Title: Razor's Edge
Characters/Pairings: Bella, Jasper ; Jasper/Bella
Author's Notes: For Roanna at the Twilight Uncanon Drabble Request Meme at my writing journal.
Edward had gone back on his word, which made Bella what most women twice her age were: wed and unhappy.
The moment their honeymoon was over, they moved to West Virginia – a snap decision on Edward's part, effectively shielding them from Alice for the time being. The one thing he didn't factor in was Bella's own resilience: while he was out shopping for a bed-frame, she caught a plane back to Washington.
When she arrived, Jasper was alone. Carlisle and Esme had left with Alice for West Virginia the day before, Rosalie and Emmett were in Europe… but Bella felt time more than ever, heard it ticking away like a pindrop heartbeat. Alice would have arrived by now – already arguing with Edward, a battle she'd lose. Then Edward would never let her out of his sight, his white knight complex be damned.
It took her nearly a day to convince him, shadowing him through the halls and through the forest and almost past the treaty line. His lips were set in a thin white line and he was implacable.
Bella, I can't.
But she knew his weakness, saw the one faulty brick in the wall of Troy. She caught him in the kitchen just as the gravel outside squeaked: they were back. All of them, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, and Edward, and though her future was set to be a long journey, it was road map compared to an atlas. This was her last chance.
What are you... Don't!
You love me. You'll stop. I'm sorry. And she drew the knife across her skin. A ribbon of red appeared, bubbling and curling down her arm. He was on her before time could force another tick, but his teeth drove into her throat and not the wound she'd created for him.
A scream came from the car – Alice, with what used to be the future, what was now the present, carved into her eyelids. And through three days, Bella would remember this exact moment: Edward's eyes, frozen wide and terrified; and Jasper, hands on her hips, drinking the minutes of her life away.