When Bella and Edward meet the first day of High School, he is a chubby misfit with no friends in a new town, aside from his popular cousins.  He meets Bella Swan, a well-liked, if uncoordinated, local with problems of her own.  This is the story of their friendship, their loss, their love and destruction.  Can they find their way back to each other?  And can they survive the changes they have both gone through since the fateful day they met?

HUGE THANKS TO ATHENALOVE and READERGOOF FOR THE AMAZING BANNERS!

You know those fics where Edward doesn't come back and Bella forgets about him and five seconds later she's in bed with Jacob and none of it makes any damn sense?
Yeah, this isn't one of them.

This story picks up from the moment in New Moon when Jacob has driven Bella home after the cliff diving incident, right before he catches the scent of Alice. Only in this telling, Alice wasn't looking, so there's no sudden appearance at Bella's house, no Rosalie calling Edward and sending him on a suicidal mission to Volterra, and no reason for Bella to do anything but believe that Edward didn't love her anymore. This is simply a story of what might have happened if everyone stayed mostly in character and Edward's return was delayed. Yes, delayed. Because we all know that he was "this close" to coming back on his own anyhow.
So what would have happened if Bella had tried to move on with her life?  Would she have found happiness with Jacob?  And would Edward be too late?

* First in a series of stories

~I thought of Jacob’s warm arms wrapped around me, his infectious laughter, and his ability to keep me from falling to pieces again… The pain choking my heart relaxed and I could breathe.~

~“More than anything,” I whispered, not caring what I'd just agreed to. When it came to Bella, it didn't matter what the question was. I just wanted.~

Winner of:

Best Author, Most Romantic, Favorite Jacob, Most Suspenseful, & Best WIP in the Wolfpack Awards | Best Non-Canon Pairing (Incomplete) and Best WIP in the Moonlight Awards | Best During the Series in the Razzle Dazzle Awards | The Storyteller Award in the Shimmer Awards | Best JacobxBella in the Silent Tear Awards  

Bella Swan is just living her life-- at home with her brother Jacob, and her parents Charlie and Renee, at school with her friends Mike and Jessica, in her bedroom with...well. She doesn't like to talk about that.
But Dr. Carlisle Cullen knows-- even if he can't explain why--he knows nothing is the way it should be.