Nine - You Are the One I Was Meant to Find

She sprinted as hard as her limbs would allow, pausing only long enough to grab a roll of bandages and the little brass, master key with the nicks and ridges she knew like the back of her own hand. The lack of interference from anyone in the guard confirmed the assumption that she was running into a trap but Isabella didn't care.

Nothing could keep her from Edward now, not even Death itself.

x-x-x

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Consciousness slowly returned and Edward gritted his teeth against the blinding pain each new slide of – Bones? Teeth? – seared across his back. Slowly – tortuously – it dug into his marble flesh, eroding the layers of skin and muscle millimeter by aching millimeter until, eventually, it would reach his bones.

Certainly, he would go insane by then; either from the pain or the rhythmic ticking.

Edward looked around, the darkness hindering his sight only enough to be annoying. The small, 8x8 room was made entirely of dank stone and held nothing other than a clock he couldn't see and whatever device held him captive. How did he get here without knowing it? How was it possible–

The rush of memories was like a punch to the gut.

Bella. Where was she? He had to get to her, he had to help her before Aro's guards could harm her further…

Edward tried to take a few deep breaths to calm the rapidly growing panic, but strangled whimpers and rustling chains were the only sounds in the musty dungeon other than the infernal ticking. He wanted to roar, to scream, to beg any deity that might somehow be listening to grant him reprieve from this punishment and allow him to find his mate before it was too late, though that proved rather difficult considering the steel cord wrapped tightly around his open mouth like a makeshift gag.

Damn the Volturi to the deepest pits of Hell. He'd come too far, crossed through too much time, for it all to end here. Edward struggled against the chains binding his wrists to the adjoining walls, silently promising the uncaring gods that he would bargain anything in his power to get to her.

As usual, the haphazard prayers were for naught and instead, the memory of Bella screaming his name played on a tortuous loop in his mind.

Tears of venom burned behind his tightly closed lids. He had seldom allowed himself to cry – or the vampire equivalent anyway – during the arduous journey to find the pieces of Bella's fractured soul; even when he left her in the forest on that fateful day a lifetime ago, he still held his composure better than he did now.

But not this time, in this place where Bella could finally be forever beyond his reach because of his own failure. Now, Edward openly wept with venomous tears he could never truly shed. And the harder he wept, the tighter the chains around his wrists pulled. As the Volturi tended to operate by 'the Old Ways', it was no doubt expected of him to accept his punishment with dignity and when he failed to do so, Aro had ensured he would be punished further. How the tightening chains had not dislocated his shoulders yet was still a mystery.

"Oh God, Edward!"

His eyes snapped open and the panic mixed with a sick sense of relief at seeing her alive. Regardless, she shouldn't have come back for him; she couldn't be here! No. No. No. Did she really not know what would happen if she was discovered? Undoubtedly, she did. Did she not care? Carlisle was graphic in his descriptions of what happened to traitors and it had been enough to leave even him feeling physically ill. Other than having no desire to go on without her, the threat of retribution was exactly why Edward didn't run from Volterra when Bella gave him the chance – it was unfathomable to leave her in such a place where she would be maimed and tortured until she begged for death.

The oil sconces that had been mounted to the stone walls of the dungeon were lit in rapid succession, casting an ominous glow over the entire space. When he looked up, he saw her.

Isabella.

His fierce, beautiful warrior of a woman stood before him like a beacon in the dark; her clothing was torn, her hair was a wild mass of tangles, and she had slowly healing cracks in her face and shoulder but she was still, without a doubt, the most stunning thing he'd ever seen and his soul was desperately crying out for her touch.

Her large, amber eyes took in the sight before her, tears shimmering in the firelight. She knelt in front of him, the ragged edges of her plain black dress brushing like kisses against the floor stones. "God, Edward," she whispered, eyes flickering to his back. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop them. I never wanted this, I swear. I would have never let Aro do this to you."

Edward tried to speak, to tell her that what happened to him didn't matter and she had to get out before it was too late, but he could do nothing but taste the steel cording against his tongue and the saliva dripping from his parted lips. They had wound the gag around his head too tightly. He whimpered again as white-hot pain sliced across his already flayed back.

Bella's hands trembled as she pulled something out of the pocket of her dress. The moment she removed the item and presented it to him, his golden eyes widened.

The timestone.

