One Step Closer (Edward & Thalia)

[ISABELLA MARIE SWAN]

At twenty four she had no idea that she would suddenly find herself back in Forks. It had been unimagineable. She knew that she had been difficult, after all that Edward had done for her. She loved him, she truly did, but she hadn’t been ready. Marriage was a huge step and although she thought she was ready it was clear that she wasn’t.

She knew that she had hurt Edward when she had done it but at the moment she was only concerned with her own panic, her own fears. That’s why she had left when she had. Because she needed to clear her head and to keep herself calm. Taking a deep breath as she returned back to Forks, she knew she was alone. Very alone. It wasn’t that she had ever stopped loving Edward, contrary to popular belief when a bride runs away from her own wedding. In the days that passed since that nightmare of a night, she couldn’t help but be upset. Although she knew that Edward hadn’t deserved what she had put him through but she couldn’t expect him to talk to her after that which is why she had run.

It didn’t feel like it had been six years since she had last been back. Immediately after returning to town, she had no idea if any of the Cullens were still in town or not but she wouldn’t blame them if they had left again. But she knew they would return. They always did. She had returned to her father’s house and Charlie had welcomed her home with open arms. She had missed the man though she hadn’t talked to him often in the time she was away as she needed time to clarify her choices and what it had led her to.

They say home is where the heart is, well in her case it had been where her heart wasn’t. But now all of her doubt went away somehow which was why she had returned home. She had barely been back in town about a week when she started exploring the town again. Forks was just as rainy and wet as she left it. But it essentially had her heart in its grasp and wouldn’t release it. Upon returning she stayed with her dad who was all too willing for her to stay there. She was grateful too.

She had missed him so much. Upon returning, she had her laptop with her and checked her email. And while doing so, she couldn’t help but be reminded of the times she reached out to Alice. She mised her. But it was too much to ask that their friendship continue due to the pain she had left Edward in. It felt like time had stood still. Nothing about Forks had been the same. Nothing had changed. It was just how she had left it. Closing her laptop with no new messages, she sighed.

Her phone rang. “Hi Mom, it’s me. No, I’m....I’m at Charlie’s. Yeah I’m okay. It’s a long story.....just know that I’m safe and I’m spending some time with him. I’ll come visit you and Phil soon, I promise. Love you too. Got to go now...bye.” She said as she hung up the phone.

At least her mother didn’t ask any questions that she couldn’t answer. Charlie was still at the police station and so she was all alone. “What am I doing? Why did I come back here? It just—I’m so reminded of what I’ve done, of the pain I’ve caused.” She thought to herself as she sat in the old room she had stayed in after she moved in with Charlie. She grabbed her phone and left the house, and knew where she was headed to...the woods.

Walking around the woods, she was reminded of everything she'd been through while she had been here with Edward. Taking a deep breath she walked through the woods until she stumbled across the meadow, the one that Edward had taken her to many years ago. It was kind of unreal and it only made it more complicated when she suddenly looked up to see none other than her ex-fiancee standing there. It made her catch her breath, as though she couldn't breathe at all. It scared her, and for a moment she considered turning back. But she had come too far to turn around now.

Facing Edward, she knew she had to at least appologize for what happened. It had been six years since the two of them had faced one another. She was unsure of how to start the conversation as if it had been anyone else she was trying to appologize to, it wouldn’t be so hard. But Edward deserved more than she could give him, and that she knew for sure.

Her heart felt like a battlefield. Seeing him now, she didn’t know what to do. Could she actually get him to talk to her, or was that all but a memory? She couldn’t forget the times where they were happy—the kisses, the love. And yet she knew that she had ended it for a good reason, or had she? Her emotions had gotten to the best of her, and yet she was paralyzed by him.

Even now, she had never found anyone who had captured her attention the way that Jacob had, aside from Edward. She had walked out to the meadow, their place. It was one of the first places she visited when she first arrived at back in Forks. But honestly she hadn’t anticipated on seeing him. “Edward.” She spoke softly as she knew it was not a dream.

