100 years later. . .

            So much had changed in the past century. And at the same time, everything was exactly the same. Maybe it was just because the past one hundred years had gone by so fast. I smiled, once again remembering human conversations with Edward-those memories weren't muddled anymore, I thought about them so often-where he had mentioned how fast time goes for a vampire. He had been right. Or maybe it was just because even though my once red eyes had turned to a familiar gold, and my thirst was even easier to ignore-I still felt like the same person I was a hundred years ago. The intensity of my love for Renesmee, Edward-my whole family-was exactly the same, if not much stronger.

            Not that things weren't different. Now that I thought about it, so much had changed, too. One of the saddest things that had happened in my first one hundred years-something I knew I would have to deal with but never faced head on-was that most of my human friends and family were long gone. When Charlie had passed away nearly half a century ago of old age, it had all been very hard-especially since I couldn't even shed a tear for him. A week before he died, I told him everything that he wanted to know about me that I could have never told him before. He took it well, surprisingly. A year later, I went through the same process with my mother. She hadn't been shocked at all about the entire story-probably because she had been reading another sci-fi novel.  The last thing she had said to me was "You had always known how to make the right choices for yourself. You're so happy, and that makes me happy." And then my eyes stung a bit, and I would have burst into tears if I was human.

"I love you, mom. Always. Never forget it," I had said, and then Edward squeezed my hand-Renee probably couldn't hear the slight shake in my voice, but Edward could.

"Oh, sweetheart, I love you too." She smiled, the wrinkles on her face creasing.

I smiled at the memory, though, because it had been a happy ending for them, too. I missed them more than anything, but they were happy wherever they were-and they knew the truth. 

            And then my thoughts began to travel down other paths...the memory of me finding out Jacob had imprinted on my daughter. Both Edward and I had grown used to the idea, and even though there were a few times that we both moped over it, we decided that they were really a perfect match-Jacob took care of her just as well as we did. I sighed. I just missed her being with us-being able to hold her and tuck her in at night, to watch her play and grow. Really, I couldn't complain about much. It's not like I never knew that Jacob and Nessie would end up together. As Nessie had grown up, quickly turning into an adult rather than our little Ness, she spent more and more time with Jacob, and less with everyone else. She began to ignore the other boys who nearly begged for her attention-she was so beautiful, I had expected that too-just as much as Jacob ignored the girls who chased after him. I remembered one night in particular...I spaced out as I lingered on the memory...

            We were all sitting around the campfire on First Beach, such a long time ago. Our alliance with the werewolves had still been kept strong. Rose and Em sat together on a long wooden log, along with Jazz and Alice and several other werewolves. Alice winked at me, and I smiled. Edward and I sat across from them on a separate log. Edward had one arm tight around my waist and the other arm holding my hand. Carlisle and Esme sat together next to us, while Leah and Seth sat next to each other on the last log, along with Nessie and Jake. Jacob looked nervous for some odd reason, and I remembered being confused about it. Edward narrowed his eyes as if he was focused on something far away-a look I recognized at once-but there was something off about it. And then his jaw clenched, and he glared at Jake. He threw me a wary glance, but he stayed silent, continuing to listen to a much older Billy Black's stories of the tribe.

            And then Jacob met Edward's livid eyes with an apologetic expression on his face-but that expression quickly turned to fear. I looked up at Edward questioningly, and he bent his head to whisper in my ear.

            "It seems as if Jacob has a big announcement to tell us all tonight."

            I growled quietly under my breath. "You don't mean...?" I asked.

            He just nodded, automatically in synch with my thoughts.

And then I remembered being worried. It's not like we hadn't expected this...but what if Edward lost control of his temper? He certainly didn't look pleased...but, I had to admit, I was neither shocked nor bothered. If that was what Nessie wanted, then so be it. I tried to hold Edward's eyes and give him a meaningful look. I was pretty sure he understood-his eyes calmed and he nodded again.

            I took a deep breath when Billy ended his story and Jacob stood up. Nessie's eyebrows furrowed and she looked over at us with a small smile.

            "Thanks, dad. Those stories really never do get old." He twisted his hands awkwardly, and everyone around us looked confused now, too.

            "So...I sort of have something to say." Alice was bouncing in her seat near me, and my mouth twitched. She was obviously irritated again about not being able to see half-breed futures.

            Jake's eyes swept around us, and he gulped. But I held his gaze and smiled encouragingly at him. He looked so nervous. He took a deep breath then, and bent down onto one knee.

            Before anyone could even grasp what he was doing, Rosalie whispered a shocked "No!" and growled. But I just laughed at that. Jake and Rose were never on the best terms, but I had liked to think that they were mostly joking when they went back and forth. Mostly.