She clearly recognized the expression of disbelief, confusion, and even hurt he wore and gripped the smooth stone to her chest, almost protectively, "I don't know much about the research you've been doing but I caught enough to gather what this is and why you've been holding it so close. In the book – the one on the table in your room – it says that mythical stones have been known to disappear at 'the end'." She slipped the stone back into her pocket and swiftly removed the steel cording from his open mouth. "I know it looks bleak, but I'll be damned if this is going to be the end for us."

Edward felt overwhelming relief as she slipped a tiny brass key from the folds of her dress and unlocked the shackles from his wrists. He slumped forward onto the damp stone, finally out of reach from the jagged edges of the Volturi's torture device. He looked up and felt his stomach turn – his back had been mangled by a makeshift, serrated set of twin blades constructed from stacks and stacks of werewolf teeth. Fucking barbarians.

Quick as lightning, Bella began wrapping tight bandages across his chest and around the ravaged flesh of his back. Edward involuntarily hissed at the pressure before small waves of relief washed over him as the strange, vampiric properties of their physiology began to mend his skin. "Bella–" He rasped, rolling onto his back to look up at her. "Ngh… go…"

She cupped his face and swiped her thumbs across cheeks. "I won't abandon you, Edward. Ever. We'll wait for Aro and get out of this place, together – or not at all."

There was no fighting the way his heart swelled at the overwhelming love and conviction in her expression. What entity had she angered in one of her previous lives to end up shackled to him for eternity? Edward felt compelled to go back and thank them.

The type of unconditional love in her eyes was completely foreign to him. Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, his human parents; they all cared in their own way, but the care from each of them only stretched so far. It was only natural, of course. Why would they prioritize Edward and his problems when they all had their own lives, their own struggles to attend to? Even his own parents, Elizabeth and Edward, hadn't truly known what to do with him; same as his adoptive family now. For his human parents, he had been too pretty to be taken seriously at his father's law firm, too sad to participate enthusiastically in Chicago's high society, and too lonely to enjoy the company of his 'friends'. For the Cullen's, he was always too brooding, too serious, too different. Always the outcast, always the black sheep.

Until her.

Bella had come into his life like a meteor streaking across a darkened sky, throwing the never-ending blackness into a relief of burning colors that scorched him and left him bare. She was a perfect contrast to him, with her gingerbread eyes to his golden, dusky skin to his alabaster, and caramel-brown hair to his copper. He was a lonely vampire trapped in what felt like an eternal night and she was a little human ray of light that set his world ablaze with colors he never even knew existed. Now, Edward knew that Bella was truly everything – a human, a warrior, a goddess, a vampire – should be… everything he ever wanted to be but couldn't. And he loved her with a fierceness that, quite frankly, frightened him.

Edward would never understand why she had chosen someone like him – because the truth was that she had chosen him from the very first time she'd ever called him out on his bullshit. They were mates, fated to be, but Bella was the one who decided to follow the threads of fate, over and over, when she could have burned them and lived a normal, human life instead. He would never understand, but he was admittedly selfish, a little narcissistic, and overly possessive. Now that she had lived, over and over, through the worst and still inexplicably chose him – if they could make it out of Volterra alive – he was ready to finally give in to her desires and make love to her without hesitation, following the strings of fate to bind their souls and seal their bond for eternity. She was what he wanted until the end of time and for once, Edward was ready to be known as someone who took what he wanted with both hands, consequences be damned.

It was funny, thinking back on his old lives. His privileged human parents had always taught him that it was easier to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission... and yet Edward had quite literally crossed the barriers of time to beg fate for Bella Swan. He begged the Cullens to open their family to her, begged himself to be man enough to let her go, begged Carmen, Eleazar, and Kair to help find her.

None of his family expected to ever see him again, let alone Bella. It was obvious in the way they all said their final goodbyes on that cliff. He loved his adoptive family, but none of the Cullens seemed to believe Edward to be capable of the kind of love an eternity of bound souls required. Then again, no one had ever taken the time to really get to know him beyond the surface.

No one other than Bella.

Bella brushed an errant lock of copper hair back from his weary face, her voice soothing as the bindings around his torso helped mend the horrific wounds, "All this time, why didn't you just tell me what we were?"

Edward heard what she was really asking. Why didn't you just save us all of this pain and tell me when I was still human? Why didn't you just tell me the truth of what we were to each other? Why did you make so many horrible decisions without asking me? "You… remember?"

"The longer I held onto the stone, the more our life in Forks came back to me. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you took the most complicated route possible for us."

