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A/N: In my alternate history, Bella's birthday is in the spring, and she wasn't against being married, so those aren't errors in the story. As a note of explanation for something else Edward mentioned, because he can't read Bella's mind, there were times when he felt insecure about Bella's feelings for Carlisle, thinking it was a "crush" when she actually saw him as a father-figure. Barbie
Spring 2016
Nessie married two and a half years
Jasper
I sat alone in my room, strumming idly on my guitar and trying to figure out what was going on with Alice. For the past few days, she had been looking at me with wide eyes, her emotions an intense longing. She wanted something…but when I asked what, she insisted it was nothing.
And usually when she wanted something, she either begged for it, or exuberantly thanked me for it as if I had already given it to her…as, in her mind, I had. Not that she bothered to tell me what it was I was supposed to have given her; sometimes I could figure it out, other times I was forced to ask Edward for a hint.
Was it possible that she wanted something, but had "seen" that I wouldn't give it to her? She was out shopping with Rosalie now, and I struck an angry chord as I tried to figure out what in the Sam hill she could possibly want that I wouldn't be willing or able to give her.
"You're going to be living as a married couple after our next move."
I looked up to see Edward leaning back in my doorway. "Yeah, and?"
He shrugged. "She wants the wedding."
I blinked at him, even my thoughts speechless for a second. We had been mates from the day we met; for Alice, even before that, from the day she first "saw" me. It had seemed mere redundancy to have a human ceremony that couldn't begin to express the depth of that commitment. Emmett and Rosalie felt the same way (to a degree; the unadulterated lust they felt for each other nearly made me sick); they married about once every six years, but it was a game to them, part of the human charade. I had never asked, but I was fairly certain they hadn't waited.
I knew Carlisle and Esme and Edward and Bella felt differently; they wouldn't have claimed each other as mates without the human ceremony of marriage, or cheapened that ceremony by using it as part of their human act. But I had never felt any condemnation from them for living with Alice merely as vampire mates and not as human husband and wife.
Had I misread Alice all these years?
"No," Edward assured me. "She doesn't really care about being married, per se; she just wants the wedding."
"And she couldn't tell me?"
"She wants you to surprise her."
As if I didn't know she was combing the future for the slightest hint that I had figured her out and was planning my proposal…
A smile tugged at Edward's mouth. "Correction; she wants the illusion of a surprise." He shrugged. "She didn't even really want me telling you, but I figured you could use some help."
"Thanks." It might have bothered me that in some ways Edward knew Alice better than I did, if I hadn't been able to feel their love and known that it was simply the strongest brother/sister bond I had ever experienced.
"So…any idea what kind of ring she wants?"
Edward shook his head. "She wants you to pick it."
"What does she 'see' me picking, then?"
He chuckled. "You know it doesn't work that way; you have to make the decision before she can 'see' it."
"Not always."
He shrugged. "Well, I'm in enough trouble with her already…I wouldn't tell you even if I did know. But I was going to the jewelry store to get Bella something for her birthday; want to come along?"
"Sure," I agreed, getting up and putting the guitar in its case. "Let's go."
I was silent as Edward drove, and I could sense he was trying not to intrude on my thoughts. I wished I had been able to figure it out on my own.
"Trust me, Jasper," Edward said dryly as he pulled into the parking lot, "if I couldn't read her thoughts, I doubt I would have guessed. I still have trouble with Bella sometimes, if she gets shy about telling me something. Sometimes I think Carlisle can read her better than I can…"
I felt the faint surge of jealously waft off him. "You just depend on your mind reading too much; you're lost without it."
"Maybe," he murmured.
With a sigh, I neutralized the jealously. "Trust me, Edward," I parroted back at him, "Bella loves Carlisle deeply…as a father."
"I know," he admitted. He grinned at me. "Come on; let's see if we can find anything decent."
We split up inside the store, Edward browsing through the jeweled hair clasps while I made my way to the rings. The one thing I was sure of was that I didn't want a diamond solitaire; Rose wore one for her sham marriages to Emmett, but Bella and Esme both had something with color to it; even Nessie had an emerald. No way I was going to be outdone by a wolf. Besides, I thought with a slight smile, to suit Alice a single diamond would have to be huge; she might like it, but to me it would look ridiculously fake on her tiny finger.
I was taken with the ring the instant I saw it. The setting was white gold, with a deep purple amethyst in the center. On each side were two diamonds of graduated sizes. The purple made me think of violets, whose scent was reminiscent of my Alice. Edward. Is this the one?
