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All mistakes are mine

Dec 11, 1941…

Bella

The hospital was silent as I was down the halls on my ways to Edward's room. Much like I'd expected, I still couldn't sleep. My thoughts and memories were too loud to ignore and plaid at a constant look that wouldn't let me have a good night's sleep. It was as I was heating up my water in the kitchen that I remembered I promised to bring back some tea to Edward as a thank you for the remedy. I looked at the clock and it was just eleven in the evening, surely he'd be asleep by now.

If he could sleep, I thought.

And the thought of spending another sleepless night in my bedroom with the faint sounds of Alice's snoring coming from the other side of the bedroom was not very appealing. So, I made enough tea for two, put it in a container that would keep it warm until I made it to the hospital and made the long walk to the hospital. If Alice or any of the girls had realized I walked on my own this late at night, I would never hear of it, and I knew it wasn't a smart idea but as soon as I made it to the hospital, I was able to breathe a sigh of relief.

I listened carefully once I was outside Edward's door and knocked softly before opening the door. Edward was propped up on his bed, holding a newspaper on his lap. That family grin of his showed up when he saw me at his door.

"You came," he said, a hint of surprise in his voice.

I showed him my container. "And I brought some tea."

Walking over to the counter, I filled two small foam cups with our tea and walked back to his bed, offering him a cup.

Edward took a small sip and groaned, his eyes rolling back.

"You make it better than my mother."

"I hope she doesn't hear that." I grinned over the rim of my cup and took a sip. The warm liquid was soothing. "Did she come back after I left?"

Edward's lips thinned. "Oh, she sure did and she did so at the worst possible time possible."

"Why's that?"

"Dr. Harmon came back to see me after Carlisle left. I'm being discharged in the morning."

I frowned, taking a seat on the chair next to his bed. "How's that a bad thing?"

"I'm supposed to be resting for the next two weeks before I can get back to training. That's two weeks of being stuck in a house with my mother and Tanya, not the most appealing situation. But that's not what bothered her."

I tilted my head slightly, urging him to continue.

Edward sighed. "My general also came to see me. After my two weeks, I'm expected to return to duty. Their sending the first round of soldiers to Britain in January."

"Wait, are you saying-"

"I'm being deployed."

Deployed? Edward's being deployed so soon?

"Is that something you want?" I asked, my tone low.

Edward chuckled lightly and shook his head. "It's not something I have a choice in, Bella. It's a sure thing. I'll be in Britain in a matter of weeks."

I sat back against my chair, unsure of what to say. If Edward left, would I ever see him again? God knows how long this war will last, would he survive? What if he died out there? Or if by some miracle, he does make it out alive, he would go back to his home in Chicago where he has an estate and family to look after. I would be here, or more likely back at home in Forks, hopefully not married to Marcus Volturi.

"Bella?" Edward leaned forward, placing a hand over my bouncing cup. I hadn't realized I'd started bouncing my knee.

"I'm okay." I forced a smile. "Drink your tea before it gets cold."

I brought my cup to my lips, using the rim to conceal the small grimace as more unwanted thoughts invaded my head. I couldn't do that now. Not to Edward now that I knew he was going to be deployed.

The next morning, Alice and I stood on deck waiting for our parents, our arms linked together. Many of the people that arrived at Pearl Harbor were the families of the fallen soldiers and survivors since funerals were to be held in the coming days. Our father wanted to be here to pay his respects as well, given he was a veteran from the First World War.

"Izzy, I need you to tell you something before our parents come," Alice said, stretching her neck as she tried to find our parents in the crowd.

"What is it?"

Alice fell back on her heels and squeezed my arm, urging me to look at her. She smiled shyly and said, "Jasper is going back to Texas. His father knows a doctor who can help him with his prosthetic leg."

"Oh, Alice-"

"He's asked me to go with him," she finished rapidly, cutting me off.

"He-uh… he what?"

"He's asked me to go with him," she repeated. Alice shrugged and said, "He wants us to get married."

"And what did you say?"

"I said yes."

I was at a complete loss of words. Not only was Edward being deployed in a matter of weeks, but now my sister was leaving with Jasper… and marrying him?!

"I don't want to tell our father yet. I have no idea how he will react and I would rather save myself the unpleasant moment."

I opened my mouth to say something and shut it again, still trying to process what my sister had just said.

"Alice, are you sure about this?"

