A/N: New computer, summer break, and more chapters coming (hopefully soon). This was a hard chapter to write, specifically where Edward told his family what he had said. I wanted it to feel authentic to the original and to this story, where Bella wasn't there to forgive him so easily and he really had to ruminate on everything he had said. But I'm finally happy with where it is and hope you enjoy it. I broke this chapter into two parts because it was over 18 pages long (and now it's only 14), but I'll post the second half today as well.

TLTYLF Ch 13: How Did It End?

Carlisle's POV

"I hereby conduct this post-mortem.

Our maladies were such we could not cure them."

How Did It End? - Taylor Swift

Bella looked around the room with a carefully guarded expression, her eyes pausing for a moment on each person before she moved to the next. She saved Edward for last, her careful mask slipping ever so slightly.

Edward was frozen on the spot, equally craving and dreading when her warm eyes met his.

"Bella-" his voice cuts through the quiet room. Edward walks forward reaching for her but she steps back.

With a speed and a grace that I have never seen her express, Bella brings her fist back and punches Edward in the face. There is a crunch and a pop from her fist coming into contact with an unmoving force that had to be painful from the look on her face.

"Fuck you."

I don't think we have ever heard Bella curse. Sure the other kids do, but Bella never had before, not in front of us.

Edward shifted on one foot, hesitating, uncertain. His hand went to his face where Bella's had just been. He looked so young, so human with his shoulders hunched, and a thousand expressions fighting for dominance on his face. It was the most vulnerable I think I've ever seen him.

There's a silence in the room for a moment too long. Then Rosalie breaks it. "Well, it's about fucking time." She mutters.

Emmett laughs loudly, pushing past Edward to give Bella a bear hug, which she doesn't give return. "How've you been, Baby B?" Emmett asks, ruffling my hair.

I watch her pause for a moment, considering her response, if she wants to give one at all. She certainly doesn't owe us any pleasantries or explanations.

"How've I been? Really?" She scoffs. "Fuck you, too. How've I been? The reason I'm here is that you all left me unprotected against a crazed vampire intent on torturing me because you guys killed her mate! How have I fucking been?!" The last words were muttered under her breath.

Rosalie laughs after Bella's words settle in the air, breaking some of the tension. "I like this Bella. Where was this backbone four years ago?"

"I think I was too afraid you would leave to stand up for myself," Bella tells her before turning her attention back to Edward and Emmett. "Don't smile like that and ask me how I've been, like the past four years were a walk in the park. Don't you say you've missed me when you don't want me again. I can't. I can't do it. You don't actually care, you all made that glaringly obvious, and I can't go on pretending you didn't hurt me." My attention goes to her injured hand as she attempts to shake off the pain.

"Bella, would you mind?" I approached her slowly, sure our reunion in the airport was long gone now that reality set in. I gesture to her injured hand, holding mine out for hers. I prod softly along the knuckle that already seems to be bruising. Thankfully nothing seems to be broken, just sore. "I don't think anything is broken, but you might have sprained your wrist," I say and can't help but ask. "You had screws implanted here, you've broken this a few years ago?"

She confirms, her face reddening slightly. "Yeah. . . I, uh, injured it and then, um, broke my radius further b-before it finished healing."

"How long ago was this?" I ask though it seems to have healed as well as one could hope.

"Three and a half years, give or take," she answers.

"Previously breaking a bone leaves it weaker and prone to repeated breaks. You got lucky this time, Sweetheart." I mention.

"It's fine, Carlisle. I've dealt with worse, it's not the first time I've hit a mythical creature, and I'm sure it won't be the last time."

Emmet laughs, back from the stupor Bella's cold arrival she had put him in. "Details, Bells. You can't say something like that and not give the details." Emmett urges.

"I punched a werewolf in the face. . . Twice." The next words were nothing I would have expected, maybe a fall or an accident but not a mythical creature.

"Bella, I would like you to ice your hand and let me wrap it for you. It will only take a minute." I offered in an attempt to change the conversation I could tell we were not ready to get into.

I smile at her approval, however reluctant it may be, before taking my leave quicker than she could see. I listened as I searched for the supplies, thankful I had the mind to stock up on a few essentials for my beloved daughter.