"You tell me," he murmured below human hearing.
Yes. Of course, he was right; I had decided so irrevocably that this must be the ring Alice had "seen"…if she had "seen" it in Edward's range at all; he still wasn't admitting anything either way.
The ring had to be sized, of course; there wasn't much chance of one fitting Alice's finger unless it had been made for a child. I promised to come back for it in two days, and joined Edward in the car.
oOo
Alice really was playing dumb this time, but she couldn't block her emotions; the longing had changed to a suppressed excitement. At least she didn't seem too upset with Edward for helping me out, maybe because she had "seen" that he hadn't needed to convince me at all.
With the ring box securely in my pocket, I waited in a little cabin deep in the woods. It had been abandoned for years, but Bella had helped me clean it up and Edward had set up the battery-operated sound system. I had filled it with vases of roses and violets, and set clusters of lavender-hued candles on the windowsills.
I didn't bother inviting Alice. If for some reason she didn't "see" me waiting here, Edward would surely fill her in.
The music, one of Edward's piano pieces, played softly as I stood in the doorway and watched Alice come up the path I had carefully cleared. She wore something I'd never seen before, a shimmering dress in just the shade of purple I loved on her. She had "seen" the ring then; little snoop.
She smiled without saying anything as she stepped onto the porch, and I stepped back from the doorway and bowed, ushering her in with a sweeping gesture of my hand. * "Might I have this dance, m'lady?" I murmured, my long-buried Texas accent coming to the fore.
She smiled and placed her hand in mine, and together we circled around the room.
Edward had recorded this piece special, and at just the right break in the music, I dropped to one knee, keeping Alice's hand in mine.
"Alice," I murmured, "I love you more than life itself. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?"
"Yes," she whispered. Amazing; she had actually waited for my proposal before accepting.
I gently slid the ring onto her finger, then brought her hand to my lips and kissed it. In one motion, I stood and swept her back into the dance.
oOo
Sometime later, I sat on the porch swing with Alice cradled in my lap. The music now was my own guitar playing; we had been sitting here in contented silence for what could have been hours, but now Alice reached up to touch my face as she spoke. "Jazz…I don't want to use Rosalie's name to get married."
"You want to use Cullen?"
She shook her head shyly, embarrassed.
"You want…Whitlock?" I breathed, hardly able to believe it.
"Yes," she whispered.
Alice Whitlock…Mary Alice Whitlock…Mrs Jasper Whitlock…my little Lissy Whitlock…it sounded good any way I tried it. "It will mean a smaller wedding," I warned her. "We'll have to get married out of town; I'm Jasper Hale here and I'll be Jasper Cullen after we move."
"I don't care," she murmured. "We can invite the Denalis — and I think Peter and Charlotte have enough control. The only person I really need for a wedding is you, Jazz."
Huh. When Edward had said she wanted the wedding, I had assumed he meant that in typical Alice-style, she wanted a big extravaganza…more for show than anything else. Had she been blocking him, or had he been respecting her privacy as much as possible, telling me only what I needed to know?
"What name will you use as your maiden name?" I questioned.
She traced a finger along my arm, her mood turning to a sad wistfulness. "Mary Alice Brandon…" she murmured. "I can't make it sound like me, Jazz." She flipped my hand over and continued tracing patterns on my palm. "And Carlisle's the only father I remember."
From what we had learned about Alice's human life, I was glad she could remember none of it, but I knew that she wished she could. "There must have been some good things," she had insisted to me once. "I wish I could remember those…even if it meant remembering the other."
She looked up at me anxiously. "You don't mind me using Cullen as my maiden name, when we'll be using it afterward?"
I chuckled softly. "You know I don't, Lissy. It's just a name." But I felt honored and flattered that she wanted my name; mine, not Rosalie's. It didn't matter that she would probably never use it; it would be hers, all the same. And she would be mine. I knew now why she wanted a wedding; suddenly the idea of a ceremony made a lot more sense. It could change nothing between us; it was a way to declare to the world that this woman was mine.
The End
* Illustration for this scene can be found on my DeviantArt account.
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Please note that I have internet access only once a week, and may not have time to respond to all reviews/messages. If you have questions regarding my Twilight alternate history, check my profile first to see if they're answered there. (I also have a chronological list of my stories, so you can see where they fit in my timeline.) Thanks for your understanding! Barbie
