs, and finally, her official 'death.'

When Bella paused, Angela took a shuddering breath, looking completely strung out. Her eyes had long run dry from the river of tears that had steadily been falling, and Bella probably had passed her a dozen tissues and poured more water from the pitcher refilled several times.

Reaching out a hand, Bella's face softened, and she spoke in a soothing voice; of receiving a special, treasured email that, even seventy years later, fills her with love; she spoke of eagerly anticipated meetings at the space needle, and renewed friendships; of the Women's center, and years and decades of peace and prosperity, filled with travels and laughter and children and life.

And love. Always, at the base of all things, a deep and undying love for her family, and for Angela.

Even here, at the sunset of their time together: always love.

When Bella finally finished relating the story of her life, almost three hours had passed. Her hand was clasped tightly with Angela's who was silently crying again, tears of happiness and awe and love, tears for the best friend she'd ever had.

Leaning forward, Bella gently wiped her friend's face and then hugged her, rubbing her back and quietly humming a song that she used to sing to Renesmee.

As Angela relaxed in her arms, Bella was feeling lighter than she had in a long time; all the very few remaining walls between her and Angela were finally down. She'd bared her soul to her, and Angela had treated it with care and love.

Just as she had always treated Bella, since they'd met so long ago, in the cafeteria of Forks High.

Bella - who had never been religious despite having a Father-in-Law who had been a pastor and a husband who literally believed in Heaven and Hell - imagined she might be feeling what someone who went regularly to Confession regularly felt: unburdened, clean, renewed.

Bella considered the fact that never before had she told her story like that, from the very beginning to the very end, start to finish, holding nothing back, speaking of all she felt and feared and dreamed and hoped; from those early, difficult, crazy years, to the decades of wonder and family and friendships that followed.

Angela sniffled again, and Bella offered another tissue with a soft smile. With a shaky hand, Angela slowly wiped her face and blew her nose, before finally raising her eyes - warm and unjudging, a clear window to her beautiful soul - locking them with the bright gold of her best friend.

"You have lived - are living - a truly incredible, wondrous life, Bella," Angela finally whispered. "Like something from a story or a...a dream."

Bella smiled, and whispered in response. "I know, Angela, I know. Even after all this time, I sometimes cannot believe this is my life. I used to wonder what I'd done to deserve the things I'd been given, it was so hard to fathom. I used to ask 'why me' all the time."

Nodding in return, Angela smiled, patting Bella's hand. "I certainly can believe that. You never did see yourself clearly." And then her lips turned up. "But I wasn't wrong - I still think Angel is a better description than vampire. You certainly have been blessed, and you have in turn blessed everyone who has had the pleasure of knowing you."

Her shoulders shaking and her eyes wet, Bella hugged her friend again, holding her as tightly as she dared. "Thank you, Angela Michelle Cheney. I love you, and I always will," she whispered softly into her hair.

Angela sniffed, crying quietly in return. "I love you too, Isabella Marie Cullen. And I always will. Thank you for being my friend. You have been a great one."

Bella shook in her embrace. "I'm going to miss you, Angela!" Bella rasped.

Angela leaned back, looking at Bella's eyes, and she lay a wrinkled hand on her stone cheek. She was tired, and was overdue for pain medicine, but she'd not felt more at peace in years, and her smile would simply not abate. "I'll miss you too, Bella. But don't be sad, please. When I get to my next stop, Ben and I will look down on you, and your wonderful family, and will laugh when you laugh, and cry when you cry. And who knows? Maybe with your super senses you'll be able to feel my prayers for you?"

Bella choked out a laugh, and Angela smiled at her, both of them gazing at one another with smiles and wet eyes. "Also, Bella, I'll be sure to check in on your mom, and tell her that you always did love her and that you're sorry for upsetting her so."

Bella choked out a quiet sob, and once again clutched Angela to her. The two friends rocked together for several minutes, until Angela shivered lightly and yawned.

Bella lay one last kiss against her hair. "It's been wonderful knowing you, Angela. Rest now, and be happy. Ben is waiting."

Angela's last tear fell, and then her eyes finally slipped closed as fatigue finally caught up. She drifted into a deep and restful sleep, better than she had in years.

Later that night, just before dawn, Angela Cheney, 109 year old graduate of Forks HS, class of 2006, passed on, the first rays of the rising sun passing through the glass window and illuminating her peaceful, small smile, that had been on her face all night.

And In a hotel thirty miles away, after receiving a brief text from Alice, a quietly crying Isabella Cullen, 109 year old graduate of Forks HS class of 2006, glittered as the first rays of the rising sun splashed across her skin as she huddled into her Edward, sitting on their private rooftop balcony.

While Edward gently rocked her, Bella watched the sun slowly rising over the mountains to the East, the sky changing from purple to pink to blue, bright rays shining brightly on the slowly waking world below.

It was a particularly beautiful sunrise, Bella thought. And she decided a sunrise was a perfect backdrop for Angela to pass by; she was always bringing light to people's lives.

Much better than a sunset.

A/N - almost done. about 3500 more words for part 3.