I know it's been a while, I've left the A/N for the end. As always, thanks to Team Project Beta for their awesome beta work, especially mcc101180.

Flashback:

Last time we saw Bella in Chap 14, she was dealing with a newly changed Lily and experiencing the "joys" of being the third wheel. After traveling around Europe to her merry content with her new family, Bella decided it was time to leave and return to America to find her maker. This chapter picks up after she's been back in the US for a while and I didn't want to bog things down with a year by year account, so I skipped around a little bit.

BPOV

Savannah, 1973

I paced in the small Georgia motel room impatiently. Seven straight days of warmth and sunshine had kept me when I should have been out there searching for my maker. I'd been back in America for three years, endlessly searching for Gregorio since I stepped foot off the plane. I thought that his unique diet would make him easier to locate, but I had been wrong. I had no idea if he was still in the country, or where to start looking. Getting work as a graveyard shift nurse was a lot harder than it was back in in the 1920s, but I managed, only to quickly learn how much things had changed since I last put on a nurse's uniform. Humans and technology had changed, making it harder to seamlessly blend in with society. If people didn't notice that Gregorio did not age, they would surely notice that he lost too many of his patients during his shifts. If that was the case, he may have been forced to work only in rural hospitals, if not give up on his particular diet altogether. If this was the case, finding him would be impossible.

Unable to locate him, I made sure to leave a trail that he could find. My wealth in America was located in several banks, the main one in Chicago, where he deposited what money I had left from my mortal life and linked it to his vast fortune. Others were scattered throughout the country, the accounts buried and known only by code. When I landed in Chicago, I left him a note at our safety deposit box; I did the same in NY and New Orleans. He would be informed of activity on the accounts if he contacted any of the banks. In the meantime, I continued to search for him throughout the country.

I was lonely. I missed Étienne and Lily, and while we were able to talk on the phone every couple of weeks, it did little to dissipate my mood. Being on my own did little to lift my spirits, and the Southern vampires were not as welcoming as the Parisian ones. Instead of civilly dividing the area among themselves, they warred with one another like feral animals. The fact that the Southern Vampire Wars had already brought down the rage of the Volturi once some seemed to not care. They barely did the minimal to keep themselves under the radar. I paid them little mind as I continued my search. I didn't stay more than a few weeks at the most in a city before moving to the next one once I determined that Gregorio wasn't there.

Seattle, 1976

A part of me had started to lose hope, and the years of solitude were starting to become a drag. The Pacific Northwest was very different from the South. For starters, there were a lot less vampires, and they weren't as territorial, mainly because they were too happy being nomads who fed off campers and hikers than setting up a presence in the cities. Living out in the wilderness was not for me. Even if I didn't feel the wet or the cold, I much preferred the comforts of a fireplace and a bed to lie down on and read at night.

My particular eating habit ensured that I always needed to be near a city. I would much rather rid the world of a monster than kill a decent human who was just unlucky in crossing a hungry vampire's path. The holiday season, always a favorite of mine, resulted in me finding plenty to eat. Society's dregs didn't believe in taking the holidays off, like the man whose body was cooling at my feet. The most wanted man in all of Seattle, a remorseless killer easily felled because he thought a pretty girl who appeared drunk leaving the bar on Christmas Eve was easy prey.

I tensed at the sensation of another vampire nearby; clearly they were watching me. I smiled, licking the last droplets of blood off my lips as I tuned into them. In the few moments when I'm feeding, the world's volume is turned off, as if I put on giant headphones that mute everything around me. I quickly slashed my victim's throat, covering my bite marks before easing the corpse behind the bar's dumpster. Without looking back, I straightened my shirt and went back inside. If they wanted to talk or fight, they would have to seek me out.

Good to see that it's not another savage newborn doing little to cover their track. Seems like she feeds only on criminals; how strange, another one with an odd eating habit. Oh well, it is no concern of mine what they eat, as long as they leave don't evidence behind.

He must have moved a distance away because I couldn't hear his thoughts anymore, and it was near closing time when I sensed his thoughts again. I had pondered for most of the evening what he had meant by strange eating habits, and for a second, I entertained the notion that perhaps this vampire knew my maker. Dismissing the thought as wishful thinking, I walked out with a throng of drunken humans, laughing at their alcohol-fueled thoughts. I knew he was watching me, but I ignored him as I made my way home. Let him come to me if he wants to talk tonight.

"Clean kill back there," the male vampire said, as he walked toward me.

"Thanks, I think. Didn't know Seattle vampires made a habit of playing voyeurs in the city," I replied.

"The cities need monitoring," he snapped back quickly. "No one wants to be policed, but bringing the wrath of the Volturi into your city is even worse. You get all sorts of newborns and vampires who should know better, who think the West is still wild and that five or six bodies drained of blood won't attract too much attention. Clearly you're not a newborn, nor appear to be trouble, so welcome to the city."