"You must be exhausted, Sweetheart. Are you hungry? Do you want anything to drink?" I hear my Esme ask. "I went shopping yesterday when Alice gave us the news you were coming."

"I'm fine. Alice got me a big coffee at the airport and I'm used to going on little sleep. . . I guess water would be good if it's not too much trouble."

As if anything she asked would ever be an imposition on us, especially after all this time.

I was back a few seconds later, wrapping her hand tight enough to support but not to hamper her circulation. Even without Jasper's help, I could see on her face that it made a minute difference.

Esme came and handed her an open water bottle in her uninjured hand.

"May I suggest if you were to try this again, you wait until after your transformation." I chided softly, a smile on my lips.

Emmett laughs in agreement at what I'm sure was a vivid dream of such in his mind, Bella rolls her eyes at him. "Then you can do some real damage."

What should have been a happy reunion was not turning out as such. We had done more damage to our youngest daughter than we realized, but we weren't exactly sure why that was. It's not that I thought we hadn't hurt her, but it felt deeper than if that was the reason why, that we had left to keep her safe from our world. Edward had assured us that she understood, that they parted ways as friends.

It was quickly becoming clear that the version of the story we got from Edward was not the whole story. Nor did this description of events seem accurate. Her reception was becoming more clear, why Alice wouldn't let Edward come to find her, why she had such a warranted yet violent response.

No, things were not how they were made to be seen.

"I lied," Edward spoke, breaking the heavy silence.

"To all of us," Alice hissed.

Esme was right, as always. I had hoped for the best but it was for not. We had all betrayed one child in following Edward's wishes. What must our youngest daughter have thought when she learned they were all gone?

"Yeah, you're good at that." Bella snapped. Edward winced at her words. "I know you know how to lie, but I never thought you would lie to me."

"I told them not to contact you. I told all of them to leave you alone." Edward immediately defended our family but the words didn't mean much. There was no heat behind his words, only sadness. "If you're going to be angry at someone, be angry at me."

"Don't worry, I am," Bella muttered. "I thought I was your mate."

"You-you are?" Edward replied quickly, anxious and confused.

"Have you-" she paused, the weight of the words hanging in the air. "Have you seen your brothers or Carlisle treat their mates this way, ever?" She gestured to them.

It was appalling the way he handled their separation, one that none of us expected would last this long. But here we were, and the road was not going to be smooth.

He sighs before he speaks again. "I lied to you. You believed me so easily-" he started.

I personally would not have gone the route of blaming her but there was nothing to say.

"Don't," she cut him off. "I-it never made sense to me, that you could love me."

"I didn't know what to do, it all seemed so hopeless. And I thought if I left then you would be safe. . . from me, from us, and the danger you put yourself in every time we were together." He pulled his hands away. "I thought lying would be the only way you would let me go- if you thought I didn't want you anymore-" his voice cracked on those last words and his face crumpled.

"Edward-" she started to cut him off.

He shook his head. "Regardless of my intentions, I was arrogant and cruel. I won't ask your forgiveness, what I did was unforgivable, but if you let me I'll spend the rest of forever trying to." He sighs softly, running a hand through his messy bronze hair. "I hurt you. I hurt everyone I care about. You deserve better. I want to make this right, Bella. It killed me to hurt you like that. I thought I would have to lie through my teeth for hours to even plant a seed of doubt in your mind."

"Oh, I'm sorry that was so hard for you." The sarcasm in her voice is thick. "It killed you?"

There was a pained grunt from Edward that came from her words.

"Why would it have killed you? You left voluntarily. You weren't the one left behind!" Edward took every word like a sucker punch. "I spent hours looking for you last night. I got lost. They had to send a search party to find me. I almost died that night. Did you know that? Do you even care?"

"Of course, I care. I left you within sight of your house. No, I didn't know." He takes a steadying breath. "Bella, remember when James was hunting you and you had to leave to protect Charlie?"

"Yes, but-" he cut her off.

"And do you remember that he wasn't going to let you leave and you had to think of a way to get him to let you go?" He waited for her to nod before continuing. "Do you remember the things you said to him? Things that you knew would hurt him, but it was the only way to get him to let you leave and keep him safe. I felt like I was doing the same thing when I said those things to you that day in the forest."

