Falling To The Sun | B. Swan + E. Cullen

soixante-douze

Roman didn't have the best family growing up.

Her mother, Marnie, was there, sure, but she was only there in the bare minimum sense of the word. She provided a roof over her head, cooked meals when she was too young or too short to reach the stove on her own, but it wasn't often much more beyond that. They were little more than roommates in the later years.

It was only at the end that they had tried to salvage their relationship -- a relationship that couldn't be saved no matter their attempts.

Her father, Julius Elders, was nothing more than a silhouette of a man that she had looked up to without thought, without question because he was her father and she had loved him, had wanted his approval more than anything, and even when it had become something that she knew was nothing more than a wish, a dream, there had always been a little twinge of hoping that something would change, that it would be different.

No, her father was a terrible man that had tried to kill her once, and that was all that she needed to remember about such a man. Nothing more, nothing less.

And to her, at one time, that was what she had thought a family was. That was it for her, a mother and father that didn't care and a daughter that was awaiting the day that she could run away with the dream of her own family that she would love in all the ways her parents hadn't loved her.

Meeting Edward and Bella, her dreams had taken a slightly more realistic, hopeful turn, that she knew was absolutely destined.

Then her idea changed once more. She was reunited with the Clearwaters. They returned to her life like being hit by a storm, filling her with a sense of family and warmth that she had yearned after for years.

The pack came after -- friends that treated her as if she was one of them and that was family to her if nothing else.

Throughout it all, Edward and Bella were her one and always, the centre of her world, and Roman would do anything for them -- her love for them knowing no bounds.

And through them, she got the Cullen's, a family that was a true family. In-laws.

Roman didn't have the best family growing up, but she had the best family now, her own little family that she cared for beyond anything else, that she loved more than anything in the world.

And she couldn't be happier, would never be happier.

They surrounded her as the celebration died down, sticking close together as those that had lingered began to leave.

And in the end, the other covens had taken a turn to say their farewells.

The Amazon's had been the first. Kachiri had taken the time to speak with Bella and meet Renesmee -- the little girl refusing to leave Roman's arms had been ecstatic at the chance to meet someone else, someone that had helped her mamma, brother, aunt and uncle.

In turn, Zafrina had been happy to speak with Romulus now that she was more comfortable around his kind.

But they were antsy, eager for their return to their beloved rainforest just as she had been eager to be home in Forks while away.

The Irish coven was next.

And then the Denali cousins.

In the end, it was only Nahuel and Huilen that stayed. Carlisle was deep in fascinated conversation with Huilen; Nahuel sat close beside her, listening while Edward told the rest of us the story of the conflict as only he knew it.

"Alice gave Aro the excuse he needed to get out of the fight. If he hadn't been so terrified of Bella, he probably would have gone ahead with their original plan."