I nodded and turned away toward the direction of the hotel I was staying. I wasn't going to be here long, just enough to figure out if Gregorio was nearby. If he wasn't, I was going to head elsewhere, maybe sweep through California again. I kicked myself for not engaging the vampire; maybe he had met my maker. At the very least, I wanted to know what he meant by strange eating habit. As I waited out the daylight hours, I called my financial advisers in New York and Chicago to have more money wired to a bank here. No activities besides my own were reported on the accounts, which worried me. I brushed my worries aside, and as night fell in the city, I decided to hunt. I wasn't entirely hungry, but blood was always a good distraction from this increasingly depressing search. Hopefully, I would cross paths with my voyeur local vampire before the night was over.

After dumping the body of the man who would have robbed me in the park, I walked around for a bit. It was blistering cold, the snow was falling fast and furiously, and humans were scurrying home as quickly as they could. I sensed the thoughts of the same vampire nearby; he had watched me feed again.

"So, why criminals? Do you have some sort superhero complex?" He asked as way of greeting.

"Easier to deal with," I replied turning around to face him. "If a known and wanted criminal is found with multiple knife wounds to his throat and chest, the humans won't be too nosy. It'd be written off as a hit, and attention will go elsewhere."

"Makes sense I guess," he said with a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Better than the coven of animal blood drinkers who live up in Alaska, or the guy I met not too long ago who stalked hospitals to drink from those near death. Now that guy was weird." He laughed. "Guess whatever makes immortality tolerable works, right?"

Thankful that I wouldn't have to prod to get to this point, I took his opening and asked him to elaborate. A vampire in a doctor's uniform, far older than he was, barred him from a hospital after he attacked a night nurse who had gone out for a smoke. This fit Gregorio's description perfectly, and in this vampire's thoughts, I saw my maker for the first time in decades. He was alive and maybe nearby. I was relieved and ecstatic.

"You seem distracted; am I boring you?"

"No, sorry. I was just thinking how a vampire can stand being in a hospital without killing anyone. He must be pretty old; I wonder what he's like?" I said, hoping that he'd continue discussing my sire.

"We never really talked until we bumped into one another a few months ago. He was leaving with his mate to go up north."

I saw the image of Gregorio's mate bloom in his mind; after all this time, he had found a mate. I wondered if he spoke of me to her, the wayward fledgling that ran away one night in 1920. I droned out his words and listened to his thoughts. Alaska appeared in his mind, a frozen wilderness that clung to the place that was not even a state when I had been human.

We ended up at the one bar still open in the storm, each nursing a drink for the sake of pretense. After a few hours, I excused myself and wished the vampire safe travels. I needed to return back to the hotel and plan my trip up to Alaska. Invigorated with the idea that I wasn't just searching in the dark, I decided to travel the day after the New Year.

Anchorage, 1977

Alaska was wild and cold, but it was impossible to deny the frozen beauty of the city. I checked into a hotel and pulled the map that I had purchased as a guide. I headed straight to the nearest hospital, thankful for the heavy snowfall that blocked out the sun. As soon as I approached the place, I picked up the strong, lingering scent of my sire. He was still in the city, had probably worked last night. Excitement coursed through me as I returned to my hotel to wait for nightfall. I showered and changed, trying to eat up the daytime hours until proper night fell. I debated waiting until after I located him to feed, but the burning in my throat reminded me that it had been more than a few days since my last meal.

As soon as night arrived, I decided to head to the hotel's swanky restaurant. I didn't want to seek a dive bar to find a meal; the worst of humanity didn't just subscribe to one social strata, and the rich usually got away with more. I sensed the other vampires as soon as I exited the elevator and started to walk across the hotel's lobby. They saw me first, and I just knew the female vampires were the coven of animal blood drinkers I was told about in Seattle. Their golden eyes were striking; eyes that watched me closely as I ordered a drink at the bar. I tilted my head in their direction, acknowledging them, but made no move toward them.

They were here to hunt too; a different type hunting that might have found impossible to believe if it wasn't for their thoughts; they slept with human men who survived the encounters alive. It was this desire that drove them to turn to animal blood. While I wasn't a fan of sloppy vampires or newborns that killed foolishly and indiscriminately, I couldn't fathom the idea of drinking the blood of animals. I was too anxious to find Gregorio to wait around for food to show up any longer, swallowing the venom that pooled in my throat; I resigned to feeding at the hospital if I met him there. Without looking at the animal drinkers, I exited the bar. I would have to seek them out another time; I wanted to understand what I read in their thoughts.

I admire Catherine's desire to attempt this new lifestyle. The Denali sisters are quite amazing to have survived this long on this diet. As much as I don't like it, I might be forced to convert. Dr. Dorian is already growing too suspicious of the number of patients I tend to lose every other week or so. Either I start to drink animal blood, or I start stealing blood bags and using them for sustenance.

I stopped as I heard my maker's thoughts clearly for the first time in forty years. Knowing that he sensed me before in Los Angeles, I knew it was only a matter of time before he felt my presence. I smiled as I read his thoughts shift; he was dismissing the sensation. More than once he thought he had felt me over the years only to be wrong. My joy was deflated as I read the grief in his thoughts over my disappearance. He still blamed himself, when in reality I was the one entirely at fault.

