The response I got for this has been so much more than I expected! Thank you all for your kind words

Now, I'm from Australia, and a few months back, a rogue from the National Afghan Army pulled his weapon, shooting and killing a few of our soldiers. There was a huge outrage about this and our troops are currently being pulled out. I'm not sure if this is the case in America or any other country that has forces in the Middle East, so forgive me if there are inconsistencies.

I'm using this as an example, with no offence intended. While I was angry (I have ties to the Australian Defence Force and almost joined myself), I was only angry with the individual, not every single person from Afghanistan. Bella's opinions are coming from a woman whose partner was almost killed by another human being – her thoughts are entirely justified in my opinion. I would be furious too. It's only briefly mentioned though, so it won't be brought up repeatedly.

With that out of the way, here is the first chapter. I hope you enjoy.

My thoughts and prayers go to all the victims of the huge twister in Oklahoma. While I can't give you physical comfort, I'm praying that there is someone who can in my place. News stations all over Queensland have been reporting the tragedy, and I can't even begin to imagine how you are all feeling. If there's any way I can help you, I hope you feel you can PM me and we can talk about it. The city of Moore is in my prayers.

RiRi17

I step into the warehouse after greeting the bouncer, Sam, as usual. Most of the time, I don't make an appearance here, unless it's a big fight or if I'm dropping Edward off. While I'm not sure I'm completely okay with his profession, it makes him happy and it pays the bills. And making him happy has been my priority since he was discharged from the Forces a year ago.

He was in the Rangers and from what I was told when they came to my door to tell me he was coming home early, something went horribly wrong on his last mission. I was one of the lucky ones. They said that most of their visits for the guys in Edward's unit ended in broken hearts and tears. I'll admit, I got teary when they told me only three men survived. But I digress. Their transport back to base was compromised, apparently, by someone in the Afghan National Army. The chopper went down in a huge explosion, sending people flying everywhere. Edward was trapped under debris and it took four men, two of which were a part of his unit and also made it back, to lift the beam off him. His leg was practically shattered. He was lucky to make it out alive and the first thing I did when he got home was to call his men and thank them personally for what they did.

They told they just did what they thought was right.

I wasn't told anything more, which I understood, but the rational part of my brain was gone. I was being ruled entirely by my emotions, and I'm ashamed to admit I acted dreadfully to the men whose job it is to tell wives their husband wasn't coming home.

"Bella, what are you doing here?"

I jump and let out a squeak of surprise. Jacob is standing before me, arms crossed over his massive chest with a pissed off look on his face. "I came to see Edward."

He scowls. "I'm pretty sure he's asked you not to come if you can help it. And if you have to, not to come inside alone." He raises an eyebrow at me, daring me to contradict him.

"You're here now, what's the problem?" I know full well why he asked me not to be here alone. Some of the fighters take drugs and can act completely unreasonable. I've seen them throw a punch for absolutely no reason. Chaos always follows, which is why I usually wait with Sam outside.

Jake's nostrils flare and his face turns red. I inwardly smirk at making him lose his cool. "It took me five minutes to get to you from across the room, Bella!" he explodes. A few of the guys around him look at him warily. "You weren't even watching what was happening! You were off on your own planet, which is what could get you killed!"

"Jacob, calm down. Nothing happened." I roll my eyes and wait for him to take a deep breath. "Can you please take me to find Edward? Esme called and she wants to have dinner with us tonight." Jake gulps. "Yeah, I know. He either needs to fight and not let them land any hits, or not fight at all." I cross my arms over my chest and look over his shoulder, trying to find my fiancé.

Jake steps into my line of vision, effectively stopping me from walking away to find Edward. "You and I both know there's no way he'll forfeit this fight. He's been waiting to pound this guy since the asshole said that shit to you months ago."

