Chapter 1: Waning Moon

A/N: I own nothing. Characters are all Stephenie Meyers' creations. In this story Bella didn't dive off the cliff but Edward came back to check on her, finding her happy with Jacob. This short story kicks off 70 years later. I got the idea when listening to some of my old CD's - so "Forgiven, not forgotten" by the Corrs is the inspiriation. *WARNING – Character death*

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My name is Edward Anthony Masen Cullen and I was born in 1901. I lived for seventeen years short years before the Spanish influenza epidemic hit. By rights, I should have died. I would have died, if it weren't for Carlisle. He was able to save me. By turning me into a vampire, he granted me a new chance and the possibility of an endless life. For the next ninety years, I existed. I was content, but always searching for an ellusive something that would make me feel complete. I had almost given up hope that there was something more when I found Bella.

For a few short but sweet months, I lived. I thrived and flourished; discovering how sweet and wonderful life could be. I was more human in those few months than at any other time in my existence. I experienced emotions that I had only ever read about, or felt through the minds of others. I loved, and was loved, more deeply than I had ever thought possible. But then I left.

I left; to protect her.

I left; to save her life.

When I left, I promised her that she would never see me again. I promised it would be as if I'd never existed. And for her, it was. I couldn't stay away. A few months after I left, I went back to check up on her. When I arrived, I found her laughing and smiling with Jacob Black. Happy. She had moved on, just as I meant for her too, but I couldn't help the fact that my heart felt torn in two at the sight them. I told myself that Bella was surviving, she was flourishing and thriving, and that was all that mattered. That was what I had wanted for her. I left without her ever knowing about my visit.

That was over seventy years ago. Since that day, I've walked the Earth alone; unfeeling and uncaring. My sun was gone so I became the creature of the night befitting my name. Nothing mattered to me anymore, because Bella was gone. But Bella was happy; I could survive anything as long as I knew that. I spent so many years away from everything I cared about. I had curled into the ball in a derelict building It was nearly thirty years after I left Bella before I finally returned to my family. Even then, when I returned to my old existence I went through the motions but I was absent. More Zombie than Vampire. That was until yesterday. Yesterday was when it all changed. Yesterday was when Alice had her vision.

Bella lying in a bed, breathing her last breath. Her heartbeat fading. Alone.

I couldn't let my angel, my light, my love, die alone. I recognised the view from the hospital window that I saw in Alice's vision. Apparently my Bella never left Forks.

My family was currently living in Saginaw, Michigan. I resided there with them, but I didn't live any more. The drive would usually have taken a day and a half, and I wasn't sure if I would make it in time if I took that option. I could probably have flown in a fraction of the time, but I wanted to drive. I wasn't sure what would happen in Forks, but I wanted to ensure my options remained open, so I wanted my own car. I decided if I pushed myself, I could probably make the trip in half the normal time. Alice offered to come with me, but wasn't surprised when I refused. It was hard to believe now, but there was a time when we were so close. We barely spoke anymore. Then again, I didn't speak to anyone anymore. Not since I left Bella. Not since the time when I still had life in me.

On the drive, I couldn't help picturing Bella's life with Jacob. A small-town life, in weatherboard house with a couple of children. Charlie watching over them all as a doting Grandfather would. I wondered whether Charlie was still with us. I doubted it. I wondered how long he'd been gone, whether Bella had a chance to say good-bye. Halfway to Forks, I wondered what I was doing. Why was I driving across the country to see the one person I loved more than anything, but the one person I swore never to see again. I was going to turn the car around when I remembered Alice's vision. Bella. Dying. Alone.

I pushed the accelerator down harder but it did nothing. The car was already at its limit. If I pushed any harder I would break the car which would be counter-productive.

I couldn't quite figure out was happening to me. There were so many things awake in me that had been dormant for seventy years. I felt...well I felt, that was the difference. It had been so long since I had felt anything; cared about anything. Now all that mattered was getting back to Bella. Seeing her again. I realised I needed to see her smile one more time before I could rest. And rest I would. Seeing Bella again after so many years would be like oxygen after drowning. I would wait until she was asleep. I couldn't break my promise, not after so many years. I had to not exist anymore for her, but at the same time I had to be there for her during her final moments.

The night flashed by in a haze of lights, cars, road and Bella's face. Not the one I had seen in Alice's vision but the one that haunted my every step and had for the past sevent years. Bella smiling; forever eighteen. Her smile beckoned me home; toward Forks. Toward her. I had resisted the pull, the urge to run towards her, for so long. Now, at the end of her life I felt like I couldn't get there fast enough. Finally, I would see her face, smell that delicious scent.

Even after seventy years, I could remember her smell. I knew seeing her again was going to burn, but I was willing to accept the pain for another glimpse; even if she would never know I was there.

