CHAPTER SIXTY

The next morning half of the Cullen family were gathered in the living room, looking up at the sight of Bella and Edward entering with intertwined fingers and soft smiles. The couple had spent the night together in their new cottage Alice had arranged for them.

"Wow, done already?" Emmett smugly greeted, looking up from the newspaper he was reading.

"No surprise there." Ellie joked, pencilling in the last letter on her crossword puzzle. There were no longer any benefits towards her constantly completing crossword puzzles for her narcolepsy but certain habits never die especially when the owner of them was officially undead.

"Where's Renesmee?" Bella questioned, ignoring the antics of her family members.

"Blondie stole her," Jacob revealed, looking out of the window to where Rosalie and baby Renesmee sat outside.

"Break a lot of stuff?" Emmett asked.

"Emmett. No." Bella returned shaking her head as the family shared a quiet chuckle before the sound of a cell phone started ringing once more. "Is that Charlie?"

"He's been calling twice a day." Edward started with Jacob following shortly after him. "He's in pretty rough shape."

"Eventually we'll have to tell him you didn't make it," Carlisle added gently.

"He needs to mourn, Bella." Edward softly returned.

"Okay, we'll do it tomorrow," Bella replied after thinking about it for a few moments.

"I'm gonna miss this place," Emmett admitted.

"We'll come back," Carlisle reassured his adopted son. "We always do."

"Wait, nobody said anything about leaving," Jacob said with furrowed eyebrows. "You too Ellie?" He asked, his attention turning to the brunette who was watching the exchange.

"Well yeah," Ellie replied with a shrug.

"Once people believe that Bella's dead. We can't risk anyone seeing her." Carlisle informed.

"So, you just... disappear?" Jacob asked tentatively.

"Jacob, we don't have another choice," Edward argued in a gentler tone than the one usually reserved for Jacob.  The werewolf having none of it as he stormed out of the room. 

A couple of hours later, the Cullen family had gathered once more, glaring at the idiotic werewolf who had returned from a visit to Charlie with a smirk across his face.

"You've seriously lost it this time, Jacob." Ellie chastised.

"Look, I solved a problem. You were leaving, what did you expect me to do?" Jacob shrugged carelessly.

"I can think of countless other options you could have done," Ellie added.

"You don't realise the danger you've put him in. The Volturi will kill anyone who knows about us." Bella glared.

"No, I didn't tell him about you, just me. I only said you were different." Jacob clarified, his smirk growing again.

"And that we have a niece, who we adopted." Edward returned with narrowed eyes as he read Jacob's thoughts.

"I mean seriously, Jake," Bella said exasperatedly. "He's not just gonna let that go."

"Did you consider the physical pain you'll put Bella through? It'll be like sticking a white-hot branding iron down her throat, and that's assuming she can control her thirst." Jasper described vividly.

"Look, Charlie's been in hell, and I know you'll be much happier with him in your life." Jacob appealed desperately.

"Jacob, don't try and pretend you're doing this for anyone but yourself." Edward returned.

"I'm sorry you feel that way. Because he'll be here in ten minutes." Jacob informed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Moments later, Alice handed Bella a pair of brown contacts to hopefully mask the crimson colour of her eyes. "These will irritate your eyes at first."

Bella stood in front of the family of vampires nervously, as the group observed her and her inability to pass for human at all. Despite the brown contacts in place, the flawless marble skin and balletic disposition so immensely unlike Bella's own human clumsiness, it was almost impossible for Bella to pretend to be human once more.

"The main thing is not to move too fast." Carlisle offered.

"Try taking a seat, crossing your legs," Esme suggested as Bella took a step toward a chair in the corner before slamming her body into it at the speed of light. "Maybe a tad slower," Esme added with a wince.

"And blink at least three times a minute," Alice recommended, with Bella blinking rapidly in response. "Good." She returned hesitantly.

"For a cartoon character." Jacob scoffed.

"Hold your breath, it'll help with the thirst," Carlisle suggested.

"Just don't forget to move your shoulders, so it looks like you're breathing," Edward told his wife.

"And slouch a tad so Charlie thinks you are actually his daughter," Ellie added holding her thumb and finger apart slightly. "Humans don't sit perfectly straight."

"Okay, I got it," Bella announced hesitantly. "Move around, blink, slouch."

The sound of Charlie Swan's car pulling up had Bella looking around uncertainly as the rest of the family took it as a signal to move out of the room

"Good luck." Esme offered supportingly.

"You've got this Bells," Ellie added before following Jasper out of the room.

The couple headed to their room, Ellie busying herself with pondering around the room while Jasper settled on the bed with a book in hand, both pretending like they couldn't hear the conversation downstairs even if it was a clear as crystal to their ears. 

Ellie's eyes were flicking across the spines of books, before a certain familiar book caught her eye, immediately pulling out as a small gasp left her lips. 

"What?" Jasper asked immediately, his own book discarded beside him as he sat up, sensing nostalgia, fondness and a little bit of sadness radiating from his girl.

"I completely forgot that you got another copy when you guys left," Ellie revealed turning around to reveal Jasper's copy of their old listing book. "I think my original copy is still back at my Mum's." 

Jasper was by her side in a flash, curling an arm around Ellie's waist, his eyes following the pages as Ellie flicked through the book. "Well, I could never bring myself to even open it while we were gone, just needed some reminder of you I guess." He said quietly, pressing a kiss to her temple. 

"Yeah," Ellie breathed out quietly at Jasper's reveal. "Well, we never have to bring that up or think about that ever again." She added, pressing a quick kiss to his lips before settling on the bed again. "For old time's sake, you wanna try one?" 

"With you? Always." Jasper returned, settling down beside her and looking at the brunette with a soft smile. 

"Well, in that case.." Ellie trailed off, flipping through the book before she landed on a random page. "Name five colours without the letter 'E'."