I sigh. I do know this. Said asshole's name is Tyler Crowley, and my first encounter with him was about four months ago. Luckily for him, Edward was in the middle of a fight when he said that he wouldn't mind taking me back to his place to show him what he could do to 'a girl like me'. Unluckily for him, Edward taught me to defend myself and Tyler found himself at the wrong end of my boot. It landed in between his legs, sending him straight to the ground. The fight was stopped once Edward realised what was happening and jumped over the ropes to protect me. "You'd think they'd learn, wouldn't you," I muse, stepping around Jake quickly and darting into the crowd, squeezing between large bodies.

"Bella!" he shouts, trying to force his way after me. He's stopped by the large wall of muscle that is surrounding the ring, waiting for their turn. I'll admit, it's a little daunting to try and find Edward in the midst of all these people, but most of the guys here know me as 'Cullen's woman' and I'm left alone because of it.

A tingle runs down the back of my neck and a smile forms on my face without my consent. A hot arm snakes around my waist, pulling me flush to an even hotter body. My softness melts into his hardness. I sigh in contentment. "Bella," he growls into my ear, making me shiver. "Imagine my panic when I hear my trainer yelling your name and I can't find you. And then I see your tiny self in the middle of all this shit." He presses his lips to the hollow behind my ear, his hand curling over my hip.

"Hi, baby," I breathe, turning to jelly.

Edward hums into hair before turning me around, wrapping his arms around my waist. He looks pissed. "Not that I don't appreciate the little drop in, but what are you doing here? I thought I asked you to stay away or wait with Sam or Jake."

I pout and twist my fingers into the little curls of hair at the nape of his neck. The firm look on his face softens. "Your mom called." He rolls his eyes. "She wants us to have dinner at theirs tonight."

"Jesus," he mutters under his breath. "Probably more wedding plans she wants to go over." Then realisation dawns on his beautiful face, his forest green eyes widening in horror. "Bella," he whines, drawing out my name. "I don't want to sit through that shit again." I quirk an eyebrow at him. "You know what I mean! You know what you want but my mother and sister want to do it their way! I want it to be your special day," he says, lowering his face to mine, pressing his soft lips to my chapped ones.

His tongue parts my lips softly and the rest of the world ceases to exist. Whenever I'm wrapped up in him, he becomes my whole world. I grip the back of his neck, pulling him closer as his hands drop down to my ass, gripping and pressing me against his growing erection. We're forced back into reality by someone bumping into us roughly. Edward immediately tenses and steps in front of me defensively. "Watch it," he snarls.

I can see his face, but I can almost hear his teeth grinding. I grip the back of his singlet, hoping like hell he doesn't actually throw a punch, because I would go with it. "Edward," I say softly, trying to get up on my toes to reach his ear. He doesn't answer me.

The guy that pushed us juts his chin out defiantly, glaring right back at Edward. "C'mon Cullen. You ain't the boss 'round here. You shouldn't be able to push us around like ya do, dickwad."

A low rumbling starts in my fiancé's chest. I squeeze my eyes closed for a second before stepping back. He looks of his shoulder quickly to make sure I'm as safe as I can be before turning back and swinging his fist into the guys chin. He goes down with a squeak.

Now, while I don't approve of Edward beating people up for a living, I do approve of the impact it's had on his body. He's muscular, hard and ripped. He looks even better than when he was in the Rangers, and that was pretty damn good. But now he's eating properly every day and where he was lean before, he's now just…big and muscly and I love it when he tenses when I run my fingers down his abs to –

"Bella?" The son of a bitch is smirking. He knows exactly what I'm thinking; he always does. I blush, looking down at my feet. "Come here, baby." I smile and basically launch myself at him, making him laugh as he takes a step back to bear my weight. "I don't mind that you think like that," he murmurs into my ear, running his nose over the shell of it.

I shiver. "I know," I reply, stroking the back of his neck. "We're in public though. People can read my face like a book and it's embarrassing."