He let out a breathy, tired laugh, "Go ahead and add 'unwarranted arrogance and egotism' to my lengthy list of faults. It seems my tendency to think I know better than everyone else finally caught up to me."

She cupped his cheek with tenderness, not a trace of recrimination or blame on her face but doubt coloring her voice, "Tell me why you hid the truth. Was human me so unappealing to you?"

"Of course not, Bella; it was never about that. I just… I didn't want you to feel obligated to choose this," Edward admitted softly, pushing himself to sit even though he swayed and ended up using one arm braced against the floor to hold himself up. "If you were going to accept being my mate, if you were going to accept the absolute finality of it all, I wanted it to be on your own terms, in your own way. You always said I was too controlling so it felt important to trust you and your judgment… especially this time."

She eyed him, "You think I didn't choose you, before? You think you coerced me?"

Shame colored his voice and threatened to choke him, "Sometimes, it felt like I could be too persuasive. 'Dazzling' is what you called it."

"Your powers of persuasion had nothing to do with it, Edward," her gentle smile was like a balm to the pieces of his fractured soul. "I had already made my choice that first day in Biology – it just took you a while to catch up to me."

The hard edges of his guilt softened and he wondered if she knew just how right she was. He wondered if she truly knew just how long he'd been chasing her, just how long he'd been desperately trying to catch up with her before it was too late and she slipped through his fingers forever. Edward traced the contours of his love's face with the pads of his shaking fingers and it was like being hit with the most bittersweet deja vu. He saw her and yet could also see all the pieces of her soul that he'd worked so hard to protect – Isabella, Izzat, Itzpapalotl, Isadora – all unique and precious to him because they were all a part of her. Would she ever remember everything they had gone through together? Would she ever remember the lives they had lived across time? Selfishly, he hoped that she would so perhaps seeking absolution in her arms wouldn't feel so fucking undeserved.

With the conviction of a sinner begging for redemption, Edward laid himself bare, "I'm sorry it took me so long, Isabella. I'm so sorry."

"I forgive you," Bella flung herself into his chest, arms wrapped tight enough around his aching back to make him wince but the pain was just another reminder that they were alive. "Just don't ever bet against Alice again or I'll let Emmett have at you."

Edward chuckled, burying his face into her hair and breathing deeply to ground himself, "Never again."

Bella was really here, he could hear it in the way she spoke of his tiniest sister and his burly brother. She was here; with him, for him. After all the chaos and devastation Edward had wrought upon their lives with his impulsivity, she was here in his arms. She still loved him.

She still accepted him.

His mate, his one and only love, had finally found her way back.

x-x-x

Exactly 5 minutes and 13 seconds after releasing Edward from the shackles, the floor began to tremble minutely beneath their knees and she knew it was time.

"They're coming," he murmured into Bella's ear, pulling her even tighter into his embrace. "Do you really think Aro will let us leave?"

"He has to believe that losing us is worth it, that it is what he wants," she looked up at him, greedily drinking in the planes of his face. "Do you trust me?"

"Always."

"Then let me get us out of here. I know Aro well and nothing he gives comes without sacrifice."

Edward looked openly conflicted at such a broad implication, "Bella, if they hurt you–"

Isabella gripped her fingers into the base of his hair and pressed her lips to his, cutting off his protest. There was no more time for doubt; either way, their time in Volterra had come to an end.

The double, interlocking oaken doors to the torture chamber were suddenly flung open with such force that they splintered against the sandstone walls. Aro was nearly salivating at the sight of them entwined, his eyes alight with a feral hunger that should have had her knees quaking.

Not this time.

Caius and Dimitri glided into the room on opposing sides of Aro with matching smirks, quickly tearing them from each other and twisting Edward's arms roughly behind his back while Bella was dragged backwards and shoved onto the floor just out of his reach. Aro loomed over them both, his milky scarlet eyes glinting with delight as he caught sight of the tiny brass key beside the opened shackles.

"I must admit, I am rather disappointed in you, little bird," his voice resonated throughout the small room. "I thought so very highly of you and yet all it took was the Cullen boy's pretty face to make you crumble. My own Enforcer, once so fierce and feared, fell for my most obvious trap, and for what?" He crouched down to her level, syrupy voice coating his whispers in false niceties. "Did you really think it would be this easy to thwart me? Have you learned nothing?"