The room was silent save for Bella's pounding heart.

"Don't you see? I lied, I had to lie. I knew it was the only way you'd let me go."

"It's not the same. Everything I said to Charlie was because James was listening! Do you think I would have hurt him like that if I had a choice? If James wasn't there then I wouldn't have said that, I would have thought of some other way- some other lie- it's not the same!"

"I just didn't expect you to-" His voice trailed off.

"Didn't expect me to what?" She urged him to continue.

"To believe me so easily."

"Oh, it's my fault because I believed you?" Her voice was void of emotion, but her face showed exactly the pain she held inside. It was clear she wanted to rail at him for his decision, curse him for his seemingly half-hearted reply, and scream her frustration until he had no choice but to listen.

"No, of course not, that's not what I meant!" He backpedaled, then sighed. "Bella, after all the times I told you I loved you and that I wanted you. . . How could you ever doubt my feelings for you?"

"Jesus Christ, Edward. I believed you because that's what you told me! What reason would I have to think you were lying? When I lied to Charlie, he could chalk it up to teenage angst or hormones or something. I never said that I didn't love him or that I didn't want him as a father. . . But when you said those things to me in the forest that day, I couldn't think of any reason why you would say them other than that they were true! I read your stupid letter and still can't see why you would say those things. All I knew was that you said you didn't want me, you never did and that you promised I would never see you again." Her eyes narrowed, anger clear as day. "Then you took your entire family that you all once said included me, including my best friend, and left. Up until then you'd never outright lied to me, I mean in the past you left out some details, but you had never lied right to my face. Not about us or how you felt about me. It never made sense for you to love me anyway so how was I supposed to know you didn't mean everything you said?" She sighs, angrily wiping her red eyes.

"I'm sorry, I know nothing I can say will ever be enough to make up for the pain I- we caused you. It's like you're our missing piece. . . They all fought me when I told them we had to leave you in Forks, but they did it for me. The family felt. . . broken and incomplete when we left you in Forks."

"Then why didn't you come back? Why did you take them away from me?" Bella asked quietly. "Your family," she clarifies when he doesn't answer right away. "Why not at least leave me them or some way to contact someone? Did you really think that when you left every other vampire would, too?"

"I thought we were the danger in your life, when we left the danger would, too." Edward sighed. "At the time, I thought it would be easier if there were no reminders of me or of the life we had together."

"Well, that was stupid, really stupid. You only made it harder for me. When you left, you took everything. You leaving me was hard enough, but I also lost my best friend in Alice and the family I'd come to love. I was lost."

The room was silent for a minute, their words lingering heavily in the air between us.

"If you didn't want me to be a part of your life you should have thought of that before we were together. It wasn't a normal fucking relationship from the start." She takes a shaky breath. "You've never thought that I could possibly love you as much as you love me, have you? You thought that when you went away I'd just forget about you as if the way I feel about you is some schoolgirl crush."

He nodded. "Human memories are so fragile and I thought-" he trails off with a sigh. "It doesn't matter what I thought. I was wrong, so wrong, I never should have doubted you. I would take it back if I could, do things differently if I had a chance." Edward stood up. He pulled an ottoman over and sat facing Bella who didn't meet his eyes. "Bella." His voice was sincere, "The time we've been apart has been the most painful time of my life."

"Hard? It's been hard?!" She barked a cold laugh.

He sighed then, deeply and meaningfully, a wholly unnecessary act but one that spoke of his guilt at his thoughts. "More than I could have ever imagined."

"Edward- Edward, you left me. You told me you didn't love me anymore. Remember?" She grits her teeth in agitation.

"Of course I do," he said. "And it tears me apart just to think about it."

"At least you knew I still loved you. You had the power to return whenever you wanted."

"I couldn't do that, Bella. It would have been—" she cut him off.

"I know your rationalization of why you didn't," she said, "but the point is that you could have. You knew I would take you back because you knew I still loved you. I didn't have that option. You lied. You left me alone to feel miserable and empty, and no matter how unbearable it got for me, I could never come after you. No matter how prevalent the danger you introduced me to still was."