He kisses my forehead, setting me down and grabbing my hand before leading me through the crowd. "I guess I'd better rearrange the fight then." After his KO, no one is interested in looking him in the eye anymore. There's always the one prick that tries to challenge him to giving up his reign of power. But Edward is respected by a lot of the guys here. He makes sure the fights are fair. No weapons in the ring, no tag teaming unless it's two against two originally, and definitely no fighting outside the ring. Once the fight is over, it's over. Edward refuses to allow scorned fighters to continue at it in a place like this. Especially if I'm around.

A flash of blonde catches my eye and I stumble. Edward turns to look at me quizzically. I shake my head at him, not interested in letting her get the better of me again. "We're going to be late," I remind him gently, letting him lead the way to the back rooms the fighters use to change in.

He rolls his eyes but I don't fail to notice the quickening of his pace. We both know what Esme will have to say if we're late again. The wedding plans have turned the usually cool, calm and collected matriarch of the Cullen family into a frazzled mess. Even though she's let me make most of the decisions, whenever I've dragged my feet, she's panicked. I don't like a panicked Esme. It leads to a stressed Bella.

Mike steps into our way. "Cullen, man, where ya going?" he demands with a nervous chuckle.

My fiancé tucks me into his side, wrapping his arm around my waist, his hand resting firmly on my hip. Everyone who comes here regularly knows all about Mike's numerous attempts at taking women back to his house. Any women. And we all know that he fails 95% of the time. He considers Edward his wing man, even though Edward has no interest in it. "Late for a family dinner," he says, trying to brush past Mike as politely as possible.

"Aw, man, don't tell me you're gonna cancel the fight!" he exclaims, pouting at Edward.

I raise a brow. Maybe Mike is trying to overly compensate for wanting a sexy man? When Edward cringes into me, I decide it's time for me to step in. "I'm really sorry, Mike, but it's about the wedding, y'know? Someone has had to cancel and Esme needs us there to decide what we should do."

He nods, but it's obvious he doesn't really care that much. I shrug it off – that's just Mike. "Sorry to hear that, Bella. Hope it all works out for you." He catches someone's eye over my shoulder and winks at them. I chance a quick look before smirking. The new girl, looking bewildered at her surroundings, blushes and looks down. Mike swaggers off with a cocky grin on his face.

Edward follows my gaze and snorts. "Poor girl. Hope she's not like Jess."

Jess was a girl who fell for Mike's charms, came to visit him with me and saw him 'putting the moves' on another girl. Thankfully, it was pretty early in their relationship so she wasn't too upset about it. She was more angry than teary and exacted her revenge by pouring itching powder into all of his condoms. She didn't want to put some poor girl through a pregnancy with a player and was laughing hysterically when she told me about it.

"I think Jess will be fine," I reply, squeezing his hand gently to get him moving again. A glance at the clock on the wall tells me we really don't have a lot of time to get to Esme and Carlisle's place.

He chuckles and heads into the back hallway, which is dank and poorly lit, but does the job. The tiny rooms on each side serve as a place for the fighters to wait or get patched up by their trainers. Because Edward only fights here, he has a room set aside for him with all of his stuff in it most of the time.

"Come on, babe, we've gotta get a move on." I grab his duffle and heave it onto my shoulder, looking around to see if there's anything else to grab. I left my car out the front and I know Sam will make sure it's still there, but the cops around here get bored and like to write people up for no reason. And Esme is actually frantic, because the caterer pulled out last minute due to being declared bankrupt last week. I rolled my eyes when she told me, telling her not to worry about it.

Edward grunts in acknowledgement as he pulls a hoodie over his sweatshirt, yanking the hood over his unruly hair. He shoots me a smile of thanks and lifts his bag off my shoulder and onto his own. "Let's go. I know mom will be going crazy about the caterer." He presses a kiss to my temple and leads the way out, holding the door for me.

We're almost at the door when I hear Jake calling Edward's name. I groan and grit my teeth as he stops in front of us, panting lightly. "Ed, man, where are you going? You've been waiting to smash this guy since he said that shit to Bella. This is huge. Everyone's heard about it and they want to see–"

"Wedding stuff," he says calmly, pushing past Jacob gently. I can see the eye twitch though. He doesn't like going to dinner when all we talk about is wedding stuff, mainly because he knows I'm not all that interested in such a huge wedding, but due to his family being so well known, we have to.

