Southern Lovin'

A/N: This is my first Twilight Fanfic. Predominantly because I never truly appreciated the book or movie until I read some of the fan fiction you guys have uploaded, some of which literally blew me away and made me fall in love with the Saga in a new light.

You are all wonderful writers with a million and one ideas; so I decided to have a go. I was inspired by the passion of some of the stories here that could only be described as works of literary art.

Thank you all.

SubWarning: Okay; while I am aware that the book is fairly tame, I am afraid this is not. It's going to be an emotional roller-coaster. It's going to contain dark parts, but it's also going to contain fluff so chewy you'll need fillings for the cavities caused by the sweetness. This is mostly because I wanted to stay true to Bella; she is, in all honesty, very expressive. She loves deep and when she hurts it's tangible. This is MA!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight the collective works in any way, shape, or form. It is the sole property of Stephenie Meyer's, of whom I am not, nor am I making a financial profit from this Fan fiction.

Also! A big warm 'thank you' to Lola my wonderful Beta for making my chapter easier to read. She is magical and wonderful.

Introduction : The quiet before the storm.

Jasper:

In the week that led to the moment we knew was coming, the inconsistent array of emotions I felt literally vibrating from the household was nearly enough to choke on. Edward had become reclusive in his room, taking my mate with him as a source of comfort for the deed he had planned to commit. Every now and then I felt a sharp spike of disgust radiate from Alice and had to try very hard not to smile. Smiling was entirely inappropriate.

Although I, honestly, did try to see things from Edward's point of view, I guess I had become more like 'The Major' than I had ever thought; I simply could not fathom why a mere human had our family in such a tiff.

Bella.

Sweet, shy, clumsy Isabella Marie Swan. How I knew her middle name I did not know; it hardly seemed like a good idea to waste time on menial things.

Bella, who had on so many occasions nearly died due to Edward's infatuation with her. Yes, I say infatuation, or maybe even obsession, but I would not say love.

I've felt love. The sun, the warm rays of pure affection that made my adopted mother Esme almost glow in delight every time Carlisle simply entered the room. The way that Emmett and Rosalie, the most unconventional and least romantic of us, simply stared at each other and, without saying a word, knew what the other was thinking and feeling. Sometimes you didn't need Edward's 'special' gift to know what someone was thinking, sometimes you simply knew them enough, inside and out.

Had Edward known Bella half as well as he thought he did, he wouldn't have needed his mind trick to figure out what she thought. He would have known. Alas, he did not know, I do not think, much of the real Bella at all. He knew, merely, the idealized version of her he had conjured in his mind. Admittedly, a comatose sheep would have had more personality than the 'ideal Bella' Edward seemed to have invented out of thin air within hours of meeting her.

However, the fact remained that I had never felt Edward feel these things. Not that it was my business, and to be honest it wasn't like I particularly cared, but if the mortal was his mate, as Alice had said, Edward had not felt the pull.

He had felt the pull of her blood and scent. Oh yes, that he had spent hours analyzing and logging different affects to her smell depending on the situation. He projected his lust for her blood so vividly it was a wonder he had not snapped. But he never felt that 'magnetic' attraction to the blood bag. She was never more than a smell or source of sweet temptation. There was nothing below to the surface. You could've scratched away at his hunger, the divine torture it was to be near her and his resistance to the venom and you would simply find an empty void.

I was fairly certain, if not positive, that Edward's affections were completely superficial.

Edward was hard to understand though; he lived in a world of his own. Born of a different time, he was a man with an erratic mind set. You could have gone mad, trying to understand Edward. His fluctuating attitude still confounded Carlisle, his maker.

Esme didn't say anything, but I felt the emotions she emitted no matter how hard she masked them. She thought what Edward was doing was selfish, as did Carlisle, though he would never have said so; he was not so anxious to see our 'family' split ways again.

I, on the other hand, found it much more practical to see things as they were, and Edward for what he is; a child.

Bella was a like a bright, shiny toy, kept just beyond his reach, and he was the toddler with sticky fingers that wanted it simply because he could not have it. The way he watched her, took tiny notes and found her hopelessly human ways amusing to watch, was exactly like that of a scientist surveying lab rats, observing and learning in fascination.