She lowered her head demurely, "I would never think to–"

Aro gripped Isabella's hair in his fist and yanked her head back, exposing the delicate column of her throat as he hissed, "But you already have, little bird. You've betrayed me now, committed the highest of crimes against the Volturi for nothing. Edward was sentenced to a punishment – one you are most intimately familiar with – and yet you've gone against the will of your King to free him. You broke out of your cell, absconded with the master key once entrusted to you, and released my prisoner from his bonds with the intention of escaping. Now tell me, my trusted Enforcer, what is the sentence for such crimes?"

Edward snarled and struggled viciously against the guards that restrained him, but she snapped her gaze to his. How inconvenient that he couldn't read her mind when they needed it most.

Trust me. She pleaded silently with her eyes. Be calm and trust me.

It was clearly a struggle for him to back down, but Edward simply pressed his lips together and clenched his fists.

"Answer me," Aro tightened his fingers and pulled her head back harder, forcing her to look up at him. "What is the sentence? Answer me so he knows how he's condemned you."

Bella's voice never faltered, "The sentence is death, sire."

The head of the Volturi's smile was wide enough to nearly split the papery skin across his lips. He caressed her neck almost lovingly before, one by one, clenching his fingers around the slender column of her throat until the faint, high-pitched sound of cracking stone rent the air. She could feel the cracks creeping up her neck and down towards her shoulders and steeled herself against the pain. Just a little longer, she just had to endure for a few more moments, and then Aro would be more amenable…

"No!" Edward roared, his face a rictus of terror. "Sire, please! There must be something we can do–"

He didn't relax his iron grip a fraction, "You believe there is anything more valuable to me than a mind-reader and someone with the ability to pinpoint a person's deepest desires?" Aro scoffed. "Doubt is not a strong enough sentiment for–"

"Time," Isabella rasped as the darkness began creeping into the edges of her vision, pressing her fingertips into Aro's wrist. "I can help you manipulate time."

That certainly caught Aro's attention. He yanked his hand back as if burned by her skin and, if he looked hungry before, he looked positively ravenous now, "What did you say?"

She slumped against the floor but managed to fish around weakly in her pocket until she found the stone, pulling it out and holding it in her open palm for him to see.

"My, my…" Aro breathed in awe as he plucked the stone from her shaking hand and held it up to the light. "Where on Earth did you get something like this?"

"It's a trinket, from my human life," Bella pushed herself up, rubbing at the slowly healing cracks across her throat as she attempted to weave a convincing enough lie to save their lives. "A sentimental gift from a friend that I couldn't bring myself to throw away for some reason. It wasn't until Edward came to Volterra and discovered your book on mythical stones that I realized what it actually was… what it could do."

Caius twisted Edward's arm tighter, wringing a grunt from his prisoner's throat, "This is a waste of time, sire. They defied us, they must face the conseq–!"

Aro quickly backhanded him across the face, the sound of colliding granite ricocheting throughout the tiny room, "Silence is highly advised, dear Caius. I'd hate to kill you over so small a thing..." His eyes glinted, tongue flicking out to wet his lips. "...unless my little bird requested it as part of her exchange, that is?"

She shook her head – no more blood would be on her hands if she had a choice.

"Sire, forgive me but… why don't you just take the stone if you want it? It's not like this one–" Dimitri motioned to the restrained Edward, "–or his whore are in any shape to stop you."

The oldest vampire chuckled, "Ah, would that I could, but I can't simply steal the stone, can I, little bird?"

"No," Isabella confirmed, drawing on the limited knowledge she'd gleaned from the worn pages of Edward's book. "It will only work for the person it was meant for. Ownership can only be transferred by choice and when you give it to someone, you have to mean it."

"And do you mean it, Isabella? Are you gifting this magnificent stone to me in exchange for your freedom?"

"Bella, no!" Edward pleaded. "You can't–"

"We have each other; what use do we have for a timestone?" She eyed him, desperately wishing that her thoughts weren't hidden from his gift. The panic on his face was real, the tremors in his limbs frighteningly authentic. In the face of danger, more specifically danger to her, Edward was never good at thinking rationally. He'd promised to trust her but she could see his fear overriding all common sense, so their freedom was solely on her shoulders. "Is it really worth your life? Is it worth mine?"

"An astute observation. You should learn to listen to her, my boy," Aro stroked the stone in his hand reverently before handing it back to her. "So what do you say, little bird? Can I tempt you away from your trinket?"