[thalia]

Thalia blinked as the computer hummed to life, the screen lighting up and stunning her for a minute. She blinked rapidly to discard of the blotches stretching across her vision. After they were gone, she put, "Edward And Bella Cullen" in the search engine and it came up with ten results. Glad for only a little, she clicked on the first one. It brought her to a page on WeddingDelights.com where "MissAliceTheSeer" had uploaded many pictures of Bella and Edward's wedding. Rolling her eyes at the uploader's obvious username, she silently and mentally laughed at Alice Cullen. Scrolling down, she found a picture of a sad, trampled bouquet sitting in the middle of a collection of roses. Tilting her head, she raised an eyebrow. This was the first sad looking picture she'd seen. All the others had been of Bella and Edward smiling brightly. Clicking on the picture cautiously, it directed her to a new page with the header of, "The Wedding Is Crashed!" And the same picture under it paired with a lengthy article. Her eyes scanned the page with her vampiric speedy reading and one line stood out, making her eyes narrow then widen.

The bride, Isabella Marie Swan, left the wedding in a hurry. But also in tears.

Double checking the whole article, she froze. Bella left in tears. According to the article, nothing was recorded of why but it could obviously have been that Edward had used his vampire speed to run over to this "Bella" and whisper some dramatic break up line in her ear like, "I object. Why? Because I don't love you, my sweet, sweet, naive Bells." Just like the flower bouquet, Bella's heart had been trampled on. And what would happen to Poppy? She loved Edward, Thalia knew that but would Edward break her heart like Bella's? There was only one way to find out.

And so that was how Thalia ended up behind a tall oak tree in the woods, right smack in the middle of the woods, watching Bella Swan stare off into space. As if Lady Luck hated her, Edward Cullen strolled in and Bella's lips moved to mouth quiet words. Thalia knew Edward could smell her yet she was paralyzed to her spot. Something was going to happen. And, as Lady Luck does hate her, she didn't really want to be a part of it now.

[EDWARD MASEN CULLEN]

Edward left his home with a small sigh; it was hard being back in Forks all the memories came flooding back of meeting Bella…of being with Bella. If he still had a beating heart it would have stopped at the moment Bella walked out of his life… no run away in tears out of his life. He hadn’t spoken to her since the wedding; maybe she hadn’t cared as much as he did. He hadn’t tried to contact her because as much as it hurt him he couldn’t force her into a vampire life… he respected her decision to not want to end her living life. He sped deeper into the forest, he hadn’t realized until now that he was headed to the meadow. Edward didn’t know why he wanted to torture himself so much with the memory of Bella Swan.

He caught the sent of the other vampire family that had moved to Forks, he was helping their youngest daughter Poppy switch to the lifestyle of a Veggie vampire, he didn’t think her family would like that… not to mention he knew she had feelings for him, six years was not enough for Edward to heel he couldn’t even think about loving someone else. He thought that he had found his soul mate but he had lost her. That’s when a different smell crossed his path, a smell that he had come to know like the back of his hand, a smell that was his exact brand of heroine. It was Bella Swann… she was back in Forks…she was back in the forest. Edward couldn’t help it he walked at a human speed towards the scent trying to convince himself to turn around. He didn’t need to see her it hurt to much his mind was telling him to leave to go back home but his stone cold heart was pushing him forward…pushing him to pain that would hurt more than anything else.

It didn’t take long until he saw her, her brown hair, and her chocolate eyes. He didn’t know what to say…. She looked older; six years after all had passed. He didn’t know what to say… he didn’t know how to act… how was he supposed to treat her nice or mean? Edward just looked at her with hurt eyes looking at her brought all his old love for her to the surface… how could she had left him… he had left her but he hadn’t been able to stay away… he did love her more… in his mind she didn’t have as much love for him that he had for her. “Bella…” he glanced at the ground he couldn’t believe that she was in front of him. He heard her whisper his name and it cut like a thousand daggers through his heart, her gentle voice… a voice he should have heard for the rest of forever.

The wind picked up again carrying another scent towards him Thaila De Silva… the older sister to Poppy. Edward glanced off towards her directions “Can I help you Thaila?”

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[ISABELLA MARIE SWAN]

Six years had passed and yet she felt right at home, despite the overwhelming emotions that were connected with the forest—with this meadow. It was here where she and Edward first started learning about eachother—where she had learned that he was a vampire. Where her heart had taken her in his direction, a direction she had never once doubted until that day where she had left and still blamed herself more than anyone else for it. She hadn’t meant to hurt him—really she hadn’t, but she wasn’t ready. It was not about the fact that she loved or didn’t love him as that wasn’t the issue. But it was about life and death.