I was so tuned into his thoughts that I barely acknowledged the thoughts of his mate. What was she to me, my adoptive mother? Would she like me, accept me? She too sensed a vampire nearby, but she was thinking that it could be one of the animal drinkers who were paying a social visit at this hour. I was so close that I could hear every conversation going on in the building, along with everyone's private thoughts.

"Finish the rounds would you please? I don't think it's any of the Denali sisters." Gregorio said, hastily putting down the chart he was holding.

"Who could it be then, a passerby? They don't come near the hospital or linger here too long," Catherine replied, but he had already walked away, not bothering to answer her.

Isabella? Is that you? I can sense you; I haven't felt your presence in so long. Don't leave! If you're this close, I know you can hear me. Just make your way to the dock in the back where supplies are delivered. Please don't leave again.

I closed my eyes, savoring his voice. I had missed him over the decades, far more than I let myself think. In a matter of seconds, I was reduced to a mere child wanting her father's love. By the time the heavy metal doors in front of me were flung open, I was already standing in the dim light of the loading area. He looked the same, which was a silly thing to think, since we didn't change. His dark red eyes went wide with surprise, and I smiled at the relief in his thoughts. He was glad that I was alive.

"Isabella! Bella! By the angels, I never thought I would see you again!" I was crushed in his embrace, his lips pressing kisses against my cheek and my temple.

"It has been so long! Where did you go? What have you done with yourself in all this time? I looked for you everywhere, child. I've been worried."

"After we almost crossed paths in L.A., I returned to Chicago. I was miserable and wanted to seek an end to my pain. I remember what you told me about the Volturi, the gifts that some members have, so I went to Italy—"

"Please tell me that you did not seek out the Volturi; you did not go to them!"

"I did," I replied. I contemplated withholding the reason why I went to the Volturi, but decided against it. It was best if he knew everything.

"I asked Chelsea to break my bond, but it could not be done. When I was told this, I asked them to kill me, but my request was denied. I was told to enjoy my immortality, that while it was very intriguing that I carried such strong human feelings over during the change, my bond would be replaced once I met my true vampire mate. I left for Paris, set up residence there and tried to live, but I was still unhappy. I returned to Volterra, with the intention of exposing myself so that they would have to kill me, but Étienne—a French vampire I met in Paris, who is like a brother to me—stopped me. I lived with him and then Lily, his mate, in Europe until a few years ago when I decided I needed to come back and find you. I owed you an apology for the way I ran away."

"Did Aro touch you?" Gregorio asked in a blind panic, his thoughts swirling.

Of course he didn't touch you. If he did and found out your gift, he would have found a way to make you stay.

"Apologies don't matter, Bella, nothing matters anymore besides the fact that you're well. We have so much to catch up on."

I nodded; I was just glad that I had been welcomed back into his life. We both turned as the door was opened again, and I got to see his mate Catherine through my own eyes. She was pretty, and the love between them both was plain to see. Her thoughts were kind, and like me, she was wondering if I would accept her, like her.

"I'm already in your debt, for you have made my maker extremely happy all these years where as I have made him sad. I hope that we become fast friends," I replied to her train of thought, smiling at her shocked expression.

"Gregorio told me—he talked of you often—but to be told about your gift and to experience it so clearly is amazing. So you can hear everything, everywhere?"

I didn't reply, deciding to leave the mechanics of my gift for another time. On her way here Catherine fed on another human, and the only other nurse working had just discovered the body. The alarm ringing inside saved me from answering.

"We have to go back," Gregorio said, clearly annoyed.

"I won't go anywhere," I replied to his thoughts about me vanishing again. "Think about the direction to your house. I will be waiting there for you once your shifts are over."

With that, I watched as they raced back inside. As soon as I had their address, I returned to my hotel and packed my bags. Their home was a spacious three bedroom townhouse just outside of the city, the third room empty, clearly waiting for me. I gleaned from Catherine's thoughts that they had always lived in houses with three bedrooms; the thought of Gregorio purchasing such a place pained me. He bought it for me, so when I came back, I would have a place in his home again.

Lost in my own thoughts, I walked toward their home as the weak winter sun began to rise. I didn't have to wait long; maybe half an hour later, I heard the low hum of their car approaching and seconds afterward I was standing in my maker's home for the first time in over fifty years.

Author's Note

First the good news, the only real good news that I bring: I SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED MY THESIS and now have a shiny M.A. in History :D

Like most recent grads, I've had no luck finding work. That's super depressing and I just can't write in that state so that's why this chapter took so long to complete. Next chapter will go back to both Edward and Bella having POVs (like it was in the beginning) because I left Edward's POV pretty much in the present and have to catch up Bella to that part. If you're not reading Marble Fragments, you should, there's a lot of incoming chapters for that too, so read up and put it on your alerts!

If you're still reading this story, I'm super thankful and admire your saintly patience. This story will be completed, that I can promise you! As always, you can follow me on twitter & facebook for teasers, rants, and regular stuff. The links are in my profile :)