Bella gripped the timestone tightly, hoping against all hope that she wasn't making a horrific mistake and that she understood the properties of the stone as well as she thought she did, "If you let us leave Volterra, unharmed, and swear to leave us in peace once we're gone… then the stone is yours."

The ancient vampire's answering smile was rapacious, "Done."

She made a show of closing her eyes and pressing the stone into her chest, above her heart as if imprinting her conditions onto it. It didn't matter if it was real, it only mattered if Aro believed that it was. Isabella then dropped the timestone into his covetous, waiting palm.

"Caius, Dimitri – let him go. We have what we need," their leader commanded absently, eyes never leaving his newly acquired treasure as he turned with his henchmen to stride out the door. "Be out of here by morning. I'd love nothing more than to never see either of you again."

x-x-x

They waited in a tense, uneasy silence until the Volturi members were well and truly gone from the bowels of the castle. Once certain they were safe, Bella turned to help Edward stand but he withdrew from her, his face incredulous, "Do you have any idea what you've just done?" He whispered in disbelieving horror, as if coming down from a rush of adrenaline and finally processing everything that had happened. "Not only should Aro never have the ability to manipulate time, but that stone wasn't mine to give. It was entrusted to me in order to find you, to bring you home. Who's to say what will happen now that it's gone?" Edward began to hyperventilate, his hands raking through his messy copper hair in panic as he gasped. "What if Kair sends you away? What if he sends us back to before I found you? What if… what if he sends me back to that cliff and I can't reach you again…"

She knelt down, gently but forcefully removing the shaking hands gripping his hair. Her palms cupped his angular jaw and tilted his chin so he was looking at her. The expression of terror, of hopelessness and anguish, burning in his eyes was like a punch to the stomach that threatened to shatter her resolve but she knew now was not the time. Now was a moment of strength, a moment to be what he so desperately needed, "Your book said that timestones only work for the purpose that they were given and then they disappear; they go back to where they belong. This Kair… you said he gave it to you in order to find me." Isabella brushed her lips against Edward's gently, breathing the words into his mouth with the intention of imprinting them onto his bones. "You found me, Edward. I'm here and you did exactly what the timestone was given to you for so I wouldn't worry about Aro having it for long. And, let me add, that it will be a very cold day in Hell before I'm parted from you again."

Edward wrapped his trembling arms around her shoulders, winding a fist in her hair and burying his face in the more damaged side of her healing neck. "I can't do it again, Bella. I can't watch you die, over and over, anymore," he admitted in a broken whisper. "I won't survive it a second time."

Nausea roiled in her gut at the thought of just what Edward had endured across time to reach her. God, what had happened to this man to render him so shattered at the thought of reliving it? "Then let's not," Isabella said resolutely, stroking the back of his riotous hair in slow, soothing motions. "Let's just go home."

"I almost lost you," he pressed into the curvature of her body further, breath coming in sharp pants against her skin. It was like her voice couldn't reach past his fear. "I almost lost you so many times and it was all my fault. If I hadn't left you in those woods, if I hadn't thought I was so fucking smart and obnoxiously right, you wouldn't have… God, I'm so sorry, Bella. I'm so sorry."

"I would say 'I forgive you', but there's nothing to forgive. I know that walking away from me, from us, felt like the only answer at the time and I understand why you did it. Whatever happened before – it's done now, Edward," she gently pulled away from his embrace and forced him to stand on unsteady legs. It took a few moments for him to compose himself enough to look at her, eyes finally clearer and more present. The chunky phone vibrated against her thigh and Isabella gave a soft smile. "I believe our ride is here. If you're ready to go home…?"

He took the phone she offered in silent confusion. Golden eyes tracked over the screen and widened when he recognized the number.

"We're right outside the city walls," Alice chirped from the other end of the line the very moment Edward pressed the green 'answer' button. "You have 34 minutes until sunrise so I suggest you get moving. We'd really like to get you two out of there without a fight, if possible. Oh, and tell Bella that you're currently experiencing a lot of very overwhelming emotions and your back is still healing so it might be a good idea to hold off on anything major for a few days; at least until you level out, anyway."

Edward didn't even respond to his sister before hanging up, almost in a daze, "How… how do they know we're in Volterra?"

She shrugged, "I called them."

"You called them."

"Yes."

"With no memory of your life or anything before you came here, you called them."