Alice nodded. "Yes, I am. We are at war, Izzy, and if this attack has taught me anything, it's that life is too short. I almost lost Jasper once and now he's going off to war and it's a real possibility that he could die. I want to take advantage of our time together and make the most of it. So I'm going with him to Texas and I'm going to marry him."

I wanted to tell her not to do it. I wanted to tell her it was an insane idea to run away and marry someone this quickly, but a part of me understood where she came from. She almost lost Jasper in the attack and if this was how she wanted to make the most of her time with him, then I would support her.

"When are you leaving?"

"After the holidays," she said. She paused for a beat. "You could come with me, you know? We could get to know Texas together. You can probably find yourself a cowboy."

"I'm not sure, Alice. So much is changing and I'm barely aware of where I'm standing. I'm just trying to get through our parents' visit with my sanity intact and perhaps once they leave, I will have an answer."

"Okay. Okay. I'm just saying, it's an option. You and I have never spent more than an afternoon separated and it will be weird to be so far away from my little sister."

There was not enough time for me to respond as my eyes met my father's over the crowd of people and my back instantly tended. I squeezed Alice's arm lightly and nodded in their direction, and Alice quickly shut her mouth as our mother parted through the crowd and ran to us, tears streaming down her face. She pulled us both into a tight hug as soon as she could reach us.

"Oh, my girls! My baby girls!" She pulled away and muffled her sob with her hand as she took us in. She grasped Alice's face between her hands and kissed her repeatedly, all over her face and pulled her into an individual hug before doing the same with me.

A warmth spread through me the moment I fell into my mother's arms and the weight of the recent events almost came crashing on me as my mother held me. I had to clench my teeth to stop the tears before they overpowered.

"You girls have no idea how scared I was when I heard of the attack," my mother said as we pulled away. "I was so scared I lost my girls."

"We're okay, Ma," I assured her.

At that moment, Alice and I turned to our father, who stood off to the side with an unreadable expression. He simply stepped forward and wrapped his arm over my mother's shoulders, rubbing her arm up and down as he said, "I'm happy to see you're okay."

I'm pretty sure Alice and I shared the same look of incredulity. That was it? That was all he had to say after we were in the middle of one of the worst attacks in our history? An attack we wouldn't even be here for if he hasn't sent us away?

"Marcus and Jane were very sorry to not be able to join us," he continued. "Especially Marcus, he was very worried about you, Isabella and he was looking forward to seeing you again."

I cleared my throat, trying to keep my annoyance at bay. "I'm sure he was. You can tell him I'm all right when you get back, Father."

My mother must've noticed the sudden change in the atmosphere as she broke out of my father's grasp and reached for Alice and I again, lacing her arms with ours as she led us away from the dock.

"Are you girls hungry? How about we go have lunch? I want you girls to tell me all about what you've been up to. I want to hear it all."

Alice and I shared a look. Well, obviously she wouldn't know everything we've been up to.

I already knew as we settled in the small diner with our parents later that afternoon and we began telling them the clean version of our time in Pearl Harbor, with no mention of boys, bars or parties, that it was going to be a long weekend.

The days that followed after my parents arrival were full of catching up and hearing stories from Forks, and especially everything Marcus Vulturi was up to since we left. My father wouldn't stop boasting about how he had taken so well to the family business and how intelligent he was. Most of the time he was talking about how great Marcus was, those comments were always directed at me.

He's something that boy, Isabella. Any woman would be lucky to be his wife.

That boy has a good head on his shoulders, Isabella. The way he can quickly find a solution to any problem.

Jane did a good job raising him. Any father would be proud to call him son.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think our father was trying to butter you up to him," Alice said one night as we were getting ready for bed. "The offer to go to Texas with me is still on the table, sister. We can probably find you a good cowboy to marry."

I simply rolled my eyes at my sister's comments, but truth be told, the way our father kept pushing Marcus onto me was making the idea of leaving with Alice more and more appealing.

That weekend Rosalie came back home at night with the exciting news that she and Emmett were engaged to be married. They were planning on getting married as soon as possible and Rosalie would go back to his home in Oregon once Emmett was deployed. Jessica herself also found herself a young Navy officer who also wanted to marry her and she would be moving to California once it was all said and done. The war was no longer a foreign event. We were now in it and everyone around me seemed to want to make the most of the time they had left.

With our parents in town, I hadn't had the chance to see Edward. He was discharged the day after he told me he was going to be deployed and he hadn't been back to the hospital since. I'd heard from Dr. Cullen that Edward was spending time with his mother and sister, and that also included Miss Denali, as he tried to get back on his feet before January. Of course he'd want to spend time with his family before he was sent to Britain, but not seeing him only heightened my fear that once he was gone, I would never see him again. And the thought of it made my chest hurt.

