The sun had set. Night had finally fallen upon us. Gayle and I walk back to the house, neither of us saying a word. Normally, I would fear this as a sign of Gayle's hate, of my being too late. However, I can feel that it isn't that. Gayle just doesn't know what to say. I take his hand in mine, and we both walk into the dining room, where David has already made dinner.

Gayle eats his, despite the pain of knowing that it's another life, though not human. The only sounds in the dining room are our silverware clinking on the plates. Abigail isn't there to ask us questions about our day. Emma isn't there to talk more than David and I combined. Matthias isn't there to talk with his bride. It's just the three of us, all sitting at a table together.

We wash up from dinner with as minimal of talking as at the table. We have to soon, though, as it's near bedtime, and exhaustion is starting to seep into my bones.

"Hey, Gayle," I say, as softly as I can, and he turns his head. "Do you... do you want to share a bed? We don't have a guest room."

I feel guilty fr not offering him another room, but something about someone staying in Matthias and Abigail's room, or Emma's, makes me feel sick. I want to walk in there one last time and feel like they're there.

Gayle seems to understand. "Yeah, if it's alright with you."

I nod, and show him back up to my room. Waves of energy still radiate off of Emma's room, as if she's sending me good vibes. Both Gayle and I shower up. He goes first, I go second. He's just staring out the window when I walk back into the room. I smile a little bit at the memory of David shooting a dart through that little opening, which causes Emma and I to launch an all-out assault on him.

"The Cullen's got it wrong. You- we, sleep." Gayle corrects himself mid sentence.

I smile, and sit down at the other edge of the bed. "They got a lot wrong in Twilight. Maybe we can watch it sometime, I'll tell you all of the stuff that they got wrong."

Gayle smiles a little at the ground. "Yeah, that sounds like fun."

"Do you... do you want to go to bed?"

He nods, and stands up. I push back the cover, and we both lay down under the sheets. I take the side closest to the wall, and he takes the one furthest away.

We lay there for awhile. Neither of us go to sleep. I don't need an instinct to know that, either, Gayle's breathing never evens out. It's well into the earliest hours of the morning when I grow sick of it.

"You asleep?" I ask, rolling so I'm laying on my back, staring up at the ceiling.

Gayle rolls over so he's doing the same, "No."

"Too much on your mind?"

"Yep."

I roll over onto my side, and wrap my arm around his waist. "Are you okay with this?" I ask, staring up into his big brown eyes, my head now on his chest.

"Yeah." He pauses for a moment, shifts, and then whispers, "Is this alright?"

He turns on his side, wrapping his arms around me. The only thing I can do is nod. Tears threaten at my eyes, for no reason in specific that I can identify.

Nothing is okay right now. Neither is it normal. But as I lay here in Gayle's arms, thing feel okay. Not normal, not good, just okay. It's not like okay is a bad thing, okay is what I need right now. I don't need to be happy, I don't want to be happy. I just want to be okay in Gayle's arms as we navigate both of our new worlds.

Mine as a vampire in a world where people now know who we are.

Gayle's as a vampire.

Our's as a couple who, at long last, has said I love you.

I bring my finger up and down along his forearm, and bring my head closer into his bicep.

"I love you." I breath the words out, unsure if he can hear me.

"I love you, too."