I admit, for a human Bella was actually anomalous individual, which made her presence both disconcerting and curious. Edward wasn't the only one sucked into the gravitational pull she seemed to emit like a beacon. Emmett and Rose had both, on occasion, peeked at her doing something as if trying to gauge the purpose of it.

She was clumsy. This of course, was hilarious to Emmett, who took sickening amounts of joy in watching her stumble over a loose corner of the rug or misjudge a step and end up bruising her shin on the coffee table.

She was unconditionally pure; in turn this had a reluctant Rosalie drawn in like a moth to the flame. We all knew she saw a little piece of her more naive, human self, in Edwards latest 'play thing' and she worried that Bella suffer the fate she did. Acting dispassionate towards the 'Swan girl' did nothing to hide her concern; not to us at least.

For Alice she was a source of endless non-judgmental that was seldom seen in people, for which I was grateful. It was so sentimental the way made friends with just about anything; as we had discovered one afternoon, finding Bella in our garden cooing to the flowers; that it made your teeth ache with sugary decay.

For Esme and Carlisle, she was like the missing link to their family. They had all bought into the Edward's Perfect World.

A world which was doomed to implode due to the utter impossibility of it being feasible.

Not I though; while I saw her as a friend to my Alice and a pick-me-up to the others I still couldn't look beyond the fact that she was human. This did not mean I was impolite or oblivious to her existence; merely impartial.

I'd seen enough in my lifetime to know when the sidelines were the safest place to be. It didn't matter that Alice had seen her as a vampire. We all knew Edward would sooner die a true death then turn his human; he loved her humanity. It was as if he pretended he still had his own through her.

So as to why they were all so shocked about the plan to leave Fork's just a few hours prior to the wedding, was completely beyond me.

Pathetic though it was, this is was half the reason I remained detached from everything concerning Bella. Well, as much as I could. I refused to get sucked into 'Edward's World'; only to be ripped from it when he grew bored.

I'd lost enough. I may have been selfish and weak; but self-preservation was something I knew well.

None of this changed the situation or the negative that hung in the house like a pink elephant in the room. Everyone was uncomfortable.

Probably because no one had thought to tell Bella the wedding was off. Oops?

Honestly, what the hell did they think would have happened if Bella arrived to an empty chapel? Or in case, our house. I was the heartless one of us and even I knew that she would not recover from this. There was no recovering from something like that. If she lived, which I was unsure she would, I doubted she would ever be the same again. Would she end up in a straitjacket somewhere? Locked away from the world and left to rot in a padded cell, as she was left to question and re-question what she had done wrong?

Had it not been so disturbingly close to home, I might have laughed at the human getting what happened to most mortals who got mixed up with our kind. She should have run away from us, not run towards us with open arms.

As I sat quietly in the room I shared with Alice, trying to both block the torrent of incoming emotions and send out messages of calm to the others, my mind drifted to the tiny thing known as Bella.

At a first glance she was ordinary. A bit of an ascetic individual that would rather have sat quietly and listened to others talk while gnawing on her lip from behind a veil of that thick, mahogany hair. She was, at best, disgustingly subservient; too willing to be pushed around.

However, if you took the time to look deeper; you'd see a lot more. After all, it was no easy feat for a human to unconsciously 'woo' a werewolf. Though both brainless and brusque, admittedly, they tried to stay within the pack.

When Bella was quiet, often looking as though she was merely sitting and spacing out, I often found the most erratic and uncharacteristic emotions emitting from her. Had I not been forced to communicate with her because of Edward and Alice, I doubt I would have realized. Still, while everyone else thought she was a bit of a space cadet, I knew those were the times she actually took a moment to sit and quietly contemplate things. She was a 'suffer in silence' type, and I'd be damned if I was the sorry fool to tell Edward.

He'd be the type to chew the messenger and not the message.

She was also the most ungainly thing I had ever encountered. Watching her try to play volleyball in gym was like trying to watch a gazelle that had been mauled by a pack of lions, bound through a field of landmines. One was torn between wanting to put her out of her misery or laugh until your sides hurt.