My parents came with us on the day of the funerals. My father wanted to pay his respects to the fallen, so that morning. I came to a stop when I saw the sea of coffins before me, all draped with the United States flag and their names. My grasp on Alice's arm tightened as waves of memories came to me. I no longer saw coffins, but corpses. When I looked at Alice, I knew she was the same exact thing. She gave me an encouraging nod, even when her expression showed her own distress.

We went with our parents coffin by coffin paying our respects to the fallen and their families. It wasn't easy. The whole atmosphere was heavy and somber.

As we made our way through the row of coffins, I caught sight of Edward at the very end of the row with his sister, Dr. Cullen, Seth and who I assumed had to be Dr. Cullen's wife, who hung from his arm. Edward was in his uniform. He stood tall, his expression unreadable as he dropped to his knee before the coffin and bowed his head, before standing up again. Just then, Miss Denali, who I hadn't seen until then, approached him and held onto his arm, pressing her cheek against his shoulder.

Even dressed in all black, Tanya Denali was all beauty and grace personified.

Edward didn't turn to her or say anything, but when his eyes met mine across the room, that rigid posture was gone. I turned quickly to my parents and Alice, but they had moved on to another coffin and my father was in the middle of a conversation with another officer. I took the opportunity to step away from them, and to my relief, I saw Edward do the exact same. Miss Denali clung to his arm when Edward tried to pull away, a look of disapproval on her face, but whatever Edward told her seemed to have worked as she let him go, but she did not look pleased.

Edward did not give her a second glance as he walked around his group and made his way toward me. We met halfway across the room. I almost wanted to hug him when he was close enough, but I held back.

"Bella," he breathed when we were across from each other.

"I'm so happy to see you up and walking," I said, my voice trembling. "I'd forgotten how tall you are."

Edward chuckled lightly. "Yes. I think it's safe to say I'll miss your afternoon visits. I've grown fairly fond of them."

I opened my mouth to say something when the soft cry of a woman cut me off. We both turned to the couple standing a couple feet from us, and my heart plummeted when I saw the name and picture of the coffin they stood by.

Angela.

They were Angela's parents. I had no idea they were here.

The woman, who I could only assume was her mother, placed a hand on the coffin.

"Oh, my baby girl," she sobbed. "What am I supposed to do now?"

"Bella?"

I looked at Edward with teary eyes and shook my head.

"They're Angela's parents."

Edward nodded slowly and offered me his arm and I took it. Angela's parents looked up when we approached them and my heart broke at the sight of them. The kind of grief they carried was one I could never imagine.

"Mr. and Mrs. Webber… I'm so sorry for your loss," I said, my voice trembling. "Angela was a very good friend. One of the best people I've known."

"You knew my Angela?" Her father asked.

I nodded. "We lived together and we worked together. I was very fond of her."

"She meant a lot to many people here," Edward said. "I'm sorry for your loss. Please, if there's ever anything you need, do not hesitate to let me know." With his free hand, Edward reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. "I'll be happy to help."

Mr. Webber took the card from him. "Thank you. Thank you. You have no idea what it means to us to know that our Angela wasn't alone."

I couldn't look at them any longer, but I made the mistake of looking at Angela's coffin, at her picture. She looked so young and lively. She didn't deserve what happened to her.

It was all too much. I couldn't take it anymore.

I excused myself and quickly made my way out of the venue. It felt as if the air was being sucked out of me, as if the walls were all collapsing in on me.

"Bella!" I turned to find Edward had come out after me.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I burst into tears, the weight of everything crashing down on me and Edward wasted no a single second before he pulled me into his arms. I hugged him back tightly, my face pressed against his chest and he ran a hand down the back of my head, whispering soothing words against my ears. He was all the comfort I needed in that moment. His warmth and soothing words chipped away at all those terrible memories and emotions that plagued me.

He was like a breath of fresh air.

I let myself sink deeper into his embrace, letting myself cry against his chest and take in all he could give me. Edward never let me go.

That was until my father shouted, "What the hell is the meaning of this?!"

I'm back! I'm sorry for the wait, I've been sick but I'm back and still got more chapters coming in!

What are your thoughts? And what will happen now that Bella's dad found her with Edward?

Chapter Fifteen Preview -

"I am taking you back home, Isabella."