Jake, unlike so many others, knows as well as I do when he's pissed, so he wisely lets it go. "Aight, man. Let me know when you want to reschedule it for and I'll get it sorted."

Edward smiles gratefully. "I appreciate that, Jake. We'll probably be pretty busy for a while though. Nothing is going right at the moment."

I raise an eyebrow at him, smirking. "We could call it off," I say, smirking when Jake catches on.

Edward spins around to gape at me. "That's not what I meant! I just meant that the caterer fucked up and my mom is freaking out over everything and–" He glares at me when he sees me grinning. "Cheeky bitch," he mutters, winking at me.

Jacob laughs. "I'll see you later, Edward. I'll see you around, Bella." He waves and disappears between the massive bodies surrounding the ring.

I grab Edward's hand, all but dragging him out of the warehouse to my car, getting in and starting it before his door is even open. "Jeez, Bella, what's the rush?"

Glaring, I peel away from the curb, remembering to wave at Sam at the last minute in thanks. "Esme called me in a panic. Your dad calmed her down by shoving a glass of wine into her hand, then told me to get there with you as soon as I could."

He sighs. "I wish I could give you the perfect wedding." He looks forlorn as he places his hand on my knee, squeezing gently.

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. I'd have picked a smaller wedding, smaller details and smaller everything if I had the chance, but I was steamrolled by the media. Esme is a celebrated interior decorator with a heart of gold, holding charity balls and dinners whenever she can. Carlisle is an extremely well known doctor with a waiting list months long. They're in the spotlight as much as some celebrities. Usually, I don't mind because Edward and I aren't affected by it, but as soon as the public got wind of it (I still don't know how), the media was alerted and the circus began.

"Edward, I really don't mind. As long as it's you I'm walking towards, I couldn't care less." Liar.

He narrows his eyes at me when I glance at him, knowing full well that I do, in fact, care about my own wedding. "Promise me you'll pick the dress. Don't let Mom, Alice or Rosalie influence you, okay?" he begs, stroking my jean covered knee.

Rosalie is Emmett's girlfriend of six long months. He brought her to meet us all about three months in, and no one can say they really like her and be truthful about it. She's shockingly rude and bitchy to me, probably because I've known the Cullens longer. She seems like a social climber to me, but once she heard about the wedding, she's been my new best friend. "I promise. I doubt Rosalie will even be invited to come dress shopping."

He grinds his teeth at the mention of her. They don't exactly have the warmest relationship, especially when he heard the way she speaks to Alice and me when we're alone. "I don't give a shit if I have to fight with Emmett about it, if you don't want her there, she won't be. Okay?"

I smother my grin. "Okay." My phone vibrates loudly in the cup holder, making Edward jump and look at the offending object with horror as I press the Bluetooth button on the steering wheel. "Hello."

"Bella, dear, how far away are you?" Esme asks, sounding stressed. Edward groans loudly. "Is that my son? Please tell me you're on your way here. I need you to tell the caterer exactly what you want. And the plates that we'll be using. And whether or not we're suppling food for the media that will be there."

I cringe at the mention of the media at my wedding. I'm an extremely private person by nature, and I would prefer to not have them there at all, but as it turns out, there has to be at least two. Rosalie wanted more. Edward and I both put our feet down, which ended in a particularly nasty argument that left poor Esme appalled at the colourful language.

"Mother," Edward says, struggling to stay calm. "I love you, but please, let us get there before you start with the planning. Bella and I can handle anything that happens, okay?"

Esme takes a deep breath and from the sounds of it, takes a large gulp of more wine. "Of course. Bella, I am so sorry. But we're being pressured from all sides. I've had media from all different stations ringing me for days now, demanding that we allow them to be there and get the exclusive pictures. They all want the scoop. I don't even know what the scoop is!" she exclaims. She sighs. "I really wanted you to both to have the wedding you wanted. It seems we're not catching a break from people within the family either," she grinds out.

