LayAtHomeMom is the best.

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"Gonna call the doctor doctor

Just tell him that my pain is gone

It's gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, gone."

Karen o

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It takes almost an hour for Bella Swan to unpack her boxes. Half of the clothes she's collected over the past two years are totally useless as soon as summer gives way to fall, so she's left them back in her room at the hotel, Renee promising that she will leave her stuff alone. She's got her grandmother's quilt on her bed and her toiletries are packed neatly away in their caddy near her dresser. Her fern has taken up residence on her bedside table along with a small dish of seashells that sits on top of a stack of homemade CDs. In a simple wooden frame below the CDs is a picture of her and her father. It's old, from Bella's first day of Kindergarten and it makes her chest swell with emotion at the thought of him being there with her for her first day of college, in the only way he can be now.

She's grateful for the fact that her roommate won't be here until tomorrow morning, letting her settle into her side of the room before she has to make small talk with a stranger. Not that Charlotte is completely a stranger, they've been texting since dorm assignments came out, but still. She lays back on her bed, eyes traveling over her walls, the walls that started out an empty, off white but are now covered in pictures and posters-evidence of a life lived. A life that Bella's lived.

There's a picture of her and a very pregnant Rosalie on Halloween, the latter decked out in head to toe blue and purple, a Violet Beauregard turning very, very violet as she expands. For once, no one else had the same costume on. Next to it is a photo of Bella with Lily McCarty, born almost too early right after the New Year. Bella holds her in her white dress, grinning with joy (and a little embarrassment) as the newly appointed godmother.

She feels a pang at the sight of the baby, knowing that next time she sees her, she's going to be so big.

In a cluster nearby are a collection of pictures of Bella and Alice. Grinning and wearing mud masks. Lounging on the beach in sunglasses. Eating pizza on a Saturday night at the hotel. Clutching each other tightly at graduation. Bella grabs her phone and texts Alice that she's made it to school okay and asks how she's liking her roommate at USC.

Then, she texts Edward.

As she waits for his reply, she assesses the area above her desk, most of the wall space there is taken over by her Frida Kahlo poster, but there are ticket stubs and postcard-sized prints from the National Gallery, all purchased on her first visit to DC under the guise of a college visit, though it was mostly to see Edward. It was winter break, and he'd taken her to so many museums and coffee shops between long stretches of time spent at his apartment with tangled limbs and eager kisses.

Edward doesn't respond to her text.

Instead, there's a knock at her door twenty minutes later. She opens the door to reveal her boyfriend grinning at her. She's in his arms in an instant.

"I told you to call me when you got here," Edward says. "I would've helped you move in."

"There wasn't that much to move," she assures him, stepping back. He's got on a rec league t-shirt and his signature faded jeans, though he's got sneakers on instead of his work boots. There's a little bit of ink smeared onto his hand, which means that he's been drawing and designing and it makes Bella smile. His hair is a little too long and her fingers tangle in the ends of it as he kisses her.

"I can't believe you're finally here," he says against her lips.

"Me either," she breathes because after more than a year apart aside from few and far between visits, they're in the same city again.

He rests his chin on top of her head, not quite ready to let go of her yet, and looks around the room, taking in the space that is now hers.

"So this is home, huh?" he asks and she can practically hear him smirking.

She pulls him impossibly closer and says, "yes. This is home."

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Ack! Sorry all, I thought that I had said in an AN that an epi was coming but I obviously did not. I might post some future takes in the future, but for now this is complete. Thanks for sticking with it.