            Jacob ignored her for once.

            "Renesmee?" He looked up, and my insides warmed up a little bit for two reasons. First, Nessie looked like she was about to burst out with excitement and shock. Second reason, Jake had the most sincere and genuine voice I had ever heard him use before. "I love you more than anything else in this whole universe, and..." he paused, shooting a glance at Edward for just a fraction of a second. "I promise to love you forever. Do you want to spend the rest of your existence with me?" He smiled, holding up the shining diamond ring.

            There was something all too familiar about one small sentence of that speech. I turned my head quickly to look at Edward's perfectly innocent face, shocked. "Did you know about this?"

            Edward chuckled. "He came to me a while ago. We had a nice, long chat-that's why I'm not throwing a fit, if you were wondering-I may have helped him out a bit."

            I laughed. "Wow. You're good. I didn't catch that one."

            Our conversation had only lasted about a second, but I quickly turned back to Nessie. Her face was ecstatic, beaming. She laughed, and it sounded like bells.

"Yes, of course!" She laughed again, and Jacob put the ring around the finger of her left hand, an equally beyond-joyful expression on his face. He jumped up then, to kiss her. Everyone around us was wearing happy, excited smiles...except for Rose, anyways. But I had a feeling it was just a façade. There was a little sparkling gleam in Alice's eye already, and I wanted to laugh. She was already making plans.

            I smiled widely with a content sigh. "They'll be happy," I muttered.

            "Forever," Edward whispered, and I leaned my head against his shoulder.

            I breathed in the warm, salty air, a soft smile plastered on my face. Of course, thanks to Alice's flawless planning, the wedding had been absolutely perfect for them, a true masterpiece. They had even spent their honeymoon at Isle Esme, offered up by Carlisle and Esme. Edward and I had shared a look and a small smile at that. And, not long after that, Renesmee was pregnant. When I had found out, I remembered being so happy for her. My baby, having a baby. It was so strange but just so spectacular. A warm, tingly feeling spread through all of my body just thinking about it. Edward and I had just been so excited, so elated-for several reasons. For one, we were going to be grandparents. How weird was that? Another benefit of being a vampire-you can skip the one bad thing about being grandparents-the "old" stereotype. Another reason for our happiness-they wouldn't have to go through what we did. There would be no worries, no fear. Renesmee's body was strong enough to handle it. Neither she nor Jake would feel any pain.

            Carlisle had also been extremely excited about this-what would a half-vampire half-werewolf being be like? He had researched day in and day out. Alice set up the baby's future wardrobe-next to Renesmee, it would be the most stylish baby that had ever lived-and Rose helped her. It had seemed like she was putting her issues aside to make Nessie happy. Esme drew up the blueprints for their house, which would be not too far from our cottage-and when anyone had gotten too stressed or excited, Jasper was there to calm everyone down.

The baby had been born on June 21st-just a day from Edward's human birthday-and it was a boy. He was beautiful, a mix of Jacob's russet skin with Renesmee's bronze curls, and, strangely enough-Edward's human green eyes that I had never seen in person until then. I was there too, a little-his lips were a tad unbalanced. They named him Charles Masen Billy Black, in honor of Edward, Charlie, and Billy. And I had seen it again in Edward's eyes-that fanatical, religious gleam of devotion and happiness from when Nessie had been born. We spent many a night just marveling along with them, watching little Charlie. It was one of the best times of my first hundred years as a vampire.

            Not everything had been that easy-going, simple, and fabulous, though. Even though after Renesmee had been born the Volturi had been forced to flee due to the evidence of her beating heart, and the unexpected werewolf alliance along with the vampires who stood to witness, it had not been over then. Nearly 10 years later, Alice had seen it just weeks before it happened, the Volturi coming supposedly because they believed that the werewolves (or shape-shifters, to put it correctly...we never grew used to the official name.) were causing too much trouble as they collided with the vampire world. Basically, they had gotten wind of the Jacob imprinting on Nessie situation, and because they did not honor truces with werewolves, they were not happy in the slightest that a werewolf had imprinted on a vampire (even if she was only half vampire). Our entire family nearly exploded with rage that night. When Jasper had finally calmed everyone down, Alice had only one thing to say.

            "It'll be dangerous. They want their revenge. But I can't see anything terrible happening, not yet."

            Not yet. Those had been the key words. Because it had turned into a much bigger issue than we thought it would be. When we had visited Tanya's coven the next day to discuss what had happened, they were determined to stand with us, to help if things went wrong.