However, I had also seen her twirl a pencil around her fingers in class, as she stared off into space, face set in a tiny frown. Alice had seen her flip over the couch so fast it actually even impressed me These were all things she had no idea she had done. Fact of the matter was, she was her most unco-ordinated the harder she tried to be co-ordinated.

As for docile, it was hard to class her as anything if not feisty knowing that she had slugged a wolf in the jaw. Bella, though I never would have guessed, was actually quite the fire-cracker.

Edward, however, seemed to suck all of that out of her; he was like her brand of Kryptonite. He greedily drained away all of her strength, leaving the feeble little human that Rosalie had at one point, resented.

So had I.

We'd been proven wrong of course. I more so then Rosalie, as it was I who she had undermined first.

Alice and I had put ourselves in danger to protect her and she had charged off, ready to die to save her mother. It was a rare show of chivalry, one which I hadn't seen in a good many years. The common decency in humans nowadays was appallingly low.

While I often disagreed with my Family on many things, the fact that they had helped me turn from human blood to animal was something for which I would be forever in their debt. Back in the day, a good kill was as natural as making love to the person I loved. My body moved on its own, knowing what it wanted and how to get it. The surge of adrenaline, the bitter-sweet taste of venom pooling under my tongue in anticipation and the taste.

Oh, there were no words to describe how utterly divine it felt to hold down something so warm and soft and drink away the sweet taste of its life.

However even I, more in touch with my inner demon could not deny the decline in the taste of humans' as the centuries flew buy. Tasting drugs, S.T.D's or alcohol in one's food was never a pleasant experience, particularly for us.

Bella was a rarity, and while I wasn't all that fussed over her role in our family, I did believe she deserved better then what she got from Edward. It seemed not even life as The Major could take away the gentleman in me.

Bella aside, Edward's total lack of regard for how the rest of the family felt to his introduction and subsequent deprivation of new elements in our lives was both self-centred and heartless. This angered me more, considering he considered me the 'monster' of the family.

This whole ordeal had not just affected him, yet his insistence had been accepted for the amity and congruence of our siblings. We had left Forks at once, at his command, and in return, left Bella. It had not turned out well. Yet as always, what Edward wanted, Edward got.

This was going to crush Alice.

I frowned at the thought of my mate in pain over our brother' capricious inclinations. Despite being my mate, she had always been there for him, no matter what he had done, or would do in the future.

I had always admired that in her. My pixie. My Alice.

I realized with a start that the room was actually experiencing tiny tremors from the force of my growl and promptly bit my tongue. Instantly I felt curiosity, trepidation, and slight anxiety radiate from the other members' of the household and sighed, dragging a hand through my tousled curls.

However, it was the clear and undulated Tsunami of warning from Edward's direction that had me fighting back the tarns of venom that filled my mouth at the very thought of a possible challenge. If Edward thought he could bully me then he was sorely misguided. As a member of the 'Cullens' I had a right to my opinions, beliefs and feelings on matters that concerned us all on a whole. What did he expect? For me to sit by idly while he tore away the only friend Alice had made in nearly a decade? He was more deluded than I gave him credit for if he thought I would.

Fighting back a grin that would make The Major proud, I purposely send a wave of pure and unadulterated lust at him, conjuring up the most provocative images of his human I could. My smirk increased when I heard the bed he had bought for when Bella stayed over, crash through his wall and fly out into the field in which we played baseball.

That would teach him.

Grinning ear to ear, I slipped out the window of mine and Alice's room and blurred into the woods for a bite to eat, while Edward continued throwing things out of the now, gaping hole in his room.

Hadn't he said that his room had felt stuffy lately?

Bella:

I remember my mom asking when I was little if I would ever marry. As a defiant six year old with boy phobia and a sour outlook on the potential cootie factor, I had told her I would rather kiss a toad. She had laughed of course and ruffled my hair at the time, calling me the most sensible person she knew. And while, back then, I had glowed under her appraisal, today I found myself asking myself the very same thing.

If I had not met the Cullens, fallen for Edward and, over the last year, seen the things I had seen and done the things I had done, would I have ever thought about marriage?