I had a sinking feeling that the danger was much worse than we could have ever anticipated.

"So don't tell me it was hard for you. You have no idea the hell I've been through." Bella tells him. "Four years. It's been four years!" She takes a moment to gather herself before continuing. "I'm not mad you broke up with me. . . Well, not until you told me it was all a lie. I'm pissed at what you put me through. You have no idea Edward Cullen, none." She was fighting back tears, Esme reached for my hand, her heart on her sleeve. "From the second we met, you made all the decisions, you called all the shots. I barely got a say in anything and I'm tired of it. I deserve better than that. It's my fucking life and I'm done not having a say in it."

"I'm sorry. I know that doesn't begin to cover it, but you have been in my every thought since the moment we met." Edward starts. "It was hard. I fought every single day whether I should give into my selfish desires to go back home and beg for your forgiveness."

"Four years Edward," she snapped, cutting him off before continuing. "Edward, do you honestly think I give a fuck that this was hard for you? You fought every day to stay away? I didn't have that choice. I had to try and survive the world you left me in. I got a fleeting glimpse of how great life could actually be then found out I was just a distraction and you were bored with me?"

"He said what?" The phrase is the general consensus of the room.

Emmett was restraining himself, he had a special place in his heart for his youngest sister. I could see the anger clear as day on his face as we all put the pieces together, watching the way the muscle in my youngest son's jaw ticked.

It wasn't only Bella that Edward and I had harmed with Edward's incessant demand that we leave Forks, and Bella, behind. Everyone had suffered greatly for the decision I let my first son make for us.

"This is not the end of this conversation." I declared, too quiet for Bella to hear. Things were not as Edward made them seem, which will be discussed imminently.

Bella continues, immune to the revelations around her. "I don't care how hard it was for you because you've only ever focused on yourself. You're acting like a 17-year-old boy, Edward. Unable to grasp the weight or consequences of your actions. So I'm sorry, really, that you were having a hard time dealing with the shit you made for yourself." Emmett whistled too low for her to hear.

"What was I supposed to do Bella? I couldn't let you continue to endanger yourself to be with me! You wouldn't walk away, so I had to do something!"

"YOU SHOULD'VE SPOKEN TO ME ABOUT IT!" Her loud voice pierces the room as she takes a calming breath. "You should've told me what you were thinking, what you were feeling. Not taken it upon yourself to decide what was best for me, what was best for us. It was my life too!" My heart ached at the tears running down her face. "If you loved me like you say you did, you should've talked to me. You had no right," her voice broke. "It wasn't your sole decision to make."

"What did he say to you?" Jasper's voice was low, I could feel him trying to calm the room as he asked the question on all of our minds.

"You didn't tell them?" Bella sighs, turning from Jasper back to Edward who was grimacing. "I don't want to do this right now. We need to talk, really talk and you need to hear me out." She tells him. "But not right now. I can't do this right now."

It was clear the conversation was not over, I don't think any of us could move past where it rests at this point. Bella, most importantly, deserved to say her piece after a decent night's sleep. A break for her to sleep would also give us time to uncover exactly what Edward said.

She flexed her hand, a grimace coming to her face, She was clearly in pain, and not just from this reunion. I forgot how well she hid her pain and I should have insisted earlier.

"Sit, I'll get you something for the pain."

"It's not that bad, Carlisle," her voice was void of emotion, but her face showed exactly the pain she held inside.

"She's lying," Jasper tells me.

"Mind your own business, Jasper," she mutters back under her breath as I leave the room with a soft chuckle.

I brought back an over-the-counter pain reliever for her, not wanting to give her something heavier without talking it over with her, and now wasn't a god time for that.

My kids have never cared much about their human classmates until Forks, never keeping up with where they were now, not like I have with my colleagues. I was surprised by Emmett's question and had to admit I was curious about the response as well. Forks was just different in every way. "So how is everyone?"

"Who do you mean?" Bella asks him.

"You know, Angela, Jessica, Mike, and all our friends from school." He amended. "What'd we miss?"

"Um, well Angela and Ben got married before moving to a big city. Uh, Portland the last I heard. . . Mike, he um, he took over his parents' store." When she answered you could hear the reluctance in her voice.

