Second Chance at Forever | C. Cullen

036

After the dancing, cake, and letting their friends eat up as much as they wanted to, Carlisle and Abigail were finally ready to depart. Alice dragged Abigail upstairs to get her changed out of her dress. It was sealed back in the garment bag and set in the back of the closet carefully along with the tux the boys had already given to Alice after Carlisle had changed out of it.

The dress for the honeymoon that they had picked out was tight to the waist and flared down to her mid-thigh. It was a solid white with black tule over it with a design of different butterflies along it. She had on black heels with a strap around her ankles, her normal minimal makeup, her long hair braided down her back, a simple silver chain necklace, her mother's diamond earrings, and her rings. She would never be taking those off again, not for as long as she lived. Items she needed like her different IDs—driver's license, passport, birth certificate; all of which were fresh and new from Jasper's guy in Seattle—book, camera, lipgloss, and her wallet were put into a backpack purse that Alice had bought her for the occasion as well. Once she was all refreshened, she joined the others outside to bid them farewell.



Since there weren't a whole lot of people there, they formed a line that Abigail and Carlisle walked by so they could say goodbye. Everybody wished them good luck and a happy honeymoon, though Emmett refused to acknowledge that part which made Abigail smirk and giggle as she hugged him goodbye. The last couple people in line were Alice and Edward and her lovely children still refused to tell her anything which made her sigh in defeat and follow her husband to the waiting car, which the boys—including Jacob—had written JUST MARRIED in large pink letters and attached balloons to the back, tying the strings around the handles of the backdoors. It was cute, Abigail had to admit, and she grinned as Carlisle helped her into the car even though they both knew she was perfectly capable of doing it herself.

Little bits of birdseed hit the windows as they drove through, waving one last goodbye to their family as they departed. It wasn't a hugely long trek away, so just a moment later they passed the edge of the woods indicated by the old sycamores, the lights faded from view and it was left to just them in the car with peaceful silence. Abigail let out an unneeded, soft sigh as she reached over and took Carlisle's hand, sending him a loving smile as he looked over to her. His own topaz eyes were full of light and love as he gazed upon her. As usual, he didn't need to look at the road as he curved through the dense trees, not even needing the headlights as they bumped easily over roots and rocks.

They didn't say anything; they didn't need to. Fifty years brought them back to this. Fifty years of being apart and simply wishing to be back together. Abigail still didn't know what happened between 1955 and 1984 where she wasn't existing. Was she in Heaven? Was she in Hell? Was she in Purgatory? The questions were never answered, and now that she couldn't dream, as that's how all of her memories came back to her, she didn't expect there to be any new developments.

But deep down, she knew she didn't want to know anyway. Those fifty years didn't matter, where she was didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was that Carlisle was alone and he never should've been. She should've been there, and she would always blame herself for letting herself get killed. It wasn't on Carlisle's shoulders; she was a vampire, she could've taken care of herself as much as Carlisle did. But she didn't want to dwell on her death or the fifty years the proceeded it. They were together, they were married, and they had their family; that was all that mattered.

"I love you," she whispered, her hand squeezing tighter, though not as tight as she could because she was still in that awkward "newborn" phase that meant she could probably snap off a couple fingers if she used all of her strength. Not that they couldn't get them back on, but it was against every instinct in her blood to hurt her mate, so the last thing she wanted to do was snap a part off him. So she squeezed gently, at least to her, it was still a lot harder than she would've embraced any of the humans, or even the wolves.