I tried to picture myself as a bride, but stopped with a grimace when all I could come up with was a white monstrosity that made me look more like a giant cream puff than anything else. I had been chewing my lip over the last hour and half to the point it had actually started to bleed, and so, had switched to sitting on my bed twisting the ring on my finger in continuous circles.

Being together with Edward, for eternity, was my highest of high priorities; I simply could not picture my future without him. Suffering his loss once was bad enough, losing it forever… I was not sure if I could survive it even with Jacob's help.

However, the thought that we would actually marry, as stupid as it sounded, hadn't occurred to me until Edward asked me officially.

True, it was a small price to pay; eternal love in exchange for a ceremony that I knew I would hate already. Suffering through a few hours of prom was one thing; suffering through months of preparations, dress fittings, decoration choosing, only to stand up in front of Cullens and make a fool of myself as I babbled through some poorly scripted vows was something else entirely. Strangely enough, the last month leading up to this moment hadn't actually been all that bad, and while I would never in life, as long as it would be, want to repeat this procedure, it had also given me something priceless.

It had given me a chance to bond a little better with the rest of them, while my mind was not so filled with thoughts of Edward. Dare I say, but having Alice and Rosalie fight over the dress I was going to wear actually made me giggle. Helping me with my wedding, for Rose, was like living her own dream through me. For that, I would wiggle into blindingly white swathes of dress any day. By the end of a very long, very painful day of being dragged around, stuck with fitting pins, squished into dresses, ordered to march around in heels I could not walk in to save my life, and being tugged back and forth between two very determined vampires like a rag-doll; I was rewarded for my efforts with the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen.

Rose; smiling.

Practically glowing from the inside out with all the joy of a little girl who was told she was a fairy princess.

For a second I felt my heart stutter in my chest.

It was more than I had hoped for; all I really wanted was for her to tolerate me, or at least, dislike me less then she seemed to. Instead, I got a thousand watt smile that could have shamed the sun.

I think I stood there, dazzled, for a good three minutes, unable to do anything but stare, eyes wide. Then Alice was giggling and babbling something, and dragging me away to the car we had arrived in; a perfect replica of the canary yellow automobile she had 'borrowed' whilst in her hast to take me to Edward. As we slid into our seats, clicking my belt in place, hands already gripping anything I could get a firm hand on, Alice suddenly turned to me and gave me a look that I never, in a million years, could I have read.

"I'm so happy we got to do this Bella." she chirped; but her voice was slightly softer than normal and lacked its usual perk. Instantly I worried I had done something wrong.

When we arrived in a screech of tires and a fog of flying gravel and dirt outside my place, I turned to question the sudden change in mood but found that the pixie was now back to smiling impishly. We hugged up on the steps telling her I would see her tomorrow at the wedding and then for the rest of our lives.

We really would be the sisters we had always considered ourselves.

She laughed. The sound reminded me of tinkling glass wind chimes and it made me feel giddy. I knew I would not be getting any sleep tonight; it hadn't really dawned on me that I was getting married until now, the day before. Typical.

"Good night Bella." She hugged me so tightly I feared for my ribs and back, before stepping away in a twirl.

"See you tomorrow Alice." I waved her off as the car sped away almost too fast to see, and then headed inside.

Inside the house was dark and I could clearly smell the remains of chilly fries before I had even reached the lounge room. Charlie was fast asleep, sprawled out over the couch, and much to my amusement, covered in Bridal Couture magazines, while the T.V blared out the current football scores. Covering him with the quilt we left there for occasions such as this, I took a minute to collect all the magazines, switched off the T.V and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek before heading up to bed.

Despite my long, relaxing shower and the use of my favourite pyjamas, I was correct in my prediction about sleep. Curled up with the teddy Jacob had given to me for my birthday and face buried in the quilt my mom had made me, I slowly let the enormity of my situation sink in.

It wasn't long before I was on my back, staring up at the roof in a cold sweat. What if I tripped walking up the isle? What if I said the wrong vows? My heart picked up its pace in my chest, beating away under my ribs so loud and so fast I could have danced the tango to it. Butterflies, long forgotten, made their presence known once more to my insides, tickling away at me as they expanded and grew as my trepidation doubled. Before I knew it, I was on my feet, teddy held to my chest protectively as I paced back and forth in my room.