"And Jessica?"

When I return to the room I see Bella look down at her hands in her lap, picking at the thumbnail of her good hand. "Officially?" She paused but continued without waiting for a response. "She's a missing person."

"What do you mean officially?" Emmett asks what we were all wondering at her interesting choice of words.

"Victoria killed her. . . She- she wanted me. Jess and I were on First Beach alone. She ran into me there actually, while the guys were patrolling. She, uh, she came through the water. She came for me. . . but Jessica drew attention to herself. She started calling for help even though I told her not to. . . I should have convinced her. I told her to run and not look back, but Victoria went after her so there wouldn't be any witnesses. She killed her right in front of me and there was nothing I could do." Her fingernails cut into her palms as she clenched her already injured hands.

It was a common coping mechanism, as if the physical pain would cancel out the mental.

"Bella-" Edward's voice is pained again.

"No. I tried to save her, begged Victoria to take me and leave her. . . B-but I was too late. Jessica's screams alerted the pack but they weren't close enough. They didn't make it in time. Victoria, she took off through the water. Jessica was dead by that point and Victoria took her with her."

Her words sunk around us. I was not familiar with this lingering sense of failure, this depth of guilt— to have erred so strongly that it felt like a gnawing ache in my chest.

We all were foolish enough to believe we were the danger and us leaving would erase that.

I have spent the better part of the last 300 years trying to do right by this life. I save lives— brought loved ones back from the brink and reunited families whenever I could in the desperate hope of my own redemption. . . Yet in doing just that, I caused pain to this poor child who has already been through enough pain for multiple lifetimes.

"I had no-" Emmett clearly feels terrible for bringing it up.

"No, I know. How could you know?" She sighs softly. "Her parents reported her missing a few days later. Mike blames himself because they had a fight right before. . . She wanted to go to college someplace down South and Mike didn't want to leave because of the store. . . She had just found out she was pregnant a few days before and Mike proposed. . . He's been in rehab on and off for the past few years now."

"I-I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"Sorry won't change anything." She says. "You didn't know. You didn't care to think of the repercussions of your actions. I know you didn't know."

Bella walks a few steps away before turning back, eyebrows furrowed.

"Charlie was in charge of her case, b-because he knew we were friends. . . I had to lie to him, lie to her parents, that I had no idea what happened to her. I had to steer him in the wrong direction in case- not in case," her heart sped up as she spoke, "it was just a matter of time before she returned and I tried to keep him as far away from Victoria as possible, without becoming a suspect myself. I didn't want them to find out, didn't want them to even get close because I knew it wouldn't be long before Victoria came back for me. . . And she was willing to take out anyone in her path." I run my uninjured hand through my hair. "It's my fault Jessica's gone."

"It's not your fault, Bella. There wasn't anything you could have done." Alice insists softly as she reaches over and squeezes Bella's uninjured hand.

The guilt was coming off her in waves, that much I could tell without Jasper's gift. "I could have- I should have distracted her, cut myself with a rock or shell. If I could have made myself bleed it could have distracted her enough, given Jessica a chance to run, or given the pack enough time to reach us." Bella reaches up to wipe her eyes and curses at the pain it caused her injured wrist. "I've laid awake thinking about this enough to realize there were things I could have done. . . Charlie is convinced Mike is to blame, but no charges have been filed against him or anything."

The night that Esme opened to us about her human life, I had nearly lost control. The uncontrollable rage that hurtled like venom through my veins caused me to see red. Nothing had affected me as much, not until finding Rosalie and now hearing what happened to Bella in our absence. It was our job to protect her from those horrors when we brought her into our family.

My eyes met Esme's as her eyes shined with unshed tears. Tears that I knew she wished would fall.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"I wish that was the worst thing I went through," she mutters.

It was unfathomable how much this child suffered in our absence. I want to make one thing clear- "we never would have stood back if we had known you were being hunted. The very fact that not a single one of us was there is your evidence that Alice never saw." Clearly, Bella was not better off without us around and all of us were to blame.

"Do you think you could ever forgive us?" Alice asks softly, a note of melancholy in her tone.

Bella sighs, looking down at her hands.

