Here it is, the final chapter :( Please read and review, it would make me the happiest person in the world. Well, minus Bella and her happy ending...oh poo, I spoiled it. Oh but you already knew that was coming, I could never write a sad ending hahaha...

I could feel the stress radiating off of Bella. Her shoulders were tense, her back hunched, as Alice was questioned. I gave her knee a squeeze now and then, just to keep her from disappearing too far into her head. I knew it was going to be a difficult day for everyone. When Bella was called up to the stand, my heart seized. My fists clenched; I knew she was feigning confidence this morning, I just hoped she could last without having a serious breakdown.

"Miss Swan, can you tell me how you are acquainted with Mr. Dunmore?" Jane began.

"We met in high school. We dated for two years before I moved to Forks." Bella kept her head down and I could see how uncomfortable she was. If I could trade places with her, I would gladly do it.

"Can you describe the relationship in high school?"

As I listened, I tried to keep eye contact with Bella; if only to be some sort of support. The moment Marcus mentioned Bella's mother, I knew things weren't going as Jane had predicted. I saw Bella's countenance fall, her eyes frantically searching around the room for an answer. I seethed quietly. He shouldn't be able to do this to her. It was painful to sit through. Esme, who was sitting directly behind me, grasped my shoulder. She could feel how tense I was, even through my thick corduroy blazer.

As soon as Marcus was done drilling Bella, the judge called for a short recess. I couldn't have been more thankful. Bella stumbled back to down the aisle, but instead of returning to her seat, she kept her head down and walked straight for the doors in the back of the courtroom. I got up to follow her, but my path was blocked by a visibly upset Rosalie.

"She probably wants to be alone for a little bit." She said shakily.

"Bella needs me." I all but snarled.

"I've known Bella for almost six years. I know when she needs space. I expect you to respect that." She snapped. I sighed and tugged at my hair. "Look, after a couple minutes I'll go after her. She's probably in the bathroom anyway."

"Okay." I mumbled. I followed the rest of the group out into the main lobby where Esme tried to get me to drink some lemonade.

"Edward, honey, you need some sugar in your system." She badgered. I didn't want sugar. I wanted Bella. She looked so small and weak up on the stand; something she should never have to feel ever again. Not while I was in her life.

"Mom, I'm fine." I said through clenched teeth. I paced nervously, making my rounds from Emmett to Jasper and back to my mother. They all offered me annoyingly calm remarks on how they thought the trial was going.

"Edward, I'm going to get Bella, okay?" Rosalie tugged on my jacket. I nodded and ran my hands through my hair in anticipation.

I waited. Rosalie didn't come back. I waited some more. My pacing grew more frantic and I could feel the eyes of my family and friends on me constantly. My eyes were glued to my watch. Two minutes. Five minutes. Ten minutes Bella had been gone.

"Something is wrong." Jasper whispered to me. "I can feel it." Just then Rosalie rushed back to our group.

"She's not in the bathroom. I even checked the second and third administrative floors." Her eyes probably matched mine in their wild frenzy.

"Did you check the parking lot?" Carlisle asked much too calmly. Rosalie's eyes shut as she nodded painfully. I covered my mouth with my hand to stop the feral growl that fought to escape. There was no way that I was going to let the girl that I loved just disappear.

"Edward, you don't need to be here for the rest of the trial, honey." Esme said, reading my mind.

"S-she left her purse!" Alice cried out of nowhere. I looked back at my baby sister and saw the worry etched into her face. I gave her a tight hug and a kiss on the forehead before taking Bella's bag and sprinting to the revolving doors. I fucking hate revolving doors with the intensity of a thousand white hot suns.

"I'll give her the purse when I find her." I yelled behind me. With that, I flew out to the parking lot and jumped into the Volvo. I knew she'd be on foot, so she couldn't have gone very far. My house was out of the question due to distance, and so was hers. The only other thing I could think of was that Bella had to still be in Port Angeles. I rummaged through her purse, but I found exactly what I hoped I wouldn't. Bella had left her phone behind. I cursed and stomped my foot on the gas pedal. The tires squealed as I peeled away from the courthouse.

The streets whipped by, a soft blur with my speed. I parked near the center of town, barely slowing down to lock the doors as I swiftly made my way into the afternoon foot traffic. It was a little after 1pm, and people were rushing back to their jobs, and they didn't seem all that eager to get out of my fucking way, either.

I thought at first she'd be at Benby's, her favorite book shop, but the owner said he hadn't seen Bella in weeks. I slammed the door behind me, the little bell clanging loudly in my wake. It briefly occurred to me to contact the police. But I was positive I could find her myself without all that fanfare. Slowly the streets became quieter as lunch-time commuters shuffled their way back to their cars.

My feet began to drag by the time I reached Peach's Ice Cream and the waterfront.

"Hey Tony, have you seen Bella?" I asked wearily. I was giving myself half an hour to find her before I called the police.

"She walked by, yeah. I thought I saw her by Dockside Park." He nodded towards the tiny green space close to the tourist-trap part of the port, where tour boats congregated.

"Thanks man." I smiled. With renewed energy, I all but ran to the park.

And there she was. Hunched over on a bench, hugging her knees. As I got closer, I could hear small sobs and my heart broke. I sat down next to her and pulled her into my lap. She didn't look up, somehow she innately knew it was me. That alone made me feel ten times better. I held her close and kissed the top of her head.

"Baby, don't ever scare me like that again." I croaked. She looked up at me with watery brown eyes.

"I'm so sorry. Edward, I-"

"Shh. I understand. I just wish you had told me." I knew that she could only take so much of this shit before cracking. Hell, I'm not sure how much I could have taken. I rocked her in my arms for a few more minutes while her crying subsided.