My face flames. I know exactly who she's talking about, but decide to ignore the comment. "Esme, don't feel bad, please," I flick the indicator on and merge, waving my hand over my shoulder in thanks to the person behind us. "I don't care about the food or the china or anything else like that. As long as you're all there and my dad walks me down the aisle, I couldn't care less."

She sniffles into the phone. "Oh, Bella, I don't know what we'd do without you." I blush again, uncomfortable with the praise.

Edward pries one of my hands from the wheel gently, pressing a kiss to the back of it in thanks. "Mom, we're almost there, okay? Five minutes tops."

"Okay, darlings. Oh!" she drops her voice to a whisper, and I can only imagine the Jason Bourne moves she must be pulling to get away from the chatter. I smile to myself at the image of Esme running through scaffolding and buildings waving a gun around. "Emmett and Rosalie are here," she whispers, closing a door gently. "I don't know how long they'll be here, but I'm pretty sure Em won't let her get out of line."

"Again," Edward mutters angrily, too low for his mother to hear. He clears his throat and squeezes my fingers again. "I won't let it happen either. We'll see you in a few, mom."

"Bye darlings," she replies and hangs up, leaving us sitting in silence.

"Bella…" he starts, sounding upset.

I look at him in surprise when he stops. He's not happy. "Baby, what's wrong?" I turn into the driveway of the gated community the Cullens live in, fishing the little card out of my purse and handing it to the guard at the booth. He pushes a button and we go through. "Edward, what's going on?" I ask again when he doesn't answer.

He releases my hand and grips his hair, tugging. I bite my lower lip, feeling like something is about to go horribly wrong. "Do you… do you want to just cancel the wedding?" he asks finally.

I nearly crash the car into the side of someone's house. "What?" I almost shriek. "Edward, we've been planning this for months." And then it really hits me. My face bursts into flames as I realise what's happening. "You… you don't want to marry me anymore," I say flatly, squinting to see the street signs. I always miss the turn, even though I've been coming here for years.

"What? No!" He sits up straight and turns to look at me, horror on his face. "Bella, of course I want to marry you! I want nothing more than for you to have my last name and I've been waiting for it to happen for years…"

"But…" I prompt, finally finding Esme's street and turning, pulling into their driveway. All the Cullens are here today. I park the car behind Alice's Porsche. I'm fighting tears at the idea of him changing his mind. I knew this was too good to be true.

Edward immediately cradles my face between his hands, making sure he has my complete attention before trying to make this better. "Baby girl, you made me the happiest man on earth the second you agreed to be my girlfriend. How do you think I felt when you said you'd marry me?" He doesn't wait for me to answer. "This has put so much pressure on you," he says, maintaining eye contact. "I wanted this to be what you wanted. I want the final say to be yours, not the fucking media or Rosalie's. I was thinking… maybe we should go to Vegas. Or just go down to the courthouse."

The tears break free as I crush him to me awkwardly over the centre console. "Oh, Edward, you're so amazing," I sniffle into his neck, pressing kisses everywhere I can reach.

"Is that a yes?" Swear to god, he sounds hopeful.

I pull back and stroke his cheek lovingly, gazing into his beautiful green eyes. "I wish we could. But your mom and Alice have worked so hard to help us. And I do want the big, white wedding. I'd just never planned this big." I smile gently at him. "But that's okay. All I'm going to see is you."

He lets out a soft noise and pulls me to him, his lips joining with mine. I basically melt into him. It's sweet and he breaks away too soon. "God, I love you so much," he whispers, playing with a wisp of hair that's fallen from my pony tail.

"I love you too. Now, let's get this over with," I order, grabbing my purse and phone and climbing out of the car to meet him at the bonnet. "Just stay cool, okay?" I chide gently, taking his hand and leading him to the front door.

