A/N: Hi everyone...so this is the last chapter of The Sweetness of Survival. This was the first story I ever posted on fan fiction and I just want to thank all my reviewers, the ones who have been here from the start and my new readers. You've all made me so happy knowing that people like my reading and just hearing your feedback has been great and made me a better writer.

I'm sad that this story is over, but it also means I can start working on the sequel, which I hope you'll all like as much as you liked this one. It won't be posted right away cause I'm gunna write a few chapters before I post, but it will be up in the next few months. It will be called The Secret To Surviving and will be on my profile so please check it out, I'd love some feedback on it.

Anyway, I'll stop talking and get on with the chapter...enjoy :)


Chapter 50: Happily Ever Before

~Alice POV~

15th July, 6.00pm

"Race ya to the water!"

"You're on!"

There's a huge splash as Jasper and Emmett jump into the lake at high speed, spraying water onto me. I shriek and glare, but they both just laugh and yell apologies from the water.

I can't stay mad at them. With summer in full swing, the family is infected with happiness here on Isle Emse. More than a month had passed since the confrontation with Maria, and although the threat may be there in the future, for now it was forgotten. We were happy here, all together. Jasper had been accepted into the lives of each of my family, and vice versa. Everything was bliss, in perfect harmony.

Jasper scooped me up from my deck chair next to the lake and carried me in his arms back towards the house. Esme and Carlisle were inside playing chess, both trying to let the other win. They looked up as we entered and smiled, "Hey you two."

"Heya," I said as Jasper sat down and positioned me on his lap.

"We're going over to the mainland, Edward's just getting the boat." Carlisle said, "Would you like to come?"

Jasper and I looked at each other, "No thank you, I think we'd like to spend some time together."

Don't get me wrong, I loved my family - and Jasper was coming to love them too, of course - but now that we lived with them we hardly got any alone time together and we both missed it.

Carlisle and Esme nodded in understanding, finishing their chess game on a tie and going outside to tell Emmett they were leaving.

Once we were alone we lost no time getting lost in eachother. Those compromises we'd agreed on really were coming into play...I felt so close to him when we were like this, becoming one instead of two separate beings. It felt as if we'd been halves our whole lives and fate had finally brought us together into each other's arms where we belonged. Our whole lives had been nothing but leading up to this; to us.

An hour later we're swimming in the crystal ocean waters, minus our clothes. I held onto Jasper, letting him keep both of us afloat. He whispers sweet things in my ear. We splash and kiss and mess around before swimming to a little rocky inlet that we'd found a few weeks back. It was a perfect spot; hidden out of sight from the house, but still in direct sunshine and had a great view of the horizon.

There are towels here that we left from our last visit. We wrap them around ourselves and lie down on the warm white sand. Jasper propped himself up on his elbow and leans down to kiss me as I close my eyes against the glaring sun.

"I love you, Alice Mary Cullen." He said softly.

I smiled against his lips, "I love you too, Jasper Whitlock Hale."

"From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew I had to be with you." He continued, "I didn't need your power to know we had a future together. Not just a future, but an eternity, a forever."

"I never want us to be apart, Angel. I'll make sure we never are." Jasper said, "God knows I don't deserve an Angel like you, but now that I've got you I'm not going to let you go. You're my Heaven in so many ways. My saviour, my sanctuary, my Angel, my love."

I felt my heart grow warm, almost as if it could beat again after the century it had been frozen. That was what Jasper did to me. I didn't intend to let him go either, and now I didn't have to. We'd have each other forever, just me and him. We'd been through so much together, but now we were stronger and closer because of it, and now we weren't going to let anything get in the way of loving each other. This was the end of a dramatic chapter in our lives, but it was far from the end of the story of me and Jasper. It wasn't a happily ever after, but a happily ever before, and we had so much to come ahead of us. I guess, really, that was the sweetness of survival.

"Open your eyes." He whispered.

I did as he asked and focussed my eyes on what he was holding in front of my eyes.

A ring.