            We wondered if we would fail, and if our last confrontation that had gone all too smoothly was nothing more than luck. Renesmee wanted to help us, to fight if it was necessary-she was quite the fighter, even if she was half-human, but I refused it vehemently. And Jacob wasn't willing to be away from her, so he decided to not come. I remembered my last conversation with him before the Volturi came. I had offered to go hunting with him so I could talk to him, while Edward stayed with Carlisle to discuss more tactics, and Rosalie and Alice forced Nessie to go shopping, so things would seem more normal. Edward had wanted to come, but I needed to talk to Jacob alone. He wouldn't agree with my worrisome conversation.

            "Jacob," I muttered as soon as we were alone in the forest.

            "What's up, Bells?" Jake asked casually, but it was just a mask. I could tell he was already itching to get back to Nessie. He'd have to deal with it for at least one hour.

            "Do you remember what I told you the last time the Volturi were coming?" I asked him, my voice a little shaky.

            He narrowed his eyes. "Sure, yeah. All the plans and stuff, if..." he trailed off.

            I nodded. "If things were to end badly," I finished.

            "But, it's not like that this time. Even Alice said things seemed fine."

            I shook my head, trying to clear all hope, go back to my main purpose for the conversation. "All I'm saying is...if something...bad happens, if something goes wrong, you two need to run. The Volturi want her. You can protect her, Jacob."

            "Nothing bad's going to happen, but yeah, I get it. She'll be fine...just in case. You can be sure about that." He smiled his Jacob-y smile at me, and I took a deep breath.

            "How's Embry?" I asked.

            It had been a shock to all of us. When Tanya had come to visit not long before, Embry had come to see Jake. And Embry imprinted on her. He was up in Denali most of the time now.

            "He's great, naturally. Up in Denali." He laughed.

            The fight had gone as expected. Aro came to collect the priceless gems he craved, and we denied. He talked for the longest time about how the werewolves threatened our existence, and we tried to convince them they were of no harm to us. They did not agree. They told us we could leave-they just wanted all of the werewolves who were alliances to us...destroyed. The Denali coven stood with us, as well as most of the other covens from my first Volturi confrontation. When Demetri had unexpectedly attacked Embry, Tanya attacked Demetri...and killed him. I had put my shield over everyone before the Volturi could even think to attack-it was rock solid now. The fight started then, but the Volturi might as well have been blinded; my shield protected everyone who fought, and most of the Volturi were found dead by the end of the battle.

It had been more than depressing when we lost Kate to Felix due to her attempted protection of Tanya, and we mourned for her for a very long time. All of the Volturi members (including Aro and Alec) who were left made peace with us mostly in fear of what we were capable of, and offered for us to join again. And we declined. We celebrated for the longest time-it had been joyous for everyone-the Volturi finally defeated. The Romanians were particularly excited. We finally felt like we had a superb happy ending-no more fear.

            "Bella, love? We're here," Edward announced, pulling me from my reminiscent thoughts.

            "Oh." I laughed, looking around.

            I got up and quickly tried to hop off the small boat, but Edward got there first and yanked me up into his arms.

            "Fast, but not fast enough." He laughed. He was still faster than me.

            He held me effortlessly in one hand and our luggage in the other, making our way towards Isle Esme-our official 100th year anniversary honeymoon. Surprisingly, this was our first time back. All of the others were celebrating too-our first 100 years as what Alice called "the full Cullen family". They were off on a separate getaway, a retreat on another beach location found by Esme-and the mansion built to fit us all was another fabulous work of hers.

            We had planned to join them, but Esme also insisted that we take some time off on our own, and then come to the mansion whenever we wanted. Alice and Rose had been excited for the trip. They had been busy working on a new set of  wardrobe for Nessie, Jacob and Charlie to wear. Carlisle had been helping Esme build the beach house while also working on more half-breed research-and Jasper and Emmett had been busy working on their new hobby, building cars (inspired and learned from Jake, of course). Edward was still in love with his piano playing, and I had found that 100 years was plenty of time to read all the books you hadn't had time to read.

            When we got inside, Edward put our luggage down and sighed happily.

            "This sure brings back memories." We laughed.

"A lot has changed in the past hundred years," he said. I nodded, swiftly placing my hands on either sides of his face and hefting the shield out of my mind, showing him what I had been thinking on our way here. When I pulled away, he smiled crookedly.

            "You're right. But I know one thing that won't ever change." I smiled.

            He looked at me questioningly.

            I just threw my arms around his neck and kissed him.

            He laughed a second later and said "Forever."

            And our eternity continued perfectly, just as it always would.