Isabella wove their fingers together to force Edward forward. There was no time to dawdle in the castle anymore with sunrise so close, "Bits and pieces have been coming back to me for a little while now. There was a phone number in my head that I couldn't shake, so I followed my instincts and called it. It ended up being Alice and Rosalie."

With every passing minute, Edward seemingly returned to himself and actually kept stride with her as they continued up, up, up – into the castle proper, "You called them for help," he repeated once more, "and they dropped everything, just like that, to fly across the world to Italy. To find us and bring us home."

"Of course they did. They're your family."

"And if they hadn't come? What then?"

"Then we would have found our own place in the world," she said as if it was the simplest thing and, really, it was. Edward Cullen was all she wanted and she'd give anything, do anything, be anything as long as it meant remaining by his side. After all, hadn't he already done the same for her? "As long as I have my mate, that's all that matters."

Edward stopped their progress for a split second, an almost heartbreaking crooked smile blinding her momentarily before he engulfed her in a passionate kiss that weakened her knees. He wound his fingers into the hair at the base of her scalp while his other hand gripped the slope of her waist and shoved her against the rough stone walls. Isabella gasped, her parted lips an invitation that Edward immediately accepted by sweeping his tongue across the ridges of her teeth and into her mouth. The brush of his tongue against her canines left her dizzy.

"We will always be together, Bella. Until the world ceases to be and even then," he nuzzled her nose affectionately. "And when you marry me, they will be your family, too."

Isabella rolled her eyes with a chuckle, grabbing his hand and breaking into a run; the entrance to Volterra was so close, she was certain they would make it out in time, "You heard Alice – no major decisions for a few days. I think marriage is rather major, don't you?"

They broke through the front doors of the Volturi's castle and kept running, hand in hand, through the darkened streets of the city, only narrowly avoiding wayward humans who still lingered in small groups. The stars glittered like a goddess's teardrops overhead and they combined with the moonlight to cast both of their skin with an ethereal glow that made her feel like Edward's equal for the first time.

"And deciding to accept our bond, to be well and truly mine, isn't major?"

She laughed again, "I'm pretty sure Alice meant no new decisions. That one was already decided a long time ago."

He stopped her again at the outer perimeter of the city walls with a tug at her wrist, his jovial mood replaced by a much more somber, vulnerable one. It was amazing how quickly his moods shifted – mercurial, she'd always thought, though now she realized that it was simply because Edward felt so much but almost always kept it so tightly controlled that he wasn't sure how to expend the energy, how to express it all, without being 'too much'. She knew because she felt the same way her entire life… until Edward found her.

"You will never regret it: choosing me," Edward promised with conviction, pressing his a kiss the tips of her fingers in worship. "I swear it, Bella."

She pulled her hand from his mouth to replace it with her lips, fire smoldering deep in her belly as he nearly swallowed her words, "I never have."

"Never?"

The agony and regret ingrained into one word nearly broke her, "Never, Edward. Not once."

As if the reality of the situation finally occurred to them – free from the Volturi, safe outside the walls of Volterra, together – it was as if a dam broke. Edward groaned at her words, pulling her fully into the line of his body and pressing every inch of him against her, trapping her against the uneven stones of the city walls. Isabella gripped his hair like a lifeline, sliding her tongue across his and gasping when he palmed her ass with an eager hand, the other dancing across her thighs at the hem of her dress. Were they really going to do this, take this monumental step that would forever alter their bond, right here on the grass beneath the stars? She always thought –

"I love you, Bella," Edward's harsh breathing slipped across her chest as he nipped at the sensitive skin of her collarbone. "I've always loved you. Let me show you what it means to be mine… Please Bella, let me make love to you. Please."

Fuck it. Here was just as good a place as any, really.

Thankful that he still had no shirt, Bella nearly clawed at the buttons of his pants while shoving them down, desperate in her need to finally have her soulmate, all of him, inside her, claiming her as his, "God, Edward; please–"

BEEP BEEP!

They looked up to see an obnoxious yellow Porsche and a shiny black Mercedes pull up side-by-side, nearly blinding them with their twin headlights. The passenger door of the Mercedes opened to reveal the burliest Cullen with a shit-eating grin on his face before letting out a high wolf-whistle, "Hot damn, Eddie! I never pegged you as an exhibitionist!"

Jasper appeared from the passenger side of the Porsche, snickering at his brother's half-lowered pants, "Full moon tonight, huh?"

Edward quickly righted his clothes and Isabella let her head fall back against the wall with a lovingly exasperated sigh. Some things never changed, it seemed.

