Genre: Angst, fluff, romance
Pairing: Jacob/Bella
TimeLine: After Eclipse. BD never happened.
Featured artists from: 3 Doors Down, Owl City, Lisa Hannigan, Paramore, Jason Walker, Copeland, Mark Kozelek and many more.
Disclaimer: If Twilight was mine, BD would never happen and I would be filthy rich.
Author’s Note: Consider this my attempt to dig back into my Jacob/Bella writing style. I seemed to have lost it since I started my original stories.
Haven't got a betaread yet, all mistakes are mine.
Artwork by Majestamoniet
----
This life ain't the fairy tale we both thought it would be
But I can see your smiling face as it's staring back at me
I know we both see these changes now
I know we both understand somehow…
Bella was trying. She really was. She tried to care about the flowers, the music or even the table linens. She tried to care about the entertainment venues, the seating and the color of the centerpieces. She tried to care about the food, her shoes, the boutonniere but she not only couldn't, she just didn’t.
Besides, Alice would decide for her anyway. She watched as her would-be sister-in-law chatter about what she would choose, what kind of table she would like to sit on and what food she-if she ate at all-would love to eat.
Alice was an unstoppable force and the only effort Bella put in her wedding plans was to get out of Alice’s way.
It wasn’t like she wasn’t happy about it. She was estatic, she was marrying the love of her life. Her happy ending was a done deal.
She’d wished that they would just elope and she tried convincing Edward but he persisted to wed her in a ‘proper manner’. It was the least she could do, he said, after all she’d be leaving her parents and all her other friends. Next time they would hear from her would be through emails and phone calls.
At least until they got the news of her death.
A car accident, they've decided. Easy to falsify, they said.
It’d be merciful to give them a happy memory, he said.
So she nodded and agreed to a big wedding. It’d be her first and last after all.
At first, she wanted to be the one to make the wedding cake but Alice vetoed it, she said it’d be too much work for her and she’d be stressed out, fussing over it when the wedding came. It’d be better if they let the professionals handle it.
Bella smiled and agreed. They pampered her so much.
So, here she was, days from her wedding with nothing to do but stay pretty and nod everytime Alice decided on something.
She spent some time staring at Edward who was sitting beside her, reading a book before turning her head and looking outside, to the swaying trees where she lost herself for a while before she heard Alice breathed out a trembling sigh and Edward’s hand jerked within hers.
Bella watched them exchanged a look before Edward’s head tilted in a way that told her he was hearing someone’s thoughts. At first she thought it was Alice’s but his face was too…careful. She blinked when he turned to her, his face was still such a surprise sometimes, and smiled a resigned sort of smile.
“What? What is it?” She asked.
“It’s something that will make you happy.”
Bella frowned. She was already happy. She was so over the moon she was practically on another planet. What could possibly make her happier?
Then she heard it. The soft rumbling purr of a familiar machine. The sound grew stronger and snarlier as it approached the house. Sounding more pissed off as it got nearer.
She stood closer against the window and without taking her eyes off the road she asked, “Is that--? Is it him?”
She didn't know how she sounded to her soon would be family; all broken up and hopeful. “Is it?”
“Yes.” His voice was soft and understanding. Even a little bit relieved. “It’s him.”
She caught her first sight of him as he drove around the curb without even slowing down. He was in a T shirt as usual and dark jeans frayed over ancient hightops. His black Harley sprint clung to the road like a desperate lover and gleamed in the sunlight like a deadly weapon. He was all motion and controlled strength, the air around him seemed to vibrate.
“Jacob.” She breathed as she pressed against the window so she could see more of him. Her breath clouded the glass and she wiped at it, her fingers caressing the glass as if it was his skin. But it was too cold, too hard to be him. And she remembered the feel of his skin under her fingers far too much to be able to pretend that it was him. “What is he doing here?”
“To see you of course.” Alice chirped in. If Bella managed to turn just a little, she would see the worry in Alice’s eyes.
“He asked for you to meet him in front of the house.” Edward said, a hand reaching out to touch her but she was already moving to the side in order to see more of Jacob as he zipped past.
“Oh.” She couldn't take her eyes off of him, afraid that if she so much as blinked, he would disappear. She fought so hard not to worry about where he was since she first heard of his disappearance. And she tried hard to keep a straight face in front of Charlie’s ever growing panic, and Billy's blank, hard face as they fought about how they should handle Jacob's disappearance. And she had wrapped her feelings so tight inside so she wouldn't end up stalking Emily’s house for a crumb of news. “Could I?”
“Do you want to?”
She bit her lip. Torn. For the first time since a long time, she had to drag her eyes from something else in order to look at Edward. Her eyes usually didn't care about anything else but Edward. But she found it hard to look at him now, to stay her eyes on his.
“Yes.” She admitted softly.
He smiled encouragingly. “Then go.”
She didn’t have to be told twice. She thrust the door open just as he skidded to a stop at the driveway and she paused to take her fill of him. He was thinner but still so big and tall, in fact he seemed taller if that was possible. His hair was longer and more ragged as if he took a knife to it and then never got it trimmed.
He must’ve known she was there but he didn’t look her way. He got off the bike and walked her way with almost soundless steps. When he was near the bottom rung of the porch stairs, he stopped, brushed his hair back and finally lifted up his head…
…and looked at her.
Her breath clogged in her throat as his dark eyes met hers. His face was more angular, more define; the cheekbones, the jawline. He looked tired, exhausted even.
Silence blanketed the space between them as their eyes bounced from one feature to another of each other’s faces. Comparing them with memories, compiling them into memories.
The silence stretched as he looked her over silently.
Her heart squeezed inside her chest before swelling up and tried to beat out of her ribs when his eyes crinkled and his mouth stretched wide in a smile she didn't know how to live without.
His eyes lit up and his voice was as familiar as her own. “Hi, Bells.”
To say that she leaped over the considerably high stairs and into his arms was the understatement of century.
She had never tried to leap over anything before him.
“Jake.” She gasped out as he caught her in his arms, holding her high on his body and tight against it, her feet dangling a few centimeters off the ground. “Jake.” She said into his hair as she did her level best to choke him with her slender arms. "Where have you been, you jerk?"
She hugged him even tighter, sobbing against his neck. Her voice wobbling as she cursed and lectured and pestered him with questions.
He laughed at her as he hiked her even higher in his arms until his lips brushed her left ear. "I missed you too, Bells."
She didn't bother to think about how they'd look to her would be family, to her would-be husband. She didn't even take a second to consider. There was nothing to think about or to consider.
He was Jake. She was Bells.
That was all there was to it.
…your arms feel like home…
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