I lean forward. "We will do whatever it takes to make it up to you. Obviously, us disappearing on you is not the worst thing to happen to you in the past few years. And about that, I want you to know we're here for you and that we want to support you. And by we, I mean, quite distinctly, both our family as a whole and Edward on his own. We love you, and I know you love us, too."

Bella hears my words and takes a moment to respond, though I can't tell if she thought they were sincere or not. When she speaks she answers Alice. "Of course, I'll forgive you, Alice. . ." She looks at the seven pairs of soft golden eyes around her. "I just don't know which words to trust anymore. I wish I didn't love you guys, it would have made the past years easier to bear but you changed me so completely there was never any going back. Just saying 'sorry' doesn't cut it after four years."

Bella's phone started to vibrate, breaking us out of the trance we all seemed to be on as her words settled in the air and we were starting to realize just the amount of damage we had done.

Bella mutters a quiet "excuse me," before taking the call in the kitchen. Of course, Charlie would be calling her when he hadn't heard from her since they landed. The sky that had been dark was now lighted by the rising sun.

I pull Esme in closer, wishing I could take her pain away as well. "We'll be here for her, whatever she needs," I promise. What must our youngest daughter think about all this?

We attempted to give her a semblance of privacy as she spoke to her father. After she hung up we heard her open the back doors of the kitchen before walking onto the deck outside. It was cold but it didn't seem to affect her.

"The temperature is beginning to drop at this time of year. What if it's too cold for her to—"

"Edward, why don't you go and check on her?" Esme suggested, highly amused. "Before you pace a hole in the floor," she added.

"I think I'll do that," he mumbled, sniffing without intending to. "Just to, you know, make sure she isn't cold or something."

"Good idea." Rosalie snickered and none of us could keep the smile from our faces at his nonchalant agreement.

Edward took that as his cue to leave, following Bella onto the back porch.

"It's freezing out here, are you cold?" Edward asked.

After a few moments of silence, Bella spoke up, "you're asking me about the weather?"

He chuckles. "Yeah. . . I-I guess I am. I'm sorry, I just don't really know what to say."

Its quiet, neither talking until Edward comes to bring her a blanket.

"Thanks," she whispered.

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No!" The response was from Esme, not Bella. I pull her into my arms. "He promised." After finally having our family together after all these years, I didn't want him to leave either. But if our choice was one or the other, Bella deserved our choice and her choice.

"I thought you promised Esme you wouldn't?"

"I did. . . But if you need me to-" he signed, frustrated. "I didn't give you a choice before and we didn't really give you a choice in coming here. If you want or need me to not be here, I will do whatever you wish. You deserve the chance to make a decision here."

She didn't say anything, which spoke volumes.

Esme left the room and I followed her to the kitchen. As she filled the teapot with water I reached around her to get a mug for Bella. Bella comes inside with a shiver, the snow starting to fall again. Her thin sweater not doing much to keep her warm. I offered to take the snow-frosted blanket around her shoulders before it started to melt on her. Bella takes the cup with a quiet "thank you" before retreating to the warmth of the fireplace in the main room.

I decided to speak first, there were things that needed to be said. "Bella, I want to start out by thanking you for coming. I understand how much you've given up to be here and we don't take that lightly." No spoken apology would suffice. I didn't even know the full story and yet I couldn't comprehend the suffering she must have endured.

"Why am I here, Carlisle?"

It was a valid question and one that we hadn't addressed yet. I know Alice and Jasper told her some but not all. "We've brought you here, Bella, because this is the only way we can continue. Alice sees the Volturi coming early Spring, which puts us on a time limit regarding your change."

"I know we've kind of glossed over this but-" she trails off.

"But?" I prompt.

"But why do the Volturi care? Why would they do Victoria's bidding?"

"The Volturi are the," how to properly explain the hierarchy in our world, "unspoken rulers of our world. There aren't many laws we must abide by, but they are important for everyone to follow." I explain. "The Volturi enforce these laws."

"Like what? Not telling a human what you are? Because you didn't tell me, I guessed and Edward just didn't deny it."