It's thrown open before we can knock. Alice stands there, a frustrated look on her tiny face. Her normally immaculate short black hair is standing on end as she looks at us with wide eyes. "Run."

Edward looks about ready to take his older sister's advice when Esme appears, looking just as exasperated as her daughter. She laughs nervously, looking at us as if she half expected Edward to actually grab me and run. "It's really not so bad," she says, still looking nervous.

"Mom," Edward says warningly, but pulling her and Alice into a hug all the same. Alice peeks out from under his arm, mouthing run again at me with wide eyes.

Carlisle appears in the foyer of the Cullen House. I call it a mansion, but they insist that it's a just a house. That's three stories tall and could probably fit three or four of mine and Edward's place comfortably. His eyes are hard, but soften when he sees the group hug happening. "Hello, Bella," he says, coming forward to kiss my cheek and hug me. "How are you?"

"Just fine, Dr Cullen," I tease. Edward and I had come down with a pretty bad flu a few weeks ago and Carlisle had been the one to look after us. "What's wrong with Esme and Alice?"

His jaw closes with an audible snap. "Rosalie brought a friend who's an aspiring designer. She wants her to design your dress."

I feel my eye twitch as I bite my lip. "But I was going to go shopping with Esme and Alice." I feel like I'm being whiney, but honestly? I don't give a fuck. This is my wedding and I am not letting the over inflated Barbie doll run the show. I'm not even sure if she's on the official guest list.

"I know, honey. Just know that Alice is not going to let Rosalie take away her opportunity to shop for days."

I have to smile at this. My sister in law to be is a shopaholic. I go with her most of the time because she's lonely now that both Emmett and Edward have partners. They all used to play together, and when they got older, went out together. Emmett and Alice still haven't completely warmed to me, but I feel like we're slowly building a healthy relationship. "Bella," Alice calls, finally releasing herself from Edward and Esme, who continue to talk quietly by the door.

"Hi Alice," I say, smiling as I hug her tiny form. "How are you?"

She blushes, which is something that could probably knock me on my ass. Alice Cullen doesn't blush. Ever. "I met someone," she whispers happily, her eyes shining bright with excitement.

I grip her hands, happy that she's happy. From what Edward's told me, she's met some pretty shitty men. "Oh, Alice, I'm so happy for you."

"Are we going to get started or what?" a cool voice calls from the living room.

Alice rolls her eyes, squares her shoulders and marches into the room, giving Rosalie a look that silences her. Carlisle and Esme follow slowly, both looking dejected. Edward wraps an arm around my shoulder. "How are you feeling?" he asks, his eyes roving over my face to assess my emotions before I can answer.

"I feel fine. Let's get this over and done with. I'm hungry and I'm pretty sure there are some awesome leftovers from the other night." His eyes light up as he leads me into the living room before stopping so suddenly I nearly fall over.

The room is tense and silent. Emmett is sitting in the loveseat, looking down into his hands with a miserable look on his face. He looks up when we enter the room. The anger in his eyes is evident, even from across the room.

Rosalie breaks the silence. "Well, look who finally decided to grace us with their presence." Alice grinds her teeth as Rosalie looks me over with a sneer and I feel my shoulders bunch into knots under her gaze. "Okay, so I've called in a few favours so we can get you into the dress I've got in my head. This is my friend from college, Jane. She's a fashion designer."

I look at her, aghast. If she's a designer, I don't want her anywhere near my wedding dress. What she and Rosalie obviously think looks good, I think is awful. Jane's outfit is big and bright and way too attention grabbing for someone like me. It's bright yellow with a hot pink belt, hat and shoes that would kill me if I tried to walk in them. I clear my throat. "Um, Rosalie, I appreciate it, but I'm going shopping with Esme and Alice for my dress. Tomorrow." Alice throws me a grateful look. She looked horrified and Jane's choice of clothing as well.