She knew the fact was that she should have let him know prior to them setting up for such a beautiful and wonderful evening—their wedding that she wasn’t ready to become a vampire. But she wasn’t sure how he would have handled that. And it wasn’t even until that moment when she turned around—in tears that it dawned on her what she was doing—and the heartbreaking decision she had done. It was a battlefield in which she had lost, even if it was by her own choice.

She could remember how when she started to back away—before she had left the area, Edward had come up to her and whispered to her. It was an untimely feeling to see him, knowing he was hurting—just as she was, maybe even more so. Now being back in this town, the overwhelming pain seemed to escalate. It built up until there was no where for her to turn. Charlie had been supportive when she had returned, stating that all he cared about what that she was alright and how much he had missed her.

Loving Edward had not been the easiest thing in her life but it was the one thing that up until that moment when she left in the way that she did, that it made the most sense. After everything they had been through....from first noticing him in class, where he avoided her and wanted to switch his classes, to his disappearance, to his returning and being nice to her. Their love seemed like a battlefield more so than anything else in the world.

To be honest, it was the hardest thing. It wasn’t fair what she did to Edward and she didn’t expect him to want to be nice to her, and wouldn’t have put it past him to be mean, or at least pretend that she didn’t exist. Hurting Edward was the last thing in the world that she wanted to do, but had done it. And she knew that no amount of an appologizing would fix it. They had not seen eachother since their wedding day—how she’d run out of his life forever. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about Edward because she did, but it was something else entirely. When she and Charlie were walking toward him, memories of her life flashed before her. It showed how she was as an infant, to a young child, and to finally the young woman she had become. Showing how she and Edward met, how they fell in love and to the moment they were at. She could picture being by his side and allowing the ceremony to take place...but in a sense something had told her it was the wrong choice.

It wasn’t the marriage that was the wrong choice, but the becoming a vampire....it was what had stopped her from moving forward. She had known that was what she wanted, and yet seeing those memories across her mind as she was walking toward Edward, caused her to think for the first time of what it meant. What being married to him and being a vampire truly meant. She would not be able to see her parents again. She’d never be able to see Jacob again. And that was what had halted her from where she was, and what had caused her to turn around and run as far and as fast as she could. The idea of losing her mother espcially was the hardest of the three. As she knew that she would find Jacob again. But what about Charlie, and her mother? They would have no idea of what she was, and what would they have to believe? That she was dead? Was that what she wanted for them, to have to grieve her death when she was very much alive? Granted not with a heartbeat but alive nevertheless. She didn’t know if she wanted to be so cold to the touch, to not be able to see her mother, to see Charlie—to do all the things she had wanted as a child. At eighteen that uncertainty is what had caused the heartbreak that stood between her and Edward now. It was that uncertainty which had started this whole mess.

Looking toward Edward he looked the same as he had the last time she had seen him, still as handsome as ever. But six years wasn’t enough to make the hole in her heart mend itself. And she knew it was just as much the same for Edward, just because of how he looked—the pain in his eyes was enough to say it all. She was surprised almost to see him there, although this was his spot more so than her own. She knew he was hurting and part of that reason was enough for her to hesitate about speaking to him the way she had. Saying his name was like knives being stabbed all over her body, the pain was enough to make her think twice about saying his name again.

Gentle as her voice had been, she had known the impact that saying his name would have brought him to the surface. Though she was sure he hated her—at least more so than anything else. After all who could blame him? Hesitantly she walked a few steps forward, although still giving him the space that she was sure he neded. She had done so only after he had said her name in the way that he had. But it was only a few minutes later that he was addressing another and that of course made her nervous. When she heard him say the name of the other visitor, a hint of jealosuy began to rise to the surface. But she didn’t know why she was suddenly jealous after all he had a right to be happy, to have moved on even though she couldn’t, right?

"I'm sorry. Maybe I should just go...." She spoke as she knew that there was a chance that she was interrupting something. After all she didn't know what the visitor was but she knew it wasn't a wolf--a shifter like Jacob because if it had, Edward would not have stood as still as he was just now.