"I'm glad you've decided to follow through on your decision, Bella," Alice flitted from the driver's side of the Porsche with an undamaged gray dress in her tiny, outstretched hands, "but really, sex in a field? So gauche. I mean, it is Italy I suppose, but still."

Rosalie stepped out of the driver's side of the Mercedes, looking every bit as stunning as Aphrodite herself, but with a distinctly different expression on her face than Isabella could ever remember seeing. She looked… relieved as her eyes took a quick inventory of Bella from head to toes – pausing only briefly at her golden eyes – but as usual, masked it all well with snark, "Can we at least get home before you two start pawing at each other?"

"They're obnoxious, but they have a point," Edward conceded sheepishly as he shielded her from view momentarily so she could change her dress before they made their way towards the cars. "I'm sorry about that; this isn't the time or the place and I swear I can control myself."

"If you say so," Bella deliberately brushed against the straining hardness in his khakis as she slid into the backseat of the Mercedes, "but I'd really rather you didn't."

Emmett made his favorite obnoxious heaving sound from the front seat and, thanks to the lowered windows, they could hear Jasper choking on a gag from the Porsche next to them.

"Project some of that shit for us, Jas. I just know these virgins are hot and bothered," Emmett whooped with laughter out the window, Rosalie and Alice hitting the gas at the same time to send the cars speeding across the Italian countryside. "We've got four hours until our flight home and I know exactly how I'd like to spend my time."

Jasper's answer was lost to the rush of the warm morning air as the sun crept over the horizon and was replaced instead with Rosalie's whack to the back of her husband's head.

"Don't be so crass," she snapped, eying Bella quickly with a gentle gaze in the rear-view mirror. "She's going to be our sister now. Have some respect."

"Being happy that Eddie is finally going to get laid, claim his mate, and take the perpetual stick out of his ass isn't disrespectful, babe. I'm being supportive!"

"Be supportive silently."

"Aw, come on – what fun is that?"

"You know, Emmett…"

The remainder of the conversation between Rosalie and Emmett faded into the background and it finally, finally felt like a shroud of peace was replacing the heavy cloak of guilt and despair that so often plagued them throughout their tumultuous relationship. Isabella grabbed one of Edward's hands, entwining their fingers and settling into his side as he slid his free arm around her shoulders, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

She looked up at him reverently, still in awe that this was real and she was blessed with the privilege of remaining by his side, as his soulmate, for the remainder of time. After all they had endured when she was human, there had been many times that a future like this had felt impossible. Just out of reach. Never meant for someone as plain and boring as the clumsy little human Bella Swan. For the first time, Edward Cullen's heart truly felt like a possibility – like a promise of an eternity filled with happiness, hope, and love.

Her voice was soft but steady, "I love you."

Edward's crooked smile was like a ray of healing sunshine, basking her in its warmth and tending to all the wounds his absence had left behind so long ago, "And I love you, Isabella Marie Cullen. More than you could ever know."

Her chest warmed at the implication of his words, at the thought of being his wife someday, but she couldn't help teasing him with a quick waggle of her bare ring finger, "Mmm… I don't think that's my name yet."

He chuckled, "Not yet, no. But it will be eventually."

"Eventually," Bella agreed, the rays of the morning sun washing over the car and setting their marble skin alight with glittering facets. "But we have plenty of time so we can take our time. There's no rush."

Edward let go of her hand and tilted her chin up, his golden eyes filled with adoration, relief, and a little sorrow all at the same time, "Plenty of time…" He repeated quietly, his lips dancing against her mouth in the gentlest caress. The words, breathed with the reverence of a prayer-starved man, tumbled past his lips and settled into her skin, marking its place amongst her bones for the rest of her life like a benediction too sacred for mere mortals to understand. "But then again, what kind of fool would waste a single moment with you?"

She felt that fire smolder at the base of her spine again when Edward's lips slowly began tracking down the column of her throat, "Oh, I'm sure I could think of one."

"Never again, Bella," he nipped at the juncture of her shoulder with his teeth, setting her ablaze with desire so fierce it took her breath away. "Never."

Emmett groaned from the front in disgust, "Jesus Christ, we should have just let them fuck back there in the grass."

Rosalie bit back her smirk, "Alice tried to warn you."

"Yep. Never betting against her again, that's for damn sure."

Fin

*Only the Epilogue remaining. Thank you so much for taking this journey with me.*