Bella is a witness in peril. Emmett Cullen is the deputy assigned to protect her. When the witness protection program proves unsafe, Emmett has Bella pose as his brother Edward's fiancée. ExB. AU/AH.

Leah Clearwater is someone who has always been left behind. Her father is gone, her Sam has moved on and her body has betrayed her. Where is her happily ever after? When dawn broke the Twilight world changed, but not for Leah. Thanks to the Cullens she is stuck in limbo between barely a woman and sort of a wolf. Will she ever find a way to live in peace with the vampires she has come to blame for her unhappiness? Will an unexpected friendship save her when she finally finds love in the most desperate of circumstances? Can you ever truly be fixed once you've been broken?

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  

All trace of torment fled from my body the moment I thought of Jake. Of course. Jake was the one good thing that had been given to me after Edward had left, again, for the second time. But then...hadn't he been here all along? Each day Edward had been missing from my life Jake had reached out with his hands, as well as with his heart, and had taken a hold of mine without hesitation, without a second thought as to how it could have affected him. He didn't realize just how much that little deed had done for me, how even those small signs of affection had meant so much.

Emptiness. The one thing Bella thought she would never feel again - but she did. Edward has left for the second time, and for the same reasons he had before. He backed out of their plan once and for all and has refused to turn her into a living blood-sucking monster. Bella is miserable, and she is positive this time that she'll never again feel the touch of happiness. But with Jake still in her life to patch things up, maybe things won't be so bad after all. Edward may have had the power of an eclipse, but sun can shine through almost anything...including a shattered heart.

A story in which Jake finally gets his happy ending.

Special thanks to Anne Cullen for the banner!

Alice and Jasper awake in the same hospital, scarred, broken, and searching for meaning.  She gives him peace; he gives her joy.  They are each other's hope.

AH/AU/OOC.  Rated for graphic descriptions of wounds, language, and eventual sexual content.