SM: Owns all things Twilight related

Between God the Devil and our Very Souls

Chapter 21

Final Chapter

A/N: This is the final Chapter for this story. I'm sorry it has taken me so many months to finish it.

If you find mistakes it's simply because I didn't want to bother my beta Mizzdee because she has three amazing stories going on at once. I also didn't want to bother my pre-reader as she is having a horrible day. So all faults are at my hands and I apologize in advance. Thanks for all the love this story has received. Diane :)

CPOV

The following day I called the hospital and informed them I would be using a couple of my personal days. I then quickly got into my car and made the two hour journey to Charlie and Rene's house. I dreaded facing Rene but what choice did I have if I wanted Bella back. It was mandatory, after all, that I do this in person.

When I arrived, I walked to their front door and rang the bell with my heart in my throat. To my great relief Bella opened the door. She looked so sad behind her eyes, and I could tell she was aching as much as I was. I would do whatever it took to make things right between us again.

I stepped forward and grasped her tightly bringing her securely against my chest and into a passionate embrace. It was stocked with as many feelings as I could convey to her. After holding her, I looked into her beautiful tear filled face, and I softly kissed her sweet lips.

"We belong together, Bella. I have failed you greatly as a husband. Can you ever forgive my foolishness?" I implored.

"I love you, Carlisle. Forgiveness was never the issue between us." I knew as long as she still loved me anything was possible.

"Can we go somewhere and openly talk in private?" I asked. "I have some things I need desperately to say to you."

"Okay." She answered as we walked out behind her parent's house and sat in their big cushioned swing together, looking deeply into each other's eyes and smiling. I knew she wasn't lying when she told me she loved me. I could see it all over her face. And I loved her just as much.

"I'm deeply sorry, Bella. I don't know what else I could possibly state that would express the profoundness of what I'm feeling, sweetheart." I paused, "I spoke with mother last night, and I wasn't aware of some of the ignorant things she had expressed concerning you. I hope you didn't believe a single word she uttered, Bella. There simply was no truth in any of it."

"Carlisle, I know I'm not crazy, and I certainly wouldn't harm another soul. If I were going to hurt someone you know it would be myself," she sighed. "But to be honest, I'm exhausted from just existing in the same house with her… I'm sorry." Bella said sincerely.

"I know, and I want to fix this…fix us." I answered motioning between us with my pointer finger.

Bella smiled the most precious smile when I said those words. Hope sprung to life in her eyes and at that very moment I knew in my heart that we were going to be fine.

"I want us to purchase our own home. You can pick it, whatever you want," I promised.

"Okay, that's a positive step," she agreed. She was ready to start the hunt for our new home.

"And I want us to make love again. I miss you. I miss your touch." I indeed missed all those things and more.

"I wasn't trying to punish you Carlisle, if that's what you are thinking. I was simply protecting myself from what I knew was going to happen. I didn't plan to leave you that day. I had come here to visit. However, when I arrived here I just felt so enlightened. I felt like I could breathe and walk around this house without the impression, I might need to tip-toe around anyone. Can you possibly understand that?"

"I believe I can." I answered while lighting up a cigarette and inhaling deeply. I needed the crutch it provided me. "Will you come back with me until we can obtain a house of our own?"

"No Carlisle, I won't come back until we have our own house. You understand as well as I do that she will blame me for your leaving. I won't put myself into that position with her. She puts me through a lot of hell whenever you're at work. Hell that I don't feel I deserve."

"Okay baby." I said and I couldn't stop the tears as they started to fall. I didn't want to be without her.

"Please don't cry. sweetheart. You know I love you and I want to be with you just as much as you do me. Love will hold us together."

And it did.

I coped with my mother, and I dealt with the guilt and the blame she bestowed upon me. I would not allow her to bad mouth my wife while I continued to live there either. I paid the bills, and I had a right to speak my mind as much as she did. I disliked hurting her but she needed to be told the truth. She had been the one to run Bella and I both out of her house. Mother needed to accept that.

Bella selected a lovely house, and we moved into it within six weeks. She decorated it to her liking, and it felt warm and homey. We settled into our new lives together… and we were happy.

Bella's POV

Carlisle and I have been very happily married for fifteen years now. We have two daughters, fourteen and twelve. They look like Carlisle and they have a lot of his ways about them. Rosalie is our bible thumper on a mission to save the world from sin. She has gotten a lot of the young teenage boys into our church, although I'm not sure if they are coming for the correct reasons. Most of them seem a little love struck by her beauty.