Finally, I felt like I was coming home. I entered Forks, travelling down a road ingrained deeply in my memory. A magnetic force pulled me toward the hospital; toward my love. I drove into the hospital parking lot, thankful that the morning had dawned with a heavy cloud cover. I walked to the front desk and asked for Bella's room. I charmed the nurse on reception, telling her I was a friend of the family.

After she gave me the number and smiled sadly at me. "Are you close to Bella?"

I nodded. "We used to spend a lot of time together. But I've been living out of town. I only just found out she was sick."

"Well, I am glad she has someone to visit her. She is so lovely and it's sad to see her so alone day after day."

"She's been alone?"

"She hasn't had any visitors since she was admitted. That was about three weeks ago now."

"What's wrong with her?"

"She's just old, love. Her body is starting to shut down."

I nodded and headed to her room. I didn't even have to think about it, my feet just fell one in front of the other, pulling me in. Closer and closer.

I pushed the door open without knocking, peeking around to see her. My angel, the years were marked as lines on her face and yet she was as beautiful as the day I left her. Her eyes were closed, her breathing shallow. Asleep. She looked so peaceful. I breathed deeply of her sweet scent.

There was a chair in the corner of the room, I pulled it silently to rest next to her bed. I picked up her hand and held it between mine.

"Edward," she whispered, her voice frail and aged. "I've been waiting for you."

I was overtaken by emotion and could barely form words, I squeezed her hand as tightly as I dared. "How did you know I would come?"

"Alice."

I knew what that one word meant. She knew she was dying and had relied on Alice to see that and tell me. She knew that I would come.

"But how did you know...?" the question died on my lips.

"That you never really stopped loving me?"

I nodded. "You believed the lie, when I told you that I didn't love you, you believed me. I saw it in your eyes."

"I did believe it," she confirmed. "For so long. But about fifty years ago, when Charlie died, we moved the furniture out of the house. One of the cupboards snagged on a loose floorboard."

So she had found the photos and mementoes I left behind. Part of me hoped she would, despite the promise I had made.

"I hoped that you would come, one last time. To renew my memories so I can take you with me." Her breathing was laboured, I could tell it was an effort to keep up even this simple conversation.

"Is there someone I can get for you? Someone you want with you?"

"He's already here."

I looked around the room quickly. "Where?"

She chuckled softly, before coughing. "It's you silly. You are the only one I want with me."

"But what about a husband?" I asked desperately. She was happy, she had to have been happy. "Children?"

"I never had any of that. There was never anyone else for me."

"But I saw you, I came back to check on you about a year after I left and you were with Jacob. And you were happy."

"Jacob and I were happy for a time. Not like you and me, but happy enough."

"What happened?"

"It's a long story, one that involves wolves and legends."

I looked at her skeptically. "The wolves came back."

She nodded. "Jacob was part of the pack. We were together for about three months before he imprinted on someone else."

"Imprinted?"

"Like love at first sight, only much stronger. And irresistible. After he saw her, I was all but forgotten. We tried to stay friends, but eventually drifted apart completely."

"So there was no-one else?"

"You shattered my heart," she said it with no malice, it was just a simple fact to her now. "Jacob picked up the pieces and stitched me back together. When he left, he took the last part of me that was capable of love."

My heart broke. If I could have cried, tears would have been pouring down my face. I had spent seventy years away from my love, all so she could have a life. Leave a legacy. I never considered that in doing so I had damaged her so completely that she never could.

"I am so sorry. I..." I couldn't think of what to say. How do you express seventy years of regret in a few small words?

She nodded, I didn't have to say anymore. She understood my wordless guilt.

"You know, I would have loved you forever." Her eyes were sad, but remarkably she didn't cry. She had made her peace with all of this long ago.

I nodded, I did know. That was what had made the decision long ago so hard, balancing my desire to keep her forever against what was right. To let her soul move through life as it was supposed to so that she could go onto whatever sort of afterlife was waiting for someone as magnificent as her.

I could hear her heart was starting to race, and her breathing shallowed further. She was nearing the end. I leaned over and put my lips to her forehead one last time. Then I pulled her lips to mine. As it did once before, so many years ago, the heart monitor stopped beeping the instant my lips pressed to hers. Unlike last time, it didn't restart. The nurses came into the room at the sound of her flatlining, but there was no urgency in their movements. This was not a life-saving mission and there were no crash carts. They came simply to turn off the machine, to allow me time to say good-bye in peace. I pulled my Bella into a tight embrace and sat unmoving for an hour while my love lay cold and motionless in my arms.

Finally, I looked at my angel's face one last time. It seemed her last breath had taken so many years with it. She looked younger and carefree. A small smile rested on her lips. It was in that moment that I remembered all of my reasons for leaving her.

I pulled out my phone and rang the airlines to book a ticket on the next available flight to Italy.