A part of me hoped that Edward would come, slip in through my open window and hold me until all doubts had fled and I could sleep, safe and snug in his marble hard arms.

After an hour of idle pacing and continuous hopeful looks towards my window, I realized he wasn't coming and felt myself slump slightly. Subconsciously, I knew he, like the others, would be planning tomorrow. The disappointment was like the feeling of a rounded heavy stone dropping to the pit of my stomach.

A sudden snap from the tree outside caught my attention and spun around so fast I tripped, coming face to chest with someone tanned, warm and smelling strongly of honeysuckle.

"Jake!" I could not have kept the relief he was here out of my voice if you had paid me. This seemed to please him as I found self being pulled up and into a hug.

"Hey Bella, are you mad that I'm here?" He asked, pushing me away so he could gauge if I was telling the truth from my expression.

Normally this would have irked me, but tonight it was reassurance. This was my Jacob; my uncertain, unbearably adorable Jacob. I was truthfully beside myself with elation that I wouldn't have to spend tonight alone.

"No, I'm not at all. What are you doing here?" Withdrawing from the hug entirely, I took him by the hand and we crawled up onto my bed.

Since his… growth spurt, I often forgot that he was actually a year younger than I. The crooked smile he reserved just for me slipped a little.

"I wanted to see you before…" He had no idea how to finish the sentence. Now that I think about it, if you had put me in his shoes, I don't think I could have either. So I showed what reassurance I could and wriggled into the groove of his body.

He let out a deep rumbling growl; face softening entirely as he wrapped me in his arms, cocooning me with his scent and an almost suffocating heat that was Jacob.

I would miss him, I knew that I would. But I also knew that if I stayed here with him and not with Edward, I would grow resentful.

Jacob didn't deserve such treatment. Though he had his moments, he had always only tried to do what only my true friend would; be there for me.

"Will you write to me sometimes?" He asked, after we lapsed into a comfortable silence. I knew in my heart that as long as I had his address I would.

"Only if you write back, and nothing perverted or I'll give you the most bad-ass verbal smack down." I teased and he chuckled against my back, the vibrations tingling along my skin like a feathering of calming kisses.

"Only you would think of improving my vocabulary skills as a way of punishment, Bella." We broke off into quiet laughter, not wanting to wake up my dad. Lately, he had been under more stress then he could probably handle.

My back was against Jacob's chest, wrapped in the thick bands of his arms, his nose in my hair. That is how we spent the night talking.

Finally, in the early hours of dawn, he tucked me closer and soothed me to sleep with the steady thumping of his heart, the musky smell of wolf and treacle sweet smell of honeysuckle that was his.

Yes; I would definitely miss my Jacob.

I fell asleep with a tear in my eye for one of the very few people I had gotten close to; one that I was now about to abandon.

The things we did for love, right?

As my lids grew too heavy to keep open, I felt, rather than heard Jake murmur something against the thick mass of my hair. I felt the warm wetness hit my scalp as his tears soaked in and distantly felt him push something onto my small finger; before I gave into the pull of sleep. Lulled to a world where we all lived happily; Charlie, The Cullens, and my Jacob. No secrets, no fighting.

Just us and a friend called bliss.

By the time I woke up the next morning, my pillow and a good portion of my hair was drenched. He had cried the entire night whilst I slept and then left with a letter in his place, as was the ring he had always intended to give me, on my finger.

End:

O_o Woah, so yeah. That chapter was a bit longer then I intended. Sorry. I just wanted to tie up a few things before I actually got to the wedding. You are all thinking around about now; 'You bitch, You made Jacob cry!' to which I reply.. No.. that was Bella.

As you can guess this is not a Bella/Edward story, but I doubt you will guess that actual pairing. :P

So review if you want more. Tell me WHO you think Bella will end up with. Do you think the Cullens will stay as a family after this? Or is Edward's frivolous insolence going to break them apart? Stay tuned!