Our second daughter we named Charity. On the day she was born Carlisle quoted from the bible… "And the greatest of these gifts is Charity." But Charity wasn't as generous as her name suggested her to be. She was a brain type of child, always questioning everything and everyone. Even as a small child she could make us adults reconsider our own opinions. She really got under Carlisle's mother's skin, a lot. We never stopped her though. Not because we were trying to be mean to Carlisle's mother, but because we weren't going to suppress our children in any negative way.

They both, however, have their father twisted around their little fingers. When he comes home, they always beat me to the front door to hug him. He loves it though and he consistently has a big smile plastered across his face. All the daddy love, leaves mommy feeling a little left out at times. Carlisle always recognizes when I'm feeling that way through and is swift to correct it. He'll pull me close to him and give me a long kiss. Then sometimes if he isn't extremely tired from his day, he'll follow me into the kitchen and peel some potatoes or something for me. He'll tell me about something silly to make me laugh, and he always reminds me, of how much he appreciates me.

We decided to try for a little boy, and we were blessed with one. He's two years old and he is a mommy's boy. Finally, I get the love! We named him Emmett; don't ask me why it just seemed like the perfect name for him. He looks and acts like me and in his eyes; there is no human being as wonderful as his mommy.

Don't worry I'm not going to turn into Carlisle's mom over him. Although, for the first time, I do understand a little of why she was so possessive of Carlisle. It will be tough to let go of my little boy when the time comes. However, God help me, I will do it because all I want in this world is for my children to be blessed with everything that's good in life.

Carlisle never became a preacher. However, he did become a Deacon in our community church. Once in awhile he would lead service as well. That was truthfully the only time his mother and I connected. We were both extremely proud of Carlisle. He has the passion in his voice of a preacher. However, he also had the degree in his hands to be a physician to the sick. When people would ask Carlisle would pray for them in the hospital he did and without pause. Most of the time they would recover too. However, there were a few lives that were lost along the way. Carlisle said sometimes healing comes in death. That part just spooks me.

Ten years later

We are lying to rest Carlisle's mother today. It has been a long, tough road filled with agony for her. We put aside our critical feelings for each other years ago so I could help her without being uncomfortable.

My Parents also passed away within fifteen years of each other. My mother had a sudden heart attack that took her life unexpectedly. We were all shocked and I was lost without my mother for many years. My father died quietly one cold wintery evening from complications concerning his heart as well. He never did anything to treat it. He said he wanted life to take its course naturally, and it had.

It's amazing really, how we all quickly move up in the line for death. First we lose out grandparents, and then are parents. Reality at some point comes crashing down around you as you initially begin to realize that you're next, if the order of life holds true. In some ways, you want to be next because no one ever wants to bury their child.

Our children are all grown now and living respectable lives. Rosalie became a missionary and travels around the world. She's so much like her father, desperate to spare everyone she can save.

Charity got married at eighteen to the typical boy next door. And no, we didn't try and stop them. They love each other dearly and true love is hard to find in today's world. We paid for the wedding and the honeymoon. And after all these years they still remain happy, and they have always had our blessing!

Emmett is now in college…although I'm not sure if he knows why he's there. He had more trouble leaving the nest than the girls ever did. Even so, I have to encourage him to stay there. He needs to find his way in life. It's his right and I will not hold him back.

CPOV… twenty five years later

My Bella has been ill for the last four years now. We've known the day would soon come for her passing, so we transported her home from the hospital to breathe her last breath in comfortable surroundings. We're elderly now and getting weary. I know Bella is ready to go home, and I want to go with her. I don't want to face the rest of my existence without her in it. I need to go with her, and I've been praying that God will take me when he acquires her as well.

The children are all home with us and the sounds of all of our grandchildren are heavenly in our ears. "Bella, do you hear those little grand babies' sweetheart?" I asked as I rubbed her forehead with cold water.

"Um," she groaned out and tried to smile. She loves those babies as much as I do. Okay, so maybe some of them aren't exactly babies anymore but in our eyes, they will always remain our babies they'll always remain our gifts of love from God and each other.

I took Bella's vitals for the last time, and they were faint. Her time is at hand, so I said a prayer for her and I laid down beside her praying that God will answer my prayer to leave hand in hand with my wife. I heard the grandchildren laughing from a distance as I closed my eyes. I heard Rosalie begin singing from inside our bedroom. I could hear the tears in her voice and the pain in her heart was immense. She knew we wanted to die together. That we even wanted to share the same urn because we are as one person. We don't desire to be separated.

I felt hands touch me, and I knew they were all my children's. I knew they were comforting their mother as well. I felt satisfied and peaceful as I looked up and saw the most beautiful angels approaching me and my wife. They reached out their hands for Bella and I, and we took them…grateful to be going home together.

The End