Great minds have purposes, others have wishes.

Does she even know what her purpose is anymore? To live and to love, certainly. But is she really meant to be trapped in this half-life? And who should she be loving?

Why, her family, of course. Her darling husband, for whom she would gladly wait forever. Her sweet and beautiful daughter, whose sheer impossibility delights her. Her loving sisters and brothers, who have always supported her, and her kind surrogate parents, who filled that little aching spot in her heart.

Then why does she wish for so much more?

She wishes for the life she gave up, and the love she left behind. She wishes away the daughter whose very existence defies nature, wishes away the attention and love bestowed on her, wishes it back on herself. Selfishly, she wishes it was all about her troubles again, even wishes back her impossible dilemma, if only to have someone focus on her again.

She wishes back her possible future, her odd but wonderful patchwork could-have-been. She wishes for the normal children she would have had, for the real parents she left in that old chapter of her life. She wishes for the overwhelming sense of family she always felt there, of rightness.

She wishes that she didn't fit in quite so well here, because now that she's one of them, now that she truly belongs, all the problems are solved and there's no need for her to be the center of attention anymore. It's vain, she knows, but after all she's gone through, she feels entitled to a little vanity.

She knows her purpose, and yet she wishes it away, wishes for another one, an old one, a purpose that she willingly and knowingly gave up.

So maybe she's not such a great mind after all.


Well, I was bored, and looking for story ideas, when I happened upon a page of quotes. A few of them struck me, and this was born, as well as an in-progress series of drabbles I'm currently working on. The quote at the beginning is from Washington Irving, by the way. That's what inspired this. It's Bella-centric, in case you didn't catch that, and post-BD, which I hated. I guess you could consider it Bella/Jacob... Just sort of all her regrets coming out, as I saw them. Very short, I'm aware.

Please review and tell me what you think!

Oh, and I'm DEFINITELY not Stephenie Meyer. Otherwise, Breaking Dawn would have featured James coming back from the dead and he and Bella running off together, or at LEAST Bella choosing Jacob.