Jasper speaks up before I can respond. "They don't care for technicalities, Bella. Before I joined the Cullens I saw thousands murdered for attracting the attention of those around us. Entire covens wiped out." Jasper adds, his deep voice had an almost haunting-like quality.

"We revealed our secret and left you human. Victoria's plan is to bring this to their attention." I finish for him.

I let the words settle in the air around us, "So you change me and I'm a vampire. . . What's to say this is the end?" She asks after a pause. "I know Victoria, pretty well by this point. Better than most of you, if I'm being honest. She won't stop. She won't give up."

"She'd be stupid, with a death wish to come up against our coven," Emmett interjects.

"She had no quarrel about coming up against a pack of werewolves," Bella muttered. The cup of tea was empty and Esme offered to take it to the kitchen before coming back.

"I spent over half a century living with the Volturi, Bella. I believe if they find she was lying, that you aren't human, they will, for lack of a better term, dispose of her." I would not relive those years for anything.

". . . So where are we doing this?"

"I think we should talk first. I want to explain-" Edward starts, speaking up for the first time since they came back inside.

Bella cuts him off. "If you don't want me, if you're still against changing me, then why bother bringing me here?"

"I want you here. We all want you here." He claims.

Bella looks around and there is unanimous approval from each of us. We all want her here with us. "What changed? Why now? Is it because the constant danger I've been in affects you now?"

"No, of course not," Edward says.

"You've been a part of this family since the day Edward brought you home," Esme interjects.

"And you've been my sister since the day I saw you deciding to move to Forks," Alice adds.

"You belong here, just as much as every one of us." I insist, gesturing to our family around us.

"Bella no one here is going to kill you, regardless of your reasoning." Alice chirped, laughing off her concern and valid question.

"I really don't see the difference, Alice. If I'm not going to be changed then I'm just waiting for the Volturi to kill me. I imagine you would make it as painless as possible."

There is silence in the room, save for Bella's beating heart.

"Edward?" She finally spoke. He looked up to meet her eyes. "If I asked you to change me, would you?"

There was a minute change in Edward's suddenly tense demeanor. "Are you asking?" He replied.

"Maybe," she tried to shrug like it was no big deal, but her hammering heartbeat gave her away.

"I could never deny you anything, Bella, not again. . . So if you asked. . . Yes, I would say yes."

"You'd change me out of guilt, then?"

"No, I would do it because you asked. I would do anything for you, Bella. Anything. I can't lose you again, whether it be because of your humanity or some supernatural force."

"As long as I'm human, you hold the true power. No matter what you say. You can change your mind and leave me at any time, and I wouldn't be able to do or say anything about it. Do you know how your constant refusals made me feel? You wouldn't listen to me, you wrote me off like I could never love you as you loved me, like I didn't realize the gravity of my decisions. You should have known I would choose five mere minutes with you over a lifetime with anyone else."

He sighed at himself after a moment, his dark eyes locked in hers. "Never think that I was ever against this because I don't want you," he said, "I want you. I want you like me, indestructible, immortal. I really do. I just think you deserve better than this half-life, I still do."

"Part of me read your letter and hears you now and wants to believe you, but another part of me can't help but feel like you've been put into a position where you don't have a choice in the matter."

"In truth, there's nothing I want more in the world than to have you by my side forever, Bella. It just feels like the most selfish thing I have ever wanted."

". . . But it's not about you," she says. When neither of them continues Bella turns to Alice. "How much time do I have, Alice?"

"We don't have to change you tonight if that's what you're asking. I still don't have a definite date but a few days shouldn't make a difference." She assures her as she stops to process everything. "You must be exhausted," Alice said. "We have a room set up for you."

We did have a room for her, a room we've kept empty since we moved here, hoping she'd use it again. The past few days had been a whirlwind getting it ready. We got new sheets and a duvet, every toiletry Rose could think of, and stuff to make it feel welcoming. I'm sure Alice enjoyed the vision of Emmett lifting the entire bed into the air while Esme and I rolled the rug out underneath it. When her things were delivered we put the boxes in the closet and along one wall out of the way and undisturbed for Bella to put where she wanted them. Esme even added a large clawfoot tub in the bathroom for her.

Bella followed Alice up the stairs.

A/N: Hope you liked it, please review.