"I love you." She whispered and shifted so that her head and back laid against my chest completely.

"I love you too, Bella." I kissed the back of her neck softly and played with the ends of her hair.

"Do we have to go back?" She whined, I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yes, we do. Your father wouldn't be very happy to find his only daughter gone and living in sin with her boyfriend." She turned to look at me and arched an eyebrow.

"Living in sin, eh?" I couldn't help but smile and kiss her pretty, pretty lips.

"Don't tempt me." I winked. "We should go." I sighed and pulled her to her feet. We walked back to the Volvo hand-in-hand, her head resting against my shoulder. Back in my car, she called Charlie to let him know she was alright. Something I was very grateful to not have the duty of. Its not that I didn't like the Chief, he just scared the piss out of me, and the one thing that made that cop-stache twitch was anything having to do with his daughter. With whom I was very much involved. Obviously.

"Yes daddy, Edward came and got me... Yes, I'm fine... No, you don't have to...Dad! I swear everything is alright...Yeah, love you too." She rolled her eyes and popped her phone back into her purse.

"He doesn't much like me, does he." I grumbled.

"Don't be ridiculous. He doesn't have a problem with you. He just can't get over the fact that I'm not seven anymore." She let out a deep sigh. I could tell how much her family meant to her, even if she thought she could hide it.

"Have you talked to your mom about any of this?" I asked as I pulled onto Fairmount St.

"I'm avoiding it. But I'll call her eventually. Renee has this habit of overreacting."

"Bella, this is serious. She needs to know about what Dimitri did." I spoke gravely. She bit her lip and nodded.

"We're not going back to the courthouse?" Bella inquired as I made the turn onto the highway back to Forks.

"No, the trial is over. Everyone went back to my parents for lunch." Her stomach seemed to enjoy that idea, giving a loud rumble. Bella laughed and agreed that lunch was probably exactly what she needed.

~0~

"Is this the first box?" I grunted under the weight of the cardboard box and god knows what its contents were.

"Yup! Jasper and Emmett should be around soon to help with the rest." Bella called from upstairs. I proceeded to front door and the driveway where Bella's truck sat ready and waiting to accept the box. Books was written in block letters on the side. No wonder the thing was so heavy.

"Look who started without us!" Emmet shouted from the street. Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper hopped out of the shaggin' wagon behind him.

"Yeah, and the help is awfully late." I snarked back.

"Is Bella inside?" Rosalie asked.

"She's upstairs. She wanted you and Alice to help her pack up the last bit of stuff." The girls disappeared inside, leaving us boys to do the heavy work.

"I can't believe you guys are moving outta' Forks." Jasper mused while rolling up his sleeves.

"The band won't be the same." Emmett sulked. The big baby.

"Aw come on guys, its not like we're moving to China. We'll drive down on free weekends. Seattle is only a few hours away, geez." I rolled my eyes. Looks like they had estrogen-O's for breakfast.

Bella and I had made the decision to move in together shortly after I enrolled at U of W. We had managed to find a reasonably priced apartment in Seattle that was close enough to each of our respective schools. Bella was thrilled to be getting back to class, and I would be kidding myself if I said I wasn't itching to get my medical degree ASAP. And with Dimitri behind bars for the next five years, Bella could finally breathe freely. It had been a fucking battle, but we'd finally made it. I loved her in a way I didn't know was possible, and waking up to her every morning was going to be pure heaven.

"Edward!" Bella shouted from her upstairs window. "We're ready for you guys to take some boxes down."

Emmett mouthed 'whipped' to Jasper, but I saw him and shoved him jokingly.

Two hours later, all of Bella's things were loaded into her rust-bucket truck and securely tied down. Everything I deemed worthy of bringing to Seattle had already been transported to the apartment. The girls joined us in the driveway, munching on some grilled cheese sandwiches that Bella had cooked up.

"My mom was a mess this morning." Alice chirped.

"She's going to miss you more than she is me." I laughed and ruffled Bella's hair. She smiled shyly and shook her head. Fucking adorable.

"We've talked about it and we've decided to become pen-pals. You know, old-school!" Bella laughed.

"That'd probably made mom flip." Nothing made me happier than to see the three girls I loved most getting along so well.

"And you'll call me as often as you can, right?" Rosalie all but pouted.

"Rosie, you'll still get my weekly call, bitch." Bella blew her a kiss and winked.

"Hey kids, I don't mean to break up the party but its almost two-thirty and you've got a bit of a drive ahead of you." Jasper interrupted. A collective sadness settled unto our little group. Goodbyes were never Bella's forte. I had been a witness to the awkward and teary send-off she gave The Chief when he went back to Oregon a week after the trial. But this was different. We would try to spend most weekends in Forks, but everything depended how busy school became. Well, that and how much privacy Bella and I needed. Which I hoped was a lot. If you catch my drift.

A few more rounds of hugs later, and Bella and I were off. The gravel of her driveway crunched under her old truck's tires and the familiar squeak of the fan belt sprang to life. Soon, we were outside the town limits, our hands entwined on the dashboard. I smiled like a damn fool, my life had never been on such a right track, and I had the most amazing girl in the world to share it with. Bella Fucking Marie Swan.

Sniffle, sniffle. That's it, folks. I really hope you enjoyed the ride, I certainly did. If there's enough demand (meaning you have to hit 'review' and leave a request), I will write an epilogue that may or may not include the pretty girl lovey details (weddings sex babies etc) that epilogues seem to have.

For those interested, I have another story in the works with about 3 chapters done already. I plan on editing those and writing a few more but as soon as that's all sorted I'll be posting them! So stay tuned...

Much love, Hannah.