This is evidently the wrong thing to say. Her face goes red and splotchy in anger before she opens her mouth to speak, but Jane interrupts. "Rose, darling, I don't mind. I'd rather work for people who know what fashion really is anyway." She stands up, straightens the thing she's wearing and walks towards the door, stopping in front of Edward, who's been silent but shaking in anger the whole time. "If you ever decide that you want to upgrade to a real woman instead of the high school graduate, here's my card." She slides it into the front pocket of his jeans.

Esme stands up, horrified. "Rosalie, remove her from my house now!"

Edward steps into Jane's comfort zone. She smirks at me triumphantly until she realises he's pissed. At her. He doesn't have to say anything at all. The glare he's giving her is enough to send her running out of the house and seconds later, we all hear her car racing away.

If looks could kill, Edward and I would be toast by now. Rosalie doesn't even say anything, she's that mad. She just stands there shaking, fists clenched by her side. Emmett shifts on the loveseat, drawing my attention to him. He looks so miserable I just want to hug him and tell him there are other women. Nicer women. "Rose…"

"No Emmett," she snaps, staring at me in hatred. I resist the urge to take a step back. "I just did you a huge favour, and you throw it back in my face? What the fuck is wrong with you? Can you not see someone who can actually do something to make you look normal for a change? This is your wedding, not where you work. Get some respect for yourself."

"Enough."

Rosalie cuts her eyes to my fiancé. He's angrier than I've ever seen him, and I've seen him pretty angry before. Whatever she sees, it makes her stop talking. Edward takes a deep breath to try and calm down before turning to his older brother. "Em, man, I'm sorry, but if you bring her to my wedding, you're not coming inside."

Rosalie's mouth drops open before she takes a step back to sit down next to Emmett, flabbergasted that things haven't gone her way for once in her life. Rosalie is a woman who's used to getting what she wants, when she wants it. And unfortunately for all of us, she wanted Emmett the minute she saw him.

"Rosalie," Carlisle rumbles. He remains seated, but with the way he's looking at her, he might as well be towering over her. She cringes into the seat. I smile in victory as Edward leads me to the couch, draping an arm over my shoulders. He's grinning too. "I've made it clear to my children that I will not dictate who they bring home to meet us. I respect their decisions about the people they date."

The phone rings somewhere in the house and Esme excuses herself to answer it.

"But," Carlisle continues, "I will not tolerate such disrespect for Bella. We've known her for a long time now. She's a part of this family, regardless of her last name. We are here as a part of her family, helping her where her own father can't." I look down into my lap. Charlie wasn't able to get the time off work for the planning stages, but he's made sure that he has two weeks surrounding the weddings so he can be here with me. "If you would like to be a part of this family, Rosalie, you have to treat everyone with respect. That includes Emmett."

They both look shocked at the last comment. But Rosalie doesn't say anything. She merely gets up and storms upstairs, not glancing back. Emmett looks after her, but doesn't follow.

Esme makes a sniffling noise, pulling our eyes to her. There's tears dribbling down her cheeks and she somehow still looks as refined as ever. She looks at me hopefully, clenching Carlisle's hand in her own. "Did you really mean it? About the dress shopping?" she whispers.

I look at Edward, confused. He looks just as bewildered. "Mean what?"

"That Alice and I could come with you," she whispers, wiping her eyes.

"Oh, Esme, of course I did. I want you both there." They both jump up and fly at me, pulling me up to join the group hug. They're both babbling things about hems and lace that I don't understand as I look over Edward's shoulder with wide eyes.

He just smiles.

Well! I'm pretty sure that's the longest chapter I've written ever! Over 5000 words! So proud I thought I would start off slow, which is exactly what this chapter is. The Cullens and relationships have all been established now. At this point in time, I'm not sure how long Jane or Rosalie will be sticking around for. I hope you all enjoyed it.

RiRi17

Again, if anyone affected by the tragedy in Oklahoma would like to talk, feel free to PM me and we can chat to our hearts' content. Much love from Australia.