Echoes from Anna

Chapter 5

Edward's POV

It was like a dream.

I didn't know it at the time, but it was dream that I was destined to re-live over and over again.

For someone who never slept, it was a blissful and calming moment in this long and arduous life. It was as if I closed my eyes and made it up in my head. But I doubted that my mind could ever conjure something like this up. Even if it could have, it wouldn't have compared, it would have been lacking the simple sensations that came along with the experience.

The drive there was quiet, but in a way that would be hard to explain.

My mind didn't race like it always did. It was only aware of her by my side.

There were no tormenting thoughts in my mind, no panic over what could happen, or over what horrors lied ahead.

I found myself leaning back in my seat, relaxing into the headrest. I watched her hand that hung lazily out the window. Focusing on how her fingers gently moved to dance with the wind that blew against them.

It was a foolish thought, but a part of me didn't want to stop. I wanted to keep driving, to drag this moment out. As if we could leave everything that was wrong behind us. I wouldn't have to think about how I could lose her. I wouldn't have to get caught in the wonder of what it would be like if I failed her and what it feel like if I didn't have her anymore.

When we arrived she jumped out of the car quickly, as if the sounds of the crashing waves were calling out to her. They were pulling her in with the current and she had no second thought about giving in to them.

I got the blanket from the backseat, then walked over to her side. I had my arm around her shoulder, holding her close, as we made our way onto the sand in the darkness.

When she slowed her pace, I followed her lead and laid the blanket down. I sat down with her and curled my arm around her, urging her to lay beside me.
I moved as close as I could, resting on my side with my face pressed into the warm skin on her neck. I watched her smile as I occasionally planted slow kisses on my favourite spot above her collarbone. I felt her hand slide under my neck to hold me in place, then her fingers ran grazed over the skin below my ear.

We laid there in the dark for hours without a single word, starring up at the stars until the daylight started to slowly appear.

I knew the sun would rise over the horizon and disappear behind the the thick gray clouds that always covered Forks. And she knew it too.

But it was those few minutes when the sun showed its self and lit the ocean up. That small amount of time when it hit us and she would feel it cover her already warmed body, making her eyes close as she relaxed even further into me.

She was like different person down there. It didn't matter how quiet she was, she didn't need to talk for me to notice it. It was how she moved, the curve that stayed on her lips, the way every muscle in her body seemed to relax. She looked comforted and safe, this place seemed to give her that more then anything else could. And I was happy to witness it.

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We were five minutes into the scan and I sat along side Carlisle, invading his mind as he assessed the images appearing on the screen.

"Well?" I questioned when his mind suddenly went through a load of medical jargon I didn't understand.

"It's the same as last time Edward" He replied leaning forward in his seat to get a closer look.

"How is this even possible, you've seen what happens to her. How could this have no effect on her brain" I asked watching him shake his head in reply.